Rare Book Monthly

Articles - July - 2003 Issue

Children Go Where I Send Thee: How Shall I Sent Thee?

Jesse Strang

Jesse Strang


For a collector of Hudson Valley material this pamphlet is a gem. It gives place names and a credible picture of life in those times. It even has him traveling to Kingston and later mentions that a defense attorney from Poughkeepsie was retained. For a collector with local interests this is great fun.

I can’t say I found this piece via Æ’s MatchMaker™ Software. Michael Brown, the Philadelphia rare book dealer, offered it in his catalogue no. 31 for $175 and I’m glad I bought it.

On MatchMaker™ I’m continuing to get a steady flow of matches and I find I’m becoming kind of fussy about what I purchase. There seems to be more material available than I expected.

Images can add a lot to a book collection and many people are always looking for them. Nineteenth century images of upstate New York and New England are recreated by Leornard Tantillo who lives in the Albany, New York area and maintains a website at copperkeel@aol.com where many of his period images are available for purchase. It is Mr. Tantillo's image of the City of Albany that appears on the first page of this article.

On www.abebooks.com there are five Jesse Strang items of which four are copies of this pamphlet in various states. A copy available in Virginia appears to be a very good deal at $50.00. Bill Reese offers a broadside which seems very appealing.

[Strang, Jesse]: Anonymous: EXECUTION, CONFESSION AAD[sic] DIEING WORDS OF JESSE STRANG, FOR THE MURDER OF JOHN WHIPPLE, AT ALBANY, AUGUST 27TH, 1827 [caption title].

[New York?: no imprint, ca. 1827]. Broadside, 26 x 22.5cm with irregular margins. Crudely printed on recto only, within mourning border, with woodcut coffin below caption title. Old folds, with a couple small breaks at folds not affecting text, some scattered foxing and spotting, ample margins somewhat creased and occasionally chipped or slightly torn at extreme edges, else very good. A very scarce broadside printing of a poem occasioned by the sensational Strang case. Strang, using an alias after the abandonment of his wife, lived in Albany on the Van Rensselear estate, working for Whipple. Strang and Mrs. Whipple had an affair and she convinced Strang to kill her husband. "The murder of John Whipple was unusual in two respects; one, the actual killing followed months of the most careful planning and preparation; two, the guiding genius of the crime was his wife" - McDade. Popular interest in this case of adultery and murder ran high, and McDade records no less than a dozen prose imprints relating to it. This particular effort, presented in twenty-two quatrains, devotes two-thirds of its length to a piety- laden account of the events, and the remainder to a verse adaptation of his address from the gallows. Not in American Imprints. Bookseller Inventory #WRCLIT 44047

Price: US$ 550.00 (Convert Currency)

Bookseller: William Reese Company - Literature, ABAA, New Haven, CT, U.S.A.

Rare Book Monthly

  • ALDE, Apr. 8: GUEVARA (ANTONIO DE). Histoire de Marc-Aurèle, Empereur Romain, vray miroir et horloge des Princes. Paris, Pierre et Galliot du Pré, frères, 1565. €3,000 to €4,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: HEURES DE LA VIERGE. Horæ in laudem beatissimæ virginis Mariæ ad usum Romanum. Paris, Charles L'Angelier, 1556. €4,000 to €5,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: MONTAIGNE (MICHEL DE). Les Essais. Édition nouvelle, trouvée après le deceds de l'autheur… Paris, Abel L'Angelier, 1595. €6,000 to €8,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: [ROJAS (FERNANDO DE)]. Celestina, tragicomedia di Calisto et Melibea, tradotta de lingua castigliana in italiano idioma… Venise, 1531. €2,000 to €3,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: CAMÕES (LUÍS DE). Os Lusiadas. Lisbonne, Pedro Crasbeeck, 1613. €2,000 to €3,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Bruxelles, Roger Velpius & Huberto Antonio, 1611. €6,000 to €8,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: LA FONTAINE (JEAN DE). Fables choisies, mises en vers. Paris, Denys Thierry et Claude Barbin, 1678-1694. €6,000 to €8,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Madrid, Joaquin Ibarra, 1780. €3,000 to €4,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: DIDEROT (DENIS) ET JEAN LE ROND D'ALEMBERT. Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris, 1751-1765. €15,000 to €20,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. LAMARTINE (Alphonse de). Les Laboureurs. Poème tiré de Jocelyn… Lyon, J. A. Henry, 1883. €8,000 to €10,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. Livre de prières tissé d'après les enluminures des manuscrits du XIVe au XVIe siècle. Lyon, [A. Roux], 1886. €5,000 to €6,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts & Objects from Three Important Collections
    Open for Bidding 2-17 April
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: [Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun]. Le Roman de la Rose, [Geneva or Lyons, c.1481], first printed edition of the most important medieval French vernacular poem. £200,000 to £300,000.
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Castiglione. Il libro del cortegiano. [Venice], April 1528, first edition, in a magnificent binding by Jean Picard for Jean Grolier. £100,000 to £150,000.
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Jacobus de Cessolis. Schachzabelbuch, Strasbourg, 1483, von der Lasa copy. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: World Championship, 1972. A collection of 84 press photographs of the famed match between Spassky and Fischer. £2,000 to £3,000.
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Ben Franklin. Autograph letter signed, to Lord Shelburne, British Prime Minister, during peace negotiations, November 1782. £15,000 to £20,000.

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