This Month’s New Catalogues:<br>Travels, Americana, and More
- by Michael Stillman
Almagre Books’ "Americana" catalogue
Item 46 is Edward Beecher’s Narrative of Riots at Alton: In Connection with the Death of Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy. Beecher was Harriet Beecher Stowe’s brother and an ardent abolitionist. So was Lovejoy, the subject of this book. He briefly published an anti-slavery pro-free speech newspaper in St. Louis, until it was destroyed by a mob. Undaunted, Lovejoy moved across the river to Alton, Illinois, where he had three more presses destroyed by pro-slavery mobs in the Land of Lincoln. Finally, as he and several other defenders tried to hold off a mob seeking to burn the press down, he was killed by gunfire at the age of 34. He was buried in an unmarked grave, but a large monument in the Alton Cemetery now marks this worthy man’s final resting place. $375.
For collectors of western Americana, there’s item 146, The Life and times of Christopher Carson… We know Christopher better as “Kit” today. This 1861 biography was published during his lifetime. $200. Or how about a printing of an 1897 letter from Elizabeth B. Custer, better known as Mrs. George Custer, defending her husband against charges he disobeyed orders at Little Big Horn? Item 204. $150.
Item 321 is Facts and Faces in the Kalloch Trial. Rev. Isaac Kalloch was a powerful orator with a checkered life. Born in 1831, he first served as a pastor in Maine. He later moved to Boston, where his sermons drew standing room only crowds. However, he was supposedly caught in an act of adultery with, sad to say, the wife of a bookseller. Kalloch moved on to Kansas where he founded Ottawa University, and from there to San Francisco. Again he preached to large crowds, and through a classic political flip-flop, secured the Workingmen’s Party nomination for mayor in 1879. Once sympathetic to the Chinese, Kalloch flipped to join the forces trying to push them out. Shortly before the election, he was shot by a newspaperman in an unsuccessful assassination attempt. Perhaps because of sympathy, he was elected and served one term. Two years after leaving office, Kalloch again moved, this time to Washington State, where he died in 1887. $600.
Item 380 describes how virtually all diseases can now be cured. You didn’t know? J.C. Boyd’s 1879 “The Blood is the Life!” An Astonishing Discovery…Nearly All Diseases Effectually Cured by Boyd’s Miniature Galvanic Battery! Obviously Boyd didn’t consider lying a disease, as it didn’t cure him of that. $300.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
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Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Francesco Colonna. Hypnerotomachie, Paris, 1546, Parisian calf by Wotton Binder C for Marcus Fugger. €200,000 to €300,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Nausea. De principiis dialectices Gorgias, and other works, Venice, 1523, morocco gilt for Cardinal Campeggio. €3,000 to €4,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Billon. Le fort inexpugnable de l'honneur, Paris, 1555, Parisian calf gilt for Peter Ernst, Graf von Mansfeld. €120,000 to €180,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Salinger, J.D. The Graham Family archive, including autographed letters, an inscribed Catcher, a rare studio photograph of the author, and more. $120,000 to $180,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of Sense and Sensibility, the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Massachusetts General Court. A powerful precursor to the Declaration of Independence: "every Act of Government … without the Consent of the People, is … Tyranny." $40,000 to $60,000.
![<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/8caddaea-4c1f-47a7-9455-62f53af36e3f.jpg "<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.")
![<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 16:</b> [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of <i>Sense and Sensibility,</i> the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/9a74d9ff-42dd-46a1-8bb2-b636c4cec796.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 16:</b> [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of <i>Sense and Sensibility,</i> the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.")
