Rare Book Monthly

Articles - October - 2003 Issue

This Month&#146;s New Catalogues:<br>Travels, Americana, and More

Item 228 from Oak Knoll, &#34;The Horn Book.&#34;

Item 228 from Oak Knoll, &#34;The Horn Book.&#34;


For those into frauds, there’s also The Works of Sitting Bull in the Original French and Latin… That should have set off more alarms. How would a Sioux chief be writing books in French and Latin? Obviously, people were rather gullible then, and fell for Robert Dunlap Clarke’s charade. Apparently Clarke also had him speaking German and Greek, and claimed he was a graduate of Oxford. $1,750.

Item 12 is an unusual one for followers of famed mystery writer Dashiell Hammett. Hammett is best known for the Thin Man and Sam Spade, but during the Second World War, he edited a newspaper for soldiers stationed in the Aleutian Islands (he was pushing 50-years of age at the time). The Battle of the Aleutians is a history of that battle he wrote and published in 1944. $185.

For those interested in building a collection of the Mexican revolution of 1910, your collection is already built. Item 386 consists of 127 titles concerning that revolution. $2,500. If you prefer something more peaceable, item 435 is the Constitution of the Society of the “United Germans” at Teutonia. Teutonia was a utopian colony of German emigrants to Ohio whose constitution was printed in 1827. $1,000.

Collectors of our shortest-lived president, William Henry Harrison, will know item 436, A Discourse on the Aborigines of the Valley of the Ohio… Harrison didn’t write much. This is the Cincinnati first edition of perhaps his most notable work. From 1838. $1,250.

For just $50, you can have the Railroad to Oregon. March 3, 1845… Of course there was no railroad to Oregon in 1845, but author Robert Dale Owen advocated the construction of a Pacific railroad. Item 455.

Almagre Books can be reached via email at wwroth@kiva.net or by phone at 812-334-0465.

Oak Knoll Books’ latest catalogue is a milestone: number 250. Oak Knoll has been selling books since 1976, and publishing them almost as long. Their specialty is “books about books.” They are the indispensable source for this type of material.

Catalogue 250 is culled from the finest items in their large stock. It is neatly broken down by category, such as bibliography, bookbinding, book collecting, design, illustration, history, forgeries, libraries, private presses and more.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Heritage Auctions
    Rare Books Signature Auction
    December 15, 2025
    Heritage, Dec. 15: John Donne. Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death. London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.
    Heritage, Dec. 15: Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
    Heritage, Dec. 15: F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night. A Romance.
    Heritage, Dec. 15: Bram Stoker. Dracula. Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co., 1897.
    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…
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • 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.

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