Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - May - 2012 Issue

Western Books from Gene W. Baade

More Books on the West.

More Books on the West.

Gene W. Baade Books on the West has put together a new catalogue of works on the American West. It is a mix of books old and recent, some collectible, some for reading, on a variety of subjects related to this colorful section of the globe. As a Washington State bookseller, there are many items related specifically to the Pacific Northwest, but all sections of this land are represented, from the Canadian border to South Texas. Now, here are some samples from Baade's Catalogue 412.


We will start with the first exploratory expedition into the Pacific Northwest. That would naturally be Lewis and Clark's expedition from 1804-1806. This was territory newly acquired from France at the time, and President Jefferson wanted to know what it was he bought. History writer Reuben Gold Thwaites put together a massive compilation of material relating to this journey in time for its centennial in 1904. Fifty-five years later, this edition was reprinted, and offered is a copy of this 1959 reprint, set 250 of 700 numbered copies. The Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition 1804-1806 contains 8 volumes, including notebooks, letters, maps, and other material related to what was undoubtedly America's most important internal expedition. Item 81. Priced at $1,250.

It is a good thing Lewis and Clark did not have to investigate this territory around 15,000 years earlier. It would have been a dangerous place to be. Item 132 is Bretz' Flood: The Remarkable Story of a Rebel Geologist and the World's Greatest Flood, by John Soennichsen, published in 2008. J. Harlen Bretz was a young geologist when he began studying the unusual erosion patterns in eastern Washington. Rather than the tapered, V-shaped erosion patterns one expects from rivers, the area had a wide, rectangular shape. Bretz concluded this must have been the result of periodic massive flooding. The geologic community of the 1920s was not buying into his theory. He was subject to the usual academic attacks for a theory that contradicted the predominant belief that geologic processes are more gradual in nature. It took several decades for the community to come around, but the accuracy of his theory was finally confirmed in the 1970s. Bretz received the Geologic Society of America's highest award in 1979, at the age of 96 (he wistfully told his son, “All my enemies are dead, so I have no one to gloat over”). The explanation was that during the last Ice Age, a tall and wide ice dam formed in western Montana, creating historic Lake Missoula, a vast lake whose ice dam would periodically break, causing the great floods in eastern Washington. $30.

Item 47 is an important Native American study by anthropologist Walter Dyk, resulting from his visits to the Southwest in the 1930s: The Son of Old Man Hat: A Navajo Autobiography (1938). Dyk conducted extensive interviews, and this book is focused on those with Left Handed, an elderly Navajo, who recounts his own history and that of his tribe, some legendary, some exaggerated, but as one might expect an Indian to tell his stories to a white man. Dyk's “autobiography” is considered one of the best personal accounts of an Indian ever written. This copy has been inscribed by Dyk. $200.

Item 127 is the story of Pink Higgins, the Reluctant Gunfighter and Other Tales of the Panhandle, by Jerry Sinise (1973). John Pinckney “Pink” Higgins was a Texas cattleman, driver, and guard. He is believed to have killed at least 14 men, and yet he is not nearly as well known as gunmen with far fewer notches on their belts. That is likely because Higgins never went into self-promotion of his career. He was just into protecting his own interests and those of the people for whom he worked, and in days when legal convictions were hard to get, Higgins determined that he had to enforce the law himself. The result was a couple of notorious feuds, and a few rustlers being dealt quick justice on the spot. Offered is copy 46 of a limited Collectors Edition of 100 signed by the author. $175.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Pietro Aquila, Psyche and Proserpina,1690. Starting price 140€
    Gonnelli: Jacques Gamelin, Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris, 1779. Starting price 300€
    Gonnelli: Giorgio Ghisi, The final Judgement, 1680. Starting price 480€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli Goya y Lucientes Francisco, Los Proverbios.1877. Starting price 1000 €
    Gonnelli: Domenico Peruzzini, Long bearded old man, 1660. Starting price 2200€
    Gonnelli: Enea Vico, Leda and the Swan,1542. Starting price 140€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Andrea Del Sarto [school of], San Giovanni Battista, 1570. Starting price 25000€
    Gonnelli: Carlo Maratta, Virgin Mary and Jesus, 1660. Starting Price 1200€
    Gonnelli: Louis Brion de La Tour, Sphére de Copernic Sphere de Ptolemée / Le Systême de Ptolemée. Le Systême de Ticho-Brahe…, 1766. Starting price 180€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Marc’Antonio Dal Re, Ville di Delizia o Siano Palaggi Camparecci nello Stato di Milano Divise in Sei Tomi Con espressevi le Piante…, Tomo Primo, 1726. Starting price 7000€
    Gonnelli: Katsushika Hokusai, Bird on a branch, 1843. Starting price 100€
  • Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Th. McKenney & J. Hall, History of the Indian tribes of North America, 1836-1844. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Biblia latina vulgata, manuscript on thin parchment, around 1250. Est: €70,000
    Ketterer, May 26: M. Beckmann, Fanferlieschen Schönefüßchen, 1924. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: A. Ortelius, Theatrum orbis terrarum, 1574. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer, May 26: M. S. Merian, Eurcarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis, 1717-18. Est: €6,000
    Ketterer, May 26: PAN, 9 volumes, 1895-1900. Est: €12,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Breviarium Romanum, Latin manuscript, 1474. Est: €15,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Quran manuscript from the Saadian period, Maghreb, 16th century. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer, May 26: E. Hemingway, The old man and the sea, 1952. First edition in first issue jacket. Presentation copy. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De re militari libri quatuor, 1553. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer, May 26: K. Marx, Das Kapital, 1867. Est: €30,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Brassaï, Transmutations, 1967. Est: €6,000
  • Leland Little, May 21: Signed Artist Proof of the Monumental G.O.A.T.: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali.
    Leland Little, May 21: Assorted Rare Publications Related to H.P. Lovecraft, Including The Recluse Signed by Vincent Starrett.
    Leland Little, May 21: Two Issues of The Vagrant, Including the First Appearance of H.P. Lovecraft's "Dagon" in Number Eleven.
    Leland Little, May 21: Rare First Printing of Anne of Green Gables, With ALS from the Author.
    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, In First Issue Jacket.
    Leland Little, May 21: The Limited Paumanok Edition of The Complete Writings of Walt Whitman.
    Leland Little, May 21: Beautifully Bound Limited Flaubert Edition of The Works of Guy de Maupassant.
    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Bonaparte's Celebrated American Ornithology, With Spectacular Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Rare Complete Set of Jardine's The Naturalist's Library, With Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: Invitation to the Lincoln-Johnson National Inaugural Ball, March 4th, 1865.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Scarce Inscribed First Edition of James Baldwin's Nobody Knows My Name.
    Leland Little, May 21: Picasso's Le Goût du Bonheur, Limited Edition.
  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR

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