Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - August - 2013 Issue

Bigfoot and other Big Books on the West from Gene W. Baade

Bigfoot and Big Books.

Gene W. Baade Books on the West has issued Catalogue 713 of primarily Western Americana, somewhat weighted to the Pacific Northwest. There is also some “borderline and way beyond borderline” material included. A few special items include an unpublished eyewitness account of Wounded Knee, postcards on the infamous 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, and a wide selection of material relating to Bigfoot or Sasquatch or whatever name he answers to (“Abominable Snowman” is evidently not considered polite any longer). Baade notes that today the camps are divided between whether Bigfoot is a North American ape or some other highly intelligent form of hominid. There is, actually, a third possible explanation why he has avoided a scientifically verified sighting in his Pacific Northwest home for so long, but we won't delve into that just now. It may be that Bigfoot is sitting down to dinner with D.B. Cooper right now, laughing at the skeptics.

Item 63 is a manuscript Statement of John F. Hobbs Telling His Experiences as Cowboy, Texas Ranger and Indian Fighter. It is not in Hobbs' hand, but rather that of Spokane history writer (15 books to his credit) and bookstore owner Jerome Peltier, who transcribed Hobbs' verbal account. However, his story was never published. Hobbs left his home in Massachusetts in 1883 at the age of 15 to go to Texas. After working for a time as a cowboy outside of El Paso, he joined the army using a false age to get in. He served at Fort Apache, briefly with the Texas Rangers, was shipped out to California, and was later sent to Pine Ridge Agency in the Dakota Territory, where he would witness what is considered the last serious Indian battle. Hobbs apparently did not much appreciate the Indians making the soldiers give chase around the territory during the bitter cold winter. His job was to “intercept Big Foot's band at Paradise Valley.” We will here presume he was giving chase to Sioux Chief Big Foot, rather than the hairy beast of the Pacific forests. He then gives an account of the massacre at Wounded Knee: “In the excitement everyone rode down Indians and shot them like chickens.” Hobbs signed the document on December 11, 1952. He died in 1954. Priced at $750.

Item 130 is Bigfoot at Bluff Creek, by Danny Perez, published in 1992. This is about the other Bigfoot. Bluff Creek in California was where some of the first Bigfoot footprints were found and where the film of the creature sauntering through the woods in 1967 was taken. It is signed by Perez and Bob Gimlin, who was with videographer Roger Patterson on that fateful day. The book explains why what to the naked eye looks like “a man in a monkey suit” cannot be a man in a monkey suit. $150.

Bigfoot gets around, as attested by this book, Bigfoot Encounters in Ohio: Quest for the Grassman, published in 2005. It is signed by author Christopher L. Murphy, who investigated sightings for over 20 years. How Bigfoot made it all the way the way to Ohio unnoticed is unclear. Perhaps he took the Greyhound, where it's not that unusual to find a few unusual passengers. Item 121. $30.

From Big Foot we go to Scratch Ankle. Some may question the existence of Bigfoot, but no one can question the existence of Scratch Ankle. It is a small community in Monroe County, Alabama. Item 137 is Scratch Ankle, U.S.A. American Place Names and their Derivation. The book was written by Myron J. Quimby and published in 1969. It covers locations from Accident, Maryland, to Zim, Minnesota. As for Scratch Ankle, it is thought the name comes from some sort of low lying bugs that bite your ankles, causing you to scratch. $10.

Item 124 provides several reminders of a horrible incident in American history. It is a group of 11 postcards depicting the shameful “Tulsa Race Riot” of 1921. Some minor incident, likely accidental, between a young black shoeshiner and a teenage white elevator operator woman led to the man's arrest, and as was all too typical, the threat of a lynching. It led to whites and blacks arming themselves as blacks sought to protect the imprisoned young man from gathering mobs. A huge riot ensued in which the Greenwood section of Tulsa, one of the most prosperous black communities in America at the time, was burned to the ground. Something between 33 and 300 people died, most black. Eight hundred mostly whites were admitted to white hospitals, but injuries to blacks are unknown as both black hospitals were burned down. So was all of Greenwood's business district and over a thousand homes. Among the captions on these 1921 photographic postcards are “Little Africa on fire,” “Scene during...riot,” “Negro slain,” “Chared [sic] Negro,” “Truck being used to gather Colored Victims,” and “Captured Negroes.” $1,250.

Rare Book Monthly

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    19th Century Shop. Shakespeare’s Poems, first collected edition
    19th Century Shop. Walt Whitman portrait inscribed with a Leaves of Grass poem
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    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HARRISON, Benjamin. Document signed (“Benj Harrison”) as governor of Virginia, certifying the service of Daniel Cumbo, a Black Revolutionary soldier. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
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    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
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    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
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    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Bible, Czech Biblia Bohemica, first complete Bible printed in the Czech vernacular, Prague, August 1488. £30,000 to £40,000.
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    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Aubrey (John). [Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme], manuscript in English, Latin and Greek, [c. 1693]. £30,000 to £50,000.
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    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
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    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
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    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
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  • Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG BEADED JUDICIAL COLLAR. $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE ONLY BOOK BY THE REMARKABLE EVE ADAMS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A COMPLETE RUN OF VISIONAIRE MAGAZINE THROUGH 2010. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: LAW REVIEW OFFPRINT SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY RUTH BADER GINSBURG. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: META REBNER'S WORKING SCRIPT OF THE LOVED ONE. $1,500 - $2,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A KATHY GROVE PORTRAIT OF CYNDI LAUPER FOR THE FEBRUARY 1989 DETAILS COVER. $800 - $1,200
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A PLASTIC COAT BY MILLIE DAVID FEATURED IN SOHO NEWS STYLE SECTION, FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANNIE FLANDERS. $500 - $700
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    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A SET OF JONI MITCHELL LYRICS FOR "IF I HAD A HEART." $2,000 - $3,000

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