Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - February - 2018 Issue

Politics, Law, Religion Among Topics in David Lesser's Latest Catalogue

Catalogue 159 of Rare Americana.

Catalogue 159 of Rare Americana.

David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books recently completed their 159th catalogue of Rare Americana. You may find anything pertaining to antiquarian America – songbooks, business ledgers, railroads, community promotions, and such, but the majority of the material fits within the categories of politics, religion, and law. So much of our attention, then as now, seems consumed by these subjects. Perhaps that is because these fields can be controversial, giving us topics to write about and argue over, one side against the other. Life would be dull without them. Here are a few of the mostly pamphlets, broadsides, prints, manuscripts, and documents found in Lesser's catalogue.

 

One of the major reasons women have had to struggle so long for equal rights, even today, is men can have such a propensity to being jerks. Item 57 is Some Facts About Suffrage Leaders. A Cause Is No Stronger Than Its Leaders, by J. B. Evans, a broadside published 1916 or 1917. Anna Howard Shaw, a suffrage leader, had spoken in Alabama in 1915, and Evans herein responds. Evans begins by denying Shaw's claim that he attacked the movement's leaders personally, instead of their cause, and then proceeds to spew out a bunch of personal attacks. Being from the Old South, Evans has a favorite insult. He describes Susan B. Anthony as "a rabid hater of the Southern people to the day of her death, and an absolute worshiper of the negro." Dr. Shaw, he continues, "was the bosom friend of Miss Anthony, and is thoroughly imbued with all her South-hating, negro-loving propensities." He accuses New York leader Mrs. Norman Whitehouse of being associated with a "radical Socialist, feminist" magazine, "setting forth in strong language that Jesus Christ was the illegitimate offspring of Mary, a fallen woman." Oh, "And don't forget that among its most earnest advocates are all Mormons, all Socialists, all Feminists, negro preachers and negro school teachers. A nice bunch for ladies to be associated with even politically." Evans even claims the suffragists' "intellectual development...is decidedly mediocre," without even recognizing the irony of his saying that about anyone else. Priced at $1,250.

 

Here is a man nothing like Evans, one whose intellect was anything but mediocre. Item 90 is The Republican Party Vindicated - the Demands of the South Explained. Speech of Hon. Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, At Cooper Institute, New York City, February 27, 1860. This was one of Lincoln's most important speeches, as it catapulted Lincoln from a one-tern Congressman and losing senate candidate two years earlier to the lead for the Republican nomination and ultimately the presidency. Lincoln argues that the contemporary statesmen at the time of the writing of the Constitution saw slavery "as an evil, not to be extended, but to be tolerated and protected only because of and so far as its actual presence among us makes that toleration and protection a necessity." Lincoln hereby made his stand not to allow slavery to be extended beyond the South, and made clear his dislike for the institution and desire to see it eventually disappear, while not going as far as the abolitionists and demanding it immediately be ended in the South. It was a position that would enable more Northern Democrats and Whigs to support him than would an outright call for abolition. Item 90 is an unusual, longer 16-page printing of the speech which includes some other material, including Stephen Douglas' endorsement of the Dred Scott Decision. $750.

 

This past election was not the first time a political party nominated a presidential candidate many of its members weren't quite sure was one of them. In more recent times, both parties sought the support of General Eisenhower, whose leanings were somewhat nebulous in 1952. In more distant times, the views of General Zachary Taylor were less than clear in 1848 when he was nominated by the Whig Party. The result is this odd pamphlet, headed Great Whig Demonstration in Favor of the Nomination of Gen. Taylor to the Presidency... More akin to Eisenhower, the Whigs wanted him less because of his political views than because he was perceived as a likely winner. So, in reassuring words, the pamphlet proclaims, "All point to Zachary Taylor, as an undoubted Whig, as the man of the people, and capable to bear the Whig standard..." Yes, he really is a Whig, they tried to convince themselves. Taylor won, but died after only a little over a year in office, his views still not all that clear, other than a firm stand that any attempt to break up the union would be met with uncompromising force. Item 131. $175.

 

The Whig fear of a president who was not one of them was not unfounded. In 1840, seeking their first presidential victory, they added John Tyler to the ticket headed by William Henry Harrison. Tyler wasn't much of a Whig. He joined the party because of his opposition to Andrew Jackson during the Nullification Crisis. However, that was motivated by his being a pro-states rights southerner, not because he followed the Whig playbook. The Whigs figured he could help them carry the South. So, when Harrison died after only one month in office, Tyler succeeded him to the presidency, and for the next 47 months, he was despised as much by the Whigs as by the Democrats. All of this serves as an introduction as to what makes this next item unusual. It is a printed message from the War Department on March 23, 1841, from Secretary of War John Bell. Bell informs the recipients, "The President has thought proper to announce that he will regard all partisan or active interference in elections, and the contributing of any assessment on salaries or official emoluments for party purposes, by officers or agents under the control of the Federal Government, an abuse which he will correct by removal from office." It was a noble attempt to stamp out corruption, but Harrison never had the chance. Twelve days later, he died, making this one of the few official acts of his term in office. Item 142. $350.

 

Item 22 is a large lithograph of General Scott. The Hercules of the Union, Slaying the Great Dragon of Secession. It depicts Gen. Winfield Scott, a reasonably svelte, middle-age man with a club, smashing the heads of the seven-headed dragon. The heads are those of Confederate leaders, including Davis, Stephens, and Beauregard. The heads are labeled with the attributes of Hatred and Blasphemy, Lying, Piracy, Perjury, Treason, Extortion, and Robbery. Safe to say this 1861 image represented a Northern point of view. Scott was America's longest serving general, having commanded troops all the way back to the War of 1812 when the Civil War broke out. Like Robert E. Lee, he was a Virginian, but Scott remained loyal to the Union. While admired by many, Scott was 74 years old by then, could not command in the field as he could no longer mount a horse, his weight having ballooned to 300 lbs. He no longer looked much like his image in this lithograph. Many in the military considered Scott's "Anaconda Plan" for choking off the South too passive. He resigned his command later that year, with those responsibilities devolving to George McClellan, which in hindsight turned out not to be such a good idea. $1,250.

 

David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books may be reached at 203-389-8111 or dmlesser@lesserbooks.com. Their website is www.lesserbooks.com.

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€
  • Swann, May 15: Lot 4: Helena Bochoráková-Dittrichová, Z Mého Detství Drevoryty, Prague: Obzina, 1929. First trade edition, signed by the artist. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 10: Nancy Cunard, Negro Anthology, with a tipped-in A.L.S. to Karl Marx's niece, 1934. First edition. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 14: Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, 1845. First edition. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 17: Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, inscribed first edition, 1959. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 28: Margaret Hill Morris, Private Journal Kept during a Portion of the Revolutionary War, for the Amusement of a Sister, 1836. First edition. $3,000 to $4,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 38: Anna Sewell, Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse, 1877. First edition. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 43: Gertrude Stein, Portrait of Mabel Dodge at the Villa Curonia, signed presentation copy with photograph of Stein, 1912. First edition. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 48: Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, first edition in the scarce dust jacket, 1927. $6,000 to $8,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 54: Katherine Dunham, large archive of material from her attorney, 1951-53. $20,000 to $30,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 55: Margaret Fuller Signed Autograph Letter, New York City, 1846. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 92: Sonia Delaunay, illus. & Tristan Tzara, Juste Present, deluxe edition with original gouache, 1961. $20,000 to $25,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 93: Flor Garduño, The Sonnets of Shakespeare, 2006. Limited edition. $6,000 to $8,000.
  • 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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