David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books has a new catalogue of Rare Americana. This one is no. 213. There are 119 books and other items offered. The common threads are Americana and old, usually 18th or 19th century. These are a few selections.
We begin with a collection of stories of all sorts of murders, lynchings, mayhem, and other horrible crimes, complete with garish illustrations. To put it in greater detail, Lesser says the issues contain descriptions of “murder/suicides, Bludgeonings, lynchings, crimes against women, female highway robbers, beheadings, executions, and heinous crime showing too much leg or bosom.” Item 35 includes 25 issues of The Illustrated Police News, Law Courts and Weekly Record. They were published from 1876-1895. The sensational crime stories were designed to appeal to readers' less intellectual pursuits. Boxing and other sports news was added along with some western stories about the likes of Billy the Kid and Bat Masterson. It's not hard to imagine these were targeted to a male audience. Sensational cover illustrations were also well-designed to attract readers. The publication had a circulation of around 50,000 and was published from 1864-1904. Item 35. Priced at $7,500.
Pastor Andrew Eliot brought “glad tidings of great joy” to Levi Ames on October 21, 1773, though it was not a joyful occasion. Ames would soon be executed for burglary. Eliot's sermon is entitled Christ's Promise to the Penitent Thief. A Sermon Preached the Lord's Day Before the Execution of Levi Ames... Ames wished to hear the sermon, though not all of it was very inspiring. Eliot addresses the soon-to-be victim “Unhappy young man!...You have been an atrocious sinner...I pity you still more, when I consider you as an offender against the great God, and in danger of his eternal wrath.” However, it is a little more positive when Eliot says he brings “glad tidings of great joy...Repentance is never too late.” This case was one that helped turn the tide against capital punishment for burglary in Massachusetts. It was a bit extreme a punishment for burglary, though it could not have helped Ames' cause that he already had a long history of crime when the ultimate punishment was brought down upon him. Item 47. $1,000.
Next is a Proclamation to the people of Estill and adjoining counties. It was issued on September 22, 1863, from Irvine, Kentucky, by Confederate General John Hunt Morgan. Morgan and “Morgan's Raiders” operated in the border areas, notably Kentucky. At this point they had entered and controlled, part of the state, Morgan eventually making the deepest incursion into Union territory (in Ohio). After informing local residents that they had not come “to disturb them in the enjoyment of their rights,” he warns them, “The Home Guards are required to come in at once and deliver up their arms, those who fail to do so will be regarded as enemies of the Government and treated accordingly... Private citizens who seek opportunity to ambush our soldiers commonly known as “Bushwhackers” will be regarded as outlaws, and orders will be issued to shoot them wherever found. If any of our men are fired on while passing through the country, I will lay waste upon the entire surrounding neighborhood.” Morgan met his end the following year when shot while trying to escape Union soldiers. Item 79. $6,000.
This 1918 folded folio piece from Montgomery, Alabama, attacks the woman's suffrage movement by using prejudice against another group, Blacks. The caption title reads The “Three Immediate Women Friends of the Anthony Family. See Biography of Susan B. Anthony, Page 1435, By Mrs. Ida Husted Harper.” It features pictures of Carrie Chapman Catt, Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, and Mrs. Jerome Jeffrey, a “Negro woman of Rochester, N. Y.” It says Jeffrey “is Often a Guest in Anthony Home,” along with Shaw and Catt, President of the National Woman Suffrage Association “to which all Southern Suffragettes belong.” It next quotes Catt as saying, “Suffrage Democracy Knows no Bias or Race, Color, Creed or Sex,” this obviously being a terrible thing. Finally, it adds an even more damaging quote from Anthony, “Look not to Greece or Rome for heroes, to Jerusalem or Mecca for saints, but for the highest virtues of heroism, let us worship the black man at our feet.” What the creator of this document left out was Ms. Anthony's preceding sentence where she refers to all the years of no one rising to defend the black man, yet in the Civil War, “the black man, forgetting all our crimes, all his wrongs for generations, now nobly takes up arms in our defence.” Item 8. $1,500.
Item 3 is an undated (1870s?) stereographic framed double image with an applied paper title, The White Slave. It depicts a well-dressed black man, striped and checkered pants, top hat, ruffled shirt, jacket with tails, and a walking stick, his foot on a shoe shine box, while a white boy shines his shoes. Signs in the background promote “The White Slave. Octoroon Farce,” “No Slavery. Freedom,” and “Great Meeting. Negro Emancipation. Poor Slaves.” The image was ridiculous, though if the races of the parties were switched, it would have appeared perfectly normal. It is not clear if the intention was simply to be humorous, designed to stir racist anger among whites, or sympathy from them by showing inconsistent treatment based on race. Item 3. $1,500.
David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books may be reached at 203-389-8111 or dmlesser@lesserbooks.com. Their website is www.lesserbooks.com.
