Catalogue Review

Michael Brown Rare Books can be reached at 215-387-2290. Their email address is mbamericana@mindspring.com

Truepenny Books Catalogue #6 – Fine Books

We’ll have to switch gears to look at Truepenny Books Catalogue #6. Many books in this catalogue are outside the field of Americana, most are not terribly old, coming from the middle or even the latter part of the 20th century, and rather than three to six digit pricing, most are priced in the double digits. What the Americana collector or student will find here is many books pertaining to the American Southwest. And this explains why there is little Americana, at least English Americana, of comparable dates to the previous catalogues. U.S. American history is more recent in this part of the world. After all, Threepenny’s home of Arizona did not even become a state until 1912.

An example of some of the material you will find in this catalogue is item #23, “Arizona Place Names.” Written by Will C. Barnes and printed by the University of Arizona Press in 1935, this work explains the origin of place names and other information about Arizona. Included is a map. This historic Arizona work is priced at a very reasonable $60.

An Arizona bookseller is not the most likely source for Civil War items, but three books in this catalogue have a connection to that great conflict. Item #43 is William Tecumseh Sherman: Gold Rush Banker, a 1969 publication of the California Historical Society. It’s described as the first publication focused on Sherman’s pre-Civil War life. He was a banker. No wonder Sherman had the skills necessary to tear through Georgia so rapaciously! Price: $20. Item #115 is The Confederate Invasion of New Mexico and Arizona 1861-1862. How many of us associate New Mexico or Arizona with the Civil War? We don’t know whether the author’s name, Robert Lee Kerby, telegraphs his sympathies. Price: $8.95. Finally, there’s an 1866 Philadelphia imprint entitled History of the Cooper Shop Volunteer Refreshment Saloon. It’s item #138. The saloon fed many Union troops that passed through Philadelphia and includes a complete list of the troops and their members who stopped between 1861 and 1865. Price: $100.

Item #83, Cleve Hallenbeck’s Land of the Conquistadores from 1950 provides a history of early Spanish New Mexico. Price: $50. Item #108, The Giant Cactus Forest and its World describes the cactus forest of the southwest in 1954. Price: $30.

Item #151 will appeal to bibliographers and collectors of Missouri imprints. It’s Viola Andersen Perotti’s Important Firsts in Missouri Imprints, 1808-1858. Evidently its original owner was not particularly interested in either, as it’s uncut and unopened. Price: $30.

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