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.
Rare Book Monthly
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![<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/8caddaea-4c1f-47a7-9455-62f53af36e3f.jpg "<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.")
Heritage Auctions
Rare Books Signature Auction
December 15, 2025Heritage, Dec. 15: John Donne. Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death. London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.Heritage, Dec. 15: Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.Heritage, Dec. 15: F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night. A Romance.Heritage, Dec. 15: Bram Stoker. Dracula. Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co., 1897.Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States… -
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Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000. -
![<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 16:</b> [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of <i>Sense and Sensibility,</i> the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/9a74d9ff-42dd-46a1-8bb2-b636c4cec796.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 16:</b> [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of <i>Sense and Sensibility,</i> the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.")
Sotheby’s
Book Week
December 9-17, 2025Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Francesco Colonna. Hypnerotomachie, Paris, 1546, Parisian calf by Wotton Binder C for Marcus Fugger. €200,000 to €300,000.Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Nausea. De principiis dialectices Gorgias, and other works, Venice, 1523, morocco gilt for Cardinal Campeggio. €3,000 to €4,000.Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Billon. Le fort inexpugnable de l'honneur, Paris, 1555, Parisian calf gilt for Peter Ernst, Graf von Mansfeld. €120,000 to €180,000.Sotheby’s
Book Week
December 9-17, 2025Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Salinger, J.D. The Graham Family archive, including autographed letters, an inscribed Catcher, a rare studio photograph of the author, and more. $120,000 to $180,000.Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of Sense and Sensibility, the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Massachusetts General Court. A powerful precursor to the Declaration of Independence: "every Act of Government … without the Consent of the People, is … Tyranny." $40,000 to $60,000.