Catalogue Review

Item #161 is A Million and One Nights: A History of the Motion Picture. Not exactly a complete history since it was printed in 1926, and a few things have happened since then, such as sound and color. Price: $150.

Item #163 will interest collectors of Teddy Roosevelt. It’s his Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail. This is a second edition, published in 1896, but the catalogue points out that it’s as desirable as the first as the second edition carries twelve more illustrations by artist Frederic Remington than were contained in the first. Price: $85.

In all, the catalogue offers 257 items. Truepenny Books can be reached at 602-881-4822, or by email at truepenny@azstarnet.com

Most of the items in the first two catalogues are either one of a kind or are so rare that finding other copies to be available is unlikely. However, there is interesting related material to be found in the Americana Exchange Database (ÆD). Checking for the rather obscure “Fries Rebellion” leads to a listing from Bradford’s 1910 bibliography for The Fries Rebellion – 1798-99 by W.W.H. Davis. Davis was a veteran newspaper editor in Bucks County, PA, scene of the rebellion, and gathered much information from local sources for his 1899 publication. Four copies of this book are found for sale on Abebooks.com priced from $110-$300. If you cannot afford the $39,500 needed to purchase the Adams’ document but are interested in this incident, the Davis book is a good substitute.

For those curious about Alexander Hamilton’s affair with Maria Reynolds (admit it, you are), a search for “James Reynolds” finds two interesting documents in the ÆD. One is a letter from James Monroe to Hamilton concerning a meeting he would have with Frederick Muhlenberg to discuss charges made by Reynolds. Hamilton had called on Monroe, no friend, to vindicate him against charges of financial impropriety. While Monroe evidently accepted Hamilton’s explanation, the latter believed Monroe was responsible for leaking the damaging information, forcing him to tell the public about his affair. That leads to the second, and truly ironic, document. This is a letter from Aaron Burr to Monroe. Hamilton’s belief that Monroe was the source of the leak leads to a confrontation and a challenge to a duel. Burr was called on to be Monroe’s second for the duel, but instead set about to work a peaceful resolution to the conflict, which he discusses in his letter. This, of course, is highly ironic as it would be Burr who would kill Hamilton in a duel seven years later. And Burr himself would thereby be forever disgraced, although it made him one of the few Vice Presidents who did not make it to the top that anyone remembers. The Monroe letter was sold by Christie’s in 2002 for $5,378 while the Burr letter was sold in the same auction for $23,900.

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