Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - May - 2008 Issue
Americana and the American West from Clark Rare Books
Journalist Albert Richardson paid a high price for love.
All aboard for a spectacular tour. Item 181 is (Charles) Gates' Ninth Annual Tours: Mexico, Grand Canyon of Arizona, and California by Special Train. This goes back to the days before auto tours - 1902 - and this guide includes many photographs, itineraries, costs, and much information about accommodations and destinations. $36.50.
The Knights of Labor was one the earliest and briefly most successful of labor organizations. Formed by a group of Philadelphia tailors in 1869, it began more as a somewhat secret society, similar to the Masons, than as a typical labor union. It welcomed everyone, both skilled and unskilled workers, and even employers. Particularly unusual for the times, it even welcomed African Americans and women. The organization opposed child and convict labor, and supported a progressive income tax. It grew rapidly in the mid-1880s after a couple of successful railroad strikes, but labor defeats in 1886 quickly reversed its fortunes and started a rapid decline. Meanwhile, the American Federation of Labor was being formed out of those reverses, and soon supplanted the Knights as the major labor organization. Item 14 is The Official Hand Book and History of the Knights of Labor, issued by District Assembly No. 24, K of L. This was published in 1894, with the Knights well on their way to decline, by the Chicago local. $38.
You may reach Clark Rare Books at 405-307-0088 or clarkrarebooks.com.
