New-York: Published by Lane & Scott, 1852. Later printing; the first appeared in 1849. 12mo, original blind-stamped brown cloth, gilt lettering, 132 pages. “No man of sense would frequent a ballroom to select a wife, sooner than he would sail up the Delaware on a whaling expedition. If he looks... More
Boston: Published by all the Booksellers, 1846. First edition. Original printed yellow wrappers, 9.13 x 5.75 inches, 48 pages. “Likely enough there will be a great outcry against it; at least in some quarters. We will have plenty of solemn cant about the ‘invasions of the sanctities of private life;’... More
Boston: Belcher & Armstrong, Printers, 1807. First edition. Removed pamphlet (retained the original wrappers), 8.75 x 5.5 inches, 19, [1] pages. Occasional verses delivered before this fraternal secret society, with reference to the novel as literary trash, the follies of free thought (Godwin and Paine and Hume are all handled... More
Springfield, Mass. Star Publishing Co., (1885). First edition. Original green wrappers printed in red, 6.13 x 4.75 inches, [2], 108 pages. From the Spiritualist publishing house comes this obscurely reforming novel—Elsie Ainslie, the innocent daughter of the wealthy but loveless marriage-match of a New York banker comes to her grandmother’s... More
New York: Published by James Miller, 1864. A later edition. Square small 8vo, original gilt pictorial blue cloth, xvi, 80 pages, plus inserted numbered card printed in red ink on card stock. Shall I write to him? Am I not taking an imprudent step? Oracle! Am I pretty? A fortune-telling... More
Boston: Published by Otis Clapp, 1859. Third edition. Square 12mo, original brown cloth, gilt lettering, 96 pages. First published in 1837, a children’s book for Swedenborgian Sunday School; in addition to the expected Bible lessons on behavior, encomia on the printing press as a boon to missionaries, etc., Wilkins includes... More
[Boston: n. p., ca. 1880?]. Slip approx. 2.25 x 3.5 inches mounted to a slightly larger card. Some measure of Alcott’s celebrity; another, presumably earlier example of this sort of card from Alcott (letterpress rather than spirit-duplicated) appeared at auction in 2015 together with a clipped signature. Alcott apparently had... More
New-York: William Radde, 1853. First edition. 12mo, original blind-stamped brown cloth, gilt lettering, 108 pages. Intended as a handy reference for the homoeopathic physician and for home reference alike. Douglas had been living in Milwaukee since 1848; in 1859, he took a professorship at the Homoeopathic College of Cleveland. Ink... More
Battle Creek, Mich. Steam Press of the Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association, 1872. First edition. 8vo, original blind-stamped brown cloth, gilt pictorial spine, 160, [4] pages. A prophetic work of Americana (or a peculiarly American work of prophecy) from the significant Seventh-Day Adventist theologian, published at the SDA steam press in... More
New York: Van Norden & American, Printers, 1847. First edition. Original printed brown wrappers, 7.5 x 4.5 inches, 24 pages. Woodcut illustration of Barnum’s American Museum on the outer rear wrapper. A promotional pamphlet full of the expected puffery and ballyhoo, published the year Stratton returned from his European tour... More
Johnston, R. I. Silverman Research, 1976. First edition. 8vo, original printed green wrappers, [2], 29, [1] pages. With laid in promotional material for other Silverman Research publications. Approaching and picking up women through self-administered hypnosis. Copyright records reveal Hart and Stone to be dual pseudonyms of David Rossi. Judging by... More
Boston: J. H. Eastburn, City Printer, 1834. First edition. Unbound stab-stitched pamphlet, 9.5 x 6 inches, 16 pages, untrimmed. The official response and summary of the riot and mob burning of the Roman Catholic convent in Charlestown (now Somerville) in August, violence fueled by conspiracy theories and rumors and nativist... More
Wausau, Wisconsin: Trailer Supply Co., 1936. Stated second edition. Original pictorial wrappers, 9 x 6 inches, 68 pages. Illus. Promotional ephemera laid in. A fine illustrated catalog in low-key Art Deco mode, suggestive of the romance of the open road with the Jim Dandy custom auto camper-trailers; the need for... More
New York: American Missionary Association, [ca. 1890-1896]. First edition. Original self-wrappers, 6.75 x 5.38 inches, 8 pages, wire stitched. Barnaby (1863?-1915) was a Native Omaha who had been educated at Hampton Institute and returned to the West as a missionary, serving as a teacher and a nurse at Standing Rock... More
New York: For sale, wholesale and retail, by O. S. Fowler and L. N. Fowler, [ca. 1840-1845]. Stated 151st edition. 2 vols, each in printed yellow wrappers paginated [1]-4 and with the text, “Pathological Facts,” 7.25 x 4.25 inches, 19, [5] pages. Illus. A moderately early phrenological work, published prior... More
Philadelphia: J. Harding, Printer, 1828. First edition. Original printed light brown wrappers, stitched, 8.63 x 5.88 inches, 154, [1] pages. On the real-world consequences of theological disputes: the Green Street monthly meeting (a Hicksite meeting that had just been laid down in 1827 by the Orthodox Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting in... More
Newton Centre [Mass.], Jan. 22, 1894. Autograph note signed S. F. Smith, 6.88 x 4.38 inches, 3 pages, approx. 150 words. With original autograph cover addressed to D. Lothrop Co., For Mrs. Lothrop, Purchase St., Boston, Mass., marked “Personal.”. The Baptist minister and author best remembered for the hymn “America”... More
(St. Louis: T. Salamonski & Co., 1885). First edition. 12mo, original alligator-texture boards, black lettering, [7], [1] pages. Color fold-out illustrated schematic chart. An ephemeral seven-page introduction to English grammar, with an attractive fold-out illustrated color chart that lays out the relationships of the parts of speech in a wheel. More
Philadelphia: Published at 23 N. Second st. [1844]. First edition. Original printed pictorial yellow wrappers, scant 7 x 4 inches, 24 pages. Illus. “Out of the windows of nearly every Native American and Protestant Irishman in the district, hung the American and tri-colored flags. This was regarded as sufficient protection... More
Bound Brook, N. J. Asa K. Butts, 1886. A later American printing of this landmark work on contraception, but with an interesting imprint. (See below.). 8vo, original printed wrappers, 47, [1] pages. Frontis portrait of Besant. Besant had revolutionized the publication of contraceptive information in England after her republication of... More
New York: [n. p.], 1858. A new printing from the same plates as the 1847 first edition, with a reset title page. 12mo, original discreet blind-stamped unlettered black cloth, xiii, [1], 238 pages. With a printed notice mounted to the front paste-down, “Ladies or Gentlemen writing to Dr. A. M.... More
[Boston]: Printed by James Loring, 1823. First edition. Original blue paste-paper wrappers, 7 x 4.63 inches, 51, [1] pages. The prospectus and terms behind the newly-formed Boston insurance company that would be responsible for steering investment capital into the development of New England industry, all under the guidance of its... More
[N. p., but Hollidaysburg, Penna.? n. p., 1906]. First edition. Original pictorial peach wrappers (spine overstitched in an amateur restoration effort at an early date), [2], 8, [2] pages. Illus. A discursive commemoration of a well-known tragedy delivered at the dedication of a memorial to Joseph and George Cox, two... More
London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1844. First edition. Stitched pamphlet, 8.25 x 5.25 inches, iv, 44 pages. From the era of “Fifty-Four Forty or Fight,” the pugnacious Canadian judge from the Red River colony here refutes American claims to the upper portion of what was being claimed as Oregon territory... More
New York: Fowler & Wells Co., 1884. Stated fourth edition. Original printed drab wrappers, 7.25 x 4.88 inches, 34, [10] pages, wire stitched. First published by the phrenological and health reform house Fowler & Wells in 1881, essentially an extended advertisement for the Health Food Company of New York—which appears... More
