London: Watts & Co., 1880. Evident second edition. 8vo, original embossed blue cloth, gilt lettering, printed paper spine label, 72 pages. “Neuropathy, insania, and pauperism!—this is our vaunted civilisation.” The British army surgeon turned darling of the materialists and philosopher of egoism here explains (with some perhaps considerable obscurity to..... More
[San Francisco: n. p., ca. 1965?]. Offset broadside printed in green ink reproducing portraits of televangelists in halftone and holograph text, 8.5 x 11 inches. A characteristic free thought art piece (“Send the dough & blessings will flow!”) from the San Francisco anarchist-pacifist folk artist Pemabo (1880-1971), the Australian-born sign..... More
Neu-Berlin, Penn. Joseph Miller, 1830. First edition. Original calf spine, drab boards, 6.5 x 4 inches, 179, [1] pages gathered in sixes. A characteristic handy household medical guide, with specific reference to Thomsonian principles and at least something of a debt to Hohman. Atwater 2451 (under Miller); Arndt 3114: “Entry..... More
Philadelphia: Printed by B. Franklin, in Market-Street, 1747. First edition. 8vo, 6.75 x 4.5 inches, 19th century tree calf and a later morocco spine label, gilt lettering, 174 pages. This copy lacks the final leaf, the errata page. Leaf K2 here trimmed by the binder a little close along the..... More
![An Appeal on the Subject of Cholera [caption title]. Cholera, Anonymous](/pictures/thumb/19734.jpg?v=1591726099)
[New York]: American Tract Society, [1832]. First edition. Unbound pamphlet, 6.75 x 4.25 inches, 8 pages. “Many and awful are the national sins that may have drawn down upon us this visitation. The highest privileges ever granted to a people have been by multitudes neglected and scorned. Obscene impurities, drunkenness..... More
Princeton, Mass. Co-operative Publishing Company, [1879-1882?]. First edition. Original printed wrappers, 9.38 x 5.88 inches, 23, [1] pages. A moderately uncommon title from Heywood, the anarchist free-love reformer here weighing in on liberty in relation to temperance and prohibition: “As well say, by statute, what church I shall attend, what..... More
Chicago: Star Publishing Co., [ca. 1891-1900?]. Original printed self-wrappers, 7.5 x 5.25 inches, wire stitched, 28, [3], [1] pages. Illus. Per Atwater 2306 (the entry for a 1912 Star Publishing Co. edition of Henry M. Lyman’s Practical Home Physician), these plates “issued in a brown paper envelope [not present for..... More
Boston: Published by White & Potter, 1847. First edition. Original printed green wrappers (lacks rear wrapper), 8.13 x 5 inches, 35, [1] pages. “The following cases first appeared in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, and in different numbers of that work. They are now published together, with such alteration..... More
[N. p., n. p., ca. 1878-1880?]. SIngle leaf printed recto and verso, approx. 20.25 x 7.13 inches, illustrated with numerous woodcuts of human oddities. An attractive ephemeral showbill from the veteran circus promoter Giles Pullman, who offers a “Grand Comic Concert, Monster Museum, and Feast of the Ferocious Wild Animals.”..... More
New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1869. First edition, trade issue. 8vo, contemporary blue half morocco, spine elaborately gilt, blue cloth sides, 607, [1], [4] pages, t.e.g. Frontis portrait, engraved title page (as published). This copy from the library of Halleck’s biographer James Grant Wilson himself, with a small ink..... More
Hartford: n. p., 1866. First edition. Pamphlet (lacks printed wrappers), 8.75 x 5.63 inches, 74 pages, stitched. Homicide in Connecticut. McDade 905: “He murdered Harriett and Ella Starkweather in bed with an ax and attempted to burn the house, hoping thereby to get the family farm. The phrenologist reported his..... More
New York: Kiggins and Kellogg, [1857]. Fifth printing of the fourth edition. Original printed wrappers, 7.19 x 4.5 inches, 166, [2] pages (final leaf blank). Woodcuts in the text illustrating carving. Copyright 1854, with the wrapper imprint date of 1857, a popular work that was first published in 1844 under..... More
New York: P. S. Wynkoop & Son, 1868. First edition. 8vo, original gilt-stamped green cloth, 53, [1], [4] pages. “Dolby was alive, to begin with.” A satire on Dickens, with much seemingly intended to settle obscure scores on behalf of American literature. With four pages of publisher’s ads in the..... More
Milwaukee, Wis. L. H. Morehouse, Publisher, 1879. First edition. 12mo, original brown cloth, gilt lettering, 226, [1], [1] pages. Something of a pious, Midwestern Tom Brown’s School Days, an uncharacteristic posthumous work from the Episcopal churchman, theologian, and educator, this a fairly didactic novel for boys that grew out of..... More
Boston: Fields, Osgood, 1869. First edition. 8vo, original gilt-stamped green cloth, gilt lettering, 215, [1] pages. A lightly-veiled satire on the contemporary controversies around physical culture, a supposed debate over the construction of a gymnasium in a New England town from an advocate for physical education, published while Tyler was..... More
New-York: P. Price, 1841. First edition. 2 vols, 12mo, original blind- and gilt-stamped black cloth, [1]-234; [i]-vi, [5]-284 pages. A posthumously-published novel from the South Carolina physician and man of letters (who also enjoyed giving electrical shocks to unsuspecting youngsters who wandered within reach of his galvanic medical batteries), this..... More
New York: G. W. Carleton, Publisher, 1869. First edition. 8vo, blind-stamped original green cloth, gilt lettering, 470, 8 pages. A characteristic pot-boiler from the novelist whose infamy as an abusive husband was secured after he was shot and killed by his teenage son Frank Walworth in 1873. (Mansfield had beaten..... More
Buffalo: Wanzer, McKim, 1856. First edition. 8vo, original blind-stamped blue-green cloth, gilt spine, 300, 12, 48 pages. Frontis, five plates by Frederick M. Coffin. A satirical novel that pokes fun at abolitionists and suffragettes, with digressive attacks on progressive authors, spiritualists and domestic upheaval of all stripes. Wright II, 2020..... More
New York: Charles Scribner, 1853. First edition. 8vo, original blind-stamped black cloth, gilt lettering, 344 pages. Frontis. An altogether more gentle satire than Shelton’s earlier Trollopiad, this a lightly comic novel from an Episcopalian clergyman of the daily life of a church rector (and of other small-town personalities) in Westchester..... More
![The Trollopiad; or, Travelling Gentlemen in America. A Satire, by Nil Admirari [pseud], Esq....](/pictures/thumb/19656.jpg?v=1582049554)
New-York: C. Shepard; Providence: Shepard, Tingley & Co., 1837. First edition. 12mo, original ribbon-embossed brown cloth, gilt lettering, 151, [1] pages. “What! must I always hear, nor e’er reply, / And shall John Bull for ever rend the sky? / Shall Owen, in a voice as thunder loud, / Shout..... More
Boston: Printed by Abel Tompkins, 1848. Second printing, the first appearing with an 1846 publication date. 12mo, original embossed brown cloth, gilt spine, 197, [1] pages. Frontis, two plates. Two humorous Universalist satirical novellas; the pious and bigoted slaveholder Elder Tub enjoys a colloquy with the ghost of Shadrach Paddle..... More
![A Single Gentleman: by Timothy Thistle [pseud]. Designs by the Author. Illustrations by I. Hyde....](/pictures/thumb/19652.jpg?v=1582049552)
Boston: Oliver Ellsworth, 1867. First edition. 12mo, original gilt-stamped green cloth, gilt lettering, 182 pages. Frontis, six plates, illus. A satirical look at Boston city life from a young bachelor in search of a room to rent, with flings at fashion, reformers, and forward Irish servants. Hamilton 934 (J. N...... More
New York: Published by S. Colman, 1840. Third edition (see below). 8vo, publisher’s gilt- and blind-stamped pebbled green sheep, 284 pages, a.e.g. Frontis, engraved title page, illus. An important and attractive early anthology of American verse edited by the book auctioneer Keese, with illustrations from American painter John G. Chapman..... More
New York: Charles Scribner & Company, 1871. First edition. 8vo, original brick red cloth, gilt lettering, 330, [2] pages. “I ate half a chicken croquette, and Susan placed the salad before Richard, and another plate. He did not speak till he had put the salad on his plate.” Wright II..... More
New York: G. W. Carleton & Co., 1878. First edition. 8vo, original blind-stamped green cloth, gilt lettering, 377, [1], [6] pages. Ink gift inscription on the front free endpaper, “Christmas 1878 To Mrs. M. J. R. as from one she mourns for.” Wright III, 2729. More
