Philadelphia: Printed by Zachariah Poulson, Junr. 1794-1801. Softcover. Very good. Six sewn pamphlets, pp. 32, 32, 32, 59, 20, 55. Three (1794, 1797, 1801) untrimmed in original plain paper wrappers, three (1795, 1796, 1798) with edges trimmed and in later wrappers. First volume lacks a front blank and has the contemporary signature of Samuel Rodman on the title page; front wrap of fourth volume detached but present, with the contemporary signature of Isaac Hicks. A very good set. These pamphlets record the proceedings of the first American effort at national organization around the anti-slavery cause. The first meeting, held January 1, 1794, drew delegates from the abolition societies of Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. Later meetings added attendees from Rhode Island and Virginia, and each pamphlet lists the names of those present—among them Benjamin Rush, Jonathan Edwards, and many important early abolitionists. The first gathering “voted to petition Congress to prohibit the slave trade and also to appeal to the legislatures of the various states to abolish slavery. The petitions pointed out the inconsistency of a country that had recently rejected the tyranny of kings engaging in ‘domestic despotism.'" (LOC). They also issued an address urging all citizens to accept "the obligations of justice, humanity, and benevolence toward our African brethren, whether in bondage or free." According to Weinstein, despite limited funds or authority and infrequent meetings, these conventions "harnessed considerable public support for moral reform and imbued their ideological successor, the American Anti-Slavery Society, with cornerstone goals designed to 'bring the whole nation to a speedy repentance.'" Weinstein 26, Evans 26533; Sabin 49379; Howes M-652. (Item #14908)

New York: Fox, Duffield and Company, 1904. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. xlii, 350 pp, with 13 plates. Original light blue cloth, no dust jacket. Spined toned but easily legible, light rubbing to extremities; contents clean and sound. Very good. Containing more than 300 recipes, this was one of the first cookbooks to acknowledge the substantive influence of African-Americans on the traditions of southern cooking. Twelve of the 13 plates are from Langdon's photographs showing African-American cooks at work. (Item #14832)

Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1925. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. 8vo, 289 pp, in original green cloth stamped in gilt. Rubbing to foot of spine, else fine. Born in Texas in 1878, Scarborough became a professor at Columbia University, where her research focused on supernatural fiction, folklore, and folk music, which also featured prominently in several novels she wrote. This work, which reflects increasing academic interest in African-American music in the 1920s, includes chapters on ballads, dance songs, children's game songs, lullabies, songs about animals, work songs, railroad songs, and the blues. Scarborough's writing is both scholarly and personal, and it includes interesting details of her experiences as she traveled the South in search of new songs, their singers, and their stories. (Item #14925)

Salem, MA: Salem Press, 1911. Hardcover. Very good. Second edition. 319 pp, with 28 illustrations from photographs. Signed by the author on the frontispiece under her portrait. Original blue cloth, lightly rubbed, minor foxing to title page and frontispiece, else clean and sound. Very good. Summerhayes traveled through Arizona as an officer's wife in the 1870s, spending time at Fort Mohave, Prescott, Camp Verde, Camp Apache, and Phoenix. She describes the hardships of desert travel, encounters with the Apaches, camp life, etc. Farqhuar (28): "This is a choice book from many points of view....There are lively descriptions of steamboat journeys, of life at an army post, and an adventure on the Little Colorado. The second edition has a few additions which enhance its historical value." Howes S-1132. Graff 4028. (Item #14950)

Philadelphia: 1817. Softcover. Near fine. 24 pp, disbound. Slight soiling and foxing; near fine. A catalogue from one of the most important American publishers of the period, listing works on travels and voyages, history and biography, law, medicine, poetry, Novels, etc. Among the offerings are Carey's General Atlas, Improved (which added information from the Lewis and Clark expedition and included 58 colored maps, mostly American) and William Barton's Vegetable Material Medica of the United States, an important early American color plate book. (Item #14934)

Washington: Gales & Seaton, 1822. First Edition. Softcover. Very good. Disbound. 7 pp. Near fine. After the American Revolution, the new Congress acted to protect American printers and paper manufacturers from foreign competition by enacting stiff tariffs on imported books and paper. Within a few years, colleges, churches, and other interested parties began to protest to Congress that these duties had become a de facto tax on domestic printers who needed to use imported paper, and, more importantly, on readers. In 1816, some relief was obtained when the tax schedule was revised to allow books to be brought into the United States free of charge if they were destined for use by any society incorporated for literary or philosophical purposes. Nonetheless, discontent with the duties continued, since, as Thomas Jefferson put it, books "locked up in libraries can be of no avail to the practical man when he wishes a recurrence to them for the uses of life." The American Philosophical Society was part of a loose coalition of institutions organized by Jefferson that petitioned Congress in 1821-22 to repeal all import duties on books, as such levies were "detrimental to the progress of knowledge." The plea fell on deaf ears, however, and the tariffs remained in place for several decades to come. (Item #14913)

Pasadena, CA: George Wharton James, 1904. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. 16mo. pp. 504, [2] index, illustrated with line drawings. Original flexible cloth boards stamped in gilt. A few pages dog-eared or otherwise creased at the upper corner, stamp of Bertrand Smith's Acres of Books on front pastedown, else fine. Includes a useful general history of the region and interesting detail on place names, topography, natural resources, transportation, agricultural production, arts and education, flora and fauna, and historic landmarks and highlights for the tourist (organized according to the various railroad routes). Rocq 16291; Berry and Klinicke 3753. (Item #14903)

Philadelphia: F.A. Davis, 1892. First Edition. Softcover. Very good. 5.75" x 9", pp xiv, 160, with two colored folding plates (one map, one chart) and many additional b/w plates and illustrations in the text. Original wrappers, with considerable restoration to the edges and a new spine. Contents clean and sound. Very good. Remondino (1846-1926) was a San Diego physician known for his writings promoting the region's healthful climate. Having himself been cured in San Diego of a bad case of malaria contracted during the Civil War, he became convinced that "climate determines the diet, occupation, the diseases of which we shall suffer and die, as well as the average length of our existence; it determines our temper, faculties, and facilities for acquiring knowledge and the arts." In this book he details the specific qualities of the southern California climate and their relation to health, explaining why "all residents concur in pronouncing it more favorable to physical and mental activity than any they have known." Rocq 16360; Cowan p. 529, Zamorano Select #93. (Item #14955)

New York: Orange Judd Company, 1883. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. 5" x 7.25", pp 213 + [1] ad. Original green cloth boards with beveled edges, decorated in black and gilt. Embossed library stamp on two pages, minor abrasion to rear endpapers; otherwise unmarked and sound; about very good. A native New Yorker, Pabor traveled west in 1870 and became enthralled with Colorado's beauty and potential for agriculture. Here he provides detailed and useful information for those interested in settling and farming in the state, acknowledging the limits of agriculture in the West while also explaining where and how there is a living to be made. Chapters describe the resources and geography of different regions of the state, as well as irrigation, apiculture, fruit culture, cattle and sheep, railways, and agricultural schools. Adams, Herd 1743. (Item #14265)

Chicago: M.A. Donohue & Co. Hardcover. Near fine. Undated early reprint, subtitled "Twenty-Seven Years in the Far West" on the cover. 213 pp, with ten plates from photographs. Signed by Jack and dated 1913, and with an original photograph of her (with two parrots) laid in. Publisher's red cloth decorated in green and gilt, with mounted portrait on front board. Spine lightly sunned. Near fine. British-born Ellen E. Jack, also known as "Captain Jack," was a pioneer prospector in Gunnison County, Colorado. She operated a series of boarding houses and was a partner in the successful Black Queen Mine (located between Crested Butte and Aspen). According to her own account--which may not be entirely trustworthy--she carried a sixgun and a pickax in her belt, could shoot a pistol in each hand while riding horseback, fought off the advances of all manner of men (including a Mormon who wanted her as his third wife), and bore a scar from a poisoned tomahawk. Later in life she settled in Colorado Springs, where she ran a curio shop and entertained tourists with tales of her many adventures. (Item #14876)

Pittsburgh: Cramer, Spear & Eichbaum, 1810. Hardcover. Very good. 12mo. pp. viii, [9]-504, in contemporary calf binding. Front joint starting, dampstain near gutter of preliminaries only; otherwise quite clean and sound, with ownership signature of Woodbury B. Purinton on title page. Very good. Cuming, an Irishman who had purchased land in Ohio, traveled extensively along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in 1807-1809. His account of the journey provides "a detailed and accurate record of pioneer social and political conditions" (Hubach p. 41), with lively descriptions of all the small towns he visited and colorful characters he encountered. Thomson (286) praises it as "one of the most interesting works relating to the west," and the Streeter catalogue (1325) calls it "one of the best early accounts of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys." Howes C-947; Graff 955; Sabin 17890. (Item #14867)

Charleston, SC: James Phinney, 1858. Softcover. Very good. Third edition (first published 1838). 46 pp, original printed wrappers. Mild dampstain to top edge of wrappers and title page only, archival tape repair on to top margin of front wrapper; minor creasing; very good. Although critics suggested he was condoning the use of violence to settle disputes, Wilson (the forty-ninth Governor of South Carolina) insisted that dueling would remain common practice "as long as a manly independence and lofty personal pride...shall continue to exist." He argued for the right of individuals to self-preservation and said his rules would save lives by preventing indiscriminate shooting. He also advised readers on how they could avoid a duel without loss of face, "when and how to issue appropriate challenges, and how to judge and reply to a note as being honorable or otherwise" (Williams, Dueling in the Old South). An Appendix includes the Irish Code of Honor and reprints the sarcastic comments of a Massachusetts writer who noted that Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia and South Carolina would be held up as paragons of gentility if judged by Irish standards. Wilson retorts: "The idea of New England becoming a school for manners is about as fanciful as Bolinbroke's 'idea of a patriot king.'" (Item #14894)

Philadelphia: Harrison Hall, 1845. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. Two volumes, 12mo, pp 282, 276, with plan of the Fort at Boonesboro as frontispiece to Vol. I. Rebacked, with new cloth spines and paper labels, original embossed cloth boards. Light foxing; near fine. As he explained in the Preface, Hall believed the time for full narrative history of the West had not yet come, as reliable source material was scarce. Instead he offered collection of sketches based on his own observations and "intended as examples and illustrations of topics connected with the western states." The work includes "a rather detailed account of the first trans-Allegheny explorations, with ample treatment of the early French settlements and the infiltration of the Scotch-Irish Pioneers into Kentucky and Ohio...the character and habits of the pioneers, early education and literature in the Ohio Valley, felons and desperadoes, and the exploits of George Rogers Clark" (Flanagan). Field (636) notes that "narratives of frontier warfare with the Indians, and incidents of Indian life, fill almost all the pages of these interesting volumes." A chapter on "Indian hating" provided much of the source material for Herman Melville's treatment of that subject in The Confidence Man. Sabin 29794; Howes H-78. (Item #14904)