What Katy Did - Catalogue XXX
A recognition of Feminism in the American Experience
AKERS, Elizabeth. (Florence Percy). Poems. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1866. 16mo, original blind-stamped blue cloth, gilt-lettered spine, all edges gilt. Slight rubbing to edges, otherwise fine. First edition. Rare.
"Backward, turn backward,
O Time, in your flight.
Make me a child again,
just for to-night!...."
The poem is printed on pp. 190-192 and is composed of six eight line stanzas. It had first appeared in the Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post May, 1860. Her authorship of "Rock Me to Sleep" with the universally nostalgic appeal of its opening couplets was challenged, unsuccessfully, by a prosperous and vociferous New Jersey leather dealer and verse dabbler. For an interesting consideration of this flagellated controversy see John Winterich's article in The New Colophon, 1950, pp. 260-263.
Assessed today, Allen is accorded status as a minor poet - even a one poem poet - yet in point of fact in her time she was a major creator of popular poetry and likely exerted a positive influence on the genre's subsequent versifiers. Beyond her nom de plume of "Florence Percy" it is difficult to settle on a form of address. Chronologically, she was christened down east Elizabeth Anne Chase in 1832; became Mrs. Marshall S.M. Taylor 1851-1855 (deserted); Mrs. Benjamin P. Akers 1860-1861 (widowed); Mrs. Elijah M. Allen 1865-1911 (deceased). In later life her writings supported the causes of woman suffrage and the prevention of cruelty to animals.
There is an eerie personal sidelight to this particular copy. It was recently purchased by us from the catalogue of a New York bookseller. A pencilled notation on the front endpaper reads "1st appearance of Rock Me to Sleep p. 190". The handwriting is that of this writer's father, who before being the first Lilly librarian for many years had been head of Scribner's famous rare book department.
[Blanck, Bibliography of American Literature 418. Wilson & Randall, Thirteen Author Collections of the Nineteenth Century and Five Centuries of Familiar Quotations. p. 342. Johnson, You Know These Lines! A Bibliography of the Most Quoted Verses in American Poetry, pp. 143-145. DAB. NAW]. $250.00. #7006
ALCOTT, Louisa May. Jo's Boys and How They Turned Out. A Sequel to "Little Men". Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1886. Frontispiece portrait of Alcott. Octavo, original green cloth decoratively stamped in gilt and black, spine ornately stamped in gilt, red and black, gilt-lettered cover and spine, patterned endpapers. A splendid copy. First edition, first state.
A chronicle of the continuation of Little Men which, in turn, had been preceeded by Alcott's classic Little Women starring the March sisters - Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy.
[BAL 211. DAB. NAW. Browne p. 76]. $450.00. #2211
[ALCOTT, Louisa May]. moses, Belle. Louisa May Alcott Dreamer and Worker. A Story of Achievement. New York: D. Appleton, 1909. Frontispiece portrait. Octavo, original brick cloth, white-lettered cover and spine . Fine. First edition.
[BAL p.44, listing only the date of a 1933 reprint. DAB. NAW. Sweeney 27]. $100.00. #2257
[ALDEN, Priscilla]. Spofford, Harriet Prescott, GUINEY, Louise Imogen and BROWN, Alice. Three Heroines of New England Romance. Boston: Little, Brown, 1894. Illustrated. Octavo, original gilt-decorated blue cloth, top edge gilt. Fine. First trade edition.
Spofford writes about Priscilla Alden, Guiney of Martha Hilton and Brown concerning Agnes Surriage. Priscilla Mullins arrived in America aboard the Mayflower. Her name change: "Speak for yourself, John Alden," is a part of American folklore. Surriage's odyssey took her from colonial tavern maid to wife of an English baronet. Martha Hilton? Read the book.
[BAL 6729 (Guiney) and 18512 (Spofford). NAW]. $75.00. #2793
ALEXANDER, Shana. The Feminine Eye. New York: McCall, (1970). Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket (very slightly soiled). Fine. First edition.
A collection of essays which originally appeared in Life magazine, where Alexander had a regular column for five years called "The Feminine Eye". In 1969 she became the first woman editor of McCall's magazine in fifty years. $20.00. #2258
ALLEN, Elizabeth. Sketches of Green Mountain Life; with an Autobiography of the Author. Lowell: Nathaniel L. Dayton, 1846. 12mo, original blind-stamped brown cloth, gilt-decorated spine. Traces of bookplate removal, moderate foxing throughout, gilt spine a little faded. Very good. First edition.
A prefatory word from the publisher notes that the author is entirely deaf.
[Wright, American Fiction 1774-1850. A Contribution Toward a Bibliography 14 (hereinafter Wright I)]. $100.00. #2259
ALLEN, Florence Ellinwood. To Do Justly. Cleveland: Press of Western Reserve University, (1965). Illustrated with photographs. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket . Fine. First edition. Unaccountably scarce.
Autobiography of the first woman to become a senior United States Circuit Court Judge. Allen was also the first woman associate justice of a state supreme court (Ohio). $150.00. #2260
ALPERT, Jane. Growing Up Underground. New York: William Morrow, 1981. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, dust jacket (faint wear). Fine. First edition.
An honors graduate of Swarthmore College, Alpert became a fugitive after her arrest in connection with bombings of several government and corporate buildings. About four years later she turned herself in, moving away from the left and declaring her new commitment to feminism. A vivid commentary on those times; the way it was for some and a lot of growing pains for one mixed up young lady . $20.00. #2261
[ANDERSON, Anna] [Anastasia]. Lovell, James Blair. Anastasia, the Lost Princess. Washington, D. C: Regnery Gateway, (1991). Illustrated with black and white photographs. Thick octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
While the story of the Romanov family's murder in an Ekaterinburg cellar is well documented, a tale took form and persisted that the youngest daughter somehow survived and eventually came to spend the later years of her life in the United States. The case was the basis for much speculation, numerous articles pro and con, a Broadway play and a film with Ingrid Bergman in the title role. With appendices and an extensive index. $20.00. #RH670
Andrews, Maxene. Gilbert, Bill. Over Here, Over There. The Andrews Sisters and the USO in World War II. (New York): Kensington Publishing, (1993). Illustrated with black and white photographs. Octavo, red boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket . Fine. First edition. With a lengthy inscription by, and two tipped in color photographs of Ms. Andrews at a book signing in Hawaii.
Sharing the heyday of the big band era in the 1930's and 1940's, the Andrews sisters - Maxene, Patty and LaVerne - remain American popular music icons. Singing "Bei Mir Bist Du Schšn", "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree", "Beer Barrel Polka", "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B", their signature song "In Apple Blossom Time" and others of their hits, the trio repeated their peacetime success during a hectic schedule of performances at war bond rallies, military posts and hospitals both at home and overseas. Years later, in 1987, they were awarded the Defense Department's highest civilian honor: the Medal for Distinguished Public Service. $25.00. #9440
ANGELOU, Maya. Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now. New York: Random House, (1993). Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Name in ink on endpaper, else fine. First trade edition.
The book's dedicatee is the popular talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey. $20.00. #2280
ANTHONY, Carl Sferrazza. First Ladies. The Saga of the Presidents' Wives and Their Power 1789 - 1961. New York: Morrow, (1990). Two volumes. Illustrated. Thick octavo, boards, cloth spines, pictorial dust jackets. Fine. First editions.
With: First Ladies. The Saga of the President's Wives and Their Power 1961-1990. New York: Morrow, (1991). Illustrated.
A massive (1,196 pages) and definitive history, twelve years in the making, with extensive notes, bibliographies and indexes. In the preface to volume one "the power behind the throne is the power" is a quote from Maria Weston Chapman, How Can I Help Abolish Slavery?, 1855. $85.00. #2283
[ANTHONY, Susan B.]. Anthony, Katharine. Susan B. Anthony. Her Personal History and Her Era. Garden City: Doubleday, 1954. With four photographic portraits. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket (slightly chipped). About fine. First edition.
On the fifth day of November, 1872, Susan B. Anthony voted in the eighth ward of the city of Rochester, New York. She cast her ballot to test the application of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the United States Constitution. She was indicted and convicted of illegal voting and fined $100.00. She never paid it. Instead, she organized the National Woman Suffrage Association with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and devoted herself to the cause which did not become law during her lifetime. Suffrage for women was adopted by the House of Representatives on May 21, 1919 and by the Senate on June 4. Following, ratification by three-quarters of the states, it became the law of the land on August 26, 1920. Suffrage for women was adopted by the House of Representatives on May 21, 1919 and by the Senate on June 4. Following ratification by three-quarters of the states, it became the law of the and on August 26, 1920.
[DAB. NAW. Sweeney 37]. $30.00. #2284
ANTIN, Mary. They Who Knock at Our Gates: A Complete Gospel of Immigration. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1914. Illustrated with a frontispiece and three plates by Joseph Stella. Octavo, original blind-stamped brown cloth, gilt lettering. Fine. First edition. Inscribed by the author.
A favorable look at immigration into the United States by an advocate of the "open door policy". Antin was herself a Jewish newcomer from Polish Russia; her other works also dealt with immigrants' experiences.
[DAB. NAW. See Browne p. 25]. $100.00. #2285
ARMSTRONG, Louise. Rocking the Cradle of Sexual Politics. What Happened When Women Said Incest. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, (1994). Octavo, boards, cloth spine, dust jacket. Some ink underlinings, else fine. First edition.
The author's 1987 best-selling Kiss Daddy Goodnight had taken the subject out of the closet. This work "takes a critical, controversial look back at making an issue out of incest" (dust jacket blurb). $20.00. #5877
[ARTISTS], Women Artists in the Howard Pyle Tradition. Chadds Ford: Brandywine River Museum, 1975. Illustrated. Oblong octavo, pictorial wrappers. Fine.
A catalogue presented in connection with the exhibition at the Brandywine River Museum of the Tri-County Conservancy of the Brandywine, September 6 - November 23, 1975.
Pyle nurtured a bevy of disciples among the most successful of whom were Ethel and Anna Betts, Elizabeth Shippen Green, Charlotte Harding, Violet Oakley, Sarah Smith, Alice Barber Stephens, Sarah Stilwell Weber, his daughter-in-law Ellen Thompson Pyle and his daughter Katherine Pyle. As an aside, this writer's artistic mother studied under Thornton Oakley, another of Pyle's students. $20.00. #12819
ATHERTON, Gertrude. California Illustrated Magazine. No. 5. April, 1894. Volume V. Octavo, original printed wrappers. Slightly soiled, else fine.
Contains "The Theatre of Arts and Letters" by Atherton, pp. 580-584.
[DAB. NAW. See Browne p. 51]. $25.00. #5588
[Astor, Nancy]. Langhorne, Elizabeth. Nancy Astor and Her Friends. New York: Preaeger Publishers, (1974). Illustrated with photographs. Octavo, cloth, dust jacket (spine sunned). Lower rear cover and pastedown show evidence of water staining, else fine. First edition.
Virginia-born, Nancy was one of five beautiful Langhorne sisters. A second marriage, this to Waldorf Astor, thrust her onto the English social scene. When inheritance elevated him to the House of Lords she successfully ran for his vacated seat in the Commons, thereby becoming the first woman to sit in Britain's Parliament. She held the seat for over a quarter century as she championed women's rights, the welfare state, prohibition and world peace.
A fascinating and controversial Anglo-American, she befriended Lawrence of Arabia, duelled with Winston Churchill in the nonpareil repartee:
Nancy: "Winston, if I were married to you, I'd put poison in your coffee."
Winston: "Nancy, if you were my wife, I'd drink it."
and denounced the demagogue Senator Joseph McCarthy. The biographer, well disposed to her subject, was related to Nancy Astor by marriage and had access to family letters and other unpublished material. With notes on sources, a selected bibliography and an index.
[Sweeney 48]. $20.00. #14228
ATHERTON, Gertrude. Adventures of a Novelist. New York: Liveright, (1932). Illustrated. Thick royal octavo, cloth, printed dust jacket (repaired, rear inside flap chipped). Fine. First edition.
A volume of memoirs by the San Francisco novelist. According to The Feminist Companion to Literature in English , Atherton "kept abreast of developing feminism till the 1930s, yet apparently regarded it as displacement of sexual energy".
[DAB. NAW]. $45.00. #2291
AUSTIN, Mary. The Lands of the Sun. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1927. Illustrated by E. Boyd Smith with a frontispiece in color repeated on the jacket and pen and ink drawings. Octavo, original gilt-decorated blue cloth, pictorial dust jacket (a bit sunned with minor edgewear and soiling). Fine. First edition, decidedly uncommon in jacket.
Another Austin book about California. According to an old Spanish proverb lands of the sun are places that expand the soul.
[Dykes, Smith 33. DAB. NAW]. $275.00. #2296
[AUSTIN, Mary]. Fink, Augusta. I-Mary. A Biography of Mary Austin. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, (1983). Illustrated. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket (minimal chipping at top and bottom edges). Fine. First edition.
With notes, a bibliography and an index.
[DAB. NAW]. $20.00. #2978
[AVIATION], PLANCK, Charles E. Women with Wings. New York: Harper & Brothers, (1942). Profusely illustrated with photographs. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket (torn and repaired). Fine. First edition.
"The thrilling story of what women have contributed- and are contributing- to the progress of aviation" (dust jacket blurb). Mild hyperbole aside, the book is an informative piece of work at the leading edge of its place and time. It includes a "Chronology of Feminine International Aircraft Records," a "Women's Aviation Chronology" and an index. $100.00. #5218
[AVIATION], Haynsworth, Leslie and TOOMEY, David. Amelia Earhart's Daughters. The Wild and Glorious Story of American Women Aviators from World War II to the Dawn of the Space Age. New York: Morrow, (1998). Illustrated with photographs. Octavo, boards, pictorial dust jacket. As new. First edition.
The joint authors's first book. With a selected bibliography and an index. Publisher's prospectus laid in. $20.00. #9367
AYER, Margaret Hubbard. Taves, Isabella. The Three Lives of Harriet Hubbard Ayer. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, (1957). Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket (slight wear). Spine a little faded, else fine. First edition.
The "Three Lives" of the title include Ayer's (1848-1903) years as a society matron turned business entrepreneur turned insane asylum inmate turned beauty columnist and feature writer for the New York World. (Isn't that four?) The co-author succeeded her mother on the staff of the World and subsequently married the paper's editor.
[NAW. Sweeney 55]. $20.00. #7416
BAILEY, Pearl. Talking to Myself. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, (1971). Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition. Inscribed on the title page in her excellent script to the movie director Otto Preminger: "To Otto - A magnificent person- and a tremendous asset to the profession. In love Pearl".
Besides being a night club singer, the versatile recording star, television performer and movie actress also received Broadway's highest accolade- a Tony Award. This literate string of loosely connected anecdotes is a light and delightful read. $75.00. #2302
[BAKER, Josephine]. Rose, Phyllis. Jazz Cleopatra. Josephine Baker in Her Time. New York: Doubleday, (1989). Illustrated with photographs. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket . Fine. First edition.
World War II found Baker working with the Red Cross and the French Resistance as well as entertaining troops on three continents. She was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Legion d'Honneur with the rosette of the Resistance for her efforts. Beloved in her adopted country, upon her death in 1975 Baker received a glorious state funeral, an event completely unprecedented in France for an entertainer. The author had received Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundation fellowships to write this biography. With notes, bibliography and an index.
[DAB. NAWM]. $20.00. #7543
[Holman, Libby]. Bradshaw, Jon. Dreams That Money Can Buy. The Tragic Life of Libby Holman. New York: William Morrow, (1985). Illustrated. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket (lightly faded). About fine. First edition.
Holman got her break on Broadway in The Garrick Gaieties by the young song writing team of Rogers and Hart. She later introduced the classic torch song "Body and Soul". A marriage to the heir of the Reynolds tobacco fortune ended six months later with his mysterious death and her indictment for murder. Although now rich, her career was in ruins and Libby spent the rest of her unhappy days balancing the cafe society milieu with championing black causes. In the latter, her foundation gave a grant to a little known Baptist minister named Martin Luther King, Jr. to visit India and study Gandhi's nonviolent social change techniques. With notes, a discography, Broadway chronology, bibliography and an index. $20.00. #22609
[BALLARD, Martha]. Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. A Midwife's Tale. The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990. Illustrated. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
During her career as a midwife Martha Moore Ballard (1735-1812) attended to 814 deliveries. Part of her preparation, no doubt, was having given birth to nine babies herself. As the jacket blurb states, the book speaks "to the texture of ordinary life in pre-industrial America". The editor and author is a history professor and an authority on the women of early colonial days. With an appendix of medical ingredients, extensive notes and an index. $35.00. #2304
[Bankhead, Tallulah]. Gill, Brendan. Tallulah. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, (1972). Profusely illustrated with photographs. Quarto, purple cloth lettered in purple, pictorial dust jacket (somewhat rubbed and faded with small nicks). Spine and edges a little faded with occasional spotting, else fine. First edition. 20.
A coffee table book with spirit, enriched by Brendan Gill's shallow yet lively text (a portion of which appeared in a two part New Yorker profile) and accompanied by hundreds of photographs, many of which are first published herein. Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was an original, and this work at least upstages the many myths that surround her. With a chronology of her professional career and an index.
[DAB. NAW. Sweeney 70]. $50.00. #23583
BARRYMORE, Ethel. Memories. An Autobiography. New York: Harper, (1955). Illustrated with many photographs. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket (slight wear). Ink ownership stamp, else fine. First edition.
Ethel (1879-1959) was a distinguished member of the celebrated acting family which included father Maurice and brothers John and Lionel. Her mother was Georgiana Drew, sister of the noted actor John Drew, Jr. The actress' career spanned sixty years, from the theatre to silent films to sound (she won an Academy Award in 1944) to television. With an index.
[DAB. NAWM]. $20.00. #2306
[BASEBALL], Berlage, Gai Ingham. Women in Baseball. The Forgotten Story. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, (1994). Illustrated. Octavo, fabricoid, dust jacket. Front free endpaper somewhat wrinkled, else fine. First edition.
Women played the game too, surprisingly, as early as 1866. Berlage writes of the game's female pioneers from the Victorian era to recent times, including baseball at early women's colleges, the negro leagues, Little League and the All American Girls Professional Baseball League of World War II and postwar. As a Professor of Sociology she brings cultural perspective to her well researched history. With an appendix and an index.
With:
GREGORICH, Barbara. Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History. Indianapolis: The Indiana Historical Society, 1963. Illustrated with photographs. Quarto, original wrappers. Fine. Contains "Women in Baseball: Indiana's Dynamic Heritage", pp. 26-35. $25.00. #22550
[Bible], [Smith, Julie E., Translator]. The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments; Translated Literally From the Original Tongues. Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1876. Small quarto, original gilt lettered blind-stamped dark brown cloth, edges speckled. In custom cloth folding box. Tips, edges and spine edges slightly rubbed with quite minor losses of cloth, small 1/8 x1/4 inch chip from right edge of spine joint. A firm, sound and fresh copy. First and only edition.
Julia Evelina Smith (May 27, 1792 - March 6, 1886) Connecticut suffragist, and her sister Abby Hadassah Smith formed a remarkable and memorable duo. The two sisters were the youngest of five daughters, all of whom were encouraged to be independent in thought and diverse in their interests. The siblings lived quietly at their Connecticut farm, but aroused early attention when they invited William Lloyd Garrison to hold abolitionist meetings on their front lawn ; Hartford churches having banned him from their precincts. Following the Civil War the two surviving sisters, Julia and Abby, became suffragists after attending a woman suffrage meeting in Hartford in 1869. In November 1873, the town raised the property taxes on properties owned by women, including the Smith farm. The sisters dared to speak at a town meeting to protest. Their refusal to pay the taxes led to their cows, and later their farm land, being attached and sold and eventually their situation became a suffrage cause cel?bre.
Julia Smith also wanted to further the suffrage cause by demonstrating that a woman had capabilities beyond the domestic realm. "She published at her own expense a translation of the Bible she had completed twenty years before. Always an earnest student of the Scriptures, she had first turned to the original Greek in 1843 to determine the authority for William Miller's prediction of the end of the world. Concluding that the King James version was in many passages unsatisfactory, she began, for her own instruction, a literal, word-by-word translation of both the Old and New Testaments. She made a translation from the Septuagint, another from the Latin Vulgate, and, still dissatisfied, taught herself Hebrew and completed two more translations from the language ; in all, a labor of seven years." [NAW].
It was a notable achievement, given that translations of the Bible are usually undertaken by committee only. The King James version for instance, incorporated the work of forty-seven translators. Throughout the abolitionist and suffrage movements, women had had religious texts quoted against them. Gradually it became apparent that the original text of the Bible might be less limiting to women than translations suggested. Smith saw what Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others would acknowledge: until women translated the Bible, the text, in the hands of male translators would be colored by traditional social values. When Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her committee undertook The Woman's Bible they relied primarily on two texts: the Revised Version of 1881 and Julia Smith's translation. Stanton scholar Lois Banner has remarked that "Smith's translation was not widely known, but she was legendary among feminists ..." An important volume in American religious and social letters. Julia Smith's great labor did not meet with commercial success largely because, as pointed out by Hills and by Herbert, her word for word translation from the Hebrew and Greek produced a quite unnatural English. As, for instance, the twenty-third Psalm:
"Chanting of David. Jehovah my shepherd, and I shall not want.
2 He will cause me to lie down in pastures of tender grass: he will lead me to the water of rest.
3 He will turn back my soul: he will guide me into the tracks of justice for sake of his name.
4 Also if I shall go into he valley of the shadow of death, I shall not be afraid of evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they will comfort me.
5 Thou wilt set in order a table before me in front of mine enemies: thou madest fat mine head with oil; my cup being satisfied with drink.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life: and I dwelt in the house of Jehovah to the length of days.".
[Hills, The English Bible in America pp. 288-289. (locates four copies). Rumbell-Petrie Rare Bibles 201. Herbert, Historical Catalogue of Printed Editions of the English Bible 1525-1961, 2002]. $5000.00. #22551
BENƒT, Laura. When William Rose, Stephen Vincent and I Were Young. New York: Dodd, Mead, (1976). Illustrated with photographs. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket. Fine.
A memoir of the childhood of three siblings who would all grow up to become well-known writers. $20.00. #2313
BIRMINGHAM, Stephen. The Grandes Dames. New York: Simon and Schuster, (1982). Illustrated with photographs. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket (a little browned at edges). Fine. First edition.
Birmingham ("Our Crowd", California Rich, etc.) has written extensively of the social milieu. In this one he studies "the wonderfully uninhibited ladies who used their wealth and position to create American culture in their own image - from the Gilded Age to Modern Times" (from the cover of the dust jacket). $20.00. #9368
[BOGAN, Louise]. Frank, Elizabeth. Louise Bogan. A Portrait. New York: Knopf, (1985). Illustrated with photographs. Royal octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
The author spent a decade preparing this life of the celebrated poet and New Yorker critic. "What, aside from their technical excellence", W.H. Auden wrote, "is most impressive about her poems is the unflinching courage with which she faced her problems, her determination never to surrender to self-pity, but to wrest beauty and joy out of dark places".
[DAB. NAWM. Sweeney 120]. $20.00. #2319
BOOTH, Clare. Kiss the Boys Good-Bye. A Comedy. New York: Random House, (1939). Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket (spine a trifle browned, minor wear to edges, folds). Fine. First edition.
The author's second book, a satire of Hollywood's search for an unknown actress to play Scarlett O'Hara. With an introduction by Booth and a foreword by the critic Heywood Broun. $100.00. #2321
[BOOTH, Clare]. sheeD, Wilfred. Clare Booth Luce. New York: Dutton, (1982). Illustrated. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
Booth was a playwright (The Women, 1936), Congresswoman (1943-1947), and U.S. Ambassador to Italy (1953-1957).
[Sweeney 776]. $20.00. #2322
BOUGHTON, Alice. Photographing the Famous. New York: Avondale Press, (1928). Quarto, original gray boards with printed label, black cloth spine. Covers a bit worn. Very good. Number 10 of this autographed edition. With a foreword by James L. Ford who died the year the book was published and with a small keepsake about Ford laid in.
Boughton's full page photographs are accompanied on each facing page by her explanation of the circumstances surrounding the sitting. Among the women, her definition of famous includes Julia Ward Howe, Ruth St. Denis and Ellen Terry as well as Sally Walters, Terry's longtime maid and a Mrs. White, for forty years a circus wardrobe mistress. $200.00. #2324
Bouvier, Jacqueline and Lee. One Special Summer. New York: Delacorte Press, 1974. Illustrated by the authors. Folio, blue marbled boards pictorially stamped in blue, lettered in blue on spine, in publisher's box (a tad browned). Spine a tad browned, else fine. One of 500 copies signed by Lee and Jacqueline.
As Lee Radziwill explains in her introduction to the 1951 journal of a European trip, the book had been made as a present to their mother in appreciation for allowing the sisters to take their first unchaperoned journey in Europe. "We split the fun: Jackie did the drawings, the poetry and the parts on Rome and Spain. I described most of our adventures - on the Queen Elizabeth, in London, Paris, Venice, Rome and Florence." Charming is an overused word, but charming it is. $1000.00. #9447
BOWEN, Catherine Drinker. John Adams and the American Revolution. Boston: Little, Brown, 1950. Octavo, cloth, dust jacket. About fine. First edition.
Bowen (1897-1973) spent five years doing research for this biography which was written because she found Adams to be the brightest, quickest and most honest man that she had come across in history. With notes, a list of sources and an index.
[DAB. NAWM]. $35.00. #2327
Bowers, Mrs. Dr. J. Milton. The Dance of Life. An Answer to "Dance of Death". San Francisco: San Francisco News Company, 1877. Decorated with chapter heads. 16mo, original brown cloth lettered in gilt and decoratively stamped in black. Edges barely rubbed, bookplate, fine. First edition.
The Dance of Death was a wildly succesful literary hoax perpetrated by Ambrose Bierce and two cohorts. It professed to condemn the waltz as "an open and shameless gratification of sexual desire" and carried on in titillating phraseology. Bierce then wrote a review of the work, denouncing it as an outrage which, of course, only boosted sales. Endorsed by a Methodist Church conference, 18,000 copies of the book were sold in seven months. All this brought forth the rebuttal listed here, "dedicated to the lady dancers of San Francisco" and written "to check the insolence of a Philistine" by one Mrs. Dr. J. Milton Bowers or, although he denied it, just possibly by Mr. Ambrose Gwinett Bierce.
[BAL vol. I, p. 226]. $100.00. #12123
[BRADWELL, Myra]. Friedman, Jane M. America's First Woman Lawyer. The Biography of Myra Bradwell. New York: Prometheus Books, 1993. Octavo, boards, dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
Although she had passed the Illinois bar examination with high honors in 1869 both the state and federal Supreme Courts denied her the right to practice law. Meanwhile, Bradwell had taken another tack and established the Chicago Legal News which became the most highly respected and widely circulated legal newspaper in America. She used it as a pulpit for social activism and legal reform, the latter including women's rights and child custody. Bradwell was also instrumental in securing the release of the widowed Mary Todd Lincoln from the insane asylum to which she had been committed by her son, Robert. The interesting prologue "Myra Who?" demonstrates that the author, herself a professor of law, could also have carved out a career as a detective tracing missing persons. With an index.
[DAB. NAW]. $20.00. #2329
[Johnson, Frank Tenney]. BOWER, B. M. The Bellehelen Mine. Boston: Little, Brown, 1924. Illustrated with a frontispiece by Frank Tenney Johnson. Octavo, original terra cotta cloth pictorially stamped in black and blue. Fine. First edition.
This successful and prolific author of western adventure stories combined lifelike characters with amusing complications and penned them with a cheerful humor. Like many of the most successful male writers of the sagebrush genre, Bower (1871-1940) had first hand knowledge, derived from a big sky country childhood. The Bellehelen Mine was written mid-career and is atypical of the author's fiction in that the central character is a young woman and the setting a silver mine instead of a ranch or the cattle range. Nevertheless, as with her other novels, few readers realized the author's initials stood for Bertha Muzzy.
[Dykes, Johnson 112]. $90.00. #19501
[BRIDGMAN, Laura Dewey]. Howe, Maud and HALL, Florence Howe. Laura Bridgman Dr. Howe's Famous Pupil and What He Taught Her. Boston: Little, Brown, 1903. Illustrated with drawings by John Elliott. Octavo, original blue cloth lettered in gilt, top edge gilt. Contemporary gift inscription on front free endpaper, else fine. First edition.
Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe was the director of the Perkins Institution for the Blind (and husband of Julia Ward Howe). A newspaper account of eight year old Laura Bridgman attracted his interest and she became his star pupil. This book is written by two of his daughters and describes the enlightened moment in Bridgman's life: "The poor child had sat in mute amazement, and patiently imitated everything her teacher did; but now the truth began to flash upon her, her intellect began to work, she perceived that here was a way by which she could herself make up a sign of anything that was in her own mind, and show it to another mind, and at once her countenance lighted up with a human expression; it was no longer a dog or a parrot, ; it was an immortal spirit, eagerly seizing upon a new link of union with other spirits! I could almost fix upon the moment when this truth dawned upon her mind, and spread its light to her countenance; I saw that the great obstacle was overcome, and that henceforward nothing but patient and persevering, plain and straightforward efforts were to be used". With notes, a bibliography and an index.
[DAB. NAW. Sweeney 149]. $100.00. #7426
BROWN, Alice. Tiverton Tales. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1899. Octavo, original green cloth pictorially stamped in purple, light green and gilt, lettered in gilt on spine and front cover. Bookplate on front pastedown., trifling foxing to fore-edge. A fine copy. First edition.
New Hampshire-born Brown (1856-1948) became a staff member for the magazine Youth's Companion after having spent some very unhappy years as a teacher. Although a novelist, playwright, biographer and poet as well, Brown's real forte was the short story, best defined by the local color tales of her fictitious New England village of Tiverton and following in the afterglow of Sarah Orne Jewett and Mary E. Wilkins Freeman.
[Wright III 701. NAW. See Browne p. 110]. $60.00. #7197
BROWN, Alice. Children of Earth. A Play of New England. New York: Macmillan, 1915. With a photographic frontispiece by Alice Boughton. Octavo, original green cloth stamped in gilt. Bookplate. Fine. First edition.
Brown, a member of the loose Boston literary circle at the close of the 19th century, was a prolific and critically respected author. The prize, donated by wealthy theatrical manager and producer Winthrop Ames, was the then very heady sum of ten thousand dollars. The staging of a New England spinster's frustrated desire for love met with critical success but box office failure. $35.00. #2335
BROWN, Barbara B. New Mind, New Body. Bio-Feedback: New Directions for the Mind. New York: Harper & Row, (1974). Illustrated with charts and graphs. Thick octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
Written by a pioneer researcher in the field, the book chronicles the emerging world of bio-feedback, defined as the phenomenon by which humans can learn to control their own biological and mental functioning. $20.00. #7074
[BROWN, Mary Anne Day]. After Harper's Ferry: John Brown's Widow. Her Family and the Saratoga Years. Saratoga: Saratoga Historical Foundation, 1964. Illustrated. Octavo, printed paper wrappers. Fine.
Nope. Not New York's Saratoga - California's. Mary (1816-1884) was the second wife of the abolitionist John Brown. She travelled west by ox-cart in 1863 settling first in Red Bluff, then in Humboldt County and lastly in a mountain home near San Jose. $20.00. #2334
BROWN, Rosellen. Tender Mercies. New York: Knopf, 1978. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
Brown has been quoted as saying "I write my nightmares". In this novel, a husband accidentally renders his wife paraplegic. $20.00. #2337
BROWNE, Angela. When Battered Women Kill. New York: The Free Press, (1987). Octavo, boards, pictorial dust jacket. Ink underlining on pp. 45, 53 and 71. Fine. First edition.
"Each year, more than 1.5 million women in America are beaten or abused by their partners... Angela Browne draws upon 250 physically abused women -including forty-two who made the drastic shift from victim to killer- to explore the day to day realities, developing patterns, and tragic consequences of violence in families" (from the dust jacket blurb). The author is a social psychologist, researcher and editor. With an appendix and indices by author and subject. $20.00. #2338
Brown, Helen Gurley. The Late Show. A Semiwild but Practical Survival Plan for Women over 50. New York: William Morrow, (1993). Octavo, original boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
Forty years ago, Brown's Sex and the Single Girl pirouetted past previous publishing prescripts to the top of the best-seller lists. Turning from author to editor, Brown directed her attention to reviving the venerable but ailing Cosmopolitan magazine. When she stepped from its helm a third of a century later the circulation had climbed threefold to 2.5 million in twenty-seven editions worldwide. In this book her practical insights lighten the shady side of fifty. With an index.
[DAB. NAWM]. $20.00. #19919
BRUSH, Katharine. T.L.s. to"Dear Miss Marshall" . January 4, 1929 on letterhead of New York's Westbury Hotel. 2 pp. single spaced, tall octavo.
Great content. Brush (1902-1952) defends her dual career and 50-50 marital arrangement. "It happens that I write better than I keep house. Both are full-time jobs, and I have elected the one for which I showed a greater aptitude". Much more. Quite forgotten today, in her time Brush's fiction drew frequent comparison to that of F. Scott Fitzgerald, for both writers conveyed an adept appreciation of the generation and era in which they lived. $125.00. #8959
Cross, Amanda. Death in a Tenured Position. New York: Dutton, (1981). Octavo, tan boards, white gilt lettered cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket . Fine. First edition.
The sixth book in a series involving academia related misdeeds sleuthhounded by a feminist professor. $30.00. #19608
BUCK, Pearl S. Dragon Seed. New York: Day, (1942). Octavo, cloth, dust jacket. Front pastedown a little browned at hinge, else fine. First edition, very scarce in jacket.
The popular novel was turned into a 1944 film with an international cast headed by Katharine Hepburn in the role of "Jade".
[DAB. NAWM]. $90.00. #5647
BURKE, Billie and Cameron Shipp. With a Feather on My Nose. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, (1949). Illustrated with photographs. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket (slightly faded at spine). Fine. First edition.
Autobiography of this stage and screen actress who married Flo Ziegfeld. While her film career spanned six decades, she always will be best remembered as Glinda, the good witch in The Wizard of Oz. With an appendix of Burke's stage performances and an index.
[DAB]. $40.00. #2342
BURNETT, Carol. One More Time. A Memoir. New York: Random House, (1986). Illustrated with photographs. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket (faint wear). Fine. First edition.
Texas-born (San Antonio) Burnett grew up in Hollywood, although not with the best of everything. Her unquenchable spirit surmounted that reality and brought her to a long career as a class act and first rate comedienne on stage, screen and television. $25.00. #2344
BURNETT, Frances Hodgson. Little Saint Elizabeth and Other Stories. New York: Scribner's, 1890. Illustrated by Reginald B. Birch. Octavo, original brown cloth pictorially stamped in black, gilt and red. Spine ends very lightly rubbed, ink inscription on endpaper, else about fine. First American (BAL postulates an English edition) edition.
While a teenager, Frances Hodgson Burnett emigrated from England to Tennessee when her family met with reduced circumstances. Her most famous book, Little Lord Fauntleroy, was at once a joy to mothers and an abomination to their sons, who often were dressed by them in emulation of the much admired (and despised) Fauntleroy. Burnett wrote several novels, but is best remembered as a children's author.
[BAL 2077. DAB. NAW. See Browne p. 77]. $50.00. #2345
BUSH, Barbara. Millie's Book As Dictated to Barbara Bush. New York: Morrow, (1990). Profusely illustrated with color photographs. Quarto, cloth, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
This dog's house is the White House and the reader is taken on a four legged tour. All proceeds from the book were donated to the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. $20.00. #18258
BUSH, Barbara. Barbara Bush. A Memoir. New York: Scribner's, (1994). Illustrated with many photographs. Thick octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First trade edition.
A warm and human memoir by one of the most admired of First Ladies, drawn upon excerpts from her diary of over thirty years. $20.00. #7065
[CALENDAR], Christy, Howard Chandler. Save to Bring Them Home. N.d: American Lithographic Company, 1918. Approximately 9 x 5-3/4 inches, stiff cardboard. Fine.
The calendar shows the month of March 1919 day and dates in a "tear off" small sheet (2 x 2-1/4 inches), and has the following months behind it. Illustrated with a color image of men firing a shipboard cannon with Miss Liberty hovering above them enveloped in an American flag. Produced as an encouragement to buy Liberty Bonds to help the war effort. $50.00. #9097
[CAMP FIRE GIRLS], Buckler, Helen and FIEDLER, Mary F. and ALLEN, Martha F., Editors. WO-HE-LO The Story of Camp Fire Girls 1910-1960. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, (1961). Illustrated with photographs. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
The organization had been founded at Lake Sebago, Maine, by a group of people among whom Hawaiian-born Dr. Luther Halsey Gullick, and his wife Charlotte were paramount. The society was made public March 17, 1912. Its' watchword, "Wohelo," as every Camp Fire Girls knows, is made from the first two letters of Work, Health and Love. As a lesser known footnote Dr. Gullick, a physical education specialist, had collaborated with a student of his, one James Naismith, in devising a game called basketball, which today is played very well by girls as well as boys. The society was made public Marh 17, 1912. Its watchwords, "wohelo," as every Camp Fire Girls knows, is made from the first two letter of work, health and love. $20.00. #2346
CANFIELD, Dorothy. Seasoned Timber. New York: Harcourt, Brace, (1939). Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket (spine lightly faded, very light rubbing at top of spine). Near fine. First edition. Signed by the author with her full married name on front free endpaper.
Since she signed her prose Dorothy Canfield Fisher and her fiction - of which this is the last novel- under her maiden name- this copy is something of an anomaly. Being a first edition in dust jacket as well , it is also a somewhat scarce example.
A prolific and truly versatile writer, when not thus occupied she could be found introducing and popularizing the Montessori method of early childhood education into the United States; establishing a children's refugee center in war ravaged France; or serving for a quarter century as the only female member on the Book-of-the-Month Club selection committee.
Although born in Kansas, her roots traced to the Green Mountain state where Fisher's adult life was based. The largest collection of her papers is at the University of Vermont.
[DAB. NAW. See Browne p. 56]. $90.00. #9382
CARPENTER, Liz. Getting Better All the Time. New York: Simon and Schuster, (1987). Illustrated with photographs. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
An anecdotal story of life at the political top where she had been an aide to Vice-President Johnson and press secretary to Lady Bird. $20.00. #7023
[CALIFORNIA], The Association of Pioneer Women of California: Officers and Members, Honorary and Deceased Members, Past Presidents and Charter Members. San Francisco: W.E. Dugan, 1926. 12mo, tan paper wrappers. Fine.
The title summarizes the contents. $20.00. #2289
Carroll, Mary Bowden. Ten years in Paradise. Leaves From a Society Reporter's Note-Book. (San Jose: Popp & Hogan, 1903). Illustrated with photographs. Octavo, original light green cloth decoratively stamped in gilt, black and light blue, lettered in black and gilt. Covers a bit soiled, slightly rubbed at spine ends and corners, front endpapers cracked over joint, endpapers somewhat browned, yet a much better copy than it sounds. First edition of a rare book.
With a complimentary slip from the San Jose Chamber of Commerce tipped in. The paradise referred to is the Santa Clara valley of a century ago.
[Rocq 13774. Cowan, p. 107]. $185.00. #9840
Cammermeyer, Margarethe with Chris Fisher. Serving in Silence. (New York): Viking, (1994). Illustrated. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition. Inscribed by the author.
"Vietnam Nurse, Mother of Four, Highest-Ranking Officer to Challenge the Military Antigay Policy" - from the dust jacket cover. Born and raised in Norway until the age of nine, rose to Colonel in the United States Army, awarded the Bronze Star for fourteen months of Vietnam duty, Veteran's Administration Nurse of the Year and other honors, bearer of four sons and a tardily conscious lesbian - from the text. As the book is closed, the problem remains open - how to be identified by a person's contribution to society and not by one's sexual orientation. $20.00. #22612
CARTER, Rosalynn. First Lady from Plains. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1984. Illustrated. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine.
Autobiography of the small town girl who became a big time First Lady, one the most effective of this century. With an index. $20.00. #2352
[CARY, Alice and Phoebe]. Ames, Mary Clemmer. A Memorial of Alice and Phoebe Cary, with Some of their Later Poems. New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1873. Illustrated with two portraits on steel. Octavo, original brown cloth, decoratively stamped in black and gilt. Title page a bit foxed, else a fine, bright copy. First edition.
The Cary sisters were born in a simple farmhouse in rural Ohio, Alice in 1820 and Phoebe four years later. As adults their literary talents would earn them enough money to purchase a pleasant house on 20th Street in downtown Manhattan where their Sunday night receptions became an institution. They were firm abolitionists and, while sympathetic to the movement for women's rights, were not actively engaged in it. They died five months apart in 1871.
[BAL 2850. DAB. NAW. Sweeney 192-193. See Browne p. 88]. $35.00. #7025
CASTALLO, Mario A. Walz, Audrey. Expectantly Yours. A Book for Expectant Mothers and Prospective Fathers. New York: MacMillan, 1943. Illustrated with drawings. Octavo, pictorial boards, the color cover illustration repeated on the dust jacket. Fine.
Written in a light-hearted vein, it is a "book for the woman who wishes to learn and understand all she can about the proper way to care for herself during her pregnancy". $20.00. #7007
CASTILLO, Ana. Sapogonia. New York: Anchor Books, (1994). Octavo, printed paper wrappers. Fine. An uncorrected proof copy of the first Anchor edition.
The Chicana author's second novel, subtitled An Anti-Romance in 3/8 Meter. Significantly revised from its original 1990 publication, with a letter from the publisher to booksellers to accompany this bound galley. $20.00. #2354
CASTLE, Irene S.. duncan, Wanda and Bob. Castles in the Air. New York: Doubleday, 1958. Illustrated with photographs. Octavo, original boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
The Castles fed the country's growing interest in the new and exotic dances, giving exhibitions for society and organizing dance schools. Vernon became a pilot and flight instructor during World War I. He was killed in a training school airplane accident. For a period thereafter Irene continued dancing, made a number of films, founded a shelter for homeless animals, remarried, had three children, lived the life of a socialite, was an accomplished rider, helped run a wholesale millinery company, taught adolescent dance classes, wrote a fashion column for the Chicago Herald and Examiner and when she died in 1969 had outlived her fourth husband. Irene was buried next to Vernon in New York's Woodlawn Cemetery.
[DAB. NAWM]. $50.00. #1911
CATHER, Willa. Sapphira and the Slave Girl. New York: Knopf, 1940. Octavo, cloth, printed paper labels, dust jacket (spine ends very slightly bumped). Very negligible fading of the green cloth, else fine. First (trade) edition of Cather's final novel.
Set in the Virginia countryside just prior to the Civil War, it is a tale of the subtle persecution of a beautiful young mulatto slave by her jealous white mistress.
[Crane A22.a.i. DAB. NAW]. $125.00. #2357
CATHER, Willa. The Old Beauty and Others. New York: Knopf, 1948. Octavo, cloth, dust jacket (slight soiling). Covers barely worn, faint darkening to endpapers, else fine. First edition, first printing of this posthumous volume of three short stories, with a review slip laid in.
[Crane A23.a.i. DAB. NAW]. $60.00. #2358
[CATHER, Willa]. Crane, Joan. Willa Cather. A Bibliography. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, (1982). Frontispiece portrait by Nicolai Fechin. Octavo, cloth, dust jacket (spine a little sunned). Fine. First edition.
An alumnus of San Francisco's John Howell-Books, Crane was the long time curator of American Literature Collections, Rare Book Department, Alderman Library, University of Virginia.
[DAB. NAW]. $30.00. #19549
CHAVEZ, Linda. Out of the Barrio. Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation. N.p: Basic Books, (1991). Octavo, boards, cloth spine, dust jacket. Fine. First edition. Signed by the author on the title page.
1968 Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate from Maryland, Chavez's writings have appeared in Fortune, The Wall Street Journal and U.S.A. Today. Her criticism of the policies of bilingual education and affirmative action cannot be dismissed as uninformed opinion ; she has also been Director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. $30.00. #7041
CHICAGO, Judy. Through the Flower. My Struggle as a Woman Artist. Garden City: Doubleday, 1975. Illustrated. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition. Inscribed by the author, during the March 7th publication party.
With an introduction by Ana's Nin "who inspired me to write this book". The author's first book. Judy Chicago organized the first feminist art program in this country. $65.00. #2363
Chace, Rebecca. Chautauqua Summer. Adventures of a Late-Twentieth-Century Vaudevillian. New York: Harcourt Brace, (1993). Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Remainder mark on bottom edge, else fine. First edition.
Chautauqua is an Iroquois word meaning a place where fish are pulled from the water with a stick. Its later day use referred to the summer tent shows in the upstate New York town which bears the name. Written with an east coast edgyness, Library Journal termed it "poetic and keenly alive with quirky adventure". $20.00. #22545
CINTRON, Conchita. Memoirs of a Bullfighter. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, (1968). Illustrated with photographs. Octavo, fabricoid, dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
The jacket blurb describes her as "the first truly literate professional to write about bullfighting". $20.00. #5648
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