What Katy Did
NORRIS, Kathleen. Family Gathering. The Memoirs of Kathleen Norris. Garden City: Doubleday, 1959. Illustrated. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket. A fine copy. First edition. Signed by the author.
Among the laid in newspaper clippings is a receipt of $1.00 for Mill Valley W.C.T.U. dues, Feb. 1, 1925-1926, signed by the local President. Well, that's inflation for you. In a half century of writing Norris authored upwards of 100 books Ðmostly novelsÐ which made her the highest paid writer of her day, a figure which at that time amounted to, in round numbers, $9,000,000.
[DAB. NAWM]. $65.00. #2711
[O'HARE, Kate]. Miller , Sally M. From Prairie to Prison. The Life of Social Activist Kate Richards O'Hare. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, (1993). Illustrated with photographs . Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition, an advance review slip laid in.
Her opposition to World War I led to a prison sentence on conviction of a violation of the Espionage Act. From being an activist in the temperance and social service movements, she discovered socialism and saw in it a cure for society's shortcomings. $25.00. #2718
[O'KEEFFE, Georgia]. Lisle, Laurie. Portrait of an Artist. A Biography of Georgia O'Keeffe. New York: Seaview Books, (1980). Illustrated. Royal octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket (slight wear). Fine. First edition.
O'Keeffe was born on a farm in rural Wisconsin and died on her ranch in rural New Mexico. In the intervening ninety-eight years she became the foremost female artist in America, best known for her large, pure and lucid still-life paintings of desert flowers, sun-bleached animal skulls and southwest landscapes. With a list of sources, selected bibliography and an index.
[Sweeney 941]. $25.00. #2719
O'MEARA, Walter. Daughters of the Country. The Women of the Fur Traders and Mountain Men. New York: Harcourt, (1968). Illustrated. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket (very minor wear at top edges). Fine. First edition.
" ... the first published account of an oddly neglected aspect of American history Ð the racial and sexual confrontation of the Indian woman and the white men on our frontiers" (dust jacket blurb). With extensive notes, bibliography and an index. $35.00. #2723
[OAKLEY, Annie]. Kasper, Shirl. Annie Oakley of the Wild West. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, (1992). Illustrated with photographs. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket (one small stain on spine, very slight chipping at top). Fine. First edition.
More detailed and fully annotated, though more prosaic than the previous entry, this biography is "the most complete and accurate record of Annie Oakley's life and achievements".
[DAB. NAW]. $20.00. #21389
[OAKLEY, Violet]. Eddy, Mary Baker. Christ My Refuge. One of the Seven Hymns by .... Boston: Published by the Trustees under the Will of Mary Baker Eddy, (1939). Illuminated by Violet Oakley. Thin quarto, pictorially stamped cloth. Fine. First edition.
Her strong sense of color, evidenced herein and evocative of her work in stained glass, is a reflection in miniature of Oakley's (1874-1961) crowning achievement Ð the mural decorations in the state capital building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Check it out Ð it is worth a visit. $75.00. #12697
[Murray, Hannah and Mary]. The American Toilet. New York: Imbert's Lithographic Office, (1827). Contains nineteen illustrations of articles of the toilet, each with a flap concealing the name of a virtue, a headline above and a stanza of explantory verse below. 16mo, original marbled paper wrappers. Spine with small split, small hole in terminal free endpaper, flap up illustration at p. 2 defective (the flap image of the mirror surface is lacking). Rare.
The first story is The Enchanting Mirror, the mirror being raised from the frame reveals the word "Humility", the accompanying verse beginning: "This curious Glass will bring your faults to light." The second story is A Wash to Smooth Wrinkles, contained in a jar, the lid of which conceals the word "Contentment" with the lines below it: "A daily portion of this Essence use, T'will smooth the brow and tranquil Joy infuse." All the pages are lithographed. Rosenbach, Early American Children's Books #683 gives a copyright date of 1825 (in error?) and states that "The original London edition from which this book was copied was entitled The Toilet, and was first printed in 1821." Resisting an assumption therefore that the authors were Englishwomen, some research revealed that a Hannah L. Murray and an unnamed sister were from New York state, perhaps daughters of the grammarian and writer of religious tracts Lindley Murray (whose mother was Mary Lindley) and his wife Hannah. Lindley Murray (possibly a Loyalist?) removed from New York to England at the close of the Revolutionary War. At any rate, the above mentioned sisters translated "the whole of Tasso's Jersualem Delivered, and many of the odes of Anacreon, into English verse, and wrote a poem in blank verse of 5,000 lines, entitled The Restoration of Israel".
[Allibone, A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors Living and Deceased from the Earliest Accounts to the Latter Half of the Nineteenth Century]. $225.00. #19397
[OATMAN], Stratton, R.B. Life Among the Indians, or, The Captivity of the Oatman Girls, being an Interesting Narrative of Life among the Apache &Mohave Indians. San Francisco: Grabhorn Press, 1935. Illustrated. Octavo, boards, cloth spine with printed paper label. Fine. One of 550 copies.
The illustrations are engraved on wood by the artist Mallette Dean. This book is number two in the Third Series of Rare Americana printed by the Grabhorns and was voted one of the Fifty Books of the Year.
An interesting account of the massacre of the Oatman family, by the Apache Indians in 1851; the narrow escape of Lorenzo D. Oatman; the capture of Olive A. and Mary A. Oatman; the death by starvation of the latter; the five years suffering and captivity of Olive A. Oatman; also her singular recapture in 1856; as given by Lorenzo D. & Olive A. Oatman, the only surviving members of the family, to the author.
[Ayer 283. Field 1515. Cowan (I) p. 223. GB 227. Graff 4006. Howes S1068. NAW]. $165.00. #2714
[OLMSTED, Mildred Scott]. Bacon, Margaret Hope. One Woman's Passion for Peace and Freedom. (Syracuse): Syracuse University Press, (1993). Illustrated. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
Olmsted's century (1890-1990) was devoted to building the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). With notes and an index. Publisher's review slip laid in. $20.00. #2722
[PANKHURST, Emmeline]. Pankhurst, Sylvia. The Suffragette. The History of the Women's Militant Suffrage Movement 1905Ð1910. New York: Sturgis & Walton, 1911. Illustrated with photographs. Octavo, original green cloth. Spine lettering partially flaked away , else fine. First American edition. Signed E. Sylvia Pankhurst just below her printed name on the title page in black ink. Signature very defined and clear.
Strictly speaking, this book does not belong in the confines of this catalogue's twin themes of American women or women in America, for Emmeline Pankhurst, of course, was not an American but a leading British suffragette and this book, written by a daughter, concentrates on her struggle in England. Pankhurst, however, did visit the United States in 1910, again the following year and once more in 1913 to arouse interest in the movement and to raise funds for her work. Thus, she surely had an effect on the western shores of the North Atlantic. Her forty year campaign finally achieved complete success in the year of her death when in 1928 British women obtained voting equality. E. Sylvia Pankhurst, the author of this, her first book, was born in Manchester in 1882 and died in distant Addis Ababa in 1960, along the way violently opposing World War I while enthusiastically embracing the Russian revolution. She also authored several later books on her mother and the suffragette movement. With an index. $500.00. #2726
PARKS, Rosa. Rosa Parks Being Finger Printed. Photograph. 8 x 10, black and white. Fine. This is a photograph of the well known newspaper photograph. It is signed by Rosa Parks in black ink.
The photograph shows Rosa Parks dressed in a suit, with braided hair and glasses, looking down at her left hand, which is held by a solemn looking young police officer who is rolling her fingers on a stamping pad for the finger printing.
Parks was a seamstress and active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People at the time of her December 1, 1955 refusal to relinquish her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white man. Her arrest precipitated a lengthy bus boycott and eventually led to the United States Supreme Court ruling that segregated seating was unconstitutional. A few years ago Parks received the Congressional Gold Medal, its highest award to a civilian. $500.00. #9384
[PATTERSON, Eleanor Medill]. Martin, Ralph G. Cissy. New York: Simon & Schuster, (1979). Illustrated. Thick octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Remainder stamp, minor abrasion to bottom edge. About fine.
Patterson became the first woman in this country to edit and publish a major newspaper. Her power and knack of rubbing some influential people the wrong way led Time magazine to observe that she was the most hated woman in America. Even so, after business hours Patterson was the doyenne of Washington society. With chapter notes, critical bibliography and an index.
[DAB. Sweeney 964]. $20.00. #2727
PENNINGTON, Patience. A Woman Rice Planter. New York: Macmillan, 1913. Illustrated. Octavo, original green cloth, pictorially stamped in light green and black, gilt-lettered, top edge gilt. Covers very slightly worn, else fine. First edition.
The pen name of Elizabeth Waties Allston Pringle (1845-1921). The book is a collection of local color stories, many of which were first published in the New York Sun. The title refers to the author herself, a successful South Carolina rice planter until the emergence of competition from mechanized cultivation in the southwestern United States.
[NAW]. $150.00. #2731
[PERIODICAL], Babyland, December, 1884. Vol. VIII. No. 12. Boston: D. Lothrop, 1884. Illustrated. Quarto, original light green printed wrappers, pictorial cover label. Wrappers a little worn around the edges, small part of lower spine missing, a few stains, but overall still attractive.
A periodical for the wee one by the same editors of the publication Wide Awake. This issue constitutes pages (97) - 104 and features the charmingly illustrated X,Y and Z of "AL-ICE'S AL-PHA-BET". The back wrapper pictures an ad for Ivory soap and depicts an early illustration by Palmer Cox of his famous Brownie characters. $25.00. #3023
[PERIODICAL], Child Life. New York: Rand McNally, 1925. Volume IV, Number 2. Illustrated profusely. Large quarto, pictorial colored wrappers. Fine.
Masthead: Rose Waldo, Editor. Marjorie Barros, Assistant Editor. "In Film Land Peter Pan" by the editor. $35.00. #9106
[PERIODICAL], St. Nicholas For Boys and Girls. New York: St. Nicholas Magazine, 1932. Volume LIX, Number 5, March, 1932. Illustrated profusely. Large quarto, pictorial colored wrappers. Spine a little chipped at top, small stain in upper right corner, else fine.
The long lived St. Nicholas was a leading children's magazine. $20.00. #9105
[PERIODICAL], Home Arts. Gift Things for Little Folks. Junior Needlecrafters. Augusta, Maine: Needlecraft Publishing Company, 1938. Volume 29, Number9, May, 1938. Illustrated profusely. Large quarto, pictorial colored wrappers. Fine.
Another magazine for the denizens of childhood, this one's niche is elementary home economics. $40.00. #9107
[PERIODICAL], The Ladies Home Journal and Practical HousekeeperÉ . Philadelphia: Curtis, July 1888. Vol. V, No. 8. Illustrated. Large folio, 20 pp. Small stain at top edge of front page, slight browning of front and back pages, else fine.
Articles include "Distinguished American Women", "Children's Page", Mother's Corner", "Housekeeper", "Dress Material", and "Flowers and House Plants". $35.00. #3024
PHELPS, Elizabeth Stuart. Chapters from a Life. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1896. Illustrated with frontispiece portrait of the author, and several photographs. Octavo, original maroon cloth stamped in gilt, top edge gilt. Fine. First edition, binding A (no known priority).
Phelps' autobiographical reminiscences, with much on her friendships and on her interest in such social issues as temperance reform. She wrote voluminously, mainly fiction. An early work, The Silent Partner (1871), and many of her short stories testify to her sympathy with the narrow lives of women in industry. "As few but the greatest have done she understood and expressed the sufferings of gifted and sensitive women..."(D.A.B.).
[BAL 20963. Davis and Joyce 4650. DAB. NAW. See Browne p. 65]. $60.00. #2734
PHILLIPS, Carolyn E. Michelle. Garden City: Doubleday, 1980. Illustrated with photographs. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
The true story of an eight year old who lost a leg to cancer and how through courage, determination and a faith in God the outgoing and witty youngster became an accomplished rider and competitive skier. A Santa Barbara native, between writing her own books, the talented author occasionally found time to help keep Randall House's books in order. With an ALs from the author laid in. $20.00. #5616
[PINKHAM, Lydia]. Burton, Jean. Lydia Pinkham Is Her Name. New York: Farrar Straus, 1949. With a handful of illustrations including a frontispiece portrait of the author. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
The business that made Lydia Pinkham famous (her benign visage adorned the packaging) and her heirs wealthy was only started eight years before she died. The Dictionary of American Biography calls her medicine: "worthless as a therapeutic agent ... popular as a psychic sedative". Its success was attributed to a huge advertising effort, starting with the handbills that her sons distributed door-to-door. Endorsements followed, including testimonials from W.C.T.U. members (no doubt unaware that the formula contained 18% alcohol "as a solvent and preservative"). The product eventually would become the most widely advertised merchandise in the country. This undocumented and, perforce, lightweight biography is still an interesting snapshot of the subject.
[DAB. NAW. Sweeney 990]. $40.00. #2736
[PINZER, Maimie]. The Maimie Papers. N.p: The Feminist Press, (1977). Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket (small scratch on front panel, tiny nick on bottom of spine, small white piece of paper stuck to rear panel). Fine. First edition.
"In 1910 a remarkable correspondence began between a distinguished Bostonian, Fanny Quincey Howe, and Maimie Pinzer, a Jewish prostitute in Philadelphia, just then recovering from morphine addiction. Maimie's letters, donated to the Schlesinger Library of Radcliffe College by the daughter of their recipient, offer an unprecedented autobiographical account of the life of a poor, working woman in the first quarter of this century. " - from the dust jacket. The Schlesinger Library is perhaps the major repository of information on the historical role of women in America from 1800 to the present. With annotations and an index. $20.00. #7029
[PLEASANT, Mammy]. holdredge, Helen. Mammy Pleasant's Partner. New York: Putnam's, (1954). Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Some browning to front endpaper. Very good. First edition.
Here Holdredge adds to her best-selling biography of Mammy Pleasant by writing of the mulatto's long and profitable association with the equally mysterious Scotsman, Thomas Bell. With a list of references.
[NAW]. $25.00. #2557
[POCAHONTAS], Mossiker, Frances. Pocahontas the Life and the Legend. New York: Knopf, 1976. Illustrated. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
Pocahontas (an Indian word, being a nickname meaning "playful one") c. 1595-1617 was a daughter of the head of the Powhatan Confederacy. Her given name was Mataoaka; when baptized she took the Christian name of Rebecca. The legendary story of how the heroine saved captain John Smith's life is known to school children; less well remembered is her marriage to John Rolfe, visit to England and premature death. With appendices, notes, extensive bibliography and an index.
[DAB. NAW. Sweeney 1004]. $25.00. #2739
PORTER, Katherine Anne. The Leaning Tower and Other Stories. New York: Harcourt, Brace, (1944). Octavo, cloth, dust jacket (very slightly edgeworn). Fine. First edition.
Settings of these short stories range from the Deep South to Manhattan and Berlin.
[DAB]. $60.00. #2740
[PORTER, Katherine Anne]. Givner, Joan. Katherine Anne Porter. A Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, (1982). Illustrated. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, dust jacket. Small remainder stamp at bottom edge, else fine. First edition.
A fascinating study of the enigmatic author who reinvented her humble origins in rural Texas and emerged as an aristocratic daughter of the old South. With notes and an index.
[DAB. Sweeney 1009]. $20.00. #2745
[PORTER, Katherine Anne]. Bailey, Isabel, Editor. Letters of Katherine Anne Porter. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, (1990). Illustrated. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
The gifted writer's voluminous correspondence with a who's who of twentieth century literary figures, edited by a longtime close friend. With an index.
[DAB]. $20.00. #2744
[POST, Marjorie Merriweather]. Rubin, Nancy. American Empress. The Life and Times of Marjorie Merriweather Post. New York: Villard Books, 1995. Illustrated with photographs. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Stamped name on front free endpaper, else fine. First edition.
Post was heiress to the Postum breakfast cereal fortune which she helped grow into the vast General Foods Corporation. She used her wealth generously, as the New York Times observed: "While she has always lived like a queen, she has always given as a philanthropist." With sources, notes, a bibliography and an index.
[DAB. NAWM]. $35.00. #8896
Oates, Joyce Carol. The Wheel of Love and Other Stories. New York: Vanguard, (1970). Octavo, boards, pictorial dust jacket (a little rubbed and few small tears and crease at edges). About fine. First edition.
A prolific writer of novels, short stories, plays, poetry, essays, and literary criticism, Oates has been the recipient of many honors, including the National Book Award. $25.00. #20615
POWER, Susan. The Grass Dancer. New York: Putnam's, (1994). Illustrated. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
A Sioux tribal member's first novel, set on a reservation in North Dakota. $20.00. #5670
POWERS, Marla N. Oglala Women. Myth, Ritual, and Reality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, (1986). Illustrated. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
"The first anthropological study of Oglala women ... exemplary in a field where reliable material is notoriously scarce. Powers presents us with a rich ethnography that considers the whole context of Oglala life - religion, economics, medicine, political life, old age ...". $35.00. #2747
POWTER, Susan. Sober...and Staying That Way. The Missing Link in the Cure for Alcoholism. New York: Macmillan, (1997). Octavo, boards, pictorial dust jacket. As new. First edition.
With sometimes one word to a line, large type, double spaced lines, extra wide margins, the book could have been printed on a lot fewer than 320 pages. If the simplistic layout is meant to reflect in print the author's hyperactive lecture style, hopefully it will save more alcoholics than it did trees. With notes, reading resources and treatment centers. $20.00. #5621
PRIEST, Ivy Baker. Green Grows Ivy. New York: McGraw-Hill, (1958). Illustrated with photographs. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket (slight rubbing of top and bottom of spine, a little watermarked with minor chipping at top of spine and bottom edge). Inscription in ink on front free endpaper, else fine. First edition.
The Treasurer of the United States had spent her childhood helping her mother at the Utah boarding house run by the Bakers for their copper mining bachelor friends.
[NAWM]. $20.00. #2976
[PROSTITUTION], Morgan, Lael. Good Time Girls of the Alaska-Yukon Gold Rush. Fairbanks: Epicenter Press, (1998). Illustrated with numerous photographs. Octavo, boards, pictorial endpapers, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
Laid in is a postcard from a female acquaintance "Something from Alaska for your woman's collection." A survey of ladies of the evening, early northern lights version, those women of the persuasion it's the early worm that's gotten by the bird. Chronicled by an associate professor of journalism at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Well researched, though given the nature of the subject and the passing years, inevitably anecdotal. With notes, a selected bibliography and an index. $20.00. #7092
PRYOR, Mrs. Roger A. Reminiscences of Peace and War. New York: Macmillan, 1904. Frontispiece portrait of the author. Octavo, original red cloth decorated in white, lettered in gilt, top edge gilt. Fine. First edition.
"Written years after hostilities, this is nevertheless an interesting woman's reaction to war".
[Nevins II, p. 199. NAW]. $100.00. #7788
PRYOR, Mrs. Roger A. My Day. Reminiscences of a Long Life. New York: Macmillan, 1909. Illustrated. Octavo, original elaborately decorated green cloth stamped in lighter and darker green, black and gilt, top edge gilt. Fine. First edition.
Sarah Agnes Rice Pryor lived from 1830 to 1912. Nevins incorrectly dismisses this as "a condensation of Mrs. Pryor's Reminiscences with little added material". Actually this book antecedes and supercedes the war days.
[Nevins II p. 200. NAW]. $75.00. #2750
PYLE, Katherine. Once Upon a Time in Rhode Island. (Garden City: Country Life Press, 1914). Illustrated by Helen B. Mason. Octavo, original blue cloth lettered in yellow. Covers a bit dulled and slightly rubbed, edges a little dust soiled, else fine. First edition.
The book was published by Rhode Island's Society of Colonial Dames to promote interest among school children in the rich early history of the Union's smallest state. Katherine (or Katharine) was the younger sister of the reknowned Howard Pyle, founder of what came to be known as the Brandywine school of art. She had penned the introductory verses to her brother's The Wonder Clock and as a writer and illustrator collaborated with other Pyle students in the production of books. $20.00. #12696
QUIDLEN, Anna. Thinking Out Loud On the Personal, the Political, the Public and the Private. New York: Random House, (1993). Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
A collection of columns by the Pulitzer Prize winning liberal journalist, thoughtfully ranging across many of the issues and events of her Baby Boom generation. $20.00. #2751
RADNER, Gilda. It's Always Something. New York: Simon and Schuster, (1989). Illustrated with photographs. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
The spunky comedienne's story of her resolute war with cancer. $20.00. #5610
RAND, Ayn. A Collection of Nine Pamphlets. New York: Nathaniel Branden Institute, 1959-1964. Octavo, plain wrappers, contained in a blue binder. Some slight occasional rubbing, else fine. Together fifteen items. All early printings.
The binder is entitled "Lectures and Essays on Objectivism" and it includes pamphlets titled The Fascist New Frontier; The Intellectual Bankruptcy of our Age; America's Persecuted Minority: Big Business; The Objectivist Ethics; Faith and Force The Destroyers of the Modern World; Notes on the History of American Free Enterprise; Textbook of Americanism; Conservatism: An Obituary and Playboy's Interview with Ayn Rand. Also included are pamphlets by Nathaniel and Barbara Branden as well as Antitrust by a man named Alan Greenspan.
[Perrin, Ayn Rand. A Descriptive Bibliography]. $275.00. #7409
[RANKIN, Jeannette]. Josephson, Hannah. Jeannette Rankin, First Lady in Congress. A Biography. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, (1974). Illustrated. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket. Inscription in ink on front paste-down. Fine. First edition.
Rankin's accomplishment is all the more unusual since she was the only Republican running for an important office to be elected in 1916 Montana, where just two years earlier she and other suffragists had won the right for women to vote. Rankin was also a noted pacifist, voting in Congress to oppose United States entry into both WWI and WWII. With a bibliography and an index.
[NAWM. Sweeney 1025]. $40.00. #2753
RAWLINGS, Marjorie Kinnan. The Yearling. New York: Scribner's, 1938. Illustrated by Edward Shenton. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket. Very small waterstain to right bottom front edge of jacket and text, else fine. First edition.
An important piece of regional literature, set in inland Florida, its main characters being the backwoods Baxter family, especially the idyllic twelve year old Jody and his pet fawn. The novel has been called a minor American classic, and a beautiful film version only added to its lustre.
[DAB. NAWM]. $400.00. #2754
RAWLINGS, Marjorie Kinnan. Cross Creek. New York: Scribner's, 1942. Illustrated by Edward Shenton. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket (light edgewear, small closed tear at spine). Fine. First edition, later issue.
The author was born in the nation's capital, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Wisconsin, and then did newspaper work while writing stories with a consistent lack of success. In 1928 Rawlings purchased a seventy-two acre orange grove at Cross Creek, Hawthorn, Florida. Inspired by the new location, Rawlings's metier blossomed with the 4,000 trees.
[DAB. NAWM]. $45.00. #2755
[REAGAN, Nancy]. Wallace, Chris. First Lady. A Portrait of Nancy Reagan. New York: St. Martin's Press, (1986). Illustrated. Quarto, cloth, pictorial dust jacket. Ink notation of front endpaper. Fine. First edition.
The text from a spectrum of observers, illuminated by splendid color photography. $20.00. #2756
REAGAN, Nancy. My Turn. The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan. New York: Random House, (1989). Illustrated with photographs. Thick octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
The life of the actress turned first lady. If not as successful at either as her actor husband turned President, she certainly has been an admirable one-woman support group, indispensible to his place in the sun and latterly as caregiver during his life's long twilight. With an index. $20.00. #7086
[REED, Alma]. May, Antoinette. Passionate Pilgrim. The Extraordinary Life of Alma Reed. New York: Paragon House, (1993). Illustrated. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
Born Alma Marie Sullivan in 1889 San Francisco, as a young adult she gained employment on a local newspaper, the Call. A chance meeting with a young Mexican who she succeeded in having removed from San Quentin's prison's death row led to an invitation from the President of Mexico to visit south of the border. She took the country to heart, fell in love with one of its leaders, and became a dedicted pioneer researcher of its archaeology. Mexico rewarded her with the Aztec Eagle, the highest decoration that country can bestow upon a foreigner. With notes and sources, a bibliography and an index. $20.00. #2757
[Reed, Anna Morrison]. Keller, John E., Editor. Anna Morrison Reed 1849-1921. (Lafayette, California: John E. Keller, 1979). Illustrated. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
While yet in her teens Reed became the sole support of her family. She travelled widely throughout northern California as a popular lecturer and writer on temperance and women's suffrage. The editor was the author's grandson. With a glossary, bibliography and an index. $20.00. #9450
[REFERENCE] EGLI, Ida Rae, Editor. No Rooms of Their Own. Women Writers of Early California. Berkeley: Heyday Books, (1992). Illustrated. Octavo, pictorial wrappers. Fine.
The title is taken from Virginia Woolf: "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction". The editor enters fifteen of them, which makes for quite an interesting household. With a bibliography. $20.00. #9043
[REFERENCE] JAMES, Edward T., JAMES, Janet Wilson and BOYER, Paul. S. Notable American Women. 1607-1950. A Biographical Dictionary. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971. Three volumes. Thick octavo, cloth. Fine. First edition.
Along with the Dictionary of American Biography, indispensible to the subject. $150.00. #9048
[REFERENCE] KLAPTHOR, Margaret Brown. The First Ladies. Washington, D.C.: White House Historical Association, (1999). Profusely illustrated. Octavo, pictorial paper wrappers. Fine.
With: The Presidents and Their Wives from George Washington to William Jefferson Clinton. Rockville: C.M. Uberman, 1999. Octavo, pictorial wrappers. Fine.
With: PITCH, Anthony S. Exclusively First Ladies Trivia. (Potomac): Mino Publications, (1998). 12mo, wrappers. Fine.
With: PITCH, Anthony S. Exclusively Presidential Trivia. Potomac: Mino Publications, (1998). 12mo, wrappers. Fine. $20.00. #9046
[REFERENCE] LUNARDINI, Christine. What Every American Should Know about Women's History. Holbrook: Adams Media Corporation, (1997). Thick 12mo, pictorial wrappers. Fine.
A chronological prŽcis, extending from 1607 to 1993. $20.00. #9042
[REFERENCE] SHARP, Susan, Compiler and Editor. Women Who Dare. (Washington): Library of Congress, 1996. Illustrated with full page photographs. Octavo, stiff wrappers, spiral bound. Fine.
A 1997 engagement calendar with interesting illustrations and commentary. $20.00. #7057
REICHARD, Gladys A. Dezba: Woman of the Desert. New York: J. J. Augustin, (1930). Illustrated with photographs. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
A fictionalized account of the pastoral Navajo: their daily life in the southwest, social and religious organization and adaptation to the ways of whites. Reichard, an anthropologist with an increasing reputation, lived among these people and presents a sympathetic portrait of them. The outstanding photographs are by the author and her sister, Lilian.
[NAWM]. $100.00. #2396
[RESTELL, Madame]. Keller, Allan. Scandalous Lady. The Life and Times of Madame Restell. New York's Most Notorious Abortionist. New York: Atheneum, 1981. Illustrated. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
Madame Restell was born Anna Trow in the little hamlet of Painswick, England. Not yet twenty, she emigrated to the larger hamlet of New York in 1831 where she soon set herself up as a female physician. From midwife to abortionist Restell's (her married name was Lohman) subrosa practice flourished until she was snared by the ruthless professional reformer Anthony Comstock in 1878. A trial date was set for April first, but Restell chose not to appear: the previous night she had slit her throat with a carving knife in her bath. The book contains a list of sources.
[Dykes 47. NAW]. $20.00. #2758
RETTON, Mary Lou. Karolyi, Bela with John Powers. Mary Lou. Creating an Olympic Champion. New York: McGraw-Hill, (1986). Illustrated with photographs. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition .
By winning the all-around gymnastics competition at the 1984 Olympics Retten became the first American woman to capture a gold medal in that event. $20.00. #3359
RICHARDS, Laura. Florence Nightingale, Angel of the Crimea. A Story for Young People. New York: Appleton, 1909. Illustrated. Octavo, original red cloth pictorially stamped in blind and white. Spine rubbed and browned, bookplate on front pastedown, else fine. First edition.
Richards' mother was Julia Ward Howe, author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"; her father Dr. Samuel G. Howe, friend to and teacher of the blind. Richards wrote primarily children's books, short stories and poetry until her death at the age of ninety-two. With a publisher's innate optimism, "illustrated" consists solely of a frontispiece of Nightingale.
[DAB. NAW]. $40.00. #2760
RIDE, Sally. Photograph of Sally Ride wearing her Challenger patch. 8 x 10 inches, color photograph. Fine. Inscribed " To Rita, Reach for the Stars! Sally K. Ride".
Sally rode the Challenger space shuttle from June 18-24, 1983 as a member of the program's first five person crew. $200.00. #8967
RIPLEY, Alexandra. Scarlett. The Sequel to Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind. (New York): Warner Books, (1991). Thick octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
It's a truism that most sequels don't measure up to the original. Margaret Mitchell, a one-book author, realized this, even if Ms. Ripley and her publisher did not. $20.00. #2763
ROBE, Lucy Barry. Co-Starring Famous Women and Alcohol. Minneapolis: CompCare Publications, (1986). Illustrated. Thick octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket (very slightly rubbed along edges). Fine. First edition.
The author is herself a recovered alcoholic. More insightful than merely gossipy, this readable book tracks the records of celebrities to point out the patterns of alcoholism and the paths to sobriety. With two alcohol screening tests, list of acknowledgements, bibliography and an index. $25.00. #7421
[ROE, Jane]. McCorvey, Norma with MEISLER, Andy. I am Roe. My Life, Roe v. Wade, and Freedom of Choice. N. p.: Harper Collins, (1994). Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
Agree or disagree, Roe vs. Wade was the Supreme Court case that guaranteed freedom of choice for all American women. With an index. $20.00. #2764
ROGERS, Agnes. Women Are Here To Stay. The Durable Sex In Its Infinite Variety Through Half A Century of American Life. New York: Harper, (1949). With 502 illustrations. Folio, pictorial boards. Very slight edgewear, else fine. First edition.
A fascinating coffee table book depicting innumerable women and a number of men. Endless entertainment in 38,000 words of text and 502 pictures. With an index. $45.00. #2765
PROUTY, Olive Higgins. Now, Voyager. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1941. Octavo, cloth, printed dust jacket (rather worn at edges). Rubbing to spine. Very good. First edition, quite scarce in jacket.
Prouty had close ties with Sylvia Plath, having financed Plath's education as well as coming to her aid after Plath suffered a breakdown in 1953. This novel was the vehicle for one of actress Bette Davis's most memorable movies. Among Prouty's other popular novels were Stella Dallas and Oil for the Lamps of China. $275.00. #24952
ROGERS, Natalie. Emerging Woman. A Decade of Midlife Transitions. Point Reyes, California: Personal Press, (1980). Illustrated. Octavo, pictorial paper wrappers. Light cover wear, else about fine. First edition. Inscribed by the author.
A self-published work that has been translated into a number of languages, striking a responsive chord in women readers around the world. The title defines the story, and it is an interesting and still timely one. Laid in is a seventeen page photocopy "Dr. Natalie Rogers as Interviewed by Tony Merry", inscribed by Rogers "this will be edited and published in a British journal. I'll send you a final copy, but thought you'd enjoy this". $40.00. #2767
ROGERS, Natalie. The Creative Connection. Expressive Arts as Healing. Palo Alto: Science & Behavior Books, (1993). Illustrated. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition. Inscribed by the author.
Rogers is a multi-talented lady who uses movement, sound, painting, sculpture, writing and guided imagery to draw out and enhance personal creativity and well-being. In this respect she has taken the philosophy of her famous father, the person centered approach psychologist Carl Rogers, to a new dimension. With an appendix, bibliography and an index. $40.00. #2768
[ROOSEVELTs], Caroli, Betty Boyd. The Roosevelt Women. [New York]: Basic Books, (1998). Illustrated with photographs. Thick octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket . Name in ink on endpaper. Fine. First edition.
The author has written extensively on America's first ladies. In this work she skillfully weaves nine Roosevelt women through their lives and times. With extensive notes, selected bibliography and an index.
[Sweeney 1051]. $20.00. #22557
ROSEN, Ruth. The Lost Sisterhood. Prostitution in America 1900-1918. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, (1982). Illustrated. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
With notes, a bibliography and an index. $20.00. #2769
[Rosenberg, Ethel]. Philipson, Ilene. Ethel Rosenberg. Beyond the Myths. New York: Franklin Watts, 1988. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Small ink mark on upper corner half title. Fine. First edition.
On the evening of June 19th, 1952 just before twilight would usher in the Jewish Sabbath, Ethel Rosenberg, along with her husband Julius were electrocuted at Sing Sing prison for the crime of espionage. It culminated a protracted series of appeals including twice denied executive clemency from then President Eisenhower. The half century since has only deepened the shadows cast over the famous case. Were the couple victims of the rampant anti-Communist hysteria of the day? However the scales of justice weigh, the author, a sociologist, provides a balanced account. With extensive notes and an index. $20.00. #19220
[ROSS, Betsy]. Parry, Edwin. Betsy Ross Quaker Rebel, Being the True Story of the Romantic Life of the Maker of the First American Flag. Philadelphia: Winston, (1930). Illustrated. Large octavo, two-tone cloth, top edge gilt, other edges uncut, unusual blue cloth dust jacket pictorially stamped in gilt, silk book mark. Fine. One of 285 copies, signed by the author.
Parry was a lineal descendant of Betsy Ross.
[DAB. NAW. Sweeney 1076]. $50.00. #2771
[ROSS, Diana]. Taraborrelli, J. Randy. Call Her Miss Ross. The Unauthorized Biography of Diana Ross. (New York): Carol Publishing, (1989). Illustrated with photographs. Thick octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
A tell-all (taking 585 pages to do so). With notes, sources and an index. $20.00. #2770
ROSS, Diana. Secrets of a Sparrow. Memoirs. New York: Villard Books, 1993. Illustrated with photographs, some in color. Octavo, boards, fabricoid spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
For the defense: Ross' musical memoirs of a three decade career as a show biz icon. With a chronology of her work. $20.00. #5611
ROSS, Lillian. Takes. Stories from The Talk of the Town. New York: Congdon & Weed, (1983). Octavo, boards, cloth spine, dust jacket. Fine. First edition. Signed by the author.
Containing thirty-six stories written for her acclaimed New Yorker feature "Talk of the Town". $40.00. #5612
ROSS, Nancy Wilson. Westward The Women. New York: Knopf, 1944. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket (some wear). Fine. First edition.
An entertaining anecdotal overview of the subject with some interesting observations by the author along the way. With a suggested reading list.
[Adams, Six Guns 1907]. $40.00. #2772
Rostenberg, Leona. Stern, Madeleine. Old & Rare. Thirty Years in the Book Business. New York: Abner Schram, (1974). Illustrated. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket (horizontal tear on spine). Fine. First edition.
In addition to being partners in a long established antiquarian book business, each of the scholars have lectured and written extensively on rare books and the history of printing and publishing. This book concludes with a checklist of their selection of 272 literary items that had passed through their hands. With an index. $35.00. #18294
SALE, Edith Tunis. Old Time Belles and Cavaliers. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1912. With 61 illustrations. Royal octavo, three quarter blue morocco, decoratively stamped and lettered in gilt on spine with raised bands, top edge gilt, others uncut, marbled endpapers. Small bump to top edge of front cover, slight soiling of cloth, trifling rubbing of edges, a few pages carelessly opened, else fine. First edition. The author Rupert Hughes's copy, with pencilled annotations in his hand.
The author writes less of colonial cavaliers than of belles, among whom are first ladies Martha Dandridge (Washington) and Dolly Payne (Madison); Theodosia Burr (daughter of Aaron); Elizabeth Schulyer (wife of Alexander Hamilton); Peggy Shippen (wife of Benedict Arnold) and such disparate women as the legendary heroine Pocahontas and Betsy Patterson, who married Jerome Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon. With an index.
[Howes S-51]. $150.00. #7427
SAmson, Rebecca Middleton. Schoolgirl Allies. Sherry and Tad in a Belgian Boarding-School. Boston: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, (1917). Illustrated by Clara Olmstead. Octavo, original green cloth pictorially stamped in black, brown, gray and red, lettered in gilt. Spine a little browned, spine ends and corners very slightly rubbed, endpapers cracked over joints, else fine. First edition. Signed by the author Owen Wister on front free endpaper.
A typical entry aimed at the teen age market of the time. Curiously, we have not been able to trace any information regarding the author or to deduce why Wister would have owned this copy. $45.00. #11394
sandoz, Mari. Old Jules. Boston: Little, Brown, 1935. Illustrated with twenty photographs. Octavo, cloth, dust jacket (a little worn). Cloth slightly foxed and spine browned, else fine. First trade edition.
The author's first book, winner of the Atlantic Non-Fiction $5,000 Prize for 1935 (although the judges had rejected it two years previously). It was also selected by the Book of the Month Club and these events launched the author on a distinguished literary career as historian, teacher, biographer and novelist. Her eminently readable writings include a biography of the Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse, Cheyenne Autumn and some novels which reflect her concerns for social justice and the relationship of people to the land. About this book Mari Sandoz related: "Old Jules is the biography of my father, Jules Arni Sandoz; I have also tried in a larger sense to make it the biography of a community, the upper Niobrara country in western Nebraska". From this overview, the dust jacket blurb details "Old Jules had four wives: one was a slattern; the next was driven insane; the third ran off with an accordion player; the fourth bore him his six children, of whom Mari, the author of this unique contribution to American biography and history, was the second".
Although Sandoz spent much of her later years living in New York's Greenwich Village, according to her wishes she was buried in the sandhills of Nebraska.
[DAB. NAWM]. $100.00. #22948
SANGER, Margaret. Margaret Sanger. An Autobiography. New York: Norton, (1938). Royal octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket (some edgewear). A bit of browning to endpapers from jacket flaps, faint foxing to preliminaries, otherwise fine. First edition. Inscribed twice by Sanger, first in January 1939 and again in 1953. Sanger's autograph is uncommon.
This autobiography of the birth control (she coined the term) crusader and champion of her original claim that women have a fundamental right to control their own bodies has been criticized as highly selective and not always reliable. Nevertheless ....
[DAB. NAWM]. $750.00. #2774
[Schlesinger, Julia]. The Carrier Dove. San Francisco: (Library of Spiritual Experience), 1889. Volume VI. Nos. 1 -52. . Illustrated. Quarto, custom bound in full brown calf ornamented and lettered in gilt, all edges gilt, patterned endpapers. Professionally rebacked, interior fine.
Our search for information concerning Julia Schlesinger and The Carrier Dove led us to the Schlesinger library at Radcliffe (there is no connection) and then to the California State Library. There, Mrs. Sibylle Zemitas of the California History Section proved quite helpful. Noting that Schlesinger's book Workers in the Vineyards is listed in only four libraries, she searched their "California Information File 1846-1945" and the "California Death Index 1945+" and the "California Newspaper Index: 1904-1949", to no avail. Mrs. Zemitas did forward a photocopy of the San Francisco Call May 27, 1896, which reproduces a line-drawing of Julia Schlessinger [sic] on page ten, captioning her as secretary and Director-elect of the State Association of Spiritualists. The text notes that she was also elected State librarian and that she resided in San Jose.
Back to the Carrier Dove. The last issue of the year on December 28, 1889 carries a biography of Julia Schlesinger which is frustrating in its generalities. A vague reference to her having been born and reared in the west, a mention that she has children, originally started the Carrier Dove as a children's paper and that in January she will also be writing for a forthcoming monthly periodical The Gleamer. The facing page contains a line drawing of an intelligent looking woman of early middle age which the "biography" calls "an excellent likeness".
Various of the fifty-two mastheads list her as Editor, Co-publisher and member of the paper's Board of Directors. An earlier issue presented a frontispiece of Dr. Louis Schlesinger (presumably Julia's husband) together with only a slightly more informative biographical sketch.
Mrs. Zemitas concludes her informative letter: "It is very exciting to have been able to acquire The Carrier Dove for 1889, a rare find with interesting topic. Much has been written on spiritualism in California and in San Francisco. It seems that prominent women of the movement are only mentioned in most sources...". $2000.00. #11871
SCHLISSEL, Lillian, Editor. Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey. New York: Schocken Books, (1982). Profusely illustrated with photographs. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket (spine faded, slightly chipped and rubbed). Fine. First edition.
The editor received her Ph.D. from Yale University and became a leading American studies scholar. A well presented overview.
[Mintz 216, 280, 401]. $30.00. #7491
SCHREIBER, Le Anne. Midstream. New York: Viking, (1990). Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket (spine somewhat faded). Remainder mark on bottom edge, else fine. First edition.
Nearing the end of her third decade the author had become the first female editor of the New York Times sports section and then the deputy editor of its book review. She chucked it over for trout fishing, gardening and the rural life upstate in the Hudson River valley. Schreiber's bucolic new beginning was overshadowed by her mother's ending from pancreatic cancer. $20.00. #3252
SCOTT, Marian. Chautaugua Caravan. New York: Appleton-Century, 1939. Illustrated with photographs. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket (spine a little faded, some minor staining on rear panel). Fine. First edition.
A look at a bygone era: life on the Chautaugua circuit, by one of the troupers. $25.00. #5613
SEE, Lisa. On Gold Mountain. New York: St. Martin's Press, (1995). Illustrated with photographs and drawings. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
The multi-generational saga of an immigrant Chinese family's American experiences, their fascinating history set down by one of its talented progeny. With a list of sources. $20.00. #12284
[SETON, Elizabeth Ann]. Dirvin, Joseph I. Mrs. Seton, Foundress of the American Sisters of Charity. New York: Farrar, Straus and Cuday, (1962). Illustrated. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
Seton (1774-1821) was a Roman Catholic convert who became the founder and leader of the first American sisterhood. With a list of sources, bibliography and an index.
[DAB. NAW. Sweeney 1125]. $20.00. #2780
[SETON, Grace Gallatin]. Nimrod's Wife. New York: Doubleday, Page, 1907. Illustrated. Octavo, original grey cloth decoratively stamped in green and red with pictorial label on front cover, top edge gilt. Fine. First edition.
Outdoor adventures in the Rockies, Sierras and Canada. Some of the illustrations are by the nature writer and artist Ernest Thompson Seton, husband of the author.
[DAB. NAWM. See Browne p. 126]. $100.00. #2781
[SEXTON, Anne]. Middlebrook, Diane Wood. Anne Sexton. A Biography. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1991. Illustrated. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
Sexton started writing poetry at the suggestion of her psychotherapist. In the ensuing eighteen years she produced a dozen books, winning a Pulitzer Prize for her third volume, Live or Die. With an appendix , sources and notes, a bibliography and an index.
[DAB. NAWM]. $20.00. #2782
SHEEHY, Gail. Passages. Predictable Crises of Adult Life. New York: Dutton, 1976. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition. Review copy.
To quote Margaret Mead: "A lively passionate and readable message to the present generation in middle life. Passages shows that there is a pattern in our lives, a pattern of adult developmental stages, which once recognized, can be managed". With notes and sources, bibliography and an index. $40.00. #5601
SHEEHY, Gail. Pathfinders. Overcoming the Crises of Adult Life and Finding Your Own Path to Well-Being. New York: Morrow, 1981. Octavo, boards, cloth spine lettered in gilt, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
The author had grown up as Gail Henion in Larchmont, New York and graduated from Mamaroneck High School and the University of Vermont. She spent much time researching this work, following up with another insightful volume to her best-selling Passages. With appendices, notes and sources, a bibliography and an index. Accompanied by San Francisco Examiner Magazine June 18, 1985 and The University of Vermont Quarterly Spring 1996, both of which contain cover stories about Sheehy. $20.00. #5602
SHIELDS, Carol. The Stone Diaries. (New York): Viking, (1994). Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First U.S. edition.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, it is "one ordinary woman's story of her journey through life. Daisy Stone Goodwill, bewildered by her inability to understand her own place in her own life, attempts to find a way to tell her story within a novel that is itself about the limitations of autobiography." (from the dust jacket). The book also won Canada's Governor General's AwardÐthe highest literary prize given in that countryÐas well as the National Book Critics Circle Award. $135.00. #2785
SIBLEY, Celestine. Turned Funny. A Memoir. New York: Harper & Row, (1988). Illustrated. Octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition. With 1988 photograph of author, review slip, and press release about the author from the publishers laid in.
Once past the moronically unfunny photograph of the author on the title page and repeated in color on the dust jacket, the reader will find the story of a perceptive southern reporter who went to work at age fifteen for the Mobile Press Register . She subsequently graduated to the Atlanta Constitution, where during forty years Sibley also found time to author thirteen books. $25.00. #7089
[Sigourney, Lydia Huntley]. CLEMENT, J., Editor. Noble Deeds of American Women; with Biographical Sketches of Some of the More Prominent. Buffalo: Geo. H. Derby, 1851. Frontispiece portrait of Martha Washington. Octavo, original green decoratively blindstamped cloth, lettered in gilt on spine. Spine faded although gilt still quite bright, occasional foxing throughout, else fine. First edition.
First printing of Sigourney's introduction. Lydia Sigourney (1791-1865) was known as "the sweet singer of Hartford" and became one of the earliest American women to attain a successful literary career. She accomplished this despite the handicap of a rather pedantic husband who initially forced her to write anonymously. By 1830 her success, coupled with his lack of it, put that to rights.
Sigourney concludes her introduction: "Sisters, are not our rights sufficiently comprehensive, the sanctuary of home, the throne of the heart, the moulding of the whole mass of mind, in its first formation? Have we not power enough in all realms of sorrow and suffering, over all forms of want and ignorance, amid all ministries of love, from the cradle-dream to the sealing of the sepulchre? Let us be content and faithful, aye, more, Ð grateful and joyful Ð making this brief life a hymn of praise, until admitted to that choir which knows no discord, and where melody is eternal."
This flowery appeal to the status quo earned the following endorsement from the Cleveland Herald: "The introduction, by Mrs. Sigourney, contains more common sense views of woman's sphere, duties, and pleasures than ever emenated from a score of Woman's Rights Conventions." The publisher's catalogue bound at the back of the volume also notes that J. Clements, Esq. is "the popular editor of the Western Literary Messanger". Perhaps more to the point than any of the foregoing is an endorsement from one W.H.C. Hosmer: "This work supplies a void in our literature. No library is complete without it." In truth, the compendium contains some anecdotes and snippets of early American womanhood not readily found elsewhere, such as "Temperance Movement Among Mohawk Women" pp. 448-9.
[BAL 17871. DAB. NAW]. $75.00. #7414
SILKO, Leslie Marmon. Almanac of the Dead. New York: Simon & Schuster, (1991). Thick octavo, boards, cloth spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
A vast (762 pages) novel set in the Indian southwest of yesterday and today, written by a native of the area. $20.00. #5603
SILLS, Beverly. Bubbles. A Self-Portrait. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, (1976). Profusely illustrated with photographs. Octavo, cloth, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition, with the egregious spelling error in the first sentence.
The engaging Brooklyn-born Beverly Sills, née Belle Miriam Silverman, in a handsome production of the acclaimed soprano's life in grand opera. $20.00. #2787
[WROUGHT BY WOMEN], SIMPSON, Anna Pratt. Problems Women Solved. Being the Story of the Woman's Board of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. What Vision, Enthusiasm, Work and Co-operation Accomplished. San Francisco: Woman's Board, 1915 (i.e. 1916). Profusely illustrated with tipped-in photographs. Octavo, original brown boards, tan cloth spine with label lettered in black, pictorial dust jacket. An exceptionally fine copy, uncut and unopened. First trade edition. With a lengthy inscription by the author on the front endpaper.
Printed under the supervision of John Henry Nash in January, 1916. $185.00. #2789