Annie Nelles; or, The Life of a Book Agent. An Autobiography

Cincinnati: Published by the Author, 1868. Hardcover. Very Good. Hardcover. First edition of this uncommon and interesting book by a woman who was an itinerant bookseller in the United States in the 19th century. The book last appeared at auction in 1993. Annie Nelles Dumond (1837 - 1903) traveled the Midwest going house to house selling books by subscription. Some scholars consider this autobiography to be part-fiction as many details varied from this edition in later editions of the book (see the 'Unbelievable' Odyssey of Annie Nelles Dumond"James L. Murphy, OGS Quarterly, vol. 50, issue 4, 2010 for a discussion of Annie's life and writings). Another scholar, Jolie Braun, the curator of Modern Literature and Manuscripts at The Ohio State University Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, published a fascinating article titled "There is no respectable woman...that sells books!' The Memoirs of Nineteenth-Century Woman Book Canvassers." It appeared in "Textual Cultures," Vol. 14 No. 1 Spring 2021 and examines the memoirs of women book canvassers: : Annie Nelles, or, The Life of a Book Agent by Annie Nelles Dumond (1868); Six Years Experience as a Book Agent by Mrs. J. W. Likins (1874); and Facts by Harriet Wasson Styer (1881). "These works record the physical, intellectual, and emotional labor of canvassing, offering a window into the otherwise little-documented experiences of women's experiences working in a field that both recruited and presented numerous challenges for them."

Bound in original green pebbled cloth with gilt titling and ornament to spine. Covers are rubbed, bumped and lightly soiled. There is a small gouge at the top of the spine revealing the board underneath. The gilt titling is somewhat rubbed. The front hinge is cracked but the text block is quite firm. Brown endpapers. Text pages are generally clean and bright, with light foxing and spotting to front and rear free pages. Faint ownership signature in pencil on free endpaper. The last two pages of the text containing a poem written by the author to Frank C. Nelles, her first husband also have light foxing. With frontispiece portrait of Annie Nelles and three full-page black and white text illustrations. Very good condition. Measures 5 x 8 inches. 385 pages. AMERBIO/041024.