Search Results: History & Politics from Back Creek Books LLC, ABAA/ILAB

New York: The Tea & Coffee Journal Company, 1935. Limited edition. Cloth over boards. Quarto. xiv, 818 pages. Very good in a good dust jacket. Bound in light brown cloth over boards with gilt-stamped spine and upper board, endpaper maps. Prior owner name on title page, a few bumps to fore corners. Jacket has a 1 1/2" x 2 1/4" chip at bottom edge of upper joint fold, some old tape repairs to rear panel, and other edge chips and tears.. Color frontispiece, numerous black and white illustrations in text. The first independent work to fully cover all aspects of coffee, including the historical, technical, scientific, commercial, social, and artistic. Everything from early coffee drinking to the pharmacology of coffee to its appearances in literature. Full of information and well illustrated with photographs and other illustrations. Contains a dictionary of coffee, an extensive coffee bibliography, and a coffee thesaurus. Fully indexed.<br /> <br /> This is copy #30 in an… Read More

Wilmington: R. France & Co, 1861. Broadside. 7 3/4" x 19. Fine condition. One horizontal crease from being folded in half along the vertical dimension.. A fantastic 1861 promotional handbill for a lottery to augment public finance. The Consolidated Lottery of Delaware was authorized by the legislature in January, 1859 as an act for the encouragement of internal improvements in the State of Delaware. This advertises Class 91 of the consolidated lottery, managed by R. France & Co. with E. N. Carr & Co. as agents. <br /> <br /> The "Brilliant Scheme" as it is described, offers 76,076 tickets at $8 apiece, and promises to pay out 30,316 prizes totaling $365,678--the highest prize being $24,562. <br /> <br /> Lotteries have a rich history in America as means to supplement government revenues, though as games of chance tending to sever the connection between wealth and work they were always viewed with moral suspicion. In fact by 1860, thirty of the then… Read More

(S.l.): (S.n.), 1900. Wrappers. Duodecimo. 16 pages. Fine. Printed wrappers, saddle-stapled binding.. Cartoon on rear cover. Williams Jennings Bryan, the Democratic nominee for President in 1900, delivers a speech against the reign of monopolies he saw as having been abetted by McKinley and the Republicans. Bryan ultimately would lose to the incumbent, McKinley, who would be assassinated shortly thereafter. <br /> <br /> There is a satirical cartoon of the G.O.P. elephant on the rear cover, showing the "true inwardness of the Republican elephant." Scarce.

Cambridge: Peabody Museum, 1950. Softbound. Folio. xii, 116 pages. Very good. Black and White Photographs, Maps, Illus.. Includes appendices by W. C. Root, Eleanor B. Adams and Doris Stone. Volume IX, No. 3 of "Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University. " Bound in tan printed paper covers. Prior owner stamp on front cover and a few times in margins of interior text pages. Covers show minor extremity rubs. Top fore corner of front cover has a mild dampstain, with related tide marks to some top margins in text to a depth of about 1/2

New York, 1895. Single sheet, 8" x 9 7/8", folded once. Very good. Letter has a few old folds, a slight separation along the bottom 3/4" of the central fold, and four spots of old adhesive residue on blank back side.. Suffragist pioneer Elizabeth Cady Stanton here writes to a Mrs. Thomas, one of the 26 women on the "Revising Committee" who, along with Stanton, wrote "The Woman's Bible." The letter is dated October 20, from Stanton's address at 26 West 61st Street in New York City. She advises Mrs. Thomas that she is asking the committee members each to order 20 copies of Part I, set to be published the following month. <br /> <br /> "The Woman's Bible" was meant to be a new version of the Christian Bible, but with women treated and portrayed as equals with men rather than the subservient role found in religious orthodoxy. It was crafted in two parts, with Part I being published in November, 1895 and Part II, finally, in April,… Read More

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1929. First edition. Hardcover. Octavo. xxii, 307, [blank], viii pages. Bound in green cloth over boards with yellow and red title and illustration blocked on spine and upper board, pale yellow topstain. Old adhesive residue on front pastedown, mostly hidden by front jacket flap. Minor extremity rubs, quarter-sized dampstain to top edge of textblock. Jacket has edge chipping up to 1/4" deep at spine ends and edges of front panel. Separation along lower 2 1/2" of front panel fore edge fold. Still an attractive, overall very good copy in a good dust jacket.. Black and white plates. Biography of the Temperance firebrand, Carry Nation, whose signature was attacking liquor kegs with a hatchet.<br /> <br /> This copy is signed by the author and has a printed "Seasons Greetings" card from him and his wife laid in.

New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1901. First printing. Cloth over boards with printed paper sides. Tall octavo. 176 pages. Minor rubs to board extremities, shallow bumps, and a bit of sun fading along extreme bottom edge of upper board. Jacket has chipping at heel of spine and a 1 1/2" triangular chip from head of spine. There is a hole in spine near heel, about the size of corn kernel. Neat prior gift inscription dated 1901 at top fore corner of front free endpaper. Overall clean and sound. Very good in a good plus dust jacket.. Black and white photographs, illustrations. Beautiful depiction of child life in China, revealing something of their nursery's, school rooms, and playgrounds. Numerous photographs throughout, along with old prints, to illustrated nearly every page. Printed page backgrounds give alternating pairs of pink and blue borders to the text and images.

Cambridge: Peabody Museum, 1942. Paper covers. Folios. xviii, 327 and xiv, 292 pages. Very good. Black and White Photographs, Drawings, Maps. These are volume VII and VIII, "Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University. " Superbly illustrated large format volumes in tan printed paper covers. Covers show some extremity wear consisting of short tears, shallow wrinkles, and a few small chips. Part II has a 1" split at top of upper joint which has been repaired with tissue. Part I has a 1/2" split at bottom of lower joint. Very good overall.

New York: David Longworth, 1808. Disbound. Octavo. 56 pages. Edges are worn and somewhat curled. Some soil to external leaves. Last leaf is detached, has tears with old stitched repairs, and is partially missing. However, complete text of said leaf supplied by images of another copy.. The courtroom proceedings as a Black man is charged with bastardy in New York at the beginning of the 19th century. Alexander Whistelo was claimed by the mother herself to be the father of her female bastard child, which she had left in the care of the New York City Alms House. The municipality then sought compensation from Whistelo for the ongoing care of the child "under the act passed 6th March, 1801, for the relief of cities and towns from the maintenance of bastard children." Whistelo denied being the father and this trial before Mayor, Recorder, and Several Aldermen of New York resulted.<br /> <br /> The mother, one Lucy Williams, was a mulatto, and ultimately the evidence failed to convince… Read More

Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1839. First edition. Original cloth over boards. Duodecimos. 242 and 228 pages. Very good in original bindings of pebbled green cloth over boards with paper spine labels. Shallow chipping at heads of spines, minor wear and toning to spine labels, faint spotting to cloth. Hinges sound, interiors mildly age toned. Overall a very attractive set.. Frederick Marryat was a British naval officer and pioneering nautical fiction writer. He traveled to America in 1836-1837, and this is the first American edition of his account of that visit. It is an interesting outside view, but his criticisms of American culture and society led some to publicly burn his book and effigy. <br /> <br /> Ref. SABIN 44696; HOWES M300; MCKINSTRY P248.

Albany: Edward Leslie, Printer, 1865. First edition. Disbound. Octavo. 20 pages. Remnants of removal from a larger binding along spine, a 1/2" x 2" angular piece missing at bottom inner margin of last leaf with no loss of text. Otherwise clean and near fine overall.. Rev. Dyer was the chaplain at the Albany Penitentiary. His memorial sermon, given in the prison's chapel, coincided with Lincoln's funeral in Washington on April 19th. He finds the circumstances of Lincoln's death to be "of a painfully instructive character" for the nation, and lays out what he believes God "would have us learn from this event." <br /> <br /> Only 600 copies of this sermon were printed, according to early Lincolniana collector and bibliographer Daniel Fish.<br /> <br /> The Albany Penitentiary at this time housed many inmates from Washington, DC, as the prison there had been taken over for the U. S. Arsenal in 1862. Indeed four convicted Lincoln… Read More

London: The Argonaut Press, 1928. Limited edition of 975 copies, this copy not numbered. Hardcover. Quarto. cvi, 182 pages. Bound in tan cloth over boards with vellum spine, integral ribbon bookmark. Ralegh's coat of arms stamped in gilt on upper board, spine titled in gilt. Some spotting at lower fore corners of both boards and at bottom of lower board near spine. Old dampstain at bottom inner corners of rear endpapers. Later owner bookplate on front pastedown below Strachey's. Hinges sound. Very good overall.. Frontispiece portrait, 2 folding maps. A superb edition of Sir Walter Ralegh's Guiana expedition in search of the golden city of El Dorado. Appendices A and B contain Spanish official dispatches that had not seen the light of day for 300 years, and which make it possible to compare Ralegh's own account of the 1595 expedition with the narratives of contemporary Spaniards actually on the ground. <br /> <br /> This copy previously owned by Lytton Strachey, noted… Read More

New York: John Day Company, 1943. First printing. Cloth over boards. Octavo. xvi, 262 pages. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Tiny bump to top fore corner of upper board, a bit of toning to pastedowns at hinges. Jacket spine slightly browned, some minor edge wear and light soil. Bound in maroon cloth over boards with mauve topstain.. With this book, Rose Wilder Lane helped reignite a passion for classical liberal ideas in America. She is considered one of the "Founding Mothers" of Libertarianism, along with Ayn Rand and Isabel Paterson, each of whom published significant books in 1943. <br /> <br /> Lane was the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the Little House on the Prairie series of children's books.

Baltimore: Printed by W. M. Innes, 1863. Later card covers. Octavo. 48 pages. Bound in later moire-patterned card covers with type-script label on front cover. Light tanning to pamphlet, with an old pencil note below author's name and a faint water-tide mark at inner margin, and on title page. Very good to near fine overall.. Interesting and uncommon pamphlet published in Baltimore during the Civil War which is highly critical of Abraham Lincoln, New England, and Abolitionists. The author sees disunion and the Civil War as resulting from self-righteous New Englanders too aggressively pushing their agenda on the South. He claims that while Lincoln's words claimed to want the Union preserved, his policies forced the rift with the South.<br /> <br /> Ref. SABIN 36316.

Buenos Aires: Peuser Ltda, 1942. Limited edition. Vellum over beveled boards. Quarto. 224 pages. A few light extremity rubs and abrasions, spotting to endpapers. Interior clean, binding sturdy. Near fine overall.. Numerous drawings throughout, with a section of black and white photographic plates. A classic on the traditions, methods, and folklore of northern Argentina's cowboys. Winner of first prize in regional literature and folklore awarded by Argentina's National Commission of Culture. Text is in Spanish. This edition is illustrated with charming line drawings throughout plus a section of photographs.<br /> <br /> This copy is bound in vellum and is decorated with a striking hand colored illustration and titles by Ramón Fernández Latapiat. Two braided vellum loop and knot closures along fore edge.

[Havana}: (S.n.), 1960. Softcover. Oblong duodecimo. 41 unnumbered leaves. Black wrappers printed in green, quite worn with edge chips and rubbed wrinkles. Photographs inside are all in nice condition, with an occasional edge chip to scattered leaves but with no image loss.. Black and white photographs. Album commemorating the 1956 invasion of Cuba by revolutionaries under Fidel Castro in the yacht Granma. The album consists of individual photographs of the participants in the invasion, opening with the photographs of 27 men who were killed, labeling them martyrs. <br /> <br /> The album includes youthful photographs of Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and Raul Castro as well as many others. An uncommon souvenir of the Cuban Revolution against the Batista government, which ultimately resulted in the establishment of a new government under Fidel Castro.

Philadelphia: Printed for Mathew Carey, by Lang & Ustick, 1795. Unbound sheets tied with old thread. Octavo. 51 pages. A copy that apparently was never bound, but whose signatures are tied together in three places along spine with sturdy thread. Moderate soil to external leaves, a few edge chips to untrimmed fore and bottom edges.. This is a strong Jeffersonian-Republican argument against the Jay Treaty, then before Congress. The treaty was designed by Alexander Hamilton, negotiated by Chief Justice John Jay, and supported by President Washington. The purpose was to resolve certain issues between the United States and Great Britain which had been left outstanding since the end of the American Revolutionary War.<br /> <br /> Jeffersonian Republicans were staunchly opposed to the treaty, and the fierce debate--of which this pamphlet is a part--caused such deep divisions that it cemented the American political party system. Even President Washington came under attack for his support of… Read More

New York and Washington: The Neale Publishing Company, 1910. First Edition. Original cloth over boards. Duodecimo. 206 pages. Near fine. Bound in burgundy cloth over boards with gilt-stamped spine and upper board, top edge gilt. Contemporaneous prior owner name neatly penned to front free endpaper. Light rubs to extremities with a few shallow bumps. Hinges sound. Clean and bright overall.. Frontispiece portrait. In the spring of 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt sent a Commission abroad in an attempt to interest the prominent nations of Europe in putting China's finances on the gold standard. Anna Sterling Guthridge travelled with the Commission as the wife of its First Secretary. <br /> <br /> Mexico sent its own Commission, headed by Enrique C. Creel, and together this Joint Commission visited London, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, and Moscow. Guthridge records with enthusiasm the scenes and anecdotes of this tour early U. S. diplomatic tour. Scarce.<br /> <br… Read More

New Haven: Connecticut Branch, W. O. N. P. R., 1933. Broadside. 7" x 10 1/4. Single sheet printed on one side. Slight age toning. Fine condition.. This is an original handbill from a major women's group soliciting votes to repeal Prohibition in 1933.<br /> <br /> Women's organizations--particularly the Women's Christian Temperance Union--are strongly associated with passage of the 18th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution and the national ban on alcoholic beverages it brought in 1919. The major role women played in getting Prohibition repealed is not as widely recognized, however.<br /> <br /> This handbill was issued by the Connecticut Branch of the Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform (W.O.N.P.R.). The W.O.N.P.R. was organized in 1929 by women who could no longer ignore the destructive (if unintended) consequences of Prohibition. <br /> <br /> Here voters are asked to vote for ratification of the 21st Amendment, reminding them… Read More

Buffalo: Wheeler, Matthews & Warren, 1863. First edition. Disbound. Very good. A few minor stains, faint vertical crease to booklet, remnants of binding along spine.. An interesting and well-reasoned discourse on the state of the Civil War about a month after the Battle of Gettysburg, from the Union perspective. Rev. Smith concludes with answers to objections such as that the aim of the war had shifted from preservation of the Union to the abolishment of slavery, the use of black soldiers, etc. Quite scarce. SABIN 82700.