Search Results: Authors starting with R from Stellar Books & Ephemera, ABAA

[Queensboro Bridge] Autograph Letter Signed from Thomas Rainey (Father of the Queensboro Bridge) to His Sister, Richmond, Virginia 1852. Blue bifolium 4-page letter dated April 8, 1852 with Richmond, Virginia dateline. Legible writing. Light foxing. Minor separation beginning at folds. No envelope. Very Good condition. This letter was written by Thomas Rainey (1824-1910) to his sister Jennie S. Rainey. Much has been written about Dr. Thomas Rainey, who is often called the "Father of the Queensboro Bridge" for his many years of boosterism and funding for a bridge connecting Queens to greater New York City. Thomas Rainey was born in Yanceyville, Caswell County, North Carolina - one of many children born to James Glenn Rainey (1805-1876) and Sophia Hendrick (1807-1870). At the age of 18, Rainey left home wandering west ending up in St. Louis where he studied phonography (spelling based on pronunciation), mathematics and medicine. Rainey taught school, wrote a book titled "Rainey's Improved Abacus",… Read More

1905. [Map] Plano Topografico del Pueblo de San Salbador Tzompatepc Cabecera del Municipio Distrito de Juarez Dibujo por la Nina Carmen Ramos bajo la Direccion de Josefa Perez y Flores Water damage at times affecting legibility; some fading of colors. Card-stock backed with linen. Measures 25 3/8" x 19 1/2 inches. Good condition overall. Manuscript map of San Salvador de Tzompantepec, Mexico, 1905. Hand drawn and colored, detailed topographical map of this area of Tzompoantepec - "el lugar de los craneos" in nahuatl, "the place of the skulls." Tzompantepec is a county (municipio) in the state of Tlaxcala, Mexico. This map shows the topographical features of the county and notes the town of San Salvador, the cabecera or county seat. Also noted are scattered dwellings, pueblo boundaries, vegetation and a nifty compass rose through the left margin of the map. Tzompantepec is located in the eastern portion of the Mexican state of Tlaxcala within the Central Mexican Plateau, along the slopes of the… Read More

Indianapolis, Indiana, 1830. Manuscript Letter Regarding the Indiana Bible Society and Their Efforts to Sell Bibles--Indianapolis, Indiana 1830. 4pp. 7 7/8 x 9 7/8 inches. Bifolium sheet folding into stampless letter. 2 inch separation at fold. Small tear and content loss at wax seal. Very legible. Very Good Condition. Extensive report from J.M. Ray, Secretary Executive Committee of the Indiana Bible Society to Rev. John C. Brigham, Corresponding Secretary of the American Bible Society in New York. J.M. Ray moved from the Baltimore area to what would become Indianapolis in 1821 and is recorded as the Clerk for the sale of the first lots in Indianapolis. In 1822 he was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court and in 1829 chosen Superintendent and Elder of the first Sabbath School, posts he held for 40 years. He also served on the Joint Committee on the Reunion of the Presbyterian Church in 1866. The letter focuses on efforts to hire and retain agents to sell their bibles in Indiana while ensuring the… Read More

1991. [Martin Luther King, Jr.] James Earl Ray Autograph Letter Signed on Ray's Brushy Mountain Prison Letterhead, but from Tennessee State Penitentiary, Nashville, November 1991 Single page 8.5 x 11-inch cream colored paper with black printed text at head and foot. Verso is blank. Fine Condition. The book, "Tennessee Waltz" is in fine condition as is the unclipped dust jacket. Faint blue line on bottom edge of book. Tipped in signed bookplate. Ray was not allowed to sign actual books. James Earl Ray (1928-98) was convicted of shooting and killing Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, as the Civil Rights leader stood on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Ray fled to England where he was quickly captured and extradited to the United States. He confessed to the assassination, by which he avoided a jury trial and possible death penalty and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession. Further investigations came to the conclusion that Ray… Read More

1898. Ray-Richardson "Starvation Winter in the Klondike" Archive 1897-1898. Circle City and Fort Klondike, Alaska. Archival collection consisting of telegrams, letters, financial documents, and newspaper clippings all pertaining to the Klondike Gold Rush, especially regarding the winter of 1897-1898 in and around Circle City and Fort Yukon Alaska, and Dawson, Yukon Territory. About 3 inches of documents. Expected wear but overall, the archive is in very good condition and is generally legible and organized. A full inventory will be provided with the collection along with transcriptions for a number of the important holograph letters. The Klondike Gold Rush triggered a migration of an estimated 100,000 people into southeast Alaska headed towards Yukon Territory and the Klondike. More than half those who left for the Klondike never made it, turning around. Regardless, such a surge of people in remote interior Yukon/Alaska going into the winter of 1897, when no supplies could be moved, left a huge… Read More

Boston, Massachusetts: W. Raymond and I. A. Whitcomb, 1884. Very good. Raymond's Vacation Excursions: Fourth Annual Spring Excursion to Colorado and California, W. Raymond and I. A. Whitcomb, Boston, Massachusetts, 1884, 5 ⅜ x 4.25 inches, 80 pp. Perfect-bound booklet with color pictorial wrappers; some light edge wear and spot stains to wrappers; penny blue Benjamin Franklin stamp with fancy cancel to back; interior pages clean, unmarked; foldout engraving of Hotel Del Monte, Monterey, California tipped in before title page; overall very good condition. 1884 booklet advertising a fifty-nine day tour to Colorado and California, with stops in Chicago, Santa Fe, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and more - described on the title page as a "grand transcontinental pleasure trip through seventeen of the states and territories", with an "incidental excursion to the Yosemite Valley and the big tree groves." The booklet contains information on the trips and the various highlights along the way, as well as… Read More

San Francisco, CA: The Bread & Wine Press, 1960. Reed, Blake. 21 Carlisle. San Francisco, California: The Bread & Wine Press, 1960. Printed by Wilder Mayo Bentley. Book of Poems Published by Noted Printer and Artist Wilder Bentley II 8.75" x 5.5" Penciled annotation to printer's colophon (inserting a "Jr." after Bentley), else near fine. A near pristine copy of a book of poems issued by noted printmaker, painter and craftsman Wilder Mayo Bentley, more commonly known as Wilder Bentley the Younger or Wilder Bentley, II. Bentley was born in 1928 in Oklahoma City and grew up in Berkeley, California, the son of Harvey Wilder Bentley (Wilder Bentley the Elder), a poet, printer, painter, graphic artist and professor of English at San Francisco State College. Bentley the Elder (1900-1982) is perhaps best known as the proprietor of the Archetype Press, known for publishing (among much else) Ansel Adams' first book of photographs in 1938. Learning from his father, at ten years of age the Younger Bentley… Read More

Covington, Kentucky: Darrell C. Richardson, 1948. Good condition/None. The Fabulous Faust Fanzine, Vol. 1, No. 2, December 1948 , Darrell C. Richardson (editor), Max Brand, Frederick Faust, Henry Uriel, George Challis, Stever Fisher et al. (authors), Darrell C. Richardson, Covington, Kentucky, 1948. 11 x 8.5 inches. 60pp. Staple bound, pictorial wraps. Text is printed in black, brown, green, orange and purple. There are 3 tipped in plates; there is likely 1 missing plate. Glue residue visible on leaves with plates. Wraps and text block are creased and toned and the bottom staple is missing. Good condition. Content includes fiction, poetry, editorials and illustrations. Editor Darrell C. Richardson was a minister, bibliographer and served as director of the National Fantasy Fan Federation.

1913. Hardcover. Good/None. Chamberlain, Emily Hall. James Whitcomb Riley The Rose, Bobbs-Merrill 1913, 8 leaves, 7 x 4.125 inches. Raised gilt embossed design on front board. Tan mottled boards. Light soiling to boards with rubbing to corners. Interior is clean. First text leaf has small tear to fore edge. Tight binding. Slight musty odor. Good condition. Combination of Riley prose with artwork by Emily Hall Chamberlain. Each leaf has art and poetry on recto with blank verso.

Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1938. First. Hardcover. Very good/None. Logbook of Minnesota Bird Life 1917-1937, Thomas S. Roberts, The University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1938, 355 pp.,9⅜x 6⅝ inches, signed first edition. Dark green spine with gilt tilting, front and back covers dark tan cloth, minor scuffing to bottom edge, light soiling to top edge pages, pages lightly toned, signed gift inscription by author on back endpaper, 1938. First edition, signed. Very good condition. Logbook of bird life in Minnesota. Thomas Roberts was an American physician known for his work in ornithology, bird conservation and for his a comprehensive account on the birds of the Minnesota area.

Los Angeles, California, 1928. Very Good. [Aviation] Typed Manuscript "Between Two Breakfasts" About the September 21, 1928 National Air Race Class B Transcontinental Race, May H. Robert, Los Angeles, California, 1928, 8.5 x 11 inches, 6 pp. 6 loose manuscript pages typed with numerous handwritten corrections and changes; rust mark from previous paperclip on top edge of first and last pages; slightly toned; overall very good condition. Typed and corrected manuscript of "Between Two Breakfasts" by Los Angeles correspondent May H. Roberts, detailing the eventful and quite exhilarating experiences of nine aviators participating in the September 21, 1928, National Air Race Class B Transcontinental Race from Los Angeles to New York. Roberts was accompanying Captain Charles B. D. Collyer in his globe-circling plane The City of New York; she, to write about the event, and he to act as relief plane for the racers. Other aviators included Leo Terletsky, who disappeared in July 1938 while piloting the… Read More

1889. Good/None. [John A. Sutter] Autograph Title Search Two Sacramento City Lots--1889. Abstract of the Records in the Office of the Recorder of Sacramento County. E.I. Robinson, Attorney at Law, Searcher of Records and Examiner of Titles, Notary Public. 7 x 8.5 inches, not paginated. String-bound booklet titled Abstract of Records on wrapper with printed interior leaves. Moderate chipping and soiling to wrappers. Front wrapper strengthened with binding tape. Back wrapper becoming loose but still holding. Edges worn. Interior relatively clean. Good Condition. Interesting piece of Californiana from 1889 of autograph title search by E.I. Robinson tracing two city lots in Sacramento from the Mexican Government in 1841 to John A. Sutter in 1851. Confirmed by the United States Government in 1866. John A. Sutter is best known as the landowner of the land upon which John Marshall discovered gold in 1848. Sutter's history in California is long and complex. For our purposes, we'll just note that Sutter… Read More

N.P., 1971. Fine/Good. [Science Fiction] Into the Darkness Original Typescript and Publisher Copy of Daughter of Darkness, Ross Rocklynne, N.P., 1971, 8.5 x 11 inches, 51 pp. and 17 pp. Original Into the Darkness typescript with manuscript edits; fine condition. Daughter of Darkness publisher or editor copy has pastedown text on each page, plus manuscript edits and notations. Heavy bleed from glue. Good condition. The first item in this lot is an original typescript of the story Into the Darkness by Ross Rocklynne, which is the first of four books in The Darkness Story, a series about sentient stars. Into the Darkness first appeared in the June 1940 issue of Astonishing Stories. The typescript has manuscript edits throughout. Prefacing the typescript are three lists of the four installments of The Darkness Story, along with their dates of publication and the magazines in which they appeared. The second item is a publisher or editor copy of Daughter of Darkness, the second book in The Darkness… Read More

N.P., N.D.. Fine. Norman Rockwell Autograph and Colorized Photograph Portrait, Norman Rockwell, N.P., N.D., 7.5 x 10 inches. Both autograph and colorized photo of Norman Rockwell in matboard; the two pieces of matboard have been pasted together. Strong signature; nice pale gray marbled mat; fine condition. Signature reads "sincerely Norman Rockwell" in blue-gray ink. Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) was a renowned American painter and illustrator, producing over 4,000 original works, which still have much popular appeal due to their depiction of United States culture and everyday life. Rockwell created many cover illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post, illustrated more than 40 books, and painted portraits of several presidents and foreign dignitaries. Some of his most well-known paintings include Rosie the Riveter, the Willie Gillis series, The Problem We All Live With, and the Four Freedoms series. Rockwell's work was dismissed as not being a "serious painter" by some critics and contemporaries… Read More

California Brothers" Copied in Manuscript by T.F. Rodenbaugh December 1857 Single leaf with manuscript content on both sides measures 12.5 x 7.75 inches. Chipping and slight content loss to left side and top of right side. 2 x 1.5-inch piece missing from bottom corner with partial loss of one word. Fair Condition. Manuscript lyrics for the song "The California Brothers" as copied by Theophilus Francis Rodenbaugh in 1857, for John G. Morgan, Mount Kirk Seminary. The song was put to music in 1855 as "The Dying California of the Brother's Request Ballad", published by Oliver Ditson of Boston. The lyrics by an unknown lyricist were probably first published in the early 1850's in a New England newspaper, the "New England Diadem and Rhode-Island Temperance Pledge." We find little about the Mount Kirk Seminary or John G. Morgan other than one reference that the seminary was in Pennsylvania. T.F. Rodenbough (1838-1912) was a Civil War Soldier and prisoner of war (Battle of Second Bull Run) who was awarded… Read More

Colchester, Connecticut. Colchester Rubber Company Black Miniature Rubber Advertising Boots 2 rubber vulcanized boots measuring approximately 2 x 2.75 inches at their widest. One boot has 1.5 inch split on front seam which is hard to discern unless in hand. Text stamped on both sides of boots. The letter "L" missing from one boot. Good condition. The Colchester Rubber Company was founded by George Watkinson in 1888 in Colchester, Connecticut, utilizing the former Hayward Rubber Company Factory Plant. Hayward Rubber had developed a type of vulcanized rubber which Colchester continued to market. These advertising boots likely were used by salesmen to market their products. The Colchester line of footwear were very popular in the 1880's and were on display at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. The United States Rubber Company, as part of their plan to create a rubber monopoly in the United States, purchased the Colchester Company in 1892 and closed the plant in mid 1893 collapsing the economy of the… Read More