•  Contemporary quarter black sheep with black ribbed cloth–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; spine much rubbed, corners and edges far less so. Front pastedown with inscription as above. Pages and plates clean.  (27050)

The work is illustrated with a frontispiece portrait of the author done by A.H. Ritchie, one plate of Capt. Parish's residence at Ross Hill, Wyoming, and one in-text steel engraving.

•  Sabin 59471.   Publisher's brown textured cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title and sunned with adhesive shelving label at foot; binding rubbed overall with spots of light discoloration, cloth lost at spine extremities, and starting to split at back joint. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate, front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription. Foxing and staining intermittently throughout, notable but never of the worst kinds.  (25820)

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An issue of the New Haven Journal Courier from December of 1890 recounts the following story of the broadside's origin and subsequent fate: “The late Charles Harvey Townshend, Esq., of New Haven about the year 1880 met Mr. Robert Livingston of New York while crossing the Atlantic. One day while Mr. Livingston was telling him of his experiences while a Yale student, he asked him, if he ever had the chance, to look in the front middle room, fourth story, north entry of old South Middle College, between the ceiling over the wood closet door. He said that in 1829 he placed there a bundle of printed sheets of 'doggerel verse,' a grind on a tutor of those days. These verses were recited by the composer, Peña, a Mexican (who was afterwards expelled) in the college chapel, on a Wednesday afternoon. Most of the class was expelled afterwards, for various reasons, and Mr. Livingston, who was one of them, said that his father always told him that he did perfectly right in not telling who wrote the verses (our emphasis). A fir [sic] broke out in Old South Middle in December 1890, and Mr. Townshend, with the permission of the then occupants of the room, searched the ceiling of the front middle room in accordance with Mr. Livingstons [sic] directions. He found there the bundle of verse, just as Mr. Livingston described.”

Uncommon: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 report five U.S. locations, with Yale (predictably) holding several copies.

•  American Imprints 39988.   As issued (not showing signs of having been bound); creased once horizontally, upper edge darkened, four or five tiny spots of foxing in the lower left portion. A very nice copy of this scarce ephemeral piece.  (24643)

•  Shoemaker 30185; on Powel, see: Dictionary of American Biography, XV, 143–44. Contemporary paper wrappers, front with printed paper label and separated from spine but present; chipping, soiling, and pencilling, with staining especially to lower edge of front wrapper. Pages untrimmed; varying degrees of foxing and staining; lacking frontispiece and one plate — a still-interesting volume priced according to its faults.

For Books for the BUSTED
            BIBLIOPHILE,  click here.

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•  Shoemaker 21854. Light blue paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper title-label. First leaf with closed tear from outer margin, just touching text. Foxed, with some staining to final blank leaf.

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•  Shoemaker 21855. Later light blue paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper title-label. Slightly age-toned, with small paper flaw to one outer margin, else clean.

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The Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Internal Improvements in the Commonwealth was established in Philadelphia, in December 1824, to disseminate information on the latest improvements in the development of transportation systems including roads, railways, canals, bridges, etc.; William Strickland, Mathew Carey, Richard Peters, Jr., Joseph Hemphill, Stephen Duncan, and Gerard Ralston were among its members.

This first edition is very uncommon. OCLC and RLIN list only five institutional holdings.

•  Shoemaker 17582; Goldsmiths’-Kress 24653.16 (for 3rd ed.). Later light blue paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper title-label. Pages age-toned, with some light staining confined to margins.

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•  The Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Internal Improvements in the Commonwealth was established in Philadelphia, in December 1824, to disseminate information on the latest improvements in the development of transportation systems including roads, railways, canals, bridges, etc.; William Strickland, Mathew Carey, Richard Peters, Jr., Joseph Hemphill, Stephen Duncan, and Gerard Ralston were among its members.

•  Shoemaker 25712. Period-style light blue paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper title-label, volume bound with 34 blank leaves at the back. Moderate foxing; second leaf starting to separate along gutter.

•  NCBEL, II, 1583 (for the 1854 ed. on which the present ed. was based). Publisher’s textured cloth, worn, covers framed in decorative blind-stamping, spines ruled in blind and simply gilt-stamped with titles and volume numbers; spines faded, slightly discolored, all pulled with cloth lost above page level and one with additional chip out of cloth near head. Front pastedowns with tickets from a Nashville bookseller. Many pages with light offsetting (darker following frontispieces) and foxing such as the paper is prone to; front free endpaper of vol. IV with pencilled ownership inscription and back fly-leaf of vol. II with pencilled annotations. (4737)

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Binding:  Publisher's red cloth, covers embossed and gilt-stamped, each cover with chromolithographed paper illustration affixed; spine gilt extra. All edges gilt.

•  Faxon 259.   Binding slightly dimmed overall, scuffed at edges and joints. Front free endpaper with owner's inscription dated 1869. A few spots of foxing, mostly in proximity to plates.  (12931)

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Signed binding:  Black sheep in imitation of morocco, covers framed in heavy gilt borders surrounding gilt-stamped arabesque designs, spine gilt extra; front free endpaper with bookbinder Bradley's small pressure-stamp. All edges gilt.

•  Faxon 224. Not in Hamilton, Early American Book Illustrators. On binder's stamp, see: Spawn & Kinsella, American Signed Bindings, 55f.   Binding as above, minor wear to corners, spine with tiny scuff towards foot; binding clean and bright. Pages with varied degrees of foxing/staining and age-toning. Very spiffy.  (26673)

This first American printing followed a London edition of the same year and was part of Putnam's "Library for the People."

•  Textured red cloth, covers stamped in blind with an attractive branch and leaf pattern, spine gilt-stamped; spine faded. Sewing starting to loosen. Lacking map. Front free endpaper with inscription “Rachel Wiston / 1887 / Aunt Sarah Hunt.” Scattered spots of foxing, mostly to first and last few pages.

Publishers' advertisements at back offer other useful volumes, and tout this one as, “not by any means a clap-trap book, though it exposes many clap-traps.”

•  Publisher's black pebbled cloth, covers blind-stamped, spine with blind-stamped title; limited fading and rubbing, sewing starting to loosen. Front pastedown with inked inscription, front free endpaper with intriguing “Fraters Florere” rubber-stamp. Pages faintly age-toned, otherwise clean.  (26631)

•  Goldsmiths'-Kress 27353.19; this vol. not in American Imprints.   Publisher's quarter red cloth and tan paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label; binding lightly worn and faded, with paper chipped, spots of soiling, head of spine chipped and band of cloth tape extending across it. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page. No other markings. Uncut copy; pages generally clean.  (26262)

•  Publisher's brown cloth, stamped in black and silver; front and spine with decorated with a frontier scene showing Conestoga wagons in a wilderness landscape with rising sun in the background. (We can't seem to get a photograph of this that doesn't "glare out.")  Bright with a few flecks of white (paint?). Spine slightly rubbed on joints and at head and base. Pages toned. Good+. (20739)

•  Publisher’s cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title (attractively oxidized); cloth rubbed at extremities, spine with small spot of faint discoloration from a now-absent label. Front pastedown institutionally rubber-stamped (no other markings). Erratum slip tipped in. A cleaner copy than most seen on the market.

•  BAL 16346; Gardner P-7; Sabin 65272. Publisher’s blind-stamped cloth, spines with gilt-stamped titles; sunned and with small spots of discoloration, spines each showing traces of a now-absent shelving label. Front pastedowns each with private collector’s bookplate, institutional rubber-stamp, and speckled show-through of binder’s glue. Light to moderate foxing throughout.

Uncommon: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 locate only four holdings, all in the U.S.

•  Publisher's printed paper wrappers, front wrapper with early inked inscription in upper portion; paper just starting at foot of spine. Age-toned, otherwise clean and fresh.  (25501)

The twelve unsigned woodcut plates are full of energy both emblematic and artistic.

•  Publisher's quarter tan cloth with blue paper-covered sides; boards stained and chipped with paper peeling, all extremities rubbed, and paper spine label mostly lost. Front hinge cracked, back hinge starting. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate; title-page with private owner's stamp in upper margin and old cataloguing excerpt affixed to lower margin. Lower outer corners waterstained in first half; pages cockled, with occasional faint spotting; first text page with newsprint blurb about Priest affixed in upper margin. A compromised copy, but an extraordinary production; interesting from a variety of perspectives.  (15630)

•  Bitting 384; Cagle & Stafford 621; Lowenstein 460.   Publisher's brown fine-grained cloth, covers framed in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title; worn, covers with areas of discoloration. Front pastedown with recent pencilled annotations; front free endpaper lacking; back fly-leaf with early pencilled home remedy for poison ivy. Light to moderate foxing. A well-used copy but not a “sad case”; a pleasure of a cookbook.  (26760)