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The Accidental Bookseller
Specializing in Uncommon Copies of Interesting Books
Membership(s): IOBA, FABA, PADAH
Ellis, Joseph J. The New England Mind in Transition
$250.00
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1973.
First edition of author’s first book, warmly inscribed to Ellis’ close associates:
“For Rik & Margot / Who have had / the dubious privilege to / watch young Ellis in / transition as he wrote / this book. Johnson was no / more indebted to that “School / of the Prophets” than I am / to you”
signed as “Joe Ellis” and dated in the year of publication. A fine copy in near fine dust wrapper with some slight fading to the spine, trifle rubbing to the spine tips, one tiny nick, and a little soiling.
Ellis won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for his work Founding Brothers, exploring how the interactions between the leading figures of the US Constitutional era profoundly influenced the early development of the Republic. Ellis is also credited with leading a revival of interest in John Adams, a President he viewed as under-appreciated for both his character and achievements.
The New England Mind grew out of Ellis’ PhD dissertation at Yale (The Puritan Mind in Transition: The American Samuel Johnson (1696-1772)). While at Yale, Ellis became close friends with Richard “Rik” Warch, a fellow graduate student and then member of the faculty, and his wife Margot. Warch was the author of a history of Yale in the early 18th century, attended by Johnson, and Ellis cites Warch’s doctoral dissertation as “the best secondary account of the intellectual and religious climate at early Yale” in the bibliographical essay of his work. The “School of Prophets” in the inscription refers to the title of Warch’s own book-length treatment of his dissertation (School of Prophets. Yale College, 1701 – 1740 also published by the Yale University Press).
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Captures the Vanishing Charm of Old New Orleans
Arnold Genthe with a Foreword by Grace King Impressions of Old New Orleans: A Book of Pictures
$300.004to., 250 pp. unpaginated. 100 full page black and white photographic plates printed on rectos only, including many candid portraits of local African Americans, as well as architectural studies, street and garden views. Very Good with small stain on lower right and corner lacking the dust jacket. Item #913202413 This evocative early 20th-century volume showcases the atmospheric photography of Arnold Genthe, whose lens captured the vanishing charm of old New Orleans before modernization transformed its streets. With a warm and insightful foreword by Southern author Grace King, the book offers a rare visual record of the city’s French Quarter, Creole architecture, and street life at a pivotal moment in its history. Genthe’s soft-focus images and masterful compositions evoke the romance and mystery of a bygone era, while King’s prose situates them within the city’s cultural and historical fabric. Published in the 1920s, Impressions of Old New Orleans is among the most beautiful photographic tributes to the Crescent City. Collectors prize this title for its blend of documentary precision and artistic vision, as well as its association with two of the period’s most refined interpreters of place and character. A cornerstone work for enthusiasts of photography, New Orleans history, and Southern Americana. Genthe [January 8, 1869 August 9, 1942] was a German-born American photographer, best known for his photos of San Francisco’s Chinatown, the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and his portraits of noted people, from politicians and socialites to literary figures and entertainment celebrities. Uncommon title.
Offered for Sale by: 32.1 Rare Books + Ephemera -
First Edition of Neal's The History of New-Englan
Daniel Neal The history of New-England Containing an impartial account of the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of the country, to the year of Our Lord, 1700 ; to which is added, The present state of New-England : with a new and accurate map of the country, and an appendix containing their present charter, their ecclesiastical discipline, and their municipal-laws
$4,200.00London: Printed for J. Clark, at the Bible & Crown in the Poultry, R. Ford, at the Angel in the Poultry, and R. Cruttenden, at the Bible and Three Crowns, in Cheapside, 1720. First Edition. Binding: Hardcover (Quarter Leather). Book Condition: Very Good Condition. Size: Small Octavo. 712 pages. 2-volume set (complete). Pagination: [1], x, [2], 330; [4], 331 – 712, xv, [1], which lines up with Howe’s listing for the first edition. Sabin, 52140; Howe N-26; European Americana 720/178 The books have been professionally re-bound, quarter-bound with the five panel spines in dark brown leather and the boards in a dark brown cloth. The spines are stamped with the title “Neal’s New England” in the second panel, a floral device in the third panel and the volume numbers in the fourth. The end papers have been replaced sympathetically with tan laid paper. The title page of Vol. 1 has been reattached with Japanese paper. Scattered foxing, but text mostly clean. There are a few (five by my count, but I may have missed some) pages with penciled notes in the margin or underlining. Note by an early owner in brown ink on the free front end paper of Vol. 2: “Horatio Aldin. | purchased for him in London | by his friend Geo. Oats Esqr. 1826”. Volume 1 includes the folded map of New England bound between the Table of Contents and the text (between signatures A and B). The map is in excellent condition with no loss around the edges, but there is a 2” split along the top horizontal fold through the “Bay of Funda” (with a small piece of what appears to be acid-free paper tape just under the fold) and a one-half inch split at the bottom of the vertical fold, not affecting the map. The verso of the last leaf of Vol. 2 is a single advertisement page for “BOOKS printed for John Clark, Richard Ford and Robert Cruttenden,” which include three of Isaac Watts’ books and a notice of a planned collection of previously unpublished works by John Owen. Neal was an Independent (or Dissenting) minister, educated at Thomas Rowe’s Dissenting Academy. He was friends with other prominent Dissenters of his time, including Philip Doddridge and Isaac Watts. His “History” found an immediate audience in New England, resulting in an honorary degree from Harvard just a year after the work’s publication.
Offered for Sale by: Quaint Book Shop -
Don Glaister's First Artist's Book. 1 of 60 Copi
Glaister, Donald Brooklyn Bridge A Love Song
$7,500.00Michael Pyron, Bookseller ABAA/ILAB
Cleveland: Foolsgold Studio, 2002. Folio. 28 pp. Limited edition, this is #40 of 60 copies (10 being held hors commerce). Signed by Glaister at the colophon. Backed in gray Nigerian goatskin with sanded aluminum sides, as issued, in felt-lined aluminum box with aluminum label. Prospectus, with minor soiling, laid in. A fine copy of this visually stunning artist book. Glaister describes the production in the prospectus: 14 leaves of 10 mil aluminum, attached to paper hinges. The book opens with an 18-line poem by Glaister in Avant Garde and is silkscreen printed on sanded aluminum. This is followed by five page-spread paintings of the bridge, seen from different angles, times of day, and times of year. Alternating between the paintings are sets of abstract studies, nine in all, that explore the essence of bridgeness. They are likewise made of sanded aluminum with acrylic paint, wire, aluminum tape, laminated polyester film and sand. The studies are mounted onto the aluminum pages. A visually striking celebration of the Brooklyn Bridge. The artist describes this best in the prospectus: “The story of the Bridge is one of opposites. The story of huge mass and lacy delicacy, of ancient and modern, of vitality and disease and death, of honor and corruption, of social vision and common greed. It is the story of links. The linking of East to West, of the agrarian past to the industrial future, of stone to steel, and of course of Brooklyn to Manhattan. Brooklyn Bridge: A Love Song visually and emotionally tells this story. The book is truly a love song. It sings of the elegance, power and invention of this great American icon.” This is the first artist book by Glaister who is one of the foremost design bookbinders practicing today. Glaister carved a path blending classical European bookbinding technique while exploring unexpected and untraditional materials and expression. His bindings appear in private collections throughout North American and Europe and in many of the most important institutions.
Offered for Sale by: Michael Pyron, Bookseller ABAA/ILAB -
Marshall's History of the Colonies - First Editio
John Marshall A History of the Colonies planted by the English on the Continent of North America From Their Settlement, to the Commencement of That War Which Terminated in Their Independence
$450.00Philadelphia: Abraham Small, 1824. First Edition. Binding: Hardcover (Full Leather). Book Condition: Very Good Condition; Ex-Lib, but with minimal markings. Size: 8″-9″ – Octavo (8vo). 486 pages. First edition, but without rear advertisement leaf. Sabin 44787; Howes M316. Written by the fourth and arguably most important Supreme Court chief justice. Originally published as Marshall’s Introduction to his Life of George Washington, now issued in its first separate (and corrected) edition. In his Preface Marshall explains the reason for publishing his history of the colonies in a separate volume, in “a form less exceptionable than that which it originally bore” (p. vii): “From the extreme, I may add unpardonable, precipitation with which it was hurried to the press, many errors were overlooked which, on a perusal of the book, were as apparent to the author as to others. He was desirous of correcting these errors, and of making the work more worthy of the public to which it was offered, as well as more satisfactory to himself. For this purpose he . . . has made several alterations in the language ; and has expunged much of the less essential matter with which the narrative was burthened. He dares not flatter himself that he has succeeded completely in his attempt to entitle this work to the approbation of the literary public of America ; but hopes that its claims to that approbation are stronger than in its original form” (p. vii). Contemporary full tan sheepskin binding with four raised bands and the title and author in gilt on black morocco spine labels. There is gold stamping around all three sides of the front and rear boards (though it is heavily worn on the bottom edges). There is a crease down the middle of the spine from the book being opened and the paper is torn on the front and rear hinges, exposing the cords, but the binding remains tight. Marbled end papers and page edges; the page edges are faded. There is an old bookseller’s label at the top of the front pastedown for Isaac N. Whiting, Bookseller & Stationer, Columbus, Ohio. The text block is tight. The pages have toned with age. It is an Ex-Lib copy with minimal markings: a library book plate on the front pastedown and a catalog number on the verso of the front free end paper and in the gutter of the first page of the Preface. There is a “For Reference” sticker on the rear pastedown and a small shelf tag at the bottom band of the spine. In addition, someone has checked some of the chapter headings in the Table of Contents and added brief notes (e.g., Good, Very Good) to a few. Howes’ number and a price are written in pencil on an initial blank leaf and there is another brief note in pencil at the top of the copyright page. A previous owner’s last name is written in a contemporary hand on the first blank leaf, which is almost completely separated from the text block, though holding on. Otherwise, the text block itself is unmarked. There is heavy foxing on the verso of the front and rear free end papers and the adjoining blank leaf, front and rear. The text block itself, however, is largely free from any foxing with only an occasional spot.
Offered for Sale by: Quaint Book Shop
