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Blind Horse Books [ABAA]
Blind Horse Books [ABAA - FABA]
Membership(s): ABAA, ILAB, IOBA, FABA
Paine, Albert Bigelow (1861–1937) MARK TWAIN: A Biography; The Personal and Literary Life of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, [Three Volumes – Complete] THE BIOGRAPHER WHO KNEW HIM BEST
$750.00
Published only two years after Mark Twain’s death, this monumental three-volume biography by Albert Bigelow Paine remains one of the foundational sources for understanding Samuel Langhorne Clemens.
Paine enjoyed unprecedented access to Twain’s personal papers, correspondence, unpublished manuscripts, and family recollections, allowing him to produce the first comprehensive account of the author’s life, literary development, travels, friendships, and public career.
More than a biography, the work presents a vivid portrait of nineteenth-century American literary culture. Paine captures Twain’s rise from Mississippi river pilot and frontier journalist to international celebrity, while preserving anecdotes, letters, and observations unavailable elsewhere.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Three volumes. Handsomely bound in half red morocco over complementary marbled boards with matching marbled endpapers. Five raised spine bands with gilt-stamped titles and decorative devices. Top edges gilt. Octavo format. Illustrated throughout with photographs, facsimiles, and portraits. An attractive early twentieth-century custom binding well suited for both library and display.
CONDITION: No flaws or blemishes beyond minimal shelf handling. A particularly handsome set in bright red morocco with fresh gilt, clean boards, and well-preserved marbled endpapers. Still Gift Quality.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE —
Paine’s biography presents the most influential early account of Mark Twain’s life and career. Drawing upon years of personal friendship and literary collaboration, the author reconstructs Twain’s childhood in Missouri, his years on the Mississippi River, western journalism, world travels, family life, financial reverses, lecture tours, and emergence as one of the defining voices of American literature.
The work reflects the transition from nineteenth-century America into the modern literary age. Alongside discussions of major works such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, and The Innocents Abroad, Paine preserves valuable firsthand observations that later biographers frequently relied upon. The result is both an important reference work and a richly readable literary biography.
Numerous film, television, and theatrical adaptations have been drawn from Twain’s writings, particularly The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, ensuring the continued cultural influence of the author whose life is chronicled here.
Albert Bigelow Paine served as Mark Twain’s literary executor and enjoyed unusual access to the author’s private papers. Published shortly after Twain’s death in 1910, this biography helped shape public understanding of Twain for generations and remains a cornerstone of Twain scholarship.
SUBJECTS: Mark Twain, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, American Authors, Literary Biography, Nineteenth-Century America, American Literary History, Mississippi River Culture, American Literature, Literary History.
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rare 1901 Oklahoma Native American reference
Gideon, D. C. INDIAN TERRITORY Descriptive Biographical and Genealogical including the Landed Estates, County Seats Etc., Etc. with a General History of the Territory in One Volume
$1,996.00Gene W. Baade Books on the West
NYC and Chicago: Lewis, 1901. First Edition. Hardcover. Good. Item #2206028 1st printing. Beautifully rebound in three-quarter leather and cloth with gilt titles (slightly flaked) on spine and with new endpapers. 956pp. 100 photogravure portraits plus several other photos. A. E. G. (all edges gilt). Originally owned by and with the signature (three times) of “H. S. Suggs, Berwyn I. T.” The second Suggs signature was on a chipped sheet & in rebinding the binder affixed it to a sheet of matching tone and bound it in. The third signature of Mr. Suggs is written along the inner margin of where he is in the book (pps. 580-581). Suggs “… came to Berwyn in the Indian Territory, where he continued in the lumber business [from Texas] and also ran a cotton gin until 1901, when he sold his gin and is now engaged in the hardware and lumber business . . . he is interested [also] in the cattle business, and firm being known as Suggs and Brother.” The brother, Sidney Suggs, has an even longer entry in the volume and a portrait. A glossy photo of him and his family is laid in. It is printed from the archives of the Okla Hist Soc. One leaf (pps 931-932) was once detached but has been tipped back in. It has tears radiating out from the gutter and has 3 1/2″ x 1 1/2″ inch loss of text in the middle of the page. Title page has two edge chips. One index sheet has old cloth tape edge repairs. Throughout there are some edge tears that have not been repaired, but we have discovered none of a serious nature. Many tissue guards are missing. There is some browning/foxing on some pages, but not extensively. Some page corners are rounded from use. We have conservatively graded this copy “good,” but in our view with experience in these kinds of volumes, if it were in our personal collection we would have no issue grading it very good. Adams (Six-guns 1107) says, “Has a long section on all the outlaws of the Indian Territory, including the Dalton gang and the Cook gang …” [but Adams adds the author is mistaken about Belle Starr’s brother & repeats false information about her]. In this section there is glowing information on the famous Black Man, Deputy. U. S. Marshal Bass Reeves, and an account of one of his captures of outlaws involving gunplay. An Oklahoma rarity. Howes G158.
Offered for Sale by: Gene W. Baade Books on the West -
Rare 1830 anti-Baptist pamphlet, 55 arguments
Timothy [attr. Williams, Thomas (Rev.) or Holmes, Sylvester (Rev.)] FIFTY-FIVE REASONS FOR NOT BEING A BAPTIST
$350.00Gene W. Baade Books on the West
(New Bedford?): Titus, 1830. First Edition. Soft cover. Good. Item #5005080 “By Timothy.” (Columbia University identifies “Timothy” as Rev. Thomas Williams, 1779-1876. However OCLC identifies him as Rev. Sylvester Holmes.). FIFTY-FIVE REASONS FOR NOT BEING A BAPTIST. Printed in New-England (New Bedford?) / by / TITUS…1830. Printed wrappers, string-tied. (12pp). A rather remarkable point by point argument why a Christian should not be a Baptist, many of the points having to do with baptizing by immersion. Point # 11 gives you a picture of the author’s argument: “Not a shadow of evidence appears that the first Christian Baptism, administered to THREE THOUSAND on the day of Pentecost, was by plunging. Acts 2: 41.” Thomas Williams was a Congregationalist minister and a graduate of Yale. He was a missionary in New York and later served several parishes in New England. Several of his booklets / tracts were published. Less is known or available about Holmes. A rare pamphlet found in only a few theological schools and others. Light foxing. Obvious small chips on some leaves. RARE.
Offered for Sale by: Gene W. Baade Books on the West -
America to be the coming New Jerusalem!
Samuel Sewall; Samuel Willard Phaenomena Quaedam Apocalyptica ad Aspectum Novi Orbis Configura; (with) The Fountain Opened Or, some few Lines towards a description of the New Heaven As It makes to those who stand upon the New Earth
$1,250.00Boston: Printed by Bartholomew Green, 1727. Second Edition (with additional material). Binding: Hardcover. Book Condition: Very Good Condition, with two leaves printed in facsimile. Size: 8″-9″ – Octavo (8vo). 88 pages (64 p., 24 p.). In bringing together his earlier work, Willard’s sermon and an update in his appendix, Sewall marshals the evidence for his position that the Millennium is near and that the discovery and Christianizing of America is a crucial and perhaps final development to that end. Drawing from prophetic passages describing the coming Millennium, Sewall find significance in the discovery of the Americas as the final remaining area to be found. He also sees the New World as a logical place for the New Jerusalem to be established. Drawing upon others, including Manasseh Ben Israel, who speculated that the native Americans were the remnants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, Sewall writes, “God’s removing Israel out of his sight, is no less than three times mentioned; which may insinuate the Remoteness of that Land, into which God by his Providence intended to cast them. And none was no remote, and so much out of sight, as America” (p. 41). The summary description for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Digital Commons provides this assessment: “Often misunderstood, Phænomena illustrates the intricate connection between prophetic exegesis and New England politics, between eschatological speculations and self-representation and policies toward the Indian populations of North America.” Rebound in leather over boards, the leather paneled with a line embossed around the borders of the front and rear cover. Spine scored to give the effect of four compartments. Laid paper has been used for the replacement end papers. Text block is tight. The first two leaves (title page for Sewell and address to Sir William Ashhurst) are printed in facsimile on laid paper and trimmed slightly smaller on the outside edge as the original pages. The original text begins at Sig. B (p. [iii]). There are three holes in the outside margin of that leaf, affecting two of the marginal notes on the recto and another hole on p. 43 in the middle of the page. There is a tide mark on pp. [iii] to 52 and 57-62. Any prefatory pages for Willard’s work have not been reprinted here; the pages go directly from the last page of Sewell to the first of Willard’s. Although the two works are paginated separately, the signatures are continuous (Sewall ends with Sig. S and Willard begins with Sig. T). Willard’s pamphlet is followed by an appendix written by Sewall. The last two leaves of the appendix to Willard’s pamphlet have been strengthened at the edges with paper tape. Both of the pages are missing their upper corner. The page edges are slightly browned.
Offered for Sale by: Quaint Book Shop -
Landmark cattle boom text, rare 1882 printing
Brisbin, Gen. James S. THE BEEF BONANZA or How To Get Rich on the Plains, being a description of cattle-growing, sheep-farming, horse-raising, and dairying in the West.
$489.98Gene W. Baade Books on the West
Philadelphia: J. P. Lippincott, 1882. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #0903021 Bibliographers only cite the 1881 first edition (copyright 1880), & do not mention this 1882 printing, which collates & sizes identical to the 1881 printing. Attractive pictorial gilt & blind-stamped small 8vo cloth. 222pp. Illustrated with several wood engravings. Index. 6pp of additional publications. Bibliographer Reese writes, in part, “Brisbin’s book has long been considered the most important promotional work adding fuel to the cattle boom of the 1880s… (note of Brisbin’s plagiarism) …Whether the facts were his or not, Brisbin paints a spectacular picture in which his favorite phrase is ‘and the profits are enormous.'” Information out of Nebraska, Texas, Colorado, etc.. According to Reese, at the 1st National Convention of Cattlemen in 1884 in St. Louis, Brisbin was elected vice president of the Nat’l Cattle and Horse Growers’ Assoc.. Moderate wear to extremities. Bottom of spine with slight fraying. Light soiling. Minor rubbing. Very good, tight, original condition. Rare in either printing & exceptional in this condition. Herd 322, 6-Score 15, Rader 486, Howes B780.
Offered for Sale by: Gene W. Baade Books on the West
