History of the Spirit Lake Massacre and Captivity of Miss Abbie Gardner by Gardner-Sharp, Mrs. Abbie

Des Moines: Kenyon Printing Company, 1910. Sixth Edition, Revised. Hardcover. Very good. Octavo. vi, 386 pages. Illustrations. Burgundy cloth hardcover with gilt illustrated front cover. Light shelf wear to the cloth binding. Previous owner name on the right front flyleaf. The Spirit Lake Massacre took place in 1857 and was located in northern Iowa near the Minnesota Territorial border. Later printing of Howes S 330.

Des Moines: Mills & Co, 1885. First edition. Hardcover. Near fine. 8vo. iv, 312pp. Green printed cloth, gilt spine title, decorated endpapers. Illustrated and with a frontispiece of the author. Paper toned with age, neat ownership name and an erasure on a preliminary blank, else this is a very good copy. The binding may be a publisher's binding, but is more likely an early rebind, nicely done. Accompanied by four original cabinet photographs, ca. 1885, 4¼ by 7 inches. One with a portrait of the author wearing a black dress of the period, but the photographer is unidentified. Another shows the author standing in the doorway of the Gardner log cabin built by her father, and still another showing her looking at the Gardner gravesite. These were both likely taken in 1883 when she returned to the area. They are identified as taken first by Evans of Spirit Lake and the other by Evans of Lakefield, Minn. The final photograph is of a painting showing the moment of her captivity, the original of which is… Read More