Search Results: Authors starting with R from Ian Brabner, Rare Americana (ABAA)

Washington: USGPO, 1937. 317pp. Hardbound in blue cloth with original dust jacket. Spine sloped. Very good in a good pictorial dust jacket. Great Depression-era report "of a study of combined farming-industrial employment conducted in the Southeast by the Federal Emergency Relief Agency. Comparative social and economic data for part-time farmers and nonfarming industrial workers form the basis of this report" (piii).

[Edinburgh (Scotland), November 9, 1896]. [1½]pp. ALS. 12mo. Bifolium; "Dalmeny Park" stationery with mourning border. Old pencil identification, just touching autograph. Fold; small remnant of paper mount on verso of second leaf; Very Good. Autograph Letter Signed by United Kingdom Prime Minister Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery (1847-1929) who served in that office from 1894 to 1895. The letter-simply signed "R"-was written to a Mr. Williams just one month after Rosebery resigned as leader of the Liberal Party. Rosebery mentions "hundreds of letters arriving" and references the City Liberal Club, adding his hope "...that the new circular will have produced its result."

[Florida. N.p.,]. 1902. Albumen photograph, 4½ x 6¾ inches, on plain original mount. Slight toning, a bit lightened; very good. In 1900, Architects' and Builders Magazine notes that Charles R. Weeks and Brothers of 542 West 14th Street New York were manufacturing a "plastering fibre" called Salasee: "This material, it is claimed, is not affected by hot lime, and is cleaner, stronger and cheaper than hair." The present 1902 photograph, annotated on its verso, documents that Weeks either moved his operation to Fernandina Beach, Florida or added a second location. The image reveals a large two-story frame and stone building that comprised the "Salasee Works." A horse tethered to a (unseen) carriage is at the far left. An African-American man poses nexts to a large open doorway. To the right, various tools and implements lean up against one of the building's walls.

Seattle: Fantagraphics Books, (1994). Quarto, 118 pages. Glossy pictorial boards with two gently-bumped corners, else As New. First Fantagraphics Book edition, first printing. No. 163 of 400 copies signed by R. Crumb.

Death Crater, California: Molly Moon Press, 1969. 22pp. 9 x 6 inches. Printed, stiff-paper wrappers. Minor edge and spine fading; near fine. Limited to 500 copies and printed by letterpress.

[America. July 1996]. Limited Edition, No. 26 of 250 copies. 16 x 20 inches. Signed by the artist in pencil at lower left and with the ink autographs of the five subjects depicted. Cream colored paper. Near Fine. Autographed by five Negro League Baseball players all of whom played for the New York Cubans. The New York Cubans team was organized in 1935 with mostly Latino players. Artist R. Michael Armstrong, who also signs here, depicts five New York Cubans players from the 1940s and 1950s in uniform: Rodolfo "Rudy" Fernández Marin (1911-2000), James "Pee Wee" Jenkins (1923-2002), Rafael "Ray" Noble Magee (1919-1998), Armando Vasquez Cotilla (1923-2008), and Claro Duany (1917-1997).  All except Jenkins were natives of Cuba. "Pee Wee" Jenkins is noted for having pitched for the New York Cubans when they won the 1947 Negro World Series. His championship teammate "Ray" Noble later played Major League Baseball for the New York Giants. Ref. New York Cubans - Negro Leagues [Negro League Baseball Players… Read More

Philadelphia: A.M.E. Book Concern, 631 Pine Street. 1916. Twenty-sixth Revised Edition. 492pp. Original publishers cloth. Front hinge expertly strengthened; a very good copy. The front endpaper has the following inscriptions: "Be thee faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of righteousness -God." [Next line:] "To Brother Elbert Jameson for past kindness to your former pastor J. Logan Craw. 1466 Griffin Avenue, Los Angeles, Cal. In charge of First A.M.E. Church 8 & Towne Avenue. November 29, 1916." A Texas native, Rev. J. Logan Craw (b. 1874) pastored extensively in Kansas before moving to the Pacific Northwest to be stationed at Bethel A.M.E. Church in Portland, Oregon. Between 1915 to 1919, he served First A.M.E. Church in Los Angeles, the oldest church founded by a Black community in the City of Los Angeles. (Centennial Encyclopaedia of the African Methodist Episcopal Church) Published in Philadelphia, Doctrines and Discipline is a revised edition of the ecclesiastical discipline, rules… Read More

Glen's Falls, N.Y.: S.R. Stoddard, ca. 1880s. 3¼ x 6¾ inches. card stock mount with imprint. captioned within negative. Publisher's advertisement on verso. Very good. Canoeing scene along the Raquette River by noted Adirondack landscape photographer, Seneca Ray Stoddard (1844-1917). The stereoview image shows two men and their dog pushing off from shore into the river which originates in Raquette Lake in the Adirondack Mountains. On the back is an advertisement for Stoddard's "Adirondack Series" of stereo photographs that includes this image.

New York and London: Harper and Brothers, 1934, 88p. + [1, (colophon)]. First trade edition. Cloth backed octavo, without publisher's dustwrapper. Illustrated with five full-page illustrations from woodcuts by J. J. Lankes. Printed by the Golden Hind Press in Madison, New Jersey. Trifle binding wear with light soil, outermost corner tips with wear; a very good clean copy. First published by Scribner's under the title "Hard Wood," a short novel set at the outset of the American Civil War; a story of murder and revenge. Burnett's Dark Command (1938) also recounted an episode occurring during the American Civil War. Burnett was best known for his novels Iron Man and his books-into-film crime classic, Little Caesar.

London: Printed for T. Evans, in Paternoster-Row; Cadell and Davies, and P. Elmsley, in the Strand; J. Debrett, in Picadilly; and J. Robson, and R. Faulder, in Bond-Street, 1796. Half-title, [1]-385, [1, blank], [2, adverts]pp. 12mo. Full polished tree calf; leather spine label and gilt rules. Front joint cracked; front hinge, title-page, and two leaves strengthened and mended with tissue; foxing; good. bcjbs 353813. First edition of Bishop Watson's bitter attack against the second part of Paine's Age of Reason and deism. Watson's defense of the Bible was widely reprinted in America. Like Paine's work, it ran through many editions, well into the nineteenth-century. Seven editions alone were issued in 1796, the first year of its publication. This copy was kept by Nicholas Waln (1742-1818), a Philadelphia Quaker, a member of Benjamin Franklin's Junto, a Library Company director and a member of the American Philosophical Society. Waln signed his name on the title-page. Waln studied law under Joseph… Read More

New York: Harrison Smith, 1932. 228pp. Original publisher's cloth, without dustwrapper. Light binding soil, lightly cocked, small separation at one hinge, else very good. First American edition of Raymond Radiguet's text and translated by Kay Boyle.

Detroit: Highlight Radio Productions, 1963. Un-printed record sleeve toned else Near Mint / Mint; never played. Black American history as imagined by this Detroit, Michigan production outfit and issued, in part, to advertise and market Pepsi-Cola. The ambitious album aimed to highlight significant men and women from pre-Colonial America "down to the threshold of today's Space Age." Individuals profiled: Marian Anderson ; Anthony and Isabella ; Crispus Attucks ; Benjamin Banneker ; Mary McLeod Bethune ; B.K. Bruce ; Dr. Ralph Bunche ; George Washington Carver ; Paul Cuffe ; Benjamin Davis, Jr. ; Frederick Douglass ; Dr. Charles Drew ; William E.B. Du Bois ; Paul Laurence Dunbar ; Robert Elliott ; Estevanico [Mustafa Azemmouri] ; Prince Hall ; Jupiter Hammond ; W.C. Handy ; Roland Hayes ; Matthew Henson ; Langston Hughes ; James Weldon Johnson ; James Lewis ; Loe Louis ; Pedro Nino ; Jesse Owens ; P.B.S. Pinchback ; Salem Poor ; A. Philip Randolph ; Hiram Revels ; Paul Robeson ; Jackie Robinson ; John… Read More

[America. 1951]. Illustrated Poster. 41 x 27 inches. Printed in blue and red. Fold lines, numerous inexpert tape mends to verso, otherwise very good. A Georgia native, Walker Smith Jr. (1921 -1989) a.k.a. Sugar Ray Robinson is regarded by some authorities as the greatest boxer of all time. Outside of the ring, Robinson was one of the first African Americans to gain stardom as a celebrity becoming a fixture of New York's 1940s and 1950s social scene, "his presence extended beyond his boxing skills to showmanship, class, and grace." (AAL) This movie poster advertises a film of the boxing-rematch between Robinson and England's Randy Turpin a.k.a. "The Leamington Licker" on September 12, 1951 at the Polo Grounds in New York City. Turpin had beaten Robinson two months before. In this grudge match movie audiences watched Robinson beat Turpin as Jimmy Powers, the New York Daily News sports editor, narrated the film. The Associated Press has named Sugar Ray Robinson the fighter of the century, just ahead of… Read More

New York: Grove Press, Inc., (1963). 410pp. 8vo. Publisher's cloth. Faint offsetting to endpapers; near fine with the dustwrapper in like condition. First edition, first printing of Rechy's debut novel. "A young male homosexual attempts to break out of his introversion by testing himself in the homosexual underworld across the country. Scenes in Los Angeles and San Francisco." (Baird and Greenwood)

Dakar [Senegal]: Centre de Hautes Études Afro-Ibéro-Américaines de l'Université de Dakar, 1970. First Printing. "Edition Bilingue" (Bilingual Edition). 50pp. 8¼ x 5¼ inches. Printed stiff paper wrappers. Text in Spanish and French. Creases to wrappers and portions of textblock slightly bumped; good. Inscribed and signed by this important Latin American poet and diplomat, to his bibliographer, Dorothy E. Harth "en testimonio de antigua amistad." There is a checklist of Carrera Andrade's writings with pencil annotations by Professor Harth at the book's end.

[Paris:] Editions Pierre Seghers, (1966). First Printing. 190pp. Illustrated. 6¼ x 5¼ inches. Pictorial stiff paper wrappers. Text in French. No. 156 in the series "Poètes d'aujourd'hui." Spine sunned; light cover soil; very good. Inscribed and signed by Carrera Andrade to his bibliographer, Dorothy E. Harth "con mi profundo agradecimiento por sus nobles demontraciones de amistad. Muy sinceramente Jorge Carrera Andrade. 35, Rue de l'Aigle, La Garenne 92, Francia." This lauded Ecuadorian author "composed brief, imagistic poems noted for a sympathetic understanding of the human condition. He also translated the works of other writers into Spanish and adapted Japanese haiku into Spanish in a form called micrograma." (Stony Brook University Libraries) In France and Spain, Carrera Andrade met other Latin American expatriates, including Pablo Neruda, Gabriela Mistral, and César Vallejo. His poems were anthologized and/or translated by Muna Lee, William Carlos Williams, Thomas Merton and others. Lee's… Read More

Baltimore: George Lycett, 44 Lexington Street. 1870. 18pp.Self-titled wrappers, a thin yellow paper strip serves as the spine. Light soil; small closed tear to title-leaf; very good. From his pulpit at the Chapel of the Holy Cross, Baltimore, Protestant Episcopalian Rev. Griswold issues this tract on the meaning of Hell to his faith. The tract is rare with one copy known at AAS. This Baltimore imprint can be associated with bookseller George Lycett at 44 Lexington Street. Works published under the Lycett name appear short-lived. His address is found to be synonymous with George Lycett's Church Book-Store and The Episcopal Church Bookstore.

[Pen Argyl, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1886-1907]. 30 Trifold Brochures. 8 are duplicates. All are printed on variant colored card stocks. Ranging in size (unfolded): 4½ x 5½ inches to 4¼ x 9 inches. A few with neat pencil annotations. Minor handling; Very Good. A collection of brochures announcing the upcoming schedules and weekly prayer meeting topics of the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor, held at the First Presbyterian Church in Pen Argyl. The Y.P.S.C.E. was founded in 1881 as a non-denominational evangelical outreach to Christian youth, an early form of what is today called "youth ministry." The society was modeled, in part, after the work of Presbyterian minister Theodore L. Cuyler (1822-1909).¹ In addition to listing the Y.P.S.C.E. officers and committee persons, the brochures record each week's prayer meeting topic, and the name of the male or female presenter. The topics chosen were almost entirely based on specific verses in the Bible, providing insight into one… Read More

Baltimore, Maryland: Church Advocate Press, 1925. Frontis, 160pp. Revised Edition. Small 8vo. Bound in dark green cloth. Two illustration plates. Publisher's street address in tiny ink letters at imprint. Mild binding wear; a very good copy. History and biographical sketches of Black Americans in Maryland, from slavery times till the time of this book's publication. Notable names, such as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, are profiled within, but so are numerous other figures, many obscure or little written of. The author served as rector for the St. James' First African Episcopal Church in Baltimore and also as editor of the Church Advocate. Second edition, revised and enlarged.

Guantanamo [Cuba]: Imprenta El Suaso Aguilerae ntre Calixto Carćia y Los Maceo. [nd., ca. 1930s?]. [1]p. 13½ x 7½ inches. Broadside, simple ornamental border. Text in English and Spanish. Single sheet mounted to a larger ledger sheet. Two short tears upon fold lines in margins; tanning; good. An unusual imprint and bilingual broadside, which serves as both menu and advertisement for Rodrigo Rey Doce's restaurant, named "The Radio" and offering "Good Home Cooking" to the "V.S. Navy" and a fixed price menu. For one dollar, diners could enjoy such comfort foods as ham and eggs, "beesteak", "french friend potatoes", veal chops or cheese with guava jelly. Ice cold beer was "$only one dollar$" which seems a bit exorbitant. An A La Carte menu was also available and the edibles are named in both English and Spanish languages. Bacon and eggs, fried fish steak, fried fish (parguitos), vermicelli soup and so forth. Dessert offerings were peaches, pears, oranges, and cheese guava jelly. One can only imagine… Read More