Ephemera from Alcuin Books, ABAA-ILAB

Alison Park, PA: Badali Printery, 1935. Octavo. 12 pages. A rare first volume of a proposed magazine on the ideal scout concept. Paul Bedali was a printer who was devoted to scouting as taught by the Boy Scouts of America. OCLC does not show that any copies are held by any library. The proposed topics were to discuss the… Read more about this item

Kankakee, Illinois: Lone Indian Fraternit. Octavo. A very scarce collection (no copies are found on OCLC) of the Lone Indian Fraternity which began in 1926 and was continued up until World War II when its youth became members of the U.S military. The issues of the Lone Indian are: Vol. 8 nos. 6(pt. 1 and 2), Vol. 8 no.… Read more about this item

Various Small Presses. Various Sizes. John Martin, publisher of Black Sparrow Press, was a close friend and early supporter of Bukowski but also a friend of the legendary bookstore, Either/Or in Hermosa Beach. Along with Bukowski who hung out there often signing his books or making small drawings in her inventory, customers included Pynchon, Gide and others who liked… Read more about this item

William Jenks (1778-1866) was a noted scholar who, after graduating from Harvard in 1797, served as a clergyman before serving as Professor of Oriental Languages at Bowdoin College. He founded the American Oriental Society. The collection are letters written to him primarily in the early decades of the 19th century. Nine of the letters are to him and show… Read more about this item

Cleveland Clothing Company, 1885. Approx.2 5/8" x 4 1/2" 30 pages. One of Cleveland's large manufacturing ready-to-wear children's clothes and men's accessories. They suffered a major fire in February 1892 forcing them to give up their business. No references found in OCLC, NUC or elsewhere online. Clearly, this was a promotional item with the 1885 and 1886 calendar at… Read more about this item

Bifolium, 2 pages. An interesting handwritten letter describing an important person in the dairy and cattle business from his ranch in San Pedro. "Written to Friend Fowler (an associate in his farming and mining ventures in southern Arizona). I was in town [Tombstone] had inquired about Coffee & Cranes and found they are still in business... Well about land..I… Read more about this item

Boston; (1914): Seaver-Howland. 3 1/2 "x 5 1/2" Portrait frontispiece, 16 pages. In Emerson's essay on "Gifts," he illustrated the power of gifts to bind one person to another. The best gifts are those which are a part of oneself. The poet presents a poem, the farmer that which he has grown. In Saul Bellow's "Humboldt's Gift" this idea… Read more about this item

[Mill Valley, California]: Sunflower Press, 1976. Limited Edition. Octavo. Limited to 140 copies. The present copy is number 92 signed by Carol Cunningham. 19 unnumbered pages.One of the finest of the Sunflower Press items by Carol Cunningham. Here she and Joan Abelson cut the lino block of Gutenberg using the design on a German stamp loaned by Arlen Philpott.… Read more about this item

Boston: Merrymount Press, 1948. 1 folded sheet. Limited to 75 copies. Wood engraving by Bernard Picart. Not listed in Smith bibiography of Merrymount Press. 22 x 35 cm folded to 11 x 18 cm.

New York: Adolph Wittemann, 1895. Oblong 12mo. 12 leaves, similar in size but different from the copy by the same publisher at Columbia University. That copy was also a photomechanical reproduction but had different images. The community had become the center for Methodist who wanted a religious resort. In 1894 Lillagore built a huge auditorium seating 10,000 who filled… Read more about this item

John Considine helped to make vaudeville a major part of American cities. When Chris O. Brown arrived from Chicago, he became a vital part of the Sullivan-Considine syndicate which he managed. He oversaw the New York operation (see Robert Grau, The Businessman in the Amusement World, 1910, p. 142 which notes his beginnings and has a picture of him).… Read more about this item

The Jimmy Robinson collection deals with many of the most important leaders of finance, publishing and entertainment in the period 1935-1985, most of whom were involved with hunting, skeet shooting, and fishing. From 1925 to 1969, Jimmy Robinson was the primary writer of American Trap-shooting. He was asked by Grantland Rice to choose the first All-American team. There are… Read more about this item

Leipzig: Baumgartner, 1852. 4 page bifolium issue of a German prospectus (OCLC reports only two German libraries have a copy of the issued Bible). An early German prospectus with the text of Matthew 17 but an engraving of Delilah holding a sleeping Sampson in her lap while another woman cuts his hair, with awaiting Philistine waiting for the deed… Read more about this item

Ysleta [Texas]: Edwin B. Hill. Approx. 5" x 7 1/2" Broadsheet, undated but issued as Broadside No. 1. Edwin B. Hill's interest in Henry David Thoreau brought him the friendship of Samuel Arthur Jones of the University of Michigan, a Thoreau scholar and enthusiast. He began to procure works about Thoreau as early as 1899. For the next four… Read more about this item

Scrapbook of Jasper S. Connell of the San Francisco construction firm of Van Sant-Houghton was placed in charge of the New York Exhibit at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition which was a civic effort to show that San Francisco had truly recovered from the San Francisco Earthquake, Jasper S. Connell (1884-1965) was the Civil Engineer whose thesis: "Fire and Earthquake-proof Building… Read more about this item

Dr. Frances Gillmor in the English Department was better known as the specialist at the University of Arizona on Mexican art and culture but she was a good friend of the Publisher of the University of Kentucky Press, Jerry Crouch who had been her student. He begins by sending her a 2 ALS 32 line message on Christmas card… Read more about this item

[Goverment Printing Office, Washington, 1812]. Octavo. . U.S. 51st Congress. 1st Session, 1889-1890. House. U.S. Congress. Committee on Territories. unopened. 320 pages, xii, index. All of the legislation signed by Henry Clay of the House, Wm H. Crawford of the Senate, and President James Madison. The most important single item is on pages 227-228 which… Read more about this item

Each of the four original postcards were never mailed which because of their size (10 3/4" x 3 1/2") would not have survived postal handling. The Harwood Photo Service was in Medford, Oregon in 1925 and lasted until 1933 though these photographs would have been taken circa 1925-1930) [see Rogue Valley Photographers website]. The costs of… Read more about this item

New York: New York Daily Tribute, 1846. Folio. [4]pp. The article on the front page describes her impressions of the American Art Union. She notes that Leutze's painting has just been added to the collection. Her account reflects a serious knowledge of history painting as well as serious music. A very good copy with just… Read more about this item

Worcester, MA; [1801]: Isaiah Thomas. Octavo. No pagination. [42]pp. pictorial head pieces for each month, contains historical sketches of earthquakes, information for farmers and agriculture, recipes for making blackberry jelly, how to remove ink from linen, poetry, Officers of the Federal Government, a large listing of roads to the principal towns on the continent from Boston with the names… Read more about this item