20th Century Rare Book from Katz Fine Manuscripts Inc.

New York. Good with no dust jacket. 1913. Hardcover. On offer is the diary of an unknown, wealthy New York City woman that offers a very revealing look at the life of an upper class suburban household in 1913. The unknown diarist is a young woman living at home with her mother. Her writing, though grammatically correct,… Read more about this item

New Kensington, Pennsylvania, Fiji, Port Hueneme, California, Camp Peary. Good with no dust jacket. Hardcover. On offer is a first-hand account of Charles B. Litz, a U. S. Serviceman in the Seabees, which was to become one of the most ubiquitous US Navy formations in World War Two (WWII). Litz was born in 1918 in New Kensington,… Read more about this item

United States, Canada, Texas, Washington, Michigan, Niagara Falls. Good with no dust jacket. 1929. Softcover. On offer is a detailed description of an extensive road trip taken only months before the start of the Great Depression. The journal covers the period March 11, 1929 through June 1, 1929. Although not mentioned by name, from context, the author of… Read more about this item

Brooklyn, New York: Brooklyn, New York, Rhode Island, Civil War Veteran, Maine. Good with no dust jacket. 1913. Hardcover. On offer is an excellent example of a Wanamaker diary and detailed NYC map dating from pre-WWI America. The diary belonged to Eliza J. Webster Mason (1842-1926) , wife of George E. Mason (1840-1905) , an artist, musical … Read more about this item

Illinois, United States. Good with no dust jacket. 1900. Softcover. On offer is a fine description of a young woman’s life in small-town America at the turn of the 20th century. The author of this diary is Marie Weckesser. From context, we know that she is a young woman, likely in her early twenties. Although we have… Read more about this item

Chambersburg Pennsylvania Penn PA. Good with no dust jacket. Softcover. On offer is a small journal that offers a very stark picture of the life of many women in America who fell on the hardest of times at the beginning of the Great Depression. It also includes a reference to what became known as the “Crime of… Read more about this item

London, England. Good+ with no dust jacket. Softcover. On offer is a remarkable collection of 27 diaries detailing over a quarter of a century of life in London between 1928 and 1962, and membership in an old and respected fraternal order. This is an outstanding collection of personal diaries that covers an extended period of time –… Read more about this item

Massachusetts. Good with no dust jacket. 1916. Hardcover. On offer are the detailed notes of a Massachusetts lawyer in the early 20th century. The notebook belonged to J. L Bigelow. Context clues indicate he was a law student at Harvard, possibly during the early days of his note-taking in this book. He appears in a list of… Read more about this item

United States, France. Good with no dust jacket. N.D.. None. On offer is a superb photographic record of an American family before, during and after WWI. The owner of the album is unknown as is the identity of this American family. A label on the back cover shows that the album was made in Chicago, Illinois. The… Read more about this item

Yellowstone National Park, United States, Niagara Falls. Good+ with no dust jacket. 1930. Hardcover. On offer is a beautiful, richly-decorated Yellowstone Park leather photo album portraying the Spear family’s 1930 family trip intertwined with photographs of scenes for a long-past American west. The unknown author/photographer of this album accompanied her parents on a road trip from… Read more about this item

New York. Good with no dust jacket. 1930. Typescript. On offer is an unpublished manuscript entitled The Less important Sister, written by a very successful female advertising professional in the 1930s. The author of this manuscript is Barbour Walker Lyndon. Born in 1885, she was educated at Barnard College where she graduated in 1907. She spent her… Read more about this item

Atlanta Georgia. Very Good with no dust jacket. 1922. Hardcover. On offer is an interesting scholarly catalog of birds of North America dating from the early days of the 20th century. On the front flyleaf, there is the handwritten title A Catalog of the Birds of North America in the Collection of Emory University . It was… Read more about this item

On offer is a fascinating, firsthand account of a young woman's social life in the heady days of 1920s New York City. An inscription suggests that the author of this journal is "Miss J Smith" of Hewlett, Long Island. The vibrant social life described in Smith's diary exemplifies the spirit of the Roaring Twenties. In entries… Read more about this item

On offer is the 1941 to 1942 diary of 64-year-old Michigan resident Flora Coyne. This interesting notebook chronicles one woman's experiences in rural America during World War Two, and includes an entry on the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Coyne was born in 1876 and lived her life in rural Michigan. She passed away in 1947… Read more about this item

On offer is a fine diary by Bessie Townsend, a young high school student turned teacher working at the turn of the 20th century in rural Vermont. Bessie Townsend kept this diary throughout 1905. At the time of writing, she was completing high school at the Black River Academy located in Ludlow, Vermont, and embarking on a… Read more about this item

On offer is a wonderful diary by Edith Margaret Libby, a college student spending the summer at her home in New Jersey and visiting New York during the Great Depression. Libby was a student at Central College in Fayette, Missouri, at the time of writing this diary. An inscription notes a second address in New Jersey,… Read more about this item

On offer is a small diary where young American Army MP Charles A. White recorded his experiences in Korea during the war. White was from St. Louis, Missouri. He enlisted in the United States army in 1948 and served in the 95th Military Police Battalion. This battalion was the largest, most geographically dispersed military police battalion… Read more about this item

On offer is a fine journal by Rosabelle Matteson chronicling a cross-continent automobile trip she took in the early 20th century. Rosabelle Matteson was married to Charles Matteson, who had been Associate Justice of the Rhode Island State Supreme Court from 1875 to 1891, and Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court from 1891 to 1900. … Read more about this item

On offer is a fascinating look at the practice of children's medicine at the beginning of the 20th century in the United States. The author of the notebook is an unidentified medical professional, likely either a student or a pediatric physician. Much of the material contained in these pages is technical in nature. The notes detail… Read more about this item

On offer are two heavily illustrated travel diaries dating only a few years after World War I. The 1922 notebooks detail (in word and illustration) a trip through Italy and France. The writer is unknown, but context suggests he is a well-educated Englishman with a good knowledge of the arts. The books consist of descriptions of… Read more about this item