Search Results: Authors starting with A from Main Street Fine Books & Manuscripts, ABAA

Chicago: A.C. Becken Co, 1936. Hardcover. 4to. Grey cloth with blue and burgundy lettering and blue, gilt and burgundy decorations. 780pp. Extensive illustrations (some color and some partly color). Very good overall. Binding typically a bit edgeworn and age toned, but sound; text block mostly near fine; front flyleaf seemingly an expert period replacement; small inked note on front pastedown (no doubt from jeweler owner, who reminds himself "Clock movements Page 634 to 637"); faint floral mustiness. Tight, nice first edition of the "Fiftieth Anniversary Number 1887 1937" (according to front board gilt medallion) of this notable Chicago wholesaler best known for its watches and jewelry, as the title page statement ("This Catalog Is Sent to Recognized Retail Jewelers Only") attests. Becken was successor to two other notable Chicago businesses, which the front board duly notes: "Continuing Otto Young & Co. and C.H. Knights Thearle Co." The color images are particularly bright and charming. Thumb-indent… Read More

New York: Frank Tousey, Publisher, 1907. Paperback. The February 6, 1907 edition (No. 453) of "Pluck and Luck: Complete Stories of Adventure." 4to. Pictorial color wrappers. 30pp, (2pp ads). Good plus. Outer wrappers faintly age toned and a tad edgeworn; inner text pages moderately age toned and a bit delicate as usual. Attractive issue of this adventure weekly. Chromolithograph front wrapper shows an Edwardian gent out cold, the gent who just punched him out being pulled away by his friend as a group of gents spring towards them. Caption below reads: "Quick as a flash Al grabbed the bills, sprang aside, and then ran between the man's legs, and upset him. The villain fell heavily, his head striking the hard tiled floor with such force as to render him unconscious. 'Come away, Charlie!' cried Al." Delightful and corny front wrapper graphics. A far better than average dime novel (actually, "Price 5 Cents") or "penny dreadful," with text printed in two… Read More

Benson, MN: Composition Aids, 1971. Paperback. Small 4to. Stiff glazed wrappers. 66pp. Very good. Slightest of edgewear. Tight, attractive first edition, bearing a large, bold author inscription on the title page to noted social protest poet and fine press publisher JOHN BEECHER (1904-80): "With Best Wishes to John / & Barbara Beecher -- Paul. / It is, of course, easier to / tell people how to write / than it is to write. / I admire very much those like / you who do write."

London: Oxford University Press, 1975. Paperback. Small 8vo. Stiff glossy pictorial wrappers. xix, 385pp, xiv. Near fine. First softbound edition, tight and quite nice. Distinguished criticism on Civil War writings.

New York: G.P. Putnam's, 1987. Hardcover. Small 4to. Blue cloth spine and grey paper over boards, dust jacket. 351pp. Near fine/fine. Small stain on page edges. First edition. Gripping novel of Soviet and U.S. political intrigue centering around the search for a stolen nuclear device.

New York: Oxford University Press, 1951. Hardcover. 8vo. Green cloth. xiv, 329pp. Very good. Tight, handsome first edition, nicely inscribed by Aaron on the front flyleaf: "To M.E.C. with / admiration and affection / Dan." Could be an intriguing association copy -- if you can figure out who "M.E.C." is! Presumably it is this same M.E.C. who has lightly pencilled in several margin comments in the opening pages only. Among the progressives profiled in this volume are Henry George, Edward Bellamy, Henry Demarest Lloyd, William Dean Howells, and Thorstein Veblen.

London: Oxford University Press, 1975. Paperback. Small 8vo. Stiff glossy pictorial wrappers. xix, 385pp, xiv. Very good. Faint edgewear; small scuff on front wrapper. A tight and nice first softbound edition of this noted 1973 study of Civil War writings.

Long-time editor of Norman L. Munro's "The New York Family Story Paper" (1873-1905), which ran again from 1905 to 1921 as "Family Story Paper"; also a playwright and lyricist ("I Wouldn't -- Would You?" with composer Harry Von Tilzer, 1902). ANS, 1p, 8½" X 5½", New York, NY, 1906 May 16. Addressed to Mr. Benners. Very good. Light even age toning. Writing on "Munro's Publishing House" letterhead, Abarbanell discusses a new play with a producer. "I have the revised copy of my play now," he begins. "... please return, at my expense, the copy I gave you, with your opinion on it & the likelihood of your getting a production at Atlantic City during the season. If you succeed we will share the royalties on a basis of 1/3 to you & 2/3 to me...." Unusual.

This American painter and muralist was most popular during the "Golden age" of book illustration, and illustrated such Victorian and Shakespearian classics as an edition of Dickens' "Christmas Stories" (1875), Longfellow's "Poetical Works" (1880-83), "Selections from the Poetry of Robert Herrick" (1882), Sheridan's "Comedies" (1885), Goldsmith's "She Stoops to Conquer" and "The Deserted Village" (1887; 1902), a 4-volume Shakespeare's "Comedies" (1896) and others. Original ink illustration, heavy stock 6 3/4" X 10" (tipped to 9" X 12" art board), n.p., n.y. Very good. Light, even age toning. Charming scene penned in black ink, likely a book illustration from an unnamed work, signed with a light "Abbey" at lower right. A young girl in short Victorian dress sits in a chair by a window in the corner of a room, right hand pensively touching her head; a woman in floor-length dress stands alongside, her left hand clutching the girl's right hand and she bends over as if consoling to the child. Evocative and… Read More

Kent: The Kent State University Press, 1992. Hardcover. Edited by Robert Garth Scott. Small 4to. Blue cloth with gilt spine lettering, pictorial dust jacket. xiv, 266pp. Frontispiece, illustrations. Fine/fine. Second printing, tight and attractive. Abbott was an officer with the 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.

One of the great unsung American inventors and timepiece pioneers was this New Jersey watchmaker, who held more than 40 patents but is remembered for the "calculagraph," a device that records times and calculates the difference; one of its first uses was in 1894 in New York, where it recorded the length of telephone calls and impressed AT & T so much they installed it nationwide; his other inventions include a watch winding system that resulted in watches being wound by their stem instead of with a key and a revolutionary method for making enamel watch dials. TNS, 1p, 8½" X 11", New York, NY, 1933 October 16. Addressed to Mary B. Day, librarian at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. Near fine. On ornate Calculagraph Company letterhead (featuring at the bottom a faint engraving of the calculagraph machine being used, with its slogan "It Makes No Clerical Errors"), Abbott graciously notes: "It gives me great pleasure to comply with your request and I am sending in the same mail for filing in your… Read More

Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1855. Hardcover. 24mo. Rebound in brown cloth with gilt spine and original front and rear cover blind-embossed brown cloth laid down. 192pp. Small steel engravings. Very good. Nonauthorial 1864 gift inscription on an inner flyleaf from John Foresman (of the Scott, Foresman and Company publishing family). "A new edition, revised" of this volume in the 14-volume "Rollo Series" of instructional tales.

New York: Random House, 1981. Hardcover. Introduction by Norman Mailer. 8vo. Black cloth spine and grey paper over boards, dust jacket. xvi, 166pp. Near fine/very good. Light jacket edgewear. Third printing, tight and attractive.

New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co, 1897. Hardcover. 16mo. Burgundy cloth spine with gilt lettering/decorations and green pictorial paper over boards. 191pp. Tissue-guarded color frontispiece, illustrations. Good plus. Binding rather edgeworn and corner-worn, though spine gilt is bright and sharp; front flyleaf an expert contemporary replacement; dozen or so pages show small smudges. Tight and quite presentable later printing of a title usually found in execrable condition. Abbott (1803-79) was an American author of a prolific number of children's books, the most popular being a series of educational fictions about a young boy named Rollo and his chums. Front board graphic showing Rollo pushing a wheelbarrow is bright and charming.

Influential Congregational clergyman and author who co-edited "Christian Union" with Henry Ward Beecher and succeeded Beecher as pastor of Brooklyn's famed Plymouth Congregational Church. ANS, 1p, 5" X 8", Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY, n.y. [1878] November 25. Addressed to showman P.T. Barnum (1810-91). Very good. Lightly age toned. Intriguing if brief: "Your letter respecting Popular Amusements was received too late for this week's issue. It will go in next week & the papers shall be sent as requested...." In Abbott's 1922 book "Silhouettes of My Contemporaries" he devotes a chapter to Barnum, of whom he was a great admirer. In 1878 Abbott wrote Barnum requesting information about Tom Thumb, and on 5 October 1878 received a cordial note in reply from Barnum. Meanwhile, in the November 6th and 13th issues of "Christian Union," Reverend Samuel Scoville published a two-art article titled "The Christian View of Popular Amusements." Barnum took issue with some of this Congregationalist minister's views, and in… Read More

Influential Congregational clergyman and author who co-edited "Christian Union" with Henry Ward Beecher and succeeded Beecher as pastor of Brooklyn's famed Plymouth Congregational Church. Exceptional content TMsS, 2pp, 6" X 9", Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY, 1881 December 7. Very good. Original typescript of Abbott's contribution to Osborn H. Oldroyd's 1882 book, "The Lincoln Memorial: Album-Immortelles," a collection of reminiscences and sentiments about Lincoln by notables of the day. Abbott carefully and neatly inks in words and phrases and crosses out others, signing at the close unusually small and neat (knowing this would be the actual signaturee reproduced in the book) and adding the date and place. A fine philosophical statement, reading in part: "...It was the peculiar genius of Abraham Lincoln that he was able by his sympathetic insight to perceive the change in public sentiment without waiting for it to be formulated in any legislative action; to keep pace with it, to lead and direct it, to… Read More

This famed Chicago utility company executive began with the Chicago Telephone Company around the turn of the century, and by 1922 when this had morphed into Illinois Bell Telephone Company he served as its president until 1930 and then as chairman of the Board (1930-34); in 1930 he became president of Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. TLS, 1p, 8" X 11", Chicago, IL, 26 September 1929. Addressed to Waldemar Kaempffert, Director of the Rosenwald Industrial Museum in Chicago. Very good. Lightly age toned and mildly edgeworn, with original folds visible and slight mounting trace (not affecting text) at upper left. On "Illinois Bell Telephone Company" letterhead listing him as president, Abbott writes to the just-named first director of this museum founded and funded by Sears, Roebuck Company president and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, which the following year would be renamed the Museum of Science and Industry and would have a new director. Abbott goes into great detail about "the New York… Read More

New York: Bonanza Books, 1960. Hardcover. Small 4to. Green cloth, pictorial dust jacket. 191pp. Extensive illustrations. Near fine/near fine. An absolutely superb, tight and bright first reprint edition of this outstandingly-illustrated (to cite front jacket panel) "collectors album of a vanishing era in railroadiana," first published by Superior -- concluding volume in the "Pageant of Railroad History" trilogy.

New York: Bonanza Books, 1965. Hardcover. Small 4to. Orange cloth, pictorial dust jacket. 190pp. Extensive illustrations. Near fine/near fine. A wonderfully bright 'n' tight reprint edition of this superbly and extensively illustrated volume first published by Superior -- fifth in the "Old Railroad" series.

Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1981. Paperback. 8vo. Stiff glazed pictorial wrappers. Pp. 173-404, (22pp ads). Illustrations. Near fine. Winter 1981 (Volume 8, Number 2) issue of this noted quarterly founded by Sheldon Sacks and edited by W.J.T. Mitchell -- this a special focus issue with contributions from noted scholars in this field.