Search Results: Authors starting with B from McBride Rare Books

New York & Switzerland: J.O & J.H. Locher, 1850. Very good plus.. Tinted lithograph, 24.5 x 33. Wide margins. Archivally lined on verso, with small marginal restorations not affecting image, including unobtrusive repairs of three short closed tears. An attractive and very rare bird's eye view of Philadelphia, drawn on stone by Gustav Matter after Bachmann's original view. The panorama looks west across the city from the perspective of Camden, New Jersey, and the Delaware River waterfront. Names can be seen on a few of the paddle-wheel steamships navigating the river, two of them discreetly giving a nod to the artist and publisher with a small portrait of each. Numerous and varied other ships line the waterfront, and the city's buildings, rendered in excellent detail, sweep into the background to meet the Schuylkill River. The very left of the image shows the still undeveloped fields of what is now South Philly. Overall, a finely drawn and delicately colored depiction of bustling, mid-19th-century… Read More

[Mexico]: En la Imprenta Imperial, 1821. Very good.. [4]pp., on a half-sheet bifolium. Removed from a sammelband. Minor wear at edges. Light dust soiling and faint foxing. Scarce printing of a speech by Manuel de la Barcena upon the arrival of news to Michoacan of the signing of the Treaty of Cordoba. Barcena opposed the early Insurgent movement in Mexico, but came to support the Plan of Iguala. He wrote several impassioned arguments for the liberty of Mexico, was a signer of the Mexican Declaration of Independence, and became a member of the interim government between independence and the First Empire. This short but emphatic speech, delivered in the cathedral in Michoacan where Barcena was a priest on September 6, 1821, celebrates the signing of the Treaty of Cordoba and the independence of Mexico granted by the agreement. Barcena tells his listeners that they have at last crossed the Red Sea and arrived in Israel, and invokes religion, unity, and independence as the "tres inmobles columnas, que… Read More

Mexico City, 1870. About very good.. 479,[3]pp., plus two plates including frontispiece portrait. Contemporary half calf and pebbled cloth, spine gilt, boards blind stamped. Light wear to spine ends and bands, corners bumped. Contemporary binder's ink stamp on front pastedown; unobtrusive contemporary manuscript annotation on title page. Light tanning and foxing; a few leaves creased at upper corner. First Mexican edition of this important account of the last year of Maximilian I's reign in Mexico, composed by his personal physician. Samuel Sigfried Karl Basch, a Jewish doctor from Vienna, came to Mexico in 1864 to support the cause of Maximilian and was initially put in charge of a military hospital at Puebla. However, soon he found himself appointed personal physician to the emperor, and became a close confidant of Maximilian, He was a constant companion of the famously frail emperor and was with him until his execution, narrowly escaping death himself. The present work, synthesized from Basch's… Read More

[Phoenix, 1895. About very good.. Large map, 26.75 x 35.5 inches, partially color printed. Previously folded, removed from wrappers with stub at lower left edge. Minor separations along folds from edges; one larger separation repaired unobtrusively with tape on verso. Scarce and detailed map delineating mine locations near Prescott, Arizona, published by Jules Baumann, a Swiss immigrant and local resident. Baumann was born in Switzerland in 1855 and arrived in Prescott in 1879, where he wore many hats, including those of town band leader and ice cream shop owner. Perhaps more significantly, he published rare bird's-eye views of Prescott and the Grand Canyon during the 1890s and operated mining ventures in the area well into the 20th century. The present map shows hundreds of named mines, ranches, school houses, towns, railroads, roads, and post offices. The mines, each named and located by a small "x," are printed in red, while the numerous rivers and streams are overprinted in blue. The Prescott &… Read More

Mexico City: En la Imprenta del Real y Mas Antiguo Colegio de S. Ildefonso, 1766. Very good.. [10],155pp., plus large folding plate. Small quarto. Contemporary limp vellum, manuscript spine title. Remnants of vellum ties at fore-edge; spine mostly perished. Minor dampstaining to vellum. Two short tears at gutter of folding plate, well away from image. Quite clean internally. From January 1748 until his death in July 1765, Manuel Rubio y Salinas was the Archbishop of Mexico City. This period coincided with the rebirth and expansion of the Mexican mining industry, which fostered great wealth, new secular and ecclesiastical institutions, and an architectural boom in the viceregal capital. Rubio and the Church benefitted from the new wealth in significant material ways, but he remained popular throughout his tenure for attention to prevalent social concerns and dedication to his religious duties. One of his most significant achievements was the procuration of the 1754 papal decree that made Our Lady of… Read More

New York: William Radde, 1847. Very good.. 77,[2]pp. 16mo. Original brown blindstamped cloth, stamped in gilt on front cover. Tiny shelf label on spine, minor wear and soiling to boards, corners worn. Contemporary ink signature on front free endpaper, front hinge a bit tender, more recent ownership signature in blue ink on title page, minor occasional foxing. A handsome mid-19th century American edition of Becker's early work on ophthalmology. Dr. Alexander Christian Becker (1815-1849) was of Danish descent, born in Russia, educated in England, and an immigrant to the United States, where he studied medicine. The present work is a collection of entries describing various maladies of the eye with suggested remedies. Interestingly, Becker argues here that cannabis is a suitable treatment for certain ophthalmological conditions. The publisher, William Radde, specialized in "Homoeopathic Books" and the last leaf contains an advertisement for over a dozen of Radde's books which were intended for… Read More

Alton: Published by George Holton, 1838. Very good plus.. 159pp. 12mo. Publisher's brown cloth, copper spine titles. Very minor shelf wear. Small ink notations to front endpapers, minor foxing. An especially nice copy of the first edition of the story of Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy, the first abolitionist martyr of the 19th century America, written by the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Beecher, like all of his family, was a passionate opponent of slavery. He was president of Illinois College at the time his friend Reverend Lovejoy, who had been publishing anti-slavery tracts in Illinois, was killed by a pro-slavery mob in Alton on November 7, 1837. Lovejoy, as editor of the Observer, an anti-slavery journal, had moved his press from St. Louis to Alton, Illinois in July 1836 due to repeated threats. His office was attacked three times in the following year; he was setting up again when the press was attacked by a mob and a riot occurred. At what appeared to be a withdrawal by the mob Lovejoy opened… Read More

Paris, 1859. Good plus.. 102,[1]pp., plus three folding maps. Original printed wrappers. Spine perished, stitching nearly so. Light wear at edges. Light toning and dust soiling. Extensive proposal and recommendation, translated into German from the French, for a canal route across Nicaragua, one of several 19th-century Central American canal projects that never came to fruition. Félix Belly, French journalist and proponent of the French Empire under Napoleon III, was one of the foremost advocates of the Nicaragua route, which he describes and discusses in all its phases. The present work contains the Convention or Treaty between the presidents of Nicaragua and Costa Rica and Belly, relative to his concession for a canal following the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua. It also contains an extensive analysis of the subject written by Prince Napoleon (i.e., Louis Bonaparte) in 1846, and other relevant documents to the canal plan. Three folding maps at the rear show the canal route and the global… Read More

Nueva York: Imprenta de "El Correo de Nueva York, 1874. Very good.. [4],xi,430,[1]pp., plus five plates (three folding). Early-20th century quarter black calf and blue textured cloth, gilt spine titles, by Mexican binder Saul A. Alva with his binder's ink stamp on front free endpaper. Edges and spine ends scuffed, minor soiling to boards, corners bumped. Occasional uneven toning, but internally clean. A rare and detailed guide to rifles and their use for the citizens of Mexico, written by Rafael Benavides, a Mexican army general convalescing in New York City; the work is bound with rare later Spanish treatise on ballistics. The central inspiration for the rifle manual was Benavides' involvement in the republican effort to retake Mexico from Maximilian and loyalist forces. Benavides was the general in charge of the siege of Veracruz in 1866 and 1867, during the denouement of the conflict which ultimately saw the emperor captured and executed in Queretaro. The general was seriously wounded during the… Read More

Nueva York: Imprenta del Novo Mundo y la America Ilustrada, 1874. Very good.. [4],142,[1]pp., plus three plates. Small quarto. Contemporary quarter calf and purple marbled boards, spine gilt. Rubbing and wear to spine ends and corners. Minor soiling to title page, but otherwise clean and fresh internally. An introduction to the construction of military encampments and fortifications, and the conduct of army maneuvers by Rafael Benavides, the Mexican general who led the siege of Veracruz in the last days of the reign of Maximilian. Benavides' republican forces broke the loyalist resistance in 1867, but the general was wounded in the battle and was afterwards allowed a long convalescence and sabbatical by the restored government. During a span of seven years, he lived in New York, and traveled widely in the United States and Europe, and authored several military manuals, including this one. In his introduction to this text, Benavides boasts of his discussion of tribal warfare ("incursiones de los… Read More

New York, 1911. Very good.. Folding lithograph map, handcolored, 11 x 27.5 inches. Original printed pictorial boards with cloth spine. Light wear and chipping to spine, light wear to boards. Advertisements on front pastedown. Light wear to map at some folds, but generally clean and fresh. An attractive map of Bermuda, showing major driving and cycling routes on the island at the beginning of the 20th century. First published in 1892, this is the fourth edition, revised and corrected. A review in Goldthwaite's Geographical Magazine published in its October 1892 issue, reads: "Evidently the 'cycler has invaded the Bermudas. J.M. Farnsworth, a well-known 'cycler, while taking a few weeks of rest at these islands, seems to have obtained the same by making a very unique driver's and 'cycler's map of these islands. Mr. Farnsworth is evidently an amateur at cartographic work, but he has nevertheless produced a much cleverer piece of work than is turned out by many of the professionals engaged in the same… Read More

Santa Rosa, Ca, 1890. Good.. 76,56pp. Front cover detached, rear cover lacking; cover chipped, soiled. Ink stamp on title page. Outer leaves lightly chipped, text lightly toned. A curious volume of epic poetry, "Dictated by Conscience." The Book of Washington contains seven pieces of verse, only one of which relates to George Washington. The remainder of the volume centers on characters from The Merchant of Venice, and indeed the second segment of text here is called The Book of Portia. A search of OCLC returns a record for The Book of Washington as a single work of 76pp., and another shows it included as part of a much larger work by the same author entitled Voice of Original America, which also includes the second text in the present copy. The front cover of the piece is printed with the title "Gabriel's Trumpet," which is the name of the first and longest section of the Voice of Original America (not present here). Both of these records show only a single copy, at UC Berkeley. Obscure and epic… Read More

Fort Worth: Published for the Author, 1900. Very good.. 486,xxxvii,[1]pp. plus frontispiece. Illustrated throughout. Original dark blue cloth, gilt. Light wear and soiling to cloth. Text clean. A comprehensive work on the Texas angora goat industry, illustrated with numerous handsome halftones of various goats. With discussions on the goat's production for both hair and meat, as well as the spread of the industry across the United States.

Mexico City: Imprenta de la Escuela Correccional, 1899. About very good.. 62pp. Original pebbled cloth, front board printed in black. Light wear and soiling to cloth. Contemporary ownership annotation on title page; former institutional ink stamp on internal leaf. Even tanning internally. Scarce Mexican edition of the Laws of War as formulated by Swiss politician and diplomat, Johann Kaspar Bluntschli, first published in 1866. Bluntschli was considered one of the most significant and influential early writers on the topic during the 18th century, and during the 1870s was one of the founders of the Institute for International Law in Ghent. The present edition was printed in 1899 at the press of a Mexico City correctional school. OCLC locates only one copy, at the BNM.

[N.p., n.d., likely late-19th century]. Very good.. Broadside, 13.25 x 12.5 inches, with title printed vertically at left and text printed in two columns. Old folds, some wrinkling, minor dust soiling. An unrecorded advertising broadside for an unrecorded (and perhaps unproduced) songster ostensibly written by Happy Bob Robinson, the leader of a traveling vaudeville company that traipsed all over the country in the last two decades of the 19th and into the early-20th century. The broadside prints the lyrics to four songs meant to be included in Happy Bob Robinson's "Medley Songster," touted as "A Collection of very Popular Songs, Composed and Sung with Great Success, by Happy Bob Robinson." The titles of the four songs are "Sensational Medley," "Jim Fisk," "Alabsom - A Parody on 'Kiss Behind the Door,'" and "Slavery Days." The latter song is laid out in three eight-line stanzas and a four-line chorus written in slave dialect, and indicates that at least some portion of Robinson's show was a minstrel… Read More

[Various locations, 1930. Very good.. Twenty-nine letters, signed, totaling thirty-six pages, all with original transmittal envelopes. Original mailing folds, general overall wear, and typical signs of age. Altogether a nice group. An entertaining archive of manuscript and typed letters sent to one of the more infamous figures in the history of New York City bookselling, Charles Romm. Most of the letters were sent in 1919, but came to Romm as late as 1930 from twenty separate authors or their representatives (who occasionally wrote more than once). The letters were written to Romm in response to his requests for signed books and other autograph material. Romm's correspondents include Charmian London (Mrs. Jack London), Vincent Starrett, George Washington Cable, William Lyon Phelps, and other literary figures of the early-20th century. Charles Romm (1883-1937) was born in Russia but became a successful bookseller during the heyday of Book Row in Manhattan. Romm's career was bookended by two notable… Read More

Philadelphia: Printed by Conrad Zentler for George W. Mentz, 1810. Good.. [16] leaves, first and last pasted to boards. 12mo. Contemporary drab boards, crudely backed in leather. Spine ends and corners worn. Moderate soiling and wear, final leaf loosening. Rare German-American children's primer, illustrated with a page of alphabet woodcuts on the front pastedown. Three editions were published in 1810, in Germantown, Reading, and Philadelphia, and all survive in only two or three known copies -- not uncommon for books of this kind. OCLC locates a single copy of this Philadelphia edition, at the American Antiquarian Society. Shaw & Shoemaker 20353. Bötte & Tannhof 1783. Not in Welch.

[Chicago]: W.B. Conker Company, 1897. Very good.. [12]pp. Publisher's self wrappers printed in red, white, blue, and black, the interior text printed in red and black. The whole printed on linen. Moderate wear and rubbing, minor soiling and toning, some light bleedthrough from the portions printed in red. A rare educational book printed entirely on linen and intended to teach the alphabet to American children at the turn of the 20th century. The book begins with a full page printing of the alphabet in both upper case (black) and lower case (red). The remainder of the text contains twenty-six illustrations (three per page) and three words of text paired with a letter of the alphabet printed in red upper case. For example, the letter "A" is illustrated with a fisherman standing by an acorn tree on which an axe leans, and the words "Acorn," "Axe," and "Angler" printed beneath the picture. The letter "B" shows a boy riding a bicycle on the shore with a hot-air balloon floating in the sky in the… Read More

Puebla: Tip. de la "Misericordia Cristiana, 1911. Good.. 547pp. 12mo. Contemporary rust-colored cloth, front board stamped in black. Corners and spine ends heavily worn, stamping faded; rear hinge tender. Contemporary ownership inscription on front flyleaf. Text lightly toned, slight wear. Expanded second edition of this Mexican cook book, after the first of 1905. The current edition has been revised, corrected, and updated with more than 300 additional recipes. The verso of the introduction is adorned with a handsome wood cut of an opulent meal at table. The volume is filled with a wide variety of recipes for papas, tortillas, huevos, lenguas, sopas, lomos, salsas, pastels, and more. The recipes here are sorted by subject -- consomes, pescados, carnes, reposteria, etc. -- with an index at the end, also sorted by types of foods. We find fewer than ten copies of this work in OCLC, and only two of the first edition. This volume with the ownership inscription of Guadalupe Perez San Vicente, and… Read More

Mexico: Imprenta a Su Orden Mesones Num 87, 1931. Good.. 362pp., plus xii pp. of interspersed advertisements. Original tan pictorial boards, misbound with front board at rear. Hinges cracked, spine detaching. Ownership ink stamp on flyleaf, text clean. "Este obra ha sido preparada por el Comite de Servicio Social de la Asociacion de Mexico." Unusual bilingual cook book, with recipes in both Spanish and English. For example, the recipe for "Papas con Jamon" is followed by "Scalloped Ham and Potatoes." Other recipes include "Tortilla Esponjada / Puffy Omelet," "Spaghetti Casserole," "Carlota de Manzana / Apple Charlotte," "Torta de Piña Volteada / Pineapple Up-side-down Cake," and many others. The Spanish recipes use metric measurements, while the English use imperial. Includes an extensive index at the end -- one in Spanish and another in English. With numerous ads interspersed, including on for Piggly Wiggly. Fewer than ten copies in OCLC.