Search Results: Authors starting with D from Langdon Manor Books LLC

Fort Worth, Texas, 1952. Six black and white 8" x 10" photographs; four are captioned on versos. Generally very good or better: one with a moderate crease; a few with light edge and corner wear. This is a collection of photographs that document the friendship and work of Jack Danciger and Efrain Dominguez in their efforts to promote cooperation and business between the United States and Mexico in Texas. Jack Danciger was a wealthy philanthropist and political activist who was born in Taos, New Mexico in 1879. At the age of 30 he inherited a group of successful businesses built by his father related to the hotel industry, breweries, and oil and gas. Around this time he also took a strong interest in Mexico. According to the preface written by former Secretary of State of Mexico, Ezequial Padilla, that appears in Danciger's biography (Richkarday, General. Jack Danciger His Life and Work. (1963)), during the Mexican Revolution, [i]"in the Southern part of the United States prejudices were enthroned… Read More

N.P.: N.P., 1922. Very good. 7" x 4¾". Stapled wrappers. Pp. 31 + author frontis. Very good: front wrapper with strip of moderate wear near spine; title page lightly creased; a few lines printed lightly; owner signature to front wrap. This is a fascinating memoir written by an enterprising African man, A. Folumbo I. DeWalt, in an attempt to earn funds for his education in the United States as well as to take care of his ailing mother in Liberia. It details his African upbringing, his acceptance into Howard's School of Dentistry and his aim of returning to Liberia to work as a dentist and missionary. Most of what we learned about the author came from this small book. DeWalt was born in the village of Bensonville near Monrovia, Liberia, the youngest of seven children. The text covered DeWalt's childhood, working his way through mission schools by farming and fishing, and shared a wealth of information about life in Liberia, including native foods and methods of hunting. As he got older, DeWalt… Read More

[Xenia, Ohio?], 1918. Very good. 6¼" x 28". Blueprint. Very good with some creases and chips; rolled. This is a blueprint for a trolley guard that was invented and patented by Robert Dickenson, an African American from Ohio. While his wife raised their nine children in Xenia, he was almost always on the road trying to earn a living as a carpenter. His invention received patent number 1,314,130 in 1919. Its description in the Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office reads, [i]"the combination with a trolley wheel having flanges and a bearing therefor, of a pair of rotatable rollers mounted at opposite sides of said wheel and having semi-speherical upper portions and frusto-conical lower portions overlying and engaging the flanges of said wheel."[/i] In 1920, with four others, Dickenson formed The Dickenson Trolley Guard Manufacturing Company. Although the business was capitalized with $10,000, we can find no record of its manufacturing the guard. A rare artifact documenting an… Read More

Altburgund, Germany: American officers temporarily detained in Offizierslager 64 (Schubin), Germany, 1944. Good. 12" x 8 ½". Newsprint. Pp. 4. Good: toned; horizontal separations at center with early tape repair; light edge chips. This is a rare example of a monthly American prisoner of war camp newspaper from the Oflag 64 prison. According to Oflag64.us, a site run by surviving POWs of the camp and their families, "Oflag 64 was a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp for American officers located at Szubin, Poland, which at that time was occupied by Nazi Germany. It was probably the only German POW camp set up exclusively for U.S. Army officers, although other camps holding several nationalities were usually divided into separate national compounds. The camp was built around a Polish boys' school by adding barracks. Initially it was Stalag XXI-B for Polish soldiers until December 1940. Then it became Oflag XXI-B for French and British officers, subsequently for Soviet officers until June… Read More

N.P.: N.P., 1970. Very good. 72 drawings in pencil, watercolor and/or crayon all either drawn directly on artist's board, or on sheets mounted to artist's board; the boards measuring from 14" x 10" to 15" x 12". 33 have proposed fabric swatches attached, with an additional two that are loose. Generally very good or better with overall light to moderate edge wear, though some corners show heavy wear; one sheet lacks the board to which it was presumably mounted. This is a collection of costume designs and fabric swatches by an accomplished artist who signed them "dik." The collection contains eight drawings for The Marriage of Figaro, five for Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine, 28 for Cabaret and 31 for Anything Goes. Each is a detailed character study and several of the characters are shown in multiple costumes. For Cabaret, there are eight different drawings for the character of Sally Bowles, five different for Fraulein Schneider and three for Fraulein Kos. Anything Goes includes five different for… Read More

Marshall, Texas, 1941. Very good. 11" x 8½". Fourteen leaves of typescript typed recto only and stapled at corner. Pp. 13, approximately 4,000 words. Very good: light wear and a few small stains to edges; lightly toned. This is the text of a speech made by an African American HBCU president, M.W. Dogan, to a Dallas high school for "History Week." The speech contains historical facts as well as personal recollections of both well- and lesser-known accomplished Black Texans. Mathew Winfred Dogan was born in Mississippi in 1863. He served on the faculty of Rust University and Central Tennessee College before becoming president of Wiley College in Marshall, Texas in 1896. Wiley College, the oldest HBCU west of the Mississippi River, was founded by the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1873. Dogan was Wiley's seventh president, but only its second Black one, and held his position for 46 years, the longest tenure of any Wiley president. Under his watch, the school's faculty… Read More

Tallahassee, Florida, 1941. Very good. 11" x 8½". 22 leaves printed rectos only, upper left corner stapled. Pp. 21. Very good: title leaf detached and with moderate edge chips; first two leaves with a strip of toning along the right edge. This is the original typescript of a commencement speech delivered at a Florida HBCU that was presented by the longrunning president of a Texas HBCU, M.W. Dogan. Mathew Winfred Dogan was born in Mississippi in 1863. He served on the faculty of Rust University and Central Tennessee College before becoming president of Wiley College in Marshall, Texas in 1896. Wiley College, the oldest HBCU west of the Mississippi River, was founded by the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1873. Dogan was Wiley's seventh president, but only its second Black one, and held his position for 46 years, the longest tenure of any Wiley president. Under his watch, the school's faculty and administration soon turned predominately African American, the campus and… Read More

Denver, Colorado: The Directory, Ltd., a division of SEA Corporation, 1980. Very good +. 9" x 4". Stapled self wrappers. pp. 80. Very good plus: wrappers rubbed; internally fine. This is a rare Colorado LGBTQ+ periodical/directory hybrid that was apparently intended as a quarterly and whose title is a bit of a misnomer. It's not a directory in the sense that there is no organizational structure nor any generic line-by-line business listings separated into geographic areas. It's not quite a news source as there are only three short articles, one of which has nothing to do with Colorado. The book has nearly 150 business listed with display ads throughout, and a three page alphabetized list of those businesses in numerous categories. Listings are statewide, with an emphasis on Denver, and includes standard fare such as bars, baths and restaurants but also includes a chimney sweep and mobile disco. The closest we've come to any insight as to the publishers or compilers is that an Ed Novak and Steve… Read More

Austin, Texas: Samuel Huston College, 1933. Good. 13 7/8" x 10½". Newsprint. Pp. [4]. Good: heavily creased at old folds with a few small tears at intersections, removing one word of text; 1.5" tear to front not affecting legibility; edge wear; spotted and toned. This is a rare issue of the official publication of Samuel Huston College, the precursor to Huston-Tillotson University (HTU) in Austin, Texas. It was edited by a young man who went on to become a widely influential African American orator and minister, role model to Jackie Robinson and the youngest college president in the United States, Karl Downs. Downs' life was cut short when he died at the age of 35 after being denied life-saving medical care because of his race. HTU, the first institution of higher learning in Austin, was formed in 1952 when two HBCUs came together: Samuel Huston College (SHC), chartered in 1876, and Tillotson College. A notable alumnus (and former president) of SHC, Karl Downs was the editor-in-chief of this… Read More