Search Results: Authors starting with G from McBride Rare Books

Rio de Janeiro: February 16, 1844. Very good.. [7]pp., written in a secretarial hand, but signed and dated by Gardiner. Folio. Gathered bifolia, stitched. Minor dust-soiling. Thin strip of paper running along the spine of the last page with paper remnants. A manuscript report composed by Capt. Allen Francis Gardiner (1794-1851), a British Royal Navy officer and missionary. Gardiner spent some time in Zululand where he tried to establish a mission near Port Natal, and according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, from "1838 to 1843 he worked among the Indians of Chile, and went from island to island in the South American archipelago, but his efforts were foiled by the opposition of the various governments.... His first visit to Tierra del Fuego took place on 22 March 1842, when, coming from the Falkland Islands in the schooner Montgomery, he landed in Oazy harbour. The Church Missionary Society was now under pressure to send out missionaries to Patagonia but declined on the ground of… Read More

Elberon, N.J., 1881. Very good.. Broadside, 9 x 7 inches. Minor wear and toning. Broadside announcing the death of President James Garfield. Datelined at Elberon, where the President spent his final months, the broadside gives time of death and is signed in type by Garfield's doctors. It reads, in part: "The President died at 10.35. ... After taking nourishment he fell into a quiet sleep about thirty-five minutes before his death...he awoke, complaining of severe pain over the region of the heart, and almost immediately became unconscious, and ceased to breathe at 10.35." Shot by Charles Guiteau on July 2, 1881, Garfield's doctors eventually killed him by sepsis, repeatedly digging in his wound in search of the bullet. A handsome announcement of this tragic event.

New York: J.W. Sheehy & Co, 1882. About very good.. Lithograph, 25.75 x 21.75 inches. Lightly toned, some light soiling. Several small closed tears at edges, slight loss repaired on left edge. Archivally backed with linen. A scarce memorial poster commemorating the life of assassinated president James A. Garfield, featuring portraits of his family members and vignettes of his life and lengthy death. The president is pictured in a large central oval, flanked by portraits of his wife and mother; his five children complete the wreath of family members. Scenes at the top of the lithograph depict his boyhood and triumph at the Battle of Chickamauga, as well as his humble birth place and Hiram College where he both taught and educated himself. The lower vignettes show his deathbed, the widow wailing on her knees, the White House, the assassination attempt, his mother anxiously awaiting news, and the New Jersey cottage where he died. The bottom edge bears the title and imprint information, as well as a blurb… Read More

Naval Asylum: January, 1848. Very good.. [3]pp., on a single folded folio sheet of lined paper, docketed in pencil on verso of the second leaf, "Dr. Garnett's Essay." Old folds, light toning, minor darkening along folds. A manuscript essay authored by Dr. Alexander Yelverton Peyton Garnett (1820-1888), a Navy surgeon recently returned from overseas service. Dr. Garnett was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's medical program and served as an assistant surgeon in the United States Navy until his retirement in the year the present work was created. He thereafter practiced medicine in Washington, D.C. until the outbreak of the Civil War. Ever a Virginian, Dr. Garnett served prominently as a surgeon for the Confederate Army, and as the personal physician to both Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee. After the war, he continued in private practice in Richmond, then Washington, D.C. and in 1886 served as the president of the American Medical Association. The present short essay by Dr. Garnett… Read More

[Macon, Ga, 1930. Good.. 13pp. Original printed wrappers, stapled. Front wrapper chipped at top edge and lower right corner, small chip to lower left corner of rear wrapper, minor soiling to wrappers. Text block tanned but clean. An unrecorded hymnal published in Jim Crow Georgia, which was "compiled by Rev. G.H. Dunn, Presiding Elder of the Macon District of the Macon Georgia Conference and Book Steward for the A.M.E. Church in Georgia." The work includes a portrait and short biographical note on Dunn, followed by the lyrics to fourteen hymns. These songs include "I Wring My Hands and Cry," "I Am on the Battlefield for My Lord," and "Going Back with Jesus When He Comes." Most notably, one of the hymns is titled, "The Negro National Anthem." Otherwise known as "Life Ev'ry Voice and Sing," and later nicknamed "The Negro National Anthem," the song was written by James Weldon Johnson and his brother, John Rosamond in 1900. OCLC locates a nineteen-page edition of this work containing eighteen hymns at… Read More

San Antonio: Adolf Douai, 1855. Very good.. [4]pp. Large folio. Previously folded. Contemporary ownership inscription at head of title. Light foxing and creasing. A scarce December 1855 issue of this socialist, abolitionist German Texas newspaper, the San Antonio Zeitung, "Ein sozial-demokratisches Blatt für die Deutschen in West-Texas." "The San Antonio Zeitung... began weekly publication as San Antonio's first German-language newspaper on July 1, 1853, under the editorship of C. D. Adolph Douai, a German-born scholar, teacher, and social reformer. The newspaper, written largely in German, was aimed at the large German population in San Antonio and the surrounding region. In a prospectus Douai announced that the Zeitung would regard every political question from the viewpoint of social progress. He published the free-soil platform adopted by the Texas State Convention of Germans in 1854 and in a series of editorials attacked the institution of slavery as an evil incompatible with democratic… Read More

Fresno: H. Tober, 1929. About very good.. [8],151pp. plus plates. Quarto. Original printed wrappers. Light wear, some chipping to spine and edges of wrappers. Internally clean. Rare German-Californian periodical, featuring an almanac, calendars of events around the state, travel articles, cartoons, and numerous local advertisements for the German-speaking population of California. One article is entitled "Der Islam als internationale Religion" ("Islam as an International Religion"), with the subtitle "Views of Educated Mohammedans." Yet another article is all about divining from variations in one's hand shape. There are photos of American Indians on parade in Vienna, the Prince and Princess of Japan, and a large zeppelin one can take to travel from Germany. Though presumably an annual, all copies located in OCLC are for this year -- we locate three copies, at California State University, the University of Cincinnati, and the National Library of Germany.

Havana, 1896. About very good.. 114pp. 16mo. Original teal cloth. Corners bumped, binding lightly worn and soiled. Contemporary booksellers' stamps on half title, some notations and contemporary ownership ink stamps to text. Lightly toned. A scarce and unusual history of Cuba. Beginning with the year 1800, the author recounts important events in the island's history, listed chronologically by year. The "Primera Epoca" encompasses 1800 to 1868, and takes just eighteen pages before the author moves on to more modern events that shaped the island. The more modern events are noted by individual date within each year, outlining the struggles for separation from Spain and the military conflicts which ensued. Fewer than ten copies in OCLC.

Reading, 1822. Very good.. 120pp. Original quarter calf and paste paper boards, spine gilt ruled. Light wear to edges and spine; light running to boards. Minor foxing and soiling internally. An attractively printed and bound defense of the German Reformed Free Synod by local Pennsylvania German farmer and schoolteacher Carl Gock. The present copy in quite good condition and bound in original, patterned paste paper boards. Sabin 27625. Shoemaker 8842.

Grass Valley, Ca: September 17, 1855. Very good.. [4]pp. on a folded folio sheet. Old fold lines, minor wear. An intimate letter from a gold seeker in Nevada County, California. Theodore Shaw writes to his wife about mixed luck in California, a terrible fire, his concern for their children, and his great anxiety about the future. He writes, in part: "I have property here that is worth at least $1000 but not a cent in my pocket but we expect to start up to our quartz ledge the day after tomorrow if nothing prevents to errect a mill up there.... And now our plans have been nearly frustrated by a most dreadful fire such as I never witnessed. On Thursday last about 11 o'clock p.m. an alarm of fire was heard and by about half past 12 some 350 stores, dwellings, and buildings were consumed with a large portion of their contents our hotel included. ... The entire business part of the town is in ruins...we have been sleeping under an old shed in the suburbs.... This fire has injured us in this way, several… Read More

[Eldorado & Iowa Hill, 1860. Good.. Four manuscript documents, including three letters, totaling six pages. Old folds, moderate toning, minor edge wear, a few tears, a small hole in one letter. A neat group of four manuscript letters and documents all related to the mining activities of L.D. Davis of Georgia over a four-year period during the latter years of the California Gold Rush. Davis appears to be a lawyer living somewhere back east, and may have been an investor in California mines or managing the financials for some mining concern from afar. The documents include an 1856 promissory note regarding "noted for collection," a long undated letter (likely from California) to Davis detailing amounts of gold taken from an unspecified mine and the mine's ownership situation, and two letters overtly datelined from California -- the first from Iowa Hill in 1859 and the second from Georgetown in El Dorado County in 1860. Each document presents a unique set of concerns for Davis. Notable details of the… Read More

Mokilomni Hill, Ca: April 3, 1852. Very good.. [2]pp. plus integral address leaf. Quarto on a folded folio sheet. Old fold lines, minor wear. In a highly legible script. An interesting letter from a disillusioned fortune-seeker in Calaveras County advising his father not to come west, as all the easy pickings are gone. He writes, "Times are pretty dull here now and as I have been doing nothing for the last two weeks I am getting rather sick of the place. I should leave today but there are some holes going down by some acquaintance of mine & I want to see if they get anything. If they do I shall sink one myself, they go from 50 to 60 feet & as they are in a good looking place I have some curiosity to know whether they strike anything or not. If I leave this place I think I shall go south as I hear they have struck some deep diggings in the vicinity of Sonora & think I shall go down that way.... I see by the papers that a great many are coming to the country from Boston. I do not know what they all… Read More

Pueblo de Mixco: Don Antonio Sanchez Cubillas, 1774. Still very good.. [2],12pp. Small folio. Modern decorated paper boards; manuscript paper label on front cover. Title page repaired along gutter margin. Minor dust soiling. A historical account of devastating earthquakes in Guatemala from 1541 to 1773. In the last quarter of that year, the Santa Marta earthquakes struck Antigua Guatemala, the original capital of the Spanish colony, destroying the city and killing hundreds. The disaster directly resulted in the transfer of the capital twenty miles to the east to what is today Guatemala City. It is no wonder that the seat of government was moved after a perusal of this text, which catalogues and describes twenty-one earthquakes, twelve of which resulted in significant or total destruction of the town. The present account was printed at Mixco, now on the western outskirts of Guatemala City, during meetings of the colonial government to locate and plan the new capital. "Among the earliest works printed… Read More

Indianapolis: Central Printing Co, 1880. Good.. 16pp. Original blue printed wrappers. Moderate soiling and wear, heavier to lower edge and outer leaves. Evenly toned. Scarce first edition of this pamphlet regarding the circumstances of the murder of John R. Goodwin in Brookville, Indiana, published under the auspices of the Women's Christian Temperance Union of Indianapolis. Goodwin was shot in the street by his brother Robert, who was mired in a drunken stupor. This appeal was penned by the Reverend Thomas A. Goodwin, another brother, and a prominent leader of the temperance movement in Indiana. The father of all three men, Samuel Goodwin, was also a leading figure for temperance in the state. "You have seen one of the best men that ever lived in Brookville shot down in your streets by this unchanged and unchangeable monster, and you have in jail, worse than dead, one of the brightest and best youths you ever knew, transformed into one of the worst men that ever tormented your rum-cursed town." A… Read More

Omaha: Klopp & Bartlett Co, 1903. Very good.. 44pp. Original red cloth, cover stamped in black. Corners lightly rubbed. Text lightly toned, last few leaves with lower corner rumpled. A series of eighteen diagrams illustrating the ceremonial movements for initiation into the Degree of Honor lodges in Nebraska. The Degree of Honor was initially organized in 1873 as the female auxiliary of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, eventually splintering off into a separate entity in 1910. After a few introductory words from the author, the work consists of eighteen diagrams with facing explanatory text, delineating the movements and meanings for each phase of the initiation ceremony. Presumably issued in a small number, we find no copies of this work in OCLC.

[N.p., possibly Fresno, 1905. Very good.. Broadside, 13 x 5 inches. A few small nicks to edges, minor even toning, old horizontal folds. Lecture location stamp added in bottom margin, reading "Southport Monday Eve. Aug 28th K.P. Hall." An apparently-unrecorded broadside advertising a magic lantern presentation aimed at promoting land in Fresno and King counties "for sale in ten acre tracts or larger at from $25 to $35 per acre, including perpetual water right. Yearly water rental 62 1/2 cents per acre - the cheapest water in California. If you are thinking of moving you should not miss this lecture. If you are satisfied to stay where you are come anyhow and see the pictures and learn something about California." The Golden State was the site of not one but two Rancho Laguna de Tache land grants. One was granted by the Mexican governor Pio Pico in 1846 to Manuel Castro and included land along the north bank of Kings River for over twenty miles. The other Rancho Laguna de Tache was claimed to have… Read More

Houston: Gray, Dillaye & Co, 1909. Good.. viii, 230pp. Contemporary black limp leatherette, with gilt titles on front cover and "Alice Gray Sears McGee" stamped at the bottom. Title page a bit chipped, with two brown cello repairs to both title and the first leaf of the Preface, the latter of which was repaired at the bottom right corner. Otherwise a lightly toned but clean textblock. A descendant's copy of one of the most desirable books on the history of Texas, being the diary of early Texas land agent, soldier and legislator William Fairfax Gray, covering the critical months of the Spring and early Summer of 1836 during the Texas Revolution. The work was privately printed by Gray's younger son, Allen Charles "A.C." Gray, who also wrote the preface; it is believed A.C. Gray printed fewer than 200 copies "for the benefit of his descendants, and possibly for the use of the future historian" as the ink of the original manuscript was "so faded and dim as to render it certain that in a comparatively… Read More

Houston: Gray, Dillaye & Co, 1909. Very good.. viii, 230pp. Modern half black morocco and black cloth, spine gilt, preserving original gilt cloth label on front cover reading, "A.C. Gray." Title page a bit chipped, diagonal crease in first few text leaves, moderate even toning to text. The printer's copy of one of the most desirable books on the history of Texas, being the diary of early Texas land agent, soldier, and legislator William Fairfax Gray, which was privately printed by his younger son, Allen Charles "A.C." Gray. A.C. Gray also wrote the preface; it is believed he printed fewer than 200 copies "for the benefit of his descendants, and possibly for the use of the future historian." The present copy emanates from the Gray family, and was recently re-bound, but retains A.C. Gray's original label on the front cover. The work itself was praised by legendary Texas bookseller John Jenkins as "the best account of events in Texas during the revolution written as they occurred.... The only extensive… Read More

Guatemala, 1839. About very good.. Broadsheet, approximately 12 x 8.25 inches. Untrimmed, with a couple of small chips at edges, not affecting text. Some dampstaining, with vertical tideline through center of sheet. A very scarce broadsheet, dated April 18, 1839 in which Conservative Mariano Rivera Paz addresses the Guatemalan people only five days after his return to power, having ousted his own recent ouster, Carlos Salazar. He says that the people, along with the aid of Rafael Carrera and his loyal caudillos, have restored him to his rightful place at the head of the government and that he will bring peace and prosperity to the nation moving forward. It reads, in part: "Guatemaltecos! Vosotros me conoceis, y sabeis que nunea os he causado daño. Vosotros sabaeis que yo no tengo ambicion, y que habia vuelto gostoso á la vida privada; pero ahora que los pueblos me honran con su confianza, y que estoy identificadocon su causa, me vereis defenderla con firmeza, y perecer, si fuese necesario, en un… Read More

Guatemala, 1888. Good.. Broadside, 13.25 x 10.25 inches. Printed in gold. Old folds, slight separation, some chipping and wear at right edge. Unusual broadside souvenir printed by a Guatemalan hospital, thanking three bullfighters for fundraising efforts on their behalf. The Hospital General San Juan de Dios de Guatemala was founded in 1667. In the 1880s it undertook to restore and maintain the colonial-era Plaza de Toros, the local bullfighting ring, which was a popular spot for the local corridas and other forms of entertainment. The hospital would then receive the income from the bullfights and other festivities. Herein, three picadores are individually thanked for participation in what we suspect was a Corrida de Beneficencia in early 1888. This handsome piece utilizes numerous typefaces and is printed in gold.