Search Results: Authors starting with M from Back Creek Books LLC, ABAA/ILAB

(annapolis): Naval Institute Press, 1993. First American Edition. Hardcover. Folio. 192 pages. Near Fine in a Fine Dust Jacket. Black and White Photographs, Scaled Drawings. Fascinating analytical study of the rivalry in fast shipping that sprang from the discovery of gold in California. MacGregor, a talented draftsman, uses his own drawings when possible to describe and compare these ships. Examines the work of the builders, the performance of the ships, their records passages, and the exploits of the captains. Bound in dark blue textured paper over boards with spine titled in gilt. Shallow bumps to spine ends. Clean and sound throughout. . Jacket in Mylar protector.

Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1905. First editions. 3/4 leather. Octavos. xxiv, 423 and xx, 456 pages. Bindings are dark green leather spines and fore corners with marbled paper sides and marbled endpapers. Gilt rules on upper and lower boards, spines have five raised bands, gilt titles and ornamentation in six compartments. Top edges gilt. Spines mildly faded, a few minor rubs to bottom edges of boards, else fine. A very clean and handsome set.. Black and white illustrations, plans, maps. A thorough analysis of the use of navies in the War of 1812, by the most important American naval strategist of the 19th century. This is the concluding work in Mahan's highly influential series on naval strategy that began with the 1890 publication of "The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783."<br /> <br /> Both volumes illustrated with numerous plates, battle plans, and maps--some fold-outs. Handsomely bound. <br /> <br /> Ref. HATTENDORF A12a.

Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1907. First edition. Cloth over boards. Octavo. xxii, [2], 193 pages [+1 page ad]. Bound in dark blue publisher's cloth over boards with gilt titles to spine, top edge gilt, dark blue-black coated endpapers. A few shallow bumps to extremities, a few slight rubs, and a small rectangular numeric label at top fore corner of front pastedown. There is a faint splitting to front endpaper along hinge, but still sound. A beautiful, near fine copy overall.. Text includes articles and an address by Capt. Mahan, plus two articles by other authors. The pieces by Mahan are: <br /> - The Moral Aspect of War<br /> - The Practical Aspect of War<br /> - The Hague Conference of 1907, and the Question of Immunity for Belligerent Merchant Shipping<br /> - War from a Christian Standpoint (an address in 1900 to the Church Congress in Providence, RI) <br /> <br /> The other two pieces included herein are: <br /> - The Power that Makes for… Read More

Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1839. First edition. Original cloth over boards. Duodecimos. 242 and 228 pages. Very good in original bindings of pebbled green cloth over boards with paper spine labels. Shallow chipping at heads of spines, minor wear and toning to spine labels, faint spotting to cloth. Hinges sound, interiors mildly age toned. Overall a very attractive set.. Frederick Marryat was a British naval officer and pioneering nautical fiction writer. He traveled to America in 1836-1837, and this is the first American edition of his account of that visit. It is an interesting outside view, but his criticisms of American culture and society led some to publicly burn his book and effigy. <br /> <br /> Ref. SABIN 44696; HOWES M300; MCKINSTRY P248.

Paducah, KY: Turner Publishing Company, 1995. First Edition. Hardcover. Folio. 112 pages. Very Good. Black and White Photographs. History of the battleship U. S. S. California and her crew, with focus on operations in World War II. The California was sunk during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor but was salvaged and repaired by 1944. This history is well illustrated with historic photographs and contains many recollections by former crewmen. Also includes numerous veteran's biographies with "then and now" photographs. Fore corners slightly bumped.

[Annapolis?]: (S.n.), 1832. Single sheet, folded in half to 7 5/8" x 12 1/4. Fine condition with old horizontal folds, no doubt for placement in a delegate's vest pocket. There is one clean 3/4" tear along the edge of one of these folds, otherwise nearly perfect.. Typeset and printed draft of a substitute bill which was adopted by the Maryland General Assembly on March 8, 1832. The bill was to supplement to Maryland's law regarding elections, originally enacted in 1812. <br /> <br /> The present bill, noting that the United States Congress had not yet acted on its apportionment bill following the 5th Census to fix "the ratio of representatives from the several states in this Union," proposes to divide Maryland into districts for the purpose of choosing electors for United States President and Vice-President and to specify the numbers of electors from the counties within those districts. <br /> <br /> Henry Brawner was a delegate from Charles… Read More

Detroit: The Griswold Press, 1926. Single sheet. 22 1/2" x 35. Map has creases from being folded as originally issued. A prior owner has made tape repairs to tears along some of these folds on back side. Front side shows some minor edge wear and rubs along some folds. Very good overall.. Pictorial map. McCandlish's famous 1926 Bootlegger's Map satirizing Prohibition. All manner of alcoholic beverages are celebrated through comical drawings and puns of various place names, such as "BAR-Harbor," "Chi-KEG-o," and "Missis-SIP-i."<br /> <br /> A very attractive copy of this iconic and now rather scarce pictorial map. <br /> <br /> Ref. HORNSBY p. 72.

Paris: Lecram Press, 1927. First edition. Hardcover. 6 1/4" high. [iv], 112 pages. Professionally rebacked with plain cloth spine. Minor extremity wear to boards with a few old scattered stains. Binding sound.. Black and white photos, cartoons by Wynn. An important and scarce cocktail mixing guide by one of the 20th century's most influential bartenders, Harry McElhone. Harry had tended bar at the Plaza in New York and Ciro's in London before opening his own place in Paris. "Harry's New-York Bar," as it was called, was a favorite of Ernest Hemingway and other American ex-pats. <br /> <br /> Harry is often credited with inventing several cocktails including the Bloody Mary, the sidecar, and the boulevardier. Illustrated throughout with delightful drawings by Wynn Holcomb. Great period ads for liquor. There are also two black and white photos of scenes inside Harry's bar.<br /> <br /> There is an inscription dated Paris, Dec. 6 1927 on front free… Read More

(S.l.): (E. P. Dutton/Seymour Lawrence), 1986. Advance Reading Copy. Self-wraps. Octavo. [54] pages. Near fine, saddle-stapled binding.. An advance printing of the title story in the collection "To Skin a Cat," published in October of 1986. This is copy #28 of 250, signed by McGuane on front cover. Letter from publisher dated June 19, 1986 is laid in, explaining the present copy to be a "special edition of this title story, signed by the author and limited to 250 copies.

Richmond: Wm. Ellis Jones' Sons, Inc., Printers, 1915. First Edition. Printed wraps. Octavo. 59 pages. Near fine. Faint browning to edges of covers, some discoloration around binding staples. Overall clean and sound.. A vigorous account of the Chancellorsville Campaign in the spring of 1863. McIntosh had just been promoted to major and was in command of a battalion of Confederate artillery during these actions. Uncommon pamphlet. <br /> <br /> Ref. DORNBUSCH III 1682.

Indianapolis: The Hollenbeck Press, 1929. First edition. Octavo, full cloth, 66 pages. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket./One small chip to top edge of rear jacket panel.. Black and white frontispiece. A tribute to Col. Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Regiment of United States Colored Troops in the Civil War. The author, who was married to an officer in a U.S.C.T. regiment, identifies the introduction of African American soldiers into the fighting ranks as the turning point of the Civil War.

[Paris]: (Fryam Press), 1936. First edition. This is copy #643 of 700, of a total edition of 1,026 copies. Printed wrappers. Octavo. 182 pages. This copy has been professionally resewn and the covers repaired and reattached. Some browning along spine, scattered foxing inside. Very good overall.. Line drawings, typographic page borders throughout. A rather scarce original cocktail mixing guide by Frank Meier, legendary bartender at the Ritz Bar in Paris beginning in the 1920s. This copy is signed by Meier on the limitation page preceding the title page.<br /> <br /> In addition to hundreds of cocktail recipes--many of which Meier himself originated--there is a section on wines, a chapter on "Useful Formulas," a section on horse racing, and several vintage advertisements. Printed with art deco typographical details and ornamental page borders in red. Fully indexed. <br /> <br /> During World War II Frank Meier aided the French Resistance against the Nazis, even… Read More

Washington: Printed by William A. Davis, 1817. Disbound. Quarto. 14 pages. Near fine. Removed from a bound volume with some wrinkles, evidence of stitching, and old glue along spine.. A listing of 24 post-roads across various states that were deemed unproductive as of February 20th, 1817. The criteria were that the road had been established for more than two years and that it had not, within the preceding year, produced postal revenue of at least a third of the cost of transporting the mail upon it. <br /> <br /> Congress was given the power to establish specific post roads in Article I Section 8 of the Constitution. Here the Postmaster General reports that some of the roads so established are a waste of taxpayer money. Return J. Meigs, Jr. was appointed Postmaster General in 1814 by President James Madison--a post he would hold until 1823. The present report was submitted to then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Henry Clay.

New York: Random House, 1930. Hardcover. Duodecimo. xxxii, 825 pages. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Bound in black cloth over boards with titles and illustration stamped in silver on spine and upper board. Some shallow bumps at spine ends. Jacket has a bit of chipping at spine ends. Overall a much better copy than normally found.. Rockwell Kent. The first trade edition of what is widely regarded as the definitive edition of Moby Dick. Indeed, if not for this particular edition it is likely no one would know this book today. Melville's great novel was not well received when published in 1851, and it (and he) languished in relative obscurity through the rest of the 19th century.<br /> <br /> Rockwell Kent was a superstar in the late 1920s world of fine illustrated editions. He produced these nearly 300 illustrations for a lavish edition that was printed in three volumes by The Lakeside Press in 1930. His inspiration came from his immersion in Melville's text as he worked over a… Read More

Lincoln: The Woodruff Press, 1913. First edition. Original cloth over boards. Octavo. 311 pages. Bound in light blue cloth over boards with ornamental titling in white to upper board. White spine titles quite faded. Minor extremity rubs. Slightly cocked, hinges sound. Very good to near fine overall.. Black and white photographic frontispiece plus 15 other plates (16 in total). Scarce, heavily autobiographical first novel by Oscar Micheaux, relating his experiences as a homesteader in Gregory County, South Dakota and the failure of his first marriage. Though published anonymously as by "The Pioneer," with names of characters changed, the protagonist is Oscar Devereaux (Micheaux's middle name). <br /> <br /> Micheaux's theme is African Americans realizing their potential in pursuits outside of their accustomed roles. He contrasts the more common city lifestyles of African Americans with the life he chose as a lone Black pioneer in the far West.<br /> <br />… Read More

(New York): (New Directions Publishing Corp.), 1975. Limited edition. Cloth over boards. Quarto. About 200 unnumbered pages. Near fine. Bound in coarse green cloth with printed title label pasted on spine, light green endpapers. Some faint spotting to cloth boards. Binding snug, no wear to boards.. Facsimile notebook pages (some color). Signed and numbered by Henry Miller, this is #152 in an edition limited to 700 copies. This is a near-facsimile of Miller's holographic "Notebook of American Tour" housed in special collections, UCLA. This notebook contains source material for "The Air-Conditioned Nightmare" and "Remember to Remember."<br /> <br /> This copy comes with its original cardboard shipping sleeve.

(Evanston): (Row, Peterson and Co.), 1941. First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. 64 pages. Fine. Bound in illustrated cloth over boards.. The author spent time "on the road" himself to learn what happened to young people who were tramps and hobos. This down-to-earth story is the fruit of these efforts at gathering information on their thinking and way of life. Illustrated by Gregory Orloff.

Philadelphia, 1795. Framed item. 16" x 25 3/8" overall. Document approximately 9 5/8" x 12 1/2. Fine. Not examined out of frame.. Robert Morris, the influential financier of the American Revolution and signer of the United States' three most important documents--the Articles of Confederation, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution--here signs a stock certificate as President of The North American Land Company. This certificate is made out to one John Baker Church for ten shares. <br /> <br /> This certificate is also signed by Morris's son-inlaw, James Marshall, as Secretary of the company. Marshall's older brother, John Marshall, was the fourth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. <br /> <br /> Robert Morris was financially ruined by the venture. The North American Land Company controlled millions of acres in the new nation, but when demand failed to meet expectations the scheme collapsed in 1798, landing Morris in debtors'… Read More

(S.l.): (S.n.), 1940. Saddle-stapled wrappers. Octavo. [8] pages. Very good, with some edge wear and separation to covers at bottom 2" of spine.. Black & white halftones from photographs. Interesting booklet on Ray R. Myers, born without arms. Though a circus sought to employ him at age 3, his parents chose to give him as normal a life as they could. He learned to play the trombone and the guitar while in high school. He was discovered by Cowboy Loye and began a career in music. <br /> <br /> Myers did a stint with Robert Ripley and his Odditorium in 1933, but decided against a career as a freak. He seemed able to overcome any obstacle, as photos herein show him driving a car, smoking cigarettes, firing a rifle, and more--all with his feet. <br /> <br /> Myers has signed this copy under the photograph of him, his wife, and young son on the Dedication Page.