Search Results: Titles starting with A from McBride Rare Books

New York: Alcoholic Foundation, Inc, 1943. Very good.. 28,[1]pp. Original printed wrappers, stapled. Moderate toning, spotting, and edge wear, soft central vertical fold throughout. One sentence underlined, otherwise clean internally. An early pamphlet issued by Alcoholics Anonymous containing important doctrine from the organization's early years. The first sentence provides the motivation behind the present pamphlet: "The purpose of this booklet is to show how thousands of us, who were once hopeless alcoholics, have recovered from our malady. We have found a way of life which no longer compels us to drink. Alcoholics Anonymous is the great reality which has expelled our obsession." Later in the introduction, the organization dispels any notion of complicated requirements for membership: "The only requirement for A.A. membership is an honest desire to stop drinking." The pamphlet also prints passages entitled, "Am I an Alcoholic?," "The Doctor's Nightmare," "The European Drinker," "Women Suffer… Read More

Kansas City, Mo: Breeders Printing Company, 1920. Good.. Poster, 38 x 25 inches. Folds into a folio brochure in eight panels, printed in three colors. Separations at folds, repaired with tape on verso. Two small losses at center fold. Minor wear at edges. Large poster for the sale of fifty-two head of cattle from the herd of noted Montana rancher A.B. Cook. Andrew B. Cook (1864-1928) was a Montana railroad contractor and internationally-known cattle breeder and rancher with a farm in Broadwater County. The poster features numerous images of cows, with the headliners being the "six great sires" Cuba's Panama, Beau Carlos, Fairfax 16th, Premier 3D, Panama 34th, and Panama 100th. Aside from its handsome bovines, the poster features lineage charts for two of the bulls, and a blurb about the superior breeding methods employed by Cook. The verso features a half-sheet headlined "Illustrating the Get of the Grand Champion Fairfax 16th in the Sale," and a quarter panel illustrating "Six of the Granddaughters… Read More

San Jose, 1898. Very good plus.. 160,[4]pp. plus folding plate. 12mo. Original yellow cloth, stamped in black. Corners lightly bumped, spine ends lightly worn. Internally clean. First of four editions. "Buchanan's last and perhaps oddest book" - Atwater. An unusual work on numerological and occult cycles, based on the number seven. Buchanan (1814-1899) was a Kentucky native who studied medicine and became enamored of phrenology while at university. Finding a lack of research on the brain in his medical coursework, he began his own series of experiments, using techniques from mesmerism. He would go on to be a major force in the world of alternative medicine, particularly as it related to psychology. "His books popularized current neurophysiological knowledge, and his belief in the existence of extraordinary mental powers for clairvoyance and telepathy whetted Americans' appetite for continued investigation into humanity's psychological constitution." The present title is his final work, published… Read More

[Various locations across the United States, including North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon, California, Utah, and Colorado, 1909. Good.. [59]pp. Contemporary composition notebook, brown cloth backstrip and grey textured wrappers, black titles on front cover. Some fraying and chipping to spine cloth, minor rubbing. A few leaves detached. A delightful diary kept by a young woman named Rachel S. Frew during her journey west by train and car at the end of the first decade of the early-20th century. The front cover of the composition book has her signature, reading "Rachel S. Frew." Frew was apparently traveling with her mother and other friends, and the group set out by train on August 3, 1909, returning to New York on September 15. By the next day, August 4, Frew passes Cleveland and then travels through Minnesota. Soon thereafter, Frew recounts her experiences in North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming, where she visits Bismarck, the Badlands, Emigrants Peak, Apollinaris Spring, Yellowstone… Read More

San Francisco, 1917. Good plus.. Sheet map, 28 x 22.75 inches. Folded. Somewhat rumpled; a few small chips at edges, not affecting text of map image. Several scattered patches of staining. A scarce real estate map of Berkeley, California, printed for and distributed by local agents Mason-McDuffie Company in 1917. Blocks are overprinted with lot numbers and letters, as well as tract and neighborhood names, and a street index is printed at the foot of the map. A large red arrow points to the location of the Mason-McDuffie office, just west of the University of California campus, and an area shaded in red, labeled "Northbrae Properties" at the northern edge of the city limits, indicates the principal real estate interests of the agents. We locate four copies, at Berkeley, Stanford, the California State Library, and the Oakland Public Library.

Eureka, Nv: July 3, 1871. Very good.. [4]pp., on a single large folio sheet. Old horizontal folds, minor toning. A large-format mining report on the Eureka District of Nevada by noted mining and mechanical engineer Joshua E. Clayton. Joshua Elliott Clayton (1820-1889) was regarded as one of the nation's foremost mining engineers in the latter half of the 19th century. Self taught, Clayton worked in the mining fields of California, Colorado, Montana, Utah, and Nevada for a variety of companies for over fifty years. He was also innovative, inventing mining and milling machinery over his long career that he would market to the companies for which he was a consultant. Clayton was renowned in the west for his integrity and accuracy, once claiming in 1880 that Butte would eventually yield 40,000 tons of copper per year; nine years later, Butte was producing over 50,000 tons of copper annually. The idea was laughed at, until the mine A detailed biography of Clayton by Clark C. Spence, titled, "Joshua E.… Read More

Orange, Tx: Rein Litho, 1901. About very good.. 49pp., plus frontispiece map. Original printed wrappers, stitched. Light wear and chipping at wrapper edges, with two tape repairs along top edge. Even toning and light dust soiling. Scattered, contemporary ink stamps; contemporary manuscript annotation on frontispiece map. Rare printed abstract of title for Houston's Empire Addition, bounded roughly by San Jacinto, Alabama, Cleburne, and Crawford Streets, southwest of Downtown in what is now the Midtown area of the megalopolis. The text prints all legal documents relating to ownership of the land and its sale or transfer from 1893 to 1901, and the work also contains a survey map of the area, which measures approximately sixteen square blocks. There is an ink notation on the map, "Partly in Smith & Holman Svys," and the stamps of the contemporary Harris County Abstract Co. to front and rear wrappers as well as on the back of the map. A valuable work on the growth of Houston in the early 20th century as… Read More

[Houston]: Magnolia Park Land Co, 1921. Very good.. Oblong folio. 28pp. Original tan printed wrappers, brown paper backstrip. Three vertical creases throughout, minor soiling to wrappers. Contents toned but clean. A highly detailed title abstract to a land development project in Houston, Texas at the outset of the Roaring Twenties. The abstract was prepared by the Texas Abstract Company for the Magnolia Park Land Company, the owners and developers of the subdivision. The text collects the ownership history of the land involved in the Manchester Subdivision going back to 1824, printed in four columns of small type throughout. The text is supplemented by a full-page plat map entitled, "Map of Manchester Subdivision of the City of Houston and Town of Harrisburg...." The development remains today, abutted against the Houston Ship Channel, and populated mostly with chemical plants, sewage facilities, and refineries. No copies in OCLC.

[Houston]: Magnolia Park Land Co, 1924. Very good.. Oblong folio. 25,[1]pp. Original tan printed wrappers, brown paper backstrip. Three soft vertical creases throughout, light soiling to wrappers. Minor edge wear to last leaf of text. A highly detailed title abstract to a land development project near Buffalo Bayou in Houston, Texas in 1923, with a single-page supplement to the abstract tipped-in at the rear. The abstract was prepared by the Texas Abstract Company for the Magnolia Park Land Company, the owners and developers of the subdivision. The text collects the ownership history of the land involved in the Engel Addition and its extension going back to the original land grant to Samuel Williams in 1828, printed in four columns of small type throughout. According to the opening text, the Engel Addition was "a replat of that portion of the J.T. Mason Subdivision that was conveyed to the 'Magnolia Park Land Company' by J.T. Mason." The text is supplemented by two sectional plat maps on the first… Read More

Opelousas, La: The Jacobs News Depot Co, 1907. Very good.. 107,[1]pp. plus frontispiece and four plates. Original grey cloth, stamped in gilt. A few bumps to edges, minor soiling. Internally clean and fresh. Memoir of Acadian resettlement to Louisiana. "The writer has presented a prose pastoral, that in its unique composition, will probably bear favorable comparison with the annals of Joan of Arc....

Mexico City, 1842. Very good.. [3]pp., on a small bifolium. Minor wear and dust soiling at edges; light tanning. Scarce 1842 addendum to regulations concerning maritime customs and tariffs in Mexico. In the first of four articles contained here, Santa Anna declares that the ports of Galveston and Matagorda will be reopened to foreign trade when Texas returns to the federal union. The remaining articles clarify discrepancies between recent adjustments to tariff legislation and the original law passed in 1837. Another example of the wishful thinking regarding Texas that preoccupied Mexico until annexation by the United States and the Mexican-American War. OCLC locates only two copies, at Yale and the British Library. Sabin 48257n. Streeter Texas 984.

Montgomery, Al: Montgomery Post Book and Job Office, 1860. Very good.. 8pp., with a secretarial manuscript certification covering inside rear wrapper, with affixed state seal. Original tan printed wrappers, sewn. Minor dust-soiling to wrappers, soft vertical crease throughout. One pencil correction to text, minor even toning. A seemingly unrecorded Alabama imprint, being an act pertaining to the founding operations of the Alabama Insurance Company, approved in 1858 but not issued until the year before the Civil War. The work contains a list of the company's founding officers, headed by President W.C. Bibb, and is followed by the company's Act of Incorporation laid out in eleven sections, and concludes with an amendment to the act. The secretarial manuscript certification on the inside rear cover was signed March 1, 1861 by P.H. Brittan, Alabama's Secretary of State. Brittan (1815-1868) was a journalist who also served as Alabama's quartermaster general. Not in Owen, nor listed in OCLC.

Mexico City: Imprenta de I. Cumplido, 1847. Good plus.. 12pp. 12mo. Dbd. Trimmed somewhat close at fore-edge. Closed tears from bottom edge of final three leaves near gutter margin. Light tanning. Amidst the Mexican-American War and rising unrest within the country, the Mexican government sought to pacify protests and create a sense of unity and strength amongst its citizens with the passage of this constitutional reform legislation. The present act in essence restored the federal Constitution of 1824, which had been supplanted in 1843 by the "Bases Orgánicas de la República Mexicana," a much more restrictive form of government that limited freedoms of speech and of the press, reinstated capital punishment, and established preferential protections for the Catholic Church. In addition, the act passed thirty articles of reform that affect matters regarding citizenship, voting, constitutionality of laws, and several other subjects. While the Constitution of 1824 proceeded in effect until 1857, its… Read More

Mexico City: Imprenta Moderna, 1896. Good plus.. 24pp. 16mo. Original printed wrappers bound into modern cloth, front board gilt letters. Light soiling to wraps; small chip at fore-edge of rear wrapper. Light, even tanning. Small, scarce pamphlet that prints the 1821 Mexican Declaration of Independence by Augstin de Iturbide and a brief biography of the first leader of independent Mexico. The work, published in 1896, likely saw use as a portable, patriotic history lesson for school children or as a civics refresher for those engaged in the federal elections of that year, in which Porfirio Diaz won his fourth presidential term. The author, Antonio Moreno, is decidedly pro-Iturbide, and spends the last few pages here attempting to refute contemporary critics and historic opponents of the "Author of Mexican Independence," who was executed by firing squad in 1824. We locate four copies, at Berkeley, UCLA, NYPL, and Indiana.

Washington DC: T. Barnard, 1849. Very good.. 14pp. Gathered signatures, stitched. Moderate edge wear and foxing, first leaf a bit darkened along edges. A scarce work relating to continuing efforts by Commodore Edwin Ward Moore to recover vast sums of money he personally assumed while serving as the commander of the Texas Navy in 1840. At that time, Moore was tasked by President Sam Houston to blockade the Mexican coast, but without proper funding for supplies. Desperate to continue his mission, Moore took his ship up the Tabasco River where he encountered Yucatan rebels who were about to surrender to Santa Anna. Moore agreed to help the Yucatecans fight Santa Anna for a payment of $25,000. The plan worked. The Yucatecans outmaneuvered Santa Anna and Moore was able to continue his mission, but at a further cost of his reputation. President Houston was furious that Moore defied orders and assisted the Yucatan rebels. President Houston accused Moore of a host of serious charges, including willful… Read More

Chicago: Chas. N. Trivess, 1885. About very good.. 16pp. Original printed wrappers, stapled. Light to moderate foxing to covers, some light wear. A promotional work for the railroad, this pamphlet is subtitled, "A few testimonies of the results obtained from farming in this wonderful region." The text is comprised of letters written by real residents in this "Wonderland of the Northwest," noting bountiful crop yields and cheap land. The rear cover is a map of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway showing routes from Chicago out to Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and the Dakotas. Relatively scarce.

[Natchez, Ms.?], 1839. Very good.. Broadside, 13 x 15.75 inches. Printed in four columns; central vertical fold. Light wear and toning. In the present broadside, The trustees of Jefferson College announce that they are once again prepared to admit students in 1839 following a reorganization, and give their mission statement, courses of study, faculty list, tuition fees, and more. The school, located in Washington, Mississippi, just north of Natchez, opened in 1811, and was the first college in the Mississippi Territory. In the text of this broadside, one can clearly see sentiments and dispositions that would bring the Civil War to fruition. The first two columns are chiefly dedicated to a description fo the new faculty and their skills, but also new measures put in place during the reorganization of the school. In place of gymnastics a daily military drill was substituted, and a military police was to be established, "for the preservation of good order and regularity." The remainder of the broadside… Read More

Phoenix, 1904. Very good.. [24]pp. 24mo. Original printed wrappers, stapled. Small portion excised from first leaf. Light toning. Unrecorded promotional for the Stoddard Incorporating Company of Phoenix, Arizona, founded by Isaac T. Stoddard, the former Territorial Secretary of Arizona, who, "continues to do most of the incorporating business of the Territory." Stoddard was forced to resign in 1904, the same year he formed this company and the present pamphlet was published, because of conflicts of interest between his business and government positions. The complete laws of incorporation, reprinted here from the session laws of 1903, are preceded by a fourteen-point list of special advantages offered by Arizona, along with the company's initial and annual maintenance fees, and instructions on incorporation procedure, which mention that Stoddard has organized "three fourths of all corporations in the Territory." Not in OCLC.

Boston: Printed and sold by S. Hall, 1794. Fair.. 119,[6]pp. Lacks pp.47-50. Illustrated. 16mo. Original birch boards covered in green patterned paper. Front cover broken and two pieces separated but present. Spine heavily worn with loss at top and bottom. Rear cover detached and broken in two pieces. Minor soiling and foxing to text. Two leaves excised; top corner of final leaf of ads torn away resulting in slight loss to several lines, leaf detached. A charming, if somewhat battered, copy of one of the first American editions of Swift's popular work, published here with numerous woodcut illustrations. The first American edition of this work seems to have been published in Philadelphia in 1787, with subsequent editions in New York and Philadelphia, as well as the present Boston edition. The first leaf features a full-page woodcut of Captain Gulliver, with several more woodcuts interspersed throughout the text depicting Gulliver's incredible adventures. Sadly, two leaves have been excised from the… Read More

[Fargo, 1894. About very good.. [16] leaves with descriptive tissue guards. Oblong 12mo. Original grey printed wrappers, string-tied. Light wear and soiling to covers. First tissue guard lacking. Internally clean. A pictorial souvenir of the Agricultural College of North Dakota, which later became North Dakota State University. The school opened in January 1892 with 123 students enrolled. This booklet, then, showcases the progress made in the short years after the founding of the school. Images show the primary building, the biology lab, the chemistry lab, home economics classroom, the agricultural classroom with its collections of grains and seeds, and more. We locate two copies in OCLC, at the University of Illinois and North Dakota State University.