Search Results: Titles starting with R from Ian Brabner, Rare Americana (ABAA)

Philadelphia: The Judson Press, (1922). 210pp. First Edition. Small 8vo. Frontis + 19 leaves of plates; folding table. Red cloth with inset illustrated label from photograph; without rare dust jacket. Early inscription, small presentation rubber stamp; else fine condition. First edition of this 1922 work describing Baptist missionaries and their efforts in the South to improve the lives of African Americans through education, religion, and hard work. Mission work is described in Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas. The plates, half-tones from photographs, are evocative; one image contrasts tumbled down shacks ("a civic liability") with a neat and tidy home with a car out front to represent the aspiring, upwardly-mobile Southern African American. The frontispiece shows a well-dressed Black boy standing in front, in homage, to a large statue of Abraham Lincoln. Another plate shows a college printing shop where a young man and women work with sophisticated printing machinery. The… Read More

Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1949. xii, [2], 194pp. First Edition. 8vo. Publisher's blue cloth with gilt spine titling; dust jacket. Inscribed by co-author Edgar T. Thompson on free, front endpaper. Trifle binding wear; very good in very good, lightly-handled and mildly-soiled dust jacket. Bibliography of almost 2,000 books and periodicals on the subjects of race, racial conflict, the slave trade, the plantation system, etc. Includes chapters on "White and Negro Intelligence," "The Negro in Domestic Service," Race Mixture and the Mulatto, "The Language and Dialect of the American Negro," "The Negro in Literature and the Arts," "Leadership in Negro Affairs," and "'The Negro Problem.'" This copy inscribed and signed by co-author, sociologist Edgar T. Thompson, to his Duke University professor colleague, Dr. A.M. Proctor of the education department.

[Detroit: np, 1930]. Broadside. 9¼ x 6¼ inches. Pale green coated paper with newspaper facsimile illustration. Folds and creases; short closed tear along bottom edge; very good. Small broadside announcing a public lecture by Universalist minister Dr. Frank D. Adams on the topic of "negroes joining white churches," presented at Detroit's East Elizabeth Street Y.M.C.A. in 1930. The invitation, to both men and women, is accompanied by an illustration in the form of a newspaper clipping of the article "Negro Issue Church Test, Pastor Asserts" from the December 16, 1929 issue of the Detroit Free Press. In the article, Adams declared: "Unless it can be accepted that Christ's principles and teachings were directed toward a particular class or race rather than all mankind, no church can honestly call itself Christian while excluding Negroes, foreigners or others from its membership..." An unusual plea for racial and religious harmony in a Northern city in the aftermath of the Great Migration. From 1910 to… Read More

[Chicago: John McGreer, Copyright 1882.] Five mounted albumen photographs, numbered 1-5 within image. Oblong; mounts 4¼ x 6½ inches; images 4 x 5¼ inches. Light soiling in margins; first mount and photo toned; very good. Complete set of five photographic reproductions from the Cartoon Printing Co. published by Chicago cartoonist John McGreer, based on Solomon Eytinge's racist African American caricatures from his "Blackville" series published by Harper's Weekly. The images show a stereotypical caricature of a Black midwife slowly revealing to an alarmed gentleman that he has become a grandfather not once but five times over. The old man's developing reaction supplies the humor-he goes from wistfully pleased until he finally exclaims "F-I-V-E !!! 'See that my grave's kept green'" and faints dead away. "John McGreer (1833-1905) was a dime museum painter, landscape artist, and cartoonist. He worked in Chicago after 1870 and was a partner in the novelty and satire printing firm Cartoon Printing Co.,… Read More

[Madison, Wisconsin: Likely Bied Printing Co., 1920]. [16]pp. Program. 6½ x 4 inches. Illustrated wrappers; stapled. Ownership inscription on upper cover. Fine. 1920 program for a "Vodvil" or vaudeville show produced at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to raise funds to build the campus' Union Memorial Building. The cover art by Fred Sperry (Class of 1921) depicts an actor in minstrel-show blackface slouching uneasily in a theatrical spotlight. Numerous ads for Madison business are seen throughout the program. The 12-act vaudeville show included musical numbers, comedy, and short plays or skits. The musical finale, "Melody Garden," was directed and costumed by women and was performed by an all-female cast of singers and dancers. One of their numbers, "Dark Town Syncopation," appears to have been a minstrel show act. It was followed by a "Danse Bizarre". Ref. The Badger, Assembled and Published by the Class of 1922 of the University of Wisconsin at Madison (Madison,1921).

London: Jonathan Cape, (1994). 458 pages. Octavo. Hardcover. Fine in dustwrapper. First Edition. Copy "W," one of 26 special copies signed by the author below which he has written out an early draft of one of his poems later published with variations under the title "sub (not used): Mountain." Ex-bookseller Iain Sinclair's seminal novel.

Cincinnati: Press of Gibson & Perin Co., c.1922. 64pp. 13½ x 10 inches. Color pictorial wrappers. Numerous half tone illustrations from photographs. Some handling and light creasing; several conjugate leaves at center loose; Very Good. Unrecorded, oversized, and solicitous publication targeting prospective students (whites only) to apply to the Cincinnati branch of the Rahe School, an automobile, tractor, and aviation mechanics' training institution founded in Kansas City, Missouri in 1917. During the First World War, the Rahe School trained U.S. Army personnel. Afterwards, the school expanded and opened a branch in Cincinnati because it was "the most Southern Northern City and the most Northern Southern City." (p5) The school declined to accept Black men as students, the catalog states this policy was "made without disparagement to their race or color." (p8) The publication includes pictures of the faculty and testimonials from Cincinnati organizations and former students from the first Cincinnati… Read More

New York: PAJ Publications, (1985). First Edition. 191pp. 8vo. Hardcover. Fine in dustwrapper. The collected plays of this German New Wave filmmaker and dramatist. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant and Katzelmacher became successful films. The other plays are Bremen Freedom; Blood on the Cat's Neck; Pre-Paradise Sorry Now; and Garbage, The City and Death.

[Philadelphia? 1904-1905]. 28 x 20¾ inches. Former fold lines, as originally mailed. A number of short closed tears have been expertly mended with Japanese tissue. An unrecorded real estate and promotional map issued by the Atlantic City Estate Co., with offices in Pittsburg, Camden and Philadelphia. These maps are rare as they were printed in small quantities and their primary nature was as a selling tool. They served no long-term function and can be considered ephemeral. The company was selling lots in the subdivision of Pleasantville Terrace in Egg Harbor Township, Atlantic County and described it as "The Healthiest, Most Beautiful Suburb of Atlantic City, N.J."  (Then, about fifteen minutes from Atlantic City.) The map shows a proposed trolly line running down Shuman Avenue and intersecting Anita, Beatrice, Corrine, Dorothy, Elsie, and Flora streets. The properties abutted against the Atlantic City Railroad line along its southern edge. To see more on the selling of the marketing of… Read More

[New York: Printed by Pusey Press, 1922]. [16]pp. 11½ x 8¼ inches. Illustrated. Pictorial wrappers lightly soiled; small margin chip to front cover; very good. A one-page fire exit plan for Boston's Park Theatre is laid in. Rare cinema theater program for the 1922 silent film, When Knighthood Was in Flower, directed by Robert G. Vignola and starring Marion Davies in the role of Mary Tudor. The film was the second-highest grossing film in 1922. The film was produced by The Cosmopolitan Corporation owned by Davies' husband, William Randolph Hearst. At that time, it was the most expensive film ever made; the program notes an expenditure of over $1.2 million. "The largest set ever constructed, covering over two city blocks, was used in the production, and more than 3,000 actors, including 55 principals appeared." (p[3]) Cartier supplied jewelry; Duveen the antiques; Giddings & Co., of Fifth Avenue the lavish costumes, etc. Eight half tone illustrations in the program, most full page, were made from… Read More

Philadelphia: Stan V. Henkels, [1922]. Catalogue No. 1294. 32pp. Lg. 8vo. Printed, stiff paper wrappers. Vertical center crease; edges of wrappers sunned; very good. Auction catalog devoted exclusively to views in the city and neighborhoods of Philadelphia. Offerings include a rare set of Birch's views of Philadelphia, bridges over the Schuylkill River, the Water Works, churches, views of the city from the Delaware River, views in Fairmount Park, views of the State House (Independence Hall), Civil War views, fire departments, Girard College, hotels, jails, industrial sites, etc. Neighborhoods covered include Germantown, Kensington, Laurel HIll, and Manayunk.

New York: The Grove Press, 1966. 181pp. Near fine in publisher's red cloth and a lightly-soiled illustrated dust jacket. First American edition and first printing [so stated]. Translated from the French by Richard Seaver. With a photo portrait of Marguerite Duras on the dust jacket's rear panel, taken by Jerry Bauer.

New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., (1968). 206pp. Sm. 8vo. Hardcover. Very good in a worn good-only dustwrapper. First edition, first printing. With a lengthy inscription by Bailey: "To Maria, All love and devotion to a darling friend and sister - We have much to live for - One of my rare pleasures was to know Nathaniel. We all love him so much. Pearlie Mae."

Baton Rouge: LSU Press, (1985). First edition. Review Copy. Near fine in publisher's cloth with a dust jacket in like condition. The biography of this historian and scholar who ranks amongst such luminaries as Carter G. Woodson ("The Father of Black History"), Charles H. Wesley, John Hope Franklin and others. Work was born to formerly-enslaved parents. He was one of the initial members of W.E.B. Du Bois's Niagara Movement before joining Booker T. Washington and settling in at at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

Orratanna, Adams County, Pa.: Squaw Press, (1923). 46pp. Printed illustrated wrappers. Light soil to wraps; very good. A 1920s-era interpretation of this Indian captivity story. "A romance [and fictional account based on the life] of an Irish girl stolen by Indians from Buchanan Valley, Adams County, Pennsylvania, in 1750.-A story too strange and grim not to be true." (title-page)

[Germany. 1931.] Miniature Engagement Calendar. 2¼ x 1½ inches. Decorative Art Deco-styled front cover; all edges gilt. Light rubbing to rear board; else fine. A charming little give-away on behalf of a jewelry store in Oakley, Kansas, in miniature book-like format. Inside: leaves printed in red and black with modest, but attractive diminutive ornamentation. In the center of the calendar are four leaves of acetate paper for stamps to be stored within. This Engagement Calendar was never used which accounts for its remarkable condition.

[Np: np, c.1930s]. 12 panel fold-out brochure; printed on recto and verso. 3¼ x 3 inches folded; 37¾ x 3 inches unfolded. 21 half tone illustrations from photographs. Near fine From "Freshman" to "Sophomore"-a prospectus for Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, cleverly designed to imitate a strip of movie film with each "cell" depicting a scene of life at an élite women's college. The "film's" plot presents the story of a typical incoming freshman, her anxieties allayed by a helpful de-coding of college and campus mysteries, routines, and activities. As the story unfolds, her experiences reveal much about the college, its personnel, and the school's educational and sports amenities. The illustration's caption texts, like a documentarian's film narrative, show a freshman meeting the Head of House, her residence cottage, and the school's memorial gates, library, botanic gardens, astronomical observatory, and chapel. There is even an academic procession and a sighting of college president,… Read More

Bethlehem, Pa.: Gedruckt von J. W. Held, [c.1851]. 19+[1(blank)]pp. 6 x 4 inches. Wrappers; stitched. Text in German. Faint toning to wrappers; Near Fine. Rare 1850s Bethlehem, Pennsylvania imprint containing the rules and regulations governing the Moravian church in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Regeln und Ordnungen der Brüder-Gemeine in Nazareth, does not have a dated imprint. The c.1851 date is inferred from a concluding section that says (translated from the German): "The foregoing rules and regulations of the Moravian Church in Nazareth are in today's meeting of the common council, the 13th March, 1851 unanimously adopted..." Unlisted in OCLC or in the Moravian Archives at Bethlehem.

Bethlehem [Pennsylvania]: Gedruckt von J. W. Held, 1856. 24, 13, [3(blank)]pp. Approx. 5½ x 4 inches. Plain original wrappers; stitched. Text in German and English. Faint staining at lower tip; Near Fine. Scarce 1856 Bethlehem, Pennsylvania imprint containing the rules and regulations governing the Moravian church in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Printed in German, this pamphlet is listed in OCLC as having 24 pages. Our copy has an additional 13-pages of content that is separately paginated, printed in English, and is entitled: "An Act Incorporating the Congregation of the United Brethren of the town of Nazareth and its Vicinity." It has a proper title page with J[ulius]. W. Held's 1856 imprint. This second imprint is found only in OCLC as a separate 13-page imprint. Our pamphlet appears therefore to be a combined variant issue of these two works. OCLC 13308909 and 13295611 (Hamilton and Trinity only).

[Likely Washington, D.C.: np, c.1829]. 23, [1 (blank)]pp., untrimmed, as issued. 12mo. Removed and pamphlet without wrappers; foxing; Very Good. "Bartlett also became known as a loyal defender of John Quincy Adams's administration, especially in February 1828 when the Jacksonians accused the president of spending money recklessly for the White House, diplomatic missions, and other projects." (ANB) Rare. For this undated edition and a dated 1829 edition OCLC returns six holdings only.