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<b>Bonhams:</b> MANDELSHTAM, OSIP. 1891-1938. Autograph Manuscript, 2 pp, [Petersburg,] January 1913, entitled

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31 Varied and Unusual Items from John Michael Lang Fine Books 31 recent acquisitions from John Michael Lang. By Michael Stillman John Michael Lang Fine Books has issued a brief but fascinating collection of eclectic works: Recent Acquisitions List 21. There are just 31 items offered, but you might find just about anything here. There are obscurities from Lang's Pacific Northwest (his shop is located in Seattle), exploration books, poetry, books signed by presidents, one on boxing, another on Japanese origami, an unpublished travel account, maps of the west, literature, bibliography, a receipt signed by the founder of Olympia, Washington, a pictorial account of a legendary Seattle nightclub featuring cross-dressing performers, military memoirs, a Chinook vocabulary, even an early 17th century European book. And more. All of this from just 31 items! How is this possible? You should contact Lang for a copy to see. Here are a few samples. Item 3 recounts some of the earliest travels into Montana by whites. Though published by the Montana State University Press in 1950, it is David Thompson's Journals Relating to Montana and Adjacent Regions, 1808-1812. This book was taken from Thompson's original manuscripts and includes an introduction by editor M. Catherine White. Priced at $500. Item 31 is the quintessential resource for mapping of the American West. It is Carl Wheat's Mapping the Transmississippi West, 1540-1861. It contains five volumes (bound in six), each covering a period of time, from the Spanish explorations to the Louisiana Purchase in volume one, to Civil War to Geological Survey in volume five. Over 300 historic maps are reproduced. The work was published from 1957-1963 in an edition of 1,000 copies. $4,500. Next we move to the not so serious: The Numidian 1967. This is the yearbook for the Lakeside School, a prep school in Seattle for the well heeled. This one includes 8th grade photos for Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Allen shows up both in his class picture and, with an expression of mock horror, in what appears to be an electric chair. His partner-to-be, Bill Gates, does not appear in this yearbook as he did not enter Lakeside until the following year. Item 2. $75. Here is that very old book: A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence In Antiquities, by R.V. (Richard Verstegan). Published in Antwerp in 1605, this book includes the first printed reference to the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Item 28. $2,000. For collectors of bibliography, here is one you don't have: Bibliography on Medicine and Pharmacy in Medievil Islam, by Sami Hamarneh. Well, if you do, you certainly don't have a copy inscribed by the author, such as this one. Although we have not done the research, we imagine that this 1964 book is likely the only bibliography on the subject in English. Item 7. $200.
31 Varied and Unusual Items from John Michael Lang Fine Books British officers stationed on San Juan Island during the "Pig War." Item 13 is The Challenge to Liberty, a 1934 book by then former President Herbert Hoover, and inscribed by him. Not too many people were listening to Hoover by that time, his lopsided defeat as a result of the Great Depression only recently past. Hoover worried over the loss of liberty resulting from government actions, and Roosevelt was introducing many government programs to try to alleviate the Depression's effects. Hoover's concerns were not without merit; they apply perhaps even more today. Nonetheless, he may have missed the point that people living in soup lines really have no practical freedom. They weren't going anywhere though technically free. $350. For political balance, item 27 is a book about another former president, though one from the opposite side of the aisle. Mr. Citizen is Harry Truman's 1960 account of his post-White House life. Truman signed this copy. $400. Item 29 is the Collection of Official Documents on the San Juan Imbroglio, 1859-1872. This "imbroglio" is better known as the Pig War. All wars should be so violent. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 finally settled the boundary between the U.S. and British Canada, generally being the 49th parallel, but then through the channel that separates Vancouver Island from the mainland. The problem was that it was not clear to which side of the San Juan Islands this line fell. The British Hudson's Bay Company occupied part of these islands, but so did American settlers. They all lived together famously until one day when a British pig began rooting in an American's garden. The American shot the pig, and the dispute between farmer and pig owner escalated into an international incident over who owned the islands. Each side stationed troops on the islands, but fortunately, no shots were fired beyond the one which killed the pig. After many years of this silliness, the dispute was sent to Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany for arbitration, and the Kaiser's commission decided for the U.S. This stapled collection of documents was prepared in about fifty copies for a group led by Washington Senator Henry Jackson in the early 1960s when a park was being established at the site. $200. John Michael Lang Fine Books may be reached at 206-624-4100 or jmlbooks@isomedia.com.

31 Varied and Unusual Items from John Michael Lang Fine Books

31 recent acquisitions from John Michael Lang.

By Michael Stillman

John Michael Lang Fine Books has issued a brief but fascinating collection of eclectic works: Recent Acquisitions List 21. There are just 31 items offered, but you might find just about anything here. There are obscurities from Lang's Pacific Northwest (his shop is located in Seattle), exploration books, poetry, books signed by presidents, one on boxing, another on Japanese origami, an unpublished travel account, maps of the west, literature, bibliography, a receipt signed by the founder of Olympia, Washington, a pictorial account of a legendary Seattle nightclub featuring cross-dressing performers, military memoirs, a Chinook vocabulary, even an early 17th century European book. And more. All of this from just 31 items! How is this possible? You should contact Lang for a copy to see. Here are a few samples.

Item 3 recounts some of the earliest travels into Montana by whites. Though published by the Montana State University Press in 1950, it is David Thompson's Journals Relating to Montana and Adjacent Regions, 1808-1812. This book was taken from Thompson's original manuscripts and includes an introduction by editor M. Catherine White. Priced at $500.

Item 31 is the quintessential resource for mapping of the American West. It is Carl Wheat's Mapping the Transmississippi West, 1540-1861. It contains five volumes (bound in six), each covering a period of time, from the Spanish explorations to the Louisiana Purchase in volume one, to Civil War to Geological Survey in volume five. Over 300 historic maps are reproduced. The work was published from 1957-1963 in an edition of 1,000 copies. $4,500.

Next we move to the not so serious: The Numidian 1967. This is the yearbook for the Lakeside School, a prep school in Seattle for the well heeled. This one includes 8th grade photos for Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Allen shows up both in his class picture and, with an expression of mock horror, in what appears to be an electric chair. His partner-to-be, Bill Gates, does not appear in this yearbook as he did not enter Lakeside until the following year. Item 2. $75.

Here is that very old book: A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence In Antiquities, by R.V. (Richard Verstegan). Published in Antwerp in 1605, this book includes the first printed reference to the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Item 28. $2,000.

For collectors of bibliography, here is one you don't have: Bibliography on Medicine and Pharmacy in Medievil Islam, by Sami Hamarneh. Well, if you do, you certainly don't have a copy inscribed by the author, such as this one. Although we have not done the research, we imagine that this 1964 book is likely the only bibliography on the subject in English. Item 7. $200.

31 Varied and Unusual Items from John Michael Lang Fine Books

British officers stationed on San Juan Island during the "Pig War."

Item 13 is The Challenge to Liberty, a 1934 book by then former President Herbert Hoover, and inscribed by him. Not too many people were listening to Hoover by that time, his lopsided defeat as a result of the Great Depression only recently past. Hoover worried over the loss of liberty resulting from government actions, and Roosevelt was introducing many government programs to try to alleviate the Depression's effects. Hoover's concerns were not without merit; they apply perhaps even more today. Nonetheless, he may have missed the point that people living in soup lines really have no practical freedom. They weren't going anywhere though technically free. $350.

For political balance, item 27 is a book about another former president, though one from the opposite side of the aisle. Mr. Citizen is Harry Truman's 1960 account of his post-White House life. Truman signed this copy. $400.

Item 29 is the Collection of Official Documents on the San Juan Imbroglio, 1859-1872. This "imbroglio" is better known as the Pig War. All wars should be so violent. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 finally settled the boundary between the U.S. and British Canada, generally being the 49th parallel, but then through the channel that separates Vancouver Island from the mainland. The problem was that it was not clear to which side of the San Juan Islands this line fell. The British Hudson's Bay Company occupied part of these islands, but so did American settlers. They all lived together famously until one day when a British pig began rooting in an American's garden. The American shot the pig, and the dispute between farmer and pig owner escalated into an international incident over who owned the islands. Each side stationed troops on the islands, but fortunately, no shots were fired beyond the one which killed the pig. After many years of this silliness, the dispute was sent to Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany for arbitration, and the Kaiser's commission decided for the U.S. This stapled collection of documents was prepared in about fifty copies for a group led by Washington Senator Henry Jackson in the early 1960s when a park was being established at the site. $200.

John Michael Lang Fine Books may be reached at 206-624-4100 or jmlbooks@isomedia.com.