Voyages and Travels, to America and the World, from Helen Kahn
Voyages and Travels from Helen Kahn.
By Michael Stillman
Helen R. Kahn and Associates has issued a new catalogue of Travels and Voyages, number 73 for the Canadian bookseller. Most of these travels at least included the North American continent, although some went to Asia, South America, Australia, and the Arctic. Included in this catalogue are some of the earliest ventures into the heartland of North America, those of French explorers and missionaries whose travels brought them to the Great Lakes and as far as the Mississippi at a time when English pilgrims were just beginning to settle the Atlantic coast. Here are a few of the groundbreaking works found within this new catalogue.
Among the earliest missionaries to New France were the Recollets, a branch of the Franciscans whose role would soon be replaced by the Jesuits. They first arrived in Canada in 1615 and remained until 1629, when trouble back home with the French government would result in their removal. One of the earliest works on the interior country was published in 1632 (the same year as the first Jesuit Relation) by Gabriel Sagard-Theodat, Le Grande Voyage du Pays des Hurons... Sagard was a Recollet missionary who spent 1623-24 working among the Huron Indians. This rare book is considered to be the main authority on the first Recollet mission (they returned again in 1670). It recounts what he and his colleagues learned about the Hurons and the Great Lakes region, and contains the first printed Huron vocabulary. This book is the main source of information about the relations between the Indians and the French in this period to come from sources other than the Jesuits. Item 105. Priced at $35,000 (all prices are in U.S. Dollars).
Long before the French were exploring the northern ranges of North America, the Spanish were investigation, and conquering, the southern part. Bartholome de las Casas accompanied Columbus on his third voyage to America in 1498, was the first priest ordained in the New World, and went on to be the Spanish conscience for most of the coming century. De las Casas observed the brutality of slavery and the Spanish treatment of the native populations, and spoke out strongly against it, even going to authorities in Spain to try to stop the abusive exploitation. While he was not able to dismantle the system, he did reduce the abuses some. Item 36 is Newe Welt, the rare first German edition of his report published in 1597. $8,500.
Item 6 is the anonymously written Descriptione Exacte de tout ce qui passé dans les Guerres Entre le Roy D'angleterre, le Roy de France... This is the first French edition of 1668 of a book first published in Dutch a year earlier. It is regarded as one of the best accounts of the various wars going on at the time between the English, French and Dutch. While these European powers were engaged in battles across the globe, this book is notable for some of the earliest reports from America, and in particular, of the English ousting the Dutch from New Amsterdam and renaming the city New York. $2,350.
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Voyages and Travels, to America and the World, from Helen Kahn
Very rare book about 14th century conqueror Tamerlane.
Item 72 is an important account of one of the earliest battles of the American Revolution: An Accurate and Interesting Account of the Hardships and Sufferings of that Band of Heroes, who traversed the Wilderness in the Campaign against Quebec in 1775. This rare book was published by John Joseph Henry for his children many years later, in 1812. Henry served under Benedict Arnold in his failed attempt to take Quebec, with the intention of hampering Britain's ability to subdue patriot forces in northern New York. While this campaign was a disaster, Arnold would later play a major role in the successful battle at Saratoga which prevented British forces from cutting off contact between the northern and southern colonies during the Revolution. However, in Quebec, the Americans did not have sufficient forces and were badly beaten by British defenders. Of course, all Americans note well that their one-time hero, Benedict Arnold, later turned traitor and served the British side after 1780. $550.
Item 39 is a very rare book, La Grand Tamerlan Par M. De Clavigny... Kahn notes that they have not been able to locate another copy of Jacques de Clavigny's 1683 book about the 14th century Persian leader. The latest reference we could find was a copy in the library of Arthur Dinaux in 1865. Tamerlane was noted for his conquests from Baghdad to India. At one point he went so far as to capture Moscow. Tamerlane took ill in 1405 and died while attempting an invasion of China. Along with the empire he created, he is noted as a patron of the arts, but also a very brutal mass murderer in lands he conquered. $2,850.
Helen R. Kahn and Associates may be reached at 514-844-5344 or hrk@hrkahnbooks.com. The website is www.hrkahnbooks.com.
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