Part II of the William Reese Company's tribute to Wright Howes' USiana
- By Michael Stillman
Part II of the tribute to Wight Howes.
The William Reese Company has issued Part II of A Tribute to Wright Howes on the 50th Anniversary of U.S.iana. Wright Howes was the Chicago bookseller who, late in his career, wrote a bibliography of what he considered the most important works of Americana. He listed around 12,500 titles, and, instead of assigning fixed monetary values (which he knew would soon become outdated), he assigned letters for relative value. This way, his valuations would not be made irrelevant by time. While changes in what is considered most desirable, and in what is truly most rare, have turned some of his relative valuations upside down, even 50 years later USiana remains one of the most useful and relevant guides to understanding what is important and of great value to a collection of Americana.
In August, we ran a review of Part I of this catalogue (click here). The William Reese Company has thousands of the books in stock that Howes included in his bibliography. Here, now, are just a few more selections from that inventory of books Wright Howes considered important to an Americana collection 50 years ago.
Abolition became a major cause during the 1830s, and the visceral response from the South virtually assured that civil war would be inevitable. It was as if something had been sprung on the plantation owners from out of the blue. This was not the case. Slavery was permitted by the U.S. Constitution as necessity, much of the nation's agriculture dependent on slave labor. However, there were many voices even at the founding warning the nation that, as Lincoln would later state, it could not survive forever half free and half slave. Item 1 offers a collection of those unheeded voices: Memorials Presented to the Congress...by the Different Societies Instituted for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery... This includes a series of addresses to the Congress in 1791 urging an end to slavery. Published in 1792. Priced at $3,750.
Here's a tale that is no Night Before Christmas. It is a virulent attack on Thomas Jefferson, published in 1804: Observations upon Certain Passages in Mr. Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, which Appear to have a Tendency to Subvert Religion, and Establish a False Philosophy. The author attacks Jefferson, who was noted as something of a free-thinker for his time, for being insufficiently religious to serve as president. That author was Clement Moore, a conservative theologian whose views on religious subjects are mostly forgotten, unless you consider Santa Claus a religious subject. What Moore is remembered for is writing the Christmas poem about the night before Christmas. Item 179. $500.
The Puritans may have come to America for religious freedom, but that ideal seems to have quickly faded when others of different religious views arrived. Item 17 is an account of the abuse suffered by the Quakers in 1660s New England: New-England Judged, by the Spirit of the Lord...Containing a Brief Relation of the Sufferings of the People Called Quakers... This is a second edition, but first of the two parts combined, published in 1703. Author George Bishop resided in England, but was in regular correspondence with people in America, and was incensed by what he heard. Wright Howes minced few words in describing the abuse, even if he found the Quakers a bit nutty. Writes Howes, “Most exhaustive contemporary indictment of God-fearing Puritans driven by insensate religious fervor to sickening brutalities against other religious fanatics who dared to differ from themselves. Witch-hunting was bad; this was worse.” $2,000.
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Part II of the William Reese Company's tribute to Wright Howes' USiana
- By Michael Stillman
The last official survivor of the American Revolution, Lemuel Cook.
Item 66 is a presentation copy from the subject of this best biography of the early career of William Henry Harrison. Harrison would go on to hold the shortest presidency of any American, just 30 days in office before he died. However, around 30 years prior to his election, Harrison was fighting in what was then the American West (now Midwest), against Tecumseh and other Indians allied with the British at the time of the War of 1812. This book, written by Moses Dawson, and published in 1824, is not just a biography of Harrison, but an account of the Border Wars in the West at this time. This copy of A Historical Narrative of the Civil and Military Services of Major-General William H. Harrison... has been inscribed by Harrison to William L. Stone, a New York printer and editor. $20,000.
Item 108 is a look back in time, an attempt to rekindle the original patriotic American spirit during the Civil War, when the nation was wrenched apart. The title is The Last Men of the Revolution. A Photograph of Each from Life, Together with Views of Their Homes in Colors. Accompanied by Brief Biographical Sketches of the Men, by Rev. Elias B. Hillard. Rev. Hillard thought that by publishing information about men who had fought in the Revolution who were still alive at the time (1864), it would bring back memories of a time when North and South fought together, a seemingly unbreakable union. However, it now being over 80 years since that war ended, there weren't many such veterans still around. Hillard was able to locate six, all near or over 100 years in age. Hillard went out in the field to photograph these last survivors and their homes, and write their biographies. And, it can be noted, the Civil War did come to an end a few months later, though it is unlikely Rev. Hillard's book played any role in that outcome. One of these six, Lemuel Cook, who died in 1866 at age 107, was the last official surviving veteran, although others with less certain credentials as Revolutionary War veterans lived as late as 1869. $8,500.
The William Reese Company may be reached at 203-789-8081 or amorder@reeseco.com. Their website is www.williamreesecompany.com.
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