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Michael Brown Rare Books' 35th catalogue
By Michael Stillman
Michael Brown Rare Books has issued its 35th catalogue of Americana. This latest catalogue contains 285 items, and the only theme to it other than Americana is that there is no theme. In other words, this is not a collection heavily centered on momentous events like the Revolutionary or Civil War. Rather, it covers the more common topics, disputes, and issues taking place on this continent in another era. Here are some samples.
Today, a story like this would dominate the news for two weeks, but in 1856 there was no television to bring it into our living rooms. This book is called, An Account of the Coal Bank Disaster at Blue Rock, Ohio, in which four men were buried beneath the hill for two weeks… Amazingly, all four emerged from the mine essentially unscathed. Item 178. Priced at $200. There’s also a second title out there concerning this incident: “The Thrilling Narrative of Edgell, Pearson, Gatwood and Savage…”
Thomas Paine was one of America’s greatest early patriots. His enormously popular “Common Sense” advocated independence from Britain, and was inspirational to the Declaration thereof. Paine would later return to his native England and then move on to France, in each case getting in trouble for his advocacy of democratic values. And, with his “Age of Reason,” which questioned religious beliefs, he would lose most of his popularity in the United States. However, Paine continued to advocate the interests of those with the least power.
His Agrarian Justice, item 183 in this catalogue, published in 1797, is a perfect example. In it he advocates a form of social security, 130+ years before Roosevelt. According to Paine, every person, on reaching the age of 50, would be granted the sum of 10 pounds sterling per year (the figure was targeted at the British, but he says the proposal applies to all countries).
However, Paine goes even further in proposing that everyone be given 15 pounds on attaining the age of 21. In his English preface, Paine begins the explanation in response to a Bishop who, in attacking Paine, wrote a sermon entitled “The Wisdom and Goodness of God, in having made both Rich and Poor…” He counters “It is wrong to say God made rich and poor; He made only male and female, and He gave them the earth for their inheritance.” From this he reasons that in the natural state, everyone has the right to the land, from which they could gain sustenance. However, civilization, with personal property rights, has taken that away from those without inheritances. So, to make up for the loss of their natural property rights, Paine advocates payments be made to all persons on obtaining majority, those payments to be funded by a 10% inheritance tax on those who accumulate private property during their lifetimes. It seems much of what Paine wrote about over two centuries ago remains at the heart of political discussion today. His book is priced at $375.
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Here’s a northern, anti-slavery broadside from the 1850s the South would have appreciated. The heading states No Union with Slaveholders. Anti-Slavery Meetings…Emancipation or Dissolution, and A Free Northern Republic. While the fervent opposition to slavery of those promoting these meetings is evidently unquestioned, it’s hard not to notice the irony that their ultimate remedy was the same as that of the slaveholders: disunion. The North would have been free, and there would have been no Dred Scott or Fugitive Slave Laws to enforce, but this solution would have done little for those slaves unable to escape. Item 4. $1,500.
Next there’s an item of interest to both American and French collectors. It is the 92-page manuscript diary of Francis Smith, an American who traveled in France in 1818-19. His observations are both informative and amusing. He confirms the opinion of others that “the women do everything,” observing “Is it not astonishing that the politest & rudest of nations should resemble each other in this particular.” He notes that French women run the shops, just as Indian women plow and prepare corn. The men “loiter about the house or amuse themselves the one with cards, billiards, or dice the other with hunting drinking or lying for hours stretched idly in the Sun.” In a comment that could easily have been made by an American politician of today, he states, “The ignorance of the people on the subject of politics and indeed on every other subject, is astonishing.” Item 85. $2,500.
Item 159 recalls one of the saddest moments in the United States’ poor treatment of its native population. The Cherokee removal from Georgia to Oklahoma, and the death of so many from that nation along the “Trail of Tears,” is one of the lowest points in that history. In 1832, the Cherokee were still looking to the federal government to honor its treaties and respect their land rights. The attempt was futile, and within a few years, they would be removed. Item 159 is a pamphlet setting forth their grievances to Congress, with the title Cherokee Indians. Memorial of a Delegation of the Cherokee Tribe of Indians. January 9,1832. $150.
Here is an unusual title: Yr American, Yr Hwn Sydd Yn Cynnwys Nodauar Daith o Ddyffryn Ohio… I recognized “American” and “Ohio,” but what of the rest of that? What language could it be? The answer is Welsh. This item was published in 1840 in Wales with the purpose of encouraging emigration to Ohio. According to an old listing in Ernie Wesson’s “Midland Notes” (see the Americana Exchange Database) Benjamin Chidlaw’s title translates to “The American. Containing notes on a journey from the Ohio Valley to Wales…” Item 179. $250.
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Someone around 1816 was very concerned with immorality in the land as he bound together seven works touching on the subject. Some of the titles in this binding are, “God’s Revenge Against Gambling. Exemplified in the Miserable Lives and Untimely Deaths of a Number of Persons of Both Sexes” (try selling this in Las Vegas), “The Drunkard’s Looking Glass,” “God’s Revenge Against Adultery, Awfully Exemplified… by the Accomplished Dr. Theodore Wilson (Delaware,) for Seducing Mrs. Nancy Wiley, had his Brains Blown Out by her Husband,” and “God’s Revenge Against Murder; or the Drown’d Wife.” The compiler of this anthology obviously believed in a vengeful God. Item 273. $2,000.
These weren’t the only views attributed to God at this time. In fact, this one might even make you stop to think the next time someone cites God’s will as justification for denying another his rights. It’s by Iveson Brookes and the title is A Defence of Southern Slavery…In Which it is Moreover Shown that the Association of the White and Black Races in the Relation of Master and Slave is the Appointed order of God. Brookes was a South Carolina clergyman who used the Bible to defend the horrific institution of slavery. While I have not been able to verify this point, I’m going to go out on a limb and say the good reverend was white. Item 10. $250.
Item 3 is a circular headed, The great question of Negro Slavery is forcing itself upon the attention of the citizens… This 1835 work proposes a solution that still surprises me was not more seriously pursued. The author calls for the creation of a fund of $250 million to purchase and free every slave. Ultimately, the nation chose war to resolve the issue, and the cost was far, far greater. $2,500.
Up in northern New England there are many wonders of natural beauty. In 1848 William Oakes created a book featuring 16 drawings by Isaac Sprague of the White Mountains. There are scenes of the mountains, falls, Franconia Notch, Profile Rock and Profile Mountain. More recently (since 1850) Profile Rock has been known as the Old Man of the Mountain, thanks to a Nathaniel Hawthorne story. Last year, much of this symbol of New Hampshire tumbled to the ground. Item 176 is Scenery of the White Mountains. $1,750.
Item 25 is Ups and Downs of an Army Officer by Colonel George Armes. Armes served in the west for 16 years from 1866-1882, fighting, as Brown quotes from a 1940 Edward Eberstadt catalogue, “red men on his front, and red tape to his rear” (see Eberstadt 115-0095 in the Americana Exchange Database). “The quisquilious quibblings of the army bureaucracy are described with a minuteness…” Say what? Did Spiro Agnew once write Eberstadt’s catalogues? I couldn’t find “quisquilious” in my Webster’s dictionary, all 1,500 pages. According to the internet, “quisquilious” means something worthless, and if it’s on the internet, it must be true. $375.
Michael Brown Rare Books can be found at www.mbamericana.com or at 215-387-9808.
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