Unusual American Books and Pamphlets from Garrett Scott, Bookseller
Homer Tomlinson graces the cover of Garrett Scott's latest catalogue.
By Michael Stillman
Garrett Scott, Bookseller, has issued his 26th catalogue of American Books and Pamphlets. Here you will find the odd and the obscure, or as often the case, works that qualify as both. Not everything Scott offers is strange. There are serious and intelligent works, such as Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton's 1850 call for no more compromises with slavery as the nation, unwisely, backed into the Compromise of 1850, further fueling regional discord rather than resolving it. Nevertheless, in selecting items from the almost 400 offered to describe, it's hard to avoid the stranger and more entertaining of works from American authors of the 19th and 20th centuries. Not even the greatest humorists are quite as entertaining as those who are unintentionally so.
One of the bitterest political rivalries took place in Vermont in the mid-1840s when Governor William Slade challenged Senator Samuel Phelps for the Whig Party nomination for senator. There ensued a vitriolic pamphlet campaign, embarrassingly preserved in Scott's collection. In item 261, Phelps responds to charges by Slade in To the People of Vermont. Mr. Phelps' Rejoinder to Mr. Slade's "Reply," published in 1846. Describing his opponent, Phelps writes, "Naturally selfish, ambitious, cold-hearted, hypocritical, and revengeful, he has well cultivated these qualities through a life of political controversy and political intrigue." He further accuses Slade of "mixing in every paltry quarrel to gratify his groveling love of distinction, and, at the same time, abjectly soliciting office for bread." Priced at $100. In item 262, Gov. Slade's Reply to Senator Phelps' Appeal (1846), Slade writes, "...as to the causes of Mr. Phelps' conduct, I have only to say, that they are to be found in his excessive jealousy and violence of feelings - not arising from his use of intoxicating liquors, though much aggravated by it. He was, manifestly, under the influence of liquor during the evening of the passage of the tariff." $100.
Ohio evangelist Alexander Hall had some dire warnings for followers of the Universalist faith in 1846, expressed in Universalism Against Itself... Preaches Hall, "And how little do the advocates of orthodoxy comprehend the idea conveyed by that word endless! - e-n-d-l-e-s-s t-o-r-m-e-n-t!!! Think, O think my audience, before you subscribe to such a soul-benumbing, heart-withering, and God-dishonoring sentiment." Item 318. $85.
That poster on the cover of this catalogue (click thumbnail above) recalls the election of 1960, which pitted John Kennedy against Richard Nixon and Homer Tomlinson. Homer Tomlinson? He was the nominee of the Theocratic Party, which promised to do away with separation of church and state, replace income taxes with 10% tithes (is this a forerunner of the flat tax?), end war, crime, delinquency, Communism, use of tobacco, intoxicants, narcotics and gambling. Unfortunately, Tomlinson lost the election, so all of these evils still exist. Tomlinson chose fellow Bishop in his Church of God Raymond L. Teague, an eccentric Alaskan, as his running mate. This man truly was ahead of his time. Item 88. $50.
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Unusual American Books and Pamphlets from Garrett Scott, Bookseller
William Slade (left) and Samuel Phelps, bitter rivals within the Whig Party.
Item 265 is an inscribed, pitch card from Stanley Berent, better known as Sealo the Seal Boy. The circa 1940-1960 card is inscribed, "Compliments of Sealo, to Pretty but Bashful Mary Lou Hunt." Being bashful with Sealo was probably common. This was the day when people would go to sideshows to gawk at individuals with physical deformities. Today, we are much more sophisticated, so we stay at home and watch reality TV shows and gawk at people with mental deformities. Sealo suffered from phocomelia (a word I admit I never heard of before this catalogue). He had no arms, just hands protruding from his shoulders, giving the appearance of flippers. Berent evidently performed average tasks such as shaving to display his handicap. $45.
Next time someone tells you to stop drinking, hand them a copy of Joel Rinaldo's Psychoanalysis of the "Reformer": A Further Contribution to the Sexual Theory, published in 1921. This was the beginning of the era of Prohibition, and Rinaldo understood the real reason some people enforced their temperance views on others. "I have known many a reformer," writes Rinaldo, "but I have never seen one that was not subnormal." He goes on to explain why they so act - "We have seen how prohibition...arises from sexual inhibition and in practice is nothing but pervert sexuality, social sadism, and how its purpose is to interfere in sexual life..." I'll drink to that. Item 172. $50.
Item 150 is Stripped to the Hide by Herman Edward Mootz, published in 1925. It is the story of poor Frederick, who succumbs to the charms of Maude, dumps his girlfriend and marries Maude, who proceeds to steal his money, frames him in a capital case from which he is jailed, and even tries to murder him. Maude "was the most monstrous exemplification of treachery, dishonor and ingratitude which one can conceive," perhaps even as monstrous as this book. Mootz has tastefully dedicated the book to his wife "in loving gratitude for the inspiration which made this book possible." She must have been a lovely lady. $50.
Garrett Scott, Bookseller may be reached at 734-741-8605 or garrett@bibliophagist.com. His website is www.GSBbooks.com.
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