Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - May - 2016 Issue

Mostly Radical Literature from Lorne Bair Rare Books

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Radical books from Lorne Bair.

Lorne Bair Rare Books has issued their Catalog 24. Bair specializes in radical literature and related items, so that is most of what you will find. Overwhelmingly, it comes from the radical left, but they always add in a few items from the far right, and a couple of things that aren't really radical at all. That's enough about the exceptions. Here are some samples of the items mostly from the left, and many the far left.

 

We begin with an item that is painful to read because the issues are so similar to those of today. It's as if nothing has changed since it was published, circa 1969-1970. The title is Black Fury, Second Addition, edited by Mona Bazaar. It is a collection of essays, a followup to a similar collection issued in 1968. The issues concern police brutality, white racism, the Vietnam War, and the rise of the Black Panther Party. The same concerns arise today, except the wars are in the Middle East and the latest movement is Black Lives Matter. The publication focuses on the killing of Vivian Strong, an unarmed 14-year-old black girl shot by a white police officer in Omaha. You would think we could just deal with these issues already so such protests would no longer necessary. Item 4. Priced at $350.

 

The next item comes from a black leader and political activist, a journalist and first black columnist for the Chicago Tribune, as well as being one of the greatest orators of his day. Roscoe Conkling Simmons was a nephew of Booker T. Washington. His uncle got him a job as an office boy for Ohio Republican Senator Mark Hanna, a close associate of President McKinley. It led to Conkling's lifelong involvement with politics and the Republican Party. His outstanding oratorical skills made him influential on behalf of black concerns within the party. Conkling would even deliver a seconding speech on behalf of Herbert Hoover at the 1932 Republican convention. However, his influence within the black community waned as blacks, once mostly devoted to the party of Lincoln, switched sides with the onset of the Depression as a result of Roosevelt's programs to aid the poor. Conkling did not switch. Item 25 is Conkling's campaign booklet from 1936 supporting the presidential candidacy of Republican Alf Landon: The Republican Party and American Colored People. The cover depicts Landon, his running mate Frank Knox, and Abraham Lincoln. The pamphlet compares the records of the Democrats and Republicans going back to 1856, and while those comparisons would not have looked good for the Democrats, by 1936 times had changed. Landon did not carry the black or much of any other votes. $400.

 

Now we come to a far more radical activist, an anarchist who spent 14 years in prison for attempted murder. Item 33 is Alexander Berkman's account of those years: Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist, published in 1912 by Emma Goldman's Mother Earth Publishing. Berkman was close to Goldman, both politically and personally. Berkman had participated in the Homestead steelworkers strike. Andrew Carnegie sent Henry Clay Frick to Homestead to cut wages and break the strike. Berkman responded to Frick with a hail of gunfire. The latter survived, Berkman was sentenced to 22 years, but released after 14. Berkman would be deported to the Soviet Union during the First World War, become disillusioned with what was happening there, and end up moving to Germany and later France, where he died. $1,500.

 

Now for a word from the other side. Item 12 is a broadside headed Notice! To All White Citizens Greetings: Stop Buying Ford Cars and Trucks and other Ford Products. Was the problem Ford shipping jobs to Mexico? No, circa 1965 the White Citizens' Council of Greater New Orleans was unhappy that Ford was supporting racial integration. $650.

 

Here is a massive collection for a repeatedly attempted failed idea. For centuries, people have tried to come up with a universal language, a language everyone around the world could master so all people could communicate with each other. Despite the obvious logic, it has never succeeded. Item 43 is a collection of 118 items, 4.5 linear feet in length, offered jointly by Bair and fellow bookseller Garrett Scott. Most people have heard of the most familiar of these invented languages – Esperanto – but there have been many, many more. Bair notes that the collection includes "World English, Ro, America-Speak, Gestuno, Globalese, Ido, Interlingua, Volapuk, Magistri, Paralloidre, Lincos, Loglan, Isotype, Occidental, pasigraphy, shorthand, Paleneo, Nuwaubian, Prashad, Bordurian, Unilingua, Ithkuil, Kesh, Amtorian, Eldarin, Olingo, and others." These pieces date from 1774-2011. Bair notes that you are unlikely to ever find some of the pieces elsewhere, such as the handbill for a performance of Three Short Plays in Prashad. $25,000.

 

Do you remember the old movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers? Here is a somewhat similar sounding title, Seven Wives and Seven Prisons; or, Experiences in the Life of a Matrimonial Monomaniac. A True Story. Written By Himself. It was published in 1870. This may not be politically radical, but it is something of a radical lifestyle. Bair informs us that the despite the "true story" in the title, it is a bit of a fictionalized autobiography from one L.A. Abbott. Evidently, the serial bigamist spent some time in prison. The book's frontispiece includes a portrait of "My First And Worst Wife." Item 90. $200.

 

Lorne Bair Rare Books may be reached at 540-665-0855 or info@lornebair.com. Their website is www.lornebair.com

Rare Book Monthly

  • <b>Swann Auction Galleries:</b> Abraham Lincoln, Emancipation Proclamation by the President of the United States, pamphlet, 1862. Sold May 7 for $11,875.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries:</b> Family papers of the distinguished Ruby-Jackson family, Portland, Maine, 1853-1961. Sold May 7 for $4,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries:</b> E. Simms Campbell, A Night-Club Map of Harlem, in inaugural issue of Manhattan, 1933. Sold May 7 for $27,500.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries:</b> Papers of the comedian Nipsey Russell, including a letter from MLK, 1929-2000. Sold May 7 for $17,500.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries:</b> Edmonia Lewis, prominent sculptor, carte-de-visite by Henry Rocher, c. 1866-71. Sold May 7 for $5,250.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries:</b> The Black Panther: Black Community News Service, 44 issues, San Francisco, 1967-1971. Sold May 7 for $6,500.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries:</b> Ernest Withers, I Am A Man, Sanitation Workers Strike, silver print, 1968. Sold May 7 for $5,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries:</b> March For Freedom Now!, poster for a protest on the 1960 Republican Convention. Sold May 7 for $17,500.
  • <b>Koller International Auctions: Books [and] Manuscripts & Autographs. June 15, 2020</b>
    <b>Koller, Jun. 15:</b> INCUNABULA -Fridolin, Stephan. <i>Schatzbehalter.</i> With 96 (including 5 repeated) full-page text woodcuts. Nürnberg, 1491.<br>€ 39 470 / 57 020
    <b>Koller, Jun. 15:</b> Kokoschka, Oskar. <i>Die Träumenden Knaben (The Dreaming Boys).</i> With 11 original lithographs. Vienne, 1908.<br>€ 35 090 / 52 630
    <b>Koller, Jun. 15:</b> Third Bessarion Master (active in Lombard in the third quarter of the 15th century). Leaf from a gradual, 1455-60.<br>€ 21 930 / 30 700
    <b>Koller, Jun. 15:</b> Picasso, Pablo - Delgado, José alias Pepe Illo. <i>La Tauromaquia o arte de torear.</i> With 26 original aquatints and 1 original etching by Picasso.<br>€ 21 930 / 35 090
    <b>Koller International Auctions: Books [and] Manuscripts & Autographs. June 15, 2020</b>
    <b>Koller, Jun. 15:</b> Linschoten, Jan Huygen van. <i>Itinerario, Voyage ofte Schipvaert naer Oost ofte Portugaels Indien…</i> Amsterdam, 1595.<br>€ 17 540 / 26 320
    <b>Koller, Jun. 15:</b> CHILDREN’S BOOKS - Meggendorfer, Lothar. <i>Nah und Fern. Ein Tierbilderbuch zum Ziehen.</i> With 8 coloured, lithographed plates.<br>€ 530 / 790
    <b>Koller, Jun. 15:</b> DANSE MACABRE - Bille, Edmond. <i>Une Danse macabre.</i> With 20 coloured woodcuts. Lausanne, 1919. Large folio.<br>€ 610 / 880
    <b>Koller, Jun. 15:</b> Dexel, Walter. A collection of 7 invitation cards from the Kunstverein Jena, each typographically designed by W. Dexel. Jena, 1924-1928. Each 10.5 x 14.8 cm.<br>€ 530 / 790
  • <center><b>ABAA Virtual Book Fair</b><br>Join your favorite booksellers<br>June 4-7, 2020
    <center><b>ABAA Virtual Book Fair</b><br>Join your favorite booksellers<br>June 4-7, 2020
    <center><b>ABAA Virtual Book Fair</b><br>Join your favorite booksellers<br>June 4-7, 2020
    <center><b>ABAA Virtual Book Fair</b><br>Join your favorite booksellers<br>June 4-7, 2020
    <center><b>ABAA Virtual Book Fair</b><br>Join your favorite booksellers<br>June 4-7, 2020
    <center><b>ABAA Virtual Book Fair</b><br>Join your favorite booksellers<br>June 4-7, 2020
    <center><b>ABAA Virtual Book Fair</b><br>Join your favorite booksellers<br>June 4-7, 2020
    <center><b>ABAA Virtual Book Fair</b><br>Join your favorite booksellers<br>June 4-7, 2020
    <center><b>ABAA Virtual Book Fair</b><br>Join your favorite booksellers<br>June 4-7, 2020
    <center><b>ABAA Virtual Book Fair</b><br>Join your favorite booksellers<br>June 4-7, 2020
    <center><b>ABAA Virtual Book Fair</b><br>Join your favorite booksellers<br>June 4-7, 2020
    <center><b>ABAA Virtual Book Fair</b><br>Join your favorite booksellers<br>June 4-7, 2020
  • <center><b>Hindman Auctions<br>Fine Books and Manuscripts<br>Including Americana<br>Live and Online<br>June 23, 2020</b>
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Jun. 23:</b> [SUPREME COURT JUSTICES]. A very extensive collection of 203 letters, documents and signatures. A COMPLETE COLLECTION OF THE SUPREME COURT JUSTICES, JOHN JAY THROUGH WILLIAM REHNQUIST. $20,000 to $30,000.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Jun. 23:</b> ZATTA, Antonio. <i>Atlante Novissimo.</i> Venice: Antonio Zatta, 1775-1785. ONE OF THE FINEST WORLD ATLASES issued in Italy in the 18th century. $15,000 to $20,000.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Jun. 23:</b> [CHICAGO HISTORY] -- [COLUMBUS, Christopher]. Monumental historiated and embroidered panel of the MADE FOR THE 1893 COLUMBIAN EXHIBITION IN CHICAGO. $12,000 to $18,000.
    <center><b>Hindman Auctions<br>Fine Books and Manuscripts<br>Including Americana<br>Live and Online<br>June 23, 2020</b>
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Jun. 23:</b> [MONASTERY HILL BINDING]. AINSWORTH, William Harrison. <i>Historical Romances.</i> Philadelphia, n.d. A fine early exhibition binding by the Monastery Hill Bindery. $6,000 to $8,000.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Jun. 23:</b> [ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM]. New York: Tiber Press, [1960]. 4 volumes. LIMITED EDITION, number 119 of 200 COPIES, EACH SIGNED BY THE POET AND ARTIST. $6,000 to $8,000.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Jun. 23:</b> GRATIANUS, the Canonist. <i>Decretum.</i> Venedig: Petrus de Plasiis, 25 January 1483. Second quarto edition. FIRST PAGE ILLUMINATED BY A CONTEMPORARY ARTIST. $4,000 to $6,000.
    <center><b>Hindman Auctions<br>Fine Books and Manuscripts<br>Including Americana<br>Live and Online<br>June 23, 2020</b>
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Jun. 23:</b> [ABOLITIONISTS]. <i>William Lloyd Garrison. The Story of his Life.</i> New York, 1885. ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS FROM SEVERAL NOTABLE ABOLITIONISTS neatly bound in throughout. $4,000 to $6,000.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Jun. 23:</b> ANSON, George. <i>A Voyage round the World, In the Years 1740... 1744.</i> London: John and Paul Knapton for the author, 1748. FIRST EDITION. $3,000 to $4,000.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Jun. 23:</b> Blank railroad ledger, "Compagnie des Chemins de fer de l'Ouest" (spine title). N.p., 1909. A MONUMENTAL 20th-CENTURY ART NOUVEAU BINDING. $1,000 to $1,500.
    <center><b>Hindman Auctions<br>Fine Books and Manuscripts<br>Including Americana<br>Live and Online<br>June 23, 2020</b>
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Jun. 23:</b> [MINIATURE ROOM] -- [FLEMING, John (1910-1987)]. Miniature of his 57th Street Library and Gallery. JOHN F. FLEMING'S BARONIAL 57TH STREET GALLERY. $1,500 to $2,500.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Jun. 23:</b> [SANGORSKI & SUTCLIFFE BINDING]. CHESTERTON, G.K. <i>Five Types: A Book of Essays.</i> London, 1910. LIMITED EDITION, number 3 of 30 copies on vellum SIGNED BY GEORGE SUTCLIFFE. $400 to $500.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Jun. 23:</b> [KELMSCOTT PRESS]. <i>When Adam Delved and Eve Span....</i> [Ancoats Brotherhood, 1894-5]. LIMITED EDITION, one of 250 copies printed. $500 to $700.

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