20th Century Rare Book from

New York. Good with no dust jacket. 1913. Hardcover. On offer is the diary of an unknown, wealthy New York City woman that offers a very revealing look at the life of an upper class suburban household in 1913. The unknown diarist is a young woman living at home with her mother. Her writing, though grammatically correct,… Read more about this item

New Kensington, Pennsylvania, Fiji, Port Hueneme, California, Camp Peary. Good with no dust jacket. Hardcover. On offer is a first-hand account of Charles B. Litz, a U. S. Serviceman in the Seabees, which was to become one of the most ubiquitous US Navy formations in World War Two (WWII). Litz was born in 1918 in New Kensington,… Read more about this item

Camrose, Alberta, Canada, Canadian Prairies. Fair with no dust jacket. Hardcover. On offer is a fine example of a multi-year diary kept by a young man named George Granger in rural Alberta, Canada during World War Two (WWII). Most of what we know about George Granger is from context cues throughout his diary. We know he is… Read more about this item

United States, Canada, Texas, Washington, Michigan, Niagara Falls. Good with no dust jacket. 1929. Softcover. On offer is a detailed description of an extensive road trip taken only months before the start of the Great Depression. The journal covers the period March 11, 1929 through June 1, 1929. Although not mentioned by name, from context, the author of… Read more about this item

Brooklyn, New York: Brooklyn, New York, Rhode Island, Civil War Veteran, Maine. Good with no dust jacket. 1913. Hardcover. On offer is an excellent example of a Wanamaker diary and detailed NYC map dating from pre-WWI America. The diary belonged to Eliza J. Webster Mason (1842-1926) , wife of George E. Mason (1840-1905) , an artist, musical … Read more about this item

Illinois, United States. Good with no dust jacket. 1900. Softcover. On offer is a fine description of a young woman’s life in small-town America at the turn of the 20th century. The author of this diary is Marie Weckesser. From context, we know that she is a young woman, likely in her early twenties. Although we have… Read more about this item

Chambersburg Pennsylvania Penn PA. Good with no dust jacket. Softcover. On offer is a small journal that offers a very stark picture of the life of many women in America who fell on the hardest of times at the beginning of the Great Depression. It also includes a reference to what became known as the “Crime of… Read more about this item

London, England. Good+ with no dust jacket. Softcover. On offer is a remarkable collection of 27 diaries detailing over a quarter of a century of life in London between 1928 and 1962, and membership in an old and respected fraternal order. This is an outstanding collection of personal diaries that covers an extended period of time –… Read more about this item

Massachusetts. Good with no dust jacket. 1916. Hardcover. On offer are the detailed notes of a Massachusetts lawyer in the early 20th century. The notebook belonged to J. L Bigelow. Context clues indicate he was a law student at Harvard, possibly during the early days of his note-taking in this book. He appears in a list of… Read more about this item

United States, France. Good with no dust jacket. N.D.. None. On offer is a superb photographic record of an American family before, during and after WWI. The owner of the album is unknown as is the identity of this American family. A label on the back cover shows that the album was made in Chicago, Illinois. The… Read more about this item

Yellowstone National Park, United States, Niagara Falls. Good+ with no dust jacket. 1930. Hardcover. On offer is a beautiful, richly-decorated Yellowstone Park leather photo album portraying the Spear family’s 1930 family trip intertwined with photographs of scenes for a long-past American west. The unknown author/photographer of this album accompanied her parents on a road trip from… Read more about this item

New York. Good with no dust jacket. 1930. Typescript. On offer is an unpublished manuscript entitled The Less important Sister, written by a very successful female advertising professional in the 1930s. The author of this manuscript is Barbour Walker Lyndon. Born in 1885, she was educated at Barnard College where she graduated in 1907. She spent her… Read more about this item

Atlanta Georgia. Very Good with no dust jacket. 1922. Hardcover. On offer is an interesting scholarly catalog of birds of North America dating from the early days of the 20th century. On the front flyleaf, there is the handwritten title A Catalog of the Birds of North America in the Collection of Emory University . It was… Read more about this item

Offering a 1914 handwritten personal diary by Earle Sumner Draper, who would go on to have a major impact on urban planning in the United States. At the time of writing, Draper was a 21-year-old Massachusetts Agricultural College (later called UMass Amherst) student. The book offers an excellent glimpse of what life as a landscape architecture… Read more about this item

Greater Toronto Area, Canada. Good with no dust jacket. 1944. Hardcover. Offering two 1940s handwritten diaries by 61-year-old Eleanor L. Macrae, which provide an outstanding look at life in urban Canada during and immediately following World War II. Macrae's entries are lengthy and detailed, portraying daily life during and after the war as part of a … Read more about this item

On offer is a fine diary of successful farmer Charles L. Merrick of Wilbraham, Massachusetts, in the early years of the twentieth century. Merrick was born in 1902 and lived his life in Massachusetts. He passed away in 1995 at the age of 93. Merrick is part of a multi-generational family that has owned Merrick Farm… Read more about this item

On offer is a fine diary recording the domestic and social responsibilities of a woman in California immediately before the United States entered World War II. The author is unknown, but from the diary, we learn that she lives in or near Santa Rosa, CA, is a wife and a mother, and is 49 when she… Read more about this item

On offer are five diaries written by Doris Cuthbert Metzler of Michigan between 1968 and 1978. She was 57 years of age at the time the first of these diaries was written. In her diaries, Metzler details her family's daily life, as well as specific medical issues that she and her husband, Richard A. Metzler (Dick)… Read more about this item

A detailed 1928 diary handwritten by 62-year-old Ethel LeBer in rural Vermont during the early years of the Great Depression. LeBer was born in November 1865 and lived her life in northern Vermont, near the city of Bristol. She passed away in 1929 at the age of 63. She was married to William LeBer and they… Read more about this item

On offer is a fascinating, firsthand account of a young woman's social life in the heady days of 1920s New York City. An inscription suggests that the author of this journal is "Miss J Smith" of Hewlett, Long Island. The vibrant social life described in Smith's diary exemplifies the spirit of the Roaring Twenties. In entries… Read more about this item