Search Results: Authors starting with A from Michael Laird Rare Books LLC

Ann Arbor and Detroit, MI: Free Mumia Coalition; Emergency Committee Against the Racist Execution, 1998. Very good. Together 12 items (see below). Small collection documenting the nascent "Free Mumia" movement of the mid-1990s, which expressed outrage against the "racist" fraudulent conviction, and demanded a new trial for Abu-Jamal who was at that time on Death Row, bringing widespread public attention to the case. Abu-Jamal's supporters included a variety of intellectuals, civil rights leaders, social and political activists in the U.S. and abroad. Mumia Abu-Jamal (born Wesley Cook in 1954) is an American journalist and political activist. In 1982 he was tried and convicted for the murder Daniel Faulkner, a police officer, in Philadelphia. Abu-Jamal received the death sentence, but in 2011 it was effectively reduced to life in prison without parol after Pennsylvania prosecutors announced that they would abandon their efforts to have Abu-Jamal put to death. CONTENTS OF THE COLLECTION: Five… Read More

Quincy, MA, 1813. Very Good. Manuscript. 20 pp. 165 x 200 mm. Stitched as issued. At some point folded to pocket size and thus retains large fold down middle of pages, small chips and tears along edges, some age-toning, a few pages very browned. An ownership inscription on the front leaf in pencil reads "Elijah Baxter Nichols." Highly interesting Tax Roll for the town of Quincy, whose residents at that time included retired President John Adams; his son (and future president) John Quincy Adams; and other members of their family. These individuals are named herein, and their property taxes enumerated. As is well known, the majority of the Adams Family Papers are preserved in the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston. It would seem to us that the present manuscript would make a useful addition to this august institution. Names of the property owners are usefully arranged alphabetically; not surprisingly John Adams' name appears first. The property owner's name is followed by six columns: poll tax,… Read More

San Francisco: Louis Roesch Co, 1890. Very Good. Single leaf, red-brown color, some tears and small chips along the edges. Advertisement for a school children's "Play Day" at the Sutro Baths in San Francisco, which included bell ringing, acrobatic feats, dancing, and a special performance from the London Patomime and Comedy Company. The Sutro Baths (1896-1966) was a public saltwater swimming pool in San Francisco, built and owned by entrepreneur and former mayor of San Francisco Adolph Sutro, and heralded at its opening as the world's largest indoor swimming pool. Sutro's idea was to provide an inexpensive recreational swimming facility, mainly for the working class of San Francisco. In true progressive spirit, Sutro also included natural history exhibits at the entrance to the baths as an educational opportunity. However, due to their high maintenance and operating cost, the baths were eventually converted to an ice skating rink, and then sold in 1964 to property developers. A fire in 1966… Read More

New York: Transcribed and Illustrated at Cooper Union, 1952. Very good. Small folio (261 x 167 mm). Calligraphic manuscript on paper. [2], 8 pp. Loosely inserted ink and watercolor drawing. Original hand-sewn blue wrappers; stitched to upper wrapper is a paper label lettered in manuscript: "The Harper and Other Fables." Old scribbles on verso of loose illustration; slightest soiling on front wrapper. Manuscript written by Lawrence Zimmerman as a Cooper Union student, being an assignment in calligraphy and design. While the calligraphy is very good, the illustration is merely a sketch of sorts; Zimmerman apparently thought little of it, having written in pencil several names, addresses, and dates on the back. Zimmerman went on to pursue a career in architectural design, and was himself a great collector of World's Fair memorabilia.

Paris: Chez Gogue & Nee de La Rochelle, 1785. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. 8vo. (195 x 130 mm). xxxvi, 366, 80 pp. (Index). Contemporary French green glazed boards, smooth spine gilt, brown lettering piece in second compartment, headcap chipped with loss, extremities worn all round, portion of outer blank margin of title-page torn away (with loss of one letter on the verso), probably to remove a former library stamp, and aiii (touching two letters) both leaves repaired, some age toning throughout (not objectionably). A few margins cropped close, affecting some of the MS prices, outer corner of Vv1 with paper flaw around which the MS annotations were written; a good copy, with faults as described, priced accordingly. Our copy is PRICED throughout (the Grolier Club copy is not) and furthermore it CONTAINS the valuable 80-page Index (which the Grolier Club copy does not). ¶ Catalogue of the posthumous sale of the very important library, "universal in scope" according to the Preface, belonging… Read More

Frankfurt: I.G. Farbenindustrie AG, 1926. First Edition in French. Very good. Slim 8vo. Original publisher's yellow pictorial card wrappers. [8] pp. + 4 sample cards displaying 24 color samples, original acetate tissue guards present. Light shelf wear, wrappers very slightly soiled and toned. Easily the most attractive I.G. Farben catalogue that we have encountered. Normally they are BORING or in later productions pro-Nazi. Our catalogue, which is not listed in OCLC, features a cover adorned with highly stylized "modernist" illustrations of a lady's newly-polished crimson shoe; a box of bright yellow candles; and a shiny floor with a wax jar. The contents of the trade catalogue are "Sudan-colored" dyes produced by the German chemical company I.G. Farben. The dyes from this collection, first introduced in the 1920s, were employed in such household products as shoe and floor polish, candles (all of which are depicted on the cover), and cleaning materials. By the 1930s I.G. Farben was the largest of… Read More

Washington DC: The Folger Shakespeare Library, 2001. Softcover. Very Good. Quarto, 158 pages, illustrated in black and white. ¶ Through the underlinings, emendations, and other marginalia common to early modern readers, this title shows the variety of ways in which readers have related to books over the centuries. The use of books as repositories of birth records, and marginalia (scholarly, esoteric, and profane) is also examined.

New York: George Braziller, 1977. First Edition. Softcover. Very Good. Quarto, 118 number pages. Illustrated in both black and white and color. ¶ 40 vibrant color plates, predominantly full page, from the most important religious and secular works of the Italian Renaissance. Images are accompanied by text exploring the figurative and symbolic nature of the illustrations and placing them in textual context.

Argau, Switzerland: Jakob Diebold, 1823. Very Good. 4to. 48 pp. Pictorial wrappers, stitched as issued. Tables printed in black & red, lower page corners folded, some moderate edge wear, foxing and (mild) waterstaining. Well worn but generally very good, with a few small tears along edges. An extremely scarce 1824 provincial Swiss Almanac, well illustrated with curious woodcuts including an elaborate title-page border in the neo-classical style, back cover depiction of the slaughter of the Greek patriarch, a double-page fold-out plate of a castle in Baden (small dirt stain at top), and twelve emblematic woodcuts depicting astrological attributes of each month. Owing to the fact that only one other copy seems to have survived, it is not surprising that we have been unable to locate reproductions of any of these woodcuts published elsewhere. The title-page woodcut appears to have been signed in the border the artist / engraved "Z. Morman." Several of the woodcut zodiac symbols are signed "Z." Jakob… Read More

Chicago: Gwindell Printing Co. for Pepsodent, 1935. Good. Together 3 items: large folding map (38.5 x 50 cm) folded three times as issued (EXCELLENT condition); accompanied by original printed letter (designed to look "handwritten") in Ebonics (a little smudged, otherwise GOOD); with the original mailing envelop with the faces of Amos and Andy on the front (FAIR condition only: soiled and stained, back flap torn, last name and address of the addressee cancelled in ink). Offensive fictional map of the town where Amos and Andy reputedly resided, with streets, buildings, and houses from the show identified. The text is written in Ebonics and is filled with misspellings and backwards letters. "Amos 'n Andy" was a wildly popular American radio sitcom about two black characters, written and voiced by two white actors. The show was overtly rascist, playing into stereotypes of simple-minded, clownish, and lazy African-Americans. The show was sponsored by Pepsodent until 1938. The importance of Pepsodent's… Read More

London: B.R. Howlette / John Murray, 1813. Second edition. Good. 8vo. [2], 130 pp. Printed in Greek throughout on fine paper. Contemporary English red diced russia calf (rubbed and worn), tooled in blind, outer frame of gilt palmette rolls, all edges gilt, drab endpapers. Front endpaper waterstained; second blank leaf with paper flaw; outer margins of final pages darkened from turn-ins. With faults, and priced accordingly. THE ONLY KNOWN ILLUSTRATIONS BY MRS. LAVINIA FORSTER. Our copy bears learned MS annotations in Greek and Latin. Beautifully printed in a Greek font created especially for William Bulmer by William Martin. Dibdin described the 1802 first edition as an "elegant work [that] confers great credit on the printer." Our copy belongs to the second edition, which was printed in the same Greek font, and retains the 20 fine engraved head- and tailpiece vignettes designed by Lavinia Banks Forster (1774-1858), wife of the present editor Edward Foster. Two of the vignettes are signed (in… Read More

San Francisco: Printed by the San Francisco Co-Operative Printing for Sumner Whitney & Co, 1871. Small 4to. 4, [2], 325, [1], xvii pp. The two portraits are in facsimile, otherwise complete. Some page numbers at top margin shaved; front blank with repaired tear; final page torn and backed. Inherent spotting or browning on account of the paper stock. Contemporary marbled boards, new calf spine and corners, new leather title label, lower leather label preserved, new pastedowns and endleaves, one pair of early endleaves preserved. Provenance: on every 50th page the initials A.W.M. are written in MS; the versos of the three leaves following the title-page are stamped [illegible] "Att'y at Law, San Francisco" with the name "Henry H. Reid" written in MS over the name of an early owner (presumably that of "A.W.M." who remains unidentified). For Henry H. Reid, see below. A GREAT RARITY OF CALIFORNIANA. THE SORDID 1870 TRIAL OF LAURA FAIR IS EASILY THE MOST FAMOUS OF THE EARLY MURDER TRIALS OF SAN FRANCISCO.… Read More

1871. Hardcover. Very good. Oblong folio (350 x 450 mm). With 32 watercolors of high quality by Annibale Angelini delineated from the original frescos. Original red pebbled cloth (shaken), upper cover with the crowned monograph of Prince Camillo IX (Vittorio Emanuele) Massimo. In excellent unrestored state. Preserved in a protective case. An important discovery. This album of watercolors is the only surviving record of the once spectacular frescos and interiors of the elegant garden Casino Felice of the Villa Peretti Montalto alle Terme (later known as the Villa Massimo), built for Sixtus V by famed Roman architect Domenico Fontana. After centuries of neglect, the Villa, its two palaces, and its lush gardens were destroyed in the 1880s in order to make way for the central railroad station in Rome, the Roma Termini. The long-lost frescos of the Casino Felice are of the greatest interest to scholars of Renaissance Italian art: among the artists were C. Nebbia, F. Rosselli, D. Cresti (called il… Read More

n.d. (19th or 20th century). Two illuminations on thin India paper some vertical creasing, professionally matted and framed. Ad 1 (priapus): 300 x 250 mm (frame size), 198 x 140 mm (visible), 147 x 93 mm (size of illumination). Ad 2 (she-devil): 306 x 231 mm (frame size), 205 x 140 mm (visible), 150 x 83 mm (size of illumination). Sold as a pair. TWO WEIRD EROTIC INDIAN ILLUMINATIONS, THE LIKES OF WHICH WE HAVE NEVER BEFORE ENCOUNTERED, AND ARE UNLIKELY TO ENCOUNTER AGAIN. Popular in Roman decorative art, the winged priapus is uncommon in Indian iconography. Our illumination is of particularly high quality, and depicts a beautiful Indian woman riding a reined priapus perhas twice her size. The priapus is depicted with avain feet and giant wings. The environment is like a strange dream: in the foreground a grey pool with pink flowers; behind are dark green hills with eerie trees and vegetation. In the sky at sunset are what appear to be rain clouds, touched in white. We have been unable to… Read More

India, 19th or 20th century. Good. Painting on manuscript leaf (ca. 270 x 160 mm), hinged on plexiglas so that the verso is visible, matted (matte size: 367 x 250 mm, some spotting on the matte). Manuscript leaf with some damage outside painted area; a very attractive ornithological painting. A delicate Indian painting of a Western Yellow Wagtail, likely made for the tourist trade, painted on a manuscript leaf that has nothing to do with the images. The Arabic text above the painting is an excerpt from a commentary on Mūjiz al-Qānūn by Ibn Nafis. The bird and the decorative yellow "cloudbands" that appear between the lines of text were added later. The text on the verso is unidentified, but judging from the red overlining we are inclined to believe it is a commentary. In our Western Yellow Wagtail we admire the extremely naturalistic color and fine modelling of the feathers, as well as the restrained depiction of the tree branch and leaves. Suitable for exhibition and study. We are grateful… Read More

Lugduni (imprint false: likely printed in Germany), 1687. First Edition. Very good. 8vo (180 x 100 mm). [8], 295 pp. Later German quarter calf over decorated blue paper boards (actually two different sheets were utilized), printed waste utilized as spine lining (the text is in Latin and French), vellum corner tips, black spine label gilt (binding a bit worn), all edges stained red. Paper defect on fol. H3 (pp. 101/2) affecting five lines of text with loss, paper stock foxed and somewhat browned as is common with Germany medical books at this date, but a good unsophisticated copy, with a few leaves unopened. UNKNOWN PHYSICIAN ARGUES AGAINST HEAVY SMOKING IN 1687. This curious medical book discusses (in 65 chapters) an uncharacteristically broad array of afflictions: vertigo, vomiting, stomach complaints, "hypochondria," "melancholia hypochondriaca" (ailments of the liver and spleen), arthritis, fever, coughing, grief, scurvy, bloody urine, epilepsy, asthma, and much more. To these discussions are… Read More

France, 1781. Very good. Manuscript on paper. 8vo. [16] pp. (including 2 blank pages), with handwriting almost entirely filling 13 pages. Stitched (recent?), evidence of two old folds, minor toning and soiling but overall in very good antiquarian condition. DIMINUTIVE AND CURIOUS MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY CATALOGUE OF VOYAGES AND HISTORY, NO DOUBT WRITTEN BY A FRENCH ANTIQUARIAN (note the compiler's almost unwavering spelling of "Voiages" (sic). The entries are classified as belonging to just two types of books: Voyages and "Histoire," the latter being very broad in scope -- as commonly among early French library catalogues. For instance, classified as "Histoire" is Hirzel's "Le Socrate rustique"; unusually, the complete imprint is recorded here (Zurich, Heideggeur, 1764), as is the size (12mo); most entries are more brief. Listed also are works by Sessa, "celebre mathematicien indien" who "invented Chess," and Ardschir, who "invented Tric-Trac." Below this is written More's Utopia translated by… Read More

s.l. (Pittsburgh?), 1940. Good. 7 glossy black and white prints on paper (3 3/16 x 4 1/2 inches), on versos the paper numbered M001, M220, and M349. Some general wear (creasing from handling, soiling on versos, one small tear). ODD, CLAUSTROPHOBIC INNER-CITY VERNACULAR PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE 1940s. Depicted here are unnamed African-American neighbors (and probably relatives) assembled on brick streets against brick-walled houses. At least three of the photos were taken on the same street corner. A well-dressed man stands in front of a grocery store; one very young woman smokes; behind a wide-eyed girl wearing glasses and too-large sandals hangs laundry; another woman sits in a shadowy alley; three girls pose against a brick wall which exhibits faint graffiti, behind them a contraption of some kind appears in the darkness for no reason; a stone step worn and sunken supports the feet of two boys in a doorway: on the sidewalk in front of them falls the shadow of the amateur photographer, his fedora… Read More

S.l. (Britain?), 1920. Very good. Slim 8vo. 43 unnumbered pages + one full-page drawing. Handmade notebook tied with string, covers of gilt sprinkled card-stock (some surface scratching and wear to extremities; some unobjectionable foxing and staining). Curious homemade manuscript of what appears to be an unpublished English translation of the beloved Momotaro ("Peach Boy") fairy tale. Whereas the story of the boy who is born from a giant peach, discovered floating down a river by an old washer woman, is well known, we continue to be enchanted by it. Our manuscript has some interesting textual variants and was likely "reinvented" in parts. For instance, in the first meeting between Momotaro and the dog: "...suddenly from the grassy moor a two coloured dog about the size of a calf appeared, facing Momotaro and showing his teeth he barked 'You rude fellow do you think to pass through MR. BUCHI'S place with out giving notice?' (emphasis ours). Elsewhere Momotaro "let BUCHI carry the flag and MASHIRA a… Read More

Various places, 1940. Very good. Group of 25 photographs or photo postcards of boxing women in varied states of undress, all more or less postcard- sized (some were evidently extracted from an album as there is evidence of glue or tape residue). Each example is preserved in a mylar L-sleeve and laid into a fitted cloth case. CURIOUS COLLECTION OF VINTAGE PHOTOGRAPHS AND PHOTO POSTCARDS OF FEMALE BOXERS. To our shame we knew nothing about the term "Agonophilia" prior to encountering this collection, which certainly has illuminated the subject for us considerably. From Urban Dictionary: "Agonophilia covers a broad range of sexual arousal, from fighting paraphernalia (boxing gloves, protective cups, headgear, mouthpieces, satin trunks) and through the actual engagement in fighting (legitimate or fantasy). [...] Some men who ordinarily consider themselves straight clearly enjoy the combination of fighting gear and male to male contact while fighting, and of course volumes could be written about the… Read More