CONNECTICUT

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“Oriental” Romance forCT Subscribers

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•  Reprint of an oriental tale in the style of the “Arabian Nights” romance, an extremely popular genre in the 18th century. First edition was London, 1762. At the end are an extract from Robinson's History of Baptism about the Anabaptists in Germany, a short story on simple true love entitled “Rural felicity,” an ode to solitude, a poem celebrating “female excellence,” and a very interesting subscriber's list bristling with Connecticut names and places.

Provenance: Bookplate of Thomas Longley (Hawley).

We found seven copies reported in libraries, ALL between Worcester/Providence and Washington, D.C.

•  Evans 35710; Trumbull, Connecticut, 2313; ESTC W3365. Old calf with remnants of black leather spine label; leather with one gouge to back cover and a bit abraded overall. Tear and chip to front free endpaper; title-page with tiny edge tears. Small wormhole at base of initial three leaves, not touching print. Some leaves extruded with shallow tattering. Bookplate as above on front free endpaper. Offsetting from leather of cover and a brown blot or stain at outer margin of title- and following page; same offsetting to last leaves; some general staining and an ink "x-mark" in margin of one other page. This seems to have been read with enthusiasm! (20994)

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First Published Complete Bible Translation by a WOMAN
The “Julia Smith” Bible   

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•  First and only edition of this interestingly nonconformist translation, done by a vocal suffragist known for protesting the taxation of unenfranchised women. Julia Evelina Smith (1792–1886), one of the five celebrated, talented siblings sometimes referred to as the “Marvelous Smith Sisters of Connecticut,” became a member of the Sandemanian sect after much independent religious study. She chose to have her private labor of love published to serve as a public demonstration of the intellectual capabilities of women, rebuking one dubious banker with the comment that she “thought it just as well to spend money to print this Bible as to put it into a thousand-dollar shawl” (New York Times, 9 March 1886).

Smith endeavored to provide an extremely literal, word-for-word rendition to enhance her and her sisters' understanding of the text. Regarding the rather tangled results, she notes in her preface that “readers of this book may think it strange that I have made such use of the tenses . . . It seems to me that the original Hebrew had no regard to time, and that the Bible speaks for all ages.”

•  Herbert 2002; Hills 1918; Rumball-Petre 201; Wright, Early Bibles of America, 234–35. On Smith, see: McHenry, Famous American Women, 383 (under entry for Smith, Abby Hadassah).   Publisher's pebbled brown cloth, title and translator's name simply gilt-stamped within blind-stamped panel; recently rebacked and original spine reapplied (spine slightly rumpled), one corner restored, other corners mildly rubbed. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Front pastedown with affixed newspaper clipping on the Smith sisters. One page with short tear from lower edge, not extending into text; pages clean. A nice copy of a very desirable Bible.  (27574)

Radical  Republican Yalie

•  Bishop (1763–1844) was a radical, Republican, Yale graduate, abolitionist, staunch supporter of Jefferson, and celebrant of American expansionism (via the Louisiana Purchase). There is some confusion as to where this was printed: Some sources (Howes, for example) misplace “Sidney's Press” as being in Hartford while others correctly place it in New Haven, thus creating the illusion of two printings in different cities. In fact, there is only the New Haven printing. Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 5881; Howes B472 (“aa”); Sabin 5596.   Uncut copy in modern boards covered with stone pattern marbled paper. Title-page torn in lower blank area with loss of paper but not text. Bug-spotting, a few stray stains, age-toning; stab holes in inner margins from original stitching. A very decent copy.  (24888)

Public Office as Political Football

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•  First edition of a controversial attack on Jefferson over his policy of removing Federalists in order to put Republicans in office, and specifically over the appointment of an untrained and inexperienced, nearly blind elderly man as collector of customs for the port of New Haven. The pseudonymous author, who criticizes Jefferson for “sweeping from office every man of adverse politics, and proscribing him as unworthy of confidence . . . “ which “necessarily widens the breach between parties, and sets in hostile array, one half of the community against the other” (pp. 12–13), has sometimes been identified as William Cranch and sometimes as William Coleman.

•  Sabin 14312; Shaw & Shoemaker 326; Howes C573.   Period-style quarter tan cloth and light blue paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label; spine cloth and edges of covers much darkened by smoke, endpapers and pastedowns discolored also. Title-page and last leaf waterstained from an earlier accident and the former tattered, with paper repairs not touching text and small early inked numeral partially cut off at outer edge; marginal smoke invasions and other light spotting at points throughout. One small early inked correction. Sad faults noted, a copy sound for reading and working with, soundly priced.  (26239)

An ExpertPromotes AMERICAN Sericulture — His Son Promotes His Business

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•  First edition: Care of mulberry trees and silkworms, and production of silk. Comstock, who had been a probate judge and postmaster before becoming a gentleman farmer, was secretary of the Hartford County Silk Society and editor of the Silk Culturist & Farmer's Manual monthly periodical. This treatise is illustrated with several in-text wood-engravings.

The advertisement on the back cover of this volume notes that William G. Comstock (the author's son and publisher) offered for sale 100,000 white Italian mulberry trees; 10,000 Chinese mulberry plants; and 2,000,000 “silk worms eggs,” among other items of sericulture.

•  American Imprints 36859.   Publisher's quarter brown cloth and printed paper–covered sides, moderately rubbed and soiled; spine sunned and a strip of black cloth tape across its head. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on pastedown, front free endpaper with inked number covered over by black tape, pressure-stamp on title-page. No other markings. Pages clean.  (26271)

“New Useful & Entertaining”

•  Charcoal tooth-powder, orchards, and butter making. Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Drake 707; Shaw & Shoemaker 13185.   Removed from a nonce volume and resewn.  (9489)

Gould, Vinson. A sermon, delivered at East-Haven, (Connecticut) January 13, 1808, at the ordination of the Reverendaul Clark, work of the gospel ministry in that place.... New-Haven: Pr. by Oliver Steele & Co., 1803. 8vo. 24 pp.
$25.00

•  Gould was the pastor of "the church in Southampton, Massachusetts."

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 4297. Sewn in original blue-green wrappers which are a bit tattered. Number stamped on front wrapper. Uncut copy.

Cutting Way Back onPresidential Authority

•  Hillhouse, a United States Senator from Connecticut, put forth these seven amendments in the hopes of diminishing corruption and partisan politics. One of the most interesting suggestions is that the President of the U.S. be chosen by lottery from among the existing senators, to serve a one-year term! Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Following Hillhouse's discussion of his purpose and reasoning, the actual amendments have a separate title-page.

First edition.  Second and third editions were printed at New Haven by Oliver Steele & Co. in the same year as this first.

•  Sabin 31883; Shaw & Shoemaker 15230.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Pages with a few scattered spots of light staining and occasional early inked corrections; old stitching holes in inner margins. Page edges untrimmed. In fact, quite a nice copy.  (25210)

“Great Connecticut Names” (Pseudonymous Division) Hold-Fast, Simon, [pseud.].   Facts are stubborn things, or nine plain questionsto the people of Connecticut, with a brief reply to each. By Simon Hold-Fast. Hartford: Pr. by Hudson & Goodwin, 1803. 8vo. 23, [1 (blank)] pp.
$90.00

•  Pro-Federalist, anti-Republican tract that is well written and shows reasoning of the non-strident school. Very good political content.

Provenance: Ownership signature of Ezra S. Ely, D.D.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 4393. Removed from a nonce volume. Respined with archival tissue. Six-digit number stamped on title-page. Some age-toning and occasional light foxing.

FromRomulus Augustulus to Louis Philippe

Koch, Christopher William.

•  Translated by Andrew Crichton from the original French, a History of the Revolutions in Europe gives the history of revolution beginning with the fall of the Roman Empire, including the French and American Revolutions (in the former of which Koch played a part) and ending with the French revolution of 1830. Included are a total of 24 wood-engraved illustrations on 12 plates, some of which are signed “JWB” and one of which is signed “B.”

•  Contemporary publisher’s mottled sheep; spine gilt extra. Fine abrasions or chipping to leather, especially to head and foot of spine. Offsetting from turn-ins; lightly foxed throughout. A closed tear without loss in pp. 327–28. All edges marbled.

•  Catalogue 6. 100 items; 103 illustrations.

•  Printed green wrappers. Light damage to spine paper, with minor loss of paper. Very good copy.

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Two Very Early Missionaries toHAWAII

•  William Richards (1793–1847) and Artemas Bishop 1795–1872) were sent to Hawaii, while William Goodel (1792–1867) headed for the Holy Land and adjacent regions. Pages [47]–48 contain a “Brief view of the missions under the direction of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, compiled October, 1822.”

•  Shoemaker 9489. Not in Hill.   Removed from a nonce volume. Light age-toning. “No.7” in ink (early 19th-century hand) at top of title-page.  (27260)

William Carlos Williams SaysThese Sonnets Are “Magnificent”

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•  First edition: collected verses from a Harvard psychiatrist and poet remembered as a prolific composer of sonnets, here with a highly complimentary introduction byWilliam Carlos Williams. This is number two in the “New Directions Pamphlet Series,” edited by James Laughlin, IV; 1000 copies were printed by theOtter Valley Press in Middlebury, VT.

•  Publisher's printed paper wrappers; spine and edges sunned, front wrapper with inked address in upper margin. Pages clean.  (29725)

“Nothing ButINDEPENDENCE . . . Can Keep the Peace of the Continent”

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•  Uncut copy with original stitching of what was “the most incendiary and popular pamphlet of the entire revolutionary era” (Gordon Wood, American Revolution, p. 55). Popularity of the work can roughly be gauged by the fact that at least 25 editions were printed in the first year

Two editions were printed at Norwich, Connecticut, by Spooner and Green: one extending to 56 pp. and the other, offered here, to 64 pp. This edition is by far the scarcer: It wasunknown to Evans and only seven U.S. libraries report owning a copy.

Provenance:  Contemporary ownership signature at top of title-page: “J. Store's [book].”

•  Not in Evans. Bristol 4313; Shipton & Mooney 43119; Trumbull, Connecticut, 1214; Johnson, New London, 1047; Adams, American Independence, 222r; Grolier, American One Hundred, 14 (for first edition). This edition not in Sabin or Howes.   Uncut and stitched as issued. Title-page age-toned, lightly soiled and lightly abraded. Lower margin of pp. 29–30 torn with loss of three words on 29 and four on 30; supplied for reading sense. Housed in quarter red morocco clamshell case, spine nicely gilt, with an inner paper chemise protecting the pamphlet.  (29365)

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Putting DOWN theREVOLUTION in Connecticut

•  Daggett, a Federalist lawyer and politician, argues against the creation of a new state constitution for Connecticut; he claims that those promoting such a thing do so for personal and political gain, and suggests they are “pigmy politicians, the mushroom growth of an hour” (p. 16). The appendix provides “a View of the Fiscal Concerns of Connecticut.” Click the interior image for an enlargement.

First edition.

•  Sabin 15716; Shaw & Shoemaker 610.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Title-page with small inked “pseud.” comment next to author's name. Pages age-toned with offsetting and some light spotting (darkest to title-page); one leaf with upper margin repaired some time ago. Page edges untrimmed; one signature unopened.  (25211)

Dedicated to “Patrons ofPure,
     Perfect, & Unpolluted Liberty”

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•  A history of three members of the tribunal which had Charles I beheaded in 1649, by the former president of Yale College, a post which he held from 1778 to his death in 1795. Plates III, VIII and IX were engraved by Amos Doolittle; plate 7 is not present here nor is there any copy known to have it present. (Sabin categorically states: “there is no plate 7 in any of the copies seen, and it is probable none was made.”)

•  Evans 27743; Howes S-999; Sabin 91742; Trumbull, Connecticut, 1425.   Period-style quarter calf with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and blind-tooled floral decorations in compartments. Previous owner's signature on the title-page. Rubber-stamps of the Mercantile Library, and inked marks and underlining inside, with scattered marginalia. Frontispiece portrait lacking, with eight plates (three of which are fold-out) present; each of the three folding plates with a split along one fold. Occasional marginal tears and small chips to corners; waterstaining and foxing, yet paper strong and reading easy.  (3996)

Kempis forCONNECTICUT

•  The authorship of the Imitation of Christ was questioned for three centuries, but scholarly consensus now favors Thomas à Kempis, leaving little or no room for such contenders as Jean Gerson. This translation from the original Latin is the work of an English Protestant who has sought to de-Catholicize the work as far as possible: Quotations from the Bible, which in the Latin are given from the Vulgate Bible (i.e., the Roman Catholic authorized text), in their English translations here are given from the King James and not the Douai-Rheims or Challoner versions.

The first printing of the Imitation appeared in 1473 and there followed hundreds of European editions before the first American appeared 1749. It was as popular with the American audience as it had been in Europe, and it appeared here in English and German translation and even in an extracted form, almost always redone for Protestants.

This is the first printing of the Imitation in Connecticut.

•  Shoemaker 9094; Parsons 778. On the translator, see: The Dictionary of National Biography. Contemporary sheep with a near-contemporary over-covering of another sheep binding—with a rectangle cut out to expose the original spine label. Over-covering very plain. Expectable foxing and a certain amount of staining; a "decent" copy made interesting by the careful early "conservation" of the binding.

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