Auction 5: Lots 133-143

Item 133

133. PARKER, A. A. Trip to the West and Texas. Comprising a Journey of Eight Thousand Miles, through New-York, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Louisiana and Texas, in the Autumn and Winter of 1834—5. Interspersed with Anecdotes, Incidents and Observations. Concord: White & Fisher, 1835. 276 pp., 2 woodcut plates (Catching Wild Horses and Shooting Deer). 12mo, original brown cloth, gilt-lettered tan leather spine label. Worn, shaken, stained and foxed. A collector should try to find a better copy, but this book is extremely difficult to find in original cloth and in fine condition.

First edition. Basic Texas Books 159: "Parker, an observant chronicler, visited Texas just prior to the revolution. Ray Allen Billington states: "His descriptions of the Texan settlements and people are vivid and discerning. He also reveals the cultural conflicts with Mexico which played a part in the Texas Revolution. Because this is one of the earliest travel books written in English about Texas, it is of great value.'" Clark, Old South III:82: "One of the earliest descriptions of Texas in English, by an observing and friendly traveler...land, crops, game, and advice to travelers and emigrants." Graff 3183. Howes P74. Phillips, Sport, p. 286. Plains & Rockies IV:57a:1. Raines, pp. 161-62. Sibley, Travelers in Texas, p. 217. Streeter 1172. Parker travelled from the Sabine to the Colorado, thence back to San Felipe and Brazoria.
($750-1,500)

134. PARKER, W. B. Notes Taken during the Expedition Commanded by Capt. R. B. Marcy, U.S.A., through Unexplored Texas, in the Summer and Fall of 1854. Philadelphia: Hayes & Zell, 1856. xii [9]-242 [6,ads] pp. 12mo, original brown cloth. Spinal extremities worn (head chipped, tail frayed), binding slightly discolored and stained, but tight; text clean and fine.

First edition. Bradford 4186. Basic Texas Books 135n: "A well written narrative [which] adds flavor to Marcy's report." Graff 3195. Howes P91. Plains & Rockies IV:279: "The party left Fort Smith [and] traveled by way of Fort Washita to the little Washita River and to the headwaters of the Brazos River." Field 1174: "Crowded with the more interesting details of personal intercourse with the Indian tribes of the southern prairies." Raines, p. 162. Tate, The Indians of Texas 2176: "A valuable report by one of the civilians who accompanied Capt. Randolph B. Marcy and Robert S. Neighbors across northwestern Texas looking for a site upon which reservations could be created for Penateka Comanches and the small, displaced tribes of Texas." Vandale 129.
($400-700)

135. PICHARDO, José Antonio. Pichardo's Treatise on the Limits of Louisiana and Texas.... Austin: University of Texas, 1931-46. 4 vols., complete (with maps), 8vo, original navy blue cloth. A very fine set in lightly worn dustjackets, prospectus laid in. Difficult to find complete, as the set issued over a fifteen-year period.

First edition of a previously unpublished manuscript written 1808-1812, translated, edited, and annotated by Charles Wilson Hackett. Basic Texas Books 160: "'Gambrell deemed it 'easily the most important reference work on the colonial history of Texas yet published in English'.... When President Jefferson persisted in claiming that the territory included in the Louisiana Purchase extended to the Rio Grande, the Spanish government ordered that historical data be gathered to prove Spain's ownership of Texas. The result was that in 1808 Father Pichardo was named head of a historical commission to ascertain the historic boundary of Louisiana and Texas.... Few works of history have had a more direct effect on international diplomacy and law or on the subsequent history of the area involved. Enormous wealth of data...literally thousands of documents relating to Texas. Many of these no longer exist.... With the addition of Hackett's superb annotations, the treatise provides us with one of the fundamental resources on the early history of Texas." Clark, Old South I:23. Rader 2664. Steck, p. 14. New Handbook V:188-89. (4 vols.)
($600-1,200)

136. POLK, J. M. Lot of two items: Memories of the Lost Cause and Ten Years in South America. Austin: Polk, 1907. 47 pp., frontispiece, illustrations. 8vo, original maize printed wrappers (chipped). Paper browned and brittle. Contemporary pencil notations (author's?) on the illustrations of battle scenes identifying features and military units. With: The Confederate Soldier and Ten Years in South America. Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1910. [5] 4-57 [3, ads] pp., frontispiece portrait, illustrations. 8vo, original light blue wrappers, stapled. Wrappers detached, faded and browned. J. Frank Dobie's signed autograph note on title: "Good for specific anecdotes expressing humor, daring, fear, oddities of soldier character." Rare Confederate memoir, in any printing.

Second and third editions, with different illustrations and slightly revised text (first edition, Austin, 1905, with frontispiece, but not otherwise illustrated). Nevins, Civil War Books I, p. 147: "Summary of life in the 4th Texas Infantry [Hood's Brigade], and...travels south of the border (mainly Brazil)." Dornbusch II:1083-1087. Parrish, Civil War Texana 76: "A later edition (1910 or 1912? [actually 1910]) has amateur sketches by Ura Bogle, depicting participation of Hood's Brigade in its major battles." (2 vols.)
($150-300)

137. [POSTL, Karl]. The Cabin Book: Or, National Characteristics by Charles Sealsfield. Translated from the German, by Sarah Powell. London: Ingram, Cooke, 1852. [4] 296 [4, ads] pp., engraved frontispiece, pictorial title, plates. 8vo, original blind-stamped plum cloth. Spine light and with small snag at top, cloth with mild soiling, front hinge cracked, one small stain on title, plates excellent.

First complete British edition of Postl's Cajütenbuch (which had previously appeared in Britain only in translated extracts; first edition, Zurich, 1841); first illustrated edition of one of the first four novels about Texas. Agatha, p. 96. Graff 3719. Howes P502. Rader 2897. Raines, p. 183: "A vivid picture of Texas and its society in early days." Streeter 1396n: "The main scene for this narrative is laid in Texas at the time of the Texas revolution, with an account of the Battle of San Jacinto."
($250-450)

Click for image

Item 138, Portrait of William H. Emory

138. PRICE, George F. Across the Continent with the Fifth Cavalry. New York: Van Nostrand, 1883. 705 [1, errata] pp., frontispiece portrait of Albert Sydney Johnston, portraits (including William H. Emory). 8vo, original gilt pictorial blue cloth decorated black, bevelled edges. Spine slightly dark, spine tips worn, some light shelf wear, hinges reinforced with brown buckram matching original endpaper color, interior fine. Bookplate of Marcus J. Wright. Uncommon.

First edition of an important source on the military in the American West. Alliot, p. 181. Eberstadt 128:484: "A narrative of the regiment's activity beginning in 1855 with a march to Texas, and continuing in service in Texas until 1861. Later the regiment saw service in Nebraska, in Arizona against the Apaches, and in the Indian Wars of the Plains from the Canadian River in Texas to the Yellowstone in Montana." Graff 3361. Howes P582. Rader 2735. Tate 2412, The Indians of Texas 2412: "A valuable first-hand account of army operations against Comanches and Kiowas from 1855 to 1877." The second part contains biographies of all the officers of the regiment.
($200-400)

139. RAINES, C. W. A Bibliography of Texas.... Austin:

Published for the Author by Gammel, 1896. xvi, 268 pp., frontispiece of the Alamo. Royal 8vo, original full dark brown smooth calf, black morocco spine label. Minor wear at head of spine, else very fine, unopened. Slipcase.

First edition, special edition, in the full calf binding and taller than the trade edition (26.8 cm. tall, like Vandale's copy). Basic Texas Books B162: "The pioneer work of Texas bibliography; still useful for its perceptive annotations. Few annotated bibliographies have withstood the passing years so well as this." Vandale 137.
($200-400)

140. __________. Another copy. Large 8vo, contemporary tan buckram, black leather spine label. Binding shelf worn, otherwise fine.

A most interesting copy, with Dudley R. Dobie's note that seems to indicate that this copy of Raines' Bibliography of Texas came from the collection of Texas historian Claude Elliott (New Handbook II:828-29). The copy is interleaved with blank leaves containing annotated notes for additional titles to be added to Raines, corrections, printed catalogue slips, and numbering to incorporate new entries. Additional notes in the handwriting of Dudley perhaps indicate that he intended to carry forward the revision that Elliott had begun. Much interesting bibliographical information can be gleaned from this volume.
($300-500)

Item 141

141. RANKIN, Melinda. Texas in 1850. Boston: Damrell & Moore, 1850. 199 pp. 12mo, original brown printed upper wrapper (lower wrap and most of paper spine missing), sewn. Wrapper detached, creased, and lightly chipped along left blank margin and top right corner. Verso of last page (which is blank) lightly soiled. Copies in wrappers are very scarce.

First edition. Agatha, p. 34. Howes R64. Raines, p. 171: "Texas viewed through the missionary eyes of a New England lady." Sibley, Travelers in Texas, p. 218. Rankin (1811-1888), who came to Texas in 1848, gives a well-rounded description of Texas for prospective emigrants, including social and economic conditions, natural resources, towns and cities, navigation of Texas rivers, Native Americans, etc. She appeals for religious workers to come to Texas. New Handbook V:445.
($250-450)

142. REAGAN, John H. Memoirs, with Special Reference to Secession and the Civil War. New York & Washington: The Neale Publishing Company, 1906. 351 pp., frontispiece portrait of Reagan, plates. 8vo, original grey cloth decorated in gilt. Some insect damage to spine (the insects apparently considered the paste used in Neale books a special gourmet offering, because Neale publications seem frequently to bear their traces), endpapers browned, internally fine, binding tight.

First edition. Basic Texas Books 168: "One of the most important volumes of personal recollections relating to the Confederacy, Reagan's Memoirs also cover the period of the Republic of Texas, the Cherokee Wars, Congress in the 1850s, Reconstruction and the policies of the 1870s and 1880s. They are a classic of nineteenth-century American political autobiography." Graff 3434. Harwell, In Tall Cotton 154: "Reminiscences of the able Texan who served in President Davis's cabinet from the beginning of the war to its end." Howes R100. Krick 412. Nevins, Civil War Books II, p. 84. Parrish, Civil War Texana 80. Reagan was a congressman and senator from Texas (both before and after the Civil War), helped lead the 1866 and 1875 state constitutional conventions, and was Postmaster General of the Confederacy. New Handbook V:464-66.
($80-125)

143. REED, S. G. A History of the Texas Railroads and of Transportation Conditions under Spain and Mexico and the Republic and the State. Houston: St. Clair Publishing Co., [1941]. x, 822 pp. 8vo, original blue cloth. Other than minor shelf wear, very fine.

First edition, limited edition (#473 of 500 copies, numbered and signed label on front pastedown). Basic Texas Books 169: "One of the most comprehensive studies of the railroading history of any state, this is by far the best on Texas railroads."
($250-450)