[Rarebooks] FS: Four American Titles for Patriots Day

[Steve Hanly]

Greetings,

Monday is Patriots Day in Massachusetts and Maine, observing the 230th
anniversary of the battles at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.
We are pleased to offer four American imprints that reflect the growing
conflict which led to the Revolutionary War.  (Including one with an
engraving by the famed midnight rider himself.)  A Patriots Day discount
of 17.75% may be taken from the listed prices.

1.  [Almanac.]   Low, Nathanael.    AN ASTRONOMICAL DIARY; OR, ALMANACK
FOR...1771.   [1770.]  Printed and Sold by Kneeland and Adams...
Boston.   24 pp.   Disbound from a larger stitched grouping of
almanacs.  Stitched.  Age-toned.  A very good example.
Low leads off the almanac with a fiery 2-1/2 page patriotic essay,
written about seven months after the Boston Massacre.  Indeed, March 5th
on the calendar pages is footnoted: "An horrid Massacre most inhumanly
and barbarously committed by British Troops on the Inhabitants of
Boston, 5th Day, 1770."  In the essay, Low exhorts: "We esteem Freedom
as our native Right; like free-born Sons of Liberty therefore let us
act..."   He cites the non-importation agreements and, on the subject of
tea, states: "In a particular Manner let us abstain from the Use of
foreign TEA.  There is no one Article imported so fatal to the Cause of
Liberty as this..."   Near the end of the almanac is a page-and-a-half
devoted to "Some necessary Rules to be observed with Regard to Health,
chiefly from Dr. Chyne."  Evans: 11704.  Drake: 3198.  O'Neal: 443.
Guerra, American Medical Bibliography 1639-1783: b-292.      [Item no.
2626.]   $300.00.

2.  [Almanac.]   Low, Nathanael.    AN ASTRONOMICAL DIARY; OR, ALMANACK
FOR...1775.   [1774.]  Printed and Sold by John Kneeland, in Milk
Street.   Boston.   24 pp.   String tied.  Age-toned; staining,
sometimes heavy.  Title rubbed and with prominent spots of staining.
Ragged edges; top corner of title eroded costing half the "k" in
"almanack."
Low, like Ames, helped fan the flames of discontent that led to the
American Revolution.  This almanac provides ample evidence of flame
fanning.  The title page woodcut portrays the dramatic and prophetically
timely "virtuous patriot at the hour of death."  In a four-page "Address
to the Inhabitants of Boston," Low decries the Port Bill and "a British
armament parading in your streets and harbour."  He continues: "My dear
brethren, the destiny of America seems to be suspended on the present
controversy; and it is on your fidelity, firmness and good conduct...
that a happy issue of it in a great measure depends..."  This almanac
would have been in Massachusetts homes when hostilities broke out in
Lexington and Concord in April, 1775.   Evans: 13384.  Drake: 3241.
O'Neal: 448, illustrated.  Stowell, Early American Almanacs: p. 145,
illustrated.  Hamilton, Early American Book Illustrators and Wood
Engravers: 66.    [Item no. 2634.]   $500.00.

3.  Cooke, Samuel.    A SERMON PREACHED AT CAMBRIDGE, IN THE AUDIENCE OF
HIS HONOUR THOMAS HUTCHINSON, ESQ....ANNIVERSARY FOR THE ELECTION TO HIS
MAJESTY'S COUNCIL...   1770.  Printed by Edes and Gill, Printers to the
Honourable House of Representatives.   Boston.   47 pp.   String-tied.
Ex-library with rubber stamp markings on title and half-title.  Old ink
names and notations on half-title.  Occasional staining.  Chipping and
edge roughness, but no loss of text.
Preached less than three months after the Boston Massacre, Cooke's
election sermon mirrors the heightened tensions of the time.  He notes:
"people may apprehend they have just reason to complain of oppression
and wrong...when subordinate public officials are made the surest step
to wealth and ease."  Cooke mentions the "schism" between the colony's
executive and legislature, as well as the holding of the legislature in
Cambridge instead of Boston, a very sore subject with Adams, Hancock and
their associates.  Cooke also characterizes military occupation during
peacetime as "improper."   Finally, Cooke makes an impassioned call for
the end of the importation of slaves.  Evans: 11613.  Sabin: 16348.
Vail, A Check List of New England Election Sermons: p. 21.    [Item no.
2552.]   $675.00.

4.  [Early American Magazine with Revere Engraving.]    THE ROYAL
AMERICAN MAGAZINE, OR UNIVERSAL REPOSITORY OF INSTRUCTION AND
AMUSEMENT.  FOR NOVEMBER, 1774.    Printed and Sold at Greenleaf's
Printing Office in Union-Street, near the Conduit...   America:
Boston.   40 pp.   Title present but lacks plates.  Also lacks
installment of Hutchinson's History which would have been appended at
the end of the magazine.  Disbound, light foxing, two leaves with
missing corners (loss of one letter).  Overall, a very good example.
An important, though short-lived, magazine in the months leading up to
the American Revolution.  The title page on this issue is very clean,
highlighting Paul Revere's engraving of "an Indian seated, offering a
calumet of peace to a woman portraying the Genius of Knowledge."
(Brigham, p.209.).  Much content related to the strained relations
between Great Britain and the colonies, mentioning "the brave
Bostonians" who "now bleed beneath the ruthless arm of oppression."  In
the "Domestic Intelligence" section, there is a report that the arrival
back in Boston of Thomas Cushing, Samuel Adams and John Adams from  the
"Grand American Congress" was met with the ringing of bells.  Also
printed is a proclamation by Governor Gage condemning the Provincial
Congress that was "unlawfully assembled at Cambridge in the month of
October last" and prohibiting "all his leige subjects within this
province" from complying with the Provincial Congress' resolutions. An
outstanding magazine.   Brigham, Paul Revere's Engravings: Plate no.
69.   Mott, A History of American Magazines 1741-1850: Vol I, pp.
83-86.    [Item no. 2201.]   $900.00.

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    B I C K E R S T A F F’s Books, Maps &c.
         Stephen P. Hanly, Proprietor
  Three Ellery Road  ~  Waltham, MA 02453 USA

   Phone: 781-899-5504  ~  Fax: 781-894-2732

             E-mail: sph at bickerstaffs.com
      Web site: http://www.bickerstaffs.com

 Books & maps of 18th and 19th century America,
specializing in early New England imprints & maps.

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TERMS:

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arrangements.

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