[Rarebooks] FS: California and the West Reference Books

Tue Jul 12 11:21:47 EDT 2011

Offered for sale today are 19 reference books regarding California and the West.

1    BLUMANN, Ethel and THOMAS, Mabel W., editors.  California Local History: A Centennial Bibliography.  Compiled by the California Library Association Committee on Local History.  Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1950.  Tall Thick 8vo.  10 1/4 x 7 inches.  xvi, 576 pp.  Index; text clean, un-marked, pages lightly toned.  Gilt-stamped red cloth, symbols for library holdings in the end-leaves; binding square and tight.  Very Good.      $ 15

2    Book Club of California.  California Printing: A Selected List of Books Which Are Significant Or Representative of a California Style of Printing.  Part I of a Three-Part Series, 1838-1890.  San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 1980.  4to.  280 x 216 mm.  [vi], 33, [5] pp.  Title-page vignette in brown ink, vignettes and illustrations, bibliography; text clean, un-marked.  Printed wrappers of laid paper; binding square and tight.  Printer's copy from the private collection of Vance Gerry.  Fine.      $ 30

3    Book Club of California.  California Printing: A Selected List of Books Which Are Significant Or Representative of a California Style of Printing.  Part I of a Three-Part Series, 1838-1890.  San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 1980.  4to.  280 x 216 mm.  [vi], 33, [5] pp.  Title-page vignette in brown ink, vignettes and illustrations, bibliography; text clean, un-marked.  Printed wrappers of laid paper; binding square and tight.  Printer's copy from the private collection of Vance Gerry.  Fine.      $ 30

4    Book Club of California.  California Printing: A Selected List of Books Which Are Significant Or Representative of a California Style of Printing.  Part III of a Three-Part Series, 1925-1975.  San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 1987.  4to.  254 x 210 mm.  ix, 55, [3] pp.  Title-page vignette in blue ink, illustrated throughout, index; text clean, un-marked.  Printed wrappers of laid paper; binding square and tight.  Printer's copy from the private collection of Vance Gerry.  Fine.      $ 30

5    [Book Club of California]  OLMSTED, Duncan H.  Seventy Years: A Checklist of Book Club Publications 1914-1983.  San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 1984. Series: Book Club of California, Keepsake, No. 44.  Designed by Wesley B. Tanner, and printed by him and Will Powers in Berkeley, California.  4to.  10 x 8 1/4 inches.  60 pp.  Title-page printed in red, green, and black inks, colophon; text clean, un-marked.  Printed wrappers, front cover vignette printed in blue and green inks, title printed on spine in black; binding square and tight, light shelf wear to covers.  Fine.      $ 15
SIGNED by Edwin H. Carpenter

6    CARPENTER, Edwin H. (1915-1995).  Printers and Publishers in Southern California, 1850-1876.  A Directory.  Glendale, CA: La Siesta Press, 1964.  8vo.  8 1/2 x 5 3/4 inches.  48 pp.  An alphabetic list illustrated with black-and-white facsimiles, addendum and place index; text clean, un-marked.  Blind-embossed gray cloth, printed paper spine label, later thick plastic dust-jacket; binding square and tight.  Heritage.  Fine.
    $ 35
LIMITED EDITION of 900 totals copies, this is one of 100 copies bound in cloth and SIGNED by the author on the title page. 

The First Publication of the Book Club of California

7    COWAN, Robert Ernest (1876-1942).  A Bibliography of the History of California and the Pacific West, 1510-1906.  Together With the Text of John W. Dwinelle's Address on the Acquisition of California by the United States of America.  San Francisco, CA: The Book Club of California, 1914.  4to.  10 5/8 x 8 3/16 inches.  (xxxiv), 318, [10] pp.  Decorative initials printed in red, chronological index, title and subject index, errata; un-opened, text clean, un-marked, marginal water stains on the last 24 pages.  Bound in the original quarter tan linen, blue paper over boards, printed paper spine label, fore- and bottom edges deckled, top edge un-opened; binding square and tight, covers soiled, foxing to the edges.  Laid in is the original Prospectus which was printed on paper that matches that used in the book, and includes an announcement of the publication, facsimile of the title page, the first page of Dwinelle's Address (pages iii and iv), and the first page of the bibliography proper (pages 83 and 84), it has two blank pages to protect the prospectus and the printed leaves are stitched, and also includes an order form for the book (priced at $ 20.00 in 1914).  Very Good.
        $ 400  Price Reduced!
    FIRST EDITION, LIMITED to 250 copies, printed by Taylor, Nash and Taylor in San Francisco, this is copy number 55.  Extensive bibliography devoted entirely to California, covering 5,000 books.  Topics include, discovery, exploration, colonization and evangelization, government, unusual features, and more.  "This first publication of the Club was a highly ambitious project.  Except for Powell's Santa Fé Trail to California (No. 41), no other book so far issued by the Club has approached it in length and importance.  It is the first real attempt at a bibliography of California and despite a greatly expanded edition in three volumes (1933) this edition remains a standard work of reference, esteemed for the notes which in many instances were dropped from the enlarged version."  Magee.

    Robert Cowan was born in 1862 in Toronto Canada, and came to San Francisco in 1870.  He studied at the University of California from 1882-1884 and worked as a book seller in San Francisco from 1895-1920.  From 1919 to 1933 Cowan served as the librarian for William Andrews Clark, Jr., moving to Los Angeles in 1926.  Cowan worked for Mr. Clark until shortly before Mr. Clark's death in 1934.

    Reference: Magee, The Hundredth Book, No. 1.

With Robert Ernest Cowan's Signature

8    COWAN, Robert Ernest (1862-1942) and COWAN, Robert Granniss.  A Bibliography of the History of California, 1510-1930.  San Francisco: Printed by John Henry Nash, 1933.  Three volumes in One.  4to.  12 x 8 1/2 inches.  v, [1 blank], 337, [10 blank]; [ii], 339-704; [iv], 705-825, [1 blank] pp  Volume III includes title and subject index, chronological index, list of undated books, and list of pseudonyms; the text includes Francis P. Farquhar's light pencil marginalia.  Re-bound in full black buckram with gilt titled spine, printed paper spine and top cover labels mounted on blank leaf at the rear; binding square and tight.  PROVENANCE: Francis P. Farquhar's ownership signature on front free end-paper.  Very Good.
    $ 150
FIRST EDITION, LIMITED to 650 sets.  This work is the foundation of printed Californiana; it lists 4,700 titles.  Robert Ernest Cowan and Francis P. Farquhar worked on a number of projects together, including service on the Committee of Publications for the California Historical Society.  This copy contains an extract from Touring Topics dated January 1930 (pages 32-34, and page 54) with an article by Harold D. Carew about the life and work of Robert Ernest Cowan.  Within the article is a black-and-white photographic portrait of Cowan, and below that his signature with the date Jan. 13/30.  Lacks the 1964 supplemental volume. 

9    DAWSON, Glen.  West and Pacific: A Priced Catalogue of Books Relating to the History and Exploration of the Western Part of the United States, to Mexico, the Pacific Ocean and Related Subjects.  [Parts 1 through 7].  Los Angeles: Dawson's Book Shop, 1947.  Series: Catalogs 198, 202, 207, 208, 210, 212, 216.  8vo.  9 x 6 inches.  [xx], 191 pp.  Index, lists 1,890 numbered items, illustrated, including facsimiles of title pages, with important notes and comments about the individual items; occasional light pencil marginalia, pages toned.  Cloth, spine titled in yellow; rubbed, binding shaken, front inner hinge cracked, top edged bumped.  Working copy.  Good.      $ 25

10    DINNEAN, Lawrence.  Nineteenth Century Illustrators of California Sights & Scenes: A Selection of Works by Pioneer Graphic Artists With an Introduction and Notes by....  Berkeley: Friends of the Bancroft Library, 1986.  Series: Friends of the Bancroft Library Keepsakes, No. 34.  8vo.  9 1/4 x 6 1/4 inches.  Text printed in black and blue inks, black-and-white illustrations throughout, summaries of the lives and works of 17 early California illustrators, including Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff, Ludovik Andrevitch Choris, William Smyth, Edward Vischer, Thomas A. Ayres, Charles Christian Nahl, Chalres Conrad Kuchel, John Ross Browne, Harrison Eastman, Joseph Britton, Franch Marryat, George Holbrook Baker, William Keith, Edward Jump, Paul Frenzeny, Grafton Tyler Brown and Ernest Clifford Peixotto, chronologies of the illustrators, index; text clean, un-marked.  Printed wrappers; binding square and tight, light foxing to covers.  Ownership signature of Marjory Farquhar.  Very Good.      $ 10

11    EVANS, Henry Herman.  A Contribution Toward a Check List of Bibliographies and Reference Material Relating to the History of the States and Territories of the American West Including Alaska and Hawaii.  San Francisco: Peregrine Press, 1950.  LIMITED EDITION of 75 copies.  8vo.  9 1/2 x 6 1/4 inches.  Unpaginated.  152 entries with the author's pithy annotations, index, printed on special hand-made paper, printer's device on the colophon.  Presentation copy with the recipient's name inked on the colophon.  Original paste-paper wrappers; binding square and tight, light shelf wear.  Prospectus included.  Heritage.  Very Good.    $ 250

12    EVERSON, William (1912-1994). Archetype West: The Pacific Coast as a Literary Region.  Berkeley: Oyez, 1976.  8vo  9 1/2 x 6 1/4 inches.  xiv, 181 pp.  Index; text clean, un-marked.  Gilt-stamped black cloth, dust-jacket in archival mylar; binding square and tight.  Near Fine.      $ 10

13    FERLINGHETTI, Lawrence and PETERS, Nancy J.  Literary San Francisco: A Pictorial History from Its Beginnings to the Present Day.  San Francisco, etc.: City Lights Books and Harper & Row, (1980).  4to.  11 1/4 x 8 1/4 inches.  xi, 254 pp.  Illustrated throughout in black-and-white, bibliography, index; text clean, un-marked.  Green cloth, spine titled in gilt, dust-jacket in archival mylar; binding square and tight, edges foxed, jacket price-clipped.  Very Good. 
        $ 10

14    GREENWOOD, Robert, editor.  California Imprints, 1833-1862, A Bibliography.  Los Gatos, CA: The Talisman Press, 1961.  8vo.  9 1/4 x 6 1/4 inches.  524, [4] pp.  Color frontispiece, title page printed in red and black within a typographical border, 40 facsimile title pages in the bibliography, list of California Printers and Publishers 833-1862, index to imprints; text with small marginal tick marks.  Red cloth, printed paper spine label; binding square and tight, jacket missing except for front flap is laid in.  Prospectus included.  PROVENANCE: Ownership signature of Francis P. Farquhar, with his marginal tick marks.  Very Good.
        $ 35
FIRST EDITION, LIMITED to 750 copies.  The most comprehensive published work on California imprints from the beginning of printing in Mexican California through the year 1862. 

15    GUDDE, Erwin Gustav (1889-1969).  California Place Names: A Geographical Dictionary.  Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press 1949.  Tall 8vo.  10 3/4  x 7 3/4 inches.  xxviii, 431 pp.  Combined bibliography and glossary, key to pronunciation; text un-marked, pages lightly toned.  Black-stamped gray cloth, no dust-jacket; binding square and tight, corner bumped.  Good.
    $ 15
FIRST EDITION.  This dictionary presents the story of thousands of California geographical place names, giving their dates, circumstance of naming, origin and evolution, connections with US national history, and their relation to the California landscape. 

16    GUDDE, Erwin Gustav (1889-1969).  California Place Names: The Origin and Etymology of Current Geographical Names.  Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press 1965  Tall 8vo.  10 1/2 x 7 inches.  xxi, 383 pp.  Color frontispiece map, maps, combined bibliography and glossary, key to pronunciation; text un-marked.  Gilt-stamped brown cloth, dust-jacket; binding square and tight, jacket chipped and torn, top edge soiled, foxing to end-papers and title page.  Good.
    $ 20
Revised and Enlarged Edition with Maps.  This dictionary presents the story of thousands of California geographical place names, giving their dates, circumstance of naming, origin and evolution, connections with US national history, and their relation to the California landscape. 

17    GUDDE, Erwin Gustav (1889-1969).  California Place names: The Origin and Etymology of Current Geographical Names.  Berkeley, etc.: University of California Press, (1998).  8vo.  10 1/4 x 7 1/4 inches.  xxviii, 467 pp.  Frontispiece map, combined bibliography and glossary; text clean, un-marked.  Navy cloth, gilt spine, dust-jacket in archival mylar; binding square and tight.  Fine.
    $ 40
FOURTH EDITION, Revised and Enlarged by William Bright.  As its predecessors, this edition focuses on the origins of the names currently used for the cities, towns, settlements, mountains, and streams of California with engrossing accounts of the history of their usage.  This edition incorporates three new emphases: 1) Includes the latest research and includes new names since 1969; 2) attention has been given to local pronunciations; and 3) place names of American Indian origin receive special attention incorporating recent fieldwork carried out by linguists and anthropologists among the California tribes. 

18    HAGER, Anna Marie and HAGER, Everett Gordon, editors.  The Historical Society of Southern California Bibliography of all Published Works, 1884-1957.  Containing Concise Abstracts of All Articles and an Index by Author and Title.  Los Angeles: The Historical Society of Southern California, 1958.  Series: The Historical Society of Southern California, Special Book Publication, No. 2.  8vo.  10 1/2 x 6 3/4 inches.  xviii, 183 pp.  Frontispiece is a red seal of the Society, letterpress printing by Lorrin L. Morrison; text clean, un-marked.  Yellow-stamped blue cloth, no dust-jacket; binding square and tight, light shelf wear, some light foxing to end-papers.  Very good.      $ 20

19    PETERS, Harry Twyford (1881-1948).  California on Stone.  Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1935.  4to.  12 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches.  [vi], 227, [3] pp.  Printed on laid paper, 108 plates showing the early history of California in lithography (some color), bibliography, index; text clean, un-marked.  Handsomely bound in maize colored cloth, stamped in black on top cover and spine, spine with gilt rules, edges of boards beveled, dust-jacket; binding square and tight, jacket with tears along fold of front flap and rear hinge, tear at rear hinge repaired with tape on the inside of the jacket.  Slip case; slip case solid but with some rubbing and chipping at the corners.  Heritage.  Despite the wear to jacket and case, a near fine copy.
    $ 300
LIMITED FIRST EDITION of 501 copies, this is number 433.  Harry T. Peters was a collector of American lithographs and one of the leading authorities on the firm of Currier & Ives.  His California on Stone documents the contemporary record of the California Gold Rush in lithographic prints.  PROVENANCE: From the reference library of legendary Heritage Bookshop of Los Angeles. 

TERMS OF SALE: Subject to Prior Sale. Reciprocal trade discount available; please inquire. Returnable. Postage paid Media Mail within the US; International orders billed at cost. CA sales tax where applicable, unless valid resale certificate provided or on file. Checks, Money Order or PayPal preferred. Call or e-mail to reserve.

John Howell
310 367-9720