by Ron Allen
In the beginning ...
I was born and bred in the Knoxville briar patch, on Bernard street in north Knoxville, in a small house located just south and within sight of the old General Hospital. The schools I attended were Mynders and Brownlow grammar schools, Christenberry Junior High School, Rule High School, then finally the University of Tennessee For those who don't live around here, or are not old enough to remember those first four of places, none of those schools exist today. I sometimes wonder if perhaps some trail I left behind had anything to do with necessitating the closing of those institutions. In any case, today I am only one out of five in being able to verify the one-time existence of the institutions of learning I attended in Knoxville, that remaining school being the University of Tennessee where I graduated in 1956.
In the 1960's I inherited a two story house in North Knoxville. It was an old frame dwelling, located in an alley. It was rented at the time, but after a few months, when often unsuccessfully attempting to collect rent from what was supposed to be a single family - - although I soon had obvious reasons to suspect that at least four families were living there - - I decided to eliminate the time-consuming necessity of having to drive by that house to collect rent from that "family", particularly since they seldom had the money available for payment of the ridiculously low monthly rent. I politely gave the tenants a ninety day notice to vacate the premises. They weren't particularly happy, but eventually they left.
Being something of a packrat, by that time I figured I could use the house for storage purposes. That was my plan, but I should have acted immediately, because soon after the house was vacant it became more of a task to accomplish my goal, and it soon became necessary to put new siding on the house, including covering up all the windows and doors, except for the main entrance, where I installed a metal door with a deadbolt lock. All of those changes were necessary because the house almost immediately become a hangout for thieves, crooks, druggies, and other uninvited persons. I never actually caught them there, since they seemed to be a nocturnal bunch, but the evidence was obvious. Once I found a stash of what obviously was stolen property hidden in the basement, which I promptly turned over to the police. In addition to breaking in, the criminals had ruined several windows on the second floor of the house, using glass cutting tools to cut circles of glass from the windows, obviously practicing their trade of breaking into people's homes and/or businesses.
A couple of years later, when that couple next door was vacating the old Allen house (originally my great grandfather's home) I drove up next to the old house and the woman who had been living there offered to give me few things that had been in that dwelling for many years - certainly long before she had ever set foot in the place. I had always heard that there were still many of the original Allen family furnishings in the place, but I had never even seen any of it. The woman herself had originally married the man who once had been the husband of my grandfather's only sister, long deceased, so that's how she came to be living in that house. By then that first husband had passed on and she was remarried. Anyway, she invited me in, and there were indeed many fine old pieces of ornate furniture, glassware, silverware, and the like, obviously being items that had originally been the property of the Allen family. Unfortunately, what she had for me was just a couple of cardboard boxes, containing old photographs, papers, and a few old books. I was glad to get the photos, many being portraits of my grandparents, great grandparents, and other family members that I have never seen previously. Included in the boxes were a few books with the signatures of my grandparents. I kept those books. One of the books was a history of a Tennessee Civil War regiment, William Worsham's History of the Old Nineteenth Regiment. It had no signature or identification marking to indicate that it had been in the family, and it was the only book I thought might have some value, although that was merely guesswork. Anyway, I decided to look in the telephone book to see if there were any old book dealers in town. Only one dealer was listed. His name was F. M. Hill, and he lived down in the Concord area, west of town. I called him to determine if the book had any value. He was obviously familiar with the book, and offered to pay thirty dollars for it. Today's youngster generation probably can't realize what that amount of money meant for an old book in 1962, but to me it was a tidy sum. The next evening I drove down to Hill's home (from which he operated his old book business) and sold that book to him. While I was there, I was fascinated with the many shelves of old books in his home. Whether it was at that exact moment, or a few days or weeks later, I am unsure, but my appetite for old books was already whetted. Maynard Hill, the book dealer who for many years has now been a close friend as well as a friendly competitor and adviser in the old book business, soon moved to Kingsport. For my now long-time predicament, I have sometimes laughingly reminded Maynard that he was the cause of this malady, although I also always let him know that nonetheless I always appreciated the fact that he initiated me into the fascinating world of old books.
In the catalogs I issued from 1960 to 2004, I've offered for sale more than thirty-five thousand books. Adding to that number the other books, pamphlets, sheet music, and related types of materials that I've sold directly to collectors and dealers, or donated to libraries, I've owned at least sixty thousand books. That figure includes only items that were collectible, scarce, or rare, and does not include the many thousands of other books that I also acquired over the years - usually in large collections I purchased, when it was sometimes necessary that I purchase sizeable groups of books that included items that were of little interest and likewise generally of no value - in order to acquire the books I did want. My guess is that the total number of books I've owned over the years has been at least seventy-five thousand or more. Considering the sheer number of books I've owned, particularly including many scarce and collectible items, it has been perhaps no small accomplishment for a boy from North Knoxville who knew absolutely nothing about old and rare books before he was twenty-six years old, and who literally bought and sold books on a shoestring for many years. It has sometimes been a considerable undertaking, in view of the fact that I had a family and a full time job. One would have expected that many of the rare books I've sold would have appeared in the catalogs of well-known and established book dealers. Those dealers generally have wide exposure, deserved reputations, and the finances necessary to extensively advertise and acquire rare books, at book auctions and elsewhere. But the fact that a remarkable number of the books I've sold seemingly have appeared only in my own catalogs and nowhere else still surprises me today, as I look over the catalogs of the items I've bought and sold over the years. Which is an indication either that anybody else could have done the same thing, or that I have been very lucky. In any case, to me it's been one of the most interesting, enlightening and educational activities to be found anywhere.
This is the story of some of my experiences during the years since the fateful day in 1962, when I sold that copy of William Worsham's History of the Old Nineteenth Regiment - - and caught the book bug.
1960 - 1961
I was already spending some spare time each week trying to find whatever I could about the values of old books, and searching for them wherever they could be found. Mostly I looked in old junk stores and antique shops. I often gave the operators of those places my name and telephone number, and sometimes they would give me a call when some old books came their way, since there were not that many people looking for such things in this town.
Back then, there were few antique shops, and virtually none of the "antique malls" that dot the landscape throughout the entire country were in existence then. Nor, for that matter, were there very many of antique shows and sales that commonly are held weekly or monthly these days. Occasionally an auction would be held in the area, but it was seldom that there were any significant books available at such affairs. Junk shop dealers would sometimes acquire old books from people who were cleaning out an old house, or disposing of an estate, and those places were to be my primary source of acquiring old books for the next several years.
One older gentleman I saw rather frequently was a retired University of Tennessee professor. He showed up at estate sales with regularity, and I soon realized that I needed to arrive at those sales early, even before the scheduled opening time of those sales, else he would already be there and often had scooped up any gems that were available. One older lady who was involved in such sales on a fairly regular basis had been quite friendly towards me, and often called me to advise me of upcoming estate sales she was handling. One time she was handling an estate sale in the old west Knoxville section near the university and called to advise me that there were lots of books in the house. I arrived on the first day of the sale an hour before the designated opening time, and sure enough the old U.T. Prof showed up a few minutes later. We entered the house at the same time at the appointed time and sure enough there were quite a number of significant books scattered around the house. I quickly began searching and soon had a dozen or so books firmly in my hands. I took them to the table where the lady was taking payment and asked her the prices. As was not unusual, she asked that I make her an offer for each item, which I did. The offers were acceptable. I then asked her to hold them for me in a stack next to the table and went back to search for additional books. When I was ready to leave, armed with a few additional books I had found, the professor was standing at her table, armed with two or three books. Usually he managed to purchase whatever books he acquired at very cheap prices. He looked at the books I had located the second time around and mentioned that he was interested in one of the books I had found the second time around. Knowing of his reputation of being a cheapskate, she interrupted and inquired "Well, how much will you give for that book, Mr. Allen". That particular volume was a scarce Tennessee-related book, worth probably fifty dollars at the time, so I told her I would give her twenty dollars for it. The old man almost choked, saying "well, if you're going to pay that kind of money for the book, you can just have it". The lady just gave me a knowing smile, obviously realizing that otherwise he would have told her that the book was of no importance and probably would have offered her a dollar for it. In later months the old gentleman become more friendly towards me and once invited me to his home to look over his collection of books and manuscripts. I accepted that invitation and I was surprised to discover that he had lots of rare books and manuscripts in his collection, particularly early materials relating to Tennessee. I attempted to buy a few items from his but was never successful in that endeavor. I never knew what happened to his collection following his death a few years later, and certainly I always wondered whatever happened to one particular volume he showed me that day. It was the biology textbook that was originally owned by Rhea County High School science teacher John Scopes, who had created great controversy when teaching the evolution theory in Dayton, Tennessee, resulting in the much publicized trial in that city. The book had Scope's signature at the inner front cover, and it also contained the signatures of both Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryant, the opposing lawyers in the famous 1925 "Monkey Trial". I assumed that the old man had probably picked up the book for a song somewhere. I wondered then, and still today, how he got his hands on the book, how much that textbook might be worth (then and now), and whatever happened to it.
I bought a moderate number of old books during the two years in 1960 and 1961. The idea of selling old books had already become a reality, although in those years I was only selling occasionally, to a couple of east Tennessee book dealers, a couple of libraries, and to one local collector. But I was hooked on the idea, and it was obviously going to be the only way I could at least temporarily own and read some of these interesting old books I had become attracted to. It was also to become my practice during the ensuing years that I was never going to be in a position financially whereby I could afford to be a collector of rare and or expensive books. I've continued that practice to this day, the only exception being the fact that when I have acquired a book that obviously was one that would enhance my reference sources, I have usually kept such books for my personal library, even when the cost of such items was sometimes more than I could realistically afford to invest at the time. But one regret is the fact that for many years I sold old books, pamphlets, and related pieces of printed and written memorabilia that related to Knoxville, rather than keeping many of those items. During the last fifteen years or so, I reversed that practice and diligently kept any such items, in addition to actually again acquiring copies of a number of such books that I let get away from me in previous times. Even so, I wish I had kept many of those Knoxville books, pamphlets and ephemera that were difficult to find, many being unique items that I'm not likely to find again.
1962
I issued my first book catalog in 1962. I didn't even number the catalog, merely calling it a "Book Catalog". Later, I discovered that it was not unusual that some neophyte dealers actually numbered their initial catalog with number higher than Number One, lest those who received the list would immediately realize their inexperience. Looking back today at the books I offered for sale in that first catalog, based on the dearth of decent materials listed there, ( plus the fact the I sold considerably less than somewhat in that initial endeavor), the catalog number was of little consequence. I issued the catalog on a used mimeograph machine I had purchased for twenty-five dollars in one of the aforementioned junk shops. Several of my subsequent catalogs that initial effort were likewise issued on that old machine. Certainly, mine was a one-man operations, as I personally typed the individual templates, hand printed the pages on that machine, stapled them together, addressed them with handwritten addresses, and took them to the post office for mailing.
As to Catalog One, as already mentioned, there were hardly any significant books offered in that catalog. The catalog listed one hundred and twenty-five books. In those days, five bucks was a handsome price for a book, my asking price for the most expensive items in that catalog was a whopping fifteen dollars, and many of the books were priced at one or two dollars each. Of course, at that time I still was just beginning to learn something about the values old books, including the types of materials that were most desirable among collectors and librarians at the time. There were relatively few reliable price references other than the American Book Prices Current auction records available at the library at the time, but of course that reference represented only significant or rare books and manuscripts. The publication of the Bookman's Price Index, which provided the asking prices of books that were listed in the catalogs of old book dealers, did not begin until 1964. So I was really flying by the seat of my pants in the early years.
From that first catalog I sold a very nice copy of a University of Notre Dame yearbook, theDome. It was a significant issue of that particular annual, dedicated to the now-famous football hero George Gipp, who died before graduation during that year. I got five bucks for that one. ( I recently noticed that a dealer was offering a copy of that same yearbook, priced at $350.00.) In that same catalog, I listed a Bret Harte first edition for five dollars, the 1885 Knoxville city directory for the same price ; the History of the Negro Race in America, printed in 1885, for $3.50 ; the Constitution and Bylaws of the Silver Moon Lodge Number 1803, printed in Knoxville in 1887 (which at that time I did not know was an African American lodge) for three dollars ; a first edition Charles Egbert Craddock's (i.e., Mary N. Murfree's) In the Tennessee Mountains, for $4.00 ; and a work by a Knoxville black educator named J. H. Daves, titled A Social Study of the Colored Population of Knoxville, printed in 1926, for $ 4.00. Clever stuff, huh ? Oh well, I learned a bit as the years went by.
1963
My sister was then living in St, Louis in 1963, and when we visited her that summer I was able to find several book shops in that city and purchase some decent items for my next catalog. My second book catalog was issued in 1963. Despite the fact that my first catalog the previous year had hardly been a spectacular success, I had continued to acquire whatever old books I could find that I thought might possibly be interested to book collectors or dealers, and I now had enough items to issue another catalog. Catalog Two listed three hundred books, more than twice the number offered in my first catalog the previous year. The overall quality was certainly improved compared with the offerings in my first catalog. Some of the items I sold from that catalog were
the following :
William Taylor's CALIFORNIA LIFE ILLUSTRATED, 1861
Watson, Henry. SIX NIGHTS IN A BLOCK HOUSE. 1851
Estvan, Bela. WAR PICTURES FROM THE SOUTH. 1863
LIFE OF PAULINE CUSHMAN, UNION CIVIL SPY AND SCOUT. 1865
Alfriend, Frank. LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 1868
Heard, Isaac. HISTORY OF THE SIOUX WAR. 1863
HISTORY OF NEGRO SOLDIERS IN THE SPANISH AMERICAN WAR. 1899
Hough, Emerson. THE STORY OF THE OUTLAW. 1907
Stephen Vincent Benet's JOHN BROWN'S BODY, first edition
While my catalogs were yet to include any rare books, there were a number of scarce books offered in Catalog Two. I had purchased a number of the Civil War and western books from a many who had moved to Knoxville from Texas and set up a shop in his home, located on Clinton Highway, near the Anderson County line. His name was Roi Yeatts. He was an interesting old character whose occupation had been a sign painter, and he still was plying that trade here in Knoxville, in addition to operating the book shop. He did have some nice books on his shelves, although he always thought that those he had were considerably scarcer than in fact they were, and sometimes had a tendency to throw out the word "rare" when referring to a book that was at best only mildly scarce. Nonetheless, I did manage to purchase a number of decent books from him. Roi had acquired most of his books when living in Texas, although I don't recall in what city. One day he mentioned that he had done some sign painting for a well known tavern or bar in some Texas city, where the proprietor had failed to pay him for the work he had done. He said that the place closed, and he took in payment a large painting that had hung in the place for many years. He went into the back of his shop and hauled out this huge canvas, then took it out onto the front porch and unrolled the thing. It was probably seven or eight feet high, and at least twenty feet long. The painting depicted the history of the state of Texas, painted by a man named (I think) Jules Guerin. He offered the painting to me for five hundred dollars, but knowing nothing about it - and not having five hundred dollars to spend on a hunch - I declined his offer. He rolled up the painting and returned it to the back room, saying that he was frankly glad that I did not buy it, since he thought it was rare. Knowing of his tendency to use that term with regularity, I took that statement with a grain of salt. probably would sell it some day. He died few years afterwards. Many years later, in the fall of 1990, I received a phone call from his widow, who then was living in north Knoxville. Roi also had owned scads of old prints and maps and she wanted to know if I was interested in buying any of them. At that time, I had just noticed in a catalog recently issued by a Texas rare book dealer the mention of a long-lost painting that had long hung in a Texas establishment that obviously referred to the same large panorama painting that Roi Yeatts had showed me many years earlier. That book dealer claimed that the painting was a classic and would fetch a tidy sum, should it ever surface. I made a bee line to Mrs. Yeatts house that night. I spent a couple of hundred dollars buying a few prints and maps, but I was disappointed to hear that she had sold the painting just a couple of months earlier, to a book collecting preacher who had once lived in Knoxville but then was living in upper east Tennessee. I had often dealt with that same preacher over the years, so I promptly contacted him. Unfortunately, he had already disposed of the painting. That was the end of that, but of course it was neither the first nor the last time that a "jewel" has managed to slip through my fingers.
1964
Again in 1964, I issued only one catalog. The reason was simple. I was still unable to acquire (translate - afford) that many books at the time, certainly enough to realistically issue more than a single catalog that year.
Catalog Three offered 232 books. The format continued to be an 8 x 11 catalog of pages printed via the mimeograph process, with the pages stapled at the spine. I still had not managed to come across anything spectacular. Some of the better items that were among the books offered in that 1964 catalog were the following :
Frost, John. DARING AND HEROIC DEEDS OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 1851.
Pollard, Edward. THE LOST CAUSE. 1867.
An original Civil War manuscript muster roll, from Fort Pickering, Tennessee, August, 1863.
Parker, N. Howe. IOWA AS IT IS IN 1855.
Tomlinson, William. KANSAS IN 1858.
A bound volume of American sheet music, all published in the 1850's, including six Stephen Collins Foster songs.
THE PROGRESS OF A RACE. 1920. Including Who's Who in the Negro Race".
Gillett, J. B. SIX YEARS WITH THE TEXAS RANGERS. 1925.
LIBERAL TICKET. FOR PRESIDENT, HORACE GREELEY. Political handbill, 3 x 6 1/2. An undated Tennessee handbill, the candidates including Andrew Johnson for Congress.
Also offered (and sold) in Catalog Three were two books by African American writer from west Tennessee, Sutton Griggs : POINTING THE WAY, 1908, and WISDOM'S CALL, 1910. Both of those books were offered at inexpensive prices and both were sold, although I did not receive any additional orders for the books from any libraries or collectors. Today, these and other books by Griggs are bringing prices ranging from several hundred to several thousand dollars each. I'm still having difficulty understanding why.
1965
I've lost most of my records from 1965, including any copies of my Catalog Number Five. With my faulty memory today, I can recall virtually nothing concerning my book activities that year. The only records I've found indicate that the catalog contained one hundred and eighty-nine books, and that the following books were among those that were sold from that catalog :
Drake, James Vaulx. THE LIFE OF GENERAL ROBERT HATTON. Nashville 1867
Ellis, Daniel. THRILLING ADVENTURES OF DANIEL ELLIS, THE GREAT UNION GUIDE OF EAST TENNESSEE. New York. 1867.
Ross, James. LIFE AND TIMES OF ELDER REUBEN ROSS. Philadelphia. 1882
London, Jack. THE CALL OF THE WILD. New York. 1903. First edition.
1966
1966 was still some years away from the time when virtually everybody in town seemed to conducting "house", "garage", or "attic" sales. Nor were any of today's Flea Markets in existence. The junk shops, estate sales and a handful of local antique shops were the only places around here to find old books. That year, our family visited my sister, who was then living in upper New York state, in the suburbs to Syracuse. That area proved to be a fertile section for buying old books. Within fifty or sixty miles of that city there were scads of dealers who had large and interesting stocks of old books, often being individuals who operated the business from their homes (or, quite often, barns). Also, a common practice in that area were sales that were held by local dealers, mostly women, who specialized in what they called "tag sales", selling the contents of the homes of persons who either were moving from an old home, or the contents of such homes that were being disposed of by the remaining families of deceased persons who had inherited such properties. Their procedure was to price all of the merchandise in advance, provide those in attendance with a number (generally based on the order of their appearance a the sale), and to permit a limited number of persons into the premises to look and buy, based on their assigned number, the earliest numbers obviously being the ones who got the first crack. I attended several of those sales, and normally managed to buy at least a few interesting old books - usually at very reasonable prices.
A few weeks after I returned to Knoxville from that trip, I ran into a lady who operated an antique shop here. I mentioned to her those 'Tag Sales' I had encountered in New York state, and the fact that they were quite common in that part of the country. I passed on that information, assuming that she may want to take advantage of such affairs, should she happen to travel in that direction looking for antiques. Instead/ I was surprised to discover that within a year or so of that conversation that she was not suddenly involved in that identical activity here in Knoxville, and she also had the gall to claim not only that she had dreamed up the words "tag sale" for such estate sales, but also said that she had managed to copyright that term for her exclusive use. Even so, others around town soon joined that bandwagon and held similar sales here, generally ignoring her claim that others were prohibited from having similar sales, although they usually referred to such sales as "estate sales". It turned out to be a boon for my book business, creating opportunities to find and acquire some nice old books from sales that had seldom taken place around here previously. Naturally, I didn't care less whether they were called tag sales or estate sales or whatever, but there is little question that after I returned from that trip to New York state such sales occurred in Knoxville much more frequently for several years afterwards
Today I have no copies of Catalog Six. However, I do however have written notations that indicate that the catalog listed two hundred and ninety-eight books, and my old records show that the following books were among those sold from that catalog :
Brackett, Albert. HISTORY OF THE U.S. CAVALRY. 1865.
Hamilton, William. RECOLLECTIONS OF A CAVALRYMAN. 1915.
Custer, Elizabeth. TENTING ON THE PLAINS. 1889.
Harris, Joel Chandler. MINGO. 1884. First edition.
Longstreet, August B. GEORGIA SCENES AND INCIDENTS. 1840.
Revere, Joseph. KEEL AND SADDLE. 1872.
SKETCHES OF NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND. 1842.
Stephens, John. INCIDENTS OF TRAVELS IN YUCATAN. 1843. 2 vols. 1st ed.
1967
I decided to open an old book store in January, 1967. I rented ground floor space in the old L & N Hotel building, located on Western Avenue across the street from the old L & N Railway depot building. With my usual clever and innovative ideas, I called the place the "Old Book Shop". Unfortunately, The door to the original old stairway at the center of the building led up from the sidewalk to upstairs rooms that theoretically were occupied by tenants who rented those rooms on a weekly or monthly basis. My shop adjoined that stairway. While I chose never to wander up in those stairs, I suspected - - particularly after having often seen women ascending those same stairs on a regular basis early during the day, and then witnessing the regular comings and goings of different men going up and down up that same stairway - - that something more than merely a section of run-down old rooms for rent was perhaps going up on the second floor of the building.
I have interesting, and sometimes humorous, memories of that short-lived business. Since I was employed at a full-time job elsewhere, it was necessary - other than on Saturdays - that I find someone to operate the place. Having only moderate funding to employ such persons, I managed to convince a couple of relatives to man the place during the two or three weekdays the store was open, at a salaries that were considerably less than somewhat.
My uncle Paul handled the bulk of the weekday operation. Certainly he was not involved in any other meaningful activity, having long since lost his job with the railroad due to alcoholism, although at that time he would manage to go a week or so in a sober state, so during the few months the place was open he was relatively dependable. If he went on a one or two day bender, the place simply didn't open on those days. Otherwise, my only obligation was to pick him up on those morning the store was opened (and he was sober), and then drive him home on my way from work in the afternoon. Paul didn't know much about old or rare books, but I figured since more than ninety-nine percent or more of the local population was in the same boat, it mattered little. But Paul had his own ways, and he often complained about the fact that among the few people who actually came into the store on a regular basis was a particular individual, who worked at TVA, who came in the place virtually every day around lunchtime, carefully looking over the books and often apparently reading some rather extensively. Of course, that man never bought a book. Paul endured that routine as long as he could, then one evening as I was driving him home he admitted that he had finally reached his limit, telling "that SOB" that day he was in a book store, NOT a library, and if he didn't intend ever to buy anything (which obviously seemed to be the case) that Paul would be glad to point him in the direction of the Lawson McGhee Library, which was located a few blocks away, up on Market Street. Since I was not selling enough in the bookstore to even come close to paying the monthly rent, I was merely amused by his action, and certainly I offered no objection or criticism to his action. Paul later mentioned that the man never visited the book store again. Neither of us were overly concerned about that situation. The truth of the matter was, although I doubted that the employees of TVA realized it, not that long after they had been located along the north side, in those new buildings between Wall and Summit Hill, a goodly percentage of other downtown workers generally considered them to be a group that was overly demanding, rude, and generally a bunch of cheapskates. The rumor once was that TVA must have had at least a dozen employees up there who were doing nothing but attempting to find ways to save their employees a nickel anywhere they could in the downtown area. Apparently, at one time, one or more of their appointed "representatives" visited many downtown stores, demanding that TVA employees be given a discount for anything they purchased, else they would boycott any businesses that did not agree to such discounts. One Market Square merchant told me that he had once been approached by some TVA employees and given that ultimatum. I was pleased to hear him report that he had told them they could put their demand for a discount your know where.
My other sometime "employee" for several weeks was my father. The unusual aspect of that circumstance was the fact that my parents were divorced before I was born, and I was raised by a stepfather. My father likewise remarried, and generally I saw him briefly at Christmas time and possibly once or twice a year, usually seemingly by accident. By 1967 I was thirty-three years old, and I actually had developed an occasional but still infrequent relationship with my father. Anyway, I saw or spoke with him soon after I had opened the book shop and he expressed interest in the place. He was a rather serious collector of old and rare coins, and he offered not only to put some of them in the shop as a sideline ( which he thought might be helpful in terms of bringing folks into the place, in addition to making some money for himself and a commission for me for those sales) and even offered to work at the shop a couple of days each week. I naturally readily agreed. I had found an old glass front wooden display case, and we used it to display the coins. That little addition to the bookshop venture lasted about two or three weeks, ending promptly when I went in one Saturday morning to discover that thieves had broken into the place and stolen all of the coins from the display case. Naturally, they didn't touch any of the books, even those that had decent monetary value, but the coin venture was no more.
I'll finish the stories about the ill-fated Old Book Shop by relating one final humorous anecdote. A few weeks after the store had been in operation, an antique / junk dealer opened a shop in the section of the building space that adjoined my book shop in the L & N Hotel building. He sold furniture, junk, watches, an occasional antique, and all sorts of odds and ends. He was a very interesting character, and sometimes managed to tell some funny stories and jokes (the jokes not uncommonly being of the off-color variety). Anyway, one day the main sewer line broke on Western Avenue, just in front of the L & N Hotel building. It was late on a weekday afternoon, and I knew nothing about it until I arrived around 5:30 to pick up Paul. The breakage was apparently not unlike an explosion, and sewer water had gushed high into the air, and onto and inside the old building. While I lost a little of my stock to the water damage, his next-door shop was more severely hit, being apparently directly in the path of the rushing waters. He normally was only at the shop occasionally during the day, since usually his mother ran the place for him, but that afternoon he happened to be there when the sewer line went pocket-a-boom. His mother was a large and robust woman, moved at a slow gate, and was hardly capable of running or moving at anything other than at a snail's pace. When I got there that afternoon, the owner was still in a panic, and his story of the affair was - while somewhat pathetic, also hilarious, and I could hardly keep from breaking out in laughter as he related his traumatic experience with such gems as "Ronnie, the water was damned near up to our knees in here, and you know Mama can't move very fast, and I had a hellu'va time just trying to get her out the door, and we were both trying to get to out of here real fast, because that water was full of turds floating all over the store, and I was cussin' like a sailor, and we're both slidin' all over the place ..."
I issued my eighth catalog Number Eight in 1967. I labeled it the "Old Book Shop - Americana Catalog.". In that catalog I offered 135 books for sale. The most significant book in that catalog was Lewis M. Edgar's "EDGAR'S CHURCH HISTORY. HISTORY OF THE PRIMITIVE BAPTISTS IN THE WESTERN DISTRICTS OF KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE ..THROUGH SEPT. 25, 1880", printed in Paris, Tennessee in 1881. I sold it for twenty dollars, but it was much rarer than I realized at that time, and I've only owned one other copy of the book since then. Other interesting items sold in that catalog included : a pamphlet published in Atlanta in 1923, outlining the principles of the WOMEN OF THE KU KLUX KLAN ; a scarce early twentieth century book published in Missouri, concerning the western outlaws, the Younger brothers ; John Dixon Long's PICTURES OF SLAVERY, printed in 1859 ; an inscribed first edition of George Manypenny's OUR INDIAN WARDS, 1889 ; and a number of interesting scarce Civil War books and books concerning the American West.
The catalog sales were decent, but what profit I made from those sales went into the expenses at the Western Avenue shop. Unfortunately, in Knoxville, such an endeavor was essentially a waste of money, time and energy, and turned out to be a non-profit venture. By June, 1967 it became necessary to close the store. My total overall expenses at the store had been just under $800.00, while the total sales were $496.00. First, I selected the books I wanted to keep, boxed them and took them home. I then picked out several boxes of books (about three hundred books) that I though would be appropriate for a library and donated them to my church library. What remained was the shelving, about two thousand books, two glass display cases, and the oil stove that I had purchased new when the store opened in January. I sold everything left to Emmert Cogdill at theWestern Avenue Trading Post up the street, for a grand total of about a hundred dollars. Later, that old hotel building was demolished, and both that building site and the L & N Railway depot building across the street were portions of the location of the 1982 Knoxville World's Fair.
I had joined Holston Hills Country Club in 1967, primarily to play golf, since at the time I considered it to be the best golf course in the Knoxville area. I was a member for a number of years, but I dropped the membership when our youngsters got out of high school, also because the club was located all the way on the other side of town from where we lived and I was then the only one in the family making use of the facility. When I was a member there I sometimes played golf with Lowell Blanchard, the radio announcer at station WNOX, who was instrumental in promoting the early careers of several well known country music personalities on their way to later success, when they appeared on the station's Mid Day Merry Go Round and Tennessee Barn Dance programs. I always enjoyed playing golf with Lowell because he usually told a joke on every hole, and he virtually never repeated them. Archie Campbell also belonged to Holston, and I got the change to play with him a couple of times. He likewise was always full of jokes, and if he and Lowell ever played together I don't suppose anybody had any time for golf for listening to all the jokes. For years Archie played a barber and referred to his barber 'Bob Cox' on the old Hee Haw television program. I always wondered how many (or few) people realized that was in fact his way of slyly referring to one of his old jokes, where a man sticks his head in a barber shop door and inquires "Bob Cox here ?" and receives the reply, "No, just haircuts and shaves".
1968
1968 started out as a good year for me in the old book business, and overall it turned out to be my most profitable in the business since I had started. Even so, the total profit that year was no great shakes, and in the final analysis I probably spent as much as I made by spending those profits to acquire additional books for stock.
In February, a friend of mine who worked at a printing establishment mentioned to me that one of his friendly competitors had some old books that he wanted to sell. He gave me the name and telephone number and I called the man. He operated a printing shop in the basement at his home, which was located in north Knoxville. He said that he had found the books in the house when he had moved there several years earlier. He only had to mention one title - a Tennessee Civil War regimental history - and I arranged to see him that Saturday morning. When I arrived he brought out a decent sized cardboard box that contained the books. As I looked at the first couple of books, I tried to make sure I didn't get carried away and display my enthusiasm too much when I realized what was the books were. There were four unused copies of the first edition of William Worsham's The Old Nineteenth Tennessee Regiment, printed in Knoxville in 1902. Also in the box were copies of the original editions of William R. Carter's 1896 History of the First Regiment of Tennessee Cavalry, and History of the Third Regiment Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry, by Samuel Scott and Samuel Angel, 1903, both copies being presentation copies to Worsham, signed by the authors. A few other Tennessee-related books were also in the box, including a couple that were already fairly scarce books at the time. Finally, in the bottom of the box was a bound book, 10 inches by 12 inches. It was Worsham's original manuscript, entirely handwritten in ink, of his aforementioned regimental narrative. The manuscript not only included several original hand-drawn color maps by Worsham - being maps that did not appear in the published book - but, as I was later to discover, it included additional information that was not in the book itself. Apparently, this man was living what once had been either the residence of Worsham himself, or one of his descendants. I was able to purchase all of the books, the cost just about wiping out my meager checking account at the time, but eventually I turned a handsome profit on the transaction. Later, I thought that it was very surprising that nobody purchased the manuscript when I first offered it in a catalog, although it was listed at I thought was a very reasonable price of $250.00. A library did buy the manuscript when I again listed it my the next catalog. Today, I think the conservative value of that manuscript would be at least five thousand dollars today, probably more.
In 1968, for the first time since I had started in the business, I issued two catalogs, Catalogs Ten and Eleven. I had finally managed to find enough material to be in a position to offer only books related to Tennessee in both of those catalogs. I had been previously been specializing to some degree in Tennessee books. However, I found it difficult to locate that many quality old Tennessee books, and 1968 was the first time I had such a quantity of decent Tennessee materials. I continued that specialization over the years, although I soon determined that such books were not to be found in sufficient numbers to limit my dealings only to those materials, so over the years I continued to buy and sell a wide variety of other types of scarce and of books. .
Some of the books listed in Catalog Ten included :
Allison, John. DROPPED STITCHES IN TENNESSEE HISTORY. Nashville 1897.
Allen, V.C. RHEA AND MEIGS COUNTY IN THE CONFEDERATE WAR. 1908.
Brownlow, William G. HELPS TO THE STUDY OF PRESBYTERIANISM. Knoxville 1834. This was the first of several copies of this scarce book I have owned.
Burnett, J. J. SKETCHES OF TENNESSEE PIONEER BAPTIST PREACHERS. Nashville 1919, Volume One (no additional volumes were issued) .
DESCRIPTIVE REVIEW OF INDUSTRIES AND UPPER EAST TENNESSEE. Knoxville 1885 Printed wrappers, 68 pages, map, illustrations.
Goodman, W. M. (Ed) SOUVENIR HISTORY OF KNOXVILLE, THE MARBLE CITY AND GREAT SOUTHERN JOBBING MARKET. Knoxville. 1907. Catalog 10.
MAP OF HARRIMAN, TENNESSEE ROANE COUNTY, Published 1892 by D.A. Photo-Lith. Company, Philadelphia.
Humes, Thomas W. THE LOYAL MOUNTAINEERS OF TENNESSEE. Knoxville 1888
Price, R.N. THE HISTORY OF METHODISM, FROM ITS ORIGIN TO THE PRESENT TIME. Nashville. Five volumes, published over an eleven year period from 1903 to 1914.
TRIAL OF ANDREW JOHNSON, PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., BEFORE THE SENATE, ON IMPEACHMENT ... Washington. 1868. Three volumes.
Heiskell, S.G. ANDREW JACKSON AND EARLY TENNESSEE HISTORY. Nashville. 1920-1921. Three volumes.
Norton, N. W. THE COTTON MAN'S HANDBOOK. Memphis 1899 Leather bound, 3" x 6".
Maxwell, Henry V. CHILHOWEE. A LEGEND OF THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS. Knoxville 1897
Besides listing my first copy of William G. Brownlow's 1834 HELPS in Catalog Ten, I also offered my first copies of three other very scarce Tennessee books. One was a nice copy of William Frierson Fulton's FAMILY RECORD AND WAR REMINISCENCES. Knoxville (1925), signed by the author. The book includes Fulton family genealogy, and a list of the members of the North Sumter Rifles, Co. A., Fifth Alabama Battalion. Over the years I have sold more than a dozen copies of that book. Fulton's book is obviously rather scarce, but referring to the book as a Civil War regimental history - as some dealers tend to do these days - seems to be a stretch, and even today I still doubt that the book is worth what some dealers were asking for this volume more than fifteen years ago.
Another book is Catalog Ten was THE SAVAGE, written by John Robinson and published in Knoxville in 1833 under the pseudonym "Piomingo". That book is quite rare, and I've only owned one other copy in all my years in dealing in old books.
The third rarity included in Catalog Ten is much rarer than the above mentioned Fulton book or, for that matter, anything else that was included in that catalog. It was the original edition of Lucius Merriam's HIGHER EDUCATION IN TENNESSEE, printed in Washington. 1893. That copy had been originally owned by Edward Sanford, from the University of Tennessee. His manuscript notations in the book detailed the differences between this rare edition and the later edition. Only forty-one copies of the original were distributed before it was recalled, all copies were destroyed, and it was re-issued in a revised edition. That change was the result of some of the author's preliminary comments that were considered by some to be inflammatory. That was the only copy of the rare original edition of Merriam's book I've ever had, and I suspect it was the last.
One other interesting item in Catalog Ten was William S. Webb's William AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE NORRIS BASIN IN EASTERN TENNESSEE, a government publication printed in Washington in 1938. My stepfather got a job working in the area back in the 1930's, when not only archaeological sites but many old residential areas were uprooted to make way for TVA. He was doing manual labor, working with those who were relocating cemeteries. He told me an eerie story of being with a group who dug up the coffin of
a young girl, when the lid suddenly popped off of the casket while it was being handled. He said the girl was beautiful, looking as if she had only recently been buried, but within a few seconds after coming into contact with the air the corpse literally disintegrated in a puff of dust, leaving only the skeleton remaining.
Books listed in Catalog Eleven in 1968 included the following :
Barr, Thomas C. CAVES OF TENNESSEE. Nashville 1961. It was not until a few years later that I discovered that this publication by the State of Tennessee was very scarce, out of print, eagerly sought by spelunkers, and worth more than the moderate price I had sold it for in the catalog. I did receive several orders for that book, which is often a good sign that you've made a mistake. .
Bond, Octavia Z. THE FAMILY CHRONICLE AND KINSHIP BOOK OF MARTIN, CARTER, CROSS, GORDON AND OTHER RELATED AMERICAN LINEAGE. Nashville 1928 In the late 1960's, Charles Elder, Nashville bookseller, had a remainder stock of this book in his store, Priced at $ 10.00 each. When in Nashville I bought a few copies, thinking that his price was a bit low. I sold those copies for $25.00 each in my Catalog Number 11. A year or so later, I was again in Nashville and dropped by to see if he still had any copies. He did, but -- apparently having seen my catalog -- his had suddenly increased his asking price to $ 35.00 each.
Crozier, E. W. (Compiler) THE KNOXVILLE BLUE BOOK. Knoxville. 1894. The title of this book is somewhat misleading, having nothing to do with the local "aristocracy'. The book was so-titled merely because it was issued in was blue cloth covers. Essentially a directory of city residents, but the volume contains much more useful information, listing the names of many persons who lived in various Knox County communities bordering the city.
THE KNOXVILLE COOK BOOK. Knoxville. 1907. This was reprinted in the 1950's, but over the years I've found that in most instances later reprints seldom have much effect on the value of scarce original editions, particularly older historical volumes
Lynk, M. V. THE AFRO-AMERICAN SCHOOL SPEAKER, AND GEMS OF LITERATURE.Memphis 1911. Link published several books for African American audiences, and virtually all of those books are worth much more today than the prices back in 1968.
1969
This year, my employer - a downtown insurance agency - sent me to a four week insurance school in Philadelphia. While I doubt that I learned that much at that school, being presented by one of the insurance companies the agency represented, at least I enjoyed the time I got to spend in the interesting old city of Philadelphia. There were many good places to eat, and I also managed to spend time looking for old books in several Philadelphia book stores.
Leary's Book Store had already devoted their first floor to such things as paperbacks, new books, greeting cards and the like in 1968, since the writing was obviously already on the wall that the majority of cities in the United States would any longer support an old and rare book shop. The fact that Leary's closed a few years later was evidence of that fact. But at that time I was intrigued with the fact that there were several stories with shelves lined with thousands upon thousands of old books. On their upper floor were some of their oldest and dustiest books, and on that floor there was a large opening that led into an unlit adjoining room. That room had no door, but a large rope hung across the opening to the room, with a sign warning "No Admittance". I wondered what treasures were hidden in that black hole. Some years later, when the rare book stock of Leary's was being sold at auction, an original printed copy of the Declaration of Independence was one of the featured items that was sold, bringing a very high price. I immediately suspected that document had probably been hidden away in that forbidden room.
I did manage to buy a number of books for my stock at Leary's. They had so many books that I thought sometimes their prices were reasonable simply because of the sheer multitude of items in their stock. For example, for five or six bucks each I bought no less six nice copies of the original edition of William Brownlow's Civil War narrative, SKETCHES OF THE RISE, PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF SECESSION, commonly called "Parson Brownlow's Book". The interesting aspect about those books was the fact that while all were the identical 1863 edition, every copy was in a different colored cloth binding. I think that's the only book I have ever encountered where the same edition was issued in so many different colored bindings. Perhaps it was an indication that the publishers sold so many copies of that book, as it was obviously popular at the time, that were using whatever color of cloth happened to be available when they needed a new press run to meet the demand.
There is an interesting story about that Philadelphia trip. There was an old book shop a couple of blocks from the building where I was attending the school, and I was in that place at least three or four times each week. The store was going out of business and their books were priced at fifty to seventy percent off the marked price, so I searched many hours looking for bargains. I found more than I could afford to buy, but I managed to ship home at least four or five boxes of good books that I bought at that store for very reasonable prices. The store was operated by an old man and his son. The sad thing was that the building was to be torn down, and they had to evacuate by the end of the month. The son was particularly bitter, because they had only been given a four week notice to leave the premises, and they had nowhere to store the many thousands of books in their store. A couple of days before I was to return to Knoxville he said that they had to be out of the store by the following Sunday, and he was steaming even more than usually. In fact, he vowed that he was going to devote the entire day on Saturday of that week in the store, with the doors closed, and - armed with cutting knives - he planned to go through as many books as he could and deface them, in order that nobody would get their hands on the books, since he was going to just leave the books there in the store. I discussed the matter with him, and he offered the entire remaining stock to me at a ridiculous give-away price. While I was desperately tempted, and even then certainly could have afforded the relatively small cost, I was unfortunately caught in an impossible situation. I had only been in Philadelphia for less than three weeks and an I was stuck in that city for another ten days. I had no connections with anyone who had a truck that was anything remotely large enough to haul so many books from Philadelphia to Knoxville, and the entire stock had to be removed within three or four days. I could not afford purchase the books and also hire a van from a Philadelphia moving firm for such a task. I reluctantly gave up on the idea, but I always regretted not being able to buy those books, as there were still many old and rare volumes, despite the sale that had already been in progress for a couple of weeks.
After returning home, I decided to take a different approach in my quest to locate rare Tennessee books. Being increasingly aware of the scarcity of very early books and pamphlets printed in Tennessee, and knowing that Rogersville, about an hour's drive or so east of Knoxville, was the earliest town where printing had been established in the 1790's, that seemed like a logical place to search. Not knowing anyone in that town, I decided to place an advertisement in the Rogersville newspaper. A telephone call to that newspaper office revealed that their rates were quite reasonable. I typed out the text for an ad, indicating that I was interested in buying old books printed in Tennessee, sent it to the newspaper, and placed a large quarter-page advertisement in that publication. Either nobody in Rogersville had any such materials, or if so they had no interest in selling them, because not a soul called or wrote or contacted me in any manner following the appearance of that advertisement. That was my last attempt to dig out old Tennessee books through that method.
One day I was looking through some books Emmert Cogdill had recently come across down at his Western Avenue Trading Post. He mentioned that he had just that week been out to see a lady who lived out in Blount County, off old Maryville Pike. He had bought a few things from her and said she had some old books and suggested that I contact her. He gave me her telephone number. That evening I called her. She was a pleasant sounding person, and invited me to come out that Saturday.
I drove out to Blount County that Saturday morning but I had a dickens of a time finding her house, which was located on an out of the way dead end road. But I finally located the place. She turned out to be a delightful lady, from an old east Tennessee family, and she had more interesting things in her living room and dining room than I have ever seen before or since in a single dwelling. Hanging on the living room wall was a large oil painting of one her ancestors, dressed in a Revolutionary War uniform, painted and signed by no less a significant artist than Gilbert Stuart himself. On the dining room table was a huge set of silverware. At her suggestion, I picked up a large silver bowl, which weighed a ton, and saw an engraved date from the early 1700's at the outer base of the thing. Standing along the living room wall was what appeared to be a large and beautiful old carved wooden piece that appeared to be a very old record player. She said that in fact it pre-dated such things, being a nineteenth century disk player. The thing did produce music, but played old large metal disks that were made with appropriately arranged holes in the metal disk (similar, I suppose, to the same concept as the old player pianos). She opened the cabinet to reveal about two dozen of the original disks stored in the inner doors, then played one of them on that intriguing machine. She offered me some of her homemade dandelion wine, which I accepted, and we sat and talked for a while as I enjoyed the delicious wine while I subconsciously sat there in amazement at the things that were in her home.
I inquired about old books, and she showed me a number of old books that were on shelves in a back room. Several were interesting books, and she agreed to sell a few of them to me. She said that there were many other old books in her basement, but that she needed to check first with her son to see if he wanted any before she would consider selling them. As I was leaving she mentioned that perhaps I knew someone who would be interested in buying some old things that were on in her sun room. We walked out onto that room, that adjoined the living room. Several odds and ends were scattered around the room. On a table was a cardboard box, about the size of a shoe box. She reached down and removed the lid. The box was full of what must have been at least fifteen or twenty carved oriental ivory figurines. I took one or two out of the box and looked at them, having no idea what I was seeing, but being intrigued with the delicate carvings of oriental people, small pull carts and the like. "I believe grandfather said that these are from the fifteenth century", she said. Based on the other things that were in her house I had no reason to doubt the authenticity of the figurines. I told her if I heard of someone who might be interested I would let her know. As I drove home I thought about those ivory pieces, and the other things I had just seen. But my interest was still in old books, and those in her basement were what I wanted eventually to see. In the following months I attempted several times to see her again. In the beginning, she said that she had not yet talked with her son about the books. The last couple of times I called there was no answer. Several months later I called once more and the telephone had been disconnected. Whether she moved or passed on I never determined, but I never again saw or heard of her. While I was always disappointed that I never got a chance to see those books in her basement, the sad thing is that I was so dumb as to essentially have ignored those ivory figurines, which I'm sure now - looking back - were possibly worth a small fortune.
I issued my first book in 1969, titled TENNESSEE BOOKS, A PRELIMINARY GUIDE. I took the time to compile the book simply because there were few Tennessee bibliographies available at the time. I really had done the research for my own benefit. A few years later, Sam Smith's extensive bibliography came available, a more extensive bibliography of Tennessee writings, although intentionally had listed only books and not included periodical and magazine articles, as were included in Smith's publication The total cost in 1969 to issue 1000 copies was $1,086.00. I sold enough copies of the book, at $6.50 each, to at least recover the cost of the book. Most of those sales were to libraries in Tennessee and other states. .
I issued two book lists in 1969 : SUMMER, LIST. Americana. 100 items ; and CATALOG TWELVE Americana. 171 items. A few of the books I sold from those catalogs were :
TENNESSEE. THE VOLUNTEER STATE. Nashville and Chicago. 1923. Folio, 9 x 12 1/2, bound in heavy marbled boards and leather spine. 682 pages, engraved portraits. Issued as a "Deluxe Supplemental Volume" to John Trotwood Moore's four volume History of Tennessee.
Temple, Oliver P. EAST TENNESSEE AND THE CIVIL WAR. Cincinnati. 1899.
Fenner, Thomas P. RELIGIOUS FOLK SONGS OF THE NEGRO, AS SUNG ON THE PLANTATIONS. Hampton, Va. 1918.
Lynk, M. V. THE AFRO AMERICAN SPEAKER AND GEMS OF LITERATURE. Memphis, Tenn. 1911.
I had listed this same book for sale in 1968, with no takers. In 1969 a California library bought the book for the listed price, ten dollars. Obviously a stark example of the differences in prices since the late 1960's, and also the fact that the first time around no collector or library was willing to purchase this rare book even at such a nominal price.
This year I donated to the University of Tennessee special collections library the original first edition of a rare two volume set, HISTORY OF THE EXPEDITION UNDER LEWIS AND CLARK ..1804-5-6, printed in Philadelphia in 1814.
1970
One day Emmert Cogdill, who owned the Western Avenue Trading Post on Western Avenue, told me about an old lady who had a house full of all kinds of things, including a lot of old books. He gave me her name and address, but cautioned me that she was somewhat eccentric. She had no telephone. A few days later I drove to her home, a couple of blocks east of Broadway, parked, went to the front door and knocked. After a couple of minutes, when nobody appeared, I walked back toward my car, but halfway back to my car up I heard the door open and a female voice asked who I was. I walked back, identified myself, and told her Emmert had told me that she had old books that she might be willing to sell. She looked to be around seventy-five or older. She looked me over carefully, then invited me into the house. The house was indeed filled with old furniture, glassware, and the like. Unfortunately, most was difficult to see because of the other junk. Along the walls of the living room, the dining room, and the hallway were stacked newspapers, halfway to the ceiling Newspapers and magazines and all other typed of similar paraphernalia were also stacked between chairs, tables, and everywhere else. You had to turn sideways to walk anywhere in that house. She showed me a couple of bookshelves that were only halfway buried under the junk. I looked over the shelves and did actually find a few scarce volumes among the common books. When I had finished looking at the books I offered her what I thought was a fair price and she accepted, I paid her in cash and was more than glad to make my exit. As I was preparing to leave and was onto the font porch, she stood at the door and said that she had other books if she could ever find them, suggesting that I come back in a couple of weeks. As the late afternoon sun was shining through the doorway I noticed for the first time that apparently she had at least three layers of clothing - a dress on top of a dress on top of a dress. Eccentric, indeed. But just on the chance, I went back a couple of weeks later, then went back again on two other occasions. At those later times, I knocked until my knuckles hurt but she never came to the door, and I was never again in that house. The last time I tried, I was somewhat fearful that perhaps she had died in that old house, but a few weeks later darned if I didn't see her seated in the back row at the Sunday morning service at the Baptist Church where our family attended. I never saw her again after that day.
In 1970 I issued four different catalogs or lists, including Lists in February, April, and September, and Catalog Fourteen. Among the books listed in those lists and catalog were the following :
Tannehill, Wilkins. SKETCHES OF THE HISTORY OF LITERATURE. Nashville. 1827.
Haywood and Cobbs. STATUTE LAWS OF TENNESSEE. Knoxville. 1831. Two volumes.
Mitchell, James C. TENNESSEE JUSTICE'S MANUAL. Nashville. 1834.
Mathes, A. H. THE BOTANIC PHYSICIAN. Madisonville. 1837.
Confederate currency. Printed in Chattanooga, August, 1863. An uncut sheet of three one dollar bills, printed on the reverse side of two five dollar bills on a similar uncut sheet.
Hawkins and Colton. HANDBOOK OF TENNESSEE. 1882.
Mathes, J. Harvey. THE OLD GUARD IN GRAY. Memphis. 1897.
HISTORY OF HOMES AND GARDENS OF TENNESSEE. Nashville. 1936.
SOUVENIR OF KNOXVILLE FIRE AND POLICE DEPARTMENTS. 1900.
Wythe, John. LIFE OF GENERAL NATHAN BEDFORD FOREST. 1899. First edition.
MAJOR JONES' GEORGIA SCENES. 1880.
MINUTES, KANSAS AND NEBRASKA M.E. CHURCH ANNUAL CONFERENCE. Topeka, Kansas Territory. 1857.
McMurray, W. J. HISTORY OF THE 20TH TENNESSEE REGIMENT, C.S.A. 1904.
Dickens, Charles. LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF NICHOLAS NICKLEBY. London. 1839. First edition.
Faulkner, William. GO DOWN MOSES AND OTHER STORIES. First edition.
Duke, Basil. HISTORY OF MORGAN'S CAVALRY. Cincinnati. 1867. Catalog 14
Another rare book I cataloged and sold in 1970 was the book "LAST OF THE PIONEERS, OR OLD TIMES IN EAST TENNESSEE. LIFE AND REMINISCENCES OF PHAROH JACKSON CHESNEY, AGE 120 YEARS", written by J. C. Webster and printed in Knoxville in 1902.
This book is the rare biography of a Union County, Tennessee African American man who claimed to have been born in 1782. A Knoxville newspaper ran an article about Chesney several years ago, the information obviously gleaned from the information in this 1902 book. However, the writer of that article claimed that only ten copies of this book were printed, but offered no evidence to verify that statement. I think it is very unlikely that only ten copies of this clothbound book were printed - particularly when no such statement in contained in the book. Even so, today this is a rare book. I did have one other copy of this book, listed in my Catalog 102, in 1998.
1971
I accepted an invitation to give a presentation about old books before the College and Libraries group at the annual Tennessee Library Association Convention in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I spoke at that convention on May 3, 1971.My talk was titled "Rare Tennessee Books and Tennesseana". It was reproduced the following year, in the Spring, 1972 issue of the Tennessee Librarian.
This year I found and bought an original manuscript, written by Daniel H. Chandler in the 1890's, HISTORY OF THE FIFTH INDIANA ARTILLERY. Thinking this original handwritten document should find it's way to some institution in Indiana, I offered and sold it to a historical library in that state.
A librarian, who shall remain unnamed, was working at a Tennessee library ( not located in Knoxville) at the time, and contacted me this year. I was furnished with gave me list of books the librarian wished to sell to that same library. I was asked to pay for the books, then send an invoice to that library for the same amount I paid, and in due course the library would eventually pay me. While I thought the request was somewhat unusual, I complied with that request, because that person had previously sold me some nice old Tennessee books. Later, I thought about that situation, and since it sounded somewhat like a conflict of interest to me I advised the librarian that I would prefer in the future not to repeat that procedure. Over the years I have sometimes bought books directly from individuals on behalf of libraries, when requested to do so, usually due to the fact that libraries encounter various difficulties when purchasing books from private individuals and often prefer to buy such materials from one who deals in such materials. However, those situations always involved books that had been offered to said libraries by individuals who were not associated with the library, and I thought there was no difference between such situations and the common practice when book dealers bid and purchase books for libraries, when those libraries have prior arrangements with such dealers that they will purchase designated books that are sometimes successfully acquired in such instances. The difference here was that this librarian was the owner of the books being sold and also an employee of the library, so I was somewhat uneasy about the matter. Anyway, I was never again asked to repeat that procedure, but had I received a similar request I had already determined to simply saying "no, thanks".
I bought a sizeable collection of literary first editions this year. They were the library of Lucy Templeton, a columnist and book reviewer for many years with the News Sentinel in Knoxville. There were about six hundred books in that library, and virtually all were first editions in the original dust jackets, many with the original review slips laid in. At that time, I had done little dealing in literary first editions, and although I did manage to sell a number of those books in the following months, I surely would like to have them back today, particularly in view of the manner in which prices for many such items have skyrocketed during the past thirty years or so.
At an estate sale this year I bought an old manuscript sentiment album that had been assembled in the 1830's and 1840's by Knoxville's Lucinda Dickinson Cowan, sister of Perez Dickinson and the wife of business magnet James Harvey Cowan. The album contained handwritten messages and sentiments from well-known persons in Knoxville, including an original poem titled "Annihilation", by Thomas W. Humes, plus some original ink artwork by different persons. Lucinda Cowan was a teacher at the Knoxville Female Academy. Feeling that this historical piece should certainly remain here in Knoxville, I made sure it ended up in the collection of a local historical library.
I issued two catalogs in 1971: February, 1971 List, Miscellaneous books ; and Catalog Sixteen, (Americana and Miscellaneous. 978 books). Books offered in those catalogs included :
CATALOG OF THE OFFICERS AND STUDENTS IN EAST TENNESSEE UNIVERSITY.Knoxville. 1838. The earliest known printed catalog of officers and students at what today is the University of Tennessee. I bought a bound volume of twenty-two pamphlets from a lady who was a descendant of a prominent Knoxville family this year. This was one of ten different pamphlets in that volume that were offered for sale in my February, 1971 list. The following journal was also purchased from the same woman at that time.
Armstrong, R.H. PRIVATE JOURNAL AND JOTTINGS DOWN, IN AND OUT OF PRARIEDOM. No date. Typescript, of an unpublished manuscript. The author, leaving Knoxville in 1850, traveled in the western U. S. - mostly in Texas. The above mentioned lady from whom I acquired this typescript said she didn't know who had transcribed this manuscript. However, she also owned the original manuscript, which was written by one of her ancestors. I saw and attempted to purchase that manuscript but she was unwilling to sell it. She died some years ago, and I never heard what happened to that original manuscript.
Cobb, Lyman. COBB'S JUVENILE READER, NUMBER ONE. CONTAINING INTERESTING MORAL AND INSTRUCTIVE READING LESSONS. Nashville 1836 Unrecorded in the American Imprints Inventory of Tennessee.
Griggs, Sutton. BUILDING OUR OWN. A PLEA FOR A PARALLEL CIVILIZATION. Memphis. No date, (early 20th century). Includes Outlines and Aims of the Nehemiah Brotherhood, founded by Griggs to foster the cause of the Negro.
Sutton Griggs was an African American Memphis writer. Based on the rather ridiculous prices of most of his novels and other writings today, goodness only knows what this pamphlet would be worth now. In 1971, a wise librarian at the library of the University of California in Santa Barbara had the common sense to buy this rare pamphlet - apparently still not recorded in any bibliography I have seen - at what was a give-away price. I find it interesting to notice from my old records in 1971 that it was the only order, or inquiry, I ever received about that rare pamphlet, either from another libraries or from any book collectors.
Haywood, John. THE CIVIL AND POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE. Nashville. 1823. Tennessee historian Gentry R. McGee's copy, with his ownership signature. This was my first copy of the original edition of this book. I bought it from Francis Headman, who already had a copy of the book. Many years later, I bought a number of books from Gentry McGhee's library, from a Memphis book collector. Remembering this copy of the Haywood book that I had bought back in 1971, I guessed that Francis had probably bought the book from that same collector, who seemed to have what amounted to McGhee's entire library in his collection.
Craven, John J. PRISON LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. New York. 1866.
Hofman, H. O. GOLD MILLING IN THE BLACK HILLS. Chicago. 1898.
Stephens, Frederick G. FLEMISH RELICS. ARCHITECTURAL, LEGENDARY AND PICTORIAL. London. 1866. Tooled leather. With 14 tipped-in original photographs.
ACTS OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, 33RD. GENERAL ASSEMBLY, EXTRA SESSION, APRIL, 1861. Nashville 1861 The "Secession" Acts of the state, at the beginning of the Civil War.
Whether it is because I have long been actively buying and selling Tennessee imprints, that this book originally had a large printing, or that perhaps more people originally acquired and kept the book than one would have expected, but in any event, I've probably had at least twenty copies of this book. It is collectible, but even today only considered to be scarce, not rare.
1972
I was the President of the Northside Kiwanis Club of Knoxville in 1972. That circumstance, combined with my regular job at the insurance firm, considerably curtailed my book activities and I issued only one catalog that year. One of the books I sold in Catalog 17 was LIFE AS IT IS, OR MATTERS AND THINGS IN GENERAL, written by J. W. M. Breazeale and published in Knoxville in 1842. By the late 1990's, I had sold at least ten copies of this book - eight of them through my catalogs. Which is among the reasons that I long thought of this as a only a scarce book, rather than a great rarity, despite the fact that a copy had brought what most people who knew anything about Tennessee books thought at the time was a rather astounding eight hundred dollars at the Streeter Sale back in 1967. It was another thirty years before this book could be realistically considered to be worth that price in my opinion.
One day this year I was driving along Tennessee Avenue in Lonsdale. Despite the fact that I had graduated from Rule High School in that area in 1952, at that time I had actually been living the Lincoln Park area of north Knoxville and nowhere near Lonsdale. Following high school, I seldom found myself in the area, but for whatever reason there I was, and suddenly I noticed an old two story building on one of the corners. It was a furniture store, selling new and used furniture. Knowing that sometimes I had bought old books from similar places, apparently acquired when the owners acquired old estates, I parked in front of the building and went in. It turned out that the owners were schoolmates of mine from high school days , Kyle Easterday and his brother Bill. After renewing the acquaintance and some chit chat, I asked if they happened to have any old books. Kyle said that in fact they did, and led me into a large storage room at the back of the store. There, he showed me a stack of old boxes filled with books, and told me to look to my heart's content. I took me the better part of two hours searching through the boxes, but eventually I had found about twenty decent books, including a couple that were very scarce titles. I gathered up the books and made my way back into the main store area. I placed the books on a table next to Kyle's desk, told him I would like to buy those books, and made him what I felt was a fair offer. His immediate reply was "Sold". I paid him for the books, and while I was placing them in a cardboard box he confessed that he was essentially flabbergasted at the amount I was paying for the books, since he usually felt luck to get a dollar each for any old books he had sold previously. Thereafter, until Kyle died, some while after his brother Bill had also died, they always called me anytime they came across any old books, and every time I was in their store, including their later location when they had moved out on Central, Kyle always was complimentary about how fairly I had been when buying books from him, and how unusual that circumstance apparently seemed to be in his experiences with others.
Probably in an attempt to sell some books during a year when I managed to issue only one book catalogs, I signed up for a booth at both the Louisville and Cincinnati Book Fairs this year. I did manage to sell books at both fairs, and also bought some nice books from other dealers in attendance, in addition to other books I bought at book stores in Cincinnati and Louisville during those trips.
My sister still lived in Syracuse, and we again visited her in 1972. While we were there, I again bought books from several old book shops in the surrounding area. One of those places was the Country Book Shop, in the village of Manlius, where five years later I purchased the entire book stock of that shop, in 1977.
In July, I got a call from a friend who owned a printing firm in Knoxville. He had purchased the facility a few months previously. He said he had found some old books in some boxes on the second floor of the building and wanted me to come down and look at them. The next day I dropped by to see him. We walked up the stairway and he pointed out the boxes. I looked in the boxes and discovered that there were multiple copies of three different old Knoxville publications : eight copies of the History of the National Conservation Exposition, 1913 ; seven copies of William Frier Fulton's Family History and War Reminiscences, published in 1925 ; and eight copies of Knox County in the World War, published in 1919. These were remainder copies of books that had been issued by the Stubly Knox Litho printing establishment, which was the firm my friend had just acquired. The books had been there since they were originally published, and all were in unused condition. Obviously I bought all of them that day and was very excited to find them. If it had been today, I could have paid about eight to ten times what I paid for them back in 1972, and soon sold then for much more than I got for those books back then.
In late 1972, I donated four hundred American literary first editions from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to a university library. Although it proved to be a mistake, I really did not do much dealings in literary books - - then or later - - since the majority of my clientele were interested in American and Tennessee history.
1973
In the spring of 1973 I made an arrangement with my friend Bob Weems to open an old book shop in the upstairs section of his antique shop at the northwest corner of Gay and Magnolia, across the street from Regas restaurant. I paid a couple of Bob's employees ( in his construction business ) to build some cheap wooden shelving in the large room on the second floor. I probably put a thousand or more books on those shelves. In another upstairs room that adjoined the larger room there was a separate smaller room. I put some nice shelves on two walls in that room and stocked it with scarce books of various types. But I had that room under lock, and a sign on the door announced that those books were available for viewing only when I was available, which was on Saturdays. By then I had acquired lots of old books, including quite a few scarce and collectible items, and I really had no place to put them at home, so that arrangement was advantageous from a storage standpoint, if not particularly financially successful.
Bob hired an employee named Mrs. Ladd, a nice and cordial older lady, who kept the shop open during weekdays. She lived in east Knoxville, and Bob usually picked her up in the mornings and took her home in the afternoon. In the meantime, other than to drop by the place around lunchtime for about a half hour or so, and at various other times during weekdays when he would pop by for a few minutes, Bob was seldom at the shop except on Saturdays. Mrs. Ladd also often came to the shop on Saturdays, and more than once I witnessed what I though was an ongoing and funny conflict between Bob and Mrs. Ladd. Other than during the winter months, the front door to the shop was always kept open, since there was no air conditioning in the building. With the buses and automobiles whizzing regularly by the front door, and in view of the fact that Gay street was not particularly a clean place to begin with, dust could be found in the shop on a daily basis. Mrs. Ladd kept dustcloths to clean the glassware, furniture, and other items. But she also had an old broom, and at least a couple of times a day she would sweep the dust from the carpet towards the front door. That always exasperated Bob, since much of the dust went into the air and right back on the antiques instead of out the doorway. He decided to buy a vacuum cleaner, did so, and asked Mrs. Ladd to use it rather than the broom. Unfortunately, she was one of those people who was, as is said in these parts, "set in her ways", and she obviously preferred that old broom to the vacuum cleaner. So she continued to sweep the place with her broom. Bob kept asking her to use the vacuum and she kept using the broom. One Saturday morning I met Bob for breakfast, and when we were walking back down to his shop he complained that when we got there he was sure that Mrs. Ladd would be down there " doing her 'whisk, whisk, whisk' with that damned broom". Sure enough, when we got there, she was busy with her broom, sweeping as much of the dust onto the furnishings instead of outside the door. Often after that time, but out of her sight and hearing, Bob would refer to her as "old Miss whisk, whisk".
One Saturday when I got the antique shop Bob had brought some items he wanted me to look at. They were things his wife had inherited and was interested in selling. They were some very collectible items, three original report cards from Washington College in the late 1860's, each signed by Robert E. Lee. I told him that I was definitely interested, but needed a few days to check values in order to make him a fair offer. By the following Saturday I had determined what I thought was a fair price to pay for those items, and Bob accepted the offer. Naturally, I had little trouble selling those signed grade reports. Many years later, Bob occasionally complained that I had paid him much less for those items that I should have. Out of curiosity, and due to my poor memory these days, I checked my old records and also the records regarding the going prices in those days. I find that while the price of Lee's signature on virtually anything these days has now escalated to rather ridiculous proportions, such was not the case in the 1970's, when I find the following auction prices are recorded during those times :
1975. One page handwritten and signed letter from Robert E. Lee $325.00
1976. Photograph of Lee, signed by him $45.00
1977 Signature of Robert E. Lee $110.00
I still have the original check I wrote to pay Bob for those three items. To be truthful, I am surprised today to realize that I was willing to invest as much in them as I did in 1973, which was about seventy-five percent of the total amount I actually sold them for that same year.
I had visited New York City, and in the process naturally looked in old book shops for anything interesting that I could find (and afford). I managed to buy a few interesting old books. One of those was purchased from a dealer who specialized in American Indian books. It was the CHEROKEE NEW TESTAMENT, translated by Worcester, S.A. and Elias Boudinot and published in New York in 1860. I thought the price I paid for that book was fair, and I though the price I got for it when I sold the book was also reasonable. A footnote to the purchase and sale of that volume tells the tale regarding today's escalation in prices, as I noticed a few months ago that a book dealer recently was offering for sale on the Internet individual leaves from the same books, his price for a single leaf being more than the price for which I sold a nice copy of the entire book in 1973.
This year I bought and sold my only copy of Tenn Division of Geology Bulletin # 45, GEOLOGY AND OIL AND GAS RESOURCES OF GAINSBORO QUADRANGLE, TENNESSEE, by Ralph Lusk, printed in Nashville in 1935. A Geology professor at the University in Tennessee filled me in on the details concerning the rarity of this item. This book was actually printed, but it was withdrawn after only a few copies had been distributed and all remaining copies were supposedly destroyed. That professor sold me one of a few copies he had acquired several years prior to his letter, when a handful of copies were discovered, having somehow escaped the original order to destroy all copies.
This year I bought books for the first time from a lady who had a rather clever method of selling old books. She had a large motor home, in which shelves had been installed on the inner walls, a vehicle not dissimilar from the old-time book mobiles libraries sometimes operated. Periodically she would drive through the country, selling books from her self-contained traveling book stock. She first came through Knoxville in December, 1973. She contacted me and I bought several books from her shelves then, as I did again over the next two or three years when she made trips through this area.
Other individuals and firms where I bought books from this year included the following :
Earl Golden, a preacher, a friend, a collector, and sometimes dealer in old books ; Larry's Antiques, in Oak Ridge ; Miller's Auction gallery, in Newport ; Western Avenue Trading Post, Knoxville ; Tony Marion, Blountville ; Maynard Hill, Kingsport ; Mrs. Richard Fox, Nashville ; and Joan Selfe. Knoxville Antique dealer.
This year I finally completed and arranged for the printing of my second book, SOME TENNESSEE RARITIES. I was (and still am) rather surprised that nobody ever asked me one question about this book. It was issued with an original tipped-in leaf, taken from the scarce Tennessee history book, "Life As It Is", written by J. W. M. Breazeale, and published in Knoxville in 1842. 'Some Tennessee Rarities' clearly indicates that five hundred copies of the book were printed. The book "Life As It Is" contains about 250 pages, or 125 leaves, which meant ; (a) I needed to have four complete copies of a book that just six years previously had sold at a book auction in New York for $ 800.00, and (b) assuming I had those copies, I had to be stupid enough to be willing to destroy all four copies, in order to insert an original leaf into each copy of 'Some Tennessee Rarities'. Well, I did have actually have four copies of the Breazeale book at that time, but all but one of those copies were incomplete and/or defective. In total, the number of actual useable leaves I had on hand was less than two hundred. Finally, while I realized that I probably would do well to sell even a hundred copies, I found that the price to have one hundred copies printed was not that much different from the cost to have five hundred copies printed, so I opted for the larger number, thinking more about the average cost of each book rather than the obvious fact that I could actually only have less than two hundred copies available in the complete state, with the tipped-in leaf. During the three to four months following my offering of the book, I sold eighty-five copies. During the following year or so, I sold another fifty copies or so, thus I was able to supply the book to all who ordered a copy. My estimate of the approximate number of orders I would receive was fairly accurate, and obviously I would have been in trouble if I had received orders for all five hundred copies. By the way, as I could have anticipated, the nicest book review I received in any Tennessee newspaper was written by Hugh Walker, in his "Tennessee Bookman" column in the Nashville Tennessean.
I issued Catalog Twenty-One in 1973. Today I am unable to find any catalogs that I issued between Catalog Seventeen and Catalog Twenty One, the likely indication that catalogs issued between those were unnumbered "Lists", lists that I am unable to locate today. Books I listed in the Catalog Twenty-One in 1973 included the following :
An original handwritten certification by William G. Brownlow, dated January, 1856, of his election as a representative to the Philadelphia National Convention
GOODSPEED'S HISTORY OF TENNESSEE, The Knox County edition. 1887.
Mann, Jonathan L. A CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE HOLSTON CONFERENCE, M.E. CHURCH, DURING THE GREAT REBELLION. 1868.
Morris, Eastin. THE TENNESSEE GAZETTEER. 1834. Original printed boards. First edition. This was the first of several copies I've owned of this rare book. It was the initial Gazetteer of the state of Tennessee. Morris gathered the information for this book from various correspondents throughout the state and its publication was something of an accomplishment at the time.
MITCHELL'S NASHVILLE BUSINESS DIRECTORY. 1859.
DIARY OF JAMES K. POLK. 1910. Four volumes, one of 500 sets printed.
A Salesman's Sample, of two Bob Taylor Books (in one volume), LIFE AND CAREER OF BOB TAYLOR, and LECTURES AND BEST LITERARY PRODUCTIONS. Nashville. Circa 1912.These two books obviously were very similar in nature when originally published, and this volume used by book salesmen (the only copy I've ever seen) verifies the fact that both bookshad indeed been printed and offered for sale by the publisher at the same time.
Agee, James. A DEATH IN THE FAMILY. New York. (1957). First edition. Dust jacket. The book was turned into a movie that premiered in Knoxville. I think it was called "All the Way Home". The movie received rather poor reviews, and was in fact one of the most boring movies I've ever seen.
ACTS AND RESOLUTIONS, STATE OF TENNESSEE, EXTRA SESSION OF THE 35TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY, JULY 27, 1868. Nashville. 1868.( Session called because of "the rebellious elements of the State" - - referring to the Ku Klux Klan.)
THE UNION SONGSTER. OR, A NEW AND CHOICE SELECTION OF HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS ... "By a Minister of the Gospel". Madisonville, Ten. 1830. Leather. 248 pages. Unrecorded - the only known copy. If another copy of this book has ever turned up anywhere else, I've not heard about it.
THE VOLUNTEER. University of Tennessee yearbook. Volume One. 1897. Knoxville 1897. The university opened originally as Blount College, more than one hundred years before the students got around to issuing this first yearbook in 1897.
SOLDIERS HYMN BOOK, WITH TUNES. Boston and New York 1863 This was the personal copy of William Carter, the author of History of the First Regiment of Tennessee Cavalry, with his ink notation at the inner front cover of this copy, "William R. Carter, his book, Jan. 15, 1863, Camp Smith, Tennessee."
ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHI DELTA AND PHILOMATHESIAN SOCIETIES, EAST TENNESSEE UNIVERSITY, MARCH 5, 1841. Knoxville. 1841. This and the following pamphlet were among those bound in the previously mentioned twenty-two broadsides and pamphlets I purchased from a lady on Kingston Pike in Knoxville in 1970. I was still a neophyte at the time, and sold each of the pamphlets without doing sufficient research, although in truth at that time my prices were pretty much in line with prevailing prices for similar pieces. Today, I suppose the total value of those twenty-two items is at least ten times the amounts I sold them for back then.
KNOXVILLE FEMALE ACADEMY. CATALOGUE OF TRUSTEES, INSTRUCTORS, AND STUDENTS .. SUMMER SESSION, 1829. Knoxville. 1829.
APPALACHIAN EXPOSITION. KNOXVILLE, TENN., SEPT. 12 TO OCT. 12, 1910. PREMIUM LIST AND PROSPECTUS. Knoxville. 1910. Pictorial wrappers. 132 pages. Over the years, I have found only a few of the catalogs and other original printed items from the early Appalachian Expositions in Knoxville, but items from the larger 1913 National Conservation Exposition - while scarce - seem to show up a bit more frequently. All were held at Chilhowee Park, in East Knoxville.
( Brownlow, William G. ) Collection of twenty original handwritten letters, receipts, account settlements, etc. Dating from the 1840's to 1860's. Today I have no recollection where I acquired these manuscripts, nor who bought them. Certainly, based on my price in that 1973 catalog, whoever bought these that year got a bargain.
Brownlow, William G. A POLITICAL REGISTER ... LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF HENRY CLAY ... APPENDIX PERSONAL TO THE AUTHOR .. Jonesboro, Tenn. 1844. I still consider this to be Brownlow's rarest book.
Coleman, Lucretia. POOR BEN. A STORY OF REAL LIFE. Nashville. 1890. Cloth. 220 pages, illustrated. "Dedicated to the Colored young men and women of America.".
Daniel, J. W. CATEECHEE OF KEEOWEE. A DESCRIPTIVE POEM. Nashville. 1898. Descriptive poem based on the Cherokee Indians in the eighteenth century.
Horn, Stanley F. THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE. A HISTORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN, 1866-1871 . Boston. 1939. First edition. Dust jacket. Signed by the author.
Hyder, H.H. THE LOVER'S DREAM, OR LOVE SEEKING VIRTUE. Johnson City, Tenn. 1894. Much rarer that the author's 1889 book, also printed in Johnson City, titled ".... The Double Golden Chains with Blazing Diamonds Strung ... " I've probably had at least a dozen copies of that title, but this was the only copy of THE LOVER'S DREAM I've ever owned.
Keating, J. M. A HISTORY OF THE YELLOW FEVER EPIDEMIC OF 1878 IN MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE. Memphis. 1878.
Lewis, Richard W. AUNT EMILY, OR, A BLACK WOMAN WITH A WHITE HEART. Memphis 1931. "A story by a southern man, a white deal for the black man."
Russell, Ethel. THE VANITY OF HUMAN GRANDEUR. WITH SKETCHES OF AND TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF PROMINENT PERSONS IN EAST TENNESSEE. Knoxville. 1904.
Smith, W. R. L. THE STORY OF THE CHEROKEES. Cleveland, Tenn. 1928.
SONS OF TEMPERANCE OF NORTH AMERICA. A bound volume, containing the Sons of Temperance Constitution, 1849, plus the First through the Sixth Journals of the National Temperance Division (1844-1849). "Parson" W. G. Brownlow's personal copy, with his ink signature at the front flyleaf, "W. G. Brownlow's book, Jany. 15, 1852".
Thorndyke, George Howard. THE WITCH'S CASTLE. Knoxville 1903. 300 pages, illustrations from photographs. I've had several copies of this book over the years. The book is considered to be historical fiction., but the illustrations - from photographs - depict persons and scenes of places in Knoxville and the surrounding east Tennessee area.
1974
This year I bought books from many of my usual sources, in addition to books I purchased at the University of Tennessee Woman's Association book sale, and quite a number of interesting old books at a sale of duplicates and deaccessioned books at the Maryville College library.
I donated a number of African American materials to the Beck Cultural Center in 1974, including old pamphlets, Austin High School yearbooks and graduation programs, copies of the Green School newspaper, items from the East Tennessee Fair, Colored Department, and similar items, . I received letter of thanks from the director, Robert. Wallace.
An interesting item I bought and sold directly to a collector in 1974 was a broadside, "A SHORT REJOINDER TO A. A. PEARSON'S CARD, SUPPORTED BY THE DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE, AND LIKEWISE ADDRESSED TO THE VOTERS OF CHATTANOOGA". Printed in Chattanooga in 1867, this rare reconstruction period broadside read in part ; "To the Colored voter, the White voter, to every man who has a daughter, wife, sister .. to trample down the spirit of ruffianism ... the Metropolitan Police are keepers of lewd women and frequenters of lewd houses ..women who yield themselves to lusts of the police have been shielded from arrest"
Catalogs Number Twenty-Two and May, 1974 List were issued in 1974, offering some interesting books, including :
Ramsey, J. G. M. THE ANNALS OF TENNESSEE, TO THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. Charleston, S.C. 1853. First edition.
JOURNAL OF THE SENATE, FIRST SESSION, SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY, STATE OF TENNESSEE. Knoxville. 1808.This was the Senate that convened in Kingston as the State Capital for one day, then adjourned to Knoxville.
Safford, James M. GEOLOGY OF TENNESSEE. Nashville. 1869. Seven plates, folding map.
Sexton, Thomas. THE TWO GREAT RAILROADS, TOGETHER WITH FROM THE ANVIL TO THE PULPIT. Knoxville. 1906. Catalog 22
Dickens, Charles. ALL THE YEAR ROUND, A WEEKLY JOURNAL CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS. London. 1858. Volume One, Numbers 1-26, April 30 - Oct. 22, 1859.
BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, WITH THE PSALTER, OR PSALMS OF DAVID. Baltimore 1835 An association copy, with a signed sixteen line flyleaf inscription from J. Gray Smith, author of the rare "Brief Description of East Tennessee", published in London, England, in 1842. I don't remember where I got this book, but even back then I don't know why I didn't think that the extensive inscription from J. Gray Smith would have made it worth more than my price of twenty-five bucks. Since then, I have learned that Smith lived here in Knox County, which raises the question, how or why did he come to be the author of that London publication in 1842 ?
DeWitt, David. IMPEACHMENT AND TRIAL OF ANDREW JOHNSON. New York 1903.
Budge, E. A. Wallis. THE BOOK OF PARADISE, BEING THE HISTORIES AND SAYINGS OF THE MONKS AND AESTHETICS OF THE EGYPTIAN DESERT ... London. 1904. Two volumes, one-half leather. Number 100 of 500 sets printed for private circulation only.
James, W(ill) S. COW-BOY LIFE IN TEXAS, OR 27 YEARS A MAVRICK (sic). Chicago. (1893) First edition, first issue.
Litchfield, Beals E. AUTOBIOGRAPHY, OR 40 YEARS INTERCOURSE AMONG THE DENIZENS OF THE SPIRIT WORLD. Ellicottsville, N.Y. 1893.
Lloyd, Benjamin. PRIMITIVE HYMNS, SPIRITUAL SONGS AND SACRED POEMS.Wetumpka, Alabama. 1854. Catalog 22
Verplanck, Gubian C. GARRICK, HIS PORTRAIT IN NEW YORK. ITS ARTIST AND HISTORY. New York. 1857. One of one hundred copies printed for private circulation.
1975
I purchased one of the rarest Tennessee books I've ever owned in early 1975. Late the previous year, two book dealers were on a book scouting trip and came through Knoxville and called me to arrange to look at my book stock. The dealers were Harold Nestler and Patterson Smith, both from the eastern U.S. Smith specialized in crime literature and I had virtually nothing in that line to interest him. Nestler dealt in Americana and other books, and he did find a few items of interest on my shelves. As they were leaving I mentioned to both that I was particularly interested in buying old books and pamphlets printed in Tennessee, particularly those from the early nineteenth century.
On January 18, 1975, I received a post card from Nestler. The card described a pamphlet that was to appear in his current catalog, which he indicated was "already at the printer and will be mailed within a few days". The book was the Cherokee Spelling Book, printed in Knoxville in 1819, and the asking price was $ 235.00. I nervously but quickly went to the phone, knowing full well that because the information had been sent on a post card, that treasure would surely already be sold. Mr. Nestler answered the phone. I asked if the book was still available. He said he thought so, and asked that I hold while he checked about it. That next minute seemed like an eternity, but he finally returned to the telephone and said the magic words, "Yes, I still have it". I told him to hold it for me, and payment would be mailed the following morning. About ten days later, the book was in my possession. I had listed the book two years earlier in my publication Some Tennessee Rarities, indicating then that it's value was around $2000.00 to $2500.00.
I sold the Cherokee Spelling Book to Knoxville collector Francis Headman for a price of $2,500.00. Years later, he consigned his entire collection to an eastern rare book dealer. The University of Tennessee Library tried to purchase the book among a number of other books from Headman's library that they successfully acquired at that time, but they were disappointed to find that the Speller had already been sold to a private collector. When that collector, Frank Seibert, later died, his library was sold at auction in the late 1999. At that sale, the same book brought $ 50,000.00.
A couple of years ago I received a telephone call from Harold Nestler. He asked if I remembered buying the Cherokee Spelling Book from him years ago. Of course, I told him I vividly remembered it. He casually asked if I still had the book. I said that I had sold the book within a few weeks of purchasing it from him in 1975, and also advised him that chronology of that book, from the time of his original acquisition in 1975, and tracing its history through the time of the New York auction in 1999 auction, was fully detailed in my 2004 publication, More Tennessee Rarities.
In 1975 I had a rather unusual experience with a man who lived in south Knoxville, near the Sevier County Line. I received his telephone call, and he said that he had heard that I sold rare Tennessee books, indicating that he was interested in buying such items. He asked that I send him a catalog, and it happened that I had just mailed my most recent list, so I mailed a copy to him. A week or so later he called again, saying that he was interested in buying several books from that catalog. I arranged to meet him at a designated time and site the following day, delivered the books, and he paid for them in full, indicating that he may be interested in other items I had for sale. In those two transactions he had bought more than three thousand dollars worth of old books. That was in March, and the next month he called again and asked to buy other books from the same catalog. Most of the items he wanted were still available, and that time he asked that I bring the books to his home. I did as he requested, and after meeting his wife and completing the transaction we sat and talked about old books in general and early Tennessee history in particular. He said that he was descended from the earliest settlers in the Sevier County area, and was interested in virtually all aspects of early times in the east Tennessee area.
About a month or so later, he called again and wanted to meet for lunch and we met the following day. He had a large envelope with him then, and after we had eaten he took out several pieces of paper, which turned out to be photocopies of early State of Franklin documents, predating by several years Tennessee's statehood. He didn't mention where he had gotten those copies and I didn't ask. With obvious interest, he showed me one of the copies. It concerned an early plot of land in Sevier County, signed by several men, including a man whose last name was the same as his. This, he said, was his ancestor, who had been one of the earliest settlers in the area. He gave me an additional copy of that same document, asking that I keep it among my own records. I took the sheet with me. That night, upon examining it more closely, it became obvious that the signature of his "ancestor" was not a part of the original document, but one that had been added in recent times. I guessed that somebody had added the name to another photocopy, then someone had made a copy of that copy, in an attempt to somehow convince those who saw the second copy that the signature was on the original document. Why he was making the attempt to convince me - or anyone else - that this document had been signed by one of his ancestors, was something I couldn't explain. But whatever the reason, I thought strange that he had gone to such lengths, and wondered who else he had been shown the forged copy of that document.
I only heard from that man one other time, about a month later, when he called to ask where he could do some additional research about a specific matter. Later I heard that he had died and I later made an attempt to contact his widow, in case she might be interested in selling back to me some of those rare Tennessee books he had bought from me, but I was never able to reach her. One interesting thing he told me at one those few meetings, which may or may not have been true, involved Walt Disney. He claimed that a short while after Disney World was well under construction in Florida he met Disney when he was visiting this area. According to the man's statement, Disney told him that after seeing the area adjacent to Pigeon Forge that if he had not already made the decision to locate Disney World in the Orlando area he would instead have located it there in east Tennessee. Considering the success of the later Dollywood facility, perhaps that statement was true.
Still the eternal optimist, I decided to open another old book shop in Knoxville in 1975. A friend of mine owned the building on the west side of Gay street, near where the old Strand Theateronce stood. After inquiring about space in the building, I thought the monthly rent was reasonable, considering the decent sized downstairs space in that building I could acquire, and particularly since in downtown Knoxville in those days owners of buildings with space for rent in still usually preferred to keep such spaces vacant, rather than to consider asking a more reasonable price, even when similar spaces throughout the downtown area becoming more available each year as they were being continuously vacated at an alarming rate.
I called the store the Old Book and Print Shop, because by that time I not only had old books but I also had acquired a sizeable collection of old prints, engravings, and maps. I could operate the place on Saturdays, but I obviously needed somebody to keep the place open on weekdays. I hired a young man who was a close friend of my youngest son. He was in school part-time then, and could be there a half day four days each week. My mother also agreed to be there one day, so I was able to have the place open on weekdays and Saturdays, albeit sometimes on a somewhat irregular schedule.
Naturally, like the earlier Western Avenue shop, this one turned out to be a disaster. I closed the place after seven months, when the expenses had totaled about two thousand dollars more than was taken in through sales. Actually, I suppose if I had actually had the sense to offer the service that many people requested when they wandered in the door I would have fared somewhat better, because on many occasions somebody would come in the shop and ask what the cost would be to print some posters, announcements, wedding invitations, pamphlets, and the like. Apparently, I erred in naming the place Old Book and Print Shop, since an inordinate number of folks thought we were running a printing business. On the other hand, I will admit that I wondered sometimes about the average IQ around here, considering the fact that the only things in the place were old books and walls that were covered with original antique prints, maps, and similar items. One would have thought that such displays might have given a slight clue as to what the shop was all about to those who entered the premises.
The University of Tennessee Library held one of their old book sales in 1975. They had such sales more frequently in those times, and one could find many more interesting old books then than are to be found in the infrequent sales they have today. I bought quite a number of interesting books and pamphlets at the 1975 sale. Included in those purchases was a package I found on a shelf at the sale, wrapped in brown paper and tied with a ribbon. When I opened the package I discovered that it contained a complete run of all issues of a rare student publication, The University Magazine, issued in 1842 and 1843, when U. T. was called East Tennessee University. All issues of the periodical were complete with the original printed wrappers. The price for the whole package was six dollars. Astounded, but obviously elated with that find, I held it firmly until I took it and the other books I had selected to the front desk and paid for them.
A few days later, I dropped by U. T. library to see John Dobson. John was the long-time head of the Special Collections Library, for many years, and we had a regular Friday luncheon together for about twenty-five years. I took the periodicals with me, since I felt sure the library likely did not have them, and even if they did I questioned if they were in the same condition as these I had bought at the library sale. I had put them in a large envelope. I first told John that sometime I would like to see the library's copies of that magazine. He called an assistant, and within a couple of minuted the young man brought a couple of old worn volumes into the office. I looked them over. They were bound without the original wrappers, were rather worn, and there were extensive old library markings on the pages. I said thanks, and we talked about books and other things for a few minutes. Then I placed the envelope on his desk and told him this was something I had bought at the library sale the previous week. He opened the package and took out the periodicals. He examined a few copies, then looked at me with an inquisitive look, saying something like "you're pulling my leg, aren't you !" After confirming that I had in fact bought them at the sale, I assured him by telling him "well, you're getting them back, but you might owe me a lunch sometime down the road". He was obviously pleased to have them again, and went to some length to explain that with as many books as they had at the library it was all but impossible for him to personally examine every item that went into a book sale. He said that he usually took time to personally check the shelves of books that were to be discarded before they were placed in a sale of duplicates and unwanted items, but that he likewise had to depend on other library personnel to double-check any materials that were being disposed of. In this case, what obviously had happened was that a library employee had merely checked the library's card file, verified that the library did have the items, but had made no attempt to determine that their shelf copy was complete, nor whether it was in better or worse condition than the ones being considered for disposal via the book sale route. John changed procedures thereafter, establishing more stringent guidelines for the library personnel to verify both the completeness and the condition of any library book that was already on the library shelves when the disposal of another copy of the same title was ever being considered.
I issued two book lists in 1975 - in January and again in July - and also issued Catalog Number Thirty-Six. Among the books offered for sale in those catalogs were :
Carter, Nathan. THE DEFINING SPELLING BOOK, OR TUTOR'S ASSISTANT. Madisonville, Tenn. 1835. This was the only copy of this book I have ever owned, seen, or heard of.
Williams, Samuel Cole. DAWN OF TENNESSEE VALLEY AND TENNESSEE HISTORY. 1937. My friend and fellow book dealer, Maynard Hill, of Kingsport, once had a sizeable number of brand new remainder copies of this book. Of course, that was when the book was selling for about thirty-five dollars. Now that the price has increased considerably, I'm sure he no longer has any of those copies (but probably wishes he did). .
THE CALVINISTIC MAGAZINE. A complete run of all issues of this scarce periodical, in five volumes, printed in RogersvIlle, Tennessee, 1827 to 1831.
Paschall, Edwin. OLD TIMES, OR TENNESSEE HISTORY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. Nashville. 1869.
Allen, Mrs. A. J. TEN YEARS IN OREGON. 1848. First edition.
Twain, Mark. LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 1883. First edition.
Drysdale, Isabel. SCENES IN GEORGIA. 1827.
Field, Eugene. POEMS OF CHILDHOOD. 1904. Maxfield Parish illustrations, dust jacket.
Morse, Jedediah. THE AMERICAN GAZETTEER. 1797. Complete with all seven maps.
Pierce, George. INCIDENTS OF WESTERN TRAVEL. Nashville. 1857,
Original three page handwritten letter from Tennessee Bishop J. A. Otey, written at Columbia, Tenn., May 26, 1836,
Wooldridge, J. HISTORY OF NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE. 1890
PARSON BROWNLOW AND THE UNIONISTS OF EAST TENNESSEE. 1862.
Anderson, Thomas. THE PRACTICAL MONITOR FOR THE PRESERVATION OF HEALTH.Knoxville. 1831.
Smith, William A. LECTURES ON THE PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF SLAVERY.Nashville. 1856.
This year I donated a sizeable number of books and manuscripts to the Special Collections Library at the University of Tennessee, including the following :
THE HARP OF COLUMBIA. A NEW SYSTEM OF SACRED MUSIC. Knoxville. 1848.
THE FARMER'S ALMANAC. 1819.
Bowditch's THE PRACTICAL AMERICAN NAVIGATOR. 1819.
THE HARMONIST. An American Songster, printed in 1835.
Jedediah Morse THE AMERICAN GAZETTEER. 1810. Complete with all maps.
Original 1869 hand drawn map of Hardee's Addition. Knoxville. 1869
Original 1834 document, signed by Andrew Jackson
Original manuscript church register book, Members and Probationers, Greeneville, Tenn. 1859
1976
In the spring of 1976, I received a telephone call from a woman who lived in Anderson County, near Clinton. She said she had some "old books" she wanted to sell. Not wanting to make a trip out there just to look a few books, none of which likely would be worth anything, I asked her to read the information on the title pages. I waited while she gathered the books, and when she returned to the phone I was glad I had been so clever, as she read such titles as "Ray's Arithmetic", "Sturgeon's Sermons", and the like. I waited patiently until she finished giving me the information. When she finished, I was prepared to tell her that none of her books had any value, when she said "wait - here's one more book", and began to ad the title page information from a copy of 'The Cherokee Physician'. I was totally dumbfounded, but kept my wits enough to get the directions to her house, and I promptly drove out there that night and purchased this book. It is very rare, and it was not only the only copy I've ever seen, it was the only copy I have known to exist "out of captivity"(i.e., not in a public or institutional library). The complete title of that book is THE CHEROKEE PHYSICIAN, OR INDIAN GUIDE TO HEALTH, AS GIVEN BY RICHARD FOREMAN, A CHEROKEE DOCTOR. By James W. Mahoney. The book was printed in Chattanooga in 1846. Obviously, I had little trouble selling the book.
I was fortunate again in 1976 when I bought another rare piece of Americana. It was titled THE NARRATIVE OF THE CAPTIVITY OF MRS, SARAH ANN HORN, BY THE COMANCHE INDIANS IN TEXAS, printed in St. Louis in 1839. I bought this rare little volume from a farmer who lived in Union County. He called me, having gotten my phone number from an area antique dealer, saying that he had some old books he wanted to sell. I drove to his home and when I got there discovered that the books were in an old barn, mostly crammed into some old dusty boxes. A few were in an old wooden desk. There was not much there ... mostly textbooks and the like. But in one of those desk drawers I found this little publication, in the original wrappers. I did not know the book, but I knew from the subject matter and the place of publication that it was rare, so I made him what I felt was a decent offer for the book. I feared that my offer was a bit too high, because he scratched his chin and said he thought he would just keep it for a while. I had already gathered up a few mildly interesting books of moderate value, so I reluctantly paid him for those and walked to my car. He followed me and we talked for a few moments. I told him that if he ever decided he wanted to sell that book to please let me know. He looked off in the distance for a few moments, then said that he had changed his mind and would sell it to me after all. Of course, I quickly purchased it before he changed his mind again. The book turned out to be ever rarer than I had imagined, and I eventually made a handsome profit when it was sold. .
This year I bought a rather unusual item. It was a handwritten sheet, in an old black boarded envelope, the sheet with the handwritten note "Hair of Andrew Jackson, sent to General John M. McCalla, at Lexington, Kentucky. Brought by Ed J. Donaldson, 1844." Attached was a black card, containing red and white hairs. Thinking the item to a bit macabre it was sold directly to a client in 1976 rather then being listed in one of my catalogs.
Trips I made this year to purchase old books, included such cities as Morristown, Newport (three times), Kingsport, Lake City, New York City, Oak Ridge, Georgia and Nashville. The New York trip was an aside to our family's visit with my sister's family, in Syracuse. The Nashville trip was to the annual Book Fair, where I had only moderate sales but was able to purchase some nice books.
I received a letter in 1976 from a man who lived in the state of Washington. He got my name from an ad I had placed in the A. B Bookman's Weekly. He had originally lived in Tennessee but had lived in Washington for many years. When moving west, he had taken with him a number of old books and other materials he had inherited, and was now interested in selling those items. He asked if I might be interested in some old nineteenth century printings of Freemasonry Minutes from Tennessee and other states. I said that I likely would be interested in such items. After he received my reply he gave me a telephone call and said he was sending the entire group to me and that he would appreciate my offer when they were received if I was still interested after examining them. When they arrived I was flabbergasted. when I opened the box. There were one hundred and seventy Masonic pamphlets, including twenty printed in Tennessee between 1815 and 1850, and others of the same vintage from Kentucky, Louisiana, South Carolina, Texas, and a few other states, plus some from the Indian Territory (Oklahoma). In addition, there were a number of duplicates included in the collection. I spent a day carefully looking over the entire group, then I called and made him what I felt would be a fair and reasonable offer for the collection. He was obviously pleased with the offer, and promptly accepted. The Tennessee pamphlets included six items that were unrecorded. I sold the entire collection to a library later that year, other than several duplicates that I sold individually over the next couple of years. A couple of months later the same man again called and said he also had a collection of Baptist Minutes, from many of the same states, including Tennessee, and was shipping them for my offer. When those arrived there were well over one hundred pamphlets, again plus a number of duplicates, including twenty from the state of Tennessee that were printed before 1860, and again including several that were unrecorded. Other southern states were also represented in that collection. I again made an offer that was accepted by the owner, and that collection was also sold, intact (other than the duplicates) directly to a library. Those two collections likely included the largest number of pre-1850 Tennessee imprints I've ever come across from a single source.
This year, in CATALOG FORTY-TWO, and my NOVEMBER, 1976 LIST, I offered a variety of books, including :
SKETCHES AND ECCENTRICITIES OF COL. DAVID CROCKETT. New York. 1833.
A two page handwritten letter from Knoxville's S. G. Heiskell, dated August 31, 1865, requesting the return of two of his horses that were taken during Longstreet's raid.
GENERAL ORDERS, McMinnville, Tenn., Aug. 8 1863. Twenty-eight pages, entirely in ink manuscript. Courts martial of several soldiers.
Gunn, John G GUNN'S DOMESTIC MEDICINE. Knoxville. 1833.
Crozier, E. W. (Publisher) THE WHITE CAPS OF SEVIER COUNTY. Knoxville. 1899.
Flint, Timothy. INDIAN WARS OF THE WEST. 1833. First edition.
SELECTIONS OF PLANTATION SONGS, AS SUNG BY DONOVAN'S FAMOUS TENNESSEANS, COLORED VOCALISTS. TWELFTH ANNUAL TOUR, 1884-1885.
CENTENNIAL ALBUM, AFRICAN AMERICAN METHODIST CHURCHES, 1816 - 1916.
M'Mullin, R. B. HISTORY OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN KNOXVILLE. DISCOURSE BY THE PASTOR ... AT THE DEDICATION OF THE NEW HOUSE OF WORSHIP, MARCH 25, 1855. Knoxville. 1855.
Anderson, Prof. J. H. THE FASHIONABLE SCIENCE OF PARLOR MAGIC. New York. 1852. Original printed wrappers, fine condition. Wrapper title is "The Grand Wizard of the North's Hand Book of Natural Magic".
Clap, Thomas. THE ANNALS OF YALE COLLEGE. New Haven. 1766.
Hard, M. K. WOMAN'S MEDICAL GUIDE, REVIEW OF PECULIARITIES OF THE FEMALE CONSTITUTION ... Mt. Vernon. 1848.
Haywood, John. DUTY AND AUTHORITY OF JUSTICES OF THE PEACE IN THE STATE OF TENNESSEE. Nashville. 1810. In January, 1976, I bought this book from a man named George Wheatley. He had called, indicating that he had a few old Tennessee books that he wanted to sell, and would be coming to Knoxville that weekend from his home in Morristown. As I recall he said that he worked for an airline. Anyway, he had this rare 1810 publication, but even more interesting he said that he had a Tennessee history book that was printed in Nashville in 1811. I knew that a History of Tennessee was rumored to have been printed in Tennessee around that time, but the only copy of that book was had been reported as "missing" from the collection at the Wisconsin Historical Society since 1949. I had reported those fact in Some Tennessee Rarities, where it is listed as number 17 in that list of rare Tennessee books. I asked him to read what the title page said. He began "A Short Description of the situation ... ", and frankly I was in such shock I really didn't hear the words as he continued. " Would you be interested in also selling that book, " I asked with anticipation. He said that he was not sure at the time, but that he would bring it to Knoxville when he brought the Haywood book, in case I wanted to see the book. Of course I asked him to please do so. Saturday arrived, and we met at the prearranged location. Sure enough, he had the Haywood book, but he apologized and said that in his haste he had forgotten the other book, but would be back in town in a couple of weeks. He also said that he was soon being transferred out of this area, but that he would be contact me within a week or so, because he thought that he may also decide to sell that book after I told him the amount I would be willing to pay for it. Unfortunately, he never called back and never returned to Knoxville to show me that book. About a couple of weeks later I attempted to contact him, but without success. I was never able to determine where he moved or what happened to that rare book, if in fact he owned it. One thing was for certain. The copy of Haywood's "Duty and Authority" did NOT have the advertising leaves in the rear of that book, which I had seen in another copy of the same book I acquired in later years. That advertising includes a leaf concerning a "soon to be published" History of Tennessee. Since Wheatley's copy of Haywood didn't include those ads, he obviously could not have been reading the information concerning that book from the advertisements in that book, since those pages were not included in the edition I had bought from him. It has always been a mystery to me as to whether the man actually owned a copy of that elusive book. If he did, I managed to let the one of if not the rarest Tennessee history books slip through my fingers. .
1977
My sister was still living in Syracuse in 1977. Late in 1976, she had called to let me know that a man who owned an old book shop in a small nearby town called Manlias was selling his entire book stock. The book shop was located in what had been an old church building, and I had been in the shop the previous summer when we visited my sister and her family and I knew the man had a decent stock of old books. One thing led to another, I said that I might be interested in buying the books, and eventually I personally contacted the old man. Hearing the price, I decided to fly to Syracuse in February, 1977, to examine the stock and determine if I wanted to purchase the books. I spent several days carefully going over the shelved stock, in addition to looking over the dozens and dozens of boxes of old books in a large adjoining room. I decided to buy the stock, gave him a down payment, told him to "freeze" the entire stock, and arranged to return in a few weeks to complete the transaction. Back in Knoxville, I knew that I needed somehow to arrange to have the books transported here, and certainly I did not wish to personally rent a huge truck and make that long round trip drive myself. I called a couple of moving van establishments, and the cost was going to be more than I thought I could afford. I then checked the local classified ads, and talked with a man who was located down on Forest Avenue who was willing to do the job. He had a large truck, plus he said that he could also take along an attached trailer, which sounded advantageous, since I really had no idea how much space that many books was going to require, although I had determined that the total number was around fifteen thousand books and pamphlets. I made the necessary arrangements for a specific date, got airline tickets to Syracuse, and flew there late one Friday evening. My plan was to spend Saturday through the next Thursday carefully packing the books in cardboard boxes, and I had arranged for the truck to arrive in Syracuse on that Friday morning.
It took the entire six days to pack the books, and in fact I eventually determined that I could not possibly take all of the books. I became more selective as I filled the boxes each day, and by the end of that exhaustive task there were probably at least two thousand books remaining. My sister was also interested in old books, so I told her to take whatever she wanted of those remaining books and to donate the remainder to whatever organization would be willing to come and pick them up. The old man who sold the books was religiously there every day as I packed the books. In fact, when I first arrived back at the shop to begin packing the books he promptly gave me a check for five hundred dollars, saying that he had "sold a few books to people who had wanted them" while I had been gone. He also handed me a list of the items he had sold, and all of the books related to New York state. That obviously did not sit too well with me, since he was in fact selling books that technically were mine and no longer his. However, I did not make an issue about the situation, since I figured that books about New York were not going to be hot sellers to my usual clients anyway. I did however become a bit more disturbed when I noticed on the first day that three or four valuable Civil War books were suddenly not on the shelves where they had been when I had made the decision to buy the stock. Certainly that handful of books had not played a large part in my final decision, but I told the old boy that those books had definitely been on his shelves when I had examined to stock the previous month. The next morning, sure enough, there were the missing books, on a table in the middle of the store. "I found those last night", he said, "they had apparently fallen down behind some shelves over here", pointing to the wall. I wondered if he really thought that I was so ignorant that I would believe such a fabrication, since I realized that he obviously had pulled those books from the shelves and taken them home with him, assuming that I would not realize the books were missing. He may had done the same thing with some other books that I assumed I was buying when I agreed to purchase the stock, but with that many books I obviously had no way to know if that were true or not. Anyway, it put a bad taste in my mouth and convinced me that the man was less than honest. Even so, I had already invested too much time and money in this venture to make any attempt to terminate the agreement, despite the evidence of his dishonesty.
It was snowing on Thursday, the day before the truck was to arrive. It was not a particularly heavy snow, but I was worried. Intermittent snow continued on Friday, but sure enough, within an hour of the appointed time, the truck from Knoxville rolled in. We spent several hours getting the boxes into the truck, and also pretty well filled up the attached closed trailer. He pulled out about 4:30 PM. I was pretty well exhausted by then.
I had another day to rest a bit, then flew back home Sunday morning. The truck was to meet me at my old storage house in north Knoxville on the following Monday morning. Sure enough, they drove up near the appointed time. It took us a few hours stacking the boxes of books all over the old house, even with the aid of one of those long metal roller-type gizmos that allowed the boxes to be rolled from the truck to the front door. It naturally took me some months to finally shelve the books, on both floors of the old house with nine foot ceilings. I still have my canceled checks that were paid to that trucker for going to Syracuse and back. Looking back today, it is amazing that the total cost was only $680.00. I don't imagine I could find anybody to take on such a task today for less than five thousand dollars or so, perhaps more. I was very lucky back in 1977 to find that man who owned a large truck and obviously needed the job.
Once I had arranged the books in some semblance of order (actually, just on shelves and not particularly arranged as I would have liked, and many were still stacked around in boxes.) one of the first things I did was contact a local man of my acquaintance who collected National Geographics magazines. He had always been asking if I had any older issues, and although I previously had seldom found any, I guessed that now I might just blow his mind, and I probably did. Among those books from New York were three complete runs of the magazine, from 1902 through 1946, plus numerous duplicates of many issues (sometimes as many as five or six copies of the same issues). Although I had them doubled on the shelves, the National Geographics took up a full wall in my storage house, and I figured if the price was right the man might just buy the entire collection, since I had heard him mention that he was often in contact with other collectors of Geographics around the country. I did indeed sell the entire collection of magazines to that man. I not only recovered some of the investment I'd made in the book stock, but I also managed to solve something of a problem, freeing up the large amount of shelf space those periodicals had been occupying.
With so many books on hand, I arranged a book auction in 1977. The auction was held at a place called Auction City, located on Alcoa Highway. It was hardly a howling success, but I did manage to net about two thousand dollars, which came in handy that year, since I had spent so much money buying the stock of the New York state book store.
As usual this year, I was at the book fair in Nashville. I bought more than I sold at that fair, but that was usually the situation, and one of the primary reasons I was the only dealer who lived outside the Nashville area who set up at that Fair every year it was held - at least in the original years. Later, the fair site was moved up in the Andrew Jackson building and was combined with a "new books" fair, a move that in my opinion essentially ruined that event, and was the primary cause of the eventual demise of the old book fair in Nashville.
In 1977 I was President of the Insurors of Knoxville, an association of independent insurance agents. It was a national organization, and the annual convention was in San Francisco. As President of the local chapter I attended that convention, and made the most my spare time during the several days I was there to search for stock in old book shops. I found a few decent books and shipped them home, including some I bought at the Holmes Book Store in Oakland. In fact, I found some of the prices at Holmes to be ridiculously cheap. For example, I bought a bound volume of Harper's Weekly, issued during the Civil War, and while that volume lacked one issue, the remaining fifty-one issues were complete, with all of the single page and double-page illustrations, and it was priced at fifteen dollars ! My wife's first cousin lived in Freemont, near Oakland, and I made the trip to visit his family, via the relatively new Bay Area Rapid Transit system, commonly known as BART. With tongue in cheek, he claimed that Fremont was planning soon to build their own similar transit line, to be called Fremont Area Rapid Transit.
I have some difficulty writing the following, because it includes information concerning my oldest son, Ron, Jr. We lost Ron in a tragic accident in 2000. Ron's intelligence bordered on genius, and he zipped through school, including the University of Tennessee, with a perfect 4.0 average. In those times that was quite an accomplishment. In fact, one of my fellow workers at the insurance office where I worked had attended U. T. a number of years before I was a student there, and said that he had only known of a small handful of students who had accomplished that feat. These days, it seems that literally tons of students have 4.0 averages. I frankly read such modern reports with skepticism, since seemingly either grading procedures have been considerably relaxed, or - for no logical reason - we have suddenly become a country that with an unusually large number of of brilliant students, when compared with earlier years, (which I likewise seriously doubt).
Ron was accepted to Yale Law School, and became editor of the Yale Law Review. After receiving his law degree, he was an attorney in New York City, and later became the President of the International Young Lawyers Association. I took Ron to New Haven in 1977, driving my old station wagon, to which I had attached a rented trailer. I had made arrangements to consign some scarce and rare books for sale at a Baltimore book auction house, and the trailer had those boxes of books, plus Ron's belongings. When Ron had taken all of his things and gotten settled in at Yale, I reluctantly said goodbye and headed towards Baltimore. After I dropped off the books I drove back to the Interstate and headed back home. I stopped in several shops along the way and managed to buy some nice books at some of those places.
I bought and sold (directly to a collector) an interesting early Knoxville school book in 1977. It was THE FEDERAL INSTRUCTOR, OR YOUTH'S ASSISTANT IN ARITHMETICK. written by Abijah and Josiah Fowler, and printed in Knoxville in 1835.
I issued Catalogs Forty-Nine and Fifty this year, offering books that included the following
HELMS' KNOXVILLE CITY DIRECTORY ... FIRST ANNUAL ISSUE. Knoxville 1869
LEGISLATIVE UNION AND AMERICAN, EMBRACING SKETCHES OF THE PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 33RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF TENNESSEE. Volume Two. Nashville Volume Two, Oct. 5, 1859 through March 31, 1860.
McClain, Walter S. HISTORY OF PUTNAM COUNTY. Cookeville, Tenn. 1925.
Du Boise, W. E. B. THE SOUL OF BLACK FOLKS. Chicago. 1903.
GRAND LODGE OF TEXAS. PROCEEDINGS, 13TH ANNUAL COMMUNICATION, HELD IN AUSTIN ... Houston, Texas 1850. Catalog 50
PROCEEDINGS, MOST WORSHIPFUL GRAND LODGE, INDIAN TERRITORY, SIXTH ANNUAL COMMUNICATION, HELD AT ATOKA, NOVEMBER, 1880. Selida, Missouri 1881
Jackson, Helen H. A CENTURY OF DISHONOR. A SKETCH OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT'S DEALINGS WITH SOME OF THE INDIAN TRIBES. Boston. 1885.
Sprague, John T. THE ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND CONCLUSION OF THE FLORIDA WAR. New York. 1848. First edition.
Brown, John. OLD FRONTIERS. THE STORY OF THE CHEROKEE INDIANS ... Kingsport, Tenn 1938. First edition, in the original dust jacket and original glassine jacket.
Books sometimes inexplicably seemed to come my way in pairs, in relatively short order, I also had a copy of this book in the dust jacket the previous year, in 1976. Those were the only times I've ever had copies in the original jacket, although I've had several other copies over the years, but without the dust jacket.
In 1977 I donated to the University of Tennessee library a collection of over three hundred original Benjamin Rush Strong diaries and manuscripts.
1978
In late 1977 an acquaintance, retired police officer J. C. Odum, had gone into the auction business, holding auctions in a building on Clinton Highway. I talked with him about the possibility of selling old books and prints at auction, we came to an agreement, and those auctions were started in January, 1978. With no book store, I had far too many books to sell via mail through my book catalogs, and as had occurred at other times over the years it was necessary to attempt to reduce my stock, regardless of the profit (or lack of same), in order to have an inventory of more manageable proportions. Once I had learned the ropes during my first two or three years, I never bought common books just to have them. But good books seemed to be coming my way in sizeable numbers, one way or another, so I needed to dispose of them in some manner, else they would have run me out of both my house and my storage building.
J. C. held twelve book auctions between January and July that year. Generally, the amounts I actually received from those sales rarely amounted to more than my actual investment, including the cost of the books, prints and maps that were sold, plus the advertising expenses and the commissions. At best, it was a break even endeavor. Even so, it served my purpose by reducing the size of my stock while at the same time enabling me to at least recover the cost of those books. In fact, over the years, when I periodically sold books in Knoxville at auctions or at ill-fated book stores, that usually was the case, those activities enabling me to continue to purchase more desirable old and rare books, which were usually sold to book collectors and rare book libraries in places other than Knoxville. Virtually nobody in Knoxville is a serious collector of rare books, but I found that scarce books that are bargain priced will in fact sell, and that was the situation for the large majority of the books sold during those auctions in 1978.
I found, bought, and promptly sold a volume of rare Tennessee periodicals in 1978. It was the the first twelve issues ( November, 1842 through October, 1843 ) of THE MONTHLY MISCELLANY, Published by Cunnyham and Graves in Monroe County, Tennessee. No city of publication was shown in any issue, but they obviously it were printed either in Madisonville or Pumpkintown.
A rare pamphlet I sold directly to a collector in 1978 was a titled SKETCHES OF SCENES IN THE CAREER OF CHAMP FERGUSON AND HIS LIEUTENANT, WITH CHAMP'S CONFESSION. J. M. HUGHES AND THE KU KLUX KLAN. At that time, this was an unrecorded pamphlet. Written by J.D. Hale, from Hale's Mills, Tennessee, it was one in a series of rare related works that were written by the same writer.
At the Book Fair in Nashville in October, 1978, Hugh Walker sold me three "Stud" broadsides, each being printed announcements of nineteenth century Tennessee auction sales of quality horses. They were printed in middle Tennessee in the 1870's and all were folio broadsides, with illustrations and decorated boarders. I sold them to the first library I contacted.
Local attorney and an avid collector of Tennessee and Civil War books Francis Headman called me one evening. He had heard of an estate auction that was to be held in Murfreesboro the following week and planned to drive down there and take a look at the books. He said he was going that Saturday morning, did not intend to attend the auction itself, but had been assured that he could leave bids on anything he might be interested in. He asked if I would like to take the trip with him, and I readily agreed to do so.
Early Saturday morning he picked me up and we headed down the expressway. Murfreesboro is a few miles this side of Nashville. Francis drove, and that was my first and only time I ever had the experience of being in a vehicle with him behind the wheel. He had only one arm, having lost the other in an accident. many years ago. But he certainly had no problem handling the car with that one arm, and I soon discovered that he was obviously in something of a hurry to get down there and back. I don't think he ever got below eighty miles an hour on the interstate, and frankly he scared the dickens out of me a couple of times.
In view of our racetrack speed, we arrived at the old house in Murfreesboro much sooner than I had imagined we would. We met the folks who were to hold the auction and started looking over the books. I was rather disappointed in both the quality and the quantity of printed materials, as was Francis. I think he left a couple of bids for books, but certainly I did not see anything I was interested in, particularly since the few semi-significant items were in rather wretched condition. I doubt that we were there for more than an hour and a half, and we hightailed it back to Knoxville, at the same breakneck speed we had taken going down there. For me it was a fruitless trip, although Francis was the only local individual who was a legitimate collector of rare Tennessee books and whose name was on my mailing list, and I was pleased to spend the time with him that day. In fact, our discussions about old Tennessee books made the trips to and from Murfreesboro seem even shorter (if that were possible).
The next time I saw Headman he told me that he had successfully purchased an old scrapbook at the auction. He also had been advised about the prices some of those books had brought at that auction, and those results confirmed my suspicion that such places are often not the best place to attempt to buy old books. The reason was simple - many times the general public will attend an "estate auction" with greatly exaggerated opinions of the value of many of the items offered for sale - a circumstance certainly not discouraged by the auction house itself. This was apparently the home place of a well-known old middle Tennessee family, and many of those who attended were obviously determined to have something from that house. One example of the prices of the books that sold at that auction included a worn copy of Edward Carmack's "Character and the Making of Man", a common little suede bound publication, which brought an astounding $85.00. Another example was a worn, torn, and otherwise sad copy of an early twentieth century Tennessee civil war regimental history, a book that at the time was selling for around forty-five dollars or so in sound condition. That copy, loose pages, staining and all, brought a whopping $250.00. Those prices certainly caused me to scratch my head, as more times than once I had sold nice copies of those same books for less than a fourth of the prices somebody had been willing to pay for those worn copies of the books at that estate auction.
This same year Francis Headman called me at my office one day, asking if I might be interested in buying some nice book shelves. An attorney of his acquaintance had died in Morristown, and Francis had been contacted by his widow. He had gone there to buy some books from that man's law library. He said all of the books were gone, but the lady still had her husband's old book shelves. They were not ordinary shelves, but the same kind Francis had in his law office, being those old self contained five stack wooden shelves, each shelf with a protective clear glass pane encased in a wooden frame, that pulled forward and then is recessed in the upper shelves. He said the woman had twenty-five of those units, all in nice condition, and was willing to sell them for fifty dollars each if the purchaser would take all of them. I got the woman's telephone number, but after calculating the space those units would take I reluctantly decided that I had no place where I could possibly store that many such units, so I decided not to pursue the opportunity. That was obviously a lousy decision, since today they sell the individual sections of those book cases for very handsome prices, and at that price they would have been a steal, even back in 1978. I should have found somewhere to store those bookcases and bought them. Just another of the stories of my indecision or failure to make wise decisions at various times over the years.
In 1978 I issued Catalog Fifty-One and Fifty-Two, offering for sale, among other items :
GRAVES OF THE HIGHLANDERS. SOLDIER'S CEMETERY, KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE.New York, 1864, Colored print, folio, (20 x 28).
Handlin, W. W. AMERICAN POLITICS. A MORAL AND POLITICAL WORK, TREATING OF THE CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR. New Orleans. 1864 An association copy, with a seven line ink inscription to the President of the University of Nashville from John Berrian Lindsley.
Haywood, John. REPORTS OF CASES ARGUED AND ADJUDGED IN THE COURT OF ERRORS AND APPEALS, STATE OF TENNESSEE ... 1818. All three volumes of Haywood's 1818 Reports
Burnett, Frances Hodgson. LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY. New York. 1886. First edition.
Aquinas, Thomas. QUESTIONES DISPUTAE ... Lundini. 1595. (bound with) CONTRA GENTILES, also by Thomas Aquinas, printed in 1524.
HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 1878. Small folio.
McClenechan, Charles. BRIEF HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 1888. Three volumes.
Miller, Francis T. (ed.) THE PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR. New York. 1912. Ten volumes.
PAN AMERICAN EXPOSITION, SEPTEMBER 5, 1901. PRESIDENT'S DAY. Fifteen page program for this day at the Exposition, with President William McKinley pictured on the cover. Issued the day McKinley was assassinated.
SWEET CAPORAL CIGARETTES. Collection of 125 cards issued by this cigarette company in the early twentieth century. Each card contains a pasted-on photograph, being portraits of famous actors and actresses of the period.
UTICA, NEW YORK DIRECTORY, 1866-7. 1866. Printed boards, map.
Wilkinson, J. B. ANNALS OF BINGHAMTON, NEW YORK. 1872.
1979
I received a rather exasperating telephone call from an upper east Tennessee university library on Jan. 19, 1979, inquiring about a book I had listed in a catalog the previous year. It was a scarce medical treatise, THE BOTANIC PHYSICIAN, by Mathis and Carter, published in Madisonville in 1837, The person who called complained that my price of $100.00 was too expensive, and requested that I sell the book to them at half the price. During the previous year, in July, 1978, that same library had ordered a copy that same title from an earlier catalogs, via telephone, but they had never sent the confirming library order, and over the next couple of months and after several unsuccessful telephone calls to the library, I was finally told in no uncertain terms that I the book had NOT been ordered. I advised them a book collector had also wanted the book, so I would just disregard their original telephone order for the book. I promptly sold that book to the collector, to whom I had originally found it necessary to advise that a library was already purchasing the book. Lo and behold, in September of 1978 the library again called and said the book was wanted, and that I would soon receive the library's official order via mail. I advised them that in view of my previous unsuccessful attempts to verify the order the book had already been sold elsewhere. So here it was January, 1979 that I received this telephone call from them, again inquiring about the same book, but this time asking if I would sell it at a considerably reduced price. I told the caller once again of my previous experience with their library, and followed up with a detailed letter outlining the activities of the previous year, as I had already previously advised them several months earlier, had they chosen to listen. I also told them that I had since realized that in fact I had priced that copy too low. I further advised them that if they were interested in another copy I had recently acquired - in somewhat better condition - but at twice the price of the copy they had ordered, then later rescinded the order, the previous year, and that they should promptly advise me if they were interested. Of course, I heard nothing further from them, and my guess was that it because I made reference in my letter to the obvious incompetence of their personnel in the bungling of their original order in 1978. I quickly sold the newly acquired copy of the same book in 1979, in my Catalog 56, issued the following year. A collector bought it, for the price of $200.00. Fortunately, the large majority of university libraries run a much more efficient operation than the folks at that particular school.
I completed and issued TENNESSEANA, A VALUE GUIDE TO SCARCE AND RARE TENNESSEE BOOKS. this year. I had one hundred and twenty-five copies printed, each book with inserted leaves from ten different scarce and rare Tennessee books. In most instances those original leaves were from crippled, damaged or incomplete copies of the books. It was necessary that I disassemble perfectly good copies of a couple of books, but I justified that in my mind because I already had other copies of both of those books on my shelves. Anyway, I wanted it to be a somewhat unique publication, thinking it was not likely that anybody could duplicate that publication, including those original pages from ten different rare Tennessee books. Hugh Walker gave the book a nice review in his column in the Nashville Tennessean. My record indicate that I sold fifty-one of TENNESSEANA when it was initially offered for sale. I didn't advertise it again. The truth was, I was not that keen about letting the information out to too many folks about the values of all of those Tennessee books, and I figured that most who bought it and paid the price were likely to keep the book under wraps for their own use.
A charming older lady called me this year, having been referred by one of my friends, saying that she had a few old books I might be interested in. She lived near the University of Tennessee, in West Knoxville (the neighborhood that by that time folks were beginning to call Fort Sanders) When I got there and saw those books, I was obviously very interested. I bought from her a number of books that day, including the 1738 Boston edition of A BRIEF NARRATIVE OF THE TRIAL OF JOHN PETER ZENGER, plus London editions of the same work, printed in 1750 and 1753. I also bought from her a very nice copy of the two volume set of the first edition of Isaiah Thomas' HISTORY OF PRINTING IN AMERICA, printed in 1810.
I issued two catalogs in 1979 - CATALOG FIFTY-FIVE and CATALOG FIFTY-SIX. Those two catalogs offered more than six hundred books, including the following :
Bosworth, Charles E. BREEDING YOUR OWN. HOW TO RAISE AND TRAIN COLTS FOR PLEASURE AND PROFIT. New York. Derrydale Press. 1939 One of 1250 copies printed.
Crozier, E. W. (Publisher) THE WHITE CAPS. A HISTORY OF THE ORGANIZATION IN SEVIER COUNTY. Knoxville. 1899. The White Caps were a self-appointed vigilante group in Sevier County that terrorized the area until the authorities finally clamped down, when some members were convicted of serious crimes and executed. For some while after this book was published, it was rumored that certain family members of those who were named n the book as members of the organization systematically sought out and destroyed whatever copies they could find of the book. Prior to 1979, I had only managed to find one copy of the original edition of the scarce original edition. That year, I was searching in a flea market on Chapman Highway when I was shocked to find a box containing about twenty copies of the original edition. More than half of those copies were water stained and so badly worn that they were useless, but I quickly bought all of them, and listed a copy in my catalog 55, It promptly sold, and within a couple of years all but one of those copies were gone. Before then, I had owned only one copy of that book, and I've never had one since.
Waldo, S. Putnam. LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. 1820.
N. Currier print, PRESIDENTS OF THE U.S., with James K. Polk portrait larger and in center.
Williams, Samuel Cole. EARLY TRAVELS IN THE TENNESSEE COUNTRY. 1928
Williams, Samuel Cole. HISTORY OF THE LOST STATE OF FRANKLIN. 1924.
Bell, Col. L. W. "HEADQUARTERS, BELL'S BRIGADE, DEC. 15, 1864. COLONEL NIXON WILL RETURN WITH HIS COMMAND IMMEDIATELY TO THE CAMP ON THE LEBANON PIKE, AND WILL BE IN READINESS AT DAYLIGHT TOMORROW." Original handwritten order, in pencil, on sheet 5 x 8.
SOUTH WATAUGA, CARTER COUNTY, EAST TENNESSEE. E. Tenn. Mining and Improvement Co.
Freeman, James M. TRUE STORY OF THE CAPTURE OF EMILIO AGUINALDO .. TABLOID HISTORY, SPANISH AMERICAN WAR. Knoxville. 1927. With twelve page supplement.
HISTORY OF TENNESSEE, FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT ... WITH HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE COUNTIES OF EAST TENNESSEE. Goodspeed Publ Co. A total of sixteen different editions of what long have been called the "Goodspeed's Histories of Tennessee". Each volume contains the identical state history, but different issues include historical and biographical information for specific counties.
Newman, Dr. Robert. Original handwritten diary, kept in Europe when he was serving in Wuttumberg, attending American soldiers. Over 130 pages - patient diagnoses, operations performed (some being Prisoners of War) etc. (World War One period)
Folmsbee, Stanley, et al. HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. 1960. Four volumes. The last of four different multi-volume histories of the state of Tennessee published in the twentieth century. While the most recent, this set continues to be the scarcest.
TEXAS PASSENGERS DELIGHTED WITH ACCOMMODATIONS ... Nashville. 1873. Four pages, when unfolded includes a large map of Nash., Chattanooga ad St. Louis on verso.
PICTORIAL LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. 1847
Graves, Rev. H. A. ANDREW JACKSON POTTER, NOTED PARSON OF THE TEXAS FRONTIER. Nashville. 1890.
Shelton, Azariah. SHELTON'S AMERICAN MEDICINE. Madisonville, Tenn. 1834.
Bound volume of six different Beadle's Dime Novels, 1861-1864, including THE UNIONISTS DAUGHTER, A TALE OF THE REBELLION IN TENNESSEE.
(Photographs. TVA. Bridge and Dam Construction.) A magnificent collection of photographs. Contained in heavy binders, consisting of twenty-two volumes. Also including maps, descriptive location records, etc. Norris, Cherokee, Chickamauga, Watts Bar, Watauga ... in other words, the entire Tennessee valley in included. Many photographs depict not only the construction phases of bridges and dams, but views of areas and sections that were destroyed or inundated and no longer in existence. Photographs are original and date from 1935 to the 1940's. Size of the photographs are either 8 x 10 or 3 x 6, and in most instances have typed identifications beneath the photos. The collection includes more than two thousand photographs. Simply having the sense to keep my eyes open and observing things were the only reasons I had managed to acquire this collection of photographs. One day I was walking back to the office after lunch. I had eaten lunch with one of my fellow employees and he was walking with me that day. We passed the alley on the east side of Gay, between Church and Clinch, and took a look down the alleyway to be sure no vehicles were coming my way, although seldom did any cars or trucks use that narrow passage. Down the alley on the right I noticed that there were a bunch of old books or folders piled next to trash cans. Curious, I walked down the alley to take a look. There were these twenty-two volumes of photographs, stacked there awaiting the garbage truck. My associate had walked with me, so I quickly convinced him to stand guard over the volumes while I quickly hustled to my parking garage, drove my car to the alley, and piled the cache of photographs in my trunk and back seat. At that time, and for many years earlier, the TVA had offices scattered all over the downtown area, before the Authority built their facility, between Wall and Summit Hill, combining their offices into one location. TVA had occupied some offices in the old Journal Building that adjoined the alley where I discovered those photographs, and someone had tossed them away when that office was being vacated. It was my good fortune that whoever decided to throw away this treasure trove of photographs apparently had no idea of their significance. Bu then, over the years, I've noticed that similar occurrences are not uncommon around here.
In December, 1979, I donated a total of nearly seven hundred 19th century and early 20th century first editions to University of Tennessee's Special Collections Library. Examples of some books in that collection include : Charles Dickens' Dombey and Son, London. 1848 ; Ernest. Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, 1926 ; Jack London's When God Laughs and other stories, 1911; and Gertrude Stein's Paris, France, 1940. U. T. 's 1979-1980 Library Development Report described in some detail those gifts.
1980
In 1980, I still had lots of books from the Manlius, New York book store stock. I placed an advertisement in AB Bookman's Weekly in 1980, offering to sell about twelve thousand books and pamphlets, (en masse), in order to reduce the size of my stock to manageable proportions. A man from Florida, who operated a book auction house, called. He made an appointment to come to Knoxville. I had naturally retained the rare volumes, for individual sale, and made that clear from the outset. That man was nonetheless interested in the larger collection and ended up buying the books I was offering. At the same time, he looked over my other stock and requested that I consign a number of the rare items to him for the purpose of selling at one of his book auctions. He maintained that he was knowledgeable in the business, and that his book auctions were quite successful. Considering the fact that he was already purchasing the large stock of other books, I agreed to his proposition. I selected about five hundred books from my stock of scarce and rare items, and he took those in separately marked boxes, together with the multitude of other books he had purchased. He rented a huge truck, and it took him a couple of days to get all of those books in the truck before he finally headed back to Florida.
I had made a detailed list of the consigned books, and over the next few months he sent me catalogs of his auctions that included those books. The first couple of catalogs were not totally unsuccessful, although in general the auction prices for my books were seldom more than the amounts I had invested in the individual books. Then I received a catalog where he had decided to combine several of those consigned books into a single offering, and in fact had sold as many as ten to twelve books in a single lot for a price that was less than the value of a single book included in those lots. I naturally called him immediately, told him that I hardly understood his rationale in grouping collectible books into single lots, questioned his knowledge, and requested that he immediately cease the sales of the remaining consigned books. I also told him to return the remaining consigned books to me, and that I would reimburse him for all shipping and postage charges. He agreed to do so. Unfortunately, several weeks later, those books - which numbered more than one hundred items, and included at least three or four books that were worth at least four or five hundred dollars each - had not arrived here. Without going into additional details, suffice to say that despite numerous telephone calls and correspondence during the next few months, I never again saw those books. It turned out that the bird had sold his auction house and all contents to another party, and that person refused to make any attempt to find and return my property, claiming that my beef was with the original owner. I decided to hire legal counsel, an attempted during the following months to recover the books. Unfortunately, I soon discovered that in dealings involving persons in another state, such attempts were usually futile, so eventually, in 1981, I gave up and chalked up the experience to bad judgement on my part. In the process, I figured that overall I had lost about eight thousand dollars or so, based on my original investment in the books that I had foolishly consigned to that Florida book auction dealer.
In 1980 I sold a bound volume of issues of the JONESBOROUGH MONTHLY REVIEW, published by William G. Brownlow in Jonesborough, Tennessee. It contained the complete year of Volume Two, Numbers 1-12, December, 1847 through April, 1849. It was a smallish publication, the dimensions not much larger than a small periodical, even smaller than today's Readers Digest. The Knoxville Journal once claimed to have been published since the 1830's, stretching back not only to Brownlow's first appearance in Knoxville in the early 1850's, but even earlier, to his Elizabethton newspaper. But by the 1840's Brownlow was publishing only this Jonesborough newspaper, and it was an irregular publication, thus the modern claim of continuous publication dating back to the 1830's for that Knoxville newspaper always seemed a rather questionable stretch to me.
I issued two catalogs in 1980 ; Catalog Fifty-Nine, offering only Tennessee books, and Catalog Fifty-Eight, with a wide variety of books for sale. Among the books in those catalogs were :
Alexander, L. E. BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SYNOD OF TENNESSEE. Philadelphia. 1890. I once acquired a remainder stock of about thirty copies of this book. I had acquired them from a college library, where apparently they had been since they were originally published. They had another fifty or so copies. That was twenty years ago, but I'll bet they still have them.
THE BAPTISTS OF TENNESSEE. Includes Tennessee's First Pastor, by Samuel Cole Williams and Tennessee's First Church, by Samuel W. Tindall. Volume One (all printed) Kingsport 1930. I bought my first copies of this small book from my friend Maynard Hill, book dealer in Kingsport. Many years ago, he had acquired a sizeable remainder stock of this book.
Cansler, Charles W. THREE GENERATIONS. THE STORY OF A COLORED FAMILY OF EASTERN TENNESSEE. Knoxville. 1939.
THE ECHO. PUBLISHED BY THE SENIOR CLASS OF THE KNOXVILLE COLORED HIGH SCHOOL. Knoxville 1924 Labeled as Volume One, Number One, this school's first Yearbook.
Janeway, Frank. JANEWAY'S RACE FOR CONGRESS. ON A WHEEL IN HIS HEAD. SHOWING HOW THE RICH SHALL BECOME RICHER AND THE POOR BECOME RICH.Knoxville. 1902. Janeway's "political wisdom" includes such gems as ... "regularity is most important principle of health".
Lester, J. C. and D.L. Wilson. KU KLUX KLAN. ITS ORIGIN, GROWTH AND DISBANDMENT.Nashville. 1884. First edition. Original printed wrappers.
TENNESSEE HISTORICAL QUARTERLY. A run of the first eighty-three issues, from March, 1942 through September, 1962. The first four issues were bound together, all others are separate, and in the original wrappers.
TENNESSEE HISTORICAL MAGAZINE. A run of thirty-four issues, from Volume One, Number One, March, 1915, through Volume Nine, Number Six, January, 1916. All issues in the original wrappers.
WEST TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. A run of the first twenty-two years of this publication. Volumes One through Twenty-Two, 1947-1968.
McAleenan, Joseph. GRAND CANYON TRAILS. New York. 1924. Privately printed, one of fifty copies. With a signed inscription from author.
Ortelius, Abraham. AN EPITOME OF ORTELIUS, HIS THEATRE OF THE WORLD ...London. 1603. With one hundred and twenty-three maps.
RAILROAD DISASTER - WHITE'S STATION, KENTUCKY. Four original photographs, each 5 x 7, on mounts 8 x 10. Different views of the head-on collision train wreck at White's Station, Kentucky, on March 22, 1910, with pencil descriptions written on the reverse side of each photograph.
THOUGHTS ABOUT THE CITY OF ST. LOUIS. St. Louis. 1854. (By John Hogan). The first edition. This copy included the long folding panorama that supposedly was only issued in the second edition, published the following year.
BY AUTHORITY. NOLICHUCKY NAVIGATION LOTTERY. .. TICKET WILL ENTITLE BEARER TO SUCH PRIZES ... Greeneville, Tenn. April 28, 1814. A small lottery ticket, 1" x 4 3/4'. Previously unrecorded.
APPEAL TO THE NORTHERN AND EASTERN CHURCHES, IN BEHALF OF THE SOUTH WESTERN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, AT MARYVILLE, TENN. (Maryville?) 1828. Founded by Isaac Anderson, the Seminary is still in operation, although for well more than a century it has been known as Maryville College.
Ford, Thomas HISTORY OF ILLINOIS. 1854.
Eliot, Samuel. SKETCH OF HISTORY OF HARVARD COLLEGE. 1848
CHRISTIAN CATECHISM. New Market, Virginia. 1811.
Gibson, Charles Dana. SKETCHES AND DRAWINGS. 1898. Oblong folio.
Potter, Beatrix. THE TALE OF TWO BAD MICE. 1904.
YALE CLASS BOOK. 1864. Leather bound, small folio. Containing 150 original tipped-in photographs of students, faculty, campus scenes, etc.
DIE OLYMPISCHEN SPIELE. Berlin 1936. With tipped-in photographic views of the 1936 Olympic games medalists and participants, including Jesse Owens.
1981
In March, 1981, a New York City book dealer called and ordered from me a rare album of western US photographs from one of my AB ads. I mailed the item with an invoice, as requested, giving the dealer the usual dealer discount. After seven weeks, he still had not paid me, so I wrote him and asked for the payment. A couple of weeks later he returned the book, with no explanation other than to thank me "for consigning the book" to him. Which of course I had not done. While I chose not to pursue the issue, I certainly made a note that I would choose not to have anything to do with that bird in the future. Low and behold, a couple of years later, damned if he didn't call again, inquiring about a $2,000.00 book listed in my current catalog. Remembering the previous experience, I politely but reminded him of his "order" from a few years earlier, and advised him that it would be necessary that he first paid for the item if he wished to purchase it, in addition to the fact that he could not return it for any reason. Obviously I was determined to keep him from any attempt to again get his hands on a rare item from my stock, trying to sell it to a third party, and then returning it to me if he was unsuccessful in such an endeavor, as obviously had been the case concerning his earlier "purchase". My requirement was sufficient to discourage him from his previous tactics, and he promptly decided he did not want to purchase that item after all - as if he had actually planned to purchase it to begin with.
After the experience with the New York dealer, I had another later in 1981 that seemed to confirm the fact that in some ways this was to be a strange and sometimes frustrating year for me in the old book business. In August, at the request of a lady who lived in the Fountain City area, I spend several hours on two different days appraising a large collection of old books for her. I had agreed to accept my appraisal fee in books from that collection instead of cash, with the understanding that any books I selected would of course be approved by her as items that she did not wish to keep. I selected about a dozen books when I was completed with the appraisal, and she examined each of them and agreed that I could take them in payment for the written appraisal I had provided.
About a month later, she called me at home and said she wanted six of those book back, having decided not to dispose of them. Obviously I was to say the least surprised to get that message, but fortunately I still had all of those books. I made a trip to her home, returned those books to her, and - per the previous agreement - selected instead a few books to replace those I was being asked to return. The books I received that time were not items that I particularly wanted, but I was already disgusted with the situation, so I made sure that this time she definitely was willing to let me take those books, and hastily made my retreat. I never again talked with that woman, and had no idea what happened to those books. The odd thing was that the books she asked me to return were the least valuable of the books I had originally taken, so I was not overly disturbed since I actually the most desirable books in the original transaction. Even so, I thought it was a rather shoddy and unethical way to handle the matter on her part, and I probably would have balked if she'd known enough about the books to have asked that I return the other books I had been willing to accept in lieu of my appraisal fee.
Three scarce items I sold in my February, 1981 Catalog were the following :
BROWNLOW'S KNOXVILLE WHIG AND REBEL VENTILATOR. Newspaper, folio, four pages. Issue for April 19, 1865, with two black-bordered pages containing an account of the assassination of President Lincoln.
THE DAILY REGISTER. The issue for September 1, 1862. Knoxville newspaper, folio, 4 pages. The final page was a complete printing of the Constitution of the Confederate States. This and the above newspaper were two of the rarest original Civil War period Knoxville newspapers I've ever owned. I bough both from the same man here in Knoxville in late 1980. He had found them in a closet in an old house he had inherited that year.
Hurlburt, J. S. HISTORY OF THE REBELLION IN BRADLEY COUNTY, TENNESSEE. Indianapolis 1866.
Early in 1981, a friend contacted me concerning a collection of old books that a lady of his acquaintance was interested in selling. She was a widow, and lived beyond the Knox County line in Blount County. I had never heard of her, her husband, or the collection. That circumstance solidified my opinion that such things can be right under your nose, but if you don't know about such things they are likely to slip through your grasp. I contacted the lady and arranged to look at the books. Her husband was recently deceased, and she said that he had collected books for fifty years. I thought it odd that I had never heard of the man, but then of course he obviously had never heard of me either, since he had never contacted me, although I had been the only rare book dealer in Knoxville for nearly twenty years at that time, and I had long ago already recognized that fact that people from virtually any place other than Knoxville were aware of that fact. She had pretty well established the price she wanted for the collection, which was a sizeable sum, and while it was obviously a marvelous collection, I was somewhat reluctant about the idea of paying such an amount, unless I felt sure I could expect to realize a profit within a reasonable amount of time. The collection consisted primarily of western Americana, and included many scarce and some downright rare books. I arranged to return that weekend and spend the day looking over the books. When I returned, I spent my time making notes only about the obviouslyrarest volumes, although that itself took virtually the entire day. I told her I would contact her again within a week. I then researched my notes, as best I could, but despite the fact that I was pretty sure I could easily recover the large investment, I was having difficulty in determining how I would be able to make even a relatively small profit on the transaction.
The following Saturday, I returned to the lady's home, frankly ready to either ask that she consider reducing her asking price, or to tell her that the price was simply too rich for my blood, since she was essentially asking about 75 percent of the retail price of the collection. But before I could say anything, she said that she had located additional volumes that she had forgotten about that I had not seen the previous week, but were included in the total collection she was offering for sale. She led me into a small adjoining room, where a dozen additional books, mostly large folio volumes, were laid on top of a table. I looked those books over, and quickly realized that the retail value of those books was probably at least two-thirds of the amount she was asking for the entire collection. That obviously sealed the transaction as far as I was concerned, and I made the necessary arrangements to purchase the books and agreed to pay her price and pick them up the following week. My niece's husband had a large van, and he provided assistance in removing the books from her home to my storage house. It was indeed fortunate that I had sold about twelve thousand books at one time from my stock at one time during the previous year, else there would have been no way that I would have had the room for this newly acquired collection.
Within a few months I had prepared my Catalog Sixty. All of the books in that catalog were items I had acquired in the above collection, and certainly it represented the most extensive collection of rare western Americana I had ever listed in a single catalog. The catalog offered five hundred and eighty-four books. Following are a few examples of books that were listed in that Catalog Sixty :
Adams, R. and H. Britzman. CHARLES M. RUSSELL. 1948. Two volumes. One of 600 sets of the Collectors Edition.
Bartlett, John Russell. NARRATIVE OF EXPLORATION AND INCIDENTS IN TEXAS, NEW MEXICO, AND CALIFORNIA. London. 1854. Two volumes.
Batty, Robert. FRENCH SCENERY FROM DRAWINGS MADE IN 1819. London. 1822.
Brooks, J. T. (Pseudonym - H. Vizetelly) FOUR MONTHS IN CALIFORNIA. 1849.
Caswell, Henry. THE CITY OF THE MORMONS. 1842. Two volumes.
Catlin, George. ILLUSTRATIONS, MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS ... 1876. Two volumes. 360 color plates.
Dutton, Clarence. ATLAS TO ACCOMPANY ... TERTIARY HISTORY OF THE UPPER YELLOWSTONE. 1882. Large folio. 25 double page color plates and maps.
Daubeny, Charles. JOURNAL OF A TOUR THROUGH THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA DURING THE YEARS 1837-38. Oxford. 1843. Printed for private circulation, only one hundred copies printed.
Eckfeldt, Jacob R. and William M. DuBois. NEW VARIETIES OF GOLD AND SILVER COINS, BULLION, WITH MINT VALUES. Philadelphia. 1850. Three plates, plus a cellophane envelope inserted, as issued, containing original samples of California gold.
Green, Thomas J. JOURNAL OF THE TEXIAN EXPEDITION ... 1845.
Haley, J. Everts. THE XIT RANCH OF TEXAS. 1929.
Hildreth, James. DRAGOON CAMPAIGNS TO THE ROCK MOUNTAINS. 1836.
Hutchings, J. M. IN THE HEART OF THE SIERRAS. 1886.
Jones, Daniel. FORTY YEARS AMONG THE INDIANS. 1890.
Langworthy, Franklin. SCENERY OF THE PLAINS. 1855.
Loughborough, J. THE PACIFIC TELEGRAPH AND RAILWAY St. Louis. 1849. Two folding maps.
Hayden, F. V. SUN PICTURES OF ROCKY MOUNTAIN SCENERY. 1870. Leather, with thirty mounted albumen photographs.
Mackenzie, Alexander. VOYAGES FROM MONTREAL ON THE RIVER ST. LAURENCE, THROUGH NORTH AMERICA ... 1802.
Millspaugh, Charles E. AMERICAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 1887. Two volumes, With one hundred and eighty full page color plates.
Muir, John. PICTURESQUE CALIFORNIA. 1888. Two volumes.
Palmer, William. REPORTS OF SURVEYS ACROSS THE CONTINENT IN 1867-1868. 1869.
Revere, Joseph W. A TOUR OF DUTY IN CALIFORNIA. 1849.
Roosevelt, Theodore. BIG GAME HUNTING. 1899. One of 1000 copies printed.
Webber, Charles W. OLD HICKS, THE GUIDE . 1848
Out of curiosity, in recent times I reviewed my asking prices for the above twenty-three books in my Catalog Sixty. The total amount for which I sold these books in 1981 was about eight thousand dollars. Back in the 1930's and 1940's, a single panel cartoon appeared in the daily newspapers, by a man named J. R. Williams, titled "Born Thirty Years Too Soon". I guess I can be included in that category, since I recently took a look among rare books now being offered for sale by rare book dealers on the Internet today, checking the current asking prices for those same books. Those books were being offered for sale by rare book dealers today, the average total asking price now being more than eighty thousand dollars. Adding the probable values of the three other rare books that were offered in 1981 to that total, the difference in the values of those books today obviously seems to be considerably more than simple inflation would dictate.
I issued a third catalog in August, 1981, simply because I still had lots of books to sell, and experience proved that nobody in Knoxville was likely to be knocking my door down to buy any of them. CATALOG SIXTY-ONE offered more than 1,350 books for sale, including some scarce materials. A few examples included :
Walt Disney's FANTASIA. 1940. First edition.
Farnham, Thomas J. TRAVELS IN THE GREAT WESTERN PRAIRIES. 1843.
Foster, George. GOLD REGIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 1849.
Johnson, Charles. SIGHTS IN THE GOLD REGION. 1849
Flint, Timothy. RECOLLECTIONS OF TEN YEARS IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 1826.
Irving, Washington. THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 1837. Two volumes. First edition.
Myrick, Herbert. CACHE LA POUDRE ... One of 500 copies bound in buckskin.
LIFE OF JOHN WESLEY HARDIN. Sequin, Texas. 1896. First edition.
Kendall, G. W. NARRATIVE OF THE TEXAN SANTE FE EXPEDITION. 1844. Two volumes.
1982
I issued three book catalogs in 1982 :
CATALOG SIXTY-TWO 1982. Rare and Collectible. 147 items.
CATALOG SIXTY-FOUR 1982. Scarce and Rare. 717 items.
CATALOG SIXTY-SIX 1982. Americana, Literature. 190 items.
I also issued another book list in 1982, but I don't seem to have a copy of that list today. Some of the items I offered for sale in these three 1982 catalogs included the following :
McGuffey, Charles D. STANDARD HISTORY OF CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE. Knoxville. 1911.
Atlas. No date, but with the maps dated 1831 and 1832.. Issued in London, by Hinton, Simpson and Marshall. Containing fifteen American maps. Eleven are double page, including the United States (11 x 17) ; North American map double folding (17 x 21) ; individual state maps.
Carver, Jonathan. TRAVELS THROUGH THE INTERIOR PARTS OF NORTH AMERICA ... 1766-1778. London. 1781.
Quiros, Manuel Y. Campo Sagrado. TRIUNFOS, AMERICANOS. DESCRIPCION, ISLMBOBOS, DE LA ACADEMIA, MEXICANA. FUNDADENIA REAL CASA DE MONEDA DE ESTERIENO DENUBA ESBANA ANOD 81. A QUIY R. JUNTA PREPARAI A LOS DEDICA SUAM I MENOR CLIENTULO .. 1783. An original manuscript, in ink, bound in leather. Eighty-nine pages, including handwritten text and nineteen original full page hand-drawn colored illustrations.
Stratton-Porter, Gene. HOMING WITH THE BIRDS. HISTORY OF A LIFE TIME OF EXPERIENCE WITH THE BIRDS. 1920. In my early years in the book business I often ran across books by Gene Stratton-Porter, and I soon discovered that while most of her novels are a dime a dozen, her bird books - which were issued in far fewer numbers - are the collectible and valuable books written by this author.
Williams, W. APPLETON'S RAILROAD AND STEAMBOAT COMPANION, BEING A TRAVELLER'S GUIDE THROUGH THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. N.Y. and Philadelphia. 1848. With thirty folding maps.
CHATTANOOGA DAILY REBEL. Issue for march 15, 1863, being Volume One, Number 189. Chattanooga. 1863. Newspaper, 16 x 22. I verified this as being the rare original issue, not one of the many reprints that have been issued over the years.
CONCERT, GIVEN BY THE LEGION BAND, COMPLIMENTARY TO THE REGIMENTAL BANDSMEN STATIONED AT CAMP POLAND. HELD AT MARKET HALL, KNOXVILLE, NOVEMBER 3, 1898. Knoxville 1898 Single sheet, 5 x 9. Originally called Camp Wilder, Camp Poland was a soldiers' camp during the Spanish American War It was located in North Knoxville, near the area that later was the Southern Railway's Coster Shops.
ELEGANT AND RELIABLE STEAMER, ARGYLE ... WILL CECIL, MASTER, BRUCE HUNTER, CLERK. A printed ticket, on card stock, 3 x 4 1/2. With handwritten note on the verso, "March 12, 1847. Capt. Campbell, meet us at Cairo Friday night or Saturday morning ... Our pilots will leave us there. Don't fail, as I have made no other arrangements, W. H. Cecil, Memphis".
Knoxville. Original photographs (stereograph views). Eight original photographs - all stereo views - of the Knoxville area, circa late 19th or early 20th century: North Side of the Tennessee River; Field Workers ; two views, Summer School of the South ; U. T. buildings ; Science Hall, U. T. campus. ; scene on Gay Street, and a Trolley on Gay Street.
MAP OF THE STATES OF KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE. London June 1, 1831 Hand colored map, 9 x 15 1/2, plus margins.
Chadwell, Henry. THE AMERICAN GAME OF BASE BALL. HOW IT IS PLAYED. Philadelphia. 1888. Color pictorial wrappers.
Crawford, Lydia Ann. ON THE DEATH OF WILLIAM H. HARRISON. Broadside, 6 x 12. A crude publication, with an engraved portrait of Harrison printed at a ninety degree angle from the text (a poem written at the time of Harrison's death).
Johnson, Charles G. VIEWS OF ARIZONA AND THE COLORADO RIVER. San Francisco. 1868. Large folio (21 x 27 1/2). Consists of three large heavy leaves, each with eight pasted-in original photographs, with description in red ink at the base of each. The photos are views - Arizona City, Fort Yuma, Steamer Cocopah, etc., and several of Indians, including bare breasted females. Apparently a prototype of an unpublished work. The title is at the first leaf, with an 1868 San Francisco copyright beneath the title. This is entirely unrecorded, but Johnson's "Territory of Arizona", printed also in San Francisco and containing text (but with only three original photographs), brought $8,000.00 at the Streeter auction in 1966.
A nice lady of my acquaintance, who operated an antique shop in south Knoxville, phoned me one day. Some folks from New Hampshire were in her shop and had bought a few items from her. She said they had an "old book, with pictures", that I might be interested in seeing. Armed with that nondescript information, I hustled out there, to find this folio volume in the couple's station wagon. They said they had bought it at an estate sale in New Hampshire, and were on their way to Florida, where a book dealer always would buy their interesting books. I asked what they wanted for it. They were of completely silent on the matter. Knowing the book had to be rare, I finally offered them what I though was a fair price, and at about the same time the statement left my lips the man immediately said "could you make it --- , stating a figure that was a couple of hundred dollars more than my offer. After brief thought, but determined to have the book despite the fact that I was doing a bit of guesswork, I agreed to his price, paid him, and carefully placed the oversized volume in the trunk of my car. When I bought it, I hoped that I could at least double my money. After a little research, I decided that maybe I could get a much better price, particularly since I could find no record of this specific publication recorded anywhere. I first toyed with asking as much as five thousand dollars for the book, but during the following month it became rarer each day in my estimation, since I continued to find no record of the book anywhere. By the time I issued Catalog 64, I had priced the book at $12,000.00. A rare book dealer promptly bought the book, and within a few months after he acquired it the book was offered for sale in one of his catalogs, priced at twenty-five thousand dollars.
Carte de la Caroline et Georgie. Published in France Lieus Communes. 1757 A map, 7 x 11 Shows the Holston River, Telliquo (Tellico), Cheraquis (Cherokees), and the "Tanassee" River.
I bought this map when we made the first of two different trips to Europe, in June, 1982. We went to Paris, Rome and London. Paris is full of bakeries and sidewalk cafes, but is in dire need of a pooper-scooper law, since so many people own dogs, and exhibit no tendencies to clean up after the animals. For that matter, it was also disconcerting to observe people seated at a table next to you in a restaurant, with a damned by their side, if not in fact in one of the seats, a common occurrence in that city. Rome is a dirty city, but then I suppose there is something of an excuse, since it's obviously older than somewhat. There, outside the Colosseum, I found it both surprising and amusing to see that items sold by vendors included such quaint things as beer can openers containing a picture of the Pope (which perhaps explains a sometimes heard alternate name for those implements - a 'church key') In London, I went to the Antiquarian Book Fair, at the Europa Hotel, in June, 1982. Snottiest bunch I had ever seen. Not one single dealer greeted me when I came into booth, and none asked if I was looking for anything in particular. By the way, I had purchased that map from a map and print dealer in Paris, at one of the many shops and booths that lined the Seine. Some years later, the only other time we visited Paris, I was disappointed to find that many of those booths had disappeared.
WASHINGTON COLLEGE, VIRGINIA. Album of original CDV. photographs, circa 1866. Includes a signed photograph of Robert E. Lee, and photographs (portraits) of students at the school, one being a tintype. A total of eighteen photographs in the album. Lee was the first President of what later became Washington and Lee College.
CHURCH MEETING BOOK OF BUNYAN MEETING, 1650-1821. BEING A REPRODUCTION IN FACSIMILE, OF THE ORIGINAL FOLIO ... THE CONGREGATION OF CHRIST IN AND ABOUT BEDFORD. London and Toronto. 1928. Folio. Decorated buckram, with ties. One of 675 copies printed.
ARKANSAS MILITARY BOUNTY LANDS. SUMMARY OF THE LAWS OF THE TERRITORY OF ARKANSAS, REGULATING ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND RECORDING OF DEEDS, PAYMENT OF TAXES ... Broadside. Thirty-seven lines. Printed Little Rock, Arkansas Territory, August, 1826, Arkansas Gazette. I can't recall now where I bought this broadside, but it is the earliest Arkansas imprint I've ever owned.
Francis Headman bought a rare Confederate manuscript from an eastern book dealer this year. I still have their original invoice that was sent to Headman with that item, for $7,500.00 (which I acquired among a group of old books catalogs Headman had saved for me one time.) What I thought to be incredible then ( and now ) was the fact that for an item costing seventy-five hundred dollars, they still charged him almost twenty-five dollars for "packaging and shipping", (and that was back in 1982). For an item of such rarity and price, I believe could have afforded to package the items without any charge, and paid the postage myself. To me, those "packaging" charges were always the same as the inexplicable "handling" charges - simply a way to pick up a few extra bucks. I never had the inclination (nor the audacity) to attempt to charge any of my customers for such vague and unexplained services.
This year I donated a total of more than nine hundred and fifty collectible old books, a collection of American newspapers, and a sizeable group of nineteenth century sheet music to a university rare book library.
1983
In March, 1983, I had a booth at the first annual Louisville, Kentucky Book Fair. I had received enough advance notice to enable me to issue a Book List for distribution to dealers and collectors at that Fair. That list included sixty-four of the books I offered for sale then, and in addition of course I also took other books to that Fair The following were among the books listed in that catalog :
Mazulla, Jo and Fred. BRASS CHECKS AND RED LIGHTS. Denver. 1966. One of 150 copies, with an original Brass Check embedded in the front cover. The first edition of this illustrated treatise on old western houses of prostitution. Viewing the photographs of some of these "ladies" reveals, if nothing else, that the western cowboys must have been in lonely indeed.
SPIRITUAL CANTIQUES ... SET TO OLD AND NEW TUNES. Paris. 1732.
Stratton-Porter, Gene. HOMING WITH THE BIRDS. 1920
Weems, Mason L. LIFE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON. Knoxville. 1842.
GYPSY DAYS IN COLORADO, CALIFORNIA, FLORIDA, AND THE CANADA BUSH. Boston. 1890. Heavy boards. Photo-illustrated, including tipped-in original photographs. Number Seven of only twenty-six copies printed. I bought this book just a short while before the Louisville Book Fair, and I foolishly committed the cardinal sin of taking it to that Fair. I did make a note for my personal records, but even then I failed to record the author's name. Naturally, a book dealer quickly bought the book at my asking price at that Fair. I still don't know the author's name, and I was never able to find a record of the book simply by its title. But I'd bet my bottom dollar that the book is quite rare, and even in 1983 it was probably worth considerably more than the amount I sold it for.
I also issued CATALOG SIXTY-SEVEN in 1983. With 2,322 books offered for sale, it was one of the largest catalog I ever issued. Looking at a copy of that catalog today, I notice the type is so small that I can hardly read the thing without a magnifying glass, so I probably unintentionally chased away some of my older clients back then by choosing to cram so many books into such a small space, and should have made the catalog easier to read. Some interesting and scarce books that were offered in that catalog, several being items that I have never again owned. Some of the books in that catalog included :
BOOK OF ART PRINTING. A BIENNIAL PRODUCTION OF CRAFTSMANSHIP AND PROGRESS IN THE PRINTING INDUSTRY. Rogersville, Tenn Pressman's Home (ca 1930) A quality publication, with numerous illustrations, many in color.
C.M. MCCLUNG COMPANY, KNOXVILLE. CATALOG NUMBER FIFTY. Knoxville Large clothbound catalog, illustrated, 1221 pages. No date, but circa 1885-1890. A huge illustrated catalog of more than 1200 pages, illustrating the size and importance of this long-time Knoxville wholesale firm in the late nineteenth century. Years ago, the owner of a firm that was doing some printing work for me wanted to borrow a similar catalog from the McClung Company that I had in stock at the time. I did, and after a couple of years of attempting to get it back, but to no avail, I learned a valuable lesson. The old adage about never lending a book to anybody is still true today. Other than those I trust to the extreme, today if somebody asks to borrow a book, I have a simple solution. If it is a book I wish to keep, I merely politely tell them 'Sorry, I just don't lend books'. If I don't really care that much about the book, I simply let them have it as a gift, realizing that it is likely that they would never return it anyway.
KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE. Colored map, 18 x 26, by Johnson, 1860.
TENNESSEE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS. A near complete run of this publication, from Volume One, Number One, 1944, through the year 1963. Lacks only issue Number One from 1957, and includes all of the rare early issues. All issues in the original printed wrappers. The early issues, issued in mimeographed format, stapled, 8 x 11, are much scarcer than the later issues.
Campbell, Alexander. DEBATE ON CHRISTIAN BAPTISM. Buffaloe (Virginia) 1824.
Roosevelt, Theodore. THE WINNING OF THE WEST. 1902. Four volumes, the "Allegheny Edition"
Newton, Isaac. PHILOSOPHIAE PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA. Geneva. 1739. Three volumes. The first Jesuit edition.
Lavoisne, M., et al. A COMPLETE GENEALOGICAL, HISTORICAL .... ATLAS. 1821. Folio (12 x 18) With double page color maps, including the United States map, by Melish.
Duane, William. A HANDBOOK FOR INFANTRY. Philadelphia. 1813. With eleven folding plates.
Later in 1983 I issued CATALOG SIXTY-EIGHT, offering two-hundred and forty-one books, including the following :
Bokum, Hermann. THE TENNESSEE HANDBOOK. Philadelphia 1868 Printed wrappers, with a folding map of Tennessee.
MOSSY CREEK COLLEGE, MOSSY CREEK, TENNESSEE. CATALOGUE, 1875-6. Knoxville. 1876. I offered three different catalogs from Mossy Creek College in Catalog 68, but I have never seen one since. I don't know why they ever changed the name of this place from Mossy Creek to Jefferson City, nor for that matter why the changed to name of the school to Carson Newman College.
SEMINARY FOR YOUNG LADIES, MOSSY CREEK, TENNESSEE. Broadside, 9 x 11. thirty lines. At base, "W. T. Russell, President, Mossy Creek, Tennessee". For the school year 1884-1885.
HIAWASSEE ASSOCIATION OF BAPTISTS, MINUTES OF THE FOURTEENTH ANNUAL SESSION, MEIGS COUNTY, SEPTEMBER, 1837. Madisonville, Tenn. Johnston and Edwards (1837)
HIAWASSEE ASSOCIATION OF BAPTISTS, MINUTES OF THE SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL SESSION, ROANE COUNTY, SEPTEMBER, 1840. Pumpkintown, Tennessee. Johnston and Edwards (1840) A previously unrecorded Pumpkintown imprint.
HIAWASSEE ASSOCIATION OF BAPTISTS, MINUTES, 19TH ANNUAL SESSION, BRADLEY COUNTY, SEPTEMBER, 1842. No place or printer shown. I acquired this together with the above two pamphlets at the same time. This particular item was probably also printed in Pumpkintown, based on the date of printing.
GENERAL ORDERS, ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. A bound volume containing over 340 separate printed Civil War Orders, issued in Chattanooga, Nashville, and Winchester in 1862 and 1863. Each year is bound with a title page that was printed in Nashville in 1864, when the Orders were assembled and bound - apparently for the use of officers. (The orders themselves are originals, from 1862 and 1863, being printed on different paper stock, with some issued in slightly different sizes.
LOYAL STATE UNION TICKET. FOR GOVERNOR, WILLIAM G. BROWNLOW. 1865 A political handbill, 2 3/4 x 12, also listing candidates for Senators and Representatives. 67 lines.
Killebrew and Safford. INTRODUCTION TO THE RESOURCES OF TENNESSEE. Nashville. 1874. 1183 pages, three large folding maps.
White, Daniel T. WHITE'S NEW COOK BOOK. Cincinnati. 1840. Original wrappers.
Heinsohn, A.G., Jr. Scrapbook. A bound volume of original letters and related items to and from Heinsohn, who was Vice President of the Cherokee Spinning Company, Knoxville. The cover title is "My Dear Mr. Millis". Of a letter from Heinsohn to H.A. Millis, Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, concerning the failed attempt to unionize the Cherokee Company. The book contains 13 original letters between Millis and Heinsohn, and 33 letters to Heinsohn, from various prominent business executives in the United States, including one from Eddie Rickenbacker, of Eastern Air Lines.
I bought a collection of more than three hundred original handwritten letters this year, all relating to the Miller / Muller family, living in Tennessee and Virginia in the nineteenth century. The letters were written from the 1840's to the 1870's, and all were in German. Having neither the patience nor the inclination to make any attempt to translate those letters, plus the fact that I acquired them for a very reasonable price, I donated the collection to a library in late 1983.
1984
In 1984 I bought - from a part-time book dealer - a copy of a rare book published in 1839 in Pumpkintown, Tennessee. The title was THE FARMERS AND TRADERS GUIDE. The book still had the printed boards as it had originally been issued, and for the first time I had found an original description of the location of the mystery east Tennessee town of Pumpkintown, The title page verified that the place of printing was Pumpkintown, but the rear printed board included a printed statement that the town was located. Usually, when I have come across a rare and early Tennessee imprint of this magnitude, I figure that I will never again see another copy (and usually that assumption has been correct). In this instance, I was wrong, as I did find another copy of the book about ten years later. Naturally I sold both this copy and the subsequent one with little trouble, and there are still some folks and rare book librarians standing in line for the chance to acquire a Tennessee rarity of this magnitude.
Still having a sizeable stock of old prints and maps, I arranged to consign many of those items offered for sale by a fellow-employee at the insurance office where I worked, Tom Rhyne. He had opened a booth at a local antique mall at the time, and that enabled me to sell a number of such items through those consignments. That arrangement lasted for a year or two and enabled me to rid myself of a sizeable number of such materials.
I issued CATALOG SEVENTY in 1984, offering 408 items, including :
LIST OF BOOKS FOR SALE BY REV. JAMES B. CONVERSE, MORRISTOWN, TENNESSEE. Morristown. ca.1890's One of the earliest catalogs I have seen from an east Tennessee book dealer. Converse was a Preacher, and offers a number of religious books here. But he also offered other out-of-print titles, including a copy of Breazeale's LIFE AS IT IS, Knoxville, 1842, for a buck and a half !
B(ickham), W.D. ROSENCRAN'S CAMPAIGN WITH THE FOURTEENTH ARMY CORPS, IN THE ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. Cincinnati. 1863.
Walling, H. F. ATLAS OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN. Detroit. 1873. Large folio (14 x 18). With colored maps, including a double page map of the United States, and a township map laid in, identifying property owners.
LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF JOHN DILLINGER, AMERICA'S PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE. Mt. Morris, Illinois. 1934. 8 x 10, wrappers. (Issued when Dillinger was still at large)
Dunbar, Paul Lawrence. CANDLE LIGHTIN' TIME. 1904. Photographic illustrations by the Hampton Institute Camera Club.
Moorehead, Warren K. THE STONE AGE IN NORTH AMERICA. 1910. Two volumes.
Herr, Horace Dumont. HARVEY VONORE ... THE STORY OF OLD LECOMPTON AND EARLY KANSAS. Fort Myers, Florida. 1933. One of only one hundred copies printed.
King, C. W. ANTIQUE GEMS AND RINGS. 1872. Two volumes. (with) King, C. W. ENGRAVED GEMS. 1885.
de Vinci, Leonardo. RECUEIL DE CHARGES ET DE TETES DE DIFFERENS CHARACTERS... Paris. 1767. Seventeen plated by De Vinci, each with multiple views of grotesque heads.
Scrapbook kept by Dr. James G. Hunt, Utica, New York. 1880's. Hunt was the Utica County medical examiner, this thick scrapbook included numerous pamphlets, invitations, handwritten items, and newspaper clippings. The most intriguing was a four page account of the death of a man John Nenninger, who in 1885, in a suicide attempt, drove a nail into the top of his head. Dr. Hunt removed the nail, and the man initially seemed to have few ill effects, although he eventually died from the self inflicted would. The macabre aspect of this scrapbook was that Hunt had retained the original square nail and it was attached to one of the pages, via a black string, amid the newspaper accounts of the Nenninger case that were pasted in that scrapbook.
Barnard, George. PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY OF SHERMAN'S CAMPAIGN. New York. (1866) Oblong folio, leather, with corner bosses. Sixty-one original mounted photographs by Barnard, of scenes from Nashville and south to South Carolina, including Chattanooga and Atlanta. One of the rarest of all Civil War publications.
I thought this book had been sold in 1984, when I received a telephone call from a man who lived on the west coast. He was a graduate of a southern university, and indicated that he was purchasing this volume for that school's library. As instructed, I carefully packaged and mailed the book to that library, with the invoice. Hearing nothing from that library after more six weeks or so, I wrote to them, inquiring about the status. A few days later the man from California called, said the library was returning the book to me because the book was in unacceptable condition. In addition to being considerably overpriced. I was obviously shocked and surprised, knowing that the book was complete and in sound condition, and that it was accurately described in my catalog. Nonetheless, I told the character that as long as I received the book in the same condition as it had been shipped I would be pleased to have it returned, since I felt it was underpriced. A couple of weeks later the book arrived back in Knoxville, but strangely, without any indication that the package had been insured, and without any requirement that I sign any postal form indicating that the book had been returned to me. Otherwise, I never once received any correspondence or other contact from that library itself. Although I was somewhat disappointed, I was frankly pleased to have it returned to me, because it was in fact more valuable than my price of $ 11,000.00 had suggested. I simply placed the book in a protected environment for a while. Later, I again listed the book in one of my catalogs, at what then was then the more realistic price of $25,000.00, and it was promptly sold to another library. That library also naturally desired to carefully examine the book, in view of the large expenditure. The book was examined by an qualified rare book expert, and I was advised that the same person had seen all copies of the book that were located in American libraries, and advised the library that the copy they bought from me was in the best condition of any copy he had seen.
A London book dealer wrote me in 1984, indicating they wanted to purchase a book I had listed in a "books for sale" ad in the AB Bookman's Weekly. The book was priced at $ 400.00. They asked that I send a couple of photocopies, and also that I verify the completeness of the book. I replied via mail, complying with their request, and advising that the condition was sound and obviously complete, else I would not have offered the book for sale. A couple of weeks later, they wrote again, and after a bunch of hogwash in an attempt to impress me with their "experience and expertise" in the rare book trade, they requested that I sell the book to them for one hundred dollars, had the audacity to say that they were "sure I would accept their offer", and even went so far as to request that I accept trade in other books, in lieu of actual payment. Obviously, I declined their offer to pay seventy-five percent less than my asking price, and at the same time couldn't resist telling them that despite their apparent suspicions, I was not an ignorant country bumpkin in the hills of east Tennessee. At various times over the years I have concluded that some book dealers actually manage to acquire books from inexperienced and/or less knowledgeable persons through such tactics,.
1985
In 1985 I received a phone call from a man who lived near Sweetwater. He said he had lots of old books, and I drove down there to take a look. Sure enough, he had a house full of old books, many being scarce and rare volumes. Then, and the next year, I spent several thousand dollars buying books from that collection, offering many of them in my subsequent catalogs. Among the many books he had were books that originally had belonged to a British stage performer, Cecilia "Cissy" Loftus, who played the part of Peter Pan in an early twentieth century American production of the James M. Barrie play. There were many theatrical books and related items I bought from that collection, including a limited edition set of Barrie's works, signed by him, and a sizeable collection of sheet music, including a couple of songs Loftus had written, and others that included signed presentation inscriptions by the composers
I issued CATALOG SEVENTY-TWO in 1985. Scarce and Rare, offering one hundred and ninety-five books, including :
West Annison Alabama Presbyterian Church. Handwritten ledger, containing minutes of Sessions Meetings of this church, April, 1889 through May, 1891. 104 pages.
Mather, Increase. A DISCOURSE CONCERNING EARTHQUAKES, OCCASIONED BY EARTHQUAKES WHICH WERE IN NEW ENGLAND ... Boston. 1706.
SPECIAL NOTICE. HONEST LONG CUT TOBACCO. W. DUKE & COMPANY. New York. No date (circa 1890) Large advertising poster, 21 x 25. Offering CDV photograph portraits of famous persons with each 5 cent tobacco purchase. The center ad surrounded by eight original 7 x 8 composite photographs, each depicting six of the photographs being offered. Catalog 72.
Bailey, J. T. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE CITY OF BROOKLYN AND SURROUNDING NEIGHBORHOOD, INCLUDING WILLIAMSBURG. 1840
THE CHAP BOOK. Chicago. The first three years of this periodical, 1894 through 1896, May, 1894, in five bound volumes, with the original wrappers retained in all issues. Considered to have been the first of America's "Little Magazines". through December, 1896. Five volumes,
Five original folio photographs, on mounts 14 x 17, from the Princeton Scientific Expedition in Colorado in 1877. (Much rarer than the photographs by Jackson and others of the same period)
MacLeay, K. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF ROB ROY AND THE CLAN MACGREGOR. Glasgow. 1818.
TRAVELS OF CAPTAINS LEWIS AND CLARK. Philadelphia. 1809.
APPLETON'S RAILROAD AND STEAMSHIP COMPANION. 1848. Twenty-six engravings, thirty folding maps.
In October, I had a booth at a book fair in Asheville, North Carolina. It was only a one day fair, and since Asheville is only about an hour and a half drive from here, I drove over there early that morning and drove back home the same night. I had fairly decent sales at that fair, and I also managed to purchase some nice books for stock from other dealers. Encouraged by that experience, I decided to sign up for an upcoming book fair in Charlotte, North Carolina, to be held in November, 1985. I looked forward to setting up there with some anticipation. I even issued and took with me a catalog specifically for that fair, listing some of the books I would have for sale at that fair, describing fifty-four of the hundreds of books that I took to that fair, including books on a wide variety of subjects. A few of the books listed in that catalog were the following :
Baum, Frank. THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ.1900. The first edition.
AMERICAN PORTRAIT GALLERY OF EMINENT AMERICANS. Ca 1865. Large folio, India proof portraits. One of only one hundred copies printed.
THE REDEEMED CAPTIVE RETURNING TO ZION. New Haven. 1802.
Webster, Noah. AN AMERICAN SELECTION OF LESSONS IN READING AND WRITING. Salem, Mass. 1802.
THE WHIG PORTRAIT GALLERY. 1850. Thirty-eight engraves portraits.
Recalling the mild success I had at the Asheville Book Fair earlier in 1985, I signed up for a booth at a new Fair in Charlotte, North Carolina. My handwritten notation at the top of my personal file copy of the catalog I issued for the Charlotte Book Fair pretty well sums up the story of that ill-fated journey, when I wrote the following : "This was the only book fair I have ever attended where I not only didn't sell a single book, but I likewise didn't find a single book I was interested in purchasing from any of the dealers at this Fair."
1986
One day in 1986 I received a telephone call from a man who shall remain unnamed here. He lived in an east Tennessee city. The man was a fairly well-known individual in some circles, being quire being active in area historical associations. His name had been on my mailing list for some while, and he had purchased books from my catalogs for a number of years.
I had not personally met him previously, all contacts having been through the mails or telephone conversations. The purpose of his call was to tell me that he was considering selling some of his old Tennessee books and he asked if I might be interested. Naturally, I said yes, and arranged a time to visit him. His directions were fairly specific, so I had little trouble finding the old two story house, and I rolled up the gravel driveway that circled to the back of the house at the appointed time. He had said that I should enter at the back of the house, so I walked up and onto to the large screened porch and knocked on the back door. It took a couple of minutes, but finally he appeared. Upon opening the door it was obvious that either the man was off his rocker, or something else was amiss, as he was stark naked. Well hell, I had not made that trip NOT to look at old books, so I entered, did what I could to ignore his nakedness, and quickly asked to see the books. He preceded me to a stairway and took me upstairs, where there were hundreds of books on the shelves. As he talked about his ancestors and the books, I tried my best to ignore his appearance and to concentrate on examining the books. But after a couple of minutes of being totally uncomfortable, I feigned that I was suddenly feeling ill due to a stomach virus, told him that I found it necessary to leave immediately, and quickly went down the stairs and made my exit. He followed me out onto the screen porch as I quickly left, lying once again by telling him that I would call him again for another appointment to see the books. I cleared out of there as fast as I could. I never called that nut again, and fortunately he never again called me. A week or so later, I mentioned the experience to a friend who was a librarian, and while he got a laugh from hearing of that experience, it turned out that he knew of the individual, and based on rumors and innuendoes he had heard elsewhere about that same man, his opinion was that my experience that day might not have been a unique occurrence. Anyway, it was too weird for me, and certainly it was the only time I've ever come across a potential source for old books where the owner somehow thought that one should be required to view the books while he was standing around naked as a jaybird. No, thanks.
Hugh Walker's Sunday columns in the Tennessean continued to be the best (and possibly the only columns) about old Tennessee books that appeared in any Tennessee newspaper during my lifetime.
My sister had moved to southern California and this year we visited her. While there, I visited several book shops, including one near the ocean in Orange County. I bought some very nice books in that shop, where the proprietor had a marvelous stock of Americana. When I was in the shop, nobody other than the proprietor was around, so as I looked through the shelves I laid small stacks on or near them, then later went back to retrieve the selected books for purchase. A few days later, after I had returned home, I only then realized I had left one small group of books, including the original 1810 Philadelphia edition of THE SAVAGE, by "Piomingo" (pseudonym of John Robinson) That title was reprinted in Knoxville in 1830, and I had always wanted a copy of the first edition, but that's the only copy I ever saw. As usually was the case, I was on a somewhat limited budget, so while I would have liked to have purchased a number of other items in that store, the one I have always regretted not buying was a four page handwritten letter, contemporary with the famous "Shootout at the O.K. Corral", written by one of the participants of that famous "Shoot-Out".
My Catalog Seventy-Four offered 695 books in 1986, a few of those including :
EAST TENNESSEE - STORE ACCOUNT BOOK, 1884. 11 x 16, with 674 pages completed in manuscript, of sales of merchandise to persons and firms in Newcombe, White Pine, Russellville, Morristown, Athens, Bristol, Coal Creek, Maynardville, Persia, Clinton, etc. Firm not identified, but obviously an east Tennessee business, and as this only covers the period from January 1 to July 21, 1884, this obviously was a successful business.
SUPPLEMENT TO THE NATIONAL BANNER, NASHVILLE, NOV. 9, 1827. RESOLUTIONS AND ARGUMENT BY MR. BROWN ... CONDUCT OF THE PRESIDENT ... RECOMMENDING FOR PRESIDENT GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON. Nashville. 1827. 21 pages, printed in double columns.
THE WAR. BEING A FAITHFUL RECORD OF TRANSACTIONS OF THE WAR BETWEEN THE U.S.A. AND UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN. New York. Bound volume of this small newspaper format publication, containing Volume One, Numbers One through Fifty-Two, and also includes the first twenty-two numbers of Volume Two
McGregor, John. BRITISH AMERICA. Edinburgh. 1833. Two volumes.
TWENTY AMERICAN ETCHINGS. 1897. Folio. Mounted etchings by Parrish, Peter Moran, Thomas Moran, Garrett, others. One of 250 copies on Holland paper.
CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY. Atlanta, Georgia. 1899. Twelve volumes.
Finerty, John F. WAR PATH AND BIVOUAC ... BIG HORN AND THE YELLOWSTONE EXPEDITION ... 1890.
YALE UNIVERSITY. 1867. Two folio volumes, in tooled leather. With 130 tipped-in original photographs of students (most signed), and thirty photographs of views of the Yale campus.
HOUND AND HORN. Issue for Spring, 1928. Containing thirteen page poem by James Agee, titled 'Ann Gardner'.
Welles, Henry T. ADDRESSES, ORATIONS, ESSAYS. Minneapolis. 1892. Leather, all edges gilt. One of only fifteen copies printed.
Kilbourn, John. THE OHIO GAZETTEER. Columbus, Ohio. 1817.
Campbell, John P. (Publisher) NASHVILLE BUSINESS DIRECTORY FOR 1855.
Dutton, Clarence. ATLAS TO ACCOMPANY MONOGRAPH ON THE TERTIARY HISTORY OF THE GRAND CANON DISTRICT. Washington. 1882. Folio (18 x 20). Twenty-five double page chromo-lithographic color views and maps. Earlier, I had owned a copy of this collectible book with color plates. That copy was had been listed (and sold) in my Catalog Sixty. In 1986, the University of Tennessee library held one of their infrequent book sales, disposing of deaccessioned books and donated volumes no longer wanted. In earlier years, they held similar sales, but by this time the sales were infrequent and seldom was one apt to locate a significant book among the thousands of cheaply priced books offered for sale by the library. But I still realized that despite the fact that a book dealers from this area, and a few from other cities, attended these sales, I could usually find something of significance, either a book that few people realized was scarce, or merely because everybody had managed to miss seeing the book among the multitude of volumes on those shelves. Anyway, I decided not to go to the sale until a couple of hours after the announced opening time, so I didn't show up until around 10:30 or so. I wandered through the aisles, several times greeting book dealers of my acquaintance. About a half hour after I arrived, I saw this large volume lying on its side on a shelf, and immediately recognized it as Duttons' atlas volume on the Grand Canyon District. I picked it up and examined it. It was in sound condition, and contained all of the color plates. It was priced at fifteen dollars. Astounded, I immediately carried the book to the check-out area, realizing that I had already found a book that would far exceed the value of anything else I was likely to run across at that sale. Before I made it to the table where I could purchase the book I ran across a book dealer of my acquaintance. I showed him the volume, saying something like "look what I found - can you believe this". His reply should have shocked me, but then nobody knows everything about old books, for which I have always been very grateful. His statement was "Oh yes, I saw that book an hour ago. But then, I don't really deal much in Americana, and I really don't know much about those kind of books". Knowing the value of the volume, I had to bite my tongue to resist telling him that perhaps he should try to learn something about such books, but then I was more than glad to realize that he had already seen the book but had decided to pass it up rather than pay fifteen dollars for it. So I kept my mouth shut, just in case a similar situation should arise sometime in the future.
You win some and lose some in the old book business. A friend referred me to an older lady who lived on Glenwood, up the hill past Broadway. I made an appointment to look at the books and found that there were lots of interesting items in her library. Unfortunately, she still had not made the decision to part with any of them, so I left my name and also secured her telephone number, being told that she would make a decision within a month or so. About a week later I noticed her obituary in the local newspaper. I have always being uncomfortable about attempting to make any contact with relatives in such situations, although I've actually know some book dealers who were willing to go to such lengths as hanging a funeral home in an attempt to find some way to purchase books from a recently deceased person's estate. I waited a month or so to make an attempt to locate somebody at that house, but nobody ever answered the telephone and I eventually gave up the search.
This year I bought this year from a variety of book dealers, antique shops, and individuals, including Irene Donaldson, Jim Houston./ Delap, Jim McMeans, Lee Estes, Maynard Hill, David Slough, David Madden, John Wade, Steve Finer, Proaps Antiques, John Wade, the Maryville College book sale, and at shops in Louisville, Kentucky and in Memphis. We also made our first and only visit to Chicago in 1986, and I bought books from book dealers in that city, including Powell's Books and Helen Szepe.
I sold the only copy of a rare Knoxville arithmetic text book I've ever owned in 1986, directly to a library, It was titled ARITHMETICAL DEMONSTRATIONS, OR A PRACTICAL ARITHMETIC, written by Loyal Thompson and published in Knoxville in 1839.
A collector who lived in Niota, Tennessee bought books from my catalogs from time to time. In April, 1986 he bought a few hundred dollars worth of books from my catalog and as usual I mailed the books to him with an invoice. He never paid for those books, and in July of that year I received a letter from his wife with the unfortunate news that he had died and she had found the unpaid invoice among his papers. I wrote her and advised her that if she preferred she could merely return the books to me instead of sending the payment. She didn't do either, but I didn't have the nerve nor the inclination to pursue the matter further, so I just chalked it up as a bad debt..
1987
Millers Auction Gallery in Newport held regular auctions and sometimes they came across some nice old books that were included in their sales. I spent several hundred dollars buying books at one of their auctions in January, 1987. A few weeks later I saw in a newspaper advertisement that books were included in another of their auctions, so I drove up there on the day before the sale. There were few books of interest then, certainly not enough to warrant another trip to attend the auction the following day. However, the proprietor showed me a very interesting book from another estate that he said he was going to auction later, but that the owner had also expressed an interest in possibly selling the book. It was one of the rarest Civil War related publications, issued in two volumes and containing numerous original tipped-in photographs. I immediately knew what the book was and its value. I asked if I could leave an offer for the owner to consider and he said he would be willing to relay the offer to the owner. He apparently knew little about the work, and seemed somewhat surprised at the sizeable amount I offered for the set. He said he
get in touch with me after talking with the owner. I never heard from him again about the matter. I suspected that when my offer was relayed to the owner of the book they explored all other possible markets and eventually sold the book for a bit more than I had offered. At that time I was certain that only one person in east Tennessee would have been willing to pay anything remotely like the amount I had offered, and I later determined that person had not purchased the book. The auction house owner was aware that I had some knowledge of values of old books, and my guess was that I had been used to test the waters, in order that could get the best possible amount for the rare set of books.
I completed another book, TENNESSEE IMPRINTS, 1791-1875, in 1987. This one probably took me longer to compile than anything I 've ever done. I suppose I spent about ten years or so .. obviously not continuously, but at various times -- working on the book. I recently tossed away most of the notes I had compiled when working on this book - - about six boxes full. Certainly it is not a complete bibliography, but I suppose it is the best available on the subject, being the only work including Tennessee imprints during the periods from 1851 to 1860, and from 1870 to 1875, in addition to including a number of earlier printed books and pamphlets that were unrecorded in the American Imprints Inventory publications of the early 1940's. A nice review of the book appeared in the August 31, 1987 issue of the A.B. Bookman's Weekly.
A young man who lived east of Alcoa Highway, south of the U.T. Hospital, contacted me this year, and I eventually purchased a rather large collection of old materials relating to the family of U. S. Admiral Charles H. Baldwin. The collection included original letters, photographs, and many other items. Baldwin's son, Charles, was once in California, then eventually lived in Colorado. He was Virginia Hobart, of the California Hobart family. Charles' sister, Florence, had three daughters, one who became the Duchess of Marlboro and another who became Princess Radziwell. The collection included hundreds of significant items, including signatures and letters from General Sherman, Rothschild, Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Prince and Princess of Wales. A number of original photographs by famous photographers were in the collection, including several by Arnold Genthe, and a number of early California photographs were included. While I had several "nibbles" when I offered the entire collection for sale in a catalog, the collection did not sell as originally offered. Later, I sold most of the more significant pieces individually, plus a few smaller related 'collections' within the group. I had originally hoped the collection would be acquired by an American library, where it would remain intact, but unfortunately that didn't happen.
Phil Prinzel was operating Rare, Foreign and More, on Second Avenue in Nashville. He came to Knoxville and bought about $2,000.00 worth of books from me in November, 1987. His store was impressive, but it only lasted for a relatively short time.
I issued CATALOG SEVENTY FIVE in 1987. For the first time, a title page reproduction of every book offered for sale in one of my catalogs was illustrated in that catalog, where some of the books I offered for sale included :
Williams, Samuel Cole. THE LINCOLNS AND TENNESSEE. Harrogate, Tenn. L.M.U. 1942. One of the author's scarcer titled, printed in a relatively small edition.
A. B. C. BOOK (in German) New Market, Virginia. 1820. Printed by Solomon Henkle. Original pictorial boards.
Philip, George. THE LOG OF THE SHANGHAI PILOT SERVICE, 1831-1932. Shanghai. 1933.
FARMERS AND TRADERS GUIDE, SHOWING AT ONE TIME THE WHOLESALE AND RETAIL VALUE OF ANY COMMODITY ... Pumpkintown, Tenn. Johnston and Edwards 1839. Original marbled boards. 136 pages.
Clayton, David L. and James P. Carrell. THE VIRGINIA HARMONY. A NEW AND CHOICE SELECTION OF PSALM AND HYMN TUNES ... Winchester, Virginia. Samuel Davis. 1831. Oblong printed boards. Earlier than any of the editions recorded in the National Union Catalog.
Cain, Julien. THE LITHOGRAPHS OF CHAGALL. New York. (1960). Dust jacket. With eleven original lithographs by Marc Chagall.
quibb, Robert. THE GARDENER'S CALENDAR FOR THE STATES OF NORTH CAROLINA, SOUTH CAROLINA, AND GEORGIA. Charleston. 1827. Catalog 75
Hemingway, Ernest. THE TORRENTS OF SPRING. New York. 1922. First edition, in the original dust jacket.
It has usually been through serendipity that I've purchased literary first editions over the years. Probably that attitude was a mistake, since there is no question these days that one can sometimes make sinful profits by being lucky enough to find the right modern literary titles, in fine condition and with the original dust jackets. The truth is, that your overall chances are much better to find such books at inexpensive cost when compared to the possibility of locating legitimately rare books of older vintage. Anyway, a classified ad appeared in our local newspaper in the spring of 1975, advertising an estate sale, including books, that was being held that weekend in south Knoxville. The ad included a telephone number, so I called the number. The lady I talked with obviously knew little if anything about collectible books, mentioning that most of the books would be sold for one dollar each, but with a few being individually priced from ten to twenty-five dollars each. I should have asked for more information, but I gathered that she likely wouldn't know the answers, so I decided just to go out there that Saturday morning and take my chances. I arrived very early and got in line so I would be in the first group ushered into the house. When they opened the doors and a dozen or so of us were permitted to enter the house, in, I discovered that the walls in three rooms were filled with shelved books. The first wall I approached contained nothing but literary first editions, all in dust jackets, and all in nice condition. There were several books by Hemingway, plus others by writers including William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, and other significant authors. All of the books in that room were only a buck apiece! I looked around, quickly found a cardboard box, and filled it with gems as quickly as I could pull them from the shelves. I was not looking for literature, but I was no fool, and I realized the values of these books. By the time I had found another box and pretty well had cleared the best books from that section, others had made it into the house and the books were disappearing rapidly from the shelves. I did manage to buy a few other choice books, but I missed out on a bunch of good ones. I found an odd volume (of a three volume set) that was a rare early eighteenth century historical work, priced for five dollars. That many of these people had no earthly idea about old books was evident when I discovered that the complete three volumes had originally been together on the shelf, but somebody had picked out one, then another volume, to purchase separately. While wandering through the house I found a man who had grabbed another of the volumes and he was grateful to accept my offer of fifteen dollars on the spot for that volume. A couple of weeks later, I discovered that a local individual had bought he third and final volume of that set. It cost me another seventy-five dollars to acquire that final volume from him, but certainly it was worth the total cost because the set was then complete, and was worth more than five hundred dollars. Some while later I later discovered that the books in that house had belonged to a collector I had known ans seen around town many times. When the sale was held, he was in a nursing home. I never found out how those women got the job of disposing of the estate, including those books. But I thought it was very sad that this man's lifetime collection of significant books - worth a small fortune - were disposed of for a song. It was particularly disturbing that the sale had been held by people who obviously knew nothing about the values of significant books, else they could easily have realized much more money by selling those books, either individually or as a complete collection.
1988
I issued two catalogs in 1988 - CATALOG SEVENTY-SIX, and another that I labeled the same number, through error, actually being Catalog Eighty-Seven. Among the items offer in those catalogs were :
Truman, Harry. A typed five line letter, signed by Truman, on his personal stationary. Dated march 5, 1955. declining an invitation.
This was one of about a dozen Truman items I purchased from a local estate, including letters, signed photographs, and a huge framed color photograph of him, containing his three line signed inscription at the base of the photo. All of those other items were sold directly to private collectors.
Van Evrie, J. H. WHITE SUPREMACY AND NEGRO SUBORDINATION. NEGROES A SUBORDINATE RACE, AND SO-CALLED SLAVERY ITS NORMAL CONDITION. New York. 1858.
Brown, William Wells. THE BLACK MAN, HIS ANTECEDENTS, HIS GENIUS, HIS ACHIEVEMENTS. Savannah, Georgia. (C. 1863) Signed inscription by the author at front endpaper, dated July 18, 1865.
THE ROYAL HOUSE OF STUART. 1890. Folio, 3/4 leather, with forty-five full page color chromo-lithograph plates.
LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF JOHN DILLINGER, AMERICA'S PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE. Mt. Morris, Illinois. 1934. Slick paper magazine format, illustrated. This publication was issued when Dillinger was still at large.
Buckingham, Nash. MARK RIGHT! TALES OF SHOOTING AND HUNTING. 1938. Derrydale Press. One of 1250 copies printed.
Goethe. ERKLARUNG DER ZU GOETHES FARBENLEHRE GEHORIGEN TAFELN. 1810. Seventeen plates, of which twelve are hand colored. Rare.
Lawrence, D. H. LADY CHATTERLY'S LOVER. 1929. Author's unabridged edition, privately printed.
( DIARY - Doctor I. C. BROWN ) An original manuscript diary, kept during the years 1861 and 1862 by Doctor Brown, who lived in Philadelphia, Tennessee. The information was kept when he visited patients, notations of their ailments, prescribed medications, etc. Some of his patients are identified as Negroes. The names of other patients he attended included W.L. Lenoir and Abijah Fowler. According to the diary, the good doctor charged somewhere between twenty-five cents and three dollars for a home visit.
BILL CARLISLE'S MERRY-GO ROUND ALBUM. Knoxville Signed by Carlisle, who played the roll of the country bumpkin, "Hot Shot Elmer", on radio's daily Merry Go Round country music show in Knoxville.
Carter, John W. THE WORLD'S WONDER, OR FREEMASONRY UNMASKED ... Madisonville. 1835. Catalog 76. This was one of only two copies of this book that I've owned. The interesting illustrations in this book are crude and somewhat amateurish, and certainly appear to be a local production. I did a little research (although not extensive) and decided that the illustrations in this book represent perhaps the earliest such artwork to appear in an east Tennessee publication, and possibly anywhere in Tennessee. One of the few other pre-1850 books to include similar illustrations - likewise crude, and locally produced -- was William G. Brownlow's 1844 book printed in Jonesboro, "A Political Register ... "
Keebler, Robert S. THE TENNESSEE EVOLUTION CASE. Memphis 1925 A paper read before the Tennessee Bar Association, which organization later rebuked Keebler for presenting a talk that was considered to be of a religious instead of legal nature.
This copy had a significant original ink inscription at the front wrapper, "To Hon. William Jennings Bryan, compliments of Robert Keebler".
( MASONIC PHOTOGRAPHS ) A collection of twenty-one original CDV nineteenth century photographs. All photos are by the Giers Studio in Nashville, each depicting middle Tennessee Masons, in their Masonic uniform, 3/4 length portraits. All but three are identified, in ink, one being of the photographer himself, Giers.
Fairbanks, George R. HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH AT SEWANEE, TENNESSEE. Jacksonville, Florida. 1905. First edition.
Killebrew, J. B. REPORT, BUREAU OF AGRICULTURE FOR 1876. Nashville. (Actually seven separate works, each with title page and folding map)
SCENIC ATTRACTIONS AND SUMMER RESORTS ALONG THE RAILWAYS OF THE VIRGINIA, TENNESSEE, AND GEORGIA AIR LINE ... 1883. Pictorial wrappers, folding maps, illustrations. 6 X 9 1/2.
Edwards, Bryan. HISTORICAL SURVEY OF SAINT DOMINGO .. ACCOUNT OF THE MAROONED NEGROES .. ISLAND OF JAMAICA. London. 1801. Engravings, large folding map.
HISTORY OF VIRGIL A STEWART, AND HIS ADVENTURES IN CAPTURING THE GREAT WESTERN LAND PIRATE ... TRIALS, CONFESSIONS AND EXECUTION .. MURRELL'S ASSOCIATES ... New York. 1836.
As in the previous two years, in September, 1988 I had a booth at the Ohio Valley Book Fair. I bought from a Midwestern book dealer a nice collection of early Kentucky manuscripts. All related to Benjamin Sebastian, including a total of fourteen original manuscript documents, between 1765-1785, including the following : the appointment of Sebastian as Episcopal Deacon, by Bishop of London, 1765 ; appointment to Frederick Church, Virginia (now Maryland, 1767) ; land warrant for 400 acres in Jefferson County, Virginia (now Kentucky), signed by Patrick Henry ; other Kentucky land grants ; a letter from Alexander Brackinridge ; a list of expenses from Hagers Town to the Monogahelia ; a manuscript account with a Doctor Samuel Young for the years 1784-1785, including medicines for a Negro woman ; and other manuscripts. I sold the collection to a rare book library in Kentucky. Where the came across those manuscripts I had no idea, but he had scads of early American manuscript materials for sale and I always regretted not taking more time to look over his stock more thoroughly.
While looking through my old records I ran across a letter dated in 1988 that was given to me by a rare book librarian. It is a quotation the library received from a New York book dealer, offering to sell them a Bible that was published in Nashville in 1855, at the whopping price of four thousand dollars. The Tennessee Historical Society has a copy of that Bible, as does the University of Tennessee library. If that Bible was (or even today, is) worth anything remotely as much as that price, my forty plus years of experience in dealing in old and rare Tennessee books has been sadly lacking in terms of learning anything about the values of old books. Of course, the librarian smiled when he gave me that typewritten quotation, and briefly commented about the absurdity of that asking price.
In the late fall of 1988, a writer with the Knoxville News Sentinel contacted me. The newspaper wanted to run an article about my experiences as an old book dealer. I agreed to meet with her, did so, and arranged for an interview at my old book storage house. The article appeared in the newspaper on November 9, 1988, in the paper's "West Side" section. It was a nice article, with only a few minor errors, and probably would have been significant publicity for any person who was involved in the old and rare book business if they had been living in virtually any city other than Knoxville. As expected, I received comments from a number of relatives and friends who had seen the article, and all were complimentary concerning the piece. On the other hand, I never heard from a single person in Knoxville or Knox County following the appearance of that article, either asking anything about the types of books I had in stock, where the books could be seen and/or possible purchased, nor anything else to indicate that anyone else had even read the article, let alone that there was anybody around here who had even a remote interest in such things. Of course, my previous experiences at the Old Book Shop on Western Avenue, the Book and Print Shop on Gay Street, and at Bob Weem's antique shop at Magnolia and Gay - not to mention those occasional book auctions - had long ago verified the fact that there is very little interest for rare books in Knoxville.
Early in 1988. The AB Bookman's Weekly requested that I submit an article for their weekly publication The request was obviously initiated in view of my 1987 book, "Tennessee Imprints, 1791-1875 ", which they had reviewed in their weekly publication. I complied with their request, and that article, "A Collector's Guide to Early Tennessee Printing", appeared in their May 30, 1988 issue. Following the appearance of the article, I receive several positive comments in the mails concerning the piece, from dealers, librarians, and collectors,. At that time, the AB Bookman's Weekly had a circulation of several thousand readers. Sadly, by the end of the twentieth century, the Internet had apparently replaced the need for such a publication, and the periodical ceased publication. Another publication for book collectors was initiated in relatively modern times, but I found that magazine is quite limited in scope, relating almost exclusively to modern literary first editions.
Earlier this year, a local writer named Kenneth Sparks called me, arranged an interview, and also wrote a nice column about my rare book business and collecting interests in the July 25, 1988 issue of the East Tennessee Business Journal. The reaction from the public was similar to that resulting from the later appearance of the above mentioned article in the News Sentinel - none whatsoever.
Book dealer Tom Tracy, from Columbia, Tennessee, was a regular at the Nashville Book Fair for many years. In 1988, at some time following his death, his widow contacted me concerning the sizeable stock of old books that remained at her home that she wished to sell. I made the trip to Columbia in 1988 .The inclusion of many relatively common and insignificant books in that collection made any consideration of purchasing the entire collection on my part a moot point. Even so, I did find and purchase a number of interesting titles in that collection, appreciated the opportunity to do so, and also enjoyed the chance to see Columbia, the only time I've ever been in that Tennessee city.
I was lucky this year to find and find and sell - to a rare book library - a 1869 speech by Andrew Johnson, printed in Washington. The pamphlet was not particularly rare, but that copy was enhanced by Johnson's signed presentation inscription at the title page, and also with the recipient's manuscript notations detailing his trip to Washington in 1869 to hear this speech, which was Johnson's last speech as President of the United States.
In October, 1988, I went to the home of a successful businessman in this area, at his invitation. . Having heard that I was a dealer in old and rare books, he said that he collected old and rare books. In fact, it turned out that he had been buying antiquarian books abroad when making frequent trips, but he actually knew little about the values of old books (other than what those European book dealers had told him when they were selling him those high-priced tomes). Also, he had no interest in rare American books, and although he lived in Knoxville, he likewise had no interest in Tennessee books. Based on our conversation at that time, he obviously had paid through the nose for some of the antiquarian books on his shelves and apparently desired to have books that were quite old on his shelves, something akin to "trophies" to be shown to visitors. The truth was that he wanted me to look at a few antiquarian books he had purchased recently and merely advise him the approximate retail values of those items, apparently in order to determine whether he had been hoodwinked by those booksellers. I made notes of the titles in question and told him that I would need to check more thoroughly in order to find the necessary information, but I agreed to report my findings when possible. A week or so later I sent him a detailed letter, providing the requested information, which likely deflated him, since it turned out that while most of those books were indeed "old", book auction records revealed that several were really not particularly valuable. Of course, I was willing to take the time provide that information to him since initially I had thought it was possible that he might become a book client at some time in the future. I never heard from him again, and it seemed obvious to me that he was not a book collector, instead being someone who wanted to have some old books in his home that he could brag that he had paid considerable sums to acquire. I never made any attempt to contact him again, and certainly lost no sleep in that regard, since I've never been impressed with folks who have the rich man's attitude of "smell me and my wealth". I did, that one time, and I really didn't like the stench.
1989
I had a rather large stock of books in 1989, certainly more than I had the time to list in catalogs, so I arranged for an auction of old and rare books, to be held at an auction house held at a local auction house. I paid for the advertising and the use of the building, in addition to paying the commission to the auction house. I still have a copy of the printed list of the items that were offered for sale at that auction. There were only a dozen or so people in attendance at the auction, the majority being area book dealers and antique shop owners. After about one hundred or so books had been sold, mostly for an average of perhaps twenty-five percent of their actual value each. In view of the situation, and particularly because a number of books were not receiving any bids at all, I called a halt to the proceedings and offered to sell anything that was left at a sixty percent discount of the approximate value of any remaining books. I did actually manage to sell a dozen or so additional books following the cessation of the auction, thus while losing money on such transactions, I managed to somewhat reduce my financial loss at that ill conceived affair.
I frankly had little prior anticipation that sales would be any great shakes, but that day I had realized that the auction was in trouble from the outset, not only because of the small attendance, but an assumption that was solidified when the auctioneer began the auction with a lengthy prayer. While not being a particularly objectionable procedure, certainly it was a bit of an unusual opening for such an occasion, and hardly one that is commonplace at such functions, and certainly it was unanticipated. It turned out that the auctioneer was a preacher on the side, which in Knoxville tends often to be the secondary occupation of an inordinate number of people. Initially, I found the unusual opening to the auction somewhat disconcerting, then it became rather humorous to observe during that preliminary prayer that the majority of those who were in attendance were restlessly squirming in their seats, many of them staring incredulously into space, particularly when the length of the prayer continued well beyond five minutes and eventually became something of a short sermon.
One of the reasons I had acquired so many books was the fact that not only was I searching for such things, but my name had made it around the area as one who was interested in acquiring old books, and I was often being contacted by a number of people who came across such materials. There were many more places in the area to find decent old books back then. That year I bought nice books at a variety of places in Knoxville, such as Cannon's Antiques in south Knoxville, the South Knoxville Antique Mall, Jim Houston / Delap, and at the Clinton Antique Mall. There was also book dealers and antique dealers in the east Tennessee area, including Kingsport's Maynard Hill, local railroad ephemera collector Tom Brown, Maryville dealer David Slough, ex-UT football star, author and professor Andy Kozar, Bob Weems, Nita Moulton, and others. On a couple of trips to Nashville I bought books from Elder's, Dad's Old Books, and Phil Prinzel. Other sources included dealers George Webb (then in Paris, Tennessee, since removed to Rogersville), and Blountville's Tony Marion. In addition, I bought books from a number of dealer's catalogs I received from around the country. I even bought a few books from a man who was originally a Knoxville native who had once lived in the Buzzard Roost area and who attended Christenberry Junior High School when I was at that school. In those days he was known as Jerry Madden. By 1989. he was living in Louisiana, was known as David Madden, and was the author of several highly recognized books, including Bijou, a book about his early life in Knoxville. David collected books as a hobby, sometimes sold and traded such items, and during a couple of his trips to Knoxville we got together and had some interesting conversations, at which time I sold him a few books and also purchased some from him.
This year I was contacted by a lady who lived of Alcoa Highway, near the river. He husband had long collected old American dime novels, was recently deceased, and she wanted to dispose of the collection, if the price was right. I made an appointment and went out to view the collection. It was a valuable collection, but I did not have any clients who had expressed an interest in such materials. Bearing that in mind, and with the realization that probably there was nobody in Knoxville who would pay very much for such items, I made her an offer. The offer was probably about sixty percent of what I would have offered for old and rare books with the same approximate overall value, but I thought I should cover my tracks since I had no ready prospects for selling them. She said she would think it over and let me know. I'm sure she had also contacted a few other folks, but within a couple of weeks she called and agreed to sell the collection to me. There were almost six hundred dime novels, dating from the 1860's to around 1920. I did manage to sell a few of the choice items from that collection during the next year or so, but I still had the large majority of them several years later, when I sold the majority of my old book stock to a rare book dealer. Had I made a more diligent attempt to market those items I probably could have made a decent profit, but at least I lost nothing on the transaction
In the spring of 1989 I issued Catalog Seventy-Nine, offering more than eleven hundred books. A few of the books listed in that catalog were the following :
Harrison, W. P. THE GOSPEL AMONG THE SLAVES. Nashville 1893
Johnson, Sophia C. FIFTY YEARS AFTER. KNOXVILLE COLLEGE, KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE. Birmingham, Ala. 1946. Compiled for the "Normal Class" of 1896.
MAP OF THE TENNASSEE GOVERNMENT, TAKEN FROM SURVEYS BY GENL. D(aniel) SMITH AND OTHERS. J. T. Scott, engraved for Carey's American edition of Guthrie's Geography. No date (published sometime between 1794 and 1796).
Wright, Marcus J. REMINISCENCES OF THE EARLY SETTLEMENT AND EARLY SETTLERS OF MCNAIRY COUNTY, TENNESSEE. Washington. 1882.
Yelsew, Jean. (Pseudonym - J. Wesley Smith) A ROSE THAT SAVED, OR, MARK AND LENA. Chattanooga No date, but printed circa 1890's. The author wrote under this pseudonym, using the reversal of the letters of the middle name, 'Wesley'
Yelsew, Jean (Pseudonym - J. Wesley Smith) THE MOUNTAINEERS, OR BOTTLED SUNSHINE FOR BLUE MONDAYS. Nashville and Dallas. 1902.
CARL LAEMMLE PRESENTS LON CHANEY IN THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. New York. 1923. Color pictorial wrappers, 9 x 13, with scenes from the silent movie.
Baptie, Charles. CAPITAL AIRLINES. A NOSTALGIC FLIGHT INTO THE EAST. Annandale, Va. 1985. Number 60 of 100 copies printed. Signed by the author. Dust jacket.
Later in 1989, I issued Catalog Eighty, offering books including :
Gunn, John C. GUNN'S DOMESTIC MEDICINE, OR POOR MAN'S FRIEND ... Pumpkintown, Tenn. 1838..
Jackson, John B. THE TENNESSEE HARMONY OF MUSIC MADE EASY ... Pumpkintown, Tennessee. 1840.
Mack, Robert. KYLE STUART, WITH OTHER POEMS. Columbia, Tenn. 1934 A rare Columbia imprint. Although stated as Volume One, no additional volumes were issued.
THE NEGRO AND EAST TENNESSEE. Knoxville. 1913. With names and portraits of prominent East Tennessee African Americana. Issued at the time of the National Conservation Exposition in Knoxville.
PATRIOTIC CHAPTERS IN THE HISTORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION. PARSON BROWNLOW'S FAREWELL ADDRESS IN VIEW OF HIS IMPRISONMENT. Philadelphia. Broadside, 11 x 15 1/2, no date (ca 1862?). Printed in double columns, with portrait of Brownlow and bordered with American flags. The text is reproduced from the final issue of Brownlow's Knoxville Whig, Oct. 24, 1861. Possibly printed to hype "Parson Brownlow's Book", published in Philadelphia in 1862.
Tennessee Central Railway. Original records of the Tennessee Central Railway, as follows : separate annual reports to the I. C. C. for 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, and 1912 ; large ledger book, being manuscript record of daily expenses from Jan. 31 to June 18, 1918 ; another ledger, over 100 pages of passenger receipts, 1935 through 1942 ; thirty letters to I. C .C. regarding annual reports, etc. ; collection of Tennessee Central rate books, tariff files, etc, bound into a volume four inches thick and about 1000 pages.
Webber, W.C. THE HUNTER NATURALIST. ROMANCE OF SPORTING, OF WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTING. Philadelphia. (1851) First edition. The nine full page color lithographs are said to be the first to appear in an American publication.
1989 was the year the Nashville Antiquarian Book Fair moved up to the Andrew Jackson building, near the legislative plaza, and thereafter was held in conjunction with an affair called the Southern Festival of Books. I had attended all of the previous old book fairs in Nashville since its inception, and while I was somewhat apprehensive about the attempt to combine the an old book fair with the conglomeration of new book booths up on the plaza, I participated again this year. That year and during the immediate following years, my apprehensions - with regard to book sales, was quite disappointing, although I continued to attend until 1996, primarily because I still occasionally had some success in purchasing some interesting old books from other book dealers. Even so, I had finally given up on attending the old book fair in Nashville. Further details will be found under the chapter for the year 1996.
1990
In 1990, an ad appeared in the Antiquarian Bookman Weekly, offering for sale what was stated to be the full book stock of a Pennsylvania book dealer. It sounded fairly interesting, so I made a telephone call to inquire about the books. The lady who answered assured me that there were a wide variety of books, including many scarce and rare items. Considering the reasonable price she was asking for the entire collection ( more than five thousand books ) I asked additional questions, to determine their antiquity and the types of subject matter. Her answers seemed to indicate that this would be a desirable collection (although I later discovered that I failed to ask the correct, or more specific, questions). I told the woman I was pretty sure I would want the books, assuming they were as represented, particularly since every question I had asked seem to indicate that this was a nice collection of old books, in addition to being a real bargain, so I made the arrangement to drive up there to see the books.
The trip took considerably longer than I had anticipated, since the town was located way up in the northwest corner of Pennsylvania. It took longer to get there than it would have taken to go the entire distance north through Pennsylvania and well into New York State. When I finally arrived, the lady was pleasant enough, and the books were in stacked boxes in a large barn. I only had to look through a couple of boxes to realize that virtually everything was either old school text books or useless Book of the Month publications. I inquired where the older books were. She made the excuse that they were "all over the place". I asked her to show me one or two boxes that contained ANY old or scarce books. She gave me a blank look, and I suddenly realized that this woman not only knew nothing about books, but what she had said on the telephone was something from her imagination, and that she knew absolutely nothing about old books. After looking in another box or two I realized that I had wasted my time, and mentally kicked myself in the rear for not having been more specific when asking about the types of books that were there, rather than relying on her general statements. That collection reminded me of a collection I had been asked to appraise in Knoxville a few years earlier. At that time I was given a typed list of about fifty pages of single spaced typewritten entries, on 11 x 14 sheets, representing a large collection of books a local man had accumulated over many years. That list astounded me, since I had not thought it was possible that there could be such a large collection of old books that included absolutely nothing but common books that were essentially valueless. Nonetheless, the books on that list fit the bill. These books in upper Pennsylvania were neck in neck with that earlier totally useless collection. I thanked the lady for the 'opportunity', and soon excused myself, telling her I had no interest in her large collection of common books. I left and headed back down the road, still mumbling to myself about my stupidity for having taken that long trip to the middle of nowhere, with nothing to show for it.
Obviously I was disappointed about the trip, other than the fact that I did get to see some interesting scenery in parts of Pennsylvania I had never seen. Fortunately, it was still before noon when I left that large group of worthless books to rot away in that barn and headed back towards home. I sure as hell was not going to try to drive all the way back to Knoxville that day and night, so late in the afternoon I pulled off Interstate 81 around Harrisburg and found a motel. The experience there verified the fact that I obviously was already getting too old for this sort of thing, despite the fact that at that time I was only fifty-six years old, because the motel clerk put me in my place in a hurry. As she handed me my room key, she said "Now, I've given you a room right here on the ground level, so you won't need to climb any stairs. Do you need anyone to help you with your luggage ?" I took a close look in the mirror when I got into the motel room. I knew my hair was already pretty white, but did I look so old that I appeared in need of assistance just to make it into a motel room ? I didn't think so, but between being disgusted when I had seen those make-believe "old books" earlier in the day, and then hearing the motel clerk's apparent assumption that I was a decrepit old man, it had hardly been a four star day. Fortunately, on the drive back home the following day I was able to find and buy some interesting old books along the way at book shops located not that far off the interstate, both in Pennsylvania and Virginia. So the trip was not a total loss. One book I bought on the way back home, from a shop located just off Interstate 81 in Virginia, was a scarce nineteenth century book titled A TRIP TO MEXICO. NOTES OF A JOURNAL FROM LAKE ERIE TO LAKE TEZCUCO AND BACK. Written by H. C. Becher. Published in Toronto, the book was illustrated with eighteen original mounted photographs.
I was contacted in March, 1990, by a representative of a very old private college library in east Tennessee. They wanted an appraisal of their books, saying that the library had decided to sell the majority of the older items in the library. I went up there in late March, took a full day examining the books and making extensive notes. In early April, 1990, I sent a letter to the librarian, detailing the estimated value of the books, and making a reasonable offer for them, if they decided to sell the books. I made no charge for the appraisal, assuming that the opportunity to acquire the books was sufficient, although in truth the majority of those books were old religious titles and there were very few readily saleable titles in the entire collection, and few scarce titles f any type. I never heard from them again, and since the library was not one I was overly anxious to own, I did not follow up with them concerning any decision to accept or reject my offer. Some while later, another book dealer who is a friend of mine was requested by that same college to appraise the library and make them an offer for those same books. But when he told me the story, it was a few months after the library had accepted his offer and he had acquired those books, and by then his experience had been less than pleasant. Soon after he had acquired the books another representative from the same library called him, complained that the books should not have been sold, and demanded that he return all of the books to the library. He boxed the entire collection, acquired a truck, and made the trip back to the college to comply with their unusual and obviously unprofessional demand. He managed to recover most of his original cost in the books, exclusive of the time, effort, and expense of moving the collection first to his home and then back to the library. Hearing that horror story, I was obviously relieved to realize that the library had rejected my original offer for those same books. In one or two not dissimilar instances, I have found that sometimes librarians are not unlike politicians - - once they finally make up their minds they are often full of indecision.
We visited our son Ron in New York City in 1990. While there, I bought some nice books from several of the many New York book shops, including Skyline Books, Pageant Books, and the Argosy Book Store.
I bought and sold an interesting early East Tennessee manuscript deed book this year. It was a remarkable volume, containing individual detailed manuscript descriptions of numerous properties in Knox County and surrounding east Tennessee counties, compiled between 1807 and 1810, and virtually all of the entries included a detailed handwritten map, or plat, of each property described in the book.
You never knew what you would find among the stock of book dealers at the annual Watkins Book Fair in Nashville. For that matter, Hugh Walker would always permit those who were not regular book dealers, but who had interesting books they wished to sell, to set up at a table at that annual get-together. That practice brought interesting books out of the woodwork sometimes. For example, in 1990 a lady showed up with some very interesting old books she had recently inherited. Among the items I brought from her that year were the following :
Da Vinci, Leonardo. RECEUIL DE CHARGES ET DE TETES DE DIFFERENS CHARACTRES VRAVEES A LEAU FORTE D'APPES LES DESSEINS LEONARD Da VINCI. Paris. 1767. With seventeen engraved plates, each containing engravings of grotesque heads by Da Vinci ; A DEFENSE OF SOUTHERN SLAVERY AGAINST THE ATTACKS OF HENRY CLAY AND ALEX'R CAMPBELL. Hamburg, S. C. 1851 ; and Drake, Francis. EMBORACUM, OR THE HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF THE CITY OF YORK. London. 1736. Folding maps, folding plates.
There was a rather unusual circumstance concerning two related volumes I had purchased and listed for sale in a catalog in 1990. The books were widely considered to be anti-Semitic in nature, a fact that later resulted in the termination of that publication. The books were THE INTERNATIONAL JEW. THE WORLD'S FOREMOST PROBLEM (and) JEWISH ACTIVITIES IN THE U.S. VOLUME TWO OF THE INTERNATIONAL JEW. Dearborn, Michigan. 1920-1921, published by Henry Ford, who later ceased and publicly denounced this radical anti-Semitic publication.. The oddity was the fact that the first volume contained a signed ink presentation inscription from a prominent Knoxville African American man, James Garfield Beck. I had no explanation as to why Beck would have owned the books, or why he would have presented that particular book to anyone. His home, located on Dandridge Avenue in what was long known as the Mountain View community, was converted a number of years ago into the Beck African American Cultural Center. James Beck preceded Mrs. Beck in death, and some while following her death later I purchased those and other books from the Beck library at an auction sale of the contents of their home. The auction was held at an auction house on Magnolia Avenue. At that same auction, I also purchased a collection of original letters and detailed charts concerning the numerous rental dwellings in Knoxville that were owned by James and Ethel Beck. Those materials had been received by the Becks from the Internal Revenue Service, notifying them that they were being charged with tax evasion, since they had paid no federal income taxes on the income for those properties for a number of years. The papers included the estimated annual rental revenues from those properties for the time period in question, and the amounts owed to the IRS in taxes and penalties. I kept those papers for several years, then donated them to the Beck Cultural Center. I assume those papers are still among the archives at that institution today. Years ago I had been living on Morningside Drive, just a block or so from the Beck home, and a few times I had visited there and talked with James and Ethel Beck, and sometimes I purchased books from their extensive library. James Beck once related to me the story of how he had acquired his name. As a young woman, his pregnant mother had shaken the hand of President James Garfield, then later named her new-born son after the U.S. President.
I issued three catalogs in 1990 : CATALOG EIGHTY-ONE, 2958 items ; CATALOG EIGHTY-TWO, 569 items ; and CATALOG EIGHTY-THREE, 151 items. Books offered in those catalogs included the following :
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1870. An album containing original CDV photographs of members of the Tennessee Constitutional Convention of 1870, all of the photographs signed. Direct sale - 1990
JOHNSON, ANDREW. MEMORIAL ADDRESSES ON THE LIFE AND SERVICES OF ... A SENATOR FROM TENNESSEE. Washington. 1876. It seems inexplicable that in this publication the former Tennessee President is only identified on the title page as a U.S. Senator! Catalog 81.
AUTOGRAPHS OF DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. Leather bound, with an original title page in ink. Assembled by an unknown person in the nineteenth century, with the autographs bound with facing pages in ink manuscript - in fine calligraphy - and with a brief handwritten biography for each person whose autograph is included in the album. In addition, old engraved portraits for each of those persons had been added in the appropriate place in the album. A total of fifty autographs, all being prominent Americans of the nineteenth century. A few of the leaves are only the signature, but the majority are either signed inscriptions, original poetry, or original signed handwritten letters. Examples of autographs in the album include Washington Irving, Henry W. Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Daniel Webster, Edward Everett, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, Sam Houston, Horace Greeley, Matthew F. Maury, and Samuel F.B. Morse. Jim Houston / Delap had acquired this interesting autograph album down at his book shop, and I quickly purchased it as soon as I saw it. As usual, Jim gave no hint as to where he had bought the album, but I cared little about that information and was delighted to buy that rare relic.
WALT WHITMAN, POET AND DEMOCRAT. Edinburgh. 1884. Thin boards, with original printed dust jacket. One of only 100 copies printed.
Parmalee, John H. THE NIGHT WAS COLD AND THE WIND DID BLOW. Nashville. 1919. Oblong volume, wrappers, text and cartoons of the military in World War One.
Alcott, Louisa May. FLOWER FABLES. Boston. 1855. First edition of the author's first book.
AMERICAN PORTRAIT GALLERY OF EMINENT AND DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN STATESMEN AND GENERALS. New York. (1865) 34 leather, folio (13 x 17). One of only 100 copies printed, 32 India proof plates with tissue guards, unrecorded in National Union Catalog.
Anthony, Earl of Shaftsbury. CHARACTERISTICS OF MEN, MANNERS, OPINIONS, AND TIMES. Birmingham. 1773. Printed by John Baskerville. Three volumes, patterned leather bindings. Catalog 81.
Asbury, Francis. JOURNAL OF FRANCIS ASBURY, BISHOP OF THE M.E. CHURCH, AUGUST, 1771 TO DECEMBER 7, 1815. New York. 1821. Three volumes.
Assalini, P. OBSERVATIONS ON THE DISEASE CALLED THE PLAGUE .. YELLOW FEVER OF CADIZ ... New York. 1806. Translated by Adam Neale.
Auden, Marshall. CHARLES AND HIS LAMB. Philadelphia. 1895. First edition. Pictorial cloth, in the original dust jacket, and remarkably - for a juvenile - both the book and the dust jacket are in like-new condition.
Brown, William Wells. THE BLACK MAN. HIS ANTECEDENTS, HIS GENIUS, AND HIS ACHIEVEMENTS. Printed Savannah, Georgia. With an 1863 copyright, but likely published circa 1865. With a signed presentation inscription from the author to D. B. D. Disverney, dated 1865.
Dunbar, Paul Lawrence. MAJORS AND MINORS. POEMS. Toledo, Ohio. 1895. First edition.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. THE GREAT GATSBY. New York. 1925. First ed., first issue.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. THIS SIDE OF PARADISE. New York. 1920. First edition.
Herr, Horace Dumont. HARVEY VONORE, OR THE MAKING OF A MINISTER. "The Story of Old Lecompton and Early Kansas". Fort Myers, Florida. 1913. One of only 100 copies printed. In the original dust jacket..
Hunt, Lynn Bogg. AN ARTIST'S GAME BAG. Derrydale Press. 1936. One of 1225 copies printed.
Kelley, Emma Dunham. MEGDA. Boston. 1891. Decorated cloth. First edition. One of if not the first known American novels by an African American woman. According to the available bibliographies I could locate at the time, Frances Harper's IOLA LEROY, printed in 1892, had previously been given that distinction. Wright's American Fiction lists "Megda", but incorrectly dated the book as having been published in 1892, but the title page of the copy I owned was clearly dated 1891, thus this book obviously pre-dated the Harper book. I had to do quite a bit of research on this one to determine that this scarce novel was possibly the first such known work published in the U. S. I could not find records of any dealer offering the book for sale, nor any auction records for the book. I cataloged the book including the foregoing bibliographical information. Naturally, the book quickly sold, and I received several other requests to purchase the same book. I have noticed that today other book dealers have discovered the rarity of this book, and those dealers who are fortunate enough to locate a copy are asking a small fortune for a decent copy of this book today. .
Lanier, Sidney. TIGER LILIES. Boston. 1867. First edition of the author's first novel.
Steinbeck, John. OF MICE AND MEN. New York. 1937. First edition, in the original dust jacket.
( STORER, JAMES.) A collection of original materials, including : engraved folio Appointment to California National Guards ; a handwritten diary of his trip from New York to California, and his residence in California, 1852-1866 ; various manuscript items ; a large (16 x 16) original photograph, depicting Storer and four other officers in their Civil War uniforms (Union).
Soule, Frank, et al. ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. New York. 1855. Tooled leather, fine condition.
Welles, Henry T. ADDRESSES, LECTURES AND ESSAYS. Minneapolis. 1892. Leather. 348 pages. One of only fifteen copies printed, this copy with the author's presentation inscription to his daughter. A quality publication, in a polished leather binding, all edges gilt, and marbled endpapers. I wondered then (and now) how much money this man paid to issue a mere fifteen copies of this leather bound book almost 350 pages in length.
Whitney, Ernest and William Alexander. LEGENDS OF THE PIKE'S PEAK REGION. Denver 1892 A fine copy in the original dust jacket.
In 1990, I donated to the University of Tennessee special collections library more than six hundred pieces of nineteenth and early twentieth century American sheet music.
1991
I had a booth at the Antique World Mall on Chapman Highway, beginning in April, 1991. Primarily old maps and prints. I eventually closed the booth a year later, having not made much profit (if any), in addition to the fact that I simply could not find the time to change or restock the inventory.
In 1991 I accepted the invitation to participate in a newly formed Antiquarian Book Fair, held in connection with the annual Rugby Pilgrimage at Rugby, Tennessee. The Fair was held for one day, on August 3, 1991. I issued a list describing sixty of the books I took to that Fair, plus taking an additional number of other scarce and rare books, Tennessee-related and otherwise, primarily being historical American books. None of the other dealers who were there much of anything in terms of old or interesting books - certainly nothing I had any interest in purchasing. Not only did I fail to buy anything, I likewise didn't sell a single book at that book fair. I naturally declined their invitation to attend the following year, and I never knew whether they continued that book fair thereafter. It was essentially an affair for families to visit, and for vendors to sell 'artsy - crafty' stuff, not a place where anybody who had any interest in old and rare books was apt to darken the premises. Thinking back now, it was odd that the few times I decided to issue printed catalogs for Book Fairs I attended - for this fair at Rugby, and one in Charlotte, North Carolina back in 1985 - were the only Fairs where I never managed to sell a single book. I reckon my printed catalogs must have scared everybody off.
A man who was at the time relatively new in the old book trade went into business in Tennessee. Initially, he was buying and selling by mail, but later had opened a book store. Later, that store fizzled, but he opened another old book store in the same city. When the first store was in operation, he came through Knoxville on more than one occasion and bought several rare books from my stock. Later, when that store closed and he had opened a smaller store, he came through town once again. That time, he asked to take a number of books from my shelves, which he said he would pay for within sixty days. Having sold him several thousand dollars worth of books earlier, I had no objection, and I permitted him to take a number of books selected from my stock of old books. Unfortunately, after six months or so, he had sent no payment, nor had he contacted me in any manner. Being somewhat concerned, I called another dealer in old books, who I knew had also previously had dealings with the same person, to ask if perhaps he had encountered any similar recent difficulties. I was shocked to learn that the same man had taken several thousand books from that dealer, supposedly "on consignment ", but had yet to send a single penny for items he had sold. It turned out that transaction had occurred some months before the dealer had taken the books from my stock. I suggested to my friend that he should somehow arrange to secure payment, or make some other demand or arrangement, to protect his investment. I assured him that I planned to do the same.
That week, I made a phone call in order to determine the hours of operation of that bookstore. I didn't identify myself, but I got the information I wanted. The next week, I left Knoxville early one morning, drove to the book store, and parked my vehicle in the parking lot until the store opened. The owner was obviously surprised to see me when he arrived. I told him that I was there to either collect the amount due, or to select an sufficient number of decent books from his shelves that were worth at least the same amount as the amount he owed, which I was willing to accept in trade in lieu of payment, in the event he was unable to pay. Naturally, he immediately accepted my offer to take books in lieu of payment. When I headed back to Knoxville, I had a decent supply of quality books that in fact were worth considerably more than those that had been taken from my stock. but not paid for. A few weeks later, I talked with the dealer who had consigned the large number of books to that same book dealer, to find that he had not yet received any payment. He still had taken no action, and I'm not sure he ever did recover anything for those books. In my case, I made sure that I recovered something. One of the books I received in trade from that Nashville dealer was a copy of an 1876 publication, ARIZONA AS IT IS; OR, THE COMING COUNTRY, by Hiram C. Hodge. It was a nice copy in the original wrappers and with the double page map, signed by the author.
In September, 1991, a librarian gave me a copy of an appraisal from an individual who was supposed to be an expert in antiques. I still have that appraisal in my files. Unfortunately, that "expert" knew nothing about rare books. The appraisal was for a handful of items just donated to that library, and the man had appraised five copies of the Playbill, for different New York shows in the late 1950's, and a single copy of a common publication, the TV Guide, issued in 1961. The antique dealer's appraisal for those six items was five hundred dollars. In truth, at that time, the entire bunch might have been worth twenty dollars, if one stretched the truth. Such ventures into unknown fields by unqualified "appraisers" have always been inexplicable to me. Certainly, I known virtually nothing about old furniture, old glassware, or similar items, and I wouldn't dare make an attempt to advise anyone as to the values of such items. On the other hand, some folks obviously have no such about attempting to appraise items they know absolutely nothing about. Unfortunately, the practice continue today, and in fact similar unsubstantiated and often erroneous information is sometimes still to be found these days in certain publications.
In September, 1991, I was contacted by a young man who said he was the son of a Knoxville family. He said he had inherited a number of old manuscripts from his grandmother and was interested in selling them. I met he at my old book storage building, and indeed he did have some very interesting rare materials. I bought a number of those manuscripts, band while I was a bit leery as to their original source, they were valuable manuscripts that needed to be preserved somewhere, and I knew that among my clients the most likely buyers would be libraries (which in fact turned out to be the case). To cover my tracks, I required him to sign a statement indicating that he was - to his knowledge - the rightful and sole owner of those items, with the right to dispose of them as he pleased. Among the items I bought from him was an 1810 Jefferson County court ledger. It was not an official court document, but had been kept personally and separately by the county judge himself, as indicated in that front of that journal. Nonetheless, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff's office, when someone later told that office that I had offered that item for sale in one of my catalogs, it was assumed to have been stolen from the Jefferson County courthouse. A detective showed up one day at my home and demanded that I return the ledge to him. Having no choice in the matter, I complied, and the officer gave me a receipt. I later wrote the young man who had sold the ledger to me, advising his of that circumstance, and likewise told him that I had given that detective his name and address as the one from whom I had purchased that volume. I also asked for the return of the amount I had paid for that ledger, but of course I never received a reply. Since so many similar Tennessee items have been bought and sold over the years, and it is a well established fact that in many instances local counties simply threw away or disposed of such records due to lack of storage space, I suspected that the Jefferson County ledger - recorded and personally kept by the original county judge - likewise was something that had been tossed away by Jefferson County officials many years previous, although this particular ledger was clearly identified in original manuscript as having been the property of the county judge himself and not the county. At that same time, I made photocopies of pages from an early Scott County, Virginia ledger I also bought from the young man, and mailed them to the Scott County Court House, asking if the item was known to be missing or thought to have been stolen from them. I followed up that letter with additional later inquiries, but never received a reply from Scott County, Virginia. I eventually sold that ledger to a Virginia library. In any event, in recent years, and unfortunately - if published information is correct - apparently today there are individuals who have actively been stealing original materials from Tennessee Court Houses. Articles I have read on the subject suggest this has occurred, although it seems obvious that some of the writers of such articles have no clue that the one-time practice of simply disposing of such old materials was commonplace for many years in the state of Tennessee. The situation creates a real problem for dealers in old manuscripts. There have been a couple of instances in my life when I have thought that certain manuscripts that were offered to me perhaps had been had been removed from Tennessee court houses, in which instances I have declined to purchase such materials. On the other hand, I've come across similar materials in old homes, where they were known to have been handed down from previous generations, and in all likelihood often were materials that legitimately had been rescued from the trash. Dealers can hardly afford to purchase such items and then simply give them to state and/or local government authorities. On the other hand, I have personally sold such materials to libraries and institutions in the state of Tennessee over the years, and I was always glad to realize that those original documents had found a permanent home at such institutions. But the dilemma continues today, and frankly I still don't have the answer.
In 1991 I donated to a rare book library over five hundred scarce and rare books and pamphlets, more than five hundred pieces of nineteenth century American sheet music, 175 issues of the United States Gazette newspaper, 1808-1818, and 148 issues of the National Intelligencer, from the 1820's. All of those newspapers originally had been the property of the Knoxville printing firm of Heiskell and Brown, with their ink notations and other markings. The total value of the entire collection of items donated was in the neighborhood of twenty-five thousand dollars.
A few of the interesting books I offered for sale in Catalogs Eighty-Four and Eighty-Five, issued in 1991, included :
Couch, Nevada. PAGES FROM CHEROKEE HISTORY, AS IDENTIFIED WITH SAMUEL A. WORCESTER, FOR 24 YEARS A MISSIONARY AMONG THE CHEROKEES. St. Louis. 1884.
I bought this book and the following book the previous year, when we visited New York. Both were purchased from the same dealer, who specialized in American Indian books.
Foster, George. SE-QUO-YAH. THE AMERICAN CADMUS AND MODERN MOSES. Milford, N.H. 1885.
Handy, W.C. UNSUNG AMERICAS SUNG. Handy Bros. Music. Co. (1944) With a signed flyleaf inscription from the author, dated August 4, 1944, to the Press Secretary of a Memphis, Tennessee newspaper.
Woodson, W.D. TO THE CITIZENS OF HENRY COUNTY (TENNESSEE) ... Broadside, 9 x 12. A political flyer, Woodson giving his qualifications for office of County Court Clerk. In print at the base, " Manlyville, Henry County, March 19, 1870."
Zahn, Otto. ON ART BINDING. Memphis. 1904. Number 842 of an edition of 1075 copies, from this Memphis publisher of quality books and bindings.
Folger, Alfred M. THE FAMILY PHYSICIAN. Spartanburg Court House, South Carolina. 1845. The author was the attending physician of the Indian hospital during the western removal of the Cherokee Indians.
Barnard, George. PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY OF SHERMAN'S CAMPAIGN. New York. (1866) This was the same book I had originally acquired in 1984, previously discussed in this compilation. The book was acquired by a library in 1991, for the listed price of $25,000.00.
Borissow, C. I. THE COMMERCE OF ST. PETERSBURG, WITH A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE TRADE OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE. London. 1819. (bound with) THE RUSSIAN TARIFF FOR 1850. London. 1819. (bound with) SHIPMASTER'S GUIDE TO THE PORTS AND CUSTOM HOUSES OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE. All titles are rare. None of these rare publications have been offered for sale in any dealer's catalog, as listed in the massive Bookman's Price Index volumes since the inception of that publication in 1963.
Brand, Albert. SONGS OF WILD BIRDS. (with) MORE SONGS OF WILD BIRDS. New York. 1934 ; 1936. Each volume with the original 78 RPM recording of bird sounds in the rear book pockets, and both volumes have the original dust jackets.
Evans, C .S. CINDERELLA. London. Lippincott / Henemann. No date (1920). Dust jacket. Color illustrations by Arthur Rackham.
Ivey, J.P. LOOM FIXING AND WEAVING. A BOOK FOR ALL WHO ARE INTERESTED IN SUCH MATTERS. Shelby, North Carolina. 1896. First edition. A scarce book on an uncommon subject, including a 19 page listing of southern mills with one hundred or more looms.
Occom, Samson. SERMON AT THE EXECUTION OF MOSES PAUL, AN INDIAN GUILTY OF MURDER, PREACHED AT NEW HAVEN. London. 1789. Including, with a separate title page, "Observations on the Language of the Muhhekeneew Indians". (with) another copy of the same book, printed in the Welsh language, published at Caerrfyrddin, 1789.
TRIAL OF THOMAS O. SELFRIDGE, FOR KILLING CHARLES AUSTIN, ON THE PUBLIC EXCHANGE, BOSTON, AUGUST 4, 1806. Boston. 1806.
Wallace, Lew. BEN HUR. A TALE OF THE CHRIST. THE GARFIELD EDITION. New York. 1892. Two volumes. With a seventeen word signed inscription from author Lew Wallace at the inner front cover.
Warner, Glenn Scobey ('Pop') FOOTBALL FOR COACHES AND PLAYERS. Stanford Univ. Press 1927. Buckram, with embossed gilt pictorial covers. First edition.
{ UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS. ) A collection of twenty-four books, printed from the late 1940's to early the 1960's, on UFO's, better known as "Flying Saucers". All are first editions, 95% are these have the original dust jackets. Includes all of the well known authors of the period - Adamski, Jessup, Barker, Keyhoe, Wilkins, etc. Also includes four original manuscript letters from Heads of various Flying Saucer organizations, all written in the 1950's, UFO periodicals and related pamphlets. I'd had these books for more than twenty-five years before I decided to list them in a catalog. They did not sell when listed in my Catalog 85, which was fine with me, because I was still somewhat uncomfortable about selling them. A number of years earlier, I had an acquaintance who a man was obsessed with the subject of "UFO's". He had been purchased all of these books when they were originally issued. He was a member at the church I attended, and sometimes on Sunday I would see him and listen to his comments and theories, because back then I had a passing interest in these mysterious disks myself, although certainly nothing like his obsession. Sometimes he would speak in a rather cryptic manner, and I always wondered if indeed he was not becoming rather obsessed with the whole thing. One Friday evening he called me at home to discuss that same subject, which was an unusual circumstance since we had rarely talked by telephone previously, and the tone of his voice had me somewhat concerned. In fact, he almost seemed fearful, and said something to the effect that he thought he "finally had come up with the answer", but that he could not talk about it because he was afraid. I figured he was again much too wrapped up in this thing and had finally gone overboard. He did not show up at church the following Sunday, and I was shocked to hear from one of his relatives that he had taken ill and was in the hospital. Early that evening I called the hospital to ask about his condition, only to discover that he had died. Something was said about a reaction from some medication. Coming so soon after receiving his rather ominous telephone call the previous Friday evening, I was more than a little uneasy. Some months later, his mother contacted me and gave me his collection of UFO books, periodicals, correspondence and related materials. I kept them for many years afterwards, since I was apprehensive about attempting to sell them since the collection had been a gift. One thing was certain .. I made no attempt to determine whatever it was my friend thought he had discovered. All things considered, I didn't want to know.
1992
In 1992, I purchased a collection of handwritten and printed papers concerning William G. ('Parson') Brownlow. Brownlow was a newspaper publisher, preacher, a staunch Union sympathizer during the Civil War, and was elected governor of Tennessee following that conflict. The collection included about three hundred items, primarily manuscripts, but included a few pamphlets and broadsides. I bought the collection from a man who found them in an old abandoned building here in Knoxville. Knowing that I was a dealer in such materials, and having sold old books to me previously, he contacted me and I went to his home to view the collection. We agreed on a price, and I purchased the entire collection. Included were items dating from the 1840's to the post Civil War period, with such stellar items as an original pro-Union handwritten speech by Brownlow during the Civil War ; signed letters sent to Brownlow from such individuals as John Bell, Confederate General Carroll, VP Schuler Colfax and others well-known Civil War Generals and Officers ; a series of letters from publisher George Childs in Philadelphia that led to the publication of 'Parson Brownlow's Book" ; letters from Horace Maynard, General Burnside, William G. McAdoo, Tennessee historian John Allison, and General Thomas ; a detailed seven page manuscript description of the Knights of the Golden Circle ; and many letters from the Governors of various states. Also included were many letters from Mayors and public officials from cities throughout Tennessee, concerning the problems in Tennessee caused by Ku Klux Klan activities during Brownlow's term as Governor of the state, plus numerous materials relating to Tennessee's railroads during the same period. I thought it was imperative that this collection remain together, and it was sold intact to a Tennessee library. I resisted the temptation to sell those manuscripts individually, despite the fact that I likely would have realized considerably more profit by selling the collection on that basis, considering the numerous collectible original manuscripts in the collection, including many items that were signed by Confederate Generals and other prominent Americans.
As has been customary during the last half century ( despite modern claims to the contrary, that Knoxville has done much to save its old historical downtown buildings ) the large majority of this city's older downtown structures are no longer in existence. Such was the fate of the buildings along the north side of Vine Avenue, west from Gay Street, when all of those structures were demolished a number of years ago. One business firm that occupied a building on that street was the Knaffl photographic studio. A fire damaged that building, and a man who was an antique dealer and who mostly operated at weekly antique shows in various cities in the country, told me of his acquisition of items that were in that building. He was told of a large collection of original old glass negatives in the building, left there to be destroyed along with the structure itself. He hastened to the site, arranged to secure assistance and a large truck, and removed all of those negatives. He kept the negatives in storage at an outbuilding next to his home for many years afterwards, and was unwilling to part with them. Some while after his death, I spoke with his widow one day, who still had those glass negatives, and she said that she might be willing to sell some of them. Making the necessary appointment, I went to her home to see the negatives. She was reluctant at that time to sell any of the large late nineteenth and early twentieth century negatives of the humorous posed African American negatives the Knaffl studio had issued, that firm having originally advertised those prints as "Coon pictures". But she did sell me a sizeable number of the other original Knaffl negatives. They included outdoor and indoor scenes, original negatives of the firm's famous "Madonna", and other original glass negatives made by the studio. I called the larger ones "hernia" negatives, because those were about 20 inches by 24 inches, and - being heavy and thick glass negatives - merely lifting just two or three at a time was a chore. I had blankets and other padding to cushion the negatives as I carefully placed them in the trunk of my car, and I drove at a snail's pace when transporting them, fearing that the least bump in the road could result in breaking some the fragile glass. I successfully got them into my storage house. The McClung Historical Collection at the Knoxville library acquired those negatives, and I was relieved that I no longer had to fear that some of them might be broken, not to mention the tremendous amount a relatively small stack of those things weighed.
In more recent years, I again talked with the same lady, and by then she had decided that perhaps she would dispose of the remaining Knaffl negatives. That group included different poses of the "Madonna" that seemingly were never published (at least poses I had never seen previously), plus a number of those original and rare negatives of the studio's "Coon Pictures". I looked at the remaining Knaffl negatives, we agreed on a price, and I was also able to acquire those negatives. As with the initial collection of Knaffl negatives, those more recently acquired are also now in the collection at the McClung Historical Room.
I issued CATALOGS EIGHTY-SIX, EIGHTY-SEVEN and EIGHTY-EIGHT in 1992. Some of the books listed in those catalogs were : .
Lietz, Ernst. MODERN HELIOGRAPHIC PROCESS. MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION, THE ART OF REPRODUCING DRAWINGS AND ENGRAVINGS, BY ACTION OF LIGHT. New York. 1868.
( BOYD, DR. CHARLES D. ) A collection of fifty original photographs - mostly portraits - of this Knoxville African American Dentist and his family, whose dental office was located on Vine Street. Includes three large photographs of the interior of his office, and his group portrait of his graduating class at Austin High School. I sold these to a local library and I was glad that they stayed in the neighborhood, particularly since they had already escaped town once previously. I purchased these from one of my book clients who lived in Indiana. He was coming through town and offered to sell these to me, and I quickly accepted his offer. When I bought these photographs, it was interesting to learn that the man had originally purchased them some years earlier at an antique shop right here in Knoxville, on a previous visit.
THE WANEHI. VOLUME ONE. (with) THE APPALACHIAN. VOLUME ONE. Jefferson City, Tenn. 1921 - 1922. Carson Newman school yearbooks ... the first being issued in 1921 as Volume One under the name the "Wanita", then - for reasons I don't know - the name was changed to the "Appalachian" when it was issued the following year, also shown as Volume One, but issued under that title.
Eckel, Alexander. ANDERSONVILLE. SEVEN MONTHS' EXPERIENCE OF TWO TENNESSEE BOYS IN ANDERSONVILLE, AND FIVE OTHER REBEL PRISONS. Knoxville ca 1920'S. Printed wrappers. 32 pages.
NEW STANDARD HANDBOOK OF THE MANUFACTURE OF ALL KINDS OF LIQUORS, OR ALL ABOUT THE WHISKY BUSINESS. Chattanooga, Tenn. 1902. Unrecorded in the National Union
ROANE COUNTY PRISON SONG. Broadside, ten four-line stanzas. Written by an unnamed inmate who was imprisoned for murder in East Tennessee. No date, but early twentieth century.
ENTERPRISE JOB OFFICE ANNUAL, 1882. Virginian City, Nevada 1882 Unrecorded in the National Union Catalog.
THE HOLY BIBLE, TOGETHER WITH THE APOCRYPHA. Worcester, Mass. Published by Isaiah Thomas. 1793.
Schick, Louis. ELEMENTAL INSTRUCTION TO PLAY TRENTE-ET-QUARANTE AND ROULETTE, WITH A PLAN OF THE PLAYING TABLES AT THE BANK OF HOMBERG. No date (nineteenth century). Printed wrappers. Two folding plates. No editions are recorded in National Union Catalog.
Van Heuvel, J. A. EL DORADO. BEING A NARRATIVE OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH GAVE RISE TO REPORTS OF A RICH AND SPLENDID CITY ... New York. 1844. Of the imaginary race of female warriors in the vicinity of the Amazon River, the "Amazons".
I remember from college classes in Greek Etymology that the word 'Amazon" comes from the Greek stems, 'a', meaning 'no' or 'none', and 'mazon', meaning 'breast'. These fictitious South American females removed one of their breasts, making it easier to carry their quiver of arrows.
Bryan, William Jennings. THE MENACE OF DARWINISM. 1922 With a signed presentation inscription from William Jennings Bryan.
Knoxville is the most unlikely places for an auction of rare books one could ever imagine. I'm not talking about an auction like the one I had down on Central in 1989, but a legitimate rare book auction. During forty plus years of dealing in old and rare books, my only regular clients in Knoxville have been the Special Collections library at the University of Tennessee, the McClung Historical room of the public library, and a now-deceased rare book collector, attorney Francis Headman. Otherwise, virtually all of my other rare book sales have been to collectors, libraries and dealers located elsewhere. Nonetheless, a legitimate rare book auction was held in Knoxville on October 1, 1992. I should quickly explain that the auction was held here because being offered for sale was the library of the well-known African American novelist Alex Haley, who happened to be living in this area at the time of his death, and the books were located here. An east Tennessee auction firm was employed to conduct the auction, and that firm was obviously experienced in advertising and promoting their sales. It was of little consequence that few people living in Knoxville would be likely to purchase books at the auction, because collectors, librarians and dealers from throughout the United States were in attendance at the auction and others were actively bidding via telephone. By 1992, the interest in significant African American books had become intensive around the country, and the prices some of the items brought at that auction bordered on the mind-boggling. As an example, a plain paper napkin upon which Malcolm X had once written a short signed notation to Alex Haley brought a rather incredible price of nearly $ 100.000.00. I was in attendance at that auction, bidding on behalf of a library. Fortunately, some very choice items that were not adequately or accurately described in the catalog, and thus were unrecognized for what they actually were - either by the auctioneers or those who were in attendance and/or bidding via telephone - were successfully purchased for that library, and those books and manuscripts are now safely ensconced at that institution.
In 1992 I issued a fourth catalogs. The final one was CATALOG EIGHTY-NINE. I had not anticipated issuing an additional catalog that year, until I was contacted by the Tennessee Historical Society. Out of necessity, they had decided to dispose of many of the books they had accumulated over the years. Those books had been housed at the Tennessee State Library, just down the street from the Society's office, and that facility no longer could provide the space for the many volumes owned by the Society that were housed in their building. The Society had of course first given the State Library the opportunity to examine their entire collection and select and retain any books that were either not already at the State Library, or that were perhaps in better condition than the copies at that institution, and a number of such items were retained by the State Library. That library at that time was also becoming squeezed for space, and likewise was arranging for the disposal of many volumes that were generally unused and/ or no longer wanted.
After some lengthy conversations, it was determined that the most likely procedure would be to select a number of the most significant titles from those books and to issue a separate catalog offering those books for sale. I agreed to handle the entire transaction, and to issue such a catalog, at a modest commission. I made several trips to Nashville, first to examine all of the materials that were to be disposed of by the Society, and to choose those materials that appeared likely to be the items that would most likely be saleable, at least those that I felt would bring substantial sums when offered for sale. When I made the final trip to Nashville to acquire the selected books, many hundreds of other books remained, and I am unsure what procedure was used for the disposal of those volumes. It is quite possible that I inadvertently left a few items on those shelves that were of significance, but having taken a long while to examine the entire collection I though it unlikely that many of the remaining books were other than what could be described as general "used library books", with little value.
Returning to Knoxville, I was involved in the process of carefully looking at every book, determining the probable values and carefully checking the condition of each volume. After several weeks, I had completed that inventory and I issued CATALOG EIGHTY-NINE. - Tennessee Historical Society duplicates. The catalog offered two hundred and eighty books, including rare volumes and several unique items. A few of those books were the following :
OF MEN AND OF ARMS. CHRONOLOGICAL TRAVEL RECORD OF BISHOP JOHN A GREGG, WITH MESSAGES OF GOOD CHEER AND GOOD WILL TO NEGRO SOLDIERS ON ALL WAR FRONTS ... Nashville. 1945. A rare and little known publication of this Bishop's visits with African American troops during World War Two.
ACCOUNT OF RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES OF THE U.S. FOR THE YEAR 1824.Washington. 1825. Sam Houston's copy, with his signature at the printed front cover label.
DeBois, W. E. B. and A. G. Dill. THE COLLEGE-BRED NEGRO AMERICAN. Atlanta, Georgia. 1915.
THE CONFEDERATE VETERAN. Bound volumes of the first three years of this scarce periodical printed in Nashville, from January, 1893 through December, 1895.
Godfrey, Edward S. GENERAL GEORGE A. CUSTER AND THE BATTLE OF LITTLE BIG HORN. 1908. With printed presentation slip, signed by Mrs. Custer, and an additional signed presentation inscription signed by her.
Ovid. HEROIDES CUM COMMENTARIO ATONII VOLSCI ET LIBER IN IBIN CUM COMMENTARIOS CALERINI. Printed January, 1482.
Hughes, James A. REPORT OF THE CAUSES DETERMINED BY THE LATE SUPREME COURT, DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY, IN WHICH LAND TITLES WERE IN DISPUTE.Lexington, Ky. 1803. A rare Kentucky publication, with forty-one maps, some double pages. A significant association copy, with the author's sixteen line signed presentation inscription to John Overton, Tennessee Supreme Court Judge.
Baillie, Matthew. THE MORBID ANATOMY OF SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PARTS OF THE HUMAN BODY. Albany, New York. 1795.
THE NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. Thirty- nine volumes, 1849-1860. Including over one thousand color plates.
Strickland, William. REPORTS ON CANALS, RAILWAYS AND ROADS. Philadelphia 1826. Oblong folio, Fifty-eight plates.
Embree, Elihu. THE EMANCIPATOR. Jonesborough, Tennessee. Seven copies of this rare anti-slavery periodical, April 30 - October 31, 1820, being a complete run of all issues printed. Shortly after this volume had been sold, I received a frantic call from the Historical Society, stating that the State Library could not locate their original copies of the rare Emanicpator, and requesting that these be returned to them, to be placed in that library. Fortunately, another Tennessee library had ordered the periodicals, and graciously agreed to forgo the purchase in order that the periodicals could be sent to Nashville. Circumstances involving these periodicals - which were bound into the back of a bound volume containing other early Tennessee periodicals - made it unlikely that these copies I had been given to sell by the Society were the same copies that had been originally reported at the State Library, back in the early 1940's, when the Imprints Inventory publications indicated that a set of the rare periodicals were at that library. My assumption was that somehow and at some unknown time those original copies had been stolen or otherwise removed from the State Library. In any case, I was glad that the discovery had been made, albeit belatedly, and that the State Library was able to recover the rare periodicals from the Tennessee Historical Society's collection.
LAWS OF NORTH CAROLINA AND TENNESSEE .. Nashville. T. G. Bradford. 1810. This copy with an original manuscript description of Nashville at the front flyleaf , written and signed by John Overton.
RUTTER'S POLITICAL QUARTERLY. Memphis, Tenn. July, 1870.
THE CUMBERLAND HARMONY. Nashville, Tenn. 1835.
ACTS OF THE FIRST SESSION, SECOND CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES.Philadelphia. 1792. This was George Roulstone's personal copy. Roulstone, Tennessee's first printer, placed his ownership stamp a half dozen places in this volume, and his signature was at the title page.
( POLK, JAMES K.) Fifty-one books, mostly U.S. Congressional Reports printed in Washington, but including : Livingston's Penal Laws, 1829 ; The Extra Globe, bound volume August 1838-January, 1841, Benjamin Hawkins' Sketch of the Creek County, in the original edition ; bound volumes of pamphlets ; etc. ALL volumes are from the library of President James K. Polk, and each volume is signed by him. An incredible collection of books signed by Polk. This collection was purchased by a Doctor who lived in New York City, although I later learned that he was in fact also a dealer in old and rare books and manuscripts. When I received his first telephone call about this collection, he asked for a considerable amount of information, then said he would call back. The next day he called again, but this time he had one of those three-way telephone hook-ups with some manuscript dealer who was located on the west coast. He had that person talk with me, and almost immediately that dealer came across and a pompous and rude person, immediately insisting that it was impossible that all of these books were signed by James K. Polk, and that I was obviously mistaken. I attempted to retain my composure, but assured him that in fact these books were from Polk's original library, and all were signed by him. He again attempted to debate that fact, and I told him that frankly was not interested in his opinion concerning the matter, since my description in the catalog was accurate. He promptly bristled and replied "Sir, do you know who you're talking to". I had little choice other than to quickly reply, "well, no, I don't - and I don't really care ... but a more appropriate question might be - do you know who YOU'RE talking to ?", and - without giving him a chance to reply - I told the Doctor that the three way conversation was ended, that I did not care for the rude attitude of this person he had permitted to enter the conversation uninvited, and that he could let me know by the following day if he wished to purchase the books. The Doctor was apparently taken aback, but said he would let me know. He called back and purchased the collection the next day, at his check for the full asking price arrived within a few days. His later telephone call fortunately did not include another three-way tie-in with the pompous 'expert" from the previous night
I thought the overall sale of the Society's books was a success. The majority of those sales were in 1992, but a few of the books were sold in early 1993. In total, the Society realized a significant sum for the books that were sold. A few books remained unsold and were shipped back to the Society in 1993, including a small handful of rare and expensive books that for whatever reason were not purchased by collectors or libraries. I don't know whether the Society simply kept those volumes or disposed of elsewhere them at a later date. The only books I did not return to the Society were a group of bound government publications, issued in the nineteenth century. Those had been offered in the catalog as a single lot in the catalog but had not been sold. Not wanting to make another trip to Nashville to return those unsold government publications, I made an offer to purchase them and the Society accepted that offer. There were no significant items among those volumes, and eventually I probably didn't even break even on that investment, but at the same time I had eliminated the necessity of hauling them back to Nashville.
1993
In 1993 I sold to a Tennessee library a bound volume of William Brownlow's Tri-Weekly Whig newspaper, containing the complete 155 issues for the year 1859. It seemed rather odd that I would find that volume the next year after I had bought the large collection of Brownlow manuscript materials, but the volume of newspapers was purchased from a different person.
I was still buying books from Jim Houston / Delap at his downtown book shop. His original shop had been on Market Square, but he later moved into a building on Church street, near the corner of Market. Later, he left downtown and for a while operated a book shop in the Bearden area. Jim was adept at finding old books, and I spent quite a bit of money buying some interesting books from him during the years his shop was located downtown. His front door sign indicated that the hours were from noon 'til four, but sometimes he only showed up for a half hour or so before closing, and sometimes he simply didn't showed up at all. A man was often around that shop, sometimes working when Jim was not there, sometimes offering some books for sale to Jim, and occasionally he would sell me some old books. I think he occasionally went on buying trips with Jim. He also had the ability to rebind old books and his rebinding jobs were not that bad, and certainly that represented an unusual service in Knoxville. He was an interesting individual. One day when I was down at Jim's shop he told me an unusual story. Whether I believed it or not is probably immaterial, but it was a corker in any case, and I wouldn't be surprised if the story were true. He said that at some previous time he had been down on his luck, living in a trailer in another east Tennessee County. At that time, for whatever reasons, he was so depressed that he had determined to end it all. It was during the late summer, and he had no air conditioning in the trailer. On that fateful afternoon he said he got a glass of water, a bottle half full of aspirin, and gathered up several other partially filled bottles of various prescription medicines he had on hand. Removing a blanket from the bed, he took a position on the floor and proceeded to swallow all of the pills in those bottles. As he had gulped down the last of the pills, he said he lay on his back and pulled the blanket over his head, although the inside temperature at the time was probably at least 110 degrees. He concluded his story - - "You know, the strange thing was, I woke up three days later and felt better than I'd ever felt in my life".
My records indicate that I bought books from quite a number of individuals and book dealers in 1993, among those being Nina Moulton, David Slough, Joan Selfe, M & S Rare Books, Cather & Brown, Coleen's Books, Detering Books, Beechwold Books, Tony Marion, The Book Exchange, Eugene Hughes, C. Maloy, Ruth Klopp, David O'Neal, Maynard Hill, Swann Galleries, Chapel Hill Rare Books, The McGowan Company, The Book Shelf, Tennga Conner, Kenneth Harrison, Bob Weems, Jim Houston/Delap, Richard Ford, Old City Books, and William Boulton. I trust that I purchased some books of interest that year, since my records show that I spent over twenty-five thousand dollars buying books that year.
I donated some nice collections of manuscripts and other materials to two different local libraries in 1993. Those were the following :
Donated to Knoxville's McClung Room :
- An 1896 wall map, 40" x 80", 'Historical RR and Distance Map of Tennessee, 1796 - 1896'.
- Old Knoxville ephemera, thirty-seven items
- A collection of 19th century Knoxville letterheads and billheads
- Over 300 original nineteenth century Knox County handwritten marriage bonds
- A manuscript collection of W. A. Bell, an early twentieth century farmer in Powell Station
- An album originally belonging to Alexis Chavannes, a member of a well-known Knoxville family of the nineteenth century. The album was given to Chavannes when he was a child, in the early 1850's, presented by relatives in Luzanne and Konigsfeld, containing inscribed leaves of sentiments and poetry, followed by a number of original drawings of scenes in the old country, drawn in pencil, charcoal, or pen and ink.
Donated to the University of Tennessee Special Collections library ;
- One hundred original handwritten Tennessee manuscripts, dated between 1795 and 1819.
I issued CATALOG NINETY, Scarce and Rare Books. 255 items, and CATALOG NINETY-ONE, Rare books, 258 items, in 1993, listing, among many other books, the following items :
Brownlow, William G. TO THE TENNESSEE RAILROAD PRESIDENTS. Broadside, 8 x 12 1/2. Dated October 26, 1867, Governor Brownlow notifies Tennessee Railroads that unless they made prompt payment of their indebtedness, totaling almost one and a half million dollars, they would be placed in receivership. An unrecorded broadside. Catalog 90
CARRIER'S ADDRESS TO THE PATRONS OF THE KNOXVILLE REGISTER, DECEMBER 25, 1862. Knoxville. 1862. Broadside, 9 1/4 x 16. Decorated border, containing a poem in three columns, giving a chronology of Civil War events to this date. Catalog 90. I uncovered this rare broadside buried in a badly worn box in the basement of an old house in Knoxville. It was one of the few salvageable items there, which was a real shame, because the box had originally been packed full of manuscripts and printed materials from the Civil War era in Knoxville. Unfortunately, most of those materials were water stained, stuck together, rotted, and/or nibbled by vermin, and all of them virtually fell to pieces as I tried to gingerly remove them from the box. Only a half dozen or so of those items were not totally ruined, including this broadside, which somehow had survived.
Hillyard, Isaac. A WONDERFUL AND HORRIBLE THING IS COMMITTED IN THE LAND ... TO WHICH IS ADDED, THE CHRONICLES OF ANDREW. Hamilton, Ohio. 1822. The "Jackson Chronicles", in poetical format, occupy pages 87-118, and were written by Jesse Denson. The first printing of the Denson work was in 1815, and this is apparently the second edition. Both editions are rare Andrew Jackson pieces.
( Indenture, Sullivan County ) Original land grant, 16 x 14, 1789, a printed form completed in ink. For eighty acres on the north fork of the Holston River in Sullivan County, North Carolina (now Tennessee), to Peter Morison. Signed by North Carolina Governor J. G. Lasgon, and with the original large embossed seal attached.
Miller, G. H. THYSOARUA THE MYSTERIOUS. Chattanooga No date, but early twentieth century. Oversized limp suede covers. Unrecorded. Apparently the author is Gustavus Hindmann Miller ... six books by that author are recorded in National Union Catalog.
PORTER AND SPENCE, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE. Original leather account book, in ink manuscript, covering the period from 1815 to 1821. The Nashville business firm of Porter and Spence. 44 pages of manuscript copies of letters from the firm, sending bills of exchange and bank notes to various southern banks, and 115 pages of records of the sale of all types of merchandise, from October, 1815 to April, 1821.
Swan, W.G. FOREIGN RELATIONS. SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES, FEB. 5, 1863. Richmond 1863 Swan was a Knoxville attorney, Mayor of Knoxville, and - with Joseph Mabry - gave to the city of Knoxville the land downtown on Market Square, where the Market House once stood.
Banning, Kenneth. BYPATHS IN ARCADY. A BOOK OF LOVE SONGS. Chicago. 1915. Folio. One of 540 copies on Fabrino hand-made deckle edge paper. Full page photogravures by Lejaren A. Hiller, including nudes in posed dance scenes.
Ferguson, Robert. "Late Member of Co. D., 5th Regt., Tenn. Vol. Inft., USA." LOVE TESTED IN THE FIRES OF THE SIXTIES. New York. 1912. Printed wrappers. "A narrative of events, conditions, and people of East Tennessee who were loyal to the flag of the Union".
CATENA DOMINECA. THOUGHTS UPON THE CHURCH'S LESSONS FOR EACH SUNDAY IN THE YEAR. No date, but circa middle nineteenth century. An original bound ink manuscript volume, executed in fine penmanship. The unidentified author's poem at the beginning is his explanation of the creation of this work. (3), 248 pages.
A CENTURY OF PROGRESS, 1933-1934. Chicago. (1934) Gilt lettered leather, folio. Special presentation copy, with title page in manuscript in silver ink. A series of fifty original photographs of views of the Fair, on heavy hinged mounts, with pencil descriptions of each view at the base margins. Unrecorded in the National Union Catalog.
Gannaway, Robert. SKETCHES OF FORMER DAYS, OR AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF REV. ROBERTSON GANNAWAY, LATE OF THE HOLSTON CONFERENCE. Hendersonville, N.C. 1859. Experiences of a Circuit Rider in the early nineteenth century, in southwest Virginia and east Tennessee. This account of frontier life, camp meetings, etc., is virtually unknown, with only one copy - and that one mutilated - located in the National Union Catalog.
Williams, Samuel Cole (ed). LIEUT. HENRY TIMBERLAKE'S MEMOIRS. Johnson City, Tenn. 1927. One of thirty-five copies of a limited edition of only thirty-five copies, signed Williams. I had never previously heard of this limited printing of the book when I came across this copy, and neither had any of the Tennessee book dealers I asked about the publication.
Goode, Solon. THE WINGED SHIP. Indianapolis. 1897. A poetical fantasy of space ships and space men, written, with drawings by the author's wife, during their son's illness. Only the Library of Congress copy located in National Union Catalog. Catalog 91 This was one of the most delightful children's books I ever encountered, and I was very tempted to keep it. But I long ago discovered that - other than the wealthy - one must be either a collector or a dealer, and the only books I usually kept were those I thought were useful (or necessary) for my reference shelves.
Rietti, J .C. MILITARY ANNALS OF MISSISSIPPI ... CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA Printed wrappers. No place, no date. (Circa 1890's) A crude publication, printed on cheap pulp paper, but a rare Confederate narrative. After I bought this book, I discovered that a reprint had been issued in 1976, but could find no record of any sale of this rare original edition, either by rare book dealers or among the many years of book auction records.
1994
I retired from the insurance business early in 1994, which promptly resulted being much more involved in the old book business for a year or two thereafter.
I had the opportunity in 1994 to purchase books from a sizeable collection in Memphis. They were in the estate of a deceased Doctor who had long been on my mailing list, and when I got the chance to buy books from that estate I made arrangements to promptly go to Memphis, not having seen a single book in that collection, but knowing that the man had long been a book collector, and particularly had purchased early and rare books printed in Tennessee. I had therefore assumed that the collection would be chock full of scarce Tennessee books, since those were primarily the types of books he had purchased from my catalogs over the years. To my surprise, although there were some nice Tennessee historical books, I was rather disappointed to find that his rare early collection of Tennessee imprints was already gone, having been donated some years earlier to an institution. On the other hand, I was surprised to discover, unknown to me, he had long also collected rare books and pamphlets concerning the American west, general Americana, scarce American literature, and the like. The majority of the books I bought from his library were of that nature, several of which were quite rare. At that time I had an old station wagon and I had driven it to Memphis to purchase and pick up the books, knowing that I would likely have a sizeable load. When I had finally finished packing the books in boxes and loaded the into the station wagon, I had books in every possible nook and cranny of that vehicle, including on the passenger seat and in the floor in front of that seat. I had only driven two or three blocks when I felt the vehicle sway from the weight and I was almost terrified at the thought of driving all the way from Memphis to Knoxville. Once I got on the expressway determined that if I would carefully pay attention to steering, stay in the right lane, and drive no faster than fifty-five miles an hour, I could probably make the trip of about four hundred and fifty or so miles safely. That's exactly what I did, although coming up some of those steep hills between Nashville and Knoxville caused me to slow down to a crawl. I had stayed overnight after buying and packing the books the previous day, so all that had remained was to put the boxes in the station wagon and head for home. I left Memphis around ten am, and finally arrived back in Knoxville about eleven o'clock that night, having lost an hour when changing from the Central to the Eastern Time zone, and having made two or three pit stops along the way. When I finally rolled into my driveway, I all but staggered into the house from the harrowing trip..It had been worth it, but I probably should have planned to use a more adequate means of transportation. Some of the books I purchased from that estate, and later listed in my book catalogs, were the following :
( MEMPHIS - YELLOW FEVER EPIDEMIC ). A collection of 360 original telegrams, July to October, 1879, relating to the yellow fever epidemic in Memphis. From Memphis and various other west Tennessee cities, the collection provides a day to day account of the events of the final tragic epidemic in Memphis, in 1879. Including the epidemics of 1873, 1878 and 1879, when over 8000 lives were lost.
THE AMERICAN REMEMBRANCE AND UNIVERSAL TABLET OF MEMORY. Philadelphia. 1795.
Harte, Bret. WAN LEE THE PAGAN. London. Circa 1870. Original printed boards.
Soule and Nisbit. ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 1855. Tooled leather.
OFFICIAL RAILWAY GUIDE TO COLORADO, THE EAST AND THE WEST. 1884.
France, George W. STRUGGLES FOR LIFE AND HOME IN THE NORTHWEST. New York. 1890.
Draper, Lyman. KING'S MOUNTAIN AND ITS HEROES. 1881. First edition.
Hutchinson, C. C. RESOURCES OF KANSAS. 1891. Printed wrappers, folding map.
Quinn, Rev. D A. HEROES AND HEROINES OF MEMPHIS, REMINISCENCES OF THE YELLOW FEVER EPIDEMICS. Providence, R. I. 1887.
Kneeland, Samuel. WONDERS OF THE YOSEMITE VALLEY AND CALIFORNIA. 1872. Two maps, ten mounted original photographs.
Some people in east Tennessee think that the combination of distance and the differences in the terrain between this area and the section at the western end of the state may as well render Memphis as being a city in another state. That area was never one of the places I looked for books, other than a couple of times when I was in that city for other reasons. 1994 was unusual, since not only did I make the trip to purchase the books from the Memphis estate mentioned above, I also was contacted by a retired Judge who lived in Memphis, concerning old books he was considering selling. While I did purchase some of those materials from him and those were shipped to me rather than finding it necessary to make another trip to that section of the state, I believe that was the only year when I acquired books from the Memphis more than one time in a single year, and in fact over the years I doubt that I have bought books in that area more than a couple of other times.
The Memphis Judge had a number of interesting items in his collection, and I was fortunate to acquire several of them. Two of the most interesting things I bought from him were particularly interesting. One was an original manuscript record book, compiled by John McLemore in the years 1820 and 1821. McLemore was one of the four original founders of Memphis. The handwritten book included receipts, bank balances, lists of goods purchased, notations of travels, and other matters. The other was a collection of materials from Gentry R. McGhee, including a scrapbooks, manuscript records, letters, etc. The collection included the author's personal copy of the original typescript, with manuscript corrections, of his book, SCHOOL HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. That book was apparently the longest running Tennessee textbook ever published, being in print from 1899 until the 1930's. The collection also included the original typescript of another book written by McGhee, apparently unpublished, titled AMERICAN HISTORY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.
In 1994, I received a telephone call from a man who said he was with the University of Tennessee. He said he represented the Mabry-Hazen House, and inquired as to whether I had ever purchased books from that old house on Dandridge Avenue. I advised him that I had indeed purchased books from that place on several occasions in recent years. He stated that no books were to be sold from that house, to which I replied that it seemed to be a strange time to be making such a statement, since I had originally appraised books for the proprietors some years earlier, in addition to having paid approximately ten thousand dollars for books I had purchased from that house, the stated reason for those sales - as explained to me - had been that the organization was in dire need of funds for the repair and upkeep of that old house. The man who called seemingly had little knowledge concerning the prior happenings at that place, but I told him if he needed additional information he could contact me again if necessary. I assumed that he later verified the information I had furnished. In any event, I never heard from him again.
The lady who was the curator at the Mabry-Hazen house for many years is no longer living. She first contacted me in 1990, when extensive renovations were being planned at that old house, in an attempt to restore it to its original state. According to the information I received then, they were strapped for funds for continuing the endeavor and were seeking money to complete that task. Originally, when I first visited the place, workmen were all over the place doing carpentry, painting and other repair work. As I drove in that day, I passed a large truck full of old boxes and various junk. I was told that those materials had been taken to the dumpster, having been removed from the basement due to their wretched state. I promptly asked to see the basement, and discovered that some old printed and related materials were still down there, and I insisted that they not remove any additional items until I had a chance to examine them more carefully. That Saturday, I spend the better part of the day sifting through those items, saving what few items I could, although many were infested, stained, and beyond saving. However, I did manage to rescue many items to be saved from the garbage heap. I was asked to provide them with an appraisal of all books and manuscripts in the house, which I did - at no charge. I also was asked to select two to three hundred books in sound condition that represented the time period of the original dwelling, for display on the shelves of the house. I complied with that request, and the books selected were placed in boxes in a separate room for safekeeping, until they were ready to display those books. I never saw any of those books again. I assume that today those books are on display at the Mabry Hazen house, but not having been in that dwelling for several years I can't verify that assumption. A while later I was contacted and advised that the proprietors of the Mabry Hazen house had decided to sell some of the remaining books, having determined that they would not likely have the funds to install necessary security devices to adequately protect the more valuable books. Then and during the next couple of years, when they again needed funds, I was given the opportunity to purchase a number of those book. Eventually I paid a sizeable sum for books purchased from the Mabry Hazen house. Still later, in 1996, I again was contacted by the proprietors (which information will be found in the chapter covering that year).
As mentioned previously, the collection of manuscripts, photographs, and other related materials relating to Admiral Baldwin and his descendants had not sold as a collection as I had hoped. I thus had been selling the more significant individual items and smaller related collections from that large group of materials. Hugo Vickers, of Hampshire, England, somehow heard that I had offered for sale in one of my catalogs a series of letters to and from Gladys Baldwin (when she was the Duchess of Marlboro). Vickers had written a biography of Gladys, the daughter of Admiral Baldwin's son Charles, and he was anxious to purchase those letters. They were still available, and he purchased them in March, 1994.
In April, 1994, a man came through town and gave me a call. He and his wife lived in Sneedville, Tennessee, but they were moving back to Michigan, where they had originally lived. That sounded logical enough, since both of them obviously had Midwestern accents. They had some original letters for sale. While I was a bit skeptical as to their source for these items, I did decide to purchase a several of them. I gave them their asking prices, and sold the letters in my catalogs during the next year or so, making a decent profit in the process. Those included two signed George Gershwin letters, both dated 1932, a signed letter from Fiorello Laguardia dated November, 1927, a signed letter from Herbert Hoover on White House stationary, dated Oct. 8, 1930, and a signed Warren G Harding letter on White House stationary, dated May 19, 1923.
A lady who lived in Dayton, Tennessee, called me in April, 1994. Her husband had recently died. His name had been on my catalog mailing list for a number of years, and he had purchased books from time to time from my catalogs. She was interested in selling some of the books. I arranged to go to Dayton that weekend and look over the books. She had lots of interesting books, and I bought a number of nice books from her. Several were books that I had sold to her husband over the years. While I was there, she related to me the story of a remainder of about one hundred copies of a scarce book written by V. C. Allen, titled Rhea and Meigs County in the Confederate War. That book had been published in 1908, and I had known that back in the 1970's a dealer in Georgia had listed copies described as "like new" in his book catalogs for at least two or three years. She verified back around 1970 or so that dealer had purchased a remainder of at least fifty copies of that original book from V. C. Allen's grandson. The same lady was also quite familiar with a man who in his later life had become a rather eccentric Knoxville attorney, John R. Neal. Neal was originally from Rhea County, and she told me some very interesting stories about his life in Washington, D.C., in Knoxville, and elsewhere..
In 1994 I issued three catalogs : CATALOG NINETY-TWO Rare books. 166 items. ;CATALOG NINETY-THREE Miscellaneous Rare Books. 659 items ; and CATALOG NINETY-FOUR Scarce and Rare books. 406 items. Listed below are a few books offered in those catalogs.
KINGSPORT PRESS. MINIATURE BOOKS. A complete set of all three of the sub-miniature books issued by the Training School of the Kingsport Press. each measures 5/8" x 7/8" :AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CALVIN COOLIDGE, 1930 ; ADDRESSES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 1929; and WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS, 1932. Over the years I've had a combined total of perhaps ten copies of these miniature leather bound books issued by the Kingsport Press Training School. All of those books are becoming increasingly scarce, and I've seen some of the individual titles listed for near one thousand dollars by book dealers in recent years. This was the only time I ever offered all three of these at the same time, since they are rarely found in that manner, and I had acquire and saved the three books for my Bicentennial Catalog. John Dobson, long time head of the Special Collections Library at the University of Tennessee (now deceased), would express amazement at the prices these books were bringing in later times. He said that when once taught classes at U. T. in earlier years, they were common enough that it was often his habit at sometime during each quarter to reach into his pocket and toss a dozen or so of them onto a table during a session, for his students to see and inspect the miniature volumes.
( PECK, JACOB) An original leather bound manuscript book compiled by Peck, who was Tennessee Supreme Court Judge. Includes a sizeable compilation on Geology, in Peck's hand, with original hand-draws maps and illustration, and a pen and ink self portrait. The geology contained much on Tennessee, and a lengthy original letter from Tennessee Geologist Gerald Troost was bound in. Also included were detailed manuscript records of 100,000 acres owned by Peck and his family in East Tennessee, and details of an elaborate plan by Peck, Ezekiel Birdsong, and others to secede East Tennessee from the rest of Tennessee and establish the state of "Frankland". In fact, a bill to establish the separate state was submitted to the legislature and passed by the Senate, but was rejected by the House.
RUSKIN COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION. A rare original Certificate from this association, 4 1/4 x 2 1/2. The Certificate is "Redeemable for Labor or the Products of Labor". Ruskin was established in Dickson County in 1894, one of the various communes that cropped up in the United States in the nineteenth century ... "free love" was a common practice among the members of many such groups.
HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT, MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS, 1862-1865. WITH A ROSTER. Boston. 1884. (with) Original ink manuscript by John W. Hutson, who was a Lt. Colonel in this Regiment, being a 24 page description of war activities from 1863 to 1865, and also including a six page manuscript detailing his service with this unit. Catalog 92
ATLAS TO ACCOMPANY OFFICIAL RECORDS OF THE UNION AND CONFEDERATE ARMIES. Washington. 1891-1895. Parts One through Thirty-Three, bound in three folio volumes, all bound with the original printed wrappers.
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. Philadelphia. 1840. Original decorated heavy boards. Apparently an unrecorded and earlier variant of the first edition.
Williams, Samuel Cole. GENERAL JOHN T. WILDER, COMMANDER OF THE LIGHTING BRIGADE. Bloomington, Indiana. 1936. With a ten line signed inscription from the author.
Summers, Lewis Preston. ANNALS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA. Abingdon, Va. 1929.
Over the years, I bought old books at library sales of duplicate, deaccessioned and unwanted books at various area libraries. One of those places was the Maryville College library. My records verify that sales were held there in 1974, 1980, 1985, 1986, and likely in other years as well. Sometimes, there were some interesting books available at those sales. Like other libraries, Maryville College obviously found that space sometimes was at a premium, and disposed of unwanted and seldom used volumes at various times. More than once I also visited that library, at their request, and sometimes provided advice concerning books they should consider retaining. The first time I was in the basement level there, I found that they had a marvelous collection of nineteenth century American songsters, the majority being in the original printed boards. I recommended that they give serious consideration to retaining that entire collection, and I was pleased during a later visit to find that they had removed the books from the basement and featured the collection in a special room on the main floor. The library continued to have space issues, and I was contacted in 1994 concerning a sizeable collection of about two hundred and fifty antiquarian volumes, virtually all of a religious nature, that were apparently taking up space and seldom being used. They had decided to dispose of those books. I made four separate trips to Maryville that year, to carefully inventory the collection, and as requested I made them an offer. The library accepted my offer and I purchased the collection. My primary purpose was an attempt to see to it that the books could be kept together as a collection, since many of the volumes had original notations and signatures indicating that they had originally been acquired (mostly donated) during the early years of the college, when it was known as the Southwestern Theological Seminary. According to information given to me at that time, the college had already retained many original documents, books and pamphlets from the early years of the institution, and those materials were kept in a vault. Unfortunately, my requests at various times over the years to view those items, for research purposes concerning my bibliographical works concerning early Tennessee publications, were never granted. My understanding was that an individual was involved in compiling a complete inventory of the contents of that vault, a task that apparently was taking some years to complete.
A few years later, I donated that entire collection of antiquarian books to the University of Tennessee Special Collections library, and those books are now shelved and on display in the main reading room at that library. The collection primarily consists of books published between the early 1600's to the early 1800's, and includes eighty-six books containing the signature of Isaac Anderson, the founder of the college, who in earlier years had operated a smaller religious school in Knoxville. A couple of years after buying those books from Maryville College library, I was asked to look over the books in the basement area once again. To my dismay, I found that bookworms and vermin had infested a number of books on those shelves, and the library found it necessary to throw away hundreds of books due to that circumstance. At the same time, I was pleased to realize that their collection of nineteenth century American song books, which had been located in the same area that had later become infested, had been rescued some years earlier. It was also gratifying to realize that the collection of antiquarian books had remained together as a collection and was then safely shelved in a secure location.
1995
I issued three catalogs in 1995 - CATALOGS NINETY-FIVE, NINETY-SIX and NINETY SEVEN. More than three thousand books were offered for sale in those catalogs, including the following :
Malone, Walter. CLARIBEL AND OTHER POEMS. Louisville, Ky. 1882. The author's first book of poems, published when he was age 15. The preface is dated at Capleville, Tennessee. For many years the rumor has persisted that Malone so disliked this, his first poetry book, that in later years that he bought and destroyed all copies he could find. Perhaps more than a rumor, since the book is very scarce today. This was the only copy I've ever had.
Miller, Harriet Parks. PIONEER COLORED CHRISTIANS. Clarksville, Tenn. 1911. Catalog 95. This book was bought from the aforementioned Memphis Doctor's estate in 1994. He obviously had acquired the remainder copies of this title at some time, since I acquired fifteen copies at that time, all being new and unused. I'd never seen the book previously, and priced it at what I felt was a reasonable price of $125.00 in my catalog. They not only went like hotcakes, but within a couple of months one dealer who bought three copies of the books from me had sold one of those copies to another book dealer, who in turn promptly advertised (and sold) that copy at the price of more than $300.00. Such is sometimes the way of things in the old book trade.
Allen, Daphne. THE BIRTH OF OPAL. A CHILD'S FANCIES. London. 1913. Pictorial cloth, illustrations, including twelve leaves with tipped-in color plates. A lovely juvenile, with an original watercolor illustration tipped-in at the end. Unrecorded in the National Union Catalog.
Atkinson, G. W. AFTER THE MOONSHINERS. A BOOK OF THRILLING YET TRUTHFUL NARRATIVES. Wheeling, West Virginia. 1881. With a signed presentation inscription from the author at the title page, where he is identified only as "One of the Raiders".
Callender, James and Henderson. TELEGRAPHIC CIPHER CODE, FOR THE USE OF CORRESPONDENTS OF CALLENDER AND HENDERSON, NEW YORK. New York. No date - circa 1860's. Not recorded in the National Union Catalog, this copy contains a printed cover title slip over the two original names, with Callender's name only added with a rubber stamp ... (they obviously parted company.)
Delano, Judah. WASHINGTON DIRECTORY. SHOWING THE NAME, OCCUPATION, AND RESIDENCE OF EACH HEAD OF A FAMILY AND PERSON IN BUSINESS. Washington. 1822. Original boards. The first printing of the first Washington, D. C. directory.
Fischer, Ruth. THE NETWORK. INFORMATION ON STALINIST ORGANIZATIONS AND ORGANIZATIONAL FORMS. Nine issues, from May-June, 1944 through May, 1945. Issued in mimeograph format. Issued to analyze and publish Stalin's plan for Russia and Communism to replace Hitler's Nazism in post-War Germany.
ILLINOIS CENTRAL GROUNDS. A rare large original photograph, 12 3/4 x 20 1/2, including margins, of the railroad terminal and surrounding area in Chicago, printed in the base margin is "The Illinois Central Depot Grounds, 1860 ". This was the largest old American photograph I've ever owned, and being a historical view of this type and issued in 1860, I'm sure it also was the rarest.
Rose, Duncan. THE ROMANTIC CAREER OF A NAVAL OFFICER, FEDERAL AND CONFEDERATE. (Spray, Florida. 1935) The date and place of publication are not shown - the place and date are taken from the National Union Catalog entry, which indicates that the author printed this on a private home press, and in a very limited edition. A rare and little known Civil War narrative by a man who served both in the Union and Confederate Navies.
SAN FRANCISCO BLUE BOOK, BEING THE FASHIONABLE PRIVATE ADDRESS DIRECTORY AND LADIES VISITING AND SHOPPING GUIDE . San Francisco. 1889.
TALES OF THE REVOLUTION. Nashville. Hunt, Tardiff and Co. 1834. Original paper covered boards. Listed in " Some Tennessee Rarities", the identification of the author of this book apparently has still not been determined. I bought this at a book auction in New York City. The estimated value in the auction house catalog was listed at approximately $300.00, but obviously other dealers and collectors besides myself knew better, causing the price to escalate to nearly three thousand dollars before I finally was successful in purchasing this book.
Carden, A. D., et al. THE WESTERN HARMONY, OR THE LEARNERS TASK MADE EASY. Nashville, Tennessee. 1824. Original oblong boards. One of the rarest Tennessee songsters.
1996
In 1996 I issued a book catalog I called the TENNESSEE BICENTENNIAL CATALOG. It took a few years to gather the materials for that catalog, which offered nine hundred and twenty-five Tennessee books, pamphlets, maps, photographs, and ephemera. It was probably unique in one regard. In that catalog, I offered for sale at least one Tennessee item - printed or manuscript - that was either printed or handwritten during every year since Tennessee's Statehood, from 1796 to 1996. Possibly a similar catalog has been issued by a dealer for another state, but if so I have never seen one. Following are a few of the items I offered for sale in that catalog :
( HULL, OBED ). A leather bound manuscript volume, written in the 1830's. Small folio, 9 x 13 inches. 119 pages. Hull, the compiler, lived in Sullivan County, Tennessee. This contains mathematical instructions on various subjects - weights and measures, division, multiplication, etc. One note indicates that Hull was born in 1811, and finished this book when he was age 25, the dates of the compilation of the volume being from 1830 to 1835. Possibly he was a teacher, but the volume gives no clue as to his occupation.
STAGECOACH PASSENGER MANUSCRIPT LEDGER, EAST TENNESSEE. Plain boards, cloth spine. An original manuscript record of a Tennessee stagecoach line, including names of the passengers, from Jan. 23, 1850 to May 21, 1851. 66 pages. Includes names, residences, destinations, bills of fare, and time of departure. The specific town of this office is not shown, but enough evidence is provided to verify that it was somewhere in east Tennessee ... if not in Knoxville, the stagecoach office was probably in Dandridge, Rutledge, or Bean Station.
( FARRAGUT, GEORGE ). Printed form, completed in ink, dated Knoxville, June 1, 1797. A $250 bond issued in the case of George Farragut vs John Hagey. The form itself was printed by George Roulstone, Tennessee's first printer. With the signature of Farragut, the father of David G. Farragut, who was born in Knox county. With a related appearance notice, signed by Charles McClung and Sheriff Robert Houston, and another sheet in original manuscript, being Farragut's statement concerning the judgement against him, also signed by George Farragut.
FOR GOVERNOR, HON. ROBERT L. CARUTHERS. FOR CONGRESS, NOMINATED BY THE STATE CONVENTION AT WINCHESTER ... (list of nominees) A Confederate election handbill, 3 x 3/4 x 5. Caruthers was elected, but the Tennessee Confederate Legislature was never convened.
Ford, S(allie) R(ochester). THE BATTLE OF FREEDOM, INCLUDING SEVEN LETTERS ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, ADDRESSED TO BISHOP SPALDING. Louisville, Ky. 1855. The author wrote several novels, the best known likely being "Raids of Morgan and his Men." The National Union Catalog does not locate an original copy of this book, but cites six libraries that have a modern microprint reprint (which caused me to wonder - if all library copies are reproductions, where did they get the original copy from which to reproduce those copies ?)
I was asked to present a talk relating to old Tennessee books during the 1996 Hugh Walker Nashville Book Fair, held in October, 1996. I was the only dealer living outside the Nashville area who had operated a booth at all of those annual Fairs since their inception and I agreed to make the requested presentation. The original Old Book Fair had been held at the Watkins Institute, a cozy and more intimate location, but in the early 1990's the location had been moved into the larger Andrew Jackson building, across from the Tennessee Historical Museum and down the street from the state Capitol building. My talk was scheduled for eleven o'clock AM on Saturday morning, the second day of the three day Fair, at a designated room in the Capitol building. Before I left for Nashville, I received some printed materials concerning the Book Fair, which by that time had been basically turned into a place for publishers and sellers of new books, with the Antiquarian Book Fair relegated to a lonely and separate location, and I frankly didn't like the Fair since that change had been made. To add to my chagrin, I noticed in the advance promotional literature received in the mail that my presentation was referred to merely as "Tennessee", with no indication that I would be discussing old and rare Tennessee books. For all I could tell from that printed flyer, I might have been going to talk about fiddles, music, rocks, or the sex life of the Tennessee walking horse. Nonetheless, I was already prepared to once again attend the Book Fair and to make the presentation. However, the Fair had become such a waste of time that I had already determined this would be my final appearance at that function, since I had become weary in recent years at the new location, having to contend with an inordinate number of adults who brought their small children down from the "New Book Fair" on the plaza, with their ice creams and candy in hand, ready to pounce on my rare books with their sticky little fingers. As my now deceased friend John Dobson, the Head of the UT Special Collections Library, used to say when unruly small kids occasionally would be seated at a nearby table during our weekly Friday lunches at the Regas Restaurant, " there are some places where children should be neither seen nor heard". Anyway, that Saturday morning I left the Antiquarian Fair area, accompanied by my wife Flo, and we walked up to the Capitol Building for my talk. After asking around, I finally managed to locate the assigned room. The schedule called for two different presentations - mine and another by a Civil War book dealer from North Carolina. Nobody was in the room when we arrived. By 10:50, the other speaker had arrived, together with a designated person who was to introduce our presentations. Just before the proceedings got underway, four other persons entered the room, one being book dealer who was an acquaintance of mine who lived in Maryville and also had a booth at the Antiquarian Book area that year. When the lady rose to introduce me, there were a total of eight people in the room - myself and Flo, the aforementioned lady, the man who was to make the second presentation, and four persons in the audience. I though it would be unnecessary to ask for a stick for use in case I might find it necessary to beat away the crowd. No additional persons entered the room, and after I gave my talk I remained and diligently heard the second presentation. According to the printed schedule, there were two other rooms where activities were simultaneously taking place that day, both of the others being presentations by country music pickers and singers. I later heard that the crowds at both of those were standing room only (no surprise there).
Overall, it was hardly one of my all-time memorable experiences that year in Nashville. It turned out that my prior determination to make this my last visit to the Nashville Book Fair had been a sound decision, since the cost of three nights lodging and other expenses, compared with all but non-existent book sales, resulted in a net loss of several hundred dollars. I never regretted the fact that I chose not to attend the Nashville Book Fair again. Apparently, several others soon made that same decision, and within a few years Nashville's Antiquarian Book Fair was terminated and is no longer in existence.
Apparently the Mabry-Hazen House was continuing to have difficulties in 1996. Judge Howard Bozeman sent me a copy of a detailed letter he had mailed to members of the board of directors of that association in 1996, outlining the original purposes and goals of the board, and detailing the various problems they were continuing to have at the time, including a lack of funds, the difficulties in securing said funds, and the continued necessity of hiring a qualified curator. Evelyn Hazen's original will had designated that one of two historical associations be given the property, with the stipulated requirement that those associations would be responsible for the development and preservation of the property. Neither of those associations had been willing to assume that responsibility. A third alternative in her will had been the creation of an organization for the same purpose. Otherwise, it was designated that the house and all other properties were to be sold, with all proceeds to be donated to the local animal shelter. An organization for the described purpose had been created in 1991, but the fund-raising had been sadly lacking, and the appointment of the necessary personnel had not been forthcoming. In addition to my previously mentioned purchase of a number of books from that house, I was also requested to sell a sizeable collection of scarce books from the house on behalf of the organization. As requested, I completed an inventory of those books, and offered and sold them to a library. I was advised that those funds were used for the continuing maintenance, repairs and renovation of the house. Certainly, there was almost continuous activity at that old dwelling at that time, renovating, painting, repairing, etc. Since that time I've heard from a couple of sources that the sale the books from that house was criticized in some quarters, as perhaps were the sale of books I had purchased in earlier years from the same place. If so, I have wondered what steps - if any - those who offered such criticism had been willing to take in terms of securing, or donating, the necessary funds for the continued repair and maintenance of that historical house. As for myself, I felt that the situation regarding the books at the Mabry-Hazen house was probably handled in the best way at the time, considering the circumstances. My contributions to the Mabry-Hazen house would perhaps be considered minimal, but over the years I have donated many of the books and manuscripts I purchased from that place to a Historical Society, thus assuring that those materials would remain intact in a safe environment, and be available for future generations.
1997
1997 was something of an off year for me in the old book business. I disposed of a considerable portion of my stock that year, having retired from the insurance business three years earlier, and I desired to pursue some other avenues, including the completion of some historical books concerning Knoxville that I had been working on for a few years. In late 1997 I did complete the first of several such works, although initially it was issued in a very limited edition. The title was "A Half Century Ago - a Casual Stroll through Downtown Knoxville in 1948". I issued only twenty-five copies, giving them to a few relatives, friends, plus a handful of libraries. The positive response I received led me to later re-issue the book, re-titled "Knoxville - 1948".
I did buy a few interesting books in 1997, and discovered that I had stashed away an interesting group of other books for another catalog. I issued Catalog One Hundred that year, offering one hundred and forty-six books, the majority of which were not recorded in the National Union Included among the books offered in that catalog were the following :
FIRST FRUITS. The first issue of a four page newspaper issued in 1878 by the students of the Huntsville, Alabama Female College.
Weatherford, John. SLATE STONE HORROR. Coal Creek, Tennessee. No date (early 20thcentury) Broadside, 5 x 10. A poem, of the mine disasters at Fraterville and Cross Mountain, in Anderson County, near Coal Creek (now Lake City). My great grandfather died in the first of these two mining disasters, the Fraterville mine.
PHOTOGRAPHIC SCENES IN THE TOWN OF BADEN, STANLEY COUNTY, STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, U.S.A. Baden, N.C. (ca. 1930.) Leather binding. 12 x 9 1/4. Published by Aluminum Company of America. No text, consisting of 55 heavy leaves, each with tipped-in original photographs of the Baden area. The photos are printed on some type of aluminum paper, giving an almost three dimensional effect, and include views of "Negro Churches, Negro Schools, and cottages occupied by Negro employees". Not recorded in the National Union Catalog. In recent years I have rarely searched for books in local flea markets and antique malls as I once did, but I suppose this book was proof that I probably should do so more often. On one of my infrequent visits to one of those places in 1997, I was very surprised to find and purchase this book
THE ARMY SONGSTER, DEDICATED TO THE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA. Richmond, Virginia. 1864.
SKETCH BOOK BY THE MEMPHIS PRESS AND AUTHOR'S CLUB. Springfield, Missouri. 1907. One of one hundred copies printed.
CATALOGUE OF WOODLAND ACADEMY, HARDEMAN COUNTY, TENNESSEE, SESSION OF 1867-8. Lynchburg, Virginia. 1868.
Fristoe, William A. CONCISE HISTORY OF THE KETOCTON BAPTIST ASSOCIATION. Staunton, Virginia. William Gilford Lyford. 1808.
In 1997 I was contacted by a lady who lives in Nashville. She was seeking the appraisal of a collection of old Tennessee manuscripts that were owned by a descendant of some eighteenth and nineteenth century residents of that area, including letters, signed documents, and similar materials. I agreed to appraise the collection, eventually received the manuscripts, and completed the appraisal. They were not for sale, so I made not attempt to follow up in that regard, but there were many interesting items that I certainly would have been interested in trying to buy had they been on the market. The collection included such items as eighteenth century land grants, slave bills, military warrants, and original letters written to and from prominent Tennesseans, including Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk. Whether those manuscripts have been donated to an institution, sold, or are still floating around out there in space, I have no idea.
This year I donated to a library a collection of manuscripts concerning the family of Captain William Payne (1795-1837), of Fauquire County, Virginia. I had bought the materials some years earlier, among a collection of old books, and thought the information would fit nicely in their extensive collection of genealogical materials.
1998
A friend in Nashville, who had long collected rare Tennessee books, including a number of books he had purchased from me , had decided to make a significant career change. Because of that circumstance, he required capital for his new venture, and decided reluctantly that it would be necessary to dispose of his collection of rare Tennessee books. He contacted me, and after a trip to middle Tennessee and some discussion, I agreed to purchase that library. There were many rare Tennessee books and pamphlets in his collection, and within a few months I had completed the inventory of those books and issued CATALOG NUMBER 102, offering three hundred and thirty-three scarce and rare Tennessee books. That was certainly the most significant Tennessee catalog I ever issued, containing more high-quality Tennessee books and pamphlets than I had ever offered for sale in a single catalog. In fact, to my knowledge, no other book dealer has ever issued a single catalog that offered so many Tennessee rarities. A few examples of the books offered for sale in that catalog included the following :
Adair, James. THE HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS ... London. 1775. The rare first edition, lacking the frontis map (facsimile of map laid in). Catalog 102. This book is listed as one of the Tennessee Rarities in my 1973 book, "Some Tennessee Rarities". This is the only copy I ever owned, although I had amply opportunities to purchase other copies, albeit such copies - complete with the original map - were selling for more twice the price for which I sold this copy.
Haywood, John. THE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE. Nashville. 1819. The rare first edition, with the author not identified at the title page. The rarest of Haywood's three histories of Tennessee. (Wright Howes, in his US-IANA, rated the author's Natural and Aboriginal History, printed in 1823, as being three times as valuable as this title, but that was likely because Howes found no sales or book auction records to verity the value, since virtually nobody had ever seen a copy of this book offered for sale.) The circumstances concerning the original purchase of this book back in the 1980's by the book collector whose collection I bought in 1998 is an interesting story. He had received a telephone call from the man who owned the book, and that person had already previously contacted a book dealer in the middle Tennessee area. That dealer had advised the owner of the book that this was an old religious book of little value, but offered him twenty-five dollars for it anyway. The owner of the book told that dealer that he thought he would just keep the book for a while, but became suspicious when the dealer kept calling him back on a regular basis, asking to purchase the book. Wishing to confirm that the book was in fact of little value, he knew of this same collector and gave him a call. The collector made a bee-line to the man's home, and - - after advising the owner the of the true rarity and value of the book - - purchased the book at a vary reasonable price, much less than its actual value. He said he had managed to acquire the book at an attractive price primarily because the book's owner expressed disgust that the book dealer he had originally contacted had obviously been dishonest when offering him such a pittance for this very rare Tennessee book.
Anderson, Thomas W. THE PRACTICAL MONITOR FOR THE PRESERVATION OF HEALTH. Knoxville. 1831. First edition.
ART WORK OF MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE. In nine parts. 1900. In Catalog 102 I also offered ART WORK OF KNOXVILLE, 1896, and ART WORK OF NASHVILLE, 1901.
Carter, John. THE WORLD'S WONDER, OR FREEMASONRY UNMASKED. Madisonville, Tenn. 1835.
Clayton, W. W. HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY. 1880.
GUNN'S DOMESTIC MEDICINE. Knoxville. 1830 First edition. This catalog also offered 1833, 1834 and 1837 Tennessee printings of this scarce book.
Bell, Charles B. THE BELL WITCH. A MYSTERIOUS SPIRIT. Nashville. 1924. I had only seen one copy of this book previously when I acquired and sold this copy in recent years. That circumstance, together with a bit of research, led me to believe that this is the rarest twentieth century work about Tennessee's famous Bell Witch.
Haywood, John. NATURAL AND ABORIGINAL HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. The first edition. 1823.
Jackson, John B. THE KNOXVILLE HARMONY OF MUSIC MADE EASY. Pumpkintown, Tennessee. 1840.
LAWS OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE. Knoxville. George Roulstone. 1803.
McCarthy, Cormack. SUTTREE. 1979. First edition, dust jacket.
Micheaux.F. A. TRAVELS TO THE WESTWARD OF THE ALLEGHENY MOUNTAINS 1806.
Ramsey, J. G. M. ANNALS OF TENNESSEE. Charleston. 1853. First edition.
REGULATIONS OF THE PROVISIONAL FORCES, TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS. Nashville. 1861. (The organization of Tennessee's Confederate army)
TENNESSEE ALMANAC FOR 1864. A rare Tennessee Confederate almanac.
THE FIRST CONFEDERATE SPELLER. Nashville. 1861.
I also issued a second, but much smaller catalog, in 1998, offering only eighty-four books and collections, but including a few interesting items, including the following :
WASHINGTON HAMILTON. OR A PATRIOT OF THE REVOLUTION. 1827. Leather bound original handwritten novel. Author identified only with the initials "G. W. P."
Iredell, James. LAWS OF THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA. Edenton, N. C. 1791. Original leather, folio. John Sevier's copy, with his signature in ink at the title page.
( KERN, PETER ). Knoxville Manuscript recipes from the Peter Kern Company, this long-time confectioner who operated a bakery and ice cream eatery on the corner of Market Square in downtown Knoxville. One extensive small leather bound volume, about 200 pages, plus more than three hundred separate pages in manuscript, containing hundreds of recipes for candies, cakes, cookies, pies, and similar confectioneries. I bought these and the following collection in an old junk shop down on Central, in Happy Holler, in the building that once had been the location of the Joy Theater.
( BUFFAT FAMILY, KNOXVILLE ).A collection of manuscript diaries and account books of this prominent family, including : saw mill account books 1872-1875, from C. Buffat and Sons, Spring Place ; the household account books of Elisa Buffat, 1893-1907 ; seven other business and account books, 1895-1907, including rents, businesses on Market Street and in Fountain City, and accounts with various Knoxville businesses, etc. ; and another similar businesses ledger from 1921. Also, a manuscript book, 192 pages, 1862-1864, of goods sold to customers during these Civil War years. It seemed obvious that these and the Peter Kern materials had come from the old Buffat family home in northeast Knoxville, which then had recently been demolished. As in similar situations over the years, I was glad to not only to locate these materials, bu to keep them together as individual collections. Both the Kern and Buffat family collections were sold , to a local library, where they will henceforth remain intact.
EXECUTOR'S LAND SALE ... THURSDAY, JULY 9TH, 1903. Broadside, 8 x 11. Thirty-five lines. Of the sale of property of John Anderson, being 150 acres in "James Springs, in the Long Savannah Valley", in James County, Tennessee. A relic from the long-defunct James County, Tennessee, which was originally established in 1870, when the Hamilton County seat of government was moved to Chattanooga.
I bought and sold to a private collector a rare Confederate Civil War military manual this year, A MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION FOR THE VOLUNTEERS AND MILITIA OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES, printed in Richmond in 1861.
I bought a collection of more than one thousand books in 1998. They had been collected by a recently deceased man who lived in Knoxville. There were a few Tennessee books, but primarily the collection consisted of books relating to Pennsylvania, and particularly Philadelphia, where the owner had originally lived for many years. My customers were not likely to be knocking each other down in a rush to purchase books of this type, so I decided to offer the books as a collection to dealers from that section of the country. I mailed a list of the books to a few rare book dealers in the Philadelphia area and had little trouble selling the entire collection to the first dealer who replied. Other dealers also were interested, but I sold the collection to the first one who responded to my offer. There were a few rare items I could have retained and sold for individual prices that would have totaled considerably more than they brought as a collection, but in order to be assured the potential buyer would be interested, I left well enough alone when I offered them for sale. Probably the rarest individual item in that collection was a book titled THE HEROINES OF '76. THEIR TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS, BEING A MINUTE AND VORACIOUS CHRONICLE OF EVENTS TRANSPIRING IN THE GOOD CITY OF PHILADELPHIA ON THE THIRD AND FOURTH OF JULY, 1876, written by Charles P. MacKie and printed in Philadelphia in 1876. That book was illustrated with forty-five original tipped-in photographs of the Philadelphia area, and only twenty-five copies were printed. I wouldn't be surprised to find that book alone is perhaps worth the total price I received for the entire collection. Such is the situation in the old book business. If I'd been a seer I might be a millionaire today. As a member of the Salvation Army band once said, as he was discussing his career with a long-ago schoolmate whom he hadn't seen for many years ; "Well, I've spent most of my time with the band, just standing here on the corner and beating on this damned drum".
Just to do something different (which over the years has often apparently been one of my inexplicable goals) I issued a different type of catalog in 1998. It was the first (and only) catalog I ever issued in which I offered for sale only old American sheet music. I was long fascinated with those old publications, and between those I sold at various times in my catalogs and those I donated to various institutions over the years I suppose I've owned around ten thousand pieces of old sheet music. In addition, for about thirty-five years, I have collected old songs relating to Tennessee, particularly those with the word "Tennessee" in the song title. My sheet music catalog offered seventy-one songs relating to Tennessee, and another fifty or so scarce and early pieces of American sheet music. All of the Tennessee songs were duplicates of sheet music I already owned in my personal collection. The results of that catalog caused me to wonder whether I should perhaps have paid more attention to offering such items for sale over the years, because I sold every one of the Tennessee songs offered in that catalog, in addition to about seventy-five percent of the other pieces of sheet music listed there.
1999
The man who had sold me those rare early Tennessee manuscripts a few years earlier gave me a telephone call in early 1999. He said he had a couple of items he wanted to sell. Naturally, I arranged to meet him, but I was disappointed to discover that he only had a couple of old defective books, neither being worth very much. But he claimed that he had inherited another collection of old Tennessee manuscripts, from a relative who lived in southwest Virginia, and was needing money for gasoline to make the trip to pick up those items. Just on the outside chance, I gave him fifty dollars for the virtually worthless pair of books, and he assured me that he would call and let me see those materials when he got back to town. Either he got lost along the way, or he was simply needing a few bucks, because I never heard from him again.
After nearly forty years in the old book business, I had pretty well resigned myself to the fact that I was never to find several of the more elusive and rare early Tennessee books I had been seeking. Which just goes to prove that you should never make such assumptions, because that year I found and bought not one but two of those rarities. I bought one from a book collector in Nashville, who called and offered to sell me a pamphlet he had found in an old house in Nashville. Lo and behold, it was a copy of INDIAN ATROCITIES. NARRATIVES AND SUFFERINGS OF DR. KNIGHT AND JOHN SLOVER AMONG THE INDIANS DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR,, printed in Nashville in 1843. Listed as number 43 in my 1975 book, Some Tennessee Rarities, I hadn't expected to ever find a copy of that book. Naturally, I quickly seized the advantage to purchase the book. Then, within a month or so, I was wading through the offerings of Tennessee books listed at a booksellers Internet site, and there staring me in the face was the original printing of Thomas Humes' speech, printed in Knoxville in 1842, ADDRESS BEFORE THE CITIZENS OF KNOXVILLE... SEMI-CENTENNIAL OF THE SETTLEMENT OF THE TOWN. That book is listed as number 40 in Some Tennessee Rarities, and although this copy was being offered for sale by a long-time experienced dealer in old books, not only was it listed at a very reasonable price - much less than the actual value - it turned out that the books was still available, thus obviously no other dealers or collectors had seen the offering, or if so none had recognized it for the rarity it was. I managed to buy that pamphlet before anybody else discovered that it was for sale at the bargain price.
Finding both of those book within a month of each other was an unexpected bonus in 1999, and certainly the highlight of my book ventures that year. Those were the only copies I've ever owned of either of those books, and both volumes were sold to rare book libraries.
2000 - 2004
Our oldest son, Ron, died in a tragic accident in early 2000. We were devastated and demoralized. To say that the despondency continues to this day and will continue as long as we live is an understatement. Even so, to retain some semblance of sanity since that tragedy we have heavily relied on the help and understanding of our other children, Rick and Jennifer. In addition, I have also buried myself in various research projects, writing several books. I worked on this book some years ago, then decided completed it. As to the old book business, I pretty well discontinued those activities, and I issued another catalog in early 2004. That catalog was issued only because of the fact that I still had a lot of scarce and collectible books and pamphlets in stock, not that I had acquired any additional materials of any consequence since 2000.Tthe catalog I issued in 2004 was my final catalog.
CATALOGS
Following is a list of the catalogs I have issued over the years (at least those I could locate). A few others were also issued, but copies of those catalogs have now been lost.
CATALOG ONE 1962. Americana and Miscellaneous. 125 items.
CATALOG TWO 1963. Americana, First Editions, misc. 300 items.
CATALOG THREE 1964. Americana, Civil War. Misc. 232 items.
CATALOG FIVE 1966. Old, Out of Print. 189 items.
CATALOG SIX 1967. Old and Scarce. 298 items.
CATALOG EIGHT "Old Book Shop". Americana." Issued in 1967, containing 135 items.
CATALOG TEN 1968. Tennessee Books. 127 items.
CATALOG ELEVEN 1968. Tennessee Books. 91 items.
SUMMER, 1969 LIST. Americana. 100 items.
CATALOG TWELVE 1969. Americana. 171 items.
FEBRUARY, 1970 LIST. Tennessee Books. 114 items.
APRIL, 1970 LIST. Nineteenth Century Tennessee Imprints. 51 items.
SEPTEMBER, 1970 LIST. Tennessee books. 53 items.
CATALOG FOURTEEN 1971. Miscellaneous books. 570 items.
CATALOG SIXTEEN. 1972. Americana and Miscellaneous. 978 items.
CATALOG SEVENTEEN 1973. Tennessee Books. 185 items.
CATALOG TWENTY-ONE 1973. Tennessee Books. 357 items.
FEBRUARY, 1973 LIST. Tennessee books. 327 items.
CATALOG TWENTY-TWO 1974. Miscellaneous books. 834 items.
MAY, 1974 LIST. Tennessee Books. 475 items.
JANUARY, 1975 LIST. Tenn. Books and Miscellany, 172 items.
JULY, 1975 LIST. Tennessee Books. 371 items.
NOVEMBER, 1976 LIST. Tennessee Books. 53 items.
CATALOG FORTY-TWO 1976. Tennessee books and misc. Rare books. 336 items.
CATALOG FIFTY 1977. Old, Scarce and Rare Books. 529 items.
CATALOG FIFTY ONE 1978. Tennessee Books. 200 items.
CATALOG FIFTY TWO 1978. 19th century American literature; Americana. 796 items.
CATALOG FIFTY-FIVE 1979. Tennessee Books. 214 items.
CATALOG FIFTY-SIX 1979. Tennessee Books. 405 items.
CATALOG FIFTY-EIGHT 1980. Miscellaneous. 1321 items.
CATALOG FIFTY-NINE 1980. Tennessee books. 410 items.
FEBRUARY, 1981 LIST. Tennessee books. 87 items.
CATALOG SIXTY 1981. Rare books, primarily Western Americana. 584 items.
CATALOG SIXTY-ONE 1981 (August, 1981). Miscellany. 1375 items.
CATALOG SIXTY-TWO 1982. Rare and Collectible. 147 items.
CATALOG SIXTY-FOUR 1982. Scarce and Rare. 717 items.
CATALOG SIXTY-SIX 1982. Americana, Literature. 190 items.
MARCH, 1983 LIST 1983. Miscellaneous Rare. 64 items.
CATALOG SIXTY-SEVEN 1983. Scarce and collectible books. 2322 items.
CATALOG SIXTY-EIGHT 1983. Tennessee books and Misc. Scarce and Rare. 241 items.
CATALOG SEVENTY 1984. Americana, Tennessee, Misc. Rare. 408 items.
CATALOG SEVENTY-TWO 1985. Scarce and Rare. 195 items.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. BOOK FAIR LIST, NOVEMBER, 1985. Scarce & rare. 54 items.
CATALOG SEVENTY-FOUR 1986. Misc. Scarce, Rare. 695 items.
CATALOG SEVENTY FIVE 1987. Scarce and Rare. 117 items.
CATALOG SEVENTY-SIX Summer, 1988 Misc. Scarce and Rare. 746 items.
CATALOG SEVENTY-SEVEN (Misnumbered as Number 76) 1988. Tennessee. 173 items.
CATALOG SEVENTY-NINE (Spring, 1989). Tennessee books and Misc 1186 items
CATALOG EIGHTY 1989. Old, Scarce and Rare Books. 370 items.
CATALOG EIGHTY-ONE 1990. Old, Scarce and Rare Books. 2958 items.
CATALOG EIGHTY-TWO 1990. Rare books. 569 items.
CATALOG EIGHTY-THREE November, 1990. Rare books, manuscripts. 151 items.
CATALOG EIGHTY-FOUR April, 1991. Americana and Misc. Rare. 519 items.1991.
CATALOG EIGHTY-FIVE. Scarce and Rare books. 220 items. 1991
CATALOG EIGHTY-SIX 1992. Rare books. 377 items. 1991
CATALOG EIGHTY-SEVEN 1992. Scarce and Rare books. 1502 items.
CATALOG EIGHTY-NINE. (Tennessee Historical Society duplicates.) 280 items. 1992
CATALOG NINETY 1993 Scarce and Rare Books. 255 items.
CATALOG NINETY-ONE 1993. Rare books. 258 items.
CATALOG NINETY-TWO 1994. Rare books. 166 items.
CATALOG NINETY-THREE 1994. Misc. Rare. 659 items.
CATALOG NINETY-FOUR 1994. Scarce and Rare. 406 items.
CATALOG NINETY-FIVE 1995 Rare and Collectible. 1783 items.
CATALOG NINETY-SIX 1995. Rare and Collectable books, primarily Americana. 548 items.
CATALOG NINETY-SEVEN 1995, Spring, 1995. Rare and collectible books. 793 items.
TENNESSEE BI-CENTENNIAL CATALOG 1996. 925 items.
CATALOG 100. 1997. Scarce, Rare, Collectible books. 146 items.
CATALOG 101. Rare Books. 84 items.
CATALOG 102. 1998. Rare Tennessee Books. 336 books.
CATALOG OF AMERICAN SHEET MUSIC CATALOG. 1998.
OLD AND RARE BOOKS. February, 2004.
Postscript
I recently took another look at my 1973 book, Some Tennessee Rarities. I wondered how many of those fifty books I have owned since I started in the old book business back in 1960. As I would have suspected, I have yet to own any of the earliest books and pamphlets printed by George Roulstone during the early years of Tennessee statehood, during the 1790's. In that regard, I'm hardly the only book dealer to discover that those publications are essentially impossible to find. In fact, the only time I have known of any of those items having been sold was a number of years ago, when my friend and fellow book dealer, Maynard Hill, from Kingsport, came across an ancestor of Roulstone who had a bound volume of several of those publications. Maynard made arrangement for the University of Tennessee library to view - and eventually to purchase - that rare volume of pamphlets. Of the fifty books listed in Some Tennessee Rarities, six of those titles are very early Knoxville publications by George Roulstone. Exclusive of those essentially unobtainable early rare Tennessee books, of the remaining forty-four titles, I find that I have owned twenty-six of them. All are scarce, and a number are downright rare. I won't make the claim that I have owned more of those Tennessee Rarities than any other book dealer, but if not, I would think perhaps I'm running a close second. Those books I've owned are the following :
1. Memoirs of Lt. Henry Timberlake. London. 1765.
2. Adair, James. History of the American Indians. London. 1775.
13. Laws of the State of Tennessee. 1803.
15. Laws of the Senate .. State of Tennessee. 1808.
16. Haywood, John. Revisal of the Public Acts of Tennessee. 1809.
18. Clarks's (sic) Miscellany in Prose and Verse. 18112.
19. Tsvlvki Sqclvclv. A Cherokee Spelling Book. 1819.
23. Haywood, John. The Christian Advocate. 1819.
25. Haywood, John. Civil and Political History of Tennessee. 1823.
26. Haywood, John. Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee. 1823.
27. Todd, Charles W. Woodville, or the Anchoret Reclaimed. 1832.
29. Life and Adventures of Col. David Crockett. 1833.
30. Fields, William. Literary and Miscellaneous Scrapbook. 1833.
31. Robinson, John. The Savage, by "Piomingo". 1833.
32. Tales of the Revolution. 1833.
33. Constitution of the State of Tennessee. 1832.
35. David Crockett's Almanac. 1835.
36. Morris, Eastin. The Tennessee Gazetteer. 1834.
38. Gunn's Domestic Medicine. Pumpkintown. 1838.
39. Breazeale, J. W. M. Life As It Is. 1842.
40. Humes, Thomas. Address to the Citizens of Knoxville. 1842.
41. Smith, J. Gray. Brief Review ... East Tennessee. 1842.
43. Indian Atrocities ... Nashville. 1843.
44. Mahoney / Foreman. The Cherokee Physician. 1846.
46. Nashville, State of Tennessee & General Commercial Directory. 1853.
48. Williams Knoxville Directory. 1859.
Thus, there are twenty-four of those fifty rare Tennessee books I've never owned. Eliminating the previously mentioned six very rare and all but unobtainable early legislative publications printed by George Roulstone in Knoxville in the pre-1800 era reduces the total to eighteen. Of those, to my knowledge, fifteen have never been offered for sale anywhere during the years I've been in the old book business. Two of the remaining four titles have been offered for sale. The price for one was considerably beyond my pocketbook, being the 1819 Nashville printing of A Concise Narrative of the Seminole Campaign, which brought $19,000.00 at auction in 1990, that price being about four times the amount I had estimated as the retail value when I compiled Some Tennessee Rarities, seventeen years earlier, in 1973. At least two copies of the second book, the original 1793 edition of A Short Description of Tennasee, have been on the market since 1973, although in each instance I learned about those sales after the fact. That leaves only one other title, and while I have never seen it offered for sale, I happen to know (or, a few years ago, knew) where a copy of that book is located. It was on the shelf of a book collector of my acquaintance. The last time I inquired about it he was still unwilling to part with the book. That's about it. I'm sure I've said more than enough already, and it's unlikely that anybody has made it to this point anyway - - unless someone decided to look first at the final page of the book, to take a peek at the ending, only to find that there isn't one.
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