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JAMES CUMMINS BOOKSELLER catalogue 105 autographs & manuscripts To place your order, call, write, e-mail or fax: JAMES CUMMINS BOOKSELLER 699 Madison Avenue, New York City, 10065 Telephone (212) 688-6441 Fax (212) 688-6192 e-mail: [email protected] www.jamescumminsbookseller.com hours: Monday - Friday 10:00 - 6:00, Saturday 10:00 - 5:00 Members A.B.A.A., I.L.A.B. inside front cover: King, Typed Letter Signed, item 96 inside rear cover: Lafayette, Manuscript Document Signed, item 98 rear cover: Clemens, Photograph Inscribed, addenda 4 terms of payment: All items, as usual, are guaranteed as described and are returnable within 10 days for any reason. All books are shipped UPS (please provide a street address) unless otherwise requested. Overseas orders should specify a shipping preference. All postage is extra. New clients are requested to send remittance with orders. Libraries may apply for deferred billing. All New York and New Jersey residents must add the appropriate sales tax. We accept American Express, Master Card, and Visa. Visit our website, www.jamescumminsbookseller.com, for images of all items in this catalogue john quincy adams supports u.s. purchase of noah webster’s synopsis 1. ADAMS, John Quincy. Autograph Letter, signed to the son of Noah Webster concerning his support of the Federal purchase of his father’s synopsis of the Dictionary for the Library of Congress. 4to, Quincy [MA], 11 September 1843. Written in ink on glazed laid paper, old folds, remnants of mounting hinges, else fresh and fine. In half blue morocco folding box. $6,500 In this letter, to Noah Webster’s son William G. Webster, the former President endorses the suggestion of “purchasing the synopsis of [your father’s] great work and causing it to be deposited in [the Library of Congress]…should you conclude to prepare a testimonial presenting the obvious considerations in favour of that measure, and will do me the honour of entrusting it to me, I will very cheerfully present it to the House, and will give it such a direction as may be most promotive of its success…” historic and important. “often, to tell the truth, it made me a little ill” 2. ANDERSON, Sherwood. Autograph Letter, signed (“Sherwood Anderson”) in answer to a complimentary letter from Frederick Har- rold. One page on blank sheet. 4to, 12 – St. Luke’s Pl. – New York, Dec 21, n.y. [ca. 1923]. One small perforation with loss of two letters, old folds, one deep crease not affecting legibility. In a quarter blue morocco clamshell box. $500 A fine letter to a fan from an appreciative Anderson at this relatively early stage: … Indeed if you could know the number of letters, of another sort, I have re- ceived from readers you never could have felt any self-consciousness in writ- ing so handsomely of my work. The purely abusive letters do not come so much any more but at one time I received often five or more a day. Often, to tell the truth, it made me a little ill. However, I would not have you take this as a complaint. Few men have been so handsomely received by their fellow craftsmen of their own time … James Cummins Bookseller “hard-boiled sentimentalist” 3. ANDERSON, Sherwood. Autograph Letter, signed, To Ted Rob- inson. One page on personal stationery. 4to, Ripshin Farm, Troutsdale, Va, n.d. [after 1926]. Fine. Laid into quarter red morocco drop box. $500 “… It was my wife’s notion. She wanted to see the article. I guess she rather liked the term, having heard it quoted — ‘hard-boiled sentimentalist.’ Hell — I rather like it myself, Ted …” Anderson and his wife Elizabeth Prall moved into their new farmhouse in Troutdale in 1926. Ted Robinson was an author and the literary editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. 2 Autographs & Manuscripts Catalogue 105 an atherton credo: “i believe in equal suffrage ” 4. ATHERTON, Gertrude. Typed Letter, signed (“Gertrude Ather- ton”) to “Mrs. [A.D.] Wright”, on women’s suffrage, her books, and her position as a “California writer”. 2 pp., double-spaced, on recto and verso of a single blank sheet; with a few autograph corrections and in- sertions. 4to, San Francisco (“40 Fulton St.”), Aug. 29th, 1911 [the year added in the hand of recipient]. Old folds and creases, but quite leg- ible. Docketed by recipient “This is in answer to a letter I wrote to her. A.D.W”. Preserved in a custom purple clothe wrap around chemise, with gilt-lettered spine label. $750 A remarkable letter from the California novelist discussing her work and her position on women‘s rights: I hardly know what to tell you …I believe in equal suffrage, partly because the reverse is absurd, considering that we women of the occident, at least, have every other sort of liberty; partly because I think that the average woman, who has seen anything of life, at all events, is for reform; partly because I be- lieve that women are more fitted that men by nature, and because they have more leisure, to deal with all questions relating to the poor … If you want to treat me as a representative California writer, you would better take up ‘The Splendid Idle Forties,’ ‘The Doomswoman,’ ‘Rezanov,’ ‘The Californians,’ ‘Ancestors,’ the first part of ‘American Wives and English Husbands,’ and the first part of ‘Patience Sparhawk and her Times.’ Also ‘A Daughter of the Vine’ — this recently was translated in French and ran through the Paris Fi- garo. You might take note that I created that now well known ‘atmosphere’ of Spanish California. Every body that has come since has helped him — or herself. The other day I received a letter from a playwright asking if he might borrow it and I was so surprised that I offered him anything he wanted. Of course I have live much away from California, and in consequence, through other books, ‘Senator North,’ ‘The Conqueror,’ ‘Tower of Ivory,’ rank me more as an American than as a California writer. Nevertheless I am loyal to the state, prefer to write here, and, when something vital really occurs to me, to write about it … Still when I don’t I am always reproached by the English and Continental papers. They, apparently, would rather read about California than about any other part of the country … James Cummins Bookseller barnum to james gordon bennett, on jenny lind 5. BARNUM, P[hineas] T[aylor]. Autograph Letter, signed (“P.T. Barnum”), to “My dear Sir” [James Gordon Bennett Esq.], Revere House, Boston. 2 pp pen and ink on blue paper. 4to, n.p, October 9, 1850. Prior folds, else fine, laid into a quarter blue morocco box. $3,500 P.T. Barnum (1810-1891), one of the most remarkable showmen of all time, managed the highly successful tour of “The Swedish Nightingale” Jenny Lind, and following a brief political career, established the Barnum circus in 1871. Bennett was the Publisher of the New York Herald. This letter refers to an ar- ticle in the Herald about Jenny Lind who had been touring for Barnum in her first American tour. Lind’s first concerts were performed in New York City on September 11, 1850. “After permitting one favorable notice in his paper, Ben- nett had turned around, as usual, and had abused Jenny Lind and bitterly at- tacked me. I was always glad to get such notices, for they served as inexpensive advertisements to my Museum” (Barnum, Autobiography, p. 120). Barnum assures Bennett that he was amused, rather than offended, by the Herald’s criticisms and that he did not recruit the Boston papers to attack back on his behalf: I have never had the slightest reason to feel offended or annoyed at anything the Herald has said regarding Jennny Lind or myself – indeed I trust that I am too old a soldier to flinch much at paper bullets, but I did not like to remain silent & thus incur the risk of your supposing that I regarded your article a one calculated to injure me (for I did not so regard it,) nor did I wish you to suppose I was so sensitive as to be induced to ask other papers to take up the gauntlet for me. 4 Autographs & Manuscripts Catalogue 105 6. BARTHOLDI, Frederic A. Autograph Letter, signed (“Bartholdi”), in English, to Wilbur F. Brown, Commander of Lafayette Post. 4 pp. on stationery. 12mo, Paris, Rue Vavin, 38, February 21, 1889. Fine, small residue marks on last leaf edges. In brown cloth chemise. $1,250 Bartholdi writes in English about a design for a medal depicting the Statue of Liberty: … The question of the medal was not forgotten … I made several attempts, and finally proposed to one of our most distinguished artists to make sketch- es of a medal of which I send you a photograph [not present]. The result, I belive, is satisfactory; you may see how charming the work is and the idea as well. ‘France and America led by the Genius of Liberty before the monument of Franco-American Union.’ Bartholdi goes on to discuss his dificulty in executing this design and com- plains of ill-health and fatigue, “I hope … these clouds will by and by dissapear, and that I shall see bright skies again … As soon as I see again an opportunity to do something for the medal, I shall do my best, but at present I can do no more. In the mean time the copper is kept at hand …” 7. ________. Autograph Letter, signed (“Batholdi”), to “Mon cher ami”. 2 pp. pen and purple ink on stationery.

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