[Sex Work] La Roche-Guilhem, Anne de
Contemporary calf with five raised bands. Measuring 217 x 127mm. Front blank neatly excised, else collating complete: [4], 324. Front board slightly bowed with small scuff; lacking spine label, and with cracking to joints near spine ends but remaining sound. Armorial bookplate of the Marquess of Headfort to the front pastedown. Minor worming to pastedowns and to preliminary and final leaves not affecting text. Internally fresh and unmarked. A scarce work by a woman documenting the lives of historic courtesans, it has appeared only twice at auction in the past 85 years and ESTC reports only 13 institutionally held copies (3 of these in the U.S.). Anne de La Roche-Guilhem's history of famed courtesans was published in four languages between its 1675 release in French and its first appearance in English in 1772 (OCLC). That year, both The Critical Review and the London Magazine noted its potential interest to "those who are fond of of what is known by the name of secret history" and claimed somewhat dismissively that "the ladies will find themselves particularly amused." Female Favourites certainly participated in a popular genre aimed at women -- among its contemporaries were Thomas Amories' Lives of Several Ladies of Great Britain (1755), Thomas Gibbons' Memoirs of Eminently Pious Women (1777), and Ann Thicknesse's Sketches of the Lives and Writings of the Ladies of France (1778). Yet it stood out for avoiding the emphasis on women as exemplars, heroes, or artists to instead focus on the histories and lives of courtesans. Politics, sex, and economics intertwine in La Roche-Guilhem's narratives which are part fact and part fiction. Female Favourites takes up the stories of courtesans a safe historical distance from the author's own lifetime: Mary de Padilla, Livia, Julia Farnessa, Agnes Boreau, and Nantilda each served kings, emperors, and popes. Their roles were notably more than sexual and physical, however. Though Female Favourites gestures to the weakness and hypocrisy of men in leadership, it equally calls out the power and influence these women could wield not only over their lovers but over their lovers' realms. Tyrants could be advised toward more generous social policies and royal gene pools could be reshaped by genealogical lines outside those sanctioned by the crown -- in the case of Mary de Padilla and King Pedro of Castile, for example. "Mary of Padilla was too much bias'd by interest to neglect such a conquest, and her engaging airs, apt to ensnare, did so enslave a man strong in nothing but crimes that soon she saw herself an absolute sovereign." Encouraging readers to see the more complex roles played by courtesans of the past, Female Favourites also connected these ideas to the thriving sex trade of the present. After all, though ministers and politicians decried so-called bawds and prostitutes, the women and queer people of Covent Garden in London were in their heyday running powerful businesses, generating wealth and even, as this book suggests, enjoying political sway. ESTC T60642.
[Sex Work] La Roche-Guilhem, Anne de
Contemporary calf with five raised bands. Measuring 217 x 127mm. Front blank neatly excised, else collating complete: [4], 324. Front board slightly bowed with small scuff; lacking spine label, and with cracking to joints near spine ends but remaining sound. Armorial bookplate of the Marquess of Headfort to the front pastedown. Minor worming to pastedowns and to preliminary and final leaves not affecting text. Internally fresh and unmarked. A scarce work by a woman documenting the lives of historic courtesans, it has appeared only twice at auction in the past 85 years and ESTC reports only 13 institutionally held copies (3 of these in the U.S.). Anne de La Roche-Guilhem's history of famed courtesans was published in four languages between its 1675 release in French and its first appearance in English in 1772 (OCLC). That year, both The Critical Review and the London Magazine noted its potential interest to "those who are fond of of what is known by the name of secret history" and claimed somewhat dismissively that "the ladies will find themselves particularly amused." Female Favourites certainly participated in a popular genre aimed at women -- among its contemporaries were Thomas Amories' Lives of Several Ladies of Great Britain (1755), Thomas Gibbons' Memoirs of Eminently Pious Women (1777), and Ann Thicknesse's Sketches of the Lives and Writings of the Ladies of France (1778). Yet it stood out for avoiding the emphasis on women as exemplars, heroes, or artists to instead focus on the histories and lives of courtesans. Politics, sex, and economics intertwine in La Roche-Guilhem's narratives which are part fact and part fiction. Female Favourites takes up the stories of courtesans a safe historical distance from the author's own lifetime: Mary de Padilla, Livia, Julia Farnessa, Agnes Boreau, and Nantilda each served kings, emperors, and popes. Their roles were notably more than sexual and physical, however. Though Female Favourites gestures to the weakness and hypocrisy of men in leadership, it equally calls out the power and influence these women could wield not only over their lovers but over their lovers' realms. Tyrants could be advised toward more generous social policies and royal gene pools could be reshaped by genealogical lines outside those sanctioned by the crown -- in the case of Mary de Padilla and King Pedro of Castile, for example. "Mary of Padilla was too much bias'd by interest to neglect such a conquest, and her engaging airs, apt to ensnare, did so enslave a man strong in nothing but crimes that soon she saw herself an absolute sovereign." Encouraging readers to see the more complex roles played by courtesans of the past, Female Favourites also connected these ideas to the thriving sex trade of the present. After all, though ministers and politicians decried so-called bawds and prostitutes, the women and queer people of Covent Garden in London were in their heyday running powerful businesses, generating wealth and even, as this book suggests, enjoying political sway. ESTC T60642.
Smith, Adam
Contemporary full calf with gilt and morocco to spine. Measuring 275 x 210mm and collating complete: xcv, [1, blank], 244. A square, unrestored copy with some dryness to spine and cracking to joints near spine ends; loss to crown of spine and minor shelfwear to board edges. Armorial bookplate of R. B. A. Macleod to front pastedown with early ownership signature of R. Macleod to front endpaper. Occasional light spotting at margins, but overall fresh and unmarked. Published five years after his death, Essays on Philosophical Subjects reflects "Smith's wide learning and varied interests," cementing his place in the Scottish Enlightenment by including "histories of astronomy, ancient logic and physics; essays on the 'imitative' arts and the affinity among music, dancing and poetry; and a critical review of Samuel Johnson's famous dictionary, which Smith originally published in the Edinburgh Review (1755-56)" (Semantic Scholar). An exceptional collection of critical thought, from a scholar who infamously required that many of his surviving papers be destroyed upon his death. ESTC T33499.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott
First issue, with the four main issue points present: 1) pg. 60, line 16 "chatter" 2) pg. 119, line 22 "northern" 3) pg. 205, lines 9-10 "sick in tired" 4) pg. 211, lines 7-8 "Union Street station." Original publisher's cloth binding with gilt to spine and blind embossing to front board. A Very Good+ copy with the spine gilt a bit dulled, top front corner gently bumped and some soiling/discoloration to the green cloth boards, otherwise an attractive copy of this exceptional novel, which introduced the Lost Generation to the world. Fitzgerald's masterpiece and one of the great novels of the 20th century. Fitzgerald intended the novel to be a "consciously artistic achievement" and "something extraordinary and beautiful and simple, and intricately patterned." The book took Fitzgerald two years to write, and he worked on it under a variety of different titles, including Dinner at Trimalchio's and Under the Red, White and Blue. Unfortunately, when it was first released The Great Gatsby was neither a commercial nor a critical success. In fact, even though Fitzgerald received a great deal of praise from many literary lights of the period -- including T.S. Eliot and Willa Cather -- the book did not achieve its current level of popularity and renown until after Fitzgerald's death, when it was distributed as a cheap paperback to GIs during World War II. The book has maintained its critical and commercial acclaim ever since, and has sold over 25 million copies. In 1960, the Times would call it "a classic of twentieth century American fiction." It has been adapted into numerous film versions, including a 1974 production starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, and with a script by Francis Ford Coppola. "A curious book, a mystical, glamourous story of today" (Contemporary New York Times Review). Very Good +.
Neruda, Pablo (David Alfaro Siqueiros, illustrator)
Out of a limitation of 235, one of ten lettered copies A-J (this copy being J), signed by the artist on the limitation page and on each of the 10 lithographs. A truly striking combination of poetry and visual arts, measuring an impressive 1040 x 600mm. Complete as issued in 63 pages with 10 lithographed and signed illustrations. Housed in the original publisher's linen clamshell with just a touch of fraying to spine ends. Of the 14 copies listed at institutions according to OCLC, only three are of the lettered limitation (B at Illinois, D at Hamilton, and G at Stony Brook). While individual lithographs frequently come up at auction, only one complete copy is documented in Rare Book Hub. A collaborative masterwork, Poems from the Canto General pairs some of Neruda's most important political lyrics with muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros large-scale lithographs. Originally conceived as a more traditional livre des artistes, the scale of Siqueiros' contribution altered the production, leading to the lithographs being included as a separate suite of gently folded pages rather than intermixed with Neruda's text. Prior to the collaboration, the two artists had already achieved fame; they had also worked on earlier iterations of the Cantos. "The friendship between Neruda and Siqueiros was born in Mexico, when Neruda worked there as Chilean consul and the painter languished in jail after having organized an armed assault on the home of Leon Trotsky" (Trinity). From this "ideological affinity" as well as their shared "artistic and social sensibilities" that the groundwork of their friendship was laid (Trinity). Canto General was in many ways the most perfect outcome -- a complete artistic call for the liberation of all peoples on the continent. Fine in Near Fine dust jacket.
[Abolition] Smith, E.
Publisher's cloth embossed in blind with gilt label to spine. Buff endpapers. Measuring 175 x 110mm and collating complete: iv, 5-244. Early ownership signature to front endpaper in pencil: "Dr. H. Jewett." A square, tight, unrestored copy with loss to spine ends and rubbing to corners; internally clean and unmarked. A scarce abolitionist text outlining the clear and important differences between historical enslavement and the horrific systemic, hereditary approach to slavery in the US, OCLC lists 12 copies at libraries in the US. It last appeared at auction in 1978, and the present is the only complete first edition on the market. From the outset, the Reverend Smith's book makes its position clear: while forms of slavery long existed in the Christian West, they differ dramatically from the modern US system of hereditary chattel slavery, which is so horrific that it "forever settles the question against the slaveholder's right to membership in the church of the living God." Using the first portion of the text to outline historical approaches to slavery as well as how it is discussed in the Hebrew Scriptures, Smith turns at the back half of his text to the current laws governing the ownership and enslavement of humans in his own world. "An American slave is a human being," he asserts, "who is by wicked and malicious force, against his will, reduced to the state of civil death and is considered, held, and treated.as a brute beast.by sinful and unlawful means, and against his will, deprived of a name.rendered incapable of having a husband, a wife, a father, a mother, a child.owned by another human being as absolute property." The violence of these deprivations are built within and inseparable from chattel slavery. A remedy is possible. According to Smith, it is incumbent upon all churches to deny membership to enslavers, just as they would bar from their communities those engaged in polygamy. Until the churches take action, they are culpable for enabling the continuation of the system. "If no church in this nation or in this world would admit a slaveholder to fellowship, slavery would soon be driven from christendom.But as long as the church endorses the religious characters of slaveholders, slavery may live."
Blackstone, Sir William
Four quarto volumes (250 x 194 mm) collating complete: [4], iii, [7], 4-473, [1], viii; [8], 520, xix, [1]; [8], 455, [1], xxvii, [1]; [8], 436, vii, [41]. With the engraved "Table of Consanguinity" and folding "Table of Descendants" in Volume II. Rare 8 page "Supplement to the First Edition" bound in at the end of the first volume. Contemporary full calf boards with original spine labels preserved on three of the volumes, replaced to style on the fourth. Repairs to the spines preserving the original leather on two of the volumes, rebacked to style on two. An excellent set internally, generally clean and wide-margined, with only slight occasional foxing. A few leaves with marginal dampstaining, heaviest on the final two leaves of volume 4. Signed by the original owner, Mountague Cholmeley 1765, and with his son's bookplate on the inner paste-down; contemporary marginal annotations throughout volume I. Housed in a full leather slipcase. "Blackstone's great achievement was to popularize the law and the traditions which had influenced its formation.If the English constitution survived the troubles of the next century, it was because the law had gained a new popular respect, and this was in part due to the enormous success of Blackstone's work" (Printing and the Mind of Man). First published in 1765, Blackstone made a complex legal system based on precedents, accessible to the average reader. The publication and great success of these commentaries marked a dramatic shift in the popular perception of the law within England and they became required reading for practitioners and scholars alike for many years. PMM 212. Grolier 100 in English, 52. Rothschild 407. ESTC T57753.
[Women's Employment] Harris, Louisa
Original publisher's cloth binding with gilt to spine and front board. Brown coated endpapers. A square, tight copy with just a bit of rubbing to extremities and light shelfwear to bottom edges of boards. Internally clean and unmarked, collating viii, 9-220: complete including frontis. The first book published by a policewoman in America, it is difficult to acquire in collectible condition. Despite assumptions to the contrary, "women have served in organized law enforcement in the U.S. almost from the beginning. The first police departments in America were established in the 19th century, and in 1845 women began working as matrons in New York City jails" (Smith). The practice rapidly spread across the country, where police forces needed assistance in supervising female prisoners and dealing with the specific challenges faced by this population. Women's clubs -- particularly the American Female Moral Reform Society and the Women's Christian Temperance Union -- urged recognition for the widespread violence perpetrated on female prisoners and called for meaningful change. "It was these women's groups that fought for these distinctly female positions, demanding there was a need for women to take care of women.and they provided police departments with funds for paid matron positions until the government could be convinced of the necessity of having women in the police force" (Maiorano). Louisa Harris, having served in the prisons and courts of Missouri for nearly a decade, became the first of these women to publish about her experience. The resulting narrative reflects an awareness of the social forces that often put women at a disadvantage, driving them toward arrests or recidivism. Domestic violence, poverty, and the stigma placed on sex work all do damage to women; and according to Harris, these women should not be treated as or placed with violent offenders when they could, with proper assistance, find safety or build more secure lives. This is the motivation for Harris' memoir. In the introduction she explains that while she hesitated to publish the book which might in some readers awaken a "morbid curiosity," she ultimately moved ahead because "I reasoned that if the world knew more about the unfortunate and their revolting experiences, together with the causes that promote misfortune, there might be more true sympathy exhibited.While I have from personal observation become familiar with so-called criminals, I have had the opportunity to learn many of the causes of the committal of crimes. The law seldom recognizes the palliating influences, but humanity should." Harris calls for reforming the handling of juvenile offenders, advocates for therapeutic programs for young women, and taps into a number of other systemic issues of concern within policing today. Near Fine.
Dali, Salvador (illustrator); Lewis Carroll
Limited edition of 2500 copies, signed on the title page by Dali, this being number 1392. Folio measuring 430 x 285mm, with Mandeure paper pages loose as issued and housed in the publisher's quarter leather clamshell case. Near Fine clamshell with about a 3 inch split at the top and a 1.5 inch split at the bottom of the front joint, unrestored. Complete with the original leather straps and horn clasps intact. Internally Fine; bright, clean, and complete, with the original etched frontis and all 12 original color illustrations present. Retaining the original shipping box from the publisher (also numbered 1392). Based on the beloved fantasy by Lewis Carroll, Salvador Dali's rendition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland exceed surrealist expectations. As the reader travels through Dali's Wonderland, they are treated to a brilliantly coloured illustration, giving insight into how the painter experienced Carroll's story. An unforgettable adaptation. Fine in Near Fine dust jacket.
[American Woman Suffrage Association] Matilda Hindman
6 page Autograph Letter Signed with transmittal envelope, dated May 25, 1880 and stamped May 26. Pages measuring 200 x 122mm with original horizontal foldlines. Clean and legible. Matilda Hindman of Pennsylvania was an influential leader of the women's suffrage movement in the U.S. and was particularly influential in equality campaigns taking place across Ohio, South Dakota, and Colorado from 1880-1890. Only the second woman to graduate from Ohio's Mt. Union College (in 1860), she was highly invested in promoting the interests of women in regions that could be used as strong precedent for the expansion of education, employment, and voting rights nationwide. The present letter, to suffragist Mary Plumb Nichols of Denver, deals directly with this work -- including both Hindman's service as an AWSA delegate advocating for women's expanded roles in the church as well as the unfair practices she herself has confronted of being denied payment for work once it is completed. Her letter from Cincinnati documents in real time some of the debates unfolding at the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church (May 1-28, 1880) and reads in part: "My dear Mrs. Nichols, It is a long time since I received your last most welcome letter. Had I not been so very busy I would have answered long ere now. I came here almost three weeks ago, as a Delegate from the American Woman Suffrage Association to memorialize the General Convention of the M. E. Church asking that it license women to preach and ordain them as Deacons and Elders. It is here as elsewhere the women.are sufficiently advanced to go so far as to believe they should be ordained. But the subject will come up in the General Conference and we will see what we can do. Can you, Oh! Yes, you can understand what one can and must suffer to sit helpless and hear herself and her sex derided, actually made to appear as persons willing to do the most infamous acts for self agrandizement. Dr. What a title for such a man: well, Dr. Buckley of New York said if women were admitted as preachers it would have the most demoralizing effect, as they would use their feminine influence on the Presiding Elders that they miht obtain good appointments and there would be no end to the Church scandals." That said, she notes that "when the subject came up in the Con. to change the Discipline, there was another big contest. Twenty voted for and twenty eight against giving women the right to hold all offices in the Church that a layman can hold." A conversation that points to debates that persist even today, Hindman expresses her frustration with the sexualization of women and the misogyny of Church and government structures willing to accuse women of unethical behavior even while they themselves engage in it. For the remainder of her letter deals with Colorado Governor John Evans and his refusal to pay her now that her efforts to organize and speak at the convention in his state are complete. "I really thought that as I had done the work the Con. arranged for me and bargained to pay me for, I should receive the renumeration agreed upon. He said he did not think the Con. ought to pay it, as he said he would not be personally responsible." Committing to continue pushing on the governor's office, Hindman nevertheless expresses concern about her own financial loss and appeals to Nichols as well as other local leaders to raise funds to assist her meanwhile. While women eventually gained the right to preach and be licensed and ordained in the M. E. Church in 1920, this position was backtracked when the organization merged with the Methodist Episcopal Church South and the Methodist Protestant Church in 1939. Women would not regain their clergy rights until 1952.
[Murray, Judith Sargent]
In The Massachusetts Magazine, or Monthly Museum for March and April of 1790 (Nos. III-IV, Vol. II), pages 132-135, 223-226. Beautifully bound in recent full sheep with morocco and gilt to spine. Measuring 205 x 125mm and collating [2], 131-192, [2], 195-256: lacking the final leaf of of the meteorological chart to the rear of the March edition, else complete including engraved illustration. A scarce survivor, with the toning and foxing expected of American imprints of this era; loss to lower corner of pages 203-204 with several words affected; archival repairs to pages 192 and 206 with all text present. Occasional faint contemporary pencil annotations to margins. All text of Murray's Essay complete and clean. The first feminist argument published by a woman in the new Republic, predating Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman by two years, it is rare institutionally and in trade. ESTC reports only 11 institutions worldwide with print copies of this scarce serial, which ran from only 1789-1796. The present is the only example of Murray's Essay to appear in the modern auction record, and is the only example in trade. Born into privilege, Judith Sargent Murray was taught to read and write from childhood and benefited from sharing her brother's tutor until he departed for the Boston Latin School and then to Harvard. "These clear disparities, present even within the close confines of her family circle, were a catalyst for her advocacy for equal education" and for her public argument that.while 'nature with equality imparts,'" it is a cultural refusal to educate women that leaves them at a disadvantage (The Public Domain Review). Sargent articulated and expanded on these thoughts in an essay she wrote and privately circulated among friends throughout the 1780s. The "revised counterpart, On the Equality of the Sexes, was published in 1790 in the March and April issues of Massachusetts Magazine.Although she published under the pseudonym 'Constantia'.her identity as the author was well known" (PDR). Notably, her decision to publish the work in the magazine rather than a stand-alone text assured that a wider readership would encounter these ideas at their release. Tapping into the rhetoric of the Revolution and newly founded Republic, Murray argued that liberty, equality, and the pursuit of happiness should not be available to men alone -- and that access to these principles relied on an educated citizenry. The current state of education for women placed an enormous swath of Americans at a serious disadvantage; and without proper knowledge, women were susceptible to men's violence both physically and socially. Only by nurturing the minds of girls and women, she argues, can the American project succeed and ensure the prosperity of women as individuals as well as in what she defined as their likely roles as wives and mothers. A founding document of American feminism and a cornerstone articulation of principles of Republican Motherhood that would shape the early U.S. ESTC P2800.
Bacon, Francis
Bound to style in modern quarter calf over marbled boards with gilt and morocco labels to spines. All edges speckled blue. Measuring 285 x 225mm and collating complete including frontis to volumes I-IV (no frontis called for in V) and folding tables in volumes I and IV: [12], xlii, [2], 575, [1]; [6], 658; [12], vi, 7-681, [74]; [2], xx, 529, [1]; vii, [1], 604. Top edges a bit dust-stained. Bookplates of Desmond Morris to front pastedown of each volume. Volume I with occasional marginal notes in pencil and with page 135 misnumbered 134. Volume III with chips, closed tears, and archival reinforcements to preliminary leaves not affecting text; additional chipping and marginal loss to pages 537-542 with no loss to text. Volume IV with mispaginations throughout and all text continuous; scattered foxing throughout. Volume V with paper flaw affecting the page numbers of 259-260 and a printer error to the numbering of page 391. Overall a clean, pleasing, and sturdy library set of this early edition of Bacon's most influential works. "Francis Bason was one of the leading figures in natural philosophy and in the field of scientific methodology in the period of transition from the Renaissance to the early modern era. As a lawyer, member of Parliament, and Queen's Counsel, Bacon wrote on questions of law, state, and religion as well as on contemporary politics; but he also published texts in which he speculated on possible conceptions of society and pondered questions of ethics.To the present day, Bacon is well known for his treatises on empiricist natural philosophy (The Advancement of Learning, Novum Organum Scientiarum) and for his doctrine of the idols" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). His wide range of writings are reflected in this early five-volume set edited by Thomas Birch, giving readers an opportunity to engage with, study, and appreciate Bacon's diverse intellectual contributions. ESTC T88309.
[Commonplace Book] Mary Amidon
Black roan stamped in gilt and blind. Measuring 190 x 155mm and containing 29 manuscript entries in various hands, several examples of calligraphic illustration, and one lock of blonde hair. Occasional later annotations in green ink, seemingly from a descendant or amateur genealogist connecting the Plimpton, Amidon, and Welde families through their entries (suggesting that A. E. and Jane Plimpton were aunt and niece, with A. E. Plimpton being the mother of the three half-sisters Mary Amidon, and Sarah and Amy Welde all of whom make entries). Presented to Mary when she was about eleven years old, the present commonplace book reflects the hopes and sentiments that older women have for the younger girls coming to adulthood behind them. The calligraphic dedication articulates this from the start: "Oo, herald of my fondest hopes, and call from every flower their sweetest odours." Most entries are from older women, and they encourage the girl to remember how friendship is "the guiding hand of all our hopes," to aspire for "future hours to be given to peace, to wisdom," and to maintain "purity and beauty" as the jewels of her womanhood. Underlying this are the familial relationships being traced by a later (c. 1950-1960s) genealogist who leaves her own annotations on some of the entries. She marks one entry from A. E. Plimpton with the question "her mother?" -- this, a poem with hopes that Mary focus not on the joys and sorrows of this world but instead on "A harvest wish beyond the tomb, A saint's reward, a saviour's love." Later, in an 1862 contribution from Sarah Weld titled Sister Mary, the genealogist notes that it's Mary's actual sister; the sentiments here echo those of A. E., urging Mary to focus on the afterlife "when friends who greet thee have faded and gone." Further into the book, dated 1850, Amy Welde leaves a poem to Mary which the genealogist notes is "sister." Here we see a shift. For while all three women have focus on friends, Amy alone focuses on the joys they bring to this life. "May you dear sister be ever blest, With friends selected from the best.May all your life be blest and free, May happiness still smile on thee." This departure in tone is highlighted only pages later in Jane Plimpton's 1859 entry "To Cousin Mary" (which the annotator has marked, "Cousin of Sarah, Mary + Amy"): again, a focus on loss, defending one's heart, and not being afraid "when Death like slumber shall rest on thy brow." While women's manuscripts of this period often focus on themes found in Mary's book, the distinction in tone and content of those marked as family members is noticeable -- those women who write from outside the family tend to take a lighter (albeit similarly conservative) approach to womanhood and their hopes for Mary's future. Further genealogical and social-historical study could be done to trace whether one of Mary, Sarah, and Amy's fathers died or abandoned the family, and whether their mixed family was a product of widowhood or infidelity. More broadly, the book could support or add nuance to research on the history of blended families and women's relationships within them; to community reactions to blended families; and attitudes toward women as wives and mothers in such circumstances.
[Travel Diary] Frederica King Davis
Contemporary quarter cloth over marbled boards, measuring 165 x 105mm and containing 103 pages manuscript in a single hand. Written by Frederica King Davis as she traveled Europe during her 19th year. The bulk of the diary contains vivid and dense descriptions of her travel route, means of travel, companions, sites visited, and observations on art and culture; toward the rear, she meticulously documents her allowance received, her expenditures, and the list of books she aims to read as a result of her trip (these revealing a curiosity about the deeper history and context surrounding her). A research rich piece, it gives insight not only into the type of grand tour provided to well-off 19th century American women; it also offers opportunities for researching the history of tourism, the history of transport, the history of artistic exhibits and art criticism, women's education in domestic accounts and budgeting, traditions in women's gift-giving and charitable contributions, the history of women's fashion, and the history of friendship and courtship etiquette. It is also a reminder of the level of financial dependency women like Davis had first on their fathers and then on their husbands, in a world that limited their own abilities to work full time or maintain their own property. As Frederica travels through cities such as Paris and London, she records her visits to many of the expected locales. Her observations are honest, suggesting that this is not a performative document. While a young woman might have been expected to express awe at places like St. Sulpice, L'Eglise du Invalides, or Versailles she is less interested in their architecture or gardens than she is about the historical figures who walked them and how they document current historical attitudes or knowledge. "By far the most interesting that I have seen" she writes in an early entry, "Napoleon's tomb is interesting seeing though he was truly 'a little vulgar upstart,' the figures around the sarcophogous are very fine." Similarly, though she notes the rich furnishings at Versailles, she is fascinated by the placement and situation of the staircase by which Marie Antoinette escaped rioters. Such observations continue throughout her trip. And her reading list includes Sir George Trevelyan's Life of Macaulay and the Histoire de la Revolution Francaise alongside a list of libraries visited (including All Souls, Mirton, and the Bodleian). Throughout, Frederica pays close attention to how villages and cities are laid out; she records the ease or difficulty of traveling through them. In addition to documenting the people she meets or travels with, she also comments on the locals and their daily lives. In York, for example, she mentions coming "upon a Salvation Sunday School" and visiting the "children of the blind school next door, out in the garden." Though her content more often describes the privileged (or evidences her own, as she purchases fine stockings, gloves, and jewelry), moments like these, as well as several charitable contributions to "beggars" listed in her budgeting, suggests she sees and feels empathy for those differently situated than herself. In all, the diary offers scholar numerous avenues of study, including but not limited to the history of tourism and travel, women's fashion, historical reading practices, women's accounting and domestic economics, social relationships and courtship, etiquette, and paleography.
[Foster, Hannah Webster] A Lady of Massachusetts, the Author of The Coquette
Contemporary sheep with morocco label to spine. Measuring 170 x 103mm and complete in 252 pages. Binding generally rubbed with minor chipping to spine label. Inner front hinge starting but holding well; a bit of worming to the rear pastedown and lower corner of rear endpaper. Contemporary ownership signature of Hannah Weed to front endpaper and bookplate of collector Bruce Lisman to front pastedown. Scattered foxing throughout, else an unmarked copy. The second work by the first native-born American woman novelist, it has become quite scarce. Currently the only first edition on the market, this title has appeared only four times at auction since 1983. The rare second novel by best-selling Massachusetts author Hannah Webster Foster. Only one year before, the release of her epistolary novel The Coquette made Foster a literary sensation. "Not only was it the first novel written by a native-born American woman, in its depiction of an intelligent and strong-willed heroine, the novel transcends many of the conventions of its time and place" (History of American Women). Her sophomore release was no less important. Continuing to deploy the popular epistolary form of its predecessor, The Boarding School "promotes improved female education through its depiction of an exemplary boarding school teacher" and remained "equally concerned with the status of women in the early republic" (ANB). At a time when the fledgling nation was debating women's status and establishing its earliest statutes on schooling, Foster uses her platform to argue "the many advantages of a good education and the importance of improving those advantages." Dividing the work into two key sections, Foster uses the first portion to describe "the finishing school run by Mrs. Maria Williams, including exhortations on social conduct, reading, and general preparations for survival"; meanwhile, the second portion is dedicated to "letters from the students to the teacher and to each other, demonstrating the beneficial effects of Mrs. William's instruction" (History of American Women). Recent scholarship has emphasized that The Boarding School builds upon an already central concern in Foster's prior novel: "the crucial role played by tightly knit circles of women" which "would have been deeply resonant to the young women who were her primary readers" (Pettengill). Like The Coquette, her second book "portrays women during the crucial transition in their lives from daughterhood to wife-and-motherhood, from parental to husbandly authority. But the boarding school set is younger, with school days still fresh in their memories, and the complications of courtship and marriage only just coming into their range of vision.in The Boarding School, the male world is shadowy and vague.[not yet] jostling the women with demands that threaten even as they support the logical self-sufficiency of sisterhood and the female sphere" (Pettengill). By bridging the didactic advice book with the epistolary novel, Foster suggests that women need education as "the foundation of a useful and happy life" and that school provides them with this as well as with a lifelong female community built on shared experience. The "perfect Republican mother," Mrs. Williams provides the girls with the perfect model on which to base themselves, giving Foster a means for arguing that women must educate other women in order to create a strong and lasting national foundation (Newton). BAL 6242. ESTC W29990. Evans 33748.
