James Harlan - Rare Book Insider
book (2)

Johnson, Brigham

James Harlan

The State Historical Society of Iowa, Iowa City, IA: 1913
The author's copy with his handsome bookplate (designed by his artist daughter) to the front pastedown; two SIGNED pictures of Senator Harlan one an original photograph tipped in.8vo. xvi, 398pp. Extra-illustrated with some 70 etchings and engravings of persons described in the book. Three-quarter burgundy morocco and tan buckram; top edge gilt; gilt-decorated spine in six compartments; tapa design endpapers. Minor wear; else a fine copy. James Harlan was U.S. Senator (Iowa) and a close friend of President Abraham Lincoln and his family (his daughter Mary married Lincoln's son Robert Todd Lincoln). After Lincoln's assassination, Harlan resigned from the Senate when he was appointed as Secretary of the Interior under President Andrew Johnson before returning to the Senate 1867-1873. A volume in the Iowa Biographical Series edited by Benjamin F. Shambaugh, who has autographed his tipped-in picture. .
More from Carpe Diem Fine Books
book (2)

Empire on the Platte

Crabb, Richard; with research by Burt Sell "An official publication of the Nebraska Centennial. This is number 180 of a special edition of 250 copies SIGNED by the author". 8vo. x, 373 pp. Index. Illustrated by Ernest L. Reedstrom and with photographic plates and portraits throughout, map endpapers. Two original paper "Nebraska Centennial" blue promotional wrap-around bands laid in (one in fine condition, see image). Decorated tan cloth spine, rust paper covered boards in publisher's pictorial dustjacket. Housed in publisher's box with jacket image applied to top. A fine copy; minor rubbing to box corners else fine. A trade edition was also issued in pictorial cloth. Ramon Adams in his Six-guns mentions the trade edition but apparently was unaware of this scarce special edition. We find only one copy of this special edition in online institutions. A rousing adventure in a fascinating history of the Great Plains from the Civil War until the 1880's. The book was supressed (and copies ordered destroyed) by the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, as a result of a suit by Alan Swallow (publisher of titles by Sage Books) which proved plagerism from Harry Christman's "Ladder of Rivers" published by Swallow. This copy is certainly from the few copies that were surrendered to Alan Swallow. How many copies Swallow had is not known. In any case, this is one of the best books on the constant fight of I. P. Olive and his cowboys in Texas and Nebraska and their fight with the homesteaders and the rustlers. It is "one of the most nearly complete histories of the feud between the Olives and Luther Mitchell and Ami Ketchum" (Adams). Also includes material on Doc Middleton, Jesse James, and Johnny Ringo.