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18555437New York: H.H. Randall 1855. First edition. Printed self wraps stitched at spine. Measuring 220 x 140mm and complete in 64 pages. Some rubbing along spine and scattered foxing to preliminary and terminal leaves; toned throughout else clean. A scarce piece sensationalizing the tragic affairs and subsequent suicides of Sarah and Maria Williams OCLC reports fewer than twenty copies with libraries with this being the only example on the market.<br /> <br /> We've been unable to determine whether the tragic story of the Williams twins is in fact historically true. What is clear whether the narrative is fiction or non-fiction is that the damage caused to women and their lives as a result of their social positions and sex had a wide audience and attracted a variety of readers -- some who hoped to judge the parties involved some who sought the experience of empathy and catharsis some with prurient fantasies and some who simply wanted a thrill. According to this story Sarah and Maria Williams were firstborn daughters to a loving and prosperous middle-class New York family and that like any "perfect victims" they combined "sincerity kindness and judgement" with "the bloom of loveliness grace and innocence." Chaste and well behaved in their boarding-school days their lives took a turn at twenty. During their father's extended absence on business Maria began receiving visits from Mr. Knight an insidious but well-recommended brother of an old schoolmate. Seduced by him into a fraudulent marriage Maria is ultimately separated from her family and forced into sex work for his profit.<br /> <br /> Rising eventually to "a high position among those of her kind.as a prostitute of superior grade" Maria operated on her own and refused to return to the Williams household despite Sarah's urgining; being degraded by her old neighbors and parents when she could be respected by her own was too much to bear. Sarah's insistence on maintaining a relationship with her twin and visiting her disreputable home led to her own reputation being cast into doubt. And when Sarah's intended eventually fell for engaged in keeping and ultimately got pregnant Maria all participants in the affair ended their own lives. <br /> <br /> In many ways the sensationalized stories of these twins reveal how no woman is safe and how no woman can rely on her chastity to protect her socially. Though Maria and Sarah were identical and took opposite paths their violent ends wind up being identical and equally scandalous. H.H. Randall unknown
1896STLL0129Hamburg, Verlagsanst. u. Druckerei A.-G. 1890-1896. Gr.-8°, XXXI(1) S. (Tit., Einführ. u. Vorw. d. Verf.), 545(1) S., IV (Tit. u. Vorw. d. Übers.), 412 S. mit 1 Tafelbild u. Tit. II S. (Vorw. d. Verf.), 29(1) S., 64 meist gefaltete Tafeln mit z. Tl. photogr. Abb. Mit etlichen Tabellen u. einigen wenigen Fig. im Text. HLdrBde. d. Zt. auf vier falschen Bünden m. Tit. u. reichen Verz. in Goldpräg. auf Rü., marmor. Buchschnitt u. gemusterten Vorsätzen. Kanten u. Kapitale berieben. Stempel auf Tit. unschön m. Exlibris überklebt. Im Text etwas gebräunt u. stellenw. stockfleckig. Mischauflage der ersten und zweiten Auflage dieser ersten deutschen Ausgabe, übersetzt nach der 1876 veröffentlichten Originalausgabe ("L'uomo delinquente in rapporto all'Anthropologia, alla Giurisprudenza ed alle discipline carcerarie"). Der italienische Mediziner und Anthropologe Cesare Lombroso (1836-1909) war Militärarzt in Pavia, leitete fünf Jahre die Nervenanstalt von Pesaro, lehrte später in Turin gerichtliche Medizin, Hygiene sowie Psychiatrie und gilt als Begründer der Kriminologie. Er vertrat die These, es gebe geborene Verbrecher, die durch körperliche und psychische Merkmale zu erkennen seien. Abstehende Ohren, zusammengewachsene Augenbrauen, schmale Lippen und hervorstehende Eckzähne waren für ihn u. a. Erkennungszeichen krimineller Neigungen. Europaweit lieferten Lombrosos umstrittene Theorien den Anstoß für wissenschaftliche Debatten über die Ursachen des Verbrechens. (vlg. dazu Brockhaus, 19. Aufl. XIII, 509).
1886140042London: Irwin Langley & Co. 1886. Advice to Strangers" - avoiding the criminal pitfalls of 1880s London First and only edition of this extraordinary little volume offering practical advice against the thieves and tricksters plaguing the streets of London. The first half of the text is a spotter's guide on pickpockets "Who they are and what they are like" with explanations of their methods the distraction of the "stall" the techniques of the "wire" given in sufficient detail and with such specifics as to suggest that the author genuinely was of the profession claimed. The second section offers "Advice for Strangers" to the metropolis illuminating the operations of the "Mysterious Dental Rooms" "swell assignations houses" that thrive on the "carnal weaknesses of casual visitors to the city"; forwards an explanation for "the mysterious disappearances which are almost daily reported" the lure of "a pretty face snapping black eyesand red lips" drinks in a café ending with a "bloated disfigured swollen corpse" pulled from the river; and looks into the "women and young girls who have a great mania for disappearing". A respectable and highly cultivated young girl in Liverpool taking "short cut through a disreputable part of town" reappears in London the story never made public but understood to be "horrible in the extreme". The final sections comprise a short piece on "the Dark Ways of Street-sharpers" and a lengthier description of a rather complicated American scam to illustrate "High Class and Ingenious Roguery on a Grand Style" followed by a brief explanation of cipher writing and reading which concludes with a "Prize Competition £1000 in Prizes" requiring the solution of three ciphered messages. Noting well what has gone before this has more than a hint of "roguery" to it but where the catch might have been is beyond our wit to discover. We have been unable to trace any other publications or enterprises put out over the name of Irwin Langley & Co. Scarce just two locations world-wide BL and Harvard Medical School. Octavo 180 x 120 mm. Portrait frontispiece 6 stock portraits in text one full-page illustrations in text printed in menacing sanguine throughout. Wire-stitched in original green cloth-backed sanguine printed boards. A little rubbed and soiled head and tail of spine chipped hinges with some give to them but sound staples rusted but intact text block lightly browned overall very good. hardcover
