53 résultats
177745115Norwich CT 1777. 1st printing Bristol B4457; Shipton & Mooney 43243. Printed self-wrappers stitched. Now housed in an archival mylar sleeve. Age-toning to paper. Abrasion to lower left of text block tips rounded. Very Good. 22 2 pp. 12mo: A - C4. 6-7/8" x 4-1/2" <br/><br/>Early Colonial publication on the subject in which the author proclaims that the second coming of Christ "is nigh at hand even at the very Door and That it is very probable this glorious Day will begin or commence in America." RBH has no sale record for this work solely noting its inclusion in 'Evans' though technically it was not recorded by Evans being added by Bristol. OCLC records just 3 holding institutions: Yale AAS & the Library Co of Philadelphia. Rare. unknown books
1796102Princeton 1796. Very good. 25419pp. Modern calf gilt leather label. Some chipping and wear to a few leaves light scattered foxing. Manuscript volume of eighty-three 18th-century university theology lectures written in Taylor shorthand. Picking up at the start of the semester in January 1796 the book contains lecture notes through late February with lectures numbered 75 to 158. The volume begins with an extensive table of contents written mostly in English followed by over 400 pages of manuscript notes written out primarily in Taylor shorthand. Taylor shorthand was developed in 1786 by Samuel Taylor in Britain and is comprised of nineteen simplified geometric characters. Though principally written out in shorthand the text is interspersed with words in English Latin and Greek. Lecture 94 dated January 22 mentions Dr. Smith and Jersey College potentially linking this volume to Princeton University. Samuel Stanhope Smith was a Presbyterian minister and president of Jersey College later Princeton from 1795 to 1812. Smith taught at Princeton from 1779 onward first as a professor of moral philosophy and later as a professor of theology; he also served on the board of trustees. He was married to Ann Witherspoon daughter of the previous president of the college John Witherspoon and was elected to the presidency upon Witherspoon's death. An unusual and fascinating artifact of 18th-century higher education. unknown books
194721650Grand Rapids MI 1947-1948. Very good. Three original typescripts all containing extensive manuscript additions and corrections with printed front matter. Plus one shorter holographic manuscript. Two of the typescripts are fastened together with string in the upper left corner the remaining typescript and manuscript are bound with tape along the top edge all consisting of more or less roughly 11" x 8" leaves. BIBOLUTION contains numerous original illustrations selections left. Some general wear toning and soiling with one of the extensive folding additions detached from the original leaf but present overall in very good condition. Included: 1. INDIAN HISTORICAL LEGENDS 1942 fastened with string to printed card stock upper wrapper printed title page preliminary autograph index and 56 type pages rectos only on onionskin with manuscript additions pasted-down interpolations and cancels in typescript and autograph. 2. THE GREAT SPIRIT RELEASE AND INDIAN HISTORICAL LEGEND 1943 fastened with string to a printed and pencil-decorated card stock upper wrapper with four prelims. including printed title page and leaf of printer instructions in autograph plus 60 pages in typescript and autograph rectos only with extensive pasted-on “riders” folding out from the lower edge of pages some going several pages and extensive revisions. 3. OUR UNIVERSE bound along top edge ten pages autograph ink; perhaps a fragment. 4. THE THEORY OF BIBOLUTION 1948 tape-bound along top edge with two prelims 143 pages rectos only largely typescript but interleaved with 43 lively original illustrations either on Simmons’ own or Michigan Trust Company letterhead with numerous manuscript corrections. <br/><br/>Wonderfully eccentric assemblage that while clearly intended for eventual publication remains an impressive and elaborate creation of an engaging outsider artist. V. L. R. Simmons was a self-professed Native American: “I am an Indian by choice and applied study not by birth or adoption. Part of my story comes from theory and inspiration” Preface GREAT SPIRIT. But he was also an anthropo-religio-philoso-scholar and in this cataloguer's biased opinion an unheralded folk artist. Simmons and his wife Nellie appear to have held curious theories about the role of light and color in evolution—or as they would have it Bibolution or “the Simmons theory of life”: life was formed when light creates life force; light as souls transmigrate or leave the body; adultery changes your spirit color etc. The couple also seems to have developed idiosyncratic anthropological views tending toward an Old Testament lineage for the American Indians possibly influenced by Mormonism. There is much in these manuscripts suggesting deep and fruitful study of the subjects Simmons provides an extensive American Indian sign vocabulary for example though also much in the way of untutored but entertaining religious and scientific speculation deeply in the American grain. At least as much as the particulars of the content however are the particulars of the execution. The typescript of GREAT SPIRIT exhibits a kind of overflowing exuberance with fold-out charts and maps including one of the migration of Nimrod's descendants tipped in holograph additions and even an extraordinary five-foot-long lineage of Adam. But it is BIBOLUTION's illustrations that capture a true folk artist at work. While these pen and ink drawings of animals and other creatures with mounted typed captions are meant to illustrate the Simmons’ theories of evolution taken in total they reveal a distinctive outsider voice. Crude on first examination they soon coalesce around a bold confidence and singular vision — powerful and compelling. They show the influence of Native American cave paintings and other primitive arts but filtered through Simmons' auto-didactic and peculiar point-of-view. OCLC notes three locations for a 1950 published version of BIBOLUTION and NUC locates a 1939 work entitled A LEXICON OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES AND DIALECTS and an expanded 1945 edition that evidently incorporating material from GREAT SPIRIT held at the Library of Congress. Weird and quintessentially American worthy of further study and exhibition. unknown books
