Rare Book Monthly Reviews - January - 2026 Issue

Rare Americana from David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books

Rare Americana from David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books

David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books has released their Catalogue 214 of Rare Americana. Lesser regularly issues catalogues of material related to historical American events and people. They are largely pamphlets, broadsides, documents, letters, and ephemeral items not meant to last for a long time. These have. Here are a few selections.
 
We start with a sensational item, the Horrible Murder of Mrs. Ellen Lynch, and Her Sister Hannah Shaw...with the Trial and Conviction of Arthur Spring. Note: Some sources have Shaw's first name as Honora rather than Hannah. On the night of March 10, 1...

Shapero Rare Books Presents “Present Indicative”

Shapero Rare Books Presents “Present Indicative”

Shapero Rare Books has issued a new catalogue titled Present Indicative. I'm not sure at present what this title is indicative of, but I can say the books are an excellent assortment. It is broken ...

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Back to the Old American West with Old West Books

Back to the Old American West with Old West Books

Old West Books is back with a new selection of “rare, out of print books on the American West.” This one is their Catalog 71 January 2026. There are cowboys and cows, lawmen and law breakers, horse...

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Women Shaping The American West from Zephyr Used & Rare Books

Women Shaping The American West from Zephyr Used & Rare Books

Zephyr Used & Rare Books has issued a catalogue of Women Shaping The American West – Catalogue 2025. It contains 125 items written by women, many about women as well. Zephyr reminds us that wom...

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Rare Book Monthly

  • Freeman’s
    How History Unfolds on Paper: Important Americana from the Eric C. Caren Collection, Part X
    June 30
    Freeman’s, June 30: [Queen Anne's War] Extraordinarily Large Manuscript Petition Signed by a Who's Who of Colonial New York Accomplished to Queen Anne. $8,000/12,000
    Freeman’s, June 30: [Mormonism] A Unique Manuscript Account of Joseph Smith's Final Words Offered to His Congregation, the Day Before his Violent Death, 1844. $8,000/12,000
    Freeman’s, June 30: [Baseball] [Mantle, Mickey] Mickey Mantle's First Cover: The Earliest Front-Page Newspaper Image of Mickey Mantle, "Something Good from Joplin". $8,000/12,000
    Freeman’s, June 30: [Baseball] A Striking Type 1 Press Photograph of Lou Gehrig's Hands. $8,000/12,000
    Freeman’s, June 30: [Declaration of Independence] One of the First Printed Announcements of American Independence, Subscriber Ebenezer Hazard's Copy, in the Exceedingly Rare Original Wrappers, 1776. $10,000/15,000
    Freeman’s
    How History Unfolds on Paper: Important Americana from the Eric C. Caren Collection, Part X
    June 30
    Freeman’s, June 30: [American Revolution] Born in the USA: First Day of Printing in the United States, July 4, 1776! $15,000/25,000
    Freeman’s, June 30: [War of 1812] "We Have Met the Enemy and They are Ours": The Critical Promotion of a Naval Hero, Oliver Hazard Perry is Appointed Master Commandant in the United States Navy, 1812. $40,000/60,000
    Freeman’s, June 30: [Star-Spangled Banner] Eyewitness Account of the Shelling of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812, in a Manuscript Logbook from the HMS Trave, Present at the Battles of Baltimore and New Orleans, 1814-16. $60,000/80,000
    Freeman’s, June 30: [American Revolution] Thomas Jefferson at the Birth of a New Nation: An Important Letter Carried by a Jewish Patriot Communicating the Definitive Treaty of Paris, January 16, 1784. $100,000/200,000
    Freeman’s, June 30: [Colonial America] [Plymouth Colony] Plymouth Colony Seeks a Royal Charter: A Rare and Important Plymouth Colony Document, 1690/91. $6,000/9,000
  • Sotheby’s
    Selections from The Jay T. Snider Collection of Benjamin Franklin
    Live Sale 24 June
    Sotheby’s, June 24: (Benjamin Franklin). The founding—and funding—of the Pennsylvania Hospital. $150,000 to $200,000.
    Sotheby’s, June 24: Benjamin Franklin, "the Day of the Declaration of Independence is everywhere annually celebrated”. $80,000 to $120,000.
    Sotheby’s, June 24: Benjamin Franklin, “probably the most fundamental thing ever done in the field of electricity”. $75,000 to $125,000.
    Sotheby’s, June 24: Benjamin Franklin. One of Franklin's very earliest surviving letters. $40,000 to $60,000.
    Sotheby’s, June 24: Roger More and Benjamin Franklin. The only complete copy known of Poor Roger. $25,000 to $35,000.
    Sotheby’s, June 24: John Jerman. The American Almanack ... for 1731 — the only known copy in private hands. $25,000 to $35,000.

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