Old Saratoga Books has just released a list of some of the titles we have in stock that are listed in the Bibliography of American Literature, or BAL. 

This ten-volume BAL, published between 1955 and 1991, is a detailed bibliographic record of American imprints from colonial times through 1930. Though literary tastes have changed since the BAL was first published, it remains a standard reference and starting point for collecting American writers. Our list, which can be seen in full here, represents some of the BAL titles we have in stock.

Here are some highlights from the list:

Bangs, John Kendrick, The Dreamers: A Club. Being a More or Less Faithful Account of the Literary Exercises of the First Regular Meeting of that Organization, NY and London: Harper and Brothers, 1899, first edition. Black and white illustrations by Edward Penfield. Original brown cloth with red, black, and gilt design of a lively lobster on front boards. A collection of twelve stories parodying the literary stylings of Arthur Conan Doyle, Richard Harding Davis, James Whitcomb Riley, Rudyard Kipling, William Dean Howells, and other contemporaries. Good. Boards lightly worn, waterstain at top edge of first sixty pages. BAL 741. $35

Hardy, Arthur Sherburne, His Daughter First, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1903, first edition. 349pp. Dark green decorative cloth with rose and chalice design on front boards and spine by Decorative Designers. VG. Boards rubbed, erasure mark on front free endpaper. BAL 7049. $20

Bangs, John Kendrick, Peeps at People: Being Certain Papers from the Writings of Anne Warrington Witherup, NY: Harper and Brothers, 1899, first edition. 12mo. Dark green cloth with orange, black, and white design of woman writing in notepad on front boards. 185pp + 6pp publisher ads. Many black and white plates by Edward Penfield. VG. Boards rubbed, light foxing to rear several leaves. A collection of humorous stories imagining interviews with famous people of the day (polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen, authors Rudyard Kipling and Emile Zola, etc) by intrepid female reporter Witherup. BAL 739. $30

Smith, F[rancis] Hopkinson, Colonel Carter’s Christmas, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1903, first trade edition. Eight color plates by F.C. Yohn. Original green cloth binding with green, gold, and white design of holly-draped punch bowl and candlesticks on front boards. TEG. xiv, 159pp. Nostalgic novel of the antebellum South. VG. Boards lightly toned and rubbed, water spot on lower left corner of front boards. BAL 18236. $30

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, The Last Leaf, Cambridge, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1895, reprint. 12mo. Gray cloth sides with white cloth spine stamped in gilt and black. Top edges gilt. Unpaginated.VG. Boards soiled and worn, chip missing from head of spine. Inscription on first front flyleaf "To Ralph - With the hope that He may cling in the Spring. Chicago/94." BAL 9055. $25

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