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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Books by and about Women

 Old Saratoga Books has just issued its latest E-list of Books by and About Women:

Some of the highlights include:

Berenice Abbott: Documentary Photographs of the 1930s, Cleveland, OH: The New Gallery of Contemporary Art, 1980. Photo-illustrated wraps. Measures 9 x 10 inches. 64pp. 85 black and white photo reproductions. Checklist. Inscribed by the late, legendary Berenice Abbott on the title page. VG. An exhibition of Abbott’s documentary photographs of New York City and other American urban scenes shot privately and under the auspices of the WPA. The exhibition was curated by Michael G. Sundell and was shown at the New Gallery from November 7 - December 6, 1980. $125

Cooper, Katherine [Katherine Saunders], The Haunted Crust, Etc., NY: George Routledge & Sons, 1871 first American edition. 269pp. Brown decorative cloth with holly leaves and title stamped on front boards. Gilt lettering on spine. Fair. Musty, boards worn, top edge of rear boards gnawed, contemporary owner names on front flyleaf, waterstains to rear fifty pages. A collection of five short stories by the English Victorian author. The title story is a tale of ghosts, hunger, and a Christmas feast snatched from the mouth of a street cur. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English notes that “her lucid, often evocative style and the subtle, sympathetic treatment of characters from humble life” drew contemporary reviewers to compare her to George Eliot. $30

Hart, Frances Noyes, Pigs in Clover, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1931, first printing. Blue cloth with paste-on front and spine labels and deckled fore-edge. xiii, 297pp. Endpaper map, black and white maps. VG/Good. Edges rubbed, two pages of book reviews neatly pasted in on rear endpapers, jacket price-clipped, chipped with closed tears, faded at spine. A lovely copy of this early 1900s autotour narrative of a trip though the French countryside. $75

Morrison, Toni and Slade Morrison, Who's Got Game? The Ant or the Grasshopper? NY: Scribner, 2003, first printing. Illustrated by Pascal Lemaitre. Signed by the late Nobel Laureate, Toni Morrison, and her late son, Slade Morrison, on the front free endpaper. VG/VG. Front free endpaper wrinkled, jacket lightly worn and has one inch tear at head of spine. A frisky graphic novel version of Aesop's classic fable. Photos of the Morrisons and Lemaitre on rear jacket panel. $150

To see the full catalogue, check out this link:

https://mailchi.mp/ce56d601256d/bti9k4fgx0

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