Angleterre

Angleterre — marelibri

Autograph Manuscript unsigned

réf. 40711AM unsigned 19pp recto and verso 4 3/4" X 7 3/4" n.p. n.y. ca. 1870s. Very good. Bit of faint age toning and old folds neither strong nor weakened. Quite attractive and frustratingly cryptic unsigned Autograph Manuscript two-punched at top and string-tied with original pink ribbon. Fascinating firsthand recollections of the writer's early education in a New England country school house apparently penned for some kind of commemoration. All told a dense meaty manuscript that must be read in its entirety to be appreciated. Opens with: "It is a difficult thing to describe an old place which you have not seen for years to a company of friends who have never seen it; a ruler and a compass seem indispensable a rough sketch on paper to show its position and its various surroundings but who among us here can fail to describe most accurately and who can fail to comprehend without the aid of riveted compass and finely pencilled drawings a country school house a New England School house with its ragged walls and still raggeder urchins with its four windows with its one door with its rows of old desks long since hacked by the idlers of other days with its ink spots dropped years before with its benches all scratched over with school boy hieroglyphics and last and not least but first with that old that honorable that respected that indispensable institution to Every New England town the village 'School mom'." He then gives a few vague specifics: "In the years 1847 & 1848 there was a small white house in a village north that has since been torn down. If we were to measure off 200 feet in 27th Street on the lower side of the Street West of the Third Avenue should locate there the Old Academy where two short years we studied. Six young zebras sent from the turmoil of the city to the quiet country there by labor of mind and of body to blend beauty with intelligence alas it was a failure from lack of ingredients ." He describes their beloved "School mom" "She was a nice young lady a little above the medium height with light hair and very mild blue eyes her dress was always plain and becoming. and she was loved by us all young and old thought Miss B. was perfection and how could we help it we fresh from the Schools of Gotham." going at length into her benevolent teaching style and her mysterious personal life. He addresses the family who lived in the house Dominis the appearance of the school and its grounds the pupils' pastimes and pranks the owner of the house "an old Jesuit. always prowling round inserting his long lean crooked nose in the School house. the wealthiest & the meanest" etc. All very Dickensian very Norman Rockwell -- sentimental and charming viewed from perhaps a half century or more later. Penned in brown ink in a handsome easily legible small hand. Although some clues do crop up that may help identify this academy and perhaps the writer we have been unable to do so despite all efforts. unknown

Main Street Fine Books & Manuscripts, ABAA · États-Unis200,00 $US≈ 179,02 €

(ORNITHOLOGY, NEW ENGLAND STATES). FORBUSH, EDWARD HOWEBiblio.com

BIRDS OF MASSACHUSETTS AND OTHER NEW ENGLAND STATES

1927réf. ST19567-213Norwood Massachusetts: Printed by Norwood Press for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 1927-29. Volume I the 1928 second printing; Volumes II and III FIRST EDITIONS. 255 x 185 mm. 10 x 7 1/4". Three volumes. Dark green publisher's cloth covers with a blind-ruled border and gilt text flat spine. With 93 total color plates after paintings by Louis Agassiz Fuertes and Allan Brooks 48 total pages of black and white photographic plates and numerous illustrations printed in the text. All with "Spec. Coll" and a library call number in pencil on the title verso. Volume I with a few small areas of worming mostly to rear endpaper and adjacent pages text not affected front cover with a thin trailing discoloration from damp the bindings otherwise bright and clean with just trivial shelfwear. A nice bright little-used copy internally. The result of the combined efforts of several of the most important American ornithologists of the early 20th century this is an attractively illustrated reference book intended to "interest the general public of Massachusetts and New England in birds and their rational conservation" via a usable field guide. Edward Howe Forbush 1858-1929 was an economic ornithologist who for many years served as the Director of the Department of Ornithology of the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture. This book represents a culmination of his career; Forbush died shortly before the completion of the final volume and it was edited and furnished with a glowing bibliographical sketch by Forbush’s colleagues who write that he was "a pioneer in the field of conservation and much of our progressive legislation of to-day is due to his far-sighted policy in urging greater protection for our wild life and to his efforts in stimulating public opinion in this direction." The first volume here covers water birds the second land birds from bob-whites to grackles and the third land birds from sparrows to thrushes. The work features animated illustrations by Louis Agassiz Fuertes 1874-1927. He was a lecturer in ornithology at Cornell and an outstanding painter of birds; in the words of the Audubon Society his "work was distinguished not only by the minute detail of each illustration but by his ability to capture each species' way of acting and holding itself. Every bird he painted seemed to have its own unique and vital personality." The third volume was completed following Fuertes’ untimely death so his illustrations are supplemented with a final 24 artworks by Allan Brooks 1869-1946. Brooks like Forbush and Fuertes was a respected member of the ornithological community and furnished illustrations of birds for publications both in his native Canada and throughout the world. Printed by Norwood Press for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts unknown