Mike's Bookstore Math: 35 = 21

Michael Slicker, owner of Lighthouse Books, ABAA, welcomes you to our annual Fall Sale, which runs through November 29. Books priced less than $100 are 40% off. Everything else (maps, prints, photographs, post cards, and books more than $100) is 20% off.

Rare book appraiser Michael Slicker has owned Lighthouse Books, ABAA in St. Petersburg, Florida, for more than 35 years. Lighthouse Books, ABAA specializes in antiquarian books, serving St. Petersburg, Tampa, the Tampa Bay area and all of Florida. In addition to rare books, out-of-print books, used books, antique maps, vintage prints, and antique photographs, Lighthouse Books, ABAA also offers expert antiquarian book appraisals.

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Lighthouse Books, ABAA
1735 First Avenue N
St. Petersburg, Florida 33713

Thank you for making Florida Bookstore Day a rousing success for the state's booksellers

Michael Slicker, owner of Lighthouse Books, ABAA, thanks those who helped make the first annual Florida Bookstore Day a rousing success, including organizer Tiffany Razzano. Our Fall Sale continues through the end of the month. We hope you'll come visit us.

Rare book appraiser Michael Slicker has owned Lighthouse Books, ABAA in St. Petersburg, Florida, for more than 35 years. Lighthouse Books, ABAA specializes in antiquarian books, serving St. Petersburg, Tampa, the Tampa Bay area and all of Florida. In addition to rare books, out-of-print books, used books, antique maps, vintage prints, and antique photographs, Lighthouse Books, ABAA also offers expert antiquarian book appraisals.

http://oldfloridabookstore.com/
http://oldfloridabookstore.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/LighthouseBooksABAA

Lighthouse Books, ABAA
1735 First Avenue N
St. Petersburg, Florida 33713

Our Sidewalk Sale begins at 10 a.m. Saturday

This is a video from 2011 about our annual Sidewalk Sale. If you haven't been to our Saturday of spectacular savings, this will give you an idea of what it's like. If you have been, this will remind you how much fun it is -- as if you needed to be reminded. Anyway, our 2014 Sidewalk Sale is Saturday, November 15, the first annual Florida Bookstore Day! (That's tomorrow!) All our books on the tables outside will be 50 cents each. Books inside the store will be on sale, too. Come see us and join the fun.

The price of the book changes instantly

During our Fall Sale, which begins on Saturday, November 15, everything in the store is on sale. We're marking Florida Bookstore Day with our annual Sidewalk Sale. Everything on the tables outside the store will be priced at 50 cents each. No minimum. No maximum. You chose the books you want. Bring a wheelbarrow or a small truck if you want to, and take away these amazing bargains. Inside, you'll find more astounding book deals. All books priced under $100 will be 40% off. All books priced at more than $100 will be 20% off. Maps and prints also will be 20% off. The Fall Sale continues on until the end of the month, so if you don't make it on Saturday, you can still take advantage of the instant change in prices until November 29. We look forward to seeing you. '

We've got to get rid of these stacks of books

We're being overrun with books. We have them on the shelves. We have the on the desks. We have them on the floor. We have them out in the van. On Saturday, November 15, we'll have thousands of them on tables under tents in front of the store. All of the books outside will be 50 cents each. That's our annual Sidewalk Sale. What a way to celebrate Florida Bookstore Day! But wait! There's more! Michael is putting all the books, map, and prints inside the store on sale, too. Watch the video to find out the details. Our Fall Sale runs through November 29.

Grantland Rice wrote elegant sports prose

It is the birthday of legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice (1880), who contributed significantly to sports journalism and dominated it during the Roaring Twenties with elegant prose and thoughtful poetry. He was the first to call the 1924 Notre Dame backfield the Four Horsemen and the first to broadcast a World Series on the radio.

Rice interviewed all the major sports figures of the era and made heroes of many of them, including Jack Dempsey, Red Grange, Bobby Jones, Knute Rockne, Babe Ruth, and Babe Zaharias. His writing raised sports events to a new mythical level, comparing the contests to ancient quests of strength and courage.

Of the 1924 Notre Dame-Army game he wrote, "Outlined against a blue-gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden."

Crime and Punishment made Dostoyevsky famous

It is the birthday of Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821), whose book Crime and Punishment (1866), made him one of the most celebrated writers in Russia. Among his best known works are The Idiot (1869), Demons (1872), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880), all written in the last years of his life.  He wrote his first novel, Poor Folk (1846), out of financial desperation because of his gambling addiction. The book tells the story of a clerk and his relationship with an upper class woman through letters between them. Critics gave it high marks, some finding touches of parody and satire. Dostoyevsky's classic, Crime and Punishment, examines the psychology of a poor ex-student who plots to kill a dishonest pawnbroker and take her money. He reasons he can do good deeds with her cash to offset the crime.

Giraudoux wrote The Madwoman of Chaillot

It is the birthday of post-World War I French novelist and playwright Jean Giraudoux (1882), who is credited with creating an impressionistic form of drama that emphasizes dialogue and style rather than realism.  Among his best known works are the plays Siegfried (1928), Intermezzo (1933), The Trojan War Will Not Take Place (1935), Ondine (1939), and The Madwoman of Chaillot (1945). His work is known in the English-speaking countries mainly because of the translations by English playwright Christopher Fry. The Madwoman of Chaillot is a political satire about an eccentric Parisian noblewoman who naively views the world as happy and beautiful and a group of corrupt businessmen who frequent the Cafe de l'Alma. The men plan to excavate Paris to find the oil beneath its streets. They represent wealth and power and greed. One businessman exclaims, "what would you rather have in your backyard: an almond tree or an oil well?" The noble madwoman eventually realizes the evil of the developers.

Dylan Thomas wrote Under Milk Wood

It is the birthday of Welsh writer Dylan Thomas (1914), whose 1954 radio drama Under Milk Wood was inspired early one morning when he walked about the small town where he was living and wondered about its inhabitants. That led him to write a short story, Quite Early One Morning, which was recorded for BBC Wales in 1944. Ten years later he expanded the idea and his Under Milk Wood was broadcast. Enjoy.

Happy birthday, playwright Moss Hart

It is the birthday of playwright Moss Hart (1904), who is best remembered for teaming with George S Kaufman for a string of hit Broadway plays, including You Can't Take It With You (1936), which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1937. It tells the story of a warm, wacky family's impending marriage to an young man from a stiff, cold and distant wealthy family. It is set during the Depression. The two also wrote The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939), which is about a caustic man who injures himself on a ice and must remain in a wealthy Midwestern family's home for six weeks, much to their consternation. It is based on the playwrights' friend, Alexander Woollcott, who was a commentator for The New Yorker magazine.

Rare Book Moment: Little treasure boxes

No. 18: Michael Slicker discusses little treasure boxes and what you might find in them. Michael Slicker's Rare Book Moment is recorded at Lighthouse Books, ABAA in St. Petersburg, Florida. Music by Jack Payne: Back to Those Happy Days Lighthouse Books, ABAA specializes in antiquarian books, serving St. Petersburg, Tampa, the Tampa Bay area and all of Florida. In addition to rare books, Lighthouse Books, ABAA also offers expert antiquarian book appraisals.

Mickey Mantle, one of baseball's greatest

It is the birthday of baseball legend Mickey Mantle (1931), one of the greatest players of all time. He was the finest switch hitter in the game. He hit a record 18 home runs in the World Series. His other records included 40 RBIs, 42 runs, 43 walks, 26 extra-base hits, and 123 total bases. In 1956, he won the Triple Crown, with record home runs, runs batted in, and batting average. He played center field and first base for the New York Yankees for 18 seasons, ending in 1968.

Pulitzer Prize winner H.L. Davis, of Oregon, was known as the Northwest's Mark Twain

It is the birthday of writer H.L. Davis (1894), who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1936 for his epic novel Honey in the Horn (1935), a coming of age tale about an orphaned youth in Oregon's homesteading days. Davis is the only Oregon-born writer to receive a Pulitzer Prize. He has been called the Northwest's Mark Twain. Among his books are Harp of a Thousand Strings (1941), Proud Riders and Other Poems (1942), Beulah Land (1949), Winds of Morning (1952), Team Bells Woke Me and Other Stories (1953), The Distant Music (1957), Kettle of Fire (1957), and The Selected Poems of H.L. Davis (1978).

You had to have a lot of fortitude to watch French absurdist Albert Camus' 3.5-hour play

It is the birthday of French absurdist writer Albert Camus (1913), who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. Among his books are The Outsider (1942), The Plague (1947), The Fall (1956), A Happy Death (1971), and The First Man (1995). In 1959, Camus undertook a formidable project to adapt Fyodor Dostoyevsky's book The Possessed for the stage. The play took stamina to watch. It lasted 3½ hours, had 33 actors and 26 set changes. It cost millions to produce. It ran for 180 performances.

Noah Webster, who gave us the American dictionary, wanted women to be wimmen

It is the birthday of lexicographer Noah Webster (1758), who is best known for compiling the first American dictionary and the blue-back speller textbook, both of which advanced the American spelling of words in the English language. Webster also created his own translation of the Bible in 1833. Webster wrote the speller (1783) as part of a three-volume textbook called A Grammatical Institute of the English Language, which also included a grammar book (1784) and a reader (1785). He was motivated by a belief that the fledgling American nation should have a language and culture that was uniquely American, and to that end he changed the common English spelling of words and included some uniquely American words. Webster, the spelling reformer, managed to get many of his alternative spellings into general usage but not all of them. Colour became color, gaol became jail, centre became center, publick became public but Americans rejected soop for soup, sley for sleigh, tung for tongue, and wimmen for women.

John Kenneth Galbraith wrote dozens of books, including The Affluent Society

It is the birthday of intellectual John Kenneth Galbraith (1908), the best known economist in the world during his lifetime. He was a liberal Democrat who served in the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson. He wrote dozens of books on economics as well as novels. Among the most popular were the trilogy, American Capitalism (1952), The Affluent Society (1958), and The New Industrial State (1967). Conservative publisher Henry Luce once reportedly told President Kennedy, “I taught Galbraith how to write — and have regretted it ever since.” Galbraith died in 2006 at the age of 97.

Quaker William Penn founded Philadelphia and advocated for religious and civil freedom

It is the birthday of English philosopher and real estate tycoon William Penn (1644), who not only founded the American colony the Province of Pennsylvania, but also advocated for civil rights and religious freedom. He successfully (after much coaxing) convinced hundreds of Quakers, Huguenots, Mennonites, Amish, Catholics, Lutherans, and Jews from all over Europe to  move to his 45,000 square miles of land in the New World. He planned the city of Philadelphia and laid out the framework for an ethical society. He steadfastly refused to exploit the settlers or the native Lenape tribe. He was a pacifist Quaker who was imprisoned in England for his religious beliefs. While in prison he wrote No Cross, No Crown (1669), now a classic in Christian literature. Penn also made a case for a European Union, centuries before the radical notion of cooperation between countries in Europe finally took hold.

Conrad Richter won a Pulitzer for The Town, part of his trilogy on the American frontier

It is the birthday of writer Conrad Richter (1890) whose book The Town (1950) won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1951. The book was part of his The Awakening Land trilogy, a series that included The Sea of Grass (1936) and The Light in the Forest (1953). The series tells the stories of pioneers settling in the Ohio Valley and Pennsylvania after the American Revolution. His portraits of frontier America are regarded as among the most accurate ever published. All were adapted for film. Richter also founded a youth magazine and wrote for pulp magazines in the 1930s.

"Your prose makes Raymond Chandler look clumsy," Elmore Leonard was once told

It is the birthday of writer Elmore Leonard (1925), whose career has spanned more than half a century. One of the most popular and prolific modern day writers, he is best known today for his thrillers and crime fiction, among them bestsellers such as Mr. Majestyk (1974), Get Shorty (1990), Rum Punch (1992), and Out of Sight (1996). Leonard is acclaimed for his ear for dialogue and his gritty realism. Leonard counts Ernest Hemingway among his influences, though he said Hemingway didn't have a sense of humor. British novelist Martin Amis once told Leonard, "Your prose makes Raymond Chandler look clumsy."

Harold Pinter won Nobel Prize for Literature for his plays, including The Birthday Party

Photo by Martin Rosenbaum

It is the birthday of English playwright Harold Pinter (1930), who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2008 for his work, including The Birthday Party (1957), The Homecoming (1964), and Betrayal (1978). Pinter also wrote screenplays for The Servant (1963), The Go-Between (1970), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), The Trial (1983), and Sleuth (2007).

He wrote 29 plays and 21 screenplays, and directed  27 theater productions, and received more than 50 awards throughout his professional career, including the French Legion d'Honneur and Moliere D'Honneur, The Laurence Olivier Award, the Shakespeare Prize, the European Prize for Literature, and a Tony Award for The Homecoming in 1967.

Jill Ker Conway, first woman president of Smith College, tended sheep in Australia

It is the birthday of historian and author Jill Ker Conway (1934), who lived with her family on a farm in the Australian outback and eventually became the first woman president of Smith College in Massachusetts. Her memoir, The Road from Coorain (1989), tells her story of tending sheep in the wilds of New South Wales in the 1940s. Jill Ker Conway now serves as a visiting professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has written 21 books, among them The Female Experience in 18th and 19th Century America: A Guide to the History of American Women (1982); The First Generation of American Women Graduates (1987), her doctoral thesis in American History at Harvard; True North (1994), a memoir of her life from Harvard to Smith College; and Written By Herself (1995), an anthology of the changing status of women throughout history.

Eddie Rickenbacker, famous U.S. aviator

It is the birthday of Eddie Rickenbacker (1890), one of the most celebrated aviators in American history. He became a World War I flying ace, shooting down some 26 German aircraft during the war. He also flew more combat hours than any other American pilot. Before the war, Rickenbacker earned the nickname Fast Eddie racing in the Indianapolis 500. During the 1930s, Rickenbacker established Eastern Airlines in Miami and built it into one of the leading commercial passenger carriers in the country.

Thomas Keneally wrote Schindler's Ark

It is the birthday of Australian writer Thomas Keneally (1935), who won the British Booker Prize for his novel Schindler's Ark (1982), based on the work of German industrialist Oskar Schindler saving the lives of 1,200 Jews from extermination during World War II. The book was adapted as Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993), which was named best picture and received six other Oscars. Holocaust survivor Poldek Pfefferberg, who was saved by Schindler, inspired Keneally to write the book.

Happy birthday, adventurer Thor Heyerdahl

It is the birthday of Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl (1914), who sailed his raft Kon-Tiki 5,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean from Peru to the Polynesian islands to prove his theory that pre-Columbian people from South America could have settled the islands. Heyerdahl wrote a book about the 1947 adventure, and later an Academy Award-winning documentary film was made. The original raft is on display in Oslo.

Books by Caldecott winner Tasha Tudor

THIS JUST IN: We have accumulated a collection of books delightfully illustrated by the amazing Tasha Tudor, including the Mother Goose volume for which she received a Caldecott Honor in 1945. Her father was W. Starling Burgess, a noted naval architect. Her mother was the famed portrait painter Rosamund Tudor. She was originally named Starling Burgess, after her father but he was a big fan of War and Peace and elected to rename her Natasha. That was shortened to Tasha. As a child she was often introduced as Rosamund Tudor’s daughter Tasha, and people thought her last name was Tudor. She liked the sound of it and eventually had her name changed legally. To enquire about the Tasha Tudor books, please call (727) 822-3278.

Early 20th century washable children's books

THIS JUST IN: Once upon a time, some children’s books were produced on fine linen. They had the advantage of being washable and quite durable. There are, of course, washable books today but they most likely will be made of vinyl. In the early part of the 20th century, at a time when chromolithography was in its prime, children’s books were produced on linen. The two samples in our collection were published by The Saalfield Publishing Company of New York, once the largest producer of children’s books, and Sam’l Gabriel Sons & Company of New York, a prominent post card manufacturer.

THIS JUST IN: Pre-World War I newspapers

Michael has hard and fast rules about what he will and will not buy! And he sticks to them. Except when he doesn't. Hey, he's the boss. To enquire about the items shown in this video, please call (727) 822-3278.

Rare book appraiser Michael Slicker has owned Lighthouse Books, ABAA in St. Petersburg, Florida, for more than 35 years. Lighthouse Books, ABAA specializes in antiquarian books, serving St. Petersburg, Tampa, the Tampa Bay area and all of Florida. In addition to rare books, out-of-print books, used books, antique maps, vintage prints, and antique photographs, Lighthouse Books, ABAA also offers expert antiquarian book appraisals.

Signed, limited edition on Art Deco designer

THIS JUST IN: Here are two volumes devoted to the work of the early 20th century Russian-French designer Erté, who turned his artistic talents to costume and set design for opera, film, and theater, graphic arts, jewelry, and fashion as well as interior decor. From the mid-teens to the late 1930s, Erté designed more than 200 covers for Harper’s Bazaar. His illustrations also appeared in Vogue, Ladies’ Home Journal, and Cosmopolitan. His real name was Romain de Tirtoff, but he used Erté (the French pronunciation of his initials) so as to not offend his Russian family, who wanted him to become a naval officer like his father. One title is a limited edition signed by the artist. To enquire about this set, please call (727) 822-3278.

English landscape painter J.M.W. Turner is highlighted in these leather-bound volumes

THIS JUST IN: Here is a two-volume leather-bound set containing 120 engravings of the work of English Romantic landscape painter J.M.W. Turner, who was known as the painter of light. This set was published by D. Appleton and Company in New York. To enquire about this set, please call (727) 822-3278.

This 1720 copy of a how-to book on political intrigue is a must-have for students of politics

THIS JUST IN: Here is a must-have volume for any serious student of political theory. The Works of the Famous Nicolas Machiavel, Citizen and Secretary of Florence is a collection of the writings of Italian historian and philosopher Nicholas Machiavelli, whose name is synonymous with unscrupulous political maneuverings. Some scholars suggest Machiavelli may have gotten a bad rap when it comes to secret skullduggery designed to maintain power at any cost. They even say his most famous work, The Prince, was clearly satire, and point to other writing that heavily influenced John Adams and other Founding Fathers in establishing the Constitution of the United States, as proof that Machiavelli was misinterpreted. This is a third English-language edition published in London in 1720. Section titles include The History of Florence, The Prince, The Discourses and The Art of War. To enquire about his volume, please call (727) 822-3278

If you love sailing, sailboats, and the ocean, this might be the perfect collection for you

Sometimes we depart from our format of talking about newly acquired books to shed a little light on some of our long-standing collections. To enquire about any of the books shown in this video, please call (727) 822-3278.

In our antiquarian prints and maps section, a 1794 Caribe Indian print draws our interest

Well, this is the third in our This Just In video series, and it's a slight departure. We've had this print awhile but we came across it again back in the map and print archives. It's an interesting item and one that suggests the sorts of amazing find awaiting you at Lighthouse Books, ABAA. If you aren't close by, consider this your invitation to visit our online store. Also, you can join us on Facebook and Pinterest, and keep in touch on Twitter at The Rare Book Gazette. By the way, the This Just In series, which we will be expanding, is now grouped as a playlist in YouTube, so you'll be able to see all three of them right here. Enjoy! And if you're on YouTube, leave us a note. We'd love to hear from you. To enquire about this item, please call (727) 822-3278.

Freelancer Corita Doggett Corse headed the Florida Federal Writers Project in the 1930s

Just a little more about the Federal Writers Project and its Depression-era state guide books we were discussing yesterday. Zora Neale Hurston worked on Florida, A Guide to the Southernmost State (1939), the Sunshine State’s contribution to the collection. Stetson Kennedy was ostensibly her supervisor, though Stetson was quoted as saying it was virtually impossible to supervise Zora. She tended to work out in the field alone and send large envelopes with her material back to headquarters.

The big boss, the overall supervisor of the Federal Writers Project in Florida was Corita Doggett Corse, a freelance writer who is credited with such tourist oriented volumes as The Historical Romance of Florida's Silver Springs: Shrine of the Water Gods (1948) and Florida Empire of the Sun (1930), which she wrote for the Florida State Hotel Commission. She also wrote Dr. Andrew Turnbull and the New Smyrna Colony of Florida (1919). Click on the photo to enlarge it. To enquire about these items, please call (727) 822-3278.

These 50 American Guide Series volumes were produced by Federal Writers' Project

THIS JUST IN: Here are about 50 volumes of the American Guide Series, the largest undertaking of the Federal Writers’ Project during the Great Depression. The Federal Writers’ Project was a New Deal initiative under FDR’s administration designed to put unemployed writers, editors, and researchers back to work. There are numerous state guides, of course, and a couple focused on cities, San Francisco and New Orleans. Zora Neale Hurston, Corita Doggett, Corse, and Stetson Kennedy worked on the Florida guide. We’ll discuss that tomorrow. Click on the image to enlarge it. To enquire about any or all of these items, please call (727) 822-3278.

Uncle Scrooge McDuck limited edition features signed and numbered lithograph

THIS JUST IN: In 1981, cartoonist Carl Barks turned 80. Barks created Scrooge McDuck in 1947, and was one of the principal artists who drew Donald Duck for the Walt Disney Company. To honor his birthday, Celestial Arts produced a limited edition of 5,000 copies of this beautiful leather-bound book about Donald Duck’s wealthy maternal uncle. Included was a separate numbered lithograph of a painting of Uncle Scrooge and his nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie, hand signed by Carl Barks. Both the book and the lithograph are numbered 1876. To enquire about these items, please call (727) 822-3278.

All Charles Dickens. All first editions.

THIS JUST IN: These are the first bound editions, not the serializations. Here are The Pickwick Papers, Little Dorrit, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, Martin Chuzzlewit, Bleak House, Our Mutual Friend, Nicholas Nickleby, Master Humphrey's Clock, and more. Click on the image to enlarge it. To enquire about any or all of these items, please call (727) 822-3278.

THIS JUST IN: 1914 Florida Growers Atlas

Michael discusses a recent discovery at a great old Florida institution. This Just In is a regular feature of Lighthouse Books, ABAA, highlighting newly acquired items that may be of interest to book lovers and collectors. To purchase this item, plesse call (727) 822-3278.

Dirty campaign: Anti-Andrew Jackson pamphlet stirs issue of militia executions

THIS JUST IN: If you think today’s political campaigns are dirty, take a look at the U.S. presidential campaign of 1828. Andrew Jackson was running against incumbent John Quincy Adams. Jackson’’s opponents published a series of handbills and pamphlets designed to smear Jackson’s reputation. They became known as the Coffin Handbills because the first ones raised the issue of Jackson’s role in having six militia men executed for desertion after the War of 1812. This pamphlet seeks to enrage voters about that issue. “These American citizens were inhumanly & illegally massacred,” the piece reads. This pamphlet is rebound in modern cloth. Other material in the Coffin Handbill series (though not in this collection) accused Jackson of adultery and called his mother a prostitute. Click the photo to enlarge it. To purchase this item, please call (727) 822-3278.

1838 first edition: Emancipation in the West Indies, a report by American abolitionists

THIS JUST IN: In 1837, The American Anti-Slavery Society commissioned James A. Thome, a fervent young abolitionist, and J. Horace Kimball, editor of the abolitionist newspaper Herald of Freedom, to survey the effects of emancipation in the West Indies. Great Britain had officially ended slavery in 1834, but the measure was phased in over several years. Thome and Kimball spent six months visiting Antigua, Barbados, and Jamaica and observing the progress and effects on society. Their findings were published in 1838 as Emancipation in the West Indies. This is a first edition. Click the photo to enlarge it. To purchase this item, please call (727) 822-3278.

West Florida land grant document highlights British colonial era in the Pensacola region

THIS JUST IN : Here is a land grant document for a thousand acres executed in 1772 in West Florida for one Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Munster in partial payment for service in His Majesty’s army keeping the colony safe for monarchy. The document specifically instructs the king’s surveyor general, Charles Durnford, to make sure he assign land to Colonel Munster that was vacant and hadn’t been given to anyone else. The last thing the monarch (who was King George III at the time) needed was his army officers squabbling over land.

King George had his hands full with the uppity colonists in other American colonies thinking they’d be better off going it alone. The following year, some of them dumped tea in Boston Harbor to protest the King’s unreasonable taxes. When the American Revolution came, East and West Florida remained loyal to the crown. In the end, though, the British only stayed in Florida 20 years. In 1781, Spain captured Pensacola, and by 1783, the entire Florida territory was ceded back to Spain.

Click the photo to enlarge it. To purchase this item, please call (727) 822-3278.

Original congressional bill to remove Seminoles from Florida to Oklahoma

THIS JUST IN: Here is a copy of the 1839 original bill from Congress authorizing $10,000 for the removal of Seminole Indians from Florida to the Oklahoma territory. Only a few were printed. It comes in a gilt-stamped protective case. Andrew Jackson called for shipping the Indians west when he took office in 1829 but it was 10 years (and half way through the Martin Van Buren administration) before Congress acted. The legislation led to the Second Seminole War, one of the longest and costliest wars in American history. Click to enlarge photo.

1925 first edition, Maxfield Parrish

THIS JUST IN: Here is The Knave of Hearts by Louise Saunders, illustrated by the incomparable Maxfield Parrish; published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1925. This folio-sized first edition is covered in black cloth with a full-color paper label mounted on the front cover. And it is in near-fine condition. Someone is going to snap this up.

Civil War photo album by Navy captain

THIS JUST IN: Michael has returned from the Baltimore Summer Antiques Show with a most amazing Civil War photograph album. It was assembled by Captain Robert Townsend, who commanded the USS Essex, a 1,000-ton ironclad gunboat, in the attack on Port Hudson, Louisiana, in September 1862 and the Red River Campaign in March-May 1864. Watch Mike tell about this fascinating item and an accompanying vintage letter. To purchase this item, please call (727) 822-3278.

Some historical Florida items you'll want

Here’s another installment of interesting historical Florida ephemera and other items. First up: a copy of Life and Adventures in South Florida, a memoir by Florida pioneer Andrew P. Canova, who lived for a time in St. Petersburg.

Canova fought in the Third Seminole War in South Florida, and gives a personal account of his adventures in the book. Actually, the book is compiled from newspaper columns first published in the weekly Southern Sun in Palatka in 1885. This book is a collection published by Tribune Printing Co. in Tampa in 1906.

Here, too, are vintage maps of Tampa, two from about 1957 and another from about 1966. As always, such items give an insight into the city as it used to be and offer a reminder of just how much things have changed.

And finally, we have a vintage photo album, the kind you’d have found in a tourist shop. It has a leather cover with “Tampa, Fla.” printed on it and a hand-painted scene of wild Florida with an alligator. The album contains no photographs.

Click on any photograph to enlarge it. To purchase any of these items, please call (727) 822-3278.

Love St. Augustine history? This is for you!

If you like Florida history, you’re going to love this likely late 19th century or early 20th century photo album from St. Augustine. Here are many scenes taken near the turn of the century in and around America’s oldest city. There are shots of various vessels making a port call, including the steamboat Planter from Charleston, South Carolina, and the USS Ericsson, the second torpedo boat in the U.S. Navy.

The steamboat Planter may be the same vessel that was piloted by slave Robert Smalls through Confederate defenses in 1862 and surrendered to the Union Navy. It later served as a Union gunboat. However, that boat was beached in 1876, so if this is a photo of it in St. Augustine, it may be from the 1870s.

The USS Ericsson was based in Newport, Rhode Island, but was sent to Key West in 1897 to join U.S. forces in blockading Cuba in the months leading up to the Spanish American War. During the war, the vessel participated in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba and figured in the rescue of more than 100 Spanish sailors from the doomed crusier Vizcaya. The photograph may been taken on the Ericsson’s trip south or on its return in 1898.

In 1895, a wooden bridge was built across Matanzas Bay from St. Augustine to Anastasia Island (South Beach). It was renovated in 1904 to allow for a trolley. One photograph shows the gate to the toll bridge and seems to indicate a train was available. Another photo shows a two-team horse-drawn omnibus that connected with the South Beach train.

Click on any photograph to enlarge it. To purchase this book, please call (727) 822-3278.

Something wonderful for Rawlings fans

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings fans are going to love this. Here’s a beautiful signed first edition of Rawlings’ When the Whippoorwill (1940), a collection of her short stories published after she won the Pulitzer Prize for The Yearling the year before. This one was Lois Lenski’s personal copy. A definite must for the collector. We should mention we also have other Rawlings books, such as Golden Apples (1935) and The Sojourner (1953), Rawlings’ final novel.

If you love fish, you're going to want this

THIS JUST IN: Fishes of Guiana (1841). This beautiful little volume was published in Scotland and contains dozens of engraved color plates of amazing fish. Perfect for the ichthyologist.

Hard-to-find Tampa magazine, April 1948

THIS JUST IN: Here's another item in our collection of Tampa ephemera. This is one of the first copies of a monthly magazine published in Tampa in 1948. To purchase this item, please call (727) 822-3278.

Alligator hunting on Cayo Costa

THIS JUST IN: The little 1907 gem contains a fascinating account of alligator hunting on Cayo Costa in southwest Florida. It also tells of the then-growing sport of tarpon fishing in the area.
English writer Frederick Aflalo was an avid sports fisherman and hunter and wrote about those subjects in numerous books about his adventures all around the world. He stayed at Useppa Island in Pine Island Sound during this trip. To purchase this item, please call (727) 822-3278.

Pioneer Florida (1959). edited by D.B. McKay

D.B. McKay, who owned the Tampa Times in the 1930s, served two terms as mayor of Tampa, and helped establish the University of Tampa, used to publish a feature in the Tampa Tribune on Sundays called Pioneer Florida. It was a collection of stories, anecdotes, and vintage photographs about Florida in the early days, and it began in 1948. In 1959, the Pioneer Florida pages were collected and published as an illustrated three-volume set. It is a must-have for a dedicated Florida history enthusiast. To purchase this item, please call (727) 822-3278.

Antiphonal music, circa 1450, on vellum

Side with later floral decorations.

Notes are printed with wood blocks.

THIS JUST IN: We have several original leaves from a Medieval/early Renaissance antiphon, circa 1450.

They are partially printed. The notes, for instance, are printed with wood blocks. The words are in Latin and are in manuscript, with period flourishes for several initials. The musical staffs are in four lines, rather than our modern five lines. The leaves themselves are vellum, a much heartier material than paper.

One side of the leaves bears later floral decorations. We have had multiple opinions about these additions. An art conservator took a look at them and decided that they were early, perhaps from the 1600s, and that they displayed rococo elements consistent with that period.

The leaves themselves were originally purchased by a collector while he was in England. The collector (a collector of Africana) thought the leaves might have migrated to Africa at some point and been decorated there, perhaps in the 19th century. Another expert decided that the decorations seemed more like something from the 1970s.

We have matted and shrink-wrapped a leaf so that both sides are visible, and the buyer can decide which side to display. The photographs shown are from different leaves. You may click on the photos to enlarge them.