This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/17/2024
[CURIOUS & RERMARKABLE CHARACTERS]. Collection of Pitch Books and Biographies. Ten pieces, including: The Fate of Donaldson and Grimwood in a Balloon Voyage from Chicago. Philadelphia: John Wise, 1875. 24pp. Wraps chipped, old cellotape repairs. Includes ads for Wise’s hot air balloons and related services. — The Life of General M.D. Stanley, An American Militia General, the Celebrated Roué, Swindler, Pickpocket, and Murderer. Baltimore: A.R. Orton, 1855. Woodcuts. Lacks lower wrap. – Banvard; or the Adventures of an Artist. London: Reed and Partdon, 1852. 16pp. Barnvard contrived to paint the largest landscape in the world which he claimed was three miles long (it was perhaps 1200 yards long when completed). – Life, Adventures and Anecdotes of “Beau” Hickman. Prince of American Bummers. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Publishing Company, 1879. Woodcuts. Wraps stained and chipped. – The Life and Wonderful Adventures of John Metcalfe, Commonly Called Blind Jack of Knaresbrough. Knaresbrough: Parr, Printer and Bookseller, 1877. 72pp. Wraps chipped and stained. – DONER, Thomas. Eleven Years a Drunkard. The Life of Thomas Doner. Sycamore, IL: Arnold Brothers, 1877. “Having lost his arms through intemperance, he wrote this book with his teeth as a warning to others.” Woodcuts. 42pp. Foxed and soiled, but good or better. – MORTON, John H. The Greatest Wonder of the Age. The True History of … Miss Susan Caroline Godsey. “Sleeping Beauty.” Union City, TN: N.B. Morton, 1872. 14pp. Stained, chipped, rear wrap badly torn, but complete and intact. – The Goss-Udderzook Tragedy: Being a History of a Strange Case of Deception and Murder. Baltimore: Baltimore Gazette, 1874. Woodcut frontispiece of Goss behind tissue. 60pp. – HILL, William “Red.” True Facts of the Death Defying Rapids-Shooting Barrel Trips. Circa 1940. Illustrated with photographs. 28pp. – The Life and Adventures of James Hirst. Knottingley: S.W. Hepworth, ca. 1860. Folding frontispiece shows “Jemmy in his carraige.” 48pp. Wraps badly chipped; foxed. Most published anonymously; all in publisher’s printed or pictorial wraps, with some illustrated. Generally in good condition with age-related and expected wear. A very good group chronicling the life stories of a wide range of amazing, deceitful, larcenous, and incredible individuals of the nineteenth century and beyond.