NEW YORK – Volumes of military and political history of the United States are revealed in an online book auction by Jasper52, which will take place Tuesday, Dec. 19. Subjects range from firsthand accounts of the Spanish American War by newspaper correspondents to an intelligence report on alleged assassination plots involving foreign leaders. Absentee and Internet live bidding is available through LiveAuctioneers.
Among the oldest books in the auction is a thin volume titled the Laws of the State of New York Passed in the 28th Session of the Legislature, published in Albany in 1805 by John Barber, Printer to the State (below). It is assigned the highest estimate in the auction at $200-$300.
The Spanish American War caused a media frenzy in the U.S. The Chicago Record, a newspaper published in the Windy City from 1893-1901, launched a “swift and stanch dispatch boat” that “cruised the waters of the West Indies, covering the movements of the American fleet and carrying dispatches from Santiago and Puerto Rico to the nearest cable stations. Wherever bullets flew the staff correspondents of The Chicago Record were found on duty. The war stories printed in this book were written by The Record’s correspondents in the field.”
U.S. naval power proved decisive in a war that lasted 10 weeks. The victory gave the U.S. temporary control of Cuba and ownership of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines. The Chicago Record‘s illustrated account of the war is estimated at $75-$100.
The intelligence report titled Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders, includes a prized autograph: a presentation card signed by Sen. Barry Goldwater, who was the Republican Party’s nominee for President of the United States in the 1964 election. The signed card is laid in the booklet and inscribed “With my compliments” and is dated “12-22-75.” The lot has a $75-$100 estimate.
An inscribed copy of American political activist Robert Welch Jr.’s book titled May God Forgive Us is composed of two essays that are savage indictments of U.S. policies and actions of the postwar era with special emphasis on how the U.S. State Department betrayed China to the Communists, the dismissal of Gen. Douglas MacArthur and the acquiescence in the Soviet seizure of Poland (est. $25-$50).
Coin and paper money collectors will enjoy A History of Currency in the United States by A. Barton Hepburn, an American politician from New York who served as Comptroller of the Currency from 1892 to 1893. First published in 1915, this copy is later printing with a 1924 copyright (est. $25-$50).
Another antiquarian highlight of the sale is a three-volume set of Peter Simple or Adventures of a Midshipman (top) by British Royal Navy Capt. Frederick Marryat (1792-1848). The set is an American edition, published in 1834 by E.L. Carey & A. Hart, Philadelphia (est. $150-$200). An acquaintance of Charles Dickens, Marryat is noted as an early pioneer of the sea story.
The auction will be conducted Tuesday, Dec. 19, starting at 6 p.m. Eastern time.
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