Bibliophemera

At a price to fit any purse... When you thumb through this little catalog from Goodspeed's Boston bookshop, you'll want to load your purse or wallet with wads of cash (no credit cards) and jump in a time machine for a bargain basement shopping spree. Rare and collectible autographs found in letters and other paper items are for sale at prices that seem ridiculously low even for 1932. For example, right on the front cover of this booklet, no less an American icon than George Washington is represented by two signed letters (below) for the measly sum of $200 and $150, respectively. How many zeros would be added to the asking price for the same letters offered for sale today? If the above prices are too rich for your blood, how about 85 bucks for a one-page document signed by Washington... and countersigned by Thomas Jefferson. Eighty-five dollars??? Letters from Presidents Madison and Monroe were evidently not as popular with collectors, as their signatures commande...

Goodspeed's of Boston closed its doors in 1993, but had a good run for a century as a leading dealer in antiquarian Americana, prints, pamphlets, autographs, and other printed matter. They left behind numerous publications in the form of catalogs and a monthly publication called The Month at Goodspeed's , both of which gave a good measure of the kinds of material and books that passed through Goodspeed's shops. I have previously posted here examples of each--a catalog of Rare Americana and an issue of The Month at Goodspeed's , my favorite because of the informative articles and bibliographical information each issue contained. Recently, I acquired another Goodspeed publication, Goodspeed's Western Scout , which I had not seen before or known about, and it has gotten me to consider the rise of Western Americana as a specialty field. As the publications' masthead indicates, Goodspeed's Western Scout was first issued in 1952, with Vol. 1, No. 1 rolling off t...