Its excellence was due almost entirely to its inspired editorial team: George Ripley, a former minister and excellent writer; Charles Dana, later the influential editor of The New York Sun; and John Sullivan Dwight, America’s first great musical critic and future editor of the seminal Dwight’s Journal of Music. Though The Harbinger was the literal successor to Arthur Brisbane’s Fourierist publication, The Phalanx, it was the spiritual successor to Emerson and Fuller’s late, great Dial, for, as one historian has noted, “it eschewed dogma and promoted radical inquiry of whatever stripe.” It was pro-socialist, anti-slavery, anti-war, and an advocate for woman’s suffrage. Aside from its heroic political stances, it published the best musical criticism in America, thanks to the fluent pen of John Sullivan Dwight. Contributors to the weekly included, in addition to the three editors, James Russell Lowell, John Greenleaf Whittier, George W. Curtis, Christopher Cranch, and many others. Though it achieved a circulation of more than 1,000, it was never a paying proposition, depending instead on the largess of wealthy men like Horace Greeley and Arthur Brisbane to stay afloat. In the fall of 1847, these men decided to move the journal to New York. There, with the November 6, 1847, issue, it was enlarged to a small folio and put into the hands of a new editor, who was instructed to tone down the magazine’s radicalism in a bid for wider popularity. The result was predictable: old subscribers fell away and new ones did not materialize. The Harbinger published its last issue February 10, 1849. A great piece of radical Americana. Scarce.

Journal of the Military Service Institution of the United States (New York)

Vol. 8, No. 32 (December 1887) to Vol. 14, No. 66 (November-December 1893), comprising the thirty-four quarterly and bi-monthly issues bound in ten volumes of brown leather and cloth. Octavos. Bindings VG, with edge wear. Contents near fine. $600

This set bears the name O. M. Carter, the original owner, on the bottom of each spine. This was Oberlin M. Carter, the celebrated and much-maligned US Army engineer who was court-martialed in one of the most famous trials in U.S. Army history. The Military Service Institution of the United States was a voluntary organization initiated by Generals W. T. Sherman and Philip Sheridan for the mutual improvement of officers of the Army. The Institution was founded in 1878, held its first meeting in 1879, and published the first issue of the Journal in 1880. The Journal’s editorial purpose was to disseminate the most advanced studies on the science and art of war and to promote solidarity among officers in far-flung posts. Each issue featured essays on the latest thinking, innovations, and inventions on the science and art of war, republication of important addresses, book reviews, correspondence, obituaries, and news of the Institution. The Journal was published for nearly forty years, but it, like the Institution itself, did not long survive its founders, folding, somewhat ironically, during World War I. Carter, appointed to West Point by President Grant, graduated first in the class of 1880, just before G. W. Goethals, of Panama Canal fame. In 1895 he was charged with improving the navigability of the harbor at Savannah Georgia. He changed the depth and course of the Savannah River to allow unprecedented import and export of goods. President McKinley then appointed him U.S. military attache to the Court of St. James.  In 1897, the army summoned him back to Savannah to face charges that he and two civilian conspirators had defrauded the federal government of millions of dollars by fixing the bidding process upon which the corps of engineers awarded contracts. Found guilty at the longest court-martial in the history of the army, Carter was sentenced to a fine of $5,000, loss of his rank, and imprisonment for five years at hard labor. Carter said in 1900, “I am entirely innocent, and I shall not rest until my innocence, proven at my military inquisition, is officially proclaimed. It was proven that not one dollar of public funds was ever misappropriated nor misapplied by me, and that the government was never defrauded through me in any manner whatever.” He spent the remainder of his life (he died in 1944) trying to clear his name, but in this he failed. Modern historians disagree about his case.

The Manhattan (New York)

Vol. 1, No. 1 (January 1883) to Vol. 4, No. 3 (September 1884), comprising a total of twenty-one issues, twelve of which are bound in two volumes of black leather and cloth and nine of which are in original wrappers. Octavos. Bound issues: VG+ bindings with near fine contents. Title pages bound in. Index to volume 2 bound in. Wrappered issues: VG+ wrappers with near fine contents. Darkening to most spines. $400

The Manhattan was begun by the venerable New York printer John Orr as an umbrella literary organ for fraternal societies — the Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Knights of Honor, the Royal Arcanum, and others — and the first issue devoted two dozen pages to them. However, when the societies did not respond with the enthusiasm that Orr had hoped for their place in the contents shrunk and by the fifth issue was abandoned entirely. From then on The Manhattan was a general interest monthly in the mold of its fat and prosperous competitor, The Century. It published high quality period fiction and poetry and had a very respectable critical department. Highlights from these issues include “Artemus Ward in New Orleans,” “The Noble Red Man in Brazil,” travelogues of the St. Johns and Hackensack rivers, a serialized novel by Julian Hawthorne, an article by Cornelius Mathews chastising Charles Dickens as a shameless self-promoter, an article on Western Scenery illustrated by Thomas Moran, and more. The issues grew in size through the run and the magazine appeared to be prospering. But that was not the case. The competition was simply too great. The Manhattan ceased publishing with the September 1884 issue.

[Craig] The Mask (Florence, Italy)

Vol. 1, No. 1 (1908) to Vol. 6, No. 4 (April 1914), comprising 12 monthly issues and 20 quarterly issues, bound in three folio volumes and three quarto volumes in the publisher’s binding of cloth-covered spines and paper-covered boards. Bindings fair/VG, with wear and soiling, especially to the first volume, which has been rebacked in cloth with the original spine label laid down. Bookplate to front pastedown and embossing stamp to first title page of each volume. All covers and advertising pages bound in. $1,800

Theater historian Olga Taxidou has written: “No study of modern theater is complete without a thorough understanding of the enormous influence of visionary genius Edward Gordon Craig. Born in England in 1872, Craig went on to become famous world-wide as an actor, manager, director, playwright, designer, and most importantly an author and theorist, whose books were translated into German, Russian, Japanese, Dutch, Hungarian, and Danish.” The Mask, Craig’s most important sustained work (1908-29) was used by him to attack commercial theater and to articulate a modern theater rooted in aesthetics. At its most elemental, Craig advocated for a theater that combined innovative staging and lighting with acting to project a new form of art that would change the audience’s experience from one that was primarily audible to one that was more holistic. He chose the title of his magazine to evoke classic theater. But it was also intended as a wink to his readership because most of the articles were written by Craig using as many as sixty pseudonyms, which he did not admit to until 1962. This then makes the magazine a tour-de-force. While all of the volumes of The Mask are handsome productions, the first three volumes are the only ones in folio, making them especially appealing, with their wide margins, elegant typography, and sumptuous Italian paper. Of all the volumes, the pre-war years show Craig in his most active fertile period.

Monatshefte fur Lithographie und das Gesamte Graphische Kunstgewerbe (A Monthly Magazine for Lithography and Graphic Arts and Crafts) (Berlin)

Vol. 1, No. 1 (October 1902) to No. 6 (March 1903), comprising six monthly issues (without wrappers) and sixty full-page full-color lithographic plates, housed in the original rebacked portfolio. Large folio. Portfolio is VG, with light wear. Contents VG, with an occasional marginal chip or tear. Bookplate of Rodman Wanamaker. $1,500

Bruno Hessling, a prominent German publisher of books on architecture and the applied arts, established this magazine to report on developments in the art of lithography in the text and to present examples of the art’s best work in the plates. The magazine proved too costly to produce for the limited audience it attracted, so, after one year, Hessling merged it into another of his publications. Worldcat shows only Harvard with holdings in the US. A number of art museums have cataloged individual plates from the series. 

The New-England Magazine (Boston)

Vol. 1, No. 1 (July 1831) to Vol. 9, No. 6 (December 1835), a total of fifty-four issues, a complete run, bound by the publisher in nine volumes of cloth spines and buff boards with paper spine labels. Octavos. On close inspection, the sharp eyed can see that the cloth of volumes 8 and 9 do not exactly match that of the first seven volumes. Bindings are sound and tight, lightly worn at edges, mottled and scuffed, and two of the spines have closed tears to the cloth. The spine labels are new, expertly mimicking the style of the badly worn originals (which are retained underneath). Overall, the set is quite attractive with the look of authentic early Americana. Contents are near fine and untrimmed, except for the top edge, with the usual foxing. $1,600

The New-England Magazine was, in Mott’s estimation, “perhaps the most important general magazine published in New England before the birth of The Atlantic Monthly…” (Mott/I/599). It achieved that distinction by paying contributors $1 a page for their work. As a consequence, contributions poured in, some of them quite good. Longfellow was a contributor right from the start (July 1831). Holmes and Whittier soon followed. But the magazine did not prosper. When the editor, Edwin Buckingham, died in 1833, his father, Joseph Buckingham, also the publisher, continued the magazine for a year. Then he sold it to Samuel Howe and John Sargent. They edited the magazine for four months (November 1834-February 1835) and in turn sold it to Park Benjamin, just then beginning his long editorial career. Benjamin published ten more issues, before the magazine collapsed and was merged with the American Monthly Magazine of New York. These volumes contain twenty-three contributions by Longfellow (including his novel in parts, “The Schoolmaster”), twelve contributions by Whittier (including his two-part poem, “Mogg Megone”), and fifteen contributions by an unknown writer later revealed to be Nathaniel Hawthorne. Critics agree that many of these fifteen pieces represent Hawthorne at the height of his literary powers. These volumes contain the first appearances of “Young Goodman Brown” (April 1835), one of the greatest American short stories of the 19th century, “The Story Teller” (November and December 1834), “The Gray Champion” (January 1835), “Old News. Nos. I-III” (February, March, and May 1835), “Wakefield” (May 1835), “The Ambitious Guest” and “A Rill From the Town Pump” (June 1835) “The Old Maid in the Winding Sheet” (July 1835), “The Vision in the Fountain” (August 1835), “The Devil In Manuscript” (November 1835), and “Sketches From Memory” (November and December 1835). Also in these volumes are his “My Visit to Niagara” (February 1835) and “Graves and Goblins” (June 1835). We are pleased to be able to offer a complete run of this landmark magazine of American literature in publisher’s binding. Its scarcity is surpassed only by its importance.

The Old Guard (New York)

Vol. 1, No. 1 (January 1863) to Vol. 5, No. 12 (December 1867), comprising 57 issues (several are combined monthly issues), bound in five volumes. Octavos. Vols. 1 and 2 in the black cloth publisher’s binding, with wear to top and bottom of spine and tips. Vols. 3 through 5 in mismatching half-leather and marbled boards, with generalized rubbing all around. Contents VG, with the usual foxing. $1,250

The Old Guard was the only consistently anti-Lincoln Copperhead publication of the Civil War. It began erratic publication in 1862, but it was suppressed by the Federal Government during a general crackdown on the press in 1862. When those restrictions were eased at the end of the year, editor Chauncey Burr resumed publication in January of 1863. (The first two numbers of the 1863 volume are identified as Vol. 2, nos. 1 and 2. But then Burr decided to consider the January 1863 issue the true first issue of volume 1, so the March issue bears the Vol. 1, No. 3 designation, subsequent issues are numbered accordingly, and most of the editorial matter from the first (suppressed) volume is reprinted in the latter half of the 1863 volume.) These two Civil War volumes bristle with astounding, angry diatribes against the war effort in general, and abolitionism and Lincoln in particular. Mott tells us, “The Old Guard defended slavery and the right of secession, attacked President Lincoln violently in every number, and urged the cessation of the war. It was, it claimed ‘the only magazine published in the United States which is devoted to the fearless and uncompromising exposure of the monstrous crimes and frauds of the party in power.'” Each volume is illustrated with engravings of anti-Lincoln political leaders (eight in volume 1, ten in volume 2). We hear a good deal about the opposition Lincoln faced within the North during the Civil War, but that opposition was, in fact, poorly organized and largely inarticulate. The press, by and large, supported the Union effort, even while it argued over tactics. These volumes then constitute an extraordinary historical document, preserving a largely unrecorded point-of-view. Scarce and desirable.