Antiquarian & Rare Books

California Woman's Divorce Archive. Alameda, California: 1891–1910. Four items as described.

A decree resting on extreme cruelty allowed the court to divide the effects as it saw just — and here it gave Bertha Weiss the land, the chattels, and custody of the children outright. What the cruelty was, these documents do not say. What they do record is that her husband never appeared to contest it. Surviving collections documenting the woman's side of such a case rarely surface.

Omega Nu Journal. San Francisco: Omega Nu Sorority (Press of Latham & Swallow), 1920. 10.25 inches, quarto. Original pictorial wrappers printed in light green, dark green, and yellow, depicting a stylized woman between trees. String-bound. 52 pp. Illustrated throughout with photographic chapter member rosters and hand-drawn sketches; includes several full-page comics.

This journal preserves period photographic member rosters and original artwork from a century-old women's charitable and social organization with rare Nevada chapter representation.

The Land of Little Rain. Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press, n.d., ca. 1917 or later. 7 inches, duodecimo. Mint green cloth, pictorial dark green design to front board and title to spine. In original printed brown paper dust jacket, advertising Austin's title The Ford which was published in 1917. xi + 281 pp.

These charming sketches of the desert and semi-desert country comprising the Owens Valley and the approaches to the great sink of Death Valley have become practically a classic (Zamorano Eighty)

Mrs. Chapone's Letters. New York: Published by Richard Scott. D. Fanshaw, Printer, 1819. 4¾ inches, 32mo. Full period calf binding, gilt-decorated spine with red morocco lettering piece. vi + 170 pp. Frontispiece and illustrated title page dated 1819. Title page engraving signed Anderson — attributed to Alexander Anderson (1775–1870) per Internet Archive catalog record — followed by standard title page dated 1818.

This small format, early American edition, is illustrated by Alexander Anderson, the pioneering American wood engraver.

Life Among The Piutes. Boston: Printed for the Author; for sale by Cupples, Upham & Co., 1883. 7½ inches, duodecimo. Publisher's green cloth, black-stamped greek-key border to boards, gilt title to spine. 268 pp.

The first autobiography published in English by a Native American woman, and the first instance of a Native American woman securing U.S. copyright registration.

Graff 1950 · Paher 888 · Rader 1927 · Smith 1766

Ten Years in Nevada. Buffalo: Baker, Jones & Co., 1880. 9 1/4 inches, octavo. Black cloth, gilt title to spine, gilt floral medallion to upper board, decorative blind-stamped border to boards. Marbled edges. 343 pp. Frontispiece portrait and two additional portraits.

Firsthand memoir of a woman's decade in post-Civil War Virginia City, offering candid observations of Nevada mining society, and daily life on the Pacific Coast.

Howes I M-417 · Paher 1249