Americana
Rare Americana Books, Manuscripts & More for Sale Online
If you’re looking for first edition books celebrating the American experience, you’ve come to the right place. At Raptis Rare Books we maintain an extensive collection of rare Americana, books, manuscripts and more. Browse through our entire collection online, use our sorting tools or search to find exactly what you’re looking for then call with any questions you may have or order online today.
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Handsome Bronze Bust of President Abraham Lincoln
MAVCHI, J. [Abraham Lincoln].
Bronze Bust of Abraham Lincoln.
Bust length portrait bronze of President Abraham Lincoln, signed and numbered by the aritst, "J. Mavchi 09/100." Mounted on a square black granite or marble base. The base measures 10.5 inches in height. The entire piece with the base measures 12.75 inches in height. In fine condition.
Price: $2,800.00 Item Number: 145312
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"There are but few important events in the affairs of men brought about by their own choice": First Edition of Grants Memoirs; Finely Bound by The Harcourt Bindery
GRANT, Ulysses S. [U.S.].
Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant.
New York: Charles L. Webster & Company, 1885-86.
First edition of the autobiography of Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States, which focusing mainly on his military career during the Mexican War and the Civil War. Octavo, 2 volumes, bound in full morocco by the Harcourt Bindery, gilt titles and ruling to the spine, raised bands, gilt ruled to the front and rear panels, gilt signature to the front panel of each volume, inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. In near fine condition. An exceptional presentation.
Price: $2,000.00 Item Number: 145765
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First Edition of Baseball: An Illustrated History; Signed by Doris Kearns Goodwin
WARD, Geoffrey C. and Ken Burns [Doris Kearns Goodwin].
Baseball: An Illustrated History.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.
First edition of this companion book to the classic documentary series. Quarto, original cloth, illustrated endpapers, illustrated throughout. Boldly signed by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin on the title page. Kearns Goodwin served as a commentor in the series. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
Price: $550.00 Item Number: 144374
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The National Edition of The Works of Theodore Roosevelt; In the Rare Original Dust Jackets
ROOSEVELT, Theodore.
The Works of Theodore Roosevelt.
New York : Charles Scribner's Sons, 1926.
The National edition of the works of Theodore Roosevelt. Octavo, 20 volumes, original green cloth with printed paper spine labels, top edge gilt. The set includes, The Naval War of 1812 in two volumes, The Wilderness Hunter, American Ideals in 2 volumes , The Winning of the West in six volumes, Hunting the Grizzly, Hunting Trips on the Prairie and in the Mountains, and Hunting Trips of A Ranchman. Fine in near fine dust jackets. An exceptional set, rare in the original dust jackets and in this condition.
Price: $2,500.00 Item Number: 144229
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“World peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor—it requires only that they live together in mutual tolerance": John F. Kennedy's First Edition Copy of The Strategy of Peace
KENNEDY, John F.
The Strategy of Peace.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1960.
First edition of the selected foreign policy speeches and statements on defense, peace, and national security delivered by Kennedy during his 1960 presidential campaign. Octavo, original half cloth. Fine in a very good jacket. Edited by Allan Nevins.
Price: $275.00 Item Number: 144218
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Rare First Edition of Genesis of the Civil War: The Story of Sumter, 1860-1861
CRAWFORD, Samuel W.
Genesis of the Civil War: The Story of Sumter, 1860-1861.
New York: Charles L. Webster & Company, 1887.
Rare first edition of this classic work on the genesis of The Civil War. Octavo, bound in three quarters calf, frontispiece, tissue guard. In very good condition. Exceptionally rare.
Price: $1,800.00 Item Number: 144138
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FIRST EDITION OF JOHN F. KENNEDY'S PROFILES IN COURAGE
KENNEDY, John F.
Profiles in Courage.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1956.
First edition of Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize-winning work. Octavo, original half cloth, with eight pages of black-and-white photogravures. Near fine in a near fine price-clipped dust jacket. Jack design by Phil Grushkin. Jacket photograph by Hank Walker. Uncommon in this condition.
Price: $1,500.00 Item Number: 143898
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First Edition of The Century; Signed by Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster
JENNINGS, Peter and Todd Brewster.
The Century.
New York: Doubleday, 1998.
First edition of this historic overview of the twentieth century. Quarto, original cloth, illustrated throughout. Signed by both authors, Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
Price: $400.00 Item Number: 144008
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"THE MOST FAMOUS AND INFLUENTIAL AMERICAN POLITICAL WORK”: EXCEPTIONALLY RARE FIRST EDITION OF THE FEDERALIST
[HAMILTON, Alexander; James Madison; John Jay].
The Federalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favour of the New Constitution, As Agreed Upon by the Federal Convention, September 17, 1787.
New York: Printed and Sold by J. and A. McLean, 1788.
First edition of The Federalist, one of the rarest and most significant books in American political history. 12mo, bound in half calf over marbled boards, raised bands, gilt titles to the spine. In very good condition with light toning to the pages. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell and chemise box. An exceptional example of this cornerstone of Americana.
Price: $250,000.00 Item Number: 143916
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[HAMILTON, Alexander].
The Speeches at Full Length of Mr. Van Ness, Mr. Caines, The Attorney-General, Mr. Harrison, and General Hamilton, in the Great Cause of the People, Against Harry Croswell, on an Indictment of Libel on Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States.
New York: Printed by G. & R. Waite, No. 64 Maiden-Lane, 1804.
First edition of this landmark case in the history of the First Amendment. Octavo, disbound. In very good condition. Rare with only a handful appearing in auction records.
Price: $1,750.00 Item Number: 142963
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First edition illustrated by Frederic Remington of Francis Parkman's The Oregon Trail
PARKMAN, Francis. Illustrated by Frederic Remington.
The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life.
Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1892.
First Remington illustrated edition, fourth edition printed of Parkman’s classic account of his journey along the Oregon Trail. Second printing with the list of illustrations. Octavo, original publisher's full suede with gilt titles and tooling to the spine and front panel, illustrated with numerous plates by Frederic Remington, tissue-guarded frontispiece. Provenance: from the library of Mabel Osgood Wright with her petite bookplate to the pastedown. Mabel Osgood Wright (1859-1934) was an American writer who wrote extensively on nature and birds. In very good condition.
Price: $850.00 Item Number: 142850
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"The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do": RARE FIRST EDITION OF THE COLLECTION OF JEFFERSONS WRITINGS
JEFFERSON, Thomas.
Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, from the Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Edited by Thomas Jefferson Randolph.
Charlottesville, VA: F. Carr and Co, 1829.
First edition of the first published collection of Jefferson’s writings, an impressive four-volume work edited by his grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph. Octavo, 4 volumes, contemporary calf, engraved frontispiece portrait after Gilbert Stuart in volume I, 4 folding plates of facsimiles of Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence.
Price: $4,800.00 Item Number: 142662
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perhaps the only leaf from Washington's diary in private hands: exceptional George Washington autograph diary leaf dated March 1762; the first spring Washington was full owner of Mount Vernon
WASHINGTON, George.
George Washington Autograph Diary Leaf.
[Mount Vernon]: March 1762.
Autograph manuscript, being George Washington's diary entries for a portion of March 1762, detailing the fruit grafts that he has accomplished. 2 pages (5 14/16 x 3 10/16 inches, irregular) on a leaf of laid paper, [Mount Vernon], March 1762; browned, left margin of recto waterstained and abraded causing a loss of text in most lines, small abrasion at center of recto obscuring three words. Accompanied by an autograph note signed by James Kirke Paulding: "Memorandum in the hand of Washington taken from an old almanac for 1762, in the possession of JK Paulding." A rare Washington relic: perhaps the…
Price: $250,000.00 Item Number: 142654
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"IT IS NOT DOWN ON ANY MAP; TRUE PLACES NEVER ARE": FIRST EDITION OF HERMAN MELVILLE'S MOBY DICK; in the rare red variant cloth
MELVILLE, Herman.
Moby-Dick; Or, The Whale.
New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1851.
First edition, first issue binding of Melville’s masterpiece. Octavo, original red variant cloth (BAL’s A grain), covers stamped in blind with Harper’s circular device at the center of the front panel within a heavy blind ruled frame, plain white endpapers. Issued in a single volume, in black, green, blue, red, purple, slate or brown cloth, gilt. The first state of the binding has a circular device at center of covers that is absent from the second state binding. Much has been made of whether the earliest copies bound should have orange-coated end papers, but in fact there is no priority…
Price: $20,000.00 Item Number: 142813
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FROM THE LIBRARY OF GEORGE WASHINGTON AT MOUNT VERNON: First edition, presentation copy of Elkanah Watson's Tour in Holland; inscribed by him to George Washington
[WATSON, Elkanah] [George Washington].
Tour in Holland in MDCCLXXXIV. By an American.
Printed at Worcester, Massachusetts: Isaiah Thomas, 1790.
First edition, presentation copy of a scarce volume from George Washington's library at Mount Vernon. Octavo, bound in full contemporary sheep with pine gilt in six compartments within raised bands, burgundy morocco spine label lettered in gilt, type-ornament title-page vignette, head and tailpieces. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author to George Washington on the front pastedown, "From the Author to General Washington" and further inscribed on the front free endpaper, "New York, Feb. 1798. Sir, Please to accept this small production which has stole its way into the world. If it can beguile one moment of that anxiety which doubtless pervades your…
Price: $275,000.00 Item Number: 143919
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"A Monument to the Natural and Cultural landscape of America": First editions of both volumes of Picturesque America; profusely illustrated and in the publisher's deluxe full morocco
BRYANT, William Cullen.
Picturesque America: Or, The Land We Live In. A Delineation by Pen and Pencil of The Mountains, Rivers, Lakes, Forest, Water-Falls, Shores, Cañons, Valleys, Cities, and Other Picturesque Features of Our Country.
New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1872-1874.
First edition of this immensely popular and influential 19th century celebration of the American landscape. Folio, two volumes in the original publisher's deluxe full morocco with gilt titles to the spine in six compartments within raised bands, gilt titles and central vignette to the front panels, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles. marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, illustrated with nine hundred wood engravings and fifty steel engravings after Harry Fenn, A.C. Warren, Thomas Moran, Granville Perkins, and William Hart among others, tissue-guarded frontispiece and additional decorative pictorial title page to each volume. In very good condition. A nice example of this…
Price: $1,500.00 Item Number: 142507
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Rare 1791 American Military Commission signed by President George Washington
WASHINGTON, George.
George Washington Signed Military Commission.
March 4, 1791.
United States military commission signed by George Washington as the first president of the United States of America on March 4th 1791. One page, partially printed, the commission appoints Jonathan Cass "a Captain in the Second Regiment in the Service of the United States." Signed by George Washington, "Go Washington" as the first President of the United States and countersigned by Henry Knox as the first Secretary of War. The appointee, Revolutionary War soldier Jonathan Cass responded to the April 1775 Lexington Alarm and served with George Washington at Bunker Hill. He was subsequently appointed as an officer in the…
Price: $28,000.00 Item Number: 143534
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Peter Force's 1833 printing of the Declaration of Independence, from Walter J. Stone's 1823 plate
The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America. [The Force Declaration of Independence].
Washington, D.C.: Engraved by William J. Stone for Peter Force, [1883].
Rare engraved copy of Peter Force's 1833 printing of the Declaration of Independence, from William J. Stone's 1823 plate. One page, folio broadside. In 1823, with the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence approaching, Congress commissioned Stone to produce a high-quality, actual-size replica of the original engrossed Declaration. The signatures of the 56 delegates were to be carefully copied. Stone spent two years perfecting the plate and after he had printed the 200 copies ordered, his original engraved plate remained with the Department of State. A decade later, Peter Force (1790-1868), historian, publisher and mayor of Washington D.C., conceived…
Price: $25,000.00 Item Number: 143242