Neglected Americana: The Woman’s Rights Movement

Relics of revolutions are avidly collected— uniforms, bullets, swords, guns, and propaganda, are carefully preserved. Until recently, however, relics of one of the most sweeping revolutions, the social revolution in women’s rights that culminated in the suffrage struggles of the early twentieth century, gathered dust or were discarded. As interest in the feminist movement has increased, so has interest in its collectibles. In the following article, the first of two or more articles dealing chronologically with the suffrage movement, I’ve tried to cover the most important events of the movement between 1848 and 1873, fill in a little background and refer to the most important books and collectible ephemera of that period.

Susan B. Anthony House

Thirty years ago, the home of Susan B. Anthony in Rochester, NY was rarely open to the public, barely maintained by the contributions of a few dedicated volunteers, and almost entirely unknown to Rochesterians. Thanks to recent interest in the history of the women’s rights movement, it’s now much expanded, open to the public, fully staffed, and a favorite site for visiting politicians’ press conferences. I became a docent there about ten years ago and have found myself increasingly absorbed in the history of the women’s movement—much of which happened here, in upstate New York. Books and ephemera inscribed and/or published by Anthony, as well as other suffrage items turn up here with some frequency. Or, at least, they used to. They are now much scarcer.

The suffrage movement was a battle fought and won largely with words—with mountains of paper and hours of speeches at meetings and conventions, with lobbying, and with banners and sashes, pins, handbills and posters. According to historian Andrea Kerr Moore, the American Women Suffrage Association “sent out almost 216,000 leaflets from its Boston headquarters” in one year. Even during the most “violent” period of the suffrage movement, the early 20th century, when militants marched, chained themselves to the White House fence, and were jailed and force fed, the great majority of suffrage workers pursued a comparatively moderate course.

The History of Woman Suffrage and The Life and Works of Susan B. Anthony are, essentially, the official records of the movement. They were intended to be exactly that and, without them and the incredible amount of information they contain, much of the history of the women’s movement would be lost. The most frequently repeated stories of the suffrage movement are largely drawn from those works and from Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Memoir, Eighty Years and More.

Both works were written by the leaders of one group, the “ultras,” the radical wing of the movement led by Anthony and Stanton, and reflect their point of view. The work of the more conservative and broadly inclusive wing led by Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, Mary Livermore and others is less well remembered.

Abolitionist and temperance newspapers of that period sometimes contain articles and speeches referring to or that were written by Anthony, Stanton, or Stone. One of the earliest temperance papers, The Lily, published by Amelia Bloomer in Seneca Falls, NY, was strongly influenced by Stanton, then living in Seneca Falls. Stanton essentially changed the direction of both the paper and its editor from temperance to women’s rights.

As a student at Oberlin, Lucy Stone began speaking for women’s rights during the mid-1840s and when, in 1847, she became a lecturer for the American Anti-Slavery Association, she spoke part of the time for women’s suffrage and part of the time for the abolition of slavery.

When Stanton and Anthony and Stone were girls, the legal situation of women, especially married women, in the United States was abysmal. Stanton contended that married women were essentially enslaved: “the condition of married women under the Common Law, was nearly as degraded as that of the slave on the Southern plantation.” [The History of Woman Suffrage] They had no legal existence apart from their husbands. Unmarried women, unless they had unusual resources, were either dependent upon family members or worked for miserably low wages. Women were not allowed in the professions and, with a few exceptions, notably the Quakers, not permitted to speak in public. They were rarely educated beyond eighth grade. They could not, of course, vote although the founding fathers had not excluded women from voting and, for a time, women in New Jersey were allowed to vote. By the time that Stanton and Anthony died, in 1902 and 1906 respectively, all of those restrictions had been removed except the prohibition against voting. Four western states did allow women to vote in federal elections during the 19th century and more were added during the early 20th century, but not until 1920 was the nineteenth amendment, franchising all adult women, ratified.

Anthony, Stanton, Lucy Stone and numerous other less well-known women worked to bring about the revolution through the last half of the 19th century. Each pointed to incidents of injustice that exemplified the need for change—Stanton was especially effective at writing the history of the suffrage movement. Her account of the background of the first women’s rights convention, the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, now memorialized by the U.S. Park Service with the Women’s Historic Park in Seneca Falls, NY, is famous.

Stanton married abolitionist Henry Stanton in 1840 (“obey” was not in the marriage ceremony) and they immediately left for London to attend The World’s Anti-Slavery Convention, an event that turned out to be, arguably, as significant for women’s suffrage as for the abolition of slavery. The American delegation to the convention included not only such stalwarts of the movement as Henry Stanton but also it was the first to include women, among them Lucretia Mott, a prominent Philadelpha Quaker. The inclusion of women had already led to a split in the American abolitionist movement with the Garrisonians favoring women as delegates and the “political abolitionists” opposing their inclusion.

British hosts, many of them clergymen, were shocked at the appearance of the women and debate over whether or not to include them occupied the first day. (Henry Stanton argued for their admission.) The Garrisonians were voted down by a “crushing majority,” according to Stanton’s biographer, Elisabeth Griffith, and the women were seated in the gallery, behind a curtain, to observe but not to participate.

Stanton and Mott became friends as a result of the anti-slavery convention—discussed the necessity for a change in women’s place in society, both legally and in the perception of women’s “proper place”—and talked about having a convention as soon as possible after their return to the United States. It was not, however, until 1848 when Mrs. Mott was visiting in the Seneca Falls area and Mrs. Stanton, now the mother of three (later seven) children, sat down with three Quaker women in Jane Hunt’s parlor in Waterloo, NY, a few miles from Seneca Falls, and planned the convention.

At the convention, which has been well documented and is usually thought of as marking the beginning of the suffrage movement, eighteen resolutions were passed. Stanton, the primary author, modeled theDeclaration of Sentiments on the Declaration of Independence, and included eighteen resolutions because there had been eighteen resolutions in the Declaration of Independence. Most controversial turned out to be the ninth resolution, resolving that women should have the franchise. Unlike the other resolutions, which passed unanimously, the ninth resolution was strongly opposed and passed by a small majority, pressed by Frederick Douglass and Stanton. As a result of the ensuing furor, especially from the press and clergy, a number of the signers of the Declaration later withdrew their signatures. One of the few favorable accounts was in Frederick Douglass’ famous North Star, the abolitionist paper he published in Rochester.

The Seneca Falls Convention was soon followed by a convention in Rochester, NY and the first national convention in Worcester, Ma. Conventions continued to be a main vehicle for organizing the suffrage movement. The History of Woman Suffrage records these conventions quite completely and original documents as well as pins, admission tickets, delegate badges, programs, etc. from them are now collectibles.

Until the Civil War, suffrage and abolitionist workers, men and women, worked together in reasonable unity for the rights of women and slaves. During the Civil War, suffrage workers partially put aside their work for women’s rights and, in 1863, Stanton, Anthony, and Stone formed the Women’s Loyal League to work for passage of the thirteenth amendment abolishing slavery.

National Woman Suffrage Association

After the war, suffrage and abolitionist supporters differed over the problem of supporting the passage of the fourteenth amendment, which extended the franchise to black men and, for the first time, specified males as voters. Stanton and Anthony, feeling betrayed by their former allies, including Douglass, formed The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). A more conservative group, The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) was led by Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell and included Julia Ward Howe, Mary Livermore, and the prominent male reformers of the period. The two groups remained separate until 1890 when they merged and became the National and American Woman’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA).

During the period between 1867 and 1872, the leaders of NWSA were involved in events which brought the entire suffrage movement an enormous amount of unfavorable publicity and which, according to historians of the movement, set the cause back for a long time. The first was the association with George Francis Train, an open racist, who campaigned with Anthony in Kansas for the passage of a state amendment granting women’s rights and who offered to finance a suffrage newspaper. The second involved the association of Victoria Woodhull with the suffrage movement. Woodhull, who published a newspaper and was a self-nominated candidate for President of the United States, was also well known as a “free love” advocate. Third was the Beecher Tilton scandal, which also involved leaders of the suffrage movement. It was the tabloid story of its time and the popular press, especially, reveled in accusations that Beecher and Tilton’s wife were lovers. Beecher, a prominent clergyman, was President of AWSA. Theodore Tilton, who had been President of NWSA, accused Beecher of seduction and Woodhull, too, was involved. All three stories are fascinating, too complicated to summarize, but exhaustively covered by the contemporary press.Other Powers, a 1998 book by Barbara Goldsmith, covers the Woodhull and Beecher events in detail and constitutes just about the only recent “light” reading available on the suffrage movement. Goldsmith makes the case that the Beecher Tilton scandal largely explains why the suffrage movement failed to gather greater support during the last part of the century.

Both NWSA and AWSA published newspapers. NWSA’s paper, The Revolution, was underwritten for a time by Train (who also used it as a vehicle for his economic theories), and some of Stanton’s best writing appears in the early editions of The Revolution. It was the first of a number of suffrage newspapers, most of them listed in The History of Woman Suffrage, all of which are now highly collectible. Copies of The Revolution are scarce now and very collectible.

The most successful and long-lived of the suffrage papers, The Woman’s Journal, was published by the AWSA. 20th Century copies turn up most often; 19th century copies with interesting content are scarce. Newspapers published by and for workers in the suffrage movement served several purposes. They spread the news of the movement, news that was generally neglected or distorted by the popular press, and provided a sense of community to women who were often isolated. They also helped to create the new sense of self, which was so important in building the feminist movement. Two recent books on the long-neglected suffrage newspapers, one edited by Lana F. Rakow and Cheris Kramarae on The Revolution, the other, edited by Martha M. Soloman, on suffrage newspapers in general, are especially good reading on these not very well known papers.

By the beginning of the 1870’s, the suffrage movement had suffered serious set-backs: suffrage supporters were divided, The Revolution had been sold because Anthony, the publisher, was unable to get advertisers and Train, imprisoned in Ireland as a Fenian, had withdrawn his financial support. The movement was associated with scandal in the public’s mind and new approaches were clearly needed.

In the following bibliography I’ve tried to list only the most significant, recent and/or definitive works. A number of other good references, obviously, exist but many are out of print. I don’t know of a complete bibliography more recent than Albert Krichmar’s The Women’s Rights Movement in the United States 1848 – 1870, published in 1972.

Barry, Kathleen. Susan B. Anthony: A Biography of a Singular Feminist. Published in 1988, this is the most recent biography of Anthony. Earlier biographies by Alma Lutz, Kathleen Anthony, and Rheta Childe Dorr are, unfortunately, out of print. Barry’s is the most scholarly biography; Anthony’s is quite complete and very readable.

Gordon, Ann D., Editor. The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Two volumes have been published: Volume I: In the School of Anti-Slavery, 1840 to 1866 and Volume 2: Against an Aristocracy of Sex, 1866 – 1873. Part of a massive project from Rutgers headed by Gordon, these two volumes include letters, diary entries, speeches and articles. Wonderful notes go along with the entries.

Harper, Judith. Susan B. Anthony: A Biographical Companion. This 1998 alphabetical reference includes entries on all the people and events of the suffrage and other reform movements with which Anthony was involved and is an invaluable “quick” reference.

Griffith, Elizabeth. The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. This most recent and comprehensive biography of Stanton was published in 1984.

Harper, Ida Husted. The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony. The first two volumes were written during Susan B. Anthony’s life, based on her records, and with her active assistance. They were published in 1898 and constitute her “authorized” biography. The third volume was published in 1908, two years after Anthony’s death.

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. Eighty Years and More, 1815 – 1897. Stanton’s autobiography was first published in 1898. The most recent edition includes an Introduction by Ellen Carol DuBois and an Afterword by Ann D. Gordon, which add current scholarship and recent interpretation of Stanton’s work.

The Suffrage Movement

Goldsmith, Barbara. Other Powers. Thorough and entertaining coverage of the period between 1866 and 1871 when several leaders of the reform movements were involved in a series of widely publicized scandals .

Gurko, Miriam. The Ladies of Seneca Falls: The Birth of the Woman’s Rights Movement. A very readable history covering the women who led the suffrage movement and the period from 1848 through 1920. Originally published in 1974.

Kraditor, Aileen. The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement, 1890 – 1920. Classic analysis of the philosophy and tactics of the leaders of the movement.

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady; Anthony, Susan B.; Gage, Matilda Joslin; and Harper, Ida Husted. The History of Woman Suffrage. The six volumes were published between 1881 and 1922. The first three volumes are by Stanton, Anthony, and Gage; Volume 4 is by Anthony and Harper, and Volumes 5 and 6 are by Harper. They have been reprinted a number of times and are also available on CD-ROM.

Suffrage Newspapers

Rakow, Lana F. and Kramarae, Cheris. The Revolution in Words Righting Women 1868 – 1871. Excerpts and analysis of Stanton and Anthony’s suffrage paper.

Soloman, Martha, editor. A Voice of Their Own: The Woman Suffrage Press, 1840-1910. Various authors on the suffrage newspapers.

*Thanks to Mary Huth, Assistant Director, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, University of Rochester, and Barbara Smith of Barbara E. Smith Books

Martha Kelly, Gutenberg Books gtbooks@frontiernet.net

#collecting #women

Britannica 11

Encyclopedia Britannica Eleventh Edition

Even in these days of fast internet access to all sorts of arcane information, when you can “Google” just about anything, there is a print-and-paper reference work that retains its dusty luster and a fierce band of loyal adherents. This book is the so-called “Britannica 11”, or the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, published in 1910 and 1911.

The Encyclopedia Britannica was first published in three volumes between 1768 and 1771, at about the same time as Diderot’s famous “Encyclopedie” in France. But while the 18th century saw the birth of the modern encyclopedia, the 19th century saw the descent of the form into an academic exercise in navel-gazing. New editions of the Britannica were very scholarly and learned but none were particularly readable or even useful to a general audience, as they featured tediously long and ponderously dense entries. To add to the problem of usefulness (or lack thereof), each new edition was published in serial format, volumes being released as they were completed, a process that usually took from 3 to 8 years. One might almost read about archaeopteryx as a living bird in the first volume of an edition and read about the new zeppelins in the last volume…

With the publication of the 11th edition, that was all changed. The editors knew that they needed an entirely new book, not simply an updating of what had come before, and that it was essential that it all be current and up-to-date, and that it be readable. The type for the 11th edition was kept in proof, subject to revision, until all the volumes were ready. The first fourteen volumes were released in the fall of 1910, and the last fourteen, along with the Index volume, were released in the early spring of 1911. No 7-year wait to find out the latest news in Zoology.

For the new edition the editors recruited a wide range of academics, writers, scientists and other experts in their fields. A real attempt was made to make sure that the entries were well written in addition to being informative, and many were kept short enough to be readable but still long enough to be completely accurate and comprehensive. Many of the entries are signed with the initials of the author, and a complete index of authors, and the entries they wrote, was included in the index in Volume 29.

The coverage of the 11th edition was unique to its time and has never been repeated–it came out late enough to encompass the great changes that had taken place in the 19th century, but before the even greater changes that would take place with the start of the First World War just a few years later. In consequence, the editors were able to create an encyclopedia that reflected the “modern” world while retaining many references to the “old” one. As the publisher’s own publicity put it, the 11th edition contained:

“The sum of human knowledge – all that mankind has thought, done or achieved, all of the past experience of humanity that has survived the trial of time and the ordeal of service and is preserved as the useful knowledge of today. Of the human race and its endowment, of persons, places, histories, languages, literature, arts, sciences, religions, philosophies, laws, industries, and of the things and ideas connected with these, all is included that is relevant and everything explained that is explainable. In brief, to borrow an illustration from the engineer, the contents of the Eleventh Edition of the EB constitute a cross section of the trunk of the tree of knowledge.”

Even taking into account the possibility that the publishers may have overstated their case, the result was impressive. Entries on history, on scientists, theologians, politicians and other important figures from the Middle Ages through the 18th century abound, and it is these entries which make the 11th edition so valuable to booksellers. With later editions (specifically the 14th and on) many of these entries would be jettisoned to make space for 20th century subject matter.

The 11th also managed to set a new tone for encyclopedias, one that would not last. In 1910 the world was on the verge of great change, yet that change was still seen as a wholly positive thing. Technology and progress were lauded, and knowledge was a tool for the betterment of Mankind. Many entries reflect a candor and willingness to be honest, or at least opinionated, which would vanish in later editions. The Edwardian world that spawned the 11th edition would be shaken by the sinking of the Titanic a year later, and completely obliterated by the First World War, Great Depression, Second World War and many other events of the 20th century. Some later editions would do just as good a job of reflecting the world in which they were published, but it would be a radically changed world.

Before moving on to describe just how changed later editions would be, I must mention the 12th and 13th editions, for it is probably not fair to ignore those oft-forgotten sets. The 12th and 13th were basically updates of the 11th, with supplementary volumes. It was with the sale of the enterprise to an American publisher and the release of the 14th edition in 1929 that the Britannica was radically altered and the scholarly fur began to fly.

Put as gently as possible, the 14th edition was designed not to offend anyone, or at least nobody in the English-speaking portion of the world. In the 11th edition many theologians had been asked to write entries regarding religion and religious figures, but the entries had not been prepared, or approved, by the hierarchy of the mainstream churches. For the 14th edition these were written with the direct purpose of making the churches involved happy, and not offending anyone. The result was that everyone involved felt better, but historical accuracy suffered dreadfully. Regrettable incidents in religious history, especially ancient and Medieval history, were glossed over or eliminated, and important figures were not always to be presented in a strictly accurate manner. The changes went beyond religion. Women, whose contributions to history, the arts and literature had been allowed to burst through into the pages of the 11th edition, were put back into their kitchens, and there were also political considerations brought to bear, as the Germans and other Central Power countries saw the tone or even substance of some of their related entries altered in the bitter aftermath of World War One.

Encyclopedia Britannica

Reaction to the change was not positive, to put it mildly. Scholars and academics were appalled, and sales tanked. The 11th edition had been a bestseller; the 14th edition (probably also hurt by the onset of the Depression) was a great disappointment. Britannica’s editors would drop the “please everyone” tone for the 15th edition, but by that time there was so much new 20th century material to include that much of the earlier, more esoteric material which is of so much interest to booksellers researching semi-obscure 16th century scientists or 17th century theologians, had to be discarded.

Thus, the 11th edition, along with the related 12th and 13th editions, remains as an encyclopedia that is still useful almost a hundred years later. The text has passed out of copyright, and web-based and cd-rom editions are readily available. For those who simply have to have the paper edition, the larger, full-size set is recommended, although it will take up (your author pauses and gets out his ruler)… almost 3 feet of shelf space. And, with 30,000 pages holding 40,000 entries containing 4 millions words, it is a heavy set, so you had best make it a sturdy, well anchored shelf…

By: Forrest Proper URL: http://www.joslinhall.com/

#collecting #reference

Give Me That Old-Time Religion

I read only reference books. Or so I say when asked if I still am a book reader when others discover that we have collected our way into a full-time book business. Perhaps I should say that these books, here, are not for sale, at present. It is the only section of shelves that I turn to regularly, the last remnant of an assortment of books that eventually collapsed under its own weight, was swept up, and offered for sale to other eager seekers of the Colossal Collection.

Two of the reasons my collection of books (may its memory be eternal) spilled off of its shelves, trickled down stairs, stacked itself in the corners of our home and made itself repugnant to the other members of my family were its continual growth and its ugly appearance. These were not pretty books and there were too many of them. This was a theological book collection, an assembled assortment of American Christian religious views, separated into diverse stacks of opposite and conflicting opinions.

You may have such an assemblage in your store. You may have given it some prominence and sought to find out how to turn it into money or you may have banished it to the basement like a crazy uncle at the family reunion. Whatever your present estimation is of “religious books” you will find that reference works are particularly useful in turning a profit with this material. It is also helpful to have an overview of the theological book-collecting field and to know exactly what you need reference materials to do for you.

Religion in America is a very complex topic. Our focus is on Christian churches and sects in the U.S. before the year 1920. All Christian material in the U.S. is a result of immigrants bringing their church with them to America, later divisions of these churches, or sects that sprang up afterwards by their descendants. These later sects may be native to America or they may be imports from abroad.

The original immigrants came at various times and include Anglicans, Armenians, Baptists, Catholics, Christadelphians, Dunkers, Eastern Orthodox Churches, Huguenots, Lutherans, Mennonites, Moravians, Old Catholics, Pilgrims, Plymouth Brethren, Presbyterians, Puritans, Quakers, Reformed, River Brethren, Schwenkfelders, Swedenborgians, Unitarians, etc. They came at many times and to different places. Some of these churches came to the New World as a single body while others came as competing versions of the same denomination. Many later merged or further split forming new bodies.

Many churches are native to America and are wildly different in theology, practice, and organization. There are Adventists, the Apostolic Faith Movement, Assemblies of God, “Christians,” Christian and Missionary Alliance, Church of God or Winebrennerians, Church of the Nazarene, Disciples of Christ, Hicksites, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Metropolitan Church Association, Mormons or Latter Day Saints, Shaker, and various communal societies. Some of the earlier immigrant churches and these later native churches have been prone to further divisions. There are many different “Apostolic,” Baptist, Holiness, Mennonite, Methodist, and independent churches in the U.S.

The complexity of this genre will stymie the most patient of booksellers.

But you should realize that each of the categories listed above, and many more besides, represent potential avid – some might say rabid – customers. Collections of religious books run along a couple of common threads. They often are either denominational or movement oriented, bibliographical, or Biblical. The denominational or movement collections are composed of material relating to a particular church or cross-church movement such as Temperance, Revival, Holiness, or Fundamentalism. Bibliographical collections are varied. Collections may be based on such things as 18th-century American imprints, imprints from a particular publishing house, hymnals from a specified time period, all of the writings of a favorite author, or any other whimsical infliction of the Hoarding Gene. What I call “Biblical” collections are those often found in ministers or students libraries: Bibles; Bible commentaries; Greek, Hebrew and Latin lexicons; descriptive travelogues of Palestine; records of archaeological discovery attesting to Biblical history.

If you are interested in marketing your books to those building the collections above you will be greatly helped in cataloging by the use of a few basic references.

There are so many churches and movements that many of their authors are now obscure. They may have only published a single book or pamphlet. In order to be successful in this field you must identify the author. You will also want to discover the context and importance of the book itself and share your discovery with an appropriate customer.

A good reference library will help you to identify the author and place him or her within a church or denomination. It may also help you to discern the theological topic or position, the relationship the author may have had with more prominent individuals, and any impact this work may have had on the theological discussion of its day.

Author Identification References (General)

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature

There are three sets that we turn to constantly for author identification. The first is Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, prepared by the Rev. John M’Clintock D.D., and James Strong, S.T.D. This reference was originally published in parts from 1867 to 1887. Our set was published in New York by Harper & Brothers in 1896. Baker Books recently reprinted this work. You are looking for the complete 12-volume set. Older sets are sometimes found as ten volumes but a two-volume supplement was issued to complete the work. Try to get a set that includes this supplement. There are many authors contained in those two volumes. The entire set includes biographies of prominent authors along with theological articles. The biographies contained in M’Clintock & Strong are often more complete than elsewhere. This set is not a bibliographical record – you will find much more of that sort of information in the next two sets below. It is, however, the best comprehensive biographical reference for this time period in American and often contains quotations regarding the manner of life and character of the subject. Our set cost $220.00 a few years ago. The reprint sets run $250-300.

We use Austin S. Allibone’s A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors Living and Deceased as often as we use M’Clintock & Strong. There are more authors in this work but the biographies of the less prominent theological writers are often thin. The subtitle to the set is …from the earliest accounts to the latter half of the nineteenth century. Containing forty-six thousand articles (authors), with forty indexes of subjects. This is found as three volumes with a two-volume supplement. Again, you want the entire five volumes for your reference library. You will use this set for many more authors than only theological ones.

Our edition was published in 1891 in Philadelphia by the J. B. Lippincott Company. We paid $185.00 for it about 4 years ago. Shop around for prices. We do use the two-volume supplement constantly and recommend you try to find all five volumes. The entries for the first three volumes end in 1858. The two supplemental volumes continue the literary record of authors begun in the former part and add a considerable selection of new authors to the mix.

Allibone’s A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors Living and Deceased

The last spade used on a regular basis to root out authors is Cyclopaedia Bibliographica: A Library Manual of Theological and General Literature, and guide to books for Authors, Preachers, Students, and Literary Men. Analytical Bibliographical, and Biographical. By James Darling, 2 vols. London: 1854 & 1859. It is a mismatched set in ¾ leather. The authors are primarily English. The biographies are unadorned. The bibliographical information is terrific and will help you identify early editions and such. The first volume of the set is a bibliography of theological writers. The second volume is a subject index the bulk of which pertains to commentaries on the Bible. Expect this to cost $500-700 for the pair.

Several more books or sets deserve mention. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, etc. published by Funk & Wagnalls in twelve volumes (1908) is handy for authors appearing in the later 19th century. The author has to be rather prominent to appear in this set but it does fill in some gaps for us. I think this set runs $200-250 today.

In the 1850’s and 60’s William B. Sprague authored the Annals of the American Pulpit; or Commemorative Notices of Distinguished American Clergymen of Various Denominations, from the early settlement of the country to the close of the year eighteen hundred and fifty-five. This set is in nine volumes and is very valuable for the detailed biographical information it contains. If your man is in Sprague you will have all of the information you could possibly need to write an informative biography of him. The Annals are difficult to find complete and you may need to assemble the nine volumes individually as you can find them. Expect to pay $75-100 per volume. Two volumes are Trinitarian Congregational ministers, two are Presbyterian, and there are one each of Episcopalian, Baptist, Unitarian, Methodist, and Associate (Presbyterian). Each volume has its own index that is not particularly helpful if you do not already know the denominational affiliation of the author. You will want to pick up Marie Lamourex’s Index to William Buell Sprague’s ‘Annals of the American Pulpit’ reprinted by the American Antiquarian Society in 1994 if you wish to make sense of this set.

Colonial Clergy of the Colonial Churches of New England

The Colonial Clergy of the Colonial Churches of New England by Frederick Lewis Weis, published in Lancaster, Massachusetts (1936) is helpful in identifying unknowns not found elsewhere. The information given for each minister is spartan but you will have set him in a valuable context nevertheless. It has recently been reprinted and many copies are available in the $25-35 range on the Net.

Author Identification References (Denominational & Movement)

Denominational or movement references are also very useful. Most authors can be located in the above references but some are only known as associated with particular churches or religious movements and these can often be located by looking in the right place. Or you may know the denominational association of an author but wish to discover if they are associated with other important historical events or genres. A few examples follow:

The Encyclopedia of Missions. Descriptive, Historical, Biographical, Statistical. With a full assortment of maps, a complete bibliography, and lists of Bible versions, etc. Edited by Rev. Edwin Munsell Bliss. 2 volumes. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1891. Missionaries and authors found here that are not found easily elsewhere. The histories of missionary stations are given. These allow you to see how early a particular work or mission author is relative to any country or people. This work is somewhat difficult to find at present.

A Guide to the Study of the Holiness Movement. By Charles Edwin Jones. Published by The Scarecrow Press and The American Theological Library Association, 1974. This is a 918-page bibliography mainly covering the century 1850 to 1950. It contains brief biographies but an extensive bibliography of each author. The index is somewhat clunky but worth the aggravation. We found our copy priced at $55.00.

A Baptist Bibliography: Being a register of printed material by and about Baptists; including works written against the Baptists. Edited by Edward C. Starr. 1947-1976. 25 volumes. A comprehensive bibliography and very helpful when specializing in this denomination. Starr gives all known editions at the time as well as locations. Single volumes run $30-50; complete sets may be available at a local university.

Comprehensive Bibliography of Mormon Literature: including some review information & price history. Compiled by Bret A. Eborn. Published by Eborn Books in Peoria, Arizona, in 1997. Available for $95-150 on the Net. There is a strong collector interest in this genre and this single reference will give you all you need for a start in identifying and pricing these books.

Early Catholic Americana. A List of Books and other Works by Catholic Authors in the United States 1729-1830. By Wilfrid Parsons, S. J. New York: MacMillan Company, 1939. 282 pages with an index. Catholic writers are often not included in the larger 19th-century author references mentioned above which makes this an essential reference tool for this specialty. Expect to pay $75-100 for it.

Revival Literature. An Annotated Bibliography with Biographical and Historical Notices. By Richard Owen Roberts. Published by the author, 1987. A large reference of 575 pages with 5939 entries and available from the publisher for about $70.00. Their phone number is (630) 752-4122. This contains very useful information with brief biographies of authors and will remain a standard reference in the field. The compiler considers “Revival” to be the First and Second Awakenings in America in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

A History of Fundamentalism in America. By George W. Dollar. Bob Jones University Press, 1973. This has brief biased biographies of the leaders of Fundamentalism, 1900-1973. This was written by a fundamentalist and is helpful for identification with this movement. You should be able to find this for $20-30.

Cyclopaedia of Temperance and Prohibition

The Cyclopaedia of Temperance and Prohibition. A Reference Book of Facts, Statistics, and General Information on All Phases of the Drink Question, the Temperance Movement and the Prohibition Agenda. New York etc.: Funk & Wagnalls, 1891. Something to peruse over a pint of stout. This does include the key figures and authors and is useful. You can find these priced anywhere from $40-100.

The above brief list is only a sample of the many denominational and movement histories and bibliographies available. We suggest that if you wish to pursue a religious topic or church in some depth that you begin with something specific and acquire those works necessary for that specialty.

References suggested for Biblical studies.

Commenting and Commentaries: Two Lectures addressed to the students of The Pastor’s College, Metropolitan Tabernacle, together with A Catalogue of Biblical Commentaries and Expositions. By C. H. Spurgeon, President. London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1893. Often reprinted. We use this constantly. Rev. Spurgeon lists 1437 commentaries with annotations and recommendations, all are in English and many antiquarian titles are included. Any commentary recommended by Spurgeon is a quick sale.

Volume 2 of Darlings’ Cyclopaedia Bibliographica. See above.

An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. By Thomas Hartwell Horne. Commonly found in two or four volume sets, usually published before 1850. The last book in this set contains a Bibliographical Appendix that is extremely useful for books published on Biblical research printed before 1840. This includes Bible versions, translations, commentaries, lexicons, grammars, harmonies, etc. This volume is relatively unknown as a reference and can probably still be found for under $50. The entire set can be had for under $200.

The standard English Bible references – Darlow & Moule, Hills’ English Bible in America, Rumball-Petre’s Rare Bibles – are all in print or common enough that you should have them if you are interested in specific Bible imprints. The standard Evans’ American Bibliography or the Short-Title Evans will help you as well when identifying old Bibles.

We have begun a list of reference materials on American Christian religion at our website if you would like to pursue this further. The link is

http://www.spwurthbooks.com/ref0302.html

You will find that collectors of “religious books” are generally intelligent, well-informed on their specialty, and loyal buyers. Help them find what they want and show them why they want it. This will result in you turning over your stock and extra grocery money for your budget.

And don’t forget to pass down some potato salad to the basement – your uncle is hungry.

By Stephen P. Wurth Copyright – S. P. Wurth Books. 2002. http://www.spwurthbooks.com

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