Philadelphia: D. Rice and A. N. Hart. Very Good with no dust jacket; Slight offsetting of plates onto their tissue covers. Scattered, tiny mineral specks in paper. Occasional, faint foxing at edges of leaves. Raised bands, joints, edges, and corners rubbed. Marring and small losses to gilt edges. Faint offsetting at edges of pastedowns and endpapers. Vol I: Small ink and marker notation front endpaper. 1859. Hardcover. Concise biographical essays of popular, influential, and famed, politicians, businessfolk, clergy, inventors, explorers: collected from the original serialized version of 1833. All the movers and shakers, men and women, that were deemed important from the beginning of the Republic. This edition 1859[1856]. Tissue-covered steel engraved portrait plates of all concerned. Each engraving lists the painted portrait it replicates and the painter where known. Raised bands, ornately embossed brown full-leather publisher's binding over heavy beveled boards, gilt all edges of block, marker ribbons. Unpaginated, approximately 300pp per volume. All corners still sharp, joints and hinges sound. All engraved plates present. Internally clean, still fairly tight. With the ownership blind stamp of Jack McKim Vorhies, noted numismatic author on obsolete bank notes. Each front pastedown with the (presumably) original bookseller's label of James Rudd, Louisville KY who sold each volume at $10. A complete set that's attractive, a good representation of how the Republic of 1833 saw its favorite sons and daughters, and superior to the mass-market sets of the era. All volumes VG condition.; Engravings; 4to 11" - 13" tall; 300 each pages .

New York: Macmillan Company. Very Good+ in Very Good dust jacket; Spine tail bumped, faintest spotting at edges of covers, faintest foxing to head edge of first few leaves, sticker residue to front endpaper. DJ is worn at all edges, corners, and spine ends, spine darkened, small spot of dampstain. 1948. First American Edition. Hardcover. Biography of "man of letters" Arthur Quiller-Couch. Recaps the brief material in Q's autobiography and recounts the rest of his life in and out of literature. Much material on the social and political climate that influenced and shaped him. Color frontis and black and white photos. Indexed. 1948[1947]. In oxblood cloth with gilt title to spine. A clean copy. ; B&W Photographs; 8vo; 174 pages .

New York: Knopf. Very Good+ in Very Good dust jacket; Some wave to the text block. Tinyest white speck to the back cover. DJ nicked at various edges, tiny closed tears at edges, one 1/2 inch closed tear at back head edge, flaps creased. 1983. First Edition. Hardcover. A revealing biography based on the personal correspondence of Marie de Rabutin-Chantal (1626-1696). SIGNED and inscribed by the author. The widowed Marquise de Sevigne, was popular at court and in the salons of Paris not only as a witty conversationalist, but as a prolific writer of letters. These letters to her son, daughter, friends, and others contained Parisian gossip, news of the court, advice, current events, and other more personal topics. Her cousin Roger de Rabutin, Count de Bussy, and others began copying and publicly circulating these letters in the Marquise's own lifetime as examples of the art of letter writing. The letters are detailed enough to be a primary source of social history of the Parisian upper class during the reign of Louis XIV. Her writing style is considered eloquent, yet natural and direct, and contains considerable wit. Contains a cronology of her life and a Preface. A lovely, clean, SIGNED copy. Conservatively VG+ and approaches NF. In a VG DJ. ; Large 8vo 9" - 10" tall; 538 pages; Signed by Author .

New York: Harper & Row. Fine in Very Good dust jacket; DJ is price-clipped, nicked and tiny chips at corners, head, and tail of spine. Chip at tail edge of back. Light soil. 1967. First Edition. Hardcover. Biography of this French Jesuit priest and philosopher, both paleontologist and geologist. De Chardin participated in numerous excavations and later participated in significant research about Peking Man, and his scientific observations about creation and liberal interpretation of the book of Genesis put him at odds with the Catholic Church who censured him. His work in these fields was not published in his lifetime, given this censure and his obedience to the Church: the censure still stands. As a philosopher, his work tended to blur the lines between science and religion as he explained the evolution of conciousness, the study of which he termed phenomenology. In this he stated that all things in the universe strive toward a higher conciousness by arranging themselves into more complex structures over time: this was, essentially, his view of what drives the evolution of beings. Foreward, list of illustrations, list of maps, Bibliography, Glossary, and an extensive Index. Blue cloth on boards, gilt and blue title to spine. A nice copy, Fine in all ways in a good-locking VG DJ. ; B&W Illustrations; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 360 pages .

Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Very Good+ with no dust jacket; Slightest rubbing to corners and bumped spine ends. Owners name, address, and date to front endpaper. Lacks the dust jacket. 1957. First Edition. Hardcover. Biography of this Renaissance-era proponent of Humanist philosophy, Celtis was the first German poet laureate, a philosopher, playright, German patriot, and reformer of university education. A wanderer of 1400s Europe, he searched for knowledge in both universities and countryside, broke rules, denounced the class system, and left a profound legacy. End notes and index. A VG+ copy that verges on NF. ; Drawings; 8vo; 142 pages .

Indianapolis IN: Indiana Historical Society. Near Fine with no dust jacket; Spine ends rubbed. Three or four dogeared pages. A few instances of faint highlighting. 1966. First Edition. Hardcover. Chronicles the life and work of Theodore Clement Steele, the most prominent of the Hoosier school of painters. Ten color plates including frontispiece and sixty-six b&w photos reproduce Steele's landscapes and portraits. Excerpts of letters and first-person accounts interspersed in the text. Green cloth on boards with gilt cover illustration and gilt title to spine. No DJ, as-issued. Well-written, well-indexed; an essential reference for the collector. Covers are *not* bowed, the bowing being very common to this book. A clean, tight book, bright pages, appears NF but for the few flaws, very conservatively VG.; 8vo; 209 pages .

Richmond IN: The Nicholson Press. Very Good+; Rubbed spine ends and cover corners. Lacks the DJ. 1927. First Edition. Hardcover. Biography of this notable member of the Society of Friends in Richmond Indiana. Timothy Nicholson (1828-1924) was an Orthodox Friend, an educator in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, and a trustee of Earlham College in Indiana for 49 years. Nicholson was known for strong opinions on controversies in the post-Victorian to turn-of-the-century Quaker community, specifically about sanctification, revivalism, and the ordinances. Textured, "threaded" green cloth on boards with gilt titles. Frontis photo of Nicholson. Head ornament to each page. Introductio n by the Richardson family. Post mortem tributes. Indexed. Privately printed by "The Nicholson Press." A very nice copy, a bit better than VG+ implies. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 252 pages .