Connecticut River Book Auction
Friday September 22nd at 6pm
949 Main Street in South Glastonbury, CT 06073.
www.ctriverbookauction.com

SOUTH GLASTONBURY, CONN. — Two amazing Connecticut women headline the Friday, September 22, Connecticut River Book Auction to be co
nducted at the South Congregational Church. The first, Julia Smith, led a life that was anything but ordinary.
She once wrote that her father, “having no son,” relied on her for all the duties that would befall a farm lad, stating, “I do not remember when I did not know how to milk, to ride on horseback or to drive a horse before a carriage.” Truly, a free spirit unhindered by the gender expectations of the day she, “would chase about the lots, walk in the water, climb trees and jump over fences in the spring when school was out.”

Is it any surprise then that in 1847 Julia would undertake a literal translation “from the original languages [of the Holy Bible] five times” completing this project in 1855. Two decades would pass before she had the book published in a printing of 1,000 copies by the American Publishing Company in Hartford.

Given her free spirit and with the rise of the suffrage movement, should it also be surprising that when the property assessor in Glastonbury sought to excessively tax her property that she would challenge those actions, stating that being a woman without the right to vote was tantamount to taxation without representation? Proving that the pen is mightier than the tax man, she embarked on a letter writing campaign to newspapers across the United States pleading the case of “Abby and her Cows,” which established her complaint as a cause celebre, much to the well-deserved humiliation of Glastonbury’s local officials.

The copy of Julia E. Smith’s The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments is in its original brown cloth with gilt title and spine. One thousand copies were printed with no additional printings ordered. It has been consigned from an owner in Glastonbury, with sale proceeds to benefit the Glastonbury Historical Society.
The second Connecticut author of note is Harriet Beecher Stowe. One of 11 children, Harriet was born in Litchfield, Conn., of well-educated parents whose Calvinist minister father left the Nutmeg state to accept the presidency of the Lane Theological Seminary in Ohio. Joining him there, the 21-year-old Harriet’s anti-slavery views were strengthened, and with her new husband (a teacher at Lane) they engaged in abolitionist activities that included the housing of fugitive slaves in their northern trek towards freedom in Canada. Whether it was actions like these or, as some have suggested, the death of an infant son, Stowe began writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin: The Man That Was a Thing in 1851 for the National Era. Retitled during its serialization Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Life Among the Lowly, the book appeared in 1852 with an initial print run of 5,000 copies. Before the year was out, this two-volume work had exceeded 300,000 copies — an astronomical number for the time.

The copy of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in this sale is part of a 17-volume set containing the works of this prolific author. Issued in 1896 in three-quarter leather, this large paper edition is rarely found as a complete set. Further, Volume I is signed by Stowe and dated January 12, 1896, with the publisher’s note that it was signed a few months before her demise.
The South Congregational Church is at 949 Main Street. For information, 860-908-8067 or www.ctriverbookauction.com.

LIVE and IN-PERSON BOOK AUCTION on FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22nd, 2023 at the South Congregational Church located at 949 Main Street in South Glastonbury, CT 06073. Inspection begins at noon with the auction starting at 6 pm.
While another growing season may have passed the fruits of the field can be found in abundance at farmstands across New England and the same can be said of the books and ephemera at our September auction.
With over 200 lots for sale, those interested in Harriett Beecher Stowe will be especially interested in the large paper edition of “The Writings of Harriet Beecher Stowe,” issued in 17 volumes in 3/4 leather. What makes this set desirable is that Stowe signed and dated the 1st volume, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Of equal importance is a fine copy of Julia’s Smith’s, “The Holy Bible.” Published in 1876 in a printing of 1,000 copies, it is the first translation of the Bible from the Greek and Hebrew by a woman who came to be known across the country as a suffragette and today as an early feminist.
Like fiction then consider signed 1st edition dust
jacketed copies of “God Bless you Mr. Rosewater” and “Jailbird” by Vonnegut, “A Son of the Circus,” by Irving, “One to Count Cadence,” by Crumley, “Good Bones and Simple Murders,” by Atwood, and “The House of Spirits,” by Allende.
Other 1st edition works in dustjackets include
“Laments for the Living,” by Dorothy Parker, “Animal Farm,” by Orwell, “Too Many Women,” by Rex Stout and the 1st appearance in Life Magazine of Hemingway’s timeless “The Old Man and the Sea.”
While preparing a cocktail from Mason’s (1930) “The Art of Drinking,” auction attendees and absentee bidders may want to consider purchasing the binder containing political presidential buttons, the huge Leroy Neiman (1971) “Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier,” poster for the Madison Square Garden fight, the (circa 1930s) signed Gordon Grant seaside prints, the Currier (1845) print “The Tree of Death the Sinner,” or the (circa 1860s) Crider “Gun Maker” broadside and this does not even begin to scratch the surface of the ephemera available.
Add to this a wealth of history, art books and sea faring volumes including Thompson’s sweet tale of
Connecticut’s southeastern shore “Draggerman’s Haul” and you have the makings of a pleasant evening. Oh and we almost forgot to mention Case’s (1927) 1st edition of “The Tarot A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages” which could be helpful in determining which of your purchases might provide the most enjoyable reading experience.
For more information on this 6 pm, Friday, September 22nd book auction to be held at the South Congregational Church, 949 Main Street, South Glastonbury, CT 06073 visit ctriverbookauction.com or
call Tom at 1-860-908-8067.
www.ctriverbookauction.com • 860-908-8067