James Cummins Bookseller

Philadelphia: Carey and Hart, 1847.

Darley, F.O.C. First Edition. Engraved title pages. With Illustrations by F.O.C. Darley. 203 pp. 1 vols. 12mo. Recent quarter black morocco and marbled boards. Occasional spotting and soiling else fine Henderson pp. 200, 240; Wright I, 2063; for Hawes, cf. Phillips p. 163; for Thorpe, cf. Phillips p. 376. Item #314462

Collection of stories, many on sporting themes, edited by William T. Porter, who in 1831 founded the American sporting periodical “Spirit of the Times,” and served as its editor from 1835 to 1850. He also edited the American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine from 1840-1844, and the annual American Turf Register and Racing & Trotting Calendar from 1845-1855. Porter was a figure of enormous influence in the history of flat racing in America (cf. Francis Brinley, The Life of William T. Porter, 1860), and generally upon the world of American sport. The title story, “A Quarter Race in Kentucky,” is by “A North Alabamian” (attributed to plantation and racing stable owner Thomas Kirkman); other pieces include “A Shark Story,”and “A Bear Story” by “J. Cypress, Jr.,” the late William P. Hawes, Esq. of New York; and “Bob Herring The Arkansas Bear Hunter” by T.B. Thorpe, etc. Interesting glimpse of mid-nineteenth-century sport and humor. Dickens’ contribution to Mrs. Peck’s Pudding, “Threatening Letter to Thomas Hood, from an Ancient Gentleman” (at pp. 28-34) was first published in Hood's Magazine and Comic Miscellany, May 1844 (cf. Eckel, pp. 196-197).

Price: $600.00 Free International Delivery