James Cummins Bookseller is proud to present a catalogue of diaries, autobiographies, and memoirs written by a broad range of authors—from the travel diary of a Cleveland heiress to the autobiography of a researcher involved in the field of atomic physics. Highlights include an inscribed first edition of Lillie (Lady de Bathe) Langtry's The Days I Knew; a deluxe first edition of Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant in superior condition; and manuscript diaries of a 19th century New York and New Jersey businessman with lengthy and unusually well-written entries on politics, the Embargo, his loves and a variety of issues.
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 11967. First edition. Signed by the reknowned art historian and Director of the Tate Gallery on the titlepage, dated “i - xii - '67. Read More about Brave Day Hideous Night Autobiography 1939 — 1965
Price: $250
London: Richard Bentley, 1868. First edition. Read More about My Diary in Mexico in 1867, including the Last Days of the Emperor Maximilian; with Leaves from...
Price: $550
New York: [1918]. First English language edition, translated from the German edition issued in 1905, by Margaret and Erich Zimmerman. Privately printed in an edition of only fifty copies. Graff's Copy -- One of 50 Copies Printed. "Scharmann started his overland odyssey on March 20, 1849, from New York as..... Read More about Scharmann's Overland Journey to California from the Pages of a Pioneer's Diary
Price: $900
January-December 1858. This diary was kept by Lt. Co. James Burnie, an East India Army Officer who served in the Mooltani Horse during the Sepoy Mutiny. It follows his movements throughout the Indian countryside as he and his column track down and face the mutineers. His troops march through Patiala..... Read More about Original manuscript diary documenting the service of a British officer during the latter stages...
Price: $6,000
New York: William Morrow, 1954. First American edition. The engaging memoir of aviation engineer and author Nevil Shute, up to the year 1938. Read More about Slide Rule. The Autobiography of an Engineer
Price: $250
London: printed: and sold by J. Baker, at the Black-Boy in Pater-Noster-Row, 1714. Robert Louis Stevenson's Copy. An interesting history, made especially so by an appendix which gives the names of those who are identified only by initials in the text A SUPERB ASSOCIATION COPY. Read More about Memoirs Concerning the Affairs of Scotland, from Queen Anne's Accession to the Throne to the...
Price: $2,500
Washington: 1876. First edition. In the Yellowstone: "Such fishing I have never had before" One of the earliest descriptions of Yellowstone, being the account of a hunting expedition to the north-western territories undertaken by the author and six officers (plus a contingent of enlisted men) including US Secretary of War..... Read More about A Trip to the Yellowstone National Park in July, August and September, 1875. From the Journal of...
Price: $22,500
London: Bradbury & Evans, 1856. First separate edition. Also published as part of the second volume of the “Miscellanies, Prose and Verse”. Read More about The Memoirs of Mr. Charles J. Yellowplush, and the Diary of C. Jeames de la Pluche, Esq
Price: $250
London: HarperCollins, 1996. First edition. Signed by the Author. Signed on the title page. Read More about The Danakil Diary. Journeys through Abyssinia, 1930-34
Price: $500
London: Hurst and Blackett, 1854. First edition. Read More about The Life and Adventures of a Clever Woman. Illustrated with Occasional Extracts from Her Diary ...
Price: $300
New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, [1952]. First edition. Inscribed beneath the frontispiece portrait, "To Ellen Baker, with best wishes, Harry Truman. March 29, 1952." Also signed by Bess Truman beneath her photograph (facing p. 128). Read More about Mr. President. The First Publication from the Personal Diaries, Private Letters, papers and...
Price: $1,250
Philadelphia: E.L. Carey & A. Hart, Chesnut Street. Baltimore: Carey, Hart & Co, 1834. First American edition. Source for Poe’s Dupin. Vidocq (1775-1857), first a convicted criminal and then “the principal and most active agent of the police”, was head of the Paris Sureté from 1810 to 1827. He wrote..... Read More about Memoirs of Vidocq, Principal Agent of the French Police until 1827. Written by Himself....
Price: $1,750
London: Bemrose and Son, 1870. First Edition. Read More about The Public Life of W. F. Wallett. The Queen's Jester: An Autobiography ; Or Forty Years'...
Price: $450
[London: ca. 1875]. Fair copy manuscript of the 1875 abridged edition of the memoirs of the German missionary John James Weitbrecht (1802-1852), founder of a mission in Bengal. His memoirs were first published in London in 1854. Read More about Memoir of the Rev. John James Weitbrecht, of the Church Missionary Society
Price: $500
[Santa Rosa, CA: Published by the Authors (Printed by Kwik Kopy Printing), 1984]. First edition. "The pioneer missionaries of Syen Chyun, Korea, Dr. & Mrs. Alfred Sharrocks, of San Francisco, California, and Rev. Norman Whittemore, of Rye, New York, had just opened the Mission station two and one half years..... Read More about Letters of Dr. Alfred M. Sharrocks and Diaries of Mrs. Mary Ames Sharrocks. [Cover title:] In...
Price: $100
Battle [England]: Printed by Ticehurst and Co, 1889. First edition. Thomas Alnutt Brassey, 2nd Earl (1863-1919) was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. Brassey was an honorary Lieutenant in the London Brigade of Royal Naval Artillery Volunteers from 1888 to 1892. He acted as Assistant Private Secretary to Earl..... Read More about Diary of a Hunting Trip, 1888
Price: $12,500
London: Letts and Son, 1868. "In 1867, Royal Navy lieutenant E. D. Young trekked to Africa to find the great missionary-explorer David Livingstone who was reported to be lost while searching for the origins of the Nile. Henry Faulkner joined the expedition primarily to hunt. His efforts collecting elephant, buffalo..... Read More about The Search for Doctor Livingstone [ a Diary Kept during the Investigation of his Reported Murder
Price: $750
