Sep 17, 2015 - Sale 2391

Sale 2391 - Lot 111

Price Realized: $ 7,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
(CIVIL WAR--MASSACHUSETTS.) The Club Room Gazette, an illustrated manuscript magazine from the first months of the war. 834 manuscript pages, including approximately 40 pen and ink illustrations. 4to, original 1/2 calf, worn, rejointed; lacking front free endpaper, minor edge wear; uncut. Boston, MA, January to December 1861 complete
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

The manuscript magazine was a nineteenth-century phenomenon. This one was produced by the Literary Committee of the Everett Literary Association. Members contributed hand-written pieces (mostly humor, travel accounts, poetry) which were bound with illustrations and official society reports. Rather than having them published, they were left at the Society's reading room for the amusement of the members. These twelve issues are an unusually attractive and complete example of the genre. Many of the articles and illustrations were by John S. Bugbee (1840-1896), who later became a lawyer in Alaska and was the co-author of the first volume of poems published in Alaska. Another regular contributor was future congressman William H.H. Stowell (1840-1922).
These issues make frequent reference to the Civil War. The April 1861 issue begins with an apology for producing "anything literary in such warlike times . . . when ten or twelve of our most efficient & constant members have been taken from us, to defend our country's honor." In the same issue is an illustrated poem, "To William W. Carruth, the First Volunteer from the Everett Literary Association to Fight in the Defence of his Country." Other highlights include a satirical account of "The 4th Battalion of Infantry" by "Kapt. Ezekiel Homspun"; an illustration of the "Independent Cadets Escorting the Remains of the Mass. Volunteers to the Lowell Depot"; a comical illustration of a Confederate regiment titled "The Flower of Alabama"; and more serious articles titled "The Fourth Battalion of Infantry and Fort Independence" and "A Visit to the Twenty-Fourth Regiment at Readville, Mass." These articles and illustrations were apparently all unpublished, making this not just a charming and poignant relic, but also a significant primary source on the war.