(TRAVEL) [David Claypoole Johnston] Outlines Illustrative of the Journal of F A K

Sale 2687 - Lot 223

Unsold

Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500

(TRAVEL.) [David Claypoole Johnston.] Outlines Illustrative of the Journal of F****** A*** K*****. 8 plates with no text leaves. 8vo, original printed wrappers, minor wear and foxing; uncut. Boston: D.C. Johnston, 1835

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The British actress Frances Anne "Fanny" Kemble Butler (1809-1893) spent years touring America starting in 1832, and published her two-volume "Journal of a Residence in America" that same year. It was frank, it was unflattering to America, and it made only half-hearted attempts to disguise the names of several prominent Americans. The book was quite popular in England; in America, not so much.

Here, the American satirical cartoonist David Claypoole Johnston gives Fanny Kemble's Journal a hostile treatment by illustrating eight passages which he deemed especially ludicrous. The first plate illustrates a strange outdoor banquet in the rain at which her father was supposedly given nothing to eat but turtle soup served with iron spoons. In plate 4, he points out that she repeated the same passage about Newfoundland puppies verbatim. In plate 6, he satirizes her boast that one of her performances was well-attended despite having "poured cats & dogs." In Johnston's telling, the theater was full of stray animals and vagrants seeking shelter from the rain.

Only one traced at auction since 2005, the William Reese copy which hammered for $3800 in 2022. The Reese copy was described as having a "title leaf" and 8 plates; the Library of Congress copy has just the printed wrappers and 8 plates, as the present copy does.