Building Endowment for Acquisitions.

FAIN: CH-20626-00

American Antiquarian Society (Worcester, MA 01609-1634)
Nancy Burkett (Project Director: May 1999 to October 2003)

Endowment for the acquisition of books, manuscripts, pamphlets, and other items for the society's collections.

Associated Products

The Queen of the Night. A story of love, crime and intrigue in wicked New York. [New York]: Richmond and Co., [1871] (Richmond’s novels, new series, no. 18) (Acquisitions/Materials Collection)
Name: The Queen of the Night. A story of love, crime and intrigue in wicked New York. [New York]: Richmond and Co., [1871] (Richmond’s novels, new series, no. 18)
Abstract: This is one of several very rare titles from the “Richmond’s novels” series that AAS recently acquired. Apparently unrecorded, The Queen of the Night is rather archly credited to “the author of ‘One thousand popular tales’”—a reference to a book title, or to one of the ultra-prolific dime novel writers of the time? The Queen of the Night reveals for us the highs and lows of life in “wicked New York.” It begins at Sing-Sing, where remorseful convict Whiskie is breaking rocks, only to encounter his former partner in crime, the manipulative, cold-blooded gang leader Slippery Blacksmith. Whiskie resists Slippery’s unrefusable offer, only to die—or so Slippery thinks, before he breaks out of Sing-Sing. Months later, a freed Whiskie has reinvented himself as “Hugh Mortimer,” a gentleman in pursuit of Gretchen, a wealthy young resident of fashionable Fifth Avenue. But the “Queen of the Night,” who shines in the most select social circles as easily as she dominates the New York underworld, conspires with Slippery to turn Whiskie’s designs to their own advantage. Many lurid plot twists later, Whiskie casts his nemeses into a watery grave and marries the still-undefiled Gretchen. Purchased from Peter Luke. NEH Challenge Fund. ~ David Whitesell
Year: 2012

Waterbury, Jared Bell, 1799-1876. The soldier from home. New York: American Tract Society, [1861-1865] (Acquisitions/Materials Collection)
Name: Waterbury, Jared Bell, 1799-1876. The soldier from home. New York: American Tract Society, [1861-1865]
Abstract: One of two recently acquired pocket-format Civil War-era works authored by Waterbury. Having previously written a number of American Tract Society pamphlets, Waterbury turned his attention during the Civil War to works for soldiers and their loved ones back home. The soldier from home offers a fascinating contemporary perspective on the topic of postal communication with soldiers—all the more important today because of the mass of surviving correspondence and the numerous edited compilations being published during this sesquicentennial period. Waterbury first outlines the mundane details of camp life and the routines of sending and receiving mail, thus enabling those at home to visualize more clearly the importance of letters in soldiers’ daily lives. He then offers pointers on what to write, the effect that letters have on their recipients, dealing with the uncertainty caused by lost letters, preparing for receipt of the dreaded letter addressed in an unknown hand and bearing a black seal, and the solace to be derived from reading what one now knows to be “the last letter.” Purchased from Steve Finer. NEH Challenge Fund. ~ David Whitesell
Year: 2011

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