first edition
1920 · San Francisco
by Howell, John; Hubert Howe Bancroft writing anonymously; C.V.S. Gibbs, John I. Spear and others of the Society of California Pioneers; & uncredited authors
San Francisco: John Howell Books / The Argonaut / A.L. Bancroft & Company / The Society of California Pioneers, 1920. Praise and damnation of HHB. Respectively: an undated 2p. flimsy over Howell's typed signature, folded once, 2nd or 3rd carbon, good copy. - An offprint, 26p. pamphlet, sewn with original thread vg in plain printed 8.5x5.5 inch wraps, vertical fold-line, good copy. - A 12p. pamphlet sewn with orig.thread in wraps, 8.5x5.5, dust-soiled with a long split to spinefold and faint vertical crease, fair to good-only copy. - A 37p. stapled pamphlet in 9x6 wraps printed with Society logo, has a vertical crease, one staple nearly detached, good only. This related group of four as a small lot. Howell's is a measured overview, his is a bookseller's concern with first-edition points and textual alteration: "There is a story behind each such textual change. That of the Stanford incident..was clearly a matter of flattery. The incident in respect to the remarks about David S. Terry was of another character. In that case the first printing tells the real story, while political pressure - or possibly the threat of violence - is responsible for the [later] variant reading.." Mr Howell continues: "There follows a list of all variant readings..which have thus far been called to my attention" (a compressed list follows on second flimsy). The other negative view of Bancroft is an attack, the Society's: "Resolved, That the name of Hubert Howe Bancroft be stricken from the list of Honorary Members"; sustaining points mostly concern California, but Bancroft's alleged "apparently malignant and certainly cruel and unjust, attack upon the name and memory of General Grant" is indignantly noted.
(Inventory #: 242572)