61 BAUMAN RARE BOOKS “Sojourner Truth Strides Through American History Larger Than Life” 68TRUTH, Sojourner. Carte-de-visite photograph. Washington, D.C. 1864. Vintage albumen print mounted on card stock, measuring 2-1/2 by 4 inches with printed caption. $12,500 Rare vintage 1864 carte-de-visite photographic portrait of Sojourner Truth, her favorite and most famous portrait. This rare CDV contains the image that she later chose for the engraving on the title page and cover of the 1875 edition of her Narrative (1850). What sets this iconic portrait apart from others “is Truth’s calm facial expression… we might say self-possession… In this most famous portrait, her head is slightly tilted, but her gaze is level and straightforward, her mouth is unsmiling but not stern.” As in all her “captioned portraits made immediately after the filing of the copyright in 1864… Truth offers herself as a model for an emancipated, prosperous African American future, a model worthy of emulation” (Grigsby, 7388).With this portrait, as in so many aspects of her legacy, “Sojourner Truth strides through American history larger than life” (New York Times). Image clear and defined, a fine photographic portrait of one of America’s most inspiring and influential women. “I Would Have The Constitution Torn To Shreds And Scattered To The Four Winds Of Heaven” 67BROWN, William Wells. Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave. Written by Himself. Boston, 1847. Octavo, original gilt-stamped brown cloth rebacked, custom box. $11,000 First edition of the powerful first autobiography by William Wells Brown, with engraved frontispiece portrait, an especially rare copy in original cloth boards. Brown escaped slavery in 1834 and eventually came to work with the Underground Railroad. Writing of his role there, he notes: “In the year 1842, I conveyed, from the first of May to the first of December 69 fugitives over Lake Erie to Canada.” In his first major speech, Brown declared: “I would have the Constitution torn to shreds and scattered to the four winds of heaven.” Soon after publication of his Narrative, issued while still a fugitive, Brown spent five years in exile. Text expertly cleaned; frontis with marginal expert paper repair, not affecting image or printing; faint remnant of institutional stamp to title page and one leaf (47); very light soiling and dampstaining to original endpapers; original cloth expertly restored and rebacked with a portion of original spine laid down.
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