John W. Orr. Pictorial Guide to the Falls of Niagara: A Manual for Visiters [sic]

AUCTION 49 | Wednesday, October 27th, 2010 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Hebrew Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters and Graphic Art

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Lot 13

(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

John W. Orr. Pictorial Guide to the Falls of Niagara: A Manual for Visiters [sic]

FIRST EDITION. Three parts in one. Replete with illustrations and maps. Line of (pidgin) Hebrew on final page pp.232. Former owner's stamp on title, foxed, some marginal worming, last leaves torn. Contemporary boards, rubbed. 12mo

Buffalo: Salisbury and Clapp 1842

Est: $1,000 - $1,500

The final chapter (pp. 229-32) of this tourist's guide-book is a merciless lampoon of Mordecai Manuel Noah's scheme to turn Grand Island (near Niagara Falls) into Ararat, a City of Refuge, for the oppressed Jews of the world. "The foreign Priests, and Rabbis of the Jews, could not, and would not...recognize or ratify the self-assumed powers of Mordecai Manuel Noah, Rabbi Ben Rabbi Ben Humbug, and the whole scheme, the city, the synagogue, and the offices of Governor and Judge vanished into thin air. Here endeth the history of Mordecai the Jew" (p. 232)