Walter Martin Hill from Chicago regularly issued catalogues of books for sale. In his eleventh catalogue from December 1903, he assured the readers that he made yearly journeys to Great Britain and France to buy new stock, and that he attended in person 'the important auction sales of books in New York, Philadelphia and Boston' [see for a digitised series of catalogues the copy in the University of Michigan Libraries]. Hill (1868-1952) was born in Bristol and moved to the United States when he was seventeen, working for antiquarian firms in New York, Boston and Chicago before starting his own business in 1899.
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| Catalogue of Miscellaneous Books (No. 3, April 1900) |
He bought and sold all kinds of works, including erotica, and offered whatever was in demand on the market. The third catalogue from April 1900, for example, was entitled: Catalogue of Miscellaneous Books. Including Kelmscott and Vale Press Publications, First Editions of Standard Authors, Books Illustrated by George Cruikshank, Etc.
Wallace Rice (1859-1939) wrote an introduction for the eleventh catalogue - Rice was a prolific writer and journalist in Chicago. Among other things, in the Catalogue of Rare Books (December 1903) he wrote:
Growing wealth in America has its finest manifestations in the increasing demands for books especially for the best books. Americans are not only in love with education and the cultivation and culture which are its flower, not only is the national existence staked upon the value and worth of these things, but books as containing all that is best and finest in human knowledge and wisdom have been their devoted care from the beginning. Such a love implanted in the heart of the people of the United States at the moment of their birth needs nothing but opportunity to burst into bloom and this is afforded by the wealth of its population. Already Europe is complaining that the American is carrying away the finest specimens of its literature and the charge is wholly just.
He asserted:
Last of these modern and modified Argonauts is my friend, Walter M Hill, whose summer in England has enabled him to consign to Chicago the most precious merchandise that has ever entered its prosperous port.
Nevertheless, it appears that not every book in this catalogue was new stock. J.A. Symonds's In the Key of Blue and Other Prose Essays, had appeared with exactly the same description and price in two earlier catalogues. The same goes for a large-paper copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891). On the other hand a selection of nine Vale Press books, listed in catalogue 3 from April 1900 had apparently been sold, as the eleventh catalogue did not mention any Vale Press items (there were however newly acquired Doves Press and Kelmscott Press titles, including vellum copies).
One of the more unusual items he sold around that time was a book from Charles Shannon's collection. It was listed in Catalogue of Choice and Rare Books… (Number 16, December 1905): a dedication copy of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband (1899): 'Only 100 copies printed on large paper, each with the author’s full autograph signature. This copy derives a much greater interest from having on reverse of the half-title the following inscription, in Mr. Wilde’s autograph: "To Charles Shannon: In sincere admiration: in affection: from the author. Oscar Wilde". The price was $50.00. This copy was later owned by John B. Stetson (sold in 1920) and re-emerged on the market in June 1996 when it was sold by Phillips in London. The copy therefore remained in Shannon's possession for less than six years, and one might wonder why he sold this book. Perhaps it was in connection with the move of Ricketts and Shannon to Lansdowne House in 1902?