RARE BENNINGTON VERMONT BOOK ANTHONY HASWELL JOHN SPARGO HALL PARK McCULLOUGH

Description: ANTHONY HASWELLPrinter, Patriot, Ballader: A Biographical Study with a Selection of his Ballads and an Annotated Bibliographical List of his Imprints.By JOHN SPARGO#18/300Signed Association CopyHALL PARK McCULLOUGH This stately one-of-a-kind volume has many fine and intriguing Vermont layers, bursting with history and attention to details. Anthony Haswell was one of the earliest printers in the state, he worked closely with Isaiah Thomas in Massachusetts during and after the Revolutionary War before coming to Vermont, printing press in hand. Supposedly, Haswell then dug up type that had been buried in the Albany region during the French & Indian War to get his Vermont press up and running (money was always a problem). He printed many historic books and pamphlets in his Bennington office. Haswell’s life was not an easy one, he was arrested and imprisoned due to the Sedition Act of 1798; the Haswell Case as it has become known is still frequently cited, including by the Supreme Court, on matters of freedom of the press. John Spargo (1876 - 1966), the author of this large (weighty in all senses) comprehensive volume, also came to Bennington from England, like Haswell. He was a stonemason turned political organizer and writer who was invited to America to speak about socialism. He ended up staying and years later with his health in mind, he ended up moving to Bennington where by 1920 he began turning away from socialism and Marxism and towards the likes of Calvin Coolidge. Spargo also became the director of the Vermont Historical Museum in Bennington where he ended up writing and publishing many items large and small on Vermont ceramics (Bennington Potters famously) and many aspects of the state’s history. This book was owned by Hall Park McCullough (1872-1966, quite the overlap with Spargo) whose gorgeous bookplate graces this volume (and places Vermont’s motto of Freedom & Unity into the book) along with many curious addendums. McCullough was a Bennington (& NYC - Davis, Polk) lawyer greatly interested in detail, in getting things right, as the many wonderful slips of papers and letters to Spargo, all laid-in here, make abundantly clear. The book is Talmudic with the minute complex commentary on the bibliography, and all the layered additions. McCullough was a founder and trustee of Bennington College as well as trustee of Middlebury College and generally had his hand in many other aspects of Bennington - and Vermont - cultural life. And his Vermont roots were strong, heady even - his father and his great-grandfather were both governors of Vermont. McCullough was the sixth generation to live in his famed house in Bennington which is now a historic home open to the public. The leather on the binding is worn especially at spine tips, one leaf within has a bit of damage at top, in the margin, else the pages are clean and bright. A wonderful historic Vermont volume. Please see the many photos. ******We ship swiftly and with safety in mind.Thank you.❧

Price: 775 USD

Location: Jamaica, Vermont

End Time: 2025-01-14T18:32:48.000Z

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