[Bundling]: Stiles, Henry R.:

$275 · Offered by William Reese Company

BUNDLING; ITS ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND DECLINE IN AMERICA. The uncommon first edition of this well-known monograph on the topic's practice in New England and precedents in the rest of the world. It was reprinted in 1871 - the edition which is frequently incorrectly cited as the first edition - and many times thereafter well into the later part of the 20th century. Laid in is a one-page autograph letter, signed, undated at Hill View, New York, from Stiles to a Mr. Clark, thanking him for sending him a transcript of a poem on bundling, noting that "I always keep any such corroborative evidence as to the existence of this old-time custom; and shall place this with the somewhat considerable material which has accrued since the publication of...[this book] tho' it is very doubtful if, in my old age, I shall ever re-publish this work of my younger and friskier days...." Stiles' book was one of the source works for the Langer and Langer play, The Pursuit of Happiness, and the resulting film.

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