THE AUTOGRAPH COLLECTION OF ISRAEL WITKOWER. Over 320 pages of tipped-in, mounted and loose auto...

THE AUTOGRAPH COLLECTION OF ISRAEL WITKOWER. Over 320 pages of tipped-in, mounted and loose autographs including Thomas Jefferson (2), Samuel Clemens (3), a Samuel Smith fair copy of 'America' ('My Country Tis of Thee'), Josiah Bartlett, Samuel Huntington, Brigham Young, Asa Gray, Henry W. Longfellow, Joaquin Miller, P.T. Barnum (2), Woodrow Wilson, and many more, all various sizes, formats, including letters, clipped signatures, documents, etc, mostly tipped in and housed in 2 hardcover blank books (260 x 200 mm), covers detached, lacking spines, Belknap & Warfield booksellers' ticket to rear endpapers, mounted autograph of Martin Van Buren to front pastedown of volume 1, manuscript contents leaf inserted into volume 1, final 6 pp of volume one devoted to contemporary mounted articles on collecting autographs, with additional printed material laid-in. Israel Witkower (1889-1968) was a prominent and beloved Hartford, CT, bookseller, beginning as a clerk at Belknap & Warfield's Asylum Street bookstore upon graduating from the Brown School in 1903 at the age of 13. In 1920, he became a partner, before taking over the store in 1929 upon the death of George Warfield. Belknap & Warfield had begun in 1835 as Packard & Brown and throughout its Hartford tenure was a gathering place for authors and actors including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Samuel Clemens, Cornelia Otis Skinner and others. Many of the letters and autographs are addressed to Mr. Brown (of Packard and Brown), Mr. Leverett Belknap, and other booksellers, many concerning the history of publishing. A clue to the origins of the collection can be found in an article tipped to the final blank of volume 1, 'Autograph Treasures Collected by Leverett Belknap of this City' (Hartford Times, Nov. 29, 1892). The article mentions many of the autographs contained here, including Elihu Burritt, James T. Field, E.P. Roe, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Samuel Clemens. Witkower continued to build upon this fantastic collection which now boasts many signers of the Declaration of Independence, prominent authors, prominent 19th-century female authors, and a number of American presidents and important historical figures, as well as a wide selection of Connecticut politicians and governors of the 19th-century. A selection of the autographs: Signers, American Presidents, and historical figures: Thomas Jefferson (twice), James Madison, Henry Dearborn, Josiah Bartlett, Francis Hopkinson, Abra Clark, Robert Morris, Thomas Meriwether, Benjamin Harrison, Samuel Huntington, Thomas McKean, James Trimble, George Clymer, William Williams, John Johnson, Millard Fillmore (twice), Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, Jefferson Davis, Henry George (economist), et al. 19th-century woman writers and activists: Sarah Orne Jewett, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Celia Thaxter, Louisa May Alcott, Adeline Whitney, Rose Hartwick Thorpe, Mary E. Wilkins, Laura Bridgman, Kate Sanborn, Beatrice Harriden, et al. Authors and Historians: Samuel Clemens (three letters and notes), Samuel Francis Smith's fair copy of America), Longfellow, Joaquin Miller, Anthony Hope Hawkins, James Lane Allen, William Dean Howells, Richard Henry Dana, Thomas Higginson, Jared Sparks, Goerge Bancroft, Benson Lossing, Francis Parkman, et al. This is a fantastic collection of autographs assembled over multiple generations beginning in the 19th-century, creating a wonderful testament to the art of collecting, booksellers, writers and publishers in late 19th and early 20th-century American letters. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing