Item #3866 Shea's Library of American Linguistics [caption title]. Native American Linguistics.

Shea's Library of American Linguistics [caption title]

[New York: ca. 1862-1865]. 3pp., on a single folded sheet. Old soft vertical crease, slight discoloration along spine fold, tiny chip at bottom of spine fold. Very good. Item #3866

A rare prospectus detailing the publications offered by John G. Shea as part of his Shea's Library of American Linguistics (a more accurate description would be Shea's Library of Native American Linguistics). The work begins with text describing the background of the effort to preserve the "languages of the aboriginal tribes of America." The most striking portion of the text is the third paragraph: "The language of a tribe is its most important relic. The mechanical arts were rude, and the remains so scanty, that mound and bone pit, and deserted village, have given us scarce a clue to the history of the peoples to whom they belonged. But language is the great key to the affinities of the tribes, and often enables us to trace their migrations, and in all cases to determine their kindred." Shea believes it is a matter of "national honor" to "put in a permanent form every work [of Native American dialect] now in manuscript." Following this introductory text are two lists of publications containing a total of sixteen dictionaries, vocabularies, and grammars: "Now Ready," comprised of six works now available for purchase between $1.50 and $4, including works on the Onondaga, Flat Head, Yakama, and other languages; and "In Immediate Preparation," containing ten works to be published shortly on a variety of Native American languages. An additional dictionary on the Chinook language is added in pencil here, as are the prices for several books in the second list. The prospectus is signed in type by John Shea just above a listing of agents from whom copies of the Shea Library may be bought in London, Paris, and Leipzig.

Price: $750.00