Current Publications
The Library of Benjamin Franklin

Memoirs: Volume 257

Edwin Wolf 2nd and
Cloth

$100.00

0-87169-257-0
978-0-87169-257-3
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(Joint publication with the American Philosophical Society and The Library Company of Philadelphia)

Beginning in the late 1950s, Edwin Wolf 2nd embarked on a bibliographic odyssey to reconstruct the "lost" library of Benjamin Franklin. Franklin's library, the largest and best private library at the time of his death in 1790, was sold by his grandson in the late eighteenth century to Robert Morris Jr., who subsequently sold it in the early nineteenth century. None of the catalogues of the collection survive, and the contents of the library were virtually unknown until 1956, when Wolf discovered the unique shelfmarks Franklin used to identify his books. Wolf's work to reconstruct a catalogue of the library continued for the next thirty years but was unfinished at the time of his death. As the tercentenary of Franklin's birth approached, Kevin J. Hayes took up the work and has continued to discover titles that were part of the library. Everything found to date, close to 4,000 entries, has been compiled here.
Patriot-Improvers: Biographical Sketches of Members of the American Philosophical Society, Volume Three (1767-1768)

Memoirs: volume 228

Whitfield J. Bell, Charles B. Greifenstein
Case. 696 pp. (24 front matter; 672 text)

$60.00

978-0-87169-228-3
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The long-anticipated third volume of Patriot-Improvers brings to an end the important work of Dr. Whit Bell, who started in 1997 to put together “biographical sketches of members of the American Philosophical Society elected between 1743, when Franklin proposed it, and 1769, when it was established on its present foundation by the union of several earlier institutions” (Patriot-Improvers, Volume One, p. xiii). Work on this third volume was completed by APS Librarian Charles Greifenstein after the death of Dr. Bell in early 2009. The three-volume set is a worthy testament to a much loved member of the APS and a handsome addition to bookshelves.
 
Patriot-Improvers, Volume One (Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, volume 226, 1997) -- $40
Patriot-Improvers, Volume Two (Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, volume 227, 1999) -- $40
Patriot-Improvers, Volume Three (Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, volume 228, 2009) -- $60
Patriot-Improvers, three-volume set (Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, volumes 226, 227, and 228) -- $125 
 
The Life of C. S. Rafinesque, A Man of Uncommon Zeal

Lightning Rod Press: Volume 7

Charles Boewe
Paper, 498 pp. (18 front matter; 480 text)

$50.00

978-1-60618-922-1
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Charles Boewe’s study of Constantine Samuel Rafinesque (1783-1840) began more than 50 years ago. It was materially advanced by Boewe’s ability to explore archival resources in both Philadelphia and Lexington during his own extended residence in those cities where Rafinesque himself lived. Later, when based in South Asia, Boewe’s travels to and from the United States enabled him to seek out Rafinesque documents in European repositories. The result of these efforts was the discovery of hundreds of pages of fresh documentation in eight countries, written in four languages. All of this material, along with letters from the hitherto unknown Rafinesque family archives in Paris, is the foundation of this narration of the life of an early 19th-century naturalist and philologist. Included in the book is a CD, “The Correspondence of C. S. Rafinesque.”

Charles Boewe is an independent scholar who has written several books on Rafinesque, including A C. S. Rafinesque Anthology (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland Press, 2003), and Profiles of Rafinesque (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2003).

Climate Crises in Human History

Lightning Rod Press: Volume 6

Edited by
A. Bruce Mainwaring
Robert Giegengack
Claudio Vita-Finzi
Paper. 224 pp. (8 front matter; 216 text)

$35.00

978-1-60618-921-4
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Climate Crises in Human History considers the response of selected cultures to climate events that have been documented from the archaeological and geological records. It includes articles by participants in a 2008 conference at the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology as well as other prominent scholars. The essays, which range over the Americas, Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Near East, and over several millenia, may serve as a corrective to dogmatic claims about the future of climate and of mankind, and as a spur to the dispassionate study of both.
 
 
This is a very timely collection that will advance understanding among scientists and humanists, of climatic impacts on past (and perhaps future) societies. The selection of topics and contributors achieve wide coverage of what is a very broad subject by mixing substantive regional and temporal case histories.
David R. Harris, FBA
Emeritus Professor of Human Environment
Institute of Archaeology, University College London
Darwin's Disciple: George John Romanes, A Life in Letters

Lightning Rod Press: Volume 5

Joel S. Schwartz
Paper. 798 pp. (24 front matter; 774 text)

$60.00

978-1-60618-920-7
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Darwin's Disciple is a careful biographical study of the life and letters of George John Romanes (1848-1894), who was a strong advocate for Darwinian evolution. "Because of his cental role in definding evolution and his close relationship with Darwin during the last decade of Darwin's life, Romanes's life and career deserve a fresh look." This publication by Joel Schwartz is the culmination of more than thirty-five years of work in this history of biology, particularly nineteenth-century natural history and the role played by prominent early evolutionists in shaping the debates in evolutionary biology. 

“TO DO JUSTICE TO HIM & MYSELF”: Evert Wendell’s Account Book of the Fur Trade with Indians in Albany, New York, 1695–1726

Lightning Rod Press: Volume 4

Edited and Translated by Kees-Jan Waterman
14 pages front matter; 311 text (with accompanying CD of original Dutch text)

$50.00

978-1-60618-912-2
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This translated Dutch account book of the fur trade with Indians yields essential data for understanding the workings of the intercultural fur trade in colonial North America. It contains accounts of hundreds of Indians, many listed with their own names, who purchased merchandise on credit from Evert Wendell (1681–1750) and his relatives in Albany, New York. The introduction describes the context in which the manuscript was created and analyzes aggregated data on a range of characteristics of these commercial exchanges.
Volume 3 – Narratives of Chindali Life and Culture

Lightning Rod Press: Volume 3

Compiled and analyzed by Robert Botne,
8 pages front matter; 323 text

$40.00

978-1-60618-911-5
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Chindali is a Bantu language of eastern Africa, spoken in the southwest Mbeya region of Tanzania and in the northern Chitipa District of Malawi. The dictionary is the result of research on the Malawian end of the Chindali spectrum. It provides, in most cases, more than a cursory translation equivalent of the Chindali lexical item. This three-volume series offers the Chindali dictionary, a grammatical sketch of the language, and narratives of the life and culture of the Ndali people.

THE CHINDALI LANGUAGE OF MALAWI – 3 volumes - $100.00 for set
Volume 2 – A Grammatical Sketch of Chindali, Malawian Variety

Lightning Rod Press: Volume 2

Robert Botne
14 pages front matter; 201 text

$35.00

978-1-60618-910-8
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Chindali is a Bantu language of eastern Africa, spoken in the southwest Mbeya region of Tanzania and in the northern Chitipa District of Malawi. The dictionary is the result of research on the Malawian end of the Chindali spectrum. It provides, in most cases, more than a cursory translation equivalent of the Chindali lexical item. This three-volume series offers the Chindali dictionary, a grammatical sketch of the language, and narratives of the life and culture of the Ndali people.

THE CHINDALI LANGUAGE OF MALAWI – 3 volumes - $100.00 for set
Volume 1 – A Chindali and English Dictionary, with an Index to Proto-Bantu Roots

Lightning Rod Press: Volume 1

Robert Botne,
24 pages front matter; 485 text

$45.00

978-1-60618-909-2
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Chindali is a Bantu language of eastern Africa, spoken in the southwest Mbeya region of Tanzania and in the northern Chitipa District of Malawi. The dictionary is the result of research on the Malawian end of the Chindali spectrum. It provides, in most cases, more than a cursory translation equivalent of the Chindali lexical item. This three-volume series offers the Chindali dictionary, a grammatical sketch of the language, and narratives of the life and culture of the Ndali people.

THE CHINDALI LANGUAGE OF MALAWI – 3 volumes - $100.00 for set