Knowledge Nature by Shepard Ralph (1 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Octavo. 116 typewritten pages, illustrated with five full-page photographic illustrations (three in color) with applied typed captions. Carbon typescript in photographically illustrated papercovered boards. Hand-drawn title page with a picture of a key in the title. Undated but we estimate circa 1925. Some modest erosion and splitting to the paper on the spine of the homemade binding, internally near fine. Inscribed on the front pastedown: "For David E. Sweet from Uncle Ralph Shepard, Author and Publisher." Typed note from the author laid in indicating the painstaking methods that he used to create this volume, and noting that the original of the work ". was used for some time in the nature study class of the school he attended in St. Petersburg, Florida." The book is dedicated in type: "The boy for whom it was first written, and to whom it is Dedicated. Albert Spencer of Florida." In the preface the author states that his belief is that nature is founded on the life of Jesus Christ, and notes that in places he has plagiarized from the Bible, Billy Sunday, William Jennings Bryant, John Burroughs, Neltj Blanchan, Charles Darwin, Joyce Kilmer, Gene Stratton Porter, and others. We could find out little about the author, but Albert Spencer of St. Petersburg appears to have been born in 1915. An attempt to explain nature with details and interesting photographic illustrations. Considering the do-it-yourself typing, binding, and illustrations, presumably no more than a handful were created; and possibly unique.