Unknown Author Possibly (2 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. 1stedn; Early printing. 8vo Red cloth spine over blue illustrated paper-covered boards. PO owner's neat bookplate on the front pastedown. Paper somewhat age-toned. Slight darkening, soiling and chipping\/rubbing to paper covers and edges ow VG\/ndj: 50, [2] pp. frontis and B\/w illustrations throughout.). Wright III, No. 5583. First edition? only 3 copies listed on OCLC as of March 2023. \"The Mott Street Poker Club\" is a fictional account revealing the underground card and gambling scene in New York's Chinatown. Utilizes common anti-Asian stereotypes and sentiments from the time, including frequent use of a phoneticized \"Chinese accent\". The anonymous author, Alfred Trumble (dates unknown, possibly pseudonym?), wrote several books on eclectic subjects ranging from New York's underground card scene to the Crusades (with illustrations by Gustave Dor\u00E9), Dickens' interest in jails, Parisian night life, and \"The Mysteries of Mormonism\". He is an odd and shadowy character begging for further research by scholars." /Association: Thomas Edward McDonald was born in 1879, in Ireland. He had at least 1 son and 2 daughters with Elizabeth Grace Monds. He lived in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States in 1920. He died in 1935, at the age of 56, and was buried in Mountain View Cemetery, Longmont, Boulder, Colorado, United States.

First edition. Small 4to. Original flexible printed wrappers, cracks to spine. Overall still a very good copy. 22, 16pp. Yokohama, Z P Maruya, no date [but ca.  A very frank and knowledgeable assessment of prostitution in Japan at the end of the 19th century.   The author describes the different classes of women from 'Jigoku' to 'Shogi' and 'Geisha', as well as the rules, regulations and proscriptions and the changes in legislation from the 18th to the 19th century. This is followed by a translation of a contract against the 'loan' of ¥400 for the sale of a girl into a brothel as well a the 40 articles and other laws governing the running of a brothel. "The one redeeming trait of the Japanese courtesan is that she never appears to fall to the low and vicious level of the Western prostitute, and her position is such that she is likened by an Eastern allegorical expression to 'The Lotus in the mud' - in the mire truly, but not besmirched by it and she is cheered by the old hypocrites around her." (p. 18).   The second part of the booklet quotes extensively other Western observers on the subject incl. Mitford, Rein, Norman, and even Engelbert Kaempfer. This title was published between 1885 and 1904 in various configurations. Our copy is stamped on the front cover "Z. P. Maruya, Yokohama", the same company who published The Nightless City by Joseph de Becker in 1899. It also includes the text of an 'Agreement' which is largely identical with the one mentioned above and may support the assumption that it was written by him. Uncommon in the trade. .