Reference Works on Americana
A curated list of price guides, bibliographies, and collectors' guides relating to American books and imprints. Most of these titles are out of print — search ABEBooks or Biblio for used copies. Prices listed in older guides will be outdated, but the bibliographic information remains useful.
Adams, Ramon F. — The Adams One-Fifty: A Check-list of the 150 Most Important Books on Western Outlaws and Lawmen
1976. Jenkins Publishing Co., Austin.
Adams, Ramon F. — The Rampaging Herd: A Bibliography of Books and Pamphlets on Men and Events in the Cattle Industry
Adams, Ramon F. — More Burs Under the Saddle: Books and Histories of the West
1989. University of Oklahoma Press.
Adams, Ramon F. — Burs Under the Saddle: A Second Look at Books and Histories of the West
1989. University of Oklahoma Press.
Adams, Ramon F. — Six-Guns and Saddle Leather: A Bibliography of Books and Pamphlets on Western Outlaws and Gunmen
1998. Dover Publications.
Blanck, Jacob (volumes 8 & 9 by Michael Winship) — Bibliography of American Literature
Generally known as BAL, and widely referenced by both booksellers and collectors. Nine volumes total. If you sell or collect American literature, this is an invaluable set.
Broadfoot, Tom and Nichols, Julia — Civil War Books: A Priced Checklist with Advice
1996. Broadfoot Publishing.
Bruccoli, Matthew J., Clark, C.E. Frazer Jr., Layman, Richard, and Franklin, Benjamin V. (editors) — First Printings of American Authors: Contributions Toward Descriptive Checklists
1977–89. Detroit. Gale Research. Five volumes.
Everitt, Charles P. — Adventures of a Treasure Hunter: A Rare Bookman in Search of American History
1987. Meyerbooks. Originally published 1951.
An entertaining book, mostly consisting of anecdotes about the author's many years of buying and selling rare Americana. The books he refers to are even rarer now.
George, Mark A. — Price Guide of World War I and World War II Books and Manuals
19,000 price entries on more than 13,000 books.
Hand, Richard A. — A Bookman's Guide to the Indians of the Americas: A Compilation of over 10,000 Catalogue Entries with Prices and Annotations
Howes, Wright — U.S.iana 1650–1950
Johnson, Merle (revised by Jacob Blanck) — American First Editions
Leab, Katharine and Leab, Daniel (editors) — American Book Prices Current
Annual. Bancroft-Parkman.
McCarty, Dennis — Western Americana: A Price Guide to 3,000 Books Relating to the Trans-Mississippi West
1985. Clarendon Hills. The Willow Press. 120 pages.
Morrison, Shelly — Western Americana Catalogue Prices: 18,000 Price Entries for Non-Texas Western Americana
1997. W.M. Morrison Books.
Morrison, Shelly — Texana Catalogue Prices: 12,000 Price Entries on Texana
1996.
Seagrave, Ronald Roy — Civil War Books, Confederate & Union: A Bibliography & Price Guide
1995. Sergeant Kirkland's Museum and Historical Society, Fredericksburg, VA.
Seagrave, Ronald Roy — Civil War Autographs & Manuscripts Prices Current, 1992
Covers every Confederate general confirmed and unconfirmed, and every Union general confirmed during the Civil War, plus cabinet members, naval and enlisted personnel, artists, photographers, and related ephemera.
Shifflet, Lee — A Bookman's Guide to Americana
1991. Scarecrow Press. 524 pages.
Smith, Geoffrey D. — American Fiction, 1901–1925: A Bibliography
1997. Cambridge University Press.
Streeter, Thomas W. — A Bibliography of Texas, 1795–1845
1996. University Press of Virginia. Also: 1960, Cambridge, Harvard University Press.
Whale, G.J. Kim — Hudson's Bay to Haro Strait: Books on Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest: A Collectors' Guide
1998.
The first and only comprehensive description and price guide to approximately 1,800 of the most important and collectible books on Western Canada, the Arctic, and the North Pacific. Covers the fur trade, gold rushes, early voyages and settlement, Indigenous peoples, and more. Thoroughly indexed. Also listed under Reference Works on Canadiana.