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Jacob Riis

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:4,000.00 - 5,000.00 USD
Jacob Riis

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Auction Date:2014 Nov 12 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Danish-American writer, photographer, and activist (1849–1914) best known for his work in exposing and improving the squalid conditions endured by the poor in New York City. Lengthy AMS signed at both the top and conclusion, “Jacob A. Riis,” 38 pages, 8.5 x 11, no date but circa 1898. Riis’s copiously hand-corrected and revised draft for an article published under the title ‘Heroes Who Fight Fire,’ describing the New York Fire Department. In part: "Thirteen years have passed since, but it is all to me as if it had happened yesterday: the clanging of the fire-bells, the hoarse shouts of the firemen, the wild rush and terror of the streets. Then the great hush that fell upon the crowd; the sea of upturned faces with the fire-glow upon it, and up there against the background of black smoke that poured from roof and attic, the boy clinging to the narrow ledge, so far up that it seemed humanly impossible that help could ever come. But even then it was coming. Up from the street, while the crew of the truck company were laboring with the heavy extension-ladder that at its longest stretch was many feet too short, crept four men upon long, slender poles with cross-bars, iron-hooked at the end…Straight up the wall they crept, looking like human flies on the ceiling, and clinging as close, never resting, reaching one recess only to set out for the next; nearer and nearer in the race for life, until but a single span separated the foremost from the boy. And now the iron hook fell at his feet, and the fireman stood upon the step with the rescued lad in his arms, just as the pent-up flame burst lurid from the attic window, reaching with impotent fury for its prey. The next moment they were safe upon the great ladder waiting to receive them below…Take it all in all, there is not, I think, to be found anywhere a body of men as fearless, as brave, and as efficient as the Fire Brigade of New York.” In overall very good to fine condition, with various edge chips and tears, light soiling, and several repaired tears to the final page. This vivid portrayal of New York’s firemen was first published in Century Magazine in February 1898, and later appeared as a chapter in his 1903 book Children of Tenements.