Late 1800s

I'm currently starting on the road of writing a biography of a lady who
was a part of the New York art & literary set from after the Civil War
to the turn of the century. I recently lucked out and found a stack of
books on a Bookdealer's 2 dollar table (parts of a retired Prof library
on 19th century literature- the good stuff he priced at $20.00 a book).
I'm looking for reader copies of autobiographies and biographies of
people that might have known her or wrote about her.
I've got a bunch of titles of hard to find stuff which are probably not
extremely valuable but are rare- Any body have ideas for sourcing other
than doing a book search- do they do that any more?- I regularly check
in at the two big used book sites on the web. And I have access to
USC's libraries. Any other thoughts about where to look. I lurk in
Thrift Shops in LA- I'm also looking for general stuff about New York
City in the same time period.

Thanks
Dan

Dan wrote:

I'm currently starting on the road of writing a biography of a lady who
was a part of the New York art & literary set from after the Civil War
to the turn of the century. [snip]
I'm looking for reader copies of autobiographies and biographies of
people that might have known her or wrote about her.

Who was she? Do tell! This isn't rec.clairvoyancy, and most people would
probably like to know who she was before speculating about who she might
have known.

I've got a bunch of titles of hard to find stuff which are probably not
extremely valuable but are rare-

Again, if people knew what you already have, they might be able to make
some suggestions. Otherwise, it's going to be a bit like pin the tail on
the donkey.

John
http://rarebooksinjapan.org

Dan wrote:
I'm also looking for general stuff about New York City in the same time period.

Try finding a reprint copy of "New York By Gaslight" by James D. McCabe
Jr., which was originally published in 1882 as "New York By Sunlight
And Gaslight" and reprinted in the 1980s.
At close to 700 pages, it provides an detailed view of the city, its
social customs and infrastructure.
--
RWF
http://bobfinnan.com

Bob wrote:
Dan wrote:
I'm also looking for general stuff about New York City in the same time period.

Try finding a reprint copy of "New York By Gaslight" by James D. McCabe
Jr., which was originally published in 1882 as "New York By Sunlight
And Gaslight" and reprinted in the 1980s.
At close to 700 pages, it provides an detailed view of the city, its
social customs and infrastructure.
--
RWF
http://bobfinnan.com

There also is the first of the Who's Who in America and there was a
Who's Who in New York from the late 19th century. Both of those might
have something for you. I am not sure, any more how much awareness
among bookmen there now is about Allibone. There is an amazing amount
of information in those volumes.

Now, if your lady was active in the suffrage movement there is a
voluminous: History of Woman Suffrage edited by Harper for the National
Association.

Now that I have said that piece, I end up with John, who has interests
in this period, himself, and who might be able to be very helpful if he
knew whom you were talking about.
Best,
Annibale