[CURIOUS & RERMARKABLE CHARACTERS]. Collection of Pitch Books and Biographies. Ten pieces, including: The Fate of Donaldson and Grimwood in a Balloon Voyage from Chicago. Philadelphia: John Wise, 1875. 24pp. Wraps chipped, old cellotape repairs. Includes ads for Wise?s hot air balloons and related services. ? The Life of General M.D. Stanley, An American Militia General, the Celebrated Rou?, Swindler, Pickpocket, and Murderer. Baltimore: A.R. Orton, 1855. Woodcuts. Lacks lower wrap. ? Banvard; or the Adventures of an Artist. London: Reed and Partdon, 1852. 16pp. Barnvard contrived to paint the largest landscape in the world which he claimed was three miles long (it was perhaps 1200 yards long when completed). ? Life, Adventures and Anecdotes of ?Beau? Hickman. Prince of American Bummers. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Publishing Company, 1879. Woodcuts. Wraps stained and chipped. ? The Life and Wonderful Adventures of John Metcalfe, Commonly Called Blind Jack of Knaresbrough. Knaresbrough: Parr, Printer and Bookseller, 1877. 72pp. Wraps chipped and stained. ? DONER, Thomas. Eleven Years a Drunkard. The Life of Thomas Doner. Sycamore, IL: Arnold Brothers, 1877. ?Having lost his arms through intemperance, he wrote this book with his teeth as a warning to others.? Woodcuts. 42pp. Foxed and soiled, but good or better. ? MORTON, John H. The Greatest Wonder of the Age. The True History of ? Miss Susan Caroline Godsey. ?Sleeping Beauty.? Union City, TN: N.B. Morton, 1872. 14pp. Stained, chipped, rear wrap badly torn, but complete and intact. ? The Goss-Udderzook Tragedy: Being a History of a Strange Case of Deception and Murder. Baltimore: Baltimore Gazette, 1874. Woodcut frontispiece of Goss behind tissue. 60pp. ? HILL, William ?Red.? True Facts of the Death Defying Rapids-Shooting Barrel Trips. Circa 1940. Illustrated with photographs. 28pp. ? The Life and Adventures of James Hirst. Knottingley: S.W. Hepworth, ca. 1860. Folding frontispiece shows ?Jemmy in his carraige.? 48pp. Wraps badly chipped; foxed. Most published anonymously; all in publisher?s printed or pictorial wraps, with some illustrated. Generally in good condition with age-related and expected wear. A very good group chronicling the life stories of a wide range of amazing, deceitful, larcenous, and incredible individuals of the nineteenth century and beyond.