The Struggle for Existence

Purple cloth 12mo, 71pp. Sunning and small puncture to spine, mild age toning. With A.L.S., in purple ink, from the author to the man who inspired the pseudonym "Gavilan Peak," F. N. Massa:"When I first learned from you the name of Gavilan Peak nothing was further from my thoughts than the idea of one day using it as a nom de plume. That I do so now is owing to a sudden freak of fancy--one of those hasty resolves, indeed, which, if we carry out, we generally repent of at leisure. These little pieces, however, culled from a goodly number, have had the luck to please a few friends whose taste I hold in high esteem, and it is at their request I publish them; but should the public not favor my attempt, I have the satisfaction to know that their ridicule will be expended upon Gavilan Peak--a rock, or a myth, as you choose to take it."A book of political comedic verse, largely of the anti-suffragist persuasion (bound in an ironic purple, we suppose). Other than records of him donating his book to the NY State Library and his inclusion in lists of pseudonymns, we did not find much on Henry Pope. An F.N. Massa of Brooklyn, NY invented a campylograph, or "instrument for describing mathematical curves" (featured in Scientific American, Vol. 89, No. 7. August 15, 1903. p. 116), but we have no further information on whether it was the same man. We're sure there are some fun connections to be made by someone more familiar with this field of interest. 9 copies in OCLC.