The Quiet Observer, Vol. 2, Nos. 2, 5 and 6 [3 issues]

Pittsburgh, 1901. Tall 8vos, around 28 pages each. About Very Good condition with a tear at the upper staple on the cover of No. 2, otherwise light soil and bumping/edgewear. Published in "Pittsburg" during the dark days of local spelling malaise, the publication was an offshoot of Wilson's hugely popular column from the "Pittsburgh Dispatch." Also known as "Ras," or simply "Q.O." to readers, he began the column in 1884, opining on matters of human nature, politics and philosophy.

"The Quiet Observer" is perhaps best known as the column that enraged Nellie Bly into journalism, namely the 1885 article titled "What Girls are Good For” which criticized the viability of women in the workforce. Wilson expanded the column into an eponymous weekly periodical, which launched in 1900 but does not appear to have survived past 1901, though 'Ras himself lived to 1922. These three issues feature writing on the assassination of President McKinley, "the most cowardly attack ever made in the name of anarchy," and the following week's issue after his death. Occasionally includes a poem or brief piece by another writer, but mostly a one-man show giving conservative opinions on education, labor, women, and the "ways of the world" (indeed, he published an entire volume, 'Quiet Observations on the Ways of the World,' in 1886). He'd probably have a very popular podcast today. OCLC records just 1 holding at Princeton and an archive of 25 issues at the University of Pittsburgh.