Brann's Iconoclast. Vol. 7. No. 4.
Waco: W.C. Brann, May, 1897. [77]-100pp. Original self wrappers, stapled. Some wear along spine, old folds, scattered dust-soiling, first and last leaves partially separated along spine, ink ownership signature on front page. Good. Item #5383
An interesting issue of the rare Waco newspaper published by "Brann the Iconoclast" in the late-19th century. William Cowper Brann was a controversial journalist and publisher whose Brann's Iconoclast was notoriously critical of both Baptists and Baylor University, not a position likely to win friends in Waco. A flavor of Brann's reporting can be seen in the first sentence in the first story here, titled "The Perfumes of Passion": "Under the above caption some cheerful idiot has been telling the readers of the Yellow Kid, alias the New York Journal, what effect different perfumes are supposed to have on the Genus Homo." In other stories, he calls the New York Voice "a religio-political paper of the chewing gum and pink-lemonade persuasion," calls magazine writer Joseph Flint a "very awkward falsifier," categorizes life insurance as "the most gigantic of all modern 'grafts'" which makes Standard Oil and Southern Pacific Railway "mere babes" by comparison, and so much more. His article on "The Courage of Womankind" is an exercise in journalistic force. In addition to Brann's journalism, the publication is notable for the advertisements that appear on the last few pages. The ads tout a variety of products and services mostly from Waco, Dallas, Houston, and Galveston, but also a couple from New Orleans and New York. The present issue emanates from Brann's editorship of the paper, which sadly ended in April 1898 when he was shot in the back by a Baylor supporter on Fourth Street in Waco. The paper continued for some time without Brann, but it was never the same. Original issues of the Iconoclast are decidedly rare in the present market.
Price: $350