BLISS
, Henry Evelyn. BETTER LATE THAN NEVER.
New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1937. 8vo. Cloth, dust jacket. 76 pages. First edition
The first and only book of poetry by this foremost American librarian. Bliss was librarian at City College of New York. Fine, in faded dust jacket.
$55.00
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CHROMOLITHOGRAPHED SILK BINDING
(BOOKBINDING)
PRATT, Charles Stuart. BABY'S LULLABY BOOK. MOTHER SONGS.
Boston: L. Prang, 1888. Folio. Publisher's silk binding. Unpaginated, 16 chromolithographic plates. First edition.
Despite some very minor dusting, this publishers silk binding with delicate chromolithographic design is the finest copy of this American color plate book rarity we have ever seen. The covers are printed white silk. Copies, when found, are virtually always in less than desirable condition because of the delicate material used. The last copy we had seen, a worn example, was in 1987. Not recorded in Bennett or McGrath, this book features mounted, quality chromolithographs by Prang from water colors by W.L. Taylor, and music by G.W. Chadwick, one of America's leading composers of the time.
$1,500.00
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CERVANTES SAAVEDRA,
Miguel de. A DIALOGUE BETWEEN SCIPIO AND BERGANSA.
London: S. Blandon, 1767. 8vo. Later quarter-calf, marbled boards. (ii), 180 pages.
English translation first done in 1741 by Robert Goadby of Cervantes play. A popular work advertised throughout the eighteenth century in the Williamsburg
Virginia Gazette.
Title page and end leaf repaired; paper browned, else very good.
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SCOTTISH PRINTER & BOOKSELLER
CHAMBERS,
William. MEMOIR OF ROBERT CHAMBERS.
Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers, 1872. 12mo. Blue full calf. viii, (9)-336 pages, added title page with two small portraits. First edition.
Chambers founded the most successful Scottish printing and bookselling firm of the nineteenth century. This autobiography tells of the starting the business with five shillings. Bound by J. MacLaren,
Edinburgh
. Stephen Parks copy with his bookplate. Very good.
$175.00
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UNCORRECTED PROOF
CLAMPITT,
Amy. THE KINGFISHER.
New York: Knopf, 1983. 8vo. Wrappers. (xii), 148 pages. First edition.
Being an uncorrected proof copy of the poet's first regularly published book, with the page numbers hand written. Fine.
$60.00
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WALTER CRANE BINDING AND ILLUSTRATIONS
SPENSER
, Walter. THE SHEPHEARD'S CALENDER.
New York & London: Haper & Brothers, 1898. 8vo. Publishers original pictorial light green cloth. 118, (1) pages. First American edition.
"Twelve Aeologues proportionable to the Twelve Monthes entitled to the Noble and Virtuous Gentleman most worthy of all titles both of learning & Chivalry, Master Philip Sidney." Handsomely produced edition of Edmund Spenser famous poem by Walter Crane one of the best late 19th century English book illustrators and book binders during the Arts & Crafts movement. The original pictorial binding designed by Crane has his monogram. The decorative endpapers are also designed by him, and the text includes twelve full-page illustrations by him as well. Slightly soiled and front hinge cracked, else a very good copy.
$210.00
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EMERSON,
Ra
lph Waldo. LETTERS AND SOCIAL AIMS.
Boston: James Osgood, 1876. 8vo. Publisher's cloth. (iv), 314 pages. First edition. [Bal, 5272; Myerson, A-34.1.a].
The first state with the binder's mark "N" on page 209. A collection of eleven essays focusing on culture and the arts written late in Emerson's life when he began having trouble recalling the precise words he wanted to use. This work was largely rewritten by his secretary, James Elliot Cabot. A fine, bright copy.
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PARR, Olive Katherine. BACK SLUM IDYLLS.
London: R. & T. Eashbourne, Ltd., 1907. 8vo. Publishers original blue pictorial cloth. Frontispiece, 131, (1) pages. Only edition.
Scarce early 20th century English crime fiction. OCLC records only eight copies in U.S. libraries, and only seven other examples. The Dartmoor authoress (1874-1955) whose pen-name was "Beatrice Chase," was always known as "The Lady of the Moor." She was a direct descendant of William Parr, brother to Catherine, the sixth wife of Henry VIII. She died penniless. A collection of nine short stories. According to her preface "To my reader" "These stories are fact, not fiction. They are not the invention of a vivid imagination, but the sober, uncoloured portrayal of criminal lives whose threads have become interwoven amongst my mother's during her labours in prison, workhouse, and slum..." Actually, fiction in the guise of non-fiction. Original cloth cover illustrates a London Bobby surprising a man. Very good.
$210.00
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DECORATIVE LINEN BINDING
(FINE BINDING-HOLLOWAY, EDWARD STRATTON)
BARBOUR, Ralph Henry. THE
HARBOR
OF
LOVE
.
Philadelphia
: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1912. 8vo. Fine cloth binding, top edge gilt. Color frontispiece, 162 pages. First edition.
Special decorative natural linen stamped binding in pink, blue and gilt in the style of an old sampler with stylised flowers and birds designed by artist Edward Stratton Holloway who worked as art director for J.B. Lippincott Company for forty-six years and wrote a number of books on interior design and antique furniture. The text is illustrated with four color plates by George W. Plank. Very good.
$175.00
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SIGNED DECORATIVE BINDING
(FINE BINDING-RICHARDS, JULIA WARD)
RICHARDS, Laura E. THE GOLDEN WINDOWS; A BOOK OF FABLES FOR YOUNG AND OLD.
Boston: Little Brown & Co., 1903. 8vo. Green cloth, gilt, top edge gilt. Frontispiece, ix, 123, (4) pages. 5 plates, including frontispiece. First edition.
A signed cover design by Julia Ward Richards who designed the covers and title page decorations for many of her mother's books, Laura E. Richards. Her mother was the daughter of Julia Ward Howe, author of
The Battle Hymn of the Republic, and was raised in
Maine
. Early owner's signature on front blank leaf, else fine.
$85.00
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FIRST ISSUE
FORSTER,
E.M. A PASSAGE TO
INDIA
.
London
: Edward Arnold, 1924. 8vo. Publisher's cloth. 325, (3) pages. First edition, first issue.
Stamped in black on the spine and with a three-page advertisement for Forster's other novels bound at the rear, this is the first issue of the first edition of Forster's classic tale. Some light foxing to a very few pages and browning to endpapers. Still a very good copy.
$385.00
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FRENCH EDITION OF MAYNE REID
REID, Thomas Mayne, Captain. LES ENFANTS DES BOIS. TRADUCTION NOUVELLE.
Paris
: Theodore Lefevre, n.d. (circa 1899). 8vo. Publishers pictorial red and gilt cloth, all edges gilt. 248, (4) pages.
Scarce copy with only one American copy recorded on OCLC -
Johns
Hopkins
University
- and none on NUC. The spine is slightly faded, otherwise a glowing finely decorated copy of a French translation of Mayne Reid's The Bush Boy,- a juvenile Tale of
Africa
.
The binding was designed by Guerin Engel, which is spectacularly gilt stamped with scene of a young black boy leading two white men with rifles through the jungle. Very good
$210.00
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FACSIMILE OF FIRST EDITION
GOLDSMITH,
Oliver. THE VICAR OF
WAKEFIELD
. Two volumes.
London
: Elliot Stock, 1885. 8vo. Full morocco, gilt, top edge gilt. Frontispiece, engraved title page, xxxix, (iv), 214 pages, 12 plates; Frontispiece, engraved title page, (ii), 223 pages, 12 plates.
R.B. Adam's copy with his bookplate. A facsimile of the first edition (1766). Nicely bound by Thierry with an introduction by Austin Dobson. Front free endpaper in Volume I detached, else fine.
$175.00
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WILLIAM AND MARY GRADUATE
GORDON,
James Linsay. BALLADS OF THE SUNLIT YEARS.
New York
: North American Press, 1904. 12mo. Publisher's cloth. 84 pages. First edition. One of 990 copies.
Gordon was a graduate of the
College
of
William
and Mary and the
University
of
Virginia
. This work includes ``
Lorraine
,'' which was supposedly written to Minna Anderson (Mrs. William Allen), the unexcelled belle of the `springs.' Marking the end of their relationship, Gordon writes, ``Thank God that I lost you, Bonny Lorraine.'' Dr. Alderman's Library of Southern Literature gives Gordon three pages of information on his life and poetry from Sunlit Years. Minor foxing and notetaking in pencil, bookplate, signature in ink on front free endpaper, some cover wear.
$85.00
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SEVENTY-ONE WOMEN WRITTERS
MASON,
Emily V., (editor). THE SOUTHERN POEMS OF THE WAR.
Baltimore
: John Murphy & Co., 1867. 8vo. Publishers blind stamped cloth. 456 pages. First edition.
Emily V. Mason of
Baltimore
, a direct descendent of George Mason of Gunston Hall in
Virginia
, compiled and edited this set of poems. She had from the beginning of the war conceived the design of "collecting and preserving the various war poems which (born of the excited state of the public mind) then inundated our public newspapers." With her collection, supplemented by those of her friends, she made an edition of 247 poems, not only as a memorial to the lost cause, but "to aid the education of the daughters of our desolate land" and especially to fit a certain number to be teachers. It was a popular work with a third enlarged edition put out in 1869. The first edition is notable for the large number of women writers represented -- seventy-one in all. Early ink inscription on front blank leaf. Spine sunned with extremities chipped. Very good.
$100.00
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FICTION LISTED IN
CLARK
'S "TRAVELS IN THE OLD SOUTH"
(PAULDING,
J.K.). LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH, WRITTEN DURING AN EXCURSION IN THE SUMMER OF 1816. Two volumes.
New York
: James Eastburn, 1817. 8vo. Publisher's boards. 254; (ii), 260 pages. First editions. [B.A.L., 15693; Sabin, 59203].
So realistic, this novel was long thought to be non-fiction, a travel account through
America
's south. It was listed as that in
Clark
's Travels in the Old South. The anonymous author was James Kirke Paulding (1778-1860). Our set is in mixed bindings. Volume I, publisher's boards; Volume II later plain blue boards. Spines chipped, slightly foxed. Scarce. We could find only one copy selling at auction during the past thirty years.
$525.00
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ONE LEAF OF RAISED LETTER PRINTING
(PRINTING FOR THE BLIND)
ARTMAN, William. BEAUTIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BLIND.
Rochester
: The Authors, 1882. 12mo. Publisher's cloth, all edges gilt. Frontispiece, 387 pages, 1 plate. First edition.
A series of biographies of famous blind people from Homer to Alice Holmes, with a leaf of raised letter printing by N.B. Kneass of Philadelphia. Spine darkened and slightly chipped at extremities else very good.
$125.00
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(PROOF COPY - UNCORRECTED AND UNREVISED)
SANTAYANA, George. PERSONS AND PLACES; MEMOIRS OF CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.
New York
: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1943. 8vo. Original printed wrappers. 360 pages. In later morocco-backed cloth clam-shell box.
"Uncorrected and Unrevised Proof" printed at top of front wrappers. The book was actually published in 1944 as
Persons and Places. The Background of My Life,
entirely reset and re-paged, with a leaf bearing a list of books by Santayana, a half-title, and inserted frontispiece, and an index at pages 255-262. The preliminary issue here offered has none of the extra appurtenances. The resetting was almost certainly to conserve paper during the war-time. The latter is less attractive, of course. Minor spine wear.
$150.00
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JEFFERSON
OWNED FRENCH EDITION
(SMOLLETT,
Tobias, translator). LE SAGE, Alain Rene. THE ADVENTURES OF GIL BLAS. Four volumes, bound as two.
Dublin
: Peter Wilson, 1767. Large 12mo. Matching contemporary calf. Illustrated with 8 full-page engravings.
Gil Blas
was written by Alain Rene Le Sage (1668-1747) and first appeared in 1715. While Thomas Jefferson had a copy of this French edition in his library, as a general rule, he preferred English language translations. This version was translated into English and first published in 1750. Light edge-wear and bookplate neatly removed, else a very nice set
$285.00
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ALSO A SUCCESSFUL PLAY AND MOVIE
SNEIDER, Vern. THE TEAHOUSE OF THE AUGUST MOON.
New York
: Putnam's, (1951). 8vo. Publishers cloth, dust jacket. 282 pages. First edition.
First edition of the popular novel which became a successful Broadway play and also an equally successful
Hollywood
movie. It depicts the activities of US military government officers and personnel in occupied
Okinawa
following World War II. This is the author's first novel. Brightly colored dust jacket a little chipped, else very good.
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(SOUTHERN AUTHOR) LEWIS, Henry Clay, and Robb, John S.) THE SWAMP DOCTOR'S ADVENTURES IN THE SOUTH-WEST CONTAINING THE WHOLE OF THE
LOUISIANA
SWAMP DOCTOR; STREAKS OF SQUATTER LIFE AND FAR-WESTERN SCENES; IN A SERIES OF FORTY-TWO HUMEROUS SOUTHERN AND WESTERN SKETCHES AND WESTERN SKETCHES, DESCRIPTIVE OF INCIDENTS AND CHARACTER.
Philadelphia: T.B. Peterson and Brothers, 1858. 8vo. Publishers original blue cloth, pictorial gilt spine. 203 pages; 187 pages. (Wright-I, 1659 & 2126).
Reprints of two southern classics including
Odd Leaves from the Life of a
Louisiana
"Swamp Doctor,"
which is almost unprocurable in first edition (1850). Streaks of Squatter Life was first published in 1847. Each work has its own title. Inscribed on general title: "James A. Nichols from T.B. Peterson & Co. Dec. 1878." The date of the inscription may be significant as Peterson was notorious for using the same plates over and over without changing the date, the firm was not publishing until about 1859. A handsome copy.
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SIXTIES ILLUSTRATED HIGH SPOT
TENNYSON,
Alfred. ENOCH
ARDEN
.
London
: Edward Moxon, 1866. Small 4to. Publisher's cloth. Frontispiece, (iv), 81, (2), 16 pages. First edition, first issue.
A high spot of 'Sixties illustrated books with twenty-five woodcuts by Arthur Hughes--his first major book commission. Gordon Ray in
The Illustrator and the Book in England from 1790 to 1914,
praises compares Hughes's illustrations with that of Rockwell
Kent
's. Moxon advertises the book as being the first successful attempt at photographing designs from wood engravings. This might be true for an entire book. While the ornately stamped binding uses some of Hughes designs, Ruari McLean suggests the overall design was by John Leighton. This is the first issue of the book, printed on heavy cream card stock. Professionally recased else a bright copy. From the personal library of Robin de Beaumont.
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THAXTER, Celia. AN ISLAND GARDEN.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1895. 8vo. Special cloth binding, top edge gilt. Colored frontispiece, ix, 126 pages, 12 color lithographic plates, including frontispiece. Second printing.
Early edition with full-page chromolithographs, after paintings by Childe Hassam, are "little impressionistic masterpieces in a fine binding by Sarah Wyman Whitman in gold on white cloth. She was one of the earliest and best artists working in book cover design. Whitman was also a successful painter and stained glass artist. Beginning in the 1880s she forged a new approach to book cover designs using simple yet elegant forms, carefully chosen cloths and a distinctive lettering style and was responsible for a significant number of Houghton and Mifflin covers throughout the 1880s-90s.
Bright copy in art nouveau binding with gilt cover and spine, considered "one of the most elaborate pieces of bookmaking of the period." Later owners signatures on front blank leaf.
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AUTHOR'S MOST POPULAR WORK
(
VERMONT
FICTION)
ROBINSON, Rowland E. SAM LOVEL'S CAMPS; UNCLE LISHA'S FRIENDS UNDER BARK AND CANVAS; A SEQUEL TO UNCLE LISHA'S SHOP.
New York
:
Forest
and Stream Publ. Co., 1889. 12mo. Publishers original pictorial red cloth. 253 pages. First edition. (Wright-III, 4596).
Rowland E. Robinson (1833-1900) was born at Rokeby, the family estate in
Vermont
, and is known as an illustrator and a writer, with several books to his name: A Danvis Pioneer; Danvis Folks,
Forest
and Stream Fables
and this work which is considered his most popular work. He also published regularly for magazines such as Forest and Stream and Atlantic Monthly. He is considered by many critics to be a regionalist and a folklorist. Red cloth binding illustrates a camping scene in the forest with gilt lettering. Early owners signature on front blank leaf. Very good.
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(VIRGINIA) SHEPHERD, Catharine. A COLONIAL BELL'S MESSAGE (MY LADY'S TOILETTE.)
Philadelphia
: C.H. Graves, (1911). Square 8vo. Pictorial boards, ribbon ties, publisher's box with spider-web glassine protective inner sheets. 4 leaves of text, 20 plates.
"The original of this book is a century-old heirloom in a cultured Southern family." Catharine Shepherd drew and colored elements from a lady's toilette, adding a moral inscription beneath. The point of the moral is also in the illustration itself, hidden by ingenious overlays. It was reprinted here, with faithfully recreated overlays. The book is very fragile but this copy is in fine condition, in the original publisher's embossed box. A rare survivor.
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SEVEN STORIES ABOUT
YELLOWSTONE
(WESTERN AMERICAN FICTION)
RAYMOND, Rossiter W. CAMP AND CABIN; SKETCHES OF LIFE AND TRAVEL IN THE WEST.
New York: Fords, Howard & Halbert, 1880. 12mo. Publishers brown cloth. 243 pages, including frontispiece. First edition. (Wright-III #4448)..
Sketches first published in periodicals, some fact, some fiction, based on the author's own experiences as a mining engineer. Seven are about
Yellowstone
; one about the ice-caves of
Washington
Territory
; another about the ascent of Gray's Peak in the Colorado Rockies. With an 1880 Christmas gift inscription "to A.F. Tilden" possibly by the author? Could this be the same A[lphonzo] F. Tilden who was manager of the Esmeralda Silver & Copper Mining Corporation in
Arizona
, 1864-1865? Nearly fine.
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CLIFTON
WALLER BARRETT'S COPY
WHITE,
Gilbert. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.
London: George Bell, 1876. 8vo. Full calf. Frontispiece, xxiv, 416 pages, 39 plates.
Reprint edition of White's classic natural history first published in 1789. Edited by Sir William Jardine with additional notes by Edward Jesse. In prize binding with gilt armorial crest on front board and inscription on front blank leaf dated "
July 30th 1878
." Bookplate of
Clifton
Waller Barrett. Spine slightly sunned and back board scuffed, else very good.
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OCLC RECORDS ONLY FOUR COPIES IN
AMERICA
WILLIAMS,
Robert Folkestone. LIVES OF EDWARD, THE BLACK PRINCE, EDWARD OF CARNARVON AND EDWARD OF
WINDSOR
.
t edition. (Wright-III, 4596).
London
: H. Colburn, (circa 1843). 8vo. Publisher's half morocco, marbled papered boards. x, 526 pages, including two lithographic plates of which one colored. First, and only edition.
Scarce item with only four copies recorded on OCLC in American libraries. Volume I, and only volume printed. Biographies of three Princes of Wales: Edward of Carnarvon, who became Edward II; Edward of Windsor, who became Edward III, both Kings of England; and Edward, known as the Black Prince, only son of Edward III who died before his father in 1376. The frontispiece triple portrait plate is after G.F. Harding, and the chromolithographic title-page plate is "printed in colours by C. Graf." Very good.
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