Our members list new acquisitions and recently cataloged items almost every day of the year. Below, you'll find a few highlights from these recent additions...
by Tom Robbins
Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 1976. Inscribed by Robbins: "To Paul, with 'eternal' gratitude for introducing me to the Clock People. Your friend, Tom Robbins." Paul Dorpat, who is the first person acknowledged in Robbins' Author's Note for the book, was a co-founder with Robbins and others of Seattle's first underground newspaper, Helix; and an issue of the paper featured a story about The Great Clock and the legend of the Eternity of Joy, the text of which parallels Chapter 59 of Cowgirls (in addition to "the clockworks" playing a larger role in the novel as a whole). A dozen or so ink and pencil notes in the text, presumably by Dorpat. Apart from the annotations and a bit of spotting to the boards, this is a near fine copy in a very good dust jacket with a chip at the upper rear spine fold. One of the best possible association copies of this beloved, irrepressible novel. Hardcover. Near Fine.
Offered by Ken Lopez, Bookseller.
by Chambers, María Christina
London / New York / Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1943. Fine in near fine jacket.. Lengthily inscribed first edition of this YA romance featuring an American girl falling for a boy in Mexico City, by the popular mid-century Mexican American author. Better known as María Cristina Mena, Chambers's work was dismissed in discussions of Chicano literature until fairly recently because of her focus on writing for a popular audience. Before she began publishing novels, she had found success publishing short stories, becoming "the first Mexican American to gain access to and publish in prestigious 'mainstream' magazines" (Begoña Simal, 149).
Many scholars trace the beginning of YA romance to Maureen Daly's SEVENTEENTH SUMMER (published the year before TWO EAGLES in 1942). These novels focused on contemporary settings, rather than "educational" historical settings that had been a reliable favorite for that age group. THE TWO EAGLES is a story of first love rather than the "ever" of Happily Ever After, really a coming of age story, while exposing American audiences to Mexican culture.
The full-page inscription on this copy, intended for a teacher, speaks to this context: Chambers expresses hope the recipient will "enjoy my book on life in Mexico — versus the "Ame. way of life," and asks if she will "speak of it to her librarian at her school."
A lovely copy, scarce in the original dust jacket, and with an interesting and pertinent inscription. 8'' x 5.5''. Original yellow cloth, spine lettered in black. In original unclipped ($2.00) color pictorial dust jacket with illustration by Susanne Suba. Color patterned endpapers. Illustrated by Suba in black and white. 176 pages. Inscribed by Chambers in blue ink across entirety of half title. Jacket with some marginal toning, spine gently sunned. Book clean and bright.
Offered by Type Punch Matrix.
by Ken Follett
New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc, 1983. Very Good/Very Good. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1983. First Edition. Signed by Ken Follett with brief inscription to previous owner at half title. Octavo. 444 pp. Black and white photographs. Illustrated dust jacket. Blue and ivory boards stamped in silver; map endpapers. Unclipped dust jacket lightly worn and creased along edges. Boards shelfworn and sunned. Binding is sound and pages unmarked. A Very Good signed copy of this non-fiction thriller from Follett, detailing the rescue of two Electronic Data Systems executives from an Iranian prison, set against the backdrop of the revolution and featuring Ross Perot.
Offered by Capitol Hill Books.
WINGS OF EAGLES, THE (1957) Two variant film scripts
by Frank Fenton
John Ford (director) Frank Fenton (screenwriter)
Culver City: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 21 July - 4 October 1955 and 20 February - 11 July [rerun 27 July] 1956. Two volumes. 116 leaves, plus duplicate leaf 116 printing variant text; and [1],123 leaves, plus lettered inserts. Quarto. The first comprised of carbon typescript on yellow paper (with each leaf marked 'Permanent Script File' in red), and mimeographed typescript, text on rectos only. Brad bound in studio wrappers, with studio labels and stamps. A few fore-edges in first script extended and slightly frayed; faint discoloration to fore-edge at toe of second script, otherwise very good or better, the first stamped "Vault Copy".
Two widely differing drafts of the script for John Ford's 1957 film about the development of Naval aviation, and semi-biographical tribute to his friend, Navy flier turned screenwriter Frank W. "Spig" Wead. John Wayne was cast as Wead, and Dan Dailey, Maureen O'Hara and Ward Bond co-starred. Fenton shared final screen credit with William W. Haines for the script, but at this point in the creative process, Fenton is the sole identified screenwriter. A table inside the front wrapper of the second draft records in manuscript some of the dated revisions over the span noted above.
Frank Fenton (1903-1971) was a veteran novelist and screenwriter whose prolific and versatile movie career, beginning in 1932 and ending in 1959, includes writing or co-writing the screenplays of NOCTURNE (1946), STATION WEST (1948), MALAYA (1949), WALK SOFTLY STRANGER (1950), HIS KIND OF WOMAN (1949), THE MAN WITH A CLOAK (1951), ESCAPE FROM FORT BRAVO (1953), RIVER OF NO RETURN (1954), GARDEN OF EVIL (1954), UNTAMED (1955), and THE JAYHAWKERS! (1959), after which he continued to write for television.
However, this was the only screenplay Fenton ever wrote that was about another screenwriter, specifically, Commander Frank W. "Spig" Wead, whose own screenplay credits include HELL DIVERS (1931), CEILING ZERO (1936, based on his own Broadway play), and THEY WERE EXPENDABLE (1945), the latter directed by John Ford, who also directed THE WINGS OF EAGLES and appears in Fenton's screenplays and the movie as John Dodge (played in the movie by Ward Bond).
The result is a genre mash-up, mostly a military film/biopic about Wead's life in the Navy, but also to some degree a Hollywood story, manically veering from broad comedy to grim tragedy and back again. John Wayne (who also starred in THEY WERE EXPENDABLE) plays Spig Wead. Maureen O'Hara is cast as Min, his neglected wife.
This is one of director Ford's oddest and most personal films. On the surface, it's a tribute to a career naval pilot who, as Wikipedia puts it, "tries to prove to the Navy the value of aviation in combat." Beneath that surface narrative, it's the far more interesting story of a man who clearly prefers the homosocial military world -- drinking, flying planes and brawling with his Army and Navy buddies -- to the heterosexual world of wife and family. (There are three such brawls in the movie's first 40 minutes.) Significantly, at the exact point in the story when Wead attempts a reconciliation with his wife, he falls down the stairs of their home and breaks his neck, paralyzing himself. Wead's paralysis becomes a metaphor for domestic entrapment. And who sees him through his convalescence and rehabilitation after he is paralyzed? Not his wife, but his best Navy pal, "Jughead" Carson, played by Dan Dailey.
As Joseph McBride observes in his biographical study, SEARCHING FOR JOHN FORD (St. Martin's Press, 1999):
"Carson seems totally devoted to Wead, almost as if in an unspoken homosexual attachment, and becomes more of a 'wife' to Wead than Min ever manages to be."
Even if we ignore the presence of Ford as a character in his own movie, the film's parallels to Ford's own life are unmistakable. Ford, like Wead, was both a Hollywood professional and a military man -- he served as an Admiral in the Navy during World War II -- who plainly preferred the predominantly male worlds depicted in his Westerns and military films to the male/female world of regular civilian life. The last act of Wead's life -- physically disabled, but honored by his peers for his military accomplishments -- mirrors the latter part of Ford's life, impaired by alcoholism, most likely sexually impotent, but universally honored for his cinematic accomplishments and service to the nation.
The Two Fenton Scripts
Fenton's 2/20/56 script is considerably more polished than his 7/21/55 draft and may have been the final or close-to-final shooting script. Although these two scripts are credited to Frank Fenton, alone, on screen the movie's screenplay is credited to Frank Fenton and William Wister Haines, another veteran screenwriter (COMMAND DECISION). Whatever Haines' contribution might have been, it most likely preceded Fenton's, since Fenton's 2/20/56 script is very close to the completed film.
The principal difference between the first acts of the two Fenton scripts is in the sequence where Spig, without authorization, flies and crashes a seaplane during his first solo flight. In the 7/21/55 draft, he crashes the plane into the ocean. In the 2/20/56 script, Spig disrupts the Admiral's Tea Party, which his wife Min is attending, crashing the plane into the Admiral's swimming pool. The film, unlike either of these two drafts, opens with a brief voiceover narration by one of Spig's fellow officers, John Dale Price (Ken Curtis).
The 2/20/56 draft adds another crony for Spig, Second Mechanic Pincus (Tige Andrews).
The second act of both scripts, ending with Spig's accident, contains a scene where Spig fires his former flying instructor. This scene is omitted from the completed film, probably because it makes Spig look colder and more unsympathetic than he already appears.
In the story's third act, Spig's convalescence, the 2/20/56 scripts adds some comic business where Spig's doctors and all of his visitors bring him, sub rosa, a little bit of alcohol to aid his recovery, not realizing that everybody else is doing the same thing. Carson helps Spig to rehabilitate by making him repeat over and over, "I'm gonna move that toe." This business is considerably more elaborated in the film than in either of the two Fenton scripts, and even gives musical performer Dan Dailey, who plays Carson, a brief opportunity to play the ukulele and sing the "I'm gonna move that toe" refrain.
In the 7/21/55 version of act four, the Hollywood section, the director character -- standing in for John Ford -- is named John Pearl. In the 2/20/56 script, he is called John Dodge -- as in Dodge City, where Ford's MY DARLING CLEMENTINE takes place. Spig's experiences writing for Hollywood and Broadway are more detailed in Fenton's scripts than in the movie, with each of Spig's credits -- HELL DIVERS, CEILING ZERO, TEST PILOT, WEST POINT OF THE AIR -- treated as major milestones. The latter two movies go unmentioned in Ford's completed film.
The story's final act begins with the attack on Pearl Harbor and Spig's return to active service as a military strategist. The earlier 7/21/55 script covers this chapter of Spig's life more elaborately, but with less dramatic shape. In the later 2/20/56 script, best pal Carson takes a Japanese bullet to protect Spig, but fortunately survives.
One significant difference between the 7/21/55 and 2/20/56 scripts is the reduction of Min's drinking, in deference to Wead's still living widow.
Most of the changes between the 2/20/56 shooting script and the completed film are the result of Ford's usual working methods, cutting dialogue whenever possible and improvising business on the set. Ford thought the title THE WINGS OF EAGLES was too vainglorious and would have preferred to call the movie simply THE SPIG WEAD STORY.
Offered by Walter Reuben, Inc.
by Dr. Seuss [Theodor Geisel]
New York: Random House, 1955. First Edition. First Edition. Dust wrapper front flap notes "250/250", as called for, with ten titles on the rear jacket panel, from "Horton Hears a Who!" to "And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street."
One of six titles withdrawn from publication by the Seuss Foundation in 2021 due to its inclusion of an illustration characterized by some as an Arab stereotype.
Very Good plus in a Very Good plus dust jacket. Owner name on the front endpaper verso.
Offered by Royal Books.
Photo Archive of American Servicewomen in World War II
Collection of black-and-white silver gelatin photographs documenting the service of American women in the military during World War II and the 1950s. Includes 20 photographs, ranging in size from3.5" x 5" to 2" x 3" Photos depict members of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), the National Guard, and other auxiliary military units, such as a group of Asian-American nurses aides. Several images include handwritten captions identifying individuals, locations, and dates, with notable references to Camp Bullis, Texas (1956), and Fort Des Moines, Iowa.
The archive provides a visual testament to the pioneering role of women in the U.S. military during a transformative period. In one striking image, a smiling African American WAVE stands proudly in uniform, reflecting the integration of Black women into the armed services during World War II despite ongoing racial discrimination. Other photos showcase groups of women in regimented formations, training exercises, and moments of camaraderie, emphasizing their rigorous discipline and collective identity. A group portrait of uniformed WAC officers is particularly notable, as the reverse of the photo provides a handwritten identification of the women pictured, including names such as Lee Horney, Mary Gordon, Dorothy Risser, and Angie McCarthy, preserving the memory of their service.
Additional images highlight the military training experience, such as a framed border print of servicewomen in fatigues at Camp Bullis, Texas, in July 1956, with a caption on the reverse indicating they were about to embark on field exercises with "C rations in bay." Another 1943-dated photo identifies "Miss Fern Hassler" standing in uniform against a rural landscape, suggesting the early recruitment of women into military service at the height of World War II. A separate set of images captures women in drill formations outside a National Guard Armory, reinforcing their growing visibility in traditionally male-dominated institutions.
Overall, the archive documents the breaking of gender barriers in the armed forces, as women took on crucial wartime roles and paved the way for future military integration. The presence of African American and white servicewomen together in this collection further illustrates the gradual desegregation of the military. Photographs remain in very good condition, with minor creasing and occasional handwritten inscriptions. An exceptional visual record of American servicewomen’s contributions to military history, offering rare insight into the personal and collective experiences of those who defied expectations to serve their country.
Offered by Max Rambod, Inc.
by Abbey, Edward
New York: Dial Press, 1962. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good -/Very Good. SIGNED. 211pp. Octavo [21 cm.] 1/4 red cloth over yellow boards. Title stamped in black ink on spine. Spine ends and edges of boards bumped and a bit rubbed. Extremities mildly toned. There are a few subtle spots of soiling to the boards and endpapers. Dust jacket is a bit toned, and lightly chipped at edges. Three small, closed tears around spine. Signed by Edward Abbey on the front free endpaper.
The author's third published novel. The story follows familiar Abbey themes of government intrusion in the West, and the rugged individuals who confront the bureaucratic machine.
Offered by Ken Sanders Rare Books.
by MALAMUD, Bernard
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1952. One of three variant bindings, in gray cloth (without priority); near fine. In unclipped, illustrated jacket, with a few closed tears to edges and some foxing to verso showing through to rear panel; close to near fine.. First Edition. Octavo. Malamud's classic first book, adapted to the screen with Robert Redford in the role of Roy Hobbs.
Offered by Harper's Books.
by Albrand, Martha
NY: Dell, 1953. Mass market paperback. Very good. Mass market paperback. First printing. Slight spine lean, wraps slightly darkened and rubbed, else very good. (
Offered by Kenneth Mallory.
by Woolf, Virginia; [Thoreau, Henry David]
Kentfield, California: The Upstairs Press, 1977. First separate edition of Virginia Woolf’s tribute to Henry David Thoreau, number 89 of 100 copies, printed “to honor the 160th anniversary of Henry David Thoreau’s birth and the 60th anniversary of the first publication of this article in the London Times Literary Supplement for July 12, 1917.” Woolf celebrates Thoreau’s remarkable ability to pay attention to his own experience of the world: “Walden – all his books, indeed – are packed with subtle, conflicting, and very fruitful discoveries. They are not written to prove something in the end. They are written as the Indians turn down twigs to mark their path through the forest.” This fine press edition was handset in Caslon type by California printer Mildred Sherrod Bissinger at The Upstairs Press. See Barlow, Notes on Woman Printers in Colonial America and the United States, 1639-1975. In 2001, The Favil Press & Paul Evans Rare Books would issue a facsimile of the Upstairs Press edition. A near-fine copy. Single volume, measuring 8.5 x 6.5 inches: [24]. Original color patterned wrappers, pastedown title label to upper wrapper. Numbered in ink at colophon.
Offered by Honey & Wax Booksellers.
Fairy's Pie" -- Trompe l'oeil Booklet Advertising Mince Meat to Families with Children
Chicago, Illinois: T.E. Dougherty, 1880. Very good. Light toning, dust soiling.. A cleverly designed "Trompe l'oeil" (trick of the eye) advertising booklet die-cut, chromolithographed, and embossed to resembled a freshly baked pie. Advertises New England brand mince meat, and includes an illustrated children's story inside. It begins with a rhyme: "They say that pie is bad for me, That is my mother does, And father thinks he must agree To save himself a fuss. But I am onto their small game, I learned it from the elves. I think it is a fearful shame, They want it all themselves!". The story after includes fairies, mother goose, and happy children going after pie. Single vol. (approx. 4.25" in diameter), pp. [20], illus., in original die cut, embossed, chromolitho wrps. (
Offered by Eclectibles.
by PROULX, E. Annie
New York: Scribners, 1993. First edition and first printing. Hardcover. 337 pages. Proulx's wildly successful second novel which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. The basis for the powerful Lasse Hallstrom directed movie which starred Kevin Spacey, Julianne Moore, Judi Dench, and Cate Blanchett. A clean and tight near fine copy in paper covered boards with a cloth spine and in a very near fine dust jacket. A nicer then usual copy of this modern classic.
Offered by Jeff Hirsch Books.
by Cather, Willa
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1936. First edition, #82 of 333 numbered copies, specially printed on Nihon Japan vellum and signed by the author. 147 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Red cloth, with ribbon bookmark. A fine copy in dust jacket with a closed tear to the top and a section of loss to bottom of spine and back panel, in publisher's brown paper slip case. First edition, #82 of 333 numbered copies, specially printed on Nihon Japan vellum and signed by the author. 147 pp. 1 vols. 8vo.
Offered by James Cummins Bookseller.
THE STORY OF PETER RABBIT [and] DICK WHITTINGTON AND HIS CAT
by Potter, Beatrix; Neill, John R.
Chicago: Reilly & Britton Co, 1908. Near fine.. Early American version of Peter Rabbit, illustrated by J.R. Neill, best known for illustrating the Oz series. A volume in the Children's Red Book Series. Although not credited on the title page, Potter's name does appear on the cover. Very scarce in nice condition. 6.75'' x 5''. Original red paper boards, pictorial paste-on. Color pictorial endpapers. Illustrated by Neill 15 full-page color images plus black-and-white images throughout. 3 pages of ads at rear. 58, [2] pages. Early ink owner name. Light wear to extremities, slight sunning to spine
Offered by Type Punch Matrix.
by Surtees, R.S. [Robert Smith]
London: The Folio Society, 1949. First Thus. Hard Cover. Very Good/Good. Alken, Henry; Leech, John; Browne, Hablot K. [Knight]; 'Phiz'; Johnson, Maud. Ford-Smith, Folio 76, #s 18, 28, 34, 49, 59, 70, 82 and 94: All the plates were printed lithographically in monochrome and hand-coloured by pochoir by Maud Johnson. The popularity of this work led Charles Ede to institute a series of the novels of Surtees with pochoir-coloured plates." Jackets toned, endpapers lightly foxed, large closed tear to jacket spine of Hillingdon Hall. 1949 Hard Cover. Complete in eight volumes. A collection of sporting stories with characters bearing some similarity to those in Charles Dickens's The Pickwick Papers. Illustrated by various artists, including Henry Alken, John Leech, and 'Phiz' (Hablot Knight Browne).
Offered by Yesterday's Muse.
1960s Martin Luther King Jr. March on Washington Pins
by Martin Luther King, Pins Civil Rights
6 civil rights buttons from the 1960s for Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington, SNCC, and Youth Caucus. One measures 3.5", one 2.25", two 1.75", one 1.5", and one 1" in diameter. Two pins have black and white photographs of MLK, both quoting his most famous "I have a dream" speech which was stated at the 1963 March on Washington. There are three pins made for the March on Washington with one being from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) which was co founded by King. The SNCC was essential in organizing the March on Washington and it's likely those three pins were worn during the actual march. All pins are in very good condition.
Offered by Max Rambod, Inc.
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?
by King Jr., Martin Luther, 1929-1968 [Jessica E. Holland, 1947(?)-1989]
New York: Harper & Row, 1967. 1st ed. [so stated]. Also has "D-R" code. Hardcover. Near Fine/Near Fine. 209p. Original light bronze paper-covered boards backed in black cloth. dj. 21 cm. Jacket has only modest edge-wear, mostly at top of flap fold and at bottom of backstrip where some chipping and short tears are visible. INSCRIBED by King on front free endpaper. ("To Dr. and Mrs. Jesse Holland With best wishes for Peace and Brotherhood Martin Luther King Jr.").
Dr. Holland and his wife lived in a big old Victorian house in an exclusive area of Far Rockaway on Long Island. Family members believe that Dr. Holland and his wife were donors to Martin Luther King, Jr. or the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Included with the book is an 18 x 25 cm. photo of MLK, Jr. and Jessica E. Holland, the Holland's daughter, standing outside an unidentified building. King is holding some items including an unidentified issue of a Birmingham newspaper in one hand and has his other arm casually around Jessica who has a giggly expression on her face. The photo is undated but was almost surely taken by her father in 1967 or 1968 with the Minolta camera that his family says he often carried slung around his neck. The family also says that Dr. Holland was a great doctor but not a great photographer. The location of the photo is unidentified but was probably at or near some place where Jessica was working or volunteering with the SCLC or King.
Jessica shows up in a couple of Barnard Bulletins put online by the institution's Barnard Digital Archives. Both articles relate to Jessica, then identified as class of 1968, and her participation in a February 8, 1967 sit in outside the room on campus where the CIA was conducting employment interviews. Jessica was given a formal letter of censure by the institution's Judicial Council for that participation. She was also warned that a repeat offence would subject her to suspension. A friend who knew her during the period of her life remembers Jessica as having been a member of Students for a Democratic Society (S.D.S.). Family members believe that Jessica took the 1967-68 academic year off from Barnard College to work or volunteer with King and the SCLC. Her family does not know exactly what she did to help King and the SCLC but she was described in a memorial tribute by the editors of Oral History Review as "a key member of Dr. Martin Luther King's staff at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference." Jessica apparently returned to Barnard for the next academic year after King's assassination. She graduated Barnard in 1969 and subsequently completed the Graduate Seminar in Oral History at Columbia University. Jessica later worked as a corporate oral historian. Her clients included the New York Stock Exchange, McKinsey and Company, Philip Morris and AT&T. She had just begun or committed to begin work on the oral history of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts before she died while on vacation in France in 1969 when she and her bicycle were struck by a car.
Offered by McBlain Books.
Blue Velvet (Original photograph of David Lynch released to promote the 1987 film)
by David Lynch (subject)
London: Universal Pictorial Press and Agency, 1987. Vintage borderless photograph of director David Lynch to advertise his 1987 film "Blue Velvet." With a mimeo snipe on the verso dated 17th February 1987, along with the stamp of Universal Pictorial Press in London.
8 x 10 inches. Near Fine, with brief separation at the bottom left corner.
Offered by Royal Books.
by LYNCH, David
(Paris): Foundation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, 2007. Hardcover. Near Fine. First edition. Quarto. Illustrated. Slightly bowed with some edgewear else near fine. A collection of artwork by director David Lynch as well as essays and an interview with Lynch published for the debut of his exhibition at the Foundation Cartier; includes two CDs.
Offered by Between the Covers Rare Books.
by Tellier, Jules; Rhys, Brian (Translator); Nash, Paul (Illustrations)
[Waltham St. Lawrence]: The Golden Cockerel Press, 1928. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/very good. Nash, Paul. One of 400 copies, octavo size, 37 pp., with dust jacket. A "philosophical novel" by Jules Tellier (1863-1889), wherein "an old scholar in Algeria...grapples with his inner conflicts concerning faith as he faces his mortality. The novel explores themes of religious doubt, the search for truth, and the contrasting concepts of paradise in Christianity and Islam..." (n.b., quotes from the web site of Project Gutenberg).
With four wood engravings by Paul Nash (1889-1946), considered "one of the more important and influential painters in Britain in the 20th century...In addition to painting, Nash illustrated nearly twenty books and....[t]his work forms an important part of his artistic output..." (n.b., from Horne, p. 332).
DESCRIPTION: Quarter bound in blue buckram with sides of marbled paper over boards, gilt lettering on the spine, wood-engraved frontis by Nash, a small Nash wood engraving on the title page, two more full-page wood engravings bound in; Caslon O.F. type on English hand-made paper, octavo size (8 78" by 5 7/8"), pagination: [i-ii] 1-34 [1, colophon]; limited edition of 400 copies (per the colophon; Chanticleer states 500), this no. 169. The jacket of orange paper with the front panel a mirror of the title page in black, title on the spine in black.
CONDITION: Volume near fine, with clean boards, straight corners without rubbing, a strong, square text block with solid hinges, the interior is clean and bright, and entirely free of prior owner markings; a minute amount of light sunning to the head and tail of the spine, else fine. The publisher's jacket a solid very good, largely clean but with light overall dustiness, the spine sunned, and a fair amount of edgewear due to the jacket having been cut a quarter-inch taller than the book.
Offered by Swan's Fine Books.
by Fuller, Thomas
London: by J. F. for John Williams, 1650. First edition. Very good-. Two parts, folio (32.2 by 21.3 cm). Register continuous, though pagination in two series. Sequencing varies from pages to leaves; double-suite plates (generally) account for gaps in pagination, though not included in the register.
First edition of this pioneering biblical atlas, whose title references the mountain peak in Moab (modern Jordan) from which Moses first surveyed the Promised Land (Deut. 34.1-4). A Pisgah-Sight of Palestine is the earliest serious effort by an English scholar to present a comprehensive historical and geographical description of the Holy Land. Its author, the Church of England clergyman Thomas Fuller (1607/8-1661), was a leader of the moderates in the Commonwealth church and in the negotiations for the Restoration. "The interregnum, which brought many radical and unwelcome changes as far as Fuller was concerned, was, paradoxically, a remarkably productive period for him as a scholar and writer" (Patterson). His influence was "secured by a remarkable range of contacts in society, by his sermons, distinguished equally for their topicality and restraint, and by an impressive series of books. Much in demand with the reading public, these were at once scholarly, exemplary in their moral attitudes, and graceful in style" (Sandler). Among those works is the present volume, an opulent folio, elegantly printed and profusely illustrated with highly-decorative double-suite maps of the territories allotted to the Israelite tribes amidst the adjoining kindgdoms, along with depictions of Jerusalem and its sanctuary in the First- and Second Temple eras. The nearly six hundred pages of text "follows pretty closely the Theatrum Terrae Sanctae of Adrichomius (1590), the standard work on the subject, with chorographical descriptions of the land of Canaan, the sites being identified by the biblical events that occurred there. Both Fuller and Adrichomius draw their information not only from the Bible itself but from Josephus and the Early Fathers, from more modern authorities such as Bochart and Villalpandus, and from the accounts of recent travelers" (Sandler). Fuller's "Pisgah-Sight of Palestine was well received. Part of the reason for its success may be that it "carried perhaps an implied message: if ancient Jerusalem and its temple could be rebuilt, so, too, could the nearly shattered Church of England." (Patterson).
The large folding map of the Holy Land, along with 26 of the other folding plates and the engraved title page were colored by an early hand in brick red, bright green, yellow, cerulian blue, and brown. All of the maps are fully colored; some of the other plates more sparsely so.
The collection of armorials engraved on the page facing the opening of the text pays tribute to the noblemen who supported Fuller's project. [From the Latin]: "Reader, you must know that this fetus of ours would have expired in great pain (though the cost was excessive) in the very birth itself, if some benevolent hands of Maecenas had not given birth to it with the help of our efforts." The folding map of Palestine displays in marginal vignettes the arms of three of these benefactors: James Cranfield, 2nd Earl of Middlesex; Robert Cordell; Sir William Paston. The other armorials are apportioned among the margins of the 27 folding plates.
Provenance: early manuscript notes appear on the margins of four text pages and the map of the territory of Dan; stamp of Trinity College, Bristol appears at the verso of the large folding map.
Offered by Eric Chaim Kline Bookseller.
by JOYCE, James (1882-1941)
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Paris: Shakespeare & Co, 1922. 4to. Number 701 of 750 copies printed on handmade paper (from an edition of 1,000). Publisher's original blue wrappers, front wrapper lettered in white. Housed within a custom morocco-backed cloth box. Wear to wrapper edges and spine, unrestored.
Provenance: Signature on the front endpaper of Burton Rascoe (1892-1957), American journalist, editor, and literary critic
The rare first edition of James Joyce's Ulysses, one of the most important works in modernist literature.
The publication history of Ulysses is as storied and intriguing as the novel itself. This first edition was published on February 2, 1922, by Sylvia Beach, an American expatriate and the owner of the Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris. Due to its controversial content, which led to obscenity trials and bans in various countries, Joyce faced significant difficulties in finding a publisher. Beach took the courageous step to publish the book herself, ensuring its availability to the public. Beach commissioned printer Maurice Darantiere in Dijon to print 1,000 numbered copies consisting of 100 signed copies on Dutch handmade paper, 150 numbered copies on vergé d'Arches paper, and 750 copies on handmade paper, plus an extra 20 unnumbered copies on mixed paper for libraries and press. Tasked with typesetting Joyce's ever-changing text, Darantiere also faced challenges related to the cover. Joyce insisted that the cover must resemble the colours of the Greek flag, blue and white, an allusion to the book's connection to Homer's Odyssey and the Greek literary tradition. Despite Darantiere's efforts with various blue papers, none met Joyces exacting standards. With less than a month until publication, Joyce sent the small Greek flag from Shakespeare and Company to artist Myron C. Nutting, who identified the correct pigment. Darantiere then lithographed the "Greek-flag blue" onto white paper, creating the distinctive blue cover of this first edition. Ulysses is a cornerstone of literary modernism. Joyce's experimental use of language and his focus on the inner thoughts of characters influenced countless writers and redefined the possibilities of the novel. The work delves into themes of identity, consciousness, and the mundane aspects of daily life, elevating them to profound significance. The novel's stream of consciousness technique, in particular, was groundbreaking, offering readers direct access to the inner workings of characters' minds. This approach has been emulated and celebrated in modern literature, making Ulysses a touchstone for both writers and scholars. The novel continues to captivate readers, its complex layers and intricate prose inviting ongoing interpretation and admiration as a timeless exploration of human consciousness and the complexities of existence.
Offered by Donald A. Heald Rare Books.
THE BIRDS OF AMERICA, FROM DRAWINGS MADE IN THE UNITED STATES AND THEIR TERRITORIES
by AUDUBON, JOHN JAMES
New York: George R. Lockwood, [1870-71]. Final Octavo Edition. 275 x 175 mm. (10 3/4 x 7"). Eight volumes.
Publisher's full dark brown morocco, boards with intricate blind-stamped frame and central arabesque, raised bands, blind-tooled compartments with small centerpiece, turn-ins with floral gilt roll, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. With numerous woodcuts (mostly of avian digestive systems) in the text and 500 HAND-COLORED LITHOGRAPHIC PLATES. Tyler, "Audubon's Great National Work" 129, 165 note 10; Nissen IVB 51; Sabin 2364; Reese, "Nineteenth Century Color Plate Books" 34; Wood p. 208; Zimmer, p. 25. ◆A couple of volumes with joints and extremities lightly rubbed, occasional faint foxing or trivial marginal stains, but A VERY FINE COPY, clean and fresh internally, with richly colored plates, in the little-worn original bindings.
This is an exceptionally clean, fresh copy, inside and out, of one of the key books in any natural history library and one of the great books in the history of American publishing. The story of the conception and creation of Audubon's monumental achievement, the double elephant folio "Birds of America" (1827-28), is the stuff of legend, but its size and its expense put it beyond the reach of all but an elite few. The first octavo edition, issued in parts in 1840-44, was greeted with great enthusiasm by both critics and book buyers. Reese calls it "probably the greatest commercial success of any color plate book issued in 19th-century America." Although the illustrations had necessarily been reduced in size, they nevertheless were always characterized by pleasing composition, almost always characterized by a convincing verisimilitude, and not infrequently characterized by a richness and intensity of coloration. According to Tyler, the illustrations in our edition were printed, where possible, from the same stones and stereotype plates that had been made in the 1840s and 1850s. And these were never used again, as some time after 1871, a fire broke out in the Lockwood warehouse, and the Audubon plates were destroyed. Copies of the first (and other earlier) octavo printings of Audubon's "Birds" are obtainable, but at a substantially higher price than the present one. This final printing of the work offers the same contents, and our copy is unsurpassable in terms of condition, with both the contents and the bindings showing so little evidence of use.
Offered by Phillip J. Pirages Rare Books & Manuscripts.
Farewell Address of President Jimmy Carter; January 14, 1981
by Carter, Jimmy
[Winston-Salem, NC]: Palaemon Press Limited, 1981. First Edition / Limited Edition. Cloth. Very good. Limited edition of the Farewell Address of President Jimmy Carter, signed on the title page.. Thin octavo, [11pp]. Blue cloth binding, silver title on spine. Sunning to spine. Heavy paper printing, with loosely stitched pages. Publisher's slipcase with title printed on paper label. Sunning to slipcase, faint dampstain to front panel, light wear to label on side panel. From a limited edition of 300 copies, signed by President Carter on the title page, this copy being number 49. This copy has the full signature "Jimmy Carter" on the title page. A scarce work. A scarce limited edition printing from former President Carter.
Offered by First Edition Rare Books.
[78 rpm vinyl record] Yodeling Cowboy
by Rodgers, Jimmie - SIGNED
Camden [NJ]: Victor Recording Co., 1933. First Edition.. Framed. A fine copy of the record.
The father of country music signed this copy of the Yodeling Cowboy (flip side is Blue Yodel # 9 with none other than Louis Armstrong). The record bears the shop label of Moeller's Radio Shop / Bastrop, LA.. Rodgers died the following year in 1933. The foundation record of American country music.
Offered by Palinurus Antiquarian Books.
It Melts in Your Mind, Not in Your Mouth:" The Destroy All Monsters Sticker Assortment (Two Packs)
by KELLEY, MIKE AND DESTROY ALL MONSTERS
Detroit: The End is Here Productions, 1996-2002. Both packs (7.5 inches square) still sealed, with baggies stapled to printed toppers; near fine.. Two separately issued sticker/ephemera packs from the art-rock band Destroy All Monsters. Approximately two dozen items in each pack.
Offered by Harper's Books.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Signed limited edition)
by Dali, Salvador (illustrator); Lewis Carroll
New York: Maecenas Press, 1969. First edition. Fine/Fine. Limited edition of 2500 copies, signed on the title page by Dali, this being number 1638. Folio measuring 430 x 285mm, with Mandeure paper pages loose as issued and housed in the publisher's quarter leather clamshell case. A Fine set in Fine clamshell. Complete with the original leather straps and horn clasps intact. Complete, with the original etched frontis and all 12 original color illustrations present. This set basically as new, with the original paper wrapper, shipping box, styrofoam inserts, etc. (all with matching limitation numbers).
Based on the beloved fantasy by Lewis Carroll, Salvador Dali's rendition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland exceed surrealist expectations. As the reader travels through Dali's Wonderland, they are treated to a brilliantly coloured illustration, giving insight into how the painter experienced Carroll's story. An unforgettable adaptation. Fine in Fine dust jacket.
Offered by Whitmore Rare Books.
Hotel Cro-Magnon [The Publisher's Copy, Signed]
by ESHLEMAN, Clayton
Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, 1989. First Edition. Deluxe Issue, one of likely a half-dozen copies specially bound and designated for the author, printer, and a few key individuals involved with production, this one marked "Publisher's Copy" and signed by the author on the colophon. Octavo (23.5cm); decorative paper-covered boards and patterned cloth backstrip, with title label mounted to spine; publisher's original acetate dustjacket; [8],9-161,[3]pp, with a tipped-in leaf following the copyright page, reproducing a color photograph of the Hotel Cro-Magnon at upper half, with a holograph poem and drawing by Eshleman beneath. Faint foxing to upper edge of textblock, else Near Fine in a lightly rubbed, Near Fine dustjacket.
Offered by Lorne Bair Rare Books.
New York, New York: McLoughlin Bros, 1890. Fair. Light dust soiling. Damage to box with some loss, tears, modern tape repair to aprons. Warping from previous changes in humidity.. A charming boxed game of "leap frog" from McLoughlin Bros., allowing players to simulate the hopping of frogs on a game board. This set appears complete with the original box (11" by 9.25" by 0.75"), spinner (3.25" by 3.25"), and sixteen (16) small 0.5" wooden tokens. The printed directions sheet is pasted inside the upper lid, and the game board on the lower, depicting a group of five frogs leaping around a marsh. The upper lid depicts three rambunctious boys (no girls) leaping over each other. The object of the game is for one player to "capture" all of the other player's tokens by leaping over them.
Offered by Eclectibles.
You Can Find Inspiration in Everything and if you can't, look again
by SMITH, Paul
London: Violette Editions, 2001. A fine copy, without the original polystyrene slipcase. 4to. Original color-illustrated cloth, lettered in silver on black cloth backstrip. FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY, inscribed by Paul Smith in 2001 on the front free endpaper. In this wide-ranging compendium on fashion and art, Smith collaborated with Richard Williams, James Flint, Glen Baxter, Paul Slater, Mick Brownfield, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Semir Zeki and Jim Davies.
Offered by Riverrun Books.
Back Stage Passes or Patches for Various New Wave Music Tours, 1980-1990
by (Billy Idol, The Cars, Tears for Fears, Sting, Power Station, The Police, and U2.)
California, 1980. Unbound. Near Fine. A collection of eight fabric sticker backstage passes or patches featuring new wave bands performing in San Francisco circa 1980s. The passes vary in size from 3½” x 3¼” to 5” x 3”. Light soiling from the back of the stickers peeling with some fraying, near fine.
All items are near fine with light soiling and edgewear. The bands include several popular new wave artists such as Billy Idol, The Cars, Tears for Fears, Sting, Power Stations, The Police, and U2. The passes were previously owned by a back stage employee for concerts in the California area. The passes are for popular venues in San Francisco such as the Cow Palace and Bill Graham presents at the Fillmore. Many of the passes are brightly colored with printed pictures and band logos showing the typographic designs of the time.
Offered by Between the Covers Rare Books.
SCIENCE PAST - SCIENCE FUTURE. Inscribed and signed by Isaac Asimov.
by Isaac Asimov
Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1975. Book. Very good+ condition. Hardcover. Signed by Author(s). Early printing. Octavo (8vo). x, 346 pages of text. Hardcover binding with minor wear and minor bumping to the edges. The unclipped dustjacket is slightly shelfworn and minimally discolored; protected in archival Mylar. Signed, dated and inscribed by Isaac Asimov to Pat in ink on the title page; Pat later wrote a presentation inscription on the title page. The bookplate of that second owner is affixed neatly to the front endpaper. The text is clean and unmarked. No edition or printing statement on the copyright page: presumed to be an earlyreprint. A collection of 42 essays by Asimov.
Offered by Kurt Gippert Bookseller.
Printed in Germany, c. 1960. Cards. Color illustrated shaped card. Near fine. 11.5 x 10 cm. Color illustrated, shaped pop-up card with envelope featuring a family gathering around a table under a trellis covered in greens. When closed, the words A Happy New Year is printed in English and Hebrew. Clean and crisp.
Offered by lizzyoung bookseller.
The Runaway Bunny; Pictures by Clement Hurd
by Brown, Margaret Wise
New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1942. First Edition, First Printing. Cloth. Fine/near fine. The first edition, first printing of The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown, in the publisher's scarce first state dust jacket.. Octavo, [ii], [38pp]. Light green cloth, title stamped in red on cover. Stated "first edition," with "M-Q" date code below. Illustrated endpapers. Two unopened leaves within the text block. A fine example, free of notable wear. Housed in custom blue cloth clamshell, title in gilt over red morocco label on cover. In the publisher's first state dust jacket, $1.50 on front flap, advertisements for "The Runaway Bunny" on front flap, and "When the Wind Blew" on rear flap. Short closed tear to top edge of rear panel, small loss along top quarter of the spine, bright illustrations, a near fine example. The final manuscript for The Runaway Bunny was submitted to Ursula Nordstrom at Harper & Brothers in October of 1941. For the work, Margaret Wise Brown received an advance of $400. The manuscript was passed to Clement Hurd, the illustrator of Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon, who was unsatisfied with his final contribution to the book. He asked Harper & Brothers in 1966 for permission to re-illustrate the work, and a new edition was issued in 1972. This work was hand-set in Weiss Bold by Edna Rushmore, at the Golden Hind Press in Madison, New Jersey. (Dear Genius: Letters of Ursula Norstrom, 1998).
Offered by First Edition Rare Books.
Some of These Days: The Autobiography of Sophie Tucker
by TUCKER, Sophie
Privately Printed, 1945. hardcover. very good(+)/very good. 309 pages. 8vo, light blue cloth with maroon spine lettering, d.w. (edgeworn, spine sunned). Privately Printed, (1945). Boldly inscribed by Tucker on the dedication page. A very good (+) copy in a very good dust wrapper.
Privately Printed before the first trade edition.
Offered by Argosy Book Store.
by Orwell, George
London: Secker & Warburg, 1949. First Edition. Fine/Fine. An absolutely superlative copy of the first British edition, first printing of Orwell's iconic novel. Bound in publisher's pale green cloth with maroon lettering to spine. Trace erased pencil to front free endpaper and rear pastedown, still easily Fine with bright cloth and stamping, vivid topstain, in a Fine unclipped jacket. A towering classic of twentieth century literature that frustrates collectors, as copies in jacket nearly always turn up rubbed and faded--this example will not frustrate. A once in a lifetime copy, and the nicest we have ever seen by many orders of magnitude.
Offered by Burnside Rare Books.
French Fries. A New Play, written by..
by Bernstein, Dennis & Warren Lehrer
Rochester: Ear/Say, Visual Studies Workshop, 1984. Quarto (27.5 x 21 cm.), 104 pages. Three colors on acid-free Mohawk Superfine. Color separation by Phil Zimmermann. Subtitle from second title page following copyright page. ~ FIRST EDITION; number 470 of 700 signed and numbered copies, with the signature of Warren Lehrer.
An artist’s book rightfully considered to be a masterpiece of offset color lithography. Described by Johanna Drucker in The Century of Artists’ Books as, "a carnivalesque-pop-art amusement- motel-and-theme-park of visual and typographic devices." The authors state “French Fries is a quick service circus of culinary discourse, argument, dream, loss and twisted aspiration” (introduction). The project statement describes the work, "This book/play presents a day in the life of the original DREAM QUEEN restaurant (a restaurant that grew to become the third largest burger chain in the western hemisphere). Before the book/play begins, 83-year-old Gertie Greenbaum is found dead in a pool of blood and ketchup. Four customers and three employees (each set in his or her own typographic voice and color) give testimony to how Gerite died, and continue their day discussing food, money, religion, politics, love, loss, dreams, memories, and fading aspirations. The text is illuminated with icons and images that evoke the fast food tableau, and the internal projections of the characters." And others have commented, “Lehrer pioneered what might be best termed 'typographic performance' in his 1984 book/play French Fries, a hot type cacophony of word and image that is today considered by historians one of the lynchpins of the deconstructionist era…” (Steve Heller, Eye Magazine); “Without a discernable grid, the typography [in French Fries] flows freely across the pages, interspersed with images and marks evoking the ambiance and mood of the situation. Except for the work of the famous French designer Robert Massin, I had never seen an approach to typography quite like this before… I could experience the relationship between the text and its visualization, and I saw how effective it could be. Somewhere between seeing the books of Edward Rusha and Warren Lehrer’s French Fries, I discovered that my options as a graphic designer had expanded by tenfold” (Rudy Vandlans, Emigre Magazine, The Last Issue).
Clean and bright; lightest bit of rubbing to the white portion of the cloth. In original ketchup-resistant faux-leather cloth and die-cut over boards]. Very near fine. Scarce.
Offered by Rabelais: Thought for Food.
by Churchill, Winston S.
New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1958. First American edition. Hardcover. Very good +/Very good. 521; 433; 402; 403pp. Octavo [21.5 cm] 1/4 red and black cloth spines with light gray cloth covered boards. Gilt stamped title and light decoration on each spine. Publisher's red topstain. Some bumping to spine ends and corners. Mild rubbing to extremities. Spines of each dust jacket moderately sun toned. Chipping to edges and sporadic small losses around folds. Mild moisture damage to the dj of volume 2.
Offered by Ken Sanders Rare Books.
The Story of the Tower (Signed First Edition)
by WRIGHT, Frank Lloyd
New York: Horizon Press, 1956. First edition and first printing. Hardcover. A look at the Price tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Includes 130 illustrations of which 6 are in color. A clean very near fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with some tiny chipping to the spine ends and some other very minor wear. Signed and inscribed by Wright on the front free endpaper in the year of publication. A very nice copy.
Offered by Jeff Hirsch Books.
by Vevey; Vignerons; Wine Scroll
1833. [VEVEY]. [Fête des Vignerons, 1833]. Continuous panorama scroll, containing 30 consecutive lithographs (numbered 1-30) from the 1833 Festival of the Vignerons at Vevey, hand-coloured at the time of publication, backed with linen and conjoined to form a continuous scroll of 14.4 meters long. Plate size: oblong folio, 170 x 470 mm., in a new cloth folding box. Lausanne: Lithographie de Spengler & Cie, [1833].
An extremely rare, complete copy, in contemporary hand-colouring of this remarkable series of plates in scroll format depicting the 1833 Festival of the Vingerons at Vevey, Switzerland -- since 1791 this ancient festival has been celebrated five times per century. The scroll shows the entire procession in panorama format; the procession moved in three groups: Herds and Flocks (plates 1-8), the Harvest (plates 9-18), and Winemakers (plates 19-30). The festival celebrates the vineyards and wine production in the Vevey area. The artist of the work was Christian Gottlieb Steinlen (1779-1847), a resident of Vevey who acted as the official artist for the 1833 Festival (see Thieme-Becker).
Sources for the Festival of the Winegrowers are unusually diverse: besides Greco-Roman gods such as Bacchus (Plates 20 & 22) there were representations of Judeo-Christian myths such as the story of Noah (first winegrower in the Bible -- see Plate 27). OCLC records only the copy at Getty Center in the U.S. Vicaire 270. Brunet I, 616. Lipperheide 2870. Ruggieri 1142. Vinet 787. Brun, Schweizerisches Künstler-Lexikon IV, p. 415. Thieme-Becker XXXI, pp. 574-5.
Offered by Ursus Books.
by Sexton, Anne
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1971. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine. Limited to 500 copies signed by Sexton on the limitation page. Foreword by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Drawings by Barbara Swan. Fine in an about Fine slipcase, a ghost mark from a sticker on the front panel. Red cloth on the boards with a paste-down label on the spine. Square and firmly bound with gilded edges, clean internally. A collection of poems fashioned as retellings of Grimm's fairy tales.
Offered by Carpetbagger Books.
ARMED SERVICES EDITION PAPERBACK BOOKS (LOT OF 80 BOOKS)
Council on Books in Wartime, 1943. Armed Services Edition paperback books ( lot of 80 books with 42 small & 29 large). Measurements: ~5.2 in x 6.5 in and 3.8 in x 4.5 in. Condition: Good. Age toning. Mild to moderate wear to spines, edges and corners.
We added nine more books to the lot (not pictured in primary group photograph but shown in last two photos). These books measure ~6.5 in. x 4.5 in. (4 books) and ~5.5 in. x 3.8 in. (5 books).
Offered by Second Story Books.
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