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 Maguire, Gregory
Regan Books/Harper Collins, 2010. first. hardcover. fine/fine. Stated first edition in all four books. All four books SIGNED by author. All books and dust jackets in fine condition. Wicked title is housed in supplied slipcase. Wicked, Son of a Witch, A Lion Among Men, Out of Oz.
Offered by Bookbid.
by Dinesen, Isak
New York: Random House, 1938 First American edition, first printing. Publisher's rust-colored cloth over black spine, stamped in gilt with gilt depiction of a flamingo to front board, top edge stained green; in the original pictorial dust jacket with an illustration of a dense jungle scene. Light dimming to front board gilt, else fine book; very good clipped dust jacket, with shallow chipping to head of spine, light wear to spine ends and panel edges, a shallow chip to top right corner of front panel, and light soiling to rear panel. Overall, a pleasing copy. Out of Africa is the memoir of Danish author Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke and is based on the author's experience living in Kenya when it was controlled by the British Empire. The book offers a unique glimpse into colonial life in East Africa. Interestingly, Blixen published the first English edition under her name, but the first American edition under her pen name, Isak Dinesen. In 1985, Out of Africa was adapted into a film of the same name starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep under the direction of Sydney Pollock.. First American Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Dust Jacket Included.
Offered by B&B Rare Books.
Yoko at Indica [Unfinished Paintings and Objects]
by ONO, YOKO
London: Indica Gallery, 1966. First edition. Very Good. The exhibition catalog for Yoko Ono’s transformative one-woman show at London’s Indica Gallery. Famous for the place where she and John Lennon first met. A REMARKABLE SURVIVAL: THE ONLY COPY WE CAN LOCATE WITH ALL THE PHOTOGRAPHS AND SLIPS INTACT. The “Yoko at Indica” catalog is an interactive work of performance art, much like her actual exhibit, held in November 1966. There are eight leaves of black and white images of the exhibits printed on gummed paper, with three images to a page, perforated so each of the 24 images can be removed and pasted onto a half-page slip with the correct caption. The slips were created by splitting the text pages horizontally – the caption slips are on the top, while the bottom slips, moving independently of the top slips, contain vintage Ono sayings, instructions, and “imaginations”, as well as a somewhat humorous sales/price list, a bio (“gave birth to a grapefruit / collected snails, clouds, garbage cans”) and an artist’s statement (“People went on cutting the parts they do not like of me finally there was only the stone remained of me that was in me but they were still not satisfied and wanted to know what it’s like in the stone”).
Some of the pieces exhibited (and illustrated in the catalog) include her famous white chess set (Play It by Trust), Painting To Be Stepped On, Painting To Hammer A Nail, and significantly, Apple, and Ceiling Painting. “Apple” was the piece that first got John Lennon’s attention when he visited the gallery before the opening at the request of the gallery co-owner John Dunbar. The exhibit – an apple on a pedestal – was supposed to decay over the run of the show as a commentary on the cycle of life, impermanence, and deterioration, but Lennon walked up to the apple and started eating it. He then discovered “Ceiling Painting”, where a ladder was placed under a magnifying glass attached to the ceiling. If the visitor – in this case Lennon – climbed the ladder and used the magnifying class, they could view the tiny painting on the ceiling, simply the word “yes”. Lennon was impressed, much more so than with the apple. As he later explained:
“Well, all the so-called avant-garde art at the time and everything that was supposedly interesting was all negative, this smash-the-piano-with-a-hammer, break-the-sculpture boring negative crap. It was all anti-, anti-, anti-. Anti-art, anti-establishment. And just that ‘yes’ made me stay in a gallery full of apples and nails instead of just walking out saying, ‘I’m not gonna buy any of this crap.’” (quoted in Sheff, 62).
Although their relationship didn't begin immediately, the impression each made on the other at the Indica Gallery set the stage for the future.
Interestingly, the catalog notes “production by Anthony Cox.” Cox was Ono’s husband at the time, and soon to be in a very contentious relationship with Lennon and Ono over the dissolution of their marriage and the custody of their daughter Kyoko.
The catalog is often overshadowed by the fact that it marks the place where Ono and Lennon first met, but that does a disservice to the remarkable nature of the catalog itself. With its innovative format and provocative Ono quotes, the catalog is an interactive work of art, inviting the reader to fully participate in the exhibit through the catalog. It is a natural sequel to Ono’s groundbreaking Grapefruit from 1964, and a monument of the Fluxus movement.
London: Indica Gallery, 1966. Size: 5.5x11 in. (14x28 cm). Composed of illustrated card stock wrappers, complete with 8 thin sheets with 3 photographs per sheet (perforated but still all held together) and gummed adhesive on back (but not sticky, thank goodness) for a total of 24 images; 12 interior text sheets split along the horizontal with the top sheets designed for the 24 images (front and back of each sheet) and the bottom with Ono’s text. Housed in custom box. Some light rubbing to covers, a few sheets with just a hint of adhesive offset. An absolutely remarkable survival in such beautiful and complete original condition.
References: Sheff, David. Yoko: A Biography, 2025.
Offered by Manhattan Rae Book Company.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (with original artwork)
by Twain, Mark [Samuel L. Clemens]
New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1885. First American edition. Very Good +. With original sketch by E. W. Kemble, artist of the iconic Huckleberry Finn frontisportrait, tipped onto the verso of the front free endpaper. The sketch is inscribed "To Ralph from E W Kemble" and captioned: "By gum: I do believe a Sody Fountain in Cairo would be a great snap."
A solid, Very Good+ copy of the book, with no repairs or restoration. Wear at the heel of the spine and lower corners, with the cloth worn through or fraying. Internal contents generally clean and fresh. Leather bookplate of Ralph C. Runyan and paper bookplate of K. O. Foltz to front pastedown. Frontis bust in the second state, but with the three main issue points to identify the first printing. Scarce with original artwork from one of the bookseller's key illustrators. Housed in a custom quarter leather slipcase with chemise.
Recounting the adventures of Huckleberry Finn as he flees his own abusive father and aids Jim in his escape from slavery, Twain's novel has been praised for its "distinctly American voice," putting at its center two common people who find an uncommon friendship. "Today perhaps the novel’s greatest significance lies in its conception of childhood, as a time of risk, discovery, and adventure. Huck is no innocent: He lies, steals, smokes, swears, and skips school. He accepts no authority, not from his father or the Widow Douglas or anyone else. And it is the twin images of a perilous, harrowing odyssey of adventure and perfect freedom from all restraints that so many readers find entrancing" (Mintz). A metaphor for a young and rebellious nation, as well as its individualist inhabitants, Huckleberry Finn defies genre by being simultaneously an adventure story, a road novel, a coming of age tale, an expression of nostalgia for the expansive natural spaces lost to industrialization, and an exploration of race and class. Listed on the American Scholar 100 Best American Novels and one of the 100 Best Novels Written in English.
Offered by Whitmore Rare Books.
by C.R. Salmons, D.D.S.
New Haven, Connecticut: The Kolynos Company, 1922. Good. Toning, rust staining from staples with leaves loose as a result.. A 1922 booklet "published in the interest of better mouth hygiene and more intelligent care of the teeth" by The Kolynos Company, manufacturers of tooth paste. The booklet uses typography and illustration to mimic a medieval fairy tale, and tells the story of "Prince Careful" and "Prince Careless". Both have white sentinels guarding their respective castles, but only Prince Careful takes care of his. Prince Careless learns his lesson when enemies infiltrate his castle, and he can only destroy them with Kolynos dental cream and his dentist. Includes in-text illustrations of the story, and illustrations on the upper and lower wrappers of the characters. Includes an amusing center spread of the princes, each in portrait, one smiling with good teeth and the other frowning with bad teeth. Single vol. (7.75" by 5.25"), pp. [16], illus., in original illus. self wrps. Kolynos was founded in 1908, and was eventually absorbed into the Colgate company.
Offered by Eclectibles.
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (Original press kit for the 2005 film)
by George Lucas (director, screenwriter); Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Lee (starring)
Los Angeles: Twentieth Century-Fox / Lucasfilm, 2005. Vintage press kit for the 2005 film. Full-color illustrated pocketed folder, containing two gatherings of promotional reading material, a "digital press kit" on a compact disc, and a fold-out color map.
The sixth film in the wildly successful "Star Wars" series, and the third installment in the prequel trilogy.
Folder, disc, and promotional material Near Fine.
Offered by Royal Books.
by Morris, William
Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1895. First Edition. First Edition. 2 volumes, 12mo, uncut. Hand-colored borders and initials. Printed in Chaucer type in red and black, title page and facing page with full woodcut page border, 7ñline and small woodcut initial capitals. Contemporary dark green morocco elaborately gilt by ALFRED DE SAUTY designed with a gilt all over pattern accentuated with tiny red morocco inlaid dots, spine in six compartments gilt lettered and numbered, top edges gilt. Provenance: William Morris (presentation inscription "To W. Hooper from William Morris"); William Harcourt Hooper (1834-1912, wood-engraver); Asa Foster Lingard (1899-1957, bookplate).
IMPORTANT ASSOCIATION COPY, LIMITED EDITION, one of 600 copies of a total edition of 612, INSCRIBED TO W.H. HOOPER, ENGRAVER OF THE KELMSCOTT CHAUCER. The beautifully executed binding is by Alfred De Sauty (1870-1949) who was the subject of an essay by Marianne Tidcombe entitled "The Mysterious Mr. De Sauty," published in For the Love of the Binding. Studies in Bookbinding History Presented to Mirjam Foot (2000), pp 329-336. She notes that "the first non-trade bookbinder, T. J. Cobden-Sanderson, emerged in the 1880's ... he was followed by hundreds of women, but only two male binders of any significance: Douglas Cockerell and Alfred De Sauty." Inspired by seeing illustrations of the bindings of Cobden-Sanderson in an issue of The Studio, he soon found work at the Hampstead Bindery and Guild of Women Binders. De Sauty was responsible for some of the best designs of the two binderies and carried out all the stages of the craft himself, from sewing to the designing and exceptionally delicate tooling of the covers. "Mr. de Sauty is another young binder, and his work is of considerable merit. His inlays are distinguished for the taste shown in the association of colors, and his finishing has some of the brilliant qualities of the French school, seen particularly in the finely studded tooling of which he seems particularly fond. He has now the post formerly held by Mr. Cockerell" (see Prideaux, Modern Bookbindings Gutenberg.org). William Harcourt Hooper worked with William Morris from 1891-1896 in particularly on the Kelmscott Chaucer. Afterwards he was at the Ashendene Press and Essex House Press and worked with Edward Burne-Jones, C.M. Gere and others. This copy not recorded by Peterson in his list of presentation Copies. Peterson A35. (
Offered by Nudelman Rare Books.
by Kavan, Anna
Lowestoft, Suffolk: Scorpion Press, 1963. First edition. 117 pp. Black cloth, spine lettered in gilt, with the dust jacket. Slight rubbing to the head and tail of the jacket spine and corners, rear jacket panel a little toned. Overall clean and bright, nicer than usually seen. Cover designed by Laurence Edwards. Kavan's penultimate novel, like all her work, hallucinatory and bleak. This first edition is extremely uncommon. Her publisher Peter Owen rejected the book as being too short, and it was published by the tiny Scorpion Press, which usually published poetry.
Offered by Triolet Rare Books.
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (Signed)
by Wallace, David Foster
Boston: Little, Brown. 1997. First Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. Very good+ with slight abrasion on the top 2" of the spine and along the bottom front board and light spotting to top of text block, in near fine dust jacket with slight wear at the head of the spine. Signed by the author on the title page. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 353 pp .
Offered by Beasley Books.
First Black female led national comic strip Friday Foster, archive of 40 full-color Sunday comic strips, 1970-1972. Originally printed in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Created by writer Jim Lawrence and illustrated by Jorge Longarón, Friday Foster was the first nationally syndicated comic strip to feature a Black woman as its protagonist. This run captures the cultural and political undertones of the early 1970s, exploring themes of race, gender, and professional ambition through the lens of Friday, a sharp, stylish African American photojournalist navigating the fashion world and broader urban life. The strips are visually rich with mod-era style, Afrocentric fashion, and an emotionally expressive rendering of interpersonal relationships, centering a rare Black female lead in mass media during a moment of increasing racial representation. The comic would later be adapted into a 1975 Blaxploitation film starring Pam Grier as Friday Foster.
Each strip features narrative-driven vignettes chronicling Friday’s professional and personal entanglements, often placing her in socially charged situations: from escorting an endangered child to safety, to confronting exploitative modeling agents, to resisting media sensationalism, to engaging with diverse characters reflecting Black, Latinx, and Asian American experiences. These strips are emblematic of the strip’s bold engagement with contemporary identity politics and groundbreaking contribution to racial and gender representation in 20th-century syndicated media. Light toning to edges typical of period newsprint; some pages with small (under 1") closed tears and one exhibiting discoloration affecting comic. Overall bright, well preserved and in very good condition. An exceptional archive showcasing one of the first national representations of a Black female protagonist in comics.
Offered by Max Rambod, Inc.
Original ink and colored wash design for three-piece silver tea service
by Benda, George R.
New York, 1890. 1 vols. Image 12 x 21 inches; matted and framed to 19 x 28 inches overall. Framed and glazed. 1 vols. Image 12 x 21 inches; matted and framed to 19 x 28 inches overall. George R. Benda worked in New York at the end of the 19th century; he specialized in designs in silver, many for the noted firm of Black, Starr & Frost - Gorham, for whom he may have made this elegant rendering.
Offered by James Cummins Bookseller.
Western Wheel Works Bicycle Manufacturers, Chicago U.S.A.
by Western Wheel Works
Chicago: Western Wheel Works / Office & Works Wells, Schiller, Siegel Sts & N. Park Ave, 1893. Very Good. Chicago: Western Wheel Works / Office & Works Wells, Schiller, Siegel Sts & N. Park Ave, 1893. First Edition. Tall octavo. 32pp. Illustrations throughout. Illustrated stapled wraps. Chips and creasing to edges with a few tears; general smudging. Split at top of front wrap along spine; brief loss near top staple, binding else sound and interior unmarked. Includes illustrations and descriptions for the Blackhawk, Escort, and Juno models, among others; final 10 pages full of descriptions and illustrations for parts for each model. A neat little production published the same year as the Chicago World's Fair. We locate a single holding in OCLC at the University of Michigan, and later catalogs specifically for "Crescent Bicycles" from the same firm are only slightly more plentiful.
Offered by Capitol Hill Books.
by WILSON, Harry Leon
New York: Cosmopolitan, 1923. Hardcover. Near Fine/Very Good. First edition. Near fine in about very good dust jacket with rubbing and some creased tears on the rear panel. Basis for two films: a 1925 silent version directed by Harry A. Pollard and featuring Reginald Denny and Mary Astor; and a 1937 version directed by Ray McCarey and featuring Edward Everett Horton, Donrue Leighton, and Eve Arden. Scarce in jacket.
Offered by Between the Covers Rare Books.
The Art of Railroading or the Technique of Modern Transportation. (8 volumes)
Chicago.: Railway Publications Society., 1906 - 1908. Original half black leather over marbled boards, gilt spine titles, marbled edges.. Very good, light shelfwear, blacked-out numbers on the upper corner of the title pages, folding frontis of volume 1 detached but present.. 22x15x39 cm.. A scarce monumental treatise on railroading at the end of the golden age of American railroads. Heavy set, may require extra shipping. weight: 20.5 lb. Numerous illustrations, many of which are fold-outs.
Offered by Lee Johnson's Zephyr Books.
East of the Sun, West of the Moon
by [Asbjornsen, Peter Christen] and [Moe, Jorgen Engebretsen]; Nielsen, Kay [Illustrations]
[London]: Hodder & Stoughton, 1914. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Nielsen, Kay. First trade edition, quarto size, 207 pp. Kay Rasmus Nielsen (1886-1957), was born in Denmark hearing the traditional Norse fairy tales related by his mother, studied art in Paris, and moved to London in1911. His artwork brought immediate critical acclaim with his first illustrated book, "In Powder and Crinoline" being published in 1913.
However, it was this work, "East of the Sun, West of the Moon", which, "y general consent, [is his] most spectacular and celebrated." One of his admirers, Martin Birnbaum, wrote of this book: "His most intricate inventions never seem laboured. Controlled in a measure by Norse ornamental traditions, he reaches an absolute equality with the poetical text..." (Dalby, p. 90).
Nielsen's style was heavily influenced by Japanese art, and his artwork "unite[s] strong linearity with delicate colouring. For example, the heroine of 'Prince Lindworm'...kneels in a perfect arc of physiologically impossible grace before a tree whose weeping branches echo her curves." (Zipes, p. 341).
Sadly, Nielsen's later years were marked with poverty, as his artwork was no longer in demand after WWII. If only he could know what a great gift his talents have given, and what joy his art has brought to so many.
DESCRIPTION: Bound in dark blue cloth over boards, gilt lettering and elaborate designs on the front panel and spine, richly decorated endpapers by Nielsen in black and gold, illustrated and bordered title page in black, lettered tissue-guarded frontispiece one of twenty-five full colour illustrations bound in throughout, each tipped at the gutter edge onto heavy paper with borders of black and gold, in addition to the colour illustrations there are numerous black-and-white line in-text line drawings and decorations on every page, with each story opening with a three-line initial capital; binding is quarto size (11 3/8" by 9"), pagination: [i, title page with blank verso] [1-8] 9-205 [206].
CONDITION: Very good overall, the boards clean, we had a professional (name available upon request) restore the joints and some damage to the spine and corners, the volume is now sturdily bound, the hinges are solid, the inside is clean other than two leaves with some offsetting from something laid in at some point in the past (not affecting any illustrations), and the sole prior owner marking we see a name lightly written at the top of the front free endpaper; the front board slightly bowed and some soil on the bottom edge of the text block. Overall a near fine interior with a good, but now sturdy, binding.
Offered by Swan's Fine Books.
ELIZABETH BENNET; OR, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
by Austen, Jane; [Rébora, Sol]
Philadelphia: Carey & Lea, 1832. First printing. Near fine.. First US edition in a stunning fine art binding by the acclaimed Argentinian design bookbinder Sol Rébora. Austen's most beloved novel is simultaneously a unique production of profound artistic confidence and an entertaining popular love story: it builds on a long-established tradition of English courtship novels in conversation with many women authors before her like Frances Burney (from whose book CECILIA Austen may have borrowed the very phrase "pride and prejudice"). Austen admitted in a letter that she thought her book's heroine, Elizabeth Bennett, "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print" (29 January 1813) – and generations of readers have agreed with her. First published in 1813 in three volumes, this is the first edition to appear in the United States, published in two volumes by Carey & Lea in an edition of only 750 copies.
Sol Rébora is an internationally recognized design bookbinder based in Buenos Aires. Her works embody a minimalistic elegance that is nevertheless subtly complex, as in the carefully structured multiple layers used here. They are not only visually stunning, but supremely tactile. From Rèbora's artist statement: "The cloth texture is achieved using silk with a patterned design that evokes the aesthetic of the time period in which the original edition was produced, creating a visual connection with antique paper. This design also appeals to the collective memory of how custom bindings from the early 19th century might have appeared, complete with deep-relief hot-stamping impressions." A magnificent, unique copy of an Austen first. Two 12mo volumes, 6.75'' x 4.25'' each. Modern full peach design binding by Sol Rébora in Can Can structure with one layer of cotton cloth and two layers of Japanese paper, each element hand-painted with acrylics and textured with a patterned design impressed with deep-relief hot-stamping from silk; spines and boards stamped in dark grey. Cotton and abaca handmade paper peach endpapers. Publisher's catalogue bound at front of Vol. I. 199, [1]; 209, [1] pages. Vol. I with early pencil inscription of the Portsmouth Athenaeum to fly leaf; early newspaper clipping on "Jane Austen's Genius" archivally tipped onto rear fly leaf. Some browning, light staining to text block, a few early marginal pencil notes. Bright.
Offered by Type Punch Matrix.
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