Search Results: Criticism and Commentary from Allington Antiquarian Books, LLC

London: The Adelphi, July, 1934. First Edition. Wrappers. Very good/very good. A set of three SCARCE monthly issues of the "Adelphi", a monthly magazine published in London, England, these being the issues for August, 1933, October, 1933, and July, 1934, each bound in the Publisher's original yellow wrappers and each containing writing cited to Eric Blair, the writer who would later be known as "George Orwell". Each issue is age-toned and shows wear, and the original staples have rusted as can be seen on the wrappers and on the leaves within. On the front cover of each issue, a prior owner has written "Orwell" in pencil. George Orwell's first full-length book publication, "Down and Out in Paris and London", was a Memoir published in two parts, the first part being an account of his living in those two prosperous cities in extreme poverty, his experience in each city being told in fictionalized form, was first published by Gollancz in January, 1933 after having been rejecterd by T. S. Eliot and… Read More

London: John W. Parker and Son, 1857. Third Edition. Hardcover. Very good +. An attractive copy of the Third Edition of Bacon's Essays with Annotations by Richard Whatley, Bishop of Dublin, bound in full leather with the spine elegantly decorated and lettered in gilt, showing a red title label and some general wear. Each board shows some modest fading and is decorated/embossed and lined in gilt. Each board's turn-ins also are decorated in gilt. Each board's pastedown and the facing side of its accompanying free endpaper is in red and attractively marbled. The closed page block's visible edges are in yellow with the top edge being age-soiled. Within, the leaves are clean and bright and show very few minor spots. (As stated in Wikipedia: Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban[a] PC, QC [also known as Lord Verulam], was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon led the advancement of both natural philosophy and the… Read More

London: Collins, 1947. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover. Very good +/fine. A Very Good copy of the first edition, first printing (being a bit askew and showing some edgewear along with a wound and some glossy spots to the front board) in the Publisher's original green cloth with white lettering and decoration, in an about Fine example of the original green dust jacket also lettered and decorated in white and showing only minor lettering -- less than we typically see.. The volume is mildly askew and shows some rubbing to the spine ends, board bottoms and board corners. Within, there are six (6) colour plates and numerous black and white illustrations to accompany them. The front and rear free endpapers show some offsetting and the pastedowns show some creasing (a presumed production flaw). The text to the front flap is itself and interesting read, stating in part: "Those who read this book may find much to make them angry -- much with which they disagree. They will also find matter for… Read More

San Antonio: Wings Press, 2004. First Edition, First Printing. Wrappers. Fine. A Fine copy of the first edition, first printing, in the Publisher's original wrappers. As Bass states in his Afterword: "If the wild beauty of the made and physical natural world is lost or further compromised, then how much longer can the echoes of that beauty and innocence remain kindled in our own hearts? I suspect we won't know the answer until it's all gone...which makes the art - the voices and the minds - of the writers gathered here all the morer important...." A Fine copy.

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1963. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good +/very good. A Near Fine or better copy of the first edition, first printing in an about Very Good dust jacket with some chipping and rubbing to the rear panel. On its front flap, the dust jacket states: "The present work is a product of over five years' work. It studies every important novel written by Henry James and touches upon almost every minor nouvelle or short story by this master magician of modern fiction. It is a revaluation of the entire body of Henry James' writing. It arrives at some fresh and fascinating conclusions...." The volume itself is in surprisingly nice condition with some slight bumping the upper leading corner of each board and a modest pushing at the spine ends. The closed page block's top edge is stained gray and remains in very attractive condition.

London, 1923. First Edition, First Printing. Wrappers. Very good. TEMPORARILY DISCOUNTED. WAS $185. NOW $75. A Very Good copy of The Nation and The Athenaeum for Saturday, April 28, 1923 in the Publisher's original stapled wrappers (consisting of large sheets - each center-folded to form four pages) and being Vol., XXXIII, No. 4 with the staples rusted and the title sheet separated from the body of the publication but present, as is the center sheet. This issue contains work by the Rt. Hon. C.F.G. Masterman, Henry W. Nevinson, J. Middleton Murry, Edmund Blunden, Katherine Mansfield (presenting her final short story titled "Six Years After" (an unfinished story). The issue contains other writings as well, including "Trollope in Autobiography" by Murry, and "Mr. Kipling Reconstructs" by Blunden. In our experience, copies are QUITE SCARCE INDEED.

Louisville, KY: Rev. James D. Craik, D. D.; Morton & Griswold, Printers, 1860. First Edition, First Printing. A Very Good+ copy of the first edition, first printing in the original string-bound wrappers with some spotting and toning, as well as some minor loss to the spine ends and a tiny bit of loss to the lower right corner of the front wrapper and title page. The pamphlet shows a vertical bend line to each wrapper with a consequent bend line to the leaves. A Very Good + copy of this scarce publication. THE FOLLOWING IS FROM WIKIPEDIA: James Craik (31 August 1806 – 9 June 1882)[1] was a noted preacher, author, lawyer, and amateur architect. He was born on August 31, 1806, in Alexandria, Virginia to George Washington Craik, secretary to President George Washington during his second term, and Maria Tucker. He was the grandson of Dr. James Craik, President George Washington's physician. He married Juliet Shrewsbury[4] and had eleven children. Craik wrote extensively on theology. His two best… Read More

London, 1879. First Edition, First Printing. No binding. Very good. A Very Good or better illustration of author Bret Harte published in Vanity Fair magazine for July 4, 1879, including the Vanity Fair profile of Harte, being Vanity Fair's "MEN OF THE DAY. No. 191." with evidence of the two pages having been removed from a larger volume which once likely held them. Examples of this original material are surprisingly uncommon to the market. A Very Good or better UNCOMMON piece of Bret Harte literary ephemera.

New York, San Diego, London: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1991. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover. Fine/fine. TEMPORARILY DISCOUNTED. WAS $75. NOW $35. A Fine copy of the first edition, first printing (slight push to the spine tail), in a fine, bright, unfaded dust jacket), being a set of Essays on Modern Poetry by one of the modern eras great Poets. Paz won the 1990 Nobel Prize in Literature for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity. A Fine copy.

The Nonesuch Press. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Very good. An about Very Good copy of this famed work from an edition consisting of 1,050 numbered copies printed by the Pelican Press on Arnold Unbleached Hand-Made Paper of which this is Copy 238. The volume is bound in quarter brown buckram and paper-covered boards showing marking and general wear. Per litcharts [dot] com: "The work highlights two common characteristics of classical Greek culture—homoeroticism (conceived of rather differently from a modern understanding of homosexuality) and love of drinking parties. Plato critiques both these cultural elements by portraying Socrates as the utmost exemplar of sobriety and restraint." An about Very Good copy.

Chicago: Jansen McClurg & Company, 1881. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover. Near fine. A Very Good + copy of the first edition, first printing, in the Publisher's original green cloth (some rubbing to the spine ends and board corners, faint splash mark to the front board seen when held at an angle to the light) with a prior owner's signature and contemporary date of "4.20.1881" to the title page's upper margin; a work in which Miller excoriated whites for their treatment of Indians. A Very Good + copy and a better copy than we typically see.

New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1990. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/fine. A Fine, tight, and unread copy of the first American edition, first printing, in fine dust jacket; a work of nonfiction in which, using Irish vernacular, Donleavy gives his personal view of Ireland. A Fine, tight, and unread copy.

San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 1967. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover. Near fine. A Very Good + to Near Fine copy of the first edition, first printing in book form of Cartoons earlier published in "The Wasp" (some rubbing to the spine ends and leading board corners). The Wasp was an illustrated weekly magazine devoted to social and political satire which was published from 1876 to well after the turn of the twentieth century. It was founded by the Korbel brothers who had immigrated from Czechoslovakia. After a period of time spent working as skilled mechanics, they pooled their resources and founded a cigar box factory and becoming one of the earliest firms to use redwood to produce cigar boxes. To further their business, they bought a half-interest in a redwood country sawmill and thereafter bought out their business partner(s), becoming full owners of the sawmill and added nearby land. After the wood was exhausted, they planted grapevines amongst the stubs and thus was born… Read More

New York: The Grolier Club, 1950. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine. TEMPORARILY DISCOUNTED. WAS $225. NOW $125. A Fine copy of the first edition, first printing (some age toning to the board extremities as usual, but a nicer copy than we usually see), being one of only 750 copies issued and rather uncommon to the market. "Trollope's America" by Willard Thorp was delivered at The Grolier Club on October 18, 1949, and covers Trollope's five visits to the United States and his book about that country ("North America"). "The Lawyers of Anthony Trollope" by Henry S. Drinker was delivered at The Grolier Club on November 15, 1949 and deals with Trollope's changing attitudes about lawyers as revealed in his writing. This copy comes the RARE ORIGINAL PROSPECTUS for the book (some toning, a few light bend lines, a horizontal fold to the center -- presumably for mailing, COMPLETE WITH THE EVEN RARER ORDER FORM loosely laid in, which, in our experience is virtually impossible to find. In over 40 years of… Read More

Boston: Crocker, S. R., 1880. First Edition, First Printing. Wrappers. Very good. TEMPORARILY DISCOUNTED. WAS $225. NOW $125. A Very Good copy of the first edition, first printing of this Literary magazine, being Volume XI, number 16 published in Boston, Massachusetts in the Publisher's original stitched wrappers (showing some signs of use and a spilt to the bottom portion of the spine fold). This issue contains a number of items of interest, including a review of Anthony Trollope's "The Duke's Children" published in Harper's Franklin Square Library (Number 126), a RARE AND EPHEMERAL First Edition published in wrappers AS IS THIS ISSUE OF THE LITERARY WORLD. RARE INDEED.