Search Results: Literature & Poetry from Respublica Books LLC

New York: The American Spectator Publishing Company, 1933. Newspaper, 8.75 x 11.25 inches. Folded newsprint with expected toning and brittle folds, but largely free of material chips and tears. Each issue includes the original wrap-around band. Near-fine.. An excellent collection of the first seven issues of The American Spectator founded by George Jean Nathan, Eugene O'Neill, Ernest Boyd, Theodore Dreiser, and James Branch in 1932 to publish original literary and opinion pieces from distinguished American and European writers. Not to be confused with the conservative magazine of the same name, The American Spectator set out to advance original fiction, opinion, and literary criticism by inviting each contributor to direct and self-edit their own articles, and it further set itself apart by refusing to sell advertising space in its pages. The first issue sold for fifty cents (which was then a rather high price for newsprint) and sold out, prompting an additional print-run of twenty thousand copies,… Read More

New York: Random House, 1957. First edition, first printing. Octavo. Original green cloth over boards with gilt titling and dust jacket (not price-clipped) with $6.95 price and 10/57 on front inside flap and publisher's full address to rear inside flap. Superb first printing in a bright dust jacket, minor edgewear to dust jacket at spine and folds, with slight chipping to head of spine, and small abrasions to front and spine of dust jacket, else fine in a very good dust jacket.. Exceptional first edition of Ayn Rand's (1905-1982) magnum opus and libertarian classic. Reportedly born from a conversation between Rand and fellow libertarian novelist, Isabel Paterson, Atlas Shrugged explores the morality of self-interest by depicting the consequences of a general strike by creative professionals who henceforth refuse to share with the world their art, innovations, and ideas. Set in a dystopic future America, Atlas Shrugged combines science fiction, mystery, philosophy, and romance to investigate several… Read More

Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1960. First edition. Octavo. Orange wrappers. Sunning to spine with scattered rubbing and spotting to text block. Author's name sticker to front cover verso. Very good-plus.. Marion Montgomery's (1925-2011) personal copy of his first book of poetry. Montgomery was an American poet, novelist, educator, and critic and, like his personal friend and literary companion, Flannery' O'Connor, a modern Thomist (or, as he and O'Connor referred to themselves, a "Hillbilly Thomist"). He taught English at the University of Georgia for over thirty years and was a prolific writer, publishing three novels, a volume of short stories, poetry, numerous works of literary criticism, and a number of books applying the Thomistic tradition to modern culture and American literature. Montgomery's magnum opus is often considered to be his trilogy The Prophetic Poet and the Spirit of the Age-more commonly known by their individual titles: Why Flannery O'Connor Stayed Home, Why… Read More

London: The Cresset Press, 1953. First edition. Octavo. Original green cloth and dust jacket (not price-clipped); chipping to head and tail of dust jacket, and one-inch closed tear at spine, otherwise moderate edgewear. Near-fine in a very good-plus dust jacket.. A bright copy of this collection of fables from the British archeologist, poet, and essayist Jacquetta Hawkes (1910-1996). Hawkes was a highly respected British archeologist who combined her love for archeology, history, and literature to publish over twenty books-from poetry to fables to works on British history and geology. Hawkes was born in Cambridge, England, the youngest child of Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, a biochemist and 1929 Nobel Prize recipient for his credited discovery of vitamins (and the cousin of Gerard Manley Hopkins). She studied archeology at Newnham College, Cambridge, gaining first-class honors, and during the 1930s she joined and led archeological excavations around the world, including at Mount Carmel, Palestine,… Read More

Urbana, Illinois: Accent: A Quarterly of New Literature, 1946. Printed wrappers, 6 x 9 inches, 64 pp. Light bump to corner, else fine.. A fine copy of this rare literary magazine containing Flannery O'Connor's (1925-1964) first published short story "The Geranium." O'Connor was a prolific American short story writer, novelist, and essayist, and is counted among the greatest American fiction writers of the twentieth century and a master of the Southern Gothic style. Much of O'Connor's writings are deeply imbued with her Roman Catholic faith-though her form stands in marked contrast to the moralistic and didactic methods that informed much of the religious writing of her time. Indeed, O'Connor's fiction is noteworthy for its unsentimental realism and emphasis on the grotesque and sinister aspects of life in the South, often emphasizing themes such as poverty, violence, race, and alienation. She would describe herself in a 1955 letter as a "hillbilly Thomist" in response to those who would see in the… Read More

New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1987. First US edition, first printing. Octavo. Original red cloth over boards with gilt title to spine; original dust jacket (not price-clipped). Fine in fine dust jacket.. Fine first edition of Seamus Heaney's (1939-2013) collection of poems focusing on mortality, loss, and the self in society. Heaney was an internationally renowned Irish poet, playwright, and translator who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995. A native of Northern Ireland, Heaney authored over twenty volumes of poetry and criticism, and his poetry is widely lauded by critics and popular readers alike for its traditionalism and pre-modern emphases. Heaney attended Queen's University Belfast and lived in Dublin from 1976 until his death in 2013, also living part-time in the US where he served as a professor at Harvard University from 1981 to 1997 and as its Ralph Waldo Emerson Poet-in-Residence from 1988 to 2006. The collection's title refers to the haw fruit, which stands as a symbol of… Read More

N.P.: Possibly printed by Charlotte Selver in New York, 1940. Small octavo. Paper wrappers, 8.25 x 5.25 inches, 17 pp. Original wrappers, cover design by Eric Carle, with chipping and loss to wrappers, particularly to upper-right of front wrapper (appx 2 x 3 inches); tape repairs to closed tears to front wrapper; faint toning to title page with light creasing to certain leaves; leaves bright and unmarked. Neat ink signature of Charlotte Selver, the apparent publisher, to title page verso beneath the following note: "This little document has been close to my heart ever since I read it's German translation called 'Bekenntnis einer Freundschaft,' and I have always wanted to share it. My friends came to help. Inge Sammet translated it from the original French, Eric Carle designed the cover for it. Here it is: a true 'LETTER TO A FRIEND.'" The number "123" is written in ink beneath Selver's signature, suggesting that this may be number 123 of a limited print run. Scarce.. Original issue English… Read More

New York: Bantam Books, Inc, 1981. First edition, advance uncorrected page proofs, with accompanying ephemera. Octavo. Original mauve wrappers with publisher's sticker to top front cover. This copy includes the original publisher's letter and a stand-alone map of the Drinkwater family tree, each folded as initially enclosed by the publisher, together with a postcard with Lippincott artwork. Creasing to spine with minor edgewear, and faint toning to the publisher's letter, else fine.. Proof copy of John Crowley's (b. 1942) masterpiece, Little, Big, which influential American literary critic Harold Bloom proposed for inclusion in the Western Canon, and which has been hailed as the closest literary achievement we have to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Crowley's Little, Big received the prestigious World Fantasy Award in 1982 and was nominated for a host of other prestigious accolades, including the Nebula Ward for Best Novel (1981), Hugo Award for Best Novel (1982), the British… Read More

Churchtown, Dundrum: Cuala Press, 1920. First edition, first printing. One of only 400 printed. Octavo. Original blue paper boards with buff linen spine. All edges untrimmed. In the original plain tan dust jacket, preserved in glassine wrap, with chipping to dust jacket (particularly to spine). Preserved in a custom clamshell box. A brilliant first printing of this monumental work in the exceedingly rare original dust jacket.. A remarkably bright first printing-in the scarce original dust jacket-of one of W.B. Yeats's (1865-1939) most important poetry collections. One of only 400 printed. Michael Robartes and the Dancer includes the first book printing of some of Yeats's most famous poems, including "The Second Coming," "Easter, 1916," and "A Prayer for My Daughter." The book was printed and published by Yeats's sister, Elizabeth Corbet Yeats, and, according to its colophon, was completed on All Soul's Day (November 1st) 1920-although Wade (a Yeats editor and bibliographer) claims the book was not… Read More

New York: The Foundation for Cultural Review, Inc, 1982. Magazine. Stapled wraps, 7 x 10 inches. Toning with a slight crease to bottom-right cover corner, else fine.. A bright and original first issue of The New Criterion. The New York-based monthly literary magazine was founded by Hilton Kramer (1928-2012) in 1982 to speak plainly and vigorously about the problems facing the artist and the life of the mind in modern American society. Prior to launching The New Criterion, Kramer served as art critic for The Nation and, from 1965 to 1982, the New York Times where he challenged the Leftist political bias and perceived nihilism of the paper's art criticism. In 1982 Kramer resigned from the New York Times to found The New Criterion with pianist and music critic Samuel Lipman, establishing what would become one of the premier magazines covering art culture and criticism. The magazine is renowned and unique in its abiding emphasis upon artistic classicism and political conservatism. Its name is a… Read More

New York: New Masses, Inc, 1931. Magazine. Stapled wraps, 11.75 x 8.75 inches, 31 pp. Toning to wrappers and leaves with minor creasing and wear, but otherwise very well-preserved. An exceptional example of this rare volume. Very good-plus.. Exceptional and bright edition of the December 1931 volume of New Masses magazine (Volume 7, Number 7), featuring original works by Whittaker Chambers (1901-1961) ("Death of the Communists: A Story") and John Dos Passos (1896-1970) ("Wesley Everest"). New Masses was an American Marxist magazine published from 1926 to 1948 and was closely affiliated with the Communist Party USA. Throughout the Great Depression and into World War II the magazine served as a fount of Marxist intellectual thought in America, publishing fiction, poetry, book reviews, and think pieces from the country's leading communist, progressive, and Left-leaning intellectuals. Throughout its influential run the magazine counted numerous leading lights among its editors and contributors,… Read More

New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc, 1967. First edition. Octavo. Original cloth over boards and dust jacket (not price-clipped). Flatsigned by Peter Viereck on half-title page. Minor edgewear to dust jacket, else fine in fine dust jacket.. Signed first edition of Peter Viereck's (1916-2006) New and Selected Poems, 1932-1967, a poetry collection that assembles his trademark boldness, energy, and quest for inner meaning. Viereck graduated from Harvard University in 1937 with a degree in history before earning his Ph.D. in history (also from Harvard) in 1942, whereupon he joined the history faculty at Smith College and thereafter taught at Mount Holyoke College. Viereck was a prolific writer and poet, publishing numerous poems in Poetry Magazine and winning the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1949 for his collection in Terror and Decorum, published in 1948. Viereck was also an early leader of the nascent American conservative movement in the 1940s, arguing for the need of a new conservatism capable… Read More

London: Secker & Warburg, 1949. First edition, first printing with "First published 1949" on copyright page. Octavo. First edition rebound in modern red morocco with skull buttons and "Winston Smith" lettered in white to left breast with on-laid fake eye to chest with blind-stamped lines; title and name lettered in white on spine; front and rear free endpapers and pastedowns replaced with collage of Orwell's eyes, including a secret "trapdoor" on front pastedown disclosing a picture of the Queen of England; minor toning to certain leaves, including title page (as pictured). Brilliant first edition in remarkable custom binding.. First edition of George Orwell's (1903-1950) classic dystopian novel that has captured the imagination and fears of readers, critics, and social observers ever since its publication in 1949. Orwell's ninth and final book, written and published in the closing years of his life, Nineteen Eighty-Four provides a gripping and prophetic meditation on the twentieth century's… Read More

New York: Simon and Schuster, 1961. First edition, first printing. Folio. Original brown cloth and dust jacket (not price-clipped). Minor edgewear to dust jacket, else fine in a fine dust jacket. Increasingly uncommon with dust jacket in this condition.. Gnoli, Domenico. Beautiful first edition of Domenico Gnoli's (1933-1970) modern fairy tale about a melancholy prince who discovers how to smile. Gnoli was a renowned Italian painter and stage designer best known for his surrealist pop art and canvas work featuring extremely scaled paintings of folds, patterns, and textures. Gnoli's more surrealist and fantastical illustrations, sketches, and etchings recall the famed works of Edward Gorey (with which Gnoli's works were sometimes confused)-and Gnoli's talent for the surreal and fantastic are on full display in his most popular and treasured book, Orestes or the Art of Smiling. Equal parts fairy tale and work of art, Gnoli's 1961 book tells the tale of Orestes, young Prince of Terramafiusa, and how he… Read More

Helen Hayes Theatre, 1940. Original script. Script, 9 x 11 inches, 32 pp. Bound in original boards. Mild wear to boards, especially at head and base of spine. Slight toning to page borders (not affecting text) and minor smudging to certain pages from prior use. Pencil marks and notations throughout, including corrections and strike outs, possibly made in connection with the original October 27, 1940 radio broadcasting of the production.. An original radio script for the October 27, 1940 broadcasting of an adapted version of Rose Wilder Lane's (1886-1968) classic novel, Let the Hurricane Roar. Helen Hayes MacArthur (1900-1993) was an American actress and radio personality whose prodigious career spanned eighty years. Hayes would earn the nickname the "First Lady of American Theatre," and she remains among only a handful of performing artists to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award. Hayes was the first person to win the Triple Crown of Acting, and she would also receive the… Read More

Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing Company, 1978. First edition. Octavo. Publisher's brown cloth in original dust jacket (not price-clipped). Sunning to spine and front panel; edgewear and rubbing. Boldly inscribed by Toledano to Karl and Therese Hess on front flyleaf: "For Karl & Therese / As always / In Friendship / Ralph de Toledano." Fine in very good dust jacket. Single-page letter addressed to Karl Hess dated "11 February 1978," signed by Toledano, with mild toning and spotting and neat fold creases, else fine.. Signed first edition of the only book of poems published by influential conservative journalist, poet, critic, commentator, and jazz enthusiast Ralph de Toledano (1916-2007). Toledano was born in Tangier, Morocco but moved to New York with his family as a child. He later attended Columbia University to study literature and philosophy, graduating in 1938. In 1940 he became editor of the Socialist Party of America's magazine, The New Leader, and was later drafted into military service… Read More

New York: Fleet Publishing Company, 1962. First edition. Octavo. Original blue cloth and dust jacket. Price-clipped dust jacket with light rubbing and short, internally mended tear at bottom edge of rear panel. Minor scuffing to page block. Fine in very good-plus dust jacket.. A bright copy of Russell Kirk's (1918-1994) collection of traditional ghost stories. In addition to his status as a founding father of modern American conservatism, Kirk was a widely recognized writer of ghost stories in the classic tradition of celebrated storytellers M. R. James and H. Russell Wakefield. Kirk's ghostly output included three novels-Old House of Fear (1961), A Creature of Twilight (1966), and Lord of the Hollow Dark (1989)-and twenty-two short stories. Like other conservative fiction writers of his era (including G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, and J. R. R. Tolkien), Kirk's fictional works often contained conservative themes and undertones. And like Chesterton, Lewis, and Tolkien, Kirk would spend much of his… Read More

New York: Random House, 1959. First Random House edition. Octavo. Original blue cloth decorated in black with gilt lettering and dust jacket (not price-clipped). Creasing to board edges with some rubbing to cloth; minor edgewear and scuffing to dust jacket. Near-fine.. Bright first Random House edition of Ayn Rand's (1905-1982) debut novel about life in post-revolutionary Russia. First published by Random House in 1959 following the commercial success of Rand's 1957 best-seller Atlas Shrugged, We the Living tells the story of Kira Argounova, a fierce and independent spirit who struggles against the collectivism of Soviet Russia during the early 1920s. The novel was first completed in 1934 but, despite H. L. Mencken's support, failed to attract a publisher until 1935 when Macmillan agreed to publish the work. Macmillan's agreement to publish Rand's novel purportedly sparked debate within the publisher's editorial ranks, with certain communist-sympathetic editors objecting to its publication. We the… Read More