Authors' First Books from Sumner & Stillman

1895. New York: Macmillan and Co., 1895. 3 pp undated ads. Original black cloth. First American Edition of Conrad's first book, with a text that varies considerably from the English edition (because it was typeset from uncorrected proofs). We find the American edition to be somewhat scarcer than the English one (as well it should be, since only… Read more about this item

1895. [advance review copy] New York: Macmillan and Co., 1895. 3 pp undated ads. Original very dark blue cloth. First American Edition of Conrad's first book, with a text that varies considerably from the English edition (because it was typeset from uncorrected proofs). We find the American edition to be scarcer than the English one (as well it… Read more about this item

1895. New York: Macmillan and Co., 1895. 3 pp undated ads. Original black cloth. First American Edition of Conrad's first book, with a text that varies considerably from the English edition (because it was typeset from uncorrected proofs). We find the American edition to be somewhat scarcer than the English one (as well it should be, since only… Read more about this item

1895. New York: Macmillan and Co., 1895. 3 pp undated ads. Original very dark blue cloth. First American Edition of Conrad's first book, with a text that varies considerably from the English edition (because it was typeset from uncorrected proofs). We find the American edition to be scarcer than the English one (as well it should be, since… Read more about this item

1895. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1895. Original dark olive-green cloth. First Edition of Joseph Conrad's first book, an edition believed to have consisted of 1000-1250 copies. Conrad, after meeting the real "Olmeijer" in East Borneo in 1887, gradually produced the manuscript of this book over the six years 1889-1895. He submitted it to Unwin for consideration in their… Read more about this item

1900. [her first novel] New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1900. 2 pp undated ads. Original dark grey-green paper-covered boards with spine decorated in gilt. First Edition of Edith Wharton's first novel (actually a novella). This was her fourth book overall, preceded by VERSES (1878), THE DECORATION OF HOUSES (1897) and THE GREATER INCLINATION (short stories - 1899); about… Read more about this item

1878. [RLS's first book] London: C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1878. Original light blue cloth decorated in black and gilt, beveled boards. First Edition of Stevenson's first book, which consisted of just 750 copies. It was preceded only by several tracts such as THE PENTLAND RISING and ON THE THERMAL INFLUENCE OF FORESTS. Included is a frontispiece by… Read more about this item

1878. [the fine Bradley Martin copy] Recited in The Theatre, Oxford, June 26, 1878. Oxford: Thos. Shrimpton and Son, 1878. Original grey printed wrappers. First Edition of Oscar Wilde's first book, the Newdigate Prize-winning poem that he wrote while a student at Magdalen College. To quote from Pearson: He [Wilde] left Oxford in a blaze of glory. The… Read more about this item

1895. [the leaves still unopened] London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1895. Original dark green cloth. First Edition of Joseph Conrad's first book. "In the absence of publisher's records, the number of copies printed has been estimated to be between 600 and 3000, with approximately 1100 being the most likely number" [Supino]. Conrad, after meeting the real "Olmeijer" in East… Read more about this item

1850. [first fiction, in original cloth] A Romance of the Fifth Century. London: Richard Bentley, 1850. 2 pp undated ads in Vols II and III, as well as printed endpaper ads in all three volumes. Original cream embossed cloth with blind-stamping on the covers and gilt stamping on the spines. First Edition of Wilkie Collins's first fiction, preceded… Read more about this item

1926. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926. Original green-blue cloth with spine label, with dust jacket. First American Edition of the author's first book, published fifteen years after the 500-copy English edition (and three years after her death). In 1909, Kathleen Beauchamp's mother traveled to London from their native New Zealand to check on her daughter -- and… Read more about this item

1895. [a handsome copy] London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1895. Original dark green cloth. First Edition of Joseph Conrad's first book, an edition believed to have consisted of 1000-1250 copies. Conrad, after meeting the real "Olmeijer" in East Borneo in 1887, gradually produced the manuscript of this book over the six years 1889-1895. He submitted it to Unwin for… Read more about this item

1892. [with original early photograph] Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1892 [actually late 1891]. Original mauve cloth decorated in both glossy and matte gilt. First Edition of the first book by Frank Norris, a romantic narrative poem of medieval chivalry, written when he was a freshman student at the University of California. (He would not graduate there, but rather… Read more about this item

1859. [in an unrecorded binding] London: Chapman and Hall, 1859. Original blind-stamped rose-brown cloth. First Edition of George Meredith's first full-length novel (preceded only by a volume of verse and two single-volume burlesques). FEVEREL is the tough tale of a father's "system" of raising his son, developed not so much out of concern for his son as out… Read more about this item

1916. New York: John Lane Company | London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1916. Original orange-brown cloth decorated in black and gilt. First Edition of Sherwood Anderson's first (and most autobiographical) novel -- a rags-to-riches-to-unhappiness tale of an Ohio newsboy, complete with alcoholic father and martyr mother who in trying to feed her children works her way into… Read more about this item

1881. [a handsome copy] The Folk­Lore of the Old Plantation. With Illustrations by Frederick S. Church and James H. Moser. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1881. 8 pp undated ads. Original green cloth pictorially decorated in black and gilt. First Edition, first printing, of Joel Chandler Harris's first and most beloved book, featuring Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox… Read more about this item

1875. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1875. Original terra-cotta cloth, beveled. First Edition of Henry James's first book, which consisted of only 1,500 copies. This is a collection of six tales that had appeared in American periodicals (mostly the Atlantic Monthly) over the preceding years. In 1873 James's father wrote him to say that he had had… Read more about this item

1851. [his first and scarcest novel] Reprinted, with corrections and additions, from Fraser's Magazine. London: John W. Parker, 1851. 8 pp undated ads. Original blind-stamped rose-brown wavy-grain cloth. First Edition of Charles Kingsley's first-written (and today his scarcest) novel. It first appeared serially in Fraser's Magazine during the latter half of 1848 (the year of the "last great… Read more about this item

1787. [original boards, leaves uncut] London: Printed for A. Strahan; T. Cadell in The Strand; and W. Creech, Edinburgh, 1787. Original blue-grey paper-covered boards with cream paper spine and printed label, page edges uncut. "The London edition," which is to say the third edition overall (so stated, unlike the prior two) -- following the rare Kilmarnock edition of… Read more about this item

1896. A Story of an Eastern River. Second Edition. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1896. Original dark green cloth. First Edition, early printing -- of Conrad's first book. Though labeled "Second Edition" on the title page, this is actually a reprint of the first edition; all copies of this printing seem to have half-title verso ads that are colonial.… Read more about this item