Rare books from Johnson Rare Books & Archives

English-language manuscript document rendered in brown gall ink on a light blue sheet (15 1/8" x 12 5/8") with a period embossed stamp along the bottom edge. Folded variously in sixths or eighths. Minor oxidation, with a few ink smudges; otherwise very good. An unrecorded and historically important last will and testament of the Nahnken of Pohnpei to his son Henry Nanpei in 1863 granting him lands and islands in what is now the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). This document represents an unprecedented act which introduced the people of Pohnpei to a Western system of private land ownership, forever altering their traditions, according to David Hanlon, Professor Emeritus of Pacific Islands, Micronesia, Ethnographic History and author of the book Upon a Stone Altar: A History of the Island of Pohnpei to 1890 (University of Hawai'i Press, 1988). "Deeds, treaties, contracts, and wills are all Western legal conventions that caused a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding in the early and… Read More

New York: Berkley Publishing Corporation, 1976. First Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/Fine. Inscribed by Frank Herbert to Portland, Oregon bookseller Chuck Garvin on the title page. Garvin and his partner, Jeff Levin, opened a book shop on Burnside Street in the late 1970s featuring a wide selection of science fiction and fantasy literature. The third in Herbert's Dune series of six novels. Nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1977, it was also the first hardcover best-seller ever in the science fiction field. Octavo: 444 p. Original rust cloth binding, with gilt titles. A bit of rubbing along the spine of the dust jacket; else very good or better.

Norfolk, Connecticut: New Directions, 1944. Hardcover. Near fine/Very good. First edition, later issue. The fifth volume in The Makers of Modern Literature series. Octavo: 172 p. with a frontispiece portrait and one additional plate. Original tan cloth binding, with blue titles. A near fine copy in the second state dust jacket designed by Alvin Lustig, with some mild toning and edgewear Signed by the author on the front flyleaf: Vladimir Nabokov 12 - VII - 1949 Salt Lake City Nabokov (1899-1977) had the beginnings of Lolita knocking around in his head when he drove to Salt Lake City for the second Writers' Conference at the University of Utah (July 5-16, 1949). In attendance were Oscar Williams, Wallace Stegner, Martha Foley, and John Crowe Ransom - all formidable figures in the literary world, but none caught the attention of Nabokov quite like former political cartoonist and two-time author Ted Geisel, better known today as Dr. Seuss, with whom the Russian-American novelist shared a friendship… Read More

New York: Horace Liveright, 1930. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Near fine. Perelman's exceedingly scarce second book, a comic novel co-authored with New York journalist Quentin Reynolds. Octavo. Original orange cloth binding, with black stamping. Tiny period bookseller's label to the front flyleaf. A fine copy, tight and square, in a near fine dust jacket with some occasional minor edgewear.

New York: Cassell Publishing Company, 1892. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. The first American edition (from the sheets of the first English edition, with a cancel title page). A universal icon and a metaphor of the human condition, Pinocchio is considered a canonical piece of children's literature and has had an enduring impact on world culture. Small octavo: [8], 232 p. with the half-title and title page printed in red and black. Illustrated with forty-one black-and-white vignette drawings by C. Mazzanti. Original off-white cloth binding, delicately stamped in blue in a decorative floral pattern, with matching edges and endpapers. The spine is a touch faded, with some minor wear to the boards and a bit of wear to the corners and tips; else very good. Housed in a custom blue morocco clamshell box.

The papers and photographs of The Popcorn Theatre, a popular marionette show operated in Southern California for three decades by John D.K. Brunner (1925-93) and his wife Vivian (1926 -2005) along with their son Paris. This collection contains hundreds of original photographs, negatives, sketches for puppets, story concepts, and flyers for promoting shows. Also included is the iconic Popcorn Theatre wooden sign that was used at countless shows and two marionettes. The Brunner's, who were both raised in Southern California, married in 1947 and moved to Paris to study at the Sorbonne, where they often enjoyed watching puppet shows in the city's parks. When they returned to the Unites States, Vivian worked as a dress designer and John as an art director. Neither was happy, so they quit their jobs in 1962 and founded their touring marionette show The Popcorn Theatre. Their son Paris is seen in photographs assisting with puppets from an early age. The Popcorn Theatre was a staple at Southern California… Read More

An archive of research and writing materials gathered for a biography of Ormer Locklear, the daredevil aerial stuntman who was the first to change planes mid-air and died while filming the silent movie The Skywayman (1920). It took more than a decade for author Art Ronnie to research Locklear's life and find a publisher for his book, Locklear: The Man Who Walked on Wings (1973). Born in Greenville, Texas, Locklear (1891-1920) became fascinated with flying when aviation pioneer Calbraith Perry Rodgers landed in a Fort Worth field to unclog a fuel line. With his brothers, Locklear built gliders and later, learned to fly after joining the U.S. Army Air Force in 1917, eventually becoming a flight instructor. He left the Army in 1919 and with two colleagues, joined show promoter and manager William Pickens to form an aerial circus before he was recruited for the silver screen. In his personal life, Locklear married Ruby Graves in 1915, but they separated in 1919 and thereafter she refused to grant him a… Read More

The Roger Gozdecki Collection of E.E. Cummings includes fine first editions of the poet's primary works, many of them signed, as well as letters, original drawings, and a striking self-portrait. The compete catalogue can be downloaded here: https://mcusercontent.com/90ec68132b3c021c2e6819f62/files/efb04ecd-6b48-f2e4-c217-69ef266902c2/EECUMMINGS.pdf.See this collection at the Rare Books LAX live book fair, October 14-16 at The Proud, just minutes from LAX. For more details and tickets, visit: www.RareBooksLA.com

A collection of more than 100 promotional pieces, including movie posters, lobby cards, photographs, sound and video recordings, and other various ephemera in several languages for the cult classic Palm Springs Weekend (1963), a campy view of Palm Springs as a spring break destination. Starring Troy Donahue, Stefanie Powers, Robert Conrad, Ty Hardin, and Connie Stevens, the film centers on a group of college students who travel to Palm Springs for Easter weekend. The film was released by Warner Brothers and featured actors who were under full contract with the studio. Troy Donahue told Palm Springs Life that the best thing about the film was that it was being made in Palm Springs: "And I was there to drink and get laid. I remember that a friend of mine and I started at opposite ends of town. Halfway through the movie, we crossed paths. I got everything he got going in his direction, and he got everything I got coming in mine. I mean, the picture was tame compared to the reality." Slightly in… Read More

New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1885. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. First edition, early state with all three first printing points: the "Decided" misprint on page 9, the erroneous page reference ("88") on page 13, and the "with the was" error on page 57. In addition, this copy features a portrait frontispiece with the cloth under the bust visible and the Heliotype imprint (State A), as well as the tipped-in title page with 1884 on the copyright page (State B) and the tipped-in p.283 with the replaced Uncle Silas engraving (State C). These last three points do not have bearing on priority of issue, nor does the binding. Laid in is a small card (3" x 1 1/2") signed and dated (1894) by Mark Twain. Hilariously picaresque, epic in scope, alive with the poetry and vigor of the Antebellum South, Mark Twain's story about a young boy and his journey down the Mississippi was the first great novel to speak in a truly American voice. As Ernest Hemingway observed, "all American literature… Read More

San Francisco: The San Francisco Herald Office, 1855. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. The first edition in English. Octavo: 104, [1] p. Original brown calf binding, with gilt stamping. The text is especially fresh and bright. A bit of sun fading along the spine, with some minor edgewear; otherwise very good. The Zamorano Eighty 37. Figueroa (1792-1835) had been governor and comandante of Sonora and Sinaloa since 1827, and having been appointed comandante and jefe politico of Alta California arrived in Monterey on January 15, 1833. The first book-length imprint produced in the Californias (1835), his Manifesto is a vigorous defense of his actions limiting the ambitious Híjar and Padrés colonization scheme, which sought to import Mexican families who would take possession of secularized mission lands. Figueroa, supported by the provincial legislature, agreed to comply with colonization orders but prohibited occupation of mission lands, interference with Indian land holdings, and the use of… Read More

San Francisco: The San Francisco Herald Office, 1855. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. The first edition in English. Octavo: 104, [1] p. Original printed yellow paper wrappers. Scattered foxing to the contents. Some general toning along the extremities of the wrappers, with a bit of minor edgewear and spotting; else very good. House in a custom cloth chemise and a one-quarter brown morocco over cloth slipcase. The Zamorano Eighty 37. This copy bears on the dedication page an inscription in pencil: "To Saml. H. Dwinelle, Esq. from John Doyle." Dwinelle was a San Francisco attorney who was elected to the bench of the 15th District Court in 1865. John Doyle is certainly John Thomas Doyle (1819-1906), an eminent attorney long involved in the Pious Fund litigation, a Regent of the University of California from 1868 to 1872, a founding trustee of the California Historical Society in 1870, and a scholar who published numerous articles and pamphlets and edited several books. Given Doyle's intense… Read More

London: Printed for G.G. & J. Robinson, Paternoster-Row; and J. Edwards, Pall-Mall, 1798. First Edition. Hardcover. Quarto, three volumes: [8], xxxix, [1, blank], [8], 432 + [10], 504 + [10], 505, [3, errata] pp. with a copper-engraved map and 17 copper-engraved plates illustrating views on land and sea and natives. In modern three-quarter brown calf over marbled paper bindings, with red and green morocco spine labels, decorative gilt stamping, and new endpapers. Faint ink stamp of a historical society to a few prefatory and concluding leaves, with some evidence of attempted removal. Accompanied by a facsimile of the folio atlas volume, with 16 plates (most folding), in a matching binding. The Zamorano Eighty 77. "[Vancouver's] coastal survey of the area north of San Francisco was the most accurate that had been done to that time... His Voyage is important not only for the magnificent charts and splendid views that accompanied it, but also for the valuable and extensive amount of information that it… Read More

Boulogne: L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui, 1938. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Presentation copy, inscribed by Le Corbusier to M. Villey, Prefect of the Seine Department, on the half-title, with a typed letter signed on headed paper by Corbusier to Villey accompanying the gift of the book. Dated 6 Octobre 1938, the letter has been fully translated and opens: "For a long time, I've been trying to spread the idea that a new civilization has been born and that this civilization must invent its vital infrastructure." Oblong quarto. Numerous illustrations, many photographic, some colored. Original pictorial paper-covered boards over a cloth spine. The extremities are slightly rubbed; otherwise very good. Le Corbusier's book was based on his "Pavillion des temps nouveaux" at the Paris exhibition "Art et Technique" held in 1937. It contained his ideas for new methods of urban planning and housing, including "immeuble-villa" complexes with communal areas for eating and recreation, yet retaining… Read More

Los Angeles: Atwood & Ferguson, 1883. Hardcover. Good. A rare survivor, not in Quebedeaux, this early directory was published just two years after the Los Angeles Times began publication and a year prior to the arrival of cultural crusader Charles F. Lummis following his famous tramp across the continent. It also precedes the mid-1880s boom that initiated the transformation of the small town of just over 11,000 people (or about 33,000 countywide) into a thriving metropolis. Numerous notable residents are listed, including Horace Bell, author of Reminiscences of a Ranger (1881), and Elizabeth A. Follansbee, Southern California's first female physican. Aspects of the city's cultural diversity are evident as well, either overtly with individuals identified as "colored" or in the case of the Asian American population, by omission. Notably, the directory includes an advertisement for F.H. Rogers' Solar Art Gallery at 624 San Fernando Street which features an original albumen photograph. Octavo: [352] p.… Read More