Literature

Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1943 First printing of the first edition. One of 1,217 copies printed, Publisher's black cloth with gilt spine titles, octavo, 458 pages. The fourth book issued by Arkham House. The companion novel to The Outsider and Others.

Accompanied by three letters from August Derleth to Clark Ashton Smith, discussing dust jacket art. Also includes a prepublication announcement card and a subsequent information card, as well as a letter from Derleth verifying an order for copies of Beyond the Wall of Sleep.

Light rubbing at head and tail of spine and at corners of boards, text block is faintly age toned, but clean, unmarked, and tight in binding. Scarce dust jacket is slightly rubbed at spine head and tail and at corner tips. Overall near fine to fine condition.

London: Tinsley Brothers, 1872. Rare First Edition of Hardy's Second Novel in the Original Cloth [HARDY, Thomas]. Under the Greenwood Tree. A Rural Painting of the Dutch School. By the Author of ‘Desperate Remedies.' In Two Volumes. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1872. Rare first edition of Thomas Hardy's second novel. Two octavo volumes (7 3/8 x 4 7/8 inches; 188 x 124 mm). [6], 215, [1, blank]; [6], 216 pp. Complete with half-titles. Original green sand-grain cloth over beveled boards. Covers stamped in black with an Oxford frame and spines ruled in gilt and black and lettered in gilt. A bit of rubbing to extremities and corners. Gilt on the spine with some rubbing. Hinges with some professional repairs. Previous owner's ink signature on front pastedown of each volume. Some foxing and staining, mostly at front and rear. Overall, a very good copy, in the scarce original cloth. Housed in slipcase. After burning his first effort at a novel, and receiving scant attention upon the publication of… Read More

Cairo: Bulak, 1868 Book. Very Good. Hardcover. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Rare, the first edition to be printed in Cairo, Bulak press completed in 1285 AH- 1868 Ad. Edited by Nasr al Horini and others. In contemporary fine bindings. Long 8vo, (189, 197, 192, 190, 195, 213, 190, 197, 185, 174, 173, 179, 170, 179, 168, 170, 168, 218, 169, 188 p.) plus one page index for each part..

One of two masterworks were printed in al Jawa'ib press by Ahmad Faris al Shidyaq in its original gilded binging. As published. Heading decoration in the first page, and all edges are marbled. The author's criticism on al Qamus al Muheet by al Fairouzabadi. Al Jawa'ib press was established in 1277 AH. (1861 AD.) and published many works in Arabic in defferent subjects, and few of Turkish.

Paris: Meynial, 1925. First Edition. George Barbier. A complete and excellent set of the five annual issues illustrated with a total of sixty beautiful pochoir plates, complete with decorated pochoir title pages. 'Falbalas and Franfreluches' (Frippery and Finery: Fashion Diaries) represents a literary and artistic collaboration of unusual elegance and sophistication. French illustrator, George Barbier (1882 - 1932) spared no effort in the making of this beautiful collection, using the finest pigments and up to thirty stencils per print to create images of the highest quality reflecting fashionable themes of the day. The plates portray romance amidst exotic lands and ages past, including a native American idyll on the Missouri, a languid mistress cocooned in a hammock in the tropical Antilles, high baroque debauchery, and, of course, a myriad of lovers depicted in Paris at the height of the chic 1920s. Each annual includes twelve pages of fine writing by Barbier's contemporaries in the Parisian scene… Read More

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1926. First Edition. Fine/Fine. First edition, first printing with no damage to type on pages 38, 90 and 248; in a first state dust jacket with lips unbattered. Bound in publisher's green cloth with titles in blind on the upper board, and stamped in gilt on the spine. Fine, almost appearing as new, with bright and sharp gilt lettering. Faint wear at corners and bumping to bottom corner of lower board, creating a tiny, corresponding chip to the dust jacket. A breathtaking copy, one would be hard-pressed to find one nicer.

London: Longmans, Green & Company, 1910. First Edition. Very Good. First edition. Andrew Lang's Color Fairy Books, complete in twelve volumes, all first impressions of the first edition: Blue (1889), Red (1890), Green (1892), Yellow (1894), Pink (1897), Grey (1900), Violet (1901), Crimson (1903), Brown (1904), Orange (1906), Olive (1907), Lilac (1910). The volumes average in Very Good, with fading to spines, foxing, light edge wear, soiling, or rubbing, bookplates or previous ownership markings, and toning to pages. Tear to cloth at base of spine of The Blue Fairy Book; Inner hinges tender or exposed in the Lilac, Orange and Grey; Corner clipped from front free endpaper in The Lilac Fairy Book. A lovely set Andrew Lang's Color Fairy Books, beautifully decorated in ornate gilt stamping.

New York: William S. Gottsberger, 1886. First American Edition. Very Good. Six volumes. First American edition, all first printings with properly dated title pages and publisher's imprint on all copyright pages. Publisher's brown cloth with gilt lettering and black stamping, with volumes ranging from Very Good to Near Fine. Softening to spine ends, with Volume II of Before Tilsit showing shallow loss at spine ends. Volume I of The Invasion with owner name stamp on title page; neat owner name on first page of text of volume II of The Invasion and volume II of Borodino. Bookplate in volume 1 of Before Tilsit and volume I of The Invasion. A handsome set of the first American edition of this classic of Russian literature. Translated from the French edition by Clara Bell.

New York: Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, 1929. First Edition. Near Fine/Very Good. First edition, first printing. Bound in publisher's black and white Art Deco style boards over white cloth spine lettered in black. Near Fine with toning to pages and top and bottom edges of covers. In a Very Good first issue dust jacket with Humanity Uprooted priced at $3.00 on the rear panel; toning to spine with fading to red print there, light edge wear, light soiling, and erased pencil notation to rear flap corner. A fantastic copy in the scarce first issue dust jacket.

Paris, Charles Gosselin, 1831.
Two 8vo volumes [205 x 126 mm] of: I/ (4) ll. for the half-title, title and foreword, 404 pp. ; II/ (2) ll., 536 pp. for part 2. Both titles are decorated with Tony Johannot's woodcuts engraved by Porret. Bound in blue half calf, flat spines. Reliure de l'époque.
First edition of the famous and first great novel by Victor Hugo.
Carteret, I, pp. 400-402; Escoffier 870; Vicaire, Manuel de l'amateur de livres du XIXe siècle, IV, 256-257.
This copy belongs to the second state, with the author's name on the title and the fictitious mention "Seconde edition" below the title.
"Since Gosselin's copy appeared at auction (Leroy auction, March, 26-27th, 1931, N°328), it became indisputable that the mention of a second or third edition doesn't take anything from the first edition nature of a book.
Gosselin-Leroy's copy bore indeed on a fourth edition of Notre-Dame de Paris, 1831, the following autograph note:
'First edition published in 1100 copies that have been, following the… Read More

Charles Dickens. The Nonesuch Press, London, 1937 - 1939, 23 volumes and a book-form case (titled "Plate"), containing a woodcut plate entitled "Leaving the Old Curiosity Shop," drawn by George Cattermole for Chapman & Hall, Ltd., a print of the woodcut, and letter from Chapman & Hall guaranteeing the plate's authenticity. Edited by Arthur Waugh, Hugh Walpole, Walter Dexter and Thomas Hatton. Limited to 877 copies, a limitation based on the number of illustrations in the first editions of Dickens, where each set received one of the 877 illustration wood or steel blocks. Each volume with the Ex Libris bookplate of Carlotta and Eugene O'Neill. Carlotta's fourth marriage was to O'Neill; his third marriage. O'Neill had instructed his publisher to wait 25 years after his death before publishing Long Day's Journey Into Night, however, Carlotta took the play to another publisher, whereupon it was published less than 18 months after O'Neill died. The play was produced in 1956 on Broadway and won a Pulitzer… Read More

Due tomi in-folio; cc. (7), pp. IV, c. (1), pp. LXXXI, 211; c. (1); pp. 366, c. (1). Cartonatura editoriale originale. Qualche abile restauro ai dorsi delle legature, leggermente allentate, tuttavia splendida copia a pieni margini. A splendid copy with uncut margins, preserved in its original editorial orange boards.Iniziata da Bodoni e portata a termine dalla vedova del celebre stampatore, Margherita Paola Dall'Aglio (Parma, 1758 – Parma, 1841), quest'edizione reca nelle pagine precedenti il frontespizio: "Imprimé par ordre de Sa Majesté Joachim Napoleon Roi des Deux Siciles pour l'instruction de son Fils Ainé S.A.R. le Prince Achille Napoleon". Brunet, III, 754: "Édition magnifique"; Brooks, 1149: "E' una delle più belle edizioni bodoniane"; De Lama, II, p. 213.

Paris, Gabriel Quinet, 1662.
12mo [144 x 88 mm] of (11) ll., pp. 9 to 76, (1) l. with the extract of the privilege.
Full red Jansenist morocco, spine ribbed, inner gilt border, gilt edges. Binding signed Trautz-Bauzonnet.
Precious first edition of the " facheux " first comedy-ballet composed by Moliere.
Guibert, I, p.75 ; Lacroix n°7; Tchemerzine, IV, 770 ; Ruble, 357.
This comedie-ballet was first performed on August 17, 1661 at Vaux-Le-Vicomte in Fouquet's castle, in the presence of Louis XIV.
This play by Moliere is among the most sought-after, its printing having been disturbed by the arrest of Fouquet.
"A singular anomaly is noticed in the pagination.
The copy is composed of quires comprising 6 leaves each. The first quire signed A begins with the title and ends on the verso of the Epistre au Roy, which is blank. The second quire signed A begins with the Preface and ends on page 10, that is to say on the back of the first leaf of the piece. Usually, this page 10 should be numbered 12, the recto… Read More

New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers / A Story Press Book, 1938 Presentation copy from Richard Wright to Ernest Hemingway: "To Ernest Hemingway / From / Richard Wright." Stated second edition in married original dust jacket, first published with four novellas; two more were added when the book was reprinted in 1940.
In Down by the Riverside, included in this collection, Wright transposes the Italian retreat at the Battle of Caporetto in Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms to the American South. Richard Wright was known to be a great admirer of Ernest Hemingway, whom he once named as a modernist writer whose work should be read by aspiring black authors (Scruggs, Hemingway and the Black Renaissance, 58–59).
Mild toning to margins of endpapers, light toning to page margins, spine ends gently crimped, and a light pale stain to bottom front cover, foot of spine, and just an inch to bottom back spine fold, else book in fine condition; dust jacket with professional… Read More

Paris, de l'Imprimerie de P. Didot l'aîné, 1806.
Large folio [464 x 303 mm] of (2) ll., 1 portrait, xcii pp., 194 pp., (3) ll. of Liste des souscripteurs,6 colored plates out of pagination. Quarter red straight grained morocco, elegantly decorated flat spine, olive green morocco lettering piece, gilt edges. Case. Slightly later binding.
The most beautiful ancient editionof Paul et Virginie, illustrated "with a portraitby Laffite, engraved by Ribault and 6 figures by Gérard, Girodet, Isabey, Laffite, Moreau et Prudhon,engraved by Bourgeois de la Richardière, Bovinet, Mecou, Pillement fils, Prot et Roger.
The figures are very beautiful.The touching composition of Moreau and especially his dramatic figure of Virginie's drowning by Prudhon make this volume very interesting." (Cohen, 931).
Graesse, Trésor de Livres rares, VI, 226
Paul et Virginie marks a phase in the French novel. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre crystalized in his work and in this novel, all the travel literature so abundant in those… Read More