1st edition.Fine in gorgeous
unrestored dustjacket, all you could ever hope for in a 1911 jacket, but just
for due diligence we'll tell you the spine's faded a shade and there's 1 small
tear near the fold but copies in jacket are scarcer than clocks in casinos.10,000Let's look both ways before crossing and take a
tenuous walk across the rarity thing for a few comparisons.The golden age of classic, English language
genrenovels (1885-1919), began with
King Solomon's Mines and no copy is known to me in jacket.The same is true for Jekyll & Hyde
(1886), She (1887), Sign of Four (1890) as well as Well's big four of Time
Machine (1895), Dr. Moreau (1896), Invisible Man (1897) and War of the Worlds
(1898).Having dispatched the unknowns,
1 copy of Dracula in jacket (1897) survives, now residing forevermore in the
Rosenbach library, just where you might expect it to be.The next level (say, 20 copies or less known
in jacket) includes Dorian Gray (1891), Wizard of Oz (1900), First Men in the
Moon (1901), Kim (1901), Peter Rabbit (1902), The Virginian (1902), Hound of
the Baskervilles (1902), Secret Agent (1907), Wind in the Willows (1908),
Secret Garden (1911), Lost World (1912), Fu Manchu (1913), Valley of Fear
(1914), Tarzan of the Apes (1914), Princess of Mars (1917) and perhaps half a
dozen other similar titles that reign at or near the pinnacle.And by the way, they've all got legs, so get
any of them in jacket that you can, if you can, because you won't get many. real Beatles
manuscript[The Beatles]Lovely Rita,
Meter Maidby Paul McCartney(1967).McCartney’s handwritten, working, manuscript (as
Beatle) for Lovely Rita from the album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club
Band.The first draft, 10 lines in blue
and black ink, all on a single side of an irregular scrap of lined paper (7
1/2" X 5"), torn from a spiral notebook.7 lines are in black ink and these have the
appearance of being Paul’s first concept.3 lines of changes have been added later in blue ink, such as,
"...writing all the numbers in her little black book..." changed to
"...filling in a ticket with her little blue pen..." and still later
recorded as "...filling in a ticket in her little white book...".Sumptuously matted, glazed with UV, and
framed (gilt) with a color proof photograph of the album cover, nearly
identical, to the published album except there are 2 extra faces in the crowd
(airbrushed out for the final cover), the band instruments have been passed
around, and Paul is down on one knee.And for those of you who are into the visual thing, this item is
seriously gorgeous.Icon Time.175,000"Lovely Rita, Meter Maid, nothing can come between us,When
it gets dark, I’ll tow your heart away..."Only 1 other draft of Lovely Rita manuscript is
recorded, a later version mostly in the hand of Mal Evans (assistant to The
Beatles), however, this is McCartney's original draft for this renowned song,
and it’s from Sgt. Pepper, the most famous album and most identifiable
commercial product in the history of rock & roll.Rare.The
current world record for a rock & roll manuscript at auction is $1,150,000
for a later draft of All You Need is Love, followed by $455,000 for a clean
draft of Nowhere Man and $249,200 for a late draft of Getting Better
(Sotheby's, Sept. 14, 1995), the days of yore, during the last wave of
occasional availability and before the current generation of new wave
millionaires started thinking how cool (and prescient) it would be to own an
authentic Beatles manuscript.Bellow, Saul The Dangling
Man(NY, 1944).1st edition, his first book.Near fine in near fine jacket (1 tiny
tear).Bellow won a Nobel Prize, a
Pulitzer and 3 National Book Awards (the record).Ex-James Dickey, a bearable association.3,750The original Bellow anti-hero, tormented by the
existential dilemma of trying to define himself with dignity despite life's
constant impediments.Now it's the 21st
century and Bellow's principal is a senior citizen, tormented daily and
clinging to life solely for the prospect of collecting all 50 U.S. state
quarters.Bellow, SaulThe
Adventures of Augie March(NY, 1953).1st edition, 1st issue.The Nobel laureate's great work, winner of
the 1953 National Book Award.Fine in
fine 1st state dustjacket.20 times
rarer than an imperfect copy for 4 times the price, and the $500 cheapie will
only be perfect if you have a table with one leg an inch and a half too short.2,000Augie wants no defining life role so is swept along by
circumstances, refusing any opportunity for a settled existence.He laughs at himself as he tells his story,
making Augie a memorable hero who suffers some hard knocks, but as he says,
there's an animal in me, "the laughing creature forever rising
up."With Bellow's Nobel Prize
(1976), the Academy cited his, "...human understanding and subtle analysis
of contemporary culture," surely with this book in mind.ex-Arthur A.
Houghton Jr.
Boccaccio, Giovanni
The
Decameron,Containing
An Hundred Pleasant Novels(London, 1620, 1620).
2 vols.1st
edition in English of the first work of modern fiction (not the 1625 reprint
with vol. I titled “The Modell”).A
wonderful copy, complete with the errata leaf.Late 19th century full red morocco, gilt.2 trifling natural paper flaws and a single
small tear repaired, some red underlining removed (invisibly and without a
trace) from a few pages, else fine condition throughout, with every letter of
text absolutely genuine. 32,500Bowles, PaulThe
Sheltering Sky(London, 1949).1st edition, his first book, hotter than a core
melt-down.Fine in a near fine, fresh
dustjacket.7,500Before Kerouac could drive, Ginsberg could howl and
Burroughs could write about his junk, Bowles uncovered Beat Literature with
this phenomenal first novel in which a man and his peripherally reluctant wife
flee from the West to Morocco, rattling their chains to prove that they are
free.Despite the prominence of this
pair, the primary character is the interminably vast desert and the isolation
it provides.Bowles prose is
consistently even in tone and after a while resembles the desert itself.The title is a hoax as the sky provides only
minimal shelter and the plotline suggests that rather then dragging your
culture halfway across the world, just grab a stool for amateur night at the
blow-fish bar.Back on the streets, the
robust branch of the beats evolved into the rebellious youth of the 1950s,
launched by Brando in The Wild One, where when asked what he was rebelling
against, he answered, "Whatta ya got?"the greatest
set of Tarzan 1st editions ever assembled
Burroughs, Edgar Rice
Complete
collection of the Tarzan books,all are
1st editions, all are in dustjacket,all are signed and inscribed(Chicago, NY
and Tarzana, 1914-1947).
An unbroken, 22 volume run of the Tarzan 1st editions
in dustjacket.Each is a signed,
presentation copy of estimable association, including copies inscribed to his
publishers, his wife, and more than half to his son, the person of whom he most
often thought while writing these books.Herein Burroughs invents the first super-hero, an archetypal creation of
nobility, strength and self-reliance.And lying underneath it all, there’s a reminder, that it’s going to be
fun to see how long the meek can keep the Earth after they inherit it.The individual inscriptions prove how heavy this
is.Tarzan of the Apes is inscribed to
his first publisher, Return of Tarzan is inscribed to his wife, Beasts of
Tarzan is to his third publisher, Son of Tarzan is to his son, Tarzan and the
Jewels of Opar is to his wife, Jungle Tales of Tarzan, Tarzan the Untamed and
Tarzan the Terrible are all to his son, Tarzan and the Golden Lion is his own
copy with his bookplate, his ownership signature and a note, "Do Not
Remove From Study," Tarzan and the Antmen is to his son, Tarzan Lord of
the Jungle is to his wife, Tarzan and the Lost Empire is to A. G. Criswell
Smith Jr. a young fan, Tarzan at the Earth's Core, Tarzan the Invincible,
Tarzan Triumphant, Tarzan and the City of Gold and Tarzan and the Lion Man are
all to his son, Tarzan and the Leopard Men is to Carole Lombard (with Clark
Gable's bookplate) and finally, Tarzan's Quest, Tarzan and the Forbidden City,
Tarzan the Magnificent and Tarzan and the Foreign Legion, are all to his
son.Only Son of Tarzan is a 2nd issue,
varying from the 1st issue solely by the addition of a printed dedication to
his son (left out by the publisher and hastily corrected), and this is the
dedication copy, inscribed to his son.Rarity flows deep and condition is satisfying throughout, including 22
striking dustjackets, all of them the earliest state, excepting only
Return.Some inner paper hinges
invisibly strengthened and a few dustjackets with small tears or chips
skillfully restored.Still, it is
neither jackets nor completeness but rather meaningful inscriptions and the
closest of associations that set these books apart.Never fully embraced by the academics,
Burroughs created an immortal figure who’s held world wide popularity for 5
generations, as well as a conglomerate to license his perpetuation.No other collection of this stature has ever
been amassed and such a collection is never to be seen again, but 21st century
reincarnations for the cinema will be plentiful, just like those in the 20th
century, as new filmmakers revisit Burroughs' creation of the most famous
fictional character in the entire panorama of American literature.Together:22
vols.250,000the best
copy in the worldBurroughs, Edgar RiceThe Outlaw
of Torn(Chicago, 1927).1st edition, revealing that mortal danger is an
effective antidote for fixed ideas.Fine
in a flash of a jacket (light edgewear restored).Signed presentation (half a page) "To my
dear wife..." dated March 4, 1927, 2 weeks after publication, but he
always gave her the first copy he received, remembering that men know the game,
but women keep the score.4,500Historical adventure set in 13th century Britain, the
days of low technology before the invention of electricity, when real men
shaved with a rusty arrowhead and real women filled their vibrators with angry
bees.a flawless
copyBurroughs, Edgar Rice The Monster
Men(Chicago, 1929).1st edition.Fine in fine dustjacket
(looks new).Presentation copy,
inscribed to his wife, "To Emma with love from The Monster Man, Tarzana
March 24, 1929,"9 days after
publication (the earliest inscribed copy of the few known).A slickly plotted science fiction thriller,
that revisits the Frankenstein/Doctor Moreau theme, but a new incarnation of it
that's scarier than the beer line at a Raiders game, though it’s not as scary
as Winona Ryder checking out your collection armed with a shopping bag.9,000Burroughs, William SJunkie(London, 1973).1st hardbound edition of his first book, preceded by
the more common (and overpriced) Ace paperback.Inscribed to bookseller Albert Newgarden with a cipher below Burroughs'
signature and date.Fine in fine black
jacket, prone to wear and rubbing.2,000The prototype modern narcotics story but the authors
who followed Burroughs (they who got high sniffing drywall), were not as
artistic and seldom as riveting.In a
transition that's way too easy, Utah Park Rangers report they have cut down a
65 foot Oak tree that died last winter, harvesting the largest collection of
dead leaves since the last drug novel.And if there's any upside to drugs it's that they've taught 2
generations of American kids the metric system.Carter, AngelaNights at the Circus(NY, 1984).1st American edition.Review copy (printed slip and hype).Fine in fine jacket.Signed
presentation copy to Doris Grumbach, "For Doris with love from
Angela."Carter has additionally
signed in full on the title page and Grumbach has signed the endpaper.Doris Grumbach was a novelist, professor,
essayist, bookseller, editor and reviewer (NY Times Book Review, Mademoiselle,
New Republic, Saturday Review, NPR).350A tribute to young woman as goddess, but this lively
book is no little girl in her mother's pearls.Carter combines realism and surrealism in a twist of the historical
novel wherein magic mocks 19th century events.Fevvers, a baby, is found in a basket of egg shells and straw on Ma
Nelson's doorstep.She is raised as the
common daughter of 6 mothers until, at age 14, the constant itching in her
shoulders heralds the breaking out of her wings (Carter's symbol of female
liberty and volition).She matures,
working herself through a series of persecuted employments where she is
exploited as a freak and develops some of the qualities of a confidence woman,
finally landing at the Cirque d'Hiver as "the aerialiste."Here she becomes the new living myth,
applauded around the world by the rich and powerful.She takes up (but doesn't consummate with)
Walser, a journalist who joins the cirque as a clown to be near her.A train wreck, between Russian engagements,
separates them in Siberia.He is saved
by Olga, an escapee from a grotesque women's prison (a subplot with another
completely original Carter feminist take).Fevvers, hampered by a broken wing, is herself saved by a wandering male
radical whose political group is in league with Olga's feminist society.In the end, Fevvers and Walser are reunited. Cervantes, Miguel deDon Quixote(London, 1755).2 vols.1st
edition of Tobias Smollett's translation.[iv], xxviii, 403 [404]; viii, 466 [467 Errata, 468].Contemporary full calf, deftly rebacked with
original spines laid down.28 engraved
plates.Near fine, a beauty, but a
common book.Ex-Admiral Duff.3,000remarkably
saturated and pointed TLsChandler, RaymondTyped
letter, signed(La Jolla, Nov. 1, 1951).2 pages, rectos only, 85 single spaced lines on his
personal stationary, 8 1/2" X 11", to Mr. L Inglis (Aberdeen,
Scotland), signed at the end, in ink, "Raymond Chandler."Accompanied by the original envelope (stamp
removed, flap detached) postmarked La Jolla, Nov. 5th and Aberdeen, Nov.
8th.The letter fine, the envelope
somewhat worn and stained.5,000On the first page he writes revealingly about Philip
Marlowe and touches on the detective's psychology."I
don't think ...Philip Marlowe, is very
much concerned about whether or no he has a mature mind ... If being in revolt
against a corrupt society constitutes being immature then Philip Marlowe is
extremely immature.If seeing dirt where
there is dirt constitutes an inadequate social adjustment, then Philip Marlowe
has an inadequate social adjustment.Of
course Marlowe is a failure and he knows it.He is a failure because he hasn't any money ... But you must remember
that Marlowe is not a real person.He is
a creature of fantasy.He is in a false
position because I have put him there.In real life a man of his type would no more be a private detective than
he would be a university don.Your
private detective in real life is usually either an ex-policeman with a lot of
hard, practical experience and the brains of a turtle, or else a shabby little
hack who runs around trying to find out where people have moved to ... the more
highly organized police work becomes, the leaner are the pickings left for the
private operator."Chandler then answers some of Inglis' questions."You
are not annoying me or I would not be writing to you.""...
I wanted to be a barrister but I didn't have enough money.""So
far as I know the cops read my stories and don't resent them in the least ... I
have never been in police business properly speaking, although at one time I
worked ... on an embezzlement case."In turning to Hollywood he calls the film productions
of his books,"...
as good as could be expected.My stories
are about a man, and no one can satisfactorily recreate another man's
character.I worked on THE LADY IN THE
LAKE myself, although I refused screen credit because I didn't like the final
script ... I was almost entirely indifferent to the story ... and ... the
producer ... kept telling me, and not me him, 'Look, stick to the book a little
more.'Practically all the screen work
I've done has been for other films ... but you don't always get your name on
the picture and you don't always want your name on the picture."Near the end he mentions Dashiell Hammett."...
Dashiell Hammett was once a Pinkerton agent, and I certainly owe a great deal
to him, which I have admitted very publicly.... I can't say that I'm a friend of his.I only met him once.He had at that time a shocking capacity for
liquor, which I am frank to say I envied as I was never much of a drinker
myself."So here in one fantastic letter are reflections about
the psychological makeup of, musings on, and defense of Marlowe, his account of
his time in Hollywood, thoughts about the police, as well as alternate careers
for both him and Marlowe and a mention of Dashiell Hammett, on whose shoulders
he admittedly stood.Chandler, RaymondThe Lady in
the Lake(NY, 1943).1st edition, proving that some women lick before they
bite.Fine in fine dustjacket marred
only by a single 3/8” scratch on the spine (no nicks, no chips, no tears and no
repair).9,500Clancy, TomHunt For Red
October(Annapolis, 1984).1st edition of his first novel.Fine in fine jacket.A book with quite a little history in the
world of hyper-modern 1st editions, being the first of the era, to spike on
publication in a manner that's now an everyday dose of vertigo.Of more lasting significance, Red October is
rare in at leastone way, being that the
film was actually better than the book.This summer Clancy will be honored for his contributions to
literature.That leaves him just 5
months to make a contribution to literature.850among the
very rarest classicsof
children's literatureCollodi, CarloLe Avventure
di Pinocchio(Florence, 1883).1st edition.The most worldly famous fictional work in Italian literature (with
apologies to Dante and Boccaccio).1/4
French calf, marbled boards, bound without the last page of ads, intermittent
foxing or stains, 2 marginal tears, former owner’s stamp a few times.Frontispiece and 61 other illustrations by
Mazzanti.Rare, OCLC and RLIN locate
just 7 copies in institutions, no copy has sold at auction in the last 10
years, few remain in private hands and copies are seldom in the trade.75,000Psychoanalytical comparisons of Pinocchio’s wooden
nose (that grows when he lies) to male erections were unintentional by the
author, are passé when posed by academics, and juvenile when imagined by
readers, as Pinocchio is as wholesome as a bowl of cornflakes and somewhat less
sexy. historic run
of 1st editions(Comics)Classics Illustrated
[Classic Comics](NY, 1941- 1969).171 vols. total.1st edition, 1st issue of each title.A complete run (numbers 1-169), plus both states of Woman in White and
folio galley proofs for Arabian Nights.Numbers 1-34 are titled "Classic Comics," as originally
published before the name was changed to "Classics Illustrated."Minor corner wear or specks of rubbing but
fine condition no repair.Complete,
unrepaired sets of 1st printings in this state of preservation, have always
been rare, and unbuyable at any price in recent years.In their time, kids read these to dust, used
them for book reports, then replaced them with a reprint ordered from the
publisher, because this was the only series of golden age comics that were
continuously reprinted, and long available by mail.Many titles had 10 or more editions, and were
sold in reprint for 25 years, and each later printing is bibliographically
distinguishable, creating over 1,000 variations of covers, ads, price and text,
but this set is the first state of each title, and perfect on every single
point.Meticulously assembled with care,
and an eye to pride of ownership, by your Octopus, one title at a time over 6
years in the 1980s when such an effort was still possible.The literary establishment hated these from
day one (chickens always dismiss chicken soup), but don’t be distracted.It’s better for your collection to deserve
honor and not have it, than to have honor and not deserve it, and these were a
well conceived trick that actually worked, and a street wise segment of (at
least) 2 generations, were legitimately turned-on to those classics of
fiction.Don Quixote, Jane Eyre,
Treasure Island, Crime and Punishment, Tom Sawyer, Three Musketeers, Christmas
Carol, Moby-Dick, Jekyll and Hyde, Sea Wolf, King Solomon’s Mines, Uncle Tom’s
Cabin, Wuthering Heights, Twenty Thousand Leagues, Count of Monte-Cristo, Call
of the Wild, War of the Worlds, Last of the Mohicans, Poe’s Tales, Scarlet
Letter, Robin Hood, Red Badge, Frankenstein, Ivanhoe, Copperfield, Crusoe,
Alice, Gulliver, Hunchback, Huck, Hamlet, Holmes and 137 others.30,000 Mohican in
publisher's boards,uncut and
complete with all blanksCooper, James FThe Last of
the Mohicans(Philadelphia, 1826).2 vols.1st
edition, earliest state with none of the dropped folios in vol. I mentioned by
BAL.Original boards, uncut, rebacked
with matching paper spines, a near fine, intact set, a little foxing but
unusually clean, a copy that'll make you happier than a monkey watching the
banana channel.50,000Cooper wrote the first novel in this Leatherstocking
series (The Pioneers) in 1823, but Mohican is the best of the five, a
fundamental classic with a preponderant claim as the earliest American novel
still widely read for recreation.It's
set in 1757, during the French and Indian War, and the historical battles and
fictional pursuits that drive the heroic plotline are enhanced with Native
American lore and earnest descriptions of our now lost wilderness.And there's call for praise on at least one
other level here, as Cooper’s noble savages, with their deductive analysis of
clues during tracking, set a primitive but essential foundation for Poe's invention
of the detective story 15 years later, and Doyle's creation of Sherlock Holmes
in 1887.That said, the literary history
of this novel is a trail littered with sour grapes, even the most respected
detractors withering in their own hostility, ever envious that Mohican is
unmatched in the new world for the length of its enduring popularity (the
objective test of a novel's greatness) among readers willing to suspend their
disbelief and modify their critical objections for a time machine ticket to the
northeastern wild of pre-revolutionary America and 571 pages of rapid action,
transcending the cynics, skeptics, analysts, academics and even other authors
who nit pick the first American thrill ride instead of just giving themselves
over to it.in jacketCrane, StephenThe Red
Badge of Courage(NY, 1895).1st edition.Fine in near fine (unrepaired) dustjacket.Crane assaults the notion that murder is a
crime unless it’s done on a massive scale accompanied by the charge of trumpets.He merges realism, naturalism, symbolism and
impressionism for a psychological portrayal of fear, tosses out a character
that represents all untried men, writes the first modern war novel, and
instigates a pervasive projection into a generation of novelists that were just
being born in 189530,000Crichton, MichaelJurassic
Park(NY, 1990).1st edition.Deluxe, limited, signed
1st state.Precedes the trade
edition.Fine in publisher's full
leather.The trade issue was 100,000
copies, versus this limited of 3,200 and perhaps as few as 1,500 of them were
actually signed and sold.One of the
most popular books of the 90s but it's moot whether that says more about this
book or more about the 90s, so it may slide off the collector's radar one day,
but that's exactly the ballyhoo of modern 1st editions, the twitching canaries
in the coal mines of literature. 500A cloning story whose time has arrived, as a British
scientist in Dubai has mated a camel and a llama, creating a bad tempered fluff
pony that has to be cloned because it can't breed with either, called a
cama.Not to be outdone, researchers in
America have crossed a mongoose and a wolf, creating a lightning fast room
wrecker that roams at night in packs, called a teenager.Dickens, CharlesA Christmas
Carol(London, 1843).1st edition, implying that none of us can be as great
as God, but any of us can be as good.Original cloth, a little wear to the corners, but fine (gleaming), with
uncracked hinges and no repair.1st
state text, chapter one headed "Stave I" (the critical point of
issue), red and blue title dated 1843, matching half-title, and green
endpapers.6,000 1st editions (text)
were printed and are easily identified by changes made for the 2nd
printing.They were bound in (at least)
6 variations but the first binding cases stamped, were not necessarily the
first sold, the first title pages printed (red and green dated 1844) were
likely issued last, and the last title pages printed (blue and red dated 1843)
were certainly sold first, even before trial copies.Publication was on Dec. 17, 1843, but first,
last or in between, all 6,000 were sold within 3 weeks, so wishful assignment
of priority only shows that bibliography drowns us in data and starves us for
insight, and often enough it’s like the pupil of the eye.The more light you shine on it the smaller it
gets.160 years out The Carol remains
the most celebrated of all Christmas stories, a tale that still rings with
truth even in our 21st century sectarian world where nativity scenes have
disappeared, not because they are politically incorrect, but because no one
city can still come up with 3 wise men and a virgin.28,000an
immaculate copyDinesen, Isak (Karen Blixen)Out of
Africa(NY, 1938).1st American edition (1st is Danish).A fictionalized yet sensitive account of her
1914 to 1931 experiences in East Africa when fast food was a gazelle.Fine in fine jacket at twice the price of
dull copies described as just short of fine, which is like describing Mike
Tyson as just short of sainthood.1,100both
editions, just to be sureDostoyevsky, FedorCrime and
Punishment(London, 1886).1st edition in English of the single most illustrious
legacy of psychological realism.Probably precedes the NY edition (see below).Original cloth, some fading and stains, very
good, but listen up here.In book world,
the rip is that "very good" means it isn't.[with]Dostoyevsky, FeodorCrime and
Punishment(NY, 1886).1st American edition.Original cloth.A very good copy.Together: 2 vols.
4,000Here it is folks, your one ride per catalog on the
bibliographical hamster wheel.The
search for priority between these 2 editions begins by noting that they're the
same translation and printed from the same setting (likely stereotyped, ie.
plates).The last page of the Vizetelly
(London) edition carries the name of the printer (Straker, London).The Crowell (NY) edition removes it.The signature marks in the Vizetelly edition
are where they're supposed to be, while those on the Crowell edition do not
line up with the way in which the signatures are actually sewn.Throughout both editions type wear is more
evident in Crowell's edition.The
Vizetelly edition is dated 1886 on the title page and has ads at the end dated
Nov. 1885.The Crowell edition is
undated and carries ads seemingly from 1886.More obtuse, but for comparison, Crowell's edition of Tolstoy's Anna
Karenina (the 1st in English) carries both the name of its Boston printer and
an 1886 date on the title page, and its ads offer Crime and Punishment as
available, generally dating Crowell's edition of the Dostoyevsky.The good news is that the cumulative data is
convincing.The bad news is that I
couldn't find a fine copy, of either edition, at any price.inscribedDouglas, Lloyd CThe Robe(Boston, 1942).1st edition.Among
the preponderant bestsellers of the 20th century.Spine slightly faded, jacket lightly rubbed
at edges, 1 tiny spot of wear at a fold but withal, nearly fine.A presentation copy, signed by Douglas, quite
appropriately, a Christmas gift.Half
morocco case.Widely unrecognized for
the scarce, wartime 1st edition that it is, and presentation copies in
collectible condition are, correspondingly, all the more rare.The novel is a historical romance circling
the robe of Jesus.It's set in the Roman
Empire of the 1st century, the days when people would believe anything as long
as you whispered it to them and when religion in Europe was still peaceful,
pure and on the defensive.But those
without swords can still die upon them, and the pendulum swings irrepressibly,
so the dark ages followed the fall of the Western Roman Empire, a time when
people forgot that "an eye for an eye" was a limitation not an
invitation, and that featured the bloody immolation of millions of poor human
beings in the name of some pitiless abstraction.These days Christianity is more relaxed, so
though the angels still play only Bach while going about their task of praising
God, when they gather together on their own time, they play Metallica.3,000Sherlock
Holmes manuscriptDoyle, ConanThe
Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax(1911).Original handwritten manuscript (in ink), signed
twice, once at the end and again on the cover (the latter autograph
rubbed).28 pages bound for Doyle
himself in original full vellum, the covers lightly spotted but unworn, the MS
is fine. A detective fiction tour de force, with the kind of plotline Doyle
usually reserved for his novels, featuring a fundamentalist of the typical
type, one in whom something is fundamentally wrong.Fine.Complete.Rare.Beautiful.Classic Holmes, a manuscript that will make you happier than a goldfish
watching Finding Nemo.300,000Said as simply as possible (but not any simpler)
Sherlock Holmes is the most durable character in all of fiction and the stories
are the most imitated, parodied and adapted works in the English language.the first
Holmes and WatsonDoyle, ConanA Study in
Scarlet (London, 1887).1st edition of the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes
in Beeton’s Christmas Annual.Original
pictorial wrappers, complete with all ads, a very good copy, superior for this
rare book.260,000Doyle, ConanThe Return
of Sherlock Holmes(London, 1905).1st English edition.Bit rubbed at corners else near fine, not foxed.The scarcest of the Holmes short story
collections in such condition and most copies are so ugly they couldn't get
fucked in jail.3,800Dumas,
Alexandre Le Comte de Monte-Cristo(Paris, 1846).2 vols.1st illustrated edition.[4], 478; [4], 499, [1, table des
chapitres].What many regard as the best
novel ever written, an effortless read starring the implacable avenger.Not quite historical romance, almost a
mystery, every bit a thriller, for 5 generations the most popular novel in the
world, and undeniably the greatest tale of revenge in all of Western
literature.Contemporary French half
forest green roan over marbled boards, gilt titled, marbled endpapers, the
paper over the boards rubbed in several small spots and shelf rubbed at the
edges, a little foxing but really quite clean, and otherwise a near fine and
never repaired set, very tall (10 1/4" X 6 5/8"), complete with both
half-titles, and this is a scarce book, especially in an untouched, unabused,
contemporary French binding.The 1st
edition (Paris, 1844-1845) in 18 volumes (preceded by a newspaper
serialization) was published in an issue of a few hundred sets, of which a
dozen or so survivors are known, and it's now a $75,000 book, if you can find
one, which you can not.The 2nd Paris
edition (12 vols., 1846) and the 3rd (6 vols., 1846) may (or may not) precede
this 1st illustrated edition, and though both are scarce, neither of them are
the 1st of anything, and our edition does apparently print the epilogue for the
first time.The 1st edition in English
(London, Chapman & Hall, 1846) currently brings 5 times the price of our
book but probably isn't any earlier and definitely isn't any scarcer.Engraved frontispiece portrait of Dumas (in
vol. I) by Le Couturier after Eug. Giraud and 29 engraved plates, depicting a
galaxy of characters, by Ch. Colin, Goulu, Rose, Pardinel, Carey, Lechard,
Audibran, Caron, A. Portier, and A. Gabriel, after Tony Johannot and Gavarni,
all but the frontispieces with tissue guards.Ref: Reed p. 174, a confusing entry but this is the correct 1st edition
with the address, 30 Rue Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre on the title.Vicaire III, col. 365.Ray, 237. 1,750The Man in
the Iron MaskDumas, Alexander Louise la
Valliere; or The Second Series and Conclusion of The
Iron Mask(Philadelphia, 1851).2 vols. in 1.1st American edition.Modern 1/2
black calf, marbled boards.A few stains
to text else near fine.Complete with
both titles, all 3 plates, the leaf of ads between the volumes, the Epilogue (4
Years After), the Conclusion (vol. II, pp. 159-188), and Dumas' letter
"Mocquet" (vol. II, pp. 189-198) in which he recalls writing about
the death of Porthos (vol. II, chapter XXVI,The Death of a Titan, probably the best single chapter Dumas ever wrote,
and chapter XXVII, The Epitaph of Porthos, discussed in Mocquet).500The Man in the Iron Mask was the final portion of
Dumas' Le Vicomte de Bragelonne (Paris, 1848-50 in 26 vols.), itself the
concluding novel in his trilogy beginning with Three Musketeers (1844) and
Twenty Years After (1845).And despite
any confusion created by the subtitle, this is the entire novel, and this copy is
complete as issued, and most aren't.It
remains the standard for epic adventures, dexterously written and plotted, like
the blues for people who can't sing, and though it's not actively pursued by
parochial collectors, unaware that this is the correct 1st American edition,
that won't last for long, so the day will come when the scramble for copies
will look like the first half hour of Saving Private Ryan.limited,
signed editionEliot, T. S.Poems
1909-1925(London, 1925).1st edition. One of 85 copies signed by Eliot of which
75 were for sale, this one marked in the space for the number "out of
series" perhaps one of the 10 not for sale.Original white cloth, fine, unopened,
unsullied as a Disney princess, a binding that begs to be soiled, and most
copies couldn't be cleaned up by Halliburton.Eliot's legacy (Prufrock, Waste Land, Hollow Men and all the 1920 poems)
that from 1917 depicted the emotional impoverishment, boredom and spiritual
emptiness common both to the dying genteel world of devitalized social rituals
and to the new world of urban materialism.After 1925 Eliot's poetry mutated (not all think for the better)
reflecting his conversion to Anglicanism.A rare book just by virtue of its limitation, but especially so in such
perfect condition, and it seems the most important collection of poetry
published in the first half of the 20th century, and one of the very few
exceptions to the general rule that adding modern poetry to a literature collection
is more dangerous than a Baghdad grocery run.15,000Eliot, T. S.Old Possum's
Book of Practical Cats(NY, 1939).1st American edition, advance review copy.Fine in unfaded jacket with small edgetears,
quite a nice copy (no fur ball) looking for someone to take it home and let it
sleep on top of the television1,250in both dustjackets as issuedFaulkner,
WilliamLight in August(NY, 1932).1st edition, 1st printing, 1st binding (spine stamped
in orange and blue).Fine in a brilliant
pictorial dustjacket with a tiny 1/8" tear at the spine tip and a
3/8" tear at the base of the front flap fold but otherwise fine.
Additionally, this copy has the publisher's glassine dustjacket (as issued)
with light wear, but it admirably protected the original freshness and vibrant
colors of the printed jacket.Scarce
these days in both jackets, and following any line of reasoning that leads you
to buy a copy without the glassine is like following a burning fuse in search
of an explosive.7,500pristine
condition in original partsFlaubert, GustavMadame
Bovary(Paris: aux bureaux de la Revue de Paris,
Oct. - Dec. 1856).1st edition (in French) of his first book, the first
appearance anywhere in 6 biweekly parts (edition pre-original), preceding the 2
volume book edition by a year.Fine and
unopened in original printed wrappers (as new condition) and with the printed
title page supplied to subscribers in case they wanted to bind the parts as a
book (also uncut, untrimmed and unbound).The whole in a plain slipcase with a small collection of related
ephemera.25,000Widely acknowledged as the first modern novel and
indisputably the first novel of psychological realism.It is written with a flair that grants the
reader insights that are beyond the intellect of the book's characters.This is the 1st printing of Flaubert's
masterpiece and this is the issue, serialized in the Revue de Paris, that stimulated
the court case which ultimately freed all novelists riding the wave of
irrepressible evolution, from the prudish constraints of 19th century culture
and it is this victory in the courts that allowed, as its first consequence,
the 2 volume book edition of Madame Bovary to be published in 1857.An item of great rarity.No set in parts in wrappers resides in any
American institutional library.Dick
Manney had the only copy sold in America or Great Britain in our time (Sotheby's,
1991) but it was extracted and rebound without wrappers, ads, other contents,
etc.2 more copies have sold at auction
in France (1984 and 1993) and again, both were rebound but sets in original
wrappers seem not to exist to say nothing of our set's flawless condition.Scandalous when written but seems tame these days when
with all our high tech sexual devices created to stimulate women, the most
effective is still a Ferrari.inscribedHammett, DashiellRed Harvest(NY, 1929).1st edition.His first book, a multi-murder mystery novel set in fictitious
Personville, pronounced "Poisonville" by the residents, only
partially because of their local accents.Signed and inscribed to Katheryn [Dufour] "with suitable
gestures."Powerful full morocco, hard-art
binding, coming right at you, by Don Glaister, the first on an American novel
by the exalted American binder, an encounter that is not to be dismissed.Fine condition.Original cloth bound in.Glaister's fine full morocco case is
faithfully riddled with bullet holes and powder burns.17,500Some books are wise and some books are otherwise.Red Harvest is the model, originating the
hardboiled detective novel, a new world stylistic invention of phenomenal
influence, with gazillions of it's literary descendants amplifying the genre to
this very day, but paradigms don’t just fall from the sky.They evolve in lawful progression, and this
one's easily traced from Bentley’s naturalist mystery, Trent’s Last Case
(1913), Shaw’s Black Mask detective magazine beginning in 1919 (with portions
of Red Harvest appearing in 4 issues from 1927 to 1928), the pithy and terse
prose of Ernest Hemingway and Hammett’s own hardboiled short story, Fly
Paper.And consciousness reveals that
sequence flows from necessity, so Hammett worked for and keenly studied the
Pinkerton Detective Agency, then carefully pondered his experiences before
trying his ideas in a short story and finally writing this novel.And in the end, the hardworking, hardboiled
detective, has been assimilated into our 21st century culture of sedentary
Americans, who, too lazy to lift a finger, manifest our hardboiledness on the
road, by lifting a single finger to tell other drivers what we think of them.in partsHammett, DashiellThe Maltese
Falcon(NY, 1929-1930).5 vols.1st
appearance anywhere, serialized in 5 issues of Black Mask Magazine, Sept. 1929
to Jan. 1930 (the book followed in February).Original pictorial wrappers.Very
good with no significant faults.A
rarity (the only whole set I’ve seen).In 1995 the Mystery Writers of America voted The Maltese Falcon number 2
on their list of the 100 greatest mysteries of all time.12,500you say you
want the best of the best?Hammett, DashiellThe Maltese
Falcon(NY, 1930).1st edition.Fine in a scintillating unrestored dustjacket, an absolute killer.The jacket was the designer's own, was folded
once exactly where the spine meets the back panel and carefully sheltered for
70 years.There's some rubbing along
this fold and a short split at the bottom of it, else this jacket is in perfect
condition, as new and like no other known, with no fading or soiling whatsoever
and the corner is unclipped (and most copies are price clipped).25 times as rare as a one with nicks or tears
or soiling or repair or worse, for 2 or 3 times the price, the not so secret
formula of real value.Average copies are
what you can always get, but this is the copy that dreams are made of.In 1995 the Mystery Writers of America voted
The Maltese Falcon number 2 on their list of the 100 greatest mysteries of all
time150,000Great books make great booksellers, sometimes.Great shops make great booksellers, sometimes.Great catalogs make great booksellers, sometimes.Great expertise makes great booksellers, sometimes.Great customers make great booksellers, sometimes.Great cyberskills make great booksellers, sometimes.Great creativity makes great booksellers, sometimes.Great insight makes great booksellers, sometimes.Great wealth makes great booksellers, sometimes.Great hustle makes great booksellers, sometimes.Sometimes all ten do not make a great bookseller. From a recent book fair:Hugely successful, world famous and unjustifiably
vain, aging bookseller to 29 year old Jennefer Hime.Mr. Huge:"How many great booksellers are there?"J – Hi:"One less than you think there are."Hawthorne, NathanielThe Scarlet
Letter(Boston, 1850).1st edition, 1st printing.Original cloth.Corners and spine tips with a tiny points
ofwear (all of it nerf flaws), else
fine condition, the cloth clean, shiny and never repaired.1st printing with all points
("reduplicate" for "repudiate" page 21, line 20,
etc.).4 pages of publisher's ads("March 1, 1850").Hawthorne's magnum opus, a literary giant,
continuously in print since publication day.20,000Including The Scarlet Letter, I'll suggest that only
10 American novels from the 19th century are unequivocally classics and still
widely read for fun.What are the
others?Well start a list of your own
icons with The Last of the Mohicans (1826), Moby-Dick (1851), Uncle Tom's Cabin
(1852), Little Women (1868), Tom Sawyer (1876), Portrait of a Lady (1881),
Huckleberry Finn (1885), The Red Badge of Courage (1895), and The Wizard of Oz
(1900), and just concede that after these 10, there's a gap of acceptance
before whatever heads the nextgroup,
and beyond outright theft, in one of its myriad forms, all of the 10 listed
above in fine condition have long proved as solid as book investments get, but
buy them or not, heroes never say "I told you so."exquisite
condition Heller, Joseph Catch-22(NY, 1961).1st edition.Fine (small name on endpaper) in a fine, flawless dustjacket.6,500Want legs?Combining the major lists of the 20th century's greatest books finds
Catch-22 number 1 in the last 50 years, and ranked 5th overall after Ulysses,
Gatsby, Grapes of Wrath and Nineteen Eighty-Four.his first
real bookin
miraculous conditionHemingway, ErnestIn Our Time(NY, 1925).1st edition of his first American book, the most
influential volume of American short stories published in the 20th
century.Fine in fine dustjacket,
lustrous despite pinpoints of wear to corners. The book bears the same title as
the 1924 Paris edition, but they should not be confused.The Paris is a 20 page whisper of a book
without a single short story, and a total of less than 50 paragraphs!These 50 or so paragraphs are called by the
bibliography "inter-chapters" in this NY edition, which is a real
book adding to the 20 pages of the Paris edition 14 titanic stories (161
pages). 50,000Ernest Hemingway was, and is, the most well known
American author and the single most imitated writer of English prose in the
20th century.This is his first
substantial book, an immortal collection of connected short stories that are,
in their simple pithiness, his best written and may yet prove to be his most
important.Counter to prevailing
opinion, let me say it directly.In Our
Time will ultimately stand as a better (longer lived) book than either Sun Also
Rises or Farewell to Arms.It is the
book that initiated Hemingway's inquiry into the authentic, and (more exactly)
the authenticating moment, and does it with precision.He fathoms the wound, that affliction through
which humans become aware of their mortality, of their finite limitations, and
it is this definitive encounter with reality upon which the book is closely
focused.Its cogent, connected stories
are written for the active mind in quest of its own essence, excited by knowledge
of the truth and a willingness to abide it.They are for rational creatures, concerned with feeling clear and steady
inside themselves, at least as much as is possible within the necessary human
limitations.Joyce's Dubliners (stories unified by place) and
Hemingway's In Our Time (stories unified by time) are the two most
consequential collections of short fiction published in the 20th century, and
short stories are not inferior to novels, in fact a case can be made that
novels are their sloppy cousins.As for
its rarity, just 1,335 copies were printed, one fifth the number of copies of
Sun Also Rises and one twentieth the number of Farewell to Arms, and
considering the fragility of the jacket, this copy is the actualization of a
collector's dream, in our time or any other.So here they are, rarity, quality, significance and beauty, the cosmic
quartet for any antique.And if you're a
chronic prioritizer, the first virtue in 1st editions is significance because
that's the one that sets up all the others, meaning that your imperfect and
defective fragment of Caxton's King Arthur is a better book than your mint
presentation copy of B is For Burglar.The faint of heart will look at our price like a dog looks at an
answering machine, but this copy is so cool you can feel your fingers go numb
the minute you pick it up.Hemingway, ErnestFor Whom the
Bell Tolls(NY, 1940).1st edition.Fine in a clean and unfaded dustjacket,(even on the fade prone spine), with a bump and rub to one corner and
two 1/4" edgetears, otherwise fine, dramatically finer than the $1,000
copies that are just above termite food, or those for $2,000 in condition that
would gag a sword swallower.3,750damaged people
are dangerousbecause they
know they can surviveIrving, JohnThe World
According to Garp(NY, 1978).1st edition.Signed and inscribed, "For Walt Sobzak from John Irving."Fine in fine jacket.Presentation copies of Garp have always been
hard to find and are now very elusive in fine condition.Winner of the National Book Award, but more
significantly, this is a 25 year old novel that’s already long established as a
classic, and here’s why.It’s a dark,
domestic comedy rooted in the traditional novel but deftly written in a
postmodern style.Characteristically
contrarian, Irving tries the largest scale at a time when minimalist fiction
was being temporarily celebrated as the truest voice of the age, a mistake that
might have ranked with Sammy Hagar, but Irving pulls it off.His humane exploration of the human condition
features Jenny, a goddess protector of feminism, Helen, a professor of
literature, Duncan, a damaged painter, John, a literary agent and editor,
Roberta, a transsexual athlete and Garp himself, a fusing of the action taking
hero of Ernest Hemingway with the cerebral protagonist of Saul Bellow or J. D.
Salinger.Garp’s mission is protecting his
family from what he perceives as a lethal universe.Together they try to develop survival
strategies in a world of random violence, vicious and psychotic behavior,
social chaos and private uncertainty.They stay bonded by spiritual affinity, a tolerance for singularity, and
a shared recognition that individual idiosyncrasy and personal desire can be
reconciled with communal cooperation.For balance, Irving's sprawling structure is orthodox, hearkening
Theodore Dreiser or Frank Norris.It
links the destiny of the extended family with the dynamics of social change
across several generations, and Irving innovatively fashions a modern
sensibility, in which the concept of the absurd is no longer relevant because
everything that happens seems to be an expression of random, entropic forces.The narration is striking, the invention is
manic, the wit is bizarre, and the reading is easy, this last not to be
discounted in the face of 437 pages of what might otherwise be some serious
heavy lifting.2,250Joyce, JamesFinnegan's
Wake(London, 1939).1st edition.Fine in perfect dustjacket, a gift from the self-esteem fairy and most
copies would embarrass a shockproof watch.The unfathomable, all influencing masterpiece of industrial strength
literature, written in some language twins teach each other.6,000death as a
long overdue liberation
Kafka, Franz
Die
Verwandlung[The
Metamorphosis](Leipzig, 1915).
1st edition.The novella of the century and a nice copy of it.Nice clean copy in gray boards (strip of
fading to back cover), white spine repaired at the bottom.This is the scarce, deluxe, publisher's
hardcover binding, and copies in the usual binding of tan wrappers have a 1916
date on the cover so look later (though they’re not), and those in black
wrappers are certainly a later, remainder binding.4,500the
dedication copyKern, JeromeGood Morning
Dearie(NY, 1922).1st edition.Inscribed enclosing the printed title, "To Alexander Woollcott, who
said he liked [Good Morning Dearie] from his Sincerely, Jerome D. Kern, March
15, 1922."Unique publisher's
presentation binding of full morocco, commissioned specifically for this copy."Dedicated to Alexander Woollcott"
on the dedication page and repeated in gilt on the cover, the fragile binding
esthetically restored.To the mainstream
collectors of 20th century 1st editions, this one's like unscented perfume, anunanticipated paragon that's passed through a
membrane from another reality, but it's a heavyweight copy, the best
imaginable, associating Anne Caldwell, the most successful woman playwright and
lyricist of her time, Kern, the leading composer (at least until Gershwin
arrived) and Woollcott, the foremost literary critic.6,000Kesey, Ken One Flew
Over the Cuckoo's Nest(NY, 1962).1st edition of his first book, doing for psychiatric
hospitals what The Boston Strangler did for door to door salesmen.Fine in a sparkley near fine jacket, unfaded
on the spine and really crisp despite 2 tiny edgetears on the back.The film was the second in the history of the
Academy Awards to win all 5 major Oscars, best picture, director, screenplay,
actress and actor.12,500Keynes, John MaynardThe General
Theory of Employment, Interest and Money(London, 1936).1st edition.The defining book of the 20th century's foremost economist, making
publication of Keynes General Theory the second greatest literary moment in
1936 (the greatest literary moment of 1936 was that while Trout fishing in May,
Ernest Hemingway caught a Carp and decided not to write about it).Fine in near fine jacket, a beauty, and most
jackets on this book (when in jacket at all) are beneath collectible crying
out, flip me in the wood chipper as they've always proved harder to turn into
cash than a 3rd party check drawn on the organ bank.Reference: Printing and the Mind of Man number
423, the entry for which ends with the quotation, "We are all Keynesians
today." 6,000greatest of
all 14th century English poemsLangland, WilliamVision of
Piers Plowman(London, 1550).1st edition (written and revised 1367-1386).[8], 117 leaves foliated (small quarto).One of 3 issues published by Crowley in 1550,
this one the 2nd, preceded by one with the date misprinted "1505,"
now unobtainable though Bradley Martin had a mold stained and imperfect copy,
lacking quire I4, and with the misprinted 1505 date scraped off and replaced
with the correct 1550 date in pen ($34,100 Sotheby's, 1990).Our issue does however precede another one
dated 1550 ("MDL"), which also characterizes itself as the "seconde"
in the title, but with a more corrupt text and easily identified by the word
"tyme" in the title instead of "time" as in our issue. A
complete copy save for the final blank leaf.Very attractive (fine) 19th century full morocco, gilt, by Clark.Title page a bit dusty, 4 tiny holes in blank
margin filled, upper corner of M1 repaired taking the shoulder note on recto
and just touching the first letter of the first 8 lines on verso, small chip
repaired at the blank edge of the last leaf and the lower blank margin is
extended 1/2" at the bottom (not the lower half of the leaf as noted in
the auction record).An evidently rare,
and more evidently important book, and regardless of the minor faults
articulated, a superior copy of the first book to transit from the medieval to
the modern mind and the only book treating fully the social life of all classes
in the 14th century, or any adjacent century for that matter.As a by the way, it also contains the first
mention anywhere of Robin Hood.Ex-Henry
Francis Lyte (armorial bookplate), J [ames]. O. Edwards, W. A. Foyle
(Christie's, London, $7,097 in 2000).STC, 19907a.Hayward, 11.Grolier English, 516,000dated 1960
presentation copyLee, Harper To Kill a
Mockingbird(Philadelphia, 1960).1st edition, 1st printing of her first book.An all you could want, contemporary
presentation copy, signed and inscribed to two of her earliest supporters,"For Christine and Pat:You've been my champions from the beginning!With my love, Nelle Harper LeeNovember 1, 1960."Light offset to endpaper from a clipping,
else fine in a near fine 1st state dustjacket with a little rubbing mostly to
the folds and edges, but this is clearly a superior jacket, well preserved
without nicks or chips, unfaded, unsoiled and it's never been touched by the
restorer. 45,000Speaking directly to the rarity of contemporaneously,
inscribed 1st printings, it's pertinent that the book was reprinted before
publication (Sept. 1) and copies of the 2nd printing were already in Lee's
hands on publication day, and there are presentation copies known of the 2nd
printing inscribed by her in the first week of September.Our copy of the 1st printing was an author's
copy, sent to her by the publisher and intentionally set aside and held by Harper
Lee then given to her friends when she was able to present it to them in
person, 2 months later.Still the most valuable novel published in the 1960s,
winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and real presentation copies, inscribed and
authentically dated in the year of publication, are seldom seen and are quite
rare in nice condition, acombination
that seems now to be unbuyable.And
beyond the book and the inscription, this dustjacket is exceptional, and most
jackets offered these days are either worn out or restored with more paint and
touch-up than a Kabuki actress.Lee, Harper To Kill a
Mockingbird(Philadelphia, 1960).1st edition, 1st printing.Signed.Fine in a new looking 1st state jacket with undetectable restoration,
mostly at the top and bottom of the spine.The most valuable 1st edition published in the 1960s, winner of the
Pulitzer Prize and the reigning masterpiece of modern domestic realism.A poignant tale about a just man, his
influence on his children and community, and (eclipsing the limitations of time
and region) of the universal need for compassion and understanding.Ironically, a book about truth that was
faithfully filmed in Hollywood, a place where lying is just good manners.14,000signed
presentation copy in dustjacketLewis, SinclairBabbitt(NY, 1922).1st edition, inventing a new American archetype,
George Babbitt, middle aged, middle class, middle-management and with an always
middling mind.The book became so famous
that "Babbitt" is now found in many dictionaries as meaning an
unthinking conformist rigidly attached to middle class standards.J. R. R. Tolkien said he liked the sound of
the word and the character it described so much it inspired his own word
"hobbit."Inscribed to Harry
Korner, a close friend and Lewis' companion for a portion of the "Free
Air" motor car trip.The book's
fine.The fragile dustjacket (printed on
unusually thin paper) has a small chip at one corner and a few edgetears but is
otherwise near fine with no repair, and more satisfying than a secret
admirer.4 years after declining a 1926
Pulitzer, Lewis became the first American to win a Nobel Prize for Literature,
pocketing the big bucks, relieving a nationalunscratched itch and breaching the Swedish citadel for 4 generations of
authors that followed.8,500the only
recorded copyin
dustjacketLondon, JackThe Sea Wolf(NY, 1904).1st edition.Here’s a nice book.Fine in the
rare dustjacket, offsetting to endpapers from the jacket’s flaps (a physical
witness of authenticity), jacket with small chips and several tears invisibly
strengthened and restored, but clean, fresh and pretty beautiful.37,500A multi-layered classic, written with gusto and
fervor, likely London’s magnum opus.On
the surface it’s a romantic, action adventure, and a great one.Look deeper and you’ll find an allegory spun
on turn of the century hopes and fears.The hope was that humankind would become more spiritual, its moral fiber
stronger, its institutions enlightened and its tastes ennobled.The fear was that humanity’s animal nature
might frustrate these aspirations, and that the species might slip backwards
into a bestial state marked by violence, greed and lust, making a shambles of
civilization, though we now know that the only difference between humans and
animals is that humans aren’t afraid of vacuum cleaners.Text references to Darwin suggest a
culmination of the era’s preoccupation with his theories and the tension
between man’s upward and downward possibilities.Wolf Larson (called The Sea Wolf), Captain of
the ship Ghost, represents the feral and primitive, Maud Brewster (survivor of
a shipwreck) the evolved and spiritual.Both tug at Hump (Humphrey Van Weyden).Larson’s view of life as a meaningless struggle toughens Hump.Maud’s idealism fills him with love,
tenderness and chivalric courage.In the
end he unites with the ethereal Maud, hinting that London was hopeful for
humanity’s future, rejecting the cruel and brutish for that which is redeeming
and civilized.1st edition
in English of MachiavelliMachiavel, NicolasWorks(London, 1675).1st edition in English.A comprehensive collection of his most
important writings.Contemporary (or
very nearly contemporary) full calf, joints reinforced long ago (prettier if
rebacked), spine tips chipped, minor faults and repairs, very good, tall (12
3/4"), clean, and complete (save for blanks) with the 5 page catalog at
the end.Ex-Thomas Poyander, John Bonyer
(with both their armorial bookplates).8,000A surprisingly easy read, containing The Prince (the
original theoretical discourse on modern political science), The Art of War
(precedes Von Clausewitz's On War by390
years), Discourses on Livy, etc.Reference:Wing
M128.Printing and the Mind of Man,
number 63 (The Prince), noting, [Before Machiavelli] "political
speculation had tended to be a rhetorical exercise based on the implicit
assumption of Church or Empire.[He]
founded the science of modern politics on the study of mankind — it should be
remembered that a parallel work to 'The Prince' was his historical essay on the
first 10 books of Livy.Politics was a
science to be divorced entirely from ethics (a divorce well embraced these
days), and nothing must stand in the way of its machinery ... What Machiavelli
forgot is that man is not only a political animal, and that any attempt to
govern without reconciling the other side of his nature is bound to fail.Nevertheless, he wrote as a patriot and a
political scientist, and he better deserves to be remembered as such than as
the Borgia-like figure his name now connotes ... Shakespeare ironically
acknowledges the fact when Hamlet says, 'I'll put the murderous Machiavelli to
school.'"The appendix of this
edition prints (for the first time) a spurious Machiavelli letter anticipating
such misinterpretations and defending the morality of his writings.she would
have been a nymphomaniacif only they
could have calmed her down a bitMaguire, GregoryWicked.The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of
the West(NY, 1995).1st edition of an ingeniously conceived novel (Wizard
of Oz from the Witch’s point of view).Basis for the famous broadway play.Fine in fine jacket (as new).90inscribedMilne, A. A.When We Were
Very Young(London, 1924).1st edition, 1st binding (plain endpapers), the first
and rarest title in the series.Presentation
copy signed by Milne.Near fine (faint
spots) in a near fine jacket (tiny tears).Authentic, pretty, and I know the value of such books by heart, but
there's always a guy on the web (the home of drive-by bookselling) with a
forgery for cheap, and the only thing he knows by heart are his Miranda rights.25,000Milne, A. A.Set of Poohs
in dustjacket(London, 1924-1928).4 vols.1st
editions.When We Were Very Young 1924,
Winnie the Pooh 1926, Now We Are Six 1927, The House at Pooh Corner 1928.Fine in nearly fine 1st state dustjackets
(only minute faults), and these are children's books, mostly seen with more
soiling than a rock star's sheets, more nicks than a Greek phone book and more
dog ears than a North Korean buffet.25,000Milne, A. A.Now We Are
Six(London, 1927).1st edition.Signed by Milne.Fine in lightly
worn jacket.I'm not taken by kittens
playing with yarn or children's poetry, but that's not to patronize or
denigratethose of you who are.And for you who love children's poetry,
"patronize" means "talk down to" and "denigrate"
means "insult."4,000get your
tongue out of my mouth,I'm trying
to kiss you goodbyeNabokov, VladimirLolita(Paris, 1955).2 vols.1st edition.Farce, pathos, parody and surrender, united in the tormentingly complex
nature of romantic love.Fine.A splendid set, greener than a Tree frog's
butt, and whiter than a New England yacht club.1st issue (900 francs price, no shadow from a removed sticker), and
though all sets were printed concurrently, those with the price converted to
new francs, or canceled, were sold (issued) later, certainly not within a month
of publication.11,000Nabokov, Vladimir Lolita(Paris, 1955).2 vols.1st
edition.An unprecedented balancing of
obsession against the warning that forbidden fruit tastes sweeter but spoils
faster.1st issue with the price “Francs
: 900” on the back cover neither canceled, or raised, or converted to new
francs.A little natural toning to the
white lines on the spines, but otherwise a fine set.7,750Nietzsche, FriedrichThus Spake
Zarathustra(NY, 1896).1st edition in English, a stirring glorification of
man as superman.Original cloth, inner
hinges and a short tear to the front free endpaper neatly strengthened,
otherwise a near fine copy, nice for this book.Reference: Printing and the Mind of Man, 370.2,000Nietzsche is from the philosophical school that tells
men how they should live (the first problem).His injunction is to be an individual and follow your own desires—if
necessary (and here's the second problem) through the subversion of
others.So he remains widely
misunderstood, a direct consequence of the insanity that plagued him during the
last years of his life (1889-1900) and (to an even greater degree) of
entrusting his papers to the custody of his sister Elisabeth, herself a genius
but an evil and corrupt one.She was a
frenetic German nationalist and raked with delusions.Friedrich was, in his way, anti-Christian,
upset that virtues of pity and meekness destroy man's will, and he believed in
the here and now as opposed to the hereafter, and he was certainly
anti-nationalist, but Elisabeth edited his archive and churned out writings on
him that forwarded her own infected beliefs while attributing them to her
brother.Orwell, GeorgeNineteen
Eighty-Four(London, 1949).1st edition.Number 4 on the unified cumulative lists of the 20th century's greatest
books.Fine in fine green dustjacket
(minuscule rubs at corners).There's no
priority between the green and red jackets and one isn't scarcer or fades more
quickly than the other, and statements to the contrary are all newspeak.5,500Very few novels change history (Uncle Tom's Cabin
comes to mind), but Nineteen Eighty-Four deflated a world wide surging tide,
stripped communism (and all other forms of totalitarianism) naked, ridiculed
its leadership, mocked its intellectual appeal, scorned its possibilities, and
dismissed the romance supporting its inevitability, and did it all so adroitly
that, as has been said before, it wasn't the beginning of the end but it was
the end of the beginning.1984 is the
year in which it's set.The world is
divided into 3 great powers, Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia, each perpetually at
war with the other.Britain is part of
Oceania and is known as Airstrip One.Throughout Oceania, "The Party" rules by the agencies of 4
ministries whose power is absolute—The Ministry of Peace which deals with war,
The Ministry of Love (headquarters of the dreaded Thought Police) which deals
with law and order, The Ministry of Plenty, which deals in scarcities, and The
Ministry of Truth which deals with propaganda.Played out against this nightmare background is the drama of Winston
Smith, possibly the last man alive to rebel against the Party's rule and
doctrines, and to cling to a belief in the individual. And there's an
unintended moral here because, in the end, Winston Smith forgets that the first
and foremost duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it.Newspeak, thoughtcrime, plusgood, hateweek and
doublethink.Maybe it all happened right
on schedule and we just missed it in sleepthrough.[Playboy]The First
Issue of Playboy(Chicago, 1953).Volume I, number 1.Short, faint crease to the extreme lower corner of the back cover, still
fine (astounding), rare in this condition, a copy that will satisfy a collector
who’s fussier than Goldilocks.Contains
the legendary color centerfold of Marilyn Monroe, a gritty excerpt from Doyle’s
Sherlock Holmes, a bawdy tale from Boccaccio’s Decameron and the first
collection of Hefner’s playful cartoons.A quintessential piece of printing that cleverly mated sex and upward
mobility to relentlessly push its way through 4 decades of legal obstacles, and
ultimately, secure more rights than Captain Ahab’s sock drawer.50 years later upward mobility for the single
man has crystalized into the law of the 4 Fs.If it flies, floats, fucks, or faces the ocean, rent it, don’t buy it. 5,000BraveheartPorter, JaneThe Scottish
Chiefs(London, 1810).5 vols.1st
edition.An account of revolution,
reminding us that even in times past, men loved war precisely because it was
the one thing that stopped women from laughing at them.Contemporary 1/2 calf (rebacked, original
spines preserved).A very good, complete
set with all half-titles and the errata.Ex-Edward, Lord Suffield (armorial bookplates).Ref: Sadleir, 1971.Summers, p. 497.1,800Jane Porter's second novel.Based on the life of Scottish patriot William
Wallace, a favorite read of (among others contemporaneously) Scott, Mitford,
Thomas Campbell (dedicatee of the 3rd edition), Joanna Baillieand and Napoleon,
and Scottish Chiefs was the source for the faithful, 1995, Mel Gibson film,
winner of the Academy Award for best picture. Sir Walter Scott is recognized as
the inventor of the historical novel (see: Printing and the Mind of Man, no.
273, Scott's Waverley, 1814, under the running head "fiction teaches
history" and anointed in that literary lap dance as "the
progenitor") but Scottish Chiefs precedes Waverley by 4 years and
articulates the formula just as precisely.Even earlier, Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrant, 1800, Sophie Lee's The
Recess, 1785, and Thomas Leland's Longsword, 1762, are models that come close,
but they are more about the process, and the perfected invention was Porter's,
though the credit goes to Scott, probably because he established the historical
novel as long fiction's dominant form in the first half of the 19th century,
and also because literary inventions of this magnitude are seldom attributed to
women by apathetic male academics who lie down like the French army when faced
with confronting their predecessors.But
all such is not unprecedented in a literary world where the supply of new ideas
is scarce enough, but always in excess of the demand.the first
"Greenback"(American Printed Currency) U. S.
Treasury Demand Note (1861).Rare, transitional, hand signed, $1O demand note, the
original U. S. paper currency, preceding the first legal tender by a year (see
next item for the first completely printed U. S. dollar).Portrait of Lincoln.Serial No. 46,213.Ref: Friedberg number 8 (issued in
Boston).1/16" tear in blank margin
but that’s the only fault, lightly circulated (CAA’s "fine-very
fine").Financing the Civil War
required the heretofore unthinkable, a government backed paper currency.Congress responded on July 17, 1861 by
authorizing the Treasury to design, print and circulate, personalized, hand
signed, $5, $10 and $20 notes that would be redeemable upon demand but they
were not to carry the Treasury Seal.Nervous about credibility, the legislation stopped short of legal tender
status (compulsory acceptance) and required that each of these notes be an
individually hand signed promise to pay, slightly closer to a check from the
Treasury Department.The cumbersome
autograph requirement may have spurred acceptance but it slowed production
beyond reason and on March 10 1862, new legislation from Congress retired the
demand note and removed the autograph provision, by legislating the first
completely printed paper currency and dictated its status as "legal
tender", with mandatory acceptance for all debts.One feature making its first appearance on
this demand note was the now famous green back, carried forward to future U. S.
currency and instigating the nickname.This is one of the rare initial American originals of which the current
census for Freidberg number 8 records just 32 survivors, with most now in
institutions or in collections that are destined for institutions.The last at auction in this condition brought
$5225.5,0001st state
book and dustjacketand a
presentation dated on publication dayRand, AynThe
Fountainhead(Indianapolis, 1943).1st edition, 1st printing, 1st binding and 1st
jacket.Rare.Honest design as a superior justification for
selfishness.Fine in a dustjacket with
some creases and edgetears (the longest 1" at the upper front fold), else
nearly fine, the color on the spine unfaded.Contemporary, signed presentation copy for 2 of her close associates,
"To Mildred and Joe Kamp—Affectionately—Ayn Rand.May 8, 1943."This is the unfindable, unbuyable, nexus of
contemporary, dated presentation, bright 1st state cloth (always had a jacket
covering it) and unabused, correct dustjacket.65,000inscribed to
an early reviewer of the bookRand, AynAtlas
Shrugged(NY, 1957).1st edition of a symptom disguised as a system.Thin broken line of jacket protector residue
along the extreme bottom edge of the cloth, else fine and unworn in sharp, near
fine dustjacket.Inscribed, "To
Robert Hessen— —with my thanks for the most properly philosophical review of
this book—and with my best wishes for your future—Ayn Rand.11 / 16 / 57."Hessen received a prepublication copy, and
reviewed it, pleasing Rand immensely.Quickly invited to meet her, he did so on Nov. 16th when she inscribed
his copy for him.He joined her circle,
became her private secretary (she always called him her "personal
lieutenant") and they remained fast friends thereafter.20,000A world wide bestseller, ranked second only to the
Bible in a 1991 Library of Congress poll asking readers what was the single
most influential book in their lives, but the times have changed and these days
Atlas Shrugged is second in popularity only to Let Yourself Go Week.seldom seen
as a presentation copyRhys, JeanWide
Sargasso Sea(London, 1966).1st edition of her last novel, a weighty, feminist
prequel to Jane Eyre, ably dragging Charlotte Bronte into the 20th
century.The orange cloth is bright as a
streetworker’s safety vest but has 1/4” of fading along an edge and a faint
ghost from the jacket illustration (both trifles) but it’s otherwise fine, in a
truly fine dustjacket,Inscribed,
"To Oliver with love from Jean" (a recipient unknown to me but
presumedly someone quite close to the author).The elusive combination of joy (presentation copy and beautiful).The inscription is in black ink, in the
wavering hand of the aging Rhys, typical of the period, if and when her writing
is seen at all950Rhys, who was half Creole, was born in Dominica and
spent her childhood there.The book is
set in Jamaica and Dominica, and Rhys supplemented her personal knowledge of
the West Indies by tediously researching the islands’ history.Well armed, she set out to write a study of
the mad Creole heiress (Antoinette Cosway) who becomes the first Mrs.
Rochester, the mad wife in Jane Eyre.Written, in contrast to her other works, with immediacy and objectivity,
it begins with a depiction of Antoinette's early life, her mother's marriage to
a rich man, numerous deaths and her inheritance.The middle part of the novel follows Mr.
Rochester who "acquires" Antoinette (and her fortune) from her
stepbrother.Rochester is hard, stupid
and greedy, and though marginally enchanted with Antoinette, he soon finds
reason to fear and despise her.Here the
novel picks up the plotline of Jane Eyre and quickens its pace.Once Antoinette's isolation is complete,
Rochester and the stepbrother conspire to have her committed and get her
money.They succeed in locking her in
the attic of Thornfield Hall and in a frantic dream she imagines that she can
return to happier times by lighting the hall on fire.Globally acclaimed and winner of The Royal
Society of Literature Award and the W. H. Smith Award, to which Rhys only
comment was, "It has come too late."Robbins, TomEven
Cowgirls Get the Blues(Boston, 1976).1st edition.A
review copy with slip.Fine in fine
jacket (looks new).Inscribed, "For
SteveLet 'er buck!Tom Robbins."Faultless condition, coy inscription and a
review copy too, and yes it's expensive but one of you will buy it and 2 years
from now a dozen of you will wish you had.2,750Sand, GeorgeThe Marquis
de Villemer(Boston, 1871).1st American edition (1st in English?).Apparently the primary binding in green
cloth, though it was also issued in purple.A fine copy, razor sharp.Seems
the best of her later novels. 650Early on, Sand's English translations were erratic and
her more complex ideas often read like some literary wind talker.But throughout her fiction she questioned
sexual identity and gender destinies, and played a significant, if long underestimated,
role in the evolution of the novel.Her
books were popular, but also awoke controversy, and the French Senate formally
declared its opposition to the presence of her works in public libraries,
assuring her fame, and eventually, better translations.So the need to censure is an old one and its
justifications no truer today.I mean
just because there's more comedy on television does that guarantee more comedy
in the streets?Sewell, AnnaBlack Beauty(Boston, 1890).1st American edition, 1st binding of printed boards
with 90,000 on cover (copies in wrappers or cloth were later).Fine (superb).Contemporary pencil presentation from the
Connecticut Humane Society.A heavy
little book second only to Uncle Tom as a successful instrument of propaganda,
and scarcer in this condition than a pro football player blaming God for a
defeat. 2,500the earliest
known copy of any Shakespeare playsurviving in
the publisher’s wrappersShakespeare, WilliamHamlet(London, 1683).8th edition of Hamlet, 4to. 221 mm. X 176 mm. A2
B-M4.All early editions preceding the
1685 4th folio are rare, but this is a copy of transcendent singularity, the
only 17th century Shakespeare play (or 16th century for that matter) that I could
locate, on any census, still surviving in its original wrappers (this copy
actually in a special publisher’s binding of marbled wrappers for an acting
company’s use in their production of the play).Not the most valuable of Hamlets (two 1st editions are recorded, each
worth 3 or 4 million dollars), but it is the finest of Hamlets, and also the
finest copy of any early Shakespeare play.Title neatly inked on upper cover by the original owner (more likely the
prompter John Downes or less likely the actor Thomas Betterton) whose
manuscript prompt notes and marginalia in a contemporary hand identify him as
he who played or prompted Hamlet himself.Marbling on wraps rubbed (good game use) else fine, unworn and untrimmed,
an unanticipated and unique heirloom, right from the house of shock.Ref: Bartlett 86, Greg 197k, Jaggard p.306,
Wing S-295295,000A romantic tragedy which owes its long life to
Hamlet’s character, a Prince with a nature more inclined to thought rather than
action, a philosophical, introspective hero who is swept along by events
instead of controlling them.In a
plotline of somewhat conventional revenge, Shakespeare uses his poetic mastery
for a profound exploration of one man’s universal struggle with duty, morality
and ethics, mirrored against the hopes, fears and despair of all mankind.The full title reads, The Tragedy of Hamlet
Prince of Denmark.As it is now Acted at
his Highness The Duke of York’s Theatre, published in London by H. Heringman
and R. Bentley.22 copies survive, 21
recorded by Bartlett plus this one, but those other copies are all rebound
(even when deceptively described as in original calf), and our amazing book
stands distinct from the others, sort of like having 22 Hemingway's, only one
of which is in its dustjacket.Shakespeare, WilliamComedies,
Histories and Tragedies(London, 1685).4th folio.pp.[12], 96, 99-160, 163-254, [253]-[273], [1], 328, 303, [1] with usual
mispaginations.The preeminent work of
English literature.A fine copy, truly
spectacular in its contemporary binding of full plain calf, expertly
rebacked.Armorial bookplate, blank
margins of frontispiece portrait restored, small tears and margin faults
repaired on 13 other leaves, a repaired tear to Uu6 (into though not taking any
text), a few rust spots or stains, but don't be distracted.This is a very clean and tall (13 3/4"),
widely and evenly margined, exemplary folio, unassembled and unsophisticated,
with every single letter of text genuine, and the binding is just what you'd
want, a particularly appropriate and mellow antique, satisfyingly contemporary
with the book.Ref: Wing S2915. Greg III
1119. Bartlett 123190,000Most folios being offered these days are more fake
than a hooker being paid by the moan.Pedestrian copies presented with unwarranted praise, disguised,
assembled, enhanced, augmented or resurrected under the hand of the restorer,
and covered in 19th, or worse yet 20th, century bindings, glittering like the
bright shiny objects known to raise the pulse of the feeble minded, sell for
half our price when draped in their new clothes.But Hamlet said you should know a hawk from a
handsaw, and I say, a donkey sent traveling does not come home a horse, and our
copy is a real book in its 300 year old covers, a fine and stalwart folio that
will bring lasting pride of ownership in the most sophisticated library, and
there's one timeless reality that has always proved true about Shakespeare
folios in this condition.On those
unpredictable occasions when they're offered for sale, the best time to buy
them is always last year.Steinbeck, JohnTortilla
Flat(NY, 1935).1st edition.His fourth book and first triumph, a slick argument that the chief cause
of unhappiness is the search for happiness, and that the salient problem with
poverty is that it takes up all your time.Fine in wrappers in fine, fresh jacket (not faded or darkened).Surely the 1st binding although the
extrapolated facts and bibliographical references are unconvincing as to
whether this was a published issue sold to the public or an advance issue of
1st edition sheets exclusively for review.What is sure is that there were only 500 in this binding and jacket from
a total 1st printing of 4,500 and that this particular copy was issued
prepublication with the publisher's compliments (small stamp on endpaper).Irritatingly scarce in fine condition,
deflating careless collectors for 50 years (you with your 15% tolerance policy
who celebrate doubling the value of a book by putting on a bro-dart).So avoid copies with a faded or darkened
spine, for half our price, to say nothing of worn $2,000 copies that would
scare the bark out of a dog, rhyme with bugly uook, and will pollute your
entire collection.And it's your
responsibility alone to sidestep them, as such books are themselves, as
innocent as a blind leper who has lost his bell, bumping into people but
meaning no harm.Full morocco case.7,000the dream,
the shadow, the kiss,the hunters
and the chaseStoker, BramDracula(Westminster, 1897).1st edition, 1st printing having the last integral
page (2C4) blank with no ad printed on it for The Shoulder of Shasta.Original yellow cloth, very faint fading to
spine, but a fine copy, in all ways superior, and here’s my little prayer.Show me a copy that’s grubby, or worn, or
chipped or torn so that I can be content with mine that has a little fading.50,000Issue points on Dracula are all bogus.The 1st edition was published in June and all
3,000 copies of the 1st printing, and all known presentation copies dated in
June, look exactly like this one with the last integral leaf blank.The 2nd printing adds an advertisement for
The Shoulder of Shasta on the back of this last page and it stayed there for
the 3rd printing which adds a catalog at the end.The 4th printing replaces the 3rd printing
catalog with an even later one but it’s not until the 5th printing that
"fifth impression" is added to the back of the title page.Somewhere along the way the thicker paper was
replaced with thinner, coated paper and there are some nearly indiscernible
differences in the cover’s stamping, but the pivotal point of identification is
that last integral leaf, which is blank only in the 1st printing.Cloudy bibliography surrounds this book and
where there's smoke there's mirrors.That means copies with the Shasta ad that are sold as "2nd
issue" are actually 2nd (or later) printings despite the relatively
fantastic prices attached to them.Can
the leaf with the ad be removed and then replaced with a blank leaf of similar
paper?It can be done and it is done, so
examine every 1st edition with cynical care.And no rebound copy, unless inscribed and dated by Stoker himself, can
claim to be any more than one of the first 4 printings.The only known copy in dustjacket is just
where you might expect it to be, in the Rosenbach collection (Philadelphia).You think this Dracula is expensive?Well tell me, my children of the night, is
there any other novel of such renown you can think of where the asking price
for the 1st printing is only 3 times that asked for a reprint?passion
filled love letterto his wife
CaitlinThomas, DylanAutograph
letter, signed(Gryphon Guild House, Thur[sday,
September, 1945]).2 pages, recto and verso, 54 lines in pencil, on plain
stationary, 8 1/2" X 11", to Caitlin Thomas, signed at the end,
Dylan."4 folds, pinpoints of wear
at the intersections, a one sixth section dustsoiled as Caitlin carried this
around in her purse (folded), and it is in this portion (mostly blank margin)
where a few words are faint or lost, the same portion also with a pink
kissprint at the edge from Caitlin's lipstick.5,000Just what you'd want (and expect), nonetheless, here's
the entire letter:"My
darling dear, my own, my poor, beautiful Caitlin, this is only a little note
because I want you to have this money straightaway.I have been writing every day for money to
come from the BBC; it still hasn't come; this was a cheque from my agents for
poems in anthologies.I will send the
BBC money as soon as it comes.I love
you forever, &, though I thought last time, & the time before that,
that I never in all our lonely life together missed you [?so very] desperately.
[?& loved] you more dearly, this is the worst time of all, I love you &
need you; dear my dear & think of you in that grave & look around me at
mine.I am terribly sorry not to have
sent you money sooner, I had none.I
hope this will help, & there shall be more.The Electricity Summons, supposed to be paid by Fred months ago, I
[?telephoned] Fred about this afternoon & [?will get] the money at once
from him & send it off to the electric buggering people.There are 2 chances of a house, & I have
had a message from Miss Griffiths we met in Llanstephan asking me to ring her
at home this evening.Perhaps she will
have something definite, please our Lord & preserve our sanity.Do not be too depressed, my sweetheart,
though you've every right to be.I shall
be back on Monday, arriving in Carmarthen at six.I should love you & love you & love
you to meet me.I hope to God I shall be
able to say, we can go up to town almost at once.Donald is going on holiday — not to N. Quay —
& I needn't return anyway for a fortnight.But I told him, quite definitely, I wouldn't return at all unless there
is a house but would live in Majoda again.I love you.I am so glad you liked
the two broadcasts.Do listen on Sunday
at 11 p.m. & less than a day after I shall be with you, my true love until
death & forever afterwards.I want
to hold you & kiss you.Kiss Aeronwy
for me.Say that you love me.Wait for me.I love you & though I am wild unhappy think of you every
second.You are everything that is
good.I love you.Dylan."You think he liked her?Reference: The Collected Letters of Dylan Thomas,
pages 567-568.poet to poet
presentation copyThomas, DylanIn Country Sleep(NY, 1952).1st edition.Contains the 6 poems Thomas wrote from 1946 to 1952 including his most
famous, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.Inscribed to poet Isabella Gardner, one time associate editor of Poetry
Magazine which published Thomas' poems and awarded him the Levinson Poetry
Prize in 1945, "Isabella Gardner from Dylan Thomas 1952."Fine in clean, unfaded, near fine dustjacket4,000Thomas, DylanCollected
Poems(London, 1952).1st edition, deluxe issue.Number 9 of 65 numbered copies signed by
Thomas and bound in original full blue morocco.Fine (new).The limitation alone
makes it rare, and not all 65 copies survive, and of those that do very few are
in this condition.Contains 89 poems,
plus a prologue in verse, almost all he wrote and certainly all he wanted
preserved in the year before his death.7,500By 1952 Thomas was exceptionally popular and despite
an obvious unity of vision, his poetry was also exceptionally obscure.For a 20th century poet to be both popular
and obscure is an anomaly.He wrote in
no recognized poetic convention nor was he part of any particular school of
verse.Further, he was neither
politically nor socially committed.His
poetry was simply an affirmation of life, concerned with mankind and with a
wide human interest.Tolstoy, LeoAnna
Karenina(NY, 1886).1st edition in English, 1st binding (4 pages of ads
from 3 Dostoyevsky titles to The Marquis of Penalta).Original brown cloth (one of 4 colors with no
priority).Fine and crisp. 2,500In the wake of War and Peace, Tolstoy spent 5 years
with Anna, a serious attempt to write a flawless novel.His dual plotline juxtaposes the initially
contented but ultimately tragic story of Anna and Alexei against the initially
tenuous but ultimately satisfying marriage of Kitty and Konstantine the pivotal
figure in each being the young officer Vronsky.The style is carefully crafted to suit the characters and events, and
each scene possesses its distinctive rhythm, syntax and imagery.Tolstoy polished and refined the structure,
style and content until he had a perfectly symmetrical pair of relationships,
places and events.He announced his
theme and predicted this symmetry in the opening sentence, "All happy
families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own
way."Kitty and Konstantine find
meaning, not because their life together is without sorrow but because they
sacrifice for each other, pardon each other and desire each other's
happiness.Anna's story is one of fatal
attraction.For what appears to be love,
but on a deeper level is for ego, Anna and Vronsky renounce family, reputation,
health and finally life.Her last chance
for recovery passes because her husband will not risk the consequences of a
public divorce on his career, and threatens her with the loss of her son which
she refuses to consider, so Anna not only gets her arrow to the neck, but finds
an inflated cell phone bill attached to it.These days she'd just insist on an early divorce, at any price,
forsaking everything, because time passes and even the most bruised move
on.And speaking of moving on, I've now
been divorced so long that I'm starting to forget what's wrong with me.Trumbo, DaltonThe Devil in the Book(Los Angeles, 1956).1st edition.Fine in wraps.One of 750
signed.A rousing, literate assault on
witch hunting in general and the Smith Act in particular but there’s far too
much blind praise of Russian Communism and too much distinction between
dictators of the right and left for anyone awake to care today, even if Smith
himself was an imbecile, which he was.And anyway, let this be the gentlest of reminders that free speech is
just a cheap compensation for free thought.75Twain, MarkThe
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn(NY, 1885).1st American edition.Green cloth.All the usual 1st
state points are present but whether you have some or most or all of the points
has little to do with priority (the trouble with facts is that there are so
many of them), but it’s also the 1st binding in cloth (and in this case
priority is assured) with page 283 on a stub.Fine, no flaws, no repair, and not fine copies may be cheap but when you
want to sell them they always prove harder to get out of than a pair of skin
tight jeans underwater.12,500Von Harbou, TheaMetropolis(London, 1926).1st edition in English (The Readers Library) preceding
the 1927 Hutchinson edition.1st
printing (front ads run from Tower of London to Cleopatra).Fine in near fine 1st state dustjacket (rear
flap ads from Swiss Family Robinson to Cleopatra).Rare in this condition and particularly
fragile too, so even when it’s seen in jacket the book underneath is usually
ruined.A slickly conceived and
charismatic book, an early and chilling dystopia, and a best selling novel in
both England and America, made into a sensational and revered film by the
author’s husband Fritz Lang.5,500in
dustjacketWells, H. G.The First
Men in the Moon(NY, 1901).1st edition, preceding the London edition by a
month.Fine (radiant) in a pictorial
jacket with a 3/8” deep chip at the top edge and other slight wear at the
edges, but listen to me closely.Books
find room on their covers for all their previous owners, and this copy had a
long run of them who fastidiously preserved it and never abused, mishandled, or
repaired it.And this is a rare item, the
only copy of the true 1st edition in dustjacket I’ve had, and pointedly, I’ve
sold the later London edition in jacket twice, but hey, when a finger points at
the moon, the imbecile looks at the finger. 40,000an
immaculate copyWilde, Oscar
The
Picture of Dorian Gray(London, 1891).
1st English edition of a self-evident morality tale
centered on a portrait painting with supernatural powers.A Victorian classic, unique in the delicacy
of its grim and haunting metaphor, holding it's appeal even in our 21st century
when millions of people long for immortality who don't know what to do on a
rainy Sunday afternoon.1st printing
with "nd" for "and" beginning the 8th line from the bottom
on page 208.This is not a dropped
letter but a mis-setting, and the error was corrected for the 2nd printing, and
it is the 2nd printing which included the 250 copies of the limited signed
edition, a fact you won't be told by booksellers trying to sell you a copy of
this now very expensive limited edition (ok, flirting with integrity, I'll
admit I would keep my description brief and not mention it either).Original vellum backed boards, fox spots to
first few leaves, an exceptionally fragile book, our copy in fine condition,
never repaired, the boards unworn, the vellum spine faintly foxed at edge, but
unsoiled and unfaded.8 pages of ads at
the end (probably defining the 1st binding, and consequently the 1st issue) and
many (most) copies lack the ads.11,000A modern gothic and a 1st edition that's not
frequently offered for sale, and when a copy does make it to a catalog, book
fair, or auction it's usually in condition that would make Quentin Tarantino
throw-up.Copies this fine and fresh have
been rare since the 1960s and will soon enough sail off over the horizon to
reside forevermore in the land of the unobtainable."Lying
on the floor was a dead man. in evening dress, with a knife in his heart.He was withered, wrinkled and loathsome of
visage.It was not till they had
examined the rings that they recognized who it was."the first
modern Western novelin 1902
dustjacketWister, OwenThe
Virginian(NY, 1902).1st edition.All you could ever want in a great 20th century 1st edition.Near fine in a jacket with a few tears, a
small chip from the bottom of the spine and a tiny one from the top, but clean,
unrestored, never abused, and rarer than feel good performance art.22,500Among other original innovations found herein is the
Western hero of mythic primal humanity, the classic line "When you call me
that, smile," and cooler still, the first Main Street, walkdown, fast
draw, pistol duel in any American novel.The Western stands tall as a conception of colossal importance, and The
Virginian is the acknowledged prototype with an influence that's almost beyond
measure, and it's in a beautiful dustjacket that's still fresh after 101 years,
and obviously of the utmost rarity.Woolf, Virginia To the
Lighthouse(London, 1927).1st edition.Her magnum opus, the best modernist novel written by a woman.Date on endpaper else a fine copy, in a sharp
and clean dustjacket with some light and invisible restoration (not touching
the design or lettering).And this
jacket and book have always been together and still go together as surely as
jumbo fries and an elastic waistband, and pride in a To the Lighthouse jacket
that's either browned or mismatched, is as woeful as a business executive who's
proud of his Smurf collection or a Civil War buff who's proud of his Franklin
Mint pewter chess set.15,000Cited on Cyril Connolly's list of 100 Key Books in the
Modern Movement.Stephen Spender said of
To the Lighthouse, "She was trying to do something different, especially
with time...a new way of writing a book was simply a new way of looking at
life."He compared the quality of
her writing with that achieved by musicians in exploring varying harmonies of a
primary melody, the initial strain sometimes seeming lost while "...depths
far beyond the character of the original theme" are explored.Woolf wrote this legacy in a lyrical stream of
consciousness during which she was inspired by James Joyce and T. S. Eliot, and
she patterned the central couple on her parents, a collection of sources that
were still feasible possibilities in 1927.That's no longer the case as, alive in our time, Joyce would be
interminably occupied figuring out how to write a novel in the PDA alphabet,
Eliot would be absorbed learning how to make his cell phone ring to the Harvard
fight song, and Virginia's parents would be in rooms of their own, her father
frustrated by repeatedly failing to transfer basketball statistics from his
Wizard to his handheld without having to retype everything, and her mother
gripped in a frenzied core meltdown over how to instant-message tech support so
she could reprogram the bedroom coffee maker.the
ambiguity of languageWoolf, VirginiaThe Waves(London, 1931).1st edition.Near fine in a very good jacket, the worst faults a neatly repaired 3/8”
chip and a strengthened fold.1,400A towering work of psychological realism, the
culminating novel in a long line of descent from Marie de La Fayette’s Princess
of Cleves (1687), but The Waves owes nothing to any novel’s traditional
form.Woolf draws a series of
interlocking dramatic monologues in which the central figure is Percival,
symbol of natural man and emotional certainty, but the reader sees him
exclusively through the eyes of 6 androgynous characters who reveal the essence
of being during successive stages of their lives. Bernard is the unifier, Jinny an extrovert,
Rhoda an introvert, Neville a poet, Louis wants to succeed, and Susan loves the
country life.The action (if anything so
fleeting and inward can be called action) is of time passing and the
characters’ memories and sensations from birth to death.Woolf’s aim was to give fiction the subtle
insights, perceptions and revealing moments that had been the sole domain of
poetry, but there is nothing irrelevant here.Like Joyce, she uses symbols in the external world which correspond to
inner reality, for example, each section of the book is prefaced by a
descriptive passage in which the movement of the sun and waves through a day,
stands for time and eternity.Only the
narration is in the present tense and when the characters speak they do not do
so aloud or to each other (though they sometimes seem to communicate
telepathically), and they speak to the reader by verbalizing their thoughts and
inner feelings.All these soliloquies
are paralleled by sunrises and sunsets, descriptions of nature, of the sun, the
sea, birds and plants, but it is the waves that are the dominant image.The crucial event is Bernard’s renewal,
symbolized by the shining ring he imagined as a boy.Woolf’s theme is the oneness of life and art
that she has established by the end of the book, but the theme that strikes me,
throughout, is that loneliness is now so widespread that it has become,
paradoxically, a shared experience. Woolf, VirginiaThree
Guineas(London, 1938).1st edition.Near fine in a nice, clean dustjacket with slight wear to the corners.300Woolf carries forth ideas first articulated in The
Years but more directly, this book is a fictional sequel to her A Room of Ones
Own, and in it she gives the clearest voice to her ardent feminism.The story traces 3 requests, each for a
guinea, compares and relates them, traces their connection and explores the
terms upon which the money should be given.Deeper, the book scrutinizes tyranny, linking it in the patriarchal home
to tyranny abroad, a heavy concept in Britain on the eve of WW II.But ultimately she chases the elusive
principles of justice, equality and liberty and how they apply to all men and
women particularly to respect of their persons.And women demanding equal rights was a hallmark of the 20th century, so
men had their chance, but that's over.Today's empowered women admit they are superior and demand that their
subjects acknowledge it.The intensity of her work contributed to annoying
symptoms of mental illness.Elegiac and
hard pressed for peace and quiet she drowned herself, proclaiming to God,
"You can't persecute me, I'm outta here."Contrast today, when the intensity of work
still contributes to annoying symptoms of mental illness but now it's on the
corporate level.So hard pressed for
cash and addicted to litigation as the mechanical solution of choice for all of
their problems, a recent news item reports that The Walt Disney Company has
sued themselves for copyright violation.65 years later, Three Guineas continues to have a long
reach and still influences readers and writers of both genders.And speaking of today, harassment in the
workplace seems the key feminist battleground.Mrs. Woolf never addressed the issue but I'll wonder for her.Is this a problem for the self employed?coming soonCatalog 35The Tao of the Octopus∞still
availableClassic Book Cardsseries III
(Cards 153 - 228)The Third
Installment of a Defiant Catalogin the
Format of a Set of Baseball Cards,widely acknowledged as the mostbawdy and
scandalous book catalog ever put to printissued
occasionally in complicity withBetween the
Covers (the good guy in all this)$20 (cash or
check only)sets of
series I (cards 1-76)and series
II (cards 77-152)are still
available,$20 each (3
sets for $50)∞now filmingBook Collectors Gone WildProduced by
Pretty Picturesan apathetic
division of Biblioctopuscall us in
Beverly Hills to participate(the usual
Hollywood contract, percentage of profits)∞Biblioctopus
AliveNew York
Antiquarian Book Fairevery springsponsored by
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