Philadelphia: Published by Asbury Dickins . . . H. Maxwell, Printer, 1801. First edition. American Bibliography 700; Hill, American Plays, 144. The first book by Charles Jared Ingersoll (1782-1862), a Philadelphian who later became a prominent congressman and lawyer. Edwy and Elgiva was successfully performed at Philadelphia’s Chestnut Street Theater...
New York, circa 1890. ¶ Charles A. Gray was born in Iowa in 1857. He painted portraits of presidents McKinley and Garfield and playwright Eugene O'Neil, among others. This copy of the popular image of Irving was undoubtedly made to sell in his gallery. Gray made similar copies of other...
London: Printed for Thomas Bennet, 1694. First edition. Wing K-461; ESTC R8939; NCBEL II, 767. ¶ Poetic and prose meditations written towards the end of the life of Sir William Killigrew (bap. 1606-1695), playwright and courtier, whose career flourished almost the entire span of the 17th century. Inscribed on the...
London: Printed by T. Plummer for G. and J. Robinson, 1802. First edition. Roff, Charles & Mary Lamb, pages 47-52; NCBEL III, 1225 (Charles Lamb) and 1291 (Mary Lamb). ¶ Lamb's first play - “a tale of witch craft” which was never performed. Upon hearing that it was being published...
London: Printed for the Author, 1767. First edition. ESTC T106206 records five copies in the UK, five in the US and one in New Zealand. A treatise by Charlotte McCarthy (fl. 1745-67, died 1768), an Irish poet and novelist. She writes about love, poetry, neighbors, purgatory and sacrifice in a....
(Boston:) Printed for the Commission (by D. B. Updike, the Merrymount Press), 1930. The first of this edition, one of 500 copies printed. ¶ One of the great monuments of the career of printer Daniel Berkeley Updike and considered one of the finest examples of 20th century American book design...
London: Printed by D. L. for E. Curll, E. Sanger, R. Gosling, and W. Lewis, 1712. First edition translated into English, issue not certain. Pine-Coffin 698; Straus, The Unspeakable Curll, page 217; ESTC T110070; and see ESTC N21633. ¶ An important work by Bernard de Montfaucon (1655-1741), a French Benedictine...
Boston: Printed by I. Thomas and E. T. Andrews, 1791. First Boston edition. Evans 23661; Howes P-31.
London: Printed for the Author; and sold by J. Dodsley and P. Emsley, 1780. First edition. Jackson, Romantic Poetry by Women, 3; ESTC T54025. The uncommon second of two collections of poems by Anne Penny (1731-1784). This one reprints 27 of the 39 poems from her first collection (Poems, with a....
London: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley, 1762. First edition. NCBEL II, 242. ¶ An early work by Thomas Percy (1729-1811), and an interesting work of English Sinology. Within a few years Percy would gain literary fame for his Relics of Ancient English Poetry (1765). The eight pieces collected here...
London: Printed for G. Robinson and J. Bew, 1775-77. First edition. Garside, Raven and Schöwerling 1775: 30; NCBEL II, 677. The first novel and second book by Samuel Jackson Pratt (1749-1814), the story of the adventures of the clergyman Benignus, who searches for answers about goodness and benevolence. Pratt's plot...
(New York, 1941-42). The Moon is Down was John Steinbeck's second attempt at converting one of his novels into a play (Of Mice and Men was the first). It was originally written while Steinbeck was on assignment from the Foreign Information Service, a division of the Office of Strategic Services...
[San Francisco: William Dassonville], 1915. A rare and fine photographic portrait of the prominent California poet George Sterling (1869-1926), taken by the prominent California photographer, William Dassonville (1879-1957) and inscribed to Dassonville by Sterling in the lower left corner of the image: "Dear Dassonville: This is the best picture ever...
London: Printed for T. Becket and P. A. de Hondt, 1768. First edition, with page 150, line 12, in state 2 in the first volume and page 133, last line, in state 1 in volume 2. Rothschild 1971; NCBEL II, 949. ¶ A famously enduring work of 18th century English...
(London:) Printed for Samuel Briscoe, 1697. First edition. Wing V-57; Pforzheimer 1021; NCBEL II, 749. ¶ The first play and first published work by the architect and playwright Vanbrugh, a sequel to Colley Cibber Love’s Last Shift; or, The Fool in Fashion. The Relapse was performed on and off for...