New York & London: Macmillan, 1902. First edition, first state with the numeral 546 in the upper left corner. Merle Johnson, American First Editions, page 24. A popular historical novel by Gertrude Atherton on the life of Alexander Hamilton, a figure she adored and considered an under-appreciated American hero. The...
![A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You [caption title]. HENRY AND JOHN CALCOTT HORSLEY COLE](/pictures/thumb/27465.jpg?v=1549654544)
London: Published at Summerly’s Home Treasury Office, 12 Old Bond Street, [1843]. The first printed Christmas card with a proof of the card. See: Buday, George. The History of the Christmas Card. London, 1954; McLean, Ruari. Joseph Cundall, A Victorian Publisher. London, 1976; Elliot, Jock. Inventing Christmas: How Our Holiday...
London: Saunders and Otley, 1836. Frist edition. NCBEL III, 1211; Wise and Wheeler 27; Block, The English Novel, page 133. An exchange of letters between fifth-century B.C. Athenians that sets a framework for a commentary on the literary and political world of that era and the relevance of that on...
London: Printed for T. Cooper, 1742. First edition. NCBEL II, 798. ¶ An interpretation by the American-born James Ralph (d. 1762) of Sarah Churchill's Account of the Conduct of the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough, and one of several popular works of journalism and contemporary history by Ralph, an interesting Grub...
London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1820. First edition. A scholarly treatise on the French painter Nicholas Poussin (1595-1665) by well educated, well traveled and captivating Maria Graham (1785-1842), later Lady Callcott. Her Memoirs of Poussin is pioneering work of its kind in English. "It was the...
(Pasadena): The Flame Press, 1930. First edition, one of 80 copies printed by Ward Ritchie, the majority of which were destroyed. Broomfield A11; Alberts 62. Two poems by Robinson Jeffers printed by Ward Ritchie with permission of the poet, but there were several typos in the text, and Ritchie destroyed...
(San Mateo, Calif.: The Quercus Press), 1940. First edition, one of 250 copies, of which 200 were for sale. Broomfield A30. A fine rendering of two unusually mellow poems by Robinson Jeffers that were inspired by a family visit to Kelmscott Manor in 1929, as described in the excerpt from...
Boston: Shepard, Clark, & Brown; New York: Rudd and Carleton; Philadelphia: T.B. Peterson, etc., [1859]. First edition. OCLC records six copies. The sixth in the series of The Lady's Almanac. This one contains a poem, "A Household Baby," by Sara Jane Lippincott under the pseudonym Grace Greenwood."
Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1890. First edition. BAL 14664. ¶ A collection of over 100 poems, lyrics and sonnets.
San Francisco: The Arion Press, 2007. First Arion Press edition, number 65 of 300 numbered copies. The 79th book of the Arion Press and an exemplary fine press edition of a classic American poem, with essays by Helen Vendler on the Waste Land and Marco Livingstone on Kitaj's painting, a....
(New York): New Directions, (1948). First edition. Bartlett & Campo A9. ¶ Everson’s first major collection of poetry, a selection from previous volumes, with one unpublished poem and new 3-page preface. Inscribed on the front free endpaper “For Dorothy Whitnah / with best wishes etc / Bill Everson.” Dorothy Whitnah.....
London: The Nonesuch Press, 1932. First edition, number 182 of 800 numbered copies. Dreyfus, Nonesuch Press, 8a. An imaginary conversation about Oscar Wilde between Jean Paul Raymond, a fictional character, and Charles Ricketts, written entirely by Ricketts. Inscription on the front paste-down from San Francisco collector Albert Sperisen to San...
London: Printed for T. Payne and Son and J. Robson, 1776. First edition. NCBEL II, 1724. An attack on Edward Gibbon's interpretation of the growth of Christianity in the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Chelsum (1738-1801), a clergyman and scholar, was one of the first of many to...
London: Printed for R. Robinson, 1719. First edition. NCBEL II, 1770. This biography of John Hales (1584-1656), the scholar and clergyman known as the “Ever Memorable,” is an early work in English (the first recorded in NCBEL) by the interesting Frenchman-turned-Englishman, Pierre Des Maizeaux (1672-1745), a journalist and biographer who...
San Francisco: The Arion Press, 1999. First Arion Press edition, one of 400 copies signed by Thiebaud. ¶ An ingenuously designed and handsomely produced illustrated edition of Calvino's famous novel centering on an imaginary dialogue between Marco Polo and Kublia Khan and their descriptions of the cities of the past.
London: Henry Colburn, 1826. First edition. Keynes 89; NCBEL III, 1232. 32 essays on literary and cultural topics, many of which originally appeared in periodicals from 1818 to 1825. Contemporary bookplate of J.H. Ball on the front paste-downs. Contemporary ink signature on the front free endpapers.
London: Faber and Faber, (1962). First collected edition, limited issue, number 390 of 500 numbered copies, signed by Durrell. Durrell's famous masterpiece of fiction, here in its first collected, limited edition, the text of which was slightly revised by Durrell.
Boston: Damrell & Moore & G. Coolidge. Published by Crosby, Nichols & Co., [1857]. First edition. OCLC records six copies. Damrell & Moore, sometimes in collaboration with John P. Jewett and Crosby, Nichols, and others, began its attractive series of small almanacs in 1854. Though unsigned except for initials, many...
Glasgow: Printed by Robert and Andrew Foulis, 1759. First edition. Gaskell, Foulis Press, 372. Three essays by James Moor, the most substantial of which is an interpretation of Plato's "Dialogue of Cebes" entitled "Essay on the Composition of the Picture Described in the Dialogue of Cebes."
(San Francisco: Roxburghe-Zamarano Club Joint Meeting, 2014). First edition, one of 150 copies printed by Richard Seibert for Robert Chandler and friends. Samples, similar to type specimens, that African American lithographer Grafton Tyler Brown (1841-1918) produced as a promotion for his lithography business in San Francisco. Professor Chandler provides an...
Big, Sur, California, May 14, 1945. Henry Miller responds to an inquiry from a young collector, Jack Aldridge, who is serving in the Army, and in the course of his letter makes an interesting confession: "Dear Lieutenant Jack! I wish I were good enough to make the sort of water...
New York: The Macmillan Company, 1917. First edition. BAL 11972. A collection of eight essays and sketches, including two dramatic sketches, published shortly after London's death in 1916. The title essay, "The Human Drift," is London's treatise on the history of civilisation as a search for food.
New York: The Century Co., 1913. First edition. BAL 11946, printing 1; Smith, American Fiction 1901-1925; L-445. Jack London's autobiographical novel, whose main character is named for the famous English folk song - "John Barleycorn" - and like his English namesake, struggles with alcohol.
London: Printed for M. Cooper, 1743. First edition. Rothschild 411; Hayward 166; NCBEL II, 537. Robert Blair’s famous and often re-printed work, the most notable edition of which was illustrated by William Blake in 1808. The Grave is one of the classic works of the “graveyard school” of poetry, also...
London: Printed for J. and T. Tonson, 1756. First edition. A clever collection of maxims, interwoven with short character sketches (Camilla, Melissa, Praxiteles, Flora, etc.) and reflections, written in a semi-stream-of-consciousness style. Fulke Greville (1717-1806), a handsome dandy and "accomplished and tonish young man in society" (DNB) wrote this in...