London: Printed for T. Payne and Son and J. Robson, 1776. Edition: First edition. Bibliographical References: 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...
London: Printed for R. Robinson, 1719. Edition: First edition. Bibliographical References: 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...
San Francisco: The Arion Press, 1999. Edition: 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. Edition: First edition. Bibliographical References: 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). Edition: 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]. Edition: First edition. Bibliographical References: 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...
Glasgow: Printed by Robert and Andrew Foulis, 1759. Edition: First edition. Bibliographical References: 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). Edition: 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...
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...
Dublin: H. Brocas, [1784 or later]. Edition: An unauthorized issue. An Irish aquatint after the caricature by Thomas Rowlandson, first published in London Sept. 25, 1784, with the famous scene depicting the bookseller looking unsympathetically at the struggling author who is pleading his case, manuscript in hand. Brocas was a....
New York: The Macmillan Company, 1917. Edition: First edition. Bibliographical References: 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. Edition: First edition. Bibliographical References: 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. Edition: First edition. Bibliographical References: 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”...
London: Printed for J. and T. Tonson, 1756. Edition: 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...
Amsterdam: Engraved by J. Houbraken for J. & P. Knapton, London, 1747. Bibliographical References: Wimsatt, Portraits of Alexander Pope, 66.15. One of many famous portraits of the great poet of the Augustan age, Alexander Pope. This truncated engraved version of Van Loo's oil portrait is surrounded by an elaborate allegorical...
London: Printed for C. Bathurst, 1739. Edition: First edition. Bibliographical References: Teerink 771; Foxon S-920; NCBEL II, 1064. One of Swift's most enduring and entertaining poems, a satire in verse on the reaction of friends and foes upon the news of his death. "What Poet would not mourn to see...
Richmond: News-Leader, (1912). Edition: First and only separate edition. Bibliographical References: Not found in BAL; OCLC records one copy (Library of Virginia). A letter written by the venerable Virginia author, Thomas Nelson Page (1853-1922), to his local newspaper about the state of politics in Virginia. The newspaper agreed with Page's...
Paris: Marie-Nyon, 1832. Edition: Second edition; the first was published in 1830. Bibliographical References: OCLC records four editions between 1830 and 1847, with scattered but not plentiful holdings in Europe and three in North America: Montreal, Quebec and the Free Library of Philadelphia. An anthology-text book of English literature for...
Boston: Printed by Young and Etheridge, 1792. Edition: First edition. Bibliographical References: Stoddard & Whitesell 444; Evans 24643. An elaborate and lofty philosophical poem on the cultural advancement of man, modeled on the works of Alexander Pope and Mark Akenside. Handsomely printed with liberal use of ornaments - or "pretentious...
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1895. Edition: First edition. Bibliographical References: BAL 23472; Wright III, 6104. Six stories set in Italy, including one involving a murder, by Constance Fenimore Woolson. This was the first of two collections of stories she wrote during her sojourn there. Publisher's promotional leaflet about the...
Bristol: Albion Press: Printed by Wansbrough and Saunders, 1821. Edition: First edition. Bibliographical References: Jackson, Romantic Poetry by Women, page 262. Poems centering on the ancient history of Bristol and its surroundings by a woman who was apparently a local. The Albion Press flourished in Bristol for about 12 years...
London: Published by W. H. Carpenter; Edinburgh: Archibald Constable, 1820. Edition: One of two rival editions to appear almost simultaneously in 1820, priority not established. The other was edited by Edmond Malone and published by John Murray, but this edition by Carpenter is the superior text. See the DNB. Bibliographical...
Paris: Librairie de L. Hachette et Cie, 1853. Edition: First edition of the first French translation of "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall," together with the second French translation of "The Gold Bug." Translated by Alphonse R. Borghers. From the library of Edouard Avril with his stamp on the...
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1871. Edition: First edition. Bibliographical References: BAL 17428; Sabin 78782. ¶ The memoirs and letters of the Massachusetts novelist Catharine Maria Sedgwick (1789-1867), whose recollections, like her fiction, present a vivid picture of contemporary New England and its history.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1884. Edition: First edition. Bibliographical References: BAL 19780. A substantial biographical treatment of one of the great American travelers, travel writers and poets, Bayard Taylor (1825-1878).
