An array of rare books and first editions dating from 1643 to 1985, from the obscure to the not-quite-so obscure, including the Poems of the “Mad Poet of Broadway,” Charles Warren Stoddard’s copy of McTeague by Frank Norris, a 1643 English ordinance on the preservation of books and archives, a 1735 French code for the regulation of booksellers and printers, two interesting travel narratives by women, et cetera, all assembled from various sources over the past six months.
New York: Published by J. W. Bell, 1836. First edition. BAL 3300, state 2; American Imprints 36726; and see Robert Fraker, "Stomach for Them All: Collecting Minor American Verse in the Twenty-First Century," PBSA, Vol. 107, No. 3, 2015. A collection of approximately 100 poems by McDonald Clarke (1798-1842), a.k.a...... More
London: Printed for Edward Castle, 1696. First edition. ESTC R18928; Wing A4188; NCBEL II, 1682. The only book by John Aubrey (1626-1697) printed in his lifetime, a compilation of entertaining anecdotes which he styled “A Collection of Hermitic Philosophy.” It contains anecdotes on numerous subjects: Omens, dreams, apparitions, voices, impulses..... More
London: Printed for T. Evans, 1775. Second edition; the first was published in 1752 under the title Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain . . ESTC T94269; NCBEL II, 1806. A slightly revised edition of George Ballard's collection of 50 brief biographies of remarkable English women, from poets to..... More
London: John Murray, 1880. First edition. Robinson, Wayward Women, page 81; Theakstone, Victorian & Edwardian Women Travellers, page 35. The extraordinary account by Isabella Bird (1831-1904) of her first trip to Japan, which she undertook alone in 1878. Upon arrival she hired a servant to accompany her and purchased a...... More
London: Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 1891-1911. See A. N. L. Munby, Phillipps Studies, The Dispersal of the Phillipps Library; and Roland Folter, Catalogues of the Library of Sir Thomas Phillipps, A Chronological Checklist. 12 of the 16 catalogues of the auction sales that took place prior to the First World..... More
Chaalons’ [i.e. Châlons-sur-Marne], ‘pour la Communauté des Libraires’, 1735. New edition, apparently unrecorded. Not found on OCLC or the Union Catalogue of France (CCFr). By the late 17th century, the French government attempted to regulate all aspects of printing and the distribution of books in and around Paris. In 1686..... More
London: Sherwood, Jones, 1825. First edition. Garside, Raven and Schöwerling, 1825: 14; Chew, pages 149 & 356. A biographical novel based on the life and career of Lord Byron, and one of the many imitations and satires on his famous Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, the narrative poem about the world-weary young..... More
Baltimore: Published for the Editor by E. J. Coale, Richard J. Matchett, Printer, 1821. First edition. American Imprints 4963; Sabin 12173. A commonplace anthology compiled by Marylander Elizabeth Chase (1767-1840), the sister of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Samuel Chase. The contents, from both American and English sources..... More
London: Printed by J. Morphew, 1713. First edition. ESTC 66953; Goldsmiths' 5090; not found in NCBEL. A discussion about the injurious effects of gambling on the character and the purse in a dialogue between Callimachus and Dolomedes, set in early 18th century England. Jeremy Collier (1650-1726) was famous for his..... More
London: Charles Tilt, 1832. First edition. Cohen 65. A fable about a humble bee who wanders too far from home, literally and figuratively, and is taken advantage of by a devious wasp, who encourages him to drink too much. Little is recorded about the author Richard Frankum, who apparently was..... More
London: Printed for the Author: And Sold by A. Millar, 1743. First edition, ordinary paper issue. ESTC N11032; Cross III, pages 308-09. An important work by Henry Fielding (1707-54), an assemblage of poems, essays, satires, dialogues, plays and prose fiction, several examples of which appear here for the first time..... More
London: Printed for the Author, and Sold by Andrew Millar, R. and J. Dodsley, and J. Leake, 1757. First edition. ESTC T140917; NCBEL II, 999. Two works of historical fiction, both written in the first person, based on the lives of two prominent women in classical history, Cleopatra (51-30 BC)..... More
La Haye: (Société Typographique de Bouillon), 1772. First edition. OCLC records nine copies: four in the US (UCLA, Harvard, Princeton and Vanderbilt) and five in European libraries. A philosophical novel, written in the tradition of Persian letters and the Oriental tale, by journalist and revolutionary Jean-Louis Carra (1742-93) who, among..... More
[Laguna Beach, Ca.:] Laguna Verde Imprenta, [1985]. First edition, one of "some" 70 copies. A charming book about the printer Jane Grabhorn based on a talk by the printer Ward Ritchie which he gave as part of the Goudy Lecture series at Scripps College, Claremont, California. Ritchie later converted his..... More
London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1818. First edition. NCBEL III, 730. A substantial collection of unpublished works by the novelist and writer Elizabeth Hamilton (1756-1816): an autobiographical fragment, letters, poems, sketches and essays, compiled by her friend, the historian and novelist Elizabeth Ogilvy Benger (1777-1827). See..... More
![Book ID: 28926 “The Lily’s Quest,” [in] The Picturesque Pocket Companion,...](https://brickrow.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/28926.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1695769565)
Boston: Otis, Broaders, 1839. First edition. Clark C11; BAL 7588; American Imprints 57952. An attractive pocket-size literary guide to the history and the notable features of Cambridge’s famous Mount Auburn Cemetery, which includes the first book appearance of Hawthorne’s appropriately morbid tale “The Lily’s Quest,” that was later collected in..... More
London: Printed for J. Newbery, 1761. First collected edition. Fleeman 58.4Id/2a; Rothschild 1248; Chapman & Hazen, page 142. The first collected edition of the 103 essays that originally appeared under the byline "Idler" between April 15, 1758 and April 5, 1760 in the weekly Universal Chronicle; all but 12 were..... More
London: Routledge, Warnes, and Routledge, 1859. First edition. Robinson, Wayward Women, page 117; Theakstone, Victorian & Edwardian Women Travellers, page 260. The second of two books by Englishwoman Emily Emeline Lowe (b1835), a lively narrative about travels through Sicily with her mother, which they undertook unescorted – i.e., unprotected –..... More
[London:] Printed for Private Circulation Only, 1883-85. First collected edition, one of 50 copies only. NCBEL I, 1457. The first comprehensive collection of the works of Thomas Nashe (bap.1567- c1601), the colorful playwright, poet, satirist, novelist and pamphleteer, who was at the center of the Elizabethan literary scene and many..... More
New York: Doubleday & McClure, 1899. First edition. McElrath A3.1.a, first printing, state 3 (as usual); BAL 15031; Wright III, 3989. One of the major and enduring of 19th century American novels, the realistic and gripping tale of the dentist McTeague (his first name is never revealed) and his miserly..... More
London: Printed for Edw. Husbands, 1643. First edition. ESTC R17603; Wing E1780. An interesting document issued 18 November 1643, at the beginning of the English Civil War, that called for the protection and preservation of libraries and archives from sale or dispersal by the Committees for Sequestration, which were confiscating..... More
Gardiner, Maine: Printed for the Author, 1896. First edition, one of 312 copies privately printed. Edwin Arlington Robinson’s scarce first book, a collection of 43 poems written between 1889 and 1896. The manuscript was rejected by commercial publishers and Robinson resorted to self-publishing it in an edition of 312 copies..... More
[London]: Reprinted for Thomas Evans, [1775]. First Evans edition. ESTC T138089; Jaggard, page 435 (“Perhaps edited by E. Cappell”); Lowndes, page 2308. An attractive 18th century edition of Shakespeare’s poems, printed in a style similar to E. Cappell's 1767-68 edition of the Works and sometimes thought to be intended as..... More
London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme Brown, 1809, First edition. Colbert, Women's Travel Writing, 1780-1840; and see the ODNB. The first of three travelogues by Scottish writer and novelist Elizabeth Isabella Spence (1768-1832), a series of 55 letters about her excursions in the countryside and observations on what..... More
London: Printed by George Cawthorn, Bookseller and Printer to the Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, 1803. First edition in English. The first English translation of Madame de Stael's impressive survey of literature in historical perspective, De la Litterature Consideree dans ses Rapports avec les Institutions Sociales, a work that..... More
London: Printed for Joseph Wilde, at the Elephant at Charing Cross, 1700. First edition, one of two variants. In this one the dedication is signed "E. L." ESTC R223814 records nine copies (Durham, Oxford Bodleian, National Trust, Folger, UCLA, Illinois, Kansas, Tennessee, Beinecke); Wing A226C. Informed and lively observations on..... More