All

FIRST EDITION. With numerous illustrations, including maps by Erwin Raisz and drawings by Bertram Greene. "Morison spent five months aboard a three-masted sailing ship, retracing the explorer’s routes 10,000 miles across the Atlantic and around the Caribbean. The resulting book, Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus (1942), made Morison’s name as a scholar who was not content to dwell in the archives." –Smithsonian Magazine"This book arose out of a desire to know exactly where Columbus sailed on his Four Voyages, and what sort of seaman he was. No previous work on the Discoverer of America answers these questions in a manner to satisfy even an amateur seafarer. Most biographies of the Admiral might well be entitled "Columbus to the Water's Edge'..." –from the Preface Octavo, red buckram, original dust jackets, original publisher's slipcase. A fine set. 

FIRST EDITION of Sander’s classic, one of the most influential photobooks of the early twentieth-century. SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY SANDER.August Sander “was part of a coterie of photographers who established the photographic book as an aesthetically and commercially viable art form in the 1920s. Though Sander had published one such book in 1924, Unsere Heimat, Hannover, it was the 1929 publication of Antlitz der Zeit (The Face of Our Time) that propelled him into enduring fame” (Warren, Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography). “Many of his classic images are included in this seminal photobook, and the essential qualities of Sander’s vision can be seen. He took typical examples of professions, trades and social classes in Weimar Germany, and photographed them in their familiar environments in order to build up, piece by piece, a dispassionate image of the ‘face’ of society… One of his work’s miracles is how, despite his nominal objectivity, his political view shines through… His work is not neutral. It is not just penetrating, but was seen as positively dangerous, a little too acute in its analysis of society and class, by those with certain vested interests. This is made clear by the fact that when the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, publisher’s copies of Antlitz der Zeit were seized, the plates destroyed, and the negatives confiscated by Hitler’s Ministry of Culture” (The Photobook, I.124). Roth 52. Quarto. Original yellow cloth, original dust jacket. Signed and inscribed by Sander. Scarce original dust jacket with small chips at spine ends and extremities, and significant tears with loss at bottom portion of spine and front cover and at top of dust jacket rear (1"x4"). 

FIRST EDITION, AN IMPORTANT ASSOCIATION COPY INSCRIBED BY NABOKOV TO MORRIS BISHOP, one of Nabokov's closest friends and mentors: "To THE [drawing of two chess bishops] / FROM THE author of S. [drawing of a chess knight] / Sept. 1948 / Cornell". With Morris Bishop's bookplate on front pastedown. Morris Bishop was a prolific author, poet, and literary scholar, who had a lifelong affiliation with Cornell. "Among Professor Bishop's other distinctions was his perception of the literary talent of Vladimir Nabokov whom he brought to Cornell in 1948 as a teacher at a time when the Russian-born novelist was just making his mark in this country. Mr. Nabokov considered Professor Bishop as one of his closest friends in the United States and as a sort of spiritual father. They shared a fondness for exactitude in language and for japery as well as a common commitment to literature" (New York Times, Nov 22, 1973). "Bend Sinister, the first novel Nabokov wrote after coming to America, can be seen as his most direct fictional response to both the new Russian government and the new Soviet realism. The most self-consciously artificial of his novels in English, Bend Sinister is an indictment of the common impulse Nabokov saw behind both political totalitarianism and the misguided tendency of writers or readers to inflict 'general ideas' on works of art." (Lucy Maddox, Nabokov's Novels in English). Octavo, original cloth, original dust jacket; custom cloth box. Book fine, dust jacket with crease in center and "VOLGA" written neatly in pencil alongside the bolt of lightning on front panel.

FIRST EDITION of Huygens's masterpiece; an outstanding copy with noted provenance."A work of the highest genius which has influenced every science through its mastery of the principles of dynamics. It is second in scientific importance perhaps only to Newton's Principia, which is in some respects based on it" (Singer, A Short History of Science to the Nineteenth Century)."Important as Huygens's clock was from both a practical and a scientific point of view (it could be used by astronomers), the Horologium ('The Oscillating Clock') is a general work on dynamics and especially a mathematical analysis of pendulum motion. It was the most original work of this kind since Galileo's Discorsi" (PMM 154)."Although others had suggested the pendulum as part of a timing mechanism, it remained for Huygens to apply his keen mathematical sense to the problems of the clock. In this work, of which the first and fifth books are devoted to the pendulum, he treated many problems of dynamics of bodies in motion. He determined the tautochronous character of the cycloid and applied it to invent an isochronous pendulum clock. To the theory of curves he added the theory of evolutes, the fall of bodies along curves, and determined the first value of the force of gravity by using a compound pendulum. At the end are listed 13 theorems that relate to the theory of centrifugal force in circular motion, a theory that aided Newton in determining universal gravitation" (Dibner 145). Provenance: Eprit Flechier (1632-1710), Bishop of Nimes from 1687 to 1710, and well-known for his published sermons and histories. Indentified by The Catholic Encyclopedia as "one of the greatest sacred orators of his century". His library was sold in London on January 25, 1726.Horologium Oscillatorium. Sive de Motu Pendulorum ad Horologia aptato Demonstrationes Geometricae. Paris: F. Muguet, 1673. Folio, contemporary full speckled calf , elaborately gilt-decorated spine, gilt arms on boards of Eprit Flechier, Bishop of Nimes. With full page woodcut and numerous in-text woodcuts and tables. Repairs to spine and corners, text with occasional light browning. A beautiful, fine copy with wide margins.

AN EXCEPTIONAL INSCRIBED COPY: FIRST EDITION, one of only 1000 copies, SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY GINSBERG (with additional amusing commentary) and fellow Beat poet GREGORY CORSO.First inscribed by Corso on title "For Gergory, love Allen Ginsberg / S.F. -1956"; with Ginsberg's inscription beneath "This is Gregory Corso's Natural hand - A. Ginsberg 1977". Signed also by Ginsberg on title: "Allen Ginsberg Cambridge 1977 / This is Allen Ginsberg's Hand - Allen Ginsberg / 1977/ Dec 4". All surrounded with Ginsberg's characteristic flower and sun drawing (with "AH" in the "O" in "Howl"). On the verso of the title page Corso has written "Gregory. Here's one to harm [?] yr eyes / Allen Ginsberg / 1956"; with Ginsberg writing beneath "This is Gregory Corso's fake hand / Allen Ginsberg / Cambridge Dec 4, 77"."In October 1955 Ginsberg read the first part of his new poem ['Howl'] in public for the first time to tumultuous applause at the Six Gallery reading in San Francisco with the local poets Kenneth Rexroth, Gary Snyder, Michael McClure, Philip Whalen, and Philip LaMantia. Journalists were quick to herald the reading as a landmark event in American poetry, the birth of what they labeled the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who ran the City Lights Book Store and the City Lights publishing house in North Beach, sent Ginsberg a telegram echoing Ralph Waldo Emerson's response to Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass: 'I greet you at the beginning of a great career. When do I get the manuscript?' Later Ginsberg wrote that 'in publishing 'Howl,' I was curious to leave behind after my generation an emotional time bomb that would continue exploding in U.S. consciousness in case our military-industrial-nationalist complex solidified into a repressive police bureaucracy' (Original Draft Facsimile Howl, p. xii). "Early in the following year Howl and Other Poems was published with an introduction by William Carlos Williams as number four in the City Lights Pocket Poets Series. In May 1956 copies of the small black-and-white stapled paperback were seized by the San Francisco police, who arrested Ferlinghetti and Shigeyoshi Murao, his shop manager, and charged them with publishing and selling an obscene and indecent book. The American Civil Liberties Union took up the defense of Ginsberg's poem in a highly publicized obscenity trial in San Francisco, which concluded in October 1957 when Judge Clayton Horn ruled that Howl had redeeming social value" (American National Biography). Introduction by William Carlos Williams. The Pocket Poets Series: Number Four. Small quarto, original printed wrappers; custom half-morocco box. Front wrapper spotted and toned, small damp stain to top last leaf. An outstanding signed and inscribed association copy.

FIRST EDITION, one of only 100 copies, SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY GINSBERG. Signed and inscribed on title: "for Michael Rumaker / Allen Ginsberg / this historic particular copy of Howl which his eyes read for / Black Mt Review #7 / Signed White Plains N.Y. / March 12, 1976". Ginsberg also added 20 "ah"'s along the bottom of the page. With large flower and sun drawing by Ginsberg across title. Rumaker's ownership signature at top of page. WITH: The original issue of The Black Mountain Review #7 in which Rumaker's review of "Howl" appears. "In October 1955 Ginsberg read the first part of his new poem ['Howl'] in public for the first time to tumultuous applause at the Six Gallery reading in San Francisco with the local poets Kenneth Rexroth, Gary Snyder, Michael McClure, Philip Whalen, and Philip LaMantia. Journalists were quick to herald the reading as a landmark event in American poetry, the birth of what they labeled the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who ran the City Lights Book Store and the City Lights publishing house in North Beach, sent Ginsberg a telegram echoing Ralph Waldo Emerson's response to Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass: 'I greet you at the beginning of a great career. When do I get the manuscript?' Later Ginsberg wrote that 'in publishing 'Howl,' I was curious to leave behind after my generation an emotional time bomb that would continue exploding in U.S. consciousness in case our military-industrial-nationalist complex solidified into a repressive police bureaucracy' (Original Draft Facsimile Howl, p. xii). "Early in the following year Howl and Other Poems was published with an introduction by William Carlos Williams as number four in the City Lights Pocket Poets Series. In May 1956 copies of the small black-and-white stapled paperback were seized by the San Francisco police, who arrested Ferlinghetti and Shigeyoshi Murao, his shop manager, and charged them with publishing and selling an obscene and indecent book. The American Civil Liberties Union took up the defense of Ginsberg's poem in a highly publicized obscenity trial in San Francisco, which concluded in October 1957 when Judge Clayton Horn ruled that Howl had redeeming social value" (American National Biography). Introduction by William Carlos Williams. The Pocket Poets Series: Number Four. Small quarto, original printed wrappers; custom cloth box. Small quarto, original wrappers; custom box housing both Howl and The Black Mountain Review. A little toning to spine (as usual) and a small abrasion to rear cover. Overall an exceptionally fresh, clean beautiful copy.

First edition, first state with "T.E.L." at p. 495 and "Baltic" at p. 182.  With 16 photographs and illustrations including 4 maps of which two are folding.Octavo. Original fawn polished buckram in publishers original dust jacket. A very good copy; dust jacket bright and well preserved with light soiling at spine folds. A very attractive copy. 

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, INSCRIBED BY NABOKOV TO HIS WIFE, VERA. The inscription translates as "My beloved, here's a little book for you, my life, here's another little book for you, my love, there will be more little books". With small notations highlighting text throughout. Nikolai Gogol is one of Nabokov's earliest works in English.  12mo. Original cloth, first issue dust jacket. A fine copy. 

FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY ANNIE LEIBOVITZ."I hate the word 'celebrity.' I've always been more interested in what people do than who they are, and I hope that my photographs reflect that. I have the opportunity to work with people who are the best actors, and writers, and athletes, and dancers--a broad spectrum. I feel like I'm photographing people who matter, in one way or another. I'm photographing my time."–Annie Leibovitz, in an interview with Literal MagazineFolio, original photo-pictorial boards, original glassine. Minor tears at extremities of rear glassine wrapper. A lovely copy.

"Painting relates to both art and life. Neither can be made. (I try to act in that gap between the two.)" –Robert RauschenbergFIRST EDITION, BOLDLY SIGNED BY ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG. Original orange cloth, original dust jacket. With 200 illustrations including 92 color plates. 

teast

teast

American Heritage Publishing Co., New York, 1966. First edition. Folio. Two volumes. With an introduction by Marshall B. Davidson. Reproduced in color for the first time from the collection at the New York Historical Society. Both volumes fine in publisher's slipcase.

FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL CLOTH of one of the great classics of American Literature. One of only 2500 copies printed.  In November 1849, "James T. Fields--the junior partner in Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, Boston's most eminent publishing firm--entered Hawthorne's professional and personal life. He called on Hawthorne in Salem, returned to Boston with an unfinished manuscript, and soon began advertising 'a new volume by Hawthorne.' At that point Hawthorne planned to lighten his dark tale of adultery with a group of 'old-time legends' that presumably included 'Ethan Brand,' but Fields soon dissuaded him. Hawthorne then wrote the long autobiographical introduction called 'The Custom-House' and completed his novel. The Scarlet Letter appeared in March 1850, a story of a proud adulteress sentenced by her stern Puritan judges to wear a scarlet A on her breast, the hypocritical minister who was her lover, her beautiful, unruly child, and her revenge-obsessed husband. Despite Salemites' complaints of being maligned in the introduction and some critics' objections to the novel's 'scandalous' subject, it was immediately hailed as a work of genius and America's first major novel" (American National Biography).  Octavo, original cloth; custom half-morocco box. Split at front edge between between front ads and blank; front hinge tender. Recased with original spine laid down. With March 1, 1850 ads.

ates

ates

ttt

EXTREMELY RARE FIRST EDITION of Fermat's Collected Works, containing the first publication of most of his work. "Fermat shares with Descartes the innovation of analytical geometry by applying algebra to geometry. He, independently, represented a curve by an equation defining its characteristic properties. He published little but, in the manner of his times, announced his discoveries in letters to other mathematicians. Among his discoveries was a general method of solving questions of maxima and minima, a method he used in 1629 and one in use today. He contributed basic concepts in the theory of numbers and probability. The above [Varia Opera], published after his death, first presented his work and correspondence" (Dibner 108). Provenance: the Inner Temple Library, with small ink stamp on title and a few other leaves; English mathematician Francis Maseres's (1731-1824) copy with his signature on front flyleaf and annotations in text. Folio, contemporary calf rebacked. With five engraved folding plates; engraved head and tailpieces, diagrams in text. Scarce portrait not present, as often. Occasional light browning and foxing. A very good copy. 

FIRST EDITION. Contains full record (with commentary) of the famous Scopes Monkey Trial.“The Eugenics Society officially endorsed sterilization in June 1926. Prior to this it had been nominally neutral on the issue, although in practice firmly supporting sterilization. By 1926 the scene was set for a more aggressive push. Leonard Darwinʼs big book The Need for Eugenic Reform came out in that year. It was an earnest work that comprehensively set out the wide gamut of arguments for and against eugenics, and sterilization, and it had a generally good reception.” –David Paul Crook, Darwinʼs Coat-Tails: Essays on Social DarwinismOctavo, original green cloth.

FIRST EDITION. Hofmeister describes the fundamental structures and processess of the cell, and gives the first account of what later became known as chromosomes. Hofmeister's work inspired Mendel to begin the research on plant hybridization that led to Mendel's discoveries on the inheritance of traits. Large octavo. Early quarter-calf over pebbled cloth. Spine lightly rubbed; stamp at title, generally clean. A sound, attractive copy. 

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. Octavo. Original cloth, original dust jacket. An excellent copy.

FIRST EDITION.Octavo, original maroon cloth.The Scientific Basis of Evolution documents a series of lectures that Morgan gave at Cornell University in 1931 on the topic of the biology of evolution. A year later, Morgan was awarded the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING. Octavo, original cloth, original dust jacket. A fine copy in a lightly soiled dustjacket.

FIRST EDITION, SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY JULIA CHILD. Octavo, original cloth, original jacket. An exceptional copy. Rare signed. 

"A global environmental crisis threatens to overwhelm our children's generation. Mitigating the crisis will require a planetary perspective, long-term thinking, political courage and savvy, eloquence and leadership––all of which are in evidence in Al Gore's landmark book."–Carl SaganFIRST EDITION, SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY AL GORE: "For the grandchildren of Sally and Paul Robinson". A fine copy in the original dust jacket. 

"When you read this book, from page one you feel a threat following you, some animistic urging that keeps you going by the way McCarthy manipulates your demonic love of the sounds of speech. It’s seductive, the way shots of tequila offer the promise of danger, the way Shakespeare convinces you that even though Macbeth is up on the stage and you’re in the audience you’re thinking and feeling along with him, his bravado, his self-convincing, his descent, his death..." –Harold AugenbraumFIRST EDITION of the first novel of McCarthy's Border Trilogy. "Winner of the 1992 National Book Award and the 1992 National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction, Cormac McCarthy's sixth novel, All The Pretty Horses, simultaneously recapitulates and transcends many of the themes, situations, structures, and characters of his earlier work..." (Arnold and Luce, Perspectives on Cormac McCarthy). New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. Octavo, original cloth, original dust jacket. A fine copy.

FIRST COMBINED EDITION. "Its distinctive octosyllabic couplets and MOCK-HEROIC style gave rise to the term 'Hudibrastics'. It was immensely popular in its time for its satire (partly inspired by Cervantes and Rabelais) against Puratinism and the tyranny of the Commonwealth." – The Cambridge Guide to Literature in EnglishOctavo. Perfunctory calf binding, title remargined at inner hinge, cropped somewhat close at top of text block, scattered early and elegant marginal annotations in ink. A sound copy.

FIRST EDITION, limited to 1110 copies. "Sir Walter Armstrong's large and richly illustrated work "Sir Joshua Reynolds (1900) treats the subject exhaustively, and contains a complete descriptive catalogue and directory of Reynolds's works – portraits and subject pictures – arranged in alphabetical order." – Estelle M. Hurll Folio. Cloth. Book. With 78 photogravures and 6 color lithographs. Original red cloth. Moderate soiling to cloth. Occasional minor foxing. A very appealing copy of this beautiful volume.

FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY FRANZEN on front free endpaper. Jonathan Franzen’s first novel has been compared to Richard Powers, David Foster Wallace, and Don DeLillo “for its labyrinthine plot, its manipulation of multiple viewpoints, and its use of systems theory” (ibid.). Octavo, original half-cloth over boards. original dust jacket. Book near-fine with slight lean, dust jacket fine.

FIRST EDITION OF SENDAK'S THIRD BOOK, SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY SENDAK. Gilt lettered red cloth, original dust jacket ($12.95 on front flap). Outside Over There is Sendak's story of Ida, a pre-adolescent girl who must contend with sibling jealousy, new responsibilities and goblins who kidnap her young sister. A splendid copy, with Sendak's enchanting illustrations. 

FIRST EDITION. "McKay's skills as a shipbuilder were only exceeded by his chutzpah. He was the Stradivarius of clipper ships. McKay started the race to build ever bigger clippers and gave his ships such chauvinistic names as Sovereign of the Seas and Great Republic. In the first four years of the California gold rush, McKay's yards turned out 160 examples of what became known as "extreme clippers". His ships quickly dominated the trade to Hawaii, China, Australia, and the East Indies." –Richard F. Selcer, Civil War America, 1850-1875 Octavo. Deluxe original half morocco over marbled boards, marbled endpapers. With 10 color plates and 48 additional illustrations. Minor rubbing at corners. Neat contemporary inscription (frontispiece verso).   Clean throughtout. An attractive volume.

FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY TONI MORRISON. Original gilt stamped cloth, original dust jacket. A fine copy signed by Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison. 

"Hope faded as his radius of vision grew and the screen remained empty. Again and again he called into the lonely silence, while grief and helplessness strove for the mastery of his soul."FIRST EDITION, review copy. In a departure from Arthur C. Clarke's usual medium of outer space, The Deep Range is a novel of the sea, and shows off Clarke's "impressive talents as astronomer, deep-sea naturalist, and novelist" (from the dust jacket). Octavo, original green boards, original dust jacket. With review slip tabbed in. Book fine, light edgewear to dust jacket.

FIRST EDITION, SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY RAY BRADBURY. Octavo, original cloth, original dust jacket. A fine copy. 

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day to find it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.” –T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of WisdomFIRST TRADE EDITION, FIRST IMPRESSION. 54 illustrations and 4 fold-out maps. Near fine or better in brown buckram; original dust jacket with small tears and few small chips; spine lightly toned and with some soiling, light creasing to front panel. A very attractive copy of Lawrence's masterpiece. 

"...And all this because of a man called Bond, Commander James Bond, who had turned up at ten thirty that morning in a taxi from Kingston."FIRST EDITION. Original cloth, first state dust jacket with the price intact on the front flap. Near fine copy in a very good or better example of the original dust jacket. A very desirable copy.

FIRST EDITIONS of The Hunger Games Trilogy. A fine set in the original dust jackets. 

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, number 19 of only 100 specially bound numbered copies. In 1942, "After spending several weeks on the run [from the Nazi's], [Beckett and his future wife Suzanne] lived out the rest of the war in the little village of Roussillon in the Vaucluse, where Beckett wrote his extraordinary novel Watt, partly as a stylistic exercise and partly in order to stay sane in a place where he was cut off from most intellectual pursuits. Written in English, it was a daring linguistic experiment and, because of its strange subject matter as well as its manner, was not published until 1953" (DNB).  Octavo, half-cloth over boards. Spine a bit faded (as usual).

FIRST EDITION. Octavo. Original gilt decorated green cloth. Spine slightly toned with minor wear at ends, front hinge split (but holding), clean throughout, cosmetic wear at rear hinge. A solid copy in the attractive original binding.

"Aunt Annie's alligator. . . . . . . A . . a . . A"FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. Near fine or better in an exceptionally bright, unclipped dust jacket. A superb copy.