Les Chiens ont Soif

Paris: Au Pont Des Arts, 1964

LIMITED EDITION, WITH TWO SIGNED COLOR ETCHINGS BY MAX ERNST, and 25 additional color lithographs; one of only 250 copies (out of a total edition of 320). An evocative collaboration between the surrealist poet Prevert and the surrealist artist Ernst. The Livre d'Artiste in the Twentieth Century 46.

Large folio, loose as issued in original lithographed paper wrappers; original buckram clamshell box. Fraying to box edges, some foxing to wrappers; interior and plates fine.

$2,500

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Tropic of Cancer

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION OF HENRY MILLER'S TROPIC OF CANCER, 1/100 COPIES SIGNED BY MILLER. Tropic of Cancer was banned from publication in the United States until the appearance of the present edition; it was first published in 1934 in Paris by the Obelisk Press. Octavo, original publisher's quarter morocco and marbled boards. Occasional trivial rubbing at extremities, generally a fine copy.

$2,000

Bend Sinister

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.

Price On Request

Antlitz der Zeit

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").

Price On Request

Way of Seeing

FIRST EDITION. Oblong octavo. Original cloth, original pictorial dust jacket. With an essay by James Agee and Levitt's black and white street photographs. A fine copy.

$2,100

Ulysses S. Grant: Vellum Document Signed

SIGNED BY ULYSSES S. GRANT AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.Partly-printed vellum document signed, “U.S. Grant,” as president. Military commission appointing H. Schuyler Ross a First Assistant Engineer in the Navy. Countersigned by George M. Robeson as Secretary of the Navy. Washington, 1873. Approximately 19 1/2x16 inches; slightly faded signature, usual folds, minor soiling, seal intact.

$1,700

The Original Water-Color Paintings by John James Audubon for The Birds of America

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.

Islands in the Sky

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE of one of Clarke's earliest works. A near fine copy in the original dust jacket; moderate wear at spine ends, lightly soiled, rubbed. Overall a very appealing copy.

$475

Observations upon the prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John

FIRST EDITION of Isaac Newton's posthumously published theological interpretation of the Biblical prophecies."It has generally been assumed that the work was a product of his old age, as the treatise published was. Nevertheless, references to the prophecies filled his early theological notebook. Already in the 1670s, he believed that the essence of the Bible was the prophecy of human history rather than the revelation of truths beyond human reason unto life eternal. Already at that time he believed what he asserted later about Revelation: 'There [is] no book in all the scriptures so much recommended & guarded by providence as this.' He put that belief into practice by composing his earliest theological study. It proved to be more than a passing interest. His first full discourse contains many insertions in later hands, showing that he referred to it frequently. He composed numerous revisions of it, one of which was probably the last thing on which he was at work when he died more than fifty years later." (Richard Westfall, The Life of Sir Isaac Newton). Quarto, period style boards. Uncut, a superb copy.

$5,000

American Buffalo

FIRST EDITION, hardcover issue, SIGNED BY MAMET on dedication page. Winner of the 1976 Obie Award and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play of 1977; made into a 1996 film starring Dustin Hoffman. Octavo, original yellow cloth, original dust jacket; custom half-morocco box. A FINE COPY.

$1,400

Half of Paradise

FIRST EDITION OF JAMES LEE BURKE'S FIRST BOOK, WITH A LENGTHY INSRIPTION TO HIS FRIEND AND FELLOW WRITER, JAMES CRUMLEY. "To the Crum and Charlie with best wishes from Jim Burke. Notice that the pages are bound loosely if you ever need anything to wrap your coffee grinds in or if needed for other purposes while reading in the bath" –– Your friend, J.B. 8/27/66" "In this era of 'awakening' for the hard-boiled genre, many post-Vietnam works confronted the traumatizing effects of the Vietnam War head-on by employing detectives openly characterized as Vietnam veterans in order to reveal the disillustionment and frustrations concerning the legality of the war and the subsequent treatment of American veterans. James Crumley, James Lee Burke and, to some extent Newton Thornburg, employ characters who are private investigators or characters attempting to unravel mysteries. These writers in particular expose a society ignorant of individual trauma and direct their anger toward a government that abandoned its soldiers upon their return from combat." – Sarah Trott, The Detective as Veteran Octavo, original cloth, orignal dust jacket. A near-fine copy in an excellent example of the original dust jacket. Lengthy inscription from Burke to Crumley on front free endpaper. Additionally signed and dated (8/8/96) by Burke on the title page. A superb association. Custom cloth box.

$4,500

Le Neo-Plasticisme

FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY MONDRIAN IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS. 14 pp. Octavo. Original wrappers. Signed and incribed in pencil by Mondrian on title. Small chip at head of spine, small stain on front wrapper. VERY RARE SIGNED.

$7,500

American Photographs

FIRST EDITION, with the original dust jacket. Inscribed and presented by the legendary Hugh Edwards, one of the most influential curators of photography in America. Edwards was one of the first curators to grant Evans solo exhibitions and is credited with elevating the Art Institute of Chicago’s department of photography to world class status.The identity of the recipient, Bobby Evans, is unknown. The inscription includes a lengthy quotation from Thomas Wolfe’s Of Time and the River.Small quarto, original black cloth, original dust jacket. Book near fine with a light spotting to a some plates, dust jacket very good; spine slightly toned; some wear with loss at spine head. A very good copy with a distinguished provenance.

$3,800

ERNST, MAX; PREVERT, JACQUES