American Photographs

New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1938

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

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Colonna Traiana, erreta del Senato, e Popolo Romano all'Imperatore

FIRST EDITION. COMPLETE WITH 128 engraved plates (including title and dedication). "The Column of Trajan was dedicated on May 18, AD 113, and commemorates a series of militray campaigns waged by the emperor in Dacia between AD 101 and 106... The column itself if composed of 17 separate drums of fine Luna marble, and the carved spiral frieze contains 155 different scenes featuring 2,600 carved figures... the fine details of the carvings... have proven to be of enormous use to historians and archaeologists in reconstructing the particulars of Roman military equipment and tactics, as well as the interactions of the Romans with barbarians."–Gregory S. Aldrete, Daily Life in the Roman CIty: Rome, Pompeii, and Ostia Oblong folio. 128 engraved plates (incl. title & dedication); without the 9 leaves of text (as often). Uncut in 19th century half roan (some light wear to edges, short splits in lower joints, foxing to title & a few other plates, mainly in the margins).

$9,000

The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.

FIRST EDITION, FIRST STATE of the most famous and most beloved biography in the English language. One of only 1750 copies of the first edition printed (both first and second states combined). p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times; color: #424242; -webkit-text-stroke: #424242} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} "Anyone interested in biography soon becomes interested in Boswell's Life of Johnson. It stands next to other biographies as Shakespeare stands beside other playwrights: towering above them all. For more than two centuries it has been continually in print, and in that time it has won innumerable admirers. No other biography has given so much pleasure; no other biographer has created such a vivid central character. It has become a truism that, as a result of Boswell's extraordinary book, Samuel Johnson is better known to us than any other man in history" (Sisman, Boswell's Presumptuous Task, xv). First state with "gve" on page 135 of vol. I. Quarto. Two volumes. Contemporary calf, skillfully rebacked. Gilt compartments, double-labels. A wide margined copy in a handsome binding. With frontispiece (after Sir Joshua Reynolds) and the two engraved plates in vol. II. Courtney & Smith, pp. 172-73. Pottle 79. Grolier English Hundred 65. Rothschild 463.

$9,000

As a Strong Bird on Pinions Free, and Other Poems

FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY WHITMAN. “As a Strong Bird on Pinions Free”, before becoming the final addition to the final edition of Leaves of Grass, was published independently by Whitman in 1872, twenty years before the poet’s death. The title poem was written as a commencement for Dartmouth College as one of the few pieces Whitman recited publicly. With large Whitman signature across title page. Octavo, original dark green cloth; custom half-morocco box. Minor discoloration to pastedowns. a little fraying to spine ends and corners.

$7,500

Self-Portrait

First edition, SIGNED and INSCRIBED by Man Ray: "for Arnold and Gus Newman affectionately Man Ray 1963". With an original line drawing by Man Ray and Newman's notations on front endpaper. An important association copy.

$10,000

Learning from Las Vegas

"A seminal statement in the history and theory of architecture... one of the defining texts of postmodernism" – Aaron Vinegar, I Am a Monument: On Learning from Las Vegas FIRST EDITION of this landmark work. "We should not emphasize the ironic richness of banality in today's artistic context at the expense of discussing its appropriateness and inevitability on a wider basis."Folio. Original gilt-lettered blue cloth, original glassine dust jacket. Book fine; original glassine jacket with chips at spine ends and base of upper wrapper. A very good copy.

$1,100

Call it Sleep

BEAUTIFUL SIGNED LIMITED EDITION from the Arion Press. One of 300 numbered copies (out of a total edition of 326), signed by Roth. Illustrated with 48 photographs of New York City in the period of the novel. At the time it was written, "Few publishers expressed interest in Call It Sleep because its moody undertones and true-to-life depictions of social and family conflicts were thought to be unmarketable to the nation's readers, who were struggling with the depression." It took decades until a critic wrote of it favorably enough to bring it to the public's attention again, when in 1964 Irving Howe published a review on the front page of the New York Times Book Review, making it a national bestseller. "For its combination of realistic detail, psychological symbolism, and modernist techniques, [Call It Sleep] marks an important transition in Jewish-American literature from the works of early immigrant writers such as Abraham Cahan and Anzia Yezierska to later modern voices such as Saul Bellow and Philip Roth" (American National Biography). San Francisco: Arion Press, 1995. Quarto, green half morocco, original decorated cloth, original decorated slipcase. A fine copy.

$750

Earth In the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit

"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.

$225

Atlas Shrugged

First edition. Original cloth, original dust jacket. An excellent copy.

$1,250

Romanarum historiarum [Greek]

EDITIO PRINCEPS of Appian's histories of the various Roman wars from the earliest times to the campaigns of Trajan. Folio. 18th-century calf recently rebacked. Title leaf laid down and repaired; lower blank corners of last four leaves repaired (not affecting text). Greek type; Estienne's basilisk device as Royal Greek Printer on title; foliated and grotesque Greek initials with matching headpieces. An attractive copy.

$4,500

All the Pretty Horses

"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.

$250

Wessex Tales

FIRST EDITION, 1/634 COPIES, IN THE PUBLISHER'S CLOTH BINDING.Two volumes. Octavo, original green cloth with gilt spine titles. Edges uncut. Light wear to cloth at oints and extremities, corners slightly bumped, spine somewhat cocked. Elegant bookplate at front pastedowns. Cloth clean and bright, text clean. An excellent copy housed in custom slipcase and chemise.

$2,500

La Photographie n'est pas l'art

FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY MAN RAY. A FINE COPY. "I paint what cannot be photographed, that which comes from the imagination or from dreams, or from an unconscious drive. I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence." -Man RayOctavo, stamped blue wrappers, with the black die-cut outer wrapper. A fine copy, signed by Man Ray on the title page. A FINE COPY.

$12,000

EVANS, WALKER