Jazz

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

The Twenty-Seventh City

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.

$250

Blood for a Stranger

FIRST EDITION of Jarrell's first book, SIGNED and INSCRIBED BY JARRELL.Octavo. Original red cloth, original dust jacket. Cloth clean, dust jacket very good with minor wear at spine heel and slight toning at spine. Signed and inscribed by Jarrell on the front free endpaper. Custom cloth clamshell box.

$1,200

I, Claudius

FIRST EDITION of Graves' remarkable work of historical fiction. "In the present work, I swear by the Gods, I am my own mere secretary, and my own official annalist: I am writing with my own hand, and what favour can I hope to win from myself by flattery?" –I, ClaudiusOctavo, original cloth, original dust jacket.

$450

Der Tod in Venedig [Death in Venice]

FIRST TRADE EDITION, one of only 2000 copies.In 1912, Mann "returned to the tragic dilemma of the artist with Death in Venice, a sombre masterpiece. In this story, the main character, a distinguished writer whose nervous and 'decadent' sensibility is controlled by the discipline of style and composition, seeks relaxation from overstrain in Venice, where, as disease creeps over the city, he succumbs to an infatuation and the wish for death. Symbols of eros and death weave a subtle pattern in the sensuous opulence of this tale, which closes an epoch in Mann’s work" (Roy Pascal, Britannica).Preceded by the extremely rare deluxe limited edition of 100 copies from 1912.Octavo, publisher's half-vellum binding with blue paper spine label lettered in gilt; marbled paper-covered boards, top edge gilt. Toning and soiling to spine; small stain to outer edge of text block.

$3,200

La Septieme face du de

FIRST EDITION. “In Hugnet’s photocollages, and notably in his book La Septième Face du dé, composed of twenty poèmes-découpages, truncated limbs proliferate – female legs detached, crossed, spread-eagled, legs juxtaposed with large breasts or seashells, or multiple legs forming a rosace shape… The mechanism of duplication (or multiplication), characteristic of Hugnet’s collages, does in fact transform the body into fetishistic fragments, which are explicitly encoded as simulacra in the schematic outline which reduces the body to a flat disembodied sign of femininity” –Elza Adamowicz, Surrealist Collage in Text and Image: Dissecting the Exquisite CorpseFolio. 20 black and white photo-collages, some with colour, printed on white paper. Original pale-green card covers, designed by Marcel Duchamp, sewn in Japanese style with black thread. Near-fine, slightest rubbing at extremeties. Custom box. 

$15,000

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

Howl and Other Poems

SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY ALLEN GINSBERG, WITH SUNFLOWER DRAWING. A later printing of Ginsberg's masterpiece. "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). Very nearly fine with only the most trivial wear to extremities. 

$450

To Have and Have Not

"Love is all the dirty little tricks you taught me that you probably got out of some book."FIRST EDITION. Original cloth, original dust jacket. A very good copy; jacket bright and well preserved with light rubbing, edgewear and a patch of discoloration on verso only. A very handsome copy. 

$1,500

A General Dictionary Historical and Critical

"Bayle's Dictionary is a very useful work for those to consult who love the biographical part of literature, which is what I love most" – Samuel Johnson "He sets forth things with such an odious accuraqcy, and puts the arguments for both sides before us with such shocking impartiality and is so intolerably intelligible that he puts even thoise of the most meagre understanding in a position to judge and even to doubt what is told them." –Voltaire The second Edition. 10 volumes. Folio. Later 1/4 morocco over cloth. Bookplates. Library blind stamps to titles.

$1,500

Watt

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).

$375

The Scarlet Letter

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.