There is a deceptively simple goal for the collector of first editions: to obtain the earliest printed form of a work of literature, in as close to the condition it was in when it first appeared in bookstores as a new book. Dig deeper, though, and you find that the first edition collector also has an interest in ...
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(NY): Center for the Book Arts, (2007). Octavo. 18ff. One of thirty-nine copies. A collection of thirteen poems from Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, beautifully printed by nine compositor-printers at the Center for the Book Arts. Each printer’s work occupies a single bifolium sheet, forming nine loose signatures. All... More
NY: Null-Q Press, 1968. First American edition. One of 250 copies printed on a mimeograph machine on pulp paper, and stapled. This copy is inscribed and signed by Blish. This novel was first published in the U.K. in 1964, and because no American imprint would agree to publish it in... More
NY: Ballantine Books, (1953). First edition. One of a likely 50 copies bound in red cloth, stamped in gold, intended for Bradbury’s personal use. Card inscribed by the author laid in. Fahrenheit 451—the temperature at which paper burns—has long been regarded as a high point of the science fiction genre... More
Garden City: Doubleday & Co., 1950. First edition of Bradbury’s magnum opus. The Martian Chronicles consists of a string of episodes originally published separately. All of them relate to the colonization and exploration of Mars and result in a compelling narrative. Bradbury’s mixture of science fiction and fantasy is first... More
Munich: Bremer Presse, 1929. Quarto. 88pp. Of an edition of 530 copies, this is one of 250 printed on handmade paper for Random House. The title and eight two-color initials were designed by Anna Simons. A fine copy in quarter-vellum with marbled paper-covered boards. Housed in red paper slipcase. Spine... More
(Munich): Bremer Presse, (1923-1924). Two folio volumes. 486; 372pp. One of 615 copies printed in Greek with titles by Anna Simons. These beautiful volumes are printed on Zanders handmade paper in a 16-point Greek type designed for the Press. Colin Franklin describes these books as “magnificent examples of controlled printing.”... More
Niles, IL: Dark Harvest, 1986. Two quarto volumes. First edition. One of 52 copies signed by the author and the illustrator, Paul Sonju. A collection of short stories including the 1984 Hugo Award-winning "The Crystal Spheres." Each story features an illustration by Sonju. A very fine copy in bronze paper... More
Garden City: Doubleday & Co., 1976. First edition of the author’s first book. Butler, who died in 2006, has inscribed this copy. Although it was the first to be published, Patternmaster is the last volume of the Patternist series, which follows the development of a race of networked telepaths from... More
Canton, NY: Caliban Press, 2001. Quarto. 117pp. One of 125 copies. Printed on handmade papers by Velma Bolyard, La Papeterie St-Armand, and Barcham Green, along with Arches, Frankfurt, and Mexican amate papers. Set in fourteen-point Dante type by M & W Bixler, and rain cut by Greg Lago. The book... More
Piccadilly: Chatto and Windus, 1880. Small octavo. 212, (4), (32)pp. First edition. This copy bears the 1886 ownership inscription of C. L. Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll. A collection of poetry by controversial English poet and playwright, A. C. Swinburne. Includes publisher's advertisements, "Cheap Editions of Popular Novels," and... More
(N.p. n.d.). (22)pp. Tipped-in engraved frontispiece. This whimsical volume provides no text, instead representing all but the titualar "A" and "W" and the initial "A" as irregular dots. The concept of Alice is enough to bring joy to the reader. Bound in pale blue paper over boards. Minor general wear... More
NY: D. Appleton and Co., 1866. Octavo. (v)ff., 192pp. First edition, second issue. With forty-two illustrations by John Tenniel. Carroll’s enduring tale of a child’s dreamworld was first issued in 1865 by Macmillan and Company of London, but Carroll and Tenniel were unhappy with the print quality of the illustrations... More
Utrecht, The Netherlands: Catharijne Press, 1984. 20pp. One of 100 copies, with an artistic photogravure frontispiece by Johan de Zoete, which is signed and numbered. The two poems are "To Helen," and "Annabel Lee." Extremely fine oblong miniature; the first published by Catharijne Press. Bound in black morocco with a.... More
NY: McClure, Phillips, 1905. First edition, first binding. This copy belonged to Louise Pound and bears her signature on the front endpaper. Pound was an intimate friend of Cather's during their time at the University of Nebraska, where they were co-editors of "Lasso," a campus magazine. Pound went on to... More
Boston: Richard G. Badger/Gorham Press, 1903. First edition. Cather's first book, a self-published collection of verse, and the only verse Cather published during her career. She reportedly bought remaining copies of this edition in 1908 and destroyed them. It was re-issued by Knopf as a limited edition in 1923 but... More
(Indianapolis): Bobbs Merrill, (1911). Small quarto. First edition. Illustrated with reproductions of drawings by Howard Chandler Christy, an American illustrator best known for his patriotic portraits of military men and romantic depictions of society women. The illustrations accompany a story in verse by the American poet James Whitcomb Riley. The... More
NY: Ballantine Books, (1953). First edition. One of Clarke’s most famous novels, and considered by many to be one of his best. A Golden Age tale about the evolution of the human race and its joining the other advanced races of the galaxy. Recipient of the 2004 Retro Hugo Award... More
NY: Ballantine Books, (1953). First edition. One of Clarke's most famous novels, and considered by many to be one of his best. A Golden Age tale about the evolution of the human race and its joining the other advanced races of the galaxy. Recipient of the 2004 Retro Hugo Award... More
NY: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., (1961). First edition. Inscribed by Clarke to legendary editor, agent, and collector Forrest Ackerman, who is often referred to as “Mr. Science Fiction.” Tourists crash on the Moon and are buried in fifty feet of moon dust. The rescue completes the picture. A fine... More
NY: Ballantine Books, 1957. First edition. A sort of interstellar Robinson Crusoe, Cycle of Fire follows the survival of human castaway Nils Kruger and his shipwrecked extraterrestrial companion Dar. As they travel across an unfamiliar planet, they learn to communicate and trust one another, eventually sharing critical knowledge that ensures... More
Garden City: Doubleday & Co., 1954. First edition. Signed by Clement on the title page, under which he has also signed his real name, Harry Stubbs, in parentheses. Clement is one of the premier practioners of hard science fiction. His best novels concern the lives of aliens in their own... More
Florence: Felice Paggi, 1883. Small octavo. 236pp., + iipp. of advertisements. First edition. The enduring children’s classic about a mischievous marionette whose nose grows every time he tells a lie, in the original Italian and wonderfully illustrated with a full-page frontispiece of the titular character, as well as sixty-one additional... More
Canterbury (England): Printed for the Author by H. J. Goulden, Ltd, 1921. Quarto. iii, 69pp. First edition. One of 52 or 53 copies. Written in 1920, this is Conrad’s own adaptation for the stage of the novel published in 1907. This edition in wrappers was followed in 1923 by an... More
NY: Benjamin Blom, Inc., 1972. Folio. 202, (5)pp. Publisher's facsimile of the famed edition of Hamlet issued by the Cranach Press in 1929. With reprints of Edward Johnston's typography, Edward Gordon Craig's 74 woodcuts, and Eric Gill's contributions of two initials, the title over the first woodcut, and spine titling... More
Boston: Copeland and Day, 1895. 12mo. (iv), 76 pp. First edition. One of 50 copies printed in green ink on Japan vellum. Crane's second book, his first collection of poetry, and the first to be published under his name, is the subject of some bibliographical debate. Stallman cites broken type... More
