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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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: R. R. Bowker Company, 1934. Ocatvo. 260pp. Fine in brown cloth, gilt-titled to spine, a little dusty and pages tanned. With original acetate dust wrapper. T.e.g. With 1940 typed letter, signed, laid in from the Oxford University Press to the Putnam Bookstore responding to an inquiry about Cooper's Gleanings... More
NY: Phoenix Book Shop, 1966. Octavo. Spine faded, else fine in printed blue wrappers. More
Stevenson, CT: Country Squires Press, (1968). First edition. One of 150 copies signed by the author. Extremely fine in dust wrapper, which is also fine but for faint toning to back. More
(Folkestone, Kent, England): Dawson, (1977). Octavo. Very fine in gray cloth, gilt-titled to spine. Fine dust jacket, slightly faded to spine and with edgewear and small closed tear to back bottom edge. More
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963. Octavo. Fine in blue cloth, with a very good dust jacket that is faded to spine, lightly soiled, and has a small open tear to rear. More
(Pittsburgh, PA): University of Pittsburgh Press, 1981. Small quarto. Prospectus laid in. Very fine in blue cloth, silver title to spine and upper cover. More
(Pittsburgh, PA): University of Pittsburgh Press, 1972. Octavo. Part of the Pittsburgh Series in Bibliography. Very fine in blue cloth over boards with black spine. 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
Paris: Les Livres de Louis Jou, 1927. Folio. 152 pp. From an edition of 258 copies, this one of 225 on papier vergé. Illustrated with a woodcut portrait of the author on the title-page as well as numerous woodcut headlines, tail pieces, and initial letters all by Louis Jou. Specially... More
London: J. F. Dexter, 1883. Octavo. 60pp. Reprints Thackeray's text as it first appeared in The Westminster Review in 1840. This is an extra-illustrated copy with 79 plates taken from books illustrated by Cruikshank, of which twenty-three are in color. An etched portrait of Cruikshank by F. W. Pailthorpe appears... More
Dublin: Cuala Press, 1941. Octavo. (xvi), (88)pp., unopened. First edition, limited to 500 copies. Title-page device of a hawk attacking a small bird by T. Sturge Moore, and colophon printed in red. A collection of letters, edited by Clifford Bax, between actress Florence Farr, playwright Bernard Shaw, and author W.... More
Dublin: Cuala Press, 1940. Octavo. (viii), (72)pp. First edition, limited to 450 copies. Illustrated with a unicorn device by Edmund Dulac on the title page. An essay which first appeared in "The Irish Statesman" in 1919, along with a second essay, "Swedenborg, Mediums, and the Desolate Places," written in 1914... More
Austin, TX: Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, 1971. Small quarto. 122pp. One of 800 copies. Fine in brown cloth with a fine dust jacket. More
Cleveland: White Horse Press, 1932. First edition. One of 95 copies. Dahlberg's scarce second book, complete with tipped-in plates after drawings by Augustus Peck and numbered. According to Billings, not all copies were issued with plates, and not all copies were numbered. A fine copy in cloth-backed orange boards, and... More
Cambridge, MA: Harvard College Library, 1986. Quarto. Fine in red & white printed wrappers. With the booklet "Dreams of a Poet Doomed at Last to Wake a Lexicographer" by Hugh Amory and published by Houghton Library laid in. More
New York: De Vinne Press, 1919. Small quarto. 198pp., + 22ff. plates. One of 175 copies, signed by the author. With twenty-three illustrations, including a frontispiece portrait of Thackeray. This complete bibliography describes first editions and first publications, portraits, watercolors, etchings, drawings, manuscripts, and also "Thackeryana." Some light soiling to... More
Austin: Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, 1978. Octavo. Top edge faded, else near fine in blue paper-covered boards. More
Folkestone & London: Dawsons of Pall Mall, 1972. Octavo. Fine in gray cloth, with a near fine dust jacket that is faded to spine and lightly edgeworn. More
London: John Macrone, 1836, 1837. Three small octavo volumes. viii, 348 pp.; (iv), 342pp.; viii, 377pp., + (19)pp. of advertisements. First edition, first issues in book form of Dickens's first work. Illustrated throughout with engravings by George Cruikshank, volumes I and II each with a frontispiece and seven subsequent illustrations... More
Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1990. Octavo. Fine in blue cloth. More
Folcroft, PA: Folcroft Press, (1969). Small quarto. 95pp. A reprint of the 1950 first edition. Fine in gilt-stamped blue cloth. More
(Hammersmith): Doves Press, 1914. Large octavo. 203pp. One of 200 copies. Printed in red and black. This collection was first mentioned as a tentative future project along with the collection by Shelley in March, 1913, with a publication date eventually set for October, 1914. However, T. J. Cobden-Sanderson's long illness... More
(Hammersmith): Doves Press, 1914. Large octavo. 181pp. One of 200 copies. Printed in red and black. This collection was first mentioned as a tentative future project along with the collection by Keats in March, 1913, with a publication date eventually set for June, 1914. After T. J. Cobden-Sanderon's long illness... More
