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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(1931-1935). Quarto. (10)ff. The titles are: "Good Conversation" (August, 1931); "Drugs" (December, 1931); "The Angry Ape" (1931); "On Being the Right Size" (February, 1932); "Forewarned is not Fore-armed" (April 1932); "Love: a Fashion Forecast" (June, 1932); "The Cunning of the Oriental" (1932); "Bull Fights and Democracy" (October, 1932); "The Cult..... More
Dublin: Andrew Carpenter, 1979. First edition. From an edition of 125, this is one of 30 copies issued in black morocco and offered for sale. Illustrated with two lithographs by Louis Le Brocquy. Signed by Heaney, Le Brocquy, Liam Miller the designer, and the publisher, Andrew Carpenter. The book was..... More
(London: Red Hen Press, 1989). Oblong octavo. (32)ff. One of forty copies. Contains twelve poems and prose pieces, with twelve color etchings employing soft and hard ground techniques. Shirley Jones writes "the title is appropriate for a book written for & about women - or rather, about the experience of..... More
Poestenkill, NY: Kaldewey Press, 1989. Oblong folio. 106pp. One of twenty deluxe copies printed on papier de Chine and bound in flexible blue textured leather by Christian Zwang. With twenty-five linoleum cuts in several colors by Kim Keever. Signed by the artist. Keever's linocuts draw directly from the theme of..... More
New Rochelle, NY: Elston Press, 1902. Octavo. (viii), 116pp. One of 160 copies. Sharp and robust title pages and initials by H. M. O'Kane, expressing the clear influences of William Morris at the Kelmscott Press and Charles Ricketts at the Vale Press. Keats' celebrated love poem printed in red and..... More
(Waltham Saint Lawrence): Golden Cockerel Press, 1928. Quarto. 101pp. One of 500 copies. Illustrated with wood engravings and all but two initial capitals by Robert Gibbings. The remaining two capitals—“Lamia” on the title page and “IT” on page 18—were engraved by Eric Gill. A fine copy of what the Press..... More
London: Florence Press, 1915. Two octavo volumes. xviii, 338; viii, 371pp. One of 250 copies. Keats' entire corpus, including an appendix for "Verses jocular or trivial" extracted from letters and notes. All are lovingly printed on hand-made paper, with sharp black ink and two-line initials to start each poem. With..... More
Adelaide, Australia; Westport, CT: 1948, 1952. Two typed letters, (3)ff., (2)ff., signed by Helen Keller, plus (1)ff. autograph note, signed, from Keller's assistant and companion, Polly Thompson., and a typed transcript of that note. As a world-famous speaker, author, and advocate for persons with disabilities, Keller traveled to more than..... More
(Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1895). Quarto. (iv), 355pp. One of 200 copies. Printed in red and black, with two full-page illustrations by Edward Burne-Jones and initials and decorations by William Morris. A beautiful and highly prized volume, originally intended to be part of The Earthly Paradise. Overall, a fine copy in..... More
NY: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1966. First edition. Author’s signature laid in. First appearing as a short story in 1959, this first expanded edition of Flowers for Algernon earned immediate acclaim, becoming a joint winner of the 1966 Nebula Award for Best Novel. Written as a series of journal..... More
NY: Ursus Books, 2007. 15pp. From an edition of 74 copies, this is one of 50 numbered copies, signed by the artist, Joseph Goldyne, and the designer, Peter Rutledge Koch. Illustrated with a signed etching by Goldyne titled "As the Blind Remember," printed on seventeenth-century paper and tipped in as..... More
(Torrance, CA): Labyrinth Editions, 1980. Folio. 28ff., frenchfold. One of 250 copies, signed by the poet, William Everson, and the artist, Tom Killion. Designed and printed in two colors by Richard Bigus. Killion's beautifully executed, white-line linocuts are printed in dark blue. The title illustration is a triptych of the..... More
(Athens, OH): Labyrinth Editions, 1982. Folio. (21)ff. From an edition of 130 copies, this is one of 50 with a separate portfolio of signed prints, and an additional, signed, unbound print, measuring 17 by 22 inches. Signed by the printer, Richard Bigus, the illustrator, Daniel Goldstein, and Bradford Morrow, who..... More
London: Duckworth, (1914). First edition, first issue. Bound in blue cloth, gilt-stamped to front cover and spine. Lawrence's first book of short stories. A very good copy. Bookplate. (Roberts A6.1). More
NY: Thomas Seltzer, 1922. First edition. Follow-up to Psychoanalysis and the Unconscious, this was the book that was partially responsible for rekindling the friendship between Lawrence and John Middleton Murry. The American edition of this work contains an Epilogue that was omitted from the English edition. Spine gilt a trifle..... More
NY: Society of Foliophiles, (1925). Quarto. One of 200 copies printed for the Society of Foliophiles, containing 20 original leaves from notable books of English literature from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Unbound, as issued, with each leaf in its respective, annotated folder measuring 12 1/2 by 9 1/2..... More
Austin: W. Thomas Taylor, 1995. Quarto. lxxxiv, 242pp., leaf tipped in at rear. One of 100 copies of the special first edition distributed for the Friends of the Brigham Young University Library by W. Thomas Taylor. Specially bound in quarter goatskin, with an original leaf from the 1524 Colines edition..... More
Austin: W. Thomas Taylor, 1995. Quarto. lxxxiv, 242pp., leaf tipped in at rear. One of 100 copies of the special first edition distributed for the Friends of the Brigham Young University Library by W. Thomas Taylor. Specially bound in quarter goatskin, with an original leaf from the 1524 Colines edition..... More
London: Arthur Press, 1930. Small quarto. 625pp. One of 750 copies. Signed by the author. A fictional social criticism of the childishness of the so-called "gossip-column class" after the Great War. Bound in orange and white cloth with titles in blue at spine. Some soiling to text block, else very..... More
(NY): Limited Editions Club, 1990. Small quarto. 183pp. One of 375 copies, signed by the artist. Illustrated with eight lithographs by John Hejduk, printed at Pondside Press by Melissa and Ted Braggins. With an Afterword by David Shapiro. Mann's text is printed in black, while Shapiro's appears in brown. Bound..... More
(NY): Limited Editions Club, (1988). Elephant folio. (70)pp. One of 550 copies, with an authorized facsimile of the artist's signature. Illustrated with seventeen lithographs by Willem de Kooning. After Frank O'Hara's untimely death in 1966, a volume of his poetry was published with illustrations from over thirty artists. O'Hara's poem..... More
(c. 1946). Octavo. (8)ff. A manuscript poetry chapbook handmade by Robert Frost and inscribed by the poet with the dedication, "A Preview / for Nita and Doc / from / R. F. / After a good Bread Loaf / 1946." "Doc" refers to Frost's friend Reginald Cook, a Middlebury professor..... More
NY: Henry Holt, 1914. Octavo. (144) pp. First edition, second issue, binding "B" of Frost's second regularly published book. One of 150 copies bound from sets of sheets from David Nutt, Frost's English publisher with Holt title page on a cancel stub. This was published on 20 February, 1915, and..... More
Petersham, MA: Lone Oak Press, 2005. Oblong quarto. 89pp. From an edition of fourteen deluxe copies and 70 standard copies, this is one of five deluxe copies chosen to be specially bound for the international traveling exhibit "InsideOUT: Contemporary Bindings of Private Press Books," and as such, it does not..... More
Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1925; 1926. Two octavo volumes. First edition of the Scottish poet Hugh M'Diarmid's first collection of poetry, in the second binding, together with a first edition of his second book. Hugh M'Diarmid, or MacDiarmid, as it is more commonly written, was the pen..... More
