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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Bloomington, IN: Lilly Library, Indiana University, 1994. Quarto. Fine in printed wrappers. More
Cambridge, MA: Harvard College Library and the Goethe Institute of Boston, 1982. Quarto. Bound in printed wrappers, which are lightly rubbed, else fine. More
(London): Golden Cockerel Press, 1948. Tall octavo. 28pp. From an edition of 750, this is one of 100 copies specially bound and with an extra engraving. The twelve engravings by John Buckland-Wright perfectly complement Swinburne's long erotic poem. In full brown morocco with a black onlay to the upper cover... More
Cambridge, MA: Advocate House, 1950. Quarto. 24pp. Volume 134, number one. This is identified as the "Registration Issue" on the front cover, published September, 1950. Features a cover illustration by Edward Gorey showing two Mr. Earbrass-style characters throwing sticks at two hooded heads on pikes. This constitutes Gorey's first published... More
NY: Gotham Book Mart, 1976. First edition. From an edition of 226 copies, this is one of twenty-six lettered copies, signed by the author, Samuel Beckett, and artist, Edward Gorey. The first appearance in print of Beckett's text, illustrated with small tan & black vignettes in the margins by Gorey... More
NY: Gotham Book Mart, 1988. First edition. One of 300 numbered copies, signed by Beckett and Gorey. Adapted by Samuel Beckett and Jack MacGowran. Design and typography by Ronald Gordon and Dean Bornstein, and illustrated throughout with vignettes by Gorey, printed in blue. Fine in patterned paper over boards. More
Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1970. Octavo. First edition. Pencil notations throughout text. Boards slightly darkened and worn at edges, else fine in turqoise cloth. More
(San Francisco: Richard A. Gleeson Library, 1970). Large quarto. French-folded single sheet. Sketch of the poet Robert Graves to the front cover. On the interior, the printed text faces a facsimile of the original, handwritten poem. Printed by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy and presented to the joint meeting of hte... More
(Hampshire): St. Paul's Bibliographies, 1987. Small quarto. 354pp. Very fine in blue wrappers, gilt-titled to spine. With fine pictorial dust jacket, worn to edges. More
Long Crendon, Buckinhamshire: Seven Acres Press, 1927. Octavo. 10pp. One of 125 copies, this copy out-of-series. With woodcut illustrations: architectural border on the title page, six vignettes, eleven initials, and one tail-piece. First page printed in black and red. The binding of this copy, although unsigned, was done by Haberly... More
London: Tinsley Brothers, 1873. Three octavo volumes. 303, 311, 262pp. One of about 500 copies of Hardy's third novel, originally titled "A Winning Tongue Had He." According to Purdy, A Pair of Blue Eyes is the first of Hardy's novels to bear the author's own name, the first two having... More
On a sheet of blue paper measuring 9 1/8 by 7 3/4 inches, matted and framed. This brief letter, written from the American Consulate in Liverpool, is dated 2 January, 1856, and is addressed to the Collector of Customs in New York. The content concerns a Certificate of Registry for... More
Foxbury Meadow, Godalming, Surrey: St. Paul's Bibliographies, 1981. Octavo. Revised second edition of the Nonesuch Press 1931 edition. One of 750 copies. Fine in burgundy cloth. More
(Old Deerfield/Dublin: Deerfield Press/Gallery Press, 1978). Octavo. (8)ff. One of 250 copies printed by Harold McGrath at Hampshire Typothetae, and signed by Heaney on the colophon. Illustrated by Timothy Engelland, who co-founded the Deerfield Press along with Gallery Press owner Peter Fallon. Contains the revised version of "Elegy", the poem... More
London: Rainbow Press, 1975. First edition. One of 150 copies signed by the author. With full page two-color illustrations by Barrie Cooke. Handsomely printed early limited edition prints eight poems thematically related to Heaney's poetic pursuit of the archaeology of Ireland's violent past. These poems were published a month ahead... More
1963-2013. Contains 135 discrete volumes of the Irish Nobel Laureate's primary works of poetry and essays. These titles are represented in their first editions and subsequent issues (English and/or American), as well as some proofs and other variants. In addition to the signed, limited editions, quite a number of the... More
NY: Oxford University Press, 1966. Octavo. First American edition. One of 1,000 copies comprised of sheets from the first edition with a new title page. This is Heaney's first commercially produced verse collection, preceded by Eleven Poems, a pamphlet published by Queen's University in Belfast. The future Nobel Laureate's richly... More
London and Boston: Faber & Faber, 1980. Octavo. 136pp. First edition, in first issue dust wrapper. Contains selections from Death of a Naturalist, Door into the Dark, Wintering Out, and North. Very light wear to top and bottom of spine, else fine in blue cloth-covered boards, gilt-titled to spine. Dust... More
Dublin: Hieroglyph Editions Ltd, 1991. First edition. From an edition of 100 copies, this is one of 60 that were offered for sale. Illustrated with four lithographs by Felim Egan, who designed the book. Signed by Heaney and Egan. This is the first separate appearance of twelve poems from the... 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
NY: House of Books, 1933. First edition, limited to 300 copies. This rather grim tale appeared again later the same year, slightly revised and censored, in Hemingway's collection "Winner Take Nothing." Light fading to spine of red cloth boards, else near fine. (Grissom A.11.1.A). More
NY: Scribner's, 1935. First edition. Decorations by Edward Shenton. The green cloth covers are faded, as usual, else a fine copy in a price-clipped dust jacket which shows light wrinkling along extremities. Housed in a cloth slipcase. (Grissom A.13.1.a). More
Tokyo: Bijou Book Hoshino, (1979). 128pp. First edition. With a black and white line drawing of Whitman as a frontispiece. Text in Japanese, translated by Takeo Arishima. Hoshino mentions that this was his first pendant book, and also his first non-limited book. It was sold until Hoshino decided to cease... More
London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1952. Octavo. Bound in red cloth with a butter-colored dust jacket. Cloth spotted; jacket price-clipped, with some edgewear and soiling, else book and jacket are near fine. More
(Hamden, Connecticut): Archon Books, (1977). Octavo. 248pp. Fine in blue cloth, gilt-titled to spine, with very minor bump to fore-edge. Review copy, with review request slip laid in. More
