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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Worcester: Stanbrook Abbey Press, 1965. Small quarto. 81pp. One of 500 copies beautifully printed in red, black, and green on handmade paper. Title-page decorations by Margaret Adams. Lithographed portrait of the author tipped in. With an English translation on each page facing the original French text by Raissa Maritain, who... More
Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1960. First edition. Winner of the 1960 Hugo Award. Miller’s quirky, significant novel was among the first in the modern science fiction canon to develop futuristic themes around religion: here, a monastic order in whose charge were a number of books saved from “the first Atomic Deluge”... More
London: Methuen, (1926). First edition. One of 200 copies printed on handmade paper, signed by Milne and Shepard. This famous collection of children’s verses, featuring Milne’s son, Christopher Robin, and his bear, is illustrated throughout with Ernest H. Shepard’s whimsical drawings. Bound in quarter cloth with orange paper over boards... More
London: Methuen, 1926. First edition. One of 350 copies printed on handmade paper and signed by Milne and Shepard. With all of the well-known and well-loved illustrations and a fold-out map of Pooh and Christopher Robin's territory, which appeared in the ordinary edition as endpapers. Bound in quarter dark-blue cloth... More
London: Methuen, (1927). First edition. This famous collection of children’s verses, featuring Milne’s son, Christopher Robin, and his bear, is illustrated throughout with Ernest H. Shepard’s whimsical drawings. Signed at a later date on the title page by Shepard. Handsomely bound by Bayntun-Rivière in deep red morocco, with gilt ruled... More
(Minneapolis): Minnesota Center for Book Arts, 2005. Tall quarto. (48)pp. From an edition of 226, this is one of 26 lettered copies, specially bound and with tipped-in editioned prints by five Minnesota artists. An anthology of original poetry from twelve Minnesota writers, including Robert Bly, Adrian Louis, Susan Steger Welsh... More
(Verona: Riva, Franco, 1976). Folio. 37pp., + (6)ff. plates. One of 75 copies, signed by the poet. Six poems by the Italian poet and Nobel Laureate Eugenio Montale, accompanied by six full-page etchings in sanguine of drawings by the poet. Several of the illustrations depict seaside scenes from the poet’s... More
Portland, Maine: Mosher, Thomas B., 1904. Octavo. 41pp. From an edition of fifty numbered copies, this is one of forty offered for sale. Printed on Japan vellum in red and black from the plates of The Bibelot, Vol. 10, June 1904. Illustrated with a frontispiece portrait of the author, with... More
Soho: Nonesuch Press, 1923. Small quarto. xxiii, 91, (7)pp. From an edition of 1,200 copies, this is one of twenty ad personam copies, specially bound. This is the first book of Francis Meynall’s Nonesuch Press. Meynall, along with his wife, Vera, who selected and edited Donne’s text for this production... More
Verona: Officina Bodoni, 1974. Octavo. 49pp. One of 300 copies. Printed in two colors on handmade Magnani paper. Contains 23 songs plus "The Phoenix and the Turtle," which was published separately. Attractively bound in morocco-backed green patterned cloth. T.e.g. Fine, in gray silk slipcase. Prospectus and offset of prospectus laid... More
Montagnola: Officina Bodoni, 1924. Quarto. 151pp. One of 244 copies. Shakespeare's late, iconic comedy, printed in Catania, an original Bodoni type. Bood designed by G. Mardersteig. bound in green vellum over boards. Upper board slightly splayed, some toning to spine and faint bumps to corners, else near fine. Housed in... More
Cleveland: (Jos. Leon Gobeille), 1902. Small quarto. (30)pp. One of 93 copies printed on Imperial Japan paper. With illustrations from pen-and-ink drawings by Robert H. Perdue. This is a reproduction in smaller format of a folio version issued by Perdue in 1900 in an edition of five copies. According to... More
Boston: Small, Maynard, (1910). Octavo. First edition, second binding. Head of spine bumped and paper starting to split along upper hinge, else a near fine copy of Pound's first book printed in America. In dust wrapper with a few small chips to extremities. (Gallup A6). More
(Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1895). Three octavo volumes. 399; 412; 421pp. One of 250 copies. Ornate wood-engraved double-page opening in Volume I and initials and borders throughout the three volumes by William Morris. In a letter to a friend in 1855, William Morris wrote that he had just been reading Shelley's... More
Hamburg: Raamin-Presse, 1976. Quarto. (40)pp. From an edition of 170, this is one of twenty copies with an additional two plates signed and numbered by the printer and illustrator, Roswitha Quadflieg. Translated into German from the original French by Elmar Tophoven, the short story "L'Expulsé" ("The Expelled") first appeared in... More
(Hamburg): Raamin-Presse, 1977. Quarto. 24pp. From an edition of 120 numbered copies signed by the artist/printer, Roswitha Quadflieg, this is one of forty copies printed in English, and from those forty, this is also one of ten with an extra signed etching. The text is from Adventures in the Skin... More
Charleston: Poetry Society of South Carolina, 1923. Octavo. First edition. First appearance of this poem, which was awarded the Poetry Society of South Carolina's Southern Prize for 1923. This publication also prints the poems which received honorable mention: "A Fragment" by William Alexander Percy, and "Avalon" by Donald Davidson. This... More
Philadelphia: N.p., 1936. (5)ff. A signed typewritten speech, given by Franklin Delano Roosevelt on June 27, 1936, in acceptance of his nomination as the Democratic candidate for president. Roosevelt signed the speech at the end in blue ink, and the pages have sixteen corrections in blue pencil, with one sentence... More
NY: Henry Holt, 1916. First edition. First issue with dated advertisement at rear. Sandburg's first regularly published book, preceded by two privately-printed pamphlets. Spine gilt a trifle dull, else about fine in dust wrapper which shows some chipping at spine ends, and a horizontal crease at upper front panel. More
NY: Ballantine Books, (1953). First Edition, first hardbound trade issue. Laid in to this copy is Joseph Mugnaini’s original preliminary cover art for the novel, which Bradbury personally owned. The watercolor and sketch work features the same elongated human figure dressed in newspapers and surrounded by flames. Mugnaini collaborated with... More
London: Lockwood & Co., 1864. Octavo. (4), 204pp. First edition. Inscription on recto of frontispiece identifies author: “Geo. Evans presented to him by the Author H. Cowen the 20 Sept. 1866.” In standard references and OCLC previous to this copy’s discovery, the book was recorded as anonymous or according to... 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, known as "Two Professors," showing two Mr. Earbrass-style characters throwing sticks at two hooded heads on pikes. This... More
NY: Gotham Book Mart, 1988. First edition. One of twenty-six lettered copies, signed by Beckett and Gorey. The second and final collaboration between the author and the artist. Design and typography by Ronald Gordon and Dean Bornstein, and illustrated throughout with vignettes by Gorey. A fine copy in black boards... More
NY: Gotham Book Mart, 1988. First edition. One of 300 copies, signed by Beckett and Gorey. This title is the second and final collaboration between the author and the artist. Design and typography by Ronald Gordon and Dean Bornstein, and illustrated throughout with vignettes by Gorey. A fine copy in... More
NY: David McKay, (1974). First edition. Author’s second novel, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1975 and was the basis for the film Gettysburg. Because of the poor production quality, this is a book which is not often encountered in very fine condition. Aside from light foxing to top... More
