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
NY: Harper, 1937. Small quarto. 248pp. First edition. Bound in red cloth with dust jacket. Cloth of spine a bit darkened; jacket worn and darkened at extremities, with some loss, and minor soiling. More
London: Methuen, (c. 1925). Folio. (6)ff. Copy number one of twenty copies signed and numbered by the author, A. A. Milne, and the illustrator, E. H. Shepard, in pencil. When We Were Very Young was Milne's first collaboration with Shepard, and the first of the four Christopher Robin books. Each... 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
Dekalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 1970. Octavo. Fine in red cloth, with a burgundy dust jacket that shows some fading to spine and rubbing. 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
Cambridge, MA: Mark Nunnelee, 1970. Quarto. Issue no. 1 of Restau: A Journal of Passage, containing five poems by Jack Myers, who has signed this copy. The poems are: "The Choice," "Poem for a Blue Heron Gliding In," "Reality is a War Machine," "Poem to Pay Back the Thousands of... More
Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1990. Small quarto. 466pp. Fine in blue cloth. More
NY: Simon and Schuster, 1931. First edition. Proof copy of Nash's second book of verse, contains such immortal poems as "The Lama," "Rabbits," and "To be Uttered Between Clenched Teeth." Illustrated by [Otto] Soglow. Wear and chipping to plain gray wrappers. Scarce. 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
Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1978. Octavo. Fine in blue cloth, with a fine printed dust jacket that shows the smallest amount of fading to the spine. More
NY: Grove Press, (1957). First edition of O'Hara's second and, arguably, best-known book. One of 75 copies, signed by O'Hara. Presentation copy, inscribed by O'Hara on front endpaper to Morris Golde: "For Morris, from one islander to another." The reference is to Fire Island, where Golde had a summer beach... More
(Pittsburgh, PA): University of Pittsburgh Press, 1978. Octavo. Part of the Pittsburgh Series in Bibliography. Very fine in blue cloth over boards. Prospectus laid in. More
NY: Random House, (1972). Octavo. Very fine in black cloth and brown boards, with fine illustrated dust jacket with minor edgewear. More
Mindelheim: Melchior W. Mittl, 1961. Only 133 copies, this copy IV. Plain pink boards with white label. 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
NY: McGraw-Hill, (1973). Two quarto volumes. xxvii,93(iv); ix,94-197(iv)pp. 1500 copies printed in Oxford at the University Press. John Donne, Sir Walter Raleigh, Shakespeare, Keats, Auden, Eliot, Dryden, Pope, Blake, Poe, Whitman and Emily Dickinson are among the 197 poets represented. The commentary includes a little handwriting analysis. Fine in cloth-backed... More
Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1969. Octavo. Previous owner's stamp on front free endpaper. Slight darkening to spine, else fine in green cloth. No dust jacket. More
London: Frederick Warne, 1913. 12mo. 94pp. First edition. First or second printing (they were identical), with date on title-page. Contains fourteen color plates, among Potter's most endearing. The story concerns two real pigs at her own Hill Top Farm, which is the setting for several of the illustrations. At the... 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
Mamaroneck, NY: Paul P. Appel, 1975. Octavo. Very fine in brown cloth over boards, gilt-titled to spine, with very fine dust jacket. More
Paris: Pierre Vorms, 1947. Small quarto, unbound as issued. 136pp. From an edition of 242 copies, this is one of twenty-five copies with extra suites of the engravings and chapter headings. Illustrated with twelve surrealist copper line engravings by Mario Prassinos, as well as numerous chapter headings designed by Prassinos... More
Santa Ana, Calif. Friis-Pioneer Press, 1976. First edition. Presentation copy, signed by the author. A chapbook of poems notable for their musicality and precise language. Many were reprints, and several of them prize winners in local poetry contests. In a stapled binding of yellow printed wrappers. Front cover with a.... More
