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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(N.p. Flagless Editions, 1984). 16mo. (21)pp. One of 167 copies. Cover illustration based on an unfinished series of lithographs by Yoko Ono and John Lennon. The text of this unusual alphabet poem was written by John Lennon in February 1969 for inclusion in the portfolio Bag One. Designed and printed... More
San Francisco: Arion Press, 1990. Quarto. xxviii, 173pp. One of 400 copies signed by the illustrator. Richard Diebenkorn has supplied six etchings, comprising a double map of Ireland and five images on the Yeatsian theme of the empty coat. Faint sunning to slipcase, else fine in green cloth with red... More
Garden City: Doubleday & Co. 1954. First edition. Publisher’s file copy with statement stamped on front free endpaper. A science fiction murder mystery in which a robot detective is teamed with a human counterpart. Although Asimov is best known for his science fiction work, he also dabbled in mystery. A.... More
NY: Gnome Press, 1951; 1952; 1953. First editions of the Foundation Trilogy. All of the books are in first issue bindings and bright, unrestored dust wrappers. The third volume is inscribed by the author: “Best wishes / Isaac Asimov.” The Foundation Trilogy is perhaps the best-known science fiction series and... More
London: Constable, (1920). Small quarto. (76)ff. One of fifty copies printed on Japon, signed by the artist, and with an extra hand-colored illustration. Illustrated with six full-color plates and thirty-two in black & white, some of which have touches of color, as well as numerous smaller line drawings throughout. Balfour's... More
1934, 1950. (1)ff. autograph letter, dated July 25th, 1934. A letter from J. M. Barrie to William Maldon "Bill" Woodfull, the Australian cricketer who captained both the Victoria and Australia cricket teams. Barrie comments on the fourth game of the 1934 Ashes series, in which Australia played against England, saying... More
Chicago: Shasta Publishers, (1953). First edition. Award-winning science fiction author Poul Anderson’s copy, with his signature on the front flyleaf. A science fiction detective novel set in the 24th century in which the most talented mutant law enforcer, or Esper, in the world is matched against the richest man in... More
NY: G. P. Putnam's, 1899. First edition, first issue. A collection of 243 "updates" of many classic fables, including a section titled "Aesopus Emendatus." Inscribed in pencil by Bierce to Dr. J. W. Robertson, noted bibliographer of Edgar Allan Poe, in the year of publication. Robertson was a prominent physician... More
San Francisco: W. E. Wood, 1903. First edition, second issue. A collection of Bierce's later poems. Inscribed in pencil by Bierce to Dr. J. W. Robertson in the month of publication. Robertson was a bibliographer of Edgar Allan Poe and a prominent physician in Livermore, California, whose daughter married Edwin... More
(NY): Center for the Book Arts, (2007). Octavo. 18ff. One of thirty-nine copies. A collection of thirteen poems from Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, beautifully printed by nine compositor-printers at the Center for the Book Arts. Each printer’s work occupies a single bifolium sheet, forming nine loose signatures. All... More
NY: Null-Q Press, 1968. First American edition. One of 250 copies printed on a mimeograph machine on pulp paper, and stapled. This copy is inscribed and signed by Blish. This novel was first published in the U.K. in 1964, and because no American imprint would agree to publish it in... More
NY: Ballantine Books, (1953). First edition. One of 200 numbered copies bound in full asbestos and signed by the author. Bradbury’s first and best-known novel, Fahrenheit 451—the temperature at which book paper ignites—envisions a dystopian world in which reading is considered a subversive activity and books are burned by “firemen”... More
NY: Ballantine Books, (1953). First edition. One of a likely 50 copies bound in red cloth, stamped in gold, intended for Bradbury’s personal use. Card inscribed by the author laid in. Fahrenheit 451—the temperature at which paper burns—has long been regarded as a high point of the science fiction genre... More
Garden City: Doubleday & Co. 1951. First edition of Bradbury’s third book. Inscribed by Bradbury “For Roy—with my thanks for a wonderful afternoon.” It is likely that the recipient is Roy Squires, who published several chapbooks of Bradbury’s work. Although a collection of twenty short stories, The Illustrated Man has... More
Garden City: Doubleday & Co. 1950. First edition of Bradbury’s magnum opus. The Martian Chronicles consists of a string of episodes originally published separately. All of them relate to the colonization and exploration of Mars and result in a compelling narrative. Bradbury’s mixture of science fiction and fantasy is first... More
(Munich): Bremer Presse, (1923-1924). Two folio volumes. 486; 372pp. One of 615 copies printed in Greek with titles by Anna Simons. These beautiful volumes are printed on Zanders handmade paper in a 16-point Greek type designed for the Press. Colin Franklin describes these books as “magnificent examples of controlled printing.”... More
Niles, IL: Dark Harvest, 1986. Two quarto volumes. First edition. One of 52 copies signed by the author and the illustrator, Paul Sonju. A collection of short stories including the 1984 Hugo Award-winning "The Crystal Spheres." Each story features an illustration by Sonju. A very fine copy in bronze paper... More
San Francisco: Amber House Press, 1964. Small quarto. (42)pp. First edition of Corrington's third published book of poetry. Illustrated with drawings by Ann Parisi, printed in silver, including a stylized skeleton across the covers. With an Introduction and cover blurb by Charles Bukowski. Printed by Frank Westlake at the Bindweed... More
Garden City: Doubleday & Co. 1976. First edition of the author’s first book. Butler, who died in 2006, has inscribed this copy. Although it was the first to be published, Patternmaster is the last volume of the Patternist series, which follows the development of a race of networked telepaths from... More
Piccadilly: Chatto and Windus, 1880. Small octavo. 212, (4), (32)pp. First edition. This copy bears the 1886 ownership inscription of C. L. Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll. A collection of poetry by controversial English poet and playwright, A. C. Swinburne. Includes publisher's advertisements, "Cheap Editions of Popular Novels," and... More
NY: D. Appleton and Co. 1866. Octavo. (v)ff., 192pp. First edition, second issue. With forty-two illustrations by John Tenniel. Carroll’s enduring tale of a child’s dreamworld was first issued in 1865 by Macmillan and Company of London, but Carroll and Tenniel were unhappy with the print quality of the illustrations... More
Utrecht, The Netherlands: Catharijne Press, 1984. 20pp. One of 100 copies, with an artistic photogravure frontispiece by Johan de Zoete, which is signed and numbered. The two poems are "To Helen," and "Annabel Lee." Extremely fine oblong miniature; the first published by Catharijne Press. Bound in black morocco with a.... More
NY: McClure, Phillips, 1905. First edition, first binding. This copy belonged to Louise Pound and bears her signature on the front endpaper. Pound was an intimate friend of Cather's during their time at the University of Nebraska, where they were co-editors of "Lasso," a campus magazine. Pound went on to... More
Boston: Richard G. Badger/Gorham Press, 1903. First edition. Cather's first book, a self-published collection of verse, and the only verse Cather published during her career. She reportedly bought remaining copies of this edition in 1908 and destroyed them. It was re-issued by Knopf as a limited edition in 1923 but... More
(Easthampton, MA: Cheloniidae Press, 1980). Folio. (13)ff. One of 125 copies signed by the artist. The haunted tone of Poe's poetry is echoed in the five full-page etchings of The Raven by Alan James Robinson, who has titled and signed each one in pencil. This is Robinson's first interpretation of... More
