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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London: Acorn Press, (1982). Octavo. (176)pp. One of 350 copies. Each sonnets is headed by a wood engraving in orange or brown by Weissenborn. Typeset by the Whittington Press and printed by the Rocket Press. Bound in gray cloth with printed paper over boards. Fine in matching slipcase. More
Kentfield, Calif. Allen Press, 1973. Quarto. 155 pp. One of 137 copies. Each story is printed on a different hand-made paper, in a different typeface, with headings in a different color and a frontispiece by a different illustrator. The four illustrators are Blair Hughes-Stanton, Michele Forgeois, Joseph Low, and Paolo... More
Greenbrae, CA: Allen Press, 1991. Octavo. (108)pp. One of 115 copies printed in two colors. Frontispiece photograph of a sculpted self-portrait. Contains a brief biography and 87 sonnets, printed on ecru laid paper with headings in dark blue. Very fine in boards covered in handblocked Fortuny fabric and a glassine wrapper. More
(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
Lexington, KY: Anvil Press, 1993. Octavo. x, 107pp. One of 40 copies in bindings hand-painted by Carolyn Hammer and Paul Holbrook, from an edition of 75 copies printed by Hammer, in Victor Hammer's American Uncial typeface, the rest (in marbled boards) of which were given away as gifts. With initialed... More
San Francisco: Arion Press, 1991. Quarto. (88) pp. Translated by Ezra Pound. Introductory essays by Hugh Kenner and Lowry Nelson, Jr. Illustrated with a color etching by Joseph Goldyne. One of 150 copies signed by the artist. A very fine copy in green cloth and tan goatskin. Prospectus laid in... More
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2009-2010. Small quarto. Two volumes: 574; 627pp. One of 400 copies. Signed by the artist at colophons of both volumes. Illustrated throughout with etchings by Wiley, whose style captures the romance, and tinge of humor, that runs through the narrative. Wiley created the prints by scratching... More
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2012. Octavo. 458, (3)pp. One of 300 copies, signed by the illustrator. With thirty-four scratchboard drawings, printed from photopolymer plates. Washburn's illustrations depict portraits of characters and the author, landscapes, and key scenes. Collins' tale was first published in 1868, though this publication uses the revised... More
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2014. Octavo. 262pp. One of 300 copies. Illustrated with thirty-two photographs in color taken by Poletto, who took them on the set of the 1963 motion picture directed by Lucchino Visconti. The novel, translated from the Italian by Archibald Colquhoun, grapples with the changes in Sicilian... More
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2008. Quarto. (96)pp. One of 275 copies. Illustrated with two photographs, two etchings by Frank Lobdell, and an etching with aquatint by Lobdell in a separate folder that accompanies the book. In the prospectus for this edition, Andrew Hoyem notes that this is the first time... More
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2016. Folio. 225, (2)pp. One of 300 copies. Introduction and translation by Mark Polizzotti. In this, Flaubert's comedic final novel, two mid-nineteenth century copyists begin to conduct improbable experiments based on misinformation gathered from random readings. Reflecting the occupations of the heroes, all pages of the... More
San Francisco: Arion Press, 1992. Large quarto. 63pp. One of 200 numbered copies, each signed by the author, Allen Ginsberg, and the artist, Ronald Brooks Kitaj. Illustrated with lithographic portraits of the poet and his mother by Kitaj. Two other poems, "White Shroud" and "Black Shroud" are also included, as... More
San Francisco: Arion Press, 1983. Octavo. x, 291pp., + (44)ff. One of 400 copies. This edition of Hammet's classic murder mystery, first published in 1938, is illustrated with 46 photographs of Sam Spade's San Francisco. Photographer Edmund Shea searched the photo-archives of the twenties for specific locations. Where none were... More
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2003. Square quarto. (126)pp. One of 400 copies signed by the poet and the artist. Sol Lewitt has supplied 48 drawings, one for each poem. Introduction by Helen Vendler. A very fine copy in gray cloth printed in black with dark gray cloth slipcase printed in... More
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2012. Small quarto. 115pp. One of 300 copies. Signed by Heaney and Artin. Sixteen watercolor illustrations by Artin, each portraying Classical figures like Hermes and Aeneas as if they were cut from marble or stone. Introduction by Helen Vendler. Heaney's many poems with Classical settings, allusions... More
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2011. Octavo. 223pp. One of 300 copies. Signed by the aritst. Illustrated endpapers plus fourteen double-page illustrations of poignant scenes from the text, each with an accompanying caption citing the chapter and subject and providing a relevant excerpt. Hyman is Jackson's grandson. Jackson's novels, like this... More
San Francisco: Arion Press, 1998. Octavo. 121pp. Introduction by Thomas Pinney. One of 250 copies signed by the artist. Illustrated with 32 drawings by Vincent Perez, one facing each page of the story. A fine copy in sailcloth, housed in a very good mailing envelope with string-and-button tie. Prospectus laid... More
San Francisco: Arion Press, 1992. Quarto. 117pp. One of 400 copies signed by the author and the artist. Illustrated with five wood engravings, four of them full page, by Michael McCurdy. A fine copy in blue-green cloth with a ring of silver foil surrounding an actual buffalo-head nickel. Prospectus laid... More
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2002. Octavo. One of 400 numbered copies. This edition is based on the second edition of Paradise Lost—issued in 1674 with the text divided into twelve books rather than ten as in the first edition—and also on the Baskerville edition of 1759. Edited by the eminent... More
San Francisco: Arion Press, 1994. Quarto. 284pp. One of 200 copies. Nabokov's novel, presented as a poem with commentary and an index, pushes the form of fiction and "metafiction", and has been widely praised as the best demonstration of his genius. Bound in purple silk with gold circular onlay and... More
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2013. Small quarto. 150, (3)pp. One of 300 copies. Signed by the illustrator. Hammer's twenty-four images are suitably crude, often blending rough animal imagery with "civilized" items, such as a pig's feet with glasses and a tripe with a bow-tie. With an introduction by Peter Stansky... More
San Francisco: Arion Press, 1991. Quarto. ix, 109pp. One of 250 copies, signed by the artist Arakawa, who has illustrated the book with eight double-page prints. The illustrations overlay textual and linear elements. The quotations from Poe are crossed out and underlined, obscured and emphasized; vectors powerfully point to and... More
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2014. Octavo. 15pp. One of 300 copies printed as a keepsake for distribution to members attending the Joint Meeting of the Roxburghe and Zamorano clubs in San Francisco in November 2014, to subscribers of the Arion Press, and to the Roth family. In green paper wrappers... More
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2016. Quarto. 147pp. One of 300 copies. Signed by the artist at the colophon. Ten two-sided prints and two roundels by Chagoya, printed from polymer plats on Japanses kozo washi. Handmade in the Kochi province, this is the final batch of Arakaji, due to the retirement... More
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2011. Tall quarto. 112 pp. One of 400 copies signed by the illustrator, Julie Mehretu. This is Mehretu's first artist's book, and she created twenty double-page prints to accompany the text, printed in Greek and English. These abstract etchings at once evoke an evolving landscape, but... More
