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“INCOMPARABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT WORK IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE” SHAKESPEARE, William. Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. London, 1685. Rare 1685 Fourth Folio of Shakespeare’s plays, first issue, with the engraved frontispiece portrait of Shakespeare by Droeshout, the ten-line poem by Ben Jonson and John Milton’s first poem. The folios are “incomparably the most important work in the English language” (William A. Jackson). Because of their incalculable impact on the language, thought and literature of our world, they are among the most desirable of all English language books, the prizes of any collection. From the famed Beeleigh Abbey library of W.A. Foyle, with his bookplate. $225,000. View Full Book Details

“AMERICA’S SECOND DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE” WHITMAN, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn, New York, 1855. Extraordinarily scarce and important first edition of the most important volume of American poetry, one of only 337 copies in extra-gilt first state cloth binding. “In Whitman we have a democrat who set out to imagine the life of the average man in average circumstances changed into something grand and heroic… There has never been a more remarkable poem” (Callow). Whitman personally financed, supervised and even in some sections hand-set the type for the small printing of 795 copies. $165,000. View Full Book Details

“ONE OF THE GREATEST, MOST NOBLE AND SUBLIME POEMS WHICH EITHER THIS AGE OR NATION HAS PRODUCED” MILTON, John. Paradise Lost. London, 1669. First edition, fifth title page, of Milton’s poetic masterpiece, his dramatic vision of Satan’s expulsion from Heaven and the temptation of Adam and Eve, beautifully bound by Francis Bedford. A splendid copy. “Rare” (Wickenheiser). $35,000. View Full Book Details

“PERHAPS THE ONLY ONE WORTHY TO RANK WITH” SHAKESPEARE JONSON, Ben. Workes. London, 1616, 1640-41. Two volumes, uniformly bound. Exceedingly rare first editions of the first collected Workes of Ben Jonson, two folio volumes, rarely found together, containing the 1616 Works, whose publication was personally supervised by Jonson, and the 1640-41 Works with its initial three plays in the original and mostly unsold sheets from the 1631 edition also supervised by Jonson, both handsomely and uniformly bound, with engraved allegorical title page in Volume I. $35,000. View Full Book Details

“HE MADE THE FATHER OF ALL POETRY LIVE…” HOMER. The Iliad of Homer. WITH: Odyssey of Homer. London, 1715-26. Eleven volumes bound as five. Rare first editions, folio issues, of Pope’s famous illustrated translations, esteemed by Samuel Johnson as “certainly the noblest version of poetry which the world has ever seen,” with frontispiece bust portraits of Homer by Vertue and five plates (incluidng a double-page map of Phyrgia and the often absent “Shield of Achilles”), handsomely bound. $32,000. View Full Book Details

ACTOR JOHN BARRYMORE’S OWN COPY OF THE EXCEEDINGLY RARE AND IMPORTANT FOLIO FIRST EDITION OF JONSON’S 1616 WORKES (BARRYMORE, John) JONSON, Ben. Workes. Imprinted at London, 1616. Exceedingly rare first edition of the first collected Workes of Ben Jonson, whose publication was personally supervised by Jonson, the first literary folio to include stage plays, an exceptional association copy signed and inscribed by renowned stage and film actor John Barrymore, the most famed of America’s “Royal Family” of actors and a figure whose Shakespearean stage performances are “talked of in hushed voices as creations near to the sublime,” also containing Barrymore’s distinctive bookplate, handsomely bound in rich full morocco gilt by Riviere & Son. $25,000. View Full Book Details

“EVERY IMAGE EXISTS IN ITS OWN RIGHT” RIMBAUD, Arthur. Illuminations. Paris, 1886. Limited first edition of one of Rimbaud’s important poetical works, one of only 200 copies, this copy number 39 of 170 copies on Holland paper, with preface by French poet Paul Verlaine. Handsomely bound by J.-P. Miguet, with original paper wrappers bound in. $25,000. View Full Book Details

EXTREMELY RARE PRESENTATION COPY OF RAVENNA, INSCRIBED BY OSCAR WILDE WILDE, Oscar. Ravenna. Oxford, 1878. Rare first edition, presentation copy, of Oscar Wilde’s first book, one of only 168 copies published, inscribed by Wilde across the front wrapper: “E.B. Benson with best wishes from the author.” $22,000. View Full Book Details

“INSTINCT WITH THE VERY SOIL OF ENGLAND” HARDY, Thomas. Works. London, 1919-20. Thirty-seven volumes. Handsome “Mellstock Edition” of Hardy’s prose and poetry, one of only 500 sets signed by the author in Volume I, very handsomely bound by Rivière & Son. $22,000. View Full Book Details

“I SEND THE TWO VOLUMES TO YOU… THE TWO EMBODY ALL MY WORKS” WHITMAN, Walt. Leaves of Grass (and) Two Rivulets. Camden, New Jersey, 1876. Two volumes. “Author’s Edition” of Leaves of Grass, signed in ink on the title page by Walt Whitman. Accompanied by the first and only edition, second printing, of Two Rivulets, inscribed “Walt Whitman, 1880-’81,” on the original albumen photograph portrait that serves as a frontispiece. With two autograph letters signed by Whitman from 1881 to the owner of these books, discussing their purchase directly from the poet. $20,000. View Full Book Details

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