“THE STUDY OF COOK IS THE ILLUMINATION OF ALL DISCOVERY”

(PACIFIC VOYAGES) (COOK, James). Cook's Three Voyages. London, 1773, 1777, 1784. Eight volumes altogether.

Scarce complete set of first editions of Cook's three Pacific voyages, including a first issue of the First Voyage, superbly illustrated with 203 engraved charts, maps and plates, many double-page or folding—including the famous "Death of Captain Cook" plate, drawn by Webber and engraved by Bartolozzi, issued separately and here bound in. A uniformly and very handsomely bound set in eight large quarto volumes. $49,000.

“TO DOROTHY, WITH LOVE. KEN”: EXCEPTIONAL PRESENTATION/ASSOCIATION FIRST EDITION OF FAMED CRIME WRITER ROSS MACDONALD’S FIRST NOVEL, ISSUED WITH HIS BIRTH NAME OF KENNETH MILLAR, WARMLY INSCRIBED BY HIM TO HIS SISTER-IN-LAW

(MACDONALD, Ross) MILLAR, Kenneth. Dark Tunnel. New York, 1944.

First edition of the first novel by Macdonald, famed for his Lew Archer series, presentation/association copy inscribed by him to his sister-in-law, Dorothy Schlagel, "To Dorothy, with love, Ken," with her owner signature opposite. When Macdonald was struggling with his first Lew Archer novel, Moving Target, Dorothy offered him the quiet of her home when she was at work, and again when he wrote The Way Some People Die. An exceptional rarity, the first inscribed copy we have encountered. $38,000.

"FLEE FAR FROM BABYLON… BEWARE OF THAT GREAT HARLOT, THAT IS TO SAY, THE PESTIFEROUS SEA OF ROME, THAT SHE MAKE YOU NOT DRUNK WITH HER PLEASANT WINE"

CRANMER, Thomas. A Defence of the True and Catholike Doctrine. London, 1550.

Exceedingly rare first edition of the book that brought Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer to martyrdom, the first full-length book to bear his name, in which he repudiates the essential Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, handsomely bound in full morocco-gilt by Riviere & Son. The W.A. Foyle copy, with his Beeleigh Abbey morocco bookplate, and also from the collection of George Goyder, noted collector of the literature of the English Reformation. $35,000.