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• 1 • 01 TWAIN, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade). New York, 1885. Octavo, original pictorial green cloth, custom slipcase. $24,000. First edition, first issue, of “the most praised and most condemned 19th-century American work of fiction” (Legacies of Genius, 47), with 174 illustrations by Edward Kemble. Written over an eight-year period, Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn endured critical attacks from the moment of publication, standing accused of “blood-curdling humor,” immorality, coarseness and profanity. The book nevertheless emerged as one of the defining novels of American literature, prompting Hemingway to declare: “All modern literature comes from one book by Mark Twain. It’s the best book we’ve had. All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing since.” This copy has all of the commonly identified first-issue points (the printer assembled copies haphazardly; bibliographers do not yet agree as to the priority of many points). First-issue points: page [9] with “Decided” remaining uncorrected (to “Decides”); page [13], illustration captioned “Him and another Man” listed as on page 88; page 57, 11th line from bottom reads “with the was.” Debate continues over the priority of other points of issue and state. This copy contains the following points of bibliographical interest: frontispiece portrait with cloth table cover not visible under the bust, bearing the Photo-Gravure Co. imprint and with Karl Gerhardt’s name on the bust’s side; copyright page dated 1884; page 143 with “l” missing from “Col.” at top of illustration and with broken “b” in “body” on line seven; page 155 with final “5”; page 161, no signature mark “11”; pages 283-84 is a cancel (illustration with straight pant-fly) as described by Johnson (p. 48) and MacDonnell (p. 32-33). BAL 3415. Johnson, 43-50. MacDonnell, 29-35. McBride, 93. Grolier American 87. Owner pencil signature. Light foxing to frontispiece portrait, interior otherwise unusually clean, front inner hinge expertly reinforced; cloth with very minor wear to spine ends, gilt exceptionally bright. Near fine. “ALL MODERN LITERATURE COMES FROM ONE BOOK BY MARK TWAIN. IT’S THE BEST BOOK WE’VE HAD”: FIRST ISSUE OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN
• 2 • 02 CONAN DOYLE, Sir Arthur. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. WITH: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. London, 1892, 1894. Two volumes. Octavo, original light blue and dark blue cloth;, custom clamshell box. $22,000. First editions in book form of these classic stories starring literature’s most famous detective, illustrated by Sidney Paget. Although Sherlock Holmes first appeared in the novel A Study in Scarlet (1887), his adventures in the Strand Magazine brought both him and his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, lasting fame. “The initial 12 tales were collected between covers as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, published in England and America in 1892; and 11 of the second 12… as The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, published in 1894. If any reader be prepared to name two other books that have given more innocent but solid pleasure, let him speak now— or hold his peace!” (Haycraft, 50). These volumes contain such famous and memorable tales as “A Scandal in Bohemia” and “The Adventure of the Speckled Band.” Of special note is the last case in the Memoirs, “The Final Problem,” in which Holmes apparently meets his death in a struggle with “the Napoleon of crime,” Professor Moriarty. “At one point, tiring of the detective, Doyle attempted to exterminate him… but the clamor of his admirers forced him to resurrect Holmes for several further volumes, and his popularity has waned little since” (Benet, 273). Adventures in first-issue binding, with blank street sign on front cover illustration. Green & Gibson A10a, A14a. DeWaal 520, 596. Gift inscription in Adventures. Scattered light foxing to text, as usual, Adventures front inner hinge with one inch split; cloth in exceptional condition with a few spots and light rubbing to Adventures, gilt on boards and spines bright. Near-fine condition. “IT IS MY BUSINESS TO KNOW WHAT OTHER PEOPLE DON’T KNOW”: FIRST EDITIONS OF THE ADVENTURES AND MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
• 3 • “TIMSHEL!”: FIRST TRADE EDITION OF STEINBECK’S EAST OF EDEN 03 STEINBECK, John. East of Eden. New York, 1952. Octavo, original green cloth, dust jacket. $4500. First trade edition of Steinbeck’s epic and moving story of a modern Cain and Abel. Steinbeck wrote that East of Eden “has everything in it I have been able to learn about my art or craft or profession in all these years,” further claiming that everything he wrote prior to East of Eden “has been, in a sense, practice for this” (Salinas Public Library, 45). As a contemporary reviewer put it: “There is only one Steinbeck and no one writes about ‘his people’ as well” (W. Max Gordon). Published in the same month as the first signed limited edition of 1500 copies. Goldstone & Payne A32b. Bruccoli & Clark I:355. Valentine 218. Very light toning to cloth top edge, bright price-clipped dust jacket with mild toning to spine, some embrowning to edges of rear panel and folds, light rubbing. An extremely good copy.
• 4 • “THAT MUSICAL CRYSTAL-CLEAR STYLE, BLOWN LIKE GLASS FROM THE WHITEHEAT OF VIOLENCE” 04 HEMINGWAY, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. New York, 1929. Octavo, original black cloth, dust jacket, custom box. $8500. First trade edition, first issue, of the novel that “placed Hemingway, early, among the American masters,” in scarce unrestored first-issue dust jacket. “Probably [Hemingway’s] best… Its success was so enormous… After it one could no more imitate that musical crystal-clear style; blown like glass from the white-heat of violence… the beginning, like all his beginnings, seems effortless and magical” (Connolly, Modern Movement 60). “The novel that placed Hemingway, early, among the American masters… the most satisfying and most sustained, the consummate masterpiece, among Hemingway’s novels. It bears the mark of Hemingway’s best gifts as a writer” (Mellow, 377-79). First edition, first printing,with publisher’s seal on copyright page, no disclaimer on page x; in first-issue Art Deco dust jacket by Cleonike Damianakes, with front flap misspelling of the heroine’s name as “Katharine Barclay” instead of “Catherine Barkley.” Appeared simultaneously with a limited edition of 510 numbered copies. Hanneman 8a. Bruccoli & Clark, 178. Grissom A.8.1.a. Owner signature. Interior fine, cloth with very faint spotting, mild toning to spine, small bump to rear board; unrestored dust jacket with a bit of rubbing and edgewear, spine with almost none of the usual toning. A near-fine copy.
• 5 • HAMMETT’S “LAST GREAT NOVEL”: VERY SCARCE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION OF THE GLASS KEY 05 HAMMETT, Dashiell. The Glass Key. New York, London, 1931. Octavo, original light green cloth, dust jacket. $17,500. First American edition of Hammett’s favorite novel, praised for combining “the tradition of Sherlock Holmes with the style of Ernest Hemingway” (New York Times), in rarely found original dust jacket. The Glass Key, Hammett’s “last great novel” (Mellen, 27), skillfully unites “the tradition of Sherlock Holmes with the style of Ernest Hemingway” (New York Times). Hammett once told Blanche Knopf: “I’m one of the few… who take the detective story seriously… Someday somebody’s going to make ‘literature’ of it… and I’m selfish enough to have my own hopes.” In a period of only three years, Hammett wrote his most important novels, Red Harvest (1929), The Dain Curse (1929), The Maltese Falcon (1930) and The Glass Key (1931), the fourth novel by “the most important member of the hard-boiled school of fiction” (Steinbrunner/Penzler, 186). This is Hammett’s “last earnest effort to make literature of the detective story. According to his biographer Richard Layman, The Glass Key was Hammett’s favorite among his books. That may have been so because, more than any other, The Glass Key integrates the mystery plot into a complex novelistic fabric (it is the only one of Hammett’s books in which the protagonist has never been a detective)” (McCann, Gumshoe America, 97, 121). “Told in the crispest and sharpest of prose, The Glass Key is Hammett’s darkest vision of crime, corruption and American politics” (Rennison & Wood, 100 Must-Read American Novels). Basis for the 1942 film starring Alan Ladd. First issued in England in 1931 by Knopf, “which closed their London office soon after” (Fine Books & Collections). This first American edition quickly followed three months later. Serialized in the magazine Black Mask in four parts from March through June 1930, Hammett revised The Glass Key extensively for book publication. Layman A4.2.a. Interior fine, usual mild fading to cloth, spine colors exceptionally vivid; unrestored dust jacket with shallow chipping to spine ends, wear along folds, mild toning to spine. An extremely good copy.
• 6 • INSCRIBED BY LANGSTON HUGHES, FIRST EDITION OF ONE-WAY TICKET 06 (LAWRENCE, Jacob) HUGHES, Langston. OneWay Ticket. New York, 1949. Octavo, original half black cloth, dust jacket. $3000. First edition of Hughes’ powerful 12th book of poetry, featuring six dramatic full-page illustrations by pioneering Black artist Jacob Lawrence, boldly inscribed, “To Mrs. J.C. Sherard, Sincerely, Langston Hughes, St. Louis, March 24, 1950,” a splendid copy in the very elusive original dust jacket. “Langston Hughes is one of the essential figures in American literature… as Gwendolyn Brooks once put it, he ‘made us better people.’” As in One-Way Ticket, much of Hughes’ poetry moves “to blues and jazz rhythms, with which Hughes experimented more rewardingly than any other important poet of this century…. [Here] the lyric, blues and folksong forms that Hughes has used to project, often with the lightest touch, the most devastating emotions and moral commentaries on life in the United States, have now been stripped almost to bareness. It is as if the poet… were pushing toward an even more direct and forceful method” (New York Times). Featured are six full-page illustrations by Jacob Lawrence, “the most widely acclaimed African American artist of this century” (Smithsonian). His early involvement with the Harlem Art Workshop led to his close association with “most of the prominent cultural figures associated with the Harlem Renaissance, including the painters Aaron Douglas and William Johnson, and the writers Langston Hughes, Alain Locke, Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison” (New York Times). With “First Edition” on copyright page. Book fine; light edge-wear and toning to scarce extremely good dust jacket.
• 7 • “BETTER TO REIGN IN HELL THAN SERVE IN HEAVEN”: LARGE FOLIO 1870 EDITION OF DORÉ’S PARADISE LOST 07 (DORÉ, Gustave) MILTON, John. Milton’s Paradise Lost. Illustrated By Gustave Doré. Edited, With Notes and a Life of Milton, by Robert Vaughan, D.D. London and New York, circa 1870. Large folio (12 by 15 inches), contemporary full red morocco gilt. $6800. Early English edition of Doré’s interpretation of Paradise Lost, with 50 stunning full-page folio engravings, “matched only by his illustrations for Dante’s Inferno,” very handsomely bound by A.W. Bain. “When Cassell saw the Doré Bible illustrations in the fall of 1865, they were so impressed they not only made arrangements with the French Catholic publisher Mame for Cassell to be the English publisher, but they personally approached Doré to do Milton” (Malan, 79). Only Doré’s illustrations for Dante’s Inferno match his work on Paradise Lost in epic scope and acute lyric sensitivity. In his designs for this volume, we see full-blown the Romantic reading of Milton— as a celebrator of radical genius— that drew the poets of the Romantic movement to Milton, and a halfcentury of book illustrators to Doré. In Doré’s depiction of the hellish steeps, of the armies of the night and their beaten but triumphant and queerly illuminated leader, and of the ineluctably lovely Adam and Eve, it is hard to discover, among the ingenious but fallen, a face or form not worthy of intense admiration. “None can dispute the fact that here, as in all other works he has attempted to interpret, Doré stands as a giant among his contemporaries and predecessors” (New York Times). First published in 1866, Doré’s version is the first to contain Milton’s Life by editor Robert Vaughan, a historian and doctor of divinity who “valued nonconformity as a bulwark of evangelical religion, and did real service to his denomination by extending its literary culture” (DNB). Malan, 287. Plates and text fine, only mild wear to beautiful contemporary binding.
• 8 • WITH 39 FOLIO WOOD-ENGRAVINGS BY GUSTAVE DORÉ: COLERIDGE’S RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER, 1876 FIRST DORÉ-ILLUSTRATED EDITION 08 (DORÉ, Gustave) COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. New York, 1876. Folio, original pictorial brown cloth gilt. $6500. First American edition, scarce first issue, of Doré’s lavishly illustrated edition of Coleridge’s classic, a handsome folio volume with 39 striking full-page folio woodengravings, title page and two large engraved vignettes by Doré, in original cloth. “One can hardly deny that Doré is not merely one of the most popular but also one of the greatest of all illustrators… Perhaps Taine summed up Doré’s appeal most eloquently: ‘every imagination appeared languid in comparison with his. For energy, force, superabundance, originality, sparkle, and gloomy grandeur, I know only one equal to his—that of Tintoretto” (Ray, 327-29). “In December 1875, Doré did a set of engravings that would make Coleridge’s poem famous. Few people today realize how much the popularity of that poem owed to the many Doré editions which finally made it come to life” (Malan, 131). “Doré’s illustrations… immediately and marvelously invoke the eerie, magical, superstitious world which Coleridge created… Waterspouts, foundering ships, dark looming figures seem to leap from Coleridge’s poetic imagination to Doré’s wood blocks” (Anthony Burgess). First published in London in 1876, in an even larger format but with poor quality workmanship and an exorbitant price. The London edition was not reprinted, while Harper published nine further editions in America over the next dozen years. “The high quality and low cost of the Harper edition made it very popular” (Malan). “There were two versions of the December 1876 [printing], one dated 1876 [as this copy] and one dated 1877. Harper normally dated major books like this the year following the December in which they were issued. A survey of rare book libraries shows that the 1876 version is very rare, the great majority of copies having the 1877 date” (Malan). Malan, 261. Interior clean and fine. Expert restoration to cloth, expert repairs to inner hinges. An extremely good copy of the scarce American first issue.
• 9 • EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED ALDINE EDITION OF SHAKESPEARE’S POEMS, EXQUISITELY BOUND 09 SHAKESPEARE, William. The Crown Edition of the British Poets. William Shakespeare. London, 1890. $3800. Limited “Aldine Poets” edition of the poems of Shakespeare, number four of only ten extraillustrated copies with two hand-colored engravings and an original color drawing signed by the artist, splendidly bound in full morocco-gilt with multi-colored morocco inlays in floral designs. The “Aldine” edition of British poets, first brought out by the publisher William Pickering beginning in 1830, aimed to introduce scholarly editions of the classics in a smaller, more affordable format. This collection includes a memoir of Shakespeare by the Rev. Alexander Dyce as well as Shakespeare’s long poems, songs from the plays and—of course—the sonnets. The original color illustration in this volume is signed “Gabriel” by the artist. Spine very slightly toned. A lovely copy, in fine condition.
• 10 • “A DEATHLESS NICHE IN THE TEMPLE OF FAME” 10 DICKENS, Charles. Works. London, circa 1887. Thirty volumes. Octavo, contemporary three-quarter dark green morocco gilt. $11,000. Illustrated “Library Edition,” with over 400 black-and-white plates after the original illustrations, handsomely bound by Blunson. “His imaginative freshness, his deep and sincere tenderness and pity, his whole-souled humor that is seldom sharpened into wit, his superabundance of creative energy, have built a deathless niche in the temple of fame for Charles Dickens” (Kunitz & Haycraft, 184). This edition includes all of Dickens’ major works— including The Pickwick Papers, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and the Christmas books, chief among them A Christmas Carol. Generously illustrated with over 400 black-and-white plates after the original illustrations by “Phiz,” H.K. Browne, Cruikshank and others. Laid into Volume II—Pickwick—is an illustration by R.W. Buss for a cricket match described in Chapter VII. Bookplates. Plates and text generally clean, with light foxing to text block edges, occasional scattered foxing to frontispieces and title pages, heavier in Sketches by Boz. Very handsomely bound.
• 11 • “THE SUPREME COMIC NOVELIST IN ENGLAND AFTER WORLD WAR II”: ANTHONY POWELL’S A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME, FIRST EDITION SET 11 POWELL, Anthony. A Dance to the Music of Time. London, 1951-75. Twelve volumes. 12mo, modern full navy morocco gilt. $6800. First editions of all 12 books in Powell’s vast multi-volume “A Dance to the Music of Time” novel, with a signed autograph inscription by Powell tipped into the first volume, handsomely bound. “The last surviving member of that prolific, gifted generation of English writers who came out of Oxford in the mid-1920s,” Powell “produced plays, literary criticism, biography and 50 years’ worth of book reviews for the Daily Telegraph, but will be best remembered for a sequence of 12 novels written between 1950 and 1975, the roman-fleuve A Dance to the Music of Time… It is Powell’s ability to create a universal fiction out of the dynamics, interactions and interrelations of his own relatively narrow upper-class set that accounts for the breadth of the books’ appeal… When future generations wish to understand the texture of 20th-century English life, their best source will be Powell, and A Dance to the Music of Time” (John Perry). The work comprises A Question of Upbringing (1951), A Buyer’s Market (1952), The Acceptance World (1955), At Lady Molly’s (1957), Casanova’s Chinese Restaurant (1960), The Kindly Ones (1962), The Valley of Bones (1964), The Soldier’s Art (1966), The Military Philosophers (1968), Books Do Furnish a Room (1971), Temporary Kings (1973) and Hearing Secret Harmonies (1975). “The supreme comic novelist in England after World War II” (New York Times). With original spines for each volume tipped in at rear. Fine condition.
• 12 • “THE ORIGINATOR OF THE MODERN NOVEL”: FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF FLAUBERT’S MADAME BOVARY, A BEAUTIFUL COPY 12 FLAUBERT, Gustave. Madame Bovary. Provincial Manners. London, 1886. Small octavo, original giltstamped blue-green cloth. Housed in a custom half teal buffalo clamshell box. $14,000. First edition in English of Flaubert’s literary masterpiece, translated by Karl Marx’s daughter Eleanor Marx-Aveling. Upon publication of Madame Bovary, both Flaubert and his publisher were arrested on charges of immorality and narrowly escaped conviction. Although the work was purportedly based in part on the life of Flaubert’s friend Louise Pradier, the author’s claim that “Madame Bovary is myself,” with his unrelenting objectivity and deep compassion for his characters, earned him his reputation as the great master of the Realist school of French literature. “Novelists should thank Gustave Flaubert the way poets thank spring: it begins again with him. He is the originator of the modern novel… He began writing Madame Bovary in September 1851, and delivered the manuscript in 1856, when he was 35… No novelist agonized as much or as publicly… And no novelist reflected as self-consciously on questions of technique… Thus ‘style’ was born” (New York Times Book Review). First published in French in 1857. With frontispiece, five full-page illustrations and ornamental head- and tailpieces. Mahaffey, 156. Minor foxing to text block edges, otherwise bright and beautiful. A very nearly fine copy.
• 13 • “AFFAIRS WERE EVERY DAY BECOMING MORE DANGEROUS IN AMERICA”: SCARCE FIRST EDITION OF THE 1780 REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY ATTRIBUTED TO EDMUND BURKE, WITH 13 COPPER-ENGRAVED PORTRAITS AND FOLDING MAP 13 [BURKE, Edmund]. An Impartial History of the War in America, Between Great Britain and Her Colonies, From Its Commencement to the end of the Year 1779. London, 1780. Thick octavo. $8500. First edition, second issue, of this early Revolutionary history based on a series in England’s Annual Register attributed to Edmund Burke, rarely found with all 13 copper-engraved plates of Revolutionary figures—including Washington, Samuel Adams, Hancock, Arnold and Franklin—and its impressive folding map of North America (measuring 17 by 21 inches), beautifully bound. Attributed to Edmund Burke, this anonymously published volume is one of the very earliest Revolutionary histories in book form to be derived from London’s Annual Register, “an original authority of high value… for the revolutionary struggles” (Libby, Some Pseudo Histories, 425). Outspoken in his assessment British colonial policies, Burke was a frequent editor and principal contributor of the Register. Beginning in 1776, the magazine began a series that offered “the most able, impartial and authentic history of the dispute which can be found…. Understood to be drawn up by Burke… (and there is no doubt of it), the arguments on each side are displayed with an impartiality that is quite admirable” (Church 1171). The Register was the principal “source for most if not all of the material to be found” here and in histories by David Ramsay, James Murray and William Gordon that also borrowed heavily from the series (Libby, 422). Dramatic and compelling in its coverage of the Revolution, this History is also highly sought for its impressive folding map of America and the handsome, copper-engraved portraits, rarely found, depicting 13 leading Revolutionary figures—including Washington, Arnold, Charles Lee, Samuel Adams, Hancock, Franklin and General Howe. This complete volume contains the folding map and all of the 13 plates “usually extracted by the illustrators” (Sabin 34375). First edition, second issue, with page vii correctly paginated, R. Faulder imprint. A subsequent 1781 Boston edition “is in part a reprint of this” (Adams 80-45a). Howes B975. A bit of offsetting from plates, interior very clean; handsome contemporary tree calf with expert restoration to joints, spine ends and corners. A lovely copy.
• 14 • “DISCIPLINE, PATIENT ENDURANCE AND IMPETUOUS VALOR”: HISTORY OF THE FIFTY-FOURTH REGIMENT, 1891 14 EMILIO, Luis F. History of the Fifty-Fourth Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 1863-1865. [A Brave Black Regiment.]. Boston, 1891. Octavo, original navy cloth gilt. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $5500. First edition of a history of “one of the first black fighting units to see action in the field”—illustrated with 20 photographic plates (including frontispiece) and nine maps (two folding), in original gilt-stamped cloth. Emilio’s History of the Fifty-Fourth Regiment “is the principal source of information on the celebrated regiment that attacked Fort Wagner on Morris Island in July 1863. One of the first black fighting units to see action in the field, the 54th was commanded by Col. Robert Gould Shaw” (Eicher 1068). When Lincoln ordered the War Department, in 1863, to allow Massachusetts governor John Andrew to raise troops for the 54th, “the War Department stipulated that these black troops could be commanded only by white officers. Congress added a further condition that black troops be paid $6 less per month than the standard $13… Governor Andrew persuaded Shaw to assume command of the 54th in early March 1863. Andrew carefully selected the regiment’s white subordinate officers as well: Lt. Col. Edward Hallowell, captains William Simkins and Luis Emilio, and Adjutant Garth Wilkinson James… These officers’ letters reveal how conscious and proud they were of the regiment’s social as well as military significance. Shortly after its creation, the 54th, along with other black regiments, faced Confederate legislation authorizing the execution of both black Union troops and their white officers. This legislation combined with northern white bigotry to bond the regiment’s white officers with their black troops. The 54th’s officers and men, in a joint protest, all served without pay until Congress authorized equal wages to black soldiers” (Karsten, Encyclopedia of War, 272). “Emilio served throughout the war as a captain in the regiment, and his insights on the peculiar origin of the regiment, its national composition and the youthful commander who was killed at Wagner are valuable” (Eicher 1068). “His work followed the men of the 54th from recruitment to mustering out… and he praised their ‘admirable’ esprit de corps” (Sheehan-Dean, Companion to the U.S. Civil War). This valuable account “was composed from Emilio’s own notes and recollections as well as the diaries, letters and remembrances of many other members of the regiment, mostly within the two decades following the war. The narrative is tight and factual, and the author offers resplendent detail” (Eicher 1068). Basis for the 1989 film Glory that won Denzel Washington won his first Oscar. First edition. Copies found in different colored cloth, with no priority established. Blockson 3033. Work, 399. Nicholson, 271. Faint owner namestamp. Text with extremely thin and faint marginal dampstaining along outer and lower edge, cloth with a few spots. An extremely good copy.
• 15 • “THE COLOSSUS OF INDEPENDENCE” (JEFFERSON): FIRST EDITION SET OF THE WORKS OF JOHN ADAMS, WITH BIOGRAPHY, HANDSOMELY BOUND IN CONTEMPORARY CALF 15 ADAMS, John. The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, by his Grandson Charles Francis Adams. Boston, 1850-56. Ten volumes. Octavo, modern full brown morocco gilt. $13,500. First edition of the Works of John Adams, prepared by his grandson Charles Francis Adams, including Adams’ esteemed biography of his grandfather, illustrated with portraits and facsimiles, a splendid ten-volume set handsomely bound in full calf-gilt. Jefferson, who died the same day as John Adams, on July 4, 1826, proclaimed him “the colossus of independence.” To Adams’ biographer, David McCullough, “few Americans ever achieved so much of such value and consequence to their country in so little time” (American History), and to historian Gordon Wood, “more than any of the revolutionaries Adams represented the political and constitutional side of the American Enlightenment… No one read more and thought more about law and politics than John Adams” (Revolutionary Characters, 178). In 1850 John Adams’ grandson, Charles Francis Adams, “took up seriously the publication of the Works of John Adams in ten volumes, and prepared a biography which, quite apart from its merits, still holds a place for its wide reading and broad treatment. A wholly unbiased weighing of character could not be expected, but as written by a grandson the work has unusual qualities” (ANB). This definitive set contains much of Adams’ published works and public and private correspondence. Sabin 253. Publisher’s receipt laid into Volume VI. Offsetting from some illustrations, interiors otherwise fine. Very handsomely bound.
• 16 • “THE AMERICAN CONTINENTS…ARE HENCEFORTH NOT TO BE CONSIDERED AS SUBJECTS FOR FUTURE COLONIZATION BY ANY EUROPEAN POWERS” SPLENDIDLY BOUND SET OF THE WRITINGS OF JAMES MONROE 16 MONROE, James. The Writings of James Monroe. New York, 1898-1903. Seven volumes. Later full blue morocco gilt. $6000. First edition, number 406 of 750 printed, of the writings of James Monroe, including for the first time his private papers and correspondence as well as his public writings. The fifth American president, Monroe is considered the last of the Founding Fathers to occupy that role. For John Quincy Adams, Monroe’s presidency was “hereafter to be looked back to as the golden age of this republic.” Volume VI contains Monroe’s first public declaration of the “Monroe Doctrine” in his address to Congress in 1823, as well as a study of its genesis and contemporary correspondence regarding this doctrine. A beautifully bound copy in fine condition.
• 17 • “A CLASSIC CIVIL WAR AUTOBIOGRAPHY”: FIRST EDITION OF GRANT’S MEMOIRS, IN DELUXE PUBLISHER’S BINDING 17 GRANT, Ulysses S. Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant. New York, 1885-86. Two volumes. Octavo, original deluxe three-quarter brown morocco gilt. $3500. First edition of “one of the most valuable writings by a military commander in history,” illustrated with numerous steel engravings, facsimiles, and 43 maps, a handsome copy in publisher’s deluxe binding. After an ineffectual term as president, ruined by bankruptcy and dying of throat cancer, Grant agreed to publish his memoirs to provide a measure of economic security for his family. Mark Twain agreed to serve as the publisher. Struggling to dictate his notes to a stenographer, Grant finished his memoirs shortly before his death in the summer of 1885. “It seemed to Twain, sitting quietly near him in his bedroom at Sixtieth Street, that Grant had fully regained the stature of a hero” (Kaplan, 273). “No Union list of personal narratives could possibly begin without the story of the victorious general. A truly remarkable work” (New York Times). “Grant’s memoirs comprise one of the most valuable writings by a military commander in history” (Eicher 492). Dornbusch II:1986. Mullins & Reed 35. Bookplates of Donald M. Dickinson, a Michigan politician who served as Postmaster General during the first Cleveland administration. Scattered marginal foxing to text, heavier in Volume II. Bindings with only mild wear, gilt bright. A near-fine copy.
• 18 • “A MILESTONE OF GREAT IMPORTANCE IN CONFEDERATE LITERATURE”: SIGNED FIRST EDITION OF LONGSTREET’S FROM MANASSAS TO APPOMATTOX 18 LONGSTREET, James. From Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War in America. Philadelphia, 1896. Thick octavo, publisher’s half red morocco gilt rebacked with original spine laid down, red marbled paper boards and endpapers. $16,500. Signed limited first “Autograph Edition” of Longstreet’s important Civil War history, with frontispiece portrait, 16 maps, and 30 illustrations of battle sites and portraits, number 14 of 250 copies signed by the author on the limitation page, in handsome publisher’s binding. “Longstreet’s tome is a milestone of great importance in Confederate literature. It tells the story of the war in the first person from one of the great generals of American history, allows him to make his case… Longstreet here provides ample documentation of his close relationships with Lee” (Eicher). Contrary to myth, Longstreet, not Stonewall Jackson, was Lee’s intimate confidant, close friend, and principal military adviser (ANB). “Longstreet’s reminiscences are basic to any study of the Army of Northern Virginia” (In Tall Cotton 114), and are “a necessary source for any study of Lee’s army” (Nevins I:122). “Published in December 1895 (bearing the date 1896)” (Piston, Lee’s Tarnished Lieutenant, 154). Issued along with the first trade edition, no priority established. Dornbusch II:2977. Eicher 277. Wright 664. Howes L451. Text and plates clean. Binding extremities with expert restoration. An uncommon, desirable signed copy.
• 19 • “HIS UTOPIA IS ALARMING AND HIS METAPHYSICS ARE INTOXICATING”: PLATO’S REPUBLIC, HANDSOMELY BOUND 19 PLATO. The Republic of Plato Translated into English, with an Analysis and Notes, by John Llewelyn Davies, M.S. and David James Vaughan, M.A. London, 1925. Small octavo, contemporary full dark brown morocco gilt. $2800. Golden Treasury Series edition of the greatest of Plato’s dialogues, handsomely bound by Ramage of London. The Republic, Plato’s extended dialogue on Justice and the nature of the ideal state, is a cornerstone of Western philosophy and politics. “Its setting and its characters are full of political meaning. Its arguments are tantalizing and its fables fascinating… [Plato’s] utopia is alarming and his metaphysics are intoxicating” (Levi, 348). The Republic “has reinforced dedication, awakened vocations to leadership and strengthened the morale of those modest and competent souls who are always in reality the guardians of society” (Rexroth, 79). This edition is a Golden Treasury Series reprint of the 1852 “exact and scholarly” translation by John Llewelyn Davies and David James Vaughan (DNB).A fine, very attractive copy.
• 20 • VERY RARE 1682 FIRST EDITION OF THOMAS CREECH’S PIONEERING TRANSLATION IN ENGLISH OF LUCRETIUS’ ON THE NATURE OF THINGS, THE WORK THAT INSPIRED JEFFERSON TO PROCLAIM, IN THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, AMERICANS’ VITAL RIGHT TO “THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS” 20(CREECH, Thomas) LUCRETIUS. Titus Lucretius Carus. The Epicurean Philosopher, His Six Books De Natura Rerum Done into English VERSE, with NOTES. Oxford, 1682. Small octavo (4-1/2 by 6-3/4 inches), contemporary mottled brown calf rebacked in calf-gilt, raised bands, red morocco spine label; pp.(20), 222, (2), 46, (2). $17,500. Exceedingly rare first edition in English of the complete text of Roman poet Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things(preceded only by Evelyn’s 1652 translation of the first of the six books), a seminal work in Western history offering “key principles of a modern understanding of the world.” The work was a “crucial guide” to Thomas Jefferson, who proclaimed himself “an Epicurean” like Lucretius, owned an edition of Creech’s translation, and gave the Declaration of Independence “a distinctly Lucretian turn” by naming “the pursuit of happiness” to be a pivotal American right. Noted scholar Stephen Greenblatt “posits Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things as a defining text for Renaissance Humanism, influencing Botticelli, da Vinci, Galileo, Machiavelli, Montaigne and Shakespeare» (Owen, Lucretius and the Radical Imagination). By the mid-1600s translation into English by Puritan Lucy Hutchinson was known but it remained unpublished until the 20th century. It was only in 1682 that the first edition in English was published “by the young Oxford-educated scholar Thomas Creech. His Lucretius was greeted as an astonishing achievement” (Swerve, 257). The work ultimately proved to be of vital importance to Americans when Thomas Jefferson found Lucretius to be “a crucial guide… He owned at least five Latin editions of On the Nature of Things. When a correspondent asked Jefferson his philosophy of life, America’s third president and Founding Father simply answered: “I am an Epicurean” (Swerve, 262-63). Included with Jefferson’s numerous Latin, Italian and French editions was a 1714 edition of Creech’s translation: “entered by Jefferson in his undated manuscript catalogue” (Sowerby 4460). With Creech’s preface, “dropped in all subsequent editions” due to implication of godlessness (Hopkins, “Thomas Creech’s Preface,” Studies in Philology, 702). Including “Life of Lucretius”; separately paginated “Notes.” “Epistle Dedicatory” signed and dated in print: “June 20, 82, Sir Your Obliged Humble Servant Thomas Creech.” With final errata leaf. ESTC R8877. Wing L3447. Gordon 331. Text remarkably fresh, with just a hint of marginal dampstaining, mostly in notes; original endpapers restored and preserved. Contemporary mottled brown calf with expert restoration to extremities, sympathetically rebacked.
• 21 • DA VINCI’S IMPORTANT TREATISE OF PAINTING, SCARCE ILLUSTRATED FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH, 1721 21 DA VINCI, Leonardo. A Treatise of Painting… Translated from the Original Italian, And Adorn’d with a Great Number of Cuts. To Which Is Prefix’d, the Author’s Life. London, 1721. Octavo, contemporary full brown calf rebacked and recornered. $12,500. First edition in English of Da Vinci’s treatise on “the force of light and shadow, the management of the pencil, and the mixture of colors, with the knowledge of perspective,” illustrated with engraved frontispiece portrait and 35 finely engraved plates (four folding). “In painting Leonardo had an enormous influence… His writings on painting were influential too; they were first published from his scattered notes as the Trattato della Pittura in 1651, but were well known before then… Leonardo is one of the very few artists whose reputation has from his own times onward constantly remained at the highest level… a reflection of his extraordinary force of intellect, and his virtually single-handed creation of the idea of the artist as genius” (Chilvers & Osborne, 286). With handsome woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces. With three-page publisher’s catalogue. Bound without half title. See Brunet V, 1258; Graesse V, 327. 18th-century owner signatures (one on title page), gift inscription. Plates and text clean, contemporary calf with some wear.
• 22 • MASTERPIECES OF WESTERN LITERATURE—HOMER, VIRGIL, DANTE AND GOETHE— MASTERFULLY ILLUSTRATED AND BOUND 22 HOMER. The Iliad and The Odyssey. Translated into Blank Verse by William Cullen Bryant. Eight volumes. WITH: VIRGIL. The Aeneid. Translated into English Verse by Christopher Pearse Cranch. Two volumes. WITH: DANTE. The Divine Comedy. Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Six volumes. WITH: GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang von. Faust, A Tragedy. Translated by Bayard Taylor. Four volumes. Boston and New York, 1905-6. Together, twenty volumes. Quarto, original full black morocco gilt. $9500. Magnificent large-paper limited edition of these cornerstones in the Western canon, number 34 of only 600 copies of the Iliad and Odyssey and 34 of 650 copies each of the Aeneid, the Divine Comedy and Faust, generously and splendidly illustrated with a frontispiece in double-suite (hand-colored and proof state) in each volume and 144 engraved plates, handsomely bound at the Riverside Press. From the fall of Troy to the fall of Doctor Faust, from Odysseus’ trek across the seas to Dante’s descent into Hell and ascent into Heaven, these magnificent volumes present milestone translations of five foundational texts of Western literature: The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer (translated by William Cullen Bryant), the Aenid of Virgil (translated by Christopher Pearse Cranch), Dante’s Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) and Goethe’s Faust (translated by Bayard Taylor). Bryant’s translation of Homer (1870-71) is especially esteemed, and Longfellow’s rendering of The Divine Comedy (1865, 1867) “first revealed Dante to numberless readers, and is still considered one of the great versions” (DAB VI:386). Cranch’s translation of Virgil dates from 1872; Taylor’s translation of Goethe, 1870. Beautifully bound and illustrated with double-suite (proof state and hand-colored) frontispiece reproductions of paintings by Rembrandt, Burne-Jones, Alma Tadema and others, and full-page engraved plates by John Flaxman and others throughout. A beautiful set in fine condition.
• 23 • FIRST AMERICAN EDITION OF DARWIN’S ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, “THE MOST IMPORTANT SINGLE WORK IN SCIENCE” 23 DARWIN, Charles. On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection… New York, 1860. Octavo, original brown cloth, custom box. $35,000. First American edition, first issue, of “certainly the most important biological book ever written” (Freeman)—the book that introduced the idea the world would come to know as “evolution”—published just one year after the London first edition. “This, the most important single work in science, brought man to his true place in nature” (Heralds of Science 199). Darwin “was intent upon carrying Lyell’s demonstration of the uniformity of natural causes over into the organic world… In accomplishing this Darwin not only drew an entirely new picture of the workings of organic nature; he revolutionized our methods of thinking and our outlook on the natural order of things. The recognition that constant change is the order of the universe had been finally established and a vast step forward in the uniformity of nature had been taken” (PMM 344). First issue, with only two quotations opposite title page. Freeman 377. See Horblit, 23b; Dibner, 199; PMM 344b. Small blindstamp to front flyleaf. Scattered foxing to text; cloth in exceptional condition, with only a few small spots. A beautiful, fine copy.
• 24 • FIRST EDITION OF SILENT SPRING, SIGNED BY RACHEL CARSON 24 CARSON, Rachel. Silent Spring. Boston, 1962. Octavo, original green cloth, dust jacket. $9000. First edition, review copy, of the pioneering work by Rachel Carson—”one of the greatest nature writers in American letters,” signed by her on the half title. “The first work to address the larger issues of environmental pollution” (The Book in America, 133). “Silent Spring became a runaway bestseller, with international reverberations… It is well crafted, fearless and succinct… Even if she had not inspired a generation of activists, Carson would prevail as one of the greatest nature writers in American letters” (Mattheissen, Time). First edition: with “First Printing” on copyright page. Containing numerous in-text illustrations. With publisher’s review copy slip laid in. Book fine, in a nearfine dust jacket with minor rubbing to corners and spine ends. Rare signed.
• 25 • “ONE OF THE MOST PROVOCATIVE BOOKS WRITTEN BY AN AMERICAN INTELLECTUAL”: FIRST EDITION OF VEBLEN’S LANDMARK THEORY OF THE LEISURE CLASS, 1899 25 VEBLEN, Thorstein. The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study in the Evolution of Institutions. New York, 1899. Octavo, original green cloth. $8000. First edition of one of the masterpieces of American social thought and economic theory, in original cloth. “Almost a century after its original publication, Thorstein Veblen’s work is as fresh and relevant as ever. Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class is in the tradition of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan, yet it provides a surprisingly contemporary look at American economics and society. Establishing such terms as ‘conspicuous consumption’ and ‘pecuniary emulation,’ Veblen’s most famous work has become an archetype not only of economic theory, but of historical and sociological thought as well. An iconoclastic masterpiece of American social thought. Veblen assails the sacrosanct concepts borrowed from evolutionary biology and used to justify social inequality. The fruit of much lonely study and contemplation, this first book of Veblen’s catapulted him to prominence at the age of 42. Thoroughly independent and ornery in his living and thinking, Veblen began here his long and provocative criticism of the business enterprise system… his ideas were seminal and his influence is continuous” (100 Influential American Books). With this work Veblen also launched a critique of conventional economics, which he viewed as an assemblage of intellectual fictions, out of touch with economic reality— and worse, used to camouflage injustice in the name of natural laws. In place of traditional theory, Veblen introduced the concept of “Institutionalism,” according to which economic behavior is conditioned by particular cultural value systems. Veblen’s challenge to conventional economic analysis achieved immediate and lasting influence. But unlike such Institutionalists as Commons and Ely, Veblen offered no program of practical reform. For Veblen change was at best evolutionary and impersonal, dependent at this historical moment on the rise of a new class of technocrats whose predilection for rational efficiency might replace the pecuniary values of the captains of industry. “One of the most provocative books written by an American intellectual” (Adams, Radical Literature, 59). First edition, first printing. Rear leaf of publisher’s advertisements. Grolier, 100 American, 100. Interior fine, very light wear to cloth, gilt bright. An about-fine copy.
• 26 • “NONE OF THE APOSTLES OF STABILIZATION AND PETRIFICATION HAS SUCCEEDED IN WIPING OUT THE INDIVIDUAL’S INNATE DISPOSITION TO THINK AND TO APPLY TO ALL PROBLEMS THE YARDSTICK OF REASON” 26 MISES, Ludwig von. Theory and History. An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution. New Haven, 1957. Octavo, original blue cloth, dust jacket. $2800. First edition of Mises’ important treatise on man’s ability to attain knowledge in the social sciences, including economics, and his ability to shape the future through that knowledge. In this work, Mises summarizes a half-century of work on the problem of human action and the social sciences. He covers, in depth, the fundamental difference between the social sciences and the physical sciences and argues for the importance of fostering a capitalist system dependent on free will and innovation. Finally, he suggests how knowledge about social sciences and their functioning can be used to influence the future of the Western world, economically and politically. Inked owner name. Book in fine condition; minor toning and edgewear to the scarce, very good dust jacket, with two short closed tears from lower edge.
• 27 • 27 DICK, Philip K. The Man in the High Castle. New York, 1962. Octavo, original black paper boards, dust jacket. $4200. First edition of Dick’s Hugo Award-winning classic of alternate history, a searing vision of postwar America under Axis domination and “the single most resonant and carefully imagined book of Dick’s career.” Winner of the 1963 Hugo Award for Best Novel (Dick’s first major science fiction award) and “the single most resonant and carefully imagined book of Dick’s career” (New York Times), The Man in the High Castle postulates a timeline in which the Allies lost World War II, and Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan divided North America. “Dick succeeded in creating a plausible imaginary world in which Americans are obliged to squirm with embarrassment, resentment and remorse; they bear the full weight of cultural oppression which has been borne in our time-stream by so many of the world’s other peoples… The novel questions our whole notion of ‘reality,’ showing how frail the consensus can be… It is probably Dick’s best work, and the most memorable alternative world tale, or fantasia of historical possibility, ever written” (Science Fiction 100 Best, 93-94). First edition, with no notice of printing on copyright page and code “D36” on page 239. Levack 23a. Currey, 126. Anatomy of Wonder II-331. Book with corners slightly bumped; dust jacket with corresponding light corner wear, very small tear to rear lower corner. A near-fine copy. “WE ARE ALL INSECTS. GROPING TOWARDS SOMETHING TERRIBLE OR DIVINE”: FINE FIRST EDITION OF PHILIP K. DICK’S MASTERPIECE, THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE
• 28 • “TANSTAAFL!”: SCARCE FIRST EDITION OF THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS 28 HEINLEIN, Robert. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. New York, 1966. Octavo, original orange cloth, dust jacket, custom slipcase. $7200. Scarce first edition of one of Heinlein’s most popular and influential novels. “Heinlein had been studying politics and revolutions for decades, and poured all his insights about the realities that took precedence over illusion into The Moon is a Harsh Mistress… [It] was greeted with enthusiasm by Heinlein’s science fiction readers… [and] won Heinlein his fourth Hugo award and is seen by the majority of mainstream genre readers as echtHeinlein, which fellow author Samuel Delaney described as ‘expressing the storytelling he does best, balancing social portraiture with didacticism and headlong narrative in about equal measures.’ Perhaps because [Heinlein’s previous novel] Farnham’s Freehold had sold poorly, Putnam’s issued only a small first run of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress—less than 9000 copies—for a late-year release that frustratingly missed the Christmas book-buying season. They were caught unprepared for the enthusiastic demand for the book—a demand which has not abated” (Patterson, 51). The book has endured not only as a science fiction classic but also as an oft-cited expression of Libertarian political philosophy. First edition, with no statement of printing on copyright page and price of $5.95 on front flap of dust jacket. “Scarce and highly prized” (Smiley, 37). Currey, 192. Anatomy of Wonder II-512. Smiley, 37. Book fine, dust jacket near-fine with a bit of faint foxing to flaps and rear panel and mild edge-wear, front panel bright and vivid.
• 29 • “FEW EQUALS FOR SHEER, LARGE-SCALE SENSE OF WONDER”: FIRST EDITIONS OF THE AWARD-WINNING HYPERION SERIES, INSCRIBED BY DAN SIMMONS 29 SIMMONS, Dan. Hyperion. WITH: The Fall of Hyperion. WITH: Endymion. WITH: The Rise of Endymion. New York, 1989. Four volumes. Octavo, original half cloth, dust jackets. $5800. First editions of the Hugo Award-winning tetralogy, a modern science fiction classic, all four title pages signed by the author and three additionally inscribed. Hyperion, awarded the prestigious 1990 Hugo Award, is the first in Simmons’ four-volume series known as the Hyperion Cantos, a work that invokes literary giants such as Keats, Chaucer, Milton and Yeats to tell the story of pilgrims on a dangerous journey across worlds and time. “For vastness of scope, clarity of detail and seriousness of purpose, Simmons’ epic narrative is on a par with Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, Frank Herbert’s Dune books, Gene Wolfe’s multipart Book of the New Sun and Brian Aldiss’ Helliconia trilogy… taken together, these four volumes represent one of the finest achievements of modern science fiction, a convincing demonstration of how liberating, in the hands of a masterly practitioner, genre conventions can be” (New York Times). On publication of Hyperion, Simmons became “one of the half-dozen central figures of the 1980s” (Clute & Nichols, 1111). His tetralogy has “few equals for sheer, large-scale sense of wonder” (Barron, Anatomy of Wonder II:1033). Books I and II inscribed to Pat; book III signed only; book IV inscribed “For Michael—And here ends the tale forever… Dan Simmons 10/11/97,” with an accompanying sketch in ink. Very faint toning to dust jacket flaps of second book, corners of third book slightly bumped; otherwise a fine, bright signed set.
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