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“But women can bear anything better than desertion. Cruelty is bad, but neglect is worse than cruelty, and desertion worse even than neglect": First Edition of Anthony Trollope's The Claverings
TROLLOPE, ANTHONY.
The Claverings.
London: Smith, Elder and Co 1867.
First edition of this work by Trollope. Octavo, two volumes, bound in half leather. In very good condition. With Sixteen Illustrations by M. Ellen Edwards.
Price: $850.00 Item Number: 110699
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"The most ambitious attempt in the latter half of the eighteenth century to document the lives of notable British men and women": First edition of the Biographia Britannica
EDITED BY WILLIAM OLDYS,.
Biographia Britannica: Or, the Lives of the Most Eminent Persons Who Have Flourished In Great Britain and Ireland, From the Earliest Ages, Down to the Present Times: Collected from the Best Authorities, both Printed an Manuscript, and Digested in a Manner of Mr. Bayle’s Historical and Critical Dictionary.
London: Printed for W. Innys, W. Meadows, J. Walthoe, T. Cox, A. Ward, J. and P. Knapton, T. Osborne, et al 1747.
First edition of the Biographia Britannica. Folio, 7 volumes bound in contemporary full calf with morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, gilt tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised bands, engraved headpieces and tailpieces. In very good condition. Armorial bookplates to the pastedowns.
Price: $1,350.00 Item Number: 114752
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"The inspiring story of women's struggle for recognition in American public life": First Edition of Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok's Ladies of Courage; Signed by Both
ROOSEVELT, ELEANOR AND LORENA A. HICKOK.
Ladies of Courage.
New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons 1954.
First edition of Roosevelt and Hickok’s tribute to women in America. Octavo, original cloth. Signed by both Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok on the half-title page. Very good in a very good dust jacket with some wear to the extremities. Uncommon signed.
Price: $2,500.00 Item Number: 116277
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"This book is offered to those women on the fighting line who have had the courage to face ridicule, and the wit to turn the laugh upon their enemies by their indifference to derision": Rare first edition of Constance Smedley's Woman: A Few Shrieks!
X. [SMEDLEY, CONSTANCE]; APPENDIX BY MRS. PHILIP SNOWDEN [ETHEL SNOWDEN].
Woman: A Few Shrieks!
Letchworth Herts: Garden City Press [1907].
First edition of Constance Smedley’s rare feminist tract, published under the pseudonym X and with an appendix by Ethel Snowden. Octavo, original cloth, morocco spine label lettered in gilt, patterned endpapers. Appendix by Ethel Snowden. In good condition. Stamps throughout including to the front and rear panels and top edge. Bookplates to the pastedown.
Price: $750.00 Item Number: 134985
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"We wish, using our own capacities, seeing with our own eyes, and not as the women of the past have done, with the eyes of men, to understand our true position, to see clearly what are our duties and our rights": First Edition of Charlotte Despard's Woman in the New Era
DESPARD, CHARLOTTE. WITH AN APPRECIATION BY CHRISTOPHER ST. JOHN.
Woman in the New Era.
London: The Suffrage Shop 1910.
First edition of Charlotte Despard’s impassioned feminist tract. Octavo, original wrappers. With an Appreciation by Christopher St. John. In good condition. Exceptionally rare with no other copies traced at auction.
Price: $2,000.00 Item Number: 135290
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The December 1912 edition of The English Review; containing the first appearance of Rowland Kenney's Women's Suffrage
HARRISON, AUSTIN [EDITOR].
The English Review. December 1912.
London: R. Clay and Sons, Ltd 1912.
The December 1912 edition of The English Review, containing the first appearance of Rowland Kenney’s ‘Women’s Suffrage’. Octavo, original wrappers. In good condition.
Price: $750.00 Item Number: 135612
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First edition of Rufus Wilmot Griswold's The Republican Court of American Society in the Days of Washington; with twenty-one portraits of distinguished women
GRISWOLD, RUFUS WILMOT.
The Republican Court of American Society in the Days of Washington.
New York: D. Appleton and Company 1854.
First edition of Griswold’s account of the American Republican Court during the presidency of George Washington. Quarto, original publisher’s full morocco with gilt titles to the spine, elaborate stamping to the spine and panels, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, illustrated with twenty-one portraits of distinguished women including Mrs. George Washington and Mrs. Alexander Hamilton engraved from original pictures by Woolaston, Copley, Trumbull, et al. In very good condition.
Price: $650.00 Item Number: 138600
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"Alas! the love of women! it is known To be a lovely and a fearful thing": Rare complete first edition set of Lord Byron's Don Juan; from the library of Erica Jong
BYRON, GEORGE GORDON NOEL. [LORD BYRON].
Don Juan.
London: Thomas Davison [i.e., John Murray] 1819-1821 (Cantos I-V, Volumes I-II)/John Hunt, 1823-24 (Cantos VI-XVI, Volumes III-VI).
Scarce complete first edition set of Byron’s great work which was widely criticized as immoral upon publication and is now considered one of the greatest poems of the Romantics; from the library of American writer Erica Jong. Volume one was produced in quarto format and the subsequent 5 volumes in octavo (Davison abandoned the quarto format after disappointing sales of the first volume), six volumes uniformly bound in full morocco with gilt titles and tooling to the spine, double gilt ruling to the front and rear panels, gilt inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. With an autograph letter signed by Lady Byron bound into the first volume. Written from Moore Place, Esher, the letter reads in part, “Dear Sir, I am much obliged to you for offering to look for another young Teacher in place of the one who is engaged, but I have no difficulty in finding a Substitute. I should however be glad if you could find me an older master for a situation in Warwickshire – to manage a day-school on the Garden plan for Bogs – the emolument would not exceed 20 to 24 [pounds] with Board – He would be under the direction of a very good Clergyman – A single man would be preferred, there being no room at the Schoolhouse for him – she must lodge at some distance. Lady Olivia Sparrow is still active in her charitable undertakings, though I sometimes wish they were less governed by hasty feelings in religious matters. Yours truly A.I. Noel Byron Moore Place Esher Nov 19th.” From the library of Erica Jong. Jong remains best known for her 1973 novel Fear of Flying which became famously controversial for its portrayal of female sexuality and figured prominently in the development of second-wave feminism. Written in the first person and narrated by its protagonist, 29-year-old American poet Isadora Wing, Fear of Flying was written in the throes of the Sexual Revolution of the 1970s and encapsulated the movement’s redefinition of female sexuality. In interviews, Jong stated: “At the time I wrote Fear of Flying, there was not a book that said women are romantic, women are intellectual, women are sexual—and brought all those things together… What [Isadora is] looking for is how to be a whole human being, a body and a mind, and that is what women were newly aware they needed in 1973.” The novel remains a feminist classic and has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. Jong notable used a quotation from Don Juan as the epigraph in Fear of Flying, “Alas! the love of women! it is known To be a lovely and a fearful thing; For all of theirs upon that die is thrown, And if ’tis lost, life hath no more to bring To them but mockeries of the past alone, And their revenge is as the tiger’s spring, Deadly, and quick, and crushing; yet, as real Torture is theirs — what they inflict they feel. They are right; for man, to man so oft unjust, Is always so to women; one sole bond Awaits them — treachery is all their trust; Taught to conceal, their bursting hearts despond Over their idol, till some wealthier lust Buys them in marriage — and what rests beyond A thankless husband — next, a faithless lover — Then dressing, nursing, praying — and all’s over. Some take a lover, some take drams or prayers, Some mind their household, others dissipation, Some run away, and but exchange their cares, Losing the advantage of a virtuous station; Few changes e’er can better their affairs, Theirs being an unnatural situation, From the dull palace to the dirty hovel: Some play the devil, and then write a novel” (Lord Byron, Don Juan, 1824). In fine condition. Scarce and with fine provenance.
Price: $15,000.00 Item Number: 142573
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"The Bible degrades Woman from Genesis to Revelation & yet women believe it was written by the fingers of God"; The Woman's Bible; inscribed by American suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton
[STANTON, ELIZABETH CADY].
The Woman’s Bible.
New York: European Publishing Company 1898.
Rare early printings of The Woman’s Bible, both volumes lengthily inscribed by famed American suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton who chaired the committee that published the work. Octavo, two volumes, Part I: third edition – ten thousand, Part II: first edition – ten thousand. Both parts are presentation copies, lengthily inscribed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Part I is inscribed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Miss Mary …. compliments of Elizabeth Cady Stanton 250 West 94th New York 1899 We much read the Bible as we do all other books that have emanated from the brain of man with no special divine authority.” Part II is inscribed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Compliments of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, born at Johnstown, NY, Nov. 12th, 1815. The Bible degrades Woman from Genesis to Revelation & yet women believe it was written by the fingers of God.” In very good condition. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box made by the Harcourt Bindery. Rare.
Price: $35,000.00 Item Number: 142839
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"So figure some way to explain to her, boy, you know women better’n I do...": Rare autograph letter signed by Jack Kerouac to close friend Ed White
KEROUAC, JACK.
Jack Kerouac Autograph Letter Signed.
: 1954.
Rare autograph letter signed by Jack Kerouac to close friend Ed White. Bifoliate leaf, one page covered; pencil. With envelope addressed in autograph, postmarked Jamaica, New York. The letter reads in full, “Fri. Jan. 7 Dear Ed – For reasons completely unexplainable to someone like Beverly I’d on New Year’s Eve made a vow not to leave the house (my hermitage) till I’d accomplished 2 things, (1) a certain piece of writing, (2) a certain term of reading – study and tranquil meditation – so when she called last night I had nothing to say in defense of my private plans + said I’d see her Saturday, + you today, etc. but in conscience I can’t leave this room till I’ve done what I vowed to do – so figure some way to explain to her, boy, you know women better’n I do – Before I head for California in February I’ll drop up to Columbia to see you – As ever, Jack.” The recipient, Edward Divine White Jr. was lifelong friend to Jack Kerouac from 1947 to Kerouac’s death in 1969. The pair exchanged over 90 letters and postcards throughout those years and White notably appeared in Kerouac’s On the Road as the character Tim Gray, in Visions of Cody as Ed Gray, and in Book of Dreams as Al Green and Guy Green. Kerouac and White met in the fall of 1946 at Columbia University through mutual friend Hal Chase, who, that same year, introduced both to Neal Cassady, a bold and adventurous petty criminal from Denver, Colorado who would become Kerouac’s muse and the hero of On the Road. White is credited with suggesting that Kerouac try, “sketching with words rather than writing conventionally,” in 1951. White was also a longtime friend of Columbia University classmate and Pulitzer Prize winning architecture critic for the San Francisco Chronicle Allan Temko and Columbia University classmate Allen Ginsberg. White’s own forty-year practice (1955 through 1995) as an architect focused on contemporary architecture and historic preservation. In fine condition. Housed in a custom half morocco and folding chemise slipcase.
Price: $7,800.00 Item Number: 145634