Literature
Rare & Classic, American or English Literature Books for Sale Online
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First Edition of Key Largo: A Play in a Prologue and Two Acts; Signed Twice by Maxwell Anderson
ANDERSON, Maxwell.
Key Largo: A Play in a Prologue and Two Acts.
Washington, D.C: Anderson House, 1939.
First edition of this classic fast-paced play in blank verse, basis for the 1948 film deirected by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson and Lauren Bacall. Octavo, original cloth, pictorial endpapers. Presentation copy, inscribed by Maxwell Anderson in the year of publication on the half-title page and additionally signed on the title page. From the library of noted collector William Strutz with his small bookplate to the front pastedown. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Rare and desirable signed twice by Anderson.
Price: $2,600.00 Item Number: 147690
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“IT IS MY BUSINESS TO KNOW WHAT OTHER PEOPLE DON’T KNOW”: Finely bound FIRST EDITIONS OF THE ADVENTURES AND MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
CONAN DOYLE, Sir Arthur.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
London: George Newnes, 1892-1894.
First editions of these classic stories starring literature’s most famous detective. Octavo, two volumes, bound in full twentieth-century blue calf with gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, double gilt ruling to the front and rear panels, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, tissue-guarded frontispiece in 'Memoirs', illustrated by Sidney Paget. First issues, 'Adventures' with “Violent” for “Violet” on p 317. Original light blue and dark blue cloth bound in at the end of each volume. In fine condition, bookplates to the front pastedowns. An exceptional presentation.
Price: $7,200.00 Item Number: 148123
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First Edition of On Art and Artists; Signed by Aldous Huxley
HUXLEY, Aldous.
On Art and Artists.
New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1960.
First edition of this classic collection of essays. Octavo, original cloth. Boldly signed by the Aldous Huxley on the title page. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Rare and desirable signed.
Price: $1,500.00 Item Number: 148084
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“He who was living is now dead We who were living are now dying With a little patience": First Edition of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land; Inscribed by Him
ELIOT, T.S.
The Waste Land.
New York: Boni & Liveright, 1922.
First edition, second printing of one of the most influential works of the 20th century. Octavo, original black flexible cloth, lettered in gilt. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the title page, "T.S. Eliot inscribed for John Walker 25.v.27." One of one thousand copies, this is number 213. Contains the "mount in" misprint on page 41, line 339 lacking the "a" from "mountain." Stated as the second edition on the limitation leaf, but is in fact the second printing from the standing type (Gallup A6b). In very good condition with light toning. Housed in a custom folding chemise and…
Price: $35,000.00 Item Number: 148107
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First editions of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, Little Women Part Second, and Little Men; each in the original publisher's emerald green cloth
ALCOTT, Louisa May.
Little Women or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. [with] Little Women or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy Part Second. [with] Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo’s Boys.
Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1868-1871.
First editions of Louisa May Alcott's "outstanding achievement of 19th-century American literature” together with its sequels. Octavo, three volumes, original publisher's emerald green gilt decorated cloth, each volume illustrated with tissue-guarded frontispiece and three plates; those in the first part of Little Women were created by the author’s sister, May. First issue of Little Women with all points including Little Women priced at $1.25 in terminal advertisements, one of 2,000 copies printed with 250 sets of sheets shipped to England for issue by Sampson, Low; Part Second is first edition, early-state, with notice about Part First on page [iv] and with “Handy…
Price: $26,000.00 Item Number: 149518
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“Suspicion often creates what it suspects"; First Edition of C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters; In the Rare Original Dust Jacket
LEWIS, C.S.
The Screwtape Letters.
London: Geoffrey Bles, 1942.
First edition of Lewis' classic novel of spiritual conflict, one of his most celebrated works. Octavo, original cloth. Near fine in the rare original dust jacket which is in very good condition. Housed in a custom folding chemise and half morocco slipcase. An excellent example, rare in this condition.
Price: $14,000.00 Item Number: 148106
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Alexandr Solzhenitsyn's Odin den' Ivana Denisovicha: A Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich; Inscribed by Him
SOLZHENITSYN, Alexander.
Odin den’ Ivana Denisovicha [One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich].
Smolensk: YMCA-Press, 1994.
Finely bound edition of the Nobel Prize-winner’s first published work, a classic of world literature. Octavo, original boards with gilt titles, frontispiece, in the original Russian. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the verso of the front free endpaper, "To Alexander Ivanovich, with the same name which is especially pleasing. In good memory of our meeting. A. Solzhenitsyn. Troitse-Lykovo 24 April 1995." In near fine condition. Books signed and inscribed by Solzhenitsyn are uncommon.
Price: $2,500.00 Item Number: 148083
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First Edition of Hasegawa Takejirō's Kachi-Kachi Yama
TAKEJIRō, Hasegawa.
Kachi-Kachi Yama.
Tokyo: Kobunsha, c.1885.
First edition of volume five in Hasegawa Takejirō's Japanese Fairy Tale Series. Duodecimo, original pictorial wrappers, illustrated throughout with color woodcuts, cord ties. In very good condition. Translated by David Thomson.
Price: $125.00 Item Number: 147960
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“The calm was absolute, a dead, flat calm, the stillness of a dead sea and of a dead atmosphere": First Edition of Joseph Conrad's The Rescue
CONRAD, Joseph.
The Rescue.
London: J. M. Dent & Sons LTD, 1920.
First edition of this classic Conrad work. Octavo, original green cloth, gilt titles to the spine. Near fine in a very good dust jacket.
Price: $500.00 Item Number: 147656
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“Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road": First Edition of Jack Kerouac's On The Road; inscribed by his daughter Jan Kerouac
KEROUAC, Jack.
On The Road.
New York: The Viking Press, 1957.
First edition of Kerouac's classic novel. Octavo, original black cloth, top stain red. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author's daughter, "For Allen MacGuire Best wishes, Jan Kerouac." Jan Kerouac was a writer and the only child of Jack Kerouac and Joan Haverty Kerouac. She published three semi-autobiographical novels, Baby Driver: A Story About Myself in 1981, Trainsong in 1988 and posthumously published Parrot Fever in 2005. Near fine in a very good original price-clipped dust jacket with expert restoration to the extremities. Jacket design by Bill English. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. Rare and desirable signed.
Price: $9,800.00 Item Number: 148125
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FIRST American EDITION OF Nabokov's TOUR DE FORCE LOLITA
NABOKOV, Vladimir.
Lolita.
New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1955.
First American edition and first trade edition of Nabokov's masterpiece. Octavo, original half cloth. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Photograph of Nabokov by Maclean Dameron. A very sharp example.
Price: $1,500.00 Item Number: 148013
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First Edition of Gateway; Signed twice by Frederik Pohl
POHL, Frederik.
Gateway.
New York: St. Martin's Press, 1977.
First edition of the master of science fiction's suspenseful mystery adventure. Octavo, original cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title page, "For Susan- Frederik Pohl 196." Additionally signed by Frederik Pohl on the title page. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. An exceptional example, rare and desirable signed twice by Pohl.
Price: $750.00 Item Number: 148090
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Allan Eckert's Classic The Frontiersmen: A Narrative; Inscribed by Him
ECKERT, Allan W.
The Frontiersmen: A Narrative.
Ashland, Kentucky: Jesse Stuart Foundation, 2001.
First edition of the re-issue of Eckert's classic work. Octavo, original cloth, Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title page, "To Ed- With warmest good wishes! Allan Eckert." With photograph of the author laid in. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Art by John Alan Maxwell. Jacket design by Brett Nance. Rare and desirable signed and inscribed.
Price: $975.00 Item Number: 149902
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First Edition of John Ermine of the Yellowstone; Warmly Inscribed by Frederic Remington
REMINGTON, Frederic.
John Ermine of the Yellowstone.
New York: The Macmillan Company, 1902.
First edition of this thought-provoking work of a young Native American man who is torn between his traditional way of life and the rapidly changing world around him. Octavo, original cloth, frontispiece, top edge gilt, black and white illustrations by Frederic Remington. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "To my friend Collin Armstrong Frederic Remington 1903." In very good condition.
Price: $2,500.00 Item Number: 148081
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First Edition of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test; Inscribed by Tom Wolfe and Ken Babbs
WOLFE, Tom [Ken Babbs].
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1968.
First edition of the classic account of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters during their bus trip across America in the late 1960’s. Octavo, original cloth. Inscribed by Ken Kesey and Fellow Mary Prankster Ken Babbs on the title page, "For Michael, Tommy Wolfeie Kesey and Ken 'Har Har' Babbs." Near fine in a near fine dust jacket, inscription to the front free endpaper. Jacket design by Milton Glaser.
Price: $2,800.00 Item Number: 149900
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“People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for": To Kill A Mockingbird; Inscribed by Harper Lee
LEE, Harper.
To Kill A Mockingbird.
Philadelphia & New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1960.
First edition, fifth printing (published the same year as the first) of one of the most important American novels of the 20th century. Octavo, original publisher's half cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author in a contemporary hand on the front free endpaper, "For John B. Briskey with my best wishes, Harper Lee." Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Jacket design by Shirley Smith. Desirable signed and inscribed.
Price: $9,800.00 Item Number: 149909
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First Edition of Roald Dahl's Kiss Kiss
DAHL, Roald.
Kiss Kiss.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1960.
First edition of this work by the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Octavo, original cloth. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Jacket design by Charles E. Skaggs.
Price: $95.00 Item Number: 148008
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First Edition of Travels With Lizbeth: Three Years on the Road and on the Streets; Signed by Lars Eighner
EIGHNER, Lars.
Travels With Lizbeth: Three Years on the Road and on the Streets.
New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993.
First edition of this modern classic. Octavo, original boards. Boldly signed by Lars Eighner on the title page. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Front cover photograph by Martha Grenon.
Price: $375.00 Item Number: 148268
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Signed limited first edition of Kenneth Roberts' Oliver Wiswell; in the original publisher's slipcase
ROBERTS, Kenneth.
Oliver Wiswell.
New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc, 1940.
Signed limited first edition of Kenneth Roberts' work of historical fiction on the American Revolution from a Loyalist's perspective, from the Siege of Boston to the United Empire Loyalists. Octavo, two volumes, original cloth, pictorial endpapers, frontispiece to Volume I, top edge gilt, other edges uncut. One of only one thousand and fifty numbered copies signed by Kenneth Roberts. This is number 318. In near fine condition. Ownership signature to the limitations page in volume one and on the half-title page in volume two. Housed in the original publisher's slipcase.
Price: $500.00 Item Number: 148115
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“I guess you could call it a failure, but I prefer the term learning experience": First Edition of Andy Weir's The Martian; Signed by Him and Actor Matt Damon
WEIR, Andy [Matt Damon].
The Martian.
New York: Crown Publishers, 2014.
First edition of this modern science fiction classic, basis for the 2015 film directed by Ridley Scott starring Academy Award-winning actor Matt Damon. Octavo, original boards. Lengthily signed by the author on the half-title page, "'This is the happiest day of my life. Andy Weir" and by actor Matt Damon opposite the author's signature. Closed tear ro the title page. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Eric White. Jacket photograph of the astronaut by NASA.
Price: $2,250.00 Item Number: 140982