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“Undoubtedly, philosophers are in the right when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison": Rare First Edition of Jonathan Swifts's Classic Work Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World
SWIFT, Jonathan.
Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, first Surgeon, and then Captain of Several Ships. [Gulliver’s Travels].
London: Benjamin Motte, 1726.
First editions of Jonathan Swift’s masterpiece, Gulliver’s Travels. Octavo, two volumes, bound in three quarters contemporary calf over marbled boards, engraved frontispiece of Lemuel Gulliver, woodcut initials, five engraved maps, gilt titles to the spine. In near fine condition. Housed in a custom cloth slipcase. Bookplate to the pastedown and period ownership signature to each volume. Both volumes are the Teerink B edition. A very nice example of this classic in English literature.
Price: $18,000.00 Item Number: 95317
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“UNDOUBTEDLY, PHILOSOPHERS ARE IN THE RIGHT WHEN THEY TELL US THAT NOTHING IS GREAT OR LITTLE OTHERWISE THAN BY COMPARISON": First edition of Johnathan Swift's masterpiece Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World
SWIFT, Jonathan.
Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, first Surgeon, and then Captain of Several Ships. [Gulliver’s Travels].
London: Printed for Benj. Motte, at the Middle Temple-Gate in Fleet-Street, 1726.
First edition of Swift's masterpiece with Teerink-Scouten 290 (AA), with title page variant in volume II without the edition statement, but with "Vol. II", author portrait with Latin verses beneath printed on paper with vertical chain lines. Octavo, 2 volumes, bound in full calf, illustrated with five engraved maps and one engraved table. In near fine condition. Rare and desirable.
Price: $17,500.00 Item Number: 133845
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First Edition of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged; Signed by Her
RAND, Ayn.
Atlas Shrugged.
New York: Random House, 1957.
First edition of one of the most influential novels of the twentieth century. Large octavo, original green cloth, frontispiece stamped in gilt, spine stamped in black and gilt. Boldly signed by Ayn Rand on the front free endpaper. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by George Salter. An exceptional example.
Price: $17,500.00 Item Number: 139659
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"the most celebrated biography in the English language": Rare First Edition of Boswell's The Life of Johnson
BOSWELL, James.
The Life of Johnson.
London: Printed by Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, in The Poultry, 1791.
First edition, first issue of both volumes of the most celebrated biography in the English language, which was published on May 16, 1791 in a print run of only 1,750 copies. Quarto, bound in contemporary half calf over marbled boards. Frontispiece portrait of Samuel Johnson, engraved by J. Heath after the Sir Joshua Reynolds (1756) painting. Volume one is the first state with the word “give” reading on page 135, line 10. First state of volume two, with two engraved illustrations, “The Round Robin” at p. 92, and the “facsimiles” of Dr. Johnson's handwriting on p. 588. In near fine condition with light toning,…
Price: $17,500.00 Item Number: 80005
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James Joyce's First Privately Printed Edition copy of Marguerite Finaly's Reliquiae; with his ownership inscription
FINALY, Marguerite. [James Joyce].
Reliquiae.
Paris: Privately Printed, 1925.
James Joyce's first edition copy of the collected works of Marguerite Finaly, compiled by her husband, Horace Finaly, in her memory and privately printed for distribution to friends; with Joyce's ownership inscription. Octavo, bound in full crushed morocco by G. Cretté with gilt titles to the spine, silk-watered doublures and endleaves, tissue-guarded frontispiece portrait of Marguerite Finaly. One of 150 copies privately printed. Signed and dated by Joyce on the title page, "James Joyce Paris 27.xi.1926." Horace Finaly became a close friend of Marcel Proust in Paris and contributed to the magazine La Banquette. He rose to prominence as head…
Price: $17,500.00 Item Number: 131904
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“He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same”: Exceptionally rare First American edition of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights; in the original publisher's cloth
BY THE AUTHOR OF "JANE EYRE." [BRONTE, Emily].
Wuthering Heights. A Novel.
New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1848.
First American edition (published less than five months after the virtually unobtainable London first edition) of Emily Brontë's singular masterpiece. Octavo, original publisher's purple cloth stamped in blind with gilt titles and tooling to the spine. In good condition with splitting and wear to the cloth. Period ownership inscription to the pastedown. Exceptionally rare in the original publisher's cloth.
Price: $17,500.00 Item Number: 146424
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"one of the most important works in all of English literature": First edition of Johnathan Swift's masterpiece Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World
SWIFT, Jonathan.
Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, first Surgeon, and then Captain of Several Ships. [Gulliver’s Travels].
London: Printed for Benj. Motte, at the Middle Temple-Gate in Fleet-Street, 1726.
First edition of one of the most important works in all of English literature, Teerink's "AA" edition of Jonathan Swift's masterpiece. Octavo, four parts in two volumes bound in full contemporary calf, rebacked with morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, botanical gilt tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, gilt scrolling to the front and rear panels, engraved frontispiece portrait of Captain Lemuel Gulliver (Teerink's 2nd state), illustrated with five engraved maps and one engraved table. In very good condition. A desirable example of this landmark work in English literature.
Price: $17,500.00 Item Number: 146104
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First American Edition of One Hundred Years of Solitude; Lengthily inscribed by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
GARCIA MARQUEZ, Gabriel. Translated by Gregory Rabassa.
One Hundred Years of Solitude.
New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1970.
First American edition of the author's magnum opus. Octavo, original green cloth. Presentation copy, warmly and lengthily inscribed by the author on the dedication page, "Por la mas grande y guapa de todos las Beatrices listísimas, con un abrizo estrangulaon Gabriel Garcia Marquez 1971." Which translates into English as, "For the best, smartest, and most beautiful of all Beatrices, with a very tight hug Gabriel Garcia Marquez 1971." The recipient, Beatriz Alarcón, was a friend of Garcia Marquez's in Colombia. Near fine in a near fine first issue dust jacket with the exclamation point at the end of the first…
Price: $17,500.00 Item Number: 143912
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"To the few who love me and whom I love – to those who seek rather than to those who think – to the dreamers and those who put faith in dreams as in the only realities – I offer this book of truths" : Rare first edition of Edgar Allan Poe's Magnum Opus, Eureka, One of only 500 copies
POE, Edgar Allan.
Eureka: A Prose Poem.
New York: George P. Putnam, 1848.
First edition, first issue of Poe's classic work. Duodecimo, original publishers blind stamped black cloth with gilt lettering to the spine. First issue, without the review for Eureka on page 2 of the 16 page catalogue at the end of the book, but reads simply: “Poe. — Eureka, A Prose Poem: Or the Physical and Metaphysical Universe. By Edgar A. Poe, Esq.” In very good condition, with some light rubbing to the extremities, contemporary inscription to the front free endpaper. Housed in a custom clamshell box. An exceptional example of this rare and important text.
Price: $17,500.00 Item Number: 37022
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"However closely we live together, at whatever time of day or night we sound the deepest thoughts in one another, we know nothing": Rare First Edition of the John Le Carre’s First Book
LE CARRE, John.
Call For The Dead.
London: Victor Gollancz, 1961.
First edition of the author's first book, which introduced the world to the recurring protagonist, George Smiley. Octavo, original red cloth. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box made by the Harcourt Bindery. An exceptional example, uncommon in this condition.
Price: $17,500.00 Item Number: 139418
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“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary": Rare First Separate Edition of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven
POE, Edgar Allan.
The Raven.
New York: W. Jennings Demorest, c. 1869-1870.
The first separate American edition of Poe's most famous poem, and likely the first separate edition overall, preceding the 1869 Glasgow edition (BAL 16216). Small octavo, original cloth, blue endpapers. Octavo, original colored pictorial wrappers printed in blue and gold. In very good condition. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. Only four copies of this separate Demorest edition have been located in OCLC, at the Huntington, Yale University, Brown University, Emory University, all with their bindings unspecified. Though The Raven is here published separately, another issue has been noted at both the University of Virginia and the Free Library Company…
Price: $17,500.00 Item Number: 144195
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Martin-Manney copy of Herman Melville's Omoo; in the rare original wrappers
MELVILLE, Herman .
Omoo.
New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1847.
First edition of this classic Melville work Omoo, the Martin-Manney copy in the rare original wrappers. Octavo, two volumes, original wrappers. Volume 1 with half-title, title-page printed in black and red, and frontispiece map of the Marquesas and Tahiti. Volume 2 with advertisements at rear paginated [xv]-xxiii, [1]-16 (light staining to prelims, lower corner clipped from endpaper in volume 2). Original printed wrappers (wrappers darkened and rubbed; part 1 backstrip restored with part of title in facsimile; part 2 with abrasion to rear cover deleting some of the text). Provenance: "Appleton" (ownership inscription to inside front cover of part II)…
Price: $17,500.00 Item Number: 142411
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“The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!": Rare second edition of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility
BY A LADY. [AUSTEN, Jane].
Sense and Sensibility: A Novel.
London: Printed for the Author and Published by T. Egerton, 1813.
Second edition of the first novel published during Austen's lifetime. Small octavo, three volumes bound in full crushed morocco by Riviere & Son, gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, triple gilt ruling to the front and rear panels, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Title and half-title pages supplied in facsimile. Bookplate to the pastedown of Vol. I. In near fine condition. A very attractive example of this desirable rarity.
Price: $17,500.00 Item Number: 135337
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"the first novel in the English language": Rare complete set of all three books in Defoe's classic Robinson Crusoe series
DEFOE, Daniel.
The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; Serious Reflections During the Life And Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.
London: Printed for W. Taylor, 1719-1720.
Rare complete set of early editions of all three books in Defoe's classic Robinson Crusoe series. The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe is a stated second edition. Small octavo, three volumes bound in full period paneled calf with gilt titles and ruling to the spine in six compartments within raised bands, ornamental blind stamping to the front and rear panels, illustrated with an engraved frontispiece portrait of Robinson Crusoe in Vol. I, folding engraved world map in Vol. II, folding engraved frontispiece of Crusoe's island in Vol. III, decorated headpieces, tailpieces, and initials throughout. In very good…
Price: $17,500.00 Item Number: 145589
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"Your work has contributed mightily to our success": Jack Kerouac's Personal Advance Copy of Hugh Hefner's The Twelfth Anniversary Playboy Reader
HEFNER, Hugh M. [Jack Kerouac].
The Twelfth Anniversary Playboy Reader.
Chicago: Playboy Press, 1965.
Jack Kerouac's personal advance copy of The Twelfth Anniversary Playboy Reader. Quarto, original cloth. Laid in is the original transmittal letter on Hefner's Playboy Press letterhead dated September 8, 1965, which reads in part: "Dear Mr. Kerouac: Here, with my personal compliments, is your advance copy of The Twelfth Anniversary Playboy Reader, which is being published by Playboy Press. It is a hallmark in the history of Playboy, a distinguished compilation of the very best prose we have published in our magazine during its first twelve years. Your work has contributed mightily to our success, and I am very pleased…
Price: $17,500.00 Item Number: 126103
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First Edition of C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet; In the Scarce Original Dust Jacket
LEWIS, C.S.
Out of the Silent Planet.
London: The Bodley Head, 1938.
First edition of the author's classic first book in his acclaimed Space Trilogy. Octavo, original cloth. Near fine in a very good price-clipped dust jacket with some professional restoration. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box made by the Harcourt Bindery. Exceptionally are and desirable in the original dust jacket.
Price: $17,500.00 Item Number: 130744
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First edition, first issue of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; warmly inscribed by J.K. Rowling
ROWLING, J.K.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
London: Bloomsbury, 1998.
First edition, first issue of the second novel in Rowling's Harry Potter series. Octavo, original illustrated boards. Association copy, inscribed by J.K. Rowling on the dedication page, "Susie and Emily (a female Fred & George) with best wishes J.K. Rowling." The recipients, redhead twins Susie and Emily, were family friends of Bryony Evens, whom they accompanied to the Cheltenham Literary Festival where Rowling inscribed the present volume. The inscription refers to Harry Potter character Ron Weasley's elder twin brothers and fellow redheads, Fred and George. Bryony Evens was one of the first people to read the beginning chapters of the…
Price: $17,500.00 Item Number: 115867
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"What threatens us today is fear": The original typed manuscript of Faulkner's important public address to his daughter Jill's graduating class at University High School in Oxford Mississippi; with autograph corrections and deletions in his hand
FAULKNER, William.
Address to the Graduating Class of 1951 of University High School, Oxford, Mississippi.
The original typed manuscript of Faulkner's important public address to his daughter Jill's graduating class at University High School in Oxford Mississippi with autograph corrections and deletions in his hand. Three pages, carbon typescript, the text contains 8 strikethroughs and 6 autograph corrections in Faulkner's hand in ink. In this important public address, Faulkner clarifies for a young audience the terms for survival and optimism in the Cold War era, ideas which he first expressed publicly five months earlier in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech. In the spring of 1951, Faulkner was in Paris, New York, and Lexington, Kentucky, where…
Price: $17,500.00 Item Number: 135874
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COMPLETE SET OF DICKENS' CHRISTMAS BOOKS, INCLUDING FIRST EDITIONS OF THE CHIMES, THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH, THE BATTLE OF LIFE, AND THE HAUNTED MAN AND THE GHOST'S BARGAIN; elaborately bound in full morocco by Sangorski and Sutcliffe
DICKENS, Charles.
The Christmas Books: A Christmas Carol; The Chimes; The Battle of Life; Cricket on the Hearth; The Haunted Man and The Ghost’s Bargain.
London: Chapman and Hall, 1843-48.
Complete set of Charles Dickens’ Christmas Books containing first editions of each volume in the series with the exception of A Christmas Carol. Octavo, five volumes elaborately bound in full crushed red morocco by Sangorski and Sutcliffe 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, all edges gilt, illustrated. The set includes a second edition of A Christmas Carol and first editions of The Chimes, The Battle of Life, Cricket on the Hearth, The Haunted Man and The Ghost’s…
Price: $17,500.00 Item Number: 135440
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Rare autograph letter signed by Herman Melville to his publishers Harper & Brothers
MELVILLE, Herman.
Herman Melville Autograph Letter Signed.
Rare autograph letter signed and entirely in the hand of Herman Melville to his publisher, Harper & Brothers. One page, the letter reads in full, "Harper & Brothers New York. Pittsfield Oct. 8th Gentlemen: Herewith is an article, which, if it suit, will you, according to what you have said to me, send me the money for, without further trouble to yourselves or me. Very truly yours H. Melville." The letter likely dates from 1885 when Melville's financial circumstances were becoming dire. The article he references, The Apple-Tree Table, first appeared in serial form in 1850 and was later published…
Price: $17,500.00 Item Number: 139021