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“In the University library he wandered through the stacks, among the thousands of books, inhaling the musty odor of leather, cloth, and drying page as if it were an exotic incense": First Edition of Stoner; Inscribed by John Williams
WILLIAMS, John.
Stoner.
New York: The Viking Press, 1965.
First edition of the author's classic work. Octavo, original half cloth. Presentation copy, warmly inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "For Bob and Margaret, with much love- John Williams Christmas, 1970 Denver." The recipients were close friends of the author. Near fine in an excellent dust jacket with some toning to the spine. Jacket design by Ellen Raskin.
Price: $6,500.00 Item Number: 122576
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First edition of James Baldwin's Just Above My Head; inscribed by him to close friend and biographer David Adams Leeming
BALDWIN, James.
Just Above My Head.
New York: The Dial Press, 1979.
First edition of the last novel published in Baldwin's lifetime. Octavo, original cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the dedication page, "for my beloved David Adams Leeming: Godspeed. Jimmy Baldwin." The recipient, literary scholar David Adams Leeming, and Baldwin were close friends for twenty-five years. Leeming published his James Baldwin: A Biography in 1994, a vivid and intimate portrait of Baldwin, his complexities, and importance in the literary canon. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Jack Ribik. An exceptional association.
Price: $6,500.00 Item Number: 129068
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“I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man": Rare first edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
STEVENSON, Robert Louis.
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1886.
First edition of Stevenson's classic gothic novella which preceded the first English edition by four days and was published on January 5, 1886 in an edition of 1,250 copies in cloth and 3,000 copies in paper wrappers. Beinecke 347. Octavo, original olive green cloth lettered in gilt, half-title and 2 pages of Scribner's advertisements at end. In near fine condition. An exceptional example.
Price: $6,500.00 Item Number: 139554
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First edition of Herman Melville's first and most popular book Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life During a Four Months' Residence in A Valley of the Marquesas
MELVILLE, Herman.
Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life. During a Four Months’ Residence in A Valley of the Marquesas.
New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1846.
First edition of Melville's first book and his most popular during his lifetime. Octavo, two volumes bound into one in the original cloth stamped in blind with gilt titles to the spine, frontispiece map, both half-titles and 6 pages of publisher's advertisements at rear. BAL 13653. In very good condition, bookplate to the front pastedown. Housed in a custom full clamshell slipcase.
Price: $6,500.00 Item Number: 144151
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First edition of Le Pléiade; exquisitely bound in full morocco with intricately carved gilt edges and elaborately decorated morocco doublures
HOMERE, Veda-Vyasa.
Le Pléiade. Ballads, Fabliaux, Nouvelles et Legends.
Paris: L. Curmer, 1842.
First edition of this collection which Carteret considers to be one of the most important illustrated books of the 19th century. Octavo, elaborately bound in full red morocco with elaborate gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, elaborate gilt ruling and stamping to the front and rear panels, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles, elaborately decorated green morocco doublures, hand-stitched patterned endpapers, all edges gilt with intricate botanical carvings, illustrated with eleven frontispiece titles by Trimolet, Charles Jacque, Penguilly, etc., and numerous vignettes throughout the text. In fine condition. Rare and desirable.
Price: $6,500.00 Item Number: 123046
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"Like a bird on a wire like a drunk on a midnight choir I have tried in my way to be free": First Edition of Leonard Cohen's Death of a Lady's Man; Lengthily inscribed by Him
COHEN, Leonard.
Death of a Lady’s Man.
Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1978.
First Canadian edition (and true first), first state with "Lie down." on page 94. Octavo, original cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author, "For Michael, Like a bird on a wire like a drunk on a midnight choir I have tried in my way to be free Leonard 29 Sept 1980." Fine in a near fine price-clipped dust jacket. A unique example.
Price: $6,500.00 Item Number: 128929
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First edition of The Map of Love: Verse and Prose; inscribed by Dylan Thomas
THOMAS, Dylan.
The Map of Love: Verse and Prose.
London: J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd, 1939.
First edition, first issue of Thomas's third book with “Dent” blind-stamped on spine. Octavo, original purple cloth with gilt titles to the spine and front panel, with the frontispiece portrait of Thomas after the painting by Augustus John. Presenation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "Leo & John... From Dylan Thomas Oxford 1941." In very good condition.
Price: $6,500.00 Item Number: 139597
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First Edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Vegetable; In the Rare Original Dust Jacket
FITZGERALD, F. Scott.
The Vegetable: Or, From President To Postman.
New York : Charles Scribner's Sons, 1923.
First edition of what Fitzgerald called, "undoubtedly the best thing I have ever written." Octavo, original cloth. Near fine in the rare original dust jacket with light rubbing and wear. Jacket illustration by John Held, Jr. A nice example.
Price: $6,500.00 Item Number: 123473
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Photograph of "the father of American literature" Mark Twain; With an autographed note
TWAIN, Mark. [Samuel L. Clemens].
Mark Twain Autograph with Photograph.
Original photograph of Mark Twain by A. F. Bradley, signed with a note, "Yrs truly Samuel L. Clemens Mark Twain", framed beneath original photograph. The silver gelatin print is a seated portrait of Twain, stamped "Pach Bros. NY" lower right. Double matted and framed. The entire piece measures
Price: $6,500.00 Item Number: 132452
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"If You Only Read The Books That Everyone Else Is Reading, You Can Only Think What Everyone Else Is Thinking": First Editions in English Of Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood; Both Volumes Signed By Him
MURAKAMI, Haruki.
Norwegian Wood.
Tokyo: Kodansha, 1989.
First editions in English of the author's most well-known work. Small octavos, original wrappers as issued. Both volumes are fine in fine dust jackets. Both volumes are boldly signed by Haruki Murakami on the title pages. Translated from the Japanese by Alfred Birnbaum.
Price: $6,500.00 Item Number: 139249
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“THE ORIGINATOR OF THE MODERN NOVEL”: FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF FLAUBERT’S MADAME BOVARY
FLAUBERT, Gustave.
Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners.
London: Vizetelly & Co., 1886.
First British edition of the author's masterpiece. Octavo, original cloth, frontispiece and 5 plates, 2 pages of advertisements at front and 24-page publisher's catalogue at rear dated 1886. Translated by Karl Marx’s daughter, Eleanor Marx-Aveling. In near fine condition with a touch of shelfwear. An exceptional example, rare in this condition.
Price: $6,500.00 Item Number: 127034
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The First Appearance of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian in Triquarterly 48: Western Stories; Signed by the author
MCCARTHY, Cormac; Richard Ford; Thomas McGuane; Tobias Wolff; Edward Abbey; Raymond Carver.
Triquarterly 48: Western Stories [Blood Meridian].
Evanston, IL: Northwestern University, 1980.
Original Spring 1980 issue of TriQuarterly magazine containing the first excerpt from Cormac McCarthy's classic Blood Meridian, this being chapter 12, with several textual differences from the 1985 first edition publication. Octavo, original illustrated wrappers. Boldly signed by Cormac McCarthy at his appearance. In near fine condition. Rare and desirable signed.
Price: $6,500.00 Item Number: 142374
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“THE ORIGINATOR OF THE MODERN NOVEL”: TRUE FIRST EDITION OF FLAUBERT’S MADAME BOVARY
FLAUBERT, Gustave.
Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners.
Paris: Michel Lévy frères, 1857.
True first edition, first printing with the mistake in the name of the dedicatee, "Sénart" written with T and not a D, "nor of your dedication" on the same page, which will become "and of your dedication", and the double space between two words p. 7 (23rd line) of the author's masterpiece. Octavo, two volumes, bound in half leather over marbled boards. In near fine condition, owner name. A very sharp example.
Price: $6,500.00 Item Number: 144079
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The Works of Charles Dickens; Finely Bound by Bayntun and Complete in Thirty-one Volumes
DICKENS, Charles.
Complete Set of Dickens’s Works.
London: Chapman and Hall, 1863-1878.
The Library edition of the works of Charles Dickens. Small octavo, thirty-one volumes, bound in three-quarter navy blue crushed levant morocco over marbled boards by Bayntun Bindery with gilt titles and ruling to the spine in six compartments within raised bands, top edge gilt, marbled endpapers, tissue-guarded frontispiece to each volume, illustrated by Phiz (H. K. Browne), John Leech, George Cruikshank, and others. In near fine condition. Twenty-six of the thirty-one volumes were published during the author's lifetime, and the final volume, published in 1878, is The Life of Charles Dickens by John Foster. A bright collection.
Price: $6,500.00 Item Number: 145410
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The large paper edition of The Writings of Lafcadio Hearn; with volume I signed by Koizumi Setsu
HEARN, Lafcadio. Edited by Elizabeth Bisland.
The Writings of Lafcadio Hearn.
Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1922.
The Large Paper Edition of Lafcadio Hearn's collected writings. Octavo, 16 volumes bound in full blue levant morocco with gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles, elaborately gilt citron levant morocco doublures, watered silk endleaves, top edge gilt with others uncut, ribbons bound in, tissue-guarded tipped-in frontispieces in color. One of 750 numbered sets printed at the Riverside Press, this is number 653. Volume I is signed by Hearn's second wife, Koizumi Setsu, in Japanese characters. In fine condition. An exceptional set.
Price: $6,500.00 Item Number: 118027
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First Edition of Mary Oliver's The Night Traveler; Signed by Twice by Her
OLIVER, Mary.
The Night Traveler.
A Bits Chapbook, 1978.
First edition of this early collection by Mary Oliver. Octavo, original wrappers. Boldly signed twice by Mary Oliver, once on the front free endpaper and on the title page. In fine condition. Rare.
Price: $6,500.00 Item Number: 133671
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"Wit beyond measure is a man's greatest treasure": First American Edition of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; Signed by J.K. Rowling
ROWLING, J.K.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
New York: Arthur A. Levine Books: An Imprint of Scholastic Press, 2003.
First American edition of the fifth novel in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Series. Octavo, original illustrated boards, illustrated by Mary Grandpre. Boldly signed by J.K. Rowling on the title page. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Jacket illustration by Mary GrandPre. Jacket design by Mary GrandPre and David Snyder. Rare and desirable signed.
Price: $6,500.00 Item Number: 145090
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First Edition of The Spy Who Came In From The Cold; Signed by John Le Carre
LE CARRE, John.
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.
London: Victor Gollancz, 1963.
First edition of le Carre's classic work, which went on to reinvigorate the spy genre. Octavo, original cloth. Signed by the author on a tipped-in page, "John le Carre with best wishes 16 ix 64." Near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
Price: $6,500.00 Item Number: 135319
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First Editions of Joseph Campbell's Mythology Quartet; Warmly Inscribed by Him in each volume
CAMPBELL, Joseph.
Masks Of God Mythology Set: Primitive Mythology; Oriental Mythology; Occidental Mythology; Creative Mythology.
New York: The Viking Press, 1959-68.
First editions of each volume in the author's classic quartet which explores the roots of mythology. Octavo, 4 volumes, original cloth, pictorial endpapers, illustrated. Presentation copies, each volume is inscribed by the author on the half-title page, "To Elda and Irving with love and admiration Joseph Campbell." The recipients were close friends of Campbell's who made several documentaries in which Campbell was featured. Each volume is near fine in a near fine dust jacket with light rubbing. The author's portrait has been clipped from the rear flaps of Masks Of God and Occidental Mythology. Jacket design by Frank Wilimczyk. A…
Price: $6,500.00 Item Number: 136191
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Signed Limited Edition of Kew Gardens; Signed by Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell
WOOLF, Virginia .
Kew Gardens.
London: The Hogarth Press, 1927.
Signed limited edition, number 172 of 500 numbered copies, signed by Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell in purple ink. Quarto, original illustrated paper boards, text printed within woodcut borders designed by Woolf's sister Vanessa Bell. From the library of publisher, editor, and literary agent Donald Friede, and with his Miguel Covarrubias-designed book-plate on front paste-down. In very good condition with the spine largely perished. Rare and desirable.
Price: $6,500.00 Item Number: 143769