Authors starting with A from Stuart Bennett Rare Books

London: Printed for J. Johnson, 1798. vi, [ii], 195, [1]pp., 12mo. With the half-title and a folding engraved plate showing the orbit of the earth and its effect on the seasons. Nice copy in recent calf-backed marbled boards antique, spine gilt. First edition, by the original author’s son, with additions from such things as Pennant’s zoological works and, specifically, White’s Natural History of Selborne.... more information

London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, Great Marlborough Street, 1849. 3 vols., 8vo. Without the advertisement leaf at the end of Vol. II, but an unusually nice copy in straight-grained citron calf, fully gilt with triple spine labels, t.e.g., by Bayntun, original covers and spines bound in each volume; spine tips just a little rubbed. First edition, generally considered to be Ainsworth's last masterpiece, and an influential classic of supernatural literature. The story begins in the sixteenth century w... more information

London: Hurst, Chance, & Co. St. Paul’s Church-Yard, 1831. [iii]-xii, 488pp., 8vo. Without an initial leaf (possibly a discarded “series” half-title), but a large and fine copy in contemporary dark green pebbled morocco, spine and edges gilt, gilt inner dentelles. First edition, following what the preface to this work calls “the distinguished success which has attended the Editor’s former Selections.” These “former selections,” originally published in 1824-... more information

London : Printed for G. and W.B. Whittaker, 1823. xlvii, [i], 109, [3]pp., 8vo. Fine color-printed engraved frontispiece by Appleby & Thanet depicting a monument to Eliza, with a leaf of publishers’ advertisements at end. Contemporary calf; somewhat worn and with the joints repaired. First edition, with a long and rather persuasive introduction stating that the manuscript of both essay and poem were saved from a burning house in Flanders, and given to the editor visiting that country by an eld... more information

London: Printed by W. Darton, Jun., [1819]. [iii], viii-xii, [i], 14-64pp., 12mo. Folding engraved frontispiece dated March 19, 1819, pagination erratic at beginning but complete, the title with “Several Hundred” neatly scored through and with “166” substituted in manuscript. Original printed drab wrappers; chafed and with the backstrip partly missing and sewing broken, causing the frontispiece and a few other leaves to come loose. First edition, not in The Dartons, presumably beca... more information

Edinburgh: Macredie, Skelly, & Co., 1822. 194pp., 12mo. With the half-title, preliminaries mispaginated, but complete. Entirely untrimmed in the original blue patterned boards; backstrip missing but intact on the cords. First edition, a novel about Mary Queen of Scots, anonymously-published but with the preface written throughout in the first person plural and signed “The Authors.” Garside et al, English Novel, 1822:4; Block, English Novel, p. 48. OCLC records several copies of a se... more information

London: Roake and Varty, November, 1831. 40pp., 8vo. Title-leaf printed twice (both included in the pagination). A little spotting, but a nice copy, disbound. First edition, doubtless by the same author as “Fate of ‘The Bill’ [Versified].” This poem, however, takes as its setting “The London Anti-Slavery Society Meeting,” and pokes fun at the pompous and largely ineffective bickering among the abolitionists. The poem is rare, with OCLC and COPAC between them locating six... more information

London: N.H. Cotes; Edinburgh: Fraser & Co.; Dublin: William Curry, Jun., & Co.; Glasgow: W.R. M'Phun, 1837. [iv], [9]-110pp., 8vo. Bound with three other plays (George Condy. Camillus: A Historical Play in Five Acts. London: Longman and Company, 1837. [iv], 51, [1]pp.; James Sheridan Knowles. The Daughter. A Play in Five Acts. London: Edward Moxon. Second Edition. 1837. [viii], 108pp.; and Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, afterwards Lord Lytton. Richelieu; or The Conspiracy: A Play in Five Acts. ... more information

London: Printed for G. Cowie, and Co. Poultry, and P. Youngman, Witham, Essex, 1823. [ii], 244, [2]pp., 18mo. Engraved frontispiece (this dated 1823 and with Youngman’s imprint alone), and a terminal leaf of advertisements including a page for other works by the same author, including “Tales of the Academy” (the two other recorded copies, however, report an additional leaf of advertisements, not present here); some browning and spotting throughout, one signature slightly sprung. Original... more information

London: Printed for Mess. R. and J. Dodsley, 1759. 22pp., 4to. Small marginal stain in gutter, otherwise an excellent, large copy. Disbound. First and only edition, a harsh satire on the Beldames who gloat over the sad fates of the virtuous:Sickness and cares your bliss dilate,And pain but whets your lust of hate. . . Who cringe and slander, sting and fawn,In rags, or lace, or fur, or lawn;Whether in periwigs or pinners. . . .... more information

London: John Harris, Corner of St. Paul’s Church-Yard, [circa 1824]. [36]pp., 12mo (6¾ x 4 inches). Sixteen leaves printed on one side only, numbered 2-17 with verses, and half-page woodcut illustrations finely hand-coloured, the printed pages facing each other and the intervening pages, including the last, blank, together with an unnumbered hand-colored woodcut frontispiece (“Portrait of Dame Trot. From an Original Painting”) and printed title with a vignette of the cat wearing a g... more information

New-York: Printed & Sold by S. Wood, 1815. [16]pp., 32mo. Woodcut title vignette and illustrations; some browning and minor signs of use. Original buff printed wrappers, an unusually good survival, doubtless in part due to its having been sometime (quite early) pinned into contemporary marbled wrappers (these now worn). First published by Samuel Wood in 1810, this bleak book for young children was reprinted almost every year until 1818. Welch 958.5.... more information

London: Printed; and Sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster, 1721. [iv], 38, [2]pp., 8vo. With the terminal blank leaf. Title just a little dusty, but an excellent copy, disbound. First edition, drawn from “Clarendon, Whitlock, Rushworth. . . Hobbs, or some other writer of those times” with a view to showing the compiler’s contemporaries “what Abuses a Corrupt Parliament is capable of.”... more information

London: Printed by T. Wilkins, 1792. 16pp., 8vo. A nice large, fresh copy, disbound. First and only edition, a satire in the form of a one-act play set onstage. It decries the architectural changes in the theatre, almost entirely rebuilt in 1792, a major result of which had been the elimination of the shilling-a-seat gallery known as “the gods.” Lowe, Arnott & Robinson, English Theatrical Literature, 1178.... more information

Gainsbrough: Printed by John Mozley and Sold by Mr. Etherington, York. . . and by J.F. and C. Rivington, Booksellers, St. Paul’s Church-yard, London, [circa 1780]. xii, 324pp., 12mo. No free endpapers, with a little consequent offsetting from the binding turn-ins to the first and last couple of leaves. Still an agreeable copy in contemporary, probably publisher’s, sheep, spine gilt-ruled with a green morocco label; rubbed with the joints cracking, but firm. Presumably an undated reissue of t... more information

London: Printed for Richard Baldwin, at the Oxford Arms, 1697. [xxiv], 318pp., 8vo. Neatly bound in modern half vellum. First edition, all published, not surprisingly given the nature of the subject. Tiberius seems to get the most detail, with much on “lewd discoverers of unnatural and beastly postures and motions,” and on the emperor’s tendency towards debauching “young children yet in ignorance, calling them his little Fry.” Wing E3296A. ESTC records six copies (British Library, Christ C... more information

Londres [but certainly Paris]: Chez J. Nours, 1753. xxiii, [i], 248pp., 12mo. A few spots and stains, tiny extreme blank corner off the tip of the title-leaf. Contemporary sheep, spine gilt; extremities worn and chipped, but structurally entirely sound. First edition in French of Arbuthnot’s splendid John Bull pamphlets, which Macaulay called “the most ingenious and humorous” in the language, in a translation attributed to Paul Francois Velly. It seems a little odd that it took so long... more information