Authors starting with W from B & L Rootenberg Rare Books & Manuscripts

With 2 plates (1 folding) and a fine text engraving. Contemporary vellum. First edition of this curious treatise describing apparatus for supporting the body in water, or life-saving equipment, illustrated by the interesting plates. ... more information

With the large folding map of Lapland, hand-coloured in outline, l folding engraved table, and 30 engraved plates. Contemporary half-calf over marbled boards, rebacked; interior lightly browned. With a large bookplate from the Academiae Harvardianae donation fund of 1842 (received 1849 and withdrawn). First edition of the author's main work in the field of plant geography, the results of his four excursions to Lapland and northern Norway. The book includes descriptions of well over a thousand plants w... more information

Disbound. First and only edition of this early American dissertation submitted to the trustees of Columbia College, in the state of New York, for the degree of Doctor of Physic. Walker gives an in-depth analysis of the physiology, pathology and chemical actions that produce perspiration, as well as describing various secretions and how they originate. In addition, there is a discussion on both the benefits and damages sweating can do to the body. Of particular interest are his ideas on odors in relation to ... more information

Original cloth; small library stamp on title. An excellent copy presented to the Reverend Beverly “with Lady Clark’s warm New Year’s wishes”. First edition of the author’s collected essays, including his celebrated paper On the tendency of varieties (1855), which forced Darwin to prepare his Origin for publication. Among other works gathered here for the first time are Wallace’s first contribution to the species question, On the law which has regulated the introduction of new... more information

With 3 full-page maps (1 hand-coloured and 2 tinted) and numerous text maps and illustrations. Original cloth, gilt decoration on front cover; minor foxing, still a fine, uncut copy. First edition of one of the foundation works of zoogeography. Unlike the broad and general principles discussed in Wallace’s Geographical distribution of animals, this work provides very specific details relating to problems of animal dispersal. “Wallace was the first scientist to use the new knowledge of Pleistocene ... more information

Original two-tone decorated publisher’s cloth, in original dust-jacket, minor chipping; a fine bright copy. First edition of this fascinating science fiction novel. “One of the exciting minds of our time has turned to fiction, and the result is a publishing discovery. Not since H.G. Wells has a writer combined such a variety of intellectual and scientific brilliance with so clear and witty a talent for fiction.” Walter (1910-77) was a British physiologist known for his pioneering efforts in t... more information

Original publisher’s cloth, in original dust-jacket; interior bright and clean. First edition of this dramatic novel, which contains what may quite possibly be the very first use of the term “paranoiac.” “A paranoiac is a person who is badly out of joint with his surroundings. He cannot find his place in the band, but wants to play trombone on the drum. He can play trombone fluently, but not in tune, so he thinks the others are making discords to annoy him.” Walton (1854-1941), a co... more information

Bound volume of 37 individual speeches and 1 folded broadside made between 1860 and 1861 by various elected officials, including Hon. Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, Hon. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, William H. Seward, and Hon. Milton S. Latham, of California, among many others. Half-sheep over marbled boards. Spine label: Speeches. Presentation inscription on fly-leaf, from James B. Smallwood to the Hon. John P. Hale, U.S. Senator, dated April 4, 1861. ... more information

Unopened. A very interesting narrative (early blog) from some guy who likes to read his own writing, but from a little-heard state. Also includes sections entitled Why not have peace!; What are we fighting for?; Facts and figures; the president and his administration; and arbitrary arrests. If nothing else, should be read for the information on the cost of the war.... more information

Original cloth backed flexible boards with paper spine label; front cover detached. Some scattered foxing, boards lightly soiled. A few unobtrusive ex-libris markings. First edition. A fascinating view of the proceedings at which the State of Missouri considers its relationship with the federal government of the United States.... more information

Original printed wrappers, lightly soiled and creased, otherwise a very sharp copy of this scarce and fragile example from the Beadle dime series. First edition of this scarce and fragile example from the Beadle dime series, wonderfully illustrated. Brownlow (1805-1877) was the editor of the Knoxville Whig and a staunch Union supporter. Always interested in politics, he was elected as governor of Tennessee and served from 1865 to 1869, and thereafter was elected senator from Tennessee from 1869 to 1875. Hi... more information

Modern morocco, new endpapers; dedication leaf detached and title page crudely repaired. Ownership signatures on fly-leaf. First edition. Warren records here the first application of anaesthesia during major surgery. On October 16, 1846 he excised a tumor from the neck of a twenty-year-old printer, Gilbert Abbott, assisted by William Morton, a Boston dentist who administered the ether. This event was to transform medical and surgical practice. Also included in this volume are a number of Warren's case h... more information

54 issues (numbers 1 - 54). stapled as issued; near fine condition. Complete run of this monthly periodical devoted to genealogical studies of Lincoln and his extended family. Much has been written about Abraham Lincoln's paternity for many years, including the one that Thomas Lincoln was not his true father. Each issue contains numerous interesting articles on Lincoln and his ancestors. According to Lincoln scholars, the present work by Louis A. Warren is the best reference to check on any specific qu... more information

Original pink publisher’s cloth. Contemporary ownership inscription to half-title, with a small bookseller’s label to front paste-down, and a small binder’s label to rear paste-down. Third edition of this massive novel, purportedly written in just over two weeks. “. . . I have endeavoured to illustrate the awful liability to error, to which even the highest and best human intellects and institutions are liable, in judging of, and dealing with, especially judicially, the events which happ... more information

Includes all half-titles and publisher’s advertisements. Original publisher’s cloth decorated in blind; all volumes have been re-backed with the original back-strips laid down. Small ownership stamp with crown and initial “D” in each volume. First English edition of one of the most famous novels about law. This tragi-comic novel became one of the most popular books of the century. It is an account of Mr. Tittlebat Titmouse, a draper’s assistant, who comes into a large fortune thanks... more information

(offered with) Passages from the diary of a physician. Second series. Paris: A. and W. Galignani and Co., 1838. Calf-backed marbled boards, boards and spine a bit rubbed; both volumes foxed and stained. Small embossed German ownership stamp to title of both volumes. Early French editions. This work caused quite a stir when it first appeared in Blackwood’s Magazine. Many in the medical profession protested its divulgence of medical secrets. Extremely popular, it went through numerous editions and trans... more information

With 20 plates and numerous text illustrations. Yellow publisher’s cloth, in original dust-jacket, light browning and small tears to edges of dust-jacket, else a fine copy. First edition. “This is a wryly illustrated collection of wrier fables. And all this wryness has been carefully combined to point out the foibles of the medical profession today.” Titles include The llama who was a genius, How the jackals got ethics and The turkeys and the socialized sick. Wassersug (b.1912) received his ... more information

Contemporary sheepskin with black morocco spine label titled in gilt. Some minor damp-staining, some creased pages, extremities rubbed, very good. ... more information

Recent marbled wrapper. Hole in upper corner of last four leaves with some text loss. Text browned. First Edition. Part II of Garrison-Morton 5424 (citing Parts I and II, 1800-02). "On 8 July 1800 Waterhouse became the first in the United States to perform the Jennerian vaccination for smallpox. Having learned of the new method from a copy of Jenner's Inquiry sent to him the year before, Waterhouse procured some cowpox vaccine from England and vaccinated his five-year-old son and a servant boy. Wh... more information

With the half title and engraved frontispiece entitled "A Nonedescript" from a sketch made by I.W. Lowry after T.H. Foljambe, from a human specimen Waterton brought back to England. Contemporary paper-backed blue boards, both blank endpapers present; covers lightly worn, frontispiece and occasional text with scattered browning. Generally, an excellent copy, uncut.With an interesting plate pasted onto the front paste-down of the nineteenth century English Book Society of Lutterworth, apparentl... more information