Titles starting with S from B & L Rootenberg Rare Books & Manuscripts

Original printed wrappers, detached. First edition. Bridges, along with Henry Bradley and Walter Raleigh, founded the Society for Pure English in 1919 to help prevent what they saw as the destruction of the English language, publishing tracts on several different “linguistic” topics. The first part of Tract No. 11 is a rant on the destructiveness of homophones to the English language, some of the main points being: “The actual condition of the English language with respect to homophones”... more information

Frontispiece. Purple cloth, silver lettering to upper cover and spine; top edges silver, others uncut. From the library of Alfred Heacock Whittaker, with his bookplate. First edition of this tribute to Weir Mitchell at a special meeting of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Includes speeches by several of the former presidents of the College, including Dr. James Cornelius Wilson as well as one by Mitchell’s cousin and friend Owen Wister.... more information

including half-title. Two-tone cloth, in original pictorial dust-jacket. A fine copy signed by the author. First edition, number 11 of 500. Contains an introduction by William Carlos Williams on pages 7-10. Titles include You walk like Egypt; This is the flat cry; and Confession of Cain. Sydney (fl. 1937) was an American poet and good friend of Williams. His other works include New journey, a poem; Contemporary legends; and Thirty pieces. Wallace, B29... 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

With frontispiece and list of subscribers. Original publisher’s cloth, decorated in blind, small split at spine; frontispiece foxed, some light scattered spotting, last few pages of text browned. First edition of this collection of verse. Titles include A thunder storm at sea; Amor patriae vincit; and The little girl and the dark grave. White (fl. 1840) was an American physician whose poetry was quite popular locally.... more information

including half-title and errata. Original printed wrappers, a bit chipped and browned; interior browning at edges. First edition of this study of Sainte-Beuve as a man of many talents, starting with a look at his childhood, examining each stage of his life until his death in 1869. Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (1804-69) was the foremost French literary critic of the nineteenth century, who abandoned his medical studies for literature. Morin (b.1903) was a French physician and author of several works on phys... more information

Original printed wrappers. Uncut and partially unopened. Water-stains at spine of front wrapper, affecting first few gatherings; reddish stains as well as water-stains to spine of back wrapper affecting last few leaves. First edition. Giese was Emeritus professor of Romance Languages at the University of Wisconsin.This work is number 31 from the University of Wisconsin Studies Language and Literature series, which was a quarterly publication of the University of Wisconsin treating various literary and ... more information

Title in blue and black. Original cloth-backed patterned boards. A fine copy, printed on tan paper, with printer’s announcement laid-in. First edition. “Aphorisms, or saws, should not only be brief or witty sayings that reveal the basic strata of human character. They should also cut into preoccupations-and occupations-in order to reveal the assumptions underlying them.” This copy is number 14 of 125 printed.... more information

With errata leaf. Brown buckram; some light pencilling, but only in marginal lining. This is one of six titles noted by Garrison and Morton as providing significant discussions on religion and philosophy. G&M 6644... more information

Newspaper format. With 5 large plates as listed below:1. Transportation of the packing case containing the balloon, June 14, 18972. Inspection of the balloon, July 2, 18973. The balloon house in Virgo Bay, Danes Island (gun boat Svensksund)4. Pike's log house on Danes Island and gas works (gas pipe to balloon)5. Andrée's balloon, The Adler.... more information

With frontispiece plus 6 engraved plates, engraved title vignette, folding hand-coloured map. Contemporary half morocco and cloth, stained, corners worn; marbled endpapers. Ownership signature of David Maitland on title page, annotations; some browning on first and last blanks, but overall a clean copy. First edition, dedicated to Charles Lyell, of the author's account of his voyage in the north polar seas. Primarily a hunting expedition, Lamont recounts how he and his companions killed dozens of walru... more information

Original printed wrappers. First edition of this soapbox stand by Freeman, a Unitarian minister and Transcendentalist, on whether free states should allow slaveholding states to secede. Sabin, 13417. ... more information

Half-morocco over marbled boards, title in gilt on spine. An excellent copy from the Mount Wilson Observatory, with a presentation bookplate to the Observatory by the Dutch astronomer Adriaan van Maanen (1884-1946), and with his signature dated 1906 on the half-title. First edition of this important work in thermodynamics and chemistry.... more information

With engraved frontispiece. Half-calf and marbled boards, slightly rubbed with remnants of a paper label to upper board. From the library of Henry Barton Jacobs, with his bookplate. First edition of this collection of verse by the tutor to Edward Jenner’s children. Worgan (1790-1809) was “a consumptive boy of precocious ability whom Jenner took into his household, nominally as a tutor to his sons.” Includes not only Worgan’s poetry, but also much of his correspondence, as well as his Six... more information

Full contemporary calf, joints starting, some wear to corners and edges; some light interior browning, with some occasional light spotting. First edition of both works. Each contains Pitcairn’s poetry many of which are addressed to or are about medical men. The poems not only have literary merit, but are known for their contemporary political allusions, many of which were explained in Irving’s Memoirs of Buchanan, and by Lord Hales in the Edinburgh Magazine and Review.Pitcairn (1652-1713), an acco... more information

With frontispiece portrait in colour and six photographs in the first selection, text figures and tables. Gray cloth, sunned, small tear at joint, two tears in upper margins affecting a few letters of text, ink marginal notes in first part, otherwise a good copy from the library of Mary Brazier. First edition of the collected works of Sechenov in German and English, translated from the original Russian. This book contains his classic experiments on the Brain and the spinal cord of frogs, his famous essay Re... more information

With 4 photographic plates. Blue wrappers, dustjacket. ... more information

Contemporary tree calf with gilt tooled spine and morroco label, all edges speckled green. Light scattered foxing. Bookplates. Possibly re-backed preserving spine [but at an early date] Joints tender but sound. Spine rubbed and darkened. Very good. This is a selection from the Harlein Miscellany a collection of rare English pamphlets compiled by Samuel Johnson. The original work published fifty years early was by this time so scarce that the publisher touts this as the reason for this works publication. ... more information

Frontispiece plus two additional portraits of Lincoln, woodcut headpieces. Royal blue morocco, gilt decorations on covers. An excellent copy. One of fifteen hundred copies printed by the Chiswick Press. Thirteen items are contained in this lovely miniature, including letters, inaugural and congressional speeches, and the Gettysburg Address.... more information

With 33 text illustrations (26 photographic) and 10 folding diagrams. Original printed wrappers, some slight chipping to head and foot of spine, otherwise very good. With the stamp of the Technical Records Library of the Nova Scotia Department of Mines to front cover. Fourth edition of this authoritative handbook, put out by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines.... more information