DEMOCRACY. An American Novel
by [Adams, Henry]
1880. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1880. 8 pp undated ads (plus endpaper ads, the front one dated March 31, 1880). Original cream cloth decorated in black. First Edition of this anonymously-published novel, a cutting satire of Washington politics; Adams's authorship was not acknowledged until after his death in 1918. It is about Washington power, its use and abuse. It involves a woman who goes to Washington so that she can be near the hub of all... Read More
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THE BALLAD OF BABIE BELL and Other Poems
by Aldrich, Thomas Bailey
1859. New York: Rudd & Carleton, 1859. Original blind-stamped brown cloth. First Edition of this very early Aldrich volume, his fourth -- after THE BELLS (1855), DAISY'S NECKLACE (1857) and THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE (1858). The title verse is "the poem of a little life that was but three Aprils long." This copy is in chocolate brown "A" cloth (one of three cloths used, without precedence); it has no ads (some but not all copies have either... Read More
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THE NIGHTINGALE and other Tales
by Andersen, Hans Christian
1846. ["The Emperor's New Clothes"] Translated by Charles Boner with Numerous Illustrations by the Count Pocci. London: Joseph Cundall, 1846. Original blind-stamped blue morocco-grain cloth. First Edition in English of this group of fairy tales -- one of three different groups of Andersen tales accomplished in 1846 by three different translators and three different London publishers. The nine tales in this edition are "The Nightingale," "The Buckwheat," "The Fellow-Traveller," "The Resolute Leaden Soldier," "The Flying Trunk," "The Garden... Read More
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THE DREAM OF LITTLE TUK, and Other Tales
by Andersen, Hans Christian
1848. ["The Little Match Girl"] Translated by Charles Boner. With Four Illustrations drawn by Count Pocci, of Munich. London: Grant and Griffith, successors to J. Harris, 1848. 16 pp undated ads. Original blind-stamped olive-green horizontally-ribbed cloth, all page edges gilt. First Edition in the English language of this collection of seven fairy tales -- "Little Tuk," "The Shadow," "The Naughty Boy," "The Two Neighbouring Families," "The Darning Needle," "The Old Street-Lamp" and "The Little Match-Girl" -- all appearing... Read More
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WINDY McPHERSON'S SON
by Anderson, Sherwood
1916. New York: John Lane Company | London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1916. Original orange-brown cloth decorated in black and gilt. First Edition of Sherwood Anderson's first (and most autobiographical) novel -- a rags-to-riches-to-unhappiness tale of an Ohio newsboy, complete with alcoholic father and martyr mother who in trying to feed her children works her way into an early grave. Sam McPherson strives for and achieves fortune, only to realize (after driving his father-in-law to suicide) that... Read More
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THE STORY OF LITTLE BLACK SAMBO
by Bannerman, Helen
1899. Bannerman, Helen. London: Grant Richards, 1899. Original light green cloth decorated in dark green. First Edition, issued as the fourth volume in Grant Richards's diminutive series "The Dumpy Books for Children" -- of which the first three are long-forgotten. The Preface briefly describes how the Scotswoman Helen Bannerman (1863-1946), who married an army doctor and spent much of her life in southern India, came to write and illustrate this book: Once upon a time there was an... Read More
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LITTLE DEGCHIE-HEAD
by [Bannerman, Helen]
1903. An Awful Warning to Bad Babas. By the Author of "Little Black Mingo" and "Little Black Quibba." London: James Nisbet & Co., 1903. Original light olive cloth illustrated in black and printed in red. First Edition of the most unusual, and one of the least-known, of Helen Bannerman's eight small-format books for children. Five of the eight were about "black" children (though they were really about native Tamils in the region of southern India where Helen Bannerman... Read More
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BLACK BEETLES IN AMBER
by Bierce, Ambrose
1892. San Francisco | New York: Western Authors Publishing Company, 1892. Original blind-stamped light grey cloth, beveled. First Edition of Bierce's first volume of verse, published the year after his most famous book, TALES OF SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS. There are about 150 short poems (which he terms "beetles"), mostly gleaned from appearances in newspapers. Bierce had seen action, including at Shiloh, in an Indiana Infantry Regiment; his anti-war sentiments, and fixation with death, are reflected in his writings.... Read More
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THE MONK AND THE HANGMAN'S DAUGHTER
by Bierce, Ambrose and Danziger, Gustav Adolph
1892. Illustrated by Theodor Hampe. Chicago: F.J. Schulte & Company, 1892. 2 pp undated ads. Original mottled light brown cloth stamped in black. First Edition of this tale involving an illicit relationship between a monk Ambrosius and a local girl Benedicta who is shunned because she is, yes, the hangman's daughter. Per an introductory note, the tale was purportedly derived from an old German manuscript "obtained from a peasant" by the German novelist Richard Voss (1851-1918), and here... Read More
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THE SHADOW ON THE DIAL and Other Essays
by Bierce, Ambrose
1909. San Francisco: A.M. Robertson, 1909. Original brown cloth decorated in black, with dust jacket. First Edition. Per the author's note, "It was expected that this book would be included in my 'Collected works' now in course of publication, but unforeseen delay in the date of publication has made this impossible." This copy is in brown buckram (others are in green, no priority). It is a fine, bright copy (the usual offset darkening of the endpapers) of this... Read More
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THE MONK AND THE HANGMAN'S DAUGHTER
by Bierce, Ambrose and Danziger, Gustav Adolph
1892. Illustrated by Theodor Hampe. Chicago: F.J. Schulte & Company, 1892. 2 pp undated ads. Original pale yellow wrappers. First Edition of this tale involving an illicit relationship between a monk Ambrosius and a local girl Benedicta who is shunned because she is, yes, the hangman's daughter. Per an introductory note, the tale was purportedly derived from an old German manuscript "obtained from a peasant" by the German novelist Richard Voss (1851-1918), and here adapted by Bierce and... Read More
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PALICIO | THE RETURN OF ULYSSES | THE CHRISTIAN CAPTIVES | ACHILLES IN SCYROS | THE HUMOURS OF THE COURT
by Bridges, Robert
1890. [Together, five volumes.] London: Edward Bumpus, 1890 [last one: George Bell & Sons / J. & E. Bumpus, n.d.(1894)]. Original buff-grey wrappers printed in black. These are Nos. ii through vi of the eight "Plays by Robert Bridges," initiated by Edward Bumpus. There were three other plays: NERO [Part I] -- not numbered, and in a different-style wrapper, published in 1885; plus vii THE FEAST OF BACCHUS and viii NERO Part II, these last two published by... Read More
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CASTLE GAY
by Buchan, John
1930. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1930. Original green cloth, with dust jacket. First Edition of this tale of mystery and adventure, published a month before the American. As Buchan points out in a brief prefatory note, this tale contains further exploits of Dickson McCunn and several other characters whom he had introduced in HUNTINGTOWER (1922); there would be one more Dickson McCunn novel, THE HOUSE OF THE FOUR WINDS, in 1935. This is a near-fine copy; the attractive... Read More
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A BOOK OF ESCAPES and Hurried Journeys
by Buchan, John
1922. Forrest, A. S.. London, Edinburgh, and New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons, (1922). Original tan-grey cloth pictorially decorated in black, green, red and yellow. First Edition. This is a retelling of a dozen historical events that involved "escapes and hurried journeys" all over the world (Scotland, South Africa, Turkestan, Australia...), illustrated with eight plates by A.S. Forrest. The book was subsequently reprinted as a textbook, with additional questions and exercises not by Buchan. This is a handsomely... Read More
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POEMS SCOTS AND ENGLISH
by Buchan, John
1917. London and Edinburgh: T.C. & E.C. Jack, 1917. Original dark violet cloth. First Edition of John Buchan's first volume of verse (there were also fifty numbered/signed copies). Like his countryman Robert Louis Stevenson's UNDERWOODS of thirty years earlier, the verses in this volume are half in Scots and half in English. The book is dedicated to the author's brother Alastair -- "Lieutenant, Royal Scots Fusiliers, who fell at Arras on Easter Monday [April 9th] 1917"; this book... Read More
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A PRINCE OF THE CAPTIVITY
by Buchan, John
1933. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1933. Original green cloth lettered in gilt, with dust jacket. First Edition. In this novel the hero, Adam Melfort, is convicted of forgery, is drummed out of his regiment, and is sentenced to two years in prison -- for a crime his wife actually had committed. Upon release he embarks upon a series of adventurous causes in an effort to regain his reputation -- taking him into the secret service in the Great... Read More
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SCHOLAR GIPSIES
by Buchan, John
1896. London: John Lane / New York: Macmillan & Co., 1896. 16 pp ads dated 1896. Original light brown cloth decorated in dark brown, with dark brown cloth spine elaborately decorated in gilt. First Edition of Buchan's second book, a volume of sixteen essays, preceded only by his SIR QUIXOTE OF THE MOORS of 1895. Buchan notes in his "Prefatory" that these pieces "were all written in youth, when a man's thoughts run on many diverse things with... Read More
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A BOOK OF ESCAPES and Hurried Journeys
by Buchan, John
1923. With Illustrations. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1923. Original tan-grey cloth pictorially decorated in black, green, and red. First American Edition. This is a retelling of a dozen true historical events that involved "escapes and hurried journeys" all over the world (Scotland, South Africa, Turkestan, Australia...), illustrated with eight plates by A.S. Forrest. The book was subsequently reprinted as a text-book, with additional questions and exercises not by Buchan. This is a handsomely bound book:... Read More
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SCHOLAR GIPSIES
by Buchan, John
1896. London: John Lane / New York: Macmillan & Co., 1896. Original light brown cloth decorated in dark brown, with dark brown cloth spine decorated in gilt. First Edition of Buchan's second book, a collection of essays, preceded only by his SIR QUIXOTE OF THE MOORS of 1895. This book is beautifully illustrated with etchings by D.Y. Cameron (who introduced Buchan to John Lane the publisher), and the cover design is by Patten Wilson. SCHOLAR GIPSIES was published... Read More
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GREENMANTLE
by Buchan, John
1916. London New York Toronto: Hodder and Stoughton, 1916. Original blue-green cloth. First Edition of this wartime mystery, the second of Buchan's five featuring Richard Hannay (preceded by THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS, and succeeded by MR. STANDFAST, THE THREE HOSTAGES and ISLAND OF SHEEP). Richard Hannay is at once established in the very first chapter of GREENMANTLE as a man who has been through experiences on the Western Front that were common to thousands of Buchan's readers: his references... Read More
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THE AFRICAN COLONY. Studies in the Reconstruction
by Buchan, John
1903. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1903. Original dark blue cloth. First Edition, first binding (some copies were put up in a green Times Book Club binding). As the Boer War wound down in 1901, Buchan received a two-year appointment to assist Lord Milner in the reconstruction of the Colony. Buchan, who had not been enthusiastic about the war, believing that the British, on balance, 'were only just in the right,' was enthusiastic about the reconstruction... Read More
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THE POWER-HOUSE
by Buchan, John
1916. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1916. Original rose cloth. First Edition of this mysterious tale of international intrigue, featuring Edward Leithen (who would reappear in other Buchan tales). The Power-House is a secret anarchist organization, led by a wealthy Englishman, which aims to destroy Western civilization. Buchan had written this tale in 1913, at which time it was serialized in Blackwood's Magazine; as for the three-year delay in book publication, in his dedication to a... Read More
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SIR QUIXOTE OF THE MOORS
by Buchan, John
1895. Being some Account of an Episode in the Life of the Sieur de Rohaine. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1895. 4 pp undated ads. Original black cloth decorated in red, green, pink and yellow. First Edition of John Buchan's first book, taking place in the Galloway Hills at the time of the Covenanters. The first-person narrative presents the story of Jean de Rohaine, a French gentleman who, after falling into despair, finds himself wandering the inhospitable Scottish Highlands.... Read More
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THE WATCHER BY THE THRESHOLD and Other Tales
by Buchan, John
1902. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1902. 32 pp ads dated "2/02". Original blue cloth lettered in white and pictorially decorated in orange, black and white. First Edition, first printing, first state -- of one of Buchan's earliest and scarcest fiction titles, and one of his creepiest. It is a collection of five fantastical tales, most with supernatural and horror elements that are drawn from Scottish folklore -- "No-Man's-Land," "The Far Islands," "The Watcher by the... Read More
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THE HOUSE OF THE FOUR WINDS
by Buchan, John
1935. London: Hodder and Stoughton, (1935). Original green cloth, with dust jacket. First English Edition, published two days after the American. This is the third and last mystery featuring Dickson McCunn (the two previous ones had been HUNTINGTOWER (1922) and CASTLE GAY (1930). This suspenseful tale takes place in the imaginary European nation of Evallonia; McCunn encounters (among others) "the man with the elephant." This is a fine, bright copy; the pictorial dust jacket is near- fine, remarkably... Read More
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