![Candide, ou l’Optimisme, traduit de l’allemand de Mr. le Docteur Ralph [bound with] Candide, ou l’Otimisme, Seconde Partie [and] Remercîment de Candide à Mr. de Voltaire](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/513/093/1495093513.0.l.0.jpg)
Candide, ou l’Optimisme, traduit de l’allemand de Mr. le Docteur Ralph [bound with] Candide, ou l’Otimisme, Seconde Partie [and] Remercîment de Candide à Mr. de Voltaire
by Voltaire, François Marie Arouet
Genève (Geneva): Cramer, 1759. First Edition. 3 vols. in one, 12mo (164 x 100mm), pp. [2], 291, [1]; 133, [1], 35, [1]. First printing of the great 18th century philosophical narrative, with all the points correct. Including, the 3 usual cancels, the right title page ornament repeated (pages 193 and 266), the misprints of “que ce ce fut” (page 103 line 4) and “précisément” (page 125 line 4), the correction removing a paragraph break (page 31), the rewritten lines... Read More
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Two Signed Offprints on Streptomycin
by Waksman, Selman
1953. First Edition. Waksman held the chair of microbiology at Rutgers University for the better part of three decades, presiding over a research program of unusual systematic rigor: the methodical screening of soil microorganisms for antibiotic activity, conducted at a scale and with a discipline that no laboratory had previously applied to the problem. That program, pursued in collaboration with his graduate students Albert Schatz and Elizabeth Bugie, yielded streptomycin in 1943; the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis and... Read More
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A Photographic Investigation of the Transmutation of Lithium and Boron by Protons and of Lithium by Ions of the Heavy Isotope of Hydrogen; From the Proceedings of the Royal Society, A. Vol. 141, pp. 733-742
by Walton, Ernest T. and Dee, Philip I.
London: Harrison & Sons, Ltd, 1933. First Edition. Offprint, 8vo (251 x 176mm), pp. 10, plus 2 inserted plates. Original green printed wrappers, thread-bound, so light creasing, near fine. Signed by Walton on the front wrapper. Walton shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1951 with John Douglas Cockcroft for the first experimental splitting of an atomic nucleus by artificially accelerated particles; the moment at which humanity first demonstrated that the atomic nucleus was not merely observable but manipulable... Read More
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A High Little World and What Happened There
by [Watson, Elizabeth Sophia]
London: Richard Bentley & Son, Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen, 1892. First Edition. 3 vols., 8vo (185 x 127mm), pp. [4], 291, [1]; [4], 272; [4], 283, [1]. Publisher’s dark green cloth blocked on the front cover and spine with overall floral pattern in silver, lettered on the spine in silver. Early owner signatures on the front pastedowns and free endpapers, light staining and foxing to the endpapers, rubbing to the boards and a large abrasion... Read More
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Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid; Molecular Structure of Deoxypentose Nucleic Acids; Molecular Configuration in Sodium Thymonucleate; Three papers from Nature, Vol. 171, No. 4356, April 25, 1953
by Watson, J. D.; Crick, F. H. C.; Wilkins, M. H. F., Stokes, A. R. & Wilson, H. R.; Franklin, R. E. & Gosling, R. G.
St. Albans: Fisher, Knight & Co, 1953. First Edition. Offprint, 8vo (210 x 140mm), pp. 14, with two diagrams (including the double helix) and two illustrations from photographs. The three-paper offprint issue, of the primary record of the co-discovery of the molecular structure of DNA, the most transformative moment in twentieth-century biology. Stapled in self-wrappers as issued. Signed by Maurice Wilkins on the first page. Very lightly toned and a coulpe soft creases, near fine. Grolier Club, One Hundred... Read More
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The Day of the Locust
by West, Nathanael
New York: Random House, 1939. First Edition. Fine, tight and square (endpapers toned as usual from the glue used for the pastedown endpapers) in a dustjacket with a 1/4" tear and a 1/8" tear at the top of the spine, and some small rubs, else near fine, particularly bright, and unusually fresh. West's biting satire of Hollywood arrived at the critical cultural moment a decade into the sound film era when cinema had fully consolidated its position as the... Read More
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Charlotte’s Web
by White, E. B.
New York: Harper and Brothers, 1952. First Edition. Fine. First printing (Oct. 15, 1952) with “I–B” on the verso of the title page. Illustrated by Garth Williams. Original gray cloth, lettered in bue and black. Fine in a fine first issue dustjacket, a faultless copy. Inside every ruined dust jacket is a fine book wondering, what the hell happened? This is an unassuming, talking animal take on goodwill that carries the most modest and warmest of messages, friendship.... Read More
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
by Wilde, Oscar
London: Ward Lock & Co, 1891. First Edition. First printing, without Bowden's name added to the title page imprint, the Preface with Wilde's name at the end in larger, bolder type, and with "nd" for "and" beginning the eighth line from the bottom on page 208. The error was corrected for the second printing, which included the 250 signed copies of the limited edition—copies that, in addition to being the second issue, are literally the second printing. This trade... Read More
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The I Ching, or Book of Changes
by Wilhelm, Richard [Translator]; Cary Baynes [Translaltor]; Carl Jung [Forward]
New York: Pantheon Books, 1950. First Edition. 2 vols. First edition in English, first printing. Foreword by Carl G. Jung. Original cloth, near fine, in chipped and rubbed dustjackets, with a small repair to the spine of volume 1, worn slipcase. From many varieties, these jackets have rear flap ads reassuringly dated “1950” and married reprints don’t. The I Ching a masterpiece of Chinese Literature with all you can handle on multiple levels including a fortune telling game for... Read More
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Lord Byron’s Love Letter Opera: In One Act
by Williams, Tennessee
1954. Mimeographed sheets, printed both sides. 13pp. Sheets stapled at one corner. Fine condition with a couple minor corrections, possibly by Williams. The typescript for the 1955 publication of the opera by G. Ricodi and Co., coinciding with its premiere at Tulane University in New Orleans on January 17 that year. The original one-act play was written before 1946 but never performed in its dramatic form during Williams's lifetime. It first appeared in print within "27 Wagons Full of... Read More
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![Sweet Bird of Youth [Typescript]](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/229/739/1764739229.0.l.jpg)
Sweet Bird of Youth [Typescript]
by Williams, Tennessee
1959. Loose sheets typed on versos only, letter size, 127 leaves. The typescript of the play used for publication of the first edition by New Directions. The sheets are accompanied by an envelope addressed to New Directions with a handwritten note from Edwin Erbe, former publicity director for the publisher. Near fine. Sweet Bird of Youth opened on Broadway in March 1959, directed by Elia Kazan and starring Paul Newman and Geraldine Page, and it was a hit, but... Read More
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A Streetcar Named Desire
by Williams, Tennessee
New York: New Directions, 1947. First Edition. Fine. The most famous post–modern American play. Fine in publisher’s pink boards, and near fine, matching, pink dustjacket, a superb copy. Cover and jacket design by Alvin Lustig. Reference: Crandell A 5.1.a. Basis of the play and then the motion picture classic, both directed by Elia Kazan and both starring Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden (Vivian Leigh replaced Jessica Tandy in the film). The play won the Pulitzer Prize.... Read More
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A Writer's Diary: Being Extracts from the Diary of Virginia Woolf
by WOOLF, Virginia
London: Hogarth Press, 1953. Uncorrected proof. Edited by Leonard Woolf. Unprinted red wrappers. Spine a little sunned, and top corner a little bumped, still near fine. Scarce in this format.
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Surrender of the German High Sea Fleet: Position of Ships at 9am, 21st November 1918, en route for Firth of Forth
by [WWI]
1918. Manuscript, 2 leaves in pencil on ruled paper, second leaf torn in half, slightly creased and browned. An eyewitness record of Operation ZZ. On the morning of 21 November 1918, ten days after the Armistice, the German High Seas Fleet sailed into captivity. Led by the light cruiser HMS Cardiff, 70 German warships (nine battleships, five battlecruisers, seven light cruisers, and 49 destroyers) were met by over 370 Allied vessels and escorted in two flanking columns into the... Read More
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God’s Angry Men; Two Annotated Typescripts— Parts 3 and 4
by X, Malcolm
1957. First Edition. Two Typed Manuscripts. Each composed of three quarto sheets, typed rectos only, totaling six pages. About very good with dampstaining mostly at the bottom edge and one corner, oxidation at upper left corner from old staples (one staple lacking) and scattered light creases. Signed by Malcolm X at the bottom of the final page. Two three-page typescripts for a column written by Malcolm X titled “God’s Angry Men,” which debuted in the Black-owned New York Amsterdam... Read More
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The American Black Chamber
by Yardley, Herbert
Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1931. First Edition. “1st edition” stated on the copyright page (the essential point) and reprints without “1st edition” stated are frequently offered as 1st editions. Former owner’s inscription to the endpaper, and a bookplate, else fine in a dustjacket, that is unclipped but with no printed price (as issued), the red on the spine faded to yellow, else very good, an agonizingly scarce 1st edition in a dustjacket. George Washington had his spies during the Revolution, among... Read More
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Stray Pearls
by Yonge, Charlotte M.
London: Macmillan, 1883. First Edition. 2 vols. 1st edition. Original cloth. Fine. Stray Pearls is a sequel to The Chaplet of Pearls (1868) and explores 17th-century French nobility during the Fronde rebellions. The novel intertwines family drama with historical events, though Yonge herself admitted its “defective” structure in the prefac.
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Blondie ; 100 Selected Top–Laughs of America’s Best Loved Comic
by Young, Chic
Philadelphia: McKay, 1944. First Edition. near fine. 1st edition, the contents extracted from, and only preceded by, newspaper appearances in individual strips from 1938 to 1944. Fine in a near fine dustjacket. Blondie Bumstead, and her husband Dagwood, were created in 1930 and are alive at 92. Their comic strip has appeared in 2,000 newspapers, in 47 countries, and in 35 languages, and it still appears daily. They have starred in 28 films, 2 TV series, 2 TV specials, radio shows from 1939... Read More
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