THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
by Glasgow, Ellen
1900. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1900. Original tan cloth decorated in dark green. First Edition of Ellen Glasgow's third book -- a tale of the Reconstruction Era -- the first volume in a trilogy (followed by BATTLE-GROUND in 1902 and THE DELIVERANCE in 1904) that deals with life in Virginia from the end of the Civil war until the turn of the century. THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE is set in Kingsborough, Virginia (modeled upon Williamsburg),... Read More
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THE DELIVERANCE. A Romance of the Virginia Tobacco Fields
by Glasgow, Ellen
1904. With Illustrations by Frank E. Schoonover. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1904. Original red cloth. First Edition of this tale of the Reconstruction Era -- the author's fifth book, and the concluding volume in a trilogy (following VOICE OF THE PEOPLE of 1900 and THE BATTLE-GROUND of 1902) that deals with life in Virginia from the end of the Civil war until the turn of the century. THE DELIVERANCE deals with the Blake family, prosperous landowners... Read More
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ALMANACK FOR 1883
by Greenaway, Kate
1882. London: George Routledge and Sons, n.d.[1882]. Original glazed pictorial boards with yellow cloth spine. This was the first of Kate Greenaway's fourteen little almanacks -- probably published actually in late 1882. There are 23 pages of charming illustrations in color. This is a very good-plus copy (minor cover soil and rubbing, bookplate on front endpaper). Birmingham G.49.
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ALMANACK FOR 1891
by Greenaway, Kate
1890. [London:] George Routledge & Sons, n.d.[1890]. Original white pictorial boards with yellow cloth spine. This was the ninth of the fourteen almanacks by Kate Greenaway, in the standard binding of white pictorial boards showing a woman with three children, within a border of leaves. There are 22 pages bearing Greenaway illustrations in color. This is a very good-plus copy (very minor soil, one small chip out of the yellow cloth spine, bookplate). Birmingham G.57.
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ALMANACK FOR 1886
by Greenaway, Kate
1885. London: George Routledge & Sons, n.d.[1885]. Original white morocco-grain boards pictorially decorated in gilt and bordered in dark blue, all edges gilt. This was the fourth of the fourteen Greenaway almanacks, and includes 23 pages bearing her color illustrations. This copy is in the special binding of imitation-morocco white boards, with illustration and lettering in gilt and with border in dark blue. This is a near-fine copy, with very minor cover soil. Birmingham G.52.
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HONOURS PHYSIOGRAPHY
by Gregory, R.A. and Wells, H.G.
1893. London: Joseph Hughes & Co., 1893. 4 pp undated ads. Original ochre cloth decorated in brown. First Edition of H.G. Wells's (co-written) second book, a treatise on physical geography -- with chapters such as "Concerning Members of the Solar System," "The Atmosphere and Climate," "The Earth's Crust," and "...The Distribution of Life in Time and Space." This book is scarcer than his first, which was his TEXT-BOOK OF BIOLOGY published earlier in 1893. (He also began a... Read More
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Autograph Letter Signed, to "Dear Earl Hodgson
by Haggard, H. Rider
1900. Two pages (of four pages on one folded leaf). On Haggard's personal stationery ("Ditchingham House, Norfolk"), dated by hand "26.Oct:1900". The text of this letter reads: It is most kind of Mrs Cornwallis West & yourself to think of me. I should much like to have the honour of making my bow in the A.S.R. But unhappily I have nothing & no time to write anything as I am just going away fr home after a long... Read More
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Two Autograph Letters Signed, to "Dear Miss Dodge
by Hale, Edward E.
Both on the stationery of the Lend a Hand Society (Rev. Edward E. Hale, President) of Boston. One is four pages (two leaves), dated July 9, 1907, with Boston lined out and replaced by "Matunuck, R. Island". The other is two pages (one leaf), dated July 2, 1908, also with "Matunuck" written in. These letters are from Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909), the author, historian and Unitarian minister best known today for his THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY. The... Read More
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![TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES. A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented. [all three American editions]](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/799/747/1602747799.0.l.jpg)
TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES. A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented. [all three American editions]
by Hardy, Thomas
1892. Illustrated. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1892. (421 pages of text). PLUS: New York: Harper & Brothers, 1892. New and Revised Edition. (455 pages of text). PLUS: New York: Harper & Brothers, 1893. New and Completely Revised Edition. (457 pages of text). Original terra-cotta cloth decorated in black. First American Edition -- plus the subsequent two editions that restored deleted passages. TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES was way ahead of its time. The reading public, both in the... Read More
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THE TRUMPET-MAJOR. A Novel
by Hardy, Thomas
1880. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1880. Undated endpaper ads. Original mustard yellow cloth decorated in black. First American Edition (it is uncertain whether this or Munro's "Seaside Library" edition preceded; Holt's was, however, the authorized one, and also it was listed in Publishers' Weekly a week earlier). This was issued as No. 118 in Holt's "Leisure Hour Series," the series in which most of Hardy's early novels first appeared in America. By 1880 the books in... Read More
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TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES. A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented
by Hardy, Thomas
1892. Illustrated. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1892. 2 pp undated ads. Original terra-cotta cloth decorated in black. First American Edition of one of Thomas Hardy's best-known, and most-filmed, novels. This edition (January 1892, 421 pages) excluded many events "more especially addressed to adult readers," including two pivotal ones: Tess's seduction/rape by her cousin Alec, and the baptism and death of her resulting baby. Then the "New and Revised Edition" (the same binding but May 1892, 455 pages)... Read More
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WINTER WORDS. In Various Moods and Metres
by Hardy, Thomas
1928. London: Macmillan and Co., 1928. Original olive green cloth with monogram device in gilt, with dust jacket. First Edition, which consisted of 5000 copies, of Hardy's last book -- a collection of 105 poems. From his "Introductory Note" it appears that Hardy intended to have this published on his birthday in June 1928, and he foresaw that it would be "probably my last appearance on the literary stage"; in fact he died in January 1928, and the... Read More
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THE TRUMPET-MAJOR. A Tale. In Three Volumes
by Hardy, Thomas
1880. [a dazzling set] London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1880. Original red cloth pictorially decorated in black. First Edition of one of Hardy's least-known novels. Written during the year 1879 and serialized in the magazine Good Words (where it was bowdlerized by its Scottish clergyman editor), it is a tale in which Hardy combined the three separate strands which at that time most affected his life. One strand was his own Dorset background, and in particular the idea... Read More
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POEMS OF THE PAST AND THE PRESENT
by Hardy, Thomas
1902. (London and New York: Harper & Brothers, 1902.) Original dark green cloth with monogram device in gilt. First Edition of Hardy's second volume of verse, which (like the first, WESSEX POEMS), consisted of only 500 copies. None of Hardy's exceedingly scarce multi-volume novels consisted of fewer copies; for example, FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD, THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE and TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES each had a 1000-copy first edition. This title, actually published in November 1901,... Read More
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THE TRUMPET-MAJOR. A Novel
by Hardy, Thomas
1880. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1880. Undated endpaper ads. Original mustard yellow cloth decorated in black. First American Edition (it is uncertain whether this or Munro's "Seaside Library" edition preceded; Holt's was, however, the authorized one, and also it was listed in Publishers' Weekly a week earlier). This was issued as No. 118 in Holt's "Leisure Hour Series," the series in which most of Hardy's early novels first appeared in America. By 1880, the books in... Read More
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WESSEX POEMS and Other Verses
by Hardy, Thomas
1899. [illustrated by himself] With 30 Illustrations by the Author. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1899. Original light green cloth pictorially decorated in orange, yellow-green, light blue and white. First American Edition of Hardy's first volume of verse, published about six weeks after the London one (which was dated 1898). This volume "marks the final emergence of Hardy's primary interest, verse. The thirty years that remained to him were devoted to the composition of poetry..." [Purdy].... Read More
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A CHANGED MAN / The Waiting Supper / and Other Tales
by Hardy, Thomas
1913. Concluding with The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, (1913). Original dark green cloth with monogram device in gilt. First (American) Edition, published simultaneously with the English one. To quote from Hardy's prefatory note, this is a collection of "for what they may be worth, a dozen minor novels" that had previously appeared only in periodicals -- between 1881 and 1900, before Hardy had forsaken fiction for verse. It constitutes Hardy's... Read More
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JUDE THE OBSCURE
by Hardy, Thomas
1896. With an Etching by H. Macbeth-Raeburn and a Map of Wessex. (London:) James R. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co., (1896). Original dark blue-green cloth with front cover monogram device in gilt. First Edition of Hardy's last great novel, issued as Vol. VIII of "The Wessex Novels." Titled HEARTS INSURGENT at the time of its serial appearance, the book was ahead of its time: the 1890s public was not ready for Hardy's depiction of Jude and his cousin Sue... Read More
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The Melancholy Hussar." In: THREE NOTABLE STORIES
by Hardy, Thomas
1890. Love and Peril | To Be, or Not To Be | The Melancholy Hussar. Respectively by The Marquis of Lorne K.G. | Mrs. Alexander | Thomas Hardy. London: Spencer Blackett, 1890. 4 pp undated (Blackett) ads. Original light blue cloth lettered in black. First Edition in book form, first issue. Hardy's Napoleonic short story first appeared in two issues of Bristol Times & Mirror in January 1890, after which it was sold to Tillotson & Son for... Read More
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POEMS OF THE PAST AND THE PRESENT
by Hardy, Thomas
1902. (London and New York: Harper & Brothers, 1902.) Original dark green cloth with monogram device in gilt. First Edition of Hardy's second volume of verse, which (like the first, WESSEX POEMS), consisted of only 500 copies. None of Hardy's exceedingly scarce multi-volume novels consisted of fewer copies; for example, FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD, THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE and TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES each had a 1000-copy first edition. This title, published actually in November 1901,... Read More
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UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE. A Rural Painting of the Dutch School
by Hardy, Thomas
1873. New York: Holt & Williams, 1873. Endpaper ads dated May 10, 1873. Original cream cloth decorated in black. First American Edition, first issue, of Thomas Hardy's first book appearance in North America. This was his second novel, initially published in two volumes in London in June 1872; however, Hardy's first novel, DESPERATE REMEDIES, was not published in America until 1874. The first issue, as here, has both the title page and binding listing the publisher as Holt... Read More
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SELECTED POEMS
by Hardy, Thomas
1921. Nicholson, William. [in dust jacket] With Portrait and Title Page Engraved on Wood by William Nicholson. London, Liverpool and Boston: Philip Lee Warner, Publisher to the Medici Society, 1921. Original blue-grey paper-covered boards with natural linen spine with cover and spine labels, with dust jacket. Riccardi Press Edition, being copy #663 of 1000 copies. Hardy and Macmillan first published this collection of 120 poems in 1916. They selected poems that the "General Reader" might like, from Hardy's... Read More
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Autograph Note signed ("T. Hardy") to "Dear Mr. Fisher.
by Hardy, Thomas
1895. One page of a bifolium (watermarked "Papyrus Regia"), dated "18.12.95". The text of this note reads: I can only find the enclosed papers [not present], wh. please return, as they do not belong to me. Some details are incorrect. | Photography of Elliott & Fry, Baker St. | Yours truly | [signed] T. Hardy. "Mr Fisher" was almost certainly Frederick Henry Fisher, editor of "Literary World" magazine on Fleet Street; the prior month (3.11.95) Hardy had written... Read More
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WESSEX POEMS and Other Verses
by Hardy, Thomas
1899. [illustrated by himself] With 30 Illustrations by the Author. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1899. Original light green cloth pictorially decorated in orange, yellow-green, light blue and white. First American Edition of Hardy's first volume of verse, published about six weeks after the London one (which was dated 1898). This volume "marks the final emergence of Hardy's primary interest, verse. The thirty years that remained to him were devoted to the composition of poetry..." [Purdy].... Read More
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PLANTATION PAGEANTS
by Harris, Joel Chandler
1899. Illustrated by E. Boyd Smith. Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co., 1899. Original olive green cloth pictorially decorated in black and red. First Edition, English issue, of this collection of fourteen tales -- including a few about Brer Rabbit and friends. This is a children's story book in the same general format as the four books Harris had collaborated on with Oliver Herford a few years earlier, but instead illustrated by E. Boyd Smith (who had just illustrated... Read More
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