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 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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THE FREE FISHERS
by Buchan, John
1934. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1934. Original green cloth, with dust jacket. First Edition (British) of this mysterious tale of a secret brotherhood -- of honest men with remarkable powers of communication -- 'We've our ain canny ways and our ain private lines set.' They are seamen from the Firth of Forth with some landward allies such as the hero, who is a young Professor of Divinity at St Andrews. The period is the Napoleonic Wars, the scene... Read More
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THE MOON ENDURETH. Tales and Fancies
by Buchan, John
1912. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1912. 4 pp undated ads plus 64 pp ads dated March 1912. Original dark grey cloth. First Edition of this collection of ten "tales and fancies," each preceded by an original poem; some of the tales are supernatural -- of which two, "Space" and "The Grove of Ashtoroth," are cited by Bleiler as "among Buchan's best work." Two of the other tales had been in the earlier (1899) collection titled... Read More
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MR. STANDFAST
by Buchan, John
1919. London / New York / Toronto: Hodder and Stoughton, 1919. Original light blue cloth. First Edition of the third of Buchan's five Richard Hannay mysteries (preceded by THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS and GREENMANTLE, to be followed by THE THREE HOSTAGES and ISLAND OF SHEEP). Since the first three take place during the Great War, MR. STANDFAST is often referred to as the concluding (and darkest) volume of the wartime Hannay trilogy. This is a very good-to-near-fine copy: there... Read More
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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP. By Cadmus and Harmonia
by Buchan, John
1920. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1920. Original blue-grey paper-covered boards decorated in black and ochre and printed in light blue, with yellow cloth spine printed in black, with pictorial dust jacket. First American Edition, published seven months after the 1919-dated English edition, of one of the scarcer John Buchan books (co-authored by his wife Susan, who, a childhood friend of Virginia Stephen, was an author in her own right). This book is not to be... Read More
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HUNTINGTOWER
by Buchan, John
1922. London: Hodder and Stoughton, [1922]. Original light blue cloth lettered in dark blue. First Edition of Buchan's first mystery to feature Dickson McCunn -- a retired Glasgow grocer who hopes to get a little relaxation and exercise with a walking holiday in Galloway... The other two McCunn mysteries would be CASTLE GAY and THE HOUSE OF THE FOUR WINDS. The endpapers are printed with a map of "The Cruives," the Huntingtower House environs. On the title verso... 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 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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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 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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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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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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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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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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