Hugo, Victor
2 vols. 1st edition (in French) with the misnumbered pages (vol. II, 339 for 439, etc.), The 1st printing was 1,100 copies, divided into 4 issues of 275 each. Our copy is the 1st issue, the only issue without Hugo's name on the title pages, and "2nd edition" "3rd edition" and "4th edition" were added on the 3 reprinted title pages in succession, along with Hugo's name, and those additions are value killers. And if a seller's accounting does not mention them, they are trying to sell you a suit of clothes that is only being shown to you inside out, and you can assume their set is wrong, and they have refused to assert the facts, and (alarmingly) they feel relaxed about not doing so. Now, book world is a small part of, and a reflection of, the wider world, and we live in strange times when ordinary common honesty is called courage. But that is no excuse for being sneaky, and sellers would be better served supplying all sides of all the details candidly or, failing that, staying open and dumb as a gutted bell. In fact, it is easier to be honest than it is to struggle with appearing honest and, on the path to getting there, it is also easier to behave your way into a new mode of thinking than it is to think your way into a new mode of behaving. A towering set in contemporary (first half of the 19th century) 3/4 calf, spines complexly blind tooled, joints smoothly strengthened but not rebacked, light wear, and rubs, spots to the calf spines, small paper flaws to a few blank margins, an occasional stain, and some scattered foxing (mostly to the first and last pages), but we are being scrupulous and picky, and it's surely a very good set, tall, and complete with the volume half-titles (ads on versos), the fly-titles, and all 9 inner half-titles, a set as pleasing as cheerfulness in an old face. And take note: Almost all copies in fancier bindings are later bindings. ABPC only lists one 1st issue in a contemporary binding sold at auction since 1975, and even if they missed a set, or missed 3, when you see a real 1st issue for sale in a contemporary binding, you can assume it is scarcer than a "smokers only" elevator. Ex-William Standish, a direct descendant of King Edward III. A divine work of art and a revolutionary leap in world literature, amalgamating the Gothic and the realist into an historical romance reimagined from a foundation for it laid by Thomas Leland, Clara Reeve, Sophia Lee, Maria Edgeworth, Elizabeth Hamilton, Jane Porter, Walter Scott, and Fenimore Cooper. Everybody remembers Quasimodo, but this is really a fateful tale about the destiny and tragedy of Esmeralda. Hugo set it 350 years in the past but that sneaks up on you like leaking electricity because he makes the time so accessible while still managing to capture its remoteness.
Kitchin, Thomas
1st edition. Folio (16" X 22"), 23 maps on 35 double sheets, all hand colored in outline, with some areas fully colored. A milestone on the trail of progressively expanded versions, a lineage that evolved from Kitchin's single country atlases to the entire world starting in 1773 (the same year he was appointed royal hydrographer to King George III). It is meaningfully dated 1782 on the title page and decidedly distinguished by the earliest map of the nascent United States with its new borders, settled in 1782 and reconfirmed during the Jan. 1783 stage of the Peace of Paris (the treaty ending the American Revolutionary War, finally signed on Sep. 3, 1783). Contemporary boards, rebacked in calf, else near fine throughout, the finest of these we have seen, emitting all the elegance of differential calculus, and scarcer in this condition than reliable reports on where the tooth fairy gets all her money. ABPC lists 2 complete copies (incomplete ones don't count) sold at auction since 1975, one of them defective (Sotheby's, 1995), the other one repaired (Sotheby's 2005) meaning no further intact copies were sold in the last 17 years. Ex-Sir George Shuckburgh Bar. Haughty quality and resplendent condition, though the title claiming "the whole universe" is a reach too far. A recent survey revealed that 75% of Americans under 30 could not efficiently access an atlas. 15% could. The other 10% did not know what atlas meant.
Hoffmann, E. T. A.
1st edition (in German). The 1st appearance anywhere in Taschenbuch für das Jahr 1820-Der Liebe und Freundschaft gewidmet [Dr. St. Schütz]. 12 illustrated poems on unnumbered pages at the front, then Hoffmann's novella is printed on pages 1-122. The remaining 208 pages are additions by others (an almanac). Contemporary full morocco, bound as a leather lined wallet with a pocket and pencil sheath at the back, mirror green endpapers, aeg, 3 little chips to the flap, some small worn spots, frontispiece with one tideline, still very good, complete, the pages white, a little jewel of a book, and rarer than someone who is exactly like their online persona. ABPC lists no auction sales in the last 47 years, OCLC lists just 2 copies in libraries (Waseda and Emory), and though we have always looked for it, we have only had it once before (the copy now at Emory). Coll: Frontis + (6) + 24 pages + 12 monthly plates + 330, pages + 5 plates. The notion that Poe invented the detective story in 1841 from the air is a canard (the wheel is spinning but the hamster is dead). What he did invent was C. Auguste Dupin, out to prove (and explain) his method of analysis. What Poe imitated was an amateur who takes up a Paris murder to save a wrongly charged man. Madeleine de Scudéri (a 50-something poetess) develops a theory (induction) in an earlier series of Paris murders because of compassion for the victims, then tests her theory (deduction) to rescue a falsely charged man, but she regards herself less seriously than Dupin and feels no need to openly demonstrate her methods (Poe read this tale in translation and was inspired). So, we ask, is the detective story about unraveling crimes, or is it about subtleties surrounding the detective's motivation? Brush off Sophocles' play Oedipus Rex (429 B. C.), The Three Apples (The Arabian Nights, ca. 1,000 AD), Voltaire's philosophical comedy Zadig (1747) even with some puzzle solving, and all the other pretenders, and we will give you 3 convincing supports for the preeminence of our novella in the detective chronology. 1. A series of unexplained murders occur at the beginning, continue, and are resolved at the end. 2. There is an innocent suspect, and the real killer is a character in the story but is unsuspected. 3. The innately reluctant detective is naturally curious, and though she is not a private investigator or the police, she, like Agatha Christie's Miss. Marple, mostly draws on interviews and conversations, and her meddling leads her to untangle the facts. And the clues, inquiries, discovery. reasoning, and the resolution are clear, orderly, and plausible. Works for us.
Gresham, William
1st edition. Endpapers foxed, one small and faint smudge, else fine in a very good dustjacket marred only by a 3/8" chip to the spine's upper corner and light wear to its base. Seldom seen in a jacket this nice, but the chip stifles our price ambitions, or maybe $2,000 is already too ambitious. You will let us know. An acclaimed model for postmodern noir, but if you like books with happy endings, don't bother. 2 films (1947 and 2021) were also good but also not cheery. It is set at the lowest level of shady carnival life with the corrupt hustlers and schemers that are its seedy inhabitants, their crimes, cons, torments, treacheries, exploitations, deceits, and betrayals, driving a downward spiraling plotline with a more hopeless ending than an eternity spent feeling around in a dark cave for a black flashlight that isn't there.
[The Beatles]
6 original production drawings for the animated feature film, Yellow Submarine. All 6 show The Beatles in their Sgt. Pepper band uniforms, Paul, and John with beards, each on an individual 16" X 12 1/4" sheet of 16 field paper, all in black graphite, and 5 of the 6 with parts of the drawings or the numbering in red. All are very good. 1. George: The image (head and shoulders) is 4 1/2" tall, in black, his beard has not been added but space has been left for it, there are 4 numerical notes in the margins, another by the image, his tuba is behind him, and a borderline is in red. 2. Paul: The image (half length) is 9" tall, in black and red, with 6 numerical notes in the margins, one of them deleted (2 pieces of clear tape on the reverse). 3. Paul: The image (half length) is 9" tall, in black and red (he is saluting), with 4 numerical notes in the margins. 4. John: The image (head) is 2 1/2" tall, in black, with 2 numerical notes and a scale in the margins, and another note near the image. 5. John: The image (head) is 2 1/2" tall, in black, with 2 numerical notes in the margins, and another note near the image. 6. John: The image (head) is 5 1/2" tall, in black, with 4 numerical notes and a scale in the margins (3 pieces of brown tape and 2 pieces of clear to the edges). Number 2 comes with a 1995 COA from Gallery Lainzberg and number 6 comes with a 1998 COA from Legend Animation Art, but all 6 are ex-HA, June 21, 2020, lot 99015, and all 6 have a money-back, guarantee of authenticity from Biblioctopus, and if you don't trust us, then why are you reading this catalog?
Sue, Eugène
13 vols. in 3 (the epilogue is vol. XIII), as issued. 1st edition (in French) with the vital 1842-1843 dates and 69,2% of it published in 1843, parallel with the edition from Hen and Lebégue (see previous). 19th century half white cloth (untitled on spines), marbled boards, bookplates of Alexander Max Vallas in each volume, a very good set, complete with half-titles. The original serialization of Les Mystères de Paris' was in a newspaper, Journal des Débats, from Jun. 19, 1842, to Oct. 15, 1843. The first 3 Brussels book editions (from Hen/Lebègue, Hauman, and Jamar) and the first Paris book edition (from Gosselin, with its many fake title pages alleging numerous reprintings) were all copied (typeset) from the journal's installments starting in 1842 and then published in multiple volumes, one at a time, as soon as enough journal issues had been released with adequate text to make up a small volume's obligatory number of pages, and they are the only 4 editions with the critical 1842-1843 title page dates (reprints by those 4 publishers and all other editions by other publishers either start after 1842 or end after 1843). With competing book editions, of sequentially issued novels, from serialized periodicals, over 2 calendar years, and lacking convincing publisher's records, the means of identifying which of the publishers (in this case 4) issued their last volume first (completing publication, and defining the 1st edition), is to lay priority on the edition with the smallest percentage of it issued in the 2nd year (in this case 1843). Here are the numbers: Ch. Hen/Alph. Lebègue, 68.8%, Société belge de librairie Hauman, 69.2%, Gosselin 80%, and Jamar, 81.2%. So, the Hen/Lebègue and the Hauman editions (what we offer on the next page) surely precede those from Gosselin and Jamar, but the Hen/Lebègue and Hauman editions are so close in percentages as to not establish (order) priority between them with certainty. What is certain is that if one of the 2 could secure priority as the real 1st edition, it would be much more expensive, but the arguments we have heard posed on both sides are fallacious. All 4 of the correctly dated 1842-1843 editions are scarcer than an end of the world prediction that anyone sane takes seriously. ABPC lists no auction sales, of any of the 4, since 1975 and OCLC is unclear on which Hen/Lebègue or Hauman editions libraries have, because both publishers reprinted many similar looking and closely dated editions. Of course, they can't possibly be that rare, but they are scarce enough, and the main reason for that is because a slightly later (1843 throughout), fully illustrated, and now ridiculously common, Gosselin, Paris, 4 vol. edition followed quickly, and because it was illustrated, it was the one readers bought and it is plentiful today, while the first 4 editions are not.
Irving, Washington
1st American edition, 1st printing (all points per B. A. L.). It is the last in an 1819-1820 (7 vol.) series in which Irving invented the modern short story, but the 4 tales in our volume form a distinct and complete book with individual pagination (the first 5 vols. are continuously paginated), and even on its own it is laudable. Original wrappers, spine gone, covers loose but holding, a cover stain at 8 o'clock, a large chip to the blank corner of A2, the first half-title (no text lost), pencil notes to rear blanks, but good, and rare, and real, and the only right copy in wrappers we have had. Ex-E. S. Litchfield. The NY edition of The Sketch Book was published serially in 7 parts in paper wrappers, the London edition in 2 volumes in boards and labels. The NY edition's part IV (Nov. 19, 1819) preceded vol. I of the London edition with parts I-IV (Feb. 16, 1820), but vol. II of the London with parts V-VII (Jul. 20, 1820) preceded the NY's part VII (Sep. 13). Correct 7 vol. NY sets are rare because (for one reason) identifying the 1st printings of some parts rests entirely on the wrappers, and the text points only confirm an early, not a 1st, printing, since the first reprints left some (all?) errors uncorrected. So, rebound NY sets can't be verified as correct and calling one a 1st edition without qualifying context is a deception, no matter how easy it is to do it. ABPC lists 2 complete sets in wrappers sold at auction since 1975 (Stralem and Martin), neither with all the parts right. In fact, no complete and correct set in wrappers has sold at auction in 100 years. Sets offered today have one or more incorrect wrappers noted in proper descriptions, while evasive descriptions hide it by lacking full details (vague book cataloging is not normal it is just common because some truth decieves better than no truth). Now, misdescribing Sketch Book particulars is a trifle and a poor example of seller misdeeds for us to use, however there are sellers who regularly exercise the same tactics with all their books looking for an edge, though most of them do not think it shows. But it does, and they are abandoning potential customers with 3-digit IQs who avoid commerce with the tricky, and this hunt for stupid collectors and negligent librarians is seen across the generations, but it is most prevalent among younger booksellers and that is a depressing sign for the future. So, here is our advice. If your book is a reprint, or some part is missing, or wrong, or even unsure, just say so and be done with it, like a professional. Hmmm, you hum, why do some booksellers do this? 2 reasons. 1. Most of their books are not worth the price they are asking so they forsake accuracy and shape their descriptions to read like they are for books that might be worth it. 2. To them, you are not yourself. You are a performer in their lives, cast for a part you do not even know you are playing. They are predatory, contemptuous, and vain, and like most vain people, they are in denial, and self-buffered to think that no one could possibly be any smarter than they are and that no one sees through their thin deceptions. But we do. And we remember. And we are not the only dog barking. And we all talk about them. And we shop elsewhere. And we advise others to do the same. And we point out why. And they lose the best collectors, librarians, and booksellers, and lose them forever. And they never know it.
Marguerite de Navarre
1st edition of this translation. The 1st French, 1558, 1st in English, 1597, and those that followed, were terribly abridged so this is the first complete and thorough translation into English (see below). Contemporary morocco (5 1/2" X 8 1/2") by Kaufmann. Portrait and 8 plates. Near fine. A dutiful text but a common book, and since you should never discount beauty, ours is a good way to want it, in an extravagant binding. Now, we have priced this book half what we paid for it, because we re-mark our books to market when we catalog them and today $400 is what it's worth. Marguerite (1492-1549), often hailed as the first modern woman, was Queen of Navarre, and forebearer of the Bourbon Kings of France through her grandson Henry IV, first of his line and the last amiable French King of the people. She was smart, adeptly educated, a humanist, and a reformer, and hostessed Leonardo at the Château d' Amboise after he left Italy and sheltered John Calvin and François Rabelais in her court. She took The Heptameron's frame narrative from Boccaccio's Decameron, but her 72 tales emphasize love, and though her aim was for them to have an elevating and civilizing impact on her readers, the greatest authors are seldom reticent or even respectable, so the tales got away from her higher ideals and wander well past love into lust, plots, intrigue, ruses, suspicion, seduction, deception, infidelity, jealously, trickery, misadventure, revenge, passion, grudges, desire, conniving, and all the other allied subjects orbiting romance. And though many of the tales twist into irony, others manage to have happy endings. The Heptameron's stories were the most famous, and remain the most popular, French stories of their time, but their road to eminence was long and rocky. Marguerite died before the 100 stories she planned could be finished, and for 300 years all the editions of the 72 she did write were slashed up, bowdlerized, and stripped of their vitality in the name of duplicitous morality. Finally, in the mid 19th century, a more faithful edition, was called for and about that time a 16th century manuscript was uncovered and published, and our edition is a translation from that one, redacting only quaint redundancies. And in the end, here's the thing about censorship (and propriety) today. If there are subjects people cannot discuss freely, people will be timid on all subjects.
Charters, Samuel
7 items: 1. 320-page original typescript, heavily corrected by Charters on nearly every page, with a thousand or so changes, additions, and deletions in his own handwriting, and the printer's notes in red and purple crayon, pencil, and ink (the setting copy used to print the book and the only extant manuscript). Universally acknowledged as the first scholarly book length study of the blues, a groundbreaking workofhighcharismasaving,whatwasin1959, a disappearing art form(seebelow). The first 7 leaves (the preliminary pages) are on different paper stock that is browned, brittle, and chipped (no text has been lost). The rest of the manuscript (all on nicer, still white paper) has some light wear, marks, and staple assembly, otherwise it is very good. But what is most important about the condition is that it is all here, and it is authentic, and influential, and it effervesces with character (see below). Awesome case, in 1/2 Maroquin du cap. 2-3. 2 sets of long galley proofs for the printed preliminaries dated Aug. 6 and Aug. 27. These have some thoughtful changes between them. 4-5. A pair of 1st editions, very good in very good dustjackets, one with the usual copyright page, the other one with 4 rubberstamped song copyrights in blue ink. 6. A Folkways Records LP album of the same name was issued to complement the book, with 14 cuts, most recorded between 1927 and 1931, from 12 of the bluesmen and 2 of the groups profiled in the book (Washboard Sam, Blind Willie Johnson, Peg Leg Howell, Leroy Carr, Big Bill, Lonnie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Bukka White, Tommy McClennon, Sleepy John Estas, Blind Willie McTell, and Robert Johnson, along with The Memphis Jug Band and Cannon's Jug Stompers), well representing the musicians and styles, (a fine 2nd pressing of the vinyl LP is here too). 7. Da Capo Press reprinted the book in 1975 with a new author introduction. Included is the disassembled, hand revised, and reassembled, Rinehart 1st edition used by Charters and De Capo to create the new edition, with markups, corrections, paste-ins, and Charters' signed note on the endpaper (a splendid item on its own). From the post-Civil War field cries and work chants of Southern Blacks came a rich and vital music called the blues, an intensely personal expression of the pains and pleasures of African American life. Early sheet music publishing of vaudeville songs with "blues" in their titles trace to 1908, and recordings of them trace to 1914, but they were not the real blues. The true songs, from the darkest reaches of life but almost always with a wry humor, were first recorded in the late 1920s, by men like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, Texas Alexander, Bo Weavil (sic) Jackson, and Peg Leg Howell, however, by 1940 they were belittled as reminiscent of slavery, were not being widely sung anymore, and had evaporated from the memories of all but a few. In 1951 Samuel Charters was an economics student at The University of California, Berkeley in love with music. He began traveling back and forth from California to New Orleans to better study jazz and the blues, and their historical and traditional connections, but his feelings got particularly taken by the lyrics of the blues and their mid-19th century origins. So, he reset his aims, focused on the blues, and quickly realized that he was racing against a great, impending artistic loss to save the roots, effects, and results of a vanishing genre. He roamed the South, from Georgia to Texas in 8 years of range work hoping to write a book that might be an elixir of formal, comprehensive, and devoted scholarly research. Then, in the late 1950s there was a folk music revival that suggested a new and potentially appreciative audience. Charters' pioneering study of an unjustly neglected music gave the blues to that potential audience. His book recreated the special world of the country bluesman, that lone Black performer accompanying himself on his acoustic guitar, the songs a reflection of h
Herschel, William
1st edition, 1st printing anywhere of Herschel's paper (read Apr. 26, 1781) announcing his sighting of Uranus, the first new planet discovered since antiquity. Herschel thought what he had seen was doubtless a planet, and excitedly showed it to his sister Caroline, but as an amateur, and not a member of The Royal Society (the handcuffs on progress are made from red tape), he modestly titled his article with reserve, and referred to the object in his paper as a comet, but he included specifics pointing out its location in the solar system and assumed other, more trusted, astronomers could find it and decide what it was with certainty. And they did so quickly and confirmed it was no comet but a new planet. The public was exhilarated, telescope sales increased fortyfold, Herschel became a rock star, and George III appointed him "The King's Astronomer." Our book is the entire, 582-page vol. 71 of the Royal Society's Transactions, with Herschel's paper and all 3 folding plates on pages 492-501. Contemporary full calf, rebacked in the 19th century, original ornately gilt spine preserved and laid down, endpapers replaced at the same time, some petty scuffs and wear, else very good, a beautiful book with boardwalk margins, the sheets 10 13/16" tall. Ex-Henry Beaufoy (an MP and a member of The Royal Society). See Printing and the Mind of Man number 227, who exhibited (and cataloged) a later paper by Herschel (On the Proper Motion of the Sun and Solar System, published in the 1783 volume of the Royal Society's Transactions), but the PMM entry is headed "A New Planet," and it emphasizes his 1781 discovery, and it details how he accomplished it, but it is our book, not theirs, that contains the paper proclaiming it. And our book is rare. ABPC lists no copies of it as having sold at auction going back to 1975, and only one sale for any scrap of our 1781 paper, a fragment of torn out pages, 14 years ago, and even apprentice collectors know that torn out pages are not comparable to complete books. What seems doubtful, despite the rarity, is that PMM could not locate a copy of our 1781 Account of a Comet when they assembled the books for their exhibition, yet the alternative (that the 1783 book they did exhibit was just a poor choice) would have been such an obvious mistake that it seems equally doubtful. Whatever the cause, their 1783 book was a placebo. Our book is not. And though it isn't The Starry Messenger, it is a something. A huge something.
Woolf, Virginia
1st American edition of her 2nd novel. Cloth with little corner rubs (light as a cat's footfall), else fine, in an unrepaired dustjacket with the shadow of a handwritten number on the spine, corner chips, and edge tears, else very good. Here is 37-year old Woolf, shrewd as an insurance adjuster, trying her hand at contrasts by portraying 4 young people who idealize different kinds of independence and yet, as is conventional with young people, insist on each other's support and fail to see any irony in that. Duckworth's 1919 London 1st edition of Night and Day is aggravatingly rare in a dustjacket, and one as nice as our NY edition, would be 10 times our price, and if you can find one, and if you can afford it, buy that. This 1st American edition in jacket is less rare, but ABPC says only one copy has sold at auction since 1975 (34 years ago), and were it thought to be fairly valued at, say, $5,000, every copy that showed up in the trade would be quickly spoken for and you would never see a nice one for sale. But collector enthusiasm for Virginia Woolf's books legitimately drives up her prices, and a rising price softens demand keeping copies of this NY edition of Night and Day sporadically for sale. Woolf's prose has nuances only successfully realized by women, but we will move past gender. The great portrait painter's brush captures the outer person more adeptly than the great writer's pen ever can, and it even reveals some of the inner person too. However, the writer's pen interprets samples of the superficial that we might have missed in the painting, and it more deeply captures the inner person more entirely than any brush. At their finest they are both art, different, and yet with the same aims. Between the candle lit and the candle cold there is a whisp of gray smoke. It looks like Virginia Woolf's whisp is going to last a long time.
Marcus Aurelius
[AR] denarius, the primary currency in 2nd century Rome [19mm. 3.40 grams]. Obverse: Laureate bust of Emperor Marcus Aurelius facing right, draped and cuirassed. M AVREL ANTONINVS AVG around. Reverse: Fortuna (the Roman religion's goddess of luck) seated, facing left, holding a rudder and a cornucopia. TR P XXXIIII IMP X COS III PP around. NGC slabbed and graded "Gem Mint State" (their highest grade). A flawless coin, with blazing white luster, that looks fresh enough to eat, an 1,842-year old perfection from the last series of dated coins struck during Aurelius' lifetime, a short series of only 3 types (2 denarii and one aureus). Refs: RIC III (Mattingly) 409 (he only saw it just cuirassed). RSC (Seaby), 972b fj (he also saw it just cuirassed, but saw it draped and cuirassed as well). BMC (British Museum Catalog) 805. Ex-HA, Aug. 20, 2021, lot 34234, $4,800 (that seems enough).
Einstein, Albert
1st edition (in German), the first appearance anywhere of 3 exalted papers by Einstein, each of them dealing with a different subject, each now recognized to be the beginning of a new branch of physics, and each now accredited to be a masterwork. Our 3rd paper (The Special Theory of Relativity) was followed by a 4th paper, later in 1905, that tied mass and energy together, and his General Theory of Relativity followed in 1915. Original cloth (?), complete with half-title and index, rubs to the spine tips still near fine, exceptional for this book and, unusually, without stamps or other marks. Half morocco case. All 3 papers are in this volume, as issued, and it's superior to, and not comparable to, extractions, because everyone knows that torn out pages are not a book, Multiple copies of the offprints, of one or another of the 3 specific papers, have sold at auction since 1975, and individual issues are also seen, as well as extractions, but, surprisingly, it looks like ABPC lists only 11 complete copies of our volume sold at auction in the last 47 years (most in poor condition or in later bindings), the most recent one in 2019 and, typically, that one was an ex-library copy, shaken, and with stamps on the pages and edges. Compared to the individual issues or the offprints, our book seems scarce enough when it's complete, and yet, it is often wrongly thought of as available on demand, and it is nearly impossible to edify collectors about something that runs counter to what they suppose they already know. For instance: an atom smasher is really a subatomic particle accelerator, the origins of the Renaissance were not in Florence but in Padua, coyotes are actually 15 mph faster than roadrunners, and ignorance is not bliss or more people would be happy. The first paper: Uber einen die Erzeugung und Verwandlung des Lichtes betreffenden heuristischen Gesichtspunkt [On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light] March 1905 (pages 132-148). Announcing his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect, an explanation for the emission of electrons from some solids when struck by light. He also proposes that light is composed of individual quanta (later named photons) with wavelike behavior demonstrating properties unique to particles. It is for this paper, and not for The Special Theory of Relativity (see our 3rd paper below), or for the later General Theory of Relativity in 1915, that Einstein was awarded his 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics. Here is the essential sentence from his introduction: "According to the assumption to be contemplated here, when a light ray is spreading from a point, the energy is not distributed continuously over ever-increasing spaces, but consists of a finite number of energy quanta that are localized in points in space, move without dividing, and can be absorbed or generated only as a whole." The second paper: Ueber die von der molekularkinetischen Theorie der Waerme geforderte Bewegung von in ruhenden Fluessigkeiten suspendierten Teilchen [On the Movement of Small Particles Suspended in a Stationary Liquid Demanded by the Molecular-kinetic Theory of Heat] May 1905 (pages 549-560). A new view of the universe, proving (ultimately past argument) that there are atoms, the first proof that molecules exist, and providing the first mathematical model of the phenomena of Brownian motion, instigating the field of statistical mechanics (I think that sentence is right, but physics is not my best game, and, in fact, the only things I do well, these days, is sit, write, and plot revenge). The third paper: Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Koerper [On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies] September 1905 (pages 891-921). Presenting The Special Theory of Relativity, a treatise beyond compare and without precedent, revolutionizing mechanics and generally thought to be the most consequential publication in physics since Newton's Principia, saying that the laws of physics are invariant, and that the
Harris, Joel
1st edition, 1st printing, 1st binding (right ads), as per B.A.L 7100. His first book. Blue-gray cloth (6 colors with no priority), 3 miniscule specks to spine else fine (superlative). Blue-gray seems the scarcest color, and it is prone to fading and soiling, so it also seems the hardest to get in fine condition. Old half morocco case. The first classic American beast fable, teeming with tricks and troublemaking, repeatedly wise, and replete with keen observations on human frailties that seldom contradict experience. The Tar Baby tale says that when it is not necessary to be offended, it is necessary to not be offended, The Briar Patch tale says that if fools are arrogant and ornery enough, they will do what you tell them not to do. And there are 32 other stories, along with some songs and proverbs, that take turns reminding the reader that cunning often outwits itself, that some days you're the puddle and some days you're the mop, that moral victories don't count, that if it were not for the last minute nothing would get done, and that the only normal folks are the ones we do not know very well. Undeterred by all that, the understandably irritated reject indulging Uncle Remus as folklore of its time, primarily, but not entirely, because the depiction of its narrator stereotypes the formerly enslaved.
NASA
Composition hatch plug, flown to the Moon and back on Apollo 11 (the first manned landing). 1 1/2" long X 3/4" diameter. An actual piece of the legendary Columbia command module, removed to shut down the electrical systems and open the hatch during ocean recovery. Scorched on one end from re-entry else fine, in a handmade 18K gold cage, hand engraved on the side, "Flown to the moon on Apollo 11" and ringed to an 18K gold, 27 inch, handmade chain. Ex-Dick Williamson, the recovery chopper film technician with the frogmen helicoptered from the first ship to reach the module as it floated in the Pacific. [with] Williamson's note of provenance signed in ink. Apollo 11's Columbia is now in the Smithsonian, intact as a national relic. The hatch plugs and some screws were among the only components of the ship itself that had to be removed and could be expected to remain in the hands of collectors today. And if you wait a few years, regardless of price, you are going to have to use the Dark Side of the Force to buy an authentic piece of the spacecraft from this specific mission. Setting Armstrong (a civilian) and Aldrin (a Colonel) on the Moon, and bringing them back alive, was the most ambitious and complex of all human achievements so far. In 1,000 years, it may be the only event anyone remembers to associate with the 20th century. This was the United States at its maximum sensational, and America is still the best promise. For the record: Apollo 1 caught fire. Apollos 2 through 6 were unmanned tests and Apollo 7 was a flight in Earth orbit. Apollo 8 orbited the moon and was the first manned ride on the Saturn 5 Rocket. Apollos 9 and 10 also orbited and tested the landing craft, but it was Apollo 11 that fulfilled the pledge, landed Armstrong and Aldrin on the surface, and brought them safely home. A mythic remnant with a failsafe future, spiritually connecting the wearer with the otherworldly energy of a human's first flight and landing from Earth to somewhere. The maker of stars is the maker of us.
2 vols. 1st edition (the 1st appearances anywhere). Contemporary cloth, short splits at the base of the joints neatly closed, library blindstamps on the title pages, else very good. This is the whole of both books, and they are, obviously, much better than, and rarer than, and should not be compared to, torn out pages (extractions). [1] Vol. I has 4 of the 5 parts of Lister's On a New Method of Treating Compound Fractures., pages 326-329, 357-359, 387-389, and 507-509. [2] Vol. II has the 5th part, pages 95-96. [3] Vol. II also has Lister's 2nd article, On the Antiseptic Principle in the Practice of Surgery, pages 353-356, and [4] his 3rd article, The Antiseptic System of Treatment., pages 668-669, cumulatively changing surgery, the lives of those practicing it, and those undergoing it, to this day, and there is universal reverence for the magnitude of this medical divination. Rare. ABPC lists 2 sales of the complete London volumes at auction since 1975 ($2,056 in 1988 and $3,496 in 1994, and that is 28 years ago). Refs: Printing and the Mind of Man, 316c (the 1st 5-part article). Grolier, 100 Books Famous in Medicine, 75 (also the 1st article). Dibner, Heralds of Science, 133 (the 2nd and 3rd articles). Norman 1367 (also the 2nd and 3rd articles). "As head of the surgical wards at Glasgow's Royal Infirmary, Lister was appalled by the 40% mortality rate among surgery patients, most of it caused by gangrene, erysipelas, septicemia, and other post-operative infections. After studying the problem, he came to believe that wound suppuration was a form of putrefaction and was confirmed in his belief by the writings of Pasteur, who had recently proved that putrefaction was a fermentative process caused by living microorganisms. Lister adopted carbolic acid as a weapon against microorganisms after learning of its efficacy in sewage treatment [all praise to the flair of bringing a discovery in one domain and applying it in another] and used it in 11 cases of compound fracture, 9 of which recovered. He then applied his antiseptic techniques to the treatment of abscesses with similar success. Lister described his remarkable achievements in this classic series of reports, his first work on the antiseptic principle in surgery." -Norman 1366 Among copious bursts of mindful observation in these articles, 2 of them, concerning the healing capacity of tissue, if it is protected from infection, stand out to me: 1. That a carbolized blood clot becomes organized into living tissue by the ingrowth of surrounding cells and blood vessels. 2. That portions of dead bone in an aseptic wound are absorbed by adjacent granulation tissue. What a debt we all owe Dr. Lister.
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