Cervantes de Saavedra, Miguel. [Trans. by] Charles Jarvis.
London: Printed for J. and R. Tonson in the Strand and R. Dodsley in Pall-Mall, 1742. 2 vols, 4to; Vol 1: 2 blanks, frontis, [i-iii], iv-xxxii, portrait frontis, [i-iii], iv-vi, 355, 2 blanks pp. Vol 2: 2 blanks, [i-iii], iv-xii, title page, 388, 2 blanks pp. 68 full-page copperplate engravings by Van der Gucht after Vanderbank, plus a portrait of Cervantes as a frontis to the Life of Michael Cervantes de Saavedra. Full calf, rebacked, decorated in gilt. Armorial bookplate to verso of the front flyleaf in vol. 1, in front pastedown in vol 2. Ribbon bookmarks. § The first Jarvis translated edition. With the Myan's and Siscar's Life of Cervantes, translated by Odell, imprint 1738. Without the "supplement to the translator's preface" by William Warburton found in some copies of this edition (Lowndes, p. 401).
[Medicine, Nutrition].
New York: Fairchild Bros. & Foster, Revised Edition 1916. Oblong booklet (6 x 2.5 inches), staple bound, containing printed slips on perforated sheets between green printed wrappers. Upper wrapper and backstrip with closed tear but no loss; diets slips complete (none removed), slightly age toned but generally very good. § Dietary advice for a range of complaints on convenient tear-out slips (there are several identical slips for each complaint), a promotional give-away from Fairchild Bros. & Foster drug manufacturer. The company was based in New York and specialized in digestive aids including Pepsencia, Peptogenic Powder, and Bacillus Bulgaricus, which are advertised on the inside of the wrappers. Remarkably, revised editions were still being printed 25 years later, in 1941, with very little change in the design. The company was acquired by Winthrop Chemical Company, which was then acquired by Sterling Drug, Inc., in 1946.
Spencer, John.
London: Printed for J. Field for Will. Graves over against Great S. Maries Church in Cambridge, 1665. Sm. 8vo, (32), 408; (8), 136, (8, contents, errata, and blank) pp. (Collation: A8, a8, B-Cc8, Dd4, A-I8, K4.) Later half calf with marbled paper boards, expertly rebacked with dyed tissue. First three leaves remounted, others with gutter repairs. Ownership inscriptions on title and front pastedown. A good copy of interest for the numerous annotations and other marks of readership in several hands throughout, including two full pages of notes in an early hand on the final blanks. § An interesting copy of the second edition of Spencer's work on monstrous births and other omens with a manuscript list of books on related subjects made by an early reader on an endpaper and other marginal marks and notes throughout.Spencer's book challenged the prevailing belief that medical abnormalities or "prodigies" were divine omens and insisted that most had mundane causes. Although his premise seems science-minded, his chief concern was to insist that only the Church could identify and interpret omens and that ordinary people should not speculate on God's will. The second edition was enlarged and includes A Discourse Concerning Vulgar Prophecies by the same author with a separate title page, imprint (London: J. Field for Timothy Garthwait, 1665), register, and pagination.The marks of former readers are extensive and appear to span at least 150 years. The earliest may be the two full pages of notes on the final blank in a late 17th century hand in which the writer records an omen described by "Mr Danniell in his Antidote Against Popery" and goes on to list the title, author, and imprint of three other contemporary books on the theme of prophecy: The Prophetical Warnings of Elias Marion (1707), William Wooton's Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning (1697), and Francis Castrell's The Certainty of Revelation and the Necessity of Believing It (1699). We have not been able to identify the book by Danniell: the omen described is that in 1619 "when the Protestant name began in Germany" a stone fell on the statue of St Peter in Rome smashing it utterly save for a fragment of the inscription reading "Aedificabo Eclesiam."The most recent mark of provenance is that of "G.B.B." who bought the book at the sale of Captain Richard Barrow's effects 6 December 1845. Captain Barrow's name appears on the title page dated 1788. These two men are presumably responsible for many of the underlinings, marginal marks, Biblical citations and other notes (some legible, some faded) throughout. Wing S4948, ESTC R38268.
Thomas, Dylan.
London: J.M. Dent &Sons, 1952. 8vo, xiv, 178 pp. Publisher's dark blue morocco, gilt top, backstrip lettered in gilt. A near fine copy with minor toning to pastedowns and a tiny hole at the foot of the backstrip. § Limited edition, numbered 41 of 65 copies, signed by Dylan Thomas. Self-evidently scarce. "The definitive lifetime edition of the collected poems of Dylan Thomas. Published only a year before Thomas's death, the collection brings together all but one of the poems from his three previous volumes of poetry, some of which were revised for this publication, with the addition of six poems written since 1946." (Maggs).
Dickens, Charles.
London: Chapman and Hall, 1837. 8vo, xvi, 609, pp. Forty-two plates, including frontis and engraved title-page. Without ads. Old half green morocco, gilt top, bookplates of Thomas Stillman and Jessie Stillman Taylor. Joints and headcap worn, first signature starting, plates considerably browned and some loose; a good only copy. § First edition in book form with later issue points. One the great classics of English literature. Grolier, 100 English, 78. Smith I, 3.
Homer. Cowper, William.
London: J. Johnson, 1802. 2 vols. 8vo, (iv), 352; (ii), 343, (1) pp. Contemporary tree calf, backstrip gilt, bookplates of Frederick J. Edlmann, Hawkwood. A little worn at joints and tips, feet of backstrips chipped, lower hinges a little weak, occasional foxing, but withal a very pleasant, unrestored set. § The second edition "with copious alterations and notes, prepared for the press by the translator, and now published with a preface by his kinsman J. Johnson, LL.B. chaplain to the Bishop of Peterborough." OCLC: 13245989
Bedford, Charles H.
Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press, 1913. Sm. 8vo, 74 pp. Printed on thick paper. Later binding of half polished red calf with red cloth boards, backstrip lettered in gilt, edges sprinkled red. Calf lightly rubbed and worn; internally very good. Signed by the author on front pastedown. § Second edition of an extensive catalog of poisons, their symptoms, and suggested treatments, intended for ready reference. "This book should not be filed (as when an emergency occurs, valuable time would be lost in searching it out for reference), but should be attached to the wall of the Office or Dispensary." The incongruously nice binding and the presence of the author's name on the front pastedown and two corrections to the text, suggests that this was his personal copy, bound specially for him. Charles Bedford was a Lieutenant-Colonel of the Indian Medical Service, Professor of Chemistry and Toxicology at Lahore Medical College (Punjab University), and Chemical Examiner to the Punjab Government. This is the only copy of this edition or the first edition of 1903 located outside of the British Library.
Giovanni, Nikki.
New York: William Morrow and Company, 1996. 8vo, xi, 292 pp. Original quarter white cloth and boards, dust-jacket, as new. § First edition, signed and inscribed "to Tom and Ellen" by the author, dated 12 June '96. Nikki Giovanni is an educator, an activist, and the author of numerous collections of poetry. Her first was the self-published volume Black Feeling Black Talk (1968). In 2009, Bicycles: Love Poems was a New York Times bestseller (2009). Her recording The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection was nominated for an Emmy. She was the editor of The 100 Best African American Poems (2010) and is a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech.
HOLLY, Henry Hudson.
New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1863. D. Appleton and Co.: New York, 1863. Large 8vo, 3/4 green polished calf over marbled boards, backstrip decoratively stamped in gilt, gilt-lettered pigskin backstrip labels, marbled endpapers. xiii, 171 pp. 36 tinted lithographic plates. Covers slightly worn, particularly along edges and joints, scattered foxing, one flyleaf lacking, but a good sound copy. § First Edition. Holly, himself a New-York-based architect, upholds the benefits of country life and urges businesses to take advantage of fast modern communication systems and enjoy the "country seat." Many of the designs in this book were already built in New England. There are 34 designs, and two of them have additional lithographic plates. The final design is a railway station, the first such plan to be depicted in an American book. Hitchcock 598.
Hemingway, Ernest.
New York: Charles Scriber's Sons, 1952. 8vo, 140 pp. Original light blue cloth, square and clean, a few light stains to early text pages. Book of the Month Club dust jacket with open chips at top and bottom with small loss to the "H" of Hemingway. § Book of the Month Club edition. Hemingway spelled correctly on the copyright page, together with Scribner's "A". The Old Man and the Sea was Hemingway's last major work and was dedicated to his publisher Charles Scribner III and his editor Max Perkins. First published in Life Magazine in the September 1952, millions of the issue were sold, the book, which appeared a week later, became a Book Club of the Month selection, and two years later received the Pulitzer Prize. Its success elevated beyond argument Hemingway's reputation as a twentieth century literary master and a year later he was awarded the Nobel Prize.
