PEROV, Vasily] SHUMOVA, Marina; Graham Whittaker (translation)
Quarto (29.5cm.); dark red publisher's cloth boards with embossed title on front and gilt lettering on spine, in white and color pictorial dust jacket; 159pp, 135 plates. Text block is yellowing slightly at extremities, otherwise sound and Fine. Additional toning on pastedowns and end papers. Dust jacket is slightly creased along upper edges towards spine; inner flaps rolling slightly at edges, with a spot of splitting on rear flap. Else very light shelf wear, Fine. This account of pioneering 19th century Russian artist Vasily Perov (1834-1882) features biographical information and commentary on his artwork, presented here in text illustrations and 135 full color plates. Perov is especially noteworthy for employing critical realism in his depictions of everyday citizens, streetlife, and peasantry.
REICH, Sheldon
First Printing. Quarto (31cm.); black publisher's cloth boards with gilt lettering, in black pictorial dust jacket; xiii,153pp. Text block sound and clean; boards slightly worn on spine hinge ends; both Fine. Dust jacket exhibits some shelf wear, with rolling, wear, and minor tears along extremities, particularly the lower ends and rear panel edges. Some yellowing in margins of inner flaps; else Very Good+. Featuring Sheldon Reich's interviews with Francisco Zuñiga, renowned Mexican sculptor, this book also includes Reich's analyses of a selection of Zuñiga's works, accompanied by 137 b/w photo-illustrated plates.
SPIEGELMAN, Art and Françoise Mouly (editors)
First printing. Large quarto (35.5cm.); color/matte pictorial paper wrappers; 89pp. Text block shows some light handling wear and yellowing/staining to block edges, otherwise clean. Subtle crease to margin on pg. 88. Bindings still tight, with "The Matisse Falcon" mini-comic book and "City of Terror" trading cards still attached. Overall Near Fine. Wrappers are slightly toned throughout, with mild shelf wear; rear wrapper is creased aling lower corner; sticker attached. Spine hinges creased, else Near Fine. A compilation of select pages from the first three issues of RAW (1980-1991), seminal publication of the alternative/New Wave comics scene of the 1980's. Features mostly b/w comics and graphics from classic RAW artists, including Mark Beyer, Josh Allen and Drew Friedman, Françoise Mouly, José Muñoz, Gary Panter, Art Spiegelman, and Jacques Tardi.
HALL, George A.
First printing. Quarto (28.5cm.); blue publisher's cloth pictorial boards with gilt lettering, in white pictorial dust jacket; vi,180pp. Text block is clean, with light handling wear; bindings mostly tight, with slight separation from front pastedown to page 6. Pastedowns toned along margins, else text block and boards are Near Fine. Dust jacket has surface wear and scuffs, with soiling on rear panel. Mild wear and creasing to jacket extremities, particularly the rear panel edge. Spine extremities lightly chipped, damp stain evident on lower margin. Jacket overall Very Good. A contemporary overview of West Virginia's native bird families and species, ecology, and habitat loss. With b/w text illustrations and photographs throughout. Listed as Special Publication No. 7 of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Author inscription on half-title page.
WOMEN] ANN, Judith, Rita Mae Brown, and Shulamith Firestone, et al. (contributors)
One-off feminist magazine containing poetry, prose, drama, and essays, profusely illustrated throughout. Contents include contributions by Rita Mae Brown, Jean Jagger, Shulamith Firestone, Linda ViVona, Rose Gladstone, Joyce Betries, and Ruth Herschberger, et al. Notable for the inclusion of Judith Ann's lengthy autobiographical essay "The Secretarial Proletariat." Quarto (27cm); illustrated wrappers, stapled; 40pp; illus. A Fine copy.
PRISONS & PRISON REFORM] GILLIN, John Lewis
Study of penological practices across the globe, from the criminal tribes in India, Japanese penal institutions, and the Parchman prison farm in Mississippi. Provenance: From the library of Sing Sing Correctional Facility prison warden and author of the 1932 memoir "20,000 Years in Sing Sing" Lewis Lawes, his bookplate featuring a cartoon of Lawes at his desk, a repeat prisoner standing before him, the speech bubble eminating from his mouth: "I'm in again boss to return your book." By the time Lawes retired from his post in 1941 he had overseen 303 executions, though he was best known for prison reform and the policy of treating his prisoners like humans rather than unreformable criminals. The book plate may very well be an example of prisoner art based on the crudeness of the illustration. Octavo (22cm.); publisher's maroon gilt-lettered buckram; vii,[7],318pp.; photographic frontispiece, eleven leaves of photographs printed on rectos and versos. Boards rather rubbed with exposure at spine ends and corners, tiny soil spot to upper cover, endpapers toned with a few chips at top edge of front free endpaper, else Very Good, internally sound. Pictorial ownership ex libris to front pastedown of Sing Sing prison warden Lewis Lawes (1883-1947).
TRAVEN, B.
Labor novel first serialized in a Berlin newspaper as "Die Baumwollpflücker" ("The Cotton-Pickers"). The first half of the novel is set on a cotton farm among its workers who organize a successful, but ultimately fruitless, strike. The second half of the tale moves to the port city of Tampico, where the protagonist Gales works first as a baker and then a cattle driver, simultaneously witnessing a number of more successful strikes than that of the first section. Though the members of the Union of Restaurant Employees thrive, Gales discovers that he is happiest with the independence of the cattle driver. The title of the published work, "The Wobbly," is based on several accusations levelled at Gales that he is a "Wobbly," something he always denies though the text hints that he may be so. (For more information see Richard Eugene Mezo's "A Study of B. Traven's Fiction" (1993), pp. [31]-33). Octavo (24cm.); publisher's orange cloth lettered in black; 184pp. Light scuffing at spine ends, board very slightly bowed, else Very Good or better, internally fine.
UTOPIAN THOUGHT] MACLURE, William
Notice and errata leaf bound in after Vol. 1 title page, stating that "Six of the following essays were written at Paris, in the year 1819, at the request of the editor of the 'Revue Encyclopedique,' for publication in that work; but they were excluded by the Censors of the press, as too democratic." The repressed essays were subsequently translated into Spanish and published in Madrid, Maclure having travelled to Spain in the hopes of founding an agricultural school "for the common people, in which labor should be combined with instruction" (DAB 12, p. 136). Maclure purchased 10,000 acres of land outside Alicante, but had to relinquish these after the overthrown of Cortes when the land was restored to the Church. From Spain Maclure travelled to Robert Owen's community of New Lanark in Scotland, which in turn inspired him to travel overseas to the Owenite community of New Harmony, where his early articles appeared in the Gazette; the remaining essays were publishing in the "Disseminator of Useful Knowledge" and the "Disseminator," both issued in New Harmony. Along with his writings, Maclure also founded the New Harmony Working Men's Institute, in 1838, just two years before his death. BYRD & PECKHAM 444; HOWES M-162; SABIN 43554; STREETER 4241. Second (and best) issue, text extended to p. 640. Two volumes in one; octavo (24cm.); original muslin-backed boards, printed spine label, leaves untrimmed; [4],640pp. Boards rubbed with some brief exposure at corners and upper cover fore-edge, spine and joints cracked but holding, paper flaw to front pastedown from partially effaced ownership signature, occasional foxing throughout textblock, else Very Good, internally clean and sound. Text ends mid-sentence at end of Vol. 2, though the third volume did not appear until 1838 and is treated as bibliographically separate.
RADICAL & PROLETARIAN LITERATURE] CHEYNEY, Ralph, ed
Anthology edited by the founder of the "Rebel Poets," the present title including poems by Witter Bynner, Stanton A. Coblentz, Carl Sandburg, and many others. From the introduction by the series editors: "They [the editors] share with Ralph Cheyney a preference for the spirit of Gandhi rather than the spirit of Lenin, though admiring both men. They favor non-violent noncooperation, over mass violence, as a method of social change" (p. 4). Small, slim 12mo (16cm.); publisher's tan pictorial card wrappers, yapp edges; [2],38pp.; printed on stiff tan handmade stock. Light edge wear, faint dampstaining along spine edge of upper and rear cover (not bleeding into textblock); Very Good overall, internally fine and unopened. "Driftwood Chapbook No. 2."
REYMONT, Ladislas
12mo (19cm.); publisher's black decorative cloth stamped in blue, green, purple, and yellow, green topstain; [6],287pp.; title and series pages printed within green decorative border. Faint dampstaining to fore-edge of both covers not bleeding into textblock, though with some subsequent minor bowing of bords, corners bumped, contemporary ex libris to front pastedown, else Very Good, internally fine. The third of four novels in the Polish Nobel laureate's series "The Peasants," first published as "Ch opi" between 1904 and 1909, describing the lives of the peasant class by the seasons.
VINAVER, Martin
Proto-graphic novel by the thirteen-year-old author Martin Vinaver, born in France in 1959 but living in Mexico at the time of publication. The story describes the relationship of young Caleo and Fersia, who fall in love and get married. "When they'd already been married a year Caleo and Fersia decided to have a baby and to have a son they had to screw, as they vulgarly say." (this accompanied by a rather detailed but not exactly accurate depiction of the sex act), and the action goes on from there. We find a German-language exhibition catalog from 1969 featuring artwork by the young Vinaver, though this appears to be his only published book per OCLC. Octavo (22.5cm.); publisher's white pictorial card wrappers; [2],61ll.; color illus. throughout. Some shelf wear, wrappers rather soiled, else Very Good and sound. Text in Spanish, English, and French.
United States Census Office]
Quarto (28.5cm.); dark red publisher's cloth boards, with gilt lettering on spine, no dust jacket; 189pp. Text block lightly worn on edges; mild yellowing at gutters but otherwise clean and sound; Near Fine. Front pastedown has ownership stamp. Boards have light surface wear and soiling; front board margins are slightly sunned; pushing to upper edge of rear board. Spine also sunned, soiled, and worn, with sticker residue near heel. Boards overall Very Good or better. First edition printed in 1908, this text contains a transcription of the first census of the United States for Virginia, enumerating city/county inhabitants by age, sex, occupation, and race (including slaves/free citizens) as of 1790.
PERTCHIK, Bernard and Harriet, William C. White (introduction)
First printing. Quarto (31cm.); teal paper boards quarterbound in rust brown publisher's cloth w/ silver lettering, in color pictorial dust jacket; xii,125pp. Text block is slightly toned, with very minor and intermittent foxing throughout. Front end paper has gift inscription. Otherwise clear and bright, Near Fine. Upper board edges mildly sunned, with some rubbing and slight material loss on the bottom corners. Dust jacket is toned, with surface wear and creasing; some closed tears along edges, with prominent examples along lower portions of front and rear; small material loss on crown of spine. Else Very Good. This book describes the characteristics and folklore of several Caribbean tree species, through commentary and 30 lurid color paintings by Bernard and Harriet Pertchik.
AFRICAN-AMERICANA] DWIGHT, Theodore
Early such piece arguing against slavery, delivered by the Federalist lawyer and cousin of Aaron Burr. The Society was founded just four years previously, in 1790, and Dwight would work assiduously as an attorney representing free black New Yorkers who had been kidnapped to be placed on the slave market. "Although he wrote too much and too rapidly for lasting fame, his political articles were bright and spicy" ("Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography (1888), Vol. II, p. 282). EVANS 26922; SABIN 21530. Octavo (19.5cm.); disbound; 24pp.; [A]-C4. Title page and last leaf of text (serving as upper and rear wrappers) separated but present, upper wrapper rather soiled, extremities chipped and a bit brittle. A Good, serviceable copy only.
