LUBBOCK, John (Sir)
First impression. Possibly an issue bound specially for export, as the titling on the spine includes the American spelling, "civilization." Octavo. Green cloth; gilt spine-titles; front and rear cover with ornamental borders; 364pp + 24p ads; engraved frontispiece and four unnumbered leaves of plates; woodcut text illus. A tight, straight copy; slight wear at spine ends; Very Good. With the bookplate and internal shelf label of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge inside front cover (see note). Lubbock, a prominent British banker and politician best remembered for his scientific writings, was a neighbor, regular correspondent, and disciple of Charles Darwin. In the current work (his second), Lubbock applies Darwin's theory of Natural Selection to human societies, noting analogues between "primitive" cultures and contemporary civilization. In Lubbock's first book, "Pre-Historic Times as Illustrated by Ancient Remains (1865), he coined the terms "paleolithic" and "neolithic." A bright, attractive copy; from the library of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, a great-grandson of Thomas Jefferson and the last American plenipotentiary to France, appointed by Benjamin Harrison in 1892.
DREISER, Theodore
First Printing, trade issue. Octavo (24.5cm); black and dark red cloth-covered boards, with titling and decorative elements stamped in silver and gilt on spine and front cover; dustjacket; [vi],[2],3-589,[1]pp. Mild offsetting from flaps onto endpapers, faint foxing to text edges, else clean internally; Near Fine. Dustjacket is unclipped (priced $5.00), showing modest shelfwear, some dust-soil, and scattered foxing, with some toning and several small, nicks, tears, and attendant creases to extremities; Very Good. A memoir of Dreiser's early youth.
[CHARLES OLSON] CLARKE, John and Albert Glover (eds)
First printing (there does not appear to have been a cloth issue). Two quarto volumes; printed glossy card wrappers, 424+[425]-852,[vii] pp. Both volumes tight and unmarked, with mild bumps to corners; Very Good. First collected edition of this ambitous project, a tribute to Charles Olson organized around his "A Plan for a Curriculum of the Soul." The work was carried out over forty years and involved dozens of individual poets including John Clarke, Robert Duncan, Alice Notley, Robin Blaser, Danny Zimmerman, Anselm Hollo, and others.
Two volumes; large, thick quartos (28cm); early diced calf, recently re-spined in calf gilt to style, with red and black gilt morocco spine labels and new endpapers, all edges marbled; engraved frontispiece; 12;60;1028 + [1],1024pp. Text chiefly printed in triple column. Slight rubbing and wear to boards, mostly at edges; scattered foxing within; collated and complete. A sound, serviceable, and Very Good copy. FLEEMAN 55.4D/27; VANCIL, p. 127. COURTNEY & SMITH p.60. Regarding this monument of scholarship and wit, first published in 1755, little needs be said. Perhaps William Prideaux Courtney expressed the sentiment best: "The time that I have spent in the annotation of the Dictionary - I have done my reading in sips and have spread the pleasure over many days of delight - has been well expended. Every page possesses a joy."
First Printing. Octavo (21cm); black and white paper-covered boards, with titles stamped in black on spine; dustjacket; viii,88pp. Endpapers, text edges, and upper board edges foxed; lightly edgeworn; Very Good or better. Dustjacket is unclipped (priced $2.00), shelfworn, with shallow losses and several tears, and rear panel split from rear joint, stitched together with archival tape on verso; Good. A "discourse" delivered by Fuller before the SIU Edwardsville Campus Planning Committee on April 22, 1961, in which he presented conclusions "of far-reaching interest and importance in the planning for the expansion of physical facilities in higher education in this country" (from front flap).
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.
First Printing. Octavo (21.75cm); red cloth, with titles stamped in black on spine and author's name in blind on front cover; dustjacket; xii,400,[4]pp. Inscribed by the author in a contemporary hand on the title page: "To Sally - Solidarity! Angela Y. Davis." Gentle sunning to spine ends and upper board edges, top edge dust-soiled, with lower corners bumped (though still sharp), and a small stain to lower right corners of the textblock; Very Good+. Dustjacket is unclipped (priced $8.95), spine-sunned and shelfworn, with a few tiny nicks, tears, and attendant creases, and a few faint dampstains toward base of spine; Very Good. Attractive, inscribed copy of Davis's autobiography. Written shortly after her imprisonment and trial in the Soledad brothers murder case (she was found not guilty), the volume chronicles her life from her childhood in Birmingham, Alabama to her rise to the FBI's list of the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives.