The North American Indians: A Selection of Photographs by Edward S. Curtis
BROWN, Joseph Epes (introduction) Small 4to. Grey cloth with red lettering, pictorial dust jacket. (Ca. 75pp). Frontispiece, extensive full-page illustrations. Fine/near fine. Jacket spine faintly sunned. This tight and attractive first edition highlights the famous photog's best Native American images.- $40
- $40
The American Book Collector (Vol. X, No. 6, February, 1960)
THORSEN, W.B. (editor) Small 4to. Pictorial wrappers. 32pp. Illustrations. Very good. Lightly age toned. Handsome issue of this long-running bibliophilic monthly. Front wrapper depicts Lincoln and major articles include John S. Mayfield's "Lanier in the Florae," George Mackess's "Austraina Private Presses" and the usual array of reviews and columns.- $15
- $15
The Divine Comedy / La Divina Commedia
ALIGHIERI, Dante Complete 3-volume set. Translation by Louis Biancolli. Illustrations by Harry Bennett. Small 4to. Quarter ivory cloth with gilt spine lettering and pictorial paper over boards, slipcase with paper label. (284pp, 280pp, 284pp). Full-page illustrations. Fine/near fine. Handsome set of this bilingual edition with Italian original facing English free verse translation. The first volume is "Hell," the second volume "Purgatory" and the third volume "Paradise."- $95
- $95
The Voice of the Whaleman: With an Account of the Nicholson Whaling Collection
SHERMAN, Stuart C. Small 4to. Teal green and tan cloth with gilt spine lettering, pictorial dust jacket. 219pp. Illustrations. Fine/near fine. Thar she blows!! Handsome, tight first edition of this killer reference work, alovely production printed by the venerable Stinehour Press of Lunenberg, Vermont. The exceptional whaling collection bequeathed to this library in 1956 informs this first-of-its-kind study of whaling logbooks, journals, account ledgers and other whaling-related paper.- $55
- $55
French Prints of the 20th Century
PASSERON, Roger 4to. Tan cloth with orange spine lettering, pictorial dust jacket. 181pp. Extensive tipped-in plates (most color). Fine/fine. Outstanding fresh and tight first U.S. edition of this survey of French prints from renowned artists and etchers ranging from Auguste Renoir and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec to Raoul Dufy and Pablo Picasso, with Georges Braque and Marc Chagall and Joan Miro and other luminaries in between. This lovely volume bears also bears a choice signed print from an esteemed contemporary of those later artists in the book born in the teens and twenties, an artist not among those included in this book but a colleague. Israeli painter SIOMA BARAM (1919-80) was born in Romania and died on an island in the Mediterranean, but spent much of his life in Paris studying art and fresco painting, producing engravings and abstracts. Tipped to front flyleaf is a fine 6¼" X 4" untitled engraving depicting a typically surrealistic enormous tree, signed boldly by him in pencil at lower right. Verso is inscribed (viewable since tipped in only along one edge) by him in French large and bold in pencil and signed simply "Baram."- $195
- $195
Inferno
ALIGHIERI, Dante Translation and n otes by Allan Gilbert. Small 4to. Charcoal grey cloth with gilt spine lettering, price-clipped dust jacket. xlvi, 373pp. Fine/very good. Bit of age toning and uneven sunning to rear panel (only) of nice jacket. Handsome first of this edition, a side-by-side pairing of the original Italian of this first part of the 3-part "Divine Comedy" facing Gilbert's verse translation.- $65
- $65
Poems: all of them touching on some aspect of the imagination and written by members of the University, some of them especially for the occasion, read as part of Creative Arts Week, May 1961, at the University of Iowa
(IOWA POETRY WORKSHOP) Narrow small 4to. Stiff pale blue wrappers. (26pp). Fine. First and surely sole printing of this slim, scarce pamphlet whose contributors include Iowa Poetry Workshop's long-time director Paul Engle along with such luminaries as Philip Levine, W.D. Snodgrass, Donald Justice, William Dickey and others. (Front wrapper title: "Poems: Creative Arts Week, May 1961, at the University of Iowa.") An intriguing association copy: From the collection of famed fine printer Kim Merker (1932-2013), who in 1957 founded Stonewall Press -- his charming 1½" X 2" custom "KM" bookplate showing a bull peering over a stone wall is tipped to the inside front wrapper. Merker's name appears nowhere in this booklet, but given its poets, its fine press feel and its place of publication -- all of which he was intimately associated with -- it's likely he had a hand in it somehow. Seldom seen and in exceptional condition.- $150
- $150
The Isenheim Altarpiece
SCHEJA, Georg Photographs by Bert Koch. 4to. Black cloth with gilt lettering, pictorial dust jacket. 80pp. Color frontispiece, diagram, numerous illustrations, numerous tipped-in color plates (a couple foldouts). Fine/near fine. Outstanding first edition of this close examination of the early 16th century sculptural triptych masterpiece attributed to Matthias Grünewald and Nikolaus of Haguenau and displayed in Alsace, France.- $75
- $75
Barnes County History: Barnes County, North Dakota
4to. Full burgundy leatherette with blindstamped spine title and large front board gilt title and pictorial giltstamping. 360pp. Map, extensive illustrations, pictorial endpapers. Fine. Pristine first edition of this thorough, well-rounded history (albeit heavy on thumbnail biographies of a vast number of residents) of this sparsely-populated region in the southeast corner of the North Dakota in the Upper Midwest. The one and only history of this county -- rather uncommon and incredibly bright and tight. FILBY 277. A Night to Remember: Illustrated Edition
Small 4to. Black cloth with silver spine lettering, pictorial dust jacket. 232pp. Extensive illustrations, pictorial endpapers. Fine/fine. Superbly tight and bright edition of this first thus, a highly-illustrated edition of Lord's 1955 account that sparked a renewed and never-ending interest (and a film version) of the famed disaster. This special copy bears a choice autograph addition: Tipped in facing the half-title page is a great content Typed Letter Signed from Lord, 1p, 5¼" X 6½", New York, NY, 31 July 1955. Addressed to Lord's long-time correspondent Arnold F. Gates (1914-93, noted Lincoln/Civil War scholar). Fine. On letterhear of "The Princeton Club" (Lord's alma), Lord first thanks Gates for his favorable review of the book he edited published in 1954, "The Fremantle Diary" (a new edition of Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle's 1863 "Three Months in the Southern States April-June, 1863 -- he was lieutenant-colonel with the Coldstream Guards). Most importantly, though, he goes on: "I am just finishing up another book, on the Titanic disaster this time, and my publisher has done everything but use whips to keep me at it. The result has meant postponing until now a lot of things I've long wanted to do." Turns out the publisher was right, for "A Night to Remember" became Lord's best-known book by a long shot. Finally, Gates (a founder of the New York Civil War Round Table and long-time officer) appears to have interested Gates in joining that group, for he concludes: "I certainly hope you will follow through on your offer to let me sit in on one of your New York meetings. Perhaps, if you have any spare time, I could entice you to my apartment. I think you would be interested in the collection of 47 prints I have that were printed in the Confederacy during the war." Boldly signed in full. A great copy of this title with exceptional content letter penned shortly before publication of this important title. French Prints of the 20th Century
4to. Tan cloth with orange spine lettering, pictorial dust jacket. 181pp. Extensive tipped-in plates (most color). Fine/fine. Outstanding fresh and tight first U.S. edition of this survey of French prints from renowned artists and etchers ranging from Auguste Renoir and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec to Raoul Dufy and Pablo Picasso, with Georges Braque and Marc Chagall and Joan Miro and other luminaries in between. This lovely volume bears also bears a choice signed print from an esteemed contemporary of those later artists in the book born in the teens and twenties, an artist not among those included in this book but a colleague. Israeli painter SIOMA BARAM (1919-80) was born in Romania and died on an island in the Mediterranean, but spent much of his life in Paris studying art and fresco painting, producing engravings and abstracts. Tipped to front flyleaf is a fine 6¼" X 4" untitled engraving depicting a typically surrealistic enormous tree, signed boldly by him in pencil at lower right. Verso is inscribed (viewable since tipped in only along one edge) by him in French large and bold in pencil and signed simply "Baram." A Compleat History of the Lives and Reigns of Mary Queen of Scotland, and of Her Son and Successor, James the Sixth, King of Scotland; and (after Queen Elizabeth) King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, the First.
Small 4to. Full tan tree calf with gilt rules and gilt-lettered burgundy calf spine label and decorations, inner dentelles. (18pp), 262pp, (16pp), pp. 265-599, (3pp). Two full-page frontispiece engraved portraits, marbled endpapers. Very good overall. Binding a bit scuffed and edgeworn, mainly along spine and slightly delicate hinges; internally tight, with text block moderately age toned and with occasional foxing. Attractive first edition of this thorough account from the English historian (c. 1586-1676), in 19th century rebind. Second title page at midpoint (with second frontispiece) is titled "The Reign and Death of King James of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, the First, &c." (London: Henry Hills, 1655). The Prairie President: Living Through the Years with Lincoln, 1809-1861
8vo. Quarter linen with paper label and gilt rules/decorations and terra cotta paper over boards, slipcase. xxv, 427pp. Top edge gilt. Frontispiece, illustrations. Fine/very good. A handsome first edition of this popular biography, tight and bright -- the rarely seen limited edition, with colophon noting 420 numbered copies (this #52) signed large and bold by Warren. So seldom do you one encounter this edition one wonders if the full print run was actually produced -- or if part of it got destroyed. Quite scarce and in lovely condition. MONAGHAN 3238. Bleak House
Illustrations by Robert Ball. Small 4to. Tan decorated cloth, slipcase. 846pp. Color frontispiece, 7 full-page color plates, illustrations. Near fine/very good. Spine lightly age tone; slipcase a bit sunned and edgeworn. John T. Winterich introduces this tight, clean, handsome copy of the smaller, mass-produced version of the Limited Editions Club limited edition. This unusual copy of the 1853 fiction bears two fine autograph additions on matching heavy stock 5" X 3" cards from the popular 1959 BBC television serial version: At top is RICHARD PEARSON (1918-2011; portrays Inspector Bucket), who signs large and bold in blue fineline and dates it 20 July 1988 at upper right; below this is AUBREY WOODS (1928-2013; portrays Tony Jobling), who signs large and bold in blue ballpoint and dates it July 1981 at upper right. And laid in are the perfect bookmarks: Pearson and Woods' original transmittal envelopes. An appealing, out-of-the-ordinary copy. Artist’s Proof: Volume XI — The Annual of Prints and Printmaking
4to. Black cloth with gilt spine lettering, pictorial dust jacket. 128pp. Color frontispiece, extensive illustrations (2 in color). Fine/fine. Superb first edition of the eleventh volume of the noted journal. Frontispiece (titled "Local Choice") is an original offset color lithograph signed and dated by artist Michaek Knigin in pencil on lower margin. A Princess of Mars
Illustrations by Frank E. Schoonover. Small 8vo. Green cloth with auburn lettering. xiii, 327pp, (8pp ads). Frontispiece, 3 full-page plates. Very good. Faint binding wear only, with text block bright and tight. Nice early reprint edition of this sci-fi fantasy novel, the first title in Burroughs' 11-volume "Barsoom" series, featuring Schoonover's usual superb illustrations. The Fourth Forger: William Ireland and the Shakespeare Papers
8vo. Orange cloth with gilt spine lettering. xv, 244pp. Frontispiece, illustrations. Very good. Spine a bit sunned and binding a tad rubbed, but internally tight and near fine. Nice first edition of this account of the infamous Shakespeare forgery scandal.