Eliot, T. S.
Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats
Faber and Faber, London: 1939
- $1,000
First edition, first printing of T. S. Eliot's whimsical collection of poems about feline psychology and sociology. Bound in publisher's original pale yellow cloth printed in red. Near Fine with light soiling to cloth, trivial wear at extremities; previous owner's name on front free endpaper. Contents slightly toned with light foxing at edges. In a Very Good price-clipped dust jacket with light edge wear, light staining, several small chips, toning to edges, old price on rear cover and foxing to blindside. A lovely copy. Eliot wrote these poems in the 1930s and included them, under his assumed name "Old Possum", in letters to his godchildren.
More from Burnside Rare Books
Hitch 22
First edition, first printing. Signed by Christopher Hitchens on the title page, inscribed to former owner. xii, 436 pp. Bound in publisher's yellow and black boards with black spine lettering. Slight wrinkling to terminals and hint of foxing to edges, else Fine in a dust jacket with dampstaining to verso, slight wrinkling. A uncommon signed copy of the contrarian journalist and pundit's memoirs. Carrie
An advance review copy, issued prior to the release of the first edition. The first edition of Carrie has the publisher's date code of P6 at the rear gutter denoting publication during early February, 1974, and the gutter code of the advance copy is O50, dating it December, 1973. Bound in publisher's original printed wraps. Very Good with slight lean to spine, creasing at spine, and some toning at edges. Rear cover has moderate crease at right edge. Contents lightly toned. Though this was the fifth complete novel King had written, it was the first to be published. Neuromancer
First British edition and first hardcover edition, first printing. Very Good with light lean to binding, light wear to corners and spine ends, stain to top edge of front board. In a Very Good unclipped dust jacket with faint edge wear and damp stain to front panel at verso. A nice copy of Gibson's first novel, winner of the Nebula, Hugo and Philip K. Dick Award, and credited with starting the Cyberpunk genre. Principles of Intensive Psychotherapy
First edition, first printing. Signed by Frieda Fromm-Reichmann and inscribed to fellow psychiatrist Dr. Zelda Teplitz (1917-2001). Bound in publisher's crimson buckram cloth with gilt spine lettering. Top edge stained red. 246 pp. Near Fine with minor wear to extremities. In a Very Good+ unclipped dust jacket with worming, light wear to the extremities and minor toning. A nice copy with an interesting association between two female contemporaries. Principles of Intensive Psychotherapy
First edition, first printing. Signed by Frieda Fromm-Reichmann on the title page. [xviii], 246 pp. Bound in publisher's crimson buckram cloth with gilt spine lettering. Very Good+ with minor wear to extremities, light soiling to bottom fore edge with light wear to rear board. Contents lightly tanned. Signed copies are scarce of this groundbreaking psychiatric treatise. The Woman Voter’s Manual
First edition, first printing. Bound in publisher's dark blue cloth with spine lettered in gilt; lacking the dust jacket. Good with moderate soiling, staining and light wear to cloth; top edge dust soiled with foxing to all edges. Contents lightly toned. Intended to be a complete guide to women in regards to voting, their government and commerce, featuring a frontis chart summarizing American legislation affecting women and children. With an introduction by Carrie Chapman Catt. American Bard: Being the Preface to the First Edition of Leaves of Grass Now Restored to its Native Verse Rhythms and Presented as a Living Poem
First edition. Signed twice by the illustrator, William Everson, inscribed on the half-title to former owner with a short message and signed on the limitation page. Number 33 of 115 copies, 100 of which were for sale. Bound in 3/4 dark grey levant ruled and lettered in gilt wrapped over thick cloth. Housed in a dark grey slipcase. Folio. Very Good+ with faded and stained spine, slight mustiness. Slipcase lightly faded with biopredation at edges. A striking small press folio of Walt Whitman's poetry illustrated by William Everson (1912-1994). Everson was a prolific Beat poet, Dominican friar and member of the San Francisco Renaissance. He founded Lime Kiln Press when he was Poet in Residence at the University of California Santa Cruz. This is the only book he both illustrated and printed. The Female of the Species: The Great Women Detectives and Criminals
First edition, first printing. Signed by Ellery Queen and inscribed, "To Dick -- to whom I find refreshment -- Best, Ellery Queen per M.B.L." [Manfred Bennington Lee]. xii, [3], 422pp. Bound in publisher's dark brown cloth stamped in yellow; lacking the dust jacket. Very Good with moderate edge wear, scuffing to surface with cup ring to center front board. Top edge of textblock dampstained with trivial tidal mark. Front gutter tender with light tanning to contents. An important anthology as well as an early one that includes stories by Mary Roberts Rinehart, Starrett, H.H. Holmes [Anthony Boucher], Agatha Christie, Baroness Orczy, Fergus Hume, John Kendrick Bangs, Edgar Wallace, et al. The title is a spin on Rudyard Kipling's "The Female of the Species" (1911) where the poet writes that females are far more dangerous than males. The Greene Murder Case: A Philo Vance Story
First edition, first state with MCMXXVIII on title page and matching date on copyright page. xii, 388pp. Bound in publisher's black cloth lettered in white. Very Good+ with worming to front joint and right edge of board. Light staining to top edge; contents are slightly toned. In a Very Good+ unclipped dust jacket with toning and moderate wear to crown with fairly small chips; rear panel with one closed tear. A great copy of this whodunit murder mystery, the third in the Philo Vance detective series. Adapted a year later into the 1929 film starring William Powell as the dandy detective. Confessions of an Advertising Man
First edition, first printing. Signed by David Ogilvy on the front free endpaper, inscribed "Max / from David / with love" [vi], 172, [2] pp. Bound in publisher's original brown cloth with spine lettered in gilt and upper board stamped in blind. Near Fine with light wear at corners in a later state Near Fine unclipped ($7.95), double-sided dust jacket with fading at spine. A nice copy of this autobiography written by the "father of advertising," whose life story was an inspiration for the TV show Mad Men. The Law of Success
First edition, preceded by a virtually unobtainable 1925 self-published version. Complete eight volume set bound in dark blue variant cloth decorated in blind and stamped in gilt. Near Fine with light wear and several areas of slight discoloration to cloth and lettering tarnished. A very lovely set of this increasingly scarce self-help guide. Killer in the Rain
Chandler, Raymond; Philip Durham [Introduction] First edition. xii, 332 pp. Bound in publisher's red cloth with gilt lettering. Very Good with spine lean, foxing to top and fore edges, slight waviness to pages, in a Very Good+ dust jacket, toned with age and lightly worn, unclipped (21s net). A posthumously-published collection of stories for Chandler's compatriots in the UK, many originally published in Black Mask.- $200
- $200
Barbers and Lovers” in Ingluvin: The Magazine of Canadian Writing, Number 2, Spring 1971
Cohen, Leonard; Seymour Mayne [Editor]; Kenneth Hertz [Editor]; Irving Layton Signed by singer-songwriter, poet, and author Leonard Cohen in the bottom margin of the title page, dated 2002. He contributes the story "Barbers and Lovers" to this Canadian literary magazine. It would only be published in book form in 2022 in the posthumous book A Ballet of Lepers, retitled "The Shaving Ritual." 88 pp. Bound in publishers wraps. Very Good, toning along spine, light wear and a little toning. Uncommon, especially signed.- $750
- $750
From Julia Child’s Kitchen
Child, Julia; Paul Child [Photographer & Illustrator] First edition, first printing, limited issue. Number 807 of 1,500 specially bound copies signed by Julia Child and Paul Child. Bound in publisher's pictorial boards. Fine in a Near Fine dust jacket with light edge wear and minor scuffing to spine. In Near Fine publisher's slipcase, which is lightly worn and toned. A lovely copy, uncommon in such nice condition.- $2,200
- $2,200
On the Road
Kerouac, Jack First edition, first printing. Review copy with publisher's slip laid-in. [iv], 310 pp. Bound in publisher's original black cloth stamped in white with red topstain. Near Fine with very faint cup ring to rear board, tanning to pages. In a Near Fine unclipped dust jacket ($3.95) with light rubbing, minor spine sunning. A lovely copy of this Beat cornerstone.- $12,500
- $12,500
A Confederacy of Dunces
Toole, John Kennedy; Walker Percy [Forward] First edition, first printing. Bound in publisher's tan cloth lettered in black on the spine. Near Fine with slight musty odor to pages, otherwise fine. In a Fine unclipped dust jacket. An exceptional copy of this Pulitzer Prize winning novel published posthumously eleven years after John Kennedy Toole's death.- $6,500
- $6,500
Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes: Twenty-Five Years of Objective Study of the Higher Nervous Activity (Behaviour) of Animals
Pavlov, Ivan; W. Horsley Gantt (Translator) First edition in English. Signed by Ivan P. Palov on the half-title page. (2) 414 (2) pp, illus. Bound in black ribbed cloth with gilt lettering. Very Good with minor rubbing to cloth, slight bruising to spine ends. Small split to inner hinge. Contents have modest toning, rear hinge exposed and binding at rear tender. Laid-in is an envelope addressed to Pavlov at Institute for Experimental Research, Moscow, USSR dated 1935. Several other related pamphlets and ephemera are laid-in. Very Good dust jacket unclipped ($6.50) with toned and sunned spine, chipping to ends, small split to foot, rear flap at joint, and light soiling. Archival repair to recto mending a large split at front spine joint. The Russian behavioral psychologist's famous work on mental conditioning. Uncommon signed.- $12,500
- $12,500
Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future
Nietzsche, Friedrich; Helen Zimmern [Translator] First British edition. [ii], xv, [1], 268, [3, ads] pp. Publisher's navy blue cloth with gilt lettering. Very Good with lightly rubbed cloth, bumped corners, and minor soiling. Rear board mottled at bottom right corner. Offsetting on front and rear endpapers, contents have minor toning, mustiness. Ads uncut.The famous German philosopher leaves traditional morality behind in this follow-up to Thus Spake Zarathustra.- $750
- $750
Love is a Dog from Hell
Bukowski, Charles First edition, hardcover signed and illustrated deluxe issue. Number 50 of a limited 75 copies signed by Charles Bukowski and with an original painting by him bound in. Bound in publisher's original paper-covered boards over red flecked patterned corduroy cloth backstrip, hand bound by Earle Gray. Near Fine with binding slightly askew, slightly bumped corners. Small stain to front pastedown at bottom right corner. In publisher's original acetate jacket, which is rubbed and a little clouded, crimping to corners and spine ends. A lovely copy of this scarce title, with Bukowski's original art work.- $5,000
- $5,000
Black and White: An Anthology of Washington Verse
Johnson, Georgia Douglas; Angelina Grimke; Walter Everette Hawkins; J.C. Byars [Editor]; Courtland Darke Baker; First edition. 96pp. Bound in publisher's half black cloth with pictorial paper boards. Very Good+ with light rubbing to spine ends, soiled and toned edges at covers; corners scuffed and lightly bumped. Female ownership on front free endpaper; typed letter laid-in at front gutter. A scarce collection of 75 poems by 17 white and African American writers. Includes six poems by Angelina Grimke, author of the antiracist play Rachel and five by Harlem Renaissance poet Georgia Douglas Johnson. Walter Everette Hawkins, a reclusive, freethinking Black author whose style prefigured the Harlem Renaissance, makes an appearance as well.- $600
- $600
