Poems
First Printing of this important debut, awarded both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Selected and introduced by Dudley Fitts. Slim crown 8vo (203 x 124mm): xiii,[1],62,[2]pp. Publisher's coarsely woven plum-colored cloth (also issued in decorative wrappers), spine lettered in black; illustrated dust jacket priced $3.00. Two corners of jacket lightly wrinkled, else an excellent example, tightly bound and clean throughout. Issued as Volume 57 in the Yale Series of Younger Poets. Some of the poems previously appeared in Poetry, Accent, and The New Yorker. The poet Philip Booth saluted Poems as "the most original first book that has appeared on any publisher's poetry list in a sad long time." N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).
More from Fine Editions Ltd
[Religion] Religio, Medici
Early issue of the first Latin edition of Browne's first and most celebrated work, a spiritual testament and meditative essay originally not intended for publication. 12mo (128 x 73mm): 235,[5]pp, with engraved title page after a design by William Marshall of a figure falling headlong into the sea (but reversed with figure falling to the left). A5 and K4 erroneously signed, respectively, D5 and C4). Contemporary calf, boards double-ruled in gilt, spine richly gilt in five compartments between raised bands, titled in gilt direct to second compartment. An excellent example, securely bound and clean throughout. Keynes 62. First published, in 1642, in an unauthorized edition; the first Latin edition appeared in 1644. "This edition closely resembles Hackius' second edition of 1644 [Keynes 61] and is to a certain extent printed from the same type. Alterations have, however, been made and the orthography is modernized." (Keynes) Structured on the Christian virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity, Religio, Medici expresses Browne's beliefs in the doctrine of sola fide, the existence of hell, the Last Judgment, the resurrection, and other tenets of Christianity. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). Statical essays: Containing vegetable staticks; or, An account of some statical experiments on the sap in vegetables. Being an essay towards a natural history of vegetation . . . ; [offered with:] Statical essays: containing haemastatics; or, an account of some hydraulic and hydrostatical experiments made on the blood and blood-vessels of animals. . . . To which is added, an appendix, . . . With an index to both volumes [PMM]
A superb set of these classics of experimental science, milestones in the history of hydrodynamics and physiology, with the imprimatur of Isaac Newton as president of the Royal Society. Complete in two crown octavo volumes (198 x 122mm) bound in contemporary calf. Vegetable Staticks: Third Edition, with amendments. [6],x,[4],376pp, with 19 copper-engraved plates. Haemastatics: Second Edition, corrected. [10],vi,xvii-xxii,[26],354,[22]pp. Original boards, beautifully respined to match by Fitterer. Handsome copper-engraved Chippendale-style book plate of Thomas Woodward to front paste-down of volume 1. Both volumes fresh, bright, and virtually pristine. PMM 189 ("remarkable scientific investigations"). Grolier 100 Science 45a and b. Hunt II, p. xlvi. Garrison-Morton 765 (Haemastaticks "is the greatest single contribution to our knowledge of the vascular system after Harvey") Henrey 779 and pp. 37-39 ("the most outstanding and important" of eighteenth-century works on plant physiology). Dibner 26. Wellcome III, p. 194. Sowerby I, 22. Pritzel p. 527. Volume one, first published in 1727 as Vegetable staticks: or, an account of some statical experiments on the sap in vegetables," was the "first complete account of the physiology of plants." (Horblit) "In his investigations of plant physiology, . . . Hales studied the movement of water in plants, determining that leaf suction is the main force by which water is raised through a plant, and showing that plants lose water constantly via transpiration through their leaves." (Garrison-Morton) Thomas Jefferson included Vegetable Staticks on the list of agricultural books that he recommended be purchased for the Library of Congress. (Sowerby) Volume two, first published in 1733, investigated the movement of blood in animals, measuring cardiac capacity, blood pressure, and blood velocity, and was a major step toward the modern understanding of the mechanics of the heart and circulation. The book plate is perhaps that of one of the publishers or of the botanist Thomas Jenkinson Woodward (1744-1820), joint author with Samuel Goodenough, bishop of Carlisle, of Observations on the British Fuci (1797) and contributor to Smith and Sowerby's English Botany, to William Withering's second edition of Systematic Arrangement of British Plants, and to Thomas Martyn's edition of Philip Miller's Gardeners' Dictionary. But more likely, given the squirrel crest, it belonged to one of the Woodwards of Hopton Court, Shropshire. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). Papyro-Plastics, or the Art of Modelling in Paper; Being an Instructive Amusement for Young Persons of Both Sexes; [offered with:] The Art of Working in Pasteboard, upon Scientific Principles : To which is added, an appendix, containing directions for constructing architectural models: intended as a sequel to Papyro-Plastics, or the Art of Modelling in Paper
Uncommon English translations of these two works by German educator Bernhard Heinrich Blasche, providing "Instructive Amusement for young persons," calculated to "introduce children to the most common and practical applications of geometry." (Preface) Papyro-Plastics: Second Edition, "greatly enlarged and improved." 16mo (141 x 116mm): xiii,[3],102,[2]pp, with hand-colored engraved frontispiece of castle, 21 further plates (seven folding) and final leaf of publisher's advertisements. Publisher's bluish gray paper-covered boards, original printed pictorial circular label with compass, ruler, and other draftsman's tools and title to front cover. Binding rubbed, lacking front blank (opens to half-title, top corner of which skillfully repaired), frontispiece and several plates lightly spotted, else an excellent survival,e securely bound and clean throughout. Osborne I, p. 224. Pasteboard: First Edition. 16mo (144 x 111mm): 114,[2]pp, with engraved frontispiece and seven further plates by J. Ellis (all folding) and final advertisement leaf. Publisher's green pasteboard, professionally rebacked to style, original printed paper label to front cover. Boards rubbed but an excellent example, securely bound and clean throughout. Papyro-Plastics, originally published in Germany (as Der Papparbeiter, oder Anleitung in Pappe zu arbeiten), in 1797, guided children on using compass, ruler, and geometry to construct elaborate buildings in paper, including a castle, a bridge, a house with gable front, a church, a thatched cottage, and a windmill. The Art of Working in Pasteboard, the sequel, enabled the construction of more ambitious and longer-lasting models; instruction was provided as well for constructing a basket, tea tray, work box, tea caddy, inkstand, candlesticks, watch stand, and an Ionic temple. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). [Hand-Colored] Manuel de l’amateur de melons ou l’art de reconnaître et d’acheter de bon melons ; précédé d’une histoire de ce fruit et une nomenclature de ses diverses espèces et variétés
Rare First Edition of Martin's charming melon lover's manual. 12mo (129 x 75mm): [4],iv,156pp, with delicately four hand-colored lithographs depicting nine varieties of melon (in section and whole) and a Piquet à Thermomètre de Regnier. Contemporary black quarter-calf lettered, ruled, and decorated with Empire motifs in gilt over deep blue textured paper-covered boards, marbled end-papers, brown silk page marker. Tide line at foot of first three leaves (barely perceptible to following seventeen), occasional light scattered spotting (plates unaffected), but a well-preserved example of this rare horticultural title. Vicaire 568. Carteret, III, p. 401 ("charmant petit livre"). Cagle 310. Maggs no. 645 (Food and Drink) 414. Seventeen chapters cover a wide range of topics on melons, including their cultivation on trellises and in rows, care, varieties, and gastonomic appeal, ending with a ten-page bibliography. Martin followed this work with monographs on coffee, oysters, and truffles. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). Desiderata curiosa: or, a collection of divers scarce and curious pieces relating chiefly to matters of English history; Consisting of Choice Tracts, Memoirs, Letters, Wills, Epitaphs, &c. Transcribed, Many of them, from the Originals Themselves, and the Rest from Divers Antient Ms. Copies, or the Ms. Collections of Sundry Famous Antiquaries and other Eminent Persons, both of the Last and Present Age: the whole, as Near as Possible, digested into an Order of Time, and Illustrated with Ample Notes, Contents, Additional Discourses, and a Complete Index
Large Paper Copy ("A new Edition, greatly corrected, with some Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mr. Peck") of this "curious collection of original papers, relating chiefly to English history." (Lowndes) Two volumes bound as one, each with separate title page but continuously paginated. 4to (307 x 235mm): xvii,[7],238,[10]; vi,[10],[239]-581,[9]pp, with engraved portrait frontispiece of the author and nine copper-engraved plates. Pages. 420 and 426 misnumbered 400 and 406, respectively. Recent period-style blue-grey paper-covered boards by Fitterer, beige paper spine with paper title label printed in black, end-papers renewed. Several leaves heavily dust-speckled, several others lightly so, else a finely bound wide-margined copy, fresh, bright, and clean throughout with tissue guards protecting all plates. Lowndes IV: 1812. Lewine, p. 406 ("of about the same value" as the first edition of 1732-35). Peck was elected a member of the Society of Antiquaries on 9 March 1732, the same year he published the first section of his illustrated Desiderata curiosa, the work for which he became best known. A second volume appeared in 1735. The eighteenth-century antiquary William Cole was not impressed: "Had he lived longer we might have had many more curious pieces of antiquity, which he seems to have been in possession of; but the chief and great failing of this gentleman seemed to be an eager desire to publish as little in one volume as he could, in order to eke out his collection. His âDesiderata Curiosa' is full of curious things, but he has so disjointed, mangled, and new-sentenced all of them, and what with detached books, chapters, and heads of the chapters, that, in endeavouring to be more than ordinarily clear, he has become at many times quite the reverse." (ODNB) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). John Bull’s Other Island and Major Barbara: also How He Lied to Her Husband [Unopened]
A superb unopened First Impression collecting these three plays, the first commissioned by W. B. Yeats. Crown 8vo (176 x 119mm): lix,[3],293,[3]pp. Publisher's olive-green vertically ribbed cloth, spine lettered in gilt; top edge gilt, others uncut; dun-colored dust jacket lettered in black and priced 6/-. An unopened, virtually flawless copy (jacket's spine panel lightly toned), tightly bound and clean throughout. Laurence A83b. Wells 34. Broad, pp. 7, 53-57, 92. "John Bull's Other Island" and "How He Lied to Her Husband" first appeared in German translation, in the Berliner Tageblatt, in November, 1904. A New York edition collecting only "John Bull's Other Island" and "Major Barbara" appeared shortly before this English edition, in 1907, which contains a brief postscript to "John Bull's Other Island" and a note on Euripidean verses in "Major Barbara" that do not appear in the American edition. "John Bull's Other Island" was commissioned for the opening of Dublin's Abbey Theatre, but Yeats rejected it as too long and too difficult to produce. Shaw says, in the Preface to this edition, that the play was rejected for "another reason . . . It was uncongenial to the whole spirit of the neo-Gaelic movement, which is bent on creating a new Ireland after its own ideal, whereas my play is a very uncompromising presentment of the real old Ireland." Broad notes that "British prejudice against [Shaw's] plays began to break down in 1905, when King Edward VII attended a performance of 'John Bull's Other Island' at the Royal Court Theatre . . . " N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). [Baseball] The Fairport Nine
Seldom seen Second Printing (no copy appears in auction records) of this cornerstone of baseball literature. Binding and text duplicate the first printing, excepting date on title page and advertisements (eight pages vs. six in first printing). Crown 8vo (178 x 112mm): viii,[2],188,[8]pp, with tissue-guarded wood-engraved frontispiece. Publisher's pictorial green cloth, front cover stamped in gilt and black with gilt vignette of pitcher framed by baseball diamond, spine lettered and decorated with crossed bats in black and gilt vignette of hitter at bat. An excellent example, securely bound (lightly shelf-rubbed) and clean throughout. Grobani 12-2A and McCue, p. 24 (for first edition and 1889 revised edition only). Not in Smith. Originally serialized in St. Nicholas Magazine, from May to October, 1880, then published in book form that same year. Sometimes credited as the first baseball novel, but according to McCue the fifth fictional work to feature the game. Although earlier authors, from James Fenimore Cooper to William Everett, had featured baseball scenes in their fiction, this was one of the first novels in which baseball played a prominent role. Brooks wrote that The Fairport Nine was based on his boys militia unit and baseball team in Castine, Maine, in the 1840s (see Brooks, "How the Flag was Saved," St. Nicholas Magazine, Vol. XXIII, no. 4, February, 1896). "Characters in the Story" leaf following the contents page lists players and their positions for The Fairport Nine and their opponents, The White Bears. Brooks was a friend of Abraham Lincoln, who he met while reporting on the presidential campaign of 1856. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). Travels through Spain, in the Years 1775 and 1776. In which Several Monuments of Roman and Moorish Architecture are illustrated by Accurate Drawings taken on the Spot [R. J. Hayhurst’s copy]
A superb First Edition (in period binding) of this account of a sojourn to Spain, "an exact investigation of the soil, cultivation, government, commerce, and manners." 4to (283 x 220mm): xv,[1],427,[15]pp, with folding engraved map and 18 plates (five folding) of archaeological monuments and Moorish architecture, including several views of the Alhambra. Period brown half calf over marbled boards, flat spine divided by gilt bands into six compartments with central floral devices, black morocco lettering piece gilt, edges marbled. Later book plate of Robert J. Hayhurst, who was a keen collector of eighteenth-century literature in fine contemporary bindings. A wide-margined, virtually pristine example (scattered occasional foxing and offsetting) with rich impressions of the plates. Cox I, p. 151 (quoting DNB: "The plates are of great excellence. His drawings were faithful to fact and elegant in design.") Palau XXII: 325909 (noting the "plates on special thick paper with wide margins"). Graesse VI, p. 535. Brunet V, 604. The deaths of Swinburne's father, mother, and eldest brother left him financially independent, and in 1763 he traveled to Italy, visiting the art treasures and antiquities of Turin, Genoa, and Florence. His travels continued in 1775, to Spain, in the company of Sir Thomas Gascoigne, resulting in this account, enhanced with plates from Swinburne's drawings (half of them etched by Swinburne himself). N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). The Great Crash 1929
First British Edition of this classic account of the perhaps greatest speculative boom in history, setting the stage for the Great Depression. Demy 8vo (212 x 134mm): 186pp, with frontispiece reproduced from The New Yorker Magazine. Publisher's blue cloth, spine stamped in gilt. Neat manuscript ex-libris in red ink to fly leaf of Clive Gimson, house master of Bradfield College, dated November, 1955. An excellent example, tightly bound (top edge dust-soiled) and clean throughout. Yet another example of the value to be found in the graphically superior designs of most UK editions of American authors's works. Originally published the same year, in Boston. The 1929 stock market crash was precipitated by rampant speculation. This, one of Galbraith's first bestsellers, coincided with the 25th anniversary of the crash, when the crash and the Great Depression that followed were still raw memories, and stock prices were only then recovering to pre-crash levels. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). Phantom Flowers. A Treatise on the Art of Producing Skeleton Leaves
[ANONYMOUS]; [TILTON, J. E., publisher] First Edition under this title (see below) of this early work on a fashionable Victorian pastime. 8vo (191 x 119mm): 96pp, with six tissue-guarded plates, head pieces, and historiated initials. Original dark green ribbed and beveled cloth, covers paneled in blind, gilt vignettes to spine and front cover, chocolate brown end papers, illustrated title page. Gift inscription to Mary D. Ballou (perhaps the Rhode Island suffrage pioneer), dated 1865 and her manuscript ex-libris in elegant script, with "Providence," to front fly leaf. Slight scuff to cover vignette,else tightly bound and virtually pristine (tissue guards lightly foxed but plates generally bright), with interesting provenance. First published in Philadelphia, in 1863, by Edward Parrish, under the title Phantom Bouquet : Skeletonizing Leaves and Seed Vessels. Producing skeleton leaves involved removing chlorophyll from leaves to create intricate designs in imitation of those left by insects and larvae. The designs were used as borders on photographic portraits and for other decorative purposes. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $285
- $285
[Sette of Odd Volumes] A Riverside Walk : An Easy-Going Essay by a Peripatetic Philosopher [Unopened]
TODHUNTER, John (1839-1916) Limited Edition, no. 117 of 250 copies printed for private circulation only. Foolscap 8vo (145 x 116mm): 43,[1]pp, with frontispiece (Low Water in Mortlake Reach) and list of Sette club members. Publisher's blue-grey wrappers, uncut and entirely unopened. Faint creasing to rear wrapper, but a spectacular survival, securely bound and clean throughout. Read at a meeting of the Sette at Limmer's Hotel on Friday, January 14, 1898, and presented to the Sette by Todhunter, Irish poet and playwright. Ye Sette of Odd Volumes was a London bibliophilic club, founded in 1878 by bookseller Bernard Quaritch. Members included a wide-ranging cross-section of notable men, including literary figures, artists, scientists, politicians, businessmen, and eccentrics. The original Sette disbanded on the eve of the Second World War, in 1939, but rebanded in 1950 with a new group of members. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $115
- $115
The history of Selby, ancient and modern : containing the most remarkable transactions, ecclesiastical, civil, and military, from the earliest accounts to the present period : interspersed with portions of general history, connected with the subject
MOUNTAIN, James First (and only) Edition of this account of the market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, the only published work of James Mountain, of whom little is known. 12mo (186 x 107mm): [4],x,162; 40,[22]pp, with folding frontispiece plan of Selby and folding plate (North West View of the Church of St. Germains Selby). Uncut in original publisher's two-tone paper-covered boards, oval printed paper lettering-piece to upper board. Engraved armorial book plate with motto "Honori Justitiae Virtuti" to front paste-down. Spine and covers rubbed and marked, pages occasionally spotted (plates unaffected), but a superb wide-margined copy, securely bound in original boards and generally clean throughout. Uncommon in commerce and in institutions outside of the British Isles, with ESTC recording copies at only four locations in North America (Harvard, Huntington, Honnold, and NYPL). Upcott III XCLVIII (pp. 1406-07). ESTC T36452. In two parts: The history of Selby, ancient and modern, and The history of Cawood, its castle and church (with separate title page, pagination, and register, and including a list of the archbishops who have resided at Cawood). Also includes "The Selby Directory for the year 1800," "A list of the Principal Inhabitants residing at Cawood," and list of subscribers, and "A poem on the ruins of Pontefract Castle," a romantic memorial to the famed Royalist stronghold raised to the ground during the English Civil War; Richard II is thought to have died there. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $835
- $835
[African Americana] The Conjure Woman
CHESNUTT, Charles W. (Waddell, 1858-1932) First Printing of the author's first book, seven interrelated folk tales set in antebellum North Carolina and told "in Negro dialect" by an old gardener. Crown 8vo (175 x 110mm): [4],229,[3]pp. Publisher's finely woven brown pictorial cloth, front cover lettered in gilt, with trio of vignettes stamped in orange, black, and off-white; spine lettered in gilt, title-page vignette. Contemporary calligraphic gift inscription to front fly leaf. An excellent example, securely bound (spine darkened, lettering legible but dulled) and clean throughout (page margins lightly toned). Wright 1017. Powell 91 (One of the first books by a Negro author to receive critical approval."). Blockson (101 Influential Books) 49. First Printings of American Authors III, p. 47. Blockson (Damn Rare), p. 79 (calling The Conjure Woman "rare" and Chesnutt's "first great literary success"). Whiteman, p.14. A collection of short stories as told by Uncle Julius to his white employers, originally published in the Atlantic Monthly, beginning with "The Goophered Grapevine," in 1887, and preceded by a limited edition of 150 copies. In addition to "The Goophered Grapevine," the stories are: Po' Sandy, Mars Jeems's Nightmare, The Conjurer's Revenge, Sis' Becky's Pickaninny, The Gray Wolf's Ha'nt, and Hot-Foot Hannibal, most derived from African American folk tales and hoodoo conjuring traditions. According to Blockson, "The most striking feature of The Conjure Woman is Chesnutt's attempt to challenge the racial integrity of the ante-bellum writers of the plantation South such as Albion W. Touraee, Joel Chandler Harris, Thomas Nelson Page, Thomas Dixon, and other white writers." N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $1,365
- $1,365
Killarney: A Poem; [bound with:] The Fleece, A Poem. In Four Books [Ravensdale Park]
LESLIE, John (1736-1778); DYER, John (1699-1757) First Editions of these two eighteenth-century poems in handsome contemporary binding with distinguished provenance. 4to (262 x 208mm): [8],50,2]; [4],156pp, with title page vignettes, list of subscribers, preliminary advertisement leaf, and final errata leaf; p. 49 misnumbered 94. Contemporary tree calf with large gilt armorial of T. G. Fortescue Esqr, Ravensdale Park to front and rear covers and engraved armorial book plate of Ella Park Lawrence and George Appleton Lawrence to front paste-down. A very handsome production in period boards, elegantly rebacked by Fitterer, securely bound and clean throughout. Rothschild 830 and Hayward 176 (for Dyer). Leslie's "wonder and delight" in the lakes, mountains, and woods of Killarney inspired his topographical poem (a second, octavo, edition appeared the same year, as did Phoenix Park, Leslie's only other published work). Two years earlier, William Gilpin had published his Observations on the River Wye, celebrating the picturesque in English landscape, and Killarney is one of the earliest Irish poems in that Romantic tradition. Dyer's pastoral on the woolen industry celebrates "Britain's commercial energies and depicts her social classes working harmoniously in a shared national purpose." (Cambridge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Poetry) Dyer claimed The Fleece was the favorite of his poems, even if Grongar Hill was the most admired. Like Philips's Cyder, The Fleece was modeled on Virgil's Georgics, running thousands of lines of blank verse. Dr. Johnson mocked it, though Wordsworth recognized its "living landscape," especially "those soft scenes thro' which [his] childhood strayed." (ODNB) Provenance: Descended from a distinguished Irish family from County Louth. Ravensdale Park was built in an austere Italiante style by the architect Thomas Duff of Newry for Thomas Fortescue, 1st Baron Clermont, an Irish Whig politician and historian of the ancient Fortescue family of twelfth-century Devonshire origins. Ella Park Lawrence (1857-1924) was regent of the Rebecca Park chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Eight of her ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War, and during the Civil War her father ran an abolitionist newspaper. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $1,265
- $1,265
The Town Garden : a Manual for the Management of City and Suburban Gardens
HIBBERD, Shirley (1825-1890) Scarce First Edition of Hibberd's first book, with extensive tables of annuals and perennials. Foolscap 8vo (142 x 91mm): 172,20pp. Publisher's olive-green pebbled grain cloth paneled in blind and lettered and decorated with vine motif in gilt. Handsome bookseller's and binder's tickets to front (Fry, Chelmsford) and rear (Bound by Westley's, London) paste-downs. An excellent example (spine lightened a degree or two), tightly bound in original cloth and virtually pristine throughout. James Shirley Hibberd was one of the most popular and successful gardening writers of the Victorian era; The Town Garden was his first book. "Sensing a market among the advice books and gardening manuals of the era, Hibberd followed up with the very successful Rustic Adornments (1856) and Garden Favourites (1858). In 1858 he became the first editor of the newly established magazine Floral World. . . . In Stoke Newington he created one garden for fruit, another for vegetables, another for roses, and so on. Eventually lack of space encouraged him to move to 74 The Hermitage, a private road in Muswell Hill." (ODNB) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $435
- $435
The Enormous Room [First State]
CUMMINGS, E. E. [Edward Estlin, 1894-1962) First Printing, First State (with "Shit!" uncensored on final line of p. 219), of the poet's first novel, an account of his imprisonment in a French military detention center during the First World War. Crown 8vo (199 x 135mm): [2],viii,9-271,[1]pp. Publisher's coarse tan cloth, spine and front cover lettered in black, fore- and bottom edges rough-trimmed. Neat manuscript ex-libris and bookseller's ticket (Old Corner Book Store, Boston) to front fly leaf. Wanting the rare dust jacket. Faint foxing to upper edge of text block, slight discoloration to fore-edge of boards, but a superior example, tightly bound (lightly read, if at all) and clean throughout. Firmage A2a. On T. E. Lawrence's recommendation, the book was reprinted in 1927, and a London edition, with preface by Robert Graves, appeared in 1928. "Loosely modelled around John Bunyan's allegorical narrative The Pilgrim's Progress, Cummings' text presents the story of his arrest, imprisonment and release as a journey towards perception. Through a mixture of reportage, poetic prose, interjections in French and line drawings [in later editions], Cummings creates a series of studies of his captors and fellow inmates, revealing his contempt for cruelty and authority, and his irrepressible delight in the variety of human nature. . . . With its sharp assessment of national prejudices and social superficialities, it does not always make comfortable reading . . . That is why it is a classic." (Literary Encyclopedia) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $565
- $565
[Juvenile] The Wonders of the Telescope. By the Author of “The Wonders of the Microscope”
[PHILLIPS, Sir Richard, 1767-1840] Scarce early edition of this beautifully illustrated children's book. 12mo (144 x 89 mm): iv,5-156pp, with folding engraved frontispiece of the solar system and 13 further plates, most folding and all but two dated 1823. Of special note is the plate of Herschel's 40-foot telescope, constructed between 1785 and 1789 and shortly to be dismantled, in 1839. Original red quarter skiver, spine lettered longitudinally in gilt, marbled paper-covered boards. Neat gift inscription (dated 1898) to front fly leaf; recent book label of Stanley Scott, Chard, Somerset, to rear paste-down. Professionally refurbished and now presenting attractively: two closed tears to frontispiece skillfully mended with Japanese tissue, else tightly bound, with pages and plates remarkably fresh and bright. Darton H1605(2). Paul, Children's Book Business: Lessons from the Long Eighteenth Century. Osborne, p. 216 (for first edition). First published in 1805 and again in 1809, here issued by Quaker publisher William Darton. Sir Richard Phillips, a friend of Priestley and a fascinating figure in the Regency world of letters, published the first edition, and he may have been the author: Phillips founded a philosophical society whose activates included astronomical observations. The Wonders of the Telescope was recommended by educator Eliza Fenwick in her Visits to the Juvenile Library (1805), where it is described, on a visit to Tabart's bookshop, as "two [the other was The Wonders of the Microscope] of the most popular books in the shop" (cited in Paul, p. 91). N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $665
- $665
[Original Cloth] Thesaurus of English words : so classified and arranged as to facilitate the expression of ideas and assist in literary composition. Revised and edited, with a list of foreign words, defined in English, and other additions by Barnas Sears
ROGET, Peter Mark (1779-1869) First expurgated American edition of this essential reference, revised more than 25 times during Roget's life and continually in print since 1852. Crown 8vo (192 x 110mm): 468,[12]pp. Original brown cloth elaborately stamped in blind, spine lettered in gilt, pale yellow end papers. Book label to front paste-down of Library of Rev. J. F. Jones. Light spotting to end sheets and first and final few pages, else an excellent example in original cloth, securely bound and unusually fresh and bright. Kennedy 9784. Vancil, p. 208. First published in London, in 1852 (Kennedy 9775), and scarce in all early editions. The first (unexpurgated) American edition (Kennedy 9780, citing it as second edition overall) was brought out by Little, Brown the previous year. While praising the original edition in his preface, Barnas Sears avers that the preponderance of low and vulgar words is not suitable for general use, and therefore all such words and terms have been dropped from this edition. "In 1840 Roget retired from medical practice, but he kept busy with his other interests. By 1846 he was working hard on a project he had devised more than forty years before, a work that would make him a household name a century and a half later, his Thesaurus of English words and phrases, classified and arranged so as to facilitate the expression of ideas, and assist in literary composition. Roget had the idea for the thesaurus, a treasury of words, early in his career. He set out for his own use a methodical system of verbal classification, in a manuscript notebook in 1805, and kept notes on words for the next four decades. . . . The Thesaurus was published by Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, who issued a run of 1000 copies on 17 January 1852, at a cost of 14s. per copy." (ODNB) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $465
- $465
![[Juvenile] The Wonders of the Microscope; or](https://rarebookinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/31456612670-600x505.jpg)
[Juvenile] The Wonders of the Microscope; or, an Explanation of the Wisdom of the Creator, in Objects comparatively minute. Adopted to the Understanding of Young Persons
[HOOKE, Robert, 1635-1703] Scarce early edition of this beautifully illustrated children's book, featuring the startlingly magnified images of a flea, louse, blue bottle, and mites in cheese. Long 12mo (174 x 100mm): xii,118,[2]pp, with engraved folding frontispiece and four further plates (three folding). Original red quarter-skiver, spine lettered longitudinally in gilt, marbled paper-covered boards. Contemporary ownership inscription on front fly leaf: "Miss Martin, Harley Place"; recent book label of Stanley Scott, Chard, Somerset, to rear paste-down. Professionally refurbished and now presenting attractively: browned in places (particularly plates) but a well-preserved, largely unsophisticated copy of a scarce item. Keynes (Hooke) 12. Paul, Children's Book Business: Lessons from the Long Eighteenth Century. First issued by Benjamin Tabart in 1806; this is apparently the second edition. Four of the plates "were either copied from those in Hooke's Micrographia [1665] or were printed from the original plates after they had been clumsily worked over. . . . the text contains references to the work of Leeuwenhoek and Hooke, but there is no acknowledgment of the source of the plates" (Keynes). Recommended by the educator Eliza Fenwick in her Visits to the Juvenile Library, where it is described, on a visit to Tabart's bookshop, as "two [The Wonders of the Telescope is the second] of the most popular books in the shop." (cited in Paul, p. 91). N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).- $2,365
- $2,365
