[Reynolds, Frank illus.] Dickens Charles
THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD
London The Westminster Press [1911]: 1911
- $215
First Edition. Illustrated with 20 mounted color plates by Frank Reynolds and a vignette titlepage. 4to, publisher's original red cloth lettered in gilt on spine and cover, with gilt and black silhouette decoration on the upper cover. 572 pp. A handsome and fresh copy, bright and clean, a very pleasing copy. FIRST EDITION OF THIS VERY PLEASING ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF CHARLES DICKENS CLASSIC WORK. "With many lovers of the author's works 'David Copperfield' ranks as the finest of his writings. With a book which gave to the world such characters as Betsy Trotwood, Micawber, the Pegottys and Mr. Dick, to mention only a few, it would have been strange if it had been otherwise" (Eckel, p. 77). Reynolds fine color plates bring these characters vividly to life.
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TRAVELS IN ARABIA DESERTA, With an Introduction by T. E. Lawrence
2 volumes. First edition, second issue of the 1936 "New and Definitive Edition" with the introduction by T. E. Lawrence and the prefaces to the first through third editions. Portrait frontispiece in first volume, maps, plans, and collotype plates including large fold-out maps at the inside of the rear covers of both volumes. Royal 8vo, original brown cloth with gilt lettered spines. 674; 696. A very handsome set, clean and fresh, just a little minor rubbing to the bottom board edges. ARABIA DESERTA is perhaps one of the best-known classics of exploration and travel. Few writers of any genre have worked such magic or mischief on the English language as Doughty. He disapproved of Victorian style, and mingled his own with Chaucerian and Elizabethan English and Arabic. But whatever the style, the result is perhaps the finest book on Arabia ever written. We will let another Arabist, Lawrence, speak on Doughty's behalf: "I have talked the book over with many travellers, and we are agreed that here you have all the desert, its hills and plains, the lava fields, the villages, the tents, the men and animals. They are told of to the life, with words and phrases fitted to them so perfectly that one cannot dissociate them in memory. It is the true Arabia, the land with its smells and dirt, as well as its nobility and freedom. There is no sentiment, nothing merely picturesque, that most common failing of oriental travel-books. Doughty's completeness is devastating. There is nothing we would take away, little we could add. He took all Arabia for his province, and has left to his successors only the poor part of specialists. We may write books on parts of the desert or some of the history of it; but there can never be another picture of the whole, in our time, because here it is all said." (- from the Introduction). DIRECTIONS FOR THE GARDINER AT SAYS-COURT But Which May Be Of Use For Other Gardens
First Nonesuch Edition, Limited, One of 625 copies. The George Cheever Shattuck copy. 8vo, in the publisher's original marbled paper covered boards over green cloth spine. 109 pp. A fine and bright copy with only the most minimal evidence of age. EDITED BY GEOFFREY KEYNES FOR THE NONESUCH PRESS. Practical advice for gardeners found in this heritage gardening how-to. Beautifully printed by the Nonesuch Press. As to the provenance of the volume: Dr. George C. Shattuck, professor emeritus at the Harvard School of Public Health and an authority on tropical medicine was an important member of the Harvard and greater Boston community. Dr. Shattuck, was active in France, Cuba, the Belgian Congo, Guatemala, the Yucatan and along the Amazon River before joining the Harvard School of Public Health, where he was clinical professor of tropical medicine from 1938 to 1947. During World War II he was a consultant on tropical medicine to several hospitals. FABLES BY JOHN GAY, IN TWO PARTS; To Which are Added Fables by Edward Moore
First of the Edition, the Didot Stereotype edition, with the fine provenance of Henry Lee of the important Boston family. With an engraved frontispiece and title-page. 12 mo, contemporary full tan mottled calf, gilt lettered and elaborately decorated with gilt tooling separating compartments on the spine, with gilt rolled borders to the covers. 235 pp. A handsome copy, the first free-fly and first prelim excised, otherwise the book and text-block are complete. One of Gay's best known works, the fables are not moral tales: "for a Fable he gives now and then a Tale or an abstracted Allegory; and from some, by whatever name they may be called, it will be difficult to extract any moral principle. They are, however, told with liveliness; the versification is smooth; and the diction, though now and then a little constrained by the measure of the rhyme, is generally happy." [Samuel Johnson] Henry Lee's copy with his bookplate. The Lee family was engaged in early mercantile capitalism in America and was an important figure in its development. The family showed remarkable powers of adaptation to successive forms of capitalism, mercantile, industrial, and financial; and, as opportunity served, they were to do more than their share in promoting the cultural welfare of America. Of the broad pictures that emerge, is the commercial family compact, the set of families that intermarried and did business with the world, using one another in special positions of trust. The Lees exported and imported and wholesaled their goods in America. They had ships at sea and were active in the Calcutta trade and the East Indian affairs. It is Henry Lee's bookplate that is affixed here. THOMAS CARLYLE. A History of the First Forty Years of His Life 1795 – 1835 [with,] THOMAS CARLYLE. A History of His Life in London 1834-1881
4 volumes. First Edition of each set. Illustrated with portraits and etchings. Tall 8vo, publisher's original sepia cloth, the spines lettered and blocked in gilt, the covers blocked in blind, the two volumes of Carlyle's Life in London in brown cloth as issued by the publisher, designed to marry the two volumes of Carlyle's First Forty Years. xviii, 432, 24 ads.; vi, 495; viii, 460, 24 ads.; viii, 486, [2 ads.] pp. A very good and pleasing set, the hinges strong and in good order, a bit of light rubbing to the bindings due to the composition of the cloth, still a very bright and pleasing set with the gilt and bindings in good order and the text-blocks clean and well preserved. RARE FIRST EDITION OF ALL VOLUMES OF THIS FORMIDABLE BIOGRAPHY OF THOMAS CARLYLE. 'Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) the British essayist, historian, and philosopher from the Scottish Lowlands was a leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature, and philosophy. Born in Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, Carlyle attended the University of Edinburgh where he excelled in mathematics, inventing the Carlyle circle. After finishing the arts course, he prepared to become a minister in the Burgher Church while working as a schoolmaster. He quit these and several other endeavours before settling on literature, writing for the Edinburgh Encyclopædia and working as a translator. He found initial success as a disseminator of German literature, then little-known to English readers, through his translations, his Life of Friedrich Schiller (1825), and his review essays for various journals. His first major work was a novel entitled Sartor Resartus (183334). After relocating to London, he became famous with his French Revolution (1837), which prompted the collection and reissue of his essays as Miscellanies. Each of his subsequent works, including On Heroes (1841), Past and Present (1843), Cromwell's Letters (1845), Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850), and History of Frederick the Great (185865), were highly regarded throughout Europe and North America. He founded the London Library, contributed significantly to the creation of the National Portrait Galleries in London and Scotland, was elected Lord Rector of Edinburgh University in 1865, and received the Pour le Mérite in 1874, among other honours. Carlyle occupied a central position in Victorian culture, being considered not only, in the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the "undoubted head of English letters", but a "secular prophet". Carlyle is now recognised as "one of the enduring monuments of our literature who, quite simply, cannot be spared." Carlyle was a renowned conversationalist. Ralph Waldo Emerson described him as "an immense talker, as extraordinary in his conversation as in his writing,I think even more so." Charles Darwin considered him "the most worth listening to, of any man I know." William Lecky noted his "singularly musical voice" which "quite took away anything grotesque in the very strong Scotch accent" and "gave it a softening or charm". Henry Fielding Dickens recollected that he was "gifted with a high sense of humour, and when he laughed he did so heartily, throwing his head back and letting himself go." Thomas Wentworth Higginson remembered his "broad, honest, human laugh," one that "cleared the air like thunder, and left the atmosphere sweet." Lady Eastlake called it "the best laugh I ever heard". Charles Eliot Norton wrote that Carlyle's "essential nature was solitary in its strength, its sincerity, its tenderness, its nobility. He was nearer Dante than any other man." Frederic Harrison similarly observed that "Carlyle walked about London like Dante in the streets of Verona, gnawing his own heart and dreaming dreams of Inferno. To both the passers-by might have said, See! there goes the man who has seen hell". Higginson rather felt that Jean Paul's humorous character Siebenkäs "came nearer to the actual Carlyle than most of the grave portraitures yet executed", for, like Siebenkäs, Carlyle was "a satirical improvisatore". Emerson saw Carlyle as "not mainly a scholar," but "a practical Scotchman, such as you would find in any saddler's or iron-dealer's shop, and then only accidentally and by a surprising addition, the admirable scholar and writer he is." Carlyle's two most important followers were Emerson and Ruskin. In the 19th century, Emerson was often thought of as "the American Carlyle", and he described himself in 1870 as "Lieutenant" to Carlyle's "General in Chief". Ruskin publicly acknowledged that Carlyle was the author to whom he "owed more than to any other living writer", and would frequently refer to him as his "master", writing after Carlyle's death that he was "throwing myself now into the mere fulfilment of Carlyle's work".' wiki JAPANESE BUNJIN-GA, LITERATI PAINTINGS. AN ALBUM OF COPIES OF 56 LITERATI PAINTINGS.
An Album of copies of Literati Paintings. Illustrated with 56 Literati Paintings mounted on 25 double-sided accordion-fold boards, some with woodblock colour, some finished in colour by hand, the illustrations mounted with gilt-speckled borders. Oblong folio, the album 28 3/4 x 17 1/2 cm., the paintings 22 x 13 1/2 cm., the upper cover of the album with original padded silk brocade and paper label. The album includes 7 'Poetry Competition paintings and poems from the '100 Famous Poems', an 8th century Heian period compilation. A very pleasing example, well preserved with minor rubbing to the extremities, the mountings and illustrations all in fine condition. A FINE EXAMPLE. THE JAPANESE ART OF BUNJIN-GA WAS INTRODUCED IN THE 17TH CENTURY FROM CHINA'S SOUTHERN SCHOOL OF PAINTING. This occurred during the Ming dynasty through the 'Painting Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden', although that in itself was based on Song and Yuan dynasty landscape painting; and the poetry of the Japanese literati painting was in the style of Classical Chinese poetry, termed Kanbun in Japan. Literati painting in Japan is generally referred to as Bunjinga (literati painting; Ch. Wen ren hua) or Nanga (Southern School painting; Ch. nan zong hua), both terms borrowed from China. Wen ren hua refers to the status of artists who belonged to the scholar-gentleman class. Nan zong hua was coined by the Chinese painter and theorist Dong Qichang (b. 1555d. 1636), who used it to describe art by literati, ostensibly amateurs, whose paintings were indebted to their mastery of calligraphy, expressed their inner feelings, and sought to capture the spiritual essence of their subjects. Japanese Literati Painting and CalligraphyP. J. Graham, F. L. Chance. Proclamation of the Establishment of the State of Israel [Fine Art Print, The Historic Lithograph to Commemorate Jewish Statehood.]
An original lithograph by the artist, Arthur Szyk, plate signed "Arthur Szyk, New Canaan, 1948." Beautifully done in the style of a medieval manuscript but with modern themes and imagery. The renowned historic proclamation is illuminated in numerous colours and exquisite details. The central Hebrew text of the Declaration is surrounded by miniature vignettes telling of both Jewish history and the newborn State of Israel. The images include Moses, with his brother Aaron the High Priest and the warrior Hur; Ezekiel, the prophet who called for restoration to the Land; skulls and bones as a reminder of the Holocaust; King David, the first King of the Jewish People in Jerusalem; and the symbols of the twelve tribes of Israel; the present day is represented with the pioneer (chalutz) who sows the land on the right and the soldier who defends the land on the left. The image measures 14 inches x 18 1/2 inches on paper 16 1/2 inches x 21 inches, accompanied by a copy of the original English translation as issued at the time of printing. The lithograph and English translation all are in very fine condition. THE SCARCE LITHOGRAPHIC PRODUCTION OF SZYK'S FAMOUS COMMEMORATIVE OF THE PROCLAMATION OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL. Polish born Jewish artist Arthur Szyk originally gained popularity through his World War II caricatures, in which he often depicted the leaders of the Axis powers. After the war, he devoted himself to political issues, such as supporting the creation of Israel. He first visited Israel in 1914 from his native Poland and after permanently resettling in America became the leading activist artist in America to help the cause of bringing about the State of Israel. In her memoirs, Julia Szyk records that on the day the independence of the Jewish state was declared, her husband wept and then sat down to begin this masterwork, devoting more than six months to its completion, the lithographs were printed within the first year of Statehood. It is said that this work and his completed Declaration of Independence of the United States hung side by side in the Szyk household until his death in 1951. MARK TWAIN’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY, With an Introduction by Albert Bigelow Paine
2 volumes. First edition, title-pages dated 1924, later impression with K-Y noted. With a fine portrait frontispiece in each volume and with holograph facsimile of Twain's writing. Tall 8vo, publishers original dark-blue ribbed cloth gilt lettered on the spines, t.e.g., with a facsimile of Twains autograph in gilt on the upper covers. 361, index; 357, index, ads pp. A fine set, the hinges tight and strong, the books very well preserved with minimal evidence of age. A FINE COPY OF AN EARLY REISSUE OF THE FIRST EDITION. "As might be expected of anything which Mark Twain wrote, this autobiography is unlike any other ever written-as unconventional and unorthodox as its great author. Always, when the time came for him to go on with the dictation, he chose as his subject whatever was most interesting to him at the moment, regardless of chronological order. For he believed that a mans thoughts, not his outward acts are his true history, which alone reveal him completely. "The resulting book is a stream of table-talk: anecdotes, humorous and serious; reminiscences of his mother, his daughter Susy, his boyhood days in Missouri; chronicles of his friendships with all manner of men, from General Grant and President Cleveland to his Irish coachman and the unfamed intimates of his vagabond youth; bold expressions of opinion on every sort of topic-all are here, full of the vigor and the humanity of their author, and forming an inexhaustible mine of entertainment, amusement, and delight." Dictated by Twain over several years with the stipulation that it be published after his death. [SHAKESPEARE’S] SHAKESPERE’S WORKS
12 volumes. This finely printed edition with the important provenance of C.H. St John Hornby, founder of the Ashendene Press. Each volume with his handsome bookplate. Title pages printed in red and black. 8vo, handsomely bound by Zaehnsdorf in three-quarter crushed tan morocco over brown paper covered boards, the spine with raised bands separating the compartments, two compartments lettered in gilt, top edge gilt. A very handsome set, very well preserved with little evidence of age, the bindings all in excellent condition, the hinges tight and strong, the text-blocks clean and crisp. A fine set. A VERY ATTRACTIVE AND PLEASING SET OF THE WORKS PRINTED ON FINE PAPER BY THE CHISWICK PRESS, AND WITH THE OUTSTANDING PROVENANCE OF ST JOHN HORNBY, FOUNDER OF THE ASHENDENE PRESS. This set also includes Pericles and the many Poems and Sonnets written by Shakespeare. SACRED POETRY: CONSISTING OF PSALMS AND HYMNS, Adapted to Christian Devotion, in Publick and Private. Selected from the best authors, with variations and additions
Created by Jeremy Belknap, A New Edition with Additional Hymns. With six pages of musical notations. 16mo, original full contemporary straight grain red morocco, the covers bordered with gilt fillet rules at the borders, the spine with raised bands, gilt ruled compartments, one compartment lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers. v, 255 pp. A very well preserved copy with fine and pleasing binding. A NICE PERSONAL PRINTING OF THE PSALMS AND HYMNS AND A VERY WELL PRESERVED COPY. Jeremy Belknap was born in Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bayr. His uncle was Mather Byles, one of New England's intellectual leaders. He was educated at the Boston Latin School and Harvard College, where he graduated in 1762. In 1764 he moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he "kept the school" and studied theology with Samuel Haven. In 1767 he began his ministry in Dover, New Hampshire, where he would spend twenty years at the Congregational Church. After the Battle of Lexington in 1775 some units of the Dover militia were called out to support the Siege of Boston. Belknap accompanied them and remained through the next winter as chaplain to the New Hampshire troops involved with the siege. Besides attending to his growing congregation, Belknap served as a secretary to the convention of New Hampshire ministers from 1769 until 1787. This position required travel throughout the state, and he used it as a chance to begin accumulating notes on the history of New Hampshire. In 1772 he began to write his history. In 1784 he published the first volume of the History of New Hampshire, but it would take until 1792 to complete the work. Its reputation grew over the years, and after his death, Alexis de Tocqueville named him as America's best native historian. The History represented a new approach in its field. Besides just narrating events, he added two innovations. He tried to clearly separate facts from analysis and opinion, and he provided many annotations to show the source and location of records that he had inspected. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1784. In 1785 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Belknap accepted a new position in 1787, when he moved back to Boston to become pastor of the Federal Street Church. He would serve there until his death. He remained active in research, writing, and promoting American history as a field. He continued his quest into history, seeking ways to report and preserve historic sources. On January 24, 1791, he invited nine friends with similar interests to meet at his home. They agreed to help build a repository for these records. The meeting resulted in the Massachusetts Historical Society, which was the first historical society and served as a prototype for many later ones. They also pledged to contribute family papers. John Eliot, a fourth-generation descendant of the 17th-century "Apostle to the Indians" and himself a minister, added Governor Thomas Hutchinson's manuscript for the History of Massachusetts Bay, which his father Andrew Eliot had saved during the Revolution when a mob looted the governor's home. MACEDONIA THRACE AND ILLYRIA Their Relations to Greece from the Earliest Timess Down to the Time of PHILIP son of AMYNTAS
First Edition. Profusely decorated throughout with 106 full-page plates and textual illustrations, and 19 maps including a large multi-folding map at the end of the volume. 8vo, publisher's original dark-green cloth, the spine decorated and lettered in gilt, the upper cover with gilt ornamental device at the center, both covers blocked in blind. xx, 357 pp. A fine copy, bright and clean, the maps and illustrations all in excellent condition, the text-block and hinges beautifully preserved. FIRST EDITION. The chief purpose of this important work, awarded the Conington Prize for 1924 is a reconstruction of the earlier history of the North Aegean coastline and its hinterland. The region is a large one, extending from the Adriatic coast to the Black Sea, and from the Save and Danube to the Peneios and the Dardanelles. The period covered extends from the earliest times down to the appearance of Philip II, son of Amyntas. The work is profusely illustrated with photographs, drawings and maps and remains one of the best source works on those areas of the Hellenic Empire barely studied until modern times. KAMET CONQUERED [With a Foreword by Sir Francis Younghusband]
First Edition. With over 60 illustrations from photographs on 48 plates and 3 maps, one of which is large, folding and printed in colour. Tall 8vo, publisher's original black cloth lettered in gilt on the spine, xvi, 420 pp. A fine copy, the cloth well preserved, the gilt bright, hinges perfect and sharp, the textblock clean, some of the inevitable foxing to the prelims and edges as is typical. FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST ASCENT OF KAMET. While attempts to climb Kamet began in 1855, the first ascent was not made until 1931 by Frank Smythe, Eric Shipton, R.L. Holdsworth and Lewa Sherpa, members of a British expedition. Kamet was the first summit over 25,000 feet to be climbed, and was the highest summit reached until the first ascent of Nanda Devi five years later. Due to its position near the Tibetan Plateau, Kamet is remote and not as accessible as some Himalayan peaks. It also receives a great deal of wind from the Plateau. Early explorers of the region faced long approach marches of around 200 miles from Ranikhet through dense mountain forest. THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL & OTHER POEMS
First Edition Thus. Illustrated throughout with wood engravings by Hans Alexander Mueller. 8vo, decorated boards with overall patterned design in purple and green, lettered on the spine, and housed in the slipcase with paste down title label. 93 pp. A fine and well-preserved copy, with extremely minor overall age mellowing to the exterior. BEAUTIFULLY BOUND AND ILLUSTRATED WITH THE WONDERFUL ARTWORK OF HANS ALEXANDER MUELLER. Inspired by his experiences while in prison and written while in exile in France, THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL was Wilde's last artistic gasp. Because of his sobering position at the time, the poem is free from a great deal of the affectation that colored his earlier work. "Had [it] been written a hundred years ago, it would have been printed as a broadside and sold in the streets by the balladmongers; it is so common as that, and so great as that" (Jackson, The Eighteen-Nineties, p. 99). ".He did not wring his hands, as do Those witless men who dare To try to rear the changeling Hope In the cave of black Despair: He only looked upon the sun, And drank the morning sun. He did not wring his hands nor weep, Nor did he peek or pine, But he drank the air as though it held Some healthful anodyne; With open mouth he drank the sun As though it had been wine!." SONGS, CHIEFLY IN THE SCOTTISH DIALECT
Early Edition in binding, a copy with provenance, the copy of Waldo Higginson the famous Boston engineer. With five engraved plates, one after Thomas Stothard, the others by R. Westall. 12mo, full contemporary green calf, with raised bands on the spine and with elaborate gilt tooled compartments, the lettering label lost leaving the lettering impressions in blind, the covers with fine gilt arabesque tooling in a panel design at the centers and with blind decorative roll tolling to the borders of the covers, gilt turn-ins, and with marbled endleaves and marbled edges to match. vii, 264 pp. A handsome copy, front inner hinge starting. FINELY PRINTED FOR JOHN SHARPE BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM(in the same year that Charles Whittingham the uncle brought Charles Whittingham the nephew into the business as a partner). A lovely book, the printing and binding and illustrations all working well together. The book was gifted to D.W. Higginson in 1833. The bookplate of Waldo Higginson is affixed to the front pastedown. Waldo Higginson (1814-1894) was born in Boston, Massachusetts on May 1, 1814, the son of Stephen Higginson (1770-1834) and Louise Storrow Higginson. He graduated from Harvard College with an AB in 1833 and an AM in 1856. In 1834-1835 he studied law in the office of Judge Jackson of Boston but in the summer of 1835 he gave up that profession and entered the office of Colonel Loammi Baldwin of Charlestown, as a student in civil engineering. From 1837-1845 he worked on a variety of engineering works including work on the Western & Atlantic Railroad of the State of Georgia with the U. S. Topographical Engineers, as an assistant engineer on the Eastern Railroad Company between Ipswich and Newburyport, Massachusetts, and as a civil engineer out of a Boston office. In 1845 he became agent and engineer for the Boston and Lowell Railroad Company which he filled until 1853 when he resigned after suffering paralysis. In 1856 he became president of the New England Railroad Mutual Insurance Company and later president of the Arkwright Insurance Company. He was an Overseer of Harvard University from 1869 to 1873 and he was the secretary of the Harvard Class of 1833. One of his brothers was Thomas Wentworth Higginson, the American Unitarian minister, author, abolitionist, and soldier. A CHRISTMAS SERMON
Stevenson Robert Louis Early American Edition' 8vo, Green cloth over gray boards lettered in black on the upper cover. 23 pp. A very well preserved and pleasing copy. The text-block clean, the binding pleasing, tight and strong. A MEDITATION ON CHRISTMAS BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.- $83
- $83
THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life
Darwin Charles Reprinted from the sixth London edition, with all additions and corrections. 8vo, in the publisher's flexible burgundy leather, the upper cover embossed with Burt's logo in gilt, the spine gilt lettered, t.e.g. xxi, 538 pp. A fine copy. A HANDSOME AND PLEASING REPRINT OF THE HIGHLY IMPORTANT SIXTH EDITION OF DARWIN'S MOST FAMOUS WORK THE GREATEST WORK IN SCIENCE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AND THE MOST IMPORTANT BIOLOGICAL WORK EVER PENNED. An early edition of "the most influential scientific work of the nineteenth century" and "the most important biological work ever written" (Horblit, Freeman). Darwin's elaboration of the theory of natural selection laid the groundwork for the controversy over the evolution of man, and with only slight modification by such scientists as Stephen Jay Gould, Darwin's ideas remain the umbra under which most current biological research is conducted. The repercussions of Darwins theory on religious, scientific, sociological and philosophical thought was the result of what Garrison considered "the most wonderful piece of sythesis in the history of science." Darwin brought man to his true place in nature and accomplished a revolution. Darwin had intended the book to be an abstract of his 'big book' on transmutation, of which only the first part (VARIATION UNDER DOMESTICATION, 1868) was published in his lifetime. The first edition of "Origin" had a print run of only 1250 copies and was sold out in a day. The text is that of the important sixth edition. The sixth is generally considered to be the "last" edition and it first appeared in 1872. It included a new chapter, VII, which was inserted to confute the views of the Roman Catholic biologist St George Mivart. A glossary appears for the first time, and it was in this edition that the word "evolution" appeared for the first time in the work (it was used in the first edition of THE DESCENT OF MAN in the previous year). As Freeman says, "'Evolved' had been the last word of the text in all previous editions, but 'evolution' had been omitted, perhaps to avoid confusion with the use of the word by Herbert Spencer or with its more particular embryological meaning" (p. 79).- $127
- $127
THE BEAUTIES OF SCOTTISH POETS, ANCIENT AND MODERN, With Biographical Sketches of the Authors, and Notes, Illustrative and Explanatory of the Ancient Poems.
[Scottish Poetry]; James I; Bruce Michael; Dunbar, William; Blair, Robert et al. First Edition, with provenance, the Henry Lee copy. Embellished with engravings throughout. 12mo, publishers original 3/4 dark green morocco over marbled boards, the spine lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers. vi, 288 pp. A charming, fine tight copy, the binding slightly age mellowed, the text-block clean and tight. SCARCE FIRST EDITION OF THIS FINE COLLECTION OF EARLY SCOTTISH POETRY. Henry Lee's copy. The Lee family was engaged in early mercantile capitalism in America and was an important figure in its development. The family showed remarkable powers of adaptation to successive forms of capitalism, mercantile, industrial, and financial; and, as opportunity served, they were to do more than their share in promoting the cultural welfare of America. The Lees exported and imported and wholesaled their goods in America. They had ships at sea and were active in the Calcutta trade and the East Indian affairs. It is Henry Lee's bookplate that is affixed here.- $138
- $138
THE ADVENTURES OF GIL BLAS DE SANTILLANE. A New Translation, By the Author of Roderick Random [Tobias Smollett].
[Smollett] Le Sage Alain Rene 4 volumes. "A New Translation", and very early edition "Adorned with a new set of copperplates, neatly engraved" being a total of 16 fine plates. Small 8vo, bound in three-quarter polished calf over cloth covered boards, the spines with raised band, gilt lettering and tooling, marbled endpapers. ix 261; vi, 212; vi, 240; vi, 227pp. A handsome little set of this literary classic, all very sound and sturdy, 3 of the lettering labels off, but still an attractive set. A HANDSOME AND WELL PRESERVED SET OF THIS 18TH CENTURY CLASSIC offered here in the best translation by Mr. Smollett who was also renown for his translation of DON QUIXOTE and for his own masterful works of literature and travel. Gil Blas is related to Le Sage's other well known play, Turcaret. In both works, Le Sage uses such things as witty valets in the service of thieving masters, women of questionable morals, cuckolded yet happy husbands, gourmands, ridiculous poets, false savants, and dangerously ignorant doctors to make his point. Each class and each occupation becomes an archetype. The work is universal while also being decidedly French. It is thanks to Smollett that Gil Blas had such an impact on the English-speaking nations. The work was referred to by authors such as Jonathan Swift, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Wilkie Collins, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is considered a primary model to Twain for 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' and Charles Dickens relates the story of Gil Blas to Steerforth and Traddles in David Copperfield.- $303
- $303
THE NOVELS OF JANE AUSTEN. [SENSE AND SENSIBILITY; PRIDE AND PREJUDICE; MANSFIELD PARK; EMMA; NORTHANGER ABBEY and PERSUASION; MINOR WORKS] The Text Based on Collation of the Early Editions by R.W. Chapman. With Notes Indexes and Illustrations from Contemporary Sources
Austen Jane 6 volumes. Third Edition, reprinted. With numerous illustrations in each volume, frontispieces and over 40 plates drawn from late-eighteenth and early nineteenth century sources. The Oxford Illustrated Jane Austen which is cited as the only complete edition. 8vo, publishers original green cloth, lettered in gilt on the spines, in the original dustjackets. xiv, [2], 429; xiv, 415, [1]; xii, [2], 567; xii, 521, (1); xiii, [1], 252, 311, [1] ; viii, [1], 476 pp. An unusually bright and fine set, the cloth in very fresh condition, the internal leaves bright and clean, the dustjackets in and excellent state of preservation. AN UNUSUALLY NICE SET AND QUITE SCARCE. A charming and delicately illustrated set of Austens classic novels. Originally, SENSE AND SENSIBILITY appeared in 1811, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE in 1813, MANSFIELD PARK in 1814, EMMA in 1815, and NORTHANGER ABBEY and PERSUASION posthumously in 1818 and the MINOR WORKS issued over time. Here we find them all perfectly united in this attractive cloth set. "Recognition came to Miss Austen slowly. But she is now firmly established as an English classic.Miss Austen had always her panegyrists among the best intellects-such as Coleridge, Tennyson,Macaulay, Scott, Sydney Smith, Disraeli and Archbishop Whitely, the last of whom may be said to have been her discoverer. Macaulay, whose adoration of Miss Austens genius was almost idolatrous, considered MANSFIELD PARK her greatest feat; but many critics give the palm to EMMA. Disraeli read PRIDE AND PREJUDICE seventeen times. Scotts testimony is often quoted: That young lady had a talent for describing the involvement, feelings and characters of ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I have ever met with. The big bow-wow I can do myself like any one going; but the exquisite touch which renders commonplace things and characters interesting from the truth of the description and the sentiment is denied to me." - EB- $765
- $765
A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES
Churchill Winston 4 volumes. First edition of each volume. With numerous maps throughout. 8vo, publisher's original crimson cloth lettered in gilt on the spines, in bright, original pictorial dustjackets. xxi, 395; xi, 325; xi, 312; xi, 304. Index in each volume. A very clean and very bright set, the books handsome and fine but for the most trivial evidence of age, the jackets bright and fresh occasionally with some very minor evidence of age or use. AN IMPORTANT SET OF FIRST EDITIONS. By the beginning of World War II, Churchill had already penned half a million words of this manuscript. Lying dormant through almost six years of war followed by an even longer period in which Churchill wrote his war memoirs, this work finally was brought to fruition in 1956. The first two volumes of this set were published in April and November 1956 respectively, the third in October 1957, and the last in March 1958. Whereas the first two volumes sold briskly, the final two were less successful and were not reprinted for years. Sir Winston Churchill ranks among the greatest men of history. He was born in 1874, a descendent of the great Duke of Marlborough. After an education at Harrow and Sandhurst he entered the army in 1895 and embarked on one of the most varied and distinguished careers of the century. He acted as a correspondent for the Morning Post during the Boer War and his dramatic escape from prison in Pretoria brought him to public attention. He embarked on his political career in 1900 by entering Parliament. While there he held many major offices of state: Home Secretary, Secretary of State for War, First Lord of the Admiralty in which he oversaw naval operations for the First World War, Colonial Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer and eventually in 1940, Prime Minister. The latter office he would hold throughout World War Two and again from 1951 to 1955. He was a prolific writer, always submerged in simultaneous multi-facted projects. He finished both A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES and his other great multi-volume work THE SECOND WORLD WAR during the same period as he was perfecting his style of painting and writing PAINTING AS A PASTIME. His death in 1965 sent the whole world into mourning and his funeral was on of the most moving public events of the century.- $765
- $765
THE POETICAL WORKS OF ROBERT BURNS: Complete, Chronologically Arranged, With Notes, Glossaries and Index by W. Scott Douglas
Burns Robert 3 volumes. A complete and pleasing printing. Illustrated with frontispieces to each volume. Small 8vo, handsomely bound by Macklehose of Glasgow in three quarter red crushed morocco over patterned red cloth, double gilt fillets to the turnovers and corner pieces, the spines with raised bands gilt stopped, the compartments with double gilt fillet ruled frames, two compartments lettered in gilt, marbled endleaves, top edges gilt. xx, 635 pp. A very fine, and handsome copy, beautifully preserved with no real evidence of wear or use. A VERY PLEASING PRINTING. Included in this volume are Burns' Poems, Epistles, Ballads, Political Ballads and Satires. Burns wrote some 200 songs, which include many of his best-known lyrics such as "Auld Lang Syne". The binding on this copy is especially attractive. Burns, a ploughman poet, to this day ranks high among the poets of Great Britain. Whether employing his flawless 18th century English or his native Scots dialect, his writings speak to us eloquently . "His finest work springs from his own soil, from his compassionate and generous nature, and from the Scots poetic tradition.He employed the Scottish vernacular with great skill and range.he was in direct contact with its source and the themes of Scots rural life provided an inexhaustible field for poetic expression."-Michael Stapleton. Burns most famous collection was a tremendous success and was reprinted many times during his lifetime. Just prior to its first publication in 1786 he was preparing to leave Scotland for Jamaica to escape several scandalous affairs involving a number of young ladies. With the money from the publishing of his POEMS, he was able to remain in Scotland and build a new (though perhaps none the more chaste) life in Edinburgh.- $495
- $495
THE HISTORY OF DON QUIXOTE. The Text Edited by J. W. Clark and A Biographical Notice of Cervantes, by T. Teignmouth Shore
[Doré, illus.]; Cervantes Saavedra Miguel A very early issue of this wonderfully illustrated Cervantes. With 118 spectacular illustrations by by Gustave Doré. Folio (30 x 24 cm), handsomely bound in the publisher's original royal-blue cloth, the upper cover elaborately decorated and emblazoned in gilt and black, the spine decorated in like manner in gilt and black, all edges gilt. xxviii, 737, [1], [2 ads.] pp. A very handsome and sturdy copy, the binding is very strong and well preserved, bright and pleasing, an unusually nice copy in the publisher's beautifully decorated cloth. A HANDSOME COPY. THE ORIGINAL CLOTH BINDINGS VERY SCARCE IN SUCH WELL PRESERVED CONDITION. Gustave Doré was one of the greatest illustrators of his day. He was born in Strassburg in 1832. In 1848, he moved to Paris where "his facility as a draughtsman was extraordinary." He was a prolific worker and his subjects were usually religious or historical. He died in January of 1883. His grand and magnificent style is a perfect complement for Cervantes heroic tale. This great tome presents one of our favorite printings of the Spanish classic and, because of the weight of the text block, is usually found broken and loose. This copy is as sturdy as one could hope for and is especially handsome as well.- $765
- $765
A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES
Churchill Winston 4 volumes. First edition of each volume. With numerous maps throughout. 8vo, publisher's original crimson cloth lettered in gilt on the spines, in bright, original pictorial dustjackets. xxi, 395; xi, 325; xi, 312; xi, 304. Index in each volume. A very clean and very bright set, the books handsome and fine, the jackets bright and fresh, an excellent set. AN IMPORTANT SET OF FIRST EDITIONS. By the beginning of World War II, Churchill had already penned half a million words of this manuscript. Lying dormant through almost six years of war followed by an even longer period in which Churchill wrote his war memoirs, this work finally was brought to fruition in 1956. The first two volumes of this set were published in April and November 1956 respectively, the third in October 1957, and the last in March 1958. Whereas the first two volumes sold briskly, the final two were less successful and were not reprinted for years. Sir Winston Churchill ranks among the greatest men of history. He was born in 1874, a descendent of the great Duke of Marlborough. After an education at Harrow and Sandhurst he entered the army in 1895 and embarked on one of the most varied and distinguished careers of the century. He acted as a correspondent for the Morning Post during the Boer War and his dramatic escape from prison in Pretoria brought him to public attention. He embarked on his political career in 1900 by entering Parliament. While there he held many major offices of state: Home Secretary, Secretary of State for War, First Lord of the Admiralty in which he oversaw naval operations for the First World War, Colonial Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer and eventually in 1940, Prime Minister. The latter office he would hold throughout World War Two and again from 1951 to 1955. He was a prolific writer, always submerged in simultaneous multi-facted projects. He finished both A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES and his other great multi-volume work THE SECOND WORLD WAR during the same period as he was perfecting his style of painting and writing PAINTING AS A PASTIME. His death in 1965 sent the whole world into mourning and his funeral was on of the most moving public events of the century.- $875
- $875