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On Our Shelves in Manhattan
DAHL, Roald. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.New York : 1964
First edition, first printing, first issue, in the first state dust jacket. In the words of his biographer Donald Sturrock, this is Dahl's "most famous children's book". The US edition preceded the UK edition by three years.
The first issue can be distinguished by the six lines of printing information on the final page; this was cut to five...Learn More
YEATS, W. B. The Poems.New York : 1949
First edition thus, number 211 of 375 copies signed by the poet, comprising his complete poetical output and a variorum of his textual changes.
Throughout the 1930s, Yeats worked scrupulously to collect, revise, arrange, and edit his complete poetry for a deluxe edition, to be published by Macmillan. This project was abruptly terminated by...Learn More
KEATS, John. Poems.London : 1817
First edition of Keats's first book, in the original boards. Poems was published on 3 March 1817 by Charles and James Ollier, who were already publishing Shelley. The first of a mere three lifetime publications, it is a work of mainly youthful promise - Keats had appeared for the first time in print less than a year earlier, with a poem in the...Learn More
ONO, Yoko. Grapefruit.Tokyo : 1964
First edition, first printing, limited to 500 copies, inscribed on the first blank, "To Ann McMillan, 1965, Summer. Yoko Ono". In 1965, Yoko represented Japan in a four-part radio series on WBAI, New York City. She was interviewed by the avant-garde composer and the station's music director, Ann McMillan, about traditional wartime and post-war...Learn More
GOYA Y LUCIENTES, Francisco José de. Los Desastres de la Guerra. Coleccion de ochenta láminas inventadas y grabadas al agua fuerte.Madrid : 1863
First edition, one of 500 copies of Goya's impassioned "Disasters of War", cataloguing the brutality and fatal consequences of war in a stark, confrontational, and unflinching manner, a series of plates regarded by many as the greatest war art ever created.
Although not published until 1863, the series dates from the second decade of the...Learn More
FISHER, Irving. The Nature of Capital and Income.New York : 1906
First edition, first printing, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper "To H. L. S. from I. F. Xmas, 1906", almost certainly to Fisher's friend and rival, the US Secretary of State and of War, Henry L. Stimson (1867-1950).
In Stimson's long career of public service, he served as Secretary of War under President...Learn More
STOUT, Rex. The Rubber Band.New York : 1936
First edition, first printing, of the scarce third Nero Wolfe novel, rare in excellent condition with an unrestored dust jacket. The story was serialized in the Saturday Evening Post between February and April 1936 prior to its publication in book form on 9 April. A second printing, distinguished by the lack of the publisher's device on the...Learn More
LOVECRAFT, H. P. (his copy) - THWING, Annie Haven. The Crooked and Narrow Streets of the Town of Boston 1630-1822.Boston : 1920
First edition, Lovecraft's copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper, "H. P. Lovecraft, Gent. His book. 1924". Lovecraft was well-studied in the history and lore of New England and used this knowledge to imbue his writings with an antiquarian flavour. He took care with the details of geography and setting in his tales, using reference works such...Learn More
KENNEDY, John F., & Jacqueline. The White House: An Historic Guide.Washington, DC : 1962
Limited edition, number 70A of 75 copies specially bound for presentation by the President and First Lady, inscribed by John F. Kennedy on the limitation page "For Peter - with all the best Jack Christmas 1962". The recipient was the actor Peter Lawford (1923-1984), John F. Kennedy's brother-in-law and an important part of the Kennedy...Learn More
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR. Collection of Papers,New York : 1778
First editions of these six tracts recording efforts at British-American reconciliation during the Revolutionary War. This copy has an excellent provenance: although not marked as such, it comes from the family collection of William Eden (1744-1814), a key figure in the negotiations and the author of the latter two works.
In 1778, Lord...Learn More
ROOSEVELT, Franklin D. White House portfolio.Washington, DC : 1942-45
A superbly evocative memento of the wartime FDR White House, a handsome commercial leather portfolio personalized for Roosevelt's use and containing some 20 leaves of various White House stationery and printed appointment documents all signed by Roosevelt in preparation for use. Such personal artefacts relating to FDR rarely appear on the open...Learn More
BLACKSTONE, William. Commentaries on the Laws of England.Oxford : 1765-69
First editions of all four volumes of the supreme work on English law, Blackstone's magnum opus, a major influence on the Founding Fathers, and the foundation of all legal analysis of the next two centuries.
"Blackstone's great work on the laws of England is the extreme example of justification of an existing state of affairs by virtue of...Learn More
MELVILLE, Herman; KENT, Rockwell (illus.). Moby Dick or The Whale.New York : 1930
First Rockwell Kent trade edition, first printing, attractively bound. Kent's imagining of Melville's classic novel (1851) first appeared earlier in 1930 as a three-volume limited edition published by the Lakeside Press of Chicago. His efforts have been hailed as a masterpiece of 20th-century book illustration and credited with reviving public...Learn More
RACKHAM, Arthur (illus.); GRAHAME, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows.London : 1951
First UK edition, number 329 of 500 copies. This is the 100th edition of Grahame's classic, originally published in 1908.
Rackham's illustrations first appeared in the Limited Editions Club edition. "During his last illness Rackham worked on illustrations to... The Wind in the Willows, a book for which he had a strong affection, and which...Learn More
TRUMAN, Harry S. Memoirs.Garden City, New York : 1955-56
First edition, deluxe issue for presentation, inscribed by the 33rd President on the half-title in both volumes, "To My Grandson, Thomas Washington Daniel, may he have a long and happy life. Harry Truman 12-5-67". Thomas Washington Daniel, born 1966, is the youngest of the four children of Truman's only child, Margaret.
Year of Decision...Learn More
APIANUS, Petrus. Cosmographicus liber mathematico studiose collectus.Landshut : 1524
First edition, including four well-preserved volvelles, of this influential hybrid of text and instrument, among the final developments of the pre-Copernican universe and one of the earliest books to print a world map including the Americas.
Petrus Apianus (1495-1552) was among the most prominent practitioners of cosmography - a discipline...Learn More
BRADBURY, Ray. Fahrenheit 451.New York : 1953
First hardback edition, first printing, of the author's best-known work. Though preceded by a softcover edition, the hardback is more desirable. This is the trade issue, in Currey's D binding (no priority); there was also a signed limited issue of 200 copies.
Published at the height of the Cold War, Fahrenheit 451 is a classic in the...Learn More
MILNE, A. A. When We Were Very Young.London : 1924
First edition, first impression, signed by the author on the title page. This copy is in the second state with the page number "ix" present in the preliminaries.
When We Were Very Young was the first of the Winnie-the-Pooh books, introducing Christopher Robin and Pooh. Milne had no particular ambition to write for children, but in 1922 a...Learn More
WOOLF, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway.London : 1925
First edition, Hugh Walpole's copy, with his morocco bookplate and ownership signature, dated May 1925, to the front endpapers. The two writers had a long, affectionate friendship, often reading each other's novels and discussing their writing over tea or in letters.
They first met in 1928, when Walpole presented Woolf with the Femina Vie...Learn More
CHAGALL, Marc. Psaumes de David.Geneva : 1979
Signed limited issue, number 74 of 160 copies, signed by the artist on the limitation notice.Learn More
