Results for: First Book


Original bronzed brown pebbled cloth, gilt-lettered on the front cover. Crane A2: First Issue, Binding A of Frost's first book. Less than 350 copies of the first issue in the first binding were issued, from a total edition of 1,000. INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author on the front endpaper: "To William Stockhausen/this a first of my first/Robert Frost/and pleased to meet it/again so fresh after all/these years/Dec 26 1960." In addition on the front endpaper is the pencil ownership signature of Henry James, Jr. with a 55 East 65th St. address. According to the SOTHEBY PARKE BERNET catalog of THE WILLIAM E. STOCKHAUSEN COLLECTION, 1974, "this copy is most certainly from the library of Henry James the novelist. The owner name is in the hand of his nephew Henry James but appears to be an identification of source. The nephew inherited a large part of the novelist's library on the author's death in 1916. He never used either Jr. or Henry James II but his uncle did use the latter. Since this is evidently not his own ownership inscription it appears to be more than likely that he wrote it to identify those books which had come from his uncle's library." A copy of NORTH OF BOSTON also inscribed to Stockhausen had a similar ownership signature. This copy was last on the market in 1977, and a letter from the well-known bookseller to the buyer is laid in. Housed in a cloth chemise and handsome brown morocco-backed cloth slipcase.
A BOY'S WILL
FROST, Robert
London: David Nutt, 1913.
Price: $50,000.00
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Original blindstamped publisher's dark brown cloth containing in this order: Shattuck's HISTORY OF CONCORD (viii, 392 pages with folding map); an offprint REVIEW OF A HISTORY OF CONCORD FROM THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW, No. XCI (20 pages); and importantly, Emerson's address on the Second Centennial Anniversary of the incorporation of Concord (52 pages), INSCRIBED by the author on the top of the title: "Mr. Lemuel Shattuck/with Mr. Emerson's comp." The end of the final word in the inscription was trimmed and the original blue wrappers discarded when bound with the other two items, the original size 6-7/16" x 9- 3/4" trimmed to 5-1/2" x 8-3/4". BAL 5178; Myerson A2.1: second state with signature mark 3 present, but he notes that the order of states is arbitrary. Emerson's first separately published substantial publication, preceded only by the pamphlet and broadside printings of his 1832 LETTER...TO THE SECOND CHURCH, is scarce not only due to a likely very small printing but also to a fire at the Town-Clerk's office in Concord that is said to have destroyed most copies. He consulted the proof sheets of Shattuck's history, published shortly after the town's celebration, in creating this work, refering to it in 23 footnotes. The strong circumstantial evidence leads us to believe this is Shattuck's own copy of his work and the offprint as well, bound together for him with the pamphlet given to him by Emerson. Bookplate of the Reverend Philip Wheeler on the front pastedown. The Shattuck title page reinforced at the gutter.
A HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, DELIVERED BEFORE THE CITIZENS OF CONCORD, 12TH SEPT. 1835 with A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD
EMERSON, Ralph Waldo with SHATTUCK, Lemuel
Concord: G. F. Bemis/John Stacy, 1835.
Price: $30,000.00
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BAL 3310. The first printing of Mark Twain's first book, published in an edition of only 1000 copies, with the inserted ad leaf before the title page and undamaged type in folio 21 and in the last lines of pages 66 and 198. In the traditionally preferred blue cloth with the traditionally preferred gilt frog in the center of the front cover. Twain's presentation copy to his mother was in blue cloth. A very faded signature of a previous owner at the top of the title page and a small blue ink stamp of the same name at the blank top of the dedication page. The text is quite clean with one page with a very short, hardly noticeable marginal repair. The cloth is bright and clean. The hinges have been professionally strengthened with no visible sign of the work ever having been done, and the spine has been neatly and expertly relined to repair a fingernail-sized chip at the head and fraying at the base. The result is quite stunning with the work visible only under close scrutiny. Many Twain collectors wait for that elusive, fine, unrestored copy to add to their collections. Perhaps the best known collector of Twain in the latter half of the twentieth century admired this copy but held out for an unrestored copy and went to his grave without acquiring this title. The decision is certainly one of the toughest a serious collector has to make and one in which, if he is savvy, he will take all factors into consideration.
THE CELEBRATED JUMPING FROG OF CALAVERAS COUNTY, AND OTHER SKETCHES
TWAIN, Mark [CLEMENS, Samuel]
New York: C. H. Webb, 1867.
Price: $25,000.00
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Author's first book, a National Book Award winner and a landmark novel of the twentieth century. Typical, for this title, flaking of the white spine lettering but still very readable. The cloth is a little darkened, most noticeably on the spine, and there is some staining on the fore-edge of the front free endpaper that contains the following magnificent and very early INSCRIPTION SIGNED by the author: "For David -----,/that artist-technician, who has/made unheard music hearable,/this small effort to make the un-/seen seeable./Sincerely/Ralph Ellison/March 24, 1952." The recipient was a violinist who played under Arturo Toscanini as a member of the NBC Symphony and a very close friend of Ellison's who was technically savvy with computers and audio equipment. It was he who retrieved Ellison's final manuscript from the author's computer after his death. Dustwrapper with some edgewear but very presentable.
INVISIBLE MAN
ELLISON, Ralph
New York: Random House, (1952).
Price: $15,000.00
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SANGAR. TO LINCOLN STEFFENS (The DEDICATION Copy Inscribed to Lincoln Steffens)
REED, John
Riverside, CT: Hillacre, 1913.
Price: $8,500.00
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A BOY'S WILL
FROST, Robert
New York: Henry Holt, 1915.
Price: $7,500.00
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AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED (ALS) TO RONALD DUNCAN REGARDING THE IMPENDING PUBLICATION OF HIS FIRST BOOK
OLSON, Charles
New York: 8 April 1946.
Price: $7,500.00
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THE GREEN WALL
WRIGHT, James
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957.
Price: $7,500.00
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ASK THE DUST
FANTE, John
New York: Stackpole Sons, (1939).
Price: $7,500.00
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Her first book, of which only 1000 copies were printed. This copy is INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author on the title page: "Best wishes to Varujan Boghosian - from/Elizabeth Bishop/October 11th, 1973/Hanover." Varujan Boghosian was an art professor at Dartmouth best known for his constructions.
NORTH & SOUTH
BISHOP, Elizabeth
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1946.
Price: $6,500.00
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THE BLUEST EYE
MORRISON, Toni
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, (1970).
Price: $6,500.00
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A SEPARATE PEACE Inscribed to Photographer Arnold Newman
KNOWLES, John
New York: The MacMillan Company, 1960.
Price: $6,000.00
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THE HISTORY OF THE ADVENTURES OF JOSEPH ANDREWS...
FIELDING, Henry
London: A. Millar, 1742.
Price: $5,000.00
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HARMONIUM
STEVENS, Wallace
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1923.
Price: $5,000.00
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THE NAKED AND THE DEAD
MAILER, Norman
New York: Rinehart and Company Inc., (1948).
Price: $5,000.00
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THE WAY SOME PEOPLE LIVE
CHEEVER, John
New York: Random House, (1943).
Price: $5,000.00
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CATCH-22
HELLER, Joseph
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1961.
Price: $4,500.00
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THE OLD BACHELOR AND OTHER POEMS
JUSTICE, Donald
[Miami]: Pandanus Press, 1951.
Price: $4,500.00
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A BOY'S WILL with AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT STANZA
FROST, Robert
New York: Henry Holt and Company, (1934).
Price: $4,500.00
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A CURTAIN OF GREEN
WELTY, Eudora
Garden City: Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1941.
Price: $4,000.00
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