The work is illustrated with a number of mounted black-and-white photographs.

Each book in the series was published by the author as a very limited edition and distributed to his friends as a Christmas gift; the present copy is inscribed by Abbott: “Wishing you peacetime Christmas cheer.”

This is the original first, 1918 edition, not a modern reprint.

•  Publisher's bark-patterned paper–covered boards, front cover with printed title; extremities chipped (most notably spine head). Front free endpaper with pencilled inscription as above; pages clean.  (26848)

•  ESTC T88657; Dibdin, I, 232; Schweiger, I, 2. Contemporary vellum-covered boards, covers framed and panelled in blind with central blind-stamped strapwork medallions, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels; front joints repaired and now strong, vellum soiled. Front free endpapers with early inked owner's name as above; shadow of shelf number once pencilled on title-page, erased. Spotting of various sorts and minor smudging in upper margins of some pages; leaves otherwise clean.

fishing

•  Not in Brinkman. Contemporary cartonné binding covered in decorative printed paper, shown above right; spine showing a small undarkened area where label is now lacking. Front joint tender. Lacking two leaves, pp. 33/34 and 39/40; some signatures loosening. Pages with a very few small spots, otherwise clean and pleasing.

Handsomely printed, the volume begins with a fine engraved frontispiece opposite the title in black and red. Engraved head- and tailpieces appear in expected places; each page is heavily laden with printed notes.

•  Brunet 759; Schweiger, II, 328. Contemporary vellum over paste boards with blind-embossed center device on covers; that on front cover slightly loose due to a vandal’s attempt to excise it! Top of spine pulled (uncommon on a vellum-bound book); vellum soiled and binding a little sprung. Bookplate removed and glue residue visible on pastedown. The odd spot or small stain only; some light foxing and dust-soiling.

•  Publisher's blue cloth, stamped in black and gold; with a full-color illustration on-lay on front cover. Spine rubbed and with a tiny bit of cloth loss at both ends. Rubber stamp of St. John's Episcopal Church, Glenwood, Iowa and pencilled inscription on front pastedown. Small chip out of one corner of pp. 7-8. Frontispiece loose. In mylar covering. Binding sound, overall good +. (4670)

•  See: Wood 553; Freeman 3166.   Publisher's tan cloth printed with publishing information on front cover and ads for various Harper Library series on the back. Strip of cloth tape at top of spine and slightly onto the covers; ex–social club library, with 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. A nice, clean little book.  (26731)

Paul Hogarth illustrated the book with black-and-white vignettes which open and close each chapter, and eight full-page color wash drawings. John Lewis designed the book choosing a monotype Walbaum font. The binding is quarter red calf over light-brown buckram sides, gilt-lettered on the spine, and gilt-stamped on the front cover with a design of various fox-hunting implements; tucked away at the lower edge of the back cover is a gilt design of a sly-looking fox in full trot.

This edition is limited to 1600 copies and is signed by the artist on the colophon.

•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 506.   Binding as above, in original glassine wrapper and slipcase; wrapper with tears at bottom edge. Slipcase with slight bumping at inner front edge. A fine copy, in a near fine slipcase.  (22104)

Click the images for enlargements.

The author was physically disabled from childhood, but admired by his fellow students at Cornell both for his fierce independence and for his enthusiasm for outdoor life: “On more than one occasion the young fellow who could not walk a foot without his crutches, or swim a stroke, has paddled his frail canoe from Ithaca to Syracuse . . . sleeping under his boat at night and with no other companion than his dog” (Chi Phi Quarterly, vol. XI, no. 2, 74–75).

This is the original second edition, not a modern reprint or facsimile.

Binding:  Publisher's blue cloth, front cover with gilt- and black-stamped title and pictorial vignettes, spine with gilt-stamped title.

•  Brown, Culinary Americana, 2521.   Binding with minor rubbing to corners and spine extremities, spine slightly sunned. Front free endpaper with pencilled gift inscription. A beautiful copy of an unusual and intriguing testament to the pleasures of Nature and its offerings.  (26676)

Click the images for enlargements.

Binding:  Publisher's brown cloth, front cover with black-stamped hunting scene and title framed in gilt, spine with gilt-stamped title.

•  Binding as above, corners and spine head lightly rubbed. Ex–social club library: call number on endpaper, rubber-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Pages clean.  (27113)

•  Publisher's textured brown cloth, front cover and spine stamped in green, front cover with vignette of deer in pot, dustwrapper chipped at corners, upper edges, and spine extremities with spine lightly sunned. Front fly-leaf with inked owner's name. Pages clean.  (26903)

Willis himself was the founder of the magazine that became the Home Journal, and was celebrated in his day for his essays and travel writings as well as several collections of his journalistic work. The Cambridge History of American Literature calls him the “prince of magazinists,” and remarks on “the evanescent sparkle and glancing brilliance” of A L'abri, later known as Letters from under a Bridge. These charming, witty essays touch on Willis's Yale education (and its lack of practical application!);fishing; a dinner with Lady Blessington, Benjamin Disraeli, Count D'Orsay, and Lord Durham; the possibility of local railroad construction to connect the Hudson with Lake Erie; the relationship of American to British literature, etc. Whatever the ostensible topics of the individual letters, each touches in affectionate and amusing fashion on some aspect of life in the Susquehanna region.

A publishing practice, demonstrated: Bound in at the back of this volume are yellow printed paper wrappers for John Smith's Letters, and the title-page and preface for Fireside Education — both items published by Colman in the same year as the present work.

•  BAL 22752 (spine label in first state, cloth described as “Brown S cloth “); American Imprints 59260; Fearing, Check List of Books on Angling, Fishing, Fisheries, Fish-Culture, etc., 135; Sabin 104504. On Willis, see: Cambridge History of American Literature online.   Publisher's brown cloth embossed with floret and dash pattern, spine with printed paper label; corners rubbed, and spine cloth chipped with paper label chipped and darkened. Front free endpaper with early pencilled ownership inscription. Foxing throughout; occasional pencilled marginalia and marks of emphasis.  (25806)