LITERATURE

Presentation Copy of the“Greatest Poem EVER Written
on the Immortal Martyr . . . ”

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•  Broadside poem honoring Abraham Lincoln. “This is the prize poem on Lincoln; for in 1922, when the American Government had completed the Lincoln Memorial Building at Washington, D.C., the President appointed Chief Justice Taft and a committee to arrange for the dedication. They called in all the poems that have been written on Lincoln . . . [and] decided unanimously on this Markhamic poem.”

Author's presentation copy:  Signed by Markham, with an inscription “with my friendly greetings” to a theological seminary, dated 1933.

•  Mounted on cardboard. Age-toned, edges darkened; clean and unchipped.  (26119)

A First Edition of theFirst “Volume”

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•  First edition of the first volume in a popular annual series of children’s gift books, taken from the pages of Peter Parley’s Magazine. The selections, which include a brief summary of the history and rules of chess, are illustrated with a number of in-text steel engravings and four engraved plates, one of which depicts a ship at sea in stormy weather.

Binding: Contemporary signed binding by C. Lewis: Half green calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and decoratively gilt-stamped raised bands.

•  Faxon 108. Binding as above, paper scuffed and joints a touch rubbed. Front free endpaper with owner’s name; front pastedown and fly-leaf with pencilled notations. Frontispiece with small chip to outer margin, repaired. Some instances of offsetting surrounding plates and illustrations, pages otherwise clean. An attractive, engaging little book.

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Interesting Pathetic Moral COMPLICATED!

•  English-language version of "La bergere des Alpes" by Jean François Marmontel: A count and countess on their way through the Savoy mountains come across a virtuous and beautiful shepherdess named Adelaide. Convinced she is living a life below her station, they try in vain to persuade her to come with them to Turin. Their son Fonrose becomes obsessed with the idea of the mysterious shepherdess, leaves home and, disguising himself as a shepherd, tries to win Adelaide's hand. She finally confesses that though from a wealthy family, she has embraced her lowly life as a reward for her sins. Against her parents' wishes, she secretly married an army officer. She is still in mourning for her husband, who killed himself after she caused him to miss a crucial battle. All ends more or less well when Adelaide, after much persuasion, agrees to marry Fonrose on condition he accepts that her heart still belongs to another. Title-page with woodcut vignette of a man in a boat on a lake with a castle in the background and a basket and anchor on the shore in the foreground, and "[No.] 97" printed at the foot. The top edge of the chapbook is closely cropped, else very good.

•  NSTC 2S18901. Removed from a nonce volume. (16764)

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An American WomanHelps Us Organize Our Emotions

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•  Quotations from a wide variety of English-language writers, or foreign writers in English translation, on over 300 topics: dealing with cunning men, anger, malicious words, liberty, jealousy, imagination, pain, work, suspicion, etc.

Binding:  Publisher's purple cloth, elaborately blind-embossed on covers. Gilt center device on each cover and spine lettered in gilt with modest gilt decoration.

•  Binding as above; spine a little faded; light wear at extremities. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. A nice copy.  (26259)

A UniversalistWomen's Literary Annual: 1843

•  First edition: The “fourth blossom of our cherished Rose,” an annual collection of writings by Universalists. Among the contents are “The Dweller Apart” by Mrs. J.H. Scott, “The Minstrel and His Bride” by Caroline M. Sawyer, and several pieces by the editor. Also present is an article on the Actual vs. the Ideal, which opens with a critique of L.E.L. (the poet Letitia Elizabeth Landon) for indulging in flights of romantic fantasy rather than depicting the “glory of love in its power to beautify the affections of the mother, the wife, the sister, and the friend” (p. 219). Click the images for enlargements.

The volume is illustrated with an added engraved title-page and three steel-engraved plates, done by O. Pelton after designs by T.B. Read and Beaume, and by Charles Phillips after Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Signed binding: Hunter green embossed morocco, covers with cherub vignette in foliate frame; the embossed panel was designed by Francis N. Mitchell and engraved by Alex C. Morin, and the binding was done by Benjamin Bradley, with all three names stamped in panel. All edges gilt.

•  Faxon 713. On binding, see: Wolf, From Gothic Windows to Peacocks, 178; Spawn & Kinsella, American Signed Bindings, 53.   Binding as above, extremities with very minor rubbing; frontispiece lacking. Offsetting from plates, two pages with offsetting from now-absent laid-in item, scattered light spotting elsewhere. A gorgeous example of the binding, with interesting reading inside.  (26737)

A Universalist Women's Literary Annual: 1844

•  First edition: The fifth volume of an annual collection of writings by Universalists. Among the contents are “Human Life” by Horace Greeley, “The Astrologer” by Mary Ann H. Dodd, “Joan of Arc in Prison” by Luella J.B. Case, and “The Uncultivated Garden” by Julia A. Fletcher, as well as several pieces by the editor. Click the images for enlargements.

The volume is illustrated with four steel-engraved plates and an additional engraved title-page by various hands.

Signed binding: Hunter green embossed morocco, covers with cherub vignette in foliate frame; the embossed panel was designed by Francis N. Mitchell and engraved by Alex C. Morin, and the binding was done by Benjamin Bradley, with all three names stamped in panel. All edges gilt.

•  Faxon 714. On binding, see: Wolf, From Gothic Windows to Peacocks, 178; Spawn & Kinsella, American Signed Bindings, 53.   Binding as above, showing virtually no wear. A few light spots, pages mostly clean. Dried flower laid in. It is hard to imagine a better copy of this lovely annual.  (26743)

Christian “Pearls” Set in Blue & Silver

•  Early printing of this “galaxy of thought from four hundred writers of wide repute”: Inspiring excerpts from Christian literature, gathered by the Rev. McClure.

•  Publisher's dark blue cloth, front cover and spine stamped in silver; corners and spine extremities slightly rubbed. Front hinge (inside) cracked and back hinge tender; endpapers partially adhered to pastedowns.  (22222)

A 19th-Century Reader's Comment: “This book is full of folly and exag[g]erations”

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•  First American edition, first issue. Melville writes (p. [iv]), “In the year 1843 I shipped as 'ordinary seaman' on board a United States frigate, then lying in a harbor of the Pacific Ocean. After remaining in the frigate for more than a year, I was discharged from the service upon the vessel's arrival home. My man-of-war experiences and observations are incorporated in the present volume.”

And, indeed, this account of a young man's experiences on the Neversink on a voyage around “The Horn” recounts the cruelty and hardship that Melville and all seaman experienced on naval vessels, but it also tells of camaraderie and good times.

There is more than a small amount of didacticism in the introductory chapters that deal with ship organization, duties, and hierarchy.

Evidence of readership: Foremargins with finger oil staining. Notes in margins: p. 275, “this book is full of folly and exagerations” (sic); p. 345, “perfectly just”; p. 389, “what an improbable story — a regular U.S. Sailor wearing a rag[g]ed white jacket, a regular non-descript”; p. 403, “mis print”; lower area below final line of text: “damn bad,” “not good,” “good for the devil.”

Provenance:  From the library of the German Society of Pennsylvania.

•  BAL 13662; Wright, II, 1871.   Slightly later quarter sheep with marbled paper sides; binding shows wear, refurbished. Text with staining and spotting as evidence of heavy reading and use; last several gatherings with reinforcement at gutter. Various margins with short tears. Two leaves misbound; lacks two leaves of advertisements. Ex–social club library: call number on endpaper and at top of title-page, pressure- and rubber-stamp on title-page, three pages with light rubber-stamp, no other library markings. Now in a half-calf clamshell case with gilt spine. A copy with a distinct, interesting, and perhaps further-explorable history!  (26827)

Victorian ArabicaNicely Presented

•  The centenary edition of Meredith's Arabian-inspired fantasy, with an introduction by Sir Francis Meredith Meynell and illustrations by Honore Guilbeau, who signed the colophon. The printing here is handsome, with accents and chapter indications in blue throughout and with touches of other colors — leaf green and curry. This is copy number 288 of 1500 printed.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club 260.   Publisher's quarter leather over printed paper-covered sides; spine extremities slightly rubbed, in slipcase showing a bit of scraping and refurbished at top fore-edge. Very nice.  (13276)

Signed byArthur Miller & Leonard Baskin

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•  This Limited Editions Club copy (no. 880 of 1500 printed) is signed by both the playwright and the illustrator at the colophon.

The binding is full rusty-brown Nigerian goat, stamped in gold on the spine. The etchings are by Leonard Baskin, a series of five portraits tracing the downward spiral of Willy Loman — a powerful complement to Miller's portrait of a salesman at the end of his career and at the end of his rope! The plates, printed by Bruce Chandler, are each protected by a brown paper tissue guard. The book is designed by Benjamin Schiff, who chose a Bulmer font for the text.

This offering includes the monthly newsletter but not the mailing notice.

•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 540.   Binding as above. One of the tissue guards is loose but otherwise undamaged. Fine, in the original slipcase. A handsome production of one of the most performed plays in the world!  (21754)

A Friendship Book   

•  Dated 1914 in the ownership inscription, this little volume includes a number of quotations and original verses inscribed by family and friends, a pencil sketch of a Sopwith Pup, a caricature of two black waiters with a caption reading “Cook’s Tours — Personally Conducted,” and a photograph of “St. Paul’s School” (not the American one). There are alsoTWO nicely accomplished pen-and-ink drawings of ships (one of a great steamship, signed “J.A.M. Harvey,” 1914, one of a three-masted sailing ship accompanied by a small “modern” warship, signed Jack Neill, 1915). Friends have also noted favorite authors, “authoresses,” and heroines, and two pages are devoted to a series of cut-out autographs (possibly not original) affixed beneath photographs of Ellen Terry, Estelle Stead, and others. Place names are London and Hunstanton (Norfolk).

One leaf bears a number of small photographs of young men, labelled “1915” — possibly classmates from St. Paul’s?

•  Publisher’s cloth wrappers, front cover gilt-stamped “Autographs”; edges and extremities chipped. Text block partially separated from spine. Some fading to colored pages, with occasional very slight offsetting or ink smearing.

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“Milton . . . KnowsNo Limits But Those
Impassable by the Human Intellect”

•  Early printing of the Rev. Todd’s then-authoritative edition of Milton, preceded by Dr. Aikin’s commentary on Milton’s poetry. The four volumes are illustrated witha frontispiece and 19 engraved plates done by I. Neagle, W. Cooke, P. Thomas and others after designs by Stephen Francis Rigaud.

Binding: Contemporary olive morocco, covers framed in gilt single fillet, spines with gilt-stamped title. All edges gilt.

•  NSTC T1207 (for 1801 and 1809 eds., not citing this ed.). Bound as above; spines darkened (not unattractively), some corners bumped. Front pastedowns each with armorial bookplate, one volume with additional private collector’s bookplate affixed and others with that bookplate laid in. Occasional small spots of faint foxing; one page with two drops of spilled wax.

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Euphony Cacophony Versification & CompLit

•  Mitford (1744–1827), a historian of ancient Greece, sometime member of Parliament, and principally a gentleman of means, here presents the second edition of his study of versification in English — including Anglo-Saxon and Middle-English, and with comparisons to Classical Latin and Greek, French, Italian, and Spanish. There is even a chapter on Oriental and Celtic versification! First published anonymously in 1774 as An essay upon the harmony of language, intended principally to illustrate that of the English language, the work in this edition boasts “ improvement and large addition.” Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Recent quarter calf, round spine; raised bands accented with gilt beading, gilt center devices in spine compartments, and two green spine labels. Combed-pattern marbled paper sides. Lacks the half-title, only; occasional light foxing. A very good copy of an interesting and now uncommon book.  (22228)

Gascon Tales & Anecdotes

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•  Compilation of wit and humor from the southwest of France, a region universally acclaimed for its douceur de vivre. This is one of two editions of 1708 (the first year of the work's appearance), the other issued in Paris; the collection was also issued under the title Gasconiana.

•  Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes, 915.   Contemporary speckled sheep, spine gilt extra; overall rubbed, front cover with small nick to upper edge and short tear from joint now repaired, spine leather cracked with gilt rubbed yet stillvery nice to look at. Front pastedown with printed paper label (owner's name in blackletter) affixed, front free endpaper excised. Intermittent light spotting and staining, some pages browned.  (26907)

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      MISCELLANY — click here.

Lalla Rookh, the Irish Melodies, & More

•  First edition of this Parisian single-volume compilation of Moore's verse, with an engraved portrait of the author done by J.T. Wedgwood after Sieurac, and a biographical and critical sketch of Thomas Moore written by J.W. Lake. The volume opens, of course, with the beloved Lalla Rookh; and, though the publishers here were the Galignanis, it is noted on the back of the half-title that “Jules Didot, Senior,” was the actual printer. Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Binding: Contemporary straight-grain black morocco, covers framed and panelled in gilt and blind, spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-framed compartments, spine compartments blind-tooled in foliate designs, turn-ins with gilt double fillets. All edges gilt.

•  NCBEL, III, 264.   Bound as above, edges and extremities with minor rubbing, bottom spine compartment with small crack, leather (only) starting at front joint (joint itself strong). Front pastedown with early inked ownership inscription. Moderate foxing, more pronounced to first and last few leaves; two pages with offsetting from dried plant matter laid in. A lovely volume.  (24906)

Local Spiritualism? — “All Published”

•  The last page of this unfinished work announces that the present book is Vol. I, but no more was ever published — rather ironically, as the title-page proclaims “A life is not fully rounded out till its close.” The author, a Spiritualist who lectured on that topic, set the novel in the small New York town where it was published.

•  Wright, III, 3879. Publisher’s green cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; cloth showing minor wear overall. Frontispiece with outer edge waterstained; four leaves with some offsetting from laid-in scrap of cloth. Pages with a few scattered small spots, mostly clean.

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Maimonides Meets Muvhar inOdessa

•  The title phrase “Hozek yad” is a word play on Maimonides' major legal opus, Mishneh Torah, a.k.a. the “yad” hazakah (“strong hand” — from the Exodus passage that speaks of God delivering the Israelites with a “strong hand”); the numerical equivalent of the letters of the Hebrew word “Yad” (hand) = 14, which is the number of books in the Mishneh Torah. This is an abbreviated version, thus the sub-title: “kitsur piske Rambam” (“abbreviated chapters of Maimonides”).

Also present in the volume is a section of didactic poetry, rhymed rules for pious people.

Moses Eliezer Beilinson was an important figure in Eastern European Jewish letters during the 19th century, who opened his printing press in Odessa sometime in the 1860s.

We gratefully acknowledge the immense help in cataloguing this work that Arthur Kiron (Schottenstein-Jesselson Curator of Judaica Collections University of Pennsylvania Library) has provided us. Any errors are all ours.

•  Original printed wrappers, a bit dusty and dog-eared; front one beginning to separate from bottom. Occasional bug-spotting or waterdrop stain.  (24651)

“A Second Edition of My Mutilated Poems”

•  Second, expanded edition, following the first of the previous year, of the author’s second published book. In addition to the title piece, the volume includes “Goldau: Or the Maniac Harper,” along with a few shorter works. Neal, who went on to become a prominent voice in 19th-century American literature, describes in the preface here his distress over the first edition, which he calls “crowded and disfigured with innumerable errors — chiefly typographical, however; though in some cases, whole lines were left out . . .” Alas, this edition also required an errata leaf.

•  BAL 14856; Shaw & Shoemaker 48824; Wegelin 1066. On Neal, see: Dictionary of American Biography, XIII, 398–99. Period-style quarter tan cloth over light blue paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Dedication page and a few others (not including title) stamped by a now-defunct institution. Waterstaining to upper margins and some inner page parts, with final leaves darkened and a few spotted with foxing. Some upper edges chipped; final leaf with inner margin repaired.

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Saving the Souls of the Rich viaCHARITY

•  First edition: Nelson, a philanthropist and popular religious writer, reminds the wealthy and well bred of their charitable obligations as Christians. After exhorting the rich to consider their salvation, Nelson solicits their support for such endeavors as building churches, funding the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, maintaining poor clergy and their families, founding seminaries and schools, relieving prisoners, and establishing houses for the improvement of ladies (both proper and fallen). The appendix provides texts of various proposals as well as statistics on numbers of residents in hospitals and schools. Click the images for enlargements.

The frontispiece portrait of Nelson was engraved by George Vertue after a painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller. The volume also includes all publisher's advertisements as well as the rather uncommon Poem in Memory of Robert Nelson Esquire.

This was produced to be a handsome work, printed in large type on good paper with wide margins — the better to appeal to a “quality” audience?

•  ESTC T85360; Goldsmiths’-Kress 5249. Poem: ESTC T25431; Foxon P538.   Contemporary speckled calf, framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons; rebacked with speckled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, raised bands, and blind-tooled foliate compartment decorations. Original leather abraded, front cover with small chip to outer edge and area of faint discoloration from a now-absent label; title-page institutionally rubber-stamped (no other markings). Some signatures browned and foxed, most pages clean.  (25999)

Caroline Norton's SoleKeepsake Effort

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•  The 1836 entry in a popular series of gift books. This year's example was edited by Lady Caroline Norton and includes a number of works by her, several printed anonymously: “Count Rodolph's Heir,” “A Sonnet,” “The Reprieve,” “The Favourite Flower,” “The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons,” “The Artist's Love,” etc. Also here are the first appearances of “Fenella's Escape” by L.E.L. (Letitia Elizabeth Landon), and “The Progress of Painting” by Lalla Rookh author Thomas Moore. The volume is illustrated with 18 steel-engraved plates and an additional engraved title-page.

Binding:  Crimson straight-grain morocco, covers framed in blind and panelled in quadruple gilt fillets with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, board edges and turn-ins with gilt rolls. All edges gilt.

•  Faxon 1497.   Binding as above, edges and extremities lightly rubbed with corners bumped, joints and edges darkened, lower spine compartment discolored. Title-page and two others institutionally pressure-stamped. Pages gently age-toned with a few scattered light spots, generally clean.  (26033)

A Hard-Laboring Poet ofCumberland County

•  These poems from a woman resident of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, were composed in moments stolen from hard, hard work on her family's farm; and in fact they were dictated, not written, she not being a “ready writer.” In addition to a number of musings on love, family, and death, the volume includes an abolitionist exhortation and tributes to George Washington and Alexander Hamilton. The lengthy list of subscribers shows names from many Pennsylvania counties as well as from Philadelphia, New York, Princeton, and Fredericktown, MD. Click the image for an enlargement.

First edition and an early Carlisle imprint; the first poetic publication in Cumberland County.

Provenance:  “Presented to Alfred Creigh by His Mother, October 21st 1827,” on verso of front free endpaper: Alfred's modestly calligraphic ownership note inside front cover and his plain note at top of contents page; signature of Eleanor Jane Creigh at top of title-page.

•  Sabin 57205; Shaw & Shoemaker 9346; Wegelin, American Poetry, 1072.   Contemporary sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; rubbed, front joint starting, spine and joints with small wormholes. Inscriptions as noted. Margins variously waterstained, never horribly; pages age-toned with occasional spotting. One leaf with tear from lower margin extending into text, partially repaired some time ago; one leaf with lower outer corner torn away, a few lost words replaced in manuscript. Occasional manuscript corrections.  (23146)

Die Religion desZoroaster

•  Contains the Persian text of Daulat Shah Alai Samarkandi and the translation of the texts as edited by Justus Olshausen and Julius Mohl. An important text on the lasting influence of Zoroaster and with the life of the great poet Ferdusi (i.e., f Abu-'l Kasim Mansur). Click either image for an enlargement.

•  19th-century German boards covered with black mottled paper; abraded. Paper author/title label on spine, call number label on front cover. Ex-library with bookplate on front pastedown and call number in pencil on verso of title-page. No other markings. (19137)

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Life Without Pipe Dreams?

•  This edition is limited to 2,000 copies and this copy is signed on the colophon page by the illustrator, Leonard Baskin. Baskin both created the ten full-page drawings of the characters, one of them an original lithograph, and designed the book, choosing a Monotype Janson font, which was composed and bound at the Stinehour Press in Ludenburg, Vermont. Art historian Irma Jaffe analyzes the illustrations and traces the parallels in the art and lives of Baskin and O'Neill in her introductory essay, “O'Neill and Baskin: the iconography of a double exposure.”

The binding is full grey paper–covered boards with printed paper labels on the spine and front cover. It is rather bleak-looking — which is perfectly appropriate given the nihilistic theme of the play.

This offering includes the monthly newsletter.

•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 525.   Binding as above. Fine, in a fine slipcase.  (21758)

Poëmata Embellished withLovely Engravings

•  Sole edition of these neo-Latin poems, written by the brother of noted classical scholar Jacques Philippe d'Orville. The volume is illustrated with a mythic-themed, copper-engraved added title-page and head- and tailpiece vignettes done by A. vander Laan. All the engravings are gorgeous, and some extend almost to a half page in size. The main title-page is printed in black and red.

Most of the poetry here is “occasional” — there are several epithalamia as well as elegies and odes honoring various “noble youths” and such figures as Pieter Burmann, Hadrian Reland, and the author's brother Jacque Philippe. Some works celebrate (and are in the styles of) the great ancient Latin poets; at least one, and the longest, is explicitly (Christian) religious; two are in Greek.

Uncommon.  OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 find only four U.S. holdings.

•  Brunet 13064.   Contemporary vellum, covers framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled central lozenge, spine with hand-inked title; front cover slightly warped, binding dust-soiled. Front pastedown institutionally rubber-stamped. Scattered spots of light to moderate foxing. Errata (final page) lined through in ink.  (24490)

Well-Edited & Well-Produced

•  Edited by Montague Summers. Limited to 1340 sets, this one of 1250 on machine-made paper.

•  McKitterick/Rendall/Dreyfus 38. Quarter light brown publisher's buckram with cream Ingres paper sides. Cream paper label at top of spine. All edges untrimmed. Light dustsoiling. Bookplate on front pastedown of each volume. A rather nice set.

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18TH- & 19TH-CENTURY BRITISH PLAYS,
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Burman–Carey Ovid

•  John Carey’s revised presentation of Pieter Burman’s 1727 edition of Ovid’s works, here in three conveniently sized volumes. Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  NSTC C616; Schweiger, II, 632–33. Contemporary half calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped titles and volume numbers; bindings showing overall rubbing and scuffing, one volume with spine head chipped. Front pastedowns each with private collector’s bookplate, institutional rubber-stamp, and pencilled notations. A few signatures at the beginning of vol. I unopened. Small areas of waterstaining to upper inner margins of first few leaves of vol. I and scattered small spots of light foxing elsewhere, pages generally clean. A nice little antiquarian set.

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Romance in the Wilds ofKentucky

•  First edition of this best-selling novel set on the Kentucky frontier. Among the characters are an uprooted Virginia family and their slaves, a lone Native American hunter, a would-be newspaperman, and a young man susceptible to madness. Click the images for enlargements.

Part of the “Harper's library of select novels” series, the work appears here with vol. I in the second printing (vol. II had only one printing); the binding is BAL's state A, with the front cover of vol. II incorrectly marked “No. XXV.”

•  American Imprints 14120; Wright, I, 2024; BAL 15715.   Publisher's green cloth, covers and spines stamped in black; corners bumped, spots of discoloration, spines sunned (and a little bubbled) with extremities rubbed. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate and call number on endpapers, title-pages pressure-stamped. No other markings; endpapers foxed and pages with intermittent moderate spotting.  (26533)

“A Grind on a [YALE] Tutor”  (OneWise-Guy Mexican ELI)

•  Long Tom “the pious blueskin's friend,” an unpopular tutor at Yale, travels to Greece and Turkey before returning to New Haven and the derision of his unimpressed students in this anonymous satirical broadside. Click the image for an enlargement.

An issue of the New Haven Journal Courier from December of 1890 recounts the following story of the broadside's origin and subsequent fate: “The late Charles Harvey Townshend, Esq., of New Haven about the year 1880 met Mr. Robert Livingston of New York while crossing the Atlantic. One day while Mr. Livingston was telling him of his experiences while a Yale student, he asked him, if he ever had the chance, to look in the front middle room, fourth story, north entry of old South Middle College, between the ceiling over the wood closet door. He said that in 1829 he placed there a bundle of printed sheets of 'doggerel verse,' a grind on a tutor of those days. These verses were recited by the composer, Peña, a Mexican (who was afterwards expelled) in the college chapel, on a Wednesday afternoon. Most of the class was expelled afterwards, for various reasons, and Mr. Livingston, who was one of them, said that his father always told him that he did perfectly right in not telling who wrote the verses (our emphasis). A fir [sic] broke out in Old South Middle in December 1890, and Mr. Townshend, with the permission of the then occupants of the room, searched the ceiling of the front middle room in accordance with Mr. Livingstons [sic] directions. He found there the bundle of verse, just as Mr. Livingston described.”

Uncommon: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 report five U.S. locations, with Yale (predictably) holding several copies.

•  American Imprints 39988.   As issued (not showing signs of having been bound); creased once horizontally, upper edge darkened, four or five tiny spots of foxing in the lower left portion. A very nice copy of this scarce ephemeral piece.  (24643)

“Corrected” & AnnotatedPEPYS

Pepys, Samuel.

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•  Pepys’s perennially fascinating shorthand journal in its first longhand transcription, done by John A. Smith, later the rector of Baldock but an undergraduate student at St. John’s College at the time of the work. This appears to be the first Philadelphia printing of the diaries, here in an abridged form edited for decency, although there were earlier American editions and a limited deluxe edition was printed in Philadelphia in the same year. The four-volume work is illustrated with two portraits, one of the author and one of his wife, engraved by J.W. Steel.

•  NCBEL, II, 1583 (for the 1854 ed. on which the present ed. was based). Publisher’s textured cloth, worn, covers framed in decorative blind-stamping, spines ruled in blind and simply gilt-stamped with titles and volume numbers; spines faded, slightly discolored, all pulled with cloth lost above page level and one with additional chip out of cloth near head. Front pastedowns with tickets from a Nashville bookseller. Many pages with light offsetting (darker following frontispieces) and foxing such as the paper is prone to; front free endpaper of vol. IV with pencilled ownership inscription and back fly-leaf of vol. II with pencilled annotations. (4737)

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The OnlyGIFT of Its Kind

•  First and only volume of what was intended as the start of an annual gift book series, although this sole example was reissued in the next year under the title The Lady's Gift, a Souvenir for All Seasons. The work includes one fictional piece on Shakespeare's childhood, one poem in his honor, and one essay on his birthplace, along with Mary Russell Mitford's “Talking Lady” and “The China Jug,” Lydia Howard Sigourney's “Prayers at Sea,” and Ismael Fitzadam's “Farewell”; it is illustrated with a total of ten steel-engraved plates by various hands. Click the images for enlargements.

Signed binding:  Black sheep in imitation of morocco, covers framed in heavy gilt borders surrounding gilt-stamped arabesque designs, spine gilt extra; front free endpaper with bookbinder Bradley's small pressure-stamp. All edges gilt.

•  Faxon 224. Not in Hamilton, Early American Book Illustrators. On binder's stamp, see: Spawn & Kinsella, American Signed Bindings, 55f.   Binding as above, minor wear to corners, spine with tiny scuff towards foot; binding clean and bright. Pages with varied degrees of foxing/staining and age-toning. Very spiffy.  (26673)

A Historical Novel ofGrand Sweep

•  “Nueva Impression, corregida. de muchas faltas y erratas” of this classic late 16th-century historical novel, originally published (1595) under the title Historia de los vandos de los zegries y abencerrages. The Oxford Companion to Spanish Literature says of it that it is “a remarkable work of fiction on a basis of history but interspersed with frontier and Moorish ballads already circulating out of context.” A second part that was published more than two decades later (1619) is universally characterized as a disappointment; this edition prints the favored part I only, i.e., from the origins of the kingdom through the entrance of the Catholic Kings into the city.

The marginal notes here are printed in French!

•  Palau 221179; Peeters-Fontainas 1056; Gallardo 3449; Oxford Companion to Spanish Literature 457. 19th-century calf, old style. Scuffed and abraded. Front free endpapers starting to loosen and with a few tears in margins. Text clean and tight.

This also appears in the HISPANIC
                      MISCELLANY — click here.

Sleeping Beauty & a Bear to Boot

•  Title woodcut vignette of a girl holding a bird in a cage out of reach of a cat, & a tail-piece. A version of Perrault's "La belle au bois dormant". The story is followed by "The Moral" in verse and by the story of "Paddy and the Bear", pp. 21-24. Very scarce edition. We were unable to locate another copy. No. "52" at foot of title.

•  Very good. Original self wrappers (unbound; removed). (17581)

The Father ofRenaissance Humanism

Click the interior images for enlargements.

•  Famous as he is for his sonnets and influence on the development of the Italian language, to understand best why Petrarch (1304–74) is often labelled the father of Renaissance humanism, one must read and know his correspondence, his epistolarum. In this edition they are, as stated on the title-page, “Opus non paucis mendis repurgatum & multis epistolis auctum ex vetusto codice bibliotecae I. Chalasii I. C. quae ut à caeteris dignosci possint ex Epistola ad lectorem praefixa intelligetur.”

The reference to “multis epistolis auctum ex vetusto codice bibliotecae I. Chalasii I. C.” refers to the 65 letters found in the library of Johannes Chalasius, of Nîmes, andpublished here for the first time.

The volume is in roman type and has the Crispinus printer's device on the title-page, woodcut initials, and headpieces. This is one of several issues of an edition differing only in the imprint and in slight variations of paging.

•  Horti 364–5; Catalogue of the Petrarch Collection in the Cornell University Library 34; Graesse, V, 236 (“C'est l'édition la plus complète des Epitres de Petrarca.; il y a 65 lettres de plus que dans la prem. édition”).   18th-century half “white” calf, gilt spine, raised bands; boards covered with red and white combed paper. Edges rubbed; two spine compartments lighter than others. Old institutional bookplate (no other markings); 19th-century pencilling and pen notes on front free endpaper. A clean and nice copy.  (24431)

SATYRICON with Loads of Commentary

Click the image above for an enlargement.

•  One of the most famous satires of all time, here in the expanded revision of Pieter Burman’s edition, with the much-debated corrections by Johann Jacob Reiske — with which the editor’s son, Caspar Burman, was most displeased. Brunet calls the 1743 edition “beaucoup plus complète que la précédente [of 1709], et celle qu'on recherche le plus;” Dibdin confirms that this second edition is preferred by collectors and “the curious” over the first. The neoclassical frontispiece was engraved by J.C. Philips.

•  Brunet, IV, 575; Dibdin, II, 276–77; Schweiger, II, 725. 19th-century quarter sheep in imitation of morocco, with marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped titles; spines, edges, and extremities rubbed, vol. I with spot of discoloration to spine. Main title-page with shadows of pencilled numerals. Pages clean.

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INSCRIBED

•  First edition of a projected two volume work, of which volume two never appeared. This volume is dedicated to Mexican poets.

Inscribed copy from the author to the president of the Societe Americaine de France (the predecessor to the International Congress of the Americanists), and dated Mexico, Feb. 1888.

•  Uncut, unopened copy in later wrappers (which are tattered). Text block split in two: requires binding. Edges dog-eared, some dust-soiling.  (21470)

“Pindaric” Satire . . .

•  Wolcot lets George III in for it, first taking a moment to decry his own reputation for devilish unkindness—totally undeserved, according to him, as witnessed by the subsequent four laughably saccharine imitations of contemporary verse. Having gotten that out of the way, he recounts humorous tales of the monarch's poor judgment, dim sensibilities, and parsimony, before directing a final blow at a hypocritical parson.

This second edition was printed in the same year as the first; although the title-page mentions "an engraving by an eminent artist," no illustration is present in this copy.

•  ESTC T7920; NCBEL, II, 695. Recently rebound in marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped title label. Lacking engraving. A half-title (possibly not that belonging to this piece) has, at some point in the past, been cut in thirds and used to back/repair the title-page (to good effect, actually), leaf 45–46, and leaf 47–48 (text on p. 48, a list of "Pindar's" productions partially obscured by repair; the work itself, fine). One page (not the title) has been stamped by a now-defunct library; several leaves with tears, some repaired.

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Dramatic Romance & Comic Opera — With Hot Air Balloons

Each:   $450.00

Bifolia. [2] ff.
Each:   $1000.00

•  Featured plays include Romeo and Juliet, Douglas, The West Indian, and "a new comic opera" called Robin Hood; or, Sherwood Forest. Secondary attractions range from dances to minor dramatic works to pantomimes, with sheets for consecutive evenings showing how a main attraction might be paired with a comedy one night and a musical entertainment the next.

Charming 19th-century playbills are not, even today, terribly hard to come by. But 18th-century playbills ARE very uncommon on today's market — and unseparated bifolia are even more so.

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ALoving & Respectful Production

•  Time in its course has not been kind to Pollok’s reputation, but among his contemporaries his name enjoyed a triple fame due to his sublime preaching, best-selling poetry, and untimely, tragic death from consumption. Inspired by its author's reading of Byron’s "Darkness," the Course of Time examines in ten books the destiny of mankind, and in the words of the Dictionary of National Biography, "tends to prolixity and discursiveness, but is relieved by passages of sustained brilliancy."

The present volume is a late edition among numerous English, Scottish, and American printings of the poem but apparently the first of this restored and annotated text, although someone has provided misleading copyright information—both Stevens of Cincinnati and Andrus & Son of Hartford are on record as claiming to have copyrighted the text in 1846.

Binding: Contemporary brown morocco bordered in triple gilt fillets, with gilt foliate and arabesque motifs to covers; spine gilt extra with title, author, and floral motifs. Beautiful gilt inner dentelles.

•  On Pollok, see: Dictionary of National Biography, XLVI, 69–70. Binding as above, corners and joints rubbed with light edge wear; spine leather and irregular areas of covers faded. Gilt bright. Original green silk bookmark separated but laid in. Pages pleasingly white save for a very few spots and one area where a poetry clipping was laid in. Neatly pencilled ownership inscriptions dated 1848 to front pastedown and title-page. Lovely, if somewhat worn, copy of this once-beloved poem.

Our PUBLISHERS' BINDINGS GALLERY offers
quite a lot more English Literature in
pleasant form — click here.

FirstU.S. Edition, First Issue

•  First U.S. edition, first issue of a classic account of the clash of empires in Peru and the destruction of that of the Inca. Prescott’s follow-up to his well received History of the Conquest of Mexico appears here in BAL’s state B, without printer’s imprint on verso of title-leaf of vol. I (with no precedence established).

•  BAL 16346; Gardner P-7; Sabin 65272. Publisher’s blind-stamped cloth, spines with gilt-stamped titles; sunned and with small spots of discoloration, spines each showing traces of a now-absent shelving label. Front pastedowns each with private collector’s bookplate, institutional rubber-stamp, and speckled show-through of binder’s glue. Light to moderate foxing throughout.

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THACKERAY Admired These “Most Charmingly Humorous
of English Lyrical Poems” —
   Some Fellow-ADMIRER HadTHIS Set Bound

•  Witty, amorous, sardonic works by the English poet-diplomat, edited by Evans and first thus. The DNB notes that among posthumous editions of Prior's works, "that of Evans . . . long enjoyed the reputation of being the best."

The "Story of the Country-Mouse and the City-Mouse," Prior's satiric and politically motivated response to Dryden's "Hind and Panther," is not included, but the long pieces "Solomon on the Vanity of the World" and "Alma" are present. The "Life of Mat. Prior" in the first volume commences beneath a small engraved portrait.

Binding:  Later sprinkled calf, covers gilt-ruled with gilt inner dentelles, spines gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels. All edges saffron.

Provenance:  Both volumes with armorial bookplates of Sir Robert D'Arcy Hildyard.

•  On Prior, see: Dictionary of National Biography, 397–401. Leather cracking over joints with hinges tender; spine tips a little dry and pulled; upper and outer edges of all covers somewhat darkened; light wear to extremities. Light foxing to some pages. In fact a very handsome pair.

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               BINDINGS,  click here .

Adelaide — Introduced by Charles

•  Later American printing, illustrated with a frontispiece portrait of Procter and an engraved plate, of the works of one of the most important and successful women poets of the 19th century. Dickens, for whom Procter wrote a number of pieces under the pseudonym Mary Berwick, provided the introduction.

•  Publisher's red cloth, front cover and spine stamped in black, spine with gilt-stamped title label (gilt just showing in our photograph); cloth very slightly rubbed over corners and spine extremities, with a small smudge to front cover near head of spine and spine stamping a bit dimmed. Reverse of frontispiece with inked gift inscription dated [18]87. One leaf with short tear from outer margin, not quite touching text. (14353)

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Illustrations by Dulac

Click the interior images for enlargements.

•  This eccentric Russian fairy-tale is retold here in prose by Edmund Dulac, the noted children's book illustrator, from the poem by Alexander Pushkin. Dulac, in the foreword, asserts that the meaning of the tale is not easily understood, seeing it as belonging to a “class of folk tales that start as clear and simple myths and . . . have other myths or incidents, often irrelevant, added to them from generation to generation in order to make them more entertaining.” However, it has usually been interpreted as a kind of political satire.

Edmund Dulac created the book's enchanting illustrations, consisting of 10 full-page and six in-text watercolors, a two-color decorative title-page, and decorative head- and tailpieces, and initials, also in two colors. Ernest Ingham designed the book using a monotype Poliphilus font.

The binding is full Russian-red cloth with apolished brass design of a cockerel set in the front cover and a gilt-lettered title on the spine. (The cloth is brighter than we seem to be able to make it appear, here.) This edition is limited to 1500 copies and this offering includes the monthly mailing notice.

•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 205.   Binding as above. In a glassine wrapper with shallow edge tears and chips, contained within a chemise covered with Russian-red paper with gilt cockerel design with gilt-lettered spine; spine sunned and paper chipped. The whole in an unevenly sunned slipcase, with slight loss of paper to top edge at mouth and spine. A fine book, in a good+ slipcase.  (22314)

TO Part VI

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