New York: Baker & Godwin, 1869. First Edition. Original wraps. Octavo. 36 pages. Very critical analysis of Reverdy Johnson's arguments and actions regarding the Alabama Claims. The Alabama Claims were a series of demands by the United States against Great Britain for damages caused by Confederate ships which the latter..... More
Annapolis: Thomas J. Wilson, Printer, 1862. Wrappers. Octavo. 15 pages. Augustus W. Bradford, as the Union Party candidate for governor, defeated Democrat Benjamin C. Howard by nearly 30,000 votes on November 6, 1861. Maryland had seemed to teeter on the brink of secession just 6 or 7 months earlier. Bradford's..... More
(Glendale): (Poetry X/Change, [1968]. First printing. Centerfold drawing. Wrappers. Octavo. [16] pages. This first edition of this collection of poetry by Bukowski is one of about 400 copies published in the summer of 1968. Cover illustration is a reproduction of P. David Horton's "Self-Portrait." The poem "Cows in..... More
Washington: Government Printing Office, 1918. First Edition. Fold-out plans, tables, photographs. Original cloth. Octavo. 96 pages. Scarce, Confidential manual on the weaponry associated with U. S. Army aircraft and pilots in World War I. Sections on the Marlin, the Lewis, and the Vickers aircraft machine guns, synchronizing gears, machine gun..... More
New York: The John Day Company, Inc., (1947). First Edition. Publisher's cloth over boards. Octavo. [viii], 248 pages. This insightful and important book was the first to identify the Cold War. Burnham's opening sentences describe the relatively minor revolt of Greek sailors and soldiers against the British at Alexandria in..... More
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1962. First Edition. Drawings by Lois and Louis Darling. Hardcover. Octavo. (xvi), 368 pages. Carson was inspired to research and write this landmark work when people noticed an absence of birds in farming areas of Massachusetts. "Silent Spring" exposed the environmental and health dangers of indiscriminate..... More
Secaucus: Lyle Stuart, Inc., (1973). First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. 298 pages. Part biography, part memoir, and part reckoning, here is Caserta's unfiltered account of her intense romantic and emotional relationship with Janis Joplin through the chaos, brilliance, and ultimately self-destructive energy of the late 1960s rock and counterculture scene. More
Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, (1982). First edition. Cloth over boards. Octavo. x, 671 pages. Robert Creeley was an important poetic voice in post-World War II American literature. This collection gathers his poetry of thirty years, exhibiting his development and the singular inventiveness that made him a...... More
New York: Belford Company, Publishers, (1890). First Edition. Black and white plates. Cloth over boards. Octavos. 699 and 939 pages. This memoir by Jefferson Davis's second wife is a warm and literate, if sentimental, recollection of the Confederate leader and their life together. Includes valuable material on the Davis's personal..... More
New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1900. First printing. Black and white frontispiece and plates by E. W. Kemble. Original cloth over boards. Duodecimo. [vi], 362 pages. fine collection of 20 short stories by pivotal African American writer Paul Laurence Dunbar, who was first a poet. Dunbar deftly weaves in..... More
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, (1933). First printing. Hardcover. Octavo. vi, 112 pages. A scarce drinking guide, published the year Prohibition was repealed. Separate sections for beer, wine, and cocktails with mixing instructions for the latter. Particular attention is also given to what foods should be served with each..... More
New York: The John Day Company, 1929. First U.S. Edition. Illustrated by Mahlan Blaine. Original cloth over boards. Octavo. viii, 342 pages. Ewers' decadent tale of horror that blends science and the ancient mandrake myth. Born of a grotesque experiment, the enigmatic Alraune is a beautiful, soulless woman—sexually magnetic and..... More
Garden City: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1926. Limited Edition, copy #18 of 201. Hardcover in slipcase. Octavo. [iv], 398 pages. A sweeping tale of three generations performers aboard the Cotton Blossom, a Mississippi River showboat. The novel explores themes of love, struggle, and social issues like racism, reflecting the vibrant..... More
(S.l.): Biting Dog Press, 2002. Limited edition, #30 of 250. Wood engravings by George Walker. Black cloth over boards, in slipcase. Octavo. 64 pages. An alternate version of the story of Snow White in which she is a wicked and unremorseful vampire and her stepmother is the heroine. The wood..... More
New York: John Bradburn (Successor to M. Doolady), 1864. First Edition. Original cloth over boards. Octavo. 328 pages. Laid into this volume is the author's handwritten letter, from Skowhegan, Maine, to "Hon. H. Hamlin"--presumably Vice-President Hannibal Hamlin, also of Maine. The purpose of the letter is to present the book..... More
New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, (1901). First printing. Black and white photographs, illustrations. Cloth over boards with printed paper sides. Tall octavo. 176 pages. Beautiful depiction of child life in China, revealing something of their nursery's, school rooms, and playgrounds. Numerous photographs throughout, along with old prints, to illustrated..... More
Boston: Bela Marsh, 1852. First Edition. Frontispiece engraving of Murray. Original cloth over boards. Duodecimo. [i-v], vi-viii, [9]-167 pages. Foundational American Spiritualist work, in which John Murray Spear purports to reveal messages received from the spirit of Universalist pioneer (and Spear's namesake) John Murray. A blend of biographical..... More
Cincinnati: J. A. James, 1846. First Edition. Leather and marbled boards. Octavo. 31 pages. A glimpse into the moral imagination of one of America's great jurists as he turns his attention from the law to personal character in this address to the young men graduating from Ohio's Miami University in..... More
[Chicago]: Hyman Gale and Gerald F. Marco, 1937. First Edition. Black and white illustrations, including period advertising. Hardcover. Octavo. 203 pages. A striking post-Repeal cocktail manual produced by prominent Chicago spirits firm, Marco’s Liquors. Issued just four years after Prohibition’s end, it offers recipes, wine pairings, canapé suggestions, and blank..... More
Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1839. First edition. Original cloth over boards. Duodecimos. 242 and 228 pages. Frederick Marryat was a British naval officer and pioneering nautical fiction writer. He traveled to America in 1836-1837, and this is the first American edition of his account of that visit. It is an..... More
New York: Oxford University Press, 1964. First edition. 3 black and white plates. Cloth over boards. Octavo. [vi], 392 pages. Marx's first book. A fascinating study of the tension between the traditional view of America as a rural paradise and the view of America as an urban, industrialized nation that..... More
New York: Random House, (1985). First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. 337 pages. McCarthy's masterpiece. Set in the American Southwest between 1849-1850 and based heavily on Samuel Chamberlain's memoir, 'My Confession,' this was McCarthy's only historical novel. Spectacularly written, he brings some unforgettable characters to life--including the landscape itself. Judge Holden is..... More
[New York] and London: The Macmillan Company, Collier-Macmillan Ltd., (1969). First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. [x], 246 pages. Messick's exposé of Meyer Lansky and the vast criminal syndicate he was believed to operate in the Bahamas following his departure from Cuba after the revolution. Prior ownership name of prominent Washington attorney..... More
![Item #1268 Tiro Aereo [with] Tiro di Caduta [with] Appunti di Armamento e Tiro. Military Aviation](https://backcreekbooks.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/1268_1.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1682438310)
(S.l.): (S.n.), [1920s?]. Diagrams, some tipped in photographic illustrations. Cloth over boards with vellum spine and fore corners. Folio. 100 pages [and] 127 pages [and] 113 pages. Three instructive texts, all in Italian, concerning the accurate use of mounted machine guns and the dropping of bombs from airplanes. These are..... More
[Oneida]: (S.n.), 1850. First printing. Wrappers. Sixteenmo. 14 pages. Scarce pamphlet that cleverly harnesses the contemporaneous debate over slavery to attack the institution of marriage. Many of the Abolitionist arguments against slavery are here effectively turned against mid-19th century marriage. The text is structured as a fictionalized dialogue between..... More