(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
New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., (1936). First American edition. Frontispiece portrait, black and white photographic illustrations, many line drawings. Cloth over boards. Octavo. xviii, 170 pages. Barbasetti's excellent instruction on fencing, well-illustrated with line cuts by Ciro Barbasetti. While the noble art of swordsmanship cannot be learned..... More
London: W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 1832. First printing. Modern marbled paper over board, leather spine. Octavo. iv, 108 pages. Lewis was a highly regarded chess player and teacher in his time. He is believed to be the first person to be described as a Grandmaster of the game. He..... More
[Rochester?]: (S.n.), [1899]. Black and white illustrations. Single sheet. 4" x 9 1/4" This small broadside is a rare piece of ephemera from the unveiling of this monument to Frederick Douglass in 1899. The Rochester monument to Douglass was the first in the nation to honor a particular African American..... More
Orlando: Harcourt, Inc., (2004). First U.S. printing. Hardcover. Octavo. [vi], 1-538 pages. Amos Oz grew up in the war-torn Jerusalem of the 1940s and 1950s, and his extraordinary memoir is simultaneously tragic, comic, and utterly honest. It is the magical self-portrait of a gifted writer who witnessed the birth of..... More
Santa Barbara: Capricorn Press, 1970. First printing. Black and white drawing by Bukowski. Wrappers. Octavo. [34] pages. Collection of poems by the King of the Underground. Boldly signed by Bukowski under a printed drawing. Title page is printed on a smaller red sheet that hides the drawing but reveals Bukowski's..... More
New-York: Printed for I. Riley and Co., 1806. Second edition, considerably enlarged. Frontispiece engraving of Pocahontas rescuing John Smith. Contemporary calf over boards. Octavo. xii, [13]-284 pages. The first extensive treatment of the legend of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith, in its preferred edition, complete, and excellent condition. Scarce, thus..... More
New York: M. Barrows and Company, 1941. First printing. Drawings by Rea Irvin. Full cloth. Octavo. 223 pages. Not just a fine compilation of cocktail recipes from the early 20th century, but also a wise and witty look at the philosophy of drinking, the arts of sociability, and a snapshot..... More
[New York]: Book Advertisers, Inc., Publishers, (1966). First printing. Black and white photographs. Cloth over boards. Quarto. 256 pages. Black and white photographs of boys engaged in play, sport, or other generally outdoor activities. The majority are nude or nearly so. Jacket text describes an innocent photo essay of the..... More
(New York): HarperPrism, (1994). First printing. Hardcover. Octavo. [viii], 228 pages. A collection of four interconnected novellas by the legendary science fiction writer. Signed by Le Guin on title page. More
New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, (1982). First printing. Black and white illustrations. Hardcover. Octavo. x, 326 pages. Welchman was a mathematician working at Bletchley Park, analyzing Nazi German Enigma intercepts. Some progress had been made, but the decoding process took so long that the information was of little use by..... More
New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, (1967. First printing. Diagrams and maps. Cloth over boards. Octavo. xxviii, 710 pages. In the wake of the JFK assassination, the Kennedy family sought someone to write a history of the awful event in hopes of ending the need to keep revisiting the painful..... More
New York: Bloomsbury, (2014). First U.S. printing. Hardcover. Octavo. [iv], 279 pages. This was Abdulrazak Gurnah's eighth novel, and centers on an east African immigrant named Abbas, who has raised a family in England and now reflects on the past he has never told anyone about. A stroke has now..... More
Boston: Beacon Press, (1974). First edition thus. Drawings by E. Simms Campbell. Paperback. Octavo. xxxvii,135 pages. Inscribed and signed copy of this authorized reprint of Sterling Brown's first book, originally published in 1932. This collection presents the lives of poor rural Black folks with dignity and poignancy, often in dialect..... More
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, (1962). First printing. Hardcover. Octavo. [vi], 230 pages. Yate's first collection of stories, published the year after his critically acclaimed debut novel, "Revolutionary Road." These stories also received positive critical attention, being compared favorably with James Joyce's "Dubliners." More
London: J. and R. Tonson, S. Draper, and R. Dodsley, 1749. Second edition. Engraved plates. Hardcovers. Octavos. Over 800 pages. Nice early edition of this foundational work of Western literature. Don Quixote is considered the first modern novel, and on par with the works of Shakespeare. Translated from..... More
(S.l.): (S.n.), [1942]. Black and white illustrations, map drawings. Wrappers. Twenty-fourmo. 31 pages. This was a handbook for newly arrived recruits at Camp McQuaide during World War II. Camp McQuaide was on the coast of the Monterey Bay just west of Watsonville, California, and home to the Coast Artillery Replacement..... More
Washington: Navy Department, 1919. Navy Department Letterhead plus a single blank sheet. 8" x 10 1/2" A fine 2 paragraph letter in which future President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his role as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, gently denies a request from a founder of the American Legion for a...... More
New York: John Day Company, (1943). First printing. Cloth over boards. Octavo. xvi, 262 pages. With this book, Rose Wilder Lane helped reignite a passion for classical liberal ideas in America. She is considered one of the "Founding Mothers" of Libertarianism, along with Ayn Rand and Isabel Paterson, each of..... More
New York: Creative Age Press, (1947). First printing. Cloth over boards. Octavo. [iv], 305 pages. Struggles of mulatto Beau Beauchamp in a racially intolerant New Orleans. First novel by this African American author. This copy inscribed and signed by Thomas on preliminary blank leaf. Ref.: Blockson #5367; Whiteman..... More
Washington: The Associated Publishers, Inc., (1948). First printing. Black & white frontispiece, plates. Cloth over boards. Octavo. xii, 378 pages. The first definitive biography of Frederick Douglass. Noted African American scholar Benjamin Quarles objectively treats all phases of Douglass's life in this well researched and footnoted study. Includes a Bibliography..... More
Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1946. First printing. Black & white photographs, illustrations. Cloth over boards. Octavo. xii, 372 pages. Stetson Kennedy's highly critical yet hopeful look at the South and its institutions and traditions. A native Southerner, Kennedy infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan, Sons of Dixie, and the..... More
Sauk City: Arkham House, 1946. First American edition, one of 3,000 copies. Cloth over boards. Octavo. xii, 639 pages. William Hope Hodgson produced a large body of work in horror, fantastic fiction, and science fiction in his relatively short life. He was killed in World War I. This collection presents..... More
Sauk City: Arkham House, 1954. First printing, one of 1,200 copies. Cloth over boards. Duodecimo. [ii], 123 pages. A supernatural horror story of a young English boy who falls under the spell of a vampiric being while on a visit to Auvergne, France. The only book published by Arkham House..... More
New York: Grove Press, (1954). First printing. Cloth over boards. Octavo. 174 pages. A collection of related stories about a small West African boy who ends up in the ghost-inhabited wilderness after fleeing armed slave traders. This was Tutuola's second book, following "The Palm Wine Drinkard." More