Binding:  Publisher's muted brown cloth, front cover and spine with stylized rose, leaf, and thorn design stamped in gilt, black, and red. Unsigned.

•  Binding as above, corners and spine extremities lightly rubbed, spine with two small scrapes, and gilt slightly dimmed; an eye-catching binding design and attractive overall. Frontispiece recto with early inked gift inscription. A few faint smudges, one leaf with short tear from lower margin not touching text. Quite a nice copy.  (28865)

•  Recent paper wrappers. Reverse of the title-page and one other page with institutional stamps; a few pages with pencilled marginalia, otherwise clean.

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Binding:  Publisher's quarter red textured cloth over gold paper–covered sides, front cover with George Wevill's (signed) chromolithographic illustration in red, green, black, brown, and blue of a “perfect” orator wearing a toga — and also, wearingmagnificent Victorian whiskers!

•  Binding as above, moderately worn overall with small spots of discoloration. Title-page with inked ownership inscription dated 1872. Pages slightly age-toned; three leaves with faint lines of waterstaining in outer margins. With endpapers, 10 pages of ads present — and interesting.  (28444)

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  NSTC 2F755 & 2W16139.   Disbound. A few light brown spots on title-page. A very good copy.  (11078)

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)

This work is rarely found in the deluxe binding: The handsomely gilt-stamped publisher's cloth is the norm.

•  NSTC 2W24418; Allibone 2762.   For binding, see: Morris & Levin, Art of Publisher's Bookbindings, 44. Binding as above, showing minor wear to extremities and front cover vignette, original silk bookmark detached and laid in. Volume slightly shaken with text block starting to pull away from spine; this is the kind of volume that wants to do that, and the reader will want to “cradle” it in hand — that done, no worries. Front fly-leaf with early pencilled gift inscription and with a Maine druggist's small ticket. Mild to moderate foxing. Both funny and decorative, in a publisher's binding that may fairly be called “DAZZLING.”  (26748)

•  Publisher's brown paper–covered boards, front cover with title and author's signature stamped in black, and with affixed printed paper illustration; without dust-jacket, paper mottled, edges and extremities rubbed, front cover with two small scrapes. A few faint smudges to some pages, otherwise clean.  (29138)

This has a very pretty engraved title-page, acting as frontispiece; between the arched words “Bridal Greetings,” above and below, is a bridal bouquet of emblematic flowers, signed F.E. Jones.

Binding:  Publisher's textured red cloth, covers framed in blind, front cover with gilt-stamped rose vignette, spine gilt extra. All edges gilt.

•  Not in Faxon.   Binding as above, cocked, extremities lightly rubbed, front cover with tiny dark spatter; joints each with small instance of insect damage. Front free endpaper with pencilled annotation. Moderate foxing throughout.  (30370)

Single-click the image, for an enlargement.

•  Publisher's cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title; spine faded and cloth lightly worn. Pages clean. (10646)

Binding:  Publisher's cream-colored paper, front cover with black-stamped lyre decoration, back one with black-stamped laurel wreath; spine with black-stamped decorations (no title). All edges gilt.

•  Binding moderately rubbed, spine darkened. Two leaves with tears from margins extending into text, without loss; pages and plates clean. Inherently a bit fragile, this is standing up well to the years.  (27087)

This is the sole American edition. First printed in England in 1804.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 30564; NSTC W2651. Contemporary speckled sheep. Spines divided into compartments by double gilt rules with large red leather title labels and small round black volume labels, both edged with gilt fillets and gilt-lettered. Fine cracking to spines with shallow chipping from head and foot; edges rubbed, corners bumped. Pages with light browning around impression and on edges, with darker browning from turn-ins towards beginning and end of each volume. Large bite from rear free endpaper of vol. II; generally, text problem-free, with but a few shallow tears and chippings and a few light waterstains.

•  NSTC 2W33589. Recent plain paper-covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Frontispiece, title-page, and several other pages stamped by a now-defunct institution. Lacking all but one plate (the frontispiece). Page edges untrimmed.

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Binding:  Russell-Rutter Company binding of quarter dark green morocco with green linen–covered sides, front cover with embossed portrait in black.

This is numbered copy 972 of 1500 printed, signed by the illustrator at the colophon. The appropriate LEC newsletter is laid in, noting that this volume is part of the LEC's British poets series.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 425.   Binding as above, in original glassine wrapper and black paper-covered slipcase with gold spine label; spine leather very slightly, almost unnoticeably sunned, book otherwise clean and fresh. Wrapper with spine darkened and torn, with loss; one side of slipcase with two faint scratches, overall showing only minimal wear. Book/slipcase as a whole in beautiful clean condition; book's pages crisp. (30088)

killed and scalped by Indians at Fort Niagara in

Click the image for enlargement.

Scarce edition.  No. “13" at foot of title.

•  Original self wrappers (unbound; removed). Good (slightly darkened).  (17590)

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