LITERATURE

63 comedias sueltas — Spanish Theater of the Golden Age

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•  Priest and Golden Age playwright Don Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600–81) was born in Madrid, where he received religious training before turning to dramatic writing in his early twenties. His first dramas for the stage (“Amor, honor y poder” and “Selvas de amor”) were performed in 1623. This collection of 61 plays (plus two by Agustín Moreto, in the third vol.) comprises half of Don Pedro's total comedias, the largest part of his oeuvre, which also includes some poetry, 20 minor plays, and 80 autos sacramentales.

These comedias combine elements of contemporary politics (for example, “Amor, honor y poder” and “La cisma del Ingalterra” both concern English royalty and are, incidentally, Don Pedro's only two plays set in England), family dynamics (e.g., “Andromeda y Perseo,” “La hija del ayre”), and personal biography:

In 1629 an actor stabbed Don Pedro's brother and sought refuge in a local convent. Don Pedro, pursuing the villain, insulted the resident nuns and drew attention from the Trinitarian preacher Fray Hortensio Paravicino, who attacked the playwright in a public sermon. Although Don Pedro's play “El principe costante” had already been approved for the stage, he (illegally) added lines mocking the royal priest. For this blasphemy, defamation, and lèse-majesté, not to mention subverting the censor, the playwright was sentenced to brief house arrest — mild punishment for an amusing crime.

Some titles include information about when and where plays were originally performed.

Provenance & Evidence of Readership: In each volume, the ink presentation inscription “W.A. Sanford to E.C.A. Sanford” on the front fly-leaf is followed by an index in the same 19th-century hand. Vol. II also has a typed index.

A full list of the plays is available upon request.

•  See Bergman & Szmuk, Comedias Sueltas; McKnight & Jones, Catalogue of Comedias Sueltas; and Sullivan & Bershas, Comedias Sueltas; Don W. Cruickshank, Don Pedro Calderón.   Early 19th-century vellum over boards with binder's sticker on front pastedown and ink title to spines; spine vellum of vol. I significantly torn. Nearly all of the comedias are trimmed close at the margins, many with loss to signature marks and occasionally a bottom line of text; some age-toning, stains, occasional water damage, and foxing. Where colophons are affected, dates have been supplied using the aforementioned references.  (29317)

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Eight Comedias sueltas byCalderón de la Barca

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•  “N.279” in the upper left corner of the first page, and “Pag. I” in the upper right.

In addition to the first title, this sammelband contains seven other comedias sueltas by Calderón de la Barca, in order as follows:  [drop-title] Comedia famosa. El pintor de su deshonra. [colophon: Barcelona: En la Imprenta de Carlos Sapera, 1766]. [18] ff. “Num. 82” in upper right corner of the first page.  [drop-title] Comedia famosa. La exaltacion de la cruz. [colophon: Barcelona: En la Imprenta de Francisco Suriá, 1771]. [18] ff. “Num.76” in upper right corner of the first page.  [drop-title] Comedia famosa. Fuego de Dios en el querer bien. [colophon: Barcelona: Por Francisco Suria y Burgada], no date [ca. 1770]. [18] ff. “Num. 74” in upper right corner of the first page.  [drop-title] Comedia famosa. Auristela y Lisidante. Fiesta que se representó á SS. MM. en el Coliseo del Buen Retiro. [colophon: Barcelona: Por Francisco Suriá y Burgada], no date [ca. 1770]. [22] ff. “Num. 73.” in upper right corner of the first page.  [drop-title] Comedia famosa. El segundo Scipion. Fiesta que se representó á los años del Rey nuestro Señor Don Carlos Segundo. [colophon: Barcelona: Por Francisco Suria y Burgada], no date [ca. 1770]. [20] ff. “Num. 75.” in upper right corner of the first page.  [drop-title] Comedia famosa. La desdicha de la voz. [colophon: Barcelona: Por Francisco Suria y Burgada], no date [ca. 1770]. [22] ff. “Num. 81” in upper right corner of the first page.  [drop-title] Comedia famosa. Darlo todo, y no dar nada. Fiesta, que se representó à SS. MM. en el Salon de su Palacio. [colophon: Barcelona: Por Francisco Suria y Burgada], no date [ca. 1780]. [20] ff. “Num. 80=” in upper right corner of the first page.

Provenance:  Francis H. Bacon (modern bookplate, front pastedown).

•  On the comedias sueltas, see: Bergman & Szmuk, Comedias Sueltas; McKnight & Jones, Catalogue of Comedias Sueltas; Sullivan & Bershas, Comedias Sueltas. On Calderon, see: Don W. Cruickshank, Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1973).   Brown calf triple-ruled in gilt and stamped in a blind fern pattern along the border (joints splitting); spine gilt with “Comedias de Calderon,” “Tom. IX.,” and “Madrid 1726" in three of seven compartments otherwise containing gilt fleurons within a blind-stamped flower pattern; gilt turn-ins and marbled endpapers in a stone pattern and matching marbled edges. Front flyleaf detached. Occasional spots and dampstaining, a few natural paper flaws and a few negligible wormholes; age-toning, heavier in some comedias than others. Trimmed close shaving some headlines and catchwords, butoverall nice.  (29852)

The California Poets

•  A collection of 15 poems selected for the 1933 Annual of the California Writers Club. The poems were chosen by Margaret Widdemer, Margaret Tod Witter, and David Morton, who singled out “Skylark Terrace” by Alice Harlow Stetson and “The Prairie Saga” by Don Farran as the best of the collection. One poem celebrates the campanile (Sather Tower) at Berkeley.

Provenance:  Bookplate inside front wrapper of Lorraine & Horace Haynes.

•  Publisher's light-blue wrappers. Bookplate as above. Near fine.  (23669)

Life & Letters — A German Neo-Latin Poet

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•  Three first editions, all uncommon: Joachim Camerarius the elder’s life of the German neo-Latin poet Helius Eobanus Hessus (1488–1540), followed by books two and three of Hessus’s correspondence as edited by Camerarius. All books were issued separately. The Protestant humanist Camerarius was a member of Hessus’s circle and an associate of Melanchthon’s, as was Johannes Crato von Crafftheim, the royal physician and friend of Martin Luther to whom Camerarius dedicated the final volume of letters; Melanchthon, Euricius Cordus, Justus Menio, Mutiano Ruffo, and others appear with letters sometimes wholly in Greek, others with extensive passages in that language.

Binding: Contemporary alum-tawed pigskin, dated 1567 in blind; binding with bevelled edges, covers blind-embossed using rolls: faith, hope, justice, and charity. One metal clasp is present, the other perished.

•  Narratio: Adams C436; Brunet, II, 1009; VD16 C480 / VD16 C408. Libellus: Brunet, II, 1009; VD 16 C409; not in Adams. Tertius libellus: Brunet, II, 1009; VD16 C410. Binding as above, spine with later hand-inked paper label; binding much darkened and somewhat rubbed, one clasp intact and the other lacking. First title-page with ownership inscription dated 1559 inked in lower margin; Libellus alter lacking last leaf of preface (with errata on reverse) and Tertius libellus epistolar lacking title-page. Some corners dog-eared; two leaves with outer corners torn away, without loss to text. Early inked underlining and lining through of text, with a few marginalia, mostly in Narratio and occasionally in other two works. Last few leaves of final work with light waterstaining to lower outer corners.

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English Camões in Green Morocco

•  Fourth edition: Sonnets and canzones by the legendary Portuguese poet and playwright, translated into English by Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe, Viscount Strangford, a notable Lusophile who served as a diplomat in Lisbon. Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Binding:  Contemporary dark green straight-grain morocco, spine with gilt-stamped rules, rolls, and devices. Covers framed with a delicately curly gilt-rolled border; the center panels, within, accented by gilt-stamped corner fleurons. A bit of additional filigree in blind appears both within the rules of the gilt border and within the border on each center panel, to nice subtle effect. Gilt inner dentelles. All edges gilt.

•  NSTC C355.   Binding as above, leather rubbed at edges and joints, spine a bit dimmed. Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of John Allan Powell; front fly-leaf with inked inscription dated 1922. A few spots of foxing, pages otherwise clean. A pretty and very English production for this Portuguese poet.  A charming volume.  (23077)

Renaissance Classics withCommentary from Two Modern Masters

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•  Verses selected and prefaced by W.H. Auden, and introduced by John Hollander. Many of the texts are accompanied by music, with some photographic reproductions of songs from the Bookes of Ayres. The book was printed at the Stamperia Valdonega in Verona, Italy, with calligraphy by Edith McKeon Abbott and engraving by Leo Wyatt; this is the trade edition rather than the deluxe printing of the same year.

•  Publisher's red cloth, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title, in original dust jacket; jacket lightly dust-soiled, price-clipped. A beautiful clean copy of a beautifully done book.  (24833)

Institutionally Approved as aVirtuous Juvenile Reading Book

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•  “Improved” edition of a tale first printed in 1824, “designed for American children in families and schools” and used extensively in Philadelphia and elsewhere. The story opens on a New Jersey farm; after the Halyard family's troubles commence, Jack goes to sea and learns many lessons about history, science, life, and morality before returning in triumph to purchase the old farmstead.

This edifying story isillustrated with a maritime vignette on the front cover, a frontispiece, and five rather large in-text engravings, one of which has some early hand coloring (the “nimble” colt pictured is now chestnut).

•  American Imprints 11639. Not in Rosenbach, Children's.   Publisher's printed paper–covered sides with sheep shelfback, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding darkened and rubbed overall, especially at extremities, spine with gilt mostly lost and head chipped. Front free endpaper with early pencilled ownership inscription. Scattered spots of minor foxing and staining. Clearly read and loved, but not abused.  (29987)

One of CHILE’s“Padres de la Patria”
    ALS with anEdgar Allan Poe Connection

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•  Carrera writes of events in Uruguay, of war news from Peru, of O’Higgins, of various family members and acquaintances who remain prisoners, and of the cabildo elections in Buenos Aires.

Writer Carrera:  From one of the leading families of Chile, José Miguel Carrera led the successful coup de etat of 15 November 1811 that overthrew the Junta de Gobierno that was established in the political void after the capture of the king of Spain. As sole leader of the nation he created the first Chilean constitution, designed the first Chilean flag and coat of arms, and was responsible for bringing the first printing press to Chile. Disagreement with the Lautaro Lodge of the Masons led to his overthrow by Bernardo O’Higgins and the rift never healed, eventually leading to Carrera’s exile in Argentina, the U.S., and later Uruguay. His brothers fell into the hands of O’Higgins who had them executed.

Recipient Didier:  Henry Didier was the godfather of Edgar Allan Poe’s older brother, William Henry; he was to take the boy into his home for some years, though accounts differ as to whether this happened immediately after the death of the Poe children's parents (1811) or after the death of their guardian grandfather (1816). He ran a counting house in Baltimore and William Henry worked there as a young man. Though the Poe brothers' intimacy varied due to circumstances over the years, clearly Edgar knew Didier; he would surely have visited his brother at the Didier house.

On Uruguay:  “Las cosas continuan en el mismo estado. Los Portugueses no han recivido refuerzo despues de los 500 Pernambucanos. Artigas se mantiene firme, esta guarnicion no se mueve. El Rey ha escrito para que el Gobierno de Buenos Ayres se desida.”

On Argentina: “Buenos Ayres continua tranquilo, está entretenido en la eleccion del nuevo cavildo que se verificará a fines del presente.”

On Peru:  “En el Perú no hay novedad considerable. [L]os españoles tienenel aquella costa 11 buques de guerra, inclusas dos de 44, pero esto no estorbó al Berg.n chileno el Aguila. . . . No pasa de 9000 veteranos el Ex[erci]to en aquel pais, aseguran que llegando los buques de guerra de Estados Unidos piensan atacar a Arequipa y seguir a Lima; no lo creo por ahora.”

On O’Higgins: “O’Higgins sigue mandando el Ex[erci]to y Brayer es sus m[ay]or gene]ral. — Pueyrredon ha mandado a esta un comisionado para que alcance de Leon que se me eche de aqui; Leon constante en su amistad y systema se negó despresiando al comisionado.”

On Prisoners: “Mi viejo Padre, 85 años de edad, ha estado incomunicado 17 dias, y ultimamente sigue su arresto en casa. . . . Mis hermanos presos aun, y lo mismo muchos de nuestros compatriotas. . . . Mr. Handle continua en su prision con todos sus oficiales y tripulacion.”

•  Very good condition. Written in a very clear hand.  (24646)

Comic Entremeses byun Famoso Comediante

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•  Sole edition of a work little represented in libraries in the U.S. or Spain. Castro is identified on the title-page as “representante (que fuè) de una de las compañias de este corte,” while the man responsible for seeing the work through the press, Joseph de Ribas, is “sucessor en su parte, en una de las compañias.” Castro was the better noted of the two comic actors involved in this publication.

The entremeses in vol. I (which volume is not present) were previously published in Castro's 1702 Primera parte de Alegria comica, but those in this volume are by other (unidentified) comics and ardhere for the first time. The entremeses in this volume are: “El Gallego silletero,” “La Rueda y los Cobielos, 2a parte,” “Los locos,” “El Enmendador,” “Pedro Grullo y Anton Pintado,” “La Lámina,” “Las Brujas, 2a parte,” “El duelo del vejete,” “La casa de los linajes,” “La Burla del Herrero,” “El Sacristan niño,” and “El Hombre muger.”

Searches of WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only one U.S. library reporting ownership of this work and it has both volumes. Searches of the Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico and the OPAC of the BNE find only three libraries in Spain owning both volumes and only three other libraries owning either volume alone. Palau says “Los dos tomos completos y en buen estado son raros.”

An important and clearly rare compilation of post–Golden Age theater.

•  Palau 48691; Aguilar 2362. On Castro, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 198, frames 417–24.   Modern medium brown morocco, gilt double-rule border on both covers, gilt spine extra, single gilt rule on board edges. Gilt inner dentelles, gilt pattern endpapers, top edge gilt, blue silk place marker. Light age-toning in some sections, by nature of paper; a few pages with small natural paper flaws; some leaves lightened across their lower outer corners; and otherwise the stray stain only. This is a very nice copy.  (29144)

Historical Fiction: Adventures on Lake Michigan

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•  First edition of this novel set on Mackinac Island, Michigan, in which a French Canadian girl must choose between an English fur trader and a Chippewa chief. The volume is illustrated with a frontispiece and four plates, two of which are signed “Day.”

Binding:  Publisher's gray-green cloth, front cover and spine stamped with “silver” (aluminum) waves and gilt title (unsigned). Top edges gilt. This is binding state B according to BAL, with the back cover unstamped.

•  BAL 2961; Wright, III, 952.   Binding as above, minor rubbing to corners and spine extremities. Front free endpaper with inked gift inscription dated 1957 and with pencilled inscription from Mackinac Island dated 1899. A clean, attractive copy.  (28871)

Did LONGFELLOW Wish toWrite Lyrically in Micmac?

Catholic Church.

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•  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's set.  America's great early lyric poet seems to have had an interest in the Micmac, perhaps dating from his days as a student at Bowdoin College but certainly from when he began conceiving Evangeline and its story of the Acadians who lived among and intermarried with the Micmac.

Fr. Christian Kauder (b. 1817) was a Luxembourger priest who worked for ten years as a missionary among the Micmac in eastern Canada: In 1866 he produced a hymnal, a catechism, and a devotional volume (containing prayers for various occasions and excerpts from the breviary and missal) all in Micmac hieroglyphs with occasional headings in German in Roman characters. Offered here is the complete set of three works.  The trio was issued in two versions: 1) with all three works bound together and the Betrachtung full-paginated to p. 111, and 2) as here, in two volumes, the Gesangbuch separately and the Katechismus and Betrachtung together with the latter work having the final three leaves unpaginated. (See Pilling, Algonquian, on this matter of the multiple methods of issue).

This is the first edition of the issue/state of the texts in two volumes.

The highly developed system of characters used in these books was invented by Fr. Chrestien Le Clercq (b. 1641) and was used beginning in the late 17th century by the Micmac for both religious and nonreligious texts, written on birch bark. In this production, the Micmac characters are printed on blue-green paper.

Provenance: Owned by H.W. Longfellow with “Micmac Language” in his hand on the recto of the frontispiece of the Gesangbuch and “Micmac Language New Brunswick” in his hand on the recto of the frontispiece of the other volume.

•  Pilling, Algonquian, 275; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2058 & 2059. The set not Evans, Masinahikan; not in Banks (rev. ed.), Books in Native Languages; not in Newberry Library, Ayer Indians.   Each volume bound in black oilcloth wallet-style with a natural cloth tie; some adhesion of old paper to the exteriors of the bindings. Internally very attractive clean, and with awonderful provenance.  (29261)

Bound with All for Love Centlivre, Susannah. The busy body. A comedy. Taken from the manager's book at the Theatre Royal Covent-Garden. London: Pr. by R. Butters, [ca. 1770]. 12mo. 48 pp. Bound with John Dryden's "All for love. Or the world well lost. A tragedy, in five acts" ("Taken from the manager's book, at the Theatre-Royal, Drury-Lane." London: Pr. for R. Butters, [ca. 1770]. 12mo. 51 pp. Removed from a nonce volume; sewing loosening. Title-page soiled and nearly separated from spine. Library stamps. Only a few very small spots. Outer margins of a several pages uneven. Without the frontispieces. (352)
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Wind Mills Mambrino's Helmet Dulcinea & All That

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•  Don Quixote, part I, appearing in Brussels within the first dozen years of its life — this for the third time, following Brussels printings of 1607 and 1611. Part II was not issued in Brussels until 1616 and and then as a stand-alone volume. Overall this is the only 11th separate printing of part I.

Scarce: We trace but five copies in U.S. libraries (Harvard, University of California–Berkeley, Dartmouth, University of Kansas, Hispanic Society).

Provenance:  Late 17th-century ownership inscription at top of title-page of “T. Engle”; 18th-century ownership inscription below that of “E. Ward”; on endpaper, “December, 1787,” with lines in French in an 18th-century hand.

Purchase information: On recto of rear free endpaper, in an early 17th-century Spanish hand, “# 1618 # [new line] En 24 de marco [i.e., março] Costo en Brusellas 20 placas.”

•  Rius 11; Peeters-Fontainas 227; Suñé Benages 15; Palau 51988.   Contemporary limp vellum, soiled, ties perished; Don Quixote inked on spine, faded. Lacking one leaf of text, continuity supplied although not in facsimile from this edition (pp. 575–76). First and last gatherings guarded with strips of Renaissance vellum manuscript.  (23423)

Adventures of an Unfortunate Spaniard

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•  A popular, oft-translated and much reprinted picaresque novel, from the pen of a Spanish Golden Age novelist and historian. It tells the story of the protagonist's desperate love for four women! John Fletcher used the work as source material for both The Spanish Curate and The Maid in the Mill. This is a revised edition, following the first of 1615; it is not widely held in U.S. institutions.

•  Brunet, I, 1756; Palau 54187.   Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-ruled bands; binding lightly scuffed (most notably at spine), spine with tiny pinholes, front joint just starting from head. Front pastedown with attractive small ticket of a prominent Madrid bookseller. Pages generally lightly age-toned with scattered faint spotting; some leaves browned.  (29248)

AMERICAN Edition — Complete & Attractive

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•  First American edition thus, reprinting the 1823 London edition of this extensive collection compiling material from the Tatler, Guardian, Spectator, Adventurer, Rambler, World, Connoisseur, Idler, Mirror, Lounger, Observer, and Looker-On periodicals. Chalmers, a prolific journalist and editor, is now best remembered for his General Biographical Dictionary, a massive undertaking which occupied years in its original preparation and subsequent revisions; the DNB lists some of his other publications with the comment that “No man ever edited so many works as Chalmers for the booksellers of London.”

An early purchaser has recorded the cost of binding the set (60 pence per book) in a pencilled note on the front fly-leaf of vol. I: “Aug. 15th 1864 in 38 vol bound in fine 1/2 moroco [sic] per vol c/60 d.”

The essays and authors here were all once fashionable as well as interesting; they are no longer at all fashionable, but they are interesting in ways that their authors and original readers never imagined.  

Bindings: Contemporary half morocco over attractive marbled paper–covered sides, each spine with gilt-stamped title, volume number, and elegant arabesque decorations. Top edges gilt.

•  On Chalmers, see: The Dictionary of National Biography. Bindings lightly rubbed, a few with leather showing slight cracking over spines. Frontispiece with bookplate of private collector. Pages age-toned, with edges slightly embrittled; some occurrences of staining and pencilled underlining, with the majority of pages clean. An attractive set; many hours’ worth of reading. For anyone who savors slices'o'life, and slices'o'time, very rich fare.

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Why Believers Believed . . .

•  First edition of this response to Malone’s Inquiry into the Authenticity of Certain Miscellaneous Papers, an analysis of William Henry Ireland’s now-infamous Shakespearean forgeries. Chalmers, though reluctantly conceding the inauthenticity of the documents, here explains in detail why so many were taken in by the scam — providing much material of interest for both Shakespeare scholars and historians of literary frauds. The volume is illustrated with a facsimile of five Shakespeare signatures, engraved by I. Girtin. Single-click the image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.

•  ESTC T138271; Lowndes, II, 404; Allibone, 2036. Recent quarter morocco over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. Title-page and a few others stamped by a now-defunct institution; pages slightly age-toned, one with pencilled underlining/emphasis.

Why the Believers Believed — A Supplement

•  First edition of another entry in the debate over William Henry Ireland’s now-infamous Shakespearean forgeries: Chalmers’s final response to the numerous items published during the controversy, in which he reminds readers that he is in agreement regarding the inauthenticity of Ireland’s documents, but disagreement with the scholarship (and pugnacity) of Malone and others. Single-click the image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.

•  ESTCT61515; Allibone, 2036; Lowndes, II, 404. Recent quarter morocco over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. Title-page and a few others stamped by a now-defunct institution; pages age-toned.

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“Innocent Entertainment, Mingled with Correct Information & Sound Instruction”

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•  American edition of a British miscellany intended for a juvenile audience: Four volumes of widely ranging educational reading, enlivened by romantic short stories. The first volume includes articles on gold mining in Australia and cotton manufacturing in Manchester, a tale of two Scottish servants, a biography of Mme. de Sévigné, an analysis of Milton's Paradise Lost, etc.; the other three volumes offer a similar array of history, natural history, fiction, and improving reading. The articles are illustrated with small steel- and wood-engravings, with occasional maps.

•  Publisher's blue textured cloth, covers blind-stamped, spines with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations; worn and scuffed with spines sunned and heads each with strip of dark cloth tape extending onto boards. Ex–social club library: Each volume with 19th-century bookplate on front pastedown, call number on endpaper, title-page pressure-stamped. Vol. IV lacking front free endpaper; vol. II with one leaf with inner margin reinforced, several leaves with outer edges chipped, pp. 3–30 lacking from two articles, and text block splitting at center — due to an old pin's having been thrust in at the gutter! Paper age-toned and slightly brittle, with occasional short edge tears.   (26396)

A Southern Hero Enters the “Brawl with Boston” — Illustrated by Christy
Girl Heroes, Prominent!

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•  First edition of this novel from the “Cardigan” series, set in New York state during the American Revolution and written by an author best known for his important supernatural work The King in Yellow. The plot here stars George Ormond, a Southerner of good family; it also features a character named Catrine Montour, based in part on the half-French, half-Native American “Queen” Catherine Montour (1710–1804), while the climactic rescue involves two maidens riding to the aid of an officer captured by Senecas. Theeight halftone plates were done by Howard Chandler Christy, and the belles are much in the style of his famed Christy Girls.

This is the genuine first edition, not a modern reprint.

Binding:  Publisher's olive cloth, front cover with Art Nouveau water lily design and gilt-stamped title, spine with gilt-stamped title.

•  Binding as above, minor rubbing at extremities. Front free endpaper with pencilled Christmas gift inscription dated 1902; back free endpaper with rubber-stamped numeral (no other markings). Pages and plates clean. A very nice copy.  (28585)

Village Scandal withDubout Illustrations

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•  First edition thus: A much-celebrated (and twice-filmed) French satire of small town life, here with over 100 color-printed comic scenes, some bawdy, rendered by cartoonist and illustrator Albert Dubout. The illustrations are charming, now quaint, and très “French.”

The limitation statement asserts that a total of 1250 copies were produced — but the present example is stamped “Exemplaire no. 12392.”

•  Publisher's color-printed ivory wrappers, in glassine jacket and original textured paper–covered slipcase; glassine chipped at extremities and slipcase split along one edge. Wrappers faintly darkened overall and moreso at spine, where they are also a just trifle rubbed/chipped; interior clean and illustrations bright.  (28308)

“All Men in Adam Die, inChrist Revive . . .”

•  Apparently the sole edition of this extremely uncommon poem on the emptiness of worldly pursuits as compared to heavenly bliss. Searches of RLIN, OCLC, and NSTC show no holdings at all, while NUC Pre-1956 findsone copy, in the U.S. at the New York Public.
Single-click the far-lefthand image, where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.

•  Not in NSTC. Recent wrappers. Title-page and a few others stamped by a now-defunct institution. Portion torn away from upper margin of front fly-leaf, perhaps to remove an inscription.

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            MISCELLANY — click here.

He GaveHimself the Last Word

•  First edition of this poem on the disparities sometimes found between private and public virtue, and the poet's responsibility to write for the country's good.

•  ESTC T1702. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Half-title lacking. Title-page and two others stamped by a now-defunct institution; leaves with reinforced tears at inner margins.

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LEC Cicero — Design by Mardersteig

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•  “In modern translations by various hands,” with an introduction by Reginald H. Barrow and12 oil-painted plates by Salvatore Fiume, who signed the colophon. The volume was designed by Giovanni Mardersteig, printed in monotype Dante on Cartiere Enrico Magnani paper, and bound in floral-printed cream and purple linen by the Stamperia Valdonega.

This is numbered copy 972 of 1500 printed.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 452.   Binding as above, spine with gilt-stamped title, in original glassine dust jacket and original slipcase; volume very clean and fresh, glassine wrapper with spine gently sunned and small chips at foot, slipcase label slightly darkened and slipcase otherwise all but unworn. A very nice copy.  (30114)

Blind Scottish Enlightenment WriterChannels “Cicero”

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•  Sole edition of Blacklock's translation of De consolatione, a work now doubted as from Cicero's pen, and far more likely from that of Carlo Sigonio, (1524?–84). Blacklock was blinded in his youth by smallpox but as an adult enjoyed a life as a literato, counting Hume among his friends. He has recently received interesting scholarly attention in the context of the Scottish Enlightenment (Catherine Packham's “Disability and Sympathetic Sociability in Enlightenment Scotland: The Case of Thomas Blacklock,” Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 30, Issue 3, pp. 423–438, September 2007).

•  ESTC T138400.   Contemporary speckled sheep with modest gilt double fillet border on covers; spine with red leather label, gilt, and bands accented with fillets to match covers. Top spine compartment darkened and joints starting but volume sound. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, no other markings. A clean volume with only a little foxing and the very occasional old instance of staining.  (28889)

Capturing an AgeOne Biography at a Time

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•  First edition: Concise yet entertainingly anecdote-laden biographies recounting the accomplishments and characters (foibles and all) of the most prominent figures of the age: nobles, churchmen, politicians, dissenters, military and naval officers, jurists, physicians, voyagers and travelers, scientists, writers, economists, architects, artists and musicians, etc. All the expectable princesses, duchesses, and countesses are present, along with a handful of women represented in other categories — the preponderance falling under the “Vocal Performers” and “Actors” headings.

The first volume is illustrated with12 plates each offering four rows of small portraits, some intriguingly expressive; each volume opens with an engraved frontispiece portrait of a royal George.

•  NSTC 2C23867.   Recent textured maroon cloth, spines with gilt-stamped black leather title and volume labels; title-pages institutionally pressure- (not rubber-) stamped. Scattered light spots of staining, pages generally clean; first few leaves of voI. \ II with outer margins chipped. A hefty, substantive evocation of Georgian life and times.  (30012)

Life on theAmerican Frontier

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•  First edition of one of the most engaging, opinionated, honest accounts ever written of frontier life: the lightly fictionalized experiences of a New York City–born teacher who moved with her husband to the wilds of Michigan. Kirkland's part-novel, part-autobiography is one of the classic works of pioneer literature.

This copy includes the half-title, but has been well read and shows the signs thereof!

•  BAL 11139; Howes K184; Sabin 37991; Wright, I, 1583.   Contemporary half sheep and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and author; leather worn/rubbed, especially at head of spine, but text firm in its binding. Front pastedown with Philadelphia bookbinder's ticket of B. Kohler (printed on blue paper). Ex–social club library: 19th-century inked call numerals on endpaper and half-title overlaid with paper labels, title-page pressure-stamped, no other markings. Pages age-toned, with intermittent stains and short edge tears; many leaves with edge repairs done some time ago, often with loss of a few letters, generally not affecting sense. Two final pages of advertisements lacking; one leaf with upper outer portion torn away, costing parts of 12 lines; two leaves with lower portions torn away, with loss of about 14 lines to each. Last leaves with waterstaining to outer portions. Clearly, as noted above, the club library that owned this had avid clientele for it; and that they were as determined to “keep it going” as the repairs show, even after it had been damaged, is interesting!  (26386)

Aquatints & Boundby Riviere

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•  First book-form edition of a work originally issued in 24 monthly parts from 1814 through 1816. Combe’s verse accounts of assorted noble and ignoble deaths, most described in wryly humorous terms, are here graced with a total of73 hand-colored aquatint plates and an additional engraved vol. I title-page with aquatint vignette.  The plates were designed by Rowlandson, a prominent late 18th-/early 19th-century illustrator known for his Dr. Syntax caricatures — done for another joint production of Rowlandson’s and Combe’s.

There are two states of this edition; in the present state p. 1 has the words “Introductory dialogue” set in solid roman capitals, and the first line of the poem reads “Father Time! ’tis well we are met” rather than “Father Time! ’tis well we’re met.” The paper in vol. I is watermarked with the dates 1813, 1814, and 1815, while in vol. II the watermarks are 1814 and 1815.

Binding: Signed binding by Riviere & Son: 19th-century mottled calf, covers framed in gilt triple fillets with gilt rosettes at corners; round spines with raised bands, the whole gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels; double-rule gilt fillets on board edges; gilt inner dentelles. All edges gilt.

•  Abbey, Life, 263; NSTC 2C32764. Bindings as above, carefully and neatly rebacked preserving original spines, corners and joints showing slight wear. Vol. I with short edge nicks to upper margins of two leaves, not touching text; last few leaves and plates of vol. II with small area of light staining to outer margins, not touching text and not obtrusive in images. A beautiful set.

Life isBetter than Death?

Combe, William.

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•  First book-form edition of the sequel to Combe and Rowlandson’s popular collaboration, the English Dance of Death; this life-affirming followup was originally published in eight monthly numbers, and is illustrated with 25 striking hand-colored aquatint plates designed by Rowlandson, along with a hand-colored vignette on the additional engraved title-page.

Binding: Signed binding by Riviere & Son: 19th-century mottled calf, covers framed in gilt triple fillets with gilt rosettes at corners; round spines with raised bands, the whole gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels; double-rule gilt fillets on board edges; gilt inner dentelles. All edges gilt.

•  Abbey, Life, 264. Tooley 410;.NSTC 2C32763. Binding as above, neatly rebacked preserving original spine, showing only very minor traces of wear. Without the advertising leaf. Some faint offsetting and spotting surrounding plates, otherwise clean.

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Who's Happier?

•  Dialogue in verse. Imprint derived from colophon. Not listed in OCLC. Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Uncut. Folded as issued; never sewn. Soiling around margins. Good ++ copy. (8527)

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Presentation Copy of AMERICAN Catholic Poems
A Charming Cloth Binding

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•  Selection of Miss Conway's poetry from Catholic periodicals. A teacher and editor, she was born of Irish immigrants.

Binding:  Very handsome but unsigned publisher's green cloth stamped in gilt and black with attention to geometry, upper board graced with flowers, birds, and a gilt vignette in a circle of a girl reading and watching the sun rise over water from her perch beneath a tree on a hill. Spine with elegantly embellished title and author’s name also in gilt and black. Floral endpapers. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  Presentation from author to Capt. John M. Tobin (presentation on front fly-leaf).

Evidence of readership: (At least) one word added in early ink, p. 79.

•  Bound as above. Extremities lightly rubbed and the lower board mildly scuffed; minor waterstaining in the upper and outer margins of some leaves, visible at the fore-edge. Lovely.  (29948)

“I am anxious you should do a writing portrait . . . ”

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•  Cook (1818–89) wasa Chartist poet, author, and proponent of political and sexual freedom for women.  She writes, “I am again here for a few days . . . and want to know if you can receive me on Friday about eleven. I am anxious you should do a writing portrait to see which will afford you most satisfaction. I will bring the proofs of the sonnet with me.”

Provenance:  Residue of the stock of Seven Gables Bookshop (1930–79), via the son of Michael Papantonio (2009).

•  Very good condition. Tipped onto a slightly larger sheet. With the integral blank.  (25726)

A Cavalier Poet — His Works

Cowley, Abraham.

•  Fourth edition of Cowley’s collected poems, beginning with a good impression of the frontispiece portrait engraved by Faithorne, “an account of the life and writings” of the poet signed by T. Spratt, and two odes on Cowley’s death by Thomas Higgons and Sir John Denham. Once considered the epitome of his era’s wit, the author of The Mistress (verses in honor of love and various women, included in this volume) suffered a notable decline in popularity in subsequent years, prompting Pope’s musing “Who now reads Cowley? . . . but still I love the language of his heart.” And indeed despite the vagaries of reputation he has always had his worthy appreciators.

Cowley’s Pindaric odes are present here, as are the Davideis and Davideidos;also set forth are the “delightful little prose Essays (with verse interwoven)” for which The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature believes Cowley will most ultimately be remembered. Some sections have separate title-pages, bearing the same publisher and date information as the main title-page but lacking the printer attribution.

Provenance: Front pastedown with small armorial bookplate and with bookseller’s ticket from Cambridge, England.

•  ESTC R29730; Wing (2nd ed.) C-6652. On Cowley, see: Concise Cambridge History of English Literature, 351–52. 17th-century mottled calf, rebacked at some point in the 19th century and again more recently with hinges carefully reinforced (inside); spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title label, covers showing the predictable acid-etching. Varying degrees of browning to pages; scattered incidents of worming in lower inner and outer margins, almost never affecting text. A handsome book in a binding both sturdy and attractive. (7716)

A PrettyCrowell Copy

•  Attractive later edition

•  Publisher's blue cloth, front cover and spine stamped in black and gilt; cloth a bit rubbed over corners and spine extremities, with spine gilt slightly dimmed, otherwise beautiful. Front pastedown with small bookplate, front free endpaper with contemporary gift inscription. (12985)

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Anti-Romantic VERSES of Love & Loss

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•  First U.S. edition, printed in the same year as the London first, of the last volume of poems published by the Rev. Crabbe — Jane Austen's favorite living poet — in his lifetime. This is an uncut copy, in publisher's original bindings.

Bindings: Publisher's plain light blue paper–covered sides with tan shelfbacks, spines with printed paper labels; uncut.

•  NSTC 2C41665; NCBEL, II, 611; Shaw & Shoemaker 47741.   Spine paper darkened and cracked, joints and spines of both volumes restored with long-fiber tissue; inner margins of first and last few leaves unobtrusively repaired; as noted, page edges uncut.. Vol. I with front cover waterstained and back cover inkstained(?); title-page of vol. II with pencilled ownership inscription in upper portion. Foxing variously; one pencilled correction.  (30085)

TooVicious & Offensive for its Time

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•  “First proper publication” of Crane's original unexpurgated, unrevised text, here with an introduction by Shirley Ann Grau and six full-page gravures printed by Photogravure and Color Company from copper etchings by Sigmund Abeles. The volume was designed by Abe Lerner and printed by A. Colish in Bell and Franklin Gothic on Curtis rag paper, and bound by Tapley-Rutter in quarter black goat and gray striped buckram.

This is numbered copy 972 of 2000 printed, signed at the colophon by the illustrator; the appropriate LEC newsletter and prospectus, in an unstamped and unmailed LEC envelope, are laid in.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 479; BAL 4068; Williams & Starrett 1.   Binding as above, in original glassine dust wrapper and publisher's slipcase; binding very clean and fresh, wrapper with spine chipped, slipcase showing very minor shelfwear only. A nice copy.  (30127)

Full Set of Her Works, IncludingVillancicos in Nahuatl & an African Language

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•  “The Tenth Muse” to the Anglo-American audience is Anne Bradstreet, but throughout Spanish America and Spain, and in goodly parts of Europe, that sobriquet is associated only with Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Born in a small town in Mexico in 1651, she learned to read Latin before she was six. Denied admission to the Royal University in Mexico, she was to enter conventual life instead, develop a close friendship with the great colonial Mexican polymath Sigüenza y Góngora (the Cosmographer of New Spain), and write and publish the finest known poetry of the Spanish colonial empire in the period to 1821, as well as some plays and “Christmas carols.”

Uncontestedly she was the major New World lyric poet of the colonial era and she excelled in both spiritual and profane subjects. For a sense of her range of subjects, click to enlarge our images.  She invented a decasyllabic meter and cultivated dramatic poetry: Among her works are sonnets, redondillas, décimas, villancicos, and plays, as well as prose works, including the famous Carta athenagorica in which she criticizes the great Luso-Brazilian preacher and defender of the Brazilian Indians, Antônio Vieira. The contents here are mostly Spanish-language, but some portions are in Latin — and a few, as is seldom recognized, are in the black language of “Guinea” (e.g., Villancico VIII of the “Villancicos que se cantaron en la Sta. Iglesia Metropolitana de Mexico en honor de Maria Santissima Madre de Dios . . . y se imprimieron año de 1679") or in Nahuatl (e.g., Villancico V of the “Villancicos que se cantaron en la Santa Iglesia Metropolitana de Mexico, en honor de Maria Santissima Madre de Dios . . . año de 1687, en que se imprimieron”).

Sor Juana's individual works began to be printed in Mexico as early as 1677. Her “works” were soon gathered together, and in 1689 in Madrid there appeared Inundacion castalida de la unica poetica, musa decima (the title was changed the next year to Poemas de la unica poetisa americana, musa dezima, which it has remained ever since): This is now considered vol. I of her works. Vol. II (Tomo segundo de la obras de Soror Juana Ines de la Cruz) appeared in 1692 and the final volume (Fama y obras posthumas) in 1700. The issuance by one printer of all three volumes as a definite “set” seems not to have occurred until 1725; prior to that, printers issued individual volumes, or sometimes, vols. I and II alone.

In the offering here, vol. I was printed during the great poet's lifetime, and is one of the last to hold that distinction.

•  I: Palau 65222; Medina, BHA, 1870; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 691/74; Sabin 17735; this edition not in León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli. II: Palau 65237; Medina, BHA, 2540; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 725/111. III: Palau 65233; Medina, BHA, 2541; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 725/110.   Vols. I and II in original limp vellum; III in modern red morocco, gilt extra. Some age-toning and foxing in vol. II; same volume with light worming, at times in text, at rear, costing letters but not words. With slight faults only, this is a handsome set of this major writer's works.  (26753)

Bite-Sized Theatrical Morsels inFancy Dress — Signed Bindings

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•  Resplendent collection of clever, satiric 18th-century theatrical vignettes, originally intended to be performed as intermedios during longer plays. The pieces, which include “La Comedia de Maravillas,” “El Café de Máscaras,” “La Duda Satisfecha,” “Manolo,” and many others, appear here illustrated with21 plates and numerous in-text engravings by José Llovera and A. Lizcano, most depicting lively social scenes, musicians, dancers, and flirtatious maidens. Although the second volume contains fewer plates than the first, it makes up for the difference with extra in-text images.

Signed Binding: Publisher's teal pebbled cloth, front covers with striking chariot and armorial scene in light blue, tan, and gilt. The “Cibeles” statue found in Madrid's Cibeles Plaza and the coat of arms (and gilt monogram) of the city of Madrid appear with de la Cruz's name stamped in gilt below; spines offer gilt-stamped title and black-stamped griffin decoration. Cover of vol. II is signed “J. Orba.” All page edges are stamped in a Greek key pattern in blue and gilt.

Provenance:  Half-titles each with old-fashioned rubber-stamp of José Carmona y Ramos.

•  Palau 65340.   Bindings as above, edges and extremities showing minor shelfwear, back cover of vol. I with small spots of faint discoloration, front joint of vol. II rubbed. Collector's stamp as above, each front pastedown with small paper label bearing hand-inked numeral. Pages age-toned; edges slightly embrittled, occasionally with small chips or short tears. Scattered light smudges in vol. I; vol. II with mild to moderate foxing. A peacocky set.  (29262)

A Triumph of 19th-Century MEXICAN Literature,
    TYPOGRAPHY, ILLUSTRATION, & BINDING  

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•  Mexican women's annual for the year 1851, edited and published by one of the most noted Mexican publishers of the 19th century: Ignacio Cumplido, a successful editor, printer, and typographer known both for his collaborations with the major writers of the day and for introducing new typefaces and techniques that he had gathered in his travels in the U.S. and Europe. This attractive volume, an excellent example of Cumplido's work as well as of the unidentified Mexican binder's, is additionally significant for its intended female audience — something of a novelty for Mexican publications at that time.

Sabin, while not listing the 1851 Presente, calls the 1847 issue (the first appearance of the series) a “fine specimen of Mexican typography,” and this example is most certainly likewise. Each page of text is contained within an ornate border printed in blue, green, red, yellow, brown, or violet; many pages have wood-engraved decorative initials or culs de lampe. The edifying, morally uplifting stories and poems (with contributions from prominent Mexican authors Félix María Escalante, Manuel Carpio, Francisco Zarco, Marcos Arróniz, and others) are illustrated with a gallery of daintily pretty girls in fashionable or archaic dress, stipple-engraved by various hands (almost entirely British) and taken from previously printed British sources: W.H. Mote after G. Brown, J. Thomson after F. Corbeaux, H.T. Ryall after F. Stone, etc. The volume opens with an illuminated title-page incorporating the names of the previously mentioned plate subjects, chromolithographed by Decaen.

Binding:  Contemporary deep reddish-brown sheep in imitation of morocco, exuberantly flourished in gilt both as to both covers and the spine; front cover gilt extra with arabesque and floral designs surrounding a vignette of a girl bearing a basket of flowers on her head, spine with gilt-stamped title and similar motifs, back cover with blind-tooled foliate decorations and gilt-stamped arabesque motifs. All edges gilt. This binding is illustrated as “lamina XXVIII” in Manuel Romero de Terreros' Encuadernaciones artisticas mexicanas, siglos XVI al XIX.

•  Palau 66293; Sabin 65337 (for 1847 & 1852 eds.).   Binding as above, mild rubbing overall, especially to spine; front joint just starting from head. Hinges (inside) cracked across paper, with text block starting to pull away. Pages gently age-toned, with some light foxing generally to or around plates and a few corners crumpled. One plate with ragged outer edge, not touching image. Silk bookmarker laid in; many guard leaves still present. More solid than description might imply, and an all-around remarkable, beautiful volume.  (29091)

A Pretty LittleVita Nuova

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•  Conveniently portable, yet still desirably decorative production from Barbèra's “Collezione Diamante” of Dante's works. This edition features extensive commentary by Giambattista Giuliani.

Binding:  Publisher's vellum, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped red leather title-label. Endpapers with gilt and black Renaissance design; all page edges stained red.

•  Binding as above, somewhat sprung; spine slightly darkened with label a bit rubbed. Front pastedown with ticket of a Rome bookseller. One signature unopened; pages very clean. Delightful.  (28960)

IMPERFECT.  Well Worth HavingANYWAY.

Click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.

•  First of a famous, extended poem on plants and nature by Charles Darwin's grandfather. One of two frontispieces by Fuseli is present, the famous plate “The Fertilization of Egypt” designed by Fuseli and engraved by Blake is here, and two of the four Blake-engraved plates of the Portland Vase are also present.

•  Library buckram; frontispiece detached but present; waterstaining; a few old tape repairs. Age-toning and a few edges chipped. Lacks three plates. Offsetting from the plates. (1659)

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Early AMERICAN (German-American) POTBOILER

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•  First German-language edition of Decalves's New Travels to the Westward, a pseudonymous fictitious account of an overland trip from New Orleans to the Northwest coast and of life on the early American frontier that includes some element of fact, portions being based on the life and captivity of Dutchman Johann Vandelure, who married an Indian “princess.”

We locate fewer than ten copies, one of which is now missing. The work was written to be a potboiler and was read to death in the German as well as the English editions.

•  Evans 30324; Sabin 19130 & 98450; Seidensticker, First Century of German Printing in America, 145; Arndt & Eck, German Language Printing in the U.S., 1045. Not in Wright, American Fiction.   Modern wrappers. Title-page and p. 82 with bug-spotting; text age-toned and with staining; fore- and upper margins of pp. 77–80 with short tears and some crumpling. Minor worming in some lower margins, not taking text. Pp. 81/82, and final leaf offering advertising, in excellent facsimile. Housed in a gray cloth clamshell case with red leather spine label.  (26968)

Defoe on the Plague — In Funereally(?) Flowered Dress

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•  This full account of the Great Plague of London was purportedly based on the diary of one H. F., a well-to-do saddler who remained in the city during its depredations. Published in 1722, one month after Defoe's handbook “Due Preparations for the Plague,” the work is a convincing — and chilling — intertwining of fact and fiction. It appears here with an introduction by the Rev. H. Stebbing, describing major pestilences of earlier history.

Provenance:  Front fly-leaf with inked inscription: “J.D. Coleridge, Eton College, July 1836.” The Coleridge family was closely connected with Eton; this particular Coleridge may very possibly have been John Duke Coleridge, later Lord Chief Justice of England and first Baron Coleridge.

Binding:  In an unusual and highly strikingcontemporary maroon calf binding “sun printed” with the bleached imprints of flowers and leaves, including on the spine. Covers framed in gilt double fillets, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and date labels, board edges with gilt roll. Handsome marbled endpapers; top edge gilt.

•  NSTC 2D7458; NCBEL, II, 902.   Binding as above, mildly rubbed, spine slightly darkened. Front fly-leaf with inscription as above; light offsetting from frontispiece onto title-page. A few leaves with faint stain to upper edge and a few with similar faint touch at outer edge, pages otherwise very clean. A work of significance for both literature and medical history, here in a most atypical binding and in excellent, quite charming condition.  (29505)

“I Was Born in the Year 1632 . . . ”

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•  Illustrated late 18th-century rendition of this classic tale: The Stockdale edition of Defoe's most-read novel contains a frontispiece and engraved title-page in each volume, along with an engraved portrait of Defoe and 12 engraved illustrations done by Medland after drawings by Stothard. Chalmers’s Life of Defoe appears in this edition for the first time anywhere; another interesting addition is “A List of Writings, which are considered as undoubtedly De Foe’s.”

A handsome edition of a great, indeed landmark English novel.

•  ESTC N47632; Lowndes, III, 613; NCBEL, II, 900 (first few eds. only). Contemporary half calf over marbled paper–covered sides, bindings overall worn and rubbed with leather lost over corners and front joint of vol. I cracked though holding; now housed in a handsome clamshell case of quarter calf with marbled paper sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped decorations. Front free endpapers with pencilled ownership inscription (dated 1875 in vol. I); front pastedowns with 20th-century collector’s bookplate. Light to moderate foxing to pages in proximity to plates, with occasional small spots to other pages; plates spotted and browned although not beyond expectable degrees. Worthy.

“The Most Strange & Wonderful Events That
Ever Appeared in History”

•  Early American toybook version of the classic tale, illustrated witheleven wood engravings, several showing ships and boats. Here, as always, seeing what gets into (and is omitted from) such an abridgment is both interesting and instructive. Click the images for enlargements.

Defoe's novel not quite filling out the 32 pp. of such a little book as this was to be, a tale of “Virtue Rewarded” (not Pamela's!) was appended; and the title-page verso offers a primer-style presentation of letters, “points,” and figures.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 31310; Welch 275.79. This ed. not in Rosenbach, Children.   Lacking wrappers and final leaf, with the latter interrupting “Virtue Rewarded” but not the main story. Pages age-toned and spotted, with corners bumped and dog-earred; engravings variously impressed, with some sharp and clear, others less so.  (27837)

“I Saw Five Canoes of the Savages on Shore”

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•  An abridgment forAmerican children beginning with four leaves bearingeight captioned woodcuts, these appearing two on each leaf's recto page. The frontispiece — Crusoe with a dog on the island in an oval frame, labelled “Robinson Crusoe on a Desolate Island” — is glued to the inside of the front wrapper.

Page [48] bears an advertisement reading: “Book-store. Printing-office. Library. W. & J. Gilman, printers, booksellers, and librarians . . . publish and sell a variety of useful and entertaining books for children and youth.”

WorldCat and Shoemaker combine to locate eight copies.

•  Shoemaker 12353; Brigham, Robinson Crusoe, 103.   Publisher's wrappers; front one dust-soiled, with old writing, detached and reattached using cello-tape; rear wrapper lacking. Staining, generally light, and dog-earing; faded and watery old blue inkstain in upper margins of pp. 23 to end. A well-used but still interesting copy of a Crusoe for children!  (28123)

Crusoe, in Victorian Depiction

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•  Illustrated edition of the beloved classic, featuring eight wood-engraved plates.

•  Publisher's red cloth, covers blind-stamped, spine with gilt-stamped decorative title; cloth gently faded, extremities and spine gilt slightly rubbed. Eight plates lacking (of 16). Frontispiece recto with private collector's rubber-stamp, back free endpaper with same owner's small bookplate pasted in upside-down. Pages lightly age-toned with light offsetting opposite some plates, first few leaves with faint waterstaining in upper portions. A few corners dog-eared. Although not all called-for plates are present, there are no obvious excisions or absences.  (30003)

“Days When ALL the Dreams Come True”

•  Charming fifth entry in the Appleton “Joy Street” series of stories and poems for children. In addition to De La Mare, contributors include Algernon Blackwood, Rose Fyleman, Lord Dunsany, Madeleine Nightingale, and Hilaire Belloc, among other familiar names. The volume is illustrated with eight color half-tone plates tipped onto colored paper leaves, along with numerous in-text black-and-white illustrations, these done by May Smith, Hugh Chesterman, Marian Allen, and others.

•  Publisher's tan cloth with terra-cotta printed medieval pattern, dust wrapper lacking; spine sunned, corners with minor soiling. Title-page with minor offsetting from frontispiece. Showing some external wear, but still a clean, solid, engaging copy of an entertaining work — in fact, a joy.  (26068)

Brave Enough to Tell?

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•  First book-form edition: A budding romance is threatened by the young man's possibly tainted heredity, and whether or not the secret will be kept. A contemporary critic called this “a volume small in size but large in thought-provoking qualities” (Boston Transcript). Originally serialized in Woman's Home Companion, the work is here illustrated with two black-and-white plates featuring the very modish heroine, by an unknown hand.

Binding:  Publisher's green cloth, front cover pictorially stamped in white, red, and gilt; spine with gilt-stamped title.

•  Binding as above; dust jacket lacking, minor rubbing to extremities, back cover with crease in cloth (not board). Front pastedown with private collector's bookplate dated [19]15. A nice copy!  (28612)

Facsimile of the Only Known Copy of a16th-Century Picaresque Novel

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•  Fine facsimile edition of the only known copy of the first edition of one of the great Spanish picaresque novels. That copy of the Venice (?), 1528 (?) edition is preserved in the Austrian National Library.

The facsimile was limited to 252 copies, of which 218 were sold by subscription while the remaining 34 were destined for national libraries, collaborating scholars, and special individuals (identified in the limitation statement). This is copy 88 of the 218 subscription copies.

•  Palau 70182.   Full brown morocco, spine gilt with neat lettering, two rolls, and devices in compartments; covers with double-fillet gilt border (a small portion of this lost on front cover, corners bumped and a little rubbed). Top edge gilt, other edges uncut. Original front wrapper bound in. A very pleasing copy of a handsome homage.  (29223)

Representing the Farmer's Weekly Museum — 1796

[Dennie, Joseph].

•  First collected edition of these pieces, most of which originally appeared in the Farmer's Weekly Museum, "a rural paper of Newhampshire" per Dennie and "one of the best New England papers of its day" according to the DAB. The author, who quickly abandoned a mediocre legal career but enjoyed an extended stint as one of the fashionable literati of the time, produced a fair number of Federalist writings; his bent towards political commentary is partially but not wholly submerged in these short, often humorous religious exhortations. A good example is the essay on the text "Little children, keep yourselves from idols," which tarries briefly with the topic of women's fascination with the looking-glass before moving on to the more exciting "Green Draggons of sedition," which are responsible for encouraging Americans to "forget WASHINGTON. . . your first love" and to dabble in "scribbling saucy toasts, and vamping rash resolves against the treaties and laws of your land" (p. 37).

Provenance:  Front fly-leaf is inscribed "P Doddridge to his sister Harriett" in an early hand. There is a Doddridge County in New Hampshire, but who "P" and "Harriett" were, we cannot say.

•  ESTC W20627; BAL 4633; Evans 30335; Sabin 19585. On Dennie, see: Dictionary of American Biography, V, 235–37. Contemporary mottled sheep rebacked with plain cloth, abraded (most notably over edges and corners); hinges taped (inside) some time ago. Some offsetting and a few scattered light spots; one page with portion of text insufficiently inked during printing. Chip out of one page margin, just touching but not obscuring outermost letters. (4706)

Proudly American Liberal Arts — The Port Folio's Debut

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•  First edition: the first appearance of the Port Folio, an important early American literary and political periodical that ran from 1801 through 1827. In the premier, weekly issues gathered here, the journal featured John Quincy Adams's account of his tour through Silesia, Dennie's federalist thoughts, a translation of a canto from Voltaire's Henriade, a diatribe against the phrase “people of colour” (and in defense of slavery), original poetry, theatrical and musical reviews, a humorous brief on how most efficiently to inconvenience other people in the coffee-house, on the street, or at the play-house, and many other items. This collection, which contains 51 of the 52 issues of 1801, includes theoriginal prospectus (with a handful of names pencilled in the “names” column provided at the close).

This volume is in the large ambitious quarto format of the journal's first years, not the octavo format of the later, “New Series”

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with early inked presentation inscription to New Salem Academy from the Honorable Ethan Allen Greenwood (1779–1856), the Massachusetts lawyer who established the New England Museum.

•  Sabin 64182.   Contemporary quarter sheep and light blue paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped date; rubbed and stained overall, spine leather with cracks and chips, spine head with remnants of small paper label, refurbished: spine caps readhered, front cover reattached, edges reinforced, leather consolidated. Front free endpaper with inscription as above. A later hand has laid in a number of leaves of annotations and commentary on various pieces herein, along with some account of the lacking portions; occasional pencilled annotations in text as well. One leaf with inner margin neatly reinforced; some tears repaired and loose leaves secured. Pages occasionally creased; varying degrees of browning and foxing. Outer edges trimmed closely, occasionally with loss of final letters. Upper portion of one leaf torn away, with loss of weekly header and about three paragraphs of text; one leaf chipped along fold, with loss of several letters; lower outer portion of one leaf torn away, with loss of roughly two paragraphs. Nos. 13, 14, 32, and 34 each lacking final leaf; no. 33 lacking. Pp. 395/96 bound in out of order. Several pieces of dried plant matter laid in at various points. This volume of the Port Folio is as meaty and full of just plain interesting stuff as they all were, despite its lacking bits; and, it represents the journal's beginnings.  (29227)

A Big Year for Oliver Oldschool

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•  The Port Folio, an important early American literary and political periodical, ran from 1801 through 1827. This is Volume V and it is in the large quarto format of its era, not the octavo format of the “New Series”; it collects the weekly issues from 12 January through 28 December of 1805, beingthe year in which Dennie was put on trial for seditious libel. Dennie's own account of the trial begins in the last issue here, with the volume as a whole also including critical commentary on Sotheby's translation of Virgil's Georgics, bits of interesting British “law intelligence,” a satire on patent medicines, the immortal “Ode to a Market Street Gutter,” a sketch on the history and present state of Philadelphia, original poetry in English and French, and the papers of Samuel Saunter, a.k.a. the “American Lounger,” a.k.a. Dennie himself.

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with early inked presentation inscription to New Salem Academy from the Honorable Ethan Allen Greenwood (1779–1856), the Massachusetts lawyer who established the New England Museum.

•  Sabin 64182.   Contemporary quarter sheep and light blue paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped date; worn and stained, front cover with (child's?) pencilled name, spine head with remnants of paper shelving label, spine leather cracked. Volume refurbished, with leather consolidated, joints repaired, edges reinforced with repair tissue. Lacking one issue, no. 12, apparently never bound in; one stanza of one poem excised. Some leaves creased, with occasional tears into text; varying degrees of age-toning and foxing; scattered small holes. Lower outer portion of one leaf torn away, with loss of several lines. A few pencilled marks of emphasis; a later hand has laid in several sheets of annotations and commentary on various pieces herein. Dried plant matter laid in. Price reduced recognizing absent No. 12; but a volume of interest both simply as a substantial Port Folio and as the one produced in such a significant year for the proprietor.  (29238)

Liberal Arts of All Stripes

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•  The Port Folio, an important early American literary and political periodical, ran from 1801 through 1827. This volume comprises Vols. V and VI of the “New Series,” collecting the weekly issues from 2 Jan. through 24 Dec. 1808, including a discussion of the merits of classical studies, a treatise on “Oriental poetry,” jokes, theatrical reviews and commentary, the latest (British) legal intelligences, original poems and translations of French and Italian poems, Francis Kinloch's “Letters from Geneva and France,” an account of the health benefits of manufactured mineral waters, etc.

Provenance & Evidence of Readership: Front pastedown with early inked and pencilled inscriptions of Simon Elliot, front free endpaper with early pencilled presentation inscription of Dr. Willard Putnam, first text page with inked inscription of Simon Elliot along upper inner margin. A later hand has laid in several sheets of annotations and commentary on various pieces herein; there are occasional pencilled marks of emphasis and a few annotations. Laid-in letter from a modern bookseller noting that he is sending the present volume and will look for another.

•  Sabin 64182.   Contemporary quarter red sheep; marbled paper all but entirely worn away from sides, spine sunned and scuffed. Some early leaves with lower corners creased or stained along inner margins and starting to separate; scattered light to mild foxing. One leaf with one paragraph excised, affecting a few lines of the biography on the reverse; pp. 29/30 of vol. VI, no. 2 excised; upper portion of pp. 409/10 of vol. VI torn away with loss of a few lines. Some pages printed slightly askew, resulting in occasional shaving of letters or even (infrequently) lines. A slightly battered copy, but still — like all Port Folios, meaty and full of just plain INTERESTING stuff.  (29347)

A Leading Light of17th-Century French Poetry
An Elegant Retrospective Edition

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•  Sole edition thus, a petite rendition from the “Bibliothèque en Miniature” series: Miscellaneous poems by the socialite, philosopher, and belle-lettrist once acclaimed as the French Calliope.

Binding:  Contemporary green calf framed in gilt single fillet, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations, board edges with gilt rolls at corners. All edges marbled. Red silk bookmark present and intact.

•  Binding as above, corners bumped, spine sunned (not unattractively), joints and spine extremities slightly rubbed. Pages clean. An appealinglittle collection of highlights from a once-adored salonnière.  (29943)

Apparently asRARE as It Is Obscure

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•  Not listed in ESTC or NUC Pre-1956; may originally have been bound with another item. Whatever this is, it has not been digitized in a place where we can find it.

•  Marbled boards. Ex–defunct library: library label and blind-stamp on front cover; title-page and one other stamped. Text of hymn appears to be complete, although signature A is lacking and pagination begins at 9 (title-page present). First four leaves with waterstaining at bottom and outer margins, fading thereafter.

ALiterary “Washington'ianum”

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mouse-over, for an enlargement.

•  First edition of what was likely the first volume of verse printed in Washington (according to Wegelin), and one of the first anthologies compiled by an American. Richard Dinmore, editor of the National Magazine, selected the widely ranging pieces present here, including a sprinkling of poems by the Della Cruscan Robert Merry and some poems by Americans (and others that evoke American feelings and situations).
     Among the American authors is Tom Paine writing on Gen. Charles Lee, whom a 19th-century reader has identified in pencil as “A traitor to [the] American cause.” A few of the U.S. pieces are anonymous, e.g. “The People’s Friend,” which was “sung at Philadelphia, 4 July, 1801.”
     Three pages bear subscribers’ names.

•  Wegelin 932; Shaw & Shoemaker 2148. Period-style quarter tan cloth over light blue paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Title-page torn, with outer corner chipped, resulting in loss of four letters from end of title; now mounted. One contents leaf with edge tear extending into text; last leaf with short edge tears. Some light to moderate foxing, with pages age-toned; final page with shadow of pencilled “Finis” and p. 80 with pencilled comment as above.

For WASHINGTON, D.C.,  click here.

Thomson's Illustrations — “Beau Brocade”

•  Second edition, with numerous illustrations by Hugh Thomson. Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Publisher's cloth, front cover and spine decoratively gilt-stamped; spine, lower edges, and corners a touch rubbed. Top edge gilt. A few leaves and plates with waterstaining to lower outer corners, scattered spots of light foxing. (18409)

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      & UNDER,  click here.

Under-Rated?

•  First edition. Romantic novel based upon the travels of Marco Polo, narrated by a 20th-century Irishman. Illustrated by C. B. Falls. Christmas gift inscription on front free endpaper.

•  Publisher's brown-orange cloth. Very good. (5734)

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Pedantic or Enlightening (or Both)? YOU Decide

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•  First edition: A British antiquary's commentary on some of the obscurer points of Shakespeare's plays, examining possible source materials and often focusing on the anachronisms present in the plots and settings. Present here are brief analyses of the legalities of different types of marriage contracts, the nature of period music (offering as examples tunes for the “Scotish brawl” and “Canary”), and the fine details of such activities as quail fighting, crow keeping, wassail drinking, wearing chopines, furnishing funeral tables, etc., as well as longer researches on the subjects described in the title.

This treatise was generally well-received at the time of its publication, and a later 19th-century critic praised Douce for his “delicate and sympathetic apprehension of the peculiar beauties of Shakespeare,” but Jeffrey rather famously severely critiqued the work in the Edinburgh Review), and Stapfer described it as “bristling with erudition but devoid of talent, and very foolish and irreverent towards Shakespeare.”

Evidence of Readership: An early owner of this copy who seems to have sided with Jeffrey has made occasional annotations in pencil, one of which decries “these commentators [who] will never allow poor Shakespeare any invention, always endeavoring to prove him pilfering . . . “

Both volumes are illustrated with wood engravings by J. Berryman, reproducing medieval and Renaissance images; vol. II also includes a total ofnine plates, one being an oversized, folding rendition of a fanciful 15th-century engraving of a Flemish morris dance. The title-pages are printed in red and black.

Provenance:  Front fly-leaf of vol. II with pencilled ownership inscription of prominent 20th-century Philadelphia collector E.M. Boyle.

•  NSTC D1619; NCBEL, III, 1644.   Period-style quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped red morocco title-label, compartments with blind-tooled and gilt-stamped decorations, back pastedowns with binder's tickets. All edges marbled. Regular but not heavy early pencilled annotations, some offset onto opposing pages; a few scattered small smudges, pages otherwise clean. One leaf with small central hole affecting about four letters. A very attractive copy, with interesting and engaging signs of readership.  (30112)

Dryden Nicely Dressed

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•  Attractive volume of Dryden's verse, with pages framed in red and six steel-engraved plates.

Binding:  Publisher's sage-green cloth, front cover stamped in black, terra-cotta, and gilt with swirl design surrounding chrysanthemums and a pegasus medallion; spine similarly stamped, with double flute player vignette. All edges gilt. Not a signed binding, but, as noted on verso of title-page, a production of “Trow's Printing and Bookbinding Company, New York.”

•  Binding as above, corners and spine extremities a bit rubbed, spine gilt a bit dimmed. Front fly-leaf with inked ownership inscription dated 1884. Pages and plates clean. Overall a very attractive copy.  (26902)

New Homes, New Hearts

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•  First edition: Two intertwined stories of learning to love again after loss, set at Christmas-time aboard the westbound express train from Winnipeg. Written by a Canadian-born journalist, this sentimental tale (meant for grownups who love children rather than the children themselves) is here illustrated with a frontispiece and four plates by Elizabeth Shippen Green, mounted on green paper, with additional in-text decorations done by Harold J. Turner and printed in green.

Binding:  Publisher's sage green paper–covered sides with dark green cloth shelfback, front cover with decorative title and train vignette both stamped in gilt and dark green, spine with gilt-stamped title. Top edge gilt, outer edge deckle.

•  Binding as above; edges, joints, and extremities rubbed, front cover mottled. Front pastedown with inked ownership inscription. Pages and plates clean.  (29126)

A Grand Monument to Spanish Literature

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•  First edition: A scholar's well organized and annotated gathering of pre-18th–century Spanish ballads and romances, many plucked from obscure sources. Palau calls Durán's landmark five-volume Romancero general series “uno de los monumentos más grandes de la poesía popular española”; this, the third volume, stands quite successfully on its own.

Binding:  Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped decorations; all edges saffron and speckled brown.

•  Palau 77408.   Bound as above, joints and extremities a bit rubbed and back cover with small area of insect damage. Most pages clean; some lightly age-toned or faintly spotted. A pretty thing in pleasing condition.  (29249)

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