LITERATURE
A-B
C-D
E-H I-L
M-Q
R-T U-Z
“Our Ninth Annual
Casket” — Verse
& Prose
Inspired by Charity
Independent
Order of Odd Fellows. The Odd-fellows'
offering, for 1851. Embellished with elegant engravings, and a highly-finished
presentation plate. Contributed chiefly by members of the order, their wives
and sisters. New York: Edward Walker, 1851 (© 1850). 8vo (22.3 cm, 8.75").
Add. engr. t.-p., 204, [10 (adv.)] pp.; 10 plts.
$100.00
Click the images for enlargements.
The 1851 volume of an annual gift book issued by the charitable
fraternity. Among the poems and stories are several pieces on the principles
and virtues of Odd Fellowship, as well as the first appearance of Sarah Josepha
Hale's “Song of the Flower Angels”; the volume is illustrated with
a total of 11 steel-engraved plates (including the additional engraved title-page
and the
illuminated
presentation plate, chromolithographed by Ackerman). One plate,
“The Joyous Procession of the Law,” has an additional Hebrew title
carefully inked in by hand.
Provenance: The front free
endpaper bears a neatly inked ownership inscription dated 1860 (J.C.W. Kempe)
and an additional inked “sold to” inscription dated 1871 (Aden
Mc Bowman); Bowman also signed another blank, and the presentation leaf is
made out to Kempe as “P.G.J.C.W. Kempe.”
Binding:
Publisher's deep blue/black diced sheep in imitation of morocco, covers with
gilt-stamped vignette of Friendship, Love, and Truth personified within an
architectural frame; spine gilt extra with column motif. All edges gilt.
BAL 6877; Faxon 609. Binding as above, joints
and extremities rubbed, spine gilt slightly dimmed. Inscriptions and presentation
leaf as above. Poetry clippings, fabric swatch, and lock of hair laid in.
Scattered staining, generally light, throughout; chromo very bright and nice.
(27041)
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more AMERICAN GIFT BOOKS, click
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FELLOWS, ETC., click
here.
Irving's
Tales of
New
York, Paris,
Granada,
Etc.
Irving,
Washington. Wolfert's roost and other
papers, now first collected. New York: G.P. Putnam & Co., 1855. 12mo
(19.3 cm, 7.6"). Frontis., add. engr. t.-p., [2], [7]–383, [1], 12 (adv.)
pp.
$200.00
Click
the images for enlargement.
First U.S. edition, later printing (with publisher's address of 10 Park Place), in the
binding described by BAL; delightfully entertaining tales from a beloved author, collected from
their appearances in various periodicals. The frontispiece was done by Darley and the added
wood-engraved title-page by J.W. Orr.
Provenance:
Front pastedown with bookplates of prominent Philadelphia collector
Robert R. Dearden and Philip Justice Steinmetz, an Episcopal clergyman; the
latter design shows a view of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Elkins Park,
PA, of which Dr. Steinmetz was the pastor.
BAL 10188. Publisher's slate-green cloth, covers with blind-stamped rococo frame, front cover with gilt-stamped scenic vignette, spine with gilt-stamped
author/title and embossed decorations; binding very slightly cocked, extremities rubbed, cloth
somewhat faded overall. Front pastedown with bookplates as above and with affixed slip of old
cataloguing. Frontispiece and added title-page with margins lightly stained; pages faintly age-toned, otherwise clean. (29557)

A “Period” Pleasure
J., C.J. Otis Grey bachelor. Boston: Mutual Book Co., 1902. 8vo. Frontis., 95, [1] pp.; illus.
$85.00

Sole edition: Otis Grey, who likes his
Scotch, champagne, and other beverages, attempts various sports and games — including
golf — with invariably disastrous results. The work is illustrated by E. Jep, and the cover signed “Bird.”
Publisher's tan cloth, front cover stamped in black and white; binding a bit darkened overall, lacking dust wrapper. Top edges gilt. (16736)

LEC: A Southern Californian Landmark
Jackson, Helen Hunt. Ramona. Los Angeles: Printed for the members of The Limited Editions Club at The Plantin Press, 1959. 8vo. xiv, [6], 428, [2] pp.; illus.
$125.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Helen Hunt Jackson avowedly wrote Ramona, set during the Spanish missions period of California, to do for the American Indian what Uncle Tom's Cabin had done for the African-American The novel appeared as a book in 1884, five years after she heard an eloquent lecture by two Ponca Indians, Standing Bear and Bright Eyes, on the injustices inflicted upon the Indian at the hands of greedy white settlers. Roused to action, she had written her first book on the subject in 1881, a well-researched work of non-fiction called A Century of Dishonor; but unhappily, neither that one nor this mobilized much support for the rights of the first Americans — although the novel was very, very popular. The introduction here is by J. Frank Dobie who writes, “her chief work lives on, not only in print but in the minds and emotions of people who call for the book in libraries, buy it in stores, read it, and are moved by it. Helen Hunt Jackson's outcries of moral indignation against America's shifty and cruel treatment of Indians still lift human spirits — even though comparatively few people are moved to lift hands against ambitious patriots still trying to get hold of Indian property . . . Her passion against wrong and for right will make her book live a long, long while yet.”
The LEC illustrations consist of 8 full-page and 41 in-text color drawings by Everett Gee Jackson (no relation to the author), who also signed the colophon. Saul Marks designed the book, selecting a monotype Bembo font with the chapter titles printed in red ink, and the printing was done by Saul and Lillian Marks at The Plantin Press, Los Angeles.
Binding: In an attractive full woven fabric derived from a striated Native American design, with a colorful paper spine label.
This is numbered copy 972 of 1500 printed; the appropriate LEC newsletter is laid in.
Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 298. Binding as above in original slipcase, volume spine label slightly darkened, slipcase showing only minimal wear and with a spot or two of darkening to front panel. A very nice copy. (30117)

Everything
You Need to Know
about the
Healthy
Joys of Country Life
— from a
Literary Lawyer's Perspective
Jacob,
Giles. The country gentleman's vade mecum. London: William
Taylor, 1717. 12mo (15.8 cm, 6.25"). Frontis., [10], 132 pp.
$1750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Sole
edition of this useful and eminently portable overview
of practical topics such as animal husbandry, hunting, fishing, gardening (including
care of fruit and other types of trees), and the cost of timber and stone as
well as labor for carpenters, masons, or glaziers — along with rules for
management of a large family, and a seasonal calendar which includes monthly
good health practices. The volume opens with a copper-engraved frontispiece
depicting a well-laid-out country estate with formal garden, frolicking deer
in the woods, and laborers at work in the fields; towards the back of the volume
are a compilation of thoughts on natural philosophy, “A General Description
of England, and particularly of London; with an Account of the Taxes, Revenues,
Government, Great Offices, and Courts of Judicature of England, &c.,”
and a poem “In Praise of a Country Life.”
Jacob (1686–1744) was a legal writer known for his Every Man His Own Lawyer. He
also dabbled in poetry, drama, and literary criticism; in the same year as the present work's
appearance, he published a parody called The Rape of the Smock, and was subsequently
immortalized by Pope's unkind remarks regarding both his grammar and his status as “the
Blunderbuss of Law.”
ESTC T90927; Goldsmiths’ 5344. On Jacob, see: Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography online. Contemporary mottled sheep,
framed and panelled in blind, rebacked with very complementary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped title, author, and date; minor scuffing now nicely refurbished and front hinge (inside)
unobtrusively reinforced. Pages mildly age-toned and cockled, with a few instances of light
staining towards back of volume; one early pencilled correction. Last few leaves with upper
outer corners torn away, touching a few page numbers and in one case one letter. Overall a solid
and pleasing copy. (30232)
Jacob, P.L. Les perles. Pièces d'écrin artistique et littéraire. Paris: Veuve Jules Renouard, 1867. Folio (35 cm, 13.75"). Add. engr. t.-p., [2], 81, [1] pp.; 22 plts.
$600.00
Click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
Scarce, and
undescribed in any major database. Edited and contributed to by the prolific French author Paul Lacroix, best known as “Bibliophile Jacob,” this lovely collection of short stories, poems, and meditations by Lacroix, Balzac, Émile Délerot, Charles Nodier, et al. is illustrated with
22 large steel engravings done by J.C. Armytage, W. Greatbach, J.B. Allen, J.T. Willmore, F. Joubert, and others after designs by artists including Turner, Webster, etc.
Contemporary quarter morocco over paper-covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding lightly rubbed over sides and extremities. Front pastedown with small armorial bookplate. Front free endpaper and first few leaves separated. Occasional faint pencilled vocabulary annotations, in English. Scattered light spots of foxing, with most plates clean and untouched, a few showing some spotting in margins.
For
more BOOKS IN FRENCH, click here.
Jacobus, de Voragine. Lombardica historia que a plerisq[ue] Aurea legenda sa[n]ctorum appellatur. [Arge[n]tine: {Printer of the 1483 Jordanus de Quedlinburg (Georg Husner)}, 1489]. Small folio (27 cm). [260 of 264] ff.
$8500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Georg Husner, popularly known as “the Printer of the 1483
Jordanus de Quedlinburg,” produced several editions of the Legenda
aurea, the most famous late medieval/early Renaissance compilation of biographies
of Christian saints. The first appeared in 1486, and this is apparently the
first of a number of
page
for page reprints. The imprint information is from the colophon
on H5r.
This is an uncommon edition in the U.S. though heavily held in Europe; Goff
and ESTC locate only two U.S. copies this being one of them, deaccessioned.
The text is printed in double-column format in gothic type.
In
this copy, virtually all of the initials are nicely accomplished in red or blue.
Copinger, II, 6452; ISTC ij00122000; Proctor 618; BMC, I, 138;
Goff J122. Deep walnut full calf old style: Round spine with raised bands,
accented with gilt rules, fillets extending onto covers from each band to
terminate in trefoils and covers framed in blind double fillets; very plain
with date and place of publication only gilt on spine. Various waterstaining
throughout, with other stray stains; copy missing first two and final two
leaves of text, and the leaves at front and back remargined (with some others
repaired). Priced according to faults, not pleasures! (12378)
To
view our INCUNABLES, click here.

Bernard & Gordon & Angela
James, Henry. Confidence. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co., 1880. 12mo (19.4 cm, 7.6"). [2], [5]–347, [1] pp.
$400.00
First U.S. edition, in BAL's binding state 1 (with “Houghton, Osgood & Co.” on spine). Although modern criticism considers this novel one of James's more lightweight works, it was quite popular at the time of its publication, and the author chose to include it in the first collection of his works.
We have, at the moment, an interesting number of such “first American editions.” Please, enquire!
BAL 10549; Edel & Laurence, Bibliography of Henry James (3rd. ed.), A11b; Wright, III, 2913. Publisher's terra-cotta cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; extremities rubbed and cloth with areas of discoloration. Ex–social club library: call number on endpaper, rubber-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Pages with scattered light stains, still a very nice copy. (26637)

1st
U.S. Edition — The
Europeans
James,
Henry. The Europeans. A sketch. Boston:
Houghton, Osgood & Co., 1879. 8vo (19.4 cm, 7.6"). [2], 281, [1] pp.
$200.00
First U.S. edition: Two nomadic European siblings travel to Boston
to become acquainted with their American cousins.
BAL 10537; Edel & Laurence, Bibliography of Henry
James (3rd. ed.), A7b. Publisher's green finely cross-ribbed cloth,
covers framed in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title; corners and spine extremities
rubbed, sides with small spots of discoloration, spine darkened with lighter,
rubbed patch under title. Ex–social club library; 19th-century call-number
inked to a front blank and rubber-stamp to title-page, no other markings.
(26569)
We have, at the moment, an interesting number of
such “first American editions.” Please, enquire!

“Investigating
Our Scottish Dialect”
James V, King of Scotland; Callander, John, ed. Two ancient Scottish poems; The Gaberlunzie-man, and Christ's kirk on the green. Edinburgh: Pr. by J. Robertson, 1782. 8vo (21 cm, 8.25"). [2], 179 (i.e., 193), [1] pp. (1 prelim. f. lacking).
$250.00
Click either image for an enlargement.
First edition. Attributed by Callander to James V of Scotland, these two poems here appear with extensive annotations and footnotes, including a great deal of speculative etymology. The editor, a lawyer, served as Secretary for Foreign Correspondence of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries, and a review quoted by Allibone cites his “uncommon erudition as a philologist.”
ESTC notes that one institution reports a frontispiece, but most other listings cite a preliminary leaf (not present here) rather than a plate.
No, this does NOT photograph well! but it is very interesting in the hand, under the eye.
ESTC T146717; Allibone 328. 19th-century half morocco and pebbled cloth–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; rubbed and sides sunned. Front pastedown with private collector's bookplate. Lacking one preliminary leaf; title-page partially separated, with faint pencilled annotation beneath author's name. Occasional light spotting, confined to inner and outer margins; one early inked annotation in the addenda to the first poem. (24880)
Jamieson, Robert. Popular ballads and songs, from tradition, manuscripts, and scarce editions; with translations of similar pieces from the ancient Danish language, and a few originals by the editor. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable & Co. (pr. by J. Ballantyne & Co.), 1806. 8vo (22.2 cm, 8.75"). I: [6], ii, xix, [1], 352 pp. II: [4], iii, [1], 409, [5] pp.
$375.00
Single-click either image for an enlargement.
First edition of these two volumes of collected ballads, mostly of Scots origin but some, as the title notes, translated from Danish. There are several uncommon Robin Hood fragments present, as well as a few original efforts by the editor.

Provenance: Hoe copy, with morocco “Ex libris Robert Hoe” bookplates on both front
pastedowns.
Binding: 19th-century gold calf with covers framed in double gilt fillets, turn-ins gilt-stamped, marbled endpapers. Spines gilt-tooled and with gilt-stamped title and volume labels. All page edges gilt.
NSTC J236. Leather showing moderate acid-spotting, with some cracking over the spine (one label repaired). One leaf with short tear from bottom edge; pages with a very few scattered spots of foxing only.
A very handsome set.
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more Books with SPECIAL
PROVENANCE, click
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SO SAD!
Jemmy &
Nancy of Yarmouth; or the constant lovers: A tragical ballad.
Glasgow: Pr. for the booksellers, [ca. 1835?]. 12mo. 8 pp.
$95.00
Nancy, the heiress of a rich Yarmouth merchant, is forbidden by
her father to marry the sailor Jemmy. Sailing to Barbados, Jemmy is wooed by
a wealthy "Barbadoes Lady," but he remains true to his love. On the return journey
to England, Nancy's father has him murdered. He appears to Nancy as a ghost
to claim her and she keeps her vows to him by drowning herself in the sea. This
uncommon Scottish edition bears a woodcut title vignette of a young man dancing
with one arm raised, with "[No.] 3" printed at foot of title.
This ed. not in NSTC. Removed from a nonce volume. Page edges
slightly darkened, otherwise clean. (16757)
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Sin & Salvation An Allegory
Johnson, John. Mathematical question, propounded by the viceregent of the world; answered by the king of glory. Enigmatically represented, and demonstratively opened, John Johnson. London: George Keith, 1755. 8vo. [2], 106 pp.
$450.00
First edition of this elaborate, in fact
literary allegory of the danger of sin and the possibility of salvation. Includes an appendix, on pp. 48–106, titled “The Answer to the Enigmatical Question. The Allegory Explained.” John Johnson (1706–91) was “the founder of a sect called the Johnsonian Baptists. His followers were found for a long time at Wisbech in Cambridgeshire and elsewhere (see Dictionary of National Biography).”
Click the images for enlargements.
Rare: A search of ESTC locates only one copy ONLY; OCLC adds one additional location. Both locations are in the U.S. (Yale and the NYPL), none in the U.K.
ESTC N66391. Removed from a nonce volume; stitching holes present. Title-leaf repaired; shallow chipping/tearing to first three and final three leaves; one additional tear within text area of pp. 3/4 and 105/106 touching but not costing any text; reading fine throughout. First few leaves detaching. Ink annotations and underlining on p. 70, only. Ex-library, with pressure-stamp on title-page and inked accession number at base and inner margin of p. 3. (23667)

Bind Your Child to the Covenant — Signed American Binding
Johnson, Nathaniel Emmons. The sacred seal; or the wanderer restored, a poem. New York: John S. Taylor & Co., 1843. 12mo (19.2 cm, 7.56"). Frontis., 80 pp.
$100.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition of this poem expressing the power of household consecration, written by the Rev. Johnson, who had previously published a (prose) treatise on that topic. Here, an errant son returns to his New England family and to Christian faith at last, after adventures in Paris, Moscow, Borodino (where our protagonist
lectures Napoleon on his impending fate), the Mozambique Channel (where he liberates a slaver's hold full of Moors), and Palestine.
The steel-engraved frontispiece, done by Dick, depicts the family's “Ancestral Mansion.”
Signed binding: Publisher's finely ribbed brown cloth, covers blind-stamped with arabesque designs, spine gilt extra in foliate patterns; binding stamped by Colton & Jenkins of New York. All edges gilt.
Provenance: Front free endpaper with early inked ownership inscription of Louise D. Brown.
Binding as above, gently cocked, extremities mildly rubbed, front joint with tiny pinhole spots of insect damage, lower back joint with slightly larger spots. Ownership note as above. Foxing to some portions of the volume, never very dark; frontispiece image bright and clean. (30203)
Jones,
William. A grammar of the Persian language...fifth edition, revised.
With an index. London: J. Murray & S. Highley (pr. by S. Rousseau),
1801. Folio (25.8 cm, 10.12"). [4], xx, 147, [1 (blank)], [38 (index)] pp.; 1
plt.
$400.00
Click the image above for an enlargement.

Fifth edition of Sir William Jones’s Grammar, a work
long recognized as a classic of Orientalism, as well as an attractively printed
book full of
tantalizing
lyrical snippets involving jasmine, wine, nightingales, and fair maidens.
The Grammar was first printed in 1771, marking one highlight of a long
and distinguished career in Arabic and Asiatic scholarship, during the course
of which Sir William became the first English scholar to master Sanskrit.
NSTC J1084 (describing 6th and 7th editions only). On
Jones, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, XXX, 174–77.
20th-century half morocco with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with
gilt-stamped decorative motifs; binding is clean and all but unworn. Pages
foxed, though not nastily so,with occasional pencil and ink marks of emphasis;
one leaf with small repair to outer margin.
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more PERSIANA, click here.
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DICTIONARIES/GRAMMARS, ETC., click
here.

Spanish Statecraft — First English Appearance
Juan de Santa María, fray. Christian policie: Or, the Christian common-wealth. London: Pr. by Thomas Harper for Richard Collins, 1632. 4to (22 cm, 8.6"). [18 of 19 (lacks blank {only})], 481, [1] pp.
$2850.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Uncommon first edition of this English translation of Fray Juan de Santa María's Tratado de República y policía christiana, published in 1615. A Christian perspective on the powers and responsibilities of monarchs, the work was inspired by the Franciscan author's opposition to the government of the Duke of Lerma. The English rendition was often assigned to Edward Blount (who signed the dedication), but is now generally considered the work of
scholar and poet James Mabbe, known for his translations of Cervantes and other works of Spanish literature and theology.
The title-page here is a cancel, changing the publisher from Edward Blount to Richard Collins. The work was additionally issued in the same year with yet another title-page, under the title, Policy Unveiled: Wherein may be Learned the Order of True Policie in Kingdomes and Commonwealths, the Matters of Justice, and Government. . . .
Uncommon: ESTC, OCLC, and NUC Pre-1956 find only 9 U.S. holdings.
ESTC S107911; STC (2nd ed.) 14831. Period-style calf framed and panelled in gilt fillets with gilt-stamped corner fleurons; spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels. Lacks initial blank leaf, as is the case with virtually all copies. Two leaves with tattered outer edges, one leaf with small hole affecting a few letters; pages with some moderate offsetting, a few browned. (25084)

In Latin, Printed at The Hague
(English English ENGLISH PROVENANCE)
Juvenalis, Decimus Junius, & Aulus Persius Flaccus. D. Iun. Iuvenalis et Auli Persii Flacci Satyrae. Hagae Comitum: Apud Arnoldum Leers, 1683. 12mo (14 cm, 5.5"). 189, [1 (blank)] pp.
$550.00
Click the images for enlargements.
These classic Classical satires are here offered with commentary by Thomas Farnaby (c.1575–1647), and they consitute
apparently the first printing at The Hague of any Latin Classic(s) in their original Latin.
Juvenal was a Roman poet of the early second century A.D. His Satires are a standard of the genre, eloquent, humorous, and rhetorically
polished, but revealing a very bitter man. Persius (a.d. 34–62), was a gentler soul than Juvenal, and his poems are more Stoic
sermons than satires, preaching a moral life during one of Rome's more corrupt periods and doing so, most remarkably, without a hint of self-righteousness.
The two Satyrae are often published together, in contrast and comparison.
This is the first printing at the Hague of this edition with Farnaby's notes,
originally printed at London in 1612 and then reprinted in Amsterdam in 1630.
The emblematic engraved title-page here was done by A. de Blois; the separate
title-page for Persius bears the printer's device.
Provenance: Front fly-leaf
with three generations of early, dated, inked ownership inscriptions: Thomas
Mansell, first Baron Mansel (1684); Robert Mansel (sic, 1712); and
Thomas Mansell (1730–31).
Brunet, III, 631; Graesse, III, 520; Morgan, Bibliography
of Persius, 298; Schweiger, I, 511. Recent marbled paper–covered
boards, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Front fly-leaf darkened
and engraved title a littlevery little tattered at edges, the first with inscriptions
“stacked” as above and the second with old repair. Pages gently
age-toned and generally clean, with all edges red. (25952)
Juvenalis,
Decimus Junius; & Aulus Persius Flaccus.
D. Iunii Iuvenalis et Auli Persii Satyrae ad fidem optimorum librorum accurate
recensitae. Gottingae: Viduae Abr. Vandenhoeck, 1769. 12mo (13.9 cm, 5.5"). [2],
178 pp.
$150.00
Satires of Juvenal and Persius, here in an edition printed by the widow of Abraham Vandenhoeck. Juvenal’s bitterly eloquent pieces are often published with and set in contrast to Persius’s gentler, more Stoic-inspired poems, with both authors’ Satyrae being standards of the genre. The present printing follows Vandenhoeck’s edition of 1742, which Schweiger cites very simply as “Correct”; it is extremely uncommon in institutions, with searches of OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956 finding only one U.S. and one foreign holding.
Schweiger, II, 513; this ed. not in Brunet. Contemporary half vellum over paste paper covers, spine with early inked title; sides and edges lightly scuffed, spine with vellum darkened and chipped. Front pastedown with inked ownership inscription dated 1775, lined through; front free endpaper with 19th-century (?) inked inscription; title-page with early inked inscription reading “Carolus Comes a Wartensleben.” Back free endpaper excised. Title-page torn along inner margin and with short tear from outer edge, just touching one letter. One leaf with small ink blots and several leaves with small nicks to outer edges; scattered light foxing. A few small early inked annotations.
Kalidasa. The Mégha Dúta; or cloud messenger; a poem, in the Sanscrit language. Calcutta printed and London reprinted: Black, Parry, & Co., 1814. 8vo (20.4 cm, 8"). [4], 2, [ix]–175, [1 (blank)] pp.
$1250.00
Click either righthand image for an enlargement.
Uncommon first printing in England, following the bilingual Calcutta edition of the previous year. Translated into English by Horace Hayman Wilson, author of the first published Sanskrit–English dictionary as well as the first person to hold the Boden Chair in Sanskrit at Oxford, this lyric poem tells the tale of a yaksha (a supernatural being) cruelly separated from his loving wife, to whom he sends ardent messages of undying devotion delivered by a friendly cloud. Believed to have been active ca. a.d. 350–600, Kalidasa is considered one of the great Indian writers in Sanskrit; a playwright and poet associated with the court of King Vikramaditya of Ujjain, he is remembered for the drama Sakuntala, two other surviving plays, and several epic poems in addition to the present piece.A scarce book: Via OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956 we trace only six copies in U.S. institutions!
NSTC K23. Recent neat green cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Some pages with very faint foxing. A decidedly nice copy.
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our INDIA gathering, click here.
A Lonely Lass Was Kate Dalrymple,
A Thrifty Queen Was Kate Dalrymple . . .
A Wiggle in Her Walk Had Kate Dalrymple,
A Sneevle in Her Talk Had Kate Dalrymple . . .
Kate Dalrymple, and the flowers of the forest. Glasgow: Pr. for the booksellers, [ca. 1830?]. 12mo. 8 pp.
$75.00


The title-page adds the following: "Loud Roared the Dreadful Thunder. / The Bonny Blue Bonnet. / This Is No My Plaid. / Ye Banks and Braes." The woodcut title vignette shows a young woman riding on a donkey with her feet in a large basket. "[No.] 30" printed at foot of title. The lower halves of the title & the last leaf are detached, else very good. Very scarce. RLIN locates only one copy.
This ed. not in NSTC. Removed from a nonce volume. Pages age-toned, else clean. (16762)
Keate, George. Netley Abbey. An elegy...the second edition, corrected and enlarged. London: J. Dodsley, 1769. 4to ( 26.4 cm, 10.4"). 31, [1 (blank)] pp. (lacking the half-title).
$250.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Originally published in 1764 under the title Ruins of Netley Abbey (and a different item from the anonymously printed Ruins of Netley Abbey of 1765), this poem features an engraved vignette of the titular ruins, done by C. Grignion, on the title-page; also present is a brief history of the abbey. ESTC T75210. Marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Half-title lacking. Upper margin of title-page showing small abrasions and traces of affixed paper; title-page and several others stamped by a now-defunct institution.
Small Press Poetry
Kershaw, Alister. Empty rooms. Francestown, NH: Typographeum Press, 1990. 8vo (24.5 cm; 9.5"). [32] pp.
$38.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
First published appearance of these 16 poems from an Australian-born bohemian writer and winemaker. This is one of only 75 copies printed by hand by R.T. Risk at the Typographeum Press and bound in olive cloth from Van Heek. The prospectus is laid in, and an extra spine label is present at the rear of the volume.
Publisher's plain olive brown cloth, spine with printed paper label; without dust jacket as issued. Crisp and clean. (29708)

First Appearance of an
“Anti-Establishment” PERIODICAL
Kesey, Ken, ed. Spit in the ocean: “Old in the streets.” Issue 1, volume 1. Pleasant Hill, OR: Intrepid Trips Information Service, © 1974. 8vo. 127, [1] pp.; illus.
$40.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
First printing of the first issue of Ken Kesey's literary magazine, this issue focusing on age and aging. Featured here are works by Eve Merriam, Henry Crow Dog, Margo St. James (founder of COYOTE), Wendell Berry, the editor, et al. Six subsequent issues were eventually published, edited by Timothy Leary and other prominent counterculture figures.
There's some rather wonderful stuff in here.
Publisher's printed cream-colored paper wrappers, slightly darkened, wrappers with a few small spots of staining, back wrapper with inked mailing address and postal stamps. Pages clean. (29813)

A Curious Assortment of Topics
Kinsley, William W. Views on vexed questions. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1881. 12mo. 380 pp.
$40.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition. Includes “The Supernatural, “Mental Life below the Human,” “When did the Human Race Begin?,” “Satan Anticipated,” “The Key to Success,” “Shelley,” and “The Brontë Sisters.”
Publisher's oxblood cloth, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title. Edges and extremities lightly worn, spine with area of discoloration. Ex–social club library: call number on endpapers, rubber-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Pages clean. (27184)
A
Novel of
the
“Peculiar
Institution”
Kirke, Edmund [pseud. of James R. Gilmore]. Among
the pines: Or, South in secession-time. New York: J.R. Gilmore & Charles T. Evans, 1862. 8vo.
310 pp.
$75.00
Later printing (“nineteenth thousand”) of this influential
fictional account of a pre-Civil War stay at a South Carolina plantation, a
harrowing but realistic depiction of Southern culture and the evils of slavery.
Lincoln allegedly read the book and found it troubling.
Click
the images for enlargements.
Wright, II, 1003. Publisher's dark green textured cloth,
spine with gilt-stamped title; corners and spine extremities rubbed, spine
slightly sunned, sides with spots of lighter discoloration. Front free endpaper
with pencilled and inked inscription (partly) dated 1862. Light to moderate
foxing throughout. (25992)
One
Year's Worth of
Well-Spent
Half Hours
Knight, Charles. Half-hours with the best authors.
[London: Charles Knight, 1847–48]. 8vo (22.8 cm, 9"). 4 vols. in 2. I: Frontis., engr. t.-p., [2],
312 pp., frontis., engr. t.-p., [2], 312 pp. II: Frontis., engr. t.-p., [iii]–iv, 312 pp., frontis., engr. t.-p., [iii]–iv, 316 pp.
$175.00
Click
the images for enlargements.
First edition: Engaging periodical compilation of poetry, history,
Christian meditations, natural history, art and literary criticism, biography,
and fiction, set forth in
52
weekly issues meant to be consumed in half-hour portions, with
each weekly number containing seven half-hours. (Indices and quarterly title-pages
are bound in here.)
Knight, who was devoted to books and to literature from the time he was a small child,
was a much-admired printer and publisher, as well as an author, reformer, and would-be
educator: Many of his publishing endeavors were aimed at improving and enlightening the
working class.
NSTC 2K7731. On Knight, see: Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography online. On binding cloth, see: Krupp, Bookcloth, style Wav3.
Publisher's textured brown cloth, covers blind-stamped with muse motif and title, spines with
gilt-stamped title and blind-stamped decorations; lightly worn overall with some fading, vol. II
spine head with traces of a strip of cloth tape. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate,
call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Paper slightly
embrittled (more so in second volume), with a few short edge tears. Externally ordinary;
internally worthwhile. (26860)

Bruce Rogers Printing of an
Interesting AMERICANUM
Knight, Sarah Kemble. The journal of Madam Knight. Boston: Pr. by Bruce Rogers for Small, Maynard & Co., 1920. 8vo. Fold. map, xiv, 72, [2] pp.
$37.50
Click the image for an enlargement.
First-person account of a 1704 journey from Boston to New York — an unusual voyage for a woman to undertake at that time. The “introductory note” here is by George Parker Winship and the text was
elegantly printed by Bruce Rogers at, according to the colophon, the press of William Edwin Rudge in New York; the edition was one of 525 copies.
Provenance: Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of notable book collector Edward Hubert Litchfield.
Howes K217. Publisher's quarter navy cloth and floral-printed white, red, and blue cloth, spine with printed paper label; spine extremities very slightly rubbed. Front pastedown with bookplate as above. Edges uncut. Map clean. (29709)

A Dutch Count's Private Meditations
for 1813 New Yorkers
Kniphuysen Nienvort, George William, Count of. Prayers and meditations, composed in the French language in the year 1693 ... translated by an American. New York: T. & J. Swords, 1813. 12mo (14.5 cm, 5.7"). 105, [1] pp.
$300.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First U.S. edition of these devotional pieces, originally published in 1694 under the title Entretiens solitaires d'une âme dévote avec son dieu, here in an English translation accomplished by an anonymous American. A reviewer of a later edition concluded that the work represented “the aspect of devotional life favored by the evangelical school in the Episcopal church” (The Literary World, no. 220, p. 317).
The original author's name appears in innumerable variations according to various transcribers' nationalities; Count Georg Wilhelm von Kniphausen (or Knyphausen) of Nienort (or Nienoort) was also known as George Willem (or Guillaume), Comte van Kniphausen, etc.
Shaw & Shoemaker 28892. Contemporary treed sheep, recently rebacked with complementary mottled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; original leather showing expectable rubbing/cracking. Title-page with institutional pressure- and rubber-stamp; no other marks. One leaf with old burn damage (the ash from a pipe??) to lower inner portion, margins repaired, loss of a few letters without obscuring sense; one leaf with closed tear from outer margin and no loss; one leaf with a corner taken, just touching text without loss; upper corners dust-soiled, and pages generally age-toned, with no brittleness or other “issues.” (27242)

Koran
Designed & Illustrated
by
Valenti
Angelo
Koran.
English. 1958. The Koran: Selected suras. New York: The Limited
Editions Club, 1958. 8vo. 231, [1] pp.
$275.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Translated from the Arabic by Arthur Jeffery and designed for the LEC by Valenti
Angelo with an intricate “carpet”-like title-page executed in red and blue with hand-applied
touches of real gold; with sectional title-pages that are equally but differently intricate; and with
every text page decorated with red and blue arabesque frames, motifs, and ornaments.
Binding: Also designed
by Angelo, this is accomplished in red- and blue-stamped tan cloth and incorporates
a
“wallet-like
flap” following traditional Arabic Qu'ran binding style.
Volume housed in publisher's blue cloth-covered clamshell slipcase (with a
drop-down front element), box bearing a rectangular stencilled label of gilt
applied on the cloth so “The Koran” is left set forth in the underlying
blue.
This is numbered copy 972 of 1500 printed by A. Colish, signed at the colophon by
Angelo. The appropriate LEC newsletter is laid in.
Bibliography of the Fine
Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 284. Binding and box as
above; volume pristine, slipcase showing mild shelfwear with small scuff to gilt title. A lovely
copy. (30158)

The ESSAYS that Made Lamb's Reputation — 1st U.S. Edition
Lamb, Charles. Elia. Essays which have appeared under that signature in the London Magazine. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea, & Carey (pr. by Mifflin & Parry, and J.R.A. Skerrett), 1828. 12mo (I: 18.4 cm, 7.25", II: 16.8cm, 6.6"). 2 vols. I: 292 pp. II: 230 pp. (both vols. without ads.).
$1000.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First U.S. edition of the official first series, and
true
first edition of the unofficial second series, of Lamb's pseudonymously
published essays for the London Magazine. These eloquently written pieces
mingle humor and pathos as they describe the experiences of the author and his
acquaintances while attending boarding school, playing whist, listening to music,
visiting Quaker meetings, etc. Food is a recurring topic (“A Dissertation
upon Roast Pig”); there are two essays on Valentine's Day (one in each
volume), and several on plays and actors.
The first series made its first appearance in book form in London, 1823.
The authorized second series was not published until 1833, under the title
The Last Essays of Elia; the pieces selected for the unauthorized American
second series offered here are different from those contained in that volume,
and mistakenly include three essays written by other hands.
Shoemaker 33813 & 33814; NCBEL, III, 1225; NSTC 2L2346.
Vol. I: Uncut copy. Publisher's quarter once-red cloth and paper sides,
covers printed with “Elia” within a simple frame, spine with printed
paper label; binding rubbed and lightly soiled, spine sunned to yellow. Repaired
tear to one leaf, touching text without loss; remarkably clean and sound.
Vol. II: Contemporary speckled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label;
rubbed, and head of spine chipped with old refurbishing. Ex–social club
library: 19th-century bookplate and call number ticket on front pastedown,
front free endpaper with inked numerals, title-page pressure-stamped. Author's
name inked on title-page; front free endpaper and title-page reinforced at
fore-edge (the latter from the back). Both volumes age-toned, with intermittent
spots of staining; advertisements absent. The set now housed in a quarter
blue morocco and blue cloth–covered clamshell case with marbled paper–covered
sides and gilt-stamped spine. (26434)

A Morality Tale with an Encouraging Ending,
for Those of Us in “Bidness”
Lamb, Ruth Buck. It isn't right. Or, Frank Johnson's reason. Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union, © 1867. 12mo. Frontis., 280 pp.; 2 plts.
$55.00
First American edition: Honest laborer Frank Johnson endures hardship made worse by unfair business competition, the mean doings of a personal enemy, and his own error in borrowing money at high interest rates. Beat down low and unjustly calumniated, in the end he wins respect and safe prosperity for himself and for his family, always his great aim. With engraved frontispiece and two plates.
Click the image for an enlargement.
Good; spine gently faded with gilt dulled, corners and extremities lightly worn. Front free endpaper with pencilled gift inscription dated 1868. Plates somewhat darkened. (1916)
“Oriental” Romance for
CT Subscribers
Langhorne, John. Solyman and Almena: an Oriental tale. East Windsor, Conn.: Pr. by Luther Pratt, 1799. 12mo. 168 pp.
$400.00
Click the images above for enlargements.
Reprint of an oriental tale in the style of the “Arabian Nights” romance, an extremely popular genre in the 18th century. First edition was London, 1762. At the end are an extract from Robinson's History of Baptism about the Anabaptists in Germany, a short story on simple true love entitled “Rural felicity,” an ode to solitude, a poem celebrating “female excellence,”
and a very interesting subscriber's list bristling with Connecticut names and places.
Provenance: Bookplate of Thomas Longley (Hawley).
We find seven copies reported in libraries, ALL between
Worcester/Providence and Washington, D.C.
Evans 35710; Trumbull, Connecticut, 2313; ESTC W3365. Old calf with remnants of black leather spine label; leather with one gouge to back cover and a bit abraded overall. Tear and chip to front free endpaper; title-page with tiny edge tears. Small wormhole at base of initial three leaves, not touching print. Some leaves extruded with shallow tattering. Bookplate as above on front free endpaper. Offsetting from leather of cover and a brown blot or stain at outer margin of title- and following page; same offsetting to last leaves; some general staining and an ink "x-mark" in margin of one other page. This seems to have been read with enthusiasm! (20994)

Sensational Story — Appropriate Illustrations
Lawrence, George A. Breaking a butterfly or Blanche Ellerslie's ending. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1869. 12mo. [2 (1 blank)], v–viii, 395, [1 (blank)] pp.; 7 plts. (lacks ads).
$38.50
Click the images for enlargements.
By the author of Guy Livingstone and announced as an “Author's Edition” — “This edition is printed from advance sheets by special arrangement with the author,” stated on second leaf. With illustrations.
Library quarter sheep over marbled paper boards, spine with paper shelving label, covers pressure-stamped by a now-defunct library; rubbed/abraded, chipped, joints starting, title-page and several others rubber-stamped. Fly-leaf and title-leaf among a number of others loose and chipped, one chip barely touching one letter of the title; tears, mostly marginal but occasionally into text not taking any; a few creased corners and occasional light spots and stains. Front pastedown with bookbinder's label, back free endpaper with library charge pocket. Lacks four pages of advertisements at end; pp. 87–90 misbound between pp. 154 and 155!
In many respects a “poor soul” of a book; in others, a very good representative of what it is. (8337)

From the Libraries of
Two Organizations That Were
SUPPRESSED a Century Apart
Ledesma, Clemente de. Vida espiritual comun de la Serafica Tercera Orden, que instituyó Serafico, que fundó evangelico y que propagó Apostolico N.P. Angelico, y ilagado Patriarca S. Francisco. Mexico: Por Doña Maria de Benavides, viuda de Juan de Ribera, 1689. 4to (21 cm; 8.25"). [24], 208, [4] ff.
$2950.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Sole edition and sole volume ever published although more were planned. “Third Orders . . . are associations of the laity [both
male and female] whose members, while living a secular life, strive after Christian perfection by observing a a papally approved rule, under the direction and in the spirit of a religious order (New Catholic Encyclopedia, XIV, 93–96). Ledesma's work is a handbook for members of the Mexican Third Order of St. Francis containing a manual of practices, an organizational guide, a compendium of historical documents, a martyrology, and a history of the Third Order of St. Francis.
In the section of estimable lives that are meant to serve as models are capsule biographies of: the ex–black slave Antonio de Calatagirona (who lived in Sicily), Matias de Medina Gamez (of Mexico City), Anachoreta Juan Baptista de Jesus (native of Spain, who lived in Tlaxcala, Mexico), Pedro de San Joseph Vetancur (of Guatemala), and Francisco Pardo (born in Castile and a resident of Puebla).
Ledesma, a native-born Mexican and the Comisario Visitador of Mexico City's “branch” of the Third Order of St. Francis, indicates in the margins, via side- and shouldernotes, the sources of his information, showing he had access to a library containing books from all over Europe, Mexico, and Guatemala.
The volume also has literary and printing history interest: Among the prefatory matter is a sonnet by Bernabe Perez de Turcios, and Maria de Benevides was one of the colonial New World's notable printers, and she produced this with wide margins, some nice typography and initials, and a good woodcut of the Order's emblem.
Provenance: Marca de fuego of the Jesuit Colegio de San Pedro y San Pablo of Mexico City on the upper edges; ownership-stamp of the Universidad Nacional y Pontificia on folio 1.
Searches of NUC Pre-1956 and WorldCat locate only two copies in U.S. libraries, and searches of the Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico and the OPAC of the Spanish National Library find no copies in Spain. We do find a copy at the National Library of Mexico.
Medina, Mexico, 1446; Beristain, II, 153; Palau 134128. Mid-19th-century quarter brown leather with mottled paper sides and elegant foliate tooling to the spine; all edges speckled blue. Waterstain in lower outside corner of the margins of four leaves in the prefatory matter; a small amount of other spotting/foxing intermittently. A rather nice copy of an uncommon and important work. (29631)

Lindley
Murray Must
Have
Rolled
in His Grave
Leigh, Percival. The comic English grammar; a new and facetious introduction to the English tongue. London: Richard Bentley, 1840. 12mo (20.1 cm,
7.9"). Frontis., xii, 228 pp.; illus.
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
First
edition of this witty tour
through the vagaries of British (and occasionally American) English, illustrated
with a large number of droll wood engravings designed by English artist and
caricaturist John Leech. Leech collaborated with Leigh, a popular satirist who
wrote for Punch, on several works including the current work's predecessor,
the Comic Latin Grammar; their joint efforts on this volume make for
a very funny “textbook” indeed.
Binding: Publisher's green
cloth, covers framed in blind; front cover with humorous gilt-stamped vignette
of an author with caricatured, oversized head presenting a volume to Britannia.
Spine with gilt-stamped title and blind-stamped decorated bands.
Provenance:
Front pastedown with private collector's bookplate, front free endpaper with
inked ownership inscription of same person (“M.A. Kent”).
NSTC 2L10602; Houfe, John Leech and the Victorian Scene, pp. 41–42. Binding moderately rubbed overall (including gilt vignette), spine sunned. Ownership marks as above. Occasional light smudging and spotting. (29014)

Inquisitor by Day / Poet by Night
León Marchante, Manuel de. Obras poeticas posthumas que a diversos assumptos escrivio.... Madrid: Por Gabriel del Barrio ... a costa de Fernando Monge, 1733. 4to. Vol. II of III only. [10] ff., pp. 1–128, columns 129–36, pp. 137–384, [4] ff. (lacks pp. 185–86).
$975.00
Click the images for enlargements.
León Marchante (1620?–80) was a late Golden Age poet and dramatist, royal chaplain, chaplain of the Manriques College of the University of Alcala, and commissar of the Inquisition. His poetry is light, often jocular, and yet solidly in the “conceptismo” school.
His surviving unpublished works (some manuscripts were burnt at his death) were gathered in the early 1720s by an admirer — Fernando Monge — who paid to have them published beginning with vol. I in 1722 but with a hiatus before vol. II appeared in 1733. A third volume was promised but precious few copies of it are known. The Spanish National Library writes of vol. III: “El tomo 3o. desconocido de los bibliógrafos, tiene retrato del autor, pero carece de portada, y solo llega á la paga. 184 con interrupcion de las 91 á 94 y 171 á 174.”
Present here is vol. II which contains a full-page woodcut portrait and the author's “poesias sagradas,” including some fine villancicos.
WorldCat locates three U.S. libraries owning only vol. I, one U.S. library owning vols. I and II, and only one claiming ownership of all three. NUC Pre-1956 adds no additional copies.
Palau 135687 (knowing only of vol. I & II). On author, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 503, frames 12–20. Contemporary limp vellum, remnants of ties; text block separating from binding at front, but still attached. Text browned (as usual), some gatherings heavily; dog-earing and some staining. Lacks one text leaf (pp. 185–86).
An imperfect but worthwhile copy of a rarity. (29090)

POEMS
by the Influential
“Monk” of GOTHIC Literature
Lewis, Matthew Gregory (“Monk Lewis”). Tales of wonder...the second edition. London: Pr. by W. Bulmer & Co. for J. Bell, 1801. 8vo (18 cm, 7.1"). [4], 251 (pp. 138–39 numbered 134–35), [1 (adv.)] pp.
$150.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Poems by the influential “Monk” of Gothic literature. Second edition of these poems of the fey and supernatural, some written by Lewis and some reworked by him (sources including Sir Walter Scott, George Colman, and John Leyden); most works are supplied with morals (“. . . vain are now her prayers and cries, / Who cared not for her father's tears, / Who felt not for her father's sighs!” [p. 8]).
This author enjoyed great success among feminine (and young) audiences with his gothic tales of horror and woe, most notably with his one novel, The Monk, a youthful production that earned him his nickname. Shelley was especially fond of Lewis's work, although Byron mocked the author's “gibb'ring spectres” and “infernal brain” in the poem “English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.”
NCBEL, III, 743 (first ed.). Later 19th-century half sheep in imitation of morocco over marbled paper sides, worn and abraded; leather chipping over head of spine, covers pressure-stamped by a now-defunct institution, spine with paper shelving label. Title-page and several others stamped; endpaper and final blank separated but present (former with date slip); many pages, not unexpectedly, show light to moderate spots of foxing, and there is some staining. Last leaf torn across outer corner taking top author's name in ads on verso (it was John Beckmann) and most of three words of the last poem's last verse (“herte should breke”). (5414)
A Moral Tale?
The Life and death of fair Rosamond, concubine to King Henry III. To which is added The Lass o' Gowrie. Stirling [Scotland]: Printed for the Bookseller, [18--]. 12mo. 8 pp.
[SOLD]

Title woodcut vignette of a woman kneeling at an altar. In the
six-page ballad “Fair Rosamond”, Henry II builds a tower with a
hundred and fifty entrances at Woodstock, near Oxford. The tower serves as a
safe house for his mistress, the fair Rosamond. So complex is its architecture
that those who enter must follow a thread to find their way out. When Henry
has to leave to put down a rebellion in France, the jealous Queen Eleanor wounds
the knight who guards the tower, follows the thread to Rosamond's chamber and
murders her by forcing her to drink poison.
This Stirling printing is rare. There is also a Glasgow printing of which
OCLC locates only 6 copies worldwide.
Original self wrappers (unbound, removed). The bottom corner
of the second leaf is lightly chipped and the pages are somewhat darkened.
Good. (17552)

Down with Thor, Victory for Leif & the Cross!
(A Book, then a Movie)
Liljencrantz, Ottilie Adelina. The thrall of Leif the Lucky a story of Viking days. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co., 1902. 8vo. 354, [2] pp.; 6 col. plts.
$65.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
First edition of this swashbuckling Norse yarn, featuring Leif Eriksson's voyage to America (and his insistence on Christianity among his men), a valiant shield-maiden, and a lost race–style encounter of “lean brown men” with “beast-faces” (p. 325). The volume is illustrated with decorative capitals and
six color-printed plates done by Troy and Margaret West Kinney, who also designed the binding (see below).
The 1928 full-color, silent film “The Viking” (MGM, script by Robert Tonsing) was based on Ms. Liljencrantz's novel!
Signed binding: Publisher's khaki cloth, front cover pictorially stamped in black, cream, and gilt; back cover stamped with a device in black; spine stamped in black and gilt. Front cover signed “K”: Troy and Margaret West Kinney.
Binding as above, light wear to extremities. Frontispiece recto with inked ownership inscription. A few scattered faint smudges; almost entirely clean. A nice copy of an attractive production. (28609)
(LISTS). . . .
Click:
The
LIST of LISTS
Not All Humor
“Wears” Real Well . . .
Lochore, Robert. Margaret and the minister, a true tale. Glasgow: Pr. for the booksellers, [1840?]. 12mo. 8 pp.
$95.00

“Where They Live Forever and Aye”
London, Jack. The sea sprite and the shooting star. [Oakland? Cal.]: Privately printed, 1932. 8vo (25.5 cm; 10"). [2] ff.
$250.00
Click the image for enlargement.
Originally conceived as a “child's jingle” and published by the San Francisco Call in 1899, The Sea Sprite and the Shooting Star in all of its very few editions has been an ephemerum. This is the first separately published edition, and only 17 of London's poems achieved such separate publication — the prose output dominating public interest and until recently, scholarship.
Recent research (Wichlan, Complete Poetry of Jack London, 2007) suggests that this was printed at
the
Keesling Press in Campbell, California. The number of copies printed is unknown.
BAL 11989; Woodbridge, p. 275. Printed on heavy, textured card stock and folded lengthwise once to form a booklet. Front cover irregularly age-toned; interior facing pages, displaying whole poem, very fresh and nice. (30148)

Albion Edition with
Fore-Edge City View
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. The poetical works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. London & New York: Frederick Warne & Co., [ca. 1900]. 8vo (19 cm, 7.5"). Frontis., x, 630 pp.
$575.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Deluxe “Albion” edition of Longfellow, with notes,
this copy graced with a
fore-edge
painting. Rendered in muted colors, this is a universal (or at
least, not specifically identifiable by us!) European cityscape, incorporating
a hill, an obelisk, two cathedrals, and a number of other buildings; two spectators
gaze at the view from a bridge to the far right. (One theory is that appropriately
for this edition it's a view of London, the hill being Tower Hill and the obelisk
being Cleopatra's needle, but, — ???)
Binding: Carefully and beautifully treed calf, covers framed in gilt roll, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label, board edges with gilt roll, turn-ins with wide floral and narrow wave gilt rolls. All edges gilt; marbled paper endpapers.
Provenance: Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of John Train; front fly-leaf with inked gift inscription to Dorothea Mary French from F.D., dated 1908.
Binding as above, lightly rubbed; joints tender with front one just starting at head. Occasional faint foxing; some lines of print offset. A lovely, quintessentially late-19th century production. (30136)
“You
Must Do It
Yourself, You Must
Not Leave It
to Others!”
The
Classic Pilgrim Love
Triangle
Longfellow,
Henry Wadsworth. The courtship of Miles Standish. Chicago:
M.A. Donohue & Co., [ca. 1910–20?]. 8vo. [2], 152, [86] pp.; 12 plts.
$85.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Attractive illustrated edition of this enduringly popular poem, followed by assorted shorter Longfellow pieces. In addition to the frontispiece reproduction of a painting of the pilgrims landing at Plymouth and the 11 plates illustrating the title piece, the pages are also decorated with liberally sprinkled in-text wood and steel engravings done by a variety of hands.
Binding: Publisher's tan
cloth, front cover and spine elegantly stamped in gilt, cream, and black,
front cover with central medallion bearing ship (surely the Mayflower)
vignette.
BAL 12122 (for first U.S. ed.). Binding as above,
traces of minimal rubbing. Pages extremely clean.
A
beautiful, very giftable copy. (29032)

A Book Collector/Mixologist/Designer's Copy
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. The sonnets of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Arranged with an introduction by Ferris Greenslet. Boston & New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1907. 8vo. xviii, 82, [2] pp.
$40.00
Click the images for enlargement.
First edition of this attractive production
designed by Bruce Rogers with wide margins and uncut page edges. This is numbered copy 34 of 275 printed at the Riverside Press, with an additional spine label tipped in at the back.
Provenance: Front pastedown with simple, nicely lettered bookplate of Broadway producer, printer, publisher, author of a famous mixological work, and collector Crosby Gaige (born Roscoe Conkling Gaige).
BAL12788. Publisher's blue-gray paper–covered sides; spine with (chipped) printed paper label darkened and rubbed at tips, small areas of insect damage to front joint (showing more extensively inside at front hinge), and paper across back hinge (inside) partially cracked. Pastedown with bookplate as above. Uncut pages very faintly age-toned, otherwise clean. The extra spine label tipped to rear free endpaper. (29723)
ILLUSTRATED
ALMANAC
Low, Nathanael. Low's almanack, and astronomical and agricultural register; for the year of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 1819. Boston: Munroe & Francis, [1818]. 12mo. [36] pp.; illus.
$85.00
Click
the images for enlargement.
Low (1740–1808) was a New England physician and astronomer
who founded his popular almanac in 1762; it survived him by 19 years, ending
its run in 1827. The present 1819 edition, which includes an agricultural calendar,
features a total of 16 woodcut illustrations — 12 in the astronomical
portion (several of which are signed “B”), along with the title-page
astrological vignette, a cut of a rural cottage, an image of the common water-plantain
for reference in an article on that plant's use to cure rabies, and a woodcut
of a floating balloon bedecked with waving American flags accompanying the poem
“Balloon
Voyage across the Irish Channel” supposedly by “Windham
Sadler, jun.” — a near-reference to the aeronaut who in 1812 attempted
a cross of the Irish Channel.
Provenance: Inscription
of “Henry M. Pierce / Jersey City / NJ.”
Shaw & Shoemaker 44628; Drake, Almanacs, 3826.
Recent limp navy cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and date; extremities
very slightly rubbed, otherwise very clean and fresh. Front free endpaper
with inked ownership inscription as above. Pages age-toned with a few scattered
spots; some pages trimmed closely, with headers occasionally touched but not
taken. Nice! (29641)
Sacred
Hebrew Poetry
Lowth, Robert. De sacra poesi hebraeorum. Oxonii: E
typographeo Clarendoniano, 1775. 8vo (22.5 cm; 8.875"). [4] ff., 515, [1 (blank)] pp., [6] ff.
$360.00
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“Editio tertia, emendatior,” the first having appeared
in 1753 and the second in 1763; collected lectures by the Bishop of London on
Hebrew poetry, delivered at Oxford. The volume is printed in Latin, Greek, and
Hebrew; it was later translated into English and published as Lectures on
the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews. Hannah More praised the work highly in
a letter to Frances Boscawen, and said that it “taught me to consider
the Divine Book it illustrates under many new and striking points of view.”
ESTC T113648. Recent quarter calf, old style; raised
bands, gilt ruling above and below the bands as accents, gilt center devices
in spine compartments. Deep red spine labels lettered in gilt; marbled paper
sides, with dark wedge of soil crossing bottom 3/4-inch of front cover’s
paper and line of same soil also to turn-ins of back cover. Faint off-setting
to top and bottom margins of early leaves from old binding; medium-light waterstains
in margins of index (i.e., last 6 leaves), and the odd spot or bit of soil
elsewhere. Generally, a very nice clean book. (25318)
Lucanus, Marcus Annaeus [Lucan]. Lvcans Pharsalia: Or the civill warres of Rome, betweene Pompey the great, and Ivlivs Cæsar. The whole tenne bookes, Englished by Thomas May...the second edition, corrected, and the annotations inlarged by the author. London: Thomas Iones (pr. by Aug. Mathews), 1631. 8vo (14.5 cm, 5.75"). π1a8A–S8T2; engr. frontis., [146] ff. [with] May, Thomas. A continvation of the subiect of Lucan’s historicall poem till the death of Ivlivs Cæser the 2d edition corrected and amended. London: James Boler, 1633. 8vo. A–K8(-K8); [79 of 80] ff.
$2000.00
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Second edition of May’s esteemed English verse translation, following Thomas Jones’s first printing of 1627. Lucan (A.D. 39–65), born in Cordoba, Spain, and raised in Rome, was the grandson of the elder Seneca, nephew of the younger Seneca, and the brother of the Gallio mentioned in Acts 18; he published the Pharsalia in A.D. 62 or 63, but it seems likely that his poetic talent aroused the jealously of the vain Nero, as he forbade him to write or even plead in the courts, and then later compelled him to commit suicide for alleged treason.
The editio princeps of the Pharsalia was printed in Rome by Sweynheym and Pannartz in 1469; Christopher Marlowe published the first English translation of any part of the Pharsalia, his rendition of the first book, in 1600, with a 1614 effort by Sir Arthur Gorges being the only other such to precede May’s standard-setting 1626 English version of books one through three.
In the present volume, this great epic poem in May’s translation is accompanied by its translator’s English rendition of his own sequel, originally written in Latin verse. This Continuation advances the action through Cleopatra’s seduction of Caesar (May depicts the Egyptian queen with “snowie necke” and “golden tresses”), the death of Cato, and various additional battles before arriving at Caesar’s death. At the time, May’s work was thought highly enough of that Charles I allowed the Continuation’s dedication to bear his name.
Pharsalia: STC 16888; Schweiger, II, 567; ESTC S108868. Continuation: STC 17712; ESTC S108892. 20th-century black morocco in imitation of early, severe style, with raised bands from which blind-tooling extends onto covers; spine with gilt-stamped title and date, and turn-ins elaborately tooled in blind. Moderately worn, spine faded not unattractively, and leather rubbed over joints. Front pastedown with bookplate, inked date of 1986; front free endpaper with inked gift inscription dated 1944. T1-2 trimmed differently and possibly surviving from another copy; A3 of the continuation also possibly supplied. Occasional instances of very minor staining; mostly clean.
Pleasant on shelf and in hand. (7101)
Lucanus, Marcus. Lucan’s Pharsalia: Or the civill warres of Rome, betweene Pompey the great, and Iulius Caesar. London: Pr. by A.M. for Will. Sheares, 1635. 8vo (14.7 cm, 5.8"). π1a8A–S8T2; [310] pp. [with] May, Thomas. A continuation of the subiect of Lucan’s historicall poem till the death of Iulius Caeser. London: James Boler, 1633. 8vo. 2A–2K8; [160] pp.
$1650.00
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THIRD edition, following the first of 1627, of Thomas May’s English translation of Lucan’s epic poem . . .
ESTC S108867; STC (2nd ed.) 16889. Continuation: ESTC S108892; STC (2nd ed.) 17712. Both: Lowndes, III, 1408. Period-style calf by Grace (signed “GB” on lower back turn-in), framed and panelled in gilt rolls, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. Outer and lower edges of the engraved title-page of second work shaved, touching design. Light waterstaining to upper portions of approx. 25 ff. of Continuation; small area of worming to lower inner margins of a few leaves, touching the occasional catchword but not main text.
Lucanus, Marcus Annaeus. Pharsalia, cum commentario Petri Burmanni. Leidae: Apud Conradum Wishoff, Danielem Goetval, & Georg. Jacob. Wishoff, 1740. 4to (25 cm, 9.75"). [52], 735, [1 (blank)], [160 (index)] pp.
$500.00
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First edition of Pieter Burman’s edition of the Pharsalia, Lucan’s account of the Roman Civil War — the greatest epic poem in Latin after the Aeneid. The engraved title-page vignette was done by J. Van der Spyk after a design by J. de Groot.
Binding / Provenance: Contemporary calf, framed in gilt triple fillets and panelled in gilt quadruple fillets with gilt-stamped corner fleurons and gilt-stamped central coat of arms of the Wilder family, with the motto “Virtuti moenia cedant.”
Schweiger, II, 565; Dibdin, II, 186–87. Binding as above, rebacked making use of most of the original spine, spine with gilt-stamped compartments and gilt-stamped leather title-label; edges worn and rubbed, portions of original spine leather cracked and chipped. Front pastedown with small abraded area; front fly-leaf with inked inscriptions dated 1834 and 1938. Some leaves with faint waterstaining in upper margins and lower outer corners.
Attractive.

Parasites in Apotheosis
Lucianus, Samosatensis. [three lines in Greek characters transliterated as] Loukianou Peri Parasitou, etoi hoti techne he parasitike, [then in roman characters] Luciani parasitus, ubi artem ese parasiticam astruit. Parisiis: Ex officina Christiani Wecheli, 1536. Small 8vo. [20] ff.
$875.00
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Whether Lucian is truly the author of this work (The Parasite) is still open to some contention. In it he, or the real author, weighs in on the age-old question of whether philosophy or rhetoric is the higher art form and instead proves both ironically and satirically that parasitism is the highest of all art forms.Text entirely in elegant Greek and with but one woodcut initial. The printer's device of a Pegasus is on the title-page.
Rare: We find no copy in WorldCat or COPAC. Moreau locates one copy in the Anglo world, at the Morgan Library.
Moreau, V, 228. Full dark modern calf old style, absolutely plain without labels; spine with raised bands accented with blind rules extending onto covers to terminate in trefoils, and simple blind double fillets to covers. One old numeral inked to title-page; text unmarked with paper clean and even bright, throughout. (25728)

Poetics
PANNING
the Spanish “Greats”
Luzán Claramunt de Suelves y Gurrea, Ignacio de. La poetica, ó, reglas de la poesia en general, y de sus principales especies. Zaragoza: Por Don Francisco Revilla, 1737. Folio (29 cm; 11.5"). [14] ff., 503, [1 (blank)] pp.
$2000.00
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Probably the most influential 18th-century Spanish study of poetics in general and Spanish poetics in particular. Luzán Claramunt was Spain's principal exponent of the Franco-Italian theories of poetics and though he failed miserably as a constructive critic, he practiced destructive criticism very effectively on the works even of Lope de Vega and Calderon!
Nicely printed with elegant large head- and tailpieces (one each), handsome initials, and a perfectly charming vignette of a bird after the volume's “FIN.”
Palau 144343. Contemporary limp vellum, lacking the ties; fore- and top edges of vellum rodent gnawed, top corner of all leaves slightly rodent gnawed, some staining to early fore-edges and a few others. Text almost throughout browned from iron in water used in paper manufacture, sometimes heavily enough to make this a good example of the extreme of the phenomenon, sometimes lightly enough to be called just “foxing and spotting”; paper absolutely unweakened and volume fine for use. (28390)
The Devil Asmodeus
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron. Asmodeus at large. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1833. 12mo. [4 (adv.)], iv, [13]-227, [25 (adv.)] pp.
$235.00
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the image for an enlargement.
Our protagonist meets the devil Asmodeus, and experiences both the pleasures and pains of various worlds. Often categorized as early science fiction/fantasy, this piece is here in its first stand-alone book printing after its original serialized appearance in the "New Monthly Magazine."
Plain quarter cloth and paper-covered sides, worn and water-stained, corners bumped. Front free endpaper with pencilled inscription. Page edges untrimmed; pages with foxing ranging from mild to severe. This copy with the full complement of advertising pages. (5813)
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