The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand - 1943

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Very Good+ with no dust jacket. 1932. First Printing. Hard Cover. First Edition, First Printing ("A" and colophon on copyright page). Publisher's full black cloth, gilt lettering and decoration on spine, Hemingway's facsimile signature in gilt on front cover. Illustrated with tissue-protected color frontispiece of "The Bullfighter" by Juan Gris and numerous (81) B&W photographs. Includes "An Explanatory Glossary," "Some Reactions of a Few Individuals to the Integral Spanish Bullfight," "A Short Estimate of the American, Sidney Franklin, as a Matador;" "Date on Which Bullfights will Ordinarily be held in Spain, France, Mexico, and Central and South America;" and a "Bibliographical Note." . Gilt on spine mildly faded, head and heel of spine show very light wear, minor spotting on rear cover, small bookshop label on ffep, otherwise unmarked, tight, square and clean. VERY… Read More

Eyre & Spottiswoode, London, 1951. Book. Very Good. Hardcover. 1st Edition. The first UK edition (first printing) of the author's first book. 8vo. 499pp. Beige cloth lettered in red at the spine. Backstrip and upper edges of the boards lightly spotted. Endpapers partially browned and with some additional light spotting which also impacts several preliminary and (blank) concluding leaves. A very good copy in very good non-price-clipped pictorial dust wrapper designed by Stein, with just a touch of spotting and tanning, several tiny closed tears and several slivers of loss from the spine panel ends. First published by Harcourt Brace in the US in March 1950, this distinctly more uncommon UK edition followed a year later. The novel was not a success: it was trashed by a number of reviewers, Kerouac's royalties did not exceed his advance of $1,000 and it was six years before the publication of his next novel, 'On the Road'..

A Fine tight copy in a Fine bright unclipped dust jacket. Inscribed "To Chuck, Alan Shepard" on titlepage. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, and the space race was born. Desperate to beat the Russians into space, NASA put together a crew of the nation's most daring test pilots: the seven men who were to lead America to the moon. The first into space was Alan Shepard; the last was Deke Slayton, whose irregular heartbeat kept him grounded until 1975. They spent the 1960s at the forefront of NASA's effort to conquer space, and Moon Shot is their inside account of what many call the twentieth century's greatest feat—landing humans on another world. Collaborating with NBC's veteran space reporter Jay Barbree, Shepard and Slayton narrate in gripping detail the story of America's space exploration from the time of Shepard's first flight until he and eleven others had walked on the moon.

10 x12.5cm. 28pp. Pictorial wrappers. One of a series of 6 tales written and illustrated by Edward Bawden for his children in 1944. It was redrawn on lithographic plates (by Sheila Robinson) for George Rainbird and Ruari McLean in 1952 in an edition of 350 copies of which 100 were for the personal use of the Bawdens. This is one of the latter copies Signed to the upper front cover by Edward Bawden: ' Best wishes from C & E.B. 1952'. The Book is in near Fine condition with just mild creasing to the upper corner of the last few pages. Wonderful colour illustrations throughout. Housed within an inset shelf within a striking custom solander box. A very scarce copy with such attributes. More images available on request. Ashton Rare Books welcomes direct contact.

New York: Horace Liveright, Inc., 1931. Hardcover in slipcase. Good/No Jacket, as issued. SIGNED Presentation Copy in Slipcase, #524 of the special limited edition (501-550 were for presentation). Signed by O'Neill in black ink. Though not indicated, this volume is from the library of T. R. Smith, chief editor and adviser at Liveright throughout its heyday in the 1920s and responsible for publishing some of O'Neill's works (including an early volume of one-act plays and Strange Interlude in 1928). Trilogy of plays containing Homecoming, The Hunted, and The Haunted. Includes Working Notes and Extracts from a fragmentary work diary, facsimile pages inserted in rear pocket. Stained & spotted white vellum with beveled edges, gilt-stamping and black spine label. Scarce slipcase in fair condition with fragile & cracked edges and old tape repairs. Binding solid and untrimmed/uncut, but covers are rather spotted & darkened. O'Neill was a Puitzer and Nobel Prize winning American playwright, considered one of… Read More

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Very Good+ with no dust jacket. 1932. First Printing. Hard Cover. First Edition, First Printing ("A" and colophon on copyright page). Publisher's full black cloth, gilt lettering and decoration on spine, Hemingway's facsimile signature in gilt on front cover. Illustrated with tissue-protected color frontispiece of "The Bullfighter" by Juan Gris and numerous (81) B&W photographs. Includes "An Explanatory Glossary," "Some Reactions of a Few Individuals to the Integral Spanish Bullfight," "A Short Estimate of the American, Sidney Franklin, as a Matador;" "Date on Which Bullfights will Ordinarily be held in Spain, France, Mexico, and Central and South America;" and a "Bibliographical Note." . Gilt on spine mildly faded, head and heel of spine show very light wear, minor spotting on rear cover, small bookshop label on ffep, otherwise unmarked, tight, square and clean. VERY… Read More

Eyre & Spottiswoode, London, 1951. Book. Very Good. Hardcover. 1st Edition. The first UK edition (first printing) of the author's first book. 8vo. 499pp. Beige cloth lettered in red at the spine. Backstrip and upper edges of the boards lightly spotted. Endpapers partially browned and with some additional light spotting which also impacts several preliminary and (blank) concluding leaves. A very good copy in very good non-price-clipped pictorial dust wrapper designed by Stein, with just a touch of spotting and tanning, several tiny closed tears and several slivers of loss from the spine panel ends. First published by Harcourt Brace in the US in March 1950, this distinctly more uncommon UK edition followed a year later. The novel was not a success: it was trashed by a number of reviewers, Kerouac's royalties did not exceed his advance of $1,000 and it was six years before the publication of his next novel, 'On the Road'..

A Fine tight copy in a Fine bright unclipped dust jacket. Inscribed "To Chuck, Alan Shepard" on titlepage. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, and the space race was born. Desperate to beat the Russians into space, NASA put together a crew of the nation's most daring test pilots: the seven men who were to lead America to the moon. The first into space was Alan Shepard; the last was Deke Slayton, whose irregular heartbeat kept him grounded until 1975. They spent the 1960s at the forefront of NASA's effort to conquer space, and Moon Shot is their inside account of what many call the twentieth century's greatest feat—landing humans on another world. Collaborating with NBC's veteran space reporter Jay Barbree, Shepard and Slayton narrate in gripping detail the story of America's space exploration from the time of Shepard's first flight until he and eleven others had walked on the moon.

10 x12.5cm. 28pp. Pictorial wrappers. One of a series of 6 tales written and illustrated by Edward Bawden for his children in 1944. It was redrawn on lithographic plates (by Sheila Robinson) for George Rainbird and Ruari McLean in 1952 in an edition of 350 copies of which 100 were for the personal use of the Bawdens. This is one of the latter copies Signed to the upper front cover by Edward Bawden: ' Best wishes from C & E.B. 1952'. The Book is in near Fine condition with just mild creasing to the upper corner of the last few pages. Wonderful colour illustrations throughout. Housed within an inset shelf within a striking custom solander box. A very scarce copy with such attributes. More images available on request. Ashton Rare Books welcomes direct contact.

New York: Horace Liveright, Inc., 1931. Hardcover in slipcase. Good/No Jacket, as issued. SIGNED Presentation Copy in Slipcase, #524 of the special limited edition (501-550 were for presentation). Signed by O'Neill in black ink. Though not indicated, this volume is from the library of T. R. Smith, chief editor and adviser at Liveright throughout its heyday in the 1920s and responsible for publishing some of O'Neill's works (including an early volume of one-act plays and Strange Interlude in 1928). Trilogy of plays containing Homecoming, The Hunted, and The Haunted. Includes Working Notes and Extracts from a fragmentary work diary, facsimile pages inserted in rear pocket. Stained & spotted white vellum with beveled edges, gilt-stamping and black spine label. Scarce slipcase in fair condition with fragile & cracked edges and old tape repairs. Binding solid and untrimmed/uncut, but covers are rather spotted & darkened. O'Neill was a Puitzer and Nobel Prize winning American playwright, considered one of… Read More