The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne, Nathaniel - 1850

London: Arthur Barker Ltd, 1935. First British Edition. Very Good+/Good. First British edition. Signed by author on front free endpaper, inscribed to former owner and dated August 1944. [vi], 233 pp. Original buckram cloth lettered in red. Very Good+ with light stain to fore edge, slight curving to boards, in Good dust jacket with some light dampstaining, spine panel darkened, chipped along edges. An existential examination of America via the marathon dance craze of the Great Depression, which inspired a 1969 film directed by Sydney Pollack.

New York: William Morrow and Company, 1968. First Edition. Near Fine/Near Fine. First edition, first printing. Signed by author as Richard Hooker on the title page with quote marks around his name; Richard Hooker is the pseudonym of Dr. Hiester Richard Hornberger Jr. Near Fine, with light edge wear, toning to spine ends, small evidence of tape removal to recto of half-title page, hinge at title page over-opened. In a Near Fine unclipped dust jacket, with light shelf wear and toning. A laid-in note in a former owner's hand reads, "Dr. Hornberger autographed this book as "Richard Hooker" while still employed as a doctor at Thayer Hospital in Waterville, Maine." Signed copies are scarce.

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1935. First Edition. Fine/Near Fine. First edition, first printing. Bound in publisher's beige cloth stamped in dark blue. Fine, in a Near Fine unclipped dust jacket with light edge wear and toning to blank verso. A stunning copy. One would be hard-pressed to find a nicer example of this notoriously fragile dust jacket.

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1943. First Edition. Very Good/Very Good. First edition stated, first printing. Bound in publisher's green cloth with title label to spine. Very Good+ with fading to spine, light softening to spine ends, pages toned. In a Very Good first issue dust jacket with a blank verso and publisher's original price of $2.75 intact; Rubbing and wear mainly at extremities, light chipping at spine ends. A nice example of the wartime production.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1930. First American Edition. Very Good/Very Good. First American edition, first printing. Bound in publisher's light grey cloth stamped in black. Very Good with light toning to spine and top edges, light foxing. Pages toned and lightly musty. In a Very Good price-clipped dust jacket with light edge wear, toned at the spine and top edge. A lovely copy.

London: Putnam, 1931. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. First British edition, first printing. (Apparently published simultaneously with the American edition.) 705, (2) p. Very Good+ in Good dust jacket. Foxing to fore edge, corners lightly bumped. Small tear in cloth at head. Dust jacket flap price intact, chips missing at extremities, especially at head. Closed tear through back panel that has been mended with archival, ph-neutral mending tissue on verso. Includes gray publisher's promotional card. British writer and playwright Lionel Britton's only novel, a long out-of-print classic of experimental Depression-era proletarian literature narrated in the second person. It was hailed by George Orwell and Bertrand Russell among other critics. Quite uncommon in its dust jacket.

New York: William Morrow and Company, 1968. First Edition. Near Fine/Near Fine. First edition, first printing. Signed by author as Richard Hooker on the title page with quote marks around his name; Richard Hooker is the pseudonym of Dr. Hiester Richard Hornberger Jr. Near Fine, with light edge wear, toning to spine ends, small evidence of tape removal to recto of half-title page, hinge at title page over-opened. In a Near Fine unclipped dust jacket, with light shelf wear and toning. A laid-in note in a former owner's hand reads, "Dr. Hornberger autographed this book as "Richard Hooker" while still employed as a doctor at Thayer Hospital in Waterville, Maine." Signed copies are scarce.

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1935. First Edition. Fine/Near Fine. First edition, first printing. Bound in publisher's beige cloth stamped in dark blue. Fine, in a Near Fine unclipped dust jacket with light edge wear and toning to blank verso. A stunning copy. One would be hard-pressed to find a nicer example of this notoriously fragile dust jacket.

New York: The Lakeside Press, 1930. First Edition Thus. Near Fine/Very Good. First edition thus, limited to 1,000 copies. Three volumes in publisher's acetate jackets, in aluminum slipcase. Presentation copy signed by Rockwell Kent on the front free end paper of Volume I, "Inscribed with affectionate friendship to Putzie - Rockwell Kent, 1950." Volumes II and III bear Rockwell Kent-illustrated bookplates of Marie Luise Hinrichs. Near Fine. Narrow strips of sunning to spine cloth at ends, light rubbing to cloth at extremities and light abrasions to black topstains. Pages toned and with offsetting from illustrations. Acetate wrappers are wrinkled and shrunken with age, as is typical, and show a bit of chipping and edge wear, with some separation starting between the acetate and a paper flap on both volumes II and III; acetate on volume II with light staining. Aluminum slipcase is lightly worn, bumped at top and bottom edge. A stunning presentation copy, inscribed by Kent, and with bookplates designed… Read More

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1930. First American Edition. Very Good/Very Good. First American edition, first printing. Bound in publisher's light grey cloth stamped in black. Very Good with light toning to spine and top edges, light foxing. Pages toned and lightly musty. In a Very Good price-clipped dust jacket with light edge wear, toned at the spine and top edge. A lovely copy.