Search Results: Morris First Editions from MRM Books

New York: R. H. Russell, 1902. First Edition. hardcover. Good+. 8 3/4" × 7" (22.2 × 17.8 cm) . Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones. First Printing. Illustrated by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones. 8vo. Bound in publisher's original hardcover full ivory buckram, gilt titling and decoration. Uncut, deckled edges. Gilt top edge. xvi, [2], 82 pp. 12 full page b/w plates by Burne-Jones, several smaller b/w illustrations tipped in, ornamental capitals. A retelling in verse of the lives of Acrisius, Danaë, and Perseus. Acrisius, king of Argos, being warned by an oracle that the son of his daughter Danaë should slay him, shut her up in a brazen tower built for that end beside the sea: there, though no man could come nigh her, she nevertheless bore a son to Jove, and she and her new-born son, set adrift on the sea, came to the island of Seriphos. Thence her son, grown to manhood, set out to win the Gorgon's Head, and accomplished that end by the help of Minerva; and afterwards rescued Andromeda, daughter of… Read More

Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1890. First Trade Edition/Author's Edition. hardcover. Good+. . Walter Crane. First Printing. Illustrated by Walter Crane. Printed by University Press, John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. Small 8vo. Bound in publisher's original hardcover crimson buckram with gilt lettering and gilt stamping to front board, illustrated by Walter Crane, title to cover in white, spine panel stamped in gold, white endpapers with floral pattern printed in yellow-green. [i–v] vi [7] 8–278 [279–280: ads] [1] pp; 2–8: reviews of Morris's The House of the Wolfings. A cornerstone of science fiction and utopian literature. This is a stated, "author's edition;" but it was actually an unauthorized printing taken from its original 1890 printing in COMMONWEAL. Reeves & Turner published the first true authorized trade edition in 1891, with additional content. Morris's Kelmscott Press printed is edition in 1892/3, "... NEWS FROM NOWHERE is not, as has so often been said, a turning back to an earlier… Read More

Irish University Press: T.M. MacGlinchey, 1969. First Edition. hardcover. Near Fine. 8 1/4" × 5 7/8" (21 × 14.9 cm) . Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones. First Thus. Illustrated by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones. Printed by Robert Hogg. 8vo. Bound in publisher's original hardcover quarter light green paper boards, with white linen spine and black titles to cover. Colophon and printer's device. [iv] + 70 + [1, colophon] + [1, blank] pp. A reproduction of the Kelmscott edition of 1898, this edition was "Reprinted MCMLXIX by photolithography in the Republic of Ireland at the Irish University Press. T M Mac Glinchey Publisher Robert Hogg Printer." printed in black and red in the Golden type designed by Morris for his press, with 5 pages in the Troy and Chaucer types he designed. Head-title and shoulder-notes in red.The frontispiece, "Psyche Borne off by Zephyrus," designed by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, was engraved by William Morris for a projected edition of The Earthly Paradise in the 1860s and was… Read More

Chicago: Blue Sky Press, 1904. Second Edition. hardcover. Good+. 5 1/2" × 8 1/2" × 3/8" (14 × 21.6 × 1 cm) . First Thus. Small 8vo. Bound in publisher's original hardcover olive green paper boards, with dark green linen spine. Title in gilt on upper board, with a border of intertwined oak leaves in black, anticipating of the style of decorative boarders designed by Morris for his Kelmscott Press. . One of 500, this being #50, (plus 25 on Japan vellum) copies. Printed on fine, heavy, watermarked paper, with yapped edges. Uncut, deckled edges. Colophon. [ii, endpaper], [viii, blank], [i, half-title], [ii, blank], [i, fronticsiece], [i, title page], [iii, blank], [1–21],[i, colophon], [iv, blank] [ii endpaper] pp. French-fold pages (unopened and intentionally blank on the back sides) and printed in red and black from hand-lettered plates. Thomas Wood Stevens designed the book and the lettering was executed under his direction. Dark green cloth spine with dark gray-green printed paper boards.… Read More

New York: Longmans, Green & Co, 1898. First American Edition. hardcover. Ex-Library. 7 7/8" × 5 1/2" (20 × 14 cm) . First Printing. Printed by John Wilson and Son at the University Press in Cambridge U.S.A. 8vo. Bound in library hardcover red cloth with gilt title to spine. Printed on fine, watermarked paper. [vii], [i] (map), 373, [i], [i] (advert) pp. "During the final eight years of his life... Morris wrote ten novels of enduring artistic and thematic strength which have strongly influenced fantasy fiction in the twentieth century, especially the work[s] of [later, fellow Oxford writers] C.S. Lewis [THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA] and J.R.R. Tolkien [THE HOBBIT and THE LORD OF THE RINGS]. In these books, Morris established the fantasy novel in English and helped to define the genre by combining characteristics of heroic, romantic, and comic literature... THE SUNDERING FLOOD is Morris's last great work. The final pages were dictated from his deathbed [to Sir Sydney Carlyle Cockerell, on September 8,… Read More

London: Longmans, Green & Co, 1896. First Trade Edition. hardcover. Good. 9 1/4" × 5 1/4" (23.5 × 13.3 cm) . First Printing. Printed by Chiswick Press. Tall 8vos. Bound in publisher's original hardcover quarter Holland-backed blue paper boards, with white linen spine and paper title label. One of 750 copies. Printed on fine, hand-made, Charles Whittingham & Co., watermarked "B A S" paper. Uncut, deckled edges. Pages uncut. [i–iv] v–vii [viii], 1–378 [379: printer's imprint] [380: blank]; & [i–iv] v–vi, [1–2] 3–279 p.p. [280: printer's imprint], double flyleaves at front and rear of each volume. Printed in 1893 but delayed by the Kelmscott Press edition issued the same year (which edition was being set up from this edition). Unlike other authors who wrote of foreign lands or of dream worlds, Morris was the first to describe completely invented or fantasy worlds.H.G. Wells praised the book and compared Morris to Malory, admiring his style, writing: "All the workmanship of the book… Read More

London: Longmans, Green & Co, 1896. First Trade Edition. hardcover. Good+. 9 1/4" × 5 1/4" (23.5 × 13.3 cm) . First Printing. Printed by Chiswick Press. Tall 8vos. Bound in publisher's original hardcover quarter Holland-backed blue paper boards, with white linen spine and paper title label. One of 750 copies. Printed on fine, hand-made, Charles Whittingham & Co., watermarked "B A S" paper. Uncut, deckled edges. Pages uncut. [i–iv] v–vii [viii], 1–378 [379: printer's imprint] [380: blank]; double flyleaves at front and rear of volume. Printed in 1893 but delayed by the Kelmscott Press edition issued the same year (which edition was being set up from this edition). Unlike other authors who wrote of foreign lands or of dream worlds, Morris was the first to describe completely invented or fantasy worlds.H.G. Wells praised the book and compared Morris to Malory, admiring his style, writing: "All the workmanship of the book is stout oaken stuff, that must needs endure and preserve the memory… Read More

London: Longmans, Green & Co, 1896. First Trade Edition. hardcover. Good+. 9 1/4" × 5 1/4" (23.5 × 13.3 cm) . First Printing. Printed by Chiswick Press. Tall 8vos. Bound in publisher's original hardcover quarter Holland-backed blue paper boards, with white linen spine and paper title label. One of 750 copies. Printed on fine, hand-made, Charles Whittingham & Co., watermarked "B A S" paper. Uncut, deckled edges. Pages uncut. [i–iv] v–vii [viii], 1–378 [379: printer's imprint] [380: blank]; & [i–iv] v–vi, [1–2] 3–279 p.p. [280: printer's imprint], double flyleaves at front and rear of each volume. Printed in 1893 but delayed by the Kelmscott Press edition issued the same year (which edition was being set up from this edition). Unlike other authors who wrote of foreign lands or of dream worlds, Morris was the first to describe completely invented or fantasy worlds.H.G. Wells praised the book and compared Morris to Malory, admiring his style, writing: "All the workmanship of the book… Read More

Boston: Roberts House, 1895. First American Edition. hardcover. Good. 8 1/2" × 6 1/4" (21.6 × 15.9 cm) . Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones. First Printing. Illustrated by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones. Printed by the University Press at Cambridge, USA. Large 8vo. Bound in publisher's original hardcover green cloth with black floral design and gilt-stamped decorations and title to cover and spine (bearing a sword reminiscent to the gilt sword used for the "Bayntun binding," on the Roberts Brothers 1890 printing of Morris's "The Tale of the House of the Wolfings"). One of 500 copies. Printed on fine, heavy paper. Uncut, deckled edges. Colophon and printer's device. Gilt top edge. [ii], 273, [ii] pp. Frontispiece by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (tissue guard intact), which first appeared in the Kelmscott Press edition of the previous year.Finished the 11th day of May, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five. Cloth at the top of the spine beginning to split. Stain to the top of the rear board. Rear… Read More

Boston: Roberts House, 1895. First American Edition. hardcover. Good+. 8 1/2" × 6 1/4" (21.6 × 15.9 cm) . Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones. First Printing. Illustrated by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones. Printed by the University Press at Cambridge, USA. Large 8vo. Bound in publisher's original hardcover green cloth with black floral design and gilt-stamped decorations and title to cover and spine (bearing a sword reminiscent to the gilt sword used for the "Bayntun binding," on the Roberts Brothers 1890 printing of Morris's "The Tale of the House of the Wolfings"). One of 500 copies. Printed on fine, heavy paper. Uncut, deckled edges. Colophon and printer's device. Gilt top edge. [ii], 273, [ii] pp. Frontispiece by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (tissue guard intact), which first appeared in the Kelmscott Press edition of the previous year.Finished the 11th day of May, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five. Endpaper signed by the previous owner, Frederick Gookin. Internally bright and clean. Free… Read More