Books About Books from Riverrun Books & Manuscripts

Vatican City: The Apostolic Vatican Library, 1947. Spine separated, other light wear to binding; internally fine. 4to (28 x 21 cm). LIV, 183, [4] pages. 6 plates including frontispiece and 8 illustrations in text. Original brown half morocco. First edition, inscribed by Dom Anselmo M. Albareda, prefect of the Vatican Library, and Fray Sylvester Brielmaier, librarian of Collegio… Read more

Cork: Printed by and for the Author, 1835. From the Bart Auerbach Collection. 8vo. vii, 76 pages. 5 engraved plates. 19th-century red quarter roan, marbled boards (front cover detached, a bit closely trimmed at bottom but without loss). First edition. WITH: A copy of the expanded second edition. London: Printed for the Author, 1837. 8vo. 200 pages, sectional title… Read more

New York: Bangs, Merwin & Co, 1869. From the Bart Auerbach Collection. 8vo. 521 pages. Contemporary black half roan, pebbled black cloth boards, edges untrimmed. Label presenting the copy to The Philomathic Club by F. S. Crawford, Concord (with the Club's name gilt-lettered on spine). 6742 lots. "... buyers were unenthusiastic when the Greene library itself was brough to… Read more

New York: Bangs & Co, 1880. From the Bart Auerbach Collection. Lacks rear wrapper, spine chipped with some associated loss to front wrapper. 8vo. 50 pages. Original printed wrappers; in a cloth folding chemise. A priced copy. "There is in this catalogue, fifty titles which are rare, and fifty more which are scarce. Be kind enough to help… Read more

Philadelphia: s.n., 1878. From the Bart Auerbach Collection. Scuffed. 8vo. 89 pages. Interleaved with blank sheets. Contemporary brown half morocco, marbled boards, top edges gilt. First edition. Signed and dated by the co-executor and co-compiler Gregory B. Keen on a front flyleaf. With a printed slip tipped in before the title-page offering the collection en bloc for $3,000.… Read more

Chicago: The Black Archer Press, 1936. From the Bart Auerbach Collection. Spine area faded, else fine. 12mo. Original pink wrappers with portrait of Saroyan in pink and black on front. First edition, one of 50 copies issued, boldly signed in blue ink by Saroyan on front cover. One of his rarest items: an essay on book collectors. (BA).… Read more

From the Bart Auerbach Collection. One page, 4to, on pale blue paper. Mostly regarding swapping autograph items: a "scrap of Burns with the letter of Gen. Montgomery" from him in exchange for "the letter of Fitzgerald." Fine condition. (BA).

New York: Benjamin, 1886. From the Bart Auerbach Collection. Ends of spine lightly chipped. 8vo. 36 pages. Original light blue pictorial printed wrappers, untrimmed. A dealer's priced catalogue, offering mainly literary autographs. One can only drool at the availability of a good two-page Keats or Shelley letter for $50, an excellent Poe letter for $35, a 31-page Hawthorne… Read more

Jamaica, Queens: The Marion Press, 1901. From the Bart Auerbach Collection. Joints rubbed, title torn at top of gutter, generally very good. 8vo. 125 pages. Contemporary red quarter roan, green cloth boards. Bookplate of the William L. Clements Library (withdrawn stamp). One of 1500 copies. 411 lots, priced in ink by C. Gerhardt (note on p. 125). The… Read more

Philadelphia: [Privately Printed], 1907. From the Bart Auerbach Collection. Small stain on rear cover, light wear at extremities, but a near-fine copy. 8vo. 86 pages. Frontispiece showing Thomas's library. Contemporary red hard-grained morocco, gilt-ruled and -lettered, top edges gilt, by Lippincott's, a presentation binding found on some copies. THE FIRST COPY. First edition of the catalogue of the… Read more

New York: William Evarts Benjamin, 1885. From the Bart Auerbach Collection. Covers a bit soiled, a couple of margins slightly chipped. Small 8vo. Original white parchment spine and lemon glazed boards, unopened. First edition, limited to 250 copies numbered and signed (with initials) by Benjamin (this is no. 95). The first separate bibliography of an American author, compiled… Read more

Providence: s.n., 1886. From the Bart Auerbach Collection. Light shelfwear at fore-corners. Tall 8vo. Portrait of Henry B. Anthony. Contemporary blue half morocco gilt, top edges gilt, others untrimmed, by B. P. Sanford. Presumably a large paper copy (measuring 10 3/4 x 7 1/8 inches). With cut signature of Anthony affixed to verso of title-page. Laid… Read more

[London]: [J.M'Creery], 1816. From the Bart Auerbach Collection. Front cover detached, loss at foot of spine, a few small holes at gutter of title-page. 8vo. 208 pages. Without the portrait, sonnet, and four leaves of "books omitted"; with a leaf at end advertising the auction sales of Roscoe's collection of pictures and prints. Contemporary half calf, marbled boards.… Read more

New York: The New York Public Library, 1944. From the Bart Auerbach Collection. 8vo. 377 pages. Printed in double-columns. Original printed tan wrappers. A similar volume to George L. McKay's 'American Book Auction Catalogues, 1713-1934'. Fine copy. (BA).

London and Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1931. From the Bart Auerbach Collection. Spine with light wear at ends and a few scuffs, else fine. 8vo. 306 pages. Original green cloth, printed label on spine (an extra label tipped in at end). First edition of Sir William Young Darling's anonymous whimsy, a first person, tragic tale of a failed… Read more

New York: Benjamin, 1886. From the Bart Auerbach Collection. Front wrapper with loss affecting the pictorial illustration upper right, awkwardly tipped in [but now loose] to p. 23 is a 4-page prospectus by Benjamin for a de luxe edition of Longfellow. 8vo. 36 pages. Original light blue pictorial printed wrappers, untrimmed. A dealer's priced catalogue, offering mainly literary… Read more

Salisbury, CT: The Cantina Press, 1938. From the Bart Auerbach Collection. A pale dampstain, but near fine. 12mo (5 1/2 x 4 1/4 inches). Printed on tissue, on one side only of leaves. Original plain salmon wrappers; in a quarter morocco folding case. Scarce and fragile bookseller's catalogue of 28 first editions of T. S. Eliot's works, with… Read more

Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1874. From the Bart Auerbach Collection. Light wear at extremities, a front flyleaf removed.. Tall 8vo. 278 pages, printed in double-columns. Original green cloth, blocked in blind, gilt-lettered. First edition of the first work of detective fiction directly concerned with the world of antiquarian books, booksellers, and book auctions. Gowans' Second-Hand Book Catacombs in New… Read more

From the Bart Auerbach Collection. 2 1/2 pages, 8vo, light gray paper, vignette of "Room in which the immortal Shakespeare was born, Stratford on Avon," integral second leaf neatly inlaid, accompanied by small engraved portrait of Daniel (inlaid and stained). Daniel responds to an autograph request, listing the books he has written and telling of his theatrical friends: "...… Read more

Boston: Samuel G. Drake, 1875. From the Bart Auerbach Collection. A few margins slightly chipped, a couple of numbers browned, rear cover waterstained "from their cataloguer [i.e. Bart] having dropped it in the slush after purchasing it at Swann Galleries in Dec. 1973]" according to BA's note. Complete set of the 17 catalogues of what the bookseller Drake… Read more