Search Results: Titles starting with B from Mac Donnell Rare Books

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. THE BELFRY OF BRUGES AND OTHER POEMS. Cambridge: John Owen, 1846. First edition, with wrappers dated 1845 as always. Original white wrappers lithographed in gilt, uncut. Spine rather chipped, lower blank edge (1/2 to 1 inch) of rear wrapper torn away, some chipping at corners; still a presentable copy in the original gilt wrappers, uncut. The publisher did not issue the book in cloth. Longfellow signed a contract in November, 1845, authorizing Owen to publish 1,000 copies. The book appeared just before Christmas. The custom was to predate books appearing at the end of the year, but Owen… Read More

THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. New York: New York Common Prayer and Book Society, 1853. First edition thus. Original full sheep, gilt, morocco label, gilt. Worn, but a solid copy in the original publisher's binding. Twain arrived in New York City after leaving St. Louis and went to work as a type-setter at John Gray's firm on Monday, August 29, 1853 and stayed there until mid-October, when he left for Philadelphia. He wrote home to his mother on August 31, saying that he and forty other type-setters set type for an "immense" number of books and several magazines like The Knickerbocker, New York Recorder, Choral… Read More

[TWAIN, MARK] [Clemens, S. L.] Edison, Thomas. BUCK FANSHAW'S FUNERAL. [n.p., Edison Laboratories, 1912] Cylinder record (Edison Amberol Record). In original fleece-lined sleeve, without lid. This was the famous chapter (17) from ROUGHING IT describing the death of the violent saloon keeper, recited by the famous elocutionist Harry E. Humphrey. Edison produced wax cylinders as early as 1888, and had "brown wax" cylinders in the market in the early 1890s, and stopped production of his amerol cylinders in November, 1912. This four minute cylinder (number 1127 in Edison's Amberol series) was issued in October,… Read More