Search Results: Titles starting with D from Le Bookiniste, ABAA-ILAB-IOBA

London: Allison & Busby, Ltd. , 1984. First U.K. Edition, First Printing.
SIGNED by John Edgar Wideman on the title page. A collection of stories tracing the fortunes of a black family in Homewood, a black district of Pittsburgh, and the first in Wideman's Homewood trilogy.
Published in the U.K., this is the first hardcover edition, following publication of a paperback edition in the U.S.
PHYSICAL DETAILS: Octavo, 205 pages.
CONDITION: A Fine copy, with a small bump to the spine head, in a Fine dust jacket. A beautiful copy.

Berlin: Verband Bildender Kunstler Deutschlands, 1954. First Edition, First Printing.
East Berlin catalogue dedicated to an exhibition of street posters and placards, mostly from the German Democratic Republic and other Communist nations. The catalogue features color and black-and-white illustrations and a list of 230 works. While many posters had a political angle (Marx, Lenin, etc.), plenty more featured cultural subjects (such as museums) and commercial topics (trade fairs and products). An interesting look at graphic design, mostly from the East Bloc, in the early 1950s. Text entirely in German. Scarce in commerce. PHYSICAL DETAILS: Octavo (8 7/8 x 6 1/2 inches; 225 x 165 mm), unpaginated, in pictorial wrappers over heavy card stock wrappers enclosing the text block (soft cover). CONDITION: Minor scuffing, rubbing, and staining to wrappers, a couple small tears along the bottom edge of the pictorial wrappers, toning to the card stock enclosing the text block. The inside pages are clean and… Read More

New York: Bound & Unbound, 1991. First Edition, First Printing. Exhibition catalogue of printed works for Fluxus artist Davi Det Hompson (real name: David E. Thompson, 1939-1996) at Barbara Moore's Bound & Unbound in New York, September 21-October 26, 1991. Bound & Unbound was an important champion of Fluxus, performance art, and artists' books. The catalogue consists of an essay by Clive Phillpot, a bio and list of exhibitions, and a checklist (List C-91) of the works in the exhibition.The text is bound into a heavy card stock cover designed by Hompson that says on the front, continuing on the back: "Sure, sure. Davi Det Hompson, I know about you. You used to do Fluxus stuff and artists' books. I've read some of your pamphlets. Are you still making throw-away art?" Also included is a press release about the show as well as a postcard designed by Hompson: "Understand. This is only temporary." This catalogue and the accompanying ephemera are scarce in the antiquarian book trade. An interesting… Read More

New York: New York Labor News Company, 1939. 12mo (7 1/4 x 5 inches; 187 x 127 mm), 76, [2] pages, in illustrated, stapled wrappers (soft cover). Socialist Labor Party pamphlet celebrating the life and achievements of Daniel De Leon, an important figure in the party and a Marxist theoretician. CONDITION: Soiling to wrappers, edge wear, corners bumped, but otherwise clean and unmarked. A Very Good copy.

n.p. [Cleveland?]: Green Panda Press, 2008. Chapbook featuring facsimiles of handwritten poems and prose by outlaw poet Jack Micheline. The book also includes a typeset "statement of a poet" from 1961. Micheline (1929-1998) was closely associated with the Beat poets of San Francisco. Scarce in commerce. PHYSICAL DETAILS: Octavo (8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches; 215 x 140 mm), [16] pages, in stapled, photo-illustrated wrappers (soft cover). CONDITION: Slight soiling and edge wear. Near Fine.

London: Faber and Faber, 1961. First U.K. Edition, First Printing.
Jean Genet's earliest play, first performed in Paris in 1949 as Haute Surveillance. Genet altered the text during rehearsal; this translation by Bernard Frechtman follows the acting version. PHYSICAL DETAILS: Small Octavo (7 7/8 x 5 inches; 200 x 128 mm), 40 pages, in unclipped, illustrated wrappers over heavy card stock enclosing the text block (soft cover). Price of 5s 6d present. CONDITION: Toning to card stock but otherwise clean and unmarked. Near Fine.

New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1986. First Edition. Quarto, 358 pages. Lavishly illustrated volume by the Louvre's former curator-in-chief of objets d'art. Fine in a Very Good dust jacket, with some small scratches, smudges and creases. Note: This is an oversize book and may require additional postage. Terrific work of scholarship (by a Louvre curator), with hundreds of illustrations. An important reference on European decorative arts.

Chicago: Citizens Press, n.d. [1940s?]. Octavo (8 7/8 x 6 inches; 225 x 150 mm), 8 pages, in stapled wrappers. A ferocious attack on communists and communism: "Communism is immoral and decadent: it reduces men and women to the level of beasts and they lose all sense of propriety and decency." Divided into 21 short sections, such as: "Communists Are Perverts," "Communism Thrives on Trickery," etc. OCLC shows only two institutional holdings: Ball State and Michigan State, while a separate search turns up a copy at Columbia. None in commerce. SCARCE. Condition: Splits at top and bottom of cover page (but still holding firmly), small nicks to corners, vertical fold to lower right throughout, pages lightly toned, contact details of "Women's Voice" stamped on final page. About Very Good.

Zurich, Leipzig: Orell Füssli Verlag, 1929. First Edition, First Printing. Small Octavo (7 5/8 x 5 inches; 193 x 127 mm), 16 pages (text) and 71 pages (photos), in illustrated boards, titles in black to spine. No dust jacket.
An interesting look at Soviet revolutionary films, including Battleship Potemkin and Ten Days That Shook the World, all from a Soviet viewpoint. The text is in German but the bulk of the book comprises some often-striking stills from the films. The author, A.W. Lunatscharsky (1875-1933 and sometimes rendered as Lunacharsky), was People's Commissar of Education Enlightenment.
There are actually 74 black-and-white images in the book, not 64 mentioned on the cover or 67 on the title page.
CONDITION: Some age-toning and foxing to the end papers and text leaves. Board edges lightly rubbed. A Very Good copy.

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1883. First Edition. Octavo (8 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches; 210 x 135 mm), 50 pages plus [6] pages of advertisements (softcover). The author attempts to reconcile evolution with his Christian faith and argues that science and religion are not necessarily in conflict. Development, he says, is an ongoing process, while evolution refers to what happened in the past. "We speak of the seed developing into the plant, and the plant being evolved from the seed." (page 1). McCosh, a Presbyterian minister, was a prolific writer who gradually came to accept evolution while still maintaining his strong belief in God. He wrote this pamphlet, part of Scribner's Philosophic Series, while serving as president of Princeton College (later University). He was notable for being "the first prominent American Protestant religious leader to espouse evolutionism." (Bradley J. Gundlach, "McCosh and Hodge on Evolution: A Combined Legacy," in The Journal of Presbyterian History, Summer 1997, page… Read More

Hong Kong: Lo Shan Tang, Contemporary Chinese Paintings, 1994. First Edition. Announcement of an exhibition of paintings by Kwok Hon Sum (1947-2003) at the Hong Kong Arts Centre in 1994. The announcement features a number of Buddhist-inspired images as well as text in Hong Kong and Chinese. It's printed on a single sheet of heavy card stock and folded to create six panels, each measuring 8 x 6 inches (210 x 153 mm). CONDITION: Some scuffing to the rear panel as well as some creases. Very Good or better.

Shanghai and Beijing: ShanghART and New Amsterdam Art Consultancy, 1997. First Edition. Announcement of exhibitions for Ding Yi from December 19-24, 1997, in Shanghai (ShanghART) and January 11-18, 1998, in Beijing (New Amsterdam Art Consultancy). One single sheet folded to create 12 panels, each measuring 8 1/4 x 3 3/4 inches (210 x 95 mm). Exhibition details in English and Chinese, with one of Ding Yi's intricately-worked paintings shown across five panels. Ding Yi (b. 1962 in Shanghai) uses cross motifs in his paintings. SCARCE. Condition: Some light edge wear but bright and unmarked. Near Fine.

London: John Richardson, 1810. First Edition. Octavo (8 5/8 x 5 3/8 inches; 220 x 135 mm), xli, [3], 621, [1 errata], [2 adverts], in contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt with red morocco label. An important early work on life insurance, annuities, and endowments by London stockbroker Francis Baily (1774-1844). He gives practical advice on how to value an insurance policy or annuity, answers numerous hypothetical questions, and provides 59 tables on mortality, the value of policies, etc. What's especially interesting in this book is his discussion of assurance companies (see pages 479-520) in which he seems to imply that some of them were engaged in fraudulent practices.This book became a standard reference for the insurance industry, along with his earlier book, "The Doctrine of Interest and Annuities." (1808). But he was interested in more than finance: He was a co-founder of what became the Royal Astronomical Society and took part in scientific experiments. Baily was also an adventurer; in… Read More

New York: New York Labor News Company, 1939. 3rd Printing. 12mo (7 3/8 x 5 inches; 187 x 126 mm), 32 pages, in stapled wrappers (soft cover) War is capitalism's cure for unemployment yet it's the workers who pay for war with their blood, according to this declaration by the Socialist Labor Party. With an introduction by Arnold Petersen as well as several antiwar illustrations. Scarce in commerce. CONDITION: Vertical and horizontal creases throughout, soiling to wrappers. About Very Good.

New York: Dr. Jeanne Walter, n.d. [ca. 1915-20]. 24mo (5 3/4 x 3 7/16 inches; 143 x 88 mm), 23, [1] pages, in printed stapled wrappers (soft cover). An early 20th-century version of fat shaming: Dr. Jeanne Walter promises to reduce your "superfluous flesh" if you buy her medicated rubber garments. "Any physician will tell you that by inducing profuse perspiration you can reduce flesh, relieve any kind of rheumatism, skin diseases and many other ailments because it stimulates circulation and eliminates waste products through the pores" (page 3). This pamphlet features a woman modeling such products as chin, bust, and abdominal reducers as well as jackets, suits, belts, and pants. All in glorious black-and-white halftone illustrations. Most products are aimed at women, although a page is devoted to a mustachioed guy wearing an abdominal belt that works by "stimulating circulation in the organs of digestion, and, by drawing out the uric acid from the system, relieving any rheumatic condition that may… Read More

Philadelphia: Dauphine Press, 1985. First Edition, First Printing. Rare book of prose and photos celebrating Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Specifically, Fat Tuesday, "the final day of bacchanalia before the Lenten fasting begins." Chris Peditto has written a short story about a drunken day in New Orleans filled with outrageous characters. That's followed by a series of striking black-and-white photographs by Roea Wallace. Many of her photos show people in masks or costumes (with a couple of lewd scenes thrown in for good measure). Each photo is accompanied by a short text by Peditto on the opposite page. Wallace and Peditto were active in the Philadelphia art and poetry scene in the 1980s. Wallace now lives in Louisville, her hometown. Peditto, who was known professionally as C. Natale Peditto, died in 2013 in Los Angeles. His work appeared in numerous literary journals. Peditto has inscribed the title page and Wallace has added her signature. The inscription on the title page reads: "For Al, Fine… Read More

San Francisco: Smoking Mirror Press, 1975. First Edition, First Printing. INSCRIBED on the title page to Nathan May, the editor and publisher of Beatitude #32, the San Francisco magazine of Beat poetry. Four "one-page novels," three of which run longer than a page and all of which are written in stream of consciousness. One of 500 copies, scarce signed. PHYSICAL DETAILS: Octavo (8 3/8 x 5 3/8 inches; 212 x 137 mm), [2], 9, [1] pages, in stapled, light green wrappers (soft cover). CONDITION: Edge wear and a few stains to the wrappers. Very Good or better.

New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990. First American Edition, 1st Printing. Octavo, 183 pages. Fine in a Fine dust jacket. A beautiful copy.  A novel set in postwar Britain, "The Dwarfs" describes the lives and concerns of four young Londoners.