Search Results: Titles starting with N from Sumner & Stillman

1924. Garden City NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1924. Original decorative boards with black cloth spine and printed labels, with dust jacket. First American Edition of this last of the three "collaborations" between Conrad and Hueffer/Ford (following THE INHERITORS and ROMANCE). (The English edition is by Conrad and "F. M. Hueffer"; the American is by Conrad and "Ford Madox Ford," using his de-Germanized adopted name). The book was actually written in 1906, at a time when their relationship was disintegrating, and it was virtually all Hueffer's work -- it is really nothing more than a "thinly disguised autobiographical memoir by Ford, to which he evidently wanted Conrad to contribute". As Conrad lay dying in 1924, Hueffer asked his permission to publish it with Conrad's preface, to which Conrad reluctantly agreed. Conrad called it "'that idiotic publication,' and he refused to allow it to appear in THE BEST STORIES OF 1924. He was outraged that people were speaking of it as a fresh collaboration,… Read More

1868. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1868. Original terra-cotta cloth decorated in gilt. First American Edition (published on the same day as the London edition and the Leipzig edition) of these two plays in verse form -- "John Endicott" sited in 1665 Boston and "Giles Corey" in 1692 Salem. This copy is in terra-cotta cloth (one of three colors that were used in addition to several leather bindings), and has the TF pendant device in the supposed second state (with a hollow pendant). As Blanck points out, there were four identical printings dated 1868 (the first almost double the size of the other three combined), though there are at least two instances of type-batter (which this copy does exhibit) that may indicate a copy from late in the first printing or from one of the other three. This is a fine, bright copy. Blanck 12150.

1862. London: Sampson Low, Son, & Co., 1862. Original blind-stamped pebbled orange cloth with gilt-decorated spines. First Edition of "the most unjustly neglected of all Wilkie Collins's novels" [Robinson]. Written at the peak of Collins's career just after THE WOMAN IN WHITE, Sampson Low paid Collins 3,000 for NO NAME, and then produced 4,000 copies -- all but 400 of which were sold by the afternoon of the first day [Gasson]. The novel centers about the theme of illegitimacy, and Collins's condemnation of the laws that govern it. It is the story of 18-year-old Magdalen Vanstone's attempt to regain control of her father's fortune (she and her sister are the children of a common-law marriage; just when their parents finally are able to marry, the father suddenly dies before writing a new will -- leaving the two girls with "no name" and thus with no claim upon his fortune). Though her elder (and quieter) sister Norah resigns herself to her impoverished fate, Magdalen enlists the aid of the "delightful… Read More

1867. Being The Extra Christmas Number of All The Year Round. London: Chapman & Hall, Christmas 1867. Original blue wrappers. First Edition, being the last of Dickens's nine extra Christmas numbers of his periodical All The Year Round. Dickens himself wrote The Overture, Act III, and portions of Acts I and IV; his son-in-law's brother, Wilkie Collins, wrote the rest. This is a near-fine copy (some wear along the fore-edge of the rear wrapper). Podeschi (Yale) E20; Eckel p. 196.

1923. Edited with a Preface by Michael Sadleir. London: Constable & Company, 1923. Original blind-stamped deep red cloth with gilt-decorated spine. First Edition, which consisted of only 500 copies. This is one of only two plays that Trollope ever wrote, as "the genre was uncomfortable to him." He wrote it early in his career, in 1850, at about the same time as his third novel (LA VENDÉE). He later used the germ of THE NOBLE JILT to create "one of his best known novels; to it is due the existence of CAN YOU FORGIVE HER?" (Sadleir, the editor who had this book published from the original manuscript -- and from whom these quotes are drawn -- gives a character-by-character comparison between this play and that novel in his preface.) The binding is an exact facsimile of that used in 1864 for CAN YOU FORGIVE HER?. This is a near-fine copy, without wear but with the spine slightly faded (as usual with this color cloth). Sadleir (Trollope) 70.

1888. With Numerous Illustrations. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1888. Original blue-grey cloth pictorially decorated in black and red, all page edges gilt. First British Edition of this adventure tale taking place during the American Civil War. This is the tale of the antagonism between Burbank (an anti-slavery Northerner now living near Jacksonville, Florida) and Texar (a pro-slavery Southerner); Texar winds up kidnapping Burbank's daughter and hiding her in the Everglades, and Burbank heads off in search of his daughter -- all as the Civil War rages around them. NORD CONTRE SUD came out in France in 1887, and by the end of the summer of that year the American pirate publisher George Munro came out with TEXAR'S VENGEANCE in his wrappered Seaside Library. In November 1887, Rand McNally published a hardbound American edition (a different translation) titled TEXAR'S REVENGE. Then this British edition, hardbound and illustrated and the same translation as Rand McNally's, came out… Read More

1862. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1862. Original blind-stamped brown pebbled cloth. First Authorized American Edition, believed to have followed Harper's pirated edition by a mere four days. This work is not only a geographical description of North America; Trollope also gets into such questions as "Deficiencies in the Post Office System," "Amount of the Debt - Can the Burden be Borne?" and "Rights of Women" -- topics no less timely now. Given the year, Trollope also discusses the Civil War then raging. Trollope's wife Rose accompanied him on most of this trip, acting as his amanuensis; it is said that the book's spontaneity declines at the point she left for London -- reflecting how much harder it was for him to write out his thoughts rather than to dictate them freely. The preliminary "Author's Edition" note (added to the two-in-one copies) indicates that this edition was "published by special arrangement with the Author, at whose urgent request it was undertaken, and to whom we pay… Read More

1904. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1904. Original green cloth decorated in orange and black. First American Edition of Conrad's well-known novel involving a South American silver mine, and the corruption and dishonesty fostered by its riches. Conrad was extending his "Lord Jim" theme: that the man who slowly grows rich can be a victim of the silver, not its conqueror; that wealth is not something gained but a trap for those who relinquish, however momentarily, their sense of themselves... [Karl] This copy is bright and near-fine (very slight rubbing at the extremities). Cagle A10b.

1904. London and New York: Harper & Brothers, 1904. Original dark blue cloth decorated in light blue. First Edition of Conrad's great novel involving a South American silver mine, and the corruption and dishonesty fostered by its riches. Conrad was extending his "Lord Jim" theme: that the man who slowly grows rich can be a victim of the silver, not its conqueror; that wealth is not something gained but a trap for those who relinquish, however momentarily, their sense of themselves... It was no coincidence that Conrad was in severe financial straits during the years that he wrote these novels. Despite (or perhaps reflecting) the two and a half years Conrad spent laboring over NOSTROMO, the book was not widely acclaimed upon its publication: The reviews were nearly all bound to discourage the reader. [John] Buchan's estimation is characteristic: "It is not a book which the casual reader will appreciate. The sequence of events has to be sought painfully through the mazes of irrelevancy with which the… Read More

1914. [Sendak copy in 1914 dj] New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1914. Original olive-brown cloth, with dust jacket. First American Edition, which consisted of 2000 copies and was published one day after Dent's London edition. Novelists covered by James include Robert Louis Stevenson, Emile Zola, Gustave Flaubert, Honoré de Balzac and George Sand. This was one of several James titles that was unfortunately bound for Scribner's in this unattractive olive-brown cloth that is very prone to soil and fading. This, however, would be a fine copy were it not for some cracking of the endpapers. The clean, unfaded exterior is due to the presence of the original dust jacket, in very good condition (edge-wear that is minor except for one chip affecting about one-half of "SCRIBNER'S" at the foot of the spine). Supino 73.2.0; Edel & Laurence A73b. Provenance: from the personal library of author Maurice Sendak. He did not often sign or affix bookplates (and none is here), but included with this set is a… Read More

1914. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1914. Original olive-brown cloth. First American Edition, which consisted of 2000 copies and was published one day after Dent's London edition. Novelists covered by James include Robert Louis Stevenson, Emile Zola, Gustave Flaubert, Honore de Balzac and George Sand. This was one of several James titles that was unfortunately bound for Scribner's in this unattractive olive-brown cloth that is very prone to soil and fading; this, however, is a fine copy with very little fading. Supino 73.2.0; Edel & Laurence A73b. Provenance: the front paste-down bears the bookplate of Theodore Woodman Gore (1847-1923), which bookplate was designed by the renowned American artist Edwin Howland Blashfield.

1921. [inscribed by Conrad] London & Toronto: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1921. Original green cloth, with dust jacket. First Edition (preceded by a 35-copy privately-printed issue). This is a collection of pieces that had appeared, over the prior two years, as 25-copy pamphlets produced by Clement Shorter and by T.J. Wise. This copy is in the second state (with the "S" and "A" of "SEA" hand-stamped onto page xi). The first state lacks these letters entirely; the third and usual state has a cancel leaf with the letters properly printed. According to a Dent employee quoted by Supino, the first state consisted of only about 100 copies, and this second state about 900 copies; the other 8,450 copies (the subsequent binding orders of the first edition) would have been in the third (cancel-leaf) state. This is a near-fine copy (some cracking of the endpapers), in a very good-plus jacket: the jacket's spine is a little darkened as usual, and there is a shallow chip at the head of the spine (not affecting print).… Read More

1931. [Oxford: Oxford University Press,] July 1931. Original grey printed wrappers. First Edition, being "Pamphlet No. 79" of The English Association. This was Buchan's "presidential address" delivered to the association on November 22, 1930. He touches upon such writers as George Eliot, Dickens, Thackeray and Coleridge. A very good-plus copy (two small holes near the spine, as for a ring binder). Blanchard A90.

1893. A Collection of Short Original Stories for Children. London: Skeffington and Son, 1893. Original light blue paper-covered boards decorated in white, pink, green and black. First Edition of this anthology of 18 "short original stories for children" by 13 different authors of the day -- including G. A. Henty ("The Wreckers of Pendarven"); others include L.T. Meade, Mrs. Molesworth and Mabel Wotton. It is a very delicate book, because it was bound in paper-covered boards rather than in cloth. This copy is in very good condition, the main flaw being that the volume has been re-backed in similarly-light-blue cloth, with most of the original spine laid back down; the original light brown patterned endpapers are covered with later blue-patterned ones. Newbolt 165.1.