Search Results: Titles starting with R from Sumner & Stillman

1878. [the fine Bradley Martin copy] Recited in The Theatre, Oxford, June 26, 1878. Oxford: Thos. Shrimpton and Son, 1878. Original grey printed wrappers. First Edition of Oscar Wilde's first book, the Newdigate Prize-winning poem that he wrote while a student at Magdalen College. To quote from Pearson: He [Wilde] left Oxford in a blaze of glory. The subject for the Newdigate Prize Poem that year was Ravenna, and it so happened that he had visited the place on his way to Greece [the year before], noting it as a theme for poetic treatment. He could therefore put in bits of local colour which the other competitors had to glean from books. He won the prize, as John Ruskin and Matthew Arnold had done before him, and declaimed the poem in the Sheldonian Theatre on June 26, 1878... When the Professor of Poetry, J.C. Shairp, whose duty it was to suggest textual improvements to the winner of the Newdigate, advised certain alterations, Wilde listened with due courtesy, took careful notes of every suggestion,… Read More

1918. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1918. 6 pp undated ads. Original brown paper-covered boards pictorially decorated in black, blue and orange, with dust jacket. First Edition of this collection of four tales -- which consisted of only 5,342 copies, a very low number for London's books. By the time Jack wrote these (in Hawaii, in early 1916), he was dying. The title tale involves a wrecked alien spacecraft -- a giant red sphere -- worshipped by Melanesian natives, who need to offer it human sacrifices. Jack reached down into his own unconscious and his knowledge that death was near, and set it boldly on the page. The most haunting of his final stories was "The Red One." In it, an explorer is dying slowly, in the hut of an old shaman in cannibal Melanesia. The explorer has passed through all the stages of savagery himself, and he waits for his inevitable death from the shaman's knife as he watches the old witch doctor cure the heads of other white men... Only one mystery remains unsolved, the… Read More

1920. Garden City NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1920. Original blue cloth decorated in gilt, with dust jacket. First Edition, published a month before Dent's London edition. THE RESCUE was Conrad's albatross, the book which hung about his neck from the beginning of his writing career until almost the end of his life. It was begun in 1896 [as THE RESCUER, the concluding volume of the trilogy begun with ALMAYER'S FOLLY and AN OUTCAST OF THE ISLANDS] -- as an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of Lingard... But the book just would not sort itself out and it took Conrad another twenty years, working on it sporadically, before the much laboured-over manuscript was finally completed 25 May 1919 [Cagle]. This copy is from the first printing (gathered in 8s -- the second printing is virtually identical but is gathered in 16s; there was also a third 1920 printing, in 16s, but bound in the limp-leather "Deep Sea" binding). Included is the very scarce dust jacket, unusual for the DP&Co Conrad books in… Read More

1920. London & Toronto: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1920. Original green cloth stamped in gilt, with dust jacket. First English Trade Edition (issued after the American edition and also after a 40-copy private issue of the English galley proofs). Begun in 1896, and in effect completing the trilogy begun with ALMAYER'S FOLLY and AN OUTCAST OF THE ISLANDS, "THE RESCUE was Conrad's albatross, the book which hung about his neck from the beginning of his writing career almost until the end of his life" [Cagle]. This copy is in the standard (primary) binding: the spine lettering is in gilt, and the front cover publisher's device and border are in blind. (There is a secondary binding with black lettering and border, and with no front cover device.) This volume is in fine, bright condition; the pictorial jacket, which unlike that of THE ROVER does not often turn up in presentable condition, is very good-plus -- light edge-wear (to be expected since the jacket stands a bit taller than the volume), and spine slightly… Read More

1920. London & Toronto: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1920. Original green cloth stamped in gilt, with dust jacket. First English Trade Edition (issued after the American edition and also after a 40-copy private issue of the English galley proofs). Begun in 1896, and in effect completing the trilogy begun with ALMAYER'S FOLLY and AN OUTCAST OF THE ISLANDS, "THE RESCUE was Conrad's albatross, the book which hung about his neck from the beginning of his writing career almost until the end of his life" [Cagle]. This copy is in the standard (primary) binding: the spine lettering is in gilt, and the front cover publisher's device and border are in blind. (There is a secondary binding with black lettering and border, and with no front cover device.) This volume is in fine, bright condition (endpaper signature dated August 9, 1920, two months after publication); the pictorial jacket, which unlike that of THE ROVER does not often turn up in presentable condition, is near-fine -- with very little edge-wear (remarkable… Read More

1920. [inscribed by Conrad] Garden City NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1920. Original dark blue-green limp leather. First Edition, third impression. The first impression is gathered in 8s and bound in the usual navy blue cloth decorated in gilt; the second is gathered in 16s but is otherwise the same; this third and last 1920 printing (and the final printing from these plates) is also gathered in 16s, but is on thinner paper and is bound in the limp-leather "Deep Sea" binding. This copy is in very good condition, with some almost-unavoidable minor wear at the extremities. Supino A22.3.0 (this copy); Cagle A49a(3). Housed in a morocco-backed slipcase with inner chemise. Provenance (see below): SJS bookplate of the Conrad mega-collector Stanley J. Seeger (both on the endpaper verso and on the slipcase chemise) -- this book was lot 143 in his Part I sale in July 2013; discreet bookplate of the Conrad bibliographer David J. Supino. This is a presentation copy inscribed by Conrad on the (illustrated)… Read More

1920. London & Toronto: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1920. Original green cloth lettered and with border in black, with dust jacket. First English Trade Edition (issued after the American edition and also after a 40-copy private issue of the English galley proofs). Begun in 1896, and in effect completing the trilogy begun with ALMAYER'S FOLLY and AN OUTCAST OF THE ISLANDS, "THE RESCUE was Conrad's albatross, the book which hung about his neck from the beginning of his writing career almost until the end of his life" [Cagle]. Supino provides some of Bruccoli & Reheault's thorough explanation for the curious presence of various printed "imposition numbers" that appear at the bottom of many pages -- for example "(17)" on the title page itself; it has to do with two separate printers being involved. This copy is in the secondary binding: the spine lettering and the front cover border are in black, and there is no publisher's device blind-stamped onto the front cover. It is in near-fine condition (minor wear on the… Read More

1920. London & Toronto: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1920. Original green cloth stamped in gilt, with dust jacket. First English Trade Edition (issued after the American edition and also after a 40-copy private issue of the English galley proofs). Begun in 1896, and in effect completing the trilogy begun with ALMAYER'S FOLLY and AN OUTCAST OF THE ISLANDS, "THE RESCUE was Conrad's albatross, the book which hung about his neck from the beginning of his writing career almost until the end of his life" [Cagle]. Supino provides some of Bruccoli & Reheault's thorough explanation for the curious presence of various printed "imposition numbers" that appear at the bottom of many pages -- for example "(17)" on the title page itself; it has to do with two separate printers being involved. This copy is in the primary binding, with spine lettering in gilt rather than in black. It is a fine copy (spine gilt a bit brighter than usual for this book); the pictorial jacket, which unlike that of THE ROVER does not often turn up… Read More

1910. With Illustrations by Frank Craig. London: Macmillan and Co., 1910. 6 pages of front-and-rear endpaper ads. Original blue-grey wrappers lettered in black. First Colonial Edition of this collection of tales and poems that form a continuation of the Puck stories begun in PUCK OF POOK'S HILL (1906) -- introduced by Robin Goodfellow and told to young Dan and Una. This was published in the same month (October) as the domestic edition. Included are four plates by Frank Craig; in later editions these were replaced with twelve illustrations by Charles Brock. Also included is the first appearance in book form of the famous poem "If", which leads off "If you can keep your head when all about you | Are losing theirs and blaming it on you..." Kipling later asserted that in this poem he had in mind L. Starr Jameson, leader of the Jameson Raid in the Transvaal in 1895. This is an uncommon colonial copy, still in the original wrappers -- issued as No. 577 of "Macmillan's Colonial Library," so identified on… Read More

1937. With a Foreword by Victor Gollancz. London: Victor Gollancz, 1937. Original orange cloth wrappers. First Edition ("Left Book Club Edition / Not for Sale to the Public"). Part I of this book describes the living conditions of the coal miners in the industrial north of England, illustrated with photographs; Part II describes Orwell's own middle-class upbringing, and the development of his social and political conscience. The publisher Victor Gollancz -- a social reformer himself -- put up the funds for Orwell to live among the miners for some months. Gollancz also issued a 1937 trade edition (hardback with dust jacket), which did not include Gollancz's 14-page Foreword. This book preceded Orwell's postwar ANIMAL FARM and NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR by about a decade. This is a near-fine copy (volume slightly askew, a few stray orange threads at some edges); though not a scarce book, it typically turns up soiled and frayed. NCBEL IV 691.

1896. Paget, Sidney. With Illustrations. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1896. 10 pp undated ads. Original black (very dark purple?) cloth decorated in gilt. First Edition of this novel that curiously combines the sport of boxing and the Regency period. The eponymous narrator is a country boy who wishes to go to sea, but winds up with his fashionable uncle in London -- where soon his best friend is "Boy Jim," who hopes to become a bare-knuckle boxer like his blacksmith uncle. [Doyle] had always been fond of boxing, had revelled in the history of the prize-ring, and in RODNEY STONE his enthusiasm and knowledge are apparent... As usual the action-episodes are first-rate; and as usual the historical personages are not an integral part of the story... but Doyle wanted to reconstruct an age, and so Nelson, the Prince Regent, Sheridan, Fox, Beau Brummell... and others, pop in and out of the pages for the sole purpose of creating a 'period piece' [Pearson]. The illustrations are by Sidney Paget, who also did… Read More

1906. London: Methuen & Co., (1906). 40 pp ads dated July 1906 (plus two loosely-inserted Methuen ad slips). Original bright red cloth stamped in gilt. First Edition by this prolific (and at the time very popular) author of many novels, often with elements of the supernatural and mystery -- such as OUR LADY OF DARKNESS, THE SECRET IN THE HILL, THE GREEN PARROT and THE SKELETON KEY. At age 62 his writing career was cut short by the 1918 flu epidemic. This is a remarkably fine, bright copy -- of a curiously uncommon book. Hubin p. 64.

1904. Illustrated by Charles R. Macauley. New York: McClure, Phillips & Co., 1904. 8 pp undated ads. Original blue cloth decorated in grey. First American (and first illustrated) Edition of this the second collaboration between Conrad and Hueffer. This is a bright copy, fine externally; the first few leaves are creased, and the front endpaper has a little edge-damage and is browned from the presence of a 1976 receipt for this book. Cagle A9b. Provenance: the front endpaper bears, in addition to a May 1904 gift inscription, the penciled signature of Conrad bibliographer Walter E. Smith.

1904. Illustrated by Charles R. Macauley. New York: McClure, Phillips & Co., 1904. 8 pp undated ads. Original blue cloth decorated in grey. First American (and first illustrated) Edition, first impression, second state (i.e. with copyright date 1903) -- of this the second collaboration between Conrad and Hueffer (after THE INHERITORS). As Cagle and (much more recently) Supino have explained, this is a curious example of a later copyright date having precedence over an earlier copyright date. The original plan was for this American edition to come out in late 1903, and (incomplete but) so-dated copies were filed at the Library of Congress on October 26th. Due to several factors, publication was not ready -- so the decision was made to delay publication until the spring of 1904, and the printer was notified to change the date. Which he did -- but he changed the copyright to 1904 as well, and the first copies went out with that erroneous date on the title verso (the first state). "This error was… Read More

1904. Illustrated by Charles R. Macauley. New York: McClure, Phillips & Co., 1904. 8 pp undated ads. Original blue cloth decorated in grey. First American (and first illustrated) Edition, first impression, first state (i.e. with copyright date 1904) -- of the second collaboration between Conrad and Hueffer (after THE INHERITORS). As Cagle and (much more recently) Supino have explained, this is a curious example of a later copyright date having precedence over an earlier copyright date. The original plan was for this American edition to come out in late 1903, and (incomplete but) so-dated copies were filed at the Library of Congress on October 26th. Due to several factors, publication was not ready -- so the decision was made to delay publication until the spring of 1904, and the printer was notified to change the date. Which he did -- but he also changed the copyright to 1904 as well, and the first copies went out with that erroneous date on the title verso (the first state). "This error was… Read More

1808. [in the 1808 original boards] London: Printed by D.N. Shury... for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1808. Original grey-brown paper-covered boards with purple cloth spines and printed spine labels. First Edition of this collection of Gothic tales of the macabre, which Matthew Gregory Lewis adapted from original German, French and Spanish stories. As he indicates in his Preface, "Even in those Tales which are least my own, I have made so many and such important alterations, omissions, and interpolations, that it would have been less trouble to write an entire new work". Lewis (1775-1818) is often referred to as "Monk" Lewis because of his famous (infamous?) 1796 Gothic horror tale THE MONK -- replete with ghosts, murders and ravished maidens; some critics, notably Samuel Taylor Coleridge, considered the book blasphemous and Lewis never entirely escaped the resulting licentious reputation. He followed that up with three collections of tales of the macabre -- TALES OF TERROR in 1799, TALES OF… Read More

1872. [with page edges gilt] Fully Illustrated by Eminent Artists. (Issued by Subscription Only, and Not for Sale in Bookstores...) Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company [etc.], 1872. 1 page undated ads. Original black cloth decorated in gilt, all page edges gilt. First American Edition, mixed issue, of this very early Twain title -- his fourth major book. In July 1861, as the Civil War was getting underway, Twain headed out west as private secretary to his brother Orion, who had just been appointed Secretary of Nevada Territory; Twain's "account of the continental crossing with Orion is a full-throated celebration of a golden era, of travel, youth, adventure, and America's last frontier" [Kaplan]. According to Blanck, the first issue is identifiable by the proper presence of two words in lines 20-21 on p. 242 (here, as is often the case, one of the two words is lacking due to type slippage); this copy does not have ads on p. [592] (no precedence certain). MacDonnell goes on to identify three… Read More

1853. New York: Stringer & Townsend, 1853. Original greyish-pink printed wrappers. Early (first?) American edition of this the third of Dickens's nine "Extra Christmas Numbers" of his weekly periodical Household Words. This came out in London in December 1852, and then was published in America in early 1853 by several publishers (McElrath & Lord doing the authorized American issue of HhW, plus Harper, plus this effort). Dickens himself wrote only the first two stories -- "The Poor Relation's Story" and "The Child's Story." This copy includes the delicate original greyish-pink wrappers, and is in very good-plus condition (minor edge-wear, a few droplet-marks on some leaves within). Podeschi (Yale) B225.

1923. London: T. Fisher Unwin, (1923). Original dark green cloth, with dust jacket. First English Edition, published two days after the American trade edition. This copy is in the primary "A" dust jacket (decorated in brown and black only, with a French flag rising out of the sea); there is another one, possibly later and intended for the colonies, that portrays a ship passing a cliff ("Dust jacket state A has priority. Dust jacket state B was also used on copies of the Overseas Edition and the Canadian issue [Supino]"). The volume is in near-fine condition (no wear or soil, but as usual the spine lettering is less than bright; there is occasional light foxing on this thick wove paper). The dust jacket is near-fine as well, with quite minor edge-wear and soil. Supino A24.6.0, dust jacket A (this copy); Keating 180. Provenance: discreet bookplate of the Conrad bibliographer David J. Supino.

1923. Garden City NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1923. Original blue cloth decorated in gilt, with dust jacket. First Trade Edition (preceded one day earlier by a 377-copy special edition), published before the English edition. The idea of a "rover," with its ambiguity of a man who, Odysseus-like, strives for experience, had been Conrad's plan in all his major fiction after The Shadow-Line... He was exploring what for him was his political, social, and moral world, that society summed up by life on the sea and those who can understand its message. Some of the passages in The Rover display Conrad in his best form, and they are, not improbably, passages of the sea [Karl]. This volume is in fine condition, and the jacket is just-about-fine as well (very slight darkening of its spine as usual, but scarcely any wear or soil). In our opinion the American edition, with its jacket, is considerably less common than its English counter­part. Supino A24.2.0 (this copy); Keating 179. Provenance: discreet… Read More