Search Results: Titles starting with S from Books Boheme

New York: Viking Studio, 2000. Steinberg, Saul. After Saul Steinberg's death in 1999, photographer Inge Morath published this document of their friendship: an arresting series of photographs, taken by Morath between 1959 and 1963, of friends and acquaintances wearing cardboard masks designed by Steinberg. Some of the images feature Steinberg himself: "naturally, Saul was a superb impersonator." A fine first edition, signed by Inge Morath on the title page. Square octavo, original black cloth boards, original unclipped photographic dust jacket.

London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1890. Often I sang this, and even out of the grave will I cry it: Drink, before you put on this raiment of dust." This anthology of classical epigrams is printed in Greek and English, and grouped by theme: "Love," "Prayers and Dedications," "Epitaphs," "Literature and Art," "Religion," "Nature," "The Family," "Beauty," "Fate and Change," "The Human Comedy," "Death" and "Life." A beautiful copy. Octavo, contemporary full tree-calf prize binding, brown spine label, marbled endpapers and edges. Armorial crest and motto of Charterhouse School ("Deo Dante Dedi") on the front board. A few faint scratches to rear board.

London: Elkin Mathews, 1909. Second edition, "third thousand," of J.M. Synge's lyrical dialect plays. Inspired by the insular folklife of the Aran Islands, Synge wrote both of these one-act plays in 1902, and saw them performed at Dublin's Molesworth Hall in 1903 and 1904. The Shadow of the Glen was on the bill when the Abbey Theatre, founded by W.B. Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory with Synge's support, opened its doors in 1904: "I'm thinking it's myself will be wheezing that time with lying down under the Heavens when the night is cold; but you've a fine bit of talk, stranger, and it's with yourself I'll go." This copy has a wonderful history. In 1909, the year of its publication, it was presented by Chicago writer Floyd Dell and his wife Margery Currey to librarian Marilla Waite Freeman, who had encouraged the young Dell's first literary efforts, neatly inscribed with two lines from Synge's poem "A Wish": "Heavy riddles lie in this, / Sorrow's sauce for every kiss." Freeman had the little book… Read More

London and New York: Harper & Brothers, 1898. Crane, Walter. Lovely illustrated edition of Edmund Spenser's 1579 Shepheard's Calender, a series of twelve eclogues devoted to the twelve months, filled with keen natural and human observation: "I was wont to seek the honey bee, / Working her formal rooms in waxen frame." This edition features woodcut borders and twelve full-page plates by Walter Crane, who had produced designs for William Morris at the Kelmscott Press, and had recently completed his own illustrated edition of The Faerie Queene, a fine press landmark. The influence of those projects is apparent in this smaller volume, a classic example of Arts and Crafts book design. Octavo, original pictorial green cloth gilt, depicting scenes of pastoral life on both boards, top edge stained green, original pictorial endpapers. Lightest bumping to cloth, clean split to endpaper at front hinge.

New York: Viking Press, 1967. First American edition of this abridged critical version of Joyce's sprawling final novel: "Well, you know or don't you kennet or haven't I told you every telling has a taling and that's the he and the she of it." Edited by Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange. This copy bears the ownership stamps of two notable American writers: novelist Jean Stafford, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and legendary New Yorker journalist Joseph Mitchell. The book is additionally signed by Mitchell in ink. Laid in are Mitchell's notes on Finnegan's Wake, all excerpts from the book with corresponding page numbers, pencilled on a letterhead envelope from Mitchell's family's tobacco warehouse in Fairmont, North Carolina. A terrific association copy. Octavo, original maroon cloth boards, original unclipped dust jacket with chipping to corners and loss to lower half of spine.

Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925. A beautiful first printing of this critical edition of Middle English classic Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, with editorial commentary by J.R.R. Tolkien, who was named professor of Anglo-Saxon literature at Pembroke College, Oxford, that same year. In The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, foundational works of modern fantasy, Tolkien would draw on the narrative elements of Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. As he and co-editor E.V. Gordon observe, "Sir Gawain is as human as Chaucer or Shakespeare or any modern romance," but the plot's reliance on magic sets it apart. This critical edition was intended for classroom use, and surviving copies are usually found heavily used and marked: this copy is partially unopened and nearly perfect. Octavo, original green cloth gilt. No dust jacket. Ink ownership signature to front free endpaper, lightest foxing to first and last leaves. Publisher's errata slip.

London: Printed for S. Leacroft, Charing-Cross, 1779. First edition of this collection of Shakespearean source material, edited by George Steevens, who had recently partnered with Samuel Johnson on an influential edition of Shakespeare; a publisher's advertisement for the Johnson-Steevens octavo edition appears in the first volume. The plays anthologized here are George Whetstone's Promos and Cassandra (1578), a source for Measure for Measure; Plautus's Meanaechmi (reprinted from a 1595 English translation), the basis of The Comedy of Errors; The Taming of a Shrew (reprinted from a 1607 edition, but known to exist as early as 1594), a source for The Taming of The Shrew; The Troublesome Reign of K. John (reprinted from the 1611 edition that credits Shakespeare as the author, but first printed in 1591), a source for King John; The Famous Victories of Henry V (first published in 1598, but acted some years earlier), a source for Henry IV and Henry V; and The True Chronicle History of King Leir, and His… Read More

London: John Miller, John Murray, 1820. The first issue of the first book appearance of the first American bestseller, preceded only by the American serialization in seven parts. Concerned that English publishers would pirate his increasingly popular stories and essays, Irving quietly self-published Volume I in London under the imprint of John Miller in February 1820. As he later recalled: "The first volume of The Sketch Book was put to press in London as I had resolved, at my own risk, by a bookseller unknown to fame, and without any of the usual arts by which a work is trumpeted into notice. . . . my worthy bookseller failed before the first month was over, and the sale was interrupted." Irving's friend and mentor Walter Scott helped place The Sketch Book with celebrated London publisher John Murray, who reissued Volume I under his own title page, along with the second volume, later that year. Murray's Volume II contains three pieces not present in the American serialization: "Traits of Indian… Read More

London: André Deutsch, 1976. First edition of the final collection of stories by Jean Rhys, following her restless heroines through the West Indies, London, and Paris. "She had been in London for the last five years but for one short holiday. There had been the big blitz, then the uneasy lull, then the little blitz, now the fly bombs. But she still accepted all she was told to accept, tried to remember all she was told to remember. The trouble was that she could not always forget all she was told to forget." Presentation copy to English novelist and editor Francis Wyndham, with an autograph note laid in: "For Darling Francis, with love, Jean," written in Rhys's shaky late hand. Wyndham had encouraged Rhys to resume writing after decades of silence, resulting in the appearance of Wide Sargasso Sea in 1966, an event which sparked a revival of interest in her work. He would later serve as her literary executor. A moving association copy. Octavo, toned pale green cloth boards, unclipped pictorial dust… Read More

New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2003. Kalman, Maira. First edition of artist Maira Kalman's kaleidoscopic portrait of elementary school life, as Pete the dog joins the classroom for one day only. "Obviously you do not expect me to be a sentient being, but empirically speaking, you cannot deny that I am speaking. . . . I ate the encyclopedia and I am really smart." A near-fine copy, signed by Kalman with a sketch. Quarto, original pictorial boards, pictorial endpapers, original unclipped pictorial dust jacket. One small mark to final page, not affecting text.

Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow, 1982. Signed limited edition of this novel of unrest in the ancient Moroccan city of Fez, number 217 of 350 copies signed and numbered by Bowles, with a preface by the author. "The only way the French could preserve even the illusion of privacy was simply to pretend the natives did not exist, and this automatically gave the natives an enormous advantage." A fine copy. Octavo, original turquoise cloth over patterned paper boards, paper spine label, black endpapers, original acetate dust jacket.