Tess of the D'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman - SIGNED LIMITED by Hardy, Thomas - 1926

First edition, limited issue of 100 numbered copies issued signed by Mandela on the title page. Copy #42. Published to benefit the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund. Edited with a Preface by Penny Silva. Dark blue full morocco, gilt lettering, satin pagemarker, limitation page. Issued without dustjacket. Cloth-covered slipcase. Slipcase with one corner with slight bump; otherwise, an unread copy in Fine condition. The first dictionary of South African English, mapping the development and changes of "that variety of English which is particular to South Africa."

Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1850. One of 2,500 copies published of this true first edition, on 16 March 1850, according to C.E. Frazier Clark Jr.'s definitive "Nathaniel Hawthorne - A Descriptive Bibliography". Number A16.1 in Clark's bibliography and number 7600 in BAL. This copy is in the following states and sub-states, again as described by Clark: Binding: in the style of Ticknor format A. Brown bold-ribbed T cloth with blind-stamped floral device inside ruled panels on both covers. Spine gold-stamped. Cream-colored wove endpapers. The contents are listed on pp. iii-iv and there is no preface. This is a key indicator of the first edition versus the second edition, which includes a preface. The other variants between the first and second editions are also present. These consist of sixty-nine typographical and spelling errors and punctuation changes throughout the text. For example, on page 21 line 20 "reduplicate" appears instead of "repudiate."… Read More

Milano: Giovanni Ricordi [PNs 16221-16241], 1844. Oblong folio. Mid-tan leather-backed marbled boards, spine with decorative gilt rules. 1f. (title within decorative blue border), [i] (table of contents with plate numbers), [i] (named cast list), 3-229, [i] (blank) pp. Title, table of contents, and cast list typeset, music engraved. Each number with its own plate number, price, and secondary pagination. Cast list includes the names of the singers for the opera's premiere. Page 56 blank (and unpaginated). Binding quite rubbed and worn; slightly shaken. Title slightly foxed; occasional light soiling and wear to blank margins; worming, primarily to blank margins; some tears; small tear to lower blank margin of pp. 217-218 repaired; tape repair to blank verso of final leaf, not seriously affecting music to recto. Quite a nice copy overall. First complete edition, first issue. Scarce. Hopkinson 41A(a). Chusid p. 63. Catalogo Ricordi online. Ernani, to a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave after Victor… Read More

New York:: Scribner's,, 1937.. First Printing of the First US Edition. A Fine tight copy in a Near Fine unclipped dust jacket with just a hint of wear to the head of the spine. To Have and Have Not was Hemingway's second novel set in the United States, after The Torrents of Spring. Written sporadically between 1935 and 1937, and revised as he traveled back and forth from Spain during the Spanish Civil War, To Have and Have Not portrays Key West and Cuba in the 1930s, and provides a social commentary on that time and place. Hemingway biographer Jeffrey Meyers describes the novel as heavily influenced by the Marxist ideology Hemingway was exposed to by his support of the Republican faction in the Spanish Civil War while he was writing it. The novel had its origins in two short stories published earlier in periodicals by Hemingway ("One Trip Across" and "The Tradesman's Return") which make up the opening chapters, and a novella, written later, which makes up about two-thirds of the book. The narrative is… Read More

First American Edition of the "Authorized Translation" by Nathan Haskell Dole, in the four-volume "Deluxe Binding": paper spine labels a bit rubbed, small previous owner's name on front end papers of each volume. A very good, clean, tight set. Scarce in any condition, but exceptionally so in this nice condition.
This translation is much more common in the four-volumes-bound-as-two format, which continued to be sold as late as 1900, as there are copies with tipped in leaves listing The Resurrection among the Tolstoy titles available. The first appearance of War And Peace in English--published by Vizetelly in England, and in a revised edition by Gottsberger in the US, both in 1886--was actually an abridged translation of a French translation of the Russian original. This is the first edition in English translated directly from the original Russian.

Toronto: Knopf, 2005. First Canadian edition, first prnt. Signed by Rice as "Howard Allen O'Brien" on the title page. Illustrated flyer for the booksigning event laid in. Unread copy in Fine condition in a Fine dustjacket with a Durafold mylar cover. "Howard Allen O'Brien" is, of course, Rice's birth name after her father's name Howard O'Brien. Rice disliked the name and began calling herself "Anne" at age six. Biographical accounts differ on which of her parents was responsible for her birth name. One of only two copies signed as such that I know of. First volume in Rice's Christ the Lord series.. Signed by Author. First Edition. Hardcovers. Fine/Fine. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.

New York: Random House, 1940. First Edition. Hard Cover with Dust Jacket. Very Good/Very Good. Octavo. SIGNED AND INSCRIBED THUS ON FEP: "To Marguerite Dunsmore - /The friendly antagonist - in hopes / of more such intriguing duels / Cordially / Walter V. T. Clark / December 14, 1940. TOGETHER WITH CARBON TYPSCRIPT, ONE PAGE, SIGNED, WRITTEN TO MS. DUNSMORE: "Addressed to a Counter-blade / Let us cease this fencing of intellects / This sharp following behind masks / Of the bright points moving, this parry and thrust / Of the cold metal ringing, the guard against guard to a spark, / Seeking only a tip-tear in a heart sewed on white silk. / Let us throw down the limber blades, the screens of our faces, / Into the roses tossed early for the quick-legged dance of our brains, / Rub off the powder of our hands and join them tightly, / Looking upon each other once clearly uncovered. / Are we to dread the dark fools up in the gallery shadow / Crying the 'coward' chorus, until they weary, and bundle the… Read More

John Murray. London. 1927. FIRST EDITION. 8vo. (7.4 x 5 inches). A fine clean copy throughout. Finely bound, by Zaehnsdorf for Asprey and Co, in recent full black morocco. Spine with five raised bands, each with gilt wavy lines. Compartments ruled and lettered in gilt. Boards with gilt ruled border. Board edges with single gilt ruled lines. Turn-ins with elaborate floral gilt decoration. Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. A highly attractive leather binding.

First American Edition of the "Authorized Translation" by Nathan Haskell Dole, in the four-volume "Deluxe Binding": paper spine labels a bit rubbed, small previous owner's name on front end papers of each volume. A very good, clean, tight set. Scarce in any condition, but exceptionally so in this nice condition.
This translation is much more common in the four-volumes-bound-as-two format, which continued to be sold as late as 1900, as there are copies with tipped in leaves listing The Resurrection among the Tolstoy titles available. The first appearance of War And Peace in English--published by Vizetelly in England, and in a revised edition by Gottsberger in the US, both in 1886--was actually an abridged translation of a French translation of the Russian original. This is the first edition in English translated directly from the original Russian.

First Illustrated edition, #14 of 350 copies, signed by John Dos Passos and the illustrator, Reginald Marsh. The books are in fine condition, clean, tight, gilt top edge still shining. The original slipcase and (frankly weird) dust jackets are present, but rather worn (see images). An excellent set of this masterpiece of American literature.