Rare books from Johnson Rare Books & Archives

A collection of 180 flyers, business cards, and handbills promoting Southern California glam and heavy metal bands from the mid-1980s to the early-1990s, featuring acts such as Funhouse, Nuclear Valdez, L.A. Guns, New Haven, The Cherry Bombz, Hanoi Rocks, The Lords of the New Church, and Warbride. The flyers are all printed sheets in sizes ranging between 3" x 3 1/2" and 16 1/2" x 11" in various colors with several incorporating rubberstamped elements. The material is mostly near fine, some with small chips and tears from being mounted on bulletin boards and posts. The flyers are printed with pictures of the glam and heavy metal bands in various poses wearing tight pants and open shirts, with the signature big hair and makeup favored at the time. Small drawings of flowers, hearts, caricatures, and typographical band names festoon the edges of the colorful flyers. One flyer features the L.A. Guns posing for the camera with "Fiendish is the word for it!" written off to the side. The L.A. Guns were one… Read More

New York: Berkley Publishing Corporation, 1976. First Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/Fine. Inscribed by Frank Herbert to Portland, Oregon bookseller Chuck Garvin on the title page. Garvin and his partner, Jeff Levin, opened a book shop on Burnside Street in the late 1970s featuring a wide selection of science fiction and fantasy literature. The third in Herbert's Dune series of six novels. Nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1977, it was also the first hardcover best-seller ever in the science fiction field. Octavo: 444 p. Original rust cloth binding, with gilt titles. A bit of rubbing along the spine of the dust jacket; else very good or better.

London: T. Nelson and Sons, 1887. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Inscribed by the author on a prefatory blank leaf. "Inglis was a missionary stationed in the New Hebrides Islands; he was based at Aneityum. His book covers every aspect of life on the islands, from observations on the terrain to local ceremonies and festivities. Also included are biographical sketches of some of the missionaries who first brought Christianity to those islands" (Hill 866). Octavo: xvi, 352 p. with a map and a portrait plate. The erratum is tipped in before the rear flyleaf. Original blue cloth binding, with gilt titles and ruled borders. Faint label shadow to the front flyleaf, with some general dust staining to the top edge. The spine is lightly sun faded, with a bit of wear to the corners and tips and some minor spotting; otherwise very good.

New York: Franklin Simon & Co, 1907. Wraps. Very good. Franklin Simon & Co. was a New York City department store specializing in women's fashions and furnishings. Founded in 1903 by Franklin Simon (1865-1934), the store was located at 414 Fifth Avenue at 38th Street, the former home of Mrs. Orme Wilson, sister of John Jacob Astor. It was the first big Fifth Avenue store above 34th Street. The store ultimately closed in 1977 following mergers and a bankruptcy. According to a 1932 Time magazine story, "success was chiefly due to women's clothes imported from France." The business specialized in goods imported from Europe and sold at the same price level as domestic products. Along with illustrations, this catalog includes prices for garments. For example, a "Two-Piece Dressy Gown, of imported washable Swiss, in black and white, light blue and white, pink and white, gray and white, green and white and violet and white effects, waist and skirt richly trimmed with Valenciennes lace, satin ribbon girdle… Read More

New York: Butler Brothers, 1901. Wraps. Very good. George and Edward Butler founded the wholesale mail order company Butler Brothers in Boston in 1877 and opened a Chicago warehouse in 1879. The company focused on providing inexpensive staple goods to independent general stores and supported their growth. This pamphlet provides entrepreneurs the road map for starting their own department store, covering everything from location and naming the store, to setting up of displays, profit margins, and stocking the store with products offered by Butler Brothers. "The reason why a man with a small stock of variety goods can hold his own against concerns that have dollars, where he has dimes, is simple," the brochure states. "Every penny of capital is in quick turning goods." Butler Brothers ultimately moved all operations to Chicago by 1930. "Like Sears and Montgomery Ward, other Chicago companies that had large mail-order operations, Butler Bros. moved into brick-and-mortar retailing during the 1920s. By… Read More

Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Company, 1898. Second Edition. Hardcover. Very good. The first textbook on the subject published in the United States. A native of Ohio, Lane (1828-1902) "ranks among the giants of nineteenth-century California medical history and education," according to historian John David Smith. He graduated from Philadelphia's Jefferson Medical College in 1851, studied in Europe, served as an assistant surgeon in the U.S. Navy for four years, then settled in San Francisco, where his uncle Elias A. Cooper had established the first medical college on the Pacific Coast. In 1870, Lane reorganized and took over leadership of his uncle's medical school; his extensive financial support led the school to be renamed as the Cooper Medical College in honor of his uncle. The school merged with Stanford University in 1909 (the Cooper campus in San Francisco served as the Stanford Medical School clinical campus until 1959). Ten years in the making, Lane's textbook was intended to be the… Read More

Los Angeles: Dawson's Book Shop, 1972. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. Limited to 500 copies printed by Grant Dahlstrom at the Castle Press, Pasadena. This is Anna Marie Hager's copy, inscribed to her by series editors Ed Carpenter and Glen Dawson, and signed and dated by Grant Dahlstrom. Additionally inscribed by historian Thomas F. Andrews, and accompanied by typed letters signed (TLS) from Andrews and La Siesta Press publisher Walt Wheelock, respectively. The source material for this, the 28th volume of the Baja California Travel Series, is a San Francisco anti-Catholic weekly of the 1870s, Thistleton's Illustrated Jolly Giant. Janes was a soldier of fortune whose round trip from San Francisco to La Paz provided the adventures (largely mining and revolutionary, including a version of the "El Triunfo War") that are related in a brisk and somewhat humorous fashion. Octavo: 98 p. with three tipped-in color plates and nine illustrations (two folding). Original rust cloth binding, with gilt… Read More

San Francisco: D.E. Appleton & Co, 1858. First Edition. Wraps. Very good. 16mo: 64 p. Original printed paper wrappers. Tiny bit of edgewear to the front panel; else a remarkably fresh example. Cowan: p.599; Wheat 162. Stone had published two California songsters, and their popularity induced him to publish this, the third in a series. Topics include mining, the rowdiness (and loneliness) of life in the camps, longing for home, and the comeliness of California girls - anticipating The Beach Boys by more than a century! The final two pages contain a list of "Mining Localities Peculiar to California".

London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd, 1931. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Reprinted from the Fourth Edition (1730), with a foreword by Prof. Albert Einstein, Nobel Laureate, and an introduction by Prof. E.T. Whittaker, F.R.S. Small octavo: xxviii, [2], 414 p. with textual figures. Original blue cloth binding, with gilt titles. Mild foxing along the edges, with some light edgewear to the dust jacket; otherwise very good. First published in 1704, Newton's Opticks provides not only a survey of 18th century knowledge about all aspects of light, but also countless number of the author's unique scientific insights.

New York: Cassell Publishing Company, 1892. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. The first American edition (from the sheets of the first English edition, with a cancel title page). A universal icon and a metaphor of the human condition, Pinocchio is considered a canonical piece of children's literature and has had an enduring impact on world culture. Small octavo: [8], 232 p. with the half-title and title page printed in red and black. Illustrated with forty-one black-and-white vignette drawings by C. Mazzanti. Original off-white cloth binding, delicately stamped in blue in a decorative floral pattern, with matching edges and endpapers. The spine is a touch faded, with some minor wear to the boards and a bit of wear to the corners and tips; else very good. Housed in a custom blue morocco clamshell box.

New York: Dutton's Children's Books, 1997. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. Inscribed by Paul Zelinsky on the title page. Winner of the 1998 Caldecott Medal. A retelling of the German folktale in which a beautiful girl with long golden hair is kept imprisoned in a lonely tower by a sorceress. Colorfully illustrated throughout. Quarto. Original pictorila boards. Light foxing to the top edge; else fine in a fine dust jacket.See this book and other children's books at the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair, October 8-9 at the Seattle Center. For more information and tickets, visit: www.SeattleBookFair.com

San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/Near fine. Signed, with an original drawing, by Audrey Wood and illustrator Don Wood on the front flyleaf. Despite please from his court, a fun-loving king refuses to get out of his bathtub to rule his kingdom. A Caldecott Honor book, colorfully illustrated throughout. Quarto. Original tan cloth binding, with gilt stamping. A near fine copy in a near fine dust jacket.See this book and other children's books at the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair, October 8-9 at the Seattle Center. For more information and tickets, visit: www.SeattleBookFair.com

Lincoln: Woodruff Printing Company, 1940. First Edition. Wraps. Fine. A serious attempt to present information about the state's African American population. The preface acknowledges Fred D. Dixon and Albert J. Burks, two African American employees of the Nebraska Writers' Project, for their invaluable research. Octavo. 48 p. with drawings by Paul Gibson. Original printed orange paper wrappers. Just a hint of toning along the extremities; otherwise fine.

New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1885. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. First edition, early state with all three first printing points: the "Decided" misprint on page 9, the erroneous page reference ("88") on page 13, and the "with the was" error on page 57. In addition, this copy features a portrait frontispiece with the cloth under the bust visible and the Heliotype imprint (State A), as well as the tipped-in title page with 1884 on the copyright page (State B) and the tipped-in p.283 with the replaced Uncle Silas engraving (State C). These last three points do not have bearing on priority of issue, nor does the binding. Laid in is a small card (3" x 1 1/2") signed and dated (1894) by Mark Twain. Hilariously picaresque, epic in scope, alive with the poetry and vigor of the Antebellum South, Mark Twain's story about a young boy and his journey down the Mississippi was the first great novel to speak in a truly American voice. As Ernest Hemingway observed, "all American literature… Read More

New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, 1887. Hardcover. Near fine. Third edition, with a Wilport Press cancel on the title page. Laid in is a one sheet (4 ½" x 7") with instructions for measurements used in the book; for example, one wine glass is equivalent to four ounces or half a water tumbler. 12mo: 130 p. with textual illustrations. Original brown cloth binding, with black stamping. A remarkably fresh copy. Near fine. Considered the father of American mixology, "Professor" Jerry Thomas (1830-85) published the first edition of this guide in 1862. It was the first cocktail book published in the United States and contained the first written accounts of many cocktails such as the Fizz, Brandy Daisy, and the Sour. Thomas updated the guide several times, and in this edition, which was published two years after his death, he introduced the Martinez, which is understood to be the precursor to the martini. It calls for one pony of Old Tom gin, a glass of vermouth, two dashes of Maraschino, and a dash of Boker's… Read More