Rare books from Rulon-Miller Books

London: Duckworth, 1904. First edition, 8vo, pp. [8], 224; fine copy in original brown cloth, gilt-lettered spine, and original printed dust jacket; spine of jacket darkened and a little chipped, and with a small stain or two, but the jacket is generally very good. The author's last book, published on the very day of his death. Four pages of closely-written contemporary mss. notes laid in, apparently made in connection with a review. Leslie Stephen, of course, was the father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell.

Springfield: George & Charles Merriam, 1848. First edition of the first Merriam-Webster dictionary; thick 4to, pp. lxxxiv, 1367; engraved frontispiece portrait after Samuel F. B. Morse (slightly offset onto title page); full original sheep, gilt lettered direct on spine; some rubbing and wear, but sound.

New York: Philip C. Duschnes, 1945. 3 volumes in two, facsimile reproduction of the 1884 edition, 8vo, pp. [2], xii, 449; [2], vii, [1], 412, [2], vi, [2], 115, [1]; illustrated throughout; original red cloth, spine lettered in gilt, 2 leaves chipped at margins (not affecting text), else very good with original prospectus laid in.

[Roslyn, NY]: New York Public Library and the Stone House Press, 1989. Edition ltd. to 200 copies signed by the participants; 8vo, pp. [3]-113; facsimile title-pp., etc. and color illus. by John De Pol throughout; generally fine in orig. red cloth-backed dec. paper-covered boards, also designed by De Pol. "With a few exceptions, the wood-engravings were printed from the original wood blocks, and other types of illustrations were printed from metal line cuts."

Philadelphia: W.W. Woodward, also by W. P. Farrand, 1806. First American edition, 4 volumes, 8vo, 43 engraved folding plates, largely of globes and scientific and mathematical instruments; contemporary full calf, red and black morocco labels on spine; some cracking of the joints on volume I, else generally a very good, sound, clean, and handsome set. Shaw & Shoemaker 9799.

Oxford: printed at the Clarendon Press, by J. Cooke and S. Collingwood, 1820. Thick 8vo; inserted engraved title-p.; bound with A New Version of the Psalms of David, 1825; contemporary full red straight-grain morocco, covers with elaborate gilt borders, gilt lettered direct on gilt-decorated spine, a.e.g.; hinges strengthened, extremities rubbed and worn, 2 small ink spots on back cover; all else very good. With a large fore-edge painting showing Oxford from the countryside.

London: published by Black, Young, and Young, foreign booksellers to the King, 1832. First English edition, used by Webster as a template for his 1841 octavo, "reprinted by E.H. Barker, Esq. of Thetford, Norfolk, from a copy communicated by the author, and containing many manuscript corrections and additions: with an appendix by the editor"; 2 volumes, 4to; pp. viii, [i]-civ, plus unpaginated lexicon in triple column; [2] and unpaginated lexicon; the publisher's advertisements noted by Skeel have not been preserved in this copy. A good, sound copy in mid-19th-century half calf over marbled boards, rubbed and scuffed, top of one spine with small chip; good and sound. One of the scarcest of the early editions of Webster. Of note is the inclusion of Joseph Worcester's "Synopsis of Words pronounced by different Orthoepists," extracted from the American edition of 1829 which was edited by Worcester, and published prior to the rift that developed between the two lexicographers. As to the text of the… Read More

Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1933. First edition, original 51 fascicles, plus the 1933 Supplement; large 4to, original printed cloth-backed boards (supplement in plain boards and with an early neat rebacking); with many prefaces, prefatory notes, titles and half titles, etc., most not included in the book edition; a complete set in what is likley a late (?last) issue of the fascicles. Some sets have as many as 126 fascicles; we have handled other sets containing 126, 112, 100, and 67 fascicles, and surely there are a number of other combinations. This set contains individual sections as follows, with publication dates and editor in brackets: A-ANT [1884, Murray]; ANT-BATTEN [1885, Murray]; BATTER-BOZ [1887, Murray]; BRA-BYZ [1888, Murray]; C-CASS [1888, Murray]; CASS-CLIVY [1889, Murray]; CLO-CONSIGNER [1891, Murray]; CONSIGNIFICANT-CROUCHING [1893, Murray]; CROUCHMAS-CZECH [1893, Murray]; D-DEPRAVATION [1895, Murray]; DEPRATIVE-DISTRUSTFUL [1897, Murray]; DISTRUSTFULLY-DZIGGETAL [1897, Murray];… Read More

Springfield: George and Charles Merriam, 1848. First edition of the first Merriam-Webster dictionary; thick 4to, pp. lxxxiv, 1367; engraved frontispiece portrait after Samuel F.B. Morse; full original sheep, black morocco spine label mostly perished; the whole quite scuffed and rubbed, preliminaries foxed, modern (1950s) manuscript list of birthdays on rear endpapers; texblock very good and sound. Contemporary ownership inscriptions of Mrs. H. Booth on front free endpaper and frontispiece verso. Vancil, p. 262.

London: printed by C. Ackers, for J. Wilcox, 1734. First edition in English taken directly from the Arabic, and "remarkably accurate ... the best in any language ... a very poor English rendering by Alexander Ross appeared in 1649, but it was taken from the despicable French version" (DNB) of Andre Du Ryer. 4to, pp. [6], iii-ix, [3], 187, [1], 508, [15]; title page printed in red and black, engraved folding map of Arabia, 4 engraved plates (3 folding); recent full brown morocco, gilt borders on cover, gilt-lettered direct on spine; very good and sound. Lowndes II, 1280.

Lexington: Anvil Press, 1986. Edition limited to 100 copies (this, no. 44), printed in red and black in Victor Hammer's American and Andromaque uncial types; 4to, pp. 10, [2], iv, vii, [1], 51, [7]; text printed in red and black throughout; with 21 woodcuts by Fritz Kredel; fine. Original prospectus, order form, extra label, and an autograph note signed by Carolyn Hammer all laid in.

Mobile: S. H. Goetzel, 1863. First edition, 16mo, 3 parts in 1; pp. [2], ii, 220; 104; 47, [1]; 97-108 (Bugle Signals); xiv (index), [2] ads; 38 engraved plates (8 folding); original paper-covered boards, rebacked in blue cloth sometime in the 20th century; boards worn, text occasionally dampstained and foxed, without the front free endpaper, and hinges with old archival paper repair; but in all, a good, sound, and compelling copy of a poorly made book. Parrish & Willingham 5116.

New York: The Century Co, 1889. First edition, 6 volumes in the original 24 parts, large 4to, pp. [2], xviii, 7046, [30] (continuous pagination); text in triple column; numerous (approximately 6000) illustrations throughout the text; light rubbing and wear all around, but generally a very good set in original decorative brown cloth. "In 1882 Charles Annandale greatly enlarged Ogilvie's dictionary (The Imperial Dictionary, 1850) which came to be the basis for The Century, an American work modeled after the OED. William Dwight Whitney, a well-known Sanskrit scholar and linguist (and professor of comparative philology and Sanskrit at Yale) was the editor... Beautifully printed at the DeVinne Press, it is surely one of the handsomest dictionaries ever made" (Landau, Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography, p. 72). Kennedy 6584; O'Neill C-20; Vancil, p. 48.

Philadelphia: [publisher not identified], published at 1227 Walnut Street, [stereotyped by L. Johnson & Co., printed by C. Sherman and Son], 5619. Second edition, 4to, pp. vi, [4], 3-1011, [1], plus 2 pro-forma lithograph leaves of "family records," and a tipped-in printed slip extending the family record (see below); original brown morocco, tooled in black and gilt in a Grolieresque style, two brass clasps, all edges gilt; brown coated endpapers, turn-ins tooled in gilt; bookplate and purple stamps of the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, including stamp to title page. Skillfully and sympathetically rebacked with original spine laid down, lightly rubbed, but generally clean and fresh: Very good and sound.  Handsome edition of the first translation of the Hebrew Bible by an American Jew, now known as the Leeser Bible. A prolific and ambitious religious leader, Isaac Leeser had a "monumental" impact on the American Jewish community (ANB). He elevated the status of Jewish religious leaders, advocated… Read More

London: Chapman and Hall Limited, 1881. Thirty volumes in 60, edition de luxe limited to 1000 copies, this a slightly mixed set, with first two volumes number 482 and the rest numbered 14; large 8vo; facsimiles of original wrappers, vignette and engraved title pages illustrated by Cruikshank, plates throughout, four in the Christmas volumes hand colored; half burgundy morocco over marbled boards, gilt decorated spine in six compartments, gilt title in two; t.e.g.; spines and edges occasionally scuffed; upper free endpaper of vol. 1 loose, five plates loose and a couple others starting; small dent to lower board of vol. 15, closed tear to top edge of about 20 pages of vol. 47, very good overall.