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Rare complete set of all thirteen volumes of widely celebrated Victorian literary and artistic periodical The Yellow Book
JAMES, HENRY; KENNETH GRAHAME; BARON CORVO; HUBERT CRACKANTHORPE; JOHN DAVIDSON; ELLA D'ARCY; ADA LEVERSON; H.G. WELLS; WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS; ET AL.
The Yellow Book: An Illustrated Quarterly.
London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane 1894-1897.
Complete set of all thirteen volumes of one of the most important periodicals of the 1890s, with contributions by Henry James, Max Beerbohm, Kenneth Grahame, H. G. Wells, and W. B. Yeats, among many others. First edition second issue, without book lists or publisher’s announcements to rear. Octavo, thirteen volumes in the original publisher’s yellow pictorial cloth stamped in black, cover designs by Aubrey Beardsley (Vols. 1-4), Ethel Reed, and Mabel Syrett, tissue-guarded illustrated title page to each volume, extensively illustrated with tissue-guarded plates by artists including Beardsley, Max Beerbohm, Laurence Housman, Joseph Pennell, William Rothenstein, and Walter Sickert. In near fine condition. An exceptional set.
Price: $2,500.00 Item Number: 144075
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"Live all you can; it's a mistake not to": First American Edition of Henry James' The Ambassadors
JAMES, HENRY.
The Ambassadors.
New York : Harper & Brothers 1903.
First American edition of this dark comedy, which Henry James considered his finest work. Octavo, original cloth, gilt topstain. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket with light toning to the spine.
Price: $1,600.00 Item Number: 142170
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First Edition of James' Controversial Commentary on the social environment of turn-of-the-century-america: The American Scene
JAMES, HENRY.
The American Scene.
New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers 1907.
First American edition of James’ account of his trip throughout the United States between 1904 and 1905. Octavo, original blue cloth, gilt tooling to the front panel and spine. In very good condition. Housed in a custom half morocco chemise and clamshell box. A nice example.
Price: $975.00 Item Number: 80105
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First edition of Henry James' The Princess Casamassima: A Novel
JAMES, HENRY.
The Princess Casamassima: A Novel.
New York: Macmillan and Co 1886.
First American edition of one of James’s “three formidable novels” published in the 1880s along with The Bostonians and The Tragic Muse. Octavo, original publisher’s cloth. In near fine condition, name opposite the half-title page. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell case.
Price: $1,250.00 Item Number: 143493
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First Edition of Henry James' Roderick Hudson
JAMES, HENRY.
Roderick Hudson.
New York: James R. Osgood and Company 1876.
First edition of one of James’ earliest novels. Octavo, original cloth. In near fine condition. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell and chemise box. An exceptional presentation.
Price: $1,750.00 Item Number: 142180
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"Live all you can; it's a mistake not to": First American Edition of Henry James' The Ambassadors
JAMES, HENRY.
The Ambassadors.
New York : Harper & Brothers 1903.
First American edition of this dark comedy, which Henry James considered his finest work. Octavo, original cloth, gilt topstain. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with light toning to the spine. Housed in a custom half morocco slipcase. An exceptional example.
Price: $2,500.00 Item Number: 55023
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“Her memory's your love. You want no other”: First Edition of Henry James' The Wings of Dove
JAMES, HENRY.
The Wings of the Dove.
London: Westminster and Archibald Constable & Co 1902.
First edition of Henry James’ landmark novel. Octavo, original cloth. In very good condition, name to the front free endpaper. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell and chemise box.
Price: $1,500.00 Item Number: 142275
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Exceptionally rare autograph album containing the autographs of 24 American Presidents in addition to numerous autographs of Cabinet Members, vice presidents and several rare carte-de-visites
WASHINGTON, GEORGE; JOHN ADAMS; THOMAS JEFFERSON; JAMES MADISON; ANDREW JACKSON; MARTIN VAN BUREN; WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON; JAMES TYLER; JAMES H. POLK; JAMES BUCHANAN; ZACHARY TAYLOR; MILLARD FILLMORE; JAMES BUCHANAN; FRANKLIN PIERCE; ABRAHAM LINCOLN; WILLIAM SEWARD; ANDREW JOHNSON; ULYSSES S. GRANT; JAMES GARFIELD; CHESTER A. ARTHUR; GROVER CLEVELAND; BENJAMIN HARRISON; GROVER CLEVELAND; WILLIAM MCKINLEY; ALEXANDER HAMILTON.
Autograph Album of the Presidents and Cabinet Officials of the United States of America.
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Rare late 19th century folio album containing an extensive collection of Presidential autographs, letters, carte-de-visites, and portraits in addition to those of each Cabinet. Folio, bound in three quarter morocco with five raised bands and gilt titles to the spine. The album contains: a clipped signature of President George Washington with a four-page letter of provenance dated July 13 1948, several portraits of him including two rare carte-de-visites as well as a carte-de-visite of Martha Washington; and autograph letter signed by John Adams as President to Benjamin Lincoln, Quincy, July 23, 1799; a clipped document signed by Thomas Jefferson as President and James Madison as Secretary of State with numerous portraits of each; a trimmed ship’s passport signed by James Monroe; clipped signatures of Andrew Jackson and Martin van Buren; autograph letter signed by William Henry Harrison, North Bend, March 4, 1840; clipped signature of James Tyler; clipped document signed by James H. Polk as President and countersigned by James Buchanan as Secretary of State with the Presidential Seal intact; a card signed by Zachary Taylor and members of his cabinet; slipped signature of Millard Fillmore; autograph letter signed by James Buchanan; clipped signature of Franklin Pierce; clipped signatures of Abraham Lincoln, William Seward, and Andrew Johnson; clipped signature of Ulysses S. Gran with numerous portraits of him including a rare carte-de-visite; clipped signature and autograph not signed by Rutherford B. Hayes, March 21, 1892; autograph note signed by James Garfield, Menton, Ohio June 22, 1880; signature card of Chester A. Arthur dated November 15, 1881; an autograph letter signed by Grover Cleveland on White House stationery, dated September 1, 1887; a card signed by Benjamin Harrison; a signature card signed by Grover Cleveland; and a letter signed by William McKinley, 27 February 1892. The Presidential autographs and portraits are followed by extensive section of cabinet officials including: a clipped signature of Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury; an autograph letter signed by Albert Gallatin; clipped signatures of Aaron Burr, John Armstrong, John Calhoun, and Henry Clay; autograph note signed by Daniel Webster; card signed by James Polk, James Buchanan and other members of his cabinet; autograph letter signed by Edward Everett; autograph note signed by Jefferson Davis and other members of the Confederacy including Howell Cobb and James Thompson; autograph note signed by William H. Seward, dated 1855; and a note signed by Gideon Welles on Navy Department stationery in addition to dozens of other notable American public figures including cabinet officials and Vice-Presidents. In very good condition. An exceptional rarity.
Price: $82,000.00 Item Number: 129509
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First edition of Henry James' The Princess Casamassima: A Novel; an exceptional example from the libraries of Barton Currie and later Maurice Sendak
JAMES, HENRY.
The Princess Casamassima: A Novel.
London: Macmillan and Co. 1886.
First edition in book form of one of James’s “three formidable novels” published in the 1880s along with The Bostonians and The Tragic Muse. Octavo, three volumes, original publisher’s cloth with gilt titles to the spine, half-titles, 2 pages of advertisements at rear of vols. II and III. From the library of Barton Currie with his bookplate to the pastedown and later Maurice Sendak, although not marked. American journalist, author, and book collector Barton Currie contributed hundreds of articles and stories for publications such as New York Evening World, New York Evening Sun, Harper’s Weekly and Good Housekeeping in the early part of the 20th century. Currie wrote from personal experience of the effect of bibliomania on the collector in his memoir Fishers of Books (1931), “The first symptom of bibliomania manifests itself by producing a form of somnambulism. You come out of a bookshop carrying a first edition of something or other. You cannot explain how or why you got it, or what you paid for it. But you have it; and when you arrive home with it you creep off to some secluded room and examine it. Then occurs the first little burning exaltation. Just a little glow to begin with, then by infinite gradations a consuming fire.” Best known for his immensely popular illustrated children’s book, Where the Wild Things Are, Sendak’s career was launched in 1952 with the publication of Ruth Krauss’s A Hole Is to Dig. Their author-illustrator collaboration, facilitated by Harper & Row publisher and editor-in-chief of juvenile books Ursula Nordstrom, became something of a cultural phenomenon, spawning a host of imitators of their “unruly” and “rebellious” child protagonists. Now one of the scarcest and most desirable books in modern children’s literature, Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are faced many opponents and was banned in several libraries upon publication in 1963. Its challengers accused the work as being “too dark” and “traumatizing” to young children due to its often frightening imagery.” It would become one of many “good books for bad children” edited and published by Nordstrom who disliked the genteel, sentimental tone of earlier American children’s literature and sought to change its purpose to appeal to children’s imaginations and emotions, rather than serve as adult-approved morality tales. Housed in a custom clamshell box by Zaehnsdorf. An exceptional example with noted provenance.
Price: $12,500.00 Item Number: 135364
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First edition of Henry James' Italian Hours; inscribed by him to Edmund and Ellen Gosse and later from the library of famed children's book author Maurice Sendak
JAMES, HENRY.
Italian Hours.
London: William Heinemann 1909.
First edition, one of 1000 copies printed of James’ classic book of travel writing, wonderfully illustrated by Joseph Pennell. Quarto, original cloth decorated in gilt, top edge gilt. Illustrated by Joseph Pennell with 32 tissue-guarded color plates. Association copy, inscribed by Henry James on the front free endpaper in the year of publication, “To Edmund and Nelly Gosse their all, faithful old friend Henry James December 4th 1909.” The recipients, English poet, author, and critic Edmund Gosse and his wife, Pre-Raphaelite painter Ellen Gosse were two of James’ closest and longest-standing friends. James and Edmund exchanged more than 400 letters over the course of several decades and Gosse was a well-known literary figure in his own right, best known for his English translations Ibsen and the role he played in encouraging the careers of Yeats and Joyce. With Gosses’s bookplate to the pastedown, as well as that of Maurice Sendak who later acquired the book. Best known for his immensely popular illustrated children’s book, Where the Wild Things Are, Sendak’s career was launched in 1952 with the publication of Ruth Krauss’s A Hole Is to Dig. Their author-illustrator collaboration, facilitated by Harper & Row publisher and editor-in-chief of juvenile books Ursula Nordstrom, became something of a cultural phenomenon, spawning a host of imitators of their “unruly” and “rebellious” child protagonists. Now one of the scarcest and most desirable books in modern children’s literature, Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are faced many opponents and was banned in several libraries upon publication in 1963. Its challengers accused the work as being “too dark” and “traumatizing” to young children due to its often frightening imagery. It would become one of many “good books for bad children” edited and published by Nordstrom who disliked the genteel, sentimental tone of earlier American children’s literature and sought to change its purpose to appeal to children’s imaginations and emotions, rather than serve as adult-approved morality tales. In near fine condition. A very sharp example with exceptional provenance.
Price: $12,000.00 Item Number: 135623