First Edition
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"THE MOST FAMOUS AND INFLUENTIAL AMERICAN POLITICAL WORK”: EXCEPTIONALLY RARE FIRST EDITION OF THE FEDERALIST
[HAMILTON, Alexander; James Madison; John Jay].
The Federalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favour of the New Constitution, As Agreed Upon by the Federal Convention, September 17, 1787.
New York: Printed and Sold by J. and A. McLean, 1788.
First edition of The Federalist, one of the rarest and most significant books in American political history. 12mo, bound in half calf over marbled boards with raised bands, gilt titles to the spine. In very good condition with light toning to the pages. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell and chemise box. An exceptional example of this cornerstone of Americana.
Price: $250,000.00 Item Number: 143916
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"The Bible degrades Woman from Genesis to Revelation & yet women believe it was written by the fingers of God"; The Woman's Bible; inscribed by American suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton
[STANTON, Elizabeth Cady].
The Woman’s Bible.
New York: European Publishing Company, 1898.
Rare early printings of The Woman's Bible, both volumes lengthily inscribed by famed American suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton who chaired the committee that published the work. Octavo, two volumes, Part I: third edition - ten thousand, Part II: first edition - ten thousand. Both parts are presentation copies, lengthily inscribed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Part I is inscribed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, "Miss Mary .... compliments of Elizabeth Cady Stanton 250 West 94th New York 1899 We much read the Bible as we do all other books that have emanated from the brain of man with no special divine authority."…
Price: $35,000.00 Item Number: 142839
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FROM THE LIBRARY OF GEORGE WASHINGTON AT MOUNT VERNON: First edition, presentation copy of Elkanah Watson's Tour in Holland; inscribed by him to George Washington
[WATSON, Elkanah] [George Washington].
Tour in Holland in MDCCLXXXIV. By an American.
Printed at Worcester, Massachusetts: Isaiah Thomas, 1790.
First edition, presentation copy of a scarce volume from George Washington's library at Mount Vernon. Octavo, bound in full contemporary sheep with pine gilt in six compartments within raised bands, burgundy morocco spine label lettered in gilt, type-ornament title-page vignette, head and tailpieces. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author to George Washington on the front pastedown, "From the Author to General Washington" and further inscribed on the front free endpaper, "New York, Feb. 1798. Sir, Please to accept this small production which has stole its way into the world. If it can beguile one moment of that anxiety which doubtless pervades your…
Price: $275,000.00 Item Number: 143919
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Rare First Edition of The Education of Henry Adams; One of only 40 Examples
ADAMS, Henry.
The Education of Henry Adams.
Washington: Privately Printed, 1907.
Rare first edition, one of only 40 copies printed of this classic work. The text of Education was not made commercially available until 1918, following the author's death, when it was published by Houghton Mifflin. In 1919 it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the Modern Library named it as the best non-fiction book published in English since 1900. BAL 32; Reese Narratives of Personal Experience 2 ("certainly one of the great American biographies"). In near fine condition. Housed in a custom clamshell box.
Price: $25,000.00 Item Number: 140067
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"One of the 100 best books of any kind of the 20th century": First Edition of Hannah Arendt's Masterpiece The Origins of Totalitarianism; Inscribed by Her in the Year of Publication
ARENDT, Hannah.
The Origins of Totalitarianism.
New York: Harcourt Brace, 1951.
First edition of this masterpiece, by one of the most important and influential thinkers of the twentieth century. Octavo, original cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed and dated in the year of publication by Hannah Arendt on the front free endpaper. Near fine in a very good dust jacket with some rubbing and chips. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box made by the Harcourt Bindery. Rare and desirable signed.
Price: $20,000.00 Item Number: 143024
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"Here we see the men who shaped the American experience and were shaped by it": First edition of Daniel J. Boorstin's The Americans: The National Experience; lengthily inscribed by him
BOORSTIN, Daniel J.
The Americans: The National Experience.
New York: Random House, 1965.
First edition of Boorstin's Francis Parkman Prize-winning book. Octavo, original cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "For Dr. Frank Rufords with the admiration and warm regards of Daniel J. Boorstin April 9, 1966." Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Jacket design by Anita Karl.
Price: $350.00 Item Number: 95372
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"Full circle from the tomb of the womb to the womb of the tomb we come": First Edition of The Hero With A Thousand Faces; Signed by Joseph Campbell
CAMPBELL, Joseph.
The Hero With A Thousand Faces.
New York: Pantheon Books, 1949.
First edition of Joseph Campbell's magnum opus. Octavo, original half cloth, illustrated with 22 textual drawings, 12 plates. Boldly signed by Joseph Campbell on the title page. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. First editions are rare, especially signed.
Price: $12,500.00 Item Number: 145938
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"There had been a heavy shower of rain, but the sun was already shining through the breaks in the clouds and throwing swiftly changing shadows on the streets, the houses, and the gardens of the city of Laurania": First edition of Churchill's only full-length work of fiction: Savrola: A Tale of the Revolution in Laurania
CHURCHILL, Winston S.
Savrola: A Tale of the Revolution in Laurania.
New York: Longmans, Green and Co, 1900.
First American edition (which precedes the British first) of Churchill's singular attempt at full-length fiction. Octavo, original cloth with gilt titles to the spine and front panel. In near fine condition. Rare and desirable in this condition, Churchill's only work of literature.
Price: $1,100.00 Item Number: 129733
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First Edition of Churchill's Ian Hamilton's March in the original cloth
CHURCHILL, Winston S.
Ian Hamilton’s March.
London: Longman's, Green, and Co, 1900.
First edition of Churchill's fifth book, a continuation of his coverage of the Boer War which he began in London to Ladysmith via Pretoria. Octavo, original red cloth with gilt titles to the spine and front panel, engraved frontispiece portrait of Ian Hamilton, folding map in color and 4 pages of advertisements for Churchill's works at rear. In near fine condition. A sharp example.
Price: $1,200.00 Item Number: 129329
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“ONE OF THE BEST POLITICAL BIOGRAPHIES IN ENGLISH:” FIRST EDITION OF WINSTON S. CHURCHILL'S LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL; Signed by winston s. churchill and finely bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe
CHURCHILL, Winston S.
Lord Randolph Churchill.
New York and London: Macmillan & Co. Limited, 1906.
First editions of Winston S. Churchill's impassioned two-volume biography written in defence of his maligned father's posthumous reputation; a bulwark of any Churchill collection. Octavo, 2 volumes bound in three quarters morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe with gilt titles and five raised bands to the spine, top edge gilt, engraved frontispiece portrait of Sir Randolph Churchill after a photograph by Mackintosh to Volume I, engraved frontispiece portrait of Sir Randolph Churchill after a photograph by Russell and Sons to Volume II, illustrated. Signed by the author on the first blank of Vol. I, "Inscribed by Winston S. Churchill 1907." In…
Price: $8,200.00 Item Number: 144651
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First Edition of Churchill's Ian Hamilton's March; Finely Bound by the Harcourt Bindery
CHURCHILL, Winston S.
Ian Hamilton’s March.
London: Longman's, Green, and Co, 1900.
First edition of Churchill's fifth book, a continuation of his coverage of the Boer War which he began in London to Ladysmith via Pretoria. Octavo, bound in full morocco by the Harcourt Bindery, gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, gilt ruling to the front and rear panels, gilt signature to the front panel, gilt inner dentelles stamp-signed by the Harcourt Bindery, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt,engraved frontispiece portrait of Ian Hamilton, folding map in color and 4 pages of advertisements for Churchill's works at rear. In fine condition.
Price: $1,800.00 Item Number: 144787
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"Virtue which is not supported with gravity gains no repute among men": Rare Early edition of The Morals of Confucius; A Cornerstone of Chinese Philosophy
CONFUCIUS,.
The Morals of Confucius, A Chinese Philosopher.
London: T. Horne, 1706.
Rare second edition in English of The Morals of Confucius. Small octavo, bound in full contemporary sheep contemporary sheep. In very good condition, toning to the extremities.
Price: $3,200.00 Item Number: 107212
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“It was not well to drive men into final corners; at those moments they could all develop teeth and claws": Rare First Edition of Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage
CRANE, Stephen.
The Red Badge of Courage.
New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1895.
First edition, first printing with page [235] advertising the three works of Gilbert Parker's Best Books, and the last page of advertisements (page 238) ending with The Land of the Sun, by Christian Reid; last gathering, including ads on laid paper. Octavo, original publisher's tan cloth. In very good condition. From the library of Jean Hersholt, actor and president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1945-1949, with his bookplate. Hersholt's best-remembered film roles include Marcus Schouler in Erich von Stroheim's 1924 Greed and Shirley Temple's beloved grandfather in the 1937 film version of the 1880 children's book, Heidi, written by Swiss author Johanna Spyri. During his long career in…
Price: $7,200.00 Item Number: 127362
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Le Globe Classique, Nouvelle Edition: Rare 19th Century French Terrestrial Globe
DIEN, Charles.
Globe Classique, Nouvelle Edition: Rare 19th Century Charles Dien Terrestrial Table Globe.
Paris: Sold by W. & S. Jones, 1844.
Rare mid-19th century French terrestrial table globe: Charles Dien's The Globe Classique, Nouvelle edition. The globe measures 10 inches in diameter with an engraved longitude ring and brass latitude ring. Mounted on brass and mahogany stand. The globe is composed of hand-colored paper gores over a plaster sphere. The entire piece measures 20 inches in height. French astronomer and cosmographer Charles Dien published highly detailed atlases, works on astronomy, and both celestial and terrestrial globes in Paris throughout the 1840s and 1850s. Dien was also renowned for the sophisticated engravings he designed for the many books produced by his father's…
Price: $6,200.00 Item Number: 96538
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Rare Michael Faraday Signed Letter with a Carte-de-visite
FARADAY, Michael .
Michael Faraday Autograph Letter Signed.
1849.
Autograph letter signed by Michael Faraday to William Coffin answering a question regarding the chlorate reaction with sulfuric acid, "or oil of vitriol," in gunpowder. Addressed to William Coffin, it reads, "R[oyal] Institution, January 1, 1849, My dear Sir, I conclude you mean the acid which fires gunpowder - not directly but through the medium of the Chlorate mixture that and is as far as I know the strength liquid Sulfureum and or out of Vitriol. Ever Truly Yours, Michael Faraday." Matted and framed opposite a carte-de-visite of Faraday by John Watkins. The entire piece measures 11.25 inches by 14.25 inches. …
Price: $5,000.00 Item Number: 73081
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Exceptionally rare first edition, presentation copy of Experiments and Observations on Electricity; inscribed by Benjamin Franklin to Prominent Philadelphia Merchant, Colleague, and friend Thomas Livezey
FRANKLIN, Benjamin.
Experiments and Observations on Electricity, Made at Philadelphia in America, by Benjamin Franklin, L.L.D. and F.R.S. To which are added, Letters and Papers on Philosophical Subjects. The Whole corrected, methodized, improved, and now first collected into one Volume, and Illustrated with Copper Plates.
London: Printed for David Henry; and sold by Francis Newbery, at the Corner of St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1769.
First complete edition of "the most important scientific book of eighteenth-century America" (PMM), inscribed by Benjamin Franklin to prominent Pennsylvania Quaker and merchant Thomas Livezey, Jr. Quarto, bound in full contemporary calf with elaborate gilt tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, morocco spine label lettered in gilt, gilt turn-ins. Illustrated with 7 copper-engraved plates, 2 of which are folding. Presentation copy, inscribed by Benjamin Franklin on the front free endpaper, “To Mr. Livesy [sic] From his obliged Friend & humble Servant The Author.” With Thomas Livezey's ownership signature to the second free endpaper, "Thomas Livezey…
Price: $375,000.00 Item Number: 147283
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"what first attracts our interest in the person of Moses is his name": First Edition of Freud's Moses And Monotheism; Inscribed by Him To His Niece
FREUD, Sigmund.
Moses And Monotheism.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1939.
First American edition of last book written and published in Sigmund Freud's lifetime. Presentation copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper, "To dear Poppy from Uncle Sigm. London 1939." The eldest daughter of Freud's elder brother, Philipp, Pauline "Poppy" Freud was born in 1873 when Sigmund was seventeen years old. Freud visited Pauline and her parents in Manchester, England periodically throughout her childhood and maintained correspondence with Pauline well into her adulthood, visiting her and her husband, Frederick Oswald Hartwig, in London in 1939. Near fine in a very good dust jacket with some wear to the extremities. Housed in a…
Price: $15,000.00 Item Number: 67018