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Rare & Classic, American or English Literature Books for Sale Online
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Exceptionally rare First edition of Herman Melville's first and most popular book Typee A Peep at Polynesian Life During a Four Months' Residence in A Valley of the Marquesas; inscribed by him to Captain Charles Ball
MELVILLE, Herman.
Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life. During a Four Months’ Residence in A Valley of the Marquesas.
New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1846.
First edition of Melville's first book and his most popular during his lifetime. Octavo, two volumes bound into one in the original cloth stamped in blind with gilt titles to the spine, frontispiece map, both half-titles and 6 pages of publisher's advertisements at rear. BAL 13653. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper one month after publication, "Captain Ball, With the respects of the author, Westport April 18th 1846." The recipient, Captain Charles Ball was captain of the whaling ship Theophilus Chase, on which Thomas Melville, the author's youngest brother, set sail for the first time…
Price: $250,000.00 Item Number: 138349
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First edition of The Innocents Abroad; inscribed by Mark Twain to Mrs. P. T. Barnum
TWAIN, Mark. [Samuel L. Clemens].
The Innocents Abroad, Or The New Pilgrims’ Progress.
Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1874.
First edition, second issue of the author’s second book, one of the best-selling travel books of all-time. Octavo, bound in three quarter morocco with gilt titles to the spine, marbled endpapers, all edges marbled, with two hundred and thirty-four illustrations. Association copy, inscribed by Mark Twain on the fly-leaf, "To Mrs. P. T. Barnum from Yours Truly Samuel L. Clemens Mark Twain Oct 1875." The recipient, Nancy Fish, was the second wife of American showman P. T. Barnum. Twain and Barnum were, by various accounts, friends, mutual admirers and rivals. After visiting Barnum's American Business Museum in New York City…
Price: $35,000.00 Item Number: 133104
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H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines; inscribed by him to his sister Ella Green
HAGGARD, H. Rider.
King Solomon’s Mines.
London: Cassel & Company, 1885.
First edition, third issue of Haggard's immensely popular Victorian adventure novel the first great "Lost World" action-adventure, a precursor to Indiana Jones. Octavo, original cloth, folding facsimile of the map of the route to King Solomon's mines. Association copy, signed by the author opposite the half-title page with an additional note inscribed to his sister, Ella Green, pasted to the same page, "your loving brother H. Rider Haggard." In very good condition. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. An exceptional association.
Price: $12,500.00 Item Number: 118637
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"Keep close to Nature’s heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean": Finely Bound Set of The Manuscript Edition of The Writings of John Muir; With Eight Original Photographs
MUIR, John.
The Writings of John Muir: The Manuscript Edition.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1916-24.
The Manuscript edition of The Writings of John Muir. Octavo, 10 volumes, bound in original special deluxe three quarters morocco over marbled boards, leather edges ruled in gilt, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, raised bands, matching endpapers, top edges gilt. With volumes 1 through 8 of this set each containing an original gelatin silver photograph at the front, each with a printed tissue guard. Kimes does not describe an edition with these additional real photo frontispieces. The binding matches that of Kimes 342. The scenes depicted in the inserted photographs are: The House of John Muir, Martinez, California;…
Price: $12,000.00 Item Number: 76020
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“Perhaps he knew, as I did not, that the Earth was made round so that we would not see too far down the road”: Out of Africa; inscribed by Karen Blixen
BLIXEN, Karen. [Isak Dinesen].
Out of Africa.
London: Putnam, 1948.
Later printing of the author’s classic memoir, recounting her seventeen years in Kenya. Octavo, original cloth. Signed by the author on the front free endpaper, "Karen Blixen Je Responderai March 1957." While in Africa, Blixen took as her motto “Je Responderai,” “I will answer,” from the family crest of her lover, Denys Finch-Hatton. She explained: “I liked this old motto so much that I asked Denys, an earlier pioneer in African than myself – although all we settlers who had come out before the war looked upon ourselves as one family, a kind of Mayflower people – if I might…
Price: $11,000.00 Item Number: 144520
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"you see stretching from the spurs of Ritter a row of exceedingly sharp and slender spires": The Manuscript Edition of The Writings of John Muir; with an original autograph manuscript page from Muir's The Mountains of California
MUIR, John.
The Writings of John Muir: The Manuscript Edition.
Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1916-24.
The Manuscript Edition of The Writings of John Muir, one of 750 numbered sets produced with an original autograph manuscript page bound into the first volume. Octavo, 10 volumes in the publisher's deluxe three quarter crushed levant morocco over cloth boards with gilt titles and tulip stamping to the spine in five compartments within raised bands, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt with others untrimmed, ribbons bound in, illustrated with 69 photogravures, including colored frontispiece, 34 halftone plates of the author's sketches, 7 maps, and 2 plates of his drawings. One of 750 numbered sets with an original manuscript page bound…
Price: $10,000.00 Item Number: 143457
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“I was born lost and take no pleasure in being found": First Edition of John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley; Inscribed by Him
STEINBECK, John.
Travels with Charley.
New York: The Viking Press, 1962.
First edition of Steinbeck’s beloved cross-country narrative. Octavo, original cloth, cartographic endpapers. Presentation copy, warmly inscribed by the author on the half-title page. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Don Freeman. Photographs of Steinbeck by Hans Namuth. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box by the Harcourt Bindery.
Price: $7,800.00 Item Number: 142958
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The Innocents Abroad; Signed by Mark Twain
TWAIN, Mark. [Samuel L. Clemens].
The Innocents Abroad, Or The New Pilgrims’ Progress.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1905.
Uniform edition of the author’s second book, one of the best-selling travel books of all-time. Octavo, original cloth, gilt titles to the spine, engraved frontispiece and photographic portrait with facsimile signature. Signed by the author "Truly yours Mark Twain" to the front pastedown. In very good condition, name to the front free endpaper. Housed in a custom full morocco clamshell box.
Price: $7,500.00 Item Number: 144202
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“It can destroy an individual, or it can fulfill him, depending a good deal on luck. No one should come to New York to live unless he is willing to be lucky": First Edition of E.B. White's Here is New York; Inscribed by Him
WHITE, E.B.
Here Is New York.
New York: The Curtis Publishing Company, 1949.
First edition of this classic meditation on the City of New York. Octavo, original cloth, frontispiece. Presentation copy, signed by the author on the front free endpaper, "E.B. White Dec. 1949." Presented above by Katherine White, "Merry Christmas from the Whites." White was a writer and wife of the author. She was the fiction editor for The New Yorker magazine from 1925 to 1960. In 1977, William Shawn wrote, "More than any other editor except Harold Ross himself, Katharine White gave The New Yorker its shape, and set it on its course." Near fine in a near fine dust jacket.…
Price: $7,200.00 Item Number: 74056
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"Keep close to Nature’s heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean": Finely Bound Set of The Manuscript Edition of The Writings of John Muir; With Eight Original Photographs
MUIR, John.
The Writings of John Muir: The Manuscript Edition.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1916-24.
The Manuscript edition of The Writings of John Muir. One of only 750 numbered copies, this is number 461. Octavo, 10 volumes, bound in the original green with morocco spine labels with gilt titles, containing the original gelatin silver photographic frontispiece to each volume with tissue guards present, illustrated with numerous photogravure and halftone plates; folding map in volume two. Edited by William Frederic Badè. The scenes depicted in the inserted photographs are: The House of John Muir, Martinez, California; The Cathedral Spires, Yosemite National Park; Eucalyptus on Muir's Ranch, Martinez, California; An Orange Tree in Front of Muir's House,…
Price: $6,200.00 Item Number: 96258
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First Edition of Sea of Cortez; Inscribed by John Steinbeck
STEINBECK, John and E. F. Ricketts.
Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research.
New York : The Viking Press, 1941.
First edition of this classic work. Octavo, original cloth, cartographic endpapers. Presentation copy, inscribed by John Steinbeck on the title page. Some offsetting to the half-title page, near fine in a very good dust jacket. Jacket design by W.V. Eckhardt.
Price: $5,000.00 Item Number: 123887
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"To Petros Stathatos, from his old guest and horse-borrower at Modi forty three years ago Paddy LF, with gratitude and every kind wish the adventures – travels – in this book are just a year earlier on the same journey": First Edition of Patrick Leigh Fermor's A Time of Gifts; Warmly inscribed by Him
FERMOR, Patrick Leigh.
A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople: from the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube.
London: John Murray, 1978.
First edition of the author’s masterpiece, which ranks among the greatest travel books of the twentieth century. Octavo, original cloth, frontispiece, map. Association copy, inscribed by the author with a full page inscription on the front free endpaper with a drawing of clouds and birds, "To Petros Stathatos, from his old guest and horse-borrower at Modi forty three years ago Paddy LF, with gratitude and every kind wish * The adventures – travels – in this book are just a year earlier on the same journey." The recipient, Peter Stathatos was a close friend of Leigh Fermor with whom he…
Price: $5,000.00 Item Number: 141429
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“the feeling of being lost in time and geography with months and years hazily sparkling ahead in a prospect of inconjecturable magic": First Edition of Each Work in Patrick Leigh Fermor's Trilogy; Each Signed by Him
LEIGH FERMOR, Patrick.
A Time of Gifts; Between the Woods and the Water; The Broken Road.
London: John Murray, 1977-2013.
First editions of each volume in Leigh Fermor's trilogy. Octavo, original cloth. A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water are signed by Patrick Leigh Fermor on the title page. The Broken Road, which was published posthumously is signed by editors Colin Thubron and Artemis Cooper on the title page. Jacket artwork by John Craxton. Near fine in excellent dust jackets, name to the front free endpaper on the first volume. An exceptional set, uncommon signed.
Price: $3,500.00 Item Number: 137399
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"Have gone to Patagonia": First Edition of the Authors Masterpiece In Patagonia; Signed by Bruce Chatwin
CHATWIN, Bruce.
In Patagonia.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1977.
First edition of author’s most well-known work and one of the great travel books of the last half of the twentieth century. Octavo, original cloth, frontispiece map and 4 black and white photographic plates. Signed by Bruce Chatwin on the title page. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with a touch of rubbing. A very nice example, rare signed.
Price: $3,500.00 Item Number: 44025
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Signed Limited First Edition of William Beebe's Galapagos: World's End
BEEBE, William.
Galapagos: World’s End.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1924.
Signed limited first edition, one of 100 numbered copies, this is number 54, boldly signed by William Beebe, the father of modern ecology. Quarto, original cloth, illustrated endpapers. Illustrated with 24 tipped-in color plates by Isabel Cooper, and 83 photographs mostly by John Tee-Van. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
Price: $3,000.00 Item Number: 84953
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Scarce Limited First Edition of Gontran de Poncins' Kabloona; signed by him
DE PONCINS, Gontran. In collaboration with Lewis Galantiere. Illustrated by the author.
Kabloona.
New York: Reynal, Hitchcock, Inc, 1941.
First limited edition of French adventurer Gontran de Poncins' classic account of his solo unsupported journey in the Canadian Arctic. Octavo, bound in three quarters morocco over cloth covered boards with gilt titles and tooling to the spine. One on only 550 copies, this is number 81. Boldly signed by the author on the front free endpaper, "Before I disappear for good!...I remain your friend, 'Eskimo Miki', de Poncins." With the original Publisher's Note laid in which explains, "The Vicomte Gontran de Poncins, author of KABLOONA, called out of the Arctic to join the colors of his country, disappeared in the debacle of the…
Price: $2,800.00 Item Number: 95094
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First Edition of A Time To Keep Silence; Inscribed by Patrick Leigh Fermor
FERMOR, Patrick Leigh.
A Time To Keep Silence.
London: John Murray, 1957.
First edition of the author's third book, detailing his experiences in various monasteries. Octavo, original blue cloth. Illustrated by John Craxton. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the dedication page, "From [My Mother] AE. Leigh Fermor Fudge with thanks for safe transportation to Regency Sq. Brighton MCMLXIX." Fermor has crossed out the 'To' in the printed 'To my Mother' dedication and inscribed the book as a thank you from his mother Aeileen Leigh Fermor. Known to her family as Fudge, Fermor's mother moved in old age to a rest home near Brighton, Sussex, in the late 1960's where Fermor…
Price: $2,500.00 Item Number: 135041
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First edition of Mary Howitt's Twelve Months with Fredrika Bremer in Sweden
HOWITT, Margaret. [Fredrika Bremer].
Twelve Months with Fredrika Bremer in Sweden.
London: Jackson, Walford, and Hodder, 1866.
First edition of Howitt's work on the twelve months she spent with close friend and writer Fredrika Bremer. Octavo, original cloth with gilt titles and elaborate gilt tooling to the spine and front panel, tipped in tissue-guarded frontispiece portrait of Bremer with an inscription from her to Howitt in facsimile. In very good condition. Scarce with only one other copy traced at auction. Bookplate.
Price: $2,500.00 Item Number: 124150
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"Here are deep maters, not easily to be dismissed by crying blasphemy": First edition of The Magic Island; inscribed by William Buehler Seabrook
SEABROOK, William Buehler.
The Magic Island.
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1929.
First edition of occultist William Buehler Seabrook's account of his time spent among Voodoo practitioners in Haiti, credited with introducing the concept of a zombie to popular culture. Octavo, original cloth, illustrated with drawings by Alexander King and photographs by the author. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "For Yolanda Billia with best wishes W. B. Seabrook." With an original black and white glossy photograph tipped in annotated "W. B. Seabrook before a Voodoo Altar" and an additional original black and white glossy photograph of him laid in. Near fine in a near fine dust…
Price: $2,000.00 Item Number: 124734