Search Results: Oliver Wendell Holmes from Charles Agvent

Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co., 1858. First Edition. Hardcover. Spine frayed head and heel with frayed spots on spine edge as well. Corners open. Internally very clean. Very Good. First Printing. With engraved title and eight plates. BAL 8781: Binding A, brown cloth with all first issue points. A Grolier American 100 book. Former owner inscription in pencil "Compliments of G. Y.(?) J." dated "Boston Nov. 14--1858." The earliest dated copy, in the Medical History Library of Yale University, bears the flyleaf date of November 13.

Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co., 1858. First Edition. Hardcover. Moderate foxing, later owner name on front endpaper. Despite the two missing plates, a Near Fine copy. BAL 8781: Printing 2, Binding C of original brown cloth, no rings. The sheets measure 7-1/2 x 4-3/4, which falls between the paper size of the regular issue and the large paper issue. One of the Grolier 100 Influential American Books Printed Before 1900. This copy bound with only six (of eight) plates.

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1890. Revised Edition. Hardcover. Some toning to the text. Neatly and recently rebacked retaining the original spine, the cloth clean and bright. Near Fine. Small octavo (3-1/4" x 5-5/8") in original flexible blue cloth. A Grolier American 100 book, this would be a run-of-the-mill copy but for the remarkable holograph additions by Holmes within. On the recto of the ad page before the title page announcing other titles by Holmes the author has handwritten the last and best known stanza of his famous poem "The Last Leaf"--"And if I should live to be/The last leaf upon the tree/In the spring,/Let them smile, as I do now,/At the old forsaken bough/Where I cling"--and SIGNED with his initials and the dates 1831 and 1890 corresponding to the date of authorship and the date of the inscription. There is some light feathering to the ink on some of the words which is likely why the poem is lightly striked with an x in pencil and written out AGAIN by Holmes on the light yellow… Read More

London & New York: Macmillan & Co., 1891. Second Edition. Hardcover. Both hinges slightly cracked but covers still firm. Small tear to the head of the spine which resulted in a slight loss of cloth removing most of the letter "The" from the title. Otherwise bright and fresh. Very Good overall. Hugh Thomson. Decorated cloth, all edges gilt. Illustrated with drawings by Hugh Thomson. A presentation copy from Oliver Wendell Holmes INSCRIBED and SIGNED by him on the half-title page: "Louise Annette Gaudelet,/With the kindest regards/of/Oliver Wendell Holmes./January 1st 1892."