Search Results: LITERATURE - U.S. - 20TH CENTURY from Eilenberger Rare Books, LLC

New York: Harper & Brothers, [1938]. [40] pages. Original pictorial yellow cloth stamped in red and green. [16.7 cm.] A good plus copy in like dust jacket. Moderate foxing to cloth, but internally clean. Early owner's inscription dated 1942 on front free endpaper. Jacket has several small tears and short repairs on verso with archival tape (minimal loss, not affecting lettering), a small abrasion to front panel, and some light soil. Early printing of the author's first book. [It is more commonly found under the imprint, "Gentry Press, New York," dated 1938, which appears to have priority. Comparison of the title page with a bookseller's photo of the Gentry issue suggests that only the imprint was reset.] Illustrated with wood engravings in the text by Willard Clark, most of which are printed in color. A charming children's book set in San Antonio, describing the traditional Christmas miracle play, "Los Pastores." Janette Sebring Lowrey (b. 1892) was a… Read More

Mount Vernon: Limited Editions Club, Walpole Printing Office, 1937. Three volumes. xiii, [7], 431; 493; and 685 pages, plus nine lithograph plates by Edward A. Wilson. Chapter headpieces printed in color. Original rust-colored cloth. [24.6 cm.] A fine set in very good cardboard slipcase; lacking the fragile glassine dust jackets. Slipcase has edgewear with minor chipping and some soiling, but is sound. FIRST OF THIS LIMITED EDITION. No. 1,405 of 1,500 copies signed by the illustrator. New introduction by the author.

New Haven: Yale University Press, [printed at the Earl Trumbull Williams Memorial], 1923. [10] pages. Original blue boards with silver cover lettering. [23.9 cm.] Very good plus in very good dust jacket. Tanning to free endpapers, rear hinge started, but sound, otherwise a nice copy. Jacket has small tape-repaired tear at head of front panel and several tiny chips. FIRST SEPARATE EDITION. A poem set during the First World War. Allen fought in the Aisne-Marne campaign of 1918. The poem was originally printed in the North American review in 1919 and also appeared in the author's second book, "Wampum and Old Gold" (1921). As is discussed on the rear panel of the dust jacket, "The Blindman" was commemorated by the Poetry Society of South Carolina with an annual prize of the same name.

[Middlebury, Vt.: Middlebury College Press, 1935]. 4 pages. Original printed blue wraps. [22.4 cm.] Near very good. Wraps a bit faded and with some minor soiling. Leaves slightly toned and with some faint traces of foxing or soiling. FIRST EDITION. An address delivered while Allen was serving as a member of the faculty of the Bread Loaf School of English, a summer graduate program at Middlebury College, Vermont. Allen also participated in the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. In this address, he discusses the "Bread Loaf idea," which he describes, in part: "The idea that literature, that writing, is a constant state of becoming, that it went on in the past, that it continues now, and that it stretches into an almost but yet not entirely unpredictable future." --p. 3. Scarce.

[Raleigh, N.C.]: North Carolina Confederate Centennial Commission, [1961]. 32 pages. Original printed wraps. [21.6 cm.] Near fine. FIRST EDITION. A play about the end of the Civil War in North Carolina. Betty Smith is best known as the author of "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn."

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1919. 187 pages. Original green cloth stamped in gold. [19.4 cm.] Very good plus, lacking dust jacket. Spine ends a trifle rubbed; spine lettering a little flaked, but legible; else a nice copy. FIRST EDITION.

New York: Arrow Editions, [1940]. 162 pages, including index. Original quarter tan cloth and gray paper covered boards with paper spine and cover labels. [25.7 cm.] A good copy. Tiny chip to spine label, not affecting lettering. Boards sunned near top edges and lightly soiled. Minor foxing to endpapers. Text block is clean, but a little age-toned. FIRST EDITION. PRESENTATION INSCRIPTION SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, on the front free endpaper. It reads: "For Jack, The envelopes are in all the fruit trees. Always, Julian. 5/7/46.

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1928. [6], 182, [1] pages, plus color frontispiece. Nine drawings printed with the text. Original patterned paper-covered boards with blue cloth spine and tips, lettered in gilt on the spine; illustrated endpapers. 20 x 13.5 cm. Very good in fair to good, price-clipped dust jacket. Light rubbing to extremities; a little tanning near the edges of the front board. Minor foxing to frontispiece with negligible impact on the image; foxing to title page as well, but none elsewhere. The jacket has a jagged 3-cm long chip to the center of the spine panel, several other chips with a slight impact on lettering, a long tear along the fold between the front panel and front flap, tissue repairs to verso, and sun-fading to the spine panel. FIRST EDITION. The subtitle on the dust jacket reads: "A Story in Jazz." The adventures of a free-spirited young woman, Ruby Burke, late of San Francisco, traveling in America and Europe, with delightful illustrations by Eldon Kelley (b.… Read More

Boston: Little, Brown & Co., [1994]. 685 pages. Original blue cloth stamped in blue. [24 cm.] A fine copy in near fine slipcase. FIRST EDITION, LIMITED. No. 151 of 200 copies SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR.

Los Angeles: Savage and Savage, [1951]. 64 pages. Original black cloth stamped in silver. [22.2 cm.] Good plus in very good dust jacket. Light edge wear to boards. Top edge soiled, a little soiling to endpapers, tape mark on front free endpaper, but text is clean. Jacket is slightly wrinkled and bumped at the head of the spine panel, and shows some sun. FIRST EDITION of the author's first book. No. 39 of 999 copies numbered and signed by the author. PRESENTATION INSCRIPTION BY THE AUTHOR (unsigned), on the dedication page. Also present are a TYPED LETTER SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, an AUTOGRAPH NOTE SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, and an AUTOGRAPH POEM (unsigned), all laid-in. The presentation inscription reads: "For Eleanor Jeffrey Schoberlin, whose conversation deserves a Boswell." Mrs. Schoberlin, of Phoenix, had some aspirations as an author and corresponded with a number of contemporary writers. Her husband was Melvin Harold Schoberlin (1912-1977), a noted Stephen Crane scholar and… Read More

Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, [1975]. 184 pages. Original cloth. [23.4 cm.] A fine, fresh copy in near fine dust jacket. Jacket shows light rubbing, but no chips or tears. FIRST EDITION.

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1914. 345, [1] pages. Original blue cloth lettered in gold with small color illustration mounted on front cover. [19.2 cm.] Very good plus in like dust jacket. Light foxing to plates and facing pages. Spine panel of jacket a little sunned and with light wear to ends, small tear to rear panel. Still an attractive copy. Oval cutout on front panel of jacket reveals mounted plate on cover of book (as issued). Early printing, issued the same year as the first. [Date code indicates September, 1914; another copy found with the code for July, 1914.] Complete with frontispiece and three plates by William van Dresser. Author's second book. Basis for the 1939 film, "Bad Little Angel," starring Virginia Weidler. Margaret Turnbull (1872-1942), a Scottish immigrant to the U.S., was a novelist and screenwriter. She wrote or provided the scenarios for over fifty films from the 1910's to the 1930's.

Philadelphia: David McKay, [1918]. 200 pages. Original dark green cloth stamped in gold. [19.3 cm.] A bright, near fine copy with some minor rubbing to cloth. FIRST EDITION OF THE AUTHOR'S FIRST BOOK. PRESENTATION INSCRIPTION SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, on the front free endpaper. It reads: "For my friend and `contrib,' R.D. Hartman, this volume of `Mere Melodies' is cordially inscribed by the author. Edwin Meade Robinson (`Ted Robinson'). Cleveland, May 28, 1919." The signed book plate of the recipient, Ralph D. Hartman, appears on the front pastedown. Edwin Meade Robinson (1878-1946) was a longtime columnist at the Cleveland "Plain Dealer," and the literary editor of the newspaper. His column, "Philosopher of Folly," contained unsigned contributions by numerous others, such as Mr. Hartman, as well as his own verse and prose. From 1912-1938, he offered an annual dinner for his contributors. Robinson published one other volume of verse and a… Read More

New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1929. xiii, [1], 168 pages. Original black cloth and blue paper covered boards. [25 cm.] Very good plus in good plus dust jacket. Corners rubbed, neat tape repair to half-title, a few minor traces of foxing. Partially unopened. Jacket has a few tiny chips, internal tape repairs at spine ends, and sun-tanning, especially to spine panel. FIRST LARGE PAPER EDITION. #123 OF 175 COPIES SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR.

Columbia, S.C.: The State Company, 1908. [8], 160 pages, plus frontispiece and three full-page plates by Brantley Smith. Original dark green cloth stamped in gold and black. [19.6 cm.] Ex-Sondley Reference library with no external markings, but a barely perceptible impression of removed call number at base of spine. Tasteful bookplate on front pastedown, embossed stamp on a few leaves, including title and frontispiece, and small ink stamp on verso of title and in margin of one other leaf. Else very good. Some tiny spots to cloth; faint line of bubbling to cloth on front cover; light foxing to margins of plates and facing pages. FIRST EDITION. The title story is set during the Appomattox campaign and another ("Sons of the Soil") is also a Civil War tale. Elliott Crayton McCants (1865-1953), a native of Ninety-Six, South Carolina and a graduate of the Citadel, was a school teacher in various places before settling in Anderson, S.C., where he served as superintendent of schools. This… Read More

Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, [1919]. [4], 123 pages. Numerous drawings in the text by Fontaine Fox, who also illustrated the covers. Original paper-covered boards printed in red and black. 19.5 x 13 cm. Slight loss to the paper covering the rear joint from insect nibbling, else very good. Light wear to the spine ends with one letter of publisher's name rubbed away, spine a little sunned, slight browning to ends of spine and edges of covers, tiny split to one corner. Early gift inscription on front free endpaper, faint foxing to endpapers. Text leaves are a little toned, as expected, but clean. An attractive copy overall.FIRST EDITION. A collection of stories told as letters by a Chicago policeman, Fred A. Gross, to his brother Charley. Fred's epistles deal little with his professional life and instead "focus on efforts to get along with his middle-class neighbors in a Chicago suburb and his attempts to move up in society" (ANB). The stories were originally printed in “Red… Read More

Raleigh, N.C.: Edwards & Broughton Printing Co., 1920. 95 pages, plus frontispiece and seven plates. Original stiff paper wraps with printed paper spine label and emblem in gold on front cover. [24.4 cm.] Very good. Light stain to spine, a few small light spots on covers, some creasing and tiny chips to yapp edges. Light foxing scattered on first and last few leaves, and traces to margins and edges elsewhere. FIRST EDITION, the issue in wraps. Also issued in cloth and a bit more common thus. The author was professor of dramatic literature and playwriting at the University of North Carolina, and the founder and first director of the Carolina Playmakers. Thornton 7401.

Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., [printed by the Riverside Press, Cambridge], 1923. [2], 128 pages. Original quarter dark blue cloth and light blue paper covered boards with paper spine label. [19.1 cm.] Very good plus in good dust jacket. A little cocked, minor tanning to endpapers. Jacket has chip to head of front panel with some loss to the title and a long tear with internal repair. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. PRESENTATION INSCRIPTION SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, on the front free endpaper, reading as follows: "To Leonard Mackall, with friendly remembrances from John Drinkwater. September, 1923." Leonard Leopold Mackall (1879-1937), a native of Baltimore, made numerous contributions to scholarly journals in the fields of bibliography, philology, and history. He was a noted Goethe scholar who resided in Jena for a number of years and helped edit his correspondence. Americanists will recognize him for his "Catalogue of the Wymberley Jones De Renne Georgia Library" (3… Read More

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1952. vii, [1], 403, [1] pages. Original blue-green cloth stamped in gilt on the spine; top edge stained red. 22 x 15 cm. Very good plus in near very good dust jacket. The book shows some minor spotting to covers. The jacket, with the price of $3.95 intact, shows sun and a small, light stain to the spine panel, short tears to the head of the spine panel, a few tiny chips, and several small scrapes. FIRST EDITION. The author's third novel. The basis for the acclaimed 1958 film, “King Creole,“ directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Elvis Presley in one of his best-remembered roles. �

Durham, N.C.: Moore Publishing Co., [1968]. [6], 210 pages. Publisher's tan cloth. [20.9 cm.] Very good in good plus dust jacket. Spine slightly cocked; top edge dust soiled; offsetting to front endpapers from laid-in clippings. Moderate foxing to endpapers and a little foxing to the title page, but none elsewhere. The jacket is a bit foxed and has a crease to the spine panel, but no chips or tears and very little wear. FIRST EDITION. PRESENTATION INSCRIPTION SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, on the front free endpaper. It is addressed to Eva Mae (née Grice) McKenna (1921-1988), a librarian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the wife of the novelist, Richard McKenna, who wrote "The Sand Pebbles." "Stranger in Our Darkness" was Joyce Allen Crawford's first novel. It was written under the guidance of Manly Wade Wellman, who taught a novel-writing workshop that Crawford attended. The book is dedicated to Wellman and bears a review by him on the rear… Read More