Search Results: Letters & Signed Works from Respublica Books LLC

New York: Schocken Books, Inc, 1971. First US edition. Octavo. Original green cloth and dust jacket (not price-clipped). Laid-in is an inscribed notecard by Alasdair MacIntyre to fellow Brandeis professor, Henry D. Aiken: "Henry / With love and regard / from Alasdair," with the Brandeis University name and emblem affixed to card. Fine in fine dust jacket.. A fine first edition of Alasdair MacIntyre's (b. 1929) Against the Self-Images of the Age: Essays on Ideology and Philosophy with tipped-in inscription to fellow Brandeis professor, Henry D. Aiken. In this work, the author of the 1981 groundbreaking work After Virtue offers a poignant critique of organized Christianity, Marxism, and psychoanalysis for their failure to express the forms of thought and action that constitute our contemporary social life, and argues that a greater understanding of our complex modern world can only be achieved by a more thorough inquiry into the philosophy of the social sciences. First published in the US by Schocken… Read More

Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1959. First edition. Octavo. Original black cloth and dust jacket (not price-clipped). Dusting and spotting to page block; two leaves (pp. 176, 177) joined together at bottom (affecting text), each with a closed one-inch tear at bottom; closed one-inch tear to the right bottom corner of front jacket panel; edgewear to base and spine; faint smudging and rubbing to dust jacket. Inscribed by James Burnham on front free endpaper. Very good in very good dust jacket.. A rarely inscribed work by James Burnham (1905-1987). Burnham was an American political philosopher, theorist, and political commentator who became a prominent leader of the post-war American conservative intellectual movement. During the 1930s Burnham was a Trotskyist activist who, along with Sidney Hook, organized the American Workers Party and, in 1934, supported its merger with the Communist League of America to form the US Workers Party. He became a Trotskyist in 1935, but would break with Trotskyism and… Read More

Rare books, articles, and correspondence, 1928-1989. English and German language works. Voegelin, Erich: Ueber die form des amerikanischen geistes: Tübingen, Germany: Verlag von J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1928. First edition. Original paper wrappers. Minor creasing and edgewear to wraps; former library sticker to spine and two-inch sticker scar to front wrap; library stamp to title page with penciled strike-through; otherwise leaves bright and unmarked. A scarce and well-preserved first edition of Voegelin's first published book (later translated as On the Form of the American Mind). [German language work]Voegelin, Erich: Rasse und staat: Tübingen, Germany: Verlag von J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1933. First edition. Original paper wrappers. Minor creasing and edgewear to wrappers with some rubbing and spotting; chipping to head and foot of spine; faint sunning to wrappers; occasional pencil underlining and marginalia; otherwise well-preserved. [German language work]Voegelin, Erich: Die… Read More

Milano: Rusconi, 1978. First edition (in Italian). Octavo. Original red cloth boards and dust jacket (not price-clipped). Minor scuffing to dust jacket; spotting to top page block; very neat underlining to nine pages (possibly that of A. James Gregor). Inscribed and signed by August Del Noce on front free endpaper to A. James Gregor.. First edition of Augusto Del Noce's (1910-1989) Il suicidio della rivoluzione with inscription to University of California at Berkely political scientist A. James Gregor. A leading light among Italian post-war political and philosophical thinkers, Del Noce spent much of his academic career elucidating the connection between philosophical ideas and socio-political history. Del Noce viewed the growth and expansion of atheism as the fundamental question of modernity, and he asserted that Marxism-and, particularly, the dissolution of Marxism into neo-bourgeois nihilism-was a driving force behind the secularization of the modern West. Il suicidio della rivoluzione was among… Read More

London: Longmans, Green & Co, 1958. Revised edition. Octavo. Original cloth boards and dust jacket (not price-clipped). Foxing and toning to endpapers and pastedowns; foxing, spotting, and rubbing to dust jacket with edgewear, particularly at jacket folds and along head and foot; sunning to spine; small ink inscription to front pastedown; general wear to dust jacket. Signed by Bernard Lonergan on the front free endpaper with message: "Bernard Lonergan S.J. / The fundamental principle is [...] conversion / eg. P. xxii, f. 'The hard fact is...'" Very good in good-plus dust jacket. Scarce with Lonergan's signature and personal annotation.. Bernard Lonergan's (1904-1984) masterpiece, Insight: A Study of Human Understanding, with Lonergan's rare personal signature and inscription to front free endpaper. Lonergan's Insight was born out of the success of a 1945 lecture that he gave at the Thomas More Institute in Montreal entitled "Thought and Reality." In the following years he wrote Insight in order to… Read More

Five rare books and associated ephemera (all published in French) from the private library of Maurice de Gandillac, 1930-1966. Maritain, Jacques: Éléments de Philosophie (I): Introduction Générale a la Philosophie, Paris: Pierre Téqui, Libraire-Éditeur, 1930. Reprint of the original 1920 edition. Original wrappers. Minor smudging and toning to wrappers and slight creasing to corners and faint staining to spine; minor toning to leaves. Portions uncut. Very good. Signed and inscribed by Jacques Maritain to Maurice de Gandillac on half-title page: "To Maurice de Gandillac / With affection / Jacques Maritain." Volume 1. Maritain, Jacques: De la Philosophie Chrétienne, Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1933. First edition. Original wrappers. Small red ink spot to foot of front wrapper; minor toning to leaves. Very good. Signed and inscribed by Jacques Maritain to Maurice de Gandillac on the front free endpaper: "To Maurice de Gandillac / Very affectionately / Jacques Maritain." Maritain, Jacques: Science… Read More

Paris: Aubier, 1951. First edition. Two volumes. Small octavo. Original wrappers. Minor edgewear to wrappers and spotting to front wrapper of Vol. II; one-inch closed tear to top of first two leaves of Vol. II; minor spotting to page block of Vol. II; both volumes bright and largely uncut. Inscribed by Gabriel Marcel on title page to Vol. I. Very good.. Inscribed first edition, two-volume set collecting Gabriel Marcel's (1889-1973) Gifford Lectures presented at the University of Aberdeen between 1949 and 1950 on the nature and purpose of philosophy, faith, and metaphysics in human life. Marcel was an influential French philosopher, playwright, and music critic who, in the tradition of Søren Kierkegaard, was also a renowned Christian existentialist. Marcel focused much of his thought on the displacement of the authentically human in an increasingly industrial and technological world and, like other existentialist thinkers of his time, sought to explain the roots of human alienation. The Mystery of… Read More

New York: Basic Books, Inc, 1984. First edition. Octavo. Original blue cloth and dust jacket (not price-clipped). Minor wear and creasing to jacket, including two small, closed tears to head of front and rear jacket; small, neat pencil marks in the margins of a handful of pages. This first edition inscribed by Charles Murray to Robert Nisbet on front free endpaper: "To Robert Nisbet, / With admiration & best wishes, / Charles Murray." A bright first edition and association copy of Murray's classic work.. A bright first edition of Charles Murray's (b. 1943) groundbreaking evaluation of the efficacy of America's welfare state policies from 1950 to 1980, warmly inscribed to influential American sociologist, author, and public commentator Robert Nisbet. First published in 1984, Murray wrote Losing Ground while a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, arguing that America's social welfare policies, as they have been implemented in the US, have had the unintended and perverse effect of slowing and even… Read More

New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc, 1967. First edition. Octavo. Original cloth over boards and dust jacket (not price-clipped). Flatsigned by Peter Viereck on half-title page. Minor edgewear to dust jacket, else fine in fine dust jacket.. Signed first edition of Peter Viereck's (1916-2006) New and Selected Poems, 1932-1967, a poetry collection that assembles his trademark boldness, energy, and quest for inner meaning. Viereck graduated from Harvard University in 1937 with a degree in history before earning his Ph.D. in history (also from Harvard) in 1942, whereupon he joined the history faculty at Smith College and thereafter taught at Mount Holyoke College. Viereck was a prolific writer and poet, publishing numerous poems in Poetry Magazine and winning the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1949 for his collection in Terror and Decorum, published in 1948. Viereck was also an early leader of the nascent American conservative movement in the 1940s, arguing for the need of a new conservatism capable… Read More

Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing Company, 1978. First edition. Octavo. Publisher's brown cloth in original dust jacket (not price-clipped). Sunning to spine and front panel; edgewear and rubbing. Boldly inscribed by Toledano to Karl and Therese Hess on front flyleaf: "For Karl & Therese / As always / In Friendship / Ralph de Toledano." Fine in very good dust jacket. Single-page letter addressed to Karl Hess dated "11 February 1978," signed by Toledano, with mild toning and spotting and neat fold creases, else fine.. Signed first edition of the only book of poems published by influential conservative journalist, poet, critic, commentator, and jazz enthusiast Ralph de Toledano (1916-2007). Toledano was born in Tangier, Morocco but moved to New York with his family as a child. He later attended Columbia University to study literature and philosophy, graduating in 1938. In 1940 he became editor of the Socialist Party of America's magazine, The New Leader, and was later drafted into military service… Read More

N.P.: The Science Press, 1904. Reprint. Octavo. Wrappers. 15 pp. Light toning to wrapper edges, although leaves remain bright; wrappers beginning to separate from staples at bottom spine; minor marginalia to final page; faint creasing across middle. Rare offprint of James's classic essay bearing the front wrapper instruction: "Please return to Mrs. W. James / 95 Irving St. / Cambridge." A wonderful association copy of this uncommon work. Very good.. Bright reprint of William James's (1842-1910) influential essay "The Pragmatic Method," personally owned by his wife, Alice Howe Gibbens James (1849-1922). William James was a leading American philosopher, psychologist, and historian who, with Charles Sanders Peirce, is credited with founding the philosophical school of Pragmatism. James became a pioneer of modern psychology with the publication of his book The Principles of Psychology (1890), and he made important contributions to the fields of philosophy and social thought with works like Essays in… Read More

Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1995. First edition. Octavo. Original cloth and dust jacket (not price-clipped). Signed by Russell Kirk's wife, Annette Kirk, on front free endpaper: "With best wishes! / Annette Y. Kirk / August 1997." Fine in fine dust jacket.. A fine copy of Russell Kirk's (1918-1994) memoirs, signed by his wife, Annette Kirk, to whom he dedicated the book. Widely celebrated as a founding father of modern intellectual conservatism, Russell Kirk-the Sage of Mecosta-set out in The Sword of Imagination to describe his participation in the intellectual, social, philosophical, and political contests of the twentieth century. Kirk wrote the book in the third person in order to tell the story of a young boy coming of age in the railroad yards outside of Detroit and maturing into one of the most influential political minds of his generation. Perhaps best remembered for his movement-defining book The Conservative Mind (1953), throughout his life Kirk wielded… Read More

New York: Basic Books, Inc, 1978. First edition. Octavo. Publisher's cloth in original dust jacket (not price-clipped); minor toning to dust jacket, with a small closed tear to rear top edge; faint bookseller price erasures. Ink inscription by Kristol on front free endpaper: "For Bill and Helene Safire, With love, Irving Kristol." Near-fine in near-fine dust jacket. Single-page letter, signed by Kristol, with mild toning to edges and neat fold across the middle, else fine.. Signed first edition of Irving Kristol's (1920-2009) insightful appraisal of capitalism's impact on American society. Kristol was a journalist, editor, and political commentator who is often considered a founding father of American neoconservatism, and is counted among the most consequential public intellectuals of the late twentieth century. Throughout his career Kristol edited for, contributed to, and founded several journalistic and scholarly publications. He wrote for Commentary magazine from 1947 to 1952, and from 1953 to… Read More

Rare books, documents, correspondence, and ephemera, 1964. Chambers, Whittaker: Witness: New York: Random House, 1952. First edition, first printing. Octavo. Original black boards and red top-stain and original dust jacket (not price-clipped). Faint toning to endpapers and spotting and dusting to page block; minor rubbing and edgewear to dust jacket, else near-fine. A bright and exceptional first printing of this notoriously brittle classic. Chambers, Whittaker: Cold Friday: New York: Random House, 1964. First edition, first printing. Octavo. Original blue cloth with gold titling to spine and green top-stain and original dust jacket (not price-clipped). Small abrasion to front free endpaper and minor rubbing and edgewear to dust jacket with small closed tear to top hinge, else near-fine, which is uncommon for this increasingly hard to find book. Chambers, Whittaker: Can You Hear Their Voices? A Short Story: New York: International Pamphlets, 1932. First edition. Stapled pamphlet. 5 x 7 inches, 31… Read More

New York: Random House, 1952. First edition, first printing. Octavo. Original cloth and dust jacket (not price-clipped). Inscribed by Whittaker Chambers on the half-title page: "For Randy and Florence Crosby, with best wishes from Whittaker Chambers." Light rubbing, near-fine in a very good dust jacket that is in uncommonly great condition. A scarce and desirable first printing of this landmark work inscribed by Whittaker Chambers.. First printing of Witness inscribed by Whittaker Chambers (1901-1961). Chambers was an American writer, translator, and editor who, after years acting as a Communist Party member and Soviet spy, defected from the Soviet underground in 1938 and testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1948 about the Ware Group, which ultimately became the "trial of the century" when, from 1949 to 1950, Chambers was called as a witness to testify against Alger Hiss in the infamous Hiss perjury case. Chambers first published Witness in 1952 after the Saturday… Read More