Search Results: Literature & Classics from Uncommon Works

Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, ND [ca. 1864]. First edition thus. Hardcover. Very Good. Very good first edition thus. Decorative brown cloth boards stamped in black and gilt, brown endpapers, brown edge decoration. "Alta Edition" imprinted on upper front cover. Last page shows an archaic number "1" stamped in center of page, somewhat below the words, "The End." Dust to edges and mild soiling and foxing to several pages and back cover. Prior owner's information written on front pastedown, last free endpaper, and back pastedown in pencil. Spine mildly cocked. Text block, hinges, and papers tight and complete without tears or other defects. Title page describes it as "illustrated," but the sole original illustration is the frontipiece, "Spearing fish by torchlight." 408 pp. Duodecimo, 5 x 7 1/2 inches tall. Variously published as: Frontier and pioneer life: A Boy's Narrative of the Adventures of a Settler's Family in Canada. Thi is an… Read More

Boston: Estes and Lauriat, 1891-1892. Limited Edition. Cloth. Very good/none as issued. A very good, complete limited edition in 32 volumes. Limited to one thousand copies, this set being number 271. Green cloth boards with paper label. Top edges gilt. Various conditions, but all very good. Fraying to most crowns, and hinge starting on some volumes. Bumped and rubbed corners. Paper labels show some wear. 32 volumes : plates, frontispieces ; Octavo.v. l Caxtons, vol. 1v. 2 Caxtons, vol. 2; Zicci, The haunted and the huntersv. 3 Eugene Aramv. 4 Pelhamv. 5 Last days of Pompeii, vol. 1v. 6 Last days of Pompeii, vol. 2v. 7 Devereauxv. 8 Disownedv. 9 Night and morningv. 10 Kenelm Chillinglyv. 11 The Parisians, vol. 1v. 12 The Parisians, vol. 2v. 13 What will he do with it, vol. 1v. 14 What will he do with it, vol. 2v. 15 Ernest Maltraversv. 16 Alicev. 17 Lucretiav. 18 Zanoniv. 19 Rienzi, vol. 120… Read More

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1967. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good +/good +. A very good plus first edition in a good plus dust jacket. Red cloth boards with facsimile signature. Mild shelfwear at head of spine. Multiple closed tears (one at 2.5") and creases on dust jacket at top and bottom edges Small dampstain to front of jacket. See photos. Dust jacket now protected in a clear, removable, archival cover. xiv, 489 pp. including index. Octavo. Spanning the years from 1920 to 1956, this priceless collection of pieces written by Hemingway ranges from articles for the "Toronto Star" and the Hearst newspapers to popular magazines such as "Esquire", "Collier's" and "Look", and includes Hemingway's vivid eyewitness accounts of the Spanish Civil War and World War II.

London: Harper & Bros., 1904. First Separate Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. F. Strothman. Title page reads: London and New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers : : MCMIV. Red cloth boards with yellow title and full color printing of Adam at his journal with 2 monkeys. Seven gatherings with printer's signature marks. Covers soiled from handling. Sunning to spine. Heavy paper with mild foxing on a few pages. 89 pp. Duodecimo, 5 1/4 x 8 1/4 inches tall. A comic short story of what it might have been like for Adam when the world was new.

[Wiesbaden]: Insel-Verlag, 1954. First Thus. Pictorial boards. Fine/near fine. A fine two-volume set of the German translation in near fine dust wrappers. First thus in this translation. Text in german. Green pictorial boards with a ribbon marker in both volumes.Volume I dust wrapper shows a small hole on front, both dust wrappers have label residue on lower spine. .A lovely set. 591 pp. total, duodecimo. The Tale of Genji ( Genji monogatari) is a classic work of Japanese literature written by the noblewoman and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu in the early years of the 11th century. The original manuscript no longer exists. It was made in "concertina" or "orihon" style: several sheets of paper pasted together and folded alternately in one direction then the other, around the peak of the Heian period. The work is a unique depiction of the lifestyles of high courtiers during the Heian period, written in archaic language and a poetic and confusing style that make it unreadable… Read More

Melbourne, London, Toronto: William Heinemann, Ltd., 1948. First Edition. Cloth. Very good +/missing. A very good plus first edition. Missing dust jacket. Blue cloth binding with silver title stamping. Dust marks to page edges, top edge painted orange. Endpapers toned, minor foxing. Tiny "Times Book Club" ink stamp on rear pastedown. 297 pp. 5 x 7&1/2 inches tall, twelvemo. The Heart of the Matter, novel by Graham Greene, published in 1948. The work is considered by some critics to be part of a “Catholic trilogy” that included Greene’s Brighton Rock (1938) and The Power and the Glory (1940).The novel is set during World War II in a bleak area of West Africa and concerns the moral dilemmas facing Scobie, an honourable and decent deputy commissioner of police who is torn between compassion for his wife, Louise, and love and pity for Helen, a young widow with whom he has an affair. Scobie gradually loses control of his life. Racked with guilt and self-loathing… Read More

New York: Illustrated Modern Library, 1943. 1/4 cloth. Near fine/very good. Warren Chappell. A near fine Illustrated Modern Library edition in a very good, original slipcase. Blue quarter cloth under blue paper boards with fine Warren Chappell illustration centerpiece on cover. Top edge painted blue. 3 digit number neatly inked on first free end paper. Small Levinson's book store label on back pastedown. Decorative crown inner end band is loosening, but does not affect the binding, which is sturdy and square. Slipcase shows no splits or tears, and is heavily rubbed at all edges with some loss to burgundy paper. Full color plates and illustrations, 884 [1] pp. Duodecimo, 5 x 7 1/2 inches tall.

Paris: Michel Levy Freres, 1869. Nouvelle Edition. Leather bound. Very good +. Beautifully bound partial set in green half leather over black and green marbled paper boards. Gilt title on spine. Four raised bands. Rubbing to edges and bumped corners of paper boards on some volumes. Mauprat showing rubbing to spine. Blue marbled end papers. Previous owner's inscription and writing on some blank leaves. Binding is sturdy, square and strong. Foxing and toning to pages. Each volume about 300 pp. Sextodecimo, 4 1/2 x 7 inches tall. Text in French. Levy, Sand's official publisher, released this New Edition in the author's lifetime.

London: J. Banners, W. Slackman, F. Rennington, W. Jones, T. Newton, and R. Bland, ca. 1790. Later printing. Full calf. Very good +/none as issued. A very good plus later printing of Milton's opus magnus. Full calf with minor loss at crown and foot of spine. Includes 'The life of John Milton' by Elijah Fenton. Frontis, xviii,[2],316p.,12 engraved plates. 316 pp. Twelvemo.

New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1908. Later printing. Hardcover. Very good +. A very good plus later printing by the Knickerbocker Press. Red cloth boards with gilt title stamping on spine. head and tail of spine folded lightly. Very light scratch to back cover. Mild rubbing to corners. Foxing to page edges. Binding is sturdy and square. No markings of any kind. 395 pp. plus 8 pp. catalogue ads. Duodecimo, 5 x 7 1/2 inches tall.

New York: Little Leather Library, 1921. Redcroft Edition. Leatherette. Very good. A very good promotional Little Leather Library Redcroft Edition circa 1921. Green and copper embossed leatherette binding showing shelf wear and rubbing at head and tail of spine, and corners. Leatherette still supple. Toning to pages. Binding tight and square. 94 pp. 48mo, 3 x 4 inches tall. By the creator of Peter Pan. "An unauthorized compilation, 'A Tillyloss Scandal' was initially reprinted from magazine stories in the Edinburgh Evening Dispatch, the Scots Observer, Good Words and the British Weekly by an American pirate publishing company." --- Google Books

Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1928. First Edition, First Printing. 1/4 cloth. Very Good. First printing. Very Good. This edition is limited to 750 copies and the type has been distributed. Unnumbered copy. Quarter cloth leather spine with grey paper boards. Corners wearing, leather missing 1/8" at head of spine. Leather has a long thin indentation on front. Raised bands. Pp. 1-10 have small, uniform chip on lower right. Cream endpapers. Pages clean and sound. Thick paper. Embossed English department stamp, no other markings, not ex-library. 265 pp. including notes. Small quarto, 8 x 11 inches tall. Includes fascimiles of Whitman's original MS and letters.