Search Results: Essays from Louise Aird

This is a pristine copy of a much-loved work of non-fiction from T.H.White.
It has never been opened. It is brightly coloured boards with a brown spine and numerous images inside. Comes in a slip case.
The Age of Scandal, An Excursion through a Minor Period. A collection of entertaining essays on18th century England by the novelist Terence Hanbury White (1906–1964). White was known for his sequence of Arthurian novels, The Once and Future King, first published together in 1958. One of his most memorable stories is the first of that series, The Sword in the Stone, published as a stand-alone book in1938.
The Age of Scandal
focuses on the period in late 18th-century England following the Age of Reason--a period characterized by dilettantism, material comfort & eccentricity. People are sentimental, dramatic, tearful, lovers of gossip, fashion & exhibitionistic behavior. It is a fascinating record of the eccentricities of the 18th-century Royal Family, the fashions of the nobility and the… Read More

This is a pristine first edition of The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, the second book written by Barack Obama. In it, Obama expounds on many of the subjects that became part of his 2008 campaign for the US presidency. It was a massive best-seller.
376 pages, unclipped dust jacket.
This book has not been read, or even opened.
It is in mint condition.
Note: If you are outside of North America, the quoted shipping price is for surface mail without tracking. For other options, please contact me.

Born in Buenos Aires, Jorge Borges (1899-1986) was educated in Europe and returned to Buenos Aires in 1921, where he co-founded several avant-garde literary periodicals. In 1955, after the fall of Juan Peron, whom he vigorously opposed, he was appointed director of the Argentine National Library. With Samuel Beckett he was awarded the 1961 $10,000 International Publishers Prize, which helped to establish him as one of the most prominent writers in the world. Borges regularly taught and lectured throughout the United States and Europe. His ideas have been a profound influence on writers throughout the Western world and on literary and critical theory. A prolific writer of essays, short stories, and plays, Borges regarded people's endeavors to understand an incomprehensible world as fiction; hence, his fiction is metaphysical and based on what he called 'an esthetics of the intellect'. Some critics have called him 'a mystic'. This collection was published before Borges died, so it contains what he… Read More

This is a perfect copy of The Children of Dickens, the famous book, written in 1812, by the American minister and essayist Samuel McChord Crothers (1857-1927).
It is beautifully illustrated by the great American illustrator Jessie Wilcox Smith (1863 -1935).
The book is excerpts from Dickens' works involving children, including Pip, David Copperfield, Micawber Junior, Joe the Fat Boy, Oliver Twist, Sissy Jupe, the Cratchits, the Jellyby chidren, Jenny Wren, Little Nell, The Kenwidges, Bailey the Todgers boy, the Dombey children, Jemmy and Alice Watkins, with short chapters on London and Dickens.
On the cover, and on 9 pages inside, there are color plates signed by Wilcox. 7" x 9 1/3" x 1 1/4".
259 pages.
Aside from a couple of tiny spots on the upper right-hand corner, and a faint bump to the back cover, this book is in mint condition. No dogears, no shelfwear, no evidence that anyone read it. It's perfect. It includes an ancient pressed rose, whose stem has been wrapped in cord (see photo).

This is a first edition of Churchill's Generals, edited by the English military historian John Keegan (1934-2012), and British soldier and fellow adventurer Michael Alexander (1920-2004). This is one of the original copies, from the UK print run.
It is a unique collection of essays by eminent historians. Churchill's reputation as Prime Minister during World War II fluctuated according to the successes and failures of his generals. Most were household names—even heroes. Yet all were prey to the intolerance, interference, irascibility, and inspiration of Britain's leader, who wanted to be both the general in the field and the presiding strategic genius. Yet, despite sacking his warlords ruthlessly, in the end Churchill was served by perhaps the greatest generals England has ever produced. The chapters cover such outstanding military men as Wavell, Ironside, Ritchie, Auchinleck, Montgomery, Alexander, Percival, Wingate, and Carton de Wiart.This copy is in excellent condition. The front… Read More

This is what I believe is a first Hurst edition of Crown of Wild Olive, a collection of three lectures by the English critic and philosopher John Ruskin (1819-1900).
It is three of Ruskin's most famous lectures: Traffic (1864), which is about the conflict between taste and morality; Work (1865) which is about the conflict between those who produce and those who consume; and War (1865), which is about war and art. I don't know why he called the book Crown of Wild Olive, but it was a best-seller for decades.
Around 1905, Hurst & Company (New York) began publishing best-selling books with beautifully illustrated covers. This is one of those books. It is undated, but the original owner signed the front endpaper and dated it 1912. She also wrote little snippets of poems and sayings on four of the 16 back endpapers.
At page 209, the spine is pulling away a little.
There's a small ink mark on the back cover.
Other than that, this book is in perfect condition.

This is a mint-condition copy of Dickens' London, published by the Folio Society in 1966. It is a selection of Charles Dickens' newspaper essays on London Society, on topics from the worst of the slums to the high and mighty at Whitehall. It contains the original illustrations by George Cruikshank.
This book does not appear to have been read; there isn't a mark in it or on it. It is in perfect condition.

This is a pristine first edition of The Donkey Inside, by Ludwig Bemelmans. It is a travelogue of a trip he took to Ecuador and was published in 1949.
23 pieces and 155 pages, including 4 double-page color illustrations. No jacket.
The book may have been read, or leafed through, but it is in mint condition.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882) was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.
This is a 'best of' collection, Essays, Poems and Addresses, published by Walter J Black for the Classics Club in 1969.
It is beige tweed boards with red and brilliant gold on the cover and spine; the top pages are dyed red.
There is a bookplate on the inside front cover, but it has already started to come off on its own and you can remove it (there are how-to videos online; it's really easy).
Unread and pristine. The dark mark you see in the cover image is my shadow.


Note: If you are outside of North America, the quoted shipping price is for surface mail without tracking. For other options, please contact me.

This is a first edition (1989) of Erotic Works of D.H. Lawrence, Illustrated in Color with the Erotic Paintings of D.H. Lawrence. It includes novels, novellas, short stories, essays and poetry -- see contents photos. D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930) is known as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. He was prolific, but is most famous for his novels and controversial writings on erotica, particularly Lady Chatterley's Lover, which was published in Italy and France in the '20s, but not in the UK and US until 1959. Lawrence was also a painter and held a show of his works in London in 1929. The public outrage was so great, the police shut down the exhibit. Those paintings, and his erotic writing are included in this book. It's a thick, heavy book--8" x 9 1/2" and 568 pages. This copy has not been read, or even opened--it still creaks.Aside from some shelf-scuffing to the back of the dust jacket, it is in mint condition.

Essays of Eliais a collection of essays written by Charles Lamb (1775-1834), the English essayist, poet, and antiquarian, best known for his Essays of Elia and for the children's book Tales from Shakespeare, co-authored with his sister, Mary.
Essays of Elia was first published in 1823, then a second volume came out in 1833. The personal and conversational tone of the essays charmed readers; the essays established Lamb as "the most delightful of English essayists".
This particular copy, published by Thomas Nelson & Sons in 1914, is 4 1/3" x 61/3", 378 pages. Red Boards with a design impressed on the cover and bright gold lettering on the spine. The book itself is in fine shape, although the paper has darkened a little. But the original owner tried to re-glue the spine and the glue has stained two pages of the table of contents. He needn't have bothered; except at the front, the spine is fine. The back cover has a little bit of scuffing and fading. The original owner has written lots of notes in it, in… Read More

This is edition 105 (2009) of Granta: The Magazine of New Writing (it was originally a magazine). This is a special edition, titled Lost and Found, and contains short stories, essays and memoirs relating to people and places undergoing tremendous change (see contents photo).256 pages, trade paperback with laminated covers.Heavily illustrated with photographs and drawings.This book has not been read, or even opened. It is in mint condition.

This is edition 108 (2009) of Granta: The Magazine of New Writing (it was originally a magazine). This is a special edition, titled Chicago, and contains short stories, essays and poetry relating to Chicago and contains works by Peter Carey, Don Delillo, George Saunders, Elaine Showalter et al (see contents photo).288 pages, trade paperback with laminated covers.Heavily illustrated with photographs and drawings.This book has not been read, or even opened. It is in mint condition.

This is a stated first edition (2010) of I Remember Nothing and Other Reflections, by the American writer Nora Ephron (1941-2012). In it, Ephron takes a "cool, hard, hilarious look at the past, present and future, recalling with her signature clarity and wisdom everything she hasn't yet forgotten."This book has not been opened, until now.Mint condition.

This is a stated first edition, and first US printing, of Last Essays, by Joseph Conrad. It was published in 1926 and includes 'Legends', the essay he was working on when he died (of a heart attack). It also includes a photo of the hand-written text of 'Legends'; these are the last words he wrote.
As you can see, this book originally belonged to the B'Nai Brith Hill Foundation of Toronto, which stamped the front and back endpapers and put a memorial bookplate on the inside front cover.
171 pages, mostly unadorned.
The binding has been split in the center but is otherwise nice and tight.
Dark blue boards with gold on the cover; there was gold on the spine but it has worn away.
There are the expected little spots here and there but, overall, it's in excellent condition.

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, Lord of Montaigne (1533 – 1592) was a French statesman and one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. It was he who popularized the essay as a literary genre, and his volume Essais contains some of the most influential essays ever written.
This is 14 of his essays; topics include Idleness, the Education of Children, Friendship, Solitude, Repentance and Vanity.
This is a 'best of' collection, was published by Walter J Black for the Classics Club in 1943 and reprinted in 1970.
It is beige tweed boards with red and brilliant gold on the cover and spine; the top pages are dyed red.
364 pages.
Unread and pristine. There is one flaw--bits of red have started to come off the spine, as you can see in the photo.

This is an unread copy of The New Morningside Papers, the second volume of letters, opinion and stories by the famed Canadian journalist and broadcaster Peter Gzowski (1934-2002). Gzowski hosted various shows on CBC Radio for 30 years; his pieces are funny, sad, entertaining and informative.I say that this is a first edition because I don't believe that his books were ever issued in hardcover. If they were, the soft cover editions were issued in the same year. I've only seen them in 6" x 9" trade paperback, which is what this copy is. 408 pages, with little illustrations.This book has never been read, or even opened. But the paper has darkened quite a bit. The covers have a tiny bit of shelfwear, just at the edges. Other than that, it's perfect.

This is a stated first edition of No End Save Victory: Perspectives on World War II, published in 2001. It is a collection of 44 essays covering a wide range of World War II subjects and is written by bestselling and award-winning historians.
Highlights include Caleb Carr on Poland 1939 (the only campaign Hitler won), Stephen Ambrose on a pivotal battle to take the Rhine, John Keegan on the siege of Berlin, Victor Davis Hanson on the charismatic and controversial General LeMay, William Manchester on Churchill's failure to influence the French, and Antony Beevor on the battle for Stalingrad. The pieces have appeared in print only once before, in The Journal of Military History.
688 pages. Unclipped dust jacket. There is an inscription on the front endpaper, but it is in pristine condition.

NOTE: My quoted price for shipping OUTSIDE of North America is for surface mail without tracking. For other shipping options, please contact me.

This is a first edition of the Oxford Book of Essays, compiled by the British academic John Gross. It was published in 1991, by Oxford University Press, and printed in the US.It is 140 essays, beginning with Sir Francis Bacon and ending with Clive James. I attach photos of some of the contents.
This copy has not been read. It is medium blue boards with silver lettering on the cover and spine. The dust jacket is a painting; it is unclipped and has only a tiny amount of shelf-wear. It is 680 creamy white pages. Condition is perfect.
The following is from a review of it:The essay is one of the richest of literary forms. Its most obvious characteristics are freedom, informality, and the personal touch - though it can also find room for poetry, satire, fantasy, and sustained argument. All these qualities, and many others, are on display in The Oxford Book of Essays. The most wide-ranging collection of its kind to appear for many years, it includes 140 essays by 120 writers: classics, curiosities,… Read More

This is a never-read 6th printing of the 1982 release, by Library of America, of the Poetry & Prose of Walt Whitman.
It is a plain, elegant book. Hunter green cloth covers, with brilliant gold lettering on the spine.
1380 pages, no shelf-wear, lovely paper, silk bookmark.
There are no marks of any kind in it. There has been some water on a part of the outer spine, and it's a little dusty. And there are slight creases to the first 4 pages.
I attach a photo of the table of contents.

Note: If you are outside of North America, the quoted shipping price is for surface mail without tracking. For other options, please contact me.