Search Results: Authors starting with D from The Manhattan Rare Book Company

New York: Felicie, 1973. 1st Edition. Original cloth, original dust jacket. Very Good/Very Good. FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH, WITH MAGNIFICENT PRESENTATION INSCRIPTIONS, DRAWINGS, AND "PAPER SCULPTURE" BY DALI. On the inscription and drawings: Dali lavishly decorated the endpapers of this copy, writing in thick black marker (and taking up over half the page): "Pour MR Riskin / Hommage / Dali." Beneath his inscription, he dated it (1974) and drew what looks to be a large version of one of his spinning men. Dali scraped the paper at the base of one of the figure's arms to create something resembling a hand. On the facing page, Dali created something even more unusual: He drew a bug, but molded and scraped the paper to create a three-dimensional exoskeleton for the creature. Finally, on the page facing the title page, Dali added another inscription: "with apologies for the translation / Dali / 1974". The book: "Les Diners de Gala, the opulent cookbook that [Dali] conceived and illustrated, sets out… Read More

London: W. Richardson, J. Phillips, W. Pennington. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE IN ORIGINAL BOARDS of Dalton's first book; one of the foundational works in meteorology. "In 1793 Dalton moved to Manchester to teach mathematics at a dissenting academy, the New College. He took with him the proof sheets of his first book, a collection of essays on meteorologic topics based on his own observations together with those of his friends John Gough and Peter Crosthwaite. This work, Meteorological Observations and Essays, was published in 1793. It created little stir at first but contained original ideas that, together with Dalton's more developed articles, marked the transition of meteorology from a topic of general folklore to a serious scientific pursuit" (Britannica). His book "contained not only a record of his unremitting observations but also inferences of the causes of the meteorological phenomena so exposed. These reflections, which… Read More

New York: Arnold Genthe, 1916. framed. Very Good. EXQUISITE ICONIC PHOTOGRAPH OF ISADORA DUNCAN BY ARNOLD GENTHE. "In the early 20th century, a new form of dance was emerging, one fostered by periods of experimentation in European cities and transferred to American stages by impassioned personalities led by Isadora Duncan. As this new, modern dance both challenged and influenced other dances from ballet to vaudeville, the lines between these forms became blurred allowing for a cacophony of creative expression. The dance world was expanding and changing in a myriad of ways, and nowhere was that more evident than in New York City, where high and low dance shared the same urban space and exchanged ideas and inspiration. Modern dance, as with other modernist movements of the time, sought new forms with which to express the spirit of modern times, and as Duncan phrased it, to express 'the free spirit, who will inhabit the body of the new woman; more glorious than any woman that has yet been...… Read More

London: John Murray, 1868. FIRST EDITION. Original Cloth. Very Good. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE IN ORIGINAL CLOTH of Darwin's sequel to the Origin of Species, including his first use of the term "survival of the fittest". "The Variation was a full statement of the facts on which the theories of the Origin were based... "After the Origin's publication Darwin embarked on two broad lines of research: botanical experiments, and studies of variation, sexual selection, and emotional expressions in humans and mammals. In 1860 he began recycling the early, as yet unpublished, chapters of 'Natural selection' and studying the osteology of domestic pigeons, ducks, and geese for a book on how breeders and horticulturists modify species. This was The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication (1868)... Its two volumes were intended to provide overwhelming evidence for the ubiquity of variation, although they would also incidentally answer Lyell and Gray, who maintained that variations had not occurred… Read More

Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Very Good. FIRST EDITION, ASSOCIATION COPY, SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY DAVIDSON: "To Lee Witkin / Bruce Davidson". Witkin was the enormously influential gallery owner who helped introduce the public to the masterpieces of contemporary photography. "Davidson returned to this blasted stretch of East Harlem regularly for nearly two years (always bringing prints for the people he photographed) until he and his bulky view camera began to be a part of the block's daily life... The published results are wrenching and revelatory. Davidson's strobe doesn't dispel the gloom or glamorize the ruin of the apartments, storefronts, and rubble-strewn lots where people stopped to pose for him, but the rapport he established allows those people to surrender to the camera with their humanity intact. The book's glossy duotone reproductions -- all face-to-face on spreads with wide white borders stripped of captions and page numbers -- give the grimiest… Read More

No Binding. AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED, to Reverend J. T. Freeman. Davis writes to Reverend Freeman thanking him for a proposed endowment to support the former President of the Confederacy. The letter provides a poignant glimpse of the former leader's post-war plight. He tells of his personal loss and hardship, but at the same time expresses his pride and gratitude for the enduring love and confidence of the Southern people. JEFFERSON DAVIS AFTER THE END OF THE CIVIL WAR: "At dawn on May 10, 1865, Davis was captured near Irwinville, Ga. He was imprisoned in a damp casemate at Fort Monroe, Va., and was put in leg-irons. Though outraged Northern public opinion brought about his removal to healthier quarters, Davis remained a prisoner under guard for two more years. Finally, in May 1867, he was released on bail and went to Canada to regain his shattered health. Several notable Northern lawyers offered their free services to defend him in a treason trial, which Davis longed for. The government,… Read More

Minneapolis: The American Physical Society, 1927. First edition. Original wrappers. Very Good. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS of Davisson and Germer's confirmation of de Broglie's hypothesis that matter has wave-like properties. "A 1927 paper in the Physical Review demonstrated that particles of matter can act like waves, just as light waves sometimes behave like particles. Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer of the Bell Telephone Laboratories, then in New York, found that electrons scatter from a crystal in the same way that x rays do. The work began as a result of a laboratory accident and ultimately earned Davisson a Nobel Prize. "In 1924, Louis de Broglie... proposed that matter, like light, has a dual nature. The next year, graduate student Walter Elsasser of the University of Göttingen in Germany proposed a way to test it: If electrons do have a wave nature, they should, like light, exhibit wave phenomena such as diffraction. In one form of diffraction, a light beam passing through a… Read More

Very Good. FOUR AUTOGRAPH LETTERS with good content by Humphry Davy to his close friend and patron Davies Gilbert. In one letter, written on the recto of one sheet with Gilbert's address on verso, Davy mentions a recent visit to William Herschel ("... I have been very much delighted to see the activity & zeal with which Mr Herschell pursues Astronomy & the perfect state of his instruments..."); in another letter (one sheet, both sides), Davy writes emotionally to Gilbert about his health and the Presidency of the Royal Society: "...I am very anxious to learn the state of your feelings with respect to the Presidency, if what I fear must be the case the state of my health obliges me to resign...". Gilbert would indeed succeed Davy as President of the Royal Society in 1827 after Davy resigned due to illness. In the third letter (one sheet, both sides), Davy writes to Davy while convalescing with Coleridge's friend Tom Poole ("...Mr Poole my kind Host desires… Read More

Paris: Mallet-Bachelier, 1862. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Fine. FIRST EDITION of De Chancourtois's presentation of his "telluric screw," the first periodic representation of the elements; precedes Mendeleev's table by seven years. "In 1862, De Chancourtois arranged the elements according to what he termed increasing 'numbers' along a spiral. These numbers were written along a vertical line that served to generate a vertical cylinder... The first full turn of the spiral ended with the element oxygen, and the second full turn was completed at sulfur. Periodic relationships, or chemical groupings, could be seen in De Chancourtois's... by moving vertically downward along the surface of the cylinder. The eighth such turn, and coincidentally the halfway point down the cylinder, occurred at tellurium. This rather arbitrary feature provided De Chancourtois with the name of vis tellurique, or telluric screw, for his system. This name may also have been chosen by De Chancourtois from tellos, Greek for earth,… Read More

Milan: Edizioni Della Chimera, 1941. First edition. Original wrappers. Fine. DE CHIRICO, GIORGIO. ONE OF THE MOST MAGNIFICENT ILLUSTRATED BOOKS OF THE 20TH CENTURY: de Chirico's series of original lithographs illustrating The Apocalypse, complete with 20 large lithographs - 10 hand-colored with pastels - EACH SIGNED BY DE CHIRICO.

 With an important provenance: An out-of-commerce copy (out of an edition of only 150 numbered copies) for Massimo Bontempelli, who wrote the introduction. "It was almost certainly the feeling of impending doom during the Second World War (1939-1945) that drew de Chirico to illustrate the Apocalypse. He may have felt particularly threatened because his wife, Isabella, was Jewish. He may also have been attracted by the fantastical aspect of the Revelations of St John the Divine in the Bible... De Chirico was also very interested in the work of great artists of the past, and would have been familiar with many earlier Apocalypse illustrations, particularly those by the… Read More

Lyon: Antoine Vincent [Symphorien Barbier], 1561. First edition. contemporary limp vellum. Very Good. THE RETURN OF MARTIN GUERRE - THE VERY RARE FIRST EDITION OF THE JUDGE'S FIRST-HAND ACCOUNT OF A SENSATIONAL SIXTEENTH-CENTURY TRIAL FOR IDENTITY THEFT; THE BASIS OF NUMEROUS LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND CINEMATIC ADAPTATIONS. This case had everything - an unhappy marriage, a sudden disappearance and a mysterious return, an accusation of impersonation, a possibly complicit wife, a family and a village divided, two dramatic trials, the sudden appearance of a surprise witness at a moment in the second trial when acquittal seemed imminent, a sudden reversal of fortune, the defendant's conviction, his public apology (declaring the wife to be an innocent victim), and his execution in front of the home of the man he impersonated. It is scarcely surprising that the case has inspired, among other things, an essay by Montaigne and one by Leibniz, a novel by Dumas, a short story by Philip K. Dick, an opera, two… Read More

Leipzig: Hirzel, 1923. First edition. Original wrappers. Very Good. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS of Debye's explanation of the dual wave-particle nature of electromagnetic radiation (the "Compton effect"). Precedes the full account by Compton. In October 1922, Arthur Holly Compton wrote a report for the National Research Council documenting his experimental observations that the wavelengths of X-rays increased when they were scattered by electrons, but did not offer an explanation. "Meanwhile, in Zürich, Peter Debye read Compton's report to the National Research Council... Debye had already considered the possibility of change in frequency, but had never published it. He might not have thought that the experiment was worth the trouble because it would only prove what everybody, except Einstein, already thought: light quanta do not exist. But after he read Compton's paper, Debye knew what the data meant. In March, while Compton's paper was undergoing a… Read More

Leydon: Peter Leffen & Francis Moyard, 1662. First edition. contemporary vellum. Very Good. FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST TEXTBOOK OF PHYSIOLOGY. "René Descartes's Treatise of man (De homine, 1662; Traité de l'homme, 1664) was never intended to stand as a work on its own. It was one part of a much larger work, Le monde (The world). Although this was finished around 1633, Descartes did not publish it himself because he was alarmed by the Italian Inquisition's condemnation of Galileo Galilei that year. Some time after Descartes's death in 1650, his French manuscript, copies of which had circulated among his friends and correspondents, was edited and published.  The first version was a Latin translation (De homine) by Florentius Schuyl in 1662, the second the now better known 'original' French version (Traité de l'homme) edited by Descartes's self-appointed literary executor Claude Clerselier in 1664. In the seventeenth century the… Read More

np: np, 1980. First edition. nb. Very Good. LARGE, ICONIC ROBE PAINTING BY LEGENDARY AMERICAN ARTIST JIM DINE. "The key element that secured Dine's following among aspiring artists in the swinging '60s was his autobiographical, diaristic approach to making art. The objects he chose to represent were either linked to his past or locked into his current interests. The tools he depicted were an echo of a childhood spent in his father's hardware store in Cincinnati, the heart was a valentine for his wife, and the bathrobe became a representation of self, constantly re-invented and re-imagined in paintings, prints and drawings. "Although he claimed never to have worn one, Dine first embraced the heroic form of the vacated robe as a subject in 1964 and gave his paintings and prints titles that often referred to himself, such as "Double Isometric Self-Portrait". Without the human body to give the garment a point of specificity or individuality, the robe became an everyman as much as a self-portrait." (Ted… Read More

Soviet Union [USSR]: Physikalische Zeitschrift der Sowjetunion, 1933. First edition. Original wrappers. Very Good. FIRST PRINTING IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS of Dirac's critically important paper; the inspiration for Richard Feynman's path-integral formalism. SCARCE. In 1941, "Feynman went to a beer party at the Nassau Tavern. He sat with a physicist lately arrived from Europe, Herbert Jehle... Jehle asked Feynman what he was working on. Feynman explained and asked in turn whether Jehle knew of any application of the least-action principle in quantum mechanics. "Jehle certainly did. He pointed out that Feynman's own hero, Dirac, had published a paper on just that subject eight years before. The next day Jehle and Feynman looked at it together in the library. It was short. They found it, "The Lagrangian in Quantum Mechanics," in the bound volumes of Physikalische Zeitschrift der Sowjetunion, not the best-read of journals. Dirac had worked out the beginnings of a least-action approach in just the… Read More

London: The Royal Society, 1925. First edition. Original wrappers. Very Good. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS of Dirac's first major paper; a major achievement in the advancement of the new quantum theory. "Dirac's first step into a new quantum theory was taken late in September 1925. R H Fowler, his research supervisor, had received a proof copy of an exploratory paper by Werner Heisenberg in the framework of the old quantum theory of Bohr and Sommerfeld, which leaned heavily on Bohr's correspondence principle but changed the equations so that they involved directly observable quantities. Fowler sent Heisenberg's paper on to Dirac, who was on vacation in Bristol, asking him to look into this paper carefully. Dirac's attention was drawn to a mysterious mathematical relationship, at first sight unintelligible, that Heisenberg had reached. Several weeks later, back in Cambridge, Dirac suddenly recognized that this mathematical form had the same structure as the Poisson… Read More

np, 1940. Fine. RARE SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH OF AN ICONIC IMAGE BY NELL DORR. Wonder and magic are themes that American photographer Nell Dorr (1893 - 1988) explored throughout her life. She believed that terror and misery were already abundantly documented in American culture and thus committed herself to eliciting beauty. She had learned photography as a child (her father ran a successful photography studio) and began exhibiting her work professionally in order to support her young family after she divorced her first husband. Dorr famously looked beyond collicky infants and overwhelmed mothers, opting to evoke a dreamy atmosphere of calm, confident mothers and their cherubic children.  Taken around 1940 the Nursing Mother photographs are a collaboration between Dorr and her good friend, Tasha Tudor, one of America's most beloved author-illustrators of children's literature. Nestled against a backdrop of home-spun lace, a young Tudor in this photo cradles her nursing infant. When one of her own… Read More

London: George Newnes, 1892. First edition. original cloth gilt. Very Good. FIRST EDITIONS OF TWO MASTERPIECES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. The story of Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, and Strand Magazine began in April, 1891, when Doyle sent three stories, "A Case of Identity," "The Red-Headed League," and The Boscombe Valley Mystery" to The Strand for publication in their issues. Doyle had imagined a creating a series of stories centered around his detective Sherlock Holmes, but with each one self-contained in case a reader missed an issue. The series, however, was intended to be limited, but the editor of The Strand kept asking for more. As Doyle later explained, "The more he asked for the more I turned out until I had a dozen... That dozen stories being finished I determined they should be the end of all Sherlock's doings." (Green and Gibson, A10). After appearing in magazine form, those original twelve stories were collected together in book form as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. "The… Read More

np: np, 1963. First edition. Framed. Very Good. WONDERFUL SURREALIST PHOTOGRAPH OF DUCHAMP, MAN RAY, AND LAURIE SAVAGE. Inscribed by the photographer Naomi Savage: "Greetings of the Season from Naomi and David Savage, with Man Ray, Duchamp, and Laurie looking on.". Having met in 1915, Man Ray (American 1890 - 1976) and Marcel Duchamp (French, 1887 - 1968) were lifelong friends and frequent collaborators whose powerful intellectual chemistry allowed them to respond freely to each other's ideas in an artistic dialogue filled with in-jokes and innuendos. For example, among their earliest collaborations is Man Ray's portraits of Duchamp's alter-ego, Rrose Selvay, whose name is a pun on the French phrase, Eros, c'est la vie. Man Ray and Duchamp's mutual rejection of traditional art-world ideologies and art-making practices remained a mainstay of their long friendship. Today each artist is associated with a range of avante-garde movements such as Cubism, Dada, Surrealism, and Conceptual Art. Photographed… Read More

First edition. Decorated leather. Fine. ONE OF ONLY SIX COPIES ON HANDMADE JAPON NACRÉ. SIGNED BY BOTH HUGNET AND DUCHAMP. Georges Hugnet, poet, graphic artist, publisher and historian of the surrealist movement, was inspired by Marcel Duchamp, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Man Ray and other members of the Parisian avant-garde. Hugnet's first collection of poems and collages, published in 1936 and entitled La septième face du dé (The seventh face of the die), included a cover designed by Duchamp. Hugnet so admired Duchamp and his work that he penned a poem called, Marcel Duchamp, which pays tribute to Duchamp's contributions to modern art. In this poem Hugnet celebrates Duchamp's innovative spirit, his unconventional ideas about the nature and purpose of art, and his use of found objects and readymades and references several of Duchamp's most famous works, which were seen as radical and controversial in their time. We have on offer Hugnet's poem, Marcel Duchamp, published in 1941 and signed by… Read More