Search Results: Authors starting with R from Bauman Rare Books

1923. First Edition . RILKE, Rainer Maria. Duineser Elegien. Leipzig: Insel-Verlag, 1923. Tall quarto, publisher's full green crushed morocco gilt, raised bands, top edge gilt, uncut; housed in a custom clamshell box. $12,000.Deluxe limited large-paper first edition of one of the greatest volumes of poetry of the 20th century, number 83 of only 300 copies, this copy one of the first 100 copies specially bound in full green gilt-decorated morocco at the Wiener Werkstadt.Rilke spent the winter of 1911-12 at Duino Castle on the Adriatic Sea as a guest of his friend Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis-Hohenlohe, who later related Rilke's account of the genesis of the Elegies. One windy night there, while pacing the cliffs above a raging sea, Rilke heard a voice from out of the storm: ""Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels' hierarchies?"" He quickly wrote down these words and some others that came to him and hurried back to his room where, that night, he… Read More

1952. First Edition . Signed. ELLISON, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Random House, (1952). Octavo, original black and tan cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom chemise and clamshell box. $6000.First edition, third printing of Ralph Ellison’s great American novel, inscribed by Ellison on the half title: ""For Richard Swanston, whose grandfather Thomas Talley is responsible for some of the insights that appear herein. Sincerely, Ralph Ellison.""""It is a resolutely honest, tormented, profoundly American book"" (Wright Morris, New York Times, 1952). Winner of the 1952 National Book Award, Ellison's matchless first novel is ""one of the most important works of the 20th century"" (New York Times). This is a work in which Ellison's ""visionary genius achieved a perfection"" (Harold Bloom, Genius)—and the only novel published in his lifetime—Invisible Man is a ""magnificent… Read More

1867. First Edition . Signed. EMERSON, Ralph Waldo. May-Day and Other Pieces. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867. Octavo, contemporary three-quarter brown morocco, raised bands. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $16,000.First edition, presentation copy, of Emerson's second volume of poems, inscribed in the year of publication to his close friend and trusted adviser: ""Abel Adams from R.W. Emerson. 1 May, 1867.""May-Day, Emerson's second volume of poetry, followed his highly successful Poems (1946). ""The two volumes established his reputation as a major American poet"" (Britannica). ""Emerson had always thought verse to be the most perfect mode of utterance, and he had always referred to himself as a poet. Now he offered evidence whereby he might be judged. The judgement has taken some time to become mature, but it is no longer to be doubted that in a few of his pieces he reached a mark which only Whitman, Poe, and Emily Dickinson reached in… Read More

1876. First Edition . Signed. EMERSON, Ralph Waldo. Letters and Social Aims. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1876 [i.e. 1875]. Octavo, original terracotta cloth. Housed in a half morocco chemise and full morocco slipcase. $11,000.First edition, first printing, association copy, of the last volume of essays published during Emerson's lifetime, bearing the ownership signature of Emerson's neighbor, Jeanie M. LeBrun, and additionally signed for her by Emerson and dated by him in the year of publication, ""6 Jan 1876.""This was the last volume of essay published during Emerson's lifetime. By the 1870s, Emerson had faded and ""gradually slipped into a serene senility in which his mind finally became a calm blank"" (OCAL). ""A longtime friend, James Elliot Cabot, was enlisted by the family to help put Emerson's literary manuscripts in order and prepare his lectures for delivery and his writings for publication… Cabot and Emerson's daughter… Read More

1844. First Edition . Signed. EMERSON, Ralph Waldo. Essays: Second Series. Boston: James Munroe, 1844. Octavo, contemporary three-quarter brown morocco, raised bands. Housed in a custom chemise and clamshell box. $17,500.First edition, presentation copy, of the second series of Emerson's essays including such important works as ""Experience,"" ""The Poet,"" and ""Nature,"" usual mixed first and second printing but composed almost entirely of first printing sheets, inscribed in the year of publication to his close friend and trusted adviser: ""Abel Adams from his friend, R.W.E. 15 October, 1844.""""Timeless, and without a trace of 'dating,' these essays are as readable, and to a considerable extent as much read, today as a hundred years ago. Their ethical inspiration and stimulation, their occasional startling phrase, their individualistic idealism, which stirred renascent Yankee New England to its… Read More

1957. First Edition . Signed. BRADBURY, Ray. Dandelion Wine. Garden City: Doubleday, 1957. Octavo, original yellow cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $4900.First edition of Bradbury's semi-autobiographical novel, boldly inscribed by him using several colors of pencil over the entire front free endpaper: ""For Matthew Stiller!?!!! This dandelion! [sketch of dandelion] With good wishes! from Ray Bradbury, Oct. 4, '92.""""Dandelion Wine is one of Bradbury's autobiographical fantasies, a novel that fully embodies Bradbury's love for creating eccentric characters and exploring their lives. The novel is more autobiographical than fantasy (unlike its companion, Something Wicked This Way Comes), with the majority of events being daily moments of life in the Midwest in the late 1920s. The main character, Douglas Spaulding, is based on Bradbury… Considered one of Bradbury's strongest works, the novel has received a good deal of… Read More

1947. First Edition . Signed. BRADBURY, Ray. Dark Carnival. Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1947. Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket. $6800.First edition of Bradbury's important first book, signed by him on the title page.The legendary Bradbury was ""as influenced by George Bernard Shaw and William Shakespeare as he was by Jules Verne… Bradbury's poetically drawn and atmospheric fictions—horror, fantasy, shadowy American gothics—explored life's secret corners"" (Los Angeles Times). The 27 stories collected in Dark Carnival mark Bradbury's departure from publishing in pulp magazines. Their ""stylistic deftness… stands at the head of a tradition in modern horror fiction"" (Barron 4-24). ""Evocative, poetic and suffused with youthful wonder, Bradbury's tales broke with pulp conventions in their style and approach to the fantastic… Collected in his first book Dark Carnival… they mesh to… Read More

1950. First Edition . Signed. BRADBURY, Ray. The Martian Chronicles. Garden City: Doubleday, 1950. Octavo, original light green cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $6800.First edition of this scarce science fiction classic, Bradbury’s second book, signed by him and dated October 21, 1980.Bradbury's first novel and second book, ""which could be regarded as an episodic novel, made Bradbury's reputation… Its closely interwoven stories, linked by recurrent images and themes, tell of the repeated attempts by humans to colonize Mars… All the Bradbury themes that were later to be repeated find their earliest shapes here"" (Clute & Nicholls, 151). ""This was the book that established Bradbury's reputation… He put far more emphasis on style and mood than he did on technical detail or scientific plausibility… His reward was a stunning popular and critical success"" (Pringle, Science Fiction 100 3).… Read More

1940. First Edition . CHANDLER, Raymond. Farewell, My Lovely. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1940. Octavo, original red wrappers. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $9200.First edition, Advance Review Copy, of Chandler's scarce second novel—an exceptional copy of this premiere work by “one hell of a writer” (George Higgins)—in original ARC wrappers.""Show me a man or woman who cannot stand mysteries and I will show you a fool, a clever fool—perhaps—but a fool just the same."" With these words, written by Chandler in 1949, the man who redefined the American crime novel acknowledged what his own writing made evident. It was barely a decade earlier that Chandler began to achieve some success. With the popularity of his first novel The Big Sleep in 1939, Chandler began working on Farewell, My Lovely in April that same year, completing a first draft by September and finishing the novel in the summer of 1940. To many, Farewell, My Lovely, the second Philip… Read More

1986. Signed. FEYNMAN, Richard P. Recommendations. No place: No publisher, circa 1986. Five sheets of mimeographed paper, each measuring 8-1/2 by 14 inches, stapled at top corner; pp. 5. $22,500.Mimeograph of the galleys of the Recommendations of the Rogers Commission tasked with investigating the Challenger disaster, signed on the front page by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman with his additional note: ""PRIVATE (CLOSE HOLD).""The Rogers Commission was formed in the aftermath of the Challenger disaster to investigate the reasons behind the space shuttle's explosion. Richard Feynman was in the final months of his life and reluctantly accepted the appointment to the Commission, despite believing it would ""ruin [his] life."" Feynman was consumed by the investigation, painstakingly analyzing the evidence and eventually reaching a conclusion that exposed systemic problems at NASA that extended well beyond the Challenger. Feynman harshly criticized… Read More

1809. HAKLUYT, Richard. Hakluyt's Collection of the Early Voyages, Travels, and Discoveries of the English Nation. London: R.H. Evans, et al., 1809-12. Five volumes. Thick folio (10-1/2 by 15 inches), contemporary three-quarter brown morocco rebacked, raised bands, marbled endpapers and edges. $15,000.One of only 75 large-paper copies on Imperial paper(out of a total edition of only 325) of “this enormous work—the most complete collection of voyages and discoveries, by land as well as by sea, and of the nautical achievements of the Elizabethans” (PMM). “The best and most complete edition… very scarce” (Hill).Building on a life-long interest, beginning with his Divers Voyages Touching the Discovery of America (1582), Richard Hakluyt was ""incited"" into documenting the accomplishments of English explorers ""by hearing and reading 'other nations miraculously extolled for their discoveries and notable enterprises by sea, but the English… Read More

1968. First Edition . Signed. (WYETH, Andrew) MERYMAN, Richard. Andrew Wyeth. Boston: Gambit, Incorporated, 1969. Oblong folio (13-1/2 by 17 inches), original half light blue reverse calf, all edges gilt, original clamshell box. $5800.Deluxe signed limited first edition, number 124 of only 300 copies, with 165 full-page color and black-and-white reproductions of Wyeth’s paintings of Pennsylvania and Maine.In the tradition of his father, N.C. Wyeth, and the Brandywine artists, Andrew Wyeth achieved acclaim for his naturalistic portrayals of the Pennsylvania countryside and the seacoast of Maine. His watercolors and tempera paintings capture the essence of the two regions, while conveying a sense of loneliness and nostalgia. ""I can do an awful lot of thinking and dreaming about the past and future—the timelessness of these rocks and hills—about all the people who have existed here."" After the prints were completed and approved by Wyeth for this volume, the original… Read More

1930. First Edition . SCHABACKER, Richard W. Stock Market Theory and Practice. New York: B.C. Forbes, (1930). Large octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket. $9200.First edition, first printing of Schabacker's first book, his pioneering 1930 volume on the stock market, with 105 illustrations, charts and diagrams, three folding, including folding frontispiece of the financial district, an especially handsome copy in bright original dust jacket.Schabacker, the youngest financial editor of Forbes Magazine, fundamentally changed the direction of stock market analysis with this massive volume. ""The first to make technical analysis and charting an organized discipline"" (Linda Raschke), Schabacker achieved ""the finest work ever produced on conventional technical analysis."" Stock Market Theory and Practice and his later writings represent ""the highest order of analytical quality and incisive technical thought"" (Donald Mack).… Read More

1961. First Edition . Signed. YATES, Richard. Revolutionary Road. Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown / Atlantic Monthly, (1961). Octavo, original half red cloth, original dust jacket. $7800.First edition of Yates' explosive debut novel, named ""the Great Gatsby of our time"" by Vonnegut, inscribed in the year of publication, ""For N— G— with best wishes Richard Yates Bread Loaf—8/24/61.""Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates' groundbreaking first novel, ""creates an indelible portrait of lost promises and mortgaged hopes"" in suburban America, a work richly praised for achieving ""an intensity that excites the reader's compassion as well as his interest."" A National Book Award finalist in 1962, the novel was hailed by Tennessee Williams as ""intensely, and brilliantly alive. If more is needed to make a masterpiece in modern American fiction, I am sure I don't know what it… Read More

1983. First Edition . Signed. DAHL, Roald. The Witches. London: Jonathan Cape, (1983). Octavo, original blue-green cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $13,500.First edition, presentation copy, of Dahl's Whitbread Award-winning children's novel, with in-text illustrations by Quentin Blake, warmly inscribed in the year of publication across the entire front endpaper to a close friend of Dahl's son, Theo, and a frequent visitor to Dahl's writing hut during the writing of Boy: ""To Justin with love, Roald Dahl. Oct. 28th 1983.""""Roald Dahl knows every bit as well as Bruno Bettelheim that children love the macabre, the terrifying, the mythic. In his latest book, The Witches, a 7-year-old orphan boy, cared for by his Norwegian grandmother, discovers the true nature of witches and then has the misfortune to be transformed into a mouse by the Grand High Witch of All the World… It is a curious sort of tale but an honest one, which… Read More

1964. First Edition . Signed. DAHL, Roald. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. New York: Knopf, (1964). Octavo, original red cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. $18,000.First edition, first issue, boldly inscribed in red crayon by Dahl and his wife, actress Patricia Neal, the inscription likely in Neal’s hand, the signature in Dahl’s: “Dear Anette and Gerald, This book is for children over six. You qualify—just. With love from Pat and Roald. Christmas 1964.” With numerous in-text illustrations by Joseph Schindelman.""Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is already a great classic work… one of the most enduring post-war children's books—and I think we will not see its like again… Dahl is undeniably special"" (Connolly, 102). It is in this famous work that the world was introduced to Willie Wonka. Inscribed copies of Dahl's books are uncommon, particularly with such a lengthy and highly personal… Read More

1855. First Edition . BROWNING, Robert. Men and Women. London: Chapman and Hall, 1855. Two volumes. 12mo, original blind-stamped green cloth. Housed in custom cloth chemise and morocco slipcase. $1300.First edition of the first volumes of poetry Browning published after his marriage to Elizabeth Barrett, with the final poem addressed to her, in the original cloth.Men and Women is one of Browning's most important poetical works and includes ""Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,"" ""Fra Lippo Lippi,"" ""Andrea del Sarto"" and ""Love Among the Ruins."" The first fifty poems feature different narrators; the final poem, ""One Word More,"" is from Browning's perspective and with his voice, addressed to his new wife. Owner ink signature to front free endpapers.Interiors generally clean; cloth toned along spines and board edges, small chips to cloth at spine of Volume II, bindings sound, gilt bright.… Read More

1705. First Edition . (BEVERLEY, Robert). The History And Present State of Virginia, In Four Parts… By a Native and Inhabitant of the Place. London: R. Parker, 1705. Octavo, period-style speckled brown calf gilt, raised bands, red morocco spine label. $16,000.First edition of Jamestown's Robert Beverley's history of Virginia—""after John Smith, the first account of this colony, the first one penned by a native and the best contemporary record of its aboriginal tribes and of the life of its early settlers"" (Howes)—wonderfully illustrated with engraved armorial frontispiece and 14 full-page ""fine engravings"" (Sabin) after Gribelin.Robert Beverley's History of Virginia is ""the first published history of a British colony by a native of North America."" Beverley, who lived in Jamestown, was prominent in the colony's government. ""Following the fire that destroyed the statehouse in Jamestown on October… Read More

1928. First Edition . Signed. FROST, Robert. West-Running Brook. New York: Henry Holt, [1928]. Octavo, original half green cloth, mounted cover label, marbled endpapers, uncut, original dust jacket. $4500.First edition, first issue, of Frost’s fifth collection of verse, widely hailed as one of his greatest, boldly signed by the poet: “Robert Frost Wesleyan 1929.”In addition to the title poem, this volume contains ""Acquainted with the Night,"" ""Spring Pools, ""Tree at My Window"" and ""Once by the Pacific,"" among others. With four full-page woodcut illustrations by J.J. Lankes. ""Welford D. Taylor, a prominent Lankes scholar, describes the appreciation that the poet and the printmaker had for each other's work: 'What had impressed each man was a recognition of the aesthetic and thematic values he shared with the other—a ""coincidence of taste,"" as Frost put it. Both based… Read More

1926. Signed. FROST, Robert. North of Boston. New York: Henry Holt, (1926). Octavo, original half olive cloth, uncut. $4000.Later printing of Frost’s second published book, signed and inscribed by him with a line from his poem ""Fire and Ice"": ""Some say the world will end in fire. Robert Frost.""This volume represents a pinnacle of Frost's career, containing such classic poems as ""Mending Wall,"" ""The Death of the Hired Man,"" ""Home Burial,"" and ""The Wood-pile."" Of it, Frost wrote, ""I had some character strokes I had to get in somewhere and I chose a sort of eclogue form for them. Rather I dropped into that form. And I dropped to an everyday level of diction that even Wordsworth kept above… I think I have made poetry. The language is appropriate to the virtues I celebrate"" (Thompson 428). The line Frost has inscribed here is the first line… Read More