Search Results: Authors starting with V from Whitmore Rare Books

London: Printed for G.G. and J. Robinson, and J. Edwards, 1798. First edition. Three quarto volumes (11 3/4 x 9 3/8 inches; 299 x 239 mm) plus folio atlas volume (22 x 16 3/4 inches; 560 x 430 mm), collating: [8], xxix, [1, blank], [2, ads], [4, contents], [2, list of plates], 432; [10], 504; [10], 505, [3, errata] pp. Eighteen engraved plates, one of which is a map in the text. Ten folding maps and six plates of profiles in the atlas volume. Complete with half-titles and errata. Text volumes bound in contemporary brown polished calf with double gilt borders. Spines stamped in blind and lettered in gilt. Gilt board edges and dentelles. Marbled endpapers. All edges marbled. Blue silk place markers. Atlas bound to match in contemporary half calf over marbled boards. Outer hinges as well as heads and tails of spines of text volumes professionally repaired. Some light flaking to calf at outer hinges. Plates with some light foxing and toning. Small marginal repair to leaf Pp of volume III and small… Read More

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970. First American edition. Fine/Fine. And the first English-language edition, preceding the UK edition by a year. A clean, Fine copy of the book in a bright, fresh jacket that is also just about Fine, save for a small indentation on the front panel near the spine. Originally published in Brazil in 1968 and translated into English here by Edgar Miller, Jr. A classic coming-of-age story, following the mischievous and precocious five-year old Zeze. A fan of pranks and general mischief, Zeze frustrates his family who work hard to support one another. After moving in search of work, Zeze discovers that he can communicate with an orange tree in his new back yard. But tragedy looms, and Zeze must confront the challenges of growing up and the perils of losing what is cherished. Fine in Fine dust jacket.

Paris: Librairie Albert Messein, 1926. First edition. Near Fine. One of 500 copies on "papier Vélin à la forme," out of a total edition of 550 numbered copies. Eighteen large octavo volumes (9 13/16 x 6 1/4 inches; 249 x 160 mm.). All illustrations in pochoir. Publisher's harlequin leather (calf and morocco) in brown, purple, tan, red, green, gray, orange, black, and maroon by René Kieffer (with his ticket on front free endpaper of most volumes). Covers decoratively stamped in blind, spines decoratively stamped in blind and lettered in gilt with three raised bands, top edge gilt, others uncut, decorative endpapers. Original wrappers bound in. Spines gently faded, otherwise an excellent set. Comprising: Poèmes Saturniens. Illustrations de H. Bouché-Leclercq (1914); La Bonne chanson. Illustrations de Paul Guignebault (1914); Fêtes galantes. Croquis et vignettes de Robert Bonfils (1915); Romances sans paroles. Illustrations en couleurs de Ch. Picart le Doux (1920); Parallèlement. Illustrations… Read More

New York: Vincent Parke and Company, 1911. Edition d'Amiens. Limited to 600 numbered copies, of which this is 122 and signed by R.G. Lancaster, Registrar. Bound by Frost of Bath ca. 1960 in full crimson polished calf, covers with double-gilt rules, spines with five shallow raised bands decoratively tooled in gilt in compartments, purple and green morocco gilt lettering labels, board edges and turn-ins decoratively gilt, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Fifteen large octavo volumes (8 5/8 x 5 13/16 inches; 220 x 151 mm). Hand-colored frontispieces, signed by the colorist, and numerous tinted plates, with descriptive tissue guards. Volume 5 has small chip at crown. Hand-illuminated limitation leaf. A very Fine set. Jules Verne was a "French writer whose works shaped the development of modern science fiction...In 1863 Verne published the first of his Voyages extraordinaires—Cinq semaines en ballon (1863; Five Weeks in a Balloon). The great success of the tale encouraged him to produce others in the… Read More

New York: G. Howard Watt, 1924. First American edition. Very Good +/Near Fine. A Very Good + copy of the book with the rear hinge professionally tightened and a previous owner's name on the front free end paper. In a very bright, Near Fine jacket publisher clipped on the four corners, but retaining the original price. A late work by this master of science fiction and adventure, first published posthumously. This action-packed novel features piracy in the South Atlantic and the desperate measures undertaken by men stranded on a small island, home to the southern-most lighthouse in the world. The Lighthouse at the End of the World was inspired by the real lighthouse at the southern tip of Argentina. Verne's novel was later adapted into the 1971 film, The Light at the Edge of the World. Very Good + in Near Fine dust jacket.

New York: Delacorte Press, 1969. First edition. Very Good +/Very Good +. A Very Good+ copy of the book in like dust jacket. Slight rubbing at the base of the spine, a faint splash to the closed text block, previous owner's name on the first blank and half-title. Dust jacket with a faint splash on the front panel and a small bit of white paint at the heel of the spine. Kurt Vonnegut's masterful satire about the bombing of Dresden and the strange time traveling experiences of Billy Pilgrim. The book was nominated for both a Hugo and Nebula Award the year it was released and was ranked 18th by Modern Library on its list of the 100 best books of the century. Slaughterhouse Five was partly autobiographical, as Vonnegut served in the army and witnessed the bombing firsthand during World War II. Though controversial around its release due to its depictions of sex, the novel grew to be quite popular and was adapted into a film in 1972, which would win the Prix de Jury at the Cannes Film Festival later… Read More

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952. First edition. Very Good +/Near Fine. A Very Good+ copy in Near Fine dust jacket. Book with some tape-ghosts to the boards and end papers. Dust jacket a bit faded at the spine and extremities and with a short, closed tear at the top of the front panel (no loss). Vonnegut's first novel, Player Piano, is a satire set in dystopian machine-dominated America, which cautions against blindly embracing technology. Inspired by his time at General Electric, Vonnegut imagines a future where automatization has replaced most industries, relegating society to meaningless toil. The story follows engineer Dr. Paul Proteus, one of the privileged few, as he becomes disillusioned. Vonnegut's prophetic sci-fi tale offers "an uncommon and honest theme for our days—that a society that outsources all labor to technology may inadvertently drain out too much humanity" (Bosphorus Review of Books). Very Good + in Near Fine dust jacket.

London: Raphael Tuck & Sons, 1914. Original quarter brown cloth over beveled brown boards. Front cover pictorially stamped and lettered in black and white with laid-on color plate. Spine lettered in black. Collating 136, [4, ads]. Twelve color plates (including frontispiece) and numerous black and white text illustrations. Corners and spine ends a little rubbed, inner front hinge expertly strengthened, some minor marginal soiling to some leaves. Still a Very Good copy. One of the rarest of all Wain-illustrated books, the cat-master's delightful take on a tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, gentleman, apothecary, ploughboy, thief. At the end of the last century, Louis Wain (1860-1939), the Edwardian cat artist, became a household name as an illustrator of cats, whom he depicted in all sorts of activities, from skating and playing cricket to driving motor cars, attending dances, and playing musical instruments. "He invented a cat style, a cat society, a whole cat world. English cats that do not look… Read More