Search Results: Authors starting with W from Bauman Rare Books

1925. First Edition . HAMBLY, W.D. The History of Tattooing and its Significance. With Some Account of Other Forms of Corporal Marking. London: H.F. & WItherby, 1925. Octavo, original red cloth gilt. $3200.First edition, with eight plates of photographic illustrations, 16 in-text illustrations, and a folding map.The author of this early anthropological account of the practice of tattooing was trained at Oxford and worked as the assistant curator of African Ethnology of the Field Museum in Chicago. In addition to discussing the history, technique and geographic distribution of tattooing, he discusses it in relation to religious beliefs and practices, magic, and its ""social and anti-social purposes."" Text with a few instances of faint foxing, cloth with very minor wear, mild toning to spine.

1904. Signed. LONGFELLOW, Henry Wadsworth. The Complete Writings of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Ten volumes. WITH: LONGFELLOW, Samuel (ed). Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Two volumes. Boston and New York / London: Houghton, Mifflin /Keegan Paul, Trench, 1904, 1886. Together, thirteen volumes. Octavo, modern full black morocco, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated covers and spines, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, uncut. $8500.“Edition de Luxe” of the writings of Longfellow, number 728 of only 750 copies, with original autograph letter signed tipped in, frontispieces portrait in each volume, and 76 illustrations (three by Frederic Remington).""The most popular American poet of the 19th century,"" Longfellow produced a number of poems that remain popular favorites, such as ""Evangeline,"" ""Hiawatha,"" and ""Paul Revere's Ride"" (Encyclopedia of Literature, 693). This deluxe set features… Read More

1875. Signed. WHITMAN, Walt. Autograph letter signed ""Walt."" Camden (431 Stevens St.), May 2, (1875). Octavo, two pages on single sheet, to John Burroughs, with original envelope in Whitman's hand. $15,000.Fine autograph letter signed from Walt Whitman to naturalist John Burroughs, his close friend and protégé.The letter reads in full: ""Dear John Burroughs, I send you a letter that I rec'd from Dowden [the Irish literary critic], as you are alluded to. I have written to Dowden, to-day, & sent it off, & have given him your address— so I suppose he will send you the books alluded to. Mine have arived— Dowden advances, expands, or rather penetrates— the first two chapters of his Shakespeare, (which I have read thoroughly) are very fine— (I have underlined passages on every page)— the Victor Hugo I have not yet read— Nothing very different with me— I am pretty strong yet, & go out— but… Read More

1882. Signed. WHITMAN, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Camden, New Jersey: (Walt Whitman), 1882. Octavo, original green cloth gilt recased, top edge gilt, uncut. $9500.Author’s Edition, signed by Whitman on the title page, illustrated with two full-page engraved portraits of Whitman at different ages. One of probably fewer than 100 copies printed.In 1881 Boston publisher James Osgood asked Whitman to publish an expanded version of Leaves of Grass. Whitman responded that he would agree to such an edition on the condition that it include the ""sexuality odes"" which before had proved so controversial. The edition was published in Boston and had received promising reviews when on March 1 it was declared obscene by the district attorney. Osgood then asked Whitman to publish a version without the offending material. Whitman refused and asked that the plates to the Boston edition be delivered to him in Camden, New Jersey. He then promptly issued this Author's Edition from the Boston… Read More

1888. First Edition . Signed. WHITMAN, Walt. Complete Poems and Prose. (Camden: no publisher [printed for the author in Philadelphia by Ferguson Brothers], 1888). Quarto, original three-quarter green cloth, original brown mottled paper boards, original paper spine label, uncut. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $14,500.First edition of the first collected edition of Whitman's works, one of only 600 copies signed by Whitman on the Leaves of Grass title page, in original cloth, presentation copy from Whitman's literary executor inscribed on the front free endpaper six months after Whitman's death, ""To G. Garson Freund, Philada. Oct. 11, 1892. through Horace Traubel.""Published only four years before the poet's death, this edition was referred to by Whitman as his ""big book… essentially the book, irrespective of expensive binding: it has portraits, notes, title page—all the guarantees of my personality: it is as clearly the book as anything could… Read More

1897. First Edition . (CRANE, Walter, illustrator) SPENSER, Edmund. Spenser's Faerie Queene. London: George Allen (Chiswick Press), 1897. Six volumes. Quarto, contemporary three-quarter vellum gilt, brown morocco spine labels, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, uncut; original wrappers bound in at rear of each volume. $5200.Limited first book-form edition of Walter Crane's ""most ambitious project of book illustration"" (Lacy, 103), one of 1000 large-paper copies, with 88 splendid full-page pen-and-ink line-cuts (two double-page), 135 illustrative head- and tailpieces by Crane, and six facsimile title pages from earlier editions. Handsomely bound by J. Adams of Manchester.""The noblest allegorical poem in our language—indeed the noblest allegorical poem in the world"" (James Montgomery). Originally published in the late 16th century (the first three books in 1590 and the next three in 1596, with the ""Mutabilitie Cantos"" added… Read More

1888. First Edition . WILDE, Oscar. The Happy Prince and Other Tales. Illustrated by Walter Crane and Jacob Hood. London: David Nutt, 1888. Quarto, original full Japan vellum over beveled boards, uncut. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. $48,500.Large-paper limited first edition, number 21 of only 75 copies on handmade paper, signed by Oscar Wilde and the publisher David Nutt. Extraordinarily rare.""Wilde's reputation as an author dated from the publication of The Happy Prince and Other Tales… He presents the stories like sacraments of a lost faith… Their occasional social satire is subordinated to a sadness unusual in fairy tales"" (Ellmann, 299). Wilde wrote these tales for his own children. He told Richard La Gallienne that ""It is the duty of every father… to write fairy tales for his children."" His children later wrote of their father's ""never-ending supply"" of fairy tales and tales of adventure,… Read More

1856. (WASHINGTON, George) IRVING, Washington. Life of George Washington. New York: G.P. Putnam, 1856-9. Five volumes. Quarto, contemporary three-quarter navy morocco gilt, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, raised bands, marbled boards, endpapers, and edges. $3500.""Illustrated Edition"" of Irving's well-regarded biography, richly illustrated with over 230 plates, handsomely bound.This ""monumental"" Life of Washington had been planned as early as 1825, but Irving did not complete the biography until the final years of his life. ""His final project, long contemplated, was a five-volume Life of George Washington (1855-59), elaborately researched and agonizingly completed as his health failed. He lived long enough to see the last volume published, dying soon afterward at Sunnyside. The book was designed—incongruously, given its length—for both scholars and average American readers. It tended to reaffirm standard conceptions of the… Read More

1905. First Edition . Signed. (RACKHAM, Arthur) IRVING, Washington. Rip Van Winkle. London: William Heinemann, 1905. Quarto, original full pictorial vellum gilt, renewed ribbon ties, top edge gilt, uncut. Housed in a custom slipcase. $12,000.Deluxe signed limited first edition, with 51 full-color mounted plates by Rackham, number 137 of only 250 copies signed by Rackham, one of the smallest limitations for a Rackham title and ""the first book illustrated wholly by Rackham to be issued in a limited edition"" (Riall). One of the most scarce and desirable Rackham titles.""Rip Van Winkle of 1905 was a turning point in Rackham's career because of its 51 color plates. Known previously as a black-and-white artist, Rackham with this book achieved preeminence as an illustrator working in the three-color process… Rackham's Rip Van Winkle is among the most thoroughly illustrated of English books… His 50 illustrations, which are grouped at the end, come at a rate… Read More

1851. First Edition . KENDALL, George W. and NEBEL, Carl. The War Between the United States and Mexico Illustrated, Embracing Pictorial Drawings of All the Principal Conflicts by Carl Nebel… with a Description of Each Battle by Geo. Wilkins Kendall. New York and Philadelphia: D. Appleton; George S. Appleton, 1851. Large folio (19 by 23-1/2 inches), contemporary marbled boards rebacked and recornered in morocco-gilt, original morocco-gilt front cover label. $27,500.First edition of one of the most important and impressive pictorial chronicles of the Mexican-American War, boasting 12 superb folio hand-finished full-color lithographic plates.Founder of the New Orleans Picayune and America's first war correspondent, George Kendall ""filed many reports… of combat during the Mexican-American War. Many newspapers reprinted Kendall's reports and Americans knew him to be [an] ardent annexationist and partisan supporter of the United States… After the war Kendall commissioned… Read More

1762. Signed. (BENEZET, Anthony). A Short Account of that Part of Africa, Inhabited by the Negroes… and the Manner by which the Slave Trade is carried on… Second Edition, with large Additions and Amendments. Philadelphia: Printed by W. Dunlap. 1762; BOUND WITH: LAW, William. An Extract from a Treatise Called, The Spirit of Prayer. Philadelphia: Printed by B. Franklin, and D. Hall, 1760; BOUND WITH: HARTLEY, Thomas. A Discourse on Mistakes concerning Religion, Enthusiasm, Experiences, &c. London Printed. Germantown reprinted: Christopher Sower, 1759 [i.e. 1760]; BOUND WITH: DELL, William. Christ's Spirit, A Christian's Strength. Germantown: Christopher Sower, 1760. Octavo, contemporary three-quarter brown sheep, marbled boards, raised bands, black calf spine label. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $9000.1762 greatly expanded and revised edition of the same year's first edition of Benezet's pioneering work—""the first practical manual for attacking the… Read More

1774. CARE, Henry. English Liberties, or The Free-Born Subject's Inheritance: Containing Magna Charta, Charta De Foresta… Compiled first by Henry Care, and continued, with large Additiions, by William Nelson, of the Middle-Temple, Esq. Providence, Rhode-Island: Printed and Sold by John Carter, 1774. Small octavo (5 by 7-1/4 inches), contemporary full brown blindstamped sheep, raised bands; pp. viii, (1) 2-350, (6). Housed in a custom clamshell box. $13,500. 1774 American edition of Care's immensely influential English Liberties, preceded only by the 1721 Boston edition, issued not long after the Boston Tea Party and the same year as the First Continental Congress, with printings of the Magna Charta, the Habeas Corpus Act (1769)—""a second Magna Charta""—and foundational texts on jury trials, ""principally designed for America,"" containing printing of the preface to the 1721 edition proclaiming ""when liberty is once gone, even… Read More

1744. First Edition . SMITH, William. A New Voyage to Guinea: Describing the Customs, Manners, Soil, Climate, Habits, Buildings, Education, Manual Arts, Agriculture, Trade, Employments, Languages, Ranks of Distinction, Habitations, Diversions, Marriages, and whatever else is memorable among the Inhabitants. London: John Nourse, [1744]. Octavo, early 20th-century full green morocco gilt, raised bands, all edges gilt. $6800.First edition, with frontispiece and five engraved plates of plants and animals, of this rare 18th century work on West Africa.Smith was commissioned by the Royal African Company in 1726 ""to take exact plans, drafts, and prospects of all their forts and settlements; as also of the principal rivers, harbours, and other places of trade of the coast of Africa""; sailing to Africa on the Bonetta with Captain James Livingston, they ""made landfall near Cape Verde on 22 September… On his first day, finding himself floundering through deep mud along the… Read More

1794. First Edition . (BOYDELL, John and Josiah). [COMBE, William]. An History of the River Thames. London: W. Bulmer for John and Josiah Boydell, 1794-96. Two volumes. Folio (measures 13 by 16-1/2 inches), contemporary full calf (Volume I expertly rebacked with original spine neatly laid down), raised bands, marbled endpapers. $23,000.First edition, first issue, of this wonderful visual record of the River Thames, with 76 lovely folio hand-colored aquatints by Stadler after Farrington of prospects along the banks—including three very large folding plates—and a large folding map by John Cooke of “The Course of the River Thames from Its Source to the Sea.” An excellent copy in contemporary calf.""The most important art publishers and dealers in our history are the two Boydells, John and his nephew Josiah, who, though their munificence was chiefly directed towards painters and engravers, also issued a few fine books with colored aquatint plates, notably the History of the… Read More

1843. First Edition . RICHARDSON, William. The Monastic Ruins of Yorkshire. York: Robert Sunter, 1843. Elephant folio (18 by 24 inches), early cloth rebacked and recornered in later dark green morocco, all edges gilt. $12,800.First edition of this monumental production, with two hand-colored title pages, a hand-colored dedication leaf, 34 hand-colored full-page plates, 24 hand-colored half-page plates, 22 uncolored full-page plates (some tinted), and a map.The dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in the 16th century left Yorkshire with a rich collection of monastic ruins, captured here in a series of plates by artist William Richardson in a work that rivals the great Holy Land by David Roberts. Locations included here are Whitby Abbey, Kirkstall Abbey, St. Mary's York, Rievaulx and Kirkham Abbeys, Fountains, Roche Abbey, Byland and Newborough, Guisborough, Mount Grace, Selby Abbey, Bolton Priory, Bridlington Priory, Old Malton Priory, Joraulx Abbey, Sallay Abbey, Sawley Abbey, Monk… Read More

1822. First Edition . (SAMS, William). A Tour through Paris. London: William Sams, [1825]. Tall folio (11 by 15 inches), modern full brown calf, raised bands. $5800.Second edition of this vividly illustrated tour of the streets and inhabitants of early 19th-century Paris, with 21 finely hand-colored folio aquatint plates.The vibrant plates feature ""Street Characters""—scenes of everyday city life rather than stately monuments, such as jugglers, vendors, dancers, porters, stilt-walkers, itinerants, fishmongers, flower sellers, soldiers, water-carriers, and the wealthy on promenade. Plates watermarked ""J. Whatman/ Turkey Mill/ 1825."" First published in 1824 in an oblong format under the title A Tour of Paris, beginning in 1822 with four parts with a total of 16 plates; the fifth part with the remaining five plates was issued in 1824. The present edition was issued shortly thereafter, with a new title and letterpress text reset to conform with an upright… Read More

1797. First Edition . (CONSTITUTION) (BLOUNT, William). Report of the Committee of the House of Representatives of the United States, Appointed to Prepare and Report Articles of Impeachment Against William Blount, A Senator of the United States, Impeached of High Crimes and Misdemeanors… To Discover the Whole Nature and Extent of the Offence, And Who Are the Parties and Associates Therein. (Philadelphia): John Fenno, (1797). Octavo, period-style full speckled calf-gilt, red morocco spine label; pp. (2) (i), ii-vi, (1-3), 4-16, (i), ii-clx. $7800.First edition of the authoritative Report detailing the House of Representatives' assertion of ""High Crimes and Misdemeanors"" in its groundbreaking impeachment of Senator Blount—""setting precedent… concerning the nature of impeachment, conviction and expulsion""—inaugurating ""how the Founders generation… believed the removal of public officials should… Read More

1855. First Edition . BROWN, W[illia]m Wells. The American Fugitive in Europe. Sketches of Places and People Abroad. With a Memoir of the Author. Boston / Cleveland / New York: John P. Jewett / Jewett, Proctor & Worthington / Sheldon, Lamport & Blakeman, 1855. Octavo, original blind-stamped gilt-lettered brown cloth. $5800.First edition of Brown's substantially revised and expanded Three Years in Europe (1853), newly titled as American Fugitive in Europe with 12 new chapters, issued within months of his return from years of exile, determined to continue his work as a soldier ""against the prison-house of slavery,"" a core work in Brown’s ""substantial legacy,"" with striking engraved frontispiece portrait, especially elusive in original cloth.Born into slavery, William Wells Brown ""remains an enduring figure in African American history and literature for his writing, his activism and his remarkable story of survival and… Read More

1932. First Edition . FAULKNER, William. Light in August. (New York): Harrison Smith & Robert Haas, (1932). Octavo, original beige cloth, original dust jacket. $8500.First edition, first issue of one of Faulkner's most powerful and ambitious novels, a splendid copy.Published a year after his controversial Sanctuary, Faulkner's tale of Joe Christmas and Lena Grove received almost universal acclaim. The New York Times called it ""an astonishing performance… Light in August is a powerful novel, a book which secures Mr. Faulkner's place at the very front of American writers of fiction"" (Books of the Century, 100-01). ""A searing novel… For the first time in his writing, Faulkner directly confronts racial prejudice in the South… Light in August is perhaps best read as Faulkner's ironic Gospel"" (Parini, 178-83). First issue, with first printing statement on copyright page, and ""Jefferson"" for… Read More

1929. First Edition . FAULKNER, William. Sartoris. New York: Harcourt, Brace, (1929). Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $15,000.First edition of Faulkner's rare third novel, one of only 1998 copies printed.The first of Faulkner's works to be set in his fictional Yoknapatawpha County, this novel ""concerns the Sartoris family, which revels in a mythical history of clan heroism and nobility that is belied by their current desperation and recklessness"" (Encyclopedia of Literature, 994). In addition to introducing characters who would figure prominently in later novels, such as the Snopes family, Faulkner also takes up a number of themes in Sartoris that he would develop at length in later works: racism, innate brutality, deep-seated sexual obsessions and the disparity between a romanticized Southern past and a paltry present. Petersen A5.1. Hamblin & Brodsky 50. Book about-fine with faintest rubbing to front board;… Read More