Search Results: Titles starting with A from The Manhattan Rare Book Company

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, 1878. custom folder. Very Good. Walt Whitman Albumen Photograph by Napoleon Sarony given to his caregiver and house mate Mary O. Davis. Signed by Davis. To call Mary O. Davis, Walt Whitman's housekeeper is akin to calling a parent its child's babysitter. Perhaps history has undermined Ms. Davis' role simply because the English language lacks the proper word to describe their relationship. Nurse? Roommate? Modern-Family? Rather than finding a catchall word, let's try to briefly describe their relationship. It began in 1884 when Whitman brought clothing to Ms. Davis' rented home for mending. Soon enough, he began taking his meals with Ms. Davis. And soon after, Whitman purchased his first home-yes, it took until 1884, when the poet was 64 years old, for him to finally own a home. But what is a home without a family, Whitman may have thought. He had no wife of course, no children. So he asked Ms. Davis if she would like to join him in his new home. In some ways the relationship began as… Read More

Rome: Henri Le Lieure, 1878. First edition. Framed. Very Good. ALBUMEN PHOTOGRAPH OF GRANT IN MILITARY DRESS, SIGNED BY GRANT ON THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S MOUNT. A very handsome bust-length portrait of Grant taken by photographer Henri Le Lieure during Grant's visit to Rome in 1878. Signed "U.S. Grant" in ink on the original mount beneath the photograph. A handwritten note on the paper backing of the frame reads: "This photograph was autographed by U. S. Grant in April 1878 at the home of Dr. Charles McMillan, Counsel General (Great Uncle of Eunice) in Rome, Italy. Dr. McMillan had served as Medical Director on Grant's staff throughout the Vicksburg Campaign." The frame, with the seal of "The Dayton Company Picture Galleries Minneapolis", on the backing likely dates from early-mid 20th century. (The Dayton Company was a celebrated Minneapolis department store in Minneapolis from 1911-1962, ultimately serving as the parent company for Target.) Grant visited Rome on his hugely successful… Read More

London and New York: William Heinemann and Doubleday, Page, & Co, 1907. first Rackham edition. Original buckram. Very Good. Arthur Rackham. DELUXE LIMITED EDITION in exceedingly rare original slipcase. WITH: RACKHAM INK DRAWING of the Gryphon. The book: "Rackham embarked on his new edition of Alice in Wonderland, with illustrations to rival John Tenniel's, when the book came out of copyright in 1907. Rackham's advantage over Tenniel was that now he could introduce colour; also his pen line would not be reproduced by wood-engraving. This gave him some new freedoms for invention, but his amendments to the ingrained image of Alice were not only technical. Rackham's Alice was very much a fleshly Edwardian child who would question the status quo of Wonderland. Her courtesy carried an undercurrent of insistent argument. A contemporary critic observed 'a tender, flickering light of imagination in [Alice's] eyes' (Daily Telegraph, 27 Nov 1907). (Dictionary of National Biography). This deluxe limited… Read More

New York: Random House, 1992. First edition. Original cloth, original dust jacket. Fine/Fine. FIRST EDITIONS, with All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing signed and inscribed by McCarthy. Inscribed in ink on the half-titles of All the Pretty Horses: "For Darla / All best / Cormac McCarthy"; and The Crossing: "For Darla / All best wishes / Cormac McCarthy". All three volumes are from the recipient, with detailed letter of provenance (available upon request). "The completion of Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy - All the Pretty Horses (1992), The Crossing (1994), and Cities of the Plain (1998)--marked a major achievement in American literature. Only ten years earlier this now internationally acclaimed novelist had been called the best unknown writer in America. "The trilogy is McCarthy's most ambitious project yet, composed at the height of his mature powers over a period of fifteen years. It is 'a miracle in prose,' as Robert Hass wrote of its middle volume, an unsentimental elegy for the lost world… Read More

Paris: Éditions Pierre Belfond, 1970. First edition. Original wrappers and box. Very Good. SIGNED FIRST EDITION MAN RAY ART-BOOK INCLUDING ORIGINAL RAYOGRAPH. Following his English-language Alphabet for Adults, Man Ray in the lead up to 1970 decided to produce a French edition of his concept for a mature ABCs art-book. Rather than translating the existing words or retrofitting translations onto existing drawings, Man Ray produced a new set of illustrations based on a new set of words for his limited-edition, signed collection-including a signed original rayograph serving as a frontispiece. A number of entries are seemingly innocuous and feature literal pictorial representations, such as "elephant" written over a drawing of an elephant or "barbe" [beard] labelling what is clearly a beard. But many of the lemmas are abstract in nature and require more involved figural interpretation: "beaucoup" [very much; many] clouded by several arrows directed to the upper-right corner of the page; "jalousie"… Read More

Philidelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1845. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. FIRST EDITION, LEONARD GALE'S COPY, of perhaps the most important book documenting the earliest history of telegraphy. Gale's work with Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail was critical to the success of the telegraph. With Gale's ownership signature on title page and front pastedown. On May 24, 1844, Samuel Morse famously sent the world's first telegraphic message: "What Hath God Wrought" from the Rotunda of the United States Capitol Building in Washington, DC to Baltimore, MD. On the other end of this transmission was Alfred Vail, the lesser known, but equally important inventor of the telegraph. Vail's contributions vastly improved upon Morse's design and were critical to the telegraph's success. Published in 1845, one year following the aforementioned successful telegraphic test, Vail's The American Electro Magnetic Telegraph describes in detail the workings of the device and its applications as well as the history of… Read More

Los Angeles, 1986. LARGE PORTRAIT OF WARHOL. SIGNED BY THE ARTIST. NO. 24 OF 25. One of Gorman's most iconic images, demonstrating his mastery of light and shadow, is his portrait of Andy Warhol. Taken one year before Warhol's death in 1987, the image captures a side of him not often seen, an austere and slightly more intimidating appearance. But with the invariable shock of white hair, it is immediately recognisable as Andy. From an edition of 25, this large-format 23 x 18.75 in portrait (as opposed to smaller editions of 19 x 15 in and 14 x 11 in) is signed, dated and numbered by Gorman on the reverse. Image: 23 x 18.75 in Sheet: 24 x 20 in Frame: 28.5 x 24 in GORMAN, GREG. b. 1949. Andy Warhol, Los Angeles, 1986. Silver gelatin photograph, no. 24 of 25. Gorman's authentication stamp signed in pencil on reverse. Fine, handsomely framed.

Stockholm: Moderna Muséet, 1968. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. FIRST EDITION, profusely illustrated with full-page black and white photographs. Warhol's Moderna Muséet catalog "is a fine example of the catalogue-as-artist's-book, a form that ostensibly began with the Dadaists and Surrealists, and is produced with some of the roughest reproductions ever seen, which are entirely appropriate, and supplemented by a long section of Factory snapshots by Billy Name. The genre was revitalized by the Pop movement, and Warhol in particular, which demonstrates his position as a latter-day Dadaist. The Moderna Museet publication especially had a great influence upon Japanese photography in the late 1960s and 1970s, particularly the photobooks of the Provoke era" (Parr and Badger, Vol II). Published by Moderna Muséet, Sweden, in 1968 as an exhibition catalogue for the show "Andy Warhol" at the Moderna Muséet in Stockholm, February - March, 1968. Stockholm: Moderna Muséet, 1968. Quarto (approx. 8.5… Read More

Munich: Transmare Verlag/Kurt Wolff Verlag, 1929. First edition. original cloth, original dust jacket, original slipcase. Very Good. FIRST EDITION OF SANDER'S CLASSIC: A REMARKABLE COPY IN EXTREMELY RARE DUST JACKET AND SLIPCASE. August Sander "was part of a coterie of photographers who established the photographic book as an aesthetically and commercially viable art form in the 1920s. Though Sander had published one such book in 1924, Unsere Heimat, Hannover, it was the 1929 publication of Antlitz der Zeit (The Face of Our Time) that propelled him into enduring fame" (Warren, Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography). "Many of his classic images are included in this seminal photobook, and the essential qualities of Sander's vision can be seen. He took typical examples of professions, trades and social classes in Weimar Germany, and photographed them in their familiar environments in order to build up, piece by piece, a dispassionate image of the 'face' of society... One of his work's miracles… Read More

New York: Viking, 1959. First edition. Original cloth, original dust jacket. Good. A collection of unpublished letters with outstanding content and inscribed books establishing the close friendship John Steinbeck and his wife Elaine shared with theater director John Fearnley. The correspondence is lengthy, writerly, and warm, and the inscriptions humorous and joyful. The letters, largely undated, map primarily to their time in England from March through September 1959. The inscriptions were likely made in the mid-to-late 1950s - most of them post-dating their publications by years or even decades.. The Books: In the first edition of East of Eden (1952) Steinbeck writes as if he simply pulled it off Fearnley's shelf: What joy to write in the copy of my book which belongs to my friend John Fearnley: I think this might be the reason I wanted to write it. John Steinbeck. In the third printing of The Red Pony (1937) Steinbeck leaves a cute poem in an inscription employing nicknames they gave… Read More

Edinburgh and London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1952. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. FIRST PRINTINGS: THE VERY RARE ORIGINAL OFFPRINT AND THE ORIGINAL ISSUES IN THE RARE WRAPPERS of Schrödinger's consideration of quantum jumps and the future of physics. "Throughout his life, Schrödinger sought to discredit Bohr's concept of quantum jumping. His forceful attacks culminated in the 1952 paper 'Are There Quantum Jumps?' In this paper he also presented some objections against Born's collision treatment and probabilistic interpretation..." Schrödinger also "repeated his old arguments, enveloped in a good deal of rhetoric. Physical science is at present in danger, he argued, of being severed both from its glorious history and from its cultural milieu. Physicists must concern themselves, not only with ingenious theoretical constructs and their agreement with experimental data, but also with the suitability of their concepts to be absorbed into a general spiritual culture of mankind: 'Science is not a… Read More

Turin: Bocca Brothers, 1889. First edition. original wrappers. Fine. EXTREMELY RARE FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS OF PEANO'S MOST IMPORTANT WORK, CONTAINING THE "PEANO AXIOMS" FOR THE NATURAL NUMBERS; OF SEMINAL IMPORTANCE IN MATHEMATICS AND MATHEMATICAL LOGIC. "Peano's most important contribution to the development of the theory and practice of the axiomatic method was his system of axioms for the arithmetic of the natural numbers... On the basis of his axiomatization, Peano constructed the entire theory of natural numbers. In particular, he showed how the elementary theorems of arithmetic can be obtained from his axioms" (Styazhkin, History of Mathematical Logic from Leibniz to Peano, 1969, pp. 278-9). With "the publication of Arithmetices principia, nova methodo exposita, Peano not only improved his logical symbolism but also used his new method to achieve important new results in mathematics; this short booklet contains Peano's first statement of his famous postulates for the natural… 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

New York: Pierre Matisse Gallery, 1942. First edition. Very Good. CATALOG FOR THE LANDMARK ARTISTS IN EXILE EXHIBITION, SIGNED BY ALL 14 ARTISTS, INCLUDING ANDRÉ BRETON, MARC CHAGALL, MAX ERNST, AND PIET MONDRIAN. On March 3, 1942, an historic exhibition of fourteen émigré artists opened at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York City. Pierre Matisse, distinguished modern art dealer, gallery owner, and son of Henri Matisse, exhibited some of the greatest European and American artists of the twentieth century, many for the first time. This special exhibit, appropriately titled Artists In Exile, represented cutting edge European avant-garde art and featured a single work from each artist, created after their arrival in the United States. We have on offer a rare Artists in Exile exhibition catalog which features a group photo by George Platt Lynes and the signatures of all 14 of the artists in colored inks: Eugene Berman, André Breton, Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, Fernand Leger, Jacques Lipchitz,… Read More

Concord NH: Rumsford Press, 1945. Original wrappers. Very Good. FIRST EDITION of Vannevar Bush's landmark paper credited for originating the idea of hypertext and, by extension, providing many of the theoretical underpinnings for the world wide web. "In a 1945 article entitled "As We May Think," published in the Atlantic Monthly, Bush proposed a device that he called the Memex-an indexed, archival, microfilm machine for cross-referencing and retrieving information. For Bush, this article was an extension of his work in analog computing and microfilm technology. To the modern reader it portends the creation of hypertext and the World Wide Web" (Britannica). "Different people place the origins of the Internet at different times. The earliest accounts put it in the mind of Vannevar Bush, as long ago as 1945. Bush, the man who had played such a prominent role in the building of the atomic bomb, envisaged a machine that would allow the entire compendium of human knowledge to be 'accessed'" (Peter… Read More

New York: Random House, 1957. First edition. Original cloth, original dust jacket. Fine/Fine. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE of Rand's masterpiece; INSCRIBED BY RAND TO LUDWIG VON MISES: "To Dr. and Mrs. Ludwig von Mieses- / -Cordially- / Ayn Rand / 8/22/57". A spectacular association copy linking two of the most influential economic figures of the twentieth century. In August 1957 - nearly two months before the book was available to the public - Rand presented this copy of the first edition of Atlas Shrugged to Ludwig von Mises (sometimes spelled "von Mieses"), the Austrian-American economist and philosopher who was one of the leading figures of the modern libertarian movement, and immediately found a sympathetic ear. After reading Atlas Shrugged, von Mises wrote to Rand, offering strong praise for the book. In a letter to Rand dated January 23, 1958, he wrote:

 "... I enjoyed very much reading Atlas Shrugged and... I am full of admiration for your masterful construction of the plot. But 'Atlas… Read More

Washington, DC: Lunn Gallery/Graphics International Ltd, 1977. First edition. Orignial publisher's box. Very Good. A COLLECTION OF THE MOST CELEBRATED COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHS OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY ARTISTS. NUMBER 1 OF 6 COPIES RESERVED FOR ARTIST AND PUBLISHERS, OUT OF A TOTAL OF 36. The present portfolio of Freund's photographic portraits assembles the most celebrated of her innovative colour images. The portfolio is comprised of Freund's portraits of: 1. Colette (1873-1954) 2. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) 3. André Gide (1869-1951) 4. James Joyce (1882-1941) 5. Andreinne Monnier (1892-1955) 6. Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) 7. Simone de Beauvoir (1908) 8. Jean-Paul Sartre (1905) 9. André Malraux (1901-1976) 10. Victoria Sackville-West (1892-1962) It is well documented both Woolf's and Joyce's aversions to sitting for photographs, and indeed "Freund was twice refused admission to Tavistock Square but eventually Woolf succumbed", being "acutely self-conscious and disliked sitting for pictures, never mind… Read More

Berlin: Ernst Wasmuth, 1910. First edition. Original boards. Very Good. RARE FIRST EDITION OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT'S MAGNIFICENT WASMUTH PORTFOLIO, COMPLETE WITH ALL 100 LARGE FOLIO PLATES. Known the world over as the Wasmuth portfolio, the immensely influential Ausgeführte Bauten und Entwürfe (1910) was a project conceived by Ernst Wasmuth-a Berlin publisher of high-end art books who "intended to publish a complete portfolio of Wright's work to that date [...] that would become a collector's item" (Secrest, Biography, p. 203). In contrast to the compact Frank Lloyd Wright: Ausgeführte Bauten, the Wasmuth portfolio is a grand expression of Wright's architectural vision, containing 100 lithographs of his most successful projects completed by 1910, including: Unity Temple, I.L.; the Robie House, I.L.; the Westcott House, O.H.; and the Cheney House, I.L. (the project on which he met his lover Mrs. Mamah Borthwick Cheney). The extraordinary portfolio showcased here presents an exceptional opportunity… Read More

New York: Random House. SIGNED LIMITED EDITION. Fine. SIGNED LIMITED SPECIAL EDITION BOX SET, with two original hand-stamped engraver's proofs. Although the limitation states 250 copies, only about 100 were actually produced. Signed and numbered in the box by Avedon. Issued to accompany the celebrated 1994 Avedon retrospective at the Whitney Museum. With engraver's proofs of Jasper Johns (New York City, 1965) and Jean Shrimpton (Paris, 1970). An Autobiography is lavishly illustrated with 284 photographs documenting Avedon's career from the 1940's to the 1990's; Evidence includes essays by Jane Livingston and Adam Gopnik and is illustrated with over 600 iconic Avedon images. New York: Random House, 1993-94. Folio, original matching full linen with colored lettering, matching clamshell box with blind-stamped title; engraver's proofs in separate paper folders (as issued); with slip denoting "Whitney originals". Fine condition. RARE.