Search Results: Titles starting with A from Back Creek Books LLC, ABAA/ILAB

New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1885. 1st Edition. Original cloth. Octavo. 366 pages. Very Good+. Bound in original dark green cloth over boards with spine and upper board stamped in black and gilt. Some rubs and minor fading to cloth covers, a few shallow bumps to board fore corners and spine ends. Hinges not cracked. Housed custom cloth and board folder in half morocco slipcase.. A very nice first edition of one of the most important books in American literature. Hemingway believed that "American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since." This copy has the important issue points at pages (13), 57, and 143. A very handsome copy.

Cincinnati: Stewart Kidd Company, Publishers, 1921. First Edition. Original cloth. Octavo. 409 pages. Fine. Drawings by Carll B. Williams. The first volume published in the Seckatary Hawkins series. These boys' stories revolve around a club of boys whose home base is a river bank on the Ohio, with the lead character being the "seckatary" who records their activities. This particular adventure is set in Cuba. Charmingly illustrated by Carll B. Williams. Bound in ribbed-textured cloth over boards with spine and upper board titled in gilt, upper board also has vignette of Seckatary Hawkins with an open book and inkwell in black. A few minor extremity rubs, a bit of darkening along spine and top edge of upper board, otherwise clean and bright with sound hinges. Excellent condition. . No dust jacket.

London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1934. First printing. Cloth hardcover. Octavo. 68 pages. Near fine in a good dust jacket. Bound in black cloth over boards with spine titled in gilt. Minor extremity wear. Jacket has edge chipping along top of both panels, a 1" x 1/2" chip along spine near head, closed tear along lower joint fold, chips to fore corner tips.. Three lectures delivered by Eliot at the University of Virginia in 1933--The Page-Barbour Lectures that year. He asserts that the weakness of modern literature is a religious weakness. <br /> <br /> This copy is signed and dated 22 May 1947 by Eliot on the title page.

New York: The Tea & Coffee Journal Company, 1935. Limited edition. Cloth over boards. Quarto. xiv, 818 pages. Very good in a good dust jacket. Bound in light brown cloth over boards with gilt-stamped spine and upper board, endpaper maps. Prior owner name on title page, a few bumps to fore corners. Jacket has a 1 1/2" x 2 1/4" chip at bottom edge of upper joint fold, some old tape repairs to rear panel, and other edge chips and tears.. Color frontispiece, numerous black and white illustrations in text. The first independent work to fully cover all aspects of coffee, including the historical, technical, scientific, commercial, social, and artistic. Everything from early coffee drinking to the pharmacology of coffee to its appearances in literature. Full of information and well illustrated with photographs and other illustrations. Contains a dictionary of coffee, an extensive coffee bibliography, and a coffee thesaurus. Fully indexed.<br /> <br /> This is copy #30 in an… Read More

Wilmington: R. France & Co, 1861. Broadside. 7 3/4" x 19. Fine condition. One horizontal crease from being folded in half along the vertical dimension.. A fantastic 1861 promotional handbill for a lottery to augment public finance. The Consolidated Lottery of Delaware was authorized by the legislature in January, 1859 as an act for the encouragement of internal improvements in the State of Delaware. This advertises Class 91 of the consolidated lottery, managed by R. France & Co. with E. N. Carr & Co. as agents. <br /> <br /> The "Brilliant Scheme" as it is described, offers 76,076 tickets at $8 apiece, and promises to pay out 30,316 prizes totaling $365,678--the highest prize being $24,562. <br /> <br /> Lotteries have a rich history in America as means to supplement government revenues, though as games of chance tending to sever the connection between wealth and work they were always viewed with moral suspicion. In fact by 1860, thirty of the then… Read More

(New York): Privately Printed for the Angler's Club of New York, 1926. Limited Edition, #209 of 350 copies. Paper over boards with cloth spine. Octavo. [xviii], 139 pages. Near fine. Bound in green paper covered boards with tan cloth spin, printed title labels laid onto upper board and spine, green endpapers. Prior owner's angling bookplate on front free endpaper. Slight bumps to lower fore corners. Clean and sound.. Black and white maps and plates. An early attempt to outline the problems of trout stream ecology and conservation. <br /> <br /> Designed by Eugene V. Connett, founder of the Derrydale Press. A note in Connett's own copy of this title identifies it as the first book he published. Although it was published just before he adopted the Derrydale Press name, and "Derrydale" does not appear anywhere herein, Connett often referred to it as a Derrydale Press book, and therefore arguably the first. <br /> <br /> Ref. BRUNS I5; SIEGEL 1; HAND I11.

Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1960. Hardcover. Duodecimo. 285 pages. Very good in a very good dust jacket. Bound pale yellow cloth over boards with dark gray spine title and upper board illustration, decorated endpapers. Shallow bumps fore corners. Jacket has light rubs and shallow wear to edges, slight foxing overall. Still a bright and graphically pleasing copy of an uncommon book.. Alexander Belyaev was Russia's first sci-fi writer, sometimes called the Russian Jules Verne. Here he spins the story of a reclusive doctor on the coast of South America who gives his son shark gills in a life-saving operation. The son is then mistaken for a sea devil by the coastal villagers. This novel was originally published in the Soviet Union in 1928, and was adapted for film in 1961.<br /> <br /> Nicely designed with striking dolphin endpapers. Prior owner inscription dated Odessa, U.S.S.R. on verso of front free endpaper.

Annapolis, 1865. Folded sheets, with original envelope. Near fine, with original envelope. Incredible 6 page manuscript letter from a Civil War Chaplain posted at Annapolis, discussing St. John's College Hospital Chapel, visiting hospitals, and the work of the U.S. Christian Commission in Annapolis during the war.<br /> <br /> Partial transcript: <br /> "At 2 P.M. I preached in St. Johns College Hospital Chapel & there visited some of the wards. In the evening we had preaching in the U.S.C.C. Chapel Tent [which is my headquarters] at College Green Barracks...Annapolis is, or course, a secesh town. The churches were nearly broken up by the war but now begin to look more flourishing. There is a large Episcopal Ch. here pastor of wh. is a Chaplain in hospital & a very nice sort of fellow."<br /> <br /> An unusually descriptive letter from a young man stationed at Annapolis and serving as a chaplain at the College Green Hospital Chapel. Van Wagenen… Read More

(S.l.): (S.n.), 1900. Wrappers. Duodecimo. 16 pages. Fine. Printed wrappers, saddle-stapled binding.. Cartoon on rear cover. Williams Jennings Bryan, the Democratic nominee for President in 1900, delivers a speech against the reign of monopolies he saw as having been abetted by McKinley and the Republicans. Bryan ultimately would lose to the incumbent, McKinley, who would be assassinated shortly thereafter. <br /> <br /> There is a satirical cartoon of the G.O.P. elephant on the rear cover, showing the "true inwardness of the Republican elephant." Scarce.

Cambridge: Peabody Museum, 1950. Softbound. Folio. xii, 116 pages. Very good. Black and White Photographs, Maps, Illus.. Includes appendices by W. C. Root, Eleanor B. Adams and Doris Stone. Volume IX, No. 3 of "Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University. " Bound in tan printed paper covers. Prior owner stamp on front cover and a few times in margins of interior text pages. Covers show minor extremity rubs. Top fore corner of front cover has a mild dampstain, with related tide marks to some top margins in text to a depth of about 1/2

London: Luke Hansard & Sons, 1812. Second edition. Original cloth over boards. Octavos. xxxii, 344 and [iv], 499 pages. Dark brown blind embossed ribbed cloth over boards, with gilt-stamped spine titles, yellow endpapers. Handsome bookplate on each front pastedown (see further description below). Some shallow chipping at spine ends and in a couple of places along joints. Splitting of cloth at top 1 1/2" of both joints on volume II, though boards and hinges remain firmly attached. Interiors bright and clean. A near fine set overall.. Thomas Twining had produced the first useable English translation of Aristotle's Poetics in 1789. This is the second edition of 1812, edited by his nephew. <br /> <br /> This 2-volume set has an attractive armorial bookplate bearing the name "Hoar" on the front pastedown of each volume. According to a pencilled notation on the rear pastedown of volume I, the set was owned by George Frisbie Hoar, Abolitionist, Radical Republican, and… Read More

[Paris]: (Fryam Press), 1936. First edition. This is copy #643 of 700, of a total edition of 1,026 copies. Printed wrappers. Octavo. 182 pages. This copy has been professionally resewn and the covers repaired and reattached. Some browning along spine, scattered foxing inside. Very good overall.. Line drawings, typographic page borders throughout. A rather scarce original cocktail mixing guide by Frank Meier, legendary bartender at the Ritz Bar in Paris beginning in the 1920s. This copy is signed by Meier on the limitation page preceding the title page.<br /> <br /> In addition to hundreds of cocktail recipes--many of which Meier himself originated--there is a section on wines, a chapter on "Useful Formulas," a section on horse racing, and several vintage advertisements. Printed with art deco typographical details and ornamental page borders in red. Fully indexed. <br /> <br /> During World War II Frank Meier aided the French Resistance against the Nazis, even… Read More

(S.l.): The Walpole Society, 1929. Limited edition. Full cloth, octavo, xviii, 325 pages. Very good. Patch of browning on front pastedown, as if from removal of old bookplate. Rear pastedown in fact has an old bookplate so affixed. Minor extremity rubs.. Black and white plates. Useful reference that gives brief sketches of a wide variety of craftsmen and manufacturers, including silversmiths, cabinet makers, stone cutters, sign painters, engravers, glass ware makers, upholsterers, clock makers, and much more. One of 500 copies.

New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1966. Softcover. Square quarto. 341, [2] pages. Very good with light extremity rubs, slight fading, and a faint vertical spine crease.. Black and white photographs. Kaprow's important book on the then emerging field of performance art. It has the special merit of documenting this movement from within, at the beginning, in real time. He had originally written this work in 1959-1960, revised it in 1961, and revised it yet again for its first publication, here. Alluding to the rapidly shifting art scene, he notes in the Preface that "If I wrote it again it would be a different book.

[Boston?], 1908. Manuscript. 6.25" x 8. Near Fine. Single sheet folded twice. Lacks original envelope, if any. Excellent condition overall.. This is an endearing letter from the aged social activist, suffragist, and poet just days before her 89th birthday. Julia Ward Howe is perhaps best known as the writer of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," but was also a prominent abolitionist and women's rights advocate. The letter is addressed "Dear Martha, and in it Mrs. Howe expresses her anxiety about upcoming speaking engagements. She notes her fatigue, her concerns about transportation to the events, and, poignantly, that "I feel very helpless--can't live up to my reputation. Fear that I was never measured for it, and that that is why it does not fit." One of the meetings she mentions is that of the "State Fed.", which was the Massachusetts State Federation of Women's Clubs. Mrs. Howe did indeed address the meeting on May 28th, 1908, saying that such… Read More

New York, 1895. Single sheet, 8" x 9 7/8", folded once. Very good. Letter has a few old folds, a slight separation along the bottom 3/4" of the central fold, and four spots of old adhesive residue on blank back side.. Suffragist pioneer Elizabeth Cady Stanton here writes to a Mrs. Thomas, one of the 26 women on the "Revising Committee" who, along with Stanton, wrote "The Woman's Bible." The letter is dated October 20, from Stanton's address at 26 West 61st Street in New York City. She advises Mrs. Thomas that she is asking the committee members each to order 20 copies of Part I, set to be published the following month. <br /> <br /> "The Woman's Bible" was meant to be a new version of the Christian Bible, but with women treated and portrayed as equals with men rather than the subservient role found in religious orthodoxy. It was crafted in two parts, with Part I being published in November, 1895 and Part II, finally, in April,… Read More