Search Results: Titles starting with A from Whitmore Rare Books

London: Ingram, Cooke & Co, 1853. First edition in English. Original publisher's cloth binding embossed in gilt and blind. Yellow endpapers. Extremities a bit bumped, and small splits to cloth of spine at crown, center, and foot of front joint; front hinge cracked but holding. Bookseller's blindstamp of Swinerton & Brown and ownership signature of S. Powell to front endpaper. Internally else clean and unmarked. Collating 315, [1, blank], [4, Illustrated Family Novelist adverts]: complete, with engraved frontis, vignette title page, and six engraved plates. The first appearance in English, not only of Lermontov's masterpiece, but of any major Russian novel. This book was re-translated and re-published the following year, 1854, the same year that a second major novel of the Russian literary canon was released, Gogol's Dead Souls. Institutionally well represented, it is nonetheless exceptionally scarce in trade. No copies appear in the modern auction record; and the present is the only complete copy on… Read More

[London]: [N.P.], 1791. First edition. Broadside measuring 15 x 12.25 inches and printed to recto. Some light chipping and toning to edges, particularly to lower quarter of sheet; short closed tear with amateur tape repair to verso along upper right foldline. Pencil notation "1791" to lower verso. In all, a well preserved piece which is unrecorded by ESTC, OCLC, or the British Library. English Poor Laws went through several important shifts between the sixteenth century's decline in more traditional forms of church-based charitable assistance and the present revision of the late eighteenth century. "The dissolution of the monasteries in 1536-40, followed by the dissolution of religious guilds, fraternities, almshouses, and hospitals in 1545-49 destroyed much of the institutional fabric which had provided charity for the poor in the past" (Boyer). In the absence of these systems, local governments struggled to establish their own infrastructure for social welfare. "A compulsory system of poor relief… Read More

Pembrokeshire and London, 1834. Folio measuring 190 x 110mm stitched at spine and comprised of 17 manuscript pages of accounts. Compiled by Henrietta Campbell's family friend and executor Dr. Lt. General Alexander Adams, the document shows the scope of Campbell's property, her outstanding expenses related to domestic labor and healthcare, the portion of her estate that was entailed, and the division of remaining money and personal items among her three sisters Lady Campbell, Lady Gage, and Mrs. Hulton. A research rich piece, the accounts give insight into the extent to which even elite, privileged women were beholden to patriarchal property laws that restricted how they might spend or upon whom they might bestow property. A first cousin of John Campbell, 1st Baron of Cawdor, Henrietta lived in a position of relative comfort. Though she did not own any houses or lands, her accounts show rent on a home at Manorbier Newton in Pembrokeshire near the Cawdor seat as well as lodgings in London. It is… Read More

[Milwaukee]: [S.E. Tate Printing Company], 1911. First edition. Fine. Original publisher's cloth binding, with title and author embossed in bright gilt to front board. In very nearly Fine condition, with trivial spotting to the rear board and a hint of offsetting to the hinges from publisher's glue. An exceptionally tight, square copy that is internally unmarked and fresh. "In 1878, the Reverend Olympia Brown arrived in Racine, Wisconsin, where she took charge of a small Universalist group...Her arrival should have received more recognition than it did, for Mrs. Brown personified the kind of emancipated woman the country was to see in the years ahead. At forty-three she was in the prime of a life devoted to women's freedom, eager to turn her fellow men to righteousness and to reveal to them the grave inequalities in the American social and political system" (Neu). She already had a strong reputation in the East as an ardent abolitionist who named John Brown among her heroes, as well as a… Read More

London: Thomas Baskett and the Assigns of Robert Baskett, 1752. First edition. 25 George II, Chapter 3. Measuring 300 x 185mm and collating complete: [2], 727-734. A copy in Fine condition, fresh and unmarked, of a legal act licensing citizens of London to report on brothel employees and owners for a bounty; ESTC reports only 3 surviving copies in libraries, with the present being the only example on the market. [Together with] An Act for Making Perpetual An Act...for the Better Preventing of Thefts and Robberies... London: Thomas Baskett and the Assigns of Robert Baskett, 1755. First edition. 28 George II, Chapter 19. Measuring 300 x 195mm and collating complete: [2], 431-435, [1, blank]. A Fine copy without toning or wear, of a scarce Act making the 1752 "Disorderly Houses Act" perpetual. ESTC reports only 3 institutionally preserved copies (of these, 1 in North America); and this is the only copy on the market. Strictly speaking, the sex trade was not illegal in Britain; and the women and… Read More

London: George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, 1853. First edition. [16 Victoria, Chapter 30] Folio in self wraps, complete in 4 pages (313-316). Tall, wide-margined and in excellent unmarked condition. The only example on the market, OCLC locates one institutional copy. As English women continued combatting the legal implications of Coverture, gaining control over and protection for their own bodies was paramount to achieving equality. Long considered property with no legal protection from beating, assault, or rape, married women's well-being was overwhelmingly reliant on their husband's views of discipline and obedience. "The framing of violence against women as a problem arose primarily as a result of campaigning by feminists and the voluntary sector" (Johnson); these activists played a vital role in re-casting abuse as a systemic violation of human dignity that damaged family and society rather than simply a matter of one individual man's private whims. "Arguing that cruelty to animals was… Read More

London: George Eyre and Andrew Spottiswoode, 1814. First edition. Folio measuring 310 x 190mm in self wraps and collating complete in 6 pages. A Fine copy, unmarked but for one pencil annotation to the final page. OCLC reports 13 copies at libraries, with the present being the only example in trade. [With] An Act to Amend the Law of Copyright. London: George Eyre and Andrew Spottiswoode, 1st July 1842. First edition. Folio measuring 298 x 185mm in self wraps and collating complete: 577-590, [2, blanks]. A Near Fine example, with a bit of soiling to the lower margins not affecting text; otherwise fresh and unmarked. OCLC locates two copies in libraries, with this being the only one on the market. In 1814 and 1842, women gained significant legal traction in protecting their own creations. The first Act was the first revision to the 1710 Act for the Encouragement of Learning; and it expanded copyright retention from a minimum of 14 years to 28 years after the creation of a literary work (authors who… Read More

London: Charles Eyre & Andrew Strahan, 1787. First edition. 27 George III, Chapter 44. A Fine copy measuring 310 x 190mm and collating complete: [2], 987-988. A scarce and important piece of legal history, which ESTC records at only one library (Lincoln's Inn) and which does not appear in the modern auction record. The present is the only example on the market. At the start of the Restoration, "English church courts were revived by an act of Parliament on 27 July 1661 to resume their traditional task of correcting spiritual and moral misdemeanors. Soon thereafter, parishioners across England's dioceses once more faced admonition, fines, excommunication, and even imprisonment if they failed to conform to the laws of the restored Church of England" (Aklund). As much as these courts sought to reestablish a monolithic Anglican communal identity during Charles II's reign, their position in the 18th century became "a case study in the secularization of the legal system" particularly given their… Read More

London: Mark Baskett and the Assigns of Robert Baskett, 1767. First edition. Near Fine. Folio measuring 300 x 190mm in self wraps, collating complete: [2], 503-506, [2, blank]. In Fine condition, with the slightest offsetting to the rear wrap. ESTC reports only 6 institutional holdings (of these, 3 are at the Grolier Club); and the present is the only copy on the market. [Accompanied by] An Act for Enlarging the Term of Letters Patent Granted by His Present Majesty to Elizabeth Taylor of the Town of Southampton, Widow, for the Sole Use and Exercise of Certain Engines, Tools, Instruments, and other Apparatus...London: Charles Eyre and William Strahan 1776. First edition. Folio measuring 305 x 195mm in self wraps and collating complete [2], 447-456. Near Fine, with occasional offsetting not affecting legibility of text. A scarcity that ESTC records at only 2 libraries, with the present being the only example in trade. For Jane Hogarth and Elizabeth Taylor, two widows whose husbands had excelled in… Read More

Edinburgh: Robert Freebairn, 1758. First edition thus. It is generally agreed that while the sheets for this edition were printed in 1714, the books were not bound and sold until 1758. This copy lacking the title page, but with an early facsimile bound in, showing the date as 1714, not 1758. Bound in quarter diced calf over dark blue paper boards. Binding holding fine, but fairly worn at the corners and spine ends with a bookplate removed from the front paste-down and a shelf-location plate on the rear paste-down. Quarto (pages 222 x 175 mm) collating: 403, 79; complete but for the title page. Printed mostly in black letter with light foxing throughout. "To me, the editions printed by Freebairn appear more correct than any of the preceding ones, and his Wallace even preferable to the Perth edition, A. 1790; as, bating the liberty used with regard to the orthography, they, in a great variety of instances, give the sense of the original writers more accurately, having evidently been collated with… Read More

Philadelphia: Charles A. Dixon and Co, 1873. First edition. Near Fine. Original printed wraps, with stitching holding well. Small stamp of Andover Newton to top corner of front wrapper. Mild offsetting and toning to exterior, with top rear corner bent. 14 pages. Internally complete, clean and unmarked. The present argument for coeducation in the U.S. has become quite scarce, with no appearances in the modern auction record and no other copies on the market. Composed and presented by the President of Swarthmore College a decade after its foundation, the Address asserts the need for national access to coeducation, outlines its benefits both to women and the population at large, and strikes down counterarguments through the use of statistics from coeducational universities including Swarthmore and Oberlin College. While Magill posits that the burden of proof should fall on the detractors of women's education, he nonetheless uses Swarthmore and Oberlin's successes as evidence that women should not be… Read More

London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1914. Edition de Luxe. Limited to 500 numbered copies (this copy being 94), signed by the artist. Original vellum over boards. Front cover pictorially stamped and lettered in gilt within a double gilt rule and a triple green rule border. Spine decoratively stamped and lettered in gilt. Top edge gilt, others uncut. Silk ties missing and vellum a bit dust soiled. Large quarto (12 1/8 x 10 inches; 309 x 253 mm.). Collating [2, limitation leaf], vi, [2], 234, [2] with twenty mounted color plates (including frontispiece), with descriptive tissue guards. Black and white text illustrations. Color plate and mount opposite page 36 with vertical marginal crease. A Near Fine copy housed in a gray cloth slipcase. Laid in is the Leicester Galleries exhibition notice for the original drawings for this book.

New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1885. First American edition. Very Good +. A Very Good+ copy of the book. Spine gilt a bit dulled and some wear at the spine ends and corners. Cloth a bit rubbed. Generally clean internally. With all three generally accepted first printing points. Frontis bust of Twain in the first state. An attractive copy overall. Recounting the adventures of Huckleberry Finn as he flees his own abusive father and aids Jim in his escape from slavery, Twain's novel has been praised for its "distinctly American voice," putting at its center two common people who find an uncommon friendship. "Today perhaps the novel's greatest significance lies in its conception of childhood, as a time of risk, discovery, and adventure. Huck is no innocent: He lies, steals, smokes, swears, and skips school. He accepts no authority, not from his father or the Widow Douglas or anyone else. And it is the twin images of a perilous, harrowing odyssey of adventure and perfect freedom from all… Read More

London: Smith, Elder & Co, 1857. First edition. Original pebbled publisher's cloth binding stamped in gilt and blind. Yellow endpapers. Measuring 195 x 125mm and collating complete with half title to volume I: [8], 329, [1]; [4], 304; [4], 301, [1]. A Near Fine copy, with the front hinges cracked but holding on volumes II-III and minor tanning and foxing to preliminary and terminal leaves of the same. Occasional instances of rough opening causing chips or closed tears at margins not affecting text. Overall a clean and pleasing example. "The last completed novel of William Makepeace Thackeray, The Adventures of Philip tells the story of Philip Firmin, a blustering but good hearted young man. When his mother dies, Philip becomes heir to a fortune but is estranged from his father, who proceeds to waste his son's inheritance on fraudulent speculation" (University of Michigan). The loss of his money leads to his dashed ambitions in marriage, and his resulting rage costs him his career as a journalist.… Read More

London: Chatto & Windus, 1884. First edition. Near Fine. True first edition, preceding the US edition by approximately four months. A Nearly Fine copy in the original red cloth stamped in gilt and black. Slight fading to the spine, short tear to the contents (leaf xiii-xiv) professionally repaired, otherwise an excellent copy overall. With the correct, first issue ads, dated October 1884. Housed in a custom clamshell box. Recounting the adventures of Huckleberry Finn as he flees his own abusive father and aids Jim in his escape from slavery, Twain's novel has been praised for its "distinctly American voice," putting at its center two common people who find an uncommon friendship. "Today perhaps the novel's greatest significance lies in its conception of childhood, as a time of risk, discovery, and adventure. Huck is no innocent: He lies, steals, smokes, swears, and skips school. He accepts no authority, not from his father or the Widow Douglas or anyone else. And it is the twin images of a… Read More

New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1885. First American edition. Very Good. A Very Good copy of the book. Inner hinges repaired and first blank excised, otherwise a fairly clean, bright copy overall. With all three generally accepted first printing points. Frontis bust of Twain in the first state. Recounting the adventures of Huckleberry Finn as he flees his own abusive father and aids Jim in his escape from slavery, Twain's novel has been praised for its "distinctly American voice," putting at its center two common people who find an uncommon friendship. "Today perhaps the novel's greatest significance lies in its conception of childhood, as a time of risk, discovery, and adventure. Huck is no innocent: He lies, steals, smokes, swears, and skips school. He accepts no authority, not from his father or the Widow Douglas or anyone else. And it is the twin images of a perilous, harrowing odyssey of adventure and perfect freedom from all restraints that so many readers find entrancing" (Mintz).… Read More

London: Henry G. Bohn, 1850. Second edition. Very Good +. Contemporary half morocco over marbled boards with gilt to spine. Light rubbing to boards and spine, and gentle bumps to corners. Marbled endpapers. Early ownership signature of Emma Billings Hathaway to front endpaper. Frontis a bit loose at bottom corner but holding well; first signature a bit proud. Tape repairs to margins of pages 5-6 and 7-8 not affecting text. Occasional light scattered foxing. Measures 127 x 190mm. Collating [ii], 126, [2, adverts]: complete, including frontis and 3 coloured plates. First published in 1846 under the title Memoirs of a London Doll, the book's popularity led to a second edition in 1850 under the present title. A scarce children's book written and illustrated by women for little girls, OCLC reports that both the first and second editions are quite scare, with only 3 institutionally held copies of this edition. It is currently the earliest edition available on the market. Beginning with her creation in… Read More

New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1885. First American edition. Near Fine. A solid, Nearly Fine copy of the book, with no repairs or restoration. Spine gilt a bit dulled and slight rubbing at the spine ends and corners. Cloth generally fresh and bright and in excellent condition internally. Contemporary gift inscription on the front paste-down dated "May 18, 1885." With all three generally accepted first printing points and the frontis bust of Twain in the first state. A copy in Fine condition made $52,920 at Christies in 2023. Housed in custom quarter-leather clamshell over marbled boards. Recounting the adventures of Huckleberry Finn as he flees his own abusive father and aids Jim in his escape from slavery, Twain's novel has been praised for its "distinctly American voice," putting at its center two common people who find an uncommon friendship. "Today perhaps the novel's greatest significance lies in its conception of childhood, as a time of risk, discovery, and adventure. Huck is no… Read More

London: Thomas Worrall, 1729. First edition in English. Contemporary calf rebacked to style with morocco and gilt label to spine. Corners renewed. Retaining the original endpapers. Contemporary ownership signature of "Suzanna Smith her Book. 1739" to front endpaper. Marginal loss not affecting text at ix-x. Measuring 160 x 90mm and collating xii, 156: bound without rear blank, else complete. A scarce book, showing a mother's equal concern for the education and happiness of her children regardless of gender, ESTC locates only 11 copies (5 of these in the U.S.). It is currently the only copy on the market. The Marchioness de Lambert, hailed by contemporaries as "famous for the purity of her morals and the sublimity of her intellect," was an influential presence in the saloniere culture of her time (Belfast Monthly Magazine 6:33). For all of France's calls for "educational reform" bringing "equal or improved access to education for girls," concrete change was slow to set in; and because "women who… Read More

London: William Heinemann, 1912. First edition. Number 401 of 1,450 copies signed by the illustrator. Original publisher's cloth binding with gilt to spine and front board. Top edge gilt, remaining edges deckled. With a bit of toning to spine and wear to corners. Rear hinge repaired. Internally with some foxing and offsetting to preliminary and terminal pages; long snag to rear pastedown. A pleasing example overall. The 1st century AD philosopher, Apollonius of Tyana, is recorded as having said about Aesop: "like those who dine well off the plainest dishes, he made use of humble incidents to teach great truths, and after serving up a story he adds to it the advice to do a thing or not to do it. Then, too, he was really more attached to truth than the poets are; for the latter do violence to their own stories in order to make them probable; but he by announcing a story which everyone knows not to be true, told the truth by the very fact that he did not claim to be relating real events"… Read More