Search Results: Titles starting with B from Sumner & Stillman

1921. A Metabiological Pentateuch. London: Constable and Company, 1921. Original olive green cloth, with dust jacket. First English Edition of one of Shaw's best-known plays, beginning in the Garden of Eden and culminating in A.D. 31,920 ("as far as thought can reach"). Brentano's edition in New York was issued about three weeks earlier. This is a fine copy in an unsoiled, near-fine jacket (a couple of short tears at the end of folds). Laurence A161b.

1884. Illustrated by F. Opper, of "Puck." New York and Chicago: Belford, Clarke & Co., 1884. Original light brown wrappers stamped in black. First Edition of this volume of humor, by a 19th-Century master of that genre. Nye (1850-1896) was born in very rural Maine, he grew up and was educated in northern Wisconsin, and he settled in Laramie, Wyoming Territory -- where he was postmaster, superintendent of schools, and journalist at the Laramie Boomerang... where he became known nationally for his humor. He took the name "Bill Nye" from Bret Harte's poem "The Heathen Chinee," and a politically-incorrect quote on the title page is from Harte & Twain's "Ah Sin." Later in his (meningitis-shortened) life, he wrote with James Whitcomb Riley, and traveled with Luther Burbank. In his last decade he penned his credo: There is a grim and ghastly humor -- the humor that is born of a pathetic philosophy -- which now and then strikes me in reading the bright and keen-witted work of our American paragraphers. It… Read More

1859. New York: Rudd & Carleton, 1859. Original blind-stamped brown cloth. First Edition of this very early Aldrich volume, his fourth -- after THE BELLS (1855), DAISY'S NECKLACE (1857) and THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE (1858). The title verse is "the poem of a little life that was but three Aprils long." This copy is in chocolate brown "A" cloth (one of three cloths used, without precedence); it has no ads (some but not all copies have either 5 pp or 10 pp). This is a remarkably fine, bright copy, virtually as new. Blanck 253.

1841. With Illustrations by George Cattermole and Hablot K. Browne. Complete in One Volume. London: Chapman and Hall, 1841. Original blind-stamped olive green cloth. First Separate Edition. After NICHOLAS NICKLEBY was published in monthly serial parts with separate plates in 1838-1839, Dickens decided that his future novels would be published in weekly serial parts that included the illustrations within the text -- loosely connected under the title of MASTER HUMPHREY'S CLOCK. He began this project in April 1840 with his tale THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP; after forty-plus parts he completed that tale, and swung into the beginning of BARNABY RUDGE. In November 1841, after a total of 88 weekly parts, BARNABY RUDGE was complete. During this serialization, MASTER HUMPHREY'S CLOCK (containing both novels) was also published in three volumes, one at a time; after serialization (in December 1841), each novel was also published separately in one volume, as with BARNABY RUDGE here. This is why the pagination of… Read More

1846. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1846. 2 pp undated ads. Original red cloth pictorially decorated in gilt, all page edges gilt. First Edition of the fourth of Dickens's five illustrated Christmas books -- following A CHRISTMAS CAROL, THE CHIMES, and THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH, and preceding THE HAUNTED MAN. This is an unusual tale in which two sisters love the same man, both ultimately settling in with him (though only one is married to him) -- according to Thackeray "a wretched affair." It is in fact quite autobiographical: Dickens loved Mary Hogarth, married her sister Catherine, and then was happy to have his household run by their sister Georgina. This copy has the vignette title page in the fourth and usual state (Todd's state E1), with an angel holding the banner and with no publisher's imprint. In our experience, at least 90% and perhaps 95% of the copies encountered are of this state. This is a bright copy, perhaps near-fine, with the usual minor wear at the spine ends; atypically, the… Read More

1846. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1846. 2 pp undated ads. Original red cloth pictorially decorated in gilt, all page edges gilt. First Edition of the fourth of Dickens's five illustrated Christmas books -- following A CHRISTMAS CAROL, THE CHIMES, and THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH, and preceding THE HAUNTED MAN. This is an unusual tale in which two sisters love the same man, both ultimately settling in with him (though only one is married to him) -- according to Thackeray "a wretched affair." It is in fact quite autobiographical: Dickens loved Mary Hogarth, married her sister Catherine, and then was happy to have his household run by their sister Georgina. This copy has the vignette title page in the fourth and usual state (Todd's state E1), with an angel holding the banner and with no publisher's imprint; in our experience, at least 90% and perhaps 95% of the copies encountered are of this state. This is a bright, near-fine copy, with very little wear; atypically, the original delicate endpapers are not… Read More

1907. With Numerous Illustrations by Charles Livingston Bull. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1907. 4 pp undated ads. Original light brown cloth decorated in brown and lettered in red and white. First Edition of this odd novel written several years earlier, not long after THE CALL OF THE WILD, during London's three-year "long sickness." Just as much of that novel consists of Buck's bad dreams, so in BEFORE ADAM the nameless narrator describes his strange dreams which, he asserts, are memories of a prehistoric ancestor named Big Tooth. Like Jack, the dreamer in BEFORE ADAM suffered a procession of night­mares, full of forests and horrors without end, great serpents and prowling monsters; he had lost his true primeval father, and his alien stepfather pushed him out of the treehouse where he lived with his suspicious and unprogressive mother into the tooth-and-claw world of prehistory. As an atavistic projection of Jack's distorted vision of his deprived childhood, the opening of BEFORE ADAM can… Read More

1859. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1859. Original blind-stamped purple-brown morocco-grain cloth. First American (and first one-volume) Edition. This was not generally regarded as one of Trollope's better efforts; the author himself remarked in his autobiography, I do not know that I have ever heard it well spoken of by my friends, and I cannot remember that there is any character in it that has dwelt in the minds of novel-readers. Much of the novel's action takes place in Jerusalem and the Holy Land, where George Bertram meets the father he had not seen since his boyhood. THE BERTRAMS was Trollope's second book to be published in America, following DOCTOR THORNE the previous year. This is a very good-plus copy, perhaps near-fine (the usual fading of purple-hued cloth, occasional light foxing, but little wear). In our experience, THE BERTRAMS is considerably scarcer than Harper's subsequent double-columned Trollope American editions. W. Smith pp 5-8 (where he labels this color "dark grayish… Read More

1859. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1859. Original blind-stamped brown cloth. First American (and first one-volume) Edition. This was not generally regarded as one of Trollope's better efforts; the author himself remarked in his autobiography, I do not know that I have ever heard it well spoken of by my friends, and I cannot remember that there is any character in it that has dwelt in the minds of novel-readers. Much of the novel's action takes place in Jerusalem and the Holy Land, where George Bertram meets the father he had not seen since his boyhood. THE BERTRAMS was Trollope's second book to be published in America, following DOCTOR THORNE the previous year. This is a very good copy, perhaps near-fine (slight wear at the spine ends, one small nick in the front cover cloth, light foxing as always with this 1850s paper). The front free endpaper bears the blind-stamp of Stanwood & Souther (bookseller in Augusta Maine in 1859), as well as the early signature of a woman from that same town. In our… Read More

1906. London: Chapman and Hall, 1906. Original rose linen-grain cloth. First Edition, believed to have consisted of no more than 1500 copies. In 1900 Punch Magazine had asked Maugham to contribute a couple of stories, one of which was "Cupid and the Vicar of Swale." Over the next few years he converted this story in two ways: into the play LOAVES AND FISHES (written in 1902 but not performed until 1911 and not published until 1924), and into this full-length novel THE BISHOP'S APRON -- which describes Canon Spratte's campaign to wed a beer heiress and obtain a bishopric. The tone was farcical, the dialogue epigrammatic. This insipid period piece... found favor with reviewers. The Bookman in its April [1906] issue said "the whole book is an admirable blend of cynical gaiety and broadly farcical comedy; it is the smartest and most genuinely humourous novel that the season has yet given us." The Punch reviewer... said on February 21 that it was "the best clerical novel since BARCHESTER TOWERS."… Read More

1877. [the tale of a horse, BY a horse] London: Jarrold and Sons, n.d.[1877]. 8 pp undated ads. Original green cloth decorated in black and gilt. First Edition of this classic tale, told in the first person by Black Beauty himself. He encounters masters both kind and cruel, and as a result the book came to be seen as the UNCLE TOM'S CABIN for animals' rights -- in fact, the first American edition, which came out thirteen years later, was published by the American Humane Society. The tale has been filmed numerous times, beginning in 1910 and continuing in 1946, 1971 and 1994. Anna Sewell (1820-1878)... had been crippled by a leg-injury since she was fourteen years of age [resulting in her constant need for horse-drawn carriages], and by the time she came to write BLACK BEAUTY [from 1871 until 1877], her one and only book, she was bedridden [and in declining health: she dictated most of the tale to her mother and, at the end too weak of voice for that, wrote on little slips of paper which her mother… Read More

1892. San Francisco | New York: Western Authors Publishing Company, 1892. Original blind-stamped light grey cloth, beveled. First Edition of Bierce's first volume of verse, published the year after his most famous book, TALES OF SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS. There are about 150 short poems (which he terms "beetles"), mostly gleaned from appearances in newspapers. Bierce had seen action, including at Shiloh, in an Indiana Infantry Regiment; his anti-war sentiments, and fixation with death, are reflected in his writings. In our experience this is a tough book to find in decent condition, due to its light grey cloth and frugal use of gilt. This is a nearly fine copy, however, with scarcely any wear and with only the slightest hint of soil (near the covers' fore-edge). Blanck 1111.

1895. A Study of Torpedo Warfare in 189-. Illustrated by the Author. London: Tower Publishing Company, 1895. 2 pp undated ads. Original grey-green cloth pictorially decorated in black and orange. First Edition of the first of Jane's scientific romances -- visions of future war, fought with future ships and aircraft. Not only is the book by Jane, but the action illustrations are too. Subsequent Jane titles, published over the following four years, included THE INCUBATED GIRL, TO VENUS IN FIVE SECONDS and THE VIOLET FLAME ("A Story of Armageddon and After"). Since his death in 1916, Jane has been best-known for the military annuals that bear his name today -- ALL THE WORLD'S FIGHTING SHIPS and ALL THE WORLD'S AIRCRAFT. This is a bright copy, fine except for a little ruffling at the spine ends. Currey p. 264; Bleiler Checklist p. 109.

1895. Illustrated. New York: The Merriam Company, n.d. [1895]. 3 pp undated ads. Original violet cloth decorated in dark violet. First Edition, issued as the second volume in Merriam's "Violet Series." This is Stevenson's famous tale about the anatomist "K---" and his need for cadavres (based undoubtedly upon the career of Robert Knox, 1793-1862); the 1945 film of the same title starred Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. RLS actually wrote this tale in mid-1881, to be part of a collection of supernatural tales which he referred to as "creepers"; he never completed the project, but a few of the tales remain. Ironically this grisly tale's first appearance was in the Pall Mall Gazette's 1884 Christmas Extra (substituted at the last moment for a briefer RLS tale, in order to fulfill a commitment of sufficient length). It is equally ironic that such a grisly story would first appear in book form in this cute little violet volume decorated with flowers. This is a near-fine copy, with minor cover soil but… Read More

1923. With Illustrations. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1923. Original tan cloth pictorially decorated in black, green, and red. First American Edition. This is a retelling of a dozen true historical events that involved "escapes and hurried journeys" all over the world (Scotland, South Africa, Turkestan, Australia...), illustrated with eight plates by A.S. Forrest. The book was subsequently reprinted as a text-book, with additional questions and exercises not by Buchan. This is a handsomely bound book: the four-color pictorial scene wraps around from the front cover onto the spine. A fine copy, remarkably clean, virtually as new except for faint evidence of a small book-label on the front endpaper. See Blanchard A54 (note).

1921. [both vols. inscribed by Charmian] Illustrated with Photographs. New York: The Century Co., 1921. Original green cloth. First Edition of Charmian London's personal biography, copiously illustrated with photographic plates, of her husband who had died five years earlier. Quoting from her Preface, Here I give to the world my Jack London -- a virile creature compounded of curiosity and fearlessness, the very texture of fine sensibility, the loving heart and discerning intuitions of a woman, an ardent brain, and a divine belief in himself. And since he was first and foremost his own man, I render... also his own Jack London. This set is in very good-plus condition, with minor rubbing at the extremities and (as usual) the spine gilt rather dull. The front free endpaper of each volume is inscribed and signed by Charmian London to "Harry" Fish (her quotation marks) -- in Glen Ellen California in 1935. Vol I reads "Wishing you could have known the man, and not only his humble biographer --". Her Vol… Read More

1916. (Le Livre des Sans-Foyer). Original Articles in Verse and Prose / Illustrations reproduced from Original Paintings & Drawings. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1916. Original blue-grey paper-covered boards with tan cloth spine. First (and only) Edition, of which this is Copy No. 70 of the 125 numbered large-paper copies printed on Van Gelder paper, signed by D.B. Updike of The Merrymount Press. (In addition to 2000 trade copies, there were 175 large-paper copies -- #s 1-50 on French hand-made paper, and #s 51-175 on Van Gelder paper.) Edited and organized by Edith Wharton, this book's proceeds went to the people of Belgium and France made homeless by the Great War -- especially the child refugees from Flanders. Following an introduction by Theodore Roosevelt, the literary contributors include Sarah Bernhardt, Laurence Binyon, Rupert Brooke, Jean Cocteau, Joseph Conrad ("Poland Revisited"), John Galsworthy, Thomas Hardy, Henry James, Alice Meynell, George Santayana, Igor Stravinsky, Edith… Read More

1892. London and Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1892. 2 pp Vol III undated ads. Original brownish-mauve cloth. First Edition, which consisted of only 500 copies. BORN IN EXILE... is one of Gissing's most sustained pieces of fictional autobiography and among his most fascinating performances.... It brings together in closest proximity the themes of class, money, and women so central to all his work; and the exile motif is nowhere else so ubiquitous. [Halperin] Gissing submitted BORN IN EXILE (then called GODWIN PEAK, for the protagonist) to Smith Elder, and, since he felt NEW GRUB STREET had been such a success, "stated" his price of 250 pounds; Smith Elder denied that NEW GRUB STREET had been a success and got him to lower his price to 150 pounds, but even then told him his books would not sell unless he made them less pessimistic. It was at this point that Gissing contacted the literary agent A.P. Watt, who, after having no luck with Chatto & Windus, with Longmans, nor with Bentley, managed to… Read More

1928. From the Bazaar Budget, Hartford, June 4, 1880. [No place: privately printed for Merle Johnson, 1928.] Original folded leaf forming four pages. First Edition. Twain originally wrote this chapter, "The Whipping Boy's Story" -- the tale of a boy trying to ride an unrideable bull -- as part of THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER, which was first published in 1882. During the finalization of that novel, this chapter was set aside (per the recommendation of William Dean Howells), and Twain allowed it to be printed by the Bazaar Budget, "a little special-edition sheet printed in Hartford" [per Twain's autobiography]. Twain later adapted the passage for his JOAN OF ARC, in which Joan's father rides a bull to a funeral. Almost forty years later (in 1928), Twain's bibliographer Merle Johnson produced this leaflet; it is today rather uncommon, especially in decent shape. This is a near-fine copy (a couple of tiny edge-nicks). At the top of the first page is penciled "First Edition | Merle Johnson"; in our… Read More

1890. Described for "Harper's Young People". Illustrated. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1890. Original blue-green cloth elaborately decorated in silver and lettered in gilt First Edition, first state, of Howells's tale of his own Ohio boyhood. The first state has the caption for the plate facing p. 110 erroneously describing the boys as celebrating "the Fourth" in the snow, and has the canal vignette on the verso of the Contents leaf -- later moved to p. 44). This is a bright copy, just about fine (just a trace of wear at the extremities) of this attractively-bound book. Blanck 9654; Johnson High Spots p. 43 ("The boy's town is Hamilton Ohio and "the boy" is Howells. For boy life in America it helps to fill the gap in period between Tom Sawyer and Penrod."); Peter Parley to Penrod p. 92. Provenance: "oilwell" bookplate of the collector Frank L. Hadley.