Search Results: Titles starting with G from Downtown Brown Books, ABAA

London: Viking, 1990. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/Near fine. Correct first edition (first printing), preceding the US edition. A near fine copy in a near fine dust jacket. Inscribed by the author with her true name, "Ruth Rendell as [Barbara Vine] To Stephen Gould with best wishes." The recipient was Stephen Jay Gould, the noted American paleontologist and writer. Rendell was one of his favorite writers and he mentions her in several of his books.

New York: Bantam, 1996. Later printing. Hardcover. Near fine/Near fine. The first book in the series. Thirty-fourth printing, after 2011. A near fine copy in a near fine dust jacket. "Strand Signed Edition" sticker on the cover. Signed by Martin on the title page.

New York: Moffat, Yard & Company, 1908. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. The book that introduced the game of go to the English-speaking world. Smith's book drew heavily on the articles on the game by Oskar Korschelt, which were only published in a German journal of Far Eastern studies. Korschelt learned the game from Murase Shobo, the best player in the 1870s. Smith credits his knowledge of go to Mokichi Nakamura, a Japanese American immigrant in New York, and Jihei Hashiguchi, the editor of The Japan Current, in Seattle, Washington. Smith's book has been reprinted and reissued many times in the century since it first appeared. Go, like chess, has relatively simple rules but is one of the most complex games to play. Like chess, training supercomputers to play go is a key test of AI capability. About Mokichi Nakamura, Smith's primary Japanese-American informant, not much is known. He registered for the draft at the beginning of the First World War, at which time he was living and… Read More

San Antonio: Wings Press, 1999. First edition. Trade paperback. Fine. 79 pages. One of 50 SIGNED and numbered copies of the author's first collection of poems. The total edition was 500 copies. Fine in wrappers. Signed and numbered by the author on the limitation page.

Ithaca, NY: Elfriede Abbe, 1954. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine. There has been no better nor more beautiful book on herbs in modern times." -Missouri Botanical Garden Bulletin. This book, beautifully illustrated with original woodblock prints, includes descriptions by Muenscher and Rice of 250 common and exotic plants and hints on how to recognize, grow, harvest, and prepare them. This is one of 90 copies printed on handmade Japanese Kochi paper with seventy illustrations by Abbe printed from the original wood blocks. Abbe was employed as an illustrator for Cornell University and this book was reissued by the university press following this privately printed edition. Abbe also printed and illustrated books on her home press and made sculptures in wood. Her papers are part of the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian. First edition (first printing). A fine copy. There is what may be glue residue on the both front and back covers, which might indicate the former presence of printed labels;… Read More

San Antonio, TX: Word Design Studio, 2011. First Edition. Trade paperback. Near fine. Iranian American writer. First edition (first printing). A near fine copy in wrappers (paperback). Inscribed by the author.

Ephemera. Near fine. A small homefront poster from the Second World War promoting ride sharing and, by extension, conserving gasoline and rubber, the natural supplies of which had mostly been seized by the Japanese army. 8-3/8 by 10-15/16 inches. Near fine to fine. This is an original World War II poster, not a reproduction.

Berlin: Maurerschen Buchhandlung, 1822. First Edition. Very good. Heine's first book, a collection of poems published by a Berlin bookstore in December 1821 (but dated on the title page 1822). A scarce book by one of the most important 19th century German poets. viii, 170, [1] pages. Collating as: [i] title, [ii] blank, [iii-iv] Zueignung, [v-viii] Inhalt, [1]-35, Traumbilder, [36] blank, [37]-64, Minnelieder, [65]-103, Romanzen, [104] blank, [105]-142, Sonette und vermischte Gedichte, [143]-170, Uebersetzungen aus Lord Byrons Werken, 170, printer's imprint: Berlin, gedruckt bei G. Hayn, [171] Berichtigung. First edition (first printing). A very good or better copy in contemporary marbled paper-covered boards. With a red-paper label on the spine, which is divided into compartments with four ornaments stamped in gilt. Label edge chipped just touching the H in Heine. Minor wear to the corners. Previous owner's name on the first blank. A bit musty.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. A novel about a family of circus geeks by a late, beloved Portland writer. First edition (first printing). A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. The bright orange spine of this book always fades. This copy was kept in a storage locker since the early 1990s and is as bright as the day it was first sold.

[Washington, D.C.?]: (n.p.), 1871. First Edition. Pamphlet. A four-part defense of the Freedmen's Bureau and its head, Major General Oliver O. Howard, spurred by a proposed amendment to cut the $5,000 budget for the hospital in Washington, D.C. and a speech accusing the agency of "plundering the public treasuring." The Freedmen's Bureau was a Reconstruction-era agency set up to assist the formerly enslaved citizens of the country following the Civil War. 8 pages. First edition (first printing). A very good copy; a single sheet, folded to make eight pages, as issued.

New Orleans: Headquarters, Department of the Gulf, 1862. Ephemera. Fine. An order from the Union Army in charge of New Orleans implementing new rules for enslaved people held in the jail. At the time of the Union occupation of New Orleans, slaves could be imprisoned for committing crimes, but their enslavers could also hire them out to the municipal work gang and they would be housed in the jail as inmates when they were not working (see Records of Correctional Institutions in the City Archives, New Orleans Public Library). The new orders printed here required enslavers to pre-pay the costs of imprisoning their slaves, "the slave to be released when the money is exhausted." Any enslaved person whose cost of maintenance is not paid within 10 days should "be discharged." The explanation turned the logic of slavery on itself, reflecting the weak hold enslavers had on their human property following the publication of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation and in light of the protections offered to… Read More

[San Antonio, TX]: Coledge of New Thinkers LLC, 1987. Trade paperback. Near fine. Essays on the Bible from the "M" in the Chicano press, M & A Editions, which Sandoval ran with his wife, the Chicana poet Angela de Hoyos. No copies located in OCLC. 32, 22 leaves (printed rectos or front side only). Illustrated in color. A near fine copy in wrappers. This version is identified as "v5" on the title page, possibly indicating the 5th version of the book.

Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1981. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Near fine. An account of the often brutal interactions between white settlers and the Native Americans living in the Round Valley, in Northern Mendocino County, California. Since descendants of some of the worst offenders still live in the region, rumors of their attempts to supress the book abound. Its relative scarcity is due to a more prosaic chain of events. After an allegation of (unintentional) plagiarism was leveled against the section written by Estle Beard, the publisher investigated, agreed with the complaint, and withdrew the book from sale. Since both authors have since passed away, it seems unlikely that this book will ever be republished or converted into an e-book. The original hardcover is the only way to read about this troubled era in Northern California's history. 403 pages. First and only edition (first printing). A fine copy in a fine dust jacket, but for a short tear to the front panel. An… Read More

(N.-pl.): Geological Society of America, 1948. First Edition. Pamphlet. Fine. Offprint from the Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, vol. 59, pp. 1217-1265. Three folding maps. First edition (first printing). A fine copy in wrappers (pamphlet).

New York: Sol. Young, 1910. Ephemera. Very good. A three-quarters-length seated portrait of trade union advocate and economist George Gunton (1845-1919). Gunton was born in England and emigrated to the US in the 1870s. Gunton wrote a treatise on the eight-hour work day and the economics books Wealth and Progress and Principles of Social Economics. He also published The Social Economist (later Gunton's Magazine). 3-7/8 by 5-1/2 inches on a Sol. Young mount, 7 Union Square, New York. An excellent, high contrast image. Penciled notes below image on mount; additional markings on the back (verso of the mount).

[Washington, DC]: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1942. Ephemera. Near fine. An attractive homefront poster from the Second World War encouraging Americans to recycle scrap metal for the war effort. The poster presents stylized silhouettes of a bomb, a tank, a battleship, and an anti-aircraft gun, each printed over a line drawing of a pile of scrap metal. 20 by 28-1/2 inches. Poster O-471153. Folded, as issued. A bit of creasing to the margins, else near fine. This is an original World War II poster, not a reproduction. Ships FOLDED.

London: Herbert Jenkins, 1939. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. The Ghost Plane, written in 1939 by James Corbett, was one of several aeronautical thrillers that flirted with the supernatural. In this one, an invisible, soundless plane is assassinating people on the ground with impunity. War is in the air, but so is love, and Corbett makes the most of the situation by purpling his prose even more than usual."-blurb from the current edition. The book is bound in Jenkins' typical bright orange cloth of the era. First edition (stating "First printing 1939" on the copyright page). A very good copy in a very good dust jacket with some chipping to the spine ends. There are remnants of an old tape repair to the back (verso) of the jacket at the base of the spine. The edges of the page block have spots of foxing, and the corner of the book is bumped at the bottom of the spine.

New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1929. Hardcover. Very good/Good. A mystery novel and basis for a Boris Karloff film. This is an early American reprint. A very good copy in a good-only dust jacket with long tears at the spine. There is also a torn off corner on the front flap affecting a couple of words of text. Some copies of this book have a graphic on the lower right corner of the dust jacket reading "Another Dracula." This copy does not.

Baltimore, MD: Cemetery Dance, 2014. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. The first two Gideon Crew novels, each one of 750 numbered copies signed by both authors. This is a set with matching numbers in each volume. As usual, an attractive edition from Cemetery Dance. Both books are fine in a fine dust jacket. Signed by Preston and Child.

Carmel Valley, CA: Lux 4-Woodrose Publishing in Association with the Center for Photographic Art, 1996. First edition, hardcover issue. Hardcover. Fine. 10-1/4 by 9-3/4 inches. A monograph with high-quality reproductions of 35 of Bernhard's still life photographs, made between 1930 and 1974. Three-page introduction by the photographer Michael Kenna. Also published simultaneously in wrappers (paperback). First edition (first printing, hardcover issue). Metallic endpapers with some irregular coloration due to a laid in flyer for a Bernhard exhibition, else fine in cloth with a tipped-on image on the cover. Boldly signed by the photographer across the title page.