Search Results: Titles starting with L from Bauman Rare Books

1922. First Edition . BAKST, Léon. L'Oeuvre de Leon Bakst pour La Belle au Bois Dormant. Preface d'André Levinson. Paris: de Brunoff, 1922. Large folio, original limp cream paper covers, uncut, custom chemise. $7500.Signed limited first French edition, number 308 of only 500 copies signed by both Bakst and publisher Maurice de Brunoff, with 56 mounted color plates (54 full-page costumes and sets for the Ballet Russes, with letterpress tissue-guards), and a portrait of Bakst by Picasso.A gifted painter, Bakst is best remembered for the sets and costumes he designed for Diaghilev's Ballet Russes in the early decades of the 20th century. His exotic and sumptuous designs, in conjunction with Diaghilev's radical and provocative choreography, helped revitalize ballet and lay the framework for modern interpretive dance. It was the Ballet Russes that first brought Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty (renamed Sleeping Princess) to the west in 1921, featuring scenery and costumes by… Read More

1845. First Edition . LEESER, Isaac. The Law of God. Edited, and with Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised. Philadelphia: Printed by C. Sherman, for the editor, 5605 (1845). Five volumes. Octavo, contemporary full brown calf rebacked with original spine and spine labels laid back down; housed together in a custom clamshell box. $22,000.First edition of the “first English translation of the Pentateuch in America,” the 1845 Hebrew-English Bible by one of the most prominent and influential figures in American Jewish history, in handsome full contemporary calf bindings. Named hazan (cantor) of Congregation Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia in 1829, Leeser's ""contributions to every area of Jewish culture and religion made him a major builder of American Judaism."" The publication of his Pentateuch was the first time that any portion of the Bible was published in America under Jewish auspices. ""The translation of the Bible was Leeser's great… Read More

1972. First Edition . Signed. VENTURI, Robert. SCOTT BROWN, Denise. IZENOUR, Steven. Learning from Las Vegas. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, (1972). Folio, original full blue cloth, photographic onlay, original glassine dust jacket. $6000.First edition of this revolutionary book of architecture, signed by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. With rare original glassine dust jacket.Architect Robert Venturi, city planner Denise Scott Brown, and architect Steven Izenour's manifesto expressed their critiques of the plainness of modernist architecture, and extolled the virtues of a different aesthetic in which architects were more receptive to the tastes and values of average people. ""The target of Venturi's attack is Mies van der Rohe's formula 'less is more', a phrase coined to denote a form of aestheticised functionalism. Venturi's response, illustrated by historic examples, is 'More is not less', or, in a particularly aggressive formulation, 'Less is… Read More

1882. Signed. WHITMAN, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Camden, New Jersey: (Walt Whitman), 1882. Octavo, original green cloth gilt recased, top edge gilt, uncut. $9500.Author’s Edition, signed by Whitman on the title page, illustrated with two full-page engraved portraits of Whitman at different ages. One of probably fewer than 100 copies printed.In 1881 Boston publisher James Osgood asked Whitman to publish an expanded version of Leaves of Grass. Whitman responded that he would agree to such an edition on the condition that it include the ""sexuality odes"" which before had proved so controversial. The edition was published in Boston and had received promising reviews when on March 1 it was declared obscene by the district attorney. Osgood then asked Whitman to publish a version without the offending material. Whitman refused and asked that the plates to the Boston edition be delivered to him in Camden, New Jersey. He then promptly issued this Author's Edition from the Boston… Read More

1857. First Edition . HEGEL, G.W.F. Lectures on the Philosophy of History. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1857. Small octavo, contemporary three-quarter tan calf rebacked in the 20th century, raised bands, red and black morocco spine labels, retaining contemporary marbled boards and endpapers. Housed in a custom cloth slipcase. $5500.First edition in English of Hegel’s important and influential lectures on history and humanity’s intellectual evolution, translated by John Sibree.""In his Lectures on the Philosophy of History [a text primarily based on lectures delivered in Berlin in the winter of 1830-31], Hegel argued that the history of man in the concrete was as much a progression as the history of his thought. This he deduced from the thesis that mind is of its very nature free. Thus, each historical epoch, according to Hegel, embodied some aspect of or stage in the development of man's free mind, and it would be absurd for an individual to go counter to his time except insofar as… Read More

1941. First Edition . AGEE, James and EVANS, Walker. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Three Tenant Families. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1941. Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $5000.First edition of Agee and Evans' powerful and pioneering documentary photobook on the Great Depression—""the epitome of the genre""—with 31 full-page photogravures, in very elusive original dust jacket.""In 1936, on a journalistic assignment, James Agee and Walker Evans shared the lives of three sharecropper families in the Depression-gaunt South. Their report on the experience… became one of 1941s unforgettable books"" (New York Times). A groundbreaking collaboration between novelist and photographer, ""Let Us Now Praise Famous Men is regarded today as a classic of American literature… Evans' photographs—his only excursion into 'true' documentary—remain amongst the finest ever… Read More

1865. First Edition . THOREAU, Henry David. Letters to Various Persons. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1865. Octavo, original blind- and gilt-stamped purple cloth. Housed in a custom chemise and slipcase. $2600.First edition of this wonderful posthumous collection of Thoreau’s letters, edited by Emerson, a fine copy in the original cloth. This first collection of Thoreau's letters was edited after his death by Ralph Waldo Emerson, who notes in his preface, ""It may interest the reader… to know that nearly all these letters have been printed from the original autographs furnished by the persons to whom they were addressed."" With nine poems appended to the letters. BAL binding ""A""; Borst binding ""5,"" priority undetermined. BAL 20116. Borst A6.1.a. Allen, 21. Johnson, 501. A beautiful copy in fine condition.

1876. First Edition . Signed. EMERSON, Ralph Waldo. Letters and Social Aims. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1876 [i.e. 1875]. Octavo, original terracotta cloth. Housed in a half morocco chemise and full morocco slipcase. $11,000.First edition, first printing, association copy, of the last volume of essays published during Emerson's lifetime, bearing the ownership signature of Emerson's neighbor, Jeanie M. LeBrun, and additionally signed for her by Emerson and dated by him in the year of publication, ""6 Jan 1876.""This was the last volume of essay published during Emerson's lifetime. By the 1870s, Emerson had faded and ""gradually slipped into a serene senility in which his mind finally became a calm blank"" (OCAL). ""A longtime friend, James Elliot Cabot, was enlisted by the family to help put Emerson's literary manuscripts in order and prepare his lectures for delivery and his writings for publication… Cabot and Emerson's daughter… Read More

1843. First Edition . DICKENS, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. His Relatives, Friends, and Enemies. London: Chapman and Hall, January, 1843-July, 1844. Twenty parts in nineteen. Octavo, original pale bluish-green printed paper wrappers. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. $8500.First edition in original parts of Dickens' picaresque novel of ""farce, melodrama, and social criticism,"" with 40 full-page etchings by Hablôt Knight Browne (""Phiz""). An excellent copy in the scarce and desirable original parts—complete with all advertisements—handsomely boxed by Sangorski & Sutcliffe.First issued in 20 numbers from January 1843 to July 1844, Martin Chuzzlewit reflects the disillusionment Dickens felt from a recent trip to the United States, his first American reading tour. As Fielding had sent his Tom Jones to London, Dickens ""adopted the same radical expedient of sending his youthful… Read More

1899. First Edition . Signed. (ANTHONY, Susan B.) HARPER, Ida Husted. The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony. Indianapolis and Kansas City: Bowen-Merrill, 1899, 1898. Two volumes. Octavo, modern full brown morocco, gilt medallion portraits from original bindings retained on front covers, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. $16,500.First edition of the first two volumes of this biography of America's pioneering reformer—the only volumes published during her lifetime, inscribed and signed by her in each volume. Inscribed in Volume I: ""Mrs. Olivia B. Hall, Ann Arbor—Michigan—From her affectionate friend & coworker Susan B. Anthony. Rochester, N.Y. Jan. 1, 1899,"" and in Volume II: ""Mrs. Olivia B. Hall, Ann Arbor—Michigan—May the New Year bring added causes for happiness to her and all the loved ones of her home circle & to all homes—is the wish of her affectionate friend and coworker, Susan B. Anthony. Rochester, N.Y. Jan.… Read More

1887. (JOHNSON, Samuel) BOSWELL, James. Boswell's Life of Johnson, including… Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides and Johnson's Diary of a Journey into North Wales. Oxford: Clarendon, 1887. Six volumes bound in eleven. Octavo, contemporary full navy morocco gilt, raised bands, top edges gilt, uncut. $11,000.First George Birkbeck Hill edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson and Johnson's travels, extra-illustrated with 1153 finely engraved portraits, views, maps and facsimiles (including many proofs on India paper), and facsimile of handwritten note by Hill tipped in. Handsomely bound in full morocco by Riviere & Son.Hill was a renowned Johnsonian scholar; when the Clarendon Press brought out this six-volume set in 1887, ""the edition was accepted as a masterpiece of spacious editing. The index, forming the sixth volume, is a monument of industry and completeness"" (DNB). ""The fascination of [Boswell and Johnson's] dialogue, that dialogue of… Read More

1856. (WASHINGTON, George) IRVING, Washington. Life of George Washington. New York: G.P. Putnam, 1856-9. Five volumes. Quarto, contemporary three-quarter navy morocco gilt, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, raised bands, marbled boards, endpapers, and edges. $3500.""Illustrated Edition"" of Irving's well-regarded biography, richly illustrated with over 230 plates, handsomely bound.This ""monumental"" Life of Washington had been planned as early as 1825, but Irving did not complete the biography until the final years of his life. ""His final project, long contemplated, was a five-volume Life of George Washington (1855-59), elaborately researched and agonizingly completed as his health failed. He lived long enough to see the last volume published, dying soon afterward at Sunnyside. The book was designed—incongruously, given its length—for both scholars and average American readers. It tended to reaffirm standard conceptions of the… Read More

1932. First Edition . FAULKNER, William. Light in August. (New York): Harrison Smith & Robert Haas, (1932). Octavo, original beige cloth, original dust jacket. $8500.First edition, first issue of one of Faulkner's most powerful and ambitious novels, a splendid copy.Published a year after his controversial Sanctuary, Faulkner's tale of Joe Christmas and Lena Grove received almost universal acclaim. The New York Times called it ""an astonishing performance… Light in August is a powerful novel, a book which secures Mr. Faulkner's place at the very front of American writers of fiction"" (Books of the Century, 100-01). ""A searing novel… For the first time in his writing, Faulkner directly confronts racial prejudice in the South… Light in August is perhaps best read as Faulkner's ironic Gospel"" (Parini, 178-83). First issue, with first printing statement on copyright page, and ""Jefferson"" for… Read More

1855. First Edition . DICKENS, Charles. Little Dorrit. London: Bradbury and Evans, December 1855-June 1857. Nineteen parts (20 numbers). Octavo, original pictorial blue paper wrappers (several sympathetically respined or repaired). Housed in custom chemise and slipcase. $5200.First edition, first issue, in the original serialized parts, with cover design and illustrations by Hablot Knight Browne.Little Dorrit ""is a wonderfully rich novel—rich in ideas, rich in characterization, rich in incident, and written in a richly imaginative prose… many critics regard it as Dickens' masterpiece"" (Watts, 108). ""So it is that in Little Dorrit Dickens mounts his single most ferocious onslaught against England and English society; against its government, against its financiers, against its artists, and even against its ordinary citizens… In Little Dorrit, money itself is seen to be a faithless and corrupt delusion. Even when the Dorrits become rich, they cannot… Read More

1946. First Edition . Signed. BROWN, Margaret Wise. Little Fur Family. New York: Harper Brothers, 1946. 12mo, original full rabbit fur, original cardboard box. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $7500.Rare first edition, bound in rabbit fur, with the original illustrated box, signed on the title page by Margaret Wise Brown—the only copy of any Margaret Wise Brown book we have ever encountered signed by her.Margaret Wise Brown's most whimsically designed book follows the adventures of a ""little fur animal"" as he explores his world. Beautifully illustrated by Garth Williams, of Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little fame, this scarce first edition is bound in real rabbit fur. ""The diminutive 1946 rabbit-fur-bound edition had proven difficult to store (moths got into Harper's warehouse, destroying a large quantity of the first printing)"" (Marcus, 33). Consequently, later editions had imitation fur or no fur at all. In the original publisher's… Read More

1902. STRICKLAND, Agnes. Lives of the Queens of England, From the Norman Conquest. Philadelphia: George Barrie & Sons, (1902-03). Sixteen volumes. Octavo, publisher's deluxe full navy morocco gilt, raised bands, full purple and green morocco doublures with hand-painted portraits inset into front doublures, white morocco floral inlays set into rear doublures, watered silk endpapers, all edges gilt; each volume housed in cloth slipcase. $22,000.Beautifully bound and richly illustrated ""Alexandra Edition"" of Strickland's detailed history, number 6 of only 7 sets copies printed on Japan vellum, with each of the approximately 250 illustrations printed in quadruple suite: one on Holland handmade paper and hand-colored, on on India paper, one on papier de Chine, and one on Japanese vellum, including portraits, scenes and views. Each volume bound in full morocco, with a hand-painted portrait of one of the queens set into the full morocco doublure inside the front… Read More

1937. First Edition . Signed. (ROOSEVELT, Franklin D.) [WATSON, Edwin]. Log of the Cruise of President Franklin D Roosevelt in the Gulf of Mexico. (Washington): [The White House], 1937. Quarto, original half cloth, original buff paper wrappers. Housed in a custom cloth clamshell box . $12,500.Limited first edition, one of an unnumbered limited, of this privately printed travel logbook about FDR's cruise in the Gulf of Mexico, inscribed on the title page: ""For Paul Hart from Franklin D. Roosevelt.""According to Roosevelt bibliographer Ernest J. Halter, at least 17 of these presidential cruise logs were issued between 1934 and 1945. Because they were all planographed or mimeographed to maintain their homemade appearance, their production didn't require a formal publisher and thus the exact number remains unknown. All, however, were issued in restricted editions for private distribution. The present log concerns FDR's Gulf of Mexico cruise on the U.S.S. Potomac. It also… Read More

1900. First Edition . CONRAD, Joseph. Lord Jim, A Tale. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1900. Octavo, original green cloth, uncut. Housed in a custom chemise and half morocco slipcase. $7000.First edition, first issue, of Conrad's brilliant exploration of morality and the torment of guilt, ""second only to Heart of Darkness in renown,"" unusually bright in the original cloth—the Doheny copy, with her morocco bookplate.To critic Cedric Watts, Conrad's Lord Jim is ""one of the world's literary masterpieces… Conrad, like Britannia, rules the waves… a book of the rare literary quality of Lord Jim is something to receive with gratitude and joy."" Though he began working on it in 1898, with the intent of a short story, the novel ultimately ""took itself into its own hands, and swept its writer with it into a profound study of a psychic phenomenon"" (New York Times Book Review). ""Second only… Read More

1893. First Edition . CAMERON, Julia Margaret. Alfred, Lord Tennyson and His Friends. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1893. Folio (15 by 18 inches), original beige cloth gilt rebacked and recornered in brown morocco, uncut. $7200.Limited first edition, number 209 of 400 copies, of this collection of 26 rich photogravures, most by significant Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, depicting such notables as Tennyson, Browning, Longfellow, Carlyle, Gladstone, Herschel and Darwin.""Julia Margaret Cameron was not the only Victorian woman photographer, but for most others, however enthusiastic, photography was primarily a means of creating a family record. Although her images are often deeply informed by her feelings for her sitter, they go far beyond the personal to epitomize particular qualities or essences—typically, genius in men and beauty in women"" (DNB). This album, published 14 years after Cameron's death, presents many of her finest and most famous portraits,… Read More

1953. First Edition . AMIS, Kingsley. Lucky Jim. London: Victor Gollancz, 1953. Octavo, original green paper boards, original dust jacket. $7200.First edition of Amis' first and most famous novel—""brilliantly and preposterously funny"" (Guardian), in original dust jacket.Hailed as ""one of the four or five funniest comic novels written in this century,"" Lucky Jim is Kingsley Amis' first novel, a biting satire that ""brought its author fame as one of Britain's Angry Young Men."" To writer Paul Fussell, Amis stood as one of his generation's finest satirists ""and belonged in 'the company of Swift, Pope, Twain, Flaubert and Mencken"" (New York Times). This ""brilliantly and preposterously funny book"" remains Amis' best known novel (Guardian). Gift inscription dated year of publication.Book fine; mild soiling, trace of edge-wear with small bit of expert repair to verso of… Read More