Search Results: Titles starting with S from Sumner & Stillman

1935. London...: Cassell and Company, (1935). Original dark blue cloth with spine lettered in gilt, with dust jacket. First Edition of this collection of eight cases solved by Father Brown, the diminutive Roman Catholic priest / amateur detective. This was the fifth and last collection of Father Brown cases, preceded by THE INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN (1911), THE WISDOM... (1914), THE INCREDULITY... (1926), and THE SECRET... (1927); Chesterton died the year after this one was published. ...It was in his series of Father Brown stories that Chesterton gave life to one of the most famous and best-loved of fictional detectives... The little Roman Catholic priest's main preoccupation is with the moral and religious aspects of the crimes he is solving, rather than the apprehension of the criminal and the administration of legal punishment. With his psychological approach to the problems of human frailty, and his endowment of the guilty with good as well as bad qualities, Chesterton's works of detective… Read More

1896. London: John Lane / New York: Macmillan & Co., 1896. 16 pp ads dated 1896. Original light brown cloth decorated in dark brown, with dark brown cloth spine decorated in gilt. First Edition of Buchan's second book, a collection of essays, preceded only by his SIR QUIXOTE OF THE MOORS of 1895. This book is beautifully illustrated with etchings by D.Y. Cameron (who introduced Buchan to John Lane the publisher), and the cover design is by Patten Wilson. SCHOLAR GIPSIES was published in John Lane's Arcady Library, and on the cover a goat-footed Pan piped to three nymphs. The essays, too, sounded many Arcadian notes -- references to Theocritus, to 'people of this Arcady' (i.e. the Upper Tweed), to 'the Piper'... There are some clear echoes of [Kenneth] Grahame: "Afternoon" in SCHOLAR GIPSIES -- a boy playing Jacobites who steals into the garden of a big house and meets a girl whom he is sure is a princess -- is very much in the vein of the story in [Grahame's 1895] THE GOLDEN AGE where children… Read More

1896. London: John Lane / New York: Macmillan & Co., 1896. 16 pp ads dated 1896. Original light brown cloth decorated in dark brown, with dark brown cloth spine elaborately decorated in gilt. First Edition of Buchan's second book, a volume of sixteen essays, preceded only by his SIR QUIXOTE OF THE MOORS of 1895. Buchan notes in his "Prefatory" that these pieces "were all written in youth, when a man's thoughts run on many diverse things with a certain tentative aim," and also that "they were written in close connection with that most beautiful country, the upper valley of Tweed, where the grace of old times seems to have long lingered." This is the third volume in the publisher's handsome "Arcady Library" series; it is beautifully illustrated with etchings by D.Y. Cameron (Buchan's Glasgow friend who introduced him to the publisher John Lane), and the cover design (of a goat-footed Pan piping to three nymphs) is by Patten Wilson. This is a remarkably bright copy, fine except for a faint damp-stain… Read More

1923. With Eight Pictures in Colour by Jan Juta. London: Martin Secker, (1923). Original brown cloth, with dust jacket. First English Edition, published two years after Thomas Seltzer's New York edition. "In her book LORENZO IN TAOS, Mabel Dodge Luhan says it was after reading SEA AND SARDINIA that she wrote Lawrence inviting him to come to New Mexico; his descriptions of the island had convinced her that he was the only one who could adequately portray the Taos country." D.H. and Frieda Lawrence did indeed visit Luhan in Taos (as did Willa Cather, Georgia O'Keeffe, Martha Graham, Thornton Wilder and others) -- but they remained there, buying a ranch outside of town... The [eight] paintings were done during the summer of 1921 by Jan Juta, a young painter from South Africa, who with his sister had accompanied Lawrence and other friends on a trip to Syracuse [Sicily] in April" [Roberts]. The two paste-downs bear a map (drawn by Lawrence) of the trip, a loop between Italy, Sicily and Sardinia. The… Read More

1868. [signed by George MacDonald] London: Tinsley Brothers, 1868. Original maroon cloth decorated in gilt (portraying medieval-style external book hinges). First Edition. This is the second novel in MacDonald's "Marshmallows Trilogy" -- the other two being ANNALS OF A QUIET NEIGHBOURHOOD (Hurst & Blackett 1867) and THE VICAR'S DAUGHTER (Tinsley 1872, same style binding as this). It takes place in the English seaside village of Bude (the father of the family, a vicar, is serving as interim pastor there), and is the result of a MacDonald family vacation there. This is a near-fine set (spines slightly faded as always with maroon, just a hint of wear at the tips, minor bubbling of the cloth on Vol I). Wolff (4304) had only a set in the secondary binding, without hinge decoration or publisher's name); Sadleir did not have a copy at all. Housed in an open-back case. The half-title of Vol I is signed by George MacDonald (actually, MacDonald inscribed it to someone, but the inscription itself is rubbed… Read More

1911. London: Gall and Inglis, n.d. [1911]. Original green cloth with pictorial spine, with front cover illustration onlay. Second (and first one-volume) Edition of Henty's first book. Agnes Ashleigh is unexpectedly bequeathed a fortune -- but the two sisters of her benefactor have other ideas... A SEARCH FOR A SECRET was initially published by Tinsley in 1867 as a three-decker -- consisting of probably no more than 300 or 400 copies; that edition is now extremely scarce, one of the toughest of all Henty first editions to find. This one-volume edition did not appear until 44 years later, after Henty's death. This copy is in green cloth, as opposed to the red copy cited by Newbolt (we have also had blue); in this copy there is gilt on the top edge only (some have all edges gilt). This is a bright, near-fine copy (endpapers cracked, 1915 Sunday School attendance prize bookplate) -- of a title we do not see very often. Newbolt 1.2.

1895. Kipling, J. Lockwood. With Illustrations by J. Lockwood Kipling, C.I.E. London: Macmillan and Co., 1895. 2 pp undated ads. Original blue cloth pictorially decorated in gilt, all page edges gilt. First English Edition (published three days after the American) of the sequel to THE JUNGLE BOOK, which had been published the year before. It continues with more tales of Mowgli that exemplify "The Laws of the Jungle" -- with illustrations by John Lockwood Kipling, Rudyard's father. This was the second of the four Kipling gift books bound similarly by Macmillan, with SOLDIER TALES and CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS coming out the following two years respectively. This is an attractive, near-fine copy (volume slightly askew, spine gilt less than bright, but no foxing and essentially no wear); the front flyleaf bears an inked "Xmas 1895" signature. Richards A85; Stewart 132.

1907. London: Methuen & Co., (1907). 40 pp ads dated Sept 1907. Original deep red cloth with gilt-decorated spine. First Edition of Conrad's tale of espionage sited in Russia. The idea for the story came from an actual 1890s revolutionary attempt to blow up the Observatory at Greenwich. Conrad initially planned this to be a short story (titled "Verloc"); however, as he "got into" it, he lengthened it into a full-blown novel. He then strove to make it a popular novel, one that would provide him with the cash he needed to get out from under pressing debts; however, after an initial flourish, sales dropped off and the book was not reprinted until 1914, after the success of CHANCE reawakened interest in Conrad. The initial printing consisted of 2,500 copies, including 500 for the colonies plus 500 for Canada. However, the good initial reception of the book prompted the publisher to use the colonial copies for the domestic market instead, replacing the colonial half-title and title with the standard… Read More

1907. [the Charlie Watts copy] London: Methuen & Co., (1907). 40 pp ads dated Sept 1907. Original deep red cloth with gilt-decorated spine. First Edition of Conrad's tale of espionage sited in Russia. The idea for the story came from an actual 1890s revolutionary attempt to blow up the Observatory at Greenwich. Conrad initially planned this to be a short story (titled "Verloc"); however, as he "got into" it, he lengthened it into a full-blown novel. He then strove to make it a popular novel, one that would provide him with the cash he needed to get out from under pressing debts; however, after an initial flourish, sales dropped off and the book was not reprinted until 1914, after the success of CHANCE reawakened interest in Conrad. The initial printing consisted of 2,500 copies, including 500 for the colonies and 500 for Canada. However, the good initial reception of the book prompted the publisher to use the colonial copies for the domestic market instead, replacing the colonial half-title and… Read More

1907. London: Methuen & Co., (1907). 40 pp ads dated Sept 1907. Original deep red cloth with gilt-decorated spine. First Edition of this tale of espionage sited in Russia. The idea for the story came from an actual 1890s revolutionary attempt to blow up the Observatory at Greenwich. Conrad initially planned this to be a short story (titled "Verloc"); however, as he "got into" it, he lengthened it into a full-blown novel. He then strove to make it a popular novel, one that would provide him with the cash he needed to get out from under pressing debts; however, after an initial flourish, sales dropped off and the book was not reprinted until 1914, after the success of CHANCE reawakened interest in Conrad. The initial printing consisted of 2,500 copies, including 500 for Canada and 500 intended for the colonies; however, the good initial reception of the book prompted the publisher to use the colonial copies for the domestic market instead, replacing the colonial half-title and title with the standard… Read More

1921. Nicholson, William. [in dust jacket] With Portrait and Title Page Engraved on Wood by William Nicholson. London, Liverpool and Boston: Philip Lee Warner, Publisher to the Medici Society, 1921. Original blue-grey paper-covered boards with natural linen spine with cover and spine labels, with dust jacket. Riccardi Press Edition, being copy #663 of 1000 copies. Hardy and Macmillan first published this collection of 120 poems in 1916. They selected poems that the "General Reader" might like, from Hardy's five previous volumes of verse -- plus nine from his as-yet-unpublished MOMENTS OF VISION. "Hardy set great store by the volume..., hoping it would bring his poetry to a wider public" [Purdy]. Five years later The Medici Society published this volume, illustrated by William Nicholson and printed at The Riccardi Press. This volume is in fine condition except for a bumped fore-corner; the two spare labels are still tipped in at the rear. Included is the uncommon dust jacket, which, outside of a… Read More

1936. With an Introduction by W.B. Yeats and a Drawing by Sir William Rothenstein. London: Macmillan and Co., 1936. Original pale yellow linen, with dust jacket. First Edition. Dorothy Violet Ashton (1889-1956) married the Duke of Wellington (Gerald Wellesley) in 1914, but left him and their children eight years later, for a relationship with Vita Sackville-West. According to W.B. Yeats, Wellesley was one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century -- see his Introduction to the Oxford Book of Modern Verse 1892-1935. "Within two minutes of our first meeting at my house [in 1935] he said: ‘You must sacrifice everything and everyone to your poetry'." Yeats discovered her poetry while researching the Oxford Book of Modern Verse and said "My eyes filled with tears. I read in excitement that was more delightful because it showed that I had not lost my understanding of poetry." Only later did he find who she was and what was her station in life.[Wiki] Yeats went on to edit and revise her poetry… Read More

1917. Garden City NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1917. Original blue cloth decorated in gilt. First American Edition, published about a month after Dent's London edition. The American edition was set from proof sheets supplied by Dent, after which Conrad made changes that were effected in the UK edition but not in the US one; as a result, "the American edition provides an interesting intermediate text between the ENGLISH REVIEW and the first Dent edition, showing the extensive changes made from serial to copy text for the book, as well as the further polishing which took place in proof" [Cagle]. This is one of Conrad's most autobiographical tales; to quote from the dust jacket (not present), The "shadow line" is that dim boundary that divides youth from maturity. How a young first mate, who unexpectedly finds himself in command of a sailing vessel, leaves his carefree youth behind forever in the agonizing responsibility of a twenty-one day voyage from Bankok [sic] to Singapore. His ship is becalmed,… Read More

1909. San Francisco: A.M. Robertson, 1909. Original brown cloth decorated in black, with dust jacket. First Edition. Per the author's note, "It was expected that this book would be included in my 'Collected works' now in course of publication, but unforeseen delay in the date of publication has made this impossible." This copy is in brown buckram (others are in green, no priority). It is a fine, bright copy (the usual offset darkening of the endpapers) of this handsomely printed and bound book; its leaves remain unopoened, in fact. Included is the 1909 dust jacket, remarkably whole and clean, though there is one closed tear on the rear panel. Blanck 1127.

1901. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1901. [In Two Volumes.] Original pale blue paper-covered boards with white parchment spine and fore-tips. Large-Paper Edition, consisting of 150 copies on Holland paper, this being copy #96. This is a posthumous collection of generally-humorous pieces Field wrote for the Chicago Daily News, in his morning-edition column "Sharps and Flats." The first (trade) edition, from the same plates, came out in December 1900 (and bears that date on the title pages); this limited issue followed in March 1901. This is a remarkably clean, fine set (lacking the cloth dust jackets). See Blanck 5784.

1919. London: Printed for Private Circulation [by Thomas J. Wise], 1919. Original dark red wrappers. First Edition, consisting of only 25 copies (so stated). This is Conrad's reminiscence of the day he heard of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand ("I was barely aware that such a man existed"), and the ensuing "shock of war" in his native land of Poland. This piece had originally appeared in the 29 March 1915 issue of the London Daily News & Leader; here, it is the sixth of the twenty very-limited-issue pamphlets that Conrad and Thomas J. Wise produced (as instant-collectibles to raise cash for Conrad) during the twelve months between February 1919 and January 1920. (Preceding these twenty in collaboration with Wise, there were six in collaboration with Clement J. Shorter.) In 1921 "The Shock of War" would be collected (as Section I of "Poland Revisited") in the Conrad volume NOTES ON LIFE & LETTERS. It is in just-about-fine condition (a hint of cracking of the fragile spine, a few short… Read More

1861. [the "A" binding, fine] Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1861. 16 pp undated ads + 4 pp (Carlyle) ads bearing January 1861 reviews. Original blind-stamped cinnamon-brown cloth. First Edition of George Eliot's only single-volume novel ("a short and simple one, but flawlessly fashioned"). SILAS MARNER is a novel of remarkable quality. Idyllic, certainly, but nowhere does it strain belief or offer coincidence as a resolution... There is not a superfluous line in the narrative and the book has charm, a quality rarely found in the work of the great Victorian novelists [CGEL]. This was George Eliot's third novel, following ADAM BEDE and THE MILL ON THE FLOSS (published in the prior two years, also by Blackwood); after SILAS MARNER she would temporarily abandon her successful environment of rural England, and fail miserably with ROMOLA, sited in 1490s Italy. This copy is in Carter's "binding A," with the more elaborate giltwork on the spine (a variation also present on Eliot's two… Read More

1899. London: Grant Richards, 1899. 2 pp undated ads plus 12 pp ads dated 1899. Original purple cloth. First Edition of this largely autobiographical novel, documenting the tension between the protagonist's poetic self and his bourgeois parents. Sharp had grown up in the Scottish Highlands, where at an early stage he acquired a vein of mystic pantheism. His family kept trying to guide him along conventional paths, such as that of an attorney's clerk in Glasgow and a bank clerk in London, but he kept seeking to write poetry and to roam about the mystical forests. Ultimately (beginning a few years before SILENCE FARM was published), Sharp began writing his more poetic or romantic works under the pseudonym "Fiona Macleod"; it is widely surmised that after the turn of the century "Fiona" was no longer simply a pseudonym but rather had become a separate personality, a sexual alter-ego, within Sharp. SILENCE FARM is sought as the book that best conveys Sharp's own telling of the boyhood that resulted in… Read More

1971. London and New York: Frederick Warne, (1971). Original white cloth pictorially decorated in color, with matching dust jacket. First Edition, published 28 years after the author / illustrator's death. The Foreword by Leslie Linder explains that Potter wrote this in 1906, and the plan was for it to be a third title in panoramic (or concertina) form -- after FIERCE BAD RABBIT and MISS MOPPET. But the booksellers complained that they were having trouble re-folding those books after people perused them, and SLY OLD CAT was put off numerous times over the subsequent years. It involves a cat who invites a rat to a tea-party -- the latter of whom fears he might be intended as dessert. This is a fine copy in a fine jacket. See Linder p. 434 (SLY OLD CAT was published in the same year as the Linder bibliography).

1898. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1898. Original brown cloth blocked in white. First American Edition of this early Hornung collection of eleven imaginative tales, including "The Widow of Piper's Point," "The Magic Cigar" and "A Spin of the Coin." This book came out five years after Hornung married Constance, sister of Arthur Conan Doyle, and one year before Hornung created his most memorable character, Raffles the gentleman cricketer (and crook). Except for one small blemish on the front cover (affecting the title's "U"), this is a fine copy.