Rare books from Riverrun Books & Manuscripts

London: William Johnston, 1763. Third edition of vol. 1, first editions of vols. 2-6. Some foxing and browning, generally a clean and handsome set/From the Collection of Allan B. Kirsner, M.D. 6 volumes, 8vo. Plates, many folding. Modern half leather, marbled boards, untrimmed. A fine set of this important journal, with ten notable contributions in the history of medicine:HUNTER, William (1718-1783). "The history of an aneurysm of the aorta, with some remarks on aneurysms in general". Vol I, pp. 323-357. First recorded case of arteriovenous aneurysm. Garrison-Morton-Norman 2974. HUNTER, William. "A singular case of the separation of the ossa pubis". Vol. II, pp. 321-33 and 415-18. A case of osteomalacic pelvis was reported to Hunter by a country practitioner. Garrison-Morton-Norman 6254. WHITE, Charles (1728-1813). "An account of a new method of reducing shoulders (without the use of an ambe) which have been several months dislocated, in cases where the common methods have proved inefficient". Vol… Read More

2 pages, 4to, on recto and verso, in fine condition, creased at folds, with original holograph envelope addressed by Fields. A LENGTHY LETTER FROM A BITTER W. C. FIELDS, a lengthy outpouring to his estranged mistress: "I can't write you sensible letters because you don't even take time to read them... you can't fool anyone, least of all me. You listen to some bums who tell you you are going to knock them in the aisles in Berlin, Paris, Moscow... you spend all your money, run off to N.Y. and when your poke is empty, you appeal to me for a little help and advice which you never take. I feel like such a God damned fool for offering advice or even writing you...

Rutland, VT and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1962. Slightest toning to spine, a few small scuffs to slipcase, overall a fine, fresh and very well preserved copy. Large folio (592 x 422 mm). With Ten Original Prints by Hiratsuka Un'Ichi, Maekawa Sempan, Mori Yoshitoshi, Watanabe Sadao, Kinoshita Tomio, Shima Tamami, Azechi Umetaro, Iwami Reika, Yoshida Masaji, Maki Haku, each signed by the artist. [1]-55, [1, colophon] pages. Original binding by the Okamoto Bindery in original tri-tone linen, stamped in gilt on front boards and spine, uncut; with the original slipcase of unvarnished spruce or Japanese cedar. FIRST EDITION, DELUXE ISSUE, number 459 of 475 copies for sale from an edition of 510 copies, signed by Michener and the ten contributing artists. Printed on handmade kyokushi or Japanese Vellum, the text handset in Perpetua type. Bound at Japanese title burned into the wood on front panel of slipcase. The printing plates were destroyed after publication. "These artists taught me," wrote… Read More

London: Richard Griffin and Company, 1861. A lovely near-fine copy, the binding firm and bright. The contents with a previous owner's bookplate to the front pastedown and a little spotting to the endpapers, are otherwise clean and fresh throughout. A superb example of a very scarce title. 8vo (21.8 x 15.7 cm). Publisher's original green cloth with gilt titles and decoration to the upper board and spine, gilt to all page edges. Illustrated with 20 mounted albumen prints. FIRST EDITION of one of the earliest works of poetry to be illustrated by photography. The anthology combines extracts from authors including Keats, Clare, Wordsworth, Cowper, and Longfellow, with mounted photographs depicting idyllic scenes of contemporary rural life by the renowned stereographer William Morris Grundy (1806-1859), to create a harmonious interweaving of verse and imagery. Grundy was born in Birmingham, moving to Sutton Coldfield in 1850. Initially taking up photography as a hobby in 1855, he went on to achieve… Read More

Orlando, Florida: Flying Horse Editions / Hoopsnake Press, 1998. A fine set. A complete copy, comprising: Sixteen 10.5 x 12 inch etchings by William T. Wiley and sixteen poems by Michael Hannon. Sheets unbound, and with tissue guards, laid loose as issued in two green cloth clamshell portfolios with recessed, tipped-in etching. ONE OF 20 COPIES, this is copy number 1. "The design for the book was done in collaboration with the artists. Debbie Smith set the type by computer. Owasso Graphic Arts etched the type-high plates which were printed on a Vandercook 2832 letterpress by Hoopsnake Press. William Wiley made his drawings on copper plates which were etched by Tim Bell. Additional drawings and alterations were done on photo-sensitive plates. All of the edition printing and etchings was done by master printer Paul Wenzel at Flying Horse Editions. The boxes are linen over board with a Lana paper liner. These were designed and constructed by Larry Cooper to fit the printed folios. Each book is numbered… Read More

Göttingen: Steidl, 2010. A fine copy, the book safe characteristically a bit worn (a strategically anonymous hiding place). Oblong 4to (10 x 14 inch) book safe, containing 4to volume (11 x 8.5 inches). Linen-backed printed wrappers; housed in a book-safe (J.H. Parry, 'Romance of the Sea', Washington: National Geographic Society, 1981). SIGNED LIMITED FIRST EDITION, one of 300 copies housed in a unique book-safe, signed by Soth and his alter ego Lester B. Morrison, and with a signed and numbered Soth photograph and booklet, 'Liberation Billford Manifest'. This copy numbered 114 of 300. Each of the book-safes are unique, and were cut by hand. According to Soth's Little Brown Mushroom website: "Created over four years (2006-2010), Alec Soth's newest book represents a significant departure from his previous publications. Entitled ‘Broken Manual,' Soth investigates the places in which people retreat to escape civilization. Soth photographs monks, survivalists, hermits and runaways, but this isn't a… Read More

Ottawa: The National Gallery of Canada, 1975. Internally fine, binding fresh, bright and solid; the jacket with a closed 1/2-in tear on the rear panel, small losses at ends of spine panel and along joints, a few indentations on front panel. The jacket is 2mm too tall, hence the rolling along the upper edge. Generally a very attractive copy of this beautifully designed book. 11 x 9 inches. xv, 319 pages. Profusely illustrated in black-and-white. Text in parallel English and French. Original cloth; printed dust jacket. First edition, first printing, the preferred cloth issue. With the scarce single-sheet errata laid-in at end. This is the only catalogue raisonne of Judd's sculpture (and was the first produced by the National Gallery), completely detailing provenance, exhibition history and bibliography. It was prepared by the curator Brydon Smith both as an exhibition catalogue and catalogue raisonne, listing a total of 355 paintings, objects, and wood-blocks made between 1 August 1960 when Judd moved… Read More

London: Heinemann, 1943. From the Bart Auerbach Collection. Spine and portion of front cover faded, the latter also spotted. 8vo. Original dark blue cloth. First edition. A dedication copy "To Hugh ['Binkie'] Beaumont, the play's producer, inscribed by the playwright on the front free endpaper: "For Hugh from Noel Coward." (...all Noel's plays had been presented in England since 1939 [and through the war years] by H. M. Tennent Ltd. [which] was exemplified in the attractive, persuasive, amusingly talkative person of Binkie' Beaumont. Violent and occasional business flare-ups excepted, Noel and Binkie were more than friends: they were the deepest, closest cronies..." (Cole Lesley, 'Remembered Laughter: The Life of Noel Coward', NY, 1976, p. 287). It was Beaumont who had persuaded Coward to return to the stage to act in a trio of plays - This Happy Breed was one - after the latter's nervous breakdown in 1937. Another dedication copy to Beaumont of This Happy Breed was in the sale of Masterpieces of… Read More

New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1944. From the Bart Auerbach Collection. Cloth spine darkened, slight wear at ends of spine and at lower fore-corner; jacket with an inch by half-inch piece chipped from top of spine area, smaller piece chopped from top edge of front panel. Actually a very good copy. 8vo. Original cloth; printed dust jacket. First edition. The dedication copy, inscribed by Porter to her favorite nephew Paul Porter, Jr. under the printed dedication (which reads "To Corporal Harrison Paul Porter, Jr.): "To Paul in France this copy of his Wartime book. Son of Paul, grand-son of Harry, great-grandson of The Source, The Nephew of Miranda and Maria; and I made Charles Upton [the principal character in the title story] a painter on your account. You see how I had you in my mind and my heart! Aunt Katherine Anne, September 15, 1944." On the copyright page Porter has added "Published September 14, 1944." The dedicatee was the member of the Porter family for whom Katherine Anne had the greatest… Read More

Manuscript title as above and 21 pen-and-ink and wash drawings, each mounted onto a page within an album, most with manuscript captions and ink borders, most signed with initials within the image. 4to. Canada, New York and elsewhere: July 1892. Contemporary half morocco and cloth boards, marbled endpapers, Boston stationery and account bookseller label on the front pastedown. Frederick Edward Walton (1834-1928) was a successful British manufacturer noted as the inventor of Linoleum. On this summer trip, Walton visited Niagara Falls, islands along the St. Lawrence, the Adirondacks and Lake Champlain. Noted as an art collector, Walton's drawings are highly accomplished for an amateur. The drawings present here are titled (image sizes are approximate): 1) The American Fall (8 x 4 inches) 2) Horse Shoe Fall (4 x 8 inches) 3) American Fall (7-1/2 x 4-1/8 inches) 4) The Thousand Islands (3-7/8 x 7-1/8 inches) 5) The Sentinel (4 x 3-1/2 inches) 6) Lotus Island (3-1/2 x 5 inches) 7) Lake of the Thousand… Read More

Norfolk, CT: New Directions, 1946. Some toning and occasional soiling to the jackets (and a few pale stains), a few small chips, overall a very good plus set, vol. 2 with unobtrusive ownership signature. 5 volumes, 8vo. A complete set of Williams' epic poem, each volume in original printed dust jacket. First editions, volume one boldly signed by Williams in an early hand. "I started to make trips to the area. I walked around the streets; I went on Sundays in summer when the people were using the park, and I listened to their conversation as much as I could. I saw whatever they did, and made it part of the poem..." - Williams. Paterson is Williams' great long-form documentary work. It not only redefined subject matter, but prosody - Williams worked on it for years before finalizing the first volume, continually refining his use of the line outside of conventional meter. Its scale and its scope, and the fact that it was published in individual volumes over a long period of time (and not collected… Read More

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1927. A very well-preserved set, the first volume with losses to the glassine, but other volumes well-preserved and clean, light wear to edges of slipcases. 28 volumes, 8vo. Original cloth; glassine; publisher's slipcases with paper labels. Limited edition, number 924 of 1050 sets for America of the Atlantic Edition, signed by Wells in the first volume.

London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1927. Generally a fine, well-preserved set. 28 volumes, 8vo. Original red cloth, gilt-lettered on spines, top edges gilt, others uncut. Limited edition, number 531 of 520 sets for Great Britain of the Atlantic Edition, signed in volume one by Wells.

Washington, D.C.: Gales and Seaton, 1823. Volume xi, no. 3396. 1823. Bound with 127 issues of the paper 8 July to 31 December 1823. Large folio, 4pp. (20 3/8 x 15 1/4 in.), printed five columns to the page, decorative masthead at top of page 1, Monroe's message with American eagle woodcut at head. Disbound, spine defective, occasionally minor fraying, but internally in fine condition. FIRST NEWSPAPER PRINTING OF THE MONROE DOCTRINE, IN THE QUASI-OFFICIAL Daily National Intelligencer. Monroe's historic message to Congress of 2 December 1823 (here occupying 6 columns on pages 2 and 3) enshrined as national policy principles suggested by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, condemning European intervention in the Americas and prohibiting all efforts at colonization. Monroe proclaimed that "The American continents, by the free and independent condition they have assumed and maintained, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers," and that any such… Read More

Paris: Jean Villette, 1734. 8vo (185 x 120 mm). 51 (of 59) etched plates, including frontispiece and one folding plate (tape repaired). (Lacks 8 plates, one blank margin with large chip, occasional minor soiling.) Contemporary French calf gilt (rebacked preserving original spine, new endpapers). Provenance: Four pages of early manuscript notes on rear endpages. The Edward Tufte copy, with book label Second edition. Although he was a dancer, Rameau is best known as the author of two important treatises. His first, Le maitre a danser, was originally published in 1725 and reissued in 1734. It is today considered one of the most eminent sources for the study and reconstruction of eighteenth-century dance technique. Part one focuses on the appropriate manner of walking, feet positions, and bows, and it describes a large vocabulary of steps. In 1728, English dancing master and writer John Essex (ca 1680-1744) translated Rameau's work into English as The Dancing-Master: or, The Art of Dancing Explained.… Read More