Rare books from Veery Books

N.P.: N.I., N.D. [1979?]. Offset lithograph poster. [27¾ x 21 inches]. Wear to edges, pinholes on corners, Very Good. The photograph is the work of Susan Meiselas, credited on the poster. "Ocultando su identidad detras de su mascaras tradicionales, nativos del rebelde barrio Monimbo de en Masaya, preparan bombas de contacto para combatir el ejercito de la Dictadura, durante la Guerra de Liberacion." (Foto de Susan Meiselas) Rough translation: Nicaragua a country that discovers itself: Inturismo. Hiding their identity behind their traditional masks, natives of the rebel Monimbo neighborhood in Masaya, prepare contact bombs to combat the army of the Dictatorship, during the War of Liberation." Appears at first glance to be a tourism poster, but is seemingly an ironic parody of such. One of a series wryly praising colonial architecture and other similarly inappropriate national artifacts. Meiselas's image appeared on the cover of The New York Times Magazine on June 30, 1978 as seen here, and is… Read More

150 pp. 36 plates, some with full-page details, numerous figures, some in color. Nine pages of 3.5- x 2.5-inch thumbs reproducing more than 60 pages of ms. Prison notes. Folio [14.75 x 14 inches]; VG/F. Matte black dust jacket makes a good impression however shows minor rubbing and bumping easily, else fine. Foreword and acknowledgements—Kimberly Rorschach and Jock Reynolds; Preface—Robert Rosenkranz; Palimpsest: nearby Mu Xin—Alexandra Munroe; Landscape painting at the end of time—Richard M. Barnhart; Mu Xin and twentieth-century Chinese painting—Jonathan Hay; Reading Mu Xin: an exile without a past—Wu Hung; Tower within a tower: Landscape paintings, Prison notes [Mu Xin]; Passages from the Prison notes—translated by Toming Jun Liu; A dialogue with Mu Xin—Toming Jun Liu; Mu Xin: an annotated bibliography. The 33 landscape paintings and the prison notes were produced in the late 1970s during the Cultural Revolution in China while he was imprisoned and then under house arrest. "Mu Xin… Read More

New York, N.Y. (115 W. Broadway): Artists Poster Committee, 1984. With Union burst. Poster, lithography on clay paper. [22½ x 35 inches], VG or better. Light rippling throughout. On the left, one clean tear of ~3 inches, may be mended. Some light chipping to ink at edges and similar light edge wear. "On August 11, 1984, President Ronald Reagan was preparing for his weekly radio address on National Public Radio. During a soundcheck he said, 'My fellow Americans I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.' The audio was subsequently leaked. Despite making a joke about nuclear genocide, Reagan was reelected by a landslide a few months later."—Exhibition Annotation: Center for the Study of Political Graphics. Worldcat.org finds one copy at the University of Michigan and one at MoMA and none in trade. All posters are presently stored between acid free boards, flat, under weight. They will be shipped rolled, in tubes.

Facsimile of the composer's manuscript of the full conductor's score of the opera. Plate number 122941. Ricordi's blind stamp to the first pages indicates that the score was printed in October, 1933. Elegant paper-covered boards with recessed paper label. Previous owner's stamp on ffep. Light wear to extremities of binding. A beautiful and important manuscript facsimile difficult to find in the market at this time. In the middle of the night, witches swap children in their cribs. The witches replace the fat, healthy son of "the mother with the king's sickly child. The child taken as the king's and living in luxury struggles to find happiness and in the end escapes to the country where he is near his mother. "Devo esser creduta! Anche Dio non si vede e si crede! E chi ora ride certo non vide il mio bambino com'era.""I must be believed! Even God is not seen and believed! And whoever laughs now certainly did not see my baby as he was. "

15 black line print (diazotype) leaves [22⅜ x 11³⁄₁₆ inches], folded in half to form four parts (I Violin, 1–6 pp.; II Violin [1], 2–7; Viola [1], 2–7; Violoncello [1], 2–6, [7]). The parts are in very good condition, with little discoloration or soiling. A couple of creases, signs of paper clip rust.
Randall Thompson is probably best-known among choristers. His "Alleluia" for a cappella chorus has extraordinary popularity and is performed often. Unlike Handel's Hallelujah, Thompson's is quiet and expansive, evoking solemn contemplation.
"The Wind in the Willows" for string quartet was composed in the second year of Thompson's residence at the American Academy in Rome. The three movements were written in February and March and the quartet was premiered by the Quartetto Veneziano on March 15, 1925.
The string quartet is complete in three movements: I = River bank, 2 = Toad, Esq., 3 = The Wild Wood. In notes for a performance at the Boston Public Library by the Musical Arts… Read More

[i], 2-5, [vi (blank)] 12.5 x 9.75 inches. Still supple, general foxing and chipping and tearing. A travesty of "La Marseillaise" in that the position of Blackmar's name on the first page indicates that Blackmar is the composer. Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle composed "La Marseillaise," originally called "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin," in 1792. Perhaps the title page, which indicates that the music in hand is an arrangement by Ferdinand Beyer of the French song, serves to cover up the interior title, "The Southern Marseillaise." After all, "The Bonnie Blue Flag" a Blackmur publication, was so popular that after New Orleans was captured by Butler in 1862 "he threatened to fine every man, woman or child who sang, whistled, or played it on any instrument, $25.00. He arrested and jailed A. E. Blackmar, fined him $500.00, and had his troops destroy the plates and printed music."—Powell. A travesty? Lyrics such as "With needy, starving mobs surrounded / The jealous, blind fanatics dare / To offer… Read More

xxviii, 470 pp. Large 8°, [9¼ x 6½], Quarter leather with gilt stamped spine and alligator skin–like paper-covered boards. Nice indigo speckling on textblock edges. Light wear with some sunning at top of boards and a bit of wear on corners. Interior clean, little if any foxing, and a few marginalia in pencil. Plates are present ("Avec 5 planches dont 4 en Chromo et 80 Figures dans le Texte."), but plates don't appear to be bound in the correct places. Also, margins on plates appear tight. Still very good with a nice look. The author claims that the league of enemies of grape production herein is not exhaustive, "la liste des parasites, animaux ou végétaux, qui s'attaquent ànos récoltes augmente d'année en année, but the orders of Hémiptères, Lépidoptères, Névroptères, Orthoptères, Coléoptères, Hyménoptères inclusive of 90 species are described here. It is a wonder that there are any grapes left for wine.

175 pp. First edition, first printing. A clean, near fine volume price-clipped at the top although the price ($75) is found at the bottom of the front flap. Previous owner signed and dated (1968) on the half title. The dust jacket was torn completely from top to bottom of the spine, then stored folded within the book. The tear has since been repaired with japan paper to be practically unnoticeable from the outside. The crease on the front is visible, and is now protected in an archival wrap, but doesn't really detract from the stunning effect of the presentation. The interior is about fine. The reproduction of the art was done at Triton Press in New York, typography by Rudolf Ruzicka. Union Camp Corporation printed the engraved plates in Englewood, New Jersey, Robert Clive is responsible for the layout. The paper is University Text, cover fabric Bolton Buckram, and the book was bound by A, Horowitz & Son in Clifton, New Jersey. Fine crafting still making a good impression.

Davis, Calif.: Composer/Performer Edition, 1968. Very Good. 50, [51-52] pp. 28 × 35 cm. Includes vinyl recordings. Source Record One and Source Record Two, as issued in paper sleeves as pp. 3-4 and 23-24. PO Sig to cover, general wear to edges of covers and comb cutouts and surfaces of wraps. The slipcase for Record One has been neatly repaired with black library book tape, there welded to the paper. Disk One is in it's white paper sleeve and appears fine. Disk Two lacks the original white paper sleeve, but also appears unplayed. Record One, Side A has Robert Ashley—"The Wolfman." Side B is David Behrman's "Wave Train." Record Two, Side A is Larry Austin's Accidents, Side B, Allan Bryant's Pitch Off. Issue 4 is particularly prized among collector because it contains two recordings. Printed contents: 1. Robert Ashley's "Wolfman," instructions for performance. 2. Mario Bertoncini's a mio padre: Cifre, per pianoforti, uno piu esecutori, with a one page fold-out graphic score for one or more pianos.… Read More

172 pp. Plate number 757-. Vocal score, blue wraps with dark-blue type. Quarto, 9 x 12 in. Very Good with little wear to covers. Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein 2nd. Adapted from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Tales of the South Pacific." First performed at the Majestic Theater, New York, April 7, 1949. Laid in, a program booklet (9 x 12, b&w photos) featuring the performance by Mary Martin and Ray Middleton, so an exemplar from between June 1950 and July 1951. Also laid in, from the May 1950 Cosmopolitan, an article by John Bartlow Martin.

[i-vi,1]-111,[112-121] pp. Octavo, fine/near fine; though the dj appears to be price clipped, the price stamp of the National Theatre Bookshop in London appears just there. Carefully annotated theater programs, annotated by Gielgud from the age of 13 to 21, were saved by his mother and donated to the Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson Theatre Collection. Gielgud adds comments 70 years later. Generously illustrated throughout with photos of the programs and of the productions, perhaps more than 150 photos. Produced to celebrate his 90th birthday. Inscribed by Gielgud in May, 1994, and shortly after by Dave & Matt to Dr. T. (composer Millard Thomson).

16 pp. Small octavo. VG/VG. Book is fine, but for a 1-inch stain/abrasion on the front board. DJ has two small tears repaired at top of spine and a tiny (1 mm) chip at bottom of back panel. All over, a very nice impression. Inscribed by Copland in 1953 in Providence, Rhode Island, to Millard Thomson, a composer and professor at Brown. Thomson's bookplate opposite inscription. The book preserves the six Charles Eliot Norton Lectures delivered at Harvard University in May 1952 substantially as they were given. The first three lectures treat the musical mind as listener, interpreter, or creator; the remaining three discuss "the imaginative mind in the music of Europe and America."

35 pp. small folio, (10.75 x 13.25 in.). Black-line (diazotype) folded leaves bound with cloth tape. Probably dates to the late thirties. Songs in an unknown professional scribal hand. Lyrics and additional verses in typescript, some songs with notes regarding singers and sources. To my knowledge, these songs were never published except in this form.

Six volumes unpag. (about 28 pp. per book, most pages with illus.) Square 8vo (8.25 x 7.5 in.) The 6 volumes, near fine, with vg to fine djs. Pirates and Mikado are price clipped. Bindings are sturdy and illustrated like the dust jackets. Printed in Great Britain. "Anne and Janet Grahame Johnstone are twin siters and live and work in London, near Royal Albert Hall and Kensington Gardens. . . . They work very closely together. Both plan the general scheme of a book, then Anne puts in the figures and Janet draws backgrounds, animals and birds (she has a special fondness for warthogs, 'most decorative animals')."

42 pp. black line print (diazotype; one side) folded to form a score with 42 pages, secured with original paper tape on spine. Titled "Quartetto de Cordas (No 1)," a copy of a fair manuscript of Villa Lobos's first string quartet. Very good with no marking and little if any soiling, with typical tanning of paper and fading of image. Supposedly composed in 1915 and revised in 1946. Originally composed in Friburgo, Brazil, and performed by the Quarteto de Friburgo in 1915. The 1915 version may have had only three movements. Villa Lobos my have recreated the original quartet and added three more movements in 1946 (see Peppercorn and Tarasti). This diazo is a copy of a fair copy of the six movements, probably created in 1946, with the signature of the copyist below the final bar line. On p. 1, below Villa-Lobos's name on this copyist put, "Friburgo 1915." The score as it appears here has six movements. "Cantilena" (Andante); "Brincadeira" (Allegretto scherzando); "Canto lírico" (Moderato); "Cançoneta"… Read More