Ask the Dust by Fante, John & Bukowski, Charles (Preface) - 1980

Geneva: Apud Eustache Vignon, 1596.. Hardcover. Good. Thick quarto. Four volumes bound in one. With no separate title-pages to volumes II-IV. I: [iv]ff., 436cols.; II: 958cols.; III: 636cols.; IV: 714cols.; Index and Privilege - 40ff. I: 4, A4-O4, P2; II : aa8-zz8, Aa8-Gg8; III: a8-v8; IV: Aa8-Yy8, Zz4 ; Index & Privilege: A8-E8. Last leaf, E8, is blank and lacking. Engraved title-page. In a contemporary vellum binding.

London: Brandbury & Evans, 1857. 1st. Paperback. Very Good. W. M. Thackeray. 1857-59. The original twenty-four numbered parts in the original yellow wrappers in publisher's crushed morocco solander case. Illustrated yellow paper covers, with the fourty-eight etched plates and woodcut vignettes in the text, all after drawings by the author; the original yellow pictorial wrappers a little soiled and frayed, otherwise very good condition.

London: James R. Osgood McIlvaine, 1891.. Small quarto. Gilt green cloth backed cream cloth over boards, elaborately decorated in gilt and red. Plates, illustrations and decorated endsheets. Binding a bit darkened, with some pale discolorations at edge, 1895 ownership signature on preliminary blank, corners a trifle worn, the plates by Shannon somewhat faded (as usual) but still legible, a few small nicks and a short tear to the edges of the front free endsheet but a good, sound copy, a few leaves unopened. First edition. Design, illustrations and decorations by C. Ricketts and C. Shannon, with plates by the latter. One of one thousand copies printed. Mason/Millard gives an account of the circumstances which led to the faint state of the Shannon plates. Contains four short stories: "The Young King" (which first appeared in THE LADY'S PICTORIAL, Christmas Number, 1888), "The Birthday of the Infanta" (which first appeared in PARIS ILLUSTRÉ, March 30, 1889), "The Fisherman and His Soul," and "The… Read More

London: The Society of Bibliophiles. Near Fine. 1898. First Edition Thus. Hardcover. A handsome binding in red morocco with 5 spine bands over red marbled boards. Gilt decoration & lettering. Top edges gilt. Matching marbled endpapers. This is copy "C" of a limited edition of 26 with text printed on Japanese vellum paper. There is a triplicate set of each illustration: Aquarelle, Tint and Japanese Proof. Each illustration is protected by a labeled tissue guard. Vol #1: [xii, 402pp, 10 illus]. Vol #2: [6, 376pp, 6 illus]. Vol 3; [6, 404pp, 10 illus]. Vol # 4: [6, 318pp, 6 illus]. Vol # 1 is VG+ with light rubbing to spine top & corners. Vols #2 - 4 are near fine. Wikipedia: "First published in a single volume in 1555, THE FACETIOUS NIGHTS OF STRAPAROLA is a collection of 75 stories by Italian author and fairy-tale collector Giovanni Francesco Straparola. Modeled after Boccaccio's Decameron, it is significant as often being called the first European storybook to… Read More

Longmans, Green, and Co. London and Bombay. 1902. FIRST EDITION. Colonial Issue. 8vo. (7.4 x 5.3 inches). Illustrated with sixteen mono plates by Sidney Paget. Tisue guard to the frontispiece. A few of the plates are bound in different places than listed on the contents page but all are present. 4 pages of publishers adverts for the colonial library at the rear of the book. The text and illustrations are fine, clean and bright throughout and look unread. Publishers decorative green cloth which has dark blue illustration to the front board and spine. Gilt lettering to the spine. Decorative light blue and white floral endpapers with ship and swan designs. There are a couple of small closed tears to the spine and the cloth is a bit rubbed and bumped and has a few small marks but is generally in very good condition with the gilt on the spine still quite bright. Previous owner's small typed name label on the plain verso of the front free endpaper, reading H. B. Rattray. This is almost certainly Captain… Read More

New York. Aflred A. Knopf. 1935. Gilt titled and embossed black cloth. 12mo. 1st U.S. Edition. Signed by Mann on flyleaf. A Fine copy in the rare dustwrapper. Flyleaf has been trimmed short at bottom edge. Very mild chipping to headpiece of dustwrapper and some very light soiling to rear panel. An innocuous 2" inch ink stamp stating " Autographed Copy " appears at the very upper right edge of the dustwrapper 's front panel. A bright crisp unmarred signed copy of this Mann title in a Very Good original and very scarce dustwrapper. A Jewel.

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936 BOTH VOLUMES IN FINE CONDITION. With Dust Jackets in Near Fine Condition protected in mylar jackets. The New York Edition. Bindings & hinges tight. NO LABELS, INSCRIPTIONS, NOR MARKINGS. The dust jackets show light edge wear/small chips to upper edge of spine area.

Allahabad: A. H. Wheeler & Co, 1891. First (Indian) edition. Front flyleaf with two small chips, original wrappers with minor fading, binding about fine. First (Indian) edition. 8vo. 4 leaves, 108p, 7 leaves of advertisements including "Opinions of the Press" (Both Livingston and Stewart list 5 leaves of ads). Original grey-green printed wrappers bound in; advertisements inside both covers. Bound by the Club Bindery in 1901 in full dark blue crushed morocco with marbled endpapers, a.e.g., the covers with panels formed of two sets of triple gilt rules with corner ornaments, the spine with gilt titles and densely gilt panels, fancy dentelles. "Indian Railway Library, No. XIV" with imprint at bottom of p. 108: "Printed at the 'Pioneer' Press, Allahabad." Livingston calls this the second edition, after the suppressed edition of which only three copies were to be kept after the remainder were destroyed. With a tipped-in SIGNATURE of Kipling. From the library of Rudolph August Witthaus (1846-1915… Read More

Steinbeck, John. The Long Valley. New York: Viking Press, 1938. First Printing of the First US Edition. First Printing. A Near Fine copy with the usual age darkening to the front pastedown in a Very Good plus unclipped dust jacket with gentle wear to the extremities, and a short closed edge tear at the head of the spine. A collectible copy of this collection of classic Steinbeck fiction. This volume of stories collected with the encouragement of his longtime editor Pascal Covici serves as a wonderful introduction to the work of Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck. Set in the beautiful Salinas Valley of California, where simple people farm the land and struggle to find a place for themselves in the world, these stories reflect Steinbeck's characteristic interests: the tensions between town and country, laborers and owners, past and present. Included here are the O. Henry Prize-winning story "The Murder"; "The Chrysanthemums," perhaps Steinbeck's most challenging story, both personally and artistically;… Read More

London.: Oriental Translation Fund.. 1st thus.. 1829.. 2 volumes. Volume I: black & white frontispiece "Fac-simile of the Title-Page to Haoukewchuen, or the Fortunate Union". A further page with borders decorated and printed in blue announce: Oriental Translation Fund Instituted 1828 under the patronage of His Most Gracious Majesty George the Fourth and states that 'This copy was printed for the Most Noble the Marquess of Anglesey, A subscriber to the Oriental Translation Fund.' Some foxing preliminary leaves, one gathering loosening. xxiv + 258pp and errata. Volume II: Frontispiece map showing "the Route of the Embassy in 1816 from Peking to Tengchang Foo along the Grand Canal", vi + 262pp, appendix and bound together with 31pp 'Report of the Proceedings of the Second General Meeting of the Subscribers to the Oriental Translation Fund with the Prospectus, A list of the Oriental Translation Committee, a Report of the Committee and Regulations and a List of Works in the Press. Generally very clean… Read More