Search Results: Authors starting with D from Downtown Brown Books, ABAA

[Tokyo]: Gaimusho tsushokyoku daisanka, 1920. First Edition. A bilingual pamphlet detailing the origins of and the official Japanese response to the 1913 Alien Land Law passed in California. The law prohibited foreigners who were not eligible to obtain citizenship from purchasing land or entering into leases longer than three years. It applied almost entirely to Asian immigrants, who were barred from becoming naturalized American citizens. This book opens with a brief introduction and the text of the California law, followed by the texts of the official protests made by the Japanese government to officials in Washington, DC, along with the American diplomatic responses. The Japanese protests are refreshingly narrative and detailed rather than legalistic in style. Among the American respondents is William Jennings Bryan, acting in his official capacity as Secretary of State in the Woodrow Wilson administration. 18, [2], 58, [1] (English), 79 (Japanese) pages. OCLC: 835810960 (Waseda); 840108220… Read More

[Tokyo]: Gaimusho tsushokyoku daisanka, 1920. First Edition. A bilingual pamphlet detailing the origins of and the official Japanese response to the 1913 Alien Land Law passed in California. The law prohibited foreigners who were not eligible to obtain citizenship from purchasing land or entering into leases longer than three years. It applied almost entirely to Asian immigrants, who were barred from becoming naturalized American citizens. This book opens with a brief introduction and the text of the California law, and is followed by the texts of the official protests made by the Japanese government to officials in Washington, DC, along with the American diplomatic responses. The Japanese protests are refreshingly narrative rather than legalistic in style. Among the American respondents is William Jennings Bryan, acting in his official capacity as Secretary of State in the Woodrow Wilson administration. 18, [2], 58, [1] (English), 79 (Japanese) pages. OCLC: 835810960 (Waseda); 840108220… Read More

New York: Dana, 1895. Ephemera. Very good. A head-and-shoulder's portrait of the novelist Amelia E. Barr (1831-1919), the author of some 80 books in the late 19th and early 20th century. Barr, née Huddleston, was born in Lancashire, England, and emigrated to the US in 1853. Her first novel was published in 1872. Image, roughly 4 by 5-3/4 inches, on a larger card mount. The back (verso) of the mount promotes the photography technique used, "Carbonette Our 1895 production." A very good contrast image, with dark charcoal tones. The mount has notes in color and regular pencil on the lower front margin as well as various notes on the back (verso).

Brisbane, CA: Trillium Press, 2005. Fine. The numbered edition (100 copies) of Sandow Birk's Divine Comedy, complete in three volumes, with more than 100 signed lithographs bound in, as issued. The artist translated the text with Marcus Sanders and illustrated it after Gustave Doré's well-known 19th century take on Dante's epic literary masterpiece, divided into the standard three books, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Birk is best-known for his re-imagining of classic works in modern American urban environments, and the Divine Comedy is one of his most important projects. In the lithographs that illustrate the text-more than 200 in total, counting smaller unsigned pieces and the full-page signed prints-he cast Los Angeles as Hell (in the book Inferno), San Francisco as Purgatory (Purgatorio), and New York has Heaven (Paradiso). The lithographs were printed by David Salgado on White Arches Cover paper using a ten-ton Mailänder flatbed proof press. The plates were inked four times and then… Read More

Edinburgh and London: Oliver and Boyd, 1938. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. The sequel to the Private Papers of a Bankrupt Bookseller, a very plausible first-hand account of a bookseller in difficult financial straits. The book purports to be papers found after the unlucky booksellers' demise. The author was in fact a member of local government in Scotland at the time the Bankrupt Bookseller books were written. He later went on to be a Member of Parliament and a director of the Royal Bank of Scotland. First edition (issued without a date or a printing statement). A very good or better copy in a very good dust jacket with a bit of chipping to the top of the spine.

New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016. Uncorrected Proof. Mass market paperback. Fine. An advance copy, preceding the first edition, of this novel about mysterious VHS tapes. This advance reading copy is bound as a massmarket-sized book, housed in a plastic VHS case. A clever promotional item. A fine copy in a fine case.

Tuscon, AZ and Santa Clara, CA: University of Arizona Press and the De Saisset Museum, 1986. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. 128 pages. 9 by 11 inches. Introduction by James L. Enyeart. A survey of Dater's work, including many self portraits. First edition (first printing). Very good in a very good dust jacket with short tears at the spine ends. Some foxing to page edges. Inscribed, "For David, Judy Dater. 6-15-88.

Calcutta: Government of India Press, 1952. First Edition. Information on "a number of useful drugs of the indigenous materia medica" derived from leaves, with reports and plates documenting microscopic analysis. Includes entries on tea, tobacco, coca, cannabis sativa, digitalis, etc. Government of India, Ministry of Health, Pharmacognosy Laboratory Bulletin No. 2. vi, 124 pages. 7 by 10 inches. 51 half-tone plates, most reproducing four photographs of plant specimens, plus a folding map, "Distribution of Leaf Drug-Yielding Plants in India." First edition (first printing). Very good in the publisher's half-leather binding stamped in gilt on the spine. Several small wormholes penetrate the entire book.

Santa Fe: Twin Palms, 1998. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/Near fine. Black and white gravure photographs of youth culture in Brooklyn in the late 1950's. One of four thousand casebound copies. 100 pages. 10 by 11-1/4 inches. First edition (first printing stated). A near fine copy in a near fine dust jacket. Bottom edge dented; there is a bit of creasing in the upper margin of the last 12 or so pages (all text, no images), probably a production flaw and the dust jacket has some shelf wear, mostly on the back panel.

Auckland, New Zealand / Akarana: Printed at the "Aotearoa" Office for the Native People / He mea ta i te Perehi o nga Iwi Maori (no. 1) and Printed at the "Recorder" Office / I tala ki a Aotearoa, ki te perehi Maori (no. 2), 1862. The January 1861 and January 1862 issues of this English-Maori periodical (all published). 24 and 32 pages. 5-1/4 by 8-1/4 inches. The imprint and title varies between issues. Title headed by woodcut in issue one. Charles Oliver Bond Davis (1817-1887), was born in Australia to Irish immigrants and moved to New Zealand about 1830. There he learned Maori and became quite fluent. He became an advocate for the Maori with the national government and published several books and periodicals in an attempt to bridge the cultural gap between the native Maori and the British settlers and their descendants. Aotearoa, titled with the Maori name for New Zealand, was one such effort. The contents are not simply text in Maori with English translations and vice versa, there are also… Read More

Auckland, New Zealand / Akarana: Printed at the "Aotearoa" Office for the Native People / He mea ta i te Perehi o nga Iwi Maori (no. 1) and Printed at the "Recorder" Office / I tala ki a Aotearoa, ki te perehi Maori (no. 2), 1862. The January 1861 and January 1862 issues of this English-Maori periodical (all published). 24 and 32 pages. 5-1/4 by 8-1/4 inches. The imprint and title varies between issues. Titled headed by woodcut. Charles Oliver Bond Davis (1817-1887), was born in Australia to Irish immigrants and moved to New Zealand about 1830. There he learned Maori and became quite fluent. He became an advocate for the Maori with the national government and published several books and periodicals in an attempt to bridge the cultural gap between the native Maori and the British settlers and their descendants. Aotearoa, titled with the Maori name for New Zealand, was one such effort. The contents are not simply text in Maori with English translations and vice versa, there are also articles written… Read More

New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1986. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/Near fine. The author's first substantial collection of short stories. 177 pages. First edition (first printing stated). A near fine to fine copy in a like dust jacket.

Akarana [Aukland, New Zealand]: Brett, "Evening Starr" Office, 1885. Hardcover. Second edition, revised and expanded, of this collections of hymns, first published in 1873 as "Temperance songs, etc., in the Maori language." The text of this book is devoted to Maori language songs written to the tunes of the hymnal "Sacred Songs and Solos" as well as popular melodies, including "God Save the Queen" (#13), and "The Star-Spangled Banner" (#3). Davis, the son of Irish immigrants to Australia and then New Zealand, learned Maori as a teenager in a Wesleyan missionary settlement. He became a translator for the Maori and published often in their language. These are his songs written with "a sincere desire to ameliorate the moral and social condition of the Maori nation" by encouraging them to temperance and Christianity. viii, 9-88 pages. 4-1/4 by 6-1/2 inches. Bibliography of Printed Maori, 699. OCLC records several copies, but only one in the US. Spine faded, else very good in printed red cloth.… Read More

Minneapolis: Press of Augsburg Publishing House, 1911. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. A "mug book" of the (white male) leaders of the Modern Woodmen of American fraternal order in the early 20th century. Each photograph is accompanied by a short biographical sketch of the person's role in the MWA. Uncommon. 223 pages, including an index. First edition. A very good hardcover copy in the publisher's orignal burgundy cloth binding.

Matanzas, Cuba: Ediciones Vigía, 2006. 173 pages. 7-1/2 by 9-3/4 inches. One of 200 copies. Colección del Estero. An anthology of three books of poems by a Havana poet, photocopied on white paper. Designed and illustrated by Marialva Ríos. Prologue by Roberto Manzano. The cover is assembled from pieces of corrugated paper mounted with collaged paper and a leaf. There are two variant bindings, one with a brown paper border on the covers and one without. OCLC: BNCJM DEIAI EEM FHM FQG FRAFQ FXG GZM IND NDD NOC NYP TJC WCM. Fine. This copy does not have the border.

Houston: Arte Público Press, 1985. First edition. Near fine. 69 pages. An early book of poems by this Texas Chicana writer and publisher. First edition (first printing). A near fine copy in wrappers (paperback).

San Antonio, TX: Wings Press, 2010. First Edition. Pamphlet. Fine. The program of a memorial service for de Hoyos, with a biography and consideration of de Hoyos's poetry by Milligan and an afterword by Carmen Tafolla. Illustrated in color with images of de Hoyos's books, books she published as M & A Editions, and reproductions of her artwork. OCLC locates one copy, at UTSA. 24 pages. First edition. Fine in wrappers.

San Antonio: Wings Press, 2000. First edition. Trade paperback. Very good. 51 pages. One of the winners of the 2000 Premio Poesía Tejana prize honoring new Latina poets from Texas. A bilingual collection of poems, written in Spanish and translated into English by James Hoggard. Published in an edition of 500 signed and numbered copies, the entire print run. First edition (first printing). Very good in wrappers (paperback). Signed by the author on the colophon.

London: Gollancz, 2012. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. The fourth book in the Memory of Flames (dragon) series. First edition (first printing, with a numberline ending in 1). A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. Signed by Deas on the title page. This book is less commonly signed than others in the series.

London: Goldsboro Books / Gollancz, 2009. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. The first book in the Memory of Flames (dragon) series. This is one of 150 numbered copies signed by Deas and housed in a slipcase. First edition (first printing, with a numberline ending in 1). A fine copy in a fine dust jacket and a very near fine slipcase with minor shelfwear. Signed by Deas on the limitation page. This is copy 132 of 150.