Search Results: Authors starting with S from Alembic Rare Books

Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins, 1900]. Tall quarto. Original buff wrappers. 6 doubled-sided greyscale plates and 3 single-sided chromolithographic plates at rear accompanying the Sabin paper. 5 plates, of which 2 are folding, accompanying the Clark paper. The title page and early portion of the Clark paper seem to be lacking, perhaps due to a production error. Wrappers just a little rubbed with some short splits and creasing at the edges. The extreme edges of the contents, particularly at the front, are a little toned and creased with some nicks and short splits. Excellent, fresh condition. Offprint of physician and anatomist Florence Sabin's first major work, undertaken when she was an undergraduate and published the following year as the classic textbook An Atlas of the Medulla and Midbrain. WorldCat locates only four copies of this offprint, at King's College London, Brown University, Washington University St Louis, and the University of Sydney. Sabin was born in 1871, and attended Smith College,… Read More

Paris: Arthus Bertrand, 1824. Hardcover. Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Octavo. Contemporary quarter black skiver, blue boards, spine gilt in compartments. Engraved frontispiece. 1 leaf of publisher's ads at rear. Spine rolled, binding rubbed, spotting and toning of contents, primarily in the margins. A very good copy. First edition, first impression. Author Constance de Salm (1767-1845) was a highly regarded French writer and moral philosopher, and an important member of a circle of leading intellectuals and scientists. Though forgotten for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, she is now the subject of renewed academic interest, providing a window onto the lives and intellectual networks of women in Revolutionary and Napoleonic France. De Salm spent most of her life promoting the equality of women, and her most important work, the poem Épître aux femmes (1797), was a direct attack on the language and social structures that uphold patriarchy, as well as an exhortation to women to liberate… Read More

New York & London: Columbia University Press, 1963. Octavo. Original teal cloth, title to spine in gilt on light blue ground, publisher's logo to upper board in blind. With the dust jacket. 3 plates, illustrations and diagrams within the text. Ownership inscriptions of Henry Guze to the front endpapers. An excellent copy in the jacket that is lightly rubbed and faded along the spine panel, with two short closed tears to the upper panel and light dampstain affecting the lower panel. First edition, first printing and a very attractive copy of this "seminal, comprehensive monograph" by the founders of neuroendocrinology (Ogilvie, Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science, p. 1158). From the library of prominent American psychologist Henry Guze, with his ownership inscription on the front endpapers. "There are very few scientists whose discoveries have marked the advent of a new discipline. Berta Scharrer was one of these pioneers. Her scientific career was crowned with great success. The concept of… Read More

New York: The American Museum of Natural History, 1977. 17-page pamphlet. Original cream wrappers printed in black, wire-stitched. Wrappers very lightly toned around the edges. An excellent copy. First and only edition of this uncommon talk by one of the giants of neuroscience. "There are very few scientists whose discoveries have marked the advent of a new discipline. Berta Scharrer was one of these pioneers. Her scientific career was crowned with great success. The concept of neurosecretion (the storage, synthesis and release of hormones from neurons) developed by Ernst and Berta Scharrer between 1928 and 1937 formed the foundation for contemporary neuroendocrinology... Today we know that secretory nerve cells are widely distributed over the whole nervous system" and "serve to maintain the organism and preserve the species" (Ogilvie, Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science, p. 1158).

Munich: J. F. Schreiber & Deutsche Hochbild-Gesellschaft, c. 1920s. Painted plaster anatomical relief display in wooden frame (240 x 302 mm). Printed paper label to the rear. Housed in the original box with the stamp of the publisher's archive and two handwritten labels - one giving the name of the display and the other reading "F22". Also with the original tissue-covered cotton insert to protect the relief. Some minor spots and scuffs to the frame. Slight damage to the paper backing of the frame not affecting the its integrity. Some wear to the box. Excellent condition. Uncommon, early-20th century anatomical relief of the European lizard species Lacerta agilis (the sand lizard, here called the fence lizard). The publisher's archive copy, in excellent condition in the original box. This relief was one of a series produced for schools, Vergleichende Anatomie der Wirbeltiere (Comparative Anatomy of the Vertebrates), designed by the German behavioural scientist and educational writer Bastian Schmid… Read More

Munich: J. F. Schreiber & Deutsche Hochbild-Gesellschaft, c. 1920s. Painted plaster anatomical relief display in wooden frame (240 x 302 mm). Printed paper label to the rear. Housed in the original box with the stamp of the publisher's archive and two handwritten labels - one giving the name of the display and the other reading "F21". Also with the original tissue-covered cotton insert to protect the relief. A few very minor scratches and spots to the frame. There is some wear to the box and the tissue covering for the cotton padding is torn. Excellent condition. Uncommon, early-20th century anatomical relief of the European frog species Rana esculenta (the common European water frog, or green frog). The publisher's archive copy, in excellent condition in the original box. This relief was one of a series produced for schools, Vergleichende Anatomie der Wirbeltiere (Comparative Anatomy of the Vertebrates), designed by the German behavioural scientist and educational writer Bastian Schmid (1870-1944)… Read More

New York: McGraw-Hill, 1979. Quarto. Original green cloth, title to spine and design to upper board gilt. With the dust jacket. Colour illustrations throughout. A fine copy. First edition, first printing of this key reference on hallucinogenic plants by two leaders of the 20th-century psychedelics movement. Copies in fine condition such as this one are particularly uncommon. Widely considered the founder of modern ethnobotany, Richard Schultes (1915-2001) spent most of his career travelling the Amazon, where he consulted with indigenous people and investigated the plants they used for religious and medicinal purposes. His co-author, Albert Hoffman (1906-2008), was the Swiss chemist who first synthesised LSD and discovered its hallucinogenic effects, and who later isolated psilocybin and psilocin, the primary psychedelic compounds in mushrooms. This volume, copiously illustrated and written for a popular audience, describes the primary species of psychoactive plants and explores their use around the… Read More

New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 1972. Octavo. 32-page offprint, wire-stitched, original white wrappers printed in black. Black and white illustrations from photomicrographs throughout. Orange ink and pencil underlining to two sentences on page 531. Yellow dampstain to the upper wrapper, lighter dampstain affecting the tail of the spine and edges of the wrappers. Minor creasing along the wrapper edges. A very good copy. Presentation copy of a rare offprint by the biochemist who was the first to produce purified tuberculin for use in studying and treating tuberculosis. Inscribed by the author on the upper wrapper, "Best wishes, Florence B. Seibert". In this research paper Seibert investigates the presence of bacteria in tumors and the best methods for isolating and identifying them. Biochemist Florence Seibert (1897-1991) was a productive and highly regarded scientist who worked in a number of areas and received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship. As a postdoctoral fellow at… Read More

Indio, CA: Shields Date Gardens, 1952. 40-page, wire-stitched pamphlet. Original buff wrappers printed in brown and orange with an image of the rising sun over a desert landscape to the upper wrapper and a cartoon of a knight pointing to the Shields farm on the lower wrapper. Illustrated throughout with photographs and maps. Partially erased price and a little light dampstain to the cover. Occasional tiny spots to contents, which are faintly toned. A clean and fresh copy in excellent condition. First edition of this charming tourist booklet promoting the Coachella Valley and Shields Date Gardens, the famous "home of the date shake" on Highway 111 in Indio, California. Date agriculture was introduced to the Coachella Valley when the US Department of Agriculture set up an experimental station in the region in 1904. "In the following decades, crop production grew exponentially, from approximately 100,000 pounds in 1919 to 1 million pounds in 1926, and then by 1955 to 48 million pounds of dates"… Read More

London: printed by order of the trustees of the British Museum, sold by B. Quaritch and at the British Museum (Natural History), 1921. Octavo. Original green cloth over limp boards, titles to spine and British Museum of Natural History roundel to the upper board gilt, double rules to boards blocked in blind. Steel engravings throughout the text. Minor production flaw in the cloth of the upper board, very light rubbing at the tips. An excellent, fresh copy. First edition, first impression and a lovely copy in exceptional condition. Smith (1854-1937) "spent her entire career as a volunteer at the British Museum of Natural History... for although she was trained in botany by Dr. Scott at the Royal College of Sciences, she was unable to choose whether to become a professional or remain an amateur... Since women were not admitted to the museum staff, she had no choice but to work for free if she wanted to work at all. She volunteered to remount a collection of recently purchased microscopical slides, and… Read More

Morrisville, NY: printed at the Madison Observer Office, 1881. Tall octavo. Original brown cloth, titles to upper boar gilt, triple fillets blocked in blind, edges dyed red. White abrasion and speckled dampstain to the upper board, cloth a little rubbed at the extremities with some small nicks at the edges of the boards, contents very faintly toned. A very good copy. First edition of this uncommon catalogue of the Greene Smith Museum of birds and their nests and eggs. Greene Smith (1841-1880) was the son of abolitionist Gerrit Smith and a keen sportsman, amateur taxidermist, and professor of ornithology at Cornell. He founded his museum in Peteroboro, New York in 1863 to house the thousands of specimens of birds, eggs, and nests he had collected – nicknamed the Bird House, it was three stories tall and fitted out with luxuries such as central heating, a mahogany staircase, and marble fixtures, and the collection of hummingbirds alone was estimated to be worth $75,000. Smith died in 1886 while… Read More

London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd., 1932. Octavo. Original burgundy cloth, titles to spine and upper board gilt Frontispiece, illustrations throughout the text. Integral ads for photographic and printing supplies in the front and back matter, 24 separately-paginated pages of publisher's ads at rear. Ownership signature of G. E. Smith to both front endpapers, inked note "no 26" to front free endpaper, library stamp of the Sun Engraving Co. of Watford to the front free endpaper and the rear pastedown. Spine rolled and a little toned, text block slightly shaken, some small marks and spots to the cloth, small nick and crease in the edge of the title page and the following leaf. Very good condition. First edition, first impression of this technical guide to printing from photographs, co-authored by the pioneering bird photographer and conservationist Emma Louise Turner (1867-1940). Turner became interested in wildlife photography after meeting Richard Kearton in 1900. She joined the Royal Photographic… Read More

[Edinburgh], June 1848. Lithograph (print 115 x 182 mm; sheet 277 x 384 mm). Conservation mounted, framed and glazed using archival materials. Professionally cleaned using archival methods but with some faint spots remaining, short closed tear at the right edge archivally repaired. Excellent condition. A rare and evocative lithograph of the Great Comet of 1843 as seen from the Cape of Good Hope, observed and, most unusually, also lithographed by the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Charles Piazzi Smyth (1819-1900). Copies of this print are exceptionally scarce, with none recorded in COPAC, WorldCat, or auction records. Given that the paper was never published, it seems unlikely that more than a handful were produced. Smyth was born to well-connected British parents in Naples, his father being a naval officer and respected amateur astronomer, and his mother the daughter of the British Consul to the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Smyth's godfather was the famous Sicilian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi, from… Read More

[Edinburgh], June 1848. Lithograph (print 190 x 264 mm; sheet 277 x 384 mm). Professionally mounted, framed and glazed using archival materials. The printed captions have been amended in pencil, in a contemporary hand, to record that the prints were "del & lith" - drawn and lithographed - by "CPS". Professionally cleaned using archival methods but with some faint spots remaining, some light creasing and four short closed tears at the bottom edge of the sheet which have been archivally repaired, another short closed tear at the upper edge with the same treatment, none affecting the image. Miniscule pinprick at the top left and lower right corners of the lithograph Very good condition. A rare and evocative lithograph of the zodiacal light as seen from the Breede River in South Africa, observed and, most unusually, lithographed by the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Charles Piazzi Smyth (1819-1900). Smyth's print was "the first attempt to furnish a realistic depiction of this elusive feature" of the… Read More

London: Croom Helm, 1977. Octavo. Original black boards, titles to spine gilt. With the dust jacket. An excellent copy in the lightly rubbed an toned jacket with a few small marks and spots. First edition, first impression of the key bibliography of Stopes' phenomenal literary output, encompassing not only her family planning and scientific publications, but also poetry, plays, translations and travel writing, fairy tales, and her only novel.