Search Results: Authors starting with V from James Arsenault & Company

Washington D.C.: J. & G. S. Gideon, 1845. 8vo, printed self-wrappers. 24 pp., 14 wood engravings. Likely the first publication of the standardized Morse code-the first widely used modern data code. First Edition. This important pamphlet was published by Alfred Vail (1807-1859) after the successful test of a Congressionally approved experimental telegraph line spanning from Baltimore to Washington D.C. On 24 May 1844, Samuel F. B. Morse (1791-1872) transmitted the momentous first telegraph message-"What hath God wrought?"-through the telegraph line, using the version of "Morse code" that later became standardized in both America and Canada. On the receiving end was Vail, Morse's associate in developing the telegraph. Having worked with Morse since 1837, Vail imported letters and special characters into Morse's original experimental numeric code (which was based on optical telegraph codes) such that it could be used more generally. Vail is credited for having created the most useful and efficient… Read More

182 Regent St. W., London: The Van der Weyde Light, [ca. 1880]. Cabinet card photograph, 5.75" x 4.25" on 6.6" x 4.25" gray paperboard mount, gilt photographer's name and address on mount below photo, title in black below photo; stamp reads "The VanderWeyde Light." CONDITION: Good, some speckling. A handsome cabinet card portrait of Buffalo Bill by a notable English photographer. Posed in a studio setting against a painted landscape backdrop, the famed wild west showman wears his trademark buckskin jacket, sports an unusually large belt buckle, and holds a riding crop. This is one of at least two different photographs of Buffalo Bill taken by Van der Weyde during Cody's first tour of England in 1887. "When Buffalo Billy Cody came on the first of his three visits to the United Kingdom in April 1887, the furore he created was unprecedented. Thousands lined the streets when the exhibition made its way to Earl's Court and on its opening night 28,000 people were there to see the splendour that was Colonel… Read More

Boston: B. B. Russell, 1881. Hardcover. Original burgundy cloth, title in black and gilt emblem of the State of Maine on upper cover. 96 pp., numerous illus., 2 tipped-in prospectuses, 12 blank leaves of ruled paper for subscriber names, 3 mounted binding samples on paste-downs. Salesman's dummy, consisting of a representation of contents with three binding samples mounted to the front and rear paste-downs. Not in Arbour/Zinman. CONDITION: Good, bit of chipping to head and foot of spine, some discoloration.

71-79 Otsego Street, Brooklyn, N. Y., [ca 1912]. 18 mo (16 cm) brochure, printed black wrappers with cutout revealing image of a knight with red and gilt highlights on first page. 7 leaves including 1 color illus., 6 pp. text, 4 full-page reproduced photos, 2 pp. of mounted paint chips, (24 in all) 1 chromolithograph; green borders surround text and illus. A paint specimen brochure for Keystona flat wall finish, a combination of paint and varnish, that "unlike white lead and wall paper, has a permanent sanitary influence when and where applied." The fighting image of the knight, with blood on his sword and shoulders, three swords pressed against his chest, not able to penetrate, is entitled: "Only one coat necessary." Images from the N. Y. C. New Hoffman House dining room, Berger Manufacturing Co. offices, Toledo Ohio YMCA swimming pool, and Philadelphia Bethany Church interior wall testify to the success of the Keystona product. The full-page color lithograph in brown, green and red with gilt… Read More

Boston: Henry L. Shepard & Co, 1874. 8vo., decorative red cloth, spine and upper cover stamped in gold and black, gilt hippopotamus on upper cover and spine. 190 pp., 20 full page wood-engravings, including frontispiece with tissue guard. Second American Edition. Three Englishman, three Russians and their guide-a bushman named Mokoum-set out to measure the arc of a meridian in the Kalahari Desert and encounter the wild beasts of South Africa and a war between England & Russia.  First published in London under the title Meridiana: The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa (Sampson Low, Marston, Low, & Searle, 1873). An edition for distribution in America consisting of Sampson Low sheets, with a Scribner title page inserted (with mention of Sampson Low) appeared in 1873 as well. The first proper American edition was published by Scribner, Welford and Armstrong, New York in 1874. This second American edition, published by Henry Shepard of Boston, appeared in the same year as… Read More

New York: Cassell Publishing Company,1891. Hardcover. Sm 8vo (8.25" x 5.5"), olive green pictorial cloth, gilt. 377 pp., engraved plates. Early ownership inscription in ink on ffep. CONDITION: Good, rubbed, edges worn, foot of spine fraying, title-page a bit soiled, text toned, one slightly sprung gathering, slight damp-stains at fore-edge. First edition, first state of the large octavo American edition. REFERENCES: Taves & Michaluk V038; Myers 41.

New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1964. Hardcover. Sm. 4to (11 x 7.5"), gray cloth, dj. Decorative endpapers, 80 pp., [4]., numerous color illus. CONDITION: Good +, toned covers and spine, light foxing throughout; dj with 3" open tear at upper left edge of front cover, small tears and chips at extremities.

London: The Nonesuch Press. MCMXXVII [1927]. Hardcover. 12mo (7.5" x 4.75"), quarter parchment, marbled paper over boards. t.e.g., deckled edges. [4], 157 pp., [4], 11 full page and 3 smaller illustrations by Lowinsky. Bookplate of Wyman Parker at front pastedown. CONDITION: Good, spine browned, covers worn with some loss, faint evidence of formerly present label at lower spine. Lacking slipcase. Number 186 of edition limited to 1500 copies. The first Nonesuch Press book illustrated by Thomas Lowinsky. "The Princess of Babylon is the airiest and most charming of all Voltaire's romances. Never, one thinks, was he more aware that he was writing for the fine ladies as well as for philosophers, never are his wit and style more perfect...It is the most fanciful and poetic of his parables and yet it had the true Voltairean tang of malice" (McKitterick 48). Wyman Parker was a librarian at Wesleyan University, librarian at the Bread Loaf School of English, and a collector of fine press books. 

[New York, 1920s.]. 6 illustrations in ink, wash, and gouache, (39 x 37.5 cm to 41 x 62.5 cm, plus margins; 3 signed "Von"; 1 signed "Harold von Schmidt"; 1 signed "C.P.C."; 1 signed "John W. Thomason Jr." Some ms. production notes, captions, etc. on versos and rectos, some indicating the pages and sections of the serialized novel to which the illustrations relate. 1 small reproduction of a larger illus. pasted on its recto (7.5 x 10.5 cm). Six original illustrations for Liberty magazine's serialized publication of the novel The Red Napoleon (1929), an early fictional account of a full-scale Soviet invasion and attempted conquest of the world. The acclaimed war correspondent, journalist and novelist Floyd Gibbons (1887-1939) first published The Red Napoleon in Liberty magazine, which commissioned Harold von Schmidt (1893-1982), among others, to illustrate the serialized publication. The first installment appeared in Liberty on 6 April 1929. In The Red Napoleon, the Red Army attempts to usher in a… Read More