Search Results: Titles starting with E from Swan's Fine Books

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1971. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/near fine. First printing, octavo size, 319 pp., inscribed by Cecelia Holland. Cecelia Holland (b. 1943) has written, to date, over twenty historical novels which span both the globe and time. In addition, she has authored a multitude of other fictional series, as well as short stories, children's books, and non-fiction. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1981-1982. This work, "The Earl", her sixth published historical novel, is set in the middle of the twelfth century. The story follows an Anglo-Norman Earl who struggles to maintain his loyalties during "The Anarchy" following the death of Henry I of England. Note that we have several other volumes of Holland's historical fiction, many of them signed; if you are searching for a particular title, please do let us know. ___DESCRIPTION: Bound in full gold cloth over boards boards, the title debossed in gilt on the front board, lettering debossed in gilt on the spine, red… Read More

Los Angeles: Glen Dawson, 1954. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. Most volumes stated edition size of 200, volumes 1 through 20 (continuous), duodecimo size, approx. 1600 pp. total, with two pieces of related ephemera. Per the check-list, "The Early California Travels Series is a set of small volumes relating to the history of California printed by a number of different California printers." The list of printers is indeed impressive, making this Series fascinating both for its subject matter and the representation of printers it provides. This offering includes Volumes 1 through 20 (continuous); the authors, titles, and printers included are: I: Coulter, Thomas. "Notes on Upper California, A Journey from Monterey to the Colorado River in 1832", printed by William M. Cheney in 1951; II: Dye, Job Francis. "Recollections of a Pioneer 1830-1852, Rocky Mountains, New Mexico, California", printed by the Toyo Printing Company in 1951; III: Netrel Le, St. Edmond; Wagner, Blanche Collet (Translator).… Read More

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1925. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. No. 131 of 250 copies, octavo size, 538 pp., signed by Yeats. William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) is acknowledged by many as "supreme among modern Irish poets". He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923 (the first Irish to be so recognized), at which time he was "one of Dublin's great established figures, both in his own right and as the representative of the cultural renaissance which...had set in motion the Irish revolution and war of independence." Throughout his life, and throughout his poetry - which is still read and loved today - Yeats is recognized as supremely Irish, with his life and poetry reflective of his Irish identity. "Early Poems and Stories", published in 1925, was issued in a binding uniform with "Later Poems". It "contains a collection of poems and stories from the late 1880s and early 1890s. During this period Yeats was a young struggling poet impressed by the tales and myths of the Celtic… Read More

[San Francisco]: The San Francisco Club of Printing House Craftsmen, 1949. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/near fine. First printing, miniature book, 66 pp. A short essay on early California printing by San Francisco bookbinder and typographer, Herbert Fahey. This work was the genesis for his later important book published by The Book Club of Califronia, "Early Printing in California", in 1956. Dedicated to the Thiriteth Annual Convention of The International Association of Printing House Craftsmen, Inc., with the title page designed by Haywood Hunt. Herbert (1894-1959) and Edna Peter (1897-1974) Fahey opened their workshop (out of their home) in San Francisco, in 1935, upon their return from a European tour. During the four years of travel they studied with master binder Ignaz Wiemeler in Germany for six months; in France, with several binders for two years including Mlle. M. Morin-Pons; and in London with Douglas Cockerell and Thomas Harrison. After only a year they realized that bookbinding was… Read More

London: Verso, 2006. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Near fine. First edition in book form, first printing, octavo size, 399 pp. From the jacket flap: "In this commanding survey of the world economy from 1950 to the present,a revised and newly introduced edition of his acclaimed New Left Review special report, he [Brenner] charts the turbulent post-war history of the global system and unearths the mechanism of over-production and over-competition which lie behind its long-term crisis since the early 1970's. He thereby demonstrates the thoroughly systematic factors behind wage repression, high unemployment and unequal development, and raises disturbing and far-reaching questions about the global economy's future trajectory." Initially published by the "New Left Review" in 1998, this publication with updated graphs and tables. ___DESCRIPTION: Bound in black cloth over boards, silver lettering stamped on spine, numerous black and white charts and graphs throughout; octavo size (9 3/8" x 6 1/8"),… Read More

Portland, Oregon: Graphic Arts Workshop, 1958. Limited Edition. No binding. Very good. No. 32 of 50 copies, quarto size, ten loose sheets, signed by Kenneth Hanson on the colophon sheet, with typescript showing hand-written edits. The poetry of Kenneth O. Hanson (1922-2003) has been celebrated for its frankness and raw approach to the real, to the collected experiences of the everyday; Hanson received the Theodore Roethke Award, a Fulbright Grant, and two grants from the National Endowment of the Arts for his work, and in addition to poetry, he translated classical Chinese poetry into English. These eight poems are some of Hanson's earlier work, before the publication of his first book in 1966; the poems are loosely held in a paper folio, offering an immediate intimacy and simplicity that befits the gentle language. Included also are six pages of typescript of the poems in this set; the poem "On a Dead Cat in Mexico" has hand-written corrections in blue pen, presumably by the poet, as the corrected… Read More

New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1874. Limp cloth. Very good. Octavo size, 287 pp. Part III only of a four-volume work, this can be used as a stand-alone volume for the topic. Illustrations throughout and one chromolithograph (opposite p. 638). ___DESCRIPTION: Bound in bull brown cloth over cardstock covers, black lettering and designs on the front, back with designs in blind, yellow coated endpapers; octavo size (8 3/4" by 6 1/4"), pagination: [i-v] vi-viii [505] 506-783 (pagination continous from prior volume). ___CONDITION: A very good copy, the cloth mostly clean with a few light spots of soiling, straight corners with minimal rubbing, a strong, square text block with solid hinges, and the interior is clean and bright; prior owner markings include two private Ex-Libris plates on the front pastedown endpaper (one mounted on top of the other), light pencil notations on the top corner of the front free endpaper, light pencilled notations to the Contents pages with a few scattered light pencil… Read More

Hamburg: Hirundo Press, 2007. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Fine. Saltzwedel, Caroline. No. 4 of 10 bound sets, total edition 25 (plus 2 Artist's Proof and 1 HC), elephant folio size, with 12 etchings, each numbered and signed by the artist, text in German. Caroline Saltzwedel, born in England, has lived in Hamburg since 1995 as a graphic artist and painter; in 1998 she founded the Hirundo Press for artists' books in small editions. Her works are in numerous public and private collections including the Bodleian Library, Stanford University, and the Widener Library (Harvard) among many others. Caroline's works are often paired with original, new works of poetry or are based on mythological or other classical figures. This work was inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832); as Caroline wrote regarding this work, "The Four Elements of ancient mythology have been a timeless source of inspiration to painters and poets alike- not least Goethe, whose West-ostlicher Divan [West-Eastern Divan] is… Read More

New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Third Printing. Hardcover. Fine. Four volumes, quarto size, 2216 total pp. An English language reference work devoted to "aesthetics", using a definition of aesthetics as "critical reflection on art, culture, and nature." The encyclopedia includes over 600 essays arranged alphabetically, covering about 400 individuals, concepts, periods, theories, issues and movements in the history of aesthetics; beginning with "Abhinavagupta" and ending with "Frank Lloyd Wright" and "Zhuangzi", with entries as diverse as "Ugly" or "Jazz". An essential reference for students of art and design belonging to a wide range of concentrations, with the work having been created to enable those engaged in the different disciplines to "articulate their perspectives on the field, thereby fostering dialogue and, where possible, constructing common ground without imposing consensus". The entries, contributed by well over 350 highly regarded writers in each field, read more as essays,… Read More

Orinda, California: Donna Day Westerman, N.D.. Limited Edition. Stiff wraps. fine. Westerman, Donna Day. Number 16 of 20, tall, thin quarto size, five folded leaves, signed by the artist. Limited edition, number 16 of 20. Donna Day Westerman is a printmaker and painter in the Bay Area of California. [She is] "interested in traditional and historical media — particularly, woodcuts, wood-engravings and egg tempera — used in a contemporary manner. Working from close observation, and occasionally referring to [her] own photographs, [she] conceptually reduce[s] realistic nature to calligraphic or glyph-like notations. A kind of erasure takes place as the visual abundance... is distilled into the essence of the place. Other senses, such as sound and touch often inform the visual... A challenge... has been to capture the powerful ephemeral forms of fog and water in the hard-edged medium of wood... the medium itself determines much of the outcome." (N.B., "Artist's Statement" from web site of the… Read More

San Francisco: The Press in Tuscany Alley, 1994. First and Limited Edition. Hardcover. Fine. One of 75 copies (unnumbered), elephant folio size, 156 pp., with numerous specimens in a custom box, with prospectus and "El Paso keepsake", signed by James Linden. A tour de force of the ephemeral printing of the inimitable Adrian Wilson who, with his wife Joyce Lancaster Wilson, produced some of the finest and interesting private press work in San Francisco during the second half of the 20th century. The Press in Tuscany Alley was one of San Francisco's small private press jewels. Adrian Wilson (1924-1988) was both a book designer and a scholar, authoring "The Design of Books" which is regarded as a classic text on book design. As the New York Times stated in his obituary: "Mr. Wilson designed and printed scores of books, and became a mentor to younger men and women eager to learn the printer's craft. His many volumes, while little-known to the general public, are famous among print connoisseurs, and… Read More

New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/fine. First printing, octavo size, 598 pp. From dust jacket flap: "A wide-ranging study that illuminates the connection between epidemic deseases and societal change, from the Black Death to Ebola". ___DESCRIPTION: Bound in full grey paper over boards, silver lettering on the spine, black-and-white photographs scattered throughout; octavo size (9.5" by 6.25"), pagination: [i-vii] viii-xvi, 1-582. In the publisher's dust jacket, artwork on the front panel from a 1912 depiction of "Cholera", summary of book on front flap, author picture and short bio on rear flap. ___CONDITION: Fine, with clean boards, straight corners without rubbing, a strong, square text block with solid hinges, the interior is clean and bright, and entirely free of prior owner markings; as new. Dust jacket fine overall, not price-clipped (but without a printed price), with minimal edgewear. ___POSTAGE: International customers, please note that additional… Read More

La Paz, Bolivia: Escuela Tipografica Salesiana, 1945. First Edition. Softcover. Very good. Octavo size, 125 pp., with two typescript letters, all are signed/inscribed by Franz Tamayo. Text in Spanish. A collection of poems by Bolivian poet, philosopher and politician Franz Tamayo (1879-1956); the Franz Tamayo Province is named after him. Tamayo is considered one of the most important modernist or "modernismo" poets of Latin America, along with others such as Oscar Cerruto, Gregorio Reynolds and Ricardo Jaimes Freyre. He was fascinated by Greco-Roman literature, idealized European culture, and strongly opposed Hispanic culture, rejecting indigenous ethnicity as base; concepts which continue to influence Bolivian thought. Despite his dubiously demagogic political rationale, his contribution to Bolivian poetry is undeniable, especially regarding his "Nuevos Rubaiyat" and the present volume, considered among his finest work. This copy is inscribed to his lady friend, Marina Montenegro de Geddes, and… Read More

[Montagnola]: Officina Bodoni, 1924. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. One of 225 copies, unnumbered, folio size, 24 pp., in French. Written by Frederick the Great (1712-1786), king of Prussia from 1740 until his death, this letter contemplates suicide as an alternative to surrendering in battle; the king had just experienced a devastating defeat at Kolin during the Seven Years' War, as well as the death of his beloved mother (per Mardersteig). The epistle, written to his close friend Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens (1704-1771), is a poignant examination of heartfelt and human desperation. Printed by the Officinia Bodoni, a highly-regarded private press owned and operated by Giovanni Mardersteig (1892-1977), the book exhibits a gorgeous binding of vellum and paste-paper, with intricate patterns carved into the deep blue paper; the Press was known for its superb standard in printing and bookmaking, often doing commission work for other publishers, such as the Limited Editions Club and… Read More

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1924. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. No. 9 of 250 copies, octavo size, 548 pp., with the slipcase, signed by Yeats. William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) is acknowledged by many as "supreme among modern Irish poets". He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923 (the first Irish to be so recognized), at which time he was "one of Dublin's great established figures, both in his own right and as the representative of the cultural renaissance which...had set in motion the Irish revolution and war of independence." Throughout his life, and throughout his poetry - which is still read and loved today - Yeats is recognized as supremely Irish, with his life and poetry reflective of his Irish identity. "Essays" is the fourth volume of the Macmillan "Collected Edition" of Yeats' work. The essays included are: "Ideas of Good and Evil", "The Cutting of an Agate", and "Per Amica Silentia Lunae", all of which are divided into sections, and most of them with some… Read More

London: Printed for I.&F., Rivington, B. Law, et al., 1775. Leather bound. Very good. Duodecimo size, 254 pp. Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) authored many of the favourite novels of the eighteenth century, including "The Vicar of Wakefield", "The Deserted Village", and "She Stoops to Conquer". While not widely read today, these stories continued to have an affect upon authors and artists through the twentieth century. This work, a collection of Goldsmith's essays, was first published in 1765, with two additional essays having been added in the 1766 second edition. In the Preface, Goldsmith's humour and mastery of the English language shine through, giving promise to what might be found in these Essays, regardless of his self-deprecating wit. This volume with the Ex-Libris of "R.H. Isham", quite possibly Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Heyward Isham (1890-1955), who served in the British army during WWI. Isham was an avid collector of the papers of James Boswell, which he would later privately publish in… Read More

New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/very good +. First printings of this publication, three volumes, octavo size, approx. 1430 pp. Adeline Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) needs no introduction, the founder with her husband Leonard of the Hogarth Press and, with her brother's friends, one of the original members of the Bloomsbury Group. Many of her works have remained popular including "A Room of One's Own", "Mrs. Dalloway", "To the Lighthouse", and "Orlando". Her "Essays" have been reprinted numerous times, usually in an edition of six volumes. Per the jacket flap of Volume Two, this publication was also planned to be six volumes; however, per Wiki, the most recent volume published was Volume Four (1994), and we see no copies of this volume online. Hopefully the editor and publisher will one day complete the set, for as stated on the jacket flap of Volume One, "[t]his is the initial volume in a projected series that will bring into print all her known nonfiction… Read More

New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976. Hardcover. Fine/very good +. Octavo size, 864 pp. Irving Howe is Distinguished Professor of English at Hunter College of the City Uinversity of New York. This is his authoritative one-volume anthology of major socialist writings...The selections included are crucial texts in the development of socialist thought... (n.b., from dust jacket flap). Chapters include important socialist thinkers such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky among many others. ___DESCRIPTION: Bound in full black cloth over boards, gilt lettering stamped on spine; octavo size 8 1/4" x 5 1/4", pagination [i-xiv] 1-850. In publishers dust jacket with red and black lettering, unclipped but also unpriced. ___CONDITION: Volume is fine overall, with clean boards, straight corners without rubbing, a strong, square text block with solid hinges, the interior is clean and bright, and entirely free of prior owner markings; a very slight veritical crease in the spine (from having… Read More

New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/near fine. First printing, quarto size, 528 pp. From the dustjacket flap: "Weaving together titanic concepts while remaining sensitive to specifics, [Barry] Cunliffe has produced an interdisciplinary tour de force. His is a bold book of exceptional scholarship, erudite and engaging, and it heralds an entirely new understanding of Old Europe." ___DESCRIPTION: Bound in green textured paper over boards, gold lettering stamped onto spine, yellow endpapers, book is replete with both colour and black-and-white photographs and maps; quarto size (9 7/8" by 7 5/8"), pagination: [i-vi] vii-ix [1, blank] 1-518. Dust jacket is unclipped and unpriced, illustration on the front panel, summary of book on both flaps and review blurbs on the rear panel. ___CONDITION: Volume is fine overall, with clean boards, straight corners without rubbing, a strong, square text block with solid hinges, the interior is clean and bright, and entirely free of… Read More

Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag, 2002. Hardcover. Very good. Octavo size, two volume set, 1396 pp., all text in German. A European history of music in two volumes, all text in German. ___DESCRIPTION: Bound in maroon paper over boards, illustration on front cover and smaller one on spine with title printed in white, summary of book bulleted on back cover, replete with both black and white and color illustrations; octavo size (9 3/5" x 6 4/5"), pagination: Vol I [1-8] 9-665 [3 pages of advertisements]; Vol II [669-679] 680-1392 [4 pages of advertisements]. Maroon slipcase with color illustrations on front and rear and white printed lettering on three sides. ___CONDITION: A solid very good set, with clean boards, two corners slightly bumped with the others perfectly straight, all without rubbing, strong, square text blocks with solid hinges, the interiors clean and bright, and entirely free of prior owner markings; the aforementioned two bumped corners, light bumping to the head and tails of the spines,… Read More