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

(New York): The Macmillan Company, 1970. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/near fine. First U.S. edition, first printing, octavo size, 221 pp. signed by Maurice Chevalier. Perhaps one of the best-known French actors of the first half of the 20th century, Maurice Chevalier (1888-1972) was nominated for the Academy Award in 1930 for Best Actor for his roles in "The Love Parade" (1929) and "The Big Pond" (1930), which secured his first big American hit, "Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight" (N.B., from Wiki). ___DESCRIPTION: Bound in sky blue cloth, gilt lettering on the front and spine, plain endpapers, M. Chevalier's signature boldly written with in blue on the front free endpaper, one section of black and white photographs bound in; octavo size (8.5" by 5.75"), pagination: [1-6] 7-221. The dust jacket shows the original price of $5.95, pictorial head shot of M. Chevalier with red and white lettering on the front panel and spine, quotes from the book on the back panel, summary of book on… Read More

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1956. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/very good. Sendak, Maurice. First printing, large octavo size, [22] pp., with dust jacket. Ruth Ida Krauss (1901-1993), renowned author of children's literature, is perhaps best remembered for "The Carrot Seed" (published 1945, included in Loker, "A Shimmer of Joy", pp. 148-149) and "A Hole is to Dig" (published 1952); the latter title was a collaboration between Krauss and Sendak, as is this volume. Illustrated by Maurice Sendak (1928-2012), a children's book author and illustrator best known for the enduring story "Where the Wild Things Are" (published 1964), among almost countless others. Sendak's illustrations have a charming magic in their depiction of childhood and its joys. This work a scarce Sendak book, as of this writing we see only one other copy online. While not overtly stated, one can find an anti-racist message in the story: "I'll make a house the kind I dream about not the kind I see. It's a house like a… Read More

Basauri: (Grafilur, Impresion y Encuadernacion (Printing and Binding), 1990. Hardcover. Fine/Very Good Minus. Ibarrola, Agustin. Quarto size, 118 pp., inscribed by Agustin Ibarrola, in Spanish and Basque. A catalogue of an exhibit of the work of Spanish Basque painter and sculptor Agustin Ibarrola (b. 1930), known for his work expressing commitment to both social and environmental issues; laid into the book is a photograph, presumably taken by the prior owner, of Ibarrola's "Painted Forest" with the date of March, 1998. Inscribed by artist "A Suzanne mi abrago (?) / Ibarrola" in blue ink on the copyright page. ___DESCRIPTION: Quarter black cloth with heavy cardboard covers, black endpapers, title page information in silver lettering on the front free endpaper, followed by a full-colour portrait of the artist in front of his work, copyright info on the verso with author's inscription in blue ink; chapters divided by black paper with cut-outs, samples of his work reproduced in full-colour, some… Read More

[Oakland]: Chez Log Press [printed and bound by Dorothy Yule at the Eucalyptus Press], 1988. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Fine. No. 14 of 40 copies, duodecimo size, 24 pp. Ken Chowder has scripted over 25 documentary films (and one feature film) broadcast on PBS, NBC, TBS, Discovery, A & E, and BBC, and has published three novels to glittering reviews. His credits include seven films for PBS' The American Experience, one American Masters,and seven National Geographic films. Ken also writes short stories; his awards for short fiction include: Winner, O. Henry Prize; Winner, NEA-PEN award (twice); Runner-up, Nelson Algren Award; Winner, Pushcart Prize; and Winner, FICTION NETWORK competition (n.b., information from the web site of Ken Chowder). The title for this lovely little story, "Ice Flower", is explained on the second page of the story: " 'You could always begin here,' Pia says. I don't quite hear her; I'm looking past her, toward the patterns the ice has made on the windows: 'isblomster', the… Read More

New York: Harper & Row, 1990. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/very good +. First US edition, first printings, large octavo size, approx. 1200 total pp. Fernand Braudel (1902-1985), French scholar and historian, envisioned this to be a longer work; it remained unfinished at the time of his death. He "emphasized the role of large-scale socioeconomic factors in the making and writing of history" and "can also be considered one of the precursors of world-systems theory" (n.b., quotes from Wiki). ___DESCRIPTION: Both volumes bound in full cloth over boards, Vol. 1 in blue and Vol. 2 in red with gilt lettering on the spines, a few black-and-white maps and charts bound throughout both volumes; large octavo size (9 1/2" by 6 1/4"), Vol. 1 with approx. 432 pp. and Vol. 2 with approx. 781 pp. Illustrated dust jackets with summaries on the front flaps, author bios on back flaps, original price for both volumes at the top of the front flaps. ___CONDITION: Volumes fine overall, with clean boards (other than a… Read More

Princeton, New Jersey: The Giovanni Agnelli Foundation Series in Italian History, Princeton University Press, 1995. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/fine. First printing, large octavo size, 276 pp. From DJ flap: "Anyone intersted in the entire sweep of political thought over the last hundred years will find in Norberto Bobbio's 'Ideological Profile of Twentieth-Century Italy' a masterful, thought-provoking guide..." ___DESCRIPTION: Bound in full green cloth over boards, gilt and ivory lettering stamped onto the spine; large octavo size (9.5" by 6.25"), pagination: [i-v] vi-xxxviii [1, Preface] [1, blank] [1, Translator's Note] [1, blank] [1-3] 4-239. Publisher's dust jacket unclipped (although without a printed price), publisher's ads on back panel, summary of book on front flap, short author bio on back flap. ___CONDITION: Volume 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… Read More

New York: International Publishers, 1947. Hardcover. Fine/Good+. Octavo size, 346 pp. Per Wikipedia, "Christopher Caudwell was the pseudonym of Christopher St John Sprigg (20 October 1907 - 13 February 1937), a British Marxist writer, literary critic, intellectual and activist..published The Crisis of Physics in 1936... According to Marxist historian Helena Sheehan, Caudwell became interested in Marxism in 1934 and began to study it with "extraordinary intensity". In the summer of 1935, he wrote [Illusion and Reality] his first Marxist book...According to the socialist magazine Monthly Review, Caudwell on 12 February 1937 "was killed by fascists in the valley of Jarama during the Spanish Civil War. He died at a machine gun post, guarding the retreat of his comrades in the British Battalion of the International Brigade. The Marxist historian E. P. Thompson wrote of Caudwell, "It is not difficult to see Caudwell as a phenomenon - as an extraordinary shooting-star crossing England's empirical night -… Read More

n.p.: Sea Cliff Press, 1986. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Fine. No. 133 of 220 copies, octavo size, 23 pp., signed by James Merrill. James Merrill (1926-1995), known as one of the leading poets of his generation, won nearly every major award for poetry - including two National Book Awards, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry awarded by the Library of Congress, and the Bollingen Prize in Poetry and the Pulitzer Prize. Praised for his stylish elegance, moral sensibilities, and transformation of autobiographical moments into deep and complex meditations, Merrill's work spans genres, including plays and prose, but the bulk of his artistic expression can be found in his poetry (n.b., from Poetry Foundation web site). ___DESCRIPTION: Full linen cloth over boards, paper onlay mounted onto front board with a reproduction of an etching of St. Anthony with title above and author below the image, title page in green and black; Bembo type on Saunders paper, octavo size… Read More

n.p.: Margaret Shepherd, 1977. Limited Edition. No binding. Fine. One of 200 copies, broadside, inscribed by Margaret Shepherd. Margaret Shepherd is a prominent artist and teacher of calligraphy, with a career spanning forty-five years; Shepherd has published numerous books about the history of calligraphy and correspondence, as well as instructional books on the art form itself, and has taught classes and workshops at the Rhode Island School of Design and Stanford University, among others (n. b., from the website of Margaret Shepherd). This broadside features her elegant lettering, with the large "T" foil-stamped, the text printed by photo-offset, depicting a quote from Albert Einstein; per the artist, about 200 were printed and were used as gifts and professional examples, with "a few sold occasionally". ___DESCRIPTION: Broadside with photo-offset printed red and black calligraphy, with a large initial "T" decorated wtih an acorn and oak leaf embossed and foil stamped in gilt, bottom edge… Read More

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/near fine. First printing, octavo size, 755 pp. The examination by John Barrell, Professor of English, University of York, on the three years following the execution of Louis XVI and its consequences upon those in Britain. Barrell "shows how the law of treason was adapted in the years following Louis's death to punish what was acknowledged to be a 'modern' form of treason unheard of when the [then-current] law had been framed" (n.b., from jacket flap). ___DESCRIPTION: Bound in full navy blue cloth over boards, gilt lettering and rules stamped onto the spine, a few black-and-white illustrations bound in throughout, replete with footnotes; large octavo size (9 3/8" by 6 3/8"), pagination: [i-vii] viii-xvii [1, blank] [1] 2-737. In a pictorial dust jacket, unclipped (albeit unpriced), publisher's listing of other titles on the back panel, summary of book on the front flap, short author bio and picture on the back flap..… Read More

San Francisco: [Grabhorn Press], 1931. No binding. Near fine. One of 400 copies, folio size, [4] pp. A list of "Important Printing Dates" broken into the following headings: Gutenberg to Aitken 1455-1782; Western Printing 1822-1834; Mexican Press at Monterey 1831-1834, Boston Press at Monterey 1834-1845, and California Press 1845-1931. The piece could just as easily have been titled: "The History of Printing from Gutenberg to the Grabhorn Press", as the list opens with the Gutenberg Bible and closes with the Grabhorn Press's "The Bible of the Revolution". John Howell commissioned the Grabhorns to print two versions of this (of "approximately" 200 copies each); one for presentation to the California Historical Society, and the other (this example) for presentation "to the Members and Guests of the Western Division of the American Bookseller's Association at the Third Annual Convention, St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco, April 25, 1931". Scarce in the marketplace, with no copies online as of this… Read More

Hamburg: Hirundo Press, 1998. First and Limited Edition. Folio in a case. Fine. Saltzwedel, Caroline. First edition in book form, number 10 of 25 copies, elephant folio size, [56] pp., signed by Robert Crawford and Caroline Saltzwedel. The first artists' book published by Hirundo Press. The text of "Impossibility" was first published on 18 September 1997 in the "London Review of Books", this is the first illustrated edition published in book form. Caroline Saltzwedel, born in England, has lived in Hamburg since 1995 as a graphic artist and painter. She studied German at the Universities of Durham, Oxford and Bonn, and printed graphics at the Ruskin School of Fine Art, Oxford. In 1998 she founded the Hirundo Press for artists' books in small editions; her works are in numerous public and private collections including the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, the British Library, the Bodleian Library, Stanford University, and the Widener Library (Harvard) among many others. Robert Crawford is a Scottish… Read More

(London): The Golden Cockerel Press, 1960. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. Petts, John. One of 100 special copies, octavo size, 28 pp., in slipcase. We cannot do better than to set forth here the comments in Cock-a-Hoop: "Cynwal was a sixteeth century poet, a serious man who was more vexed than amused by the widely circulated satire 'Against Women'. Skirmishes of wit between the sexes were all the fashion at this time, and the earnest Cynwal rushed to take arms in love's 'merry war', penning this somewhat over zealous panegyric on feminine good nature..." (Cock-a-Hoop, p. 43). This one of the 100 special copies bound in full leather by Hiscox and with one extra engraving, in the publisher's slipcase. ___DESCRIPTION: Bound in full blue morocco with gilt decoration on the front board, gilt lettering on the spine, top edge gilt, colour frontis, colour title page, plus nine colour wood-engravings bound in throughout; octavo size (9" by 4 5/8"), pagination: [1-4] 5-28, limited edition, this no.… Read More

[San Francisco]: [Robert Grabhorn & Andrew Hoyem for the Roxburghe Club of San Francisco, 1969], 1969. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. One of 150 copies, elephant folio size, 22 pp. A tribute to the incomparable Edwin Grabhorn, who, with his brother Robert, created some of the loveliest of American private press books during the first half of the twentieth century. This tribute was printed for the Roxburghe Club of San Francisco, and the essay by David Magee focuses on the contribution to the Club by the Grabhorns, as well as sharing something of the spirit of the man. "Ed was a modest man. He once described himself to an interviewer as 'just another job printer trying to get by'. Even when the American Institute of Graphic Arts invited him to New York to receive its gold medal, he declined" (from David Magee's essay). Embellished with two tipped-in black and white photographic images (by Marjorie Farquhar) of Edwin Grabhorn at the Press, and eight tipped-in original leaves from various… Read More

[Carrollton OH]: Press on Scroll Road [Bob Baris], 2006. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Fine. One of 54 copies, folio size, 51 pp., with prospectus and two ANS from the Press. This volume, "In Time and Place", includes the essays/poems "Marshall Washer", "The Value of Money", and "Green Fields", each of which explores the theme of farms and those who work them. Another wonderful publication by the Press on Scroll Road, the imprint of Bob Baris. In one of the ANS included with this volume, Baris relates the Press' beginnings: "...for almost as long as I can remember all I've ever wanted to do is keep a small farm and print authors & things that I most like, that I respond to, on a handpress. One morning, not so long ago, I awoke, saying to myself, you can't spend the rest of your life not doing these things..." Scarce in the marketplace; as of this writing we see no copies online; our search of OCLC located sixteen copies, leaving only thirty-eight for private ownership. ___DESCRIPTION: Bound in… Read More

[Winona, Minnesota]: Privately Printed [printed and bound by C. Mikal Oness at Sutton Hoo Press], 2001. Limited Edition. Stitched Binding. Fine. One of 50 copies with this binding, duodecimo size, 45 unnumbered pp. This book of poetry by Herbert Scott entitled "In the Palm of Space" is the Thanksgiving 2001 release from the Sutton Hoo Press. Herbert Scott (1931-2006) was a poet and the founding editor of New Issues Press; this poem demonstrates his delicately lyrical style, through the windings of a long poem broken into many short stanzas. ___DESCRIPTION: Brown, green, and yellow marbled paper boards, with the naked spine sewn into handmade paper case tabs pulled to the outside of the boards, fore-edge uncut; Lutetia italic type, Somerset paper, duodecimo size (6.75" by 4.25"), pagination: 45 unnumbered pages, one of 50 copies bound in this way, of a total of 126 copies printed. ___CONDITION: Volume is fine; with a strong, square text block, solid hinges, straight corners with no rubbing, the… Read More

San Francisco: A. M. Robertson (Philopolis Press), 1909. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Good +. No. 2 of 500, duodecimo size, 47 pp. Written by American meteorologist Alexander McAdie (1863-1943), who made many advances in the field of meteorology and was also in charge of the U.S. Weather Bureau in San Francisco from 1903 to 1913, this volume contains three essays reprinted from "Philopolis" magazine, a publication printed by Arthur and Lucia Mathews at their press, the Philopolis Press. The book also contains a reproduction of a painting by Lucia K. Mathews, who, along with her husband Arthur F. Mathews (1860-1945), was one of the founders of the Arts and Crafts Movement in America; the Mathews were a husband-and-wife team of artists and designers and had a significant influence on the art in California at the beginning of the twentieth century. ___DESCRIPTION: Full white paper, illustration of a flower in gilt on the front board, red leather spine label with gilt rules and lettering, fore- and… Read More

London: J.M. Dent & Co, 1907. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/very good +. Rackham, Arthur. First trade edition with additional Rackham illustrations on enlarged paper, quarto size, 568 pp., in original dust jacket. This book was first published in 1898 with only twelve illustrations, this being the first trade edition of the newly enlarged version of 1907, which had many new illustrations. British illustrator Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) is credited with renewing interest in book illustration at a vital moment of advances in printing technology. The subtle colours and thin feral lines were unlike anything that had come before, as if plucked from the fog of a wild imagination, breathing new life into the whole of children's book illustration. The somewhat grotesque quality of Rackham's figures are perfectly suited for the metrical myths, legends, and ghost stories written by Richard Harris Barham (1788-1845), an English clergyman who is best known by his pen name Thomas Ingoldsby. ___DESCRIPTION:… Read More

New York: [Printed by the De Vinne Press], 1904. First and Limited Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Elephant folio size, one of 350 copies (unnumbered), presentation copy, inscribed in 1923 by Archer M. Huntington. Archer M[ilton] Huntington (1870-1955) was a lifelong friend of the arts and philanthropist; known for his scholarly works in the field of Hispanic Studies, he founded The Hispanic Society of America in New York City; his cousin, Henry E. Huntington, founded the renowned Huntington Library in California. This volume was presented by the author in 1923 to Elijah Clarence Hills (1867-1932), a Professor in Florida and Colorado and a prolific author of Spanish-related books. The inscription is on Mr. Huntington's calling card, with "Mr." being crossed out, as follows: "To my friend E.C. Hills / with the high regard & / admiration of (printed name, Archer Huntington) / 1923". The calling card is tipped onto the front pastedown directly beneath Mr. Hills' elegant bookplate. This work was… Read More

n.p., 1988. Fine. Ink sketch, signed "R. Crumb" with the date of [19]88. Image measures 8" by 7", framed to 15.75" by 13.75" A unique work of art, and to our knowledge never published. This original ink sketch of Bukowski by R. Crumb links one of the "preeminant underground cartoonist with one of the preeminent writers of his time, whose work provided a link between the Beat generation and the 1960s counterculture and beyond." "Crumb worked with Bukowski several times in the 1980s, illustrating two short books, 'Bring Me Your Love' and 'There's No Business', that were published by John Martin's Black Sparrow Press. Around the same time, Crumb produced three writers' portraits - Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs - for a series of posters (and later t-shirts) entitled 'Meet the Beats,' published by Water Row press. This portrait of Bukowski was reported to its previous owner as having been prepared for a second round of author portrait posters, but was never used" (n.b., quotes… Read More