Search Results: Titles starting with M from Whitmore Rare Books

San Francisco: Arion Press, 1997. First Thus. Fine. Publisher's cloth binding in Fine condition. Limited to 250 numbered copies, signed by Jim Dine, this being copy number 180. Quarto (12 1/4 x 8 3/4 in; 311 x 220 mm). Complete, including one photogravure by Jim Dine. Originally appearing in The Atlantic Monthly in March 1873, James' The Madonna of the future was hailed as a masterpiece. The narrative of two gentlemen discussing art, life and deferred fame over cigars following a dinner has here been reimagined by photographer Jim Dine. Fine.

New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1912. First edition. Near Fine. Original red publisher's cloth binding with bright gilt and a bit of sunning to the spine. Lacking the scarce jacket. Internally clean and unmarked with the exception of an early ownership signature to front pastedown. Retaining the two page publisher's adverts at rear featuring "New Books Primarily for Women." First appearance in book form, following the four-part serial in The Saturday Evening Post (The Bittner Stories). Scarce on the market, Monroe's semi-autobiographical novel was one of several that gave young women a role model who could inspire their own career ambitions. Anne Shannon Monroe enjoyed a successful career in advertising as well as publishing. The author of magazine fiction and non-fiction, she became most popular for writing self-help pieces in Good Housekeeping. The present novel, dedicated to her mother and written in the first-person, draws on Monroe's experiences; the result is a lively and interesting… Read More

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1930. First edition. Near Fine. A solid Nearly Fine copy of Hammett's masterpiece, lacking the original dust jacket. Spine just minutely toned, otherwise very bright and fresh. Hammett's classic hard-boiled detective tale, which would go on to influence countless others in the genre. The story features the first appearance of Sam Spade - a character Hammett referred to as a man with "no original" - and was initially serialized in the classic pulp magazine Black Mask before it was published in book form. Hammett was inspired by his own work as a detective, which is thought to have contributed to Hammett's lauded realism. Famed mystery author, Raymond Chandler, said of the work: "If you can show me 20 books written approximately 20 years back that have as much guts and life now, I'll eat them between slices of Edmund Wilson's head." The Maltese Falcon also inspired numerous films, including the 1941 noir classic of the same name, (which Variety called "one of the best… Read More

London: Jonathan Cape, 1965. First edition. Near Fine/Near Fine. First impression, second state binding without the gilt gun to the upper board. A Nearly Fine copy in like dust jacket priced 18s net, and retaining its bright colors. Previous owner's names and address on the verso of the front free end paper, and a small bookseller's ticket removed from the lower edge of the front paste-down. Published a year after Ian Fleming's death, The Man with the Golden Gun is the final James Bond novel written by its original creator. Fleming's health rapidly decreased while writing the book and though he finished a draft of the novel in 1964, he never fully re-worked it. After Fleming's death, the novel was published in the U.K. and then serialized in The Daily Express and Playboy. Ironically, in this novel, Bond is presumed dead before returning to London. He's been brainwashed by the Soviet Union and attempts to assassinate "M." After regaining his senses, Bond is sent to the Caribbean to assassinate… Read More

London: Jonathan Cape, 1965. First edition. Near Fine/Near Fine. First impression, second state binding without the gilt gun to the upper board. A Near Fine copy in like, price-clipped dust jacket. Jacket with some tape-stains at the spine ends, visible on the verso. Contemporary gift inscription on the verso of the front free end paper. Published a year after Ian Fleming's death, The Man with the Golden Gun is the final James Bond novel written by its original creator. Fleming's health rapidly decreased while writing the book and though he finished a draft of the novel in 1964, he never fully re-worked it. After Fleming's death, the novel was published in the U.K. and then serialized in The Daily Express and Playboy. Ironically, in this novel, Bond is presumed dead before returning to London. He's been brainwashed by the Soviet Union and attempts to assassinate "M." After regaining his senses, Bond is sent to the Caribbean to assassinate Francisco Scaramanga, known as "The Man with the Golden… Read More

New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1962. First edition. Fine/Near Fine. A Fine copy of the book in a solid Near Fine dust jacket with only slight wear at the spine ends and extremities, and a touch of rubbing at the front flap fold. An alternative history that remains chilling and relevant today, The Man in the High Castle imagines a world wherein the Axis Powers defeated the Allies in World War II. Unfolding fifteen years after the war's end, the novel reveals that no peace can exist when the victors of a conflict remain power-hungry and precarious. By 1962, governing their respective portions of the partitioned United States, Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany clash over the futures they imagine for the human race. While the Reich continues its pursuit of "racial purity" through the exterminations of ethnic minorities, disabled and queer peoples, Imperial Japan enacts policies of "judicial racism" focused mainly on the oppression of Black, Chinese, and Anglo Americans as a subservient working class.… Read More

New York: Random House, 1959. First edition. Fine. Number 27 of 500 copies of the signed limited edition. A Fine copy of the book, clean and fresh; lacking publisher's acetate jacket. "The Mansion completes Faulkner's great trilogy of the Snopes family in the mythical county of Yoknapatawpha, Mississippi -- which also includes The Hamlet and The Town. Beginning with the murder of Jack Houston and ending with the murder of Flem Snopes, the novel traces the downfall of this indomitable post-bellum family, who managed to seize control of the town of Jefferson within a generation" (Vintage). Fine.

London: J. Bailey, 1800. First edition in English. Modern card wrappers, measuring 173 x 105mm and collating complete including frontis: [2], 28. Bookplate of children's collector Albert Howard to recto of rear wrap. 3.75 inch tear along title, repaired along verso; some toning along fore-edge of text block and outer margins. A scarce and delicate piece which does not appear in the modern auction record and which OCLC reports at only 4 libraries, and a testament to the rising popularity of Russian fashion and literature in England during the late Georgian and early Regency periods. While Russophobia would set into English culture later in the century, the late Georgian and early Regency periods saw a rise of cultural exchange and admiration as the two nations allied against Napoleon. The present is an example of Russian-inspired literature translated into English for juvenile audiences. A romance that appeared first in French and Italian, Maria Menzikoff presented the star-crossed courtship,… Read More

Bath and London: S. Hazard, J. Marshall, and R. White, 1795. First edition. First issue, with Spinney recording this form of imprint in use from March to May of 1795; the second variant, also scarce, was used from May 1795 through early 1796. Broadside ballad on one sheet measuring 420 x 270mm and printed to recto only. Woodcut ornament at head; signed Z [Hannah More] at end. In Near Fine condition, with a bit of light fraying and soiling to fore-edge and bottom edge; faint crease above header. Overall fresh and unmarked. ESTC reports 12 libraries holding copies (with the BL, Oxford, and Harvard reporting duplicates). It does not appear in the modern auction record, and the present is the only example on the market. Four years before her influential treatise Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education, Hannah More used several of her Cheap Repository Tracts to articulate her ideas in narrative form. In The Market Woman, she focuses in on women's vulnerability to fashion -- not only clothing,… Read More

Indianapolis: The Bowen-Merrill Company Publishers, 1901. First edition. Near Fine. Third state, with the copyright notice having the publisher's name measuring 1 25/32 inches in length. Original olive green cloth stamped in gilt on front cover and spine. Color pictorial label on front cover. Back cover with title stamped in blind. Armorial bookplate of Clayton Smith on front paste-down and ink inscription dated 1905 on free end-paper. Twelve color plates, numerous black and white text illustrations. A bright and near fine copy. This "electrical fairy tale" expresses Baum's lifelong fascination with scientific discovery. The protagonist is actually the author's second son, Robert Stanton Baum, to whom the book is dedicated and who recalled this boyhood interest in electrical gadgetry in an autobiography published in The Baum Bugle, Christmas 1970 and Spring 1971. Overshadowed by some of Baum's better known works, inlcuding the Oz series, it is nevertheless an important and representative work. The… Read More

New York: Grove Press, 1967. First American edition. Fine/Near Fine. The first appearance of the Master and Margarita in the US. Translated by Mirra Ginsburg. Preceding the other American edition of 1967 put out by Harper and Row, translated by Michael Glenny. A Fine copy in very nearly Fine dust jacket with just a bit of wear at the spine ends. This book is the author's masterpiece and considered by many the finest novel to come out of Russia in the twentieth century. Started in 1928, Bulgakov burned the manuscript in 1930, only to re-write and revise it for the next ten years until his death. A socio-political satire oscillating between two realities, one where the Devil and his entourage take a flat in 1930s Russia and wreak havoc on society in a series of amusing escapades, the second in Pontius Pilot's Jerusalem, where he condemns Jesus, despite grave misgivings. A work of unique humor and profound insight, it builds upon the great 19th century Russian predecessors and is now a foundation of… Read More

London: Published for the editors by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co, 1904. First edition. Very Good +. Folio measuring 380 x 280mm. VG+ to Near Fine condition. One of 600 copies signed by the editor, with 52 facsimile photogravure plates and monotint reproductions. Full reversed calf inlaid on the front board with the seal of Edward, Second Duke of York. Brown endpapers. Scattered foxing throughout, largely concentrated in preliminaries. In all, a tight and pleasing copy housed in a custom case. A partial translation of the oldest and most famous hunting book in the English language, Gaston Phoebus. "Based primarily on Gaston de Foix's Livre de Chasse, originally composed in 1387, The Master of Game was written by Edward of Norwich in his 'leisure' between 1406 and 1413, mostly while being held prisoner for having treacherous designs against his cousin, Henry IV. While much of the book is almost an exact translation of de Foix, Edward added five chapters of his own to form the major source of our… Read More

[Great Britain], 1850. Comprised of 88 manuscript pages of mathematical definitions, tables, methods, and exercises in a single hand, with the ownership signature of "Caroline Waters Age 16 yrs" to the front endpaper. Marbled paper vernacular binding, measuring 8 x 12 inches and stitched at spine. Caroline's metric measurements and English currency reveal her to be a student somewhere in the UK. Though the commonness of her name and the absence of a specific date prevents us from locating her in genealogy records, the manuscript she left behind reveals much about how and why girls of her age and class were being taught arithmetic. Caroline's elegant, practiced hand suggests that she is a member of the rising middle class, and the opening of the book suggests that she is a beginning to intermediate mathematician. At the top of the first page, she defines Arithmetic as "the art of computing by numbers" which "has five principal [sic] rules for this purpose, viz. Numeration, Subtraction, Addition,… Read More

London: The Golden Cockerel Press, 1946. First Thus. Limited to 750 numbered copies (this copy being 547). Folio (12 1/4 x 7 7/16 inches; 310 x 189 mm.). Publisher's full green buckram. Front cover pictorially stamped in gilt with a schooner designed by John Buckland Wright, spine stamped and lettered in gilt, top edge gilt, others uncut. Small red ink stamp on front free endpaper. Collating 100, [2], [2, blank]. Nine wood-engravings by John Buckland Wright (including frontispiece, title vignette, six head-piece vignettes, and printer's device). Map. Printed in black and green. A Near Fine copy. "Matthew Flinders' Narrative has been designed, produced, and published by Christopher Sandford at the Golden Cockerel Press, London, on Arnold's mould-made paper in 16pt. Aldine Bembo type, with Centaur initials, designed by Bruce Rogers, and Lyons capitals, designed by Louis Perrin, upon the model Latin inscriptions in 1846" (Colophon). "This is another book of daring exploration in our Sea Series. I… Read More

[London]: [NP], 1795. First edition. Narrow broadside measuring 90 x 265mm and laid down on card. Illustrated at header. Some chipping along the left edge and some toning along the right edge, neither affecting text. Minor loss and rubbing to text in stanzas 4-5 with words remaining legible. A scarce and delicate survivor of a popular and socially ambiguous ballad, ESTC reports only a single institutional copy with the present being the only one in trade. Popular from the dawn of print and into the early 19th century, were broadside ballads, which were "among the earliest products of the printing press" and were "handbills on which were printed the text of ballads. A woodcut often headed the sheet, and under the title if was often specified that the ballad was to be sung to the tune of some popular air. Musical notations seldom appeared on the broadsides; those who sold the ballads in the streets and at county fairs sang their wares so that anyone unfamiliar with the tune could learn it by listening… Read More

Garden City: Doubleday and Company, 1959. First edition. Near Fine/Near Fine. A Near Fine copy in like dust jacket. Book with a bit of dampstaining to the bottom edge of both boards, not affecting the text block. Dust jacket with a few tape repairs at the verso of the crown and small writing on the front flap. Inscribed by the author in the year of publication: "For Ken - With the Good Wishes of Ray Bradbury 5/25/59." In A Medicine for Melancholy, Ray Bradbury presents a collection of short stories that tug at the human imagination. Written after Fahrenheit 451 launched Bradbury to international fame, this novella was praised as having intense emotional impact. "Regardless of the outer wrappings or inner core of his story, Bradbury's touch breathes fantasy into his most prosaic items" (Galaxy Magazine 1959). Within the stories, Bradbury weaves science fiction with tall tales and challenges our perceptions of reality. Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket.

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1946. First edition. Near Fine/Very Good +. Near Fine book in VG+ jacket. Original yellow publisher's cloth binding. Faint offsetting to front and rear pastedowns. Front hinge a bit tender. Jacket bright and pleasing, unclipped with original price of $2.50 to front flap. Spine slightly sunned. Some chips along the top of the front panel and extremities of spine; rubbing to corners. Some shelfwear along the top of the rear panel. In all a pleasing copy. Living in a communal house in Brooklyn, Carson McCullers was exposed to a world almost too literary to be true. "Paul and Jane Bowles, Gypsy Rose Lee, W.H. Auden, and Benjamin Britten all slept at the house regularly. And it was during her time there, after a boozy Thanksgiving dinner, that the spark for her third novel, The Member of the Wedding, was lit. On hearing a fire engine's siren, McCullers and Rose Lee gave chase through the streets; and McCullers had a sudden epiphany about the central concept of the book, which… Read More

London: Albion Press, 1804. First edition. Contemporary calf with black morocco label to spine, and embossed in gilt. Front joint starting but firm; upper front corner rubbed. Early ownership signature of E. Griffith to front pastedown, else unmarked. Front and rear endpapers a bit loose but holding well. Measuring 102 x 92mm and collating [10], 346: complete, including all 12 engraved portraits inserted in the order called for by the instructions to the binder (though with Mrs. Cowley's used as a frontis rather than facing page 126). OCLC reports only 14 copies at U.S. institutions, with this being the only complete copy on the market. A prolific author, Mary Pilkington drew on her firsthand experiences as an orphan and a governess to create her most important work. While the majority of her writing centered on fiction (she produced over 40 novels leading up to 1825), she was also deeply invested in the education of girls. Early works such as A Mirror for the Female Sex (1798) addressed the… Read More

London: Richard Bentley, 1864. First English language edition. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards with morocco label to spine. All edges marbled. Marbled endpapers. Measuring 179 x 119mm and collating complete including photographic frontis: x, 374. A square, tight copy with some loss to upper spine label and gentle rubbing to boards. Amorial bookplate to front pastedown. Light scattered foxing largely confined to preliminary and terminal leaves; pages 161-162 partially detached but holding. A female-authored memoir that participates in both anti-Catholicism and convent-fetish eroticism, it is somewhat scarce institutionally but is a rarity in trade with its most recent appearance at auction occurring a century ago. The present is the only example currently on the market. Frank in her delivery, Henrietta Caracciolo recounts how her rise to young womanhood under the jealous eye of her mother -- combined with the untimely death of a sympathetic father -- led to her unwilling confinement in a… Read More

London: Wilks & Taylor, 1801. First edition. Contemporary tree calf with gilt and morocco to spines. All edges speckled blue. Joints professionally secured and spine ends renewed. Retaining original labels to volumes I-II and with labels replaced to style on volumes III-IV. Measuring 160 x 90mm and collating complete with frontis to volume I: [8], 192; [2], 187, [5]; [4], 184; [4], 196. Containing her memoirs in the first two volumes, and her literary works previously unpublished in the final two volumes. Armorial bookplates of William O'Bryen, Marquis of Thomond to front pastedowns; ownership signature of Eliza O'Bryen to header of title to volume I. Small bookseller's ticket to front pastedown of volume I. A bit of foxing and offsetting to endpapers, but internally a crisp, fresh copy. Scarce institutionally and in trade, this exemplar of the scandalous memoir genre is held at a modest 20 libraries in the U.S. and has only appeared twice at auction in the last half century. The present is the only… Read More