Search Results: Titles starting with P from Fine Editions Ltd

London: Hogarth Press, 1978. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Impression (no further printings noted) of this war diary, presenting an intimate portrait of life at Ham Spray House. Tall 8vo: 215,[9]pp, with eight pages of plates. Publisher's cinnamon cloth, spine lettered in gilt, wraparound dust jacket illustrated by Angelica Garnett (nèe Bell—Virginia Woolf's niece and Vanessa Bell's daughter) and priced £5.95. A very attractive copy, dust-spotted top edge, else Fine in Fine jacket. At the outset of the Second World War, Ralph and Frances Partridge were confirmed pacifists. These extracts from Frances's war diary present a vivid picture of their life in Wiltshire ("where life revolved around conversation, long walks, and complicated love affairs," according the ODNB), a refuge for friends (here depicted in some 20 photographs), including many of their fellow "Bloomsberries," as well as a stream of refugees and the dispossessed. Frances's accounts candidly portray their domestic… Read More

New York: Press of the Woolly Whale, 1933. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Fine. One of 400 copies, only 150 of which were for sale. Crown 8vo (188 x 130mm): [6],8,[2]pp, with line-drawn portrait frontispiece of Bernard Kavier Phillippe de Marigny de Mandeville (1785-1868). Publisher's black cloth-backed gray decorative paper-covered boards, cream paper title label printed in grey to front cover, map end papers (of 1815 New Orleans), text printed in black and lime green on handmade paper. An exemplary example, tightly bound and clean and bright throughout. This brief treatise is dedicated to Bernard Kavier Phillippe de Marigny de Mandeville (1785-1868), a French-Creole American nobleman, playboy, and planter, who was also president of the Louisiana State Senate between 1822 and 1823. When Bernard de Marigny was 15 years old, his father died, and Bernard inherited his father's plantation just east of New Orleans's Vieux Carré. According to historians, his every whim was indulged while his father was… Read More

New York: Covici-Friede, 1937. First Printing. Hardcover. Fine-/Fine-. First American Edition of Lawrence Durrell's uncommon second novel, set on an imaginary Greek island reminiscent of Corfu, to which Durrell and his young wife had relocated from England in 1935. Crown 8vo (203 x 129mm): 372pp. Publisher's beige cloth, spine and upper cover lettered in red and stamped with green leaf device, top edge stained green; illustrated dust jacket priced $2.50. About Fine (top edge mildly faded, spine very lightly toned), tightly bound and virtually pristine (lightly read, if at all). About Fine jacket (archivally mended short closed tears to back spine and flap folds), crisp and bright. Potter & Whiting 14. Originally published the same year, by Faber & Faber in London; the publisher suggested the pseudonym, because Durrell's conventionally autobiographical first novel, Pied Piper of Lovers, had been a failure. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition,… Read More

San Francisco: Thomas C. Russell [and] Bedford Arts, 1990. Fine. Folding halftone (11 panels) of Eadweard Muybridge's famed 360-degree panoramic view of San Francisco made from the original seventeen-foot-long photograph. With margins, the folding halftone measures 1511 x 171mm and folds into the original red cloth binding lettered in gilt. Offered with the First Printing (so stated), trade issue, of Klett's accordion-fold book revisiting and reinterpreting Muybridge's panoramic view, with essays by Klett and Peter Bacon Hales. Royal 4to (305 x 241mm): 13ff accordion-fold black-and-white plates on card stock, 12pp of text. Bound concertina-style in publisher's pictorial covers (without dust jacket, as issued), saffron-yellow end papers. Signed by Klett on title page. Recto of accordion-fold reproduces the 360-degree mammoth panoramic view taken of San Francisco in 1878 from atop Nob Hill by Muybridge; on verso, same panoramic view taken in 1990 by Klett. In July, 1878, Eadweard Muybridge completed a… Read More

Philadelphia: The Paper Airplane Press, 1977. Limited Edition. Stiff Wrappers. Fine. No. 13 of 25 copies numbered for sale (there were also 25 copied lettered for private distribution (A-Y) of this scarce pamphlet. Demy 8vo (216 x 141mm): [2],12.[2] pp, including two full-page diagrams and vignette on limitation page. Signed by Koelewyn, who was then a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. Created on a manual typewriter and reproduced by a quick print shop on ecru handmade, watermarked paper; sewn in original slate blue stiff wrappers with French flaps, title label printed in black to front cover. Slight stains to label, else virtually pristine. First publication of the Paper Airplane Press, founded in Philadelphia, in 1977, when the author was a tour guide at the Rosenbach Museum and Library. The library sparked an interest in book collecting and particularly in small press publications. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition,… Read More

London: Boosey and Sons, 1827. Paper-Covered Boards. Near Fine+. Uncommon English translations of these two works by German educator Bernhard Heinrich Blasche, providing "Instructive Amusement for young persons," calculated to "introduce children to the most common and practical applications of geometry." (Preface) Papyro-Plastics: Second Edition, "greatly enlarged and improved." 16mo (141 x 116mm): xiii,[3],102,[2]pp, with hand-colored engraved frontispiece of castle, 21 further plates (seven folding) and final leaf of publisher's advertisements. Publisher's bluish gray paper-covered boards, original printed pictorial circular label with compass, ruler, and other draftsman's tools and title to front cover. Binding rubbed, lacking front blank (opens to half-title, top corner of which skillfully repaired), frontispiece and several plates lightly spotted, else an excellent survival,e securely bound and clean throughout. Osborne I, p. 224. Pasteboard: First Edition. 16mo (144 x 111mm): 114,[2]pp, with… Read More

London: Hogarth Press, 1950. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Impression of one of the author's early collections, of 10 short stories. Small 8vo: viii,250pp. Publisher's tangerine cloth, spine lettered in gilt, top edge stained deep pink, bottom edge untrimmed; dust jacked, priced 8s/6d. Very Fine and unread. "William Sansom was once described as London's closest equivalent to Franz Kafka. He wrote in hallucinatory detail, bringing every image into pin-sharp focus. . . . He fell from favour, but now there is a movement to rediscover his finest works." (The Independent) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable polypropylene sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed.

Boston: Beacon Press, 1957. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine-. First Printing (no additional printings noted) of the author's first novel, translated into English by Archibald Colquhoun. 8vo: [6],145,[1]pp. Publisher's coarsely woven sea-green cloth, spine lettered in black, fore-edge untrimmed; illustrated dust jacket priced $3.50. Fine (hint of rubbing to spine ends); about Fine jacket (spine panel very lightly faded and rubbed). First published, in 1947, in Italian (Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno), narrating an episode of the Italian Resistance from a child's point of view. Calvino witnessed the Second World War up close. Mussolini's first military operation was to invade the French Riviera adjacent to San Remo, where the college-bound Italo lived with his parents on the Ligurian coast, home to Calvinos for generations. His university career was interrupted by the collapse of Fascism, in 1943, and the ensuing civil war—the "Resistance"—between the partisans and the Fascist Salò Republic,… Read More

San Francisco: [Britton & Rey, printers], 1907. First Edition. Wrappers. Fine-. First (and apparently only) Printing of this work of xenophobic fiction. Slim demy 8vo (230 x 154mm): 28pp on coated stock, with folding map titled "Map of the World Showing the three Great Oceans as Units and our Unfortified Military Stations." Original stapled light grey-green paper wrappers printed in black. Cover edges very lightly toned, staples rusted, but an excellent example. "Antiquated military hardware, bureaucratic bungling, labor problems, and foreign-born U.S. resident saboteurs spell defeat for America in a war with China and Japan in 1912. Manson was San Francisco's City Engineer in charge of the water supply. His brief excursion into the world of fiction tells of a crisis precipitated by Asian-American racial animosity, resulting in a declaration of war by China and Japan. Within a few months, Asian forces invade and seize Pearl Harbor and other American bases in the Pacific and blockade the West Coast.… Read More

Dublin: Wolfhound Press, 1976. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Impression of the first English language edition, originally published under the titled Díoltas. 8vo: 222pp. Publisher's mid-brown coarsely woven cloth, spine lettered in gilt, mustard-yellow end papers; dust jacket, illustrated by Jarlath Hayes, priced £3.60. Fine (apparently unread), in Fine, crisp jacket. O'Flaherty, a leading figure of the Irish Renaissance. abandoned his training for the priesthood and embarked on a varied career as soldier in World War I, lumberjack, hotel porter, miner, factory worker, dishwasher, bank clerk, and deck hand. In 1925, he scored literary success with one of his first novels, The Informer, about a confused rebel during the Irish War of Independence, which John Ford (O'Flaherty's cousin) adapted into a movie that was nominated for an Academy Award. Some of O'Flaherty's best short stories, including those in The Pedlar's Revenge, appeared first in Irish-language versions. N. B. With few exceptions (always… Read More

London: Printed by Strahan and Spottiswoode, Printers-Street | For Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orne, and Brown, Paternoster-Row, 1819. So-called "Second Edition," but largely a reprinting from standing type of the first edition, with first gathering reset and advertisement added to half title verso. Demy 8vo (222 x 135mm): viii,88,[4]pp, complete with half-title, engraved frontispiece by J. C. Bromley (after a painting by Sir George Beaumont), and four pages of terminal advertisements, for Chalmers's County Biography and Watts's Bibliotheca Britannica (many copies lack both half-title and ads; Read notes these ads, says others also may be present). Original drab (light greyish brown) wrappers lined with white paper, printed paper spine label (partly perished); on front wrapper, possibly in Rossetti's hand, "Peter Bell / by / Wm Wordsworth / 1819." William Michael Rossetti's copy inscribed on half-title: "To / WM Rossetti / from / J. Deffett Francis," with "1876" added in another hand. And in Rossetti's… Read More

Boston: J. E. Tilton and Company, 1864. Decorative Cloth. Fine-. First Edition under this title (see below) of this early work on a fashionable Victorian pastime. 8vo (191 x 119mm): 96pp, with six tissue-guarded plates, head pieces, and historiated initials. Original dark green ribbed and beveled cloth, covers paneled in blind, gilt vignettes to spine and front cover, chocolate brown end papers, illustrated title page. Gift inscription to Mary D. Ballou (perhaps the Rhode Island suffrage pioneer), dated 1865 and her manuscript ex-libris in elegant script, with "Providence," to front fly leaf. Slight scuff to cover vignette,else tightly bound and virtually pristine (tissue guards lightly foxed but plates generally bright), with interesting provenance. First published in Philadelphia, in 1863, by Edward Parrish, under the title Phantom Bouquet : Skeletonizing Leaves and Seed Vessels. Producing skeleton leaves involved removing chlorophyll from leaves to create intricate designs in imitation of those… Read More

London: printed for P. Vaillant in the Strand, and W. Mears and F. Clay without Temple-Bar, 1721. Half-Calf. Fine. First Edition in English of the "first treatise on cuttings and graftings." (Hunt) Demy 4to (276 x 214mm): [24],300,[4]pp, with 31 (i.e. 33: in the numbering of plates, XXIII and XXVIII are repeated) engraved plates inserted on 22 sheets (some folding); head- and tail-pieces and historiated initials. Recent half calf over marbled boards, spine in sic compartments divided by gilt-ruled raised bands, small gilt ornaments, red morocco lettering piece gilt, title page printed in red and black, end papers renewed. An excellent example, beautifully bound to period style, generally fresh and bright (occasional light spotting and dust-soiling), with excellent impressions of the plates. Henrey II, 443-46 and III, 411. Hunt II, 452. First published in two volumes in German ("High-Dutch"), in 1716, as Neu-und nie erhörter doch in der Natur und Vernunfft wohlgegründeter Versuch der Universal-… Read More

Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1860. First Edition thus. Vellum. Fine. First Tauchnitz Edition (Todd & Bowden's fourth setting, impression Db), "copyright edition" on title page, of Hawthorne's Italian romance cum travel guide. Two volumes in one, thick foolscap 8vo (155 x 107mm): xii,292; vi,280,[2]pp, with 24 mounted period photographs of Roman monuments, statuary, buildings, and street scenes. Contemporary Florentine vellum, spine decorated and titled ("The Marble Faun") in gilt, upper cover paneled and titled ("Roma") in gilt, marbled end papers, edges stained red. Tightly bound and clean throughout, a virtually pristine example, aside from slight waviness to margins of inserted leaves with photographs, which are printed on heavy coated stock. (The photographs were sold to the tourist trade and inserted by Italian binders into copies, most, as here, with half-titles removed.) Todd & Bowden 515Db & 516Db ("the Tauchnitz book most often found extensively extra-illustrated with photographs and found… Read More

Boston / Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin / The Riverside Press, 1941. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Near Fine+. First Printing of this tour de force of American photography and perennial classic of American journalism, a "highly experimental book, pushing the boundaries of the way documentary should treat the world." (Lionel Trilling, in the Kenyon Review, called it the "most important moral effort of our American generation.") Demy 8vo (205 x 144mm): [2],xvi,471,[1]pp, with 31 beautifully printed black & white full-page photographs by Walker Evans, "his only excursion into 'true' documentary—among the finest ever made." (Parr & Badger) Publisher's black cloth, spine lettered in silver; illustrated dust jacket, priced $3.50. A Fine copy, tightly bound and clean throughout; Near Fine or better jacket, head and toe of spine panel rubbed, with short tear and crease to bottom of front panel. A fresh, honest copy with no restoration. Parr & Badger I, p.144. Roth (101 Books), p. 108-09. In July and August… Read More

London: Sampson Low, Marston, Low, and Searle, Crown Buildings 188, Fleet Street, 1876. Decorative Cloth. Fine. First (and only) Edition of this documentary record of six important country houses, featuring 24 Woodbury-type photographs mounted on card stock. Royal 8vo (288 x 203mm): viii,215,[1]pp, with illustrated with 15 exterior views (including parks and gardens), 8 interior views, and facsimile of a letter. Original publisher's green elaborately decorated cloth, blocked in gilt and black, thick beveled boards, all edges gilt, black end papers. A superb example, tightly bound and clean throughout, with rich renditions of the plates. Van Haaften, NYPL Bull. 80, p. 393, else notably absent from the photography literature; the Truthful Lens lists two titles by Thompson and Gersheim more than ten. Not in Margolis & Moss. The medieval halls and manor houses shown here are Ightham Mote, Hever Castle, Penshurst Place, Knole, Hampden House, and Stoke Poges, along with views of some of the villages… Read More

Sacramento: State Office, A. J. Johnston, Supt. State Printing, 1891. Decorative Cloth. Fine. First edition of this combined report, featuring original prints of some of the earliest photographs to document a solar eclipse. Demy 8vo (227 x 142mm): [4],121,[1]; 121*,[1]pp, with frontispiece ("Silver print of the Total Solar Eclipse of December, 1889), 10 further plates (including 2 additional mounted original silver prints), and illustrations and charts in the text. Bound with Catalog of the Library of the Lick Observatory of the University of California. Part I - To July 1, 1890. Prepared by Edward S. Holden (separate title page and pagination). Publisher's black pebble-grained cloth, spine lettered in gilt, sides paneled in blind. Stamp of Imperial College Physics Library to title page. An excellent example, tightly bound and clean throughout. Not in Margolis & Moss. In 1888, Schaeberle became one of the inaugural astronomers at Lick Observatory. He led expeditions to witness the solar eclipses at… Read More

[London]: [Magnum Photos in association with The Photographers' Gallery], 1999. Limited Edition. Card Covers. Fine. True First Edition, No. 183 of 350 print-on-demand copies (numbered on front cover and first page of text), issued to accompany an exhibition at the Photographers' Gallery, London, to demonstrate the potential of Xerox's new xerographic technology (according to the Magnum Photobook, only 200, not 350, copies were actually printed). Introduced by Norman Mailer. Oblong royal 8vo (167 x 250mm): [148]pp, including 68 full-page images of mourners along the tracks as Robert F. Kennedy's coffin was taken by rail to Arlington National Cemetery, printed on Xerox DocuColor 100 Digital Color Press (the later Umbrage Editions issue contains only 63). Original photo-illustrated card covers (with one of nine different cover images). An excellent example of this fragile production, tightly bound and clean throughout (virtually pristine). Parr & Badger II, 46. Magnum Photobook, pp. 118-19. On June 5,… Read More

New York: E. Weyhe, 1930. Decorative Cloth. Near Fine+. First Edition of this high point of twentieth-century documentary photography, from the library of one of the foremost documentary photographers. Preface (in French) by Pierre Mac-Orlan. Royal 8vo (267 x 207mm): [4],23,[1]pp, with frontispiece portrait of Atget by Berenice Abbot, 96 full-page sepia collotype plates from photographs of turn-of-the-century Paris by Atget, and 6-panel fold-out letterpress Table of Photographs. Original maroon wave-pattern silk-covered boards lettered in gilt, top edge stained saffron-yellow. Ben Shahn's copy, with estate book plate to front paste-down. Spine sunned (as usual) but titling legible, plate margins very gently toned, lacking the slipcase, else a fresh, tightly bound copy, clean throughout. Roth (101 Books), pp. 60-61 ("Atget's photographs have come to be seen by many as the beginning of modern photography"). Roth (Open Book), pp. 90-91. Parr & Badger I, p. 127 ("giving exquisite visual pleasure—the… Read More

London: Elliott Stock, 1879. Decorative Cloth. Fine. First (and only) Edition of this travelog with original woodbury-type photographs. 8vo (212 x 136mm): vi,[3]-98pp, with five woodbury-type prints mounted on separate leaves. Publisher's blue-green cloth, spine lettered in gilt and ornamented in black, front cover decorated and lettered in black. An excellent example, tightly bound and clean throughout, the plates in fine condition. Not in Margolis & Moss. Van Gruisen and a friend toured the coast on the Danish steamer Phoenix, occasionally traveling inland on horseback, observing wildlife, landscapes, and living conditions. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).