Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky, Fyodor (Dostoyevsky, Dostoieffsky) - 1914

Milano: Giovanni Ricordi [PNs 16221-16241], 1844. Oblong folio. Mid-tan leather-backed marbled boards, spine with decorative gilt rules. 1f. (title within decorative blue border), [i] (table of contents with plate numbers), [i] (named cast list), 3-229, [i] (blank) pp. Title, table of contents, and cast list typeset, music engraved. Each number with its own plate number, price, and secondary pagination. Cast list includes the names of the singers for the opera's premiere. Page 56 blank (and unpaginated). Binding quite rubbed and worn; slightly shaken. Title slightly foxed; occasional light soiling and wear to blank margins; worming, primarily to blank margins; some tears; small tear to lower blank margin of pp. 217-218 repaired; tape repair to blank verso of final leaf, not seriously affecting music to recto. Quite a nice copy overall. First complete edition, first issue. Scarce. Hopkinson 41A(a). Chusid p. 63. Catalogo Ricordi online. Ernani, to a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave after Victor… Read More

New York:: Scribner's,, 1937.. First Printing of the First US Edition. A Fine tight copy in a Near Fine unclipped dust jacket with just a hint of wear to the head of the spine. To Have and Have Not was Hemingway's second novel set in the United States, after The Torrents of Spring. Written sporadically between 1935 and 1937, and revised as he traveled back and forth from Spain during the Spanish Civil War, To Have and Have Not portrays Key West and Cuba in the 1930s, and provides a social commentary on that time and place. Hemingway biographer Jeffrey Meyers describes the novel as heavily influenced by the Marxist ideology Hemingway was exposed to by his support of the Republican faction in the Spanish Civil War while he was writing it. The novel had its origins in two short stories published earlier in periodicals by Hemingway ("One Trip Across" and "The Tradesman's Return") which make up the opening chapters, and a novella, written later, which makes up about two-thirds of the book. The narrative is… Read More

Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Books, 1975. First Edition. One-Quarter Cloth. Near Fine. Signed by the author at the colophon and numbered 4 of 5 (presentation copies in the limited first edition), this book contains a bound-in original oil painting by Charles Bukowski, still protected with the original tissue guard; laid in is Black Sparrow Press Broadside/Flyer No. 7, itself signed by Bukowski and numbered 8/100. Crisp, bright pages; green boards show gentle sunning along the head edges, and spine plate is also mildly sunned, but red cloth spine is fresh; even the original acetate outer cover is near fine, with a touch of finish wear.; Signed by Author.

New York: Dix & Edwards, 1855. SCARCE. The first appearance of this novella about a revolt on a Spanish slave ship captained by Don Benito Cereno, appearing in the magazine in three installments on pages 353-367, 459-471, and 633-644. Acknowledged as one of Melville's greatest achievements, it was included with some revisions in his short story collection "The Piazza Tales" published May 1856. Very Good indeed, bound in contemporary quarter calf over marbled boards, five raised bands with dark brown calf volume label in gilt, title label missing, marbled end papers and edges. The complete six monthly magazines with title pages, well bound and lacking only the original wrappers. Moderate toning to end papers only, interior pages clean and with no foxing or toning. Quite uncommon, especially so in collectible condition. Basis for the 1969 French film of the same title, winner of a Gold Medal at the 1969 Venice International Film Festival, and the NET Playhouse television episode in… Read More

First UK Edition; A Near Fine book in a Near Fine dust jacket. Typed Letter SIGNED by the author on his stationary laid in. This is the very scarce 1st UK edition; although not the true first (the US was published shortly beforehand), the UK is super rare to find in collectible condition, particularly in the ORIGINAL jacket with no restoration or repair; a truly unique item and a must for the 20th century mystery collector! This novel is on the Modern Library list of 100 greatest novels and is the basis for many film and screen adaptations. This copy is in near fine condition with a square, tight binding, clean yellow boards with bold black lettering, and crisp, off-white to white pages; age spotting is present to the exterior text block and free papers and only light shelf wear to the board edges, else fine. Housed in a near fine dust jacket that is remarkably free of any rubbing or chipping but does show minor discoloration and soiling to the back panel, spine, and flap edges (please see scans for… Read More

Paris: Aux Editions Eliane Norberg, 1951. First edition thus. Signed, De Luxe limited edition. Sumptuous, full leather Artesian binding by Jacques Blanchet. From an edition of 202, number 72 of 180 printed on Velin d' Arches. Published Paris: Editions Eliane Norberg, 1951. Folio, 10 1/2" x 13 1/4" x 2 7/8" thick, 302pp., illustrated with full page engraved plates and fine textual engravings from copper - all with tissue guards, and two leather engravings (cover and verso) in 6 colors by Robert Fonta. Full dark blue satin morocco over 1/4" thick boards with chamfered corners and leather inner hinges attached to thick, duplex flyleaves and gray leather pastedowns. Gilt block paneled titles on spine, top edges tinted blue with gilt embossed edge design stamped into the page block. Front cover and verso decorated with unique, six-color leather inset engravings by Fonta, Signed on the half title by the Bazin: "Hommage amical / de l'auteur / Herve Bazin." Presentation… Read More

New York: Random House, 1940. First Edition. Hard Cover with Dust Jacket. Very Good/Very Good. Octavo. SIGNED AND INSCRIBED THUS ON FEP: "To Marguerite Dunsmore - /The friendly antagonist - in hopes / of more such intriguing duels / Cordially / Walter V. T. Clark / December 14, 1940. TOGETHER WITH CARBON TYPSCRIPT, ONE PAGE, SIGNED, WRITTEN TO MS. DUNSMORE: "Addressed to a Counter-blade / Let us cease this fencing of intellects / This sharp following behind masks / Of the bright points moving, this parry and thrust / Of the cold metal ringing, the guard against guard to a spark, / Seeking only a tip-tear in a heart sewed on white silk. / Let us throw down the limber blades, the screens of our faces, / Into the roses tossed early for the quick-legged dance of our brains, / Rub off the powder of our hands and join them tightly, / Looking upon each other once clearly uncovered. / Are we to dread the dark fools up in the gallery shadow / Crying the 'coward' chorus, until they weary, and bundle the… Read More

London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co, 1891. First Edition. Near Fine. 3 Volumes. First edition, first printing, first issue. Bound in contemporary half-leather binding over marbled paper covered boards, with all edges marbled and marbled endsheets; binder's stamp of Mudie to verso of front free endpaper. Near Fine with light rubbing to bindings, spines slightly sunned, foxing to pages and former owner name to front blank of each volume. A Victorian tripple-Decker in lovely contemporary binding. Although this novel initially received mixed reviews upon publication, it is now considered a major work of 19th-century literature.

George Allen & Unwin; Unwin Hyman; Harper Collins. London. 1983 - 1996. FIRST EDITIONS. 1st impressions. 8vo. 13 volumes. A complete set of the 12 volume History of Middle Earth plus the extra Unfinished Tales volume. Original publishers boards in different colours but all with uniform gilt lettering to the spines. In the original multi colour dustwrappers. A couple of very minor rubs to the extremities of a couple of dustwrappers but overall a very near fine, bright and clean set of this first publication of Tolkien's entire History of Middle Earth, in which tales, songs, poems, maps, illustrations, genealogical tables, and even linguistic primers for Tolkien's languages, give the fullest picture available of one of the most thoroughly imagined worlds ever created in the history of fantasy literature. The enormous content presented in these twelve volumes was only hinted at in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and was drastically condensed into a single volume in the Silmarillion which was… Read More

William Heinemann and The Bodley Head. London. 1969 - 1982. 23 Volumes - Complete. FIRST EDITIONS and First printings of all volumes in this collected edition. --- Volume 1, Brighton Rock, is inscribed and signed by Graham Greene on the front free endpaper; - "For Doctor A. D. Thomson from Graham Greene." Publishers dark green cloth bindings with gilt ruling and lettering to the spines and grey endpapers. A fine set of books in very good dustwrappers, designed by Michael Harvey with some toning to the spines and a small amount of rubbing to extremities. Some volumes have a neat previous owner name on the front free endpaper and four of the wrappers nave been neatly price-clipped. A very good set with the added bonus of Greene's signature and inscription in Brighton Rock. Collected essays was issued in 1969, before the rest of the volumes, and is a little larger although the wrapper style is similar so it doesn't look out of place on the shelf with the set. ---- Greene wrote a new introduction to each… Read More