Tess of the D'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman - SIGNED LIMITED by Hardy, Thomas - 1926

First edition, limited issue of 100 numbered copies issued signed by Mandela on the title page. Copy #42. Published to benefit the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund. Edited with a Preface by Penny Silva. Dark blue full morocco, gilt lettering, satin pagemarker, limitation page. Issued without dustjacket. Cloth-covered slipcase. Slipcase with one corner with slight bump; otherwise, an unread copy in Fine condition. The first dictionary of South African English, mapping the development and changes of "that variety of English which is particular to South Africa."

Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1850. One of 2,500 copies published of this true first edition, on 16 March 1850, according to C.E. Frazier Clark Jr.'s definitive "Nathaniel Hawthorne - A Descriptive Bibliography". Number A16.1 in Clark's bibliography and number 7600 in BAL. This copy is in the following states and sub-states, again as described by Clark: Binding: in the style of Ticknor format A. Brown bold-ribbed T cloth with blind-stamped floral device inside ruled panels on both covers. Spine gold-stamped. Cream-colored wove endpapers. The contents are listed on pp. iii-iv and there is no preface. This is a key indicator of the first edition versus the second edition, which includes a preface. The other variants between the first and second editions are also present. These consist of sixty-nine typographical and spelling errors and punctuation changes throughout the text. For example, on page 21 line 20 "reduplicate" appears instead of "repudiate."… Read More

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

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

New York:: Viking Press,, 1938.. First Printing of the First US Edition. A Near Fine copy with the usual age darkening to the cloth binding in a Very Good plus unclipped dust jacket with gentle wear to the extremities, a tiny chip missing near the head of the spine and a glue bleed through running along the fold of the rear panel. Otherwise a respectable copy of this collection of classic Steinbeck short stories that includes The Chrysanthemums, The White Quail, Flight, The Snake, Breakfast, The Raid, The Harness, The Vigilante, Johnny Bear, The Murder, St. Katy The Virgin, the Complete Red Pony, The Leader of the People. There were only 8000 copies of this title published in the First Edition.

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.

John Murray. London. 1927. FIRST EDITION. 8vo. (7.4 x 5 inches). A fine clean copy throughout. Finely bound, by Zaehnsdorf for Asprey and Co, in recent full black morocco. Spine with five raised bands, each with gilt wavy lines. Compartments ruled and lettered in gilt. Boards with gilt ruled border. Board edges with single gilt ruled lines. Turn-ins with elaborate floral gilt decoration. Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. A highly attractive leather binding.

First American Edition of the "Authorized Translation" by Nathan Haskell Dole, in the four-volume "Deluxe Binding": paper spine labels a bit rubbed, small previous owner's name on front end papers of each volume. A very good, clean, tight set. Scarce in any condition, but exceptionally so in this nice condition.
This translation is much more common in the four-volumes-bound-as-two format, which continued to be sold as late as 1900, as there are copies with tipped in leaves listing The Resurrection among the Tolstoy titles available. The first appearance of War And Peace in English--published by Vizetelly in England, and in a revised edition by Gottsberger in the US, both in 1886--was actually an abridged translation of a French translation of the Russian original. This is the first edition in English translated directly from the original Russian.

First Illustrated edition, #14 of 350 copies, signed by John Dos Passos and the illustrator, Reginald Marsh. The books are in fine condition, clean, tight, gilt top edge still shining. The original slipcase and (frankly weird) dust jackets are present, but rather worn (see images). An excellent set of this masterpiece of American literature.