Rare books from Berthoff Books

Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1960. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Good/Fair. 307 pages + A Note on the Author. 8vo, blue-gray boards faded especially at edges, soiled greenish-teal cloth quarter with rubbed gilt and silver gilt lettering on spine; bluish tint to top edge faded, other edges slightly age-toned. In original DJ, with foxing to interior and flaps, several ~1" tears and chips, including to folds and at top of spine where the first two letters of "John" are missing; unclipped (price $4.00), 16-line blurb on front flap, 18 lines under author's photo on rear flap. From the library of Prof. Warner B. Berthoff, whose nearly 50-year correspondence with Updike began the year this novel appeared and is held in the Updike Collection at Harvard's Houghton Library; his name is written on the ffep, his underscoring and notes appear on the rear pastedown and rfep and, not terribly obtrusively, throughout the text. A well-used copy.

The London Printing and Publishing Company, 1860. Hardcover. Good/No Jacket. 201 numbered pages, not including the plates, which are singled-sided. Date not stated, c. 1860s. 4to (9-1/2" x 11-7/8", 2-1/4" thick), full leather with decorative gilt border on front and back boards; five divisions on spine with raised separations and gilt "HOGARTH" against black in the second compartment, partially rubbed away; leather rubbed, eroded and scratched, with tear to back board; corners worn through to underlying cardboard; hinges cracked and cover split along them, with backstrip loose at the rear; vertical crease to the length of the spine opposite where binding is cracked at p. 137. Marbled edges 2nd image), decorative end papers (3rd image). A few pages near end of book have creases and chipping along fore-edge. Frontispiece (self-portrait) and half-title ("The Milk Maid") engravings shown in 4th and 5th images. Engravings have imparted their stain to the facing page in… Read More

Self-published, 2005. 1st Edition . Hardcover. As New/Fine. 264 pages, with bibliography, illustrated throughout with color cuts (photographs and diagrams). "An earthshaking revelation of what is happening to our planet", by Prof. Lance Endersbee, who was Dean of Engineering and Pro-Vice Chancellor, emeritus, of Monash University, past president of the Institution of Engineers Australia. From the back panel: "This impressive, quietly argued book warns that the deep groundwater, on which three billion people . . . depend for most of their drinking water and food, is running out at an unprecedented rate. It throws new light on many popular and scientific beliefs about the origins and extent of the world's water, natural gas and petroleum deposits, the mechanics of deep earthquakes, the continuing but still not understood expansion of the earth, and the causes of climate change." Royal 8vo (7-1/4" x 10-1/4"), blue cloth with gilt lettering, printed on glossy stock,… Read More

Alfred A. Knopf, 1994. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 316 pages. Twenty-two stories, in Updike's eleventh collection. 8vo, Navy blue boards with usual Knopf gilt lettering, burgundy topstain, almost no visible wear, save sunning to exposed edges of boards. In unclipped DJ with slight wear and small pale tan stains to front panel and flap at top. Pages bright and unmarked. Two black marker dots to bottom edge as if remaindered, but this copy is also inscribed by the author on the ffep, "Dear Warner - You once said you liked these tales of reluctant but ineluctable aging, and here they are with admiration and affection, John." From the library of Prof. Warner Berthoff, whose nearly 50-year correspondence with Updike is held in the Updike Collection at the Houghton Library, Harvard U.

The William Dean Howells Memorial Committee, 1987. Limited Edition . Soft cover. Near Fine/Very Good. 43 pages. "A publication of the William Dean Howells Curatorship Fund established at Harvard University in 1978 by John N. M. Howells '34." One of "One hundred and fifty copies printed by Michael and Winifred Bixler and bound by Werner Mueller after designs by Greer Allen." Author's note explains that this small edition "basically reproduces the original version" of the talk he gave in Emerson Lecture Hall, at Harvard, May 1, 1987 as part of the celebration of the 150th anniversary of Howells' birth; a "somewhat amplified and altered" version subsequently appeared in The New Yorker. 5" x 8-1/4" in white wraps, encased in gray French-fold DJ with red and black lettering on the front. The DJ is very slightly sunned along the spine and its front flap has a vertical crease along the edge (7/16" at top, 1/4" at bottom). Three tiny… Read More

Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Near Fine/Near Fine. 703 pages, with index, b&w line drawings or other illustrations on 15 pages. Updike's sixth collection of non-fiction. 8vo, red cloth with usual Knopf gilt lettering, with no visible wear except pale blue topstain a wee bit sunned. Unclipped DJ is slightly rumpled around crown and has a barely visible scratch on front panel. Pages bright and unmarked. Inscribed on title page, "for Warner and Ann great considerers both / Cheers, John"; from the library of Prof. Warner Berthoff, whose nearly 50-year correspondence with Updike is held in the Updike Collection at the Houghton Library, Harvard U.

1959. Limited Edition . Soft cover. Good. 80 pages. Novelist Alison Lurie's first book, self-published in Munich in a limited edition of 300 copies, is a memoir of her friend V.R. "Bunny" Lang, the Poets' Theater, and other parts of cultural life in and around Cambridge, Massachusetts in the early post-War years. Paperback, 6-3/4" x 9-1/2", white card wraps quite clean under original paper French-fold dust jacket with cover drawing by Lurie's friend Ted Gorey. The jacket is slightly soiled and age-toned, lacking the outer glassine layer. The text block is detached from the wraps (but pages remain bound together) and we have left to a future owner any decision on repair. Faint foxing to edges and end papers. Inscribed by the author on half-title, "For Warner and Ann with love Alison" - to Lurie's friends Profs. Warner and Ann Berthoff. No other marks within. From the library of Ann E. Berthoff.