Rare books from Common Crow Books

Newtown, Wales: Gwasg Gregynog, 1990. Hardcover. Fine/Slipcase. 1990, one of only 210 copies, this one rebound in special deluxe binding by John Pearson. Hardcover, folio, 13 x 18.5 inches (33x47 cm). Fine copy in slipcase. Illustrated. A magnificent, artistic binding, with collage style glossy leather and 6 rawhide ties. Unique, colorful endpapers. The lined slipcase is done in full black cloth with title label on spine. The slipcase has some soiling to one of its large sides. Pearson is a member of the Designer Bookbinders and his work has been displayed across the globe.

Newcastle: Printed for Emerson Charnley by S. Hodgson, 1822. Hardcover. Near Fine/No Jacket. 5 volume set. 1822 edition of the Works of Bewick. No. 11 of 150 "Royal" copies with "thumbprint" leaf bound into the Fables of Aesop (dated Jan. 1, 1824, with handcolored seaweed and hawthorne leaf, and numbered and priced in ink. All volumes have the Charnley 1822 title page as well as a secondary title page for each volume, with the Quadrupeds title page dated 1824 and Aesop's dated 1823. The Quadrupeds features as its frontispiece the large woodcut of a lion commissioned especially for this edition and only seen in the Royal and Imperial editions. Tattersfield, in his bibliography of Bewick, states that only 150 of the Royal-sized editions were published, at least 80 of which were remaindered and sold to Bohn many years later and issued without the thumbprint leaf; thus, this is likely one of only 70 such sets. Royal 8vo, bound in full dark green leather gilt, all edges gilded, old bookplate in each… Read More

Paris: Léon Vanier, 1891. Hardcover. Very Good. Published 1891, Romances sans Paroles is a nouvelle edition, inscribed to Guy de Passillé, a fellow writer. The other two volumes are also inscribed to him on blank pages preceeding the books. Bound in quarter vellum, marbled boards, red spine label, very good, light soil to vellum, some parts of the book have tanning pages. La Bonne Chanson and Parallèlement are both first printings. Thus, three inscriptions to a friend and fellow author.

London: Robert Barker, 1611. First printing. Hardcover. Fine. First edition, taken from the 'He' version, of the entire APOCRYPHA, Authorized Version, known as the King James Bible, 1611. Folio, finely bound in full morocco gilt, with printed title page and preface by the New York bookseller Charles Hamilton, probably early 1960s, where he attests that the text is from the 'He' version (taken from an error in Ruth III.15, corrected to 'she' shortly after) and thus much more desirable. Fine. 104 leaves (208 pp.) from the most famous book in the English language. The 1611 King James Apocrypha contained the following books: 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Additions to Esther, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah, Prayer of Azariah, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, Prayer of Manasseh, 1 Maccabees, and 2 Maccabees. In 2016 a copy of the complete Bible sold at Sotheby's for $320,000 plus the hammer: nearly $400,000.

Philadelphia & Berwick: Printed by and for John Taylor, 1790. Hardcover. fair. Despite the general title page and the NT title page being Berwick/John Taylor, extremely likely the Philadelphia printing with a cancel title page, the first folio Bible and first illustrated Bible printed in the US. The bibliography on this is complex: the earliest copies were issued with a Philadelphia title page, but as this came out in subscribed parts over the course of two years (1788-1790) those sent out before late May of 1790 would likely have had a Philadelphia title page, and those sold after that date would have a false UK title page, as does our copy; the Congressional rule called for strict oversight of the printing of any Bible in the United States (to get around this, the publishers of this Bible substituted a phony UK title page). This conforms to Hills no 16 (The English Bible in America by Margaret Hills; see also Sabin 12929). Measuring 16.5 x 10.5, in original leather binding with red morocco spine… Read More

Very Good. Provenance: purchased from a scout who attended the estate sale a few years ago at the Cheever house in Ossining, NY. 25 letters, funny, personal, warm, gossipy and literary. With original envelopes. All no more than a page in length, detailing life for Cheever at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood, at home with his family, in Korea at the PEN Congress of 1970, etc. Beautifully written, affectionate and intimate. See pics for a representative sampling of the letters.

Please contact us for complete list: 8 notes / cards / publications signed and inscribed by Hesse, and several long letters and notes from Ninon Hesse, written from Sils Maria. This includes a typed note written within days of his death in 1962, a fair copy signed of 'Lej Nair,' a postcard of Baenninger's bust of Hesse, inscribed on the verso, a penned note on Sils Maria stationary featuring a reproduction of a watercolor by Hesse, 'Wanderer im Spätherbst' (1956) signed, 'Das Lied von Abels Tod' (1957) fondly inscribed, 'Prosa auf einen Dichter; Dank für Glückwünsche und Briefe' (1961) warmly inscribed, Ying und Yang (ca. 1954) inscribed, plus several letters by Ninon Hesse and other ephemeral material. Richard Hoffman (1893-1968) was a prominent Vienna dermatologist and intellectual, forced to flee to America in 1938 with the help of Felix Frankfurter; he was friendly with Thomas Mann, Herman Hesse, E. E. Cummings, Wilhelm Reich, Peter Altenberg and many other intellectuals in Europe and in the… Read More

Very Good. The 1882 manuscript is bound with recent cloth spine and Arches paper covers, measures 11 x 8.5 inches, 60 leaves, the manuscript to Western Pennsylvania poet's long, visionary, Blakean and Whitmanesque poem, with fantastic, almost Swedenborgian scenes of "The New Creation," featuring Maticia, a beautiful woman, Azaziel, a powerful seraph, and other otherworldly figures, including the lovely Humana, an Eve-like figure who falls in love with a lyre-playing youth. Illustrated by a number of Scalp Level artists from Western Pennsylvania (so named for the compound of houses in Scalp Level, PA, Cambria County, where artists resided and painted, especially fine depictions of Pennsylvania woodlands and landscapes): there is an oil painting by George Hetzel (8 x 5.5 inches); A. S. Wall drew a pen and ink wash moonlit scene to illustrate a section of the poem. J. R. Woodwell contributes four works: a pencil sketch of a mysterious mountainous vista; a lakeside view in moonlight, pen and ink wash;… Read More

Paris: Mercier, 1923. Very Good. No.158 of 500, this one inscribed by Julius Sarluis to Horatio Klug, with an additional note that the poem on p. 75 with the printed dedication to "H. K." is dedicated to him. 12mo (6.5 x 5 inches), illustrated wraps, 80 pp, a few illustrations in b/w. This is accompanied by the original drawing for the cover, 3 original drawings for the illustrations and a trial proof of the front and back cover illustrations, all with Sarluis' notes to the printers. Also accompanied by a 1997 "Individual Book Report" that was apparently part of an estate inventory, noting that this book and the accompanying original illustrations were purchased from the Nevill Keating Gallery in London in August 1986 at a cost of 65,000 Francs; $9743.50 at the time. Leonard Sarluis (1874-1949) was a well known French Symbolist painter, praised by Jean Lorrain and Oscar Wilde, and his illustrations for the 1923 edition of Gaston de Pawlowski's surrealist science fiction novel, Voyage au Pays de la… Read More

London: Charles Bathurst, C. Davis, C. Hitch, R. Dodsley, 1749. Hardcover. 12 volumes, a mix of fourth and fifth editions, and perhaps some first printings. 8vo, warm light brown calf with red spine labels, good set, some rubbing and wear, six of the outer joints show neat strengthening, contents all very good and clean. A Tale of the Tub (1747) is an Eleventh Edition. With full bookplate of the Scott family featuring crescent moon and stars and with the Scott family motto, "Reparabit Cornua Phoebe" (the moon's horns will be full again) and each title page with the signature W. Scott. This was the motto of Sir Walter Scott's family and the bookplate has the chief elements of their crest, especially the crescent moon, stars, with Phoebe atop the shield, plus motto. The signature looks to us very much like examples online, but buyers are urged to do research on the bookplate and the signature to feel confident in this attribution. The moon and stars image is apparently a nod to Scottish Borderers who… Read More

Boston: J. B. Millet, 1901. First printing. Hardcover. Very Good. Text volume plus 9 portfolios of mounted photoplates. Folio, book measures 14 x 10 inches, each portfolio measures 13.75 x 11.25 inches, all in green buckram with leather labels. Overall condition is very good, light wear, soil and dustiness, labels rubbed and sometimes chipped, plates collated complete: 150 photos with the visible area measuring 9 x 7 inches, mounted and matted on charcoal-black mounting sheets with captions pasted on versos of each. Plates all in fine condition. Very rare in the trade. An incomplete set with only 133 photos auctioned at PBA in 2013 for a total of $1560; rarebookhub reports a forty-year-old catalogue entry from a bookseller in California for the complete set for $2000.

London: Published by the Artist, 1978. First Printing. Very good. A very close to complete set of this very rare chronicle in over 3000 drawings of world events and places from 1953 to 1978, beginning with the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, by the expressionist Polish-born artist who made his home in London but traveled to Africa, Asia, Russia, America, Cuba, and even Mongolia. 14 of the 15 volumes are housed in 20 x 13 inch yellow cardboard printed chemises, with Topolski's drawings of his travels and attendance at historical events, art events, concerts, theater, etc., done on a variety of paper stock, mainly on craft paper stock of various hues tending toward gray, blue, cream and tan, on which he would print in lithograph, screen print or photo offset his drawings and sketches, some in colors, and some folding out to large dimensions. Mainly very good with a few minor exceptions. Each number was issued fortnightly, and each volume contains between 12 and 24 numbers, some grouped together to form… Read More

Paris: chez Krafft, Ransonnette, Pougens, Fuchs, Volland & Levrault, de l'imprimerie de Clousier, 1802. First Printing. Hardcover. Very good. Folio, 20 x 13.25 inches, contemporary half dark green leather and fuschia paper-covered boards, good to very good binding, light wear, rubbing, edgewear, contents very good, collated complete with frontispiece and 120 etched copperplates with captions and descriptions every six plates in French, German and English columns, plates very good with hardly any wear, foxing or soil, one plate with small tan stain, bookplate of Irwin Laughlin (1871-1941), a Pittsburgh-born diplomat who was ambassador to Greece and then to Spain in the 1920s and 1930s. Rare volume: a copy with contemporary hand-coloring fetched nearly 11,000 Euros in 2014, and an uncolored copy similar to ours sold at Sotheby's in 1995 for 1840 Pounds including commission. Ransonnette engraved the plates.

Indiana County, PA, 1865. Good. Large archive of tavern petitions from Indiana County, the earliest noted being from 1814 and the latest from 1865, with the heaviest concentration from the mid-1840s to the mid-1850s, very few from 1814 to 1830s; only a handful from the 1820s. Almost all are handwritten and are mainly in good condition, many have some degree of splitting at folds but generally they would not require extensive repairs or preservation. Almost all are a single sheet and at most 2 pp. and usually are in the same format: a petition made in the Court of Common Pleas to establish a public house of entertainment, with variations as to the inclusion of lodging, stables, liquor, employees, etc., the address of the proposed venue, assurances that the necessary forms have been filled out and that requirements as to zoning, fixtures and financial wherewithal have been met, and further assurances that the prospective innkeeper is a member of the community in good standing, of high moral character,… Read More

1980. Very good. We offer for sale an archive of correspondence from the estate of poet and horror-story author John Alfred Taylor, mostly from editors of literary journals from the 1960s to the 1990s. There are about 200 individual notes and letters, mostly in response to Taylor's submissions, but we have also included groups of letters from colleagues and fellow writers, notably the novelists Joseph McElroy and Thomas Williams, author and editor Tim Hildebrand, poet-editors Robert Bly and David Wagoner, et al., which shed light on Taylor's professional, academic and creative concerns and activities. Taylor was an indefatigable sender-out of poetry and eventually published over 400 poems in some of the leading literary journals. He kept a file card for each poem, would write down the journal and date for each submission, and if it was rejected, he would send it right back out again to another journal. On the third floor of his house in Washington, PA, he would toss the rejection and acceptance… Read More