Browse the latest catalogs, newsletters, and e-lists of rare books, fine bindings, incunabula, print ephemera, and much more from the members of the ABAA below. (Also includes podcasts, blog posts, and other digital formats.)
*New* indicates any catalogs brought to our attention since the early March 2024.
Philadelphia, PA: Samuel Augustus Mitchell, 1843. First Edition. Leather-bound. 12mo. (7 1/4 in. x 4 1/2 in.) Rich dark-brown leather, double ruled in blind, brightly lettered and ornamented in gilt. Rays of the sun in an arch above the lettering to front board; this repeated to rear board with the addition of an eagle, with wings outspread holding an American shield in its beak, grasping an olive branch with his right talon, and a brace of arrows in its left. All this above ta cloud-construct with a large banner ("E. Pluribus Unum" above and "United States" below. Recent conservator's touch-up to previously lightly rubbed extremities.
Two lovely colored mounted folding MAPS in clean, bright condition.
The first map (34 1/2 in. x 25 1/2 in, and bordered in lovely rose and yellow) is entitled: "A CONCISE VIEW OF THE NUMBER, RESOURCES, AND INDUSTRY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, IN THE YEAR 1840: Comprising the Different Classes of the Inhabitants, Population of the Principal Cities and Towns, THE CHIEF AGRICULTURAL, MINERAL, AND MANUFACTURED PRODUCTS, EXPORTS AND IMPORTS OF EACH SEPARATE STATE; The most important Canals and Rail-Roads, the Lengths of the Principal Rivers, and the Heights of the Principal Mountains in the United States". The format is a large central chart of statistics, surrounded by 32 separate 3 1/2 in. x 3 in. mini-maps in yellow, green, rose and black, depicting Vicinities of various U.S. cities or states. The larger central chart (16 1/2 in. x 16 in.) includes statistics on Aggregate of the Different Classes (Men, Women, White, Colored, Number of Slaves); Several very short tears along folds.
The second fold-out map is a bright, multicolored map of the (then) entire United States, the title of which is: "Mitchell's National Map of the American Republic Or United States of North America (Together with Maps of The Vicinities of Thirty-Two of the Principal Cities and Towns in The Nation), Clearly intended as the overall title to the entire two-map leather-housed, brass-clasped endeavor, including the first map described above. A lovely copy of this beautiful cartographic endeavor, drawn by H. Young and engraved by J.H. Brightly, with classy gilt designs to both front and rear boards. Near Fine.
Bridgeport, CT, 30 January 1877. A two-page letter on the front and verso of a 5-1/8" x 8" sheet with a blue ink stamp of Barnum addressed to an unknown recipient regarding employment and SIGNED as "P. T. Barnum."
In part: "You are declining the American tour…. My respected father-in-law is I fear rather too timid. My son-in-law … filled the position of traveling Treasurer 4 or 5 years without inquiry, and hundreds are doing the same every year. We think it is a most healthy calling. It is lively, busy & exciting, but not sickening nor killing. My partners would only have allowed $25 per week & I should have paid the other $15 from my own pocket for the sake of having you see if the business would suit you, and also see if an opening could be made for you whereby you could gain an independence. The disappointment to me is not at all serious on my account—more so on yours. But it is all for the best no doubt. I still think I shall have a permanent place of amusement in New York City, where you can have a situation & a chance to own an interest which will be sure to be valuable. We will talk it up when we meet.”
London: The International Fur Store, [ca. 1885]. 8vo (10” x 6”), chromolithographically illustrated cardstock covers, blue cloth spine, a.e.g. Frontis., [2] pp. text, 25 color plates with text opposite, 1 p. ad.
CONDITION: Light rubbing to wrappers; spine rebacked with blue cloth strip; contents clean and bright.
This scarce trade catalogue features twenty-five plates showing models wearing various fur garments, with such names as Marcelle, the Danae, Heloise, Medea, Tristran, Latona, York, Cynthea, Maguier, and so on. A short description appears opposite each plate, e.g., “Fife. Long semi-fitting Seal Mantle, fastened on left side with silk ornament and cords.” The text spells out the philosophy of the business; addresses its American clientele; notes that its furs are sourced from all over the world; and relates that “a critic surveying an American lady as she tried on the sealskin ulster that had been made for her at the Store declared that it fitted her as mathematically as the fur had its original owner.” The store itself included showrooms, fitting-rooms, skin-rooms, keeping-rooms for storing furs, quilting rooms, and more, and was also something of a cabinet of curiosities, with a “large collection of mounted animals, suitable for museums, halls &c., including lions, tigers, bears, seals, monkeys, squirrels [and] mounted horns.” The illustration on the title page depicts a female customer in a fur coat greeting a stuffed bear; the front wrapper shows a bear pushing a furclad woman, decked in a bear rug, on a sled.
Established in 1882, the International Fur Store was managed by T. S. Jay. Unlike other 19th century furriers that promoted the exclusivity of their stores, Jay created a shop for all classes. Leaflets and trade cards advertised “the finest furs in the world” at low prices, and in the most up-to-date fashions. Sealskin coats and jackets, and other articles made from sable, sea otter, and silver fox skins were also sold. The Store remained open until at least 1938. T. S. Jay’s father operated an establishment that was also located on Regent St., called William Chickall Jay’s London General Mourning Warehouse (est. 1841), which supplied fashionable mourning attire for the well-to-do, as well as offering goods in a wide price-range to attract the lower classes. No copies recorded in OCLC.
Offered by James Arsenault & Company and found in "Short List #4."
(12), 171, (1)pp., 15 engraved plates (9 folding). Text figs. Title-page vignette. Lrg. 8vo. Contemporary calf, newly rebacked. Henry Maundrell was the Levant Company's chaplain of Aleppo from 1696 to 1701. This work contains the first description of Baalbek by an Englishman. Oxford (Printed at the Theatre, for A. Peisley...and W. Meadows), 1740.
Mexico : Unknown, n.d. [c.1950's]. Octavo. 19cm. Publisher's decorated card wraps. 144pp. Strong and bright, with some light wear to extremities and spine ends, dramatic sunning to the rear panel where another book has cast a pale "shadow" whilst the rest of the panel has toned to tan, nevertheless a very good attractive copy. Internally clean, Libreria Latina of 253 Broadway, Los Angeles, label to half title. Paper stock cheap and browned but strong.
It promises the secrets of Albert the Great, "never published until today", along with instruction in cartomancy and use of "The Spanish Deck", but is also packed to the gills with charms and protections against a variety of maleflictions, curses, and troubles of the heart and mind. The role of these esoteric and ephemeral pamphlets is a complex one, touching upon the ability to claim wisdom and knowledge to oneself in an environment that isn't overly eager to teach you, and where knowledge is quite definitely power; access to treatments and remedies that might not be the ones everyone else has access to, but they are yours; and also possibly the manifestation of hope that advancement can be learned from alternative sources than the ones denied you by mainstream society. Much like lottery tickets, self help courses in hypnotism, and online Amazon reselling schemes, these little books offer a slim chance at survival and success that is vital to communities denied access to pathways of improvement open to others.
(New York): Signet / New American Library, (1969). Softcover. First edition. Paperback original. Page edges uniformly toned, tiny tear at the crown, else near fine.
Offered by Between the Covers Rare Books and found in "eList 200."
New York: The Saturday Evening Post, 1962. 3 vols. The 1st appearance anywhere, serialized in 3 issues of The Post for October 13 – October 27. Original wrappers, very good. A cold war thriller in which millions die.
The American novel cannot be separated from the American insight, and that insight tolerates a raucous inefficiency in order to accommodate among its protections a recognition that one persuasion, more than any other, is responsible for the slaughter of individuals on the altar of historical ideals. The belief that somewhere, in the past or in the future, in divine revelation or in the mind of an individual, in the pronouncements of history or science or politics, or in the evil heart of a mad person or in the simple heart of an uncorrupted good person, there is a lasting formula, an ultimate answer, a perfect solution.
A fine plan, quite scarce, of the shambolic British attack on Charleston, South Carolina in June 1776. Blessed by a fine harbor and proximity to the Lowcountry indigo and rice plantations, Charleston had the largest urban population south of Philadelphia and was the wealthiest city in the Colonies. During the Revolution it was much coveted by the British, who worked under the false assumption that the South had a high percentage of Loyalists, needing only some encouragement to rise up and help put down the rebellion. Charleston was thus the target of not one but two major British campaigns, in 1776 and again in 1780. This plan depicts the first, which ended quickly and ignominiously at the June 1776 Battle of Sullivan’s Island, where South Carolina militia withstood a British attack on the fortifications protecting the seaward approaches to the city. The British plan suffered from imperfect intelligence about both the strength of the American fort at Sullivan’s Island and the hydrography of the surrounding waters. The attacking fleet suffered heavy casualties and serious damage to many of its vessels, and subsequently limped north to join Howe’s New York campaign. This rare and important British chart depicts Charleston Harbor and its immediate surroundings, with a detailed treatment of the battle. The chart was based on surveys conducted by the Royal Navy during the campaign and was first published on August 31, 1776, little more than two months after the battle. The example offered here is a slightly-later issue bearing a date of 1791, with very substantial re-engraving of the waters around Charleston. It seems plausible that this new information was obtained from surveys conducted during and after the British capture of the city in 1780. The Charleston campaign of 1780 was a different matter altogether: In May of that year a British army under Lord Cornwallis captured the city after a siege and took thousands of American prisoners, marking one of the worst Continental Army defeats of the war. In all, a most interesting plan, depicting an important American victory early in the Revolution. Nebenzahl, Atlas, pp. 55-57 (illus.) Nebenzahl, Bibliography, 65. Sellers & Van Ee, 1548 (noting only the 1776 edition).
London: E. Wallis, (c. 1830). Small octavo. 48ff. Illustrated with twelve sets of seven hand-colored full-page engravings. Blow books operate by tabs incised into their edges, so that the magician can hold his thumb to one tab and show a single set of images, with the conceit that those images comprise the entire volume. The magician then changes tabs or opens the book in the other direction—often after an audience member has blown on it, hence the title of the genre—and a different set of illustrations "magically" arise. Included among the images are a woman selling broadsheets, a parrot, a Highland infantryman, a mounted lancer, a steam-ship, a ballet dancer, and a man with a performing bear. Marginal soiling to first four leaves, otherwise near fine and bright in original patterned teal cloth, housed in original matching slipcase, titled in gilt on upper panel. Slipcase has two small abraded spots and light shelfwear.
Photographs by Brassaï. Paris: Édition “Arts et Métiers Graphiques, [1933]. First edition. Small 4to., [12] pp. text, plus 62 full-page b&w photogravure plates. Photo-illustrated stiff wrappers, spiral bound. A few shallow creases to the wrappers; otherwise, a near fine copy. Housed in a clamshell box of black linen with title label on the upper cover and spine.
“Brassai’s nocturnal vision of Paris is so well known, and his book Paris de Nuit has been so influential - Paris de Nuit is also a ravishing book object in a purely physical sense. The printing represents arguably the most luscious gravure ever seen, the blacks being so rich and deep that after handling the book one expects to find sooty deposits all over one’s fingers.” Parr and Badger, Volume 1, p. 134.
Hollywood, CA: Heavy Industry Publications, 1978. First Edition. 12mo; publisher's photo-illustrated card wraps; unpaginated; chiefly halftone photographic illus. throughout. Publisher's promotional card included. Slight curling towards fore-edge of wrappers and promotional card, binding otherwise sound and pages unmarked. A Near Fine copy of this scarce photo-novel, featuring Shelley Chamberlain, Suzanne Chandler, and Susan Haller.
Offered by Capitol Hill Books and found in "E-List 24."
No. 635 of 750 copies. signed by Paul McCartney. 1 vols. Large folio. Cloth, pictorial upper cover, in matching cloth clamshell box. As new, unopened in shrink wrap.
Offered by James Cummins Bookseller and found in "Photography."
Notes: A rare copy of the first edition of this legendary literary rarity, the first printing of Larry McMurtry's first book of essays. The book is well-known among book collectors as the "skycrapers" printing, because of that typo on line 12 of page 105. This copy has page 105 (specifically the sheet with pages 105 to 108) in BOTH issues, with skyscrapers spelled correctly and incorrectly.
However, this copy does not have the other errors, like "in in" on page 56, line 2; or the line beginning "Mr. Brammer" duplicated in paragraph two of page 134. A year after the publication of this book, Deborah Detering Pannill, a University of Texas at Austin student, wrote a thorough term paper on Encino Press and interviewed the publisher, Bill Wittliff. After the errors in McMurtry's book were discovered, "at first Wittliff thought he could salvage some of those printed but finally they decided to destroy the edition and reprint it.”
What Wittliff meant by "salvage" was not clear until this copy came to light. Only part of the edition had been bound when the errors were discovered. This copy proves that Wittliff attempted to salvage the book by reprinting the pages with errors and replacing them in the unbound copies. In the case of this copy, the corrected sheet was laid on top of the incorrect "skycrapers" text, causing pages 105 to 108 to be duplicated.
McMurtry's first collection of essays, covering Texas history, Texas writers, cowboys, and as a coda to The Last Picture Show, sex in Archer City, Texas has been popular with collectors since its first publication. This is (so far) the only known copy with the famous "skycrapers" page in both issues.
Estimates of the number of surviving copies of the "skycrapers" first printing vary, with typical numbers given as 10–20. The book is not that rare. Realistically, the number of copies is probably two or three times that many. Even so, for a book distributed to the public (as opposed to a limited edition destined for collectors), 50 copies is vanishingly small print run in a state as large as Texas. Probably the scarcest of all McMurtry books.
Your cataloguer has published an essay and bibliography of this book on his Substack.
Edition + Condition: First edition (first printing with the "skycrapers" error). A near fine copy in a very good, first issue dust jacket (with "wtih" in paragraph five, line three of the front flap). The jacket has light shelfwear and a crease along the front flap edge. The book is signed by McMurtry on the front free endpaper. A previously unrecorded and perhaps unique variant of the first printing, in above average condition for this book.
OCCASIONAL LIST 22: A Miscellany: Original Art Work; Small Archive of Major English Watercolourist; Interesting Theatrical Pieces; Manuscript Material, Etc., Etc. -- available on request from fgrare@fgrarebooks.com...
Has the following lists available: California, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Oregon, Louisiana, Colorado, Ohio and New York. Will email to interested parties. Contact info@ginsbook.com to request...
Binding designed by John Leighton. Brown cloth over beveled boards, elaborate gilt designs to front panel and spine; all edges gilt; brown clay-coated endpapers, 7-1/4” tall, 312 pp. Engraved frontispiece and over a hundred engraved illustrations within the text; printed by the Dalziel Brothers, one of the most influential wood engraving companies of Victorian England. Light wear to corners and spine ends, gilt bright and cloth is clean.
A fun and beautiful edition of this classic, the front cover features cameo portraits surrounding a central ship image, interspersed with vines. John Leighton was one of England’s foremost book designers and helped pioneer the pictorial ornamentation style.
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Two full-page richly hand-colored paintings of the mushroom. 24 folding leaves. 8vo (278 x 197 mm.), orig. decorated wrappers, new stitching. [Japan]: copied after 1850.
A near-contemporary manuscript copy of Suigetsu’s Sakikusa ko, published in 1850; this is an early account of the lingzhi or reishi mushroom.
Offered by Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller and found in "Japanese Mycology."
No place, circa 1905. $4800. Original illustration by California artist Theodore Hampe (1877- 1965) for an unidentified publication of Mary Howitt’s 1829 poem “The Spider and the Fly.” Hampe’s male arachnid luring a female fly into his web illustrates Howitt’s opening line: “Will you walk into my parlour?” That famous line, often misquoted as “come (or step) into my parlour,” remains a widely recognized aphorism for false overtures of friendship. So well-known was Howitt’s cautionary tale that Lewis Carroll parodied it in his “Mock Turtle’s Song” in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
The expressions of the two figures and exquisite details of their costumes exemplify Hampe’s deft hand at small brush technique and mastery of color and shading. The fly perches on the bottommost line of the web, which leads the viewer’s eye back to the seductive host at its epicenter, completing a visually satisfying composition. A splendidly detailed and preserved illustration.
9.5" x 12.75" notebook with photos and ephemera on lighting and make-up for the theater and films. It includes ten 4"x 5" snapshots with eight snaps of a woman in different stages of make-up, six duplicate brochures of "Makeup for the theater," bags with an illustration of a woman putting on lipstick, hand-drawn illustrations, a typewritten report "an introduction to motion picture lighting" by Norman G Dyhrenfurth, who was a Swiss American mountaineer and filmmaker. He was the leader of the successful American Mount Everest expedition of 1963. There is also a bill to Gil Haimsohn, who was a known Hollywood Sound Editor and a Clairol Hair-coloring workbook.
Offered by House of Mirth Photos and found in "Spring 2024."
1953. Ace Books. New York, NY. Paperback. 1st Edition/ 1st Printing. Very Good. Cover Art by Al Rossi. This is a mass market paperback book (PBO). Ace Double Book number D-15, priced at 35cents. The book is in Very Good condition and was issued without a dust jacket. There is light rubbing and edge wear to the spine ends, corners and spine joints. The text pages are clean, with noticeable generalized toning. This is William Burroughs first published book and was published with the encouragement of Allen Ginsberg who not only had regular correspondence with Burroughs throughout the writing but handed the book over to Ace books to help it get published.
"Ace Books renamed the book from Junk to Junkie, possibly because Junk implied the book itself was poor quality, and added the subtitle Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict. Ace took advantage of Burroughs' provocative subject by creating a 'lurid' book cover, but also censored the book's language, removed certain passages, and added editors' notes and disclaimers. To avoid the perception that his company endorsed drug use, Wyn chose to bundle Junkie with a reprint of Narcotics Agent, a 1941 book by Maurice Helbrant chronicling his work in the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. " (from Wikipedia)
St. Helen, Michigan: St. Helen Development Co., 1909 Promotional piece describing the investment opportunities in St. Helen, located in Roscommon County in Northern Michigan. “The land itself is varied in character, some being sandy loam, this being classed by experts as the finest fruit land in the state.” Beans, corn, oats, rye, and apples are some of the crops well suited to the region. The St. Helen Development Company sold more than 80,000 acres of land and helped to build more than 30 miles of roads and over 80 miles of fencing. Pamphlet (8” x 9” folded to 4” x 9”), consisting of 16 panels, folded vertically (as issued) and bound with two staples. Includes 32 photographic illustrations, including a “contemplative” birdseye view of St. Helen across the middle spread, and a map of Michigan on the rear with St. Helen called out.
Illustrated Catalog on Carlos Merida (1891–1984) -- Mexican painter, sculptor, writer and graphic designer -- available by request from mmbooks@comcast.net
Nuremberg, Christoph Heussler, 1568. Folio. Engraved title, 49 full page illustrations, engraved by Jost Amman after the drawings of Jamnitzer. 18th-century half vellum over boards, green silk ties.
First and only edition of this remarkable work, an exceptional collaboration between the most famous goldsmith of its time, the personal goldsmith to four kings, Wenzel Jamnitzer (ca. 1507-1585) and the prolific Swiss engraver Jost Amman (1539-1591), considered the creator of the German illustrated book. The Perspectiva is regarded as the most important illustrated work on the solid bodies of the 16th century in the German-speaking world.
Offered by Martayan Lan Rare Books & Maps and found in "A New Perspective."
Children’s Dance Theater Archive of Carla Blank and Jody Roberts -- Offered jointly with Kate Mitas, Bookseller. Details available on request from maser@detritus.com...
4to (183 x 133 mm.). [xxiv], 90 [10]p. Black Letter type (roman for dedication and section headings, scattered italic), historiated woodcut initials (one of a man plowing), FULL PAGE WOODCUT OF TEN GRAFTING INSTRUMENTS with letterpress captions, SIX TEXT WOODCUTS showing, i.a., grafts, plants and seeds (one repeated), title woodcut of a man grafting (repeated from the text).
Blue paper wrappers, blue morocco backed blue paper chemise (signed Devauchelle, misdated “1569” on the spine) with a blue paper slipcase.
SECOND EDITION of English naturalist Leonard Mascall’s first publication. It is “a major landmark in the development of British arboriculture… the first readily available text on…the care of trees to be published in the English language…. He is an undoubted champion of the professional gardener and arborist…Mascall…displays an awareness of basic arboriculture that is far in advance of other British texts from the sixteenth century” (Johnston).
Emphasizing both practical experience and familiarity with local conditions, Mascall details the planting, cultivating, propagating, grafting and transplanting of trees and vines of all sorts, including pear, fig, peach, apricot, damson, apple, medlar, quince, cherry, mulberry, gooseberry, chestnut, almond, grape and hop. He illustrates the necessary tools — pruning knives, saws, chisels, a mallet and hammer with file — and the most effective grafting methods. He takes up how to improve fruit flavor, prevent infestations of ants, caterpillars, snails and worms and HOW TO MAKE WINES AND CIDERS. Knowledgeable, accomplished and enterprising, Mascall drew on the work of French Benedictine horticulturist David Brossard and unidentified German and/or Dutch sources. He served as kitchen clerk to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
This edition is dated after the final line on C3v. Our copy contains two quires (A, N) from the first edition and an apparently unknown setting of type in the outer forme of quire D (the inner forme is from the first edition.
A good copy (minor ink smudges, title soiled and with two short tears — one blank margin brusquely repaired), scattered contemporary annotations, contemporary inscription of Thomas Johnson on the title (trimmed), slightly later signature of Edward G(u)ardiner on the final verso. My thanks to Dr. Aaron Pratt and Mr. Stephen Tabor for their insights.
St. Louis: Trade Promotion Bureau, National Shoe & Leather Finders' Assn., (n. d.), circa 1930. 14 x 11 inches. Broadsides. Heavy white cardstock printed in multiple colors, with each broadside having a different background color and a white border. Light bumping and wear, with loss to lower corner of one broadside, mostly affecting border only; light dampstaining to some borders; dampstaining and soiling to verso of first broadside in the series ("Monday"); light scattered soiling. Good.
Presumably a complete set of these promotional posters, which urge readers to "Watch Your Step" on every day of the week except Sunday. Each accompanying illustration shows a different reason why readers should have their shoes "re-built": to prevent accidents caused by faulty shoe soles; to keep one's feet dry when stepping in puddles; to look fashionable, presentable and reliable; and to prevent injury when stepping on sharp objects.
During the Great Depression -- when we speculate these posters were produced -- thousands of unemployed workers from other sectors of the economy went into the shoe repair business, likely because the cost of entry was low and the need for reliable footwear was constant. However, given their lack of training, the overall quality of shoe repairs plummeted. At the same time, the National Leather & Shoe Finders' Association (NLSFA) found that nearly 75% of Americans opted to replace, rather than repair, their shoes. Faced with this twin calamity, the NLSFA embarked on an ambitious program to identify major areas the shoe repair industry needed to focus on, redecorate existing places of business so they looked more professional, form a guild to ensure quality and consistency throughout the industry, and promote quality and workmanship through advertising and displays. Although the guild eventually fizzled out in the 1940s, the NLSFA remained the premier organization of the industry, and still exists today as the Shoe Service Institute of America. (https://www.ssia.info/awards/history/)
Not located in OCLC or other online resources.
Offered by Kate Mitas, Bookseller and found in "E-list No. 21."
Lisbon: Academia das Ciências, 1979. Folio (42 x 27.8 cm.), publisher’s illustrated boards in original gilt-stamped slipcase. Book in very good to fine condition. Slipcase a bit soiled, but solid, and still in very good condition. 25 pp. [pp. 1-2 blank], (1), 44 [i.e., 40 ll.—leaves 1-5 numbered as pp. 1-10, followed by leaves numbered 11-44; some pages and leaves misnumbered), (1 l. blank), profusely illustrated in color.
FIRST and ONLY EDITION of this excellent facsimile of a most valuable manuscript of the Portuguese discoveries, the original of which is housed in the library of the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa. The facsimile of the manuscript is preceded by an introduction by Luís de Albuquerque, in which he provides a useful list of all related manuscripts, followed by a comparison of the information provided about each fleet in this manuscript and in the Livro de Lisuarte de Abreu, the only similar work known. Pages 15-25 contain a transcription of all text in the manuscript, organized, as is the manuscript itself, chronologically by the years of the fleets. The main text contains color representations of the ships that made up the various fleets, often with the names of the captains. Several of the fleets stopped in Brazil on the outward voyage, beginning with that of Pedro Alvares Cabral in 1500, making this a crucial document for the early history of that country.
From an edition limited to 172 copies, 150 of which were offered for sale. A very important guide for understanding the early diplomacy and exploration of the Americas. The four Bulls issued by Pope Alexander VI in 1493, as well as the Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal of 1494, set the course for the early division of exploration of the New World and Asia. As a result of the "lines of demarcation" drawn between the two nations, Portugal was given rights to most of Asia but was confined to Brazil in the Americas, while Spain was given free rein in nearly all of North and South America. Gottschalk provides historical introductions to each of the documents, and reproduces the four Bulls and the Treaty in full-size facsimiles. Also included are facsimiles of three early maps showing the line of demarcation with regard to New World exploration. Gottschalk differs from the estimable Frances Davenport, who identifies pre-Columbian papal bulls of 1455, 1456, and 1481, as having a theoretical relationship to the future discovery and exploration in the Americas. Despite that disagreement this work, giving full facsimiles and historical context for the four earliest diplomatic documents relating directly to the Americas, is a very valuable source.
89pp. plus 130 facsimiles. Folio. Original half vellum and brown cloth, gilt-lettered spine. Covers slightly bowed, boards a bit stained. Light foxing. Very good. In a plain dust jacket.
[New York]: 1979. Vintage original lm script, 11 x 8 1⁄2" (28 x 22 cm.), 101 pp. Lacks blank front wrapper, brad bound, small tear to left middle of title page, overall very good+ or better.
[sold with:]
Two analyses of earlier drafts of the script done by a staff member at the Chartoff-Winkler production company, one 10 pp. dated 7/11/78 and one 7 pp. dated 11/14/78.
A very interesting copy of this script, containing 4 pp. of holograph notes most likely in the hand of Nicholas Colasanto, who played maa boss Tommy Como. In these pages he both writes out his lines and makes notes about them. The verso of one of the analyses has a page of MS notes in another, unknown hand. The script is dated 2-1-79 and this draft is noted as by “M.S.” (Martin Scorsese) and “R.D.N.” (Robert De Niro).
Raging Bull is now considered one of the crowning achievements of director Martin Scorsese and the actor most associated with him, Robert De Niro. In addition to Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, it won two: Best Actor (De Niro) and Best Editing (Thelma Schoonmaker).
Although this is essentially the movie’s shooting script, there are still major differences between what is on the page and the completed lm. For example, the title sequence of the MS/RDN screenplay opens with “Stone Cold Dead in the Market” by Louis Jordan on the soundtrack, and “CLOSE-UPS of a fighter’s body,” intercut with the titles, only at the end of which “WE CATCH A GLIMPSE of young JAKE LAMOTTA.”
Compare this to the movie’s actual title sequence—the iconic long-shot black-and-white image of De Niro as LaMotta alone in the ring, practicing his boxing moves in slow motion, while on the soundtrack we hear the lyrical Intermezzo from Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni. However, Jake’s monologue has been completely rewritten. It’s funnier. Only its closing line remains the same, “That’s Entertainment!” So it goes throughout the remainder of the screenplay and film. The structure remains the same. The essential content of each scene remains the same. But the dialogue, frequently profane, may differ, due to the fact that the actors—particularly De Niro as Jake,and Joe Pesci as Jake’s brother, Joey—were encouraged by Scorsese to improvise during shooting, taking off from what was written on the page.
Forty years after it was written, Raging Bull is still cinema’s denitive analysis of toxic masculinity.
Offered by Walter Reuben, Inc and found in "Catalog 53."
Paris: Exposition Coloniale Internationale, 1931. Four volumes. 4to. [lvi], 279, xlvi; 336, lxi; 348, lxxiii; 296, lxvi pp., including half-titles in each volume. Complete with index, addenda, errata, and 67 color plates by Grønvold. Original half burgundy calf over marbled boards, gilt lettering on spine; browning and foxing to preliminary and blank leaves, otherwise a very nice wide-margined copy. First edition of a standard work on the avifauna of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
The authors spent the winter months over many years in ornithological exploration in Southeast Asia. The results of their explorations were first published in the Revue de Ornithologie and The Ibis and later gathered in this elaborate four volume set.
Delacour (1890-1985) was an American ornithologist with French origins known for discovering and breeding some of the world’s rarest birds, including the imperial pheasant. He founded the French ornithological magazine L’Oiseau. Leaving France for the United States during World War II, he ultimately became director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.
Jabouille (1875-1947), a civil servant, was chosen by Delacour as his companion because of his expertise in the birds of Indochina.
Grønvold (1858- 1940), a Danish naturalist and artist, worked at the London Natural History Museum, where he developed skills as a taxidermist and established his reputation as an ornithological illustrator and painter of birds’ eggs.
Offered by Rootenberg Rare Books & Manuscripts and found in "Spring Catalogue 2024."
Leipzig, Germany. Illustrite Zeitung (Illustrated Newspaper), Circa 1845. Disbound.
This wood engraving clipped from an unidentified edition of the Illustrite Zeitung (Illustrated Newspaper), known colloquially as the ‘Leipziger,’ is undated, but information on the reverse indicates that it was published by J. J. Weber of Leipzig, Germany. It is titled, Quarantine und Marinehosital fur Einwanderer auf Staten Island, Newyorf (Quarantine Station and Marine Hospital for Immigrants at Staten Island, New York). It is in nice shape with some light toning.
It can be dated as locations of the buildings and dock exactly as shown almost identically match those shown on a map of the grounds, “Marine Hospital Ground, Staten Island . . . made by John Ewein. Dated March 1845 . . . City Surveyor.” The large building in the foreground is “[St. Nicholas] Hospital.” The center building on the hill is the “Yellow Fever Hospital.” The building to the far right is the “Small Pox Hospital.” The small buildings on the “Wharf” and “Pier” are a “Shed” and “Store House.”
Between 1795 and 1798, Yellow Fever killed thousands in New York City, spurring passage of a quarantine law that funded the construction of the New York Marine Hospital on this site. At its peak, the hospital could house 1,500 patients and was treating more than 8,000 per year. Before landing at New York, all vessels were boarded by inspectors, and if they found any trace of disease, everyone was unloaded at the Quarantine. First-class passengers spent their quarantine at the St. Nicholas while lower-class passengers were held in shanties not visible in the wood engraving.
There was considerable local opposition to the hospital, both from land developers who wished to use the grounds for projects and locals who blamed outbreaks of disease on the passengers under quarantine. The tension escalated and in 1856, a local health board prohibited anyone, including staff, from exiting the building by land. On the first of September 1858, the same board passed a resolution declaring the facility to be ”a pest and a nuisance of the most odious character, bringing death and desolation to the very doors of the people [who must abate] this abominable nuisance without delay.” That night a giant mob attacked the hospital, and after evacuating patients and staff from the buildings, burned most of the complex to the ground. The following night, they burned the rest. When later brought to trial, the mob leaders were acquitted, the jury deciding that they had acted in self-defense.
In his semi-autobiographical novel, Redbun: His First Voyage, Herman Mehlville recounts a typical chaotic scene as ships were searched and inspected by health officials and later expresses relief when upon returning to New York harbor as his ship passed the Staten Island complex, apparently unnoticed by port officials, and escaped inspection.
(For more information, see Stephenson’s “"The Quarantine War: the Burning of the New York Marine Hospital in 1858" in the Jan-Feb 2004 issue of Public Health Reports, available online.)
Uncommon. Wood engravings of the Staten Island hospital from illustrated magazines and auctions occasionally appear at auction. The majority are post-attack illustrations showing the ruins or replacement buildings.
Offered by Kurt A. Santfleben, LLC. and found in "Catalog 24-2."
Broadside. Gerold & Son, ( ca. 1900), Vienna. Color lithograph, 28 x 38 1/2 inches.
I just love this image – the happy old fellow cavorting in Arctic seas, with no idea of the trouble he’s about to encounter. Gerold & Son were an old Austrian printing firm. Between 1880 and the 1920s they produced “Hartinger’s Wall Plates for the Education in Natural History,” a series of zoological and botanical chromolithographs designed for educational use in schools. This delightful image by Joseph Fleischmann shows a right whale, floating impossibly high in the water (for educational reasons, I’m sure) with a whale boat bearing down and the mother ship in the distance. As befits its subject, the lithograph is huge, measuring 28 x 38 1/2 inches. Very good condition.
Offered by Ten Pound Island Book Company and found in "Maritime List 343."
Northampton: Gehenna Press, 1974. Baskin, Leonard. First edition. Hardcover. Oblong folio. 28.7 x 37 cm. One of 50 copies. The 65 individual sheets, signed woodcuts and linoleum cuts by Baskin printed in black, blue, red and green ink on semi-transparent paper, interleaved with heavier stock. The images varying in size, all with full margins printed one to a leaf on Troya paper, and printed from the blocks by Harold McGrath, Signed by Baskin in pencil on last leaf. One of fifty sets created. An unknown number were bound; many, like this set, remained in loose sheets. The images, which range in size from roughly one inch up to 8 inches. They consist primarily of illustrations, bookplates, pressmarks, and ephemera used in earlier works. BRIDWELL 77. Laid-in, the Gehenna Press illustrated announcement on light green stock describing the publication. Baskin founded the Gehenna Press whilst at Yale in 1942, and printed prolifically for the rest of his life, notably during his years teaching at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, from 1953 to 1974. A great admirer of William Blake, Baskin illustrated and printed many of his own works in addition to collaborative projects. Orig. navy portfolio housed in folding box, striped front cover and back cover matching navy colored portfolio. Fine.
Offered by Roy Young Bookseller Inc. and found in "March 2024."
Paris: 1658. The first edition of the rules of the Congregation of the Mission, the religious society founded by St. Vincent de Paul. Founded in 1625, the society was concerned especially with charitable works and expanded rapidly in Europe and abroad. The edition offered here is the only one published during the saint's lifetime and includes an exhortation by Vincent to this followers. There are several variants of this first edition, some have a different engraved portrait of Vincent, others have a different spelling on the title-page, and still others include an errata sheet at the end (this one does not). 12mo (12 x 6.5cm), [iv], 112pp., [ii]. Engraved title-page, engraved portrait, and engraved plate of Christ. Bound in contemporary calf, some wear to spine.
Offered by Zinos Books and found in "New Arrivals."
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