May Brown Bag
Join the Gender Equity Initiative for our May Brown Bag Lunch Series with Lyudmyla Babadzhanova of Bua Conservation LLC for her talk on What Not to Do in Book and Paper Conservation on Tuesday, May 27... [more about May Brown Bag]
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 early-March 2025.
AARDVARK BOOKS/EZRA TISHMAN BOOK APPRAISALS
ANTIPODEAN BOOKS, MAPS, PRINTS
Featured item:
Grant, U[lysses]. S. (1822-1885)
Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant
New York: The Century Co., 1895. Expanded Edition. Black & White Engraved Plates, Maps, Facsimiles. Cloth over boards. Octavos. Bound in dark blue cloth over boards with spines titled in gilt, top edges gilt. Minor extremity wear, some light surface abrasions to boards. Hinges sound. Handsome contemporaneous bookplate of William Henry French in each volume. Attractive set.
The greatest American military memoir, as written by the financially ruined Grant in a race with death. This is the first printing of the second edition, expanded and augmented under the supervision of Grant's son.
Offered by Back Creek Books and found in "E-list #60."
Featured item:
BRADFORD, Perry
New York: Perry Bradford Music Pub. Co., 1920. First Edition. Quarto (31cm); photo-illustrated wrappers; 6pp. Light wear and handling, a few tiny tears to extremities, faint stain to lower rear wrapper, and two tiny tape squares along upper margin of rear wrapper; Very Good+.
Well-preserved sheet music for African-American composer and bandleader Perry Bradford's Crazy Blues, which was sung by and popularized by blues singer Mamie Smith. Front wrapper reproduces a large photograph of Smith, backed by her band, the Jazz Hounds. The relationship between Bradford and Smith was significant; in addition to functioning as her musical director, in 1920 he was responsible for convincing Fred Hager of Okeh Records to record her, breaking a significant color barrier and making her the first African-American blues singer to appear on record. Bradford and Smith recorded Crazy Blues in a New York studio on August 10, 1920. "A boisterous cry of outrage by a woman driven mad by mistreatment, the song spoke with urgency and fire to Black listeners across the country who had been ravaged by the abuses of race-hate groups, the police and military forces the preceeding year - the notorious "Red Summer" of 1919...As a record, something made for private listening in the home, "Crazy Blues" was able to say things rarely heard in public performances. Seemingly a song about a woman whose man has left her, it reveals itself, on close listening, to be a song about a woman moved to kill her abusive partner. As a work of blues, it used the language of domestic strife to tell a story of violence and subjugation that Black Americans also knew outside the home, in a world of white oppression" (Hajdu, David. "A Song That Changed Music Forever." The New York Times, Aug.8, 2020). While there had been blues recordings prior to Crazy Blues, most of them instrumental and nearly all played by white musicians, Hajdu notes that Bradford and Smith's recording became "a hit record of unmatched proportions and profound impact," selling 75,000 copies within a month of its release and a reported 2 million over time, and establishing the blues as a popular art form. OCLC notes 8 holdings (NYPL, U.Louisville, Tulane, Cleveland Public, Middle Tennessee State, U.Illinois, U.Michigan, Brigham Young).
Offered by Lorne Bair Rare Books and found in "April 2025."
W. C. BAKER RARE BOOKS & EPHEMERA
Featured item:
DILLON, Leo and Diane (a.k.a. The Dillons)
[Unassembled Mobile]: Hello Book: 1978 Book Week Mobile
New York: The Children's Book Council, Inc., 1978.
Unbound. Unassembled mobile. Trifold die-cut thick card panel measuring 27" x 9½". Printed in color on both sides. A few pieces partially "punched out" else fine in tanned and worn printed envelope with several tears. The envelope prints instructions (string, scissors, and ruler required) and an image of the completed mobile. The Dillons were an interracial couple who first met at Parsons School of Design and worked in close collaboration on much of their work. This mobile was designed on the heels of the pair jointly winning consecutive Caldecott Medals in 1976 and 1977, the only artists to do so. Leo Dillon was also the first African-American artist to win the Caldecott medal. Meant to be assembled and discarded after Book Week, thus presumably very uncommon, especially in this state.
Offered by Between the Covers Rare Books and found in "eList 236: New Arrivals."
Featured item:
Crampton, Gertrude
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1945. First Edition. First printing, June 1945, Little Golden Book number 21. Illustrated by Tibor Gergely. Chip to the top spine end, some general wear, else very good in a jacket with chips and rubbing, else very good. Very good / very good. Item #845
Here is Publishers Weekly’s most-recent ordering of the all time, top 10, best selling children’s books in hardcover (7 1/2 of the 10 are written by women): 1. The Poky Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowrey (1942), 2. The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter (1902), 3. Tootle by Gertrude Crampton (1945), 4. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss (1960), 5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling (2000), 6. Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt (1940), 7. Saggy Baggy Elephant by Kathryn and Byron Jackson (1947), 8. Scuffy the Tugboat by Gertrude Crampton (1955), 9. The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss (1957), 10. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling (1999).
Offered by Biblioctopus and found in "E-list: Illustrated."
Featured item:
Baudelaire; Charles (1821–1867)
Les Fleurs Du Mal (English and French Edition) [Translator Signed Post Card]
New York: David R Godine Publisher, 1982. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover with Dust Jacket. With Typed postcard to Horizon Books publisher Ben Raeburn with signature by translator Richard Howard. Laid-in disbound review from Yale New Books in Review – 1986 page 263-272 and an Article from an unknown literary journal by Richard Howard about his translation; page 90-91. Blue cloth with gilt titles; 8vo (9.25 inches tall). xxxii [3] 365 [1] pages. Original dark blue cloth, with gilt titles on spine. Illustrated dust jacket with original price of $22.50. Bilingual edition, with French text on the left-hand pages and the English translation by Richard Howard on the right-hand pages.
Near fine, with minimal shelf-wear to edges. The binding is tight, and the text is clean without any markings. The dust jacket has slight wear on the corners but remains bright and vibrant. A beautiful, well-preserved copy.
This bilingual edition of Baudelaire's iconic collection, Les Fleurs du Mal, is noted for Richard Howard’s careful translation, which remains true to the original French text while making the work accessible to an English-speaking audience. Mazur’s evocative illustrations provide an additional layer of engagement with the poetry’s themes of decadence, beauty, and melancholy.
This work is highly regarded by collectors of Baudelaire’s works and is an excellent example of the craft of book-making from David R. Godine. Includes 9 original monotypes by Michael Mazur, whose works capture the atmospheric mood of Baudelaire's poems.
Provenance: The book was from the estate of Horizon Books publisher Ben Raeburn with no markings.
Offered by Blind Horse Books and found in "Poetry."
BLUEMANGO BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS
Featured item:
ADAM, Victor. Album de Sainte-Pélagie, Prison de la Dette...
Paris [&] London: Publié par V. Morlot [&] Mc.Léan, [n.d., ca. 1830]. First edition. Oblong folio (10 5/8 x 13 7/8 inches; 270 x 352 mm.). Twelve numbered hand-colored lithographed plates. Plates lithographed by Bernard. Each plate with the publisher's oval blind-stamp in lower blank margin. Bound without the printed titlepage. Mid-nineteenth century quarter red calf over marbled boards, smooth spine ruled and lettered in gilt. A superb example with fne contemporary hand-coloring.
The plates are captioned: “L’Écrou;” “Chambre du détenu malheureux;” “Chambre du détenu philosophe;” “Les Élections;” “Le Cabinet de lecture;” “Le Cabaret;“ “Le Café;” “Le Repas dans la cour;” “Les Jeux dans la cour;” “Le Bain du créancier;” “Le Paye;” and “Sortie du débiteur;.”
An exceptionally rare album depicting various scenes at the Parisian prison of Sainte-Pélagie. Tis prison, once located in the 5th arrondissement, was active from 1790-1899 and housed many renowned prisoners during and after the French Revolution, including the Marquis de Sade. In this series, Adam conveys in various scenes of prison life the dignifed squalor to which its inhabitants were reduced. We have only seen this book once before - a copy with modern hand-coloring which we sold in 2003. OCLC locates just one copy - BCU Dorigny (Lausanne, Switzerland).
Offered by David Brass Rare Books and found in "Eat, Read and be Merry."
Featured item:
218 vols. Various sizes, generally 12mo to 4to. Nearly all in the publisher’s deluxe embossed morocco gilt bindings. Condition is overall very good to fine, with specific defects noted in the detailed inventory of the collection. An important collection of American gift books & annuals, assembled over many decades with an eye for condition and copies in their deluxe publisher’s bindings.
The annual gift book trend, imported from Europe in the 1820s, flourished in the young American republic, showcasing its best writ - ers, including many female authors, and representing the pinnacle of bookmaking at the time. These books, which published Ameri - can short fiction and poetry embellished with fine engravings and chromolithographs, and housed within elaborate embossed morocco bindings, were meant to be displayed in the parlor as objects of middle-class aspirational culture. They were generally published in the late summer or fall, advertised as Christmas or New Year’s gifts, and often contained blank presentation leaves that could be filled in by the purchaser. Nearly all of the books in this collection that are inscribed with presentation inscriptions have been given to women — attesting to the overwhelming female audience for gift books.
Gift books were a significant means of support for many American authors, and this collection includes contributions (some of which are first appearances) by Poe, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Emerson, and scores of other writers. Women writers and editors were also key to the gift book phenomenon, with contributions by Hale, Sigourney, Leslie, Stowe, Percival and others. In addition, the gift book rep - resents an important contribution to American book arts and the development of deluxe trade bindings and book illustration.
The popularity of the gift book coincided with increased literacy and developments in steam-powered presses and stereotyping that lowered printing costs, enabling a wider reading public. The rise of a middle class readership that self-consciously aspired to a taste for arts and letters that it associated with wealth and higher social status fueled demand for gift books. The gift book also showcased American arts and letters when American culture was defining itself against accusations of crudity or outright nonexistence when compared to its European counterparts. “Here were books ideally suited to an aspiring middle class. They appealed to the eye and the heart rather than to the mind; they were handsome and costly; they were ‘artistic’ and ‘refined.’ They met a demand for ‘culture’ and showed the purchaser that his country could produce — and would support — its own painters, engravers, and authors. American presses could no less than the British turn out fine typography finely bound. America could no less than Europe understand matters beyond the making of money” (Thompson, American Literary Annuals and Gift Books, p. 4).
Gift books were often called “ladies’ books” and, judging from the inscriptions in this collection, the recipient of the gift book was nearly always a female. Content was often highly sentimental and romantic, set in exotic, far-off-lands, and concerning the imaginary and the ideal. The gift book trend did not survive the turn to realism in the mid century, though the Lily of the Valley tried to incorporate discussion of current issues (temperance, abolition, etc). “When political and social inquiry began to spread, the romantic enthusiasm expressed by the annuals was on the wane” (Thompson, p. 5). Gift books further suffered from the rise of monthly magazines, which siphoned off more readers.
Offered by Bull's Head Rare Books and found in "Catalogue Four."
ANDREW CAHAN, BOOKSELLER, LTD.
Featured item:
Victor Appleton [pseud. of the Stratemeyer Syndicate]
The Movie Boys and the Wreckers; or, Facing the Perils of the Deep
Garden City, NY: Garden City Publishing Company, 1926. Very Good. First Edition in Later Issue Wrappers. Octavo (18.5cm.); publisher's pictorial wrappers; [2],212,[10]pp. Moderate wear and soil to wrapper, textblock significantly browned due to poor paper quality, else Very Good.
The Movie Boys series no. 3, a popular monthly series of young adult novels about a group of young boys traveling about making documentary films, in this case of the men attempting to bring in a shipwreck. The works were written by the far-reaching Stratemeyer Syndicate, who also wrote the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and Tom Swift series. This copy presumably in a later issue of the wrappers, which advertises the series through seventeenth volume, "The Movie Boy War Spectacle," published in April, 1927.
Two copies in OCLC as of February, 2025, at the NYPL and U. South Florida.
Offered by Capitol Hill Books and found in "E-list #40."
BRIAN CASSIDY, BOOKSELLER AT TYPE PUNCH MATRIX
DE SIMONE COMPANY, BOOKSELLERS
Featured item:
MARTUSCELLI, PASQUALE. Trattato di calligrafia: analiticamente esposto, e dedicato ai suoi cari allievi.
Napoli: Dalla Stamperia e Cartiera del Fibreno, 1840. Large folio. 530 x 365 mm., [21 x 14 ¼ inches]. 27pp. of text followed by 25 full-page engraved plates. Bound in recent half calf and corners, marbled paper boards; some foxing to the paper stock and binding with a moisture stain on upper board. With faults a very good copy of a rare calligraphic manual.
First edition. Pasquale Martuscelli was a member of the faculty at the Royal Naval Academy in Naples and member of a number of military societies associated with the Royal College of S. Caravaggio. In his De Simone Company, Booksellers Trattato di calligrafia, Martuscelli offers a manual to learn the traditional methods and styles of handwriting, beginning with a discussion of the tools of the calligraphic trade, followed by lessons in design forms including the minuscule, majuscule, bastarda, cursive, and rotonda. The twenty-five plates are engraved by the notable French firm Brasseaux, established in Paris in 1827. The firm was owned and operated by two brothers, both expert in field of engraving, part of a family that created engraved medals, stamps, and stationery for Louis Phillippe and other members of the noble families of Paris.
Martuscelli’s manual and the one by Giuseppe Palermo are excellent examples of the emphasis that the Royal Naval Academy in Naples place on clear and well designed written communication. These large calligraphic manuals one focusing on traditional forms and the second on styles reflecting 19th century taste are both rare.
Offered by De Simone Company and found in "List 64: Calligraphy."
EDITIO ALTERA RARE BOOKS & MANUSCRIPTS
Featured item:
ANSHELM, Thomas.
Strasbourg: Thomas Anshelm, January 10, 1488. Contemporary blindstamped calf over wooden boards. With 59 woodcuts, of which 28 are combinations of 23 separate blocks. Colored throughout by a contemporary hand. Offered with a French export license.
Impossibly rare sole edition of this lavishlyillustrated incunable, the very first oeuvre of the humanist printer-woodcutter Thomas Anshelm (ca. 1468-1523), in which he employs a revolutionary program of illustration dubbed by modern scholars the ‘combinaison des bois’ (cf Dupeux). In this scheme, the woodcuts are designed with ‘adaptable’ backgrounds which line up perfectly alongside multiple other blocks, thus allowing the illustrator to depict a variety of different scenes using a relatively small number of blocks. Quite aside from its rarity (no copy has ever been offered at auction; no copy resides in any US institution), this copy is the only one known to us with hand-colored illustrations.
Offered by Editio Altera Rare Books & Manuscripts and found in "List for the Cancelled Fair."
RODGER FRIEDMAN RARE BOOK STUDIO
Featured item:
Darwin, Charles. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex.
London: John Murray, 1871. 2 volumes octavo (20 cm). Original green cloth. Spine cocked somewhat on volume 1. Both volumes well-read, but quite good. Owner's name in pencil on title page of volume 1. References: Norman 599; Garrison-Morton 170. Corrections to the text in volume 1 mark this printing as the second issue of the first edition. Volume 2 is the first restriking (“seventh thousand.”) It is noted that the word "evolution" occurs here on page 2 of volume 1 for the first time in any of Darwin’s works.
Offered by Rodger Friedman Rare Book Studio and found in "Darwin."
Featured item:
Women’s Center Newsletter, Summer 1973
New York: Women’s Liberation Center of New York, 1973. Offset. Single leaf folded to form [4]pp. 8 1/2 x 11 in. Three small tears to edges, slight loss to bottom right corner; very good.
Early flyer from The Women’s Liberation Center, published just a year after its founding by Lesbian Feminist Liberation and the Lesbian Switchboard.
The Women’s Liberation Center was a key node in the New York women’s and gay liberation movement, housing the offices and meeting space of several important organizations of the period, including Lesbian Feminist Liberation, Women’s Abortion Project, the Lesbian Lifespace Project, Older Women’s Liberation, the Lesbian Switchborad, Radicalesbians Health Collective, and several others over its 15 years in the firehouse. Additionally, the Center hosted frequent programming, including concerts, screenings, workshops, community dinners, and many other public events.
A year before the publication of this newsletter, The Women’s Liberation Center was evicted from a loft on 22nd Street and moved into the firehouse, which housed the Center until 1987. This newsletter details the history of the firehouse, the precarious legal status of the Center’s use of it, the process the Center would have to successfully navigate in order to formalize its use of the firehouse, and an ultimately successful political strategy to win a lease. The newsletter also includes an article on the prevalence of rape in New York City and movement efforts to combat it and support survivors, along with a comic by Carol Sanders.
A scarce document from an important early node of the women’s liberation movement and movement for abortion rights.
Offered by Fugitive Materials and found in "Catalog 2: The Birth of a Gay Network."
Join the ABAA-Public Google Group, a listserv where ABAA members announce select books for sale, share information on their participation in upcoming book fairs, and showcase their recent catalogs!
The ABAA-Public Google Group is a read-only email group, so email traffic is kept to a minimum and only ABAA members can announce books for sale — ensuring all items are in full compliance with our Code of Ethics.
Subscribers to the group can opt to receive emails individually, or have each day’s emails combined into a daily digest to limit the number of emails they receive.
THOMAS A. GOLDWASSER RARE BOOKS
DAVID A. HAMILTON AMERICANA BOOKS
Featured item:
DECAISNE, Joseph (1807-1882)
Le Jardin Fruitier du Muséum, ou Iconographie de Toutes les Espcès et Variétés d'Arbres Fruitiers Cultivés dans cet Établissement avec leur description, leur histoire, leur synonymie
Paris: (Firmin Didot), [1858-]1862-1875. 9 volumes. Folio. (12 1/8 x 9 3/8 inches). 508 plates after Alfred Riocreux, engraved by Mlle. Taillant and P. Picart, including 1 uncoloured engraving and 507 lithographs, 497 with fruit subjects printed in colour and finished by hand, 4 of these double-page. Some light foxing.
Finely bound in early 20th-century, French, quarter light brown morocco and marble paper boards, marble endpapers by F. Saulnier. First and only edition of this fine pomology, one of the greatest of all fruit books.
Joseph Decaisne was a distinguished Belgian-born French botanist renowned for his contributions to horticulture, agronomy, and botanical taxonomy. Trained at the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, Decaisne became head of the museum's Jardin des Plantes and played a crucial role in advancing the study of plant cultivation, particularly fruit-bearing trees. His expertise in systematic botany and plant physiology led to numerous publications, but the present work remains one of his most significant and visually striking works. Le Jardin Fruitier du Muséum is a monumental treatise on the species and varieties of fruit trees cultivated at the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. It serves as both a scientific study and a practical horticultural guide, documenting the morphology, classification, and cultivation of fruit trees in meticulous detail. The work is presented in sections each covering a single species of fruit. The first (and largest) section is on the Pear, or what the author calls the "roi des fruits à pepins." This section, spread over the first six volumes, includes 357 plates. The remaining sections are, in vol.VII and VIII, Peaches (74 plates); Nectarines (13 plates); Plums (12 plates); Apricots (1 plate); and in vol.IX: Strawberries (40 plates, four of which are double-page) and Currents and Gooseberries (11 plates). The plates illustrate individual varieties with their fruit and portions of the foliage. Decaisne provides descriptions of each species, tracing their historical cultivation, geographic distribution, and known synonyms. The numerous plates were by Alfred Riocreux, "the most sensitive and skilful French botanical artist of the period...the Paris counterpart of Walter Hood Fitch" (Blunt). Riocreux's life-size depictions of fruits, branches, and leaves are celebrated for their scientific accuracy and artistic refinement. Bunyard calls the work "magnificent" and writes that it is impossible to speak too highly of the colouring: "the lithographs are magnificent, and no pomological work has approached them for correctness of colouring." The illustrations in Le Jardin Fruitier du Muséum exemplify the golden age of botanical illustration, where the intersection of art and science produced works of both aesthetic beauty and scholarly importance.
Offered by Donald A. Heald Rare Books and found in "The Spring Catalogue."
JONATHAN A. HILL, BOOKSELLER, INC.
Featured item:
INFRASTRUCTURE 1912-1939 MINING, TUNNELING, DAMS - COLORADO, CALIFORNIA, CANADA etc.
This 11 3/8” x 8 1/4” photo album of 40 leaves/80 pages contains 210 photographs. The photographer was likely an engineer, his lens was regularly focused on the expansion of modernized infrastructure, energy, and mining locations.
The earliest images are of engineered tunnels for the city of Montreal, specifically the Mount Royal Tunnel for the Canadian Royal Railway. This tunnel now is the third longest tunnel in all of Canada. The plan and profile sketches of the tunnel as well as sketched of the muck handling drill carriage are on view at the beginning of this album.
More underground infrastructural photographs contained here include images of the steam shovel crew at the Gayosa Ave. Tunnel in Memphis, Tennessee in 1915. Here, black and white laborers appear dirty and exhausted by their hard work. There are a few instances of tycoon P.R. images of well-dressed men in suits sitting and standing in the underground tunnels. On the other side of the project in Memphis, was a similar project in Helena, Arkansas, pictured here.
This captain of industry chased mining projects in Coalinga, California, Mexia, Texas, and projects in Montana at the Missouri-McKee Mill and the Clear Creek Consolidated Mining Company. Other projects include: the Capital Prize Mine in Colorado, the Kelly Gold Mine in Red Mountain, California, the Bureau Research Labs in Boulder City, Nevada, an “asbestos prospect: in Sims Valley, CA, and the Cactus Mine in Mojave, California. Additionally, other infrastructural projects include the Mattie Mine and Power Plant, and the Boulder Dam (now known as the Hoover Dam) in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River on the border between Nevada and Arizona.
While the majority are held to the page by corner tabs, fourteen 9 1/2” x 7 1/2” images are loose and tucked into the end page. Otherwise, photographs range in size from 2 1/2” x 2” to 9 1/2” x 7 1/8”. There are 10 smaller photographs that are missing, indicated by empty corner tabs.
Offered by House of Mirth Photos and found in "Early Winter 2025."
JOHN W. KNOTT, JR., BOOKSELLER
MICHAEL LAIRD RARE BOOKS & MANUSCRIPTS
DAVID M. LESSER, FINE ANTIQUARIAN BOOKS
LIBER ANTIQUUS, EARLY PRINTED BOOKS & MANUSCRIPTS
Featured item:
Development: A Novel. With a Preface by Amy Lowell.
Bryher
New York: Macmillan, 1920. First American edition. 8vo, xvi, 186 (1)pp; maroon cloth. Lightly shelf-rubbed; edges dusted; very good in the rare dust jacket, dampstained, with a fingernail-sized chip and a small snag to the front panel and cellotape reinforcements on the underside.
The American edition of Bryher's first novel, made up from sheets printed for the London edition with a cancel title page and the additional pages containing Amy Lowell's preface, which did not appear in the first English edition but was included in the second. This copy warmly inscribed and signed by Bryher on the front flyleaf to Chester Page, wryly noting the misspelling of her name on the jacket (it reads "Bryther).
Offered by Locus Solus Rare Books and found in "Bryher - Icon of Queer Modernism."
J. & J. LUBRANO MUSIC ANTIQUARIANS
Featured item:
London, 1795. Unsigned. Large oblong quarto (241 x 309 mm.). Notated in dark brown ink on the verso of the second leaf of a bifolium (i.e., page 4) on 10-stave rastrum-ruled paper of British manufacture. Watermark dated 1794. Late spring or early summer, 1795 (see H.C. Robbins Landon: Haydn Chronicle and Works, Volume III, p. 495). With pencilled note in another hand to first page: "Haydn autograph notes of the 12 English Symphonies. Haydn misquotes the 2nd." Very slightly worn, browned, and soiled; minor foxing and very short splits to central fold; vertical crease to center of bifolium; lower edge with several miniscule tears.
In addition to noting the musical incipits, which comprise 25 measures spread out over 4 staves, Haydn identifies the key, time signature, and year in which each 5 symphony was first performed (in noting the performance date of Symphony 97, however, Haydn makes an error and cites 1791 instead of 1792).
The sketch for the piano trio Hob. XV:25 is notated 5 staves below the symphonic incipits and consists of 9 measures of melodic material for the famous third movement.
Provenance: Leo Liepmannssohn auction catalogue, Berlin, 1907, lot 91; Sotheby's auction catalogue, The Westley Manning Collection, London, 12 October 1954, lot 207; J. A. Stargardt, Marburg; Elkin Mathews, London.
The London symphonies were commissioned by the London impresario and violinist Johann Peter Salomon (1745-1815) and composed over the period 1791-95. Salomon was responsible for bringing Haydn to London where he became immensely popular, largely through performances of his music at Salomon's concerts.
"Haydn’s London symphonies (nos. 93-104) crown his career as a symphonic composer. Not only do they outdo the Paris symphonies stylistically, but he produced them in person for rapturous audiences; this interaction stimulated him to ever bolder and more original conceptions. ... The last six [London] symphonies are even more brilliant [than the first six]. ... Haydn’s determination to conquer new territory with each work is palpable." James Webster in Grove Music Online
"The finale of Hob. XV:25 is the famous rondo "in the Gypsies Style." It seems that a composer's most popular works, if not spurious, are at least unusual manifestations of his style, and this rondo fits this characterization. ... Even though this finale was best known during the eighteenth century as a separate piece in many different settings, its impact is best appreciated within the context of this keyboard trio cycle, for the Andante and Poco Adagio (the first and second movements) hardly prepare one for its burst of energy." A. Peter Brown: Joseph Haydn's Keyboard Music Sources and Styles, p. 377.
"... the G major Trio (39) turned out to be Haydn's most popular piano piece, because of the 'Gypsy Rondo' Finale. ... [It] became an enormous favourite, first in England and immediately afterwards on the Continent." Robbins Landon III, pp. 431-32.
A unique and interesting manuscript, being a virtual catalogue of all the London Symphonies and including music from the famous Gypsy Rondo, some of Haydn's best music from his important London period.
Offered by J. & J. Lubrano Music Antiquarians and found in "Catalogue 108: Joseph Haydn."
STUART LUTZ HISTORIC DOCUMENTS
MAIN STREET FINE BOOKS & MANUSCRIPTS
MARTAYAN LAN RARE BOOKS & MAPS
BRUCE MCKITTRICK RARE BOOKS, INC.
Featured item:
[Binding, Fine- Gladstone, Captain] Asselineau, Charles L’Enfer du Bibliophile.
Paris: L. Conquest and L. Carteret, 1905. 8vo, 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches. Finely bound by Captain Gladstone in full green crushed morocco with exquisite all-over gilt design on both covers, four large triangular inlaid blue morocco pieces to each corner with half-moon gilt-tooled patterning, center with blossom and vine motifs, with two circular blue morocco inlaid pieces. Wide dentelles with similar patterning and two inlaid pieces, blue silk moiré doublures. TEG, signed CEG in gilt, front dentelle. Colored engraved title and illustrations by Leon Lebegue, with added duplicate uncolored plates bound in. This copy issued to ‘Monsieur le Dr Rivet’ signed ‘L C’ [ L. Carteret, the publisher], red card paper wrappers bound-in, in place. Near fine, with slight even sunning to spine.
Offered by Nudelman Rare Books and found in "Catalog 53."
Featured item:
Ellis, Bret Easton
New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1991. Paperback, signed by Ellis on the title page. A fine copy with some light toning to underside of wrappers.
Sharp signed copy of Ellis's most successful novel, which was turned into a film starring Christian Bale in 2000. This edition with a price of $13 to rear cover, original Vintage Contemporaries logo to spine, and a different number line on the copyright page.
Offered by Peruse the Stacks and found in "February New Arrivals."
PHILLIP J. PIRAGES FINE BOOKS & MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS
PRIMARY SOURCES, UNCHARTED AMERICANA
Featured item:
New Orleans, Louisiana, March 4, 1808. Letterpress funeral invitation, 9 1/2 x 7 in. (24 x 18 cm). English and French text in parallel columns, surrounded by decorative frame. Woodcut devices in margins around frame. Old folds, some ink smudging, docketed on verso. About fine.
John Ward Gurley was struck dead in New Orleans on March 3, 1808, at the tender age of twenty-nine. At the time of his death, he was serving as attorney-general for the newly established Territory of Orleans, as registrar of the land office, and as aide-de-camp to the governor, William C. C. Claiborne, who had appointed the young man--holding a degree from Yale--attorney general four years earlier. By most measures, Gurley’s future in frontier politics, and perhaps even at the national level, seemed preordained. Yet to his constituents in New Orleans, among whom he was as well known for his hot temper and quickness to duel as for his political acumen, it must have come as no surprise when pistol and ball sent him to his grave. Early the next day, his parents and friends issued a hastily printed notice in English and French, inviting guests to the funeral at four that afternoon, adding that “The corpse is deposited at the house of Wm. Simpson, Esq., Dauphin street [son Corps sera exposé chez M. Wm Simpson, rue Dauphine].” This remarkable imprint is surely among the most haunting such notices in the genre, especially for its time and place. It also appears to be the earliest surviving specimen of New Orleans job printing.
Offered by Primary Sources, Uncharted Americana and found in "Catalogue 8" (item #4).
RABELAIS BOOKS ON FOOD & DRINK
RICHARD C. RAMER, OLD & RARE BOOKS
Featured item:
Nicholas Blake
First edition, first printing, inscribed in the year of publication by the author to Nicholas "Nico" Llewelyn Davies, the youngest of the Davies Boys who served as the inspiration for the stories of Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie. From the collection of Larry McMurtry, with his personal bookplate affixed to the front endpaper. The Beast Must Die was the fourth detective novel that Cecil Day-Lewis, poet Laureate of the U.K. and father of actor Daniel Day-Lewis, wrote under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake. Regarded as the best of these pseudonymous works, the novel has been the basis for multiple adaptations, most recently the 2021 British television series of the same novel.
London: Collins Crime Club, 1938. Publisher's original red cloth, spine lettered in black; pp. (x), 9-284 + [2 ads]. A very good copy in a very good, unclipped dust jacket. Binding remains firm, minimal shelfwear to boards with an area of sunning near spine heel, scattered foxing to fore-edge. Light offsetting to endpapers, else internally quite clean. Jacket shows a bit of general shelfwear with chipping at spine tips, several closed tears at spine heel, light scattered spotting to spine, back panel toned and lightly rubbed. Rare in the dust jacket, even more so signed.
Offered by The Rare Book Sleuth and found in "March New Arrivals."
Featured item:
Margaret Atwood (source, screenplay), Harold Pinter (screenplay)
THE HANDMAID’S TALE [1989] Revised draft film script
New York: Daniel Wilson Productions, [1989]. Vintage original film script, 11 x 8 1⁄2" (28 x 22 cm), 102 pp. The name of Cynthia Greenhill is written on the title page. She worked on a couple of other films in this era, but is not included in this film’s credits. The front page notes that this draft includes revisions from 1/17/[89] on pink paper and revisions from 1/24/[89] on blue paper. This example of the script does incorporate those dated revisions, but the entire script is printed on white paper. Printed wrappers, brad bound, a few pages with light marginal spotting, overall near fine.
The completed film does not represent screenwriter Harold Pinter’s original vision for this adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel. When director Volker Schlöndorff took over the film’s direction (which had originally been assigned to Karel Reisz) and requested rewrites, Pinter suggested he enlist the original author and she, among several other people, were responsible for the final shooting script. However, only Pinter received screen credit for the script in the released film. Thus, this original Harold Pinter screenplay draft—never published—Is of tremendous value to scholars or fans of Pinter and his work. And, of course, any adaptation of Atwood’s feminist classic is of enduring interest.
Offered by Walter Reuben, Inc. and found in "Catalog 55."
ROOTENBERG RARE BOOKS & MANUSCRIPTS
Featured item:
Alcott, Louisa May
Marjorie's three gifts ... Illustrated
Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, n.d., [ca. 1899]. First separate edition, slim 8vo, pp. [2], 41, [5]; 4 plates; original green pictorial cloth stamped in green, yellow, and gilt; extremities slightly rubbed; very good. This tale for girls was originally published in My Girls (1878), and was the second of the book's eleven tales to be separately published between 1899 and 1904.
Offered by Rulon-Miller Books and found in "Women Novelists, Poets, Artists.... and more."
Featured item:
Fleming, Ian
London: Jonathan Cape, 1964. First Edition, First Impression. Octavo, 256 pages. In Very Good condition with a Very Good dust jacket. Spine tan with black lettering. Dust jacket protected with a mylar covering, price uncut: "16s. net." Light general shelf wear to book spine and boards. Spine lightly cocked.
Offered by Second Story Books and found in "E-list #165: New Arrivals."
MARC SELVAGGIO, BOOKS & EPHEMERA
MICHAEL R. THOMPSON RARE BOOKS
Featured item:
Bradbury, Ray.
Dandelion Wine (Inscribed first edition)
London: Rupert Hart Davis, 1957. First U.K. edition. A Fine copy of the book in a Near Fine dust jacket. Jacket price clipped and with an early price written on the front panel (now partially erased). Also a note at the top of the front flap attributes the inscription to "Bush Hunter - Hollywood actor." Inscribed by the author: For Bush! Ray Bradbury ****************** The Vintner Himself Signs Twice - To Prove His Friendly Wishes Ray Bradbury Aug. 22, 1963." A lovely copy with a generous full-page inscription.
Born from a short story that first appeared in Gourmet Magazine (1953), Dandelion Wine is an intimate semi-autobiographical reflection of a youthful summer spent in Illinois. Set in the fictional Green Town (a stand in for his hometown of Waukegan), the novel explores the rich inner life of a twelve-year-old boy, based on the author himself. Bradbury’s evocative prose captures the beauty of life, loss, and power of nostalgia. Fine in Near Fine dust jacket.
Offered by Whitmore Rare Books and found in "Ray Bradbury."
JOHN WINDLE ANTIQUARIAN BOOKSELLER
--
Remember, you can always browse and download the latest catalogs published by ABAA members on ABAA.org by visiting the following link: https://www.abaa.org/catalog/... (You can also access this page by selecting 'Booksellers' from the top menu, scroll to the bottom of the page to 'Member Catalogs', and click on 'View All'.)
Get to know the members of the ABAA...
Join the Gender Equity Initiative for our May Brown Bag Lunch Series with Lyudmyla Babadzhanova of Bua Conservation LLC for her talk on What Not to Do in Book and Paper Conservation on Tuesday, May 27... [more about May Brown Bag]
Our members list new acquisitions and recently cataloged items almost every day of the year. Below, you'll find a few highlights from these recent additions... East of the Sun, West of the Moon by and... [more about Weekly Highlights]
Peter Harrington is seeking a Rare Books Sales Associate to join the team at the New York office as part of their international expansion. Applicants should send their CV and cover letter directly to ... [more about Job Opening: Rare Books Sales Associate at Peter Harrington (NYC-based)]
The 2025 winner of the California Young Book Collector's Prize is Kierra Duncan. Kierra is 27 years old. She was raised in the Los Angeles area and graduated from UCLA summa cum laude in English and c... [more about 2025 Annual California Young Book Collector’s Prize Awarded]