GENERAL READING GOOD USED BOOKS
[This is a Mainly-20th-Century General Reading & Reference File]
A-K   •   L-Z

[ ]

Great Letters . . .

•  First edition; part of the Great Letters series.

•  Dust jacket good, lightly worn and chipped over spine extremities, cloth very good with one corner bumped and slight crumpling at head of spine.  (3186)

•  In the "English Men of Letters" series edited by John Morley.

•  Publisher's cloth, covers heavily soiled and interior quite clean. Private ownership stamp on front free endpaper.  (6688)

For the Fan of Historical Novels, 1883

•  A guide by the era (e.g., Anglo-Saxon, Elizabethan, Civil Wars) in which the plot is set, to historical novels in English. By a professor at the University of Wisconsin.

•  Lacks the wrappers. Five-digit number stamped on title-page. Printed on brittle paper and some chipping in margins.  (85)

With an A.L.S.

•  First edition. With a long autograph letter, signed by the author, tipped in.

•  Publisher's cloth, no dust jacket. Good condition.  (6687)

Observations . . .

•  Book Club edition with copyright page unchanged from the first trade edition. A collection of articles which appeared in Russell Baker's "Observer" column in The New York Times and his "Sunday Observer" column in The New York Times Magazine, from 1973 to 1980.

•  Publisher's cloth. Good condition.  (6690)

CARMEN

•  The libretto of "Carmen," in Italian and English, with "the Principal Airs and Gems of the Opera arranged as Piano-Forte Solos, by distinguished Professors." With advertisements for Weber pianos.

•  Good in original printed paper wrappers, a few short edge tears, very minor soiling to front and back wrappers.  (2460)

(Blake, William). Dorfman, Deborah. Blake in the nineteenth century: His reputation as a poet from Gilchrist to Yeats. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1969. 8vo. 314 pp.
$22.50

•  Publisher's cloth, dust jacket.  (3172)

Illus. Edmund J. Sullivan

•  Handsomely printed and illustrated.

•  Very good. Green publishers cloth, gilt-lettered; some fading by the sun to spine. Pages untrimmed and partially uncut. Top edge gilt.  (3139)

Diplomatic History, & Memoirs

•  First edition. A unique perspective on American foreign policy during the Carter Administration.

•  Publisher's cloth. Good-plus condition.  (6558)

Cambridge/RiversideByron

•  “Cambridge Edition,” printed and bound at the Riverside Press. Binding: Publisher's half navy morocco with light blue cloth-covered sides, leather edges ruled in gilt, spine with gilt-stamped title, spine compartments ruled in triple gilt fillets with gilt-stamped dotted rules on raised bands. Top edge gilt. Silk ribbon placemarker.

•  Binding as above, very gently sunned, upper outer corners slightly bumped. Front pastedown with private collector's armorial bookplate. Pages clean.  (19634)

(Byron). Nichol, John. Byron. London & New York: Macmillan, 1888. 8vo.
$10.00

•  In the "English Men of Letters" series edited by John Morley.

•  Publisher's cloth, covers with a few stains and interior quite clean; tiny label of a Belfast bookseller inside front cover and small private ownership stamp on front free endpaper.  (6703)

Ed. Lillian Hellman

•  First printing; part of the Great Letters series.

•  Dust jacket good, with light wear and some chipping at head of spine, cloth slightly faded at upper edges. Pages very clean.  (3187)

China & Its Art

•  Second edition, first edition published in 1975. Lavishly illustrated by Joan Cohen with color photographs of the people, places, and antiquities of China. This offering includes the Smithsonian Institution's 32-page China 1986 travel pamphlet.

•  Publisher's cloth. Very good condition, no dust jacket.  (6704)

VENICE

•  A brief history of Venice for young adults.

•  Publisher's cloth. Very good condition, in a very good dust jacket; one short tear at base of the front "joint" of dust jacket.  (6706)

On Forman & Wise

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Well-written and well-documented account of Wise & Buxton Forman and their now notorious forgeries of books by 19th-century writers like the Brownings, Tennyson, Swinburn, Ruskin, and Stevenson.

•  New, in dust jacket; top edges darkened with a few instances of slight intrusion into top margins. (40959)

"I wish she would writea Jalna book a year for the rest of her life . . ."

•  First U.S. edition, second printing, of this episode in Canadian writer De la Roche's multi-volume epic of Jalna. The front of the dust jacket bears Lee Thayer's colorful depiction of Adeline sitting on a large stump, with Capt. Whiteoak standing next to her gesturing at the construction of Jalna in 1850.

•  Very good condition with a good+ dust jacket (small tears, price clipped from front flap).  (3169)

Interesting & Still Instructive

•  Part of Lippincott's "Practical Book" series. Aimed at the era's collectors of moderate but not extravagant means, this provides detailed descriptions of china in its major varieties from the beginnings of its manufacture up to 1840. Numerous black-and-white and color illustrations.

•  Publisher's cloth, front and spine stamped in black and blue; small stain to front cover, some wear to head and foot of spine. Top edges gilt, others untrimmed. Sturdy; pages clean.  (3175)

For an unillustrated, PDF-format list offering
Art – Antiques – Crafts – Decorative Arts – Architecture
– Interior Design – Etc., 
please click here.

A Quick Introduction to Early Bookhands — The Enlarged Edition

Click the images for enlargements.

•  A revised and enlarged edition of this classic first published in 1949, incorporating both fresh text and additional illustrations; the latter, which are labelled as “plates” and printed on both sides of a leaf, identify the illustrated manuscript examples as to place and date of inditement and give the current location of the manuscript.

A lovely, informative guide to a considerable variety of handwritings both useful and ornamental.

Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Original illustrated paper over boards, with the dust jacket (a little worn with interior repair at top of spine). Clean. A very nice copy.  (41368)

NOT a “Collector's Copy” — ButFUN to Have
in ThisEarly Form

•  First edition, second printing; top page edges stained gray as issued, M. McKnight Kauffer listed on front dust jacket flap.

•  Cloth with a few light spots, spine extremities faintly worn, dust jacket with slightly ragged edges and some spine fading.  (2113)

Vintage Faulkner

•  First edition, later issue of the second volume in the Snopes series.

•  Cloth fine, dust jacket good; jacket slightly darkened around edges, with minor chipping at spine extremities.  (2114)

China . . .

•  Book Club edition. A foreign correspondent's encounters with ordinary Chinese people.

•  Publisher's cloth. Very good condition, no dust jacket.  (6716)

A Tour of French Colonial Africa

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  “Red Seal” paperback edition of this classic travelogue, translated from the original French by Dorothy Bussy.

•  Publisher's printed paper wrappers, in original printed dust wrapper; dust wrapper partially split along front outer fold and nicked at corners. Pages age-toned.  (28931)

First Edition

•  NCBEL, III, 1432. Publisher's green cloth over beveled boards, gilt-stamped on the spine and front cover. Top edge gilt, other edges uncut. Spine dull. Early inked ownership signature on the front fly-leaf. Frontispiece with a protective tissue guard. Clean and tight; a very good copy.  (8241)

For more ENGLISH LITERATURE,  click here.

First English

•  First edition of the English translation of this "splendidly bizarre" (according to the dust jacket) novel revolving around the Vistula River and Hitler's favorite dog.

•  Good; dust jacket with minor edge crumpling and slight age-toning. Cloth and pages clean.  (3176)

"The Military Service Publishing Co." (1945)

•  Mass market paperback; first Superior Reprints edition. M652 in this series. First published in 1936. List of Superior Reprints in print as of June, 1945, on inside of back cover.

•  Original wrappers, all edges stained red. Spine slightly cocked and lightly rubbed, covers with a little faint creasing. Mildly age-toned. No tears, internally clean. Very good.  (7179)

CHINA  

•  First edition in English. Third volume of a four-volume series; originally published in 1930 as Tome III—La Chine, Les Civilisations De L'Orient. With 280 black-and-white illustrations of paintings, bronzes, and other artwork.

•  Publisher's cloth. Good condition.  (6726)

Cultural Scholarship . . .

•  Philosophical look at culture, technology, modernism and the beginnings of postmodernism.

•  Near fine. Quarter publisher's cloth over blue paper. Original dust jacket in good condition. Author's presentation inscription on half-title.  (3083)

Important Scholar — Important Book

•  First edition, first issue. Inscribed by the author. A critical examination of technology and the changes that it causes to our sense of identity.

•  Publisher's cloth. Very good condition, in a very good dust jacket.  (6728)

•  First American edition, one of a number this year; there was also a London, 1892 edition.

•  BAL 7362. Publisher's red cloth. Text slightly skewed in binding.  (5557)

Harte, Bret. Sally Downs and other stories. Boston & New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1893. 8vo.
$35.00

•  First American edition.

•  BAL 7367, issue A. Publisher's olive cloth; heavily rubbed. Text slightly skewed in binding; hinge cracked and few gatherings cracking.  (5545)

A Sorrowful Reader?

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First and only U.S. edition of this English translation: Romantic fiction about Joachim Murat, King of Naples; a noble Arab character features prominently.

Evidence of Readership: Title-page with early, rather elegantly inked comment, “with a Sorrowful ending.”

•  Contemporary quarter morocco and marbled paper sides, worn and abraded; front and back covers pressure-stamped by a now-defunct library, spine rubbed and with paper shelving label. Title-page and several others stamped; title-page with comment as above; stray pencil marks to a handful of pages.  (4364)

Science Technology & Politics

•  Examination of science and technology, their impact on the disparities between nations, and their importance in understanding the cold war.

•  Very good. Blue publisher's cloth, gilt-lettered. Without dust jacket. Some fading to spine and top of front cover. Author's presentation inscription on front free endpaper.  (3085)

First State — His First Book

•  The author's first book, set in Germany in 1914 and in 1945, here in its first state binding (gray cloth). Part of the Direction series.

•  Dust jacket good with light wear and slight discoloring of yellow portions, cloth very good with minor wear at spine extremities. Pages clean.  (3185)

Dartmouth's Laureate

•  First edition. Poems by “Dartmouth's Laureate," edited by Edwin Osgood Grover.

•  BAL 9401. Green publisher's cloth, front cover stamped in white and gilt, spine with gilt-stamped title; clean and solid, with only very slight traces of wear to extremities. Front free endpaper with inked owner's name.  (16665)

Attractive Little Book!

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Second edition.

Binding:  Publisher's green cloth elaborately stamped in gilt on front cover with an overall pattern of torches with bows, surrounding a central cartouche with the title and author in gilt.

•  BAL 9577 (for first edition).   Binding as above, lightly rubbed at base of spine, small area of minor discoloration on spine. Ex–social club library: call number on endpaper, rubber-stamp on title-page, no other markings.  (26805)

A Good Gathering . . .

Click the images for enlargements.

•  6 of 12 volumes, edited and with introductions by Leon Edel. “The first complete edition of the great American novelist's short fiction,” as stated by the publisher. Volume titles are as follows: “Volume one: 1864–1868;” “Volume two: 1868–1872;” “Volume five: 1883–1884;” “Volume six: 1884–1888;” “Volume seven: 1888–1891;” “Volume eight: 1891–1892.”

•  Publisher's cloth. All near fine, in near fine dust jackets; with only minor wear to edges. Deckle edges, paper tops stained in various colors.  (5586)

(Japan).  Rudofsky, Bernard. The kimono mind: An informal guide to Japan and the Japanese. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1965. 8vo. Illus.
$15.00

•  First trade edition, later issue. Now rather quaint!

•  Publisher's cloth. Good condition; spine sunned, cloth dusty.  (6742)

Toys & Games & Fun at the Fin de Siecle

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Pages 8 through 31 “hype” the games, panoramas and dioramas, and gift books available from the Johnsons, while pages 32 through 40 list other products such as flushable toilet paper, date stampers, brush racks, family printing devices, etc. A relatively simple price list fills pages 4 through 7, but the display pages offerhalf- to full-page green-printed illustrations of the firm's eye-filling book covers, game pieces and box-tops, “moving” and “illuminated' panoramas, etc.

•  Original textured cream-colored wrappers printed in green and red; paper of wrappers starting at head and foot of spine with staples offsetting to covers and first/last leaves. Interior clean and very, very nice.  (40799)

African History

•  Later edition.

•  Publisher's cloth. Spine and part of the front cover sunned. Good condition.  (6757)

Surgeon & Scholar

•  Later edition. First edition published in 1981. The autobiography of Geoffrey Keynes, renowned surgeon, book collector, and biographer of Blake, Donne, Austen, William Harvey, and others; and brother of noted economist Maynard Keynes.

•  Publisher's cloth. Very good condition, in a very good dust jacket.  (6758)

"21 Brilliant Comedies"

•  Anthology of important theatrical works.

•  Good, cloth faded around edges and over spine, corners bumped. (3160)

TO Part II

PLACE AN ORDER   |   E-MAIL US   |   PRB&M HOME