The most celebrated novel of the 20th century

JOYCE, JAMES.  Ulysses

"Ulysses is the most important contribution that has been made to fictional literature in the twentieth century. It will immortalize its author with the same certainty that Gargantua and Pantagruel immortalized Rabelais, and The Brothers Karamazof's Dostoyevsky. It is likely that there is no one writing English today that could parallel Joyce's feat..." -Joseph Collins, The New York Time, 1922

FIRST EDITION, one of 750 printed on handmade paper (out of a total edition of 1000). An exceptional, unrestored copy in original wrappers. $70,000.

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The definitive Munch catalog

(MUNCH, EDVARD). SCHIEFLER, GUSTAV.  Verzeichnis des graphischen Werks Edvard Munchs bis 1906

"Schiefier's catalogue came out in 1907, and instantly became the standard work on Munch's graphic art - as it still is today.” –Gerd Woll, senior curator at the Munch Museum

FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS, ONE OF 400 COPIES, of the authoritative catalog of Munch's graphic work. With two superb etchings and numerous in-text woodcut illustrations. SCARCE. $8700.

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A revolution in modern physics

BOHR, NIELS.  On the Constitution of Atoms and Molecules

"This is one of the greatest discoveries." –Albert Einstein

FIRST EDITIONS IN SCARCE ORIGINAL WRAPPERS of all three parts of Bohr’s landmark papers marking the definitive break from using classical physics at the atomic level, often cited as the foundation of our modern understanding of the atom. $15,000.

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With magnificent Chagall lithograph of Anne Frank

(CHAGALL, MARC). FRANK, ANNE.  Journal de Anne Frank

LIMITED EDITION, one of only 495 copies, with a frontispiece lithograph by Marc Chagall. Printed on vélin d'arches. A perfect union of artist and subject.

Translated into French by Tylia Caren and Suzanne Lombard. Paris: Tournon, 1959. Thick quarto, original printed wrappers; unopened; board chemise and slipcase. Lithograph loose as issued. Slight toning to chemise, otherwise fine. Rare. $2400.

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One of only 225 copies from the Kelmscott Press

[KELMSCOTT PRESS]. SPENSER, EDMUND.  The Shepheardes Calender

"Gaskin's drawings for each month of the Shepeardes Calender are perhaps the happiest of all Kelmscott illustrations, bringing a strictness of form and composition none of the others provided..." -Colin Franklin, The Private Presses

BEAUTIFUL KELMSCOTT PRESS edition, one of only 225 copies on paper (out of a total edition of 231).  Elegantly printed in Golden type in red and black and with twelve wood-engraved plates by Arthur J. Gaskin. Rare. $6000.

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Extremely scarce in dust jacket

[GREENE, GRAHAM; MATHEWS, RONALD]. COUSINS, SHEILA.  To Beg I Am Ashamed

"Because I was born a lady and still look one, 'How on earth do you come to be doing this?' is the first
question most men ask me when they pick me up on the streets. I came to be a prostitute for many reasons,
but in the end because I deliberately chose to be."

FIRST EDITION of Graham Greene’s and Ronald Mathews’s collaboration on this alleged “Authentic Autobiography of a London Prostitute” (published under the pseudonym Sheila Cousins). Because it was recalled almost immediately after publication, the first edition of To Beg I am Ashamed is extremely scarce (particularly in dust jacket). $15,000.

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Signed by Ulysses S. Grant

GRANT, ULYSSES S.  Vellum Document Signed

Partially-printed vellum document signed, “U.S. Grant,” as president. Military commission appointing H. Schuyler Ross a First Assistant Engineer in the Navy. Countersigned by George M. Robeson as Secretary of the Navy.

Washington, 1873. Approximately 19 1/2x16 inches; slightly faded signature, usual folds, minor soiling, seal intact. $3000.

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Turgenev's masterpiece

TURGENEV, IVAN.  Fathers and Sons

"If the inner life, the ideas, the moral predicament of men matter at all in explaining the course of human history, then Turgenev's novels, especially Fathers and Sons, quite apart from their literary qualities, are as basic a document for the understanding of the Russian past and of our present as the plays of Aristophanes for the understanding of classical Athens, or Cicero's letters, or novels by Dickens or George Eliot, for the understanding of Rome and Victorian England." -Isaiah Berlin

FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH in original cloth of Turgenev's masterpiece, one of the most celebrated and influential Russian novels of the nineteenth century. $6500.

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With 96 beautiful photographic plates

[RAY, MAN; et al.].  Formes Nues

FIRST EDITION. Sumptuously illustrated with 96 gravure reproductions after works by Man Ray, Brassai, Drtikol, Feinginer, Kertesz, Kesting, List, Maar, Moholy, and others.  With text (in English, French, and German) by the photographers represented.

Paris: Éditions d'Art Graphique et Photographique, 1935. Quarto, photo-pictorial spiral bound wrappers with image by Man Ray. Crease to top corner, generally an excellent copy; rare in this condition. $850.

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Signed by Truman

TRUMAN, HARRY.  Photograph, Signed by Truman as President

Silver print of President Truman and his daughter Margaret at the 1950 Army-Navy football game, SIGNED BY TRUMAN in the image (on the bottom left, beneath his picture). With a letter from Truman's secretary thanking Harry F. McGoniagal of Philadelphia's Evening Bulletin for taking the photograph. [1952]. Approximately 11x14 inches; signature slightly faded; matted and framed. $2300.

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Signed by Robert Frost

FROST, ROBERT.  The Complete Poems of Robert Frost

"Sometimes I have my doubts of words altogether, and I ask myself what is the place of them. They are worse than nothing unless they do something; unless they amount to deeds, as in ultimatums or battle-cries. They must be flat and final like the show-down in poker, from which there is no appeal. My definition of poetry (if I were forced to give one) would be this: words that become deeds." -Robert Frost

SIGNED LIMITED EDITION, one of only 1500 copies, signed by Robert Frost, book designer Bruce Rogers, and illustrator Thomas Nason. The classic Frost collection. $2700.

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First evidence of molecular motion

BROWN, ROBERT.  A Brief Account of Microscopical Observations… and on the General Existence of Active Molecules in Organic and Inorganic Bodies

"While examining the form of these particles immersed in water, I observed many of them very evidently in motion; their motion consisting not only of a change of place in the fluid, manifested by alterations in their relative positions, but also not unfrequently of a change of form in the particle itself.” -Robert Brown

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A beautiful copy

SALINGER, J.D.  The Catcher in the Rye

“I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around-- nobody big, I mean-- except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff... That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all."

FIRST EDITION of one of the most influential and widely-read novels of the 20th century. Essential to any collection of modern American literature. $20,000.

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Discovery of nuclear fission

MEITNER, LISE; FRISCH, DR. O.R.; et al. Disintegration of Uranium by Neutrons; Physical Evidence for the Division of Heavy Nuclei under Neutron Bombardment; Liberation of Neutrons in the Nuclear Explosion of Uranium

"The charge of a uranium nucleus, we found, was indeed large enough to overcome the effect of the surface tension almost completely; so the uranium nucleus might indeed resemble a very wobble unstable drop, ready to divide itself at the slightest provocation, such as the impact of a single neutron..." -Otto Frisch

FIRST PRINTINGS IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS of three critically important articles documenting the discovery of nuclear fission. PMM 422b,c,d. $2600.

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Tolkien's Middle-earth: fine first editions of the complete set

TOLKIEN, J.R.R.  The History of Middle-earth

"'The History of Middle-earth' is an account of Tolkien's vast legendarium: the body of tales, languages, geography, and other lore from which sprang The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, and into which The Hobbit 'intruded'... The series encompasses J.R.R. Tolkien's invented mythology from The Book of Lost Tales (begun 1916-17), through The Lord of the Rings, to the author's last, inconclusive work on 'The Silmarillion' and associated writings before his death in 1973" (Hammond).

FIRST EDITIONS in outstanding condition of all twelve volumes of Tolkien's History of Middle-earth. $6500.

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Joule's Law

JOULE, JAMES PRESCOTT.  On the Heat Evolved by Metallic Conductors of Electricity and in the Cells of a Battery During Electrolysis

“We see, therefore, that when a current of voltaic electricity is propagated along a metallic conductor, the heat evolved in a given time is proportional to the resistance of the conductor multiplied by the square of the electric intensity... The above law is of great importance."

FIRST EDITION of the derivation of Joule's Law, one of the fundamental laws of electricity. $4600.

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The magnificent Golden Cockerel Chaucer, illustrated by Eric Gill

CHAUCER, GEOFFREY.  The Canterbury Tales

“Gill became the greatest artist–craftsman of the twentieth century: a letter-cutter and type designer of genius, whose Gill Sans and Perpetua typefaces have continued in world-wide use for many decades… No other wood-engraver of the period comes near to Gill's originality and verve” (DNB). 

ONE OF 485 COPIES (out of a total edition of 500) on hand-made paper of the magnificent Golden Cockerel edition of The Canterbury Tales, illustrated with wood engravings by Eric Gill;  one of the most beautiful books produced in the 20^th century. $9000.

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John Irving's breakthrough book

IRVING, JOHN.  The World According to Garp

"In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases."

FIRST EDITION of John Irving's best-selling fourth novel, the work that would establish his reputation. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1978. Octavo, original cloth, original dust jacket. Slight wear to dust jacket, otherwise fine. $650.

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"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others"

ORWELL, GEORGE.  Animal Farm

"No parable written since Gulliver's Travels is equal in profundity and mordant satire to Animal Farm." -Arthur Koestler

FIRST EDITION of Orwell's classic, one of the most celebrated satires in the English language. An exceptionally nice copy of a notoriously difficult book to find in good condition. $7500.

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Foundation of modern thermodynamics

CLAUSIUS, RUDOLF.  Ueber die bewegende Kraft der Wärme und die Gesetze, welche sich daraus für die Wärme selbst ableiten lassen

“In the memoir of Clausius, the science of thermodynamics came into existence… It might be said at any time since the publication of the memoir that the foundations of the science were secure, its definitions clear, and its boundaries distinct.” – J.W. Gibbs

FIRST EDITION of Clausius's landmark 1850 paper on the mechanical nature of heat; the identification and first statement of the second law of thermodynamics: "the most universal regulator of natural activity known to science." $4600.

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Signed and inscribed by Herb Ritts

RITTS, HERB.  Men/Women

"I like the natural elements that abstract into light, texture, shape and shadow. With everything depending on the subject in front of you, it's essential to have all these givens to create the image and the moment."

FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED AND SIGNED BY HERB RITTS in gold marker on front free endpaper of "Men" volume. With 92 Duotone plates printed on European matte art paper. One of 5000 copies. $650.

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One of only 150 copies, signed by Miró

MIRÓ, JOAN.  Derriere Le Miroir. Peintures sur Cartons. Special No. 151-152

"I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music..."-Joan Miró

SIGNED limited FIRST edition, NUMBER 127 of 150 copies SIGNED BY MIRÓ.  The complete suite, comprising 22 lithographs printed in colors on Rives paper, signed in pencil on the colophon; includes four double-page lithographs. A magnificent production. $6500.

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Signed by Ansel Adams

ADAMS, ANSEL.  Photographs of the Southwest

"My Southwest experience has been more or less continuous; the images are arranged for flow of meaning rather than location and time. What and who make small difference in the presence of the eternal worlds and the indelible memory of emotional and aesthetic experience."

FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY ANSEL ADAMS on the half-title.  Illustrated with reproductions of Adams's evocative photographs. $650.

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Beginning of environmentalist movement

CARSON, RACHEL.  Silent Spring

"As crude a weapon as the cave man's club, the chemical barrage has been hurled against the fabric of life." - Rachel Carson

FIRST EDITION of Carson's enormously influential work, "credited with creating a worldwide awareness of the dangers of environmental pollution" (Britannica). $750.

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Signed by Arthur C. Clarke

CLARKE, ARTHUR C.  2001: The Space Odyssey

2001 "poses metaphysical, philosophical and even religious questions... I don't pretend we have the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about. It's about concern with man's hierarchy in the universe, which is pretty low. It's about the reactions of humanity to the discovery of higher intelligence in the universe." -Arthur C. Clarke

FIRST EDITION, SIGNED by Clarke on the title page. $1800.

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Signed by Calder, with five original lithographs

CALDER, ALEXANDER.  Derriere Le Miroir. Calder. Special Number 201

"I paint with shapes..." -Alexander Calder

LIMITED DELUXE FIRST EDITION, NUMBER 80 OF ONLY 150 copies SIGNED BY CALDER. With five original color lithographs by Calder. Text by Maurice Besset; printed on velin de la Dore. A fine copy of this magnificent production. $4500.

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"The best novel about Americans at war." -Alfred Kazin

MAILER, NORMAN.  The Naked and the Dead

"Nobody could sleep. When morning came, assault craft would be lowered and a first wave of troops would ride through the surf and charge ashore on the beach... All over the ship, all through the convoy, there was a knowledge that in a few hours some of them were going to be dead."

FIRST EDITION of Mailer's masterpiece. $1700.

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