The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent

New-York: C. S. Van Winkle, 1820. First editions. Parts bound in one volume. Very Good. Thick 8vo. Pp. 94, [5], 102-119, [4], 124-137, [4], 142-152, [3], 156-169, [6], 176-192, [3], 196-206, [3], 210-215[4], 220-242, [5], 269, [4], 274-294, [3], 298-301, [4], 304-335, [5], 342-352, [3], 356-368, [3], 372-393, [4], 398-443, [6], 6-27, [4], 32-48, [3], 52-120, [5], 6-28, [3], 32-49, [4], 54-89, [4], 94-123, [5]. Includes all seven parts of the Sketch-Book published serially with the first five parts published 1819, the latter two in 1820. Contemporary table of contents in manuscript pencil on free endpapers. All edges gilt. Bound by French Binders, Garden City, in full straight-grained blue-green morocco, cover borders in gilt, inner doublures, board edges and turn-ins gilt, five raised bands on spine with gilt borders and lettering. Spine a touch faded. A sumptuous binding.

Offsetting to margins of endpapers. soiling top corner of pp. 158-161, ring stain on the half-title to "The Inn Kitchen," foxing to preliminaries of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." In sum, interior generally quite fresh. First editions, first printings, of each part of Irving's second series of stories, including the first appearances of "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," complete in seven parts. With state A of text on page 240 of part III in first volume, line 12: "on he" instead of the corrected "on the." Lacking the warning about piracy, as well as the blank at the end of Pt. I.

The luxe binding is a fine example of "The French Binders," which had a short-lived and unhappy history: The principals were brought to New York by Grolier Club members Robert Hoe, Edwin Holden and Samuel Putnam Avery in an effort to save NYC bibliophiles the effort of shipping their books to Europe for fine binding. Frenchmen Henri Hardy (a forwarder) and Leon Maillard (a finisher), and Englishman John Holmes (who had trained with both Riviere and Zaehnsdorf) were imported to establish the New York Bindery. Business did not materialize as expected; during the firm's distress, Cleveland's Rowfant Club poached the binders, then suffered the same woes due to the Rowfant Bindery's anemic patronage. (One of the Frenchmen resorted to selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door.) Upon learning the unpleasantries, Nelson Doubleday recruited the crew to Garden City, where he established the French Bindery. Alas, Maillard, beleaguered and suffering mental instability, committed suicide in 1917. (Please see Deborah Whiteman's review of Bound to Be the Best: The Club Bindery in the March 2006 issue of The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America).

This series of tales brought Washington Irving immediate fame, creating America's first international literary light. An important milestone in American literature, presented here in the first appearance.