Search Results: Literary Biography / Letters from Bygone Books

Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1950. First Edition . Hardcover. VG/VG. 1st edition, 340p. b/w illus. 1st edition. black cloth. VERY GOOD book / VERY GOOD jacket: spine ends creased; owner label and name. DJ: edgewear, spine sunned (in mylar) Burney [1752-1840] was the author of Evelina, Cecelia, Camilla, The Wanderer, and is most known for her Diaries.

London / New York: Frederick Warne, 1892. Hardcover. VG. With notes by W. C. Ward, and prefaced by Lord Macaulay's Essay "Madame D'Arblay." 3 volumes, 12mo, burgundy pebbled cloth w/ gilt titles on spine, top edge gilt, vol. 1: 447pp, engraved frontispiece of Burney (based on a drawing by Edward Burney); vol. 2: 468pp, engraved frontis of George III, Queen Charlotte and their Family (from drawing by T. [ Thomas ] Stothard; vol. 3: 480pp, frontis of General D'Arblay (all frontispieces with tissue guards intact); decorative head, tailpieces and letters for each chapter. Condition: VERY GOOD set: covers have light toning at edges, "Warne" label on spine of v 1 and 2 are rubbed, some pages are unopened, minimal faint scattered foxing to each volume, light spotting to bottom page edges, label of the 'Paige Memorial Library' listing its many regulations is on the front pastedown of each volume but no other library markings and obviously little used (no location… Read More

NY: E.P. Dutton, 1934. First Edition . Hardcover. VG-/Fair. 1st edition, 8vo, blue cloth, 253 pages. VERY GOOD- book / POOR - FAIR jacket: book has lr. rubbing along edges and corners, sl. "dusty" top page edge, owner name on fep, sm. stain on title page, otherwise clean and unmarked; jacket is quite tattered with a few chunks missing here and there....all held nicely together in mylar. A collection of 16 essays, some of which first appeared in The Bookman and The Yale Review, offering short biographies and literary interpretation. Included are: Marie Bashkirtseff, Madame de Sevigne, Christina Rossetti, Dorothy Wordsworth, Sappho, George Sand, Emily Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, Saint Teresa, Emily Dickinson, Alice Meynell, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Charlotte Mew, George Eliot, Elinor Wylie, and Katherine Mansfield.

NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986. First Edition . Hardcover. VG+/VG+. 0-394-54418-8. 1st edition [stated], 8vo, gray boards, 638 pages, b/w illustrations, bibliography. VERY GOOD+ book / VERY GOOD+ jacket: faint spotting to top page edge, jacket is price-clipped.

NY: Macmillan, 1903. First Edition . Hardcover. VG+. 1st American edition, a title in the English Men of Letters Series, edited by John Morley, with the EML logo in gilt on front cover. This title on Burney seems to be the first biography of a woman writer in this series; a "new volume" list appended lists George Eliot. 12mo, black cloth, top edge gilt, 216 pages, [2] pages publisher ads. VERY GOOD+ condition: gentle rubbing to spine extremities, a lovely engraved owner bookplate on front paste-down with another owner name in pencil, internally clean and tight. A very nice copy. Frances Burney, 1752-1840, diarist, novelist and letter-writer... [The bookplate owner is Ruth Mary Sabin, listed in Lemperly's "A List of Book-plates Engraved in Copper" (1899)]

NY: Stein and Day, 1981. First American edition . Hardcover. VG+/VG+. 0812827619 1st Am edition [First published in 1981], 8vo, tan boards with burgundy cloth backstrip, 232 pages, b/w illustrations, bibliography. VERY GOOD+ book / VERY GOOD+ jacket: slight edgewear to book and jacket; jacket has slight yellowing and scuffing to white on rear panel. Frances Burney d'Arblay [1752-1840], one the the early women novel writers "before Jane Austen" who spanned the 18th and 19th centuries - Dr. Johnson said of her, "Miss Burney is a real wonder; " her life alone is a page-turner. Noted for Evelina, Cecilia, Camilla, and The Wanderer, and her letters and diaries.

NY: Columbia University Press, 1977. First American edition . Hardcover. NF/NF. 0231042620 1st American ed., 8vo, black cloth, 283 pages, bibliographical notes. Condition is NEAR FINE book / NEAR FINE jacket.

NY: Simon and Schuster, 2001. First Edition . Hardcover. NF/NF. 068481093X 1st ed., 8vo, hardcover, 333 pp, b&w illustrations, bibliography. NEAR FINE book / NEAR FINE jacket: new except for remainder mark on bottom page edge.

London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1914. Hardcover. G+. No edition statement, printed at the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh. 8vo, brown paper-backed boards / olive green backstrip, 396 pp, 30 b&w plates. Condition is GOOD+ / no jacket: boards are rubbed, esp. at corners, spine head and tail have small tears, front hinge sl. loose (webbing just exposed at ttile page), pages are clean excepting a few pages that have faint foxing. Hester Lynch Piozzi (1741 - 1821), known mostly as Mrs.Thrale, was a good friend and correspondent of Dr. Johnson.

London: Hutchinson & Co., 1924. First Edition . Hardcover. VG-. 1st edition [NAP], 8vo, navy cloth, 292 pages, color frontispiece by Kitty Shannon, 16 b/w plates, chronology, index. VERY GOOD- / no jacket: some faint scuffing to the boards, a few tiny tears to spine head, light spotting to page edges, some faint occasional foxing to page margins. The life of Henrietta Hobart, afterwards Countess of Suffolk [circa 1688 - 1767] - she is mentioned by nearly all of her contmeporaries, and references to her and her circle will be found in innumerable books; her name appears frequently in the works, correspondence, and memoirs of Swift, Pope, Gay, Chesterfield, Horace Walpole, Hanbury Williams, Lady Lary Wortley Montague, Sarah Duchess of Marlborough, Charlotte Lady Sundion, John Lord Hervey, Mary Lady Cowper, etc. [from the preface]

NY: NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974., 1974. First American edition . Hardcover. VG/VG+. 0151515395 1st American edition 9stated, letter line], 8vo, purple boards backed in black cloth, 316 pages, b/w illustrations, chronology, bibliography, family tree on endpapers. VERY GOOD book / VERY GOOD+ jacket: light sunning to board edges at top and bottom, faint spotting to top page edge, slightly cocked, internally clean and tight; jacket has slight edgewear.

NY: G.P. Putnams' Sons / Knickerbocker Press, 1896. Three-Quarter Leather. VG. Reprint of the 1853 Putnam publication titled: Homes of American Authors, and now published as part of the second series of Little Journeys initiated by Elbert Hubbard. 16mo, 3/4 leather / marbled paper boards and eps, spine has red leather label, 5 raised bands, and gilt dec, teg. 388pp, b/w illus, frontis of Washington Irving. Book has been rehinged (professionally and beautifully done). VERY GOOD: lt. edgewear, owner name on fep. A nice copy.

London: Peter Nevill, 1952. First Thus Edition . Hardcover. VG-/VG. 1st UK edition [originally published 1950], 8vo, reddish cloth, 424 pages, b/w illustrations, extensive bibliography and notes, index. Condition: VERY GOOD- book / VERY GOOD jacket: rubbing to board edges, small tear to spine tail, first 3 pages have small tears at top edge, faint spotting to top page edge; the lovely (pink with white flowers design) jacket has slight edgewear, toning to spine, price-clipped. "M. B. Stern 1952" is written on front endpaper - a previous bookseller has noted this as being "signed" - though I do not believe this is the case. The rare bookseller Madeleine Stern's classic biography of Alcott remains a must-read.

Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press,, 1978. Hardcover. VG/VG-. 0252006763 1st edition, 8vo, burgundy cloth hardcover, 324 pp, b/w illustrations, bibliography. VERY GOOD book / VERY GOOD- jacket: book has a slightly "dusty" top page edge, internally clean and tight; jacket has small chips and tears along top edge, sunning to spine and along top edges. The first extensive examination of the fiction of Anne-Louise Germaine Necker, the Baroness de Stael-Holstein (1766-1817), the out-spoken 18th-century French woman writer...

Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Hardcover. Fine. There is no publication information - this is a reprint of the 1931 edition by Jonathan Cape, bound in black buckram, published by Houghton Mifflin. 8vo, black cloth, 468 pages, b/w frontispiece, index. The introduction by F. V. Barry is an early literary analysis of Edgeworth [1768-1849]; the selected letters cover 1791-1849. FINE / no jacket [as issued] - this book is brand new.

NY: Haskell House Publishers, 1969. Hardcover. VG+. Reprint of edition first published in 1927, edited with a preface, a supplement chronologically arranged and containing hitherto unpublished or uncollected material and a bibliographical note by W. Clark Durant. 8vo, dark green cloth, 352 pages, b/w illustrations. VERY GOOD+ / no jacket (as issued): nearly new.

Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1970. First Edition . Hardcover. NF/NF. 1st ed, 8v0, burgundy cloth, 174 pages, 1 b/w illustration, index. Condition: NEAR FINE book / NEAR FINE jacket: owner name on fep; jacket has a small faint stain to front cover, tiny tear to front top corner. Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), one of the first feminists to engage in a lifelong [alas! cut way too short] crusade for female equality...and we bless her for it...

London: Phoenix, 2000. Soft cover. VG+. 1842121669 Reprint ed. [originally published in 1977 by Jonathan Cape], 8vo, wraps, 332 pages, b/w illustrations, bibliography, index. Condition: VERY GOOD+ with little wear.

Bennington, VT: Images from the Past,, 1997. Soft cover. NF. 1st softbound edition. 198p, b/w photographs. Condition is NEAR FINE. The story of Kipling's stay in Vermont during the years 1892-96, when he wrote the Jungle Books.

Glasgow: Truseets of the National Galleries of Scotland, 9164. Soft cover. VG+. 12mo, stapled wraps, unpaginated, b/w illustrations. VERY GOOD+: slight edgewear. Thirty portraits of some of those in Scott's immediate circle and the distinguished people he knew.