Search Results: Authors starting with H from Mac Donnell Rare Books

[TWAIN, MARK] [Clemens, S. L.] Hall, Hartwell & Co. MARK TWAIN SHIRT COLLARS. Troy [New York]: Hall, Hartwell & Co.., Inc., 1921. One box, with eight unused shirt collars, each in its original cellophane wrapper. The collars are mint. Three are Mark Twain style collars; and five are a fancy style by the same company. The box has a few nicks and stains, but is quite sound. Stiff white starched collars were an essential element of formal attire at the turn-of-the-century. Twain's name and image were used without his permission to sell a variety of products during his life and ever since: oysters, lemons, oranges, cereal,… Read More

Twain, Mark [Clemens, S. L.] Harte, Bret. THE LECTURES OF BRET HARTE. Brooklyn, New York: Charles Meeker Kozlay, 1909. First edition, limited issue, one of 100 numbered copies. Original flexible tan suede, gilt, uncut. Some splits and chips in spine leather, else a fresh copy of this very delicate binding that owes its survival to pure chance, usually found in shambles or rebound. Even the cloth trade edition is relatively uncommon compared to Harte's earlier first editions. Contains Twain's memorable letter on Hotten. BAL 3510 (Twain) and 7407 (Harte).

[HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL] Harvard University. ILLUSTRISSIMO LEVI LINCOLN. Cambridge: Metcalf for Harvard University, 1829. First edition. Quarto. Single sheet folded to 4pp., as issued. Mild foxing, and one fold, else fine. The commencement program for Holmes' graduating class, listing him as 9th on the program delivering a poem. Holmes' poem lasted just eight minutes out of the six hour program, and was very well-received, but never printed (the manuscript is at Harvard). See the entries for the Wakeman, Wilson, and Howe copies for more details of the ceremony and its reception. Not in BAL, etc.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. THE GENTLE BOY: A THRICE TOLD TALE. Boston: Weeks, Jordan, 1839. First edition, with corrected states of text and frontispiece. Sewn, in brown printed wrappers in expert facsimile of the original wrappers. Some small marginal tears at edges of frontispiece, shallow tear in margin of last three leaves, moderate foxing in text; a very good copy of one of Hawthorne's scarcer first editions. Sophia Peabody (later Hawthorne's wife) designed the frontispiece. Clark notes that after just a few review copies had been sent out, Peabody insisted that the frontispiece etching be retouched, and… Read More

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. TWICE-TOLD TALES. Boston: American Stationers, 1837. First edition, with 4pp. of ads at front and 12pp. at rear (copies are also found with 16pp. of ads at rear; no priority). Original faded old rose cloth, embossed with quatrefoil ornaments, gilt. Expertly rebacked preserving the original spine, else a very good tight copy with the usual foxing, and an 1839 ownership inscription. Neither BAL nor Clark record this combination of cloth color and embossed pattern. Hawthorne's first collection of short stories (including many of his best), and his first acknowledged book, printed in an edition… Read More

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. DOCTOR GRIMSHAWE'S SECRET. Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1883. First edition, one of 250 numbered copies on large paper. Original cream boards, labels, uncut. Fine copy with only a touch of the usual aging and stary marks. The size of this book and the structure of the binding render most copies into ruination. From the library of George F. Godfrey, with his ink signature on end paper and his bookplate on the inside front cover: "Publisher's First Edition Copy, Not to be Taken Away... George F. Godfrey." Godfrey (1840-1897) bought out Osgood's interest in the firm and became the Ticknors' partner in… Read More

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Park Benjamin, and John O. Sargent. THE HARBINGER; A MAY GIFT. Boston: Carter, Hendee, 1833. First edition. Original full black morocco, fully gilt, inner dentilles gilt, a.e.g. Lightly rubbed, but a very nice copy in an elaborate presentation binding by Peter Low, and with a full-page pencil inscription (unsigned) on the front fly by one of the authors, Park Benjamin. In the inscription Benjamin first explains the circumstances of the publication of this volume, and then remarks that it was the work of "three friends who console themselves with the reflection that its success was greater than they… Read More

Holmes, Oliver Wendell. POEMS. Boston: Otis, Broaders, 1836. First edition, with the single imprint (no priority). Original black zig-zag embossed C cloth, label. Spine ends slightly frayed and tiny chip to one corner of label, but an unusually bright crisp copy with hardly a trace of the foxing so often associated with this book. Holmes' first book of poetry, printed in an edition of just 1,000 copies, and containing some of Holmes' best work: My Aunt, The Last Leaf, Old Ironsides, etc. BAL 8729.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell. POEM FOR THE DEDICATION OF THE FOUNTAIN AT STRATFORD-ON-AVON.[Cambridge: The Riverside Press] 1887. First edition, printing A. Single sheet folded to 4pp., measuring 8 x 10 inches. There were two subsequent printings, one an 8 x 5 inch leaflet and the other an oblong broadside. Autographed in ink by Holmes at the conclusion: "Oliver Wendell Holmes/ Boston, Jan. 12th, 1888." Some offsetting from being mounted in a scrapbook, but no abrasions and the original red silk tie is wholly intact. A very rare Holmes first edition. George W. Childs presented the poem at the dedication and paid for the printing of the… Read More

Horne, Richard Henry. ORION, AN EPIC POEM. London: J. Miller, 1843. First edition. Contemporary three-quarter morocco and marbled boards, rebacked. Presentation copy inscribed by Horne on the half-title: "John Edmund Reade, with regards of R. H. H., 1843." Horne priced this work at one farthing to draw attention to the public's contempt for epic poetry, which gained him much notoriety. But the poem was highly praised by Poe, Carlyle, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and others. Horne and Browning carried on a long correspondence and co-authored a later book. Hayward 261. NCBEL III:525. Read More

Howe, Julia Ward. PASSION FLOWERS. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1854. First edition, in unrecorded color. Original blue cloth, spine extra gilt. Her first book, published in an edition of 1,000 copies, that caused a lot of chatter upon publication and reached a third edition the same year. Nathaniel Hawthorne said she "ought to have been soundly whipped" for publishing it. Howe's frank and personal airing of her marital grievances is what upset proper Bostonians, especially her poem "Mind Versus Mill-Stream" which was a razor-sharp metaphor for a typical Victorian man's unrealistic expectation of finding… Read More

[Howells, William Dean] IN AFTER DAYS. New York: Harper, 1910. First edition, primary binding. Original lavender linen, gilt, t.e.g. Even fading of spine, else a bright fine copy, signed by six of the nine contributors for John Pearsons: William Dean Howells, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, William Hanna Thomson, Henry Mills Alden, John Bigelow, and Guglielmo Ferrero. Not signed by Henry James, Julia Ward Howe, or Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (and it's probably too late to obtain their signatures). Three have signed on the front flyleaf with quotations from their essays, personal inscription, and dates. Howells,… Read More

[Howells, William Dean] IN AFTER DAYS. New York: Harper, 1910. First edition, primary binding. Original lavender linen, gilt, t.e.g., in original printed dust jacket. Copies are typically found in various later state bindings lettered in black (quarter red cloth, blue, green cloth, etc.). Fine fresh copy in a well-preserved jacket with only a little chipping at crown. An interesting collection of essays on the after-life by William Dean Howells, Henry James, Julia Ward Howe, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, et al. BAL 10670, 9798, 8498, etc. Edel & Laurence B29.

Howells, William Dean. ITALIAN JOURNEYS. Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1883. First Continental edition. Original full white vegetable vellum, heavily gilt, and hand-painted in blue, in original red cloth dust jacket and box. Tauchnitz's English language editions of travel books by American authors were a popular item with American tourists in Europe, and were frequently put into eye-catching "vellum" bindings, often with inserted photographs. This volume carries a binder's ticket from Florence, Italy. The ads would indicate this volume was issued in 1885, making it an early example of a book in dust… Read More

[TWAIN, MARK] [Clemens, S. L.] Howells, William Dean. MY MARK TWAIN. New York & London: Harper, 1910. First edition, first printing, first state of frontispiece portrait and binding, first state of dust jacket. Original sage green cloth, gilt, top edge gilt, dust jacket. Fine copy, in very good jacket with some chips, of this important memoir by one of Twain's closest friends. Howells knew Twain almost from the very beginning of Twain's writing career, and famously crowned him "sole, incomparable, the Lincoln of our literature." . BAL II:251:col.1. BAL 9803.

[TWAIN, MARK] [Clemens, S. L.] Edison, Thomas. BUCK FANSHAW'S FUNERAL. [n.p., Edison Laboratories, 1912] Cylinder record (Edison Amberol Record). In original fleece-lined sleeve, without lid. This was the famous chapter (17) from ROUGHING IT describing the death of the violent saloon keeper, recited by the famous elocutionist Harry E. Humphrey. Edison produced wax cylinders as early as 1888, and had "brown wax" cylinders in the market in the early 1890s, and stopped production of his amerol cylinders in November, 1912. This four minute cylinder (number 1127 in Edison's Amberol series) was issued in October,… Read More