Search Results: Authors starting with T from Swan's Fine Books

La Paz, Bolivia: Escuela Tipografica Salesiana, 1945. First Edition. Softcover. Very good. Octavo size, 125 pp., with two typescript letters, all are signed/inscribed by Franz Tamayo. Text in Spanish. A collection of poems by Bolivian poet, philosopher and politician Franz Tamayo (1879-1956); the Franz Tamayo Province is named after him. Tamayo is considered one of the most important modernist or "modernismo" poets of Latin America, along with others such as Oscar Cerruto, Gregorio Reynolds and Ricardo Jaimes Freyre. He was fascinated by Greco-Roman literature, idealized European culture, and strongly opposed Hispanic culture, rejecting indigenous ethnicity as base; concepts which continue to influence Bolivian thought. Despite his dubiously demagogic political rationale, his contribution to Bolivian poetry is undeniable, especially regarding his "Nuevos Rubaiyat" and the present volume, considered among his finest work. This copy is inscribed to his lady friend, Marina Montenegro de Geddes, and… Read More

Vercello: Presso Il Panialis, 1768. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very good. First printed edition, octavo size, 80 pp., all text in Italian. Luigi Tansillo (1510-1568) wrote several volumes of poetry, one of which was "considered licentious enough" to be placed on the list of books banned by the Vatican, by Pope Paul IV (1476-1559) (per Wiki). This work, La Balia, is considered to be one of the earliest "Pediatric" poems; although written in first half of the sixteenth century, it was not discovered until the 18th century, this book being the first time it was published. It sets forth advice for mothers to nurture their own children instead of giving them to a wet nurse, apparently "prompted by an illness of his wife after abstaining from suckling her own child". ___DESCRIPTION: Bound in later marbled paper over boards, new-ish leather spine label, new-ish endpapers, lovely vignette engraving on the title page of a woman suckling an infant, while another child rocks a third child in a cradle, with… Read More

Chicago: The Reilly and Britton Company, 1912. Cardboard covers. Very good. Duodecimo size, [95] pp., inscribed by Tiffany Blake (dedicatee). Bert Leston Taylor (1866-1921), humourist, poet, and columnist, writes this ode to the American wilderness, discerning not only the beauty and inspiration found in walking through the woods, but also that which can be found in smoking a pipe at the same time. A renowned columnist for the "Chicago Tribune", Taylor brings his wit and rich descriptions to this series of essays; each essay is preceded by a black-and-white illustration of scenes of nature and a stanza of poetry. This volume is inscribed by Tiffany Blake (1870-1943), to whom the volume is dedicated by the author, and who was the long-time chief editorial writer for the "Chicago Tribune". Blake inscribed the volume to "Miss Head", possibly Anna Head, the founder of the Anna Head School for Girls in Berkeley, California, in 1887 (now Head-Royce School); the inscription begins "In remembrance of" and… Read More

Berkeley, California: The Hart Press, 1974. Limited Edition. Wraps. Fine. Anderson, Victor R.. Limitation not stated (140 copies printed), quarto size, [8] pp., with a presentation card from the publisher. The annual Christmas publication issued by Ruth and James D. Hart, to friends in a limited edition. James D. Hart (1911-1990) was an American literary scholar and professor at UC Berkeley for fifty-four years; he is perhaps best known for his work "The Oxford Companion to American Literature". This work is an excerpt from a 1642 publication by John Taylor, a Thames ferryman apparently referred to as "the Water Poet"; the first English Civil War had just begun and the Puritans had outlawed celebrations on December the twenty-fifth. Our poetical ferryman "wrote and had printed 'The Complaint of Christmas' " to decry the lack of entertainment. "Christmas" himself is complaining, with the lack of feasts and pleasantries, "with guifts, offerings, and other worthy gratuities and encouragements...all… Read More

Los Angeles: Glen Dawson [Printed by Mallette Dean], 1956. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Fine. Dean, Mallette. One of 225 copies, duodecimo size, [56] pp. Zakahar Tchitchinoff was born in 1802 in a town in Eastern Siberia; he joined his father, an employee of the Russian American Company, where he was employed on the Company's ships. Tchitchinoff's descriptions of his adventures in California give a good picture of Russian activities in the Farallones in the period of 1818-1828, which consisted mostly of hunting seals for their fur. For the men it was a life filled with deprivation, and Tchitchinoff gives us a first-hand insight into the hardships of their daily lives. Printed, illustrated and bound in paper boards by Mallette Dean, an eminent California artist and printer, with the colour wood engravings and the wood-engraved initials printed from the original blocks. ___DESCRIPTION: Quarter orange and gray striped cloth with decorative paper covered boards, paper spine label, four color wood… Read More

[Octon, France]: Verdigris, 2008. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Fine. Rothchild, Judith. Number 6 of 10 de luxe editions (total edition 50), oblong octavo size, [14] pp., signed by the artist and author, text in French. Frederic Jacques Temple (b. 1921), French poet and author, decided to pursue writing as a career following a meeting with Blaise Cendrars in 1949. This work by him is a collection of memories of the Aveyron River and surrounding area from childhood; his early memories influenced much of his work, including "L'Enclos" which celebrated the "mythical" city of Montpelier where he attended the college of the Enclos Saint-Francois. The accompanying intaglio prints by Judith Rothchild are a combination of mezzotint and dry point techniques for which she is well known, with the type enjambed to lengthen the ripples of the riverbanks which extend borderless across double-page spreads; thus each page flows seamlessly into the next like the bends of a river. The words like the ripples and river… Read More

Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co, 1877. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Duodecimo size, 259 pp., inscribed by "the author" As a current book review stated, "It seems like a dream to have seen the first vessel sailing for this El Dorado in 1848, and now within thirty years to be reviewing the history of an Empire". Not surprisingly for a farm boy (see below), part of this book extolls the "returns of nature to the husbandman" - the review states that "no where in America is the harvest, owing to the freedome from dampness, more certain than in California". The volume contains many more observations and notes on the area, including the giant trees of Yosemite, with measurements given of "the greater monsters", a chapter on the (alas, somewhat prevalent view of the day) of the "Heathen Chinee", and observations on the educational faciliites and charitable institutions, which are claimed to be "second to none". The author offers some interesting observations, such as "Do not try to beat a… Read More

Oxford: The Limited Editions Club [printed by the Oxford University Press], 1931. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Fine/very good. Austen, John. Two volumes (complete), one of 1500, quarto size, 798 total pp., signed by John Austen, with slipcase. This Limited Editions Club publication of William Makepeace Thackeray's (1811-1863) best-known work, "Vanity Fair", contains line drawings by English illustrator John Austen (1886-1948), who illustrated many books such as "Hamlet", "Tristram Shandy", and "Madame Bovary"; his style was at first influenced by Aubrey Beardsley and was later shaped by the Art Deco movement. Austen visualises the delicate relationships between the characters in these ethereal drawings, each hand-coloured by Daniel Jacomet. G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936), an inimitable man of letters who wrote on a variety of subjects from Christian apologetics to detective novels, provides the introduction to this edition of Thackeray's work, examining the different readings of Thackeray over time,… Read More

[Easthampton, MA]: The Chamberlain Press, 1978. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. Chamberlain, Sarah. One of 120 copies, sixmo size, 24 pp., signed by Sarah Chamberlain. Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm (1785-1863 and 1786-1859, respectively), known as the Brothers Grimm, have popularised European folk tales such as "Rapunzel", "Cinderella", "Sleeping Beauty", and "Snow White", stories that have been intrinsic parts of European and American literature, read and loved by children and adults alike, and adapted countless times in fiction writing, theatre, and film. This tale, "The Bremen Town Musicians", " tells the story of four aging domestic animals, who after a lifetime of hard work are neglected and mistreated by their former masters. Eventually, they decide to run away and become town musicians in the city of Bremen. Contrary to the story's title the characters never arrive in Bremen, as they succeed in tricking and scaring off a band of robbers, capturing their spoils, and moving into their house"… Read More

London: Printed for P. Elmsley (Successor to Mr. Vaillant), 1772. Leather bound. Good. Duodecimo size, 233 pp. French surgeon Thomas Goulard (1697-1784) promoted the use of lead in medicine, famously with his "Goulard's extract", a mix of lead acetate and lead monoxide, for a variety of purposes and health benefits; in this book he provides recipes for the "Extract of Saturn", which, he goes on to state, "appears to be only a very simple preparation of Lead" (p. 197). It is surprising that any medical person would promote the use of lead in any "preparation" intended to heal, as the ill-effects of lead on the human body were observed as far back as the ancient Romans; in fact, "Julius Caesar's engineer, Vitruvius, reported, 'water is much more wholesome from earthenware pipes than from lead pipes.' " (n.b., quote from Wiki) ___DESCRIPTION: Full contemporary brown leather, the spine with five raised bands and red leather label with gilt rules and lettering, fold-out table comparing English and… Read More

Chicago: Wilcox & Follett Co, 1947. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Folio size, 48 pp. A charming story of a young Native American boy (called in the story an Indian boy, as was done in 1947) who befriended the forest animals and thereby earned his headband of eagle feathers. With charming illustrations in both colour and black-and-white, the colour lithographs bright and clear. The author / artist, Charles "Charlie" Gustav Thorson (1890-1966) "designed an early version of the then yet unnamed Bugs Bunny" (n.b., per Wiki). He worked with both Disney and Warner Brothers for ten years (1935-1945) on hundreds of well-known cartoon characters of the time, including Snow White, Little Hiawatha, and Bugs Bunny, among many others. ___DESCRIPTION: Bound in illustrated paper over boards with a clear laminate, pictorial endpapers, the colour frontis of "Keeko" one of thirteen total colour illustrations throughout, with almost every other page with a black-and-white illustration; folio size (12" by… Read More

San Francisco: Paul Elder and Company, 1909. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. One of 350 copies (unnumbered), octavo size, 72 pp. Esther Brown Tiffany (1858-1918), a resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was both a writer of prose and a playwright, with her plays having been performed by the Cambridge Dramatic Club and the Players of Newton. This book, published in 1909 by Paul Elder and Company under the direction of John Henry Nash, can be called a "modern miracle-play". The major characters each have their own "ah-ha" moments which bring them closer to their actual goals of service to God. ___DESCRIPTION: Light blue laid paper boards, paper labels to front and spine with black lettering and a thin double rule in red, cream endpapers, fore- and bottom edges uncut, frontispiece is an illustration of "The Dream of Life" by Michaelangelo with lettered tissue guard, two pages of Historical References (explanations) at the end, limitation statement at the very back of the book. ___CONDITION:… Read More

Milwaukee: Ernst G. Timme, 1887. First Edition. Hardcover. Good. Quarto size, 570 pp., with the original presentation card from the author tipped in. The twenty-fourth volume of the Wisconsin Blue Book, with contents including the law of 1885, prescribing the number of officers and employees of both the senate and assembly, with their salaries and compensation; the chronological record brought down from 1848 to 1886; the list of the members of the legislature; election returns with a column of pluralities of each ward, city, town and county, including the population of 1880 and 1885; a revised description of the State University; an account of state societies; a list of the state central committees, county officers, city superintendents, principals of Free High Schools; principal of the public debt; value of foreign coins in U.S. currency; U.S. wars; illiteracy statistics; census of 1885, by wards, villages, cities, towns and counties and a table of "nativities of nationalities"; apportionment of… Read More

San Francisco: The Arion Press, 2002. First and Limited Edition. Hardcover. New. Bruce Conner and anonymous artists. Octavo, 10.25 by 7 inches. The type is English Old Style, composed and cast in Monotype by Mackenzie & Harris, San Francisco. The text paper is Ruysdael, an all-cotton machine-made sheet. The paper for the prints is T. H. Saunders buff loan, an all-cotton mouldmade sheet. The ink-blot drawings in gray beneath the folios and the rebus on the title page were printed from photopolymer plates. Printing of the type and plates was by letterpress. The book is bound in yellow cloth with an ink-blot pattern in black, from a drawing by an anonymous artist that is continuous front to back, interrupted by a black cloth spine. The book is enclosed in a black slipcase. Both book and slipcase have yellow spine labels. The six images are photogravures from collages of wood engravings. The original collages are ovals, 6.5 by 4.5 inches. The scale of the images for the book is the same as the original… Read More

[Monmouthshire]: The Old Stile Press, 2004. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Fine. Lemaire, Angela. Letter B of 26 copies of the special edition, quarto size, [44] pp., signed by Angela Lemaire. The writings of Thomas Traherne (ca. 1636 - ca. 1674) were largely ignored for two centuries after his death, until two of his manuscripts were discovered by chance in a bookstall in London; subsequently, Traherne's work, particularly his poetry, was widely read and was influential in the poetic sphere in the twentieth century, particularly the Metaphysical and Romantic movements. "Joys", published by The Old Stile Press, takes its text from excepts from "Centuries of Meditation" and "The Poetical Works of Thomas Traherne", each of which were published in the 1930s, long after Traherne's lifetime. The writing depicts a childlike love for God and nature and an appreciation for the luminous and mystery in the world; the "passages. . speak of the search for the pure vision of infancy - that vision which… Read More

San Francisco: Greenwood Press, 1995. First and Limited Edition. No binding. Fine. First Greenwood Press edition, one of 135 copies, signed by Jack Stauffacher. One of the evocative poems referencing Greek mythology and history by Alexandrian-Greek poet C.P. Cavafy (1863-1933), a favourite poet and subject of the incomparable printer Jack Stauffacher (1920-2017), done at his Greenwood Press. With a reproduction of an etching by Giovanni Battista Piranesi of the Temple of Neptune at Paestum (detail), signed by Stauffacher at the colophon. ___DESCRIPTION: Broadside measuring 17 7/8" by 12", caption-title in blue, this no. 60 of 135 copies, printed on Rives heavyweight and handset in Nicholas Kis & Meridien types, the left side of the paper untrimmed. ___CONDITION: Fine overall, clean and without edgewear; a very light horizontal crease at the top margin, else fine. ___CITATION: Greenwood Press Bibliography, p. 313. ___POSTAGE: Please note that this item will be lightly rolled for mailing; if… Read More

New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/near fine. First U.S. edition, first printing, large octavo size, 846 pp. Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) is known as one of the "most influential political theorists of the 20th century"; Karl Jaspers (1883-1969), a psychiatrist and philosopher, is "often viewed as a major exponent of existentialism in Germany" (n.b., quotes from Wiki). This volume documents their correspondence over several decades, which, since neither had anticipated such being published, "show not only the way both philosophers, lived, thought, and worked but also how they experienced the postwar years....they reveal themselves here - for the first time - in a personal and spontaneous way" (n.b., quote from jacket flap). ___DESCRIPTION: Bound in full maroon cloth over boards, facsimiles of both of their signatures in blind on the front board, silver lettering stamped onto the spine; large octavo size (9 1/2" by 6 1/4"), pagination: [i-vi] vii-xxv [1, blank]… Read More

Germany: Taschen, 2010. Sewn binding. Near fine. Hiroshige. Folio size, 272 pp., illustrated in colour, text in German. A beautiful re-issuing from the Ota Museum of Art, Tokyo, of this famous series of ukiyo-e prints by Hiroshige (1797-1858), featuring 100 views of Edo. Ukiyo-e or "pictures of the floating world" were usually drafted on wood blocks and sometimes as paintings, subject matter was usually of beautiful women, folk tales, landscapes, nature, kabuki actors and scenes, erotica, and sumo wrestlers, all of which appealed to the merchant class of Edo or modern Tokyo. ___DESCRIPTION: Japanese style sewn binding, pictorial wrappers, pages french-fold, with over 120 full-page color reproductions, re-issuing of the original woodcuts from the Ota Museum of Art, Tokyo; folio size (12.25" x 9.75"), 272 pp. Please note that the text is in German. Housed in a pictorial paper covered folding case with bone clasps. ___CONDITION: Near fine; the colours vibrant and unfaded, both on the wraps and… Read More

(Buenos Aires, Argentina): Francisco A. Colombo, 1958. Limited Edition. Wraps. Near fine/fine. Roux, Raul. Number four of ten printed on Miliani Fabriano, in Spanish, [120] pp., octavo size, signed by the author. A lovely book of poetry (in Spanish), offered as issued in unbound signatures in original wraps, with original glassine wrapper. ___DESCRIPTION: Paper wrappers with glassine jacket, front wrap in red and black, unbound leaves mostly unopened, title-page printed in orange and black, frontis and three plates hand tinted by the artist, Miliani Fabriano paper, octavo size (9.5" by 7"), pagination: [1-6] 7-111 [112-120 colophon and index], limited edition, this number IV of ten copies numbered I to X printed on Miliani Fabriano paper (total edition 20), signed by Vicente Tripoli. ___CONDITION: A bright clean copy, with absolutely no wear and no previous owner marks or foxing, in the original glassine; except for a shallow crease to the spine, this copy is as new. ___POSTAGE: International… Read More

London: Constable & Company Limited, 1923. First and Limited Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. First printing, one of 500 copies (unnumbered), octavo size, 205 pp. Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) has delighted generations with his depictions of 19th-century British life; no one can describe his characters with such precision, allowing us to not only visualize the physical attributes of the various characters but also giving us glimpses of their thoughts, desires, fears, and ambitions. Many of us met Trollope through his "Chronicles of Barsetshire", a "series of books set in the imaginary English county of Barsetshire [which] remains his best loved and most famous work, but he also wrote convincing novels of political life as well as studies that show great psychological penetration. One of his greatest strengths was a steady, consistent vision of the social structures of Victorian England, which he re-created in his books with unusual solidity" (n.b., from the website of Britannica). This work, "The… Read More