Search Results: Titles starting with H from Swan's Fine Books

Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1982. First and Limited Edition. Hardcover. Fine/near fine. Bukowski, Charles. One of 100 (126 total) signed/numbered hardcover copies with original artwork, octavo size, 287 pp., signed at colophon. Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) was "a prolific underground writer who used his poetry and prose to depict the depravity of urban life and the downtrodden in American society. A cult hero, Bukowski relied on experience, emotion, and imagination in his work, using direct language and violent and sexual imagery" (n.b., from the web site of the Poetry Foundation). As much as he achieved popular acclaim during his lifetime, his reputation and following have only increased after his death. In addition to being an author, Bukowski also was an artist: he painted on 6" by 9" paper "with thick layers of acrylics, oil paint, watercolors, pastels, crayons, pens - whatever was at hand. They were sent to Black Sparrow [whose editor, John Martin, was a friend of Bukowski's] where… Read More

[Baltimore, Maryland]: Dolphin Press / Maryland Institute, College of Art, 2000. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Fine. Lorenz, Hilary. No. 7 of 40 copies of the deluxe edition (total edition 100), elephant folio size, 40 pp., signed by Albert Mobilio and Hilary Lorenz. "The Handbook of Phrenology" is a collaboration between artist Hilary Lorenz, an artist and printmaker whose work has been exhibited throughout the United States, Europe and Asia and the co-founder of the Dolphin Press, and writer Albert Mobilio, a poet and literary critic, whose work has appeared in The Village Voice, Harper's, Fortune, and The New York Times Book Review (n. b., artist bios from the book). The book is a collection of five prose fiction pieces that revolved around the nineteenth-century science of phrenology or "the reading of one's head shape to determine personality" (n. b., from website of Hilary Lorenz), and is a provocative examination of what is now recognised as a pseudoscience. ___DESCRIPTION: Full black… Read More

Munich and Zurich: Piper, 1985. Hardcover. Fine/very good. Octavo size, 864 pp., note that all text is in German. From the dust jacket flap: "Die Korrespondenz zwischen Hannah Arendt und Karl Jaspers - es sind an die 420 Briefe erhalten - wird in dieser Ausgabe vollständig abgedruckt und durch einige Briefe ihrer Ehepartner ergänzt." Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) is known as one of the "most influential political theorists of the 20th century" (n.b., quote from Wiki). ___DESCRIPTION: Bound in full blue cloth over boards, gold lettering stamped onto the spine; octavo size (9" by 6"), pagination: [1-4] 5-859 [5 pp. publisher's ads], note that ALL TEXT IS IN GERMAN. In the publisher's dust jacket, unclipped although without a printed price. ___CONDITION: Volume fine overall, with clean boards, straight corners without rubbing, a strong, square text block with solid hinges, the interior is clean and bright, and the sole prior owner marking being a gift inscription (in German) on the front free… 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

Berkeley, California: Peter Koch Printer, 2015. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Fine. Goldyne, Joseph; Hugill-Fontanel, Amelia. One of 126 copies, two volumes (complete) quarto size, 60 pp., signed (or initialled) by Robert Bringhurst, Joseph Goldyne, and Peter Koch. Michelangelo (1475-1564), one of the major figures in the Italian Renaissance who created monumental works of painting and sculpture such as the paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the marble sculpture of David, was also a poet, composing works in the sonnet form as well as the madrigal. According to Peter Koch, Michelangelo was ". . .the greatest lyric poet of his time in the Italian language. . . .He treated his poems casually -- very much like sketches rather than finished works of art -- and they remained uncollected and unpublished for seventy years after his death." In the volume "Hard High-Country Poems", ten of Michelangelo's poems, addressed to or about Vittoria Colonna, a woman he formed a relationship with later… Read More

n.p.: Printed by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy, 1976. Limited Edition. No binding. Fine. One of 150 copies, quarto size, [4] pp. This keepsake for the joint meeting of the Roxburghe and Zamorano Clubs of California features a short biography of the San Francisco printer Haywood H. Hunt, who was vastly influential to the typography and fine press scene in San Francisco, even teaching type-setting to Robert Grabhorn, of the Grabhorn Press. The printers Lawton and Alfred Kennedy produced this booklet; Lawton Kennedy worked for notable printers such as John Henry Nash and Jane Grabhorn of the Colt Press and eventually began publishing books under his own imprint. ___DESCRIPTION: One sheet folded twice to make four pages, title in black with tipped-in photograph of Haywood Hunt on the front page, another black-and-white tipped-in photograph of Hunt on the third page; quarto size (11" by 8.5"), one of 150 copies, unnumbered. ___CONDITION: A fine copy, clean and without wear. ___POSTAGE:… Read More

Beloit, Wis: The Inter-State Publishing House, 1884. Leather bound. Fine. Deluxe morocco binding, octavo size, 577 pp. Laura Carter Holloway (1843 (some sources cite 1848)-1930) was a prolific author; upon publication of her first book in 1870, "The Ladies of the White House", she became independently wealthy. Her interests were varied, and included "theosophy, the Shakers, phrenology, the occult, vegetarianism and social reform." Through the vagaries of life, and after the death of her only son in 1914, she "entered a period of financial difficulties and depression. The last years of her life were marred by poverty and struggles over the manuscript of a book..." (n.b., info and quotes from the web site of the Brooklyn Library). We find it interesting, from our perspective today, that a woman who was supporting herself as an author and with such interests as she, would write "The Hearthstone", seemingly focused on female domesticity. Upon reading the Preface, one realizes that her aim was to help… Read More

London: Connolly Bros. (Curriers) Ltd, n.d.. Stapled. Near fine. Robinson, W. Heath. Folio size, 48 pp. William Heath Robinson (1872-1944) was an exemplary book illustrator and cartoonist, "the only British illustrator to become a 'household name' " (Houfe), a contemporary of acclaimed illustrators Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac, best known for his cartoons portraying elaborate and whimsical machinary made to complete simple tasks. In fact, his fame was such that the term "Heath Robinson" was used in the United Kingdom to refer to such machinery, much as the term "Rube Goldberg" was used in the United States. This somewhat uncommon booklet (as of this writing, we find two copies in OCLC, and a small number of copies online, none in the US) collects Robinson's illustrations in the field of leather - "The Training of Leather", "The Treatment of Leather", etc. Commissioned by Connolly Brothers, a leather-making firm established in 1878 (to repair shoes) by brothers John and Samuel; by the early… Read More

Boston: Printed by David Carlisle for John West, 1803. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. First (and only) printing, octavo size, 56 pp. The author, John Smith (1752-1809) took his Bachelors and Masters Degrees from Dartmouth, eventually becoming their first professor of learned languages (Chaldee, Hebrew, Latin and Greek). This work, "A Hebrew Grammar", was written during Smith's junior year at college, and published later (1803). He also wrote grammars on Chaldee (Aramaic), Latin and Greek that were never published (n.b. above information from the web site of Dartmouth College). The reason for issuing this Grammar "without points" (the vowel marks in the Hebrew language) was explained by Smith by use of a quote from "Wilson's 'Elements of the Hebrew Grammar' "(p. 55): "Every one acquainted with Hebrew knows, that the whole structure of the language is independent of them, and can be much more easily learned, and much better understood, without than with them." ___DESCRIPTION: Bound in… Read More

New York: Leslie-Judge Company, 1927. 4th Printing. Hardcover. Very good +. Twenty-fourmo size, 63 pp. Norman Hume Anthony (1889-1968), cartoonist and illustrator, editor of Judge Magazine and, later, Life Magazine, authored this bar book during Prohibition in America. A predecessor of the 1930 "Savoy" cocktail book, which takes many recipes from "Here's How!", this book contains many popular cocktail recipes from the early twentieth century, accompanied by Anthony's witticisms in the form of suggested "toasts" to go with each drink, printed at the bottom of each page. This delightful volume shows the liveliness during the Prohibition era that pervaded the 1920s despite the laws in place (the Prohibition law would not be repealed until five years after this book was published). This book is the fourth printing of the first edition, printed in March 1927, two months after the first impression. ___DESCRIPTION: Full light blue paper with gilt lettering on the front board, blue endpapers, title page… Read More

Ditchling: St Dominic's Press, 1930. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Jones, David. No. 15 of 240 copies, octavo size, 41 pp. The Saint Dominic's Press, founded by Harry (Hilary) Douglas Clarke Pepler, flourished at Ditchling, Sussex, from 1916 to 1936. The first home of the Press was "a disused stable", with a hundred-year-old Stanhope hand-press which supposedly had belonged to William Morris. Pepler endeavored to do everything possible by hand, believing that such would both produce the best results and also be a "more individual or 'humane'...product". He therefore "preferred the handpress to the machine, handmade to machine-made paper, and handset founder's type to the products of typesetting machines." ___DESCRIPTION: Quarter black cloth with dark blue paper over boards, gilt title on spine, with two illustrations by David Jones: (i) the small illustration on the title page of "Basket of Flowers" (E 20) and (ii) "The Bride" (E 200) facing p. 1, errata in red following the title page;… 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

Paris: Seuil, 2017. Hardcover. Fine. Three volumes (complete), quarto size, approx. 1620 pp., all text in French. Offering all three volumes of this set: Volume 1, "De l'Antiquité aux Luminières"; Volume 2, "Des Lumières à la fin du XIXe siècle"; and Volume 3, "De la find du XIXe siècle à nos jours". Per the web site of the publisher: "Alain Corbin, Jean-Jacques Courtine and Georges Vigarello direct this very ambitious 'History of Emotions' in three volumes...the history of mentalities and that of sensitivities, carried by the most recent historiographical renewals. It brings together for the first time the best French and foreign specialists in the history of emotions, all generations combined." ___DESCRIPTION: All three volumes bound in pictorial paper over boards, different illustrations on all three volumes, with several sections of reproductions of photographs and illustrations, both black-and-white and colour; quarto size (9 3/4" by 7 3/4"), pagination: Vol. 1, 541 text pages; Vol.… Read More

Dayton, Ohio: Odell & Mayer, 1881. First Edition. Cloth. Very good. Octavo size, 1039 pp. The first written history of Fayette County, Ohio, this volume describes its discovery, engagements with Native Americans, the involvement of citizens in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, information on agriculture and industries, and significant information on the citizens who shaped the formative years of the region. The county was formed in 1810 from the division of portions of Ross and Highland counties, and was named for the Marquis de Lafayette, the French general who was influential in the American Revolutionary war. Scarce in the marketplace, we see none online as of this writing, no auction records prior to 1905 (per Rare Book Hub), with approximately twenty-six in institutions per OCLC. ___DESCRIPTION: In a library binding of burgundy cloth with gilt lettering and rules on the spine, what appears to have been the original front free endpaper mounted onto the newer front endpaper,… Read More

London: Charles Griffin and Company, Limited, 1932. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. Quarto size, 282 pp. Reginald Stanley Clay (1868-1964) published this work, with fellow author Thomas H. Court, while a Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society; he served from 1936-1937 as its President. According to a contemporary review, "[the] work is an abundantly illustrated technical account of the evolution of the compound microscope from its invention in 1590 by the Janssens in Holland up to about 1845...[and] consists of a succint review of the history of magnifiers" with the authors "concerned more with the general pattern, the mechanical parts, and the accessories, rather than with the optical parts and the formulae for the lens system, largely for the simple reason that the evolution of these parts was slow and of little significance" (n.b., from the online University of Chicago Press Journals, this review found in Isis, Volume 21, Number 1, April 1934). ___DESCRIPTION: Bound in full… Read More

Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1964. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/very good. Large octavo size, 509 pp. The first complete history of the barometer as a scientific instrument. "Even long before the barometer came into common use, its invention contributed powerfully to the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century by making obsolete the idea of the physical impossibility of a vacuum" (n.b., from jacket flap). The work opens with "The Scientific Background", then continues with "The Mercury Barometer as an Instrument" with the following chapters: A General Survey, The Expansion of the Scale, The Search for Portability, The Corrections to the Mercury Barometer, The Improvement of Accuracy, Barometers of High Accuracy, Mercury Barographs and Related Apparatus, The Mercury Barometer in North America, and Luminescence in the Barometer; this section followed by "Barometers Other Than Mercury Barometers". Lavishly illustrated with charts and diagrams. ___DESCRIPTION: Bound in full… Read More

London: Printed for T. Longman et al., 1792. Leather bound. Near fine. Three volumes (complete), duodecimo size, 1024 pp., in a full leather Stikeman binding. Henry Fielding (1707-1754) is often viewed as one of the founders of the traditional English novel - and, as proof that there were many different sides to this fascinating man, he also was one of those who founded the Bow Street Runners, the first professional police force in London. "The History of Tom Jones" is considered Fielding's masterpiece; first published in 1749 it was an immediate best-seller, in the first year being printed four times. This work, stated on the title pages as "A New Edition", came out in 1792, with four illustrations engraved by Thomas Bonner, in an elegantly simple Stikeman binding. ___DESCRIPTION: Bound by Stikeman in full brown leather over boards, a narrow gilt double-ruled border on all boards, the spine compartments with the same ruled borders, title and volume number in two compartments and the other four… Read More

Berkeley: Printed by The Professional Press, 1918. Soft cover. Very Good. Octavo size, 181 pp. Full title page: "History of the Berkeley Schools, An account of the School Systems of Berkeley from its establishment to date, with a detailed presentation of the special features in the various schools". Early, perhaps the first, written history of the schools in Berkeley. The author opens with a brief historical sketch of the land passing from the last Spanish governor of California in 1820 to Don Luis Peralta, who divided the land between his four sons. From this short tour through history he moves to the First Board of Education and then sets forth how the school system grew and developed, even listing the particulars of each school in the district - a fascinating glimpse into the educational history of an area that is now home to Cal, one of the great research universities. This copy has a prior owner name written at the top of the front wrap of J.E. Cuddeback; a gentleman of that name served as… Read More

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1929. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/good +. Lathrop, Dorothy P.. First printing, octavo size, 219 pp., in publisher's dust jacket. A delightful children's book which tells the tale of a hand-carved wooden doll and her many adventures. "As far as I can learn, I must have been made something over a hundred years ago in the State of Maine in the dead of winter..." (p. 3). Authored by Rachel Lyman Field (1894-1942) who wrote over twenty-five children's books and with illustrations by Dorothy P. Lathrop (1891-1980) who provided the charming artwork for almost fifty children's books, "Hitty" would go on to win the Newbery Medal in 1930. ___DESCRIPTION: Bound in full decorated cloth over boards, small illustrated paper onlay on the front board, colour frontis an image of Hitty, small black-and-white illustration by Lathrop on the title page, lavishly illustrated with a total of twenty-three illustrations, two in colour (in addition to the colour frontis) twelve… Read More

Cleveland and New York: The World Publishing Company, 1949. Limited First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Rogers, Bruce. Two volumes, the Bible one of 975 copies, elephant folio size, [942] pp., [and] Making of the Bible number 178 of 1875 copies, quarto size, [41] pp. The second folio Bible designed by Bruce Rogers, this time for an American publisher (his first was the "Oxford Lectern Bible", published in 1935), using the King James Version. No other book designer / typographer from the history of printing can claim to have designed two complete folio Bibles, each one highly regarded. Bruce Rogers (1870-1957), American typographer who invented the "Centaur" tyepface (based on the Renaissance-period printing of Nicolas Jenson), is considered by many to be one of the greatest book designers of the twentieth century. He designed books for the Riverside Press, Cambridge, when he cut his first typeface, "Montaigne," named for the first book it appeared in, "The Essays of Montaigne," 1903; he designed… Read More