Search Results: Titles starting with R from Mac Donnell Rare Books

[GIFT BOOK] THE RAINBOW. Albany & New York: A. L. Harrison, 1848. First edition, second issue. Original color-stamped cream calf, heavily gilt, stamped in red, brown, and green, all edges gilt, decorated glazed end papers, signed in gilt in the binding by Harrison "A. L. Harrison, Binders, Patent Stereographic Binding." An anthology of works by William Gilmore Simms, James T. Fields (the publisher), Sarah Helen Whitman (Poe's fiancee), and a host of female writers. One of the most striking American bindings of the nineteenth century. This book was published in 1847, but sales were slow and to sell unsold copies the next… Read More

[WHITMAN, WALT] Swinton, William. RAMBLES AMONG WORDS: THEIR POETRY, HISTORY AND WISDOM. New York: Charles Scribner, 1859. First edition. Original sage cloth, gilt. "Swinton was assisted by Whitman in preparing this book." --Joel Myerson. Some general fading, spine gilt dulled but legible, and some chewing along fore-edge of rear cover, but a tight clean copy with no rubbing. This playful etymological work emphasizes the sensual and spiritual aspects of language, sounds, and semantics. This copy is inscribed by one George William Ranson in 1859 and has his well-informed critical pencil annotations throughout the text… Read More

[Twain, Mark] [Clemens, S. L.] Jennings, John A., ed. READINGS FROM AMERICAN AUTHORS. Dublin: Carson Brothers; London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co. [1884] First edition. Original yellow pictorial boards with Twain's profile portrait on front cover. Spine lettering barely legible, but spine is wholy intact; some dust to covers, but a very good copy otherwise, and unusually good for this fragile and scare yellowback anthology. This collection includes a broad selection of American writings with a strong emphasis on humorists. Twain had visited Ireland in 1873, but this is an early appearance of writings in Ireland, and… Read More

Melville, Herman. REDBURN: HIS FIRST VOYAGE. New York: Harper, 1849. First edition, first binding, second state with 18 pages of ads (October, 1849) instead of 14 pp. (final signature R in 12 leaves rather than 10). Original dark brown cloth, gilt. Spine ends much worn, gilt dull; a good solid copy. There was but a single printing of 4,508 copies; by the time of the 1853 Harper fire, 2,433 copies had been bound in cloth and 1,955 in wrappers; the 120 copies still in sheets were destroyed in the fire, as well as 176 unsold bound copies. The copyright deposit copy was also a second state copy. BAL 13660.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. REPRESENTATIVE MEN. Boston: Phillips, Sampson, 1850. First edition, first printing, first binding. Original black cloth, gilt. Abrasion to front free endpaper, small points of rubbing at spine tips and corners, else a tight bright copy. A rare book in the correct first state (printed on thin paper; binding with hour-glass design on covers). Copies are invariably found in the later printing and binding; a few copies of the later printing have surfaced in the first state binding, but copies in the earliest state of binding and text are seldom encountered. Emerson's essay on Shakespeare, which… Read More