Search Results: Titles starting with V from Whitmore Rare Books

Philadelphia and New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1963. First edition. Fine/Near Fine. A Fine copy in Near Fine jacket. Book clean and fresh. Jacket with spine slightly faded and a bit rubbed down the spine otherwise very clean and bright. Pynchon's debut novel, V. "describes the exploits of a discharged US Navy sailor named Benny Profane, his reconnection in New York with a group of pseudo-bohemian artists and hangers-on known as the Whole Sick Crew, and the quest of an aging traveler named Herbert Stencil to identify and locate the mysterious entity he knows only as V" (Pynchon Wiki). Fine in Near Fine dust jacket.

Philadelphia and New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1963. First edition. Fine/Near Fine. A Fine copy in nearly Fine jacket. Book clean and fresh. Jacket with one small tape repair on the verso (with minor offsetting to the rear panel) otherwise very clean and bright and with an unfaded spine. Pynchon's debut novel, V. "describes the exploits of a discharged US Navy sailor named Benny Profane, his reconnection in New York with a group of pseudo-bohemian artists and hangers-on known as the Whole Sick Crew, and the quest of an aging traveler named Herbert Stencil to identify and locate the mysterious entity he knows only as V" (Pynchon Wiki). Fine in Near Fine dust jacket.

London: Bradbury & Evans, 1848. First edition. Near Fine. An attractive, finely bound copy of the author's defining work. First issue with the heading on p. 1 in rustic type, the advertisement for "The Great Hogarty Diamond" before the frontis and the illustration of "the marquis of Steyne" on p. 336 (later suppressed). Illustrated by the author in 40 steel engraved plates and numerous woodcuts throughout the text. Bound in 20th century full tan calf with red and green morocco spine labels. Spine compartments and turn-ins intricated stamped in gilt, marbled end papers, text block all edges gilt. Internal contents generally in excellent condition, but some foxing throughout, especially in the early and late leaves and near the plates. A handsome copy overall. Considered by its author to be a novel without a hero, Vanity Fair follows the path of the social climbing Becky Sharp as she seeks to improve her position within the Victorian social strata. One of literature's most important early iterations… Read More

London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1913. Fine. Original publisher's pictorial vellum with gilt to spine and front board. Pictorial endpapers. Boards slightly bowed and lacking silk ties. Some offsetting to endpapers and occasional light foxing not affecting illustrations. Number 38 of 350 copies signed by the illustrator, and complete with twenty mounted color plates with titled tissue-guards. Considered by its author to be a novel without a hero, Vanity Fair follows the path of the social climbing Becky Sharp as she seeks to improve her position within the Victorian social strata. One of literature's most important early iterations of the female anti-hero, Miss Sharp helped to expose the truth that women were not merely domesticated angels but could be just as ambitious and driven as their male counterparts; and her foil Amelia reveals that even an apparent paragon of femininity was imperfect. A contemporary reviewer noted "Thakeray's theory of characterization proceeds generally on the assumtion that… Read More

Philadelphia: David McKay Company, 1929. First American edition. Deluxe issue, limited to 775 copies (575 for England and 200 for the United States) signed by Arthur Rackham, this being copy no. 94 of the American issue. Publisher's white vellum, front cover ruled and lettered in gilt, spine decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt, pictorial endpapers, top edge gilt, others uncut. A few text leaves poorly opened, some scattered foxing, bookplate on front paste-down. Quarto (10 5/16 x 7 3/4 in; 263 x 197 mm). 231, [1] pp. Twelve full page color plates, twenty-two black and white line drawings. A very good copy, housed in a green cloth slipcase. "In the England of jazz and Noel Coward the whimsical and fantastic had grown increasingly out of fashion. With The Vicar of Wakefield of 1929... Rackham played it safe by turning to historical costume... in which he had long been supremely accomplished and successful" (Hudson 126). One of the most popular books of the 18th century. This novel, both a work… Read More

Philadelphia: David McKay Company, 1929. First American trade edition. Quarto (9 1/2 x 7 1/8 inches; 242 x 182 mm.). Collating 231, [1]. Publishers dark blue ribbed cloth over boards, front cover and spine decoratively stamped in gilt. Pictorial endpapers, top edge gilt. Small stain on lower blank margin of color frontispiece with very slight mark on facing (title) page. Twelve full page color plates, twenty-two black and white line drawings. Otherwise a very Fine copy with the original color pictorial dust jacket with a 'titled' version of the color plate "A Favourite Song of Dryden's" (facing page 36) on the front panel. Clean tear on upper panel neatly repaired, small closed tear on lower rear panel. Original blue cardboard box with the same color illustration as on the dust jacket pasted on the top panel and a white label "The Vicar of Wakefield / Oliver Goldsmith / Illustrated by Arthur Rackham on the lower edge. The box has had some repairs to the corners and the left-hand side edge is… Read More

Salisbury: Printed by B. Collins for F. Newbery, 1766. First edition. Finely bound by Riviere & Son in full crushed morocco ornately stamped in gilt to spine and boards. All edges gilt. Inner dentelles gilt. Blue coated endpapers. Measuring 155 x 90mm and collating complete: [2], 214; [2], 223, [1, blank]. A first edition plagued by misprints and errors, there are four variants identified with no priority; the present is Temple Scott's variant B, with no catchword on page 213 of volume I, the correct catchword "him" on volume II page 39 and the correct page number on volume II page 159. A lovely copy outside and in, with just light sunning to spines; bookplates to early leaves, else fresh and with no signs of use. Housed in a custom cloth slipcase. Reportedly published as a means for thwarting debt, The Vicar of Wakefield became one of the most popular novels of the late 18th century. Mixing irony with sentimentalism, it paints a portrait of village life "narrated by Dr. Primrose, the title… Read More

London: George G. Harrap & Company, 1929. First trade edition in the publisher's special deluxe binding. Quarto (256 x 186 mm). Collating 231, [1]. Publisher's full olive Persian morocco, gilt stamped with multi colored morocco onlays, reproducing the color frontispiece "An Epitaph for my Wife." Gilt lettered spine. Top edge gilt. Pictorial endpapers. Twelve full page color plates, twenty-two black and white line drawings. Light foxing to preliminary leaves, otherwise a Near Fine copy. One of the most popular books of the 18th century. This novel, both a work of sentimental fiction and a satire on the genre itself, follows the trials and eventual triumph of the Primrose family, led by the Rev'd Dr. Charles Primrose, the vicar. Goldsmith was a noted Irish wit and a member of Samuel Johnson's famed literary club, who Johnson praised as: "In genius, vivid, versatile, sublime. In style, clear, elevated, elegant." The legend of the book's publication is that Goldsmith was about to be arrested by his… Read More

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1853. First American edition. Very Good. With original front wrapper lacking rear wrapper. Front wrapper with a few short tears. Spine worn, with most of backstrip perished. Plain rear wrapper added later. Octavo (226 x 142 mm.). A textually complete copy, including 4 leaves of advertisements at the rear. Text in double columns, collating: 184, [4 leaves ads]. A bit of foxing, otherwise a Very Good copy. Smith claims no priority between this edition and the one in cloth, but the differing page-counts suggest priority exists (the type was completely reset and the clothbound copy has over 500 pages); either way the wrapper edition is much scarcer. Housed in a custom paper-covered slipcase. "Charlotte Bronte's final masterpiece powerfully portrays a woman struggling to reconcile love, jealousy, and a fierce desire for independence. Having fled a harrowing past in England, Lucy Snowe begins a new life teaching at a boarding school in the great capital of a foreign country.… Read More

1907. First edition. Fine. Menu card with deckled edges, on Holborn Restaurant stationery measuring 101 x 165mm. Printed on recto in blue with a menu for a meal in celebration of the release from prison of several key suffrage activists. The tradition of hosting a meal to celebrate the release of suffrage prisoners from Holloway Prison seems to have begun a year earlier, in December 1906, when the non-militant National Union of Woman Suffrage Societies suffragists and the militant Women's Social and Political Union suffragettes came together for a banquet at the Savoy Hotel. Planned by Millicent Garrett Fawcett of the NUWSS to commemorate the work of Emmeline Pankhurst and women of the WSPU, it was the women's opportunity to mutually agree that "although the work of quiet persuasion and argument created a firm basis...the suffrage campaign had received a great impetus from the courage and self-sacrifice of the suffragette prisoners who had touched the imagination of the country" (Murphy). By 1907,… Read More

London: Printed for G.G. and J. Robinson, and J. Edwards, 1798. First edition. Three quarto volumes (11 3/4 x 9 3/8 inches; 299 x 239 mm) plus folio atlas volume (22 x 16 3/4 inches; 560 x 430 mm), collating: [8], xxix, [1, blank], [2, ads], [4, contents], [2, list of plates], 432; [10], 504; [10], 505, [3, errata] pp. Eighteen engraved plates, one of which is a map in the text. Ten folding maps and six plates of profiles in the atlas volume. Complete with half-titles and errata. Text volumes bound in contemporary brown polished calf with double gilt borders. Spines stamped in blind and lettered in gilt. Gilt board edges and dentelles. Marbled endpapers. All edges marbled. Blue silk place markers. Atlas bound to match in contemporary half calf over marbled boards. Outer hinges as well as heads and tails of spines of text volumes professionally repaired. Some light flaking to calf at outer hinges. Plates with some light foxing and toning. Small marginal repair to leaf Pp of volume III and small… Read More