Rare books from 20 Ants Fine Books, IOBA

Santa Barbara, CA: Unicorn Press. Fine with no dust jacket. 1971. Limited Signed Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. A few thin, dark marks to the paper of the back cover. Slightest bumps to the lower tips of the covers.; This poem is written in Levine's characteristic style of short, declarative phrasing and the lines speak in the voice of a child, the voice of an adult, and the voice of the wall, all presumed to be in Spain. The dedication references the girl Pili, the author's wife, and Spain, for which he had a long-standing fascination. Prior to his 2011 appointment as Poet Laureate of the United States, Philip Levine won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, the National Book Award, the Ruth Lily Prize in Poetry and the Wallace Stevens Award. The author was also named Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. Copy 43 of an edition of 50, numbered in yellow ink and signed in black by Levine. From a total edition of 750, the 50 numbered and signed copes are specially bound in… Read More

San Francisco, CA: Arion Press. Fine with no dust jacket. 1986. Limited Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. The World is Round lacks the ephemeral printed balloon. The World is Not Flat has a slight splay to the boards. The box has the slightest rubbing at the corners. The trade edition's dust jacket has sun-lightened spine, a dark spec to the front, 3/4" closed tear to the back, overall light rubbing.; The World is Round is the only children's book written by Gertrude Stein, though written to be appreciated by adults. The prose and poetry describe Rose, a French child, a cousin, dogs, a pet lion, and the blue chair that Rose carries up a hill she imagines to be a "mountain." The plot isn't the real story, which is a young girl's determination and discovery that "Rose" is simply what she is and that who she is is far deeper than that. Written in a stream of words, like one would hear from an enthusiastic child describing something important.… Read More

London: William Heinemann. Very Good+ with no dust jacket. c.1916. Limited Signed Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. Tail fore corners bumped, some light rubbing at the hinges, light overall foxing to the free endpapers with a bit on the pastedowns, light dampstain at the tail of the front free endpaper and the next two leaves, a sliver of unobtrusive foxing along the fore edge of numerous pages. Light scuffing to the cloth of the rear cover. The slipcase has light rubbing to all edges, with wear to the head and tail of the leather.; These 13 collected tales represent the traditions of the Allied nations of World War I and, arguably, amount to uplifting, positive propaganda, possibly for the young and most certainly for their parents. English, "Scotch," Welsh, Irish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, Siberian, and Belgian folk tales and "fairy" tales recount the meek besting the mighty and both people and the supernaturals working toward the common good.… Read More

Kingswood, Surrey: William Heinemann Ltd. - The Windmill Press. Very Good- with no dust jacket. 1927. Press Proof; First Printing. Hardcover. The first copy has a 3" split, without loss, along the front of the spine at head and a tiny spot to a page with offsetting to the adjacent page. The second copy has a 1/2" closed tear, without loss, to the leather at the spine head, a 5/15" split, without loss, to leather at the spine tail and a pinpoint spot to a page. Common to both copies: Boards are splayed, common to most copies of this book. Overall wear and scuffing to all surfaces and extremities. Spines have wear and some sun-lightening Faint toning at the edges of all pages. Verso of free endpapers has offsetting from some production process. Lack the ephemeral, plain dustwrappers.; TWO of only 12 copies of the press proof of the first pages composed and printed at The Windmill Press, Kingsmill, Surrey, on December 8th, 1927. The proof pages are the facing pages 2 and 3 from… Read More

Dublin Ireland: Cuala Press. Very Good+ with no dust jacket. 1942. Limited/Numbered Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. Endpapers are wrinkled where they meet the gutter. Dark speck on front cover. Light, 1/2" long impression at the head edge of the front cover and a similar, very faint impression to the head edge of the back cover. Lower corners of the boards are bumped at the fore edge. Lacks the ephemeral tissue wrapper.; This compelling memoir recounts the author's childhood views of living in Dublin Ireland during seven consecutive winters, her summers being spent in County Cork. The memories are detailed and evoke both the chilled, gray days and the beauty of Dublin. Founded and operated by women, entirely, the Cuala Press was focused on new works in the emerging Irish Literary Revival. One of only two titles published by the press in 1942, as the entire press operation was moved to a different location in that year. This is copy 448 of an edition of 450 "finished in… Read More

Ann Arbor, Michigan: Roger Jackson. Fine with no dust jacket. 1995. Limited/Lettered Signed Edition; First Edition. Broadside. The publisher's 8 1/2" x 11" letter is folded once. ; The 14 "vignettes" are the briefest essays about the author's real and imagined sexual encounters, all these vignettes being printed on unbound, small sheets. These encounters seem to be loveless and purely sexual. They are a.) Laundromat, b.) Being Single, c.) My Indifference, d.) Small Breast, e.) Lover's Nuts, f.) Blowsy Tart, g.) Older Lady, h.) Cotton Underpants, i.) Japanese Businesswoman, j.) Femme Fatale, k.) Active Sex Life, l.) Being Naked, m.) Suntan Lotion and Whisky, n.) Three Emancipated Women. Includes both the limited and trade editions housed in the publisher's folder. Limited edition of 26 lettered copies, this one being copy W and signed by the author on the special bifolium. This special inclusion is a brief essay about a writer who wanted Saunders to have… Read More

No Place Stated: Black Swan Letterpress Printing and Graphic Design. Very Good+ with no dust jacket. 1995. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Short, tight split to the wrap at the tail of the spine.; One woman's journey in letterpress and graphic design, from unloading machinery in her driveway, to the tedious business of book and job printing, to the "Swan Song" of her Black Swan press years later. More than storytelling, it's rendered as an artist's book with text printed over illustrated leaves. Some pages have two story lines interspaced together in different text colors. One of a limited edition of 500. No place of publication stated, but likely Providence, RI where Black resided at the time of publication. 12 pages, but unpaginated. Black says of her two presses: "It might take me several hours to get the make-ready just right. The thing about C&P's (sic) is that the first impression always looks like shit. Even after three years I have to steel myself for… Read More

No Place Stated: The Golden Bough Press. Very Good with no dust jacket. 1930. Limited/Numbered Edition. Hardcover. The free endpapers have a slight curl, likely from the marbling process. Spine and joints slightly darker than the rest of the leather. Minor rubbing to the joints, cover paper abraded where it wraps under the tail edge of the rear board, corners bumped with wear through to the boards.; Daudet's novel of the personal failings and stumbling, lurching relationship of a young Southern French student Jean Gaussin and his older Parisian lover Fanny Legrand. Jean is troubled by Fanny's life of luxury from many profitable, personal relationships: an engineer, a poet, an engraver, and a sculptor who had her pose for his statue of Sappho. After their living in the country and his dalliance with a young woman, it all falls apart. In the end, Fanny leaves him with little but a letter and he's right to lament his "...broken, wasted life, all wrecked and tearful... From… Read More

Boston: Small, Maynard & Company. Very Good+ in Good+ dust jacket. 1925. First American Edition. Hardcover. Spine ends slightly bumped and bump to one corner. Light soil to the head and tail edges of the front cover, two tiny marks at the head. Faint toning at the edges of the pastedowns and endpapers. Dust jacket is intact with considerable wear and soil. Chips to head and tail of spine, all edges, and corners. Previous owner's name in ink on front pastedown. ; At once mystic and a celebration of life, the rubaiyat (quatrains) form a beautiful, poetic work by Omar Khaiyam [Ghiyath al-Din Abu'l-Fath Umar ibn Ibrahim Al-Nisaburi al-Khayyami] (1040-1131) the Persian Sufi poet, philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician. The rubaiyat are considered by some to exalt earthly pleasure, consider death, and point out the unreliability of religion in addressing human issues. This English translation by Frederick Rolfe ["Baron Corvo"] (1860-1913) was based on the French… Read More

Waltham Saint Lawrence, Berkshire, [England]: The Golden Cockerel Press. Very Good with no dust jacket. 1925. Limited/Numbered Edition. Hardcover. Common to this edition, both volumes have a sun-darkened spine, and the cover cloth has overall soiling. Volume 1: The paper band has two scrapes and an area of abrasion with surface loss to the front, an area of abrasion loss to the back, minor chipping to edges, and the cloth has light reddish staining to the back. Volume II: The paper band has an area of abrasion with surface loss to the front, a scrape and an area of abrasion loss to the back, and minor chipping to edges.; One of the finest works of fiction in English literature, it's a once a fantastic, imagined voyage and a biting, on-target satire of English politics, customs, and society. The stupidity of war is illustrated by Lilliput going to war with Blefuscu in a dispute over which end of an egg should be broken. In this first-person narrative by Lemuel Gulliver, surgeon and sea… Read More

Kirkwood, Missouri: The Printery. Fine with no dust jacket. 1975. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Slightest rubbing to tail corners.; "Vincent Starrett was one of the most civilized and versatile literary figures of the twentieth century. Upon his death on January 4, 1974, Michael Murphy collected these 15 distinguished tributes to Starrett’s life and work. Contributors include Carl Sandburg, Christopher Morley, Charles Honce, and August Derleth. Robert G. Little’s charcoal portrait of Starrett, the last portrait taken from life, is reproduced as a frontispiece." In total, 15 contributions and entries. Frontis printed in green. Paginated 42,[2],[2 blank]. Number 221B of 225 copies, all copies being numbered 221B, the address of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson on Baker Street, London. Vincent Starrett was an avid enthusiast of Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes and Watson characters. Starrett was a prominent member of the Baker Street Irregulars, the world's first… Read More

Crestline, CA: George Frederick Kolbe. Fine with no dust jacket. 2001. Limited/Numbered Edition. Hardcover. Slightest roll to spine.; The text is Renaissance scholar Roberto Weiss' first English translation of the essay Nota, a treatise on written works about the growing interest in coins of Ancient Rome. The first book dedicated to numismatics is attributed to Andrea Fulvio and is comprised of pages for individual Roman emperors, with their woodcut portraits, and explanations of coins issued during their tenure. The purchase of an incomplete, disbound copy of Illustrium Imagines led the publisher to produce this edition featuring an original, woodcut leaf from the 1517 edition, mounted in a die-cut leaf that shows both verso and recto of the original. The frontispiece reproduces the title page of the 1517 edition of Illustrium Imagines. Large medallion illustration by Wesley W. Bates, Canadian wood engraver. The title and colophon pages have small, red, woodcut 'medallion'… Read More

Québec, Canada: 93 Publishing. Fine with no dust jacket. c.1970s. Facsimile. Hardcover. Thirty-one hymns or poems to the Star Goddess. Although unstated in the book, the Star Goddess is Nuit, the highest deity in Thelema, an esoteric, occult spiritual philosophy defined by Aleister Crowley, an English occultist and writer. The Table of Contents lists the 31, all poems of tribute to and worship of Nuit, but all written in first-person observation of nature and cosmology. Only 1 found in OCLC, this edition is a facsimile of the rare original 1923 edition composed, printed, and published in Chicago by the great designer, typographer, and bibliographer Will Ransom. The original was printed in the second year of Ransom's publishing venture, Will Ransom, Maker of Books, and was an example of his belief that the private press should present new works instead of classic works. This c.1970s facsimile reproduces the original 1923 edition, excepting the colophon. The author XIII, or Achad,… Read More

New York: Brentano's. Very Good+ with no dust jacket. N.D.. Hardcover. Lacks the elusive dust jacket. Rubbing to edges, corners, hinges, and spine ends. Previous owner's name in ink on front pastedown. The front endpaper has a small abrasion, possibly from sticker removal. Pastedowns and endpapers lightly toned.; Tannhäuser, the full title being Tannhäuser and the Minnesängers' Contest at Wartburg, is Richard Wagner's epic, poetic, opera of the opposition of sacred, otherworldly love and profane, worldly love. The mythical character Tannhäuser is a medieval German poet and songwriter who abandons his chaste Elizabeth and descends to be with Venus in her ethereal, subterranean realm of Venusberg. Dissatisfied, he ascends to the real-worldly Wartburg. reunites with Elisabeth, enters the songwriting contest of the Minnesängers, and horrifies the staid, pious listeners with his song of earthly, sensual love. In disgrace, he repairs to Rome to do… Read More

San Francisco: Arion Press. Very Good with no dust jacket. 1975. Limited Signed Edition. Binder. Head and tail edges of the wraps are wrinkled, and a bit bent from shelving. Two tiny, faint pin-point marks and two short, faint creases to the fore edge of the front cover.; This first book published by Andrew Hoyem's Arion Press is an illustrated catalogue of drawings and related writings: 1961-1974, prepared by the artist and poet, published on the occasion of an exhibition, January 18 through March 16, 1975, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor. Hoyem gave a reading of at the January 17, 1975 preview party at the Little Theater in the Legion of Honor and signed hardbound copies of this book were offered. In sum, this book documents Andrew Hoyem's pen, pencil, crayon, and watercolor drawings and paintings through 1974. Representative and stylized, many of these sparse works are the basis for or result of Hoyem's poems, some works… Read More