Rare books from Bauman Rare Books

1835. First Edition . TOCQUEVILLE, Alexis de. De la Democratie en Amerique. Paris: Librairie de Charles Gosselin, 1835. Two volumes. Octavo, contemporary half red calf gilt, marbled boards, papers and edges. Housed together in a custom chemise and clamshell box. $62,000.First edition presentation copy in the original French of the first two volumes of Tocqueville's classic work, one of no more than 500 copies published, inscribed by Tocqueville in Volume I ""Donne par l'Auteur, 1836."" ""One of the most important texts in political literature"" (PMM 358). Accompanied by the two volumes of the second edition of Part II in a contemporary binding.""This is by far the best book ever written about America, and the most penetrating book ever written about democracy. It won instant acclaim, not only in the writer's native France, where Royer-Collard declared: 'Nothing equal to it had appeared since Montesquieu,' but in England, where John… Read More

1933. Signed. ROOSEVELT, Franklin D. Hand-corrected manuscript for Looking Forward. No place,1933. 235 leaves measuring 8-1/2 by 11 inches, typing on recto, with corrections in Roosevelt's hand on 22 leaves, other corrections throughout in pencil. Housed in a large black ring binder with individual leaves placed back-to-back in mylar sleeves. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $48,500.Manuscript draft of Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1933 book Looking Forward, his clarion call for a “new deal” that was published in the month of his inauguration, with Roosevelt's handwritten corrections in ink on 22 pages.Published amidst the devastation of the Great Depression and in the same month as his inauguration, FDR's Looking Forward draws on major articles and speeches; it was an immediate best-seller. On publication the New York Times noted: ""As President Roosevelt takes up the task of translating into terms of action his conception of the 'new deal' there comes from the… Read More

1888. First Edition . WILDE, Oscar. The Happy Prince and Other Tales. Illustrated by Walter Crane and Jacob Hood. London: David Nutt, 1888. Quarto, original full Japan vellum over beveled boards, uncut. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. $48,500.Large-paper limited first edition, number 21 of only 75 copies on handmade paper, signed by Oscar Wilde and the publisher David Nutt. Extraordinarily rare.""Wilde's reputation as an author dated from the publication of The Happy Prince and Other Tales… He presents the stories like sacraments of a lost faith… Their occasional social satire is subordinated to a sadness unusual in fairy tales"" (Ellmann, 299). Wilde wrote these tales for his own children. He told Richard La Gallienne that ""It is the duty of every father… to write fairy tales for his children."" His children later wrote of their father's ""never-ending supply"" of fairy tales and tales of adventure,… Read More

1774. First Edition . (CONTINENTAL CONGRESS). Journal of the Proceedings of the Congress, Held at Philadelphia, September 5, 1774. Philadelphia: Printed by William and Thomas Bradford at the London Coffee-House, 1774. Octavo, contemporary full brown calf rebacked, raised bands, marbled endpapers; pp. (2), 132. Housed in a custom chemise and clamshell box. $65,000.First edition, first issue, of the first official journal of the Continental Congress, one of the earliest publications of the American government, “a book of the greatest rarity.” Also presenting for the first time an attempt to design a seal to “represent emblematically a united nation” in America. An excellent copy in contemporary calf with half title.In response to the Coercive or Intolerable Acts, enacted by Parliament from March to June 1774, the colonies united together and sent delegates to the First Continental Congress, which met in Philadelphia from September 5 through October 26, 1774. Their objective was to… Read More

1856. AUDUBON, John James. The Birds of America from Drawings Made in the United States and Their Territories. New York: V. G. Audubon, 1856-57. Seven volumes. Royal octavo, publisher's full brown morocco, elaborately decorated in blind, raised bands, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. $58,500.Second octavo edition, the first edition with fully colored backgrounds, containing 500 superb hand-colored plates.One of the most spectacular series of ornithological prints ever produced and a landmark attempt to document the birds of North America. Identical to the first octavo edition, printed in 1840-44, except that the prints have tinted lithographic-wash backgrounds. The royal octavo edition, which Audubon referred to as the ""petit edition,"" contained new species of birds and plants not included in the folio edition, with the birds grouped in an orderly scientific manner. ""His first objective was to observe birds in their native habitat, to see their behavior, their… Read More

1935. First Edition . Signed. GERSHWIN, George. Porgy and Bess. An Opera in Three Acts. By George Gershwin. Libretto by DuBose Heyward. Lyrics by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin. Production Directed by Rouben Mamoulian. New York: Random House, 1935. Folio, original full red morocco, raised bands, black leather label on front cover, top edge gilt. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $48,500.Deluxe limited edition of the piano-vocal score of Porgy and Bess, number 103 of only 250 copies signed by George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, DuBose Heyward, and director Rouben Mamoulian, additionally inscribed by Gershwin to his lover Kay Swift, who was intimately involved in the composition of the piece: “For Kay —/ Best —/ George / Nov. 1 1935.” According to Ohl, “best,” their code word for “love,” allowed them to be discreet.This deluxe edition of the piano-vocal score (according to Fuld, no orchestral score has ever been published) was published in 1935, the year of Porgy and… Read More

1869. Signed. DARWIN, Charles. Autograph letter signed. WITH: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. Kent, United Kingdom, November 24, [1869] and New York: D. Appleton, 1870. Single sheet of unlined paper, measuring 5 by 8 inches folded; pp. 4. Housed in a custom cloth portfolio. WITH: Octavo, original purple cloth. Housed together in a custom clamshell box. $125,000.Very rare and desirable signed autograph letter from Charles Darwin to American publisher D. Appleton's London agent, Charles Layton, agreeing to a second American edition of the Origin of Species, with a slightly raised price, but requiring that Appleton also commit to an American edition of The Descent of Man. Accompanied by the second American edition of Origin of Species in original cloth.The letter, written entirely in Darwin's hand and dated ""Nov. 24th. Beckenham [Kent],"" reads in full: ""Dear Sir, I am much… Read More

1835. First Edition . TOCQUEVILLE, Alexis de. Democracy in America. Translated by Henry Reeve. London: Saunders and Otley, 1835, 1840. Four volumes. Volumes I-II: Octavo, contemporary three-quarter brown calf, raised bands, marbled boards; Volumes III-IV: Octavo, late 19th-century three-quarter brown morocco gilt, raised bands, marbled boards and endpapers, top edges gilt. Housed in matching custom clamshell boxes. $60,000.First editions in English of both parts of Tocqueville's important and influential analysis of American democracy, one of the most outstanding intellectual achievements of the 19th century—""one of the most important texts in political literature"" (PMM)—with very scarce folding map colored in outline, handsomely housed in half morocco clamshell boxes.Democracy in America is ""the first systematic and empirical study of the effects of political power on modern society"" (Nisbet). ""One of the most important texts in… Read More

1795. First Edition . BEETHOVEN, Ludwig van. Trois Trios Pour le Piano-Forte, Violon, et Violoncelle. Composés & Dediés à Son Altesse Monseigneur le Prince Charles de Lichnowsky par Louis van Beethoven. Oeuvre 1re. Vienna: Artaria, [1795]. Oblong quarto, three separate parts neatly respined, pp. 65, 21, 17. Housed in a custom morocco clamshell box. $60,000.First edition, earliest issue, fully engraved, of Beethoven's Opus 1, the earliest compositions Beethoven considered to be ""worthy of publication with an opus number and to proclaim his name"" (Thayer), one of the earliest and rarest Beethoven first editions, one of very few complete copies extant. The jewel in the crown of any important music collection.As the manuscript of these trios is lost, the first edition is the primary source. After his first trip to Vienna in 1787, Beethoven returned to the Austrian capital in the early 1790s to study with Joseph Haydn. In March 1795 he had his public… Read More

1671. First Edition . (JEFFERSON, Thomas) STEPHANO, Carolo (ESTIENNE, Charles). Dictionarium Historicum, Geographicum, Poeticum. Oxford: Gul. Wells & Rob. Scott, 1671. Small folio (8 by 12 inches), contemporary full dark brown calf rebacked with original gilt-decorated spine panels neatly laid down, raised bands. Housed in a custom cloth clamshell box. $80,000.A superb Presidential association copy—Thomas Jefferson's personal copy with his characteristic ownership markings of an important historical dictionary based on Estienne’s famous 16th-century Dictionarium, “the first French encyclopedia.” This is an early reissue of editor Nicholas Lloyd’s Oxford 1670 edition, in Latin, an updated and improved edition of Estienne’s work that was “superior to any of the previous editions.” From the renowned Americana collection of Mrs. Philip D. Sang, in contemporary calf. Rare and desirable. This volume was in Jefferson's final ""Retirement… Read More

1949. HEMINGWAY, Ernest. Typed letter twice signed ""Papa"" to Peter Viertel. Finca Vigia, Cuba, 29 September 1949. Quarto, two sheets of Hemingway's ""Finca Vigia, San Francisco de Paula, Cuba"" stationery, each leaf measuring 8-1/2 inches by 11 inches, typed in black ink, single-spaced, on one side of each leaf for two full pages of typed text, heavily annotated in pen by Hemingway. $42,000.Extraordinary typed and heavily annotated letter from Hemingway in Cuba to friend and fellow author and screenwriter Peter Viertel in Malibu, California, a long, lively letter discussing his writing progress, a proposed trip, hunting and shooting pigeons, drinking, baseball and a new whore in town, with over 150 words of additional notes written in the margins and on the verso of the second page in blue ink by Hemingway. Twice signed as 'Papa.'.The letter, on Hemingway's Finca Vigia stationery, addressed to Peter Viertel in Malibu, CA, reads in full [with… Read More

1876. First Edition . TWAIN, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1876. Square octavo, publisher's three-quarter brown morocco, peach endpapers. Housed in a custom chemise and half morocco clamshell box. $69,000.First American edition, first state of one of the great masterpieces of American literature and a true touchstone of American childhood, in the exceptionally rare publisher's morocco binding. An essential addition to any Mark Twain collection. Only 200 copies were issued in the publisher's three-quarter morocco binding.""The first novel Mark Twain wrote without a co-author, Tom Sawyer is also his most clearly autobiographical novel… Enlivened by extraordinary and melodramatic events, it is otherwise a realistic depiction of the experiences, people and places that Mark Twain knew as a child"" (Rasmussen, 459). Originally published in England (without illustrations), Tom Sawyer arrived at a momentous point in American… Read More

1811. First Edition . (JEFFERSON, Thomas) DAUBENTON, Louis-Jean-Marie. Advice to Shepherds and Owners of Flocks, on the Care and Management of Sheep. Translated from the original French of M. Daubenton [by James Bowdoin]. Boston: Joshua Belcher, 1811. Slim octavo, contemporary full mottled brown calf gilt, marbled endpapers, black morocco spine label. $78,000.Thomas Jefferson's personal copy of this guide to sheep farming—one of Jefferson's primary agricultural interests—containing Jefferson's characteristic and distinctive ownership mark, presented to Jefferson by the widow of the book's translator, James Bowdoin, Jefferson's minister to Spain, with the inscription: ""President Jefferson with Mrs Bowdoin's respectful compliments. 24 May 1812."" Second edition in English, with three illustrated plates appearing for the first time in this edition, in contemporary mottled calf.This volume was in Jefferson's final ""Retirement… Read More

1866. Signed. DARWIN, Charles. Autograph letter signed. Down, Beckenham, Kent: Dec 17, [1866]. One leaf of black-edged mourning stationery, measuring 4-1/2 by 7 inches, penned on recto for one page; floated, matted and framed with an early photographic card; entire piece measures 17 by 14 inches. $39,500.Fine unpublished 1866 autograph letter written by Charles Darwin, answering the questions of an anonymous correspondent concerning editions of his landmark work, On the Origin of Species, boldly signed by him with his full name ""Charles Darwin"" (he often used ""C."" or ""Ch."" instead of his full given name). Beautifully framed with an early photgraphic card.The letter reads, in full: ""Down Beckenham Kent, Dec. 17th. Dear Sir, Four editions of the Origin have appeared; that published last month is considerably added to & can be procured through any bookseller. I am glad to hear that you are interested in the subject.… Read More

1863. Signed. LINCOLN, Abraham. Document signed. City of Washington, July 7, 1863. Folio, single sheet (measures 7-3/4 by 9-3/4 inches folded) partially printed and accomplished in secretarial hand, signed. Framed with a portrait of Lincoln, measures 19 by 16 inches total. $49,000.Fine July 7, 1863 official presidential order signed by Lincoln shortly after the Union's powerful but costly victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, here calling for New York to draft thousands of men under the controversial March 3, 1863 Conscription Act, a law that would provoke the bloody New York draft riots that erupted only six days after the date of this rare Civil War signed document. Handsomely framed with a portrait of Lincoln.""The summer of 1863 witnessed the great Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg during the same week in July, but little more than a week later it saw the eruption of the bloody riots in New York City"" (Wilson, Lincoln's Sword, 182). This important July 7,… Read More