Rare books from Bolerium Books Inc., ABAA/ILAB

New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982. 245p., signed by Walker on the title page, stated first edition with letters BCDE as called for by Zempel & Werkler, lightly shelfworn quarter-cloth boards in edgeworn unclipped dust jacket with original $11.95 price intact. True first of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel for 1983, signed.

San Francisco, etc.: the photographer, 2010. A major photographic archive containing over 10,500 original photographic negatives and slides and more than 700 original prints. These photographs, many of which were taken for the groundbreaking sex-positive magazine On Our Backs, document San Francisco's lesbian leather community and the rise of sex clubs during the feminist sex wars, as well as San Francisco's wider queer community as reflected in Theatre Rhinoceros, AIDS fundraisers, the Gay Games, gay weddings, political activism and music festivals. Also included in the archive are an additional 3000+ negatives/slides and 100+ prints showing Shelby's artistic growth and her concurrent work as a professional photographer for the San Francisco Giants. Although many of these photographs were taken on assignment, the considerable majority have never been published or exhibited, and, with a handful of exceptions, are offered here without restrictions. Shelby (b. 1959) is an overlooked presence in the… Read More

Amsterdam: Marx-Lenin-Luxemburg-Front; Derde Front, 1942. Newsletter. Seventeen issues of the clandestine newsletter published by revolutionary socialists under Nazi occupation. On the first issue, the title is spelled Spartakus, after which it becomes Spartacus. After the third issue, the subtitle changes to "Orgaan van het Derde Front." The issues appear in a variety of formats, apparently depending on the materials available. Issue 1 consists of eight mimeographed pages, horizontally folded; issues 2-7 and 9 are in tabloid newspaper format, with some tears (no. 2 is rather chipped and torn at the right margin). Numbers 15-17 are printed (no. 17 with pagination error), no. 19 is mimeographed in larger format (rather worn and toned, but complete), with a return to printing for the relatively skimpy issues 21, 22, 22a, 23, and 24. Number 24 appears to have been the final issue. Also included is a seven-page pamphlet, Spartakus ontwaakt! Het Derde Front marcheert" by Baanbreker [Henk Sneevliet], with… Read More

Prague; Paris: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, 1940. Staplebound. A substantial run of the social-democratic publication published in exile, carrying updates on the situation in Germany under the Nazis. Lacks the first 14 issues, but includes 53 of the 54 remaining. Those present are listed below; numbers with asterisk include Uberblicke. The thin paper tape along the spines of some issues is torn or flaking, but otherwise generally little wear. 2. Jahrgang Nos. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,12 (1935). 3. Jahrgang Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 (1936). 4. Jahrgang Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4. 5*. 6*. 7. 8*. 9. 10. 11*. 12* (1937). 5. Jahrgang Nos. 1, 2, 3*, 4/5*. 6*, 7*, 8.9*, 10*, 11*, 12* (1938). 6. Jahrgang Nos. (ca. 2" × 2.5" section sliced off bottom left corner of front cover & 2pp. Table of Contents), 3, 4. 5, 6. 7, 8, 9 [last number of year] (1939). 7. Jahrgang Nos. 1, 2. 3, 4 [final number] (1940).

n.pl: n.pub, 1944. 341-376pp., 6x9 inch wraps; staple somewhat rusted, wraps a tad foxed and soiled, else very good, inscribed on the front wrap, "With the author's compliments." Offprint from Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, vol. IV, No. 3 (March 1944). The Polish American philosopher is regarded as one of the greatest logicians of the twentieth century; this is one of his most important papers.

Kyoto: Bundaiken Uhei 文臺軒宇平, 1710. Approximately 55.5x46 inch folded map, fitted together from separate woodblock prints. One of the thick paper covers (which protect the map when folded) is partly separated but still holding on. A few minor wormholes and edge chips have long ago been reinforced with backing paper. Some yellow spots are spread across the upper portion. Dated by the preface, though as with most woodblock prints, the blocks would have been saved and additional printings could have been made from them after this date. This "Map of the Countries in Jambudvipa" was a landmark of Japanese efforts to adapt the geographical traditions of Buddhism to newer information about far-flung countries gleaned from the maps of merchants and missionaries. Although the monk Hōtan rejected the "Five Continent theory" widely promulgated in China and the region by the maps of Mateo Ricci and his successors, it had nevertheless become impossible by this point to completely deny the existence of… Read More

Edo: Sagamiya Tahē, 1703. Map. Approximately 67x34.25 inch folded map, fitted together from separate woodblock prints. The folded map is stored in a modern blue case. Examples of this map are often found colored by hand, but this example remains relatively unadorned, with only yellow coloration added to cartouches. Minor wormholing, and loss at the edges, has been stabilized by rebacking. "Complete map of the mountains and seas of Japan," a highly influential depiction that helped to establish this perspective of Japan, and which was reprinted numerous times. This Genroku year 16 example is a relatively late edition, printed more than a decade after the first. For a discussion of the creation and the influence of Ryusen's maps, see Marcia Yonemoto, "Mapping Early Modern Japan: Space, Place, and Culture in the Tokugawa Period, 1603-1868," Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003, pp. 26ff.

Los Angeles: Greybull Press, 2002. Hardcover. 137p. hardcover, fine condition, inscribed by Kathleen Cleaver to "Leon and Rhoda" (Pulitzer Prize-winning author and professor Leon Litwack and his wife), "two of the strong souls who keep the beauty of the Black experience up front." In original deluxe case (11.75x14.75 inches) with a signed and numbered print of Pirkle Jones' iconic photograph of Panther women with raised fists. The photo print is lightly crimped along one edge. Also laid in is a leaflet, with mailing label addressed to the Litwacks, announcing a lecture by Cleaver.

Starnberg, Germany: H.R. Hoffmann, 1940. Newsletter. A substantial run of the Nazi propaganda newsletter, 8.25x11.75 inches; many have a penciled date of receipt or a notation like "Received from München via Siberia" (mail was being blocked by England at the time but could be sent via the USSR during the Hitler-Stalin Pact period). Issues present for News from Germany are nos. 7 to 27/28 for 1939, and 1-24 for 1940, plus numerous special issues and supplements. Also included in this group are four other titles which were published as supplements to be sent to subscribers: American Views (1, 2, 4-17, plus special editions 1-3); Economics, Germany and Europe (Nos. 1 and 2); German Art and Culture (nos. 1-3) and British News and Views (nos. 1-5). Hoffmann, the publisher, was a friend of Goebbels; these publications represent his efforts in the period before US entry to the war to find sympathy in English-speaking countries for the German side in the widening conflict.

Boston; New York: Benjamin R. Tucker, 1905. Newspaper. Two hundred and ninety-four issues of the newspaper, generally four pages, 10x14 inches. Publication moved from Boston to New York in 1892. Many have horizontal fold crease (occasionally with splits starting at the crease), occasional foxing or handwritten notations; many issues in volumes 6-9 have damp stains to edge (not musty); issues from vol. 10-14 have some rust marks around the staples, otherwise generally very good, with just a handful of more seriously stained or damaged issues. Issues present are Vol. 2, Nos. 2, 4, 5, 8, 10-12, 14-17, 19, 24; Vol. 3, Nos. 1-7, 11-26; Vol. 4, Nos. 2, 3, 11-17, 19-25; Vol. 5, Nos. 2, 4-6, 9-11, 15, 17-20, 22-26; Vol. 6, Nos. 1-4, 6-8, 10-26; Vol. 7, Nos. 1, 4-16, 18, 19, 21, 23; Vol. 8, Nos. 1, 4-11, 13-32, 34-52; Vol. 9, Nos. 1-52; Vol. 10, Nos. 1-6, 8-13, 15-26; Vol. 11, Nos. 1-26; Vol. 12, Nos. 1-6, 8-13; Vol. 13, Nos. 1, 2, 5, 10-13; Vol. 14, Nos. 2-4, 8, 10, 13-17, 19-23, 25. One of the most… Read More

Norborne, MO; Independence, MO, etc.: Minutemen, 1982. A group including 27 issues of the On Target newsletter, as well as twenty other substantial booklets and pamphlets related to the Minutemen Training Program and other efforts, as well as a smattering of other ephemera issued by DePugh, supplemented by several pamphlets from other far-right groups that DePugh kept with his own publications. DePugh's Minutemen organization was a far-right armed group seen by some as a predecessor to the wider militia movement. These newsletters discuss alleged communist plans to use UN troops to strangle the United States, and argue for the need to create a guerrilla movement to stave off this fate. DePugh published theoretical works arguing that a tripartite attack by Socialists, Jews, and Homosexuals was bringing America to its knees, but he argued that such "education" or words alone were fruitless; action by armed patriots was necessary to actually stop this process. To this end, he published survivalist… Read More

New York: the League, 1951. Ephemera. A group of 291 different newsletters, press releases, and other publications of the Workers Defense League, including the Last-Minute News, Press Service and its successor News Service, Workers Defense Bulletin, and a smattering of other publications. The WDL, which emerged from legal efforts by the Socialist Party, became a path breaking organization in the defense of the oppressed and exploited. Among the cases it took in this period, with constant updates in the pages of these bulletins, are the struggle against lynching, the fight to abolish the poll tax, defense of war resisters during World War II, efforts to fight the wholesale internment of "aliens" during that period, aid to labor organizers, and pressure to desegregate the armed forces. These bulletins include discussion of very important cases from the formative period of the Civil Rights Movement, such as the Odell Waller case - defending a Black sharecropper who wounded his landlord in a fight and… Read More

Chicago; New York: International Labor Defense, 1945. Newsletter. An archive containing 213 issues of the ILD's "News," along with 174 issues of the "Legislative Letter" (later "Legislative Service"), together with seven issues of the Information Service, published in Chicago; eight issues of the Civil Rights Survey, with headlines like "Violent terror against the Negro People" and "Workers killed in anti-Labor violence in 1940"; and other miscellaneous items. Almost all are mimeographed in 8.5x14 inch staplebound newsletter format. Some have old paper tape reinforcement at the stapled corner, minor handwritten notes about date received or source, some with rubberstamped receipt date, otherwise generally very good. "News" offers updates on legal defense of prisoners accused of "criminal syndicalism," notes activities with figures like Lucy Parsons and organizations such as the National Negro Congress, campaigns against the poll tax, debt peonage, loyalty oaths, and the like. There is discussion of… Read More

n.p., 1950. Ephemera. 10x13.75 inch untrimmed sheet featuring a 6.25x7.5 inch work in ink, below which, in very fine script, is copied part of Foss' poem: "Let me live in a house by the side of the road, Where the race of men go by-- / The men who are good and the men who are bad, As good and as bad as I. / I would not sit in the scorner's seat, Or hurl the cynic's ban-- / Let me live in a house by the side of the road, And be a friend to man." Very good. Bernardino del Boca, Count of Villaregia and Tegerone, was a pioneer of the homophile movement in Italy. His interest in anthropology and mysticism brought him to Southeast Asia in the late 1940s, particularly Thailand and Singapore, where he worked as an architect and and exhibited works of art while writing fiction (del Boca had attended the Liceo artistico di Brera in Milan). During this period he also held an honorary diplomatic post as consul for Italy in Singapore. This drawing incorporates what appears to be a Balinese mask of Rangda,… Read More

Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1966. Paperback. xv, 172p. paperback, very good sixth impression with toned spine and minor foxing elsewhere, INSCRIBED by Kuhn, "Remembering some good talk at dinner, Tom Kuhn." Otto Bird's copy, with his ownership signature inside the front cover (Bird was the founder and first director of Notre Dame's "Great Books" program). Some minor markings scattered through the text. International Encyclopedia of Unified Science: Volumes I and II - Foundations of the Unity of Science. Volume II - Number 2.