Rare books from James Cummins Bookseller

V.p., chiefly Richmond, also Montgomery, AL; Talladega, AL; Raleigh, NC, 1865. 8vo. Mostly in fine condition, many stamped in purple ink with "Rebel Archives, War Department, Record Division" and some with 19th-century deaccession stamp, "Adjutant General's Office, Division of Confederate Archives," housed in ring binders and a cloth clamshell box. 8vo. A Collection of Confederate Imprints from the Rebel Archive. A large collection of 296 Confederate imprints mostly comprising government publications, including Acts of Congress; Congressional committee reports; Senate and House bills and amendments; House committee reports; Messages from the President; Army circulars and orders; reports from various agencies, including the Indian Affairs Office, Justice Department, Navy Department, Patent Office, Postmaster-General, and Public Printing; communications from the Secretary of the Treasury; and state publications from Alabama and North Carolina. Most of the volumes were deaccessioned from the "Rebel… Read More

[Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1495. First Aldine edition, and the first complete edition of Theocritus (printing 12 of the 30 Idylls here for the first time); the first edition of HESIOD'S THEOGONY; second edition of his WORKS AND DAYS; and first editions of most of the other minor works (enumerated below); and first setting of quires £I °E F and £K °E G.. Title in Greek and Roman, introduction by Aldus in Latin;, text entirely in Greek. Woodcut decorated initials and floral or strapwork headpieces, ILLUMINATED THROUGHOUT IN COLORS AND GOLD IN A CONTEMPORARY HAND. [140] leaves. 1 vols. Folio, (315 x 210 mm.). Bound in early 18th-century mottled calf, spine in 7 compartments with citron morocco lettering piece in one and ornamental tooling in the rest; title soiled and shaved along fore-edge, extensive neatly penned marginalia in Greek and Latin, in two different hands; gilt edges, gauffered to all-over pattern of intersecting diagonal fillets and fleurons. Bookplate of St. Benedict's Abbey, Fort… Read More

London: Printed by T. Maxey for Rich. Marriot, 1653. First edition. Engraved cartouche of fish on title, ten engraved vignettes of fish in text. Title within engraved piscatorial cartouche, 6 engravings of fish within text variously attributed to Lombart, Faithorne or Vaughan, 2 pages of music for "The Angler's Song" by Henry Lawes with one page printed upside down as intended to enable two singers to sing facing each other, type-ornament headpieces, woodcut initial. 1 vols. Small 8vo (5-1/2 x 3-1/2 inches). Bound without terminal blank R4; leaves F4, Q6-8 and R1-3 in facsimile, a few headlines just shaved; washed and pressed. Early 20th-century olive morocco gilt, paneled sides with corner fleurons and central lozenge, gilt spine with two red leather labels, edges gilt on the rough. In red morocco-backed slipcase with chemise, spine tooled in gilt with crest and motto "veritas", by James McDonald, New York. First edition. Engraved cartouche of fish on title, ten engraved vignettes of fish in text.… Read More

Paris: Olympia Press, 1955. First edition. 188, [2]; [3]-223, [1] pp. 2 vols. 12mo. Green printed wrappers, priced Francs : 900 on back wrappers. Spines toned, lower portion of spine of first volume worn with small loss. Dated 1.X.1955 on the flyleaf of volume I in an unknown hand. Very good. Morocco backed slipcase, cloth chemises. First edition. 188, [2]; [3]-223, [1] pp. 2 vols. 12mo. The Nabokov Cousins: 'Lolita' Signed. This copy with ownership signatures of composer and cosmopolitan Nicolas Nabokov (1903-1978) on the flyleaf of each volume. With the signature of his first cousin the author on the flyleaf of the first volume: "Vladimir". The cousins got to know each other when the aristocratic Nabokov family arrived in Yalta in the aftermath of the Bolshevik coup, and their paths crossed repeatedly during their new lives in exile. Vladimir invented himself as one of the great literary figures of the twentieth century; Nicolas pursued his musical studies and achieved renown as a composer.… Read More

Montauk, Montauk Navy Yard, Wash D.C., 1865. 4pp. 8vo. Slight soiling and minor tears along old folds, otherwise in very good condition. 4pp. 8vo. The Surgeon of the 'Montauk' Gives an Eye-Witnesses Account. ...About 10:25 P.M. a man came in and walked slowly along the side ... A remarkably clear and dramatic eyewitness account of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln from a naval surgeon who was close to the President's box at Ford's theater on that fateful night of April 14, 1865. In this letter to his brother written the night after the assassination, while the details were still fresh in his memory, Dr. George B. Todd, surgeon aboard the U.S. "Montauk" at anchor in the Navy Yard that day, recounts the terrible event with a clarity of observation one might expect of his profession - a rarity among confused eyewitness accounts. The text of Todd's letter - one of only 7 eyewitness accounts written within 24 hours of the assassination - reads: "The few hours that have intervened since that most… Read More

Washington, D.C., 1804. 1 page plus integral address leaf. 4to, on a folded folio sheet. Old fold lines. Minor wear and soiling. Strip of later paper on left edge verso, where letter had been tipped into an album. Very good. In a brown half morocco clamshell box, spine gilt. 1 page plus integral address leaf. 4to, on a folded folio sheet. President Thomas Jefferson Swears "On my sacred honor...." A remarkable letter written by President Thomas Jefferson to his Secretary of War, Henry Dearborn, in which Jefferson swears "on my sacred honour" that he gives no credence to slanderous gossip circulating relating to Gideon Granger, Samuel Hunt, and the Payne sisters (i.e. including Dolley Madison). Dearborn (1751-1829), a soldier and politician, was appointed by Jefferson to the post of Secretary of War in 1801, a position he held throughout Jefferson's terms in office.  He was moderately successful in most of his life's endeavors, excepting his command during the War of 1812, in which he lost Detroit… Read More

Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1887. [Group of 120 plates from Animal Locomotion. An Electro-Photographic Investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal Movements]. Philadelphia: The University of Philadelphia, 1887. Folio. 120 collotype plates by Muybridge, printed by the Photo-Gravure Company. Includes the following plate numbers: 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 24, 46, 73, 134, 166, 175, 176, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 185, 198, 213, 223, 231, 239, 241, 247, 251, 254, 259, 269, 271, 279, 284, 286, 287, 288, 292, 293, 294, 300, 302, 311, 314, 317, 318, 321, 322, 323, 324, 326, 327, 328, 333, 340, 342, 343, 345, 349, 351, 352, 392, 393, 394, 395, 397, 399, 400, 401, 403, 405, 408, 410, 412, 414, 418, 420, 434, 436, 446, 465, 466, 468, 476, 477, 478, 480, 481, 484, 486, 489, 490, 493, 496, 497, 502, 503, 505, 507, 509, 511, 517, 518, 519, 520, 521, 522, 523, 525, 526, 527, 537, 538, 539, 543, 549, 556, 561, 573, and 666. 1 vols. Folio. Black half morocco clamshell boxes. [Group of 120 plates from… Read More

[N.p., Concord, 1853. 2 pages on a single sheet, inlaid and folded. 8vo. Fine. Some spines of set faintly toned. 2 pages on a single sheet, inlaid and folded. 8vo. 'The best books are not read even by those who call themselves readers'. The deluxe binding of the 1906 Houghton Mifflin Manuscript Edition in three quarter dark green levant gilt, here with a leaf from a resonant passage in Thoreau's Walden, from a draft of Chapter III, "Of Reading" (here in an undetermined state varying slightly from the final published text, where it appears as pp. 114-6). The manuscript is in ink, with additions in pencil. Shanley notes that the "first draft" manuscript is missing three pages at this chapter and he identifies no other manuscript source for the passage. Thoreau laments the absolute scarcity of readers, noting that even in Concord, there is little effort made to read the great books of English literature, and "as for the recorded wisdom of mankind - the ancient classics ... - there are the feeblest… Read More

New York: The Limited Editions Club, 1990. Number 27 of 50 copies. 8 large colour silkscreen studies, Signed by the Artist. 2 text leaves. All loose as issued. Printed by George Drexel, Osiris Screen Printing, New York on Whatman Print Matte paper. Folio (25 x 19 inches). Laid into black cloth clamshell dropbox, with red morocco label inset on upper cover. Fine. Number 27 of 50 copies. 8 large colour silkscreen studies, Signed by the Artist. 2 text leaves. All loose as issued. Printed by George Drexel, Osiris Screen Printing, New York on Whatman Print Matte paper. Folio (25 x 19 inches). The prints illustrate the King James version of the Book of Genesis. Bearing captions lithographed from mylars handwritten by the artist, this "exhibition portfolio" format is much larger than the regular edition of Eight Studies for the Book of Genesis. Each print signed and inscribed "HC" in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Stone Press Editions, Seattle, with the blind stamp lower right. Published by the Limited… Read More

[New York, 1977. One of three copies for the family. 35 black and white silver prints on 11 x 14 inch heavy paper. Oblong Folio. Bound in full orange calf, stamped in gilt on upper cover "Avedon" and lower right "Saroyans'", by Jack Chitgian of Beverly Hills, with some soiling to covers; photos generally near fine. One of three copies for the family. 35 black and white silver prints on 11 x 14 inch heavy paper. Oblong Folio. One of 3 Copies. Rare collection of photographs taken and, likely, developed and assembled all by Avedon himself, rather than by his studio, and characteristic of his private life, but not of his public oeuvre. The negatives are said to have been destroyed, to make this series irreproducible. The first photo, of the Avedon house in Bolinas, is titled and signed by Avedon. The last, a still life, is signed "27. 28. 29. 77 / Dick / XXX / OOO". The thirty-fifth photo, of Lucy Saroyan, whose set this was, is detached, and cropped at the bottom, with a crack on the image where… Read More

London: Edward Moxon, 1840. First edition. 2 vols. 8vo. Recent half morocco and cloth. Formerly in the Exeter City Library with stamps. With a number of early, neat pencil annotations in an unidentified hand (1:164, 1:167; 1:234-239, three pages with lines shaved at the bindery). Very good. First edition. 2 vols. 8vo. Inscribed by Mary Shelley in December 1839. Contains the first printing of Shelley's "The Defence of Poetry" and also his translations from the classics (including Plato's "Symposium," "Ion," and fragments from "The Republic") and 67 letters. "The Defence of Poetry" was edited by John Hunt for inclusion in "The Liberal" but the magazine folded before it could be published. This first appearance used John Hunt's edited version. Inscribed in each volume, "Julia Robinson from her affectionate friend, Mary Shelley, Putney 22 Dec. 1839". This inscription documents Mary Shelley's close connection with the Robinson family, who figure for many years in her journals (as well as in the… Read More

London: John Lane The Bodley Head, 1936. No. 99 of 100 copies on mouldmade paper, signed by Joyce. Title page printed in blue and black. [xvi], 766 pp. 1 vols. Tall 8vo. Original vellum over boards with gilt Homeric bow after design by Eric Gill, teg, other edges untrimmed, some toning to vellum with faint marking to covers, light spotting to edges of text block, endpapers, and margins of preliminary and terminal leaves; in original slipcase, rather scuffed and edge worn, but completely intact, with no splitting to the fragile joints, as often encountered, printed label with some marks and scuffing. No. 99 of 100 copies on mouldmade paper, signed by Joyce. Title page printed in blue and black. [xvi], 766 pp. 1 vols. Tall 8vo. One of 100 Copies Signed by Joyce. Published following the legal success of the 1934 Random House Ulysses trial, which established the principle that a "classic" work was allowed greater flexibility when it came to conventional morality, coupled with the luxuriousness and… Read More

Brooklyn, New York, 1855. First edition, first issue. Engraved frontispiece portrait of Whitman by Samuel Hollyer after a photograph, printed on thick paper. xii, [13]-95 pp. 1 vols. Small folio (11-1/8 x 7-3/4 in.; 284 x 197 mm). Original green cloth, boards with floral decorations in blind, gilt-lettered ornamental title within a triple-fillet border, spine gilt with title and floral ornaments, marbled endsheets, a.e.g. Title-page very lightly toned, gilt title of upper board a bit dull. Tiniest of repairs to spine (scuffs at center and ends, conserved with no loss). Old description slip tipped to front flyleaf. A fine copy. Half green morocco slipcase, chemise. First edition, first issue. Engraved frontispiece portrait of Whitman by Samuel Hollyer after a photograph, printed on thick paper. xii, [13]-95 pp. 1 vols. Small folio (11-1/8 x 7-3/4 in.; 284 x 197 mm). 'I see and hear the whole'. "He was and is the poet and prophet of democracy, and the intoxication of his immense affirmative, the… Read More

Charles City, Va, 1773. [4] pp. manuscript letter, signed by Jefferson and with internal address in his hand. Plus an additional manuscript note Signed by Jefferson, with thirteen lines of text, titled in Jefferson's hand. Expertly repaired at fold separations, affecting about than ten words of text. Very good. In a half morocco and cloth folding case, spine gilt. [4] pp. manuscript letter, signed by Jefferson and with internal address in his hand. Plus an additional manuscript note Signed by Jefferson, with thirteen lines of text, titled in Jefferson's hand. Jefferson Seeks to Settle His Father-in-Law's Estate, Including the Sale of Hundreds of Slaves: An Early and Important Letter. An outstanding, early, and lengthy Thomas Jefferson letter, written in the immediate aftermath of the death of his wife's father, John Wayles, and seeking to settle the outstanding debts of the Wayles estate.   Jefferson's early experience with indebtedness, and specifically with the inherited debt of the Wayles… Read More

New York: Scribners, 1926. First edition, first issue. word stop on p. 181; especially fine dust jacket with portrait of Hemingway on rear; very light shelf wear to edges; quarter morocco box. First edition, first issue.