Rare books from Monkey House Books

Aurora, Illinois: William W. Walter, 1909. Dark Blue cloth boards, gilt-stamped spine. Very Good/Scarce blue paper jacket in good condition.. Sequel to The Pastor's Son, revised edition (original 1908). Scarce and collectible, rare in dust jacket. 231 pages. ""This book shows the fallacy of the belief that a lifeless and non-intelligent drug can, of its own power, cure sickness and prolong life. It has helped to free many from the senseless habit of drug taking."" Original price $1.60, For Sale by Regular Dealers or Address the Author. Clear wraps added to preserve jacket, which shows some darkening, small tears and losses. Other Christian Science texts advertised on jacket. Pages clean and binding tight, endpapers dirty. Cloth boards show some edgewear and are rubbed slightly. Photos available upon request.

New York: Dean & Company, 246 Fifth Avenue, 1929. Black cloth boards, green-stamped spine and cover.. Good/Dust Jacket condition Fair.. "A treatise on advanced science and natural therapeutics."" Brief chapters on subjects ranging from quantum theory and colds & headaches to vaccinations and the formation of habits, including an appendix on space/time and the 4th dimension. Rare, hard-to-find work. 48 pages. Clear wraps added. Text clear and unmarked. Binding cracked at center. Title page creased and darkened in gutter, other foxing in gutters Wear to edges and corners. Paper dust jacket browned and soiled, most of jacket spine missing, loss at top left corner, other small tears and losses.

New York: Brewer, Warren & Putnam, 1931. Green cloth boards, orange-stamped cover and spine. Very Good/No Dust Jacket. As told to Corey Ford, author of ""Saltwater Taffy"" with 36 Unbelievable Illustrations. 217 pages. Mock photos featuring 1930s personalities, including one of Amelia Earhart on a high-wheeled bicycle. Spine darkened, ends frayed. SIGNED and INSCRIBED on 1/2 title in black ink ""To Sumner Blossom - for perfect attendance in Sunday School - Corey Ford - August 1931."" Sumner Blossom, 1892-1977, was a radio talk show host in the 30s (""Interesting People in the News"") but was best known as editor of The American Magazine from 1929 through 1956. The magazine published short stories by outstanding writers of the day as well as muckraking articles on social issues. Blossom was a ""wonderful, well-respected man"" who wore his hats ""with more distinction than most men."" Corey Ford, 1902-1969, was a humorist, author, screen writer, and world traveler who was friendly with the Algonquin… Read More

Zurich: Galerie Kornfeld, 1978. Softcover. Good. Artwork by Anton Bruhin.. Gallery exhibition booklet, covers worn and a bit dingy. SIGNED on title page in thick red permanent marker: G. Blumer / Anton Bruhin / Zurich 21.1.80. Title page reads ""If You Don�t Like Me Leave Me Alone�"" von Giovanni Blumer. Text in German. Reproduces b/w ink drawings done in 1977 by Bruhin, a Swiss artist and musician born in 1949. Biographical information and works list at back. Single side printed, b/w glossy paper. Good condition, solid but covers/corners somewhat bumped and curled. Unusual item from the man known more recently as a musical artist and poet. Blumer is known for his 1960s work The Chinese Cultural Revolution.

New York & London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1931. Hardcover. Good/Dust Jacket condition fair.. Association copy with fabulous owner's inscription on front flyleaf in bold black ink. ""Dublin Ireland 1918-1923 Memories of the days in Ireland and of the months I spent in Mountjoy Jail with Peter O'Donnell. Peter Kelleher, 2nd Batt. 1st Brigade 1st Southern Division Irish Republican Army."" Kelleher's grandson, a member of the current Irish Defence Forces, read the proclamation from 1916 at the centenary of the Easter Rising. Scarce book in rare dust jacket with a unique inscription, together making an unusual piece of Irish independence history. Peadar O'Donnell, 1893-1986, was a writer, politician and social activist and served in the Irish War of Independence, Irish Civil War, and later the Spanish Civil War. This book is an historical novel of the Irish Rebellion, drawing on his own experiences. O'Donnell was held in Dublin's Mountjoy Gaol during the civil war from 1922 until his 1924 escape. He was… Read More

New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1908. Hardcover, gray paper boards, cream paper spine. Good/No Dust Jacket. Fantasy/fairy tale of castles, scribes, hermits, kings, and princesses, 'tales of Ateria.' 139 pages, charming little volume. Emily Post (nee Price) was an American writer and columnist born in Baltimore. This is one of her early books written before her well-known works on etiquette. Edges untrimmed. Spine darkened, edges & corners slightly worn, some browning, small bit of staining to early page edges. Previous owner's stamp on fep; M.L. 'Lucy' Smith was the wife of T.R. Smith, editor of The Century magazine and chief editor at Liveright during the 1920s.

New York: Boni & Liveright, 1928. Hardcover, purple paper, white cloth spine, slipcase but missing glassine. Very Good in Good slipcase/No Jacket. Signed, limited edition in slipcase, presentation copy. Purple paper is faded, and there are some small ink (?) spots on back cover, as well as a small smudge on the bottom corner of the limitation page. SIGNED limitation page with 'Dorothy Parker' in blue ink, states �this edition limited to 275 copies, of which 250 are for sale.� This copy is numbered in the same blue ink as 322, and the word �Presentation� in black ink follows. 75 pages, many unopened, printed on Boni & Liveright watermarked paper. Slipcase worn and faded, all edges rubbed, splitting at top and bottom. Label affixed to slipcase states �Autographed Edition. This edition is limited to 275 numbered copies. Each copy is signed by the author.� At the upper right corner is the number 322 in ink, mirroring the number on the limitation page of the volume. From the family of T. R. Smith, who… Read More

New York: The Macmillan Company, [no date] c.1916. Hardcover, gray cloth boards. Good/No Jacket. Scarce early American edition. 637 pages, from the Russian by Constance Garnett. Title page is undated, but this is from the uniform edition (7.5"" tall) of The Novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky (Volume III) published in the 1910s, states that 'other volumes [are] in preparation,' and includes a folded Macmillan advertisement of their 'New 1916 Novels.' Small Brentano's sticker on rep. Wear to covers, especially darkened spine, endpapers spotted, front hinge cracking. Also known as The Devils or The Demons, and originally published in 1871-2, this is the violent and bloody tale of the sinister hero Stavrogin, a powerful example of Dostoevsky's 'great sinner who has lost his faith.' The novel follows the strange life of Nikolay Stavrogin, a brilliant and attractive but sterile & nihilistic man, with a parallel plot line tracing the revolutionary movement in Russia. Dostoevsky, 1821-1881, was one of the most… Read More

New York: Horace Liveright, Inc., 1931. Hardcover in slipcase. Good/No Jacket, as issued. SIGNED Presentation Copy in Slipcase, #524 of the special limited edition (501-550 were for presentation). Signed by O'Neill in black ink. Though not indicated, this volume is from the library of T. R. Smith, chief editor and adviser at Liveright throughout its heyday in the 1920s and responsible for publishing some of O'Neill's works (including an early volume of one-act plays and Strange Interlude in 1928). Trilogy of plays containing Homecoming, The Hunted, and The Haunted. Includes Working Notes and Extracts from a fragmentary work diary, facsimile pages inserted in rear pocket. Stained & spotted white vellum with beveled edges, gilt-stamping and black spine label. Scarce slipcase in fair condition with fragile & cracked edges and old tape repairs. Binding solid and untrimmed/uncut, but covers are rather spotted & darkened. O'Neill was a Puitzer and Nobel Prize winning American playwright, considered one of… Read More

New York: Boni & Liveright Publishers, 1927. Hardcover, black boards & vellum. Good/No Jacket, marbled slipcase in Good condition. Signed Presentation Copy of a Limited Edition. The limitation page indicates the edition consists of 265 numbered and signed copies, of which 250 are for sale. The word 'Presentation' is hand-written on the number line, and it is signed in black ink 'Sherwood Anderson.' Though not indicated, this was in the collection of T. R. Smith, chief editor at Liveright during the 1920s. 118 pages, free verse and prose poems. Slipcase edges worn & rubbed, glassine torn with losses, spine well-spotted and darkened. Some pages unopened, ribbon marker. Although the book and slipcase are a bit worse for wear, it is a unique copy of an unusual work. Anderson, 1876-1941, was an American novelist and short story writer best known for his 1919 masterpiece 'Winesburg, Ohio' about life in a typical Midwestern town. He is remembered for his sympathy for the struggles of the common man. He… Read More

New York: Atheneum, 1974. Hardcover. Good/Dust Jacket condition good. Atheneum. Association copy, signed and inscribed on the first leaf by Keith McDermott to Andrea/Andrew. McDermott, born in 1953, made his Broadway debut (1974-1977) as Alan Strang in Equus opposite Richard Burton as the doctor. This plum role for a young man proved to be McDermott's acting break. The play is a psychological thriller set in a hospital, where a psychiatrist examines a young man who maims horses. Book club edition/BCE. 99 pages. Loss to jacket spine, other darkening and chips.

New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1967. Hardcover. Very Good/Dust Jacket condition very good. Considered the author's masterpiece and one of 20th century Russia's finest novels, this is the book's first appearance in the United States. It is a novel of corruption & cowardice, part fantasy & fairy tale, an 'ironic parable on power.' Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, 1891-1940, was a professor's son born in Kiev. He trained as a doctor but became a writer involved with a post-revolutionary Russian group known as the Fellow Travelers. He began this work in 1928, but it suffered Stalinist censorship in the 1930s and wasn't published until 1966. Bulgakov left a large body of work and achieved posthumous international fame. Translated from the Russian by Mirra Ginsburg, who also translated Isaac Bashevis Singer and Isaac Babel. Light spotting to endpapers, jacket has a few dings to spine ends and top edge. Clear wraps added.

Salt Lake City: Gibbs-Smith Publisher, 2001. First Edition. Large format hardcover. Fine/Dust Jacket condition fine. Signed and inscribed by the author on verso of ffep. Coffee table book, very light edgewear. 144 pages, index, illustrated throughout. History of the triangular park at 5th Avenue & Broadway, its restoration & revitalization by a local historian and graphic designer.

New York: Vintage Books, 1985. Softcover, mass market paperback. Fine/No Jacket. Tucked in front is a publisher's compliments card signed by Hoffman in black marker. First thus, 97 pages, b/w performance stills. Early work about HIV/AIDS, a medical documentary account of an AIDS victim's suffering, explores the effects of AIDS on a gay male couple in a detached world of insensitive families and doctors. The play deals with the epidemic's impact on the national consciousness and conscience and asks the larger existential questions. Winner of the 1985 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play and recipient of 3 Tony Award Nominations. Top corner and base of spine lightly bumped. Hoffman, 1939-2017, was a lifelong New Yorker who was widely known throughout the theatrical community and enjoyed a long career as a playwright.

New York: The Outing Publishing Company, 1907. Hardcover, red cloth boards, b/w stamped pictorial cover. Good/No Jacket. Illustrated by N. C. Wyeth and F. E. Schoonover. Being a record of certain happenings that occurred in the otherwise peaceful lives of Hopalong Cassidy and his companions on the range. 382 pages, illustrated plates by Wyeth, cover & frontispiece adapted from the Schoonover painting for the 1905 story The Fight at Buckskin. This book is fictional, rough-talking cowboy hero Hopalong Cassidy's first appearance; the character is known for his distinctive walk due to a gunshot wound. Spine gilt darkened, wear to ends and corners, previous owner's name inked on front endpaper, one-inch stain on the left side of front cover.