Rare books from Whitmore Rare Books

Paris: Chez Desaint & Saillant [et] Durand, De l'Imprimerie de Charles-Antoine Jombert, 1759. First edition. A large paper copy with leaves measuring 465 x 330 mm (18 3/8 x 13 inches). Four volumes handsomely bound in contemporary French mottled calf. Red and green morocco spine labels with rich gilt detailing, marbled end-papers and all edges marbled. Discreet repairs to the spine ends without rebacking. Internal contents are generally in excellent condition although with the occasional spot of foxing and with a few worm pinholes running through the blank margins. Front inner hinge of Volume IV cracked but holding and slight age-toning to text leaves in that volume. Collating: [iv], xxx, xviii, 124; [iv], ii, 135, [1 blank]; [iv], iv, 146; [iv], ii, 188 [2 blanks]. Complete with the engraved frontis, the extra engraved portrait of Oudry (found only in some copies) and 275 other engraved plates after Jean-Baptiste Oudry by Cochin, Tardieu, Prevost, Chedel, Lempereur, and others, as well as numerous… Read More

London: Cassell, 1938. First edition. Very Good +/Fair. Publisher's binding with red marbled boards and gilt to spine. Spine slightly cocked with rubbing to corners and base of boards. Black topstain and black endpapers. Scarce original jacket Fair only with significant paper loss to the spine and chips at the corners. Playfully inscribed "To George with love -- and more than that! Ayn. Jan 18, 1940." This copy last sold at Bonhams 2005 for almost $11,750. "In the summer of 1937, Rand took a break from working on The Fountainhead to write the novelette Anthem, a short, highly stylized tale of a future dystopia so saturated in collectivism that the word 'I' has disappeared from the language...Anthem is Rand's 'hymn to man's ego.' It is the story of one man's rebellion against a totalitarian society. Equality 7-2521 is a young man who yearns to understand 'the Science of Things,' but he lives in a bleak, dystopian future where independent thought is a crime, and where science and technology have… Read More

London: Reeves and Turner, 1880. First Thus. First edition edited by H. Buxton Forman. Together eight octavo volumes (214 x 136 mm.). Uniformly bound by Bayntun (Rivière) of Bath (stamp-signed in gilt on front turn-in) in mid twentieth-century dark brown crushed levant morocco. Covers with gilt triple fillet border, spines decoratively ruled and lettered in gilt in compartments with five raised bands, board edges with gilt-dotted rule, gilt inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Frontispieces and plates. A spectacular set. Volume I of The Poetical Works is set with a fine oval portrait miniature ( 81 x 62 mm) of Shelley, surrounded by an inner oval band of onlaid russet morocco within single gilt fillets and an outer decorative intertwining gilt border which is set with sixteen semi-precious stones. A superb example. From the library of William A. Foyle, with his bookplate on front pastedown. "It would be difficult indeed to over-estimate the gains which have accrued to the lovers of… Read More

Venice: Johannes and Gregorius de Gregoriis, de Forlivio, 1492. First collected edition. First collected edition of Boethius's works, including the first printing of De Institutione Musica. Also included in these collected works is his most famous work, Deconsolatione philosophiae. Complete in two folio volumes in one. 352 leaves in total. [2], 1-122, 127-158, 135-222; [4], 160-162, 162-250; 1-12 leaves. With numerous mispagination as usual. With the first part of Porphyry's Isagoge (in Boethius's translation) bound at the end from the time of binding, as indicated by the table contents annotated with pagination in a contemporary hand. Present copy with same number of leaves as Morgan library copy. Text in two columns. Leaf A1r printed in red and black. Numerous intitials between 3-lines and 11-lines in red and blue, and with red capital strokes. With numerous woodcut musical and mathematical diagrams. Contemporary calf over wooden boards, rebacked to style at an early date. Boards stamped in blind.… Read More

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1935. First edition. Very Good/Very Good. First printing in early issue dust jacket with green bar on rear panel extending through nine lines of the blurb. A Very Good copy in like dust jacket. Book with spine toned and a faint dampstain to front board. Front inner hinge (now) professionally repaired. Price-clipped dust jacket with spine toned, a large crease running down the front panel, and some chipping and wear at the spine ends and extremities. Inscribed by the author: "For Daisy G. Roe | Wishing her all good luck from her friend Ernest Hemingway. Key West March 18, 1936." The recipient Daisey G. Roe was a Florida neighbor who had recently married up-and-coming politician (and future Jacksonville, Florida mayor) Caulie F. Whitehead. Authentic signed Hemingway material is becoming scarce on the market. Housed in a custom green quarter-leather slipcase with chemise. After publishing Winner Take Nothing in 1933, "Hemingway went to Africa to shoot the bounding… Read More

London: for W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1778. Second edition. Very Good. 2 volumes, quarto (282 × 225 mm), half title in volume 2 (as called for), bound without the final blanks in each volume: [8], 510; [8], 589, [1, blank]. Contemporary tree calf, rebacked, preserving original red morocco spine labels, plain endpapers. Engraved armorial bookplate of the Leigh family of Stoneleigh Abbey ("Tout Vient de Dieu") and two Japanese bookseller's tickets to the front paste-down. Some insect damage to the leather boards, corners worn, light to moderate foxing throughout, mostly in volume 1, a few tears or blemishes, one or two signs of a contemporary reader's engagement with the text; a very good copy overall. Second edition, first published in 1776, of this classic of economic thought, the only other edition to be published in quarto format, one of 500 copies. Long considered a straight reprint, this edition in fact contains "a number of alterations large and small, some providing new information, some… Read More

Boston: Little, Brown & Co, 1951. First edition. Fine/Near Fine. A Fine copy of the book in Near Fine dust jacket. Jacket with the spine a bit toned, as often, and two small amateur tap repairs to the verso. Rear panel a bit scratched and rubbed, but overall a very presentable copy of the work. With all relevant issue points, including original price (in the correct place on the flap), Salinger's hair touching the upper edge of the rear panel, and "First Edition" stated on the copyright page. Housed in a custom slipcase with chemise. Salinger's novel was not the first coming-of-age story to highlight teenage angst, but it sits squarely at the pinnacle of those efforts. It offers Holden Caulfield's perspective on school, New York City, sexuality, family and friends, and, of course, phonies, with a subtext on alienation and loneliness running throughout the book. "In American writing, there are three perfect books, which seem to speak to every reader and condition: Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby,… Read More

Boston: Little, Brown & Co, 1951. First edition. Fine/Fine. A Fine copy of the book in like dust jacket. Exceptionally bright and fresh, extremely scarce in this condition. Jacket with only negligible wear at the extremities, but retaining all the vivid red and yellow colors on the front panel and spine. With all relevant issue points, including original price (in the correct place on the flap), Salinger's hair touching the upper edge of the rear panel, and "First Edition" stated on the copyright page. Housed in a custom red quarter-leather slipcase with chemise. Salinger's novel was not the first coming-of-age story to highlight teenage angst, but it sits squarely at the pinnacle of those efforts. It offers Holden Caulfield's perspective on school, New York City, sexuality, family and friends, and, of course, phonies, with a subtext on alienation and loneliness running throughout the book. "In American writing, there are three perfect books, which seem to speak to every reader and condition:… Read More

[Philadelphia]: [National Woman Suffrage Association], 1876. First edition. 4 pages. 10.5 x 8 inches. Chipping at edges and creasing at corners, with light scattered foxing throughout; minor splits along original foldlines. Signed in print by women's rights trailblazers Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Belva Lockwood and twenty additional suffrage leaders. While OCLC reports 11 institutionally held copies, our recent survey has revealed three of these only possess photocopies or microform; the number will soon be adjusted to report 8. The present is the only example in trade. The Declaration exists in three variant forms, all of which are exceptionally scarce. Following a survey of all OCLC reported institutions with copies, we have confirmed that this version is only one of two known examples of its kind (the other being at Princeton): bearing the famed title Declaration of Rights of Women of the United States, it has only the first call to action (inviting additional… Read More

London: George Allen and Unwin, 1955. First editions. Near Fine/Very Good to Near Fine. A first printing set of Tolkien's epic masterpiece. Near Fine copies of all the books, free of previous owner names or markings. Minor foxing and offsetting to the end papers, otherwise clean throughout. Dust jacket for book one has been restored, cracks to the folds have been repaired and minor loss at the spine ends has been filled in. Jackets for books 2 and 3 are unrestored and in very nice condition overall. Book 2 jacket is price-clipped at the lower corner of the front flap, spine a bit darkened and small chips at the crown. Book 3 jacket with the spine a bit darkened and a small crease at the crown, second state with the reviews for the first two books on the rear flap. Page 49 with sagging type in book 3. Complete with all the original maps. Only 3000 copies of the first book, 3,250 of the second and 7,000 of the final book were produced. Housed in a red quarter-leather clamshell case. A timeless… Read More

Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1960. First edition. Near Fine/Very Good +. A Near Fine copy of the book in a Very Good+ dust jacket. Spine a trifle cocked and a previous owner's name on the front paste-down. Dust jacket with the edge of the flaps skinned (after jacket protector removal), some minor creases to the jacket panels, but generally a fresh example of the jacket. Housed in a quarter-leather green slipcase with chemise. Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize winning coming of age novel, set in Maycomb, Alabama. An American classic, the novel took over two years for Lee to write- it was inspired by her own upbringing. (In fact, Lee's father was a lawyer who had defended black clients at the cost of his practice). Its production was not without difficulty and Lee once became so angry over the course of writing the novel that she tossed the manuscript out a window. The book has never been out of print, sold tens of millions of copies, and is required reading for the American adolescent. To Kill a Mockingbird… Read More

London: Chapman and Hall, 1859. First edition. Original printed wraps with near-invisible restoration to some spines. A Near Fine, largely unopened copy, with occasional marginal foxing or offsetting from the plates. First printing with p. 213 numbered 113 (and the other points in Smith), but without signature "b" on the list of illustrations. Complete with all sixteen etched plates by "Phiz" and all advertisements called for in Hatton & Cleever (including the scarce Thackeray ad for Cornhill Magazine), plus an additional sixteen pages of ads in parts VII and VIII not mentioned in the bibliography. Housed in a custom slipcase with chemise bearing the bookplate of Michael Sharpe. Published in 1859, A Tale of Two Cities is considered one of the greatest of Dickens' works and contains one of the most recognizable openings in the English language: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Originally released in parts, after its completion A Tale of Two Cities became (and still remains) one… Read More

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929. First edition. Near Fine. Number 244 of 510 copies of the signed, limited edition, printed on large paper. Available simultaneously with the trade edition. Original half japon, over paper boards, black morocco spine label. Spine head bumped, small skinning to head of spine label, binding faintly toned. Slight rubbing and wear to slipcase. Housed in the publisher's leaf-patterned slipcase, and additionally housed in a custom yellow morocco clamshell. "Written when Ernest Hemingway was thirty years old, and lauded as the best American novel to emerge from WWI, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front, and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. Set against the looming horrors of the battlefield, this gripping, semi-autobiographical work captures the harsh realities of war and the pain of lovers caught in its inexorable sweep. Hemingway famously rewrote the ending to the novel 39 times to get the… Read More

London: Bloomsbury, 1997. First edition. Fine. First impression of the preferred hardcover issue, with all the requisite points: Bloomsbury imprint, 10-down-to-1 number line, and in the list of equipment on page 51 "1 wand" appearing twice, "Philospher's" typo on the rear board. Original matte laminated boards without a jacket. A Fine copy, appearing unfaded and unread. No names or markings internally. A clean sharp copy. Only 500 copies of the first printing of Philosopher's Stone were issued in this hardback format, of which more than half were taken by libraries and rendered undesirable for collectors. Housed in a custom quarter-leather clamshell case. Harry Potter is the most successful book franchise of all time, with over 600 million copies of the books in print, and with spin-off film and media projects worth billions. The true first edition has been no less meteoric in its rise to the top of collectors' lists for modern books. Copies consistently set new records at auction. "The books'… Read More

New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1885. First American edition. Near Fine. A solid, Nearly Fine copy of the book, with no repairs or restoration. Spine gilt a bit dulled and slight rubbing at the spine ends and corners. Cloth generally fresh and bright and in excellent condition internally. Contemporary gift inscription on the front paste-down dated "May 18, 1885." With all three generally accepted first printing points and the frontis bust of Twain in the first state. A copy in Fine condition made $52,920 at Christies in 2023. Housed in custom quarter-leather clamshell over marbled boards. Recounting the adventures of Huckleberry Finn as he flees his own abusive father and aids Jim in his escape from slavery, Twain's novel has been praised for its "distinctly American voice," putting at its center two common people who find an uncommon friendship. "Today perhaps the novel's greatest significance lies in its conception of childhood, as a time of risk, discovery, and adventure. Huck is no… Read More