Rare books from William Reese Company - Literature ABAA-ILAB

[Np, ca. 1917].. Approximately 22 x 11 cm, in contemporary mat (the latter 35.5 x 25 cm). Mat edgeworn and somewhat dust darkened, with a few minor spots, but generally very good. A charming period drawing, inscribed as a gift to his model, Hildegarde Hirsch on the mat: "To Hildegarde on her sixteenth birthday. Rockwell." There is also a small 'H' in the lower right foreground of the image in his hand. Hildegarde Hirsch was a performer with the Ziegfeld Follies, and was both Kent's model and his lover. "The reference to 'sixteenth' birthday is facetious, as there is evidence that she was in her 20s when they met and may have been married and separated prior to the relationship with RK" - Stanley, REDISCOVERING ROCKWELL KENT. The drawing was published, without color, in the November 1917 issue of VANITY FAIR, and this original was included in the 1997 Grolier Club exhibition. GROLIER (STANLEY) 9.

[ Brewster, MA]: Published by Stephen Albahari [21st Publications], [ 2002].. Two volumes. Folio (38.5 x 34.5 cm). Full publisher's Niger goatskin, enclosed in cloth clamshell box, accompanied by portfolio of loose plates, enclosed in matching box. Fine. First edition, the deluxe "Museum Edition." Illustrated throughout with plates, including drytrap tritones, hand-pulled photogravures and color planographs. One of fifty-five numbered copies in this format, accompanied by the separate portfolio, from a total edition of 1420 copies. This number is devoted to "an insightful examination of the ways in which artists today make conscious attempts to create work that can often be unsettling, difficult, even horrific, yet all the while retaining that strangely mysterious sense of what can only be called beautiful." The portfolio contains a selected set of fourteen of the photogravures and planographs, each signed and numbered by the photographer, including images by Sally Mann, Michal Macku, Connie Imboden,… Read More

[Probably Big Sur, CA.], no date.. Original watercolor on paper, 19.5 x 21cm, matted. Not examined out of mount, but visible portions a trace tanned, otherwise near fine. A characteristic watercolor, likely painted during the period of Miller's residence in Big Sur, when he actively solicited financial assistance in exchange for his paintings to enable him to survive and continue writing (ref: AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL AND SUNDRY, etc etc). The dominant colors are shades of blue and black. The painting depicts a male and a female figure, in a bathtub, exposed from mid- chest up. Not signed by Miller, but inscribed by his friend Emil White, who functioned during his Big Sur residence (1944-62) as his aide/secretary in correspondence with painting customers and the public: "This was painted but not signed by H.M. E. White."

[London?], [nd. but possibly ca 1914].. Two pages, closely written in pencil, with deletions and insertions, on two quarto sheets of pale blue T.H. Saunders letterstock (watermarked '1913'). Horizontal fold, with minor creases and smudges, but very good. An intriguing manuscript in which Shaw embarks on a characteristically discursive consideration of war, politics, economics and matters of civilization, with the tone of possibly having been written in response to a request for views on same: "Pardon the abruptness of the suggestion; but suppose we blow the German fleet out of the water, or under it, and the consequence is that Russia profits by our victory to the extent of carving a Baltic province out of Germany and condemning Sweden to live in the bear's mouth, will that be a result for western civilization to rejoice over? The French seem to think that because Russia has drained away from France so much of the capital that is needed at home for making French towns and French children healthier… Read More

[Milford, NY]: ABCedary Letterpress, 1989.. Folio (38 x 28.5 cm). Full limp bleached vellum, with diecut window exposing a pictorial vignette. Illustrated. Fine, accompanied by a separate suite in cloth folder, the whole enclosed in publisher's folding clamshell box (bookplate shadow on box pastedown, small label mark in corner of upper panel, tiny mark on spine label). Prospectus laid in. First edition. Foreword by Brian Davies. Illustrated with eleven etchings and four wood engravings by Alan James Robinson. From a total edition of 79 copies, this is one of twenty-six lettered copies bound thus, accompanied by a separate suite of the etchings and engravings, each lettered and signed by the artist, as well as an original ink and watercolor drawing, executed on a sheet of fine vellum, and signed by the artist. A magnificent undertaking, partaking of the manner and spirit of Robinson's Cheloniidae Press, printing Carol's narrative of the birthing of Harp Seal pups on the Magdalen Islands in company… Read More

[Frankfurt am Main]: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1963 & 1964.. Two volumes. 529,[6];423,[6]pp. Uniform publisher's charcoal gray linen, silk markers. A couple of marginal finger smudges toward the rear of the first volume, otherwise very good or better, in modestly nicked and chipped dust jackets with some hand soiling to the spines. First collective edition of these translations printed parallel with the French or English texts, including the first appearance in book form of "Act Sans Paroles II." The German translations were accomplished by Elmar Tophoven. An excellent association set, inscribed in each volume by Beckett to his friends Jack and Gloria [MacGowran]: "for Jack & Gloria with love & gratitude Sam Paris Feb. 1964" and "for Jack & Gloria with love from Sam Paris Jan. 1965." Jack MacGowran (1918-1973) was closely identified with several major roles in Beckett's plays, including that of Lucky in Godot at the Royal Court Theatre and the Obie winning off-Broadway anthology, "MacGowran in the works of… Read More

[New York: The Artist, 1989].. Folding, multipanel screen, in three major components (35.5 x 16 x 9 cm folded). Enclosed in gilt decorated linen chemise and slipcase with side panels decorated with color paste-paper collages, with inserted multipanel folding hand-painted construction of corrugated and cloth to "fill" in the slipcase. A unique book object, signed and dated by the artist on the slipcase. The structure is constructed from bookboard, paper and cloth folding panels, which are supported by metal- reinforced stilts. Fashioned in sections allowing for different permutations of arrangement, the screen unfolds to a length of over 75 cm, and adjoined panels fold upward revealing collages that include photographs, photocopies and other materials. The whole is worked over with watercolor and acrylic. Following in some fashions the ways maps and plates fold out of books, the screen utilizes imagery from, among other sources, a catalogue of medieval costumes the artist rebound while working as a… Read More

Bozen [Bolzano], Italy, [2 April 1897].. One and one half pages (22 lines), in ink on recto and verso of top panel of folded octavo sheet of engraved letterhead of the "Hotel Victoria Bozen." Horizontal fold for mailing, short separation from outer margin at fold, otherwise very good, accompanied by the original mailing envelope, addressed in Rilke's hand. Rilke writes to his Munich friend, the German- American writer and future chemist/inventor, Nathan Sulzberger, then staying at the Britannia Hotel in Vienna. Sulzberger, raised in comfortable circumstances, had invited Rilke for a three week tour of Italy, but Rilke thought the offer too generous and they settled on a shorter stay in Venice. Rilke stayed with him for three days, then traveled to Bozen where he wrote Sulzberger this letter of thanks. George Schoolfield, in YOUNG RILKE AND HIS TIME (pp.281-2), discusses the context of this letter and its implications, as does Freedman, LIFE OF A POET: RAINER MARIA RILKE, (pp. 57, 58 and 73).

London: Day and Son, Lithographers to the Queen, 1856.. Large folio (57 x 38 cm; 22.5 x 15 inches). Publisher's three quarter dark maroon morocco and brown cloth, with large gilt red morocco title label on upper board. Letterpress title in red and black, additional chromolithographed title and one hundred chromolithographed plates (a few tinted, the majority in brilliant colors). Joints and extremities worn, with cracking to upper joint (with 20 cm narrow separation down from top), thumb-size surface snag in cloth on lower board, 9 x 6 cm light angular discoloration at top of front board, two 20th century ownership inscriptions on front endsheet, occasional offset from plates to tissue guards, tissue guard for plate 46 torn and detached, rare modest foxing and/or finger smudging to the margins of an occasional plate and more often to tissue guards, rear endsheets heavily foxed, with consequent foxing to plate 100, which also has a shallow tidemark in the top margin toward the gutter. Withal,… Read More

New York: Peter Blum Edition, 1982.. Portfolio of nine original etchings and one silver gelatin print photograph (images 16 x 20cm printed on 42 x 50cm sheets). The whole enclosed in hinged folding polished wood box (55 x 46 cm), titled in black. Fine. Copy #6 of 35 numbered portfolios (plus ten copies numbered in Roman for special distribution). The etchings combine photo- etching, aquatint, soft ground and sugar lift, and each is numbered and signed in the lower margin. They were printed by Peter Kneubuhler, Zurich. The sequence of images in the portfolio take as their topic a visual "forensic" extrapolation from isolated elements in the enclosed photograph, itself a publicity still from the highly controversial 1948 British film adaptation of J.H. Chase's 1939 novel, NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH. Regarded by many critics as among the worst films of its generation, the film's title was changed to BLACK DICE for a US re-release. Accompanied by a 1980 Penguin paperbound copy of the novel. Substantial… Read More

Leipzig: P. Friesenhahn, 1897.. 64,[4]pp. Small octavo. Original printed wrapper (silked on verso). Spine and lower edge of rear wrapper chipped, upper portion of front wrapper stained, along with upper forecorner of rear wrapper, as well as lightly the upper forecorners of several first and last leaves. The majority of the text block is clean and unsullied. Folding cloth clamshell box with morocco label. First edition of Rilke's third published collection of verse (translated into English as "Dream-crowned"). This is a presentation copy from Rilke, signed in full and inscribed by him to his Munich friend, the German- American writer and future chemist/inventor, Nathan Sulzberger. The inscription incorporates four lines of verse: "...Und müssen Sie auf durch lhr Leben [/] fremd aller Schöpferfreude gehn -- [/] ist lhnen doch die Gift Gegeben, [/] ein frohes Schaffen zu verstehen!". The designation 'Band I' appears in the upper margin of the title leaf. Rilke's friendship with Sulzberger is… Read More

London: Printed for Jacob Tonson .., 1725 - "1723"[sic].. Six volumes. xli,[13],[4],563, plus portrait and plate; 656; 499; 547,[1]; 599; 591,[1],36pp. Thick quarto. Contemporary calf, spines gilt extra. Rebacked at a relatively early date, with the original backstrips laid down, new labels. Most joints cracking (but cords sound), chipping to joints and spine extremities (costing part of the top section of the spine of Vol. I), corner of one blank rear free endsheet torn away, fore-corners bumped and scraped, some occasional dusting, finger-smudges or minor foxing, otherwise internally very good or somewhat better, externally moderately sound. The first edition of Pope's edited texts of Shakespeare's plays, printed by subscription in an edition of 750 sets (of which 140 sets remained unsold), and the first collected edition in quarto. The first volume includes a list of Subscribers. While the general title in the first volume is appropriately dated 1725, the titlepages of the separate volumes are… Read More

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1941.. [2],xvi,471pp, with 31 full-page plates from photographs. Octavo. Black cloth, spine lettered in silver. Spine ends faded, small smudge on top edge, pencil notes on rear free endsheet, two ink ownership inscriptions (see below) on front free endsheet, small bookplate on pastedown, but a very good copy in spine sunned, somewhat worn dust jacket with old internal mends and a split along the upper joint. First edition of this central work in the history of 20th century photo-documentary. After he graduated from Harvard, Agee was hired by Time Inc, and wrote for FORTUNE from 1932 to 1937. In 1936, on assignment for the magazine, Agee and Evans (who was then working with the FSA) traveled to southern Alabama where, for eight weeks, they documented via interview and photographs the Depression-era hardships of the daily lives of three families of sharecroppers. In the end, FORTUNE did not publish their article, largely due to Agee's resistance to FORTUNE's editors… Read More

Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1862.. [6],[7]-413,[3]pp. Publisher's plum brown cloth (Borst's binding 2). Spine faded, with shallow frayed snag at crown, some sunning at edges with a faint, narrow diagonal discoloration in the upper fore-quadrant of the lower cover, very shallow discoloration at the top edge of the first three leaves, otherwise a very good copy. First edition, second issue, of Thoreau's first book. Thoreau originally paid for its publication in an edition of 1000 copies, of which 706 copies (bound and in sheets) reverted to the author after dismal sales. Eventually, in 1862, Ticknor and Fields acquired the remainder of bound and unbound copies, and 500 copies were equipped with a cancel title-leaf, constituting the second issue, as here. Of note is the continued presence of the terminal advert noting that WALDEN "will soon be published." A second, corrected edition was not called for until 1868. BORST A1.1.A2. BAL 20104.

New York: Scribner's Sons, 1952.. Blue cloth. A lovely copy in bright, fresh, crisp pictorial dust jacket showing only very minor use at the edges and a 1.5 cm closed tear at the top edge of the front panel (but see below). First edition in book form, Grissom's binding A and dust jacket A. This is, however, a freak copy, cased with the spine stamping upside down when originally bound for the publisher. Laid in is a description of this "brilliant copy" by Sessler's in Philadelphia -- one of at least two booksellers who did not note the binding aberration. The Pulitzer award winner for its year, and the sourcework for the several film and television adaptations, the first in 1958. GRISSOM A.24.1.a. HANNEMAN A24a.