The Water Witch or The Skimmer of the Seas. Dresden: Walther, 1830

Rare true first edition of Cooper’s pirate romance. This nautical novel set in 17th-century New York was first published in a small edition in Dresden, where the author had settled in 1826. London and Philadelphia editions soon followed.

$15,000

The Celestial Rail-Road. Boston: James F. Fish, 1843

$15,000

The Personal History of David Copperfield. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1850

First edition. From the library of novelist E. M. Forster.

$12,500

Precaution. New York: A.T. Goodrich & Co., 1820

$12,000

Life of Franklin Pierce. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1852

$10,500

Collection of eight autograph letters signed to Paul Hamilton Hayne. Cambridge, 1872-1880

This is a fine series of letter from Longfellow, the most celebrated and popular poet in America, and Paul Hamilton Hayne, the most famous southern poet of his era. In the first letter Longfellow tells Haynes that the promised volume of poems has not reached him. He assures the South Carolina poet that “this is of no great consequence, as you know already my opinion of your writings.”

$9,000

Autograph manuscript “On a Certain Condescension in Foreigners.”. No Place, ca. 1869

$8,250

Autograph manuscript signed “Walt Whitman on the Poets.”. No place, [1885]

In this fascinating manuscript Whitman provides a newspaper with an article defending himself against attacks that he did not respect the great American poets of the day.

$7,500

Inscriptions from the Burying-Grounds in Salem, Massachusetts. Boston: James Loring, 1837

$7,500

Bust portrait of Whitman wearing a hat. New York, 1878

Boldly signed and dated 1879 by Whitman. Whitman observed of this delightful portrait, “It is one of my good-humored pictures. … This is strong enough to be right and gentle enough to be right, too: I like to be both: I wouldn’t like people to say ‘he is a giant’ and then forget I know how to love.”

$7,200