Principes du Droit Politique [Du Contract Social]. Amsterdam: Michel Rey, 1762

FIRST EDITION, type B, the definitive authorized version. Observing in his opening words that “man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains,” Rousseau offered this work as a yardstick with which to judge existing governments. He argued that the central problem is to “find a form of association which can defend and protect with all the power of the community the person and possessions of each associate, and by which each person unites himself with all, but only obeys himself and thereby remains as free as before.”

$20,000

Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist. Evanston: Library of Living Philosophers, 1949

FIRST EDITION. One of 760 numbered copies signed and dated by Einstein.

$18,500

The Papers of James Madison purchased by order of Congress; being his correspondence and reports of debates during the congress of the confederation and his reports of debates in the federal convention . . . [edited by Henry Gilpin]. Washington: Langtree & O’Sullivan, 1840

FIRST EDITION of Madison’s papers, consisting of his correspondence relating to the Constitution and his journal of the Federal Convention. A very rare presentation copy from Dolley Madison, with a letter by her and inscriptions from the recipient, a friend and leading American diplomat.

$18,000

The World as I See It. New York: Philosophical Library, (c.1949)

Signed and dated 1950 by Albert Einstein on the front free endpaper.

$13,500

Catalogue of the celebrated collection of works of art and vertu known as “The Vienna Museum,” the property of Messrs. Lowenstein Brothers, of Frankfort-on-the-Main. London: Christie, Manson & Woods, 1860

This important volume is “the earliest photographically illustrated auction catalogue” (Gernsheim, Incunabula, 122). It contains 36 photographs on salted paper by Hermann Emden of Frankfurt.

$12,000

Economics: An Introductory Analysis.. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1948

First edition of the greatest and most influential modern economics text-book. Inscribed by Samuelson for Eric Roll. Roll, professor of economics and later chairman of S. G. Warburg & Co., wrote the classic History of Economic Thought (1938, 4th ed., 1973).

$8,500

Opus eruditissimum Divi Irenaei …. Basel: Froben, 1526

FIRST EDITION of the works of Irenaeus, “the father of Christian theology,” as he is widely known.

$7,500

A collection of The Liberator reporting on John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, his capture, imprisonment, trial, and execution. Boston: The Liberator, Oct 21, Nov 4, 11, and 18, Dec 2 and 9, 1859

This exceptional file of The Liberator contains detailed accounts of John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry and his capture, imprisonment, trial, and execution. The Liberator, edited and published by William Lloyd Garrison, was a leading force in the abolition movement beginning in the 1830s.

$7,500

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. London: Strahan and Cadell, 1791

SIXTH EDITION of the most important book in the history of economics. One of 2000 sets. The sixth edition is the first to have been published after Smith’s death in 1790.

$6,800

[Poster.] Nuzhno usilit’ i ukrepit’ internatsional’nye proletarskie sviazi rabochego klassa SSSR a rabochim klassom burzhuaznykh stran [“We Must Reinforce and Consolidate the International Proletarian Links of the Working Class of the USSR with the Working Class of the Bourgeois Countries” – Stalin]. Moscow, Izostat, 20 October 1940

This dramatic poster, similar in style to the Socialist Realist graphics found in USSR In Construction, exhorts the people to support MOPL, the International Organization of Helpers of Fighters for the Revolution. The figures represent international workers united with the Soviets in the heroic struggle for the Revolution. The poster was printed during the last year of Lissitzky’s life while he worked for the Soviet state with the sure knowledge that his friends and colleagues were the victims of Stalin’s purges.

$6,800