On the Origin of Species: or, the causes of the phenomena of organic nature. New York: Appleton, 1863

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. From the library of Millard Fillmore, 13th president of the United States (1850-1853), with his signatures dated May 22, 1863 on the title and on the front pastedown.

$4,500

Le Deuxieme Sexe [The Second Sex]. Paris: Gallimard, 1949

FIRST EDITION. One of 2000 numbered copies (from an edition of 2,150).

$3,500

Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Philadelphia: Saunders, 1948

FIRST EDITION of this classic, a book that helped usher in the sexual revolution.

$3,500

Esquisse d’un Tableau Historique des Progres de L’Esprit Humain. Paris: Agasse, 1795

A distinguished mathematician and friend of Voltaire, d Alembert, and Turgot, Condorcet played a major role in promoting the Revolution s democratic principles. In the Esquisse (An Historical Outline of the Progress of the Human Mind), he traces the history of man through ten epochs.

$2,800

Hugo Black and the Supreme Court: A Symposium. Edited by Stephen Parks Strickland. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, (c.1967)

FIRST EDITION. Presentation copy inscribed by Black:  “To our friend, Arthur Goldberg, on this his forty ninth birthday, with our warm and affectionate good wishes to him and to Dorothy, Hugo L. Black August 8, 1967” and further signed by his wife Elizabeth. Black, once a member of the KKK and later one of the greatest defenders of civil liberties, inscribes this volume to fellow Supreme Court Justice Goldberg. Black, Warren, Douglas, Brennan, and Goldberg were key members of the liberal wing of the court in the 1960s.

$2,500

Collection of books from the debates over Darwinism. Various places, 1861-1897

$2,200

Troisième front poèmes de guerre suivi de pièces detachés. Third front & detached pieces. London Gallery Editions, 1944

FIRST EDITION. Copy number 18 of 500 signed and numbered by Mesens. Inscribed to René Magritte and his wife: “A Georgette Magritte A René Magritte, l’exemplaire réservé pour lui, sa Femme, Noukels et Barfoot, depuis 1944. E. M.”

$2,000

Idolatry & Confusion. London Gallery Editions, [1944]

Inscribed to René Magritte: “A René Magritte, ces textes mal informés en 1944, écrit en hâte, mais prophétiques. E. L. T. Mesens.” This scarce English Surrealist tract attacks the so-called resistance poetry of Paul Eluard and Aragon as “conformist.”

$1,700

Why War?. Paris: International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations, 1933

First edition in English, one of 2000 numbered copies. Translated from the German by Stuart Gilbert.

$1,600

The Fight Against War. New York: John Day, (c.1933)

FIRST EDITION.

This scarce collection of Einstein’s writings on war and peace was published in 1933, the year the Nazis took power in Germany and the year Einstein left Germany for the United States. In his prefatory note, Einstein writes, “Mr. Lief [the editor, Alfred Lief] has taken great trouble in collecting utterances of mine having pacifistic content and he presents them with my authorization. … I consider it my duty to confess my pacific conviction publicly. May the seriousness of my purpose be transferred to you, my readers! A. Einstein.”

$1,500