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TOCQUEVILLE, ALEXIS DE
De la Democratie en Amerique. Paris: Charles Gosselin, 1835, 1840
FIRST EDITIONS. The most influential commentary on America in the nineteenth century, Democracy in America was based on Tocqueville’s travels in the United States in 1831 and 1832. Tocqueville came to America to study the American prison system on behalf of the French government. The book resulting from these investigations is generally considered the 19th century’s most insightful commentary on the development of our unique American culture and political system.
$42,000
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TEN BAMBOO STUDIO
Shizhuzhai shuhuapu (Ten Bamboo Studio Collection of Calligraphy and Painting). No place, printed ca. 1775
FIRST EDITION, second superstate, of the Ten Bamboo Studio, “perhaps the most beautiful set of prints ever made” (Ebrey).
$35,000
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GUICCIARDINI, FRANCESCO
La Historia di Italia. Florence: Lorenzo Torrentino, 1561
FIRST EDITION. A “masterpiece of scientific history,” Guicciardini’s History of Italy was “undoubtedly the greatest historical work that had appeared since the beginning of the modern era. It remains the most solid monument of Italian reason in the 16th century, the final triumph of that Florentine school of philosophical historians which included Machiavelli …” (Britannica, 11th ed.).
$28,000
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GODWIN, WILLIAM
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and Its influence on General Virtue and Happiness. London: Robinson, 1793
FIRST EDITION. In Political Justice, his most famous work, Godwin responds to Burke’s attacks on the French Revolution and Thomas Paine. He applies the principles of the Revolution to inquire into the philosophical basis of government. Believing that political and social institutions are tyrannical and corrupt, Godwin calls for reason to guide human affairs and advocates individual liberty.
$25,000
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POE, EDGAR ALLAN
Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1840
First edition of Poe’s first published collection of tales, one of only 750 sets printed. Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque contains many of Poe’s finest tales including “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “MS. Found in a Bottle.”
$24,000
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ROUSSEAU, JEAN-JACQUES
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
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FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN
Some Account of the Pennsylvania Hospital; From its First Rise, to the Beginning of the Fifth Month, called May, 1754. Philadelphia: B. Franklin and D. Hall, 1754
FIRST EDITION of Benjamin Franklin’s account of the Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital established in the British colonies, co-founded by Franklin with his friend Dr. Thomas Bond. It remains a leading medical institution in Philadelphia.
$17,500
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STOWE, HARRIET BEECHER
Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, life among the lowly. Boston: Jewett, 1852
FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING. “These books are of such paramount historical importance that it is difficult to evaluate them as literature” (Merle Johnson). “Three thousand copies were sold on the day of publication, and before its first anniversary, over 300,000 copies were sold in America … More than twenty London editions appeared in 1852, so the English audience must have been as large as the American. No other American novel has been translated into so many foreign languages” (Grolier/American).
$15,000
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SUETONIUS
The Historie of Twelve Caesars … newly translated into English, by Philemon Holland. London: Matthew Lowne, 1606
First edition in English of Suetonius’ dramatic biographies of the first “Twelve Caesars,” translated by Philemon Holland. This entertaining work is a principal source for one of the most eventful and scandalous periods in ancient history. Suetonius is the first biographer in Latin whose works have come down to us.
$7,500
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KINSEY, ALFRED , et al
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