Good-Bye My Fancy. 2d Annex to Leaves of Grass. Good-Bye My Fancy. 2d Annex to Leaves of Grass, 1891

FIRST EDITION. This form of Good-Bye My Fancy is not in Myerson.

$1,200

Animal Farm. New York: Harcourt, Brace, (c.1946)

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. The American edition omits the sub-title “A Fairy Story.”

This is an advance review copy with the ink stamp on the upper cover: “Review copy publication date Aug 26 1946 Price $175.” The front cover bears the quotation “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others,” presumably to call it to the attention of reviewers. The ploy worked, and the phrase has become Orwell’s most quoted line.

$1,200

The Works. With Notes Critical and Explanatory and a Biographical Memoir by W. Gifford Esq. With Introduction and Appendices by Lieut.-Col. F. Cunningham. London: Bickers, 1875

Gifford’s edition of Jonson’s works played an important role in the Jonson revival.

$900

The Works. With Notes Critical and Explanatory and a Biographical Memoir by W. Gifford Esq. London: for Nicol et al, 1816

Gifford’s edition of Jonson’s works played an important role in the Jonson revival.

$900

Chinese Novels, Translated from the Originals; to which are added Proverbs and Moral Maxims. London: John Murray, 1822

FIRST EDITION. This volume contains introductory “Observations on the Language and Literature of China” followed by “The Shadow in the Water,” “The Twin Sisters,” “The Three Dedicated Chambers,” and a selection of Chinese proverbs.

$900

Two book auction catalogues: (DENT, JOHN.) Catalogue of the Splendid, Curious, and Extensive Library of the Late John Dent, Esq. … sold by auction by Mr. Evans (1827). [bound with] (WILLIAMS, THEODORE.) A Catalogue of the Splendid and Valuable Library of the Rev. Theodore Williams … sold by auction, by Messrs. Stewart, Wheatley, and Adlard (1827). London: Evans [and Stewart, Wheatley, and Adlard], 1827

These catalogues from the golden age of English book collecting are filled with landmark early printed books, books printed on vellum, illuminated manuscripts, and more. The Dent library contained “numerous volumes of the greatest beauty, several illuminated manuscripts, … other books printed on vellum” (De Ricci, English Collectors of Books and Manuscripts). Both auction catalogues are fully priced in manuscript with prices realized and buyer names.

$900

Poems … selected and edited by William Michael Rossetti. London: John Camden Hotten, 1868

FIRST ENGLISH EDITION of Whitman’s poems.

$850

Specimen Days & Collect. Philadelphia: David McKay, 1882-'83

FIRST EDITION, second printing, first issue. Thomas Harned’s copy, with his bookplate. Whitman’s friend Harned was one of the poet’s literary executors, alog with Horace Traubel and Richard B. Bucke.

$800

Leaves of Grass. Philadelphia: David McKay, n.d. [c. 1892]

A rare survival in original wrappers. This is an undated printing of McKay’s “Deathbed Edition,” complete with the full text extended to p. 438 and including the Hollyer portrait of Whitman at p. 28.

$800

Walt Whitman … to which is added English Critics on Walt Whitman edited by Edward Dowden. Glasgow: Wilson and McCormick, 1884

FIRST EDITION, first British issue, comprising the American sheets (1883) plus a new section (pp. 237-255), Dowden’s work on the English critics of Whitman.

$800