Peter Parley’s Universal History, on the Basis of Geography. Boston: American Stationers’ Company and John B. Russell, 1837

$4,500

The Redskins; or Indian and Ingin: being the Conclusion of the Littlepage Manuscripts. New York: Burgess, Stringer, & Company, 1846

First American edition, in original printed wrappers. This is the conclusion of Cooper’s Littlepage Manuscripts trilogy, a series of novels examining the leasehold system in New York. Cooper saw attacks on the system as a threat to private property. “He was particularly incensed when tenants, disguised as American Indians, resorted to violence” in opposition to the landowners” (ANB).

$4,500

Twice-Told Tales. Boston: American Stationers Co., 1837

$4,500

Autograph letter signed [to Henry Arthur Bright]. Brunswick, 7 January 1854

$4,500

Soundings from the Atlantic.. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1864

$3,600

Autograph manuscript signed from “Urania” including excerpts from the original manuscript. No Place, ca. 1846

$3,600

The Naked and the Dead. New York and Toronto: Rinehart, 1948

First edition of Norman Mailer’s landmark first novel. This is the first printing, with the Rinehart colophon on copyright page, and in the first issue dust jacket without reviews on rear flap.

$3,500

Hyperion: A Romance. New York: Samuel Colman, 1839

Hyperion is one of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s first published works. It was published in 1839, and is a prose romance that follows a young American named Paul Flemming as he travels through Germany. The journey of the character is partially inspired by the death of a friend, and the romance in the tale is based on Longfellow’s own failed marriage proposals to his beloved.

$3,500

Works. Chapman and Hall, [1870s]

A very handsome set of the famous “Illustrated Library Edition,” here in an early printing. The dedication at the front of the first volume (Pickwick Papers) states, “This the best edition of my books is, of right, inscribed to my dear friend John Forster, biographer of Oliver Goldsmith, in affectionate acknowledgment of his counsel, sympathy, and faithful friendship during my whole literary life.” “The Library Edition came about largely because of the suggestion of Forster that while Dickens’s works were available in volumes in the Cheap Edition and in reprints of the serial parts, there was no high-quality edition that would appeal to the wealthy. Dickens eventually came round to the idea that an elegant edition could raise the stature of his writings.

$3,500

Autograph letter signed to “My dear Friend.”. Danvers, March 28, 1882

Whittier poignantly writes, “Thy word of sympathy in view of the death of dear Longfellow was very welcome. It is a mighty loss to us all. It leaves me with a feeling of loneliness, as if I had outlived the world. …. All English-speaking people have a common interest in the great world-singer. I am very truly thy friend John G. Whittier.”

$3,200