Americana/History/Travel

Authors listed alphabetically:

a pivotal moment in the fight for freedom

[AMERICAN REVOLUTION] London: Charles Eyre and William Strahan, Printers to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, 1776. 16 Anno Regni Georgii III, cap 5. Complete volume. Full contemporary calf, red leather spine label, bookplate of Rt. Honourable Earl of Portsmouth. No document played a more decisive role in the debate over independence at the Second Continental Congress than the American Prohibitory Act.

$12,000
(details)

Ben-Gurion on the security of Israel

BEN-GURION, David. Typed letter, in Hebrew, signed "D. Ben-Gurion" as Minister of Defense on State of Israel letterhead, one page, 6" x 8", August 26, 1955. "But we are not powerless, not in the military sense, and certainly not in the moral and political sense. I, however, am calm and certain that, when it comes to the test, the Israel Defense Forces will be able to defend our peace and our sovereignty..." A fine letter with excellent content.

$5000
(details)

Ben-Gurion and Kaplan on the Hebrew Labor Movement

BEN-GURION, David; KAPLAN, Eliezer. Typed letter, in Hebrew, signed by David Ben-Gurion and Eliezer Kaplan. One page, 9.5" x 11.5", Tel Aviv, December 30, 1929, written to "Dr. A[rthur] Ruppin", a sociologist, Zionist thinker, and one of the founders of Tel Aviv. "In these serious times for our endeavors, we are carrying out the unification of the forces of the Hebrew labor movement in Aretz [Eretz, Israel]. We are sure that the day of unification-will also be a great day for you, dear Dr. Ruppin..." An early letter with good content uniting three (Ben-Gurion, Kaplan, Ruppin) important figures in the foundation of Israel.

$3000
(details)

"the first comprehensive celebration of the entire continental nation"

BRYANT, William Cullen, ed. Picturesque America. New York: D. Appleton, (1872-74). Two volumes. Thick folio, original publisher’s deluxe full blind-tooled morocco gilt. FIRST BOOK EDITION, in deluxe publisher’s full morocco binding, of the most famous and influential early pictorial representation of the United States. Beautifully illustrated with over 900 wood engravings and fifty steel engravings. Exceptionally fine copies, scarce in this condition.

$1500
(details)

a beautiful copy in original cloth

BURTON, Richard F. The Land of Midian (Revisited). London: Kegan Paul, 1879. Octavo, original ochre cloth. First edition of Burton's second expedition through Midian (northwest Arabia). Although Burton failed to unearth the vast amounts of gold he believed were in the region, the expedition, sponsored by the Egyptian Khedive Ismail I, was a major geographical and archaeological success.

$3800
(details)

the magnificent "Duncan Caesar":
a beautiful copy

(CAESAR, Julius). Duncan, William. The Commentaries of Caesar translated into English. London: Tonson, Draper, and Dodsley, 1753. Folio, modern full panelled calf gilt in antique style, elaborately gilt-decorated spine, marbled endpapers. First edition of the "Duncan Caesar", the most beautiful and celebrated edition of Caesar’s Commentaries in English, complete with 86 magnificent large folio engravings (on 85 sheets) of maps, plans, battles, and scenes depicting various soldiers and customs of the world.

$8500
(details)

the tomb of King Tut

CATLIN, GEORGE. Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North American Indians. London: by the author, 1841. Two volumes. Octavo, original cloth with paper labels. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE of Catlin's monumental work on the North American Indians. With two maps (one folding), one chart, and over 300 illustrations.

$5700
(details)

the tomb of King Tut

CARTER, Howard. The Tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen discovered by the late Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter.London: Cassell & Company, 1923-27-33. Thick octavo, original brown cloth. Three volumes. First editions of all three volumes of Carter's description of one the greatest archaeological finds of all time: the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen.

$3800
(details)

with over 200 woodcuts of the saints

[CHURCH HISTORY]. NATALIBUS, Petrus De. Catalogus sanctorum et gestorum eorum. Lyons: J. Sacon, December 9, 1514. THE CELEBRATED 1514 FIRST SACON [SACCON] EDITION, illustrated with over 200 woodcuts, of one of the three great early lives of the saints (along with the Golden Legend, and the Lives of the Holy Fathers).

$7400
(details)

Churchill's masterpiece

CHURCHILL, Winston S. The Second World War, London: Cassell & Co., Ltd., (1948-54). Octavo, modern three-quarter red morocco, raised bands, gilt-decorated spines with lion devices. Six volumes. First editions of Churchill's most important work, handsomely bound. Fine condition.

$2000
(details)

in full morocco bindings

CHURCHILL, Winston S. The Second World War, London: Cassell & Co., Ltd., (1948-54). Octavo, modern full red morocco, raised bands, gilt-decorated spines with lion devices. Six volumes. First editions of Churchill's most important work, handsomely bound. Fine condition.

$2800
(details)

CHURCHILL, Winston. CHURCHILL, Winston S. The People’s Rights. London: Hodder & Stoughton (1910). Octavo, original yellow wrappers. First edition, first state (wrappers issue) of Churchill’s early collection of political speeches. An early Churchill rarity and a notoriously fragile item.		$3400 (details)

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few" (PMM 424)

CHURCHILL, Winston S. A Speech by the Prime Minister in the House of Commons. August 20, 1940. [London]: [Baynard Press], 1940. Octavo, original printed wrappers, housed in half-morocco clamshell box.

$1800
(details)

CHURCHILL, Winston S. War Speeches: Into Battle; The Unrelenting Struggle; The End of the Beginning; Onwards to Victory; The Dawn of Liberation; Victory; Secret Session Speeches. London: Cassell and Company, Ltd., (1941-46). Modern full red morocco, gilt-decorated spines with lion devices, gilt-ruled boards, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt. Seven volumes. First editions, magnificently bound.		$4500 (details)

exceptionally rare

[CIVIL WAR]. [Robert E. Lee]. An Act to provide the appointment of a General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate States. General Orders No. 3; Richmond, February 6, 1865. Official broadside Confederate printing with seal on top left corner appointing Robert E. Lee "General in Chief" of the Confederate forces. A highly important piece of Confederate legislation. Extremely scarce.

$8000
(details)

COPLAND, Aaron. "ON THE ART AND MEANING OF MUSIC." Typescript Signed, an essay titled Music as an Aspect of the Human Spirit, written by the composer for Columbia University's bicentennial celebration. Signed on the last page. 11 1/4 pages, twelve 4to sheets. [Ossining?], circa 1954.		$4000 (details)

DAVIS, JEFFERSON. Autograph Letter Signed, to Reverend J. T. Freeman. Two pages, folded 8vo sheet with integral blank. Davis writes to Reverend Freeman thanking him for a proposed endowment to support the former President of the Confederacy. The letter provides a poignant glimpse of the fallen leader's post-war plight. Two pages, folded 8vo sheet with integral blank. Memphis, 25 November 1869.		$4800 (details)

DIO CASSIUS. [Greek Title]. Romanarum Historiarum libri XXIII, a XXXVI ad LVIII usque. Paris: Robert Estienne, 1548. Folio, early calf boards, recently rebacked. First edition, the editio Princeps, of Dio Cassius's important Roman history. Scarce.		$4000 (details)

First edition, signed twice by Dwight Eisenhower

EISENHOWER, Dwight D. Mandate for Change, 1953-56. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1963. Illustrated. First edition, one of 1434 signed copies; this copy additionally inscribed by Eisenhower (...with best wishes from Dwight D. Eisenhower). A fine copy of Eisenhower's fascinating memoir of his first term in office.

$2600
(details)

"One of the earliest, the clearest, and most absolute theoretical expositions of socialist and anarchist doctrine" (Printing and the Mind of Man, 234)

GODWIN, William. An Enquiry concerning Political Justice and its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness. London: G.G.J. and J. Robinson, 1793. Quarto, early three-quarters vellum over marbled boards. Two volumes. First edition of one of the most important political tracts of the 18th century.

$8000
(details)

signed by Ulysses S. Grant

GRANT, Ulysses S. Vellum Document Signed. Washington, 1873. Partly-printed vellum document signed, “U.S. Grant,” as president. Military commission appointing H. Schuyler Ross a First Assistant Engineer in the Navy. Countersigned by George M. Robeson as Secretary of the Navy. Approximately 19 1/2x16 inches.

$3000
(details)

in publisher's deluxe binding

GRANT, Ulysses S. Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant. New York: Charles L. Webster & Co., 1885-86. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL PUBLISHER'S DELUXE MOROCCO of Grant's important and fascinating memoirs, illustrated throughout with numerous steel engravings, facsimiles, and over forty maps. A superb set.

$3700
(details)

original cloth, unrestored, with the large folding map

GREGG, Josiah. Commerce of the Prairies: Or the Journal of a Santa Fe Trader, During Eight Expeditions across the Great Western Prairies... New York, 1844. Octavo, original gilt-stamped brown cloth. Two volumes. First edition, first issue (with only New York in imprint). One of the most valuable and comprehensive sources for understanding pioneer life in the Great Plains and Southwest.

$5500
(details)

GRIFFITHS, Philip Jones. Vietnam Inc. New York : Collier Books, 1971. First edition, signed and inscribed by Griffiths. Vietnam Inc. played a crucial role in turning public opinion against the war and is one of the classic works of photo-journalism. Illustrated with reproductions of Griffiths 's vivid photographs of the war in Vietnam . Hasselblad 274. Spine creased, head lightly foxed, generally an excellent copy. Rare signed.

$1000
(details)

the most widely-used infantry manual of the Civil War

HARDEE, William. Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics. Memphis: Hutton & Freligh, 1861. 2 vols in 1, as issued. Octavo, original cloth back boards, original label on front cover, with 58 lithographs (complete). First revised edition (1861) of the most widely used infantry manual of the Civil War. Confederate soldier Isaac Howard's copy.

$3500
(details)

J.F.K.'s Pulitzer-prize winning Profiles in Courage

KENNEDY, John. F. Profiles in Courage. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1955. First edition of Kennedy's third and finest book, for which he won the Pulitzer prize for biography in 1957. "Today the challenge of political courage looms larger than ever before." A fine copy.

$1500
(details)

"One of the few 20th-century works in English to make epical figures out of contemporaries." — Britannica

LAWRENCE, T.E. Seven Pillars of Wisdom (The). London: Jonathan Cape, 1935. Quarto, original cloth, original dustjacket, 54 black & white illustrations; 4 folding maps. First trade edition of Lawrence's remarkable memoirs of the Arab Revolt.

$1300
(details)

LOCKE, John. Works of John Locke. London, 1727. Folio, contemporary full speckled calf re-backed with original spines laid down, volume three with new leather label. Three volumes. Third edition of Locke's collected works.		$2800 (details)

Important volume documenting the scientific advances of early America, in original boards

MACKAY, Charles. Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions. London: Richard Bentley, Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty, 1841. Octavo, late nineteenth/early twentieth-century three quarter morocco over marbled boards, raised bands, marbled endpapers. Three volumes. RARE FIRST EDITION of Charles MacKay's classic study of mass behavior. Generally considered the most important book on market psychology, its vast influence extends to such diverse disciplines as stock market analysis and religious studies.

$5400
(details)

Important volume documenting the scientific advances of early America, in original boards

[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]. Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Volume I, parts I-III. Boston: Adams and Nourse, 1785. Quarto, original publisher's drab boards and paper spine. First edition of the inaugural volume of the Memoirs one of the United States's most important and influential intellectual societies.

$1450
(details)

"Still remains the major source for photographs of the Civil War" (Allan Nevins)

MILLER, Francis Trevelyan. The Photographic History of the Civil War. New York: The Review of Reviews, 1911. Quarto, original blue cloth gilt. Ten volumes. First editions of all ten volumes of Miller’s famous photo-documentary of the Civil War. The Mathew Brady photographs represent the first instance of a comprehensive photo-documentation of a war.

$2200
(details)

"The United States Constitution...is a lasting tribute to the principles he advocated" -Printing and the Mind of Man (197)

MONTESQUIEU, Charles Secondat, baron de. The Spirit of Laws... Translated from the French... London: J. Nourse and P. Vaillant, 1750. Fine copy of the first edition in English of one of the central works in western political thought. In contemporary speckled calf.

$11,000
(details)

First complete edition in English of Plato's Works PLATO. The Works of Plato. London,1804. Quarto, contemporary marbled boards sympathetically rebacked and recornered. Five volumes. FIRST COMPLETE EDITION IN ENGLISH OF PLATO’S WORKS; the enormously influential Thomas Taylor translation. Rare.		$8000 (details)

RAND, Ayn. Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. New York: New American Library, 1966. Signed limited edition, #68 of 700 copies, signed by Rand on the limitation page. With additional articles by Nathaniel Branden, Alan Greenspan, and Robert Hessen. Fine copy.		$2800 (details)

signed by Ayn Rand

RAND, Ayn. For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand. First edition, first printing, signed by Rand on the half-title. Rand’s most concise explanation of her philosophy, collecting the main philosophical passages of her major novels, and adding a lengthy new essay (“For the New Intellectual”) in which she contextualizes and crystallizes her beliefs for her readers. Book fine, dust jacket very good with small closed tear to front wrapper.

$2500
(details)

ROOSEVELT, Theodore. Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905. First edition, illustrated with frontispiece portrait and 48 photographic plates, of Roosevelt 's interesting collection of anecdotes about his hunting experiences. Contains evocative descriptions of the American countryside and well as exciting and informative details about the thrill of the chase.

$950
(details)

SANDBURG, Carl. Abraham Lincoln: The War Years. Volumes I-IV. New York:Harcourt, Brace, 1939. First trade edition of Sandburg’s monumental study of Lincoln, signed and inscribed by Sandburg on the title page of volume one in the year of publication. Sandburg won the Pulitzer Prize for this much-celebrated work.		$2000 (details)

Shackleton's heroic expedition

SHACKLETON, Ernest H. The Heart of the Antarctic. London , William Heinemann, 1909. Octavo, original decorated blue cloth, top edges gilt. Two volumes. FIRST EDITION, trade issue, of Shackleton's account one of the most celebrated Antarctic expeditions, complete with 2 frontispieces and 12 color plates, 194 plates, diagrams on letterpress, 3 maps and 2 panoramas (on one sheet) in pocket at end of vol.II.

$1500
(details)

foundation of scientific management, PMM 403

TAYLOR, Frederick Winslow. The Principles of Scientific Management. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1911. Octavo, original cloth. First edition, scarce private first printing, "for confidential circulation among the members of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers with the compliments of the author" of Taylor’s masterpiece that transformed methods of factory production.

$2500
(details)

essential Christian text

TERTULLIANUS, Quintus Septimus Florens. Apologeticus Adversus Gentes. Venice: Bernardinus Benalius, [not after 1494]. Folio, early vellum. First edition, the editio princeps, of Tertullian's masterpiece, one of the key texts of the early Christian Church.

$12,500
(details)

signed by Harry Truman

TRUMAN, Harry S. Photograph, Signed by Truman as President. Silver print of President Truman and his daughter Margaret at the 1950 Army-Navy football game, SIGNED BY TRUMAN in the image (on the bottom left, beneath his picture). With a letter from Truman's secretary thanking Harry F. McGoniagal of Philadelphia's Evening Bulletin for taking the photograph. [1952]. Approximately 11x14 inches; signature slightly faded; matted and framed.

$2300
(details)