A short list prepared for the "Boston" ABAA Virtual Book Fair, December 8–11, 2022. Highlights include unusual cookbooks, a signed book from the most elusive author of the 21st century, and a famous anti-Texas tirade.
Two artifacts from the trailblazing physicians, Elizabeth Blackwell and Emily Blackwell, the first and third women licensed as physicians in the United States. These are two medical books, one on childbirth (parturition) and the other on diseases of the uterus, from their libraries, each with an ownership signature of one.....
Sold
![Item No: #362431 Harmonica Blues [2000]. R. Crumb, Robert](https://downtownbrown.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/362431.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&v=1670201361)
This is the second and best of three versions of this print, based on R. Crumb's artwork for the album of the Yazoo record of the same name. The first version was an expertly done four-color silkscreen (serigraph). The third edition is an archival inkjet reproduction of this, the second.....
Price: $1,000
![Item No: #362303 Geek Love [Proof]. Katherine Dunn](https://downtownbrown.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/362303.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&v=1670201346)
Uncorrected Proof. The uncorrected proof of Katherine Dunn's beloved and critically acclaimed novel set in the world of carnival freaks. The promotional material accompanying this copy is filled with the typical hyperbole, but much of it has proved true: "It's like nothing you've ever read before...it is a work completely.....
Sold
First hardcover edition. The first book in Elena Ferrante's worldwide bestselling series, the Neapolitan Quartet, published here in a stunningly beautiful signed, limited edition of 126 copies, comprising the entire first hardcover edition in English. Essentially, this edition offers the only obtainable signed books anywhere in the world by Ferrante.....
Price: $4,000
First Edition. A dictionary of 430 terms, compiled with the assistance of C. R. Hellyer of the City Detective Department of the Portland police. An unusual Oregon imprint. "John Hancock, noun, current amongst confidence men and paper grafters generally. A signature. Derived from the common observation that John Hancock, of.....
Sold
First Edition. The most famous American cookbook for which there are no recorded copies of the first printing in any library. This is the rare fragile, self-published first edition, published in an edition of just 800 copies. The Moosewood Cookbook, perhaps more than any other cookbook, brought vegetarian, whole-food cooking.....
Price: $5,000
First Edition. The foundational book of modern military encryption and cybersecurity. Kerckhoffs, a Dutch linguist, realized that the telegraph, in which messages travel over wires and through the hands of clerks fundamentally changed the needs of cryptography. He proposed six rules to govern transmission of messages that were subject to.....
Sold
A wonderful one-page undated letter (probably 1980s) about drugs and art, from the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to the underground cartoonist S. Clay Wilson. "Dear Essclay: Your Christmas owls looked so forlorn on our wall full of holiday splendor that I got high, empathised and took.....
Price: $750
First Edition. Le Guin's previously published and unpublished poems written between 1981 and 1987. 90 pages. First edition (first printing, wrappers issue; also published simultaneously in hardcover). A near fine paperback. This is an exceptional association copy, inscribed by Le Guin to William Stafford, the Oregon Poet who was also.....
Sold
A terrific large poster for a 1914 silent film based on a Jack London short story. London's story of the same name, published in the January 1900 issue of The Atlantic, is set in Klondike-era Alaska. One of the central characters, Naass, is an Aleut whose great-great grandfather was a......
Price: $2,500
A rare complete 58-issue run of this semi-comic political weekly published in Mexico City, including the very scarce five issues of volume 2 and the original text and layout, which was changed for the more commonly seen bound collection of just volume one. The introduction to the first issue states.....
Sold
First Edition. A classic Texas book, illustrated with a folding lithographic map. This early Texas history was written by a British attorney who tried practicing law in 1839 and 1840 in the new Republic of Texas. He returned to England and immediately began denouncing Texas at every opportunity. In particular.....
Price: $6,000
![Item No: #362409 Literary Life: A Second Memoir [Signed, Numbered]. Larry McMurtry](https://downtownbrown.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/362409.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&v=1670201357)
First Edition. One of a series of memoirs, in the form of short vignettes, that McMurtry wrote in his later years. This one mostly provides anecdotes about his books, with bits about filmmakers and booksellers tossed in for seasoning. 175 pages. First edition (first printing); Three Dog Books issue, limited.....
Price: $150
![Item No: #4022 When the Light Goes [Signed, Numbered]. Larry McMurtry](https://downtownbrown.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/4022.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&v=1670201377)
First Edition. A Duane Moore novel, a character who first appeared in The Last Picture Show. By the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lonesome Dove. 195 pages. First edition (first printing); Three Dog Books issue, limited to 100 numbered copies signed by the author on an inserted limitation page. A fine.....
Price: $60
First Edition. A scarce Mexican book with about 300 cocktail recipes published at the beginning of the 1960s by a noted cookbook author. A handful of the recipes reflect Mexican ingredients, like the Tequila Cocktail, which combines tequila, grenadine, a few drops of absinthe, lemon juice, and an olive garnish.....
Price: $350
Original letter signed "Vicente Pazos" to British Member of Parliament G. R. Robinson, the chairman of the Committee of Spanish American Bondholders, protesting negative press in the London papers and asking for a letter of support from the committee. The letter was written by a secretary and signed by Pazos.....
Sold
First Edition. Fritz Scholder (1937–2005), an important American figurative painter, is best known for his expressionistic portraits of Native Americans (he was an enrolled member of the Luiseño tribe). But his artistic practice was not limited to the visual arts. For a brief period, following a collaborative project with Leonard.....
Price: $1,500
A catalog of Bibles exhibited in 1877, spanning more than four centuries. This edition is described as a special edition, revised and carefully corrected, with additions. Stevens, the editor and probably the cataloguer, was the pre-eminent bookseller of his era. He was American and helped build the major American collections.....
Sold
First Edition. The first French cookbook printed in the United States, from the eightlh London edition of 1827 (the first was published in 1813). According to the title page, Ude was "ci-devant cook to Louis XVI and the Earl of Sefton and steward to his late Royal Highness the Duke.....
Sold
First Edition. One of the most influential books on the Challenger space shuttle disaster and a notable work on the sociology of decision-making. According to Google Scholar, this book has been cited 5000 times in the academic literature. Vaughn is a professor of sociology at Columbia University. 575 pages. First.....
Price: $300
![Item No: #361604 [Report on a Gold Mining Tour of Alaska and the United States]...](https://downtownbrown.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/361604.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&v=1670201325)
First Edition. An extensive report on US gold mines and mining practices, based on a site visits in Alaska, South Dakota, Colorado, and California. The author became the director and mill manager of the Taio Gold Mining Co., in 1937, a few months after this report was published (according to.....
Sold
Third printing. A biography of Frederick Douglass by the longtime leader of the Tuskegee Institute (now University). Washington frames Douglass as an inspiring figure from the past, part of an era of "destruction and liberation" focused on slavery and its immediate aftermath. Washington implies that the more difficult task of.....
Price: $6,000
First Edition. A biography of Frederick Douglass by the longtime leader of the Tuskegee Institute (now University). Washington frames Douglass as an inspiring figure from the past, part of an era of "destruction and liberation" focused on slavery and its immediate aftermath. Washington implies that the more difficult task of.....
Price: $1,250
First Edition. Two short texts by Booker T. Washington advocating for equality in voting between while and black men (women's suffrage is not addressed). The first text is a letter written to the constitutional convention in Louisiana supporting a test for voting so long as "no one clothed with State.....
Price: $2,500
