James Cummins Bookseller is proud to present a catalogue of nautical inventory that spans many collecting interests, from whaling novels and pirate tales to scientific inquiry and personal narratives of lives at sea. Highlights include the first American edition of Moby-Dick; an uncommon 1793 juvenile adaptation of The Most Surprising Adventures and Wonderful Life of Robinson Crusoe, in miniature; and a first edition of Captain Joshua Slocum's Voyage of the Liberdade, a first-hand account of the wreck of his ship and dangerous voyage home.
Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University, 1963. First edition. A.R. Ammons' (b.1926 - d.2001) first published book of poetry following a scarce vanity press of Ommateum, with Doxology [Dorrance, 1955] of which reportedly 200 of the total run of 300 copies were destroyed. Read More about Expressions of Sea Level
Price: $250
New York: Sea Cliff Editions, 1985. de Kooning, Elaine. First Edition, Number 29 of 120 copies, signed by both author and artist. Read More about Where the Blue Begins
Price: $600
London: Smith, Elder, 1898. First edition. Brilliant Copy, with a Letter from the Author. Excellent copy of this whaling classic, greatly admired by Kipling, and the author's first book. "Bullen describes a violent cyclone at sea, gives extremely detailed accounts of the extraction of whale oil from blubber, and recounts..... Read More about The Cruise of the "Cachalot" Round the World after Sperm Whales
Price: $2,000
London: sold by A. Manson, P. Denham, W. Robertson, and F. Nicholson, n.d. [ca. 1766-69?]. First edition. This Journal of the circumnavigation of the Dolphin in 1764-6 starts out as a seafaring account of travel from Plymouth to Madeira to Brazil, and the claiming of the Falkland Islands for the..... Read More about A Journal of a Voyage round the world, in His Majesty’s ship the Dolphin, commanded by the...
Price: $1,750
New York: Oxford University Press, 1952. Second edition, New editiuon, with corrections, second printing. Read More about Under the Sea-Wind. A Naturalist's Picture of Ocean Life
Price: $200
Annapolis, Md: Naval Institute Press, 1984. First edition. Clancy's first novel, INSCRIBED on the half title "To Vicki / with best wishes / Tom Clancy" Read More about The Hunt for Red October
Price: $1,500
New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1897. First edition of The Nigger of the “Narcissus”, preceding the London edition. With "Island" for "Islands" on the title-page and the headline and page number not printed on p. 58. Published on November 30, 1897 in an edition of 1,000 copies. The London..... Read More about The Children of the Sea. A Tale of the Forecastle
Price: $2,000
New York: Doubleday McClure, 1900. First American edition, second state. First American edition of Conrad's great novel. At the time of publication, Doubleday & McClure were in the process of breaking up (into Doubleday Page, and McClure Philips), and there was some uncertainty as to which firm would inherit the..... Read More about Lord Jim
Price: $900
London: [Printed for Joseph Conrad by] Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, 1919. First edition; one of 25 numbered copies, of which this 4. This was the twelfth of twenty very limited issue Conrad productions by Thomas J. Wise. This originally appeared in an issue of Outlook [June 4, 1898], later..... Read More about Tales of the Sea
Price: $2,000
London: G. Robinson, J. Sewell, and J. Debrett, 1782. First edition. Cook's Third Voyage. First edition of this account of Cook's final voyage. "Ellis was a surgeon's mate during Cook's third voyage, first on the Discovery and later on the Resoultion, and gives quite a good history of this expedition..... Read More about An Authentic Narrative of a Voyage Performed by Captain Cook and Captain Clerke, in His Majesty's...
Price: $6,500
Dublin: Price, Whitestone, Chamberlain, et al, 1781. First Dublin edition. First Dublin edition. The first Dublin edition of the first full account in English of Cook's third and final voyage. Rickman was a second lieutenant aboard the Discovery. "It provides an important supplement to the official account of the Third..... Read More about Journal of Captain Cook's Last Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, on Discovery; Performed in the Years...
Price: $4,250
[Otsego Hall, Cooperstown: 1848]. Published: London, 29 March 1849 by Bentley (vol. III, pp. 195-6). Two and a half substantial paragraphs, beginning, “I’ll not answer for the craft, though that’s her blue peter …” and continuing to: “… as almost to persuade the expectant legatees that their visit was premature..... Read More about Autograph manuscript page: The Sea Lions; Or, The Lost Sealers
Price: $2,500
Philadelphia: Cary, Lea, & Carey, 1828-1827. First American edition, preceded by the Paris and London editions. Cooper’s popular nautical tale of the adventures of Captain James Wilder and his pursuit of the pirate Red Rover. Notable characters include sailors Dick Fid, and Scipio Africa, a free black man. The Red..... Read More about The Red Rover. A Tale
Price: $950
London: Published by James Robins and Co. Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row; and Joseph Robins, Jun. and Co. Ormond Quay, Dublin, 1826. First edition. A famous and popular early production of Cruikshank's, illustrating the nautical accounts of Matthew Henry Barker (1790-1846). The artist illustrated other of Barker's sea tales; in 1820..... Read More about Greenwich Hospital, A series of Naval Sketches, Descriptive of the Life of a Man-of-War's Man. By...
Price: $2,000
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1840. First edition, presumed second printing with “i” on copyright page undotted and headline on broken running head on p. 9. Read More about Two Years Before the Mast. A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea
Price: $1,850
Newburyport: Printed at Osborne’s Office, Market-Square, 1793. Margreta Dodge her book. An uncommon early American juvenile adaptation of the classic novel of shipwreck and self-reliance in adversity. ESTC reports only three locations. With a nice contemporary ownership signature at the back, “Margreta Dodge her book”. Read More about The Most Surprising Adventures and Wonderful Life of Robinson Crusoe
Price: $3,750
Boston: Printed by E G House for the Author, 1817. First edition. "An account by an American of his three voyages to various parts of the Pacific between 1790 and 1807. He called at Van Diemen's Land and engaged in sealing in Bass Strait, of which he gives a description..... Read More about A Narrative of Voyages and Travels, in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres: Comprising Three...
Price: $1,500
Cape Cod: ca. 1937. Candid photograph of O'Neill on the beach. This photograph was likely taken at Cape Cod in the spring of 1937 by New England photographer Alton H. "Blackie" Blackington, who took several other photographs of O'Neill with his wife Agnes Boulton, and daughter Oona on May 7th..... Read More about Eugene O'Neill photograph and autograph
Price: $950
New York: Coward-McCann, 1942. Lynn Bogue Hunt. First Edition. Signed. Signed by the author opposite the title-page. Read More about Bill, The Broadbill Swordfish
Price: $300
New York: William Farquhar Payson, 1931. Limited edition, #31 of 47 copies on Crane's Old Book Paper, signed by the Author. Lively illustrations of life at sea toward the end of the era of full-masted schooners. Read More about Sail Ho! Windjammer Sketches Alow and Aloft
Price: $450
London: Chatto and Windus 214, Piccadilly, [1886]. Greenaway, Kate. First edition. Read More about The Queen of Pirate Isle
Price: $450
![Item #301419 [Giant Nova Scotia Tuna.] Manuscript Section, from Tales of Swordfish and Tuna. Zane...](/pictures/thumb/301419.jpg?v=1669652295)
Aug 1-1924. Comprising the first half of Chapter 2, Giant Nova Scotia Tuna, pp. 12-63 in Tales of Swordfish and Tuna. Published: Harpers, 1927. After Bluefin Tuna in Nova Scotia. A substantial manuscript by Zane Grey, comprising the first half of Chapter 2, "Great Nova Scotia Tuna," pages 12 to..... Read More about Giant Nova Scotia Tuna.] Manuscript Section, from Tales of Swordfish and Tuna
Price: $14,500
London: Henry Colburn, 1844. Second edition. Admiral Dillon's Copy. The best account of the Opium War of 1839-1842 with a "complete" account of the colony of Hong Kong. The Nemesis was the first British ocean-going iron warship. Launched in 1839 for the East India Company, the British used her to..... Read More about Narrative of the Voyages and Services of The Nemesis from 1840 to 1843; and of the combined naval...
Price: $750
London: Eveleigh Nash Company Limited, 1917. First edition. Scarce. Collection of crime stories, narrated by the scrupulous smuggler and ladies' man, Captain Gault. Scarce. Read More about Captain Gault. Being the Exceedingly Private Log of a Sea-Captain
Price: $2,250
Philadelphia: 1224 Chesnut St, [1869]. First edition, variant issue in red cloth [also seen in green and blue cloth]. Rare [OCLC locates only three holdings, one of which is incomplete: Indiana University (two copies in variant color bindings); Virginia (incomplete)]. Read More about THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER'S DAUGHTER. A True Story [published anonymously
Price: $350