This week we present a small catalogue of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs from our stock, including some of the classics of the genre, among them a fine copy of the first complete edition of the memoirs of our archetypical self-made man, Benjamin Franklin, a very nice copy of the first edition of Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson, the most famous and enduring biography in the English language. Other items represented are firsts of some of history’s greatest diaries, from Samuel Pepys to Anne Frank, and a selection of excellent presentation copies.
[New York]: Privately Printed by [The Derrydale Press], 1930. One of 500 copies. Memorial volume of verse privately printed by Connett and never intended for sale. "An extremely rare Derrydale book ... very scarce ... and very hard to come by" (Frazier). Read More about Abdul. An Allegory
Price: $900
New York: William Sloane Associates, [1950]. First edition. First edition of Berryman's biography of Stephen Crane, signed ("John Berryman") on the title-page. Read More about Stephen Crane … The American Men of Letters Series
Price: $1,000
London: Henry Baldwin for Charles Dilly, 1791. First edition, "gve" uncorrected at line 10 on p. 135 in vol. I, and with the usual cancels (Mm4 and Nn1 in vol. I, E3, Oo4, Qq3 in vol. II). Read More about The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D … in Two Volumes
Price: $4,500
New York: D. Appleton, 1860. First edition. Pioneer of Sporting Journalism. The biography of Porter, who in 1831 founded the American sporting periodical 'spirit of the Times," and served as its editor from 1835 to 1850. He also edited the American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine from 1840-1844, and the..... Read More about Life of William T. Porter
Price: $750
London: Chapman & Hall, 1893. First edition. Presentation from Lady Burton to Mrs. Chapman. Highly desirable presentation set of Lady Burton's biography of her husband, the famed explorer and linguist. The inscription reads "To Mrs. Frederic Chapman, With Isabel Burton's best regards. 1893" Read More about The Life of Captain Richard F. Burton ... With numerous portraits, illustrations, and maps. In...
Price: $2,500
London: Rest Fenner, 1817. First edition. First edition of perhaps Coleridge’s most influential work — a jumble of autobiography, philosophy, criticism, and satire. The Biographia Literaria grew from Coleridge’s increasing estrangement from the poetics of Wordsworth, and as early as 1800 Coleridge began planning the work. Coleridge saw his book..... Read More about Biographia Literaria; or Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions
Price: $1,000
London: Printed for G. Nicol and G. G. J. and J. Robinson, 1788. First edition. FIRST BIOGRAPHY OF COOK. The first edition of this highly influential first English biography of Cook by the Anglican clergyman Kippis, one of the leading biographers of his day. In addition to describing the three..... Read More about The Life of Captain James Cook
Price: $2,250
London: Cassell & Co. Ltd, n.d. [1934]. First edition, later printing. For Mr. and Mrs Booth Tarkington. An association copy of the classic biography of Frederick Rolfe, inscribed on the front free endpaper: “For Mr. & Mrs. Booth Tarkington “with the cordial “salutations of the “author “jan 1935”... Read More about The Quest for Corvo. An Experiment in Biography
Price: $500
London: Chapman & Hall, 1849. First edition. 30 EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED PLATES. With this biography, Lewes (famous partner of George Eliot) is credited for the first treatment of Robespierre “without histeria”. He stated in the preface that his intention was to bring together scattered facts, thus presenting “a view of the separate..... Read More about The Life of Maximilien Robespierre; with extracts from his unpublished correspondence
Price: $1,500
London: Saunders and Otley, 1837. Third Edition. Read More about The Romance of Biography or Memoirs of Women Loved and celebrated by Poets from the Days of the...
Price: $500
London: R. Ackermann, 96, Strand, 1831. Second Edition. First Edition with the Cruikshank Illustrations. Read More about Ferdinand Franck: An Auto-Biographical Sketch of the Youthful Days of a Musical Student
Price: $550
London: Printed for James Carpenter and William Miller, 1811. LARGE PAPER COPY, with all plates in proof state. Large Paper, with the Engravings in Proof State. A spectacular copy of the Hamilton classic in its Zaehnsdorf dressing, with exceptionally fine impressions of the engravings. Read More about Memoirs of Count Grammont ... A New edition. To Which are Prefixed, A Biographical Sketch of...
Price: $2,500
London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1816. First edition. Edited by Hazlitt. Holcroft's classic autobiography, left unfinished upon his death in 1809, but completed by William Hazlitt using Holcroft's letters, diaries, and other papers. Although his other works are now largely forgotten, the MEMOIRS "helped found the nineteenth-century genre..... Read More about Memoirs of the Late Thomas Holcroft Written By Himself and Continued to the Time of His Death [by...
Price: $750
London: W. Satchell, Peyton and Co, 1879. Author's Large Paper Copy (so designated on verso of half title). LARGE PAPER COPY. "One of the most sterling and attaching of modern angling books, and possesses several of the qualities that have rendered Iz. Walton's writings household words - his simplicity, naïveté..... Read More about My Life as an Angler
Price: $2,000
London: Webb & Bower, 1977/1989. LIMITED EDITION, number 1 of 15. Signed by Holden's great niece, Rowena Scott, on the limitation page. Copy no. 1 from an edition of 15. Facsimiles of two manuscript diaries from 1906, reproducing the hand-written text and watercolor illustrations from the originals. Holden, a relatively..... Read More about The Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady, and the Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady
Price: $2,500
Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1838. Oliver Wendell Holmes' copy. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES' COPY. Inscribed on the upper wrapper “Dr. O. W. Holmes with Mr. Young's respec[ts]. RARE, according to Wilson in his catalogue “Because of its preservation in 296 Beacon Street and (by Justice Holmes' bequest) in..... Read More about The Varieties of Human Greatness. A Discourse on the Life and Character of the Hon. Nathaniel...
Price: $600
Cleveland: The Rowfant Club, 1941. #219 of 219 copies, signed by Bruce Rogers. “In 1941 Rogers designed Before Life Began, for the Rowfant Club of Cleveland, Ohio, an autobiography of Dard Hunter, historian and practitioner of papermaking by hand. The book was printed at the Press of A. Colish on..... Read More about Before Life Began 1883-1923
Price: $850
Cumberland, MD: Printed for the Author, by J.M. Buchanan, 1826. First edition. First edition of this defense of colonial frontiersman Captain Cresap (1742-1775), whom Jefferson, echoing others, blamed for the murder of the family of the Mingo war chief James Logan during Lord Dunmore's War. Cresap has since been exonerated..... Read More about A Biographical Sketch of the Life of the Late Capt. Michael Cresap
Price: $2,750
Boston: Published by W. Andrews and L. Blake. Greenough and Stebbins, Printers, 1807. First American from the fifth London Edition (1807, edited by Edmund Malone). The first edition was published in 1791. First American Edition of Boswell. This is the first edition of this work to contain an index. Read More about The Life of Samuel Johnson LL. D. Comprehending an Account of his Studies and Numerous Works, in...
Price: $600
Philadelphia: James Crissy, 1832. Second edition. The great Supreme Court Justice's classic biography of the first President. Read More about The Life of George Washington, Commander in Chief of the American Forces...and First President of...
Price: $1,350
New York: Putnams, nd. Da Vinci, In a Handsome Binding. Read More about The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci. Authorized Translation from the Russian by Herbert Trench
Price: $250
[Trenton]: Published by D. Fenton, 1811. First edition. Remarkable picaresque history, with many travels through the South between 1800 and 1808. Born in Germany in 1781, Oehler claimed he arrived in Baltimore in 1800 as a bound tailor; escaped to become a dancing master in Alexandria and then a fencing..... Read More about The Life Adventures and Unparalleled Sufferings of Andrew Oehler: Containing an Account of His...
Price: $2,000
London: Waterlow & Sons, 1886. First edition. An expansion of the extremely rare "Sketch By An Old Oxonian" of 1880. WIth superb Woodburytpe portrait. The second attempt at a biography of the legendary explorer, linguist, and author Richard F. Burton, utilizing the contents of a short "Sketch" by Richards, Burton's..... Read More about A Sketch of the Career of Richard F. Burton collected from "Men of Eminence", from Sir...
Price: $1,250
c. 1900. Draft Outline of Riis’ Autobiography. The autograph outline of the first seven chapters of Riis’s autobigraphy, The Making of an American (1902), as well as outlines for parts of chapters twelve through fifteen. The opening chapters recount stories from Riis’s boyhood in Denmark, meeting his future wife Elizabeth..... Read More about Autograph Manuscript Draft Outline of The Making of an American
Price: $7,500
