The History of Gambling in England.
London: Duckworth & Co, 1898. First edition. Read More about The History of Gambling in England
Price: $250
Vice: Gambling, Drinking & Drugs
James Cummins Bookseller presents an online list of books and ephemera related to vice, in all its forms — from the generally frowned-upon to the psychically and physically devastating. With a focus on gambling and cards, cocktails and drinking, drugs and addiction. Highlights include the first cocktail manual, Jerry Thomas’s Bar-Tender’s Guide; Thomas De Quincey’s harrowing memoir of addiction, loss, and want, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater; one of the two earliest poker manuals, John Blackbridge’s The Complete Poker Player & Henry Winterblossom’s The Game of Draw-Poker. Enjoy responsibly!
Amusements Serious and Comical, Calculated for the Meridian of London.
London: John Nutt, 1700. First edition. A tour of London and its amusements by the Grub Street satirist Thomas Brown (1662-1704). Includes chapter on gaming houses (Amusement X). Read More about Amusements Serious and Comical, Calculated for the Meridian of London
Price: $750
Cruikshank Plates, Riviere Binding
Life in Paris; comprising the Rambles, Sprees and Amours of Dick Wildfire, of Corinthian Celebrity and his Bang-up Companion Squire...
London: Printed for John Fairburn, Broadway, Ludgate-Hill et al, 1822. Cruikshank, George. First edition, with half-title. Cruikshank Plates, Riviere Binding. First issued in 21 parts, this is the first edition in book form. The Cruikshank plates are wonderful scenes of high and low life in Paris, obviously influenced by the..... Read More about Life in Paris; comprising the Rambles, Sprees and Amours of Dick Wildfire, of Corinthian...
Price: $1,000
The Thompson Street Poker Club from "Life"
New York: Gilliss Brothers, 1884. First edition. Written and illustrated in the lowest and broadest tradition of racial caricature. Read More about The Thompson Street Poker Club from "Life"
Price: $300
Visions: A Study of False Sight (Pseudopia.)...With an Introduction and Memorial Sketch by Oliver Wendell Holmes, M.D.
Boston: Houghton, Osgood and Company. The Riverside Press, Cambridge [London: Trübner & Co.], 1878. Holmes edited this last book by his classmate and friend Edward H. Clarke (1820-77), an essay left unfinished at Clarke’s death. It is a study of hallucinations and visions, and what causes them. The effects of..... Read More about Visions: A Study of False Sight (Pseudopia.)...With an Introduction and Memorial Sketch by Oliver...
Price: $125
Professional Mixing Guide. The Accredited List of Recognized and Accepted Standard Formulas for Mixed Drinks.
New York: The Angostura-Wuppermann Corporation, (1950). Later printing. Pocket cocktail manual produced by Angostura, makers of the popular aromatic bitters used in so many classic cocktails. Read More about Professional Mixing Guide. The Accredited List of Recognized and Accepted Standard Formulas for...
Price: $75
Biographia Literaria; or Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions.
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
The Classic of Opium Addiction
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater.
London: Taylor and Hessey, 1822. First edition. The Classic of Opium Addiction. First edition of the first part of De Quincey's classic, the author’s first book, the complete text of which did not appear until Boston, 1850. “Thomas De Quincey began using opium in 1802 and continued to use it..... Read More about Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
Price: $2,500
Nightmare Drugs.
New York: Pocket Books, 1966. First edition. Studies LSD, rehabilitation, hallucinogens, sedatives, marijuana and heroin and explains the nature of drug addiction and habituation for preventative actions. Read More about Nightmare Drugs
Price: $75
The Official Mixer's Manual.
New York: Blue Ribbon Books, (1940). First edition thus. 1940 reprint of the rare 1934 first edition published by Richard R. Smith (American publisher of the Savoy cocktail Book) and Ray Long. Read More about The Official Mixer's Manual
Price: $500
How Gamblers Win; or, the Secrets of Advantage Playing Exposed … by a Retired Professional.
New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, Publishers, (1868). Second edition, wrappered issue. The second edition, published by Dick & Fitzgerald, following the first edition of 1865. One of the earliest and subsequently widely read works on advantage play and cheating in poker and other card and dice games. With contemporary "Special..... Read More about How Gamblers Win; or, the Secrets of Advantage Playing Exposed … by a Retired Professional
Price: $850
The Gentlemen's Hand-Book on Poker.
New York: George Routledge & Sons, 1892. First American edition. The rules and play of poker, with a chapter on poker sharps describing marked cards and other cheats. Read More about The Gentlemen's Hand-Book on Poker
Price: $500
The Vices of the Cities of London and Westminster … In Five Letters, from a Citizen of London to a....
Dublin: G. Faulkner … and R. James, 1751. First Dublin edition. Letter IV: “Of Gaming, its present State, Means to suppress private Play,...” ESTC records a London edition, tentatively dated 1750. Read More about The Vices of the Cities of London and Westminster … In Five Letters, from a Citizen of London...
Price: $450
An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling; Designed Especially as a Warning to the Youthful and Inexperienced Against...
Boston: Redding & Co, 1845. Second edition, improved. Second edition of this popular work on the evils of gambling and the tricks and deceptions used to defraud the unwary, by the riverboat gambler-turned anti-gambling crusader Jonathan Green (1813-1887). With chapters on cheating in poker, faro, and many other games. Green's..... Read More about An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling; Designed Especially as a Warning to the...
Price: $3,500
One Hundred Tricks with Cards. Gamblers' Tricks with Cards, Exposed and Explained.
New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, n.d. [ca. 1880s]. Later printing. The heavily battered type suggests this is a later printing of Green's exposure of gamblers' deceptions. Toole Stott notes the first printing in wrappers in 1850. Read More about One Hundred Tricks with Cards. Gamblers' Tricks with Cards, Exposed and Explained
Price: $1,500
The Merry Mixer, or Cocktails and Their Ilk. A Booklet on Mixtures and Mulches, Fizzes and Whizzes.
New York: Geo. T Stagg and Co, 1933. First edition. "Is is our hope again to revive the pleasures of the past …" (Foreword). A charmingly illustrated pocket drinks manual issued on the occasion of the repeal of Prohibition. With the imprint of the George T. Stagg Company, distillery and..... Read More about The Merry Mixer, or Cocktails and Their Ilk. A Booklet on Mixtures and Mulches, Fizzes and Whizzes
Price: $200
The Complete Buffet Guide, or How to Mix All Kinds of Drinks ….
Chicago: M.A. Donahue, (1903). First edition. Scarce early 20th-century drinks manual with over 500 drinks recipes and 40 pages dedicated to toasts and after-dinner speeches. OCLC finds only 5 copies — all dated 1903. Noling suggests a 1902 date, possibly in error. Read More about The Complete Buffet Guide, or How to Mix All Kinds of Drinks …
Price: $1,500
Fortune at Home; or The Peacock Parodied. An Effusion for the 8th of June, 1810.
London: James Whiting, Finsbury Place, 1810. First edition, with half-title. Lottery puff for June 8, 1810 (£200,000 in prizes), prefaced by a 10-page ode to fortune. Read More about Fortune at Home; or The Peacock Parodied. An Effusion for the 8th of June, 1810
Price: $300
Drinks as They are Mixed. A Manual of Quick Reference. Containing Upwards of 300 Recipes for Mixing and Serving Drinks...
Chicago: Frederick J. Drake, 1934. Second edition. Post-Prohibition second edition of this pocket drinks manual first published in 1904. Read More about Drinks as They are Mixed. A Manual of Quick Reference. Containing Upwards of 300 Recipes for...
Price: $450
Full Inquiry into the Subject of Suicide. To Which are Added (as Being Closely Connected with the Subject) Two Treatises...
London: J. F. and C. Rivington,...[et al.], 1790. First edition. The most significant work on suicide of the eighteenth century. Together with dueling, the author devotes a separate treatise to suicide’s relationship to gambling. A “most frequent source of suicide,” writes the author, gambling is “often the last stage and..... Read More about Full Inquiry into the Subject of Suicide. To Which are Added (as Being Closely Connected with the...
Price: $3,000
Light Come, Light Go. Gambling — Gamesters — Wagers — The Turf.
London: Macmillan and Co, 1909. First Edition. Read More about Light Come, Light Go. Gambling — Gamesters — Wagers — The Turf
Price: $250
The Complete Poker Player.
New York: Advance Publishing Co, 1875. First edition. Rare first edition of this foundational work on poker. It is, along with Winterblossom's The Game of Draw Poker (1875), the earliest published work dedicated solely to poker. Blackbridge – described on the title as an attorney, though the name is possibly..... Read More about The Complete Poker Player
Price: $8,500
The Art of Drinking. Or What to Make with What You Have. Together with Divers Succulent Canapés Suitable to Each...
New York: Farrar & Rinehart, [1930]. Early printing. Collection of Prohibition-era cocktail recipes and accompanying snacks. Read More about The Art of Drinking. Or What to Make with What You Have. Together with Divers Succulent Canapés...
Price: $75
An Inquiry into the Modus Operandi of that Class of Medicines Called Sedatives ... Submitted, as an inaugual Dissertation .....
Philadelphia: Way & Groff, 1800. First edition. The author argues that the class of medicines commonly known as 'sedatives' are actually stimulants. He considers the likes of digitalis, opium, nitre, and saccharum. Scarce: OCLC locates 5 copies. Read More about An Inquiry into the Modus Operandi of that Class of Medicines Called Sedatives ... Submitted, as...
Price: $750
Inscribed
Poison Arrows. A Strange Journey with an Opium Dreamer through Annam, Cambodia, Siam, and the Lotus Isle of Bali.
New York: House of Field, Inc, [1940]. First American edition. Inscribed. Inscribed, “To Col. Don Rockwell, with appreciation of his exploring — Grace Thompson Seton. /5/2/40.” Rockwell wrote an introductory note to the illustrations, "The Author Behind the Lens" (pp. 303-4). Read More about Poison Arrows. A Strange Journey with an Opium Dreamer through Annam, Cambodia, Siam, and the...
Price: $300