The Boston Book Fair returns for its 45th edition at Hynes Convention Center starting October 27th and we can't wait to see some of you in person at booth #220. But for those of you who can’t attend, we’ve put together a list of the inventory we will be exhibiting.
London: William Heinemann, 1958. First Edition, with second edition dust jacket. A lovely copy of Achebe's first novel and magnum opus, the most widely read and translated African novel, a masterpiece of postcolonial literature. Read More about Things Fall Apart
Price: $4,500
[New York]: [Photogravure and Color Co.] Compliments of Charles Lanier, 1916. Second edition (first published in 1911). ‘a little paradise of comfort’. Private sporting club founded in 1886, with a membership limited to one hundred, including Pierpont Morgan, Wm. K. Vanderbilt, Wm. Rockefeller, Erastus Corning, and Marshall Field; with grounds..... Read More about Jekyl Island Club. Brunswick, Georgia, 1916
Price: $3,500
Newburyport: December 8, 1787. A Founding Father on the Constitution. Both John Quincy Adams and his first cousin William Cranch (1769-1855), whose mother was Abigail Adams's sister, graduated Harvard in 1787. Cranch would go on to read the law in Boston under Massachusetts Supreme Court Judge Thomas Dawes, while Adams..... Read More about Extraordinary autograph letter signed "J. Q. Adams" to William Cranch, on the proposed...
Price: $95,000
The Hague: August 1, 1795. "The character of the American people is so universally and essentially republican..." Nathaniel Freeman, Jr. (1766-1800) was a Harvard classmate of Adams. Initially elected to the Fourth Congress as a Federalist Representative in 1795, he would change party affiliation to Jefferson's Democratic Republicans in 1797..... Read More about Important Autograph Letter Signed, to Nathaniel Freeman, on the disagreements between Federalists...
Price: $12,000
[Verplanck's Point?]: September 19, 1782. Chaloner served as the Deputy Commissary of Purchases for the Middle Department of the Continental Army from 1777 to the end of the war. The period after Yorktown but prior to the signing of the Treaty of Paris saw continued operations of the Continental Army..... Read More about Engraved partly-printed Revolutionary war era cashier's check, signed by Chaloner as the Deputy...
Price: $8,500
Cambridge: Samuel and Ebenezer Hall, July 21, 1775. An important issue published during the Siege of Boston, including a lengthy account of the reading of the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms in Cambridge and on Prospect Hill. Other Revolution related content includes a printing of..... Read More about The New England Chronicle: or the Essex Gazette ... July 21, 1775
Price: $1,250
Rochester: Susan B. Anthony, 1887. Second editions of vols. 1-2, first edition of vol. 3. Each volume inscribed by Anthony to suffragist Annie McLean Marsh. Each Volume Inscribed by Susan B. Anthony. Sometimes referred to as the "bible" of the suffrage movement, Anthony's History of Woman suffrage comprises "a vast..... Read More about History of Woman Suffrage
Price: $17,500
Rochester, Caldwell [i.e. Lake George] and Ogdensburg, NY: February 8-27, 1855. Among the earliest Susan B. Anthony letters we have encountered, the present correspondence relates directly to the beginnings of her work advocating for women's suffrage. Anthony was introduced to Elizbeth Cady Stanton in 1851 and attended her first women's..... Read More about Small archive of 5 items pertaining to Susan B. Anthony's upstate New York speaking tour on...
Price: $27,500
Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1985. First edition. A fine copy of the true first edition, signed. The true first edition, preceding both the UK and US first editions, signed by the author on the title page. Winner of the 1985 Governor General's Award and the first Arthur C. Clarke..... Read More about The Handmaid's Tale
Price: $3,750
London: John Murray, 1818. First edition. A nice copy of Jane Austen’s last works, with interesting provenance: the ownership signatures of Harriet Gordon, Esslemont. A grand daughter of the second Earl of Aberdeen, Harriet Elizabeth Gordon (1806-1859) was born in Demerara (British Guiana) and was orphaned by the death of..... Read More about Northanger Abbey: and Persuasion. By the Author of “Pride and Prejudice,”...
Price: $25,000
![Item #346497 Our National Game [wrapper title]. Baseball, Ed Andrews](https://jamescumminsbookseller.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/346497.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1690412716)
Philadelphia: Holmes & Co, 1869 [copyright date]. The plates comprise: [1] Base Bawler [a crying girl smashing a doll and drum] [2] Pitcher [a man being thrown out a window with a broken pitcher on the ground beneath him] [3] Batter [a chef with a large mixing bowl attempting to..... Read More about Our National Game [wrapper title
Price: $8,500
New York: Charles Scribner‘s Sons, 1931. First edition. One of 250 deluxe copies, with signed etching (no. 103/250). Deluxe edition, with Signed Etching by Benson. The standard work on the subject, beautifully presented and with a fine etching of a quail by Frank W. Benson. His only etching of a...... Read More about The Bobwhite Quail. Its habits, preservation and Increase
Price: $2,000
Boston: Charles Goodspeed & Co, 1979. One of 87 copies. Printed and bound at the Stinehour Press. With a leaf from the Eliot Indian Bible. Includes a leaf from the 1663 Eliot Indian Bible. The present example being D2 from the Psalms, comprising Psalms 42:7 through Psalms 45:8. Read More about A Testament of Faith. A leaf from a copy of the first American Bible, translated into the...
Price: $2,500
Philadelphia: Printed by Jane Aitken, 1808. First edition. Rare American Bible in Contemporary Full Black Morocco – Printed and Likely Bound by Jane Aitken. "Charles Thomson (1729-1824) made the first translation of the Septuagint into the English language, and the first English translation of the New Testament in the western..... Read More about The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Covenant ... Translated from the Greek by Charles...
Price: $15,000
New York: Printed by T. and J. Swords, 1793. First Edition. With the Fictionalized Indian Captivity of Maria Kittle. Among the works is this volume of early American literature is the first printing of The History of Maria Kittle. The work is a fictionalized story of the real-life captivity of..... Read More about The Posthumous Works of Ann Eliza Bleecker, In Prose and Verse. To which is added, A Collection...
Price: $6,000
New York: James Cummins Bookseller, [2023]. Comprehensive collection of the writings of Argentine author, translator, and librarian Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), including manuscript materials, books from Borges’ library, inscribed books and association copies in Spanish and English, photographs, periodical appearances, anthologies, collections, and a substantial gathering of secondary works. Read More about James Cummins Bookseller. Catalogue 145. Jorge Luis Borges [From the Private Collection of Gary...
Price: $50
[Newport, Rhode Island?]: Re-printed from the second Edition [by Anne Smith Franklin and James Franklin, Jr.?], 1758. Second American edition, and the earliest obtainable one. Poems by the First American Woman Author. Although this edition is traditionally ascribed by Evans and others to have been printed in Boston, Stoddard and..... Read More about Several Poems Compiled with great Variety of Wit and Learning, full of Delight ... By a...
Price: $75,000
Albany: Published by B.D. Packard, No. 51 State-Street. R. Packard, Printer, 1811. First edition of both parts together, with additions. Privateer, Counterfeiter, Rogue, and Schoolteacher. Notable account of an American scoundrel. Stephen Burroughs (1765-1840) was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, enlisted in the army at age 14. He soon deserted..... Read More about Memoirs of Stephen Burroughs. To which is added, Notes, and an Appendix
Price: $1,000
New York: 1978. Burroughs after the Nova Convention. Beat novelist and experimental writer William S. Burroughs writes to thank NYU professor Tom Bishop for assistance in organizing parts of the Nova Convention, a memorable gathering and series of performances held November 30 through December 2, 1978, that brought together the..... Read More about Typed Letter, signed (“William S. Burroughs”), to Tom Bishop
Price: $2,000
[Gettysburg, PA]: July 4, 1863. Field Printed General Orders Congratulating the Army on their Victory at the Battle of Gettysburg. The General Orders continues: "Our task is not yet accomplished, and the Commanding General looks to the Army for greater efforts to drive from our soil every vestige of the..... Read More about Head Quarters Army of the Potomac, July 4, 1863. General Orders No. 68. The Commanding General,...
Price: $32,500
Fort Chartres, Illinois Country: December 31, 1766. The Fur Trade with Native Americans on the Western Frontier. Following the French and Indian War, the Treaty of Paris (1763) extended British control of the frontier as far west as the Mississippi River and transferred the French forts along the river to..... Read More about Autograph document signed, a bill of exchange for £100 Pennsylvania currency drawn on Baynton,...
Price: $4,750
London: John W. Parker, 1839. Clarkson (1760-1846), along with William Wilberforce and Granville Sharp, was instrumental in convincing the British public and Parliament of the moral necessity of abolishing the slave trade. Clarkson's "Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species" (1786) galvanized a small group of abolitionists..... Read More about The History of the Rise, Progress, & Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave...
Price: $3,500
New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885. First American edition. Publisher's Deluxe Morocco Binding. First edition of Twain's enduring classic of boyhood, in the deluxe publisher's half morocco binding — at the time of publication the rarest and most expensive of the various publisher's bindings. The first edition comprised 30,000 copies;..... Read More about Adventures of Huckleberry Finn … By Mark Twain
Price: $18,500
[Genoa: No date, but circa 1893]. One of 25 copies on vellum: XXV tantum exemplaribus membranaceis non venalibus. A facsimile of the Rome 1493 edition of the Columbus printed by Stephan Plannck, the first edition in Latin. Read More about Epistola Christofori Colom: cui ętas nostra multũ debet: de Insulis Indię supra Gangem nuper...
Price: $3,500
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964. First edition, first issue with 6 line colophon. The US edition precedes the British by 3 years. Read More about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Price: $4,000