SIGNED
The Handmaid's Tale.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986. First U.S. edition. SIGNED. Read More about The Handmaid's Tale
Price: $1,250
Banned and Burned
This week is Banned Books Week, and though the concept of book banning might seem like a recent phenomenon, it is not new. We compiled a list of inventory that has been intentionally suppressed, from the "radical" to the "profane."
Results 1 - 33 (of 33)
Boccaccio's Decameron.The Modell of Wit, Mirth, Eloquence and Conversation framed in Ten Dayes of an hundred curious pieces, by seven...
Oxford: Printed at The Shakespeare Head Press and published for the Press by Basil Blackwell, 1934-1935. No. 132 of 325 copies. A handsomely bound copy of this modern fine press edition of the Decameron. Read More about Boccaccio's Decameron.The Modell of Wit, Mirth, Eloquence and Conversation framed in Ten Dayes of...
Price: $2,000
A fine copy of the notorious dystopian novel
A Clockwork Orange.
London: Heinemann, [1962]. First edition. A fine copy of the notorious dystopian novel. Richly inventive in language, written in an argot that borrows heavily from the Russian, and with an unforgettable antihero at its center, Burgess's book was overshadowed by the futuristic 1971 film adaptation by Stanley Kubrick, which followed..... Read More about A Clockwork Orange
Price: $10,000
Naked Lunch.
New York: Grove Press, [1962]. First American edition. Inscribed on the title-page, "For Bob Wilson all the best at Thanksgiving William S. Burroughs Nov 23, 1974." Read More about Naked Lunch
Price: $3,500
Inscribed for Anya and Harold Arlen
In Cold Blood. A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences.
New York: Random House, [1965]. First edition, first printing. Inscribed for Anya and Harold Arlen. Inscribed by the author on the half title, "For Anya and Harold [Arlen]/with much love from/Truman Capote". He struck through his surname and added "(ha ha)". Dated below in pencil, "Apr 26-67". With a loosely..... Read More about In Cold Blood. A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences
Price: $10,000
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1885. First American edition, later Issue. Issue points: Title-page BAL #2 of 3 p.13-BAL2 p.57-BAL 2 p.282-BAL4 p.155-BAL 3 Portait-BAL3. Read More about Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Price: $1,500
Burned and Banned
l’Escole des filles de Mililot. Réimpression du texte originale sur la contrefaçon hollandaise de 1668.
Bruxelles: aux Depens des dames de la yue des Cailles, [1864]. Burned and Banned. Reprint of the famously banned and burned dirty book of 1655, whose author (variously known as Hélot, Millot, or Milliot) was burned in effigy along with all copies of the book, which is of course quite..... Read More about l’Escole des filles de Mililot. Réimpression du texte originale sur la contrefaçon...
Price: $250
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for...
New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1878. New Edition, from the Sixth English Edition, with Additions and Corrections. “Certainly the most important biological book every written … The sixth edition, which is usually regarded as the last, appeared in [London in] February 1872 ... It is again extensively revised and..... Read More about On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in...
Price: $1,500
Deliverance.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970. First edition. Attractive copy, and the source for the Oscar winning film. Read More about Deliverance
Price: $275
An American Tragedy.
New York: Boni & Liveright, 1925. First edition of the limited signed issue, no. 294 of 795 numbered copies, signed by Dreiser. Dreiser's classic novel of the rgidity of the American class structure, filmed in 1951 as A Place in the Sun, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift. Read More about An American Tragedy
Price: $900
Syntaxis of Woordvoeging der Nederduithe Taal, uitgegeven door de Maatschappij tot nut van 't Algemeen. Oranda bunten kohen./ Gra Japanese...
Leiden: Deventer and Groningen, bij D. Du Mortier en Zoon, 1810. [But Edo; Kaei 1 (1848)]. The scarce first syntax of the Dutch language printed in Japan, here with the woodcut text in italic freehand. Genpo was a well known Dutch scholar who introduced Dutch learning to Japan, this printed..... Read More about Syntaxis of Woordvoeging der Nederduithe Taal, uitgegeven door de Maatschappij tot nut van 't...
Price: $4,500
Ferdydurke.
London and Watford: Taylor Garnett Evans & Co. Ltd, 1961. First English edition. First edition in English of this classic absurdist novel by the Polish writer, first published in 1937 in Poland, then banned, first by the Nazis, then by the Communists. It was translated into Spanish by Gombrowicz himself..... Read More about Ferdydurke
Price: $125
"Disgusting and Obscene"
To Beg I am Ashamed.
London: George Routledge & Sons Ltd, 1938. First Edition. With small stamp "Overseas Edition" on the verso of the title. "Disgusting and Obscene" RARE. BANNED IN LONDON. When originally published its reception was hostile and it was considered "disgusting and obscene. "The Public Morality Council decided that it should be..... Read More about To Beg I am Ashamed
Price: $1,000
![Item #365561 Appeal to Christian Women of the South [caption title]. Angelina E. Grimke](https://jamescumminsbookseller.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/365561.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1691010261)
Appeal to Christian Women of the South [caption title].
[New York]: [American Anti-Slavery Society], [1836]. Third edition. "Angelina called her Appeal '46 pages of foolscrap paper' but it was in actuality a passionate sermon to white women like herself who could 'use their influence with their husbands and brothers' to enact the 'justice and humanity' denied to the enslaved..... Read More about Appeal to Christian Women of the South [caption title
Price: $6,500
'Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly – they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.'
Brave New World.
London: Chatto & Windus, 1932. First edition. 'Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly – they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.'. Huxley's most celebrated work, a dystopian vision of the future – the first key work in English – and a classic of twentieth-century..... Read More about Brave New World
Price: $4,500
The Rainbow.
London: Methuen, 1915. First edition. A spectacular copy of the first edition. "Methuen published The Rainbow in September 1915, but it got savage reviews, most of which attacked what was understood as the book's overt sexuality, and it was withdrawn from sale. At Bow Street magistrates' court on 13 November..... Read More about The Rainbow
Price: $3,250
Rare Rockwell Kent
An Excerpt from Lady Chatterley's Lover.
[n.p: February 1930]. Kent, Rockwell. Privately printed, limited numbered edition, no. 34 of 50 copies. Rare Rockwell Kent. Roberts, quoting Black Sun Books Catalogue 94, item 77, notes that Kent wrote a letter on March 10, 1930 to the EXCERPT's publisher, in which he complains that they had not had..... Read More about An Excerpt from Lady Chatterley's Lover
Price: $950
Women in Love.
New York: Privately Printed for Subscription only, 1920. First Edition, number 373 of 1250 copies. First edition of Lawrence's last masterpiece, printed in an edition of 1250 copies. The book was sold only by subscription due to the enormous censorship difficulties Lawrence's previous novel, THE RAINBOW, had encountered upon its..... Read More about Women in Love
Price: $1,200
Unknown photo of Miller in Paris
Portrait photograph of Henry Miller.
c. late-1930s. Unknown photo of Miller in Paris. Signed and dated by Miller on verso that this is a 1950 photograph by an unknown photographer, "possibly Man Ray." This is likely wishful dating on Miller's part, judging by his age in the photograph it was probably taken during his days..... Read More about Portrait photograph of Henry Miller
Price: $2,500
Tropique du Cancer traduit par Paul Rivert. Préface de Henri Fluchère.
Paris: Editions Denoël, 1945. First edition in French, no. 20 of 1,000 copies on vergé creme Johannot. First edition in French of Henry Miller’s celebrated Tropic of Cancer. Read More about Tropique du Cancer traduit par Paul Rivert. Préface de Henri Fluchère
Price: $375
First Edition, in Jacket, With a Letter
Gone with the Wind.
New York: Macmillan, 1936. First Edition, with “Published May, 1936” on the copyright page; first issue dust jacket. First Edition, in Jacket, With a Letter. Laid in is a one-page Typed Letter, signed (“Margaret Mitchell Marsh”), from Mitchell to bookseller Robert Wilson, then a student at Johns Hopkins University, on..... Read More about Gone with the Wind
Price: $12,000
Inscribed Presentation Copy
Esther Waters. A Novel.
London: Walter Scott, 1894. First edition. Inscribed Presentation Copy. Esther Waters established Moore's reputation as a novelist: 24,000 copies were sold within the year, and many still regard Moore's Zolaesque tale of a servant girl to be his finest and most characteristic novel. Esther Waters, like Moore’s earlier books, was..... Read More about Esther Waters. A Novel
Price: $1,500
The Nabokov Cousins: ‘Lolita’ Signed
Lolita.
Paris: Olympia Press, 1955. First edition. The Nabokov Cousins: ‘Lolita’ Signed. This copy with ownership signatures of composer and cosmopolitan Nicolas Nabokov (1903-1978) on the flyleaf of each volume. With the signature of his first cousin the author on the flyleaf of the first volume: “Vladimir”. The cousins got to..... Read More about Lolita
Price: $55,000
The most celebrated political satire of the Twentieth Century
Animal Farm.
London: Martin Secker, 1945. First edition. The most celebrated political satire of the Twentieth Century. An attractive copy of the greatest of postwar political satires. Read More about Animal Farm
Price: $9,000
Complete set of the Harry Potter deluxe edition
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone; the Chamber of Secrets; the Prisoner of Azkaban; the Goblet of Fire; the Order...
[London]: Bloomsbury, 1999-2007. First deluxe editions. Complete set of the Harry Potter deluxe edition. A rare, as-new deluxe set of Rowling's seminal work of children's literature. The "Potter" books, initially published from 1997 to 2007, have been tranlated into eighty languages and are among the most popular works of literature..... Read More about Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone; the Chamber of Secrets; the Prisoner of Azkaban; the...
Price: $3,000
Josephine Skewered by Sade: No. 1 of 4 Copies
Zoloé et ses deux acolytes. Discours aux manes de Marat. L'auteur des Crimes d'amour à Villeterque. Avec notices biographiques et...
Brussels: chez tous Les libraires, 1870. Third edition, no. 1 of 4 copies on papier de chine (total edition 150 copies). Josephine Skewered by Sade: No. 1 of 4 Copies. Violent satire of Joséphine de Beauharnais, wife of the First Consul, Napoléon Bonaparte -- the acolytes being Thersa Tallien, and..... Read More about Zoloé et ses deux acolytes. Discours aux manes de Marat. L'auteur des Crimes d'amour à...
Price: $1,500
In the Night Kitchen.
[New York]: Harper & Row, [1970]. First edition, with jacket priced $4.95 and 10/70 on front flap and 7 titles on the back flap. A nice first edition of this classic and controversial picture book, the recipient of a Caldecott Honor in 1971. Both an entertaining tale of nighttime cooking..... Read More about In the Night Kitchen
Price: $1,000
The Grapes of Wrath.
New York: The Viking Press, [April, 1939]. First Edition. The Classic Novel of the Great Depression. Very attractive copy of this 20th-century American highspot. The tale of the Joad family as they travel across the country from Oklahoma to California in the midst of the Great Depression is one of..... Read More about The Grapes of Wrath
Price: $6,000
True first edition
Of Mice and Men.
New York: Covici-Friede, [1937]. First edition, first issue, with the nine words present on p. 9 and with the "bullet" on page 88 between the 8s. One of 2500 copies. True first edition. Read More about Of Mice and Men
Price: $4,500
With Rev. Henson's Autograph and Stowe A.L.s. tipped in
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly.
Boston: John P. Jewett & Company, 1852. First edition, first issue. With Rev. Henson's Autograph and Stowe A.L.s. tipped in. “In the emotion-charged atmosphere of mid-nineteenth-century America Uncle Tom's Cabin exploded like a bombshell. To those engaged in fighting slavery it appeared as an indictment of all the evils inherent..... Read More about Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly
Price: $15,000
Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children’s Crusade. A Duty-Dance with Death.
[New York]: A Seymour Lawrence Book, Delacorte Press, [1969]. First edition. A beautiful copy of this 20th century high-spot. Vonnegut’s most powerful novel, for which he drew on his experience as a prisoner of war during the firebombing of Dresden. Read More about Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children’s Crusade. A Duty-Dance with Death
Price: $4,000
‘I see and hear the whole’
Leaves of Grass.
Brooklyn, New York: 1855. First edition, first issue. ‘I see and hear the whole’. “He was and is the poet and prophet of democracy, and the intoxication of his immense affirmative, the fervor of his ‘barbaric yawp,’ are so powerful that the echo of his crude yet rhythmic song rings..... Read More about Leaves of Grass
Price: $225,000
Portrait Photograph of Richard Wright.
New York: June 23, 1939. Taken in the period between Wright's first success with UNCLE TOM'S CHILDREN (1938), and his leap to fame with NATIVE SON (1940). Read More about Portrait Photograph of Richard Wright
Price: $3,500
Results 1 - 33 (of 33)