Americana from Reginald C. Williams Rare Books

Publishers Cloth. 12mo. Stated third edition. 347 pp. + ads. Very good. Small repair at crown of spine. Some light foxing. SIGNED in ink by the author on the front free end paper: "presented by Mr. Wm. L. Stone." rare third edition of this unusual account, involving sojourner truth ('isabella'). In 1832, Isabella Baumfree, who had freed herself from bondage… Read more about this item

Clean original maroon cloth with gilt title on spine. Pictorial frontispiece and half title page. Additional fourteen steel engravings. Interior of text is tight, clean & intact. A few lightly foxed pages. Prior owners' inscription. Spine ends lightly rubbed, spine sunned, else a near-fine copy. Contents: Superintendent of Nurses; Ladies who ministered to the sick, wounded, in camp, field and… Read more about this item

Original brown cloth, original printed paper spine label; pp. 5-227, (228), (blank leaf). with 11 haunting wood engravings. Text has moderate foxing throughout as do the plates. First Boston edition, issued by famed abolitionist Isaac Knapp, of Bourne's provocative work, preceded only by the 1834 Middleton, CT. first edition, this incendiary antebellum work is by the controversial minister who was… Read more about this item

Octavo, original blind stamped brown-gray cloth. Interior generally clean with mild & occasional foxing, mere trace of damp staining at the rear, very mild edgewear, minimal soiling to original cloth. A very good copy now housed in a brown custom cloth clamshell box. First edition of the publisher and editor's memoir issued the year after his murder—killed by "five… Read more about this item

FIRST EDITION of the French translation (The English edition was first published in NY in 1938), one of 60 numbered copies on vélin de Rives (vellum), the only grand papier (deluxe) copies. An excellent copy with edges preserved completely uncut. A fine mostly unopened copy. Housed in a custom slipcase with chemise and leather label. Uncle Tom's Children is a… Read more about this item

FIRST EDITION in English (French edition published on 1777). Full contemporary speckled calf, gilt title on red spine label, full gilt decoration to spine, & gilt decoration to board edges; A bright very good copy with front hinge slightly starting but strong, early ink owner name/date inside front cover, & later bookplate to fep; 242 pages + Errata. Size: 4.75"x8.25."… Read more about this item

First edition of "the most complete record available" of the controversial Pennsylvania case on fugitive slaves, establishing a "precedent set in federal and state courts… and important cause célèbre for the antislavery movement," crucial in asserting a clear path for the following year's Dred Scott decision, and provoking a "legal crisis… that led to the Civil War," elusive in original… Read more about this item

Octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket. First British edition of Eartha Kitt's intimate autobiography which was published a year earlier in New York. In Thursday s Child, Eartha Kitt recalls her poor childhood and early career as a performer whose trademark highly mannered singing style, colored with gargling growl added to her sultry brilliance as a distinctive singer and… Read more about this item

4to. [290 x 225 x 50 mm]. [1]f, viii, [96] pp. Bound in contemporary (possibly publisher's) half olive goatskin with gilt fillet borders, marbled paper sides, smooth spine lettered in gilt, marbled endleaves, top edge gilt,the others untrimmed. Edges slightly rubbed as are all parts of the binding (which is still quite sound). The spine is currently being rebacked… Read more about this item

Octavo, 5 x 8 in. xvi, 295 pp. Original publisher's green cloth boards with paper spine label, uncut with many pages unopened. First American edition. Text gathered by Jared Sparks, president of Harvard at the time. Scarce. Condition is VERY GOOD ; corners and spine ends slightly bumped, mild shelf wear. Small vertical slit to cloth at rear outer joint… Read more about this item

12mo, original cloth with decorative floral design, spine sunned a little, decorative endpapers, [xii], (7)-265pp. The free front endpaper is ink inscribed "Compliments of Harriet H. Robinson Feb. 1883." There are other provenance markings from the Berkeley Massachusetts Public Library, which apparently received the book as a gift from Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts Hon. Roger Wolcott. KRICHMAR 1944. First Edition.… Read more about this item

FIRST EDITION. 129pp., 4 unnumbered leaves of illustrated plates. Publisher's original pictorial cloth binding sturdy, spine and edges distinctly age-toned; outer and inner hinges strong; leaves a little shaken between pages 64 and 65 else contents clean and attractive, title-page excellent. An excellent copy that's now Mylar protected and housed in a custom slipcase. Dewey's first published work of length… Read more about this item

Early printings of the first collection of prose and verse works by Edgar Allan Poe; Vol. I II and III first published in 1850, as sets of two (1850), three (1851) and finally four volumes (1856), the set being early editions of the first three volumes and presumably a first edition of Vol. IV. With a portrait frontispiece, and a… Read more about this item

Octavo, original blind-stamped brown cloth. Text generally fresh with light scattered foxing, gilt on spine surprisingly brighter than expected, cloth with rubbing and wear along the hinges, but fully intact. Uncommon, especially so in publisher s cloth. First edition of Timothy Mather Cooley's important biography of Reverend Lemuel Haynes, who fought in the American Revolution as a Minuteman, penned one… Read more about this item

Orig. tan calf. Slim 12mo. Raised bands, Contrasting red panel to compartment, small portion missing, gilt. Gilt dentelles. 1cm split at head of fold of spine/u.bd. Beautifully clean copy with some worm damage to second pamphlet, probably prior to binding. Dublin Quaker physician John Rutty wrote many medical and religious books (Campbell, 145), including Liberty of the Spirit, which he… Read more about this item

Octavo 7 ¼ x 4 ¾ inches, full period calf. First work THE LADIES CALLING engraved title, printed title with vignette, preface, 271 pages. Second work THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TONGUE- (xiv), 224 pages. Third work THE ART OF CONTENTMENT- engraved frontispiece, (viii), 218 pages, printed title torn at the bottom corner with slight loss. Fourth work THE LIVELY ORACLES… Read more about this item

Publisher's original olive cloth. 12mo. 338 pages A near-fine copy with no bookplates or previous ownership inscriptions. Some ink stains on the margins of the first several pages (and a little splash on the rear board) and moderate foxing on the rear endpaper and across the last several pages. Housed in a custom green custom cloth clamshell box by the… Read more about this item

FIRST EDITION of this first French translation, published in the Du monde collection. One of 110 numbered copies on pure Lafuma vellum (this being #91), the only printing on large paper. Black boy is one of the first novels written by blacks about their living conditions. The first American Edition was published by Harper s in 1945. This limited French… Read more about this item

Octavo, original gilt-stamped navy cloth, top edge gilt, uncut. Text is very good, gilt on spine faded, lightest rubbing to gilt-stamped cloth cover, wear and rubbing to the tips. A good to very good copy. First edition of Dr. Sinclair's powerful 1905 indictment of America's history of slavery, the failures and hypocrisy of Reconstruction, the war on black suffrage, and… Read more about this item

Large thick 4to. Pp [2] XXX 930 with a portrait of Lincoln as a frontis. Contemp. half black morocco, raised bands, black title label, gilt lettered spine, brown cloth bds. Marbled edges and eps, text slightly toned. An excellent copy. A thick volume of tributes from around the world to the late Abraham Lincoln.