History, Culture & Ideas from The Manhattan Rare Book Company

London: Oxford University Press, 1940. First Edition. original cloth, original dust jacket. Very Good. FIRST EDITION IN VERY RARE DUST JACKET OF THE FOUNDATIONAL WORK ON ORGANIC FARMING AND AGRICULTURE. "Since the Industrial Revolution the processes of growth have been speeded up to produce the food and raw materials needed by the population and the factory. Nothing effective… Read more about this item

Mainz and Paris: B. Schotts Söhnen, 1826. First edition. Very Good. A MAGNIFICENT COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, OF BEETHOVEN'S NINTH, ONE OF THE CROWNING ACHIEVEMENTS OF WESTERN MUSIC. "Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 was ultimately more than three decades in the making. Schiller's popular 'Ode to Joy' was published in 1785, and it is possible that… Read more about this item

np: np, 1861. First edition. Original leather covers. Good. A REMARKABLY EXTENSIVE ARCHIVE OF A UNION SOLIDER, INCLUDING DIARIES FROM 1861-1865 SPANNING HIS ENTIRE CIVIL WAR CAREER. THE SOLDIER, CHARLES E. SMITH, PARTICIPATED IN SOME OF THE MOST CRITICAL CAMPAIGNS OF THE WAR, INCLUDING THE SEIGE OF VICKSBURG, THE FALL OF ATLANTA, AND SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE… Read more about this item

1956. first edition. Original wrappers, custom box. Very Good. SCARCE FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE of Khrushchev's 'Secret Speech' Which Attacked Stalinism and Changed the Course of World History. On February 14, 1956 the twentieth congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union assembled in Moscow for their first meeting following the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953.… Read more about this item

San Francisco, 1966. First edition. Very Good. One-of-a-Kind Beatles Images Portend the End of an Era. This original contact sheet of rare 1966 images of The Beatles was discovered by artist, photographer, musician, and Beatles enthusiast Dave Seabury at a garage sale near San Francisco in the late 1980s. These photos, which we have on offer, were taken… Read more about this item

Karsh, 1960. Framed. Very Good. ICONIC PHOTOGRAPH BY YOUSUF KARSH, INSCRIBED BY KENNEDY IN INK ON THE IMAGE. Yousuf Karsh's masterful portrait of John F. Kennedy, taken on August 25, 1960, just weeks after he accepted the Democratic nomination, captured the nation's imagination. By 1960 Kennedy was a rising star in American politics and this photograph embodied the… Read more about this item

Geneva: The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, 1905. First edition. marbled boards. Very Good. Vpered introduced Bolshevik strategy and led to Lenin's dominance during the Russian Revolution. A complete run with noted provenance. In the early twentieth century, the fate of Marxism hung in the balance as various revolutionary factions used journals and party congresses to exert control.… Read more about this item

Rome: Aldine Press/ Aldus [Paulum Manutium], 1564. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. EXTREMELY RARE 1564 FIRST PRINTING of the Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, one of the most important publications in the history of the Catholic Church; printed by Paulus Manutius and Aldus the Younger of the Aldine Press and the request of Pope Pius… Read more about this item

Geneva: The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, 1905. first edition. cloth. Very Good. Complete run of one of the earliest and most important revolutionary Bolshevik émigré newspapers: Proletarii. Lenin's journal Proletarii (Proletarians), the official organ of the Bolshevik Center, shaped the ideological and political direction of the Bolshevik Party and laid the groundwork for the establishment of the… Read more about this item

Rome: Apud Ioannem Mariam de Viottis Parmensem, in aedibus Birgitttae, 1555. First edition. Early vellum. Very Good. FIRST EDITION (1555) of Magnus's great work - the first large geographical-ethnographical description of Scandinavia and one of the most important sources on the customs of the Northern peoples and daily life in the 16th century. Magnficently illustrated with 472 fine… Read more about this item

Wakefield, Massachusetts: np, 1888. First edition. Custom box. Very Good. ONE OF THE EARLIEST PHOTOGRAPHS OF LIGHTNING. This striking photograph by Alfred H. Binden (1837 England - 1892 United States) is among one of the earliest photographs of lightning. When Binden captured the image from his home in Wakefield, Massachusetts during a summer storm in 1888, he created… Read more about this item

np: Tektronix, 1973. First edition. original casing. Very Good. USED TO LAUNCH THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION, TWICE: This oscilloscope was used to design Pong, the birth of the video game industry, and the Apple II, the first personal computer with hi-res color graphics. The present oscilloscope is a remarkable artifact, having played a critical role in launching two of… Read more about this item

New York: LMDC [Lower Manhattan Development Corporation], 2002. First edition. Spiral bound. Fine. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION of an important record of New York architecture and the history of the World Trade Center Site. Beautifully printed in full color with numerous fold-outs. Self published in 2002 by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, Plans in Progress: Innovative Designs for… Read more about this item

Washington, D.C.: np, 1869. First edition. custom folder. Very Good. A LOVE LETTER FROM "FATHER WHITMAN" TO A CIVIL WAR SOLDIER. A rare and significant letter to one of the young soldiers Whitman aided at a military hospital during the Civil War. Whitman corresponded with Pratt for some 8 years, beginning after Pratt's hospitalization in 1865. Whitman's… Read more about this item

Camden, NJ: np, 1888. First edition. Fine. WHITMAN AS A BOOKSELLER, TRYING TO SELL LEAVES OF GRASS. In this letter, Whitman has written to New York publishers Dick & Fitzgerald mentioning Leaves of Grass. He offers the book to them at a 33% discount and signs the letter with his full signature "Walt Whitman". Framed alongside the letter… Read more about this item

Vienna: Julius Springer, 1935. First edition. Original printed wrappers. Very Good. FIRST EDITION OF POPPER'S LANDMARK IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE. A seminal work in the philosophy of science, Karl Popper's 1935 Logik der Forschung [Logic for Scientific Discovery] proposes the idea that scientific theories can never be verified, only falsified. Popper, in this his first monograph, critiques… Read more about this item

c.s.xv(ex)/s.xvi(in). Very Good. VIVID DEPICTION OF ICONIC SCENE FROM THE LIFE OF GREGORY THE GREAT. This richly-illustrated manuscript leaf from a late medieval book of hours depicts the miraculous Mass of St Gregory, during which Christ appeared to the congregation during a Mass of which Gregory the Great was the celebrant. The folio begins with the conclusion… Read more about this item

London: [Henry Denham for] William Brome, 1584. First edition. Early calf. Very Good. Extremely rare first edition of this far-reaching exposé that provoked King James, inspired Shakespeare and was the first significant work to document the secrets of illusion and the occult. A magnificent copy from the Biblioteca Lindesiana. The Discoverie of Witchcraft, written by Reginald Scot in… Read more about this item

New York: Harper and Brothers, 1924. First edition. Original cloth. Very Good. FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED AND TWICE SIGNED BY HOUDINI: "To Frederick H Young / Best wishes / Houdini / Sept 19. - 1924 / 1:30 AM." Additionally signed "Houdini" on dedication page. Harry Houdini, the son of a rabbi and a doting mother, was born Erik Weisz… Read more about this item

First edition. Very Good. UNPARALLELED COLLECTION CHARTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF GAME THEORY ACROSS THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY. Click on the PDF to view the complete list of the collection's contents.. Fighting Chances: The History of Game Theory from Zermelo to Thaler is an extensive collection of works documenting the history of game theory-including its mathematical development as well as… Read more about this item