Literature from The Manhattan Rare Book Company

London: Bruce Rogers, 1932. First edition. Original morocco. Very Good. A MASTERPIECE OF BOOK DESIGN: T.E. LAWRENCE'S TRANSLATION OF THE ODYSSEY, DESIGNED BY BRUCE ROGERS. LIMITED EDITION, ONE OF ONLY 530 COPIES. IN MAGNIFICENT CUSTOM BOX BY ZAEHNSDORF WITH BEAUTIFUL 1928 PHOTOGRAPH OF LAWRENCE IN THE RAF. Contracted by Bruce Rogers in 1928 to create a prose translation… Read more about this item

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1954. First edition. original cloth, original dust jacket. Very Good/Very Good. FIRST EDITION, SIGNED AND DATED BY WALLACE STEVENS on front free endpaper: "Wallace Stevens, Hartford, Nov. 6, 1954.". "It was not until 1954 that Stevens agreed to the publication of his collected poems, the idea being that the book's appearance should coincide… Read more about this item

London and New York: William Heinemann and Doubleday, Page, & Co, 1907. first Rackham edition. Original buckram. Very Good. Arthur Rackham. DELUXE LIMITED EDITION in exceedingly rare original slipcase. WITH: RACKHAM INK DRAWING of the Gryphon. The book: "Rackham embarked on his new edition of Alice in Wonderland, with illustrations to rival John Tenniel's, when the book… Read more about this item

Baltimore, MD: np, 1934. First edition. Framed. Very Good. IMPORTANT AND REVEALING LETTER BY F. SCOTT FITZGERALD ON HIS LITERARY INFLUENCES AND GROWTH AS A WRITER. It is rare that we get to read first hand about a writer's influences, especially during the formative years, but in answer to a letter from the scholar Egbert S. Oliver, Fitzgerald… Read more about this item

Cambridge University: np, 1955. first edition. custom folder. Very Good. WONDERFUL C.S. LEWIS LETTER RESPONDING TO A YOUNG FAN ABOUT THE NARNIA SERIES. Dated October 26, 1955, and written on Lewis's Magdalene College stationery, the letter reads in full: Dear -- Thank you for your nice letter. I am so glad you like the books. There… Read more about this item

London: George Newnes, 1892. First edition. original cloth gilt. Very Good. FIRST EDITIONS OF TWO MASTERPIECES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. The story of Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, and Strand Magazine began in April, 1891, when Doyle sent three stories, "A Case of Identity," "The Red-Headed League," and The Boscombe Valley Mystery" to The Strand for publication in their… Read more about this item

Oxford: np, 1954. First edition. custom folder. Very Good. A REMARKABLY REVEALING LETTER: TOLKIEN DISCUSSES HIS SPECIFIC FEARS ABOUT THE TWO TOWERS AND DEFINES "THE FOUNDATION" OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS AND CONNECTS IT TO HIS LIFE'S WORK. The Fellowship of the Ring (the first volume of The Lord of the Rings trilogy) was published on July… Read more about this item

Oxford: np, 1953. First edition. custom folder. Very Good. EIGHT MONTHS BEFORE PUBLICATION, TOLKIEN ANXIOUSLY INTRODUCES HIS MASTERPIECE, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, TO A FAN OF THE HOBBIT. Tolkien had begun work on The Lord of the Rings in December of 1937 and by early 1950, after over twelve years of labor, the writing was essentially complete.… Read more about this item

np: np, 1908. First edition. Framed. Very Good. ORIGINAL, HISTORICALLY IMPORTANT DRAWING OF THE YOUNG VIRGINIA STEPHEN BY FRANCIS DODD. DODD'S WORK FROM HIS 1907-1908 SITTINGS WITH WOOLF ARE THE ONLY EXTANT LIKENESSES OF HER FROM THIS PERIOD. FROM THE BENJAMIN SONNENBERG COLLECTION. Virginia Woolf famously hated being an artist's subject. According to her nephew Quentin Bell,… Read more about this item

New York: Random House, 1992. First edition. Original cloth, original dust jacket. Fine/Fine. FIRST EDITIONS, with All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing signed and inscribed by McCarthy. Inscribed in ink on the half-titles of All the Pretty Horses: "For Darla / All best / Cormac McCarthy"; and The Crossing: "For Darla / All best wishes / Cormac… Read more about this item

np: np, 1930. Very Good. THE RISE OF PHOTOJOURNALISM AND MASS-MEDIA HELP MAKE HEMINGWAY ONE OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY'S FIRST AMERICAN INFLUENCERS. After graduating from high school in 1917, Ernest Hemingway worked as a cub reporter for the Kansas City Star. This job exposed him to the media's growing addiction to sensationalism and taught him the craft of… Read more about this item

New York: Viking, 1959. First edition. Original cloth, original dust jacket. Good. A collection of unpublished letters with outstanding content and inscribed books establishing the close friendship John Steinbeck and his wife Elaine shared with theater director John Fearnley. The correspondence is lengthy, writerly, and warm, and the inscriptions humorous and joyful. The letters, largely undated, map primarily… Read more about this item

np: np, 1878. custom folder. Very Good. Walt Whitman Albumen Photograph by Napoleon Sarony given to his caregiver and house mate Mary O. Davis. Signed by Davis. To call Mary O. Davis, Walt Whitman's housekeeper is akin to calling a parent its child's babysitter. Perhaps history has undermined Ms. Davis' role simply because the English language lacks the… Read more about this item

Munich: Vidavnitstvi Prometei, 1947. First Ukrainian edition. Very Good. FIRST UKRAINIAN EDITION OF ORWELL'S CLASSIC POLITICAL ALLEGORY. We offer here the first edition of George Orwell's anti-Stalinist parable Animal Farm to be distributed (secretly and illegally) behind the Iron Curtain. Published in Ukrainian at the initiative of a group of socialist but anti-Stalinist Ukrainian dissidents, the publication of this… Read more about this item

Paris: Imprimerie Croutzet et Depost, 1924. First edition. Original wrappers. Very Good. FIRST EDITION of Roche's surreal, dadaist roman à clef exposing the misogynistic world of the French avant-garde. With annotations likely in Roche's hand. Like too many women artists of the early twentieth century, French writer and artist Juliette Roche (1884 - 1980) has been long overshadowed… 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

London: Bloomsbury, 1997. First Edition, galley proof. Unbound sheets, housed in custom box. Very Good. EARLIEST KNOWN COPY OF HARRY POTTER; NO OTHER COPIES LOCATED. On February 26, 1997, this remarkable complete set of galley sheets was sent to the distinguished children's author and literary critic Fiona Waters. In the cover letter accompanying the galley (included here), Rosamund… 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

Leipzig: Kurt Wolff Verlag, 1919. First edition. Original three-quarter calf over green and brown paper boards. Very Good. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL BINDING OF ONE OF THE ONLY WORKS KAFKA PUBLISHED IN HIS LIFETIME. Franz Kafka was much more prolific in his day job than as a novelist, authoring countless statements, annual reports and accident assessments as an… 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