Rare books from B Street Books, ABAA

Chapman and Hall, 1839. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st edition, mixed state. Frontis and 39 plates by Hablot K. Browne (Phiz). Nicholas Nickleby was Dickens third novel and was issued in monthly installments March 1838 October 1839 before it was published as this single volume. An instant success, it both solidified Dickens voice as a social critic and marked his first of many romances. Description: Half green morocco leather over green cloth, by Birdsall of Northampton, 5 raised bands, title and author in gilt in two compartments, TEG, marbled endpapers. Xvi, 624 pp., frontis & 39 plates, 2 pp. ads including an advertisement for New Work by Boz., and another advertisement for A Paperof Tobacco.. Octovo size (8 ½ by 5 ½). Pagination: front free endpaper, [i] half-title, [ii] blank, Frontispiece, [iii] title page, [iv] copyright, [v] dedication, [vi] blank, [vii]-x preface, [xi]-xiv contents, [xv]-xvi list of plates, [1]-624, [i-ii] ads, free end paper, marble pastedown. Condition: Overall… Read More

Doubleday, Doran, 1930. Hardcover. Very Good. This set includes the complete works of the iconic crime fiction author, including of course the four novels and over fifty short stories about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, as well as all his non-Sherlock works such as his plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's signature in the first volume of this set is interesting in that the set was published during the last year of his life, before he died of a heart attack at age 71 in 1930. Octavo. Signed by Arthur Conan Doyle in the first volume. Number 612 of 760 copies. Complete 24 volume set. Brown boards with tan cloth spines, gilt "A Conan Doyle" title to front board, paper titles to spines. Does not include dust jackets. As a whole set the books are clean and unmarked, T.E.G. intact, paper titles on spine intact, no foxing to pages, no writing inside whatsoever. A number of the books show some discoloration to the tan cloth. Those and other flaws are listed… Read More

The Book Club of California, 1931. Special Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/No Jacket. Limited edition of 300 numbered copies. Folio, natural morocco backstrip with four raised bands, stamped in blind, tan cloth boards. Seven small drawings, sixteen full-page drawings, and two folding maps. Also includes the one-page letter announcing the publication of volume in time for Christmas 1931, stating that "The Club's edition of the Journal is the first printing in any form of one of the most interesting of all accounts of early travel and adventure in the West....The directors, believing this to be a work of unusual interest and beauty, urge members who have not already done so to place their reservations promptly." Designed, printed and bound by the Grabhorn Press. Rough-cut pages are bright, clean and unmarked. Leather spine has some tiny tears on corners of raised bands from shelfwear, as well as a bit of light staining. Binding is solid and tight. Fold-out segments are pristine.

Oyama, 1934. Hardcover. Near Fine. Giles Greenfield. A collection of Lafcadio Hearn's poetry designed by his son to include notes and illustrations from his father's notebook. From the Preface: "Among my father's relics I have found a note-book which contains Japanese comic poems about goblins and monsters and other odd subjects rendered by him into English and a number of them illustrated by himself. [...] The present volume is designed to reproduce the more interesting parts of the old note-book and the publishers have taken great pains to make faithful reproductions." 17x12.5". Beautiful dark blue and beige covers with yellow paper title to front cover (English) and rear cover (Japanese), bright yellow endpapers, handmade rough-cut pages. Limited Edition: No. 336 of 500 copies issued. Half-title, limitation on tipped in card, full-title page, preface, 5-45, Japanese preface, Japanese title page. Pages of text and tipped in tissue illustrations. Near fine. Foxing to half-title and occasional very… Read More

1965. Paperback. Very Good. The 330 GT were V12-powered Ferraris produced from 1963-1968, this book appears to have been sold along with the 2+2 Series II. 106 pp., printed in Italian, French, and English. Original manual, not a facsimile. Black front cover with photo of 330 GT, red rear cover, no title to spine. Interior of front cover is red with Ferrari logo near hinge, title page specifies "300/GT 1965", and "modifications introduced in respect of the 1964- 330/GT". Five pages of modifications, followed by 1965 330/GT operation guide. Chapters include: general specification, running instructions, lubrication, routine maintenance, chassis servicing, electrical installation, and tool kit. Detailed diagrams and photos throughout. Condition: Edges of covers are rubbed, spine is rubbed. Binding is tight and sturdy, pages are clean and without any marks. Ferrari dealership (Luigi Chinetti Motors) stamp on front free endpaper. Necessary for any owner of a 330 GT, or Ferrari enthusiast.

Boston, MA: Virginia Adams, Yosemite National Park, and Houghton Mifflin, 1950. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. Unpaginated. A collection of 30 photographs by Ansel Adams, with interpretative text and informative material on the Parks and Monuments and photographic data. Comb binding. Cardboard covers. Grey mark on bottom back cover (see photo). Light edgewear to covers. Chip on bottom left corner of cover. Signed by Adams on the first front free endpaper. Very good condition.

Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1945. 2nd Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. H.K. Browne. America's famous architect strikes at absurdities of centralization and its feudal economy. With persuasive brilliance he shows how we can build a real democracy which begins with the individual home and its acre." Second edition, second impression. Minor wear to dust jacket top edge. Price clipped. Brown cloth with lettering in black on spine. Name of previous owner on bottom left front pastedown. Very good condition.

Liverpool: Printed for the Author by G.F. Harris's Widow and Brothers, 1816. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. First Edition. An early guide to fly-fishing, 'Illustrated by Coloured Plates Representing Upwards of Forty of the Most Useful Flies, Accurately Copied from Nature'. Described by Westwood & Satchell as 'One of the text books of the fly-fisher' p.21. Octavo; Diced calf; some wear to spine, one inch tear on upper joint; blue endpapers with remains of bookplate on paste-down; pencil marks from previous sellers, corner of flyleaf cut out; wear to corners; foxing to endpapers and light foxing throughout; 8 hand-coloured plates, with tissue, including lovely frontispiece of a trout.

Yosemite Association/Heyday Books, 2001. Hardcover. Fine/Near Fine. Sydoriak, Walter. 13.25"x12.5". SIGNED by both the author and illustrator. A comprehensive, lavishly illustrated flora of Yosemite. From the forward by Peter H. Raven: 'It is gratifying that Steve Botti has compiled a new and informative Yosemite work. The book will find a receptive audience of botanical professionals, serious amateurs, and wildflower enthusiasts. The customized identification keys and lifelike illustrations will help even the casual user quickly identify the plants'. A book that is both beautiful and useful. Minor scuffs and roughly 1 cm tear to the dust jacket, now in a protective plastic sleeve. Minor scuff to the top edge of the front cover, bump to bottom edge of spine gift inscription from a previous owner (see photos). 484 bright, clean, square pages.

New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc, 1947. Hardcover. Fine/Very Good. Weiler, Milton. 8.5"x5.75". 'Here is a book that every sportsman and most other people will welcome -- a single volume bringing together all the fishing stories that John Taintor Foote ever wrote, which means the cream of the crop. None of these tales is now available in any other form, and most are hard to find even in second-hand form.' (From the dust jacket.) A fine copy, clean and unmarked, in a very good dust jacket. Minor wear and scuffs to the jacket, with 1 cm tears to the upper edge of the spine (see photos). Blue cloth binding with bright yellow lettering, 212 pages.

1940. Hardcover. Good. 7.5"x5". The third impression of the cookbook compiled by Lady Maze and Mrs V.G. Bowen in Shanghai in 1940. From the preface: 'This collection of recipes has been compiled with the aim of benefiting British war funds. There is probably no more cosmopolitan city in the world than Shanghai, and no place that has a more justly earned reputation for hospitality. It, therefore, seemed to us that we had a unique opportunity of making a collection of recipes of international dishes - provided always that our many friends and sympathisers could be prevailed upon to yield up their culinary secrets for a national cause.' With charming illustrations, and a few recipes printed with Chinese translation on the facing page. Discoloration and wear to the spine, including a small crescent void on the upper edge (see photo). Some foxing, particularly to the endpapers and title page. Previous owner's gift inscription.

Soft cover. Good. 9.25" x 6". A wonderful vintage cookbook and piece of Berkeley history (undated, but circa 1934). With recipes supplied by the members of the Berkeley Women's City Club, beginning with a 'California Cocktail" containing artichokes, pimientos, green pepper, hard-boiled eggs, mayonnaise, chili sauce, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce, served chilled. The vintage ads offer a glimpse into early twentieth-century Berkeley. In a printed paper wrapper, faded with age. Wrapper has a crease on the front cover, minor damage to corners, and is beginning detach from the text block.

London: Chatto & Windus, 1920. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Good. 8.5" x 7". Repaired first edition of the Poems of Wilfred Owen, with the 1920 title page. Unfortunately a previous owner cut out the frontispiece portrait of Owen. A high-quality reproduction has been professionally inserted, with a neat, clear line indicating the repair. Sunning and discoloration to spine, including the paper label. Small tears to top and bottom of spine, bumps and fraying to corners. Minor damage to the fixed endpaper, likely due to the removal of a bookplate. An inscription from a previous owner on the free endpaper documents one reader's reception of Owen's poetry shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States' entry into the war: 'To, R.L.P., Anno Domini - Dec 21, 1941. Out of this embattled time, these crucial hurts, this ageless agony, / Surely will emerge, the long sought, the lovely, and enlightened age. Robert F. Pepper'.  Offsetting on the half-title, browning of half-title, discoloration to… Read More

New York: C. H. Webb, 1867. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Good. First edition, first printing of Mark Twain's first book, in the original binding. Gilt stamped green front cover, blind stamp back cover. Unbroken 'this' on final page, unbroken 'life' on page 66, unbroken '21' on page 21. Wear to corners, edges of spine fraying (see photos). Binding is sound. Text leans. Lacking the advertising page facing the title page. Previous owner's inscription on the dedication page. Significant foxing throughout (photos of the title page and copyright page are representative of the whole).

New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1896. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. First edition, first printing of Mark Twain's parody of adventure stories. 1896 on the title page, copyright page has four lines of text, no boxed ads. 410 pages. Two pages of ads in the back: Mark Twain's Joan of Arc; By Richard Harding Davis. Red covers with gilt stamped cornhusk on the front, blind stamp on the back cover. Spine has faded with the sun. Pages are bright and unmarked. Slight lean to the text block. BAL 3447.