Rare books from Veery Books

[cover, ad] 3-5 [ad] pp. [12¼ x 9¼ inches]. Artist, RS . Colors perhaps a little subdued, but the original palette is rather earthy. Spine artfully repaired with Japan paper. The ad on the verso of the cover is for "My Sahara Rose." "Ever since the U. S. A. went dry everybody's going there and I'm going too." No, not the Sahara! "I'm on my way to Cuba, . . . where wine is flowing and where dark eyed Stellas light their fellers panatellas." The song was later repurposed in the 1946 Musical Blue Skies, starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. Some copies in institutional repositories but relatively scarce in trade.

489 pp. Wear to corners and top and bottom of spine. The spine a touch less vibrant than the boards, but still an eye catcher on the shelf. This florid design with leaves and flowers and trifoils was a style also used for other authors by Hurst. All edges gilt, quite bright. Red clay endpapers. One engraved plate between pp 112 & 113. A life of Virgil (pp. v-x), unattributed, The AEneas, Georgics, and Pastorals.Then o'er the running Stream, or standing Lake,⁠A Passage for thy weary People make;With Osier Floats the standing Water strow;Of massy Stones make Bridges, if it flow:That basking in the Sun thy Bees may lye,And resting there, their flaggy Pinions dry:⁠When late returning home, the laden Host,By raging Winds is wreck'd upon the Coast.Wild Thyme and Sav'ry set around their Cell,Sweet to the taste, and fragrant to the Smell:Set rows of Rosemary with flow'ring Stem,⁠And let the purple Vi'lets drink the Stream.—Georgics, Book IV

1 leaf, verso blank. Sydm. Edwards del.; Pub. S. Curtis Walworth, July 1, 1812. F. Sansom Sc. No 1472. A hand-colored engraving of the herb Syringa inodora, or Philadelphus inodora, in the Hydrangea family.

1 leaf, verso blank. Sydm. Edwards del.; Pub. S. Curtis Walworth, July 1, 1801, Vol. 15. F. Sansom Sc. No 1472. A hand-colored engraving of Micranthus tubulosus (Burm.f.) N.E. Br., a member of the Iris family.

1 leaf, verso blank. Sydm. Edwards del.; Pub. S. Curtis Walworth, July 1, 1801, Vol. 15. F. Sansom Sc. No 1472. A hand-colored engraving of Sagittaria rigida Pursh, commonly known Canadian Arrowhead.

1 leaf, verso blank. Pubd. as the Act directs, Novr. 2, 1789, W. Curtis, Botanic Garden, Lambeth Marsh. No 101. A hand-colored engraving of Lobularia maritima, commonly known as Sweet Alison, sweet alyssum

Davis, Calif.: Composer/Performer Edition, 1968. Very Good. 50, [51-52] pp. 28 × 35 cm. Includes vinyl recordings. Source Record One and Source Record Two, as issued in paper sleeves as pp. 3-4 and 23-24. PO Sig to cover, general wear to edges of covers and comb cutouts and surfaces of wraps. The slipcase for Record One has been neatly repaired with black library book tape, there welded to the paper. Disk One is in it's white paper sleeve and appears fine. Disk Two lacks the original white paper sleeve, but also appears unplayed. Record One, Side A has Robert Ashley—"The Wolfman." Side B is David Behrman's "Wave Train." Record Two, Side A is Larry Austin's Accidents, Side B, Allan Bryant's Pitch Off. Issue 4 is particularly prized among collector because it contains two recordings. Printed contents: 1. Robert Ashley's "Wolfman," instructions for performance. 2. Mario Bertoncini's a mio padre: Cifre, per pianoforti, uno piu esecutori, with a one page fold-out graphic score for one or more pianos.… Read More

Randall Thompson, Book and Music. Solomon and Balkis (The Butterfly That Stamped) Opera in One Act. Boston, Mass.: E. C. Schirmer Music Co., c. 1942. Plate Number E.C.S. No. 1320. Wraps, Quarto 12 x 9 in., 87 pp. + ads. Very Good, (a bit of sunning on the edges of the wraps, else fine). Vocal Score. Errata slip tipped in. Libretto adapted from "Just So Stories" by Rudyard Kipling. "The first performance of the music of Solomon and Balkis was given under the auspices of the Columbia Workshop, James H, Fassett, Musical Director, over WABC and affiliated stations, . . . on Sunday, March 29, 1942, Howard Barlow conducted the Columbia Concert Orchestra." Eileen Farrell sang the role of the Egyptian Queen. "The Butterfly, when he stamps, causing Solomon's own castle to crumble at the sound, makes a noise like a small darning needle."

211 pp. Wraps, Vocal score, Quarto, 12 x 9 in. Very good, slightest wear at edges. Plate number 5603-207. Richard Rogers, Lorenz Hart. The Boys from Syracuse. New York: Chappell & Co., 609 5th Ave., c. 1965. First performance in November, 1938, at the Alvin Theatre, New York. Revived in 1965.

133 pp. Ads on back leaf. Slight wear to edges and top and bottom of spine, else fine. Quarto, 8.5 x 11 in., The "1999" on the lower left is not a date. Other longer digits appear there in other exemplars; this seems to me to be the original 1946/7 issue, but I am unable to verify. Book by E.Y. Harburg & Fred Saidy. Crawford Music Corporation, c1947. Made in England. Vocal Score. Pictorial wraps, illus, Don Freeman. Laid in a program from November 14-18, 1956, for a production at Brown University by "Sock and Buskin," a student theater group, at the Faunce House Theater. The musical was performed on several campuses in 1956, having been revived on Broadway in 1955. Also laid in, an article by E. Y. Harburg, "The Bridge That Spans the Galaxy," clipped from an unidentified source. There Harburg says, "The merry, light-hearted handling of all these problems by the dancing, singing leprechauns and pixie people, make us long wistfully for a Congress of just such characters in Washington, D.C."

224 pp. Vocal score. Wraps, beige covers with brown lettering, no title on spine, quarto, 9 x 12 in. Very Good, perhaps slightly tilted spine. Edvard Grieg, Robert Wright, and George Forrest. Song of Norway: An operetta based on the life and music of Edvard Grieg. Musical adaptation and Lyrics by Robert Wright and George Forrest. Book by Milton Lazurus from a play by Homer Curran. Orchestral and Choral Arrangements and Musical Direction by Arthur Kay. Choreography and Sing Ensembles sated by George Balanchine. Produced by Edwin Lester. New York, N.Y., RKO Building – Rockefeller Center: Chappell & Co., Inc., c.1951. Plate 40549. Made in England. First performed in the Imperial Theatre, New York, August 21st, 1944, by The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and Los Angeles and San Francisco Civic Light Opera.

198 pp. Vocal score, quarto, 9 x 12 in., red covers with blue ink. Very good, with only the slightest wear at top of spine. A musical play: The King and I, music by Richard Rodgers, book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein 2nd. Based on the novel Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon. Choreography by Jerome Robbins. First performance at the St. James Theatre, New York March 29, 1951.

272 pp. Quarto, 9 x 12 in. Illustrated wraps, near fine, only the slightest wear covers. Full score. New edition by Carl Simpson and Ephraim Hammett Jones. Official Premiere: December 31, 1879, Fifth Avenue Theater, New York, New York, USA; London Premiere: April 3, 1880, The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, Orchestra and Chorus Opera Comique, Arthur Sullivan, conductor.

140 pp. Plate 10858. Vocal score, quarto, 9 x 12 in. Salmon wraps with dark (violet?) titles. Near fine with a small spot on the front wrap and a slight bump on a rear corner. Saint Subber and Lemuel Ayers present, A Musical Comedy: Kiss Me, Kate. Music and lyrics by Cole Porter, book by Sam and Bella Spewack, choreography by Hanya Holm, orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett. Based on Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew. "So, kiss me, Kate, thou lovely loon, ere we start our honeymoon."

16 pp. Small octavo. VG/VG. Book is fine, but for a 1-inch stain/abrasion on the front board. DJ has two small tears repaired at top of spine and a tiny (1 mm) chip at bottom of back panel. All over, a very nice impression. Inscribed by Copland in 1953 in Providence, Rhode Island, to Millard Thomson, a composer and professor at Brown. Thomson's bookplate opposite inscription. The book preserves the six Charles Eliot Norton Lectures delivered at Harvard University in May 1952 substantially as they were given. The first three lectures treat the musical mind as listener, interpreter, or creator; the remaining three discuss "the imaginative mind in the music of Europe and America."