"Picturesque Washington" by Joseph West Moore, First Edition, 1884

Heller, Joseph. Catch-22. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1961. First edition, first printing. Octavo. In original blue cloth boards, stamped in white. In the original unclipped dust jacket. Presented with a new archival ¼ leather and cloth clamshell. Presented is the first edition, first printing of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. Catch-22 was published by Simon and Schuster, in October of 1961. This book is presented in the original publisher’s blue cloth boards, titled and embossed in white, and the original, unclipped dust-jacket. The Simon and Schuster “A Note to the Reader” postcard is laid in. The book comes with a new, archival ¼ leather and cloth clamshell. Catch-22 was Joseph Heller’s first novel and his most acclaimed work. Set during World War II, the novel uses a unique, non-chronological third-person narration, mainly focusing on the life of a B-25 bombardier in the U.S. Army, Captain John Yossarian, and his attempts to avoid bombing runs. Both the title and plot device, “Catch-22” refers to an Air Forces regulation which asserts that a man is considered insane if he willingly agrees to fly dangerous combat missions, but that if he makes the formal request to be relieved of such missions, the very act of making the request proves that he is sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved." By the end of the novel, the phrase is invoked as the explanation for many unreasonable restrictions. “Catch-22” has since entered the English lexicon. Heller spent eight years writing "Catch-22," and used his own war experiences as inspiration for the novel. From 1942 to 1945, Heller served as a combat bombardier in the Twelfth Air Force and was stationed on the Island of Corsica. Upon publication, the book was not an immediate bestseller, but did elicit glowing reviews from some. “Wildly original, brilliantly comic, brutally gruesome, it is a dazzling performance that will probably outrage nearly as many readers as it delights. In any case, it is one of the most startling first novels of the year and it may make its author famous” (Orville Prescott, New York Times). It became a publishing sensation thanks to the 1962 paperback edition, which set record sales and benefitted from the national debate surrounding the Vietnam War. In the decades since, it has inspired a feature film, a miniseries, a 50-character stage play, and sold more than 10 million...

Drinker, Frederick E. Booker T. Washington: The Master Mind of a Child of Slavery. Philadelphia: National Publishing Co., 1915. Memorial Edition. Rebound in ¼...

Byrd, Richard E. Skyward. New York: Blue Ribbon Books, 1931. Octavo. First edition, eleventh printing. In original hardcover boards and original pictorial dust jacket. Presented in a new archival slipcase. This is a 1931 first edition, eleventh printing of Richard Byrd’s Skyward. The book was published in New York by Blue Ribbon Books in 1931. This is the eleventh printing of Skyward, which was first published in 1928. The book is presented in its original hardcover boards and pictorial dust jacket, with a new archival slipcase. Rear admiral Richard E. Byrd (1888-1957) is celebrated as a pioneering American aviator, polar explorer...

Rand, Ayn. The Fountainhead. New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1943. First edition printing. Octavo. Rebound in modern half red Moroccan leather and marbled boards, with gilt tooling and titles to the spine, and the original dust jacket bound-in. Presented is a first edition printing of The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand...

One of the great 19th-century English color plate books illustrating the scenery along the Seine. Sauvan, Jean Baptiste Balthazar. Picturesque Tour of the Seine, from Paris to the Sea; with Particulars Historical and Descriptive. London: R. Ackermann, 1821. First Edition. 4to, 13 1/2 x 11 (343 x 280 mm), pp. x, 177, title vignette and 24 hand colored aquatints, map. Later three-quarter yellow levant morocco with fillets, spine decorated in gilt with 5 raised bands and black title label; marbled boards and endpapers, a.e.g.. Spine and boards in very good condition, binding tight and square, text and plates with very occasional spotting. [Abbey, Travel 90; Tooley 445; Bobins, Exotic and the Beautiful II: 548] Condition: Near fine. This is a first printing of one of the great nineteenth-century English color plate books illustrating the scenery along the Seine from Paris to Le Havre. Luminous impressions of the plates, beautifully hand-colored. Engraved by Thomas Sutherland (1785 – 1825) and Daniel Havell (1785 – 1826) from sketches and drawings by Augustus Pugin (1812 – 1852) and John Gendall (1790 – 1865), the illustrations also include a vignette on the title page representing the Château de Rosny (home of the Duchess of Berry...

AUTHOR: PARKER, Joseph W. TITLE: Doctor Crosby's Strange Experience. PUBLISHER: Kansas City, MO, The Peerage Press, 1935. DESCRIPTION: FIRST EDITION. 1 vol., 7-11/16" x 5-1/4", 9...

Sotheby's: The West Wycombe Park Sale June 1998.First Edition softcover with 1442 lots photographed in color and fully described, with results. This house was the site of some filming of Downtown Abbey...

FIRST EDITION Sandmann, František Xaver (1805-1856) Malerische Ansichten / Picturesque Views (of first railway lines in Slovenia); To commemorate the opening of the railway line from...