New Arrivals
Swedish Swatches - Yellow & Blue Series
Orebro, Sweden: Malin Selander, 1962 & 1969. Approximately 10 x 11". Photographic color cardboard, spiral bindings in very good condition (only 1 is slightly broken on the blue one), some foxing and rubbing throughout, corner bumping, all samples clean and still attached intact, previous owner's name on inside front covers, no slipcases, overall in very good condition.
First two volumes in a series of Swedish Swatches: Yellow Series (1962), Blue Series (1969), Red Series (1974), and Green Series (1978). The Yellow Series contains 21 swatches and the Blue Series contains 20 swatches, each one woven especially for these volumes. Each swatch shows a purpose, pattern, warp, weft, reed, and draft - all supplemented with precise and easy-to-follow instructions. Malin Selander (1922 - 2013) trained at the Nordenfeldt weaving seminary in Gothenburg and became a mobile weaving teacher in 1945 at the Orebro County Handicraft Association. She held weaving summer courses in Vastmanland from 1945 - 1950. Her book, "Weaving Patterns", published in 1954, became known for its innovative colors and materials. She worked at the Banff School of Fine Arts in Canada as a weaving teacher during which she published her series of "Swedish Swatches" books. In 1970 she worked on behalf of the UN by training weavers in Iran. The year before she died, she donated her entire collection of clothes to Orebro County Museum, which also has a large collection of her sample fabrics, sketches, and work materials. (Marion Marzolf, "The Swedish Presence in 20th-Century American Weaving", 2006, and Swedish Wikipedia)
Pensées Genevoises
Geneva: Andre Kundig, 1963. 96 pp. Approximately 1 x 1 1/2". Yellow simulated leather wraps with red lettering to cover, in the French language, bookplate of E. Helene Sherman pasted-down to inside front cover, in fine condition.
Translation of title is Geneva thoughts, this sweet little book contains philosophical thoughts, proverbs, sayings, and quotes such as, "you whoever has a beautiful wife don't hold a handsome valet near her if you don't want him to be her darling" or "willingly people who are so proud and colorful, when they find resistance, appease their fury." E. Helene Sherman, whose bookplate is in the front of this book, was an American artist specializing in calligraphy and book illumination. Her artwork includes altarpieces for the National Cathedral in Washing, D.C. and Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. Sherman illustrated many miniature books for REM Miniatures and Kurbel Books.
Swan Song
Arlington Hts., IL: Dark Harvest, 1989. 608 pp. 7 1/4 x 10 1/4"; Limited Deluxe First Edition of 650 copies, this being #198. Green cloth slipcase with just a hint of rubbing in near fine condition and illustrated dustjacket in fine condition; Immaculate, tight, appears new and unread. Green boards, green endpapers, signatures of McCammon and artist on colophon, in fine condition.
I believe that the description from the Pocket Books paperback edition (first edition) describes the book very well: An epic journey of terror across a land seething with unspeakable horrors. America! Haunted by an evil whose time has finally come. This post-apocalyptic novel is often compared the Stephen King's, "The Stand". Both are weighty books and are about mankind's struggle in a devastated world. Robert McCammon liked the illustrations done for this edition of the book. He felt that Charles and Wendy Lang visualized the scenes in great detail and added an extra dimension of quality to his work. Swan Song was the co-winner of the 1987 Bram Stoker Award and nominated for the 1988 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel.
The Library of Alexandria
Ann Arbor, Michigan: Alvey Jones, [2021]. LIMITED EDITION of 2, this being #2. Tan cloth over clamshell box with green spine cloth, lime green acrylic label on cover and green speckled marbling on box edges, enclosed are twenty-six miniature books (scrolls) in various media such as paper and wood (scrolls are non-removable), in fine condition.
Alvey Jones is a painter, printmaker and book artist whose work has been exhibited locally and nationally and is in many public and private collections in the United States and Europe. He has a BFA in illustration and design, an MA in art history and he mostly creates miniature books. This book is an homage to the famed ancient library at Alexandria, Egypt, which ceased to exist by the end of the Third century CE and contains miniature books (scrolls) in several languages.
African Game Trails: An Account of the African Wanderings of an American Hunter-Naturalist
New York: Scribner's, 1910. 585 pp. including index. Red cloth over boards with three-quarter brown leather in a deluxe binding of the first trade edition, front board almost detached with some splitting at the spine of the rear board, gilt lettering and decoration on spine, over wear and rubbing to the cover, top edge gilt, both dates on the title page and copyright match as 1910, seal on the copyright page of Conkey Hammonds, black and white photographs throughout, some water stains to fore-edges but no effect on the text, browning and stains to a few page edges and a tear to the last page of the index, otherwise a nice copy in very good condition.
This book contains the chronicles of President Theodore Roosevelt's African expedition sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution to collect specimens for the Smithsonian's new Natural History Museum. In the name of science, Roosevelt trapped or killed approximately 11,397 animals, met many native people and local leaders and also collected flora and fauna over a 10 month period.
Bradford's History "Of Plimoth Plantation." From the Original Manuscript. With a Report of the Proceedings Incident to the Return of the Manuscript to Massachusetts. (Olive Percival's Copy)
Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co., 1901. 555 pp. Blue cloth over boards with beveled edges, crisp lettering and decoration on spine, minor wear to spine, signature and bookplate of Olive Percival on front endpapers with some browning likely due to newspaper placed there in the past, two ephemera items from within the pages: a newspaper clipping about the book (date unknown) and a blank letterhead piece of paper from the State of Connecticut Secretarys Office with official seal and note on the back dated 1905, many black and white photographs, a beautiful copy in near fine condition.
The Bradford Manuscript is a history of the Plymouth Colony from its inception to the year 1647 kept by Governor William Bradford of Massachusetts and the background history of the manuscript itself. Ownership bookplate on the front paste-down endpaper and the signature on the first free endpaper belongs to well-known suffragist Olive Percival, who was herself an author and avid book collector.
Advise and Consent
New York: Doubleday & Company, 1959. 616 pp. Advanced Bookseller's Copy as noted by the the label on the front paste-down endpaper. Pictorial dust jacket has some rubbing and minor tears with a small stain on the bottom of the spine, previous repair tape on the inside of the cover, price of $5.75 intact with original price marked out, in very good condition. Tan cloth over boards with crisp blue and brown lettering on spine, top edges foxed, some stains on page edges, "First Edition" stated on copyright page, black and white illustrations throughout, otherwise in very good + condition.
Allen Drury (1918-1998) was an American novelist who was a reporter in the Senate during the terms of Presidents FDR and Truman. This is his first novel, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1960 for Fiction and was on the The New York Times Best Seller list for 102 weeks.
The Forgotten Village: Life in a Mexican Village
New York: Viking Press, 1941. 143 pp. Approximately 7 x 10". First Edition with the words "First Published in May 1941" on copyright page. Coarse buckram cloth over boards with bright green illustration on front cover, top edges stained green, slight toning of paste-down endpapers, near fine condition. Very good pictorial dust jacket, a few short closed tears, original price of $2.50 present, some chipping and loss, some toning to back cover. (Goldstone & Payne A14a)
From the front dust jacket flap, "This is a story of the little pueblo of Santiago on the skirts of a hill in the mountains of Mexico. And this is the story of the boy Juan Diego and of his family and of his people, who live in the long moment when the past slips reluctantly into the future." Photographs from the motion picture throughout.
Gunner's Dawn
New York: The Derrydale Press, 1937. First Edition. Limited edition of 950, this being #78. Red simulated leather over boards with gilt decorations, some dulling to gilt, minor cover rubbing especially to spine edges, original signed etching as frontispiece, 5 color plates and 14 black and white plates with some tissue guards missing, a few pages unopened, gift inscription on front paste-down endpaper which also has a small amount of foxing, otherwise in very good condition.
Roland Clark (1874 - 1957) was an American artist who was best known for his painting and etchings of ducks. He was also an accomplished writer and combined these talents in sporting articles, short stories which were autobiographical in nature.
Sapphira and the Slave Girl
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1940. 295 pp. First Trade Edition. Dust jacket in very good condition with 1" tear on bottom of front cover, darkened spine and minor chips on top and bottom spine edges, some spotting and darkening to rear cover as well. Green cloth over boards with spine only a slight shade lighter and some sunning to top cover edges, orange and black labels on spine has some slight smudging, otherwise in near fine condition.
Willa Cather (1873 - 1947) was an American author, mostly of the frontier and pioneer experiences. This is Cather's final novel, one that was much heavier in tone and subject matter than her other novels. It portrays a family in Virginia in 1856 before the Civil War.