Hardcover
Portsmouth Plaza. The Cradle of San Francisco.
San Francisco: John Henry Nash, 1932. 464 pp. Approximately 7 1/2 x 10 3/4". First Edition. One of 1,000 unnumbered copies. Slipcase in fair condition with case cracked, tape repairs, original paper lable on spine; Vellum-backed marbled boards, some wear to board edges, gilt lettering on vellum, which is slightly dirty and peeling in a few places, interior is bright with no foxing, errata slip tipped in at rear, in very good+ condition.
A beautiful, privately printed book about the history of San Francisco with profuse illustrations by William Wilke (1879-1958), a San Francisco native. The author, Catherine Coffin Phillips (1874-1942) was an author as well as a printer, book collector and historian.
Prelude to Space
[New York]: Gnome Press, Inc., 1954. 191 pp. 5 1/2 x 8"; First American edition, first printing; Illustrated dust jacket by EMSH with some slight rubbing, original price of $2.50 intact, in very good condition; Blue boards with red lettering on spine, some foxing to page edges, age toning of paper throughout, some stains to front cover, a lovely copy in very good condition.
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (1917 - 2008) was a British science fiction writer, among other things . Best known for his screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey, he was a lifelong advocate of space travel.
Preparing for Federal Radio Operator Examinations
New York: Prentice-Hall, 1948, hardcover. Book has green cloth over boards with minimal stains, some slight corner bumping, age tanning to pages, and pen mark on half-title page, otherwise very clean and neat. No dust jacket. Very good condition.
This book was created to help students qualify for radio operator licenses. It also gives students a background on the theory and practice involved in being a radio operator. The book covers basic radio laws, basic theory and practice, radiotelephony, radiotelegraphy, rules governing commercial radio operators, extracts from the Communications Acts of 1932. It also contains many illustrations of transformers, resistors, amplifiers, etc.
Press-o-grams
(Pettigrew, AR): Burt Randle, 1939. (40 pp). Approximately 1/2 x 5/8". LIMITED EDITION of unknown quantity, usually done in 50 - 80 copies at most. Green leather cover, paper label on front cover, wire clasp. A fine copy, scarce. (Bradbury, Burt Randle, 1)
The miniature books published by Burt Randle were usually "photographic reproductions of his [Randle's] very small handwriting" according to Bradbury. This is Burt Randle's first publication, full of little snippets of sage advice. Very scarce, none currently listed in the trade and only 2 copies in WorldCat.
Pretty Polly, A Novel Panorama Picture Book
London: Ernest Nister, [1897]. Unpaginated. 7 3/4 x 9 1/2"; Red cloth backstrop with pictorial paste-down cover, edge wear to boards, cracked hinges, gift inscription on front free endpaper, four double page chromolithographic pop-ups in various conditions (one is damaged and one is mostly missing), some spotting and loose/torn pages, printed in Bavaria by Ernest Nister, "as is" in good condition only.
A beautifully produced book with lovely monochrome illustrations along with the chromolithograph pop-ups and accompanying stories. Very nice stories and poems for children, including the title stoy about the bird Polly, The Horse Parade, At the Sea, and The Rat Princess, among others.
Printing Throughout the World
Salt Lake City, UT: R. T. Porte & Son Printers, 1929. 144 pp. Approximately 10 x 10". First Limited Edition of 483 copies, this being #67. SIGNED by discoverer, R. T. Porte. Marbled paper-covered boards, cream paper-covered spine with 12 tipped-in illustrations, deckle edges, some foxing to pastedowns, red mark on spine title, otherwise in near fine condition. Marbled slip case is broken and missing a side so is barely functional. Only including it as it is somewhat scare and may perhaps be reparable.
A travelogue of the author's discoveries in printing as practiced around the world in places including the Far East, Cuba, Hawaii, Japan, Korea, Peking, New Guinea, New Zealand, Java, India and Europe.
Private Ownership or Socialism
Philadelphia: Dorrance and Company, 1925. First Edition, Hardcover. Book Condition: Very Good. 218pp; Book has minimal wear to edges and spine, minor corner bumping, some shelfwear; some foxing to fore-edges; no dust jacket. Interesting chapter titles include: The Sixteenth Amendment - Unconstitutional; Taxation and the Courts; Representation of income in Corporate Control; Basis of Agreement Between Japan and United States.
Pronouncing Dictionary and Condensed Encyclopedia of Musical Terms, Instruments, Composers and Important Works
Philadelphia: Theodore Presser, 1880. 6 1/4 x 9 1/4". 87 pp. Brown cloth over boards with stamped design and gilt title, some rubbing and corner bumping, salmon colored endpapers with previous owner's signature on front paste-down endpaper, pages slightly stained in parts, good + condition.
An interesting combination of musical dictionary terms along with entries for other music related material. Appendix includes Synopsis of Pitch Notation and Melodic Embellishments. Would make a delightful gift for a nostalgic music teacher or music lover.
Psalm 128
Santa Cruz, CA: The Good Book Press, 1985. (14) pp. Later edition. Approximately 1 3/4 x 2 7/16". LIMITED EDITION of 26 copies, this being # I. Brown leather over boards, gilt title on spine, inside white paper handmade by Peter, typography hand-set Barnhard Modern, illustrated with Peter's ornaments, numbered on the colophon, in fine condition. (P&D Thomas Bibliography A25)
This was the second book made for Donna's birthday. A second edition of 26 was printed for Mary Helen Dawson later that year. It was the same book in all respects except for changes to the colophon.
Re-rooting
Lake City, CO: Ravenpress, 1997. [18] pp. Approximately 1 3/8 x 1 3/8". LIMITED EDITION of 26 copies, this being #26. Paper covered box with wood, shell and bone sculpture on lid in fine condition; miniature book has paper covered board with bone, seed, ribbon closure, 5 illustrations, laserprint on paste paper and chiri tissue, signed and numbered on the colophon by the publisher, in fine conditon.
The text is excerpted from Donna Jackson's poem Re-rooting, © 1991. Bailey says that this book references her own awareness of union with earth and questions the notion of ever leaving the natural world. Alicia Bailey began publishing under the Ravenpress imprint in 1996. Ravenpress publications are held in private, public and special collections worldwide. Bailey thinks of the artists' book works she creates as interactive sculptures realized in the form of the book. She works in a wide variety of materials, including those not often associated with the book form, thus necessitating structural re-design and innovations.