East of Eden by Steinbeck, John (1902-1968) - 1952

viii+337 pages. Octavo (8 1/2" x 6") bound in original publishers blue cloth with two toned brown and beige binding and green lettering to cover and brown and green lettering to spine in original jacket. Signed First editionThe bon voyage party was attended by such literary lights as the chief junior editor of Doubledeal and Wundershot, a novelist named Norman Nalifellow, and Ginny Ginstruck, the agent. Afterward the author found himself aboard the first-class ship Meyer Davis, sailing over a first-class sea. His grand tour encompassed London, Paris, Dublin, Barcelona, Seville, Almeria, Instanbul, Crete - and his hometown Chicago. This book, however, is not som much an "inside Europe" - heaven help the tourist who tried to duplicate his travel adventures - as an "Inside Nelson Algren." To be sure, there is "scenery" in these pages - London's ancestral mists, the bright, enormous mornings in the Barrio-Chino of Barcelona, the shadow of the Mountain in Greece where Zeus was born. But it is chiefly… Read More

[i-viii+452+[453-56] pages. Octavo (8 1/8" x 5 3/4") bound in original publisher's medium blue cloth with gilt on spine with concentric impressed rectangle enclosing a gilt laurel branch on cover in original pictorial jacket. 50,000 copies of the first edition in dust jacket issued. (Pastore: 13) First edition. This is the "hotel novel" as it has become to be called, and it shows that odd dichotomy of Lewis that is the decisional measuring stick separating those who love Lewis and those who don't. Here is the story of an artist set against the story of a hotel clerk and here is Lewis equating art and hotel management. Most critics feel that this is not Lewis at his best because of this equation, that in setting out to talk about art, he ends up knee-deep in the hotel business. Of course, this misses the point. Lewis was the master of finding "art" in the commonplace and there is hardly a novel of his that does not touch on this issued. This second Doubleday book firmly established the format… Read More

316+[6 ad] pages. Small octavo (7 3/4" x 5 1/2") bound in original publisher's black cloth with silver lettering to spine and cover in original jacket. Has the "A" on the title verso. First edition. Wright wrote as a critic and journalist until 1923, when he became ill from what was given out as overwork, but was in reality a secret drug addiction, according to John Loughery's biography Alias S.S. Van Dine. His doctor confined him to bed (supposedly because of a heart ailment, but actually because of a cocaine addiction) for more than two years. In frustration and boredom, he began collecting and studying thousands of volumes of crime and detection. In 1926 this paid off with the publication of his first S. S. Van Dine novel, The Benson Murder Case. Wright took his pseudonym from the abbreviation of "steamship" and from Van Dine, which he claimed was an old family name. Wright wrote a series of short stories for Warner Brothers film studio in the early 1930s. These stories were used as the basis for a… Read More

[i-vi]+vii-viii+[ix-x]+390 pages. Octavo (8 7/16" x 5 3/4") bound in original publisher's red cloth with initials "SL" impressed on cover decorated with impressed laurel branch superimposed over cover initials; gilt title in black rectangle on spine; author's name in black on gilt rectangle on spine. Dust jacket in blue with red and white banner on cover lettered in verso, gilt and white on spine. 33,250 printed of the first edition in dust jacket. (Pastore:259) First edition. In the Summer of 1939, Lewis and Fay Wray collaborated loosely on a play titled (and unpublished) Angela is Twenty-Two. Lewis did the writing with the intention of playing the male lead; Fay Wray helped with the staging and visual dramatics. Lewis became more involved with drama and acting, even so far as joining Actors Equity, sponsored by Helen Hayes. When the play opened on December 30, 1939, it was well-received leading Lewis to take it on the road where he not only acted but directed as well. This tour became the narrative… Read More

xxxii+423+[6] ad pages with frontispiece. Small octavo (7¼" x 5") in original gilt stamped red cloth with all edges in gilt. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. First Edition.

Sylvie and Bruno, first published in 1889, and its 1893 second volume Sylvie and Bruno Concluded form the last novel by Lewis Carroll published during his lifetime. Both volumes were illustrated by Harry Furniss. The novel has two main plots; one set in the real world at the time the book was published (the Victorian era), the other in the fantasy world of Fairyland. While the latter plot is a fairytale with many nonsense elements and poems, similar to Carroll's Alice books, the story set in Victorian Britain is a social novel, with its characters discussing various concepts and aspects of religion, society, philosophy and morality. Carroll initially intended for the novel to be published in one volume. However, due to its length, it was divided into two volumes.

Condition:

Very rare in the original jacket. Laid in is a leaf… Read More

viii+337 pages. Octavo (8 1/2" x 6") bound in original publishers blue cloth with two toned brown and beige binding and green lettering to cover and brown and green lettering to spine in original jacket. Signed First editionThe bon voyage party was attended by such literary lights as the chief junior editor of Doubledeal and Wundershot, a novelist named Norman Nalifellow, and Ginny Ginstruck, the agent. Afterward the author found himself aboard the first-class ship Meyer Davis, sailing over a first-class sea. His grand tour encompassed London, Paris, Dublin, Barcelona, Seville, Almeria, Instanbul, Crete - and his hometown Chicago. This book, however, is not som much an "inside Europe" - heaven help the tourist who tried to duplicate his travel adventures - as an "Inside Nelson Algren." To be sure, there is "scenery" in these pages - London's ancestral mists, the bright, enormous mornings in the Barrio-Chino of Barcelona, the shadow of the Mountain in Greece where Zeus was born. But it is chiefly… Read More

[i-viii+452+[453-56] pages. Octavo (8 1/8" x 5 3/4") bound in original publisher's medium blue cloth with gilt on spine with concentric impressed rectangle enclosing a gilt laurel branch on cover in original pictorial jacket. 50,000 copies of the first edition in dust jacket issued. (Pastore: 13) First edition. This is the "hotel novel" as it has become to be called, and it shows that odd dichotomy of Lewis that is the decisional measuring stick separating those who love Lewis and those who don't. Here is the story of an artist set against the story of a hotel clerk and here is Lewis equating art and hotel management. Most critics feel that this is not Lewis at his best because of this equation, that in setting out to talk about art, he ends up knee-deep in the hotel business. Of course, this misses the point. Lewis was the master of finding "art" in the commonplace and there is hardly a novel of his that does not touch on this issued. This second Doubleday book firmly established the format… Read More

316+[6 ad] pages. Small octavo (7 3/4" x 5 1/2") bound in original publisher's black cloth with silver lettering to spine and cover in original jacket. Has the "A" on the title verso. First edition. Wright wrote as a critic and journalist until 1923, when he became ill from what was given out as overwork, but was in reality a secret drug addiction, according to John Loughery's biography Alias S.S. Van Dine. His doctor confined him to bed (supposedly because of a heart ailment, but actually because of a cocaine addiction) for more than two years. In frustration and boredom, he began collecting and studying thousands of volumes of crime and detection. In 1926 this paid off with the publication of his first S. S. Van Dine novel, The Benson Murder Case. Wright took his pseudonym from the abbreviation of "steamship" and from Van Dine, which he claimed was an old family name. Wright wrote a series of short stories for Warner Brothers film studio in the early 1930s. These stories were used as the basis for a… Read More

[i-vi]+vii-viii+[ix-x]+390 pages. Octavo (8 7/16" x 5 3/4") bound in original publisher's red cloth with initials "SL" impressed on cover decorated with impressed laurel branch superimposed over cover initials; gilt title in black rectangle on spine; author's name in black on gilt rectangle on spine. Dust jacket in blue with red and white banner on cover lettered in verso, gilt and white on spine. 33,250 printed of the first edition in dust jacket. (Pastore:259) First edition. In the Summer of 1939, Lewis and Fay Wray collaborated loosely on a play titled (and unpublished) Angela is Twenty-Two. Lewis did the writing with the intention of playing the male lead; Fay Wray helped with the staging and visual dramatics. Lewis became more involved with drama and acting, even so far as joining Actors Equity, sponsored by Helen Hayes. When the play opened on December 30, 1939, it was well-received leading Lewis to take it on the road where he not only acted but directed as well. This tour became the narrative… Read More

xxxii+423+[6] ad pages with frontispiece. Small octavo (7¼" x 5") in original gilt stamped red cloth with all edges in gilt. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. First Edition.

Sylvie and Bruno, first published in 1889, and its 1893 second volume Sylvie and Bruno Concluded form the last novel by Lewis Carroll published during his lifetime. Both volumes were illustrated by Harry Furniss. The novel has two main plots; one set in the real world at the time the book was published (the Victorian era), the other in the fantasy world of Fairyland. While the latter plot is a fairytale with many nonsense elements and poems, similar to Carroll's Alice books, the story set in Victorian Britain is a social novel, with its characters discussing various concepts and aspects of religion, society, philosophy and morality. Carroll initially intended for the novel to be published in one volume. However, due to its length, it was divided into two volumes.

Condition:

Very rare in the original jacket. Laid in is a leaf… Read More