[first book, written at age 16] Boston: George W. Briggs & Co., 1855. Original blind-stamped medium-brown cloth with front cover pictorial vignette in gilt. First Edition of Louisa May Alcott's first book, actually published at the end of 1854. Illustrated with a total of six plates (including frontispiece), this is.....
[original boards, leaves uncut] The Third Edition. London: Printed for A. Strahan; T. Cadell in The Strand; and W. Creech, Edinburgh, 1787. Original blue-grey paper-covered boards with cream paper spine and printed label, page edges uncut. "The London edition," which is to say the third edition overall (so stated, unlike.....
Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1899. Original brown cloth decorated in black, white and orange. First Edition of this Afro-American writer's first book, a series of seven dialect stories about incidents of slavery, told as reminiscences by an old black gardener. Examples are "Po' Sandy," "Mars Jeem's.....
With Selections from his Journals and Correspondence. By His Son. [in Two Volumes.] London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1848. 32 pp Vol I ads dated April 29, 1848. Original blind-stamped dark purple-brown cloth. First Edition of Wilkie Collins's first book -- a memoir of his father the landscape and.....
![ALMAYER'S FOLLY [Edward Garnett's copy]. Joseph Conrad](/pictures/thumb/13421.jpg?v=1564065610)
[Edward Garnett's copy] A Story of an Eastern River. Second Edition. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1896. Original dark green cloth. First Edition, early but not first printing, of Conrad's first book. The first printing came out in 1895 (bearing that date on the title page) -- some domestic copies and.....
A Story of an Eastern River. New York: Macmillan and Co., 1895. 3 pp undated ads. Original black cloth. First American Edition of Conrad's first book, with a text that varies considerably from the English edition (because it was typeset from uncorrected proofs). We find the American edition to be.....
A Story of an Eastern River. Second Edition. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1896. Original dark green cloth. First Edition, early printing -- of Conrad's first book. Though labeled "Second Edition" on the title page, this is actually a reprint of the first edition; all copies of this printing seem to.....
In: THE LIBRARY OF FICTION, or Family Story Teller; consisting of Original Tales, Essays, and Sketches of Character. With Fourteen Illustrations [in each volume]. Vol. I [& II]. London: Chapman and Hall, 1836/1837. Bound in contemporary half calf with marbled boards. First Edition in book form. Chapman & Hall's monthly.....
and What People Thought of Him. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1894. 2 pp undated ads. Original red cloth decorated in black and gilt. First Edition of the author's first novel, based on his own abortive efforts to enter politics in his hometown of Brooklyn. The semi-realistic PETER STIRLING is.....
[first book, "From the Author"] By John Sinjohn. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1897. Original olive green cloth decorated in gilt. First Edition of John Galsworthy's first book, a collection of ten tales. Only 500 copies were printed -- on a commission basis, with Galsworthy paying for the printing; in order.....
A Novel. With an Etching by H. Macbeth-Raeburn and a Map of Wessex. (London and New York: Harper & Brothers, 1898.) Original dark green cloth with monogram device in gilt. "Wessex Novels" edition, American issue. DESPERATE REMEDIES was Hardy's first novel, first published in 1871 in three volumes; here it.....
of Popular Literature, Science, and Art. Fourth Series | No. 64. [London & Edinburgh:] William and Robert Chambers, March 18, 1865. Original self-wrappers, lightly bound into a later medium-brown printed folder. First Appearance of Thomas Hardy's first published piece of work, appearing anonymously. The three-page sketch is a rather amusing.....
Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1876. Original blind-stamped green cloth with gilt-decorated spine. Second Edition of Hawthorne's first book FANSHAWE (the first had been in 1828), plus the first appearance in book form of the other pieces -- the five "biographical sketches." This title was published as a twin.....
Stories. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1884. Original dark royal blue cloth decorated in black. First Edition of Hearn's first book (other than an 1882 translation of Gautier). This was Hearn's attempt to reconstruct "fantastically beautiful stories from the exotic literature which fascinated him" [OCAL]. Born in the Ionian Islands.....
Stories. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1884. Original dark royal blue cloth decorated in black. First Edition of Hearn's first book (other than an 1882 translation of Gautier). This was Hearn's attempt to reconstruct "fantastically beautiful stories from the exotic literature which fascinated him" [OCAL]. Born in the Ionian Islands.....
Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1875. Original terra-cotta cloth, beveled. First Edition of Henry James's first book, which consisted of only 1,500 copies. This is a collection of six tales that had appeared in American periodicals (mostly the Atlantic Monthly) over the preceding years. In 1873 James's father wrote.....
Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1877. Original mauve cloth decorated in black and gilt, all page edges red. First Edition, first state (with "was" at the end of the 16th line on p. 65, later changed to "so"), of Sarah Orne Jewett's first book. In addition to so-stated "fourth".....
[his first and scarcest novel] Reprinted, with corrections and additions, from Fraser's Magazine. London: John W. Parker, 1851. 8 pp undated ads. Original blind-stamped rose-brown wavy-grain cloth. First Edition of Charles Kingsley's first-written (and today his scarcest) novel. It first appeared serially in Fraser's Magazine during the latter half of.....
A Novel. New York: Duffield & Company, 1911. Original light blue-grey cloth decorated in white and black and with lettering in white. First Edition of D.H. Lawrence's first book, which he began in 1906 (at age 20) and rewrote several times; it is the tale of a love triangle, between.....
London: Grant Richards, 1902. Original blue cloth. First Edition of Masefield's first book, which consisted of only 500 copies. Encouraged by Yeats and with the title chosen by the publisher, Masefield quit his bank job and decided to try his hand at nautical verse and (later) prose. The title unfortunately.....
![THE ORDEAL OF RICHARD FEVEREL [signed by Meredith]. George Meredith](/pictures/thumb/11317.jpg?v=1564065591)
[signed by Meredith] A History of Father and Son. In Three Volumes. London: Chapman and Hall, 1859. Original blind-stamped greenish-brown cloth. First Edition of Meredith's first full-length novel (preceded only by a volume of verse and two single-volume burlesques). FEVEREL is the tough tale of a father's "system" of raising.....
![POEMS [inscribed by Meredith]. George Meredith](/pictures/thumb/11316.jpg?v=1564065591)
[inscribed by Meredith] London: John W. Parker and Son, n.d.[1851]. Original blind-stamped purple cloth. First Edition of George Meredith's first book, a volume of verse published when he was only 23 (and including many poems written at the age of 18 and earlier). Meredith had just married the widowed daughter.....
With Two Designs by D.G. Rossetti. Cambridge: Macmillan and Co., 1862. Original dark blue cloth decorated in gilt and blind. First Edition of Christina Rossetti's first volume of verse (other than her 1847 one, privately printed by her grandfather when she was only 17). "Goblin Market" is an intensely erotic.....
Newly Revised with several prefaces and an essay on prizefighting. Also The Admirable Bashville. Or, Constancy Unrewarded. Being the novel of Cashel Byron's Profession done into a stage play in three acts and in blank verse. Chicago: Herbert S. Stone and Company, 1901. Original mottled brown cloth with pugilist in.....
Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1883. 10 pp undated ads. Original bright green cloth decorated in black and gilt. First American Edition of Stevenson's first book (published five years after the London edition). Stevenson's third book, TRAVELS WITH A DONKEY, was published in 1879 both in London and in Boston -- making.....
