Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair
We're returning to Boston with a carefully curated selection spanning centuries of intellectual, scientific, and literary history. From early scientific discoveries and influential works of philosophy and political economy to significant historical documents, modern first editions, and books with remarkable provenance, there is much to discover at this year’s fair.
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FLEMING, Ian. You Only Live Twice.London : 1964
First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "to Robert Kennedy, with celestial good wishes, from Ian Fleming". This was the last Bond book published during Fleming's lifetime; he died later the same year.
Fleming was good friends with the Kennedys; he sent inscribed copies of his books to Robert,... Learn More -
TOLSTOY, Leo. Childhood and Youth: A Tale.London : 1862
Rare first edition in English, in the original cloth, of the English-speaking world's introduction to Tolstoy. His literary career began with his semi-autobiographical trilogy, Childhood (1852), Boyhood (1854), and Youth (1857). Despite the English title, it is the first two works translated here by Malwida von Meysenbug, the first woman nominated... Learn More -
SCHOENBERG, Arnold. Dreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert Girauds Pierrot Lunaire (deutsch von Otto Erich Hartleben):Vienna : 1914
First edition, inscribed on the title page to "Lieben Königer" and dated 25 November 1916. The recipient was Paul Königer (1882-1943), a former composition pupil of Schoenberg's who became his friend and supporter. This copy was later owned by the conductor Isaiah Jackson (1945–2025), the first African-American to be appointed to a music... Learn More -
WOOLF, Virginia. To the Lighthouse.London : 1927
First edition, in an unusually bright example of the Vanessa Bell-designed jacket, the spine, so prone to fading, here retaining its blue lettering.
Woolf wrote To the Lighthouse "at the height of her luminous Impressionist vision... It is the sunniest of her books and shows the obsession with rendering the passage of time which dominated... Learn More -
GREENE, Graham. Brighton Rock.London : 1938
First British edition, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "For Jeanne, with love, from Graham". The recipient was Greene's friend Jeanne Stourton (1913-1987), later Lady Camoys, wife of Sherman Stonor, 6th Baron Camoys (1913-1976).
The daughter of a Spanish diplomat and an Englishwoman, Jeanne was an inveterate lion-chaser.... Learn More -
FLORIO, Giovanni. A Worlde of Wordes,London : 1598
First edition of the first comprehensive Italian-English dictionary. With no fewer than 44,000 entries designed to help English readers access Italian literature in the original, it is a landmark of Italian scholarship in England and early lexicography. A contemporary of Shakespeare, Florio is thought to have influenced the playwright's language... Learn More -
HAMILTON, Sir William. Campi Phlegraei. Observations on the Volcanos of the Two Sicilies.Naples : 1776-79
First edition, complete with the supplement, of Hamilton's "superbly illustrated work on the volcanic region around Naples" (Rudwick), a fine copy from the library of the fifth Earl of Rosebery.
Conceived to unite scientific accuracy with artistic magnificence, Campi Phlegraei presents volcanic landscapes through the work of the... Learn More -
DOWSON, Ernest. "À L'Aven", autograph manuscript poem, signed.Pont-Aven : 1896
An early autograph manuscript of Dowson's poem, unpublished in the author's lifetime, signed, dated, and inscribed "for Mlle. Griswold". The poem occupies a page of a sketchbook containing pencil drawings of Brittany and the United Kingdom, including two views of Pont-Aven bearing what appear to be the signatures of the painter Ferdinand du... Learn More -
NAVAL SIGNALS. Signal Book for the Ships of War.At Sea : 1808
A painstakingly produced and very complete, but unfortunately anonymous, personal manuscript signal book, evidently intended for practical shipboard use. In the alphabetical list of Ships of the Navy, a number of vessels have been added at a later stage, all of them entering the Navy at dates between 1808 and 1814, suggesting that the book was in... Learn More -
FREUD, Sigmund. Die Traumdeutung.Leipzig & Vienna : 1900 [1899]
First edition, one of only 600 copies of Freud's greatest single work, The Interpretation of Dreams. "Die Traumdeutung contains Freud's general theory of the psyche, which he had developed during the past decade. Using his refined understanding of the operation of the unconscious, Freud interpreted dreams on the basis of wish-fulfilment theory and... Learn More -
AUSTEN, Jane. Autograph signature and closing salutation from a letter to her niece Caroline Austen,Bath? : 1816?
A very rare autograph signature of one of English literature's greatest novelists. Although the two fragments are now separate, it is clear that each derives from a letter to Caroline Austen, as the closing salutation reads, "your affect:te Aunt J. Austen", which is exactly the form used in several other letters to the same... Learn More -
ANDERSON, Sherwood. Winesburg, Ohio.New York : 1919
First edition, first issue, of the author's pioneering short-story cycle, "the most vivid thumbnail sketch of the changes from which modern American fiction emerged" (Barnard, p. 39). Anderson, and this collection in particular, was a major influence on writers including Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and Ray Bradbury.
Anderson was a... Learn More -
ROSSETTI, William Michael (ed.). The Germ:[London : 1850]
First edition, from the library of the editor and contributor, William Michael Rossetti, bearing his ownership inscription and two autograph indexes in his hand. Rossetti has pencilled authorship attributions besides each contribution, together with several editorial notes throughout the magazine, including an unpublished revision to one of his... Learn More -
CANTILLON, Richard. Essai sur la nature du commerce en général.London Fletcher Gyles [but Paris : 1755
First edition of a founding text in economics, the copy of the French economist André Morellet (1727-1819), with his notes on the initial binder's blank, and of the French statesman and diplomat, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, with the bookplate of his Château de Valençay estate.
The inscription, in Morellet's hand, notes that... Learn More -
TWAIN, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer's Comrade).New York : 1885
First American edition of one of the great literary classics: "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn" (Ernest Hemingway, p. 22).
This copy has the three points distinguishing the first printing: "Huck Decided to Leave" on p. 9, "Him and another Man" erroneously assigned to p. 88 on p. 13,... Learn More -
WOLLSTONECRAFT, Mary. Thoughts on the Education of Daughters:London : 1787
First edition of the author's first book, an instructive treatise on female education, with contemporary female ownership inscriptions: "Mary A. Davenport, Boston, 1807" on the title page and "Mary Ann" on p. 1. The work laid the foundation for many of the themes that Wollstonecraft would develop more fully in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman... Learn More -
WOLLSTONECRAFT, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman:London : 1792
First edition of the author's pioneering work on women's rights. Wollstonecraft's demand for "justice for one-half of the human race" (p. xiv) was too revolutionary for her time, but she found a following among radicals and educated women, and succeeded in initiating a new regard for women as an important social force.
Wollstonecraft... Learn More -
NABOKOV, Vladimir. Lolita.Paris : 1955
First edition, in exceptional condition. Unable to find an American publisher to accept Lolita, Nabokov turned to Paris, where the Olympia Press printed 5,000 copies. British Customs officials received instructions to seize copies at the border, and a year later the work was banned in France. Despite censorship, the novel remained popular and sold... Learn More -
AUSTEN, Jane. Sense and Sensibility: A Novel.London : 1813
Second edition, Susan Elizabeth Darwin's copy, inscribed "Susan E. Darwin, March 1838" in the first volume. Susan Darwin was an older sister of Charles Darwin, who affectionately called her "Granny" for stewarding his early scientific education. During the voyage of the Beagle, she reported to Charles on the reception in London and on errors she... Learn More -
DRAGE, Theodore Swaine. The Great Probability of a North West Passage:London : 1768
First edition, a rarity in the literature of the search for the North West Passage, "discussing the possibility of a passage through to Hudson Bay, or Baffin Bay, via the Strait of Juan de Fuca [just north of Seattle], or at about the latitude of Queen Charlotte Island [Haida Gwaii]" (Hill). This copy retains the often-discarded advertising... Learn More
