viaLibri ~ Rare Books from 1952

Steinbeck, John
        East of Eden
      Viking 1952 - First Edition, First Printing. A beautiful dustjacket that has benefitted from light professional restoration. The end result is a beautiful dustjacket that is rich in colors with no chips or tears. The book is in great shape. The binding is tight, and the boards are crisp with light wear to the edges. There is no writing, marks or bookplates in the book. Overall, a lovely copy of this true first edition with the original dustjacket. Trades and offers welcomed. [Attributes: First Edition; Hard Cover]

      [Bookseller: Quintessential Rare Books, LLC]

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Clarke, Arthur C.
        ISLANDS IN THE SKY .
      Philadelphia, Toronto: The John C. Winston Company, [1952] - Octavo, cloth. First edition. Part of the classic Winston science fiction series for young readers published between 1952 and 1961. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-251. Light age-darkening to endpapers along gutter margins, some light spotting to cut edges, else a fine copy in near fine first printing dust jacket (lists 10 titles on rear panel) with mild rubbing and some foxing to rear panel. Jacket illustration by Alex Schomburg. (#130914) [Attributes: First Edition; Hard Cover]

      [Bookseller: Currey, L.W. Inc. ABAA/ILAB]

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Pierre Mac Orlan] Gracq, Julien.
        LE RIVAGE DES SYRTES. Signed/Signé.
      José Corti, Paris 1952 - [Pierre Mac Orlan] Gracq, Julien. LE RIVAGE DES SYRTES. Signed/Signé. Paris José Corti, 1952. 8vo./ In-8°, 323 pp. Wrappers/Broché. Second Edition, 5 Aout, 1952. [2000 copies printed, one of 750 copies on vélin du Marais] published one year after the first on the accassion of having won Prix Goncourt which Gracq refused. The first copy. Copy Number "0" Inscribed by the publisher: "Examplaire de Pierre Mac Orlan / José Conti". Le plus célèbre des romans de Gracq, pour lequel il refusa le prix Goncourt, moins de trois mois après sa publication et après avoir déjà manifesté l'année précédente son hostilité envers le fonctionnement du monde littéraire dans "La littérature à l'estomac". Gracq most celebrated novel for which he refused le prix Goncourt as an expression of his hostilities towards the entire literary establishment. In very fine condition. A superb Association Copy. Très bel exemplaire. [Attributes: First Edition; Signed Copy; Soft Cover]

      [Bookseller: TBCL The Book Collector's Library]

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Riquer i Palau, Josep Maria
        Els ex-libris i l'ex-librisme. Assaig històric raonat
      Millà, Barcelona 1952 - 4º mayor, anteportada color, frontis de Ramon Borrell grabado al aguafuerte, 242 p. muy ilustradas impresas a dos tintas, grabados. Ejemplar núm. 46 de una tirada de 100 ejemplares, en papel de hilo. Barbas. Media piel, nervios, florones, hilos dorados en lomo y planos. Corte superior dorado. Cubiertas originales con grabado color de Estiarte. Magnífica encuadernación. Extraordinaria impresión, pulcramente editada a dos tintas, con el texto enmarcado dentro de orla en color, acompañado de innumerables ejemplos de ex-libris a toda página, dibujados por los más eminentes artistas, cuidadosamente reproducidos. Texto del autor sobre la historia y práctica del ex-librismo, exposición y crítica artística de los principales ejemplos en Europa y América y breves biografías de artistas catalanes. Precedido de una lámina con una orla inédita de Alexandre de Riquer, de 1912, un aguafuerte grabado en 1921 por R. Borrell para los socios de la desaparecida entidad "Pro Ex-libris", y un prólogo de Antoni Ollé i Pinell. Grabados. Bibliofilia. Historia del libro. Engravings. Bibliophilism. Book history.

      [Bookseller: Libreria Anticuaria Studio]

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White, E.B.
        CHARLOTTE'S WEB (1st w/ I-B on copyright page)
      Harper, New York 1952 - Harper, 1952, NY, 8vo, 184pp. Nearly NF, but graded out at VG++. Harper & Brothers, 1952. 1st edition, 1st printing, stated. States FIRST EDITION and then just below is I-B on copyright (harper's code signifying September 1952). 1st issue DJ with 4 STUART LITTLE blurbs on rear and the single word HARPER on foot of DJ backstrip (not Harper Row or Harper Collins etc.) Later DJs have 4 blurbs but only 2 regarding Stuart Little and 2 regarding The Trumpet of the Swan. $2.50 price on inside flap is clipped. Tan cloth boards of DJ are clean with a bright, elaborate Charlotte's Web embossed in bright blue and black. Bright blue illustrated endpapers. Very clean, tight copy. DJ is bright and has 2 small closed tears on front edge and 2 on rear edge. 2 small open chips at edge. this is a very nice copy! [Attributes: First Edition; Hard Cover]

      [Bookseller: Medium Rare Books LLC]

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White, E. B.
        Charlotte's Web
      New York: Harper & Brothers 1952 - First edition, first printing. Illustrated by Garth Williams. Original publisher's cloth; dust jacket. About fine with a former owner's 1952 Christmas inscription to half-title page; lightly toned jacket with some light wear and minor chipping to the extremities, a few small stains, else very good. Charlotte's Web is a classic piece of children's literature that tells the story of a pig named Wilbur and how the farmer's daughter Fern and his spider friend Charlotte endeavor to save Wilbur from slaughter. Just as White's Stuart Little, about a mouse in a big city appealed to urban American children, Charlotte's Web was geared towards rural children who grew up living on a farm. The text is illustrated with forty-seven black and white drawings by Garth Williams, who also illustrated Stuart Little. In both, the artist's crosshatching illustrations portrayed a jovial subject matter beloved by children with a level of detail that simultaneously garnered adult admirers. White drew his inspiration for Charlotte's Web from his own experience tending to a sick pig, which he outlined in a 1947 essay for the Atlantic Monthly. [Attributes: First Edition; Hard Cover]

      [Bookseller: B & B Rare Books, Ltd., ABAA]

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White E. B
        CHARLOTTE'S WEB
      London: Hamish Hamilton, 1952. First Edition, the English issue. With pictures throughout by Garth Williams 8vo, publishers bright blue cloth pictorially lettered in a spiders web motif on the upper cover and spine in red and black, in the original dustjacket. [vi],170 pp. A very nice copy of this perennial favorite, the book near fine with just a hint of mellowing to the edges, the jacket likewise, solid and attractive with only the lightest amount of mellowing from time. FIRST EDITION AND A LOVELY COPY. In the 60 odd years since its publication, CHARLOTTE'S WEB has gained a stature accorded to only a small handful of books each decade. One might fairly group it with THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS and BLACK BEAUTY as a classic of the first distinction. The first editions have become scarce, especially in such nice condition.<br> E.B. White was a contributing editor to the New Yorker, a columnist for Harpers, and the author of adult books as well as the famous Elements of Style, by Strunk and White. White was also a poet and essayist. Thus, it may not be surprising that Charlottes Web is not only a masterpiece, but read by adults and children equally.

      [Bookseller: Buddenbrooks, Inc.]

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Steinbeck, John
        East of Eden
      Viking 1952 - First Edition, First Printing SIGNED by John Steinbeck on a tipped in signature. A stunning dustjacket that is rich in color with light wear to the edges. This original First Printing dustjacket has the price present on the front flap. The book is in excellent condition. The binding is tight, and the boards are crisp with minor wear to the edges. The pages are clean with no writing, marks or bookplates in the book. Overall, a beautiful copy of this TRUE FIRST EDITION SIGNED by the author. We buy SIGNED Steinbeck First Editions. [Attributes: First Edition; Signed Copy; Hard Cover]

      [Bookseller: Quintessential Rare Books, LLC]

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Vonnegut, Kurt
        Player Piano
      Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1952 - First Edition--has colophon and letter "A' on copyright page. Very Good Plus green boards with bright silver spine title. Very Good Plus dust jacket shows original price of $3.00. Spine of jacket is faded and stained although the stain does not affect the title. SIGNED BY Vonnegut on a bookplate laid in. A very attractive First Printing of Vonnegut's first book. The First Print run numbered 7,600 copies on August 31, 1952. From the back flap: "Reminiscent of Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD or Orwell's NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR, PLAYER PIANO is swift-moving, very intriguing and completely entertaining." ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; Signed by Author [Attributes: First Edition; Signed Copy; Hard Cover]

      [Bookseller: Good Books In The Woods, IOBA]

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Greene, Graham
        THE LITTLE HORSE BUS. Illustrated by Dorothy Craigie.
      Max Parrish, London 1952 - From TBCL's Children's Bookcase. Illustrated by Dorothy Glover under the name Dorothy Craigie. Glover & Graham Green had an affair from 1938 until the late forties. Squarish, slim 4to., 35pp. Illustrated throughout in colour. Original red cloth with gilt coach on upper cover. Original pictorial dustwrapper. First edition. A fine copy in wrapper with one tiny chip expertly restored at the spine crown. One of the four very uncommon Graham Greene children's adventures. R.A Wobbe; Graham Greene - Bibliography: Guide to Research, A29. [Attributes: First Edition; Hard Cover]

      [Bookseller: TBCL The Book Collector's Library]

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Kurt Vonnegut
        Player Piano
      Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952. Hardcover, Near Fine, Very Good. "Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1952. First Edition / First Printing. Scribner's Seal and ""A"" are present. Green cloth boards with silver lettering. Signed by Kurt Vonnegut on an attached bookplate at the front endpaper. The Signature is Guaranteed Authentic. Book Condition: Near Fine-, clean boards and pages, tight spine. Soft shelf wear, light spots at the rear board. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good, jacket price clipped, shelf wear, short tears. Stain at the rear panel, light spots. Wrapped in a new removable mylar cover."

      [Bookseller: 1st Editions and Antiquarian Books]

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Greene, Graham
        The Little Horse Bus
      Parrish 1952 - Size: Quarto. Text body is clean, and free from previous owner annotation, underlining and highlighting. Binding is tight, covers and spine fully intact. Slight foxing front/rear pages, but body of book mostly clean and unfoxed. Dust Jacket has large closed tears and associated wear. Dust Jacket un-clipped. All edges clean, neat and free of foxing. Illustrator: Dorothy Craigie. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilogram. Category: Children; Antiquarian & Rare. Pictures of this item not already displayed here available upon request. Inventory No: 9007. [Attributes: First Edition; Hard Cover]

      [Bookseller: Mr Pickwick's Fine Old Books]

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Vonnegut Jr., Kurt
        Player Piano
      Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1952 - Signed by Vonnegut on the free front end paper. An unread copy with general shelf wear and a slight lean. Some foxing to the rear end papers and the last page or two. General age discoloration. Book club edition, with the only printing history notated is an 'A' below the copyright info. Jacket poor- detached at rear hinge; front hinge half detached. All four flap corners lightly clipped, but Book Club Edition still present. Except for the bottom 1/4" of the spine, the rest of the jacket is present. Protected by brodart sleeve. [Attributes: Signed Copy; Hard Cover]

      [Bookseller: Jusara Book Shop]

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Vonnegut, Kurt
        PLAYER PIANO
      New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,. 1952. Octavo,. pictorial wrappers.. A fine copy with no fading and virtually no tanning to the wrappers.. The best of the handful of extant copies of this advance issue.. (#132211). Advance copy of the first edition. A pre-binding copy for review. "An estimated twenty-five to thirty copies were bound using the dust jacket as a wrapper and sent to reviewers prior to publication. The printed material which appeared on the flaps of the dust wrapper in the first edition was printed on two white strips of paper. These strips were laid-in [i.e. laid- down] inside the top cover." - Pieratt, Huffman-klinkowitz, and Klinkowitz AA1. The author's first book. "The United States has won the third world war. Production being totally automatic, almost the whole population is on a generous dole. Only the intelligent minority works." - Gerber, Utopian Fantasy (1973), p. 159. "Incisive satire; a classic modern dystopia." - Anatomy of Wonder (1987) 3- 392. Runner-up for the 1953 International Fantasy Award. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-1202. Berger, Science Fiction and the New Dark Age, pp. 17-9. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 244. Survey of Science Fiction Literature IV, pp. 1697-1701.

      [Bookseller: L. W. Currey, Inc.]

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Sendak, Maurice, illustrator] Krauss, Ruth.
        A Hole Is To Dig. A First Book of First Definitions [with] Kenny's Window.
      Harper & Brothers,, New York: 1952 - Two inscribed copies of Maurice Sendak's works, one "A Hole is To Dig", illustrated with photos of the dedicatee and Sendak dancing. With 'Grr-r- r" on p. 23, in a price clipped dust jacket. The other "Kenny's Window", first edition, first issue, both charmingly illustrated and inscribed by Sendak to June Shagaloff. "A Hole is To Dig" is illustrated by 2 miniature photographs, one a portrait of June and one of Sendak & June dancing. In a riff on the book's format, the back free endpaper is titled in red "A June-bug is to love". Above the photo of June & Maurice dancing, Sendak has drawn a small caption "End Lunch Counter Discrimination", a reference to June's activism with the NAACP. At the inside margin, Sendak has drawn a small girl, along with "Goodby Grr-r- r", and name "from Sassie Petellin 1960". At the time of the inscription, Sendak was dating June's sister, Bunny Shagaloff. June Shagaloff Alexander is a community activist. In 1950, she joined the NAACP Legal Department, later the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, headed by Thurgood Marshall, who would later become a Justice on the United States Supreme Court. She helped develop the social research which was critical in "Brown vs. the Board of Education" and worked to end discrimination in the United States. She retired from the NAACP in 1972. (Wikipedia).5 3/8 x 6 3/4" [48pp]. Green pictorial papered boards, black cloth spine, very good condition. The dust jacket is a little foxed , dusty & rubbed at edges. [WITH]"Kenny's Window". New York: Harper & Brothers, 1956. First edition, first issue. First book written and illustrated by Sendak, very scarce, this copy in a rare dust jacket, priced at $2.00. Copy inscribed to June Shagaloff, friend of Sendak's in the 1950s and the sister of Bunny Shagaloff, Sendak's female love interest. Bunny was invited to meet Sendak's parents, buying a yellow spring coat for the dinner. Inscribed on the front free endpaper "For June on her birthday - with much affection, Maurice", with a drawing of a boy holding a birthday cake. June Shagaloff Alexander is a community activist. In 1950, she joined the NAACP Legal Department, later the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, headed by Thurgood Marshall, who would later become a Justice on the United States Supreme Court. She helped develop the social research which was critical in "Brown vs. the Board of Education" and worked to end discrimination in the United States. She retired from the NAACP in 1972. (Wikipedia).8vo, [62pp], original pictorial tan cloth, title in black, tan buckram spine (a little etched on front upper spine panel), slightly bowed. Dust jacket tanned, with a large portion of the spine lacking but front and back panel largely intact. Endpapers a little foxed. Intriguing association copies- before Sendak clarified his sexual orientation. [Attributes: First Edition; Hard Cover]

      [Bookseller: Antipodean Books, Maps & Prints, ABAA]

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Miniature Book -
        Vater unser. (Lords Prayer).
      Waldmann & Pfitzner, München, 1952 - München, Waldmann & Pfitzner 1952). 0,5x0,5 cm. Schwarzer geprägter Maroquinband mit Deckelvergoldung in Plexiglasdose mit drehbarem Deckel. Spielmann 355. - Bondy 155. - An exceptionally small miniature book, containg the Lord's Prayer in German, English, Dutch, French, Spanish and Swedish. - Galt in den 50er Jahren als das kleinste mit beweglichen Lettern im Bleisatz hergestellte Buch. - Considéré les années cinquante comme le plus petit livre imprimé. Sprache: N Schwarzer geprägter Maroquinband mit Deckelvergoldung in Plexiglasdose mit drehbarem Deckel. [Attributes: Hard Cover]

      [Bookseller: Daniel Thierstein]

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Ellison, Ralph:
        INVISIBLE MAN.
      New York: Random House, [1952]. - Cloth. White spine stamping modestly flaked, as often, otherwise a very good copy in frayed shelfworn dust jacket that has been laminated by the former owner. First edition of the author's first novel, winner of the National Book Award for its year, and a key work of 20th century U.S. literature. Inscribed by the author in the year of publication: "For Al and Jean Wolfe, Sincerely, Ralph Ellison. April 1952." The recipient, the brother of novelist and Trotsky bodyguard Bernard Wolfe and one-time political activist, may have met Ellison during their years in the Merchant Marine. The inscription is dated within a few weeks of publication. BLOCKSON 86.

      [Bookseller: William Reese Company - Literature, ABAA]

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Fante, John
        Full of Life
      Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1952. Signed. First Edition, First Printing. In original dust jacket with price of $2.75 intact. Signed and warmly inscribed by John Fante on the front free end paper to a Los Angeles artist, Edmond Kohn. Inscription reads "For Ed Kohn for painting those delightful pictures of my children, and at such reasonable prices. -John Fante" In Very Good Minus condition, in a Very Good dust jacket. Clean text, though pages are age lightly toned. Boards show toning, with a scuff on the rear. The dust jacket shows sunning to the spine panel, edge wear with a few tears, two of which have been repaired from the verso. Chip to spine panel. Light soiling. A lovely inscription from Fante, offering a peek into his Hollywood life in '50s.

      [Bookseller: Burnside Rare Books]

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