The VNSA Book Sale includes a special section of rare and unusual books, carefully selected, researched, priced, and stored throughout the year. See these items, sold at past Book Sales (not currently for sale), in the Rare and Unusual category.
Cover to Cover
Michael Snow
Published by Nova Scotia College of Art and Design & New York University Press, Halifax, Canada and New York (1975)
Description: A collection of black and white photographs by experimental filmmaker Michael Snow. This is the legendary 1975 artist’s book that documents a short trip in a continuous sequence of images. Uncommon.
Infinite Light
James Turrell
Published Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AZ (2001)
Description: A beautiful folio in black hardcovers that open to reveal 4 pockets, each containing a booklet and color photos. In a slipcase. James Turrell is an American artist concerned primarily with light and space. He is best known for his work in progress, Roden Crater, a natural cinder cone crater near Flagstaff, Arizona that he is turning into a massive naked-eye observatory.
CHILDREN'S BOOKS
Lilly May and Dan: Two Children of the South
Marel Brown
Published by Home Mission Board Southern Baptist Convention, Atlanta, Georgia (1946)
Description: A rare little book, reportedly the first book illustrated by Lois Mailou Jones. She was an artist who painted and influenced others during the Harlem Renaissance and beyond during her long teaching and artistic career.
Lone Scouts of America (three volumes)
Published by Lone Scouts of America (circa 1918)
Description: Book One: Tepee Lodge Book (First, Second and Third Degrees), Book Two: Totem Pole Lodge Book (Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Degrees) and Book Three: Sagamore Lodge (Seventh Degree) and Lone Scout Record Book. The Lone Scouts of America was a separate scouting organization until it merged with the Boy Scouts of America in 1924.
CLASSICS
Cranford, A Tale
Mrs. Gaskell (Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell)
Published by MacMillan and Co., London (1923)
Description: Beautiful binding by the prestigious firm of Riviere and Sons. A polychrome binding. Leather has an impressed design which was then painted and sealed.
The History of Pendennis Two Volumes
William M. Thackery
Published by Bradbury and Evans, London (1848)
Description: Many engraved plates. Leather. Included is a letter to Thackery from a young fan and Thackery’s written response and signature.
FINANCE
How to Trade in Stocks: The Livermore Formula for Combining Time Element and Price
Jesse Lauriston Livermore
Published by Investors’ Press, Palisades Park, NJ (1966)
Description: Second edition, third printing. Preface by Paul Sarnoff. Livermore was a legendary stock trader who won and lost several fortunes. This work has long been regarded as a classic in the field of investment literature.
Succeed and Grow Rich Through Persuasion
Napoleon Hill and E. Harold Keown
Published by Hawthorn Books Inc., NY (1970)
Description: First edition, second printing. $5.95 original price is present and unclipped on front flap of dust jacket. Hill was an American author who was one of the earliest producers of personal-success literature.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Commentarii Ad Interpretatio nem Tituli
Petro Barbosa Lusitano
Published in Ulyssipone (Lisbon) (1613)
Description: Vellum-bound, 390 pages plus index. First edition law book.
Succeed and Grow Rich Through Persuasion
Napoleon Hill and E. Harold Keown
Published by Hawthorn Books Inc., NY (1970)
Description: First edition, second printing. $5.95 original price is present and unclipped on front flap of dust jacket. Hill was an American author who was one of the earliest producers of personal-success literature.
HISTORY
Back Home
Bill Mauldin
Published by William Sloane Associates. NY (1947)
Description: Inscribed and signed by Mauldin with a hand-drawn cartoon of a man smoking. The Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist’s humorous account of returning home after World War II, illustrated with 200 cartoons.
Diary of Samuel Pepys: 18 Volumes
Samuel Pepys
Published by E.B. Hall and Associates, Boston (No published date)
Description: Number 84 of 500 copies. Edited by Henry B. Wheatley. The detailed private diary that Pepys kept from 1660 to 1669 is one of the most important primary sources for the English Restoration period, including accounts of great events such as the Great Plague, the Second Dutch War, and the Great Fire of London.
RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
Franklin Mint Family Bible
Published by Franklin Mint, Franklin Center, Pennsylvania (1974)
Description: This beautiful bible has an ornate sculptured Sterling Silver cover. The King James Version has over 1250 pages. It has a personalized page but the family record section has not been written in. Silk endpapers and ribbon, and velvet lined box.
Hexapla in Leviticum: That Is, A Six-Fold Commentarie Upon the Third Booke of Moses, Called Leviticus
Printed by Aug. Matthewes, for Robert Milbourne, at the sign of the Greyhound in Pauls Church-yard (1631)
OTHER SUBJECTS
Twenty-First Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1889-1900
John Wesley Powell - Director
Published by the Government Printing Office, Washington (1903)
Description: Administration Report, Hopi Katcinas Drawn by Native Artists by Jesse Walter Fewkes, and Iroquian Cosmology First Part by J.N.B. Hewitt. Nice colored plates of Katcinas.
Bacchus Behave! The Lost Art of Polite Drinking
Alma Whitaker
Published by Frederick A. Stokes, NY (1933).
Description: Third Printing. A scarce mixology title. Interesting book about “how, when and why to serve civilized people with: Cocktails, Gin, Liqueurs, Rum, Beer, Whisky, Brandy, Wines, Champagne, Punches and Cups.”
VINTAGE NEWSPAPERS
Loose & Folios
A Collection of Loose Issues:
The New York Tribune – Civil War Era
Scientific American – many copies from the mid-1800’s to the early 1900’s
The American Machinist from the 1800’s
Harper’s Weekly from the late 1800’s
The Epic News, Upton Sinclair, editor
Public Ledger of Philadelphia - Civil War Era
Turf, Field and Farmer from 1894-1902
The Horseman – late 1800’s
Folios:
The New Yorker 1837-1838
The London Times – 1863, containing excerpts from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
Moore’s Rural New Yorker of 1851
The National Stockman and Farmer of 1889
UNIQUE SMALL BOOKS
Sampling: small books available at the sale
Julius Caesar, The Taming of the Shrew, The Lady of the Lake, An IllustratedShakespeare Birthday-Book, The Sonnets of William Shakespeare, various small books printed by Tommasini, books by the Little Leather Library, Selected Tales ofGuy de Maupassant, and many books in the Ten Cent Series.