Recent Acquisitions
March 24th, 2026
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A note on OCLC
As is now the norm, OCLC counts are tentative, at best, as we recognize that searches using different qualifiers will often turn up different results. Searches are now further complicated by the vast numbers of digital, microfilm, and even print-on-demand copies, which have polluted the database considerably, making it difficult, without numerous phone calls or emails, to determine the actual number of tangible copies. Hence, even though the counts herein have been recently checked, most all should be taken as a measure of approximation.
1. [Bible in Kuoyü and English, N.T.] 新約全書:中英文合璧 = The New Testament in Kuoyü and English. [Shanghai]: China Bible House, 1949.
$250
First edition of the Kuoyü and English New Testament printed in an edition of 500 copies; 8vo, pp. 908; Kuoyü and English in parallel columns; 2 double-page maps at the back; original maroon cloth, gilt-stamped spine; very good, sound, and clean.
"Permission to use the text of the Revised Version (English)--has been granted by the Oxford and Cambridge University Presses, but they accept no responsibility for this reprint of the text." AI notes: "The China Bible House was the first national Bible society in China, established in 1937 as a collaboration between the British and Foreign Bible Society, the American Bible Society, and the National Bible Society of Scotland. It was responsible for Bible translation, publishing, and distribution but was dissolved in 1951 when foreign societies were forced to withdraw from China due to the Korean War and government policies against 'western-imperialist' influences."
2. Airmail. The letters of Robert Bly and Tomas Transtromer. Edited by Thomas R. Smith. Original Swedish publication edited by Torbjorn Schmidt. [Minneapolis]: Graywolf Press, [2013].
$125
First American edition, 8vo, pp. xxv, [1], 474, [4]; fine copy in an unclipped dust jacket.
Inscribed by Robert Bly "For John - With love always, Robert." And additionally signed and dated (4/2/13) by the editor, Thomas R. Smith.
Three hundred letters 1964-1990 between the American National Book Award Winner (Bly) and the Nobel Laureate in Literature in 2011 (Transtromer). The "John" in the inscription is the Minnesota poet John Resmerski (1942-2016).
3. The fifties. First- [third] issue. Pine Island, Minnesota: The Fifties, 1958-59.
$750
3 volumes, complete; 8½" x 5½" (first two issues), 8⅝" x 5⅜" (third issue); pp. 52; 56; 60; very good in original printed wrappers; staples showing through the front cover on the inaugural issue, but not the first issue as described by Gustfason where the staples were through the wrappers; this copy inscribed by Bly, but Bly (or possibly someone else) has crossed out the 3-line inscription on the first leaf, but has left the name "R. Bly." The crossout is in the same blue ink so it seems likely it was crossed out by Bly. On the front cover in pencil, also in Bly's hand, are the words: "No good."
Continues publication in 1960 as: The Sixties. Nos. Four- [ten]. Madison, Minnesota: The Sixties Press, 1960-68. 7 volumes complete; 8½" x 5⅜" (nos. 4-7), 8⅜" x 5⅜" (nos. 8-10); pp. 68; 90; 80; 84; 102, 80; 79, [1]; very good in original printed wrappers; laid into no. 4 is an order form and prospectus single sheet printed both sides on blue paper; laid into no. 5 is a bifoliate prospectus and order form printed on white paper, as well as a duplicate of the order form and prospectus single sheet printed both sides on blue paper; no. 6 with a previous owner's name "Kurzon" on the first page, and with a pre-paid envlope for ordering laid in. Nos. 4 and 5 edited by Bly and Duffy, thereafter by Bly alone.
Continues publication in 1972 as: The Seventies. No. 1 (all published). Edited by Robert Bly. Madison, Minnesota: The Seventies Press, 1972. 8½" x 5⅜", pp. 95, [1]; very good in original printed wrappers.
After The Seventies, no. 1 the magazine ceased publication until 2001 when no. 1 of The Thousands was issued in honor of Bly's 75th birthday. This issue is not present here, otherwise complete.
The first 11 issues of this major poetry journal, with contributions by the editors as well as Henri Michaux, Gary Snyder, Donald Hall, W. D. Snodgrass, Gunnar Ekelof, Robert Creeley, James Wright, Mirko Tuma, David Ignatow, Denise Levertov, Enrique González Martínez, Antonio Machado, Federico García Lorca, George Kresenky, Pablo Neruda, Thomas McGrath, James Dickey, Galway Kinnell, Cesar Vallejo, Tomas Transtromer, and others.
Gustafson A1-A11; for the ephemera see Gustfason C10, C17, and C23.
4. Iron John: a book about men. Redding, Massachusetts, [et al.]: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, [1990].
$250
First edition, 8vo, pp. xi, [1], 268, [4]; fine copy in a fine dust jacket.
This copy with a long inscription on the title page by Bly: "For Tom on his fortieth birthday as a gift from John and Kathy - about 8 years more and you'll be ready to start !! Robert Bly Oct 12 '90."
Bly's most famous and best-selling book that got him out of debt and bought him a nice home in Minneapolis. Wikipedia notes that it spent 62 weeks on the NY Times bestseller list.
5. Saturday nights at Marietta. [Minneapolis]: Minnesota Center for Book Arts, 1999.
$225
First edition limited to 125 copies signed by Bly, (this, no. 93), oblong 8vo, 17 frenchfold leaves (2 folding); 15 pieces of visual interpretations by various book artists and printmakers, artist statements by Steve Miller and Beth Grabowski printed on slips (laid in); fine in original Moulin de Larroque Colombe paper-covered boards by Jill Jevne, and a folding wooden box. There is also a chapbook issue of 200 unsigned copies, and a deluxe issue of 26 lettered copies.
6. Sleepers joining hands. New York [et al.]: Harper & Row, [1973].
$150
First edition, 8vo, pp. [10], 67, [3]; a fine copy in a very good to near fine unclipped dust jacket showing 2 or 3 small stains.
This copy inscribed by Bly March 3 1977 "For Drew ... Robert Bly" with a drawing of two frowning chickens (?) on the front free endpaper.
7. This body is made of camphor and gopherwood. Prose poems ... Drawings by Gendron Jensen. New York [et al.]: Harper & Row, [1977].
$425
First edition, wrapper issue; 8vo, pp. 59, [3]; near fine copy in original pictorial wrappers.
With a long inscription by Bly on the half-title: "Jeanne - This is the best answer I can give to your good letter! I'm glad to have some news of the place, and it sounds firm and hard working! As for hurting, I think you will come back out of it now. I'll tell the Travelling Troupe they're wanted in Boulder; Andy Dick and John R and Ann Arbor are running it - I don't know what they plan to do! Don't take the snails too seriously here -- Love, Robert."
Mark Gustafson helped me decipher the inscription. He says "Ann Arbor (really!) and her husband John Rosenwald were in on the ground floor of the Great Mother Conference (1975). If Andy Dick, wasn't there, he was quickly involved. After the 1976 conference, the three of them, with Bly, formed the Great Mother Travelling Troupe that went around the Midwest for a few years doing crazy things, including Bly's play, 'The Thornbush Cock Giant.' Later, if not already, Andy's partner was Jeanne [D’Amico]."
8. [Title in Chinese]. The dragon, image, and demon or, the three religions of China; Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, giving an account of the mythology, idolatry, and demonolatry of the Chinese. Richmond, Va.: Presbyterian Committee of Publication, [1899].
$85
First edition, 8vo, pp. [3]-468; wood-engraved illustrations throughout; very good, sound and clean copy in original green cloth, gilt stamped on upper cover and spine.
"Shongolo Presbyterian School, No. 34" in manuscript on front pastedown. First published in New York in 1887.
9. Dzongkha dictionary. Thimphu, Bhutan: Dzongkha Development Authority, Ministry of Education, 2005.
$125
Thick 8vo, pp. [10], 1041, [1]; in Dzongkha (choekad) script throughout; lexicon in double column; fine in original laminate boards.
"Dzongkha dictionary 2005" on the spine. The dictionary was originally published in 1993.
10. Forbidden road--Kabul to Samarkand. New York: E. P. Dutton, (1937).
$125
First American edition, 8vo, pp. xi, [1], 289, [1]; map and 76 illustrations from photographs on rectos and versos of 16 plates; flyleaf excised, else a very good copy in a very good dust jacket.
Forbes (1890-1967) was a British travel writer and an intrepid explorer, often crossing forbidden borders, and pushing the limits of what would have been expected from a woman in foreign lands.
Yakushi F-130.
11. Amerikasvenska: en bok om språkutvecklingen i Svensk-Amerika. [Stockholm]: Esselte Studium, [1974].
$125
First edition, 12mo, pp. 324; tables and graphs in the text; slight spine crease else fine in original decorative wrappers. Issued as no. 51 in the publisher's Skrifter utgivna av Svenska språknämnden series.
This copy inscribed in Swedish by the author (and later president of the University of Minnesota) to the Russian-American linguist, etymologist, and poet Anatoly Liberman (and later Professor of Germanic Philology at the University of Minnesota).
A study of American-Swedish, and its development.
12. Poor women!. New York and London: Harper & Brothers publishers, 1929.
$250
First American edition; 8vo, pp. viii, [4], 333, [1]; original red cloth, gilt-stamped on upper cover and spine; spine faded, else very good, sound, and clean. This copy inscribed by the author: "Again to my darling Oliver - Norah."
The Oliver in the inscription is Oliver Stonor, her husband at the time.
Poor women! was Hoult's first published book. It enjoyed critical success and saw a second printing, with Hoult going on to write 28 books total, but she has since become a obscure author and all but one of her books are out of print.
13. Chih-I (538-597): an introduction to the life and ideas of a Chinese Buddhist monk. Bruxelles: Institute belge des hautes écoles chinoises, 1980.
$150
First edition, 8vo, pp. [4], 372; largely unopened; generally fine in original printed pea-green wrappers. Issued as volume XII in the publisher's Mélanges chinois et bouddhiques series.
Chih-i or Zhiyi "was a Chinese Buddhist monk, philosopher, meditation teacher, and exegete. He is considered to be the founder of the Tiantai Buddhist tradition, as well as its fourth patriarch. Śramaṇa Zhiyi is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the development of East Asian Buddhist thought and practice. As the first major Chinese Buddhist thinker to construct a comprehensive religious system based primarily on Chinese interpretations, Zhiyi played a crucial role in synthesizing various strands of Mahayana Buddhism into a unique coherent framework. According to David W. Chappell, Zhiyi 'has been ranked with Thomas Aquinas and al-Ghazali as one of the great systematizers of religious thought and practice in world history'" (Wikipedia).
14. Some aspects of Chinese life and thought being lectures delivered under the auspices of Peking Language School 1917-1918. Shanghai and Peking: Kwang Hsueh Publishing House, [1918].
$85
First edition, 8vo, pp. [4], ii, 186; small flaw at base of spine, else very good, sound, and clean in original green cloth, gilt-stamped on upper cover.
Ten lectures by Westerners "on subjects of current interest in Chinese affairs."
15. Koreans in Soviet Central Asia. Helsinki: Finnish Oriental Society, 1987.
$125
8vo, pp. 262; 6 full-page maps, 80 illustrations, primarily from photographs; very good, clean, and sound in original printed yellow wrappers.
"Written by a Korean scholar who lives and works in Helsinki, Finland, the work describes the Korean ethnic group in Soviet Central Asia, a little known and insufficiently investigated subject of research. The Korean minority in the Soviet Union is a special phenomenon in itself; it consists entirely of immigrants, mostly of the second to the fourth generations ... He has compiled this valuable work only on the basis of written materials because he had no opportunity to visit Soviet Central Asia and carry out field research" (persee[.]fr/doc/asie).
16. Issa. Ten poems. English versions by Robert Bly. [N.p.: privately printed], 1969.
$150
Edition limited to 2000 copies, 7" x 5½", pp. [32]; 11 full-page illustrations; fine copy in original card wrappers and pictorial taupe dust jacket.
"These Ten Poems by Issa were first published by Robert Bly in 1972 and handed out to audiences at readings, in workshops and classes, and to children everywhere. Thanks to Robert for permission to reprint them now" (copyright page). In fact, these poems were first published in 1969.
This copy inscribed "For Rolland Comstock / The book says: 'Excuse me for going first!' Yours, Robert Bly 9 Jan 93."
Rolland Comstock is all over the internet and is the subject of The Wicked Among Us by James Owens, a true-crime story of a country lawyer and renowned book collector shot to death in his home in Missouri in 2007.
17. Ten poems by Issa. English versions by Robert Bly. Illustrated by Arthur Okamura. Point Reyes Station: Floating Island Publications, 1992.
$350
First edition, first printing with 'Issa' in red, and the whole printed letterpress; subsequent issues were printed offset; approx. 4¼" 5⅜", pp. [8]; title page printed in red and black; 2 soft creases; very good. Reportedly, 500 copies were printed.
This copy inscribed "For Jeanne / with fondness always - I say more water! more water! / Robert."
"Ann Arbor and her husband John Rosenwald were in on the ground floor of the Great Mother Conference (1975). If Andy Dick, wasn't there, he was quickly involved. After the 1976 conference, the three of them, with Bly, formed the Great Mother Travelling Troupe that went around the Midwest for a few years doing crazy things, including Bly's play, 'The Thornbush Cock Giant.' Later, if not already, Andy's partner was Jeanne" (Gustfason).
"This booklet is a gift, and not to be sold" (p. 2). "Issa was a Japanese poet, born in 1763, who died in 1827. He is the greatest haiku poet of the 19th century, the greatest frog poet in the world, the greatest fly poet in the world, and maybe the greatest child poet in the world. You can find more of his poems in A YEAR OF MY LIFE by ISSA, translated by Nobuyuki Yuasa, Univ. of California Press, $1.25, and in HAIKU, (4 volumes) (56.00 apiece) by R. H. BLYTH, Hokuseido Press, available through Japan Trading Co., P. O. Box 7752, Rincon Annex, 1255 Howard St, San Francisco, Cal. 94119" (p. 8).
Gustafson B12a: "Bly distributed copies of this free pamphlet at his readings." OCLC locates 33 copies but without distinguishing among the three printings. In our experience, this first printing is quite uncommon, as we've handled at least 4 copies of the later printings, but never this first printing until now.
18. [Title in Russian =] Nivkhsu: mysterious inhabitants of Sakhalin and Amur. Mockba: Nauka, 1973.
$950
First edition, 8vo, pp. 493, [3]; 24 illustrations in the text; text toned, 2 or 3 short tears on the final leaves, otherwise very good and sound in original blue cloth stamped in silver and black on upper cover and spine.
This copy inscribed in Russian by the author to the Russian-American linguist, etymologist, and poet Anatoly Liberman. In English, the inscription reads: "To Anatoly Simonovich Liberman, a wonderful man and brilliant scholar, with very best wishes from the author." Says Liberman: "Yuri Abramovich Kreinovich, an outstanding ethnographer, a former GULAG prisoner. He was my colleague at the Institute of Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR."
Kreynovich (1906-1985) was a teacher in national schools on Sakhalin 1926-28, liquidator of illiteracy among the Nivkhs and authorized representative for native affairs at the presidium of the Sakhalin regional revolutionary committee. At the same time, he collected linguistic and ethnographic materials among the Nivkhs and Gilyaks. As a member of a counter-revolutionary group he was later sentenced by the Military Tribunal of the Leningrad Military District in 1938 to 10 years of imprisonment. In prison he studied the Yukaghir, Koryak, and Even languages. He was released in May 1947 and lived in exile in the city of Luga near Leningrad. From July to December 1947, he worked under a contract for the Institute of Foreign Languages. In February 1948, he defended his candidate's dissertation based on the book "The Yukaghir Language." He was arrested again in 1948, and in 1949 was exiled to a settlement in Krasnoyarsk Krai [Siberia]. He worked as a paramedic, continuing his scientific research. He was released from exile in September 1954. In October 1955, he was rehabilitated. From 1956, he was a research associate at the Leningrad Institute of Languages of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1971, he defended his doctoral dissertation. (See the website of the IOFE Fund at arch2.iofe[dot]center/en/person/20427).
On verso of title page, via googtrans: "The author of this book lived and worked among the Nivkhs in the Amur River region from 1926 to 1928, studying their lives and customs. This book is the result of this. This diary describes the Nivkhs' way of life, their customs, rituals (including the bear's right), and religious beliefs. It also cites myths, legends, and folklore."
Not found in OCLC.
19. Gustav John Ramstedt. Seven journeys eastward, 1898-1912. Among the Cheremis, Kalmyks, Mongols and in Turkestan and to Afghanistan. With 52 photographs by the author. Translated from the Swedish & edited by John R. Krueger. Bloomington: The Mongolia Society, 1978.
$125
First edition, 8vo, pp. 277, [1]; printed from typescript; with 52 photographs "from Ramstedt's original Finnish edition ... a few of them (landscapes, rivers) are not so unique, but others, as the pictures of the Kalmyk lama, Baza Bakshi, are rare treasures." Light toning of the wrappers, else near fine, clean, and sound in original printed blue wrappers. Issued as no. 9 in the publisher's Occasional Paper series.
Rozycki 1.120.
20. The early empires of central Asia. A study of the Scythians and the Huns and the part they played in world history; with special reference to the Chinese sources. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1939.
$150
First edition, 8vo, pp. xii, [4], 529, [1]; 7 full-page maps, 9 illustrations on 3 plates; a fine copy in a fine unclipped dust jacket.
"Though there are several monographs on various special aspects of the field, this work represents the first attempt in any European language to cover as a whole the early history of Central Asia, from the earliest times (c. 3000 B.C.) down to the sixth century A.D. Central Asia includes the regions now known as Manchuria, Mongolia, Chinese Turkistan, and Russian Turkistan. A good deal of attention is also given to Southern Russia, which geographically speaking is but an annex of Central Asia. Mr. Mc-Govern's book gives a comprehensive survey of all that is known regarding the early inhabitants of this area, with special attention being given to the Scythians and the Huns" (jacket blurb).
Yakushi M-271.
21. Moby Dick or the whale... Illustrated by Rockwell Kent. Garden City: Garden City Publishing Co., [1937].
$225
"De Luxe Edition," 8vo, pp. [2], xxxi, [1], 822, [6]; illustrations throughout by Rockwell Kent, many full-page; previous owner's stamp on fore-edge, and corresponding bookplate, else a very good, sound, and clean copy in original blue cloth stamped in gilt on upper cover and spine; preserving a fair, worn, torn, and tired dust jacket with tape repairs on verso.
Reprint of the 1930 trade edition published by Random House, and containing all the original Kent illustrations as appeared in the 3-volume Lakeside Press edition of the same year.
Tanselle 18b.
22. Moby Dick. Illustrated by Rockwell Kent. New York: Random House, 1930.
$450
First edition thus, with illustrations as in the limited 3-volume "fish-in-the-can" edition, but with the text entirely reset; thick 8vo, pp. xxxii, 822, [6]; hundreds of illustrations throughout after the woodcuts of Rockwell Kent; original pictorial silver-stamped black cloth; small manila pocket affixed to front pastedown, small owner's rubberstamp on front free endpaper of Grace E. M. Waddell, but still a very good, sound, and clean copy, lacking the jacket.
Kent's magnum opus, and the most influential of all illustrated editions of the novel.
Tansell 18.
23. The works of Herman Melville. Standard edition. New York: Russell & Russell, Inc., 1963.
$1,500
A page-for-page reissue of the London 1922-24 Constable edition, 16 volumes, 8vo; original beige cloth stamped in black and red on spine, and preserving the plain brown paper dust jackets with reveal hole in spines to show volume number, and lettered in typescript. A jacket or two with a nick or a tear, but overall this is a fine set. This set with the original invoice from Russell & Russell to the original buyer dated Nov. 11, 1963: $80 pre-publication price.
The original Constable edition was the first collected edition of Melville's works, and included the first edition of Billy Budd, Foretopman; the first English edition of Clarel, a Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land; the first printings of 9 short sketches; and 15 other stories and poem sequences which appeared there for the first time in book form. Volume XII contained a Melville bibliography (the first) by Michael Sadleir.
BAL 13707: "A reprint of the Constable Edition, 1922-1924 ... Vols. 13 and 16 contain some material here first printed in an American book." BAL 13708 (Billy Budd) containing the first American book publications of 10 shorter Melville prose pieces. BAL 13709 (Poems...) containing the first American book publications of three poems and a prose dedication.
24. Delhi-Chungking: a travel diary. Foreword by Jawaharlal Nehru. [Bombay]: Oxford University Press, [1947].
$150
First edition, 8vo, pp. viii, [4], 257; 2 folding maps in cover pocket, 19 illustrations on rectos and versos of 6 plates; fine copy in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
"In 1944 India's diplomatic representative in China made an overland journey by horse, yak, station wagon, and aeroplane to Chungking. This is the diary of his 125-day pilgrimage" (jacket blurb).
25. Полное собрание сочинений в трех томах / Polnoe sobranie sochineniĭ v trekh tomakh. Magadan: Izdatelʹstvo "Okhotnik", 2017.
$250
First edition, 3 volumes, pp. 502; 553, [1]; 477, [1]; volumes II and III illustrated in the text; original white pictorial laminate boards; very good, sound, and clean.
Volume I is titled The Heads of My Friends: Stories. Volume II: A Very Small Globe: Stories; volume II: Memories, Letters, Essays, Photographs.
Taken wholesale and edited for clarity from цбс-магадан[dot]рф/regional-studies/famous-people/prozaik/miftakhutdinov-albert-valeevich/:
Born and raised in the Russian Arctic, Albert Miftakhutdinov was a prose writer, essayist, and member of the Union of Writers of the USSR. He was born in Ufa on May 11, 1937 in the family of a naval officer. After graduating from the Faculty of Journalism of the University of Kiev, he worked in Chukotka as a correspondent for district and regional newspapers, as an ichthyologist, a technician-geologist, an inspector of red yarangas, and a screenwriter. In 1973, he moved to Magadan on the east coast of Russia opposite the Kamchatka Peninsula, the city for which he is identified.
His first literary works began to appear in the early 60s on the pages of periodicals, including the magazine "Smena", and the almanac "In the Far North". The main theme of Miftakhutdinov's work is the North, its nature, people, work, the search for moral guidelines, among which he especially singled out the most consonant with his own spiritual makeup - loyalty to friendship, and kindness. The writer's work is warmed by a reckless love for the North; his heart is drawn to the kind and childishly trusting indigenous people of Chukotka, who inhabit his books.
Miftakhutdinov is a laureate of the Magadan Komsomol Prize (1973), awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor. In 1973-1982 he headed the Magadan branch of the Union of Writers of the USSR, was a delegate to the 4th and 5th congresses of the Union of Writers of the RSFSR. His books have been translated into English, Czech, Bulgarian, Polish, Romanian.
Miftakhutdinov died on November 4, 1991 in Moscow. He was buried in Magadan. His last book Crusade on Blondes was published posthumously in 1994 by the Magadan Book Publishing House. It contains the best of what A. Miftakhutdinov managed to write and give to people.
In the US OCLC locates copies at LC, Stanford, Indiana, Harvard, Duke, and Texas.
26. China ancient and modern. A history of the Chinese Empire from the dawn of civilization to the present time ... Illustrated with reproductions of original photos., many of which were taken by the author.. N.p. [Chicago?: publisher not identified but possibly Monarch Book Co.], n.d. [ca. 1900].
$100
Large 8vo, pp. 490; 47 plates; illustrated brown boards; lower hinge starting, a touch of edgewear, endpapers toned; all else very good.
James Martin Miller (1859-1939)" wrote a number of works largely sold by subscription, on world events, disasters, and popular biographies. This is largely a derivative work, with images of footbinding, executions, opium use, and temple scenes. Includes "a complete account of the Boxer Uprising, the outbreak of hostilities, massacre of missionaries, suffering of foreign residence, mobilization of fleets and armies, final readjustment, etc. etc." The book was also issued under the title: China, the yellow peril at war with the world published in Chicago by the Monarch Book Co., in 1901.
27. Faith and duty. Sermons preached in the English cathedral Shanghai. Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh, Limited, 1902.
$200
8vo, pp. [4], v, [1], iii, [1], 190, [2]; full burgundy cloth; ex-Canon Sowter's Library with call number on spine and bookplate on pastedown, spine sunned, endpapers foxed, textblock clean and sound, very good.
George Evans Moule was an Anglican Bishop in central China, and found himself trapped in Shanghai during the Boxer rebellion. The sermons included in this book were given during this period of a "residence much longer than usual, occasioned by the political circumstances of the time."
28. Al-Mufid: a learner's English-Arabic dictionary. [Beirut]: Librairie du Liban, [1985].
$65
First edition, 8vo, pp. xii, [4], 564; lexicon in double column; illustrations in green and black throughout; very good, sound, and clean, in original black cloth stamped in gilt on upper cover and spine.
29. Twenty poems. Translated by James Wright and Robert Bly. [Madison, Minn.]: Sixties Press, 1967.
$375
First edition, 8vo, pp. 111, [1]; title page printed in red and black; full-page drawing of Neruda by Zamorano on p. [3]; unclipped dust jacket with 2 shallow chips (slight loss to printed border) and 2 short tears (no loss); all else very good or better.
This copy inscribed "For John - Here's a sugar cube! Warm wishes, Robert, 16 Oct. '68."
The inscription is to the Minnesota poet John Resmerski, a long-time friend of Robert Bly.
Gustafson B9.a noting that 1000 copies were issued in in boards.
30. Ut i nottina. Skaldsaga. Hunavatnshreppi: Bokautgafan Merkjalaek, 2018.
$150
8vo, pp. 156; fine in original pictorial wrappers.
With a lengthy autograph holiday card laid in from Magnús Pétursson, the brother of the author, and a noted Icelandic scholar of phonetics and phonology. He writes in Icelandic to the Russian-American linguist, etymologist, and poet Anatoly Liberman:
"My brother, who is the author of the previous dispatches, wrote the enclosed novel for fun and published it himself. I received it from him and asked him to send me a copy last summer ... I hope you will like it, although it does not make any sense, but this is how Icelandic is written by civilized people who do not deal with linguistics like us. The Icelandic government recently proposed a budget to support Icelandic book publishing by 25%, i.e. 25% of the cost of printing in Icelandic will be paid by The Ministry of Education and Culture and in addition, value-added tax on books will be reduced. This is done in the hope that books in Icelandic will be read more, but the sale and reading of books in Icelandic has declined dangerously ... Best regards and warm New Year wishes, Magnús."
The author is a veterinarian in Iceland, an organist, and a farmer. This is his first novel.
31. Gran Alarma Escandalosa que se vio alla por Chihuahua. Al oir los tristes lamentos de un patito con Teresa que no llena su barrica por causa de la pobreza. Mexico [City]: Antonio Vanegas Arroyo, 1919.
$150
Broadsheet, approx. 11¾" x 7¾", woodcut illustration at the head by José Guadalupe Posada (Mexican, 1851–1913); paper toned, else near fine.
Pictorial broadside printing a corrido narrative ballad that addresses poverty, with an image of a duck with the head of a man embracing a woman in Victorian dress.
Four in OCLC, only Yale in the U.S.
32. Gardening. Iowa City: Stone Wall Press, 1960.
$85
Edition limited to 150 numbered copies signed by Rutsala (this, no. 43); tall 8vo, pp [4]; double-fold; fine. From the library of Kim Merker.
Berger, Printing and the Mind of Merker, A2: "David Knudsen (Merker A1) and Gardening were preliminary tests for the [Collected Poems of Weldon Kees]. I'm not sure what I learned but that was the reason for them. I used them as gifts to people who were buying books from the press."
33. The Monguors of the Kansu-Tibetan frontier, volumes I-III: (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society ... New Series Volume 44, Part 1, Volume 47 Part 1, Volume 51 Part 3). Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1954-1961.
$125
3 volumes, 4to; text illustrations; printed brown wrappers; first volume with underlining and blacked out owner's signature on wrapper, volumes II and III clean; very good.
The author spent many years in Kansu primarily as a missionary and while there made a close study of the Monguor communities.
34. Columbia Artists presents first time in America direct from China Shanghai Acrobatic Theater. New York: Columbia Artists Management Inc., [1980].
$150
4to, pp. [24]; text illustrations throughout; pictorial yellow wrappers, fine.
With 25 signatures of the various performers throughout, including Xue Jingjing and Pan Sumei.
Not in OCLC.
35. Атлас мира. Америка = World atlas: America. Mockba: Main Department of Geodesy and Cartography under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, 1975.
$150
Folio, 13¼" x 9½", pp. 38, [2]; 24 colored maps (10 double-page); slight toning at the edges else a very good, sound, and clean copy.
Also issued in the same format were atlases of Europe and Africa, both under the same editorship.
Six locations in OCLC, only Ohio State in the U.S.
36. Four years' campaign in India ... Third edition. New York: Nelson & Phillips, 805, Broadway, 1875.
$75
8vo, pp. xix, [1], 416; 3 wood-engraved plates (including frontispiece), 10 pages of tables; original purple cloth, gilt-stamped spine, a.e.g.; spine a little sunned, else a very good, sound, and clean copy.
Printed the same year as the first edition. Library rules of St. Anthony Lodge on front free endpaper printed on blue paper, and a small (removeable) sticker on the spine).
37. Advanced Dzongkha dictionary. Thimphu, Bhutan: KMT Publishing House, 2004.
$100
Third edition, thick 8vo, pp. [28], 1602; some of the preliminaries are in English but the lexicon proper is in Choekad (Dzongkha) script; lexicon in double column; very good, sound, and clean in original laminate boards.
From the Preface: "Almost 60% of the words in the dictionary are of Choekad. From the 8th century onwards, as the process of Buddhist learning began in the country, most dialects of various regions of Bhutan became closely related to Dharma words. Moreover, since most of the Dzongkha words are phonetically (ngag gshis) related to Choekad, the Choekad words form the root of the Dzongkha language; the Choekad words are, therefore, explained in Dzongkha, for better understanding. 30% of the words are Dzongkha phonetic words; 10% of the words are newly coined words based on English. In some cases, one or two examples of sentence construction are provided. A few archaic terms/words (brda rnying) are included, in order to enable readers to understand the meanings of old words ... 'One word' representing 'many meanings' and 'one meaning representing 'many words' are also included ... Furthermore, important numbering steps/methods (rkang grangs) are also provided. Some words which are used in various native dialects of different regions of the country, but not used in Dzongkha, are mentioned in order to benefit in the promotion of Dzongkha vocabulary. Grammatical applications of Dzongkha, with some examples of sentences, are also provided. Mention has also been made of some synonyms, antonyms and polite forms of words which are relevant to the present day."
Of this edition, five in OCLC, all in Germany.
38. "Ways that are dark." Some chapters on Chinese etiquette and social procedure. Shanghai, Hongkong, Singapore, & Yokohama: Kelly & Walsh, Limited, n.d., [1912].
$125
8vo, pp. 276; frontispiece and 12 photographic plates; bookplate removed, missionary ownership signature on flyleaf, original red cloth stamped in gilt on upper cover and spine; tiny pinhole in spine, else very good, sound and clean.
"W. Gilbert Walshe was the editorial secretary of the “Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge among the Chinese,” and a long-term resident of China in the last years of the Qīng dynasty. Foreigners, often missionaries, annoyed Walshe by their disregard of Chinese etiquette, a disregard based more often on ignorance than on boorishness, and he was happy to undertake a commission to try to improve their behavior" (https://pages[.]ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/chin/chtxts/Walshe-EtiquetteForMissionaries.html).
39. བོད་ཤན་སྦྱར་གྱི་ལྟ་སའི་ཁ་སྐད་ཚིག་མཛོད། / Bod Rgya śan sbyar gyi Lha saʼi kha skad tshig mdzod / 藏汉对照拉萨口语词典 / Zang Han dui zhao Lasa kou yu ci dian [= Tibetan-Chinese dictionary of Colloquial Lhasa dialect]. [Beijing]: Publishing House of Minority Nationalities, [1983].
$125
8vo, pp. [2], 25, [1], 1077, [1]; terms in Tibetan with romanized pronunciation and Chinese definitions; publisher's red cloth gilt; textblock a touch cocked, light edgewear, about fine.
40. Precious deposits: historical relics of Tibet, China. Beijing: Morning Glory Publishers. Chicago, IL: Distributed by Art Media Resources, 2000.
$500
First editions, 5 volumes, small folio, lavishly illustrated throughout in full color; two small underlines of the volume numbers on the spines of the first two volumes, else a fine set in the dust jackets.
Volume 1: Prehistoric age and Tubo period; volume II: The period of separatist regimes; volume III: Yuan dynasty and Ming dynasty; volume IV: Qing dynasty; volume V: Qing dynasty and the Republic of China.
The text is by Zla-ba-tshe-ring ... et al. and the translation into English is Xiang Hongjia. Photographed by Yan Zhongyi and others. "These five magnificent volumes introduce the history and culture of Tibet from the Paleolithic Age to the 1940s through over 700 precious cultural relics. It is divided chronologically into five volumes, covering arts, architecture, cultures, politics, military affairs, religions, science, technology, trade and business, transportation, social life, etc. Each volume has many special topics with a brief essay that provides information about important events and cultural features in the related period.
"Most of the objects in these five volumes are rarely known and are published here for the first time. They belong the monasteries and institutions in Tibet, and include a wide range of materials: paintings (both Thangkas and wall paintings), sculptures, manuscripts, excavated relics, and ritual objects" (amazon[.]com).