Recent Acquisitions
May 26th, 2026
To order call toll-free at (800) 441-0076 or 651-290-0700
or email rulon@rulon.com
or, click on the "add to cart" link to order through our website. Phone calls and emails are generally quicker.
All books are guaranteed genuine as described, and are returnable for any reason during the first week after receipt. If you are returning an item, please let us know so we can make it available to another customer.
Shipping and handling charges are extra and billed at cost.
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. Eric Partridge and the Scholartis Press: a history and bibliography. [Hull]: The Private Libraries Association, 2025.
$125
First edition limited to 650 copies of which 15 are specially bound; tall 8vo (approx. 11" x 7¼"), pp. 450; 47 illustrations and facsimiles in the text (some in color); original red cloth stamped in red on upper cover and spine.
Part I is a history of the Press and its founder Eric Partridge, covering the years 1894-1979 - the years up to the official start of the press in 1927; the optimistic early years; the slow demise which ended it during the American Depression, and the post-Scholartis years ending with Partridge's death in 1979. Part II is a detailed bibliography covering all the books of the press, catalogues, prospectuses, Christmas keepsakes, and even letterhead and ephemera, all fully indexed. From the PLA website: "The Scholartis Press was short-lived (1927-1931) but its association with the great lexicographer Eric Partridge makes it of huge interest to book collectors everywhere."
This is a first-class job by John Arnold. "In addition to the history of Scholartis itself and Eric Partridge's role in it, the chapters on the press's contemporary fiction publishing, especially the ones on James Hanley and the banning of Sleeveless Errand, add something to the understanding of the writing and distribution of fiction in the late twenties/early thirties" (John Arnold).
2. [Bible in Ancient Greek, N.T..] Hē Kainē Diathēkē. Novum Testamentum. Juxta exemplar Joannis Millii accuratissime impressum. Editio prima Americana. Wigorniæ, Massachusettensi: excudebat Isaias Thomas, Jun., singulatim et numerose eo vendita officinae suæ, 1800.
$600
12mo, pp. 478, [2] Isaiah Thomas ads (dated 1802); text printed in double column; contemporary full calf, new morocco label on spine; lightly scuffed, light foxing; all else very good and sound.
Mill's translation, first published in 1707, and here edited by Caleb Alexander. This is the earliest Greek Testament published in America.
Sowerby, Catalogue of the library of Thomas Jefferson, 1486; Evans 36592; Darlow & Moule 4775.
3. [Broadside.] Mao Tsetung memorial meetings. Chicago: The Revolutionary Communist Party USA and the Mao Tsetung Memorial Committee, [1978].
$30
Broadside approx. 14" x 8½", with 8 paragraphs of text under a running head, a picture of Mao at the bottom, and information on the meetings in New York City on September 9, and in San Francisco, September 10.
Mao died September 9, 1976. In September 1978, the Revolutionary Communist Party USA (RCP) and the Mao Tsetung Memorial Committee hosted large-scale memorial meetings in New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area. The events were held to commemorate the two-year anniversary of Mao's passing and to promote cultural-revolutionary and Maoist political theory in the U.S.
"Mao Tsetung was the greatest revolutionary leader of our time. His name stands for rebellion. Mao led the Chinese people in kicking out the foreigners who had carved up China and in overthrowing the landlords who had enslaved the Chinese people for centuries. In 1949 China was turned upside down. As Mao said, "The Chinese people have stood up." Defying reactionary "experts," the workers and peasants took the reins of society and began building Socialist China. Mao was no hustler who took up revolution in order to get himself a comfortable place on top. Mao was a communist revolutionary whose goal was nothing less than continuously advancing society through struggle and eliminating all oppression, all class distinctions and all misery ... 'It's Right to Rebel Against Reactionaries' was the slogan Mao taught the people, and he lived by that slogan..."
Not found in OCLC.
4. [Calligraphy.] Almanac of contemporary Japanese calligraphy. Tokyo: Shodo Journal Institute, 1996-2015.
$250
8 volumes, issues for the years 1996, 2000. 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2015; three issues with letters from the editor laid in; all 8vo, pp. 368; 481, [7]; 473, [9]; 497, [7]; 463, [9]; 471, [9]; 463, [9]; 415, [9]; illustrated throughout; all generally fine in original printed wrappers.
An annual publication on modern Japanese calligraphers, their works, exhibitions, commentaries thereon, and industry trends.
5. Monami ... Charlie ... [In Japanese: City Lights ... the most exquisitely crafted, high-end products]. Tokyo: K.Z Studio, n.d., [ca. 1932].
$750
Broadside, approx. 17" x 11½", printed in red and blue on thin paper, showing Charlie Chaplin from behind next to a street light. Slight wrinkling and previous folds, but overall very good and clean.
This is an advertisement for luxury stationery, marketed by Monami, in Tokyo, selling a "City Lights" inspired brand of paper, using Charlie Chaplin as a marketing draw.
"City Lights" was released March 7, 1931 with a musical score and sound effect backdrop; it was written, produced, and directed by Chaplin, who also starred in the film. Chaplin visited Japan for the first time in 1932. "City Lights" was already a smash hit and was quickly adapted in the kabuki theater in Tokyo. Chaplin visited the kabuki theater 10 times. He remains a beloved figure in Japan.
6. Arte poética de Horacio traducida del original Latina por Dolores Gortazar Serantes. Obra premiada eh los Juegos Florales que se celebron en Lëon Cuando la conmenoración dei VI centenario de Guzman el Bueno. Madrid: Imprenta Moderna, 1901.
$200
8vo, pp. 71, [1]; largely unopened; portrait of the translator Dolores Gortazar Serantes seated at her desk; pages considerably toned; original glazed white paper wrappers with small chips are tear at the extremities; good.
An award-winning work at the Floral Games held in León during the commemoration of the 6th centenary of Guzman el Bueno. "Dolores de Gortázar (1868-1936) was a Spanish writer, journalist, education activist, feminist militant and political propagandist ... [She worked] as a teacher in Léon; and as a teacher of the normal in 1903, in Burgos. While working as a teacher, she wrote novels, poems and short stories. In terms of public and scholarly recognition Gortázar was first noticed as a translator; her Spanish El arte poética (1901) version of Horace's Ars poëtica won awards at the León Juegos Florales and was acknowledged with praise by Real Academia Española." (Wikipedia).
Not in the Mills College Check List; OCLC locates 6 copies, only Ohio and Illinois in the U.S.
7. An historical account of the British trade over the Caspian Sea: with the author's journal of travels from England through Russia into Persia; and back through Russia, Germany, and Holland. To which are added the revolutions of Persia during the present century, with the particular history of the great usurper Nadir Kouli. The second edition, revised and corrected.. London: T. Osborne [et al.], 1754.
$2,000
2 volumes, 4to, pp. xxvii, [1], 460, [8] index; xx, 460, [14] index, [4] index of foreign words, [2] ads for A. Millar; complete per plate list with engraved frontispiece in each volume, 9 engraved folding maps, 17 engraved plates, 13 engraved vignettes in the text; recent handsome half brown morocco over olive linen sides, red and green morocco labels on gilt-paneled spines; very nice copy.
Cox I, p. 255: "Hanway was a well-known traveler and philanthropist, popularly remembered as the pioneer user of the umbrella. Readers of Boswell will recall Johnson's severe criticism of his essay attacking tea-drinking.
"As a partner of a St. Petersburg merchant, he made a journey in 1743 down the Volga and by the Caspian Sea to Persia with a caravan of woolen goods, and returned in 1745 by the same route after many perilous adventures. He reached London in 1750. He later filled several public positions, and had a street named after him in London and a monument erected to him in Westminster Abbey. Dr. Johnson said of him, "that he acquired a reputation travelling abroad, but lost it all by travelling at home." This was in reference to his "Eight Days" trip in England [Journal of an Eight Days' Journey, London, 1756]."
8. Broadside advertisement for an antiquarian book fair in Tokyo. Tokyo: 1935.
$750
Broadside, approx. 21" x 15" with black and brown text in Japanese. An advertisement for an antiquarian book fair held February 24 from 9:00 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Matsuzakaya Department Store in Ueno, Tokyo. Sale was stated to feature rare Meiji and Taisho signed books, poetry, first editions, manuscripts, and other literature from private collections. Includes a list of participating bookstores: Matsuzakaya, Kobunsho, Kinouchi Shoten, Shinsheido, Hakurinsha, Inoue Shoten, Isseido, Jidai-ya, and Genseido. Event was organized by the Meiji Koten-kai (Meiji Classical Association). Broadside has pinholes in the corners, previous folds, and a few chips along the edge with minor loss (no loss of letterpress). Overall, text is bright and clean. Very good.
This fair predates the earliest American antiquarian book fair by twenty-five years. In England, the first ABA fair was held in 1958.
9. [Midnight Paper Sales.] Hole in the donut. Scrape 22. [Stockholm, Wisconsin]: Midnight Paper Sales, 2025.
$1,800
Edition limited to 60 copies, 55 of which are for sale; oblong 4to, 14 french-fold leaves on Japanese paper, with 7 color wood engravings, including 2 double-page, one unbound, as issued; simply bound, and contained in a clamshell box 10" x 12½". From the prospectus: "When Henry David Thoreau died in 1862 he was ten years into a practice of recording the natural phenomena of his Concord home, a practice that culminated in a series of charts he referred to as his 'Kalendar.' Three years ago I began doing the same here in the wilds of western Wisconsin, but instead of turning to books as the source of information regarding species identification, as was the case with Thoreau, I turned to an iPhone 13.
"Hole in the Donut is the result of a residency in the Florida Everglades during the summer of 2023. On my first evening there my phone identified a bird in a tree as a penguin ... Seven french-folded sections wrapped in a 2-foot long, 6-color wood engraving of the sun setting over Scrape 22 and [six] other engravings with poetry, biological conversation & a scurrilous species list all contained in a clamshell box ... 60 copies survived of which 55 are for sale."
10. [Midnight Paper Sales.] Hole in the donut. Progressive proofs [box title]. When you come to a place you've never been.... [Stockholm, Wisconsin]: Midnight Paper Sales, [2026].
$2,500
Edition limited to 16 copies signed by Gaylord Schanilec, sheets all approx. 13" x 26" and consisting of a printed outer bifoliate wrapper with 2 images of a 2-color wood engraving, a limitation leaf with 1 wood engraving, 4 sheets containing ten 2- or 3-color engravings, and as a coup de grâce, a large 6-color wood engraving on seven hand-made gampi sheets, the last under plexiglass in the bottom of the box. The box itself, made from black walnut from Schanilec's farm, cut, milled, dried, machined, and varnished by Schanilec himself, measures 17" x 29" x 3" with a removeable lid.
Hole in the donut was published in an edition of 60 copies (55 for sale) in 2025. These progressive proofs detail the elaborate and painstaking printing process involved in making a colored wood engraving. "Hole in the Donut is the result of a residency in the Florida Everglades during the summer of 2023. On my first evening there my phone identified a bird in a tree as a penguin ... Seven french-folded sections wrapped in a 2-foot long, 6-color wood engraving of the sun setting over Scrape 22 and [six] other engravings with poetry, biological conversation & a scurrilous species list all contained in a clamshell box ... 60 copies survived of which 55 are for sale."
11. [Miniature Dictionary.] 春明英漢小字典 = Chun Ming English-Chinese dictionary. Shanghai: Chun Ming Book Store, n.d. [ca. late 1940s to early 1950s].
$125
Miniature approx. 2¾" x 1¾" x 1¼", pp. [8], 602, 24, 9, 6; original brown paper-covered boards stamped in silver on upper cover and spine; light wear, the text a bit toned, else very good. With an English title page, dictionary in English and Chinese; introduction in Chinese; and abbreviations and verb tenses in English.
Virginia and National Taiwan University only in OCLC.
12. Report of a geological survey of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota; and incidentally of a portion of Nebraska territory. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co., 1852.
$500
First edition, thick 4to, pp. xxxviii, [39]-638, [2]; 70 woodcut illustrations in the text, tables, 27 plates of fossils, 17 folding geological sections (many hand-colored), and a large hand-colored folding geological map; original brown cloth, gilt-stamped spine; spine with library stickers removed, old library rubberstamp on the verso of the title page, but the binding is sound and the text clean, but some of the plates are slightly misfolded.
In some copies the plates and maps are separately bound. Here they are in a single volume.
"The illustrations of fossil remains were particularly fine for that period" (see DAB). Owen (1807-1860), the third son of the social philanthropist Robert Owen, came to America from Scotland in 1827, and took up residence in New Harmony, Indiana where his father had undertaken to plant a socialistic community. "It was in the course of this survey that Dr. John Evans made under Owen's direction the first survey of the Bad Lands of the Upper Missouri. "
Sabin 58009.
13. [Philippines.] Philippines Free Press. Manila: 1967.
$3,000
347 issues in all (plus several odd issues and duplicates), contained in 7 bankers' boxes; folio (approx.13¾" x 10¾"), issues generally range from 68 to 108 pages, more for the special Christmas and Anniversary numbers); all on newsprint so the text is toned; color covers, illustrated throughout; some dog-earring, perhaps a half-dozen covers with some damage and loss, but overall this is generally a very good and sound run covering the years of Ferdinand Marcos's presidency until he shut it down in September, 1972. Includes:
Volume LVIII, no. 50 (only); Christmas number, December 11, 1965 (Marcos elected president of the Philippines on December 30, 1965);
Volume LIX, no. 1-53 (complete); January 1 - December 31, 1966;
Volume LX, no. 1-52 (complete); January 7 - December 30, 1967;
Volume LXI, nos. 1-51 (lacking no. 21); January 6 - December 24, 1968;
Volume LXII, nos. 3-52 (lacking nos. 1 and 2); January 18 - December 27, 1969;
Volume LXIII, nos. 1-52 (lacking nos. 31 and 32); January 3 - December 29, 1970;
Volume LXIV, nos. 1 - 52 (complete); January 2 - December 26, 1971;
Volume LXV, NO. 1 - No. 39 (complete); Jan 1 - Sept. 23, 1972 (the last issue before Marcos declares martial law and shutters the press).
Founded in 1908, the Philippine Free Press was the Philippines' oldest weekly English language periodical. "It is known for being one of the publications that was critical of the administration of Ferdinand Marcos in the years before the declaration of martial law, and for being one of the first publications shuttered once Martial Law was put into effect" (Wikipedia) in September, 1972. This significant run of six and two-thirds years (lacking only 5 issues) covers these tumultous times in the Philippines. The publication was subsequently revived after the 1986 EDSA Revolution and continued until 2011. An example of a revival issue (April 5, 1986) is included here, as are a couple of odd issues from the early 1990s.
This group of issues includes much on the war in Vietnam, and the Philippines' relationship with the United States. The covers are almost always in full color and often feature women in various poses, some rather scantily clad. Also, Men of the Year, sports events, politicians, movie stars, pop groups, popes, boxers, street crime, etc.
14. Rand McNally recreational map of the United States. Chicago: prepared & copyrighted by Rand McNally for This Week Magazine in cooperation with the National Park Service, [1957].
$125
Large folding color lithograph map of the United States with portions of Canada and Mexico, and insets of Alaska, Aleutian Islands, Hawaii, and Oahu; approx. 34" x 52" overall, showing in color code national parks and recreation areas, national forests, Indian reservations, and wildlife game refuges; small break in the blank margin at one fold; all else fine and bright.
15. Famine foods listed in the Chiu Huang Pen Ts'ao ... giving their identity, nutritional values and notes on their preparations. Shanghai: [Henry Lester Institute of Medical Research.] Published by the aid of a grant from the British Council, 1946.
$175
8vo, pp. [4], 90; 10 illustrations on rectos and versos of 2 plates; text toned; all else very good and sound in original printed brown wrappers.
16. The life and culture of the Na-khi tribe of the China-Tibet borderland . Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1963.
$200
Together in the same volume with M. Harders-Steinhauser and G. Jayme's Untersuchung des Papiers acht verschiedener alter Na-khi Handschriften auf Rohstoff und Herstellungsweise. 8vo, pp. [8], 70; 22 plates (11 in color) and a folding map; slight wrinkle at the top outer corners, else fine in original printed tan wrappers. Issued as Supplementbände 2, in the publisher's Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland series.
Joseph Francis Charles Rock (1884 – 1962) was an Austrian-American explorer, botanist, and anthropologist, an Honorary Research Associate at the Far Eastern and Russian Institute, University of Washington. For more than 25 years, he travelled extensively through Tibet and Yunnan, Gansu, and Szechuan provinces in China before finally leaving in 1949. "His efforts in linguistics are widely recognized; he spent years collecting and translating 8,000 volumes of original Naxi literature, including their religious tracts" (Hunt Botanical Institute website).
"By the end of the 1920s, his attention turned decisively to the culture of the Nakhi people. He wrote a two-volume cultural history of the Nakhi and many studies of the texts and ritual ceremonies of the Dongba, a term that refers to both the religious texts and the shaman priests who composed them. The Nakhi Dongba were prolific composers of recitation texts using a unique script typically described as pictographic, although it is better understood as a rebus-like mnemonic device that complexly combines iconic and phonetic elements" (Wikipedia).
17. [Sailmaking.] Tratado práctico de velamen. Tradicido del ingles por Don Juan Jose Martinez y Tacon, ceniente de navio de la Real Armada. Madrid: imprenta de Don Miguel de Burgos, 1829.
$825
8vo, pp. iv, 101, [3]; 4 engraved folding plates showing a total of 61 cuts of sailcloth; recent full maroon niger lettered in gilt on spine; minor dampstaining, but generally very good or better.
Includes a 24-page dictionary of sailmaking terms. A translation of Steel's The Art of Sail-Making, first published in The Elements of Practice of Rigging and Seamanship, 1794.
Not in NUC; OCLC locates the National Library in Spain and another at the National Maritime Museum in the UK. None in the U.S.
18. Polis is/eyes. Poems by Ed Sanders. Woodstock, NY: Blake Route Press, 2005.
$250
11" x 8½", 50 leaves, side-stapled, printed pictorial yellow wrapper, signed by Sanders on the front. Paperclip impression on front cover, else a fine copy. Ten or so illustrations from various sources in the text.
Notre Dame only in OCLC, and there is a copy in the Sanders archive at Princeton.
19. [Temperence.] Raittius-kalenteri vuodelle 1918. Kahdeskymmenestoinen vuosikerta [= Sobriety calendar 1918. Twenty-second year]. Ishpeming, Michigan: Suomalaisen Kansallis-Raittius-Veljeysseuran kustantama [= Finnish National Temperence and Sobriety Society], [1917].
$100
22nd edition; 12mo, pp. [33], 34-212, [2] table of contents, [10] ads (several illustrated); 2 frontispieces (included in pagination), 13 wood-engraved headpieces and 9 oval portraits in the text; original green cloth stamped in red and blue on the upper cover; very good, sound, and clean. Printed in Hancock, Michigan at the Finnish Lutheran Publishing House. Pro-forma sobriety calendar with 12 months for personal comments (one month only filled in).
Inspirational text for keeping the Finnish immigrant sober and staying on God's path. A 1919 edition (only) is located in OCLC (at Palm Beach State College in Florida!).
20. Out of this world. Across the Himalayas to forbidden Tibet. New York: The Greystone Press, [1950].
$150
First edition, 8vo, pp. 320; map endpapers, color frontispiece, 8 color illustrations from photographs on rectos and versos of 2 plates, numerous other photo-reproductive illustrations throughout (many full-page); fine copy in a near fine, unclipped dust jacket.
In 1949 Lowell Thomas and Lowell Thomas Jr. "took a journey to Tibet before the Chinese had moved in. It shows Tibet as it was then and, for that matter, as it had been for centuries. The most important thing in Tibet was religion, and it shows the people firm in their faith, living a simple life under the absolute power of the Grand Lama. The long and difficult journey to Lhasa was made possible by the authorities who hoped to show the world the simple life in Tibet and to ask for aid against the Communists, who were even then threatening. In Lhasa, the Thomases visited the palace of the High Lama, where a rare-interview was granted. The way back to 'civilization' was difficult, especially, since Thomas Sr., was seriously injured in an accident that made him a stretcher case during the return" (IMDb).
21. Chinese pictorial art as viewed by the connoisseur. Notes on the means and methods of traditional Chinese connoisseurship of pictorial art, based upon a study of the art of mounting scrolls in China and Japan . Roma: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1958.
$500
First edition limited to 950 copies (this, no. 229); 4to, pp. xxxvii, [3], 537, [3]; title page printed in red and black, frontispiece, 160 illustrations throughout on plates and in the text; 12-page "Samples of Silk and Paper" in rear cover pocket (all 42 samples present); original red cloth stamped in gilt on both covers and spine; spine quite faded, the binding dull overall, but the binding is sound and the text clean. Issued as no. XIX in the publisher's Serie Orientale Roma series.
Evers, p. 19: "Note by the author: 'Thus appeared at last, what I considered my magnum opus on Chinese pictorial art, which I had been working on since 1940'."