Evening Star Books

OWNER:

John Phillips

Member since:

2011

Fine & Rare books, bought and sold.

(only displayed to logged-in members)

MEMBER-TO-MEMBER DISCOUNT:

20 %

COUPON CODE (if applicable):

info@eveningstarbooks.net

608-831-0406

8413 Excelsior Drive Suite 130-B , Madison, WI, 53717, United States

More about this bookseller

We are an antiquarian book store in Madison, WI. We are members of the IOBA and the ABAA. Our store is by chance or by appointment. We release electronic catalogs every month, and exhibit at numerous book fairs. Please see our "About" section for our specialties.

We buy and sell fine and collectible books (as well as posters, prints, diaries, letters, and broadsides) of all kinds, with a special interest in the following:

Philosophy, Logic, and the Foundations of Mathematics

Classical Antiquity

Modern First Editions (literature, science fiction and fantasy, mystery and crime, children's literature, 20th century popular culture)

General Antiquarian (especially literature and works of historical significance)

Fine Bindings

Americana (especially material related to the Colonial Period and Revolutionary War, the Midwest, the Civil War, and the Old West)

Travel & Exploration

We currently sell via mail order, our monthly online catalogs, or by chance or by appointment at our shop in Madison, WI. On this site you can find our latest catalogues, search our inventory, and place orders online using a secure checkout process. Please see our Terms page for details regarding payment options, shipping, and returns.

We regularly purchase books in our areas of specialization, both individual items and entire collections. If you have a book or a collection you wish to sell, please contact us at info@eveningstarbooks.net.

Featured Items

Cormac McCarthy's Second Novel

McCarthy, Cormac. Outer Dark. New York: Random House [1968]. First edition. 8vo. [9], 5-242, [6] pp. Quarter blue cloth over grey paper boards with gold and blue lettering on the spine, lettering in black on the front board and spine; black topstain. Price of $4.95 on the front flap of the dust jacket. Very near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket. A small area of careful restoration to the reverse of the spine panel, with some mild discoloration to the rear fold; the jacket presents beautifully. Ahearn APG 002b. Ford & Pastore 102a. An exceptional copy of McCarthy's second novel.

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2500

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The First Complete Aeschylus

Aeschylus. ΑΙΣΧΥΛΟΥ ΤΡΑΓΩΔΙΑΙ Ζ; Trageodiae VII [= Seven Tragedies of Aeschylus] Prometheus Bound; Seven Against Thebes; The Persians; Agamemnon; The Libation Bearers; Eumenides; The Suppliants. [Geneva]; [Paris]: Ex Officina Henrici Stephani, 1557. First edition thus. 4to. [8], 1-395, [5] pp. Eighteenth-century maroon morocco with twin gilt rules to each board, gilt fileting to the boards edges, spine in six compartments with gilt rules and gilt lettering; all edges gilt. Marbled endpapers and pastedowns. Title page in Greek and Latin. Publisher's device on the title page. Text and notes in Greek. Quae cum omnes multo quam antea castigatiores eduntur, tum vero una, quae mutila & decurtata prius erat, integra nunc profertur. Scholia in easdem plurimis in locis locupletata, & in pene infinitis emendata. Petri Victorii cura et diligentia. Near Very Good. Rubbing to the corners and a small chip to the rear joint; front pastedown with an early 19th-cent. bookplate from the Rugbirns' (Rugby) School Library, free front endpaper has its right corner clipped and an early 19th-cent. gift inscription detailing some of the book's ownership history. Adams 9. Dibdin 237-238. Graesse 29. Moss 8. Renouard 446. The first complete edition of Aeschylus, as this is the first edition in which the tragedy Agamemnon was printed in its entirety. With the intelligent and thougthful notes of M. Etienne (the second), the printer of this edition (Etienne II's notes are particularly valuable in the Agamemnon of this edition, as he worked hard to piece the entire tragedy together). Petrius Victorius' notes are also praised, he was the editor for this edition. Graesse praises this edition for its elegant presentation of Aeschylus, and the quality of the manuscripts the printers consulted. Moss cites this edition as printed in Paris, Adams attributes it to Geneva. Moss refers to Etienne's typography as accurate and elegant, with an important correction to the Libation Bearers contained in this edition. Moss also awards Victorius high marks on the quality of his notes. Aeschylus' tragedies are the oldest surviving from Ancient Greece. With powerful, moving themes and subject matter, they are still regularly performed in theatres around the world today.

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6,000

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Baskerville's Milton

Milton, John PARADISE LOST; PARADISE REGAIN'D; A POEM IN TWELVE BOOKS; A POEM IN FOUR BOOKS. TO WHICH IS ADDED SAMSON AGONISTES: AND POEMS UPON SEVERAL OCCASIONS Birmingham: Printed by John Baskerville for J. and R. Tonson in London, 1758. First edition thus. Hardcover. 2 vol. 8vo. [33], 416, [2]; [3], ii-lxix, [4], 6-390, [4] pp. Later full diced calf (ca. 1795), neatly rebacked with leather spines laid down (appears to have been rebacked during the 19th century). Front and rear boards decorated with gilt rules and fillets, spines lettered and stamped in gold with four raised bands; endpapers, pastedowns, and textblocks marbled. Light blue silk ribbon bookmark in each volume. Gaskell 4 and 5. Oxford DNB, James Mosley, "Baskerville, John". The first Baskerville edition of Milton's works, printed in 1758. Paradise Lost with the cancellans as per Gaskell; shows one of the three errors to the printer's marks described in entry number 4. Milton's works were the most successful of Baskerville's publications, with an oversubscribed list and the greatest number of sales. Benjamin Franklin himself was on the subscriber list. Franklin and Gaskell were correspondents, and Franklin visited the press. A beautiful set of Milton's works, one of Baskerville's greatest achievements. Very Good. Item #00008984 A Very Good set with a hint or two of rubbing to the extremities and a bit of spotting to the leaves, bookmark ribbon in volume two laid in; overall a clean and wonderful set.

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2250

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THE INGOLDSBY LEGENDS OR MIRTH AND MARVELS - BUMPUS BINDING

Ingoldsby, Thomas (Richard Harris Barham). THE INGOLDSBY LEGENDS OR MIRTH AND MARVELS. London: Richard Bentley, 1840; 1842; 1847. First edition. Hardcover. 3 vol. 8vo. [3], iv-v, [4], 2-338, [4]; [5], vi-vii, [4], 2-288, [2]; [5], iv-vi, [3], 2-364, [2] pp. Full contemporary red morocco, spines in six compartments with gilt decorations and lettering, boards ruled in gilt; all edges gilt. Bound by John Bumpus, a Victorian bookseller and bookbinder. Volume one illustrated with a decorated title page and decorative initials, and six additional plates, (etchings). Volume two with a decorative title page, seven etched plates, three in-text woodcuts, and numerous decorative initials. Volume three with a decorative title page, and six additional plates, two of which are portraits of the author, Richard Barham (the other four are etchings, two by George Cruikshank, and two by John Leech). George Cruikshank, John Leech, and John Tenniel all contributed to the illustrations for the Ingoldsby series. Engraved bookplate of William Forbes Morgan (ca. 1900) on the front pastedowns. A Very Good or better set with the rear joint of volume one discreetly restored, a tiny spot of wear to a raised band on volume three; plates (and a few leaves) show scattered foxing. Kunitz 34-35. NCBEL 365. Packer 25. Sadleir 27-29. Our First Series contains what Sadleir purports to be the earliest version of the error on page 236: "In what order should these be ranged? From the point of view of publishing procedure (though without any authority) I suggest the most likely sequence to have been as follows (a) Private, with incomplete Ballad; (b) Public, ditto; (c) Public, with 236 blank ... (d) Public, with Ballad complete". Our copy of the first series corresponds with the Privately printed First Series in a few respects: its title page is printed in dark purple and black ink like the private edition, and it contains the incomplete ballad on page 236, like the private edition. We therefore consider our First Series to be the first issue of the first trade edition. Our Second Series corresponds with Sadleir's description of the first edition of the Second Series in every way, except the final etching lacks the imprint dated 1843. Our Series Three copy corresponds exactly with Sadleir's stated points. Volume three contains a biography of Barham. The Ingoldsby Legends were far and away Barham's most successful publication. Barham was an English clergyman, humorist, and writer. Kunitz refers to Barham's writings and Barham himself as "unmistakably Kentish". Some of the ghost stories contained in the First Series are said to be from a Mrs. Hughes, an enormous influence on Barham's career. She pushed him to complete and publish his first novel, My Cousin Nicholas. The Ingoldsby stories were first published in Bentley's Miscellany, a magazine, in the late 1830s. They were edited by Charles Dickens. Richard Bentley, a friend of Barham, decided to release them in book form. Barham's series contains ghost stories, short literary prose, a poem grieving the death of his son, and general parodies of English life. Though largely popular, Barham's work was sometimes criticized for its parody of the Pope and Catholic doctrine. An avid drinker and cat lover (only writing when a cat attended him), Barham is remembered largely for The Ingoldsby Legends (a work once so popular, an average schoolboy would have passages memorized). A finely bound, beautiful set of a landmark in humorous English prose.

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$4,000

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Keppel's Voyage to the Indian Archipelago

Keppel, Captn the Hon. Henry Keppel, R.N. A VISIT TO THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, IN H.M. SHIP MAEANDER; WITH PORTIONS OF THE PRIVATE JOURNAL OF SIR JAMES BROOKE, K.C.B. London: Richard Bentley, 1853. First edition. Hardcover. 2 vol. 8vo. [5], viii-xiv, [3], 2-301, [3]; [5], vi-vii, [2], 2-286, [2] pp. Contemporary three-quarter smooth blue calf over bright blue pebbled cloth, spine in six compartments, each with a red morocco labe lettered in gold, spines lettered and decorated in gold; all edges gilt. Each volume illustrated with a tinted lithograph frontispiece, volume one with three additional tinted lithograph plates and a map laid in (the original cloth had a pocket, this binding was not done with a pocket for the map); volume two with three additional tinted lithograph plates. Volume one lacks the half-title. Howgego 1800-1850, K8. Henry Keppel was an English naval officer. He undertook extensive voyages to the East and West Indies. After meeting James Brooke in 1842, in Singapore, the two campaigned against piracy in the region. From 1844 to 1847 Keppel was retired until he returned to Borneo in the Maeander to assist Brooke at combatting piracy. Keppel served in the Crimean War, and fought in the Second Opium War in 1857. His Visit to the Indian Archipelago records his voyages with Brooke from Rio De Janeiro to Singapore and Borneo. Along the way, Keppel encounters wild hogs, tigers, water buffalo, and pirates on the rivers and seas. A great deal of his writing is devoted to his time spent in Malaysia, specifically in the regions of Labuan and Sarawak. Keppel also reports on the diseases his crew and James Brooke suffer, referring to "Labuan Fever". Descriptions of the Dyak people are given by Keppel, and his encounters with Sepoys are recorded. The end of volume one contains a history of piracy around the world, from ancient to what were then "modern times". Volume two details Keppel's observations on Governor James Brooke's rule of the Sarawak province, including its churches, courts, hospitals, and schools. Birds, bees, the proboscis monkey, kangaroos, birds of paradise, and alligators are discussed in Kepple's second volume. Volume two also records his travels to Java and Timor, and has descriptions of the practice of cannibalism. On his journey Keppel observed volcanoes, traveled to New Guinea and to the spice islands, and records his trading with the natives of the region. An attractive set on varied and diverse topics, a classic of nineteenth-century travel and exploration. Very Good. Item #00009251 A Very Good set with some wear to the extremities including mellowing to the spines and a minor discoloration to the fore-edge of volume one; faint foxing to the margins of the plates (not affecting the illustrations), missing corners to two leaves in volume one.

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2500

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John Rawls' Magnum Opus

Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972. First UK edition. 8vo. [6], vii-xv, [3], 3-607, [1] pp. Navy blue cloth with gold lettering, twin gold rules, and publisher's device in gilt on the spine. Price of £5.00 net on the front flap of the dust jacket. Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket. A Near Fine book with some minor wear to the extremities in a Near Fine lightly-rubbed dust jacket. SEP, Wenar, "John Rawls". Slater 757. John Rawls was one of the best-known and most influential figures in political and moral philosophy in the later 20th and early 21st centuries. A Theory of Justice is the first book in which he laid out his theory of justice as fairness and is widely considered to be his magnum opus. In addition to being one of the landmark works in political philosophy, the book has been extraordinarily influential outside of academic philosophy, particularly in the legal community. Rawls work is clearly within the tradition of classic liberalism, but is filled with original and engaging arguments and has spawned a vast literature. A very attractive copy of this essential and justly renowned work in political philosophy.