{"title":"First Editions","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"the-octopus-frank-norris-first-edition-1901","title":"The Octopus: A Story of California","description":"\u003cp\u003eNew York: Doubleday, Page \u0026amp; Co., 1901. First edition, first printing. Publisher's full red cloth, \u003cspan\u003eillustratively\u003c\/span\u003e stamped and ruled in gilt. Octavo. 652. Lightly pressed corners, moderate edge-wear, cloth starting at corner tips, lightest foxing on ffep, faint scratches to top edge block, still a very good copy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Octopus, published just a year before Frank Norris' unexpected death at the age of 32, was the first book of a planned trilogy titled The Epic of the Wheat. \"These novels, while forming a series, will be in no way connected with each other save only in their relation to (1) the production, (2) the distribution, (3) the consumption of American wheat. [...] 'The Octopus,' deals with the war between the wheat grower and the Railroad Trust.\" (prefatory note). The second in the series, The Pit, was published posthumously, where as the third and final, The Wolf, was never started.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book serves as a foundational text of American literary naturalism, an expose of corporate monopolies, and an examination of modern capitalism.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConfirmed first printing by the misprint on page 526 where the line \"prolonged, rasping sound of breathing, half choked.\" is repeated at the bottom of the page (BAL 15036).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"UNCIAL","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":59633797366046,"sku":"UN-0001","price":300.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1082\/2094\/0574\/files\/PANA2818.jpg?v=1785273720"},{"product_id":"the-pit","title":"The Pit: A Story of Chicago","description":"\u003cp\u003eNew York: Doubleday, Page \u0026amp; Co., 1903. First edition, first printing. Publisher's full red cloth, \u003cspan\u003eillustratively\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e stamped and ruled in gilt. Octavo. 421. Missing ffep, lightly pressed corners, moderate edge-wear, cloth starting at corner tips, previous owner name in pen on front paste-down, still a very good copy.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"In his last book and his greatest book, 'The Pit,' he writes as one more inspired--and purely in his own vivid, dramatic and intense way.\" (\u003cem\u003eThe Courier-Journal\u003c\/em\u003e, Jan. 1903) \u003cspan\u003eThe Pit, published posthumously just a year after Frank Norris' unexpected death at the age of 32, was the second book of a planned trilogy titled The Epic of the Wheat. \"These novels, while forming a series, will be in no way connected with each other save only in their relation to (1) the production, (2) the distribution, (3) the consumption of American wheat. [...] 'The Pit,' is the fictitious narrative of a 'deal' in the Chicago wheat pit\" (prefatory note). The third and final book, The Wolf, was never started.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"UNCIAL","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":59654849036574,"sku":"UN-0002","price":150.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1082\/2094\/0574\/files\/PANA2810.jpg?v=1785273531"},{"product_id":"babbitt","title":"Babbitt","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNew York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1922. First edition, first printing, first state. Publisher's full blue cloth, blocked and ruled in orange. Octavo. 401, [5] pp. (advertisements). No dust jacket, missing ffep, lightly pressed corners, staining on cloth, sun fading on spine, light edge-wear, small stain on text block, still a good, honest copy, lacking the ffep and dust jacket .\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSinclair Lewis was the first American author to win the Nobel Prize in literature, which was awarded \"for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters.\" In the academy's presentation speech, special attention was paid to Babbitt. In his Nobel Lecture, Lewis praised Theodore Dreiser, Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway, and other contemporaries, but also lamented that \"in America most of us -- not readers alone, but even writers -- are still afraid of any literature which is not a glorification of everything American, a glorification of our faults as well as our virtues,\" and that America is \"the most contradictory, the most depressing, the most stirring, of any land in the world today.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis copy is a first state of that novel given special attention by the academy, confirmed by \u003c\/span\u003e\"Supposing Purdy\" on line 4 of page 49, and \"my fellow human\" on line 5 of the same page. The later second issue has \"Supposing Lyte\" on line 4, and \"any fellow human\" on line 5. These changes were made during the first printing.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"UNCIAL","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":59654849429790,"sku":"UN-0003","price":50.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1082\/2094\/0574\/files\/PANA2799.jpg?v=1785273801"},{"product_id":"the-man-who-knew-collidge","title":"The Man Who Knew Collidge","description":"\u003cp\u003eNew York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1928. First edition. Publisher's full blue cloth, blocked and ruled in orange. 275. No dust jacket, lightest edge-wear, previous owner inscription in pen on front pastedown, still a fine copy lacking only its dust jacket.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSinclair Lewis was the first American author to win the Nobel Prize in literature, which was awarded \"for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters.\" In his Nobel Lecture, Lewis praised Theodore Dreiser, Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway, and other contemporaries, but also lamented that \"in America most of us -- not readers alone, but even writers -- are still afraid of any literature which is not a glorification of everything American, a glorification of our faults as well as our virtues,\" and that America is \"the most contradictory, the most depressing, the most stirring, of any land in the world today.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"hit-highlight\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Mr. Lewis has exceeded his satirical genius in this parody of an average man.\" (\u003cem\u003eThe Sauk Centre Herald\u003c\/em\u003e, April 19, 1928). This book introduces the character Lowell Schmaltz who recounts a story in six long, uninterrupted monologues. It, while staying true to Lewis' acclaimed satirical prose, is written lighter than his earlier works like Babbitt, of which Lowell Schmaltz is a friend of the Babbitt character. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"UNCIAL","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":59654849823006,"sku":"UN-0004","price":100.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1082\/2094\/0574\/files\/PANA2806.jpg?v=1785273891"},{"product_id":"the-innocents","title":"The Innocents","description":"\u003cp\u003eNew York: Harper \u0026amp; Brothers Publishers, 1917. First edition, first printing. Publisher's full grey cloth stamped in gilt. Octavo. 217. No dust jacket, lightest edge-wear, toning on spine's stamped gilt, lightly pressed bottom corners, a inscribed \"#1\" in pen on ffep, still a very good copy lacking only the dust jacket.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSinclair Lewis was the first American author to win the Nobel Prize in literature, which was awarded \"for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters.\" In his Nobel Lecture, Lewis praised Theodore Dreiser, Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway, and other contemporaries, but also lamented that \"in America most of us -- not readers alone, but even writers -- are still afraid of any literature which is not a glorification of everything American, a glorification of our faults as well as our virtues,\" and that America is \"the most contradictory, the most depressing, the most stirring, of any land in the world today.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn this book Sinclair Lewis crafts a poignant narrative that explores the complexities of innocence and disillusionment within a rapidly changing American society and critiques the mediocrity and complacency that often plague American life.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis copy is confirmed as the first printing per its F-R code printed on the bottom of the copyright page.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"UNCIAL","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":59654852051230,"sku":"UN-0006","price":200.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1082\/2094\/0574\/files\/PANA2940.jpg?v=1785341366"},{"product_id":"black-hawk","title":"Black Hawk: A Romance on the Black Hawk War","description":"\u003cp\u003eCreston, Iowa: The Bond Publishing Company, 1930. Octavo. 108. Publisher's full red cloth stamped and ruled in gilt, with dust jacket. Minor tearing to dust jacket. A fine copy with the only damage being on the dust jacket.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis copy is personally signed by the author on the ffep. It reads: \"With many happy recollections of the Selback Family \/ Jas. R. E. Craighead \/ Wichita, Kan. \/ Oct. 31, 1935.\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"UNCIAL","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":59654860112158,"sku":"UN-0007","price":50.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1082\/2094\/0574\/files\/PANA2947.jpg?v=1785341450"},{"product_id":"sorry-but-youre-wrong-about-it","title":"Sorry But You're Wrong About It","description":"\u003cp\u003eIndianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1931. First edition. Octavo. 330. Publisher's full black cloth, orange paper labels stamped in black. Cloth starting at bottom corners, light tearing on pages from ffep to end of contents page, lightly pressed corners, minor edge-wear. A very good copy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis first edition is signed by the author on the ffep.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAlbert Edward Wiggam (1871-1957) was an American psychologist and popularizer of eugenics. He was called “one of the most influential promoters of eugenic thought”. He had exceptional skills as a popular lecturer.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn this book, Wiggam writes \"with the hope that it may induce a larger number of people to do their thinking by analytical methods of science. [...] As I urge again and again throughout this book and throughout all my books, science is only a small part of life; it is only one approach to truth; but in its own domain it is supreme.\" (preface). It debates popular fallacies such as \"That you can read your character and destiny in the stars\", \"That bald-headedness is due to tight had bands\", and \"That women can drive automobiles as well as men\" While the prose is often humorous, Wiggam does stay true to his accolades and the book's preface by using scientific thought and expert-driven methodologies. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"UNCIAL","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":59654860734750,"sku":"UN-0008","price":50.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1082\/2094\/0574\/files\/PANA2896.jpg?v=1785341540"},{"product_id":"the-horse-whisperer","title":"The Horse Whisperer","description":"\u003cp\u003eNew York: Delcorte Press, 1995. First edition, first printing. Octavo. 404. Publisher's blue boards stamped in gilt, with dust jacket. Minor edge-wear to top side of dust jacket. A fine copy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePersonally inscribed by the author on the title page.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis book was Evans' debut novel, and gained significant success, becoming the 10th-best selling novel in the United States in 1995, selling over 15 million copies. This also makes it one of the best-selling books of all time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"UNCIAL","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":59654862766366,"sku":"UN-0009","price":75.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1082\/2094\/0574\/files\/PANA2868.jpg?v=1785273933"},{"product_id":"the-fountains-of-neptune-needs-binding-photo","title":"The Fountains of Neptune","description":"\u003cp\u003eToronto, Ontario: McClelland \u0026amp; Stewart Inc., 1989. First Canadian edition. Publisher's full blue boards, spine stamped in gilt, with dust jacket. Octavo. 220. Lightest edge-wear to dust jacket. A fine copy. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSigned by the author on the title page proper. It is a true first edition as it predates the American version by three years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis book is Rikki Ducornet's brilliant lyric novel about Nicolas who, as a result of witnessing his mother's murder, falls into a decades-long coma. Awakened in a seaport town in France, he reconstructs his past through storytelling and myth, resulting in an astonishing exploration of memory and imagination.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"UNCIAL","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":59654863159582,"sku":"UN-0010","price":100.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1082\/2094\/0574\/files\/PANA2871.jpg?v=1785273964"},{"product_id":"the-conduct-of-life-needs-binding-photo","title":"The Conduct of Life","description":"\u003cp\u003eBoston: Ticknor and Fields, 1860. First edition, first print. Octavo. Publisher's full brown cloth stamped in gilt. 288. Water stains on front cloth, small stain on back cloth, moderate wear on spine's top and bottom, light water staining on top first 20 numbered pages, ex libris paper label, previous owner inscriptions in pencil on ffep, previous owner stamp on half-title page, front cloth corner starting at the top, notes in pencil on last two blank pages, still a near good copy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublished in the year Abraham Lincoln was elected President, Emerson's Conduct of Life is a collection of his essays on philosophy. Asking questions like \"How should I live?\" it became one of his most successful publications and even being a source that inspired philosophy giants such as Friedrich Nietzsche.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRalph Waldo Emerson was known as the father of American literature as he helped America break from free from European ties. \"We have listened too long to the Courtly muses of Europe.\" said Emerson in his 1837 address titled The American Scholar, later nicknamed \"America's intellectual declaration of independence\" by writer Oliver Wendell Holmes Senior. Emerson's push for America to create its own intellectual path in the world instead of \"grope among the dry bones of the past\" (Nature) had, still even two centuries later, become the pedestal for America becoming the independent country that it is today. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"UNCIAL","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":59654866534686,"sku":"UN-0014","price":200.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1082\/2094\/0574\/files\/PANA2827.jpg?v=1785274068"},{"product_id":"lectures-of-the-arya","title":"Lectures of the Arya","description":"\u003cp\u003eLouisville, Kentucky: Supreme Council, 1930. Limited to 700 copies of which this is number 347. Publisher's leather. Quarto (10\" x 7-1\/2\"). 332, 333-340 index. 16 one-sided pages typed on a typewriter that are within the binding between pages numbered 228-237, leather corners starting, wear and rubbing to edges. A good copy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe contents in this book are from a manuscript written by Albert Pike in quill that he finished in 1878, and in effort to preserve Pike's legacy the Supreme Council published the manuscript in print for members of their organization. Only 700 copies were printed, each one going to its own selected member. Although the book was by the Freemason Supreme Council, it is not of Masonic ritual text, instead it reflects Pike's lifelong interest in comparative religion. It became part of the intellectual background that influenced works such as \u003cem\u003eMorals and Dogma\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAlbert Pike was an American author, poet, orator, editor, lawyer, jurist and Confederate States Army general. In 1858 he became the Sovereign Grand Commander of the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite. Pike represented the various Native peoples in several lawsuits against the American government (Cherokee, Creek, and Choctaw) in order to ensure they were treated fairly, studied religions and mythologies across the world. Prior to the Civil War, Albert Pike encouraged the South to seek equality with the North and only seceding if political means failed. Once war was inevitable, Pike was established as the liaison to the Native People and was instrumental in encouraging the Cherokee nation to support the Confederacy with the understanding that the Cherokee would be granted a sovereign nation of their own. Later in life, Harvard offered Pike an honorary degree which he declined. Albeit his actions, Pike still had a mixed history regarding race as a whole and even supported radical race groups at the time. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"UNCIAL","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":59654871744798,"sku":"UN-0016","price":2000.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1082\/2094\/0574\/files\/PANA2914.jpg?v=1785341794"},{"product_id":"the-low-down","title":"The Low-Down","description":"\u003cp\u003eNew York: Henry Holt and Company, 1928. First edition. Total of 24 illustrations (complete). Publisher's full dark blue cloth stamped in light blue with sketch mounted on front cover. Octavo. 289. Light edge-wear, lightest fading on cover illustration. A very good copy. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis collection of profiles of noted personalities in 1920s America is lively and breezily written and spiced with drawn portraits of each of the subjects by noted New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno. The front-cover features a two-color sketch of Anita Loos. Some are the others profiles are F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gene Tunney, George Jean Nathan, Sinclair Lewis and Adele Astair. E\u003cspan\u003each profile features a rundown of observations about its subject, quotes, character traits, tics, etc. Examples, from the piece on F. Scott Fitzgerald: \"He will frequently talk to himself.\" \"He will contact a hangover from work as well as from play.\" \"When writing, he is usually nervous and irritable and will engulf, during his labors, innumerable cups of Coca-Cola.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"UNCIAL","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":59710294950174,"sku":"UN-0023","price":200.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1082\/2094\/0574\/files\/PANA2874.jpg?v=1785274420"},{"product_id":"alone-in-the-wilderness","title":"Alone in the Wilderness","description":"\u003cp\u003eBoston: Small, Maynard \u0026amp; Company, 1913. First edition. Total of 24 illustrations, 1 colored plate insert. Octavo. Publishers full green cloth stamped in gilt, illustratively stamped and ruled in black. 255. No dust jacket, wear to cloth on spine top and bottom, spine is toned, spine's gilt is faded, corners lightly starting, covers lightly worn, small white stains and 1 small red (stain?) on front cover, previous owner stamp on ffep. Still a good copy with a clean interior. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJoseph Knowles, a professional and famous illustrator, \u003cspan\u003eentered the wilderness of Maine naked, without firearms, matches, or even a knife, and lived for two months as a primitive man, relying wholly on his own resources. In this book he tells what he did and how he did It. Yet, it is not just a documentation of a dangerous experiment, as the author also tries to find philosophical meaning between Nature and Man: \"Let me appeal to every man [...] Let them study the greatest textbook of all -- the open book of nature. [...] Let them understand the wild creatures, who have souls like themselves. [...] In a word, let humanity be born again.\" (Alone in the Wilderness)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"UNCIAL","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":59712390660382,"sku":"UN-0027","price":50.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1082\/2094\/0574\/files\/PANA2930.jpg?v=1785342152"},{"product_id":"george-washington","title":"George Washington: A Biography","description":"\u003cp\u003eNew York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1948-54. First edition. Total of 94 illustrations, 53 maps, and 2 musical scores. Octavo. Six volumes. Publisher's full blue cloth stamped and ruled in gilt on spine. Vol. I: xxvi, 549, 13 illustrations, 5 maps; Vol. II: vi, 464, 12 illustrations, 3 maps; Vol. III: xxxvi, 599, 15 illustrations, 6 maps; Vol. IV: viii, 736, 15 illustrations, 24 maps; Vol. V: xvi, 570, 14 illustrations, 12 maps, 2 musical scores; Vol. VI: xlv, 529, 20 illustrations, 3 maps. Vol. 5 and 6 have fading on gilt, edge-wear to cloth, pressed corners, light scratching to cloth covers, light scratching to text blocks. Overall, very good copies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eDouglas Southall Freeman's \u003cem\u003eGeorge Washington\u003c\/em\u003e ranks among the most exhaustive lives written of any American, issued by Charles Scribner's Sons across nearly a decade. Freeman, for years editor of the Richmond \u003cem\u003eNews Leader\u003c\/em\u003e, and already a Pulitzer winner for his four-volume \u003cem\u003eR. E. Lee,\u003c\/em\u003e took up Washington as his last work, leaving journalism in 1949 to give it his full attention. He carried over the \"fog of war\" method of the Lee: presenting events only as far as Washington himself could have known them at a given moment, so the reader follows his judgment forming rather than reading back from the outcome. The effect was to loosen a figure long stiffened into monument, restoring a Washington who was fallible and deliberate, an improbably successful commander against the British and, afterward, a careful steward of an untried republic. His contemporaries did not stint their regard; the historian Allan Nevins reckoned him \"America's greatest biographer.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe completed work would go on to receive the 1958 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, Freeman's second, awarded after his death. Each of the six volumes is a first printing, carrying the Scribner's seal and the letter \"A\" on the copyright page, and the text is illustrated throughout with frontispieces, plates, and maps.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"UNCIAL","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":59766751068446,"sku":"UN-0029","price":400.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1082\/2094\/0574\/files\/PANA3035.jpg?v=1786567914"}],"url":"https:\/\/uncialrarebooks.com\/collections\/first-editions.oembed","provider":"UNCIAL","version":"1.0","type":"link"}