Literature
Children's Literature
The curious adventures of a little white mouse; or, A bad boy changed, in a very comical manner, into a good boy
London: Printed and sold by all the booksellers in town and country, ca.1780
This is an irresistible story of a troublesome boy (from a dysfunctional family) who, because of his misbehavior, is transformed into a mouse & relocated in London. There he must fend for himself; eventually he learns the manners & attitudes appropriate to civilized behavior &, finally, becomes the king of his realm. The woodcuts were quite obviously made for this story; no other copy is listed in the online English Short Title Catalogue.
The curious adventures of a little white mouse; or, A bad boy changed, in a very comical manner, into a good boy
London: Printed for W. Lane, at the Minerva, ca.1790
The story was reissued about ten years later, by the Minerva Press, a firm specializing in multi-volume gothick novels. It's interesting to note that although the text is pretty much a line-for-line reprint, with the original woodcut illustrations, the long f has been abandoned. Our collection of children's books from the Minerva Press is very likely the largest anywhere.
Polish tyrant
London: Tabart & Co., 1809
The history of harlequinades, or "turn-ups," is obscure. What is sure is that these publications are an early form of pop-up. Each one generally has four main vertical panels, accordion-folded; each of these panels has a flap pasted at the top & bottom that gives another perspective of the engraved image on the main panel. The whole is often hand-colored. Our collection of harlequinades is very likely the largest anywhere: we have nearly 50 different examples. The Friends of the UCLA Library enabled us to purchase this one, known to Marjorie Moon, the bibliographer of Tabart publications, only by a catalog description from ca.1970.
Scripture characters, by a parent for his children
London: W. Darton, 1811
This is the earliest example we have of a children's book bound so that the text can be begun at either end. Good people range from Abel (Genesis iv. 4) to Epaphras (Colossians iv. 12); the bad ones from Cain (Genesis iv. 1) to Demas (2 Timothy iv. 10). So fugitive is this little work, even in its recased state, that there was not a copy included in the exhibition of Darton publications mounted by the Lilly Library in 1992. This copy was purchased with funds provided by the family of Wilbur J. Smith, Head of the Department of Special Collections from 1951-1971.
Lucinda, the orphan; or, The costumes, a tale: Exhibited in a series of dresses
London: Printed for S. and J. Fuller, 1812
Between 1810 & about 1816, the Fullers issued several sets of paper dolls: Ellen; or, The naughty girl reclaimed, Frederick; or, The effects of disobedience, Young Albert, the Roscius, &c. The opportunity of adding a tenth set, Lucinda, to our collection was irresistible, especially since that is the name of the Rare Books Assistant. This copy is complete, with all seven dresses & seven hats. (The hats tended to disappear from these sets fairly regularly.)
Africa, neatly dissected
London: Darton, 1818
In connection with "Childhood Re-Collected," a 1994 conference held at Christ Church, Oxford, the Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association sponsored a book fair. There were many wonderful books & objects for sale; this, I think, is my favorite purchase that weekend. All the pieces of the puzzle are present, the original wooden box is in reasonable condition, and the publisher's & bookseller's labels are intact. This is a fine example of the quality of amusements that were being produced for children in the time of, say, Jane Austen.
One of the number
Eireeneespaid'agathoontegigantaiosphilos, the good-natured giant:
a story adapted to the capacities of children and old people. With illustrations by C. W. Sheeres.
London: Hope and Co., 1852
As the author points out in his (or her) preface, literature is full of stories of giants terrifying naughty men & women, boys & girls, but rarely - if ever - has a story been told about a sweet-tempered one. There are a number of curiosities about this edition: the illustrator seems to have been otherwise an engraver of other people's work; the Osborne Collection doesn't have a single book from this publisher. Although there is a copy of this story in the British Library, there doesn't seem to be another one in North America.
Eighteenth - Twentieth Century Literature
Bibliography
Montague Summers
A gothic bibliography
London: The Fortune Press, 1940
The culmination of more than 40 years' research, Summers' bibliography spans nearly 200 years of the school of sensational fiction, 1728-1916. This most popular of literary genres had barely been explored at the time Summers published his preliminary work and he was able to provide many new titles as well as document more familiar ones. This copy, numbered 749 of 750, is inscribed by the author "First copy received/14 December, 1940./Author's copy." It is full of his notes & additions.
Nineteenth Century Literature
Primarily Sadleir authors
Lady (Sydney) Morgan
St. Clair; or, The heiress of Desmond
Dublin: Printed by Brett Smith, for Messrs. Wogan, Brown, Halpin, Colbert, Jon, Dornin, Jackson, and Medcalf, 1803
Lady Morgan was one of Michael Sadleir's favorite authors & he collected her books diligently. This first edition of her first novel, however, escaped his net. Lady Morgan's autobiography provides clear evidence that this version, actually published toward the end of 1802, precedes the edition in Sadleir's collection, which did not appear until the summer of 1803.
A catalogue of books in the library of Christopher D. Bellew, Esq., Mount-Bellew
Galway: Printed by Geo. Conolly, 1813
The discovery of the Mount Bellew library in the West of Ireland was one of the three events of major importance in Michael Sadleir's pursuit of nineteenth century British fiction. The library, formed between 1800 and 1830, consisted of books read no more than one time & then stored under ideal conditions. On the death of the owner, the books were forgotten; discovered a century later, the books were "crisp and radiant, with labels dead white and perfect, with spines sound and round and flawless at the hinge, with strawboards clear-cut and fore-edges sinuous and sharp." Christopher Bellew issued two printed catalogs of his library; we've had the second version for decades, but only last year we were able to obtain a copy of the first, original list. According to the printed label on the front cover, it's one of 15 copies.
Richard Creed
[Correspondence with the Edgeworth family]
v. p., 1820-1850
Richard Creed worked for the British Treasury & the Foreign Office in Paris from about 1817 to 1827, at which time he returned to England. It was during this ten-year period that he began his friendship with the Edgeworth family, most especially with Maria. Their epistolary relationship & the correspondence documenting it are unknown to Maria Edgeworth's biographers. We were very fortunate to have been the successful bidders when this collection was offered at auction in 1983. Although we now have 19 letters written by Maria to Creed & 16 from him to her, it's obvious that there are many gaps in this correspondence.
Leigh Hunt
Sir Ralph Esher; or, Memoirs of a gentleman of the court of Charles II. 3v.
London: Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley, 1830
The publishing history of this work is complicated. Sadleir had a set dated 1832 in his collection, but suspected that there were - beyond the one noted in the British Museum - sets dated 1830. Described by one source as a "black tulip of British fiction," this set was acquired through special funding of the then University Librarian, Russell Shank.
Sarah Stickney Ellis.
Pictures of private life, ser.1-3
London: Smith, Elder, 1833-37
These collections of Mrs. Ellis's moral tales constitute her first published work. Although they were frequently reprinted, first editions seem scarce: none is listed on OCLC nor in the National Union Catalogue. Sadleir found only the second series (bound in morocco cloth) for his collection. Recently we obtained a complete set, the first two volumes in publisher's morocco with gilt edges. The binding is stamped in the lower left corner "Barritt & Co."
Mary Martha Butt Sherwood
[Diary]
1840-1844
Mrs. Sherwood, the prolific author of evangelical stories for children, is a fine contrast to Maria Edgeworth's somewhat more indulgent world view. Her 15-volume manuscript journal, which she began in 1835, was after her death severely edited by her daughter & published in 1854. We were able to acquire that holograph set (with the deletions noted), along with a large collections of Mrs. Sherwood's publications that once belonged to her grand-daughter & great-grand-daughter. About this same time, we obtained her manuscript diary for 1840-44, with its day-to-day record of her literary endeavors (& earnings). Bound into this volume are assorted letters, notes, flowers, &c.
Catherine Sinclair
Charlie Seymour; or, The good lady and the bad lady. 3d ed.
Edinburgh: William Whyte, 1844
Catherine Sinclair
The lives of the Caesars; or, The juvenile Plutarch. 2d ed.
London: Religious Tract Society, n.d.
Sadleir had a 10-volume presentation set of Catherine Sinclair's works "bound in full vellum, elaborately gilt on front, spine, and back. Initials 'C.S. to D.P.' centred on front...". The identity of D.P. is not known. Imagine my delight to be telephoned from London (this was before our fax machine was installed) with an offer of two more volumes from the set.
Mrs. Gore
The inundation; or, Peace and pardon, a Christmas story
London: Fisher, Son, & Co., [1847]
The titlepage subtitle of Sadleir's copy is Pardon and peace; this copy, which arrived recently, has the subtitle matching that on both covers, Peace and pardon. It's hard to imagine just what went wrong - and when.
Frederick Chamier
The life of a sailor. New ed.
London: Richard Bentley, 1850
The Bentley's Standard Novels series was the prototype for cheap reprints of popular novels. The original series contained 136 volumes; this is no.120. (Two subsequent series added another 148 volumes or so.) Sadleir was unable to find five titles in the First Series. In the years since the collection came to UCLA, we have acquired four of them, The life of a sailor being the most recent. We're still looking for no.69, Edward Howard's Rattlin the reefer (1838) - though there's a tattered non-UCLA copy at SRLF.
Frederick Saunders
Salad for the solitary
London: Richard Bentley, 1853
The bindings of Bentley publications tended to be the brightest, the most imaginative, of any being issued in London. Bentley's bibliography briefly describes the bindings of each of the books that the firm issued. This one is supposed to be in plain green cloth, with a note of the series, Parlour Book-Case, on the spine. We recently acquired this unrecorded variant, perhaps bound for presentation by the author. In addition to the different cloth, the blind stamping on the covers of the green cloth binding are much more elaborate & different, more ornate, tools were used to stamp the pattern on the spine.
Valentine Durrant
Saul Weir. 12 pts.
Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1878-79
Valentine Durrant is about as obscure a Victorian novelist as there is. Blackwood, however, had sufficient faith in his talent to publish two or three of his novels, first in monthly parts, as here, and then in two-volume sets. Apparently, Blackwood was trying to revive the earlier practice of issuing novels in parts, but without the success that this format had once had. The note in Wolff ends "A pencil note ... indicates that Valentine Durrant was the pseudonym of Admiral Beneventura Hinton. If so, he needed one." The eponymous protagonist is a journeyman carpenter whose usual pastime after work is improving his mind. Imagine the difficulties that got him into.
Ebenezer Jones
Studies of sensation and event. Poems
London: Pickering and Co., 1879
Long before the Ahmanson Foundation enabled us to assemble what has become the largest collection extant of Aldine imprints, we were collecting other books with the Aldine dolphin & anchor on the titlepage - books published by William Pickering and his heirs. William started out as a seller of old & used books in 1820; later that year he issued his first book. Pickering texts were scrupulously edited and, in contrast to much of the publishing of the period, the design of their books was austere & elegant. This copy has, in addition to its photographic frontispiece, four duplicate leaves bound at the end with authorial changes. (In honesty, it must be pointed out that this edition does not have the dolphin & anchor on the titlepage.) In addition to his utilization of the Aldine device, Pickering deserves credit for his introduction, in 1820, of the first full bindings in cloth.
Mrs. (Maria Georgiana Carleton) Fetherstonhaugh
For old sake's sake: A sketch
London: Richard Bentley, 1882
Here's another example of Bentley's imaginative bindings: wood-grained paper boards over a cloth spine, discreetly stamped in gold.
Twentieth Century Literature
See Also: History of Printing - Modern Fine Printing & Graphic Arts
Alice B. Toklas
Correspondence with Louise & Redvers Taylor, 1922-1966
After Gilbert Harrison gave us his extensive collection of material by & about Gertrude Stein, Mary Emma Davis, a UCLA alumna, & her husband made a donation that enabled us to add significant items to it. In addition to correspondence to & from Stein we were able to acquire the publisher's copy of typescripts of more than 170 letters written by Toklas. As it happened, only 121 of these letters actually made it into the volume of her correspondence, Staying on alone, that was published in 1973.
Arthur Rimbaud [twentieth century printings]
A season in hell
Paris: Edward W. Titus at the sign of the Black Manikin Press, 1931
The Davis's gift also enabled us to obtain material produced by expatriate Americans publishing in Paris at the time that Stein & Toklas were living there. The Crosby book has illustrations colored by pochoir, the only Black Sun book that was produced this way. We were also able to obtain the publisher's file for an edition of Rimbaud that Edward Titus intended to issue. For whatever reason - very likely the Great Depression - the book was never published & these dummies, sketches, &c, are all that remain. This archive complements nicely our virtually complete holdings of Black Manikin imprints and our extensive collection of Rimbaud editions.
Caresse Crosby
Crosses of gold
Paris: [Léon Pichon for Black Sun Press,] 1925
Photography
Edinburgh Industrial Brigade. Home for Destitute and Friendless Boys
[Register]
Edinburgh: The Brigade, ca.1870
Each of the 34 original photographs in this collection is accompanied by a biographical statement, most likely composed & written by a member of the Brigade or a volunteer. Some of the narratives surpass in pathos anything that Dickens contrived.
Grading Palisades del Rey
Los Angeles: s.n., 1925
Our photography collection serves many purposes, but showing the historical development of its technology and documenting local activities are two of the most important. Panoramic photographs are a particularly interesting form & we have dozens of them. This one, showing a bit of local real estate (& the advanced state of industrial technology) seventy years ago, was bought two years ago at an auction of Historical Society of Southern California duplicates.
Portraits of presses. Photographs by Ski Harrison of Fleece, Gregynog, I. M. Imprimit, Old Stile, Rampant Lions, Rocket, Tern, Whittington & CTD. With commentaries by the printers
Risbury, Herefordshire: The Whittington Press, 1997
In 1987, we were given the opportunity to purchase the second most complete archive of publications of The Whittington Press (the most complete holdings are at the University of Minnesota). The Press, which has been in operation since 1972, has, from its first book, issued important new texts that are imaginatively and elegantly produced. The Press has what is probably the largest collection of Monotype matrices extant; this enables it to select the most appropriate typeface for each book that it prints. Whittington books are often illustrated with wood engravings printed direct from the block. The proprietors, John & Rose Randle, have offered occasional printing courses both in England and Los Angeles and sponsor an annual open house at Whittington, near Cheltenham, the first weekend in September.
Travel & Exploration
Monarchs of ocean: Columbus and Cook
Edinburgh: William P. Nimmo, 186-?
[Toy globe]
Germany, ca.1840-60?
Our collection of material relating to Captain Cook's voyages is based on the one created by Sir Maurice Holmes; it came to UCLA in 1961. It contained virtually all of the contemporary editions of Cook's exploration, & a good thing, too, since the increasing interest in Pacific voyages has put most offerings far beyond our means. We have, however, been able to add modestly to Sir Maurice's endeavors. The book - unrecorded in this country - came in an exchange for some hours' labor at the University of Virginia; the globe, tracing Cook's three voyages, was financed by the Friends of the UCLA Library.
UCLA Library Department of Special Collections