Own a favorite classic in its first version. These editions, particularly when it's a writer's first book,&nbsp;are often run in small numbers,&nbsp;making them a much-desired collectible item. From&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?Book%20Subject=Illustrated" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">illustrated books</a>&nbsp;to seminal works, our shop offers a wide variety of options for collectors. <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">All Books</a>

First Edition Books

Finely bound first edition set of Churchill's The River War.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2.</li><li>Winston Churchill (English).</li><li>London, New York &amp; Bombay:&nbsp;Longmans, Green &amp; Co.,&nbsp;1899.</li><li>Bound in full navy morocco with lion details and top edge gilt.</li></ul>

The River War

First edition set of General Grant's memoirs with a frontispiece portrait.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2.</li><li>Ulysses S. Grant (American).</li><li>New York:&nbsp;Charles L. Webster &amp; Co.,&nbsp;1885.</li><li>Bound in full blue morocco with the spines displaying raised bands and gilt-tooled panel details, top edges are gilt with marbled endpapers.</li><li>Housed in a linen slipcase with a gilt-tooled seal in the side.</li></ul>

Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant

First edition, first printing of Woolf's&nbsp;The Voyage Out.<ul><li>Virginia Woolf (English).</li><li>London: Duckworth &amp; Co., 1915.</li><li>318 pages.</li><li>16 pages of publisher’s advertisements.</li><li>Bound by The Chelsea Bindery in full morocco with gilt title, marbled endpapers, handsewn headbands and all edges gilt.</li></ul>

The Voyage Out

First U.S. Edition and finely bound copy of Snow's novel The Affair.<ul><li>C. P. Snow (English).</li><li>New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1960.</li><li>374 pages.</li><li>Bound by the Harcourt Bindery in morocco over cloth boards with hand-sewn silk endbands, marbled endpapers and top edge gilt.</li></ul>

The Affair

Finely bound first edition, first issue of Ruark's Something of Value.<ul><li>Robert Ruark (American).</li><li>New York: Doubleday, 1955.</li><li>566 pages.</li><li>Rebound by Derek Woolf in three-quarter dark brown Nigerian calf leather over marble covered boards with raised bands to the spine with gilt lettering.</li></ul>

Something of Value

First British Edition of Orwell's critically acclaimed first novel.<ul><li>George Orwell (English).</li><li>London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1935.</li><li>318 pages.</li><li>Bound in contemporary full morocco with raised bands to the spine with gold gilt ruling, titles and decorative central motifs, gilt ruling to the borders of the front and rear covers, marbled endpapers, hand-sewn silk endbands, and the top page edges are gold gilted, and with the original cloth spine bound in at the rear of the book.</li></ul> The book recounts Orwell’s five years' service as a police officer in the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, 1922–1927, and is an honest and evocative novel based on life in upper Burma when Britain's rule was still unchallenged. The novel was initially rejected by British publishers due to concerns that his caustic critique of colonialism might be considered libelous to those portrayed. Orwell was able to get the book published in America in 1934 by Harper &amp; Brothers. The Gollancz edition is the First British with the characters’ names changed to avoid libel cases.

Burmese Days

Finely bound first-edition copy of Stevenson's Catriona, originally published as a serialized novel by Atlantic Monthly under the title David Balfour.<ul><li>Robert Louis Stevenson (Scottish).</li><li>Catriona. A Sequel to "Kidnapped" Being Memoirs of the Further Adventures of David Balfour at Home and Abroad.</li><li>London: Cassell and Company, 1893.</li><li>371 pages with several pages of advertisements by the publisher at the end of the book.</li><li>Bound by Sickles in full sage crushed morocco leather, raised bands with gilt titling and strapwork that extends from the bands onto the covers which feature ornamented outer corners with gilt roses, vines and petals in onlaid leather in red, and a central gilt monogram to the front cover, fancy dentelles, green silk endpapers, and the top page ends are gold gilted, and with the original cloth spine and cover are bound into the rear of the book.</li></ul>

Catriona

First edition, first printing of Baron at the Ballet that features the stunning photography of Baron Sterling Nahum, the official photographer for Sadler's Wells Ballet, London, and court photographer to the British Royal Family.<ul><li>Baron Sterling Nahum (English).</li><li>Introduction and commentary is by Arnold L. Haskell (English).</li><li>London: Collins, 1950.</li><li>222 printed pages with 8 full-page color photographs and a collection of over 270 monochrome images.</li><li>Bound in full dark brown morocco leather Bayntun Riviere, onlaid in the center of the front cover in various colors of morocco leather is a theater mask, spine treatment consists of raised bands, an onlaid treatment of masks that replicate the front cover design, and a compartment with the title in gold gilt, with gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers and top page ends gilt.</li></ul> The book is divided into sections devoted to illustrating, describing and assessing the work of many famous ballet companies as well as dancers such as Markova, Argyle, Fonteyn, Shearer, Grey and Helpmann, Pagava, Vyroubova, Danilova, Baronova and Kaye. From the publisher, "This book covers Baron's work as a photographer of ballet from 1935 to 1950 and as such it is probably the most comprehensive collection of ballet photographs by one photographer ever to have been published."

Baron at the Ballet

Finely bound true first edition of F.P. Delme Radcliffe’s treatise on fox hunting, entitled Noble Science, that covers the whole spectrum of the fox hunting enthusiast to include hound breeding and management, the master, the huntsman and hunting in the field.<ul><li>F.P. Delme Radcliffe (English).</li><li>The Noble Science: A Few General Ideas on Fox-Hunting for the Use of the Rising Generation of Sportsmen, and more especially those of the Hertfordshire Hunt Club.</li><li>London: Rudolph Ackermann, 1839.</li><li>327 pages, and illustrated with seven full-page black-and-white plates and numerous head-an-tale pieces as well as a dedication page, an author’s preface, list of illustrations and table of contents.</li><li>Bound by Bayntun, Bath in three-quarter morocco leather over marbled boards with decorated raised bands to the spine that also features gilt ruling and compartments with decorative embellishments in the compartments and gilt titling. There is gilt ruling to the covers, marbled endpapers, and all page ends are gold gilted; original cloth covers are bound into the rear of the book.</li></ul>

The Noble Science

Finely bound first-edition copy of Latimer's&nbsp;Europe in Africa in the Nineteenth Century.<ul><li>Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer (English-American).</li><li>Chicago: A.C. McClurg and Co., 1895.</li><li>451 pages which includes an introduction, table of contents, list of illustrations, foldout map as well as two other maps, a postscript and an index.</li><li>Includes 22 full-page illustrations, including a frontispiece of David Livingston, that are all protected by tissue guards and three maps including a foldout map of the Political Divisions in Africa.</li><li>In publisher’s original&nbsp;&nbsp;three-quarter morocco leather binding over patterned boards with elaborate ribbed gilt decorated spine, gilt ruling to the front and rear covers, patterned endpapers that match the boards, and top edges gilt, and with a binding stamp on the bottom of the first free endpaper, “Bound by binder for A.C. McClurg and Co.”</li></ul> From the publisher: Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer’s Europe in Africa in the Nineteenth Century is a comprehensive study of European imperialism and the history of colonization on the African continent, which had crucial impacts not only on diplomacy during the 19th century but the two World Wars fought in the first half of the 20th century. As Latimer noted at the beginning: "Europe in Africa in the Nineteenth Century has been a vast subject to be crowded into the limits which I have allowed myself in this series. If I am told by my critics that my book is deficient in historical perspective, I can only reply: 'You are right; but my aim has been to tell only what interested myself, and what I hoped might be interesting to other people. I therefore have put many persons, events, and other matters into the foreground, which, if I aimed to be an historian, I ought to have relegated to a less prominent position.' Almost every chapter of the book forms a narrative by itself. It was nearly as hard to write as would be a history of the United States with no reference to our General Government. The chapters on Uganda, South Africa, and the French in Central Africa, were especially bewildering; but I have had good material, and only hope I may have succeeded in making clear what seemed a Dark Forest in history before it had been penetrated and explored."

Europe in Africa in the 19th Century

Illustrated True First Edition of Beecher Stowe's third novel.<ul><li>Harriet Beecher Stowe (American).</li><li>Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne] (English).</li><li>London: Sampson, Low, 1859.</li><li>362 pages with an introduction by Stowe, 16 pages of the publisher’s advertisements that appear after page 362.</li><li>Bound in full leather mottled calf binding featuring an elaborately gilt decorated spine with raised bands and compartments for title and date, gold ruled covers with gilt floral stops, gilt edges, gilt dentelles and gilt top page ends, with original covers are bound into the book before the first free endpaper.</li></ul> Originally published in parts by Sampson Low, Son &amp; Co., from February-November, 1859, this is the first edition, first printing in book form of The Minister’s Wooing published in the same year by the same publisher.&nbsp;The Minister’s Wooing features 12 full-page illustrations by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), which complement Stowe’s story of daily life, slavery and religion in post-Revolutionary New England.

The Minister’s Wooing

First edition finely bound copy of Woolf's The Years.<ul><li>Virginia Woolf (English).</li><li>London: The Hogarth Press, 1937.</li><li>Bound in full green morocco, ribbed gilt decorated spine with all edges gilt and marbled pastedowns and endpapers.</li></ul>

The Years

First edition English and second edition Latin copies of Hymnus Tabaci bound together with both editions containing Thorius' Cheimonopegnion, or, A Winter Song.<ul><li>Raphael Thorius (Belgian).</li><li>Hymnus Tabaci: A Poem in Honour of Tabaco.</li><li>London: by T. N. for Humphrey Moseley, 1651.</li><li>Bound in later quarter-calf with gilt lettered spine.</li></ul>

Hymnus Tabaci

Signed first-edition presentation copy of Wilder's The Bridge of San Luis Rey.<ul><li>Thornton Wilder (American).</li><li>Illustrated by Amy Drevenstedt.</li><li>New York: Albert &amp; Charles Boni, 1927.</li><li>Inscribed on the title page "Amicus Amicis hoc erat in votis Thorny to Eliz-Ira-Sus-Judy New York April 17, 1959."</li><li>Bound in publisher's original smooth tan binding, title page printed in green and black with illustrated dust jacket.</li></ul>

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Signed first-edition copy of Lindbergh’s first memoir,&nbsp;We.<ul><li>Charles A. Lindbergh (American).</li><li>New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1927.</li><li>Illustrated.</li><li>Signed by Lindbergh on the title page.</li><li>Bound in the publisher's original gilt stamped blue cloth with illustrated dust jacket.</li></ul>

Inscribed first-edition presentation copy of Greene's A Sort of Life.<ul><li>Graham Greene (English).</li><li>London: The Bodley Head, 1971.</li><li>Inscribed on the front blank endleaf "For George Barker with good wishes Graham Greene."</li><li>Bound in the publisher's original green cloth with dust jacket.</li></ul>

A Sort of Life

First edition, second issue finely bound copy of&nbsp;Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.<ul><li>Lewis Carroll [Charles L. Dodgson] (English).</li><li>Illustrated by Sir John Tenniel (English).</li><li>New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1866.</li><li>42 illustrations.</li><li>Bound by Krumin of Boston in half red morocco, ribbed gilt decorated spine, gilt lettered blue and tan morocco spine labels, gilt green morocco floral onlays in each panel with marbled pastedowns and endpapers.</li></ul>

Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

First-edition illustrated copy of&nbsp;The Hunting of the Snark&nbsp;inscribed by the illustrator.<ul><li>Lewis Carroll [Charles L. Dodgson] (English).</li><li>Illustrated by Ralph Steadman (English).</li><li>The Hunting of the Snark. An Agony in Eight Fits.</li><li>London: Michael Dempsey, 1975.</li><li>Inscribed by Steadman to the title page with an original drawing which reads: "I deny all knowledge of this one I have never seen this book before in my life.&nbsp;In fact the man who forced me to write herein after does not exist and furthermore anyone who wishes to dispute the things I refer to is as big a liar as he is! And I'm not so where are we for goodness sake.&nbsp;(I charge 47/6 per work - &amp; I used to get it) signed Ralph Steadman.&nbsp;One for me here ish th' (Schnoowss) A rotten scribbler.&nbsp;PP.RS.RB '75."</li><li>Hardbound in original tan cloth with illustrated dust jacket.</li></ul>

The Hunting of the Snark

First edition, first printing uncorrected proof of the James Bond novel You Only Live Twice.<ul><li>Ian Fleming (British).</li><li>London: Jonathan Cape, 1964.</li><li>Limited to approximately 500 copies.</li><li>Bound in the publisher's original pictorial printed wrappers.</li></ul>

You Only Live Twice

First edition signed presentation copy of Greene's Travels with my Aunt.<ul><li>Graham Greene (English).</li><li>London: The Bodley Head, 1969.</li><li>Inscribed on the title page "With thanks for everything from Graham Greene."</li><li>Bound in publisher's original gilt lettered green cloth with illustrated dust jacket</li></ul>

Travels with my Aunt

First edition, second issue of Shelley's Prometheus Unbound.<ul><li>Percy Bysshe Shelley (English).</li><li>Prometheus Unbound: A Lyrical Drama in Four Acts with Other Poems.</li><li>London: C and J Ollier, 1820.</li><li>Bound by Zaehnsdorf in full green morocco, ribbed gilt decorated spine, green water silk pastedowns and endpapers with top edge gilt.</li></ul>

Prometheus Unbound

Inscribed first-edition presentation copy of&nbsp;Waugh in Abyssinia.<ul><li>Evelyn Waugh (English).</li><li>London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1936.</li><li>Inscribed on the half-title"for Audrey from Waugh in Ickleford August 1945."</li><li>Bound in publisher's original gilt-lettered red cloth binding.</li></ul>

Waugh in Abyssinia

First-edition copy of Mrs. Reynolds inscribed by Stein's partner, Alice Toklas.<ul><li>Gertrude Stein (American).</li><li>Mrs. Reynolds and Five Earlier Novelettes.</li><li>New Haven: Yale University Press, 1952.</li><li>Inscribed by Toklas on front blank endleaf "To Cook and Joanne. / With appreciation and affection / Alice /&nbsp;– Paris&nbsp;–&nbsp;– 3 - IX - 52."</li><li>Hardcover and cloth-bound with illustrated dust jacket.</li></ul>

Mrs. Reynolds

First-edition presentation copy of The Best Short Stories by Negro Writers, signed twice by the author.<ul><li>Langston Hughes (American).</li><li>Boston: Little, Brown &amp; Co., 1967.</li><li>Inscribed in green ink on the half-title "To the (Jack) Aistrops—Happy Holidays and Bon Voyage Sincerely, Langston Hughes New York. Christmas, 1966."</li><li>Additionally signed on page xiii and page 73.</li><li>Hardbound in publisher's original gilt stamped brown cloth.</li></ul>

The Best Short Stories by Negro Writers

First printing of the third and first illustrated edition of Shelley's&nbsp;Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, Revised, Corrected, and Illustrated with a New Introduction by the Author&nbsp;bound with&nbsp;The Ghost Seer, Volume IX of&nbsp;Bentley's Standard Novels&nbsp;series.&nbsp;<ul><li>Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (English).</li><li>London: Henry Colburn &amp; Richard Bentley, 1831.</li><li>Includes the engraved frontis and additional engraved title page, and a new introduction by Mary Shelley, bound with the&nbsp;Ghost-Seer.</li><li>Bound in contemporary half maroon morocco, ribbed gilt decorated spine with marbled edges.</li></ul>

Frankenstein

First London edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.<ul><li>Lewis Carroll [Charles L. Dodgson] (English).</li><li>Illustrated by Sir John Tenniel (English).</li><li>London: Macmillan &amp; Co., 1866.</li><li>Bound by Ringer &amp; Hertzberg in full green morocco, ribbed gilt decorated spine, all edges gilt with original cloth covers and spine bound in rear.</li></ul>

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Inscribed first edition of Tennessee Williams’&nbsp;The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore.<ul><li>Tennessee Williams (American).</li><li>London: Secker &amp; Warburg, 1964.</li><li>Inscribed on the half-title "To Bill Tennessee Williams."</li><li>Black hardcover with title gilt to spine.</li><li>Pink titled dust jacket.</li></ul>

The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore

Inscribed first edition of Tennessee Williams’&nbsp;Eight Mortal Ladies Possessed.<ul><li>Tennessee Williams (American).</li><li>New York: New Directions, 1974.</li><li>Signed on the front blank endleaf.</li><li>Bound in green cloth with title stamped to spine.</li><li>Illustrated white dust jacket.</li></ul>

Eight Mortal Ladies Possessed

First-edition inscribed copy of Wordsworth's White Doe of Rylstone.<ul><li>William Wordsworth (English).</li><li>The White Doe of Rylstone, or, The Fate of the Nortons.</li><li>London: James Ballantyne &amp; Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, &amp; Brown, 1815.</li><li>Inscribed on the half-title by Wordsworth "To his friend/Francis Merewether/April 26 1821."</li><li>Bound in half tan morocco, ribbed gilt decorated spine, gilt lettered red and green morocco spine labels with edges tinted red.</li></ul>

The White Doe of Rylstone

Inscribed first edition second state of Tennessee Williams’&nbsp;The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore.<ul><li>Tennessee Williams (American).</li><li>New York: New Directions, 1964.</li><li>Signed on the front blank endleaf.</li><li>Bound in green cloth with title gilt to spine, with illustrated white dust jacket.</li></ul>

First-edition finely bound book honoring the Irish artist Hugh Thomson.<ul><li>M. H. Spielmann (British).</li><li>Walter Jerrold (British).</li><li>Hugh Thomson: His Art, His Letters, His Humour, and His Charm.</li><li>London: A. &amp; C. Black, Ltd., 1931.</li><li>Illustrations throughout in black-and-white and color.</li><li>Bound by Bennett in full red morocco, ribbed gilt decorated spine and all edges gilt with original pictorial pastedown and endpaper bound in rear.</li><li>Housed in a felt-lined open-ended slipcase.</li></ul>

Hugh Thomson

First-edition presentation copy of Wharton's Twilight Sleep with an autographed signed letter tipped in.<ul><li>Edith Wharton (American).</li><li>New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1927.</li><li>Inscribed on the half-title to Elizabeth Asquith: "For Elizabeth / Edith / July 1927."</li><li>Autographed signed letter dated September 27, 1927 to Prince Bibesco tipped in.</li><li>Publisher's original gilt-stamped purple cloth, pictorial pastedowns and endpapers.</li></ul> Autographed signed letter reads: "Dear Prince Bibesco, Only a tiresome touch of flu has prevented my writing sooner to congratulate you on the success of "Laguelle" — of what I saw of it, is also of the last act, eloquently reported to me the next morning by Walter Berry, who made me more than ever regret that I lived in the suburbs, I had to leave before it was over — I enjoyed immensely some of your travailles — especially the brilliant 'Curtain' of Act I, a real bit of dramatic synthesis — &amp; also 'on ne regarde pas la nuit - &amp; c.'&nbsp;I hope the play is first day success — full, before audiences as appreciative of its wit as your first — _ _ _ _ etc.&nbsp;Yours ever sincerely Edith Wharton."

Twilight Sleep

First-edition finely bound copy of Blair's The Grave, A Poem.<ul><li>Robert Blair (Scottish).</li><li>Illustrated by William Blake (English).</li><li>Etchings by Louis Schiavonetti (Italian).</li><li>London: T. Bensley, 1808.</li><li>Frontispiece portrait, pictorial title page and 11 illustrations.</li><li>Bound in early quarter dark brown calf, ribbed gilt decorated spine, gilt lettered green morocco spine label.</li></ul>

The Grave, A Poem

Leaflet printed by Gutenberg as the first secular work ever published.<ul><li>Johannes Balbus (Italian).</li><li>Mainz: [Johann Gutenberg], 1460.</li><li>Printed in double columns with 66 lines to the page, rubricated 15 on recto and 38 on verso.</li><li>Galliziani paper, the half of the sheet without the watermark and with the characteristic shadows at wire-line intervals of ca. 5 mm.</li></ul>

Catholicon Gutenberg 66-Line Leaf

First edition of The Letters of Queen Victoria containing selected letters written by the queen during her tenure.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 3.</li><li>Queen Victoria (British).</li><li>Edited by Arthur Christopher Benson (British).</li><li>The Letters of Queen Victoria. A selection from her Majesty's correspondence between the years 1837 and 1861.</li><li>London: John Murray, 1907.</li><li>Illustrated including 4 fold-out pedigree charts.</li><li>Bound in half blue morocco, ribbed gilt decorated spines with top edges gilt.</li></ul>

The Letters of Queen Victoria

First edition, signed presentation copy of Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth from the library of Lanford Wilson.<ul><li>Tennessee Williams (American).</li><li>New York: New Directions, 1959.</li><li>Inscribed on endleaf by Williams to Wilson.</li><li>Hardcover book with illustrated dust jacket.</li></ul>

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Winston Churchill

Ulysses S. Grant

Virginia Woolf

C. P. Snow

Robert Ruark

George Orwell

Robert Louis Stevenson

Baron Sterling Nahum

F.P. Delme Radcliffe

Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Virginia Woolf

Raphael Thorius

Thornton Wilder

Charles A. Lindbergh

Graham Greene

Carroll, Lewis [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]

Carroll, Lewis [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]

Ian Fleming

Graham Greene

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Evelyn Waugh

Gertrude Stein

Langston Hughes

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Carroll, Lewis [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]

Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams

William Wordsworth

Tennessee Williams

M. H. Spielmann, Walter Jerrold

Edith Wharton

William Blake, Robert Blair

Johannes Balbus

Queen Victoria

Tennessee Williams