Literature & Children's Books by Top Authors

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?Book%20Subject=Fine%2520bindings" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">finely bound</a> first trade edition of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=edgar%20allan%20poe&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Poe</a>'s Tales Of Mystery And Imagination.<ul><li>Edgar Allan Poe (American).</li><li>Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.</li><li>London: George G. Harrap &amp; Co., Ltd., 1935.</li><li>Small folio.</li><li>12 tissue guarded color plates and 17 others.</li><li>Bound in full black morocco, raised bands, gilt lettered spine, gilt skeleton and title to front cover, gilt dentelles, marbled pastedowns and endpapers, all edges gilt, by Zaensdorf for E. Joseph.</li></ul>

Tales Of Mystery And Imagination

A finely bound <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Sets" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">set</a> of the works of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Sets&amp;query=Charles%20Dickens&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Charles Dickens</a>.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 36 volumes.</li><li>Charles Dickens (English).</li><li>Introduction and notes by Andrew Lang.</li><li>New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1902.</li><li>All illustrations after the originals.</li><li>Includes the 2 volumes of Forster's Life Of Dickens.</li><li>Bound in half green morocco, ribbed gilt decorated spines, top edges gilt, by Lauriat Of Boston.</li></ul>

The Complete Works Of Charles Dickens

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a>, first issue of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?locale=en&amp;query=A.A.%20Milne&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">A.A. Milne</a>'s <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?locale=en&amp;query=Winnie%20The%20Pooh&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Winnie The Pooh</a>.<ul><li>A. A.&nbsp;Milne (English).</li><li>Illustrated by E. H. Shephard.</li><li>London: Methuen &amp; Co. Ltd., 1926.</li><li>Bound in the publisher's original gilt stamped green cloth, top edge gilt, pictorial pastedowns and endpapers, in a protective mylar jacket.</li></ul>

Winnie The Pooh

A limited vellum edition of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?locale=en&amp;Book%20Type=Signed%2520and%2520Inscribed&amp;query=A%20Christmas%20Carol&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">A Christmas Carol</a> by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?locale=en&amp;Book%20Type=Signed%2520and%2520Inscribed&amp;query=Charles%20Dickens&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Charles Dickens</a>, signed by the illustrator <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?locale=en&amp;Book%20Type=Signed%2520and%2520Inscribed&amp;query=Arthur%20Rackham&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Arthur Rackham</a>.<ul><li>Charles Dickens (English).</li><li>Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.</li><li>London: Heinemann, 1915.</li><li>Limited to 525 copies illustrated and signed by Arthur Rackham, this being copy #333.</li><li>Bound in the original gilt stamped vellum, pictorial pastedowns and endpapers, top edge gilt others uncut as issued.</li></ul> Regarded as Dicken's most widely read novel and considered to be "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel p. 116) selling more than 6000 copies in the few days leading up to Christmas. The work was extravagantly costly as Dickens for the first time (and incidentally his last) used color in the title-page and etchings as he wanted to make the book a beautiful gift and to be a celebration of the Christmas spirit. After the initial success, Dickens continued the series throughout the 1840's, maintaining "the Carol" philosophy to "strike a sledgehammer blow" for the poor, uneducated, and repressed.

A Christmas Carol

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?Book%20Subject=Fine%2520bindings" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">finely bound</a> edition of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Mark%20Twain&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mark Twain</a>'s <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=The%20Adventures%20of%20Huckleberry%20Finn&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn</a>.<ul><li>Mark Twain (American).</li><li>Color-plate and in-text illustrations by Cyril Walter Hodges (1909-2004).</li><li>London: J.M. Dent &amp; Sons Ltd; New York: E.P. Dutton &amp; Co. Inc, 1965.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Frontispiece, color plates, and in-text illustrations.</li><li>Bound in red calf gilt by Bayntun, gilt spine in 6 compartments, contrasting black and green lettering-pieces, all edges gilt.</li></ul>

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

An inscribed first edition, first printing of A Game Of Thrones.<ul><li>George R.R. Martin (American).</li><li>New York:&nbsp;Banta,&nbsp;1996.&nbsp;</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>694 pages.</li><li>Inscribed by the author on the half-title page.</li><li>Spine silver with blue lettering, dust jacket protected in mylar covering, with price uncut.</li></ul>

A Game Of Thrones

A first English edition copy of A Tramp Abroad.<ul><li>Mark Twain (American).</li><li>London: Chatto &amp; Windus, 1880.</li><li>Please note the image is a representative image of this item and not a photograph of the exact item available for purchase. For exact specifications, please Enquire.</li><li>Please note that availability of this item is subject to change. For details, please Enquire.</li></ul>

A Tramp Abroad

A first edition copy of Mark Twain's novel&nbsp;Roughing It.<ul><li>Mark Twain (American).</li><li>Hartford, Connecticut:&nbsp;American Publishing Company,&nbsp;1872.</li><li>Please note the image is a representative image of this item and not a photograph of the exact item available for purchase. For exact specifications, please Enquire.</li><li>Please note that availability of this item is subject to change. For details, please Enquire.</li></ul>

Roughing It

A first edition copy of The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrim's Progress.<ul><li>Mark Twain (American).</li><li>Hartford, Connecticut: American Publishing Company, 1869.</li><li>Please note the image is a representative image of this item and not a photograph of the exact item available for purchase. For exact specifications, please Enquire.</li><li>Please note that availability of this item is subject to change. For details, please Enquire.</li></ul>

The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrim's Progress

A first edition copy of Sketches, New and Old.<ul><li>Mark Twain (American).</li><li>Hartford, Connecticut: The American Publishing Company, 1875.</li><li>Please note the image is a representative image of this item and not a photograph of the exact item available for purchase. For exact specifications, please Enquire.</li><li>Please note that availability of this item is subject to change. For details, please Enquire.</li></ul>

Sketches, New And Old

A first American edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.<ul><li>Mark Twain (American).</li><li>New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1885.</li><li>Please note the image is a representative image of this item and not a photograph of the exact item available for purchase. For exact specifications, please Enquire.</li><li>Please note that availability of this item is subject to change. For details, please Enquire.</li></ul>

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

A finely bound, illustrated copy of Paradise Lost.<ul><li>John Milton (English).</li><li>Illustrated by Gustave Doré.&nbsp;</li><li>Edited by Robert Vaughan.</li><li>London:&nbsp;Cassell, Petter, &amp; Galpin,&nbsp;1890.</li><li>Bound in full red morocco with ornate gilt-tooling and black inlays on the covers and raised band spines, all edges gilt, with marbled endpapers. Illustrated throughout. London: Cassell, Petter, &amp; Galpin., 1890.</li></ul>

Paradise Lost

A finely bound, Imperial Edition set of the works of Shakespeare.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2 volumes.</li><li>William Shakespeare (English).</li><li>With notes by Charles Knight.</li><li>London:&nbsp;J.S. Virtue,&nbsp;1875.</li><li>Portrait frontispiece with illustrations on steel throughout.</li><li>Bound in full brown morocco with ornate gilt-tooling on covers and raised band spine, all edges gilt.</li></ul>

The Works of Shakespeare

The Astral Edition of Oscar Wilde's writings.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 15 volumes.</li><li>Oscar Wilde (Irish).</li><li>London And New York:&nbsp;A.R. Keller &amp; Co.,&nbsp;1907.</li><li>Portrait frontispiece and illustrated throughout.</li><li>Bound in full purple morocco with floral inlay and ornate gilt-tooling on covers, the raised band spines are faded to tan with gilt-tooling, top edges gilt, purple and red morocco doublures with gilt-tooling and watered silk endpapers. </li></ul>

The Writings of Oscar Wilde

A collection of the works of Charles Dickens.<ul><li>Charles Dickens (English).</li><li>Please note the image is a representative image of this item and not a photograph of the exact item available for purchase. For exact specifications, please Enquire.</li><li>Please note that availability of this item is subject to change. For details, please Enquire.</li></ul>

The Works Of Charles Dickens

A first edition of Dickens' Bleak House.<ul><li>Charles Dickens (English).</li><li>London: Bradbury and Evans, March 1852 – September 1853.</li><li>Please note the image is a representative image of this item and not a photograph of the exact item available for purchase. For exact specifications, please Enquire.</li><li>Please note that availability of this item is subject to change. For details, please Enquire.</li></ul>

Bleak House

A first edition of Dickens' Hard Times.<ul><li>Charles Dickens (English).</li><li>Hard Times. For these times.</li><li>London: Bradbury and Evans, 1854.</li><li>Please note the image is a representative image of this item and not a photograph of the exact item available for purchase. For exact specifications, please Enquire.</li><li>Please note that availability of this item is subject to change. For details, please Enquire.</li></ul>

Hard Times

A first edition of Dickens' novel Little Dorrit.<ul><li>Charles Dickens (English).</li><li>London: Bradbury and Evans, December 1855-June 1857.</li><li>Please note the image is a representative image of this item and not a photograph of the exact item available for purchase. For exact specifications, please Enquire.</li><li>Please note that availability of this item is subject to change. For details, please Enquire.</li></ul>

Little Dorrit

A first edition of Dickens' novel A Tale Of Two Cities.<ul><li>Charles Dickens (English).</li><li>London: Chapman and Hall, June-December 1859.</li><li>Please note the image is a representative image of this item and not a photograph of the exact item available for purchase. For exact specifications, please Enquire.</li><li>Please note that availability of this item is subject to change. For details, please Enquire.</li></ul>

 A Tale of Two Cities

A first edition of Charles Dickens The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.<ul><li>Charles Dickens (English).</li><li>The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby... Edited by "Boz."</li><li>London: Chapman and Hall, April 1838 - October 1839.</li><li>Please note the image is a representative image of this item and not a photograph of the exact item available for purchase. For exact specifications, please Enquire.</li><li>Please note that availability of this item is subject to change. For details, please Enquire.</li></ul>

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby

A first edition of Charles Dickens' The Adventures Of Oliver Twist.<ul><li>Charles Dickens (English).</li><li>London: Bradbury and Evans, January – October 1846.</li><li>Please note the image is a representative image of this item and not a photograph of the exact item available for purchase. For exact specifications, please Enquire.</li><li>Please note that availability of this item is subject to change. For details, please Enquire.</li></ul>

The Adventures Of Oliver Twist

First edition of Charles Dickens' The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.<ul><li>Charles Dickens (English).</li><li>London: Chapman and Hall, April 1836 - November 1837.</li><li>Please note the image is a representative image of this item and not a photograph of the exact item available for purchase. For exact specifications, please Enquire.</li><li>Please note that availability of this item is subject to change. For details, please Enquire.</li></ul>

The Posthumous Papers Of The Pickwick Club

A first edition of Dicken's David Copperfield.<ul><li>Charles Dickens (English).</li><li>London: Bradbury &amp; Evans, May 1849-November 1850.</li><li>Please note the image is a representative image of this item and not a photograph of the exact item available for purchase. For exact specifications, please Enquire.</li><li>Please note that availability of this item is subject to change. For details, please Enquire.</li></ul>

David Copperfield

The first edition of Dickens' Great Expectations.<ul><li>Charles Dickens (English).</li><li>London: Chapman &amp; Hall, 1860-1861.</li><li>Please note the image is a representative image of this item and not a photograph of the exact item available for purchase. For exact specifications, please Enquire.</li><li>Please note that availability of this item is subject to change. For details, please Enquire.</li></ul>

Great Expectations

A first edition, first issue of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.<ul><li>Charles Dickens (English).</li><li>A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. </li><li>London: Chapman &amp; Hall, 1843.</li><li>Please note the image is a representative image of this item and not a photograph of the exact item available for purchase. For exact specifications, please Enquire.</li><li>Please note that availability of this item is subject to change. For details, please Enquire.</li></ul>

A finely bound set of The Winchester Edition of The Novels of Jane Austen.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 10 volumes.</li><li>Jane Austen (English).</li><li>Edinburgh: John Grant, 1906.&nbsp;</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>With a portrait frontispiece to first volume, and title pages printed in red and black with a vignette ‘JA’ monogram.&nbsp;</li><li>The works include: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and Emma.</li><li>Recently bound in navy half calf, with raised bands, gilt titles to twin red labels, and matching cloth over boards, top edges gilt, others gently trimmed.</li></ul>

The Novels Of Jane Austen

A limited edition copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, signed by Salvador Dali.<ul><li>Lewis Carroll (English).</li><li>Illustrated by Salvador Dali.</li><li>New York: Maecenas Press - Random House, 1969.</li><li>With frontispiece and 12 illustrations.</li><li>The frontispiece is a signed etching by Salvador Dali, limited to 2500 numbered copies on Mandeure paper of which this is number 676, signed by Dali on the title-page.</li><li>Presented in the original tan leather backed clamshell box, gilt lettered spine, with the original gilt stamped brown cloth chemise.</li></ul>

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

An inscribed presentation copy of Lewis Carroll's Through The Looking-Glass And What Alice Found There.<ul><li>Lewis Carroll (English).</li><li>Illustrated by John Tenniel.</li><li>London: Macmillan &amp; Co., 1877.</li><li>Inscribed by Dodgson on the half-title "Mariella York Powell, from the Author. Nov. 23, 1897", in black ink.</li><li>Bound in the scarce white paper and leatherette binding, reproducing the gilt decoration of the red cloth editions, all edges gilt, black pastedowns and endpapers, housed in a quarter red morocco slipcase.</li></ul> Mariella York Powell was the daughter of Frederick York Powell who was close friends with John Butler Yeats whom the artist first met on his move to Bedford Park, London in the late 1880s.

Through The Looking-Glass And What Alice Found There

A finely bound, fifth edition copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.<ul><li>Lewis Carroll (English).</li><li>Illustrated by John Tenniel.</li><li>London: Macmillan &amp; Co., 1868.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>With half title and 42 woodcut illustrations (including frontispiece).</li><li>Bound in modern full red morocco, gilt-paneled, spines with raised bands in six compartments, lettered in gilt in second and fourth compartments, gilt-stamped designs of playing cards and the March Hare in other compartments.</li></ul>

A finely bound set of the works of Shakespeare, including: Comedies, Histories, Doubtful Plays and Tragedies.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 4 volumes.</li><li>William Shakespeare (English).</li><li>London and New York:&nbsp;The London Printing and Publishing Company.</li><li>Illustrated frontispiece with illustrations throughout.</li><li>Bound in full blue morocco with ornate gilt-tooling on covers and raised band spines, top edge gilt.</li></ul>

Works of Shakespeare

A finely bound Salon Edition of Antony and Cleopatra.<ul><li>William Shakespeare (English).</li><li>Illustrations by Paul Avril.</li><li>Paris: Société des Beaux Arts, 1870.</li><li>Color plate frontispiece.</li><li>Limited to 550 copies of which this is 51.</li><li>Bound in three-quarters green morocco with marbled boards, gilt tooling on covers and raised band spines with red inlays, marbled endpapers.</li></ul>

 Antony and Cleopatra

A first edition, first impression, trade-issue copy of Joyce’s last and most innovative prose work, Finnegans Wake.<ul><li>James Joyce (Irish).</li><li>London: Faber &amp; Faber, 1939.</li><li>Large octavo.</li><li>Bound in the publisher’s burgundy cloth, titles to spine gilt, with the unclipped dust jacket, housed in green morocco gilt solander box.&nbsp;</li></ul> One of 3,400 sets of sheets for the trade edition of Finnegans Wake which were printed for Faber. Of these, 2,255 were bound and sold at 25 shillings, 950 were destroyed by the publisher and the remaining were gratis copies. It is possible that the 950 discarded sets of sheets remained unsold because of the price, which Joyce believed was too high. "'A way alone aloved alost along the…' If Finnegans Wake is a key book, it is a key which needs a key" (Connolly). "His work is enriched by such large resources of invention and allusion that its total effect is infinite variety" (Harry Levin).

Finnegans Wake

A limited edition copy of the sonnets and narrative poems of England’s most famous dramatist, finely bound in red morocco gilt by Bayntun-Riviere.<ul><li>William Shakespeare (English).</li><li>Edited by Gwyn Jones.</li><li>London: The Golden Cockerel Press, 1960.</li><li>Folio.</li><li>245 pages.</li><li>Number 247 of 470 copies.</li><li>Bound in red morocco by Bayntun-Riviere, panels elaborately tooled in gilt with an allover design of meandering roses inlaid in pink, green and red, gilt spine in six compartments, top-edge gilt, others uncut, dentelles tooled in kind, enclosed in red cloth solander box, with contrasting green morocco title piece to spine.</li></ul>

The Poems and Sonnets of William Shakespeare

A finely bound second Baskerville quarto edition of Paradise Lost.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2 volumes.</li><li>John Milton (English).</li><li>Thomas Newton, D.D. (English).</li><li>Paradise Lost. A Poem in Twelve Books. The Author John Milton. From the Text of Thomas Newton D.D., with Paradise Regain'd. A Poem, In Four Books. To which is added Samson Agonistes: and Poems Upon Several Occasions. The Author John Milton. From the Text of Thomas Newton, D.D.</li><li>Birmingham: Printed by John Baskerville for J. and R. Tonson in London, MDCCLIX [1759].</li><li>Small quarto.</li><li>Frontispiece portrait.</li><li>Bound in near-contemporary straight-grained red morocco, with elaborate gilt spines and covers, with peony and other floral motifs, wheat, acorns and harp motifs, with gilt dentelles, all edges gilt.</li></ul>

A limited edition copy of Wuthering Heights, signed by the illustrator.<ul><li>Emily Brontë (English).</li><li>Illustrated by Balthus.</li><li>New York: The Limited Editions Club,&nbsp;1993.</li><li>Folio.</li><li>Part of an edition limited to 300 numbered copies, signed by Balthus.</li><li>Illustrated with 15 lithographs by Balthus on Japanese paper printed in brown-toned black ink.</li><li>Text set by Michael Bixler using Monotype Dante, printed on specially made off-white mold-made Arches paper with watermark.</li><li>Bound in the original gray-green morocco with title stamped in dark-brown, in publisher's cloth box.</li></ul> "What could they have had in common ‑- Count Balthazar Klossowski de Rola, the Paris‑born modern artist (better known as Balthus) who has filled scores of canvases with paintings of female nudes, and Mistress Emily Brontë, the mid‑nineteenth-century British spinster who seems never to have left the Yorkshire moors? Precisely, those moors. In his youth, the Count visited that wild landscape and, in 1933, made a series of drawings based on her gripping novel. Some say that he saw himself as Heathcliff. Sixty-one years later, and after creating a vast array of famous paintings, many reminiscent of those drawings, Balthus agreed in 1994 to have The Limited Editions Club present, for the first time in their destined context, the entire suite of fifteen drawings" (Publisher).

Wuthering Heights

A first edition, finely bound copy of The Raven and Other Poems.<ul><li>Edgar Allan Poe (American).</li><li>The Raven and Other Poems [and:] Tales.</li><li>New York:&nbsp;Wiley and Putnam,&nbsp;1845.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Raven with half title, "Wiley and Putnam's Library of American Books," name of stereotyper T. B. Smith on the title verso; Tales, third printing with three-line copyright.</li><li>Bound in three quarter blue morocco gilt, t.e.g., by Riviere &amp; Son.</li></ul> Students all over the world know of the title poem, and many know others as well: "The Conqueror Worm," "Eulalie," "Leonore," "To Helen," etc. "The most important volume of poetry that had been issued up to that time in America..." —Grolier American 56 A choice set of the major books published during Poe’s lifetime, BAL’s “reissue B,” issued by Wiley and Putnam in April 1846, comprising the first edition sheets of The Raven and The Tales in either second or third printing (here in BAL’s third printing, distinguishable by the three-line copyright notice). BAL notes that “impressions from the plates of several pages vary in an anomalous way. For instance, the first three letters of the last three lines of p. 160 appear both battered and intact within the three printings.” This copy has slight battering to “I” and “o” on p. 160, while the “v” is intact. The “E” in the running head on p. 187 is broken here (as in most copies of all printings. BAL cautions, “It is possible that the printings designated below as second and third are in fact two states of the same printing.” This copy is textually complete in both books, including the integral ads; the volume has been rebound without the separate gatherings of advertisements that followed the text.

Literature & Children's Books by Top Authors

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Edgar Allan Poe

Charles Dickens

A.A. Milne

Charles Dickens, Arthur Rackham

Mark Twain

J.R.R. Tolkien

Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Mark Twain

John Milton

William Shakespeare

Oscar Wilde

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Jane Austen

Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]

Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]

Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

James Joyce

William Shakespeare

John Milton

Balthus, Emily Brontë

Edgar Allan Poe