Introduction
An author's first book, as often as not, marks something of a watershed in his life. If, as is usual, he (or she) goes on to publish again, the maiden effort may end up something of an embarrassment in later years. But that maiden effort may be an only effort, too, as is the case with Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind or John Parke's Lyrics of Horace. All too frequently the "first book" takes the ephemeral form of a slim pamphlet. Or it embodies work far removed from that for which its author later will be best known. But to the collector of first editions, it is, whatever its form, the first of the first. And yet, of course, the collector must seek Ann Beattie's first two books, a novel and a volume of short stories published on the same day.
Perhaps because of that very heterodoxy, the "first book" exerts a special attraction for the collector, the catalogs of Seven Gables and Quill & Brush the holy writ he needs in the chase, the siren song of Fanshawe and Tamerlane the lure that takes him upon the rocks, for he will come to discover that although Hawthorne's and Poe's works are more famous, they are neither more common nor more often read than Jesse Stuart's Harvest of Youth. Though certainly far, far more expensive.
This exhibit focuses on American writers who have launched careers during almost the entire extent of our country's history. An effort has been made to include writers who, if not household names, have at some point in their careers commanded considerable critical attention and/or popular acclaim. By the same token, writers beginning outside the normal "main stream" are included, whether their initial handicap consisted of race, sexual preference, or simple isolation from the urban literary society. Each, in his or her way, has a legitimate claim on our attention.
This exhibit would not be possible were it not for the series of gifts which brought to Georgetown in recent years books from the collections of Washington bookseller-brothers David and Paul Pearlman and New York collector Gerard Previn Meyer. These generous gifts provide the books which make up the heart of the exhibit. They are supplemented by additional gifts from other sources as well as from three en bloc purchases made in the mid-80s (the collection of American literature formed by Irving Levy, the library of James P. J. Murphy, and the rare book collection of the University of Detroit Library). In fact, of the 63 first editions included in the exhibit only four, those by Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, John Pendleton Kennedy, and Ellen Glasgow, were among Georgetown's collections prior to 1970.
George M. Barringer
Georgetown University Library
Poems
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1809-1894
Boston: Otis, Broaders, and Company
1836
Original embossed cloth. Purchase (Levy).
Levy PS1955 .A1 1836
Class poem
Lowell, James Russell, 1819-1891
Cambridge Press: Metcalf, Torry, and Ballou
1838
Original wrappers (upper panel supplied in photocopy). Published anonymously. Purchase (Levy).
Levy PS2314 .C5 1838
Two years before the mast : a personal narrative of life at sea
Dana, Richard Henry, Jr.
New-York: Harper & Brothers
1840
Original gilt-stamped cloth. Published anonymously. With copyright notice and running head on page 9 in the later forms. Purchase (Detroit).
Detroit G540 .D2 1840
Narrative of a four months' residence among the natives of a valley of the Marquesas Islands : or, a peep at Polynesian life
Melville, Herman, 1819-1891
London: John Murray
1846
Original gilt-stamped cloth. The so-called "second issue," in binding variant C as listed by BAL. Purchase (Levy).
Levy PS2384 .T8 1846
A week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862
Boston and Cambridge: James Munroe and Company [et al.]
1849
Original gilt-stamped cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by Thoreau on the front free endleaf: "Rev. O. A. Brownson with the Regards of the author," not dated. Top edges of text block remain unopened after page 272. Purchase (Detroit).
Detroit PS3049 .A1 1849
Passion-flowers
Howe, Julia Ward, 1819-1910
Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields
1854
Original gilt-stamped cloth. Published anonymously. Gift of Maurice Adelman, Jr.
General LC PS2017 .P3 1854
Josh Billings, his sayings, with comic illustrations
Billings, Josh, 1818-1885
New York: Carleton
1866
Original gilt-stamped cloth. The binding in the state with upright capitals in the spine imprint, but, unusually, with the binder's ticket of George W. Alexander of New York at end. Gift of Eugene and Sandy Pearlman Meyer.
Off-Campus Shelving - Request in Special Collections PN6161 .S535 1866
Tiger-lilies : a novel
Lanier, Sidney, 1842-1881
New York: Published by Hurd and Houghton
1867
Original gilt-stamped cloth. Two copies, one with an integral title leaf and one with a cancel, representing two of the three known colors of the binding. All copies have the misprint "Lillies" for "Lilies" on the spine. Gift of Edith S. Mayfield.
General LC PS2210 .L36 1867
A passionate pilgrim, and other tales
James, Henry
Boston: James R. Osgood and Company
1875
Original gilt-stamped cloth. In the earliest state of the binding, with the Osgood imprint at the foot of the spine. Gift of Eugene Meyer and Deborah Meyer DeWan.
Off-Campus Shelving - Request in Special Collections PS2116 .P3 1875
Uncle Remus his songs and his sayings : the folk-lore of the old plantation. . . . with illustrations by Frederick S. Church and James H. Moser
Harris, Joel Chandler, 1848-1908
New York: D. Appleton and Company
1881
Original decorated cloth. Third state, with reviews of this title on page [233]. Gift of Mrs. William Zimmerman.
General 76A494
The descendant : a novel
Glasgow, Ellen Anderson Gholson, 1873-1945
New York: Harper & Brothers
1897
Original decorated cloth. Published anonymously. In the first state of the binding (later bindings put the author's name on the spine). Provenance undetermined, but in the collection prior to 1970.
General 96A346
A book of verses
Masters, Edgar Lee, 1868-1950
Chicago: Way & Williams
1898
Original boards with paper labels. Purchase.
General 78A155
April twilights, poems
Cather, Willa, 1873-1947
Boston: Richard G. Badger The Gorham Press
1903
Original boards and paper labels. Gift of Maurice Adelman, Jr.
General LC PS3505.A87 A8 1903
Cabbages and kings by O. Henry
Henry, O., 1862-1910
New York: McClure, Phillips & Co.
1904
Original decorated cloth. First state of the binding, with the publisher's imprint on the spine. Gift of Eugene Meyer and Deborah Meyer DeWan.
Off-Campus Shelving - Request in Special Collections PS2649.P5 C3 1904
Flagons and apples, by John Robinson Jeffers
Jeffers, Robinson, 1887-1962
Los Angeles: Grafton Publishing Company
1912
Original half cloth and boards. Gift of Edith S. Mayfield.
General LC PS3519.E27 F5 1912
Danny's own story. . . . illustrated by E. W. Kemble
Marquis, Don, 1878-1937
Garden City: Doubleday, Page & Company
1912
Original cloth with printed paper onlay. Gift of Gerard Previn Meyer.
Off-Campus Shelving - Request in Special Collections PS3525.A67 D2 1912
Enjoyment of poetry
Eastman, Max, 1883-1969
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons
1913
Original cloth. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Randolph Biddle.
General 83A384
Poems
Moore, Marianne, 1887-1972
London: The Egoist Press
1921
Original printed wrappers. Inscribed on the first (blank) leaf: "With the wish that good may come to Mr. James P. J. Murphy, -- and much happiness. Marianne Moore / February 4 1951," and with some minor pen corrections by her in the text. Purchase (Murphy).
General LC PS3525.O5616 P6 1921
The enormous room
Cummings, E. E. (Edward Estlin), 1894-1962
New York: Boni and Liveright
[1922]
Original cloth. Earliest state of the text, with the word "shit" not obliterated in the bottom line of page 219. Gift of Eugene Meyer and Deborah Meyer DeWan.
Off-Campus Shelving - Request in Special Collections D570.9 .C82 1922
Body of this death, poems
Bogan, Louise, 1897-1970
New York: Robert M. McBride & Company
1923
Original half cloth and boards, in dust jacket. Inscribed on the front free endleaf: "For Gerard Previn Meyer / Louise Bogan -- January 25, 1945." Gift of Eugene Meyer and Deborah Meyer DeWan.
Off-Campus Shelving - Request in Special Collections PS3503.O33 B6 1923
Harmonium
Stevens, Wallace, 1879-1955
New York: Alfred A. Knopf
1923
Original half cloth and printed boards, in dust jacket. In the earliest of three binding variants. Inscribed on the half-title: "For James P. J. Murphy Wallace Stevens March 3, 1954 (This is a 1st Edition)." Purchase (Murphy).
Special Collections PS3537.T4753 H3 1923
Those not elect
Adams, Léonie, 1899-1988
New York: Robert M. McBride & Company
1925
Original boards. Signed by Adams on the front free endpaper and dated October 3, 1966. Gift of Eugene Meyer and Deborah Meyer DeWan.
Off-Campus Shelving - Request in Special Collections PS3501.D285 T5 1925
Color
Cullen, Countee, 1903-1946
New York & London: Harper & Brothers
1925
Original half cloth and boards. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Randolph Biddle.
98A137
White buildings : poems. . . . with a foreword by Allen Tate
Crane, Hart, 1899-1932
[New York]: Boni & Liveright
1926
Original half cloth and boards, in dust jacket. Second state of the title, with Tate's first name spelled correctly. Together with a corrected typescript of "Voyages IV" (printed on pages 53-54). Gifts of Bernard M. Wagner.
75A292
The weary blues. . . . with an introduction by Carl Van Vechten
Hughes, Langston, 1902-1967
New York: Alfred A. Knopf
1926
Original half cloth and boards, in first state dust jacket. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Randolph Biddle.
83A502
The bastard. . . . illustrations by Ty Mahon
Caldwell, Erskine, 1903-1987
New York: Heron Press
[1929]
Copy #648 of 1,100. Original cloth. Inscribed on the dedication leaf: "For Mary -- although I didn't write it -- because it is mine Helen Caldwell." But further inscribed on the front free endpaper: "for John S. Mayfield in spite of Virgil Steed, John S. Sumner, Ralph Ingalls, and many others. yours in crime Erskine Caldwell / Portland, Maine 2/21/30." Together with a publisher's dummy for the book, in a smaller format, only the first few pages printed. Gifts of Edith S. Mayfield.
General LC PS3505.A322 B3 1929
Is sex necessary? or why you feel the way you do, by . . . and E. B. White
Thurber, James, 1894-1961
New York and London: Harper & Brothers
1929
Original half cloth and boards. Gift of Gerard Previn Meyer.
Off-Campus Shelving - Request in Special Collections PN6161 .T56 1929
Harvest of youth
Stuart, Jesse, 1906-1984
Howe, OK: The Scroll Press
[1930]
Original half cloth and boards. Presentation copy. Inscribed on the front free endpaper: "To Murray L. Marshall a brother Craftsman and friendly editor / Jesse Stuart." Together with a typescript of "My Mountain Home" (printed on page 50) and a typed letter to Marshall requesting permission to use three poems published in Marshall's magazine, Sonnet Sequences, in Harvest of Youth. Gifts of Hazel Marshall Seebode.
93A37
Gods' man : a novel in woodcuts
Ward, Lynd, 1905-1985
New York: Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith
[1930]
Copy #99 of 409, signed. Original cloth, in slipcase. The "special edition," printed from the author/artist's original wood engraved blocks. The ordinary trade edition published in 1929 (a copy of which is also at Georgetown) was produced from electrotypes. Purchase.
General 83A117
Permit me voyage. . . . with a foreword by Archibald MacLeish
Agee, James, 1909-1955
New Haven: Yale University Press
1934
Original cloth, in dust jacket. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Randolph Biddle.
Off-Campus Shelving - Request in Special Collections PS3501.G35 P4 193
Jonah's gourd vine. . . . with an introduction by Fanny Hurst
Hurston, Zora Neale
Philadelphia, London: J. B. Lippincott Company
1934
Original cloth. Presentation copy. Inscribed on the front free endpaper: "To My Godmother [Mrs. Osgood Mason] -- Who is one of the low-flying angels, and her harp sings silver in the wind breezes. She puts music into mud-sills, and wings onto clods. She is a battle-axe in the time of trouble and a shelter in the time of storm. With Devotion, Zora / Longwood, Fla. May 18, 1934, when Godmother is 80 years old." Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Randolph Biddle.
83A510
Call it sleep
Roth, Henry
New York: Robert O. Ballou
[1934]
Original cloth. Gift of Gerard Previn Meyer.
Off-Campus Shelving - Request in Special Collections PS3535.O787 C34 1934
The daring young man on the flying trapeze and other stories
Saroyan, William, 1908-1981
New York: Random House
1934
Original cloth, in dust jacket. Signed by the author on a blank leaf at the front. Gift of Eugene Meyer and Deborah Meyer DeWan.
Off-Campus Shelving - Request in Special Collections PS3537.A826 D3 1934
These are the ravens by Bill Everson
Everson, William, 1912-1994
San Leandro: Greater West Publishing Co.
1935
Original self-wrappers. Inscribed on the upper cover: "for the University of Detroit Library December 1961 / Brother Antoninus (William Everson)." Purchase (Detroit).
Gone with the Wind
Mitchell, Margaret, 1900-1949
New York: The Macmillan Company
1936
Original cloth, in dust jacket. In the first state dust jacket. Inscribed on the front free endpaper: "To Major L. A. Codd from Margaret Mitchell." Bequest of Gertrude Jane Codd.
General LC PS3525.I972 G6 1936 Vault
Before the brave
Patchen, Kenneth, 1911-1972
New York: Random House
[1936]
Original cloth, in dust jacket. Gift of Eugene Meyer and Deborah Meyer DeWan.
83A651
In dreams begin responsibilities
Schwartz, Delmore, 1913-1966
Norfolk: New Directions
[1938]
One of 1,000 copies. Original cloth, in dust jacket. Gift of Eugene Meyer and Deborah Meyer DeWan.
Off-Campus Shelving - Request in Special Collections PS3537.C79 I5 1938
The big sleep
Chandler, Raymond, 1888-1959
New York: Alfred A. Knopf
1939
Original wrappers. Advance reading copy, the cover blurb comparing Chandler to Dashiell Hammett and James M. Cain. Gift of Eugene and Sandy Pearlman Meyer.
The way some people live
Cheever, John
New York: Random House
[1943]
Original cloth. Gift of Gerard Previn Meyer.
Off-Campus Shelving - Request in Special Collections PS3505.H6428 W39 1943
Land of unlikeness, poems. . . . introduction by Allen Tate
Lowell, Robert, 1917-1977
Cummington, MA: The Cummington Press
1944
One of 250 copies. Original boards. Purchase (Detroit).
Thirty poems
Merton, Thomas, 1915-1968
Norfolk, CT: New Directions
[1944]
Original wrappers. Bequest of Gertrude Jane Cobb.
The double image by Denise Levertoff
Levertov, Denise, 1923-1997
London: The Cresset Press
1946
Original cloth, in dust jacket. Inscribed on the front free endpaper: "'I love to see, in golden matchlight, / intimate contours of a face / like discovered innocence / in dusty annals of disgrace.' Denise Levertov Inscribed for James P. J. Murphy." Purchase (Murphy).
The image and the law
Nemerov, Howard
[New York]: Henry Holt and Company
[1947]
Original cloth, in dust jacket. Review copy, publisher's slip laid in. Gift of Gerard Previn Meyer.
Off-Campus Shelving - Request in Special Collections PS3527.E5 I5 1947
Other voices, other rooms
Capote, Truman, 1924-1984
New York: Random House
[1948]
Original cloth, in dust jacket. Gift of Eugene Meyer and Deborah Meyer DeWan.
Off-Campus Shelving - Request in Special Collections PS3505.A59 O7 1948
Come back, little Sheba
Inge, William
New York: Random House
[1950]
Original cloth, in dust jacket. Gift of Gerard Previn Meyer.
Off-Campus Shelving - Request in Special Collections PS3517.N265 C6 1950
The town & the city
Kerouac, Jack, 1922-1969
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company
[1950]
Original cloth, in dust jacket. Gift of Shirley Pearlman Leva.
From here to eternity
Jones, James
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons
1951
Original cloth, in dust jacket. Gift of Shirley Pearlman Leva.
Lie down in darkness : a novel
Styron, William, 1925-2006
Indianapolis, New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company
[1951]
Original cloth, in dust jacket. Inscribed on the front free endpaper: "For James P. J. Murphy with best wishes Wm Styron New York February 1952." Purchase (Murphy).
Wise blood
O'Connor, Flannery
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company
[1952]
Original cloth. Gift of Eugene Meyer and Deborah Meyer DeWan.
Off-Campus Shelving - Request in Special Collections PS3565.C57 1952
The night of the hunter
Grubb, Davis, 1919-1980
[New York]: Harper & Brothers
[1953]
Original cloth, in dust jacket. Inscribed on the front free endpaper: "'After supper that Chrismas eve the children gathered round Rachel at the kitchen table and she told them the Christmas legend and they listened gravely because it was their own story . . . .' Davis Grubb -- Christmas, 1955. -- For James Murphy --" Purchase (Murphy).
A summoning of stones
Hecht, Anthony, 1923-2004
New York: The Macmillan Company
1954
Original cloth, in dust jacket. Review copy, publisher's slip laid in. Inscribed on the front free endpaper: "With cordial good wishes Anthony Hecht." Gift of Gerard Previn Meyer.
Off-Campus Shelving - Request in Special Collections PS3515.E178 S8 1954
The spoil of the flowers
Grumbach, Doris
Garden City: Doubleday & Company
1962
Original cloth, in dust jacket. Bequest of Riley Hughes.
City of night
Rechy, John
New York: Grove Press
[1963]
Original cloth, in dust jacket. Bequest of Roland N. Harman.
Off-Campus Shelving - Request in Special Collections PS3568.E28 C5 1963
Cruelty
Ai [Florence Anthony Ogawa]
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company
1973
Original cloth, in dust jacket. Gift of Philip I. Herzbrun.
Off-Campus Shelving - Request in Special Collections PS3551.I2 C7 1973
Chilly scenes of winter
Beattie, Ann
Garden City: Doubleday & Company
1976
Original half cloth and boards, in dust jacket. Distortions. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1976. Original half cloth and boards, in dust jacket. A novel and a volume of short stories, respectively, the author's first two books published on the same day. Bequest of Roland N. Harman.
Off-Campus Shelving - Request in Special Collections PS3552.E177 C47 1976
The hunt for red October
Clancy, Tom, 1947-
Annapolis: Naval Institute Press
[1984]
Original cloth, in dust jacket. Inscribed on the half-title: "To Fr Ron Murphy SJ Regards to a Master Teacher Tom Clancy 3/22/85." Gift of Fr. Murphy.
The Lyric Works of Horace, translated into English Verse : to which is added, a number of original poems, by a native of America
John Parke (1754-1789)
Philadelphia: Printed by Eleazer Oswald, 1786
Bound in contemporary calf, rebacked. Published pseudonymously. Parke's major original effort (present here with its own title page) is Virginia: a Pastoral Drama, on the Birth-Day of an Illustrious Personage and the Return of Peace, February 11, 1784. The "personage," of course, is George Washington, to whom the volume is dedicated. With the text in the scarce enlarged state. Gift of Joseph G. E. Hopkins.
Off-Campus Shelving - Request in Special Collections PA6395 .A2 1786
A Voyage to the Eastern Part of Terra Firma, or the Spanish Main, in South America, during the Years 1801, 1802, 1803, and 1804. . . . by F. DePons. . . . translated by an American gentleman
Washington Irving (1783-1859)
New-York: Printed by and for I. Riley and Co., 1806
3 volumes. Rebound in half brown morocco and cloth boards. The "American gentleman" was Washington Irving, whose efforts at translation were assisted by Peter Irving and George Caines. Purchase (1939).
Precaution : A Novel
James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)
New-York: Published by A. T. Goodrich & Co., 1820
2 volumes. In the original paper boards. Published anonymously. Provenance undetermined, but in the collection prior to 1970.
A Review of Mr. Cambreleng's Report from the Committee of Commerce, in the House of Representatives, at the first session of the twenty first Congress. by Mephistopheles
John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870)
Baltimore: Printed by Wm. Ogden Niles, 1830
Unbound, stitched as issued. The future novelist's pseudonymously published tract against free trade. Provenance undetermined, but in the collection prior to 1970.
Legends of New-England
John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)
Hartford: Published by Hanmer and Phelps, 1831
Original cloth-backed boards, paper label on spine.
Lacking pagination on the verso of the third leaf of the preliminaries, a state not noticed by BAL. Purchase (Levy).