London and New York: Bliss, Sands and Foster; Brentano's, 1894. Hardcover. First Edition. Presentation Copy, inscribed on free front endpaper "To the 'Star Barker' of our house, whose sunny nature excuses a dozen faults, and whose tiny, rippling laugh makes serious work impossible - but whom we would not do without - With the fondest love of his mother - The Author," and further inscribed "To Karl Martin, Buffalo, June 20 1901." The recipient of this extravagant inscription was the author's son. Jones was an American writer and this is the uncommon English issue of this book. The stories are of a science fiction / fantasy nature. Bound in brown cloth with delicate cream and green design of cupids and title and author in gilt. Edges are worn and chipped. Interior pages have some browning along margins. There is some splitting of the signatures but the text block remains solid. In very good condition. 95 pages. LIT/010413. Very Good. More

London: Ellis and White, 1881. Hardcover. First Edition. AN EXCEPTIONAL ASSOCIATION COPY. Inscribed by Dante Gabriel Rossetti: "To Frederick Leyland from his friend D.G. Rossetti 1881." Rossetti died the following year. Leyland was Rossetti's most important late patron. Frederick Leyland (1832-1892) was a Liverpool shipping magnate and major art collector. He had a collection of paintings by the Pre-Raphaelites and from artists of the Aesthetic Movement, as well as an important collection of Italian Renaissance paintings. His collection included Rossetti's “The Blessed Damozel,” “Monna Rosa Proserpine”, and “Lady Lillith.” Rossetti also painted portraits of Leyland and his wife. Other well-known works commissioned by Leyland were “The Beguiling of Merlin” by Edward Burne-Jones, and Whistler's Peacock Room, which was installed in his London house (The Peacock Room may now be seen at the Freer Art Gallery). Bound in original green cloth with gilt flower and lattice design by Rossetti on covers and spine. There is spotting to the preliminary leaves and at the end of the book, including on the inscription page, but this does not obscure the inscription. Closed half-inch margin tear to page 327. A very nice copy in very good plus condition. Housed in a modern green cloth clamshell box. 335 pages plus one page ad. PRERAPH/052213. Very Good. More

London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane, 1894. Hardcover. Scarce. One of 650 copies. Presentation copy from the publisher John Lane, inscribed in pencil to the Irish poet and novelist Katharine Tynan Hinkson: "Mrs. Hinkson with the publisher's regards." Presentation and association copies of the two books of the Rhymers' Club are extremely uncommon. The Rhymers' Club, founded in 1890 by the young William Butler Yeats and Ernest Rhys, was a group of London-based poets, Originally it was not much more than a dining club, meeting in pubs, Those who took part included Ernest Dowson, Lionel Johnson, Francis Thompson, Richard Le Gallienne, John Gray, John Davidson, Edwin J. Ellis, Victor Plarr, Selwyn Image, Lord Alfred Douglas, Arthur Cecil Hillier, John Todhunter, G.A. Greene, Arthur Symons, Ernest Radford, and Thomas William Rolleston. Oscar Wilde attended some meetings that were held in private homes. The group as a whole matched quite closely Yeats' retrospective idea of 'the tragic generation', destined for failure and in many cases early death. Along with the social element of the Rhymers' Club, they published two volumes of verse. The first, titled The Book of the Rhymers' Club was published by Elkin Mathews in 1892. The Second Book of the Rhymers' Club, with five poems by Yeats, appeared two years later in 1894, published by the recently merged Elkin Mathews and John Lane. They had print runs of 450 and 650 respectively. By the time Arthur Ransome wrote his Bohemia in London in 1907, the group had long passed into legend." Bound in original brown cloth with gilt title to spine. Light browning to margins of interior pages. With bookplates of writer J.G.E. Hopkins, culinary writer Helmut Lothar Ripperger, and collector Mark Samuels Lasner. Very good condition. POE/080715. Very Good. More