Baltimore: Te-erra Davis, 2019. Paperback. Te-erra Davis is a local insurance adviser born and raised in Baltimore, MD. "As Brand Ambassador of Thee Insurance Lady, LLC, Te-erra's personal mission is to educate each person one by one with literature, coaching, and seminars as she leads and impacts social change" (biography). Her book offers concise, easy to follow instructions on budgeting, saving money, getting out of debt, boosting credit scores, refinancing mortgages, boosting income, and more. New in black paper wrappers with white title to front cover. Pristine. 102 pages. Local Authors. BUS/070919. Fine. More

Baltimore: Society of American Poets, 1941. Paperback. Very good+ in side stapled brown paper wrappers with black title to front wrapper. Interior is clean and bright with photographic illustrations throughout. 76 pages + table of contents. Poetry. POE/072219. Very Good+. More

New York: Hekate Publishing, 2019. Paperback. Second Edition. "The wonderfully talented Tom DiVenti is a Baby Boomer / punk / poet who has, thankfully, traversed decades of hard living, spectacular and outrageous performance art and emerged as an apt example for younger and like-minded individuals. His many stories, really exquisite prose poems, capture the now-downtrodden Baltimore from a more glorious era. Whether he's reminiscing about Martick's restaurant, growing up in northeast Baltimore in a rough and tumble neighborhood and his mischievous pranks in Catholic school, or hanging out with John Waters' crew in Fells Point, the humor and sincerity of his voice is singular ..." (back cover, Russ Smith). Black paper wrappers with white title to spine panel and photographic illustration to front cover. Clean and bright with photographic illustrations. 183 pages. LIT/081519. Fine. More

Cambridge: Thomas Dreier Service, 1912. Dreier compares company executives with chemists - one can manipulate his staff and the other his chemicals - for desirable results or explosions and failure. An interesting metaphor. Bound in tan paper covered boards with title pastedown to front cover. Browning to spine and boards, rubbing to boards, stain to spine, wear to edges and corners, and heavy chipping to hinges and spine ends. Spine panel is still attached, but weak. Foxing throughout interior. A small book: 4.5 x 3 inches. 33 pages. LIT/061319. More

Freeville, NY: Carol Schwartzott, 2007. Hard Cover. Number 24 of 25 copies signed and numbered by the book artist. This is a particularly beautiful version of the famous Rubaiyat. In her artist's statement Schwartzott writes that as a collector of Rubaiyats she began to toy with creating her own version in 2006. "The book is divided into seven segments, each separated by a divider of hand-marbled Japanese paper. The first contains the title page and introduction and the last an artist's statement, bibliography and colophon. The remaining five are dedicated to the seventy-five quatrains of FitzGerald's first edition. Each contains a vellum window, reminiscent of a Persian archway that opens to reveal my version of a miniature painting." Bound in light blue Japanese cloth with an intricate wood cut out to front board. The pristine interior was laser printed with archival ink onto Mohawk Via vellum and Moab Entrada paper. The prints were then finished with color pencil, paint, gold and silver leaf. Housed in clamshell box covered in the same cloth as the book. In fine condition. Unpaginated. ARTB/120219. Fine. More

Santa Cruz: Foolscap Press, 2019. Hardcover. Number 22 of 90 copies, numbered and signed by the binder and printer. The press describes the book: "The Travels of Sir John Mandeville follows a journey that began in 1322 and continued on for more than thirty years. This edition commences as Mandeville leaves the Holy Land and travels east to the lands beyond Egypt, which were mostly unknown to Western Europeans at that time. It is a strange journey and one that has kept his book alive and in print since it was first published in manuscript form in 1357.... His was a piece of European literature rather than a history of exploration... The book was carried aboard ship by Christopher Columbus and others on their voyages of discovery, adding to their confidence that they could safely circumnavigate the globe. Our edition is illustrated and illuminated by Peggy Gotthold following Mandeville’s observations of strange flora and fauna and the remarkable beings he encountered; and especially of the wondrous and powerful kingdoms he chanced upon, which held more gold and jewels and strange customs than his contemporaries could imagine; here are kings and emperors with power at their finger tips beyond the reach of any autocratic ruler in Medieval Europe. Our text is based mainly on the Cotton MS, a translation that was first edited in 1725 and continues to be a starting point for serious study of Sir John Mandeville. Though imperfect, it adheres very closely to the original... As no inventive travel book should be made without including a map or two, we have supplemented Mandeville’s narrative with five imaginative maps created for this edition. These are maps that would make sense to a fellow traveler of Mandeville’s time. They are not modern maps where one might expect to identify one’s place on land or the sea. There are no precise coordinates of latitude and longitude. These maps are also narrative and allow the reading traveler to follow Sir John Mandeville, whoever he was, through an unfamiliar landscape. The modern reader will also discover the bizarre and unexpected in the world and share in Mandeville’s amazement and curiosity while traveling alongside him." Bound in flexible red paper covered boards with paper title label to front cover. Includes five double-page maps printed on handmade linen paper from Papeterie St. Armand. Hand-applied illuminations appear throughout. Letterpress printed on paper handmade at the University of Iowa's Center for the Book under the direction of Timothy Barrett in Silentium text, designed by Jovica Veljovic. Housed in a red cloth covered clamshell box. Size of book: 9 x 12.75 inches. 104 pages. PRI/061319. Fine. More

Bombay: 1951. Paperback. SCARCE. Presented to the Indian Congress for Cultural Freedom. 8vo. Off white paper wrappers with black title to front wrapper. Minor bumping to corners. Pen mark to margins of two pages. Else is clean and bright. 58 pages. IND/102219. Very Good. More

San Francisco: Gazelle and Goat Press, 2016. Number 17 of 30 copies. Signed and numbered by book artist and author Rhiannon Alpers. She is a papermaker, letterpress printer and book artist, with an MFA in Book and Paper Arts from Columbia College Chicago and a BA in Book Arts from UC Santa Barbara. In addition to creating books and providing custom commissions from her California studio, Rhiannon has taught book arts at numerous institutions and has been exhibited nationally. The artist says that "this book was inspired by sleep-deprived dreams as a new mother in the Summer of 2016. It explores an imagined journey, being carried through the comfort of one's dreams. A journey guided by a murmuration of a thousand starlings, undulating and wisping through the evening sky, their soft voices calming and cooing as they head into the unknown." She further states that the book abounds in metaphors and symbolism. This lovely work is letterpress printed with photopolymer plates and monotype, with an under layer of hand painted stars beneath, on Somerset Velvet Black. The endsheets are Fabriano Tiziano Anthracite and bound in Asahi Grey Crepe bookcloth. Foil stamped birds and title, this false accordion book is masquerading in a Secret Belgian binding with Italian film yarn. In fine condition. Unpaginated. ARTISTSBOOK/080417. Fine. More

San Francisco: Gazelle and Goat, 2018. Number 20 of 40 copies. Signed and numbered by Rhiannon Alpers, the book artist. Rhiannon has been a book artist, maker of paper, and bookbinder based in San Francisco for almost twenty years. She is fascinated by structures and boxes, and much of her work is focused on nature. This beautifully designed and executed book is emblematic of Rhiannon's artistic interests and aesthetics. She writes of her book, which was inspired by author Glynis Ridley: "When Jeanne Baret stepped on-board the Etoile ship in 1766, she didn’t set out to be the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. Alongside her colleague, accomplice and lover, Philibert Commerson, she took on many roles during the expedition as a botanist, herb woman, nurse, and cataloger of the more than 630 specimens they brought aboard. This limited edition artist book traces the expedition of the first woman to circumnavigate the globe, through the lens of the botanical discoveries she made along the ship’s journey. Jeanne Baret was not able to document the expedition herself, due to the forbidden nature of her passage on this journey, but her legacy has inspired many, and spurred the creation of this book." The book has a removable magnetic spine binding that opens completely back-to-back, with a digitally produced specimen chart hidden within. Hahnemuhle Bugra Fawn folio maps are letterpress printed from polymer plates, adapted from French expedition maps from the published logs “Voyage Autour du Monde par la Frégate du rio la Boudeuse et la Fluté L’Etoile.". Crane’s Lettra Ecru 90lb specimen folios letterpress printed from linoleum blocks and polymer plates. Plant outlines are laser cut and secured with Japanese tissue. Laser cut specimens were adapted from the original plant specimens collected by Commerson and Baret on the expedition, archived in the Museum of Natural History in Paris. Interleaved vellum sheets with macro photography by the artist laser printed on Neenah UV Ultra II. Spine bound with Gmund Bier Paper [colophon]. In fine condition. Measures 8.25 x 9.5 inches. Unpaginated. ARTISTSB/072419. More

Charlottesville: For the Mariners Museum by the University Press of Virginia, (1976). First Edition. Hardcover. FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Beige cloth covered boards with brown title to spine. Minor fading to spine panel, minor bumping to spine ends and corners and minor foxing to boards. Inside flap of dust jacket is pasted to front free end paper. Previous owner's address sticker to top corner of front paste down. Else is clean and bright. Index, 306 pages. MAR/081319. Very Good. More

Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Medicine in association with The Johns Hopkins University Press, (2012). Hardcover. INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. 4to. Fine in dark blue cloth covered boards with silver title to front and spine panels. Pristine interior with photographic illustrations throughout. Author's inscription to title page. Blue illustrated dust jacket with white title to front and spine panels. Index, 405 pages. BALT/112019. Fine / Fine. More

Paris: chez Lerouge, Imprimeur-Libraire, 1802. Hardcover. Troisieme Edition. Three volumes bound together in modern red buckram boards with paper title label to spine. Dampstaining to corners of all pages. Staining and soiling to some pages. Gift inscription in pen dated 1987 in pen to front free endpaper. Previous owner's name in pen to top of title pages. Each volume includes a frontispiece; some are stained. Tears to some pages. Text has been trimmed. A good reading copy. Each volume is about 180 pages. FRE/112719. Very Good. More