CHARLES AGVENT
RARE BOOKS
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610-682-4750 (Please try to call 10 - 8 EST.)
E-mail:
agvent@erols.com
Browse the catalogues below or try our search engine featuring SECURE
CREDIT CARD ordering.
NEW!LIMITED EDITIONS CLUB 2008: 522 books
Our new catalogue of LIMITED EDITIONS CLUB books featuring 522 listings has just been added to our home page: http://www.erols.com/agvent Please visit. If the LEC catalogue link does not appear directly below the SEARCH OUR INVENTORY link, you may need to refresh the page.
The Limited Editions Club has been making fine books since 1929 producing some of the most beautiful volumes issued in the twentieth century. Special attention was given to the selection and design of each book, from the typography to the binding. The finest designers, such as Bruce Rogers, John Dreyfus, and W. A. Dwiggins, employed their talents to give each title an appropriately unique slant. Publisher William Macy commissioned some of the top illustrators of the time, including Rackham, Matisse, Picasso, Benton, Gibbings, Kent, Rockwell, etc. to create drawings, wood engravings, and even original lithographs and etchings to grace almost every volume published by the Club. The greatest printers of the time, including the Officina Bodoni and England's finest printers, helped realize the finished product often using letterpress printing and hand-made paper. Finally, each binding was selected with an eye to make a statement about the title often employing the finest available leathers, hand-made marbled papers, and imported linens and silks.
Nearly all of the titles were limited to 1500 copies usually signed by the illustrator and sometimes by the designer or printer and even on occasion by the author, such as Upton Sinclair's THE JUNGLE, Robert Frost's COMPLETE POEMS, and some copies of James Joyce's ULYSSES. A small number of the two Alice books by Lewis Carroll were signed by Alice herself! For about the past 20 years, the Club has published fewer books, mostly editions by contemporary authors and illustrators, often in a larger format and with a smaller limitation, usually ranging from 250 to 1000 copies. The philosophy behind these appears to be to create books as objects of art rather than books to be held and read. Examples of these are Octavio Paz's THREE POEMS illustrated with 27 lithographs by Robert Motherwell and Samuel Beckett's NOHOW ON illustrated with 6 aquatints by Robert Ryman, both volumes signed by the authors and the illustrators. Other recent illustrators include de Kooning, Cartier-Bresson, Balthus, Mapplethorpe, Catlett, and Lawrence.
We have specialized in selling Limited Editions Club books for 20 years and have perhaps the world's largest inventory of Limited Editions Club books, from their beginning in 1929 to their much more limited recent offerings.
In addition to what is listed here, we have about 200 other LECs not yet cataogued, and we purchase titles constantly, so let us know if you have a specific want. Our descriptions are exact and conservative. Future Catalogues will feature strong collections of
19th Century American and British Literature, and outstanding single author collections by Thomas Merton, Carl Sandburg, Robert Frost, Thornton Wilder, and much more.
If you have any further questions, feel free to contact us.
NEW!LIMITED EDITIONS CLUB 2008: 522 books
Our Spring Catalogue contains 77 select items, ranging from exceptional Signed Presidential books to beautiful Hand-colored Plate books to unique items such as drawings done by Sylvia Plath when she was 8 and Casey Stengel's handwritten notes for his Hall of Fame induction speech. There are also Inscribed copies of SISTER CARRIE, ASK THE DUST, DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON, and THE JUNGLE, as well as books signed by Martin Luther King, Jr., Samuel Morse, William Carlos Williams, Virginia Woolf, and W. B. Yeats. A nice and scarce Second Edition of Adam Smith's THE WEALTH OF NATIONS is added for good measure.
125 MODERN FIRST EDITIONS, MOST SIGNED
Our March Catalogue includes 125 Modern First Editions, most signed and nearly all newly catalogued items. The list includes runs of signed books by T.C. Boyle, A.E. Coppard, Aldous Huxley, Joyce Carol Oates, T.F. Powys, T.S. Stribling, and others.
Our MOUNTAINS &
MOUNTAINEERING Catalogue includes 75 select volumes, including a number of
nineteenth century illustrated books, and consists primarily of newly
catalogued items. We also have a list of "Bargain" titles in the same
subject area consisting of 50 titles NOT listed on our website and priced at
$25 each with discounts on quantitites. If
interested, let us know and we will email it to you.
This is our special GIFT
Catalogue with 75 items priced from $10 to $30,000 and including both new
arrivals and selections from stock, mostly illustrated books, classics, fine bindings,
and limited editions.
Our FALL 2007 Catalogue contains
72 items: Signed Presidential Material, Hand-colored Plate books, Early Printed
books, Signed books, and more. Highlights include pamphlets signed by John
Adams and John Quincy Adams, Hemingway's scarce TWO CHRISTMAS TALES, Ince & Mayhew's illustrated UNIVERSAL SYSTEM OF
HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE [1762], a signed Advance Copy of Norman Mailer's THE NAKED
AND THE DEAD, an illustrated 1621 account of Columbus's second voyage, James
Wright's first book inscribed to his wife, and much more.
LITERARY
MANUSCRIPTS, LETTERS, & PHOTOGRAPHS
Our Literary Manuscripts
Catalogue contains 90 superb Literary Manuscripts, Letters, and Photographs.
Highlights include wonderful handwritten manuscripts by W. H. Auden, Saul Bellow, John Dos Passos,
and others; letters by Zane Grey, Robert Lowell, Wiliam
Carlos Williams, and others; and signed photographs of Pearl Buck, Theodore
Dreiser, Sinclair Lewis, and others.
Our Spring Catalogue contains 42 select
items in a variety of fields. Highlights include the plate volumes from the
quarto edition of Diderot's Encyclopedia 1779; Montanus on Japan 1669; scarce first books by Gerard Manley
Hopkins (an association copy), Donald Justice, and William Stafford; finely
bound sets; a collection of signed books and letters by Darwin contemporary
Herbert Spencer who coined the term "survival of the fittest"; books
signed by David Ben-Gurion, Albert Einstein, Billie Holiday, Gertrude Stein,
Kurt Vonnegut, Virginia Woolf, and others.
Our AVIATION & SPACE
Catalogue contains 57 items including the signed limited first edition of
Amelia Earhart's account of becoming the first woman
to cross the Atlantic by air complete with a small silk flag carried by her on
the voyage, a selection of books from the library of leading World War I Ace
Eddie Rickenbacker, as well as books signed by Neil
Armstrong, Charles Lindbergh, and Antoine Saint Exupery,
and some interesting 19th century aviation material.
Our latest SIGNED PRESIDENTIAL
BOOKS & PAMPHLETS Catalogue contains 39 Signed Presidential Books and
Pamphlets including items by John Quincy Adams, James Buchanan, Grover
Cleveland, Teddy Roosevelt, and more.
EUDORA WELTY
& TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
This comprehensive catalogue
contains 139 items by EUDORA WELTY & TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, including many
signed books and unusual pieces.
AFRICAN-AMERICAN
MUSIC, HISTORY & LITERATURE
With 17 fine African-American
items including several books and letters signed by the most famous Jazz musician
of the 20th century, Louis Armstrong; a signed copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin; John
Quincy Adams's Amistad argument, and more.
To help avoid disappointment, if you find a title in one of the
lists, please then check to see if it is available using our SEARCH
ENGINE.
WHO WE ARE
We have been in business since 1987 and are members of the
Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA) and the International League
of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB).
TERMS & CONDITION
We judge condition conservatively. All books are octavo First American or British editions in original bindings offered subject
to prior sale unless otherwise noted. Dustwrappers present
when described. All autographs are unconditionally guaranteed for life to be
genuine. We attempt to note signatures and bookplates when present as well as any defect we see. In any case, any item may be returned, with prior notice,
within 7 days of receipt for any reason. All returns should be shipped fully
insured and prior notification should be given.
ORDERING and SHIPPING
We are always interested in assisting in
building collections in a variety of fields, as well as in purchasing duplicate
titles or titles no longer appropriate for current needs.
We always seek fine books in all fields,
and you should certainly notify us of your interests.
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