THE PRAISE OF HELL: or, a View of the Infernal Regions. Containing Some Account of the Advantages of that Place, with Respect to its Antiquity, Situation, and Stability. Together with a description of Its Inhabitants; their dresses, manners, Amusements. By Jean Frédéric Bernard. Translated from the French.

Dublin: James Potts, 1760. First English edition, originally published the previous year in France as Eloge d'Enfer.

TWO VOLUMES. Leather covers, five raised spine bands, leather title labels, 4x6.25 inches (9.5x15.5 cm). Pagination: [16], xvi, 191; [8], 224 pp. Illustrated with an engraved frontispiece in each volume, an additional plate in Volume 1, and four additional plates in Volume 2.

A satirical work that finds Hell to be a well ordered and nicely governed place to reside, more attractive than the alternative. The author describes many of its residents, including Alexander VI and Albertus Magnus. Hell is easy to get into and one meets the most interesting people there.

GOOD condition: The covers have light wear and scuffing, the corner tips are bumped, the hinges are tender, especially the front hinge of Volume I; internally, the endpapers have offsetting from the leather covers and some foxing, otherwise the pages are just lightly toned with some foxing here and there.

HEROIC EROTICS: THE ANATOMY OF MISOGYNY IN THE ARS AMATORIA, by Laurie J. Churchill. An Original PhD Thesis.

Thesis submitted to the faculty of the Graduate School of the University of California, Santa Cruz, in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in LITERATURE.

Self published, Laurie J. Churchill, June 1985.

Printed paper covers, copy shop type printing, 8.5x11 inches, 163 pages, pages printed on one side only.

VERY GOOD condition, the covers are lightly toned, overall tight, bright, clean, clear and unmarked.

After graduating with a PhD. Laurie J. Churchill went on to become lead editor of the major scholarly work: "Women Writing in Latin: Women Writing Latin in Roman Antiquity; Women Writing Latin in Late Antiquity; and Women Writing Latin in the Early Christian Era" (Routledge, 2002). She has also written numerous articles on classical literature and feminist pedagogy.

CATALOGUE OF IMPORTANT LETTERS, MANUSCRIPTS AND BOOKS BY OR RELATING TO WALT WHITMAN, The Property of His Intimate Friend, Biographer and Literary Executor, the Late Richard Maurice Bucke of London, Ontario (Sold By Order Of H. L. Bucke, Esq.) Which Will Be Sold by Auction by Messrs. Sotheby & Co. ... the 13th of May, 1935.

LONDON: Printed by Kitchen & Barratt Ltd., 1935.

Hard Library Covers, cloth covered boards, entire catalog bound within, 6x9.5 inches (15x24 cm), 31 pages plus 3 prelim pages (cover, foreword, conditions of sale). Illustrated with 4 facsimile illustrations of manuscript signatures and inscriptions.

117 lots are offered and described. No price estimates.

Condition: EX-LIB with a shelving number on spine, a UC Santa Cruz stamp on the front pastedown, a numerical stamp at the bottom of the Colophon page (last page), and a "Withdrawn UCSC" stamp on both the front free endpaper and the rear free endpaper, etc.; ex-lib aside, there is a slant to the spine, otherwise a solid, tight, bright, clean, clear and unmarked copy.

DULCE COR: Being the POEMS of FORD BERÊTON (pseudonym of SAMUEL RUTHERFORD CROCKETT). LONDON: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., MDCCCLXXXVI (1886). First Edition. Hardcovers, olive green cloth covered boards lettered in gilt on the front cover and spine, 5x7.5 inches. Pagination: xii, 200 pages. Frontispiece portrait and one plate, both with their tissue guards. This is the FIRST BOOK by the SCOTTISH writer S.R. CROCKETT, b. 1860 d. 1914. It is a collection of poetry written under the pseudonym FORD BERÊTON. The book was published the year Crockett was ordained into the Church of Scotland. It would be seven years later, and after resigning his ministry, that Crockett would begin publishing his famous SCOTTISH STORIES, beginning with his successful THE STICKIT MINISTER. This copy has an IMPORTANT SCOTTISH LITERARY ASSOCIATION, with the penciled ownership SIGNATURE and handwritten ADDRESS of Scottish writer WILLIAM SHARP on the half title page. William Sharp wrote under his name and under the pseudonym of FIONA MACLEOD. He was a contemporary of Samuel Crockett. He was also a contemporary of William Butler Yeats who reportedly liked the writing of Fiona Macleod but not the writing of William Sharp. There is a lovely pictorial bookplate of Albert Harrison on the front pastedown. I have no idea who he might be. VERY GOOD condition, the covers have some wear and rubbing to the spine ends and corner tips, there is foxing here and there, most noticeable on the first and last few pages, the leaf consisting of pages 95/96 is missing its upper corner (probably from being roughly cut open), not affecting text; otherwise tight, bright, clean and unmarked. The penciled signature and handwritten address of William Sharp are clear and legible. About S.R. CROCKETT (from Wikipedia): ******Samuel Rutherford Crockett, b.1859 d.1914, who published under the name S. R. CROCKETT, was a Scottish novelist. After some years of travel, he became in 1886 an Ordained Minister of Penicuik. During the same year as his ordination, his first book, Dulce Cor (Latin: Sweet Heart), a collection of verse under the pseudonym Ford Brereton, was published. That was the only book he published until he abandoned the ministry to become a writer. The success of J. M. Barrie and the Kailyard school of sentimental, homey writing had already created a demand for stories in Lowland Scots, when Crockett published his successful story of The Stickit Minister in 1893. It was followed by a rapidly produced series of popular novels frequently featuring the history of Scotland or his native Galloway. Crockett made considerable sums of money from his writing and was a friend and correspondent of R. L. Stevenson. A substantial number of his works have been republished since the 100th anniversary of his death.****** About WILLIAM SHARP / FIONA MACLEOD (from Wikipedia): ******William Sharp, b.1855 d.1905, was a Scottish writer, of poetry and literary biography in particular, who from 1893 wrote also as Fiona Macleod, a pseudonym kept almost completely secret during his lifetime. Sharp's poem THE LONELY HUNTER inspired the title of Carson McCullers debut novel THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER. His poem contains the lines "Deep in the heart of Summer, sweet is life to me still, But my heart is a lonely hunter, that hunts on a lonely hill". In Disney's 2017 movie production of Beauty and the Beast, Belle recites to the Beast several lines of Sharp's poem A Crystal Forest: "Each branch, each twig, each blade of grass, / Seems clad miraculously with glass".******

POEMS (anonymous, but known to be FRANCIS NOEL CLARKE MUNDY). OXFORD, Printed by W. Jackson, MDCC,LX,VIII (1768). Disbound

(i.e. no covers), 4to 8x10 inches, 97 pages. Beautifully printed on heavy stock, watermarked, laid paper. The imprint of the type is fully tangible. FAIR Condition: Lacking covers (as noted above). The text block's sewn binding is mostly gone leaving all the signatures and many leaves loose. The front free endpaper is lacking, the brief errata has been clipped from its own page at the rear and pasted in the space below THE END on the last page of text, otherwise complete with all pages and signatures in their proper order. The pages themselves are in Good condition, with edge wear to their disbound edge, and some light edge toning and corner creases here and there. Overall the pages are bright, clean, clear and unmarked. Quite lovely as is (especially with the tactile printing), and a perfect candidate for rebinding. I have collated my copy page for page with the copy in the rare book room of the Oxford Library that has been digitized and put online.

REMARKS ON THE CASSANDRA OF LYCOPHRON, A MONODY. by the Rev. H. Meen, B.D. (Reverend Henry Meen, Rector of Saint Nicholas Cole Abbey and Saint Nicholas Olave, City of London). LONDON: Printed by Bunney & Gold, Shoe-Lane, Fleet Street, and sold by Messrs. Rivingtons, et al., 1800. Text in English with Greek excerpts from The Cassandra. Lacking covers, half-title page is disbound (i.e. laid on loosely),the rest of the pages (title page through the blank rear endpaper) still held together by the sewn binding, 5x8". Pagination: [4}, 45 pp. This was an attempt to show the importance of The Cassandra and to rescue it from falling into obscurity. An early and interesting Historical and Literary study. Condition: Lacking covers as noted above; the disbound title page and the blank rear endpaper are toned; there is foxing throughout, heaviest on about half the pages, light on the other half, text is always clear and legible beneath any foxing.

THE ORDEAL OF RICHARD FEVEREL - A History of Father and Son, by GEORGE MEREDITH. THREE VOLUME SET - Complete in these Three Volumes. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, Piccadilly, 1859. FIRST EDITION. This was George Meredith's first full-length novel (preceded only by a volume of verse and two single-volume burlesques). When it first came out, in 1859, it was a critical and financial failure, considered both "unreadable" and of "low ethical standards". It was not, therefore, reprinted until 1878. Then, all of a sudden, the critics began raving about the book to such an extent that it became required reading at many English schools. That is why the 1859 first edition of what became the author's best known work is scarce. Half-leather (leather spine and corners) and pebbled cloth covered boards, five raised spine bands, embossed gilt titling to spine, marbled page edges, marbled endpapers, 4.5x7.5". Pagination: iv, 303; iv, 348; iv, 395. Bookplate of STEPHEN EATON ELAND on the front pastedown of each volume. Condition: Covers are rubbed and scraped at the spine ends, corner tips and edges of the leather, and are sunned at the margins, but remain sturdy and handsome; the top page edges have darkened; Volume I is lacking a blank prelim page (blank prelim page before the title page), otherwise all volumes are complete; there is substantial foxing to the first and last few pages of each volume, otherwise there is only a bit of foxing here and there; other than the foxing on the first and last few pages, the inner pages are complete, tight, bright, clean and unmarked. This 1859 First Edition Three Volume Set of George Meredith's First full-length Novel is VERY SCARCE.

GERMAN ROMANCE: Specimens of Its Chief Authors; with Biographical and Critical Notices by the Translator of Wilhelm Meister and the Author of The Life of Schiller (i.e. THOMAS CARLYLE). FOUR VOLUMES (Complete in These 4 Volumes). Edinburgh: William Tait, Prince's Street, and London: Charles Tait, Fleet Street, MDCCCXXVII (1827). FIRST EDITION. Original hardcovers, gray paper covered boards, brown paper covered spines, printed title information on spines, 5" x 8", 337, 317, 309 and 352 pages respectively.

Each Volume is complete with a half title and engraved title page. Early Thomas Carlyle book appearance, this was only his fourth work in book form. Carlyle greatly admired German writers and was instrumental in introducing them to the England through this, his 4 volume set of books. The four volumes are: Vol. I: Musaeus and Fouqué; Vol II: Tieck and Hoffman; Vol. III: Richter; and Vol. IV: Goethe (this 4 volume set is most renowned for this volume entirely on Goethe). All four Volumes were previously part of the CARLYLE COLLECTION of DR. SAMUEL A. JONES, with a decorative rubber stamp that states "CARLYLE COLLECTION

/ SAM'L A JONES" on the

front free endpaper of each volume, and a second such stamp on the front pastedown of the first volume. In addition, each volume is hand numbered according to its place in the collection.

The volumes are hand numbered 20, 21, 22 and 23, respectively. Dr. Samuel A. Jones was renowned collector of Thomas Carlyle. His entire collection was catalogued by the University of Michigan in 1919. The association gives this set a rather wonderful provenance. CONDITION: Volume I has a disbound front cover and is missing its spine covering. The spine covering of Volume II is almost completely chipped away, the spine coverings of Volumes III and IV are chipped, rubbed and worn, with the spine lettering only partially legible.

The covers of all 4 Volumes are worn at the edges, with most edges worn through, and the paper starting to peel away at a number of places. Volume I has a clipping from an old bookseller's catalogue pasted to the front pastedown. The clipping lists a similar set of Carlyle books for 1 pound 5 shillings. The bookseller was Alfred Russell Smith (Soho, London). Internally, there is foxing, offsetting, some spotting and some shorelining, mainly to the first and last few pages of each Volume, otherwise the inner pages are pretty nice - complete, tight, bright, clean and unmarked. SCARCE FIRST EDITION SET OF THIS IMPORTANT THOMAS CARLYLE WORK with a WONDERFUL ASSOCIATION to one of the most notable COLLECTOR'S OF CARLYLE.