Welcome

Since 1996 we have been buying and selling fine used books, from vintage collectibles to signed first editions. Search and browse our inventory online and follow "The Mouse" for updates.

Our Books

Click to Search
our inventory by Author, Title, Publisher, and Keyword at AbeBooks.com.

Click to Browse
our inventory at AbeBooks.com.

Contact

Phone: 631.725.8654

Mailing: PO Box 943,
Sag Harbor, NY 11963

blackcatbooks@yahoo.com

Archive for June, 2011

Doris Stevens (1892 –1963) was an American Teacher, social worker and political suffragist. She organized and spoke for  suffrage campaigns and acted as an executive committee member of the N.W.P (National Women’s Party). Arrested for picketing she was sentenced to 60 days in Occoquan workhouse, and later pardoned by President Woodrow Wilson. This led to the quintessential insider account of the imprisonment of N.W.P activists in Jailed for Freedom. Through descriptions of struggles and setbacks, Stevens tells the epic tale of the Women who fought to win the passage of the 19th Amendment.

Description:
INSCRIBED BY DORIS STEVENS  “To Lesley – who is a living witness to the independent woman’s cross. With Love and admiration, Doris”. Hard bound, with dust jacket. Purple cloth with gilt title to spine edge. frontispiece photograph of Alice Paul. Illustrated with b&w palates. “New edition” circa early 1930’s. Wear, chipping and some minor damp staining to dust jacket. Purple boards show some minor wear, otherwise very good. A very scarce copy, inscribed in jacket.

Book Seller Inventory # 25264

SOLD

Jailed For Freedom
Stevens, Doris

Publisher: Liverlight
Publication Date: Circa early 1930’s (copyright 1920)
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Good
Signed: Inscribed by Author
Edition: First printing of the (2nd) New Edition

Before her suicide in 1971 Diane Arbus was pioneering a new documentary approach to photography. Her subject was to come from the fringes of society; transvestites, giants, midgets, nudists, and others who have been marginalized by the larger society as a whole. Her portraits have the power to both provoke and disturb. The viewer is drawn in and soon realizes that no matter how freakish her subjects might seem, they are in fact uniquely perfect in their own way.

Description: True first edition. Hard bound in dust jacket.  Meets the point of issue – ” 2 girls with identical raincoats “. Published in 1972 one year after the photographers death, in conjunction with a major retrospective exhibition held by the MoMA in New York. The only edition with the complete photographs,  lacking in later editions. One of the Seminal photography books of the 20th century. White boards show some faint foxing near edges and corners. Minor damp staining to lower edge of rear board, otherwise fine. An important monograph on a photographer who is still gaining in popularity. Rare first printing of the true first edition!

Inventory # 25442

SOLD

Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph

Publisher: Aperture
Publication Date: 1972
Binding: Hard Cover
Book Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
Edition: First Edition

Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932) photographer & teacher, achieved international recognition for his almost 6,000 micro photographs of plants taken around 1890. His teacher, Moritz Meurer, assigned him to make a collection of natural forms as inspiration. He wanted to show that all forms in art have their beginning in the natural forms of nature. He considered his work as a teaching tool, not as independent work of art. Each photograph was taken with the same clinical manner to provide a clear and objective documentation of structure. The objectivity and lack of sentimentality in his work readily connect him to such New Objectivity photographers as August Sander, Albert Renger Patzsch, The Bechers, Andreas Gursky and others.

Description: Urformen Der Kunst is one of the most influential photography books to have ever been published. Hard bound in green cloth with title stamped in gilt on front cover and spine and missing original dust jacket. The first edition published 1928 was in a smaller format, this 2nd edition is considered the most attractive. Photographs by Karl Blossfeldt. Introduction by Karl Nierendorf. Text in German. 148 pages, with 120 black and white plates printed in rich photogravure. Limited edition of 6000 hard bound copies. Blossfeldt’s photobook masterpiece (Archetypes of Art). Some wear and minor soiling to cloth boards. Foxing to endpages. Sunning to spine edge, otherwise very good. Interior clean and binding still strong.

Bookseller Inventory# 25149

SOLD

Urformen Der Kunst
Blossfeldt, Karl

Publisher: Verlag Ernst Wasmuth, Berlin
Publication Date: 1929
Binding: Hard Bound
Book Condition: Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Dust Jacket
Edition: First Printing of the sought after Second Edition

Yogi Wassan was born in the Punjab region of India and immigrated to Portland, Oregon in 1905. He was among the Indian immigrants that settled from the Sacramento Valley up through Vancouver.  He went into the yoga business, settled in Southern California. His base was a temple in Encinitas, near San Diego. He was a popular teacher of the days and traveled extensively.

Description: Paperback. SIGNED BY THE 1920’S OCCULTIST AND TEACHER – YOGI WASSAN on the front free endpage.”Out of India comes this secret book seldom known in America. By the study of Yoga, darkness or ignorance is replaced by light, and undesirable tendencies are eliminated and by degrees man becomes the master”. 334 pages. Wear to wrappers, and wrinkling to spine edge. Previous owners “Capt. Chas J. Horgan” stamp in blue ink. A rare signed copy.

Bookseller Inventory # 24308

SOLD

Secrets Of The Himalayan Mountain Masters
And Ladder To Cosmic Consciousness

Wassan, Yogi

Publication Date: 1927
Binding: Paperback
Book Condition: Good
Signed: Signed by Author
Edition: First Paperback

©2008 Black Cat Books. Site designed by AndreMora.com.