The Rare Book Sleuth

The Rare Book Sleuth Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, The Rare Book Sleuth is a rare and antiquarian book dealer specializing in first edition, signed copies and notable rarities.

We are members of the ABAA and IOBA.

The 42nd Annual Rocky Mountain Book & Paper Fair starts today! You can find me in Booth H3 slinging first editions, sign...
08/14/2026

The 42nd Annual Rocky Mountain Book & Paper Fair starts today! You can find me in Booth H3 slinging first editions, signed copies and notable rarities. Come say đź‘‹!

~Chapter House Dune, Frank Herbert~First UK edition, first printing of the sixth and final book in Herbert’s Dune series...
08/13/2026

~Chapter House Dune, Frank Herbert~

First UK edition, first printing of the sixth and final book in Herbert’s Dune series. Signed by Herbert to the title page.

London: Victor Gollancz. 1985. Publisher’s original burgundy cloth boards, spine lettered in gilt; pp. 379. A near fine copy in a near fine, unclippd dust jacket. Binding remains tight, sturdy and square, possibly unread. Minor softening to spine heel with a light bump to rear corner. Pages typically toned, else internally clean and fine. Jacket remains bright and vivid, a touch of toning to spine and a couple superficial scratches to back panel. A very nice copy, protected in archival mylar.

$1,000

~Black Holes and Baby Universes, Stephen Hawking~First paperback edition, first printing of Hawking’s celebrated collect...
08/12/2026

~Black Holes and Baby Universes, Stephen Hawking~

First paperback edition, first printing of Hawking’s celebrated collection of essays on cosmology, physics, and the nature of the universe. Signed by Hawking on the title page with his right thumbprint, accompanied by the printed authentication stamp reading: “RIGHT THUMB-PRINT OF S. W. HAWKING WITNESSED BY JUDITH CROASDELL.” Dated “12 Sept 2011,” with the notation “DAMTP, University of Cambridge, U.K.” and “Stephen Hawking” below his thumbprint, all in Croasdell’s hand. Judith worked with Stephen as his personal assistant from 2004 to 2014 and was the Starmus III Consultant to Stephen from 2015-2016. Hawking’s progressive motor neuron disease eventually prevented him from signing in the traditional manner, and authenticated thumbprints such as this became the standard means by which he signed books later in life.

New York: Bantam Books, 1994. First paperback printing. Octavo. Publisher’s original illustrated wrappers; pp. xi, [1], 182. Very good. Binding sturdy with minor shelfwear to wraps, the laminate beginning to lift slightly in a few places; internally clean and gently read.

$2,000

I’ve had quite a bit of early astronomy come through lately, but this one is pretty special.The Selenographical Journal ...
08/10/2026

I’ve had quite a bit of early astronomy come through lately, but this one is pretty special.

The Selenographical Journal was published from 1878 to 1882 and was the first journal devoted entirely to the study of the Moon.

At the time, astronomers were still debating whether the lunar surface might actually be changing. They compared observations, mapped craters, argued over supposed new features, and began incorporating photography into the study of the Moon.

This complete run has some incredible early lunar photographs along with maps, drawings and diagrams.
Hard to believe some of these photographs are nearly 150 years old.

$10,000 - More details @ rarebooksleuth.com

~The Brother to the Moon’s Visit to the Court of Queen Vic, Richard Doyle~A rare and complete hand-colored comic panoram...
08/07/2026

~The Brother to the Moon’s Visit to the Court of Queen Vic, Richard Doyle~

A rare and complete hand-colored comic panorama designed by the eighteen-year-old Richard Doyle, shortly before he joined the staff of Punch.

Published in the immediate aftermath of the First O***m War, the work imagines a state visit by the Chinese emperor, empress, and their fantastical retinue to Queen Victoria’s court across twenty-four subjects. The procession repeatedly invokes the twenty-one-million-dollar indemnity imposed on China by the Treaty of Nanking.
It is visually extraordinary—and unmistakably a product of imperial Britain. Its racial caricatures are troubling, but also historically revealing: they document the way British popular culture represented Qing China at the moment Britain was imposing military and economic terms upon it.

London: Messrs. Fores, [1843; often dated 1842]. Twenty-four hand-colored etched plate sides on twelve leaves, with both original pictorial covers preserved. Later bound in full tan calf by Riviere & Son. The binding shows rubbing and wear, while the panorama remains complete and the original hand coloring lively.

$2,500

~The Anarchist Cookbook, William Powell~Rare hardcover first edition, first printing of Powell’s infamous tactical manua...
08/06/2026

~The Anarchist Cookbook, William Powell~

Rare hardcover first edition, first printing of Powell’s infamous tactical manual, containing instructions for the manufacture of explosives, various weapons, rudimentary telecommunications phreaking devices, as well as guides for the home manufacture of illicit drugs, including L*D. With a prefatory note on Anarchism Today by P.M. Bergman. Written by Powell at the apex of the counterculture era to protest against the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War, Powell later converted to Anglicanism and attempted to have the book removed from circulation.

New York: Lyle Stuart, Inc., 1971. Publisher’s original black cloth boards, spine lettered in pink; pp. 160. Binding remains sturdy, wear and rubbing to boards with fraying to extremities. Owner’s name to flyleaf, original small bookshop sticker to half-title, faint erasure marks to title page, else quite clean internally. Jacket is worn with loss around the spine crown and flap folds, splits along the spine and flap folds, reinforced with archival tissue to verso, a few tears, light soiling to back panel. Protected in archival mylar.

$3,500

~The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath~First American edition, first printing of Plath’s only novel, a haunting semi-autobiographic...
08/03/2026

~The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath~

First American edition, first printing of Plath’s only novel, a haunting semi-autobiographical account of Esther Greenwood’s struggle with identity, ambition, mental illness, and the constricted expectations placed upon young women in mid-century America. First published in London under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas in 1963, The Bell Jar has become a defining work of twentieth-century literature and a landmark of modern feminist writing.

New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1971. Octavo, 296 pages. Publisher’s maroon cloth, spine lettered in silver, in the illustrated dust jacket designed by Amy Isbey Duevell. Stated “First U.S. Edition” on the copyright page; first printing, with no number line on page 296. The first-issue dust jacket is price-clipped but retains the correct “0471” code at the foot of the front flap. A very good copy in a very good dust jacket. Binding remains tight and sturdy, trace of a lean to spine, minimal wear to boards. Owner’s inscription to flyleaf, personal bookplate to front pastedown, else internally clean and fine. Jacket shows light shelfwear, protected in archival mylar.

$400

07/31/2026

This isn’t a NASA photograph.

It is one of 51 original gelatin silver prints mounted on linen in Edward Emerson Barnard’s A Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way, published in 1927.

Only 700 copies were produced. Barnard personally inspected all 35,700 prints prepared for the edition, rejecting any that failed to meet his standards.

This complete two-volume set was the working copy of Scientific American editor Albert G. Ingalls, who signed and annotated it throughout.

A magnificent achievement in astronomy, photography, and bookmaking, now available at The Rare Book Sleuth.

~A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin~First editions, first printings of each of the five volumes of Martin’s epic...
07/31/2026

~A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin~

First editions, first printings of each of the five volumes of Martin’s epic high fantasy series – A Song of Ice and Fire. Consisting of A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons.

New York: Bantam Books, 1996-2011. All volumes bound in original boards with original unclipped dust jackets and are in very good or better condition. A Game of Thrones shows just traces of shelfwear and rubbing, binding tight and sturdy, presumably unread. Minimal shelfwear to the jacket. A Clash of Kings shows some general very minor shelfwear to boards and jacket. A Storm of Swords shows light shelfwear and rubbing to boards with some scattered toning and soiling. Jacket near fine or better. The remaining three volumes are all near fine or better, appearing unread. Each jacket protected in archival mylar. An attractive set of what is arguably the most important work of high fantasy in the 21st century.

$1,500

~Italy, A Poem [and] Poems, Samuel Rogers~First illustrated editions of Rogers’s two celebrated illustrated books, unifo...
07/30/2026

~Italy, A Poem [and] Poems, Samuel Rogers~

First illustrated editions of Rogers’s two celebrated illustrated books, uniformly and elaborately bound in full red morocco. Rogers, a wealthy banker as well as a poet and notable patron of the arts, commissioned J. M. W. Turner and Thomas Stothard to illustrate his verse with steel engravings: Turner supplied many of the atmospheric landscape subjects, while Stothard contributed the figure scenes. The resulting volumes are among the most celebrated productions of Romantic-era book illustration, and the success of the 1830 Italy prompted Rogers to issue this similarly sumptuous edition of his Poems four years later.

London: Printed for T. Cadell, Jennings and Chaplin, and E. Moxon, 1830; Printed for T. Cadell and E. Moxon, 1834. Two octavo volumes uniformly bound in contemporary full red morocco, covers richly decorated in gilt with floral and foliate tools, spines with five raised bands, elaborately gilt compartments and black morocco labels, wide floral gilt turn-ins, and all edges gilt; pp. vii, [1], 284, [2]; viii, [5]-295, [1]. Profusely illustrated with steel-engraved headpieces, tailpieces, and vignettes after Turner, Stothard, and others. Italy is in the second issue, with the vignettes correctly placed on pages 88 and 91. Armorial bookplate of Charles Douglas Halford (1793-1865) on the front pastedown of each volume. An unsigned manuscript index to the illustrations, keyed to their page numbers, is mounted at the rear of Poems.

$400

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