Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$500.00 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: Second edition revised & enlarged. 166 pp. + 12 plates. Hardcover, bound in leather backed paper boards. The binding rubbed; lacks the fly leaves; dampstaining, largely marginal; scattered foxing.
Seller: Moroccobound Fine Books, IOBA, Lewis Center, OH, U.S.A.
Price: US$530.13 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Title page states: "THE CONCHOLOGISTS FIRST BOOK: A SYSTEM OF TESTACEOUS MALACOLOGY ARRANGED EXPRESSLY FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS, IN WHICH THE ANIMALS ACCORDING TO CUVIER ARE GIVEN WITH THE SHELLS, A GREAT NUMBER OF NEW SPECIES ADDED, AND THE WHOLE BROUGHT UP, AS ACCURATELY AS POSSIBLE, TO THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE SCIENCE. BY EDGAR A. POE. SECOND EDITION, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS OF TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN SHELLS, PRESENTING A CORRECT TYPE OF EACH GENUS. PHILADELPHIA: PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY HASWELL, BARRINGTON, AND HASWELL, AND FOR SALE BY THE PRINCIPAL BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED STATES 1840." about 6 pages have a dark stain to the upper right hand corner with no loss of text. Pages 63-70 attached but loose. TOP RIGHT CORNERS of last 3 blank pages (two free rear endpapers and endpaper torn off 2 1/2" x 1") The preface to the second edition states there are some additions and corrections not having appeared in the first edition (1839) so this is also a FIRST THUS of this edition. This book is in its original light blue boards with cloth spine with the title in whole being printed on the cover. The covers are faded but most of the print is readable. The inside for the most part is clean, complete, and tight. All 12 plates present, 166 pages includes index at the end. Former owner name written on front end-paper and top left front cover.
Seller: Barry's Books, San Antonio, TX, U.S.A.
Price: US$538.43 + shipping
Description: Second edition. Illustrated. 12mo. Quarter calf with the original printed blue boards, spine decorated and lettered in gilt. Philadelphia, Haswell, Barrington, and Haswell. For the Poe collector who has everything. Poe is responsible for writing the preface and introduction to this work, but the rest of the text was written by his Thomas Wyatt who felt the book would sell better under Poe's name. It did in fact sell very well as is indicated by the presence of this second edition. A good copy, boards a little marked and rubbed, some spotting to the first and last few pages.
Seller: Maggs Bros. Ltd ABA, ILAB, PBFA, BA, London, United Kingdom
Poe, Edgar Allan. Conchologist's First Book. Haswell, Barrington, and Haswell, Philadelphia, 1840.
Price: US$750.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: 16mo, 166 pages, quarter calf, printed boards, covers rubbed. This is Poe's remarkable adaptation of Thomas Brown's text-book of conchology. This has added American species coverage, and a new Introduction by Poe. Illustrated with 12 lithographic plates by Duval of Philadelphia. Note: with state B of Plate 3 ( no priority) with the title as "Part of Shells" [ see BAL 16131, 16132 ].
Seller: Thomas J. Joyce And Company, Chicago, IL, U.S.A.
Price: US$950.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Second edition, revised and with a brief new preface by Poe for this edition. 16mo. 166pp. Illustrations of two hundred and fifteen shells. Quarter calf ruled in gilt on the spine and printed green paper covered boards. Owner's name stamped twice on preliminaries, and gift inscription on front fly, some horizontal erosion to the leather along the edge of the spine, corners a little worn, and a little faint stain on the front board, but a pleasing very good copy. *BAL* 16132.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
Price: US$965.00 + shipping
Description: Second Edition (revised and enlarged from the first edition issued the previous year, with new preface by Poe) of this text printed under Poe's name but practically a reprint of Thomas Brown's The Conchologist's Text-Book (Glasgow, 1833). Foolscap 8vo (170 x 104mm): [ii],[3],4-166,[2]pp, with twelve lithographic plates of shells. Mint green paper-covered boards printed in black (modeled on those of Brown's fourth edition of 1836), brown calf spine in six compartments divided by gilt rules stamped in gilt. One of the copies with uncolored plates and plate III in BAL's state B (no known priority), titled "Part of Shells." Light wear to spine ends and board edges; pages and plates intermittently spotted (occasionally moderately so), but an excellent example, securely bound and generally clean throughout, with brief, scattered lightly penciled notations in contemporary hand. BAL 16132. Robertson, pp. 42-45 (especially for discussion of Thomas Wyatt and Isaac Lea's unacknowledged adaptation of Brown's book). Heartman & Canny, pp. 41-44. Tane, p. 45 ("Poe took four of Brown's plates and extensive portions of the text"). *Rinderknecht (American Imprints) 40-5476. Tucher 1754 (calling the book a piracy). Poe, desperately in need of money, allowed his name to be used to popularize this book; he was responsible for several significant changes to Wyatt's text, in addition to writing the brief preface and introduction. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).
Seller: Fine Editions Ltd, Lancaster, PA, U.S.A.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 8vo, pp. 166 + 12 lithographic plates. Bound in original green printed boards (very good, general wear) rebacked with leather spine. A very good copy of this fragile book. BAL 16132; Heartman & Canny p. 44; Tucker, "Natural History in America, 1609-1860", 1754 (calling the book a piracy); Yale, Gimbel Collection, 38. Poe was accused of pirating this little book from Thomas Wyatt's "A Manual of Conchology" when he was putting this out in response to Wyatt's wishes and at his suggestion. This is the only one of Poe's American imprints to be reprinted in his lifetime. Second Edition, corrected and enlarged from the first edition issued only six months earlier, with a new preface by Poe on which he comments on the success of the publication.
Seller: Bookbid, Beverly Hills, CA, U.S.A.