Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$153.70 + shipping
Description: pp. xi, (i) blank, 151, (i) Colophon. The first page of each of four essays within an elaborate woodcut border, all initials woodcut and printed in red. Full vellum with ribbon ties, a very nice copy. *Four essays on political economy.
Seller: Patrick Pollak Rare Books ABA ILAB, SOUTH BRENT, DEVON, United Kingdom
Price: US$165.00 + shipping
Description: First Ballantyne Press Edition, and one of 400 copies only on handmade paper. Beautifully decorated throughout with elaborate borders and large capitals in black and red, reminiscent of the designs by William Morris for the Kelmscott Press. 4to, publisher's original vellum over boards, the spine and upper cover lettered and decorated in gilt. [xii], 151, [1] pp. A very good copy, the text-block clean and crisp and bright, the binding very well preserved with only minor evidence of age. One of four ties remains, a pleasing copy of this handsome printing. FIRST BALLANTYNE PRESS EDITION, BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED AND DECORATED THROUGHOUT. The title is a quotation from the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen. Matthew 20 (King James Version) The "last" are the eleventh hour labourers, who are paid as if they had worked the entire day. Rather than discuss the contemporary religious interpretation of the parable, whereby the eleventh hour labourers would be death-bed converts, or the peoples of the world who come late to religion, Ruskin looks at the social and economic implications, discussing issues such as who should receive a living wage. This essay is very critical of the economists of the 18th and 19th centuries. In this sense, Ruskin is a precursor of social economy. Because the essay also attacks the destructive effects of industrialism upon the natural world. UNTO THIS LAST had a very important impact on Gandhi's philosophy. He discovered the book in March 1904 through Henry Polak, whom he had met in a vegetarian restaurant in South Africa. Polak was sub-editor of the Johannesburg paper The Critic. Gandhi decided immediately not only to change his own life according to Ruskin's teaching, but also to publish his own newspaper, Indian Opinion, from a farm where everybody would get the same salary, without distinction of function, race, or nationality. This, for that time, was quite revolutionary. Thus Gandhi created Phoenix Settlement. Gandhi translated UNTO THIS LAST into Gujarati in 1908 under the title of Sarvodaya (Well Being of All). Valji Govindji Desai translated it back to English in 1951 under the title of UNTO THIS LAST A Paraphrase. This last essay can be considered his program on economics, as in Unto This Last, Gandhi found an important part of his social and economic ideas
Seller: Buddenbrooks, Inc., Newburyport, MA, U.S.A.
Price: US$170.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Vellum over thin board covers have gilt medallion on front cover. Boards show some smudges, staining, rubbing, bowing. Attachment points for tie closures are visible. Corners are bumped. See photos. Spine has gilt text and is a little darkened, with foot end worn. See photos. Binding is strong. Handmade paper end papers/ pastedowns show little sign of age or wear, apart from some toning. Interior is gently age-toned, esp. at deckle edges. Inside pages are free of writing and intentional marks. Text block edges have deckle fore and foot edges.** PS2024.0125** One of four hundred copies of a handsome edition of John Ruskin's essays on political economy. These four essays by Ruskin (1819-1900) first appeared in Cornhill Magazine in 1860, and then in book form in 1862. This edition was published posthumously and produced according to all the aesthetic principles espoused by Ruskin and his circle. It is a small edition of 400 copies, printed on Unbleached Arnold handmade paper, with distinctive black typeface, and ornamented generously with red marginal notes, carved initials, and page frames to open each essay.** In his essays, Ruskin took issue with capitalism as it was practiced in the 19th century and with the economic theories of thinkers such as Ricardo and Adam Smith. Consciously or not, this book is testament to the value and beauty of craft and honest labor which Ruskin associated with an earlier period.** Four hundred copies made on handmade paper. Printed at Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh.** "Postage for oversized and international shipping will be calculated by size and weight. AbeBooks shipping quotes are ESTIMATES only. Seller Inventory #009888"**
Seller: Panoply Books, Lambertville, NJ, U.S.A.
RUSKIN, John. Unto This Last.. George Allen for Ballantyne Press, (London), 1902.
Price: US$200.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo. xii, 151, [1, colophon) pp. Title with wide floriate border. Paragraph initials in red. Untrimmed and unopened. Publisher's full flexible vellum with silk ties, gilt spine lettering, front board with gilt device. A couple of translucent blobs on front else a very good copy.
Seller: Nat DesMarais Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.