Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Robert Louis Stevenson. Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers. Chatto & Windus, London, 1887.
Price: US$6.41 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: In a dark red cloth hardcover with gilt titles to spine. No dust jacket. 278 pp. The book is in good condition with only minor shelf-wear to the extremities of the cover and a little rubbing to the boards; the extremities are sun damaged. The binding is tight. There is offsetting to the feps and quite heavy foxing to the end papers, half title and last page of the book. The pages are irregularly sized, clean and unmarked.
Seller: Books for Amnesty Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
Price: US$16.04 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Vi pp + 278 pages. with a dedication to the writer and playwright W. E. Henley. Smooth polished buckram, cushioned edges, top edge gilt, edges uncut as issued a tinly area of wear at head of the spine and some foxing to endpapers and front and rear and also on the half title. Small Octavo 17.5 x 11 cm. Very Good.
Seller: Colophon Books (UK), Leek, United Kingdom
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Virginibus Puerisque & Other Papers. London: Chatto & Windus, 1887.
Price: US$50.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 12mo. in brick red cloth binding. Minor wear & spotting to binding; pages slightly toned; else VG. 278 pages.
Seller: Betterbks/ COSMOPOLITAN BOOK SHOP, Burbank, CA, U.S.A.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Virginibus Puerisque & Other Papers. London: Chatto & Windus, 1887.
Price: US$50.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 12mo. in brick red cloth binding. Binding sun-faded with minor wear; pages a bit toned; else VG. 278 pages.
Seller: Betterbks/ COSMOPOLITAN BOOK SHOP, Burbank, CA, U.S.A.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers. Chatto & Windus, London, 1887.
Price: US$350.00 + shipping
Description: Second edition, Number 21 of 50 Large Paper copies, signed by the Printers, R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh. vi, [ii], 278, [1] pp. 1 vols. Tall 8vo. Stevenson the Essayist. Beautifully produced collection of Stevenson's essays, including the title work, An Apology for Idlers, Child's Play, and many others. Beinecke 75 Cream cloth. Spine sunned, light rubbing to spine ends, else fine. Unopened copy vi, [ii], 278, [1] pp. 1 vols. Tall 8vo Second edition, Number 21 of 50 Large Paper copies, signed by the Printers, R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh.
Seller: James Cummins Bookseller, ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$425.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Second edition (so stated; first large paper issue). Small 4to. 287 pages. Original gilt stamped white cloth, uncut and partly unopened (light soiling). Very good (light foxing to endpapers; soiling). Includes "Child's Play," "Pan's Pipes," "El Dorado," "A Plea for Gas Lamps," etc. Number 27 of 50 large paper copies, signed by the printers, R.& R. Clark. Beinecke 75.
Seller: Houle Rare Books/Autographs/ABAA/PADA, Palm Springs, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Second edition (so stated; first large paper issue). Small 4to. 287 pages. Original gilt stamped white cloth, uncut and partly unopened. Very good (light foxing to endpapers; soiling). Includes "Child's Play," "Pan's Pipes," "El Dorado," "A Plea for Gas Lamps," etc. Number 49 of 50 large paper copies, signed by the printers, R.& R. Clark. Beinecke 75.
Seller: Houle Rare Books/Autographs/ABAA/PADA, Palm Springs, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$6413.81 + shipping
Description: Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title, "To my mother, Robert Louis Stevenson". Margaret Isabella Balfour Stevenson (1829-1897), known to her family as "Maggie", married Thomas Stevenson in 1848. The pair lived in Edinburgh, and there Margaret gave birth to RLS, her only child, on 13 November 1850. As a child, RLS was a late reader, learning at the age of seven or eight, but "even before he could write Stevenson was dictating stories to his mother and his nurse. When he was six he won a prize, given by an uncle, for his 'History of Moses', dictated to his mother" (ODNB). Margaret noted down and preserved many of RLS's childhood sayings, which the author later drew on in his book of poems A Child's Garden of Verses (1885). That collection includes his poem "To My Mother", which imagines Margaret reading his poems and remembering his childhood: "You too, my mother, read my rhymes / For love of unforgotten times, / And you may chance to hear once more / The little feet along the floor." Maggie and her son both shared a tendency to coughs and fevers, which meant they often needed to stay in warmer climates for their health. Following Thomas Stevenson's death in 1887, Margaret became "a remarkably enthusiastic and adventurous traveller, tolerant of discomforts and extreme temperatures, game for anything" (p. 16), and she accompanied her son and his wife to America and the Pacific, eventually settling with them in Vailima, Samoa. She returned to Edinburgh after her son's death in 1894. Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers is Stevenson's first book of essays, collecting material published between 1874 and 1881. The first edition was published in 1881; this copy is from the British issue of the second edition. Provenance: from the library of American industrialist and distinguished collector Arthur A. Houghton Jr. (1906-1990), with his morocco book label on the front pastedown. Houghton was president of Steuben Glass Works for 40 years, during which time he endowed the Houghton Library at Harvard University, and also served as president of both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Philharmonic. Octavo. Original red buckram, spine lettered in gilt, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Spine faded, extremities lightly bumped, free endpapers browned, small crack to gutter at half-title, contents clean. A very good copy.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom