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Medical Instruments .
Copperplate engraving from the First Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, or Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences, founded in 1768 and printed in 1771. 3 Volumes, this is Volume 3.
The largest encyclopedia of general knowledge published to date, with contributions by leaders in their fields.
Printed for Bell and Macfarquhar, Edinburgh. Original half leather binding, 970 pages this volume. 26cm x 21cm.
“The Chimes” is Dickens’ second Christmas book, the first being “A Christmas Carol.” It continues his social commentaries on the poor. Structured similarly to “A Christmas Carol,” the main character, Trotty, witnesses an alternative future through a series of visions and ultimately is given a second chance to put things right. “The Chimes” was a bestseller in its day, but has since been eclipsed by “A Christmas Carol.” “The Chimes” is illustrated with thirteen engravings by artists John Leech, John Tenniel, Richard Doyle, Daniel Maclise and Clarkson Stanfield.
In all, Dickens wrote five Christmas books: “A Christmas Carol” (1843), “The Chimes” (though dated 1845 it was released in December 1844), “The Cricket on the Hearth” (1845), “The Battle of Life” (1846), and “The Haunted Man” (1848).
The Illustrated News of the World – First Edition 1858.
‘The Illustrated News of the World and National Portrait Gallery of Eminent Personages’ was a new publication with the strong visual emphasis of numerous large woodcuts to illustrate local and world events, and also featuring a number of fine steel engravings of eminent persons. The publishers stated their hopes that the publication would match or supplement the existing illustrated magazines:- The Illustrated London News and Punch Magazine .
Published by Illustrated News of the World, The Strand, London. Annual bound collection, red cloth boards 338 pages 42cm x 29cm.
Ex-libris bookplate of Toxteth Park Library, in The Glebe, Sydney, Australia.
Power Without Glory by Frank Hardy, was a very contentious book in its day, leading to a major court case based on an old law -- criminal libel. Fortunately the author Hardy won the case, which you can read about in his book The Hard Way.
I found the above List of Characters sheet in one of the first editions of the book that I own. Apparently many typed versions of this appeared in the 50s and 60s to help people identify the fairly light weight disguised names Hardy used.
From "Siegfried & The Twilight of the Gods" by Richard Wagner. New York: Doubleday Page & Co., 1911. First American Edition
Grass Stain Green Field Notes arrived just before the weekend. They're just as gorgeous in real life as they were in the photo - I love the coordinating green graph. Can't wait to finish my current FN to move on to this fresh baby.
Hoke Moseley was really getting into the “cold cases” he’d been assigned – and then Commander Bill Henderson dropped into Hoke’s office and told him to let his beard grow for a couple of days. Henderson couldn’t say why, only that Major Willie Brownley, the division chief, had something up his sleeve.
Hoke went back to puzzling out what an electronic garage door opener might have to do with a three-year-old murder. But the major’s request nagged at him. What was so secret? And on top of that, when he got home he discovered that the man who just bought the house across the street was a fellow he had put away for murder – and there he was, out on parole, sitting on his lawn staring at Hoke’s house.
Hoke soon found out what the beard was for – at least as much as the major wanted to tell him. At a ramshackle crossroads south of Miami, Hoke was stripped of all identification – money, wallet, gun and even his false teeth – and sent south to the migrant farms where rumors of slavery and murder had become impossible to ignore. From this point on, Charles Willeford, author of “Miami Blues,” “Cockfighter,” and a dozen other novels, spins a bizarre and brutal story.
“And all this time the lions and tigers was sorting out the clothes.”
“Tom Sawyer Abroad” features Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in a parody of adventure stories like those of Jules Verne. In the story, Tom, Huck, and Jim set sail to Africa in a futuristic hot air balloon, where they survive encounters with lions, robbers, and fleas to see some of the world’s greatest wonders, including the Pyramids and the Sphinx. The story is told using the first-person narrative voice of Huck Finn and is a sequel, set in the time following the title story of the Tom Sawyer series, “Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” [Source: Wikipedia]
OS first edition 1871 Hartsheath, Flintshire Sheet XVII-2
IN THE NEWS TODAY – 30th March 1895 - STEALING SNOWDROPS AT HARTSHEATH, NEAR MOLD
“LARCENY AND POACHING – John Millington, Joseph Jones, William Boswell, and John Tudor were summoned for stealing snowdrops from the grounds of Hartsheath Hall, the residence of Colonel Macfie, and also for trespassing in pursuit of game in a plantation belonging to Mr Carstairs Jones. Mr J.B. Marston prosecuted. On Monday, the 10th inst., the first three defendants were seen to take the snowdrops by David Jones, Col. Macfie’s gardener, and, on being told to desist, they treated him with a certain amount of contempt. Tudor was with them, but he was not seen to take any snowdrops. Defendants afterwards went into a plantation with a lurcher dog, which David Jones (gardener) and David Davies (gamekeeper to Mr Carstairs-Jones) saw them working with. – For the first offence, the defendants, with the exception of Tudor, who was dismissed, were each fined 5s. and costs, and a similar fine was imposed upon all the defendants for the game trespass.”
From the Cheshire Observer, 30th March 1895
YN Y NEWYDDION - 30 Mawrth 1895 - LLADRATA EIRLYSIAU YN HARTSHEATH, GER YR WYDDGRUG
Nombre: Optimus Prime
Afiliación: Autobots
Línea: Transformers Prime First Edition
Clase: Voyager
Año: 2012
Número de adquisición: 507
-----------------------------------------------------------
Name: Optimus Prime
Allegiance: Autobots
Line: Transformers Prime First Edition
Class: Voyager
Year: 2012
Number in Collection: 507
Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Treatise on Painting,” the most important treatise on art to be written during the Renaissance, was actually compiled by Francesco Melzi, one of Leonardo’s pupils, around 1540. It circulated widely, first in separate manuscripts and later in printed books, and for centuries it was thought to have been written by Leonardo himself. Artists, scientists, and scholars including Galileo, read it avidly as an authoritative record of Leonardo’s thoughts. In the 19th century, when the artist’s original notes became available, scholars realized that the text poorly reflected Leonardo’s sophisticated ideas. The text was very influential nonetheless. For better or worse, it was the primary source for disseminating Leonardo’s art theory in Renaissance and Baroque Europe, from the mid-sixteenth century to the early nineteenth century.
[Source: www.treatiseonpainting.org/]
Wernher von Braun’s rocket team was one of the most influential technological forces in the 20th century. The von Braun team forever changed warfare with its 200-mile-range V-2 missile. Despite the constant allied bombing of Germany during World War II which cut supply lines and forced manufacturing operations underground, the scientists and engineers on von Braun’s team refined and developed their work to the point that, when they arranged their surrender to the Americans at the end of the war, von Braun announced that he had a rocket on the drawing board that could fly from Germany to New York. Little wonder, then, that the rivalry was so keen between the U.S., Russia and Britain to gain their services.
After World War II, von Braun’s rocket team created the first long-range ballistic missiles for the U.S. They worked on the Explorer program that resulted in the first American satellite to orbit the Earth. And within a decade they developed and built the huge 363-foot-tall Saturn rocket that sent man to the Moon.
The book “The Rocket Team” provides insight into the wartime growth of rocketry and tells how the men were brought to the U.S., and established first at White Sands, NM, and then at Hunstville, AL. Included, too, is a chapter on the development of post-war Soviet rocketry, based on the work of the members of the von Braun team who chose to go East instead of West.
Set in London of 632 A.F. (“After Ford”), the novel portrays a futuristic society in which the individual is sacrificed for the state, science is used to control and subjugate, and all forms of art and history are outlawed. The novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, classical conditioning and psychological manipulation that combine profoundly to change society. Modern Library ranked “Brave New World” fifth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. [Source: Wikipedia]
Steel engraved portrait to celebrate the marriage of Princess Victoria, daughter of Queen Victoria, to Prince Frederick William of Prussia.
The Illustrated News of the World – First Edition 1858.
‘The Illustrated News of the World and National Portrait Gallery of Eminent Personages’ was a new publication with the strong visual emphasis of numerous large woodcuts to illustrate local and world events, and also featuring a number of fine steel engravings of eminent persons. The publishers stated their hopes that the publication would match or supplement the existing illustrated magazines:- The Illustrated London News and Punch Magazine .
Published by Illustrated News of the World, The Strand, London. Annual bound collection, red cloth boards 338 pages 42cm x 29cm.
Ex-libris bookplate of Toxteth Park Library. ‘Toxteth Park’ is a historic home built in 1829 in The Glebe, Sydney, Australia designed by the Colonial Architect, John Verge for the Australian lawyer and businessman, George Allen ( 1800-1877).
A history of ‘Toxteth Park’ is here:
Window of Taschen bookstore with display of newly-published large-format book of Annie Leiboviitz portraits. Scarlett Johansson as centerfold.
Written by William Shakespeare, published in 1623. View all four folios at digital.lib.MiamiOH.edu/folios.
This is the remake of the 1956 film based on Jack Finney's classic science fiction story. Here is the pod-opening scene in the original film:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLsjlmrQ6Mw
Here is the comparable scene in the remake (1978):
The Mercury Seven were the group of seven Mercury astronauts selected by NASA on April 9, 1959. They are also referred to as the Original Seven or Astronaut Group 1. They piloted the manned spaceflights of the Mercury program from May 1961 to May 1963. These seven original American astronauts were Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, Gordon Cooper, and Deke Slayton. Alan Shepard was the second person and the first American to travel into space. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first person to travel into space.
The story of the macho, seat-of-the-pants approach to the space program of the Mercury astronauts and the equally fearless approach of test pilot Chuck Yeager was the basis of a book by Tom Wolfe (1979) and a movie by Philip Kaufman (1983). Both are titled “The Right Stuff.” Here is a link to the movie trailer:
Percival Lowell (1855-1916) was an American businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer who fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars. In 1894, he chose Flagstaff, Arizona as the home of his new observatory, the now famous Lowell Observatory. For the next fifteen years, he studied Mars extensively, and made intricate drawings of the surface markings as he perceived them. He was particularly interested in the canals of Mars, as drawn by Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, who was director of the Milan Observatory. Lowell published his views in three books: “Mars” (1895), “Mars and Its Canals” (1906), and “Mars As the Abode of Life” (1908).
Lowell’s works include a full account of the “canals,” single and double, the “oases,” as he termed the dark spots at their intersections, and the varying visibility of both, depending partly on the Martian seasons. He theorized that an advanced but desperate culture had built the canals to tap Mars’ polar ice caps, the last source of water on an inexorably drying planet.
While this idea excited the public, the astronomical community was skeptical. Many astronomers could not see these markings, and few believed that they were as extensive as Lowell claimed. In 1909 the sixty-inch Mount Wilson Observatory telescope in Southern California allowed closer observation of the structures Lowell had interpreted as canals, and revealed irregular geological features, probably the result of natural erosion. The existence of canal-like features was definitely disproved in the 1960s by NASA’s Mariner missions. Today, the surface markings taken to be canals are regarded as an optical illusion.
Lowell's greatest contribution to planetary studies came during the last decade of his life, which he devoted to the search for Planet X, a hypothetical planet beyond Neptune. In 1930 Clyde Tombaugh, working at the Lowell Observatory, discovered Pluto near the location expected for Planet X. Partly in recognition of Lowell's efforts, a stylized P-L monogram – the first two letters of the new planet's name and also Lowell's initials – was chosen as Pluto's astronomical symbol.
Although Lowell's theories of the Martian canals are now discredited, his building of an observatory at the position where it would best function has been adopted as a principle for all observatories. He also established the program and an environment which made the discovery of Pluto by Clyde Tombaugh possible. Craters on the Moon and on Mars have been named after Percival Lowell. He has been described by other planetary scientists as "the most influential popularizer of planetary science in America before Carl Sagan". Lowell is buried on Mars Hill near his observatory. [Source: Wikipedia]
The plot of the book revolves around a group of radical pirates who seek the freedom to live under the articles set out by Captain James Mission. It imagines an alternate history in which Captain Mission’s 18th century anarchist colony called Libertatia lives on. His way of life is based on “The Articles,” a general freedom to live as one chooses, without prejudice. The novel is narrated from two different standpoints: one set in the 18th century which follows a group of pirate boys led by Noah Blake, who land in Panama to liberate it. The other is set in the late 20th century, and follows a detective tracing the disappearance of an adolescent boy. The cities of the title mimic and parody real places, and Burroughs makes references to the United States, Mexico, and Morocco.
Haggard blends Inca history and myth in this adventure tale. He explores the Inca myth surrounding the rise of one of the Americas greatest pre-Columbian leaders - Pachacuti. Today, Pachacuti is best known for one of the most recognizable icons in the world - Machu Picchu. "Virgin of the Sun" was published in 1922, a scant 11 years after explorer Hiram Bingham rediscovered the lost city nestled in the Peruvian mountains. Bingham hadn't yet connected Machu Picchu to Pachacuti, but myth had already surrounded the Inca ruler who is credited with expanding Inca rule to cover a huge swath of territory on South America's western coast.
Haggard's story unfolds as a "modern day" antique hound translates 400-year-old letters found in an ancient chest. The letters tell the tale of Hubert - a fisherman working and living in England. Following a few small adventures and misadventures, our hero, Hubert, meets and befriends a strange man from a foreign land. After Hubert's wife of less-than-24-hours commits suicide and Hubert kills her former lover, he and his friend, Kari, are off into the Atlantic Ocean. Kari acts as a physical and emotional guide to Hubert who's immediately declared a White God by the various natives they come across after finding landfall in South America.
In addition to the Victorian era-like romance that leads to his wife's death, Hubert also falls in love with a beautiful Indian princess, Quilla - daughter of the moon. Haggard uses this surprisingly touching romance to further Hubert and Kari's adventure. [Source: Jason Golomb at the Goodread website www.goodreads.com/book/show/6328821-the-virgin-of-the-sun]
A collection of supernatural tales of the late Rev. Henry S. Whitehead. The jacket is the work of Ronald Clyne.
The family of Darius at the feet of Alexander, after the Battle of Issus, taken from a painting by Paul Veronese.
The Illustrated News of the World – First Edition 1858.
‘The Illustrated News of the World and National Portrait Gallery of Eminent Personages’ was a new publication with the strong visual emphasis of numerous large woodcuts to illustrate local and world events, and also featuring a number of fine steel engravings of eminent persons. The publishers stated their hopes that the publication would match or supplement the existing illustrated magazines:- The Illustrated London News and Punch Magazine .
Published by Illustrated News of the World, The Strand, London. Annual bound collection, red cloth boards 338 pages 42cm x 29cm.
Ex-libris bookplate of Toxteth Park Library.
Jasper Maskelyne (1902-1973) was a British stage magician in the 1930s and 1940s. His “Book of Magic” describes a range of stage tricks, including sleight of hand, card and rope tricks, and “mind-reading” illusions. A 1937 Pathé film, “The Famous Illusionist,” was made of Maskelyne, looking dapper and apparently eating a boxful of razor blades, one at a time.
Jasper Maskelyne was one of an established family of stage magicians, the son of Nevil Maskelyne and a grandson of John Nevil Maskelyne. He is most remembered, however, for his entertaining accounts of his work for British military intelligence during the Second World War. His exploits in the camouflage unit during the war are described in David Fisher’s book, “The War Magician” (1983), and in Maskelyne’s own book , “Magic: Top Secret” (1949). Book reviewer Peter Forbes writes that “the flamboyant magician’s contribution was either absolutely central (if you believe his account and that of his biographer) or very marginal (if you believe the official records and more recent research).” [Source: Wikipedia]
Here is a link to David Fisher's book "The War Magician:"
www.flickr.com/photos/57440551@N03/17739750104/in/album-7...
I am currently working on a replica of Shakespeare's 1623 folio. Although Shakespeare's works have been in print prior to the release of the first folio as individual plays, the 1623 publication is the first edition of the "complete" works of Shakespeare.
This replica is a rebinding of a 1947 facsimile, originally case bound in ugly whitish cloth, redone in hand dyed calf leather featuring a Cambridge panel and lined with marbled paper. The text block was resewn on recessed cords with the new cover boards laced in. Headbands were hand wound. An oxford hollow with false raised bands was used for the spine. The leather was dyed using a combination of vegetable dyes, aniline dyes and tattoo inks.
See more projects here:
As you can tell by the electrical transformer, vacuum tubes ("valves") and telegraph sounder in the background, I have other ongoing projects in the same shop. :)
Lee de Forest (1873-1961) was an American inventor, self-described "Father of Radio", and a pioneer in the development of sound-on-film recording used for motion pictures. He had over 180 patents, but also a tumultuous career — he boasted that he made, then lost, four fortunes. He was also involved in several major patent lawsuits, spent a substantial part of his income on legal bills, and was even tried (and acquitted) for mail fraud. His most famous invention, in 1906, was the three-element "grid Audion", which, although he had only a limited understanding of how it worked, provided the foundation for the development of vacuum tube technology. [Source: Wikipedia]
Percival Lowell (1855-1916) was an American businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer who fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars. In 1894, he chose Flagstaff, Arizona as the home of his new observatory, the now famous Lowell Observatory. For the next fifteen years, he studied Mars extensively, and made intricate drawings of the surface markings as he perceived them. He was particularly interested in the canals of Mars, as drawn by Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, who was director of the Milan Observatory. Lowell published his views in three books: “Mars” (1895), “Mars and Its Canals” (1906), and “Mars As the Abode of Life” (1908).
Lowell’s works include a full account of the “canals,” single and double, the “oases,” as he termed the dark spots at their intersections, and the varying visibility of both, depending partly on the Martian seasons. He theorized that an advanced but desperate culture had built the canals to tap Mars’ polar ice caps, the last source of water on an inexorably drying planet.
While this idea excited the public, the astronomical community was skeptical. Many astronomers could not see these markings, and few believed that they were as extensive as Lowell claimed. In 1909 the sixty-inch Mount Wilson Observatory telescope in Southern California allowed closer observation of the structures Lowell had interpreted as canals, and revealed irregular geological features, probably the result of natural erosion. The existence of canal-like features was definitely disproved in the 1960s by NASA’s Mariner missions. Today, the surface markings taken to be canals are regarded as an optical illusion.
Lowell's greatest contribution to planetary studies came during the last decade of his life, which he devoted to the search for Planet X, a hypothetical planet beyond Neptune. In 1930 Clyde Tombaugh, working at the Lowell Observatory, discovered Pluto near the location expected for Planet X. Partly in recognition of Lowell's efforts, a stylized P-L monogram – the first two letters of the new planet's name and also Lowell's initials – was chosen as Pluto's astronomical symbol.
Although Lowell's theories of the Martian canals are now discredited, his building of an observatory at the position where it would best function has been adopted as a principle for all observatories. He also established the program and an environment which made the discovery of Pluto by Clyde Tombaugh possible. Craters on the Moon and on Mars have been named after Percival Lowell. He has been described by other planetary scientists as "the most influential popularizer of planetary science in America before Carl Sagan". Lowell is buried on Mars Hill near his observatory. [Source: Wikipedia]
Originally serialized in Galaxy magazine between 1872-74, Custer’s autobiography of life as a cavalryman fighting Native-American tribes on the plains appeared in book form only two years before his last stand at Little Bighorn. Introduced by his sketch of the landscape and speculations on the history and nature of the “Indian,” Custer’s narrative begins with the expedition of Major-General Hancock in the spring of 1867 and ends with the Washita campaign on the frontiers of Kansas.
Brill Place and the Brill Tavern at Somers Town.
The Illustrated News of the World – First Edition 1858.
‘The Illustrated News of the World and National Portrait Gallery of Eminent Personages’ was a new publication with the strong visual emphasis of numerous large woodcuts to illustrate local and world events, and also featuring a number of fine steel engravings of eminent persons. The publishers stated their hopes that the publication would match or supplement the existing illustrated magazines:- The Illustrated London News and Punch Magazine .
Published by Illustrated News of the World, The Strand, London. Annual bound collection, red cloth boards 338 pages 42cm x 29cm.
I love this book so much I buy copies of it for friends whenever I see them. Not this copy, though -- it's a first edition paperback.
"John Evans" is a nom de plume for Howard Browne, a prolific mystery and science fiction writer who died a few years ago. He wrote for tv as well -- I caught a line from this book issuing from the lips of a bad guy on "77 Sunset Strip" one day; sure enough, Browne wrote the screenplay.
By the way: when the hell is Warner Brothers going to release "77 Sunset Strip" on dvd?
"The lion dragged the Arab from his saddle."
This is the fifth novel in the Tarzan series. Tarzan knows where the gold of fabled Atlantis is hidden and outlaws are determined to get their greedy hands on it.
"Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea.
And never a saint took
pity on
My soul in agony."
William Andrew Pogány (1882-1955) was born in Hungary, studied art in Budapest, and worked in Paris briefly before moving to London in 1905 where he worked as a book illustrator for ten years. He moved to New York in 1915 and had success as a book illustrator and designer of stage sets and hotel interiors. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is one of Pogany’s best-known books. It is a bold artistic experiment in unifying text and images. Every page is elaborately decorated in Pogany’s distinctive style, which attempts to create a printed version of a medieval illuminated manuscript. He was responsible for the beautiful calligraphic text, green and mauve page decorations and borders, and the many black and white drawings and tipped-in plates in full color.
Amazing mid-century illustrations in this 1957 classic cookbook for children. Charming piece of nostalgia for the cookbook collector, children's book collector or lover of vintage drawings.
Modern Magic by Professor Hoffmann (Angelo Lewis) was the first book in the English language to really explain how to perform feats of magic. The book contains advice on the appearance, dress and staging of a magician. It then goes on to describe many tricks with playing cards, coins, watches, rings, handkerchiefs, dominoes, dice, cups and balls, balls, hats and a large chapter of miscellaneous tricks, including magic with strings, gloves, eggs, rice and some utility devices. The penultimate chapter describes large stage illusions, and the final chapter contains advice on routining a magic show, and more advice on staging.
The Illustrated News of the World – First Edition 1858.
‘The Illustrated News of the World and National Portrait Gallery of Eminent Personages’ was a new publication with the strong visual emphasis of numerous large woodcuts to illustrate local and world events, and also featuring a number of fine steel engravings of eminent persons. The publishers stated their hopes that the publication would match or supplement the existing illustrated magazines:- The Illustrated London News and Punch Magazine .
Published by Illustrated News of the World, The Strand, London. Annual bound collection, red cloth boards 338 pages 42cm x 29cm.
The 19th and early 20th centuries are thought of as the golden age of magazines. This period saw an unparalleled flourishing of high quality, general interest magazines at a price nearly everybody could afford. Entire novels would often appear in magazines before publication in book form. It’s there that you will find classic works by such fine authors as Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling , H. G. Wells and others.
Edgar Allan Poe not only wrote fiction, poetry and criticism for the popular magazines of the day but he also served as co-editor of Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine from 1838 to 1841 and as editor of Graham’s Magazine from 1841 to 1842. Burton’s Magazine was the first to publish such classic tales as “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “Morella.” Graham’s was the first to publish “The Mask of the Red Death,” “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “A Descent Into the Maelstrom,” and “The Imp of the Perverse,” to name just a few.
The 19th and early 20th centuries are thought of as the golden age of magazines. This period saw an unparalleled flourishing of high quality, general interest magazines at a price nearly everybody could afford. Entire novels would often appear in magazines before publication in book form. It’s there that you will find classic works by such fine authors as Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling , H. G. Wells and others.
Edgar Allan Poe not only wrote fiction, poetry and criticism for the popular magazines of the day but he also served as co-editor of Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine from 1838 to 1841 and as editor of Graham’s Magazine from 1841 to 1842. Burton’s Magazine was the first to publish such classic tales as “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “Morella.” Graham’s was the first to publish “The Mask of the Red Death,” “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “A Descent Into the Maelstrom,” and “The Imp of the Perverse,” to name just a few.
“The Gift” was an annual literary anthology published in a gift book format for the years 1836, 1837, 1839, 1840, and 1842-1845. Each book was published by Carey & Hart of Philadelphia in the fall of the year prior to the date given in the title, so that The Gift for 1836 was actually issued in October of 1835. Five of the gift books include new tales by Edgar Allan Poe – “Manuscript Found in a Bottle” (1836), “William Wilson” (1840), “Eleonora” (1842), “The Pit and the Pendulum” (1843), and “The Purloined Letter” (1845).
"The Purloined Letter" is the third of Poe's three detective stories featuring the fictional C. Auguste Dupin, the other two being "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt." These stories are considered to be important early forerunners of the modern detective story.