Like a Tree, is a rare book, printed in 1993 in a limited edition of only 8 copies. It was a collaborative affair, between Tara McLeod, owner-operator of Pear Tree Press; John Mitchell, artist, printmaker and papermaker; and Judith Haswell, a librarian at Auckland University. Haswell wrote the poem and supplied the yellow calico cover; Mitchell made the paper from composite materials including banana skins; and McLeod performed his usual magic on the printing and layout. The work was donated to Special Collections by Judith Haswell.]]> Judith Haswell]]> Like a Tree, is a rare book, printed in 1993 in a limited edition of only 8 copies. It was a collaborative affair, between Tara McLeod, owner-operator of Pear Tree Press; John Mitchell, artist, printmaker and papermaker; and Judith Haswell, a librarian at Auckland University. Haswell wrote the poem and supplied the yellow calico cover; Mitchell made the paper from composite materials including banana skins; and McLeod performed his usual magic on the printing and layout. The work was donated to Special Collections by Judith Haswell.]]> Judith Haswell]]> Pierre Corneille
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Mickey Spillane]]> Le Sphinx actually antedate his first published work, The Collected Sonnets by John Keats (1930). Thus they are JBW’s first book-illustrations, and apart from two, were never previously published. This limited edition portfolio of 250 copies was purchased locally.]]> Alexander A. M. Stols]]> Rachael Johns]]> James Hadley Chase]]> Mickey Spillane ]]> Evelina (1784) was a significant purchase. Evelina was Burney’s first novel, for which she received 20 guineas from Lowndes the publisher. It was a critical success when it first appeared.]]> Fanny Burney]]> A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1796), Special Collections secured a 2nd edition of William Godwin’s Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and Its Influence on Morals and Happiness (1796), a work that openly attacked political institutions. Godwin (1756–1836), a radical philosopher who believed that humanity will inevitably progress, married Wollstonecraft in 1797. In the third person, he wrote in the Preface: ‘It is now twelve years since he became satisfied that monarchy was a species of government essentially corrupt. He owed this conviction to the political writings of Swift and to a perusal of the Latin historians.’ Godwin remains an influential figure in 18th century British literature and literary culture.]]> William Godwin]]> Hours of Idleness in the Edinburgh Review for January 1808. It was once owned by an Irishman called William La Touche.]]> Lord Byron]]> Eric Gill]]> Dracula, an epistolary novel that features Count Dracula, ‘a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white moustache’. Stoker initially called the novel ‘The Dead Un-Dead’ and had Dracula as ‘Count Wampyr’. This Folio Society edition, illustrated by Abigail Rorer, is based on the first edition of 1897.]]> Bram Stoker]]> Bernhard Siegfried Albinus
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___]]> De humani corporis fabrica (‘On the structure of the human body’), which is part of the Monro Collection transferred from the Medical Library to Special Collections in 2013. Vesalius taught at Padua University in Northern Italy where he instructed in anatomy and surgery and dissected corpses during classes for the increased benefit of his students learning. His influential anatomical treatise was highly regarded for the meticulous attention to detail in its engravings and it contained the first published true to life depictions of the complex anatomical structure of the human body. It is a very impressive work.]]> Andreas Vesalius]]> London Magazine during September and October 1821. It was published in book format the following year. His Confessions – dealing with the pleasures and pain of the drug – struck a chord with many 19th century readers and it won him enduring fame. In the 1850s he re-wrote this ‘record of a remarkable period in my life’, destroying the essence of the earlier versions. This is the 3rd edition of 1823, which does not suffer from the re-write.]]> Thomas de Quincey]]> Richard S. Prather]]> New International Encyclopedia). Bree Narran, the pseudonym of the Australian politician William Nicholas Willis, translated de Kock’s work under the imprint of his own London-based Anglo-Eastern Publishing Company. He too wrote ‘racy’ romances, many of them selling well during the years 1910 and 1923. This title and other de Kock ‘pulps’ were donated to Special Collections in 2012.]]> Paul de Kock ]]> Candide, was first published in 1759 when he was 65 years old. Upon publication it caused widespread scandal and was subsequently banned. The introduction to this Nonesuch Press edition by French author Paul Morand (1888-1976) describes Voltaire’s Candide as ‘a sequence of burlesque, breath-taking catastrophes’. Richard Aldington (1892-1962) supplied the translation for this edition and the French artist, Sylvain Sauvage (1888-1948) produced the colourful illustrations. The volume not only complements our French holdings in Special Collections, but also our private press items.]]> François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire]]> Jean Racine]]> Beowulf is an exciting but somewhat violent tale of the warrior and hero of its title. The tale recounts how Beowulf defeats the monster Grendel and Grendel’s mother and how fifty years later he must take up his sword, Naegling, again to defend his people against a dragon. This Random House edition contains Rockwell Kent’s interpretation of Beowulf and his companion, Wiglaf, fighting the dragon. Kent (1882-1971) studied architecture at Colombia University and art at the New York School of Art. An early modernist, his work complements those held within Special Collections by British artists Robert Gibbings and Eric Gill, and Lynd Ward, another American artist.]]> ___]]> Astounding/Analog magazines that were donated by Rachel Salive, wife of the SF collector Hal Salive. Dr Salive was born in the United States and lived in Waikanae, near Wellington. During his career as a collector, he lectured on SF. Astounding Science Fiction was first published in January 1930 and later morphed into Analog. The issues donated extend from March 1930 to September 2012, and features stories by writers such as Robert A. Heinlein (1907-88), L. Ron Hubbard (1911-86), Harlan Ellison (b. 1934), and Harry Turtledove (b. 1949). They are proving to be a great and colourful resource.]]> ___]]> Astounding Stories science fiction (SF) magazine was executed by Hans Waldemar Wessolowski (c. 1894-1948), better known as Wesso. Born in Prussia, now Germany, Wesso ‘jumped ship’ to the States in about 1914. He executed some 41 covers for Astounding Stories between 1930 and 1939. This issue is from the Salive SF collection.]]> ___]]> Astounding Stories magazine. This magazine is from the Salive SF collection.]]> ___]]>