25 Limited Editions to Remember
Search Rare Books
by Richard Davies
Nothing sits better on the collector’s bookshelf than a limited edition.
AbeBooks is showcasing 25 of the finest limited editions available ranging from Mark Twain to Marc Chagall, from Frank Baum to Frank Gehry, from Robert Heinlein to Robert Mapplethorpe, and from William Shakespeare to William Gibson.
This list covers art, architecture, classic literature, cyberpunk, photography, poetry, a president’s speeches and science fiction. There’s handmade paper, Japanese silk, morocco leather, brown oak boxes, beautiful slipcases and every book is a limited edition with print runs varying from as few as 15 to several thousand copies.
Scarce but beautiful, these limited editions offer limitless pleasure.
1. Assignment in Eternity
Robert Heinlein
Published in 1953 by Fantasy Press, there were 500 signed and numbered copies from the entire first printing of 3,000 copies. Ric Binkley’s amazing jacket design is a classic.
2. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain
Sold
British Columbia’s Pie Tree Press produced this gem featuring nine full-page full-color linocuts by Jim Rimmer. Only 75 copies and bound in quarter calf.
3. Quicksilver
Neal Stephenson
This deluxe edition of volume one of the Baroque Cycle featured 1000 signed and numbered copies. Hand-bound in Japanese silk with a slipcase.
4. You Kissed Lilly
Charles Bukowski
A limited edition of 75 copies produced by Black Sparrow Press in 1978. Bukowski signed the covers.
5. Speaking My Mind
Ronald Reagan
A limited edition of 5,000 copies detailing Reagan’s key speeches. The leather-bound book comes in a brown oak presentation box with a pull-out drawer housing six audio cassettes.
6. Neuromancer
William Gibson
Pioneering cyberpunk republished by Phantasia Press. Two choices – a ‘special’ limited edition of 375 numbered copies signed by Gibson or a further 1,000 unnumbered limited edition copies.
7. The Robots of Dawn
Isaac Asimov
In 1983, Phantasia Press produced 35 lettered and signed limited edition copies in full black morocco leather with metal and plastic elements on the front board.
8. Taos Pueblo
Ansel Adams & Mary Austin
In 1977, the New York Graphic Society produced 950 copies numbered and signed by Adams – the book is a facsimile of Adams’ ultra rare 1930 classic.
9. The Eyes of the Dragon
Stephen King
The true first edition, Philtrum Press produced a limited edition of a thousand signed copies in 1984. Red and white marbled paper with a black cloth spine featuring gilt printing.
10. The Book of Counted Sorrows
Dean Koontz
Charnel House produced 1,250 signed copies in 2003 – issued without a dust jacket – with a Therese DePrez cover design.
11. Robert Mapplethorpe / Patti Smith
Just 2,000 copies were printed in 1987 by Bellport Press. A combination of Smith’s lyrics and Mapplethorpe’s photography.
12. Shakespeare's Ovid
Ted Hughes & Christopher Le Brun
Only 50 numbered deluxe copies were produced – they were signed by Hughes, who wrote the introduction, and the artist Le Brun. Printed on Arches Velin paper.
13. Fog: Flowing in a Direction
Frank Gehry
This book lavishly describes Gehry’s architecture. Published in 2003, by Circa, there were 250 signed copies in slipcases.
14. Winnie the Pooh
A.A. Milne
Published in 1973, there were 300 numbered copies signed by famed illustrator E.H. Shepard. Color illustrations and bound in blue morocco.
15. In Umbra Res: Sixteen Photographs of Northern Ireland
Paul Graham
A very rare book – one of 500 signed and numbered copies published by Cornerhouse and Britain's National Museum of Photography. Thirty-two pages expressing the Troubles.
16. On Chesil Beach
Ian McEwan
Published by the London Review Bookshop, this limited edition from 2007 was designed by Andrew Stilwell and bound by The Fine Bindery. Quarter bound with slipcase.
17. The Wizard of Oz
L. Frank Baum
Illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger, North South Books produced 500 copies signed by the artist in 1996. Bound in linen featuring handmade paper and a linen slipcase.
18. Mexico
Martin Parr
A limited edition of 100 signed and numbered copies from 2006, Parr’s photography examines Mexican culture and features an essay by Rogelio Villarreal.
19. Drawings for Dante
Marcel Dzama
The Timothy Taylor Gallery printed a thousand signed and numbered copies - 62 color illustrations from a major London exhibition.
20. Marc Chagall: Monotypes 1961-1965
Printed by Gérald Cramer in Geneva, there were just numbered 1,350 copies. Beige cloth and illustrated dust jacket.
21. Sunset Gun
Dorothy Parker
Parker’s second book of poetry published by Boni and Liveright in 1928 – there was a first edition of 275 signed copies of which 250 were put on sale.
22. Les Chiens ont Soif
Max Ernst & Jacques Prevert
A surreal masterpiece. Published in Paris in 1964, one of a limited edition of 250 copies that combine the surreal art of Max Ernst with the surreal poetry of Jacques Prevert
23. Marching With Custer
Elwood L. Nye
Published in 1964, this is an analysis of General Custer’s use of horses in 1876 - a limited edition of 300 copies that is printed on Andorra deckle-edged paper.
24. Porious: A Romance of the Dark Ages
John Cowper Powys
Published in 1951, there was a limited edition of 200 signed copies that were bound in blue morocco leather by (George) Baynton Riviere from Bath.
25. The Grave of Lost Stories
William T Vollmann
The crème de la crème is the 1993 CoTangent deluxe limited edition of 15 copies and bound by famed binder Ben Pax. It was followed by another limited edition of 1994.
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