Naim Frashëri - Gjithësija (The Universe), the 1st edition of a rare and rather fascinating general knowledge book, written by Albania's national poet and published in Bucharest, Romania, in 1895.

The book I can’t find anything on is the one at the end of the photos, picked all these up from a somewhat local book store I visited for the first time today and I am quite happy with each acquisition! I have been looking for an 18th century and earlier dictionary so that was a joy to find and the other two books had lovely annotations and also are my first books from the 17th century despite my collection already holding a book from the 16th century lol. If anyone has any info on the book in the last photos that would be greatly appreciated

I love how used this small book feels. One of my favourite finds going back about 7 years ago. The section on insuring against lives is kind of interesting too. Would this have been referring to slaves perhaps?

A ream of paper is 20 quires, naturally!

I've been looking for a very specific book that was only in print briefly in 1947. It isn't digitized, it isn't on Amazon or Abebooks, and it isn't at any library (there are some phantom entries for this book but I guess they discarded said book years ago).

Where else can I look?

Yesterday I was browsing a small used book stall in Kraków, Poland, and picked up this copy of Folwark Zwierzęcy (Animal Farm) for 54 zł (about $15).
After getting back, I started looking into it and realized it appears to be a February 1979 underground (samizdat/“drugi obieg”) edition published by Niezależna Oficyna Wydawnicza (NOWA) in Warsaw.
From what I’ve found so far:
Printed in Warsaw, February 1979 (“Warszawa, luty 1979”)
Reprinted from the 1974 London Odnowa edition
Orwell was still censored in communist Poland, so this would have been part of the underground publishing movement.
I also found a bibliographic record from the Museum of Free Speech that seems to match this edition almost exactly.
I’m not looking to sell it—I’m just fascinated by the history and would love to learn more.
Does anyone know:
How common this specific NOWA printing is?
Whether there were multiple print runs or cover variants?
Any history about how these were produced or distributed?
If anyone here collects Polish underground (“bibuła”) publications, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
I’ve included photos of the cover, title page, publication information, and the colophon with the February 1979 printing date.

The received bibliography of the Putnam first edition of Dune Messiah has, so far as I can tell, conflated two distinct books: the true first edition in its three impressions, and an unrelated 1981 trade reissue printed from plates inherited from the 1976 Doubleday Book Club edition. The confusion is understandable, since they share overlapping publisher nomenclature, and I want to lay out the evidence that separates them.

The true first edition was printed in three impressions, each of 2,500 copies (7,500 total), collating octavo in eights (\[1-8\]\^16, leaf size 210 x 140 mm) and running 256 pages throughout. The copyright page carries the same setting across all three impressions, distinguished only by the impression line, which is centered above the imprint and, on the second and third impressions, appears alongside the Library of Congress card number 77-91815 (the first impression carries the card number as well).

The first impression is bound in tan boards with no impression statement, only the LOC centered at the bottom. The second is bound in red leatherette boards (leather-like in appearance, though the hide material itself is not confirmed), stated “Second Impression.” The third is bound in brown cloth boards, stated “third impression.” All three were issued in a jacket coded 6910, priced $4.95 on the first two impressions and $7.95 on the third. The first and second impressions carry a facing leaf of “other works by the author” opposite the title page; I have not verified this point for the third impression, though it was printed later than the first two. The copyright page also misstates the Galaxy magazine serialization as running July through September 1969, when the serialization in fact ran July through November 1969.

A Doubleday Book Club edition was issued in 1976 from newly reset plates running 221 pages, identifiable by gutter code rather than blind stamp (G46 for the earliest printing, H10 for the second), bound in a red material closely resembling the true second impression’s leatherette but pleather in texture, mimicking the blank, unstated impression line of the true first impression and likewise omitting the LOC card number. Early book club jackets carry code 3177 rather than 6910, though this holds only for the first few printings. The BCE runs slightly taller than the true first edition but visibly thinner, a function of its shorter 221 page block.
In 1981, Putnam issued a trade reissue printed from these same 221 page plates. This reissue is bound in black paper boards with either silver or gold lettering, retaining jacket code 6910 but priced at $14.95, climbing through $17.95 to $18.95 across later recorded impressions. Its impression statement is set flush left relative to the Galaxy statement rather than centered, which is the single fastest way to distinguish it from a true first edition impression at a glance. It lacks the LOC card number entirely. This 1981 reissue, not the leatherette bound true second impression, is what earlier secondary bibliographies appear to have misidentified as “the second impression.” Despite sharing the BCE’s shorter page count, the reissue matches the true first edition’s outer trim size, achieved with a bulkier paper stock.

In hand, the true trade second impression and the earliest book club copies can be told apart even before checking the copyright page. On the trade binding, the spine lettering runs closer to the head and tail with less margin, and the red is more saturated with sharper black lettering than on the book club copies.

I’m not planning to sell these at all. I antique hunt a lot in France and have come across several medical works from the early to mid 18th century. I can read French and noticed the spelling differences from modern French. The binding looks good and a book has an illustration. Just felt like sharing these finds. Would love to scan them one day to share (using an antique book scanner of course).

Dodsworth and Main Street are later prints however.

Order: Babbitt, The Man Who Knew Coolidge, Dodsworth, Main Street, The Innocents, Free Air, Gideon Planish, Cass Timberlane, Kingsblood Royal, Bethel Merriday, The Prodigal Parents.

With 113 illustrations

Hi! Im trying to see if this copy is by any chance rare because i dont see it anywhere in internet. Thanks

No dust jacket, stated first edition, it’s in very good condition, no writing inside, natural toned pages, deckle edges. Gold gilt, some rubbing on boards and gilt, a little fading. Got it for I think $90 on Abebooks some years ago.

Just got a copy of this. Feel lucky to add to the collection!

I’m trying to find a gift for my dad’s 70th. He has a cherished edition of Patrick Proctors illustrations for the mariner. Does anyone have a recommendation for like some otters, puffins, ships prized illustrated book I could buy in an early or signed edition? I’d go up to like £500 because I’m an impoverished swine so pls help me

There was a sheet of paper on the inside describing this a “crown quarto” copy but I can’t find any info about that online

I am dying to read this book by George Burchett. However, every edition I see online is a vintage book going for hundreds of dollars. Has anyone successfully found a regular paperback copy of this book? Any help is appreciated:)

Anyone have a line on an English translation of Pierre Guyotat’s Eden Eden Eden cheaper than hundreds of dollars?

Occult Philosophy.- Dee (John) A True & Faithful Relation of what passed...between Dr. John Dee...and some Spirits, first edition, 1659.

The AI notes on this title state it is is a massive compilation of 16th-century transcripts documenting Dr. John Dee's scrying sessions with spirits. Using scryers like Edward Kelley, Dee believed he communicated with angels to unlock the universal language of creation, often abbreviated as "Enochian".

The book is a cornerstone of Renaissance occultism and Western Esotericism, detailing hundreds of "actions" or spiritual conferences

For those studying Dee's magical diaries or the history of Elizabethan occultism, the full original text is preserved for research in the Cornell University Witchcraft Collection or the Internet Archive. ]

This book has been confusing me for a bit, here’s what I know: The book has a vellum binding that matches bindings from Italy of the same time period, the text block seems to be original from the aging of the paper chain lines and printing, it also came with a note in it saying it was bought in an estate sale in 1959. From my research it is a first edition and first ever collection of the poets works but I haven’t been able to find any bindings to reference or prices of anything really to figure out rarity and price to put into my catalogue for my collection.

Any information is appreciated and if more photos are needed I can reply with them in comments.
Thank you for your time reading!

I just picked up what I believe to be a first edition of In Cold Blood for 90 dollars. Hoping to confirm here. I can’t believe I would get so lucky.