Reginald C. Williams Rare Books, LLC

09/13/2026

New stock acquisition:

TYNDALL, John - Heat considered as a mode of motion: being a course of twelve lectures delivered at the royal institution of great britain in the season of 1862 1863.

London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green, 1863. FIRST EDITION [7], x-xix, [1], 8vo., 468pp. With a half-title, engraved folding plate, numerous engraved illustrations in the text, and a terminal 32pp publisher's advertisement catalogue. Contemporary 3/4 leather with marbled boards. Slightly rubbed, spine slightly sunned & very occasional light spotting. The first edition of a significant collection of lectures on the properties and applications of temperature, particularly in regard to the locomotive capabilities of heat, delivered before the Royal Institution by physicist John Tyndall (1820-1893), whose research into radiant heat and its relation to gases and vapours earned him the Rutherford medal in 1869. One of the real classics of Victorian Science in which Tyndall brought the emerging science of thermodynamics to a wider audience helping to replace older theories of heat with a modern understanding of energy and molecular motion.

$500 USD

08/31/2026

New stock acquisition:

MARCH, Joseph Moncure - The Set up.

Published by Covici-Friede, New York, 1928.

FIRST EDITION. Octavo. Publisher’s cloth. Near-fine with a touch of shelf wear, otherwise bright and clean inside and out. In a very good plus dust jacket ($2.00 price intact) with minor wear at the corners and a repaired closed tear at the top of the spine. An excellent copy of this scarce title. The Set-Up is March’s epic-length narrative poem set in the boxing world and is richly peppered with punchy period color, characters and slang. The narrative tells the story of an ageing African-American boxer used as a "set-up" against a younger boxer, Sailor Gray. The story focuses on the link between crime and professional boxing as it was in the first half of the 20th century. March is interested in the role race plays in the sport, and how racial politics appear when they are transmuted into the boxing ring. It was the source for the 1949 RKO film of the same name, a noir semi-classic, starring Robert Ryan, directed by Robert Wise and adapted for screen by Art Cohn. But March was not involved, despite offering his help to the production. He did not gain anything from Robert Wise's success not least because it didn't bear any resemblance to March's original text. Wise decided to change Pansy to a white man, much to March's dismay. March wrote in his memoir that he had "scrapped enough money together for balcony seats" and saw the film with his wife Peggy in Times Square. In his memoir he recalls: "I was really disgusted to find that the hero of the picture was no longer a Negro fighter: they had turned him into a white man! The whole point of the narrative had been tossed out the window. Ah, Hollywood… !"

$1,000 USD

08/31/2026

New acquisition:

McWILLIAMS, Carey - Prejudice: Japanese Americans: Symbol of racial intolerance.

Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1944.

Octavo, 8-1/4 inches high by 5-1/2 inches wide. [x] & 337 pages. Hardcover, bound in red cloth titled in black on the front cover and the spine, in a printed dust wrapper. The dust jacket is soiled & chipped with a small hole to the jacket's spine. The top edge of the book is stained. Very good in a notoriously scarce dust wrapper. Carey McWilliams (December 13, 1905 – June 27, 1980) was an American author, editor, and lawyer. He is best known for his writings about California politics and culture, including the condition of migrant farm workers and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. From 1955 to 1975, he edited The Nation magazine McWilliams became an outspoken critic of the removal and internment of Japanese American citizens and almost immediately began writing an exposé on the topic. Published in 1944, Prejudice: Japanese-Americans: Symbol of Racial Intolerance was cited by Justice Frank Murphy in his dissenting opinion in Korematsu v. United States, the Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of the exclusion (Wikipedia).

$200 USD

08/23/2026

A PMM Masterwork.

GODWIN, Williams - Enquiry Concerning Political Justice.

London: G.G.J. and J. Robinson, 1793.

Two volumes. Tall Quarto (9 by 11 inches), near-contemporary half-calf and marbled boards. pp. xiii, (21), (1) 2-378; (xxviii), (389) 380-895. With half-titles in each volume and errata leaf with directions to the binder. FIRST EDITION of Godwin' revolutionary masterwork "his passionate advocacy of individualism, his trust in the fundamental goodness of man, and his opposition to all restrictions on liberty have endured" (PMM) a profound influence on Thomas Jefferson, who had the first American edition in his library and is viewed as Godwin's "American born counterpart." Along with those of Burke and Paine, Godwin�s Enquiry was one of the most influential English political books of the late eighteenth century. It was an equally important landmark in the development of Utilitarian thought, and on political thinking in general. Godwin-the husband of Mary Wollstonecraft-�saw no good in human institutions and sought to put an end to all organized politics, religion and society� The Enquiry was, and remained, the work by which he was best known. It was one of the earliest, the clearest, and most absolute theoretical expositions of� anarchist doctrine. Godwin believed that the motives of all human action were subject to reason, that reason taught benevolence, and that therefore all rational creatures could live in harmony without laws and institutions. Believing in the perfectibility of man, he thought �that our virtues and vices may be traced to the incidents which make the history of our lives, and if these incidents could be divested of any improper tendency, vice would be extirpated from the world�. All control of man by man was intolerable and �government by its very nature counteracts the improvement of the original mind� Godwin�s passionate advocacy of individualism, his trust in the fundamental goodness of man, and his opposition to all restrictions on liberty, have endured.� PMM 243. Enquiry concerning Political Justice drew enormous response: 4000 copies were sold within a few years of its first publication. Wordsworth purportedly said to a student, �Throw aside your books on chemistry, and read Godwin.� Allibone I: 684. Evans 30493. CBEL II: 655. A handsome wide-margined copy in an attractive contemporary binding. Housed in a large green clamshell case with a brown morocco label.

$8,000 USD

08/21/2026

08/21/2026

New stock acquisition:

HEIDEGGER, Martin - Existence & Being.

Chicago, Illinois: Henry Regnery Company, 1949.

Original publisher’s tan cloth. small 8vo. 399, [1] pp. 1949 1st Edition, 1st printing. The first publication of any of Heidegger’s works in English. His most famous work “Being & Time” did not appear on English until 1962. With an introduction by Werner Brock, Dr. Phil. 399 pages. A collection containing four of Heidegger’s most famous essays including “What is Metaphysics?” Previous owner's name on ffep. Brown cloth, Brown and beign DJ. Near Fine in a Near Fine dust jacket, unclipped (no printed price but 4.60 written in red pen at the top-right corner of the front flap) generally toned, a few short closed tears, one adhesive label repair on the verso. Brown cloth, pushed at the head and foot of the spine, with black ink lettering on the spine. Square and firmly bound, clean internally.

$450

08/18/2026

LAWRENCE, T.E. - Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

NY: Garden City, Doubleday & Co., 1935.

Large octavo, 672 pages + index. First American trade edition. Autobiographical account of the experiences of British Army Colonel T. E. Lawrence while serving as a military advisor to Bedouin forces during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire of 1916 to 1918. Stated First Publiction For General Circulation 1935. Dust jacket with minimal edge-wear, now protected in removable broadart. Even though "Seven Pillars is remarkably accurate as a military history," its blending of epic heroic adventure, psychological insight, and spiritual transformation make it the literary treasure that Lawrence intended it to be, deserving Winston Churchill's praise as one of "the greatest books ever written in the English language" (Wilson, 55). A book with a fascinating publishing history. This is the American issue of the first general edition of this fascinating book, a near-fine copy bound in original brown buckram, crossed sword gilt decoration to front board and spine with a very good dust wrapper. O'Brien A042.

$300 USD

08/14/2026

New stock acquisition:

KIERKEGAARD. Soren - Christian Discourses, and the Lilies of the Field and the Birds of the Air and Three Discourses at the Communion on Fridays.

London: Oxford University Press, 1939.

Octavo, Original black cloth, spine lettered in gilt. First edition. A very good copy in an unclipped very good dustwrapper. Internal stamps for North Wales Baptist College, otherwise clean white pages throughout. Incorporating the first English translations of these three religious works by the Danish philosopher (1813-1855), originally published from 1848 to 1849. Christian Discourses is a quartet of pieces written and arranged in contrasting styles. Parts One and Three, “The Cares of the Pagans” and “Thoughts That Wound from Behind—for Upbuilding,” serve as a polemical overture to Kierkegaard’s collision with the established order of Christendom. Yet Parts Two and Four, “Joyful Notes in the Strife of Suffering” and “Discourses at the Communion on Fridays,” are reassuring affirmations of the joy and blessedness of Christian life in a world of adversity and suffering. Written in ordinary language, the work combines simplicity and inwardness with reflection and presents crucial Christian concepts and presuppositions with unusual clarity (Princeton University Press).

$350 USD

07/20/2026

New acquisition:

WILKINSON, J.G. - Manners and Customs of The Ancient Egyptians, Including their private life, Government, Laws, Arts, Manufactures, Religion, and Early History; Derived from a Comparison of the paintings, sculptures and monuments still existing, with accounts of ancient authors. Illustrated by Drawings of those Subjects. In Three Volumes.

London: John Murray, 1878.

London, John Murray, 1878. 3 Volumes. Hardback, 9.25 x 5.75 inches. Publisher’s decorative black cloth with gilt lettering and decorations to spines and gilt pictorial vignettes to front boards with blind embossed panelling. Brown endpapers. In bright near fine condition. The best edition of this keystone work of British Egyptology, carefully revised by Samuel Birch. Volume 1 - Ends of spine and corners bumped and rubbed. Glue repair to front endpaper bindings. Rear bindings cracked. Spine split down rear edge. Some foxing spots to endpapers and outer page edges. Bookplate to front endpapers. Some markings to endpapers. Volume 2 - Ends of spine and corners bumped and rubbed. Some foxing spots to endpapers and outer page edges. Bookplate to front endpapers. Volume 3 - Ends of spine and corners bumped and rubbed. Some foxing spots to endpapers and outer page edges. Bookplate to front endpapers. Some markings to endpapers. Else overall very clean and tight copies. 3 vols. 510, 415 & 528pp. Illustrated with 17 engraved plates; 8 of which are coloured, some plates folding, and many smaller B&W figures within text. Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians endures as a “standard work” in the field: in it, “the statements of ancient writers about Egypt, together with the results of modern excavations and researches conducted by the author and others, were lucidly arranged, explained in a fascinating style, and richly illustrated with plans, engravings and coloured plates. Wilkinson’s remarkable acquaintance with botany, zoology and the technique of the arts, together with his command of ancient literature, gave him unique qualifications for the treatment of this subject; and it was acknowledged that he had brought to light many new facts connected with Egyptian manners, history and religion. The work brought the author into general notice, both as a savant and as a popular writer; and on 26 Aug. 1839 a knighthood was conferred on him by Melbourne’s administration in recognition of his services to literature, public attention having been previously called to the fact that his researches, unlike those of Champollion, Rosellini and others, had received no assistance from government” (DNB). A beautiful set now housed in a custom green slipcase.

$895 USD

07/15/2026

New stock acquisition:

The History of Witchcraft and Demonology
Summers, Montague

Published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1926

First Edition. Octavo [16], 353, [5] pp. Illustrated. First edition. Black, embossed cloth, gilt lettering on spine. Some markings on endpapers and one corner bumped (see photos), otherwise an unusually fine copy in the rare near-fine dust jacket. This classic, popular study explores witchcraft, sorcery, necromancy, damnation, Satanism, and every variety of magic, and features colorful, little-known anecdotes about witches, devils, and their arts - as well as numerous historical accounts of witch trials and the role of witches in literature. It remains a foundational and controversial text exploring the occult. It details the history, lore, and persecutions of witchcraft from a medievalist perspective. It contends that witchcraft was a real, organized, diabolic cult intertwined with heresy, law, and society, and that grasping it is essential to understanding European civilization. Drawing on inquisitorial records, trial narratives, and classic demonologists, it challenges rationalist skepticism, links modern spiritualism to old sorcery, and even considers the witch’s portrayal on the stage.

A splendid copy which rarely surfaces in the dust-wrapper at all, especially in fresh condition

$1,100 USD