Eternal Return Antiquarian Bookshop

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Eternal Return Antiquarian Bookshop

We specialize in rare and antiquarian, first edition books in philosophy with some occasional literature Visit our stock on Biblio.com and abebooks.com.

We are an "appointment only" rare/antiquarian bookshop specializing in philosophy. We are new, so books will be added frequently until we get all our stock online. Email us any questions or requests. Hours are by appointment only. Please email to arrange a visit.

06/07/2026

TUSKEN AUGUSTINE: The smallest book I own. I just acquired this 1665 edition of Augustine's Confessions. Barely taller than a Star Wars Tusken Raider figure! I 'confess' I can barely read the tiny words....

05/23/2026

Zarathustra 4: Perhaps Nietzsche's most famous work, Thus Spoke Zarathustra was published in 4 parts. Parts 1 - 3 were publicly published between 1883 and 1884. Part 4 was published privately in 1885 in a small run of only a few dozen copies (virtually impossible to find). It was not until 1891 that Part 4 was publicly available. Here is a recently acquired copy of that 1891 publication in original condition. I especially love the coloring of the boards and the spine label.

05/16/2026

CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE: First introduced by Kant in Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten (Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, 1785): "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law"; He elaborates further in the second of his three major Critiques, Critik der Practischen Vernunft (Critique of Practical Reason, 1788). Here is a recently acquired first edition, all original condition.

05/03/2026

AESTHETIC: I am a sucker for these contemporary, handwritten spine labels. Makes me think a struggling student in the 19th c. scraped together some money to buy a book and could not afford to have it bound in a fancy, gilt-lettered leather binding. These are the people who understand the books and love their contents. When I find books like this I just NEED to acquire them to preserve this snapshot of history.

04/30/2026

EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY:

SAINT SIMON, Claude-Henri. Du système industriel. Paris: chez Antoine-Augustin Renouard, 1821.

First Edition in original wrappers.

Saint-Simon's Socialism put forth in Du système industriel (The Industrial System) is the Socialism of equal opportunity rather than of equal wealth; the nation must be industrious, but there will always be classes of the industrious and the idle, for which reason there will always be hierarchies. Saint-Simon had no great faith in political democracy, despite his agitation against social injustice (including towards women); efficient administration of society by the "industriels" would ensure the governing of things and not people. This was the first collective appearance in book form of a series of pamphlets in the form of letters, published individually in 1821 during the trial of their author for sedition, of which he was acquitted.

02/07/2026

ATTACK ON SPINOZA: Jean Baptiste Stouppe [Stuppa] was a Swiss Calvinist who took part in the French war of conquest in the Netherlands and wrote the anti-Dutch propaganda book 'La Religion des Hollandois' (1673). In it, he attacked the diversity of philosophical and religious parties in Holland, particularly Spinozism. Just acquired a beautiful first edition copy!

01/24/2026

REVISIONS: How often do we write something, it is misunderstood and requires revisions? Happens to the best of us! Immanuel Kant wrote his monumental Critique of Pure Reason, first published in 1781. With the confusion that followed, he had to make numerous revisions for clarity. This "B-Text" was published in 1787. I just acquired a beautiful copy in original binding.

01/10/2026

REUNITED? I bought one of these books 20 years ago (Nietzsche, Unzeitgemasse 2: History). I just acquired the other book last week (Nietzsche, Unzeitgemasse 1: David Strauss). Books in the 19th century would be purchased in paper wrappers, then a bookbinder would be paid by the owner to bind the book in a certain style both attractive and affordable for the client. The striking similarity in these two books makes me think they once were part of a set that got separated at some point after 1870. Have I just reunited two long-lost "siblings"?

11/25/2025

TROIS IMPOSTEURS: Circulating for years as a clandestine manuscript, Traite des trois Imposteurs was finally printed in 1768. Here, in the final 1793 printing.

The short treatise presents a direct assault on the three great monotheistic religions and challenges the integrity of their founding figures, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, claiming that these religions lack any substance whatsoever and owe their success in the world to the fear that underlies all of their basic assumptions and pronouncements. The text claims Nature as the only god acting within the world. A major text of the radical enlightenment.

11/08/2025

EEN BLOEMHOF (1668): One of the most "dangerous" books of the enlightenment. Een Bloemhof was written by Adriaan Koerbagh (close associate of Spinoza) and is not much more than a dictionary. But, the entries for religious terms in secular language outraged the religious authorities. As Jonathan Israel points out in Radical Enlightenment, "The entry on heretics and heresy lambastes the clergy for exploiting the idea of heresy to manipulate secular rulers into handing over their power to the Church...The entry on Jesus claims that Jesus Christ was a mortal man who had an unnamed father" (Israel 191 - 92).

Almost all copies were immediately confiscated and burned. Not this one that I just acquired!

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