Eternal Return Antiquarian Bookshop

08/26/2026

Kudos to Maxwell's House of Books in La Mesa (San Diego), CA:

La Mesa bookstore rejects AI orders to save rare books

08/21/2026

CONSCIOUSNESS: I just acquired this rare offprint of an article by William James: "Does Consciousness Exist?" The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods. Vol. I., No. 18, September 1, 1904 (published later in Essays in Radical Empiricism, 1912), James asserts that consciousness is a function of relationships between a knower and a known. It is that experience. What would William James have to say about the age of AI...?

07/23/2026

FIRST COLLECTED: Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra was first published between 1883 and 1885 in 4 separate parts. Parts 1 - 3 sold fewer than 100 copies each. Part 4 was privately printed in a small run of maybe 40 copies (research is uncertain), and not publicly printed until 1891 (see my earlier post with that copy which sold in less than a month!). In 1893, the "zweite Ausgabe" (second edition) was really the first to gather together the complete book with parts 1 through 4, continuously paginated. Just acquired a copy. Spine might need some repairing, but internally it is near fine!

07/20/2026

RASKOLNIKOV: First Appearance of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov

DOSTOEVSKY, DOSTOYEVSKY [Достое́вский], Fyodor. Prestupléniye i nakazániye [Преступленіе и наказаніе] (Crime and Punishment in Russkiy Vestnik [The Russian Messenger]), Petersburg, January 1866.

A significant literary milestone—the first appearance of the very first installment (out of eight) of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment in The Russian Messenger. Dostoevsky’s masterpiece was originally published as an 8-part serial in The Russian Messenger in 1866. The following year, the separate installments were collected together and published as a complete novel adding the epilogue. This volume is the January 1866 issue, and contains all of what today is considered part one, appearing on pages 35 - 120.

07/14/2026

SCARCE IMPRINT: Recently acquired a scarce first edition of one of the Cartesian defenders of religion against the atheism of the Spinozists: Lamy, Francois, Le Nouvel Athéisme renversé, ou refutation du sistême de Spinosa, Paris: L. Roulland, 1696.

The 1696 Paris edition was financed and sold primarily by Jean de Nully. Publishers occasionally shared sheets and co-published, joining forces to print and distribute the same work. Some scarce copies of Le Nouvel Athéisme such as this one state "L. Roulland" on the title page.

06/14/2026

STUDENT PUBLICATIONS: Nietzsche began his publication career at the age of twenty-two while he was a student of philology at the University of Leipzig. Nietzsche was a prize student, and he published several papers in the Rheinisches Museum für Philologie which was—and remains today—a respected journal in the field of classical studies. Just acquired this set containing Nietzsche's early essays from 1867 - 73.

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.