The Tibetan Book of the Dead

OR The After-Death Experiences on the Bardo Plane, according to Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup’s English Rendering

by W. Y. Evans-Wentz

First Edition | Oxford University Press | 1927

This Oxford University edition of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, though published less than a century ago, has a publication history that spans a millennium. The book’s original content is credited to Padma Sambhava, a Buddhist teacher, mystic, and prophet, who dictated the text to the Tibetan princess Yeshe Tsogyal in the 8th century. These writings that would become The Book of the Dead were called Bardo Thodol in Tibetan, and discussed Buddhist ideas of the cyclical nature of life, death, and rebirth, as well as states of existence between death and rebirth called bardos. If this story is true, Bardo Thodol pre-dates even the writing of Beowulf.

As the story goes, Padma Sambhava prophesied that the book was not right for the current time, but would be discovered some 500 years later when it was most needed by Tibet and the wider world. Indeed, in the midst of the bubonic plague’s devastation of the 1300s, a boy named Karma Lingpa came across the place where Yeshe Tsogyal had hidden the text. He disseminated Bardo Thodol across Tibet and other Buddhist nations, and it quickly became a staple text in the practice of Tibetan Buddhism.

Bardo Thodol‘s English title comes from Walter Evans-Wentz, an anthropologist, writer, and spiritualist known for his work bringing the philosophies of Tibetan Buddhism to prominence in the western world. While Evans-Wentz’s name graces the cover of the first English translation (which you see here), published by Oxford University in 1927, his involvement with The Tibetan Book of the Dead are controversial for many reasons. For one, Evans-Wentz himself did not do the actual translation work, which was performed by Kazi Dawa Samdup. While Bardo Thodol literally translates to “Liberation through Hearing during the Intermediate State,” Evans-Wentz chose to make reference to The Egyptian Book of the Dead, which was popular among spiritualists — one of many ways in which he imposed his own views and spiritualist philosophy on the text. This first translation, as a result, strays so far from Padma Sambhava’s original ideas that it no longer resembles true tenets of Tibetan Buddhism.

Despite — or maybe because of — Evans-Wentz’s departures, The Tibetan Book of the Dead developed a following and significance of its own. The book’s spiritual notions lent themselves well to the American counterculture movement of the 1960s, which popularized the use of psychedelics to achieve states of consciousness that ascended earthly existence, much like the bardos of Tibetan Buddhism. In 1964, Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and Richard Alpert (later Ram Dass) published The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead, a book that linked Evans-Wentz’s version of Buddhist principles to the use of psychedelics to achieve ego death, among other subjects.

Later translations of Bardo Thodol have stayed truer to the original text, adding another layer of significance and uniqueness to this first edition copy of The Tibetan Book of the Dead. It is both a work of literature and an artifact of history, with seeds of influence that have proliferated and will continue to proliferate in spiritual, philosophical, and cultural corners of thought in years to come. In all its years of complex publication history, this book has made its way to the Dawn Treader’s shelves — come by the store to see for yourself!

The Trail of Cthulhu

by August Derleth

First Edition, First Printing | Arkham House | 1962

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In 1962 Arkham House published The Trail of Cthulhu, which collected five of August Derleth’s interconnected stories into one volume for the first time. This book, its author, and its publisher are all historically significant in the genre of “weird” fiction — a difficult-to-define style of speculative writing that blends elements of horror, macabre fantasy, the supernatural, and a general suspension of the laws of nature. Think Edgar Allan Poe, Stranger Things, or H. P. Lovecraft, who is credited with popularizing the term. August Derleth, who did much to develop the genre, was a correspondent and disciple of Lovecraft; theirs was a relationship that significantly shaped the trajectory of Derleth’s life’s work.

Lovecraft’s influence is perhaps most evident in those of August Derleth’s books that feature Cthulhu, a cosmic deity that resembles part green octopus, part dragon, and part human, whom Lovecraft wrote into existence in 1928. The stories in The Trail of Cthulhu — all previously published in Weird Tales — take place in Arkham, Massachusetts, a fictional town central to Lovecraft’s writing, where one may encounter the Great Old Ones. Several writers in Lovecraft’s circle adopted Cthulhu and the rules of Arkham’s sur-reality into their own works, including Derleth, who coined the term “Cthulhu Mythos” to describe this shared fictional universe. In literary dissections of this mythopoeia, Derleth’s interpretation of the world differs from Lovecraft’s — while Lovecraft’s Mythos serves to convey the meaninglessness of human supremacy, Derleth’s represents a struggle between good and evil with elements of hope for humanity.

Differences aside, the Cthulhu Mythos — and Lovecraft himself — would live in relative anonymity today if not for Derleth. In 1937, Derleth and Donald Wandrei established Arkham House explicitly for the sake of posthumously publishing Lovecraft’s writing, which hadn’t been popular during his lifetime. The publishing house went on to become a stalwart in the weird fiction landscape for the next 70 years, continuing to Lovecraft’s work alongside names such as Robert E. Howard, H. Russell Wakefield, and August Derleth himself.

Arkham House’s first printing of Derleth’s The Trail of Cthulhu produced 2470 copies. One of these has made its way, over the years, to the shelves of the Dawn Treader, where it sits next to a first edition of Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, published by Arkham House in 1964. Come by the store to find these and many other weird and wonderful fictions!

Williwaw

by Gore Vidal

SIGNED | First Edition | E. P. Dutton & Company | 1946

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Gore Vidal was many things: novelist, screenwriter, sometimes-actor, attempted politician, and a problem child of belles-lettres, to name a few. He wasn’t shy about picking fights with literary giants — there’s even a section on his Wikipedia page dedicated to “Feuds.” Opinionated and polemical as he was, Vidal had an undeniable influence on culture and the writing landscape. He wrote his first novel, Williwaw, when he was only nineteen, thus beginning a prolific career.

Vidal wrote much of Williwaw during his time as an officer in the Army Transportation Corps, stationed near the Aleutian Islands, where the novel’s titular wind phenomenon occurs. Williwaw takes place in the same setting on the margins of World War II, during the local storm season. Its minimalist style and exploration of nature vs. human nature recalls writers such as Hemingway and Stephen Crane, and the novel’s success placed Vidal in an elite category of young post-war novelists like Norman Mailer and Truman Capote (a comparison which would likely spark Vidal’s ire — see “Feuds“).

Despite Vidal’s military upbringing and his own personal involvement in the army, his political views often circled back to a belief that the United States’ militaristic, imperialist foreign policy had turned the country into a disgraceful, failed experiment. In the post-9/11 years, in particular, he vocally opposed the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq. Not just in the case of war but in any cause towards which he felt a twitch of passion, Vidal nestled snugly into the self-appointed role of “tremendous hater.” He was a man in touch with all the world’s ups and downs, who believed the “downs” to be most prevalent, and who wrote about it all in a body of work equally satirical and deadly serious.

With this first edition of Gore Vidal’s first novel, we can see the seeds of a storied career. The Dawn Treader’s copy even bears his own handwriting — a note to Charles Abramson, an old Broadway Angel and friend of Vidal’s, and his signature — the enduring mark of a prolific provocateur.

(Visit us in the store to see our signed first edition of Gore Vidal’s novel Creation!)

Nine Stories

by J.D. Salinger

First Edition | Little, Brown and Company | 1953

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In 1948, J.D. Salinger wrote a story so good that the New Yorker requested first rights to publish every subsequent story he would write. Five years later, the famed “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” was given first billing in Nine Stories, Salinger’s story collection follow-up to his smash hit novel, The Catcher in the Rye. If Catcher in the Rye earned Salinger his membership in the annals of literary history, Nine Stories cemented it, establishing him as a writer with uncommon abilities to draw out the joys and sorrows of the human experience. The collection explores themes that were particularly poignant in the aftermath of WWII (in which Salinger himself fought), complicating conceptions of innocence and culpability, violence and trauma, death, madness, genius, and love. Many of these stories — seven of which were published in the New Yorker, per the magazine’s wishes — are classics among not only readers but writers as well, who study their innovative voice, their structure, and their play between the dark and the light.

The stories in Nine Stories are not only linked thematically, but by family ties. “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” introduces readers to the Glass family, who would go on to occupy Salinger’s creative mind for the rest of his literary career. Seymour Glass is a veteran with all the hallmarks of PTSD, which displays itself in bouts of strange and concerning behavior. He returns in many of Salinger’s later stories: Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, Seymour: An Introduction, and Franny and Zooey. Likewise, other members of the Glass family weave through the pages of Salinger’s various stories and collections — Franny and Zooey Glass, Walter Glass, and Beatrice Glass Tannenbaum, to name a few. “Buddy” Glass, who narrates Zooey and is a protagonist in Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, and Seymour: An Introduction, is revealed to be the writer of at least three stories from Nine Stories, and is considered by many to be a stand-in for Salinger.

While pieces of truth from Salinger’s life are scattered throughout his stories, the author himself was famously resistant to public perception. He published his last story, “Hapworth 16, 1924,” in 1965, but continued writing for years, reportedly completing many more novels and stories for his own pleasure or to be published posthumously. Some of these featured members of the endlessly compelling Glass family. It is widely agreed that Salinger’s fascination with the creation of these Glass lives, loves, and tragedies influenced the future of the literary landscape and redefined the possibilities of what a short story can do.

Come touch a piece of this history in the Dawn Treader’s first edition of Nine Stories, in which you can see Seymour Glass’s very earliest appearance between the boards of a book.

Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens

by J.M. Barrie, illustrated by Arthur Rackham

Second British Edition | Hodder & Stoughton | 1907

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In 1902, Scottish playwright and novelist J.M. Barrie wrote The Little White Bird, a novel for adult audiences that addressed and honored the idea of “the eternal child.” Six chapters in the middle were particularly beloved, telling the story of an infant who was part bird but needed to learn how to live without flight. Barrie repurposed and republished these six chapters in 1906, in a children’s book called Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. Thus, the timeless character of Peter Pan made his way into the world.

To this day, Peter Pan and his fantasyland can be found on children’s bookshelves across the globe. But the Peter Pan we know and love would not be who he is without the illustrations of Arthur Rackham, which adorned the pages of the first, second, and other early editions of this book.

Rackham’s illustration of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens came at a significant time in his career. The previous year, he illustrated a version of Rip van Winkle that established him as the preeminent decorative illustrator of the Edwardian period. After seeing these illustrations in an exhibit at the Leicester Galleries in London, where they were displayed to great acclaim, J.M. Barrie commissioned Rackham to illustrate his new children’s book, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. The following year, Rackham illustrated an edition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, the success of which boosted his career, ensuring he would go on to illustrate many more beloved tales such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1908), Mother Goose (1913), and Cinderella (1919).

In these early years of the 20th century, Rackham took advantage of evolving technology to create his own unique style of illustration. He no longer needed to rely on an engraver to imperfectly copy his illustrations, because they could now be photographed and reproduced mechanically. This also meant he could use watercolor — a skill he greatly improved during these years thanks to the instruction of his artist wife, Edyth Starkie — to bring life and light to his signature ink line drawings.

Rackham excelled at capturing whimsy, fantasy, and the softly grotesque, turning Kensington Gardens into a fairyland of willowy sprites, gnarled villains, and anthropomorphized trees. It is said that his illustrations paved the way for how the world and characters of Barrie’s Peter Pan were portrayed in the host of film and book adaptations that would follow, especially Disney’s version of Barrie’s 1904 play (and 1911 novel), Peter and Wendy. To this end, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens is more than just a book. Together, Barrie and Rackham created a world that would have lingering impacts on childhood imaginations for a century and counting.

(A fun fact that we love: Despite a warning that this book’s “sale and exhibition in France is prohibited,” the Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens found at the Dawn Treader was inscribed to “Mademoiselle Evelyn” in French in 1907!)

On Liberty

by John Stuart Mill

First American Edition | Ticknor and Fields | 1863

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This edition of John Stuart Mill’s foundational essay, On Liberty, holds historical significance as both a physical object and a record of social philosophy that has shaped political thought for over one hundred and fifty years. On Liberty was first conceived of as a short essay, then revised and expanded into a book-length treatise by Mill and his wife, Harriet Taylor Mill, which was published in England in 1859. Four years later, the text came to America, published in Boston by Ticknor and Fields. At the Dawn Treader, you’ll find one of these first editions of a book that, since it’s initial publication, has never gone out of print.

The principles Mill outlines in On Liberty center around the rights of the individual, especially in relation to systems of authority. At a simplified level, Mill argues that individual sovereignty is the backbone of society, and intervention by any government or system of power should only occur to prevent harm to others. He applies this principle to patterns he sees emerging in modern democracies. Among other concerns, Mill warns against the “tyranny of the majority,” outlining the dangers of democratic systems’ reliance on upholding whatever rules are most popular, when what is popular could also be unjust or wrong.

Mill’s philosophy was and is received well and widely by many, and heavily critiqued by others, but there is no doubt that the majority of the world has in some way been touched by the aftereffects of the ideas he outlines in On Liberty. The text was critical in shaping British liberalism, especially England’s Liberal Democratic Party. Libertarianism in the U.S. also draws heavily from it’s suggested precepts. Even as these systems have evolved away from the exact specifications of Mill’s ideas, and even as critics have noted his self-contradictions on subjects such as utilitarianism, On Liberty has maintained a presence in philosophical discourse to this day, cementing its place in history.

The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag

by Robert A. Heinlein

First Edition | SIGNED | Gnome Press | 1959

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In conversations about science fiction greats, Heinlein’s name looms large. His rise to popularity coincided with the genre’s, which first gained readership through pulp magazines such as Astounding Science Fiction (originally Astounding Stories, now known as Analog), which published Heinlein’s early stories alongside the likes of Isaac Asimov. Astounding‘s sister magazine, Unknown Worlds, originally published the novella The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag, which was then re-published in book form alongside five other Heinlein stories. This is the version you see here — a first edition, signed by Heinlein and published by Gnome Press.

Gnome Press, like Heinlein and Astounding, played a foundational role in building the science fiction genre as it is known today. In the 1940s, sci-fi was largely published in magazines; Gnome’s founders, Martin L. Greenberg and David Kyle, dreamed of building a mass market for sci-fi books. And they succeeded! Beginning in 1948, Gnome published more than fifty books, including, perhaps most notably, Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. In addition to publishing novels, they gathered stories previously seen in magazines into one place, as was the case with Jonathan Hoag. Soon mainstream publishers began to take notice of the press’s success, and the genre flourished in the way Greenberg and Kyle hoped it would. Ultimately, Gnome’s progress was its downfall. The press couldn’t keep up with the financial pressure and folded in 1962.

Heinlein published four books with Gnome Press: Sixth Column, Methuselah’s Children, The Menace From Earth, and The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag. He was one of the leading writers of “hard” science fiction, which emphasized scientific accuracy, though Jonathan Hoag deviates from this categorization with its uncharacteristic elements of fantasy and mystery. In his life, Heinlein authored over thirty books, twice as many stories, and sixteen collections. In recognition of his achievements, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association named Heinlein the first Science Fiction Grand Master in 1974. The master himself has made his mark on our copy of Jonathan Hoag with an inscription that reads: “To Terry, Thank you for everything!”

With its ties to Heinlein, Gnome Press, and Astounding, this book is a piece of sci-fi history. Come by The Dawn Treader today to see Heinlein’s gratitude for yourself.

The Red Book (Liber Novus)

by Carl Jung

First Edition | W. W. Norton | 2009

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Jung wrote the contents of the Red Book over the course of a sixteen-year period starting in 1913, following a rocky split from his mentor and collaborator Sigmund Freud, and leading into the dark and devastating era of WWI. This period of Jung’s life was characterized by intense nocturnal activity in which he filled journals full of “visions,” “fantasies,” and “imaginations” — his attempts to turn off his own consciousness and confront the self as it is presented in the unconscious mind. It was described by some as psychosis or creative illness, and Jung himself reflected that “to the superficial observer, it will appear like madness.”

Though Jung began transcribing these periods of altered consciousness, adding commentary and analysis, into a manuscript bound by red leather, he never completed the work of Liber Novus (“The New Book” — referred to casually by Jung and others as the “Red Book”). The partial manuscript, written in Jung’s own hand, as well as additional writings that were intended as part of the project, were locked away in a bank vault in Zurich. Few people read this strange psychological work, as Jung feared they would label him insane, and his estate feared he would lose his credibility as a scholar. After decades of keeping the material under wraps, Jung’s estate approved the translation and production of this W. W. Norton 2009 edition of the Red Book, which compiles all of these materials together for the first and only time. (A “Reader’s Edition” was published in 2012, but it does not include facsimiles of the art and calligraphy from Jung’s original manuscripts.)

Even in all its strangeness and mystery, Jung referred to the time he spent writing the Red Book as the most important in his life, and the foundation for much of his most celebrated work. Jungian philosophy splits from Freud in significant ways, building upon the ideas he explored within his own mind and the pages of his Red Book to create a model of psychotherapy that focuses on the wisdom and guidance that can be found in the unconscious. His legacy continued in the work of his famous disciples, such as Jacques Lacan and Julia Kristeva, planting the seeds for a whole new psychological perspective on the unconscious . In the pages of the Red Book, we get a glimpse into Jung’s mind, confusing and psychedelic as it can become, unclouded by the gloss of traditional scholarship. Come by the Dawn Treader to see this record of philosophical history for yourself!

De principatibus Italiae

Joannes de Laet & Thomas Segetho

First Edition | Elzevir | 1628

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De principatibus Italiae (Of the Principalities of Italy) is a collection of notable treatises and essays about the Italian government and politics written by the scholars Thomas Segetho and Joannes de Laet. De Laet was a notable Dutch geographer and director of the Dutch West India Company, and Segetho, while not a particularly well-known scholar, studied under Galileo.

Like many 17th century books, De principatibus Italiae is written entirely in Latin, which was considered the acceptable language for scholarship at the time. Because of this, its modern audience has dwindled to the handful classicists who could and would still read and understand it. So where does its value come from? In a few years, De principatibus Italiae will celebrate its 400th birthday, and books of this age are more than just text on a page — they’re historical artifacts, material records of their individual life and the evolution of the business and craft of bookmaking.

The book’s distinctive small size is a feature of many books published by Elzevir (sometimes spelled Elzevier), a renowned family of Dutch booksellers, publishers, and printers active in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Elzevir family, like most publishers at the time, made their books with animal products such as vellum (prepared animal skin) binding and animal glue. This made them targets for creatures such as bookworms, who burrowed into the binding in distinctive patterns in order to eat the glue. Vellum is typically more durable than paper — it’s still used for important record-keeping at certain institutions, such as the Catholic Church and British Parliament — but 400 years is a long time for any material to stay intact. Still, our De principatibus Italiae has been preserved in remarkable condition, with only a few small markings from bookworms, and even those are special parts of this book’s unique life story.

Come by the Dawn Treader today to take a look at De principatibus Italiae and other antiquarian gems!

Naked Lunch

by William S. Burroughs

First Edition, First Printing | Signed Loose Bookplate | Grove Press | 1962

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William S. Burroughs was one of the most prevalent writers of the Beat Generation, a literary subculture movement characterized by rejection of traditional narrative elements and subversive exploration of American cultural and political norms in the wake of WWII. Naked Lunch, Burrough’s most famous book, is a classic example. The experimental novel is a chronology-defying series of almost plotless vignettes that take place in the U.S., Mexico, Tangier, and the Interzone, often portraying the main narrator, William Lee (a stand-in for Burroughs) caught in the grip of some sort of vice or violence, addiction or desire. Masterfully absurd and surreal, Naked Lunch has been called “obscene,” “incomprehensible,” and “one of the best novels of the 20th century.”

Naked Lunch was first published in Paris in 1959 under the title The Naked Lunch. The additional “the,” which was never intended by Burroughs, was removed when Grove Press published the first American edition in 1962 (the delay was due to the book’s violation of American obscenity laws). Our copy of this first edition, first printing from Grove Press is particularly special because it includes a loose bookplate signed by Burroughs himself.

How does a signature like this affect the value of the book? When determining the value of a signed book, a bookseller must consider the form the signature takes. Here’s a quick lesson in the most common types, and their comparative values — presented with the caveat that value is always variable depending on many factors, especially the book’s condition.

Flat-signed books contain the author’s signature, with no additional notes, usually on the title page or another early page in the book. This is usually the most valuable version of a signed book, save for some exceptional association copies (see below).

Inscribed books contain the author’s signature and a note, usually addressed to the book’s owner — for example, if this copy of Naked Lunch were signed, “To Harry: Have a nice lunch. William S. Burroughs.” These are usually not worth quite as much as a flat-signed copy, because while the extra note adds an element of personalization, is not as meaningful to any future owner of the book who is not the addressee.

Association copies are signed with notes or addresses to someone famous or important. These can be extremely valuable, depending on the significance of each of the names on the page. For example, if this copy of Naked Lunch were inscribed to fellow Beatnik Jack Kerouac, it would be extremely valuable. If it were inscribed to someone like Rupi Kaur, it would be worth less, and possibly even less than a flat-signed copy. Book collectors value association copies because they tell a story — they imply the book has changed hands between two people of significance. What was the context of this exchange? What influence might this relationship have had on the writing of this book, or the characters, or simply the author’s life?

Signed bookplates aren’t generally considered as valuable as flat-signed or inscribed books because there is usually no way to guarantee the author ever physically touched pen to paper on that particular edition. A bookplate could have been signed at any time, then attached to or inserted into the book separately. Some bookplates themselves have value, if they are designed by particularly renowned artists. For others, like our Naked Lunch bookplate, the main source of adornment and value is the signature itself.

Come by Dawn Treader today to check out Naked Lunch and our other treasures of the Beat Generation!