627 résultats
1903110942New York: The Macmillan Company 1903. First edition of one of the most desirable classics in American literature. Octavo original pictorial green cloth pictorial endpapers top edge gilt. With 18 full-page color illustrations by Philip R. Goodwin and Charles Livingston Bull. Association copy inscribed by the author on the half-title page "To Elinor Glyn:- My most popular but my own heart goes out to some <span class="match">of</span> my sociological screeds. Jack London Mar. 1 1911." The recipient Elinor Glyn was a British novelist and scriptwriter who specialized in romantic fiction which was considered scandalous for its time. Her first book The Visits of Elizabeth was published the same year as London's first book. She later moved to California and became one of the first female writers of movie screenplays. She popularized the concept of the It-girl and had tremendous influence on early 20th-century popular culture and possibly on the careers of notable Hollywood stars such as Rudolph Valentino Gloria Swanson and especially Clara Bow. In near fine condition with light shelfwear. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. Signed first editions of this classic title are scarce. The Call of the Wild is "one of the first American novels to examine the quest of the pioneering individual who breaks away from the sheltered environment of civilization and is romantically compelled to find freedom in nature. In the early part of the century this was considered the American dream" Parker 16. Named by Modern Library's as one of the 100 greatest novels of the twentieth century. The Macmillan Company hardcover books
1903140940250New York: The Macmillan Company 1903. First Edition. Fine/Fine. First edition first printing of the author's best-loved work. Bound in publisher's ribbed green cloth decoratively stamped; top edge gilt. A fine copy with previous owner name to half-title page and trivial rubbing to cloth at extremities and a tiny nick to the edge of the front board. In a Fine dust jacket with faint toning to spine and a tiny mark to the rear panel and spine. A fantastic copy but more importantly an honest copy with no restoration or funny business: the offsetting from white "snow" of boards onto verso of dust jacket suggesting this copy has not been married to its jacket a sentiment echoed by the freshness of the book itself. Housed in a custom quarter-leather folding case. The Macmillan Company unknown books
19031704203MacMillan 1903. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Near Fine. A fine first edition in a near fine dust jacket with a check signed by Jack London laid in. Some soiling on some pages. Housed in a custom-made collector's slipcase. MacMillan hardcover books
19031808030MacMillan 1903. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/Near Fine. A near fine first edition in a near fine unrestored dust jacket. Housed in a custom-made collector's slipcase. MacMillan hardcover books
19031508068MacMillan Company 1903. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/Very Good. A near fine first edition correct statement on copyright page in a very good original dust jacket that is unrestored rare thus. Housed in a custom-made collector's slipcase. MacMillan Company hardcover books
1913303825New York The Century Co. 1913. 1913. First edition "Published August 1913". 8vo. Frontispiece and 7 illustrations by H.T. Dunn. Original gilt stamped dark green cloth. Very good-fine. No dust jacket. 343 pages. Enclosed in a 1/2 red morocco slipcase with chemise. Boldly signed and inscribed by Jack London on the page before half title: "Dear Jim: Hope you don't get thirsty reading this. Don't you admire the expensive paper Century Co. uses for front sheets. Sincerely yours Jack London Sept. 9 1913." With Jack London's wolf bookplate tipped on the front pastedown. Inscribed by Authors. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/No Jacket. New York, The Century Co., 1913. hardcover books
191222680EGlen Ellen Sonoma County CA 1912. Original Autograph Letter Signed by Jack London to his friend poet George Sterling. 3 pages 8†x 5†dated July 13 1912. With the postmarked envelope which is addressed by Charmian London to George Sterling Carmel-by-the-Sea CA - which is crossed out with “Bohemian Club San Francisco†at the bottom of the address. The text of the letter indicates that it was written on board the ship Dirigo toward the end of the voyage and reads in full: “133 days at sea On board Ship Dirigo 145 W. Long. 42 N. Lat. July 13 1912. Blessed Greek: Just to let you know we’re back. Expect to see you at Jinks and later at ranch to tell you all about the voyage. Say - never let him know it - I’ve forgotten the name of our partner in the tent at Bohemian Grove. You and I are third owners each in the outfit. Only I don’t know what I’ll have to bring. A cot Blankets of course. Find out from him and have a letter at Glen Ellen giving me his name and all essential data. Of course you’ll be at the Jinks. I haven’t had a drink for 144 days! Wolf. Charmian sends love. Say: this time you shall not escape me. You must play pinochle. Greatest two-handed game invented.†Creases from folding else fine. The voyage London speaks of is that of a 148 day sail from Baltimore to Seattle aboard the windjammer Dirigo he took with his wife Charmian. The Bohemian Club is a private club in San Francisco which has a restricted campground called Bohemian Grove in nearby Monte Rio. On August 18 1904 Jack London went with his close friend the poet George Sterling to "Summer High Jinks" at the Bohemian Grove. Subsequently London was elected to honorary membership in the Bohemian Club and took part in many activities. Other noted members of the Bohemian Club during this time included Ambrose Bierce Gelett Burgess Allan Dunn John Muir Frank Norris and Herman George Scheffauer. George Sterling 1869 - 1926 was an American writer based in the San Francisco California Bay Area and Carmel-by-the-Sea. He was considered a prominent poet and playwright and proponent of Bohemianism during the first quarter of the twentieth century. In addition to Jack London his work was admired by writers as diverse as Upton Sinclair Theodore Dreiser and Sinclair Lewis. The American historian Kevin Starr wrote this about Sterling: “The uncrowned King of Bohemia so his friends called him Sterling had been at the center of every artistic circle in the San Francisco Bay Area. Celebrated as the embodiment of the local artistic scene though forgotten today Sterling had in his lifetime been linked with the immortals his name carved on the walls of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition next to the great poets of the past.†unknown books
1903003214New York: The Macmillan Company 1903. First edition first printing. Hardcover. Philip R. Goodwin & Charles Livingston Bull. This is a jacketed first edition of perhaps the most iconic work of an archetypally American author and giant of early twentieth century literature. Though Jack London had experienced some preceding success as a writer it was The Call of the Wild written in his mid-twenties that brought him fame. London's tale of a pampered California dog who finds his strength his place and the brutal gift of his freedom in a savage primal North met with immediate popularity and critical acclaim. The first printing quickly sold out and the story has since seen a host of successive editions remaining continuously in print. London's story occupies a pinnacle amid the remarkably prolific output of his short strenuous and celebrated literary life. The story's hero Buck ranks among the most provocative and best known animal protagonists in literature. To the virtues of the story itself the first edition lends a striking aesthetic. The distinctive illustrated binding features vertically scored olive cloth with a classic London dog sled scene in three panels on the front cover in red white and black with gilt print on spine and front cover and a color illustration of the lead sled dog from the front cover repeated on the spine. Within the book is profusely illustrated in color by Philip R. Goodwin and Charles Livingston Bull bound with illustrated endpapers and printed with generous margins its thirty two thousand words more novella-length than novel nonetheless fill 231 pages. The heavy gray paper dust jacket repeats the front cover illustrations and spine illustrations in dark green print. This copy is very good plus in an original dust jacket. The binding remains tight and bright with sharp corners. Minor wear is primarily confined to extremities. The typical abrasion loss of the white "snow" on the front cover and spine is modest. We note a modest forward lean to the binding. The contents remain bright and clean with a crisp feel. We find no previous ownership marks or spotting. The illustrated endpapers frontispiece tissue guard all illustrations and the two-page Macmillan advertisement bound in at the rear are all intact. The untrimmed fore edges and bottom edges remain exceptionally clean with only slight age-toning and the top edge gilt is bright. Searching for internal flaws we note only faint finger smudges at the blank inner margin of page 15. The illustrated dust jacket remains clean with clearly legible print and only perhaps a hint of barely discernible color shift to the spine. The jacket has suffered no repair or reinforcement. It bears unmistakable association with the first edition in the form of color ink from the front cover illustration that has transferred to the front panel verso of the dust jacket. We note chip losses at the spine heel to a maximum .5 inch depth a .25 inch deep strip loss at the spine head modest loss to the corners and fractional wear to the edges and front flap fold. Losses to spine extremities do not impact either title or publisher print. The dust jacket is protected in a removable archival quality clear cover. References: BAL 11876 Woodbridge 19 <br /><br /> The Macmillan Company hardcover books
19034544New York: The Macmillan Company 1903. First edition first <span class="glossaryQtip qTip">issue</span> of one of the most desirable classics in American literature. Octavo original pictorial green cloth pictorial endpapers top edge gilt. Near fine in a the original dust jacket with a few small chips to the crown of the spine and front panel. With 18 full-page color illustrations by Philip R. Goodwin and Charles Livingston Bull. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. The Call of the Wild is "one of the first American novels to examine the quest of the pioneering individual who breaks away from the sheltered environment of civilization and is romantically compelled to find freedom in nature. In the early part of the century this was considered the American dream" Parker 16. Listed by Modern Library as one of the 100 greatest novels of the twentieth century. The Macmillan Company hardcover books
19078515New York. The Macmillan Company 1907. Bound in pictorial decorated brown buckram 8vo. First Edition.This copy inscribed boldly in ink by Jack London to his Sister Ida London Byrne and his Brother-In-Law Jack on the Front free endsheet In a strongbroad hand requiring the majority of the Front Free Endsheet London writes : "Dear Ida & Jack- With love and lots off sic it from your brother Jack London. Oakland Calif. April 171907 " A most ironic spelling error "off for "of " by one of history's great writers ! Accompanying this volume is a postcard loosely laid-in. The front of the postcard is a photograph of Jack and Charmian London outside their home Wake Robin Lodge in Glen Ellen. Portions of the rear of the card present old scrapbook adhesive remnants which obscure portions of the postmark and stamp as well as the address and message. Postmarked Oakland January 1913 day obscured it is addressed to Mrs. Alice shade in San Francisco. The inked message begins "Dear Friend" with the remaining text indecipherable due to adhesive remnant. It is signed "Yours Ida Byrne her married name . Illustrated with 8 colour plates map and additional monochrome drawings ex text by Charles Livingston Bull. Ida London 1870-1914 was the younger daughter of John London Jack's step-father.From the turbulence of their early family life through Jack' meteoric rise to fame and ultimate early death Jack and Ida enjoyed a close and loving relationship with Jack assuming an almost paternal role in the raising of IDA's daughterwhom she had named after Jack's wife Charmian. She and her family often lived at her Brother's ranch in Glen Ellen where her husband Jack Byrnewas employed by London as Personal Assistant and private secretary. In the last years of her life Ira suffered from ill-health and was often confined to an Oakland sanitarium.She eventually died on the operating table in June of 1914. IDA's husband Jack Byrne continued in his Brother-In-Law employee until London's death in 1916. Material inscribed to Jack London's immediate family is exceedingly rare and appears for public sale very infrequently. Very slight lean. Minimal rubbing to covers and spine. Spine titles a bit faded. Corners gently bumped. Scattered mild foxing to prelims moderately so to inscription. One plate mis-paginated. Several page fore-edges trimmed short not affecting text. A Very Good well preserved crisp copy of a deeply personal relic of the London family. The Macmillan Company hardcover books
1905306044New York: Macmillan 1905. First edition second issue. With plate illustrations and decorations by Henry Hutt and T.C. Lawrence. 182 6 ads pp. 8vo. Original green-gray pictorial cloth decorated in white and brown and lettered in red and gilt t.e.g. illustrated endpapers. A few vignette illustrations colored in crayon crayon scribbles to gutter of pp 38-39 staple at bottom of ffep long closed tear to pp. 77-8 spine slightly darkened humorous contemporary ink inscription on front-free endpaper some rubbing and wear to extremities. First edition second issue. With plate illustrations and decorations by Henry Hutt and T.C. Lawrence. 182 6 ads pp. 8vo. Inscribed to London's close friend and early admirer Cloudesley Johns. First edition inscribed by London: "Dear Cloudesley - Who is ethically disinclined to my flimflamming a capitalist society out of a dollar and a half and who therefore as a good socialist must make explanation to another good socialist namely Jack London Glen Ellen July 17/05."<br/><br/>An excellent association copy of Jack London's boxing novel. According to London Cloudesley Johns was the first person who ever wrote him about his work offering praise of the stories "To the Man on Trail" and "The White Silence" in the January and February 1899 issues of the Overland. The resulting friendship lasted until London's death see The Book of Jack London 1899 p. 277ff. "If Jack had no mentor but himself Cloudesley had Jack London - a pugnacious mentor who seldom pulled his punches. Jack's advice was born of his own experience and to Johns as to many other aspiring writers he gave of it freely. They met on several occasions. During London's writing of The Sea Wolf in 1903 Johns came up to Piedmont and the two men sailed up to the mouth of the Sacramento River on Jack's sloop Spray. There they played chess swam shot ducks and mudhens fished talked and wrote. 'The more I see of Cloudesley the more I like him' Jack wrote. 'He is honest and loyal young and fresh understands the discipline of a boat and is a good cook to say nothing of being a good-natured and genial companion'" Walker and Reesman p. 15. BAL 11886; Woodbridge 36; Hartley 1240 Macmillan unknown books
190416006JNew York: Century Magazine January 1904. Original poster which is a handsome and complex image of a straining man on the disordered deck of a ship calling out to an unseen boat with the text: “Ahoy! Take me ashore! A thousand dollars if you take me ashore!†Underneath: “Jack London’s Great Novel. The Sea Wolf. Begins in the January Centuryâ€. Printed in deep rich reds greens and black & white a striking image 12†x 21â€. Small pinholes at top corners a couple tiny tears about fine. Scarce poster. Century Magazine unknown books
1903140941187New York: The Macmillan Company 1903. First Edition. Near Fine. First edition first printing. Original dark green cloth stamped in white black and red lettered in gilt gilt topstain. Near Fine with some rubbing to the white "snow" on the covers light rubbing to cloth and small scuff to rear spine joint extending to the rear board name effaced from verso of front free endpaper. A beautiful copy of Jack London's breakout novel narrated from the perspective of a dog named Buck. The Macmillan Company unknown books
1911146811911. trading in the Solomons One page on "Harbor Rest" stationery dated by ink-stamp July 9 1911. With London's name and address "Glen Ellen Calif." in holograph plus his signature at the end of the letter. The text of this letter we apologize for repeating Jack's language! is: Dear sir:- In reply to yours of recent date. Please don't forget that if tobacco was dreadfully wanted was rarely brought was quickly used and gone etc. that not only pennies but sovereigns and any and all other purchasing mediums would be sedulously accumulated against the day when more tobacco was purchasable. You speak of logic. Nevertheless logically when you grant the cheapness of sovereigns compared with pennies during the course of the first trading then you must grant that in the course of the second trading between the coast niggers and the interior tribes the same ratio will obtain. The interior tribes will hold on to the pennies and dispose of the sovereigns just as the coast niggers did with the white men in the first instance. There are several more ways of looking at it but I shall not burden you. Thank you for your good letter. I love to receive criticisms -- especially when I think I can get back at the other fellow! Sincerely yours signed Jack London Jack wrote this letter during the time in 1911 when he and Charmian were moored in Humboldt Bay on the "Harbor Rest" the house-boat belonging to the former mayor of Eureka H.L. Ricks. They would leave Humboldt Bay four days after Jack wrote this letter heading for Hoopa and the Klamath River ultimately north to Crescent City. There is a great photo at the Huntington of Jack and Charmian posing on board the "Harbor Rest" complete with the boat's name-plate. The recipient was a Boston doctor whose office was on Tremont Row there. We do not know exactly what Dr. Brittain wrote Jack about but it was most likely a "criticism" he had after reading Jack's new book that had just come out the preceding month THE CRUISE OF THE SNARK. This book was the account of Jack and Charmian's voyage aboard their boat The Snark begun in 1907 and planned to last seven years around the world -- but Jack's medical and financial problems cut it short in 1909 after cruising to Hawaii the Solomon Islands Fiji Tahiti and winding up in a hospital in Sydney. Specifically in that book Jack wrote about using the tobacco they had brought to barter for goods on some of the islands see page 289 for an example in the Solomons. Jack's use of "the n-word" was unfortunately not unusual at the time and was especially used by explorers of the South Pacific and of Australia. Our favorite line of the letter is the final one -- revealing Jack's irritation that some doctor in Boston considers himself able to criticize something he knows little about. Like this letter the majority of Jack London's letters were typed. The letter is in very good condition -- with faint evidence at the edges of it having being mounted and with a 1.5-inch tear along an original fold right between "Jack" and "London. unknown books
1917140940929New York: The Macmillan Company 1917. First Edition. Near Fine/Good. First edition. x 184 2 6 ads pp. Publisher's reddish brown cloth with gilt lettering. Near Fine with bright gilt faint tidemark to upper corner of prelims in a Good example of the rare dust jacket unclipped and unsophisticated. Jacket chipped at edges and along spine soiled and lightly dampstained front panel creased front and spine panels still attached at head but nearly separate. London's first posthumously-published work consisting of non-fiction pieces including "Four Horses and a Sailor" Jack's account of a trip in company with Charmian in a horse-drawn carriage from Sonoma County to Oregon. Rare in jacket which reproduces the frontispiece photo. Only 3056 copies printed. The Macmillan Company unknown books
1911140940363New York: The Macmillan Company 1911. First Edition. Very Good. First edition first printing. Signed by Jack London on the title page. Bound in publisher's original dark blue cloth with pictorial stamping; lacking the dust jacket. Very Good with rubbing to cloth and spine stamping. Former owner bookplate to front paste down and hinge at title page slightly exposed. A lovely copy signed by the author. The Macmillan Company unknown books
1902180811008New York: The Century Company 1902. First Edition. Hardcover. Good. First edition. vii 250 pp. Cream cloth stamped in black orange and blue. A Good copy with rubbed spine and stained cloth cloth starting along front joint front hinge cracked reading smudges and light stains throughout text gift inscription and former owner's name written on prelims. All six illustrated plates present. Jack London's only juvenile novel issued in book form after its appearance in St. Nicholas magazine and one of his scarcest works. The Century Company hardcover books
1923301381<p>First edition thus. Octavo. Pages 9-60 comprise Jack London's "My Hawaiian Aloha." Pages 61-264 are by Charmain. Illustrated with 16 halftone photos; double page map of Hawaiian Islands. Original gilt stamped blue cloth With the rare unclipped original dust jacket. Fine fresh. No other signatures or bookplates. Laid down on the front pastedown is a 1 page Autograph Letter Signed "Charmain London" in blue fountain pen ink January 1928 Waimea Hawaii to Judge and Mrs. David Forbes. See BAL 11984 for the 1922 American printing issued under the title "Our Hawaii".</p> Mills & Boon, Limited hardcover books
190195253New York: McClure Phillips & Company 1901. First edition of this early collection of short stories by Jack London. Octavo original publisher's cloth gilt. Presentation copy inscribed by the author with a full page inscription in the year of publication "My dear Charles Warren Stoddard - In memory of delightful South Sea tours. Gratefully yours Jack London. Oakland Calif. June 7 1901." The recipient Charles Warren Stoddard was an American author and close friend of London's best known for hi travel books about Polynesian life and the South Sea Islands. From the library of American journalist and lawyer John Francis Neylan with his bookplate to the pastedown. In very good condition small stamps. American novelist Jack London became one of the first writers to become a worldwide celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing alone. His third collection of short stories the present volume contains eleven of his early works including: Where the Trail Forks The Man with the Gun Grit of Women and A Daughter of the Aurora. McClure, Phillips & Company hardcover books
1916180420006San Francisco: Town Talk Press 1916. First Edition. Softcover. Good. First edition. Includes inserted leaf at rear dated December 1917 addendum. 47 2 pp. Illustrated yapped wraps. Good with a few small stains to wrap edges a little chipped and worn hinge cracked at front. Famous author Jack London contributed a recipe for rice on page 21 followed by one for rice camp style by writer Stewart Edward White. Also recipes contributed by prominent San Francisco merchant Raphael Weill "Brandade of Salt Codfish & Frog's Legs" and businessman Henry J. Crocker "Corned Beef Hash". A scarce early San Francisco cookbook. Town Talk Press unknown books
1903L0051i-iv v iv vii viii 2612 ad pages with frontispiece and 7 plates. Small octavo 7 1/2" x 5 1/2" bound in original blue-gray cloth with white lettering on both spine and front cover in white with totem pole like decorations in red white and black. Inscribed by London. 3466 copies printed of the first edition. This is the second printing. <i>Children of the Frost</i> is a collection of short stories first published in 1902. Includes: The League of the Old Men; In the Forests of the North; The Law of Life; Nam-Bok the Unveracious; The Master of Mystery; The Sunlanders; The Sickness of Lone Chief; Keesh the Son of Keesh; The Death of Ligoun; Li Wan the Fair. Condition: Inscribed by London on the front end paper. Slightly cocked rubbing to spine ends and hinges corners bumped else a very good copy. MacMillan and Company hardcover books
192231542New York: The Macmillan Company 1922. First Edition. First Printing. Octavo 19.25cm; red cloth with titling and decorations stamped in gilt on spine and in black on front cover; dustjacket; xii 4 180pp; with a photographic frontispiece portrait of the author and seven inserted black and white illustrations by George M. Richards. Mild offset from jacket flaps onto endpapers with faint scattered foxing to text edges; cloth uniformly bright and clean with the gilt bright and unrubbed; Near Fine. Dustjacket is price-clipped with front flap trimmed at an odd angle as with nearly all copies we have seen; mild sunning to spine and front panel with uniform dust-soil overall; shallow losses to corners with small nicks to spine ends and a few closed tears; substantially complete unrestored and certainly Very Good or better. Posthumously-published work collecting 10 of London's adventure stories for young readers and notably including the only book appearance of his first story written for publication "Typhoon Off the Coast of Japan." With a preface by Charmian London. WOODBRIDGE 164; BAL 11985. The Macmillan Company unknown books
19046118London: Heywood and Company Limited 150 Holborn E.C.; Printed by Spottiswode & Co. Ltd 1904. Large quarto 29 x 24 cm. viii 1-86 plates 1-58 pages. FIRST EDITION. One section complete in and of itself of a massive documentation of the Exchanges of London. A detailed description of the history people and product of the London Produce Market Mincing Lane. The work contains: "an historical survey of the London Produce Market from early times to the present day with illustrations" "the origin and history of the principal articles of produce dealt with on the Mincing Lane Market" and "Portraits and biographies of some leading brokers and dealers in produce". The historical section stretches well back before the establishment of the Mincing Lane Market to the earliest-known records of dealing grocery produce which date from the fourteenth century. Principle articles traded on the exchange and profiled here include Sugar Tea Coffee Cocoa Heavy Chemicals including bleach various acids and sodas Indigo Spices Shellac a cochineal product Rice and Flax Hemp & Jute. The largest section of the volume is given to portraits mostly photo-engravings. Each plate printed verso only and with a tissue guard; the name of the depicted is included in the engraving. Some tissue guard folded or crimped a bit of foxing or soiling to the extremities of leaves otherwise internally clean. In full black morocco blind-decorated and gilt-titled. Top edge gilt. Spine faded to brown; edges rubbed. Still very good. Rare. OCLC locates one copy Baker Library Harvard; and only one copy each of two other volumes in the series one on Lloyds and another on the London Metal Exchange. Heywood and Company, Limited, 150 Holborn, E.C.; Printed by Spottiswode & Co., Ltd unknown books
1903RLONKEM00MELMacmillan Company 1903. Very Good. London Jack. The Kempton-Wace Letters. Strunsky Anna. New York: Macmillan Company 1903. First edition. 256pp. 12mo. Book condition: Very good with gently rubbed and bumped edges spine yellow rippling to middle of front pastedown and endhsets have pencil inscriptions with tiny losses to top corner of rear endsheets. Published anonymously The Kempton-Wace Letterl presents a discussion of the philosophy of love and sex. Written in the form of a series of letters between two men ""Herbert Wace"" a young scientist and ""Dane Kempton"" an elderly poet. Writer Jack London wrote ""Wace's"" letters and Anna Strunsky wrote ""Kempton's"". Rare. Macmillan Company unknown books
1922278554New York: Macmillan Company 1922. First Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine binding/Very Good dust jacket. Jack London's posthumous collection of adventure stories uncommon in the pictorial dustjacket. With the frontispiece photograph of Jack London and seven plates from drawings. One of 4348 copies. The dustjacket is bright with just a trace of shelfwear; there is a minor crease to the rear panel as well as some soiling. The dustjacket has not been price-clipped. The binding is quite sharp and bright with a small stain about 1/4" to the top edge and some minor toning to the endsheets. BAL 11985; Sisson & Martens p. 105. Near Fine binding / Very Good dust jacket. Macmillan Company unknown books