STEVEN TEMPLE BOOKS IS STILL OPEN FOR BUSINESS AND IS SHIPPING TO EVERYWHERE IT IS ALLOWED.
Having operated shops on Queen Street West in downtown Toronto since our founding in 1974, we closed the shop in March, 2014 and now operate from home in Welland, Ontario (close to Niagara Falls, only two turns from Toronto). We can see visitors by appointment. The books (currently around 10,000 of them) are priced, on shelves, and in categories. We continue to specialize in literary books, especially Canadian literary books, general Canadiana, and select out-of-print and rare books in various fields (mostly 19th and 20th century, though we do stock some earlier). We now have some ephemera, but don’t stock comic books, fairly recent used books, bestseller novels, nor paperbacks (unless collectible). Business is primarily by internet or mail. We welcome and pay attention to wants lists when they are for books we might actually find some day and which are worth more than a token amount.
We accept payment by Visa, MasterCard, Amex, PayPal, cheque (Canada and US only), money order, e-transfer (Canada only) – even cash.
Some recent arrivals…
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ANNE OF AVONLEA. With frontispiece and cover in colour by George Gibbs
Edition: First printing
Boston: L.C. Page, 1909. Original light green fine ribbed cloth bordered in blind, gilt lettered, colour pictorial label on front cover. pp viii. 367, (1, blank), 4, 4, ads + colour frontispiece with captioned tissue guard. Rear cover has three small brown spots; spine lightly darkened and lightly rubbed at ends; page edges yellowed; bump to one corner; light rubbing to cover label; 28 Dec., 1909, Canadian ink gift inscription at front; tanning to front endpapers from something once laid in; otherwise a VG clean, tight and unworn copy, no owner names. A respectable copy of the second Anne Shirley novel, published Sept. 1909, following the classic ANNE OF GREEN GABLES of the previous year.; Octavo
Book ID: 56067More details Price: USD $495.00 USD $445.50 -
ANNE OF GREEN GABLES. Illustrated by M.A. and W.A.J. Claus
Book ID: 56066More details Price: USD $295.00 USD $265.50
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ILLUSTRATED HISTORICAL ATLAS OF YORK COUNTY, ONTARIO
Wilson's Publishing Company & APMIST Enterprises, 1996. Maroon marble pattern boards. #983 of 1000 copies. Facsimile of the rare Myles 1878 original. Fine copy. 2 kg parcel. 45x39x4. Note: large heavier book, extra shipping will be required. ; Folio
Book ID: 56065More details Price: USD $85.00 USD $76.50 -
JOURNEY INTO BARBARY: Morocco writings and drawings. Edited by C.J. Fox
Edition: First printing
Santa Barbara, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1983. The deluxe issue, #18 of 226 copies handbound by Earle Gray and signed by the editor. Blue cloth spine with paper label and colour pictorial boards, in original acetate wrapper. Fine copy. ; Octavo
Book ID: 56064More details Price: USD $50.00 USD $45.00 -
THE LETTERS OF CHARLES DICKENS. The Pilgrim Edition. (Complete 12 volume set)
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965. Twelve volume set. Red cloth, some plates. Fine copies. The cream dust jackets have tears to bottom spine fold to two volumes, one volume has nicks to ends of slightly darkened spine, VG or better otherwise. A nice set of this mammoth compilation (over 14k letters). Note: heavy parcel, extra shipping will be required. Shipping outside of North America will be very expenpensive indeed. Some individual volumes are available from the publisher at $420-480 each (2023). ; Octavo
Book ID: 56063More details Price: USD $1,500.00 USD $1,350.00 -
PINE, ROSE AND FLEUR DE LIS
Edition: First Edition
Toronto: Hart & Company, 1891 [for 1890]. Light green cloth spine, olive green cloth sides, lettered & decorated in gilt, top edges gilt. [8], 208 pp. Small red spot to lower inner front cover; spine a little darkened, with nicks at head, gilt lettering dulled; Xmas 1890 ink owner name; else a VG clean and unworn copy. Poetry by a minor Canadian poet of some importance. Watters p. 86.; Small octavo.
Book ID: 56062More details Price: USD $29.95 USD $26.96 -
AN INTRODUCTION TO MODERN JAPANESE. Book 2, exercises and word lists
Edition: First Edition
Cambridge University Press, 1992. Printed boards without jacket, as issued. Fine copy. 1.05 kg parcel; Octavo; (x), 377 pages
Book ID: 56061More details Price: USD $29.95 USD $26.96 -
LOWER BOW: a celebration of wilderness, art and fishing.
Edition: First Edition
Regina: Hand Art Moving and Storage Co, 1991. Brown boards. Fine in fine jacket. Colour reproductions.; Quarto; 63 pages; Signed by Author
Book ID: 56060More details Price: USD $21.95 USD $19.76 -
THE POTTERSFIELD PORTFOLIO. vOLUME 5, 1983-1984
Porters Lake, Nova Scotia: Pottersfield Press, 1983. Stapled in glossy card covers. Alden Nowlan Tribute Edition. Interview with Nowlan, poems by Milton Acorn, many others.; Quarto; 52 pages
Book ID: 56059More details Price: USD $14.95 USD $13.46 -
CHRISTOPHER ORR
Edition: First Edition
Zürich: JRP / Ringier, 2014. Exhibition catalogue: Christopher Orr - The Beguiled Eye (Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh 15 November 2014 - 14 February 2015). Glossy colour boards. Fine copy; Octavo; (64) pages
Book ID: 56058More details Price: USD $18.95 USD $17.06 -
ANACRUSIS
Edition: First printing
Frederiction, New Brunswick: Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1976. pp 16, stapled, in orange card coves. Fine copy. Edition of 500 copies. Poetry. ; Octavo
Book ID: 56057More details Price: USD $17.95 USD $16.16 -
PAXIMALIA
Edition: First printing
Frederiction, New Brunswick: Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1972. 52 pp, stapled in cream card covers. Fine copy. The Montreal poet's third book.; Octavo
Book ID: 56056More details Price: USD $17.95 USD $16.16 -
THE CRYSTAL THEATRE
Edition: First printing
Frederiction, New Brunswick: Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1971. 32 pp, stapled, in beige card covers. Fine copy. Edition of 500 copies. Montreal author's second book. One of the better Canadian poets. ; Octavo
Book ID: 56055More details Price: USD $19.95 USD $17.96 -
HOWARD XPERIENCES
Toronto: 1990. Stapled in orange card covers. Edition of 100 copies. Fine copy. A prose piece. Curved H&Z 405; Octavo
Book ID: 56054More details Price: USD $25.00 USD $22.50 -
Laissez-faire and State Intervention in Nineteenth Century Britain (Studies in Economic History)
Edition: First Edition
London: Macmillan, 1972. pp (80. Notes, bibliography, index. Text paper yellowed as always, ink owner name at front, VG otherwise. Not issued in hardcover. Publisher's Studies in Economic History series. Note: lighter parcel, any default postage rate may be reduced. (300 gm); Octavo 0333099257
Book ID: 56053More details Price: USD $10.00 USD $9.00 -
THE THING THE BOOK: a monument to the book as object
Edition: First Edition
San Francisco: Chronical Books, 2014. Grey lettered linen with wraparound band, two bound-in ribbon markers, without printed jacket, as issued. Colour illustrations. Fine copy. "What exactly is a book? This wildly inventive and thought-provoking volume asks that question of more than 30 of today's top creative visionaries, from Ed Ruscha to Miranda July, John Baldessari to Jonathan Lethem. Each traditional element of a book-from endpapers to footnotes-is assigned to a different artist or writer invited to use the space as a creative playground. The result is a collaborative group art project like no other. A ribbon bookmark by David Shrigley, page numbers by Tauba Auerbach, endnotes by Rick Moody-each contribution surprising and brilliant. "; Quarto; 156 pages
Book ID: 56052More details Price: USD $19.95 USD $17.96 -
FROM SO SIMPLE A BEGINNING: the four great books of Charles Darwin. Edited with Introduction by Edward O. Wilson [in slipcase]
Edition: Second Printing
Book ID: 56050More details Price: USD $29.95 USD $26.96 -
HART HOUSE TOWER FROM HOSKIN AVENUE, TORONTO
Toronto: Artist, no date. Colour aquatint, image size 11.5 x 13.5 cm, signed by the artist in pencil in the lower margin. Matted. Fine. Hornyansky was a noted Hungarian-Canadian painter in oil and watercolour, engraver, printmaker, and etcher. He settled in Toronto. A lovely winter image in blue and black.
Book ID: 56049More details Price: USD $295.00 USD $265.50 -
THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES and THE DESCENT OF MAN
New York: Modern Library. Maroon boards. Fine copy. Price-clipped jacket has a couple nicks, spine lightly darkened, near fine otherwise. 1.4 kg parcel; Octavo
Book ID: 56048More details Price: USD $21.95 USD $19.76 -
LOOPS, KNOTS, GAUGE THEORIES AND QUANTUM GRAVITY
Edition: First Edition
Cambridge University Press, 1996. Navy boards. Fine in fine jacket. ; Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics; Octavo; xvi, 321 pages
Book ID: 56047More details Price: USD $50.00 USD $45.00