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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ROBERT W. SERVICE: a bibliography
Edition: First Edition
New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2000. Quarto, blue cloth. pp (viii), 416. Fine in jacket, no owner names. Still sealed in plastic. A state-of-the-art descriptive bibliography. 1.75 kg parcel
Book ID: 55418More details Price: USD $35.00 USD $31.50 -
THE NIGHTINGALE WON'T LET YOU SLEEP
Edition: First Canadian issue
(Toronto): Hamish Hamilton, 2017. Card covers with flaps. Book a little leaned; soft crease to outer corners of front cover and early leaves; light rubbing to spine folds; VG otherwise. A novel set in Cyprus.; Octavo
Book ID: 55417More details Price: USD $24.95 USD $22.46 -
WACOUSTA: or, the Prophecy. An Indian Tale
New York: Pollard & Moss, 1888. Brown decorated cloth stamped in black and gilt. pp viii, 261, [1]. (2, ads). Most gilt flaked from spine; text paper tanned and brittle; cracked inner hinges neatly repaired; bookstore rubber stamp on front free endpaper; short shallow chip to fore edge of rear free endpaper; else a VG copy of this vulnerable edition. An issue of the Dewitt 1851 edition, printed from the same old plates now showing a fair bit of type batter. Morley 64. ; Octavo
Book ID: 55416More details Price: USD $65.00 USD $58.50 -
ANNE OF INGLESIDE.
London: Harrap, 1949. A later printing (book says 6th, jacket says 8th). Green cloth lettered and ruled in blue. pp (3), 252. Lacking the front free endpaper, or half-title leaf. Page edges lightly yellowed, else a VG clean & unworn copy. Dust jacket (art by Nina Miller Davidson), has small chips at spine ends affecting a few letters, old internal tape stain at foot; rear panel has a short tear and an old internal tape repair at lower outer corner; very small chips to outer corners; VG clean and bright otherwise. Her last book in her lifetime, first published by Harrap in 1939.; Octavo
Book ID: 55415More details Price: USD $34.95 USD $31.46 -
MYSTERY AT RAMSHACKLE HOUSE.
London: The Detective Story Club for Wm. Collins, 1932. Navy cloth stamped in gilt and light blue. Bound without free endpapers. Cracked inner hinges neatly repaired with archival rice paper; text paper yellowed as always; tiny corner chips to a few leaves; VG otherwise. Dust jacket has long narrow chip to rear spine fold internally repaired with rice paper, some yellowing to spine; VG, bright and attractive otherwise. First published NY: Doran, 1922, and London: Collins, 1923. This is the second UK edition. Cheaply constructed and fragile. Basis of the 1924 film "Ramshackle House". The Detective Story Club book #55. ; 16mo; (4), 310 pages
Book ID: 55414More details Price: USD $85.00 USD $76.50 -
FLIGHT PATHS OF THE EMPEROR
Edition: First Edition; First Printing
Erin, ON: Porcupine's Quill, 1992. Card covers (not issued in hardcover). Spine lightly sunned, else fine. Inscribed by the author 15 Oct., 1992, in Kingston, ON. A prize-winning collection of short stories by the late Kingston author, his first collection of fiction. It went into multiple printings.; Octavo; (205), [3] pages; Signed by Author
Book ID: 55412More details Price: USD $50.00 USD $45.00 -
THE IMPERIALIST. By Mrs. Everard Cotes (Sara Jeannette Duncan)
Edition: First Edition; First Printing
New York: Appleton, 1904. Olive decorated cloth stamped in black, white, red & gilt. [8], 476, [12, ads] pp + 6 illustrations by Lewis Baumer. Spine lightly darkened; yellowing to page edges; cracked inner hinges neatly repaired; damp spot to lower margins of pp 385 to end; else a VG clean, bright and tight copy. Binding design by Amy Richards. Probably her best novel, and the only one set in Canada. The fictional town of Elgin is based on her hometown of Brantford, Ontario. The book didn't sell as well as most of her earlier books and is uncommon today. The US edition preceded the Canadian issue and the UK edition. ; Octavo
Book ID: 55409More details Price: USD $150.00 USD $135.00 -
COTTON COMES TO HARLEM
London: Frederick Muller, 1966. Orange boards, spine gilt lettered. Offset yellowing to free endpapers with a band of tanning to inner margins; light yellowing to page edges; covers just a little splayed; ink price on front free endpaper; else fine, no owner names. Dust jacket shows yellowing to the white spine lettering; tanning to margins of rear panel; think ink line through flap price; minute rubbing to foot of spine; else fine. A comic crime novel featuring Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson, the sixth and best known of the series, basis of the film starring Godfrey Cambridge, Raymond St. Jacques, and Redd Foxx. ; Octavo
Book ID: 55408More details Price: USD $125.00 USD $112.50 -
HAIL GALARNEAU ! Translated by Alan Brown
Edition: First edition in English
Don Mills, Ontario: Longmans Canada, 1970. Tall narrow octavo, 26 x 12.5 cm, yellow boards. Short crease to spine ends, else fine. Jacket has a short tear, nicks, very small chips, spine lightly darkened, VG otherwise. A comic novel about a hotdog vendor and his relatives, the French original won a Governor-General's Award in 1967.
Book ID: 55405More details Price: USD $24.95 USD $22.46 -
UNEASY STREET
Edition: First UK printing
London: Sampson Low, 1949. Red cloth. Light yellowing and light foxing to page edges, else fine. Jacket has rubbing to head of spine, a couple small tears, VG and bright otherwise, flap price intact. Jacket art by Tansley. A Max Thursday private eye novel set in San Diego. ; Octavo
Book ID: 55403More details Price: USD $65.00 USD $58.50 -
BY FOUL MEANS
Cleveland: International Fiction Library, 1929. First ? Second? issue (Copies noted in different colour bindings with gilt spine lettering, totally different jacket). Red cloth stamped in black. 01 Oct, 1930, ink owner inscription at front; yellowing to page edges and endpapers; creases to spine ends; else fine. Jacket (hatted man peering around a corner pointing a pistol) has shallow chips at spine ends, VG+ otherwise, and a cool vintage image. First published London: Stanley Paul, 1928. Scotland, smugglers, a French chateau. ; Octavo; (9)-288 pages
Book ID: 55401More details Price: USD $65.00 USD $58.50 -
THE FURIOUS PASSAGE OF JAMES BALDWIN
Edition: First UK printing
London: Michael Joseph, 1968. pp (256). Indexed. VG copy, with light yellowing to page edges. Dust jacket has some sunning, creases to spine ends, and rippling to the panels, good.
Book ID: 55396More details Price: USD $18.95 USD $17.06 -
LINNET: a romance
Edition: First US issue
Book ID: 55395More details Price: USD $45.00 USD $40.50 -
THE COMING OF WINTER
Edition: First printing
Book ID: 55393More details Price: USD $175.00 USD $157.50 -
THE TIMELESS FOREST
Edition: First printing
Montreal: McGill Poetry Series (Contact Press), 1959. Octavo, card covers. Front cover has soft creases to top outer corner and some darkening to lower margin, soft corner creases to first few leaves; spine lightly darkened; first leaf has an ink owner name and his blind stamp; VG otherwise. Cover and illustrations in text on pink paper by Vera Frenkel. Published for the series by the Contact Press, Toronto, the fourth volume in the series. Her first book. She went on to teach classics for 44 years at the University of Albany.
Book ID: 55387More details Price: USD $21.95 USD $19.76 -
THE LAST BOOKMAN: a life in the rare book trade
Edition: First printing
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2021. Cloth & boards. Soil spots to page edges, light ripples to some leaves, VG otherwise in fine jacket.; Octavo
Book ID: 55386More details Price: USD $12.95 USD $11.66 -
A LEGACY OF SPIES
Edition: First Canadian issue
Toronto: Viking / Penguin Canada, 2017. Black boards. Boards just a little bowed, else fine. Jacket has soft ripples along top edge, else fine. Smiley returns !; Octavo
Book ID: 55385More details Price: USD $9.95 USD $8.96 -
COLONEL GASCOIGNE, V.C.: a story of travel, adventure & love
(Montreal): Author, 1931. Original half blue cloth and marbled boards, spine gilt lettered. pp 274. Crease to rear free endpaper, else fine. Watters p 314. Peel 2507. Fictionalized account set near Regina, Saskatchewan, and in the Qu'Appelle Valley around the 1880's. North West Mounted Police, Riel Rebellion. Scarce; 12mo
Book ID: 55218More details Price: USD $85.00 USD $76.50 -
ANALYSE GÉOGRAPHIQUE DE L’ITALIE, dédiée a Monseigneur le Duc d’Orleans, premier Prince du Sang. Par le Sieur d’Anville, Géographe ordinaire du Roi.
Edition: First Edition
Book ID: 54476More details Price: USD $495.00 USD $445.50 -
HISTOIRE DE GENÈVE, depuis les tems les plus anciens, jusqu’à nos jours, accompagnée de détails sur les antiquités, de la ville et sa territoire, sur les moeurs, les usages, le gouvernement, les lois, les monnoies, les progrès des sciences et des arts
Edition: First Edition
Genève: Manget et Cherbulez, 1811. Three volumes, 8vo (20.5 cm), in contemporary calf-backed marbled boards, spines lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers; 432, 466, 487 pp.; with the half-title pages, engraved folding map. Bindings with rubbing to the joints, partial split to front joint of Vol. 3 but still sound, slight wear to heads of spines, contents with very occasional minor foxing, light tanning to a few leaves, else clean and fresh, firmly bound, VG+. Front flyleaves with the ownership signature of the English historian and civil servant Rohan Butler (1917-1996), historical adviser to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and editor of the multi-volume Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919-1939. ; Octavo
Book ID: 54475More details Price: USD $395.00 USD $355.50