Welcome to Steven Temple Books

STEVEN TEMPLE BOOKS IS STILL OPEN FOR BUSINESS AND IS SHIPPING TO EVERYWHERE IT IS ALLOWED.

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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…

  • MONTGOMERY, L.M.
    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: 56067
    View cart More details Price: USD $495.00 USD $445.50
  • MONTGOMERY, (L.M.)
    ANNE OF GREEN GABLES. Illustrated by M.A. and W.A.J. Claus

    Boston: Page. Fourth printing, Sept., 1908, same year as the first. Green ribbed cloth ruled in blind, gilt lettered, colour pictorial label on front cover. pp (x), 429, [1, blank], [4.4, ads] + frontispiece with tissue guard and seven other black & white plates. Covers have light soiling and light rubbing, gilt a little dulled; browning to page edges; Xmas, 1908, ink gift inscription at front; tanning to front endpapers; neat archival tissue repair to front inner hinge; neat repair to blank corner of one leaf; slight chemical odor to covers from book cloth cleaner (will dissipate); nicks to fore edge of front free endpaper; in all good-VG, sound copy, tight in the binding, still respectable in appearance. The…

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    Boston: Page. Fourth printing, Sept., 1908, same year as the first. Green ribbed cloth ruled in blind, gilt lettered, colour pictorial label on front cover. pp (x), 429, [1, blank], [4.4, ads] + frontispiece with tissue guard and seven other black & white plates. Covers have light soiling and light rubbing, gilt a little dulled; browning to page edges; Xmas, 1908, ink gift inscription at front; tanning to front endpapers; neat archival tissue repair to front inner hinge; neat repair to blank corner of one leaf; slight chemical odor to covers from book cloth cleaner (will dissipate); nicks to fore edge of front free endpaper; in all good-VG, sound copy, tight in the binding, still respectable in appearance. The author's first book, probably the most famous Canadian book, now very costly in the scarce first printing, and early printings have also become uncommon on the market.; Octavo

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    Book ID: 56066
    View cart More details Price: USD $295.00 USD $265.50
  • 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: 56065
    View cart More details Price: USD $85.00 USD $76.50
  • LEWIS, Wyndham
    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: 56064
    View cart More details Price: USD $50.00 USD $45.00
  • HOUSE, Madeline and STOREY, Graham (editors). (Charles Dickens)
    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: 56063
    View cart More details Price: USD $1,500.00 USD $1,350.00
  • HARRISON, S. Frances
    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: 56062
    View cart More details Price: USD $29.95 USD $26.96
  • BOWRING, Richard and Haruko Uryu Laurie
    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: 56061
    View cart More details Price: USD $29.95 USD $26.96
  • GODWIN, Ted
    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: 56060
    View cart More details Price: USD $21.95 USD $19.76
  • (NOWLAN, Alden) (Choyce, Lesley, editor)
    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: 56059
    View cart More details Price: USD $14.95 USD $13.46
  • FISHER, Pat, Max Hollein, The Lonely Piper
    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: 56058
    View cart More details Price: USD $18.95 USD $17.06
  • SOLWAY, David
    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: 56057
    View cart More details Price: USD $17.95 USD $16.16
  • SOLWAY, David
    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: 56056
    View cart More details Price: USD $17.95 USD $16.16
  • SOLWAY, David
    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: 56055
    View cart More details Price: USD $19.95 USD $17.96
  • bissett, bill
    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: 56054
    View cart More details Price: USD $25.00 USD $22.50
  • Taylor, Arthur J., editor
    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: 56053
    View cart More details Price: USD $10.00 USD $9.00
  • HERSCHEND, John and Will Rogan
    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: 56052
    View cart More details Price: USD $19.95 USD $17.96
  • DARWIN, Charles (Edward O. Wilson)
    FROM SO SIMPLE A BEGINNING: the four great books of Charles Darwin. Edited with Introduction by Edward O. Wilson [in slipcase]

    Edition: Second Printing

    New York: Norton, 2006. Two-tone boards in jacket in slipcase. Fine copy. "Never before have the four great works of Charles DarwinVoyage of the H. M. S. Beagle (1845) , The Origin of Species (1859) , The Descent of Man (1871) , and The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) been collected under one cover. Undertaking this challenging endeavor 123 years after Darwin's death, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Edward O. Wilson has written an introductory essay for the occasion, while providing new, insightful introductions to each of the four volumes and an afterword that examines the fate of evolutionary theory in an era of religious resistance. In addition, Wilson has crafted a creative new index to accompany…

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    New York: Norton, 2006. Two-tone boards in jacket in slipcase. Fine copy. "Never before have the four great works of Charles DarwinVoyage of the H. M. S. Beagle (1845) , The Origin of Species (1859) , The Descent of Man (1871) , and The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) been collected under one cover. Undertaking this challenging endeavor 123 years after Darwin's death, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Edward O. Wilson has written an introductory essay for the occasion, while providing new, insightful introductions to each of the four volumes and an afterword that examines the fate of evolutionary theory in an era of religious resistance. In addition, Wilson has crafted a creative new index to accompany these four texts, which links the nineteenth-century, Darwinian evolutionary concepts to contemporary biological thought. Beautifully slipcased, and including restored versions of the original illustrations, From So Simple a Beginning turns our attention to the astounding power of the natural creative process and the magnificence of its products." 2.5 kg parcel; Thick octavo; 1706 pages

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    Book ID: 56050
    View cart More details Price: USD $29.95 USD $26.96
  • HORNYANSKY, Nicholas (1896-1965)
    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: 56049
    View cart More details Price: USD $295.00 USD $265.50
  • DARWIN, Charles
    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: 56048
    View cart More details Price: USD $21.95 USD $19.76
  • GAMBINI, Rodolfo and Jorge Pullin
    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: 56047
    View cart More details Price: USD $50.00 USD $45.00

A selection of our current highlights…