Unusual

A Guest at the Ludlow by Bill Nye (Edgar Wilson Nye)
1897 The Bowen-Merrill Company, Indianapolis and Kansas City

This is almost certainly a second printing, as the title page states 1897 and the copyright page 1896. However, a surviving dust jacket this old is unusual. As you can see, the dust jacket was plain (including the flaps), while the cloth covers were highly decorated. DJs in those days were designed merely to protect the book, and were meant to be discarded after purchase, hence their rarity. Nowadays the dust jacket is what sells the book, and few people even see the cloth or cardboard book covers.

Tales of Modern China by Oskar Erdberg
1932 Cooperative Publishing Society of Foreign Workers, Moscow, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

An interesting trade paperback format book in English about the current (1932) situation in China, which, according to the author, is promising: "Hundreds of millions of the down-trodden population, who had become docile in their medieval stagnation, have now awakened to the new life and to the struggle for the elementary rights of man..." Includes a small errata sheet. The cover shows a dragon impaled on a bayonet.

Flowers From the Holy Land by Atalla Georges Freres
n.d. Jerusalem, Israel.

Twelve pages of pressed flowers with descriptions in three languages. The covers are beautiful olive wood, one quarter inch thick, with a pretty inlaid design. Not rare, as apparently this was a common travel souvenir, but not usual either. I'd guess that it was printed in the 1920's.

The Desert by F. Weber Benton
1928 Los Angeles, CA

A poem with illustrations. Six pages printed on eighth-inch thick sheets of Joshua tree wood (very fibrous and foam-like), bound with a red ribbon. Probably a souvenir of what is now Joshua Tree National Monument.

First Day Covers autographed by Christopher Moore

Well, they certainly are unusual. I can see the tenuous connection to Frankenstein, but not Robert Frost. Oh well, there they are.

The Diary of a Smut Hound

by Hugh Wakem

1930 William Hodgson, Philadelphia, Pa.

A satirical book about the alleged tribulations of a zealous dirty book censor. Alas, it did not "put an end to stupid book-censorship in America."

A Taoist Pearl

by A. P. Quentin

1928 The MacMillan Company of Canada, Toronto

Fairly rare, especially with a dust jacket, this copy has the bookplate "The MacMillans in Canada" on the front pastedown. Jerry Morris has found good evidence that this is the publisher's bookplate.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - The Game

by Douglas Adams and Steve Meretzky

1984 by Infocom

Fairly rare, and I've never seen another copy signed.