Literary Miscellany
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Literary Miscellany Including Recent Acquisitions. Catalogue 286 WILLIAM REESE COMPANY 409 TEMPLE STREET NEW HAVEN, CT. 06511 USA 203.789.8081 FAX: 203.865.7653 [email protected] www.reeseco.com TERMS Material herein is offered subject to prior sale. All items are as described, but are consid- ered to be sent subject to approval unless otherwise noted. Notice of return must be given within ten days unless specific arrangements are made prior to shipment. All returns must be made conscientiously and expediently. Connecticut residents must be billed state sales tax. Postage and insurance are billed to all non-prepaid domestic orders. Orders shipped outside of the United States are sent by air or courier, unless otherwise requested, with full charges billed at our discretion. The usual courtesy discount is extended only to recognized booksellers who offer reciprocal opportunities from their catalogues or stock. We have 24 hour telephone answering and a Fax machine for receipt of orders or messages. Catalogue orders should be e-mailed to: [email protected] We do not maintain an open bookshop, and a considerable portion of our literature inven- tory is situated in our adjunct office and warehouse in Hamden, CT. Hence, a minimum of 24 hours notice is necessary prior to some items in this catalogue being made available for shipping or inspection (by appointment) in our main offices on Temple Street. We accept payment via Mastercard or Visa, and require the account number, expiration date, CVC code, full billing name, address and telephone number in order to process payment. Institutional billing requirements may, as always, be accommodated upon request. ________________________________________________________________ We invite you to visit our web site www.reeseco.com where over thirty-five thousand items from our inventory are searchable and may be ordered directly via a secure server. Images associated with many items from this catalogue are also posted on our web site, and significant new acquisitions are posted there long before they appear on any of the collective databases. Those wishing to receive e-mail notification of the posting of new catalogues and lists to our website may request same by forwarding expressions of interest to [email protected] ___________________________________________________________________ William Reese Company 409 Temple Street New Haven, CT. 06511 USA Phone: 203.789.8081 Fax: 203.865.7653 e-mail: [email protected] Members ABAA and ILAB 1. Abramson, Ben: SERIES OF EIGHTEEN TYPED LETTERS, SIGNED, PLUS ASSOCIATED MATTER. Chicago. 4 May 1933 through 2 August 1938. Twenty-four pages, octavo and quarto, on letterhead of the Argus Bookshop, Inc. Very good. An extended and characteristic group of letters from the legendary Chicago bookseller and publisher to one of his customers in Texas, bouncing about from purely commercial concerns, to political and literary observations, to attempts at mildly risqué humor. The correspondence warms over time, and the recipient evidently graduated to the class of customer to whom Abramson not only quoted books, but simply sent books he felt the collector should buy (largely poetry and occasional fine press editions of classics). Accompanied by several carbons of the collector’s letters to Abramson, invoices, dunning statements, etc., as well as carbons of letters from the collector’s staff requesting that Abramson cease sending unsolicited books, and finally, a brief note announcing his death. Also present is a two page carbon of Abramson’s 6 March 1937 letter to the editor of Time, taking the magazine to task for its review of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men (captioned at the end in original type with a particularly virulent string of invective). $175. In Original Wrappers, Untrimmed 2. [Aldine Imprints]: Renouard, Antoine Augustine: ANNALES DE L’IMPRIMERIE DES ALDE, OU HISTOIRE DES TROIS MANUCE ET DE LEURS EDITIONS. Paris: Chez Jules Renouard, 1834. xvi,582,[6],lxviii,[4]pp. Large, thick octavo. Original drab wrappers, printed spine label, edges untrimmed. Two portraits. Three plates (one folding) and five folding facsimiles. Upper wrapper detached, with chipping along joints, single closed crack in spine, wrappers a bit darkened, offset from first portrait to title, otherwise an unusually nice copy in original state. Third and best edition of the primary early history of the Manutius family and its Aldine imprints (1494-1598). The first edition appeared in three volumes over 1803 – 1812 and, in this edition, remained for the duration of the 19th century the essential guide to the press, its authors and editors. Bound at the rear, as issued, is the separately paginated “Notice sur la Famille des Junte, et liste sommaire de leurs éditions jusqu’en 1550.” There were also thirty-two copies on large paper. Copies in this condition of the regular paper issue, which consisted of 350 copies, are not common. “Its third edition ... has remained the standard bibliography on its subject and is a model of its kind” – Breslauer & Folter. BRESLAUER & FOLTER 115. VICAIRE VI:1060-1. BRUNET 31237. $1750. 3. [Algren, Nelson]: Group of Seven Color Lobby Cards for WALK ON THE WILD SIDE. [Los Angeles]: Columbia Pictures Corp, 1962. Seven 11 x 14 color studio lobby cards. A couple minor corner creases, one card has a very slight color register flaw in the upper margin, otherwise fine. A set of seven of the eight lobby cards issued to promote John Fante’s adaptation to the screen of Algren’s novel, wanting the title-card (which is reproduced as an inset in each of these cards). The film was directed by Edward Dmytryk, and starred Laurence Harvey, Jane Fonda, Barbara Stanwyck, Capucine, Anne Baxter, et al. Fante received chief screen credit for the adaptation, though Ben Hecht and Edmond Morris were also involved. $150. 4. [Allen Press]: Goll, Yvan: FOUR POEMS OF THE OCCULT. [Kentfield]: The Allen Press, 1962. Five volumes. Small folio. Loose signatures laid into printed wrappers. Illustrations as noted below. Fine in cloth slipcase, with prospectus and publisher’s instruction sheet. First edition thus, with the translations into English by various hands edited by Francis Carmody. One of 130 sets (one hundred for sale) set and printed by hand on Rives in Goudy Modern and Cochin italic types. With color border decorations and initials by Malette Dean, and illustrations by Fernand Léger, Pablo Picasso, Yves Tanguy and Jean Arp, all faithfully reproduced from their appearances in the French editions, and in the latter case, printed from Arp’s original blocks. The most ambitious undertaking by the Allens to its date, and among the most sought-after of the productions of the Allen Press. ALLEN PRESS BIBLIOGRAPHY 25. $2250. 5. [Allen Press]: Robbe-Grillet, Alain: JEALOUSY RHYTHMIC THEMES BY.... [Kentfield, CA: The Allen Press, 1971]. Quarto. Decorated boards. Illustrations. Fine. One of 140 copies set and printed by hand in Univers and Garamond types on Wookey Hole handmade paper. Illustrated with drawings by Michéle Forgeois, and with an introduction by Francis Carmody. The translation is by Richard Howard. ALLEN PRESS BIBLIOGRAPHY 36. $450. 6. [Allen Press]: Conrad, Joseph, et al: FOUR FICTIONS ... A CONCISE PRESENTATION OF LITERATURE, BOOK ARTS AND CRAFTS OF ENGLAND, FRANCE, UNITED STATES AND ITALY. Kentfield, CA: The Allen Press, 1973. Small folio. Boards. Illustrations. Minute wear at spine tips, otherwise fine. Original prospectus laid in. One of 137 copies (130 for sale) printed in various types on English, French, Italian and American papers in conformity to the nationalities of the authors and artists. The texts include Conrad’s “The Lagoon” (illustrated by Blair Hughes-Stanton); Flaubert’s “The Legend of Saint Julian” (illustrated by Michèle Forgeois); James’s “The Jolly Corner” (illustrated by Joseph Low); and Pirandello’s “The Annuity” (illustrated by Paolo Carosone). One of the highpoints of the press’s output. ALLEN PRESS BIBLIOGRAPHY 39. $750. 7. [Allen Press]: Wharton, Edith: QUARTET FOUR STORIES. Kentfield, CA: The Allen Press, 1975. Large quarto. Cloth and decorated cloth over boards. Very slight darkening at endsheet gutters, otherwise fine, with the prospectus laid in. First printing in this format. One of 140 copies printed by hand in Romanée types on English handmade paper, with decorations and drawings, by the Allens. ALLEN PRESS BIBLIOGRAPHY 41. $650. 8. [Allen Press]: Pushkin, Alexander: FOUR STORIES THE SQUIRE’S DAUGHTER THE QUEEN OF SPADES THE BLIZZARD THE SHOT. Greenbrae, CA: The Allen Press, 1987. Small quarto. Decorated cloth. Illustrated with two wood engravings by John DePol. A very fine copy, with the prospectus laid in (the latter with a neat ink date at end). Translations by Gillon Aitken. One of 145 copies printed on handmade rag paper in Van Dijck types, with the woodcut title-device colored by hand. The fifty-third production of the Press. $550. 9. [Allen Press]: Shakespeare, William: ROMEO [&] JULIET A TRAGEDY.... [Greenbrae, CA]: The Allen Press, 1988. Quarto. Calligraphically decorated cloth. Fine, in lightly rubbed acetate wrapper. One of 115 copies printed by the Allens in Monotype Bembo and Centaur on Rives, with line drawings by Michéle-Forgeois and with calligraphy by Mark Livingston. $650. 10. [Amateur Press]: Bliss, Carey S.: THE WILLOW DALE PRESS 1879 WITH NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF THE AMATEUR PRESS IN CALIFORNIA. Los Angeles: Dawson’s Book Shop, 1975. Cloth and decorated boards. Bookplate on front pastedown, otherwise fine. First edition. From a total edition of 132 copies printed at the Bookhaven Press, this is one of 52 copies with three original issues of the Willow Dale Press inserted in an envelope in the rear (I:1,3 and 6). The Willow Dale Press exemplified the principles of the amateur press of the late 19th century. It was hand-printed on a hobby press as a monthly by Annetta Florence Carter and her younger brother, and in its twelve numbers it featured amateur poetry, local anecdotes, and a few adverts.