OCCASIONAL LIST / BOSTON BOOK FAIR / NOV. 13-15, 2009

JAMES S. JAFFE RARE BOOKS

790 Madison Ave, Suite 605 New York, New York 10065 Tel 212-988-8042 Fax 212-988-8044 Email: [email protected] Please visit our website: www.jamesjaffe.com

Member Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America / International League of Antiquarian Booksellers

These and other books will be available in Booth 314. It is advisable to place any orders during the fair by calling us at 610-637-3531.

All books and manuscripts are offered subject to prior sale. Libraries will be billed to suit their budgets. Digital images are available upon request.

1. ALGREN, Nelson. Somebody in Boots. 8vo, original terracotta cloth, dust jacket. N.Y.: The Vanguard Press, (1935). First edition of Algren’s rare first book which served as the genesis for A Walk on the Wild Side (1956). Signed by Algren on the title page and additionally inscribed by him at a later date (1978) on the front free endpaper: “For Christine and Robert Liska from Nelson Algren June 1978”. Algren has incorporated a drawing of a cat in his inscription. Nelson Ahlgren Abraham was born in Detroit in 1909, and later adopted a modified form of his Swedish grandfather’s name. He grew up in Chicago, and earned a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1931. In 1933, he moved to Texas to find work, and began his literary career living in a derelict gas station. A short story, “So Help Me”, was accepted by Story magazine and led to an advance of $100.00 for his first book. In 1934, Algren was arrested and jailed for stealing a typewriter. Somebody in Boots is based on his experiences in Texas, experiences that provided the material for many of Algren’s later works. The novel sold only 750 copies, and the disappointment put the author in the hospital. After the war, during which Algren served in the infantry and medical corps, Algren met Simone de Beauvoir, who fell in love with him and with whom he carried on a relationship for almost two decades. Although the relationship ended in bitterness, occasioned by de Beauvoir’s candor about her relationship with Algren in her autobiography Force of Circumstance (1963), de Beauvoir died and was buried wearing Algren’s ring. Somebody in Boots is notoriously rare in dust jacket: this is only the second copy we have encountered in the last twenty-five years, and the other copy was beneath the consideration of the fastidious collector. A beautiful copy in dust jacket with a half-inch closed tear at the top of the front panel. $9500.00

2. [ANTHOLOGY]. Contact Collection of Contemporary Writers. (Edited by Robert McAlmon). 8vo, original printed wrappers. (Paris: Contact Editions Three Mountains Press, 1925). First edition, published jointly by McAlmon’s Contact Editions & William Bird’s Three Mountains Press. One of 300 copies printed in Dijon by Darantiere, who printed Joyce’s Ulysses. Slocum & Cahoon B7. With contributions by Djuna Barnes, Bryher, Mary Butts, Norman Douglas, Havelock Ellis, Ford Madox Ford, Wallace Gould, Ernest Hemingway, Marsden Hartley, H. D., John Herrman, Joyce, Mina Loy, Robert McAlmon, Ezra Pound, Dorothy Richardson, May Sinclair, Edith Sitwell, Gertrude Stein and William Carlos Williams. Includes Joyce’s “Work In Progress” from Finnegans Wake; Hemingway’s Soldiers Home, which first appeared in the American edition of In Our Time; Hanneman B3; andWilliam Carlos Williams’ essay on Marianne Moore; Wallace B8. A very fine bright copy, with a tiny nick at head of spine, and a touch of soiling at the base of the spine, otherwise as fine a copy as we have seen. $3500.00

3. [ART – BERMAN]. BERMAN, Wallace. Radio/Aether Series 1966/1974. A portfolio of 13 two-color offset lithographs, each photographed from an original verifax collage, and printed on star-white cover mounted on Gemini rag-board. Los Angeles: Gemini G.E.L., 1974. First edition. Limited to 50 copies, with 10 artist’s proofs, signed by Berman on the title-page. Each print represents a grid featuring the repeated image of a hand-held transistor radio, a Berman leitmotif that resonated with his role as a transmitter of images and ideas. As new in original screen- printed fabric-covered box. $12,500.00

4. ASHBERY, John. Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. 8vo, original cloth-backed boards, dust jacket. N. Y.: Viking, (1975). First edition. Signed by Ashbery on the title page. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. One of 3500 copies printed. Kermani A22. An exceptionally fine copy, uncommon signed. $1000.00

5. ASHBERY, John & WINKFIELD, Trevor. Faster Than Birds Can Fly. Large, oblong 4to, full- page illustrations in colors by Trevor Winkfield, original cloth over boards, color onlay on both covers, publisher’s acetate dust jacket. New York: Granary Books, 2009. First edition. One of 40 numbered copies signed by Ashbery and Winkfield (the entire edition). “Though it may have ended up looking like a child’s coloring book (albeit one that’s already been colored using Technicolor crayons), my original intention was to produce an updated Codex Amiatinus painted by Northumberland monks in the seventh century, not far from where I grew up in the North of England. So much for intentions. . . . . though Ashbery’s poem has long struck me as liturgical. Is that bowler-hatted bird actually Thomas Traherne? And can that pretty butterfly really be the soul escaping from the body? I’ve tried to leave my images open to as many interpretations as every single one of Ashbery’s words.” – Trevor Winkfield. As new. $2500.00

6. AUDEN, W. H. Some Poems. Small 8vo, original printed boards, dust jacket. London: Faber, (1940). First edition, one of 3550 copies printed. Signed by Auden on the title page beneath his scored through printed name. Bloomfield & Mendelson A23. Fine copy in slightly sunned jacket. $850.00

7. (AUSTEN, Jane). Pride and Prejudice: A Novel. In Three Volumes. By the Author of “Sense and Sensibility.” 3 volumes, small 8vo, full contemporary calf with “Charleton” stamped in gilt on each cover, green morocco spine labels. London: Printed for T. Egerton, Military Library, Whitehall, 1813. First edition of Austen’s masterpiece, with all half-titles present. Gilson A3. There is no record of the number of copies of the first edition, but Keynes suggests 1500 as the probable print run. The book was well received and the first edition sold out within the year. Regency binders tended to remove the half titles, with the result that complete copies with the half-titles are extremely rare; Michael Sadleir, Sir Geoffrey Keynes, and R.W. Chapman all had copies that lacked the half-titles, as do the copies in the Bodleian and Cambridge University Libraries. Gilson A3; Keynes 8; Sadleir 62b. Minor restoration to outer hinges of the first two volumes, occasional foxing, bookplates on verso of front free endpapers, extremities of covers lightly worn, but still an attractive set of the most justifiably popular novel in the English language, with all of the half-titles. In a full red morocco folding box. $65,000.00

8. BECKETT, Samuel. Whoroscope. 8vo, printed brick-red wrappers, publisher’s printed wrap- around band. Paris: Hours Press, 1930. First edition of Beckett’s first separately published work. One of 200 numbered copies out of a total edition of 300 copies printed. Federman & Fletcher 5. Beckett wrote Whoroscope in a single night with the object of securing a prize of 1000 francs (ten pounds) from the Hours Press. The contest called for submissions of a poem, maximum length of which not to exceed 100 lines, on the subject of Time. Whoroscope consists of 98 lines and was declared the winner by Nancy Cunard, proprietress of the press, and Richard Aldington, the other judge. A bit dusty, occasional light foxing, otherwise a fine copy. $4500.00

9. BECKETT, Samuel. Fin de Partie, suivi de Acte sans paroles. [Endgame, followed by Act Without Words.] 8vo, original printed wrappers. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit, 1957. First edition, first issue on “grand papier”, published January 30, 1957. One of 50 copies printed on “velin pur fil du Marais”, this being – fittingly – number 13. Endgame is one of Beckett’s greatest works, the play which he called ‘more inhuman’ than Godot, and which Harold Bloom, in The Western Canon, acclaimed as the greatest dramatic work of the 20th century. Bloom argued that Endgame is a ‘greater yet more savage work than Godot: I cannot think of any other 20th century work of literature composed as late as 1957 that is nearly as original an achievement as Endgame, nor has there been anything since to challenge such originality. Beckett may have foresworn “mastery” as not being possible after Joyce and Proust, but Endgame reaches it’. An immaculate, unopened copy of this rare issue, preserved in a folding linen box with leather spine. $12,500.00

10. BERRIGAN, Ted. Red Wagon. 8vo, original boards, dust jacket. Chicago: Yellow Press, (1976). First edition. Presentation copy, inscribed by Berrigan to the poet Barbara Guest on the front free endpaper: “Love to Barbara from Ted, 1977, NYC”. A very fine copy in dust jacket. $1000.00

11. BERRIGAN, Ted. In The Nam What Can Happen? Illustrated by George Schneeman. Square 4to, loose sheets in clear plastic slipcase. N. Y.: Granary Books, 1997. First edition. Limited to 70 copies printed letterpress from magnesium plates on Rives 300 gm paper by Philip Gallo at The Hermetic Press, signed by the artist, of which 50 copies were for sale. A beautiful “simulation” of a one-of-a-kind collaborative book made by Berrigan and Schneeman in 1967- 68. “The original was passed back and forth for about a year, remaining in the hands of one or the other for weeks or even months at a time – poet and artist each adding, subtracting, working over words and images. The materials used were pen & ink, white acrylic paint and collage. The work was made primarily for the amusement of the collaborators.” As new. $1250.00

12. BISHOP, Elizabeth. Poems: North & South - A Cold Spring. 8vo, original blue cloth, dust jacket. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1955. First edition of Bishop’s second book, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1955. One of 2000 copies printed. MacMahon A2. Presentation copy, inscribed to the Brazilian poet João Cabral de Melo Neto: “For João Cabral de Melo Neto, with all the best poetic & international feelings – Elizabeth Bishop December 18th, 1955.” North & South – A Cold Spring was published on July 14, 1955. João Cabral de Melo Neto (1920-1999) was a member of the “Generation of 1945” and is widely recognized as one of the greatest modern poets. He was awarded the Camões Prize in 1990 and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1992. Bishop began to translate portions of Cabral de Melo Neto’s most famous work, the Pernambuco Christmas Play, Morte e Vida Severina (“The Death and Life of a Severino”), soon after it was published in 1955 – (Goldensohn, Elizabeth Bishop: The Biography of a Poetry, p. 174). Bishop’s brilliant translation was first published in Poetry magazine in Oct/Nov 1963 with “A Note on the Poet”, and later included in her Complete Poems in 1969, as well as in An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Brazilian Poetry (1972), which Bishop edited with Emanuel Brasil. In her Introduction to that anthology, Bishop described Cabral as Brazil’s ‘‘most important poet of the postwar generation”, and commented that his poetry, characterized by “striking visual imagery and an insistent use of concrete, tactile nouns”, displays “the highest development and the greatest coherency of style of any Brazilian poet.” Pencil annotations to the poems on the table of contents page, representing a numerical tally of the number of words and lines. Head of spine a bit frayed, otherwise a very good copy in dust jacket with some shallow chipping and light foxing to the spine. Important association copies of Bishop’s books are extremely rare. $4500.00

13. BISHOP, Elizabeth. The Complete Poems. 8vo, blue cloth, dust jacket. N. Y.: Farrar Straus & Giroux, (1969). First edition, winner of the National Book Award for Poetry. One of 5500 copies printed. MacMahon A9. Signed by Bishop on the title-page. Fine copy in a slightly sunned jacket with a spot of soiling on front panel. $2500.00

14. BISHOP, Elizabeth. The Fish. Broadside poem printed on a single sheet of white wove paper, 13 x 9 inches. (Seattle, WA: Printed by John Sollid for David Ishii, 1974). First edition, first impression, and the first separate printing of this poem. One of only 12 numbered copies signed by the poet. “13 copies of this broadside were printed... approximately one month before EB’s arrival for the Roethke Memorial Reading in May 1974. During her stay, EB signed 12 copies.” McMahon “Appendix II, Unauthorized Printing”, pp. 210-211. A very fine copy of Elizabeth Bishop’s rarest title, the only copy of the correct issue that we have seen on the market. $10,000.00

15. [BLOOMSBURY]. BELL, Vanessa. Original study for “The Memoir Club”. Oil on canvas, approximately 19½ x 11½ inches, framed and glazed, no date but circa 1943. A fine study, with the figures limned in, for the artist’s celebrated portrait of the members of “The Memoir Club” which now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London.”The Memoir Club met for the first time on 4 March 1920. The members were: Desmond and Molly MacCarthy, Leonard and Virginia Woolf, Saxon Sydney-Turner, Maynard Keynes, Lytton Strachey, Duncan Grant, Clive and Vanessa Bell, Morgan Forster, Sydney Waterlow and Roger Fry. David Garnett became a member fairly soon afterwards. The club had no rules, save that there was an understanding that members were free to say anything they pleased, nor did it keep records. Leonard Woolf (Downhill All The Way . . . p. 114) suggests that the membership was identical with the original thirteen members of Bloomsbury.” - Quentin Bell, Virginia Woolf (London: Hogarth Press, 1972), p. 83. Elizabeth Richardson, in A Bloomsbury Iconography, notes: “The Memoir Club, Study for, by Vanessa Bell, c. 1943, oil on canvas (12 x 2); the same people, though less recognizable, in the same position as the final version, but Molly MacCarthy wears a hat and there is a standing female figure (Angelica Garnett?) left of centre; an earlier unfinished version (undated) was painted before any of the members had died (Edel: B 257) (see D’Offay: VB cat. 30).” – Elizabeth P. Richardson, A Bloomsbury Iconography (1989), p. 180. The present painting bears on the back of the frame a note of provenance from the Anthony D’Offay Gallery, which would suggest that this study is the earlier version to which Richardson refers. The painting is in excellent condition. $35,000.00

16. BOSWELL, James. The Life of Samuel Johnson. . . In Two Volumes. . 2 volumes, 4to (295 x 203 mm; untrimmed), engraved portrait of Johnson by James Heath after Sir Joshua Reynolds, 2 engraved plates of facsimiles by H. Shepherd, contemporary half calf and boards, morocco spine labels. London: Printed by Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, 1791. First edition, first state, with “gve” on p.135 of the first volume; Mm4 and Nn1 in Volume I and E3, Qq3, and Eee2 in Volume II are cancels. One of 1750 copies printed. Booklabels of W. Strong (1p. ALS from J. Parsons laid in) and ink signature of J. Robinson in Volume I. Accompanied by The London Chronicle, No. 5414, for May 5, 1791, which prints an advertisement for the book. W. Jackson Bate, Johnson’s best modern biographer, assessed Boswell’s achievement in this way: “It was to be a new kind of biography - a ‘life in Scenes’, as though it were a kind of drama. And when this ‘life in Scenes’ did appear, nothing comparable to it had existed. Nor has anything comparable been written since, because that special union of talents, opportunities, and subject matter has never been duplicated. If there were writers who had Boswell’s opportunities of knowing their subject as well, they have not had his unusual combination of talents. If they had his talents, they have lacked his opportunities. The talents include his gift for empathy and dramatic imitation, his ability to draw people out and get them to talk freely, his astonishing memory for conversations, his zest and gusto, his generous capacity for admiration, and his sheer industry as a reporter - qualities that are by no means often found together . . . whatever its limitations, the work remains unique among all writings by one human being about another . . . in the drama, fidelity, and range of interests in the conversation of one of the most fascinating individuals in history.” – Samuel Johnson (N. Y.: Harcourt Brace, 1977), pp. 365-366. Adam 2:37. Courtney 172-173. Grolier English 65. Pottle 79. Rothschild 463-465. Hinges cracked, scattered light foxing, a few trifling stains, boards somewhat worn, otherwise a very good set preserved in a half morocco slipcase. $25,000.00

17. BRAINARD, Joe. I Remember. 8vo, original cloth, dust jacket. (N. Y.): Full Court Press, (1975). First edition of the expanded version, published by Ron Padgett’s Full Court Press. One of only 100 copies signed by Brainard. Fine copy. $350.00

18. BRAINARD, Joe. Three original manuscripts, two of prose, one of poetry, 4 1/2 pages, with five holograph letters signed, 4 1/2 pages, all addressed to Ted Berrigan. (Various places: various dates). a) ALS, 1/2p., 8vo, postmarked January 2, 1962, 93 First Avenue, NYC, a letter of transmittal, “Here’s Black Plant & Self-Portrait with Night Letter. I’m praying. Take whatever you can get. (Even $5)”, accompanied by 1 1/2pp., approximately 45 lines, holograph fair copy of Brainard’s poem ‘Self-Portrait As a Mirrow’, January 1, 1962, recto and verso of an unlined quarto sheet; b) ALS, 1/2p., small 4to lettersheet, postmarked July 30, 1962, 93 First Avenue, NYC, “Don’t plan on my coming (sic) up. Am sick like I’ve never been sick before. I lay in bed and moan then try to do some work, then moan some more”; c) APS, 12mo, postmarked January 12, 1963, 231 W. Newton Street, Boston, “All I do is read any more. At last I am a New Englander. I live 2 feet from 5 rail road tracks, which is exciting if nothing else... Boston, sharp & clear edged, rich in color, I like. The Boston Museum of Art (8 blocks away) I like. And I already have a library card. I’m actually kinda enjoying the drama of boredom, & the thinking that goes along with it.”; d) ALS, 1 1/2pp., large 8vo on steno paper, Np: nd, Brainard writes of “things going terribly” and asks for a loan to pay his rent, going so far as to say that he has to get a job. Brainard continues, “I read tons, and that’s about all. Lately mostly Dostoyevsky ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ & ‘Crime and Punishment’ are my favorites to date. I’m playing a game with myself to read his complete works... Am anxious to get my oils from Sandy, but most of all I just want to be able to exist. Sounds like such a simple thing. Damn it all.”; e) ALS, 1p., 4to looseleaf paper, Np: nd, “Upon the moment receiving ‘C’, while reading it, and for many hours afterwards I sat with a stupid uncontrolable (sic) grin on my face. Not that it was so funny, but it made me feel great! . . . If I can help with ‘C’ in any way, let me, for I want to”; f) holograph manuscript in prose, 2pp. closely written, versos only, on 2 small 4to sheets of printed stationery, titled ‘Saturday July 21st 1962’ , “I read ‘Letters to a Young Poet’ by Rainer Maria Rilke, but I am a painter... I decided that art is never contrived, controlled yes, but never contrived. Cubism serves a good example. In all of its obviously organized complexity it might be easy to doubt its spontaneity. African sculpture, paralleling with cubism, destroys this point. Natural forms were naively simplified in line, plane and mass to give their significant characteristics the greatest possible force and vigor of expression...I decide that Henri Matisse is a great painter because his paintings are very ‘present.’ And his thoughts are big in encompassing the obvious, which is stable and right, and the unobvious, which he makes obvious: this being purely Matisse. Thus his greatness lies within his own personal concept of seeing through form and color... And I have wet dreams of showing at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery”. At the bottom of the second page Berrigan has written, “Given to me by Joe Brainard. Ted Berrigan”; g) holograph manuscript in prose, 1p. closely written, verso only, on 4to sheet of printed stationery, titled ‘Damp Day’ , “Today how hard my mind is trying not to think too deeply...I feel damp under my arms and my mouth is dry. I walked over to the big mirrow (sic) on my bathtub on four legs and I look in. I am surprised as always. I am not at all myself. Just who are you now? Your hair is too long and I don’t like it. Your jeans are dirty too, and I bet your penis isn’t very big. Those are not even your glasses, they’re Ted’s, and your nose is pigish. You are funny. Ha! Ha! . . . “ On the recto of the sheet Berrigan has written, “2 of Joe Brainard’s first pieces of writing. 2 of the first half-dozen ever. Unpublished only copies. Ted Berrigan”. Short closed tear along fold of one letter, adhesive offset on another, otherwise about fine. $12,500.00

19. BRECHT, Bertolt. Svendborger Gedichte. Large 8vo, original printed wrappers. London (sic): Malik Verlag, 1939. First edition of Brecht’s most important collection of poetry, the poems of his Scandinavian exile. Copy number 64, signed by Brecht, out of a limited edition of unspecified size (almost certainly no more than 100 copies). Svendborger Gedicthe was originally going to be published by Wielande Herzfeld in Prague, where the book was set in type in 1938, but in anticipation of the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, the typeface, so-called the ‘Prager Satz’, was destroyed, and the publisher transferred the registered office of his publishing firm from Prague to London. “The Svendborg Poems were printed in Copenhagen, mainly on the basis of the proofs of the first printing in Prague and thanks largely to the efforts of Ruth Berlau and the financial assistance she organized.” Svendborger Gedichte appeared in June 1939 in Copenhagen (although the place of publication was given as London). – David Midgley, “Svendborg 1938”, from Brecht’s Poetry of Political Exile, edited by Ronald Speirs, (Cambridge 2000). After fleeing from Nazi Germany, Brecht was offered refuge in Denmark, eventually settling on the island of Funen near the port of Svendborg. It was there that he wrote his most important poems as well as Mother Courage and Her Children (1939), The Life of Galileo (1939), and The Good Person of Setzuan (1940). In 1940, he boarded a train in Finland for Vladivostock, then a boat for the United States, where he landed in San Pedro, California on July 21, 1941. Today, Brecht’s House in Svendborg is a centre for artists and writers. Wrappers dust soiled with some tiny closed tears or nicks in the overlapping edges, otherwise a fine, unopened copy. $5000.00

20. BROOKE, Rupert. 1914 and Other Poems. Small 8vo, frontispiece, original blue cloth with printed spine label, dust jacket.London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1915. First edition of the poet’s posthumous second book. Hayward, English Poetry, 321. NCBEL, IV, p. 241. Contemporary former owner’s inscription on front free endpaper, the usual offsetting to endpapers, a few pages [9-12] carelessly opened, otherwise a fine copy in somewhat age-darkened, lightly soiled dust jacket. An attractive copy in the rare dust jacket. $2500.00

21. BURROUGHS, Franklin. Compression Wood. 8vo, with an original frontispiece etching by Bryan Nash Gill, original blue cloth, slipcase. (Haverford, PA): Green Shade, 1999. First separate edition of this essay which was originally published in The American Scholar in 1998 & selected for inclusion in The Anthology of Best American Essays for 1999. One of 85 specially bound copies signed by Burroughs & Gill, with an original frontispiece etching by Bryan Nash Gill, out of a total edition of 500 copies printed under the supervision of Martino Mardersteig at the Stamperia Valdonega in Verona, Italy. Franklin Burroughs is the author of Billy Watson’s Croker Sack and Horry & the Waccamaw. As new. $250.00

22. BURROUGHS, Franklin. Passion or Conquest. 8vo, illustrated in color, original green boards, dust jacket. (Haverford, PA): Green Shade, 2001. First edition of this long essay on John James Audubon by the author of Billy Watson’s Croker Sack. One of 100 numbered copies printed by the Stamperia Valdonega in Verona, Italy and signed by the author. As new. $150.00

23. BURROUGHS, William. The Cat Inside. Drawings by Brion Gysin. 4to, with eight drawings by Gysin printed by hand in 2 colors, original full vellum stamped in gold, publisher’s folding cloth box. N. Y.: The Grenfell Press, 1986. First edition of Burroughs’ most endearing work, a paean to his favorite animal. One of only 18 Roman-numeraled copies printed on Crisbrook paper, specially bound and signed by Burroughs and Gysin, out of a total edition of 133 copies. A mint copy of Burroughs’ most beautiful book. $5000.00

24. CLARE, John. Poems Descriptive Of Rural Life And Scenery. Small 8vo, original drab boards with printed label on the spine. London: Printed for Taylor and Hessey, Fleet Street; and E. Drury, Stamford, 1820. First edition of Clare’s first book, with the half-title and five leaves of publisher’s advertisements bound in at the back. Hayward English Poetry, 236 (noting four leaves of publisher’s ads). Poems was published in an edition of 1000 copies, which sold out within two months; a second edition of 2000 copies was exhausted before the end of the year, and a reprint was required the year later. England’s “greatest nature poet” (Tom Paulin), John Clare was considered the English Burns, a “natural” poet who was an impoverished, ill-educated agricultural laborer. Inspired by James Thomson’s The Seasons, Clare had begun writing poetry at the age of 13, and although his poetic gift was considered inexplicable even to himself, by the time he died in an insane asylum in 1864, he had written “nearly 10,000 pages of poems, autobiography, journals, letters, essays, natural history writings and a substantial collection of traditional songs which he transcribed and collected.” Like Burns, his poetry is enriched by his use of his native Northamptonshire vernacular, as well as by his profound affinity for the place, particularly in the days before the enclosure movement had destroyed it. Contemporary ownership signature, dated Feb. 2, 1820 (the book was published on Jan. 15), on the front free endpaper; covers slightly rubbed, rear cover somewhat smudged, but still a superb copy, in original and unrestored state, preserved in a green half-morocco slipcase. $15,000.00

25. CLARE, John. The Shepherd’s Calendar; With Village Stories, And Other Poems. Small 8vo, frontispiece, original boards. London: Published for John Taylor, Waterloo Place, By James Duncan, Paternoster Row; and Sold by J. A. Hessey, 93, Fleet Street, 1827. First edition, with two pages of publisher’s ads at the back. Presentation copy, inscribed on the half-title page to “Mrs Bellairs with the Authors best respects April 30 1827”. The recipient, with whom Clare shared an interest in gardening, lived at Woodcroft Castle, where Clare had worked as a ploughboy. “Within a few months of publication, Taylor was complaining what a poor season it was for new books, that the Calendar ‘has had comparatively no Sale’, and how ‘the Time has passed away in which Poetry will answer’. Clare’s poetry, The Shepherd’s Calendar in particular, is now valued for its intimately detailed evocation of an ancient rural way of life that is now lost as well as its range of verse forms, its attunement to seasonal change and its acknowledgement of women as repositories of a community’s oral traditions.” – Jonathan Bate, John Clare: A Biography (NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003), pp.306-312. Spine perished, boards somewhat soiled, gatherings a bit loose, otherwise a good copy with a rare inscription. The Bradley Martin copy, preserved in a folding cloth box. $8500.00

26. CREELEY, Robert. Words. Small 4to, original brown boards, plain unprinted dust jacket. (Rochester, MI: Perishable Press, 1965). First edition of Creeley’s rarest book, a collection of eight poems printed on handmade paper by Walter Hamady’s yet unnamed Perishable Press. One of only 30 copies printed (the entire edition); this copy signed by Creeley on the title-page. The first hard-bound book from the Perishable Press, Words was printed at Robert Runser’s Rob Run Press in Rochester, Michigan, on paper “made especially for the book by the printer from rags and was printed one side only and bound French-folded into boards covered with a red/brown Fabriano paper with the title printed on the front and spine” by Elizabeth Kner. Hamady 3. Words was the first of three books of Creeley’s published by the Perishable Press, which also printed the broadside poem “For Joel (Oppenheimer)”. In addition to the title poem, Words includes “A Reason”, “The Shame”, “The Statue”, “The Window”, “To Bobbie”, “The Flower”, and “A Prayer”. Top of spine slightly bumped, otherwise a fine copy in lightly soiled dust wrapper. $3500.00

27. CUMMINGS, E. E. 50 Poems. 8vo, original cloth, dust jacket. N. Y.: Duell Sloan & Pearce, (1940). First trade edition of Cummings’ finest collection. One of 1000 copies. Firmage A18b. Very fine copy in dust jacket which is a trifle nicked near the head of the spine. Rare in this condition. $1250.00

28. DAVENPORT, Guy & Jonathan WILLIAMS. A Garden Carried In A Pocket: Letters 1964- 1968. Edited by Thomas Meyer. 8vo, illustrated, original cloth, dust jacket. Haverford: Green Shade, 2004. First edition. One of 26 lettered hardbound copies signed by Davenport and Williams and Thomas Meyer, out of a total edition of 526 copies printed. Designed by The Grenfell Press & printed by Trifolio, Verona, Italy. “We are not celebrities. No one has known quite what to make of a patrician satirist and lyric poet from Highlands, North Carolina, or of an essayist and short story writer from Anderson, South Carolina.” - Guy Davenport. “It is clear that G. Davenport and J. Williams write their letters in the fresh of the morning, when the Wheaties have kicked in, in GD’s case, and the peanut-butter-and-mayonnaise sandwich and Coke, in JW’s case.” – Jonathan Williams. “Here we have two men the perfection of whose craft has been wrought through the practice of letter-writing. . . . What we have here in particular is onset and blossoming, one of the most distinguished exchanges imaginable unfolding.” – Thomas Meyer. As new. Price is net to all. $750.00

29. DRABBLE, Margaret. The Middle Ground. The author’s manuscript: an extensively revised typescript, with many of the revisions taking the form of separate pages on which passages of the novel were rewritten and which have been taped over the sheets bearing earlier versions of the text, and with Drabble’s handwritten title-page. Included with the typescript is the oblong spiral- bound proof copy of the book (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1980). Corrected carbon typescript of this novel, 209 pages, 4to, in a loose-leaf binder with the author’s notes on the inside covers. Aside from the tape stains, the typescript is in good condition. $7500.00

30. ELIOT, T. S. Ash-Wednesday. Small 8vo, original blue cloth, publisher’s slipcase. N. Y.: Fountain Press; London: Faber, 1930. First edition. Limited to 600 copies signed by Eliot. Connolly 100, 65. Faint offsetting to free endpapers as usual, otherwise a fine bright copy in the original slipcase, which is partially broken along one edge. $1750.00

31. FERMOR, Patrick Leigh. A Time To Keep Silence. 8vo, frontispiece, original black buckram with red leather label on spine, dust jacket. London: Queen Anne Press, 1953. First edition. Limited to 500 copies designed by Robert Harling and printed on Millbourn hand-made paper. Dust jacket faintly tanned and lightly worn at head of spine, otherwise a fine copy. $750.00

32. [FINE PRINTING – EDIZIONI AMPERSAND]. KLEIST, Heinrich von. Sul Teatro Delle Marionette (Puppet Theater). A short story in German, with a translation in Italian by Renata Colorni. Illustrated with four etchings by Neil Moore. 4to, original quarter leather & cloth, slipcase. Verona: Edizioni Ampersand, (1984). First edition of the first book from the press, with text in German and Italian. Limited to 80 press-numbered copies, designed and printed by Alessandro Zanella, assistant to Richard Gabriel Rummonds at the Plain Wrapper Press in Verona. “When I saw his first book, I was literally moved to tears, partly because of its impeccable beauty, and partly because it was the realization of his early desire to print von Kleist. I think all collectors of limited editions, whether or not they read these languages, will enjoy it for its fine typography and stunning illustrations.” – Rummonds. Very fine copy. $1250.00

33. (FORD, Ford Madox). The Good Soldier. A Tale of Passion. By Ford Madox Hueffer. 8vo, original brown cloth. London: John Lane, The Bodley Head; New York, John Lane Company, 1915. First edition of the author’s masterpiece. With 16 pages of ads at the back, listing The Good Soldier under its original title of The Saddest Story. Harvey A46. Several faint damp-spots on front cover, otherwise a very good copy. $2500.00

34. FROST, Robert. Collected Poems. Tall 8vo, original buckram with leather label on spine, t.e.g. N. Y.: Random House, 1930. First edition of the first of Frost’s Pulitzer Prize winning collections. Limited to 1000 copies printed at the Spiral Press and signed by Frost. Some slight discoloration along outer hinges, offsetting to endpapers as usual, otherwise an unusually fine unopened copy of this handsome edition, which is considerably scarcer than its large limitation suggests. $2500.00

35. FROST, Robert. Collected Poems of Robert Frost. 8vo, frontispiece portrait of the author by Doris Ulmann, original cloth, dust jacket. N. Y.: Henry Holt and Company, (1930). First trade edition, after the limited signed edition of 1000 copies published by Random House. One of 3870 copies printed. Crane A14.1. The Holt trade edition of the Collected Poems “was printed from plates made from the limited edition type and issued . . . (with) a new title-page and with the contents removed from the back to the front. . . .” In her entry (A14) for the Random House limited edition of Collected Poems, Crane notes: “The 1000 copies of the limited edition were published four weeks in advance of the trade edition, which was set from plates made from the limited edition type, as was the English edition. In 1966 Joseph Blumenthal supplied a commentary to a Morgan Library exhibition catalog in which he wrote about the printing of the 1930 Collected Poems: ‘Early in 1929, when Random House was still active in the publication of press books, they made arrangements with Frost’s publisher, Henry Holt and Company, to prepare joint publication of the first collected edition of Frost’s poems. Random House would issue a signed, limited edition of one thousand copies and the plates would then be turned over to Holt for their manufacturing printer to use in running the trade edition...’ It should be noted, too, that “The texts of certain poems as they appear in the Collected Poems differ from the original texts in the first editions of A Boy’s Will, North of Boston, Mountain Interval, New Hampshire, and West-Running Brook.” Very fine copy in price-clipped dust jacket. $500.00

36. GAY, John. Fables by John Gay, With A Life Of The Author and embellished with Seventy Plates. 2 volumes, royal 8vo, illustrated with engravings, later full dark green crushed morocco, with elaborately gilt spines, marbled endpapers, a.e.g., by Wallis & Lloyd of London. London: Printed for John Stockdale Piccadilly, 1793. First of this edition. Bentley & Nurmi 371A. In addition to the engraved title-pages, there are actually 71 plates, including twelve designs by William Blake, freely adapted from earlier editions of the Fables. The seventy illustrations for John Stockdale’s two-volume edition of John Gay’s Fables are said to have been designed by (Edward Francesco) Burney and Charles Catton the Younger. William Blake engraved twelve of the plates, and several other engravers signed the rest. Since no artist’s name appears on any plate, it is not possible to say how well Burney’s designs relate to those by William Kent and John Wooton (1727) & by Gravelot (1738) in earlier editions of Gay’s Fables. The designs for “The Two Owls and the Sparrow” & “The Vulture, the Sparrow, and Other Birds” derive ultimately from paintings by Francis Barlow. Ray, The Illustrator and the Book in England from 1790 to 1914, 1. Hodnett, Five Centuries of English Book Illustration (Scolar Press, 1988), p. 98. Spines lightly faded, otherwise a fine set, handsomely bound. $2500.00

37. [GEHENNA PRESS]. HUGHES, Ted. Howls And Whispers. Small 4to, illustrated with eleven original etchings by Leonard Baskin, original full red & black leather with black leather label on the spine and on the front cover, in cloth folding box, by Claudia Cohen. (Hadley, MA): The Gehenna Press, 1998. First edition of these eleven poems which were withheld from the publication of Hughes’ Birthday Letters, poems addressed to Sylvia Plath. One of 10 deluxe copies, with three watercolors by Baskin, a second suite of the etchings, one copperplate and a leaf of the corrected manuscript of Hughes’ poem “The Hidden Orestes”, out of a total edition of 110 copies printed by hand in Centaur types on Italian handmade paper signed by Hughes and Baskin. In addition, the present copy contains three extra watercolors by Baskin, and a suite of twenty signed proof etchings. With the unexpected publication of Birthday Letters, Hughes broke a thirty-five year long silence on the subject of his late wife, shocking some partisans, but winning many new admirers for his poetry. The eleven poems in Howls & Whispers are published here for the first time. A very fine copy of this gorgeous book. $22,500.00

38. GIOIA, Dana. Equations of the Light. Two stories by Dana Gioia. Two illustrations cut by Linda Samson-Talleur. Translated by Massimo Bacigalupo. Folio, original paste-paper boards. Verona: Edizioni Ampersand, 1987. First edition, the text in English and Italian. Limited to 50 press-numbered copies printed by Alessandro Zanella and Linda Samson-Talleur in Monotype Dante on hand-made paper from Cartiere Magnani in Pescia, and signed by Gioia and Samson- Talleur. A fine copy. Rare. $1500.00

39. GIOIA, Dana. Journeys in Sunlight. Six Poems. Three Etchings by Fulvio Testa. 4to, original quarter morocco & hand-painted boards, glassine dust jacket, cloth box. Cottondale, AL: Ex Ophidia, 1987. First edition. One of 90 copies printed by Richard Gabriel Rummonds and signed by Gioia and Testa. An exquisite book, the last book printed with the Ex Ophidia imprint, and in our opinion, the most beautiful of Rummonds books. As new. $2000.00

40. GOLDING, William. Lord of the Flies. 8vo, original red cloth, spine lettered in white, dust jacket. London: Faber and Faber Ltd, (1954). First edition of Golding’s widely acclaimed first novel. A very fine, bright copy, small bookseller’s ticket on front pastedown, very few fox marks on endpapers, in dust jacket. $7500.00

41. GRAVES, Robert, editor. The Owl: A Miscellany. No. 1. May, 1919. Folio, illustrated, original pictorial wrappers. London: Martin Secker, 1919. First edition. One of 24 special copies signed by all of the contributors, a few of the signatures pasted in as issued. The contributors include Max Beerbohm, Randolph Caldecott, John Galsworthy, Robert Graves, Thomas Hardy, Eric Kennington, John Masefield, Nancy Nicholson, Robert Nichols, William Orpen, Siegfried Sassoon, W.J. Turner, among others. A very good copy, preserved in a half-morocco folding box. $2500.00

42. GUEST, Barbara. The Altos. Illustrated with original hand-colored etchings by Richard Tuttle. Folio, original full white calf stamped in blind on the front cover. San Francisco: Hine Editions / Limestone Press, 1991. Limited edition. One of 40 Roman-numeraled copies printed by hand on Somerset paper and signed by the author and the artist, from a total edition of 120 copies. As new, in the original mailing glassine and shipping box. $7500.00

43. HEANEY, Seamus. The Gravel Walks. 12mo, original marbled wrappers. Hickory, NC: Lenoir Rhyne College, 1992. First edition. One of only 26 lettered copies printed on hand-made paper signed by Heaney. “Printed at the Shadowy Waters Press for Lenoir Rhyne College to mark the occasion of the A. C. I. S. Southern Regional Conference, March, 1992”. Fine copy. $1500.00

44. HUGHES, Ted. Birthday Letters. 8vo, original cloth-backed boards, acetate dust jacket. (London): Faber & Faber, (1998). First edition, limited issue of these controversial poems about Hughes’ relationship with his first wife, Sylvia Plath. One of 300 numbered copies signed by Hughes. Winner of the Whitbread Prize. Very fine copy. $850.00

ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPH SIGNED BY JAMES & JOHN SINGER SARGENT

45. [JAMES, Henry]. SARGENT, John Singer. Original silver bromide photographic portrait of John Singer Sargent’s celebrated portrait of Henry James, 10 1/2 x 13 inches (image), 15 x 18 3/4 inches (image & mount), signed on the mount by both James and Sargent. Sargent’s original portrait of James was commissioned by James’s friends to commemorate his 70th birthday in 1913. James would not accept the gift, but agreed to act as its “custodian” on the condition, specified in his will, that it be given to the National Portrait Gallery in London, where it now hangs. A photographic reproduction of the portrait, printed in an edition of 300 copies signed by the subject and artist, was produced for the subscribers. According to James’ biographer, Leon Edel, “(James) arranged for all of them to receive a photograph of the Sargent portrait signed on the left by Sargent and on the right by himself. Sargent’s name has all but faded from such of these as survive; but James’s name, with its customary largeness and boldness, remains visible.” – Leon Edel, The Master 1901-1916 (London: Rupert Hart Davis, 1972), p. 490. The signatures in the present example, however, show little sign of fading. James met Sargent in 1883, and the two men became close friends. Edel notes that “They had so much in common that they must have seemed to each other, in certain respects, to be mirror-images.” – Edel, The Middle Years 1884-1894, pp. 45-46. James admired Sargent enormously, saying of him that he presented “‘the slightly ‘uncanny’ spectacle of a talent which on the very threshold of its career has nothing more to learn” and that “he expresses himself as no one else scarce begins to do in the language of the art he practises.” The present commemorative photographic reproduction of Sargent’s iconic portrait of James, signed by the two friends, is rare. Framed and glazed. $12,500.00

46. [JEFFERSON, THOMAS]. LAMBETH, William Alexander & Warren H. MANNING. Thomas Jefferson As an Architect and a Designer of Landscapes. Small 4to, illustrated, original pictorial green cloth, t.e.g., others untrimmed. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913. First edition. One of 535 numbered copies printed at The Riverside Press. Spine ends lightly bumped, otherwise a fine, bright copy of this beautiful book. $1000.00

47. KNOWLES, John. A Separate Peace. A Novel. 8vo, original green boards, dust jacket. London: Secker & Warburg, 1959. First edition of the author’s scarce first book, a classic of modern American literature. The English edition precedes the American. An exceptionally fine bright copy in the pictorial dust jacket which is very slightly foxed along the top of the inner flaps and has a short, half-inch closed tear in the back panel of the jacket. $2500.00

48. KOCH, Kenneth. Ko or A Season on Earth. 8vo, original cloth-backed tan paper boards. N. Y.: Grove Press, 1959. First edition of Koch’s first regularly published book. Limited Issue, one of only 4 copies, hors commerce, and signed by Koch in black ink on a page before the text. Lepper, p. 265. The present copy, however, is numbered “6”, suggesting that this issue may have consisted of a few more copies than was originally intended. A very fine copy of Koch’s rarest book, an epic fantasy narrative poem, without dust jacket as issued. $1250.00

49. KOOSER, Ted. Official Entry Blank. Poems. 8vo, original cloth, dust jacket. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, (1969). First edition of Kooser’s first book, the rare hardcover issue. Simultaneously published in paperback. Signed by Kooser on the half-title page. A fine copy in price-clipped dust jacket, which is a trifle sunned along spine. $2250.00

50. KUNITZ, Stanley J. Intellectual Things. Small 8vo, original cloth with printed label on the spine, dust jacket. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1930. First edition of Kunitz’s first book. Presentation copy, inscribed many years later to one of his closest friends, the poet Theodore Roethke: “To Ted, whose feelings for these poems helped sustain me - Stanley 1960”. There are a number of pencil marks - checks and brackets - by a number of poems in the book, marks which may be in Roethke’s hand. While a contemporary presentation inscription might be preferred by some, the essence of this inscription, upon which it would be impossible to improve, lies in its touching retrospective simplicity. As Kunitz has written, “The poet of my generation who meant most to me, in his person and his art, was Theodore Roethke. . . . Some seven decades have passed since he blew into my life like the ‘big wind’ of one of his poems. . . . He had come to talk about poetry, and talk we did, over a jug, grandly and vehemently all through the night. There were occasions in the years that followed when I could swear that I hadn’t been to bed since we first met. Our evenings seemed to move inexorably toward a moment of trial for both of us when he would fumble for the crinkled manuscript in his pocket and present it for approval. During the reading of his poem he waited in an attitude of excruciating tension and suspicion. If the response failed to meet his expectation, he would lurch into a corner, ask for another drink, and put his head down, breathing heavily.” It was Kunitz who christened Roethke’s first book, Open House; and some years later, when Roethke was being asked to leave Bennington owing to manic-depression, he refused to leave unless Kunitz was hired to take his place on the faculty. Kunitz devoted one of his last evenings at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, which he helped to found, wholly to Roethke. A few very short closed tears in the jacket, some light foxing, otherwise a fine copy. $3500.00

51. LIEBLING, A. J. Normandy Revisited. 8vo, original cloth, dust jacket. N. Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1958. First edition. Presentation copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper “For Daise Terry, Joe Liebling, Sept. 2, 1958”. Recollections of the war correspondent and New Yorker stalwart, always a raffish pleasure to encounter. Terry was the office manager for the New Yorker, for which Liebling wrote and where much of this book first appeared in print. Jacket slightly rubbed, otherwise a fine copy with a rare inscription: one of the very few examples of a book inscribed by Liebling that we have encountered. $2500.00

52. MACLEAN, Norman. A River Runs Through It. Wood engravings by Barry Moser. 8vo, quarter red leather & marbled boards with printed label. West Hatfield, MA: Pennyroyal Press, (1989). First edition. One of 200 copies signed by Maclean and Moser. Additionally signed, on the half-title page, by Robert Redford, who directed the movie version of Maclean’s book. As new. $2000.00

53. (MANNING, Frederic). The Middle Parts of Fortune. Somme & Ancre, 1916. 2 volumes, small 8vo, marbled endpapers, original cloth, t.e.g., fabric ribbon bookmark, glassine dust jackets, cloth slipcase. (London): Piazza Press, Issued to Subscribers by Peter Davies, 1929. First edition, privately printed, of the finest English novel of the Great War. One of 520 copies printed on handmade paper. In Men At War, Ernest Hemingway called The Middle Parts of Fortune: “the finest and noblest book of men in war that I have ever read. I read it once each year to remember how things really were so that I will never lie to myself nor to anyone else about them.” Glassine dust jackets with paper flaps perished at spines, otherwise an exceptionally fine copy, in the scarce slipcase. Rare in such beautiful condition. $2500.00

54. MAXWELL, William. The Folded Leaf. 8vo, original cloth, dust jacket. N. Y.: Harper & Brothers, 1945. First edition of this brilliant novel about the coming of age experiences of two Midwestern boys. Signed by Maxwell. A fine copy in very slightly rubbed dust jacket. Maxwell’s most compelling work is rare in collectable condition. $1500.00

55. MELVILLE, Herman. The Works of Herman Melville. 16 volumes, tall 8vo, original cloth, t.e.g., dust jackets. London, Bombay, Sydney: Constable and Company Ltd, 1922-1924. The Standard Edition, complete. Limited to 750 sets, including the first publication of one of Melville’s masterworks, the novella Billy Budd, which was discovered in manuscript among Melville’s papers at the time. BAL 13680, noting that the volume containing The Confidence- Man also contains a bibliography of the first editions of Melville’s prose works by Michael Sadleir. BAL entries also exist for individual volumes which include first editions: Billy Budd, BAL 13682, noting the contents which represent “pieces here first located in book form”, including the title story, which was “never before published”; Poems: Battle-Pieces, John Marr and Other Sailors, Timoleon and Miscellaneous Poems, BAL 13683, noting that the “Author’s Note”, p. 162, “Miscellaneous Poems”, pp. (297)-349, and “At the Hostelry”, pp. (351)-434, first appear here in book form. Regarding the format of the Constable set, BAL specifies: “LP cloth: blue. Maroon-coated endpapers. Top edges gilt.” descriptions to which the present set conforms. We are not aware, however, of another variant printing of the set. The Standard Edition was published episodically, with the inevitable consequence that complete sets are rare. Seven of the volumes in the present set are in their original dust jackets, which are extremely rare and fragile, having been printed on heavy, acidic paper. The dust jacketed volumes include the first four volumes: Typee, Omoo, and Mardi (Vols. III-IV), and Vols. X-XII: The Piazza Tales, Israel Potter, and The Confidence Man. Remnants of other dust jackets, chiefly inside flaps, are included in a few of the other volumes. The set is in exceptionally fine condition, with all hinges firm and tight, and with no fading to the spines, and no wear or tear. $20,000.00

56. MERTON, Thomas. Thirty Poems. Large 8vo, original printed boards, dust jacket. Norfolk, CT: New Directions / The Poets of the Year, (1944). First edition, the scarce hardbound issue, of Merton’s first book. Signed by the author on the front free-endpaper: “Thomas Merton [/] (frater M. Louis)”. Laid in is a TLS, 1 page, April 5, 1945, to E. R. Underwood from the Abbot of Our Lady of Gethsemani Monastery, “ . . . I wish to say that for this time we will accede to your request [that Merton sign the book]. Please do not mention it to anyone. We have several authors in the house, and you readily understand that like requests would come in from all sides, and this would be quite against our spirit and our rules. We are glad to know that one of the books is intended for Mr. J. Christian Bay, a dear old friend of the Monastery, and of course we cannot refuse anything to him or asked in his name. Thomas Merten [sic] is now Frater M. Louis, and as you know, a member of the Gethsemani Community.” Spine ends a trifle bumped, small bookseller’s label on front pastedown, otherwise a very fine and bright copy. The only signed copy of Merton’s first book that we have encountered. $3500.00

57. MERTON, Thomas. Prometheus / A Meditation. Pro Manuscripto. 8vo, original boards with printed label on the spine. (Lexington, KY: Margaret I. King Library Press, University of Kentucky, Spring 1958). First edition, privately printed. Limited to 150 copies. Presentation copy, inscribed by Merton on the title-page with a drawing and the inscription: “To Mark & Dorothy Van Doren from Tom, 1958.” A superb association copy: Mark Van Doren was Merton’s teacher at Columbia from 1935-1939, and remained an important and steadfast friend for the rest of Merton’s life. As editor of Columbia’s yearbook, The Columbian, Merton dedicated the 1937 edition to Van Doren. Van Doren was an early and influential sponsor of Merton’s writing: “Van Doren was reading Merton’s poetry, commenting on it, and advising Merton where to submit.” Van Doren was responsible for introducing Merton’s work to his friend James Laughlin of New Directions, and instrumental in getting Merton’s first book, Thirty Poems, published. Van Doren also wrote the introduction to Merton’s Selected Poems (New Directions, 1959). Fine copy. $6500.00

58. MERTON, Thomas. What Ought I To Do? Sayings of the Desert Fathers from the collection in Migne’s Latin Patrology. Translated by Thomas Merton. 8vo, original pale blue boards printed in red, dust jacket. (Lexington, KY: Stamperia del Santuccio, 1959). First edition. Limited to . . . copies printed, this copy press lettered “Presentation copy 8.” Presentation copy, inscribed on the second leaf “To Mark (Van Doren), who will understand the Desert Fathers very well – in XT (Christ). With love from Tom.” Merton read the Church Fathers while at Columbia, and according to his biographer, “It dismayed him to find both (Robert) Lax and Mark Van Doren closer to an understanding of what it meant to lead a holy life than he was.” – Michael Mott, The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984), p. 140. Some foxing, particularly near the stitching in the gutters, otherwise a fine copy in dust jacket which is sunned on the back panel. A splendid association copy, inscribed by Merton to his teacher at Columbia, and his life-long friend. $3500.00

59. MERTON, Thomas. The Pasternak Affair In Perspective. Reprinted from Thought, Fordham University Quarterly, Vol. XXXIV, No. 135, Winter, 1959-1960. Tall 8vo, original printed wrappers. (N. Y.): Thought, 1960. First separate edition, an offprint, of this important thirty-five page essay on Pasternak’s being awarded, and rejecting, the Nobel Prize in 1958. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author at the top of the front wrapper “To Mark (Van Doren) blessings & love for the New Year, Tom.” The essay was subsequently published in Disputed Questions (1960). In 1973, the King Library Press at the University of Kentucky published Boris Pasternak / Thomas Merton. Six Letters, documenting the rich but all-too brief correspondence between Merton and Pasternak. In a letter to John Harris, Pasternak had written of Merton: “his precious thoughts and dear bottomless letters enrich me and make me happy. At a better time I shall thank and write him. Now I am not in a position to do so. Say to him his high feelings and prayers have saved my life.” For his part, Merton had written that “he had a closer contact with Pasternak on the other side of the world than with people a few miles away, and more in common with him than with monks in his own monastery.”– Michael Mott, The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984), p. 323-325. Wrappers partially faded at margins, front outer corner bumped, otherwise a very good copy of this rare offprint. $3500.00

60. MERTON, Thomas. The Solitary Life. Pro Manuscripto. 8vo, original brown boards with printed label, dust jacket. (Lexington, KY: Stamperia del Santuccio, 1960). First edition. One of only 60 copies hand-printed by Victor Hammer at the Stamperia del Santuccio and signed by Merton. Holbrook p. 149. A fine copy in dust jacket which is sunned near spine and back panel. Rare. $2250.00

61. MERTON, Thomas. Meng Tzu: The Ox Mountain Parable Small 4to, original brown boards with printed wraparound label. (Stamperia del Santuccio Broadside Number 11). (Lexington, KY: Stamperia del Santuccio, 1960). First edition of Mencius’ parable, translated with an introduction by Merton. One of 100 copies printed by the Stamperia del Santuccio. Dell’Isola E15. Holbrook p. 149. Top and bottom of spine slightly bumped, otherwise a fine copy. $850.00

62. MERTON, Thomas. Hagia Sophia. 8vo, original brown boards with printed spine label, dust jacket. Lexington, KY: Stamperia del Santuccio, 1962. First edition. One of only 69 copies printed by Victor Hammer and signed by Merton. A fine copy in the superb color dust jacket. Rare. $2500.00

63. MERTON, Thomas. Early Poems / 1940-42. 8vo, original boards with printed label on the spine, dust jacket. (Lexington, KY: Anvil Press, 1971). First edition. One of 150 copies (the entire edition) on Hosho paper. A fine copy in dust jacket which is a little torn at top of spine. $450.00

64. (MERTON, Thomas). Requiem For Victor Hammer (9.xii.1882 – 10.vii.1967). Burial Service Read By Raymond McLain Pisgah Church Graveyard Woodford County Kentucky. 8vo, illustrated with tipped-in reproduction of a drawing by Victor Hammer, original boards with printed label on the front cover. (N. Y: The Spiral Press, 1967). First edition. Includes a poem by Merton which was first printed on the dust jacket for the Stamperia del Santuccio’s edition of Merton’s The Solitary Life (1960). Fine copy. $150.00

65. MILLAY, Edna St. Vincent. Wine From These Grapes. 8vo, original cloth-backed boards, dust jacket. N. Y.: Harper & Brothers, 1934. First edition. Presentation copy, inscribed on the front free end-paper by the author to Natalie Clifford Barney: “For Natalie with love from Edna.” In the summer of 1932, Millay went to Paris where Barney gave a dinner party in her honor; she visited Paris again in the spring of 1934, when Barney introduced her to the painter, Pavel Tchelitchew. Wine from These Grapes was published in November of that year, and Millay must have sent Barney this copy as a token of her appreciation and affection. A fine copy in a lightly worn dust jacket. $2500.00

66. MILOSZ, Czeslaw. The View. Tall 4to, illustrated with 4 mezzotints by Vija Celmins, original black leather & paper covered boards, matching slipcase. N. Y.: Library Fellows of the Whitney Museum of American Art, (1985). First edition. Limited to 120 copies signed by Milosz & Celmins. A very fine copy of the most desirable of the books published by the Whitney Library Fellows. $17,500.00

67. O’HARA, Frank. A City Winter and Other Poems. Tall 8vo, original signed frontispiece drawing & reproductions of two drawings by Larry Rivers, original cloth-backed decorated boards. N.Y.: Tibor De Nagy Gallery, 1951 (i.e. 1952). First edition of O’Hara’s first book, deluxe issue. One of 20 numbered copies printed by hand in Bodoni types on Japanese Kochi paper by Ruthven Todd for Editions of the Tibor de Nagy Gallery, specially bound with an original frontispiece drawing by Larry Rivers. This copy is number 13. The Thomas B. Hess - Elaine de Kooning copy, specially signed by O’Hara and also signed by Hess on the front free endpaper, which also bears Elaine de Kooning’s ownership stamp. Thomas Hess and Elaine de Kooning were two of O’Hara’s closest friends and associates in the New York art world, and for many years, were lovers – an acknowledged and accepted fact within their circle. A most distinguished – perhaps the most distinguished – copy of A City Winter, and the only copy of the deluxe issue that we have seen signed by O’Hara. The original frontispiece drawing in the present copy is a charcoal and wash portrait signed by Larry Rivers. While it may be impossible to identify the subject with absolute certainty, we believe it to be Thomas Hess, to whom the drawing bears a strong likeness, and for whom the inclusion of his portrait in his own copy of A City Winter would have been entirely appropriate. John Ashbery described the New York School of Poets and its connection to Thomas Hess: “We also got to know some artists and a few of us began to write about art in ARTnews, because poets are always broke and the editor is a nice man who happens to like poets.” – Ashbery, Selected Prose, p. 114. During his tenure as editor of ARTnews, Hess hired O’Hara, Ashbery, Schuyler, and Barbara Guest to contribute to the magazine; and in 1965, he hired Ashbery to succeed him as executive editor, a position Ashbery held until 1972. In his account of the New York School, Irving Sandler places Hess, Elaine de Kooning, and O’Hara in context: “Hess was closer in age to the artists of the early wave. He had written the first book featuring the first generation. During the fifties, he was executive editor of Art News, then America’s leading art magazine, and was largely responsible for turning it into the “family journal” of the New York School in general, and in particular, of de Kooning and his circle downtown. . . . Aside from de Kooning himself, the pivotal figures in the coterie were O’Hara and Elaine de Kooning. Elaine de Kooning was, aside from Willem’s wife, a respected painter and writer on art. She was, in O’Hara’s words, ‘The White Goddess: she knew everything, told little of it though she talked a lot, and we all adored (and adore) her. – Sandler, The New York School, pp. 35-37. As a critic, Hess was the earliest, the most important, and the most steadfast champion of Willem de Kooning and abstract expressionism. He was also one of Elaine de Kooning’s lovers, their relationship dating from the late forties and lasting into the early sixties. Elaine de Kooning’s oil portrait of Hess, painted in 1956, now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. Hess was appointed curator of 20th Century art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1977, and was planning an exhibition of Larry Rivers’ work when he died suddenly only six months later. Although both Hess and Elaine de Kooning knew O’Hara well enough to have obtained a signed copy of A City Winter, it seems to us more likely that this copy belonged to Hess, an independently wealthy Yale graduate, than to Mrs. de Kooning. It is quite plausible, too, that the Tibor de Nagy Gallery would have given Hess a complimentary copy of the book, owing to Hess’s stature as one of the most influential critics and editors in the art world at the time; and it seems entirely probable that the book would have been signed by O’Hara, a friend of Hess, either as a gift or during the publication party for the book hosted by the gallery following an exhibition of Grace Hartigan’s work in April 1952. It would also have been fitting for Hess to have given the book to Elaine de Kooning at some later point in their long and intimate relationship. Covers lightly worn along bottom edge and lower fore-corners, small stain to cloth near top of front panel, one page shows some faint indentations, otherwise a very good copy of the most important example of Frank O’Hara’s first book, and the only signed copy of the special issue that we have seen, in a red half-morocco slipcase. $45,000.00

68. O’HARA, Frank. Meditations In An Emergency. 8vo, original green cloth, publisher’s slipcase. N. Y.: Grove Press, (1957). First edition. One of 75 hardbound copies signed by O’Hara. Only 90 copies of the entire edition were hardbound, with 15 containing original drawings by Grace Hartigan, and not all of the hardbound copies were signed by O’Hara. Some light foxing to endpapers, with a bit of foxing to the cloth, otherwise a fine copy. $2500.00

69. O’HARA, Frank. Lunch Poems. Small 8vo, original printed wrappers. San Francisco: City Lights Books, (1964). First edition. One of 1500 copies printed. Cook 50. In 1959, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg met O’Hara at Larry Rivers’ studio. Intrigued by the idea that O’Hara was writing poems on his lunch hour, Ferlinghetti proposed publishing a book of his Lunch Poems. O’Hara began corresponding with Ferlinghetti and Donald Allen, who was helping to select the poems for the book, which was finally published by City Lights Books nearly six years later, dressed in O’Hara’s favorite colors, orange and blue. (Gooch). A very fine copy, virtually as new, and very scarce in this condition. $850.00

70. O’HARA, Frank. TLS, 1 page, 4to, to his good friend and college room-mate, Hal Fondren, University Place, New York, July 19th, 1958, accompanying two carbon typescript poems, 3 pages, 4to, Fire Island, 7/9/58-7/10/59. [1958]. A long letter to O’Hara’s close friend and former room-mate at Harvard, sending him “copies of the 2 poems I wrote out there” (Fondren’s “country home). The two poems are “Ode En Salut Aux Poetes Negres Francaises” and “A True Account of Talking to the Sun at Fire Island”, in which the poet comments apologetically to the Sun that ““Sorry, Sun, I stayed / up late last night talking to Hal.” O’Hara notes that “I think I may still make a couple of changes in each so if you feel like making any for your own reading pleasure please feel free to do so.” O’Hara changed the first poem, most notably in translating the title and several portions of the text that were originally written in French into English; the second poem remained unchanged as published in the Collected Poems. Later in his letter, O’Hara suggests “Maybe we should start a gallery together, what do you think? what with our fierce dominating male-type personalities and our exquisite taste I don’t see how we could fail to lose quite a bit of money for some nice backer. And a lot of our favorite artists would flock to us, if only because we’d be a new gallery to flock to. I think of it partly because it would mean less physical work hours for me and leave a little more time for writing. But we might be able to have quite a snappy little outfit, don’t you think?” O’Hara closes with the postscript: “Yesterday we saw the 10 Commandments and the first half is full of delightful beefcake. It’s very boring when they leave Egypt and put on their Jewish clothes, though. xxx.” The letter and poems are in fine condition. $6500.00

71. [PHOTOGRAPHY]. BRASSAÏ. The Artists of My Life. Translated from the French by Richard Miller. Large 4to, illustrated, original cloth & paste-paper boards. N. Y.: (Witken- Berley, Ltd., 1982). First edition. Deluxe issue of 150 copies comprising “specially selected sheets” from the original publication by the Viking Press “bound in a unique and deluxe style,” and signed by Brassaï, with an original hand-pulled dust-grained gravure, made by Jon Goodman and also signed by Brassaï, of Henri Matisse drawing from the nude, 1939, in a special binding designed by Sage Reynolds and executed at the Four Hands Bindery, New York; produced and privately issued by Witken-Berley, Ltd. in October 1982. The photograph, which is signed in the matt, measures 7 7/8th x 10 inches. A fine copy. Rare. $4500.00

72. [PHOTOGRAPHY]. SPEAR, David. Visible Spirits: No Es Nada Como Parece. [Nothing is Ever as It Seems]. Photographs of Mexico. 4to, illustrated, original cloth, matching cloth slipcase. (Frankfort, Kentucky): Gnomon Press, (2006). First edition, limited issue, one of 50 numbered copies signed by the photographer and with an original signed and numbered print [“Juana Paloma, 1998”] enclosed in a separate envelope and laid in. A stunning collection by the author of The Neugents (Jargon Society, 1993). As new. $250.00

73. PLATH, Sylvia. The Colossus. Poems. 8vo, original green cloth, dust jacket. London: Heinemann, (1960). First edition of Plath’s first regularly published book. Presentation copy, inscribed by Plath to the poet Theodore Roethke on the front free endpaper: “For Theodore Roethke with much love and immense admiration, Sylvia Plath, April 13, 1961”. Theodore Roethke was the most important of Plath’s literary influences, the mentor through whose example she found her own true voice. “Plath had begun reading the poetry of Theodore Roethke, whose poetry collection Words for the Wind contained a sequence of experimental poems in which he attempted to reproduce the imagery of mental breakdown. Roethke’s poetry excited Plath to attempt a similar sequence of ‘mad’ poems. ‘I have experienced love, sorrow, madness, and if I cannot make these experiences meaningful, no new experience will help me,’ she mused in her journal. Roethke’s example would show her how to use these experiences in her art, and ‘be true to my own weirdness.’ The result was ‘Poem for a Birthday’, which Ted Hughes admired very much and regarded as Plath’s breakthrough into the subject of her mature style ... it was Roethke’s artistic originality that stirred her to emulation. Roethke’s poems contained no explanations; they presented an eddying flow of associations from which a reader could fetch themes but no reasons. Adopting Roethke’s techniques, at Yaddo Plath experimented for the first time with finding subjective images for the experience of shock therapy.... Words poured from her during those six weeks: a third of the poems that made it into her first published book, The Colossus and Other Poems, were written at Yaddo.” [Diane Middleton, Her Husband: Hughes and Plath – A Marriage, (N. Y.: Viking, 2003), pp. 109-110.] So influential was Roethke’s poetry on Plath’s mature poetry that when she submitted “Poem for a Birthday” to Poetry magazine, it was turned down because it displayed “too imposing a debt to Roethke.” And when the manuscript for The Colossus was submitted to Alfred Knopf, its editor Jennifer Jones expressed reservations about “her imitativeness ... most pronounced in a long poem that seems to be so deliberately stolen from Roethke’s ‘The Lost Son’ that I would almost fear the charge of plagiarism.” Knopf would eventually publish The Colossus in America, but only after confronting the issue of Roethke’s influence. As Jones explained her “anxiety of influence” to Plath: “One reason ... that we have brooded so long over our decision is my uncertainty about one particular poem which seems frankly too derivative to me not to invite a good deal of criticism. . . . ‘Poem for a Birthday’ (is) in terms of imagery and rhythmic structure ... so close to Theodore Roethke’s ‘Lost Son’ that people would be likely to pounce on you.” If Plath would cut “Poem for a Birthday”, Knopf would publish the book. Plath agreed conditionally, cutting five sections from the long poem, but asking that two sections be published as individual poems: “Flute Notes from a Reedy Pond” and “The Stones”, the poem which Plath asked to be placed last in the book. The importance of Plath’s “Roethke-influenced” long meditative poem in her development as a poet cannot be overestimated. Ted Hughes would come to regard “The Stones” as “the most significant poem Plath had written”, a turning point in her canon. Calling it “unlike anything that had gone before in her work”, Hughes would write in an essay years later: “In its double focus, ‘The Stones’ is both a ‘birth’ and a ‘rebirth’. It is the birth of her real poetic voice, but it is the rebirth of herself. That poem encapsulates, with literal details, her ‘death’, her treatment, and her slow, buried recovery. And this is where we can see the peculiarity of her imagination at work, where we can see how the substance of her poetry and the very substance of her survival are the same.” In an essay in the New York Times Book Review in 1963, M. L. Rosenthal could point to the influence of Roethke on Plath’s poetry, but go on to say: “In the absolute authority of their statement they went beyond Roethke into something like the pure realization of the latter day Emily Dickinson.” [Paul Alexander, Rough Magic: A Biography of Sylvia Plath (N. Y.: Da Capo, 1999), pp. 244, 254; 259; 339.] Plath met Roethke while the latter was in England during the winter of 1960-61, and her inscription in this copy of The Colossus (which she must have sent him after he returned to America in March 1961) testifies to the profound bond she felt she shared with him. Plath died at the age of 31 in February 1963; Roethke died the following August at the age of 55. One of the finest association copies imaginable of the only book of Plath’s poetry published during her lifetime. A fine copy in dust jacket, preserved in a half-morocco slipcase. $65,000.00

74. PLATH, Sylvia. Ariel. 8vo, original cloth, dust jacket. London: Faber, (1965). First edition of Plath’s masterpiece, which Robert Lowell called her appalling and triumphant fulfillment. A very fine copy in bright, unfaded jacket, essentially as new. The finest copy we have seen in many years. $4000.00

75. POUND, Ezra. Canzoni. 12mo, original gray cloth. London: Elkin Mathews, 1911. First edition, first issue. One of 1000 copies printed, of which “not more than 500” were later issued as part of the combined volume Canzoni & Ripostes (1913). Gallup A7. Presentation copy from Olivia Shakespear, one of the two dedicatees of the book, which was dedicated to Olivia and Dorothy Shakespear. Olivia Shakespear was the mother of Dorothy, Pound’s future wife. The book is inscribed in pencil on the front free endpaper: “July 15th, 1911 / M. C. - O. S.” A friend of W. B. Yeats, Olivia Shakespear took a keen interest in the young American poet. Canzoni was published in July, and Olivia Shakespear no doubt received her copy as soon as the book was available, and presumably bought others to give to friends, of whom “M. C.” must have been one. Canzoni includes “The Tree”, among other archaic poems; and some somewhat less archaic pieces, such as “Song in the Manner of Housman.” Corners a little bumped, spine lightly sunned, a faint spot on back cover, otherwise a fine copy. $2500.00

76. POUND, Ezra. Cathay. Translations by Ezra Pound For the Most Part From the Chinese of Rihaku, From the Notes of the Late Ernest Fenollosa, and the Decipherings of the Professors Mori and Ariga. Small thin 8vo, original printed wrappers. London: Elkin Mathews, 1915. First edition. Limited to 1000 copies printed. Gallup A9. Presentation copy, inscribed in the month before publication by the poet to Harriet Monroe; the inscription on the front free endpaper reads: “H. M. from E. P. March 1915.” Pound’s relationship with Monroe, the editor of Poetry magazine, is well-documented, most thoroughly in Ellen Williams’s Harriet Monroe and the Poetry Renaissance: The First Ten Years of Poetry 1912-1922. Inscriptions bearing only the initials of the author and the recipient are invariably open to speculative interpretation, but it is worth noting that many of Pound’s letters to Monroe were addressed simply “H. M.” Pound’s most engaging collection of poems, including “The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter” and “Lament of the Frontier Guard”, and one of the best collections of poetry to respond, however obliquely, to the Great War. Wrappers somewhat dust-soiled and rubbed with a few faint stains on the covers, otherwise a very good copy, enclosed in a half-morocco slipcase. $15,000.00

77. POUND, Ezra. A Draft Of The Cantos 17-27 of Ezra Pound: Initials by Gladys Hynes. Folio, original red vellum stamped in gilt. London: John Rodker, 1928. First edition. One of 70 copies printed on Roma paper out of a total edition of 101 copies. Gallup A29. Connolly 100, 66. Vellum covers splayed as usual, front and back covers a bit bruised at extreme bottom-edge and with a small area of discoloration at each fore-edge, otherwise a very good copy of a rare book. $12,500.00

78. RULFO, Juan. Pedro Páramo. Translated by Lysander Kemp. 8vo, original cloth-backed boards. N. Y.: Grove Press Inc., (1959). First American edition. One of 26 lettered copies signed by the author out of a total limited edition of only 30 copies. A fine copy, with the ownership signature of Loly Rosset, the publisher Barney Rosset’s second wife, on the front free endpaper in pencil. Rare. $3500.00

79. SASSOON, Siegfried. (I) Memoirs Of A Fox-Hunting Man. (II) Memoirs Of An Infantry Officer. (III) Sherston’s Progress. 3 volumes, 8vo, original blue cloth, dust jackets. London: Faber & Gwyer; Faber & Faber, 1928, 1930, 1936. First trade editions of each of the three volumes in Sassoon’s celebrated World War I trilogy, the first volume in the “bibliographically preferred” first state with untrimmed edges. Keynes A30a, A33a, A40a. Some fox marks on edges of text block of two volumes, signature on rear pastedown of Memoirs of An Infantry Officer (nick in the top of the spine panel of the dust jacket), otherwise a near-fine set of Sassoon’s most memorable work. $3500.00

80. SCHUYLER, James. The Fireproof Floors of Witley Court. English Songs and Dances by James Schuyler. 8vo, illustrated with architectural cut-out endpapers fashioned after the topiary gardens at Levens Hall, Westmorland, England, original orange decorated wrappers. Newark, West Burke, Vermont: The Janus Press, (1976). First edition. Limited to 150 numbered copies printed, torn, cut, and bound by Claire Van Vliet at the Janus Press on & of Kozu, Fabriano and Canson paper. Although not issued signed, this copy is signed by Schuyler on the front free endpaper. One of Schuyler’s scarcest books owing to the fact that most of the edition went to subscribers of the press, with the result that few copies of this delightful book have been available for collectors of the poet. Narrow, three-quarter-inch strip of light fading along the top of the front cover, otherwise a fine copy. $2500.00

81. SEBALD, W. G. “Unerzählt.” 33 Miniaturen. Small 4to, original half morocco & gray cloth, silk ribbon marker, in matching original cloth and cardstock slipcase. Munchen: Carl Hanser Verlag, 2002. First edition. One of only 33 numbered copies signed by Hans Magnus Enzensberger, who contributes the prefatory poem “Abschied von Max Sebald.” A long collaboration between Sebald and Tripp that was left almost-completed at the time of Sebald’s sudden death, the book is unfortunately not signed by Sebald. The book consists of 33 original signed prints by Tripp depicting pairs of eyes, each image being accompanied by a “miniature” poem by Sebald, as well as Tripp’s signed frontispiece portrait etching of Sebald. Among the subjects whose eyes are depicted are William Burroughs, Truman Capote, Samuel Beckett, Marcel Proust, Francis Bacon, Jasper Johns, Robert Ryman, Barnett Newman, Andre Masson, Michael Hamburger, Rembrandt, Richard Hamilton, Anna and W. G. Sebald. This beautiful and severely limited edition preceded the trade edition by several months and was quickly sold out. As new, with acid-free box and publisher’s shipping carton. $7500.00

82. SNYDER, Gary. A Range Of Poems. 8vo, frontispiece portrait, illustrations by Will Peterson, original brown cloth, white dust jacket. London: Fulcrum Press, (1966). First edition, special issue. One of only 50 copies signed by Snyder out of a total of 100 numbered copies printed on Glastonbury antique laid paper. McNeil A13b. In our experience the most elusive of all of Snyder’s books. A very fine copy. $2500.00

83. STEIN, Gertrude. Portrait of Mabel Dodge at the Villa Curonia. 8vo, original floral Florentine wallpaper wrappers with printed label on the front cover. Florence: Privately Printed, 1912. First edition of Stein’s second book. One of 300 copies printed. Wilson A2. Presentation copy, inscribed by Stein to Natalie Clifford Barney, the wealthy American “Amazon”: “To Natalie Barney at the rue Jacob from Gertrude Stein.” An extraordinary association copy, linking two women who in their different, even contrary, ways personified the expatriate lives of the two most prominent American lesbians in Paris during the first half of the Twentieth Century. Both women conducted famous salons, each in her own very different style, and with her own distinctive preferences: Stein at 27, rue de Fleurus from 1903; Barney at 20, rue Jacob from 1909. “The two salons could not have had less in common: Barney’s was formal, old-fashioned, almost stuffy, while the Steins’ was casual, unassuming, and open to virtually anyone. Nor could these two women have seen their place in the Paris community less similarly. Natalie Barney never used her salon to further her own career as a writer, nor did she set herself up as the center of the salon. Her purpose was to bring people together, to foster the work of other artists (many of whom were women), and to embrace the cultural life of the Left Bank community. Barney’s was a feminist effort that would eventually become an endeavor on behalf of lesbian literature and art. Gertrude Stein’s role was quite different. She very soon displaced her brother as the spokesperson on art and literature, placing herself at the center of the Saturday evenings at home, gathering the men around her while consigning the ‘wives’ to other rooms, where they entertained themselves or were entertained by Alice Toklas. Stein began promoting herself as the resident genius of the Left Bank. . . . Stein wanted a place among the men of this community, and she accepted the implicit patriarchal belief that women were isolated and domesticated precisely because they were weak and nonintellectual. . . . Stein’s Paris years record her struggle to prove that she was stronger, more talented, and intellectually superior to the men.” Shari Benstock, Women of the Left Bank. Paris, 1900-1940 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986), p. 15. Virgil Thomson noted that there was no rivalry between Stein and Barney because “they weren’t doing the same thing”, and in 1927, Barney feted Stein at her Academie des Femmes. A fine copy of a rare book, in a red half-morocco slipcase. $25,000.00

84. STEINBECK, John. The Grapes of Wrath. 8vo, original cloth, dust jacket designed by Elmer Hader. N. Y.: The Viking Press, (1939). First edition of Steinbeck’s masterpiece. Goldstone A12. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. A brilliant copy, as new, preserved in a half-morocco slipcase. $12,500.00

85. STEVENS, Wallace. A Primitive like an Orb, a poem by Wallace Stevens with drawings by Kurt Seligmann. 8vo, original printed wrappers. (N. Y.): Banyan Press, 1948. First edition. Limited to 500 copies. Edelstein A13. Although not called for, this copy is signed by Stevens. Very fine copy. $2500.00

86. STEVENS, Wallace. The Collected Poems. Thick 8vo, frontispiece, original cloth, dust jacket.N. Y.: Knopf, 1954. First edition of the poet’s last work, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. One of 2500 numbered copies. Edelstein A23. Presentation copy, inscribed near the time of publication on the half-title: “For Doc, Wallace Stevens, Oct. 4, 1954”. The recipient was Ivan (“Doc”) Daugherty, one of Stevens’ closest friends and associates at the Hartford Insurance Company and one of the pall-bearers at the poet’s funeral. [See Peter Brazeau, Parts of a World: Wallace Stevens Remembered (N. Y.: Random House, 1983)]. Books signed by Stevens are rare, especially this title. The poet was diagnosed with stomach cancer not long after publication of The Collected Poems, the last book published during his lifetime. He died in 1955. A fine copy in slightly faded dust jacket. $8500.00

87. SZYMBORSKA, Wislawa and William KENTRIDGE. Receiver. Poems by Wislawa Szymborska. Etchings by William Kentridge. Folio, 22 etchings, dry points, and photogravures by Kentridge, with an additional photogravure, numbered and signed by Kentridge, laid in, original sewn unprinted wrappers, dust jacket, publisher’s slipcase. (New York): Dieu Donné Press (with Galamander Press), 2006. First edition. One of 25 numbered Artist’s Proof copies, signed by the author and the artist, out of a total edition of 75 copies. “The abaca and cotton handmade text and cover paper was developed and produced by Susan Gosin and Paul Wong at Dieu Donne Papermill, Inc. The images were hand printed by Randy Hemminghaus with the assistance of Paul Loughney and Kristen Cavagnet at Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper.” The seven poems by Szymborska chosen by Kentridge for this book were translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh and Stanislaw Baranczak. As new. $17,500.00

88. THOMAS, Dylan. Collected Poems. 1934-1952. 8vo, frontispiece, original blue cloth, dust jacket. London: J. M. Dent, (1952). First edition. One of 4760 copies printed. Rolph B16. Presentation copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper by the poet to Jean Le Roy, an associate of Thomas’s literary agent David Higham Ltd.: “to Jean Le Roy from Dylan Thomas, gratefully. 1953”. Collected Poems was the last book published during Thomas’s life, and is seldom found inscribed. Fine copy in slightly dust-soiled jacket with very light wear to extremities. $4500.00

89. UPDIKE, John. Rabbit, Run. 8vo, original cloth-backed boards, dust jacket. N. Y.: Knopf, 1960. First edition of Updike’s second novel, and the first of the Rabbit Angstrom series, first issue dust jacket. Very fine copy in dust jacket with no fading and only the slightest bit of wear; a beautiful copy. $2250.00

90. UPDIKE, John. Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu. Large 8vo, cloth-backed patterned paper over boards. Northridge, CA: Lord John Press, 1977. First edition. One of 300 numbered copies signed by Updike from a total edition of 326 copies. Fine copy. $350.00

91. WELTY, Eudora. The Ponder Heart. Drawings by Joe Krush. N. Y.: Harcourt Brace & Co., (1954). First edition. Polk A9.1. Dedication Copy, inscribed by Welty to Mary Lou Aswell: “For Mary Lou with my love, Eudora, New Year’s Day 1954”. Welty dedicated The Ponder Heart to two friends and editors: William Maxwell, her editor at The New Yorker, and Mary Lou Aswell, her editor at Harper’s Bazaar. 8vo, original cloth-backed boards, dust jacket. Covers slightly worn at extremities, otherwise a fine copy in dust jacket, with invitations to the premier performance of the play version of The Ponder Heart and the private party afterwards, each in its original envelope, laid in. $7500.00

92. WELTY, Eudora. One Writer’s Beginnings. 8vo, illustrated, original cloth, dust jacket. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984. First edition of Welty’s autobiography. Presentation copy, inscribed by Welty to her close friend and editor at Harper’s Bazaar, Mary Lou Aswell: “For dearest Mary Lou who already knows the story, with my love always, Eudora, February 1984”. Top corner bumped, otherwise a fine copy in lightly worn jacket. Significant association copies of Welty’s books are rare. $2500.00

93. WHITMAN, Walt. Drum-Taps (with) Sequel to Drum-Taps. Small 8vo, original plum cloth. New York & Washington: (Walt Whitman), 1865-6. First edition, second issue, but the first publication of “When Lilacs Last in the Door-Yard Bloom’d,” among other poems occasioned by the assassination of President Lincoln. The second issue of Drum-Taps combines the first edition of Drum-Taps with the more recently composed poems of Sequel to Drum-Taps. The additional poems written after the publication of Drum-Taps are “When Lilacs Last in the Door- Yard Bloom’d”, “Race of Veterans”, “O Captain! My Captain!”, “Spirit whose Work is Done”, “Chanting the Square Deific”, “I heard you”, “Solemn-sweet Pipes of the Organ”, “Not My Enemies Ever Invade Me”, “O Me! O Life!”, “Ah Poverties, Wincings, and Sulky Retreats”, “As I Lay with My Head in Your Lap”, “Camerado”, “This Day, O Soul”, “In Clouds Descending, in Midnight Sleep”, “An Army on the March”, “Dirge for Two Veterans”, “How Solemn, as One by One”, “Lo! Victress on the Peaks!”, “Reconciliation” and “To the Leaven’d Soil They Trod”. The first edition (issue) of Drum-Taps, which contains most of Whitman’s Civil War poetry, was published in May of 1865 in an edition of 500 copies. However, soon after President Abraham Lincoln was shot on April 15, 1865, Whitman began planning a sequel and held up the undistributed portion of the edition. Sequel to Drum-Taps was printed in an edition of 1000 copies in October, with less than half that number bound up with sheets from Drum-Taps; additional sets of sheets, which may have been deficient (Whitman’s word), were bound up with a later compilation of works two years later. It seems unlikely that many more than several hundred copies of the combined Drum-Taps could have been assembled under the circumstances. Myerson A3.I.a2. Opinion varies as to the quality of Whitman’s war-time poetry, as indeed about his poetry as a whole. Whitman himself declared that “My book and the war are one”, and in his preface to the 1876 edition of Leaves of Grass, he wrote “The whole book, indeed, revolves around that four years’ war, which, as I was in the midst of it, becomes, in ‘Drum Taps’, pivotal to the rest entire.” “When Lilacs Last in the Door-Yard Bloom’d” is ranked among his greatest poems; while “O Captain! My Captain!”, the favorite poem of Whitman’s contemporaries, and the poem Whitman recited as a crowd-pleaser in his popular lecture on Lincoln, has been the object of some derision. Whitman himself complained that, “I’m almost sorry I ever wrote the poem.” The experience of Henry James is instructive of how Whitman’s poetry, or perhaps it is our appreciation of it, improve with time: when James reviewed Drum- Taps upon publication, he reflected dourly: “It has been a melancholy task to read this book.” However, as Edith Wharton noted some years later, James “now read Whitman aloud ‘in a mood of subdued ecstasy.’” – quoted in F. O. Matthiessen, American Renaissance (Oxford, 1941), p. 582. Contemporary inscription on the front free endpaper, a hint of wear to the spine and extremities, otherwise an exceptionally fine bright copy, in a black half-morocco slipcase. Rare in this condition. $17,500.00

94. WHITMAN, Walt. Leaves of Grass with Sands at Seventy & A Backward Glance O’er Travel’d Roads. (Philadelphia: Ferguson Bros. & Co., 1889). First of this edition, bibliographically the seventh edition, fourteenth printing, of Leaves of Grass, in Myerson’s presumed second binding with double laid paper flyleaves, but varying from the bibliographer’s description of the second binding in having the accordion flaps on the sides connected at the bottom as in the first binding. Myerson A2.7.n. Limited to 300 copies printed on India paper & signed on the title-page by Whitman. Presentation copy, inscribed on the front flyleaf: “To Mr. Bancroft from the author Feb. 3, 1890”. As the poet’s brief preface, printed on the title-page, notes: “Today, finishing my 70th year, the fancy comes for celebrating it by a special, complete, final utterance, in one handy volume, of L. of G., with their Annex and Backward Glance - and for stamping and sprinkling all with portraits and facial photos, such as they actually were, taken from life, different stages. Doubtless, anyhow, the volume is more a PERSON than a book. And for testimony to all, (and good measure), I here with pen and ink append my name: ...”. Whitman’s prefatory note is dated May 31, 1889, his seventieth birthday, but the note, and the book, were completed in advance of that date. As Whitman’s 70th anniversary approached, “The birthday celebration seemed to bring out the capitalist in him. Throughout the spring he had been preparing a new printing of his writings to be sold as a commemorative birthday edition. The volume, titled Leaves of Grass. “Sands at Seventy”, and “A Backward Glance O’er Travel’d Roads”, was redundant, since it was virtually a packaging of the Complete Poetry and Prose, which had just appeared the previous fall. But Whitman wanted to capitalize on mounting sympathy for him. Bound in limp black leather and printed on thin paper, the volume was, in his view, the epitome of what he had always wanted his books to be: both fancy and portable. It was a small printing of three hundred, but, priced high at five dollars, the book promised to turn a profit. Whitman found the volume ‘just as I wished!’ and called it ‘the cream of all’. Subtitled Portraits from Life. Autobiography. Special Ed’n, it revived Whitman’s visions of popular success. Musing over the book, he told Traubel, ‘If a hustler got hold of Leaves of Grass, the book would make the fur fly in many places it don’t touch at all.’” David S. Reynolds, Walt Whitman’s America (N. Y.: Vintage, 1995), p. 574. Although it cannot be proven, it is at least plausible that Whitman presented this copy to the venerable American historian George Bancroft, who died on January 17, 1891. 8vo, illustrated with an original photographic frontispiece portrait & 5 additional portraits throughout the text, original wallet-style black leather over flexible boards. Head of spine lightly worn, small three-quarter inch split to leather at spine fold, light scuffing to the leather covers, but a very good copy of the “pocket-book” edition. As early as 1899, this edition was being described as “Very scarce”. $10,000.00

95. WILLIAMS, C. K. Creatures. Small 4to, original quarter black morocco & hand-made paste- paper over boards, paper slipcase, by Claudia Cohen. Haverford, PA: Green Shade, 2006. First edition, deluxe issue, of this collection of recent poems, preceding their appearance in Williams’ Collected Poems. One of 26 lettered copies printed on Twinrocker handmade paper at The Grenfell Press, specially bound, and signed by the poet. As new, at publication price. $850.00

96. WILLIAMS, C. K. Creatures. Small 4to, original hand-made paste-paper wrappers by Claudia Cohen. Haverford, PA: Green Shade, 2006. First edition, regular issue. One of 150 numbered copies designed by Leslie Miller and printed by hand at The Grenfell Press and signed by the poet. As new, at publication price. $150.00

97. WILLIAMS, William Carlos. The Wedge. (Title-page decoration by Wightman Williams). 12mo, original decorated paste-paper boards. (Cummington, MA): Cummington Press, 1944. First edition. One of 380 copies printed in Centaur and Arrighi type on Dacian paper. Wallace A23. A diminutive but significant volume, which includes “Paterson: The Falls”, “The Dance (In Breughel’s great picture)”, “The Semblables” and “To Ford Madox Ford in Heaven”, in addition to Williams’ important introduction, a brief “Ars Poetica”. Arthur Mizener’s copy, with his tiny book-label on the front endsheet, spine very slightly faded, with a touch of wear at the base, otherwise an unusually nice copy of this fragile book, which seldom survives in fine condition, preserved in a half-morocco slipcase. $2250.00

98. WORDSWORTH, William. Poems, In Two Volumes, by William Wordsworth, Author of The Lyrical Ballads. 2 volumes, 8vo, original drab boards with pink paper-covered spines as issued. London: Printed for Longman Hurst Rees & Orme, 1807. First edition of Wordsworth’s single greatest collection of poetry, one of 500 copies printed; with the cancels D11-12 in Vol. I and B2 in Vol. II. Volume I has the half-title and the erratum leaf H8. Volume II has the half- title, the sectional half-title leaf B1, and the first state of sheet F9(i) in volume 2 (with the misprint “Thy fnuction” on page 98, last line). Wise 8. Tinker 2334. Ashley 8:12-14. Healey 19 (locating just six copies in original boards). Cornell/Healey 19-21. Wordsworth’s Poems includes many of the poet’s most best-loved poems, including “She was a Phantom of delight”, “To A Skylark”, “Resolution and Independence”, “The world is too much with us...”, “It is a beauteous evening, calm and free”, “The Solitary Reaper”, “My heart leaps up when I behold...”, “I wandered lonely as a cloud...”, and the last, but certainly not the least, poem in the collection, Wordsworth’s great “Ode”, since known by its longer title “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood”. Contemporary ownership inscription to Anne Watson in Vol. I, with her pencil ownership signature on the title-page; bookplates of Simon Nowell- Smith and his wife. Light foxing, covers slightly chipped and worn, but a very good set. $27,500.00

“A TERRIBLE BEAUTY IS BORN.”

99. YEATS, W. B. Easter, 1916. 4to, original bright green printed paper wrappers. (No place: Privately Printed by Clement Shorter, 1917). First edition. One of only 25 copies printed: “Of this poem twenty-five copies only have been privately printed by Clement Shorter for distribution among his friends.” Wade 117. On the colophon, this copy is numbered 10 and signed by the publisher. The Easter Rising and the Proclamation of the Irish Republic occurred on Monday, April 24, and lasted until April 30, 1916. On May 11, Yeats wrote to Lady Gregory: “The Dublin tragedy has been a great sorrow and anxiety. . . . I have little doubt there have been many miscarriages of justice. . . I had no idea that any public event could so deeply move me – and I am very despondent about the future. At the moment I feel that all the work of years has been overturned, all the bringing together of classes, all the freeing of Irish literature and criticism from politics.” Yeats was staying at Maud Gonne’s home in Colleville, France at the time of the Rebellion, and wrote most of “Easter, 1916” there. In one of those miscarriages of justice to which Yeats referred in his letter to Lady Gregory, Maud Gonne’s husband, Major John MacBride, was executed on May 5th for his presumed role in the Rebellion. Yeats returned to Dublin in September, and completed the poem on September 25th at Lady Gregory’s home at Coole Park. “Copies were sent to selected friends in the autumn (Gonne, Gregory, Ernest Boyd), and on 7 December he read it to a small group at Lindsey House, where Gregory was staying; Gregory found it ‘extraordinarily impressive’ . . . At some point that winter WBY drew up a contents page for his next Cuala volume, placing ‘1916’ first, but he abandoned the idea, deciding instead on a private printing with Clement Shorter, to whom he sent a copy the following March. The delay, as he told Shorter, was at Gregory’s request. She ‘asked me not to send it you until we had finished our dispute with the authorities about the Lane pictures.” – R. F. Foster, W. B. Yeats: A Life. II. The Arch Poet. (Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 59-66. After permitting Shorter’s severely limited edition of “Easter, 1916”, Yeats withheld the poem from publication for three years owing to fears of political reprisal. Finally, at the height of the Irish War for Independence, he was prepared to make a public statement and decided to publish the revised “Easter, 1916” in the New Statesman, which had assumed a leading role in supporting the Irish nationalist cause, particularly by its defense of the Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney. “Easter, 1916” appeared in the New Statesman on 23 October 1920, two days before MacSwiney died in Brixton Prison following 74 days on a hunger strike. “In its intellectual complexity, subtly modulated argument, and tightly controlled changes of mood and form, ‘Easter 1916’ reached a new level of achievement among WBY’s political poems . . . Transcending politics, it is also a last, elegiac love-lyric to Gonne.” – Foster, p. 59. The poem was eventually published in Michael Robartes and the Dancer (Cuala Press, 1920), its first book appearance. The same volume included the other political poems, “Sixteen Dead Men”, “The Rose Tree” and “On A Political Prisoner” that Yeats had written since first composing “Easter, 1916”. Wade p. 380. Clement Shorter, a former civil servant turned journalist, was the editor of the Illustrated London News, and the husband of the Irish poet Dora Sigerson. Sigerson was also the daughter of Professor George Sigerson of University College Dublin, an authority on Gaelic poetry. In 1918, Shorter published Nine Poems by Yeats. After Mosada, Yeats’ extremely rare first book, this pamphlet, Easter, 1916, which marked the first publication of one of Yeats’ greatest poems, is the rarest of all of the poet’s publications. A fine bright copy, preserved in a green half-morocco slipcase. $45,000.00

100. YEATS, W. B. The Wild Swans At Coole. 8vo, original blue cloth designed by Sturge Moore, dust jacket. London: Macmillan & Co, 1919. First edition. One of 1500 copies printed. Wade 124. In addition to incorporating the twenty-nine poems first published in the limited Cuala Press edition of the same name, the present trade edition of The Wild Swans At Coole includes the first book appearances of “In Memory of Major Robert Gregory” and “An Irish Airman foresees his Death”, two of Yeats’s most important poems. The collection also includes the title poem, “The Collar Bone of a Hare”, “Upon a Dying Lady”, “Phases of the Moon”, “The Scholars”, “To A Young Beauty”, among others. A fine copy in the rare dust jacket, which faded at spine and lightly soiled and worn at extremities. $3500.00

101. YEATS, W. B. Selected Poems. Lyrical and Narrative. Small 8vo, title-page heliotype portrait by John Singer Sargent, original embossed blue cloth, dust jacket. London: Macmillan, 1929. First edition, including a brief preface noting that this selection includes “whatever lyrical and narrative poems of mine best please my friends or myself, or best illuminate one another.” Wade 165. Presentation copy, inscribed by Yeats on the front free endpaper to his mother-in-law: “Mrs Tucker from W. B. Yeats, Nov 15, 1929.” On p. 186, Yeats has hand-corrected an error in the penultimate line of “Sailing to Byzantium” where the line reads “To ladies and lords of Byzantium” instead of “To lords and ladies of Byzantium”. In the margin, he has added the word “transpose”. The same error is noted on an erratum slip tipped-in at the appropriate place in the table of contents. Wade notes that the earliest copies of the book may not have included the errata, and so it may be supposed that Yeats wasn’t aware that the errata was present in this copy when he made the correction by hand. It may also be questioned whether Wade was correct in differentiating between the early or later presence of the errata slip. Edith Ellen Tucker, formerly Hyde-Lees, was the mother of George Hyde-Lees, Yeats’ wife, and played a critical role in Yeats’ life. “Nelly” Tucker was married to Harry Tucker, the brother of Olivia Shakespear, one of Yeats’ former lovers. Olivia Shakespear was also the mother of Dorothy Shakespear, who would later become Ezra Pound’s wife. It was Olivia Shakespear who introduced Yeats to Mrs. Tucker, and in turn to her daughter George Hyde-Lees in 1911. George was also Dorothy Shakespear’s best friend, and when George and Yeats were married in 191, Ezra Pound served as their best man. At the time of their marriage, Yeats was 52, his wife 24, but as Roy Foster notes: “Long afterwards WBY told a later lover that George had been more or less ‘reared’ to be his wife by Nelly Tucker and Olivia Shakespear, who directed her interests toward mysticism as a preparation.” Foster describes George as “wise beyond her years.... The fact that she was less than half WBY’s age does not mean that she was either ingenuous or naive: though a private and even secretive person, her more unbuttoned letters show a fierce, slangy wit and a brisk impatience with pious cant or convention for its own sake.... Like her future husband, she had begun to train as an art student but abandoned painting. And, like him, she was an auto-didact, and read omnivorously in obscure texts, particularly the Neoplatonists. Unlike him, she was both musical and a gifted linguist.... her intellectual and occultist interests accorded perfectly with his. This was unsurprising, since he had in part shaped them.” – Roy Foster, W. B. Yeats: A Life. Vol. II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, (2003), pp. 94-95. A very fine copy, in a fine dust jacket, of an uncommon book. $15,000.00

102. YEATS, W. B. The Tower. Small 8vo, original gilt-decorated green cloth by T. Sturge Moore, dust jacket. London: Macmillan, 1928. First edition of Yeats’ single most important collection of poems, containing “Sailing To Byzantium”, “Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen”, “Leda and the Swan”, “Among School Children” and “All Souls’ Night”, among other masterpieces. One of 2000 copies printed. Wade 158. Connolly 100, 56a. A fine bright copy with some very slight wear at the extremities of the dust jacket. $4000.00