JAMES CUMMINS BOOKSELLER Catalogue 105 Autographs & Manuscripts to Place Your Order, Call, Write, E-Mail Or Fax

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JAMES CUMMINS BOOKSELLER catalogue 105 autographs & manuscripts To place your order, call, write, e-mail or fax:

JAMES CUMMINS BOOKSELLER

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inside front cover: King, Typed Letter Signed, item 96 inside rear cover: Lafayette, Manuscript Document Signed, item 98 rear cover: Clemens, Photograph Inscribed, addenda 4

terms of payment: All items, as usual, are guaranteed as described and are returnable within 10 days for any reason. All books are shipped UPS (please provide a street address) unless otherwise requested. Overseas orders should specify a shipping preference. All postage is extra. New clients are requested to send remittance with orders. Libraries may apply for deferred billing. All New York and New Jersey residents must add the appropriate sales tax. We accept American Express, Master Card, and Visa.

Visit our website, www.jamescumminsbookseller.com, for images of all items in this catalogue john quincy adams supports u.s. purchase of noah webster’s synopsis 1. ADAMS, John Quincy. Autograph Letter, signed to the son of Noah Webster concerning his support of the Federal purchase of his father’s synopsis of the Dictionary for the Library of Congress. 4to, Quincy [MA], 11 September 1843. Written in ink on glazed laid paper, old folds, remnants of mounting hinges, else fresh and fine. In half blue morocco folding box. $6,500 In this letter, to Noah Webster’s son William G. Webster, the former President endorses the suggestion of “purchasing the synopsis of [your father’s] great work and causing it to be deposited in [the Library of Congress]…should you conclude to prepare a testimonial presenting the obvious considerations in favour of that measure, and will do me the honour of entrusting it to me, I will very cheerfully present it to the House, and will give it such a direction as may be most promotive of its success…” historic and important.

“often, to tell the truth, it made me a little ill” 2. ANDERSON, Sherwood. Autograph Letter, signed (“Sherwood Anderson”) in answer to a complimentary letter from Frederick Har- rold. One page on blank sheet. 4to, 12 – St. Luke’s Pl. – New York, Dec 21, n.y. [ca. 1923]. One small perforation with loss of two letters, old folds, one deep crease not affecting legibility. In a quarter blue morocco clamshell box. $500 A fine letter to a fan from an appreciative Anderson at this relatively early stage: … Indeed if you could know the number of letters, of another sort, I have received from readers you never could have felt any self-consciousness in writing so handsomely of my work. The purely abusive letters do not come so much any more but at one time I received often five or more a day. Often, to tell the truth, it made me a little ill. However, I would not have you take this as a complaint. Few men have been so handsomely received by their fellow craftsmen of their own time … James Cummins Bookseller

“hard-boiled sentimentalist” 3. ANDERSON, Sherwood. Autograph Letter, signed, To Ted Rob- inson. One page on personal stationery. 4to, Ripshin Farm, Troutsdale, Va, n.d. [after 1926]. Fine. Laid into quarter red morocco drop box. $500 “… It was my wife’s notion. She wanted to see the article. I guess she rather liked the term, having heard it quoted — ‘hard-boiled sentimentalist.’ Hell — I rather like it myself, Ted …” Anderson and his wife Elizabeth Prall moved into their new farmhouse in Troutdale in 1926. Ted Robinson was an author and the literary editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

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an atherton credo: “i believe in equal suffrage ” 4. ATHERTON, Gertrude. Typed Letter, signed (“Gertrude Ather- ton”) to “Mrs. [A.D.] Wright”, on women’s suffrage, her books, and her position as a “California writer”. 2 pp., double-spaced, on recto and verso of a single blank sheet; with a few autograph corrections and insertions. 4to, San Francisco (“40 Fulton St.”), Aug. 29th, 1911 [the year added in the hand of recipient]. Old folds and creases, but quite legible. Docketed by recipient “This is in answer to a letter I wrote to her. A.D.W”. Preserved in a custom purple clothe wrap around chemise, with gilt-lettered spine label. $750 A remarkable letter from the California novelist discussing her work and her position on women‘s rights: I hardly know what to tell you …I believe in equal suffrage, partly because the reverse is absurd, considering that we women of the occident, at least, have every other sort of liberty; partly because I think that the average woman, who has seen anything of life, at all events, is for reform; partly because I believe that women are more fitted that men by nature, and because they have more leisure, to deal with all questions relating to the poor … If you want to treat me as a representative California writer, you would better take up ‘The Splendid Idle Forties,’ ‘The Doomswoman,’ ‘Rezanov,’ ‘The Californians,’ ‘Ancestors,’ the first part of ‘American Wives and English Husbands,’ and the first part of ‘Patience Sparhawk and her Times.’ Also ‘A Daughter of the Vine’ — this recently was translated in French and ran through the Paris Fi- garo. You might take note that I created that now well known ‘atmosphere’ of Spanish California. Every body that has come since has helped him — or herself. The other day I received a letter from a playwright asking if he might borrow it and I was so surprised that I offered him anything he wanted. Of course I have live much away from California, and in consequence, through other books, ‘Senator North,’ ‘The Conqueror,’ ‘Tower of Ivory,’ rank me more as an American than as a California writer. Nevertheless I am loyal to the state, prefer to write here, and, when something vital really occurs to me, to write about it … Still when I don’t I am always reproached by the English and Continental papers. They, apparently, would rather read about California than about any other part of the country …

 James Cummins Bookseller

barnum to james gordon bennett, on jenny lind 5. BARNUM, P[hineas] T[aylor]. Autograph Letter, signed (“P.T. Barnum”), to “My dear Sir” [James Gordon Bennett Esq.], Revere House, Boston. 2 pp pen and ink on blue paper. 4to, n.p, October 9, 1850. Prior folds, else fine, laid into a quarter blue morocco box. $3,500 P.T. Barnum (1810-1891), one of the most remarkable showmen of all time, managed the highly successful tour of “The Swedish Nightingale” Jenny Lind, and following a brief political career, established the Barnum circus in 1871. Bennett was the Publisher of the New York Herald. This letter refers to an article in the Herald about Jenny Lind who had been touring for Barnum in her first American tour. Lind’s first concerts were performed in New York City on September 11, 1850. “After permitting one favorable notice in his paper, Ben- nett had turned around, as usual, and had abused Jenny Lind and bitterly attacked me. I was always glad to get such notices, for they served as inexpensive advertisements to my Museum” (Barnum, Autobiography, p. 120). Barnum assures Bennett that he was amused, rather than offended, by the Herald’s criticisms and that he did not recruit the Boston papers to attack back on his behalf: I have never had the slightest reason to feel offended or annoyed at anything the Herald has said regarding Jennny Lind or myself – indeed I trust that I am too old a soldier to flinch much at paper bullets, but I did not like to remain silent & thus incur the risk of your supposing that I regarded your article a one calculated to injure me (for I did not so regard it,) nor did I wish you to suppose I was so sensitive as to be induced to ask other papers to take up the gauntlet for me.

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6. BARTHOLDI, Frederic A. Autograph Letter, signed (“Bartholdi”), in English, to Wilbur F. Brown, Commander of Lafayette Post. 4 pp. on stationery. 12mo, Paris, Rue Vavin, 38, February 21, 1889. Fine, small residue marks on last leaf edges. In brown cloth chemise. $1,250 Bartholdi writes in English about a design for a medal depicting the Statue of Liberty: … The question of the medal was not forgotten … I made several attempts, and finally proposed to one of our most distinguished artists to make sketches of a medal of which I send you a photograph [not present]. The result, I belive, is satisfactory; you may see how charming the work is and the idea as well. ‘France and America led by the Genius of Liberty before the monument of Franco-American Union.’ Bartholdi goes on to discuss his dificulty in executing this design and complains of ill-health and fatigue, “I hope … these clouds will by and by dissapear, and that I shall see bright skies again … As soon as I see again an opportunity to do something for the medal, I shall do my best, but at present I can do no more. In the mean time the copper is kept at hand …”

7. ______. Autograph Letter, signed (“Batholdi”), to “Mon cher ami”. 2 pp. pen and purple ink on stationery. 12mo, Paris, November a18, 1903. Fine, in crimson cloth chemise. $750 Bartholdi recommends two of his painting for the Saint Louis Exposition (St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904); two American landscapes “avec figures des sujets Amèricans ‘L’Ancienne et la Nouvelle Californie’ faits avec études sur nature.” With signed (“Bartholdi”) engraving of the Statue of Liberty.

 James Cummins Bookseller

memorial to the dead at andersonville 8. BARTON, Clara. Autograph Letter, signed, to Joseph L. Killgore. Commander New York Association Union of Ex-Prisoners of War. 2 pp., on two sheets of letterhead of The National First Aid Association. 8vo, Brooklyn, NY, May 5th, 1907. Fine, in blue cloth folder. $4,500 At the end of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln placed Clara Barton, the “Angel of the Battlefield,” in charge of the search for the missing men of the Union Army. In the summer of 1865, she, along with a detachment of workers, soldiers, and a former prisoner named Dorence Atwater who had smuggled out a list of all the union soldiers who had lost their lives at Ander- sonvile prison, came to the Andersonville cemetery to identify and mark the graves of the Union dead. Thanks to Atwater’s list and the efforts of Clara Barton, over 12,000 soliders who died at Andersonville were identified and their graves were marked. Upon being invited to participate in a memorial service for the dead over 40 years later, Barton responds with a ringing statement of hope: Soldiers, it is well you meet to memorialize such an occasion, and immortal- ize such a day; for immortal it will be in one form or another, while history lasts. The world has no history so enduring as the history of its martyrs. They who write their names in blood, for the cause of righteousness, and humanity, like the Great Martyr of all, sign a deathless record. A record that neither perishes, nor fades with time, but like His holds a beacon Iight for all coming generations. This, soldiers is your mission, the Holy cause which calls you together, which inspires your thought, and your action; and in this spirit I am with you, even unto that great day when wars shall cease, humanity fill its depleted ranks,— men calmly reasoning together shall search the right and the truth, and these shall make them free.

clara barton and the face of lincoln 9. ______. Autograph Letter, signed, to Frederick Hill Meserve, responding to his Prospectus for The Photographs of Abraham Lincoln. 2 pp. on A single folded sheet of ruled paper. 8vo, Glen Echo, Maryland, November 24, 1910. Splitting along fold, otherwise fine, with envelope addressed in her hand. In white linen folder. $4,500 A particularly touching letter from the great humanitarian and nurse, Clara Barton (1821-1912), the “Angel of the Battlefiels” of the Civil War, the indefati- gable and courageous woman whom Abraham Lincoln appointed to search for the thousands of soldiers missing in action, and who later in 1881, founded the American Red Cross. Here, on the eve of Thanksgiving, Barton responds to collector Frederic Hill Meserve’s advertisement for his soon-to-be-published book on the photographs of Abraham Lincoln (The Photographs of Abraham Lincoln, 1910). Here is the response from the 88-year-old Clara Barton: What a valuable and interesting volume that will be! Do not fear that I should think it sent with the hope of my subscription. — For every reason  Autographs & Manuscripts Catalogue 105

— no. Your own good judgment tells you I am not rich enough to possess such luxuries — Again, that book should not be holden by the ‘Likes a one’, a mere lightening scathed tree alone in a pasture. But, for the head of a family, with children and grandchildren to inherit and preserve as a rich family legacy. And this will be its role and destiny. Your ‘odd hours’ are well employed; pleasurably. though laboriously to yourself, richly and profitably for others … A remarkable response from this the founder of the American Red Cross, to whom the face of Lincoln meant a great deal, and who, ever sensitive to the sight of sufffering in others, wrote to a friend in 1864, “The Pres. grows more gaunt, pale, and careworn than ever. I feel badly when I think how much four years have changed him.”

founding father from delaware 10. BASSETT, Richard. Document, signed (“Rich Bassett”), accomplished in his hand, with an Autograph Note, signed, on the verso. One page. Folio, Kent County, Delaware, March 20, 1786. Repaired at folds on verso with gummed tape, old stains. $2,000 Summons relating to a debt of £81:16 owed to Richard Bassett’s client, Joseph Clift, by one Thomas Chairs. Richard Bassett (1745-1815) was admitted to the Delaware bar in 1770. He eventually set up his practice in Dover, Kent County, where he established an expertise in property, libel, and inheritance law (and evidently some of that expertise was put to use expropriating the property of Loyalists). Between 1776 and 1785 Bassett served in the state legislature, was a delegate to the Annapolis Convention in 1786, and in 1787 was appointed a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. In September of that year he signed the Constitu- tion and voted to ratify it at the Delaware convention in December. In 1789, Delaware elected him to the United States Senate, where he served until 1793. Bassett “served on the select committee that drafted the Senate’s rules … he was active in debate, especially on the Judiciary Act (1789), and he was part of a group of Senate Federalists who were disparagingly dubbed ‘the Lawyers.’ Bassett supported a strong judiciary and the rights of small states, while he opposed the assumption of state debts … In February 1801 Bassett resigned as governor upon learning that President John Adams, for whom he was a presidential elector in 1796, had appointed him a judge of the Third Circuit under the Judiciary Act of 1801. Bassett’s son-in-law, a Delaware congressman [i.e., James Bayard], had actively lobbied for Bassett’s appointment. A ‘midnight judge,’ Bassett did not hold office for long; in 1802 a Republican Congress repealed the Judiciary Act and removed the judges” (ANB). Bassett’s papers have not survived, and his autograph is quite rare — the last document to appear at auction was in 1977.

 James Cummins Bookseller

“one of the greatest acts of constitutionalism in the nation’s history” 11. BAYARD, James Asheton. Autograph Letter, signed (“James A. Bayard”), as U.S. Representative from Delaware, to his cousin Samuel Bayard, regarding outgoing President John Adams’ recent appointments, and the deadlocked Presidential election of 1800. 3 pp., on single bifolium. 4to, Washington [D.C.], 30 January, 1801. Old folds, two small tears, minor soiling. In a custom quarter morocco clamshell box. ANB 2:363-364. Bayard, James A.; Papers of James A. Bayard, 1913, pas- sim; Hendrickson, Robert: Hamilton, v. 2, pp. 527-5288. $15,000 A remarkable letter from the elector in the U.S. House of Representatives who decided the outcome of the Presidential Election of 1800, James A. Bayard (1767-1815), writing to his cousin Samuel Bayard. Bayard’s parents died when he was young and he was raised with his uncle’s family, so Samuel was more like a brother to him. He was elected to Congress as a Federalist from Dela- ware in 1796. In the letter he discusses three topics of the greatest contemporary interest; the appointment of judges contemplated by President John Adams before he left office, the deadlocked Presidential election, and living conditions in the fledgling city of Washington, D.C. Bayard first addresses judicial appointments. His older cousin Samuel Bayard had served as clerk of the Supreme Court 1791-94, and hoped for a Federal judgeship; James promised to lobby: What is in my power shall be done to accomplish the wishes you have expressed. It is impossible for me to give you any assurance of success. We know of no scale nor even principle of influence with the President [John Adams]. It is harsh to say his appointments are the result of mere caprice, but in fact they are generally unaccountable. Nobody knows who advised nor what motive induced. It is generally thought no one is ever consulted. I have spoken to Mr. G[ouverneur] Morris. but I am sure he can do you little good. I will speak to the Chief Justice Marshall who can be more serviceable, I will do what I have never done before, ask the favor of the President either in word or writing. Bayard was good to his word, and on Feb. 8 met personally with the President to press his cousin’s case. In the end, Samuel Bayard was not made one of the famous “Midnight Judges” whom Adams appointed the day before he left office, possibly because of James Bayard’s role in Jefferson’s election. Bayard then compares life in the infant town of Washington with Philadel- phia, painting a grim picture of its crowding and cost: The means of sustenance are in sufficient plenty, but we have none of the elegant pleasures of our former residence. I am lodged at Stille’s Hotel with upwards of thirty gentlemen of the two houses and we set down to dinner seldom with less than forty persons. The life is something in the style of the

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Camp. The expense is exorbitant. I pay 23 dollars a week for self servant & wood & then there are a thousand &cs … Bayard then turns to the burning question of the hour, the deadlocked Presi- dential contest between Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson. He writes: ...We are much agitated with the question of President. The federalists have generally decided to support Mr. B[urr] and it is like upon the first ballot his will have six votes, Mr. J[efferson] eight. It is thought notwithstanding that there is an equal chance of his elevation. The State of Delaware in this business stands upon the same ground with the ancient dominion, and what increases her importance has the power of preserving the union from the terrible situation of being without a head. It is difficult to offer a conjecture as to the result of the votes of the House of Representatives. One member one way & three the other can turn the scale on either side. James Bayard knew exactly what he was talking about, for he was in a unique position; as the only elector from Delaware, a change in his vote alone would give the election to Jefferson. He had already been heavily lobbied to do so by, of all people, Alexander Hamilton, who had decided that Jefferson was the best of bad choices. Writing to Bayard on Jan. 16, he had argued that if Jeffer- son’s policies were bad, he would be moderate and that he was “not capable of being corrupted.” Burr, on the other hand, Hamilton called “one of the most unprincipled men in the United States.” Hamilton’s biographer notes, “James A. Bayard was the key, occupying the most strategic position of any one man in the House.” When balloting began on Feb. 11, 1801, Bayard at first voted for Burr: ...On the first thirty-five ballots, Jefferson secured the votes of eight states, Burr of six (all controlled by Bayard’s Federalist colleagues); two states, equally divided between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans, cast no votes. Thus neither contender gained the majority of states voting — nine being needed for election. As Delaware’s single representative, Bayard was in a position to give or deny the outcome to Jefferson, whom Bayard deeply distrusted. Withstanding intense pressure from fellow Federalists, Bayard precipitated a conclusion by submitting a blank ballot on the thirty-sixth ballot. Bayard’s action led one other delegation to do the same and the Feder- alists in two others to withdraw, thus allowing Jefferson to become president with the vote of ten states. Bayard...explained his actions simply: because, he wrote, of the ’imperious necessity’ of running ’no risk of the Constitu- tion,’ he would not ’exclude Jefferson at the expense of the Constitution.’ By acting thus to end the nation’s first major constitutional crisis, he performed one of the earliest and arguably one of the greatest acts of absolute constitutionalism in the nation’s history. (ANB) Bayard later maintained that he had personally gone to Jefferson and offered a deal; he would throw the election to Jefferson if the latter promised not to remove Federalist officeholders. Jefferson always denied there was a deal,

 James Cummins Bookseller but his moderation in this regard suggests he may well have done so. Bayard stated further that he offered the same deal to Burr, who would not take it. Whether there was a deal, or Bayard simply followed Hamilton’s advice, has never been settled. If there was a deal, and John Adams knew of it, it may have cost Samuel Bayard his proposed Federal judgeship. A remarkable letter from one of the key players in the election and Constitu- tional crisis of 1801. It is not in Bayard’s published correspondence.

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reverend beecher to chloe beach 12. BEECHER, Henry Ward. Autograph Letter, signed (“HW Beech- er”). Two pages, on two panels (plus postscript) of a folded quarto let- tersheet, in ink. 8vo, [New York?], n.d. Old folds, with mends to tears along center fold and horizontal folds in blank panel (not affecting text), but near very good. Folding cloth slipcase. $2,000 An amusing letter from the highly popular and controversial minister, novelist and reformer, to his good friend — or, as recent scholarship would have it, his very intimate friend — Chloe Beach, wife of Moses Beach, owner of the New York Sun. Beecher writes in such a fashion as to imply clearly that he is solicit- ing a dinner invitation: My Dear Mrs. Beach — Our larder is given out: — our tea used up — milk gone, bread scanty, sweetmeats passed away, and all of us are facing the probability of starvation tonight. Do you know of any place where we could get a loan of cold victuals? — or borrow some crackers, or even get a chance to come and eat a little? I would not trouble you but, you have the reputation of being charitable; and really, we are reduced to that condition of suffering that if you do not take us in, — why — we will go somewhere else. I am your friend bowed down with trouble. H.W. Beecher. … P.S. We are willing to pay. It was through the Beach family, in 1867, that Beecher first connected with his ardent supporter, Samuel Clemens, and a case has been put forward (see Ap- plegate, The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, pp.371-2) that in January of the same year Chloe Beach gave birth to a daughter by Henry W. Beecher. Accompanied by a carte de visite of Beecher, captioned in ink and pencil on recto and verso, and trimmed at the top corners. While ordinary Beecher letters are not uncommon, the present letter enjoys an out of the ordinary context.

 James Cummins Bookseller

“what i did all my life was merely to [do] my duty — that is all” 13. BEN-GURION, David. Autograph Letter, signed, to Mrs [Ruth Abramson] Berman of Netanya. One paper on ruled notebook paper. In English, with an address in Hebrew added in Ben Gurion’s hand. 8H x 4H inches, Sdeh Boker, 20 April 1964. Fine, in a quarter red morocco slipcase. $650 Fine letter from the Zionist leader and head of the Labour Party who pro- caimed Israel’s independence in 1948 and served as that nation’s first Prime Minister from 1949-53, then again from 1955-1963. Writing to the wife of the American author and professor of economics, Edward Berman (1897-1938), whose book Labor and the Sherman Act first appeared in 1939: “… I am grateful for your aid and I would certainly be glad to have husband’s book on ‘Labour and the Sherman Act’, and also the letters of my dear friend Justice Frankfurter. And let me tell you that I have don [sic] nothing for you or for anybody else. What I did all my life was merely to[do] my duty — that is all …”

14. BENNETT, Sanford Fillmore. Autograph Transcription, signed (“S. Fillmore Bennett”), of his hymn “The Sweet By-and-By,” as part of his Autograph Transcription “History of The Sweet By-and-By copied by the author for C.F. Gunther, Chicago”; with an Autograph Letter of transmission to C.F. Gunther. In all, 6 pages on ruled note paper. 12mo, Richmond, Ill., May 14, 1886. Sewn. Near fine. $2,500 Bennett (1836-1898) composed the lyrics to what was to become one of Amer- ica’s most well known hymns in 1861, with music by Joseph P. Webster. The account of its composition, in less than 30 minutes, is given in this manuscript “History”: … I said, ‘Webster, what is the matter now?’ ‘It’s no matter,’ he replied, ‘it will be all right by and by.’ The idea of the hymn came to me like a flash of sunlight, and I replied, ‘The Sweet By and By! Why would not that make a good hymn?’ ‘Maybe it would,’ he said indifferently. Turning to my desk I

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penned the words of the hymn as fast as I could write. I handed the words to Webster. As he read his eyes kindled, and stepping to the desk he began writing the notes. Taking his violin, he played the melody and then jotted down the notes of the chorus. It was not over thirty minutes from the time I took my pen to write the words before two friends with Webster and myself were singing the hymn … “The Sweet By-and-By” was featured in the Academy Award winning film “Sergeant York”; Charles Ives used the tune in his Orchestral Set No. 2; and it has become one of America‘s most recognizable hymns.

“when i hit a high note my false teeth jump out of my mouth” 15. BENTON, Thomas Hart. Autograph Letter, signed (“Thomas H. Benton”) to caricaturist Jay Clark, regarding the latter’s depiction of him. One page. 4to, Kansas City, Mo., November 23, 1963. Fine. With Clark’e pen and ink and pencil caricature of Benson. The two in linen portfolio. $750 Funny letter from the artist to Clark, who evidently had sent Benton his caricatures: “Dear Jay Clark, Your caricatures are fine. I think the one of me is best but maybe that is only because I like my face better than the faces of those other guys. Keep it up. I don’t play the harmonica very much any more because when I hit a high note my false teeth jump out of my mouth. Sincerely, your friend Thomas H. Benton”

 James Cummins Bookseller

artist to politician 16. BIERSTADT, Albert. Two Autograph Letters, signed, to U.S. Senator G.F. Edmunds of Vermont, sending him his “view in the Kings River Cañon, California” and comparing his work to that of the politician. 1 p. and 4 pp., each on personal stationery with the artist’s monogram. 12mo, “Brevoors House” New York, May 9 and May 15, 1878. Second letter with envelope. Fine, in a custom quarter morocco clamshell box. $1,250 Characteristic letters from the German-born American painter Albert Bier- stadt (1830-1902). In the first letter, Bierstadt sends a sketch to Edmunds, U.S. Senator from Vermont (“please accept with my compliments”), and adds “I hope when Mrs. Edmunds comes here again I shall be able to show her some more of our private galleries.” Edmunds (February 1, 1828 – February 27, 1919) was a Republican U.S. Senator from Vermont from 1866 to 1891. In the second, Bierstadt, flattered by the kind reception of his art, compares the work of the artist with the Senator’s: “Mine is a language composed of hieroglyphics of form and color appreciated by the intelligent few — while yours appeals to that class and also to the great mass of mankind. The press to be sure multiplies them but there is one original which we cannot all have the pleasure of listening to — and in that living gallery wherein you are so conspicuous and where so many of your pictures have found utterance I would beg as an exchange for my speech which is the original, a copy of yours when they are published. “I feel delighted that the canvas pleases you — Pray let it continue to do so until you publish a volume of yours which have attained an eminence as specimens of clear and cogent debating power far beyond the attempts in an humbler branch of art of “Yours truly “Albert Bierstadt”

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17. BLAIR, John. Autograph note, signed, to Samuel Meredith, Trea- surer of the United States. One page. 2I x 8 inches, Philadelphia, 29 November, 1796. Perforation from old seal, without loss. Quarter morocco clamshell box. $1,500 Rare autograph note from Blair (1732 – 1800), American Revolutionary leader, founding father, and Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1789- 1795. To the Treasurer of the United States, he writes: “Mr. John Barnes in- forming me that the hundred dollars which I had left in your hands for a particular purpose, remains still unapplied, & unclaimed by any of the Judges, & as I have a claim upon some of them for as much, or more, please to pay that sum to the said Mr. Barnes, & place it to the account of your most obedt. Servant John Blair.”

“the greatest passion of my life has been my love for the africans” 18. BLIXEN, Karen [Isak Dinesen]. Autograph Letter, signed (“Yours ever, Karen Blixen”)‚ to author and adventurer Negley Farson. 3 pp., in blue ink, on photographic notecard with portrait of Blixen by Lindquist. 8vo, Rungstedlung, Rungsted Kyst, 20 December 1957. A few letters lightly inked. Fine. Custom brown cloth folding case. $2,250 Choice letter from Karen Blixen (1885-1962), whose memoir, Out of Africa (1937), published under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen, is a modern classic. She writes to Negley Farson, American-born journalist, author, and adventurer, whose books include Last Chance in Africa (1950) and a volume of autobiography A Mirror for Narcissus (1957), which he evidently sent her: Very many thanks for your kind letter and your charming and delightful book that I am reading with greatest interest. … How I wish, when you write that you had invited David Marhius to stay, thay you had invited Da- vid [W—?] to stay with you, that you had invited me to your hosue as well! … I did of course start with your chapters of Africa. … the greatest passion of my life has been my love for the Africans! Alas, I was not able to do them

 James Cummins Bookseller

much good. Still Sir Philip Mitchell [governor of Kenya, 1944-1952], when he dined with me here in Denmark, told me that it might have been a good, even a useful thing if I had been able to stay on in Kenya! I hope that we shall meet again …

tennessee father 19. BLOUNT, William. Autograph Letter, signed (“Wm. Blount”) to “David Henley Esquire / Agent of the Department of War”, ordering that John Shute be paid for his service in delivering two letters from General [James] Robertson. One page. Knoxville, January 23, 1795. Silked. $1,750 William Blount (1749-1800) was the political agent of a powerful family of merchants (John Gray and Thomas Blount, Merchants) with branches throughout North Carolina and who became land speculators on a vast scale in Tennessee and Alabama. Much of their empire was derived from William‘s military and political service during the American Revolution. Blount served in the North Carolina army as a financial officer, and while in the state legislature from 1780 to 1790 he sserved on a committee which dealt with soldiers’ claims and land titles. As a member of the committee to develop a plan to pay revolutionary soldiers with land titles in areas claimed by the state in what is now Tennessee, “Blount was able to secure private advantage for himself and his associates” (ANB), and along with his partner, James Robertson, was able to purchase unused military warrants from soldiers and further increase his holdings. Blount served in the Continental Congress in 1782-1783 and again in 1786-1787, where he became friends with George Washington. In 1790 Presi- dent Washington appointed him governor of the territory south of the Ohio

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River, where he developed a political organization whose patronage included such prominent Tennesseans as Andrew Jackson. “Blount served as presiding officer at the Constitutional Convention in 1796 that drew up the fundamental document for the state of Tennessee. His particular interests were low taxes on land and the protection of the right of navigation on the Mississippi River, a critical factor in Blount’s political and economic career. The legislature chosen under the new state constitution se- lected Blount as a U.S. senator in 1796 … Blount entered into a conspiracy that sought to join the western Mississippi area with Britain”, as a result Blount was the first U.S. Senator to be expelled from the Senate, in 1797. While letters and documents of Blount are not common, Autograph Letters are quite rare — none have appeared at auction since 1983. This payment order, entirely in his fine, bold hand, reads:“On the 20th Instant John Shute delivered to me two letters from General Robertson dated at Nashville the 9th & 13th for which service the General in his letters informs me that he had engaged that Mr. Shute should be paid by the United States fifty dollars. I am Your obt. Servant, Wm. Blount.”

 James Cummins Bookseller

the architect to the archbishop 20. BROWN, Lancelot (“Capability”). Autograph Letter, signed (“Lancelot Brown”), to the Archbishop of Canterbury. 8M x 7J inches. 2 pp., with integral blank, Hampton Court, “Saturday Evening”, c. 1773. Faint old folds, else fine. $2,500 Brown writes at half past five that he has only just received His Grace’s note, due to his servant taking a roundabout way home, and will therefore be unable to accept the Archbishop’s invitation, which he very much regrets. He hopes “your Grace has received no hurt by the over turn to Day”, evidently referring to a carriage accident, and again reiterates his sorrow over the missed connection. Brown (1715-1783) architect and pioneering landscape gardener, changed the face of the English country-house landscape, turning away from the geomet- ric style of André Le Nostre at Versailles and perfecting instead the enhancement of the undulating lines of the natural terrain. One of the great geniuses in this field, his work was enormously influential on his successors: it gave the viewer the feeling of visiting a place of great natural beauty when, in fact, every inch of His Lordship’s estate (at Kew, Bleinheim, Stowe, and elsewhere) was carefully planned and man-made. He became wealthy, and, notes one source, “by his amiable manners and high character he supported with dignity the station of a country gentleman.” He was high sheriff of Huntingdonshire in 1770, a few years before this letter was written, and it is not surprising to find the Archbishop among his many highly-placed friends.

bryan on women’s suffrage 21. BRYAN, William Jennings. Autograph Letter, signed (“WJ Bry- an”) to an unnamed correspondent, regarding a proposed debate on women’s suffrage. 1H pages on a single sheet of personal letterhead. 4to, “Villa Serena, Miami, Florida for the winter”, March 7, 1921. Two small marginal tears, slight soiling, old folds, but very good. $2,000 …Replying to your kind favor I beg to say that I do not accept invitations to debate, but if I were disposed to make an exception in this case I would not care to give our distinguished visitor reason to regard a constitutional amendment duly adopted a debatable question or to think that woman suffrage needs to be defended in this country even from so able a critic… The 19th Amendment, giving the women the right to vote, had only recently become part of the U.S. Constitution on August 18, 1920. On a few years later, in 1925, Bryan was to be involved in one of the most famous debates of the century, with Clarence Darrow, on the subject of evolu- tion: the famous Scopes “Monkey” Trial.

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buchanan affirms his belief in democracy and the american people 22. BUCHANAN, James. Autograph Letter, signed, to “Messrs. Mann, Dougherty, Schell, Lyons, Rush & others”. 2 pp. 4to, Bedford Springs, July 17, 1849. Red cloth chemise. $2,500 In response to an invitation to a public dinner in his honor, the former Secre- tary of State under Polk and future 15h President of the United States, thanks his hosts, writing: “Your partiality has attributed too much to my ‘statesmanship.’ “The late [i.e., Polk] administration, it is true, were almost uniformly successful in their great measures & have left the Country eminently prosperous at home & enjoying a higher character abroad than at any former period of our history. But all this has been the result of clearly defined & well established Democratic principles honestly reduced into practice. The late lamented President was faithful to his pledges & carried them into execution with energy, ability & success. For this, his memory will be ever revered. Still it was the people who gave the impulse; it was the progressive Democracy keeping pace with the advancing & improving spirit of the age which has swept away the abuses & the cobwebs of antiquity & substituted for them measures adapted to the intelligence & the wants of our existing civilisation. These measure. will not,— cannot be materially changed by our successors. Those who indulge a different belief are destined to disap- pointment. “A people so intelligent & enterprising as ours, with a boundless career before them of liberty, prosperity & power, never go backwards. On the contrary, they not only hold fast what they have already achieved; but convert each new acquisition into the means of still further advancement. You may rest assured that the age of National Banks, Pet Deposit Banks, high protective tarifs and illiberal and unwise commercial restrictions in our inter- course with foreign nations has passed away forever …”

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“as i would not be a slave, so i would not be a master” 23. BURTON, Harold Hitz, Justice of the Supreme Court. Typed Letter, signed (“Harold H, Burton”) to Harry Barnard of the Altgeld Centenary Committee of Illinois in Chicago, regarding the selection of Justice William O. Douglas as guest speaker at the public dinner in Altgeld’s honor. One page, on letterhead of the Supreme Court of the United States. 4to, Washington, D.C, December 21, 1947. Docketed in pencil. Fine, in custom cloth folder. $500 “… I am glad to know that Mr. Justice William O. Douglas of this Court will speak at the public dinner to be held in observance of the 100th Anniversary of the birth of John Peter Altgeld, the late Governor of Illinois, and a leading apostle of the Bill of Rights. He not only wished to be free himself, but wished that others share his freedom. Evidently he subscribed to Lincoln’s definition of democracy — ‘As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master …’”

24. BYRD, Richard Evelyn. Typed Letter, signed (“Dick”), to Polan Banks. 2 pp. on Naval Department / Office of the Chief of Naval Op- erations” letterhead. With envelope. 4to, Boston, Massachusetts, May 14, 1946. Fine, in custom morocco-backed folding box. $1,250 During World War II Captain Banks served as chief of the War Department’s stage and screen section.

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salem elite, 1789 25. CABOT, George, John CHOATE, and William SHILLABER. Manuscript Document, signed in secretarial hand by all three as court-appointed referees, denying one “Woodbridge” any title or claim to lands mentioned in the “Tess declaration”. One page, on single folio sheet (bottom half torn away); docketed on verso with address panel “To Oliver Parsons Esq. / President of the Board of Health / Salem”. 6H x 7L inches, Salem, Mass., June 7, 1789. Lower half of sheet torn away, without apparent loss. In clue cloth folder. $1,000 George Cabot (1751-1823) was a an American merchant, seaman, and politician, born is Salem, who became a member of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress (1775-1776); Delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1777; the Director of the Massachusetts Bank in 1784; delegate to the state convention that adopted the United States Constitution in 1787; and a member of the U.S Senate from Massachusetts from 1791-1796. John Choate was a judge representative to the Massachusetts State Legislature from 1781-1788.

 James Cummins Bookseller

26. CAMUS, Albert. Typed Letter, signed (“Albert Camus”) as editor at Gallimard, to writer Emma Bikrich, discussing the novel she submitted and his reaction to the news that he won the Nobel Prize. 2 pp., on single sheet of stationery with “Librairie Gallimard nrf ” letterhead. 8vo, Munich, 21 November, 1957. Slightly wrinkled, two small closed tears, overall very good. $2,750 A superb letter, written shortly after the announcement of his Nobel Prize, displaying not only his acumen and graciousness as an editor, but his humility upon learning he had been awarded the Nobel Prize: [In translation:] I was able to finish your novel before being considerably unsettled by the news which you know all about. I promised you I’d be honest, and that I will. Few books have so impressed me by such true originality — by its mixture of exaltation and casualness, by its attitude toward life, by its emo- tional depth, and finally, by its author’s personality. But with all that, the books doesn’t work, because its construction is muddled — it is a mosaic of tacked-on scenes — and because the style, although always lively, is nevertheless frequently clumsy. In other words, the book doesn’t work because of its lack of craftsmanship. But it does seem to me that you definitely have personality (the portrait of your hero’s French mistress is remarkable). If you want my advice, here it is: put this book aside, do another one, and then come back to it. You will see your formal flaws, and, with your new experience, you will be able to correct them. Finally, I must thank you from the bottom of my heart for your article about the Nobel prize. The paradoxical sadness of which you speak — I was happy that you gave expression to it, for I feel it, and yet I can’t speak of it. I have never sought any awards — not out of any virtue, but because they bore me and I have other things to do. As for this one, I couldn’t possibly turn it down without creating an awful stink and making an ostentatious display of bad taste. All I can do is accept it with humility and then forget it. The world we live in will help me there. It, too, has a short memory, and so I’ll be able to go on about my work. When all is said and done, this is just be one more problem to overcome. Come see me if you return to Paris, where your manuscript awaits you. And please believe in the sincerity and confidentiality of my feelings. Albert Camus

“truly the way of the filanthropist [sic] is hard” 27. CARNEGIE, Andrew. Typed Letter, signed (“Andrew Carnegie”), to John A. Stewart. One page. 8vo, New York, May 13, 1912. Some light soiling at margin, else fine, in custom chemise. $1,250 To John A. Stewart of the National Committee for the Celebration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of Peace, “Congratulations upon your success

 Autographs & Manuscripts Catalogue 105 so far. You may be sure that I will do all in my power to help you, regretting, however, that I hav [sic] so little time at my disposal these days. Truly the way of the filanthropist [sic] is hard …” Carnegie would go on to serve as Chairman of the Committee, which celebrated 100 years of peace among English-speaking nations on December 24, 1914.

chandler sells part of his soul 28. CHANDLER, Raymond. Typed Document, signed in ink (“Ray- mond Chandler”) dated 29 May 1942, assigning exclusive motion picture rights for his unpublished book entitled Brasher Doubloon (alternate title The High Window). 4 pp. on rectos only, signed by Chandler on page 4, dated and notarized below with raised seal. 4to, Los Angeles, 29 May 1942. Leaves punched in left margin for ring binder. Fine. Prov- enance: 20th Century-Fox. For Chandler, cf. MacShane, The Life of Ray- mond Chandler (1976). $9,000 Chandler assigns film rights for his third novel, completed in March, here still bearing his original title, The Brasher Doubloon as well as the alternate title that Chandler gave it at Blanche Knopf’s suggestion. The High Window was published by Knopf in August 1942. “In May of 1942 The High Window was sold to 20th Century-Fox for $3,500 as a second-run or B picture and was released the following year as Time to Kill” (Macshane, p. 105). At the time of the present assignment, Chandler had established a critical reputation but financial success eluded him. He sold film rights to Farewell, My Lovely (1940) for $2,000, and came to regret this intensely when Murder, My Sweet, the film of Farewell, My Lovely, proved a box office hit but earned Chandler no additional money. Rights to his first novel, The Big Sleep, remained unsold, in large part because of the restrictive climate of censorship of subject matter exercised by the Production Code Administration.

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Chandler was hired by Paramount in 1943 to work on the screenplay of Double Indemnity with Billy Wilder in part because Wilder was impressed by The High Window. Wilder and Chandler’s collaboration was a landmark in film noir and marked a change in the climate of censorship in Hollywood, and thus cleared the way for the filming of The Big Sleep in 1944 and its release in 1946. The High Window was filmed again in 1946 and released in 1947 as The Brasher Doubloon, starring George Montgomery as Philip Marlowe. A fine document from an early point in Chandler’s decidedly ambivalent relationship to Hollywood.

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29. CHIANG-KAI-SHEK, Madame (Soong Mei-ling). Typed letter, signed (“Mayling Soong Chiang”) to the author Pearl S. Buck (addressed by her married name Mrs. Richard J. Walsh). 1 full page. 4to, Chung-King, Szechuan, on headed stationery of “Headquarters of the Generalissimo,” 15 August 1941. Fine. $1,500 madame chiang to pearl buck: I have been wanting to write you for a very long time. In fact, when Mr. Lin-Yutang was here last year, I thought of sending you a line by him, but I decided to wait for the receipt of the Book of Hope so that I could tell you of its reception by our women. Our women know all about it, and are eagerly awaiting to accord it a welcome, for I shall put it on exhibition. This will, I am sure, bring home the very real love which you, and other American friends hold for us, and the understanding which you have of our daily and hourly struggle to free China from Japan’s stranglehold. She goes on to write of here persistent malaria, but explains that “until the air raids in let up, I feel that I should remain in Chungking.” The successful author energetically raised funds for food and medical supplies for the Nationalist Chinese cause, and invited 1,000 American women to make donations; their names were to be inscribed in a “Book of Hope” as a record of their philanthropy. At this date, Chiang-Kai-Shek’s Nationalists, in uneasy alliance with Mao-vTse Tung’s armies, had been resisting the Japanese invasion since 1937. As Madame Chang Kai-shek, Mei-ling was all over the place, charming most but rubbing a few, such as Pearl S. Buck and Eleanor Roosevelt, the wrong way Pearl Buck wrote in Life Magazine’s May 10, 1943 issue that Americans saw in Madame Chiang Kai-shek ’someone whom they were able to understand — not a remote and esoteric creature who might have stepped from a Chinese fan, but a ... modern woman, a woman who is at home in any country; and through her China has for millions of Americans suddenly become a modern nation.”

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clay on his defeat in the 1844 presidential election 30. CLAY, Henry. Autograph Letter, signed (“H. Clay”), to Represen- tative Dudley Selden. One page on bifolium, postmarked “Lexington Ky. Dec 3”. 8vo, Ashland, [Kentucky], Dec. 2, 1844. Fine, in custom blue cloth chemise. $1,750 In 1844, Clay was nominated by the Whigs against James K. Polk, the Demo- cratic candidate. Clay lost due in part to national sentiment for Polk’s “54º40’ or Fight” campaign and his opposition to the annexation of Texas. He writes to Selden, a Congressman from New York from 1833-34, of his loss and his plans for the future. Reading in part: … altho we have been most unexpectedly defeated all our friends manifested fidelity to our cause. I had no reason to doubt such was the fact. Only one contrary exclamation has been made to me … We have failed, in consequence of the combination of the most extraordinary circumstances, I suppose no alternative is left to us but that of submission as well as we can, adherence to our principles and our organization, and to exert our uppermost endeavor yet to save our country.

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“i have felt like a giddy girl” 31. CLEVELAND, Grover. Autograph Letter, signed (“Grover Cleve- land”) to Commodore Elias C. Benedict, expressing his pleasure in the success of their business partnership, and discussing his fishing plans. 4 pp. 12mo, Princeton, N.J., April 19, 1899. Fine. With envelope, and engraved portrait, in a quarter morocco box. $1,250 Fine Cleveland letter to his close friend and business associate, Commodore Elias C. Benedict, who rendered President Cleveland a major service in 1893 when he allowed Cleveland, while the nation was in the midst of a financial panic, to undergo a secret operation on his jaw aboard Benedict’s yacht, the Oneida. A malignant tumor was removed from Cleveland’s jaw, and the secret of his cancer was kept from the public until 1917. My dear Commodore Your letter was received this morning. You have no idea how rich I feel, and how much pleased I am with the operations and success of the partnership. It seems to me I knew of one joint account which did not start with two fathers and end with none — as I have heard you describe their usual fate. Recalling your threats of ruin, I have felt like a giddy girl who when a good man asked her if she had been ruined, said: ‘Not yet but I hope to be.’ And it seems I had it right. As near as I can make out, I have in the hands of the firm of E.C. B. & Co. after paying for my Trust Co. Stock over $20,000; and like every silly fellow who suddenly becomes rich, I want to buy something — that is with all but $10,000 of it. But perhaps I can wait until I see you. I am under an engagement to go to Ohio bass fishing, some time in May — but whether it will be late or early in the month is uncertain. 1 must keep myself in readiness to start on pretty short notice I fear; and am thus prevented from making any other engagements until the date for my bass trip is fixed. I have hoped too that if I tried the trout in May, it would be on Cape Cod … I shall look for you early next week. Any time will suit us and I prepare to ‘harden my heart’ against you both as to cribbage and billiards, though bearing in grateful remembrance of all that you have done for me in other directions.

 James Cummins Bookseller

“art is an attack on the shame which leads the blind” 32. COCTEAU, Jean. Autograph Letter, signed, to “mon cher Hen- ribel” (?). One page in ink, with a quarter-page postscript on verso. 4to, Kitzbühl, Austria, 28 February, 1954. Old folds, but very good. $750 A fine letter, written while Cocteau was taking a rest cure“dans les neiges d’Autriche”. In translation: “… You know the filth they’ve heaped upon me, for which I congratulate myself, since through the mechanism of waves and nodes a whole new gen- eration comes to discover me and passes on from node to wave … Art is an attack on the Shame which is at work in the blind, but nothing moves me so much as the sight of these blind ones who cry, ‘I can see’. Not that I consider you one of the blind — quite the contrary. I congratulate you for understanding that nothing visible can come out of fashion, or out of that weakness which thinks standing in a line is strength …” “P.S. maybe your article could start with Clair Obscur, a book of poems which is about to appear and to which I attach great importance -- to the ex- tent that I attach importance to anything in this world. Its importance lies, to my eyes, in a moral line, of which the work is only a very vague echo.”

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coleridge in the army: “god or chaos preserve me!” 33. COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor. Autograph Letter, unsigned, to his schoolfriend, G.L. Tuckett, during his brief service in the army. 3 pp. on two conjugate leaves; addressed by Coleridge on verso of second leaf. Folio, Henley on Thames, “Thursday night — Feb 6th‚” [1794]. Minor spotting, postal marks, trace of seal tear slightly affecting text. Published in Collected Letters, ed. Griggs, I, 61-63. $14,000 An important early letter from Coleridge, written in the desperation and despair he found himself in after secretly enlisting in the army in late 1793. Wracked by guilt over the college debts he had amassed, depressed over his un- requited love for Mary Evans, Coleridge, without telling his family, and swear- ing his friends to secrecy, enlisted in the 15th or King’s Light Dragoons under the pseudonym of Silas Tompkin Comberbache. Eventually, word leaked out to his family, and his older brother Captain George Coleridge intervened and arranged his discharge. (As this letter demonstrates, it was Tuckett, to whom it is addressed, who informed the family). After two months of basic training at Reading, during which, according to Richard Holmes in Coleridge, Early Vision, p. 54, he “he did guard duty at the Reading Fair and wrote love-letters on behalf of his illiterate comrades, he was ordered to Henley on Thames as temporarily unfit to ride.” Coleridge’s orders were to nurse a fellow soldier who was suffering from smallpox, while sharing a small, cramped, single room with him in the Pest House (“It is four strides in length, and three in breadth”). Coleridge had developed saddle sores and boils from his unfortunate riding experiences and complains of those “those dread- fully troublesome eruptions, which so grimly constellated my Posteriors”, as well as “ ... the almost total want of Sleep, the putrid smell and the fatiguing Struggles with my Comrade during his delirium ... “ (Holmes suggests that the claustrophobic ordeal of Henley may have contributed something to the hallucinations of The Ancient Mariner, written four years later. But Coleridge then moves abruptly to the subject weighing on him. Although he acknowledges Tuckett’s good intentions, he exclaims: In an hour of extreme anguish under he most solemn Imposition of secrecy I entrusted my place of residence to the young men of Christ’s Hospital — the intelligence you extorted from their Imbecility, should have remained sacred with you … to the eye of your friendship , the divulging might have appeared necessary - but what shade of necessity is there to excuse you in shewing my letters - to stab the very heart of confidence! … I doubtless have offended you — I would to God, that I too possessed the tender irritableness of unhandled sensibility - mine is a sensibility gangrened with inward cor- ruption. Your gossip with the commanding officer seems so totally useless and unmotived that I almost find a difficulty in believing it … Coleridge is especially anguished, too, by the presence of an unopened letter brought to him from his older brother George : “… am I not already sufficiently miserable? … my brother George prposes

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the cheering consolations of Conscience — but I am talking I know not what / yet there is a pleasure doubtless an exquisite pleasure mingled up in the most painful of our virtuous Emotions. He completes this remarkable missive with an expostulation of doom and guilt over his treatment of his mother: Alas! my poor Mother! What an intolerable weight of guilt is suspended over my head … and if I endure to live — the look ever downward — insult -—pity -—and hell. — God or Chaos preserve me! What but infinite Wis- dom or infinite Confusion can do it!

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“les corps humains sont bien misérables …” 34. COLETTE, Sidonie-Gabrielle. Autograph Letter, signed (“Co- lette”), to friend Maurice Saurel. 2 pp., on verso and recto of single sheet of blue stationery. Paris, 22 April, 1942 (postmark). With envelope, addressed in her hand. $1,000 A moving letter to an old friend, written from a health clinic where Colette (1873-1954) is undergoing treatment: I’m getting more and more vague as a result of this double treatment, which is cutting my appetite. On X-ray days, I sit around from 5 to midnight without even reading. And this poor little girl in the clinic who moans into the telephone. Human bodies are pitiful things. And our poor “Mozart”, whom Madame Polignac* came to talk to me about two days ago, to tell me that both mother and child need money again. I know you are under a heavy load, but I promised here I’d mention it to you all the same. Don’t come and see me. I may finish this treatment flat on my back at the end, but I’ll finish it. I need to know if I can get better. Who can turn me into a resigned soul? I’m still far from that. Your old fairly worn out friend, Colette *Winnaretta Singer (1865-1943), Princess Edmond de Polignac, Singer sewing machine heiress, musical patron to some of the twentieth century’s greatest composers, and famous lesbian of her day.

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calvin coolidge, president 35. COOLIDGE, Calvin. Typed Letter, signed (“Calvin Coolidge”) to Melville E. Stone. 1 p. typed letter on White House stationery. 8vo, Washington, May 31, 1928. Prior fold, light creasing, in custom box. $400 “My dear Mr. Stone: If your son was at Andover in 1894, that was when I was in Amherst College, so that I did not have an opportunity to know him …” Melville Elijah Stone (August 22, 1848 – February 15, 1929) was a newspaper publisher, the founder of the Chicago Daily News, and was the general manager of the reorganized Associated Press.

36. DANA, Richard H., Jr. Autograph Letter, signed (“Rich H. Dana Jr.”), to S.B. Woolworth, Secretary of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, regarding the invitation to attend a meeting of the Association. 3 pp. in ink on single folded sheet of blank stationery. 12mo, Boston, 12 September, 1866. Very good. In purple cloth portfolio. $300 Excellent example of the hand and style of Dana (1815-1888), author of Two Years Before the Mast: “… Permit me at this late hour, to acknowledge the compliment of the invitation, to express my regret that I was not able to attend, and to offer you congratulations upon the distinguished success that followed your efforts …”

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gÉnÉral de gaulle in london, august, 1940 37. DE GAULLE, Charles. Typed Letter, signed (“C. de Gaulle”) to Madame Conchita Moulun, thanking her for her letter and her contribution to the cause. One page, on personal letterhead “Le Général de Gaulle”. In French. 4to, 4 Carlton Gardens, London, 17 August, 1940. Soiled and worn, with old tears, but backed and stabilized without loss, and entirely legible. $2,500 In London organizing the Free French Forces, and only two weeks after he had been sentenced to death in absentia for treason against the Vichy regime, De Gaulle strikes a moving note of gratitude in this superb letter to a supporter. Thanking her for her letter and for the contribution which accompanied it, he writes [in translation]: “…not only do gifts of this kind represent an extremely precious source of help, but they also, in light of the feelings which inspire them, constitute, for me, a powerful encouragement.

“At the tragic moment in the history of the world in which we presently live, it is reas- suring to realize that those who still enjoy liberty support us in our resolve to resist and prevail …”

increased possibilities of sympathy 38. DE QUINCEY, Thomas. Autograph Manuscript of an essay titled “Increased Possibilities of Sympathy in the Present Age.” 2 pages, densely written in ink on verso and recto of single sheet, with several revisions and deletions. 4to, N.p., n.d. [c. 1850?]. Published in Posthu- mous Works, edited from original mss with instructions and notes by A.H. Japp, 2 vols. 1891-1893, vol. I, pp. 165-167. Very good in custom morocco-backed protective folder. $3,000 Excellent working manuscript by the author of Confessions of an English Opium Eater, heavily scored and revised, with the title supplied by the editor Japp. De

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Quincey begins: Some years ago we [editor Japp has substituted “I”] had occasion to remark [the editor has scored through “in this journal”] — that a new era was coming on by hasty strides for national polities, a new organ was maturing itself for public effects. Sympathy -—how great a power is that! Conscious sympathy — how immeasurable! …

“to have a weak navy courts attack, disaster and defeat” 39. DEWEY, George, Admiral of the Navy. Typescript signed (“George Dewey”) of his artcle, “Needed — A Powerful Navy.” 3 pp., on Department of the Navy letterhead; with one-page Typed letter of submission, signed, to William Griffith [editor of the National Sunday Magazine] in New York City. 4to, Washington, D.C, December 7, 1912. A few light pencil marks in margin. Fine in a cloth folder. $5,000 An article for the National Sunday Magazine — a Sunday supplement — by Admiral Dewey (1837-1917), the hero of the Battle of Manila in the Spanish American War, and the only man to ever attain the rank of Admiral of the Navy. Here is a mere excerpt: Wars are certain to come and the nation must be prepared. The history of all ages has shown that the proper provision for peace is preparedness for war. A large Navy makes for peace and is an economical asset to the nation, possessing it. National supineness has cost us much in the past and we can not afford to have it repeated. Cornwallis was not properly supported by the Navy and England lost her colonies; Napoleon fell because Villeneuve was no match for Nelson. The Confederacy lost because the Federal Navy blockaded all its ports Shutting off supplies and revenues. After Spain’s navy was destroyed her colonial possessions were no longer tenable. The defeat of the ,Russian Navy by the Japanese decided the Russia-Japanese War. Italy in its recent war had command of the sea and Turkey had to make peace. The Greek Navy at the present time has been a powerful factor in the success of the Balkan states against Turkey. To have a weak navy courts attack, disaster and defeat. Diplomatic de- mands in international affairs will be heeded only if a nation has the necessary force to back them up. The navy is always all important factor in international settlements. This nation can not afford to be content , to have our navy, relegated from second to fourth or fifth place. The Spanish-American War. which lasted about one hundred days, cost us approximately five hundred million dollars s about four times the total annual expenditure for the Navy. and this does not include the yearly pensions resulting there from, to say nothing of the lives sacrificed. Fifty million dollars properly spent on battleships preceding 1898 would have made this a hopeless undertaking for Spain.

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“The United states in recent years has become a world power necessitating the assuming of corresponding responsibilities. These obligations our representative citizens are willing to accept, but turn to our military experts for guidance, and their studies and not political or economic conditions must decide. We must have a navy not to wage but to prevent war. It must be a well bal- anced Navy. That is battleships with the proper proportion of auxiliaries. Such as destroyers, scouts t supply, repair ships, etc.; but battleships are paramount, and the building of them must continue. It requires three years to build a battleship and they can not be bought or improvised. Battleships deteriorate and become obsolete in time …

porfirio diaz, u. s. grant, jay gould, and the mexican southern railroad 40. DIAZ, Porfirio.Two Letters (one Autograph), signed, to Ulysses S. Grant; and one Letter Signed to Grant’s son, Jesse R. Grant. Each one page, in ink. The first two on single bifolium (the second with ms. translation on conjugate); the last on Diaz’ personal stationery with monogram and envelope. In Spanish. 4to, Mexico City; New Orleans; and Mexico City, 14 November, 1882; 4 March, 1883; and 16 October, 1894. Minor soiling, the last with stains on blank verso of conjugate leaf. In quarter morocco clamshell box. Osgood Hardy, “Ulysses S. Grant, President of the Mexican Southern Railroad”, The Pacific His- torical Review, Vol. 24, No. 2 (May, 1955), pp. 111-120. $2,750 After Grant‘s failure to win the Republican Presidential nomination in 1880, “from November, 1880, until his death on July 23, 1885, all his energy was devoted to money-making” (Hardy). An important part of that phase of Grant’s career was his involvement in the Mexican Southern Railroad Co. Incorporat- ed in 1881, with the aim of building a railway from Mexico City south through the state of Oaxaca, its investors included such financiers as Jay Gould, Collis P. Huntington, Russell Sage, and its officers included the President of Mexico, Porfiro Diaz, and U.S. Grant, who was its President. In the first letter, of November 14, 1882, Diaz introduces and recommends to Grant “El señor Robert Symons, qui tiene varias empresas en este País.” (Symons was an English financier to whom the Mexican government had granted a concession for a railroad from Mexico to Leon in 1880). In the second letter from New Orleans, Diaz thanks Grant for his of the 26th of the previous month, acknowledges the attention and kindness shown to him by Grant and Jay Gould, and asks Grant to “communicate his gratitude to Mr. Gould, till I can do this personally and shake him by the hand.” Diaz was soon to do so. At a banquet in New York on April 5, 1883, a month after Diaz’s arrival in New Orleans, “Gen. Grant entertained Porfirio Diaz and his party at the Union league Club … by a dinner of uncommon elaborateness

 James Cummins Bookseller and brilliancy. A large party of distinguished gentlemen were assembled upon Gen Grant’s invitation to greet the Mexican visitor” (New York Times, April 5, 1883). Among the many dignitaries in attendance with Grant and Diaz were Jay Gould, Mr. Collis P. Huntington, Gen. G.M. Dodge, Russell Sage, Matias Romero (Governor of Oaxaca and an old friend of Grant’s), and numerous other dignitaries and financiers with their eyes on Mexico. Ultimately, the Mexican Southern Railway fizzled, and no tracks were ever laid, Nonetheless, these are singularly intriguing documents which cast light some of Grant‘s remarkable associations toward the end of his career. [with:] GONZALEZ, Manuel, President of Mexico. Letter, signed (“Manuel Gonzalez”) to Ulysses S. Grant (“Señor General U.S. Grant”). One page on letterhead “Correspondencia Particular del Presidente de la Republica.” In Spanish. 4to, Mexico, 2 June, 1881. Fine. In a linen portfolio. Born on a ranch in the state of Tamaulipas, González began his military career in 1847 and became a general during the civil war of 1858–60. He became president in 1880 at the virtual dictation of his political friend Porfirio Díaz, who had preceded him as president, then again succeeded Gonzalez in 1885. While Diaz was on “sabbatical”, his protégé González, too, was in contact with Grant, as this rather obsequious letter shows. Gonzalez thanks Grant for his letter of May 26, and continues, “I am truly gratified to be given an opportunity to offer my services to one of the most famous sons of the United States and one of the sincerest and most devoted friends of my country … I remain very grateful for your offers to do whatever is possible to strengthen the ties of sympathy and friendship which bind our countries …”

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“television, picture shows, and western fiction have betrayed the cow people” 41. DOBIE, J. Frank. Typed Letter, signed (“J. Frank Dobie”) to a “Young Reader”, regarding his book Up the Trail from Texas. One page on personal stationery. “702 Park Place Austin 5, Texas”, [1955]. Slight browning at top edges, minor wrinkles. Very good, in a quarter tan morocco and green cloth box with olive-green gilt-lettered onlays. $300 Presenting his new book to a young reader, Dobie remarks:“… Television, picture shows, and Western fiction have betrayed the cow people by overem- phasizing violence, I have tried to bring out the sincerity, decency, loyalty that went with their work. The old trail driver who claimed that his life had been saved six times by his NOT having a six-shooter represented open range days better than any Billy the Kid. The average cowman did not put out money to have cow thieves and killers on his range. Hoping that this slight book will help you to savvy the trail-driving cowboy a little better …”

 James Cummins Bookseller

very rare autograph of joseph rodman drake 42. DRAKE, Joseph Rodman. Autograph Manuscript, fair copy, of his poem “Abelard to Eloise”. 2 pp. on recto and verso of single sheet. 12mo, n.p. [New York, ca. 1820]. Inlaid. Very good. $2,000 A very rare autograph of the New York poet (1795-1820), author of “The Culprit Fay”, literary collaborator and friend of Fitzgreen Halleck under their penname “The Croakers”, and member of the “Knickerbocker group” which included Washington Irving, William Cullen Bryan, et. al. Only one autograph of any sort has appeared at auction in the past 35 years: at the Bradley Martin Sale in 1990. This particular poem remained unpublished, in fact, until it was reproduced in facsimile in James Grant Wilson’s Bryant, and His Friends: Some Reminiscences of the Knickerbocker Writers in 1886. Beneath this is a second manuscript poem in a different hand, beginning “I chased from the dew moisten’d breast of a rose”, with a pencilled note “in the handwriting of Frank R. Tillou (?), brother-in-law of J.R.D”

dreiser on his portrait in vanity fair 43. DREISER, Theodore. Autograph Letter, signed (“Theodore Dreiser”), to Frederick W. Skiff. Pen and ink on printed letterhead. 8vo, N.p., May 6, 1926. Old folds, else fine. $1,000 Not long after publication of An American Tragedy and at the height of his fame, novelist Theodore Dreiser responds to a letter from Portland, Oregon, collector Frederick W. Skiff, who later sold his American literature collection to Mrs. Estelle Doheny: “I think you had best take a look at the portrait in the April Vanity Fair. If that pleases I will secure a copy of that. Once more my thanks for your invitation & kind thoughts. I may get to Portland at that.” (See illustration on following page)

prototype of the ‘matinee idol’ of the american theater in the early twentieth century 44. DREW, John. Autograph Letter, signed, to author and journalist Alfred Henry Lewis, acknowledging receipt of a copy of Andrew Jack- son by Lewis. 2 pp., pen and ink on a single folded sheet. 12mo, N.p. [New York], Thursday 12 December 1907. Fine. $350 “If it possesses a tithe of the interest and charm of your other works, I know I shall peruse it with delight.” John Drew (1853-1927), born in Philadelphia to a long line of actors, “became so popular as a Frohman star that his first appearance after Labor Day in one of the producer’s presentations at the Empire Theatre signaled the beginning of each new season on Broadway. Unfortunately, many of the plays in which he appeared had no afterlife and have been forgotten. … In real life he became the prototype of the roles he played, which came to be described as ‘John Drew parts.’ A strong-featured man of medium height and military bearing,

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 James Cummins Bookseller he was always handsomely attired on stage and off and achieved a special ce- lebrity as the best-dressed man in America. He was articulate, charming, and popular with his peers. … With the fortune he made as a star, he bought an estate in Easthampton, on Long Island, New York, where he spent his summers and hosted his many friends from the theater and other professions. He even

had the dubious honor of having a five-cent cigar named for him.” — ANB.

hayes considers du bois for a salter fund award 45. (DU BOIS, W.E.B.) Hayes, Rutherford B. Autograph Letter, signed, to President Charles Eliot of Harvard, regarding “the application of Du Bois for aid from the Slater Fund in pursuing his education.” Fremont, Ohio, 27 March, 1891. Minor wrinkling. In slipcase. Herbert Aptheker, The Correspondence of W.E.B. Du Bois: Selections, 1877-1934. $3,500 Fascinating letter bearing on the post-graduate career of the noted Afro- American educator, editor and author. W.E.B. Du Bois (1868 - 1963). Du Bois graduated from Harvard cum laude in 1890, and completed his M.A. there in 1891 in History. According to Aptheker, “At the end of 1890, Du Bois read in the Boston Herald a statement by former President Rutherford B. Hayes, who

 Autographs & Manuscripts Catalogue 105 chaired the Slater Fund for the Education of Negroes, that the fund would be willing to subsidize ‘any colored man … to send him to Europe or give him an advanced education.’ Du Bois promptly sent a letter of application to Hayes …”, in hopes of continuing his education in Germany. Correspondence ensued, Du Bois wrote another letter in April 19, 1891 (v. Aptheker, p. 12) and various letters of recommendation were received, as this letter from the former U.S. President to Charles Eliot of Harvard indicates: … I have your favor of the 24th in behalf of the application of Du Bois for aid from the Slater Fund in pursuing his education. The case will be presented to the Board at its next meeting in May in New York. Your letter places him very favorably before the Board. I am glad to get your opinion in favor of the aid extended to promising young colored men. There have been some differences among us on this experiment … What happened next is not entirely clear -- but that meeting of the Board in New York may hold the secret, for, according to Aptheker, “Hayes wrote young Du Bois in a communication which does not seem to have survived, but was summarized by the latter, that the original newspaper report was in error and that Hayes ‘was sorry the plan had been given up that he recognized that I was a candidate who might otherwise have been given attention.’” Du Bois had to wait another year, but finally, the following May, Hayes managed to arrange a grant of $750 for Du Bois which allowed him to study in German from 1892 to 1894. An important piece of the Du Bois — Slater Fund story and its chronology.

“all well but we need rain” 46. EISENHOWER, Dwight D. Autograph Note, signed (“DDE”), to Mrs. Mary S. Naiden, on picture postcard of Pavillon von Wied. 10 lines, in ink. 4to, “Stonihurst”, “Aug. 4th” [ca. 1962]. Fine. $500 Delighted to welcome you Aug 17th or 18th - Will have other guests here too but always room for you - Have a new cat & a new puppy (2 months old) so be prepared! All well but we need rain — Much love from, DDE” Holograph letters from Eisenhower are quite rare on the market.

 James Cummins Bookseller

“… the inescapable and continuing need for divine help” 47. EISENHOWER, Dwight D. Typed Letter, signed (“Dwight D Eisenhower”) as President of Columbia University, to Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth-Smith, regarding his own religious beliefs. One page on single sheet of Columbia U. stationery. 8vo, New York, October 19, 1948. Fine. In cloth folder, with 11 x 8 photo of Nixon and Eisenhower at the 1952 Republican National Convention. $2,000 An important affirmation of the Eisenhower credo: “…I have never hesitated to acknowledge the inescapable and continuing need for divine help in the accomplishment of any worthwhile task planned by man. This is a conviction I have carried with since the days of my earliest understanding and which I will certainly carry onward to the grave. More- over, I assure you that it has never entered my head to be concerned about the jeers from the godless because of acknowledging such need or such obligation. I have no concern whatsoever with such worthless criticism; on the other hand it is only fair to say that so far as I know such criticism has never been directed toward me although I frequently and publicly make statements that leave no doubt as to my deep religious conviction …”

“my father and mother are buried in abilene, kansas” 48. _____. Typed Letter, signed, to “Aunt Agnes” regarding family and relatives. One page on personal letterhead. 4to, Gettysburg, Penn., November 22, 1966. $1,500 Eisenhower writes to his mother‘s sister, Agnes Stover: … It is good to know that you are apparently in good health -- certainly you write much better than I can and you are almost exactly ten years older than I. Occasionally, I have been down in the Shenandoah Valley and there i sometimes see distant relatives of my mother. But otherwise I have largely lost tract of her relatives … My father and mother are buried in Abilene, Kansas. In that town is a large Presidential library, together with an Eisen- hower Museum and a small chapel built on the premises where my family used to live …

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on the campaign trail: ike in ’52 49. _____ Typed Letter, signed, to “Mrs. Naiden” of “Citizens for Eisenhower” responding to an invitation; with an Autograph Post- script. One page on letterhead “Office of Dwight D. Eisenhower”. 4to, “Aboard Eisenhower Campaign Special”, October 27, 1952. Fine in brown cloth folder. $750 … It was one of the most moving and convincing invitations that I have received. I only wish that i could accept, but the fact is that my schedule for the next two or three days is extremely tight. It is necessary for me to devote several days to the boroughs of New York, which I have not yet visited. Ac- tually, I must be back in New York tomorrow morning at 7:30 -- and there just isn’t time today to accept your invitation, much as I certainly would like to … A few days later on election day (November 4, 1952), Eisenhower won a deci- sive victory, with over 55% of the popular vote, and 39 of the 48 states.

on churchill: “we will not see his like again” 50. _____. Typed Letter, signed (“DDE”), to Mrs. & Mrs. J. Holt Mc- Cracken (“Viv and Mac”) of California. One page, on personal letterhead. 4to, Palm Desert, Calif., February 19, 1965. Fine, with envelope. $2,000 At the state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill, on January 30, 1965, the Presi- dent of the United States, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, delivered a personal tribute to Churchill at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Copies of his eulogy were printed and circulated, and evidently the Eisenhowers sent out copies to their old friends the McCrackens, for in this letter to them, Eisenhower writes: “…I am, of course complimented by your comments on my tribute to the memory of Sir Winston. We will not see his like again …” Sold with a copy of Eisenhower”s speech, “A Personal Tribute to Sir Winston Churchill by General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower. Delivered January 30, 1965 from the crypt of St. Paul’s Cathedral. London”. 4 pp. [n.p., 1965].

on the gettysburg address: “…one of the greatest utterances of all time “ 51. _____. Typed letter, signed, to King V. Hostick, thanking him for “the little book containing a report on the ceremonies at the dedication of the Battlefield of Gettysburg”. One page, on White House stationery. 4to, Washington, D.C, November 2, 1954. Fine. $2,500 It isn’t clear to us which book the Illinois manuscript dealer and Lincoln scholar Hostick gave Eisenhower, but President Eisenhower felt moved to write: “… As you point out, it is interesting and sad to note the lack of prominence given to one of the greatest utterances of all time … it is a welcome addition

 James Cummins Bookseller

to the library I hope to have at Gettysburg …” The Eisenhowers had a small working farm just outside of Gettysburg, where the President retired in 1961 and where he died in 1969. He was an active supporter and Trustee of Gettysburg College. 52. EISENHOWER, Dwight D. Typed letter, signed, to Merriman Smith in Palm Beach, Florida, thanking him for an advance copy of his book, A President’s Odyssey. One page, on personal stationery “DDE The White House.” 4to, Washington, D.C, December 17, 1960. Fine. $500 A warm letter of thanks to the UPI reporter most famous for his report on the Kennedy assassination (he was riding in the Kenneday motorcade); written in the waning days of Eisenhower’s second term in office: “… I hope you feel, in retrospect, that the trips were worth all the hard work, the lack of sleep and the irregular, or sometimes totally absent, meals, and of course, the lost luggage. It’s far better to concentrate, for instance, on the ladies in Surinam (I

must immediately look to see if you included them.) …”

“ike continues to paint when he has the opportunity” 53. EISENHOWER, Mamie Doud. Autograph Letter, signed, to friend Mary Naiden. 4pp., on two sheets of letterhead. 12mo, Villa St. Pierre, Marnes la Coquette, Seine, Oise [France], January 24, 1952. Fine, in quarter morocco box. $500 A chatty, personal letter from the wife of the soon-to-be elected President of the United States, from their home just outside of Paris.

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…We love our house here. Plenty of ground and peace and quiet. Ike continues to paint when he has the opportunity but he is a very busy fellow. I seldom go into Paris and socially outside our home we do little … We are now in the rain and fog months and the inside of the house looks good. Everything to buy here is very expensive — more so than when we were all here. This year has really had wings. Guess that means we are getting old … Eisenhower was to be elected to his first term as the 34th President of the

United States in November.

perhaps a chat about middlemarch? 54. ELIOT, George. Autograph Letter, signed (“ Mrs. G.H. Lewes”), to her publisher Blackwood. 2 pp, in purple ink, on personal stationery. 12mo, The Priory, 21 North Bank, Regents Park [London], “Thurs- day,” n.d. [after November, 1863]. With conjugate blank, affixed to stiff card. $1,500 A warm note to her publisher, probably John Blackwood, arranging a “chat” -- no doubt about her work:“My dear Mr. Blackwood,We shall be delighted to see you and Mrs. Blackwood’s tomorrow to lunch with us. That is the most comfortable way of getting a chat. But our hour is 1/2 past 1. I hope that will not be too early for you. That weather makes all work heavier …”

 James Cummins Bookseller

55. (FRANKLIN, Benjamin) Campbell, William J. Typed Letter, signed, to John Gribbel of the Curtis Publishing Co., conveying the draft of his Preface to the Catalogue of Franklin Imprints in the Curtis Collection; with an Autograph Note signed from Gribbel on the same page, returning the proofs. One page, on letterhead of “William J. Campbell Publisher & Bookseller”. 4to, Philadelphia, August 26, 1915; Gribbel’s note dated August 27. Minor wrinkling and slight toning, overall very good. In a quarter morocco portfolio. $250 Writes publisher Campbell: “…I enclose my proposed Preface to the Franklin catalogue, which I send you for your approval of the first two or three para- graphs giving the history of the collection …as soon as I get the Preface back the whole book will be ready to print …” Replies Gribbel beneath: “… I enclose draft of Preface with a few suggestions noted thereon. I think you have made just the right presentation and quite well again!” Campbell’s Preface, as printed in the 1918 catalogue, gives the history of the collection, which is worth repeating: In the year 1896 the late Henry V. Massey began to collect Franklin Imprints. He was a man of wide knowledge and of rare good judgment, and was untiring in his search for material bearing the imprint of Franklin, or on which he was known to have been employed. During the eight years of his active collecting he succeeded in bringing together 174 separate items, exclusive of a long run of the Pennsylvania Gazette. It was one of the largest collections that had ever been formed, and was remarkable for the very high average condition of the books, as well as for the large number of titles; yet so quietly had they been gathered that the collection was unknown except to a few of his intimate friends. In 1908 the collection was purchased in its entirety by Mr. John Gribbel, through whose well-directed efforts the number of titles has been not only almost doubled, in itself a remarkable achievement, but the collection en- riched by the addition of many items of the greatest rarity. “n 1915, feeling that the most appropriate owner for the collection was the company publishing The Saturday Evening Post, the journal direct in de- scent from Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette, Mr. Gribbel transferred it to The Curtis Publishing Company” (Campbell, Franklin Imprints in the Mu- seum of the Curtis Publishing Company, Philadelphia, 1918) In 1920, the collection was donated to the University of Pennsylvania.

frazer to grant allen on animism and his own creative process 56. FRAZER, James G. 4 Autograph Letters, signed , to Grant Allen. 1H to 4 pp. 12mo, 1890-1897. Vickery, The Literary Impact of The Golden Bough, pp. 88-89. $3,750 A fascinating group of letters whose scope ranges from animism and tree wor-

 Autographs & Manuscripts Catalogue 105 ship to private topics. In one letter, Frazer thanks Allen “for the kind present of ’The Attis’” (Allen’s translation of The Attis of Caius Valerius Catullus ... with dissertations on the myth of Attis, on the origin of tree-worship ..., 1892). Frazer later devoted a section to this subject in Adonis, Attis, Osiris. Studies in the history of oriental religion (1906). Elsewhere, Frazer observes: “I should be pleased and proud to make your acquaintance. ... Whether the profit would be mutual, is, I fear, much more than doubtful. I am no talker and I am afraid you would find me an exceedingly dull fellow. The few ideas I have occur at long intervals, and though, by being stored up and set out together in a book, they make a little show, yet the intervals (which form much the greater part of my life) are times of ’long barren silence’ and intellectual vacuity. Not that I am idle at such times, I am reading and studying. But the process of absorbing ideas, however pleasurable to the absorber, is hardly interesting to the bystander. Forgive me for saying so much about myself. ... It must be very disappointing, after reading a book with interest or even admiration, to find that the writer is a very dull person.” The recipient is Charles Grant Blairfindie Allen (1848-1899), a prolific Cana- dian-born writer, reviled in the mid-1890s as “the prophet of the new hedo- nism.” As Vickery notes, discussing The Attis, “the first to make extensive use of Frazer’s ideas was Grant Allen ... he drew heavily on The Golden Bough, which he calls ’a profound and epoch-making work’ ... Allen’s ideas are of less importance than is the swiftness with which he absorbed and applied the perspectives afforded classical literature by The Golden Bough.” Frazer autograph material is quite uncommon, especially with such good content.

 James Cummins Bookseller

57. FROST, Robert. Autograph Manuscript of “The Gift Outright” Fair copy. One page, on recto only of 22 x 14 cm sheet. Ripton, Ver- mont, June, 1954. $5,500 An autograph transcript of this sixteen-line poem, signed in full by Frost, with date and place of execution at the conclusion. One of Frost’s most memorable poems from the years of WWII, beginning “The land was ours before we were the land ....” Though first published in book form in A Witness Tree (1942), it is perhaps most widely known for having been recited from memory by the 86-year-old Frost on the occasion of John F. Kennedy’s Inauguration, when he found the poem he had written for the occasion too difficult to read in the bright sunlight. It is also, as Randall Jarrell has remarked, very likely America‘s most famous “political” poem. (See illustration on following page)

wow! 58. FULLER, Buckminster. Autograph Note, signed, to Life photographer, Alfred Eisenstaedt. Nov., 1951. $1,500 “Having known you for forty years since we both were on Life, Fortune, Time staff, I am astonished to have you photographing me for a publication — imagine Alfred Eisenstaedt photographing me Bucky Fuller ... Wow!”

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 James Cummins Bookseller

indira gandhi to jennie lee – after the fall 59. GANDHI, Indira. Autograph Letter, signed (“Indira Gandhi”) to the British politician, Jennie Lee, Baroness Lee of Asheridge (“Baroness Lee”), soon after Gandhi’s defeat in the 1977 Parliamentary elections. 2pp. in blue ink on single sheet of light blue stationery. 4to, Delhi, 18 June, 1977. Slightly faded at edges. Very good. $2,000 Fine letter from one of the most important women politicians of the 20th century, written soon after the defeat of Gandhi’s Congress Party in the parliamentary elections of 1977, to another quite remarkable woman, the British po- litican Jennie Lee. After serving as Prime Minister for three consecutive terms, and two years after declaring a state of national emergency, Gandhi called for elections in March of 1977 to vindicate her controversial reign, and lost the elections. In this letter to her friend, the British M.P. Jennie Lee: “Thank you for your letter. you have always shown understanding of the Indian situation. Personally, my family & I face harassment & hardships. I have no doubt that in the present vindictive atmosphere there can be no justice. The past has been bad enough but now there will be no limit to the mud slinging…” Speaking of the victorious opposition Ganata Party, she adds: “Gandhi & Neh- ru were both anathema to them but now they have announced that they will follow the friendlier path, although their actions point in the opposite direction. But they will certainly do their damnedest to distort & misrepresent all that Nehru said or did & I am part of that legacy …” Gandhi was reelected in 1980, and she served four more years, until her assassination in 1984.

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corrected carbon of erle stanley gardner detective story 60. GARDNER, Erle Stanley. Carbon typescript of this detective story, “Complete Designs”. 16 pages, approximately 5000 words, in rectos of unruled typing paper. 11 x 8H inches, n.p, n.d. [Ca. 1940?]. Leaves are browned and fragile, a few tiny marginal nicks, else remarkably fine. $1,500

hard times for congressman garfield from ohio 61. GARFIELD, James A. Autograph Letter, signed (“J.A. Garfield”), as Congressman from Ohio, to Ezra Booth Taylor of Warren, Ohio, acknowledging the receipt of $500. One page, in ink, on letterhead of the House of Representatives. 4to, Washington. D.C, 21 November, 1869. Fine. $1,250 Garfield was elected to Congress by Ohioans in 1862, and at the urging of President Lincoln, resigned his commission in the Army in order to serve in office. He became one of the leading Republicans in the House, eventually receiving the nomination of his party for the Presidential election of 1880. Only a few months after taking office (having resigned from the House), he was assassinated in 1881 by an irate office-seeker. Ezra B. Taylor, a Republican lawyer and judge from Garfield’s home state of Ohio, was elected Republican Representative to the 46th Congress to fill the vacancy created by Garfield’s

 James Cummins Bookseller

resignation to seek the Presidency; Taylor served several terms in Congress thereafter. In this letter to Taylor, Garfield writes: “Your favor of the 18th, inclosing a draft … for Five Hundred Dollars, is just received and I have endorsed the amount on your note. It comes just in time to aid me in a hard pinch … I have obtained a loan which will tide me over for the present …“ Garfield pens an intriguing Postscript: “I think it was right that the P.M. at Ravenna [Ohio] should be allowed a check line — & am glad to have been able to secure the allowance for E.T.E.”

congressman garfield on the currency 62. GARFIELD, James. Autograph Letter, signed (“J.A. Garfield”), as Congressman from Ohio, to J.A. Cowing of New York, regarding Garfield’s speech on currency and finance. 2 pp., on folded sheet of engraved letterhead of Fortieth Congress, with vignette of the U.S. Congress. With 2 engraved portraits of President Garfield. 4to, Wash- ington. D.C, 20 June, 1868. Old folds, slightly wrinkled, splitting along fold. $1,500 “… I am gratified with your approval of the general spirit and purpose of my speech — and can see much reason to hope that the attention to the subject, will, before long, bring the nation to sensible and honest conclu-

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sions on finance — The statement in my speech that to double the currency would double prices, is quite likely too broad to be practically true —You will observe that I was developing the general principle which lies at the foundation of currency — and which is likely to be altered (?) in its application by many incidental causes. I was careful to guard my language thus: ‘… BUSINESS REMAINING THE SAME [underlined], doubling the currency will result in doubling prices.’ As a matter of fact, the supposed increase of currency would increase speculative business – and somewhat increase the demand for currency, so that the increase of prices would not be quite 100 per cent …”

“lifting ethereal hands against all treacherous demons of the dark!” 63. (GARFIELD, James A.) Hayne, Paul Hamilton. Autograph Man- uscript, signed (“Paul Hamilton Hayne”), of his poem “The Unseen Host.” One page, in purple ink on ruled paper, the original copy sent to the printer, with title in editor’s hand and other typesetting marks. 4to, N.p. [Grovetown, Georgia], n.d. [1881]. Fine (minor soiling and smudges along right margin, not affecting legibility). $1,000 American poet Paul Hamilton Hayne (1830-1886). “After the death in 1870 of William Gilmore Simms, an old friend and mentor, Hayne became the chief literary spokesman for the South, an unofficial postwar laureate for the late Confederacy” (ANB).

 James Cummins Bookseller

Hayne composed this poem after the attack on President James A. Garfield by Charles J. Guiteau at the Washington railroad station on 2 July 1881. Original- ly titled “The President’s (Unseen) Company” with the subtitle “The Prayers of the People will not let the old Soldier die!”, and dedicated to Mrs. Garfield, the poem was re-titled by the editor and published as “The Unseen Host.” The poem, in three stanzas of six, five, and six verses, reads in part: Angels are these, born on the breath of prayer!…

For him through all the land, fervent and sweet, What prayers oh! Christ, have risen to kiss Thy feet! No marvel then a Spiritual Concourse stands Beside his bed, lifting ethereal hands Against all treacherous demons of the dark!

…With mystic wings they fan his vital spark Garfield lingered and succumbed to the assassin’s bullet on 19 Sept 1881.

on the new show porgy ’n bess 64. GERSHWIN, George. Typed Letter, signed (“George Gersh- win”), to Hollywood music director Abe Meyer, thanking him for his “charming letter regarding PORGY AND BESS”. One page, on personal stationery. 8 x 7 inches, New York, 8 November, 1935. Fine. Matted and framed, with a portrait. $5,000 Interesting letter, written less than a month after Gershwin’s now legendary opera opened on October 10, 1935, to mixed reviews and a disappointingly short run. In this letter to Abe Meyer, musical director of many Hollywood movies (including “Reefer Madness”), Gershwin seems genuinely touched by Meyer’s remarks: “… please accept my belated thanks for your charming letter regarding ’Porgy and Bess’ last month. I appreciate your thoughtfulness in writing to me …“ A fine, succinct example of a Gershwin letter from that period mentioning the work he is most remembered for, shortly after the opening, and signed boldly and in full. (See illustration on following page)

grant recovers from a hangover 65. GRANT, Ulysses S. Autograph Letter, signed (“U.S. Grant”), to Adolph E. Borie (addressed “My Dear Ex”). 2 pp. on folded sheet of personal stationery. 8vo, Washington, D.C, October 30, 1869. Fine, in custom cloth folding box. The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: July 1, 1868 - October 31, 1869, pp. 267-8. $3,000 Retuning to Washington after a visit to Philadelphia, Grant writes to thank his friend Adolphe Borie for his hospitality in hosting the President and his wife:

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“We arrived here on time last evening my having recovered from the effects of your hospitality before reaching Baltimore. We shall of course expect a visit from you and Mrs. Borie during the Winter and promise you in advance not to put you through anything like Phila hardships. Mrs. Grant joins me in kind regards to you and yours …” The “effects of your hospitality” is undoubtedly a euphemism for a hangover Grant suffered after a night spent in the company of his good friend. Given the rumors of alcohol abuse that plagued Grant’s military and political careers, his humorous, untroubled reference to drinking says something of the closeness of his relationship with Borie. Borie, a native of Philadelphia, was a surprise pick for Secretary of the Navy in Grant’s first cabinet. He served only a few months, before returning to his business affairs in Philadelphia in June of 1869. Borie and Grant remained friends, as the obvious conviviality of this letters shows..

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grant orders “little reb” to his summer home in long branch 66. GRANT, Ulysses S. Autograph Letter, signed (“U.S. Grant”), to his brother-in-law Frederick T. Dent (addressed “Dear Dent”). 2 pp. pen and ink on folded “Fair Lawn, Newport” stationery. 12mo, Fair Lawn, Newport [Rhode Island], August 24, 1870. Fine, in custom cloth folding box. Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: November 1, 1869-October 31, 1870, p. 259. Provenance: James S. Copley Library. $2,500 Grant writes as President to his brother-in-law and military secretary, Briga- dier General Frederick T. Grant: “I wish you would send word to Adams & Co. Express office that there is a pony at the White House, to be shipped to Mr. Hoey* at Long Branch, and find out when they will be ready to take him. When they are direct Richard to deliver ‘Little Reb’ with his single harness. We leave here for West Point on Friday evening. I do not know when I will be in Washington again …”

“Little Reb” was a black Shetland pony belonging to Grant’s youngest son, Jesse. At age six he boldly rode his pony to the front under fire at Fort Harrison to the consternation of his father, who thought he was safe in the rear (Porter, Campaigning with Grant, pp. 300-1). *Grant had a summer cottage in Long Branch, New Jersey. His friend John Hoey was general manager of the Adams Express Co. and a Long Branch property developer..

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on grant, to mrs. grant 67. (GRANT, President U.S) Sandburg, Carl. Typed Letter, signed. To Mrs. Grant, wife of one of Pres. U.S. Grant’s sons encouraging her to record her reminiscences of Grant. 4to, Harbert, Michigan, April 29, 1936. Laid into quarter blue morocco slipcase. $750 Reading in part: “No one can work with the source materials concerning Grant without feeling he was a strange, titanic figure …”

68. GREEN, Johnny (composer and conductor 1908 - 1989). Auto- graph Daft of a Letter to Richard Rogers, signed (“JOHN”). One and one-half pages, on two sheets of yellow ruled legal stock, in pencil, with revisions and deletions. [Los Angeles], 29 November 1945. Punched for filing in top margin, otherwise very good or better. Folding cloth case. $1,500 A draft of a rather significant letter from Green to “Dick” Rogers, revised and with deletions. In total, the letter is a reasoned, detailed rejection by the multi Academy Award winning composer and conductor of an offer from Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein to come to New York to collaborate on a show. At the outset, I must tell you how delighted I was to get your call and how great is the lure of working for you, Oscar and Irving [Berlin] and the idea of being in New York. However, on careful consideration of the idea it does not appear a sound thing for me to do at this time. By dint of the most gru- eling effort, I have over a period of three years brought myself in the sight of financial solvency. I have one full year of my present program remaining before … [reaching] that goal. I have also gotten to the point where it is not too extravagant to say that I am definitely established as a $1000 a week man here, that the only question seems to be whether I will get $1250 or $1500 on my next deal … He goes on to detail the potential advantages to accepting an offer to return to work on a Broadway show, but then concludes: “Virtually none of these conditions is satisfied by the opportunity to conduct even so glamorous a show as the one you offer me. It becomes a luxury, Dick, that I cannot afford at this time either financially or careerwise. My sincerest thanks to you, Oscar and Irving for your confidence, and to you and Dorothy my love always. John.” Given the date of the letter, it is a strong possibility that Green was declining working with Rodgers, Hammerstein and Berlin on Annie, Get Your Gun, which opened on 16 May 1946 and enjoyed almost a three year run on Broad- way. While Green was then still getting established in Hollywood, his future credits were to include An AMerican in Paris, Brigadoon, West Side Story, Singin’ in the Rain, Oliver!, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, thirteen Oscar nominations, and five Oscar wins.

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early che letter, written at the dawn of his revolutionary period 69. GUEVARA, Ernesto “Che”. Autograph Letter, signed (“Chom- bo Guevara”), with an autograph letter signed on the lower half of the page and typed letter signed by traveling companion Eduardo R. Gar- cia. Single sheet. 4to, San José, Costa Rica, December 13, 1953. Some wear at folds. $6,500 The letter reads (in translation): Ases (?): Here, thanks in part to the American vote, in part to our own feet, but mostly to the cheek which has sustained the blows of many forces. I don’t know if it’s bad luck, but allies of the Congreso de Rio are not even up to your ankles. They are more rightist than Franco, and not without money. They did not raise it by themselves. I hope that the packages are now at Rico’s house (’fonética’), and that there are two copies of Siete, if in fact they have published the assault on Machu-Picchu. If anyone happens to try to recover the press photo that Sanchez should have, put it together with the other lot with the bags [illegible] and we will send it out within 15-20 days. I’ll let Gualo explain the rest himself. An embrace to all, Chombo Guevara Guevara is not speaking metaphorically when he thanks his “own feet” for the safe arrival of himself and his companion in San Jose, Costa Rica. Among the myriad difficulties they faced in entering the country was the breakdown of the truck that had carried him and his travelling companions across the border. They alternated between hitchhiking and walking for two days before reaching the port town of Golfito. This letter was written one day after Guevara’s first published essay, “Machu- Picchu, enigma de piedra en America,” appeared in the Panamanian weekly magazine Siete. As the letter implies, Guevava was still uncertain at this date as to whether the piece had actually gone to press. The publishers of Siete had been hesitant to print the article in American-occupied Panama, due to its harsh criticism of the dubious archaeological practices of Hiram Bingham and Yale University at the ancient Peruvian site of Machu-Picchu. Guevara references several times in his personal diaries the overwhelming spiritual impression that his visit to Macchu-Picchu had left upon him, and has cited this moment in his travels as a turning point in the construction of his political ideology. It is certainly not coincidental that it was during this same Cosa Rican sojourn that he first met and began conspiring with Cuban Radicals, and in particular with survivors of the recent attack on the Moncada penitentiary (Anderson 117-199). We are uncertain of the recipient of this letter, though we assume it to be the Benedetti of Guatemala City addressed in Garcia’s typed letter included here. (See illustration on following page)

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presidents of the republic of haiti — a collection 70. (HAITI) . Collection of Haitian Presidential autographs, comprising autograph and partly printed Documents on Executive stationery, Signed by eleven Presidents of the Republic of Haiti from Alexandre Pétion to Philippe Sudre Dartiguenave. 20 items, single sheet printed letterhead or partly printed documents, accomplished in ink dated and signed, with two printed broadsides. Chiefly 4to, one broadside Folio, most Port-au-Prince, 1812-1916. Some toning or soiling and marginal chipping (large broadside split along fold), overall very good. $5,000 An outstanding collection of Haitian material comprising items signed by 11 presidents: 1) ALEXANDRE PETION, president of Haiti 1807-1818. Autograph document signed “Pétion” as president, 6 April 1812, a laissez passer for Mr Dou- glass, on government business, and noting his white horse “which it is forbid- den for whomsoever to touch under any pretext” 2) JEAN-PIERRE BOYER, president of Haiti 1818-1843. Autograph financial document signed “Boyer” as Commander-in-Chief of Port-au-Prince, 30 No- vember 1817, a receipt for 185 gourdes. 3) FABRE GEFFRARD, president of Haiti 1859-1867. Manuscript letter signed “Geffrard” as President, 3 December 1860, ordering his secretary of state to pay General Simon Sam (see no. 7 below) the sum of 2,165 gourdes. 4) NISSAGE SAGET, president of Haiti 1870-1874. Manuscript letter signed “Nissage Saget” as President, 11 October 1870, requesting a report on the state of the Arsenal at Cap-Haitien (cellophane tape repair to verso at signature). 5) MICHEL DOMINGUE, president of Haiti 1874-1878. a) Manuscript letter signed “Domingue” as general and provisional commander of the départe- ment du Sud, 14 September 1868, promoting second lieutenant Hyppo- lite (see no. 6 below) to full lieutenant. b). Partly printed document, signed “Domingue” as president of the Etat Meridional d’Haiti, 25 January 1869, promoting Prosper Faure to the rank of générale de division. c) Manuscript letter, signed “Domingue” as president of Haiti, 11 December 1874, acknowledging receipt of dispatches from the interim secretary of war. 6) FLORVIL HIPPOLYTE, president of Haiti 1889-1896. a) Manuscript letter signed “F Hyppolite” as générale de division, 14 July 1875, concerning troop inspections. b) Manuscript letter signed “F Hyppolite” as president, 27 January 1896, concerning an appointment to the local police. 7) TIRESIAS AUGUSTIN SIMON SAM, president of Haiti 1896-1902. Manu- script letter, signed “T A S Sam” as president, 12 August 1898, to the secretary of the interior, endorsing a recommendation for a police appointment. 8) FRANÇOIS ANTOINE SIMON, president of Haiti 1908-1911. a) Manu- script letter signed “F.A. Simon” as générale de division, honorary aide de camp to the President, etc., 16 July 1896, to President Tiresias Augustin Simon Sam, concerning a recommendation for Camille Jean-François, acting police

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commissioner in the Cayes district. b) Typewritten letter, Signed “F.A. Simon” as president, 15 March 1909, conveying a military commission. 9) CINCINNATUS LECONTE, president of Haiti 1911-1912. a) Manuscript letter, Signed “Ctus Leconte” as president, 13 June 1912, concerning a request for police officers’ uniforms. b) Printed broadside, presidential decree dated 16 August 1911, naming the members of his cabinet. 10) MICHEL ORESTE, president of Haiti 1913-1914. Typewritten letter, Signed “Michel Oreste” as president, 4 July 1913, concerning a commercial license for the representative of the Hamburg America Line. 11) PHILIPPE SUDRE DARTIGUENAVE, president of Haiti 1915-1922. Type- written letter, signed “Dartiguenave” as president, 1 April 1916, concerning a widow’s pension. With four additional Haitian items, a) a partly printed receipt for import duties paid by Capt Taylor of the American brig Pegasus, 6 November 1827, signed Lavartida, on letterhead of the National Treasury of Santo-Domingo; b) printed broadside with vignette headed “Liberté ou la Mort”, decree of the provisional government concerning the rental of properties held by the nation, 10 May 1843, following the overthrow of president Boyer c) Autograph letter from générale de division Antoine Jeanty 27 November 1880, to the secretary of war; d) partly printed consular document, Amsterdam, 16 December 1929, concerning bills and manifests for a cargo ship. An impressive and representative collection of Haitian leadership from the earliest years of the Republic’s independence through the U.S. invasion of 1915.

tahiti in 1946 71. HALL, James N. Autograph Note, signed (“James N. Hall”), to Ray Davis at the Baltimore Evening Sun, discussing postwar conditions in Tahiti. Pen and ink, 14 lines on engraved notecard headed “Tahiti, French Oceania”. 12mo, Tahiti, 17 January 1946. Fine. with mailing envelope addressed in Hall’s hand. Morocco backed folding case. $500 Prolific author James Norman Hall (1887-1951), best known for his Bounty trilogy and other collaborations with Charles Nordhoff (1887-1947), gives his correspondent a pithy review of conditions in Tahiti just after the end of the second world war: “Your Christmas greeting came by the first mail we have had from the U.S.A. in ten weeks. The service to our part of the Pacific is still haphazard, although I think there will soon be an improvement. Tahiti is still perfect from my point-of-view — the island, I mean. The people on it are another matter, but it is too much to expect its inhabitants, particularly the white inhabitants, to live up to the island itself. …”

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“i felt as if it was all about someone i didn’t know” 72. HAND, Learned. Autograph Letter, signed (“L.H.”), to a friend, “Gertrude” regarding a recent ceremony in his honor. 2 pp. on single sheet of letterhead “Judge Learned Hand’s Chambers”. 8vo, New York, April 16, 1959. Fine, in cloth hand morocco drop box. SOLD Justice Learned Hand (1872-1961) sat on the bench for more than fifty years and wrote nearly 4,000 opinions in every area of the law. “He is counted among the leading American judges of the twentieth century. Once asked who among his Supreme Court colleagues was the greatest living American jurist, Justice Cardozo, speaking of Hand, replied, ‘The greatest living Ameri- can jurist isn’t on the Supreme Court’” (ANB). On April 10, 1959, Judge Learned Hand was honored in a ceremony marking the fiftieth anniversary of his appointment to the Federal bench. Here, a few days later, at the end of his career and at age 88, Hand ruminates to a close friend: … Of course it is pleasant to have folks gather and tell you that you are a hot potato; but even when they do it as well as those gents did who gathered here last Friday, there is a kind of unreality about it, that is disconcerting. Nothing would be more delightful than to have some one in whose professional abilities one had absolute confidence, go over your work and show you in detail that here and there you had really hit the nail on the head. On the other hand, even though as on Friday you absolutely trust their sincerity, you can’t gain any real knowledge about yourself from generalities, however flattering. I felt as if it was all about someone I didn’t know. It was nevertheless most kind of you to write me, and I shall treasure your letter always, — for you really do know me. Letters of Hand are quite scarce on the market, and most are professional in scope. Autograph letters of a closely personal nature are rare.

73. HANDY, William C. Signed Typescript of “St. Louis Blues.” One page, on recto only of a sheet of Handy’s personal letterhead. New York, 1 January 1942. Fine. Enclosed in a folding cloth case, with a late repro of a press photo of Handy. $1,850 A full typed transcript of the three verses of “St. Louis Blues,” one of his most widely known songs, signed and dated in full at the conclusion: “William C. Handy Jan. 1st 1942.”

chester harding’s autobiography — a ms. fragment, and archive 74. HARDING, Chester. Autograph Manuscript fragment from the first chapter of his autobiography My Epistigraphy, beginning “At the age of 12, I was hired out at 6$ per month for six months to a Mr. Graves in Hatfiled...”; [with:] Archive of 5 Autograph Letters Signed

 James Cummins Bookseller

from Harding to family members; [with:] 3 Autograph Letters Signed from his daughters, Ophie (2) and Maggie (1). Manuscript is 8H pp. written in ink on rectos and versos of two bifolia and on a smaller, half-page fragment; each unit numbered on first page “No. 2”, “No. 3”, “No. 4”; with a few deletions and corrections, and one ms. query in the margin in another hand, probably that of his daughter, Margaret White, who edited the manuscript for publication. 4to (MS.); letters are various sizes, [MS. published in Cambridge, Mass., John Wilson, 1866]; place and dates of letters delineated below. A few ink smudges and stains on the, but quite clear and legible as are the letters. $2,500 Chester Harding’s (1792-1866) autobiography is one of the few by a 19th-century American painter, and his story is well worth the telling -- particularly in the early years (recounted in this manuscript) when Harding struggled at a variety of trades before finding his skill as a sign-painter; a trade, which, in turn, led to his career as a portrait painter. Entirely self-taught, Harding’s skill at portraiture eventually made him one of the most renowned painters artists in pre-war America, the rival of Gilbert Stuart, and he received commissions to paint Daniel Boone, James Madison, John Marshall, and many other eminent Americans. An examination of the manuscript here shows some interesting departures from the printed text as edited by his daughter and family. The whereabouts of the rest of the manuscript are unknown to us. Harding died in 1866, and his edited manuscript was privately printed in the same year. Interesting too, are letters from Harding included here, especially the one written to his daughter- in-law on the very day after the Lincoln assassination (see number 4): 1). ALS from Harding to his young son, Frank. 2H pp.,12mo, Glasgow, Scot- land, Dec. 21, 1846. “I would give up my best dozen cigars to see you for an hour...”; 2). ALS from Harding to Miss Delano, his son Frank’s fiancée, welcoming her into the family. One page, 12mo, Springfield, Sept 8, [1863]; 3) ALS from Harding to his daughter-in-law , regarding his wedding present to her and his son Frank. 2pp. 12mo, Springfield, Dec. 22, [1864]; 4) ALS to his daughter-in-law, wife of his son Frank (“Dear Daughter”) regarding Frank’s troubles, and discussing the assassination of Lincoln, which occurred the day before this letter was written. 1H pp, 8vo, Springfield, April 15, [1865]. “The horrible tragedy at Washington has thrown a gloom over the whole community, such as i never saw before. The death of Mr. Lincoln is to the nation what the death of a Father is to his young family. I fear we shall have cause to mourn his loss for a long time ...”; 5) ALS to his daughter-in-law, regarding his and Frank’s sojourn in St. Louis, family matters, etc. 3 pp. 12mo, St. Louis, October 11, [1865?].

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signature of the 29th president 75. HARDING, Warren G. Cut signature (“Warren G Harding”). Mounted to card. 1I x 3I inches. With two engraved portraits. N.p., n.d. [before August, 1923]. . $750

“recovery not having advanced quite sufficiently ... “ 76. HARDY, Thomas. Autograph Letter signed in text (“Mr. Thomas Hardy “) to the President of the Royal Society, regretfully cancelling his acceptance of a dinner invitation. One page, in ink, on personal stationery headed “Max Gate, Dorchester”. 8vo, Dorchester, Dorset, Nov 16, 1892. Attractively framed and glazed with a portrait of the elderly Hardy. $1,000 A relatively simple note, conveyed in Hardy’s elaborate prose: “Mr. Thomas Hardy regrets to inform the President of the Royal Society that he is compelled by recent severe indisposition to forego the pleasure of being present at the dinner to which he had accepted an invitation, recovery not having advanced quite sufficiently for travelling.”

presidential manuscript on election reform 77. HARRISON, Benjamin. Autograph Manuscript fragment, unsigned, of his message to Congress in 1891; with a one-page Typed Letter, signed, of conveyance from his private secretary, E.F. Tibbett, to E.P. Strickland, of Benton Harbor, Michigan. One page working draft, torn from a larger sheet, in ink; with several emendations. Approxi- mately 130 words. 6H x 7H inches, [Washington, D.C.], 1891; Tibbett letter: Indianapolis, Ind., April 6, 1900. Very good. The two enclosed in cloth folder. $4,000 A draft of Harrison‘s 1891 message to Congress, “almost as it was finally printed,” according to Harrison’s private secretary, dealing with the selection of a Commission to review election laws: I believe it would be possible to constitute a Commission, non-partisan in its membership, & composed of patriotic, wise and impartial men to whom a consideration of the evils committed with our election system and methods might be committed with a good prospect of ____ (?) from them unanimity in some plan for removing or mitigating those evils. The Constitution would permit the selection of the Commission to be vested in the Supreme Court, if, as seems probable, that method would give the best guarantee of impartial- ity. This Committee should be charged with the duty of inquiring into the whole subject of the laws of elections …

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the 23rd president 78. HARRISON, Benjamin. Signature (“Benj Harrison”), on an engraved view of the White House. 3I x 4H inches. With 2 engraved portraits. N.p., n.d. [before 1901]. In cloth folder. $400 Harrison (1833 –1901) served as President from 1889-1893; he was Senator from Indiana from 1881-1887.

79. HARRISON, William Henry. Manuscript Document signed (“Wm. H.. Harrison/ AdC]”) as Anthony Wayne’s aide-de-camp, a “Return for provisions” for 2 days ration for the barge crew (6 men and 1 woman), commencing June 19 and ending June 20, 1794. One page, on leaf torn from larger sheet. With two engraved portraits. 4 x 8 inches, Greenvile, [Northwest Territory, now Ohio], 19 June, 1794. Roght edge a little ragge (without loss), slightly soiled. In white linen folder. $1,500 Young Harrison (1773 –1841) was serving as aide-de-camp to General “Mad” Anthony Wayne in the Northwest indian War. He became the 9th president of the United State, serving from March 4, 1841 – April 4, 1841, and was the first President to die in office.

“ ... i punched him silly” 80. HEMINGWAY, Ernest. Typed Letter, signed (“Ernesto”), to Geore Brown, Hemingway’s boxing coach, friend and trainer. One page. 4to, [Cuba, [June 9, 1943]. Fine, with accompanying envelope, postmarked June 9, 1943, in custom brown morocco-backed protective case. $7,500 George Brown, owner of a gymnasium in Manhattan, was Hemingway’s personal trainer, boxing coach, and friend, and Hemingway’s affection for his sporting pal is evident in this spirited personal letter, with much detail about Hemingway’s boxing: ... Have only boxed twice. Guy didn’t know much but was 190 and only 26. Cut my lips with a good left jab when I came crowding in my new imitation of your old pal Harry, but when I got in I kept on punching and it worked out just like you said. In the 2nd round I kept left handing him and then when I qui and let him come to me I worked my left way out wide and set and hooked him with it and he sat down. Then we got friendly after that and I didn’t do nothing wrong except backhand him a couple of times (My mistake. How could it have happened. I wouldn’t know) But the second time we boxed the twirp cut my mouth again with the first punch and I went around for about a week with crusts on my kisser. But I punched him silly ... Have been going out on the road but get fat just the same ... You would go nuts in this place just walking around and seeing things. The other day I had a drink of wine that had real snakes in it. About eight of them coiled

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up in the jar. By God, would like to have seen the Colonel face that one. They were snakes too. They had another wine that had dead roosters and cuckoos and all sorts of birds in it but after the snake wine I thought to hell with a chicken wine like that. If we had you and the Colonel here it would be ter- rific. There are about 100,000 more or less beautiful chinese whoors and not even Zoomo could save the Colonel here ... Marty [Martha Gellhorn] sends her love. Best always, Ernesto.

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“this letter … opens it wide for any con man to destroy us” 81. HEMINGWAY, Ernest. Typed Letter, signed (“Ernest M. Heming- way”), with a three-line Autograph Postscript in ink, signed (“EH”) in brown crayon, to Mr. [Joseph F.] Lord. Typed on onionskin Finca Vigia letterhead. 4to, Finca Vigia, San Fransisco de Paul, Cuba, 3/II/55 [Fe- burary 3, 1955]. Two holes punched in top margin between which a small portion has been torn away, small staple and staple holes in mar- gins, various scattered unobtrusive ink stamps from bank on recto and verso, minor scattered soiling. $6,000 A humorous letter to a representative of the Morgan Guaranty Trust Com- pany, about security measures and secret passcodes, reading in part: Sorry not to have your full and proper name but I do not have the opportunity to visit the bank as much as I should … In the future when I should ever call on the telephone to make a request or issue an order I will identify myself as follows: This is Hemingway, Ernest M. Hemingway speaking and my serial number is 0-363. That is an easy number to remember and is not the correct one which a con man might have. A con character would say 364. So we will make it 363. Any character can then ask how many shares I own and I will reply truly to the best of my knowledge. Hemingway goes on to elaborate on more security measures. This is getting too much like OSS so if anybody wishes to know whether it is actually Hemingstein speaking I will answer that I am a friend of David Bruce [head of the OSS in Europe]. I know it is not right to kid with a bank and what your obligations are and I respect them …” The autograph postscript reads: “This letter, of course, opens it wide for any con man to destroy us so please commit it to memory and destroy it.” (See il- lustraion on previous page)

the contract for hepburn’s autobiography: an archive 82. HEPBURN, Katharine. Typed Contract Signed (“Katharine Hep- burn”) between Hepburn and Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., for the terms of publishing the Knopf and Ballantine printings of her autobiography, Me: Stories of My Life. With an archive of associated materials, including memoranda, letters of agreement, amendments, royalty statements, copies of contracts between Knopf and foreign publishers, press clip- pings, etc. 4 pp. (Contract) + 7 pp. of Riders to the contract, initialled by Hepburn + an attached 2 pp. Letter of Agreement between Knopf

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 James Cummins Bookseller and Hepburn regarding further inducements to an agreement. Folio, New York, June 18, 1990. Vey good. From the estate of Hepburn’s agent, Freya Manston. $6,500 The autobiography of Katharine Houghton Hepburn (Knopf, Ballantine 1991), America’s best-known actress, whose professional career spanned over five decades in an era when most women’s acting careers are over after the age of 35, promised from the very outset to be best seller - which indeed it was. The negotiations with Knopf over the terms of their contract (handled by Freya Manston) were complex, and were revised several times, but when the deal was done the rumor in the publishing world was that Hepburn’s contract set a new record. The evidence is to be found in this archive. Certainly one of the more revealing items, however, is a characteristic letter from Hepburn to her agent, offering to revise the contract in a way which would allow Manston to collect her commission immediately — which was to be based on a percent- age of the advance. As Hepburn wanted to forego the advance, an adjustment needed to be made in the contract to accommodate her agent - one that Hep- burn insisted on. An important and revealing archive.

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83. HUGHES, Langston. Typed Letter, signed, to Maria N. Randall of Sarah Lawrence College, regarding his unpublished play, Mulatto. One page, with 2 autograph emendations. 4to, np, April 5 1943. Folded for mailing, otherwise very good or better. Enclosed in a crimson cloth folds over chemise. From the Copley collection. $750 To Miss Maria Randall of Sarah Lawrence College, reading in part: “I regret that I do not have a copy of Mulatto which I could send you, as I have given my only manuscript copy to the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Col- lection at Yale University. The play has not been published … The Broadway version differed considerably from my own manuscript … as often happens on Broadway, for reasons of box-office, there were many deletions and insertions that I had nothing to do with…” (See illustration on previous page)

paul douglas vs. carl sandburg for the senate 84. ICKES, Harold L. Typed Letter, signed (“Harold L. Ickes”) to Harry Barnard of Chicago, objecting to Barnard‘s preference for Carl Sandburg over Paul Douglas for the Senate. One page on personal letterhead. Washington, D.C, February 2, 1948. Small pinholees in upper left corner, text unaffected. In cloth folder. $500

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Ickes (1874 -1952), former Secretary of the Interior under FDR (and briefly under Truman) and the administrator of the Public Works Administration, grew up in Chicago himself, and after leaving the administration, remained active not only in national but in Illinois politics. Here, in a letter to the newspaper columnist Harry Barbard of the Chicago Daily News, Ickes opines: “A man whom I don’t know has sent me a tear sheet from the Chicago Daily News of January 23 in which appears a communication from you with reference to the Senate situation in Illinois. I believe that I will not fall behind in my esteem for Carl Sandburg, but the suggestion of support for him for the Sen- ate seems to me to be entirely futile. Neither can I understand your expressed opposition to Paul V. Douglas. I have known Douglas for years, and I believe that he would make a great Senator. You concluded that Mr. Douglas is for the Truman Doctrine as applied in Greece and Turkey because he is for the Marshall Plan for West Europe. This certainly is not necessarily so. Personally I have opposed the Truman Doctrine for Greece and Turkey from the very beginning. It was a bad conception, and it was done in too much of a hurry, and I believe that as a result of it, we are in a highly dangerous position in those two countries today … However, I am in favor of the Marshall Plan for West- ern Europe. I do not believe that Western Europe can recover economically without our aid, and if Europe doesn’t take a nose dive …” Paul Douglas — not Carl Sandburg — served as Senator from Illinois from 1949-1961.

85. JAFFE, Sam. Autograph Letter, signed (“Sam Jaffe”), to Abe Saki- er. 1 page pen on ruled paper. 8vo, Beverly Hills, Ca, 302 N. Alpine, June 24, 1982. Small piece from top edge and corner, else fine. In red cloth chemise. $250 Jaffe writes of Sakier’s father-in-law, the playwright Ossip Dymon, and good memories. “I am in my ninth decade and you are close second. May you continue to prosper.”

will james to andy adams 86. JAMES, Will. Autograph Letter, signed (Sincerely, Will James”), to Andy Adams, with drawing in upper right, “Stumped”, of a cowboy halting his horse at puzzling tracks. 1 page, pen and ink, with handwritten Envelope. 4to, Franktown, Nevada, July 24, 1924 (postmark). In slipcase. $5,000 Written in the year of his first book’s publication, James writes to Western writer Andy Adams and mentions “I’ve branched out on a new medium that sure seems to make a hit with the publishers — it’s charcoal and I like to work with it a whole lot.” Discusses painting for the calendar market, and magazine publications in Red Book and the Saturday Evening Post. A fine letter early in the author-illustrator’s career. (See illustration on ofllowing page)

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87. JOHNSON, Andrew. Clipped signature (“Andrew Johnson / Pres- ident U.S.”). With two engraved portraits. 1I x 3H inches, N.p., n.d. [between 1865-1869]. In cloth folder. $350

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88. JOHNSON, Lyndon Baines. Typed Letter, signed (“Lyndon B. Johnson”), to James S. Copley. 1 p. typed on White House stationery. 8vo, Washington, D.C, November 10, 1964. Fine, with envelope, in custom chemise. $850 LBJ thanks James Copley, publisher of the State Register of Springfield, Illi- nois, for his help and support in the 1964 Presidential election. From the James S. Copley Library.

thanks for prayers following gulf of tonkin resolution 89. ______. Typed Letter, signed (“Lyndon B. Johnson”), to W. Park- man Rankin. One p. typed on White House stationery. 8vo, Washing- ton, D.C, The White House, August 19, 1964. Fine with envelope. In quarter brown morocco slipcase. $1,250 LBJ writes as President to W. Parkman Rankin, Executive Vice President of This Week magazine, “You are certainly thoughtful to write me follwing dedication ceremonies of the Samuel I. Newhouse Communications Center at Syracuse University … Thank you, too, for your prayerful blessing in perfor- mance of the tasks which lie ahead …” The later half of the letter refers to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which had been passed by a joint resolution of Congress on August 7, 1964 and gave the President authority to use conventional military force in Vietnam without Congressional approval.

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lbj on civil rights and the baptists 90. ______. Typed Letter, signed (“Lyndon Johnson”), to Dr. James Wilson Storer. 2 pp. on White House stationery. 8vo, Washington, D.C, May 15, 1964. Fine with envelope. In quarter crimson morocco slipcase. $2,250 Response to a letter by Storer, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Southern Baptist Foundation, asking LBJ what action the churches may take in helping to solve urgent national problems: “I am pleased that you gave me this opportunity to express some views on the vital question you raise as to action by the churches to help in the solution of urgent national problems … [T]he Baptists have a special place in my affec- tions. Beginning with my great grandfather Baines, the family of my mother has been identified with many Baptist causes and I have a personal pride in their contribution to Baptist life … At the moment I am deeply concerned over the moral aspects of the civil rights proposals. I am confident you would not expect or want me to be deterred from stressing such moral elements by the respect which I entertain for former colleagues in the Congress who might disagree with my conclusions … [I]t gave me considerable satisfaction to meet with members of the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission’s seminar on citizenship … I would suggest that one thing Baptists might do in the direction of establishing justice and righteousness in our society is to continue to support the Commission and to concern themselves with the findings and recommendations of the Commiusssion as it pursues the Con- vention’s mandate … I would be gratified to find stronger encouragement given by all churches to pulpit independence. The nation needs to strengthen the prophetic voices calling for compassionate and constructive action in human relations … I am confident you would agree that, having acted in many areas, we should not forsake the practice of prayer, even though as offered by some it might be ‘pious wind.’

karsh praises fellow photographer eisenstaedt 91. KARSH, Yousef. Autograph Note Signed. “For Alfred Eisen- staedt, My distinguished Colleague and friend with whom it is a pleasure to visit and work, Yousef Karsh. Nov. 25th 1981.”. 8vo (8 3/4 x 6 1/4 inches), 1981. Fine. $1,250 Yousuf Karsh, famous portrait photographer, writes to photojournalist Eisen- staedt. Both men did memorable photographs of Winston Churchill, Karsh’s being the more famous (“Karsh”, Churchill said, “you have immortalized me.”) Karsh, who had begun his career in Ottawa in 1932 — shortly before Eisenstaedt joined the staff of LIFE — had achieved Churchill’s famous bel- licose expression by snatching the cigar from his subject’s lips an instant before releasing the shutter.

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92. (KELLER, Helen) Thomson, Polly. Autograph Letter, signed (“Helen and Polly”) to Reggie Allen. Pen and ink on three photo post- cards of Australia. With envelope. Sydney, Australia, July 7, 1948. Fine, in custom box. $250 Thomson was hired in 1914 to keep house for Helen Keller and she eventually became her life-long companion. She writes here of her and Helen’s travels.

kennedy in hospital, 1944 93. KENNEDY, Lt. John F. Document Signed (“John F. Kennedy, Lt. USN”), 1 July 1944, at New England Baptist Hospital. Signature in black ink on mimeographed slip, Rm. No. “305” docketed and dated in another hand. 1H x 4 inches, Boston, 1 July 1944. Old wrinkles. Fine. Matted, custom half morocco folding box. Provenance: Janet Travell, nurse, later M.D. $5,000 “Rm. No 305 Date 7-1-44 “I hereby assume all responsibility of mattress when rubber sheet is removed from my bed. Name “John F. Kennedy, Lt. USN” An unusual survival from the ephemeral medical records of wartime Boston. In the spring of 1944, Naval Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, a decorated war hero and the son of a multimillionaire ambassador, was admitted to Chelsea Naval Hospital in Boston suffering from a lower back condition. He was transferred for surgery to New England Baptist Hospital, where, in the words of Janet Travell, “It was hospital policy that if a patient wanted the rubber sheet removed from his bed, he must sign a slip taking responsibility for the mattress. I was the nurse who had to get the signature. He grinned but signed. When he left the hospital, his chart was dismantled and the important parts sent to the record room.” The nurse saved the slip, normally destined for the wastebasket. A photocopy and transcript of the nurse’s account accompanies the slip.

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94. KENNEDY, Robert F. Autograph Letter, signed (“Bob”), to Neil MacNeil of TIME Inc., admitting to misquoting the English historian Lord Acton. One page, on letterhead of United States Senate. 8vo, Washington, D.C, [postmarked November 14, 1966]. Fine, with env- velope. $2,000 A fully handwritten note from Kennedy, then serving at the time as Senator from New York. Kennedy admits to misquoting the English historian Lord Acton, (possibly “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”?): “A belated note to thank you for your correction of my Acton quote. You were very right and I very wrong. News writers who read books and know history look down from the galleries at us — how you will limit and inhibit us … “Many thanks nevertheless” RFK was assassinated on June 5, 1968. Holograph letters from him are very scarce.

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95. KEY, Francis Scott. Autograph Letter, signed (“F S Key”) to Ig- natius Davis “near Frederick Town”, on legal business. One page. 4to, Georgetown, 5 December, 1810. Old folds, slight wrinkling and soiling, on closed tear repaired. $2,500 “After graduating from St. John’s College in Annapolis, he studied law and in 1801 opened his law practice in Fredericktown with Roger B. Taney, who married his sister and would later serve as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1802 Key married Mary Tayloe Lloyd; they had eleven children. Soon after his marriage, he moved to Georgetown, D.C., and began legal practice there in association with his uncle Philip Barton Key” (ANB). The letter to Davis from the author of our National Anthem reads: I have had a greeat many talks with Judge Garett about your judgment. We had consented to leave the balle (?) to be settled by E.B. Caldwell, Esq and at last month’s Court I took Henry O’Neale’s deposition which is very strong in your favor. He now says he is prepared to let Mr. Caldwell determine it, but has sent me the annexed which he wishes to sign & return. — He says you ought to return my money which he can prove he has overpaid.

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You will therefore determine whether you will assent to this & inform me. Mr. Garett, if it was even possible to prove he had overpaid the debt, would be still bound to pay the costs of the judgt … Over the last 30 years, only one other Francis Scott Key letter of an earlier date has appeared at auction.

‘the old order which has embraced bigotry … must now yield …’ 96. KING, Martin Luther, Jr. Tyed Letter, Signed (“Martin L. King, Jr.”), to Frank G. Butler, on being named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year for 1964. 1 page on Southern Christian Leadership Conference letterhead, signed in blue ink, typed notation “Kbhh” lower left. 4to, Atlanta, Georgia, 16 January 1964. Fine (1/8-inch triangular loss from bottom left margin). In quarter black morocco clamshell box. $15,000 A letter in response to a letter from Mr. Butler congratulating King on his being chosen the Man of the Year by Time Magazine. Reading in part, I was pleased that Time considered me for this traditional honor and was willing to make liberal use of its pages in an assessment of the Negro’s constant struggle for full equality and human dignity. However, I must say that I sincerely feel that this particular recognition is not an honor to be enjoyed by me personally, but rather a tribute to the entire civil rights struggle and the millions of gallant people all over the nation working so untiringly to bring the American dream to reality. The fact that TIME took such cognizance of the social revolution in whch we are engaged is an indication that the conscience of America has been reached and that the old order which has embraced bigotry and discrimina- tion must now yield to what we know to be right and just. An amazing letter, with outstanding content and sincere humility, marking a milestone in American history brought about by the efforts of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the civil rights movement to which he dedicates the tribute. (See illustration on front inside cover)

“the only path to a survival of our civilization is nuclear disarmament” 97. KISTIAKOWSKY, George Bogdan. Typed Letter signed (“G.B. Kistiakowsky”), to David A. Marcus, of Palm Springs, California, regarding the pros and cons of nuclear energy. One page, on Harvard University stationery. 4to, Cambridge, Mass., January 22, 1975. Fine. In black cloth clamshell box. $500 “…if you mean the peaceful uses of nuclear energy in medicine, in industry, and for production of electricity, I think that on balance the pluses are far greater than the minuses …”

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… As regards nuclear weapons I believe that the minuses overwhelm the pluses. In the first decade after World War II American nuclear weapons probably were indispensable to protect Western Europe from Stalin’s aggres- sive policies, but gradually the aggressiveness of the Soviet Union decreased and in the meantime nuclear arsenals have grown to such phantastic size that if a nuclear war breaks out by miscalculation or through the initiative of third parties, the result ill be a total devastation of at least the North- ern hemisphere. Certainly the only path to a survival of our civilization is nuclear disarmament and it is a desperate tortuous path. Kistiakowsky was a Ukrainian-American chemistry professor at Harvard who participated in the Manhattan Project and later served as President Eisenhow- er’s Science Advisor.

lafayette appoints james madison “my true & lawful attorney” 98. LAFAYETTE, Gilbert Marquis de. Manuscript Document Signed (“True copy, Lafayette”), Giving Power of Attorney to James Madison with regard to Lafayette’s newly-granted land in the Louisiana Terri- tory, 9 October 1804. Single leaf. Folio, Paris, 9 October 1804. Top inch of upper margin expertly reinforced with tissue, a few expert small re- pairs along the edges. Small circular stain in upper margin. Very good. ANB 13, p. 37-38. $25,000

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A true copy, signed in manuscript by the Marquis de Lafayette, of the document granting power of attorney to Secretary of State James Madison with regard to Lafayette’s newly-granted lands in the Louisiana Territory. Though Lafayette returned to the United States only once after his heroic efforts in the American Revolution, he was greatly revered in the country whose independence he did so much to secure. In 1802 the United States Congress, at President Jefferson’s bidding, gave Lafayette a huge grant of land north of the Ohio River. Lafayette had lost much of his fortune and fame during the course of the French Revolution, and it was hoped that the grant would induce him to return to America. After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Jefferson asked the Congress to amend the grant so that the land would fall in the newly-acquired territory. Jefferson even considered asking Lafayette to serve as governor of the Louisiana Territory, though the plan never came to fruition and Lafayette would not visit the United States again until 1824. By this document, Lafayette grants power of attorney to James Madison to manage his new lands in Louisiana. Lafayette is identified in the document as “Late Major General in the Army of the United States of America.” Madison is authorized to work for Lafayette “in my name & on my behalf to locate the lands which the Congress was lately pleased to grant me at the price & upon terms he will think the most advantageous to my interest; authorising my aforesaid Attorney to execute in my name & to my use all necessary Deeds for the better locating or letting out the said Lands & to enter with any person or persons he will think proper into such Leases, Bargains, Agreements & other Instruments of Writing which may be found necessary for the above purposes & generally to do & cause to be done in the premises all & every thing I could myself do were I personally present....” The document is signed by Lafayette in his hand, and he also notes that it is a “true copy.” The document is further signed and witnessed by Fulwar Skipwith, the Commercial Agent of the United States in Paris. A fine document, tying Lafayette with Madison, and showing the great esteem with which Lafayette was held in the United States. (See illustration on rear inside cover)

edwin land and henry kissinger to alfred eisenstaedt 99. LAND, Edwin [H.]. Autograph Note Signed, to Alfred Eisen- staedt. [with, on verso:] KISSINGER, Henry. Autograph Note Signed to Eisenstaedt. On recto and verso of single leaf (each inscription in ink). 8I x 6G inches, N.p., May 31, 1932 (Land); April 11, 1972 (Kiss- inger). Small puncture holes in margin. $1,250 Edwin H. Land (1909-1991) is best remembered for the instant film and cam- eras of the Polaroid Corporation, which he founded in 1937. Second only to Edison in the number of patents he received, Land developed the first modern polarizing filters as an undergraduate at Harvard, and studied light and op- tics throughout his career. He demonstrated his one-step camera at a meet-

 Autographs & Manuscripts Catalogue 105 ing of the Optical Society of America in February 1947 and offered it for sale the following year. Land kept developing further refinements and introduced instant color film in 1962; he even devised an instant motion-picture film in the late 1970s. The premier photographic inventor of the twentieth century pays tribute to the photographer in this superb note: “It has been a rewarding experience for us to have a toally talented visitor at this stage of our research. Watching a great photographer work with directness and simplicity is a rare privilege. We all look forward to your return.” And on the verso, Kissinger, the master of strategic diplomacy writes, “With admiration and good wishes. For his extraordinary patience and insight with so unpromising a subject.”

marie laurencin visits somerset maugham 100. LAURENCIN, Marie. Autograph Letter, signed (“Marie Lau- rencin”) to “Mon cher Paul.” 2 pp. pen and ink. 12mo, Biot, [France], n.d. [probably summer 1936]. Fine, in red cloth chemise. $750 Laurencin visits her neighbor on the Riviera, Somerset Maugham, in preparation for painting his portrait. Maugham owned four Laurencin paintings and had them displayed in his dining room. Laurencin’s letter reads, in part, “Hier après-midi visite à Somerset Maugham — quelle jolie maison et la salle à man- ger toute Laurencin — blanche avec Tableaux.” Morgan notes of the portrait, “It was not a good likeness. She had made Maugham look like a fawn-eyed romantic than a hardworking writer in his sixties” (Morgan, Maugham: A Biography, p. 394).

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101. (LINCOLN, Abraham) Ford, John T. Autograph Quotation, signed (“Jno. T. Ford”). 1 p. pen and ink on paper. Oblong 12mo, Balti- more, December 13th, 1878. Fine. In cloth chemise. $2,000 John Ford was the manager and owner of Ford’s Theater in Washington where Lincoln was shot. He was born in Baltimore, was a bookseller in Rich- mond, wrote a successful farce, went on to manage and own three theatres in Washington. He was a good friend of John Wilkes Booth. He was arrested in Baltimore and, although he was released, his theatre was confiscated and he was paid $100,000 for it by the government. His quote comes from Polonius’s last piece of advice to his son Laertes in Hamlet, “ — To thine own self be true; and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”

extra-illustrated, with autographs added 102. (LINCOLN, Abraham) Tarbell, Ida M. The Life of Abraham Lin- coln. Drawn from original sources and containing many Speeches, Letters and Telegrams hitherto unpublished and Illustrated with many reproductions from original Paintings, Photographs, etc. 4 vols. 8vo, New York: Lincoln His- tory Society, 1909. Bound in full red morocco, with gilt facsimile of the signature of Lincoln on the upper cover, t.e.g. Near fine. $9,000 Each volume extra-illustrated with portraits and with an outstanding group of inserted autographs. Vol. I: 1) Tarbell, Ida. ALS, 3 Jan. 1903 2) Lincoln, Levi. Attorney General in President Jefferson’s Cabinet. ALS.

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Thursday, 31 Aug., n.y. Regrets for dinner and opportunity of “meeting the President of the U.S.” Lincoln was distantly related to Abraham Lin- coln, sharing a common ancestor in Samuel Lincoln, who had settled in Hingham, Massachusetts, in the seventeenth century 3) Webster, Daniel. ALS to Joseph M. Moulton. 18 June 1844 4) Shields, James. Union Major General, ALS. 6 Dec. 1849 Vol. II: 1) Winthrop, Robert. Statesman. ALS. 28 Nov. 1876. Replying to a request for an autograph 2) Banks, Nathaniel P. Union Major General and Statesman. ALS. Sat. 7 Nov. 1856. To Messrs. Little, Brown asking for copy of Mr. Adams’ work which contains the Life of C.F. Adams. 3) Curtis, George William. Author. ALS 21 Jan. 1859. Accepting a date to give lecture upon Democracy & Education 4) Boutwell, George S. Statesman. ALS to CHa. F. Crosley, 21 Dec. 1876. Praising Rutherford Hayes 5) Schurz, Carl. Union Major-General and Statesman. ANS, 3 Jan. 1870, endorsing a autograph letter of tesimonial for Chester Krum from late U.S. District Attorney John W. Noble, dated 27 Dec. 1864. 6) Stedman, Edmund Clarence. Poet. ALS, 3 Spe. 1883, to [J.C.] Derby, publisher, congratulating him on 50 years in publsihing 7) Colfax, Schluyer. ALS as Speaker of the House. 24 Sep. 1864. On the canvas, Brookston, Ind., about exchanging prisoners Vol. III: 1) Seward, William H. Lincoln’s Secretary of State. LS, to Gen. Rufus King, 25 July 1862 2) Cameron, Simon. Lincoln’s Secretary of War. ALS, 11 Feb 1830 3) Chase, Salmon P. Lincoln’s Secretary of Treasury. LS, 8 October 1864, to Capt. Wm. Howard, declining leave but accepting his eventual resignation, in order to raise a regiment 4) Fremont, John C. ALS 16 Jan., n.y. 5) Stanton, Edwin M. ALS as Lincoln’s Secretary of War, 18 Sept 1862, to Gov. Wm. Sprague of Rhode Island, concerning raising a regiment of sharp shooters 6) Welles, Gideon. Lincoln’s Secretary of Navy. ALS 18 July 1864, to Edward Scattergood, declining request to be detached but permitting a small delay in returning to the Maratanza in order to procure a new outfit 7) McClellan, George B. Union Major-General. ALS, 12 Feb 1884, for- warding an application for admission to a home for disabled soldiers

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Vol. IV: 1) Grant, Ulysses S., DS as President, 11 March 1873 2) Sherman, Wm. T. General. ALS, n.d. (heading excised), to an unnamed Colonel, acknowledging receipt of a photograph of the recipient’s son at the hand of Schuyler Colfax, , and recalling their service together 3) Davis, Jefferson. President, Confederate States. ANS, 28 Nov. 1869 4) Burnside, Ambrose E. Union Major General. ALS, 23 Sep. 1865 5) Dix, John A. Union Major General. ALS, 21 Nov. 1846 6) Butler, Benjamin F. Union Major General. ALS, 11 Nov. 1888.

103. LISTER, Joseph. Autograph Letter, signed (“Joseph Lister”), to the eminent British chemist Henry E. Roscoe. One page in ink, on personal stationery. 12mo, 12, Park Crescent Portland Place [London], 13 Oct. 1887. Framed and glazed, with portrait. $1,500 “My dear Roscoe, “I have read your able address with deep interest & beg you to accept my thanks for the copy you have already sent me.”

original poetry manuscript by george cabot lodge 104. LODGE, George Cabot. Autograph Manuscript of an untitled 14-line sonnet, written in ink on paper laid on thin cardboard. 8vo, n.p, n.d. Small corner of board missing, well away from text, else fine. $750 Lodge (1873-1909) was the son of the eminent Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. A graduate of Harvard, he studied abroad and settled in Washington as secretary to his father. Henry Adams thought him one of the great minds of his time. He served with distinction in the Spanish-American War, returning to Congressional duties and contributing poems to various periodicals. Before his untimely death from a heart attack, he published several volumes of poetry and two poetic dramas, Cain, and Herakles, on which his fame rests. These, noted the DAB, “do not suffer in comparison with any others in American literature. A half-dozen of his sonnets belong with the best in our language.”

on the best portraits of himself 105. LONGFELLOW, Henry W. Autograph Letter, signed, to unnamed recipients (“Dear gentlemen”). 4 pp. 12mo, Camb[ridge], March 5, 1872. Fine. In blue morocco drop box. $750 Reading in part, “In reply to your letter I beg leave to say that the best photograph which has been taken of me is by Eliot and Fry, 55 Baker St. Portman Square London; the face resting on the hands. This I specify, because they made several … Of the cabinet size, down to the knees, the best is that by Solomons of Paris … As photograph this is a beautiful piece of work …”

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“follow the flight of song” 106. ______. Autograph Quotation, signed (“Henry W. Longfel- low”), “The Arrow and the Song”. Pen and ink on paper. Fair copy, three quatrains which constitute the poem “The Arrow and The Song,” signed and dated by the poet. 4to, Rome, 28 December 1868. Matted and framed. A few faint spots. Fine. Cf. BAL 12072, 12083. Provenance: Auchincloss Collection, Sale #206, Nov. 29-30, 1961; Stanley Becker. $3,000 Longfellow’s celebrated poem, “The Arrow and the Song,” published in The Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems, 1846 (i.e., December 1845).

The Arrow and the Song

I shot an arrow into the air, It fell to earth I knew not where; For so swiftly it flew, the sight Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where; For who has sight so keen and strong, That it can follow the flight of song?

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Long, long afterward, in an oak I found the arrow, still unbroke; And the song, from beginning to end, I found again in the heart of a friend

Signed and dated Rome, 28 December 1868. “He was as beloved in England as in America; people from everywhere came to see him, and his last trip to Europe in 1868-1869 was virtually a triumphant processional. Queen Victoria received him in a private audience, and both Oxford and Cambridge gave him honorary degrees” (ANB). A fine specimen of the poet’s hand, penned at the pinnacle of his acclaim.

lorant to eisenstaedt: “magnificent, superb, unsurpassed” 107. LORANT, Stefan. Autograph Note, signed. Pen and ink on paper. 8I x 6G inches, Lenox, [Mass.], Oct. 13, 1947. Binding holes in left margin, else fine. $900 “Your pictures were good seventeen years ago, they were excellent ten years ago and they are wonderful now. I hope we will be here in another ten, twenty and thirty years from now; you taking pictures, me admiring them and raving that they are magnificent, superb, unsurpassed, in short: not bad, not bad at all …” Stefan Lorant (1901-1997) is widely acknowledged as a founder of modern pictorial journalism. Born into a family of studio photographers in Budapest, he pursued a career in silent-film making in Vienna and Berlin, then went on to both found and edit illustrated magazines in Germany, Hungary, and Eng- land. As editor of the Münchner Illustrierte Presse, Lorant transformed it into the first modern photojournalistic paper in Europe; his political commentaries after the Nazi putsch in 1933 enraged Hitler, who ordered him imprisoned. A year later, he was released through the intercession of the Hungarian government and began editing a paper in Budapest. Lorant wrote a memoir, I Was Hitler’s Prisoner, and took the manuscript to London; it was published in 1935. Lorant became editor of Odham’s Weekly Illustrated and then the influential British magazine Picture Post. “His innovative layouts, his ‘exclusive’ interviews and thirst for knowledge became a familiar part of millions of everyday lives, largely through his own creations, and in particular the legendary media icon Picture Post. His vision of photography as a documentary medium inspired Life and Look magazines in America” (biographer Michael Hallett). In 1940 he came to America where he wrote and edited pictorial history books, including the noted Lincoln: His Life in Photographs.

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“shall we gather at the river” 108. LOWRY, Robert. Autograph Transcription, signed (“Rob- ert Lowry”), of two stanzas of “Shall We Gather at the River.” One page on personal letterhead, signed and dated beneath the text. 12mo, “Plainsfield, N.J., May 26, 1891.” Fine. $3,000 Robert Lowry (1826-1899) first composed the words and music of this quintes- sential, classic American hymn in 1864, while working as pastor in Brooklyn, New York. It has been used countless times in films (e.g. Stagecoach, The Wild Bunch) and has been arranged by both Aaron Copland and Charles Ives. The full hymn consists of 5 stanzas and the famous chorus:

Yes, we’ll gather at the river, The beautiful, the beautiful river; Gather with the saints at the river That flows by the throne of God.

‘the lusitania was tipping to starboard at an awful angle’ 109. (LUSITANIA) Beattie, Allan. Autograph Letter, signed (“Love to all, Allan”), to Marc [Bowman], a 12-page Survivor’s Account of the Sinking of the Lusitania. Pen and ink on letterhead of Coman’s Ho- tel, 21 & 23 Castle Hill Avenue, 12 pp., 15 lines per page (approx. 750 words). 4to, Folkestone, [England], May 15th, 1915. Old folds, large pinhole in top center margin. Old envelope of Lewis-Clark Hotel, Lewiston, Idaho, with “Allan Beatty’s letter” in ink. Fine. Half morocco clamshell box. $15,000 “I got an awful smash in the back from the water and was thrown about thirty feet on my face. I got up and ran down stairs people were pouring up from the decks below and I caught sight of Mother. I ran up to her and kissed her goodbye, then I lost her for a while … I thought to myself I haven’t much of chance if I don’t get a life belt so I thought a minute and then rushed down to my own stateroom and grabbed my own belt … I had to hang on the side of my bed to get a hold of it. The lights were practically all out.”

Dramatic and detailed account by a survivor of the sinking of the Lusitania. Allan Beattie, 18, of Winnipeg, traveling Second Cabin with his mother Grace, was sitting on the hurricane deck when the ship was struck. He gave away the first life belt he found, then went down three decks to his stateroom to get his own life belt. Returning topside despite “a pretty hard time,” he met his mother again. “She says, ‘I am not nervous I don’t think there is much danger do you?’ I replied that ‘It looked about as bad as it could’ and I told her to take my life belt but she refused, I made her put it on after promising that I would get another. I kissed her goodbye again and just as I got the top straps of her lifebelt tied,

 James Cummins Bookseller the boat went down. I was sent sliding the whole width of the deck.” Allan was flung free, and was soon picked up by a life boat. He describes how the boat soon became perilously crowded. When another boat was located, survivors were shifted across. In due course his boat was rescued by the Fly- ing Fish, and the survivors were brought to Queenstown. Beattie (whose first name is given as Allen in the New York Times list of survivors), writes his correspondent that “Mother is gone, and altho we have not heard of her I don’t think that she can be alive.” A remarkable, detailed narrative by a survivor of one of the most notorious maritime disasters of the twentieth century, written in the immediate after- math of the event, by a young man whose actions show proof of calmness in the tumult. Beattie appears to have been one of the Lusitania survivors who was profoundly traumatized by the incident. He was rejected from military service because of poor eyesight and was reported to have suffered a series of break- downs beginning in 1920, and was unable to hold steady employment.

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110. MACHEN, Arthur. Autograph Quotation, signed, from The Hill of Dreams. Pen and ink on ruled paper. 2 pp. 8vo, [N.p., n.d., ca. mid 1920s]. Fine. $1,750 A fine autograph selection of one of the most memorable passages from chapter II of Machen’s celebrated novel, The Hill of Dreams (1907), in his distinctive hand: … But already about the town the darkness was forming: fast, fast the shad- ows crept upon it from the forest, and from sides banks & wreaths of curl- ing mist were gathering, as if a ghostly leaguer were being built up against the city, and the strange race who lived in its streets. Suddenly there burst out from the stillness the clear and piercing music of the reveillé, calling, recalling, iterated, reiterated, & ending with one long high fierce shrill note with which the steep hills rang. Perhaps a boy in the school band was prac- ticing on his bugle, but for Lucian it was magic. For him it was the note of Roman trumpet, tibe mirum spargens sonum, filling all the hollow valley with its command, reverberated in dark places in the far forest, and reso- nant in the old graveyards without the walls. In his imagination he saw the earthen gates of the tombs broken open, and the serried legion swarming to the eagles. Century by century they passed up; they rose, dripping, from the river bed, they rose from the level, their armour shone in the quiet orchard, they gathered in ranks and companies from the cemetery, and as the trumpet sounded, the hill fort above the town gave up its dead. By hundreds and thousands the ghostly battle surged about the standard, behind the quaking mist, ready to march against the mouldering walls they had built so many years before. Arthur Machen The Hill of Dreams”

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a precursor of luis milán gets paid 111. MARIA OF CASTILE, Queen of Alfonso V of Aragon. Docu- ment authorizing the Court Treasurer to pay thirty gold florins to a court musician, Pere de Vallseca (“player of stringed instruments or harp”). One page on watermarked paper, in a chancery, cursive script. In medieval Catalan. Oblong folio, Valencia, 29 July, 1426. Seal on verso, and small resulting perforation in center from opening, with loss of two letters. Maricarmen Gomez, “Some Precursors of the Spanish Lute School,” Early Music, Vol. 20, No. 4, Iberian Discoveries I, Oxford University Press, Nov., 1992. $3,500 The music of the court of Queen Maria and Alfonso V of Castile in the mid 15th-century — particularly its lute-guitar-vihuela-harp music — gave rise to that celebrated tradition which flowered in the vihuela and lute music of Luis Milán (d. ca. 1561) in the following century. Court records such as this provide important clues in the reconstruction of that early tradition. The payment authorized here of the very considerable sum of 30 florins is to one “pere de Vallseca” (“Vallseca the Elder”), “sonador de corda o de arpa.” It almost certainly refers to Eduardo de Vallseca, a harpist and contemporary of “Rodrigo de la guitarra,” whose importance has been ably demonstrated (see Maricar- men Gomez, pp. 583-593). A full transcription and translation is available upon request.

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‘the noise of the ant-hills will not disturb me …’ 112. MARKHAM, Edwin. Autograph Letter, signed (“Edwin Markham”, with a flourish and spatter), to journalist Alfred Henry Lewis, concerning praise of Markham’s poem “Virigilia,” published in Cosmopolitan for August 1905. One page pen and ink on a folded sheet. 12mo, 52 Washington Pl., New York, 2 August 1905. Fine. $750 Markham’s love poem “Virgilia,” published in the Cosmopolitan magazine for August 1905, filled the letter columns of New York literary papers with praise and disdain. Markham writes Lewis, a prolific author and frequent contributor to the magazine: “It is reward indeed to be praised by your dauntless pen. My ‘Virgilia’ pleases you, that is enough. The noise of the ant-hills will not disturb me, now that the mountain has spoken.” Emphasis on changes in literary forms and their movement away from social commentary and political topics made much of what distinguished Markham’s verse dated. He gradually fell from critical favor, and his reputation never fully recovered. Nevertheless, despite the critics’ increasing disenchantment with him, Markham remained an important public figure, traveling across the nation and receiving warm praise nearly everywhere he went . (ANB)

“beloved in life of abraham lincoln” 113. MASTERS, Edgar Lee. Autograph Manuscript, signed (“Edgar Lee Master”), of his poem “Anne Rutledge.” Fair copy, one page, in ink, on blank sheet. 4to, n.p., n.d. [after 1915]. Light foxing. In quarter morocco clamshell box. $2,500 Fine holograph copy of Masters’ famous poem on the young woman who some say was Abraham Lincoln’s one true love. The poem originally appeared in Spoon River Anthology. The tombstone of the actual Anne Rutledge now bears the Masters poem: Out of me unworthy and unknown The vibrations of deathless music; “With malice toward none, with charity for all.’ Out of me the forgiveness of millions toward millions, And the beneficent face of a nation Shining with justice and truth. I am Anne Rutledge who sleep beneath these weeds, Beloved in life of Abraham Lincoln, Wedded to him, not through union, But through separation. Bloom forever, O Republic, From the dust of my bosom Edgar Lee Masters  James Cummins Bookseller

young mckinley: “what is life worth without freedom to enjoy it?” 114. MCKINLEY, William. Autograph Letter, signed (“Wm McKin- ley Jr. McK”), to his sister Annie McKinley Garfield, from camp during the Civil War. 4 pp. in ink, on rectos and versos of single sheet of ruled stationery. 4to, Camp Ewing, Va., 27 October, 1861. A few splits at old folds, some staining, mostly to final page. Clamshell box. $9,000 A truly remarkable and intimate letter from the 18-year-old McKinley, written during the Civil War to his sister. McKinley responds in wonderful detail to his sister’s queries about living conditions in camp: …You ask me if my immediate wants are supplied and if I am in need of clothing to make me comfortable? In answer I will say am well provided, the following is a list of my clothing. Two Blouses (coats). Two prs. Pants, Three shirts, two prs drawers, one pr Boots, one pr shoes, three prs socks, one large, heavy overcoat, three Blankets, two undershirts and last of all a pr of white mittens made by Mother’s own hands, which she in the heat of summer when I left for Camp Chase put in my Carpet sack. Tell you I would not take

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a fortune for them, mainly on account of their being knit by Mother, and of their present and future utility. The above believe is a correct statement of my wardrobe with the exception of a Cap, which I forgot to mention … … The question is oft asked Are not the soldiers tired of the service and anxious to return home? for my own part, when I left home I thought my country needed my services. Today I think she is in greater need of it and consequently I have no desire to return to my civil occupation, when my country is bleeding from a ‘thrust’ made by inborn Traitors. Much as I love home and its blessed associations, my native country, the Government that gave me birth, freedom and education shall not be destroyed, if my services can assist to prevent it. What is home worth without a Government? What is life worth without freedom to enjoy it? Not once since I came into the service have I regretted that I ever volunteered, but rather been proud of it … According to the American National Biography, when the Civil War broke out, “…McKinley was the first man in Poland, Ohio, to volunteer. He joined the Twenty-third Ohio Infantry, which was commanded by Rutherford B. Hayes. During the fighting at Antietam in 1862, McKinley displayed bravery in combat when he brought food and coffee to his regiment under heavy enemy fire …” Letters from the mature McKinley are not unusual; letters of this vintage, however, and with such content, are of the utmost rarity.

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115. MCKINLEY, William. Autograph Note of introduction, signed (“W McKinley”). On “State of Ohio, Executive Chamber, Columbus” note card. 12mo, Columbus, Ohio, 13 August 1894. Inlaid to a slightly larger leaf. Laid into a quarter brown morocco drop box. $300 McKinley writes as Governor, “Mr Guerin: This will be presented by Mr. Lloyd Collins of New York, Any courtesies you can extend to him will be appreciated …”

dealing with reporters: “…the only security is not to talk at all” 116. ______. Typed Letter, signed (“William McKinley”), to his Sec- retary of State, John Sherman. 1H pp. in ink, on first and last pages of single folded sheet of Executive Mansion stationery. 8vo, Hotel Cham- plain, Clinton Co., N.Y., August 18, 1897. Slight toning at edges, minor wrinkling, overall very good. In cloth folder. $1,250 While vacationing in upstate New York during his first year in office, McKinley writes to his Secretary of State, John Sherman, first remarking: …The appointment of Mr. Hitchcock [Ethan Allen Hitchcock, later Secre- tary of the Interior] as Minister to Russia has been signed and will be for- warded to the State Department to-day. I am glad you and Mrs. Sherman are finding it so comfortable in Washington. I have feared the weather might be so extremely warm as to make it undesirable for you to remain there during the months of August and September. Then the President continues, “I have noticed the newspaper articles to which

 Autographs & Manuscripts Catalogue 105 you refer. You are quite right in saying that the best way is to remain quiet. The only safe way is not to be interviewed, and then no ground for misrepresenta- tion can be had. I have discovered that the only security is not to talk at all.”

early merwin on mark twain 117. MERWIN, W.S. Autograph Manuscript, signed and inscribed at a later date (“W.S. Merwin 4/23/83 I wrote it a long time ago”). Working draft and notes of an untitled essay on Samuel L. Clemens and huckle- berry finn. 6 pp. in ink, densely written in Merwin’s small handwriting, on versos of blank “Continuity Report” forms of Parthian Productions Ltd., heavily worked, with numerous corrections and deletions. 5pp. folio, one page 8H x 8 inches, N.P. [London?], n.d. [1950s]. Very good. $4,500

118. MILLER, Joaquin. Autograph Note, signed (“Joaquin Miller”), to friend, actor, entomologist, and fellow Bohemian Club member Henry (“Harry”) Edwards. One page, in purple ink. 5H x 8 inches, New York, 21 October, 1879. Fine, with a clipping of Miller’s poem “Bohemia to Harry Edwards.” In a cloth portfolio. $300 Fine sentiment to the founding member of the Bohemian Club, actor and entomologist Harry Edwards: “My dear Harry, “I am beginning to find that almost any mechanic can make a form of a man; but it takes a god to breathe a soul into that form. This appropos [sic] of art and artists.”

“the best place … is where the star spangled banner waves over the breeze” 119. MONTEZ, Lola (pseud). Autograph Letter, signed (“Lola Mon- tez”), to Mr. Dubois. 4 pp. on single folded sheet. 12mo, 26 Park Lane, London, 15 June 1859. Fine, in quarter leather portfolio. $2,500 Fine letter from the legendary, Irish-born dancer (1821-61) whose life as a cour- tesan, as lover of Franz Liszt, as mistress of Ludwig I of Bavaria, and whose charms inspired the saying “Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets,” written toward the end of her life after her move to the United States. Here, to an old friend, she writes: “I am very much pleased my dear Mr. Dubois on receiving a letter from you but I thank you for having written to me and for thinking of me at such a long distance — I am glad to hear that Charles Eigenschank* is doing well. He de- serves to get on for he is a good musician in every respect. Also that Sigmond is also doing well. — for my part I only wish the whole world without exception were graceful in all they undertook; it would make people better than they are

 James Cummins Bookseller now — You must keep up the good courage, as the battle of life-time is the best friend of the good and industrious … Everything as regards Theatricals and Musicals is looking Dark and Gloomy enough here at the present. Many of the Theatres are closed. I saw Bartlett the other day from Sealong. He attended me in my lectures and I was very glad to see the poor fellow — The best place after all is where the Star Spangled Banner waves over the breeze. America is the country of good, better, best [underscored] — the Austrians are getting a capital whipping and that is worth one hundred thousand pounds to me to know of it …” Lola Montez died two years after writing this in New York City; she is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn. *of the Royal Conservatory in Paris; LM’s orchestra leader and violinist who apparently met LM in San Francisco and went on tour with her. He also went to Australia with her, where she performed her famous “Spider Dance,” but they separated before the end of her tour.

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“the lines of the constitution have been almost wholly abandoned” 120. MOORE, John Bassett. Autograph Letter, signed (“J.B. Moore”), to John W. Williams, regarding the extraordinary growth of Executive Power in America. 8 pp., on two folded sheets of personal letterhead. 12mo, New York, March 18, 1917. Fine, in a custom cloth folder. $750 A fine letter from this lawyer, scholar, diplomat, professor, and jurist, who became the first American to serve as a judge on the Permanent Court of International Justice at the Hague. He was, … the most prominent American authority on international law during the first half of the twentieth century. His writings on international law remain important contributions to the literature of that field. He was a significant participant in the foreign policy decisions of the McKinley and Roosevelt administrations. When his service with Woodrow Wilson proved unrewarding, Moore became an effective critic of the growth of presidential power in foreign affairs (ANB) In this letter, Moore writes: There can be no doubt that there has taken place during the past fifty-six years an enormous development of Executive Power. The lines of the Con- stitution have been almost wholly abandoned [underscored] … between the days of Jackson and the Civil War there was no enhancement of the power of the Executive. The enhancement during the Civil War was due to circumstances, not to the personal disposition of the incumbent. Mr. [Theodore] Roosevelt while President practiced and later formulated the conception now

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prevalent, with the apparent approval of what old Coxe called ‘the Popular,’ that the President, as the choice of the whole people, is their chosen leader [underscored] responsible primarily too them; and, with the acquiescence of the Congress, this becomes the fact, primary responsibility being transmitted into final responsibility … Naturally, in the course of time, the Senate must alter its rules so as to cease to deliberate when called upon by the Executive, as the Tribune of the people [underscored], for certain action, it having come to pass that the function of Congress as a whole has become like that of the old Parlement of Paris — the mere registering of some external will …

motherwell on spanish politics and art 121. MOTHERWELL, Robert. Typed Letter, signed (“Robert Moth- erwell”), to Nancy McDonald of Spanish Refugee Aid Inc. of NY. 2 pp. typed on letterhead. 4to, 909 North Street, Greenwich, Ct, March 31, 1980. Fine. In brown cloth chemise. $1,750 Lengthy typed letter with excellent content concerning Motherwell’s uneasy negotiation of Spanish politics and art. In 1980 the Jaun March Foundation and the Catalan bank La Caixa organized the first exhibition of Motherwell’s work in Spain. His series of works titled “Elegies for the Spanish Republic,” begun in 1949 and continued until his death in 1991, totaled more than 170 works and would strongly link the artist with anti-Francoism and the lost Spanish Repub- lic. However, as this letter demonstrates, in person, Motherwell maintained a professional, neutral stance, and seemed to have trouble engaging the Spanish in any political conversation. Reading, in part: I didn’t realize at the time of the New York Times announcement that, though the Juan March Foundation originated the show, in Barcelona it was under the auspices of the largest savings bank in Catalonia, ‘la Caixa,’ at a small museum they have acquired. If I understand correctly, it is either Spanish or certainly Catalonian law that such a bank must spend 50% of it’s [sic] annual profits on culture … The Jaun March Foundation, as far as I can tell, is almost an exact equivalent of the J.S. Guggenheim Foundation here … They seem extremely wealthy, honorable in intent, and highly efficient — I mean an almost IBM-corporate efficiency, shattering every cliché about ‘mañana’ (what is ironic is that the fabulously wealthy Juan March was the financial backer of Franco, and yet in my show are major ‘Ele- gies to the Spanish Republic.’). My impression, for what it’s worth, is that there’s a kind of understanding that anything scholarly or artistic can be done as long as one stays away from partisan politics. For instance, Bar- celona insisted that I be present and treated me beautifully, while the Juan March people [from Madrid] had implied that it wasn’t necessary to go to Barcelona, and immediately descended on the scene. As you know, there are tremendous Separatist movements in Spain … Being a fish swimming in foreign waters, I asked various people who know the scene what to do, and

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the concensus [sic] is that it is a Spanish labyrinth that is their problem … Naturally my own interest is in the artistic community, which seems both aware and touched by any outside support. But my experience in Barcelona was (as in Germany, for example) that political discourse is conspicuous by its absence in any general conversation … Everything I have said is impres- sions — I found the Spanish, unlike Latin Hispanics, extremely reserved and discrete, almost like old-time New England Yankees. What lies under- neath I really don’t know … I realize I am a bit vague because I really don’t know anything. I have been going on the artist in me, which senses tensions, pride and formality, eagerness and extreme vulnerability, and since I am not by nature an activist, I have reacted with thorough professionalism instinc- tively, which seems to be precisely correct … Naturally I find it both strange and irresistible [sic] to show my Hispanic sympathies under such auspices, but there are unexpected occasions: for instance, I’ve given a small ‘Elegy to the Spanish Republic’ to the University of Salamanca (the oldest one in Spain), and they wish to honor me with a ceremony, which I presume the central government is aware of, and I personally somewhat dread, not being an exhibitionist but an exhibitor … In Barcelona, several young artists told me that, after hearing me speak and reading an interview with me, they were determined to leave for New York. In short, my whole experience is basically as an individual with other individuals, as it is here at home, for that matter. (I have stuck with the Guggenheim Foundation because it is the only Foundation that gives exclusively to individuals, not institutions.).

122. MOUNTBATTEN, Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas, first Earl Mountbatten of Burma. Typed Letter, signed (“Mountbatten of Burma”), to Richard Rendell, declining to participate in any biographi- cal exercise, “In every case I have refused to agree or provide any facilities and they have all given it up.” 2 pp., on Broadlands Stationery. 8vo, Romsey, Surrey, 25 May 1972. Fine, with original mailing envelope. In custom half morocco clamshell box. $750 Mountbatten, naval officer, viceroy of India, and Admiral of the Fleet, informs his correspondent, a member of Mountbatten’s SEAC Staff, that he declines to assist in a biography of MacArthur and Eisenhower. “It may interest you to know that I have done everything in my power to stop any form of biography or article about me being written. No less than nineteen extremely distinguished British authors, starting with C.S. Forrester [sic] in 1942, have been trying to write the story of my life. In every case I have refused to agree or provide any facilities and they have all given it up.” “Mountbatten was a giant of a man, and his weaknesses were appropriately gigantic. His vanity was monstrous, his ambition unbridled” (ODNB)..

 James Cummins Bookseller

“… dans une circomstance … mémorable” 123. (NAPOLEON) Dupont de l’Etang, Pierre, Général. Letter, signed (“Le Gnl. Cmt. Dupont”) as Minister of War under the provisional government, to Maréchal Claude Victor-Perrin, duc de Bellune, acknowledging the latter’s acceptance of Napoleon’s abdication and the restoration of the Bourbons. One page, on letterhead of “Ministère de la Guerre.” Folio, N.p. [Paris], 13 April, 1814. Some very slight waterstaining affecting a few letters, otherwise very good. Handsomely mounted and framed. $7,500 An extraordinary letter of historic significance, written a mere two days after the Treaty of Fontainebleau of April 11, 1814, which set the terms of Napo- leon’s abdication, and ended an era. Dupont had been one of Napoleon’s most distinguished generals, but his surrender in the disastrous Spanish campaign led to disgrace and imprisonment. After the fall of Napoléon, Dupont became Minister of War for Louis XVIII, and, in just such letters as this to Marshal Victor — one of Napoleon’s most trusted generals — negotiated the acquiescence of Napoléon’s military leaders: [in translation]: Monsieur le Maréchal; -- The provisional government has read with intense interest the declaration in which your Excellency has announced his adherence to the act of the Senate pronouncing the abdication of Napoleon Buonaparte and the restoration of the Bourbons on the throne of their ancestors. By this declaration, taken in the interest of the country, your Excellency has established anew a claim to the gratitude of the French people as well as the respect and good will of His Majesty, Louis XVIII. Such is the opinion, sir, of the provisional government — and I am more than happy to be its messenger on this memorable occasion.

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 James Cummins Bookseller

124. NIXON, Richard. Typed Letter, signed, to Rebecca Wadsworth in Stamford, Connecticut, regarding her acquaintance with his father, Frank Nixon. One page on letterhead of House of Representatives. 4to, Washington, D.C, 2 February, 1950. Very good. $600 In answer to her inquiry, the young Congressman from California writes This is just a note to tell you that I am the son of Frank Nixon of California and that I can recall his speaking of you on several occasions. Three years ago, when I came to Washington, my farmer [sic] and mother purchased a farm in Pennsylvania and have lived there until this Winter. He had the misfortune, however, of breaking his arm just a few weeks ago and has now gone to Florida for the balance of the year … Nixon had leaped to national prominence through his role in the Un-Ameri- can Activities Committee in winning a perjury conviction against Alger Hiss.

ocampo in new york with jane engelhard 125. OCAMPO, Victoria. Three Autograph Letters, signed (“Victo- ria”), to Jane Engelhard, mentioning the Morgan Library, Rabindranath Tagore, Aldous Huxley, the Waldorf-Astoria, etc. In French. Each letter is one page, in ink, on a sheet of Waldorf-Astoria stationery. 3 pages in all. 10H x 7G inches, New York, n.d. [ca. January, 1976]. Contained in the pocket of a slipcase chemise for a copy of The Letters of Aldous Hux- ley inscribed to Engelhard by Ocampo (see below). From the library of Jane Engelhard. $1,250 Warm, personal letters from the famous Argentine intellectual, editor, and feminist Victoria Ocampo (1890? - 1979) on the occasion of a visit to New York City. The first letter thanks her for tea, the theater, etc. and begins, “Chère

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Madame, Pancho [Pamela Harriman] m’avait beaucoup parlé de vous ... mais tout de même pas assez. Vous êtes vraiment trop gentille et trop généreuse avec une inconnue de passage ... “ In the second letter, she writes enthusiasti- cally of their visit to the Morgan Library (of which Engelhard was an ardent supporter): “Chère Jane, De tout mon séjour à New York, cette journée a été la plus ... féconde. Car après votre bon déjeuner et votre compagnie, la visite à la Morgan m’a appris bien des choses. Entre autres, la valeur que peuvent avoir des lettres que je possède ... Les manuscrits (musique et littérature) sont d’une variété et d’une intêret exceptionnels ... Merci pour ce cadeau que vous m’avez fait ... “ In the final letter, the two are on familiar terms: “Nous nous tutoyons donc. Je suis contente que les pages sur le séjour de Tagore [Ocampo’s book Tagore en Las Barrancas de San Isidro) te plaisent. Pour les lettres d’Aldous, j’ai mis une note en marge de celle qui porte un petit papier ... J’ai trouvé dans le livre des Lettres de Huxley deux de mes lettres que je te laisse le soin de déchirer, car elles ne sont que des petis riens ...” [with:] The copy of The Letters of Aldous Huxley (N.Y., Harper & Row, 1969) to which Ocampo refers in her last letter. As noted in her letter, she has inscribed it in the margin of p. 558 (a letter to her from Huxley), where she writes: “This book, that is not mine, has at least a few letters that A wrote to me. With my love to you, Jane. Victoria, January 1976. N.Y.”

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owen refutes the materialists 126. OWEN, Sir Richard. Autograph Letter, signed (“Rd. Owen”), to Miss Bayley. 4 pp. pen and ink on paper. 4to, [London], Royal College of Surgeons, 30 March 1851. Folds, some soiling, else fine. In quarter brown slipcase. $1,750 Owen offers a strong rebuttal to Atkinson and Martineau’s Letters on the Laws of Man’s Nature and Development, a materialist account of the human mind. Reading in part, “After reading the book which I now return I feel as ignorant of the nature of the Soul of Man as before …” He expresses his low opinion of the authors and summarizes his opinion of the book: “The chief ground- work of their doctrine appear to me to be the statement at p. 30 ‘It seems certain that mind (or the conditions essential to mind) is evolved from the grey vesicular matter.’ Now I know that the Whale has more of that grey vesicular matter, and the Porpoise has nearly as much, as we have, or as any Man, Shakespeare, Milton, Latimer, St. Paul had” and adds that “there [is] not one anatomical or physiological fact truly stated in the whole work …” He concludes with a warning: “… There are vile natures in this world; it is a sad fact, make of it what we will; but as the Crotalus has its rattle, and the Cobra its painted hood, one to warn the ear, the other the eye, of the unwary, so the fool that sayeth in his heart there is no God, and they that speak it openly, are made at the same time to expose their nature.”

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puccini to his mistress on “madama butterfly” 127. PUCCINI, Giacomo. Autograph letter, signed (“G Puccini”), to Sybil [Seligman]. One page, with envelope addressed to “Sybil Seligman, 7 Upper Grosvenor Str, London W.” 8vo, Torre del Lago, Toscana, 1 October 1907. In ink on blue imprinted stationery, profes- sionally double-matted with an early photographic portrait, envelope preserved on verso. Slightly faded, else fine. Vincent Seligman, Puccini Among Friends. $3,500 A fine letter by the composer of Madama Butterfly to his mistress Sybil Selig- man, “Cara Sybil,” in receipt of a telegram concerning press notices as the opera is being acclaimed all over Europe — “veramente fulmineo.”

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128. RALPH, Julian. Autograph Manuscript of an unpublished novel. 329 1/2 pp. on 324 leaves. 14 chapters numbered as 15. Written in ink and pencil on rectos of ruled sheets (apart from two leaves on typescript). 8vo (8 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches), N.p., n.d. [ca. 1903]. Numerous deletions and corrections. Some edges a bit ragged, otherwise in very good, readable condition. In cloth slipcase with chemise. $1,500 Julian Ralph (1853-1903) was a brilliant New York journalist and miscellaneous writer who worked for the New York Sun under Charles A. Dana, as the London correspondent for The New York Journal, under William Randolph Hearst, then later for the New York Herald and Brooklyn Eagle. According to the DAB, “because of his vivid and picturesque style as a descriptive writer, it was said of him that he ’could write five thousand words about a cobblestone.’” His works include numerous travel books and collections of his journalism, as well as fiction. Some of the titles are: Along the Bowstring (1901); Dixie, or Southern Scenes and Sketches (1895); People We Pass: Stories of Life among the Masses of New York City (1896); Alone in China (1897); An Angel in a Web (1899); A Prince of George and Other Tales (1899); Towards Pretoria (1900); The Millionairess (1902), and The Making of Jour- nalist (1903). The first page of this undated and untitled manuscript introduces a narrator who tells his listener that “you shall hear how in the twentieth century a youth who dabbles in no black arts and laughs at everything he cannot see or feel or smell or touch has been bedeviled — bewitched — ‘headwoed,’ I believe you Americans call it. You shall hear how this caused him, who up to then bothered very little about the women, to become in great demand with the fair sex, to undergo extraordinary adventures, and made him a Don Juan of a temperate and semi-respectable sort.”

“ reactionaries were right — there were communists under the bed” 129. REAGAN, Ronald. Autograph draft of a note, signed with initials (“RR”), as Governor of California, to William Smullen, editor of the News Leader of Netcong, New Jersey regarding an article sent to him on Mc- Carthyism. 9 lines in ink, on lower half of Typed Letter from Smullen to Reagan. 4to, Pacific Palisades (?), California, 10 July, 1968. Fine. In quarter leather clamshell box. Diagonal line through Reagan’s note, dated “7-10- 68”. $2,500 In response to Smullen’s letter, which encloses an editorial on “the curious company McCarthy is keeping” with the remark that he and his old friend “Ed Walsh” of the Star Ledger in Newark “both think it would be very nice to have you in the White House,” Reagan replies: “…You honor me when you suggest me in connection with that other job … Thanks for the editorial. It does make me raise an eyebrow. Won’t it be funny some day when they discover the ‘witch hunters’ & hard-nosed reactionaries were right — there were communists under the bed?”

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reagan goes to hollywood 130. REAGAN, Ronald. Autograph Letter, signed (“Ronald Reagan”), to his friend E.B. Martindale (“Friend Jim”) in Bakersfield, California. One page, in ink, on personal letterhead. 8vo, Warner Brothers Studio, Burbank, California, September 27, [1938]. Fine, with envelope (water- stained). $2,500 An early, entirely hand-written letter from the 27-year-old Reagan, early in his movie career with Warner Brothers, while filming Secret Service of the Air (1939), in which he played the role of Secret Service agent, Lieutenant ’Brass’ Bancroft: “… Glad to hear from you but sorry to hear that the old team has separated. Yes I have been in pictures since June 37 and they have kept me quite busy most of the time am now doing a Secret Service story don’t know how it will show up. Well its been nice hearing from you Jim …” Letters of this vintage from Reagan have become quite rare on the market.

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“tis better to be damned than mentioned not at all” 131. REMINGTON, Frederic S. Autograph Letter, signed, to “Mr. Skinner.” 2 pp. 7 x 4H inches, New York, 60 Broadway, February 1, 1886. Two small marginal chips without loss, else fine. Reed, The Illus- trator in America, pp. 42-43. $1,500 A very fine letter; Remington writes: I was very much gratified at your comments on ’The Flag of Truce,’ I am one who believes that ’Tis better to be d--ned than mentioned not at all’ so any crumb coming from you people who are engaged in creating public opinion is great gain. I am going to make quite a break for the coming Academy so drop in during the next month and break the truths lightly to my sensative [sic] nature. ’Found in the Grass’ will be the title and the work — well it is fair to presume that will be more or less tough but I’m getting reckless. Come in and see a chap. Yours cordially Frederic Remington. A product of Ogdensburg, NY, Remington studied art briefly at Yale, then headed West, hoping to strike it rich. He arrived on the scene “during the final period of the old lawless West,” which he proceeded to document in a vast and admired output of drawings, paintings and bronzes for some thirty years. In addition, he was sent on numerous assignments in various parts of the world — from Eastern hunts and football games to Russian military maneuvers; his pictures of the Spanish-American war were instrumental in enhancing Theo- dore Roosevelt’s military reputation and political career, and Remington illustrated several of TR’s books and articles. Remington’s popularity has never waned, and he remains one of the favorite artists of the nineteenth century.

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132. REMINGTON, Frederic. Autograph Letter, signed. To Ellis D. Robb. 1/2 pp. 7 x 4H inches, New Rochelle, New York, May 30. In green cloth chemise. Reed, The Illustrator in America, pp. 42-43. $750 “My first work appeared in ’Harper’s Weekly’ and in the ’Outing’ in ’86 or thereabouts.” A product of Ogdensburg, NY, Remington studied art briefly at Yale, then headed West, hoping to strike it rich. He arrived on the scene “during the final period of the old lawless West”, which he proceeded to document in a vast and admired output of drawings, paintings and bronzes for some thirty years. In addition, he was sent on numerous assignments in various parts of the world — from Eastern hunts and football games to Russian military manoeuvres; his pictures of the Spanish-American war were instrumental in enhancing Theo- dore Roosevelt’s military reputation and political career, and Remington illustrated several of TR’s books and articles. Remington’s popularity has never waned, and he remains one of the favorite artists of the nineteenth century.

“father of the nuclear navy” on the uss shipjack and thresher 133. RICKOVER, Hyman George. Autograph Letter, signed (“H.S. Rickover”), and Typed Letter, signed, to Representative Sidney R. Yates. 2 pp. total. 4to, At Sea, Submerged; At Sea, North Atlantic, 10 March 1959; 3 May 1961. Fine, in custom folding box. $750 Two letters from Admiral Rickover, the “Father of the Nuclear Navy,” to Rep- resentative Sidney Yates of Illinois. The first reads, in part, “We are returning to New London, Connecticut from Sea trials of the USS Skipjack, our first nuclear powered, streamlined, single- screw attack submarine. The ship successfully met all her trials, surface and submerged, and attained the highest speed ever made by a submarine … I want you to know that just as in the case of the Nautilus, your understanding was just as important in creating this revolutionary submarine as the efforts of  James Cummins Bookseller the designers and builders.” The USS Skipjack marked a vast improvement in speed and maneuverability over the first nuclear submarine, theUSS Nautilus. The second reads, in part, “The USS Thresher, our twentieth nuclear powered submarine, is returning from her initial builder’s trials … she steamed deeper than any submarine ever built by the United States.” The USS Thresher was the lead ship of her class of nuclear submarines when she sank east of Boston on Arpil 10, 1963, killing 129 men in the Navy’s worst peacetime submarine disaster. As these letters demonstrate, as a gesture of confidence, Admiral Rickover would insist on being onboard the trial runs of nuclear submarines in his fleet.

‘i am an illustrator’ 134. ROCKWELL, Norman. Typed Letter, signed (“Norman Rock- well”), to Miss Simpson, on art and painting styles. One page, on his personal stationery. 8vo, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 28 February 1967. Fine. With original mailing envelope. Burgundy cloth folding case. $750 Succinct letter from the iconic American illustrator in answer to his correspondent’s inquiry: “First of all, I am not ‘a true artist,’ I am an illustrator. I am now quite often painting pictures which show people in very realistic scenes of some of today’s problems … but paint them very much the way I have always painted.” Signed boldly below, “Norman Rockwell.”

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135. ROOSEVELT, Eleanor. Autograph Letter, signed (“ER”), to Livy (?), sending news of ER’s children and personal plans. 3 pp., on two sheets of letterhead. 12mo, Washington, D.C, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, August 28th [1944]. Cf. Blanche Wiesen Cook, Eleanor Roosevelt (1992). $1,000 Tommy [Malvina Thompson, her personal secretary, travel companion and friend] & I came down here today so I could see the children before they left for school. I am sorry about your parties but I know Hershey is glad to have you with him. I hope you’ve found an apartment because I know it is hard living with other people, even when they are your sisters & your brothers … We spent a day with Earl [Miller]* & Simone & Skippy & had a wonderful time … Earl enjoyed his ten days. Anna’s [Roosevelt Halsted, FDR’s and ER’s eldest child] children are here but I still have some children at Hyde Park. After Labor Day I’ll move to the cottage & stay there thro’ September then close it & come here, going to the big house if we go up during the au- tumn & winter. I have interesting letters from Johnny [Roosevelt, her youngest son] who has been in the thick of the Pacific fighting. Elliott [Roosevelt, second oldest surviving son] too writes he’s in France daily thinks Germany must surrender soon. A world of love to you dear. Devotedly, E.R. P.S. Good luck to you and Hershey (Cook, pp. 429-447) *“the first romantic involvement of ER’s middle years” (Cook)

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136. ROOSEVELT, Franklin Delano. Autograph Letter, signed (“Yrs, Franklin D. Roosevelt”), 15 March 1928, to his law partner Daniel O’ Connor (“Dear Doc”), concerning the Georgia Warm Springs Founda- tion. 2 pp. in ink on Warm Springs, Georgia, stationery. Docketed as received by Roosevelt & O’Connor. 8vo, Warm Springs, Georgia, 15 March [1928]. In slipcase. $2,500 In 1927 Roosevelt founded the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, with Dan- iel “Doc” O’Connor as his partner. O’Connor was also his law partner until FDR became President. After Roosevelt’s death the foundation was renamed Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation. “Here is a very nice little surprise — a Gift of $25,000 to the Geo. Warm Springs Foundation from Edsel Ford, who has been staying here for a week with the Piersons. Both Mr. & Mrs E.F. are crazy about the place. … We are (last month) breaking a little better than even on our operating costs …”

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roosevelt on the need to scale back government costs 137. ______. Typed Letter, signed (“Franklin Roosevelt”), to Edward Perine. 1 p. typed on Executive Mansion stationery. 8vo, Albany, New York, August 4, 1932. Fine, in custom folding box. $750 Roosevelt writes as Governor of New York to Edward Perine, editor and publisher of The Challenge. Reading in part, “I can say to you without reservation that I am a firm believer in the immediate pressing need of retrenchment in government costs. Of course, you are familiar with the fine declaration of our Party Platform along those lines. Definite figures are well nigh impossible of determination this far in advance. I was much interested in reading the initial number of your magazine.”

138. ______. Typed Notes on Harry Bridges, with Autograph Note, initialed (“FDR”), to Frances Perkins. 1 p. typed, with autograph note in pencil and one correction and one emendation in pen by FDR, and postscript in pen in unknown hand. [Washington, D.C.], n.d. [ca. fall, 1934]. Cf. Ward, Harry Bridges on Trial, 1940; Martin, Madame Secretary, 1976. $5,000 Typed notes prepared for FDR, summarizing the findings of Ralph P. Bon- ham, District Director, U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Service, regarding union leader and alleged Communist, Harry Bridges. With FDR’s notes at head to Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, “F.P. / Very confidential / will you speak to me / about it? / FDR.”

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Bridges (1901-1990), an Australian-born longshore and warehouse workers‘ labor leader, emerged as a prominent strike leader in 1934 and immediately began to attract calls — fueled by rumors of his Communist Party membership — for his deportation. Secretary Perkins faced immense pressure from the anti-Communist Right to deport Bridges, but the Labor department was waiting for a decision by the Supreme Court on another case (Kessler vs. Strecker), the outcome of which would directly affect its ability to prosecute such deportation cases. Perkins prudence appeared like dithering, or worse, to her de- tractors, and a resolution demanding her impeachment , on grounds that she conspired to avoid enforcing deportation laws, was introduced in the House. A

 Autographs & Manuscripts Catalogue 105 warrant for Bridges’ arrest was eventually issued in 1938, and the case came to a hearing the following year. The government’s case fell apart and Bridges was exonerated — though the government would continue to attempt to deport him until his naturalization in 1945. Interestingly, a component of Bridges’ defense was that Bonham, whose findings are summarized here, took part in a plan to use bribes and blackmail to obtain affidavits, perjure witnesses, and manufacture evidence.

“after the shooting i did not see … one in a hundred of the letters sent me” 139. ROOSEVELT, Theodore. Autograph Letter, signed (“T. Roos- evelt”), to Mr. Joseph D. Smith. 1H pages, on correspondence card. 12mo, Sagamore Hill, New York, Nov. 10, 1916. With stamped envelope. $1,500 Roosevelt responds to a Mr. Joseph Smith of New York, who had apparently sent an unanswered letter after the attempt on the President’s life in 1912. Reading, in full I am sorry to say that you relate the case exactly as it should be related, and you have related it admirably, too. I have no copies of my Cooper Union speech. I am sorry about the poor suspender manufactures; I never received the suspender buckles; after the shooting I did not see, and could not see, one in a hundred of the letters sent me. Unfortunately there are times when the mass of mail is such that it is physically impossible for me to see it — not to speak of answering it.

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tr on war and peace 140. ROOSEVELT, Theodore. Typed Letter, signature excised, to Andrew Carnegie as President of The National Arbitration and Peace Congress. 6H pp. On White House stationery. 4to, Washington, D.C, April 5, 1907. Grey cloth chemise. Morison, ed., The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, vol. V, 638-42. $4,500 An important letter from President Theodore Roosevelt, summarizing his views on the goal of abolishing war, to Andrew Carnegie, who was then the President of the National Arbitration and Peace Congress, and ultimately the creator in 1910 of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Roos- evelt express his regret at not being able to be with Carnegie at the Interna- tional Peace Conference at the Hague: “…I much regret my inability to be present with you … First and foremost, I beseech you to remember that tho it is our bounden duty to work for peace, yet it is even more our duty to work for righteousness and justice … Harm and not good would result if the most advanced nations, those in which most freedom for the individual is combined with most efficiency in securing orderly justice as between individuals, should

by agreement disarm and place themselves at the mercy of other peoples less advanced, of other peoples still in the stage of military barbarism or military despotism. Anything in the nature of general disarmament would do harm and not good if it left the civilized and peace-loving peoples, those with the highest standards of municipal and international obligation and duty, unable to shock the other peoples who have no such standards, who acknowledge no such obligations....These warnings that I have uttered do not mean that I believe we can do nothing to advance the cause of international peace. On the contrary, I believe that we can do much to advance it, provided we act with sanity, with self-restraint, with power; which must be the prime qualities in the achievement of any reform. The nineteenth century saw, on the whole, a real and great advance in the standard of international conduct, both as among civilized nations and by strong nations toward weaker and more backward peoples. The twentieth century will, I believe, witness a much greater advance

 Autographs & Manuscripts Catalogue 105 in the same direction … More important than reducing the expense of the implements of war is the question of reducing the possible causes of war, which can most effectually be done by substituting other methods than war for the settlement of disputes. Of those other methods the most important which is now attainable is arbitration …” A careful, lengthy, and eloquent statement from this President, who, perhaps more than any others in the nation’s history, has been characterized as an im- perialist and a warmonger.

the emperor’s new clothes 141. ______. Typed Letter, signed (“Theodore Roosevelt”), 22 De- cember 1904, to Thomas W. Sykes of the North Adams Manufacturing Company, accepting a proposed gift of cloth for his inauguration suit. 1 page, on White House stationery with original mailing envelope. 8vo, Washington, D.C, 22 December 1904. Old fold, minor soiling at one edge. Cloth folding case with morocco label. $2,500 Theodore Roosevelt, after his successful presidential campaign and election to a second term, attends to a practical matter connected with his inauguration, and accepts the gift without hesitation: My dear Mr. Sykes, I have received your letter of the 20th instant, stating that you had made the cloth for the inauguration suits of Messrs. Garfield, Harrison and McKinley, and that you wished to give me the cloth for a similar suit. I accept it with the utmost pleasure. Will you please send the material to M. Rock, Tailor, 315 Fifth Avenue, New York, who will make it up for me! With renewed thanks, believe me, Sincerely yours, [Signed:] Theodore Roosevelt. The donor of the cloth was Thomas W. Sykes (1842-1909), a native of York- shire, who came to Massachusetts as a child and worked in the woolen mills around Adams. He was trained as a dyer, rose to the position of boss dyer, and became general manager of the North Adams Manufacturing Company in 1873. A fine letter, boldly signed.

roosevelt commends representative lindbergh 142. ______. Typed Letter, signed (“Theodore Roosevelt”), to Con- gressman Charles A. Lindbergh. One page, with two words inked out and two emendations. 8vo, New York, September 1, 1914. Very good. In half tan and green cloth slipcase. $1,750 Roosevelt writes to Representative Charles A. Lindbergh of Little Falls, Minn, father of the aviator of the same name. Reading, in part, “Permit me personally to congratulate you upon your activities in the 63rd Congress. I have more particularly in mind the comprehensive grasp of currency needs you displayed and your efforts to obtain effectual banking and currency legislation … You

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have been aggressively and effectively part of that group of representatives who have proved to be the only sanely constructive force at the Capital …”

tr on disenfranchisement of soldiers: wilson ‘misinformed’ 143. ROOSEVELT, Theodore. Typed Letter, signed (“Theodore Roosevelt”), to E.B. Johns of the Army Gazette, on the effective disenfranchisement of U.S. Soldiers on the battlefronts. Two pages, approx 275 words, twelve holograph corrections, on Roosevelt’s letterhead for the Kansas City Star. 4to, New York, 18 October 1918. Old folds (two small holes along central fold of p. 2, in blank area), some toning of paper stock, fading of ink correction on first page. Fine. With a pictorial silk ribbon portrait of Roosevelt from the National Ribbon Co., Paterson, N.J. Custom cloth folding case. $3,500 Theodore Roosevelt writes E.B. Johns at the Army Gazette, I most heartily and cordially join with you in your appeal to the President to secure efficient action to do away with the disenfranchisement of Ameri-

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can soldiers on the battlefronts. The President recently made an appeal for enfranchising women, on the ground that such enfranchisement was de- manded as a war measure, and in the course of his speech he stated, as a justification for demanding votes for women, that it would be intolerable to submit to the disenfranchisement of our soldiers. The president has been misinformed, or else he has not been informed at all by those who should have informed him, as to the facts in the case; otherwise, he would have known that as a matter of fact, our soldiers are now naturally disenfran- chised. … I earnestly advise that the President summon all the Governors of the States (specifically as I summoned them when I was President, in order to secure prompt action in conservation matters). In any event the national government must itself take the lead in order to prevent the continuance of intolerable injustice. A fine, testy letter from late in Roosevelt’s life, after the death of his youngest son, shot down over German-occupied France in 1918, when he paid close attention to the welfare of serving soldiers.

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144. SALK, Jonas. Typed Letter, signed (“Jonas Salk”), to Jakie Pru- ett, Principal of a Texas school, regarding his early hope of becoming a lawyer. One page, on letterhead of The Salk Institute. 4to, San Di- ego, Calif., 27 April, 1976. Fine, with a signed black-and-white portrait photo of Salk, 8 x 10 inches. In red cloth portfolio. $750 In answer to a Texas educator’s inquiry, Salk writes of his early hope to become a lawyer in order to “go to Washington to pass laws that would correct injustices I felt existed ...” When he later became interested in medicine, “more specifically clinical research — I found I could reduce or prevent still other injustices …”

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sandburg on lincoln photographs and other mss 145. SANDBURG, Carl. Small archive of 5 Autograph and Type- script Manuscripts, each with content related to Abraham Lincoln. In all, 8pp., comprising: (1) Brief one page Autograph Ms. note regarding the attitudes of two living ex-Presidents (Fillmore and Pierce) toward Lincoln; (2) One page Autograph Manuscript initialed “C.S.”(in 3 columns) regarding the life mask of Lincoln made by Leonard Volk and the photograph of that mask by Edward Steichen (published in The Photographs of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Sandburg and Merserve, New York, Harcourt Brace, 1944, beneath a reproduction of the Steichen photo); (3) One page Autograph Ms. on ruled note paper regarding an unpublished letter written “in the indubitable cramped style of Dennis F. Hanks”; (4) Typed note beginning “Many men and women, now faded and gone ... “ consisting of a single paragraph captioned “Preface - 2”at top in Sandburg’s hand in pencil; (5) one page Autograph Note quoting remarks derogatory to Lincoln from the front page of Les- lie’s Weekly of Feb 25, 1865 (“A schoolboy would deserve flogging for sending out documents of such prodigious moment as come from his

 James Cummins Bookseller pen in phrases so mean and unbecoming”); (6) Half-page typescript of “People Who Touched Lincoln” (published in The Photographs of Abra- ham Lincoln) typesigned “C.S.” and docketed at bottom “For the Photo- graphs of Abraham Lincoln”; One page of Autograph Notes concerning instructions for the Barrett photographs, “when reassembled for new plates” according to a handwritten note (not Sandburg’s ) on the verso of an attached card from the author. Various sizes, n.p., n.d.[ca. 1944]. Very good. $3,500

146. SANDBURG, Carl. Two Typed Letters, signed (“Carl Sandburg”) to his agent, Major James B. Pond, regarding proposed tours in Texas and in the Northeast. Each one page, on Chicago Daily News letterhead. 4to, Chicago, Oct. 30, 1920 and Dec. 30, 1921. Very good, the first letter stamped “Ans’d Nov 17 1920”, the second with penciled check mark. Enclosed in a folding quarter morocco blue satin chemise. $800 Letters to the agent Major Pond, from quite early in Sandburg’s career. Dis- cussing the nuts and bolts of a proposed Texas tour in the first letter, he writes: “I would be pleased to undertake a Texas tour if the dates were available between Feb. 20 and March 15. Fees for dates in Texas, however, should not be less than $150 for each engagement. I am putting it definitely because that is the quotation being made to inquirers there. Eventually I am going down there. And as my time is now filling with engagements so that I may have to call a halt entirely on the forthcoming year, I hope we can keep the quotation at a minimum of $150. That is what my recital sold for to the Detroit Athletic Club, Wisconsin Players, University of Iowa …” In the second letter, Sandburg discusses the timing of any future bookings: “My time for the first week in February is reserved for The Players, the Northampton Smith College engagement to which you refer, being in that week, and the Dartmouth inquiry being with reference to that. I do not know what the bookings all are, nor whether Dartmouth is in prospect or being canvassed or whatever you might call it, by the Players. I shall write you next week what my open time is during the last week in January when I have four engagements in New York and may have three or four open dates. I don’t see where you get your point that I haven’t showed any interest in whether you book me. I wrote you definitely that I a, not tied up in any way exclusively -- fifty circulars like the enclosed, with a space on the front page blank for the publication or stamping of your imprint, if you so chose, were sent to you. I know I’m slow about letters, about answering inquiries, about handling ’ar- rangements’ -- but as the son of your father you ought to know that a good business man and an excellent correspondent is most often a hell of a platform performer …”

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from the old philosopher in rome, on dante 147. SANTAYANA, George. Autograph Letter, signed (“G Santaya- na”) to George Rauh of Garden City, New York, on Lawrence Grant White’s translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. 2 full pages on a single sheet. 4to, Via S. Stefano Rotondo - 6 - Rome, January 31, 1950. Fine. With envelope. In cloth folder. Published in The Letters of George Santa- yana, edited by Daniel Cory (New York: Scribner’s, 1955). pp. 391-392. $1,250 A beautiful letter from the Spanish-American philosopher (1863-1952) near- ing the end of his life in Rome, in response to his friend’s “splendid” gift of Lawrence White’s translation Dante’s Divine Comedy into English blank verse, with illustrations by Gustave Doré (Pantheon, 1948). Touching first on the Doré illustrations, Santayana concedes that “they add vastness to the perfectly definite dimensions of Dante’s landscapes; but they are not in the spirit of the original …”As for White’s translation:

 James Cummins Bookseller

…[He] is clear in giving up the rhymes which are impossible at any length in English; but the way he jumps at once into blank verse seems to me hasty; especially as he does not free himself from the other terrible fetter of trans- lating line for line, and not profiting by the chance that blank verse gives of breaking lines up and not padding them, as you have to do often in a line for line translation …Then there is the grave difficulty of passing in English from the sublime to the homely, as is current in Romance languages. English has two vocabularies. It has occurred to me sometimes that a man with a full command of 16th Century English, like that of Shakespeare and the English Bible, might render Dante magnificently in verses, like those of the Psalms. Each for a triplet in the original, in terse prose. Dante’s language is simple, but learned, like Church Latin; and his poem is a procession of basses, altos, and sopranos three abreast, holding candles, but so arranged that the voices would link the trios to one another like the Terrarima … and the language should be simple and good for any subject, yet a sacred [underscored] language, not at all like loose common talk in the vernacular …The translation is faithful and often literal. But it does not produce this ritual effect proper to the original, and of course gives no idea of the sweetness and limpidity of the Italian. However, White begins by making that sacrifice, and evidently hopes to attach the reader by assimilating himself to him in language, as far as possible, and no doubt he gains an important point in avoiding ‘poetical’ words. now tabooed by the young poets. I am an old man, and have versified sometimes in the traditional English lingo; for that reason I can’t help missing here, for instance, the distinction of Cary’s blank verse, and even some phrases of Longfellow, neither of which White mentions in his preface. But let us be thankful for this devoted effort, without dreaming of any endless procession with candles, basses, altos, and sopranos …

on america, russia, and democracy 148. SANTAYANA, George. Autograph Letter, signed (“G Santaya- na”) to George Rauh of Garden City, New York, on the United States’ and the Soviet Union’s alleged wish to impose their system of government on other countries, and the dangers of democracy. 2 pp. on rectos of 2 sheets. One correction on overlay. 4to, Via S. Stefano Rotondo - 6 - Rome, 12 October, 1950. Old folds for mailing, overall fine. With envelope. Published in The Letters of George Santayana, edited by Daniel Cory (New York: Scribner’s, 1955). $1,250 A superb letter from the Spanish-American philosopher (1863-1952) toward the end of his life, while in Rome, summarizing his views on democracy and its limitations: I find to my cost and amusement that no reporter ever reports my own words but substitutes his own lingo for my scrupulously chosen phrases. I don’t know what your particular interviewer attributed to me, but I certainly never said that the U.S. were ‘trying’ to ‘impose’ their form of government

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on anybody; and what the Russians are trying to impose is not only their form of government … but their own government as it exists in Moscow and is exercised over the satellites by the Commintern … The American system cannot be imposed in this way because it conceives ‘democracy’ to mean government by the majority, and respects elections fairly carried on. I think the trust in majorities is a dangerous and unjust method where there are profoundly rooted and numerous minorities (such as the Irish were under the British); but my chief divergence from American views lies in that I am not a dogmatist in morals or politics and do not think that the same form of government can be good for everybody … I think the universal authority ought to manage only economic, hygienic, and maritime affairs, in which the benefit of each is a benefit for all … Now the American and UN’s (?) way of talking is doctrinaire, as if they were out to save souls… And the respect for majorities instead of for wisdom is out of place in any matter of ultimate importance … And it is contrary to what American principles have been in the past, except in a few fanatics like Jefferson who has been caught by the wind of the French Revolution. Americans at home are now liberal about religion and art; why not about the forms of government? …

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sartre’s playboy interview, signed 149. SARTRE, Jean Paul [with Madeleine GOBELL]. Uncorrected Galley Proofs of his interview with Playboy magazine, signed with his initials on each sheet. 8 sheets, with Sartre’s ink initials of approval in left margin of each sheet and one minor correction in his hand, and with numerous penciled editorial corrections and insertions in mar- gins; lacking final galley sheet, partially provided in photocopy. Folio, Published New York, Playboy, May 1965];. Stapled, with a typed inter- office memo enclosing the galleys as “initialed and approved by Jean- Paul Sartre.” Very good. $2,500 An important appearance of the founder of existentialism to a broad Ameri- can public. The interview, shortly before Sartre’s refusal to accept the Nobel Prize for Literature, was conducted by Madeleine Gobell, who had also interviewed Jean Genet for Playboy the year before. Indeed, many of her questions concern Sartre’s attitude toward Genet (the subject of his Saint Genet), as well probing questions regarding Sartre’s attitudes toward women, Jews, Marxism, French foreign policy, American literature, Dos Passos, Faulkner, and much more.

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150. (SLAVERY) Albritton, P.J. Two Autograph Documents, signed (“P.J. Albritton”), to Hon. Zo. S. Cook. 2 pp. total pen and ink on paper. 4to, Alabama, Wilcox County, 9 May 1859; 24 November 1859. Fine, in custom cloth chemise. $1,000 Documents presented to Judge Cook of the Court of Probate by the administrator and administratrix of the estate of Samuel Smoke. Among the possessions to be settled were mules, horses, hogs, cattle, a buggy and harness, fodder “& some other articles of trifling value … also a negro man named Jack, who is about 75 years old & who is of little or no value — & whom it is necessary to sell for the purpose of division among the widow, one of your Petitioners, and the children of said intestate …” The second document reads in part, “By virtue of an order of the Hon Probate Court of said County, I did expose to sale at public auction at the late resid. of Samuel Smoke … the negro man Jack a slave belong[ing] to said estate and on such sale Mrs. Eliza Smoke became the purchaser thereof for the price & sum of ten dollars, that being the highest & last bid for the same. Said negro was sold as a credit till 1st day of March 1860” “ broke my knee, tore ligaments in my back ... “ 151. STEINBECK, John. Autograph Letter Signed (“John”) to Bur- gess Meredith and Paulette Goddard, regarding his hospitalization, recent accident. 1Hpp. in ink on recto and verso of a single sheet of yellow ruled note paper. 14 x 8H inches, [New York City], May 26, [1947]. Slightly waterstaining. From the Estate of Burgess Meredith. $3,750 unpublished. On the even of his planned trip with Robert Capa to report on the state of postwar Europe, Steinbeck suffered a serious fall from his window. Writing to his friends Burgess Meredith and Paulette Goddard, he explains: ... I am in the Lenox Hill Hospital. Have been for two weeks and will be a minimum of one more and maybe two. I leaned out of our downstairs window and the iron guard gave way and I fell to the pavement. Broke my knee, tore ligaments in my back and had those things called internal injuries. I’ve been a sad sack but am getting better now. So I have to put off the trip I was going to make to let the knee get strong. Anyway here is what we plan to do.

 James Cummins Bookseller

About the fifteenth of June Gwynn and I will go to Paris and stay there and thereabouts for about a month. Then she will go home and I will go on to Russia. Maybe we can spend some time together in France. Maybe Paulette could show Gwyn about in the lady dept. I’m supposed to have some francs — quite a lot. This is pretty wavery handwriting, but I have that fateful hospital weakness. By the way, Wallerstein has a play which the Schubert are opening here in the fall but it is opening in Glasgow soon. He is over there now. Maybe it’s something for you for in Dublin. Try to get in touch with him. It is a very funny and satiric comedy. It might be up your street. Very fine woman’s part. Don’t know about the man’s. Might look into it. Tom [his baby son] has been exposed to mumps. I guess we’ll have that next. This damnable sickness makes it hard to write for long ...” [with:] MEREDITH, Burgess. Typed Letter (retained carbon copy), June 4 to Stein- beck in reply to the above, and one other, May 22, 1947), in which Meredith requests a copy of Pastures of Heaven. Meredith remarks humorously: “I don’t know what philosophic remark to make about your guillotining yourself lean- ing out of your own downstairs window ... “

steinbeck and the military: “… shivery with malice and evil planning …” 152. STEINBECK, John. Five Autograph Letters, signed (“John”), and 1 Typed Letter (typed signature “John”) to Burgess Meredith, during World War II, regarding military service. In all, 8pp., on plain and ruled paper. 4to, Palisades and New York City, April 2, 1942 - Feb. 1943. Typed letter is slightly darkened but clean, others very good. $17,500 What a thrill to get a letter from a soldier. I got one once from a veteran of the battle of Gettysburg but that’s the last soldier letter I have had until yours came ... “ Steinbeck continues with a mention of the play version of The Moon Is Down, which had recently opened: The play opened in Baltimore and it was pretty bad. Thirty minutes for me- chanical difficulties and on top of that the lines were too long and too many and we got pretty bad notices. So I went to work and cut it and it opens in New York Tuesday and I don’t know what it will do nor do I care very much. I’m thoroughly sick of it. I just don’t llke the theatre. But at least the tempo will be all right this time. It won’t limp itself to death ... “ My divorce went off with a minimum of name calling but I paid for it with everything I had but that is allright too because I can make some more maybe and she can’t. So thats all right. We’ll kind of pull in our horns for a while ... I might possibly get a transfer to the west coast in the fall but I don’t know yet. I think the center is going to be here and I would hate to be away from the center. I probably will be drafted myself and there is no reason that I can think of why not. I’m healthy and have no dependents I can’t take  Autographs & Manuscripts Catalogue 105

care of. I suppose I wouldn’t be much better at it than you are. I was very bad when I was in the artillery in the ROTC in school. I think the thing the gunnery sergeant feared most was that I would pull the recoil action of a 75 down in such a way that nobody would ever get it together again. But I played a nice hand of polo so they let me stay in. But you can’t kill nobody with a polo ball.

 James Cummins Bookseller

I’ve taken the house for two months and if I am kept in this job I will keep it through the summer. But I imagine some brass hat will decide I will do better work in Washington, which is a god damned lie. I am a panel in the office which is nice because I can more or less make my own way since no one knows what a panel is. I guess I’m nearly the only panel we’ve got on our side and maybe what I make of it won’t help us to win the war as quickly as we might if I weren’t a panel or if there were other panels to kind of point the way. But I’m stumbling around and anyone who tries to find out what a panel is by studying me is going to come to the conclusion that the whole thing is kind of crazy. Except of course if you don’t want to. I broke one boy’s wrist with a near side back stroke ... It was in this period that Steinbeck became involved in his surreal imbroglio with his local draft board, which refused General Henry Arnold’s request for a thirty-day deferment for Steinbeck, who had been writing for the OWI and who was awaiting a commission from the Air Force. The draft board refused, considering that Steinbeck’s writing was such trash that he could not possibly be of any use to the nation as a writer. In the meantime, Steinbeck was in limbo, neither drafted nor commissioned. In his letter sometime in the Fall of 1942 he writes: General Younts request came in but apparently nothing was done about it ... They wired my draft board and delayed classification. I’m reduced now to sitting about a little like a draft dodger ... If I had known there was going to be this much delay I could have written a novel but from the first I’ve been on a 12 hour notice. I guess this is the longest I’ve gone without any writing since I was sixteen. I’m getting very itchy ... Max Wagner is drafted and goes in Tuesday. I’m getting lonesome. Some fine morning I’m going to throw out the beautiful speeches about how I can do better work than carry- ing a gun and go down town and enlist. As a matter of fact I’m not bad with a gun and for my age I think I’d make a pretty good soldier … He continues shortly thereafter: Nothing is settled but a lot of wheels are in motion. Gen. Arnold’s office wired the draft board and I haven’t heard yet how they ruled. As to the other thing Laurence and all the others in that outfit were marvelous. I think they will really run it down. It isn’t a charge it is just a question and apparently it scared everyone so much that they would have nothing to do with it. My answer to the question ’do you drink?’ was ’not nearly as much as General Grant.’ Anyway we thrashed things out and maybe something can come of it ... I really don’t care whether I’m drafted or not. Ed Ricketts is at Fed One and Bill Saroyan and Max Wagner. I would like being with them …“ Then the news comes and he writes, in disgust and amazement: I’m keeping you posted because this whole career is becoming more fantastic every moment. If I live I shall write it some day. Yesterday I had a letter from Headquarters. Gen. Arnold has ordered the historical section [of the Air Force] set up and has ordered me processed as quickly as possible. In the

 Autographs & Manuscripts Catalogue 105

same mail a letter about my draft status. The board has denied headquarters MF request for my deferment on the grounds that I write trash and they cannot see how it can possibly benefit the army. Consequently they are clas- sifying me ’P’ for about two weeks and then I.A. Isn’t that wonderful? My draft board has become a literary critic. So it looks as though it would be a photo finish and don’t take any bets. The amusing thing is that last night I refused a Lieutenant Command in the navy to be accomplished immediately. This processing will probably be delayed as everything else is. I have a means of knowing before the board calls me and if everything has failed I’ll go down and enlist just to rob these malicious men of their little triumphs. I have become so much amused by the spectacle that it doesn’t seem to be hap- pening to me at all. One of the board members ran against my father for Co Treasurer and lost and has never forgiven us. And one of them had to put in toilets for his farm workers because of the Grapes of Wrath. My sins are coming home to roost. That’s the latest in my war with the U.S. As the affair drags on, he writes, in February of 1943: “I’m pretty fatalistic now about all things military …” and, My army career seems to be blasted. I guess I’ve really been blackballed. And every time something else is about ready to break the boss of it goes on leave, is transferred or is sent overseas. So I still don’t know what I’m going to do. Finished the Lifeboat story and am taking a little rest and loving it. The whole army business is fantastic beyond belief … It is incredible. I know pretty much the whole thing now and it does not make me happy about the future. In fact it is shivery with malice and evil planning …

sonnet on death and eternity by the king of bohemia, george sterling 153. STERLING, George. Autograph Manuscript, Signed, 14-line rhymed sonnet entitled “The Messenger”, apparently unpublished. One page, pen and ink, with 6 corrections in the author’s hand. 4to, N.p., n.d. Old folds, else fine in half morocco clamshell box. $750 A fine manuscript sonnet by George Sterling (1869-1926), American bohemian poet championed by Bierce, on a characteristically dark theme, and yet with transcendent, cosmic imagery. Apparently unpublished, and not corresponding in any way to the published poem of the same title from 1918. A 14-line rhymed sonnet, beginning: “What year and month, what day and quiet hour, / Shall you, dear Earth, fade finally to me? / Will that farewell be spoken by the sea, / Or in a peaceful valley’s orchard-bow’r, / Or where the granite eagle eyries tow’r / Above the marvel of Yosemite ? . . . Where alien moons and stranger planets shine . . .”

 James Cummins Bookseller

carnegie hall stravinsky program, signed by the composer 154. (STRAVINSKY, Igor). Carnegie Hall Program, signed by Igor Stravinsky, of the New York Philharmonic, under the direction of Igor Stravinsky in an All-Stravinsky program. 10H x 7 inches, New York, Al- fred Scott Publisher, 1945. First edition. Original self-wrappers, in fine condition. $1,000 Boldly signed by Stravinsky on the front cover under his photograph. It was at this concert that Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements, dedicated to the Philharmonic, was first performed.

155. STURGEON, Theodore. Eden Again [Published title: Venus Plus X]. Carbon Typescript of his novel. 230, [3] pp. 4to, [New York], June 1960. Some wrinkling to first leaf, a few old stains, otherwise fine. $3,500 With a note across the first leaf in ball-point pen: ‘Re-titled (by Pyramid) “Ve- nus + X” Published Sept 1960’ and signed by the author (“Theodore Stur- geon”).

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Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985), prolific short story writer, frequently ex- plored gender issues in his fiction. Venus Plus X recounts the arrival of Charlie Johns in a society of hermaphrodites. In the postscript, Sturgeon writes, “It was my aim in writing Eden Again a) to write a decent book b) about sex.”

156. SULLY, Thomas. Autograph Letter, signed (“Thos Sully”) to [Lewis Jacob] Cist, noted autograph collector. One page. 8vo, Philadel- phia, May 1, 1865. In slipcase. Fine. $400 Thomas Sully (1783-1872) emigrated from England at the age of 9 and grew up in Charleston. He learned painting from his brother Lawrence (whose widow he subsequently married), and from his brother-in-law Jean Belzons; he later studied with Benjamin West in London. He moved to various locations, settling in Philadelphia in 1808, where he quickly became its leading portrait painter, a position he held until his death.

“at three in the morning and that is always a mournful time” 157. TAFT, William H. Autograph Letter, signed (“Wm H Taft”), to Col. Archibald Gracie. 2 pp., 20 lines, in ink, on a bifolium of White House stationery. 8vo, Washington, D.C, Dec. 4, 1912. Fine. With an engraved portrait of Taft. Custom morocco backed clamshell box. $4,500 Taft writes a letter offering consolation to Col. Archibald Gracie, “I am very sorry to hear that you are not well and that you are heavy hearted with the

 James Cummins Bookseller prospect. I beg of you to take heart. You wrote at three in the morning and that is always a mournful time but it comes only a short time before sunrise and the morning …” Taft could not know it when he wrote his letter, but Gracie died the same day. Col. Archibald Gracie (1859-1912), member of a prominent New York family whose ancestral home is the official residence of the Mayor of New York City, was a friend of Theodore Roosevelt and well known to Taft, who as Roos- evelt’s Secretary of War had authorized Gracie to draw upon official archives in preparation of his book The Truth about Chickamauga (1911). But Gracie is chiefly remembered as the heroic survivor of the Titanic sinking, the man who superintended the evacuation of scores of passengers into lifeboats and actually went down when the ship sank. Gracie floated free and found himself near a life raft, eventually helping some thirty men on board the leaky craft. They survived several hours knee deep in icy water, and were picked up by the Carpathia. Gracie, who had traveled to Europe to regain his health after an operation, never fully recovered from the shock of the ordeal. He spent the months after the sinking in correspondence with other survivors, and his manuscript The Truth about the Titanic was published by Mitchell Ken- nerley in early 1913. A moving letter. taft on lincoln 158. TAFT, William H. Typed Quotation, signed (“Wm. H Taft”) as President, an extract from his Address at the Dedication of a Statue to Abraham Lincoln at Frankfort, Kentucky, November 8, 1911. 20-line quotation, typed, signed in black ink. 8vo, [Washington, D.C., 1911]. Old folds. Fine. Custom morocco backed clamshell box. $750 Signed extract from Taft’s speech dedicating a statue to Abraham Lincoln in Frankfort, Kentucky: The South knows, as the North knows now, that there is no soul that unites them in perfect amity like that of Abraham Lincoln. The South knows, as the North knows, that every Administration that removes another cause of misunderstanding between the sections, or that brings them closer together in any way, is acting under the inspiration of him who could love his entire country with undiminished ardor when nearly one-half was seeking to destroy its integrity. Here, then, at a place that knew battle, that knew family dissension, that knew bloody conflict, that represented in the sharpest and crudest way a division of the sections; here, now that perfect peace and amity and harmony prevail, let this memorial be dedicated as typical of the love which he, in whose memory it is reared, maintained for all Americans, with a kindly, fatherly patience that has no counterpart since Bethlehem. [With:] a typed letter, signed, on White House stationery, from Charles D. Hills, secretary to the President, 8 December 1911, conveying the extracts from recent addresses that Taft had autographed.

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159. TANNER, Henry Ossawa. Autograph Letter, signed (“H.O. Tanner”), to “Mr. Morris”. One page, in ink. 8vo, Grand Hotel Rouget, Martigues [France], Feb. 11th 1906. Somewhat faded and slightly soiled; a few small marginal tears; docketed in pencil “2/26/1907.” Laid into a quarter brown morocco drop box. $2,500 Tanner (1859-1937), the Pittsburgh-born son of a bishop of the African Meth- odist Episcopal Church, was the first important Afro-American painter, and the first to achieve international acclaim. He studied under Thomas Eakins when, thanks to Eakins’s enlightened attitude, Philadelphia was the leading center of minority artists in the United States, and later in Paris where his work won many awards. In France he became a knight of the Legion of Honor, and was elected to America’s National Academy in 1909. His specialty was Biblical subjects, rendered naturalistically and with much feeling: his “So- dom and Gomorrah” is in New York’s Metropolitan Museum. He also painted landscapes and genre scenes: his canvas “The Banjo Lesson”, painted ca. 1893 after he moved permanently to Paris, and now in the Hampton University Museum, Hampton, Virginia, is considered by many to be his masterpiece. It is realistic, direct, emotionally moving without a trace of the usual sticky sentimentality of similar scenes by other, lesser, American artists. Writing from France, which he was to make his homeland, Tanner’s letter reads: “... The last day for the Salon is (I hear) from the 15th to 20 of Mars, so that there will not be much time to spare after the close of the Academy Exhibition. I feel sure I can count upon the picture being sent on promptly as possible. I have written to Mr. (Lewis Rodman) Wanamaker* that if he should think there was any chance of sale of Christ in Temple to hold the picture in America. So that should he send you word to that effect you will please only send the other & leave the ’Temple picture.” *Son of the department stored founder, John Wanamaker, and the art patron who sponsored Tanner’s tour of the Holy Land to provide him with back- ground for his Biblical subjects.

“old rough and ready” 160. TAYLOR, Zachary (1784-1850). Autograph closing, “Very re- spectfully/ Sir/ Your obt. Servt./ Z. Taylor, Majr Genl./ U.S. Army”. With engraved portrait by H.W. Smith. N.p, n.d. [after 1846]. Laid into blue cloth chemise. Fine. $1,500 Taylor (1784-1850), 12th President of the United States (from March 4, 1849, to July 9, 1850) was promoted to the rank of Major-General during the action in South Texas in 1846.

 James Cummins Bookseller

“the only slang phrase i ever invented ...” 161. THURBER, James. Typed Letter, signed (“Jim”), to Liz Riley of the Thomas Crowell Company, thanking her for the new Dictionary of Slang. One page. 8H x 11, New York, Algonquin Hotel, 59 West 44th Street, 1960. A few minor smudges from the original typewriter, original folds, a few pinholes upper left, but very nice overall. $2,500 A marvelous note from the Master:

“Dear Liz: I am glad indeed to have the new Dictionary of Slang and thanks for sending it along. Maybe it contains — it’s up in Cornwall waiting for us — the origin of the only slang phrase I ever invented: I have to see a man about a dog. Cordially yours, [signed “Jim”] James Thurber.”

from prison to his “only family” 162. TILDEN, William T. Autograph Letter, signed (“Bill”), to Mrs. Marrion Anderson and her son Arthur (“Bratto”). 1H pages in pencil on single sheet of ruled paper. 5 x 8 inches, Saugus, Calif (“Barracks 19”), c. 22 August, 1949. With accompanying envelope addressed in Tilden’s hand, postmarked Aug, 22, 1949. $1,250 A touching letter from the 56-year-old Tilden, the greatest tennis player of the first half of the twentieth century, then recently incarcerated for a second of- fense on charges of stemming from his homosexual encounters with young boys. Tilden writes from prison to his closest friends Marrion and her son Arthur Anderson, a young tennis player whom Tilden had adopted as his protégé and pupil. According to Frank Deford, in Big Bill Tilden, Tilden actually lived with the Andersons twice for an extended period, and “The Andersons truly loved him. Many times he said to Marrion, ‘You know, Arthur’s the only real son I ever had.’ And to Arthur, ‘You and your mother are the only close family I ever had.’” The Andersons never deserted Tilden, even in this, his darkest hour. Tilden writes: Dear Marrion and Bratto, Just to tell you how much I enjoyed the visit today ... Next Friday is Bratto’s birthday & since I have no hope of being with you then, please Marrion, even if the car is his present, give him $10 out of my money, with my love, and see he gets something he wants ...” Tilden then turns to Arthur with tennis advice: “Now Bratto, Pal, remember all we talked about today, to play cool, intelligent mixed tennis, not to rush and to return service. This is only to let you know I am thinking of you and love you both very much & I’ll be seeing you Sunday if not before. Always & ever, Your Bill. According to Deford, Tilden was released on December 18, 1949, just a few days before the Associated Press poll of the half-century voted Bill Tilden “the greatest athlete in his sport by a margin larger than any other — Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Bobby Jones, Red Grange. Of them all, Tilden was voted the most dominant ...

 Autographs & Manuscripts Catalogue 105

“what a pack of lies that was …” 163. TRUMAN, Harry S. Typed Letter, signed as President (“Harry Truman”), to House Representative Overton Brooks, Democrat from Louisiana, regarding Treasury Secretary John Ryder. One page, on White House stationery. 8vo, Washington, D.C, Aoril 28, 1948. Fine, in cloth folder; with envelope. $1,000 A characteristically blunt letter from the 33rd President of the United States, in defense of his cabinet appointee, John W. Snyder, who was a close personal friend: “… I appreciated very highly your letter of the twenty-third in regard to your visit with the Secretary of the Treasury at Shreveport. I’ve always known the Secretary for what he is but he was misrepresented by the colum- nists and press people here. The regular people are just beginning to find out what a pack of lies that was …”

“ i don’t know where to turn to the meet the situation …” 164. ______. Typed Letter, signed as Senator from Missouri, responding to a request for aid from an office-seeker in Ohio. One page, on letterhead of the United States Senate. 4to, Washington, D.C, February 10, 1942. Fine. In half morocco clamshell box. $500 “Replying to your letter … the agencies that are being removed from Wash- ington all get their personnel through the Civil Service Commission, and I am afraid there is no way in which I can help you make a connection with one of

 James Cummins Bookseller them. If you are not in dire need of a position, I suggest that you offer your services in connection with local civilian defense activities. I have received ap- plications from hundreds of people who are almost at the starving stage, and I don’t where to turn to the meet the situation …”

“it will be a long time before they can go to work on me …” 165. TRUMAN, Harry S. Typed letter, signed, to Morgan Moulder, U.S. Representative from Missouri. One page on personal letterhead. 8vo, Independence, Missouri, February 13, 1963. Fine, in cloth folder. $1,250 A remarkably prescient sentiment from this former President, who, when he left office in 1953, was one of the most unpopular chief executives in history, with a job approval rating of 22 percent in the Gallup Poll of February 1952 — even lower than that of Richard Nixon’s when he resigned. “… You know, I think they are a little previous in their judgment. You never can tell what the record of a President is going to be until he has been dead ten years. I hope to live ten more, so it will be a long time before they can go to work on me …” Truman died in 1972, and his reputation among historians has steadily risen ever since.

valéry portrait with commentary 166. VALÉRY, Paul. Autograph Note, signed (“Paul Valéry”), beneath a pen-and-ink portrait of him by the artist “Tery.” Signed beneath the sketch and dated “oct – 34.”. 9I x 6K, N.p. [France?], 1934. Very good. In customer half brown morocco clamshell box. $750 Superb likeness of the poet (1871-1945) whom many rank among the greatest of the 20th century, wittily inscribed by the poet himself (translated): “Here’s a ’me’ in an astonishingly rapid and lively execution — the likeness is excellent. The artist has granted me a youthfulness which I would like to take away from this sitting.”

“… an army ridiculously small & without provisions” 167. VARNUM, James Mitchel. Autograph Letter, signed (“JM Varnum”), to General [Nathaniel] Greene. One page. Folio, Scituate [Rhode Island] “at Genl [Ezekial] Cornell’s”, 19 May, 1780. Docketed on verso “Gen. Varnum”. Silked. $2,000 James M. Varnum (1748-1789) was an eminent Rhode Island lawyer, a General during the Revolutionary War, and later (1780-1782; and 1787), a representative to the Continental Congress. Here, Varnum writes to his friend and fellow Rhode Islander, General Nathanael Greene, who at the time was Quarter- master General of a most poorly equipped army. Varnum writes from the

 Autographs & Manuscripts Catalogue 105 home of his fellow Congressman from Rhode Island, Ezekial Cornell: “… I should find you an arrangement of the State agreeable to my late Promise; but Genl Cornell will inform you — I am told that Col. Sherburne’s Battal- ion is reduced. ’Twould be wrong that a Gentleman of his merit should be neglected. A Place, in which he could move with great Propriety strikes my mind. Infinite are the disadvantages we labor under in the West Indies, in Point of Commerce: a Consul of Address and mercantile Abilities would infalibly [sic] remove them — the Sachem, in my humble Opinion, is well calculated for that Office. Your influence will greatly serve a common Friend; particularly, by interesting, if possible. Genl Washington so far as to write Congress upon the Subject — — I can’t tell you anything new; but assure you Charlestown will be reduced by the first of June. — Write me when you can, and tell me, in the strongest terms. that you are connected with an Army ridiculously small & without Provisions.”

“keep this to yourself for he was not of the same color” 168. (WASHINGTON, Booker T.) Goggin, William J. Autograph Letter, signed (“WJ Goggin”), to Virginia historian, Henry S. Rorer*. 2H pp. in pencil, on two ruled sheets of writing paper. 12mo, Vinton, Va., 9 March 1927. Slight toning, folded for mailing, but overall quite good. With envelope, typed address to “Henri S. Rorer / Maury High School / Norfolk, / Virginia.” $1,500 Remarkable and touching letter on Booker T. Washington‘s origins from a man whose wife taught WAshington to read:

 James Cummins Bookseller

Yours to hand and contents noted in reply will say that Booker was born the slave of James Burroughs and was about 10 years old when he was freed by the result of the war between the States. His mother was the slave of the same man her husband belonged to one of near neighbors by the name Ferguson but was not Booker’s father Booker’s father name was Ferguson keep this to your self for he was not of the same color) My first wife daughter of the said James Burroughs learned Booker his abc and Book[er] always said he was Miss Ellen’s negro. The husband of his mother was hired at Kasionva [?] salt works when freed, sent here for his family whitch [sic] con- sisted of one other son named John who was black and if living is connected with the scool [sic] at Tuskegee. Booker visited Va several years ago attended the Roanoke fair made fine speech from there he went to the place of his birth and some 1500 people met him there and heard him speak. Looked around the premises the only thing he could recognize was one rose bush in the yard everything had been changed. On that bush was one bud plucked it and went to the old man Burrough’s grave layed [sic] it on the tombstone remarking at the time a good old man. *Author of History of the Norfolk Public Schools, 1681-1968 (Norfolk, 1968).

on lyman cobb: “i am told he was addicted to lying ...” 169. WEBSTER, Noah. Autograph Letter, signed (“N Webster”) to Henry Henrick, newspaper editor in Knoxville, attacking Lyman Cobb. 1H pp. 4to, New Haven, Oct. 26 1836. With integral blank, addressed and postmarked on verso. Minor soiling, remains of seal, old folds; very good. Housed in a custom morocco-backed folding case. $4,000 Webster thanks Henrick, evidently editor of a newspaper in Knoxville, for in- serting Webster’s “Caution” about the pirated Speller circulating in the mar-

 Autographs & Manuscripts Catalogue 105 ket, then turning to the career of his arch-rival in the battle over the American Speller, Lyman Cobb. Webster pours out his feelings: … He is an extraordinary man. His history is shortly thus. He was a poor boy in Lenox, Mass. Mr. Kamlin the printer here was in school with him. He afterwards lived with a Mr. Bosworth of Albany, as a menial, but I am told he was addicted to lying for which he was flogged. He thus ran away & the first thing Bosworth heard form him was, he had made a Spelling Book. It seems he went westward & kept school, then in Walker’s Diction- ary adopted his plan of spelling & pronunciation. After he published his Sp Book, he attacked MINE, marked every thing in which I differ from Walker, published a long series of papers against me, first in an Albany paper, then in a pamphlet, which he sent by mail into all quarters. When my Diction- ary appeared, he again wrote against me in a New York paper, finding fault with my discrepancies of orthography, published a pamphlet which you have doubtless seen ... In his book as many plagiarisms form my dictionary, as there are in his little reticule. As for the battle between Cobb’ Speller and Webster’s, according to Morgan in Noah Webster (1975), p. 190, “Although Cobb did not surrender, he had to fight a long retreat, and Webster’s book ultimately won the war …”

completed nonno poem from iguana 170. WILLIAMS, Tennesse. Typescript of corrected dialogue for Night of the Iguana. 14 lines, on verso of a sheet of printed letterhead of the Erawan Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand. 4to, [New York, ca. 1962?]. Cor- rections for the dialogue between the characters Nonno and Miss Jelkes in the play, beginning with the poem recited by Nonno “Love’s an Old Remembered Song/A drunken fiddler plays …” $1,750 According to the Introduction to Plays 1957-1980 (Library of America, 1987), “The Night of the Iguana was first performed as a one-act play in Spoleto, Italy, on July 2, 1959 ... Over the next two years, The Night of the Iguana became a full-length play, and it was staged in two different versions by Corsaro in fall 1959 and summer 1960. Williams continued to expand and revise the play for the New York production by the Actors Studio, also directed by Corsaro, that opened on December 28, 1961...” The final version of the play (as printed by New Directions, 1962) varies from this fragment of the scene in Act Two when Nonno (“our oldest living poet”) recites the poem beginning “Love’s an old remembered song ...”. In this version, possibly an insert from Williams during the New York run of 1961-62, includes the complete second stanza of the poem, and ends with the direction: “(His memory fails him again.)----- Follow script from here.”

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 Autographs & Manuscripts Catalogue 105

“the moss covered bucket which hung in the well …” 171. WOODWORTH, Samuel. Fair Manuscript Copy of “The Old Oaken Bucket”. 1 1/2 pp. pen and ink on folding sheet. With printed business card of “J.W. Jarvis, No 8 Lispenard St. New York” affixed to blank page and “Song. Jarvis” noted in ink on last page. 8vo, n.p. [New York], n.d. [ca. 1818 or later]. Creased, with some loss, fold reinforced, edgewear, glue stains, still a very good, readable copy. In custom folding box. $1,000 Holograph fair copy of Woodworth’s classic, “The Old Oaken Bucket,” a nos- talgic lament for the lost joys childhood, written out for American painter John Wesley Jarvis. We find no copies at auction of any Woodworth autograph material. With lithograph portrait of Woodworth by T.H. Morrell, 1872.

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ADDENDA

cardozo just before nomination: “to be transformed pretty soon into a greek god” A1. CARDOZO, Benjamin Nathan. Autograph Letter, signed (“Ben- jamin N. Cardozo”), to George A. Kohut, regarding his imminent nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. 4 pp. 12mo, Sixteen West Seventy- fifth Street, New York: January 23, 1932. Half morocco folding case. Cf. Andrew L. Kaufman, Cardozo (1998), pp. 455-71. $2,500 Beloved George Kohut, I don’t know how to answer your letter. It moves me deeply. I find that I am rapidly developing into a myth. If I were not a Jew, I should expect to be transformed pretty soon into a Greek God. It is hard to make people believe me, but I prefer my present office to a place on the Supreme Court, though I might find myself forced to accept promo- tion if offered to me … the best thing about the agitation is that it gives me an insight into the devotion of my friends. After Justice Holmes submitted his resignation to Hoover in early January 1932, “newspapers begn reporting that Cardozo’s name was under consideration to take Holmes’s place. … Cardozo was featured so prominently that by January 22 Mark Sullivan wrote in his syndicated column that the ‘universal- ity of the applause for Judge Cardozo constitutes a unique condition, almost a phenomenon’” (Kaufman). That day, too, Cardozo delivered a lecture on Jurisprudence before the New York State Bar Association in which he argued against neorealist interpretations of the law, too rigid adherence to the dogma of precedent, and an exaggerated view of the indeterminacy of legal principles. Cardozo’s apointment was widely hailed, and the Senate hearing on his appointment was brief. He was confirmed without discussion or objection on 24 February 1932. The recipient, George Kohut (1874-1933) was a writer, educator, and bibliog- rapher, and a close friend of Cardozo’s friend and correspondent Rabbi Ste- phen Wise.

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america the beautiful — a manuscript A2. BATES, Katherine Lee. Autograph manuscript, signed (“Kather- ine Lee Bates”), fair copy, of “America the Beautiful”. Four stanzas of eight lines each, in ink, on verso of stationery of Wellesley College, Dept. of English Literature, signed at bottom. 4to (11 x 7-3/4 inches), N.p. [Wellesley, Mass.?]: n.d. [. Some toning to the verso, old folds, small closed tear long fold. In blue quarter morocco slipcase. $25,000 In 1893, a young professor of English literature from Wellesley College, Kath- erine Lee Bates, penned the lyrics to what was to become one of America’s most famous patriotic anthems. Originally written while teaching a summer session at Colorado College, Bates’ poem was first entitled “Pike’s Peak”, and first appeared in a publication called The Congregationalist on July 4, 1895. Bates revised the lyrics in 1904 for a version published that year in The Boston Evening Transcript; final revisions were made in 1913. When set to music by Samuel A. Ward and published in 1910, it was entitled “America the Beautiful”, and its popularity has grown ever since. It has been proposed as a replacement of “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the national anthem, and although such efforts have never succeeded, the popularity and esteem it has enjoyed for over a hundred years given it a permanent place of honor in the national memory. Famously, Marian Anderson chose to sing a version of “America the Beautiful” on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, after being denied the use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Katherine Lee Bates, an ardent feminist, poet, educator and scholar, taught at Wellesley College from 1893 until 1925, and this transcript of America’s “second” National Anthem, is appropriately transcribed on letterhead of Wellesley College, Department of English Literature. (See illustration on following page)

A3. (BEARDSLEY, Aubrey) Hawker, W.L., photographer. Cabinet card photograph of Aubrey Beardsley, reading at his desk. Albumen print photograph mounted on cabinet card, embossed with photographer’s name at base of card. 5 3/4 x 3 3/4 in, Bournemouth: n.d. [ca. 1897]. Light staining to photo and mount, photo faded, lower left corner of mount damaged. Verso of mount shows signs of having been removed from an album. Docketted on verso with photographer’s name. $7,500 Cabinet card photograph of Beardsley, seated at his desk in Bournemouth, were he had retreated in December 1896 to recover his health. Inscribed “a mon ami / Pollitt / from / Aubrey / Beardsley.” H.C. Jerome Pollitt (1871-1942), friend and collector of Beardsley’s work (the artist designed Pollitt’s bookplate), was an amateur female impersonator, performing under the name Diane de Rougy. While at Cambridge he had an affair

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 Autographs & Manuscripts Catalogue 105 with the younger, and then unknwon, Aleister Crowley, who would immor- talize Pollitt in The Scented Garden of Abdullah the Satirist. Crowley later wrote, “I lived with Pollitt as his wife for some six months and he made a poet out of me.” Pollitt was also the model for Benson’s The Babe, B.A. and was painted by Whistler.

 James Cummins Bookseller

A4. CLEMENS, Samuel Langhorne [Mark Twain, pseud.]. Photo- graph of Clemens, seated in white suit, shaking the hand of a standing dark-haired man with moustache, inscribed “To Friend Richards, by Mark Twain, June 19 /07.”. 7 x 9 inches, [Southampton]: 19 June 1907. Matted and framed to 11 x 14 inches. Machlis, Union Catalogue of Clemens Letters 09225. Provenance: Robert K. Black; Stanley Becker. $5,500 A distinctive photograph of a seated Clemens with a burning cigar in his left hand, glaring at the camera and firmly shaking the hand of the other figure in the scene, a tall young man with dark hair and moustache in a dark suit. This study in contrasting types is boldly inscribed in ink “To Friend Richards, by Mark Twain, June 19 /07.” In June 1907, Clemens was in England to receive an honorary doctorate from Oxford. He wrote one of his correspondents, Moberly Bell of the Time of London, “I shall plan to sail for England a shade before the middle of June, so that I can have a few days in London before the 26th” (the 26th refers to the date of the Oxford ceremony). Clemens sailed from New York on the Minne- apolis on 8 June, and arrived on the 18th. He shared newspaper headlines with the theft of the gold cup of the Ascot Stakes. This photograph was plainly taken upon his arrival at Southampton and signed the next day. The recipient remains unidentified. It was Clemens’ last trip to England. (See illustration on rear cover)

A5. GORDON, Charles G. “Chinese Gordon.” Autograph Letter, signed (“C.G. Gordon”), to Captain Murray, about his experiences during his return to China. 4 pp. 8vo, At Sea: July 17, 1880. Old fold lines, pinhole at one old corner. Very good. Cloth folding box, morocco spine label. $2,500 “Chinese” Gordon (1833-1885) was the young hero of the Chinese campaigns of the early 1860s who went on to a career by turns distinguished, controversial, and disastrous. He rocketed to fame in China: This unorthodox warfare, combined with the ascendancy which Gor- don established over his men, enabled him to crush the rebellion in eigh- teen months. On 11 May 1864 he achieved his final triumph by storming Changchow (Zhangzhou). His total irreverence for age or position, and his supercilious indifference to his official superiors, date from the period of these precocious victories in China. In Britain the popular reputation of Chinese Gordon, as henceforth he was widely known, was enhanced by the knowledge that he had spent his pay on the comfort of his troops, and had declined munificent gifts from the emperor before leaving China (he received, however, the highest Chinese military rank together with the right to wear the yellow jacket) (ANB). In June 1880, having resigned after very brief service as secretary to the Viceroy

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 James Cummins Bookseller of India, Gordon travelled to China, despite official disapproval; “he helped to avert a rebellion against the central government, which he then cajoled into abandoning its warlike preparations against Russia. During a brief visit to Pe- king he offended both mandarins and foreign officials.” His letter, dated 17 July 1880, reports a quick passage aboard the Ravenna to Shanghai, where he stayed with a Mr. Hart. “I turned up my trousers & in pouring rain went alone over all the old places which I with difficulty recognized, so greatly changed is the place. I then looked up the few of my old friends who are left. The world had been hard on some of them. Some of my old soldiers & interpreters came to see me, but I recognized them not, though I was as civil as I could be. They presented the full worn faces, when I remembered thin youthful faces. This made me feel as if I had risen from the dead & come back into life here … As for expecting to do anything to benefit the Chinese, I do not think it. They, like all of us, must go thro’ the Mill of Life. Things with them are much as I expected. Possessing foreign vessels they think they have a fleet! Possessing foreign arms they think they have an army!” An outstanding autograph letter from one of the legendary figures of nineteenth century British military history. Gordon letters with Chinese content are rare. (See illustration on previous page)

napoleon, 24 years old A6. NAPOLÉON. Manuscript Document, signed (“Buonaparte”), as “Général de l’artillerie de l’armée d’Italie”, ordering a soldier to rejoin to his company. One page, in ink. 4to, Nice: “le 23 Ventose, l’an 2 de la République” [March 13,1794]. Slightly soiled, but very good. $4,000 Extremely early document by Napoleon (1769-1821) at the beginning of one of the most astonishing military careers ever record. written when he was 24 years old, flush from his victory at Toulon, and recently promoted from artillery captain to général de brigade. (See illustration on following page)

napoleon in egypt A7. NAPOLÉON. Letter signed (“Bonaparte”) to a subordinate, regarding the economic interests of the Mamelukes. One page, on letterhead of “Bonaparte, Général en chef ”; docketed by Napoleon “Interêts des mameloucks dans le commerce“. Cairo: le 4 vendemiaire an 7 de la république [25 September, 1798]. Slight soiling, but handsomely matted and framed. $3,750 Remarkable letter from Egypt, where Napoleon’s army had recently fought and defeated an army of 25,000 Mameluk soldiers, thus successfully consoli- dating French power in Egypt. Uprisings , however, were a constant threat, and this brief letter shows Napoleon‘s interest in appeasing the Beys. In translation: “I am sending you, citizen, a variety of facts concerning the interests which various traders have with the Beys …”  Autographs & Manuscripts Catalogue 105

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A8. SMITH, Samuel F. Autograph Manuscript, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” signed (“S.F. Smith. Written in 1832. Nov. 8, 1892.”). Fair Copy of the four stanzas of “America.” 2pp. On lined paper. 8vo, Some old wrinkling, minor toning, else about fine. In quarter morocco slipcase. $2,500 Samuel Francis Smith (1808-1895), editor, Baptist clergyman, and author. While a seminarian, Smith was asked by his friend Lowell Mason, an early proponent of common school music education, either to translate the lyrics of some German songbooks into English or to supply new lyrics for the tunes.One such song, at the time unknown to Smith as the tune to the British anthem ‘God Save the King,’ was the basis of what became one of the most famous of Ameri- can national hymns: “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee.” Originally five stanzas, the third was eventually removed to leave the four stanzas known today. Written in thirty minutes and stored away in a desk drawer for months before it was finally sent to Mason, the song was premiered on 4 July 1831 at a children’s celebration in the Park Street Church of Boston. First published by Mason in The Choir (1832), it was published again four years later in The Boston Academy under its most widely known title, ‘America’ … often considered the second national anthem of the United States” (ANB).

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SUBJECT INDEX numbers refer to catalogue item number

Americana 6, 14, 36, 55, 98, 104, French 6, 7, 100, 166 108, A2, A8 Aviation 142 Afro-American Hist 23, 45, 83, Bindings 96, 159, 168 American 125 Civil War 8, 9, 40, 51, 87, 101, Books & Printing 102, 113, 114 Bibliography 55 Constitution 10, 17, 23 Book Trade History 55 Delaware 11 Canadiana 56, 91 Harvard 45, 97 Economics 140 Illinois 23, 84 Economics Indiana 78 Financiers 27, 40 Kentucky 30 Labor 13 Massachusetts 45. 93, 104 Political Theory 148 Mexican-American War 40 Extra-Illustrated 102 New Jersey 108 History Ohio 61, 114 British 20, 50, 122, A5 Politics 16, 84, 120, 129 Diplomacy 120 Presidential 1, 9, 11, 30, 31, 35, French 37, 53, 59 40, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, Mexico/Central America 40 57, 61, 62, 63, 65, 66, 67, 75, 77, 78, Military 133 79, 87, 88, 89, 90, 93, 94, 98, 101, Napoleon 123, A6, A7 102, 113, 114, 115, 116, 124, 129, Naval 39, 65 130, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, Spanish 111 141, 142, 143, 145, 157, 158, 160, WW I 109, 143 163, 164, 165 WW II 24, 37, 93, 122, 135, 152 Revolutionary 17, 19, 25, 167 Judaica 13, A1 Rhode Island 167 Language & Dictionaries 1, 161, Slavery / Abolition 150 169 Spanish-American War 39 Law A1 Tennessee 19 Anglo-American 72 Texas 41, 146 Constitutional 17 Virginia 160 Literature War of 1812 95 American 2, 3, 4, 12, 28, 29, 36, Washington D.C 11 41, 42, 43, 57, 67, 71, 80, 81, 83, Western 86 104, 105, 105, 106, 112, 113, 117, Yale 83 118, 128, 146, 151, 152, 155, 161, Architecture 170, 171, A4 Landscape 20 Biography 74 Art British 18, 38, 54, 56, 76, 110 American 15, 16, 74, 121, 131, Detective Fiction 60 132, 134, 156, 159 French 26, 32, 34, 149, 166 Book Illustration 131, 132 Italy 147  James Cummins Bookseller

Poetry 42, 57, 63, 112, 117, 153 Equal Rights 4 Romanticism 33 Suffrage 4, 21, A2 Science Fiction/Fantasy 110, 155 Shakespeare 101 South-American 125 Medicine 103, 144 Nursing 8 Music 14, 34, 95, 108, 111, 154, A2, A8 Jazz 73 Opera 127 Natural History Entomology 118 Zoology 126 Nobel Prize 26 Performing Arts 58, 85, 101 Broadway Musical 64, 68 Cinema 28, 82, 130 Circus 5 Dance 119 Theater 44, 82, 118 Philosophy 149 American 147, 148 Photography 9, 91, 99, 105, 107, A3, A4 PMM Books 56 Science 36 Atomic Energy 97 Chemistry 97 Sporting Angling 31 Tennis 162 Time-Life, Inc 94, 107 Travel & Exploration Africa 18 China 29, A5 Middle East 13 Pacific 71 Shipwrecks 109 South America 69 Submarine Exploration 133 West Indies 70 Women 8, 9, 18, 29, 53, 54, 82, 92, 100, 113, 125, 135

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