JAMES S. JAFFE RARE Books RARE Books & MANUSCRIPTS
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James s. Jaffe · RaRe Books and manuscRipts · new YoRk James Jaffe Ra 10065 s k . R w Yo e n , R e k Books · 790 R w Yo e n Ja m e s s. Jaffe m a dison ite 605 · R a R e B o o k s u s • a v enue · enue · v a R a R e Books s u ite 605 · dison & m a n u s cR i p t s a m n e w Yo R Books · 790 k e R , n e w Yo R . k s 10065 James Jaffe Ra k R o Y new · pts i R manusc and Books e R . s James Ra · Jaffe Ja m e s s. Jaffe R a R e B o o k s • R a R e B o o k s & m a n u s c R i p t s 790 madison avenue · suite 605 new York, new York 10065 Tel: 212 988-8042 · fax: 212 988-8044 e-mail: [email protected] website: www.jamesjaffe.com ¶a ll items are offered subject to prior sale.a ll books and manuscripts have been carefully described; however, any item is understood to be sent on approval and may be returned within seven days of receipt for any reason provided prior notification has been given. ¶ Libraries will be billed to suit their budgets. we accept visa, mastercard and american express. new York residents must pay appropriate sales tax. ¶ visitors are welcome monday through friday and by appointment. although we keep regular office hours, it is advisable to call in advance. ¶ we welcome offers of rare books and manuscripts, original photographs and prints, and art and artifacts of literary and historical interest. we will be pleased to execute bids at auction on behalf of our customers. ¶ digital images of items in this catalogue are available upon request. member: Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America International League of Antiquarian Booksellers . 1 AMMONS, a. R. Ommateum with Doxology. small 8vo, original salmon cloth, dust jacket. philadelphia: dorrance & co., (1955). first edition of ammons’ rare first book.o ne of 300 copies printed, of which only 100 were bound. wright A1. according to his close friend, the poet david Lehman, “ammons published Ommateum, his first book, at his own expense in 1955; sixteen copies were sold in the next five years.” a very fine copy, essentially as new. $3500.00 2. [antHoLoGY]. GRaves, Robert, editor. The Owl: A Miscel- lany. No. 1. May, 1919. f olio, illustrated, original pictorial wrappers. London: martin secker, 1919. first edition. one of 24 special copies signed by many of the contributors, a few of the signatures pasted in as issued, including max Beerbohm, Randolph caldecott, John Galswor- thy, Robert Graves, Thomas Hardy, eric kennington, John masefield, nancy nicholson, Robert nichols, william orpen, siegfried sassoon, w.J. turner, among others (but not t. e. Lawrence). a very good copy, preserved in a half-morocco folding box. $1750.00 3. [antHoLoGY]. mcaLmon, Robert, editor. Contact Collection of Contemporary Writers. 8vo, original printed wrappers. (paris: contact editions / Three mountains press, 1925). first edition, pub- lished jointly by mcalmon’s contact editions and william Bird’s Three mountains press. one of 300 copies printed in dijon by darantiere, who printed Joyce’s Ulysses. slocum & cahoon B7. with contributions by djuna Barnes, Bryher, mary Butts, norman douglas, Havelock ellis, ford madox ford, wallace Gould, ernest Hemingway, marsden Hartley, H. d., John Herrman, Joyce, mina Loy, Robert mcalmon, ezra pound, dorothy Richardson, may sinclair, edith sitwell, Gertrude stein and william carlos williams. includes Joyce’s “work in progress” from Finnegans Wake; Hemingway’s “soldiers Home”, which first appeared in the american edition of In Our Time, Hanneman B3; and william car- los williams’ essay on marianne moore, wallace B8. a very fine bright copy, with a tiny nick at head of spine, and a touch of soiling at the base of the spine; usually found in poor condition, this is as fine a copy as we have seen. $3500.00 james s. jaffe rare books 5 . 4 [antHoLoGY]. denBY, edwin, editor. Aerial. A Collection of Poetry. Aerial Images by Yvonne Jacquette (Reproduced from Various Media). 4to, illustrated, original pictorial wrappers. n.Y.: eyelight press, (1981). first edition. one of 26 lettered copies signed by most of the contributors on a tipped-in sheet; signing contributors in- clude denby, John ashbery, ann Lauterbach, Joe Brainard, anne wald- man, Bernadette mayer, Ron padgett, John Yau, Rudy Burckhardt, trev- or winkfield, Bill Berkson, carter Ratcliff, Yvonne Jacquette, among others. fine copy. $850.00 5. [antHoLoGY]. (LeveRtov, denise, et al). On Equal Terms. Poems by Charles Bernstein, David Ignatow, Denise Levertov, Louis Simpson, Gerald Stern. Edited by Hank Lazer. 4to, origi- nal green wrappers. (tuscaloosa, aL): symposium press, (1984). first edition. Limited to 275 copies printed. although not called for, this copy has been signed by all of the contributors – one of the few copies we’ve seen signed by any of the poets. as new. $450.00 6. [antHoLoGY]. Octavio Paz: A Celebration. Poems by John Ashbery, Joseph Brodsky, Bei Dao, Richard Howard, Mark Strand, Charles Tomlinson, Derek Walcott and Octavio Paz. o n the occasion of a reading at The metropolitan museum of art on may 11, 1994, in celebration of octavio paz’s 80th birthday. 8vo, origi- nal wrappers. (n.Y.): The academy of american poets and the mexican cultural institute, 1994. first edition of this festschrift. although not called for, this copy is signed on the front free endpaper by paz, strand, Howard, ashbery, dao and tomlinson. fine copy. $750.00 7. [aRt – BeRman]. BeRman, wallace. Radio/Aether Series 1966/1974. a portfolio of 13 two-color offset lithographs, each pho- tographed from an original verifax collage, and printed on star-white cover mounted on Gemini rag-board, in original screen-printed fabric- covered box. Los angeles: Gemini G.e.L., 1974. first edition. Limited to 50 copies, with 10 artist’s proofs, signed by Berman on the title-page. “Berman’s most important and compelling works, and the ones that secure 6 james s. jaffe rare books his reputation as an artist of lasting significance, are the so-called verifax collages. The verifax was an early form of copier machine, developed by kodak from research begun in the 1940s. it employed a wet-print process of making copies, using a disposable negative and treated paper. The veri- fax was technologically out-dated when Berman began to use it to make art in 1964. it is worth pointing out that, while many since the 1960s have tried and many have failed, Berman is to date the only artist to have used a copier machine to make substantial and unequivocally successful works of art. Thev erifax was an ideal medium for his developed aesthetic. The principal image in Berman’s verifax collages is almost always the same: a right hand holds up an AM-FM transistor radio, which is about the size of a cigarette pack. The face of the radio is flat, coincident to the surface of the collage, and a photograph has been inserted in the place where its speaker would be. the verifax collages have the feel of be- ing instant artifacts (some are even embellished with Hebrew letters). But there is a difference. These are not artifacts from history . but arti- facts from the immediate present, as copier machines, transistor radios, and the encyclopedic list of pictures makes plain. Their form and con- tent are seamless: mechanically made pictures (the verifax copies) of an electronic machine (the transistor radio) that transmits machine-made pictures (the internal photographs). as with his earlier attempts to create visual equivalents of jazz, sounds are transformed into pictures by the depiction of a transistor radio pulling visual images from the aether and broadcasting them to viewers. The verifax collages comprise a body of work extraordinary for its dense cohesion and its resonant simplicity . in Berman’s oeuvre, the tradition of the artist-as-copyist finds its most sophisticated pronouncement in the verifax collages, works of art made with a copier machine.” christopher knight, in Support The Revolution: Wallace Berman (amsterdam: institute of contemporary art, 1992), pp. 42-47. a very fine copy of this stunning portfolio. $12,500.00 8. [aRt – LacHaise]. GaLLatin, a. e. Gaston Lachaise. Sixteen Reproductions in Collotype of the Sculptor’s Work. Edited with an Introduction by A. E. Gallatin. (illustrated with photogra- vures from photographs by charles sheeler). 4to, original cloth-backed james s. jaffe rare books 7 boards with printed labels, glassine dust jacket. n.Y.: e. p. dutton & company, 1924. first edition. Limited to 400 copies printed by d. B. updike at the merrymount press. a superb association copy, a presenta- tion copy from Gaston Lachaise to his friend and patron, scofield Thay- er, inscribed on the front free endpaper: “to my friend scofield Thayer Gaston Lachaise.” Thayer was a prominent collector and patron of the arts, and his collection included numerous works by Lachaise, includ- ing the sculpture “standing woman (elevation)”, which was part of the Thayer bequest to them etropolitan museum of art. Thayer was also one of the owners/editors of The Dial magazine, with which Lachaise was as- sociated after Thayer and James sibley watson purchased the magazine. in 1920, in the first issue under the new editors, Lachaise’s “dusk” (1917) appeared as the frontispiece. a very fine unopened copy, in somewhat worn and chipped glassine dust jacket, with the Thayer bookplate laid in. $1750.00 9. [aRtists Books]. RoBinson, aminah. Journey: Collection of Drawings, Field People, Vol.