Literature in Love
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LITERATURE IN LOVE Peter Harrington london even Auguste Rodin’s illustrated Jardins des Supplices, the bible of BDSM (132). Americans in Paris also hold their own, whether it be the formidable salonnière Natalie Clifford Barney (9, 10, 135, 168), known as “the Amazon”, or Harry and Caresse Crosby (42–44), the wildest of the Lost Generation expats. The selection is proudly pansexual, with some great LGBTQ+ items such as a copy of the first gay poetry anthology owned and annotated by Rupert Brooke (25), or the very scarce first published translation of Sappho by a lesbian, the fascinating Renée Vivien (135, 168). We also have some exceptionally strong Oscar Wilde material here (172–175), including original clippings reporting the Love, for all its infinite variety, has not changed so very much trial, with his famous defence of “the love that dare not speak its over the centuries. Literature in Love seeks to present this universal name”, and a truly rare presentation copy of the deluxe issue of experience in its ecstasy and anguish, as expressed in the great love The Ballad of Reading Gaol inscribed to a friend who had bravely stories and poetry across the ages. campaigned against Wilde’s conviction. All these are syncretized Amours ancient as the Song of Solomon (16, 62) are as heart- in the wide embrace of this fundamental human experience. As quickening today as they were millennia ago. It is a pleasure, Frank O’Hara (115) concisely put it, “love is love”, and that, as John therefore, to have introduced, at least on the page, some Lennon knew and sung, is all you need (103). uncontemporaneous bedfellows like Warhol and Wilde, Boccaccio This catalogue was planned with Valentine’s Day in mind, and Bukowski, Dalí and Dante, Percy Shelley and Patti Smith, and and as well as featuring a range of delights for your loved ones, Sappho and Sackville-West. it also has a selection (161–166) charting the development of this As well as the love stories their books contain, authors’ own day of love and its long association with poetry. Shakespeare is tangled love-lives are no less captivating: a collection of letters of course heartily represented, with a beautiful copy of the grand from Ian Fleming documents a tempestuous early love affair (61); Fourth Folio being a particular high-spot (137), as well as a copy of a letter from Mary Shelley contains a precious clipped signature Romeo and Juliet presented for a 50th wedding anniversary (142), of her “ever faithful” husband Percy, sent to her sister Claire with in a heart-warming memento of a considerably longer-lasting whom he had been distinctly unfaithful (144); and a book inscribed relationship. by Lytton Strachey to “Bunny” Garnett unfolds a more-than-usually After a difficult year, with people kept apart for too long, I hope complicated Bloomsbury love-polygon (15). that our literature catalogue for 2021 will stand as a celebration of When it comes to the language of love, there is indeed an that force which has always connected us and will help in bringing embarrass des richesses, with the French showing their flair for us back together again. dangerous liaisons: see our first edition of Choderlos de Laclos’s masterpiece (97), or the illustrated memoir of Kiki, the muse of sammy jay Montparnasse, inscribed to one of her (many) artist lovers (95), or [email protected] Front cover illustration from Djuna Barnes’s Ladies VAT no. gb 701 5578 50 This caTalogue is Almanack, item 7; title page illustration from Allen Peter Harrington Limited. Registered office: shipped in a Ginsberg’s Valentine for Peter Orlovsky, item 71. WSM Services Limited, Connect House, 133–137 biodegradable envelope made Design: Nigel Bents. Photography: Ruth Segarra. Alexandra Road, Wimbledon, London SW19 7JY wiTh recycled maTerial Registered in England and Wales No: 3609982 There is no VAT on books in The Uk. orders going oVerseAs sUch As mAinlAnd eUrope, CanAdA And AUsTrAliA mAy be sUbjecT To locAl sAles taxes Upon imporT. CBP003316 Peter Harrington london catalogue 171 LITERATURE IN LOVE mayfair chelsea 43 doveR stReet 100 Fulham Road london w1s 4FF london sw3 6hs uk 020 3763 3220 uk 020 7591 0220 eu 00 44 20 3763 3220 eu 00 44 20 7591 0220 usa 011 44 20 3763 3220 www.peterharrington.co.uk usa 011 44 20 7591 0220 1 with Elliott Bulloch Roosevelt (1860–1894), the socialite younger brother of President Theodore, as best man. BAL 158 & 159; Grolier, One Hundred Books Famous in Children’s Literature, 38. 1 £5,000 [145409] 1 An attractive untrimmed set ALCOTT, Louisa M. Little Women. Boston: Roberts 2 Brothers, 1869 AUSTEN, Jane. Northanger Abbey: and Persuasion. 2 volumes, small octavo. Original green cloth, spines and front covers London: John Murray, 1818 lettered in gilt, brown coated endpapers. Frontispiece and 3 plates in each. Contemporary Christmas gift inscription in each volume from an aunt to 4 volumes, duodecimo (190 × 111 mm). Finely bound in late 19th-century/ her 9-year-old niece, Susie Prince, with a pencilled note of appreciation by early 20th-century brown polished calf, twin morocco spine labels, gilt Susie on her 10th birthday. Unusual and attractive metallic label pasted to decoration to spine, triple gilt rules to boards, top edge gilt, others front endpapers of vol. 1. Spine ends slightly frayed, a little wear to tips, untrimmed, inner dentelles gilt, green coated endpapers. Housed in a spines cocked, inner hinges cracked and a couple of gatherings proud, but custom brown cloth slipcase. Gilt embossed oval morocco bookplate otherwise firm, occasional spot of foxing to contents. Overall, a pleasing (“Omnia Pro Bono H.M.”) of Harold Murdock (1862–1934), a Boston set. banker, bibliophile, and book collector. A little expert furbishment to joints, occasional spot to contents, otherwise clean. A beautiful set, finely First edition of Alcott’s timeless tale of sisterly love, later issue of bound and wide-margined. the first part (a year after the first), and first edition, third state, First edition of Austen’s final published work, pairing Northanger of the second part. It has never gone out of print and has been Abbey, probably the first full-length novel she wrote, with Persuasion, adapted for film and television multiple times, most recently by her last completed novel. Her brother Henry’s biographical notice, Greta Gerwig in 2019. dated 13 December 1817, is the first acknowledgement in print of This set was presented on Christmas day 1869 to a young girl in Jane Austen as the author of her six novels. New York, Susie Prince, inscribed in both volumes by her aunt, the second volume with a pencilled note by Susie on her 10th birthday Gilson A9; Keynes 9. the following year. Included are two cartes des visite, produced by £17,500 [143280] Alman & Co. of New York, showing Susie and her husband, R. R. Colgate. Their Newport wedding on 31 August 1882 was described 3 in the New York Times as “one of the brilliant events of the season”, AUSTEN, Jane. Sense and Sensibility. London: Richard Bentley, 1833 [but 1832] Duodecimo. Original purple glazed linen boards, black spine labels lettered in gilt (Gilson’s first state binding). With 8-page publisher’s catalogue at front. Engraved vignette title and frontispiece by William Greatbach after Ferdinand Pickering. Old blank shelf label at head of spine. Light wear to spine ends and joints, spine sunned, but all firm, light foxing to plates, contents otherwise clean. A very good copy, unrestored in the original cloth. First Bentley edition, the third overall (pre-dating the first American edition by a few months), and the first English edition to be illustrated. In 1832–3 Richard Bentley bought the copyright to all Austen’s novels, which had not been reissued since 1818, to include them in his Standard Novels series, of which this is no. XXIII. 1 2 literature in love 3 First Bentley edition, as with the previous item, the third overall, and the first English edition to be illustrated, here in an attractive contemporary binding. This copy has a Christmas gift inscription from the poet Robert Calverley Trevelyan to Polly Allen, the daughter of his friend the British politician Clifford Allen. Trevelyan and Allen were part of the same social and political circles of pacifists and both were close friends with Bertrand Russell; Russell ran the Telegraph School at which Joan Collette Allen, known as Polly, studied. The Bentley edition of Mansfield Park is the first one-volume edition. £1,500 [120828] 2 The Bentley illustrations, by the obscure Ferdinand Pickering, played an integral part in the reception of Austen’s novels; according to one Austen scholar, they “promoted a sense that her novels were best understood as familial, female focused, and sensational. For decades, these illustrations would have served to steer readers away from the conclusion that Austen’s fiction ought to be understood as social, comic, or didactic” (Looser, p. 20). Despite the date on the title page, the book was published on 28 December 1832. Gilson D1. Davoney Looser, The Making of Jane Austen, 2017. £2,750 [145555] 4 AUSTEN, Jane. Mansfield Park. London: Richard Bentley, 1833 Octavo (164 × 103 mm). Contemporary tan half calf, red spine label, decoration to spine in gilt, marbled paper sides, edges and endpapers. Wear to extremities, light rubbing to sides; a very good copy. 4 All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk 3 5 5 AUSTEN, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. London: George Allen, 1894 Tall octavo. Original brown buckram, titles to spine gilt, untrimmed. With 101 illustrations by Hugh Thomson, including the frontispiece, all but two (title page and dedication leaf ) printed on china paper and mounted.