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The Complaint: or

The Complaint: or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality. To which is added, A Paraphrase on Part of the Book of Job

[Young, Edward]; Herrick, Gale (binder) Early edition of clergyman poet Edward Young's Night Thoughts, first published in 1742. Shaken by the deaths of his wife, his step-daughter, and her husband, Young wrote Night Thoughts to affirm his Christian faith in the face of doubt and grief: "What pain to quit the world, just made their own, / Their nest so deeply down'd, and built so high! / Too low they build, who built beneath the stars." This 1751 edition includes an engraved frontispiece depicting a lone mourner in a moonlit graveyard at night. Pettit 13d. This copy features an early design binding by California bookbinder Gale Herrick (1909-2001). Herrick studied binding late in life, but became an important figure in the American book arts community, serving as the first president of the Hand Bookbinders of California, and as Master of the Press of the Roxburghe Club of San Francisco. A near-fine copy, handsomely bound. Twelvemo, measuring 6.5 x 3.75 inches: iv, 296. Modern design binding of espresso morocco with windowpane pattern stamped in dark brown to boards and spine, lettered in silver across both boards ("THE COMPLAINT OR" to lower board, place and date of publication to foot of spine, "NIGHT THOUGHTS" to front board); charcoal and black marbled endpapers. Bound without preliminary blank, engraved frontispiece by "Parr." Binder's ticket of Gale Herrick, dated 1970, to rear free endpaper. Lightest occasional spotting to text. Housed in custom paper-covered box.
  • $850
book (2)

Rossetti: A Critical Essay on his Art

Hueffer, Ford Madox; [Rossetti, Dante Gabriel]; [Swinburne, Algernon Charles] First edition of English novelist Ford Madox Ford's critical essay on Dante Gabriel Rossetti, with a warm presentation inscription from Algernon Charles Swinburne to his sister. The grandson of painter Ford Madox Brown, who was a tutor to Rossetti, Ford Madox Ford grew up in Pre-Raphaelite circles; his aunt Lucy Madox Brown was the wife of Rossetti's brother William. His essay acknowledges the critique of Rossetti as "an amateur who failed in two Arts," painting and poetry, but also emphasizes Rossetti's sympathetic appeal: "charm is the one quality that Rossetti's work, considered as a body, can definitely and unflinchingly have claimed for it." Rossetti met Swinburne at Oxford in 1857, during the painting of the Oxford Union murals, and the two poets became housemates in London after the death of Rossetti's wife, Elizabeth Siddal, in 1862. At the time that Swinburne presented this essay to his sister, Rossetti had been dead for twenty years. A moving association copy, bringing together two important Victorian poets. Single volume, measuring 6 x 3.75 inches: xv, [1], 192, [4]. Original olive green cloth lettered and decorated in gilt and blind, top edge gilt, title page printed in red and black. Monochrome reproductions of Rossetti's paintings throughout text; publisher's advertisements at rear. Ink inscription to front free endpaper: "Isabel Swinburne / from her affectionate brother / AC Swinburne." Manuscript corrections to pages 13 and 141. A few light spots to cloth, upper hinge cracked.
  • $800
book (2)
book (2)

Howard University and Associated Sponsors Present Marian Anderson at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington

Original program from contralto Marian Anderson's landmark 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial. The first Black member of the Metropolitan Opera, Anderson was barred from singing at Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, a racist snub that prompted first lady Eleanor Roosevelt to resign her DAR membership: "You had an opportunity to lead in an enlightened way and it seems to me that your organization has failed." In collaboration with Howard University and a group of prominent supporters, Roosevelt arranged for Anderson to sing at the Lincoln Memorial, an Easter Sunday concert attended by 75,000 spectators of all races, and broadcast to millions more. Anderson sang a thoughtfully chosen series of songs, from "America" to Schubert's "Ave Maria" to "Gospel Train," headlining a day of celebration and protest that foreshadowed the March on Washington, in the same spot, decades later. The program opens with the first line of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, and includes a comprehensive list of sponsors: members of the Supreme Court and Franklin Roosevelt's cabinet, New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia, civil rights leaders Mary McLeod Bethune and Walter White, private citizens including Tallulah Bankhead, Katherine Hepburn, and Leopold Stokowski. A scarce and powerful artifact of a milestone in American civil rights history. Concert program, measuring 9 x 6 inches, printed on a doubled sheet: [4]. Lightest soiling, horizontal crease.