Thoreau, Henry David; Armstrong, Margaret (designer); Johnson, Clifton (photographs)
Uniform edition of Henry David Thoreau's writings, illustrated with 165 photogravures after nature photographs by Clifton Johnson, who observes of Thoreau: "Each plant and tree had for him a story, though he was more attentive to the wild growths than to the cultivated." This set collects the two books published in the Concord Transcendentalist's lifetime, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849) and Walden (1854), as well as three volumes published after his death: Excursions (1863), The Maine Woods (1864), and Cape Cod (1865). This set was issued in New York by Crowell and in London by Harrap. The New York edition features a different decorative binding by pioneering book designer Margaret Armstrong for each title, while this London edition is uniform, featuring Armstrong's design for the American edition of Walden on all five volumes. A stunning set. Five volumes, measuring 8 x 5.25 inches: xii, 319, [1]; xiv, 423, [1]; xvi, 440; [4], xxii, 492; viii, 303, [1]. Original leaf green cloth decoratively stamped in orange and gilt. Frontispiece and 32 photogravure plates in each volume. Text partially unopened. Light offsetting to endpapers; ink blot to fore-edge of A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.
[EPHEMERA]
Six hand-painted signs used by an American dance orchestra to alert the audience to the proper steps. John Spitzer observes that in nineteenth-century New York, "hundreds of orchestras played on a daily basis in theaters, restaurants and beer gardens, concert halls, circuses, and amusement parks. The ubiquity of the orchestra in nineteenth-century American cities forms a striking contrast to the rather narrow range of venues to which twenty-first-century orchestras are confined." Each sign features the name of a different dance on each side: Polka, Schottische, March, Quadrille, Waltz, Mazurka, Varieties, Gavotte, Lancers, York, Triange, and Selection. These social dances reflect the midcentury influx of immigrants, especially Germans, who shaped the popular American musical scene. While the orchestra that commissioned these signs is unknown, the carrying case bears the initials "AEO." See also: American Orchestras in the Nineteenth Century, ed. Spitzer, Chicago, 2012. A wonderful musical and typographic artifact. Six wooden signs, measuring 2 x 12.25 inches, hand-painted in crimson and green on both sides, with wire loops for hanging; string cords (likely renewed). Housed in original hinged and fitted wooden carrying case, measuring 3.5 x 3 x 12.75 inches, hand-painted in crimson and green, with monogram "AEO" to lid. Original clasp present but not functional; minor rubbing to paint.
[Byron, George Gordon, Lord]
Second extant edition of Don Leon, an early English defense of homosexuality purported to be a lost poem by Lord Byron. At least partially composed after Byron's death, likely in the 1830s, a version of the poem was in print before 1853, when it is cited in Notes and Queries. No example of that first printing survives. The first extant edition is William Dugdale's London edition of 1866, printed in an unsuccessful attempt to blackmail Byron's family. This piracy, printed by Charles Carrington around 1890, is a facsimile of the Dugdale, distinguishable by the "rare editions" advertised on the verso of the jacket, which include a translation of the Satyricon spuriously attributed to Oscar Wilde. While Byron is not the author (or at least the sole author) of Don Leon, his sexual history provides the pretext for the poem's argument for tolerance of homosexuality: "Methought there must be yet some people found, / Where Cupid's wings were free, his hands unbound / Where law had no erotic statutes framed, / Nor gibbets stood to fright the unreclaimed." The rumor that Byron sodomized his pregnant wife, Annabella Milbanke, leading to the dissolution of their marriage, is duly recapped: "Ah, fatal hour, that saw my prayer succeed, / And my fond bride enact the Ganymede." The true author or authors are well-versed in early nineteenth-century parliamentary debates over the punishment of vice; as Louis Crompton notes: "The poem is in fact a rhymed pamphlet in favor of homosexual law reform that incorporates a pseudoautobiography and erotic jeux d'esprit." Speculation as to the authorship of Don Leon has included George Colman, John Cam Hobhouse, Thomas Love Peacock, William Beckford, and William Bankes. The poem would be reprinted by the Fortune Press in 1934, in a limited edition immediately suppressed for obscenity. For more on Don Leon, see Louis Crompton, "Don Leon, Byron, and Homosexual Law Reform" in Literary Visions of Homosexuality, ed. Stuart Kellogg (1983), and the critical apparatus to the Pagan Press facsimile edition (2017). OCLC locates five holdings of this Carrington piracy worldwide (British Library, Morgan, Cornell, Penn, and Minnesota), although there are almost certainly more copies miscatalogued as the 1866 edition it purports to be. A near-fine copy of a true rarity, a fascinating early effort to overturn the criminalization of homosexual acts in England by way of Byron's Romantic legacy. Octavo, measuring 7.5 x 5 inches: [4], 52, 63, [3], 17, [1]. Original plain wrappers, printed dust jacket, untrimmed. Separate title page, dated 1865, for "Leon to Annabella." Rubbing to spine ends, light edgewear to jacket.
Poe, Edgar Allan
First book appearance of Edgar Allan Poe's "Manuscript Found in a Bottle," first published in 1833 as the winner of a story contest in the pages of The Baltimore Daily Visiter, and later collected in Poe's 1840 Tales of the Grotesque. Poe's chilling tale of a trapped sailor drifting toward the South Pole is a classic of American horror: "a curiosity to penetrate the mysteries of these awful regions predominates even over my despair, and will reconcile me to the most hideous aspect of death. It is evident that we are hurrying onwards to some exciting knowledge, -- some never-to-be-imparted secret, whose attainment is destruction." In addition to Poe, this Philadelphia gift annual features work by Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Washington Irving, Lydia Sigourney, Samuel Griswold Goodrich, and William Gilmore Simms, and is edited by "Miss Leslie." BAL 16126. A very good copy. Octavo, measuring 6 x 3.75 inches: x, [3], 18-292. Full crimson publisher's morocco signed by Gaskill, elaborately embossed with an American eagle gripping arrows and an olive branch to both boards; gilt titling to spine; floral sprigged endpapers, all edges gilt. Frontispiece and eight tissue-guarded plates throughout text. Pencil presentation inscription to preliminary blank: "J I H P from T B M / Jany 1, 1836." Scattered foxing, discoloration to endpapers, binding lightly soiled.
First edition of this vibrant portfolio celebrating Wisconsin decorative traditions, "designs from handicraft articles either brought to Wisconsin or made here by the early settlers, or by members of the three largest native Indian tribes." Included are examples of Chippewa beading, Norwegian baskets, Polish Easter eggs, Winnebago blankets, German embroidery, and everyday objects like boot jacks and butter molds created by nineteenth-century Wisconsin residents. A near-fine example. Fifteen loose color serigraph plates on heavy stock, accompanied by a four-page illustrated introduction, measuring 13.75 x 10.75. All housed in original color pictorial portfolio with blue cloth spine. Light shelfwear to portfolio, faint foxing to introduction, plates lightly toned.
First edition of Yoko Ono's self-published first book, one of 500 stated copies (though likely fewer) printed, preceding the first trade edition by six years. This copy was inscribed by Ono at the March 10, 1966 opening of The Stone, the New York Fluxus group show in which she played a central role: "To Helen, / 1966, opening / Judson Church Gallery / NYC, NY / Yoko Ono." Grapefruit collects instructions for Ono's early conceptual art pieces, organized under the headings of Music, Painting, Event, Poetry, and Object. Some works can be enacted by readers, like Shadow Piece: "Put your shadows together until they become one." Others can be realized only in the imagination. The directions for Clock Piece read: "Make all the clocks in the world fast by two seconds without letting anyone know about it." Wind Piece instructs: "Blow hats all over the city." Fly Piece demands of the artist: "Fly." Ono inscribed this copy at the opening of The Stone, the 1966 Fluxus performance art event organized by her then-husband, art promoter Anthony Cox. Jon Hendricks, the manager of Judson Gallery, recalls that The Stone "was really written by a group of us: Michael Mason, who created repeated loop sounds; and Yoko Ono, who had done eye bags and questionnaires. You would come down into the gallery and fill out a questionnaire, then you would be given a bag, take your shoes off, and then you would be in this room. The gallery was small and the room was smaller. Jeff Perkins did film messages, which were looped films that repeated. This became a famous event in art history." Ono's "eye bags" were black cotton sacks into which visitors would crawl: the loosely woven fabric allowed attendees to see and hear the performance, while concealing their faces and bodies, transforming each person into a "stone." The title of the Judson Gallery show echoes Ono's famous artist's statement of the same year, discussing her Cut Piece, in which she knelt on stage beside a pair of scissors, inviting the audience to cut away pieces of her clothing: "People went on cutting the parts they do not like of me finally there was only the stone remained of me that was in me but they were still not satisfied and wanted to know what it's like in the stone." Text in English and Japanese. OCLC locates seven institutional holdings in the United States. See also Hendricks, Fluxus Codex. A near-fine copy of a scarce self-published book, inscribed by Yoko Ono at an important installation of her early conceptual art. Perfect-bound volume, measuring 5.5 x 5.5 inches: [354.] Original white wrappers lettered in black. Presentation inscription from Ono on preliminary blank. Wrappers lightly soiled and rubbed. Housed in a custom clamshell box.
First edition of this enthusiastic recruitment initiative from General Electric, aimed at high school and college students: "The future clearly belongs to those who understand the computer." An employee profile page serves as a strategic welcoming call to students of all backgrounds, depicting women and people of color working in computer manufacturing, program analysis, testing, and training at General Electric. Highlighting real-life challenges like employee wage management and mass transit design, the booklet celebrates the computer's ability to solve social, industrial, and scientific problems "while eliminating much of the drudgery of mathematical calculation." Lighthearted illustrations by Bill Charmatz, known for his work for Sports Illustrated, Esquire, and Time, accompany discussions of "Computers on the Job," "Programming," and "Symbolic Languages," among other topics. A bright, near-fine copy of this aspirational artifact of the early computer age. Side-stapled volume, measuring 10.5 x 8.25 inches: 19, [1]. Original color pictorial wrappers, photographic plates and color illustrations by Bill Charmatz throughout text. Lightest shelfwear.
First edition of A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams's first play to win the Pulitzer Prize, signed by the entire original cast, including Jessica Tandy, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden. Produced by Irene Mayer Selznick and directed by Elia Kazan, the original stage production opened in New Haven on October 30, 1947: the program for that first performance is present here, with three ticket stubs from the Shubert Theatre. The show then moved to Boston and Philadelphia before arriving on Broadway, where Tandy would win the Tony for her performance as the fragile, self-deluding Blanche DuBois: "Whoever you are - I have always depended on the kindness of strangers." Wolcott Gibbs, in a rave review for The New Yorker, regretted that "there is no way . . . to convey the effect Mr. Williams achieves in his last act of a mind desperately retreating into the beautiful, crazy world it has built for itself." A wonderful association copy, with related ephemera from the very first performance of A Streetcar Named Desire. Single volume, measuring 9 x 6 inches: 171, [1]. Original pink pictorial paper boards, original unclipped pink pictorial dust jacket designed by Alvin Lustig. Ink signatures of the original cast beside their printed names on page 5; former owner's signature to front free endpaper. Shelfwear to boards, jacket spine panel sunned, restoration and light soiling to jacket. With: original program from the October 30, 1947 premiere at New Haven's Shubert Theatre, with three opening night ticket stubs mounted to upper wrapper. Faint tidemark to rear wrapper of program. Book and program housed together in custom clamshell box.
First edition, the Grolier 100 copy, inscribed by Kate Greenaway with three original sketches of young girls. First published in the eighteenth century, the ABC rhyme "The Tragical Death of A Apple Pye" appeared in countless chapbooks before Greenaway produced this colorful large-format edition. Her vibrant illustrations depict a crowd of children in Regency dress tussling over the oversized pie of the title. Finally, in Greenaway's original closing rhyme, "U V W X Y Z / All had a large slice / and went off to bed." A Apple Pie was a resounding popular success, although the book caused some tension between Greenaway and her friend John Ruskin, who disliked the stylized feet, "literal paddles and flappers," of Greenaway's children. Greenaway has inscribed this copy to Joan Ponsonby, born in 1887, the granddaughter of her close friends Gerald and Maria Ponsonby. The ink sketches of young girls that frame the gift inscription may be portraits of little Joan herself. Schuster & Engen, 1.1a; Grolier 100 Books Famous in Children's Literature, 50 (this copy). A near-fine presentation copy of a Victorian classic, with original artwork by Kate Greenaway. Oblong quarto, measuring 8.5 x 10 inches: [22]. Original red cloth spine, pale green color-printed pictorial boards, all edges stained red, deep blue coated endpapers. Half-title and title page printed in brown ink. Color-printed wood engravings by Edmund Evans after watercolors by Greenaway on each page, printed on rectos only. Ink presentation inscription on half-title, framed by three sketches of young girls: "Joan Ponsonby from Kate Greenaway / 1891." Lightest shelfwear and occasional smudge to binding. Housed in a custom chemise and slipcase.
Original program for Paul Whiteman's experimental concert on February 12, 1924, featuring the premiere of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." Whiteman intended the event at New York's Aeolian Hall "to be purely educational," showcasing "the tremendous strides which have been made in popular music." Through new arrangements and original material, most notably Gershwin's bold rhapsody, Whiteman hoped to legitimize a scored version of "modern Jazz" in the context of the classical concert hall. In the program's opening section, titled "The Why of This Experiment," Whiteman elevates jazz into the sphere of high culture while remaining pointedly silent on the African-American roots of that controversial genre, "which sprang into existence about ten years ago from nowhere in particular." The program provides biographies of Whiteman's musical collaborators and extensive notes on the featured compositions. Whiteman reserves his highest praise for George Gershwin: "He is capable of everything. . . . Gershwin's sense of variation in rhythm, of shifting accents, of emphasis and color is faultless." Prominent musicians and critics, including Jascha Heifetz, Leopold Stokowski, Gilbert Seldes, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Carl Van Vechten, are listed among the sold-out concert's acknowledged "patrons and patronesses." By February 1924, George Gershwin was already well known for his work on Broadway, but this commissioned "jazz concerto" would be his first concert hall performance as a composer. An unmitigated triumph at Aeolian Hall, "Rhapsody in Blue" would become world-famous, far surpassing Whiteman's hopes for his "experiment." Given that enough concert programs were printed for the 1100-seat hall, it is remarkable that so few examples survive. We find no records at auction, and three institutional holdings only, at the New York Public Library, the George and Ira Gershwin Collection at the Library of Congress, and the Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University. An extraordinarily rare document of a landmark in American musical history, offered one hundred years after the premiere of "Rhapsody in Blue.". Concert program, measuring 9.5 x 6.25 inches: 12. Original textured grey wrappers formed from a single folded folio sheet, text printed on both end pages; upper wrapper printed in blue and gold, titled within ornate frame; side-stitched with original blue cord. Printed in deep blue ink; illustrated in text with circular portraits of Victor Herbert, George Gershwin, Zez Confrey, and Irving Berlin, and a photograph of Paul Whiteman and his orchestra. Lightest toning, cord ends frayed.
First trade edition of this early livre d'artiste by Italian artist Fausta Squatriti, offered at the Museum of Modern Art in conjunction with her 1969 exhibition at New York's Kozmopolitan Gallery. Squatriti's abstract candy-colored lithographs are teamed with an account of her work by critic Gillo Dorfles, printed in both English and Italian, titled "Fausta Squatriti's 'Disquieting Objects.'" Dorfles argues that Squatriti's vibrantly colored, futuristic sculptures represent the "equivocal nature half-way between the biological and the mechanical," "the furnishings terrestrial astronauts have discovered in the dwellings of a remote galaxy." He concludes that Squatriti's pop art represents "the revenge of her femininity . . . the distortion and mockery of the rigour of constructivism." Both the signed limited edition of fifty copies and this trade edition, printed in an unknown limitation, are scarce on the market. A very good example of an uncommon livre d'artiste. Oblong volume, measuring 4 x 7.75 inches: [20]. Original navy cardboard covers bound with two aluminum rings. Leaves printed rectos only. Fifteen color lithographs, four pages of text. Scattered foxing, light fading and a few faint spots to covers.
Original illustration, published on the cover of the French magazine Nos Loisirs, December 1, 1923. An illustrated Sunday supplement to the daily newspaper Le Petit Parisien, Nos Loisirs (Our Leisure Time) was published between 1906 and 1940, with a break during World War I. This idyllic family scene is representative of the imagery of Nos Loisirs after 1920, when it adopted the subtitle "Revue de la Femme et du Foyer" in a post-war turn to domesticity. The interior's vibrant colors and patterns, its curvilinear couch and enameled metallic table, all display "le style moderne." In addition to good design, the importance of literature in the home is reflected in the stylish mother, affectionately cuddled with her children beside a prominently displayed book table, while her daughter peruses what may be a copy of Le Petit Parisien. Little is known of the illustrator who signed as "Djoz;" the René Malevy to whom the illustration is inscribed was likely the editor of the 1920s French cinema publication "Ciné- Miroir." A beautifully preserved cover illustration, depicting the modern, cultured home to which readers of Nos Loisirs could aspire. Gouache, graphite, and ink on paper, heightened and bordered with gold, measuring 9.5 x 8.5 inches, image, mounted to board measuring 12.25 x 11.25 inches. Inscribed and signed "á mon viel ami / René Manevy / Cordialement / Djoz," in lower left image. Archivally matted and framed to 15 x 14 inches. Printer's notations in graphite to verso.
Four large original watercolors by George Van Werveke for the New York Times Book Review, published in 1925 and 1926. Headlining the fiction section, Van Werveke's historical scenes provided a counterpoint to the modern American titles reviewed below, offering amusing glimpses of English and French literary history. Each illustration catches a writer at a charged or revealing personal moment. The first, published on May 31, 1925, depicts the seventeenth-century diarist John Evelyn amid the chaos of his trashed house, as he consults with the architect Christopher Wren. The published headline read: "Lusty Monarch Ruins Fair Home of Famous Diarist. After John Evelyn Had Sublet to Peter the Great (During Peter's Visit to England), He Had to Call in Sir Christopher Wren to Repair the Damage." The second, published on January 24, 1926, shows the historian George Grote examining his future wife on the reading he assigned her, while her father stews. The published headline read: "Eminent Historian Puts His Courtship to Good Use. Grote Used to Set his Fiancée Themes on Various Subjects and Gave Her Books to Read, on Which He Required a Digest. (Her Father Opposed the Match.)" The third, published on November 14, 1926, depicts two indignant housemaids confronting the walls of John Milton's former London house, newly covered in scribbled notes by the essayist William Hazlitt. The published headline read: "The Walls Were Hazlitt's Notebook. When the Essayist was Living in Milton's Old House He Used the Whitewashed Walls for Jotting Down His Thoughts." The fourth, published on November 21, 1926, shows the prolific French dramatist Eugène Scribe at his desk, surrounded by jostling freelance contributors and consultants. The published headline read: "Origin of the Broadway Review. The Fertility of Augustin Eugène Scribe was Unceasing. Its Results Prodigious. He Had Systematic Methods of Collaboration - One Co-worker Supplied the Plot. Another the Dialogue. Still Another the Jokes." In addition to the book section, Van Werveke was a regular contributor to the popular New York Times society column by Helen Bullitt Lowry, capturing Prohibition raids and flappers with the same deftness he applied to these literary-historical scenes. A skillful and striking group of illustrations. Four oblong illustrations, measuring between 7.75 and 8.5 inches high x 22.25 inches wide. Watercolor, ink, and wash, with graphite tracing on artist's paper. Signed in ink at upper corners; captioned at lower left; publication stamps, measurements, and printing notes in margins. Preliminary sketches on verso of Evelyn and Grote illustrations. Scattered soiling, mostly to margins; pinholes in corners.
Original caricature by George Wachsteter (1911-2004) of the 1957 Broadway musical Shinbone Alley, starring Eartha Kitt, published in the New York Journal American on April 11, 1957. Co-written by Mel Brooks in his first Broadway book credit, Shinbone Alley was a stage adaptation of Don Marquis' popular Archy and Mehitabel tales, featuring a philosopher-poet cockroach "who had to express himself or die," and his muse, a free-spirited alley cat. Though Shinbone Alley ran only for forty-nine performances, the show was well-received: New York Times reviewer Brooks Atkinson wrote that composer George Kleinsinger "improvised an animal and insect world out of music with humor, drollery, street tunes and juke-box pandemonium." Wachsteter's vibrant image centers Kitt as Mehitabel, dancing in the sparkly tabby-patterned bodysuit that earned costume designer Motley a Tony nomination. Behind her is Eddie Bracken's Archy, hoisting a giant pencil to erase a line on his typewriter, the running gag of a small bug struggling to manipulate the machine's keys and platen. Archy is flanked by Erik Rhodes as Tyrone Tattersall and Ross Martin as the Lightening Bug. Along with Al Hirschfeld, Wachsteter was one of the most visible American theatrical caricaturists of the twentieth century. His humorous and elegant line drawings of stage, radio, television, and film performers appeared on the major networks and in newspapers across the country, before the gradual loss of his vision ended his career prematurely in the late 1960s. A graphically dynamic original Broadway illustration. Pen and ink with Benday tinting on illustration board, image measuring 12.5 x 16.5 inches on board measuring 15 x 20 inches, matted to 17 x 21 inches. Signed "Wachsteter" in lower right image. Publisher's pencil notes in margins, portion of original printing order sheet from the New York Journal American partially mounted and folded on verso, tissue overlay folded over verso for matting. Small, mostly marginal ink soiling at bottom. With: clipping of the published appearance.
First edition of German novelist Alfred Döblin's Giganten, inscribed by Döblin to the Russian-Jewish political writer Isaac Steinberg (1888-1957), from the library of Steinberg's son, art historian Leo Steinberg (1920-2011). While Döblin is best remembered for his 1929 realist novel Berlin Alexanderplatz, critical attention in recent years has turned to his ambitious, dystopian works of science fiction. Giganten is a revised and condensed version of Döblin's 1924 Berge Meere und Giganten, adapted in an effort to find his sprawling eco-horror novel a broader audience. Döblin's vision of a precarious global future characterized by energy crises, relentless genetic engineering, and environmental catastrophe now seems prescient. The unabridged 1924 text was finally translated into English as Mountains Oceans Giants in 2021. Döblin has inscribed this copy of Giganten to his friend Isaac Steinberg, aRussian exile, Socialist Revolutionary, and leader of the Jewish Territorialist movement. In Berlin, Steinberg convinced Döblin to join the Zionist movement"Freiland-Liga," and in 1932, both men participated in the Sholem Aleichem Club to discuss Jewish settlements in Siberia. The inscription reads: "Dem Genossen Steinberg. Mit schönen Grüßen. Von Haus zu Haus. Alfred Döblin. 7.4.32" ["To Comrade Steinberg. With kind regards. From house to house. Alfred Döblin. April 7,1932."] For more on the relationship between Döblin and Steinberg, see Gabriele Sander, "A Banner I Could Not Hold Aloft: Alfred Döblin and Judaism." European Judaism 34:1, 2001. Text in German. A sound copy of a compelling novel, very scarce inscribed. Single volume, measuring 8 x 5 inches: [8], 11-377, [7]. Original tan cloth stamped in brown and red, upper board lettered in brown. Presentation inscription from Döblin to Isaac Steinberg on preliminary blank. Owner signature of Leo Steinberg to front free endpaper. Light soiling to cloth and edges, trace of insect damage to upper joint; no dust jacket.
