Milne, A.A.
FIRST EDITION of Milne's classic. A beautiful copy in rare original decorated dust jacket. Illustrated throughout by Ernest Shepard. In 1926, Milne "wrote Winnie-the-Pooh, a collection of stories he had developed about Christopher Robin and his beloved stuffed friends. The stories begin with Christopher Robin's pleas to the author to tell Winnie-the-Pooh stories about himself 'because he's that sort of Bear' and conclude when Christopher Robin goes to take his bath, promising to ask for more stories the following day. In between, the author spins tales of the animals' adventures in the forest where they and Christopher Robin ostensibly live. Each animal character is developed carefully and shown to be a little flawed--Pooh is a glutton, Piglet is timid, Eeyore is gloomy Owl is pompous. These characterizations allow Christopher Robin to play the 'adult' role in this world, stepping in to calm fears and solve problems, while remaining enough of a child to suggest games and enjoy parties. The same calm assurance found in Milne's poems that nothing really bad happens in the outdoors permeates the book, in which storms may come and bees occasionally sting, but everything ultimately works out for the best." Winnie-the-Pooh, one of the world's most celebrated children's books, "has been translated into many languages, including Latin" (Encyclopedia of Children's Literature). MILNE, A.A. Winnie-the-Pooh. London: Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1926. Octavo, original cloth gilt, original dust jacket; custom presentation box. Usual toning at gutter of endpaper maps but otherwise book fine, with cloth gilt exceptionally bright. Original dust jacket in outstanding condition, bright and fresh, with only a faint band of toning (about a half inch) along the top of the jacket and a tiny bit of wear at the top of the spine. A magnificent copy; rare in such good condition. Original cloth with dust-jacket
[ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT]
ILLUMINATED LEAF FROM BOOK OF HOURS WITH MINIATURE OF ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON. The legendary story of St. George riding on horseback and slaying a dragon to rescue the king's daughter is depicted in this miniature. St. George sits atop his horse wielding a sword as the dragon sits breathing fire underneath him. The king's daughter can be found in the background kneeling (presumably) in prayer. The miniature is bordered in gold. Beneath the miniature, the illuminated initial is also painted in gold. This initial "T" begins a prayer to St. George which is continued on the back (16 lines, brown ink). On the verso, there is another, smaller initial "D" also painted in gold. The miniature is bordered on three sides with a decoration of blue and brown acanthus, red flower buds, berries and some gold sporadically throughout. The miniature was likely created in Bruges circa 1440, showing elements of style associated with the Masters of the Gold Scrolls, popular in Bruges between the 1420s and the 1450s. Bruges, c. 1440, all text is clear and legible, illumination is bright and radiant, beautifully matted and framed, leaf size 5.7x3.9in (145x100mm), miniature size 2.7x1.9in (70x50mm), frame size 10.75x8.88in (273.05x225.43mm).
KAFKA, FRANZ
FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL BINDING OF ONE OF THE ONLY WORKS KAFKA PUBLISHED IN HIS LIFETIME. Franz Kafka was much more prolific in his day job than as a novelist, authoring countless statements, annual reports and accident assessments as an insurance officer in the twenty years before his death in 1924. Franz Kafka only published very few works of fiction in his lifetime, and in 1914 he wrote in his diary, "An Fertigem nur: In der Strafkolonie und ein Kapitel des Verschollenen" [Only finished works: In the Penal Colony and a chapter of The Missing] (cited in Dietz, p. 101). Why was Kafka so timid about his work? An intensely private person, he was very meticulous and self-critical as a writer, often doubting the worth of his own creative pieces and eventually requesting that all of his manuscripts be burnt upon his death. We know the name "Kafka" today in large part because of his friend and literary executor Max Brod who refused Kafka's request and subsequently published what are now some of the most celebrated works of twentieth-century literature, including The Trial. In der Strafkolonie is not, however, one of these works posthumously published against Kafka's will. It is rather one of the few works of Kafka's published in his lifetime. The story is set in an unnamed penal colony and describes the use of an elaborate and brutal execution machine as a means of punishment and the gradual questioning of the system by a visiting officer. An early development in Kafkaesque world-building, the story no doubt was inspired by Kafka's dealings with the endless bureaucracy that occupied most of his waking hours. Particularly rare are first edition copies of In der Strafkolonie as only 1,000 copies were initially printed, and this copy features the publisher's original binding as Kafka would have seen it. And though In der Strafkolonie is one of the few works of his that he chose to appear in print, Kafka's perpetual anxiety over sharing his writings with the world is in part reflected by the fact that, though he notes as early as 1914 that he has completed In der Strafkolonie, it was only in 1919 that it was finally published. KAFKA, FRANZ. In der Strafkolonie. Leipzig: Kurt Wolff Verlag, 1919. First edition, one of 1000 copies (green-brown paper boards variant). Octavo (6 x 9 in), 71 pp., publisher's original three-quarter calf over green and brown paste paper boards with foliate pattern, gilt lettering to spine, t.e.g., untrimmed; house in a custom presentation box, half-bound green morocco over green and yellow marbled boards with gilt lettering and decoration to spine. Light rubbing to spine, otherwise fine. A very rare first edition of one of the few works willingly published by Kafka. Dietz 50. References: Dietz, Ludwig, Franz Kafka: Die Veröffentlichungen zur seinen Lebzeiten [1908-1924] (Heidelberg: Lothar Stiehm Verlag, 1982). Original three-quarter calf over green and brown paper boards
FEYNMAN, RICHARD
First edition, first printing, of Feynman's path integral formalism, his revolutionary approach to solving the fundamental equations of quantum mechanics and the basis for his later famous formulations of "Feynman rules" and "Feynman diagrams". "In mid-1947 friends of Feynman persuaded him - threats and cajoling were required - to write for publication the theoretical ideas they kept hearing him explain. When he finally did, he used no diagrams. The result was partly a reworking of his thesis, but it also showed the maturing and broadening of his command of the issues of quantum electrodynamics. He expressed the tenets of his new vision with unabashed plainness. For some physicists this would be the most influential set of ideas Feynman ever published. "He said he had developed an alternative formulation of quantum mechanics to add to the pair of formulations produced two decades before by Schrodinger and Heisenberg. He defined the notion of probability amplitude for a space-time path. In the classical world one could merely add probabilities. in the quantum world probabilities were expressed as complex numbers, numbers with both a quantity and a phase, and these so-called amplitudes were squared to produce a probability. This was the mathematical procedure necessary to capture the wavelike aspects of particle behavior. "Probability amplitudes were normally associated with the likelihood of a particle's arriving at a certain place at a certain time. Feynman said he would associate the probability amplitude 'with an entire motion of a particle'- with a path. He stated the central principle of his quantum mechanics: The probability of an event which can happen in several different ways is the absolute square of a sum of complex contributions, one from each alternative way. These complex numbers, these amplitudes, were written in terms of the classical action; he showed how to calculate the action for each path as a certain integral. And he established that this peculiar approach was mathematically equivalent to the standard Schrodinger wave function, so different in spirit. "The Physical Review had printed nothing by Feynman since his undergraduate thesis almost a decade before. To his dismay, the editors now rejected this paper. Bethe helped him rewrite it, showing him how to spell out for the reader what was old and what was new, and he tried the more retrospective journal Reviews of Modern Physics, where finally it appeared the next spring under the title 'Space-Time Approach to Non-Relativistic Quantum Mechanics'." (Gleick). FEYNMAN, RICHARD. "Space-Time Approach to Non-Relativistic Quantum Mechanics". In: Reviews of Modern Physics, vol. 20, no. 2 (April 1948): 367-87. Lancaster, PA: American Physical Society, 1948. First edition, first printing. Quarto, original printed wrappers. With neat ownership signature on front wrapper ("H.T. Epstein") of distinguished physicist and biophysicist Herman T. Epstein (1920-2007). Very mild, general wear; a near-fine copy, rare in original wrappers and without any institutional stamps. Note: A custom cloth box can be made for this item for an additional $250. References: Gleick, James, Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman (New York: Pantheon Books, 1992), p. 247-49). "Invention of the path integral formalism for quantum mechanics". Ezhela, V.V., Particle Physics: One Hundred Years of Discoveries, An Annotated Chronological Bibliography (Woodbury, NY: American Institute of Physics Press, 1996).
ECO, UMBERTO
SIGNED FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING OF ECO'S LITERARY MASTERPIECE. Eco's historical mystery novel, set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327, follows the tale of the friar William of Baskerville and the young Benedictine monk Adso of Melk, who are sent to investigate a series of murders that have occurred within the monastery. Renowned not only for Eco's intricate plot, Il nome della rosa contains a vivid depiction of the late Middle Ages rich in historical depth and precise in its depiction of the tensions within a medieval community. The present signed copy is in remarkably fine condition, with the original unclipped dust-jacket and a label from Italy's copyright authority SIAE (Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori; Italian Society of Authors and Publishers) verifying the copy as one of the first printings from September 1980. ECO, UMBERTO. Il nome della rosa. Bompiani: Milan, 1980. First edition, first printing (September 1980). Octavo (5 x 9 in), 503, [13] pp., red cloth with gilt lettering to spine, with original dust-jacket. Signed by Eco in ink on title page. SIAE first edition sticker numbered "0031009" on copyright page; original "L. 10.000" price displayed on unclipped dust-jacket. Very faint marks to upper wrapper, tiny chip to top of wrapper spine; a spectacular copy of the first edition with dust-jacket colour extraordinarily vivid. Rare signed. Contursi A021a. Original cloth with dust-jacket
SCOT, REGINALD. [SCOTT, REGINALD]
Extremely rare first edition of this far-reaching exposé that provoked King James, inspired Shakespeare and was the first significant work to document the secrets of illusion and the occult. A magnificent copy from the Biblioteca Lindesiana. The Discoverie of Witchcraft, written by Reginald Scot in 1584, upended many sixteenth-century beliefs in Britain about witches, superstition, spirits and magic. Scot proves that what was believed to be witchcraft was little more than illusion and delusion. Infuriated by a "ridiculous" 1581 witchcraft trial, Scot in The Discoverie challenges popular beliefs about dark magic, providing diagrams documenting the performance of staged illusions previously ascribed to witchcraft (Reid, "The Discoverie of Witchcraft"). The evidence presented in this pivotal work angered political and religious leaders, gave inspiration to literary masters of his era and contributed a blueprint to future generations of magicians and practitioners of the dark arts. Consulting hundreds of treatises in Latin and English, studying various scripture and visiting courts of law in districts where witchcraft prosecutions occurred, Scot collected evidence that witchcraft had neither rational nor religious basis. He asserted that the Biblical terms which had been translated as "witch" did not, in their original languages, share the associations ascribed to them in contemporary witchcraft discourse. Thus, one pillar of Scot's work is the undermining of the scriptural argument for the execution of witches -and further blaming the Catholic Church for encouraging dangerous superstitions. Scot also contends that spirits cannot take human form nor interact with humans, and consequently that the link between spells cast by so-called witches and any unpleasant events spuriously attributed to witches is entirely coincidental. As set out by one of Scot's recent biographers David Wootton, Scot explains the witch phenomenon as "resulting out of a particular type of social encounter: old women begging for food or other assistance would curse their neighbours when they were turned away empty handed; if something bad then happened - the death of a child, perhaps - the old woman would be taken to be a witch. Those who confessed to being witches were either deluded or the victims of torture. mere fable and fiction" (Wootton, "Scott [Scot], Reginald"). Published during the Scientific Revolution, Scot's lengthy and unrelenting work contributes to a period in which intellectuals were redefining rationality and questioning of old beliefs. Defying both church and state, he labels those who believed in witches as heretics and those who claimed to be witches as mentally ill. Read widely in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, The Discoverie of Witchcraft became an often-cited reference for those who doubted the existence of witchcraft. James VI, King of Scotland from 1567 to 1625 (and later King of England from 1603), was outraged by Scot's opinions and penned his objections in his 1597 Daemonologie. The three-book treatise, in which the King holds that witches are not only real but pose a substantial threat to the realm, is a defence of the practice of witchcraft prosecution and a guide for identifying and trying witches. Combined with his writings on a vast array of topics ranging from his views on poetry to his distaste for tobacco, James VI's response to rising scepticism towards the presence of witches in Britain (chief among them being Scot's Discoverie) is a central part in his project of text production throughout his reign -second only as an expression of his theology to his commission of the King James Bible, published in 1611. According to legend, on the occasion of his accession to the English throne in 1603, King James VI and I called for all copies of The Discoverie of Witchcraft to be destroyed. While there is no contemporary evidence to support this story, which first appeared in 1659, The Discoverie was continuousl
DIRAC, PAUL
FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS of one of the major milestones of modern science: the introduction of Dirac's wave equation uniting quantum mechanics and special relativity. "Dirac's outstandingly significant achievement was his relativistic wave equation for the electron. Earlier attempts to formulate a relativistic Schrödinger wave equation had failed, but in early 1928, Dirac found a new wave equation of the same formal structure as Schrödinger's (HÎ = EÎ ), but with a Hamilton function (H) that made the equation fit the requirements of relativity. The new equation was of the first order in both the time and space derivatives and included a new type of matrix with four rows and columns (Dirac matrices). The Dirac equation led to many empirically correct predictions and was immediately hailed as a great theoretical progress. The Dirac matrices are related to the Pauli spin matrices and Dirac proved that the correct value of the electron's spin appeared as a consequence of his theory. He also proved that it was possible to give an exact explanation of the hydrogen spectrum, including the so-called fine structure. 'The quantum theory of the electron' marked a turning-point in modern physics and the Dirac equation was received enthusiastically and created a minor industry in mathematical physics" (Dictionary of National Biography). â â Particle Physics, One Hundred Years of Discoveries: "Discovery of the relativistic wave equation for the electron". Note: There is a "part II", conceived and published later that is a separate paper expanding on some of the implications of the wave equations. Dirac shared the 1933 Noble Prize in Physics with Schrödinger for "for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory". IN: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series A. Vol. CXVII, pp. 610-624. London: The Royal Society, 1928. Octavo, original printed wrappers; custom box. The complete issue. Light pencil asterisk denoting Dirac paper on front wrapper. A little toning to wrapper edges and spine; usual creasing to spine. Rare in original wrappers and without any institutional stamps.
DORR, NELL
RARE SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH OF AN ICONIC IMAGE BY NELL DORR. Wonder and magic are themes that American photographer Nell Dorr (1893 - 1988) explored throughout her life. She believed that terror and misery were already abundantly documented in American culture and thus committed herself to eliciting beauty. She had learned photography as a child (her father ran a successful photography studio) and began exhibiting her work professionally in order to support her young family after she divorced her first husband. Dorr famously looked beyond collicky infants and overwhelmed mothers, opting to evoke a dreamy atmosphere of calm, confident mothers and their cherubic children. Taken around 1940 the Nursing Mother photographs are a collaboration between Dorr and her good friend, Tasha Tudor, one of America's most beloved author-illustrators of children's literature. Nestled against a backdrop of home-spun lace, a young Tudor in this photo cradles her nursing infant. When one of her own daughters died in 1954, Dorr published the Nursing Mother photographs in an elegiac book called Mother and Child, which would become her best-known work. A year later, in 1955, she contributed a version of Nursing Mother to Edward Steichen's famed Family of Man Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Conceived as a declaration of global solidarity in the decade following World War II, Family of Man traveled the world for 8 years and eventually over 8 million visitors viewed the exhibition. Throughout her life Dorr continued to plumb the relationship between mother and child through experimental sound film, photo murals, and photography. Provenance: Dorr gifted this signed photograph to Arthur Klein, who along with his wife Luce had pioneered the field of spoken art and recorded literature. A line in her presentation letter to Klein (a copy of which is included with the photo) elucidates Dorr's inspiring body of work: spring is coming into bud and the old magic has lost none of its wonders. Acquired directly from the Klein family. Size: photo: approx. 7.5 x 9.5. Framed = 13x16. Silver gelatin photograph. Taken c.1940, printed later. Signed by Dorr in full "Nell Dorr" in marker on the bottom left of the photo. Fine condition. Photographs signed by Dorr are rare.
RAY, MAN [MAN RAY]. PICASSO, PABLO
MAN RAY CAPTURES PICASSO'S ESSENCE IN LEGENDARY PORTRAIT. AN ICONIC PHOTOGRAPH WITH IMPORTANT PROVENANCE: From the famous Sotheby's sale of 1995 of items from the "Estate of Juliet Man Ray, The Man Ray Trust and the Family of Juliet Man Ray". The son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Emmanuel "Manny" Radnitzky (1890-1976) grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He displayed creative abilities from a young age and studied to be a painter. He adopted "Man Ray" as his pseudonym and in 1915 formed the New York group of Dada artists with Marcel Duchamp. In the 1920s and 1930s, Paris was the destination for the international avant-garde, offering an exceptional number of galleries, art dealers, and wealthy patrons who promised artistic freedom. Man Ray sailed to the "City of Light" in 1921, joined Parisian Dada and Surrealist circles and became intimate associates with Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst and other leading artists. He pursued fashion and portrait photography creating a pantheon of the city's cultural life. "As a photographer, I was in demand," Ray explained to John Bainbridge, a writer at The New Yorker. "I was like a doctor. Everybody needed me." (Bolz) To be photographed by Man Ray meant you had made it in the Parisian art world. Ray often said that Old Masters, especially Hans Holbein the Younger, Rembrandt, and Vermeer inspired his portraits. "I. admired the respect with which they treated the proportions of human features," he wrote in an article published in Modern Photography magazine in November 1957. He also made considerable technological advancements in the field by creating "rayographs" (photographic images composed of ordinary objects placed on photo sensitive paper exposed to light) and developing solarization (the process of tone reversal observed in cases of extreme overexposure). "I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence," Ray said. (Schwarz, 10) Ray sought to create a sense of drama and mystery, believing that his photography could transcend the mechanical nature of a camera. When photographing his friends and colleagues Ray's emotional and psychological insights allowed him to expose the soul of each subject. One such subject and friend was Pablo Picasso. Man Ray and Picasso met in 1921 in Paris. They became friends through their connection to Surrealism, spending holidays together and collaborating on creative pursuits. In his autobiography, Man Ray described Picasso: "[He] gave me the impression of a man who was aware of all that was going on about him and in the world in general, a man who reacted violently to all impacts, but had only one outlet to express his feelings: painting." (Man Ray, 177) The intensity and awareness that Man Ray described is masterfully captured in his portraits of the painter. This photo we have on offer is from Man Ray's renowned series of Picasso portraits and coincided with the publication of the first volume of Picasso's catalogue raisonné, reflecting the critical position Picasso's work occupied in the French artistic establishment. In this almost sculptural photograph from 1932, Man Ray unusually presented Picasso in an open trench coat over his jacket and tie. Picasso's dark hair is slicked down and his smooth face looks directly into the camera. Ray used light on the outlines of Picasso's face to create a contemplative image that showed him as a dark and shadowy figure juxtaposed against the light background. Picasso's riveting gaze also conveys a reflective and sober mood. This print has the Man Ray stamps M28 and M30 on the reverse and was lot 348 from the sale of the "Estate of Juliet Man Ray, The Man Ray Trust and the Family of Juliet Man Ray" (Sotheby's March 22 and 23, 1995). Man Ray and Picasso remained close confidantes after this collaboration and during the summer of 1937, Man Ray filmed his friends, including Pablo Picasso, during a trip to the French Riviera. The result was On the French Riviera with Man Ray and Picasso
RAY, MAN [MAN RAY]. PICASSO, PABLO
MAN RAY CAPTURES PICASSO'S ESSENCE IN LEGENDARY PORTRAIT. AN ICONIC PHOTOGRAPH WITH IMPORTANT PROVENANCE: From the famous Sotheby's sale of 1995 of items from the "Estate of Juliet Man Ray, The Man Ray Trust and the Family of Juliet Man Ray". The son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Emmanuel "Manny" Radnitzky (1890-1976) grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He displayed creative abilities from a young age and studied to be a painter. He adopted "Man Ray" as his pseudonym and in 1915 formed the New York group of Dada artists with Marcel Duchamp. In the 1920s and 1930s, Paris was the destination for the international avant-garde, offering an exceptional number of galleries, art dealers, and wealthy patrons who promised artistic freedom. Man Ray sailed to the "City of Light" in 1921, joined Parisian Dada and Surrealist circles and became intimate associates with Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst and other leading artists. He pursued fashion and portrait photography creating a pantheon of the city's cultural life. "As a photographer, I was in demand," Ray explained to John Bainbridge, a writer at The New Yorker. "I was like a doctor. Everybody needed me." (Bolz) To be photographed by Man Ray meant you had made it in the Parisian art world. Ray often said that Old Masters, especially Hans Holbein the Younger, Rembrandt, and Vermeer inspired his portraits. "I. admired the respect with which they treated the proportions of human features," he wrote in an article published in Modern Photography magazine in November 1957. He also made considerable technological advancements in the field by creating "rayographs" (photographic images composed of ordinary objects placed on photo sensitive paper exposed to light) and developing solarization (the process of tone reversal observed in cases of extreme overexposure). "I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence," Ray said. (Schwarz, 10) Ray sought to create a sense of drama and mystery, believing that his photography could transcend the mechanical nature of a camera. When photographing his friends and colleagues Ray's emotional and psychological insights allowed him to expose the soul of each subject. One such subject and friend was Pablo Picasso. Man Ray and Picasso met in 1921 in Paris. They became friends through their connection to Surrealism, spending holidays together and collaborating on creative pursuits. In his autobiography, Man Ray described Picasso: "[He] gave me the impression of a man who was aware of all that was going on about him and in the world in general, a man who reacted violently to all impacts, but had only one outlet to express his feelings: painting." (Man Ray, 177) The intensity and awareness that Man Ray described is masterfully captured in his portraits of the painter. This photo we have on offer is from Man Ray's renowned series of Picasso portraits and coincided with the publication of the first volume of Picasso's catalogue raisonné, reflecting the critical position Picasso's work occupied in the French artistic establishment. In this monumental photograph from 1932, Man Ray unusually presented Picasso in an open trench coat over his jacket and tie. Choosing to shoot this portrait in profile, he captured Picasso's pensive expression. Ray used a bold lighting effect and an unadorned background so as not to detract from the subject. Picasso is slightly out-of-focus creating a subtle softness. The print is also on thin, tissue-like paper, creating texture and depth. (Man Ray was famous for experimenting with different types of paper for his prints.) This 1932 Portrait of Picasso was selected for Man Ray's seminal 1934 album which included his most important photographs. This print has the Man Ray stamps (M28 and M30) on the reverse and was lot 487 from the sale of the "Estate of Juliet Man Ray, The Man Ray Trust and the Family of Juliet Man Ray" (Sotheby's March 22 and 23, 1995). Man Ray and Picasso remained close confidantes after
THE ORIGINS OF ELECTROMAGNETISM. AMPÈRE'S FIRST DISCUSSION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ELECTRIC CURRENT-FLOW AND MAGNETISM. Ampère often worked by publishing his ideas chiefly in Annales de chimie et de physiques, at times as much as once a week. When he had further thoughts on the topic, he would publish revisions. The "first great memoir on electrodynamics", the present paper is the seed of what would become a series of papers "establishing the laws of forces acting between conductors carrying current" (DSB, p. 144; Dibner, Heralds, 62). In this - the first appearance of Ampère's discussion of electric current-flow as it relates to magnetism - Ampèreeffectively establishes a new field of science and paves the way for developments in electrodynamics. In this volume (the original periodical publication), Ampère's discussion begins on pp. 59-76 and continues on pp. 170-218. AMPÈRE, ANDRÉ MARIE. "Mémoire . De l'Action mutuelle de deux courans électriques". IN: Annales de chimie et de physiques, vol. 15. Paris: Crochard, 1820. pp. 59-76, 170-218. Octavo, later three quarter calf over early boards. 448 pp., 5 full-page plates by Adam Sculp including one fold-out plate. Some toning to extreme edge of text, very occasional light spotting, otherwise fine. References: DSB: L. Pearce Williams, "Ampère, André-Marie", Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 16 vols. (New York: Scribner's, 1980), I: Pierre Abailard-L.S. Berg, pp. 139-147 Dibner, Bern, Heralds of Science (New York: Burndy Library and The Smithsonian Institute, 1980) Norman, Jeremy M. and Diana H. Hook, The Haskell F. Norman Library of Science and Medicine (San Francisco: Jeremy Norman, 1991).
IMPORTANT ALFRED STIEGLITZ PHOTOGRAPH, SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY STIEGLITZ. Alfred Stieglitz's (1864 - 1946) influence on American art and culture cannot be overstated. He has been justly celebrated for the pioneering exhibitions of modern European art that he presented at 291, the gallery that he ran between 1905 and 1917. There Stieglitz introduced American audiences to the works of Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and George Braque. He championed early American modernist painters, embracing those such as Georgia O'Keeffe (his muse and wife), Marsden Hartley, and Charles Demuth first at 291 and then at his subsequent galleries The Intimate Gallery (1925 - 1929) and An American Place (1929 - 1946). His greatest passion, though, was photography. During Stieglitz's youth, photography's cumbersome tools and technical requirements restricted its use to descriptive and recording purposes. Stieglitz understood that photography, much like painting and sculpture, could be a vehicle for artistic expression and by the time he died few people doubted it. He elevated and promoted the art of photography through Camera Work, the classic journal he ran from 1903 through 1917; through his influential galleries; and of course through his own photographs. As early as 1915 Stieglitz began photographing the city from his windows: either taking a series of quick, successive photographs or returning to a particular view throughout the year. As his energy and health declined later in life, he photographed almost exclusively from the windows of his longtime home on the 30th floor of the Shelton Hotel and from the windows of An American Place in midtown Manhattan. The current photo was taken in either November or December of 1930 or early 1931 and looks north from An American Place. It is conceptually far removed from Stieglitz's earlier, painterly evocations of New York City. The photograph emphasizes the growing fragmentation of modern life and also manifests Stieglitz's increasing removal from the hustle and bustle of New York City. The artist transforms the dramatic high rises into solid geometric forms by cropping the tallest buildings. Those skyscrapers manage to catch and reflect the sun's rays while casting deep shadows over the older, smaller buildings. In the foreground one sees the textures and typography visible from the window of the 17th floor gallery, but even some of these details are heavily shadowed by taller buildings. Stieglitz clearly held this particular print in high regard, as it is signed in pencil along with a request that it be returned to An American Place. He later gifted it to Georgia Englehard (American, 1906 -1986), his niece and noted model. During summers spent at the family's Lake George home Engelhard modeled for her uncle and studied painting with his wife, Georgia O'Keeffe. Stieglitz exhibited Engelhard's early paintings at 291 and the uncle and niece corresponded regularly for years. Months after Stieglitz's death in 1946 Englehard created a pictorial homage for Popular Photography that honored the artist's career and included this image, presumably drawn from her own private collection. Following Stieglitz's death Georgia O'Keeffe combed through thousands of her husband's photographs, art, and letters. She carefully assembled a body of work that traces the evolution of Stieglitz's work, from its inception in the 1880's to its rich maturation in the 1930s, and thoroughly documents all aspects of his decisive contribution to the art of photography. O'Keeffe selected the finest examples, including From My Window at An American Place, North, to be donated to "The Key Set" at the National Gallery of Art. and gave other prints that were in his possession to The Art Institute of Chicago, and the Carl Van Vechten Gallery at Fisk University, Nashville. Other prints of this image can be found in the National Museum of Art, Tokyo and private collections. On this print: This print is signed and captioned by Stieglitz ("New York - 1931 / by Alfred Stieglitz") in pencil on the matte, with an additional note by Stieglitz ("With permission 'An American Place' Kindly return to") followed by a stamp with Stieglitz's name and address. There are also pencil markings on the verso, possibly indicating guidance for hanging. It was printed while Stieglitz was at An American Place, and the negative was almost certainly developed by Stieglitz himself for this print. Provenance: Alfred Stieglitz to Georgia Engelhard; Private collection, New York. Size: Image = 7 1/4 x 9 1/4 in (184 x 234 mm). With original mount = 10 1/4 x 13 1/2 in (260 x 342 mm). Framed to an overall size of approx. 15 1/2 x 16 1/2 in. New York: 1931. Some spots of Gelatin silver print. Image in outstanding condition without any creasing; matte with a few spots of soiling, including spot over the "With permission" statement. Stunningly framed under UV-protecting museum glass. References:Sarah Greenough, "Alfred Stieglitz/From My Window at An American Place, North/1930/1931," Alfred Stieglitz Key Set, NGA Online Editions (accessed January 13, 2023).
VIVID DEPICTION OF ICONIC SCENE FROM THE LIFE OF GREGORY THE GREAT. This richly-illustrated manuscript leaf from a late medieval book of hours depicts the miraculous Mass of St Gregory, during which Christ appeared to the congregation during a Mass of which Gregory the Great was the celebrant. The folio begins with the conclusion of the Collect for St. Nicholas, with the bottom of the page announcing the following section "De sancto gregorio" [On Saint Gregory]. The petition to Gregory that follows on the verso is accompanied by a magnificent miniature of one of the most esteemed subjects in late medieval art: the Mass of St Gregory. Manifested in a number of varying accounts, the legend maintains that, upon a congregant doubting the presence of Christ during the preparing of Communion (sometimes identified as an elderly parishioner and sometimes as the "doubting deacon" to Gregory's side), Christ appeared at the altar in the form of the Man of Sorrows - thus epitomising the act of transubstantiation for all to see. Before Christ, Gregory can be seen kneeling in prayer, and the tricrown is held behind him as a representation of papal authority -also denoted by his vivid blue vestments. A golden frame, with an engrailed upper arched boarder, expands out from the vaulted chapel ceiling depicted within and encompasses the entire miniature. Gold filagree ornaments the red and blue altar frontal and the robes of the ecclesiastic figures, each in mauve gowns and vestments of (from left to right) red, blue and slate grey. The leaf's border is replete with ornamental foliate decoration and an anthropomorphic creature flaunting around in human clothes. Among the acanthus leaves are a variety of flowers including what appear to be poppies and strawberries. [ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT LEAF]. Miniature depicting the Mass of St. Gregory. c.s.xvex/xviin. Leaf: 10.7 cm x 7.7 cm (miniature = 5.4 cm x 4cm; leaf with mounting: 29.8 cm x 21.8 cm). Very minimal warping of the page near the bottom on the left side. A bright and vividly-coloured illustration of an iconic scene in a Church Father's life. Transcription: (Initials in bold are illuminated; text in italics is rubricated; text between square brackets is the expansion of an abbreviation.) {recto} mabilem exhibuit V[ersiculus]. Ora pro nobis beate nicholae. R[esponsorium] Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus [Christi]. Or[ati]o DEus qui beatum nicholaum pontificem tuum innumeris decorasti miraculis tribue quesumus ut eius meritis [et] precibus a gehenne incendus liberemur. Per [Christum] domunu[m] nostrum. Amen. De sancto gregorio. {verso} Sanctus gregorius doctor egregius romane sancte ecclesie. et le {end of folio} Translation: {recto} Versicle: Pray for us, blessed Nicholas. Response: That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Prayer: O Lord, who bestowed your blessed pontiff Nicholas with innumerable miracles, we beseech you that by his merits and prayers we may be freed from the burning of hell. O God, who adorned the blessed Nicholas, thy priest, with innumerable miracles, we beseech you that, by his favours and prayers, we may from the fires of hell be freed. In the name of Christ our Lord. Amen. Of Saint Gregory. {verso} Saint Gregory, eminent doctor of the Holy Roman Church.
FEYNMAN GIVES ADVICE TO LECTURE SERIES COMMITTEE CHAIR OFFERING REVEALING AND QUINTESSENTIALLY FEYNMAN ADVICE: "A good man interested in his work, and not a quack trying to sound important is what you need." Background: "No one can do anything alone, and all the influences of parents, teachers, and friends add up to make a success. In my case, I have always been conscious of the very large contributions given me by my school." -excerpt from Richard Feynman's 1965 telegram to the Far Rockaway High School Science Chairman American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate Dr. Richard P. Feynman was a descendant of Eastern European immigrants who settled in Far Rockaway, Queens. The world knows him for his work at California Institute of Technology, his contributions in Quantum Electrodynamics, the Manhattan Project, and the Challenger Shuttle Commission but he never lost the curiosity that he developed as a student at Far Rockaway High School. After being awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1965 he was invited to speak at Far Rockaway High School in January 1966. He presented at a school-wide assembly, attended a luncheon in his honor, and went to science classrooms to discuss subatomic physics. His visit was well-received by students and faculty who reported that he used layman's terms, slang, gestures and sound effects to help students better understand scientific principles. Following Dr. Feynman's visit, the school passed a resolution calling for a series of science lectures to honor the work of this renowned 1935 Far Rockaway High School graduate. The Feynman Lecture Series was launched in November 1966 and Committee Chairman Jay Rothstein invited Feynman to attend. The letter we have on offer is Dr. Feynman's typed response with his signature in which he graciously declines to attend, citing his inability to travel the long distance from California to New York. Dr. John C. Stewart, professor of geology at Brooklyn College delivered the inaugural lecture of the Feynman Lecture Series, "Dinosaurs, their Evolution and the Adaptation" on November 22, 1966 before an audience of 1,100 students and parents. Dr. Isadore Rubin, editor of Sexology magazine, gave the second lecture, entitled "Sex Education in a Changing Society" on February 16, 1967. Dr. S. Ichtiaque Rasool, staff member for NASA, gave the closing lecture "The Origin of the Solar System" on May 18, 1967. An archive related to the 1966-1967 lecture series accompanies the signed letter from Dr. Feynman (see below for contents). A legendary teacher, showman and physicist, Dr. Feynman's remarkable career inspired students, young scientists, and those who dared to dream up the impossible. He never abandoned his commitment to helping others, remaining active as a lecturer and researcher until the end of his life. This letter, his relationship with his alma mater, and the Richard Feynman lecture series at Far Rockaway High School honor his inquisitive spirit and his legacy as "the most brilliant, iconoclastic and influential of the postwar generation of theoretical physicists." (Gleick) Included with the letter is an archive of material relating to the 1966-1967 lecture series: a poster advertising a lecture on Dinosaurs, a typed letter signed to Rothstein from the chairs of the Feynman Lecture Series Committee, a 3-page carbon copy of the Committee's introduction to the 1966-1967 lectures, various clippings from the school's newspaper about the lectures, 4 black and white photographs of lecturers from the 1966-1967 series, and 3 tickets to the lectures in that series. Typed letter signed ("R. P. Feynman"), to Mr. Jay Rothstein, 5 December 1966. 1 page (8.5x11 in), on California Institute of Technology stationery. Usual folds (but very mild); a little creasing to edges; a rectangle block of mild toning to paper (possibly from once being framed). Housed in custom presentation folder. Full text of Feynman's letter on California Institute of Technology stationery: 5 December 1966 Mr. Jay Rothstein Far Rockaway High School Beach Twenty-Fifth Street and Ocean Crest Boulevard Far Rockaway, New York 11691 Dear Mr. Rothstein: Thans (sic) very much for the tickets to the lecture. I am sorry I am not closer so that I could make use of them. The subject seems fine -- there need be no reason to limit it to physical science -- all the sciences are related and are as interesting as one another because there are descriptions of nature. The main problem to keep in view when struggling to get speakers is not so much the subject matter, but the scientific quality of the speaker. A good man interested in his work, and not a quack trying to sound important is what you need. I hope your lecture was a success. The subject sounds good to me. Continued luck with your project. Thank you for honoring me in this way. Sincerely, R.P. Feynman (signed) RPF: bb References: The Chat. Far Rockaway High School Newspaper. Nov. 17, 1965. Richard P. Feynman. Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character). W.W. Norton, 1985. James Gleick. "Richard Feynman Dead at 69; Leading Theoretical Physicist." The New York Times, February 17, 1988.
ICONIC PHOTOGRAPH OF JAMES JOYCE BY BERENICE ABBOTT; SIGNED BY ABBOTT. Berenice Abbott's (American, 1898 - 1991) sensitive portrait of the Irish writer James Joyce (1882 - 1941) is considered a defining image of the author known for his experimental 'stream of consciousness' novels Ulysses and Finnegans' Wake. A former dark room assistant to Man Ray, Abbott took this portrait in 1926, the same year she established her own portrait studio where she photographed André Breton, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Cocteau and other luminaries of Paris' literary and visual avant-garde. Although Abbott's early portraits are indebted stylistically to Man Ray's, she brought to them a sympathetic eye that was very much her own. In this portrait of Joyce she reveals a complex and sympathetic character. Abbott photographed Joyce on two separate occasions, the first in 1926 at his home in Paris, the second in 1928 at her studio. She also created portraits of Joyce's wife Nora and their daughter Lucia. The earlier portraits taken in Joyce's home undoubtedly offer a more intimate view of the author. In fact, Abbot described a nearly identical photograph from the 1926 sitting as the latest and most authentic portrait of James Joyce. At the time he was laboring on Finnegans' Wake while suffering from painful eye problems and blindness in his left eye. In this particular exposure Joyce assumes a relaxed pose in an armchair with his right hand behind his head. Abbott employed soft, diffused lighting to suggest a complex, introverted nature. Companion exposures from the 1926 portrait sitting can be found at the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and National Portrait Gallery, London, among other institutions. At some point the negative cracked in the upper right hand corner. Some prints reveal the visible crack, but for this print Abbott chose to crop it, subsequently omitting Joyce's left hand. Signed by Abbott on the right of the matte, just below the image. With Abbott's "50 Commerce St. New York 14 N.Y." stamp on verso. Size: Image = 9 1/2 x 7 5/8 inches (240 x 196 mm); with original matte = appox. 11x14 in. Take in 1926 (Paris); likely printed 1970s (New York). Gelatin silver print. A few smudges to extreme edges of matte; image fine.
EARLY LETTER FROM ISRAEL'S ONLY FEMALE PRIME MINISTER DEMONSTRATING HER UNYIELDING COMMITMENT TO THE LABOR ZIONIST CAUSE. A passionate visionary, a tireless activist, and one of the founders of the Jewish state, Golda Meir (1898-1978) stands as one of the most formidable prime ministers in Israel's history. Born in Kyiv, she immigrated to Milwaukee in 1906 at the age of 8, and became keenly interested in politics at a young age. Childhood memories of hiding from the Cossacks, and antisemitic violence contributed to her lifelong commitment to Jewish security. Meir's passion for Labor Zionism drove her to make Aliyah with her husband and join a kibbutz in 1921. She quickly became a representative to the Histadrut (General Federation of Labour) and served as the secretary of that organization's Women's Labour Council. This work earned her a reputation as a pioneer of the Labor Zionists and brought her to the attention of David Ben-Gurion and other leaders of the movement. From 1932 to 1934 Meir was sent to the United States to represent Histadrut's Women's Labour Council. During that time she forged a friendship with Hayim Greenberg (1889-1953), the recipient of the letter we have on offer. Greenberg, a leader within the American Labor Zionist Movement, was an important writer on ethical and philosophical issues, a political spokesman for Israel within the Jewish and non-Jewish world, and the first editor of Jewish Frontier, a journal that featured articles from well-known Jewish writers and future Israeli prime ministers including David Ben-Gurion and Moshe Shertoka. It served as a comprehensive source of information and analysis about Israel/Palestine and was an important forum for liberal and socialist discourse. As an editor and activist, Greenberg was steadfast in his beliefs which sometimes put him at odds with others within the Zionist movement. This led Meir to hold him in even higher regard, explaining "It was important to know what Greenberg thought on this or that.In the same way, thousands of people in Jewish Palestine.longed to know what Berl Katznelson thought.Hayim Greenberg was of this type.diffusing moral purity over his surroundings.There was always a feeling that he saw and knew." (Raider 16-17) This fine letter from Golda Meir to Hayim Greenberg was written upon her return to Jerusalem in 1934 following two years in the United States. It's addressed to "Chaver" (meaning close friend in Hebrew). In this correspondence, Meir focuses on the state of affairs she encountered upon returning to Israel in 1934 and her disappointment in the rise of Revisionist Zionists who, in contrast to the Labor Zionists, believed in militance and territorial maximalism. Greenberg, credited with creating the ideological vision that all American Jews could unite behind the Zionist cause, worked against the Revisionist Zionists and other zealots who believed in the immediate declaration of the Jewish right to political sovereignty throughout Mandatory Palestine and Transjordan. In this letter Meir opens up to her dear friend, "And the riveting question is - What will be? Do we have sufficient strength to stem the tide that is dragging us on a downward slope? It would be so good to have you here. Many friends have asked about you." Meir embraced the advice and insight of friends like Greenberg and together they stood against the Revisionists. By 1934, the year of this letter, Meir's own political star was rising and she was elected to Histadrut's Executive Committee and then quickly became the head of its political department, positions that would lay the foundation for her future success in Israeli leadership. She brought vigor, eloquence and shrewd diplomacy to the cause to which she had dedicated her life-the creation, preservation and betterment of the state of Israel-by fundraising in America with the help of Greenberg and others, secretly meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah in 1947, and serving as Israel's minister of labor (1949-1956), minister of foreign affairs (1956-66) and prime minister (1969-1974). As one of only a few female heads of state during the twentieth century, Meir is one of the most notable women of our time and according to Eleanor Roosevelt was "one [who we] cannot help but deeply respect and deeply love." From the 1920s until her death in 1978 Meir remained closely connected to her colleagues and friends in the Labor Zionist movement. In 1963, on the 10th anniversary of Hayim Greenberg's passing, she hosted a memorial meeting at her home in Jerusalem. On that day there were community-wide observances around the globe and more than 150 American rabbis delivered sermons in his memory. While the correspondence between Meir and Greenberg exposes some of the challenges facing Zionists in the 1930s, their work would ultimately lead to success for their cause - the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Autograph letter signed. Jerusalem: 1934. Three pages, on the recto and verso of a square bifolium, the text in Yiddish, signed "Golda" in Yiddish, 6 x 6 inches (15.5. x 15.5 cm), accompanied by a translation into English. Fine condition. RARE: This is the earliest letter we can trace from Golda Meir that has been on the market. WITH: A number of additional items from Hayim Greenberg's estate including typed and signed letters from theologians Louis Finkelstein and Reinhold Niebuhr; an autograph letter signed from philosopher Jacques Maritain; an autograph letter signed from Eliahu Elath, Israel's first Ambassador to the United Kingdom; a rare 1949 printed invitation to the opening of the reception honoring Israeli Independence Day, hosted by Prime Minister and Mrs. Ben-Gurion; and two envelopes with the return address in the hand of painter Marc Chagall. Full text of Golda Meir's letter to Hayim Greenberg (translated from Yiddish): Jerusalem 9/17/34 Dear Chaver Greenberg, I have been wanting to talk with you for quite a while but haven't written because the mail is not a sa
FIRST PRINTINGS OF THE FOUNDATIONAL PAPERS ON THE BIG BANG AND THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE. Including a fine copy of the famous "Alpha-Beta-Gamma" paper. The Origin of Chemical Elements: "With the experimental and theoretical information now available it is possible to give a tentative description of the structure and evolution of the universe." Physicist George Gamow "was interested in the Big Bang in relation to nucleosynthesis- the formation of atomic nuclei. Gamow wanted to see whether nuclear physics and the Big Bang could explain the observed atomic abundances," specifically, "whether the early moments of the Big Bang could be responsible for our universe being dominated by hydrogen and helium." With his graduate student Ralph Alpher, Gamow began constructing an ingenius mathematical model that attempted to explain the nuclear processes that would have occurred at the conditions of the extreme heat of the very early universe. They "spent three years working through their calculations, questioning their assumptions, updating their cross-sections and refining their estimates. This was an extraordinary adventure. They were applying concrete physics to a previously vague Big Bang theory, attempting to mathematically model the conditions and events of the early universe. They were estimating initial conditions and applying the laws of nuclear physics to see how the universe evolved with time and how the processes of nucleosynthesis progressed."â â The result was a stunning success. With their model, Alpher and Gamow could predict the formation of hydrogen and helium in the observed proportions ( 99.99% of all atoms ) in the universe. "This result was the first major triumph for the Big Bang model since Hubble had observed and measured the redshifts of galaxies. "â â When Gamow and Alpher's paper, "The Origin of Chemical Elements" was being sent for publication in the April 1, 1948 issue (April Fool's Day) of the Physical Review, Gamow couldn't resist playing a little joke on the scientific community. Even though his good friend Hans Bethe contributed nothing to the paper, Gamow added his name to the list of authors so the readers could enjoy the sight of a paper authored by Alpher, Bethe, Gamow and appreciate the pun on the Greek letters alpha, beta, and gamma. One of the unintended consequences of this joke was that is stripped the young Alpher of much of the credit due to him, for the public naturally assumed that the famous Bethe and Gamow had now done all the work.â â "The Alpha-Beta-Gamma paper, as it became known, was a milestone in the Big Bang versus eternal universe debate. It showed that it was possible to do real calculations relating to the nuclear processes that might have occurred after a hypothetical Big Bang, and thus test this theory of creation. Big Bang supporters could now point to two pieces of evidence, the expansion of the universe and the abundance of hydrogen and helium, and show that they were entirely consistent with the Big Bang model of the universe." Simon Singh, Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe, pp. 306-336. IN: The Physical Review, Vol. 73, No. 7, pp. 803-4; April 1 1948. Lancaster, PA and New York, NY: American Institute of Physics, 1948. Quarto, original wrappers. A FINE COPY. Expanding Universe and the Origin of Elements: "Birth of the Big Bang Model" -Particle Physics: One Hundred Years of Discoveryâ â FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS of George Gamow's paper marking the beginning of the Big Bang Model. â â "The German physicist Carl Friedrich von Weizsacker had postulated in 1938 that most elements were formed in explosions similar to that taking place in Lemaitre's primeval atom, but he did not state clearly whether the birthplace was cosmological or stellar. The turning point came in 1946, when Gamow discussed quantitatively the role of nuclear processes in relativistic cosmologies. His brief 1946 paper on the expanding universe and the origin of elements marks the beginnin
MARCEL DUCHAMP'S COPY, WARMLY INSCRIBED TO HIM BY ALICE PAALEN. ALSO WITH ORIGINAL FRONTISPIECE ETCHING SIGNED BY JOAN MIRÓ. BOUND BY LEGENDARY FRENCH BOOKBINDER MONIQUE MATHIEU. Signed limited edition, number 23 of only 75 copies, signed by Paalen on the limitation page (in addition to the signed inscription). On Alice Paalen: In a poem dedicated to her lover Pablo Picasso, the poet and visual artist Alice Paalen wrote, "I've been living in a map on the wall. I think I am at the crossroads of the wind. I converse with it." Bicultural, bisexual, and wildly independent, she was referred to as a shapeshifter who defied categorization. Born Alice Marie Yvonne Philppot in 1904 in eastern France, she moved to Paris with her family in 1920 and delighted in the bohemian scene. By 1934 she had married Austrian artist Wolfgang Paalen and been introduced to Paul Éluard, André Breton, Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso. In 1935 Alice had a brief love affair with Picasso, which ended when her husband threatened to kill himself. In 1936 André Breton officially invited Alice and Wolfgang to join the surrealist group, the same year that Alice became the first woman to have work published by Breton's renowned Editions Surréalistes. Alice had a far-ranging imagination and fully embraced the surrealist movement, modeling for Man Ray (in some of the hats that she created with Elsa Schiaparelli) and working closely with André Breton, Paul Éluard, Yves Tanguy, Max Ernst, Joan Miró, and Roland and Valentine Penrose (who later became her lover). When Breton opened the doors to his Galerie Gradiva in 1937 he included Alice in the dedication of his gallery and continued to be her champion throughout her career. Alice Paalen's second collection of poetry, Sablier Couché (The Reclining Hourglass), is considered one of her most important literary works. The "reclining" hourglass was meant to represent the female body shape as both a vessel and a timepiece. This signed limited edition is a collection of six poems and includes an original red etching frontispiece by Joan Miró on cut and mounted yellow paper, signed and numbered by the artist. Miró, a close friend of Alice and Wolfgang Paalen, created this illustration specifically for Sablier Couché. Sablier Couché was published in 1938 by Editions Sagesse and the poems in this collection are known for their dreamlike quality and Alice's use of nature, animals, and mythology. It's likely an autobiographical piece with Paalen as the narrator who suffers from abandonment, distress and mistreatment by her male and female lovers. In fact, it is believed that she revealed her bisexual tendencies in print for the first time in this collection. Paalen's inscription to Duchamp: Inscribed by Paalen on the front free endpaper: à Marcel Duchamp avec l'admiration et la profonde sympathie d' Alice Paalen" ["To Marcel Duchamp with admiration and deep companionship from Alice Paalen"]. She also inscribed an excerpt from one of her poems by hand at the bottom of the same page: Coupe les pieds du cheval pour qu'il se ressemble. Coupe les ponts pour mieux sauter." [Cut off the horse's feet so that it stays in one place. Cut out the bridges, to better leap ahead."]. In the year of publication (1938), Duchamp and Wolfgang Paalen worked with Breton and Éluard to arrange the central room of the Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme in Paris, thus strengthening the friendship between Duchamp and the Paalens. The binder, Monique Mathieu: Bound by arguably the foremost binder of her generation, Monique Mathieu, with her initials and the date (1966) stamped in gilt. Mathieu (born in 1927), specialized in binding books by contemporary poets and illustrated by prominent artists. This copy of Sablier Couché is spectacularly bound in smooth slate calf with brown patterned leather in relief on front and rear boards, with suede pastedowns and decorative endpapers. Housed in suede-lined chemise and slipcase. With original wrappers bound-in. See: Catalogue des reliures de Monique Mathieu, 131. WITH: Laid-in folded folio sheet printing of Paalen's poems titled "Casse-Nuit" (the name Paalen originally considered for the collection). Provenance: From the collection of Paul Destribats (1926-2017), legendary collector of books on the avant-garde. Paris: Éditions Sagesse, 1938. Octavo, approx. 8.5 x 6.5 in (213 x 166 mm). Deluxe binding by Monique Mathieu (described above), original wrappers bound in. A FINE COPY. A MAGNIFICENT VOLUME UNITING PAALEN, MIRÓ, DUCHAMP, AND MATHIEU - FOUR MAJOR FIGURES OF THE EUROPEAN ART WORLD. References: Tere Arcq. "Following the Trail of the Marvelous: Alice Rahon." Catalog of the Exhibition Alice Rahon. Una surrealista en Mexico, Museo de Arte Moderno de México, 2009. Mary Ann Caws. "Alice Paalen Rahon: Shapeshifter." The New York Review of Books, Sep 14, 2021. Georgiana M. M. Colvüe. Through An Hour-giass Lightly: Valentine Penrose and Alice Rahon Paalen. University of Nottingham. January 7, 2013. Nancy Deffebach. Alice Rahon/Poems of Light and Shadow, Painting in Free Verse. Bombshelter Press, 1991. Georgina Fooks. "Now You Fly and Sing: Alice Paalen Rahon's Shapeshiter in Review." Asymptote. October 14, 2021.
SIGNED FIRST EDITION ASSOCIATION COPY OF PEREC'S MASTERPIECE, TO OULIPO CO-FOUNDER JACQUES BENS. WITH FIRST EDITION OF PEREC'S FAMOUS "E"-LESS NOVEL. One of the active members of the experimental mid-century French literary circle Oulipo (Ouvroir de littérature potentielle; "potential literature workshop"), Perec is know for his invention of new literary feats and forms. The present work, La vie mode d'emploi, is Perec's grand realisation of his ambitions, wherein the events in the lives of the inhabitants of a fictional Paris apartment block are recounted in a series of "Romans" ("Novels"), plural, as the cover and title-page indicate. Jacques Bens, to whom Perec inscribed the present copy, was one of the founders of Oulipo, and acted as the group's secretary. Bens' connection to the circle was in part due to his work under Raymond Queneau at Gallimard between 1960 and 1963. In addition to crafting his own literary works, Bens was also a prolific cruciverbalist, and worked with Perec on the games-and-puzzles sections of magazines including Télérama and Ça m'intéresse One of the more overt demonstrations of the writing constraints Perec would challenge himself to is his 1969 La disparition, which famously does not contain the letter 'e'. A sample sentence might include: "Tout avait l'air à abandon. Il trove un puits tari qui abritait trois gros tatous. Un humus grouillant couvrait tout l'aquarium." Incidentally, "e" constitutes four of the five vowels in Perec's name and the letter is unavoidable in the novel's prefatory material, and so perhaps in light of this the dust-jacket is adorned with one giant "e". The rare first edition, first printing of La disparition is offered here alongside La vie mode d'emploi. PEREC, GEORGES. La vie mode d'emploi. Paris: Hachette (Collection P.O.L.), 1978. First edition, first printing of 25 August 1978. Octavo, 1-699, [700]-[704] pp. Original wrappers. Inscribed by Perec on half-title to Perec's fellow OuLiPo member and co-founder Jacques Bens: "A Jacques | Son ami | Georges Perec"; inscribed by owner in pencil on front free endpaper: "J. Bens"; with publisher's envoi to register for news on future POL editions as issued. Some creasing to wrappers and spine from use, light toning across text-block; otherwise fine. with: PEREC, GEORGES. La disparition. Paris: Denoël, 1969. First edition, first printing of 29 March 1969. Slim octavo (4½ x 5â in; 114 x 149 mm). 319, [1] pp. Original wrappers with dust-jacket, prefatory and concluding material printed in red. Some general wear to the dust-jacket and wrappers, small tears to the spine from use, light toning throughout; a very good copy.
FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL PARTS OF HAECKEL'S BEAUTIFUL AND HIGHLY INFLUENTIAL COLLECTION OF "ART FORMS IN NATURE", COMPLETE WITH 100 STUNNNING FOLIO PLATES, MOST COLORED. THE EXCEPTIONALLY RARE FIRST ISSUE IN ORIGINAL PARTS, ORIGINAL WRAPPERS, AND ORIGINAL BOXES. A MAGNIFICENT SET. "The geometric shapes and natural forms, captured with exceptional precision in Ernst Haeckel's prints, still influence artists and designers to this day [.] Powerful modern microscopes have confirmed the accuracy of Haeckel's prints, which even in their day, became world famous. Haeckel's portfolio, first published between 1899 and 1904 in separate installments. illustrate Haeckel's fundamental monistic notion of the 'unity of all living things' and the wide variety of forms are executed with utmost delicacy. Incipient microscopic organisms are juxtaposed with highly developed plants and animals. The pages, ordered according to geometric and 'constructive' aspects, document the oneness of the world in its most diversified forms. This collection of plates was not only well-received by scientists, but by artists and architects as well. Rene Binet, a pioneer of glass and iron constructions, Emile Galle, a renowned Art Nouveau designer, and the photographer Karl Blossfeld all make explicit reference to Haeckel in their work." (Haeckel, Art Forms in Nature, 1998). HAECKEL, ERNST. Kunstformen der Natur. Leipzig and Vienna: Verlag des Bibliographischen Instituts, [1899-]1904. First edition, first printing. Folio (10.5 x 14 in), two volumes, original uniform pictorial green cloth over wooden boxes with red edges and off-white silk ribbon, 10 original printed Jugendstil [Art Nouveau] wrappers containing 100 prints, many colored or tinted; with additional Supplement in original wrappers, unopened. Text and plates in fine condition, some wear to boxes, namely to upper board of volume 1, and wear to wrapper spines. A rare survival of Ernst's masterpiece, with all 100 plates in vivid detail. References: Haeckel, Ernst, Art Forms in Nature: The Prints of Ernst Haeckel, ed. by Olaf Breidbach and Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt (Munich: Prestel, 1998).
FIRST EDITION OF POPPER'S LANDMARK IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE. A seminal work in the philosophy of science, Karl Popper's 1935 Logik der Forschung [Logic for Scientific Discovery] proposes the idea that scientific theories can never be verified, only falsified. Popper, in this his first monograph, critiques the inductivist view of scientific method in favour of his empirical falsification, and argues that scientific discovery is not a matter of induction or confirmation but rather a matter of conjecture and refutation. POPPER, KARL. Logik der Forschung zur Erkenntnistheorie der Modernen Naturwissenschaft. Vienna: Julius Springer, 1935. First edition, issued as volume 9 of Schriften zur Wissenschaftlich Weltauffassung. Octavo (5.5 x 8.5 in; 140 x 216 mm), vi, 248, [2, publisher advertisements] pp. Original printed wrappers. Wrappers slightly rubbed with some mild wear around edges, separation between some of the quires, but holding; a few light pencil marks. An excellent and very well-preserved copy of the rare first edition.
FIVE BECKETT TRILOGY FIRST EDITIONS. COMPRISING FIRST FRENCH EDITIONS OF EACH, FIRST ENGLISH EDITION OF MOLLOY AND FIRST COMPLETE EDITION. Beckett's postwar trilogy-consisting of Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable-were first published in French. In each novel comprising the trilogy, "Beckett's narrators are not, as in the realist novel, only psychological but also grammatical" (Furlani, 459). The Trilogy is characterized by its representation of temporality, the "self-multiplying narrators" and their object-oriented fixations. As a whole, the Trilogy is "almost a critical text paving the way for the philosophical views of the poststructuralists and deconstructionists" (Sultan, 421). Beckett himself referred to these novels as his "mature" writings wherein he "relentlessly reduces his characters from pitiful creatures with few possessions-a hat, a pot, a stub of pencil-to voices who have only the inner torments of their past life to sustain their present existence, and are doomed to repeat themselves until finally, even the voice, their last vestige of humanity, is stilled" (Bair, 354). This listing combines the first editions of the Trilogy in French with an English translation of Molloy by Patrick Bowles in collaboration with Beckett, as well as the first edition of the books being printed together in English. Aside from both translations being published by the Olympia Press, the complete volume holding the trilogy is the first to have issued the three texts together. In the complete volume, Molloy is the same English translation by Patrick Bowles, and Malone Dies and The Unnamable have been translated into English by Samuel Beckett himself. BECKETT, SAMUEL. Molloy. Paris: Les amis des editions de minuit, 1951. First edition, no. 238 of 500 "Les amis des editions de minuit" editions: one of 500 numbered copies specially bound for friends of the publisher and printed on Alfa Navarre. 12mo, 272, [3] pp. Original wrappers with black lettering and publisher's device to upper wrapper. Some foxing to wrappers and front and rear text leaves; text largely unopened. with BECKETT, SAMUEL. Malone meurt. Paris: Les éditions de minuit, 1951. First edition, no. 176. 12mo, 217 [7] pp. Original wrappers, with lettering and publisher's device printed in blue and black, with a printed photograph of the author to back wrapper; text largely unopened. Very mild toning to wrapper edges. Some toning and bumps to spine and edges, slight crease to last few pages. with BECKETT, SAMUEL. L'innommable. Paris: Les editions de minuit, 1953. First edition, no. 184. 12mo, 262, [2] pp. Original wrappers, with lettering and publisher's device printed in blue and black; untrimmed. Mild creasing to spine, text block slightly cocked. with BECKETT, SAMUEL. Molloy. Paris: The Olympia Press 1955. First edition in English. 12mo, 241, [5] pp. Original wrappers. With original blue, black and green wrappers. Light wear to edges and corners, a small spot of spoiling on extreme margin on p. 241 not affecting text, otherwise fine with vivid wrappers. with BECKETT, SAMUEL. Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable: A Trilogy. Paris: The Olympia Press, 1959. First completed edition of Beckett's trilogy of novels in English. 12mo, [2], 579, [1] pp. Original green printed wrappers. Mild crease to upper wrapper, slight bowing, small (2 cm) tear to upper corner of last leaf from dog-earing (not affecting text). Bibliography Bair, Deirdre. Samuel Beckett. London: J. Cape, 1978. Furlani, Andre. "The Contradictions of Samuel Beckett". Modernism/modernity, vol. 22 no. 3, 2015, p. 449-470. Renner, Charlotte. "The Self-Multiplying Narrators of Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable". Journal of Narrative Technique, vol. 11, no. 1, 1981, pp. 12-32. Sultan, Sabbar Saadoon. "The Critical Aspects of Beckett's Trilogy". Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd'hui, vol. 14, 2004, pp. 421-35.
FIRST EDITION, SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY ROBERTS ON THE TITLE PAGE: "May all those you love find the truth in you and be true to your love. November 2003 Gregory David Roberts" "In 1980, while serving a 19-year sentence for robbery in Australia, Roberts escaped from prison and fled to India, spending a decade on the lam before he was recaptured and extradited. As Australia's most wanted man -- or so he describes himself in this fictionalized account of his years in Bombay -- Roberts was a larger-than-life figure in his native country long before 'Shantaram' made him a best-selling author" (Megan O'Grady, The New York Times).â "Shantaram is a novel of the first order, a work of extraordinary art, a thing of exceptional beauty. If someone asked me what the book was about, I would have to say everything, every thing in the world. Gregory David Roberts does for Bombay what Lawrence Durrell did for Alexandria, what Melville did for the South Seas, and what Thoreau did for Walden Pond: He makes it an eternal player in the literature of the world" (Pat Conroy).â Melbourne: Scribe Publications, 2003. Thick octavo, original red cloth, original dust jacket. A fine copy. Note: This rare Australian first edition, first issue (with "Scribe" not in parenthesis on rear jacket flap), precedes all other editions. original cloth, original dust jacket
