Actions are said to speak louder than words, but the right words published at the right time themselves inspire action. We celebrate the legacy of trailblazing writers, thinkers, activists, scientists, and travellers through exceptional first editions, special copies and objects, and significant archival material.
Peter Harrington l o n d o n ONLY CON NECT
force behind E. M. Forster’s famous maxim is as pressing today as when he first expressed it in Howard’s End over a century ago: “Only connect!
We have found space for several other Beat relics, the most impressive being an archive of Neal Cassady letters sent from reformatory school to an early mentor, shedding light on his past as “a young jailkid shrouded in mystery” (as Kerouac would later mythologize him). My favourite, however, is the 1943 yearbook from a high school in Paterson, New Jersey, inscribed by each of its graduating classmates, including a young Allen Ginsberg whose entry declares him “the philosopher and genius of the class ... fiend for Beethoven and Charlie Chaplin … hates dull teachers and Republicans”. Of all the connections we may experience, and of which books may tell, the greatest of these is love. Nancy Cunard’s ground-breaking Negro Anthology i s here in the most significant and moving copy imaginable: the dedication copy, inscribed to her lover, the jazz musician Henry Crowder who inspired the book, and on reading it, noted “you have made the name Cunard stand for more than ships”. For further amorous frisson, look for the copy of Madame Bovary inscribed by Flaubert to his childhood crush, or Siegfried Sassoon presenting his Memoirs to his temperamental lover Stephen Tennant. Other pieces are almost unbearably poignant: A Passage to India inscribed “my mother’s copy” by Forster when he took possession of it after her death, and a love letter from Sylvia Plath to Ted Hughes, stained with tears and steeped in “a deep sense of terror”. Perhaps most of all Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Pilote de guerre , his fighter-pilot memoir of the war in which he was to lose his life, inscribed on his last meeting with the woman who had inspired many details of Le Petit Prince : she was the fox, her poodle the sheep, and her doll the Little Prince himself. I could go on. These, in short, are the sort of books I love, and it is a privilege to be involved, albeit briefly, in their ongoing stories: each waiting only to make a new connection with you.
That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height . Live in fragments no longer”. Especially in today’s hyper-connected, lonely world, the quest to connect remains essential in life, as in literature. The stories of connection revealed in presentations between fellow authors and friends, or in examples of meaningful readership, impart an irreplaceable value to the objects themselves and, I believe, to their pursuit. This catalogue gathers many exciting examples of literary connection, each a gateway to a unique story, part of that indispensable alchemy by which we “connect the prose and the passion”. We have presentation copies between authors who need no introduction: from Edith Wharton to Henry James, equal titans of the literary elite on both sides of the Atlantic, or from Ian Fleming to Noël Coward, who had in his latest novel depicted the James Bond author as a tropical island-dwelling lothario. It is a special thrill to find presentation copies of major texts one seldom sees inscribed, such as Joseph Conrad’s Youth , including “Heart of Darkness”, inscribed to a fellow author who shared his Polish roots. A Christmas Carol is inscribed to a young lady with whose family Dickens stayed with when he gave the story its first public reading in Birmingham. Our recently discovered copy of The Waste Land has a wonderful international association, inscribed to Victoria Ocampo, doyenne of literary South America. Sometimes the connection between reader and book tells its own story. A knockout example is the copy of Flaubert’s L’Éducation sentimentale , owned by a teenage James Joyce when he was still a Dublin student, which provided the blueprint for A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man . Neal Cassady’s pocket Bible, given to him by his wife Carolyn with passages underlined urging him to “shun profane and vain babblings” and “flee also youthful lusts”, is another.
Sammy Jay sammy@peterharrington.co.uk
Design: Nigel Bents & Abbie Ingleby Photography: Ruth Segarra Rear cover image of Sammy Jay: Abbie Ingleby
VAT no. gb 701 5578 50 Peter Harrington Limited. Registered office: WSM Services Limited, Connect House, 133–137 Alexandra Road, London SW19 7JY Registered in England and Wales No: 3609982
CBP014410
Peter Harrington l o n d o n
only connect LITERARY PRESENTATIONS, ASSOCIATIONS, AND MANUSCRIPTS
catalogue 185
all items from this catalogue are on display at dover street
mayfair 43 Dover Street London w1s 4ff
chelsea 100 Fulham Road London sw3 6hs
uk 020 7591 0220
eu 00 44 20 7591 0220
usa 011 44 20 7591 0220
www.peterharrington.co.uk
1
1 ACHEBE, Chinua. Things Fall Apart; [together with] No Longer at Ease. London: Heinemann, 1958 & 1960 A rare inscribed set of the Nigerian novelist’s first two books, in sparkling condition First editions, first impressions, both copies inscribed by the author, of his debut novel and its sequel. Achebe has inscribed the front free endpapers respectively “For Doug, C.A.” and “To Doug, C.A.”, to the writer and collector Doug Moore, at a literary event, “Eat, Drink, & Be Literary”, moderated by Bradford Morrow, held in Achebe’s honour in Brooklyn, NY, 15 May 2008. Included with these two volumes are Moore’s named ticket for the event, the programme (signed by Morrow), and also the seating plan showing Moore seated not far from Mr and Mrs Achebe. Morrow was friends with Achebe since 1991, when they first met for an interview. In his introduction to that interview, Morrow observed: “I had heard that he was not just a man of immense literary greatness, but that he embodied a profoundly decent humanity” ( Conjunctions, no. 17, 1991). Two works, octavo. Original red cloth, spines lettered respectively in gilt and white. With illustrated dust jackets, that for Things Fall Apart supplied. Housed in custom green cloth slipcases, along with related ephemera housed in a matching green cloth envelope. An exceedingly attractive pair, Things Fall Apart with cloth somewhat mottled, and some very minor spotting to page edges, both jackets retaining vivid colouring, with a few small closed tears and mild soiling to the white portions, No Longer at Ease
price-clipped, and with the pink spine panel notably unfaded, generally excellent condition. £17,500 [155634]
1
1
2 ANDERSEN, Hans Christian. Nye Eventyr og Historier (“New Fairy Tales and Stories”). Copenhagen: E. A. Reitzels Forlag, 1868 Inscribed to the actor who recited The Snowman A remarkable presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the second blank, “Hr. kongelig Skuespiller Mantzius. Tør ‘Sneemanden’, som De har Velvillie for, komme her med sine yngere Søskende, og bringe Tak og venlig Hilsen, fra H. C. Andersen” (loosely translated as: “Mr Royal Actor Mantzius. You have such fondness for the ‘Snowman’. Dare he ‘thaw’ a little and come with his younger siblings, my other tales, to offer their
ONLY CONNECT
2
2
thanks and kind regards. From H. C. Andersen”). These three volumes formed numbers 25–27 of the 33-volume Samlede Skrifter (“Collected Writings”) of H. C. Andersen. They contain 63 stories, including “Sneemanden”, referenced in the inscription, in which Andersen portrays a snowman’s unrequited search for love, usually interpreted as a coded expression of his feelings for Harald Scharff, the lead male ballet dancer with Royal Danish Theatre, where Mantzius acted. In September 1872 Andersen records in his diary going with Scharff to Tivoli Gardens to hear Mantzius recite “Der Halskragen” (“The False Collar”). Kristian Andreas Leopold Mantzius (1819–1879) was a Danish actor, popular with audiences but challenging for employers on account of his temperamental and uncompromising character. Frederick VII, who found him amusing, appointed him to a post as royal actor in 1848. Mantzius continued to be a favourite of the Danish audience. After his dismissal as royal actor in 1871, he returned by popular demand to the Royal Danish Theatre as a guest actor. Mantzius and Andersen were both frequent visitors to the Student Association in Copenhagen. Andersen praised Mantzius in his autobiography: “recently and very often it is the royal actor Mantzius who has especially contributed to making my stories popular by his excellent dramatic talent” (Andersen, p. 157). This copy gives us fascinating insight into the process referred to in the inscription – the adaptation of these tales for public recitation – as two fairy tales bear personal markings by Mantzius, clearly intended to assist with his readings, “Peiter, Peter og Peer” and “Taarnvægteren Ole”. The markings include downward arrows for inflection, words underlined for emphasis, dashes for pause,
ties between words, and crosses. For additional emphasis some words are underlined in red pencil. Additionally, seven fairy tales have been underlined in pencil in the indexes. This copy was later in the library of the Danish writer, Tage La Cour (1913–1993), author of H. C. Andersen og fuglene: Et kompendium af eventyrene (“H. C. Andersen and the Birds: A Compendium of the Fairy Tales”); it then passed to the Hollywood star Danny Kaye (1911–1987), famous for his depiction of the author in the 1952 film Hans Christian Andersen . Andersen considered that “two of my best told fairy tales [are] ‘What the Old Man Does Is Always Right’ and ‘The Snowman’. I wrote the latter at Christmas time during a stay at the beautiful Basnæs [an estate owned by his friend Jacob Brønnum Scavenius]. It is frequently singled out among my other fairy tales for special acclaim, mostly because of the royal actor Mantzius’s excellent recitations” (Andersen, Bemærkninger , p. 20). The “younger siblings” of the inscription are presumably the other stories collected here. 3 volumes bound in one, small octavo (160 × 105 mm). Contemporary Danish half calf, spine gilt in compartments with two olive morocco labels, marbled sides, sprinkled edges, grey endpapers. Housed in custom solander box. Each work bound without the general series half-title and title. Binding somewhat worn, minor neat repairs to spine, chipped at head, front joint starting, some light spotting to edges, generally clean, a good copy. ¶ H. C. Andersen, Bemærkninger til Eventyr og Historier , II: 186, accessible online; H. C. Andersen, Mit livs Eventyr , 1876. £12,500 [157571]
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
3
3
4
3 AUDEN, W. H. Nones. London: Faber and Faber, 1952 “STONES ENDURE AS YOUR FIRST AND LAST THINGS” First UK edition, first impression, presentation copy, inscribed by the author to his fellow Oxford poet Elizabeth Jennings, whom he greatly inspired, “To Elizabeth Jennings from Wystan Auden”, his printed name on the title page struck through. This is a compelling association: the year following publication Jennings published her first book while working as a senior assistant of Oxford City Library; she would later observe “my influences had been Auden, Edwin Muir, and Robert Graves, and, of course, the great lyrical tradition since Shakespeare” (quoted in Couzyn, p. 100). “From Auden she learned the use of the surprising adjective and how to turn an abstract idea into a poetic image” (Greene, p. 32). Commemorating Auden’s death in 1973, Jennings wrote “Elegy for W. H. Auden”, alluding to Auden’s famous poem “In Praise of Limestone”, which first appeared in book form in this collection. Nones was first published in America the previous year and includes “Their Lonely Betters” (“We, too, make noises when we laugh or weep, words are for those with promises to keep”). Octavo. Original blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt. With dust jacket. Front pastedown with stamp of Oxford bookseller. Spine faintly sunned, offsetting to free endpapers, contents clean. An excellent copy in very good dust jacket, not price-clipped, spine panel sunned, shallow chip at head, abrasion at foot of rear panel affecting a few letters, sharp and bright overall. ¶ Bloomfield and Mendelson A32b. Jeni Couzyn, ed., The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Women Poets , 1985; Dana Greene, Elizabeth Jennings: The Inward War , 2018. £1,250 [154883] 4 BAGNOLD, Enid. A Diary Without Dates; [together with] The Happy Foreigner. London: William Heinemann, 1918 & 1920 Her two wartime works, each inscribed to her friend and nursing colleague
Enid Bagnold’s two wartime works, each inscribed by her to Dorothy Heath, her friend and fellow First Aid Nursing Yeomanry driver, together with three letters and a postcard from Bagnold to Heath. A Diary Without Dates is inscribed on the dedication page verso, “To Dorothy Heath (who said ‘Did you write this?’ and changed my career in France) with love from Enid 1919”; The Happy Foreigner is inscribed on the front free endpaper, “To Dorothy – in memory of her paper cell at Ber-le-duc and in part payment for the bath she lent me and which I lost in the river. Enid Bagnold June 28. 1920”. A Diary Without Dates , Bagnold’s war memoir of her work as a VAD from 1914 to 1918, was published in January 1918, and this is a third impression, published two months later; The Happy Foreigner is a first edition. Though Bagnold received critical acclaim for A Diary Without Dates , she was expelled from her job after publication. She subsequently signed up to the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), and her experiences there formed the basis of her semi- autobiographical novella, The Happy Foreigner . Bagnold met Heath in France when she joined Unit 6 at Bar-le-Duc just after the Armistice in November 1918. There, they shared a makeshift hut on the brink of the river Meuse, where Bagnold presumably lost Heath’s bath. In the book, Bagnold describes their “paper cells”, which she referenced in the inscription: “A narrow corridor ran down the centre of it, and on either hand were four square cells divided one from the other by grey paper stretched upon laths of wood – making eight in all. At one end was a small hall filled with mackintoshes. At the other a sitting-room. This was the home of the women drivers attached to the garage. In one of these paper cells, henceforward to be her own, Fanny set up her intimate life . . . The daylight showed her nothing to wash in, no jug, no basin” (p. 10). Their friendship continued after the war, as evidenced by the accompanying three letters and postcard from Bagnold to Heath arranging lunches together. Bagnold’s most famous work, National Velvet , was published in 1935. 2 works, octavo. A Diary Without Dates : original green drab boards, spine and front cover lettered in black; The Happy Foreigner : original blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Together with 3 letters and a postcard: 1) typed letter signed, undated, on headed paper, 13 Hyde Park Gardens; 2) autograph letter signed, dated 29 June, on headed paper, 13 Hyde Park Gardens (an
ONLY CONNECT
4
5
a second letter, “Aug 27 1923”, Barnes writes about her drawings of three of her fellow Lost Generation writers and artists, Ezra Pound, Jules Pascin, and Gertrude Stein, and enquires about a piece of her journalism (“what was done with my article on a Middle aged Lady?”); and in the third Barnes recommends to Drake the work of her friend and fellow Parisian poet, Mina Loy (“she is undoubtedly of interest”), whose collection Lunar Baedeker had just been published. The three fragments together give a fascinating insight into the difficult business of publishing in the 1920s, as well as Barnes’s own virtuosity as an artist. Barnes lived the bohemian life for many years in Greenwich Village, contributing “short stories, Beardsley-esque drawings, theatrical reviews, interviews, and news reports for almost every English-language newspaper in New York” ( ODNB ), but it was in Paris where she first began experimenting with the modernist avant-garde. Her first visit there was on a journalistic assignment for McCall’s magazine in 1921; her second, in 1922, was to interview James Joyce for Vanity Fair . The two became friends, and Joyce sent Barnes a copy of the proof sheets for Ulysses . By the following year, Barnes was firmly embedded within the community of expatriate modernists in Paris, appearing “in almost every literary memoir of Paris at this time” (ibid.). Together 3 items, 2 typed letters signed, addressed from the “University Union, 173 Blvd. St. Germain, Paris” and “‘Le Colombier’, Cagnes A.M.”, and 1 autograph letter signed, also from the University Union. Small rust marks from staples to two letters, lightly creased from folding, overall very good. £4,000 [158179]
annotation to the latter ascribes a year of 1926); 3) autograph letter signed, 10 July, on headed paper, 8 Little College Street, Westminster; 4) sepia postcard from Paris, 4 December 1951. The Happy Foreigner : inner hinges cracked and sometime repaired, contents clean and unmarked. A Diary Without Dates : spine darkened, head of spine somewhat chipped, contents slightly toned, otherwise clean and unmarked. A very nice set. ¶ Janet Lee, War Girls: The First Aid Nursing Yeomanry in the Great War , 2005. £1,500 [139421] 5 BARNES, Djuna. Three letters signed, two typed and one autograph. [1923] Letters from Lost Generation Paris, name-checking Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and Mina Loy A remarkable group of three unpublished letters from Djuna Barnes to her editor, one Mr Drake, offering a rare insight into the experiences of a struggling writer in the restless and vivacious world of Paris in the 1920s. The recipient may well have been William A. Drake (1899– 1965), who worked as an assistant editor for Vanity Fair in New York throughout the 1920s, where Barnes also published a number of her early pieces. Drake was something of a minor player in his own right, translating the works of continental writers into English, and publishing essays on contemporary literature, many of which he collected together in his book Contemporary European Writers (1928). The letters present a vibrant picture of modernism in the making, detailing Barnes’s efforts to get poems, drawings, and journalism into print. In the first, dated “May 12”, Barnes writes to Drake resisting any changes to her poem “Portrait of a Lady Walking”, which remained unpublished in her lifetime (“I do not like the suggestions made by Miss Gregory . . . The second the in the first line is intentional, as are the two ful’s in the second”); in
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
5
6
6
6 BARNES, Djuna. Nightwood. London: Faber and Faber Ltd, 1936 Inscribed just after publication to one of the most influential magazine editors in America First edition, first impression, rare presentation copy, inscribed by the author to the American editor who had commissioned articles from Barnes earlier in her career, “For Harry with my love Djuna London Oct 31 – 36”, on the front free endpaper. Inscribed just two weeks after publication, this copy wonderfully retains the original paper wrapper that Barnes used as an envelope. This is a superb association: Harry Payne Burton (1931–1942) was a ground-breaking American editor of both McCall’s Magazine and Cosmopolitan . Under his editorship, circulation of McCall’s doubled to over $2.5 million and advertising quadrupled to almost $8.5 million, and during this time he began to commission articles from Barnes. Burton won over readers “by filling the magazine with big-name fiction writers” and became the most highly paid magazine editor in America (Luerck, p. 220). “More than any editor of his time [he] studied publishing trends to discover what American women wanted to read. What they seemed to want was sophistication, a hint of illicit romance, a peek at fashion – all of which Barnes’s journalism provided” (Herring, p. 130). “By 1917 Djuna Barnes was earning five thousand dollars a year as a freelance feature writer. Fifteen dollars for an article was considered good payment in the 1910s; Barnes could, and often did, write several a day. By the time she left for Europe in 1920, she had published more than a hundred articles and over twenty-five short plays and fictions. The New York Tribune employed her as a stringer during her early years in Paris, Berlin, and the south of France. McCall’s , Vanity Fair , Charm , and the New Yorker commissioned articles and interviews that featured personages
6
famous, rich, or royal. McCall’s editor, Harry Payne Burton, for example, sent Barnes a $500 check to a Barcelona address in 1925 for an article on international marriage among the elite. During the 1920s, Barnes’ popular journalism was an uncertain source of income, allowing her to publish her serious fiction and poetry in literary journals with small budgets . . . In these early pieces Barnes is flexing muscles she will use when she creates the characters of Nightwood . . . Nightwood is proof that Barnes absorbed, retained, and used what she had seen as a newspaper writer” (Levine, pp. 28–34). This is Barnes’s masterwork, “highly charged . . . linguistically complex, and riven with pain and loss. It centres on the anguished narratives of Matthew O’Connor, a transvestite gynaecologist, and Nora Flood, who is in love with the enigmatic and boyish woman Robin Vote,” and is considered to have “one of the most shattering endings in modern literature. It took years for Barnes to find a publisher, until [her friend Emily] Coleman pressured T. S. Eliot at Faber and Faber to accept it. Eliot, who wrote the preface, thought it was like an Elizabethan tragedy for its ‘quality of horror and doom’” ( ODNB ). It is now considered
ONLY CONNECT
6
7
8
relationship and David Garnett was for a keen supporter of Bates’s work, writing to the author that he was one of only a few writers who made him feel “warm in a cold world” (Baldwin, p. 195). Bates and David Garnett helped to found Rupert Hart-Davis’s publishing company in 1946 and worked together with Hart-Davis on a brief biography of Edward Garnett, published in 1950. 3 works, octavo. Original red, blue, and green cloth, gilt lettering to spine. With dust jackets designed by Broom Lynne. Very good copies indeed, slight lean to spines, extremities rubbed, edges toned, minor offsetting to endpapers, in near-fine dust jackets, minor rubbing to extremities, one small chip to head of front panel to first title, three sharp unclipped examples. ¶ Eads A86a, A87a, A90a. Dean R. Baldwin, H. E. Bates: A Literary
one of the most important gay novels of the first half of the 20th century in the English language. Octavo. Original purple cloth, spine lettered in gilt, top edge purple. With dust jacket. Contemporary brown paper wrapper used as envelope, addressed in Djuna Barnes’s hand to “Harry Payne Burton, Esq/ c/o Cosmopolitan Magazine, 57 W & 8th Ave, New York City, U. S. America”, with her return address in Paris (“9 Rue St. Romain, Paris, France”). Housed in a purple morocco-backed bookform box by the Chelsea Bindery. Slight lean to spine, light foxing to endpapers and first and last few leaves, a remarkably fresh copy in a lovely example of the jacket, unusually clean, small chips to head of spine panel and corners, a few short closed tears, in beautiful condition, superbly preserved by the contemporary brown paper wrapper. ¶ Phillip F. Herring, Djuna: The Life and Work of Djuna Barnes , 1995; Nancy Levine, “‘Bringing Milkshakes to Bulldogs’: The Early Journalism of Djuna Barnes”, Silence and Power: A Reevaluation of Djuna Barnes , 1991; Therese Lueck, Women’s Periodicals in the United States: Consumer Magazines , 1995. £15,000 [155857] 7 BATES, H. E. The Darling Buds of May; [together with] A Breath of French Air; [and] When the Green Woods Laugh. London: Michael Joseph, 1958–59–60 “You are one of very few people writing who makes me feel warm in a cold world” First editions, first impressions, with a strong personal and professional association with the author’s close friends and Bloomsbury insiders Angelica and David Garnett, the first title being signed and inscribed on the front free endpaper: “David and Angelica, affectionately as always, H E, 1/58”; with David Garnett’s bookplate to the front pastedown. This set of the first three of Bates’s bucolic Larkin titles reflects his close relationship with the Garnett family. The daughter of Vanessa Bell, Angelica Garnett (1918–2012) was an artist, painter, and writer, author of the 1984 memoir Deceived with Kindness , an account of her coming of age amongst the Bloomsbury group. Angelica’s husband, David “Bunny” Garnett (1892–1981), was himself a member of the group and co-founder of the Nonesuch Press with Francis Meynell. The couple knew Bates through the patronage of David’s father, Edward, who became Bates’s mentor at Jonathan Cape at the outset of his career. They developed a close
Life , 1987. £2,500
[157987]
8 BECKETT, Samuel. Malone Dies. New York: Grove Press, 1965 Inscribed to his literary agent First US edition, first printing, presentation copy inscribed by the author on the title page, “For William & Roslyn Targ very cordially Samuel Beckett”; number 431 of 500 copies. Roslyn Targ (1925–2017) was Beckett’s literary agent and was prominent in the 1950s and 1960s for selling translation rights for American books to foreign publishers. Her husband William (1907–1999) was a noted Beckett collector; he was editor at World Publishing and Putnam’s before founding his own imprint, Targ Editions. Malone Dies was originally published in French in 1951, under the title Malone meurt , and in English in 1958 in London. Octavo. Original tan cloth, titles to spine and front cover in black. Pen underlining and annotations to pp. 12–16 (likely by the recipients), inner hinges toned; a very good copy. £3,000 [153779]
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
7
9 BECKETT, Samuel (his copy) – HAYMAN, David. Ulysses: The Mechanics of Meaning. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1970 The acclaimed commentary on Ulysses , inscribed to Joyce’s disciple and amanuensis First edition, first impression, inscribed by the author to Samuel Beckett, who was Joyce’s amanuensis during the writing of Finnegans Wake , on the front free endpaper, “For Sam Beckett, from whose first letter to me I quote: ‘in Joyce the form of judgement more and more devoured its gist and the saying of all the saying of anything, in a way more consistent with Bruno’s identification of contraries than with the intellectualism of Mallarmé.’ Is the present position (mine) more to your liking? It is of course a blend. Warmly, David Sept ‘70. P. S. I hope yr eyes permit you to read this”. In a significant letter to James Knowlson, Beckett wrote of Joyce’s powerful “influence ab contrario ” on him as a writer: “I realized that Joyce had gone as far as one could in the direction of knowing more, in control of one’s material. He was always adding to it; you only have to look at his proofs to see that. I realised that my own way was impoverishment, in lack of knowledge and in taking away, subtracting rather than adding . . . I had a great admiration for him. That’s what it was: epic, heroic, what he achieved. I realized that I couldn’t go down that same road.” David Hayman is a literary critic and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who participated in the publication of Joyce’s complete manuscripts and has also written a number of essays on Beckett’s works. Octavo. Original black cloth, titles to spine in silver. With dust jacket. An excellent copy in the lightly rubbed and toned jacket. £1,500 [158487] 10 BELL, Clive. The Legend of Monte Della Sibilla, or Le Paradis de la Reine Sibille. Richmond: Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, 1923 Unrequited amour: Bell’s original ode to the star of the Ballets Russes First edition, first impression, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper to Lydia Lopokova, “Clive Bell. August 24 1941. A la Sibilla de nos jours, Clive” (“de nos jours” partially erased but legible), with the original autograph final draft of his 19-line poem “To Lopokova Dancing”, a rich expression of the romantic yearning Bell felt for her. Lopokova (1892–1981) was the leading ballerina of Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes. She first appeared in London in 1918, when she danced in Massine’s The Good-Humoured Ladies (“Le donne de buon umore”). The following year she danced a raucous can-can alongside Massine in the world premiere of The Magic Toyshop (“La Boutique fantasque”). During his brief balletomane phase, Bell was smitten by her, as is evident from his poem. In July 1919 he praised her in a New Republic article as “the finest danseuse that this generation has seen . . . not only a genuine artist but a brilliant executant”, contrasting Lopokova’s “true artist” to Tamara Karsavina’s mere “actress”, and comparing her “deliciously gay temperament” to Mozart and Fra Angelico. All this was calculated to flatter, and Bell, ever the womanizer, made a spirited attempt at seduction. Though he was unsuccessful, and Lopokova married John Maynard Keynes in 1925, the two remained
10
friends and correspondents throughout their lives. This later inscription dates from the period when Lopokova was nursing Keynes in his ill health. This title is uncommon in the jacket, and rare inscribed. The manuscript has three textual corrections, with the published text matching the corrections made here. Signed by the poet, it has the additional presentation inscription “from Clive Bell. 46. Gordon Square. London. W.C.1”. It also bears an earlier initial “C.B.” below the text and an earlier location “Garsington. Oxford” inked out, suggesting perhaps the original location of the poem’s composition. Bell lived at 46 Gordon Square from 1922 to 1929. The poem was composed in 1918 and published in Poems (1921). Quarto. Original white boards, front cover illustrated and lettered in black. With dust jacket. With 1 sheet autograph poem signed. Front cover designed by Vanessa Bell; frontispiece, head- and tailpieces by Duncan Grant. Spine ends chipped, extremities a little toned and worn, trivial eraser abrasions to front endpapers, a few gutters cracked but firm, very occasional foxing. A very good copy in like jacket, lightly soiled and toned with a little foxing to front panel, edges chipped and nicked, short closed tears to spine, 4 cm closed tear to head. Poem folded twice, small damp stain to verso, nick to foot and a few trivial marks, abrasion from eraser to top right corner, two short closed tears to top left corner, not affecting text, one tiny closed tear to line 7. ¶ Woolmer 27. £4,500 [158195]
10
ONLY CONNECT
8
11
12
11 BELL, Julian, & T. H. White (contrib.) Cambridge Poetry, 1929. Hogarth Living Poets. No. 8. London: Published by Leonard & Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, 1929 “We shall know better someday, but, God, what genius we had then!” First edition, first impression, of the first volume in Hogarth’s Cambridge Poetry series, including contributions from Julian Bell, William Empson, and T. H. White. This was editor Basil Wright’s own copy, with his ownership inscription to the front free endpaper, and is signed by 14 other contributors, including Empson and White, both significant authors whose signatures are far from common. The full list of signatories is: Roland Bottrall, J. Boronski, J. D. Cullen, John Davenport (who playfully adds “We shall know better someday, but, God, what genius we had then! Love John D. 1929”), William Empson, H. Romily Fedden, K. A. Matthews, J. P. A. Ragg, J. M. Reeves, Christopher Saltmarshe (“Coeditorially Kit”), Hugh Sykes, James Thornton, T. H. White, and Edmund M. Wilson. Cambridge Poetry 1929 precedes Julian Bell’s first book of poems Winter Movement , which was published the following year. It is one of 600 copies printed, and has the erratum slip laid in. Octavo. Original green paper-covered boards, spine and front cover lettered in black, front cover with design by Vanessa Bell in black. Spine neatly repaired, some light tanning to spine and to margins of boards, a little rubbing to extremities, very good condition. ¶ Woolmer 189. £1,250 [151412] 12 BELLOW, Saul. Dangling Man. New York: The Vanguard Press, 1944 Bringing together sociology and poetry in Chicago
First edition, first printing, of the author’s first book, inscribed by him on the front free endpaper, “To Kurt & Carla Wolff, affectionately, Saul Bellow”. One of the Wolffs has added “[Chicago Ap 15, 44]” beneath Bellow’s inscription and “Kurt & Karla Wolff, Chicago, Mr. 27, 1944 (H. Bookstore)” above. This is an excellent association, from Bellow to his friend and fellow writer, the influential sociologist Kurt Wolff (1912–2003). They met in Chicago: Bellow was raised there, and Wolff “had fallen in love with the region, with the people and with the situation” (quoted in Stehr) while a research fellow at the Social Science Research Council in the early 1940s. Bellow wrote this book, about a young Chicago man waiting to be drafted, during his service with the merchant marine during the Second World War. Both Bellow and Wolff were significantly engaged in one another’s disciplines: Bellow was a writer educated in sociology, and Wolff a sociologist whose literary experiments Bellow encouraged. Bellow was a Canadian-born Lithuanian-Jew who had graduated from Northwestern University with an honours in anthropology and sociology, the study of which had a marked influence on his literary style. Wolff was a Jewish German- born sociologist forced out of Germany by rising Naziism, who recounted that “after a relatively short time in America I began to write literature, in which the most important help I received was from Saul Bellow, whom I got to know in Chicago in 1943”. This is a significant association from the beginning of an intellectually fertile relationship. Octavo. Original light green cloth, spine lettered in brown, small design of man with arm outstretched on front cover in brown, top edge brown. With dust jacket. Spine a touch sunned and cocked, spine ends just bumped, cloth and edges of book block lightly soiled, edges of endpapers toned. A very good copy indeed, internally clean, in like jacket, edges toned, shallow chips to head of spine and corners, rubbing to front panel, a few short closed tears to folds and one across spine, head of front panel and flaps a touch creased, edges nicked, not price-clipped, a clean example. ¶ Nico Stehr, “A Conversation with Kurt H. Wolff”, Gary Backhaus & George Psathas (eds.), The Sociology of Radical Commitment: Kurt H. Wolff’s Existential Turn , 2007. £3,750 [157559]
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
9
13
13 BISHOP, Elizabeth. Geography III. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1976 A formidable poetic couple First edition, first printing, review copy with the publisher’s compliments slip laid-in, inscribed by the author on the title page to fellow poet Elizabeth McFarland, “For Liz Hoffman – love – from Elizabeth Bishop, Nov. 11th 1979”, with one sheet of hand-corrected typed notes by poet Daniel Hoffman, husband of Elizabeth, introducing a reading by Bishop at the University of Pennsylvania. Elizabeth McFarland (1922–2005) was poetry editor of Ladies’ Home Journal from 1948–1962, and an instrumental figure in broadening the influence of eminent poets like W. H. Auden, Marianne Moore, Richard Eberhart, and Walter de la Mare, and popularizing promising upcomers like Maxine Kumin, Sylvia Plath, Adrienne Rich, William Stafford, and John Updike. Daniel (1923–2013) called his wife a “one-woman Guggenheim Foundation” as she fought for fair pay for poets. Together they were a formidable poetic pairing: he was the 22nd Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, a much-decorated author of nine books of poetry, and the Felix E. Schelling Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. Bishop was invited to the university in 1979 to award a number of annual poetry prizes, including the Ellis Ames Ballard memorial prize, and give a reading of her own work. Daniel’s introduction refers to this, “her most recent book”, and praises Bishop’s career: “there is no prize of honor for a poet in this country which has not been given to Elizabeth Bishop . . . when we read [her] poems we feel as does the old fisherman in her poem ‘At the Fishhouses’, dipping his hand into the sea”. Bishop has misdated her inscription: she died on 6 October 1979 of a stroke. This copy was likely signed in the year of publication. Geography III was her last work and won the Book Critics’ Circle Award for 1977. “This volume of nine beautifully crafted poems returns to themes of North and South but with greater intimacy and immediacy” ( ANB ).
Octavo. Original brown cloth, spine lettered in gilt, tan endpapers. With dust jacket. Illustrated title page. Loosely inserted are two newspaper clippings, one a review of Geography III , the other an obituary of Bishop. Trivial scratch to rear cover, front inner hinge just starting. A near-fine copy in fine jacket. ¶ Dan Hoffman, “Elizabeth McFarland, a Poet Who Brought Poetry to the Millions”, Poetry Society , available online. £4,750 [155736] 14 BLAKE, William. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. [London: J. C. Hotten, 1868] Owned by Ford Madox Brown, who thought Blake “the most imaginative artist who ever lived” First edition thus, the first facsimile of any of Blake’s illuminated books, one of 150 copies printed, and this copy with a stupendous artist’s provenance. It was owned by the Pre-Raphaelite artist
ONLY CONNECT
10
15
condition. ¶ Colin Trodd, “Ford Madox Brown and the William Blake Brotherhood”, Visual Culture in Britain , 15:3, 277–298, 2014. £2,750 [155258] 15 BLIXEN, Karen, as Isak Dinesen. Last Tales. London: Putnam, 1957 Presented to a bon vivant First edition, first impression, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “Philippe Jullian, from Isak Dinesen. 13. 11. 1957”. The recipient was artist, author, and gay bon vivant Philippe Jullian (1919–1977). Jullian was the author of the book which effectively launched the Symbolist art revival in France, Esthètes et Magiciens (“Dreamers of Decadence”, 1969), and the dedicatee of Philip Core’s Camp: The Lie that Tells the Truth (1984). As an illustrator, he contributed to works by Violet Trefusis, Natalie Clifford Barney, and Vita Sackville-West, and illustrated editions of Proust, Wilde, and Dickens. In his later years, Jullian moved to England, but regularly spent his winters in Africa. Blixen and Violet Trefusis became closer friends around the time of this inscription, and it is likely that Blixen knew Jullian through her; Trefusis was one of Jullian’s closest friends, and he wrote a biography of her, published in 1976. Octavo. Original black cloth, spine lettered and ruled in gilt, top edge blue. With dust jacket by Owen Wood. Spine cocked, upper corners lightly bumped, covers a little soiled, contents slightly foxed. A very good copy indeed in toned jacket with a few spots of foxing, damp stains to front panel and rear flap, shallow chips to head of spine and one corner, extremities a little rubbed and creased with occasional nicks. ¶ Ian Buruma, Theatre of Cruelty, Art, Film, and the Shadows of War , 2014. £2,500 [155698]
14
Ford Madox Brown (1821–1893), who praised Blake as “the most imaginative artist who ever lived . . . in the matter of genius second to none”. The first blank is inscribed with a note on the provenance: “From the Collection of the historical painter Ford Madox Brown . . . and purchased by his pupil Frank Rathbone at the sale of Madox Brown’s effects after his death. 29th May 1894. H.S.R.”. The binding also has one of the title labels declaring Brown’s ownership of the volume. Brown was friends with Alexander Gilchrist and influenced by Gilchrist’s 1863 biography The Life of William Blake . Small quarto (240 × 185 mm). Bound c .1900 in smooth red calf, spine gilt in compartments with raised bands and two black morocco title labels, sides bordered in gilt and panelled in blind, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. 24 lithographic facsimile plates, each hand coloured. Bookplate of Panof Grafsos Skinos on front pastedown, Japanese note on Ford Madox Brown tipped in to first blank. Some light rubbing to ends and corners, small abrasion to marbled paper at upper outer corner of pastedown, plates somewhat foxed, still an attractive volume in very good
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
11
16
16 BORGES, Jorge Luis. Luna de enfrente. Buenos Aires: Editorial Proa, 1925 “And, in the end, what matters is poetry” First edition, first printing, number 74 of 300 copies only, a superb presentation copy of Borges’s scarce second collection of poetry, inscribed by the author on the half-title to fellow Argentine poet Horacio A. Rega Molina (1899–1957), “al mejor imaginero de nuestra poesia, don Horacio Rega Molina – muy cordialmente Jorge Luis Borges” (“to the most imaginative of our poets, Horacio Rega Molina, very affectionately Jorge Luis Borges”). Borges has also added two small corrections to the text on pages 24 and 37. Rega Molina was born in the same year as Borges and was the protégé of Leopoldo Lugones. He published a sequence of youthful collections from 1919, and in the year of this book’s publication won the Buenos Aires Municipal Award for Poetry (which may account for Borges’s praise of him as the “ mejor imaginero de nuestra poesia”). Borges would include Rega Molina’s poetry in his Antologia poetica Argentina (1941). Remembering Rega Molina in later life, Borges clearly upheld this high regard: “¡Un excelente poeta! ¡Un admirable poeta! Uno de los mejores poetas argentinos. Claro, personalmente no era
grato . . . Su poesía era muy superior a su diálogo, digamos. En el diálogo era cortante, fácilmente arrabalero; pero cuando escribía, no: era un poeta de una gran delicadeza. Y, al fin de todo, lo que importa es la poesía” (“An excellent poet! An admirable poet! One of the best Argentine poets. Of course, as a person he was rather ungracious . . . His poetry was far superior to his conversation, shall we say. In dialogue, he was brash, obviously suburban; but when he wrote, no: he was a poet of great delicacy. And, in the end, what matters is poetry”) (Borges & Carrizo, pp. 265–6). Luna de enfrente was Borges’s second poetry collection, and third publication overall, following the rare poetry collection Fervor de Buenos Aires (1923), and Inquisiciones (1925), a collection of essays. It was published with woodcut illustrations by his sister Norah Borges. Quarto. Original black cloth-backed yellow boards, front cover with lettering in black and pictorial design by Norah Borges blocked in red, edges untrimmed. Housed in a custom black leather-backed folding case, with spine lettered in red. Wood-engraved vignettes to half-title, and to title, limitation, and colophon pages by Norah Borges. Light rubbing to spine ends, wear to extremities with some recolouring, yellow boards somewhat dust-soiled, patch of paper restoration to one corner of half-title not affecting text, otherwise internally clean, overall a very good copy. ¶ Jorges Luis Borges & Antonio Carrizo, Borges el memorioso, 1982. £15,000 [155193]
ONLY CONNECT
12
17
18
17 BORGES, Jorge Luis. El congreso. Buenos Aires: El Archibrazo Editor, 1971 to his lifelong friend and illustrator of the English edition First edition in book form, first impression, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper to his lifelong friend and fellow writer, “A Hugo Manning, con perdurable amistad, J Luis Borges” (“With lasting friendship”). Borges remarked that “if of all my stories I had to save one, I would probably save the ‘The Congress’”. Manning (1913–1977) was a Jewish poet, short story writer, and translator. He lived in Argentina from 1939 to 1942, working in various roles for newspapers and magazines including La Nación , Argentina Libre , and The Buenos Aires Herald . It was here that he met Borges, who would become a lifelong friend: Manning’s portrait of Borges was used as the frontispiece for the English edition of this title, The Congress (1974). Manning was in the British intelligence corps during the Second World War, wrote and edited for Reuters, and became Poetry Editor for the New Statesman in 1948. Large octavo. Original white wrappers with flaps printed in black and yellow. Photographic portrait frontispiece. Lightly soiled and toned, a very good copy indeed. ¶ Jorge Luis Borges, The Book of Sand , 1977. £2,250 [135421]
18 BUKOWSKI, Charles. Post Office. Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1971 The author’s debut novel, inscribed to the printer, “well, hell, friend – here’s another” First edition, signed limited issue, number 12 of 250 copies in boards signed and numbered by the author, this a presentation copy to the printer, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “To Phil Klein – well, hell, friend – here’s another. Charles Bukowski, 3–5–71”. This is an excellent association. The Black Sparrow Press was founded primarily in order to print Bukowski’s work, and this title was Bukowski’s first novel, an autobiographical memoir of his time working at the United States Postal Service. The press was founded by John and Barbara Martin in 1966, and Phil Klein was their first printer. He worked in the print shop at the same comv1pany as John Martin, and printed Bukowski’s first seven broadsides at cost because “it was a ‘fun’ project for him” (J. Martin, quoted in Debritto, p. 134). Bukowski wrote “here’s another” in his inscription to Klein since he had printed Bukowski’s first Black Sparrow publication, the poetry collection The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills , in 1969. There were a further 2,000 copies issued in wrappers, and 50 hand-bound in boards with an original illustration by Bukowski. Large octavo. Original red, blue, and white star-patterned cloth-backed pictorial pale blue boards, pale blue spine label, front cover lettered in red and blue, red endpapers. Title page printed in red, blue, and black, monochrome photographic portrait of the author on the final page. Extremities a little sunned, free endpapers darkened, slight offsetting to verso of front free endpaper. A very good copy indeed. ¶ Morrow & Cooney 99. Abel Debritto, Charles Bukowski, King of the Underground , 2013. £7,000 [156551]
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
13
19
19 BURDEKIN, Katherine, as Murray Constantine. The Devil, Poor Devil! [Together with a rough proof.] London: Boriswood, 1934 The dedication copy First edition, first impression, dedication copy, a wonderful association, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper to her friend and literary agent Margaret Goldsmith, “To Margaret, from Kay, November 3rd 1934”, additionally signed as Murray Constantine on the title page, and with Goldsmith’s name written out in Burdekin’s hand beneath the dedication “To M.G.”. This copy is presented together with a rough proof of the work. It was Margaret who, upon Burdekin falling into a bout of depression in 1938, gave her research material on Marie Antoinette to lift her out of her creative slump. This material invigorated Burdekin, and resulted in a historical novel, Venus in Scorpio , credited to them both and published in 1940. Burdekin’s pseudonym, adopted from 1934, was first revealed in the 1980s by feminist scholar Daphne Patai and her writing has since garnered serious academic interest. The Devil, Poor Devil! is a satirical fantasy about how the Devil’s power is undermined by modern rationalism. Octavo. Original blue cloth, titles to spine in red. With dust jacket. Proof: octavo. Original brown paper wrappers, titles to front wrapper in black. Board edges a little bumped and toned, rubbing to spine lettering, light offsetting to endpapers; a very good copy in the toned jacket, not price- clipped, spine browned, nicks to edges, a couple of small chips to head of spine. Proof: spine cocked and toned, a couple of light pencil marks to front wrapper, damp mark to foot of gutters to second half of book block. £3,000 [151274]
20 BURROUGHS, William S. The Ticket That Exploded.
Paris: The Olympia Press, 1962 Inscribed to a “far out cat”
First edition, first printing, inscribed by the author on the title page, “For David Snell, William Burroughs”. Snell (1921–1987) was one of two reporters for Life magazine, the other Loomis Dean (1917–2005), who were present when Burroughs and Brion Gysin invented the cut-up technique on 1 October 1959, and whose subsequent interview outed Burroughs as a heroin user to Life readers, among them Burroughs’s own mother. Snell’s opening line upon meeting his interviewee was “Have an Old Gold, Mr Burroughs”, a direct reference to Naked Lunch , in which two cops, O’Brien and Hauser, let themselves into Bill’s flat; Snell’s reference draws an excellent and knowing parallel between the two Life reporters and the cops, positioning himself as O’Brien: “they weren’t bad as laws go. At least O’Brien wasn’t. O’Brien was the con man, and Hauser the tough guy. A vaudeville team. Hauser had a way of hitting you before he said anything just to break the ice. Then O’Brien gives you an Old Gold – just like a cop to smoke Old Golds somehow . . . and starts putting down a cop con that was really bottled in bond. Not a bad guy” (Burroughs, p. 190). Burroughs valued Snell’s reference, writing to Allen Ginsberg that Snell and Dean were “2 far out cats with real appreciation for my work that can’t be faked” (quoted in Roach, p. 164). Burroughs had no love for Life magazine, but he liked Snell and Dean, and exonerated them for their parts in the final piece, a vitriolic repudiation of the Beats penned by a staff writer. The Life article, a long list of character assassinations that targets Kerouac,
ONLY CONNECT
14
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter maker