confidante. There is also a suggestion that she was a partial model for both Marlow’s “aunt” and also the “Intended” in Heart of Darkness. In his bibliography of Conrad, William R. Cagle calls for “a 32 page publisher’s catalogue dated at the foot of p. 32 ‘10/02’ or ‘11/02’”. This copy has the earlier of the two. “A depressing African journey into the Congo Free State in 1890, when he travelled overland and in a paddle-steamer, would be recollected and powerfully transformed in his masterpiece . . . Heart of Darkness , which offered a forewarning of the Hitlerian demagogue, seems virtually inexhaustible in its recessive ambiguities and paradoxes” ( ODNB ). The story continues to attract fierce debate, and it has been called “one of the most powerful short novels in the English language” (Farrow). The three novellas were originally serialized in Blackwood’s Magazine in 1898, 1899, and 1902 respectively. Of this volume, Conrad wrote: “ Youth and Heart of Darkness are the first short stories of mine which attracted attention to my work in a wider sphere” (Wise). Octavo. Original green cloth, spine lettered in gilt, front cover lettered in black with decorations in black. Housed in a custom green cloth folding box. Book label of William S. Reese in folding box. Corners very slightly bumped, spine toned, some minor foxing; a near-fine and fresh copy. Box slightly soiled. ¶ Cagle A7a(1); Wise, A Bibliography of the Writings of Joseph Conrad , p. 19. Frederick R. Karl and Laurence, eds., The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad , 9 volumes, 1983–2008. £75,000 [157632] 30 CROSBY, Caresse & Harry. Five original pencil drawings. [Paris? c.1923] Original abstract artwork by the founders of the Black Sun Press A rare collection of original Crosby artwork, comprising four original abstract pencil drawings by Caresse, of which one is signed and initialled, two are initialled, and one is unsigned, together with one by Harry Crosby, unsigned, with “Black Sun” and sigils below in his handwriting. The works demonstrate the Crosbys’ involvement with and awareness of their contemporary art milieux: the female form drawn by Caresse is reminiscent of Marie Laurencin’s work, while the more obviously cubist experiments of her other three drawings tend towards abstraction, with the female form less perceptible, and suggestions of the Black Sun and metaphors of time present in her sundial shapes and shattered towers. Harry’s contribution is a bright block-coloured patchwork, distinct from Caresse’s pared-down red and black line drawings. Caresse and Harry were trans-disciplinary poets, publishers, and partners: they were close friends with leading lights in the Parisian art scene, including Picasso and Dalí (Caresse commissioned work from the former and modelled for the latter). No comparable items appear in auction records, and the only institution found with original Crosby artwork is the Southern Illinois University, which holds the largest extant body of Caresse and Harry Crosby’s papers. These artworks are undated and unlocated but were presumably executed in the Crosbys’ primary residence of Paris during the 1920s. 5 leaves of original pencil drawings on Van Gelder Zonen cream laid paper (approx. 242 × 160 mm), some edges untrimmed. 4 red and black pencil drawings by Caresse, together with 1 coloured pencil drawing by Harry. Occasional touch of foxing, trivial toning to edges, two drawings faintly toned where previously mounted. A near-fine set, very sharp and clean. £6,500 [158205]
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