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is that, even though she was dealing with microscopical organisms, she likens certain scenes to constellations of stars” (Strickland, pp. 65–66). Although Darwin supplied some of the plates, Somerville “avoided any reference to his controversial evolutionary theory in the belief that it needed further experimental investigation” (Orlando). Mary Somerville ( née Fairfax, 1780–1872) dedicated her life to the popularization of science and was notably the first person to be described as a scientist in print, in William Whewell’s review of her On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences published in the Quarterly Review (1834). Throughout her career, she promoted opportunities for women’s education, and was the first to sign John Stuart Mill’s petition for female suffrage in 1868. In London, she became acquainted with some of the leading figures of the time, including William Wollaston, Henry Kater, Thomas Young, William Blake, William Turner, and Walter Scott. Her other works on astronomy, mathematics, and geography all enjoyed a long-lasting popularity and were adopted as textbooks. Two volumes, octavo. Original blue cloth by Edmonds & Remnants, London, spine lettered and decorated in gilt, covers ruled in blind and in gilt, gilt illustration of an acanthometra bulbosa to front covers, yellow endpapers. With frontispieces, 9 plates, and 169 illustrations in text. Spines toned, extremities rubbed with a touch of wear to spine ends and corners, light marks and scuffs to cloth, contents a little shaken, top edges dust toned, minor foxing to a couple of initial leaves in both volumes, otherwise internally bright and clean. A very good copy. ¶ Elisabetta Strickland, The Ascent of Mary Somerville in 19th Century Society , 2016. £3,000 [162060] 138 SOONG, May-Ling, Madame Chiang Kai-Shek. Furen lan ce (“Chinese Orchids”). Taipei: Zhongyang yuekan she, 1971 inscribed by china’s “last empress” First edition, first printing, presentation copy, inscribed on the half-title, “To Mr Kenneth L. Wilson, May-Ling Soong Chiang, Taiwan, Republic of China, 1972.” The author ranks among modern China’s most influential politicians, and in 1943 she became only the second woman to address a US Congress joint session. This work was distributed privately and is therefore uncommon, with inscribed copies more elusive still. Together with her husband Chiang Kai-Shek, May-Ling Soong (1897–2003) dominated Chinese and then Taiwanese politics for almost fifty years. She was a member of the powerful Soong dynasty: her sister was married to Sun Yat- Sen and her brother was China’s leading financier for most of the 1930s and 1940s. During the Second World War she addressed a joint session of the US Congress; her speech, and her ability to outmanoeuvre both President Roosevelt and the senior Republican Wendell Willkie, secured a lifeline of billions of dollars in American aid for the Chinese war effort. Her impression on the American public was long-lasting: until 1967 she appeared regularly on American lists of the 10 most admired women in the world. Following the evacuation of Chiang’s administration to Taiwan, she was First Lady of the Republic of China until his death.
image of Solanas by Fred W. McDarrah. Minor rubbing to extremities, contents toned. A near-fine copy. ¶ Breanne Fahs, V alerie Solanas: The Defiant Life of the Woman Who Wrote Scum (and Shot Andy Warhol) , 2014; Marybeth Hamilton, “Remembering 1968: The S.C.U.M. Manifesto for the Society for Cutting up Men” in History Workshop Journal , July 2018. £1,250 [162319] 137 SOMERVILLE, Mary. On Molecular and Microscopic First edition of the author’s last scientific work. Written over the course of 10 years and published by Somerville at the age of 88, the book is profusely illustrated with nearly 200 drawings, some of which were provided by Charles Darwin. This work is scarce in commerce, with only one copy traced at auction since 1934. On Molecular and Microscopic Science was conceived as a detailed description of the latest discoveries made with the aid of a microscope and it comprises three sections, on atoms and molecules, plant life, and animal life. “The problems [Somerville] had to face during the work arose not from her age, as she had retained all her mental capacities, or the fact the she could not rely on research libraries, but from the fast and deep advancements that were happening in science all the time . . . what is absolutely fascinating in these two volumes Science. London: John Murray, 1869 the first scientist’s last work
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136 SOLANAS, Valerie. S.C.U.M. Society for Cutting Up Men Manifesto. New York: The Olympia Press, 1967 “overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and destroy the male sex” First edition, first printing. Solanas wrote this radical feminist text between 1965 and 1967, originally distributing it in New York in self-published mimeographed copies, sold to women for a dollar and to men at two dollars, the text of which differs slightly to this edition and is without the commentaries by Maurice Girodias and Paul Krassner included here. The controversial text, which has been interpreted both straightforwardly and as a parody on patriarchal philosophical tracts, has become notorious. It is nevertheless now seen as a key document in the 1960s feminist canon, with radical feminist activists of the time finding within it “something no one else was articulating: a wild and uncompromising insistence that female subordination was utterly primal. What it voiced was new and profoundly compelling: incandescent, unladylike rage, which, once unleashed, fundamentally reshaped the women’s movement” (Hamilton). In 1968 Solanas was sentenced to a three-year prison term for shooting Andy Warhol, an event referenced on the rear cover of this work. Solanas’s life was the basis for the 1996 film I Shot Andy Warhol . Octavo. Original pictorial paper wrappers, lettering to spine in black, and to covers in white, edges densely sprinkled blue. Front cover
The present album, released shortly after her 74th birthday, demonstrates the culturally sophisticated, intellectual side of Soong that made her such an effective complement to the less personable Chiang. It was one of several collections of her paintings published during her lifetime, and in later years she exhibited at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum and other venues. Kenneth L. Wilson was the author of Angel on Her Shoulder (1964), a biography of Christian missionary Lillian Dickson (1901–1983), who was a friend of Soong. Wilson was close to the Dicksons, even living with them for a time in Taipei, and it was through them that he likely met the author. Folio. Original gold imitation cloth wrappers, gold thread xianzhuang stitching, spine ends capped with gold silk, title to front cover on patterned panel speckled and bordered with gilt, front wrapper verso lined with patterned mulberry paper. In folding card case originally produced for a sister publication by the same author and sometime mistakenly combined with this copy. Facsimile of calligraphic foreword brushed by Chiang Kai-Shek, with mulberry paper guard, colour reproductions of 24 paintings by the author. Rear wrapper with several unobtrusive green marks and a little wear around stitch holes, extremities lightly rubbed, contents sharp. A near-fine copy. ¶ Hannah Pakula, The Last Empress: Madame Chiang Kai-Shek and the Birth of Modern China , 2010. £2,250 [151048]
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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