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51 DIDION, Joan. Slouching Towards Bethlehem. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1968 “the world as i had understood it no longer existed” First edition, first printing, of the author’s first work of nonfiction. A collection of essays originally written by Didion for the Saturday Evening and other magazines about her experiences in California, this title was praised upon publication by The New York Times for its “grace, sophistication, nuance, and irony” (Wakefield). Octavo. Original orange cloth-backed grey paper boards, spine lettered in gilt, floral ornaments in blind on front cover, yellow endpapers, top edge pink. With dust jacket. Edges lightly rubbed and toned, lower corners bumped with a touch of wear. A very good copy in like jacket, mildly toned, minor creasing to extremities, tips nicked, else bright. ¶ Lynne Marie Houston & William V. Lombardi, Reading Joan Didion , 2009; Dan Wakefield, “Places, People and Personalities”, The New York Times , 21 June 1968. £1,250 [160964] 52 DING, Ling. Jin zuo (“Recent Writings”). Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe, 1980 one of modern china’s most famous and important writers First edition, first printing, inscribed in Chinese by the author on the first blank, “Mr Huang Keyi, Ding Ling, 1981.12, San Francisco”. Works inscribed by Ding are rarely found in commerce. Ding Ling (1905–1986) achieved literary stardom in the 1920s for groundbreaking works such as Miss Sophia’s Diary (1927) exploring sexuality, the purpose of life, and rapid social change from the perspective of China’s youth.
During the Cultural Revolution, she came under sustained attack along with many fellow members of the literary old guard. Following Mao’s death and the easing of the cultural climate, Ding was allowed once again to write and publish, and the present selection of her post-Mao essays was heavily influenced by China’s recent political upheavals and her years in the literary wilderness. Octavo. Original decorative paper wrappers with inner flaps, spine and front cover lettered in black. Half-tone frontispieces showing author alone and with her husband, title page printed in brown. Contemporary bookseller’s price ticket on rear cover. Covers and contents clean and bright. A fine copy. £750 [153718] 53 DU CHÂTELET, Émilie. Dissertation sur la nature et la propagation du feu. Paris: Prault, Fils, 1744 playing with fire: one of a small number privately printed for the trailblazing scientist Rare first edition in book form of Du Châtelet’s essay on the nature of fire, “essential reading for those who wish to understand the fame of her Institutions de physique [and] the transformation of Du Châtelet’s thought” between it and her celebrated translation of Newton’s Principia (Kawashima, p. 425). The Dissertation is published here with the articles which best illustrate the controversial Du Châtelet-Mairan correspondence. Émilie Du Châtelet (1706–1749) occupies a prominent place in French intellectual history, particularly in the fields of natural philosophy, physics, and mathematics. She is best known for her working and personal relationship with Voltaire, her influential Institutions de physique , published anonymously in 1740, and her translation of and extended commentary on the Principia (1759), the first in French and
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for Institutions . They have independent pagination, separate divisional or title pages (one of which bears its original Brussels imprint), varying typefaces, and typically several leaves are bound out of sequence (as here, in gathering I of the Dissertation ). Volumes often do not contain all parts – the BnF copy, for example, is not the “final” version, but contains only the Dissertation and the “Avis du libraire”. The present copy has all three parts. The Dissertation is genuinely rare in commerce; we can trace two at auction. Three parts bound in one volume as issued, octavo (188 × 118 mm). Contemporary mottled calf, red morocco spine label, compartments and raised bands elaborately tooled in gilt, single fillet frame in blind to boards, marbled endpapers, red edges, blue silk book marker. Engraved title page vignette, head- and tailpieces. Half-title, “Avis” leaf. Early ink shelf mark and title list on front and rear free endpapers respectively; gathering I of Dissertation bound out of sequence (matching the BnF digitized copy; see note). Discreet, minimal restoration at spine ends, very occasional spotting (gathering H of Dissertation , joined by ink marks on final two leaves of Réponse ), a few gatherings of Réponse unopened. Overall a beautifully bound copy, internally crisp and clean. ¶ Grolier, Extraordinary Women in Science & Medicine , pp. 28–36; Keiko Kawashima, “Anonymity and Ambition: Emilie Du Châtelet’s Dissertation du feu (1744)”, in Ruth Hagengruber, ed., Époque Émilienne: Philosophy and Science in the Age of Émilie Du Châtelet (1706–1749) , 2022; Ogilvie & Harvey, Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science I, pp. 378–80. £6,750 [161018]
still the standard text. Prior to these landmark publications, Du Châtelet joined Voltaire in entering an essay contest on the subject of fire held by the Academie des Sciences in 1736; hers was the first submission by a woman to the Academie (if anonymously). “Although neither of them won the prize, Voltaire arranged to have both of their contributions published with those of the winners in 1739. Before her work was published, Du Châtelet modified her Newtonian opinions and petitioned the academy to publish a revised version; the academy refused but did allow her to add a series of errata that reflect her acceptance of Leibnizian ideas” (Ogilvie & Harvey). Dissatisfied with this compromise, and aware of the haste in which she had written the essay, Du Châtelet determined to revise the Dissertation . Meanwhile, an authorship dispute and pointed criticism of his work in Institutions brought Du Châtelet into conflict with Jean-Jacques d’Ortous de Mairan, secretary general of the Academie des Sciences. The so-called Du Châtelet-Mairan correspondence, a public debate on vis viva , manifested in his angry letter of objection ( Lettre . . . ) and her rebuttal ( Réponse . . . ), both first published in 1741 and revised by their authors several times during circulation. The 1744 Dissertation has a complex publication history; Kawashima remarks that “it seems likely that the book was not intended to appear in the form in which it was published from the outset” (p. 435). It is composed of three parts: the Dissertation (which includes a two-page “Avis du libraire”, not always present) and two articles, all printed for this edition by Prault fils, the same publishing company Du Châtelet used
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
LOUDER THAN WORDS
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