75
76
77
78
75 HARVARD UNIVERSITY. Examinations for Women. 1883. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, 1882 a scarce piece of harvard co-education ephemera First edition of the regulations for Harvard’s tenth examination for women, a three-day entrance exam beginning 28 July 1883, held in Cambridge, New York, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati. The assessments, which first took place in 1874, were part of a drive by the Woman’s Education Association of Boston to improve women’s academic opportunities during the 1870s and 1880s. In 1883 the women’s exam format remained similar to the men’s, with a few exceptions, and any passing certificate would also be accepted as equivalent to the entrance exams at Wellesley, Smith, and Vassar Colleges. Harvard itself allowed successful applicants to attend a private programme for the instruction of women run by their faculty, though they were not directly admitted as students of the main university. The women’s examinations ended in 1895, two years after the private programme, administered by the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women (colloquially known as the Harvard Annex), became Radcliffe College, the degree- granting sister institution to Harvard. Women were not granted official degrees from the main university until the 1970s, when Radcliffe and Harvard underwent a merger. We cannot trace individual copies of the current regulations on WorldCat or Library Hub, though a copy is included in a volume of women’s examination materials at Harvard’s Schlesinger Library (dated 1873–95) and in a similar Sammelband at the Boston Public Library (dated 1874–84), indicating its likely appearance in other such institutional volumes. Copies of the inaugural “Examinations for women in 1874” pamphlet – much longer at 72 pages and incorporating sample papers – are far more prevalent in institutions.
77 HÉRICOURT, Jenny d’. A Woman’s Philosophy of Woman; or Woman Affranchised. New York: Carleton, 1864 “it is time to make the 19th century ashamed of its culpable denial of justice to half the human species” First edition in English of a pioneering feminist essay, “by any standards . . . undisputedly a major document for the history of feminist thought” (Offen, p. 145). “My end is to prove that woman has the same rights as man. To claim, in consequence, her emancipation; lastly to point out to the women who share my views, the principal measures that they must take to obtain justice . . . I claim the rights of woman, because it is time to make the nineteenth century ashamed of its culpable denial of justice to half the human species” (author’s preface). Héricourt responds to the works of various French philosophers on the capabilities, duties, and rights of women. “She confronted and refuted the theories of women’s intellectual inferiority advanced by the socialist/anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, as well as the ‘woman on a pedestal’ theories of the so-called father of sociology, Auguste Comte, and the father of social history, Jules Michelet. In the second part of the book, she then developed with great intellectual rigour her own ‘philosophy of women’” (Offen, p. 145). A physician and midwife by profession, Héricourt contributed to a range of journals on political and feminist questions; she later moved to the United States, and furthered the women’s movement there. The work was first published in French in Brussels in 1860 as La Femme affranchie . Copies sent to France were seized by the authorities. Héricourt appealed directly to Napoleon III, who lifted the ban, and a Paris edition followed the same year. This English-language edition is slightly abridged; the translator is apparently unknown.
Octavo, 8 pp. Original buff printed wrappers, sewn as issued, Harvard crest in centre of front wrapper. Evenly toned, final page lightly soiled, neatly pencilled tick and “Dup[licate]” on front wrapper, two library stamps: blind stamp of Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland (dated 1867–1892) on front wrapper (with “withdrawn” overstamp) and ink stamp of State Library of Massachusetts, Boston (dated 5 September 1882) on p. [2]. Overall a very good copy of a fragile pamphlet, with no chips or tears. ¶ The Harvard University Catalogue, 1883–84 , 1883. £1,250 [154706] 76 H.D. (Hilda Doolittle.) Sea Garden. London: Constable and Company Ltd, 1916 h.d.’s debut, inscribed to the childhood friend and “initiator” who taught her the “facts of life” First edition, first impression, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “To Florie with love and the best of good wishes, from Hilda, Oct. 4th 1918”. Florence Prince was H.D.’s best friend at school, and likely her first lesbian lover. This was H.D.’s first original work, preceded only by her translation of Euripides’s Iphigenia in Aulis earlier the same year. In Hirslanden Notebooks , a collection of reflections written between 1957 and 1959 (unpublished until 2015), H.D. recalls that Prince was a companion in “philosophical researches or studies” and her earliest “initiator”, who taught her the “facts of life”. A handful of examples of H.D. and Prince’s correspondence are preserved in the Beinecke Library’s collection. Octavo. Original red paper over stiff card wrappers, spine and front cover lettered in black, fore and lower edges untrimmed. Neat ownership signature of Anglo-Canadian author John Metcalf on first blank. Spine ends worn, spine toned, just extending onto slightly marked covers, extremities rubbed: a very good copy. ¶ Boughn A2 a.i. £2,500 [161819]
Octavo. Original brown cloth with blind honeycomb pattern, spine lettered in gilt, publisher’s device in gilt at foot of spine and in blind to covers. Very light sunning to spine, tape residue to free endpapers, light foxing to contents, still a very well-preserved, square copy. ¶ Karen Offen, “A Nineteenth-Century French Feminist Rediscovered: Jenny P. D’Héricourt, 1809–1875”, in Signs , vol. 13, no. 1, 1987. £1,250 [161995] 78 HIGHSMITH, Patricia. The Talented Mr Ripley. New York: Howard-McCann, Inc., 1955 Inscribed to the award-winning book critic and first female member of the Baker Street Irregulars First edition, first printing, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “To Lenore, with my best wishes, Pat Highsmith”. Inscribed copies are genuinely rare; just one copy is recorded at auction, inscribed to Highsmith’s partner Barbara Windham. The recipient was almost certainly Lenore Glen Offord, who wrote several crime novels and was the critic of mystery books to the San Francisco Chronicle for over 30 years. She received the Edgar Award for Outstanding Criticism in 1952. Offord reviewed The Talented Mr Ripley shortly after publication in her Chronicle column “The Gory Road”, summing it up as “Well done, depressing” (15 January 1955). A copy of her review accompanies the book. In 1958 Offord was the first female member of the literary society The Baker Street Irregulars (although their annual dinner remained men-only for another 34 years) and contributed to the Baker Street Journal from its first year of publication. Octavo. Original black cloth, spine lettered in green. With dust jacket. Spine ends slightly worn, else clean and bright. A very good copy indeed in like jacket, extremities lightly rubbed, head of spine creased and chipped, spine panel a touch sunned but a bright example. £15,000 [161103]
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
LOUDER THAN WORDS
60
61
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter maker