Einstein on the Beach began a trilogy of Glass’s operas, each centred on a different historical figure. When it premiered on 25 July 1976 at the Avignon Festival in France, “nobody had seen anything like it” (Clements). Glass remarked that until it was performed, he and Wilson “had no idea it was an opera”. The only place they could perform the elaborate five-hour production was an opera house, and when people began referring to it as an opera, “it was a discovery for us as it was for everybody else” (quoted by Lesnie). The book contains examples from the musical score, sketches of the stage design, and notes on de Groat’s choreography. Oblong quarto. Original grey wrappers, front lettered in black. Housed in grey card slipcase, as issued. Illustrated throughout, with a monochrome signed print, as issued. Extremities and slipcase a trifle rubbed, else a near-fine copy, print in fine condition. £2,200 [151536]
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71 GORDIEVSKY, Oleg – ANDREW, Christopher. The Defence of the Realm. The Authorized History of MI5. London: Allen Lane, 2009 signed by superspy oleg gordievsky First edition, inscribed by the author on the title page and signed on the half-title by Oleg Godiesvsky, Sir Michael Burton, Elmar Brook, and Michael Howard, the first three having been speakers at a Carlton Club Political Committee Dinner on the tenth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. A menu for the dinner is loosely inserted, also signed by Gordievsky, perhaps the most prolific Russian agent turned by MI5, and by no means a frequent signer. “Oleg Gordievsky was the most significant British agent of the cold war. For 11 years, he spied for MI6. That he managed to deceive his KGB colleagues during this time was remarkable. Even more astounding was that in summer 1985 – after Gordievsky was hastily recalled from London to Moscow by his suspicious bosses – British intelligence officers helped him to escape. It was the only time that the spooks managed to exfiltrate a penetration agent from the USSR, outwitting their Russian adversaries” (Luke Harding, The Guardian , 19 September 2018). Octavo. Original back boards, lettered in silver on the spine. With dust jacket. 32 plates, numerous illustrations in the text. Very good. £1,500 [159142]
68 GILL, Stanley. Parallel Programming. Reprinted from The Computer Journal. London: The British Computer Society Ltd, [1958] exceedingly rare first paper on parallel computing Original offprint, inscribed on the front wrapper, “With the author’s compliments S.G.” Gill’s discussion of the parallelization of tasks constitutes “the first paper on parallel programming . . . Subsequent papers on the subject did not appear for another seven years . . . A decade later, interest in parallel programming had increased dramatically” (Dauben, p. 361). The origins of parallel programming, and specifically MIMD (multiple-instruction-multiple- data) programmes, can be traced to the early 19th- century work of Charles Babbage, Luigi Federico Menabrea, and Ada Lovelace. Gill significantly advanced and formalized the topic on 16 December 1957, when he presented this paper to the British Computer Society. It was published in journal format in the April 1958 issue of The Computer Journal (1/1, pp. 2–10), and in offprint format as here. The offprint is scarce. We cannot find any other copies in commerce or auction records, and neither WorldCat nor Library Hub find it, though runs of The Computer Journal do exist in institutions. Quarto, pp. 9, [3]. Original buff printed wrappers, stapled. Ink shelf mark and annotation of “CME Library” (likely the abbreviation for Computing, Maths and Engineering;
institution untraced) on front wrapper, crease at lower margin. A near-fine copy. ¶ Joseph Warren Dauben, Abraham Robinson: The Creation of Nonstandard Analysis , 1995. £3,750 [159676] 69 GLASS, Philip, & Robert Wilson. Einstein on the Beach: An Opera in Four Acts. With Choreography by Andrew de Groat. New York: EOS Enterprises Inc., [1976] glass’s first opera First edition, signed limited issue, number 2 of 100 signed by Wilson, Glass, and de Groat, with a print signed and numbered by Wilson.
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70 GOLDEN COCKEREL PRESS; BUCKLAND- WRIGHT, John (illus.) Hero & Leander. London: Christopher Sandford at the Golden Cockerel Press, 1949 “who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?” First edition thus, number 43 of 100 deluxe copies signed by Lucas and Buckland-Wright, containing an extra illustration and bound in full vellum by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, from the entire edition of 500. Lucas’s translation of the sixth-century Greek poet
Musaeus’s famous poem was designed by Christopher Sandford and finely printed at the Golden Cockerel Press, with somewhat eroticized etched illustrations by John Buckland-Wright. Octavo. Publisher’s deluxe vellum by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, spine lettered in gilt, illustrative designs by Buckland-Wright to boards in gilt, single gilt fillet at turn-ins, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. In the original orange cloth slipcase. With 12 etchings by John Buckland-Wright, including the title page and frontispiece, all but 2 full-page. Collector’s bookplate to front free endpaper. A lovely copy, the vellum unbowed, and generally very fresh but for a few faint spots within, excellent. £4,000 [156241]
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DECEMBER 2022
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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