American Lives

Mary Cassatt

Mary Cassatt: Children Playing with Dog, 1907, oil on canvas, 39 3/9 by 28 ¾ in. 100 by 73 cm.

Children Playing with a Dog

John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent: Judith Gautier, 1885, watercolor and pencil on paper, 13 1/2 by 10 1/2 in.

Judith Gautier (Au Jardin or Parmi les fleurs)

Barkley L. Hendricks

Barkley L. Hendricks: New Michael, 1971, oil and acrylic on canvas, 22 by 22 in. 55.9 by 55.9 cm.&nbsp;

New Michael

Stuart Davis

Babette (Burlesque)signed Stuart Davis and dated 1912 (lower right)oil on canvas30 ⅛ by 37 ⅞ in.76.9 by 97.2 cm.&nbsp;Executed on 23 February 1912.

Babette (Burlesque)

Norman Rockwell 

Norman Rockwell(1894 - 1978) Study for ‘All Together’oil on canvas42 by 31 ¾ in.107 by 80.6 cm.Executed in 1947.

Study for ‘All Together’

Jacob Lawrence

Winter

Jared French

Jared French&nbsp;(1905 - 1988) Three Women and a Lifeguard&nbsp;signed French (lower right)oil and tempera on canvas mounted on Masonite24 ½ by 28 ⅛ in.62.2 by 71.4 cm.

Three Women and a Lifeguard 

George Tooker

George Tooker&nbsp;(1920 - 2011) Landscape with Figures IV&nbsp;signed Tooker (lower right)egg tempera on gessoed panel20 ⅛ by 30 in.51.1 by 76.2 cm.&nbsp;Executed in 1999.

Landscape with Figures IV 

Paul Cadmus

Book Buffsigned Cadmus (lower right)tempera on gessoed panel19 by 14 in.48.3 by 35.6 cm.Executed in 1994.

Book Buff

William McGregor Paxton

William McGregor Paxton(1869 - 1941) The Afternoon Mailsigned Paxton and dated - 1907 (upper left)oil on canvas27 ¼ by 22 ⅛ in.69.2 by 56.2 cm.Executed in 1907.

The Afternoon Mail

Edward Hopper

Edward HopperThe Monhegan Boat (Zigrosser 19; Levin 52)

The Monhegan Boat (Zigrosser 19; Levin 52)

Edward HopperAux Fortifications (Zigrosser 2; Levin 89)

Aux Fortifications (Zigrosser 2; Levin 89)

Various Photographers

Various Photographers Selected Images from the Resettlement Administration and the Farm Security Administrationa group of 75 gelatin silver prints, comprising works by Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, Marion Post Wolcott, Jack Delano, Russell Lee, Carl Mydans, and John Vachon, the majority with Resettlement Administration or Farm Security Administration stamps, negative numbers in pencil, and typed or printed captions on the reverseimages: each approximately 7 ½ by 9 ½ in. (19.1 by 24.1 cm.)Executed between 1936-1942, printed no later than 1942.

Selected Images from the Resettlement Administration and the Farm Security Administration

Gordon Parks

Gordon Parks Untitled, Mobile, Alabamasigned and dated 2024 by Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr., Executive Director of The Gordon Parks Foundation, in ink on a label on the reverse of the framearchival pigment print, mounted60 by 60 in.152.4 by 152.4 cm.Executed in 1956, printed in 2024, this print is from an edition of 7 plus 2 artist's proofs.

Untitled, Mobile, Alabama

Edward HopperRailroad Crossing&nbsp;(Zigrosser 23; Levin 103)

Railroad Crossing  (Zigrosser 23; Levin 103)

Edward HopperNight Shadows (Zigrosser 22; Levin 82)

 Night Shadows (Zigrosser 22; Levin 82)

Mark Twain

Clemens, Samuel Langhorne (Mark Twain)Adventures of Huckleberry Finn … By Mark Twain. Illustrated by E.W. Kemble. New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885 Square 8vo. Some minor foxing and a few pages with toning. Publisher's deluxe half brown morocco and marbled boards, gilt spine with raised bands, marbled edges and endpapers; rubbed at extremities. First American edition. First edition of Twain's enduring classic of boyhood, in the deluxe publisher's half morocco binding — at the time of publication the rarest and most expensive of the various publisher's bindings. The first edition comprised 30,000 copies; the publisher Webster announced that 20,000 would be bound in green or blue cloth ($2.75), 2,500 in a sheepskin library binding ($3.25), and 500 in this deluxe half morocco binding ($4.25). The remaining copies were perhaps bound in the same proportion.&nbsp; In his "Huck Finn among the Issue-Mongers," Kevin MacDonnell has shown that there are only three points which distinguish the first printing from the second printing of 10,000 copies: "the plates were corrected to reflect three changes in the text: at page 13 the erroneous page reference '88' was changed to '87'; at page 57 the misprint 'with the was' was corrected to 'with the saw'; and at page 9 the misprint 'Decided' was corrected to 'Decides.'" Our copy exhibits all three first printing points. The Uncle Silas plate at page 283, which was defaced at some point during the printing, is here in the cancel state. As for the other points enumerated by Blanck and Johnson, they derived from corrections made to the electrotyped plates during the course of printing and do not indicate a priority of issue. Huckleberry Finn prompted Hemingway to state: “All modern literature comes from one book by Mark Twain. It’s the best book we’ve had. All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing since.” REFERENCESBAL 3415; Grolier American 87

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

William Faulkner

Faulkner, WilliamThe Sound and the Fury. New York: Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith, [1929] 8vo. Original black and white boards with white cloth spine; some fading to head and foot of spine, and rubbing along bottom edge. No price on dust jacket and $3.00 price on rear panel for "Humanity Uprooted"; unrestored dust-jacket with usual fading to spine, two small chips to top of back panel and one to top of front panel, small bit of loss to head of spine, spine with visible crease. First edition, first printing of Faulkner's pioneering work of American modernism. The Sound and the Fury was Faulkner's fourth novel and employed a stream-of-consciousness technique and multiple narrators. The flap copy says it "suggests Joyce in its technique and the Russians, – perhaps Dostoyevsky – in its theme," but in retrospect the work is purest Faulkner, with multiple narrators and cascading layers of history, telling the story of the fall of a grand Southern family through the generations. REFERENCESPeterson A6b

The Sound and the Fury, first edition

John Steinbeck

Steinbeck, JohnGrapes of Wrath. New York: The Viking Press, [April, 1939] 8vo. Tan cloth, decoratively stamped in brown on cover and spine, unclipped dust jacket; small closed tear to upper rear of dust jacket, spine lightly sunned. First edition of the classic novel of the Great Depression. The tale of the Joad family as they travel across the country from Oklahoma to California in the midst of the Great Depression is one of the most influential novels of the twentieth century. It is Steinbeck's masterpiece. The Grapes of Wrath won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer and was central in the awarding of Steinbeck the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.

Grapes of Wrath, first edition

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald, F. ScottTender is the Night. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1934 8vo. With decorations by Edward Shenton. Original dark bluish green cloth (linen-like grain). Jacket with blurbs by Clum, Seldes and Rawlings on front flap; very good with some wear at extremities and paper repairs on verso. First edition, first printing in the second state jacket. Fitzgerald began Tender is the Night in 1925, the same year The Great Gatsby was published. He know he had written an important book with Gatsby, but thought that his success hinged at the follow-up. By the time he had finished Tender in 1933, however, his life had taken several torturous turns: Zelda's breakdown and the onset of the Great Depression darkened Fitzgerald's sensibilities, a shift which became evident in portions of the book.&nbsp; REFERENCESBruccoli A14.I.a

Tender is the Night, first edition

Frederick Douglass

Douglass, FrederickMy Bondage and My Freedom: Part I - Life as a Slave, Part II - Life as a Freeman...with an Introduction by Dr.James M'Cune Smith. New York and Auburn: Miller, Orton and Mulligan, 25 Park Row and 107 Genesee-st, 1855 8vo. Frontispiece, plates, ads in the rear; usual foxing. Publisher's purple cloth; spine faded as usual. First edition. Douglass published his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life..., in 1845 in which he described his years in captivity in Maryland and his eventual escape and involvement in the abolition movement. "Published seven years after the author escaped slavery. It is probably the best known narrative of the ante-bellum period" (Blockson).&nbsp; Ten years later, he heavily revised and expanded his autobiography as the present My Bondage and My Freedom. Almost three times the length of the Narrative, My Bondage provides considerably more detail about Douglass' enslavement and escape and includes events which had occurred between 1845 and 1855 as a free man. Notably, the book also includes an appendix with extracts from some of Douglass notable speeches, including both his famous "Letter to His Old Master" and "What to to the Slave is the Fourth of July." The work also includes a new introduction by African American abolitionist James McCune Smith, whom Douglass described as "the single most important influence" on his life. The book was an instant bestseller, selling around 5,000 copies in two days. REFERENCESBlockson 9717

First edition of Douglass's autobiography

Truman Capote

Capote, TrumanBreakfast at Tiffany's. A Short Novel and Three Stories. New York: Random House, [1958] 8vo. Publisher's yellow cloth with black leather spine label lettered in gilt, original typographic dust jacket; faint fading to spine. In a custom cloth clamshell box. First edition, first printing. With three stories in addition to the title novella: "House of Flowers," "A Diamond Guitar," and "A Christmas Memory."

Breakfast at Tiffany's, first edition

James Baldwin

Baldwin, JamesNotes of a Native Son. Boston: The Beacon Press, 1955 8vo. Red cloth with black stamping, dust jacket depicting photograph of Baldwin; fading to spine and one little bump to top of rear hinge. First edition of Baldwin's powerful first book of essays. This first collection of Baldwin's non-fiction essays centers on issues of race and identity in both the United States and Europe, where he had emigrated in 1948. The ten texts were previously printed in periodicals such as Harper's Magazine and Partisan Review, and ranged from critical discussions of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Richard Wright's Native Son, and Carmen Jones, to Harlem, Jim Crow segregation, and being Black in France. In 1998, the Modern Library named it to its list of the top 100 non-fiction books of the 20th century, placing it at number 19.

American Lives

Filters

Way to Buy

Department

Artist

Price

Mary Cassatt

John Singer Sargent

Barkley L. Hendricks

Stuart Davis

Norman Rockwell

Jacob Lawrence

Jared French

George Tooker

Paul Cadmus

William McGregor Paxton

Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper

Various Photographers

Gordon Parks

Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper

Mark Twain

William Faulkner

John Steinbeck

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Frederick Douglass

Truman Capote

James Baldwin