First Edition Specialist Selections

Gerard De Jode

An important <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=map&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">map</a> of the world by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Gerard+De+Jode&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gerard De Jode</a>, engraved by brothers Jan and Lucas van Doetecum, inspired by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Abraham+Ortelius&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Abraham Ortelius</a>'s eight-sheet map of 1564.<ul><li>Gerard De Jode (Dutch, 1509-1591).</li><li>Engraved by Jan and Lucas van Doetecum (Dutch).</li><li>Universi Orbis seu Terreni Globi in Plano Effigies. Cum privegio.</li><li>Antwerp: G. Smits, 1578.</li><li>This work is presented unframed.</li></ul> Cordiform (heart-shaped) projection, with wind-heads around the map and terrestrial and celestial spheres in the bottom corners. On the map above North America, a 'north-west passage' connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, running outside the Arctic Circle, with Japan at the Pacific end. The Great Southern Continent follows the southern border of the map. The map was ready for publication in 1571, but De Jode could not get a license to publish his atlas, apparently because of interference by Ortelius, who wanted to protect his own 10-year privilege for the Theatrum. It was only in 1578 that the Speculum Orbis Terrarum was issued, by which time the title of this map had been altered, removing Ortelius's name as the source. This map only appeared in the first edition of the atlas: the second, expanded edition of 1593, published by Gerard's widow and sons, contained two new world maps, on Mercator's Projection and a polar double-hemisphere. Neither edition of the Speculum sold well, as Ortelius's Theatrum already dominated the market. The second edition was to be the last: after 1600 the plates were bought by Jan Baptiste Vrients, who also acquired the Ortelius rights, to ensure they were never printed again. This makes all editions of the De Jode maps quite scarce.

Dutch Cordiform World Map

J.K. Rowling

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first paperback edition</a> of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Harry+Potter&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Harry Potter</a> and the Philosopher's Stone by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=J.K.+Rowling&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">J.K. Rowling</a>.<ul><li>J.K. Rowling (English).</li><li>London: Bloomsbury, 1997.</li><li>Includes relevant first edition points: "1 wand" twice on page 53; 'philosphers' misspelling on rear; correct print line number and date.</li><li>Paperback, in a custom red cloth display box.</li></ul>

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone First Edition

Ernest Hemingway

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Type=Signed%2520and%2520Inscribed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">signed</a> <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a> of Farewell to Arms by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Ernest+Hemingway&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ernest Hemingway</a>.<ul><li>Ernest Hemingway (American).</li><li>New York:&nbsp;Scribners,&nbsp;1929.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>[10], 355 pages.</li><li>Number 56 of 510 copies signed by the author on the limitation leaf.&nbsp;</li><li>Publisher's light bluish-green boards backed and cornered with vellum, black morocco spine label lettered in gold, in custom half-morocco clamshell box.</li></ul> The only signed limited issue of Hemingway's work, and one of the greatest war novels of all time.

A Farewell to Arms | Signed First Edition

James D. Watson

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a>, first printing of The Double Helix, <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Type=Signed%2520and%2520Inscribed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">signed</a> and inscribed to <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Francis+Crick&amp;pfilters.dateRange=past" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Francis Crick</a> - Co-Discoverer of DNA.<ul><li>James D. Watson (American).</li><li>United Kingdom: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1968.</li><li>Signed 'For Fran/ L / Jim Watson'/.</li><li>In the unclipped dust wrapper.</li></ul> James Watson and Francis Crick formed one of the most famous scientific partnerships of the twentieth century. Working together at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge in the early 1950s, they were united by a bold, intuitive style and a shared ambition to solve the structure of DNA. Their collaboration was energetic and highly complementary: Crick contributed deep theoretical insight and exuberant confidence, while Watson offered sharp observational instincts and strategic focus. Their partnership, though sometimes competitive and later complicated by controversies around credit—especially regarding Rosalind Franklin’s contributions—remained mutually respectful. They continued to admire each other’s intellect and maintained professional friendship long after their landmark discovery.

The Double Helix Inscribed First Edition

Beatrix Potter

A preparatory sketch for the 1905 <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a> of The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Beatrix+Potter&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Beatrix Potter</a>, accompanied by a first printing of the book.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2.</li><li>Beatrix Potter (English).</li><li>London: Warne, 1905.</li><li>Sketch is pencil on paper, and has been mounted, framed and glazed.</li><li>The illustration itself appears on page 22 in the 1905 edition.</li></ul> Potter’s enchanting tale of the little hedgehog washer woman, an exceptionally scarce item, coupled with the first edition book; with an association to writer and Beatrix Potter expert Leslie Linder.

The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle First Edition, with Preparatory Sketch

George Orwell

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a>, first printing of Animal Farm by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=George+Orwell&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">George Orwell</a>.<ul><li>George Orwell (English).</li><li>United Kingdom: Secker and Warburg, 1945.</li><li>'Searchlight Books’ advertisement printed in red to the verso as called for.</li><li>In the unclipped dust wrapper, housed in a custom-made solander box.</li></ul> A political allegory that uses farm animals to depict the corruption of socialist ideals and the rise of totalitarianism, mirroring the Russian Revolution and Stalin’s regime. The story follows the animals’ rebellion against their human owner, only for their leader, Napoleon the pig, to become as oppressive as the humans they overthrew. Written during World War II, the novel was initially rejected by several publishers due to its criticism of the Soviet Union but was finally published in 1945 by Secker &amp; Warburg, achieving immediate success and lasting global influence.

Animal Farm | First Edition First Printing

Jane Austen

The <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first US edition</a>, first printing of Pride and Prejudice by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=jane+austen&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jane Austen</a>.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2 volumes.</li><li>Jane Austen (English).</li><li>Philadelphia:&nbsp;Carey &amp; Lea,&nbsp;1832.</li><li>12mo.</li><li>199, [1]; 209, [1] pages</li><li>Publisher's catalogue bound at front of Volume I.</li><li>Modern full peach design binding by Sol Rébora in Can Can structure with one layer of cotton cloth and two layers of Japanese paper, each element hand-painted with acrylics and textured with a patterned design impressed with deep-relief hot-stamping from silk; spines and boards stamped in dark grey, cotton and abaca handmade paper peach endpapers.</li></ul> First US edition in a stunning fine art binding by the acclaimed Argentinian design bookbinder Sol Rébora. Austen's most beloved novel is simultaneously a unique production of profound artistic confidence and an entertaining popular love story: it builds on a long-established tradition of English courtship novels in conversation with many women authors before her like Frances Burney (from whose book Cecelia Austen may have borrowed the very phrase "pride and prejudice"). Austen admitted in a letter that she thought her book's heroine, Elizabeth Bennett, "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print" (29 January 1813) – and generations of readers have agreed with her. First published in 1813 in three volumes, this is the first edition to appear in the United States, published in two volumes by Carey &amp; Lea in an edition of only 750 copies. Sol Rébora is an internationally recognized design bookbinder based in Buenos Aires. Her works embody a minimalistic elegance that is nevertheless subtly complex, as in the carefully structured multiple layers used here. They are not only visually stunning, but supremely tactile. From Rèbora's artist statement: "The cloth texture is achieved using silk with a patterned design that evokes the aesthetic of the time period in which the original edition was produced, creating a visual connection with antique paper. This design also appeals to the collective memory of how custom bindings from the early 19th century might have appeared, complete with deep-relief hot-stamping impressions." A magnificent, unique copy of an Austen first.

Pride And Prejudice | First American Edition

Margery Williams Bianco | William Nicholson

The rarest variant of the <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a> of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Margery+Williams+Bianco&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Margery Williams Bianco</a>'s beloved children's tale, The Velveteen Rabbit.<ul><li>Margery Williams Bianco (American).</li><li>Illustrated by William Nicholson (British).</li><li>New York &amp; London:&nbsp;George H. Doran &amp; Heinemann,&nbsp;1922.</li><li>[8], 19, [1] pages.</li><li>Illustrated with 4 full-page and 3 double-page color lithographs.</li><li>First printing, US issue in a variant (likely trial) UK jacket.</li><li>Original pictorial paper boards, original unclipped (no price) variant pictorial dust jacket (printed in single color, no logo on spine, blank rear panel), color pictorial rabbit endpapers, housed in a custom full leather clamshell box.</li></ul> "The truth is I don't think I've ever found anything as purely 'moving' as the end of The Velveteen Rabbit" – David Foster Wallace This book captures the wistful attachment to our childhood toys through the story of a stuffed rabbit that hopes the love of its owner can make it real. It is one of the great collaborations in modern children's books, with the lithographs and the text equally invoking bittersweet affection: "You were Real to the Boy [...] because he loved you." Later printings did not use lithography to produce Nicholson's drawings, making the first printing especially distinctive in the quality of its lustrous illustrations. This is a remarkable copy of one of the first modern picture books. Scarce, in an unrestored dust jacket, and especially in this variant.

The Velveteen Rabbit | First Edition

James Joyce

The <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a> of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=James+Joyce&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">James Joyce</a>'s first fiction, Dubliners.<ul><li>James Joyce (Irish).</li><li>London: Grant Richards Ltd, [1914].</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>278 pages.</li><li>One of 746 bound for Richards (1250 copies printed).</li><li>Original dark red cloth, gilt stamped lettering on the spine and front cover.</li></ul> The rocky publishing history of Dubliners is well documented: finished in 1905, it was rejected by 15 publishers before Grant Richards accepted it. Richards' printers refused to set some of the type – inaugurating Joyce's lifelong struggle with censorship – and Joyce refused most of Richards' changes. It was then taken up by Maunsel &amp; Roberts of Dublin, who eventually came to a similar conclusion. Maunsel even burned all but one of the copies of the sheets, which Joyce managed to wheedle out of him, and it was given back to Richards, who set the type from the lone Maunsel sheet saved from the flames. Joyce subsequently added "A Little Cloud" and "The Dead" – possibly his most famous single story – to the collection.

Dubliners | First Edition

Andy Warhol

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Type=Signed%2520and%2520Inscribed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">signed</a> <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a> of From A to B and Back Again: The Philosophy of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Andy+Warhol&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Andy Warhol</a>.<ul><li>Andy Warhol (American).</li><li>London: Cassell, 1975.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>241 pages.</li><li>Presentation copy, signed by author ‘To Ian / Dog / Andy Warhol, London 1975’. </li><li>With an original drawing of dog’s head on the half-title.</li><li>Publisher’s cloth, dust-jacket.</li></ul> With a very rare inscription in that Warhol has drawn a dog’s head, and not the familiar soup.

From A to B And Back Again: The Philosophy of Andy Warhol | Signed First Edition

Oscar Wilde

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a> of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=A+Woman+of+No+Importance&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">A Woman of No Importance</a> by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Oscar+Wilde&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Oscar Wilde</a>.<ul><li>Oscar Wilde (Irish).</li><li>London: John Lane, 1894.</li><li>Quarto.</li><li>One of 50 large paper copies, printed on hand-made paper.</li><li>Publisher’s straw colored buckram with gilt decorations by Charles Ricketts, gilt lettering to spine, housed in custom purple cloth chemise and matching quarter morocco slipcase.</li></ul> One of only 50 large paper copies. This play contains some of Wilde's most famous epigrams. First performed in April 1893, prior to being published in book form, A Woman of No Importance addresses many social issues with Wilde’s wit and dark humor. The run of the play was cut short as a result of Wilde’s arrest and prosecution. The scandal dampened enthusiasm for Wilde’s work until after his death in 1900, when interest in his work began to revive.

A Woman of No Importance First Edition

Martin Luther King, Jr.

An undocumented <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first printing</a> of The Riverside Church Speech by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Martin%20Luther%20King%20Jr&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Martin Luther King Jr</a>.<ul><li>Martin Luther King Jr. (American).</li><li>Later titled Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence.</li><li>n.p.:&nbsp;n.p,&nbsp;[1967].</li><li>8 pages.</li><li>Printed rectos only.</li><li>Top stapled self-wrappers.</li></ul> Previously unrecorded first printing of one of King's most important speeches: his anti-war address at The Riverside Church, delivered exactly one year to the day before his assassination. "If we will make the right choice, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood." King's Riverside Church Speech (later titled "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence," but here untitled) was the civil rights leader's first sustained and major public statement regarding the Vietnam War. Before a crowd of more than 3000, King called for not only an end to the war, but explicitly linked the anti-war movement to the larger movements for civil rights and economic justice: "Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population. We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem." This edition is unknown and unrecorded. It is not mentioned in the major King bibliographies. The introductory paragraph ("The following is the exclusive and authorized publication of the address [...] sponsored by Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam") suggests it was likely printed either by that group or King's camp. Such a printing could have been issued for members not in attendance, for press distribution at or immediately following the event, or simply to secure copyright. (The text also ends with a copyright notice by King, dated 1967.) This version differs in a number of significant ways from final published versions that appeared later. Some of these differences are accounted for by this printing's "slightly condensed" version. Others, however, clearly predate King's later revisions and finalizations which, along with the lack of title on this edition, all clearly mark the text as an early version, contemporaneous or nearly so with the event itself — and almost certainly preceding the earliest (also very rare) reprints undertaken by a number of California groups (where Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam were based, and all under the title "Beyond Vietnam") in the subsequent months. Indeed, the ditto'd presentation strongly suggests a smaller, more immediate circulation. The speech was widely criticized at the time. In the following days, more than 150 newspapers around the country condemned King, and in the aftermath of the address President Johnson dis-invited King from the White House, a rift in their relationship from which they never recovered. Among Black leaders the reception was also decidedly mixed, with many believing King's focus on the war distracted from more pressing concerns. As journalist Tavis Smiley, who produced a documentary on the speech, explained: "it was the most controversial speech he ever gave. It was the speech he labored over the most [and] got Martin King in more trouble than anything he had ever seen or done." Nevertheless, its reputation has only grown in the ensuing years. James Bevel considered it King's greatest speech, and King's intersectional understanding has been increasingly recognized as prescient. A rare and revealing document from one of King's most enduring public addresses.

The Riverside Church Speech: "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence"

<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">First edition</a>, first printing of The <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Encyclopaedia%20Britannica&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Encyclopaedia Britannica</a>.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 3 volumes.</li><li>Edited by William Smellie (Scottish).</li><li>Engravings by Andrew Bell.</li><li>Printed by Colin Macfarquhar.</li><li>Encyclopaedia Britannica; or, a Dictionary of Arts and Sciences compiled upon a New Plan. In which the Different Sciences and Arts are digested into Distinct Treatises or Systems; and the Various Technical Terms, etc. are explained as they occur in the order of the Alphabet.</li><li>Edinburgh: Printed for A. Bell and C. Macfarquhar, 1771.</li><li>Quarto in half-sheets.</li><li>Half-title to each volume, 159 engraved plates (of 160, lacking plate 112 in 'Midwifery' section').</li><li>viii, 586, [10], 587-697; [4] 1009, [3]; [4], 280, 283-678, 879-953, [1]pp.</li><li>Contemporary calf-backed glazed blue paper boards,&nbsp;</li></ul> The first edition of 'the most famous of all encyclopaedias in the English language' (PMM). A landmark Enlightenment text, the Britannica was the brainchild of the Edinburgh-based bookseller and printer, Colin Macfarquhar, and the engraver Andrew Bell. At the time, the city was arguably the intellectual center of Britain, host to many of the nation's leading thinkers from David Hume to Adam Smith, and the gathering place of discussion clubs like The Select Society and The Poker Club where members met to debate advances in the arts and sciences. Macfarquhar and Bell conceived of the Britannica as a conservative reaction to the French Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot (published 1751 to 1766), which was widely viewed as heretical, but the key initiative that set the Britannica apart from other earlier encyclopaedias was its layout. Related topics were to be grouped together into longer essays, then organized alphabetically. Previously technical terms had been listed generally in alphabetical order, an approach that the Britannica derided as 'dismembering the sciences' (Preface). The 28-year-old press-corrector William Smellie was employed to provide the text. The result was originally issued in 100 parts (called 'numbers' and equivalent to thick pamphlets), which were later bound into three volumes. The first number appeared on December 6, 1768 in Edinburgh, priced 6d or 8d on finer paper, with the last issued in 1771. With two of the three midwifery plates depicting childbirth in clinical detail that so shocked King George III that he commanded that the pages be ripped from every copy. These plates are consequently rarely found (see Kogan, The Great EB: The Story Of The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1958, p.13). The other plates include human anatomy, animals and other natural history subjects, scientific instruments and industrial apparatus, geometrical propositions, and miscellaneous subjects ranging from types of cannon to specimens of shorthand; there are also several plates of music score and a small number of maps. Sets in any state of completeness are rare.

Encyclopaedia Britannica

Ian Fleming

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a>, first printing of the <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/james-bond" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">James Bond</a> book Casino Royale, by Ian Fleming, which has been <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Type=Signed%2520and%2520Inscribed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">inscribed</a> by the author.<ul><li>Ian Fleming (English).</li><li>London: Jonathan Cape, 1953.</li><li>Inscribed to Lisl Popper.</li></ul> Inscribed to the front endpaper by the Author - ‘To Lisl/Despite whose loving/care this book was/written/X/Ian.' Ian Fleming first met Lisl Popper (then Lisa Jokl) at age nineteen during the "golden time" at Kitzbuhel in Austria in 1926. She was eight years older than Fleming, and worked a local cafe. Described as a "plain-looking Jewish girl", she and her friends first spotted young Fleming when he walked into their cafe and ordered coffee. As was usual for Fleming, he sat and read a book by himself. Lisl recalled his appearance "with sleepy blue eyes and a romantic face" - but his good looks were not the only factor attracting the girls. He wore a navy blue knitted shirt of a kind which had never been seen in Kutzbhel before. Fleming soon became acquainted with Lisl and her friends at the cafe and her simple outdoor lifestyle appealed to Fleming immensely - skiing in winter, and swimming and tennis in the summer. Another physical activity - sex - kept Fleming and Lisl very active as lovers, and some years later he commented that despite the air of sexual liberation, he did show some reservation about the manner in which Austrian girls threw themselves at his young English body. Lisl and Fleming became lifelong friends, and in 1960, Fleming signed a copy of his latest James Bond installment For Your Eyes Only (a collection of five short stories) to Lisl with the personal inscription "noch ein paar Eier fr Ostern!" ("yet another pair of eggs for Easter"). It is perhaps no coincidence that the female character in the fifth short story in the collection is named Lisl Baum. Upon Fleming's death in 1964, he left Lisl £500 in his will. Lisl later said that "all the things said about Ian -- his gloom, his melancholy, his solitariness -- frankly amaze. To all of us who knew him in Kitzbuhel he was exactly the opposite -- gay, care-free, terribly happy, the most exciting and vital sort of person. Not like an Englishman at all." Lisl Popper makes a brief appearance in archive footage used in the documentary "Ian Fleming - 007's Creator" on "The Living Daylights" Special Edition DVD. This is perhaps the most important signed copy of the first installment of the James Bond series ever to come on to the market. The book had been in a private family collection until 1992, then to a prominent collector and on to another collector.

James Bond Casino Royale Inscribed First Edition

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a>, first printing of the <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/james-bond" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">James Bond</a> book You Only Live Twice, by Ian Fleming, which has been <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Type=Signed%2520and%2520Inscribed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">inscribed</a> by the author.<ul><li>Ian Fleming (English).</li><li>London: Jonathan Cape, 1964.</li><li>Signed and inscribed to Aubrey Forshaw.</li><li>With presentation note in blue ink to flyleaf; 'To / Forshaw-san / from / Fleming-san [underline].'</li><li>Publisher’s black cloth-effect paper over boards with silver titles to spine and Japanese characters in gilt to upper, bamboo patterned endpapers, in original pictorial dust-wrapper by Richard Chopping.</li></ul> This is the first issue with ‘First published 1964’ to the copyright page. This copy was presented by Ian Fleming to Aubrey Forshaw. The inscription incorporates the traditional Japanese honorary title ‘san’, used to show respect to the person being mentioned. In the novel, Tiger Tanaka, the head of the Japanese Secret Service, refers to 007 throughout as ‘Bondo-san’. Fleming used this device only when inscribing the book to his closest friends and colleagues. Examples presented in this way include: “Brilliant Chopping-san” [for the jacket artist Richard Chopping], “Dikko-san” [Richard Hughes, journalist and model for the character 'Dikko Henderson' in the novel], “Connolly-san” [author Cyril Connolly], and “From Fleming-san” [to Sunday Times editor Denis Hamilton, the dedicatee of Fleming's Thrilling Cities]. The present 'Forshaw-san' is thus far unrecorded. Forshaw was Managing Director at Pan Books from 1952, following the death of its founder Alan Bott. The first Bond novel Casino Royale was published as a Pan edition in 1955 and each subsequent Bond novel would be published by Pan, as well as Fleming’s other three books The Diamond Smugglers, Thrilling Cities and Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. In The Man With the Golden Typewriter, letters between Fleming and Forshaw are included on pages 319, 321, 322 and 371. It also appears that Fleming consulter Forshaw about the details of Bond’s Bentley Continental. The car was owned by Fleming and was driven and one by Bond in the film Thunderball. One of the letters from The Man With The Golden Typewriter from Forshaw to Fleming is an invite to an awards dinner to celebrate the fact that Casino Royale has sold over a million copies. By the 1960’s Pan was the second-largest paperback publisher (after Penguin), largely thanks to the phenomenal global success of Ian Fleming and his James Bond series.

James Bond You Only Live Twice Signed and Inscribed First Edition

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a>, first printing of the <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/james-bond" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">James Bond</a> book On Her Majesty's Secret Service, by Ian Fleming, which has been <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Type=Signed%2520and%2520Inscribed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">inscribed</a> by the author.<ul><li>Ian Fleming (English).</li><li>London: Jonathan Cape, 1963.</li><li>Signed and inscribed to Joss Pender.</li></ul> Inscribed by the author on the front free end-paper: "To/ Joss/ from/ Ian/ 1963." With the former owner's name Pender and date in his own hand on the front paste-down. Joss Pender was a member with Ian Fleming of the Royal St George's Golf Club in Kent. Pender and Fleming were contemporaries at Eton. They died within a year of each other at relatively young ages. The families were subsequently to be linked through marriage and Denison-Penders and Flemings can still be found playing golf together at Sandwich to this day.&nbsp;

James Bond On Her Majesty’s Secret Service Signed and Inscribed First Edition

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a>, first printing of the <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/james-bond" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">James Bond</a> book Live and Let Die, by Ian Fleming, which has been <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Type=Signed%2520and%2520Inscribed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">inscribed</a> by the author.<ul><li>Ian Fleming (English).</li><li>London: Jonathan Cape, 1954.</li><li>Inscribed to Muriel Williams&nbsp;.</li><li>The book is accompanied by the correct first state dust wrapper without the artist's (Kenneth Lewis] credit on the front flap, correctly priced at 10s.6d. net to both the front and rear flaps.</li></ul> Inscribed by the author on the front free end-paper: "To/ MW/ The faithful &amp;/ true!/ from/ The Author". With an additional ownership inscription and date (1954) of M J Williams on the front paste-down. Muriel Williams (often referred to as MJW or MW) was Fleming's Assistant at Kemsley Newspapers when he was the Foreign Manager. She was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Department in particular liaison with the "stringers" who, from far flung parts of the world, submitted stories for inclusion in the Kemsley Publications (including the Sunday Times). The dust wrapper artist, Kenneth Lewis (who worked in the Art Department at Kemsley), remembers her well commenting on her flat-chested appearance, strong and forceful personality, her use of bright red lipstick and that Fleming deferred to her. Fleming inscribed several of his other early novels to her, including Casino Royale and Moonraker.

James Bond Live and Let Die Inscribed First Edition

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a>, first printing of the <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/james-bond" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">James Bond</a> book From Russia with Love, by Ian Fleming, which has been <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Type=Signed%2520and%2520Inscribed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">inscribed</a> by the author.<ul><li>Ian Fleming (English).</li><li>London: Jonathan Cape, 1957.</li><li>Inscribed by Fleming to R. Singleton-Ward&nbsp;.</li><li>Bound in the original black boards with silver titles on spine, red rose and metallic gun to the front board, in the rare dust wrapper.</li></ul> The book is inscribed with the author’s signed presentation inscription to the front endpaper, ‘To R. Singleton-Ward/ In (I hope)/Gratitude/ Ian Fleming/ 1957.’ Singleton-Ward was born in Droitwich at the turn of the century and studied as a masseur and physiotherapist in the area and was certainly still operating in the area in the 1940s. Singleton-Ward operated in Harley Street as a specialist physiotherapist in the 1950s and 1960s. This is born out in his book, My Two Hands Talk, published by Christopher Johnson in the same year as From Russia With Love, 1957. It is possible that Fleming used the book as background (as he had for Patrick Leigh Fermor’s, Traveller’s Tree for Live and Let Die) for the health clinic scenes in the book of Thunderball, either introduced to the text by a member of the publishing house, or introduced to it by one of the man Harley Street specialists he used to visit. There is a no coincidence perhaps that Thunderball (published 4 years later) opens with Bond on the physiotherapist’s table having a massage. It is possible that Singleton-Ward was able to give Fleming some background about this. The association in the presentation inscription suggests they were close or certainly friends. The rare use of Fleming's full name and date in an inscription (1957) is evidence of this. With the early Bond books, he invariably preferred to use just his Christian name or the more formal "The Author". Singleton-Ward’s address appears as 46 Portland Place W1 in 1965 (London Phone Book), but no trace after this with no mention after 1965 in the British General Chiropractors register/council.

James Bond From Russia With Love Inscribed First Edition

Roald Dahl | Quentin Blake

A deluxe limited <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first US edition</a> of this <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=roald+dahl&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Dahl</a> classic, <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Type=Signed%2520and%2520Inscribed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">signed</a> by both the author and illustrator.<ul><li>Roald Dahl (English).</li><li>Illustrated by Quentin Blake (English).</li><li>New York:&nbsp;Farrar, Straus, Giroux,&nbsp;(1982). </li><li>x, 222 pages.&nbsp;</li><li>Limited edition, one of 300 numbered copies, this #208, signed by both Dahl and Blake to the limitation page.&nbsp;</li><li>Original red publisher's cloth with gilt titles, in original blue-grey slipcase.</li></ul>

The BFG | First Edition, Signed by Both Author and Illustrator

William Golding

True <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a>, first printing of the classic novel <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Lord+of+the+Flies&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lord of the Flies</a> by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=William+Golding&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">William Golding</a>.<ul><li>William Golding (English).</li><li>London:&nbsp;Faber and Faber Ltd,&nbsp;(1954).</li><li>248 pages.</li><li>Original red cloth, in original unclipped (12s 6d, with summary on front flap) first issue color pictorial jacket.</li></ul> Frequently challenged for its portrayals of violence and grim assessment of human nature, Lord of the Flies remains a classic — if psychologically dark — young adult novel. It is also a reflection of the post-World War II white British mindset, as the boys use racial slurs and stereotypes as comparisons for their increasingly unruly behavior; these ideas are made explicit as their rescuer remarks, "I should have thought that a pack of British boys would have been able to put up a better show than that."

Lord of the Flies First Edition

Patricia Highsmith

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a>, first printing of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=The%20Talented%20Mr%20Ripley&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Talented Mr Ripley</a> by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Patricia%20Highsmith&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Patricia Highsmith</a>.<ul><li>Patricia Highsmith (American).</li><li>London: Cresset, 1957.</li><li>In a fine, neatly clipped wrapper. </li></ul> The author's second book and notably filmed in 1999 starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon and Jude Law. An excellent title to possess and very scarce.

The Talented Mr Ripley First Edition

John Tenniel | Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first London edition</a> of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Alice%27s%20Adventures%20in%20Wonderland&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Alice's Adventures in Wonderland</a> by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Lewis%20Carroll&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lewis Carroll</a>.<ul><li>Lewis Carroll (English).</li><li>Illustrated by John Tenniel (English).</li><li>London: Macmillan &amp; Co., 1866.</li><li>Final 'S' on the contents page inverted, page '30' numbered '3.'</li><li>Bound in fine full red morocco, in the style of the original cloth, gilt Alice and pig to front cover and the Cheshire cat to rear cover, covers ruled in gilt, gilt dentelles, all edges gilt, marbled pastedowns and endpapers, both blue endpapers bound in, the front blue endpaper with a gift inscription dated Christmas 1866, original cloth covers and spine bound in the rear, by Bayntun.</li></ul>

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland First Edition

D.H. Lawrence

The pre-publication proof of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Lady%20Chatterley%E2%80%99s%20Lover&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lady Chatterley’s Lover</a> by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=D.H.%20Lawrence&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">D.H. Lawrence</a>, withdrawn by Hazell Watson and Viney.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2 volumes.</li><li>D.H.&nbsp;Lawrence (English).</li><li>London: Penguin, 1959-60.</li><li>This proof copy constitutes the first appearance in English of the unexpurgated version of the novel, meant for readers in 1928 by Lawrence and is of institutional importance. </li><li>Accompanied by a first edition of the Penguin paperback printed by Western Printing Services. </li><li>Presented in archival box and with a first edition of the transcripts from the trial with a foreword by Hyde.&nbsp;</li></ul> A pre-publication 'dummy,' or proof copy of Penguin's unexpurgated version of Lady Chatterley's Lover, printed before the landmark trial of Regina vs Penguin Books.&nbsp; The proof, bound in buff colored card with front and rear staples was printed for Penguin by Hazell Watson and Viney Ltd. The company later withdrew from printing the book as workers at Hazell Watson and Viney felt the book inappropriate. It was later printed by Western Printing Services. Western Printing Services were responsible for the 200,000 copies of the first Penguin edition, printed prior to the outcome of the trial. The 1960 trial of Regina v. Penguin Books Ltd over the publication of Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence marked a watershed moment in British literary, legal, and cultural history. It was the first major test of the Obscene Publications Act 1959, a law intended to protect the public from explicit material unless it could be shown to have redeeming literary or artistic value. Lady Chatterley’s Lover, originally published privately in Italy in 1928, had long been banned in the United Kingdom due to its explicit depiction of sex and frequent use of then-taboo language. The novel centers on the passionate affair between Constance Chatterley, an upper-class woman, and Oliver Mellors, a working-class gamekeeper. It challenged social class boundaries and is notable for its frank portrayal of physical intimacy, especially from a female perspective. In 1960, Penguin Books decided to publish an unexpurgated version of the novel. As part of its mission to make great literature available to the public at affordable prices, Penguin believed the book’s literary merit outweighed its controversial content. However, the British government quickly brought charges against the publisher under the new Obscene Publications Act. The trial began at the Old Bailey in London on October 20, 1960. The prosecution, led by Mervyn Griffith-Jones, argued that the novel was obscene and would corrupt readers, famously asking in his opening statement: “Is it a book that you would even wish your wife or your servants to read?” This outdated sentiment immediately alienated many observers and highlighted the generational and class divides at the heart of the case. Penguin’s defense, led by Gerald Gardiner QC (later Lord Chancellor), brought in an impressive list of expert witnesses, including academics, writers, clergy, and critics, who testified to the novel’s serious literary, moral, and social value. They argued that Lawrence’s use of explicit language was not pornographic, but integral to his message about emotional and physical connection, human dignity, and the dehumanizing effects of industrial society. After a six-day trial, the jury found Penguin Books not guilty. The verdict was a landmark victory for freedom of expression, effectively ending book censorship in the UK and opening the door for more open discussions of sexuality and class in literature. Penguin sold over 200,000 copies on the first day of release, with sales reaching millions soon after. Over just three months following the verdict, three million copies of Lady Chatterley’s Lover were sold, reportedly outselling the bible. Selfridges sold 250 copies in minutes. A spokesman told The Times newspaper: “It's bedlam here. We could have sold 10,000 copies if we had had them.” The trial became symbolic of the liberalizing cultural shifts of the 1960s, representing a victory not just for Penguin and literature, but for changing attitudes toward morality, authority, and individual freedom.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover Pre-publication Proof

Virginia Woolf

<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">First American edition</a> of Night and Day by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Virginia%20Woolf&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Virginia Woolf</a>, in the rare dust jacket.<ul><li>Virginia Woolf (English).</li><li>New York:&nbsp;George H. Doran Company,&nbsp;1920.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>508 pages.</li><li>Bound in green cloth, in a custom cloth clamshell box.</li></ul>

Night and Day First American Edition

<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">First edition</a>, first impression, first issue, and first state of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Ian%20Fleming&amp;tab=objects" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ian Fleming</a>'s <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/james-bond" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">James Bond</a> novel Live and Let Die.<ul><li>Ian Fleming (English).</li><li>London:&nbsp;Jonathan Cape,&nbsp;1954.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>240 pages.</li><li>Black cloth covered boards, in colorful dust jacket, housed in a custom half-morocco clamshell box.</li></ul> A very pretty copy of Fleming’s second novel, written in just two months at his Goldeneye estate, before the reviews of the first Bond novel, Casino Royale, landed.

Live and Let Die First Edition

Samuel Beckett

An inscribed <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a> in English (translated by the author), of Waiting for Godot by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=samuel%20beckett&amp;tab=objects" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Samuel Beckett</a>, preceding the British edition.<ul><li>Samuel Beckett (Irish).</li><li>New York:&nbsp;Grove Press,&nbsp;(1954).</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Pagination irregular, [vii] pages.; 7-60 ff. (numbered on left page); [5] pages.</li><li>Illustrated with portrait and three leaves of stills from the stage production.</li><li>Inscribed by Beckett to another writer: "for Dan Pope from Sam Beckett".</li><li>Additionally signed by Grove Press publisher Barney Rosset.&nbsp;</li><li>In dustwrapper, housed in a quarter morocco and cloth clamshell case.</li></ul> Probably the scarcest and most preferred issue of the Nobel Prize winner's most famous title, one of the great works of the world stage. A major innovation in modern drama, possibly the most important play of the 20th Century, and certainly the first theatrical success of the Theatre of the Absurd.

Waiting for Godot Inscribed First Edition in English

Walt Whitman

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a>, first issue of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=walt%20whitman&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Walt Whitman</a>'s Leaves of Grass.<ul><li>Walt Whitman (American).</li><li>New York, 1855.</li><li>Small folio.</li><li>xii, [13]–95 pages.&nbsp;</li><li>Engraved frontispiece portrait of Whitman by Samuel Hollyer after a photograph, printed on thick paper.</li><li>Bound in the original green cloth, boards with blind-stamped floral decorations, title and triple-fillet border gilt, spine with title and floral ornaments gilt, marble endpapers, all edges gilt, housed in a custom half morocco folding case.</li></ul> “He was and is the poet and prophet of democracy, and the intoxication of his immense affirmative, the fervor of his ‘barbaric yawp,’ are so powerful that the echo of his crude yet rhythmic song rings forever in the American air” (Grolier One Hundred). The self-published&nbsp;Leaves was at least partially personally&nbsp;type-set by the author on a small handpress in Brooklyn. The portrait of Whitman is here in superior condition, without the foxing often encountered. This copy bears the printed copyright statement on the verso of the title page and has the first version of line 2 of page 49 (“And the night is for you and me and all”) identified by Schmidgall in his article, “1855: a Stop-Press Revision.” Of the original 795 copies, only 337 were issued in this first binding with extensive gilt stamping, marbled end-sheets, and gilt edges (in the second binding only the title was gilt, and plain yellow end-sheets were used).

Leaves of Grass First Edition

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first UK edition</a> of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=oscar%20wilde&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Oscar Wilde</a>'s De Profundis, accompanied by Wilde's silver cigarette holder.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2: 1 book, and 1 cigarette holder.</li><li>Oscar Wilde (Irish).</li><li>United Kingdom: Methuen, 1905.</li><li>Accompanied by a silver cigarette holder with the makers mark Frederick Wald.</li><li>The cigarette holder was taken from Wilde's cache of items following his death at the Hotel D'Alsace in Paris.</li><li>Housed in a custom made box.</li></ul> A first edition, first printing of De Profundis by Oscar Wilde, published posthumously in 1905 by Methuen. Accompanied by a silver cigarette holder, embossed with foliate scrolls and a vacant shield cartouche, hallmarked Birmingham 1894, with the maker's mark that of Frederick Wald. The holder beautiful amber ending which pulls in and out. The renowned Irish playwright and poet, died on November 30, 1900, at the Hotel d’Alsace in Paris (now L'Hôtel). After serving two years of hard labor for "gross indecency" due to his homosexuality, Wilde fled to France, impoverished and shunned by society. Living under the name Sebastian Melmoth, he took up residence at the modest hotel. His health declined rapidly due to meningitis, complications from an earlier ear infection. Wilde reportedly quipped on his deathbed, "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go." He passed away destitute but surrounded by a few loyal friends. Wilde was initially buried in a pauper's grave at Bagneux Cemetery, but his remains were later moved to Père Lachaise Cemetery, where his tomb, adorned with a modernist angel, now draws admirers from around the world. His wit and tragedy remain enduring symbols of artistic genius and societal hypocrisy.

De Profundis First Edition Book, Accompanied by Oscar Wilde's Cigarette Holder

Charles Darwin

A true first issue, <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a> of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=charles%20darwin&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Darwin</a>'s The Descent of Man.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2 volumes.</li><li>Charles Darwin (English).</li><li>London: John Murray, 1871.</li><li>With "transmitted" the first word on p. 297 in the first volume.</li><li>In the second, the printer's note on the verso of the half-title, errata on title verso, and the postscript leaf after p. viii.</li><li>The first issue had a print-run of just 2,500 copies.</li></ul> Charles Darwin expands on his theory of evolution, focusing on human origins and the role of sexual selection. In this groundbreaking work, Darwin argues that humans share a common ancestor with other animals, particularly apes, emphasizing the continuity between humans and the rest of the natural world. He explores how natural selection and sexual selection have shaped human physical and behavioral traits, including differences between sexes and races. Darwin also discusses the development of moral sense, intellect, and social behavior, suggesting that these too evolved gradually. The book was controversial, challenging religious and scientific views of the time by placing humans firmly within the framework of evolutionary biology. The Descent of Man not only deepened public understanding of human evolution but also laid the foundation for later studies in anthropology, psychology, and evolutionary theory, making it a landmark in scientific literature and is claimed to be such by Sigmund Freud, "One of the ten most significant books ever written". [ref: 20642 ] £15,000

The Descent of Man (First Edition, First Issue)

A collection of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a> <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/james-bond" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">James Bond</a> books, by Ian Fleming.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 16 volumes.</li><li>Ian Fleming (English).</li><li>Includes: Casino Royale; Live and Let Die; Moonraker; Diamonds are Forever; From Russia, with Love; Dr. No; Goldfinger; For Your Eyes Only; Thunderball; The Spy who Loved Me; On Her Majesty’s Secret Service; You Only Live Twice, Golden Gun and Octopussy.&nbsp;</li><li>London: Jonathan Cape, 1953-1966.</li><li>Each is a first printing.</li><li>Casino Royale is a true first edition in the first issue dust wrapper.</li><li>Live and Let Die is Raymond Chandler’s personal copy.</li><li>Moonraker is the variant ‘shoo’ issue in the dust wrapper.</li><li>Goldfinger was previously the property of Ian Fleming bibliographer, Jon Gilbert.</li><li>The Man With The Golden Gun is the white endpapered edition.</li></ul>

James Bond First Edition Collection

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a>, first printing of the <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=James%20Bond&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">James Bond</a> novel Casino Royale, by Ian Fleming.<ul><li>Ian Fleming (English).</li><li>London: Jonathan Cape, 1953.</li><li>With the first issue dust-jacket, without the Sunday Times review, in the rare unclipped wrapper.</li></ul> Casino Royale is the first novel by Fleming and the first appearance of James Bond, one of the 20th Century’s most enduring characters.

Casino Royale

Agatha Christie

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a>, first printing of Murder on the Orient Express by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Agatha%20Christie&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Agatha Christie</a>.&nbsp;<ul><li>Agatha Christie (English).</li><li>London: Collins [The Crime Club], 1934.</li><li>Complete with the wrap-around band, declaring the book to be ‘Book of the Month.’</li></ul> The classic detective novel, written by Christie and featuring Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot. A luxurious train journey on the Orient Express turns sinister when a wealthy American, Samuel Ratchett, is found murdered in his compartment, stabbed multiple times. As the train is stranded by a snowstorm, Poirot investigates the passengers, uncovering hidden connections and motives. The plot twists reveal Ratchett was a fugitive involved in a child kidnapping and murder. In a dramatic conclusion, Poirot discovers all the passengers conspired to kill Ratchett as an act of justice. The novel is celebrated for its ingenious resolution and moral complexity.

Murder On The Orient Express

The English Proof of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Harry%20Potter&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Harry Potter</a> and the Prisoner of Azkaban in green wrappers, printed by Bloomsbury on wove paper in 1999.<ul><li>J.K. Rowling (English).</li><li>London: Bloomsbury,</li><li>In green wrappers.</li></ul> There were two issues of a proof for the third Harry Potter book. The state here, in green wrappers, is closer to the published version. Errington notes “an unconfirmed print-run of 250 copies is generally accepted. Bloomsbury, however, provides a figure of 150 copies” (pp. 470-1).

Proof of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

A complete set of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a>, first printings of the <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Harry%20Potter&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Harry Potter</a> series.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 7 volumes.</li><li>J.K. Rowling (English).</li><li>London: Bloomsbury, 1997-2007.</li><li>Octavos.</li><li>Softcover.</li><li>Pictorial card wrappers.</li></ul> A complete set of first edition, first printing paperback novels, variously dated, including the true 1997 first edition, first issue of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone with all relevant issue points. The paperback First of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was printed on the very same day as the hardcover First Edition (of which only 500 copies were printed) and neither has bibliographical priority. The Harry Potter series has had a profound cultural impact, shaping a generation’s imagination and fostering a global fan community. It popularized the fantasy genre, leading to a surge in young adult literature. The books’ themes of friendship, bravery, and the fight against prejudice resonated widely, influencing social discussions. The series also spawned a massive franchise, including films, merchandise, theme parks, and fan events, contributing to popular culture. Harry Potter’s world became a cultural touchstone, inspiring fan fiction, academic studies, and even influencing educational initiatives, making it a lasting symbol of modern literature and entertainment.

First Editions of the Harry Potter Series

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">First edition</a>, first issues of the Adventures of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=sherlock%20holmes&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sherlock Holmes</a> and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2 volumes.</li><li>Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (English).</li><li>London: George Newnes Limited, 1892-1894.</li><li>Original light and dark blue cloth with gilt lettering and Strand Library design on upper covers and gilt labels on spine.</li></ul>

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (First Edition, First Issue)

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a>, first printing of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=harry%20potter&amp;tab=objects" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Harry Potter</a> and the Prisoner of Azkaban.<ul><li>J.K. Rowling (English).</li><li>London: Bloomsbury, 1999.</li><li>One of fourteen working copies, with Clays LTD., ink stamp dated 05 May 1999 (two months before the original date on 8th July 1999) to the rear pastedown, and the Clays LTD. adhesive ‘Standard EDTN’ sticker.</li><li>This copy correctly reads ‘Joanne Rowling’ on the copyright page, complete with the one to ten number line.</li><li>The dust wrapper, illustrated by Cliff Wright, has not been clipped showing the correct £10.99 price.</li></ul>

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