Literature & Children's Poetry

René Char | Henri Matisse

Le Poème Pulvérisé (The Scattered Poem), <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 <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Matisse&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Matisse</a> and <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Ren%C3%A9+Char&amp;pfilters.dateRange=past" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Char</a>.<ul><li>Henri Matisse (French, 1869-</li><li>René Char (French, 1907-1988).</li><li>Paris: Fontaine, 1947.</li><li>Quarto.</li><li>One of the 65 deluxe copies on Johannot laid paper, this being xxxiii.</li><li>Linocut frontispiece, signed in pencil by Matisse.</li><li>Text in French.</li><li>Signed by René Char in blue in ink on the justification, partially uncut.</li><li>Original printed wrappers.</li></ul> René Char approached Matisse in the spring of 1946 to create a frontispiece for this collection of poetry. The publisher initially misunderstood the nature of the illustration, but Matisse insisted that it would be an original engraving, not a reproduction: 'my intention is to show René Char more than a simple tribute.' The woman depicted by Matisse is that of Lucienne Bernard, widow of the poet Roger Bernard, to whom the author pays homage in the eleventh poem of the collection, entitled 'Affres, détonation, silence.'

Le Poème Pulvérisé [The Scattered Poem] | Signed by Matisse and Char

Robert Burns

The second edition of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Robert+Burns&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Robert Burns</a>.<ul><li>Robert Burns (Scottish).</li><li>Edinburgh:&nbsp;Printed for the author and sold by William Creech,&nbsp;1787.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>xlviii, 10-368 pages.</li><li>Frontispiece portrait of Burns engraved by Beugo after Alexander Nasmyth”s drawing, with half-title; with an inserted watercolor sketch depicting the witches in the church from "Tam O'Shanter."</li><li>Second (First Edinburgh) edition, first issue (with the Duke of Roxburgh's name misspelled "Boxburgh" on p. xxxvii, the Addenda to the subscription list at p. xlvi and the "Stinking" reading on page 263).&nbsp;</li><li>Bound in full citron crushed levant morocco, gilt spine, gilt dentelles, top edge gilt, others uncut, by the Club Bindery, 1901.</li></ul> The first affordable edition of Burns' works. The Kilmarnock Burns was published in 1786 and is rare and costly. This is the second edition, the first with a portrait of the author, and in a handsome binding with a stellar provenance. An important edition: 27 pieces not included in the Kilmarnock are printed here for the first time. This copy from the library of Grolier Club founder Robert Hoe, bound at the Club Bindery established in New York with artisans of the highest accomplishment.

Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect

Percy Bysshe Shelley

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Type=Fine%2520Bindings%2520and%2520Sets" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">finely bound</a> large paper edition of the works of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Percy+Bysshe+Shelley&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Percy Bysshe Shelley</a>.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 8 volumes.</li><li>Percy Bysshe Shelley (English).</li><li>Cambridge:&nbsp;Riverside Press,&nbsp;1892.</li><li>The text newly collated and revised and edited with a memoir and notes by George Edward Woodberry.</li><li>Limited Edition, limited to 250 numbered copies, of which this is number 162.</li><li>Top edges gilt, raised bands, bound in full midnight blue Morocco leather with gilt geometric borders on covers and spine panels, leather and silk doublures on inner covers with gilt geometric patterns.</li></ul>

The Complete Poetical works of Percy Blysshe Shelley

Ernest Thayer

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 Casey at the Bat by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Ernest+Thayer&amp;pfilters.dateRange=past" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ernest Thayer</a>.<ul><li>Ernest Thayer (American).</li><li>New York:&nbsp;New Amsterdam Book Co,&nbsp;[1901].</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Illustrations printed in sepia.</li><li>Bound in the original publisher's illustrated wrappers, enclosed in a quarter-leather slipcase.</li></ul> The famous baseball poem, one of the most celebrated of all American popular poems, was first published in The San Francisco Examiner in June 1888. This is its first appearance in book form, which is now extremely scarce, especially in its fragile original wrappers.

Casey at the Bat First Edition

A.A. Milne

A <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 When We Were Very Young by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=A.A.+Milne&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">A.A. Milne</a>.<ul><li>A.A. Milne (English).</li><li>New York: E. P. Dutton &amp; Co., 1924.</li><li>Inscribed by Milne to the recto of the frontis "For Mrs. Burnside from A. A. Milne Christmas 1924."</li><li>Bound in the publisher's original gilt stamped red cloth, pictorial pastedowns and endpapers, with the original dust jacket.</li></ul>

When We Were Very Young | Inscribed First Edition

A large paper edition of The Complete Poetical Works of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Percy+Bysshe+Shelley&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Percy Bysshe Shelley</a>, revised and edited with a memoir and notes by George Edward Woodberry.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 8 volumes.</li><li>Percy Bysshe Shelley (English).</li><li>Cambridge:&nbsp;Riverside Press,&nbsp;1892.</li><li>Limited to 250 numbered copies, of which this is number 162.</li><li>Top edges gilt, raised bands, bound in full midnight blue Morocco leather with gilt geometric borders on covers and spine panels, leather and silk doublures on inner covers with gilt geometric patterns.</li></ul>

The Complete Poetical works of Percy Bysshe Shelley

Elizabeth Bishop

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>, first printing of North and South by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Elizabeth+Bishop&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Elizabeth Bishop</a>, along with the ticket from Bishop's reading where the book was signed.<ul><li>Elizabeth Bishop (American).</li><li>Boston:&nbsp;Houghton Mifflin,&nbsp;1946.</li><li>[viii], 54, [2] pages.&nbsp;</li><li>Inscribed by Bishop on the title page: "Elizabeth Bishop - many years later -."</li><li>Loosely laid in is the original event ticket to Bishop's May 21st, 1968 reading at The Academy of American Poets, with its original envelope.</li><li>Publisher's original full blue cloth with gilt titles, in original price-clipped color typographic jacket designed by Samuel Hanks Bryant.</li></ul> Bishop's famed debut, containing several of her best-known and most beloved poems, such as "The Fish," "The Man-Moth," and "The Map."

North and South | Signed First Edition

Clement Clarke Moore

<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> <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 this collection of Moore's verse, the first with "The Night Before Christmas," then still known by its original title, "A Visit from St. Nicholas."<ul><li>Clement Clarke Moore (American).</li><li>New York: Bartlett &amp; Welford, 1844.</li><li>12mo.</li><li>&nbsp;Xii, [13]-216 pages.&nbsp;</li><li>Inscribed by Moore in ink to half title: "To Mrs. James L. Moore, / with the respects / of the author."</li><li>Bound in contemporary half navy calf, blue cloth boards, expertly rebacked with original spine laid down, raised bands, gilt stamped spine, housed in custom full red goatskin clamshell box.</li></ul> "Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse" With this poem, Clement Moore created the modern Santa Claus. Christian legends and European folktales of St. Nicholas had existed before, but Moore's imagery — helped along in the 1860s by Thomas Nast's iconic illustrations — gave us the Santa Claus that children recognize today: jolly and plump, wearing a red suit with white fur trim. First published in 1823 in the Troy Sentinel in New York, the poem became a popular inclusion in newspapers throughout the 1820s. However, these publications were anonymous; it was not until the poem's publication in 1837 anthology (The New York Book of Poetry) that it was attributed to Clement Moore. Clement himself did not claim it directly in print until this 1844 collection: "his first public acknowledgment of authorship" of the poem (Marshall, 10). A major edition of a cultural touchtone, scarce inscribed.

Poems | Inscribed First Edition

Emily Dickinson

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Type=Fine%2520Bindings%2520and%2520Sets" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">set</a> of early 20th-century printings of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Emily+Dickinson&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Emily Dickinson</a>'s first book-length series of poetry.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 3 volumes.</li><li>Emily Dickinson (American).</li><li>Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1908, 1906. </li><li>152; 230; 200 pages.</li><li>Original gilt-stamped grey cloth, top edges gilt. </li></ul> "I died for beauty, but was scarce / Adjusted in the tomb, / When one who died for truth was lain / In an adjoining room." In her lifetime, Dickinson was viewed as an eccentric recluse with an unusual gift at poetry. She would send poems to friends as "flowers," but less than a dozen of her poems appeared in print during her lifetime (anonymously, and some possibly unauthorized). Upon her death in 1886, Dickinson's sister Lavinia discovered a chest full of verse. Nearly half of them were bound in forty fascicles, little booklets sewn together by Dickinson herself. All told, there were nearly 1800 poems. Dickinson's reputation as "the Myth," the odd woman in white, persisted: no one in the family believed there would be an audience for these poems except Lavinia. It was at Lavinia's request that Mabel Loomis Todd became involved, one of the few friends of the family with a deep conviction of the importance of the poems. They also approached Dickinson's old friend, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, but he "did not think a volume advisable — they were too crude in form, he said, and the public would not accept even fine ideas in such rough and mystical dress" (Todd, November 1889, quoted in Sewell, 220). Nevertheless, Todd persevered, showing Higginson some of her favorites and obtaining a commitment to "look them over" if she organized them. Todd is often justly criticized for her editorial overreach (especially in punctuation and capitalization), but as Richard B. Sewell notes, "without the spiritual kinship she [Mabel Todd] felt with the poet and with the poems we might have had no poems (or letters) at all" (219). The poems were rejected by the first publisher Todd and Higginson approached, Houghton Mifflin, who called them "queer — the rhymes were all wrong" (Sewell, 221). The next publisher, Roberts Brothers, agreed to take on the project if the family paid for the plates, issuing POEMS in 1890. The Second Series followed in 1891, and the Third Series in 1896. Until 1914, these were the only published collections of Dickinson's poetry. These publications, later printings but issued before 1914, retain all the quirks of poems' complicated publication history: the titles supplied by Higginson, the smoothed out bits by Todd, the organization of poems into topics like "life," "love," and "nature." They retain the iconic cover design of early variants — in especially fresh condition, the beveled edges of the cloth boards sharp, the grey shade bright and clean. An unusually lovely set of early editions from this distinctly American voice.

Poems | First, Second, And Third Series

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Fine%2520bindings" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">finely bound</a> Kelmscott Press edition of The Poetical Works of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=percy+bysshe+shelley&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Percy Bysshe Shelley</a>.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 3 volumes.</li><li>Percy Bysshe Shelley (English).</li><li>Hammersmith:&nbsp;Kelmscott Press,&nbsp;1894–95.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Part of an edition of 250 copies.&nbsp;</li><li>Printed in red and black, ornamental woodcut title, borders, and initials.</li><li>Original full limp vellum, spines stamped in gold, issued without silk ties, housed in custom cloth chemises and blue morocco backed slipcases.</li></ul> The magnificent Kelmscott edition of the poems of Shelley, with an interesting New York provenance, likely from the 1920s. Includes signatures on the two preliminary blank leaves of a number of New York businessmen and philanthropists, many with connections to Temple Emanu-El, among them: Sam SherringtonDudley D. SicherSamuel J. Bloomingdale [1873-1968; son of Lyman]Felix M. WarburgHerbert J. MartinJonah GoldsteinJ. Edwin GoldmanLeo SulzbergerRalph SamuelHenry F. SamstagLouis J. RosenbachWilliam GoldmanL.A. AnsbacherH.A. Guinzburg [d. 1928]Fred M. SteinS.M. GoldbergManny StraussAlbert J. LehmannJos. GutmanSolomon Lowenstein [1877-1942]Z.D. BernsteinBernard RosenwaldEdwin S. LorschHerman LissnerCyrus L. Sulzberger [1858-1932]Maunie GoodmanJ.W. FrankelJoseph WellenHerman Sanders.

The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley

Rupert Brooke

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 1914 and Other Poems by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Rupert+Brooke&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Rupert Brooke</a>.<ul><li>Rupert Brooke (English).</li><li>London:&nbsp;Sidgwick &amp; Jackson [Printed at the Complete Press, West Norwood],&nbsp;1915.</li><li>Small octavo.</li><li>63 pages.</li><li>Inscribed by Eddie Marsh to John Drinkwater.</li><li>Photogravure frontispiece portrait in profile view by Sherril Schell. </li><li>Blue cloth, printed spine label, morocco book label of John Drinkwater.</li></ul> First edition of the poet's posthumous second book.&nbsp;Inscribed before publication from Edward Marsh to John Drinkwater on the front flyleaf: John from Eddie, June 4th 1915. Marsh, who was Brooke’s agent, edited the Collected Poems. Both he and Drinkwater wrote memoirs of Brooke. An outstanding association from the inner circle of Rupert Brooke’s poet friends.

1914 and Other Poems | First Edition

Charles Bukowski

An <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> <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 If We Take by <a href="sothebys.com/en/search?query=Charles%20Bukowski&amp;tab=objects" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Charles Bukowski</a>.<ul><li>Charles Bukowski (American).</li><li>[Los Angeles]: Black Sparrow Press, 1970.</li><li>[8] pages.&nbsp;</li><li>One of 350 copies.&nbsp;</li><li>Inscribed by Bukowski to Harold Norse: "12 -27 - 69 / For Hal Norse - / We've both been / through the fire, / dear friend, and / there's more to come - / more fire more o / so much more fire, / and we can only / wonder if we will / kill ourselves first, / or they. No matter - / they will never know. / yrs, / Charles Bukowski."&nbsp;</li><li>Bukowski has also added to inside of front cover an illustration of a man smoking, signed "Buk."</li><li>Original string-tied stiff printed wrappers.</li></ul> "We've both been through fire, dear friend, and there's more to come" First edition, association copy, with an extraordinary inscription and drawing from Bukowski at a pivotal moment in his career to Hal Norse, perennial literary scenester and author of the classic cut-up novel Beat Hotel. Norse was a frequent Bukowski correspondent beginning in the mid 1960s, and it was Norse who recommended Bukowski to Penguin Press for their Modern Poets series — then Bukowski's highest-profile appearance to date (they appeared together in the thirteenth installment). But the two didn't meet in person until January of 1969, a little less than a year before this inscription. Norse recalls the experience in his book Memoirs of a Bastard Angel: "I knew that a wild Falstaffian ruffian had come to shake things up with more fiction than fact, more fantasy than truth [...] Bukowski was misshapen [...] He looked [...] down and out." Norse and Bukowski remained life-long — if contentious — friends and correspondents (a collection of their letters has been slated, but delayed, for publication since 2002). Quite simply, one of the closest and warmest Bukowski associations we've seen.

If We Take Inscribed First Edition

Edith Sitwell

<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Edith%20Sitwell&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Dame Edith</a>’s coat and 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 editions</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">inscribed</a> to her brother Sacheverell.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 5 books and 1 coat.</li><li>Edith Sitwell (English).</li><li>London: Various publishers.</li></ul> A set&nbsp;of&nbsp;four&nbsp;first&nbsp;editions&nbsp;of&nbsp;her&nbsp;work,&nbsp;inscribed&nbsp;to&nbsp;Sacheverell, previously exhibited at The National Portrait Gallery for ‘The Sitwells’, between 1994-95, with a&nbsp;first&nbsp;edition (unsigned)&nbsp;of&nbsp;Taken Care&nbsp;Of, along with&nbsp;Dame&nbsp;Edith’s own brocade jacket. Includes the following: The Shadow&nbsp;of&nbsp;Cain:<ul><li>London: John Lehmann, 1947.</li><li>Inscribed to Edith's youngest brother Sacheverell 'For/my darling Sachie' with very best love /from /Edith.'</li><li>A&nbsp;first&nbsp;edition,&nbsp;first&nbsp;printing.</li><li>Very good condition, in like wrapper with the original National Portrait Gallery tissue wrap.&nbsp;</li></ul> Green Song&nbsp;and&nbsp;Other Poems:<ul><li>London: Macmillan, 1944.</li><li>A&nbsp;first&nbsp;edition,&nbsp;first&nbsp;printing.</li><li>Inscribed in pencil on the front free endpaper - 'For my darling Sachie/with very best love/ from/ Edith.'</li><li>Very good condition in like wrapper.</li></ul> Street Songs:<ul><li>London: Macmillan 1942.</li><li>A&nbsp;first&nbsp;edition,&nbsp;first&nbsp;printing.</li><li>Signed on the front free endpaper 'For /my darling Sachie/ with very best love from /Edit/27 January 1942.'</li><li>A very good book in like wrapper. </li></ul> Poems Old&nbsp;and&nbsp;New:<ul><li>London: Faber 1940.</li><li> A&nbsp;first&nbsp;edition,&nbsp;first&nbsp;printing.</li><li>&nbsp;Inscribed, 'For /my darling Sachie/ with Edith's very best /love.'</li><li>Excellent condition in like wrapper with the National Portrait Gallery tissue wrapping still present.</li></ul> Taken Care&nbsp;Of:<ul><li>London: Hutchinson, 1965.</li><li>A&nbsp;first&nbsp;edition,&nbsp;first&nbsp;printing.</li><li>A near fine copy in like wrapper. </li></ul> A silk brocade fitted long line jacket by Nina Astier&nbsp;of&nbsp;Chelsea. <ul><li>Leaf green with matching green lining, with fabric buttons.</li><li>Some light fading&nbsp;and&nbsp;stains&nbsp;to&nbsp;the cuff edges. </li><li>Previously owned&nbsp;and&nbsp;worn by&nbsp;Dame&nbsp;Edith&nbsp;and&nbsp;originates from the sale by Dreweatts at Weston Hall in 2021.</li></ul>

Edith Sitwell Inscribed First Editions Collection, Accompanied by Dame Edith’s Coat

Sylvia Plath

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> letter from <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Sylvia%20Plath&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sylvia Plath</a> to her mother.<ul><li>Sylvia Plath (American).</li><li>One leaf, recto and verso, on light blue Smith College stationery.</li><li>Framed with contemporaneous black-and-white photograph of Plath.</li></ul> Sylvia Plath (1932–63) matriculated at Smith College in the fall of 1950, and quickly formed a tight bond with her roommate, Marcia Brown (1932–2012). In the winter of 1951, Plath and Brown visited the latter's maternal aunt, Harriet Bosworth, in Francestown, New Hampshire, a trip that clearly enthralled Plath, who writes in the first paragraph, "It is now midnight Sunday night and I have gotten back from the nicest weekend I ever had!" She continues: "Marcia and I got up at 10 and had a lovely liesurely [sic] breakfast in the front living room of the dear little house. Then we went out into the most beautiful world imagineable [sic]! Snow had fallen in a fine powder last night, and the sun was out in a snow-blue sky. A white-New-England church is so lovely — and it was one of those heavenly dry-cold days, with blinding sun and snow and sharp blue shadows. The air was swimmingly blue." Plath goes on to recount skiing for the first time — "I have never been so thrilled in my life!" — and while noting "the modest little gently rolling hill… was not Sun Valley," stated that, "Skiing, if you can do it well, must be pretty close to feeling like God." She closes with, "to bed &amp; my six hour day tomorrow — your happy girl, Sylvia." Plath and Brown maintained their close friendship until Sylvia's suicide in 1963. Brown is mentioned multiple times in Plath's journals, and the poet sent her more than 20 letters, all of which are currently housed in the Sylvia Plath Collection at Smith. Plath also incorporated Brown into two poems, the first being "The Babysitters" (1961), which recounts a summer both girls worked as nannies in Swampscott, Massachusetts, and the second an unpublished pieced titled "Marcia," in which Plath writes, "she will be always as now: cheeks appleshining translucent from soapandwater scrubbing. she will be always sight of market in the morning: red cheek of beet and radish squashyellow hair and mirrored purpleblack of eggplant eye laced with celerysilver lashes, vegetable and vital."

Signed Letter from Sylvia Plath to her Mother

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

Robert Graves

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 <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Robert%20Graves&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Robert Graves</a>' Good-Bye To All That.<ul><li>Robert Graves (English).</li><li>London: Jonathan Cape, 1929.</li><li>First printing, second state.</li><li>The authors signature is present on the full title page in blue ink, and dated to 1979, fifty years after the publication date.&nbsp;</li><li>This is the expurgated second-state, without the Siegfried Sassoon poem.&nbsp;</li><li>The ex-Libris label pasted to the front end-paper is that of Michael Bernard Thorold, a member of the Scots Guard and peerage.&nbsp;</li><li>In dust wrapper, designed by Len Lye and with the authors photograph by Alfred Cracknell.</li></ul>

Good-Bye To All That Signed First Edition

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> contract for <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=sylvia%20plath&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Plath</a>'s appearance in Seventeen, for her short story "And Summer Will Not Come Again."<ul><li>[New York]:&nbsp;Triangle Publications [Seventeen Magazine],&nbsp;1950.</li><li>Triangle Publications form contract with typed carbon elements printed recto only.</li><li>Signed and dated ("March 17, 1950") by Plath, her mother, and Plath again (as "Witness," using her mother's maiden name).</li></ul> "Future writer... Those rejection slips from Seventeen" — Plath, caption below her high school yearbook photo. Plath had amassed almost fifty rejections from Seventeen before finally garnering this acceptance in March of 1950 for her short story "And Summer Will Not Come Again." Often described as Plath's first professional publication (as this contract notes, she was paid $15), "Summer" details her relationship with a high school boyfriend, John Hodges. Published in August of that year, just before she began her freshman year at Smith, the story would mark the first of eight appearances in the magazine over the next several years. The contract is actually signed twice by Plath, once as herself (noting her age: "17"), and once as "Aurelia R. Schober" (her mother's maiden name) on the "Witness" line — presumably for convenience and expediency. Plath has additionally noted the date ("March 17, 1950"). A rare document marking one of the earliest milestones in the career of one of our most important poets.

Signed Contract for "And Summer Will Not Come Again"

Audre Lorde

A signed <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 First Cities by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Audre%20Lorde&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Audre Lorde</a>.<ul><li>Audre Lorde (American).</li><li>Introduction by Diane DiPrima.</li><li>New York:&nbsp;The Poets Press, Inc.,&nbsp;1968.</li><li>Small Octavo.</li><li>Inscription on the title page reading "To A.B - who has seen the lights in some &amp; these cities go out," signed Audre Lorde.&nbsp;</li><li>Gold covers with black designs and lettering. </li></ul>

The First Cities

Saadi

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 the single most important publication for Western studies in Persian language and history in the seventeenth century.&nbsp;<ul><li>Saadi (Persian).</li><li>Musladini Sadi rosarium politicum, sive amoenum sortis humanae theatrum, de Persico in latinum versum, necessariisque notis illustratum a Georgio Gentio. </li><li>Amsterdam: Joannis Blaev, 1651.&nbsp;</li><li>Small folio.</li><li>630 pages.</li><li>Complete with the notes of Gentio bound at the end, printed in Persian and Latin.</li><li>Bound in modern green half morocco over marbled boards, spine in compartments with gilt ornaments.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ul>&nbsp;&nbsp;Although the compiler Georgius Gentius (1618-1687) was best-known as a Dutch Hebraists, he was also a Persian scholar and this copy of the text includes an appendix of notes relating to the Gulistan by Gentius bound at the end (often lacking).&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The Gulstan, or Rose Garden, is one of the most important literary works in the Persian language. Sa’adi, being one of the most revered of Persian Poets, completed this masterpiece in 1258 AD and it has been a literary favourite since. Though a vast quantity of manuscripts of the text precede this publication, the delays in printing in the Middle East, which weren’t established until the nineteenth century, make this 1651 publication the earliest printed edition of the text. A partial French translation by du Ryer was published in 1634, and a German version of this French text appeared two years later, but this remains the earliest most complete appearance of this monumentally important work in print.&nbsp;

Musladini Sadi Rosarium Politicum, Sive Amoenum Sortis Humanae Theatrum

Jefferson Hayman | MacLean Gander

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?Book%20Type=Signed%2520and%2520Inscribed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">signed</a> deluxe vellum edition of The New City By Jefferson Hayman, Poems By MacLean Gander.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2 volumes.</li><li>Jefferson Hayman (American).</li><li>MacLean Gander (American).&nbsp;</li><li>Massachusetts: 21st Editions, 2009.</li><li>Limited to 17 copies of which this is #4 signed by the poet, artist, editor, and publisher.</li><li>The edition sold out shortly after release.</li><li>Signed original hand printed platinum prints each signed by Jefferson Hayman, with a separate portfolio of 17 signed free standing prints, each housed in their original clamshell boxes, with the original shipping box.</li></ul> "This book combines an epic poem of the American experience by MacLean Gander and the lyrical, contemporary photographs of Jefferson Hayman. Hayman is one of the great photographers of New York and brings to his vision a unique marriage of Symbolism’s dream-like quality and the New Objectivity’s clarity and precision. It is a way of seeing New York that no other photographer has captured, just as Gander, in the tradition of Whitman, Crane, and Ginsberg, gives us a fresh, new American epic of hope and reclamation." - The Publisher 21st Editions was awarded the prestigious Independent Publisher (IPPY) Book Award Gold Medal in 2009 for "Best Book Arts Craftsmanship" for its publication "The New City."

The New City By Jefferson Hayman, Poems By MacLean Gander

Dylan Thomas

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a> of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Dylan%20Thomas&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Dylan Thomas</a>' In Country Sleep And Other Poems, <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?Book%20Type=Signed%2520and%2520Inscribed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">signed</a> by the author.<ul><li>Dylan Thomas (Welsh).</li><li>New York: New Directions, 1952.</li><li>Illustrated with a photograph portrait of Thomas pasted to title,&nbsp;</li><li>One of 5,000 copies printed on Kilmory paper.</li><li>Boldly signed in black ink on the front blank endleaf by Dylan.</li><li>Hardcover, bound in publisher's original red stamped green paper boards, with the original dust jacket.</li></ul> Dylan Thomas's last collection of poetry, published one year before his death and contains the first appearance of Dylan's most famous poem, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night."

In Country Sleep And Other Poems

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?Book%20Type=Signed%2520and%2520Inscribed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">signed</a> manuscript of one of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=sylvia%20plath&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Plath</a>'s earliest poems, in a version preceding the 1946 revision published in her junior high school literary magazine and collected nowhere else.<ul><li>Sylvia Plath (American).</li><li>[Wellesley, Massachusetts]: n.p, [circa 1945].&nbsp;</li><li>Single ruled leaf.</li><li>Handwritten in pencil in three stanzas, with title and "by Sylvia" above.</li><li>Housed in a custom gilt-stamped black cloth clamshell case with black leather spine.</li></ul> "The Snowflake Star" was one of a small cluster of early poems in which Plath first began experimenting with a group of images that would in many ways come to define her later work. In "A Winter Sunset," written around the same time (and published in the same issue of her junior high literary magazine The Phillipian), the moon hangs above "the bare, black skeletons of trees." And in "To Miss Cox," from later in 1946, "The winter skies are leaden / The flying snowflakes sting." Plath biographer Heather Clark identifies the beginnings of Plath's "mature poetic voice" in these poems, a voice also heard in "The Snowflake Star." Its opening lines ("On a dark and cloudy day / I wandered in the woods away") point, in all their simplicity, directly ahead to 1956, when Plath would write "I stalk like a rook, / brooding as the winter night comes on [...] Who'd walk in this bleak place?" ("Winter Landscape, With Rooks"); to 1960: "Winter dawn is the color of metal / The trees stiffen into place like burnt nerves" ("Waking in Winter"); to 1962: "The woods are a well" ("Stars over the Dordogne"). "The Snowflake Star" revolves around subjects and images that would become enduring in her work: snow, winter, stars, trees. The list of poems in which these ideas are central is long and includes many of her best-known works: "Crossing the Water," "Words" ("fixed stars / Govern a life"), "Winter Trees," "Snow Blitz," "Wintering," "The Snowman on the Moor," "The Munich Mannequins" ("The snow has no voice"), "Winter Words," "To A Jilted Lover" ("a mosaic of stars / diagrams the falling years"), "Elm" — to name only a selection. Metrically precise and lettered in a dauntingly perfect hand, this three-stanza version of "Snowflake Star" was composed before the poet turned 14. Plath's juvenile diaries record that on January 10th, 1945, assigned to write a poem or story about a star, she wrote two: "King of the Ice," and "another even better 'The Snowflake Star.'" The poem was completed by February 21 of that year, but would not appear in The Phillipian until the following year (the only time it was published in any version), in February of 1946. Notably, scholar Edward Butscher's assessment of Plath's juvenilia quotes words and phrases not present in this sparer, starker draft: the "temporary return to strained gaiety and a continued pursuit of the conventional" characteristic of her other winter poems from the same period have not yet been written into the close of this version. Avoiding the "happy thought" which "lingers on" in the final stanza of the published version, this draft ends simply with the word "star," the poem's only unrhymed line, the snowflake just caught, still frozen, in the mittened hand — an ending more in keeping with Plath's later work, where danger always lurks just below the surface of beauty. Material of any kind entirely in Plath's hand is rare on the market. While typescripts of her poems appear from time to time (many submission copies to periodicals and publishers), almost all original handwritten drafts remained with Plath's papers (which now reside variously at Smith College, the Lilly Library at the University of Indiana, and Emory University). This manuscript, which originates with Plath's mother's estate, represents one of just a tiny handful of occasions when a handwritten poem of Plath's has come to market. A rare opportunity not only to own an original work in Plath's own hand, but one that prefigures many of her most important images and themes.

The Snowflake Star | Unpublished Poem

Ernest Hemingway

<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?locale=en&amp;query=Hemingway&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hemingway</a>'s legendary first published book, and among the rarest of his <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first editions</a>.<ul><li>Ernest Hemingway (American).</li><li>[Paris]: (Contact Publishing Co.), (1923).</li><li>&nbsp;[8], 58, [2] pages.</li><li>Original blue printed wrappers, uncut and partially unopened.</li><li>Housed in custom blue cloth slipcase and chemise.</li></ul> The typography and design of Hemingway's first book reflected the new Modernist style for which Hemingway would become known: spare, balanced, striking. In this as in his prose, Hemingway was influenced by Gertrude Stein, who advised a careful pick of typeface for the titles listed on the front wrapper, "good and black, but not squatty like the others" (quoted in Grissom, 26). Three Stories And Ten Poems was issued by Robert McAlmon's formative Modernist press, Contact, one of the original loci of the burgeoning movement. McAlmon also brought out numerous other classic expatriate texts, including Stein's epic monument The Making Of Americans, William Carlos Williams's Spring And Fall, Gertrude Beasley's cult feminist memoir My First Thirty Years, Bryher's pioneering autobiographical lesbian novel Two Selves, and H.D.'s Palimpsest — though it was this Hemingway book that would ultimately become the most famous of all its publications. Poorly constructed and issued in an edition of only 300 copies, Three Stories And Ten Poems has become one of the most sought rarities of the 20th century and a cornerstone for any collection that documents the rise of Modernism.

Three Stories And Ten Poems

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?Book%20Type=Signed%2520and%2520Inscribed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">signed</a> painted portrait of an unidentified young woman by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=sylvia%20plath&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sylvia Plath</a>.<ul><li>Sylvia Plath (American, 1932-1963).</li><li>(Wellesley, Mass):&nbsp;n.p,&nbsp;[1948 or 1949].</li><li>Gouache painting on thick paper.</li><li>Signed by Plath on verso: "Sylvia Plath / (Age 16) / 26 Elmwood Rd / Wellesley, Mass."&nbsp;</li><li>With Plath estate seal on both front (lower left corner) and back.&nbsp;</li><li>Housed in a metal frame.</li></ul> An original, bold portrait painted by a 16-year-old Sylvia Plath. Plath made visual art throughout her life in a wide variety of mediums: from collage and oils to watercolor and pastels. Before she settled firmly on poetry in college, she seriously considered majoring in art. This early piece, painted while she was in high school (and, given the inscription on the verso, likely submitted to an art contest or competition), is executed in colorful gouache in a decidedly modern, almost Fauvist style, and features an unnamed young woman resting her chin in her hand. The approach to this piece speaks to her early experimentation with the kind of art that would inspire her writing as an adult. Plath would later write to her mother, "I feel I'm developing a kind of primitive style of my own which I am very fond of" (August 28th, 1956). In 1958, she wrote that her "deepest source of inspiration" was "the art of primitives like Henri Rousseau, Gauguin and Paul Klee and De Chirico [...] Once I start writing, it comes and comes" (quoted in Clark, 518). As this letter suggests, Plath did not merely dabble in art: it was in many ways central to her creative practice. According to Dorothy Moss, curator of the 2017 Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery exhibition of Plath's art, ONE LIFE: SYLVIA PLATH, "I think that once you know that she drew and painted and sketched constantly as a child, and realize that she went to college to major in art, you'll start seeing how vivid her descriptions are, and how beautifully she put visual images into words." That exhibition prominently featured Plath's painting "Triple-Face Portrait" (1950), which shares a decidedly similar sensibility with this piece. A moving and vibrant original work from one of the defining authors of the 20th century, capturing the youthful exuberance she would transform from visual media into the written word

Untitled Portrait Of A Woman

A&nbsp;<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>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a>&nbsp;of&nbsp;North And South by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Elizabeth%20Bishop&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Elizabeth Bishop</a>.<ul><li>Elizabeth Bishop (American).</li><li>Cambridge, Massachusetts:&nbsp;Houghton Mifflin Company,&nbsp;1946.&nbsp;</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>54 pages.</li><li>Inscription on title page from Elizabeth Bishop to a previous owner, signed flat by Elizabeth Bishop.</li><li>Aged light blue spine with aged white lettering, dust jacket price is uncut.</li></ul> Elizabeth Bishop was born February 8, 1911 in Worcester, MA. She was orphaned at 5 years old, moving in at first with her maternal grandparents on a farm in Nova Scotia, but later being taken from them to live once more in Worcester with her father's wealthier family. Both these periods are chronicled in Bishop's poems. Bishop would receive little formal schooling until high school due to chronic illness. It would be at the Walnut Hill boarding school were her first poems would be published in a student magazine. At Vassar College, Bishop would found her own literary magazine Con Spirito with writer Mary McCarthy and others. This work and a friendship with the college librarian led Bishop to meet the poet Marianne Moore with whom she would maintain a lifelong friendship until Moore's death in 1972. After college, Bishop would spend nearly the rest of her life traveling around the world living on an inheritance from her father and sparse employment. After publishing her first book of poetry, North &amp; South in 1946, Bishop would notably become a Consultant of Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949-1950 and win a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1956. These impressive achievements would not have been possible without Bishop's first book North &amp; South which released in 1946 and won the Houghton Mifflin Poetry Award that same year. This book brings together several of Bishop's most notable poems including "The Man-Moth" (so named for a newspaper misprint of mammoth) and "The Fish" which describes a caught fish in excruciating detail.

North And South (Signed First Edition)

Gwendolyn Brooks

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" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a> of Annie Allen by Gwendolyn Brooks.<ul><li>Gwendolyn Brooks (American).</li><li>New York:&nbsp;Harper &amp; Brothers,&nbsp;1949.&nbsp;</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>60 pages.</li><li>Inscription on title page reading "For Dick, Sincerely Gwendolyn Brooks", dated 'October 29, 1991'.</li><li>Contains a monochrome frontispiece and a loose blue "Pulitzer Prize Winner 1949" poster.</li><li>Dark brown spine with aged white lettering, dust jacket is wrapped in a mylar covering, price is uncut.</li></ul> Gwendolyn Brooks was born June 7, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas, but moved at six weeks to the South Side of Chicago as a part of the Great Migration. A born writer, Brooks was greatly encouraged to write by her mother, getting her first poem published at 13 and becoming a regular contributor to the black-run paper The Chicago Defender by age 18. Brooks would always feel her true home was Chicago, and her works have always focused on the black experience there. Annie Allen released in 1949 and would be Brooks's second book of poetry, the first being A Street in Bronzeville released in 1945. It released to great critical acclaim, earning the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for poetry and the Poetry magazine's Eunice Tietjens Prize the same year. The poems follow a young black girl, Annie, growing into womanhood in Bronzeville Chicago. The book is dominated by "The Anniad", a heroic poem written to mimic Virgil's "Annead", Annie's heroism coming from her survival against steep adversity. The book ends with Annie's outlook on the world she'd like to change.

Annie Allen

James Boaden

A finely bound edition of Boaden's Shakespeare inquiry.<ul><li>James Boaden (English).</li><li>An Inquiry into the Authenticity of Various Pictures and Prints, Which, from the Decease of the Poet to Our Own Times, Have Been Offered to the Public as Portraits of Shakespeare.</li><li>London: Printed for Robert Triphook [B. M'Millan, Printer, Bow-street, Covent-Garden], 1824.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>206 pages.</li><li>Bound in full red morocco with five Cosway-style watercolor miniatures under glass on the upper cover, by Riviere &amp; Son, in open-faced red cloth slipcase.</li></ul>

An Inquiry Into the Authenticity of Various Pictures and Prints...of Shakespeare

Edgar Allan Poe

A first edition, finely bound copy of The Raven and Other Poems.<ul><li>Edgar Allan Poe (American).</li><li>The Raven and Other Poems [and:] Tales.</li><li>New York:&nbsp;Wiley and Putnam,&nbsp;1845.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Raven with half title, "Wiley and Putnam's Library of American Books," name of stereotyper T. B. Smith on the title verso; Tales, third printing with three-line copyright.</li><li>Bound in three quarter blue morocco gilt, t.e.g., by Riviere &amp; Son.</li></ul> Students all over the world know of the title poem, and many know others as well: "The Conqueror Worm," "Eulalie," "Leonore," "To Helen," etc. "The most important volume of poetry that had been issued up to that time in America..." —Grolier American 56 A choice set of the major books published during Poe’s lifetime, BAL’s “reissue B,” issued by Wiley and Putnam in April 1846, comprising the first edition sheets of The Raven and The Tales in either second or third printing (here in BAL’s third printing, distinguishable by the three-line copyright notice). BAL notes that “impressions from the plates of several pages vary in an anomalous way. For instance, the first three letters of the last three lines of p. 160 appear both battered and intact within the three printings.” This copy has slight battering to “I” and “o” on p. 160, while the “v” is intact. The “E” in the running head on p. 187 is broken here (as in most copies of all printings. BAL cautions, “It is possible that the printings designated below as second and third are in fact two states of the same printing.” This copy is textually complete in both books, including the integral ads; the volume has been rebound without the separate gatherings of advertisements that followed the text.

The Raven and Other Poems

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Basquiat executed this one line poem circa 1982 while living with a noted Gray bandmate.<ul><li>Single page removed from notebook.</li><li>The line reads: "SOME BORING HARBOR / CAMERAS MILD SUSPENCE."</li><li>Ink on paper.</li><li>Obtained directly from a prominent Basquiat Gray band member whose typewritten prose appears on the reverse.</li><li>Accompanied by a signed letter of provenance from the aforementioned.</li></ul> Here, Basquiat begins to play with the idea of beginning a screenplay, with the work’s empty space and liner notes leaving us to surreally fill in the blanks. The work further echoes Basquiat’s one-line street poems during his (earlier) SAMO period and famed notebook entries, not to mention his interest in beat poetry and fragmented prose scenarios mirroring the style and influence of William S. Burroughs. During the very early part of his career, Basquiat also experimented with screenwriting.

Handwritten One Line Poem

A collection of more than three dozen magazine appearances by Plath, including the first appearance in print of "Daddy" and "Lady Lazarus."<ul><li>Sold as a set of 41 magazines and literary journals.</li><li>Sylvia Plath (American).</li><li>Various publishers, 1957-1971.</li><li>All bound in their original wrappers.</li></ul> With 22 instances published during her lifetime (and five the year of her death), from such publications as The New Yorker, Poetry, The Atlantic and elsewhere. Besides "Daddy" and "Lady Lazarus" (in the October 1963 issue of THE REVIEW), highlights include nine appearances in The New Yorker, eight of which were published during her lifetime including the poems "Tulips (1962)," "Mussel Hunter at Rock Harbor (1958)" and "A Winter's Tale (1959)"; two poems in the June 1958 issue of The London Magazine ("Spinster" and "Black Rook in Rainy Weather"), that also includes Albert Camus' Nobel Prize acceptance speech; the posthumously published short story, "Johnny Panic and The Bible of Dreams" in the September 1968 issue of The Atlantic, nine years before it would be used as the title for a collection of Plath's short stories; and one posthumous appearance in a 1965 issue of Mademoiselle ("November Graveyard"), the magazine where she spent a month as guest editor after her third year of college and which provided many of the experiences she would later draw inspiration from while writing The Bell Jar. The earliest appearance is in the January 1957 issue of Poetry, which includes six poems, and the latest appearance is in Works In Progress No. 2, 1971, which includes four poems and a short story. An impressive collection of periodicals featuring appearances by one of the greatest American poets of the twentieth century, spanning Plath's start as a writer through her tragic death and early posthumous publications.

Collection of Magazine Appearances

Frost, Robert 

An autographed manuscript signed and inscribed, "A Preview for Nita and Doc from R.F., After a good Bread Loaf, 1946."<ul><li>Robert Frost (American).</li><li>16 pages.</li><li>Includes 8 poems that would be published in Steeple Bush (1947).</li><li>Inscribed for Reginald Lansing Cook (1903-1984) and his wife Lydia Juanita Cook.</li><li>Side-stitched, with custom green half-morocco slipcase and matching chemise.</li></ul> Included Poems:1) "To an Ancient"2) "Something to Hope For": variant title ["Something for Hope" in published book]; line 12 starts "And in" (as in E38), rather than "And with" in book; line 15 has "noxious weed" rather than "wasteful weed" in book; line 17 starts "A cycle of say" (as in E38), rather than "A cycle we'll say" in book; line 21 ends in an exclamation point ("!") but in a comma (",") in the book3) "One Step Backward Taken"4) "Why Wait for Science"5) "But He Meant It": variant title, first published as such in The Atlantic Monthly (April, 1947) ["The Broken Drought" in book]6) "The Courage to Be New": has a quatrain, listed here as a postscript, that is cut in the published book: No one cavails at their killing / And being killed for speed. / Then why are we unwilling / They should do as much for creed? [The third line appears in E42, the fourth line appears in E38, with punctuation from E42]7) "A Mood Apart"8) "Bravado"

Autographed Manuscript of Poems

Proof copies of the first separate edition of the poem A Considerable Speck.&nbsp;<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2&nbsp;single folio sheets.</li><li>Includes one uncorrected page proof of the 33-line poem, without the printed title page, and with printer’s manuscript corrections and directions in red ink; and one final proof copy, with "Original Proof" printed on title-page.</li><li>Robert Frost (American).</li><li>Both copies are uncut on cream woven paper watermarked "HANDMADE”.</li><li>Laid in a custom green cloth chemise.</li></ul> Laid in is a photocopy of the handbill titled “The Colonial Society of Massachusetts” detailing the poem’s history: “This poem was written and delivered by Robert Frost at the Annual Dinner on November twenty-first, 1939. It has been printed by Mr. Dard Hunter, Jr. from the first font of type that he has cut and cast himself, and is one of the first pieces of printing. It is on hand-made paper, made by him and his father, an authority on paper, with whom he is associated at the Dard Hunter Paper Museum at Massachusetts Institute of Technology....” A Considerable Speck was first printed in the Atlantic Monthly in July, 1939. The first separate edition consisted of fewer than 100 copies, according to Crane.

A Considerable Speck

William Blake

The first letterpress edition of Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience.<ul><li>William Blake (English).</li><li>Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul.</li><li>London: W. Pickering and W. Newbery, 1839.</li><li>74 pages.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Bound in full green morocco gilt, with circular gilt vellum label of William Twopeny.</li></ul> The first letterpress edition of Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience, preceded only by the small number of copies of the illuminated first edition engraved and colored by Blake, with a laudatory preface by the Swedenborgian James John Garth Wilkinson (1812-99), who edited and arranged the present volume for publication. Wilkinson worked from Charles Augustus Tulk's copy of the illuminated first edition (c. 1795-1807); Tulk had previously lent his copy to Coleridge. The work appears in two issues, with or without a poem entitled “The Little Vagabound” at page 71, which was supposedly canceled by the editor out of prudishness.

Songs of Innocence and of Experience (first letterpress edition)

FInely bound limited-edition set of the Collector’s Camden edition of Whitman's complete works.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 10.</li><li>Walt Whitman (American).</li><li>New York, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1902.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Includes 40 lithographic illustrations.</li><li>Limited edition of 300 sets signed and numbered by the publisher, this being number 10.</li><li>Bound in blue half morocco with raised bands, gilt titles and decoration to spines, and blue cloth over boards, top edges gilt, others untrimmed.</li></ul>

The Complete Works of Walt Whitman

Wallace Stevens

Signed first edition copy of Stevens' The Necessary Angel.<ul><li>Wallace Stevens (American).</li><li>The Necessary Angel. Essays on Reality and the Imagination.</li><li>New York:&nbsp;Alfred A. Knopf,&nbsp;1951.</li><li>x, [2],176, [2] pages.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Signed and inscribed to Murray Walch by the author on the ffep on the half title.</li><li>Bound in publisher's green cloth with red dust jacket.</li></ul>

The Necessary Angel (Signed First Edition)

T.S. Eliot

First edition, second state of Eliot's poem The Waste Land.<ul><li>T. S. Eliot (American-English).</li><li>New York:&nbsp;Boni and Liveright,&nbsp;1922.&nbsp;</li><li>64 pages.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Edition of 1,000, this being number 494.</li><li>Bound in black cloth with gold lettering in dust jacket with black print.</li></ul>

Literature & Children's Poetry

Filters

Way to Buy

Author

Price

Book Subject

Book Special Feature

Book Language

Era

Materials

Color

Region of Origin

Country of Origin

Item Location

Available for International Shipping

René Char, Henri Matisse

Robert Burns

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ernest Thayer

A.A. Milne

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Elizabeth Bishop

Clement Clarke Moore

Emily Dickinson

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Rupert Brooke

Charles Bukowski

Edith Sitwell

Sylvia Plath

Walt Whitman

Robert Graves

Sylvia Plath

Audre Lorde

Saadi

Jefferson Hayman, MacLean Gander

Dylan Thomas

Sylvia Plath

Ernest Hemingway

Sylvia Plath

Elizabeth Bishop

Gwendolyn Brooks

James Boaden

Edgar Allan Poe

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Sylvia Plath

Frost, Robert

Frost, Robert

William Blake

Walt Whitman

Wallace Stevens

T.S. Eliot