Women Authors

Beatrix Potter

Deluxe edition, and first or second printing of The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse.<ul><li>Beatrix Potter (English).</li><li>London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1910.</li><li>Sextodecimo.</li><li>Color frontispiece, plain title vignette and 26 color plates, contemporary ink gift inscription dated Christmas 1910 to half-title.</li><li>Bound in publisher’s blue moiré cloth with fielded illustrative paste-down of Mrs. Tittlemouse, all edges gilt.</li><li>Custom-made solander box.</li></ul>

The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse

Charlotte Brontë | Emily Brontë | Anne Brontë

Finely bound set of the first printing of the Thornton edition of the novels of the Brontë sisters, which is considered the definitive complete works, and includes Elizabeth Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Brontë. Sold as a set of 12.<ul><li>Charlotte Brontë (English).</li><li>Anne Brontë (English).</li><li>Emily Brontë (English).</li><li>Edited by Temple Scott (English).</li><li>Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Agnes Grey, Shirley, Villette, The Professor.</li><li>Edinburgh: John Grant, 1905.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Includes a frontispiece illustration to each volume and numerous black and white photographic plates showing Brontë country.</li><li>Recent navy half morocco, with raised bands, gilt titles and decoration to spines, and blue cloth over boards, top edges gilt, others lightly trimmed.</li></ul>

Novels of the Sisters Brontë

J.K. Rowling

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>, first impression, hardback issue of the first <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Harry+Potter&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Harry Potter</a> book; the rarest and most desirable format of the series 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>Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.</li><li>London: Bloomsbury, 1997.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Original matt laminated printed paper boards, spine and front cover lettered in white, yellow, dark green and black, without dust jacket, as issued, housed in a red quarter morocco solander box by the Chelsea Bindery.&nbsp;</li></ul> All the required points of the first printing are present: Bloomsbury imprint, 10-down-to-1 number line, no space between “Thomas” and “Taylor” on p. 4, the list of equipment on p. 53 with “1 wand” appearing twice, and the misprint “Philospher’s” on the rear cover. Both paperback and hardback issues of the first impression were published on 26 June 1997. Only 500 copies of the first printing of Philosopher’s Stone were issued in hardback, of which it is thought around 300 were sold to libraries and schools. The publisher has stated “I think the assumption in 1997 would have been that you would sell 500 hardcovers of any good book to public libraries so that edition would be aimed at them. The general edition for the market would be a paperback” (Errington, p. 4). Identifying libraries as the intended buyers of this issue explains the lack of a dust jacket (Errington states a jacket “was simply not required by libraries”). The small number of copies not accessioned by libraries explains the scarcity of this issue, and why copies in collectible condition are rare. This copy, bearing a price sticker from W. H. Smith on the rear cover, identifies it as one of a small number sold on the high street.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone | First Edition, First Impression

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> Thornton Edition of the Novels of the Sisters <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Bront%C3%AB&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Brontë</a>.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 12 volumes.</li><li>Charlotte Brontë (English).</li><li>Emily Brontë (English).</li><li>Anne Brontë (English).</li><li>Edinburgh:&nbsp;John Grant,&nbsp;1905.</li><li>Illustrated frontispiece, marbled endpapers. </li><li>Bound in three-quarters emerald green Morocco leather covers, green cloth boards, gilt floral spine panels, top edges gilt, raised bands. </li></ul>

Jane Austen

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> early edition of the works of <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 12 volumes.</li><li>Jane Austen (English).</li><li>Boston:&nbsp;Little, Brown, and Company,&nbsp;1898.</li><li>Illustrated frontispiece. </li><li>Marbled endpapers, three-quarters brown Morocco leather, marbled boards, top edges gilt, raised bands, gilt floral panels on spine. </li></ul>

Jane Austen’s Works

Finely bound set of the Winchester Edition of the novels of Jane Austen.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 10.</li><li>Jane Austen (English).</li><li>Edinburgh: John Grant, 1906.</li><li>Includes frontis portrait plate in volume one; title pages printed in red and black,</li><li>Bound in half red morocco, ribbed gilt decorated spines, top edges gilt, others uncut.</li></ul>

Novels of Jane Austen

An early edition of The Tale of Peter Rabbit by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Beatrix+Potter&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Beatrix Potter</a>.<ul><li>Beatrix Potter (English).</li><li>London: Frederick Warne &amp; Co., [1905].</li><li>16mo.</li><li>Color frontispiece, plain title vignette, 23 color illustrations.</li><li>Bound in the publisher's brown paper covered boards with fielded illustrative paste-down of Peter Rabbit, illustrated endpapers.</li></ul> The rarer fourth printing. Beloved by generations of children but banned in 1985 by the Inner London Education Authority for the portrayal of exclusively 'middle-class rabbits.'

The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Charlotte Brontë | Edmund Dulac | Emily Brontë | Anne Brontë

Finely bound set of the Brontë sisters' novels.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 6.</li><li>Charlotte Brontë (English).</li><li>Anne Brontë (English).</li><li>Emily Brontë (English).</li><li>Illustrated Edmund Dulac (French-British).</li><li>London: J. M. Dent &amp; Sons, Ltd., 1922.</li><li>Bound by Bayntun in contemporary half green polished calf, ribbed gilt decorated spines, gilt lettered maroon spine labels, marbled pastedowns and endpapers, top edges gilt, others uncut as issued.</li></ul>

Mary Shelley | Frederick Schiller

Third edition, fourth printing of the first revised edition of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Mary+Shelley&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mary Shelley</a>'s masterpiece <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=frankenstein&amp;pfilters.dateRange=past" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Frankenstein</a>, and the last to contain an illustration with the first printing of the engraved frontis and additional engraved title-page dated 1831.<ul><li>Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (English).</li><li>Frederick Schiller (German)[Author of The Ghost-Seer].&nbsp;</li><li>London: Richard Bentley, 1839.</li><li>Bound in the publisher's original blind stamped straight grained brown-maroon cloth.</li></ul> In her introduction, Shelley contextualizes the creation of her tale: "It proved a wet, ungenial summer, and incessant rain often confined us for days to the house. Some volumes of ghost stories, translated from the German into French, fell into our hands… 'We will each write a ghost story,' said Lord Byron; and his proposition was acceded to."

Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus, [bound with] The Ghost-Seer

Charlotte Brontë | Emily Brontë | Anne Brontë | Elizabeth Gaskell

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> edition of The Works of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=bronte&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Charlotte Brontë and her Sisters</a>.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 7 volumes.</li><li>Charlotte Brontë (English).</li><li>Anne Brontë (English).</li><li>Emily Brontë (English)</li><li>Elizabeth Gaskell (English).</li><li>The Life and Works of Charlotte Bronte &amp; Her Sisters. Haworth Edition. With Introductions to the Works By Mrs Humphrey Ward, and an Introduction and Notes to the Life by Clement K. Shorter. </li><li>London: Smith, Elder, &amp; Co., [and] John Murray, 1905-1926.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Extra-illustrated with a hand-written genealogical table and a black and white photograph of “Wuthering Heights” to the Wuthering Heights volume.</li><li>Various printings.</li><li>Recently re-bound in tan half calf, with raised bands, gilt titles to contrasting red and green labels, further gilt ruling to spine, and matching cloth over boards, top edges gilt, others lightly trimmed.</li></ul> The desirable Haworth edition of the Brontes' classic works, including the Poems and Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Bronte.

The Life and Works of Charlotte Bronte and Her Sisters

Susan Cooper

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 The Dark is Rising by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Susan+Cooper&amp;pfilters.dateRange=past" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Susan Cooper</a>.<ul><li>Susan Cooper (English).</li><li>Illustrations by Alan E. Cober.&nbsp;</li><li>New York: Atheneum,1973.</li><li>Signed on an official bookplate without dedication by Cooper to the front endpaper.</li><li>in an unclipped wrapper.</li></ul> The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper is a fantasy novel about Will Stanton, a boy who discovers on his 11th birthday that he is one of the Old Ones, a group of ancient beings dedicated to fighting the Dark. As the Dark rises to power, Will must gather the six Signs, magical objects that will help him defeat the Dark. Set in a richly woven world of mythology and legend, the story is a battle between good and evil.&nbsp;

The Dark Is Rising Signed First Edition

Emily Dickinson

A beautifully printed and presented copy of Dickinson's poem Under the Light, Yet Under.<ul><li>Emily Dickinson (American).</li><li>Designed by Marc Freedman.</li><li>New York:&nbsp;The Sarabande Press,&nbsp;October 1982.</li><li>Number 18 of 20 copies.</li><li>Paper designed by Karen Miles, and made, with the assistance of Beverly Van Ness, at the Russell-Fleming Papermill.&nbsp;</li><li>Linen folding panels.</li><li>On one panel and 3 panels of paper construction.</li></ul>

Under the Light, Yet Under

Fine copy of Potter's The Tailor of Gloucester, privately printed by the author.<ul><li>Beatrix Potter (English).</li><li>London: Privately Printed by Strangeways &amp; Sons, 1902.</li><li>Unpaginated.</li><li>Illustrated with a frontis and 15 color plates by Potter.</li><li>Limited to 500 copies.</li><li>Bound in the original pink pictorial boards.</li></ul>

The Tailor of Gloucester

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 edition</a>, first printing of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?creators=Virginia%2520Woolf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Virginia Woolf's</a>&nbsp;The Voyage Out.<ul><li>Virginia Woolf (English).</li><li>London: Duckworth &amp; Co., 1915.</li><li>318 pages.</li><li>16 pages of publisher’s advertisements.</li><li>Bound by The Chelsea Bindery in full morocco with gilt title, marbled endpapers, handsewn headbands and all edges gilt.</li></ul>

The Voyage Out (First Edition, First Printing)

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

First edition of Shelley's second novel Valperga.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 3.</li><li>Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (English).</li><li>Valperga: or, The Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca.</li><li>London: for G. &amp; W. B. Whittaker, 1823.</li><li>Bound in half tan speckled calf, gilt decorated spines, gilt lettered black morocco spine labels, marbled edges.</li></ul>

Valperga

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 set</a> of the works of the <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Bront%C3%AB&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Brontë</a> sisters.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 7 volumes.</li><li>Charlotte Brontë (English).</li><li>Anne Brontë (English).</li><li>Emily Brontë (English).</li><li>London: Smith, Elder, &amp; Co., 1883-5.</li><li>Engraved frontis and additional engraved title-page in each volume.</li><li>Bound in contemporary half tan calf, ribbed gilt decorated spines, gilt lettered brown and red morocco spine labels, top edges gilt.</li></ul>

The Life And Works Of Charlotte Bronte And Her Sisters

Margaret Atwood

Signed first American edition presentation copy of Atwood's first novel. <ul><li>Margaret Atwood (Canadian).</li><li>Boston: Little, Brown &amp; Co., 1969.</li><li>Inscribed by Atwood on the half-title "For Bart &amp; Roby best wishes Margaret Atwood 1975."</li><li>Bound in publisher's original pink cloth-backed boards, gilt-lettered spine, with the pictorial dust jacket, not price clipped.</li></ul>

The Edible Woman

Finely bound set of the novels, works and letters of Jane Austen.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 12.</li><li>Jane Austen (English).</li><li>Edinburgh: John Grant, 1911-12.</li><li>Engraved frontis portrait plate in volume one.</li><li>The Winchester Edition.</li><li>Bound by Atkinson in full tan morocco, gilt lettered red and green morocco spine labels, top edges gilt with marbled pastedowns and endpapers.</li></ul>

The Novels of Jane Austen

Ayn Rand

<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> limited special anniversary edition of the influential <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Ayn+Rand&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ayn Rand</a> novel.<ul><li>Ayn Rand (Russian-American).</li><li>New York:&nbsp;Random House,&nbsp;[1967]. </li><li>[8], 1168, [1], [3] pages.&nbsp;</li><li>Signed and numbered by Rand to limitation page, this copy #1278.&nbsp;</li><li>Original full blue cloth, gilt-lettered front board and spine, blue topstain, blue endpapers, fore-edge machine deckle, in original clear glassine and grey-blue paper slipcase.</li></ul> Unlike most philosophers, Rand chose to use novels as a popular vehicle to explain her theory of "rational individualism." Atlas Shrugged has impacted the thinking of prominent American conservatives and libertarians from Alan Greenspan to Peter Thiel. A nice copy of this increasingly uncommon edition.

Atlas Shrugged Signed Limited Anniversary Edition

George Eliot

<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=George+Eliot&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Eliot</a>'s third novel, a fable in realist dress, praised by some as the greatest of her works.<ul><li>George Eliot (English).</li><li>Edinburgh and London:&nbsp;William Blackwood and Sons,&nbsp;1861. </li><li>[4], [6], 364, 16 pages.​&nbsp;</li><li>Original embossed russet cloth, gilt-stamped spine, binding A (Carter), most leaves unopened, publisher's ad for Alexander Carlyle at front; Blackwood catalogue at rear, binder ticker to rear paste-down.</li></ul> The idea for Eliot's only one-volume novel came "quite suddenly, as a sort of legendary tale" suggested by her childhood memory of seeing a weaver (as recounted in a letter to her publisher). By degrees she "became inclined to a more realistic treatment," though a kernel of fantasy remains under the careful working-out of ethical and material realities. Received by one contemporary critic as "boorish twaddle," SILAS MARNER has also been hailed as "the most flawless of George Eliot's works" (Joan Bennett).

SILAS MARNER: The Weaver of Raveloe

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 Night And Day by <a href="sothebys.com/en/search?query=virginia%20woolf&amp;tab=objects" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Virginia Woolf</a>.<ul><li>Virginia Woolf (English).</li><li>London: Duckworth, 1919.</li><li>(ii) 538 pages, (i), complete with the final publishers ad leaf.</li><li>Bound in full blue morocco, ribbed gilt decorated spine, covers ruled in gilt, top edge gilt.</li></ul>

Night And Day First Edition

P.D. James

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>, first printing of A Mind to Murder by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=P.D.%20James&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">P.D. James</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> by the author.<ul><li>P.D James (English).</li><li>London:&nbsp;Faber and Faber,&nbsp;1963.&nbsp;</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>224 pages.</li><li>Inscribed "To Dick" by P.D. James on title page.</li><li>Spine is pink and white with black lettering, dust jacket protected by mylar covering, price uncut: "18s net" on front flap.</li></ul>

A Mind to Murder Inscribed First 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> of one of famed <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?Book%20Subject=Women%2520Writers" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">women writer's</a> of the 20th century, <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?creators=Virginia%2520Woolf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Virginia Woolf's</a> early novels. <ul><li>Virginia Woolf (English).</li><li>London: Leonard &amp; Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, Hogarth House,&nbsp;Richmond,&nbsp;1922.</li><li>Bound in full yellow cloth with paper label.</li></ul> Jacob's Room is one of Virginia Woolf's early novels. It grapples with the personal traumas of World War I, and is her first time she experiments with modernist techniques that would become central to her style.

Jacob's Room

Emma Wolf

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 Other Things Being Equal by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Emma%20Wolf&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Emma Wolf</a>, inscribed by the author to her brother.<ul><li>Emma Wolf (American).</li><li>Chicago:&nbsp;A.C. McClurg and Company,&nbsp;1892.</li><li>&nbsp;275, [1], [4] pages.&nbsp;</li><li>Inscribed by Wolf: "With 'the author's' love to her dear, every day dearer brother."&nbsp;</li><li>Original brown cloth with black-stamped floral frame on front board, gilt-lettered spine, publisher's ads at rear.</li></ul> "Two ideas held him in a desperate struggle, — his child's happiness; the prejudice of a lifetime." Wolf was a Jewish woman and wheelchair user born in California; her father, an immigrant from France, helped settle the Bay area in the 1840s. In the Gilded Age, most Jewish representation focused on the Eastern European immigrants living on the East Coast, especially New York City: Wolf's novels of high society in the West add welcome complexity to the literary landscape and counteract monolithic interpretations of US Jewish culture. This was Wolf's first novel, and its importance was immediately recognized, as evidenced in a letter Israel Zangill sent to the author, telling her: "Certainly you are the best product of American Judaism since Emma Lazarus."

Other Things Being Equal Inscribed First Edition

First edition finely bound copy of Woolf's The Years.<ul><li>Virginia Woolf (English).</li><li>London: The Hogarth Press, 1937.</li><li>Bound in full green morocco, ribbed gilt decorated spine with all edges gilt and marbled pastedowns and endpapers.</li></ul>

The Years

Inscribed later edition of Potter's The Tale of Pigling Bland.<ul><li>Beatrix Potter (English).</li><li>London: Frederick Warne &amp; Co. Ltd, [after 1918].</li><li>Inscribed on the half-title by the author "with kind regards from Beatrix Potter," and with additional ink inscription "To Peggy, from Mrs Postlethwaite &amp; Mary, Sept. 8th 1933."</li><li>Includes 15 color plates (including frontispiece), black &amp; white illustrations to text.</li><li>Bound in pictorial endpapers with original pale green pictorial boards.</li></ul> The Postlethwaite family lived at High Green Gate near to Castle Cottage, Beatrix Potter's Lakeland home after 1909. It is likely that this book was originally given to the Postlethwaite family (probably to one of the girls, Mary or Amanda) as a gift from Beatrix, and they then later gave it away to a friend "Peggy."

The Tale of Pigling Bland

Dorothy Ripley

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 Extraordinary Conversion, and <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Religion&amp;Book%20Subject=Religious%2520manuscripts" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Religious</a> Experience of Dorothy Ripley.<ul><li>Dorothy Ripley (English).</li><li>New York:&nbsp;Printed by G. and R. Waite, for the author,&nbsp;1810.&nbsp;</li><li>Small sexto.</li><li>168, 8 pages, [2].</li><li>"The end of the first volume."--p. 168. Presumed no more published. Last page blank.</li><li>"An address to the mayor and corporation of New York, by Dorothy Ripley. New York, 2d, 7th month, 1810": 8 p. at end.</li><li>Disbound; leather spine with morocco label.</li></ul>

The Extraordinary Conversion, And Religious Experience Of Dorothy Ripley, With Her First Voyage And Travels In America

Rebecca West | Anthony West

<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> of the novels The Return of the Soldier and Heritage, with 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 by the author <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Rebecca%20West&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Rebecca West</a>.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 3: 2 books and 1 letter.</li><li>Rebecca West (English) [Return of the Soldier].</li><li>Anthony West (English) [Heritage].</li><li>London: Nisbet/Random House, 1918-1955.</li><li>The letter, on headed notepaper (48 Kingston House North, Prince’s Gate, SW7) is dated January 19, 1974.</li></ul> The Return&nbsp;of&nbsp;the Soldier with&nbsp;Heritage, with a hand written letter from Rebecca West&nbsp;to&nbsp;publisher Hamish Hamilton, discussing&nbsp;her&nbsp;son Anthony&nbsp;and&nbsp;the breakdown&nbsp;of&nbsp;their relationship. The letter in black ink, covering two pages reads: My dear Jamie, How kind&nbsp;of&nbsp;you&nbsp;to&nbsp;write me that long letter, recalling my ancient triumphs&nbsp;and&nbsp;the sweet nature&nbsp;of&nbsp;Tommy. What a sad, sad story about the Hardy’s mistaken severity [sic], particularly as Thomas Hardy was I’m sure kept alive by pleasant company, which warmed the chill&nbsp;of&nbsp;that dreadful house. It was a terrible punishment for him,&nbsp;to&nbsp;be punished for being a bad architect by spending his old age on one&nbsp;of&nbsp;his own house when he had justified his existence by being a good writer. Not fair. But what is? I am having a dreadful time over Anthony’s articles. You cannot imagine what it is like&nbsp;to&nbsp;see in black&nbsp;and&nbsp;white or as newspaper statements by your son about a fictitious universe. He went&nbsp;to&nbsp;only four schools, a baby school, one preparatory school for which I&nbsp;took him away, another which he liked&nbsp;and&nbsp;Stove. He writes&nbsp;of&nbsp;being shunted over the country from one shabby boarding school&nbsp;to&nbsp;another - including one at Christie (?) in Kent, which specialised in taking the ?&nbsp;of&nbsp;? real people. I never heard&nbsp;of&nbsp;the place. I don’t know where this will end. Or rather I do.&nbsp;And&nbsp;hope I won’t live&nbsp;to&nbsp;see it. But one’s friends console one -&nbsp;and&nbsp;your letter was a great pleasure, Yours ever, Rebecca Rebecca West&nbsp;and&nbsp;Anthony West had a complex&nbsp;and&nbsp;often strained mother-son relationship. Anthony was the illegitimate son&nbsp;of&nbsp;Rebecca West, a prominent British author,&nbsp;and&nbsp;H.G. Wells, the famous science fiction writer. Raised primarily by West, Anthony struggled with feelings&nbsp;of&nbsp;abandonment&nbsp;and&nbsp;resentment, especially regarding his parents' unconventional relationship&nbsp;and&nbsp;his mother’s domineering nature. As an adult, Anthony became a writer himself. His roman a clef, Heritage (1955) portrayed a harshly critical view&nbsp;of&nbsp;his mother, which deeply hurt Rebecca. Their relationship deteriorated further after its publication,&nbsp;and&nbsp;they were estranged for much&nbsp;of&nbsp;their later lives. Despite occasional attempts at reconciliation, their bond remained difficult&nbsp;and&nbsp;distant until Rebecca West’s death. The&nbsp;collection&nbsp;and&nbsp;specifically the letter, highlights the distress caused within the relationship for Rebecca&nbsp;and&nbsp;is&nbsp;of&nbsp;institutional importance.&nbsp;

The Return of the Soldier, with Heritage, and a Hand Written From Rebecca West

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 The Man in the Brown Suit by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Agatha+Christie&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Agatha Christie</a>.<ul><li>Agatha Christie (English).</li><li>London: The Bodley Head, 1924.</li><li>First issue with "First published in 1924" to the copyright page. </li><li>One blank leaf, 3 leaves, 310 pages plus 2 pages of ads at back.&nbsp;</li><li>Publisher's tan cloth stamped in brown on front and spine, fore and bottom page edges uncut as called for. </li></ul> The rare fourth novel written by Dame Agatha.

The Man in the Brown Suit First Edition

Phaidon | Melanie Grant

The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/jewelry?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jewelry</a>&nbsp;Book, a stunning&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/art-&amp;-design" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">photographic</a>&nbsp;collection of 300 of jewelry’s greatest names, spanning over 200 years.<ul><li>Edited by Melanie Grant (English).</li><li>New York: Phaidon, 2025.</li><li>Hardcover.</li><li>Cover with a luxe, faceted deboss on a metallic material to evoke a dazzling gemstone.</li></ul> The Jewelry Book&nbsp;is a deep dive into the designers, creative houses, artists, collectors, and style icons from around the world who have produced and inspired the most memorable designs in jewelry. Edited by Melanie Grant, author of&nbsp;Coveted: Art and Innovation in High Jewelry, in collaboration with an international panel of experts, this book spans more than two centuries of rich history, showcasing 300 of the industry’s greatest contributors in one lavish, collectible volume. The Jewelry Book&nbsp;is arranged in A to Z order, placing early stars and iconic brands alongside today’s most innovative designers and creatives. Entries ranging from Boucheron, Buccellati, Cartier, René Lalique, Elsa Peretti, Hemmerle, Tiffany &amp; Co and Van Cleef &amp; Arpels to Iris Apfel, Wallace Chan, Loulou de la Falaise, Olivier Rousteing, James de Givenchy, and Elizabeth Taylor reveal the jewelry world’s inextricable connection to fashion, art, and culture. Filled with inspirational images, the book is designed as a gorgeous object in its own right, with a cover featuring a luxe, faceted deboss on a metallic material to evoke a dazzling gemstone. Melanie Grant&nbsp;is a luxury writer and curator based in London, specializing in the interplay between art, jewelry, and economics in society. With more than two decades as a journalist, she has worked at&nbsp;The Times, the&nbsp;Financial Times,&nbsp;Independent,&nbsp;Guardian, the BBC, and the&nbsp;Economist, where she spent sixteen years overseeing luxury content and photography for their&nbsp;1843 Magazine.

The Jewelry Book

A finely bound and illustrated collection of the Thorton Edition of the novels of the Brontë sisters.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 12.</li><li>Charlotte Brontë (English).</li><li>Emily Brontë&nbsp;(English).</li><li>Anne Brontë&nbsp;(English).</li><li>Includes The Life of Charlotte Brontë by E.C. Gaskell.</li><li>Edinburgh: John Grant, 1924.</li><li>Bound in half maroon morocco, ribbed gilt decorated spines, textblock uncut as issued, by Atkinson.</li></ul>

The Novels of The Sisters Brontë

Grace Murray Hopper | Howard Aiken

<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 computer manual, written for the Harvard Mark I.&nbsp;<ul><li>Grace Murray Hopper (American).</li><li>Howard Aiken (American).</li><li>Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1946.</li><li>Quarto.</li><li>561 pages.</li><li>9 plates from photographs of which 8 are double-sided.</li><li>Original blue cloth, gilt title to spine.</li></ul> One of the earliest general-purpose electromechanical computers, the Mark I 'brought Babbage's principles of the analytical engine almost to full realization, while adding important new features.' Significant portions of this manual were composed by computer science pioneer Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992), who was 'the chief author of chapters 1-3 and the eight appendices following chapter 6. Chapters 4 and 5 were written by Aiken and Robert Campbell, and chapter 6, containing directions for solving sample problems on the machine, was primarily the work of Brooks J. Lockhart' (Hook &amp; Norman, History of Information website). Interestingly, the present copy contains penciled editorial notes in chapter 1, typically shortening and simplifying sentences as if for a new edition or perhaps a separate publication or talk. Though at first glance the hand looks similar to Hopper's, careful comparison with a technical manuscript produced during the same period does not seem to indicate a match ('Formulas and coding for problem G on the Mark I', Grace Murray Hopper Collection, Smithsonian National Museum of American History). The corrections also do not match the final text of Aiken and Hopper's article on the Mark I in Electrical Engineering 65, also published in 1946. Additionally, there are calculations on a scrap of lined paper loosely inserted between pages 292 and 293, but these not not match her hand, either. We have been unable to locate sufficient examples of Aiken's handwriting to determine whether he was the editor. The Mark I was first proposed in 1937 by Harvard professor of applied mathematics Howard Aiken (1900-1973), whose background was in both electrical engineering and physics, and who hoped to use electronic calculating machines to solve complex scientific problems. Initially designated the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, it was funded by the U.S. Navy and IBM, built by IBM at Endicott, New York, and delivered to Harvard in early 1944. The Mark I was used immediately by the Manhattan Project's John von Neumann to make calculations related to the implosion of the first atomic bomb. Grace Murray Hopper came to the project as a naval reservist after earning her PhD in mathematics at Yale and teaching at Vassar for thirteen years. She was one of the first three programmers of the Mark I and made enormous contributions to the project, for which she received the Naval Ordnance Development Award (Mitchell, The Contributions of Grace Murray Hopper, University of North Texas PhD Dissertation, 1994). 'In 1946 Aiken and Grace Hopper published A Manual of Operation for the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator. The instruction sequences scattered throughout this volume on the Harvard Mark I were among the earliest published examples of digital computer programs. Aiken saw himself as Babbage's intellectual successor, and in an excellent historical introduction to this technical manual he and Hopper placed the Harvard Mark I in its historical context' (Hook &amp; Norman). '[The Harvard Mark I] manual was a milepost that marked the state of the art of machine computation at one of its critical places: where, for the first time, machines could automatically evaluate arbitrary sequences of arithmetic operations. Most of this volume (pp. 98-337, 406-557) consists of descriptions of the Mark I's components, its architecture, and operational codes for directing it to solve typical problems.... The Manual is one of the first places where sequences of arithmetic operations for the solution of numeric problems by machine were explicitly spelled out. It is furthermore the first extended analysis of what is now known as computer programming since Charles Babbage's and Lady Lovelace's writings a century earlier. The instruction sequences, which one finds scattered throughout this volume, are thus among the earliest examples anywhere of digital computer programs' (Ceruzzi 1985, xv-xvii). The Mark I was obsolete almost as soon as it was delivered, and Aiken and his team would go on to design and build three additional machines. He 'directed research in switching theory, data processing, and computing components and circuits' and 'initiated one of the earliest graduate programs in computer science at Harvard University: fifteen doctoral degrees and many master's degrees were earned under his supervision... Scientists across the world were welcomed into his laboratory, and he did much to stimulate interest in computers in Europe' (IEEE Computer Society biography). Hopper remained at Harvard through 1949 to work on the Mark II and III, but had to leave when her three-year term as research fellow ended because permanent positions were not available to women. She joined the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation as a senior mathematician on the development of the UNIVAC I and II. It was there that she 'pioneered the idea of automatic programming and explored new ways to use the computer to code. In 1952 Hopper developed the first compiler called A-0, which translated mathematical code into machine-readable code—an important step toward creating modern programming languages' (Biography, Office of the President of Yale University). Beginning in the early 1950s she pushed for language-based programming, which at the time was believed to be infeasible. Her creation of a word-based compiler and programming language, FLOW-MATIC, made computers more accessible, and in 1959 she was a leading participant in the development of COBOL, the Common Business-Oriented Language that could be used across industries. 'By the 1970s, COBOL was the "most extensively used computer language" in the world' (Yale). Hopper is one of the most recognised women in the history of science and technology. In addition to more than forty honorary degrees, she was the first woman to receive the National Medal of Technology as an individual; the first woman and first American to become a Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society; and was posthumously awarded the National Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.

A Manual of Operation for the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator First Edition

Charlotte Brontë

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>, illustrated edition of the Life and Works of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Charlotte+Bronte&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Charlotte Bronte</a> and her Sisters.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 7 volumes.</li><li>Currer Bell [Charlotte Bronte] (English).</li><li>London:&nbsp;Smith, Elder, &amp; Co.,&nbsp;1891.</li><li>Illustrated edition, illustrated frontispiece.</li><li>Marbled endpapers, three-quarters red Morocco leather, marbled boards, top edges gilt, gilt floral panels on spine, raised bands.</li></ul>

Life and Works of Charlotte Bronte and Her Sisters

Anne Frank

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>, first printing of The Diary of a Young Girl by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Anne%20Frank&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Anne Frank</a>.<ul><li>Anne Frank (German).</li><li>London: Constellation, 1952.</li><li>Boards bound in publisher’s original green cloth with gilt titling to the spine and gilt stamped floral motif to front board.</li><li>With contemporary flyer from the “Anne Frank House”. </li></ul> The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is the poignant, real-life account of a Jewish teenager hiding from the Nazis during World War II. Written between 1942 and 1944, Anne’s diary captures her thoughts, fears and hopes while she and her family lived in a secret annex in Amsterdam. Her vivid descriptions and reflections on human nature offer a powerful, enduring reminder of the horrors of war and the resilience of the human spirit.

The Diary of a Young Girl First Edition

J.K. Rowling | Cliff Wright

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%20and%20the%20Prisoner%20of%20Azkaban&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban</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> by the dust-wrapper artist, <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Cliff%20Wright&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Cliff Wright</a>.<ul><li>J.K. Rowling (English).</li><li>Dust wrapper by Cliff Wright.</li><li>London: Bloomsbury, 1999.</li><li>Signed by the dust wrapper artist Cliff Wright to the verso of the half title page.&nbsp;</li><li>The second issue, amended on the copyright page to 'J.K Rowling'. </li><li>Now housed in a custom-made solander box.</li></ul>

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban First Edition Signed by the Dust Jacket Artist

Marjorie Flack

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 Story About Ping, by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Marjorie%20Flack&amp;tab=objects" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Marjorie Flack</a>.<ul><li>Marjorie Flack (American).</li><li>Illustrated by Kurt Wiese.</li><li>New York:&nbsp;Viking,&nbsp;1933.</li><li>32 pages.</li><li>Original quarter black cloth, paper pictorial boards, in original unclipped color pictorial dust jacket.</li></ul> First edition, in the scarce original dust jacket, about a little Chinese duckling who lives on a houseboat in Peking. "Once upon a time there was a beautiful young duck named Ping." The prolific Wiese, runner-up for two Caldecott medals and winner of a Newbery, illustrator of Walter Brooks's Freddy the Pig books and Felix Salten's Bambi, was at his best here: Flack's The Story About Ping is an animal tale that draws great power from the young reader's anxious identification with the daily life-and-death routine of an animal on the borders of the human world.

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Beatrix Potter

Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë

J.K. Rowling

Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë

Jane Austen

Jane Austen

Beatrix Potter

Charlotte Brontë, Edmund Dulac, Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë

Mary Shelley, Frederick Schiller

Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell

Susan Cooper

Emily Dickinson

Beatrix Potter

Virginia Woolf

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë

Margaret Atwood

Jane Austen

Ayn Rand

George Eliot

Virginia Woolf

P.D. James

Virginia Woolf

Emma Wolf

Virginia Woolf

Beatrix Potter

Dorothy Ripley

Rebecca West, Anthony West

Agatha Christie

Phaidon, Melanie Grant

Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë

Grace Murray Hopper, Howard Aiken

Charlotte Brontë

Anne Frank

J.K. Rowling, Cliff Wright

Marjorie Flack