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Literature
Rare signed photograph of courageous anti-Stalin poet Anna Akhmatova
433. Anna Akhmatova Signed Photo-
graph. Important Russian poet (1889–1966) whose work was condemned and censored by Stalinist authorities; her emotionally restrained, short lyric poems include meditations on time and memory, and touch upon the difficulties of living and writing in the shadow of Stalinism. Incredibly rare vintage matte-finish 3.25 x 4.5 photo of the great Russian poetess, signed and inscribed on the reverse in blue ballpoint in Cyrillic, and dated at Moscow in 1962. In very fine condition. An incredibly scarce signed photo of the courageous poet, and the very first Akhmatova autograph we have offered. Starting Bid $500
7 x 9, personal letterhead, February 17, 1924. Handwritten letter to a gentleman, in part: “I shall be very glad indeed to be included in the list of those who made homage to our great master. You do me the honor to ask me for a special piece of writing about him. That I shall be only too glad to do. I will post it to you before the end of the month.” In very good to fine condition, with light overall creasing. Starting Bid $200
435. Charles Dickens Signed Check. Coutts & Company
bank check, 7 x 3, filled out and signed by Charles Dickens, payable to Ms. Ring for £10.12, April 7, 1862. Double-matted with a photo to an overall size of 10.25 x 14. 5. In very good to fine condition, with scattered creasing and staining. Starting Bid $200
“CD,” one page, 4.5 x 7, Gad’s Hill Place letterhead, February 17, 1870. Handwritten letter to “Kent,” in full: “Edmund Yates—and no one else—is going to dine here on Saturday at 1/2 past 6 sharp. Can you, and will you, come too?” In fine condition. Edmund Yates was a journalist, novelist, and dramatist who befriended Charles Dickens and contributed to his magazines, including All the Year Round and Household Words. Starting Bid $200
Handwritten letter by Flaubert on his friend’s six-act drama, ‘La Conjuration d’Amboise’
437. Gustave Flaubert Autograph Letter Signed. ALS in French, signed “Gve. Flaubert,” one page, 5.5 x 8.5, annotated October 23, 1866 at the head. Handwritten letter by Flaubert to his “dear and venerable friend,” Jean Clogenson, a friend of Flaubert’s best friend, poet Louis Bouilhet, author of the drama ‘La Conjuration d’Amboise,’ which is mentioned in this letter. In full (translated): “The first representation of ‘la Conjuration d’Amboise’ is, today, announced on the public posters to be given next Saturday, 27th, but Bouilhet has written to me last Sunday that it would probably be postponed until Monday 29th. It is impossible for me to tell you now anything more definite. However, I can send you a note from Paris by the telegraph. You will then be informed.” He adds a brief handwritten postscript: “Thank you for the poetic memory.” The recipient has clipped and affixed the original address panel (also penned in Flaubert’s hand) to the second integral sheet. In fine condition. Starting Bid $300
438. Victor Hugo Autograph Letter Signed. ALS, one page, 4.75 x 7.25, November 11, 1859. Handwritten letter from Hauteville House, the Guernsey mansion where he lived during his exile from France. In full (translated): “My son, who translates Shakespeare, has read to me your translation of ‘The Poor People’. I found it excellent and congratulate you for it. I will be quite pleased to read the article which you are announcing to me, and very happy to be understood and liked by a high intelligence such as yours. What you tell me about the success of ‘The Legend of the Ages’ in England moves me greatly. I have in my soul a deep feeling of brotherhood for the great and free English people. I beg your, Sir, to specially and personally accept the expression of this feeling, and I offer you all my thanks and cordiality.” In fine condition, with some minor edge wear. Starting Bid $200
The Gone With the Wind author on the South’s perspective of Rhett Butler: “Many sweet old ladies have confided to me, under oath of secrecy, that he reminded them so much of wild brothers they had had or beaux who were killed in the War”
439. Margaret Mitchell Archive of (7) Typed Letters
Signed. Superb collection of seven TLSs from author Margaret Mitchell, each signed “Margaret Mitchell Marsh,” all of which have been folded and tipped neatly into a hardcover copy of Gone With the Wind (November 1936 printing). Typed on her personal letterhead between 1937 and 1941, Mitchell touches upon her health and travel plans, sends thanks for compliments and gift baskets, talks of “sacrifice and courage” during wartime, and remarks on the historical accuracy and impact of her novel. The most interesting letter relates to Mitchell’s Civil War research.
December 10, 1937: “In reply to your remarks about the blame for the failure to exchange prisoners being laid on President Lincoln—that calls for an explanation of my method of handling the ‘contemporaneous’ angle of ‘Gone With the Wind.’ I attempted to write it not from the viewpoint of a person living in the sixties. To this end I put into the minds and the mouths of characters beliefs, rumors and prejudices (some which have been proven right and some wrong in the light of history). I gathered from reading letters of that day, newspapers, memoirs et cetera, that President Lincoln bore the blame for many things in the minds of Southern people. Prejudice as well as death loves a shining mark and, rightly or wrongly, Southerners, for the most part, believed Lincoln responsible for the failure to exchange prisoners.”
Also tipped in is a January 20, 1940, letter from Mitchell’s husband John Marsh. In overall fine condition, with expected folds and some scattered stains or wear. Accompanied by a vintage photo of Mitchell, a program entitled “A Tribute to Margaret Mitchell,” and several newspaper clippings.
A more detailed description can be found online. Starting Bid $1000
440. J. D. Salinger Typed Letter Signed. TLS, one
page, 4.75 x 7.25, The New Yorker letterhead, October 26, 1959. Letter to Prof. William Curry at Adelphi College, declining an invitation while noting: “I prefer not to do any public speaking.” In fine condition. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope and a full letter of authenticity from JSA. Salinger retreated from public life after the publication of The Catcher in the Rye in 1951, shunning most forms of public attention. He had first come to literary prominence with ‘A Perfect Day for Bananafish,’ published in The New Yorker in 1948, and came to rely on that magazine as an outlet for much of his later short fiction. Salinger’s last published work, the novella Hapworth 16, 1924, appeared in The New Yorker on June 19, 1965. A highly desirable letter that associates his reclusive demeanor with the primary publisher of his short stories. Starting Bid $200
Steinbeck sells his script for Viva Zapata! to 20th Century-Fox
441. John Steinbeck Document Signed. DS, ten pages, 8.5 x 11, Feb-
ruary 1, 1951. Agreement between Steinbeck and Twentieth Century-Fox in which the author agrees to sell the rights of “an original motion picture shooting script concerning the story of the life and activities of Emiliano Zapata” for the sum of $75,000. Signed at the conclusion in fountain pen by Steinbeck and countersigned by the studio’s treasurer. In fine condition. Released in 1952, the film Viva Zapata! was directed by Elia Kazan and starred Marlon Brando as Emiliano Zapata and Anthony Quinn as his brother, Eufemio. Steinbeck received an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Writing, Story and Screenplay.’ Starting Bid $200
Signed title page from the author’s edition of Leaves of Grass
444. Walt Whitman Signed ‘Leaves of Grass’ Title Page. Title page from the 1876 ‘Author’s Edition’ of Whitman’s renowned poetry collection Leaves of Grass, 4.75 x 7.5, published in Camden, New Jersey, in 1876, neatly signed in ink, “Walt Whitman.” The page features the text of his poem, ‘Come, said my Soul,’ which he used as the title-page epigraph for Leaves of Grass. Handsomely mounted, cloth-matted, and framed with a portrait and plaque to an overall size of 28 x 24. In fine condition, with faint toning, and minor loss to the upper right corner tip. Starting Bid $500
Thoreau ponders the wonders of the natural world, commenting on the foliage seen while navigating a New England river
442. Henry David Thoreau Handwritten Manuscript.
Sought-after handwritten manuscript contained within the first volume of the 1906 ‘manuscript edition’ of Thoreau’s works, one page both sides, 7.5 x 9.5, apparently being his journal entry from August 24, 1854. In part: “They appeared to suffer more than any trees, except the white ash. Their leaves (and also those of the alders, hickories and grapes, and even oaks more or less) were so curled on the upper 3/4 of the trees, that their foliage had a singularly glaucous hue. Seen at a distance in rows along the river, they had somewhat of the same effect with the silvered tip of the swamp white oak...I went ashore & felt of them. They were more or less crisped & curled permanently. It suggested that, to a slight extent, occurs every year.” The sheet is professionally inlaid into a larger sheet, which was subsequently bound into the first volume of the twenty-volume set The Writings of Henry David Thoreau. Manuscript edition, limited issue, numbered 555/600. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1906. Hardcover, 6.25 x 9, 435 pages. The other volumes of the set are not included. Book condition: G+/None, with ex-library labels and markings. Autographic condition: very good, with possible reinforcement to a long diagonal crease, and old tape repairs to splitting along the central horizontal fold. Starting Bid $1000
