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Literature
Extremely rare autograph letter by Lord Byron
464. Lord Byron Autograph Letter Signed. Highly influential British poet, politician, soldier, and adventurer (1788–1824) who takes a place as the most colorful literary figure of the Romantic era; his works include such classics as Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage and Don Juan. Rare ALS signed “N. B.,” one page, 7.25 x 9.5, April 16, 1823. Handwritten letter to Mr. Hislop, in full: “I thank you—it is all very well—but as I am entirely of your opinion as to the servants being leagued together, I desire that you will apply to the Consul General (I have already written to him this day) or to the police—and state the facts, and take what steps may be proper in the case. I authorize you to do so. I do this to save time—and I beg you to make what haste you can.” On the reverse is a deposition sworn by Rebecca Cole, evidently unrelated to the letter. In very good to fine condition, with creasing, overall soiling, and an area of repaired paper loss to the left edge. Byron is very rare in handwritten letters. Starting Bid $300
465. Raymond Chandler: First Edition of The Lady in the Lake. Scarce unsigned book:
The Lady in the Lake. First edition. NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1943. Hardcover with dust jacket (publisher’s printed price of $2.00 present on inner front flap), 5.5 x 7.75, 216 pages. Book condition: VG/VG, with professional restorations to dust jacket including small areas of repaired losses and color infill at spine ends and edges. The Lady in the Lake takes Detective Philip Marlowe out of Los Angeles to investigate the disappearance of a wealthy businessman’s estranged wife. Starting Bid $200
British author (1785-1859) best remembered for his nowclassic memoir of his experiments with drugs, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. ALS signed “T. de Q.,” one page both sides, 4.5 x 7, October 19. Handwritten letter to Thomas Constable in Edinburgh, in part: “I was utterly at a loss how to proceed this morning from absolute inability to get over. But your messenger has made it poss. to suggest a resource. To-morrow morn’g at 1/2 past 8 a friend’s carriage calls here to carry me into Edinburgh. From the Surgeon, who I see at a quarter past 9, I will come to Thistle Street…I send two distinct portions or sequences of copy: one marked B.1-2-3-4-5-6-9-8 and a footnote to B4, the other marked F1-2-3-4-5-6-9-8-910-11. I grieve to have caused you so much inconvenience.” In very good to fine condition, with seal-related paper loss to the integral address leaf. Starting Bid $200
Lewis Carroll plans to present a finely bound Alice in Wonderland to the Duchess of Albany
469. Charles L. Dodgson Autograph Letter Signed. ALS signed “C. L. Dodgson,” one page, 3.5 x 5.5, August 2, 1889. Handwritten letter to “Miss Maxwell,” Ethel Heron-Maxwell, the Lady of Honor of the Duchess of Albany, in charge of her children, Princess Alice and Prince Charles-Edward. In full: “They have been an enormous time, binding the copy of ‘Alice Underground’ which I hope to present to the Duchess: but they have promised to send it now, & expect to receive it today. What had I better do with it? As I see in the papers that H.R.H. is gone, or just going, abroad. Shall I send it to you to forward to her? Or is she so constantly moving about, that it would be better to keep it until she returns to England?” In fine condition. Starting Bid $300
Dickens refuses a loan to his brother: “All sorts of people make similar requests (including father who is as well off as if he had put by ten thousand pounds) and I cannot do such things forever”
468. Charles Dickens Autograph Letter Signed. ALS signed “C.D.,” one page both sides, 4.5 x 7, November 9, 1850. Handwritten letter to his younger brother, Frederick Dickens, in part: “I am sorry that I cannot advance you the large sum you ask me for. All sorts of people make similar requests (including father who is as well off as if he had put by ten thousand pounds) and I cannot do such things forever. But I feel quite certain that if Milton wrote to Laffins, requesting a certain delay, and hinting that he was sure, if the matter were made known to me, I should consider such request reasonable…Thursday at one exactly is the day of the Rehearsal. As I plainly see that the Theatre could never be put up without me, I shall go down…at 5 that same afternoon. If you can go so soon, I will take you.” In very good to fine condition, with a small rusty paperclip impression to the top of the first page, light toning to the edge of the second page, and trimming to the blank integral address leaf. Frederick Dickens was the inspiration for two different Freds in his brother’s books: the jovial nephew of Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol and the dissolute brother of Little Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop. Like their father, he constantly struggled with his finances and was constantly in debt; Charles refused to help. In 1862, Fred Dickens was held in debtor’s prison after his refusal to pay alimony, and he spent the rest of his life in gin-soaked poverty. Starting Bid $200
Scarce, distinguished portrait of the crime fiction pioneer
470. Arthur Conan Doyle Signed Photograph. Vintage
matte-finish 4 x 5.75 portrait of Conan Doyle in profile, by Elliot & Fry of New York, affixed to its original 8 x 11 photographer’s mount, signed on the mount in black ink, “With cordial remembrance, Arthur Conan Doyle, Ap. 13/13.” Also signed below the image in pencil, “Elliot & Fry.” In fine condition, with a professionally repaired upper left corner to the mount. In 1913, Doyle would publish the second book in his ‘Professor Challenger’ series, The Poison Belt, and the oft-anthologized short story, ‘The Horror of the Heights.’ A rare portrait benefited from its immaculate condition. Starting Bid $300
471. Victor Hugo Autograph Letter Signed. ALS in
French, signed “Victor H.,” one page, 4.5 x 7.25, March 8, [no year]. Untranslated handwritten letter by Hugo. In fine condition, with two small rusty paperclip impressions to the top edge. Starting Bid $200 472. Jack Kerouac Signed Check. Personal
check, 6.25 x 2.75, filled out and signed by Kerouac, “Jack Kerouac,” payable to Macy’s for $26.31, June 4, 1958. In fine condition, with some ink transfer from bank stamps. Kerouac had published On the Road just nine months earlier, and followed up with The Subterraneans and The Dharma Bums in 1958. Starting Bid $200
473. Rudyard Kipling Typed Letter Signed. TLS, two pages, 8 x 10.5, May 31, 1895. Letter to the editor of The Critic in New York City, with several handwritten corrections throughout. in part: “Is it not possible that some of your remarks, in the Critic of the 25th May, about Literary agents would have been better for a little qualification? They give the impression that the agent sits at his ease drawing commissions from authors’ sales year in and year out, for making bargains which the publisher would have made just as freely had he dealt with the author direct…Literary agency is not by any means confined to drawing up contracts between authors of unsurpassed genius and publishers of embarrassing generosity. There is also the litter matter, which most men in any profession hate, of collecting monies when they fall due. Looking at the Literary agent merely as a collector, is he paid so very much more than other collectors, or are his difficulties less?…It is his business to know which ventures are sound and which are likely to fail…He must know when and where an unauthorized publication is secretly run into the market, and must stand ready to block its way at once.” In fine condition, with light creasing and staple holes to the upper right corner, and a small rusty paperclip impression to the top edge of the second page. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope, hand-addressed and signed by Kipling. Starting Bid $200
First edition of The Moonshine War, presented to Richard Widmark
474. Elmore Leonard Signed Book. Signed book: The
Moonshine War. First edition. NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1969. Hardcover with dust jacket, 5.75 x 8.5, 236 pages. Signed and inscribed on the title page in blue ballpoint, “For Richard Widmark, hoping we’ll meet later on—Elmore Leonard, Sept. 1969.” In fine condition, with a price-clipped dust jacket that also bears slight wear to spine. Books signed by their author and presented to a well-known actor from its adaptation are quite rare and desirable. Starting Bid $200
475. Ira Levin Signed Book and Typed Letter Signed. Signed book: Rosemary’s Baby. First edition, first printing. NY: Random House, 1967. Hardcover with dust jacket, 5.75 x 8.5, 245 pages. Signed and inscribed on the first free end page in black felt tip, “To Matt Stiller, With all good wishes, Ira Levin, 11/1/91.” The epigraph adjacent to the copyright page has been struck through. Includes a TLS from Levin, November 1, 1991, in part: “It’s interesting that someone crossed out the epigraph in this copy of RB. Shortly after the book became a best seller, Dr. Eastman complained to Random House, and the quote—for which no one had bothered to seek permission—was eliminated from subsequent printings.” In overall fine condition, with slight wear to dust jacket, mainly to edges and spine. Starting Bid $200
Advice to the father of an aspiring writer: “Tell him to study, sweat, work, and burn the midnight oil, and he will win to success”
personal letterhead, January 3, 1913. Letter to “Comrade Dowell,” the father of an aspiring writer, in part: “Now considering your boy Ivan’s work, the sample of which I am returning herewith. Please do not let him be downcast when I say that his present sample would not be publishable in any first-class magazine; because I wish immediately to add that Ivan has just precisely what I had before I succeeded in selling to the magazines. He has vision, passion, power, grip,—but it is all undisciplined. What he must do is to lick himself and his output into shape.” In fine condition, with light toning. Accompanied by the original hand-addressed mailing envelope. Starting Bid $200
Handwritten letter by Alexander Pope, congratulating Judge Fortescue on “being removed from ye pain of sitting upon Life & Death”
477. Alexander Pope Handwritten Letter. Brilliant, highly influential British poet (1688-1744) best known for his satire Rape of the Lock and his editions of Homer and Shakespeare. Handwritten letter by Alexander Pope, three pages on two adjoining sheets, 6.25 x 8, November 1, 1741. Handwritten letter to the Right Honorable William Fortescue, in part: “I was going to give you some account of myself, after so long an absence…when ye news of yr removal to the Rolls makes me address you as a Publick Person, with a hearty congratulation…I am sorry at the same time to condole with you upon any Indisposition as a Private Man. Your happiness of all kinds, & in all states, I sincerely wish. Therefore I desire to hear you are as I wish you, first well, & then happy. I have often thought this particular advancement wd contribute much to ye ease…especially I congratulate you upon being removed from ye pain of sitting upon Life & Death; for I know yr compassionate Temper. You will laugh wn I add, that I rejoyce you are, by this, removed, & forced to a Better House, free from ye smoke & confin’d prospect of Bell-yard, wch Ive never been contented with, tho you were.” He adds an interesting postscript regarding some medical cures on the opposite page. In very good to fine condition, with splitting to the vertical folds, and a tear to the last page, apparently the result of the signature being torn off at some point. Starting Bid $200
478. Bram Stoker Autograph Letter Signed. ALS signed “Bram Stoker,”
one page, 8 x 10, Lyceum Theatre letterhead, June 8, 1900. Handwritten letter to American dramatic critic and author William Winter, in full: “Hearty thanks for your letters & the poem which I shall always value. We had a lovely voyage & are all bit & up to our eyes in work.” In fine condition, with a short tear to the right edge. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope neatly addressed in Stoker’s hand; the docket “Bram Stoker” on the front of the envelope is in William Winter’s hand. Stoker worked as business manager for Henry Irving’s world-famous Lyceum Theatre in London between 1879 and 1898, where he supplemented his income by writing a large number of sensational novels—his most famous being the vampire tale Dracula, published in 1897. Starting Bid $200
479. August Strindberg Signed Photograph. Important Swedish novel-
ist and playwright (1849-1912) who takes a place among the most influential figures in the development of modern theater. Superior 4.25 x 6.5 cabinet photo of Strindberg by Lina Tonn of Lund, Sweden, beautifully signed in fountain pen. In fine condition, with trimmed edges. Starting Bid $200
480. Voltaire Letter Signed. LS in French, signed “Voltaire,” one page, 7.25 x 9, February 2, 1764. Letter written from his home at Ferney, sent to bookseller and magistrate Paul Vaillant, sheriff of London. In full (translated): “I have waited in vain, Monsieur, for the packet you announce to arrive in order to reply to your letter of the 16th of November. I have no news of it. Something must have gone wrong; I am finally going to write to Versailles for information, even though I have renounced all the world’s courts. I thank you for your report that was in your letter. It is rather comical that Lord Ferrers said his Pater on the gallows and that a man who is going to be hanged asks for his daily bread. For my part, being quite old, quite infirm, and nearly blind, I am content with saying, ‘Thy will be done.’” In very good condition, with creasing, edge tears, and seal-related paper loss to the integral address leaf. As sheriff in 1760, Valliant oversaw the execution of Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers—the last peer to be hanged—following his conviction for murdering his steward. Starting Bid $300
481. Noah Webster Handwritten Dictionary Fragment. Author and lexicographer (1758-1843) who published the first comprehensive dictionary of American English. Partial unsigned handwritten manuscript by Noah Webster on an off-white 7.5 x 1 slip, being a fragment from a manuscript draft for his historic dictionary in which he defines “Shamanism” on one side, and “Romanticism” and “Rondel” on the other. In full: “Sham-an-ism, n, The idolatrous worship or religion of the Ostiaks, Samoids & other Finnish tribes,” and “Roman-ti-cism, n, The state of being Romantic, or fantastic. Ron-del, n, In Fortification, a small round tower, erected at the foot of a bastion, &c.” In fine condition, with a small rusty paperclip impression to the edge. Starting Bid $200
Wordsworth exchanges books with a fellow writer: “I have felt a lively interest in your destiny as a Poet”
482. William Wordsworth Autograph Letter Signed. ALS signed “Wm. Wordsworth,” three pages, 4.5 x 7.5, no date. Handwritten letter to Scottish-born hymn writer and poet James Montgomery, acknowledging receipt of “your Volumes & the little Book belonging to my Daughter, which you have been so good as to enrich with a most valuable contribution.” He continues, in part: “For these tokens of your regard, & for the accompanying letter, accept our joint thanks. I can assure you with truth, that from the time when I first read your Wanderer of Switzerland with the little Pieces annexed, I have felt a lively interest in your destiny as a Poet; & though much out of the way of new books, I have become acquainted with your works…I cannot deny myself the satisfaction of expressing a firm belief that neither morality nor religion can have suffered from our writings—& with respect to yours, I know that both have been greatly benefitted by them…My Publisher has been directed to forward to you… the 1st Vol. of my New Edition, & the others as they successfully appear. As the book could not conveniently be sent to you through my hands, I have ventured to write a few lines upon this slip of paper to be attached to it, which I trust will give you a pleasure akin to what I received from the lines written by your own hand on the fly leaf of your first volume.” In fine condition, with a couple of small rusty paperclip impressions. Starting Bid $200
