2024 New York Antiquarian Book Fair
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63rd New York International Antiquarian Book Fair
Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue, New York
Booth C1
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1The ramparts of Isin
Cuneiform foundation cone dating to the reign of Ishme-Dagan.Southern Mesopotamia, 1953-1935 BCE.
InquireFoundation cone of light clay with a flat base on the broadside and a rounded tip on the other side. The inscription, covering around three quarters of the cone, originates from Ishme-Dagan, the fourth king of the First Dynasty of Isin. He ruled over southern Mesopotamia. This foundation cone certifies that under his reign the city walls of Isin …
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2From the only extant papyrus codex to have survived from antiquity north of the Alps
The Rental of the Abbey of St Martin's in Tours. (And:) St Ephraim the …St. Martin's Abbey, Tours, second half of the 7th century or ca. 700, and Egypt, 6th or 7th century.
InquireRare leaf from a major Merovingian manuscript of great historical and palaeographical importance, from the greatest centre of 7th century culture, representing the oldest manuscript of the Tours scriptorium. Its payprus reinforcements preserve part of what is by far the earliest manuscript of St. Ephraim's poem, and indeed the only papyrus witness …
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3Early 12th century Latin Bible manuscript from Limoges
Pauline Epistles, Catholic Epistles and the Apocalypse, glossed.Limoges, ca. 1100.
€ 125,000.00A superb example of Limoges Romanesque manuscript production of the first half of the 12th century, written by Petrus del Casta for the Augustinian Abbey of St-Jean-de-Côle, containing one of the earliest surviving texts of the Glossa Ordinaria.
Petrus del Casta is known from the colophon in a Homilies on Ezechiel (ex Phillipps no. 934/2708, …
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4Manuscript on the motion of the sun and stars, from the Bibliotheca Phillippica
Calculus temporum ecclesiasticus.Possibly England, ca. 1360.
€ 95,000.00With no other known textual witnesses, this extremely interesting Latin calendrical manuscript must be considered a unique work, possibly of English origin. It was formerly the property of the bibliophile Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), who lends the work its title (and short catalogue description) on its wrappers.
It appears likely that …
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6Indo-Persian poetry, successively owned by a Sultan and a British spy in India
Diwan-i Amir Khusraw Dihlavi.Indo-Persia, Timurid Empire, ca. 1460-1480 CE.
€ 150,000.00A fine manuscript of the "Diwan-i Khusraw", a highly important text of Indo-Persian poetry, owned by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II (1447-1512) and later by R. W. Rotton, a British spy in India, and copied by a renowned 15th century nasta'liq scribe, Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Baqqal.
Amir Khusraw (1253-1325), also known as "the Parrot of India", …
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7An early guide on self-improvement
[Speculum vitae humanae - germanice]. Spiegel des menschlichen Lebens.Augsburg, 23 Jul 1479.
€ 165,000.00Second German edition of the "Speculum vitae humanae" (Mirror of Human Life), a popular early modern work on the virtuous life. Designed as an aid to good decision-making, the text discusses the advantages and shortcomings of all the secular and ecclesiastical professions and estates of medieval society. For today's readers, the work provides a wealth …
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8Rouen Book of Hours: written for the use of a noble woman, with a portrait of the owner
[Liber horarum - Use of Rouen].Rouen, Normandy, ca. 1480.
€ 165,000.00A Rouen Book of Hours of outstanding quality and in slightly larger than usual format, commissioned by a female patron who is portrayed in the last miniature awaiting the arrival of the Messiah.
The style of illumination is typical of that practised in Rouen during the late 15th century. Characteristic features include the profuse use of gold …
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9Extremely rare German incunable, vividly illustrated
[Historia destructionis Troiae - German]. Die hystori Troyana.Augsburg, 1488.
€ 35,000.00Third edition of the German translation by Hans Mair, the 1474 editio princeps of which is the first printed edition of the "Tale of Troy" in any language. The Middle Ages knew Homer only by name and the Troy myth from Benoit Saint-Maure's "Roman de Troie". Guido de Collone's "Historia destructionis Troiae" is a condensed version of the latter and …
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10Bound for the Italian engineer and industrialist Ernesto Pagnoni
Soliloquia animae ad deum.Italy, late 14th or 15th century.
€ 65,000.00The "Soliloquies of St Augustine", an inner dialogue on the matter of the soul. While throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance the text was generally attributed to St Augustine of Hippo and it commonly preceded the "Confessions" in early medieval copies, the authorship is now doubted.
At the end of the volume, fol. 65v and ff. 66f. have …
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11Manuscript records by the self-flagellants of Bergamo
[Manuscript of privileges granted to the flagellants of Bergamo].Bergamo, 1499 to 17th century CE.
€ 35,000.00A manuscript in Latin and Italian recording the granting of privileges to the "Disciplinati" of Bergamo, better known in English as the Flagellants. In Bergamo and elsewhere, the flagellants constituted groups of laypeople who gathered together into confraternities where, concerned for the salvation of their souls, they submitted to a life of prayer …
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12An outstanding Flemish Book of Hours with 14 high-quality illuminations
Book of Hours (use of Rome).Southern Netherlands, probably Ghent, ca. 1500.
€ 150,000.00An outstanding, unpublished Book of Hours, produced around the year 1500, at the apogee of Flemish book illumination. The quality of illumination is remarkable, both in the borders and the full-page miniatures. The execution is neat and flawless.
At least three different miniaturists worked on the illumination cycle of this precious Book of …
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13A spirited formulation of the humanist ideal: Otto von Pack's annotated copy
Vallum humanitatis.Cologne, 12 April 1518.
€ 12,500.00A defining humanist manifesto by a controversial figure from the circle of Erasmus and Thomas More, owned by the forger and conspirator Otto von Pack (1480-1537), who famously almost triggered a civil war among the German princes.
This is the principal work of Hermann von dem Busch(e) (1468-1534), a manifesto for the humanist movement of his …
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141522 travel and navigation advice by Ferdinand Columbus for Emperor Charles V, the knowledge most likely taken from his experience accompanying his father in his Fourth Voyage to America in 1502
Aviso de la Orden y Mareaje a la Armada del Emperador Nro Señor Debia …Seville, ca. 1522.
€ 250,000.00Exceptional manuscript by Hernando Colón (Fernando Columbus), one of the first people to travel to America as early as 1502, and son of the most famous explorer of all times.
The present "Aviso de la Orden y Mareaje" was composed by Hernan Colón (1488-1539), one of the first Europeans to travel and explore the coasts of America, a renowned …
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15Condemned to the galleys for stealing grain
Autograph letter signed.Venice, 6 Jan 1553.
€ 35,000.00Fine letter to Don Ferrante Gonzaga (1507-57), the brother of the Duke of Mantua, imploring him to intercede on behalf of Giantomaso da l'Isola di Dovara, who was condemned to the galleys for stealing grain. Aretino, famously nicknamed "the scourge of princes" by his biographer Edward Hutton, adopts the guise of a supplicant to the great condottiere …
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16Dedicated to the patron saint of Camerino, bound in Renaissance velvet
Capitoli et ordinationi della venerabile Compagnia del Sacratissimo Corpo …Camerino, 1561-1563.
InquireIn an original Renaissance textile binding: a well-preserved manuscript of the ordinances of the Brotherhood of the Basilica of Saint Venantius, dating from the late period of Italian manuscript illumination. Remarkably, this manuscript is still bound in original or strictly contemporary red velvet, decorated with carefully hand-stitched depictions …
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17Scarce volume of hand-coloured plates
Illustrium jureconsultorum imagines.Rome, 1566.
€ 28,000.00First edition of this set of twenty-four hand-coloured plates of famous Italian lawyers of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, rarely found in their original form as a complete volume, rather than dispersed as individual plates. Published by Antoine Lafréry (1512-77) and likely engraved by Lafréry's friend and collaborator Enea Vico (1523-67), …
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19The rare first edition of the foundation work of modern international law
De iure belli ac pacis libri tres. In quibus ius naturae & gentium: …Paris, 1625.
€ 125,000.00First edition of the book that forms "the foundation of modern international law" (PMM).
A prodigy in his youth, Grotius became a statesman and thinker of the greatest integrity whose influence on modern European thought can scarcely be overestimated. In 1619, cutting short a successful career in the law and diplomacy, Grotius was sentenced …
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23From the collection of Aloys Fuchs in Vienna
Autograph musical manuscript.Bologna or Salzburg, July/August 1770 or later.
InquireA manuscript containing four complete canon compositions (each with theme and interpretation), as well as the theme of one other canon, all with autograph texts.
A three-part canon entitled "Canon ad duodecimam: clama ne cesses" on the first page, with counterpart, set to "Confitebor tibi Domine [...]", 8 bars. Below, titled "Canon ad diapente, …
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24A fragment of Haydn's "Dice Benissimo"
Autograph musical manuscript. Fragment of the insertion aria ("Dice benissimo") …No place, 1780.
€ 75,000.00A fragment of Haydn's "Dice Benissimo". Haydn composed two insertion arias for Antonio Salieri’s dramma giocoso of 1778, "La scuola de' gelosi": one is lost to us, while the present manuscript is a fragment of the aria created for the bass voice of the manservant Lumaca. One of Haydn's many responsibilities as Kapellmeister of the Esterházy family …
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25A fragment of Joseph Haydn's oratorio
"Aus der Schöpfung von Herrn J. Haydn." Autogr. musical manuscript.Arnsdorf, 6 Oct 1800.
€ 35,000.00From part II of Joseph Haydn's oratorio: the trio "Zu dir, o Herr, blickt alles auf" ("Poco Adagio"), arranged by the composer's brother for his Arnsdorf male quartet. The caption as well as the postscript (with a statement of provenance) are added by the flautist and violist Georg Johann Schinn (1768-1833), a student and friend of Michael Haydn's: …
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26Inscribed copy
Die Leiden des jungen Werther. Neue Ausgabe, von dem Dichter selbst eingeleitet.Leipzig, 1825 but: 1824.
€ 65,000.00Charming copy, inscribed by the author to Baron Anstätten: "Dem Scharf- und Tiefblick eines vollendeten Welt- und Geschäftsmannes vertraut die Schilderung jugendlich-ungeregelten Bestrebens Goethe. Weimar am 10. Nov. 1824" ("To the perspicacity and sagacity of a consummate man of the world as well as of business, this account of youthful, disorderly …
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27When in Rome, party like the Romans
Autograph letter (unsigned) to her mother Lea, incorporating a drawing …Rome, 15 Mar 1840.
InquireA birthday drawing, song and letter to her mother during her Italian journey. The music is for a trio of two sopranos and an alto, on a text beginning, "Sage mir, was mein Herz begehrt".
The letter opens with warm birthday wishes to her mother, counting on her sister Rebecka Dirichlet, née Mendelssohn (1811-58), and the Woringen family to …
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28Robert McCormick and the "hopeless search" for Franklin’s lost expedition
Autograph letter signed.Surbiton, 6 Oct 1854.
€ 6,500.00Interesting letter to the Irish astronomer and explorer Edward Sabine, offering him a copy of his "Narrative of a boat expedition up the Wellington Channel in the year 1852", a report of McCormick's search mission for the lost polar expedition of John Franklin that was originally enclosed: "In the earlier period of this hopeless search for our ever …
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29One of the greatest masterworks of literature
Brat'ia Karamazovy [The Brothers Karamazov].St Petersburg, 1881 but December 1880
€ 35,000.00The first edition of Dostoevsky's masterpiece, “the most magnificent novel ever written” (Freud). The author recorded the contemporary responses to his last and most famous novel as follows: “The novel is read everywhere, people send me letters, the youth reads it, it is read in high society, in literature it is abused or praised, and never …
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30"Will Europe have to witness a catastrophe every ten years?": Marie Goegg and the International League for Peace and Freedom
3 autograph letters signed and 2 fragments of autograph letters, one of …Geneva, 5 May - 27 June 1881.
€ 6,500.00Historically important correspondence with the early pacifist Charles Lemonnier (1806-91) concerning the administration of the International League for Peace and Freedom, its official journal "Les États-Unis d'Europe", a possible new peace congress in Geneva in the context of the diplomatic crisis between France and Italy caused by the French conquest …
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31
Autograph letter signed.Hartford, 29 Sep 1890.
€ 3,500.00Beautiful congratulatory letter to the author or impresario of what was most likely a dramatization of "Uncle Tom's Cabin", involving children: "I received your favor of the 21st & am pleased to know that your dramatic entertainment passed off so successfully. It would have given me great pleasure to have heard the children recite the dialogues …
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32Strauss in evening dress
Portrait photograph inscribed and signed.No place or date.
€ 4,500.00"A Monsieur Oudshoorn": a pretty likeness from the composer's middle years, showing him in evening dress. From the Vienna studio of Schrank & Massak with their printed signet on the backing cardboard.
Slight traces of mounting on verso.
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33"In due course, I will let you know my new address": Gauguin's move from Tahiti to Hiva Oa
Autograph letter signed ("Paul Gauguin").Tahiti, April 1901.
€ 24,000.00To his art dealer and sponsor Ambroise Vollard, confirming the receipt of two monthly instalments and hinting at a possible relocation to the Marquesas Islands. One of the reasons for such a plan was an influenca epidemic "killing many old people and plagueing everyone else", as he describes it in the letter. Another factor were rising costs of living, …
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34"All of my inventions are turning out to be a splendid success"
Typed letter signed ("N. Tesla").New York City, 27 Feb 1909.
€ 65,000.00A rare glimpse into the mind of Nikola Tesla in early 1909, hard at work on his inventions and his investors alike. Communicating with Anita Drysdale Hawkins (1874-1957), a friend and employee at his Wardenclyffe plant, he discusses the recent departure of a troublesome guest, chastising himself: "I am glad that he is gone [...] Time and time again …
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35Inscribed by the author
The Emerald City of Oz.Chicago, 1910.
InquireFirst edition, first printing. Inscribed "Yours Very Ozily" and signed in full by the author.
Autographs of L. Frank Baum are very rare, especially with an inscription relating to "Oz". Baum wrote 14 novels in the Oz series, plus 41 other novels (not including four lost, unpublished novels), 83 short stories, over 200 poems, and at least 42 …
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36Masterpiece from the Wiener Werkstätte
Presentation box containing 127 congratulatory cards by notable writers …Vienna, 1910/1911.
€ 45,000.00Unique, splendidly presented collection of 127 birthday cards, personally inscribed by notable Austrian and German writers and artists including Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, and Arthur Schnitzler.
The elaborate red morocco casket, a masterpiece from the Wiener Werkstätte in the shape of a little house with a curved …
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37To his beloved mother
Autograph picture postcard signed.Gastein, 3 Jul 1914.
€ 22,000.00To his mother Anna Klimt, née Finster (1896-1915), regarding the payment of taxes: "[...] habe dem Bankhaus Auftrag gegeben die Steuer zu zahlen - bitte dem ungehobeltem Steuerkommisär [!] in meinem Auftrag sonst die Thür zu weisen - bitte mir zu schreiben ob der Commisar vom Neubau oder Hietzing (?) ist. Ich möchte mich über diesen Herrn beschweren! …
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38"The painter is not quite the artist - it is the spirit that created art"
Zeichnungen - Egon Schiele: 12 Blätter in Originalgrösse.Vienna, 1917.
€ 225,000.00The only set of reproductions of Schiele drawings issued during the artist's lifetime and under his supervision: an unnumbered proof copy inscribed by the 26-year-old Schiele to his 24-year-old wife Edith (née Harms) and signed with his monogram. The inscription reads: "Der Maler ist noch nicht der Künstler, - / Es ist der Geist der Kunst geschaffen …
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40"How high is the fever?"
Autograph letter signed ("K").Prague, fall 1922.
€ 45,000.00To his friend Robert Klopstock, a medical student and fellow sufferer of tuberculosis: "Dear Robert, just a few words, the lady waits. From the report given by Miss Irene I was under the impression that the worst was over and that a hospital could therefore be ruled out. But if you feel that a hospital might be able to give you any ease, even the …
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41Signed and inscribed by the author
Bambi. Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde.Berlin, 1923.
InquireFirst edition of Salten's classic children's book, extremely rare. Inscribed by the author to Henny Kienzl, wife of the Austrian composer Wilhelm Kienzl: "Frau Henny Kienzl in Freundschaft, Weihnachten 23 Felix Salten". Henny Kienzl (1876-1964) wrote the librettos for her husband's last three operas.
This classic of animal fiction formed the …
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42Friendship album of the "Princess of Brijuni"
Autograph album of Marie-Louise Schenker-Angerer with entries by Pablo …Brijuni, Vienna, Salzburg, London, and Paris, 1924-1972.
€ 12,500.00The present album was owned by Marie-Louise Schenker-Angerer ("Mausi", 1905-73), daughter of Leopold ("Lony") Kupelwieser and granddaughter of the industrialist Paul Kupelwieser, who had purchased the malaria-infested Brijuni archipelago in 1893. Early in the 20th century, Robert Koch succeeded in eradicating the disease-bearing mosquitos, and the …
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43"I believe you should know what I heard about you"
Autograph letter signed ("Freud").Berchtesgaden, 4 Jun 1929.
€ 14,500.00To the unnamed psychoanalyst and writer Fritz Wittels, Freud's first biographer, who had been invited the previous year by Alvin Johnson, co-founder of the New School for Social Research in New York, to give lectures on psychoanalysis at the New School. In his letter, Freud shows himself agreeable to the founding of a "Zentralblatt" in America but …
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44"Take a book of stories by Anderson, Callaghan, Faulkner and Co. Shit. I don't compete with those punks"
Autograph letter signed.Paris, 6 November 1933.
€ 15,000.00A wide-ranging letter to Arnold Gingrich in Chicago ("Dear Major G"), editor of the newly minted "Esquire" magazine, written ten days after the publication of "Winner Take Nothing". Half of the letter is about writing short stories; the rest concerns Esquire (Hemingway’s comments on the first issue, his editorial advice, his arrangements with the …
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47Madame Sun Yat-sen urges American military relief for China in 1939
Typed letter signed.Hong Kong, October 1939.
InquireSigned by one of the most famous Chinese women of the 20th century, this letter by Soong Ching-ling (often known as Madame Sun Yat-sen) urges American military aid in the dark days of 1939, when China stood alone against the Japanese invasion.
Soong Ching-ling, on her deathbed named Honorary President of the People's Republic of China, was …
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48"Je n'irai donc pas vivre en Amérique": Marx Ernst's refusal to leave France
Autograph letter signed twice ("Max Ernst").Saint-Martin-d'Ardèche, "Mercredi" 1939/1940.
€ 4,500.00Highly interesting letter to the collector and critic Christian Zervos, asserting that Ernst will not emigrate to the U.S., probably following his brief internment in France as an "undesirable foreigner" at the beginning of World War II. Ernst thanks Zervos for forwarding a letter from his son Jimmy and for some issues of the Cahiers d'Art, before …
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49Original typescript of Hesse's well-known fairy tale
"Piktor's Verwandlungen. Ein Märchen von H. H.". Typescript, signed with …Presumably Montagnola, ca. 1940/45.
€ 28,000.00Written in 1922 for his second wife Ruth Wenger, the fairy tale was published as a facsimile in 1954. Hesse himself wrote in his afterword to this edition: "Until today it was only available as a manuscript. I copied it many times in earlier years and painted little pictures for it, each time something different [...]".
According to Hesse's …
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50Einstein wearing his famous bomber jacket
Photograph signed ("A. Einstein 1947").No place, 1947.
€ 35,000.00A contemplative pose of Einstein in his famous leather jacket, holding his pipe, taken by Lotte Jacobi during the 1938 photo session she undertook with the theoretical physicist for Life magazine.
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51"Es gibt keine absolute Bewegung"
"Wesen der Relativitätstheorie". Autograph manuscript.No place, 1947-1948.
€ 350,000.00German-language draft for "The Essence of the Theory of Relativity", an article published in English within volume XVI of "The American Peoples Encyclopedia" (1948). After a general introduction, the "special theory of relativity" and the "general theory of relativity" are discussed, with a few equations and a small graph sketch.
"Die Mathematik …
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52"Till I see you”: Jack Kerouac and Edward D. White Jr.
Typed postcard with autograph postscript signed ("Jack").Jamaica, New York, 10 Oct. 1949 postmark.
InquireInforming his friend Edward D. White Jr. of his new address in Queens, 94-21 134th Street, Richmond Hill, and scolding him for not visiting during a trip to New York: "I thought you were coming back from Baltimore before leaving for Denver. I called you that Monday afternoon you left, apparently just after you took off. On top of that you never did …
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54A joint letter written at an important transitional moment in the lives of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes
Joint autograph letter signed.3 Chalcot Square, London, NW1, 11 Mar 1960.
€ 28,000.00Jointly written to Ted's parents Edith and William Hughes ("Dear Mum & Dad"), begun by Hughes, on the advance copies of his "Lupercal" ("The book looks very nice. It doesn't much matter what people say about it - I'm past caring for that"), explaining that their domestic life in their new flat is "going better now we have everything fixed up", …
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56Making radio history: one of 26 copies signed by Welles and his collaborators
[War of the Worlds]. Commemorative edition of The Mercury Theatre's radio …Surrey, England, 1963.
€ 8,500.00The twenty-five year commemorative edition of the Mercury Theatre's radio adaptation of H. G. Wells's science fiction classic "War of the Worlds", which had famously caused furore on the night of 30 October 1938. Intended as a Halloween prank, the brazenly realistic CBS broadcast, set in the contemporary U.S., touched a raw nerve in an America already …
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60Andy Warhol
Polaroid signed.No place, 1990s.
€ 2,500.00