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DOSTOEVSKY, Fyodor. Photographic portrait of Dostoevsky, inscribed 1880. Cabinet photograph (130mm x 97mm) mounted on card (160mm x 104mm) printed recto and verso, by Konstantin Shapiro, showing Dostoevsky half length. Inscribed by Dostoevsky to Jacob Faddeevich Sakhar, 16th December 1880. An extremely rare photographic portrait of Dostoevsky, inscribed by the author. The photographer Konstantin Shapiro was a close friend of Dostoevsky, and also photographed Tolstoi and many other prominent Russians of the day. According to the 30-volume Academy of Sciences edition of Dostoevsky’s works, which is the current authoritative scholarly edition, there were, as of 1990, 16 known extant inscribed photographs of Dostoevsky, of which only 4 were not in institutional hands, the present example being one of the four noted. (For those who are interested, this edition further indicates that, as of 1990, there were only 47 known authentic Dostoevsky inscriptions in total – a remarkably small number for a prolific and significant author of the day.) The present example is the final example in terms of date, inscribed in the last few weeks of Dostoevsky’s life – he would die in late January 1881. The recipient, Yakov Faddeevich Sakhar, was a 22-year old student at the University of St Petersburg. A lover of literature and the arts from an early age, Sakhar began to collect signed photographs of Russian cultural figures. His first, apparently, was from Turgenev, who gave him an inscribed photo on 15th March 1879. By the end of his life (he died in St Petersburg in 1911), Sakhar's collection had acquired national significance. Years later, Sakhar's daughter (then living in Paris) gave the collection to the Russian Central State Archive for Literature and Art; but two photographs, those of Turgenev and Dostoevsky, had previously been dispersed, given by her to a collector in Paris. The Dostoevsky photograph later appeared at auction at Stargardt on the 23-24th May, 1967, where it was, properly, described as an "exceptional rarity." Light spotting, tiny closed hole near the top edge; corners of mount rubbed, light spotting and soiling to verso, but an excellent image in quite appealing condition. I suppose that this lily requires no gilding. Housed in an elegant full-morocco chemise.
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85,000.00 |
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BORGES, Jorge Luis. Evaristo Carriego. Buenos Aires: M. Gleizer, 1930. Octavo, 118pp. Borges's very own copy from his scant personal library. Although Borges always claimed that he didn't keep any copies of his own books, this one was certainly in his possesion much longer than any other copy of the book. Borges has made over 30 corrections throughout, all of which were incorporated in following editions. The corrections range from single words to entire sentences. Borges's signature on the title page is larger than usual, and he has signed and dated the book again on the same page, this time in his more usual smaller writing. Below the last index entry Borges has written over two pages of text related to Lugones. It is unfinished, but it appears to have been intended as an answer to some conflicts arising from the foundation of the "Sociedad Argentina de Escritores" by Leopoldo Lugones, who was also the president. In a brief introductory paragraph explains that Lugones conceded and interview in which he expounded the guiding principles of the Society, which was subsequently published in the Diario de la Tarde. This appears to have upset a group of young writers, two of whom directed letters to Lugones" Julio V. González and Félix E. Cisheros (?). Borges then transcribes one of the letters, written in a rather revolutionary tone, probably by González, a writer, historian, possibly a politician, and one of the most notable leftists of the Argentina of the time. It is not a secret that Lugones was a militarist who prefered dictatorships to democracy, but Borges was known for ignoring politics as much as possible. Despite the fact that he wrote a number of articles on Lugones later in life, it is also true that Borges himself participated in at least one parody against Lugones, published in Martin Fierro in 1926. Whether Borges ever finished this purported response, if it ever was intended as such, and whether this letter was ever made public or not, we have not been able to determine. But further study of the conflict could shed a very interesting light on Borges's biography of those years, as well as on that of Julio V. González, especially if the text of the letter transcribed here didn't survive. General minor foxing throughout a very sound text, in publisher's printed wrappers, spine worn away probably by the author's thorough re-reading. Good, but great.
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65,000.00 |
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BORGES, Jorge Luis. Cuaderno San Martin. Buenos Aires: Editorial proa, 1929. Octavo, 63pp. First edition of this early collection of poems. This copy inscribed by Borges on the half title to his first love without the familiarity and affection of his early inscriptions to her, "Para concepción Guerrero con la amistad de Jorge Luis Borges". Also signed by Borges beneath the photographic frontispiece. As if that wasn't enough to insure Borges's handling of the book, he has fully transcribed the poem "Arrabal en que pesa el campo", which is printed on pp. 13-14. Internally near fine with general wear to edges of publisher's printed, pink, paper covered wrappers which came loose at some point and have been re-attached.
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45,000.00 |
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PICABIA, Francis. Pencil drawing on paper with Watercolor Wash, “Noel.” c. 1937-1940. Pencil drawing on paper with watercolor wash, 12 15/16” x 10 ¼” (33 x 26cm). A superb and delicate drawing of a female nude dominating a planet beneath a distant sun from which she averts her face. The word “Noel” appears in the center of the celestoial orb. Signed by Picabia in the lower right corner. Some light creasing and a small irrelevant stain, else very good. Picabia’s very diverse visual work has enjoyed a good deal of attention in recent years, as has his poetry, recently collected in a wonderful book published by MIT in translations by Mark Lowenthal.
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45,000.00 |
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BORGES, Jorge Luis. Holograph Manuscript Entitled "Wally Zenner, Antigua lumbre." [1949]. One leaf of heavy notepaper, recto only. In black ink, dated at the top, and signed by Borges. With a single excision and substitution. The essay appeared as the preface to Zenner's collection of poems entitled Antigua Lumbre. When praising a lovely milady of his acquaintance, Borges didn't stint. Here, after a discursus on the phenomenology of the poetic life, he describes the highest summit the poetic voice can attain, from which vantage he or she "speaks with the voice of all humanity, as in the greatest poetry of Shakespeare." Though Borges locates Zenner somewhat below the Swan of Avon in his poetic empyrean, he bears witness that her verse "Morir de ti, espléndida y desnuda" ("To die of you, resplendent and naked") springs from this universal source as well: "it evokes the experience of every lover who has ever been, is now, or shall be." [For a longer consideration of this relationship, see the description of the manuscript of Borges's preface to her collection Encuentro en el allá seguro above.] Offered along with three elegant original line-drawings-one pencil drawing, two in ink, with editorial specifications-for the cover of the volume, by León Benarós, poet and artist, about whose poetry Pablo Neruda said, "He raised the romance form to its true magnitude, achieving a level that not even García Lorca could surpass," as well as a copy of the first edition of the book (Buenos Aires, 1947).
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37,500.00 |
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BORGES, Jorge Luis. Holograph Manuscript of the Article "La apostasía de Coifi." 1922. Four 14cm x 17.5cm sheets, hand-numbered. Published originally in Entregas de la Licorne. 2a ép., a. 1, n. 1-2.Montevideo, 11/1953, pp45-48. A very little known, yet absolutely fascinating essay about the conversion of the Germanic tribes of Northumbria during the VII century. Thanks to Borges's fascination with early medieval England and the Germanic tribes and his extensive knowledge thereof, he is able to succintly (Borgesly) expound on the importance of this conversion for the history of Europe in just four pages. Yet, paradoxically, Borges argues, there are no accounts of how insignificant this conversion must have been for most of the new Christians. He centers his essay on Coifi, King Edwin's high priest, who according to Bede and others abjured the old religions because it was obvious that their gods didn't protect them against the newcomers. He then proceded to invade his temple on horseback, sword in hand, destroying and then burning it. Borges believes this last act was merely a theatrical embelishment for the benefit of the king. Coifi's character survives as a "subject of bad historical paintings," says Borges, but his fate remains unknown to us, and we don't even know if he stuck by his word and did in fact embrace the new religion. The manuscript has about a dozen minor corrections, and it is written in what we deem to be Borges's smallest handwriting on the smallest leaves he could get his hands on. Interestingly, Borges has inserted two instructions for the printer on the Wordsworth epigraph, something we haven't encountered in other manuscripts. Signed by Borges at the end.
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37,500.00 |
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BIOY CASARES, Adolfo. Corrected Typescript of the Novel Luis Greve muerto. 1936 c. . 144 octavo sheets. Corrected typescript, presumably a setting copy, of this highly regarded collection of comic and fantastic short stories, originally published in 1937 and subject of a notable review by Bioy Casares's intimate associate and life-long friend Jorge Luis Borges. Although still relatively unknown aside from his association with Borges in the larger world, Bioy can lay claim to prominence among the fantastic authors of the Twentieth Century. The present typescript is corrected on more than half of its pages, sometimes substantially. Signed by Bioy Casares at the close of the text. Housed in a cloth-covered chemise, secured with string stays.
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35,000.00 |
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BORGES, Jorge Luis. Cuaderno San Martin. Buenos Aires: Editorial proa, 1929. Octavo, 64pp. First edition. In publisher's printed, pink, paper-covered wrappers. Wear to edges, internally near fine, with some minor evidence of restoration. Becco 8. Loewenstein 49. This copy inscribed on the half-title to Wally Zenner, "a Wally, con la debida admiración de Jorge Luis Borges, 1929." In addition Borges has transcribed in full the poem "A la doctrina de pasión de tu voz," which is dedicated to Zenner in print in the present volume. For some time, Borges was deeply enamoured by the beautiful and prolific Buenos Aires poet, and even twenty years on we find him contributing the introduction to her fifth collection of verse, Antigua lumbre. [For a more detailed appreciation of Borges's relationship with Zenner, see below in the description of the manuscript of Borges's introduction to her collection Encuentro en el allá seguro (1931).]An extraordinary copy of a rare book.
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35,000.00 |
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BORGES, Jorge Luis. Evaristo Carriego. Buenos Aires: M. Gleizer, 1930. Octavo, 118pp. First edition. In brown grained cloth, decorations blocked in blind, title in gold. Issued in pink wrappers (with some copies in grey-green wrappers) this binding is a pleasant enigma. Distinctly suggestive of a publisher's binding, the end papers repeat the name of a Buenos Aires book store. It is possible-indeed it seems probable-that this was a binding specially commissioned by Borges for the purpose of presentation. [Though this is the only such copy we have seen, Loewenstein reports that one of the three copies at Virginia is in a "special binding," though we have not been able to compare the volumes.] Becco 57. Inscribed on the half-title, "A Macedonio Fernández, con reconocida admiración y profundo afecto. Jorge Luis Borges, 1930." Though his legend lives on in Argentina, Macedonio Fernández is all but unknown to the world beyond. It would be difficult to exaggerate the extent of his influence on Borges, a close friend for three decades. Beguiling, odd, strikingly modern and original, this elusive figure became Borges's mentor. A short, if somewhat misleading biographical sketch of Fernández (or Macedonio, as apparently everyone called him) occupies nearly four pages of the "Autobiographical Essay" which Borges wrote with the assistance of Norman Thomas di Giovanni, and published in the New Yorker in 1970. In a conversation with Rita Guibert in 1968 Borges said: "Of all the people I've known, the one who impressed me most as a person was Macedonio Fernández, an Argentine writer whose conversation was far above anything he wrote." This is a trifle misleading, as Macedonio's conversation appears to have been enigmatically austere and Socratic rather than sumptuously Johnsonian. The disciples, of whom Borges is the most significant, did most of the talking. Moreover, though he published very little, he wrote prodigiously, in an eddying baroque style that writers less austere in their tastes than Borges (Cortázar, for example), greatly admired.
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35,000.00 |
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BORGES, Jorge Luis. Historia universal de la infamia. Buenos Aires: Editorial Tor, 1935. Octavo, 144pp. First edition. A fine copy, slightly foxed, in Victoria Ocampo's customary personal binding of heavy cream linen-covered boards with the original wrappers bound in. Becco 25. Loewenstein 346. A presentation copy, inscribed on the half-title to Victoria Ocampo: "A Victoria, con toda mi amistad. Jorge Luis Borges, Buenos Aires, 24 de julio." Borges met Ocampo in 1925 through Ricardo Güiraldes, with whom he was editing Proa. The present copy is one of inestimable personal and literary importance. The emotional quality of Borges's relationship to Ocampo, while complex and even tortured, represents an unfathomable necessity without which there might be no Borges as we know him. And the literary quality of the association represents a relationship of the highest order between two remarkable personages.
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35,000.00 |
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