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HUGO, Victor. Ville Réhnane. Watercolor. c. 1850. 4 1'2" x 2 1/2" small ink drawing with watercolor wash on paper depicting a city-scape with a river in the forefront. A work of the first quality. Signed "V. Hugo." Framed and glazed.
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125,000.00 |
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[JONSON, Benjamin]. ATHENAEUS. Athenaiou Deipnosophiston biblia pentekaideka. Athenaei Deipnosophistarum libri quindecim. Cum Iacobi Dalechampii Cadomensis Latina interpretatione, ultimum ab autore recognita; & notis eiusdem ad caldem remissis. Editio Postrema: In qua ultra ea quae ante Isaacus Casaubonus recensuit, & ex Antiquis membranis suppleuit, auxitque, adiectae sun margini ex eisdem Casauboni in Auctorem Animadaversionum libris XV. Variae lections, & coniecturae. Accesserunt In Textu Nolae Ad Singulas voces & ipsius authoris loca, quae in iis libris tractantur & examinantur: Cum Necessariis Indicibus. Lugduni: Apud viduam Antonij de Harsy, 1612. [with:] CASAUBON, Isaac (1559-1614). Isaaci Casauboni Animadversionum In Athen. Dipnosohistas Libri XV. Opus Praeclarum In Lucem lam Ante Editum: quo non solum Athenae I libri quindecim ... Secunda Editio, Postrema, Authoris Cura diligenter recognita & ubique doctissimis additionibus aucta, suisque Indicibus illustrate. Lugduni: Apud Viduam Ant. De Harsy & Peterum Rauaud, 1621. Lugduni: Apud viduam Antonij de Harsy, 1612. Two volumes, [811, (24) pp.] & (11) 2-998 columns, (39) pp., bound together in modern full calf with a later portrait of Ben Jonson by Vertue bound in as a frontispiece. Armorial bookplate of "M. Johnson J. Hon. Soc. Templi & Antiq. Lond. S. & Gen. Spaldg Infr. & Secr. 1735." BEN JONSON'S COPIES of these two related works, with Jonson's ownership signatures on the title-pages. In Latinized form, Jonson's signature reads "su[m] Ben Jonsonij" ("I am Ben Jonson's"). In addition, Jonson has added his motto "tanquam Explorator" at the top of each title-page. Additionally, there are approximately 117 holograph annotations in Greek and Latin in another hand in the text of the first volume; in the second volume, there are numerous check-marks in the margins, and approximately 10 other annotations. Title-page hinged at gutter, with repair to bottom edge, some marginal tears to the thinner leaves (with no loss of text), one corner torn (not affecting text), some staining to the index to the second work, occasional mild soiling and offsetting; generally in very good clean condition. The Deipnosophistae, a compendious work by the Greek-speaking Egyptian Athenaeus (fl. 200), portrays a Roman dinner party attended by the brightest, deepest and most learned thinkers of the early Third Century. The banquet lasts several days in order to allow conversation to take its course. Topics range lightly over law, medicine and literature, but the real subject at hand is food in all its aspects. In a sense, it is the oldest extant text on cooking. The Deipnosophilae ("Scholars at Dinner") is an important source of information on the gastronomic customs of the ancient world. It also quotes fragments of ancient literature which have otherwise been lost. The eminent Huguenot humanist Isaac Casaubon (1559-1614) established the definitive text of Deipnosophistae in 1597, when it was first printed alongside the Latin translation of Jacques Dalechamps. Casaubon's commentary on the work appeared several years later, and was frequently bound together with the bilingual text. "A vast variety of erudition has been preserved by Athenaeus of Naucratis, who lived at Rome under Commodus and his successors. His comprehensive work'Doctors at dinner' originally consisted of thirty books. It was abridged into fifteen; and it is this abridgement that has survived in an incomplete form in a single ms. The scene is laid at the house of the Roman pontiff Larentius; and all kinds of accomplishments - grammar, poetry, rhetoric, music, philosophy and medicine - are represented among the many interlocutors. It is an encyclopaedia under the disguise of a dialogue. Food and drink, cups and cookery, stories of famous banquets, scandalous anecdotes, specimens of ancient riddles and drinking songs and disquisitions on instruments of music are only part of the miscellaneous fare which is here provided. To the quotations in Athenaeus we are indebted for our knowledge of passages from about 700 ancient writers who would otherwise be unknown to us, and, in particular, for the preservation of the greater part of the extant remains of the Middle and New Attic Comedy" (Sandys 1337). Although his posthumous fame is founded on his achievements as a poet and dramatist, Ben Jonson was also among the notable classical scholars of the late Renaissance. Indeed, he himself often gave pride of place to his classical attainments, and seems often to have assumed that posterity would do so as well. Although he attended neither University (poverty forcing him to take-up his step-father's trade of bricklaying), he received an excellent education at Westminster School, where his revered Master was William Camden, the celebrated historian. In honor of his widely recognized attainments, Jonson was eventually named Master of Arts at Oxford University in 1619. Befitting his humanist orientation, he was a champion of what is still the fundamental discipline from which all genuine literary scholarship proceeds, textual criticism, and can even be regarded, to some extent, as a pioneer of what we now
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RICHTER, Gerhard. Charcoal Drawing of a Reclining Nude / Originale Kohlezeichnung. ca. 1960. 24" x 16" charcoal drawing by the young artist, depicting the most famous stage actress of eastern Germany of her day. The present is one of only two known extant drawings by the master from the period prior to his flight from the east in 1962. Signed and titled by Richter on the verso, the latter writing not quite penetrable. Although Richter himself has always felt insecure about his work as a draughtsman and has been reported as saying as much in the recent monograph devoted to his drawings, his early work in pencil certainly attests to a freshness and genuine approach to his subjects that belies his later scruples. Richter is indeed a problematic critic of his own work in general, and he has engineered its reception in a way that puts even Picasso to shame. One day, it will all have to stand or fall on its own merits -- and we expect the vast majority will stand, as Richter is indeed the pre-eminent visual artist of our time.
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125,000.00 |
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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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Mandelshtam, Osip. Autograph Manuscript of the Poem, "Petersburg Stanzas." 1913. Single lined folio sheet removed from a sewn notebook, folded once, written on two rectos. The only known manuscript version of this important early poem by one of the great figures of 20th century verse, first published in the literary miscellany "Giberborei" (Number 5, Feb, 1913) and later included in the poet's first book, Kamen' (Stone) and then in the Collected Poems in 1928. The present text, which is cited in the standard edition, differs from the printed texts in two locations (first stanza, line one and third stanza, line 3). The manuscript bears the date January 1913 at the close. In her memoirs, Lily Brik specifically mentions this poem as one of the works Mayakovsky knew by heart and often spoke. Some soiling and crinkling, as is meet for such an object. Mandelshtam manuscript is among the rarest in the modern era, only about twenty poems being known to survive in holograph. It is a well-known fact that had it not been for the memory of Mandelshtam's wife Nadezhda, who had memorized them, many of his poems would have been lost.
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85,000.00 |
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NIETZSCHE, Friedrich. Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen II: Vom Nutzen und Nachtheil der Historie fur das Leben. (Unconventional Observations II: The Advantages and Disadvantages of History for Life.) E.W. Fritzsche : Leipzig , 1874. Octavo, 111pp. First edition of Nietzsche's second Unconventiaonal Observation, an attack on the then-current faith in historical research. In contrast to the German fashion of the time, Nietzsche argued that historical knowledge is valuable only when it has a positive effect on our sense of life, contending that history can play only three positive roles which he termed, "monumental," "antiquarian," and "critical." This copy inscribed by the author on the front wrapper, " Herr Rathsherrn Prof. Dr. Vischer in treuer Gesinnung und mit der Bitte Wohlwollen Nachsicht ueberreicht vom Verf." It was William Vischer Bilfinger, Ordinarius for Classical Philology and President of the Educational Imstitute at the University of Basel who took the remarkable step of appointing the 24 year old Nietzsche, sans doctorate, to the University's chair of philology -- a move all but unheard-of at the time. The outgoing chair, Adolf Kiessling, had written for information on Nietzsche to his old Professor, Albrecht Ritschl, after reading one of his contributions to the Rheinisches Museum. Ritschl responded that he had never known a young man "who became so mature so early . . . If God grants him long life, I prophesy that he will one day stand in the front rank of German philology." Kiessling passed on Ritschl's recommendation to Vischer. On hearing of his appointment at the University, located only fifty miles from the Wagner residence, the young Nietzsche apparently spent the afternoon singing melodies from Tannhauser in his joy. A near fine copy, promptly inscribed by Nietzsche (as Vischer died only four months after its publication) bound in modern green cloth with minor rubbing to head and foot of spine with publisher's green printed paper wrappers bound in.
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85,000.00 |
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MANN, Thomas. Der Zauberberg. Berlin: S. Fischer, 1924. Two volumes, small octavo, 578pp & 629pp. First edition of Mann's greatest masterpiece, an atmospheric novel of ideas set in the famed sanitorium at Davos, in which the explicit philosophical contents, particularly the numerous discussions of the nature of time, are subtly reproduced in the rhythm and flow of the narrative. An extraordinary presentation copy, inscribed by Mann to his intimate friend, the philosopher and poet associated with the circle of Stefan George, Ernst Bertram. Bertram was Mann's closest friend from the late 1900's through the early thirties, when their politics separated them. No one other than Heinrich Mann understod Thomas Mann the man or the author as profoundly as Bertram, and the later perhaps more so than the former. Bertram was deeply influential on Mann's thinking and literary direction during the crucial years of the First World War when he was rather "at sea" artistically. It was in close almost daily conversation with Bertram that the long political confessional, Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen (Meditations of an A-Political Man.) which stood Mann in lieu of creative work during this tortured period, was elaborated. Bertram was a constant visitor at the Mann's, and it is plain that there was some quotient of homoerotic attraction to the relationship. It is well known that Mann's early adulthood -- prior to his marriage to Katia in 1905 -- was spent in more or less explicitly gay attractions and relations, but recent scholarship has begun to trace the residues of Mann's homosexuality in his later life and work, and the relationship with Bertram somehow epitomizes the special significance that the company of men still bore for the "convert." In addition to being Mann's closest confidant, Bertram was a trenchant and important man of letters in his own right. He was an intimate member of the renowned circle around the poet Stefan George, one of the first and for long time only rational expositors of the philosophy of Nietzsche, and a scholar and poet of real stature. An association copy of the highest order.
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75,000.00 |
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TRAKL, Georg. Gedichte. Leipzig: Kurt Wolff, 1913. Octavo, 65pp. First edition of Trakl's first book, the only one published during his tragically brief lifetime. The author's own copy, in which he has revised the poem, "Traum des Boesen," including the rewritting of a full stanza. With Trakl's woodcut bookplate. Laid in is an evocative three-page letter written on behalf of the poet in June 1913 from Erhard Buschbecks to Franz Zeiss, to whom Trakl would give the present offering, requesting that he assist in finding the poet lodging in Vienna. An early Expressionist whose haunting, disjointed and altogether dispassionatre verse is among the most singular in our century, Trakl, by necessity, has been more admired than emulated. His is a labor of profound patience, a patience that awaits the voice of things themselves. "The poems have a magnificent silence in them, the silence of things that could speak but choose not to." Rilke said of Trakl, "His poetry is to me an object of sublime existence...It occurs to me that his whole work has a parrallel in the aspiration of a Li Po: in both, falling is the pretext for the most continuous ascension. In the history of the poem, Trakl's books are important contributions to the liberation of the poetic image. They seem to me to have mapped out new dimensions of the spirit, and to have disproved that prejudice which judges all poetry in terms of feeling and content only, as if in the direction of lament there were only lament -- but here too there is world again." Wittgenstein, who secretly subsidized the poet, said of his work, "It has the sound of poetry." The present volume is an early publication in the renowned series of Expressionist literature, Der juengste Tag. There are three known presentation copies of this title (there are only eleven presentation copies of anything by Trakl, most of which are offprints of poems published in Ficker's Der Brenner) but none can claim the distinction of the present copy, which is registered in the Historical-Critical Edition of Trakl's Works (volume 2, p. 73). An excellent copy of the rare bound issue of a title ususally found in the issue in printed wrappers.
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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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HUIDOBRO, Vicente. Partial Manuscript of the Unpublished Play Entitled España y Anti-España, Accompanied by a Complete Corrected Typescript of the Same Text. 1935 c. Thirty-six holograph pages in three slim buff-colored stapled tall octavo notebooks, containing the first three-quarters of the manuscript of the unpublished play, "Espana y Anti-Espana." The holograph manuscript breaks off in mid-page with the words of General Franco, "Todos los sacerdotes estan con nostros." ("All the priests are on our side.") The manuscript is accompanied by a corrected carbon typescript of forty-four pages, in which the action proceeds to its conclusion -- in which Death awards the Fascist generals the Orden del Buitre Septicefalo (Order of the Seven Headed Vulture) in honour of the magnificent banquet with which they have provided him. At once a political satire and a monumental drama á la Brecht, the protagonists include the three Fascist generals Franco, Millan and Quiepo as well as the spirit of the great Spanish hero, El Cid (to whose ancestry the family of Huidobro's mother can be traced) and Spain herself, portrayed as a "una estatua hieratica." At the age of 43, Huidobro himself, scion of a very wealth Chilean family and long resident of Europe, fought on the side of the Republic against the forces of Franco, until the point at which the dispiriting outcome of the struggle was all but assured. Huidobro is among the great poets of the Spanish language in the Twentieth Century, to our mind, the greatest poet of Latin America. Virtually no manuscript material of his remains in private hands.
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