Rare Book Monthly

Articles - July - 2012 Issue

Here's What to Expect at Larry McMurtry's 300,000-Volume “Last Book Sale.”

Larry McMurtry comments on the McMurtry 100:

"Historically the highest compliment one bookseller can pay another is to say that he or she has interesting books; this implies, of course, that there can be uninteresting books.

“Having interesting books has been the raison d'etre of Booked Up Inc. these forty years. We are not highspotters, although of course we have sold most of the big books by Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Joyce, Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Waugh and the like before they matured, as it were.

“Our distinction, if we have one, is not how many good books we have, but how few bad books infiltrate our stock. For bad books sift in like dust; only frequent purges can rid the stock of them; and we do purge, savagely. And cherry-picking this stock doesn't work: too few sleepers and too many good books. To prep the bidders a little I strolled around the shelves for half an hour and piled up 100 books that are both interesting and appealing. See what you think!"

#831: Algernon Charles Swinburne. Poems and Ballads. London, 1899.

#832: Anthony Lippmann. Divinely Elegant: The World of Ernst Dryden. Great Britain, 1989. Forward by (and signed by) Billy Wilder.

#833: Roger Troy Peterson (Intro), Joseph Kastner (text). The Bird Illustrated. 1550-1900. New York, 1988.

#834: Dorthy Shakespear Pound. Etruscan Gate. (edited by Moelwyn Merchant), Exeter, 1971.

#835: J.M. Synge. Playboy of the Western World. Barre, 1970 (edited by Stanley Sutton, brush paintings by Louis le Brocquy).

#836: Pierre Michaut. Le Ballet Contemporain 1929-1950. Paris, 1950.

#837: Lady Jackson. The First of the Bourbons. Two Volumes. London, 1890.

#838: George Meredith. Lord Ormont and His Aminta. Three Volumes. London, 1894.

#839: Anthony Trollope. The Last Chronicle of Barset. Two Volumes. London, 1847.

#840: Algernon Charles Swinburne. Chasteland. London, 1878.

#841: Eden Phillpotts. The Mother. Illustrated by Gunning King. London, 1908.

#842: F. Dostoieffskaya. The Emigrant. Introduction by Stephen Graham, and translated by Vera Margolies. London, 1916.

#843: Ben Jonson. Volpone. Paris, 1906.

#844: Cyril W. Beaumont. Markova, Essays on Dancing & Dancers. #8. London, 1935.

#845: Gertrude Stein. Tender Buttons. Objects. Food. Rooms. New York: 1914.

#846: Elmore Leonard. The Bounty Hunters. Boston, 1954. First book, in dust-wrapper.

#847: J.P. Donleavy. The Ginger Man. (The Traveller’s Companion Series, #7). Wrappers. Paris:

#848: La Foutromanie. Parapilla. Paris.

#849: Peter Matthiessen. In The Spirit of Crazy Horse. New York, 1983.

#850: Alice B. Toklas. Autobiography. Illustrated. New York, 1933. Signed.

#851: Carver Adelman. Carver Country: The World of Raymond Carver. New York, 1990.

#852: Walter Dyk. A Navajo Autobiography. New York, 1947.

#853: Gertrude Stein. Narration. Chicago, 1935. Intro. By Thornton Wilder.

#854: Tony Hillerman. The Ghostway. London, 1985. First English Edition, first book.

#855: Louise Bogan. Body of this Death. New York, 1923. First book.

#856: Henry James. Notes of a Son and Brother. New York, 1914. Illustrated.

#857: Henry James. The American Scene. London, 1907. First edition, sold with the colonial edition as well.

#858: Henry James. Within the Rim: Essays 1914-15. London, 1918.

#859: Jacques Lassaigue. Chagall. France, 1957.

#860: M. T. F. My Chinese Marriage. New York, 1921. Katherine Anne Porter.

#861: Christina Stead. The Man Who Loved Children. New York, 1940.

#862: W.H. Hudson. The Lands End. London, 1908.

#863: Sir Samuel W. Baker. Wild Beasts and Their Ways. Two Volumes. London, 1890.

#864: Stanley Vestal. Warpath....A Biography of Chief White Bull. Boston, 1934.

#865: Hugh M’Diarmid. Penny Wheep. Edinburgh, 1926.

#866: John McPhee. The Headmaster: Frank Boyden, of Deerfield. New York, 1966.

#867: T. G. Tucker. Life in the Roman World (of Nero & St. John). New York, 1928.

#868: Joseph Pernell. Aubrey Beardsley and Other Men of the Ninties. Philidelphia, 1924. Copy # 9 of 100.

#869: Rafinesque, Walom Olom. The Migration Legend of the Lenni Lenape of Deleware Indians. Indianapolis, 1954.

#870: Alfred Edward A’Courte Hudson. Selected Blood Studies on Swine. Raleigh, 1951.

#871: Lorin Blodget. Climatology of the United States. Philadelphia, 1857.

#872: Karl Grober. Toys of Bygone Days. London, 1928.

#873: Frank Lloyd Wright. A Testament. New York, 1957.

#874: Andrew Lang. Aucassin and Nicolete in English. New York, 1931.

#875: Norman Douglas. Experiments. N.p., 1925. #151 of 300.

#876: The California Palace of the Legion of Honor. Contemporary American Sculpture. San Francisco, 1929.

#877: Gerald M. Durrell. The Overloaded Ark. London, 1953. Illustrated.

#878: Francois Mauriac. Woman of the Pharisees. New York, 1946. Translated by Gerald Hopkins.

#879: George Augustus Sala. Paris Herself Again in 1878-1879. Two Volumes. London, 1880.

#880: Henry James. Partial Portraits. London, 1888.

#881: Henry James. The Reverberator. London/New York, 1888.

#882: Cherry Kearton. In the Land of the Lion. New York, 1929.

#883: Anthony Trollope. North America. London, 1869.

#884: Ada Lawrence & G. Stuart Gelder. Early Life of D. H. Lawrence. London, 1932.

#885: Howells & Alden. Quaint Courtships. London, 1906.

#886: Henry Nevinson. Essays in Freedom. London, 1911.

#887: Frederick Gerstacker. Western Lands and Western Waters. London, 1864.

#888: Frances Anne Kemble. Journal of a Resident on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839. London, 1863.

#889: Thomas Wolfe. The Web and the Rock. London, 1947.

#890: William Everson. The Residual Years. New York, 1948.

#891: William J. Lederer. Ensign OToole and Me. New York, 1957.

#892: Ada Earland. John Opie and His Circle. London, 1911.

#893: M. Valery. Voyages En Italie: Du Voyageur Et De LArtiste. Bruxelles, 1844.

#894: Frederic William Maitland. The Life and Letters of Leslie Stephen. London, 1906. First appearance of Virginia Woolf.

#895: Captain Mayne Reid. The Cliff-Climbers or the Lone Home in the Himalayas. New York, 1882. Original cloth.

#896: James R. Anderson. An Actors Life. London, 1902.

#897: Anthony Trollope. Australia and New Zealand. Two Volumes. London, 1873.

#898: Alfred Perles. Reunion in Big Sur: A Letter to Henry Miller.....1959. #23 of 500, signed by author.

#899: Shane Leslie. Studies in Sublime Failure. London, 1932.

#900: Axel Lundquist. Andersen, Dansk Sportsleksekon. Two Volumes. Copenhagen, 1944.

#901: A. Henry Savage-Landor. Across Unknown South America. Two Volumes. LDN/NY/TOR, 1913.

#902: John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, First Baron Acton. Historical Essays and Studies. London, 1919.

#903: Winston Churchill. A History of the English-Speaking Peoples. Four Volumes. London, 1957.

#904: Leo Tolstoy. War and Peace. Three Volumes. New York, 1904.

#905: Arno Schmidt. Evening Edged in Gold: A Fairytale Farse. New York, 1980.

#906: Duane Michals. Eros and Thanatos. Sante Fe, 1992.

#907: William Everson and Leigh Wiener. The High Embrace. Los Angeles, 1986. #76 of 190, signed by author, photographer and designer.

#908: Sotheby’s. The Estate of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. April 23-26, 1996. New York, 1996.

#909: Basil S. Long. A History of British Minaturists 1520-1860. London, 1929.

#910: Robert Southey. Curse of Kehama. London, 1810.

#911: Cargil Gilston Knott. Life and Scientific Work of Peter Guthrie Tait. Cambridge, 1911.

#912: Sir Lascelles Wraxall, Bart. And Robert Wehran. Memoirs of Queen Hortense, Mother of Napoleon III. London, 1864.

#913: Paul Scott. Six Days in Marapore. Garden City, 1953.

#914: Clancy Sigal. Going Away: A Memoir. Boston, 1962.

#915: Maynard and Bray. The Plays of Euripides. Volume II, Greynog Press, 1931. Gilbert Murry translation, illustrated.

#916: Humphrey Milford. Portraits of Dr. William Harvey. London, 1913.

#917: Brother Antoninus. Who Is She That Looketh Forth As The Morning. Santa Barbara, 1972.

#918: Historical Publishing Co. The Fighting Men of TexasA History of the Second World War. Vol. 5. Dallas, 1948.

#919: Florent Fels. LArt Et LAmour. Paris, 1953.

#920: Dr. Washington Matthews. The Human Bones of the Hemenway Collection in the United States Army Medical Museum. Washington, n.d.

#921: Rulka Langer. The Mermaid and the Messerschmitt. New York, 1942.

#922: Maud Allan. My Life and Dancing. London, 1908.

#923: John Davidson. Selfs the Man. London, 1901.

#924: Frank O’Conner. Travellers Samples: Stories and Tales. London, 1951.

#925: George Saintsbury. A Scrap Book. London, 1922. Together with A Last Scrap Book. London, 1924. Two Volumes both signed by author.

#926: John Gardner and L.M. Rosenberg, ed. MSS: Spring 1981. Dallas, 1981.

#927: Radhakamal Mukerjee. The Dynamics of Morals: A Sociopsychological Theory of Ethics. London.

#928: Thomas Carlyle. Past and Present. London, 1843.

#929: Herbert Gilchrist, ed. Annie Gilchrist, Her Life and Writings. London, 1887.

#930: F.A. Mitchell-Hedges. Land of Wonder and Fear. London, 1931.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Jeschke Jadi
    Auction 151
    Saturday, April 27, 2024
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 546. Christoph Jacob Trew. Plantae selectae, 1750-1773.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 70. Thomas Murner. Die Narren beschwerung. 1558.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 621. Michael Bernhard Valentini. Museum Museorum, 1714.
    Jeschke Jadi
    Auction 151
    Saturday, April 27, 2024
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 545. Sander Reichenbachia. Orchids illustrated and described, 1888-1894.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 1018. Marinetti, Boccioni, Pratella Futurism - Comprehensive collection of 35 Futurist manifestos, some of them exceptionally rare. 1909-1933.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 634. August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof. 3 Original Drawings, around 1740.
    Jeschke Jadi
    Auction 151
    Saturday, April 27, 2024
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 671. Jacob / Picasso. Chronique des Temps, 1956.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 1260. Mary Webb. Sarn. 1948. Lucie Weill Art Deco Binding.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 508. Felix Bonfils. 108 large-format photographs of Syria and Palestine.
    Jeschke Jadi
    Auction 151
    Saturday, April 27, 2024
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 967. Dante Aligheri and Salvador Dali. Divina Commedia, 1963.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 1316. Tolouse-Lautrec. Dessinateur. Duhayon binding, 1948.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 1303. Regards sur Paris. Braque, Picasso, Masson, 1962.
  • Fonsie Mealy’s
    Rare Book & Collectors Sale
    24th April 2024
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: McCarthy (Cormac). Cities of the Plain, N.Y., 1998, First Edn., signed on hf. title; together with Uncorrected Proof and Uncorrected Advance Reading Copies, both signed by the Author. €800 to €1,000.
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: Stanihurst (Richard). De Rebus in Hibernia Gestis, Libri Quattuor, sm. 4to Antwerp (Christi. Plantium) 1584. First Edn. €525 to €750.
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: Fleischer (Nat.) Jack Dempsey The Idol of Fistiana, An Intimate Narrative, N.Y., 1929, First Edn. Signed on f.e.p. by Rocky Marciano. €400 to €600.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Rare Book & Collectors Sale
    24th April 2024
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: Smith - Classical Atlas, Lond., 1820. Bound with, Smiths New General Atlas .. Principal Empires, Kingdoms, & States throughout the World, Lond. 1822. €350 to €500.
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: Rare Auction Catalogues – 1856: Bindon Blood, of Ennis, Co. Clare: Sotheby & Wilkinson. €320 to €450.
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: [Mavor (Wm.)] A General Collection of Voyages and Travels from the Discovery of America to the Commencement of the Nineteenth Century, 28 vols. (complete) Lond., 1810. €300 to €400.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Rare Book & Collectors Sale
    24th April 2024
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: Mc Carthy (Cormac). Outer Dark, N.Y. (Random House)1968, Signed by Mc Carthy. €250 to €300.
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: Three signed works by Ted Huges - Wodwo, 1967; Crow from the Life and Songs of the Crow, 1970; and Tales from Ovid, 1997. €200 to €300.
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: The Garden. An Illustrated Weekly Journal of Horticulture in all its Branches, 7 vols. lg. 4to Lond. 1877-1880. With 127 colored plates. €200 to €300.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Rare Book & Collectors Sale
    24th April 2024
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: Procter (Richard A.) Saturn and its System: Containing Discussions of The Motion (Real and Apparent)…, Lond. 1865. First Edn. €160 to €220.
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: [Ashe] St. George, Lord Bishop of Clogher, A Sermon Preached to the Protestants of Ireland, now in London,... Oct. 23, 1712, London 1712. Second Edn. €130 to €180.
  • Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    Starting 10AM CST
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HARRISON, Benjamin. Document signed (“Benj Harrison”) as governor of Virginia, certifying the service of Daniel Cumbo, a Black Revolutionary soldier. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    Starting 10AM CST
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [AVIATION]. [ARMSTRONG, Neil A.] Aviation Hall of Fame Gold Medal MS64 NGC, Awarded to Neil Armstrong in 1979. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    Starting 10AM CST
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    Starting 10AM CST
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD
  • Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Edition of Piccolomini's De La Sfera del Mondo (The Sphere of the World), 1540.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Edition of Vellutello's Commentary on Petrarch, With Map, 1525.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: Finely Bound Definitive, Illustrated Edition of I Promessi Sposi, 1840.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: Rare First Edition of John Milton's Latin Correspondence, 1674.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: Giolito's Edition of Boccaccio's The Decamerone, with Bedford Binding, 1542.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Edition of the First Biography of Marie of the Incarnation, with Rare Portrait, 1677.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Aldine Edition of Volume One of Cicero's Orationes, 1540.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Edition of Bonanni's Illustrated Costume Catalogue, with Complete Plates, 1711.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: An Important Incunable, the First Italian Edition of Josephus's De Bello Judaico, 1480.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Edition of Jacques Philippe d'Orville's Illustrated Book of the Ruins of Sicily, 1764.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: An Incunable from 1487, The Contemplative Life, with Early Manuscript.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: Ignatius of Loyola's Exercitia Spiritualia, 1563.

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