Item 202 is “Capital” in Lithographs. This item combines quotes from Karl Marx' Das Kapital with 60 lithographs by Hungarian-American artist and socialist/communist advocate Hugo Gellert. Gellert saw his political/social ideals and art as one. This book uses his images of the wrongs inflicted by capital on the workers of the world to reenforce Marx' words. £1,500 (US $2,336).

 

Here is a book that would be much harder to figure out how to illustrate, though it does contain diagrams and a portrait of the author: Relativity. The Special & The General Theory. A Popular Exposition. This is a 1920 first English language edition of Albert Einstein's “popular” attempt to explain his theories. He recognized that not many people could understand the complexity of his thoughts, so he set about attempting to explain them in a manner it would not take an Einstein to understand. Item 118. £2,500 (US $3,894).

 

Item 39 is a science fiction classic, Who Goes There? Seven Tales of Science Fiction, published in 1948. The author was John W. Campbell, and it is the title piece, originally published in a magazine ten years earlier, that became famous. If the title does not ring a bell, it was released as a movie in 1951 under the name The Thing from Another World. And if that isn't familiar, it quickly became known simply as The Thing, with an updated film version released in 2011. It is the story of some scientists in Antarctica who find a spaceship frozen in the ice millions of years before, and then make the mistake of thawing out its pilot. This copy is inscribed by Campbell to his publisher. £975 (US $1,519).

 

Peter Harrington may be reached at +44 (0)20 7591 0220 or books@peterharrington.co.uk. Their website is www.peterharrington.co.uk