Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - January - 2017 Issue

Literary Classics from Whitmore Rare Books

Catalogue 14 from Whitmore Rare Books.

Whitmore Rare Books has published their Catalogue 14. Whitmore features literary classics, with quality of condition of primary importance. Most of the books would be described as fiction, though there are subsets within, such as numerous children's books, along with plays and poetry. A few reach outside of the categories of fiction, such as Plato, Thoreau, Audubon and Jim Thorpe. Here are a few selections from the 89 classics offered in this newest Whitmore catalogue

 

Speaking of Mr. Thorpe, many people consider Jim Thorpe the greatest athlete of the 20th century. Considering the potential names on that list, such a consideration is an amazing honor. Thorpe was a Native American, highly uncommon in the field of sports, particularly a century ago, whose all around athletic skills were phenomenal. Naturally, he had to deal with a fair amount of racial discrimination along with the challenges faced in competition. He would play professional football, baseball, and basketball, but his greatest achievements came at the 1912 Olympics where he captured the decathlon and pentathlon. Item 64 is Jim Thorpe's History of the Olympics. It was published in 1932 and contains the official stamp of the Olympics Village in Los Angeles. This copy was signed by approximately 50 of the athletes who participated in the 1932 Olympics, as well as Jim Thorpe himself, who dated his signature July 23, 1932. Priced at $6,500.

 

There are few American novels that have such status as classics as this one. Item 60 is John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939. It is the all-too-real fictional account of the Joad family, who make their way from the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma to the difficult life of farm laborers in California during the Depression. It served as a notice to America of the desperate conditions many of its laborers and farm workers faced. The book was the best selling novel of 1939 and was a major factor in Steinbeck's winning the Nobel Prize in 1962. The year after it was published, it became one of most honored films as well, with Henry Fonda in the lead role. This copy is not only in near fine condition, but is also an uncommon inscribed one. Steinbeck inscribed it to Barrett Kiesling, who built a sizable collection of inscribed first editions. Kiesling was for twenty years the Publicity Director of MGM and wrote a book about films (Talking Pictures). A few of Steinbeck's books were made into films, explaining the contact between Steinbeck and Kiesling, who knew many of the notable Hollywood personalities of the era. $22,500.

 

Next up is another inscribed book, with a Christmas card which explains the very friendly inscription by Truman Capote to someone he evidently did not know. The book is One Christmas by Capote, published in 1983 (first trade edition). The recipient was Richard Boolootian, who not only was unfamiliar to Capote but unfamiliar to me as well. I'm not sure who he was. Here is the inscription: "for Dick, who is very special – please look after my dear little Joanne for me, love, Truman." Joanne was entertainer Johnny Carson's second wife. The marriage did not end well. For the next decade, Joanne Carson and Truman Capote became very close friends. He eventually moved into her home, where he died in 1984. On the Christmas card, Joanne Carson writes to Boolootian, "While Truman was here in August signing his Christmas books, he asked me who were the people that were very special to me. He signed this book for you." Carson signed the card "Joanne" after drawing a heart in red. Item 6. $1,000.

 

This next title is a children's book that ended up being one of the more controversial titles of the twentieth century, though its author could hardly have imagined that would be the case. Published in 1899, the book is The Story of Little Black Sambo, written by Helen Bannerman. She could have avoided the controversy if only she had not chosen to mention the boy's skin color. Bannerman was a Scottish lady who married a physician who worked in the Indian Medical Service. She moved with him to India, where they resided for many years. It was while she was there that she wrote about Sambo, who was actually an Indian boy, not an African one. It is the well known tale of Sambo's being chased by Tigers, giving them his clothes to spare his life, whereupon the tigers fight over who looks best and eventually chase each other until they turn into something akin to pancake mix. Sambo is depicted as a clever hero, and Bannerman's illustrations were not offensive. Unfortunately, the book was regularly pirated, and frequently illustrated in America with stereotypical, demeaning images of black people. The result was the name "Sambo" came to be a derogatory term for blacks, with Bannerman's tale considered a racist portrayal. If only she hadn't specified his skin color... Item 2. $5,750.

 

This book has a rather pedestrian title for one of such great significance: A Yankee in Canada, With Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers. It is a collection of essays by Henry David Thoreau, edited by Ralph Waldo Emerson and other of Thoreau's friends, published in 1866, four years after he died. Among the essays Thoreau describes a journey to Quebec and what he found, but that is not what makes this collection important. Rather, it is an essay entitled Civil Disobedience, previously published in a magazine but here for the first time in book form. This essay espouses Thoreau's view that when government orders are wrong, they should not be blindly followed. Rather, we should follow our conscience, and disobey when necessary. This is not only true with despotic governments, Thoreau maintains, but with democratic ones as well, as the majority can still be wrong. Thoreau would apply his principles when he refused to pay his taxes as, at the time, they were still be used to enforce slavery. He was briefly jailed until friends paid them for Thoreau. The principles Thoreau here described would become an inspiration for some of the greatest leaders in the years ahead, including Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Item 63. $2,500.

 

Whitmore Rare Books may be reached at 626-297-7700 or info@whitmorerarebooks.com. Their website is www.WhitmoreRareBooks.com.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG BEADED JUDICIAL COLLAR. $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE ONLY BOOK BY THE REMARKABLE EVE ADAMS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A COMPLETE RUN OF VISIONAIRE MAGAZINE THROUGH 2010. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: LAW REVIEW OFFPRINT SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY RUTH BADER GINSBURG. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: META REBNER'S WORKING SCRIPT OF THE LOVED ONE. $1,500 - $2,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A KATHY GROVE PORTRAIT OF CYNDI LAUPER FOR THE FEBRUARY 1989 DETAILS COVER. $800 - $1,200
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A PLASTIC COAT BY MILLIE DAVID FEATURED IN SOHO NEWS STYLE SECTION, FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANNIE FLANDERS. $500 - $700
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG JEWELRY BOX. $600 - $900
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A SET OF JONI MITCHELL LYRICS FOR "IF I HAD A HEART." $2,000 - $3,000
  • 19th Century Shop
    Catalogue 198 just published
    19th Century Shop. Darwin and Wallace, first printing of the first paper on natural selection
    19th Century Shop. Shakespeare’s Poems, first collected edition
    19th Century Shop. Walt Whitman portrait inscribed with a Leaves of Grass poem
    19th Century Shop. Major Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript notebook
    19th Century Shop. Spock's Baby Book, original MS
    19th Century Shop. Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, the great celestial atlas
  • Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    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
    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
    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
    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.
  • Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Bible, Czech Biblia Bohemica, first complete Bible printed in the Czech vernacular, Prague, August 1488. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Aubrey (John). [Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme], manuscript in English, Latin and Greek, [c. 1693]. £30,000 to £50,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.
  • 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

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