Leslie Hindman: Literature from a Private New Orleans Collection: Sale 855
- by Announcement, Rare Book Hub staff
Buff your literary credentials!
Live and Online
March 19,2021 / 10:00am CST
Leslie Hindman: Lots of Fun on March 19th
The Hindman Company of Chicago and Palm Beach is offering an appealing sale of Literature from a Private New Orleans Collection on March 19th. The material spans many eras but it will be unmistakably familiar to those who seriously read late 19th and 20th century fiction.
Books can be collectible for many reasons; for personal relevance, as reminders of what we studied and appreciated, as fun as well as investments. Within the 265 lots offered all the bases are covered.
By price, there are some lots that will declare victory if they reach $300 while others will reach into the low 5 figures. There will be many factors, among them rarity, provenance, whether signed, as well as their importance, condition and the presence of DUST COVERS all will determine value.
Having mentioned the many factors affecting value, auction estimating is ultimately alchemy and the Hindman estimates tend to be on the low side to encourage bidders to be hopeful. Hence, if you find interesting examples allow to bid a bit higher for those lots you really want.
Overall, this auction reads to me as a survey course of long appreciated literature that has a bias to feeling rather than to action. Gunfights and war sagas not so much. One of my favorite books in this sale is by Shirley Jackson, The Lottery and other stories, and that book did not need to have a gun to frame both violence and emotional turmoil. My family owned newspapers and understood that conflicts of ideas cause violence. And that’s just one of the lots.
To think about what’s in the sale make a list of important authors of American fiction. You’ll find a majority of them in alphabetical order. Here goes:
Sherwood Anderson, James Baldwin, Frank L. Baum, Charles Bukowski, William Burroughs and the other Beats. Into the C’s Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood is required reading. And there is Clemens, Samuel. And then William Faulkner and so on and on.
So find something that appeals and then log-in, sign-up, and ask questions. These books will be familiar to you and it will be fun to buy a few examples after which you can add a line to your resume: In your free time? A book collector!!!
Also attached is Hindman’s brief announcement of the sale. It’s just a click away.
CHICAGO – Hindman Auctions will present Literature from a Private New Orleans Collection at auction on March 19. The sale includes several of the most significant literary works of the 19th and 20th centuries, representing both American and English literature. Strengths of the collection include early science fiction, children’s literature, and works from the Jazz Age and Post-War period. The sale features the works of John Steinbeck, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Herman Melville, and James Joyce.
Highlights from the sale include a presentation copy of John Steinbeck’s The Pastures of Heaven (lot 237; estimate is $10,000-15,000) in the rare first issue dust jacket. Owned by American author and Steinbeck correspondent Louis Paul, the work also includes an autograph note from Steinbeck to Paul. The sale includes a very fine copy of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (lot 40, estimate is $2,000- 3,000).
Other works include a first American edition of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick; or, the Whale (lot 205; estimate is $5,000-7,000) and the limited first edition of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake signed by Joyce (lot 164; estimate is $5,000-7,000). The collection includes a fine copy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (lot 251; estimate is $5,000-7,000), as well as several of the most significant works by Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner.
Bidding for the March 19 sale begins at 10am CT. Bidders will be able to participate via absentee bid, by phone, or live online through the Digital Bid Room. Preview of the auction will be available by appointment only at Hindman’s Chicago office. For more information about the auction, please view the catalogue and the auction page.
Sotheby’s Shelf Life: Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper from the Library of Stanley J. Seeger and Christopher Cone 25 June – July 7
Sotheby’s, July 7: Ludwig van Beethoven. Autograph sketches for the overture "Die Weihe des Hauses", op.124, [1822], UNPUBLISHED. £150,000 to £200,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice, 1813, first edition, 3 volumes, contemporary half calf. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass, Brooklyn, 1855, first edition, first issue, original green cloth, the Doheny copy. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: Binding—Sangorski & Sutcliffe—Omar Khayyam. Rubaiyat, London, 1872, third edition, in a magnificent jewelled Peacock binding. £15,000 to £20,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: George Eliot. Middlemarch, Edinburgh and London, 1871, first edition in the original parts. £20,000 to £30,000.
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: Hassall (Joan) A large collection of over 300 original woodblocks of engravings for various books, v.d., with Hassall's engraver's glass water-globe (Qty) - Est. £10,000-15,000
Forum, July 9: Eragny Press.- [Bradley (Katherine Harris) & Edith Emma Cooper], "Michael Field." Whym Chow, Flame of Love, one of only 27 copies, inscribed by Bradley, the rarest book from the press, 1914. - Est. £3,000-4,000
Forum, July 9: [Moore (Thomas Sturge)] [Wood Engravings], 71 wood-engravings printed by David Chambers from the original blocks, the only set on Japanese Hosho paper, from an edition of 5 sets, [1970]. - Est. £3,000-4,000
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: La Fontaine (Jean de) Contes et Nouvelles en vers, 2 vol., engraved plates after Eisen, fine early 19th century blue morocco, gilt, by Bradel l'ainé, Amsterdam [Paris], 1762. - Est. £2,000-3,000
Forum, July 9: Erotica.- Prostitution.- Pretty Women of Paris (The); Their Names and Addresses, Qualities and Faults..., [Paris], privately printed at the Press of the Prefecture de Police, 1883. - Est. £3,000-4,000
Forum, July 9: Vale Press.- Ricketts (Charles) & Lucien Pissarro. De la Typographie et de l'Harmonie de la Page Imprimée…, [one of 216 copies], bound in dark blue morocco tooled in gilt, by Sarah T.Prideaux, 1898. - Est. £1,000-1,500
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: Martin (John) Illustrations of the Bible, complete set of 20 mezzotints, good impressions, rarely found in early states, [c.1831-1835]. - Est. £1,000-1,500
Forum, July 9: Golden Cockerel Press.- Four Gospels of the Lord Jesus Christ (The), one of 500 copies, Mary Gill's copy, Waltham St. Lawrence, 1931 with a signed proof of engraving on japon numbered 10/10 (2) - Est. £5,000-7,000
Forum, July 9: Boccaccio (Giovanni) The Decameron, 3 vol., vol.1 extra-illustrated by John Buckland Wright with c.150 erotic original drawings in pen & ink and pencil, 1886 [extra-illustrated c.1940]. - Est. £10,000-15,000
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: Cox (Morris) Collection of Gogmagog Press Books, 35 vol., rare complete collection of printed books issued by the press, limited editions, most signed by Cox, 1957-83. - Est. £10,000-15,000
Forum, July 9: Wynkyn de Worde.- [Terentius Afer (Publius)] [Comedie...], [Paris, Josse Badius: sold in London by Wynkyn de Worde, & others], [15 July 1504]. - Est. £4,000-6,000
Forum, July 9: Mosley (James) Ornamented Types. Twenty-Three Alphabets from the Foundry of Louis John Pouchée, 2 vol., one of 10 copies for presentation, from an edition of 210, 1992-93. - Est. £1,000-2,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Inundation papyrus. P.Michael 4, the ‘Inundation papyrus’, a geographical account of the Nile near Canopus, in Greek, remains of two columns from a manuscript scroll on papyrus, Egypt, second century CE. £12,000-18,000
Forum, July 16: Book of Hours, use of Sarum, manuscript on vellum, 6 full-page miniatures, with famous Middle English inscriptions, Southern Netherlands for the English market, [c.1430]. £30,000-50,000
Forum, July 16: Qu'ran, Arabic manuscript on burnished, stencilled, and gold-flecked paper, 447ff., Sultanate Gujarat, Ahmadabad, [after 1411 but no later than 1442]. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Turner (William). A New boke of the natures and properties of all wines that are commonly vsed here in England, rare first edition of the first English book on wine, By William Seres, 1568. £20,000-£30,000
Forum, July 16: Spenser (Edmund). The Faerie Queene. first edition, Printed [by John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, 1590. £30,000-40,000
Forum, July 16: Shakespeare (William). The Comedie of Errors, extracted from the first folio, Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount, 1623. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Fleming (Ian). Casino Royale, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1953. £40,000-60,000
Forum, July 16: d'Agoty (Jacques-Fabien Gautier). Anatomie de la Tête, first edition, Paris, chez le Sieur Gautier, 1748. £10,000-15,000
Forum, July 16: Martial Arts.- Lee (Bruce). 'Praying Mantis style' Kung Fu book, containing numerous annotations, diagrams and graphs in Bruce Lee's hand, c. 1960. £50,000-70,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Warre (Capt. Henry James). Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory, first edition, rare hand-coloured issue, 1848. £30,000-40,000
Forum, July 16: Norie (John William). The Marine Atlas, or Seaman's Complete Pilot for all the principal places in the known world..., 1826. £30,000-50,000
Forum, July 16: Mao Tse-tung.- Kim Il-sung.-[Note book for visitors from China to Korea], signed by Mao and Kim, [Beijing, 1954]. £10,000-15,000
