Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - June - 2011 Issue

From Popular Culture to Esoterica and More from Brian Cassidy, Bookseller

The fifth catalogue from bookseller Brian Cassidy.

The fifth catalogue from bookseller Brian Cassidy.

Brian Cassidy, Bookseller, recently published catalogue no. five. Cassidy offers a collection of eclectic works mainly from the 20th century. Specialties are described as, "popular culture, esoterica, modern and contemporary literature, poetry, the avante-garde, little magazines and small press, the Mimeo Revolution, The Beats, the New York School, as well as manuscripts, literary ephemera, Americana, and vernacular."  That should cover most of the material in this catalogue, much of which might also be described as representative of the counterculture. You might also, from the selection of topics, pick out "Americana," though, in Cassidy's case, that means Beat poets, "hippies " and such rather than Washington and Lincoln. This is a good look at American culture, though perhaps on the fringes, during the lifetime of those of us who are not all that young any more.

 

Item 25 offers an odd combination of artists two generations apart, though perhaps their appeal was similar to their respective generations. It is a spoken word EP record, released in 1992. The title is The "Priest" They Called Him. The words come from Beat poet and writer William S. Burroughs, 78 years old at the time. Burroughs was noted for giving spoken word performances. He is accompanied on guitar by Kurt Cobain, grunge rock pioneer, 53 year his junior. This oddity never made it to a Nirvana's greatest hits compilation. The recording is on only one side of the vinyl disc; the other side having Burroughs' and Cobain's signatures etched into the record (Cobain's intentionally misspelled). The much older Burroughs outlived Cobain, for all the wrong reasons. Priced at $475.

 

Item 97 is the only separately published piece by a man well known for other things. It is Wingless on Luna:  The 25th Wings Club General Harold R. Harris 'Sight' Lecture, given on May 20, 1988. This is a mostly technical discussion of space flight issues by a man who knew them well - astronaut and first man on the moon Neil Armstrong. It contains an inscription from Armstrong, which Cassidy notes is uncommon as he stopped filling autograph requests in the early 1990s. The piece itself is also quite scarce. $7,500.

 

Item 70 is a copy of Gerard Malanga's Cristinas World Im(media)cy Poemworks, published in 1970. Malanga is a poet, photographer, and filmmaker who worked with Andy Warhol in the 1960s. This book of poems comes with a long inscription from the author. He notes that it was written near Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, home to painter Andrew Wyeth. This partly explains the book's title, similar to that of Wyeth's most famous painting, though he left the "h" out of Christina. Malanga writes that Cristina was intimate with the Wyeth children, and "Cristina is very much her own person - singular, heady, beautiful. She turns 24 this month." I am a bit perplexed by this one. Christina Olson, the subject of Wyeth's painting, was unable to walk, and consequently crawled through the fields surrounding her Maine home, explaining the painting. However, she would have been 77 years old at the time of Malanga's letter had she not died a few years earlier. Perhaps there was another Cristina associated with Wyeth, or he is simply referring to the painting, then 22 not 24 years old.  $375.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Th. McKenney & J. Hall, History of the Indian tribes of North America, 1836-1844. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Biblia latina vulgata, manuscript on thin parchment, around 1250. Est: €70,000
    Ketterer, May 26: M. Beckmann, Fanferlieschen Schönefüßchen, 1924. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: A. Ortelius, Theatrum orbis terrarum, 1574. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer, May 26: M. S. Merian, Eurcarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis, 1717-18. Est: €6,000
    Ketterer, May 26: PAN, 9 volumes, 1895-1900. Est: €12,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Breviarium Romanum, Latin manuscript, 1474. Est: €15,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Quran manuscript from the Saadian period, Maghreb, 16th century. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer, May 26: E. Hemingway, The old man and the sea, 1952. First edition in first issue jacket. Presentation copy. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De re militari libri quatuor, 1553. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer, May 26: K. Marx, Das Kapital, 1867. Est: €30,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Brassaï, Transmutations, 1967. Est: €6,000
  • Doyle
    The Collection of Mary Tyler Moore
    June 4, 2025
    DOYLE: Peter Max, Portrait of Mary Tyler Moore (Versions 1,2, 5, 6), 2001. Estimate $10,000-15,000
    DOYLE: The iconic screen-used wall-mounted "M" from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Estimate $5,000-8,000
    DOYLE: The Mary Tyler Moore Show by Al Hirschfeld. Estimate $4,000-6,000
    Doyle
    The Collection of Mary Tyler Moore
    June 4, 2025
    DOYLE: Annie Leibovitz presents Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke for Vanity Fair. Estimate $4,000-6,000
    DOYLE: Al Hirschfeld presents Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke in the CBS Wednesday Night Lineup. Estimate $4,000-6,000
    DOYLE: Richard McKenzie, Portrait of Mary Tyler Moore. Estimate $1,000-2,000
    Doyle
    The Collection of Mary Tyler Moore
    June 4, 2025
    DOYLE: Three Original Bill Hargate Costume Designs for The Mary Tyler Moore Hour. Estimate $600-800
    DOYLE: The famous Bonnie and Clyde "Wanted" broadside. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE: Ticket to the Final Episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show Estimate $400-600
  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR

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