We recently received Catalog 170 of "new arrivals" from Between The Covers Rare Books. You will find a variety of material in this catalogue that makes it hard to characterize. However, the table of contents helps describe what is offered by breaking it into sections:  Literature and Miscellaneous Non-Fiction; Children's Books; Music; Mystery and Detective Fiction; Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror; and Sports. Each item comes with both a description and four-color photograph. These catalogues are fun to read, the material most intriguing. Here are some samples.

 

It is hard to think of this title without picturing Audrey Hepburn, though she had nothing to do with the book. Item 19 is a first edition of Breakfast at Tiffany's, actually a novella combined with three short stories that appeared in 1958 under the "Tiffany's" name. It is signed by the author, a personality as distinct as Hepburn's, though for other reasons - Truman Capote. The novella would become the very successful movie of the same name with Hepburn starring as the lead character. Priced at $7,500.

 

Item 62 is a Kennedy family book that manages to turn a dictionary into a humorous title. It is a copy of the 1966 edition of The Random House Dictionary of the English Language. It is inscribed in that year by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to then New York Senator Robert Kennedy as follows:  "To Bobby who has never been at a loss for words, with best wishes on his birthday." This would have been gentle humor as McNamara was long a close ally of the Kennedys. Incidentally, this was the first book ever totally composed on a computer. $4,500.

 

Item 157 is a poignant reminder of the first (of many) Kennedy family tragedies, which leads us to wonder what might have been. It is a copy of a 1924 edition of Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It contains the bookplate of Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., and has the juvenile signature, "Joe Kennedy." Joe Kennedy, Jr., was the first son of Joseph and Rose Kennedy, older brother of three of America's most noted political figures of the 20th century, John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Edward Kennedy. His father, industrialist Joseph Kennedy, Sr., was determined to have his son one day be President, and young Joe was being groomed for the role. All evidence suggests he was well suited for a leadership role even among those in such a high-powered family. Unfortunately, Joe, Jr., was killed in an airplane explosion during World War II, and his father's ambitions to have a presidential son were transferred to Joe's younger brother, John F. Kennedy. Naturally, signatures of young Joe Kennedy are very uncommon. $8,500.

Andy Warhol's art brings many millions of dollars today, but here is a chance to pick up ten of the artist's signatures for a very small percentage of that sum. Item 137 is a set of volume 1, number 3, of Aspen:  The Magazine in a Box. Published in 1966, this "magazine" was an assortment of pieces held within a box. There's a tabloid newspaper, various ephemeral printed pieces, and a flexi-disk recording of the song Loop, by the Velvet Underground. It was the first commercially available recording by this enormously influential rock band. Among the contributors to this "magazine," besides Warhol and the Underground, were Willem de Kooning, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, and Timothy Leary. Ten of the pieces, including the recording, are signed by Warhol. $22,500.