Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - June - 2008 Issue

Literature from Shapero Rare Books

Shaperospring

Literature from Bernard J. Shapero Rare Books.


By Michael Stillman

Bernard J. Shapero Rare Books has issued a Spring List 2008 of Literature. Included is a collection of fifty literary classics in first or other special editions. With the exception of a Gulliver's Travels from the 18th century, these books range from the early 19th to the late 20th century. There will be few if any authors you don't recognize, this being a catalogue of important and collectible writers. Here are some examples.

The aforementioned book about Gulliver's travels, officially Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, remains one of the most popular travel books ever. Of course, these travels never took place, nor did Lemuel Gulliver even exist. This all came from the imagination, and wit, of author Jonathan Swift. The work was a parody of the travel books of the era, when various explorers would set out all over the world and come back with their tales of lands far away. Swift's were much farther away, and Gulliver reported back on lands of midgets and giants and all sorts of characters and fantastic places. Entertaining as it is, much of Swift's original wit is lost on most readers today as it poked fun at political issues of the day long since forgotten. Item 42. Published in 1726 (this is a first edition, second issue). Priced at £6,750 (or approximate equivalent of US $13,407).

Here is a major work with some fascinating Cold War intrigue behind it. Boris Pasternak wrote his epic Doctor Zhivago over many years in Soviet Russia. When it was finally ready for publication, it was rejected by local authorities as not being properly supportive of the state. There was little room for freedom of expression in the Soviet Union, but Pasternak gave a copy of his manuscript to Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli who took it back to Italy and had it published in Italian. The book became a great success, with much support from western governments who saw it as a propaganda victory during the height of Cold War tensions. The book was recognized as worthy of a Nobel Prize, but the rules for that award required the book be published in its original language. So, with some help from the CIA, this Russian edition was published under Feltrinelli's name (but not by him), undated, but in 1958. Item 32 is the Russian language edition. Priced at £1,250 (US $2,464).

Item 5 is a novel centered on the land. It is a story of changing times, prosperity and despair, in turn of the century China. Ultimately, the story is focused on the main character and his ties to The Good Earth. Pearl Buck's classic novel was published in 1931, and item 5 is a copy of the first edition, first issue. Buck won a Pulitzer Prize for the book and a Nobel for literature a few years later. £950 (US $1,873).

Item 1 is about a family that was more than tied to the good earth, they lived inside of it. Watership Down is the tale of some anthropomorphic rabbits, who flee their doomed warren to establish a new colony on Watership Down. There is much danger along the way to building their new home, and you quickly forget their harey nature amidst the human emotions and issues they experience. Offered is the first illustrated edition of this book by Richard Adams, one of a limited edition of 250 copies published in 1976 and signed by the author. £2,500 (US $4,927).

Rare Book Monthly

  • <center><b>Potter & Potter Auctions<br>Nobu Shirase and the Japanese Antarctic Expedition: the Collection of Chet Ross<br>October 12, 2023</b>
    <b>Potter & Potter, Oct. 12:</b> [BYRD]. VEER, Willard Van der and Joseph T. RUCKER, cinematographers. The 35mm motion picture Akeley camera that filmed the Academy Award-winning documentary “With Byrd at the South Pole”. $30,000 to $50,000.
    <b>Potter & Potter, Oct. 12:</b> [SHIRASE, Nobu, his copy]. RYUKEI, Yano. <i>Young Politicians of Thebes: Illustrious Tales of Statesmanship.</i> Tokyo(?), 1881-84. $15,000 to $20,000.
    <b>Potter & Potter, Oct. 12:</b> SHACKLETON, Ernest H. <i>The Antarctic Book.</i> Winter Quarters 1907-1909 [dummy copy of the supplement to: <i>The Heart of the Antarctic</i>]. London, 1909. $10,000 to $15,000.
    <b>Potter & Potter, Oct. 12:</b> [USS BEAR]. The original auxiliary deck wheel from the famed USS Bear, 1874-1933. “PROBABLY THE MOST FAMOUS SHIP IN THE HISTORY OF THE COAST GUARD” (USCG). $10,000 to $15,000.
    <b>Potter & Potter, Oct. 12:</b> HENSON, Matthew. <i>A Negro Explorer at the North Pole.</i> With a forward by Robert Peary. Introduction by Booker T. Washington. New York, [1912]. $3,000 to $4,000.
  • <center><b>Swann Auction Galleries View Our Record Breaking Results</b>
    <b>Swann:</b> Charles Monroe Schulz, <i>The Peanuts gang,</i> complete set of 13 drawings, ink, 1971. Sold June 15 — $50,000.
    <b>Swann:</b> Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Family Archive of Photographs & Letters. Sold June 1 — $60,000.
    <b>Swann:</b> Victor H. Green, <i>The Negro Motorist Green Book,</i> New York, 1949. Sold March 30 — $50,000.
    <b>Swann:</b> William Shakespeare, <i>King Lear; Othello;</i> [and] <i>Anthony & Cleopatra;</i> Extracted from the First Folio, London, 1623. Sold May 4— $185,000.
    <center><b>Swann Auction Galleries View Our Record Breaking Results</b>
    <b>Swann:</b> William Samuel Schwartz, <i>A Bridge in Baraboo, Wisconsin,</i> oil on canvas, circa 1938. Sold February 16 — $32,500.
    <b>Swann:</b> Lena Scott Harris, <i>Group of approximately 65 hand-colored botanical studies, all apparently California native plants,</i> hand-colored silver prints, circa 1930s. Sold February 23 — $37,500.
    <b>Swann:</b> Suzanne Jackson, <i>Always Something To Look For,</i> acrylic & pencil on linen canvas, circa 1974. Sold April 6 — $87,500.
    <b>Swann:</b> Gustav Klimt, <i>Das Werk von Gustav Klimt,</i> complete with 50 printed collotype plates, Vienna & Leipzig, 1918. Sold June 15 — $68,750.
  • <b><center>Sotheby’s<br>Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library<br>Magnificent Books and Bindings<br>11 October 2023</b>
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 11:</b> Francesco Colonna, Hypnerotomachie, Paris, 1546, Parisian calf by Wotton Binder C for Marcus Fugger. $300,000 to $400,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 11:</b> Leonardo da Vinci, Trattato della pittura, manuscript on paper, [Rome, ca. 1638–1641], a very fine pre-publication manuscript. $250,000 to $300,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 11:</b> Paradis, Ung petit traicte de Alkimie, [Paris, before 1540], contemporary morocco by the Pecking Crow binder for Anne de Montmorency. $300,000 to $350,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 11:</b> Capocaccia, Giovanni Battista, A wax relief portrait of Pius V, in a red morocco book-form box by the Vatican bindery, Rome, 1566–1568. $250,000 to $300,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 11:</b> Serlio, Il terzo libro; Regole generali, Venice, 1540, both printed on blue paper and bound together by the Cupid's Bow Binder. $400,000 to $500,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 11:</b> Tiraboschi, Carmina, manuscript on vellum, [Padua, c. 1471], the earliest surviving plaquette binding. $280,000 to $350,000.
    <b><center>Sotheby’s<br>Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library<br>The Aldine Collection A–C<br>12 October 2023</b>
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 12:</b> Anthologia graeca, Venice, Aldus, 1503, printed on vellum, Masterman Sykes-Syston Park copy. $150,000 to $200,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 12:</b> Castiglione, Il libro del cortegiano, Venice, Aldus, 1528, contemporary Italian morocco gilt, Accolti-Landau copy. $200,000 to $300,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 12:</b> Castiglione, Il libro del cortegiano, Venice, Aldus, 1545, contemporary morocco for Thomas Mahieu, Chatsworth copy. $200,000 to $300,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 12:</b> Cicero, Epistolae familiares, Venice, Aldus, 1502, printed on vellum, illuminated, Renouard-Vernon-Uzielli copy. $200,000 to $300,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 12:</b> Colonna, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, Venice, Aldus, 1499, Gomar Estienne binding for Jean Grolier, Spencer copy. $400,000 to $600,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 12:</b> Crinito, Libri de poetis Latinis, Florence, Giunta, 1505, Cupid's Bow Binder for Grolier, Paris d'Illins-Wodhull copy. $250,000 to $300,000.

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