Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - April - 2009 Issue

Literature, Film and Arts from Waverly Books

List 163 from Waverly Books.

List 163 from Waverly Books.


By Michael Stillman

From Waverly Books of Santa Monica we have received their latest collection, List 163. Waverly's catalogues reflect their Southern California location. They carry much in the way of literature and poetry, but also many items that are film related, including books that were made into films, scripts, and various film-related ephemeral items. Additionally, other arts, such as music and photography, find a recurring place in Waverly catalogues. Here are some samples from their latest offerings.

Item 60 includes the first appearance of one of the most noted of mystery novels, Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man. The book's protagonists, private detectives Nick and Nora Charles, would become well-known characters through a series of Thin Man movies and a television series starring Peter Lawford. However, there was only this one novel. Its first appearance was in this anthology, Six Redbook Novels. Published in 1933, it contains six mystery novels, including Agatha Christie's The Boomerang Clue. The compilation was put together for subscribers of Redbook Magazine. The novel was published separately the following year, to be quickly followed by the first of the series of Thin Man movies. Priced at $300.

At the height of the Cold War, in 1959, a famous American visited Moscow, shaking up the Communist bosses. No, we are not talking about Richard Nixon's famous trip or his "Kitchen Debate" with Khrushchev. This was a visit by that precocious American child Eloise. She was always more than any commissar could handle. Item 25 is a first edition of Kay Thompson's Eloise in Moscow, with illustrations, naturally, by Hilary Knight. $150.

Item 106 is a book of photography by Ansel Adams. Adams was America's preeminent western photographer, specializing in black and white prints, and with his favorite subject being Yosemite. So, what could be better than a copy of his 1979 work Yosemite and the Range of Light? Here is what could be even better - a signed copy. $1,000.

Here is another photography book, but this photographer is better known for his politics than his prints. Item 109 is Barry Goldwater and the Southwest, published in 1976. This is copy #21 of 100 in a leather binding, and carries an inscription from the 1964 Republican presidential candidate along with those of the editors and staff. What's more, the book contains a forward from the aforementioned Ansel Adams. We don't know whether Adams liked Goldwater's politics, but he evidently liked his photographs. $450.

Now for one more book of photographs, and this one is also most impressive: Ed Ruscha: Then & Now, Hollywood Boulevard 1973-2004. This is a 2005 first edition of Ruscha's photographs. Ruscha had photographed Hollywood Boulevard in 1973, and went back to retake the same locations in 2004. The new pictures are juxtaposed with the older ones to show the progress, or whatever you might call the changes that have taken place on this famous street. Item 115. $175.

Here is an unusual item: The Marx Brothers. It is not a book, nor is it some sort of video of their classic work. Rather, it is a boxed set of four LP records. It includes four hours of humor taken from their radio shows. Now that vinyl is making a comeback, someone may once again have a record player with which to relive these old memories. Item 93. $200.

Item 97 is the book that comes up year after year at the top of BookFinder's Top 10 of the most sought after old books: Sex, by Madonna. Published in 1992, this collection of erotic-come-weird photographs includes the CD of the pop icon's music. This book is sought after because it is hard to find. Waverly has found you a copy. $300.

Waverly Books may be reached at 310-393-4593 or waverlybks@aol.com. Their website is www.waverlybooks.com.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Leland Little, May 21: Signed Artist Proof of the Monumental G.O.A.T.: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali.
    Leland Little, May 21: Assorted Rare Publications Related to H.P. Lovecraft, Including The Recluse Signed by Vincent Starrett.
    Leland Little, May 21: Two Issues of The Vagrant, Including the First Appearance of H.P. Lovecraft's "Dagon" in Number Eleven.
    Leland Little, May 21: Rare First Printing of Anne of Green Gables, With ALS from the Author.
    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, In First Issue Jacket.
    Leland Little, May 21: The Limited Paumanok Edition of The Complete Writings of Walt Whitman.
    Leland Little, May 21: Beautifully Bound Limited Flaubert Edition of The Works of Guy de Maupassant.
    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Bonaparte's Celebrated American Ornithology, With Spectacular Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Rare Complete Set of Jardine's The Naturalist's Library, With Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: Invitation to the Lincoln-Johnson National Inaugural Ball, March 4th, 1865.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Scarce Inscribed First Edition of James Baldwin's Nobody Knows My Name.
    Leland Little, May 21: Picasso's Le Goût du Bonheur, Limited Edition.
  • 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
  • Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Pietro Aquila, Psyche and Proserpina,1690. Starting price 140€
    Gonnelli: Jacques Gamelin, Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris, 1779. Starting price 300€
    Gonnelli: Giorgio Ghisi, The final Judgement, 1680. Starting price 480€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli Goya y Lucientes Francisco, Los Proverbios.1877. Starting price 1000 €
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    Gonnelli: Enea Vico, Leda and the Swan,1542. Starting price 140€
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    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Andrea Del Sarto [school of], San Giovanni Battista, 1570. Starting price 25000€
    Gonnelli: Carlo Maratta, Virgin Mary and Jesus, 1660. Starting Price 1200€
    Gonnelli: Louis Brion de La Tour, Sphére de Copernic Sphere de Ptolemée / Le Systême de Ptolemée. Le Systême de Ticho-Brahe…, 1766. Starting price 180€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Marc’Antonio Dal Re, Ville di Delizia o Siano Palaggi Camparecci nello Stato di Milano Divise in Sei Tomi Con espressevi le Piante…, Tomo Primo, 1726. Starting price 7000€
    Gonnelli: Katsushika Hokusai, Bird on a branch, 1843. Starting price 100€
  • 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
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    Ketterer, May 26: Brassaï, Transmutations, 1967. Est: €6,000

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