Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - January - 2010 Issue

A Winter Miscellany from Michael Thompson Books

A Winter Miscellany from Michael Thompson Books.

A Winter Miscellany from Michael Thompson Books.


By Michael Stillman

Michael Thompson Books has released a Winter Miscellany Consisting of 100 or So Books [Editor's note: 101], Mostly Recent Acquisitions, including a large selection of titles on printing history and bibliography. It's always easier for a reviewer when the title describes the catalogue, as it allows us to proceed directly to the books inside.

Item 28 is The Tides and Kindred Phenomena in the Solar System by George Howard Darwin. Darwin, like his grandfather and father, as well as his son, was a notable scientist. Not as notable as his father, Charles, who first promulgated the theory of evolution, but George was nonetheless an important astronomer of his time. In this 1898 book, he expounds on his theories about tides. This copy once belonged to, and bears the signature of, W.H. Bragg, who won a Nobel Prize in 1915 for an analysis of crystal structure by x-rays. Priced at $650.

From science of the very large, we go to science of the very small. Item 95 is the bound volume of the issues of the magazine Nature for 1953. This year's issues were significant, for it was in the April 25 issue that James Watson and Francis Crick announced their discovery of the structure of DNA, generally considered the most important biological advance of the 20th century. At the time, they noted, "it has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material." Indeed, just five weeks later, in the May 30 issue, they discussed the genetic implications in greater detail. Offprints of their articles were issued shortly thereafter, but the articles in Nature were the first printings of their discoveries. $3,250.

Item 35 is the last of a long and magnificent run. In 1919, Edwin and Robert Grabhorn moved from Indianapolis to San Francisco, where they set up shop as printers. Within a few years, they had become noted as the greatest fine press printers in the West, perhaps the entire country. For over four decades, they continued to print many of the most collectible fine press items ever published. However, in 1965, Edwin now 76 years old, Robert 65, they decided to call it quits. They closed down their shop, though Robert and much of their stock joined former employee Andrew Hoyem at what would become Arion Press. Item 35 is Alamos: A Philosophy of Living. This book, written Richard J. Elkus, contains 24 black and white photographs of Alamos, Mexico, taken by the author. Published in 1965, in a run of 487 copies, it was the last major work published by the Grabhorn Press. $450.

Item 34 is a fraud on a fraud. The title is Brother and Sister Sonnets, by George Eliot, something of a fraud him/herself ("George Eliot" was the penname of the woman writer Marian Evans Lewes). The book has a stated publication place of London (likely false) and a date of 1869 (certainly false). One of the tricks of the noted forger, Thomas Wise, was to take a work first published in a collection and create a separate edition with a date earlier than that of the compilation. Voila. He now had a "true" first edition, one previously unknown, and possessed by no one other than Wise. This item was evidently a forgery of the Wise forgery, as it differs in certain respects to the copies Wise created. $850.

Item 98 is the biography of a biographer, and hopefully a bit more accurate than the biographer was wont to write. It is Mason Locke Weems. His Works and Ways, by Paul Leicester Ford, published in three volumes in 1929. Weems was ordained a clergyman, hence he became popularly known as "Parson Weems," though he spent most of his career as a printer and author. Weems wrote biographies of several of America's early leaders, but the one he is most remembered for is that of George Washington. Weems was quite adoring of his subjects, so much so that he was given to flattery, exaggeration, and perhaps downright fabrication. The Weems story that has been told down through the ages is that of George Washington and the cherry tree. Weems claimed an old, distant relative relayed the story to him about how the six-year-old Washington, with a new hatchet in hand, had tried it out on a prized cherry tree. When his father asked young George if he was the perpetrator (to use some modern terminology), Washington replied, "I can't tell a lie," and then 'fessed up to the deed. His father, so taken up by his son's honesty, could only express his pride in his son's behavior. There is no other evidence to suggest such an event ever took place, and it seems unlikely, as based on his father's response, George would likely have chopped down every tree on their property. Author Ford was murdered by his brother in 1902, with this work finally being completed by his sister 27 years later. $450.

Michael Thompson Books may be reached at 323-658-1901 or mrtbooksla@pacbell.net. Their website is www.mrtbooksla.com.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby's
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    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
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    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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    Rare Autograph and Documents
    Ending May 29th, 2025
    One of a Kind Auctions, May 29: George Washington Three Language Ship's Paper West Indies Trade Voyage.
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    One of a Kind Auctions, May 29: Walt Disney Autograph over 7 inches in Length.
  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    29th May 2025
    Forum, May 29: Darwin (Charles). On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, first edition, John Murray, 1859. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Forum, May 29: Astronomy.- Apianus (Petrus). Cosmographicus Liber a Petro Apiano Mathematico Studiose Collectus., first edition, Landshut, 1524. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum, May 29: Bound for Jean Grolier.- Negri Stefano. Stephani Nigri Elegantissime è Graeco authorum subditorum translationes, uidelicet., first edition, first issue, Milan, 1521. £15,000 to £20,000.
    Forum, May 29: Gill (Eric). Eve, number 1 of 50, hand-coloured wood-engraving, signed at foot in pencil, [1926]. £6,000 to £8,000.
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    Forum, May 29: America.- Warre (Capt. Henry James). Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory, first edition, Dickinson & Co., 1848. £25,000 to £35,000.
    Forum, May 29: Wodehouse (P.G.) Psmith USA, autograph manuscript of his novel "Psmith Journalist", signed and dated at end and dated "11 November 1909, Hotel Earle, 103 Waverley Place". £15,000 to £20,000.
    Forum, May 29: Women.- Wollstonecraft (Mary). A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, first edition, uncut in original boards, 1792. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, May 29: Mathematics.- Whitehead (Alfred North) and Bertrand Russell. Principia Mathematica, 3 vol., first editions, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1910-13. £20,000 to £30,000.
  • 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
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    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
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    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
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    DOYLE: Ticket to the Final Episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show Estimate $400-600

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