Holiday Gifts
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 1 "ONE OF THE MOST BRILLIANT TREATISES ON WAR THAT HAS EVER BEEN WRITTEN" 1. CHURCHILL, Winston. The World Crisis. London: Thornton Butterworth, (1923-31). Six volumes. Octavo, original navy cloth. $6000 First English editions of Churchill’s important history of World War I. “Not only the best account of the most tremendous convulsion the world has ever seen, but one of the most brilliant treatises on war that has ever been written” (Spectator). During WWI, Churchill served variously as the head of the British Navy, Minister for Munitions, and as a foot soldier in the trenches. The World Crisis offers his first-hand account of the British government’s massive efforts to win the war, and depicts the political events that would serve as object lessons for Churchill when WWII broke out. Illustrated with numerous maps (many folding), charts, facsimiles, photographs, and a large folding colored map at rear of last volume. Preceded by the American editions, although “the English is more aesthetically desirable… equipped with shoulder notes on each page which summarize the subject of that page… It is more popular among collectors who wish to own only one edition” (Langworth, 108). Each volume was issued separately. Volume I with errata slips at first Contents leaf and p. 338; with errata slips in Volumes III and IV as called for. Without scarce dust jackets. Bookseller label in each volume; owner signature in Volume VI. A few volumes with sparse foxing to fore-edges, offsetting to endpapers; some light rubbing to boards, gilt bright. A clean, near-fine set in the original cloth.
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 "NEVER IN THE FIELD OF HUMAN CONFLICT WAS SO MUCH OWED BY SO MANY TO SO FEW" 2. CHURCHILL, Winston. A Speech by The Prime Minister The Right Honourable Winston Churchill in the House of Commons, August 20th, 1940. [London: Baynard, 1940]. Octavo, original gray wrappers printed in maroon; pp. 16. Housed in a custom cloth clamshell box. $2200 First edition of Churchill’s famous 1940 address to the House of Commons at the height of the Second World War, one of history’s most stirring and influential speeches. “Churchill’s historic exhortations are equal [to the Gettysburg address] in their ringing assertion of democracy confronting the seemingly irresistible forces of tyranny… At the time when Great Britain stood alone against the weight of Nazi and Fascist aggression… the gap between destruction and survival seemed a very narrow one. In it stood nothing much but the resolution of the islanders and the indomitable figure of their Prime Minister” (PMM 424). Fine condition. 2
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 3 RICKEYS, DAISIES, SLINGS, SHRUBS, SMASHES, FIZZES, JULEPS: LONDON FIRST EDITION OF THE SAVOY COCKTAIL BOOK 3. CRADDOCK, Harry. The Savoy Cocktail Book. London: Constable, 1930. Octavo, original half black cloth, Art Deco pictorial boards, pictorial endpapers. $2100 First trade edition, second printing of this quintessential book of cocktail recipes, with lively and colorful Art Deco illustrations by Gilbert Rumbold and bold Art Deco binding. Compiled by “the king of cocktail shakers,” this witty, informative, and eminently useful book on how to make and mix drinks contains humorous anecdotes on the origin of the cocktail and its purpose (“for the solace of man”), as well as “an elucidation of the Manners and Customs of people of quality in a period of some equality.” In 1926, Harry Craddock fled prohibition in the United States to become Head Barman at the London Savoy. He was the inventor of the “Old Fashioned.” His book includes a chapter on “Cocktails Suitable for a Prohibition Country” and an entertaining autobiographical essay on wines by Colette. Second printing, with no page number on the title page and with the Bacardi Cocktail printed on page 25 rather than on an inserted slip. Interior fine, light rubbing to decorative boards. An extremely good copy.
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 4 “APRIL IS THE CRUELLEST MONTH…”: THE MOST IMPORTANT POETIC WORK OF THE 20TH CENTURY—FIRST ISSUE OF ELIOT’S THE WASTE LAND 4. ELIOT, T.S. The Waste Land. New York: Boni and Liveright, 1922. Octavo, original flexible black cloth gilt. Housed in a custom chemise and clamshell box. $7500 First edition, first issue, of this undisputed landmark of modern poetry, number 431 of only 1000 copies and one of the first 500 copies printed, in the earliest binding. Arguably the most important poetic work of the 20th century and certainly among its most inescapably influential, The Waste Land “came as a profound shock… Within less than a decade, [it] had attained a kind of eminence from which it has never been dislodged” (Ackroyd, 127-28). It “enchanted and devastated a whole generation” (Edmund Wilson). “Of The Waste Land I shall say nothing but that we should read it every April. It is the breviary of post-war disillusion… hard to listen to without tears… ‘Waste Land is, I think, the justification of the modern experiment since 1900’ (Pound)” (Connolly, 30b). The first edition consisted of 1000 copies: approximately the first 500 copies were bound in flexible black cloth; later copies were bound in stiff black cloth. Early in the printing a letter dropped out of the text (the “a” in “mountain” on page 41, line 339). This copy has the earliest binding and the letter “a” has been dropped, suggesting it was printed later in those first 500 copies. With the copy number on the limitation page stamped in 5-mm-high type. Without scarce original glassine and dust jacket. Interior fine, cloth remarkably unworn with only mild toning to spine, a few small faint spots to rear panel. A near-fine copy.
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 5 “INSIGHT SUCH AS THIS FALLS TO ONE’S LOT BUT ONCE IN A LIFETIME”: SCARCE FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF FREUD’S MASTERPIECE 5. FREUD, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams. Authorised Translation of Third Edition with Introduction by A.A. Brill. New York: Macmillan, 1913. Octavo, original blue cloth gilt. $4800 First edition in English of arguably the greatest book in the history of psychoanalysis. “Unquestionably Freud’s greatest single work. It contains all the basic components of psychoanalytic theory and practice: the erotic nature of dreams, the ‘Oedipus complex,’ the libido and the rest; all related to the background of the ‘unconscious,’ later to be called the ‘sub-conscious” (PMM 389). First published in German in 1899 (postdated on the title page as 1900, to mark the book’s epochal significance), Die Traumdeutung has “ranked Freud with Darwin and Marx… This book remained for Freud his greatest achievement.” He later wrote that it contains “’the most valuable of all the discoveries it has been my good fortune to make. Insight such as this falls to one’s lot but once in a lifetime” (Grolier 87). Here “Freud gave an unprecedented precision and force to the idea of the essential similarities of normal and abnormal behavior, opening up the door to the irrational that had been closed to Western psychology since the time of Locke… Its modest reception belied the extraordinary impact it would come to have on 20th-century thought” (Norman-Stanford 33). First issue, with integral title page. Without the rare errata slip tipped in opposite page [1]. There were both English and American editions issued in 1913, using the same sheets, with no clear priority. As issued without dust jacket. Small bookseller ticket. Interior fresh, with only modest discoloration to free endpapers; original cloth with mild wear to spine ends and rear panel. An extremely good copy.
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 6 "ONE OF THE MOST VALUABLE WRITINGS BY A MILITARY COMMANDER IN HISTORY" 6. GRANT, Ulysses S. Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant. New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885-86. Two volumes. Octavo, publisher’s full tan sheep, raised bands, red and navy morocco spine labels, marbled endpapers and edges. $3000 First edition of the memoirs of one of the most recognized figures in American military history, illustrated with portrait frontispieces, numerous steel engravings, facsimiles and 43 maps, a handsome copy in deluxe publisher’s full sheep. After an ineffectual term as president, ruined by bankruptcy and dying of throat cancer, Grant agreed to publish his memoirs to provide a measure of economic security for his family. Mark Twain agreed to serve as the publisher. Struggling to dictate his notes to a stenographer, Grant finished his memoirs shortly before his death in the summer of 1885. “It seemed to Twain, sitting quietly near him in his bedroom at Sixtieth Street, that Grant had fully regained the stature of a hero” (Kaplan, 273). “No Union list of personal narratives could possibly begin without the story of the victorious general. A truly remarkable work” (New York Times). “Grant’s memoirs comprise one of the most valuable writings by a military commander in history” (Eicher 492). Interior fine, original sheep binding unusually nice with minor expert repairs to some joints and extremities.
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 7 MAGNIFICENT SIGNED LIMITED BEN SHAHN LARGE FOLIO HAGGADAH, WITH ORIGINAL COLOR LITHOGRAPH SIGNED BY SHAHN 7. SHAHN, Ben. Haggadah for Passover. Paris: Trianon Press, (1966). Large folio (13 by 17 inches), unsewn as issued, original glassine wrappers, original clasped parchment box. $6500 Beautiful large limited folio Passover Haggadah, number 175 of only 228 copies (out of a total edition of 292) on Arches Vergé paper, illustrated by Ben Shahn with 21 color pictorial borders and line drawings and an additional beautiful double-page color lithograph also signed by him. Lithuanian-born graphic artist Ben Shahn executed many of the illustrations for this Haggadah around 1930, while working on a pictorial representation of the Dreyfus case and conceiving his celebrated series of paintings of the Sacco and Vanzetti trial. Like those for his secular works, Shahn’s Haggadah illustrations highlight the struggle against oppression, a theme central to the story of Passover. In 1965 Shahn reproduced these Passover drawings, which had already been acquired by the Jewish Museum, incorporating them into this extraordinary Haggadah. Shahn’s yearlong visit to Djerba, off the Tunisian coast, and his masterful calligraphy lend this Haggadah an oriental feel. Text in Hebrew and English. Only very mild discoloration to original box. A beautiful production in fine condition.
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 8 "FOR THEN WE WOULD KNOW THE MIND OF GOD": FIRST EDITION OF A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME 8. HAWKING, Stephen. A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. Toronto, New York, London, Sydney, Auckland: Bantam Books, 1988. Octavo, original half black cloth, original dust jacket. $1900 First edition, first Canadian issue, issued simultaneously with the New York and London issues, of Hawking’s popular treatment of quantum physics. Although his editor cautioned Hawking that every equation included in the text would cut the book’s readership in half, this “jaunty overview of key cosmological ideas, past and present—including multidimensional space, the inflationary universe and the cosmic fates that may befall us” (New York Times) quickly established itself as a landmark of modern popular science writing. “If all physicists could explain their work as well as Stephen Hawking explained black holes in his 1988 bestseller… science writers would have to find other work” (Andrew Grant). Hawking withdrew the first issue of the book and had it destroyed due to errors, including the absence of the Table of Contents and dedication; the endpapers were changed to white and the dust jacket was redesigned to be a darker blue for the second issue. An unknown but very small number of first-issue copies, as here, have survived, such as those distributed for advance review. Issued the same year in London and New York by Bantam—”published simultaneously in the United States and Canada” stated on copyright page—no priority established. A fine copy.
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 "A WATERSHED NOT ONLY IN HUGHES' CAREER BUT IN BRITISH POETRY" 9. HUGHES, Ted. The Hawk in the Rain. London: Faber and Faber, (1957). Slim octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket. $1100 First edition of Hughes first book, dedicated in print to his wife, poet Sylvia Plath. Hawk in the Rain “remains one of Hughes’ most important, and most accomplished, collections… These were the poems that established his reputation as a poet of elemental sensibilities whose stressed, alliterative cadences conjured a primeval world of strength and struggle… a watershed not only in Hughes’ career, but in British poetry… Sylvia Plath’s heady description of the book perhaps best captures the excitement with which she and Hughes embarked upon a campaign to create a new kind of modern poetry. It is, she wrote, a book ‘at which to stare awestruck, read in wild reverence’ [1957 letter]” (Heather Clark, Ted Hughes Society). When Plath learned of the New York Poetry Centre’s First Publication Award, to be judged by Marianne Moore, Stephen Spender and W.H. Auden, she “typed up 40 of Hughes’ poems and sent them off under the title The Hawk in the Rain. In the context of the poetry being written in 1957, these first poems of Hughes’ are truly remarkable” (Feinstein, Ted Hughes, 68-9). When Hawk in the Rain won first prize, “Marianne Moore wrote: ‘Hughes’ talent is unmistakable’” and the work subsequently won the 1960 Somerset Maugham Award (ODNB). Hughes became Britain’s Poet Laureate in 1984, holding that honor until his death in 2009. First edition published September 13, 1957, precedes the first American edition officially issued September 18, 1957. A University of California copy has been found with a penciled “8/27/57” date, suggesting “it is possible that bound copies were in circulation by this time” (Sagor & Tabor A1b). “The ordering of the poems differs between the U.S. (Harper) and Faber editions” (Keegan, ed., Collected Poems, 1241). Without Poetry Book Society bellyband. Only tiny closed tears to seams of dust jacket. A beautiful copy in about-fine condition. 9
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 THE ASCENT OF EVEREST, SIGNED BY SIR EDMUND HILLARY AND FELLOW "EVERESTERS" GEORGE BAND AND GEORGE LOWE 10. (HILLARY, Edmund, et al.) HUNT, John. The Ascent of Everest. WITH: Service of Thanksgiving for the Life of Sir Edmund Hillary. (London): Hodder and Stoughton, (1953). (London: Barnard and Westwood), Wednesday, 2nd April, 2008. Together, two volumes. Octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket. Folio (8-1/2 by 11-1/2 inches), original printed card wrappers, pp. 12. $4500 First edition, with eight color photographic plates, 48 half-tone plates and a number of in-text illustrations after pen-and-ink sketches, signed on the front free endpaper by Sir Edmund Hillary and fellow Everest climbers George Band and George Lowe. Together with the printed program for Edmund Hillary’s 2008 memorial service held at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, additionally signed on the front cover by Everesters George Lowe, George Band, Mike Westmacott and Alfred Gregory—the last surviving members of the famed 1953 expedition at the time. The 1953 British Expedition to Mount Everest was the eighth in 30 years to attempt Everest. On May 29th, 1953 Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay at last stood at the summit; it was a culminating moment in mountaineering history, and one of the great achievements of human stamina and will. The Ascent of Everest was written in one month by Sir John Hunt, the leader of the expedition, in order to satisfy the immediate demand around the world for the story of the British team’s success. Chapter 16 is Sir Edmund Hillary’s stirring account of the final part of the climb, and the appendices are by members of the expedition. At 23, George Christopher Band (he has signed this copy “GC Band”) was the youngest climber on the expedition. New Zealand-born climber George Lowe was the last surviving member of the expedition. Alfred Gregory, who has signed the memorial program, was in charge of the stills photography on the expedition, and Michael Westmacott, who has also signed the program, was a prominent British mountaineer. At the time of Hillary’s memorial service in 2008, Lowe, Band, Gregory and Westmacott were the last surviving members of that famed 1953 expedition. Book with owner ink signature, dated Christmas of the year of publication, on the front free endpaper with the three mountaineers’ signatures. Program with label of George and Mary Lowe’s foundation The Himalayan Trust, founded by Hillary in the 1960s to improve the health, education and general well-being of people living in the Solukhumbu District. Presumably this copy was originally signed and sold to raise money for that cause. Program with faint smudge to front wrapper, about-fine. Book and dust jacket near-fine, with slightly toned spine and light edge-wear to jacket. A desirable multiply signed copy, with scarce memorial service program. 10
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 11 "NEVER IN AMERICAN HISTORY HAD A GROUP SEIZED THE STREETS, THE SQUARES, THE SACROSANCT BUSINESS THOROUGHFARES AND THE MARBLED HALL OF GOVERNMENT TO PROTEST AND PROCLAIM THE UNENDURABILITY OF THEIR OPPRESSION" 11. KING Jr., Martin Luther. Why We Can’t Wait. New York, Evanston, and London: Harper & Row, 1964. Octavo, original half gilt-stamped black cloth, original dust jacket. $1250 First edition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s eloquent and impassioned defense of what he deemed “the Negro revolution.” Published the same year Martin Luther King, Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize, Why We Can’t Wait is his powerful response to the assassination of President Kennedy as well as his attempt to “place the events of 1963 in historical perspective, relating the Negro’s own long search for freedom since the Emancipation Proclamation” (Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound, 304). Includes King’s famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” published here in full for the first time. With “First Edition” and “D-O” on copyright page: indicating publication in April 1964. Illustrated with eight pages of black-and-white photogravures. Book fine, bright dust jacket nearly so. An excellent copy.
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 "AN HONORABLE PLACE IN ANY LIBRARY OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS," IN EXQUISITE PICTORIAL BINDINGS BY RIVIERE AND SON 12. KIPLING, Rudyard. The Jungle Book. WITH: The Second Jungle Book. London and New York: Macmillan, 1894-95. Two volumes. Octavo, 20th-century full blue morocco, elaborately gilt spines and boards, with colored morocco onlays, watered silk endpapers, all edges gilt, original cloth bound in rear; housed in a custom solander box. $9000 First editions of Kipling’s classic Jungle Books, “replete with adventure and excitement,” beautifully bound by Riviere & Son in elaborately gilt morocco with pictorial onlays on all four boards, with original cloth bound in. “Among the 15 stories in [these volumes] are some of Kipling’s most memorable narratives” (Abraham, 36). “The child who has never run with Mowgli’s wolf pack, or stood with Parnesius and Pertinax to defend the Northern Wall… has missed something that he will not get from any other writer” (Carpenter & Prichard, 297). Illustrated largely by W.H. Drake and Kipling’s father, J. Lockwood Kipling, “this most desirable pair… will always fill an honorable place in any library of children’s books” (Quayle 87). First edition of Jungle Book containing the imprint “R. & R. Clark” that appears in the “first copies… [of] the first print run… in later printings it is ‘R. & R. Clark Ltd.” (Richards A76); with numerous in-text and 20 full-page illustrations including frontispiece. First English edition of Second Jungle Book issued only three days after the American edition, containing numerous in-text illustrations, decorative initials and head- and tailpieces: with first edition imprint “R. & R. Clark, Limited” (238), rear advertisement leaf. A beautiful pair of volumes with expertly repaired joints. About-fine condition. 12
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 13 "THE MYSTIC CHORDS OF MEMORY, STRETCHING FROM EVERY BATTLEFIELD, AND PATRIOT GRAVE, TO EVERY LIVING HEART AND HEARTHSTONE": LINCOLN'S FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 1861 13. LINCOLN, Abraham. Inaugural Address of the President of the United States on the Fourth of March, 1861. Special Session. Senate. Executive Document No. 1. [Washington: Government Printing Office], March 8, 1861. Slim octavo, disbound; pp. 10. Housed in a custom chemise and clamshell box. $8800 Rare second printing of Lincoln’s important first inaugural address, printed by order of the Senate four days after its delivery. On the morning of March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was escorted with little fanfare to his inauguration. Anticipating violence, General Winfield Scott had stationed riflemen on housetops along the parade route, as well as platoons and cavalry in the streets. On the platform erected at the Capitol’s east portico, “Lincoln put on a pair of steel-bowed spectacles and began reading his inaugural address in a clear, high-pitched voice that carried well out to the crowd of 25,000. The address was a document of inspired statesmanship. He reminded the South of his pledge not to interfere with slavery, but he firmly rejected secession—the Union was ‘unbroken.’ Finally he issued a grave warning [undiluted by his advisors, who recommended that Lincoln soften his martial tone]: ‘In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict, without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it.’ Abraham Lincoln was resolved to be President of the whole Union” (Bruce Catton). The address contains some of Lincoln’s most famous words: “The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” A fine copy.
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 DELUXE SIGNED LIMITED FIRST EDITION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN: THE WAR YEARS, ONE OF ONLY 525 COPIES SIGNED BY CARL SANDBURG 14. (LINCOLN, Abraham) SANDBURG, Carl. Abraham Lincoln: The War Years. New York: Harcourt, Brace, (1939). Four volumes. Octavo, original brown cloth, Lincoln’s signature gilt-stamped on front covers, dark brown morocco spine labels, top edges gilt, uncut and unopened, original slipcase. $4200 Scarce and desirable presentation copy of the deluxe signed limited first edition of Sandburg’s four-volume biography covering Lincoln’s Civil War presidency, number 465 of only 525 large-paper sets numbered and signed by Sandburg, illustrated with 426 photographic halftones and 244 additional cuts of cartoons, letters, and documents, in the scarce original slipcase. This copy additionally inscribed at length by Sandburg on the front free endpaper of Volume I: “Meyer Kestnbaum, who knows people and human designs in the weaving and definitely will not get lost in this long and winding narrative by the herein-after signed—with affectionate regard. Carl Sandburg, Chicago, 1948.” Sandburg’s monumental six-volume life of Lincoln, which concludes with The War Years, began with two-volume Prairie Years (issued separately in 1926). Sandburg grew up in the Knox County neighborhoods with which Lincoln was familiar. The poet once wrote: “For 30 years and more I have planned to make a certain portrait of Abraham Lincoln. It would sketch the country lawyer and prairie politician who was intimate with the settlers of the Knox County neighborhoods where I grew up as a boy, and where I heard the talk of men and women who had eaten with Lincoln, given him a bed overnight, heard his jokes and lingo, remembered his silences and his mobile face… Of all the sources from which men are to gather impressions of the personality of Lincoln, the foremost singly important one is the collection of his letters and papers, the speeches and writings of the man himself. This is the high document, always, to be lived with and brooded over, to be scrutinized and forgotten and gone back to and searched again with all gifts of imagination, intuition, experience, prayer, silence, sacrifice, and the laughter next door to tears” (The Prairie Years). “The most popular Lincoln biography yet written… Lincoln publications increased after the appearance of this work” (Monaghan 2877). Precedes the trade edition. Illustrated with numerous photographic plates and numerous additional cuts of maps, cartoons, letters and documents. Howes S82. The recipient, Meyer Kestnbaum, was President of menswear manufacturer Hart, Schaffner & Marx (hence Sandburg’s reference to “weaving” in his inscription) and later served in the Eisenhower administration. Most minor sunning to spine labels, books fine, slipcase with minor expert repairs. A scarce and desirable presentation set, in the rarely present slipcase. 14
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 15 “AMONG THE BEST EVER WRITTEN FOR CHILDREN”: FIRST EDITIONS OF MILNE’S FOUR POOH BOOKS, IN ORIGINAL DUST JACKETS 15. MILNE, A.A. When We Were Very Young. WITH: Winnie-The-Pooh. WITH: Now We Are Six. WITH: The House At Pooh Corner. With Decorations by Ernest H. Shepard. London: Methuen, 1924-28. Four volumes. Small octavo, original pictorial cloth, top edges gilt, original dust jackets. Housed together in a custom clamshell box. $23,500 First editions of Milne’s charming “Pooh Quartet”— the volumes of verses and tales that immortalized Christopher Robin, Winnie-the-Pooh and their friends from the Hundred Acre Wood— enchantingly illustrated by Ernest Shepard, in original dust jackets. “Although Alan Alexander Milne wrote novels, short stories, poetry and many plays for adults, in addition to his work as assistant editor for Punch from 1906 to 1914, it is his writings for children that have captured the hearts of millions of people worldwide and granted Milne everlasting fame” (Silvey, 461). Milne wrote most of these poems at the request of friend and fellow poet Rose Fyleman, who was planning a new children’s magazine. “On a rain-blighted holiday in Wales, [Milne] escaped from the crowd of fellow guests to the summerhouse, and for 11 days wrote a set of children’s verses, one each day… ‘There on the other side of the lawn was a child with whom I had lived for three years [his son, Christopher Robin]… and here within me were unforgettable memories of my own childhood.’ He added more verses when he got home, enough for a book, and allowed some to be published in advance in Punch” (Carpenter & Prichard, 351). Shepard, a Punch staff artist at the time, provided delightful line vignettes, resulting in “a wonderful marriage of verse and vision. His delicately precise and fresh drawings had an instant appeal” (DNB). When We Were Very Young is second issue, as usual, with page ix numbered (any first edition copy is exceedingly scarce). With a publisher’s advertisement laid in for the related songbook Fourteen Songs. Books fine, bright dust jackets nearly so with only mild toning to spines, faintest soiling to first volume. A beautiful set.
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 16 "GIVE ME LIBERTY TO KNOW, TO UTTER, TO ARGUE FREELY…": 1698 COMPLETE COLLECTED EDITION OF MILTON'S PROSE WORKS 16. MILTON, John. A Complete Collection of the Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous Works…, Both English and Latin. With som [sic] Papers never before Publish’d. Amsterdam [London]: (no publisher), 1698. Three volumes bound as one. Thick folio 8 by 12-1/2 inches), contemporary full speckled calf rebacked with original elaborately gilt-decorated spine laid down, raised bands, red morocco spine label. $4000 Expanded second edition of Milton’s collected prose works, published only one year after the first edition. This folio volume notably includes Milton’s finest prose works: Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, Eikonoclastes, and his landmark Areopagitica, in which “the argument for freedom has never, before or since, been so magnificently or forcefully expressed” (PMM 133). Areopagitica, in particular, “was the first Milton book published in America (1774) and its arguments have continued to echo down the centuries in defense of liberal ideas of toleration and intellectual freedom” (Lewalski in Bloom, ed, John Milton, 322). In his lifetime, Milton was renowned more for his rhetoric than poetry: “a fiery pamphleteer in an age of religious and political argument, whose tireless defense of divorce, progressive education, regicide and the Commonwealth marked him out as a natural, and brilliant, English radical” (Robert McCrum). However, “within 25 years of his death, five biographies were in print—an unprecedented number even for a great statesman, which he was not… Milton’s reputation, shorn of its denigration and divinity, seems now to rest on grounds more secure than ever” (Ruoff, 294, 298). With engraved frontis portrait of Milton by William Faithorne and separate title pages. This second edition includes the first edition of John Toland’s Life of Milton, published as a separate work the following year. Toland, often considered to be Milton’s “first independent biographer,” consulted closely with Milton’s daughter, wife and other family members for this important early work, and extensively quotes from Milton’s own writings throughout (Wickenheiser IIIA48). With mispagination as issued without loss of text. Contemporary owner signature on title page. Text generally quite clean, title page of Volume III remargined. A handsome copy.
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 17 “THE DEAREST AND MOST LOVABLE CHILD IN FICTION SINCE THE IMMORTAL ALICE” (MARK TWAIN): RARE FIRST EDITION OF ANNE OF GREEN GABLES 17. MONTGOMERY, Lucy Maud. Anne of Green Gables. Boston: L.C. Page, 1908. Octavo, original gilt-stamped chocolate brown cloth, mounted cover illustration, uncut. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. $27,000 First edition, first issue, of Montgomery’s first novel, illustrated with eight plates by M.A. and W.A.J. Claus. The story of the red-haired orphan Anne Shirley and the elderly brother and sister who adopt her “is the most popular and enduring of a host of girls’ stories published in the United States and Canada in the first years of the 20th century” (Carpenter & Pritchard, 25-26). “Montgomery began writing about Anne as a serial for a Sunday school periodical in the spring of 1904. The character became so real that she eventually decided to develop the idea into a full novel. Much as would later with readers, Anne took hold of her creator, developing into a feisty, imaginative little being who demanded to be noticed and loved” (Keeline, 41). The novel was completed in 1905, but was rejected by four major American publishing houses, and it was not until 1907 that Montgomery found a publisher. The best seller that would make the remote Canadian province of Prince Edward Island known around the globe was not to be published in Montgomery’s native Canada until 1942, the year Montgomery died. Lucy Maud Montgomery’s “mother died when she was two, and she was sent to live with her maternal grandparents in their farmhouse. In character she seems to have much resembled her heroine Anne. She became a teacher, but gave it up to look after her widowed grandmother” (Carpenter & Pritchard, 356). “By age 21 she was earning her living in the thriving periodical market of turn-of-the-century North America. International acclaim came in 1908 with the publication of her first novel, Anne of Green Gables, which instantly became—and remains—a best seller… there is energy of another type that animates Montgomery’s books, which retain a strong hold on adult readers. It is the energy of social critique, and it operates just below the surface of many of her novels. Anne and Emily, her two best-known and best-developed heroines, may fulfill their womanly duty by marrying the saccharine-sweet boy next door, but not before each voices loud and angry criticisms of the way in which girls, orphans, and other disempowered members of society are ignored and trivialized” (Silvey, 465-66). First issue, dated “April, 1908” on the copyright page, in a variant chocolate brown cloth binding; most copies are found in pale green or buff cloth (L.M. Montgomery Institute). We have been able to locate only a handful of first-issue copies that have appeared at auction in the past 30 years. With eight-page publisher’s catalogue bound at rear. Interior fine, lightest rubbing to spine ends of original cloth binding, spine leaning very slightly. An about-fine copy, exceedingly rare in such excellent condition and in a variant binding.
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 18 SIGNED LIMITED EDITION OF RACKHAM'S THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS 18. MOORE, Clement C. The Night Before Christmas. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. London: George C. Harrap, (1931). Octavo, original gilt-stamped limp vellum, red and white pictorial endpapers, top edge gilt, uncut, custom clamshell box. $4200 Signed limited first edition, number 52 of only 275 copies printed for England (out of a total edition of 550 copies), with four color plates and 17 in-text line cuts, signed by Arthur Rackham, in publisher’s vellum. “One of the world’s most widely read poems… ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ recast St. Nicholas as a cheerful, rosy-cheeked elf and established Christmas as a time for giving gifts to children” (Carnegie Mellon University). For this edition of the Yuletide classic, Rackham created four full-color illustrations, 17 drawings in black and white, and red and white pictorial endpapers. Title page printed in red and black. Without original glassine and cardboard box. Only a bit of soiling to original vellum, less than often seen. A near-fine copy.
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 19 "NIELSEN'S MOST SPECTACULAR AND CELEBRATED BOOK": EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON, SIGNED LIMITED EDITION 19. NIELSEN, Kay. East of the Sun and West of the Moon. (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1914). Quarto, original gilt-decorated vellum, pictorial endpapers, silk ties, uncut. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $29,000 Signed limited first edition of this classic collection of Norwegian folk tales, illustrated with 25 superb mounted color plates and decorative in-text line cuts by famed artist Kay Nielsen, number 68 of only 500 copies numbered and signed by him. A scarce and magnificent masterpiece in excellent condition, with original silk ties present. “Nielsen’s place in history has become universally acknowledged and his name is invariably invoked as one of the deities of the golden age of illustration, alongside such immortals as Arthur Rackham, Walter Crane and Edmund Dulac” (Silvey, 488). “By general consent, Nielsen’s most spectacular and celebrated book is East of the Sun and West of the Moon, old tales from the North, translated from the Norwegian of Peter C. Asbjörnsen and Jörgen Moe (devoted collectors of Scandinavian folk tales in the mid-19th century)… Nielsen’s unique style and talent for combining the eerie and fantastic with beautiful decorative effect was at its peak with this set of illustrations” (Dalby, 90). “The illustrations are pensive, filled with dramatic space and strong lines creating a terrific sense of movement. The deep Northern skies he depicts give his work a celestial scale that imparts a mythic impact to his heroes and heroines. The delicacy and elegance of the illustrations completely disregard the rough, folksy quality of the tales, leaving each to be enjoyed separately” (Silvey, 489). Nielsen illustrated three other deluxe volumes of fairy tales during his career, securing his reputation as a master of the fantastic and wonderful in art. He also designed the “Night on Bald Mountain” portion of Walt Disney’s animated classic Fantasia. With an original advertisement for a December 1914 exhibition of Nielsen’s watercolors for this volume laid in. Plates beautiful and bright. Lightest embrowning to top margins of leaves. Mild darkening to vellum, as expected, gilt on front cover bright. A splendid production, very nearly fine, signed by the artist. Quite scarce and most desirable, especially in this condition and with original silk ties present.
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 “THE ONLY THING WE HAVE TO FEAR IS FEAR ITSELF”: SCARCE FIRST EDITION OF LOOKING FORWARD, 1933, INSCRIBED BY FDR 20. ROOSEVELT, Franklin D. Looking Forward. New York: John Day, (1933). Octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket. $5500 First edition of President Roosevelt’s clarion call for a “new deal,” published in the month of his inauguration, drawn from key articles and speeches with a printing of his First Inaugural Address, inscribed by the president, “To S— O’Brien from Franklin D. Roosevelt.” Published amidst the devastation of the Great Depression and in the same month as his inauguration, FDR’s Looking Forward draws on major articles and speeches, and includes a printing of his March 4th First Inaugural Address, in which he assured a troubled nation: “This great nation will endure as it has endured… the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” On publication the New York Times noted: “As President Roosevelt takes up the task of translating into terms of action his conception of the ‘new deal’ there comes from the press this book in which he sets forth his convictions as to why a new deal is necessary.” Included are chapters on the reorganization of the government, taxation, agriculture, railroads, judicial reform and more. Book fine, dust jacket with a few short closed tears, shallow chips along top edge, mild toning to spine. A near-fine inscribed copy. 20
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 21 LOVELY SENDAK-ILLUSTRATED POSTER FROM THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET'S WORLD PREMIERE OF THE NUTCRACKER, 1983, INSCRIBED BY SENDAK FOR PRESENTATION TO A CLOSE FRIEND 21. SENDAK, Maurice. Poster inscribed [“Nutcracker”]. Seattle: No publisher, 1983. Color poster, measuring 18 by 26 inches; handsomely framed, entire piece measures 27 by 19 inches. $2700 Beautiful poster, illustrated by Maurice Sendak, advertising the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s 1983 world premiere of the Nutcracker, featuring sets and costumes by Maurice Sendak, inscribed at the bottom of the image for presentation to a close friend and neighbor: “For Mike—with complete pleasure!—Maurice Sendak Jul ‘84.” This poster advertises world premiere of the Nutcracker, with choreography by Kent Stowell and with sets and costumes by Maurice Sendak. The ballet was performed by the Pacific Northwest Ballet at the Seattle Opera House in 1983. When approached by the artistic directors of the Pacific Northwest Ballet to help create the production, Sendak proclaimed that he was no fan of ballet and objected to the cutesy, saccharine nature of the Nutcracker story. However, Sendak was enticed by complete freedom to turn the Nutcracker into a darker, scarier story complete with cannons and a giant rat king. He also changed the third act, getting rid of the Land of the Sweets and introducing a Turkish palace to better suit his tastes. The result was yet another Sendak theatrical masterpiece. The ballet was performed every Christmas season for over three decades until it was eventually retired after Sendak’s death in 2012. For the central image of the poster, Sendak depicts the Nutcracker holding a saber in one hand and a fully decorated Christmas tree in the other. The former owner of this inscribed poster was Maurice Sendak’s neighbor, Andrew, from Ridgefield, Connecticut. The inscribee, Mike, was Andrew’s brother. Sendak bought a home and studio in Ridgefield in 1972 with his longtime partner, Eugene Glynn, and lived there until his death. Andrew first encountered Sendak in 1975 during one of his daily dog walks. (Sendak owned many dogs throughout his life, and they often starred in his books.) Andrew was immediately taken with Sendak, who reminded him of his recently deceased father. One day, Andrew called Sendak at home and asked if he could join him on his walks. Andrew and Sendak thus embarked on a 37-year friendship that also included the Andrew’s mother, Betty, as well as Andrew’s brother. Sendak went on long walks and hikes with Andrew and his family regularly, discussing general life events, opera, and books. He frequently bartered for autographs, as well (i.e. a cake for an inscribed drawing). The many inscribed drawings, along with first editions, signed books, and other valuable items grew into one of the country’s premier Sendak collections, compiled by various members of a single family and ultimately owned by Andrew. Fine condition.
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 22 "MAYBE CHRISTMAS… PERHAPS… MEANS A LITTLE BIT MORE!" 22. SEUSS, Dr. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! New York: Random House, (1957). Quarto, original pictorial paper boards, pictorial endpapers, original dust jacket. $3000 First edition of Seuss’ heartwarming celebration of true holiday spirit, in bright original dust jacket. “In 1954 the Whos won popularity when Horton saved them from destruction… So Ted returned to Who-ville and paired the Whos with a character who was every bit as dastardly as Horton was faithful… Clearly the Grinch has been the most memorable Christmas villain to undergo redemption since Ebenezer Scrooge. To some degree, Ted identified with the Grinch… When asked why he wrote the book, Ted replied, ‘I was brushing my teeth on the morning of the 26th of last December when I noted a very Grinch-ish countenance in the mirror. It was Seuss! So I wrote the story about my sour friend, the Grinch, to see if I could rediscover something about Christmas that obviously I’d lost.’ It was no coincidence that, when the book appeared in 1957, the Grinch complained, ‘For fifty-three years I’ve put up with it now…’ Ted, of course, was born in 1904… After The Cat in the Hat [also published 1957] and The Grinch, Ted’s reputation grew exponentially” (Cohen, 329-30). Geisel’s tribute to true holiday cheer “added an unforgettable character to American literary mythology and a highly descriptive noun/verb to our language” (Dr. Seuss From Then to Now, 51). First edition, in first-issue dust jacket, with 14 titles advertised on rear flap. Younger & Hirsch 33. Contemporary owner gift inscription in red ink on half title. Book about-fine, dust jacket extremely good with only slightest soiling and light wear to extremities. A handsome copy.
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 "TO STRIVE, TO SEEK, TO FIND, AND NOT TO YIELD": FIRST EDITION OF TENNYSON'S 1842 POEMS, BEAUTIFULLY BOUND BY RIVIERE & SON 23. TENNYSON, Alfred. Poems. London: Edward Moxon, 1842. Two volumes. 12mo, 20th-century full dark green morocco, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spines and boards, all edges gilt; housed in custom chemises and slipcases. $3500 First edition, containing some of Tennyson’s best-known works, beautifully bound by Riviere & Son. Published relatively early in Tennyson’s career, the 1842 Poems was the work that first established him as one of the most important poets of his generation. “Not all the poems in the volumes were new. Volume I consisted mainly of poems previously published in 1830 and 1832, but the best of them, works such as ‘Mariana,’ ‘The Lady of Shallot,’ ‘Oenone,’ ‘The Palace of Art’ and ‘The Lotus-Eaters,’ had been so extensively revised in the interim as to be strikingly different. Volume II contained, with the exception of ‘St Agnes’ and three stanzas, ‘The Sleeping Beauty,’ poems never before published. Of these, ‘Morte d’Artur,’ ‘Ulysses,’ ‘Locksley Hall and ‘The Two Voices’ are still widely judged to be among Tennyson’s most distinctive achievements. Of this second volume of the 1842 Poems the poet’s grandson and chief biographer observes, ‘Never before or since has an English poet produced a volume treating so wide a range of subjects with such a high level of accomplishment’” (Hagen, Tennyson & His Publishers, 65-66.). Fine condition. 23
B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 0 2 3 24 "ALL THE CHRISTMASES ROLL DOWN TOWARD THE TWO-TONGUED SEA…" 24. THOMAS, Dylan. A Child’s Christmas in Wales. Norfolk, Connecticut: New Directions, (1955). 12mo, original cream paper boards, original dust jacket. $550 First separate edition of Thomas’ beloved Christmas story. Published the year after its first appearance in the short story collection Quite Early One Morning, and specially produced for sale at Christmastime 1955. Toning to boards and dust jacket, with a bit of rubbing to dust jacket spine edges, shallow chipping at foot. A very good copy.
BAUMANRAREBOOKS.COM NEW YORK 535 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10022 212-751-0011 Mon to Sat: 10am-6pm LAS VEGAS Grand Canal Shoppes The Venetian | The Palazzo 3327 Las Vegas Boulevard South Suite 2856 Las Vegas, NV 89109 702-948-1617 Daily: 10am-8pm PHILADELPHIA 1608 Walnut Street Suite 1000 Philadelphia, PA 19103 215-546-6466 By appointment All books are shipped on approval and are fully guaranteed. Any items may be returned within ten days for any reason (please notify us before returning). All reimbursements are limited to original purchase price. We accept all major credit cards. Shipping and insurance charges are additional. Packages will be shipped by UPS or Federal Express unless another carrier is requested. Next-day or second-day air service is available upon request. 1-800-97-BAUMAN (1-800-972-2862) | [email protected] @baumanrarebooks facebook.com/baumanrarebooks @baumanrarebooks www.baumanrarebooks.com
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDg3OTM=