BEERBOHM, Max

A Survey

New York, Doubleday, Page & Company, 1921. First Edition. Hardcover. Quarto (7-1/2" x 10-1/4") bound in cloth-backed boards. Illustrated with 51 tipped-in caricature plates. Dustwrapper soiled with stain and scorch mark on spine. Very Good in a Good dustwrapper .

Charles AgventProfessional seller

Book number: 004015

Catalogue: 19th Century British Literature

Keywords: Satire, Caricatures, 19th Century British Literature, 1890s, Illustrated Books, Humor Satire Literature: English Illustrated Books Humor

BEERBOHM, Max

Zuleika Dobson or an Oxford Love Story

Baltimore, Limited Editions Club, 1960. Hardcover. Tall octavo (6-1/4" x 11-1/8") bound in blue-gray linen with the lettering and decoration in pink, black, and gold. Introduction by Douglas Cleverdon and printed at the Garamond Press. Illustrated with 16 full-page color plates, 12 monochrome full-page plates, and 68 part-page monochromes by George Him. Copy #887 of 1500 SIGNED by the artist on the colophon page. Ill.: George Him. Fine in an intact, Very Good slipcase with much of the paper on the backstrip pitted away though the label is present .

Charles AgventProfessional seller

Book number: 018663

Catalogue: Limited Editions Club

Keywords: Signed, Illustrated Books, Limited Editions Club, George Him, 19th Century British Literature, Fine Press, Max Beerbohm George Him Signed Illustrated Books Max Beerbohm 19th Century British Literature

BEERBOHM, Max

Zuleika Dobson or an Oxford Love Story

Baltimore, Limited Editions Club, 1960. Hardcover. Tall octavo (6-1/4" x 11-1/8") bound in blue-gray linen with the lettering and decoration in pink, black, and gold. Introduction by Douglas Cleverdon and printed at the Garamond Press. Illustrated with 16 full-page color plates, 12 monochrome full-page plates, and 68 part-page monochromes by George Him. Copy #958 of 1500 SIGNED by the artist on the colophon page. Monthly Letter laid in. Ill.: George Him. Fine in a Fine slipcase .

Charles AgventProfessional seller

Book number: 021037

Catalogue: Limited Editions Club

Keywords: Signed, Illustrated Books, Limited Editions Club, George Him, 19th Century British Literature, Fine Press, Max Beerbohm George Him Signed Illustrated Books Max Beerbohm 19th Century British Literature

BEERS, Andrew

Longworth's American Almanac, New York Register and City Directory for the Fortieth Year of American Independence

New York, David Longworth, 6 July 1815. First Edition. Hardcover. Duodecimo (4-1/4" x 7") in original calf-backed boards, the rear board printed; 458 pages. Illustrated with a full-page engraving of P. M. Stollenwerk's Mechanical Panorama and a small zodiac text engraving. Contains a wealth of information about New York City at the time including a list of all residents. Several owner names and annotations on endpapers and front cover. Very Good .

Charles AgventProfessional seller

Book number: 020889

Catalogue: New York City

Keywords: New York City, 19th Century Americana, Americana, Almanacs Americana New York City American Almanacs New York

BELAFONTE, Harry

Photograph Signed

Photograph. An 8" x 10" photo of Belafonte with his business manager, Jay Kennedy, and another man, apparently producer Sidney Buchman, Kennedy's partner, at a restaurant table from the early to mid-1950s. INSCRIBED and SIGNED by Belafonte to Kennedy: "Dad! Dad!! Dad!!! On this day we released ourselves to further pursue the course we have chosen for ourselves. To you I'm indebted to Sidney I'm grateful, and perhaps History will thank us all. Your Harry." Also INSCRIBED by Buchman: "To Jay, a gentleman, Sidney." In 1954 Belafonte replaced Jack Rollins with Jay Kennedy as his manager who, with his connections, was able to book Belafonte in more prestigious locations. Despite Belafonte's effusive inscription, he would later come to distrust Kennedy and even considered him malevolent. It was not until a decade later that Belafonte would discover that Dr Janet Alterman Kennedy, the psychotherapist he had been confiding in during the 1950s, was Jay Kennedy's wife. Ink occasionally light but still very readable. Fine Belafonte, one of the world's most popular entertainers starring not only in music but in the theater and film as well, was also the first, and for some time the only, black producer in television and the first African American to receive an Emmy award.

Charles AgventProfessional seller

Book number: 019810

Catalogue: Signed

Keywords: Signed Photograph, Inscribed, Entertainment, African-American Music, Autographs Autographs Entertainment Signed African-American Music

BELAFONTE, Harry

Typed Letter Signed

Letter. An interesting SIGNED letter from Belafonte to Brooks Atkinson, drama critic of the New York Times, dated 19 May 1955. In this letter of @250 words, the singer and actor wishes to clarify that a letter sent by him a few days before is not misunderstood. Essentially, Belafonte wants Atkinson to know that, despite an earlier report to the contrary, the contemplated closing of his show "3 For Tonight" is not related to his Las Vegas engagement. Adding to the interest are numerous pencil notes and corrections that attempt to tame the tone of the words, either by the singer or his agent, Jay Kennedy, from whose estate this letter came. Belafonte, one of the world's most popular entertainers, starring not only in music but in the theater and film as well, was also the first, and for some time the only, black producer in television. He was also very active in the civil rights struggle, bailing Martin Luther King, Jr. out of the Birmingham City Jail and a few years later helping to organize the March on Washington. About a two-inch closed tear just entering the text on the left margin; light wrinkling. Very Good .

Charles AgventProfessional seller

Book number: 010108

Catalogue: Signed

Keywords: Signed, Letters, Music, African-American Music Autographs Entertainment Singers African-American Music

BELL, Madison Smartt

Waiting for the End of the World

New York, Ticknor & Fields, 1985. First Edition. Hardcover. Advance Review copy of the author's second book with publisher's material laid in. Small rough spot on front free endpaper from erasure. About Fine in a Near Fine dustwrapper with minor wear at the spine tips .

Charles AgventProfessional seller

Book number: 000877

Catalogue: Modern First Editions

Keywords: Modern Firsts, Modern First Editions, Advance Review Copy, Southern Literature Modern First Editions Literature: American Southern Literature Advance Review Copy

BELLOW, Saul

Humboldt's Gift

New York, The Viking Press, (1975). First Edition. Wraps. Advance Reading copy in printed yellow wraps of this winner of the Pulitzer Prize and nominee for the National Book Award. Some soiling and wear to wraps. Near Very Good .

Charles AgventProfessional seller

Book number: 000327

Catalogue: Modern First Editions

Keywords: Saul Bellow, Advance Reading Copy, Advance Copy, Modern Firsts, Modern First Editions, Pulitzer Prize, Nobel Prize, Jewish Literature Pulitzer Prize Modern First Editions Advance Review Copy Literature: American

BELLOW, Saul

The Last Analysis. Holograph Manuscript of Saul Bellow's Only Play

First Edition. hardcover. An undated early holograph version of Saul Bellow's only full-length play contained in a ledger-type notebook (8-1/4" x 11-3/8") with marbled paper boards and a black cloth spine. Bellow has subtitled this as "A Work in Progress." Acts I and II of this version are complete in 71 pages with 4 pages of preliminary material for an Act III, all handwritten by Bellow. The 1964 staged version was reduced to two acts. Bellow appears to have written out Acts I & II as a fair copy from previous versions and notes in preparation for completing the play with a new Act III. There are relatively few insertions and corrections in his text of the first two acts which take up about 75% of the notebook. The third act consists mostly of blank pages with 3 pages of rough notes and key speeches including what seem to be the climactic lines of his main character, the comedian Bummidge, who has been undergoing an obsessive self-analysis in the previous acts: "The world was never real for me. But now I see it's more real than I was. I never admitted that it existed. It always knew I was here (he goes around picking up objects & kissing them because they're real).. Now what is the theory. Not Momma's womb but my own empty heart?" Laid in to the notebook is a SIGNED typed 12-page fragment of an earlier version of the play, with Bellow's original title, THE CRASH PROGRAM, crossed out in ink and his new title, THE LAST ANALYSIS, written over it. Bellow manuscripts of this size and importance are seldom offered with most already housed in institutional collections. Near Fine and quite exceptional .

Charles AgventProfessional seller

Book number: 013988

Catalogue: Signed

Keywords: Signed, Theater, Plays, First Editions, Jewish Literature, Holograph Manuscript, Saul Bellow, Rare Original Manuscript Literature: American Nobel Prize Modern First Editions

BELON, Pierre

Les Observations de Plusieurs Singularitez Et Choses Memorables, Trouvees En Grece, Asie, Iudée, Egypte, Arabie, & Autres Pays Estranges

Paris, H. de Marnef & la veufue Guillaume Cavellat, 1588. Third French Edition. Hardcover. Quarto (5-3/4" x 8-5/8") bound in 18th-century calf leather with a gilt-decorated spine and a gilt-lettered morocco spine label; [24], 4680 [i.e.470], [2] pages + 1 folding plate. Complete with the folding woodcut plate of Mt. Sinai present, but (as often the case) without the folding plan of Lemnos found in some copies. (Note that the 1553 first edition was issued with only the Mt. Sinai folding plate, and this 1588 edition was the first to which a folding Lemnos plan was added.) In addition there are more than 40 woodcut illustrations throughout, depicting plants, animals, Middle-Eastern costumes, a portrait of Belon, and two full-page maps: the city of Alexandria and the Strait of Hellespont (Dardanelles) with the city of Abydos. Also, numerous fine decorative woodcut initials, head- and tail-piece. woodcut Cavellat printer’s device on title-page, and Marnef’s device on verso of the final leaf. Pierre Belon's influential, richly illustrated account of his extensive travels in the Levant (THE OBSERVATIONS ON MANY SINGULARITIES AND MEMORABLE THINGS FOUND IN GREECE, TURKEY, JUDAEA, EGYPT, ARABIA AND OTHER FOREIGN COUNTRIES) was first printed in Paris in 1553. Belon, a leading Renaissance naturalist (called by Pavlov “the prophet of comparative anatomy”) attracted the patronage of Cardinal François de Tournon, who funded Belon’s scientific journey through the Mediterranean and Middle East. This book is an illustrated account of his travels, containing descriptions not only of flora and fauna but the costumes and culture of the Ottoman Turkey and surrounding regions. Belon “spent three years travelling in the Levant, from 1546 to 1549 [..] his travels through Greece, Asia Minor, Egypt and the Holy Land resulted in observations more than merely botanical, in a most remarkable work which discusses the antiquities, customs and manners of the countries Belon visited, as well as the natural history. His was the most documented account of the Levant which had appeared up to that time in French. Of importance is his description of Cairo after 30 years of Turkish occupation.” (BLACKMER 115). “OBSERVATIONS is one of the first travel accounts published in France about the Ottoman Empire. [-] It seems that one of Belon's aims, apart from the description of the flora and fauna, was to let French readers know about the everyday life of the Ottoman Empire, especially that of the Turks, whose strangeness is constantly compared with that of the ancient Romans, nuanced and made acceptable, despite their religion. Apart from the compendium of the ‘superstitions’ commonly attributed to Muslims, his account is one of the fairest ever written about the Turks. He shows that Turkish domination had not deeply changed the culture of the conquered nations and was not tyrannical, and he depicts the Turks as a civilised people, giving support to the politics of the French government” (D. Thomas, ?J. A. Chesworth et al. (eds): CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM RELATIONS. A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY, vol. VI, p.709). Unlike many contemporary travel writers, Belon does not elaborate on extraordinary adventures and does not rely on hearsay or previous accounts; instead, his account is based on his own careful observations and meticulous recording of mammals, fish, snakes, birds, plants, and the manners and customs of the peoples he encountered, commenting only on what he himself had witnessed, perhaps except for the illustration of a small dragon-like creature. The fine woodcuts, attributed to Arnold Nicolai and Pierre Goudet (Gourdelle), include a map of the Dardanelles (Hellespont), a folding map of Mount Sinai, a view of Alexandria, coins with Arabic inscriptions, illustrations of Egyptian costumes, a giraffe, chameleon, and surprisingly, a flying dragon and an armadillo, etc. Very Good antiquarian condition. Title leaf with a closed marginal tear at bottom of the inner margin resulting in a partial separation at gutter, but without any loss, and the leaf is still securely attached to binding. First three preliminary leaves with a small marginal wormhole (to bottom margin, not affecting text). Occasional minor spotting, or light browning; a few pages with small manuscript marginal notes. Top and outer margin cropped somewhat closely in binding, without any loss of text, but slightly cutting into three or four woodcuts (which were printed to extend beyond the regular printed area). An 18th-century ownership inscription to verso of title (see provenance). Binding slightly rubbed, with some surface wear, a minor worming to top of spine, and a neat minor repair to foot of spine. In all, a pleasing, clean and solid example of this richly illustrated and important work, with a fine provenance The copy of Joseph Antoine Crozat, marquis de Tugny (1699 - 1750) with his ownership inscription on verso of title-page: “Ex Bibliotheca D. Crozat in Suprema Parisiensi Curia Praesidis.” Crozat was a French court official and art collector. Heir to a large fortune, Crozat assembled a magnificent collection of paintings, drawings, and sculptures; the gallery which housed the La Collection Crozat became famous, and he commissioned a catalogue of engravings to be made to illustrate and advertise his artworks (published as a magnificent two-volume set in elephant folio titled RECUEIL D'ESTAMPES D'APRÈS LES PLUS BEAUX TABLEAUX.. Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1729-1742). The collection was bought almost in its entirety by Catherine the Great of Russia and formed the nucleus of the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. Crozat was also a bibliophile, and his library was posthumously catalogued to be sold at auction in Paris in August 1751.

Charles AgventProfessional seller

Book number: 021749

Catalogue: Early Printed Books

Keywords: Illustrated Books, Holy Land, Early Printed Books, Middle East, 16th Century, Egypt, Travel, Greece, Asia, Arabia Illustrated Books Travel Early Printed Books Holy Land

BENET, Stephen Vincent

John Brown's Body

New York, Limited Editions Club, 1948. Hardcover. Tall quarto (7-1/8" x 11-1/2") bound in full rough scarlet linen with blue leather labels on spine and front cover. Designed by Francis Meynell and printed by William Rudge. Introduction by Douglas Southall Freeman. One of 1500 numbered copies illustrated with oil paintings by John Steuart Curry, his last illustrations for a book, reproduced in offset lithography by Fretz Freres, Zurich, Switzerland. Issued unsigned as the artist died before publication. Ill.: John Steuart Curry. Spine just a bit sunned, much less than normal. Near Fine in a Good, partly split slipcase .

Charles AgventProfessional seller

Book number: 006698

Catalogue: Limited Editions Club

Keywords: John Steuart Curry, Modern Poetry, Fine Press, LEC, Modern Firsts John Steuart Curry Pulitzer Prize Illustrated Books Civil War Literature: American

BENET, Stephen Vincent

John Brown's Body

New York, Limited Editions Club, 1948. Hardcover. Tall quarto (7-1/8" x 11-1/2") bound in full rough scarlet linen with blue leather labels on spine and front cover. Designed by Francis Meynell and printed by William Rudge. Introduction by Douglas Southall Freeman. Copy #380 of 1500 illustrated with oil paintings by John Steuart Curry, his last illustrations for a book, reproduced in offset lithography by Fretz Freres, Zurich, Switzerland. Issued unsigned as the artist died before publication. Ill.: John Steuart Curry. Spine sunned and soiled. Very Good, lacking the slipcase .

Charles AgventProfessional seller

Book number: 014425

Catalogue: Limited Editions Club

Keywords: John Steuart Curry, Modern Poetry, Fine Press, LEC, Modern Firsts John Steuart Curry Pulitzer Prize Illustrated Books Civil War Limited Editions

BENET, Stephen Vincent

John Brown's Body

Garden City, Doubleday, 1928. First Edition. Hardcover. First Trade Edition after the printing of 201 signed deluxe copies of this popular success and Pulitzer Prize winner. INSCRIBED and SIGNED "For W. L. Thompson Jr./with the best wishes of the author,/Stephen Vincent Benet/July 25 -1942." . Near Fine in a Good only dustwrapper, missing some small pieces on the spine and split there into three pieces but still with a presentable appearance under mylar .

Charles AgventProfessional seller

Book number: 015974

Catalogue: Signed

Keywords: Signed, Modern Firsts, Pulitzer Prize, Civil War, Modern Poetry, Modern First Editions, Inscribed Modern First Editions Pulitzer Prize Literature: American Signed

BENET, Stephen Vincent

John Brown's Body

New York, Limited Editions Club, 1948. Hardcover. Tall quarto (7-1/8" x 11-1/2") bound in full rough scarlet linen with blue leather labels on spine and front cover. Designed by Francis Meynell and printed by William Rudge. Introduction by Douglas Southall Freeman. Copy #39 of 1500 numbered copies illustrated with oil paintings by John Steuart Curry, his last illustrations for a book, reproduced in offset lithography by Fretz Freres, Zurich, Switzerland. Issued unsigned as the artist died before publication. Ill.: John Steuart Curry. Bookplate on the front pastedown. Spine with typical sunning. Near Fine in a Very Good slipcase with a closed split at the back edge .

Charles AgventProfessional seller

Book number: 017776

Catalogue: Limited Editions Club

Keywords: John Steuart Curry, Modern Poetry, Fine Press, LEC, Modern Firsts John Steuart Curry Pulitzer Prize Illustrated Books Civil War Literature: American

BENET, Stephen Vincent

A Prayer for the United Nations

n.p. [The Orange Mountain Private Press], (Christmas 1949). First Edition. Wraps. Heavy light beige wraps (6" x 9-1/4") with the author's name printed on the front; 8 pages. One of only 15 copies printed of this prayer of common faith written by Benet in 1942. Covers lightly soiled. Near Fine and obviously very scarce .

Charles AgventProfessional seller

Book number: 017484

Catalogue: Modern First Editions

Keywords: Modern First Editions, Modern Firsts, Limited, Modern Poetry, United Nations, Christmas Modern First Editions Christmas Literature: American United Nations