Manuscripts & Original Documents

First Edition. hardcover. Near Fine and quite exceptional. 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… Read More

Original space-flown flag (5½" X 4¼") and cloth patch (4¼" X 4 3/4") presented on a 12 3/4" X 16 3/4" cream colored heavy stock, in turn mounted to a 16" X 20" pale blue mat board. Very good. Bit of slight soiling. The cream colored stock bears glossy photographs on the upper left (takeoff) and lower right (landing) corners. At lower left is a circular flute-edged NASA gold foil seal, and the space-flown flag is mounted at upper right -- consisting of the State Seal of Illinois, with the word "ILLINOIS" below, against a white background. The printed text cited above appears immediately below this flag, and the crew patch below this text. JOHN YOUNG (born 1930) signs boldly in black ink to the left of the patch, while ROBERT L. CRIPPEN (born 1937) signs to the right. The Columbia STS-1 flight was called by NASA "The boldest test flight in history." It was the first orbital flight of the Space Shuttle program, lasting 54½ hours and orbiting the Earth 37 times; commanded by John Young and piloted by… Read More

Paris & Bruxelles,: G. Van Oest,, 1928.. [ii, blank], xii, 134, [ii] pp. Folio (27,5 x 36,5 cm.). Contemporary half green grained morocco; spine with 5 raised bands, gilt lettered, in compartments gilt decorated with floral motive; hand made marbled boards and marbled end-papers; top edges gilt; original printed wrapper bound in; preserved in a matching slipcase. With a coloured frontispice and one coloured plate (in chromolithography), and 100 fine plates in helio-engraving. Title printed in red and black. ¶ Henry Martin's last work. A superb, and finely bound large paper copy, being one of the 25 copies printed on "papier d'Arches à la cuve". There are only a few copies with the second coloured plate. Including a bibliography of Henry Martin's publications. A very fine faultless 'de luxe' copy.

New York: J O [Or C] Riker / Stodart & Currier, 1835. 1st Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Good. Lithographs By Stothart And Currier, One In Color; Hand Illustrations, One Page In Watercolor. 7 3/8" X 6 1/8", Full Morocco, Gilt, Elaborately Blindstamped, All Edges Gilt, Pale Blue Endpapers, Re-Backed Preserving Original Binding [Spine And Embossed Boards And Endpapers]. Preliminary Blank, Half-Title With Hand-Copied "Album ", Lithographed Flourishes, Handwritten "Miss Sarah W Ennis". Title Page With Litho Title, Flourishes, Large Color Lithograph Of A Rose [In Three Colors], "Published By J O [Looks Like An O But Could Be A Hand-Corrected C] Riker New York" / "Lith. Of Stodart & Currier Ny" [Legend Repeated At Bottom Of All Plates, Which Are Otherwise Unsigned]. 8 Blank Leaves, Tissue-Guarded Litho Of Two Plums, Grapes, Berries, Vines, Flowers, Two Butterflies; 6 Blank Leaves, Tissue Guarded Litho Of 16 Flowers, 8 Blank Leaves, Tissue Guarded… Read More

1873. Near Fine. 5 handwritten letters to William Ward, 1873-1879, regarding the Philadelphia and Chester County Railroad, which existed from 1872 to 1885; it was succeeded by the Philadelphia Midland Railroad. William Ward was one of the organizers of the Philadelphia and Chester County Railroad and in 1874 was the president and treasurer pro tem. Letters #1 and #2 (Sept. 5 and Dec. 5, 1873) are from Jos. H. McKeehan, an attorney in Philadelphia, who is writing about deliquent subscribers to the railroad. Letter #3 (Dec. 18, 1873) is from the Village Record, a newspaper in West Chester, Pa., with a copy of the advertisement that ran in the paper listing the dates that instalments from railroad subscribers were due in 1872. Letter #4 (Nov. 26, 1875) is from John Smith of Ridley Park, about a plan to petition to vacate a street and public ground adjoining Mr. Bartol's purchase. Letter #5 (Sept. 8, 1879) from the superintendant of the Government Paper Mill in Dalton, Mass., complaining about the… Read More

Cannes. 1966. NP. 1966. Quarto (285mm x 233mm). 20 typed sheets in French (rectos only), legibly hand-corrected throughout by Brassai in black ink. Housed in a black cloth album, with each sheet in a separate clear plastic file. In excellent condition, the final page a little creased and with minor loss to right-hand side, affecting one letter. Overall fresh and clean. ------ A superb unpublished and heavily corrected manuscript in French, in which Brassai recounts his visit to Picasso, a long-standing friend, at his home near Cannes. Brassai, who photographed much of Picasso's work in the 1940s, had published Conversations with Picasso in 1964, in which he created an intimate portrait of Picasso, covering their friendship and artistic collaboration, and recording each of their meetings with minute detail. Picasso said of the volume, "Read this book if you want to understand me." This account is written in a similar style, and during the course of the afternoon, Picasso speaks about his nostalgia… Read More

London: Circa 1898-1978, 1898. 1st Edition . No Binding. Very Good. Small Archive Of Writings, Letters, And Ephemera By Dorothy Field, Mrs. Norman Dudley Short, English Writer, Editor, Musician And Activist Circa 1920-1960, Who Also Taught Music And Art. She Studied Music, Authored Old Men And Children Circa 1912, Authored The Religion Of The Sikhs In 1914, Married Caricaturist Norman Dudley Short In 1922, Reporter For Times Educational Supplement 1923-1927, Was An Activist And Later Local And National Officer Of The National Council Of Women Of Great Britain From 1930 Into The 1950'S And Authored Articles In Their National House Organ She Wrote The Children's Book Judy And The Magic Rocket 1933 (Now Scarce As Publisher's Works Were Bombed And Half Print Run Lost), Also The Green Man And The Girl Who Walked Side-Ways, School Readers, 1930'S, Also To Be Or Not To Be (League Of National Life), In Poet's Choice, 1944,Also Long Sections In The Eleven Religions, Circa 1946,Also… Read More

(Circa 1903-1949), 1903. 1st Edition . No Binding. Fine. Small Archive Of One-Line Drawings And Caricatures By N Dudley Short, English Caricaturist. He Was Published In The Studio In 1903 And 1923, And Many Other Magazines. He Authored A Book "The Money Trick" In 1932. The Archive Consists Of The Following: 1. Three Broadsides, "Drawing And Jingle By N. Dudley Short"10 5/8" X 6 1/2", Printed In Red And Black. Three Examples, One Fine, One With Tiny Chip Outside Border At Lower Right, One With Faint Water Spots; And, A Clipping Of It As Published In A Periodical. 2. Four Small Caricatures, In Multiple Copies. 3. Four Larger Caricatures, Mounted On Board. 4. Broadside With Two Illustrations, And Quotations From The Missal And Margaret Lofting. 5. Small Group Of Exhibition Ephemera, Including Invitation For Private Viewing On-Line Drawings By Dudley Short, 23Rd March 1949, At The Chelsea Gallery, And The Exhibition List Of 55 Items; Some Clippings Of His Published Work;… Read More

1900. The Only Known Mathematical Manuscript of Alfred North Whitehead [Whitehead, Alfred North]. Mathmatical Manuscript Notebooks. Whitehead (1861-1947) Writing in manuscript. [Unsigned and undated, circa: 1900]. Two composition notebooks. Quarto (202 x 160 mm). 50 ff each, written primarily on rectos in black ink, with a few notes on versos, each page with approx. 15-20 lines of manuscript. Ruled paper self-wrappers, first and last leaves toned and worn, some chipping to edges, corners worn, lower right corner of last 2 ff in vol.I missing with some loss to text. Fragile. Two sequential notebooks, divided into three sections as follows: Part 1: 21 pp, on ff 1r-20r of first notebook. In black ink, written on versos. Treating Karl Weierstrass's 1858 "Über ein die homogenen Functionen zweiter Grades betreffen des Theorem." Part 2: 64 pp, on ff 24r-50r of first notebook, and 1r-32r of second notebook. Treating Karl Weierstrass's 1868 "Zu theorie der bilinearen und quadratischen Formen." Part… Read More

Chicago, 1952-53. Including 3 typed letters signed (one with the signature removed for reproduction in Vistas in Astronomy) and 2 autograph letters signed by Urey. Housed in Beer's tan paper folder with "Urey" in ink on the cover. Just a little creasing to some pieces. Excellent condition. An archive of correspondence between astronomer Arthur Beer and Nobel Prize winning chemist Harold Urey regarding the latter's contribution to Vistas in Astronomy. Beer (1900-1980) was born in Richenberg, Bohemia (later Czechoslovakia), and educated in Austria and Germany. He worked as an astronomer at Breslau University, where he studied binary stars, and at the German Maritime Observatory. He also wrote newspaper columns and was responsible for developing one of the first scientific radio programmes, Aus Natur und Technik. Beer escaped from Germany in 1934, assisted by Einstein, who wrote him a public letter of recommendation, and spent the rest of his life in the UK. He worked at the Cambridge Solar Physics… Read More

s.l.|(Londres,|Paris,|Toulon...), 1791. Fine. s.l. (Londres, Paris, Toulon...) 1791-1832, 12 000 feuillets de divers formats, en feuilles. - Exceptionnel ensemble des archives manuscrites inédites et complètes de Louis, Chevalier de Sade (1753-1832), auteur du Lexicon politique et cousin du Divin Marquis représentant environ 12 000 feuillets manuscrits dont plusieurs milliers inédits et écrits de sa main. Le Chevalier y expose un système de pensée de type «?holistique?», comprenant à la fois des réflexions historiques, politiques et scientifiques. Précieuses archives géopolitiques, historiques et scientifiques d'un aristocrate érudit, témoin privilégié de la fin de l'Ancien Régime, de la Révolution française, du Consulat, de l'Empire et de la Restauration. Fonds unique de recherches sur la mise en place d'une monarchie constitutionnelle. Si l'on regarde la Révolution Française comme la naissance de l'expérimentation de l'idéologie laïque et… Read More

1872. Good. 1 leaf (37 x 24 cm.). Printed form with handwritten information, dated 27 Dec. 1872, and with the gilt state seal. John M. Palmer, Governor of Illinois, commissions Stephen J. Towson as Notary Public of Cook County, Illinois. Signed by Palmer and the Secretary of State Edward Rummel. John M. Palmer (1817-1900) was governor of Illinois from 1891 to 1897. He had fought for the Union during the American Civil War, rising from colonel to brigadier general, and served as Kentucky's military governor. Edward Rummel (1838-1894) was Secretary of State of Illinois from 1869 to 1873. In Good Condition: 1 horizontal and 2 vertical creases, starting to separate; staining and discoloration; minor chipping along 2 sides.

1887. Very Good +. 1 printed commission form naming Joseph H. LeFevre a notary public, dated 30 March 1887 and signed by Gov. James A. Beaver and Charles W. Stone, Secretary of Pennsylvania. the form is filled in in an attractive hand, with a large gilt seal of Pennsylvania. Attached is a small form indicating that it was recorded in Adams Co. on 1 April 1887, with a smaller gilt seal of the Adams Co. Recorder's Office and the signature of the county recorder, I. S. Stonesifer. Israel S. Stonesifer (1839-1928) served in the 165th Pennsylvania Infantry during the Civil War. In addition to serving as county recorder, he was assistant superintendent of Gettysburg National Military Park. James A. Beaver (1837-1914) served during the Civil War as lt. col. of the 45th Pa. volunteers and then as colonel of the 148th Pa. volunteers, being wounded several times and eventually losing a leg. He served as governor of Pennsylvania from 1887 to 1891 and from 1895 to his death in 1914 sat on the state… Read More

1811. Near Fine -. 1 handwritten vellum deed (45 x 83 cm.) dated 2 April 1811. Rudolph Stauffer and his wife, Beata Reiner Stauffer, sell to John Price, storekeeper, 103 acres in Coventry Township, Chester Co., Pa., for 1,800 pounds "lawful money of Pennsylvania." Recorded 3 Feb. 1812 by recorder Charles Kenny. Signed by witnesses George Prise and David Kinehart, justice of the peace for Chester County John Hiester, Jr., recorder Charles Kenny, and Rudolph Stauffer and Beata Stauffer (Rudolph's name is in German script, while Beata's is not). In Near Fine- Condition: light soiling and discoloration; otherwise, clean and bright. An attractive early 19th-century vellum deed.

, 1848; Large (16 3/4" x 21") two-page indenture by which Ann E. Venicomb conveys to Isaac Darnel, both of Evesham Township, Burlington County, New Jersey, a tract of land in Evesham of approximately twenty one acres, bordered by lands of Daniel W. Lippincott, Joseph Even, Rachel Boggs, et. al., Note is taken that the land had come to Venicomb by deed from her sister Rachel E. Boggs, wife of Ossley (Ashley?) Boggs, as part of her late mother’s trust. Boundaries, corner points, and various landmarks are annotated. A note on the front adds that the courses and distances were taken from the old version in the year 1813. Signed by both parties, affixed with a seal, and witnessed by Ezra Evans, Commyssioner (sic) for the County of Burlington, September 12, 1848. Accompanying the deed is a hand drawn survey map of a twenty-plus acre plot, noting it is a "draft taken from several different deeds and not from actual running," and dated March 31, 1850 by Wm. W. Wills. The map is most… Read More