Previews for this sale are available from Monday, January 30th to Thursday, February 2nd. Please contact John Dorfman (contact details at the bottom of the page) to schedule a preview time.Our winter Fine Books & Rare Manuscripts auction presents a range of material to excite and delight. The sale is highlighted by an important collection of over 180 historical documents, including letters from all the U.S. Presidents from George Washington to Franklin D. Roosevelt, literary lights from Poe and Longfellow to Dickens and Goethe, and a variety of American and European political figures. Accumulated in Boston over a 75-year period, the collection was originally sold by Goodspeed's Book Shop in 1936. Twentieth-century literature plays a prominent role, with a significant collection of literature and ephemera on offer. Focused on modernist masters such as James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, and Wallace Stevens, it is also strong on graphic design and the art of the book. Among the masters of enduringly popular literature is Ian Fleming, and our sale features a group of first editions of his James Bond novels. Other attractions include a photographic album depicting the leaders of the leftist Paris Commune of 1871, the first English translation of the Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita (1785), the first edition of Webster's Dictionary (1828), travel and exploration literature, private-press publications, and a collection of books on Asian art.

Poe, Edgar Allan (1809-1849), Autograph Letter Signed

[Bhagavad Gita] Wilkins, Charles (1749-1836), trans. The Bhagvat-Geeta, or Dialogues of Kreeshna and Arjoon. in Eighteen Lectures, With Notes., first edition, London: Printed for C. Nourse, 1785.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (1749-1832) Faust: Eine Tragodie von Goethe, Hammersmith: Printed by T.J. Cobden-Sanderson & Emery Walker at the Doves Press, 1906-1910

Fleming, Ian (1908-1964) Casino Royale, first edition, London: Jonathan Cape, 1953.

Brinkley, F. [Francis] (1841-1912) Japan: Described and Illustrated by the Japanese, Boston: J.B. Millet Company, 1897.

[Paris Commune] Photograph album

Beckett, Samuel (1906-1989) and Avigdor Arikha (1929-2010) The North, London: Enitharmon Press, 1972.

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