Manuscripts & Original Documents

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

Oblong quarto (278 x 208 mm). Unbound, folded. 29 pp. + 2 pp. of additional manuscript apparently not included in the final version. Notated in pencil on 16-stave paper. Signed and dated New York, Jan-April 1997. Supreme Virtue was commissioned by the Dale Warland Singers with the support of the Jerome Foundation and the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University. The Dale Warland Singers premiered the work in Minneapolis in June 2000. The text consists of an English translation by Stephen Mitchell of verses from the "Tao te Ching." It was first recorded by the Seattle-based chamber choir Esoterics on the Terpsichore label in the winter of 2008. "For a few years I was the tenor section leader of a choir in Washington, and in singing with and composing for them I'd become more and more interested in the quasi-instrumental vocal gesture. Stephen Mitchell's pellucid translation of this verse of the Tao te ching - a series of moral challenges all beginning with the words "Can you?" - spurred me to… Read More

London: Printed by John Baskett ... and by the Assigns of Thomas Newcomb, and Henry Hills ..., 1715.. [20,380],23,[3]pp. terminating at 3A4. Folio (465 x 285 mm). Contemporary black gilt paneled armorial goatskin, heavily gilt extra, a.e.g., marbled endsheets. Engraved frontispiece. Text in double columns, printed in black and red, the whole ruled in red. Spine and upper spine quadrant of upper board restored with black calf, edges of text block smoke-darkened, with occasional shallow isolated penetration into margins, early repair on verso of frontispiece, tidemark in upper forecorner/quadrant of last three text leaves and endleaves, small mend on verso of title at top margin, occasional hand-soiling and smudging, a few minor marginal nicks or short tears; in spite of these detractions, in the main a bright, crisp copy. One of two large folio printings of The Book of Common Prayer published by Baskett in 1715, this being the form that terminates at 3A4. This copy was associated with the family and… Read More

Arena. Published by Arrow books. London. 1983. FIRST EDITION. 8vo. (7.6 x 5 inches). Paperback. Illustrated throughout with black and white drawings by Steve Maguire. A very good copy with some minor rubbing to the edges but generally bright and tight. ---- With; A folder containing five A4 typescript and partial manuscript leaves of poems by Clarke that feature in the book, all in an early form and different from the published version, some quite substantially so. Number 1. Spilt Beans. -- 47 line poem. 31 lines (4 stanzas) typescript and the final 16 lines manuscript in JCC's hand in green ink. This version is very different to the published text. --- Number 2. Salome (published as Salome Maloney). 40 Line poem in 10 typed stanzas. This version substantially different to the published version. --- Number 3. Readers Wives. 20 line poem. 16 lines (4 stanzas) typed and four lines in JCC hand in green ink. There is a line and arrow showing the manuscript verse belongs between the second and third typed… Read More

Folio (ca. 356 x 278 mm.). Unbound. 9 leaves notated in pencil on one side of each leaf of 18-stave AZTEC C-18 music manuscript paper. A working manuscript, with erasures, alterations and cancellations. Together with: A copy of the published full score of the movement, i.e., pp. 107-138, and a 1-1/2 page printed commentary by the composer discussing the background of the work and briefly describing the music: "I should say, however, that as I was working on the last movement, I found myself thinking as much about the fox as about the hunting hounds. This, coupled with the fact that I recently acquired a recording of background music from the old movie serials that I used to go to as a kid, probably accounts for the quite ungentlemanly, almost lurid quality of the chase music." "Thurber's Dogs was commissioned for the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus and the Thurber House to commemorate the 100th birthday anniversary of author James Thurber. It was completed on August 13, 1994. The first… Read More

Northern France [probably Paris], ca. 1460s. 130 x 98 mm. (5 1/8 x 3 7/8"). Single column, 14 lines in a fine gothic book hand. Attractively matted. The text similarly decorated as in the previous entry, but with the panel border on the verso inhabited by a long-tailed pheasant, the same side WITH A DRAMATIC MINIATURE (measuring 35 x 33 mm.) OF SAINT GREGORY CELEBRATING MASS, the saint holding aloft the communion wafer WHILE THE FIGURE OF CHRIST RISES FROM THE ALTAR, BLOOD FROM THE WOUND TO HIS HAND CASCADING INTO THE CHALICE on the altar surface, the wall behind displaying the "Arma Christi," Gregory's doubting deacon kneeling behind him, and beside the deacon, a noblewoman recognizable as the owner of the Book of Hours. ◆A little faint soiling near edges, otherwise in fresh, bright, and altogether pleasing condition. Representing the most heightened of religious moments in general as well as a key point in the life of Saint Gregory specifically, this leaf features compelling actions being… Read More

Paris: J.L.L. d'Artrey, 1930. Manuscrit. Bon. En Feuilles. Signé par l'auteur. Ed. originale. Paris, J.L.L. d'Artrey, sd [1930-1956]. 7 volumes in-8, 4 - (6) - 674, 737 (2), 4 - 715 (3), (4) 626 (1), 861 (2), 4 - 743 (1), 75 (2) - 47 - 16 pp., reliés uniformément (pleine toile chamois à la Bradel), couvertures supérieures conservées. Le tome 1 est relié sans le faux-titre et porte au titre le timbre humide d'Edouard Pichon, les tomes 2 et 3 portent chacun un ENVOI autographe signé d'Edouard Pichon à son beau-père, le psychologue Pierre Janet, le tome 4 porte un DOUBLE ENVOI autographe signé des auteurs au même, le tome 5 comporte l'ex-libris manuscrit de Pierre Janet. Sans le tome 7 mais avec tous les suppléments. Tous les volumes comportent, de la main de Hélène Pichon, épouse d'Edouard Pichon et fille de Pierre Janet, d'innombrables corrections typographiques… Read More

Three pages, 1949. A sprawling, witty and provocative letter written by Pound early on during his extended stay at St. Elizabeth's hospital (12 years, from 1948-1859) to Helen Rossetti Angeli, the daughter of famed Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood co-founder William Michael Rossetti. Written in pencil on the full opened face, with two notes perhaps by HAR, and then on both flaps on the verso, with two wrap-around portions also possibly by HA Rossetti. A lengthy and fascinating letter. "Dear Mrs. Angeli, Thanks v. much for yo/ volume. but must protest no jacket yr/sister Olivia being certainly more alive than anyone in Italy definite purf, not jacket vs not all brit/publrs/ are of the line of Barabbas & born to be damned- perhaps the very printing machinery in England [side flap] Yeats' definition of yr island 'The only country where a man will lie WITHOUT being paid for it' endemic [side flap] lie DOWN not being able to bear the Truth. cordially Ezra Pound." Pound has also placed in the body of the letter,… Read More

Baltimore,: 1936-42., 1936. 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches (each). Gates was an Abraham Lincoln enthusiast, poet, author, and became a scholar of Civil War and Lincoln history. He was an officer of the New York City Civil War Round Table. These letters are all addressed to Arnold Gates and cover a variety of subjects. The tone is friendly, but terse. Both followed and perhaps donated to a prisoner named Joseph Russell, who was first a robber and then a forger and plagiarist. Mencken and Gates occasionally are light-hearted, such as M’s thoughts on persons born in September (including himself, naturally). He declines membership to the Roughriders Club "I have a set rule against joining anything." One letter addresses the abdication of Edward VIII. Another makes disparaging remarks about Gertrude Stein and T.S. Eliot. "H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), journalist, author and critic, worked as a reporter and drama critic for the Baltimore Morning Herald from 1899 to 1906. From 1906 to the end of his working career he… Read More

1718. [Grand St.Bernard] [c.1718]. [Grand St.Bernard] [c.1718]. Restoring Discipline in the Augustinian Community of Grand-Saint-Bernard [Manuscript]. Boniface, Louis. [Hospice de Grand-Saint-Bernard]. Opuscula Nonnulla R. Ludovici Bonifacii Canonici Regularis Coadiutoris ad Salutiferam Regularis Disciplinae Restitutionem. Sparsim Adiunctis Postea Latis a Sacra Episcoporum & Regularium Congegatione Decretis 1718. [Grand-St.-Bernard, c.1718]. 304 ff. Quarto (9-1/2" x 7"). Contemporary morocco with decorate blind stamping, stitched down center of spine, which has an early hand-lettered title panel, fragments of thong ties, untrimmed edges. Light rubbing to boards, somewhat heavier rubbing to extremities, early repair to foot of spine. Light toning to interior, text in neat hand, a few laid-in notes. A handsome item. $4,500. * This is a collection of canon law writings by Louis Boniface, intended (so the title page states) to restore discipline at the famous Augustinian community of Grand-Saint-Bernard… Read More

1820. København, 1820 (Original work published St. Pétersburg, 1813) 4to (190 x 258 mm). In later half cloth. Gilt lettering and stamp to front board. Two stamps to title-page. Manuscript in brown ink by Danish Rear Admiral Lövenørn. Fine and clean with text in very good and legible condition. (6), 32 pp. + coloured manuscript map of Strait of Sunda. Copy of Krusensterns 1813-map. (590 x 460 mm) Danish Manuscript translation of Krusenstern's commentary to his of map of the Strait of Sunda and Batavia habour from 1813. We have been able to locate only one other copy of this work (also a Danish translation, from 1815, but lacking the map), manuscript and printed, in Danish, Swedish or Norwegian. Despite the fact that the Strait of Sunda was sailed relatively frequently by European sailors, Krusenstern's 1813-memoir is one of the earliest reliable pilots to this strait. From the present memoire: "Although a strait so important as that of Sunda, frequented every year by more than 50 European ships,… Read More

New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1904. First Edition. Signed. Hardcover. Octavo. 8.75 x 5.75 inches. 123 pp (unpaginated). Good-. No dust jacket as issued. Inscribed with original poem and signed by author on front free endpaper. Original publisher's olive-green cloth binding. Floral decorations stamped on front board and spine. Lettered in gilt. Top edge gilt. Foredge deckled. Sewn binding. Printed on heavy, coated paper. Illustrated with 67 black and white photographs by Leigh Richmond Miner of the Hampton Institute Camera Club. Each page bordered with art nouveau floral decorations in dusty peach by Margaret Armstrong. Case has edge, shelf, and corner rubbing. Corners bumped. Circular water stain in center of upper board. Bump to foot of text block fore edge. Case and endpapers separated from text block. Text block cracked and shaken. Stitching tender. Endpapers browned. Grubby finger soiling to many pages. All elements present. Inscription in Dunbar's hand (see photo) is a short seasonal poem not… Read More

Paris, 1888. Fine. Paris 1888, 18x23cm, relié. - Manuscrit intitulé ""La Porcelaine de Chine"" orné de nombreux dessins originaux in et hors-texte en noir et en couleurs réalisés à même la page, sur de fins morceaux de papier de Chine contrecollés dans le texte ou sur des planches isolées de papier fort. L'exemplaire est également truffé d'une planche provenant du Costume historique de Racinet (1888) ainsi que d'une page imprimée de ce même texte. Il s'agit d'un recueil factice réalisé d'après plusieurs textes : Octave de Sartel, La Porcelaine de Chine (1881), Stanislas Julien, Histoire et fabrication de la porcelaine chinoise (1856), Maurice Paléologue, L'Art chinois (1887) et Louis Figuier, Les Merveilles de l'industrie (1873). Une dernière partie sur les bronzes chinois provient également de L'Art chinois de Paléologue. Tous les dessins sont réalisés d'après les illustrations des ouvrages sus-mentionnés et très… Read More

np, 1922. Superbly bound by G.E. Strong Lee, an illuminated manuscript in the form of an address finely executed on vellum in two full colorful pages with expert illumination, painting and gilt: 'To Percy L. Pewtress Esq., Organist at Lee Chapel, [Blackheath, London], 1883-1922, from the Congregation, April 1922," Finely bound in full green morocco by "G.E. Strong, Lee, S.E.," with front cover elaborately tooled and richly gilt, with four onlaid brown panels, flower heads in red and blue and with central monogram 'P.L.P." The rear cover with decorative gilt-paneled border, spine with five raised bands and fleur-de-lys motifs, marbled endpapers with inner dentelles gilt, the upper cover. Slim 8vo. (205 x 150 mm) A very fine example of illumination and tooled binding by a seemingly unrecognized bookbinder from southeast London.

There thosands of book on the life of Abraham Lincoln. This ten volumes are RARE AND HISTORICAL. "This has full and Authorized Record of his Private life and Public career. By his two private secretaries. John G. Nicolay and John Hay. With the assistance of Robert Todd Lincoln and the private papers and manuscripts in his possession."Rare Photographs, Maps, Private and Official Papers in Facsimilie.
The ten volumes are in very good shape. Vol. 6 has a slight tare on the top of the spine. The insie papes are all in good condition. This collection is a treasue of American History.