Category: Modern Editions

WELLS, Herbert George

WELLS, Herbert George. The Passionate Friends: A Novel.

London, MacMillan and Co., Limited, 1913.

£2000

FIRST EDITION. 8vo, original green vertically ribbed cloth, spine and front board with gilt lettering and vine motifs in blind, top fore-edge gilt. Light wear to joints, corners and spine caps. A Presentation copy, affectionately inscribed by the author to his friend Daisy Blumenfeld: “D. B. / from Herbert George / and someday we will win at tennis”. Even though we could not find much information on Daisy Blumenfeld, it is known that she was a good friend of Wells and they corresponded frequently. She appears in The Correspondence of H.G. Wells, edited by David C. Smith and Patrick Parrinder (London, 1998).

CROWLEY, Aleister

A REMARKABLE PRESENTATION COPY WITH ADDITIONAL ANNOTATIONS BY THE AUTHOR

CROWLEY, Aleister. Moonchild. A Prologue.

 London, The Mandrake Press, 1929.

£6000

FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Original sea-green cloth, titles to spine gilt. With the pictorial Beresford Egan dust jacket almost completely intact, only upper part of dust jacket, covering head of spine, torn away. Text clean and crisp, flawless. An important presentation copy inscribed by the author on front endpaper: “To Clements Hassell with sincere admiration of a fine artist and appreciation of an excellent friend, from Aleister Crowley, Oct 8, ’32 e.v.”. This “Clements Hassell” person is likely to be identified with Hilary Clements Hassell (1871-1949), who was a British painter of interiors, landscapes and some coastal scenes. E.v. stands for ‘era vulgaris’, which is a Latin expression for “common era”. This is placed after the date to differentiate it from Crowley’s Thelemic calendar, which starts in 1904 (the date the author claimed he received the book of the law). On the rear endpaper, very presumably in Crowley’s own handwriting, appear details of a two-day schedule accompanied by planetary symbols. These symbols represent days of the week (Mars, i.e. Tuesday, and Mercury, i.e. Wednesday). Crowley mentions meeting times, the name “Foyle” a “lunch at Grosvenor House”, where it is known he gave a lecture on Magick in 1932: “In September 1932 Crowley was invited to a literary luncheon by Christina Foyle. Christina Foyle’s owned Foyle’s bookshop in London and held a literary lunch every year. This was a small coup for Crowley, to be invited as the guest of honour and speaker. Crowley spoke on The Philosophy of Magick which was well received. A queue of women formed at the end of the luncheon to have him autograph their books.” Marlene Peckwood, The Feng Shui Journey of Mr Aleister Crowley, 2012, P. 205.

EISENHOWER, Dwight

AUTHOR’S PRESENTATION COPY

 

EISENHOWER, Dwight D. Crusade in Europe.

London, William Heinemann, December 1948.

£2500

8vo, 2nd ed. (1st UK ed.), pp. 582, half title, half tone plates, numerous maps to the text. Lacking dust jacket. Red cloth over boards and silver lettering to faded spine. Two small white stains on front cover, pastedowns with maps of occupied Europe. Lower hinge fragile and slightly cracked, still resistant though. Blind-stamped logo of The Windmill Press (Kingswood, Surrey) on rear cover. Author’s presentation copy inscribed on dedication page (To the Allied Soldier, Sailor and Airman of World War II): “For David Halton with greetings and best wishes from a former commander in SHAEF, Dwight Eisenhower, July, 1949.” A very good copy. SHAEF was Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force. In December 1943 Eisenhower became commander of the Allied invasion of Europe, and from October 1944 he commanded all the Allied armies in the west. In 1952 he was elected 34th President of the United States.

Eisenhower’s account of war, widely thought to be one of the finest American military biographies, the NY Times considering that it gave “the reader true insight into the most difficult part of a commander’s life.” This is a later printing; the first edition was published the earlier the same year.

JUNG, Carl Gustav

AN IMPORTANT PRESENTATION COPY WITH TWO CONTEMPORARY NEWSPAPER ARTICLES ON JUNG AND AN AUTOGRAPH NOTE INSERTED

JUNG, Carl Gustav. Modern Man in Search of a Soul.

London, Kegan Paul, 1936.

£4850

8vo, fifth impression (1st Ed. September 1933), pp. 282, AUTHOR’S PRESENTATION COPY inscribed to his secretary: “To Miss Robinson/ A Sign of Gratitude/ from the Author/ C.G. Jung/ Oct. 1936”, and with an autograph note inserted: “Miss Robinson/ Please ring up E.P. Goldschmidt and Co Ltd, 45 Old Bond Street/ tell them you are my secretary, they should send book of Nicolas Flamel to this place. I want it”*, publisher’s cloth, dust-jacket slightly marked and creased.

*JUNG ORDERS AN ALCHEMICAL TRACT FROM E.P. GOLDSCHMIDT: Flamel, the French mediaeval alchemist, was author principally of Le Livre des figures hiéroglyphiques, as well as Le sommaire philosophique, Le Livre des laveures, and Le Bréviaire de Flamel, his works being first published in the seventeenth century. Jung’s alchemical library is currently in the process of being digitised by the Jung Foundation in collaboration with ETH Zurich.

WARHOL, Andy

INSCRIBED AND HAND-DRAWN BY THE AUTHOR ON HALF TITLE

WARHOL, Andy. The philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B & Back Again).

London , Cassell, 1975.

£4500

FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. 241. Presentation copy Provenance; signed by author ‘To Ian [Reddington, “Tricky Dicky” in Eastenders]. Dog . . . Andy Warhol, London 1975’ With an original drawing of dog’s head on the half-title, publisher’s cloth, dust-jacket, with an unusual inscription in that Warhol has drawn a dog’s head, and not the familiar soup. A very fine copy.
Warhol on love, beauty, work, art and success, with piercing glimpses of the contemporary world and his own role in it, written with honesty and a lot of humour.

PINDAR

PINDAR. ΠΙΝΔΑΡΟΥ ΕΠΙΝΙΚΙΑ [Pindarou Epinikia]. Pindar’s Odes of Victory: the Olympian and Pythian Odes with an introduction and a translation into English verse by C.J. Billson. Embellished with wood engravings by John Farleigh.

Oxford: Printed by the Shakespeare Head Press (Stratford-upon-Avon) for Basil Blackwell, 1928.

£650

FRIST EDITION. 4to (282 x 195 x 50mm. (11 1/16 x 7 5/8 x 2in.), two volumes: pp. 1) xxii (ii) 297 (i); 2) xxi (iii) 193 (i). Limited edition of 250 copies (this in no. 100). Greek and Roman letter, parallel Greek and English text. Several woodcut illustrations. Bound in quarter black cloth with orange paper on stiff boards. Greek and English title stamped in black on front cover with an imperial eagle. In brilliant condition, just minor rubbing to edges and corners of covers. Untrimmed, paper label bearing title to spine beneath headcaps.

“There is nothing in the whole range of literature corresponding to the Greek odes of victory, the most splendid examples of which still surviving were composed by Pindar between the years 502 and 442 B.C., during the most flourishing period of the Greeks’ history, and in the high summer of their genius.” The Olympian Odes, introduction, v. “In these complex poems, Pindar commemorates the achievement of athletes and powerful rulers against the backdrop of divine favor, human failure, heroic legend, and the moral ideals of aristocratic Greek society. Readers have long savored them for their rich poetic language and imagery, moral maxims, and vivid portrayals of sacred myths” (Harvard University Press). The present copy was superbly printed at the Shakespeare Head Press of Stratford-upon-Avon on thick paper; an outstanding bilingual production on opposing pages, displaying Charles J. Billson’s delightful English translation. The fine woodcuts by John Farleigh are stylised illustrations in the Etruscan manner.

[RUSSIA] “THE GREAT WAY”

THE MAKING OF MODERN RUSSIA: A STUNNING PHOTO ALBUM SHOWING LANDSCAPES AND VIEWS FROM THE  EARLY TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY

“The Great Way”: Views of Siberia and the Siberian Railway.

Krasnoyarsk, I.R. Tomashkevich and M.B. Axelrode and Co., 1899.

£5000

Photo album (30x36cm), pp. (iv), 124 [= ill.]. Cyrillic type. Translation of subtitle: “Issue No. 1: From the river Ob to the river Yenisei and Tomsk branch. 124 views of the most important railroads, buildings, cities, villages, views of foreigners and scenic areas adjacent to the line. etc., with a description of them, compiled by V. A.; photos by Tomashkevich”; [auth. pref. Akselrode and Tomashkevich]. In a crimson buckram binding, beautifully illustrated on front cover in colours, with gilt title. Embossed gilt lettering to spine. Double blind panels and central tooling on rear cover. Only some very light spotting on initial three leaves. A perfect copy.

125 years ago, in 1891, work for the Trans-Siberian Railway began. Still today it is considered one of the greatest infrastructure projects in the history of mankind. A railway across Eurasia not only made the East closer, but also contributed to the creation of many cities, without which it is impossible to imagine Russia. It only took about 25 years to complete the railway. Created in Krasnoyarsk by I. R. Tomashkevich and M. B. Axelrode, this photo album was meant to proudly advertise and promote this difficult engineering enterprise by emulating the American example. It also instigated new communication policies aimed at the cultural unification of the Russian nation, as pointed out by the scholar Mikhaylova Natalia in “Confectionery trade cards from the series ‘The views of Siberia and the Siberian railway’ as part of mass visual culture of the late 19 early 20 century Russia” in ART&CULT, No. 18, 2-2015 (abstract: A series of trade cards “The views of Siberia and the Siberian railway” demonstrates some key points of the mass visual culture of the late XIXth and early XXth centuries. The series reflects the vision on Siberian Railroad and the symbolic appropriation of Siberia by a Central Russia resident): “A simple comparison of the Einem cards [chromolithographs] with the postcards from the album indicates that the latter with no doubts served as a source for an unknown artist of ‘Einem’. This method of memorialization of a large state-sponsored construction project had foreign analogues: in the late 1860s an album “Great West Illustrated” devoted to the construction of the Pacific railroad was published in the United States. However, the significance of the Tomashkevich-Axelrode album for its time was far more profound than just publishing the documents on Trans-Siberian Railway. It played an important role in promoting this ambitious construction project, both in Russia and abroad. The album was presented at the Exposition Universelle of 1900 in Paris and, along with the famous panoramas of P. Piasecky, was meant to shape a visual image of a new large-scale Russian undertaking in European audience. A series of trade cards produced by the partnership “Einem” may be regarded as the canonical mass-edition of this album. A world’s fair in Paris was widely covered in the press of the period, and the Russian public was well informed about the exhibits presented in the Russian pavilion that were dedicated to the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. It is likely that the album by Tomashkevich-Axelrode had a high cultural status. Those purchasing Einem candy boxes with a card from the Siberian series had thus an opportunity to share the experience of those who were able to visit the Exposition Universelle.”