Incunabula of Art Nouveau, 1883

A. H. Mackmurdo. WREN"S CITY CHURCHES. G.Allen, Orpington 1883.

Current Selling Prices
$1250-$3000 /£650-£1600

ART / ARCHITECTURE/ ART NOUVEAU
An amazing book or at least an amazing title page (above) representing the first flowering of art nouveau in Britain and posssibly Europe, the only thing preceding it is thought to be some 'free flowing' wrought iron styles. Described thus in Rheims's Flowering of Art Nouveau “This title page is generally regarded as the first manifestation of Art Nouveau. It contains all the elements which were to emerge triumphant ten years later: broadly stylized flowers, undulating stems, leaves rising like flames, integration of the type design with the decoration, and an arresting distribution of black and white, giving the background a positive decorative value.”---Without the title page the book would be an unnoticed but useful work on the great Wren.

Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo (December 12, 1851 – March 15, 1942) was a progressive English architect and designer, who influenced the Arts and Crafts Movement, notably through the Century Guild, which he set up in partnership with Selwyn Image in 1882. Mackmurdo was a pupil of John Ruskin from 1873, whom he had accompanied to Italy and had apprenticed in the architectural office of James Brooks at 28 Southampton Street in London. Brooks was known for his Gothic revival churches. As they say at the Victorian Web:

Mackmurdo's infiuence on Continental Art Nouveau has also been recognised as seminal, especially through the curvilinear ornament of his title page for Wren's City Churches (1883), which echoes his chair-back of the previous year. Mackmurdo's architectural work, taken up again after 1888, included the Savoy Hotel (1889), a house in Chelsea for the artist, Mortimer Menpes with the most remarkable Japanese-style interior, and his own houses in Essex.

He edited with Herbert Horne The Century Guild Hobby Horse (1886- 1892. 28 issues) the key journal of the Arts and Crafts movement. Contributors include Selwyn Image, Ford Madox Brown, William Strang,G F Watts, W M & C G Rossetti, John Ruskin, E Burne-Jones, Oscar Wilde, J A Symonds, Mathew Arnold, J Todhunter, K Tynan, L Johnson, A Dobson, W S Blunt, A W Pollard, L Binyon, William Morris, G. F. Watts, John Ruskin,etc.

It has been handsomely reprinted in Japan by Yushoda at 280000 yen (circa £1200) An original complete run in nice shape could be £3K+. A lacklustre incomplete (20 issues) set (The Boston edition) was bought in on a feeble minded estimate of $8000/$12000 at Sotheby's 2001. Clean individual issue can make £100 to £200, less if soiled and used which they can often be (they were large and white.)

I was told about the book by the legendary dealer/ runner Andrew Henderson a lanky figure often seen in auction rooms in the 70s and 80s. He had taught art and had impeccable taste when it came to books and would occasionaly sniff them heartily, possibly to detect mould. I was just looking through old ABPC records to see the kind of things he bought. A partial list would include - Blake, Ricketts, Beerbohm, William Nicholson, James Guthrie, Christopher Dresser, Repton, Inigo Jones, Eragny Press, James Joyce letters, Waugh, Francis Crease, Greene 'Bear Fell Free', Bomberg, Gimson, Gaudier Brzeska, William Allingham, the occasional Rackham and Henry Shaw.

Although he was said to have a billionaire end user client he often took a while before he could drum up the money to clear his lots. He once caused gasps in the room by outbidding allcomers, including the phone, on an early 12 page Joyce letter ( apparently practically a mission statement.) He paid about £12,000 + commission which in the early 1980s would have got you a flat in Battersea.

VALUE? There is a copy for sale with many unpleasant ex library traits at $1500 and it's the only one. Who was it who said that the enemies of books were fire, water, servants, children and librarians? I have had the book twice and seen it 6 or 7 times and our last copy was a large paper one - "One of an undesignated number of copies on large paper. (Taylor p. 34) A.P.C., inscribed on front blank: ‘John Frazer, from his friend the author. Arthur Mackmurdo. May, 1884.’ Sold in 1996 for £1400. Might be yesterday's book, however there hasn't been a decent copy around for about 8 years. In the late 90s ordinary copies made about £400 to £600 in terrestrial auctions. In 1987 a 'fine' copy was catalogued by Charles B Wood III at $1600. The book is, so far, unknown to ebay, although Mackmurdo's furniture is regularly traded there.

The Art of Gesture. Dene Barnett, 1987.

Dene Barnett (with Jeanette Massy - Westropp.) THE ART OF GESTURE. THE PRACTICES AND PRINCIPLES OF 18TH CENTURY ACTING. Carl Winter University Press, Heidelberg, 1987.

Current Selling Prices
$300-$500? /£160-£260?

HISTORICAL STUDY / THEATRE /ACTING
500 page study. A little known book, but with a keen following. The code of dramatic gesture. Often cited in academia as 'massive and authoritative.' The late Dene Barnett, an Australian scholar and Professsor of Philosophy (Flinders) was the founder of the modern day 'Gesture Movement.' Academic books published in Europe in English are often highly elusive and this is not on the web and would appear not to show up there. Most info on this is in those academic journals you have to pay to see. Unless you have your institution paying for you, or are absolutely desperate for the info, or have alot of time to fill in forms and fish out a working credit card, forget it. One day they will have worked this out; not all scholars are in institutions.

Our pic is of La Comedie Francaise, Paris in the 18th century, no pics of the book can be found. The book is intended for the use of theatre historians, singers, actors, Early Dance fans, directors and teachers of acting. Its preface states the purpose:

'...is to give a detailed picture of the acting techniques used in the 18th century tragedy and serious opera, based entirely on contemporaneous sources...'

VALUE? No idea of value, not obviously a rich collectors subject, but decidedly scarce and impressively authoritative so let's say the London price of 80 grande lattes. Possibly copies come and go very swiftly and no one has come up with a dastardly enough price to hold it on the web for long--there are a lot of wants for it. It could be rare as hen's teeth. There was a paperback issue too - OCLC give it 7 ISBN numbers : 3533037169 9783533037163 9783533037163 3533037169 3533037150 9783533037156 9783533037156 3533037150 What's that all about.? [ W/Q ** ]

Horizon. 1940 - 1949. Cyril Connolly.

Cyril Connolly (edits.,) HORIZON: A Review of Literature and Art. London 1940 - 1949.

Current Selling Prices
$750-$1400 /£380-£750

LITERATURE / PERIODICAL
The first periodical (apart from BLAST) that we have covered and not esp scarce although hard to find a complete clean looking set. You need 120 issues in all. Last catalogued by us thus:

Numbers 1-120/121, complete run. French issue not present. Contributors include:- John Piper, Henry Moore, Paul Nash, Paul Klee, Alun Lewis, George Orwell, Ian Fleming, Osbert Lancaster, Arthur Koestler, Vita Sackville-West, W.H. Auden, Henry Miller,T.S. Eliot, Henry Moore, Randall Jarrell, Augustus John, Christopher Isherwood, Anna Kavan, W.S. Graham, Lucien Freud, William Empson, Graham Greene, Ian Fleming, Barbara Hepworth, Patrick White, Bertrand Russell, Dylan Thomas, John Betjeman, Stephen Spender, Edouard Roditi, Diana Witherby, Andre Masson, John Craxton, Paul Bowles, Robert Colquhoun, Cecil Beaton, Wallace Stevens, Louis MacNeice, John Banting, Terence Heywood, Brian Howard, John Waller, Denton Welch, Eudora Welty, Graham Sutherland, Virginia Woolf. French issue not present. The first issue (number 1 from Jan 1940) is a presentation from the editor Cyril Connolly -- written at the top in CC's hand is 'To his friend Stuart Preston with the Editor's compliments.' Stuart Preston, an American art critic, was a legendary society figure - friend of Powell, Waugh, Lees Milne, Nicolson etc., and is the original of the character in Waugh's Sword of Honour known as 'The Loot' - in fact he was known as 'The Sergeant' being that rank in the US army.

The French isssue is particularly elusive and you need it to be complete. Individual issues sell for only a pound or 2 with the special issue given over entirely to Evelyn Waugh's 'The Loved One' (February 1948) going for about £15 if nice. It used to be more and there are some chaps still charging £60+ but it's pretty common. There is a healthy market in periodicals and they go well on ebay, some rarer literary ones going for $100+ (The Exile, Broom etc.,) There is a hardbound American magazine from the 1950s also called HORIZON (A Magazine of the Arts). It has almost no value at all and we have actually had to pay a little extra to leave it behind when buying collections of books. Quite heavy in quantity. Think Reader's Digest for lack of value. On ebay they ask $3.

I tend to make up sets from vast quantities of duplicates choosing the best example of each issue, at present we are selling the Stuart Preston set and a while back we got a whole lot of issues from Sonia Orwell's estate (No annotations by anybody sadly-- George Orwell was a frequent contributor and in fact met Sonia there.) Another load came with the Horizon name plate (in copper as I recall) that someone had unstuck from the door, possibly the last action before the doors of the office of the great periodical were shut forever. It was slightly oxidised.

Cyril Connolly, Horizon's editor, was a fine writer who never produced a great work but a few great short stories, some of biblio interest (Jonathan Edax). Katherine Knorr of the NY Times said of him:

"He was... that banal literary tragedy, a man of considerable talent who somehow never pulled off the masterpiece, something he better than anyone explained in "Enemies of Promise," the mixture of literary theory and autobiography that, along with "The Unquiet Grave," constitutes his legacy... in ''Unconditional Surrender'' Waugh created one Everard Spruce, the editor of a literary review who likes good food and parties and is surrounded by helpful young ladies... Waugh and his wonderful poison-pen pal Nancy Mitford called (Connolly) 'Smartyboots.'"

To be called 'Smartyboots' by Waugh was no disgrace, he could be pretty cruel and even said some unpleasant things about Stuart Preston (see above.) He was no lover of Americans. Probably galling for CC to see him turn out a whole handful of masterpieces. If Evelyn was Bowie then at the very least Cyril was Iggy Pop.

VALUE? There are usually complete sets for sale at between $700 and $1500. Ours is $1150 and when I last looked was still there. It has not gone up much in value over the last decade but there are always takers for it, sometimes institutional.
[ W/Q * ]

Roberto Bolano (1953-2003)

Back in England, where it is Spring. In transit, I read a great piece in the New Yorker on Roberto Bolano, Chilean poet and novelist (1953-2003). He is now considered the greatest South American writer of his generation. His novel 'The Savage Detectives' (Los Detectives Salvajes)has just come out in English in USA and I ordered a copy, although one will probably come into the shop as a review copy. Comes out in April. It won the Rómulo Gallego prize, the most prestigious in Latin America. It has detective story elements. There is a good piece also on him at the New York Times. He was, like myself, a big admirer of Borges but had no time for magic realism ("it stinks" he said - good to hear someone say it). He derided Marquez - 'a man terribly pleased to have hobnobbed with so many Presidents and Archbishops.'

He called Isabel Allende 'a scribbler' whose 'attempts at literature range from kitsch to the pathetic...' Allende interviewed in 2003 dismissed him as an 'extremely unpleasant' man, adding 'Death does not make you a nicer person.' Bolano is quoted as saying about himself: 'If I were to say what I really think I would be arrested or shut away in a lunatic asylum. Come on, I am sure that it would be the same for everyone.' He said that the Nobel Prize was typically won by 'jerks.' He was probably referring to Marquez again, definitely Octavio Paz, possibly Heaney (Bolano regarded himself primarily as a poet) maybe Cela. Again not something you hear often and refreshing. Literature, he wrote, 'is the product of a strange rain of blood, sweat, semen and tears...'

In Mexico City mid 1970s he was part of a bunch of Mexican post Dadaists known as infrarealistas publishing iconoclastic magazines and engaging in many provocative acts such as disrupting poetry readings by Paz and others and shouting out their own poems. Bit of a junkie, he cleaned up in his 37th year and spent the last decade of his life writing furiously as he knew his time was limited. He lived in a tourist town on Spain's Costa Brava (Blanes) got married to Carolina Lopez, a Catalonian, and had 2 children.


His final novel 2666 is over 1100 pages and although unfinished it was published after his death, it is currently being translated into English by Natasha Wimmer. A voracious reader of anything from minor poetry to dime store novels. He was also familiar with Anglo-American literature, and was fascinated by such genre writers as James Ellroy, Philip K. Dick and Cormac McCarthy. He admired the latter day Surrealist painter Remedios Varo (also Catalonian). He stole most of his books and for that must be designated by us as an utter bastard. However there are excuses - he had a bloody hard life behind him including nearly being disappeared by the death squads of Augusto Pinochet....Wouldn't mind finding some of the Mexican mags. Lastly he wrote something called Porta Consigli di un discepolo di (Jim )Morrison a un fanatico di Joyce.What's that all about? Check out the New Yorker piece.

Art and Mystery of Tennessee Furniture

Nathan Harsh & C. Tracey Parks Williams. THE ART AND MYSTERY OF TENNESSEE FURNITURE THROUGH 1850. Tennessee Historical Society, 1988.

Current Selling Prices
$550-$800 /£280-£400 ISBN 0961596627

COLLECTABLES
Collectors and dealers book for the venerable Tennessee antiquer. Probably essential if you are dealing in it. 345 pages, copiously illustrated in colour and black and white throughout. The Amazon person has it thus :-

This pioneering study has been meticulously assembled through extensive fieldwork throughout Tennessee. Lifestyles of Tennesseans prior to 1850 ranged from mountain cabins to plantation mansions and the furnishings were designed to accommodate either setting. Here is a variety of desks, bookcases, and secretaries; sideboards, presses, cupboards, dressers, wardrobes, bureaus and bedsteads; sugar chests and cellarets; candlestands and shaving stands and washstands; cradles, bed steps, chairs, benches, sofas, and tables in dozens of sizes, uses, and names. Featuring many pieces from private collections never before documented, "The Art and Mystery of Tennessee Furniture" chronicles the originality of design and decoration, the choices of woods, and the simplicity and sophistication that signifies "made in Tennessee." The authors consider sources of labor, location of shops, volume of production, and marketing techniques. Just as important, the authors have conducted exhaustive research into the identities of Tennessee artisans and the furniture industry, and the book includes a checklist of 1,400 furniture makers working in Tennessee prior to 1850. This will be the definitive study for years to come.

Could find no pics of the book or even a definitive piece of Tennessee furniture so, because I must have a pic, have got Linda Thompson (song writer, former Miss Tennessee, former "Hee Haw" gal, but best known as Elvis' LAST girlfriend) up there. Not entirley sure what a "Hee Haw" girl is or does. I guess dating Elvis is the American equivalent of dating Prince Charles... [ W/Q *** ]

VALUE? Originally sold at the Tennessee State Museum, another ed came out in the same year from University Publishing Association. Google reveals a Tennessee dealer saying it is essential in the field and worth $700 and for a while there were no copies available; at present 2 on Amazon at $600 and $1200 (money goes to a charity) ABE has an egregious relister with one at $2000 . $600 to $700 should be enough, every time a dealer dies or goes bust one will pop up.

Interaction of Color. Josef Albers, 1963.

Josef Albers. INTERACTION OF COLOR. Yale University Press, 1963.

Current Selling Prices
$3500-$6000 /£1800-£3200

ART / COLOR THEORY
A copy we sold in 2003 we descibed thus:-'Small folio. 1963. 2 volume set in dark brown textured cloth original printed slip case. Two folio volumes: Volume One contains 80 pages of Albers poetic text. Volume Two contains 80 serigraph colour plates (complete) loosely inserted in a folder. They are arranged to show the effects a variety of colours have on each other, together with these is a 48 page 'Commentary' in plain black wraps. Among the 'authors' of the serigraphs is the US poet Mark Strand, a pupil of Albers who contributes 2 serigraphs. Books are also bound in dark brown textured cloth and are near fine , as is the slip case..'

I see this slip-case sometimes described as a box (a 'cloth drop-back box' on one occasion.) It can show up with less than its compliment of plates - one seller explains (he had 79 out of the 80) - 'Apparently it was common for the publisher to miscount in this particular book and not include all of the screen prints.' All copies in auction have had 80, although I have seen people selling the Mark Strand ones separately but only for a few hundred dollars. Not sure how many were printed but copies seem to show up almost every year, none on net at present, although Google reveals a dealer with one with 'price on demand' - usually means an unpalatable sum.



VALUE? Our copy sold after about 6 months at circa $3800. A copy (the one with 79) seems to have shifted in 2006 at $5500 and another copy at Swann in NY in 2005 made $7500, although in 2006 a copy made $3000, possibly in lesser condition. A slightly volatile book that can dip beneath $2500 and scale $7K, condition, as always, a factor. Most copies seem to go through Swann, possibly Albers in original state is a New York taste. The book has been much reprinted as a paperback and is used in art schools throughout the world. [ W/Q ** ]

Ilsa. Madeleine L'Engle, NY 1946.

Madeleine L'Engle. ILSA. Vanguard Press, NY 1946.

Current Selling Prices
$350-$750 / £200-£400


Scarce and much wanted novel by juvenile cult SF writer. Her works reflect her strong interest in modern science; mitochondrial DNA, for instance, is featured prominently in A Wind in the Door, tesseracts in A Wrinkle in Time, organ regeneration in Arm of the Starfish and so forth. Mitochondrial DNA also interested Patricia Cornwell, as I recall, in her hunt for the Ripper-- world class painter Sickert, apparently.


Ilsa is said to be a rather disturbing but, au fond, an unsatisfactory work and Ms L'Engle has never allowed it to be reprinted, although signed copies are not unknown.The Wikiman says '...(its) continued unavailability appears to stem from the author's own reported dissatisfaction with the book.'



VALUE? A couple of ex libs around $200, half decent $400 and 2 signed in jackets at $500 and $900. No copies sound anything approaching fine. The Vanguard Press has published some interesting writers including M.P. Sheil, Dr. Seuss, Rex Stout, Patrick Dennis, Pierre Boulle, James T. Farrell and Saul Bellow's first two books. They also seem to have done some vanity publishing including a very strange conspiracy theory book on the Beatles in the 1970s which I have only seen once. Some Vanguard books were only printed in small quantities and are hard to find.[ W/ Q ** ]

Aran Knitting. Alice Starmore, 1997.

Alice Starmore, ARAN KNITTING. Interweave Press, Loveland, Colorado, U.S.A., 1997. (ISBN: 1883010330)


Current Selling Prices
£250-$600 /£130-£300

KNITTING / FASHION / CELTIC
Much wanted attractively illustrated quite large jacketed knitting book with full-color photographs of the Aran islands and its people. Starmore describes local Celtic history and clarifies the origin of Aran knitting. Includes 60 meticulous pattern charts. Alice Starmore has been described as 'one of the knitting world's living treasures' - in fact, a purl amongst women (you're fired, ed.) A contemporary review reads:

"What I found fascinating, having been a history major in a previous life, was her use of "primary sources" to make her argument that the Aran patterns originated from the experiments of one gifted knitter who took the Scottish gansey one step further. The "primary sources" that Starmore examines are Aran sweaters in the collection of the National Museum of Ireland. One of the most interesting parts of this book was her analysis of these pieces. For me, this book was worth buying just for the first 45 pages...Alice Starmore also provides the reader with two chapters of patterns of her own. One consists of "classic" Aran designs. These are absolutely gorgeous. The patterns are intricate and complex without being overwhelming and busy. The next chapter consists of sweaters using Alice Starmore's invention of infinite lines and Celtic knots to echo Celtic line art, such as the Book of Kells."

This reviewer is slightly less impressed by her chapter on designing your own Aran sweater, but possibly because what goes before is so excellent.

VALUE? Regularly turns up on ebay-- 4 copies in the last month none perfect but most in pretty good shape made on average $250. Always quite a few on Amazon, sometimes as low as $225 but condition can be variable. On ABE atc., they start at $300 and go up to $800. The latter price probably from a time when the book was thought to be uncommon. No longer hard to find but never cheap. [ W/Q *** ]

Et Tu Healy? James Joyce, 1891.

"His quaint-perched aerie on the crags of Time
Where the rude din of this . . . century
Can trouble him no more."

James Joyce. ET TU HEALY? (PARNELL.) Privately Published /Alleyn and O'Reilly (Printers), Dublin 1891.

Possible Selling Price
£1,000,000+ / $2,000,000+

LITERATURE / JUVENILIA/ POETRY / LOST BOOK
A broadsheet poem by James Joyce said to have been published by John Joyce, his proud father, in 1891 when Joyce was nine years old. No copies have ever surfaced. There is, however, highly credible evidence for its having been printed and distributed among friends and family. Whether any copies have survived is another matter. The evidence comes from 4 sources - Joyce's father, Joyce himself, his brother Stanislaus Joyce and the dealer Jacob Schwartz of the Ulysses bookshop in High Holborn, London.
Stanislaus Joyce wrote in his 'Recollections of James Joyce' (1950)

He tried poetry, too, in the style of the drawing-room ballads to which he was accustomed ('My cot, alas!, the dear old shady home'), but the most successful was a piece on the death of Parnell, which I see mentioned apparently with my brother's sanction, by the title of 'Et Tu, Healy', though I do not remember that it bore that title. It certainly was a diatribe against the supposed traitor, Tim Healy, who had ratted at the bidding of the Catholic bishops and become a virulent enemy of Parnell, and so the piece was an echo of those political rancours that formed the theme of my father's nightly half-drunken rantings to the accompaniment of vigorous table-thumping. I think it was in verse because of the rhythm of bits of it that I remember. One line is a pentameter. At the end of the piece the dead Chief is likened to an eagle, looking down on the grovelling mass of Irish politicians from

His quaint-perched aerie on the crags of Time
Where the rude din of this . . . century
Can trouble him no more.

The production was much admired by my father and his circle of friends, whose judgement, in questions of literature at least, was as immature as the budding author's. My father had it printed, and distributed the broad sheets to admirers. I have a distinct recollection of my father's bringing home a roll of thirty or forty of them. Parnell, however, died when we were still at Bray, so the piece must have been written some months or a year after Parnell's death, because I am positive that the broadsheet was printed when we were living at Blackrock. My brother was, therefore, between nine and ten years of age when his ambition to be a writer bore its first timid blossoms. The lines I have quoted have stuck in my memory because 'the dear aerie' were standing jokes between us as late as when we were living at Trieste. Moreover, in the first draft of A Portrait of the Artist, now called Stephen Hero, the poem was assigned to the period I have indicated, and, further, describing a hasty packing up and departure from Blackrock, my brother referred to the remaining broadsheets, of which the young Stephen Dedalus had been so proud, lying on the floor torn and muddied by the boots of the furniture removers.

Richard Elmann, Joyce's bographer, has always insisted that Stanislaus Joyce was a man of great integrity and a truthful and reliable source of information.

Ellmann reports in his biography that John Joyce (who died in 1931 and didn't think much of his son's Ulysses) told dealer Jacob Schwartz in regard to the broadsheet: "Remember it? Why shouldn't I remember it? Didn't I pay for the printing of it and didn't I send a copy to the Pope?' I have heard that some enterprising dealer went to Rome and managed to check the Vatican's holdings without any success. It is not surprising, because even if it had arrived there a broadsheet is likely to be misplaced or, at best, miscatalogued. There is some suggestion that the piece may have been called 'Parnell' - and our dealer may not have looked under 'P.'

I do not have Slocum's bibliography with me (I am in San Francisco) but I recall something about a receipt for the printing having been seen by a reliable witness. I know that Slocum quotes four further lines from the poem:

My cot alas that dear old shady home
Where oft in youthful sport I played
Upon thy verdant grassy fields all day
Or lingered for a moment in thy bosom shade.

Joyce remarked to Harriet Weaver that he had parodied these lines in 'Finnegans Wake.'

So where is this valuable item? If it is around a copy would be with the Joyce family or relations or Blackrock friends and neighbours the Murrays, Monaghans, Thorntons, Sheehans, Gallahers etc., A surviving copy could show up loosely inserted in some sheet music, or old Dublin Newspapers or magazines or in a scrap album or possibly bound up with other poems and pamphlets.

It is not unthinkable a copy would survive, for example such ephemeral items as the auction catalogue of the disgraceful and hurried auction at Oscar Wilde's house in Tite Street show up every now and then. However Joyce's vision of removal men treading the paper into the ground is all too believable. Also, as Ellmann notes, there was a lot of shame and disgrace around the Joyce name in Ireland after the supposed obscenity of 'Ulysses' was reported there - so any remaining copies could have then been destoyed.

There are many instances of books that were published with no copies having survived, mostly minor works. The most famous, and certainly even more valuable than 'Healy' if it ever turned up, is the Shakespeare play 'Love's Labors Won.' The dealer Pottesman ('Potty' - a great runner of incunabula) discovered in 1953 the August 1603 booklist of the stationer Christopher Hunt, which lists as printed in quarto:"Marchant Of Vennis[sic], Taming Of A Shrew, Loves Labor Lost, Loves Labor Won." There is other evidence but in general it is more doubtful than the Joyce juvenilia.

VALUE? Joyce published 2 other broadsheets 'The Holy Office' (1904/5) and 'Gas from a Burner' (1912) which show up irregularly at serious money. 2 not bad copies showed up at the 2004 sale of the much loved Quentin Keynes making £27000 (Holy) and £14,000 (Gas). The Joyce market is strong but fickle, collectors (not always cultured) come and go. At one point Joyce highspot prices depended on the severity of North American winters, as the biggest punter was a glove manufacturer. From the Quentin results one could very vaguely extrapolate a price if 'Et Tu Healy' showed. Say 30 times the pair + £200K for luck = £1.43 million or $2.7 million. There is a limit because it is the work of a nine year old boy, very slight and damn it, another could turn up!

Compiled in an airport hotel room using an Ellmann from a local bookshop, a paperback of Stanislaus, memory of bookdealer's anecdotes, Google, speculation, leaps of faith and Peet's good coffee. If anyone can shed any further light please write or comment, might touch it up when I get home to my own reference library.

India in Transition. Aga Khan, 1918.

His Highness Aga Khan. INDIA IN TRANSITION. A Study of Political Evolution By His Highness Aga Khan, Putnam, NY & Warner, London 1918.

Current Selling Prices
$900-$2000 /£450-£1100

ASIAN HISTORY / POLITICS
Scarce, valuable and much sought after book. The New York edition is white cloth lettered gilt at the spine so attracts soiling and is unlikely to show up in stellar condition. This Aga Khan (III) was the 48th Ima'm of the Shia Ismaili Muslims known as Sultan Muhammad Shah (1877-1957.) He was writing on the need for reforms among Muslims, communal electorates and representation. The Story of Pakistan site says of him that he:-

'...greatly contributed towards the political cause of the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent. He led the Muslim delegation to Simla in 1906 where the Muslims, for the first time, put forward their demand for a separate electorate. He was elected the first president of All India Muslim League in 1906, an office that he held till 1912. Aga Khan was a man of vision and was of the opinion that the reform scheme introduced by the British would be beneficial to the Muslims. He wrote a book on the need of reforms for the Muslims, known as "India in Transition", which was published in 1918.'

He made his first trip to Europe in 1898 and was received graciously at Windsor Castle by Queen Victoria who sat him beside her in the seat reserved for the highest religious head in the country. This signal honour occasioned great surprise, as no foreigner had been shown so much respect before, and was given wide publicity. He answered many questions about the famine and plague in India and was given a respectful hearing by a distinguished company.

At Devonshire House and Landsdowne House, lavish parties were given in his honour. "He wore pince-nez and twirled a neat black moustache which gave him an appearance more academic than military, but there was a sparkle in his conversation that titillated a London influenced by Wilde and Beardsley..."remarked one of His Royal Highness's biographers. His horse Jeddah, won the Epsom Derby (100 to 1 odds) - the first win for the colours of the Aga Khan. The first of many! [ W/Q * ]


VALUE? One copy listed at an ambitious price, perhaps several times its real value given condition (and tried without sale on ebay) has been there a year at a fluctuating £3000; another better copy at £2500 (the preferred London edition) is no longer for sale. Possibly a flash in the pan price although there is alot of money in some Indian items due to the many high net worth Indian collectors. It is also the only copy currently available although cheaper copies may come and go quite quickly with this price as a marker.

It is hard to believe that a book published in London and New York by major publishers is so thin on the ground. One thing you never see are the books that sell upon upload. Lastly a look at ebay shows a copy from Sep 2006 rebound in leather seliing at £200 and another mentioned as having sold at £400. Ebay, as always, throws a curve ball at the prices. It is possible there was also an Indian edition (in English.)

Ignition!: An informal history of liquid rocket propellants. John D. Clark, 1972.

John D. Clark. IGNITION! An informal history of liquid rocket propellants. Rutgers University, USA 1972.

Current Selling Prices
$150-$250 /£80-£130 Want level 25-50 Highish

SCIENCE / ENGINEERING
This is rocket science. Cult book among rocket geeks or the aspiring 'rocketeer.' Includes amusing stories e.g. an attempt to use skunk oil as a fuel. Talk about stinks and bangs! 232 pages with illustrations. Couldn't find a pic of the book so used a stock ignition type photo.

VALUE? Mainly available as a POD (Print on demand) at about $85, the actual book is scarce and only one is available at Amazon USA. Takes 2 to 4 weeks to source which often signifies that the book will not be found. Also typically there is no mention of condition and no one to ask (you can't talk to a monolith) and there is an assumption that it doesn't matter. To paraphrase Russell Crowe -- 'Condition isn't everything, (it's the only thing!)'


As an old theses it can also be got as a POD from UMI (University Microfilms) in Ann Arbor at about $100. This is said to be true of all university theses although I have never tested it. You need patience. I have had those funky UMI paper wraps books through and they do a pretty good job. Depends whether you want to use the book or collect it. Rockets, space exploration and astronomy are all very saleable subjects - watch this space.

STOP PRESS. In late Feb 2008 the only available copy to be found at abebooks.com is $90 from Babbit's described thus:

Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ [published date: 1972] Hardcover Typical library defects. Boards moderately smudged with library tape residue, spine and boards slightly edgeworn. Endpapers mildly soiled. Interior clean, binding tight. Dustjacket mildly rubbed, smudged, and edgeworn. ; Ex-Library; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 214 pages; Rare--technology kvk orange/black scicat.

I.e. a pretty execrable copy stopping just short of hideous. The POD is still there (and will be till 2525 as it only comes into being when desired) and a copy (at Alibris.com) described thus - 'New, authorized, professionally-bound facsimile reprint. Any photographs may not be as crisp as the original' commands a stratospheric $180. Reprint it Rutgers!

Americana. Don DeLillo, 1971

"America is the world's living myth. There's no sense of wrong when you kill an American or blame America for some local disaster. This is our function, to be character types, to embody recurring themes that people can use to comfort themselves, justify themselves and so on. We're here to accommodate. Whatever people need, we provide. A myth is a useful thing." Don DeLillo.

Don DeLillo. AMERICANA. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1971. ISBN 3499134802




Current Selling Prices
$650-$1000 /£350-£520


MODERN FIRST EDITION
Novel of an attempt to find the heart of America by privileged refugee from the 'souless sycophants' of the NY media. The first work of the modern master of American fiction, some claim the most significant debut since WW2. Might be pushing it. Certainly a literary genius, not sure where the above quote came from...if he wrote it around the time of "Americana' it's weirdly prescient.

VALUE? True firsts are usually a little north of $800 if fine in fine. Jacket tends to get worn so flawless copies are not common. Add a couple of hundred or more for a signature. 4560 copies printed of the first. Not scarce at present, but DeLillos's reputation and collectability are likely to increase. His signature is not especially elusive - you can buy a fine/fine signed copy of his great JFK assassination book of 1988 Libra for £40 at ABE as we speak. I'm tempted. [WL 26/ Highish]

Mad Hatter Syndrome

I've been looking for a name for the phenomenon referred to a few days back with Lady Liza Lizard - a the book that became more expensive in web listings as the condition got worse. I wrote: 'Sometimes you get a perfect vertical gradation where there are, say, 6 copies each more expensive than the other and the most expensive is in the worse condition and as they get cheaper they improve in condition with the cheapest being the best. This is perfectly logical because the more greedy a seller is the more he will ignore the effect of condition on price - so the worst copy is often the most expensive. This phenomenom deserves a name - reversed condition paradox? '

I have been trying to find a less cumbersome name. We are talking here of a counter intuitive world, where everything is the opposite of what it should be - surely this is the upside down world of 'Alice in Wonderland' - and the Mad Hatter's tea party? I'm thinking of calling it Mad Hatter Syndrome - the tendency to price a book without regard to condition , in fact in its extreme form to 'up' the price because of the poor condition.


It is said there are some people, possibly entire nations, who are impressed by ex library books due to the idea that to have been in a library the book must be important. This is why people use words like 'retired from a library', as if the book had put in long and honourable service there, and even (though it's scarcely credible) some who regard poor condition as an indication that the book was much loved ('cherished' is the word).

Talking of expensive prices our colleague and fellow book ranter Driffield (no copies known) had a theory that if a dealer's books were too expensive you should look closely at his or her stock because the high prices were a sign of ignorance and somewhere there would be a thumping bargain. A nice idea and occasionally it works but usually the overpricing covers all mistakes.

If the dealer has got it bad, no one can afford to buy a book from them and they eventually go bust and end up selling ' 'The Big Issue' on the mean streets of London, accompanied by a dog on a rope and a can of K9. Later we turn up and buy his books from a creditor at 5% of marked price and sell them, not especially fast, at about 15% of marked price. At that point you can test Driffield's theory in detail. What actually happens is there is the occasional book (say 2% of the stock max) where you can actually get the price written in it. It's a mad world, my masters.

8000 items of Ephemera

We don't normally advertise our wares here but this collection needs an airing. 25 years of stuff that came with the books to our Charing Cross Road shop or actually fell out of books. Not for sale at present (needs sorting) five figure sum in mind -- this is just a fraction of it, mainly chosen for their graphic qualities. (Click on the image to enlarge, good sharp pics thanks to Nikon Sureshot.)




In 32 Banker's boxes (16 x 13 x 10") about 8000 items. Including Trade cards, Bill heads and letter heads, labels, admission tickets, handbills, receipts, menus, pamphlets, trade catalogues, certificates, invitations, bookplates and book labels, telegrams, carrier bags, theatre programmes, publishers fliers, autograph letters, autograph post cards and albums, Valentine and Christmas cards, scraps and diecuts, certificates, calling/ visiting cards, propaganda, postcards, government announcements, autographs, travel brochures, menus, cigarette cards, bus, train and tram tickets, maps, plans, public notices / leaflets/ proclamations, pamphlets, bookmarks, safe passes and membership cards - also early 19th Century and late 18th Century broadsheets, receipt books and political flyers.





Themes include political, theatrical, religious, erotic, shipping, military,aviation, wartime, spectacles and spectaculars, British Empire, South American travel (a significant amount) exhibitions, festivals and fairs, heraldic, food and drink, wine trade, children/ toys, domestic appliances, smoking, hotels, property, auctions, publishing and printing history, advertising, interior decoration, freemasonry, religious, occult, celebrity, cinema, advertising, music, transport, golf, tennis, sport and public entertainment.



Also photo albums, postcard albums, stamp albums, small scrapbooks, sample books, trade brochures, old photos, literary and publishing ephemera. Mainly British 20th Century but with a good proportion of rare earlier items, mostly in very decent condition.












More values tomorrow. Will probably do American genius Don DeLillo.

The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4 ( J. T. Milik)

THE BOOKS OF ENOCH.ARAMAIC FRAGMENTS OF QUMRAN CAVE 4. [ Jozef T. Milik & Others] Oxford University Press, 1976. ISBN 0198261616

Current Selling Prices
$450-$800? /£220-£380?

RELIGION / ARCHAEOLOGY/ EARLY CHRISTIANITY
Milik, priest and scholar (1922 - 2006) known as 'the fastest man with a fragment' was part of the team that worked on the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls between 1947 and 1956. These 8 manuscripts (on scraps of smooth ancient leather) were found in Cave 4 by Bedouin tribesman and are practically the only known surviving Biblical documents written before 100 A.D. There is much interest in the divinely inspired Enochian material but most of it is available on the net. 500 pages, octavo and well illustrated, a nice Clarendon Press production. An example of the translation:

E[superscript]a I ii
12. ...But you have changed your works,
13. [and have not done according to his command, and tran]sgressed against him; (and have spoken) haughty and harsh words, with your impure mouths,
14. [against his majesty, for your heart is hard]. You will have no peace.

En[superscript]a I iii
13. [They (the leaders) and all ... of them took for themselves]
14. wives from all that they chose and [they began to cohabit with them and to defile themselves with them];
15. and to teach them sorcery and [spells and the cutting of roots; and to acquaint them with herbs.]
16. And they become pregnant by them and bo[re (great) giants three thousand cubits high
Transcription by J. T. Milik, amended by J. C. Greenfield; translation by J. C. Greenfield

VALUE?
Very hard to find. One copy on the web at present at £650 with a known relister, a slightly silly price and probably a relisting of a cheaper copy that has subsequently sold , so book is non existent. It has been there many moons. A lot of people want it but in general don't like to be taken as mugs.[Want level 25-50 Highish ]

All Quiet on the Western Front. Erich Maria Remarque, 1929

"We are like children who have been abandoned and we are as experienced as old men, we are coarse and superficial - I think we are lost."


Erich Maria Remarque. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. Little Brown (NY) or Putnams (London) 1929.

Current Selling Prices
$400-$1200 /£200-£600







FIRST WORLD WAR NOVEL
The German novel of the Lost Generation - those disillusioned souls who survived the war that was supposed to end all wars. Sometimes known as the Generation of 1914 or more poetically Génération du Feu, the Generation of Fire. Madly successful novel, sold 3 million in German and the US first was 100,000 so it is never going to be scarce. Considered by some to be brutal and coarse, unhealthy German interest in latrines etc.,

Filmed and won an Oscar. The 1929 English translation by A. W. Wheen gave the title as All Quiet on the Western Front - the literal translation is in fact "Nothing New in the West" (Im Westen Nichts Neues.) The West being the term for the war front used by the German Army. Wheen's phrase has stuck and is now used in many unlikely contexts.

Probably the most famous of all WWI novels beyond even The Good Soldier Schweik, A Farewell to Arms, Her Privates We, Death of a Hero (Aldington) Parade's End, Under Fire ( Barbusse) . A memoir by his fellow countryman Ernst Junger 'Storm of Steel' is also worthy of mention. The Vietnam equivalent might be 'If I Die in a Combat Zone' by Tim O'Brien from 1973 - a memoir using some fiction techniques. A valuable book that I will cover at some point. Remarque was drafted into the German army at age 18, he was wounded several times. With Owen and many others he showed the inhumanity of war, exposers of 'The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est, Pro patria mori.'

In 1933 he had the honour of having his books burnt by the Nazis, later in Hollywood he married the beautiful Paulette Goddard. He died in 1970. He is buried in the Ronco cemetery in Ronco, Ticino, Switzerland, where Goddard is also interred. Goddard left a bequest of $20m to New York University to fund an institute for European study which is named after Remarque.

VALUE? $400 to $1400 for jacketed copies in decent state. The US is more common than the British but is a better looking book. It is possible to buy decent copies in rather used jacket s for as low as $200. A really sharp jacketed copy would leave little change from $2000. The jacket (looks like Hohlwein but seems to be signed Hensk) I feel sure is from a poster. [ W/Q ** ]

A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens, 1843.

Charles Dickens. A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Chapman and Hall, London 1843.

Current Selling Prices
$8000 - $18000 / £4200 - £9000



CLASSIC LITERATURE / GHOST STORY
A Dickens classic, possibly his most famous. Correct firsts must have the words 'Stave 1' at the heading of the first chapter (NOT 'one' - people often confuse this and it's an expensive mistake to make.) There are other points but if you have the number 1 stave you're almost there. Endlessly filmed, cartooned and trotted out every Christmas.

Sometimes seen in pompous bindings, including the unpleasant but dear Cosway binding (which also gets trotted out every Christmas) and often in full red calf with the other 4 Christmas books. Not scarce, but limpid copies are very difficult to find and command serious dosh.

VALUE? 2 copies made $15000 at auction in 2005, both nice but neither in breathtaking condition. There are 3 copies on net at just over £20K and reasonable copies of the 1843 later issue at $4000 or so and some decent rebound early issue sets of all five Christmas books in the low thousands o' dollars. A copy inscribed to Thomas Hood sold for $50K in 1997, a year earlier a copy inscribed to Walter Savage Landor made $160,000.

Highly expensive 'fresh' copies often get sold to 'carriage trade' customers and don't get dumped on the internet. Great copies tend to turn up in odd places; watch out for repaired, tarted up, sophisticated and ringed copies. Reasonable but slightly worn copies and rebound ones can be bought for less painful sums than the above.

Our photo left is of a copy stolen in a heist at the Dickens Museum London August 2002. Note the slight black mark on the front cover at about 3 o'clock. The museum estimated it's cost at beteen £20,000 and £30,000. The museum is at 48 Doughty Street, Bloomsbury, where Dickens lived from 1837 to 1839. If offered it please call the police or the A.B.A. It was reported by the BBC 'Audacious raid on Dickens museum' and there are other pics of the book at their site. Andrew Xavier the curator said:'It is really sad and rather ironic that it is Dickens' book of goodwill to all men. ' [Want level 25-50 Highish ]

Althea Joins the Chalet School. Elinor Brent Dyer, 1969.

Elinor Brent Dyer. ALTHEA JOINS THE CHALET SCHOOL. Chambers, London, 1969.

Current Selling Prices
$220-$400 /£100-£200 Want level 25-50 Highish

CHILDREN'S BOOK / GIRL'S SCHOOL FICTION
EBD's Chalet School novels have a very large world wide following with collectors willing to pay high 3 figure sums for difficult o/p titles. They are beautifully written multi layered stories with much period detail and a Swiss setting. There are conferences, quizzes, newsletters and websites.

Elinor Brent Dyer wrote 101 girls' stories many with school settings. A holiday spent in the Austrian Tyrol at Pertisau-am-Achensee gave her the inspiration for the first location in the Chalet School series. Her teaching career spanned 36 years with her final post as Headmistress of a school in Hereford. She also wrote plays and numerous unpublished poems and was a keen musician.

Her market has been a little dented by reprints and even this book is about to be reprinted by 'Girls Gone By' at £11. The story of Althea Glenyon a new girl who is involved in a midnight caper where a burglar is unmasked and inspires jealousy through her close friendship with some plucky girl. Exciting adventures afloat and ashore break into school routine, involving Althea in some embarrassing situations. At the end of her first term, however, Althea has proved herself and looks like settling in to become a real Chaletian. Odd stuff for 1969 with Manson on the prowl, Woodstock, Vietnam and the first flight of Monty Python.

VALUE? Hardbacks in jacket £100+ for nice copies. Jonkers of Henley ask £220 for a faultless copy. If God collected EBD (and he/she probably does) this would be the copy he would choose. Dyer titles esp from the 1920s and early 1930s in bright jackets can get over £500. Signed copies are almost unheard of. This title, although comparatively modest in value is much wanted. Also much desired is The Chalet Girl's Cook Book from 1953 worth about the same as this book in nice jacket. It can make about a £100 without it - higher than this novel sans jacket.

Lazy Liza Lizard. Marie Curtis Rains, 1938.

For a while I thought this book was called Lady Liza Lizard and could find out nothing about it. It appears to be one of those books that gets traded, famous for being famous, and sold on by traders who hardly bother to open it, but are aware it has value. Many collectable books are like that - e.g who actually reads 'Brave New World'? The lizard itself is a fascinating creature ('...one of the Lords of Life' as D H Lawrence put it.) In ancient Egypt and Greek symbolism the lizard represented divine wisdom and good fortune. Early Christianity associated the lizard with the devil and with evil. While on the Pacific islands of Polynesia and Maoris lizards are revered as a "heaven god." Then you have those urban Lotharios known as lounge lizards and there is more than one bar called 'The Lazy Lizard'; Jim Morrison called himself 'The Lizard King'. Must do one of Jim's rare little L.A. books sometime, I sold our last one ('An American Prayer') for a king's ransom...

Marie Curtis Rains. LAZY LIZA LIZARD. The John Winston Company, Philadelphia, 1938.

Current Selling Prices
$300-$750 / £160-£400 Want level 50 - 75 High

CHILDREN'S BOOK
Much wanted. Also noted as simultaneously first published by the Junior Literary Guild in New York and E.M. Hale and Co., Eau Claire, WI all in 1938. The Winston one is the one that shows up and no one seems to have established which came first, or possibly no one cares. There are several Lazy Lizards in the world of children's literature but Ms Rains' book is the one you want.

No idea what Lazy Liza gets up to but imagine that she gets up late and leads an idle life basking on a sunny wall. The book's reputation seems to be based on its dollar value, Google reveals not one reference to its contents. Library sale special + an ebay special.

VALUE? A not nice ex library 1953 reprint at $450 is the lowest priced one currently available and probably a poor investment. Avoid ex library wherever possible is the mantra. A decentish jacketed 1938 first looks a better bet. As often happens on the net as the price gets higher the condition gets worse at $800 you get a sad copy with one page 'torn in half ...and stained from where the page was tape repaired.' Sometimes you get a perfect gradation where there are, say, 6 copies each more expensive than the other and the most expensive is in the worse condition and as they get cheaper they improve in condition with the cheapest being the best. This is perfectly logical because the more greedy a seller is the more he will ignore the effect of condition on price - so the worst copy is often the most expensive. This phenomenom deserves a name - reversed condition paradox?

In 2005 on ebay an exlib copy sold at $328 with the buyer providing no picture. Talk about lazy.

'Lazy Liza Lizard's Tricks' from 1953 is more common but still seems to go for a couple of $100 bills if decent. STOP PRESS. A poorish but not exlib 1938 copy sold last week on ebay at $210. Apart from suggesting that the book is going flat it revealed that Lazy Liza is a pretty young girl (with no obvious lizard discernible) in a gingham bonnet and there are other anthropomorphic characters including a Mr. Snake and Old Lady Field Mouse - a sweet looking story for the very young.

The Skin Ego. Didier Anzieu, 1989.

Didier Anzieu. THE SKIN EGO. Yale University Press, 1989. ISBN 0300037473

Current Selling Prices
$350-600? /£180-£300 Want level 25-50 Highish


PSYCHOLOGY / PSYCHOANALYSIS
A curiously desirable and expensive book with 30 persons waiting for it at ABEBOOKs alone. In France where it appeared in 1974 it was called 'Le moi-peau.' A man in a whitecoat explains:

' The term "skin-ego" designates a mental representation that the child forms on the basis of its experience of the surface of its body and uses to picture itself as the vessel of mental contents. The skin-ego belongs to the period in development when the psychic ego differentiates from the body ego on the practical level while remaining indistinguishable from it in the imagination. Intermediate between metaphor and concept, the notion of the skin-ego was worked out by Didier Anzieu and first presented in 1974.

According to Anzieu, the ego encloses the psychic apparatus much as the skin encloses the body. The chief functions of the skin are transposed onto the level of the skin-ego, and from there onto the level of the thinking ego. The functions of the skin-ego are to maintain thoughts, to contain ideas and affects, to provide a protective shield, to register traces of primary communication with the outside world, to manage intersensorial correspondences, to individuate, to support sexual excitation, and to recharge the libido. In brief, the skin-ego is an interface between inside and outside, and is the foundation of the container/contained relationship....An important part of psychoanalytic work with borderline patients is the reconstruction of the earliest phases of the skin-ego and their consequences for mental organization. This task calls on the techniques of transitional analysis....Didier Anzieu made use not only of clinical psychoanalysis but literature (Pascal, Julien Gracq, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Samuel Beckett) and the visual arts as well (Francis Bacon) to bring to light the traces of the body in writing, drama, and painting. Finally, through his work on individual and group psychoanalytic psychodrama, he enriched the instruments derived from psychoanalysis by proposing a new outlook on the operation of the unconscious in groups.'

The curious thing about Anzieu is that his mother was a mental patient who was interviewed by Jacque Lacan in April 1931, when she was arrested and then sectioned for attacking a famous stage actress with a knife. Lacan wrote his doctoral thesis on Marguerite Anzieu under the pseudonym of ‘Aimée’, using her case-history as a prototype of the role of personality in psychopathic development. Didier Anzieu (1923-1999), in a set of interviews conducted in 1983, when he was sixty said: 'I became a psychoanalyst to care for my mother. Not so much to care for her in reality, even though I did succeed in helping her, in the last quarter of her life, to find a relatively happy, balanced life. What I mean is, to care for my mother in myself and other people. To care, in other people, for this threatening and threatened mother... "

Anzieu was much influenced by Melanie Klein and Wilfred Bion, Samuel Beckett's pschoanalyst and himself wrote several pieces on Beckett. He was also influenced by D.W.Winnicott the British pediatrician and psychoanalyst. Sometime in the 1980s we were invited by his widow (herself a distinguished writer) to buy a lot of books from their Knightsbridge flat. I recall at the time that our customers were excited by the books, although psychology is generally a slow and modish subject. The ownership signature may have helped. I remember my fellow dealer Donald asked Dr Winnicott for a quick psychological summing up of the pair of us--she replied that she had never met 2 more normal men--something I suspect pstychologists say when put on the spot outside of the consulting room. It was reassuring, however.


VALUE? Usually $300+, although there are many who want $600 and some silly billies who require $1200+, presumably relisters. Not a book to buy at Amazon where none are under $600. Our image above which seems appropriate to the subject is by Michael Druks who was born 1940 in Israel, has lived and worked in London since 1972. His work, often collage, is much concerned with cartography, nomadism and symbols. Many thanks for the image, could find no pics of Anzieu's book.

The African Queen. C.S. Forester, 1935.

I have started to break up the paragraphs a bit more, rather than have indigestible blocks of prose, and I have even gone back and redone a few. E.g. Heminway and Wyndham Lewis. This is at at the suggestion of Seth from Honolulu - Aloha and thanks. In the book game there comes a point when you have to get out a pencil and start pricing books, so time for fun is limited. Some slightly shorter blogs coming up as I prepare to tackle a few hundred boxes of rather good books that just got delivered in a large van.

Today it is Forester's most valuable book, but not his most rare in jacket - e.g. you don't see Pawn Among Kings or Two and Twenty very much, let alone Love Lies Dreaming, The Shadow of the Hawk (rarissimo) or his first book The Paid Piper.



C.S. Forester. THE AFRICAN QUEEN. Heinemann, London 1935.

Current Selling Prices
$14000+ / £7000+

MODERN FIRST EDITION / FICTION
Forester's biggest book, Hornblower be blowed. Valuable in jacket. Cult 1951 movie with Bogart and Hepburn, Bogey winning an Oscar for his portrayal of rough diamond Charlie Allnut, Hepburn brill as English spinster missionary thrown together with him in the rickety boat 'The African Queen.'

Oddly enough the American and English editions have different endings - look away now if you don't want to know - in the English edition, the Royal Navy sinks the Konigin Luise, and Rose and Allnutt survive to marry; in the American edition, they fail to sink the ship with the African Queen's torpedo, and Allnutt disappears beneath the waves. One dealer has a US first inscribed in February 1935 and suggests the American edition may precede.


VALUE? Stonking valuable book, 2 copies on web of the UK first at well north of £10K although how many punters there are at that dizzy level is unknowable. At this price one has to be extremely keen on CSF, or possibly a cultish devotee of the movie, and possessed of a spare £10K so the customer pool is likely to be small.

A nice book to find overlooked in a tea chest, except auction houses hardly use them anymore. At $25000 the game is up. The US edition is not to be sniffed at, think $4000 for a pretty one. Sans jacket the British first is only a 3 figure book, say £600 - £700 if decent, not esp scarce. Want level 25-50 Highish

Ballet. 104 Photographs. Brodovitch, 1945.

Alexey Brodovitch. BALLET: 104 PHOTOGRAPHS. Augustin, NY 1945.

Current Selling Prices
$3000+/ £1500+ Want level 50- 75 High

PHOTOGRAPHY / BALLET
Legendary photobook. Text by Edwin Denby. Rare collection of Brodovitch's photographs of Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo from the 1930s. Kerry Purcell said of it --'one of the most successful attempts at suggesting motion in photography, and certainly one of the most cinematic and dynamic photobooks ever published.' Using a 35mm Contax he developed techniques of blurring and graininess that would become mainstream in the 1950s and 60s.

AB (1898-1971) Russian born photographer designer, started his career in France and in US ran the highly influential Design Laboratory, producing what is sometimes said to be the century's best design magazine Portfolio (1950 to 1951, 3 issues only.) As Art Director at Harpers Bazaar he ruled the roost amongst NY's fashionistas and snappers for about 20 years from 1934 to 1958, coldshouldering Diane Arbus and promoting Art Kane, Penn, Platt Lynes etc., When he was dismissed and later after the death of his wife Nina, he hit the bottle. There is a celebrated portrait of him (left) on crutches after a fall, by his close friend Avedon. 'Ballet' produced in 500 copies was his only book.

VALUE? Seldom shows up on the web but has appeared at auction in NY, mostly at Swann photo sales where between 1997 and 2002 it made $1200 to as high as $3500 for jacketed copies. A copy surfaced at Christies (d/w not wonderful) in London 2006 somewhat over-catalogued; it seems to have worked, the buyer having had to pay £2160 ($4000) to get it home.

Some photos by him Ballet (Boutique Fantasque) 1935-37 made between $20K and $45K each at Swann in NY but with a few bought in at $8000 or less, so a valuable but volatile market. A couple of not fine issues of his Portfolio at between $500 and $800, the latter with with the publisher's original stereoscopic glasses laid in, are listed at present but no Ballet 104. The book in nice shape would probably go higher than its recent record because it is uncommon,less common than the 500 limitation would suggest - presumably many being held by costive collectors.

The Age of Innocence. Edith Wharton, 1920.

Edith Wharton. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE. Appleton, NY 1920.

Current Selling Prices
$800-$8000 /£450-£4000


AMERICAN CLASSIC FICTION
A masterpiece set among New York's elite of the 1870s - 'The Gilded Age'. Well filmed in 1993 in the Visconti style by Scorsese who plays up the gilt and opulence. In 1924, a silent film version was released by Warner Brothers, directed by Wesley Ruggles, and starring Beverly Bayne and Elliott Dexter. In 1934 a talkie came out from RKO (1934) that starred Irene Dunne and John Boles. Still read, even by kids of the ringtone generation.

Her first publication was Verses (1878), a book of poems privately printed in Newport, Rhode Island when she was sixteen and known in her family as 'Pussy.' Please offer all copies to moi - it's very valuable. The clue is it doesn't say Wharton on the title page -she was then Edith Newbold Jones. Vita Sackville West produced a similarly scarce volume (Chatterton) privately printed in 1909 when she was 16, that is also rather valuable but not in the same league as Edith. Author's first books are a rich and fascinating collecting field - often negligible in themselves and sometimes anonymous or pseudonymous or written under a maiden name they can be true 'sleepers', not all of which can be awoken.

Like her close comrade 'The Master' (Henry James) Edith Wharton plays with themes of innocence and experience, old decadent Europe and innocent America, themes that launched a 1000 dissertati