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Back to the topLocation: Dallas, TX
Dates: October 17, 2012 - October 18, 2012
Location: Dallas, TX
Dates: May 24, 2012 - May 31, 2012
Consignment Deadline was May 12, 2012
Location: Dallas, TX
Dates: May 31, 2012 - June 7, 2012
Consignment Deadline was May 19, 2012
Recent Auction Results
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Printable Version of Prices Realized for this Auction
Prices Realized for this Auction
Printable Version of Prices Realized for this Auction
Prices Realized for this Auction
Printable Version of Prices Realized for this Auction
Prices Realized for this Auction
Printable Version of Prices Realized for this Auction
Prices Realized for this Auction
Printable Version of Prices Realized for this Auction
Prices Realized for this Auction
Printable Version of Prices Realized for this Auction
Prices Realized for this Auction
Printable Version of Prices Realized for this Auction
Prices Realized for this Auction
Printable Version of Prices Realized for this Auction
Gould's The Birds of Europe and Stephen King's First Autographed book Lead Rare Book Auction
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"This is simply a gorgeous set and a complete copy of Gould's epic work," said James Gannon, Director of Rare Books at Heritage. "Couple that with Lear's masterfully rendered plates and you have a wonderful confluence of artistry, technique and production that collectors are certain to appreciate."
A significant amount of buzz is also being generated around a superb copy of Alexander Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the War (Estimate: $90,000+), Washington, D.C.: Philp and Solomons, (1865-66). The two oblong folio volumes come complete with 100 albumen prints mounted on larger sheets with lithographed frames and captions.
"This is a wonderful example of the most celebrated, memorable and graphic collection of Civil War photographs," said Gannon.
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Foremost among these modern classics is expected to be an uncommonly nice copy of one of 750 numbered copies of the first edition of James Joyce's Ulysses, estimated at $15,000+. A special run of signed William Faulkner limited editions is sure to delight fans of the South's greatest writer, namely Go Down, Moses (Estimate: $8,000+), Sanctuary (Estimate: $8,000+), As I Lay Dying (estimate: $5,000+), Soldier's Pay (Estimate: $5,000+), Sartoris (Estimate: $2,000+), and Light in August (Estimate: $2,000+).
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Also included in the auction, as a separate catalog, is the very special James and Deborah Boyd Collection, featuring more than 200 fine books in economics, military history, literature and science. Chief among the Boyd Collection is a 1776 first edition of Adam Smith's groundbreaking work of economics, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, described by Printing and the Mind of Man as "the first and greatest classic of modern economic thought." It is estimated at $80,000+.
Heritage Rare Books auctions have recently featured small groupings of important illustration and the April 11 auction continues this popular feature with a good number of original illustrations from the continuing sale of The Estate of Garth Williams, as well as a small but choice selection of original art from illustrator and portraitist John Tibbetts, including his original signed and inscribed portrait of Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen, estimated at $1,000+.
The James and Deborah Boyd Collection of Fine Books
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"Historians consider this book the foundation of modern economic thought," says James Gannon, director of the rare books department at Heritage. "The ideas expressed in these pages reflect the rise of the principles behind modern capitalism."
A first edition of The Wealth of Nations, printed by Strahan in London in 1776, is one of the featured items in the James and Deborah Boyd Collection, an amazing assortment of fine books in economics, military history, literature, and science. This collection boasts numerous historically-important works.
Included in the Boyd Collection is an extremely scarce 1926 privately-printed subscribers' edition of T. E. Lawrence's epic Seven Pillars of Wisdom, one of only 170 complete copies, and is signed by Lawrence on a preliminary page, "Complete copy i.xii.26 T. E. S." (Lawrence changed his name to T. E. Shaw in 1923).
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Other high spots of the Boyd Collection include, but are certainly not limited to the following: first editions of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species; Thomas Malthus's foundational work on population growth, titled An Essay on the Principle of Population; Sir Isaac Newton's Opticks; Harriet Beecher Stowe's American classic Uncle Tom's Cabin; several signed or inscribed Winston Churchill first editions, including a first edition set of Marlborough inscribed to the author's friend and commanding officer; and two important autograph albums, one featuring signed documents from every U. S. president from George Washington to Herbert Hoover, and the other featuring signatures of Abraham Lincoln and fifty Union officers from the Civil War.
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The James and Deborah Boyd Collection is scheduled to go under the auctioneer's hammer during our Signature Rare Books Auction #6085, April 11, at the Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion, 2 East 79th Street, New York, New York 10075. Please contact James Gannon if you have any questions regarding the collection.
From the Heritage Bookshelf: The First Book Stephen King Ever Signed
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In King's own words, in an interview with Charles L. Grant: "[O]ne of my college friends [Flip Thompson], who was still in college and could therefore still afford literary scruples, came to me and said, 'Why are you writing all of this macho crap?' I explained that they were for macho magazines and the stories didn't sell too well to Cosmopolitan. 'You don't have any feminine sensibility at all,' he said. I told him I could if I wanted to, but he didn't think so... I had said I could do it, so I sat down and started writing a short story, and that short story was Carrie."
King worked on Carrie over the next year with his editor, and eventually the book earned publication at Doubleday in the spring of 1974. A couple of months earlier, King received an allotment of advance proof copies of the novel from the publisher, bound in simple white wrappers and reading "Special Edition Not for Sale / To Be Published April 1974 by Doubleday & Company, Inc." at the bottom of the back cover. I don't know how many he received. Perhaps only a handful, which he likely handed out to family, friends, and college buddies.
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The first book Stephen King ever signed? Wow! And the fact comes directly from the man himself; it's in his own handwriting: "this is the first book I've signed in my life..." When I first saw the book, I couldn't believe the inscription. THE FIRST BOOK. STEPHEN KING. EVER SIGNED!
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All five of these books were bought by a Portland, Maine book dealer from Flip's second wife, Sharon, in 1987, evidenced by the letter that accompanies Carrie (and a photocopy of that letter that comes with the other four books). This is really the best group of early King signed books that I've seen yet, and I'm more than very excited to have them in our New York auction.
What would have happened had Flip Thompson not challenged his buddy to write a novel about a woman? Who knows, really. Most people who study King's early career conclude that he would have found publication in book form eventually. The talent was just too special. But, the fact remains that Flip Thompson DID dare King to write about a woman. And King DID accept the challenge. And Carrie DID become a rocket that launched a literary satellite into the firmament.
So, wherever you are, Flip Thompson, thank you for daring your good friend to write what ended up being his first published novel, and what also turned out to be the spark that ignited an atomic bomb in the world of horror and supernatural fiction. As a kid, I spent countless hours admiring the products of that explosion, in the form of King's prolific output of amazing stories. And I still do.
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