On January 26th, 2017, PBA Galleries will offer a sale of Fine Literature and Modern First Editions. The sale comprises more than 500 lots of rare and collectible novels, poetry, dramatic works, and more. Among the modern highpoints are works by Samuel Beckett, Ernest Bramah, Richard Brautigan, Charles Bukowski, William Faulkner, Ian Fleming, Ernest Hemingway, Aldous Huxley, Jack Kerouac, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and John Steinbeck. Classic fiction by authors such as Mark Twain, Frank Norris, Ambrose Bierce, Jack London, and Oscar Wilde is also included. Also offered are many finely printed editions by distinguished presses including the Allen Press, Arion Press, Golden Cockerel Press, and Yolla Bolly Press.
Amongst the many highlights of the sale is a copy of the finely printed Yolla Bolly Press edition of D. H. Lawrence’s The Man Who Died. Illustrated by a suite of woodcuts by Leonard Baskin, the lot contains a second suite in a separate folding. One of 35 special copies, it is bound in full limp vellum and housed in a custom box of cedar and bay laurel wood. (Estimate: $4,000-$6,000)
A first edition of John Steinbeck’s masterpiece, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning novel, The Grapes of Wrath, will be offered in the sale. The epic story of migratory workers during the Great Depression is perhaps the most influential and best remembered book to come out of that era. This First Edition is in the original beige pictorial cloth in the color pictorial dust jacket with wrap-around artwork designed by Elmer Hader. (Estimate: $4,000-$6,000).
Other modern highlights include a rare signed limited edition of Excerpts from Visions of Cody by Jack Kerouac (Estimate: $2,000-$3,000); one of only 26 copies of The Iris Prints, photographs of Charles Bukowski by Michael Montfort digitally enhanced by Giorgio Moroder (Estimate: $1,500-$2,000); and a collection of thirty-nine Booker Prize winning novels, many signed by the author (Estimate: $1,000-$1,500).
Sale 606 Lot 395
The Definitive Edition of The Writings of Mark Twain in thirty-five volume was published by Gabriel Wells in 1922. The set is illustrated with gravure plates from photographs, paintings and drawings. Signed by the author as both Mark Twain and Samuel L. Clemens on an inserted leaf in Volume 1, as issued. The leaf was prepared in 1906 in anticipation of this edition of Twain’s works. One of only 1024 sets. (Estimate $3,000-$5,000).
Two finely printed volumes are also featured in the sale. The Poeticon Astronomicon finely printed at the Allen Press reproducing the images of the 1482 edition is one of only 140 copies and one of more than a dozen Allen Press editions in this auction (Estimate: $700/$1,000). Salmacis and Hermaphroditus with color engravings by John Buckland, printed at the Golden Cockerel Press. This copy is one of 80 specially bound copies, with an extra illustration and is part of a small collection of Golden Cockerel editions in the sale. (Estimate: $700-$1,000).
The auction will begin at 11:00 am Pacific Time. The public may preview the auction on Monday, January 23rd 1 – 5pm, Tuesday and Wednesday, January 24th and 25th 9am – 5pm, Thursday, January 26th 9 – 11am, or by appointment at PBA Galleries in San Francisco. For more information, please contact PBA Galleries at (415) 989-2665 or [email protected].