On Thursday, October 18th, PBA Galleries will be hosting a Modern Literature & Poetry with Books in All Fields Sale. This auction will include over 550 lots of modern literature, poetry, and other fine books, with science fiction, detective fiction, manuscript material, signed and limited editions, and more. The selection of poetry and verse ranges from 19th century icons to the beat generation and beyond. Included are novels and stories by Saul Bellow, Ray Bradbury, Raymond Chandler, Philip K. Dick, Ian Fleming, Dashiell Hammett, Robert A. Heinlein, Ken Kesey, Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft, Larry McMurtry, Flannery O’Connor, J.K. Rowling, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., and many others. Among the poets represented are Paul Auster, Hart Crane, Robert Creeley, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Allen Ginsberg, John Hawkes, Weldon Kees, George Sterling, and other luminaries. Additional fine books comprise fine bindings, historical works, finely printed books, etc.
Highlighted in this sale is The Bridge. A Poem. With Three Photographs by Walker Evans, written by Hart Crane. The Bridge was Crane’s only attempt at a long poem, inspired by his view of the Brooklyn Bridge from his Columbia Heights apartment. It comprises of fifteen lyric poems of varying length and scope. This edition is signed by Crane at the colophon, which makes it an extremely scarce example of one of the fifty signed and numbered copies (Estimate $30,000 -$50,000).
The Shunned House
The first edition of H.P. Lovecraft’s, The Shunned House, is also in our upcoming sale. Lovecraft’s rare first book of fiction published in an edition of 300 copies. This copy is also accompanied by a typed letter from the publisher August Derleth (Estimate $7,000 – $10,000). An additional highlight from the sale is The Immoral Proposition by Robert Creeley. This is a fine copy of Creeley’s scarcest publication and due to its fragility, it has rarely been since in such beautiful condition (Estimate $1,200 – $1,300). PBA Galleries has an exceptional copy of Stephen Crane’s most enduring work, The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War, in its extremely scarce dusk jacket (Estimate $15,000 – $25,000).
The sale will begin at 11:00 am Pacific Time and the public may preview the auction Monday, October 15th, 1 – 5 pm, Tuesday and Wednesday, October 16th and 17th, 9am – 5pm and on Thursday, October 18th, 9-ll am at PBA Galleries in San Francisco. For more information, please contact the galleries at (415) 989-2665 or [email protected].