LITERATURE

A RARE LETTER OF MARY SHELLEY  ~~ THE AUTHOR OF ‘FRANKENSTEIN’

SHELLEY, MARY (1797-1851) British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer. Shelley is best known for her Gothic novel: Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus. Rare Autograph Letter Signed, “Mary Shelley.” One page, octavo.

ALLEN GINSBERG TO ISTVAN EORSI: ”I TAUGHT U.S. BLACK LITERATURE COURSE THIS SPRING AND LEARNED A LOT, IT CHANGED MY EYES FOR NEGROES MORE EMPATHY, THE LITERAL SHADOW OF SLAVERY’S STILL CAST IN PRESENT COUNTRY’S OSTRACISM ON THE STREET — (WORSE THAN 60’S HIPPIES!) & JOBS, THEY OFTEN INTERNALIZE IT — & US WHITE FOLKS RARELY LOOK INTO THE PIT OF THEIR GRIEF, IT’S MADE ME COME TO REALIZE THE LONG SUFFERING DECADES”.

GINSBERG, ALLEN (1926-1997) Outstanding Autograph Letter Signed ”Allen”. One full page, quarto. New York, June 18, 1989. To Hungarian writer, novelist, poet and political essayist and longtime friend of Ginsberg, ISTVAN EÖRSI (1931-2005)

D.H. LAWRENCE TO SARA TEASDALE  —  ACKNOWLEDGING RECEIPT OF HER FLAME AND SHADOW  COLLECTION OF POETRY  —  “ONE MUST HARDEN ONES HEART AND LAST, OR DIE OF IT.  AS FOR ME, IT RESOLVES IN TO A LONG FIGHT.  AND ONE SEES THE SWORD IN EVERYTHING”

LAWRENCE, D.H.  (1885-1930).  English novelist, poet and essayist.  Terrific Autograph Letter Signed, “D.H. Lawrence”.  One full page, quarto. To poet Sara Teasdale.    “Villa Fontana Vecchia, Taormina”,   January 28, 1921.  Very fine condition.   

THE AUTHOR OF VANITY FAIR AND BARRY LYNDON  —  SENDS THANKS FOR A BOX OF CIGARS AND RETURNS PROOFS OF ONE OF HIS WORKS

THACKERAY, WILLIAM MAKEPEACE (1811-1863)  English novelist best known for Vanity Fair (1848); and The Luck of Barry Lyndon (1844).   Brief, but charming Autograph Letter Signed, “W.M. Thackeray.” One page, 16mo. [approx 4 x 4 inches].  No place. No date. Thackeray writes to “Dear Smith”.

BAYARD TAYLOR —  AUTHOR OF ‘THE FIRST GAY NOVEL’  TO BE PUBLISHED IN AMERICA  —  PENS A FABULOUS EARLY ILLUSIONARY LETTER:  “NOW, THAT YOU YOURSELF WEAR THE FETTERS MATRIMONIAL, YOU ARE NOT GOING TO DREAM ME INTO THEM SO EASILY.”

TAYLOR, BAYARD. (1825-1878) American poet, literary critic, translator, and travel author.  Exceptional and early Autograph Letter Signed “J. Bayard Taylor”. [Taylor was christened ‘James Bayard Taylor’ at birth, thus the “J” in his signature].    Two full pages, quarto. Phoenixville, June 16, 1847. To Taylor’s early friend and apprentice in the printing trade, Edward Paxson, (1824-1905), later Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

A SIMPLY SUPERB LETTER OF F. SCOTT FITZGERALD  —  “THE FITZGERALDS ARE SLOWLY ROTTING LIKE THE OTHER SURVIVORS OF OUR PERIOD. WE HAD A HELL OF A GOOD TIME WHEN IT LASTED THOUGH, WHICH IS MORE THAN CAN BE SAID OF YOUR GENERATION”

“…AND ARMY PEOPLE, LIKE JEWS, ARE OPPRESSIVE IN CROWDS WITH THEIR DAMNED HIERARCHY….”

FITZGERALD, F(RANCIS) SCOTT.  (1896-1940).  American writer; author of: The Great Gatsby, as well as This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and the Damned, and Tender is the Night;  Fitzgerald is best known for chronicling the excesses and tribulations of the Jazz Age.  Superb, and very scarce Typed Letter Signed, “Scott Fitz”. 

RARE LETTER FROM THE FOUNDER OF MODERN ZIONISM, THEODORE HERZL,  WHO WANTS TO ESTABLISH INDUSTRIAL PROJECTS IN PALESTINE AND TO MAKE THIS EFFORTS KNOWN AMONG THE VARIOUS ZIONIST ORGANIZATIONS

HERZL, THEODORE.  (1860-1904).  Founder of the Zionist movement, whose advocacy of a Jewish state in Palestine led to the creation of Israel.  Rare Typed Circular Letter Signed, “Herzl”, in German.  One page, quarto.  Vienna, December 30, 1900.  Very fine condition.