literature

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”. 

“MUSSOLINI AND HITLER, HAVING DONE EXTRAORDINARY SERVICE TO THEIR COUNTRIES’   —  ‘IN EVERY PUBLIC REFERENCE OF MINE TO THE PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS, DENOUNCED AND RIDICULED IT IN THE MOST UNEQUIVOCAL TERMS. I HAVE NEVER SUGGESTED THAT THE IMPERIALIST WAR OF CONQUEST BY JAPAN ON CHINA IS COMPARABLE IN ANY WAY TO THE ITALIAN CONQUEST OF ABYSSINIA’  — 

SHAW, GEORGE BERNARD. (1856-1950). Irish-born writer.  Superb Typed Letter Signed, “G. Bernard Shaw”, on his imprinted stationery. One and a quarter pages, quarto. [London]  October 6, 1937. To Henry Elphick

AN EXCEPTIONALLY EARLY LETTER OF EZRA POUND.   —  “UNLESS THE DIVINE FIRE DESCENDS WITH UNUSUAL VIGOR…THERE WON’T BE ENOUGH NEW POEMS TO MAKE A VOLUME OUT OF THEM [THOUGH]…THERE ARE A FEW NEW POEMS THAT COULD BE PRINTED WITH IT.   NOTABLY THE CANZONI ‘OF VENICE’ (APRIL ENG[LISH] REV[IEW])  &  ‘OF ANGELS’. “

POUND, EZRA.  (1885-1972).  American poet and critic.  Wonderful, and extremely uncommon, early Autograph Letter Signed, “Ezra Pound”, on imprinted and illustrated Hotel Eden stationery.  Four full pages, large octavo.  “Lago di Garda [Italy]”, circa 1910. 

THOREAU HAVING JUST PUBLISHED ”WALDEN”,  AGREES TO A READING ON CAPE COD —  “THAT IS AS LARGE A TASTE OF MY PRESENT SELF AS I DARE OFFER YOU ”

THOREAU, HENRY DAVID.  (1817-1862).  American transcendentalist writer.  Very rare Autograph Letter Signed, “Henry D. Thoreau”.  One page, quarto.  Concord, Massachusetts, October 4, 1854. 

W.B. YEATS ON HIS: “PROPOSAL TO FOUND A BODY WITHIN THE FIRST ACADEMY WHICH COULD ACT AS AN ACADEMY OF LETTERS”

YEATS, WILLIAM BUTLER (1865-1939) Irish poet, dramatist, and Nobel laureate. Autograph Letter Signed, “W.B. Yeats,” on imprinted 82, Merrion Square, Dublin letterhead. Two pages, octavo. Dublin.

IBSEN  — RARELY SEEN, CABINET PHOTOGRAPH SIGNED  —  THE NYBLIN STUDIO

IBSEN, HENRIK.  (1828-1906)  Norwegian playwright, director, and poet;  Ibsen is viewed as one of the founders of Modernism in theater.   Rarely seen, Cabinet Photograph Signed, “Henrik Ibsen / 27.12.97”.