Dec 6, 2024 10:00 EST

Rare Books, Autographs & Maps

 
  Lot 764
 

764

Ernest Hemingway's first book with interesting provenance

HEMINGWAY, ERNEST

Three Stories & Ten Poems. [Paris: Contact Publishing, 1923]. First edition, one of 300 copies, with interesting provenance notes to the front blank including Hadley’s Richardson’s address, and author Michael Meyer’s note that the book had previously belonged to poets Sidney Keynes and Powys Mathers. Original blue-gray printed wrappers (without glassine), housed in morocco case. 7 x 4 1/2 inches (28 x 11.5 cm); [viii], 58 pp. The upper wrapper neatly split, extremities toned and the spine with a few small losses, two faint, very small ink markings to covers, clean internally, the rear endpaper excised, a sound copy in original condition.

Provenance: Sidney Keyes (1922-1943); Powys Mathers (1892-1939); Michael Meyer (1921-2000); Sale Christie's London, 13 November 2008, lot 196

Ernest Hemingway's first book, published when the author was just 24. The stories published here are "My Old Man," "Up in Michigan" and "Out of Season" before the 10 poems. Hemingway had intended In Our Time, advertised as available on the rear wrapper, to be his first book but it did not appear until early 1924. Hemingway had intended the book to be published by William Bird's Three Mountains Press but, after meeting Robert McAlmon in Rapallo, Hemingway agreed to Contact publishing the work. The book was printed by Maurice Darantière of Dijon, who in 1922 had printed the first edition of Joyce's Ulysses.

This copy bears interesting provenance notes on the front blank. The latest note reads "Michael Meyer, 1945/ex libris Sidney Keyes/ex libris Powys Mathers," Meyer being the translator of Ibsen and Strindberg who also edited The Collected Poems of Sidney Keyes. Sidney Keyes (1922-1943) was an English poet of great promise who was killed in action at 20 years old in Tunisia serving in World War II. Edward Powys Mathers (1892-1939) was a poet, translator, and composer of cryptic crosswords. These are fine literary associations but two addresses in two different hands are also intriguing and lead to Elizabeth Hadley Richardson, Hemingway's wife at the time of publication and the book's dedicatee.

The lower address reads "35 rue de Fleurus" known to be Hadley's address following her separation from Hemingway (who famously brought her possessions there in a wheelbarrow). Below this address is the name "Madame Hutchins," thought to be Gertrude Stein's friend Maude Hutchins (Stein lived at 27 Rue de Fleurus). The other address is "9 rue Falguière, Studio 33" refers to the artist studio where Whistler worked from 1898-1901. Hanneman A1A; Grissom A1.

Estimate
$20,000 - $30,000
 

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HEMINGWAY, ERNEST

Three Stories & Ten Poems. [Paris: Contact Publishing, 1923]. First edition, one of 300 copies, with interesting provenance notes to the front blank including Hadley’s Richardson’s address, and author Michael Meyer’s note that the book had previously belonged to poets Sidney Keynes and Powys Mathers. Original blue-gray printed wrappers (without glassine), housed in morocco case. 7 x 4 1/2 inches (28 x 11.5 cm); [viii], 58 pp. The upper wrapper neatly split, extremities toned and the spine with a few small losses, two faint, very small ink markings to covers, clean internally, the rear endpaper excised, a sound copy in original condition.

Provenance: Sidney Keyes (1922-1943); Powys Mathers (1892-1939); Michael Meyer (1921-2000); Sale Christie's London, 13 November 2008, lot 196

Ernest Hemingway's first book, published when the author was just 24. The stories published here are "My Old Man," "Up in Michigan" and "Out of Season" before the 10 poems. Hemingway had intended In Our Time, advertised as available on the rear wrapper, to be his first book but it did not appear until early 1924. Hemingway had intended the book to be published by William Bird's Three Mountains Press but, after meeting Robert McAlmon in Rapallo, Hemingway agreed to Contact publishing the work. The book was printed by Maurice Darantière of Dijon, who in 1922 had printed the first edition of Joyce's Ulysses.

This copy bears interesting provenance notes on the front blank. The latest note reads "Michael Meyer, 1945/ex libris Sidney Keyes/ex libris Powys Mathers," Meyer being the translator of Ibsen and Strindberg who also edited The Collected Poems of Sidney Keyes. Sidney Keyes (1922-1943) was an English poet of great promise who was killed in action at 20 years old in Tunisia serving in World War II. Edward Powys Mathers (1892-1939) was a poet, translator, and composer of cryptic crosswords. These are fine literary associations but two addresses in two different hands are also intriguing and lead to Elizabeth Hadley Richardson, Hemingway's wife at the time of publication and the book's dedicatee.

The lower address reads "35 rue de Fleurus" known to be Hadley's address following her separation from Hemingway (who famously brought her possessions there in a wheelbarrow). Below this address is the name "Madame Hutchins," thought to be Gertrude Stein's friend Maude Hutchins (Stein lived at 27 Rue de Fleurus). The other address is "9 rue Falguière, Studio 33" refers to the artist studio where Whistler worked from 1898-1901. Hanneman A1A; Grissom A1.

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Auction: Rare Books, Autographs & Maps, Dec 6, 2024

  • Auction of Rare Books, Autographs & Maps on Friday, December 6, 2024 at 10am

  • Featuring The Jean Vounder-Davis Collection of Raymond Chandler

  • Consignments Are Currently Being Accepted for Future Auctions

  • We Invite You to Contact Us for a Complimentary Auction Evaluation of Your Books, Autographs & Maps


NEW YORK, NY -- Doyle will hold an auction of Rare Books, Autographs & Maps on Friday, December 6, 2024 at 10am. Showcased is a wonderful diversity of Americana, maps, autographs, early books and landmarks of literature and science.

The Jean Vounder-Davis Collection of Raymond Chandler
The Jean Vounder-Davis Collection offers the largest trove of unpublished Raymond Chandler stories, poetry, letters, books and personal artifacts to come to market. Best known for his Philip Marlowe detective novels including The Big Sleep (1939) and Farewell, My Lovely (1940) and as screenwriter of film noir classics such as Double Indemnity (1944) and The Blue Dahlia (1946), Raymond Chandler is considered one of the top writers in the hardboiled fiction genre alongside Dashiell Hammett and James Cain. Held for decades, the archive belonged to Jean Fracasse [later Vounder-Davis] who was first hired in January 1957 as Chandler's personal secretary but quickly became his close friend, confidant, fiancé and muse to whom he dedicated his last book (Est. $3000-5000). At the center of the archive is an extensive group of unpublished drafts of fantasy stories begun by Chandler in the 1920s, envisioned as a book in 1939, and retained by him until given to Sybil and Jean in 1957 (Est. $40,000-60,000). Nearly 800 typed and hand-annotated pages, the fantasy stories have compelling titles such as The Disappearing Duke, The Rubies of Marmelon, and The Carsbrook Mystery. Written during the period Chandler was honing his craft, the drafts offer much on the writer’s working method. Another excellent offering is Raymond Chandler’s Olivetti Studio 44 typewriter used to write his final novel Playback (Est. $10,000-20,000) and an inscribed copy of that novel to the dedicatee’s son. Unpublished poems, letters, inscribed books, and personal artifacts abound such as Chandler’s cocktail muddlers, jewelry gifted to Jean and her daughter Sybil, and Chandler’s 1945 Edgar Allan Poe Award. Now nearly seventy years since his death, this is the largest trove of Chandler papers to come to light, and the Jean Vounder-Davis Collection undoubtedly provides valuable insight to Raymond Chandler’s complicated last years. Institutions and collectors should take notice of the unparalleled opportunity to acquire unpublished material from this major 20th century author.

Literature
Beyond Raymond Chandler, literature is headed by a group of early Ernest Hemingway titles including his first two books Three Stories and Ten Poems and In Our Time. An item of Hemingway interest is matador Antonio Ordóñez's Traje de Luces or Suit of Lights worn in the bullfighting rings of Spain while Hemingway wrote One Dangerous Summer. A manuscript page from Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged is offered in the auction as is a rare pack of promotional Random House Who is John Galt? cigarettes. 19th century literature offers an early printing of Frankenstein and the Polidori's The Vampyre. 

Presidential Material & Americana
Presidential material includes a wooden beam from the 1949 White House reconstruction inscribed by Harry Truman and excellent letters from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Mamie during World War II. Early Americana features a rare document in defense of a Shay's Rebellion conspirator sentenced to death and a scarce periodical titled the Colonizationalist which encouraged settlement to Liberia and the Oregon Territory.

Maps & Travel
From an Upper East Side Map Collector comes H.S. Tanner's extremely rare monumental wall map of North America and Munster's circa 1568 map of North and South America. A collection of world maps offers a finely colored example of Visscher's 1652 double-hemispheric world map and other related examples. Travel includes a scarce copy of Sir Walter Raleigh's 1596 narrative of his discovery of Guiana.

Art & Illustrated Books
Art and illustrated books includes a set of Rockwell Kent's edition of Moby Dick and an original illustration from the book. The manuscript of a children's book by Nanno Freerk de Groot is present as are works by Milne, Sendak, Rackham and others. 

 

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We Invite You to Auction!

Consignments are currently being accepted for future auctions. We invite you to contact us for a complimentary auction evaluation. Our Specialists are always available to discuss the sale of a single item or an entire collection.

For information, please contact Peter Costanzo at 212-427-4141 ext 248, Edward Ripley-Duggan at ext 234, or Noah Goldrach at ext 226, or email Books@Doyle.com

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