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[ca 1950s].

One of three known groupings of photographs from "the legendary Hardiment suitcase," including original prints of both one of the most iconic images of Jack Kerouac (of Kerouac smoking a cigarette outside his 7th Street apartment, taken by Allen Ginsberg) and of Allen Ginsberg (on the roof of his Lower East Side apartment, taken by William Burroughs). 32 photographs in total, from the 1950s, of Burroughs and other figures of the Beat generation, some with Burroughs' annotations.

Several of the photographs are taped together, forming early visual collages or collage fragments, while a number of the photos have sellotape along their edges, suggesting they were at one time part of a larger collage. These collages represent some of Burroughs' earliest attempts to use images in the way he was using words -- to transcend time and space, and link together various aspects of his life and world, in ways that correlate to a "mindscape" -- akin to the connections between the stories he wrote during that period that were collectively known as the Interzone, which was also an early title for Naked Lunch. Brion Gysin, in his 1964 essay, 'Cut ups: A Project for Disastrous Success,' wrote that "Burroughs was more intent on Scotch-taping his photos together into one great continuum on the wall, where scenes faded and slipped into one another, than occupied with editing the monster manuscript" -- i.e., Naked Lunch, aka his Word Hoard.

The provenance of this group of materials is the "Hardiment suitcase," belonging to the poet Melville Hardiment, a friend of Burroughs during the years 1960-62, who is also known as the first person to have given Burroughs LSD. Hardiment bought a number of items from Burroughs in that time period and famously kept them in a suitcase: he sold the contents in parts, when he needed money. One group of materials went to the bookseller Pat Zanelli and eventually to the University of Kansas, where it is known as the Burroughs-Hardiment Collection.

A second group of photographs and collages went into the collection of photographer Richard Lorenz and were exhibited in the 1996 show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art -- "Ports of Entry: William S. Burroughs and the Arts."

The third group, offered here, went from Hardiment to novelist and bookseller Iain Sinclair, in 1985, likely, again, via Pat Zanelli. Like the photos in Kansas as well as those in the Lorenz collection, many of these have sellotape on the edges, and like the collages in the Lorenz collection, some are still taped together, forming collages themselves or representing collage fragments. Tape shadows on the versos of some of the images both here and at the University of Kansas hint that Burroughs may have created the collages and then, when he began experimenting with the cut-up technique in writing, have cut-up the collages with the intent of applying this same technique to visual imagery. Barry Miles and Jim Pennington -- whose research uncovered most of the information we have about the Hardiment suitcase -- each looked at this collection of photos and attested to its authenticity and importance for gaining perspective on Burroughs' creative artwork in the early years of his career.

In addition to the Kerouac and Ginsberg photos, highlights of this grouping include: a photo booth portrait; a passport photo; and a negative of an unpublished Brion Gysin photograph of Burroughs from 1959 (with contemporary archival print). 32 photographs in all, plus calling cards of Bruno Heinrich and Charles Henri Ford, and a copy of Driffs magazine -- "The Antiquarian and Second Hand Book Fortnightly" -- which includes Part 1 of Iain Sinclair's "Definitive Catalogue" of the Beats -- this part being devoted entirely to the works of William Burroughs, with this album as item number 80 in the catalogue. The condition, wherein the photos are cut up, fragmented, partially taped, all by design, and housed in a 1960s photo album, is fine, as it is. A complete inventory is available on request.

[#033847] $25,000

[NY], Saturday Evening Post, 1932.

A previously unknown Faulkner "A" item -- an offprint from the March 5, 1932 issue of the Saturday Evening Post.

In long-accepted Faulkner lore, the first and only separate edition of Turn About was the 1939 edition published by W. L. Massiah of Ottawa, Canada, which has been considered Faulkner's scarcest "A" item, with approximately seven known copies. Offered here is a 1932 offprint -- 7 years earlier than the Massiah edition -- with no other known copies.

Faulkner's story "Turn About" was first published in The Saturday Evening Post on March 5, 1932, with two bibliographically significant markers: the second paragraph includes a description of one character as having "a pink-and-white face and blue eyes, and a little dull gold mustache above a mouth like a girl's mouth," and the text is broken up into 10 parts, each identified with a Roman numeral, from I to X.

The earliest book publications of the story -- in O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1932 and in Faulkner's collection Doctor Martino and Other Stories, published in 1934 -- leave out both the "gold mustache" and the text breaks. The former change seems likely to have been authorial, rather than editorial, which means that Faulkner changed the text of the story, removing the "gold mustache" phrase, before the end of 1932, when the O. Henry collection was published. The 1939 Massiah edition includes the phrase, which is how it was concluded that it had been printed from the text of the Post story, rather than from one of the later book publications. The Massiah publication also retains the 10 text breaks, but rather than being identified by Roman numerals, the breaks are separated with a filigree design.

The 1932 offprint offered here includes the "gold mustache" phrase, as well as the 10 text breaks of the original Post publication, with Roman numerals delineating the sections -- the only place, other than in the original magazine itself, where Roman numerals are used in the text.

Carl Petersen, the renowned Faulkner collector, did not have a copy of Massiah's Turn About in his collection when he published his 1975 bibliography. By 1991, when Peter Howard of Serendipity Books published the 643-page catalog of Petersen's Faulkner collection, he did have a copy, which Serendipity valued at $17,500, calling it "by far the rarest of Faulkner's published books." Christie's auction house called the Massiah edition "exceedingly scarce" and noted that "no copies have appeared at auction in at least 50 years" in a 2010 auction listing.

As best we have been able to determine, this 1932 Saturday Evening Post offprint displaces the 1939 edition of Turn About as Faulkner's scarcest "A" item: it is previously unknown, contemporaneous with the initial story publication, and possibly, at this point, one of a kind.

28 stapled pages; one page corner turned; a handful of mostly marginal pencil markings ("x's"); near fine in stapled wrappers.

[#035975] $25,000

Oil on canvas. 43" x 20". No date. [#034361] $18,000

Undated. 16" x 13". Oil on wood. Framed. A portrait of Cummings' wife, Marion Morehouse, reclining on a bed in a position reminiscent, presumably deliberately, of Goya's "The Naked Maja." Goya's painting was considered scandalous in its day, in a way that some of Cummings' artwork -- especially his erotic paintings of strippers, lovers, and sensuous nudes -- were in his own time, or at least he seems to have intended them to be. A stylized image, foreshortening perspective and thus alluding to Cummings' origins as an abstract, rather than realist, painter. Fine. Letter of provenance provided. [#023666] $17,000

ca. 1928.

A large portrait by Cummings of his stepdaughter, Diana Barton, with one of her dogs at Joy Farm in New Hampshire, sometime between 1927 and 1930. Diana was born in 1921; Cummings met Anne Barton in 1925 and they spent several summers at Joy Farm beginning in 1927. Diana is standing outside, with her dog at her side and Mount Chocorua in the background.

One of the best-loved American poets of the 20th century, Cummings was also a prolific visual artist: he considered writing and painting to be his "twin obsessions." He exhibited his work in the annual Society of Independent Artists shows from 1916-1927, and he was the art editor of The Dial magazine, the preeminent Modernist literary journal in the U.S., in the 1920s. In 1931, Cummings published a book of his artwork in a limited edition. Called CIOPW, it took its title from the media he used in his art: charcoal, ink, oil, pencil and watercolors. In his early years he emphasized abstract painting; from the 1930s on he tended toward representational images, albeit with a range of inventive palettes, which some have compared to his inventiveness with words and poetic forms and structures.

This is an early, transitional image by Cummings, painted as he was moving from abstract to representational art but still using the brilliant color schemes and flourishes that link his later art back to his abstracts. In this painting, the sky is "psychedelic," the mountain range has a variety and richness of color, and Cummings has taken liberties with the proportions. 35-3/4" x 47-3/4". Oil on Upson Processed Board (a fiberboard used as a building material in the early 20th century), with a narrow (2" x 8") chip missing from the lower left corner, affecting only flora. "DIANA BARTON" written on the back (in a child's hand?); also "1928-9?" Unsigned, as was most of Cummings' artwork, as he adhered to the theory (popularized decades later) that art is best encountered independent of its artist, even as his paintings seem to shed light on his innovative, visual style of poetry.

[#033852] $15,000

Oil on canvas. 24" x 20-1/2". Signed by Cummings on the back. No date. [#034360] $15,000

1942. A portrait by Cummings of his mother, Rebecca Clarke Cummings, immortalized in Cummings' words: "if there are any heavens my mother will(all by herself)have one." Oil on canvas. 15" x 20". Dated on verso, September 1, 1942. [#031576] $15,000

1947. Oil on composition board. 32" x 25". Dated December 25, 1947. Inscribed by Cummings on the rear of the painting: "For Marion/ love!/ Xmas/ 1947." This image was later used as a Christmas card that Cummings and Marion Morehouse had made. Corners abraded. Unframed. [#014969] $12,500

NY, Various, (1958-1967). The first four books by Southern -- creator of Dr. Strangelove and the screenwriter of Easy Rider -- each inscribed by him to his friend, the bandleader, composer, and musician Artie Shaw. Flash and Filigree (NY: Coward McCann, 1958; the scarce first issue) is inscribed "To Artie and Casey with love and all best wishes/ Terry S." Laid in is an autograph note signed to Artie from Southern. The Magic Christian (NY: Random House, 1960) is inscribed "To Artie and Casey with love and best wishes for much happiness. Terry." Candy (NY: Putnam, 1964 -- first thus, and first hardcover edition) is inscribed "To Artie and Case [sic], with love and kisses (your so-called 'soul' or 'french' kiss, natch!) / Terry." Red Dirt Marijuana (NY: New American Library, 1967) is inscribed: "To Art/ with all best, Terry." The books are near fine or better in near fine or better dust jackets; each housed in a custom clamshell case. [#033653] $12,500

A cityscape looking out the back of Cummings' apartment in Greenwich Village, where he lived from 1924-1962 (next door to Djuna Barnes). Oil on canvasboard. 19-3/4" x 15-3/4", nicely framed to 20" x 24". Undated. Fine. [#014965] $11,000

1955. Oil on canvas. 15" x 20". Portrait of fellow Harvard alumnus and fellow New Hampshire painter William James, Jr. On the verso: "w.j." and "10-01-55." [#031599] $11,000

Oil on cardboard. 10-1/2" x 16-1/4". No date. [#034358] $10,000

1939. Oil on cardboard. 18" x 15-1/2". Signed by Cummings on the verso, where he has added the date 2/9/39 and an "A." Additionally noted on verso: Gotham Book Mart #825, the title and dimensions, and "M24708M gray with two tone insert." The painting has an upper left corner chip and is horizontally scored 1" from the bottom edge; near fine. [#026464] $10,000

Zurich, Rascher & Cie., 1919. The first German edition of Joyce's play Exiles and the first of his works to be published in translation in any language. One of 600 copies printed: Joyce was living in Zurich at the time and he paid for the publication of this book out of his own pocket. This copy is inscribed by the author: "To J.R. [sic] Watson, Jun / with grateful regards / James Joyce / 8. ix. 1919." J.S. Watson, Jr. was at the time the co-owner of the modernist literary journal The Dial, which he bought from Martyn Johnson with his friend and fellow Harvard graduate, Scofield Thayer. Watson became president of the magazine and Thayer became its editor. The "grateful regards" refers to a gift of $300 that Watson had sent Joyce earlier in the year at the urging of Thayer, who had himself sent Joyce $700. These sums bailed Joyce out of dire financial straits, allowed him to settle a court case against him, and helped him support the theater group that he had associated with in Zurich, the English Players. In 1920 The Dial published a piece by Joyce, and in 1921 Thayer was one of his most ardent and influential supporters in the censorship case in New York against Ulysses and its publication in the Little Review. A notable association copy of Joyce's first translation. Slocum & Cahoon D44. Pages browned and acidified, and covers strengthened at all the edges and spine with tape, with a hole cut in the spine for the title to show through. The first blank, on which the inscription appears, is also strengthened at the edges with tape. Fragile, and a candidate for de-acidification, but a significant association copy from a critical point in Joyce's life and career. [#029930] $10,000

Watercolor of a sunset sky over Mount Chocorua. 18" x 12". This painting is signed by Cummings on the verso. Undated. [#031600] $9,750

1950-09-09. Watercolor. 20" x 14". Signed on back. [#033235] $9,500

1957. The porch at Joy Farm, near Silver Lake, NH. Oil on canvas. 16" x 12". On the verso: "joy farm terrace." "m.m.c.," and "july 27, 57." [#031598] $9,500

1947-04-23. Oil on cardboard. 16" x 20-1/2". [#034357] $9,500

An archive of Demas’ memoir of growing up in Stuyvesant Town, a carefully planned postwar neighborhood in central Manhattan where prospective tenants were closely screened. Many were immigrants or the children of immigrants. Blacks were excluded in the early years. For most, ST represented a step up the social ladder, into the middle class, with higher incomes, better education for the children, less onerous working conditions for the fathers, and mothers who could stay at home as housewives. Eleven Stories High explored the changing roles and expectations of women between Demas’ mother's generation and her own, as well as being a Gentile in a Jewish world; the secret community of Greeks in America; and the contrast between "the country" and the vast sterility of Stuyvesant Town where “an earthworm was an exotic, a butterfly a miracle.” When Eleven Stories High was published, Demas became an inadvertent spokesperson for Stuyvesant Town, and her comments on various ST-related matters – having to do with real estate values in the late 1990s and early 2000s; gentrification; the decline of the middle class, and the contrast with the values instilled by her upbringing in this "accidental utopia," as she called it – appeared in the New York Times as an article, an op-ed piece, and a letter to the editor. The book itself generated several large files of correspondence: included are hundreds of pages of readers sharing their responses to the book and their own recollections of Stuyvesant Town. Demas’ book is a memoir, but her archive is a social history. Little else has been written about ST: Charles Bagli’s 2013 book Other People's Money focused on Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village as the center of the greatest real estate deal ever made – and then, at the height of the Great Recession, ever to fail, but little has been written about the community itself, which helped give rise to the idea of gated communities around the country; helped to define what it meant to be in the middle class at that time, especially in an urban area; and embodied so many elements of both the positive and negative aspects of "the American Dream." A full inventory is available on request. [#033849] $9,500

1959-09-21. Oil on canvas. 15" x 20". Signed by Cummings on the back. [#034353] $9,000

Mt. Chocorua, 1961. The summer sun hitting the Sandwich Range. Oil on canvas. 12" x 16". On the verso: "june 30, 1961." [#031593] $9,000

1950-05-11. Oil on cardboard. 16" x 20-1/4". [#034355] $9,000

1945-05-27. Oil on cardboard. 8-1/2" x 14". [#034356] $9,000

Oil on canvasboard. 26" x 20". No date. [#034352] $8,500

Flower vendor and pedestrians on a street corner in Paris. Oil on cardboard. 8-1/2" x 17-1/2". Framed. No date. [#031605] $8,500

1980. Two typed letters signed to Alan Ryan, fellow science fiction writer and editor of the religiously-themed speculative fiction anthology Perpetual Light. Both letters are dated March 13, 1980, with one being for private reading, thanking Ryan for his review of Dick's The Golden Man and discussing Dick’s forthcoming novel VALIS; the second being for Ryan to show to others, espousing enthusiasm for his planned anthology. The letters are folded in thirds, else fine. Two very revealing letters to a fellow writer and colleague. [#034633] $8,500

1975. A letter dated January 27, 1975 and written to Paul [presumably Paul Williams, Dick's close friend and eventual biographer] transmitting chapter one of Confessions [of a Crap Artist] (not included here) and, included here, two pages of "theological ramblings" related to Dick's "beginning to fashion a scientific theory about [his] theological experiences..." The letter covers a bit about the retrograde forces such as tachyons bleeding back at Earth due to the weakening field of time; one of the two pages of notes considers humans' (and Dick's) roles as avatars, with knowledge received from the Holy Spirit; the other page considers our inability to recognize God and postulates a "SF novel: Hefestus as VALIS" -- a very early mention of the acronym Dick developed for the "Vast Active Living Intelligence System" that he considered to be the nature of reality and the universe, after his psychological/religious epiphanies that he experienced in February and March of 1974. The theological writings are from the early pages of what came to be known as his Exegesis, which, by the time of his death in 1982, had reached over 8000 pages of religious and metaphysical insight and speculation. The letter, signed by Dick, runs about 225 words; the theological musings about 950 words. Near fine. [#032866] $8,500

New York, Boni & Liveright, 1927. Faulkner's second novel, which had a first printing of 3047 copies. Bookplate gently tipped to the front pastedown. Slight push to the crown and trace wear to corners, but a very near fine copy with the orange stamping on the front cover and spine still bright and fresh, in a lightly rubbed, near fine example of the first issue "mosquitoes" dust jacket. A very attractive copy of a book seldom found in this condition. [#034923] $8,500

(n.p), (n.p.), [ca. 1983]. In 1983, Robert Stone, National Book Award-winning novelist, was commissioned to write a piece on George Orwell and his dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, as that calendar year approached. In the piece, Stone made an effort to reclaim Orwell from the conservative right wing, which had taken his most famous, anti-totalitarian novels -- Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm -- to be explicit condemnations of the Soviet Union and Communism, and by implication all leftist thought itself. Instead, Stone argues that Orwell's writing in Homage to Catalonia -- not to mention his fighting on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War -- identifies Orwell as someone with both a socialist sympathy and "a certain affinity with what I believe is best about the United States," a kind of Puritanism that is characterized by "rectitude...conscience and common sense." He goes on to point out that Orwell "was the sort of radical who makes enemies on both sides of epic struggles," owing to his "originality and intelligence, [and] above all his thoroughgoing honesty, [which] always got him in trouble. A writer and man more predictable and dull, less infernally scrupulous would have had a better time of it." Stone adds that Orwell was idealistic but non-ideological -- as Stone was himself -- and deeply committed to the kind of "pragmatism that has characterized American moral thinkers from Jefferson to James to Neibuhr." He concludes that "We may never produce a greater political novel than Nineteen Eighty-Four" and that "it has done its work for us" in shaping our fears and cautions sufficiently for us to have avoided the totalitarian dystopia that was latent in the post-War years of the Cold War. The confluence of writer and subject here was, in many ways, a near-perfect one but the piece seems never to have been published; we can find no record of it; a cover letter from Stone's wife, Janice, indicates this was done for Thames Television, but whether it was produced or used remains unknown to us. One of Stone's novels includes an allusion to a critical moment in Nineteen Eighty-Four: Stone's character explains that one has "to look the gray rat in the eye" -- an allusion to the torture by rats that Winston Smith, in Nineteen Eighty-Four, is faced with, which causes him to "break" and betray himself and his loved ones. 18 pages, ribbon copy typescript, with Janice Stone's cover letter, laid into an agent's folder. Fine. An unknown Robert Stone piece, on a subject that touches close to many of the central and pervasive themes of his own writings. Unique. [#032829] $8,500

Oil on canvas. 16" x 12". No date. [#034349] $8,000