Search Results: Authors starting with R from The Manhattan Rare Book Company

np: np. 1st Edition. No Binding. Very Good. LARGE (8 x 10 in ) PHOTOGRAPH OF RAND, SIGNED AND INSCRIBED in ink in the bottom margin: "To Carl Davis - / -Cordially - Ayn Rand / 8-25-78". A fine portrait of Rand in her later years. A little ink variation on the inscription, due to the glossy paper, otherwise fine. Signed Rand photographs are extremely rare on the market.

New York: Random House, 1957. First edition. Original cloth, original dust jacket. Fine/Fine. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE of Rand's masterpiece; INSCRIBED BY RAND TO LUDWIG VON MISES: "To Dr. and Mrs. Ludwig von Mieses- / -Cordially- / Ayn Rand / 8/22/57". A spectacular association copy linking two of the most influential economic figures of the twentieth century. In August 1957 - nearly two months before the book was available to the public - Rand presented this copy of the first edition of Atlas Shrugged to Ludwig von Mises (sometimes spelled "von Mieses"), the Austrian-American economist and philosopher who was one of the leading figures of the modern libertarian movement, and immediately found a sympathetic ear. After reading Atlas Shrugged, von Mises wrote to Rand, offering strong praise for the book. In a letter to Rand dated January 23, 1958, he wrote:

 "... I enjoyed very much reading Atlas Shrugged and... I am full of admiration for your masterful construction of the plot. But 'Atlas… Read More

Paris: Éditions Pierre Belfond, 1970. First edition. Original wrappers and box. Very Good. SIGNED FIRST EDITION MAN RAY ART-BOOK INCLUDING ORIGINAL RAYOGRAPH. Following his English-language Alphabet for Adults, Man Ray in the lead up to 1970 decided to produce a French edition of his concept for a mature ABCs art-book. Rather than translating the existing words or retrofitting translations onto existing drawings, Man Ray produced a new set of illustrations based on a new set of words for his limited-edition, signed collection-including a signed original rayograph serving as a frontispiece. A number of entries are seemingly innocuous and feature literal pictorial representations, such as "elephant" written over a drawing of an elephant or "barbe" [beard] labelling what is clearly a beard. But many of the lemmas are abstract in nature and require more involved figural interpretation: "beaucoup" [very much; many] clouded by several arrows directed to the upper-right corner of the page; "jalousie"… Read More

Paris: np, 1932. Fine. MAN RAY CAPTURES PICASSO'S ESSENCE IN LEGENDARY PORTRAIT. AN ICONIC PHOTOGRAPH WITH IMPORTANT PROVENANCE: From the famous Sotheby's sale of 1995 of items from the "Estate of Juliet Man Ray, The Man Ray Trust and the Family of Juliet Man Ray". The son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Emmanuel "Manny" Radnitzky (1890-1976) grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He displayed creative abilities from a young age and studied to be a painter. He adopted "Man Ray" as his pseudonym and in 1915 formed the New York group of Dada artists with Marcel Duchamp. In the 1920s and 1930s, Paris was the destination for the international avant-garde, offering an exceptional number of galleries, art dealers, and wealthy patrons who promised artistic freedom. Man Ray sailed to the "City of Light" in 1921, joined Parisian Dada and Surrealist circles and became intimate associates with Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst and other leading artists. He pursued fashion and portrait photography creating a pantheon of the… Read More

Paris: Man Ray, 1931. First edition. gelatin silver print. Fine. STUNNING PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPH BY MAN RAY OF MARY GILL; WITH ICONIC ARTIST STUDIO STAMPS ON VERSO INDICATING A CONTEMPORARY PRINTING. "The man who was to become the most important photographer of the 20th Century and one of the leading experimental painters of the modern era was born Emmanuel Radnitsky in Philadelphia in 1890, the son of a Jewish immigrant tailor." Having been introduced to Alfred Stieglitz during the early 1900s in his Manhattan 291 gallery, Man Ray made a name for himself in Paris primarily as a photographer, capturing fashion models and famous subjects like Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein, and Jean Cocteau.  (Michael Kilian, "Man Ray - The Legend Lives", The Chicago Tribune, Dec. 11, 1988). In this exquisite photograph, Man Ray captures Mary Gill (sometimes known as "Mary Gill-Einstein" since she was the first wife of the American painter William Einstein, or "Marie Gill" from her time in Paris), looking away to her… Read More

Paris: np, 1932. Fine. MAN RAY CAPTURES PICASSO'S ESSENCE IN LEGENDARY PORTRAIT. AN ICONIC PHOTOGRAPH WITH IMPORTANT PROVENANCE: From the famous Sotheby's sale of 1995 of items from the "Estate of Juliet Man Ray, The Man Ray Trust and the Family of Juliet Man Ray". The son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Emmanuel "Manny" Radnitzky (1890-1976) grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He displayed creative abilities from a young age and studied to be a painter. He adopted "Man Ray" as his pseudonym and in 1915 formed the New York group of Dada artists with Marcel Duchamp. In the 1920s and 1930s, Paris was the destination for the international avant-garde, offering an exceptional number of galleries, art dealers, and wealthy patrons who promised artistic freedom. Man Ray sailed to the "City of Light" in 1921, joined Parisian Dada and Surrealist circles and became intimate associates with Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst and other leading artists. He pursued fashion and portrait photography creating a pantheon of the… Read More

Pacific Palisades: n.p., 1964. First Edition. Presentation folder. IMPORTANT SIGNED LETTER BY RONALD REAGAN. On the heels of the great success of his famous speech for Barry Goldwater, Reagan weighs a political career for himself. Reagan "stepped up his activism in 1964, serving as co-chairman of Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign in California and delivering a speech at the Republican National Convention in San Francisco. After the convention, as the Republican Party's chances of unseating incumbent Lyndon Johnson dwindled, Reagan stood by his candidate even as other Republicans kept their distance form Goldwater's conservative message, confrontational style, and disastrous poll numbers. When some of Goldwater's supporters asked Reagan to tape a television appearance on the candidate's behalf, he readily agreed. The campaign bought thirty minutes of airtime on NBC on October 27. Reagan's reincarnation as a political figure began that night. In the decades to come, Reagan's admirers would refer… Read More

Paris et Bruxelles: Librairie Nationale d'Art et d'Histoire. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Fine. FIRST EDITION, one of only 110 numbered deluxe copies on Vélin d'Arches à la cuve, with 3 original etchings by Redon. Preface by Marius-Ary Leblond. Paris et Bruxelles: Librairie Nationale d'Art et d'Histoire, 1923. Octavo, original decorative paper wrappers; custom cloth box. Wrappers in remarkable condition; very clean, just one small closed tear; the most minimal wear to the tail of the spine. Internally very clean and partially unopened. A superb and very beautiful copy. Rare.

Berlin: Deutschen Verlag. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. FIRST EDITION, in exceptionally fine dust jacket and extremely rare original glassine, of Riefenstahl's classic monument to the athletes of the 1936 Olympics. Profusely illustrated with 273 black-and-white photographs. "With the German photographer Leni Riefenstahl, sports imagery rose to new aesthetic heights. Commissioned by Joseph Goebbels, she brought her considerable visual and organizational skills to bear on both the photographing and filming the 1936 Olympic Games. Although the film Olympiad has become an acknowledged classic, her book of photographs, Schönheit im Olympischen Kampf, no less spectacular in its own way, is less known. Sometimes Riefenstahl relied on poses modelled on the antique Greek ideal, faithful to Hitler's belief that modern Teutonic man was 'feeling closer to classical antiquity' than he had 'in possibly a thousand years'. But far more original were her depictions of superbly… Read More

Leipzig: Barth-Verlag. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Fine. First complete edition of Rontgen's announcement of the discovery of the X-Ray. "Hertz and Lenard had published on the penetrating powers of cathode rays (electrons) and Rontgen thought that there were unsolved problems worth investigation... As a preliminary to viewing the cathode rays on a fluorescent screen, Rontgen completely covered his discharge tube with a black card, and then chanced to notice that such a screen lying on a bench some distance away was glowing brightly. Although others had operated Crookes tubes in laboratories for over thirty years, it was Rontgen who found that X rays are emitted by the part of the glass wall of the tube that is opposite the cathode and that receives the beam of cathode rays. He spent six weeks in absolute concentration, repeating and extending his observations on the properties of the new rays. He found that they travel in straight lines, cannot be refracted or reflected, are not deviated by a… Read More

Washington, D.C., 1943. n/a. Very Good. MAGNIFICENT WARTIME LETTER BY ELEANOR ROOSEVELT ON ACHIEVING LONG-LASTING PEACE. This letter, signed and typed by world-renowned social reformer Eleanor Roosevelt on White House letterhead and dated June 28, 1943 (World War II), is addressed to Mr. Jerome Darrow, soldier and army newspaper editor, and reads in full: The White House Washington June 28, 1943. Dear Mr. Darrow: I am very glad to send you a message for Talkie-Talkie, your weekly Army newspaper. I understand only too well how hard it must be for our soldiers who stand guard in the jungle and outposts which we are now occupying. I want to say to them that on every hand I hear how wonderfully the men are accepting the strange new conditions under which they live and how cheerfully they live through discomfort and boredom. I only hope that beneath it all they realize they are part of the great fighting force which can only win because each unit has done its part. I lived through the last war… Read More

New York: np, 1921. POIGNANT SIGNED LETTER FROM ROOSEVELT ON HIS RESOLVE NOT TO LET POLIO DEFEAT HIM. Very Good. POIGNANT SIGNED LETTER FROM ROOSEVELT ON HIS RESOLVE NOT TO LET POLIO DEFEAT HIM. Written just two months after being struck by polio at his summer home at Campbello Island, Roosevelt writes on October 5, 1921, to Henry Waring Chadeayne (Orange County lawyer and politician): My dear Mr. Chadeayne: I appreciate very much the action of the Democratic County Committee of Orange County in directing you to convey their sympathy to me. I also appreciate exceedingly the personal good wishes which you added on your own account. The doctors tell me I am getting along splendidly and I hope to be back in the game before so very long. Very sincerely yours, [signed] Franklin D. Roosevelt By October 5, 1921, the outlook for Roosevelt looked bleak. He was already suffering from paralysis with little hope for improvement, yet from the beginning Roosevelt fought with extraordinary resolve to… Read More

New York: np, 1913. First edition. no binding. Very Good. PASSIONATE AND IMPORTANT LETTER BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT DEFINING THE NATURE OF THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY. The letter, signed and typed by Roosevelt on letterhead of The Outlook magazine (where Roosevelt was a contributor and associate editor) and dated February 14, 1913, is addressed to Progressive Party Committeeman Henry Wallace and reads in full: The Outlook 287 Fourth Avenue New York February 14, 1913 My dear Mr. Wallace, I have written a letter to Mr Watkins which I hope he will show you. Michigan is to elect a number of State officer and various county, city and township officers this Spring. I hope we shall have a straight Progressive ticket put up in the State and in every city and township. I see in the press that the regulars of the Republican Party are endeavoring to absorb our representatives. Now the Progressive Party stands for principals, not men. We have in our ranks very many ex-Democrats just as we have very many… Read More

Los Angeles: np, 1960. FIRST EDITION. Fine. ELEANOR ROOSEVELT'S OFFICIAL CONVENTION BADGES FOR THE 1960 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION. With a signed letter from Roosevelt to her good friend Mayris Chaney concerning her arrival at the convention. TWO BADGES: Decorative medals held with red-white-and-blue ribbon, the first reading "Mrs. F.D. Roosevelt / Former First Lady" on two metal bars, between beautiful engraved patriotic designs at the top and bottom surrounding the text "United States of America" and "1960 Democratic National Convention Los Angeles"; the second badge, again with the beautiful patriotic emblems, reads "Honored Guest". The medals include the original box. On July 10, 1960, the day before the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, Eleanor Roosevelt refused to ride in a limousine to a reception, preferring to walk half a mile with reporters. The absence of former President Harry Truman underscored the Democrats' break with the past and cast a warm light on former First… Read More

New York: np, 1915. First edition. nb. Very Good. IMPASSIONED LETTER BY ROOSEVELT STRONGLY SUPPORTING NON-SECTARIAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. Theodore Roosevelt writes to Michael Schaap, a progressive member of the New York legislature with whom the former president shared multiple correspondences, opposing "making compulsory the reading of the Bible in Public Schools." While a devout Christian himself who often encouraged others to attend church, Roosevelt forcefully articulates his support in the letter for "absolutely non-sectarian public schools." While one may cite the "moral or ethical parts of the Bible, so long as this causes no offense to anyone," he argues, "it is not our business to have the Protestant Bible or the Catholic Vulgate or the Talmud read in those schools." Schaap was a prominent Progressive party member of the state legislature, who at the time of this letter was dealing with proposed legislation making Bible reading compulsory in New York public schools. Ultimately, the bill went… Read More

New York: np, 1956. First Edition. Very Good. A DETAILED, IMPASSIONED LETTER ILLUSTRATING ROOSEVELT'S PROMINENCE IN PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS AND HER POSITION ON BANNING NUCLEAR TESTING. An important, lengthy letter signed by Eleanor Roosevelt, with numerous autograph corrections, written to an important political figure eleven days before the 1956 presidential election in which she campaigned for Adlai Stevenson, expressing the importance of a nuclear test ban. The letter reads (in full): My dear Friend: I was very sorry to get your letter and also sorry to see your statement in the paper. I feel it was a mistake for Mr. Stevenson or Mr. Finletter not to have explained to you long ago what they were actually proposing, as you have evidently accepted the Republican interpretation of Mr. Stevenson's suggestion. I grant you his first speech was not sufficiently explanatory but since then he has made very clear what he is trying to do and more than 270 scientists have agreed with his position. The… Read More

London: Bloomsbury, 1997. First Edition, galley proof. Unbound sheets, housed in custom box. Very Good. EARLIEST KNOWN COPY OF HARRY POTTER; NO OTHER COPIES LOCATED. On February 26, 1997, this remarkable complete set of galley sheets was sent to the distinguished children's author and literary critic Fiona Waters. In the cover letter accompanying the galley (included here), Rosamund Walker, Children's Marketing Manager of Bloomsbury Publishing wrote, "Further to our conversation, I have enclosed a manuscript for your interest as promised. Once you've had a chance to have a look, I would really appreciate it if you could let me know your comments for pre-publication quotes." The "manuscript," already rejected by twelve other publishers, was Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Waters read these advance galley sheets during a long train journey to Scotland and was immediately captivated by the tale of a young wizard named Harry Potter. While it was Ms. Waters' usual practice to discard galleys… Read More

Paris: Crochard, 1820. First edition. Original wrappers. Fine. ONE OF THE FIRST TRANSLATIONS OF ØRSTED'S FAMOUS AND UNOBTAINABLE LATIN PAMPHLET ON THE DISCOVERY OF ELECTROMAGNETISM, PUBLISHED IN THE FOLLOWING MONTH IN FRANCE, AND IMPORTANT FOR ITS CONNECTION TO AMPÈRE'S EXTENSIONS OF ØRSTED'S RESEARCH ON ELECTROMAGNETIC PHENOMENA. A MAGNIFICENT COPY IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS. In July of 1820 the Danish scientist Hans Christian Ørsted announced his discovery that a magnetized needle could be deflected by an electric current. The discovery created a sensation among European savants, and shortly thereafter Ampère extended Ørsted's work by showing, among other things, that parallel current-carrying wires repelled or attracted one another, depending upon the whether the two currents were in the same or opposite directions. A little over a decade later, Faraday showed that moving magnets could induce an electrical current in nearby conducting wires, and by 1865 Maxwell had developed a complete… Read More

Deventer: The Octopus Foundation and Sonsbeek 71, 1971. First edition. Original card covers. Very Good. FIRST EDITION OF THE RAREST RUSCHA BOOK; ONE OF ONLY AN ESTIMATED 200 COPIES. IN OUTSTANDING CONDITION. "In December 1970, Ruscha was invited to produce a photobook in conjunction with the Sonsbeek 71 exhibition in the Netherlands. Wim Beeren, the commissioner of the international festival, chose the location (Stadskanaal-a village in Groningen built along both sides of a straight canal) for the commission, but left the specifics of the project up to Ruscha. Once on site, Ruscha began photographing the facades of the houses along the canal, undoubtedly informed by his panorama of Los Angeles, Every Building on the Sunset Strip (1966). The topography of the Dutch village led Ruscha to a different approach, however, and the book is conceptually more performative than the earlier work, inasmuch as it directly encompasses a site-specific action: the artist's journey back and forth across the bridges… Read More

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1930. First edition. Very Good. FIRST EDITIONS OF RUTHERFORD'S SEMINAL TEXTS ON RADIOACTIVITY; FROM THE WORKING LIBRARY OF JOHN COCKCROFT. Nobel laureate Ernest Rutherford won the 1908 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his pioneering work on radioactivity, work introduced to the world in the present first editions of Radio-Activity (1904) and Radiations from Radioactive Substances (1930). It was this research that was later extended by his research assistant John Cockcroft, who himself received the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for artificially accelerating atomic particles and splitting the atom. When Winston Churchill, having visited MIT in the US after stepping down from the political arena, envisaged a new science-centric research centre for the UK, one individual stood out as an obvious choice to lead the new college in its formative years. Sir John Cockcroft was appointed by the Crown as the first Master of Churchill College, Cambridge - a new constituent of… Read More