Rare books from Between the Covers- Rare Books, Inc. ABAA

Near Fine. A remarkable collection of 235 H.P. Lovecraft items with over 200 rare amateur press appearances dating as early as 1914 and nearly 20 miscellaneous appearance by Lovecraft or directly relating to his writing. While a couple items are bound in boards, the rest are bound in stapled or sewn wrappers, nearly all with the tiny book label of Black Sparrow Press founder John K. Martin on the rear pastedown or wrap. Overall near fine with exceptions noted in the detailed list.

Unbound. Fine. Portrait hand painted by Plath of her high school friend and classmate Arden Tapley, executed in pastels. Measuring 19" x 25". Framed and glazed. One intentional crease across the lower edge (probably so the image could be displayed without showing the subject's amateurishly executed hands) and a small red stamp lower in the left corner that reads "Estate of Sylvia Plath", overall fine. Matted and framed to 23.25" x 30". Undated, but probably from 1950, the year that Plath and Arden Tapley graduated together from Wellesley High School. Tapley's daughter recalled that her mother often spoke of her friendship with Sylvia, and that both were rather "shy, sensitive girls who naturally gravitated toward each other." She said that when she first saw this image she immediately recognized it as her mother, so Plath did capture an essence of her young friend, although admittedly her mastery of the craft of portraiture was limited. We have never seen such an artwork by Plath offered on the… Read More

(Mount Vernon, New York), 1935. Softcover. Near Fine. A highly unusual collection of satirical illustrated manuscript stories, several series of satirical gouache paintings, a series of painted symbols, and other artworks and letters by the British-born engineer, inventor, and occult writer James Churchward. Churchward's remarkable cast of satirical figures, known collectively as the Pixeyites, are ostensibly based on the Niven stones, which were pre-Columbian stone tablets bearing indecipherable pictographs and related markings, unearthed in 1921 by the English mineralogist William Niven in the Valley of Mexico. Most of the original 2600 andecite tablets were lost or dispersed and have never been recovered. All that remains are Niven's original rubbings, a selection of which are here stringently reproduced by Churchward as dramatic satirical figures superimposed upon new landscapes, timelines, and situations, thereby endowing them with a new life of their own. Now, they are "Pixeyites" - each… Read More

Near Fine. A collection of 81 works of art, primarily by students of Black Mountain College and artists of the San Francisco Renaissance. The art was assembled starting in the early 1960s by artist Ernesto Edwards, a close friend of many of the artists, and runs the gamut from simple sketches to completed paintings by Black Mountain artists Tom Field, Paul Alexander, William McNeill, and Knute Stiles along with local San Francisco Renaissance artists Fran Herndon, Harry Jacobus, Ori Sherman, and others. The art, much of it on homoerotic subjects, is composed on various materials Including loose sheets, boards, and canvas in a mixture of media including pen and ink, crayon, marker, gouache, oil paint, as well as various assemblage materials (paper, photographs, magazine and newspaper clippings, foil, fabric, etc.) and a altered image composed on a computer printer, with many works framed and matted. Overall near fine with some age toning to some of the loose sheets and minor scattered edgewear; the… Read More

Washington, D.C.: Gales & Seaton, 1868. Hardcover. Good. A collection of 62 bound large folio volumes consisting of 59 volumes of the *Daily National Intelligencer* (published daily except Sunday); and three volumes of the *National Intelligencer* (triweekly edition). Owned and edited by Joseph Gales, Jr., in partnership with his brother-in-law William W. Seaton, the *Intelligencer* provided the nation with accurate and detailed reports of governmental activities (including debates and speeches, President's messages, proclamations, etc.), along with daily articles, reports, editorials, etc, on the most important events and issues of the day. According to *The New York Times* (reporting on an incident during the War of 1812): "... so powerful was its influence that when Gen. Ross, in command of the British troops, entered the capital after the unfortunate affair of Bladensburgh, his first inquiry was not for the Capitol, the President's house, or the departments, but for the *National Intelligencer*… Read More

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1943. Hardcover. Good/Good. First edition. A bit cocked, small tears and light fraying at the crown, a good copy in a price-clipped good later issue dustwrapper which is sunned at the spine and has some chipping on the front panel. An exceptional association copy of this title. Inscribed by Caspary in the year of publication to George and Miriam Sklar: "For Miriam and George - who feed and shelter me, sympathize with me in my worst moods, listen to my beefs, and still collaborate, with my best, first-class, grade-A love - Vera Jan. 21, 1943." The Sklars were very close to Caspary. George Sklar was a leftist playwright and novelist and the co-author with Caspary of the play adaptation of *Laura,* as well as several other plays. One of the scarcest film source books, basis for the classic 1944 film directed by Otto Preminger (and Rouben Mamoulian) and starring Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Vincent Price, and Clifton Webb. The film is reportedly to be remade. The only… Read More

(Rochester, New York), 1980. Near Fine. A lifelong collection of the photographs and related professional materials of Grant Haist, senior research associate at the Eastman Kodak Company and author of two important technical manuals on photographic processing. A lifelong ‘Kodak man' until his retirement in 1983, Haist was an internationally recognized technical expert and an award-winning photographer known for his western landscapes and nature prints, and scenes of everyday American life. His photographic work appeared in *National Geographic*, *National Wildlife*, *Smithsonian*, and Kodak publications. Fellowships from the Royal Society of Great Britain, the Photographic Society of America, and the Society for Imaging Science and Technology honored his accomplishments. The collection consists of well over 10,000 (8" x 10") gelatin silver prints, and 100 mounted enlargements, together with Haist's (4" x 5") sheet film negatives; over 600 glass plate negatives; over 700 large and medium format… Read More

(Guatemala and Mexico), 1959. Near Fine. A collection of 79 gelatin silver prints (ranging in size from 7" x 7" to 8" x 10") and four smaller (5" x 4") prints by Alma Lavenson, collated and housed in 11 handmade paste-paper portfolios. The collection consists of 51 prints taken in Guatemala (in seven portfolios), and 32 prints taken in Mexico in four portfolios. Each print is captioned by Lavenson on the versos in green ink (giving place names) and in her smaller hand underneath in blue ink (giving additional information). All are in fine condition. Also included is a San Francisco Museum of Modern Art exhibition catalog (1984-85) Inscribed by Lavenson. This portfolio is Lavenson's first book solely devoted to her photography. A remarkable assemblage of images made by the famed California photographer, of Guatemalan and Mexican women, children, and men, including several Mayan peoples, from various rural regions and towns throughout both countries. The images date from a trip Lavenson made in 1959,… Read More

1968. Very Good. A large archive of manuscripts and related literary papers of gay writer Richard Blake Brown including novels, plays, poetry, travel writing, and memoirs. The collection consists of about 130 holograph and typescript manuscripts: (50 notebooks of holograph manuscripts; 38 volumes of bound typescripts; 39 unbound typescripts; two holograph booklets; one unbound holograph manuscript); seven of Brown's published novels (five of which are annotated by him and have extra material laid in); and about 60 miscellaneous items (including manuscript extracts, letters. and photographs). The bulk of the writings date from the late 1920s-1950s. Richard Blake Brown (1902-1968) is an overlooked figure in the British literary scene of the interwar period: a remarkable man and an exceptional writer, Brown's open homosexuality was a source of puzzlement even to fellow gay writer Denton Welch, who once exclaimed in response to a 1946 letter from Brown: "Is this exhibitionism or vanity or what?" The… Read More

(Rome; New York; Washington D.C.), 1915. Very Good. A collection of 61 sketchbooks belonging to the Italian born artist Pietro Lazzari, a World War I soldier and leading figure in the Italian Futurist movement. After several trips to New York during the 1920s, Lazzari emigrated permanently to the United States in 1929 because, as he put it, "the fascists began mingling with the futurists." During the 1930s he painted murals for the WPA and soon won fame as a sculptor, painter, and teacher at American University and the Corcoran School of Art. The collection is comprised of 34 working sketchbooks spanning Lazzari's early years in Italy and the United States (circa 1915 - early 1930s), and an additional 27 sketchbooks from when Lazzari was based in Washington, DC (circa 1950-72). Together they comprise an astounding gallery of various portraits and caricatures, with related figures and studies, including early images of Italian army officers and soldiers, and of friends and fellow artists. The… Read More

(Harlem, New York City), 1960. Very Good. A collection of 13 remarkable portraits by a previously unknown African-American artist from Harlem in New York City. Most of the paintings are signed by the artist, George Edward Smith, including one with his address noted on the back at 10 West 135th Street in Harlem. The collection consists of various striking portraits of women and of the artist's family, most likely including one or two portraits of the artist with his wife and other family members. Two paintings are dated: 1957 and 1959, indicating that they all likely date from the late 1950s to early 60s.All 13 paintings are notable for Smith's striking use of color and bold foregrounding of each person portrayed. Whether it be of a mother or grandmother, a young woman striding forth in heels or going off to church, or of the artist himself and his wife: all possess highly animated and distinctive facial expressions and gestures; and most are portrayed upon a background with whimsical and satirical… Read More

1973. Unbound. Near Fine. The working manuscript of an article published in The Observer of London in 1973 documenting Alex Haley's research into the writing of Roots, along with a Signed program from a dinner in Haley's honor, two edited drafts of a letter by Haley to an English editor, as well as a letter from the editor and Haley's literary agent. The Manuscript consists of 43 typed quarto sheets, with more than half heavily edited by Haley in his trademark green pen, and the remaining pages with scattered corrections, words crossed-out, and a few with notes in the margins. Nine of the sheets have the earlier edited draft neatly stapled at the rear of the corrected copy; the lone exception is page one, which is stapled to the first three edited pages. Overall near fine with minor scattered edgewear, mostly to the large envelope that originally housed the material. The manuscript begins with Haley recounting how he first heard the stories of his family as a young boy from his grandmother and her… Read More

1866. Unbound. Very Good. A double-sided 6000+ word report of a trip by the Excelsior Baseball Team of Brooklyn, New York to play the National and Union teams of Washington, DC on September 29 and 30, 1866, almost certainly written by Henry Chadwick, the Hall of Fame sports writer known as the Father of Baseball. Broadsheet. Measuring 9" x 18½". Printed in two columns on both sides with box scores for each of the two games printed in the text, listing players from the three teams, including both individual and team scoring. Very good with horizontal and vertical creases from being folded, nicks at the folds and some offsetting from an ink note at the bottom edge ("give this to Jack"). The broadsheet begins with an account of the Excelsior's journey from New York, through Baltimore, to their arrival at Willard's Hotel in Washington, and a day of sightseeing at Mount Vernon, before beginning an account of the games played over the next two days. The featured game between the Excelsiors and the… Read More

1895. Fine. Original gouache drawing on paper. Measures 11" x 17½" to the inside edges of a cloth matte, neatly housed inside a glazed wood frame (19½" x 26¼"). Signed by the artist in the lower left corner. Frost's original frontispiece illustration for the book *Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings * published by D. Appleton and Company, New York, 1895. In fine condition with two or three small chips at the corner edges of the wood frame. One of Frost's classic images of Uncle Remus telling stories. Accompanied with a good 1895 new and revised edition of the book with the printed frontispiece of the drawing for comparison. A beautiful original drawing by A.B. Frost, best known for his illustrations of American sporting scenes and of Joel Chandler Harris' beloved characters in the Uncle Remus books.

1918. Near Fine. An outstanding, highly unusual collection of 51 whimsical ledger art drawings, executed by Sammus Gray Owl in lead and color pencil from 1918-25. The artworks depict various groups of anthropomorphic animals, reptiles, birds, and insects, along with a recurring native American man dressed in a dark suit. Each of these eclectic figures are strikingly realized with humor and wit, and are typically shown wearing or holding a top hat and smoking a pipe. The collection consists of two sketchbooks with 32 drawings executed on loose blank paper sheets measuring about 5½" x 8" and one smaller sketchbook with ten drawings measuring about 3½" x 5", together with nine large framed drawings executed on graph lined folio ledger sheets, some with printed column headers and page number. All three sketchbooks and the nine ledger sheets are signed and dated by Sammus Gray Owl. A few slight smudges, most sheets have one slightly irregular edge (from when it was removed from a bound ledger volume),… Read More