Rare books from Ken Lopez Bookseller, ABAA

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. No Binding.

Oil on canvasboard. 19-3/4" x 15-3/4". No date. A cityscape looking out the back of Cummings' apartment in Greenwich Village. No Binding.

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. No Binding. Fine.

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… Read More

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. No Binding.

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." No Binding.

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. No Binding. Near Fine.

NY: Various. (1958-1967). The first four books by Southern -- creator of Dr. Strangelove and 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 Terry. 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, 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 with its own, matching, custom clamshell case. Unless otherwise noted, our first editions are first printings. First… Read More

[ca 1950s]. An album containing early photographs by and of William S. Burroughs and other figures of the Beat generation, including photo collages and partial collages, with annotations by Burroughs; a photobooth portrait; a passport photo; a negative of an unpublished Brion Gysin photograph of Burroughs from 1959 (with contemporary archival print); and other images. 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 photographs are primarily from the early 1950s -- the ones annotated by Burroughs having dates from 1952 to 1954. Several photographs are taped together, forming early visual collages, while a number of the individual photos have sellotape along their edges, suggesting… Read More

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 1933, 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… Read More

Oil on cardboard. 10-1/2" x 16-1/4". No date. No Binding.

Oil on canvas. 43" x 20". No date. No Binding.

Oil on canvas. 24" x 20-1/2". Signed by Cummings on the back. No date. No Binding.

(NY): Smith & Haas. (1932). A Yoknapatawpha County novel that is considered his "most penetrating and dramatic analysis of contemporary Southern society." Fine in a fine dust jacket. A strikingly beautiful copy of one of the high spots of 20th century American literature: probably the brightest, freshest copy we've seen in 40+ years of selling modern first editions; the orange topstain is as bright as the orange of the fine dust jacket. Housed in a custom three-quarter leather clamshell case.

[NY]: Saturday Evening Post. 1932. A previously unknown Faulkner "A" item -- an offprint of this story from the March 5, 1932 issue of the Saturday Evening Post. Apart from this offprint, the story was not published separately until 1939, by W. L. Massiah of Ottawa, Canada. Not in Petersen, where Peter Howard of Serendipity Books, in the 645-page catalog of the Petersen collection, proclaimed the 1939 Canadian publication, A.21.2, to be "by far the rarest of Faulkner's published books." Howard priced that copy at $17,500 in 1992. Nonetheless, OCLC now shows 6 copies of the Canadian edition published by Massiah, but no copies of this offprint. "Turn About" was first published in the Saturday Evening Post, then collected in O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1932 and then in the Faulkner collection Doctor Martino and Other Stories. The text of the story in the book publications differs slightly from the magazine version: in the second paragraph of the original magazine story, the main character is… Read More