Search Results: Autographs & Letters from The Manhattan Rare Book Company

New York: Pierre Matisse Gallery, 1942. First edition. Very Good. CATALOG FOR THE LANDMARK ARTISTS IN EXILE EXHIBITION, SIGNED BY ALL 14 ARTISTS, INCLUDING ANDRÉ BRETON, MARC CHAGALL, MAX ERNST, AND PIET MONDRIAN. On March 3, 1942, an historic exhibition of fourteen émigré artists opened at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York City. Pierre Matisse, distinguished modern art dealer, gallery owner, and son of Henri Matisse, exhibited some of the greatest European and American artists of the twentieth century, many for the first time. This special exhibit, appropriately titled Artists In Exile, represented cutting edge European avant-garde art and featured a single work from each artist, created after their arrival in the United States. We have on offer a rare Artists in Exile exhibition catalog which features a group photo by George Platt Lynes and the signatures of all 14 of the artists in colored inks: Eugene Berman, André Breton, Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, Fernand Leger, Jacques Lipchitz,… Read More

np: np, 1930. First edition. Fine. EINSTEIN ON THE CONCEPT OF PEACE: A POWERFUL AUTOGRAPH STATEMENT IN EXCEPTIONALLY LARGE FORMAT. 
. Translated from the original German: "No person has the moral right to call himself a Christian or Jew so long as he is prepared to engage in systematic murder at the command of an authority, or allow himself to be used in any way in the service of war or the preparation for it." Starting in 1925, the French Academy began sending large (11.5x16.5) sheets to important scientists, writers, and intellectuals asking them to write on the sheet a statement on the concept of peace for possible inclusion in an anthology. (The World League for Peace later released a limited edition of prints from the submissions under the title Pax Mundi: livre d'or de la paix.) This is Einstein's unique manuscript submission. A highly unusual format with exceptionally large Einstein signature (2.25 in / 6 cm) of an important Einstein statement, consistent with his life-long dedication… Read More

np: np, 1983. First edition. custom folder. Very Good. FEYNMAN OFFERS ADVICE AND ENCOURAGEMENT FOR A SCIENTIFIC ENDEAVOR. An exceedingly rare two-page autograph letter from Richard Feynman from 1983, signed once in full cursive, once with a printed last name, once with his initials, and once with a printed "alias" "DR. -". Background: The recipient of the letter - Stephan Arnold Mascari - has provided (in an included letter of provenance) the context of the letter: "Here's the story behind the letter: It was in the middle of 1983 that I decided to give up being a lawyer in Washington, DC, and devote my life to resolving the greatest mystery in science-the nature of the conscious mind. I had been studying the issue since my undergraduate days at Georgetown and became convinced that the mind must have some other basis than the neural machinery of the brain. And several eminent neuroscientists had convincingly argued for a dualistic mind-a soul if you will.  "But I had no illusions about the… Read More

Camden, NJ: np, 1888. First edition. Fine. WHITMAN AS A BOOKSELLER, TRYING TO SELL LEAVES OF GRASS. In this letter, Whitman has written to New York publishers Dick & Fitzgerald mentioning Leaves of Grass. He offers the book to them at a 33% discount and signs the letter with his full signature "Walt Whitman". Framed alongside the letter is the famous photo of Whitman touching the (prop) butterfly from the first edition of Whitman's "Specimen Days & Collect". The letter, dated Feb 18, 1888 from his 328 Mickle Street address (Camden, New Jersey) reads in full: "After some delay I have succeeded in getting you a two Vol. set (in perfect order half leather binding) those portraits from life, of Leaves of Grass and Two Rivulets ed'n 1876 - Shall I send the vols to you? The price is $6.66 (+10 - one-third off). [signed] Walt Whitman" Matted and framed with UV filtered glass with opening on back to show the address side of post card. Framed alongside Whitman's letter is the photograph of Whitman from… Read More

Princeton, NJ: np, 1943. First edition. nb. Fine. EINSTEIN OFFERS STRONG AND PRESCIENT WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE LEADER OF THE NAACP IN THE FIGHT AGAINST RACIAL SEGREGATION AND DISCRIMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES. Background: Einstein's fight against racial discrimination in the United States: The imperative "to protect the rights of the individual... was Einstein's most fundamental political tenet. Individualism and freedom were necessary for creative art and science to flourish. Personally, politically, and professionally, he was repulsed by any restraints. "That is why he remained outspoken about racial discrimination in America... As a Jew who had grown up in Germany, Einstein was acutely sensitive to such discrimination. 'The more I feel an American, the more this situation pains me,' he wrote in an essay called 'The Negro Question' for the January 1946 issue of Pageant magazine. 'I can escape the feeling of complicity in it only by speaking out.'" (Isaacson, Albert Einstein, 505).… Read More

Vancouver, CA: np, 1895. First edition. Matted and framed. Very Good. LONG HISTORICALLY IMPORTANT SIGNED LETTER WRITTEN BY S.L. CLEMENS (A.K.A. MARK TWAIN). The impact of the Paige typesetting machine on Mark Twain's life cannot be overstated. Awed by the prospect of the biggest revolution in textual history since the Gutenburg Press, Twain held faith in the machine's potential despite many warning signs, notably persistent breakdowns of Paige's machine and the advent of Linotype. Why did Twain refuse to let go of this dream? "[P]erhaps, in the end, the Paige typesetting machine was simply the best tall tale he'd ever heard," writes critic Ron Powers, arguing that the financial decline in Twain's life resulting from his misjudged investment of his own wealth and his wife Olivia's inheritance (along with a series of personal tragedies including the loss of his wife and two of his daughters in the decade following 1895) correspond directly with a diminution in his characteristic wit and levity… Read More

Croisset: np, 1847. First edition. Letter; custom case. Very Good. A LONG, EARLY, AUTOGRAPH LETTER BY FLAUBERT TO HIS MUSE LOUISE COLET, WITH REVEALING REFLECTIONS ON LIFE AND ART. On Louise Colet: "Louise Colet was truly Flaubert's muse and a midwife for his Emma Bovary. It is to her that the hermit of Croisset chronicled, in over a hundred letters, the progress of his first published novel: It is exclusively to Louise that he wrote his famous reflections about the craft of literature - prophetic passages that would become the most familiar credos of twentieth-century modernism... "Throughout the phase of their correspondence... Flaubert so often sought Louise's advice on details that her daughter and literary executor, Henriette Colet Bissieu, would later demand... that her mother's collaboration in Madame Bovary be officially acknowledged." (Francine du Plessix Gray, Rage & Fire: A Life of Louise Colet, Pioneer Feminist, Literary Star, Flaubert's Muse, pp. 199-201.) The letter: Flaubert wrote… Read More

Princeton: np, 1937. First Edition. Very Good. AN EXTRAORDINARY LETTER BY EINSTEIN TO HIS SON OFFERING LIFE ADVICE AND DISCUSSING FREUD, SHAKESPEARE, AND SCHILLER. Addressed to his son Eduard "Tetel" Einstein and signed "Papa", the letter, written in ink on both sides of one sheet, reads in full (translated from the original German): 

Dear Tetel,

 I hope by now you've received Freud's lectures from Vienna. I've read most of them myself in the past. They really made me admire the Author, but they didn't convince me that his theories were correct. 

I must admit however that, based on my personal experiences, my conviction about those theories is weakening -- I feel now that he was onto something, at least in regards to the main theses. I would have written to you sooner, but work is keeping me very busy. Even though they say that the work of a single person will not have much of an impact in the big picture, it does not diminish the passion in which we pursue our interests, and… Read More

Cambridge University: np, 1955. first edition. custom folder. Very Good. WONDERFUL C.S. LEWIS LETTER RESPONDING TO A YOUNG FAN ABOUT THE NARNIA SERIES. Dated October 26, 1955, and written on Lewis's Magdalene College stationery, the letter reads in full: Dear -- Thank you for your nice letter. I am so glad you like the books. There will be one more, and that will be the last. Seven is a good number. The The M's Nephew of course ought to have come first, but one doesn't always write things in the proper order. With Love Yours [signed]C.S. Lewis This letter was acquired directly from the original recipient, who provided the background story: "This is why C.S. Lewis wrote to me: One day, when I was a child, I wrote a letter to him (on my clown stationary), because I loved his books and was hoping he'd write another one. Being 10, I told him what I hoped he would include in his next book, and also informed him that his 6th book in the Narnia series should have come first.  I've treasured that… Read More

Oxford: np, 1952. First edition. nb. Very Good. ONE OF THE FINEST C.S. LEWIS LETTERS TO APPEAR ON THE MARKET, OFFERING INSIGHT INTO THE CREATION OF THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA. WITH MENTION OF TOLKIEN'S "THE HOBBIT" AS A FAVORITE BOOK. Between the publication of the second (Prince Caspian) and third (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) books in his masterpiece series, "The Chronicles of Narnia," Lewis writes to a group of school children, revealing his thoughts about the series and his plans for the remaining books. Over the course of the letter, Lewis: -regrets that Peter and Susan are not returning to Narnia ("they are now getting to the age at which people stop having that sort of adventure for a time"); -offers a preview of the new book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader ("Lucy and Edmund find Caspian (now King of course) on board ship, sailing to the Eastern end of the Narnian world. There will be lots about Reepicheep. And there will be a Sea Serpent, and a Dragon, and lots of strange islands.");… Read More

Oxford: np, 1954. First edition. custom folder. Very Good. A REMARKABLY REVEALING LETTER: TOLKIEN DISCUSSES HIS SPECIFIC FEARS ABOUT THE TWO TOWERS AND DEFINES "THE FOUNDATION" OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS AND CONNECTS IT TO HIS LIFE'S WORK. The Fellowship of the Ring (the first volume of The Lord of the Rings trilogy) was published on July 29, 1954. There were a number of rave reviews (mostly notably from Tolkien's friend C.S. Lewis) but there were also enough harsh or critical assessments (particularly the reviews in the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Times) to concern Tolkien and make him anxious about the reception of the second volume, The Two Towers. Professional reviews were one worry, but Tolkien always seemed even more eager to discover if his works connected with "regular" readers as well. One such reader whose opinion he held in high regards, was one of his early supporters, Miss F.L. Perry, whom he had corresponded with earlier about The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring. The present letter… Read More

Washington, D.C.: np, 1869. First edition. custom folder. Very Good. A LOVE LETTER FROM "FATHER WHITMAN" TO A CIVIL WAR SOLDIER. A rare and significant letter to one of the young soldiers Whitman aided at a military hospital during the Civil War. Whitman corresponded with Pratt for some 8 years, beginning after Pratt's hospitalization in 1865. Whitman's letter is a response to Pratt's own of May 9, 1869, in which Pratt asks why he has not heard from Whitman (despite having sent several letters to him) and in which Pratt gives report of his health. Pratt's letter, which is addressed to "Father Whitman," essentially affirms that Whitman saved his life in 1865: "had it not been for that smiling countenace [of yours] I should have been no more". Whitman's letter in response to Pratt's letter was initially dated "June 28, 1869" and subsequently revised by Whitman to July 1. In his letter Whitman gives brief report of his life and affectionately affirms "Dear boy I would like to see you, that we might… Read More

Brussels: n.p., 1921. First edition. Custom box. Fine. EARLY CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MAGRITTE AND HIS GOOD FRIEND, PAINTER AND POET PIERRE-LOUIS FLOUQUET, WITH PERSONAL COMMENTS ON LIFE AND ART. WITH ORIGINAL PENCIL DRAWING BY MAGRITTE. Having met at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, René Magritte (1898-1967) and Pierre-Louis Flouquet (1900-1967) shared a studio on the Rue de Alexiens and later exhibited together at the short-lived Centre d'Art founded in December 1919. In 1920, Flouquet undertook his military service in France, and Magritte would write regularly to keep up his friend's morale. In 1927- having worked so closely as to render many of their works form this period indistinguishable-the two men grew somewhat apart, with Magritte turning sharply towards Surrealism while Flouquet moved towards figurative art. The present letters thus fill a gap in the important period of correspondence before his rift with Flouquet and his pivotal development of a Surrealist aesthetic. Included… Read More

np: np, 1930. First edition. Custom box. Very Good. RARE AND REVEALING COLLECTION OF FAMILY LETTERS WRITTEN BY KURT VONNEGUT. This collection of 12 letters, most of which are addressed to Vonnegut's father, brother (Bernard), sister-in-law (Bow), and family as a whole, chronicle the life, rise, and development of one of America's most beloved writers. Taken together, these letters - in which he begins to test the possibilities of a career in writing - are a unique glimpse into Vonnegut's psychic and writerly interior, and bubble with the experimentality, imagination, and distinctive prose that would define Vonnegut's most famous works in the decades to follow. Housed together in handsome archival case. II. Letters 1-2: EARLY LIFE (Early 1930s) "Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like "Slaughterhouse-Five," "Cat's Cradle" and "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation" (Dinitia Smith, New York Times).… 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

Northport, NY: n.p., 1963. First edition. Custom cloth folder. Fine. SIGNED LETTER FROM KEROUAC FEATURING RARE DRAWING AND DISCUSSIONS OF FELLOW WRITERS. Dating from the final decade of Kerouac's life, the present letter is an unpublished insight into how the writer's relationships, attitudes and motivations developed in his later years. On the back of the second leaf is a collection of abstracted forms to which he refers at the start of the letter. Kerouac ironically describes his artwork as a gift "worth 10,000 dollars within 5 years". Identifying the piece, completed in pencil and marker, as an oil painting, he further comments on its value and rarity arising from the probability that he will "suddenly get bored with paint again". Subsequently, Kerouac describes an original piano composition titled "Procession of the Iroquois Chieftain" which-though left un-scored, "'cause I dont know how"-he claims to have recorded on tape. Charting his creative impulses, with increasing proficiency, from… Read More

Oxford: np, 1953. First edition. custom folder. Very Good. EIGHT MONTHS BEFORE PUBLICATION, TOLKIEN ANXIOUSLY INTRODUCES HIS MASTERPIECE, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, TO A FAN OF THE HOBBIT. Tolkien had begun work on The Lord of the Rings in December of 1937 and by early 1950, after over twelve years of labor, the writing was essentially complete. The road to publication, however, was not an easy one, for Tolkien feared his book would have difficulty finding an audience. In February, 1950, he wrote about his concerns to his publisher (Allen & Unwin): "My work has escaped from my control and I have produced a monster: an immensely long, complex, rather bitter, and rather terrifying romance, quite unfit for children (if fit for anybody)." (Carpenter, 213). Tolkien's admission that he had produced a "monster" turned out to be prescient, for seeing the book through publication proved to be a challenge for both him and his publisher and three years after completion, the first volume (The Fellowship of the… 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

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

Munich: np, 1973. first edition. nb. Very Good. HEISENBERG PROVIDES HIS RECOLLECTIONS OF THE ORIGINS OF NIELS BOHR'S CONCEPT OF "COMPLEMENTARITY". A UNIQUE ITEM, OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE FOR THE LIGHT IT SHEDS ON THE PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF QUANTUM MECHANICS AS SEEN BY THE PIONEERS IN THE FIELD. It is by now a commonplace observation that until their properties are determined by a particular experiment or measurement, quantum systems can have a dual or multiple nature - light can be both a wave and a particle, an electron can follow two distinct and inconsistent paths, and so forth. Niels Bohr, in a famous 1928 paper, "The Quantum Postulate and the Recent Development of Atomic Theory," described this aspect of quantum theory as "complementarity." As explained by historian of science Max Jammer, in his magisterial book "The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics": "... Bohr asked himself how it is possible that [the equations governing radiation] relate together characteristics of radiation… Read More