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devoted to the writing and reading of fiction, essays later published together as
The Art of the Novel
: “The real represents to my perception the things we cannot
possibly
not
know, sooner or later, in one way or another. . . . The romantic stands,
on the other hand, for the things that, with all the facilities in the world, all the
wealth and all the courage and all the wit and all the adventure, we never
can
directly know; the things that can reach us only through the beautiful circuit and
subterfuge of our thought and our desire.” The first twenty-four volumes, with
prefaces, appeared between 1907 and 1909; the final two volumes were published
posthumously in 1917. Tipped into the first volume is an autograph note signed and
dated by James, presenting this set “indulgently!” A fine presentation copy.
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Arthur Rackham. The Peter Pan Portfolio.
London: Hodder & Stoughton, [1912].
Elephant folio, original vellum over pale green cloth boards, original box. $16,500.
First edition, one of six hundred copies, signed by the publishers, printers and
engravers. In 1904, J.M. Barrie approached Arthur Rackham, whose illustrations
for
Rip VanWinkle
had recently caused a stir, and asked him to illustrate
Peter Pan
in Kensington Gardens
. Their collaboration remains one of the great pairings of
author and illustrator in children’s literature. Rackham’s paintings locate the fairy
world within a recognizable modern London of smokestacks and streetlights,
underscoring Barrie’s emphasis on the magic just beneath the surface of everyday
life. In 1912, Rackham selected twelve of his favorite Peter Pan imaxges for this
portfolio, which contains the largest Rackham plates ever printed; this first
London edition preceded the American portfolio by two years. A fine copy in
the original publisher’s box.
J.M. Barrie. Peter and Wendy.
New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1911.
Octavo, original olive cloth gilt, original dust jacket. $12,500.
First American edition of the classic novel of Peter Pan’s adventures with the
Darling children. Barrie first envisioned Peter Pan as a newborn, the flying baby
immortalized by Arthur Rackham in
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens
. In
Peter and
Wendy
, Barrie follows Peter into boyhood, introducing the iconic characters of
Tinker Bell, Captain Hook, andWendy Darling: “Wendy knew that she must
grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.”
This copy is inscribed by J.M. Barrie in the year of publication, and accompanied
by an autograph note to the recipient on Barrie’s Adelphi Terrace House stationery.
A very good copy, published the same year as the English first edition.
Henry James. The Novels and Tales.
New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1907-1917.
Twenty-six octavo volumes, contemporary full morocco gilt. $30,000.
First edition on handmade paper of the monumental NewYork Edition of Henry
James’s fiction, with photogravure frontispieces by Alvin Langdon Coburn. James
had been reluctant to offer a collected edition of his work, but was swayed by the
appearance of lavish sets devoted to his contemporaries Robert Louis Stevenson
and Rudyard Kipling: as he wrote to the latter, approvingly, “They’re more than
literature: they’re Furniture.” James seized on the NewYork Edition as an
opportunity to define his literary legacy, revising a core group of his works, and
sending photographer Coburn across England, France and Italy in pursuit of ideal
Jamesian images. Most importantly, James contributed eighteen new prefaces
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