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Sterling Brown; E. Simms Campbell (illustrator). Southern Road.
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1932. Octavo, original dust jacket. $3000.
First edition of Sterling Brown’s first book of poems. Moving deftly between
poetic registers, Brown explores the rural South and the urban North, as the
old agrarian way of life meets the modern black America of Ma Rainey and Jack
Johnson: “Death comes a-orderin’ / Folks aroun’, / Got blacksnake whip / Bring
yuh down.” AHarlem Renaissance classic, inscribed in the year of publication.
Blind Lemon Jefferson; Ma Rainey; et al. The Paramount Book of Blues.
Port Washington, Wisconsin: New York Recording Laboratories, [1927].
Octavo, original pictorial wrappers. $950.
First and only edition of this 1927 Paramount Records blues catalog. Originally
in business as the Wisconsin Chair Company, Paramount turned to recording
music as a way to sell their phonographs, producing breakout “race records”
in the process. Highlights include “Black Snake Moan,” “Butter and Egg Man
Blues,” and “Shake That Thing.” A scarce musical artifact, documenting the pop
marketing of the American blues.
Madame de La Fayette. The Princess of Cleves.
London: R. Bentley and M. Magnes, 1679. Octavo, period-style full mottled calf. $5000.
First edition in English of
The Princess of Cleves
, the first psychological novel,
published anonymously in French in 1678. In the tension between her disciplined
self-presentation and tormented inner life, the character of the Princess
foreshadows the heroines of countless novels to follow: “The darkest expressions
of a Person we love move more than the clearest declarations of a person we have
no inclination for. She made him no answer.”
Bernard Picart. A New Drawing Book of Modes.
London: Richard Ware, [1732]. Oblong octavo, early marbled boards with original
red morocco label laid down. Engraved title page, 12 engraved plates. $1100.
First edition of this detailed visual guide to early eighteenth-century “modes”:
hairstyles, costumes, and attitudes. The leading engraver of his day, Picart depicts
fashionable men and women in social contexts, providing a template for those
struggling to capture the gestures and expressions of the moment. A drawing
book for the drawing room.
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