More than 70 items available at the
Rare Book Auction
The Library often brings people together to celebrate the community's love of literature. This event will feature a different aspect: the love of owning and collecting books. The Rare Book Auction will bring up more than 70 items for auction. Aside from a wide array of books in categories such as Cornwall Connections, Classic, Arts, Nature, Botany and Gardening three prints by Armin Landeck will be available as well.

Scroll down and you will get an idea of the objects available. You can download the complete Catalog here. If you want to see which ones are the most valuable and most expensive items click on this page

A Room Of One's Own by Virgina Woolf. Fountain/Hogarth Press, New York/London, 1929. Near Fine, and uncommon in this condition. Original cinnamon cloth. Copy 216 of only 492 numbered copies. Signed by the author in trademark purple ink of this important and desirable title. Stain on cover and binding. Estimate $5,000-$7,000.

Through The Looking Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll. Thomas Y. Crowell. New York 1893. Light blue and white cloth with dark blue floral pattern, gilt rules and letters. Scuffing/ soiling to covers. Owner’s name, child, written several times on front leaf. Color frontis by Copeland; many illustrations by Copeland & Tenniel; all text pages with elaborate floral border design. Estimate $50-$75.

Year’s at the Spring compiled by L. D’O Walters. Brentano's. New York 1920. Illustrated by Harry Clarke, with an Introduction by Harold Monro.). First US Edition (from British sheets). 10.5" x 8". 127+(1) pages; full-color frontispiece, 11 full-page full-color plates, 12 full-page monochrome plates on tinted backgrounds, b/w half- title and title-page illustrations and 18 b/w head- and tail-pieces, all by Clarke. Hardcover: Brown letter with tooled decorations and title overall. Owner’s name on front piece. Estimate $150-$250.

The Lady Is Cold by E. B. White. Harper & Bros.  New York. 1929,  First Edition. - First Issue Binding. Pages 95pp. Woodcuts on copyright page. The blue pictorial jacket of Plaza Fountain has moderate wear. White’s first book published by a major house. Copy lacking the scarce dust jacket. Estimate $200-$300.

A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson, Dodge Publishing Company, New York 1905. First Edition. Very Good condition, no dust jacket. Corners lightly bumped. Color illustrated cover in excellent condition. Very nice clean, tight copy, pale blue cloth with color blind stamped title and illustration (child in tree) on cover. Illustratred by Bessie Collins Pease. 113 pgs. Estimate $75-$100

Aubrey Beardsley by Haldane MacFall. Simon and Schuster, New York 1927. First edition (UK edition in 1928). 4to, black buckram lettered & decorated in gilt. (271), (1) pp. Frontispiece portrait (from the famous photo by F.H. Evans) and 8 illustrations tipped in, 44 drawings in the text. A very good clean and unworn copy. Estimate $75-$100

The Original Water-Color Paintings by John James Audubon for THE BIRDS OF AMERICA, American Heritage Publishing Co. New York, 1966. First Edition. First Printing. Folio. Both volumes and slipcase are remarkably preserved, nearly pristine, in the original shipping carton from the publisher. "Original Edition" stated on the copyright page. 431 plates--some fold-out to double width--all reproduced in color from the New York Historical Society. Audubon's Birds of America is unquestionably the greatest work on birds ever produced and here are the original watercolor paintings reproduced in a format large enough to truly appreciate their beauty. Estimate $300-$400.

Alarms and Diversions by James Thurber. "A book for people who like to laugh & know how to think." First edition. Book fine, dust jacket with loss of paper. Inscribed by author. Estimate $400-$600.

The Years With Ross by James Thurber. Atlantic Monthly Press, Boston, 1959. Hardcover. First Edition. Stated fourth printing in a very good dust jacket with loss of paper on top of spine. The title refers to Harold Ross, founder of The New Yorker. Inscription and drawing of a dog by author. Estimate $200-$250.

The Wonderful O by James Thurber, Illustrated by Marc Simont. Simon and Schuster, New York, 1957. First edition, first printing. Inscribed by both Thurber and Simont. Dust jacket panels tipped into rear. A fantasy story written by Cornwall’s famous writer and charmingly illustrated by 1957 Caldecott Medalist Marc Simont. Estimate $200-$300.

The Thurber Album: A New Collection of Pieces about People by James Thurber Simon and Schuster, New York, 1952. Hard Cover. No dust jacket. First edition. 346 pages with black & white reproductions of photographs and sketches at back of text; inscribed by the author on first two pages. Estimate $350-$400.

Historical Records of the Town of Cornwall by Theodore Gold. Hartford Press, Hartford, 1904. Second Edition Hard Cover.  Hardcover without dust jacket. Estimate $50-$75.

Cream Hill: Discoveries of a Weekend Countryman by Lewis Gannet. The Viking Press, New York, 1949. First edition. Dust jacket tipped into rear.  Illustrated by Ruth Gannett. His third book. Inscribed by both Ruth and Lewis Gannett. Estimate $100-$150.

Wild Honey by Samuel Scoville, Jr. Illustrated by Reproductions of Etchings by Emerson Tuttle, Little Brown, Boston, 1929. No Jacket. First Edition. 8vo - over 73⁄4" - 93⁄4" tall. Includes naturalist essays from Cornwall, CT, the Pine Barrens of NJ, and Okefinokee Swamp. Estimate $25-$40.

The Autobiography of Mark Van Doren Harcourt, Brace, New York, 1958. Faded at edges, but a very good copy in dust jacket. First edition. Signed. Reminiscences of Cornwall. Estimate $75-$100.

A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas. New Directions, New York, 1954. First Edition, flecked paper boards, red and black ink lettering, red ink chapter heads with decorative elements. First hardback edition (originally published in magazine form). A very handsome copy of this exceptional classic. Estimate $300-$400.

Enough Rope by Dorothy Parker. Boni & Liveright, New York, 1926. A beautiful copy in scarce original dust jacket – very good condition. Parker’s first solely-authored book containing such gems as the couplet that helped to bring about the contact lens industry: "Men seldom make passes/At girls who wear glasses." Estimate $500-$600.

Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall at Tintagel in Lyonnesse by Thomas Hardy, Macmillan Company, New York 1923. Limited ed. Black and grey bound, ivory label with title on front., #493 of 1000. Edgewear, corners frayed, One-act reworking of the Tristan and Isolde legend; One page loose. Owner’s name on inside cover. Estimate $50-$75.

The Decisive Moment by Henri Cartier Bresson. Simon & Schuster, New York, 1952. Paper-covered Boards. Published by Simon and Schuster in collaboration with Editions Verve of Paris in July 1952. Printed in France by Draeger Freres. Cover and wrapper with lithograph designed especially by Henri Matisse. Cover warped, splitting. 126 photographs by Cartier-Bresson, with caption list included. Boards warped. Contents excellent, with introductory texts by Cartier-Bresson (in English). Estimate $400-$500. 

The Apples of New York by S.A. Beach.  J.B. Lyon Company, Albany, 1905.  Two volume set. Over 200 color and half-tone plates of apples. New York State Department of Agriculture. Green cloth, gilt lettering w/gilt stamp of apple branch on front board. Minor rubbing to extremities, top edge of both volumes with some spotting. Interior clean. Exhaustive reference for pomology. Estimate $400-$600.

The Grapes of New York by U.P. Hedrick.  Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for the Year 1907. Department of Agriculture Fifteenth Annual Report.  J.B. Lyon Company, State Printers, Albany, 1908.  564 pages, illustrated, indexed. First edition. Green cloth over boards, titling in gilt on the spine. This encyclopedic review of grape production is not limited to New York and encompasses the United States as well. Hedrick provides brief historical narratives of Old World and New World grapes; an account of the grape regions and of grape growing in New York, with statistics relating to the grape, wine and grape juice industries in the state; a discussion of the species of American grapes; and the synonymy, bibliography, economic status, and full descriptions of all the important varieties of American grapes. Estimate $425-$475.

 

About some of the authors and their books

Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), (a pseudonym of English mathematician and writer, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) has delighted audiences from children to to the literary elite with his facility at word play, logic, and fantasy.Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) is the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, although it makes no reference to its events. In it, there are many mirror themes, including opposites, time running backwards etc.

Virginia Woolf (1882 – 1941) was one of the foremost modernist and feminist literary figures of the twentieth century. Between the World Wars, she was a significant figure in London's literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Jacob's Room, and A Room of One's Own.
A Room of One's Own is an extended essay which examines whether women were capable of producing work of the quality of William Shakespeare, amongst other topics. In one section, Woolf invented a fictional Shakespeare's Sister. The title comes from her conception that to be a successful writer, a woman needed space of her own in which to work and enough money to support herself.

Elwyn Brooks (E. B.) White (1899 –1985) was an essayist, author, and noted prose stylist. He is most famous today for a writers' style guide, The Elements of Style, and for three children's books generally considered to be classics of the field. He published his first article in the The New Yorker magazine in 1925, then joined the staff in 1927 (the photo shows him with Cornwall resident James Thurber, right)). During the next six decades as he produced a long series of essays and unsigned Notes and Comments that were widely read. The Lady Is Cold is a collection of verses treating the daily routine of city life. The poems present some of the dominating themes in White's work, namely, his love of New York City, simplicity, and liberty.

Robert Louis (Balfour) Stevenson (1850 – 1894), was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer, a leading representative of Neo-romanticism in English literature. A Child's Garden of Verses is a collection of poetry for children, which first appeared in 1885 under the title Penny Whistles, but has been reprinted many times, often in illustrated versions. It contains about 65 poems including the cherished classics The Land of Counterpane, Bed in Summer, My Shadow and The Swing.

Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (1872 – 1898) was an influential English artist, illustrator, and author, who was closely aligned with Aestheticism, the British counterpart of Decadence and Symbolism. A close friend of Oscar Wilde, he was one the most controversial artist of the Art Nouveau era, renowned for dark images and grotesque erotica, which themes he explored in his later work. His most famous erotic illustrations were on themes of history and mythology, including his illustrations for Lysistrata and Salomé.

Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) was born in Swansea, Wales, a son of a writer. He is widely considered one of the greatest 20th century poets. His vivid and often fantastic imagery was a rejection of the trend in 20th Century verse towards serious topical political and social concerns. Thomas dived into an ocean of passionately felt emotions. His writing is often both intensely personal and fiercely lyrical.

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908 – 2004) was a French photographer who influenced the style of modern photojournalism: a candid approach to daily life and which captures so-called "street photography" in a spontaneous way.

The date:
May 27th
The Rare Book Auction to benefit the Library will be held May 27th from 5 to 7 PM at the Cornwall Town Hall on Pine Street.

Tickets are $10. Email bids for silent auction items will be accepted.

Bidding by email
Bids on any of the items can be e-mailed to louisedunn7@sbcglobal.net up to 9 AM on Saturday, May 27.
• For the silent auction items, your bid will be written down on the bidding sheet for the item you want and will be your final bid.
• For the live auction, your bid will be given to a volunteer who will bid for you up to the maximum amount of money you want to spend. In this case, you might get an item and not spend your maximum.  Please include in your e-mail the item letter and number, what it is, how much you are bidding, your name, address and phone number. You will be notified by e-mail if you win, at which point you will submit your payment and let us know how you want the item shipped.
If you want any more information or more detailed pictures, please contact Louise Dunn at 860-672-6164 or contact her at louisedunn7@sbcglobal.net.

Click here to get an overview of the most valuable items available at auction.