Goldberg Coins and Collectibles

Sale 86

The Manuscripts, Collectibles & Space Auction

Authors

Lot	Photo	Description	Realized
Lot 701		A Poet and Two Novelists: Thomas Campbell, Agatha Christie, and Booth Tarkington. Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) Scottish poet chiefly remembered for his sentimental poetry dealing especially with human affairs. Autograph letter signed ("T. Campbell"), 2 pages, London, Aug. 17, 1832. To George Condy, Manchester, discussing his current affairs. Agatha Christie (1890-1976) English crime novelist, short story writer, and playwright. Typed letter signed, on blue Winterbrook House / Wallingford / Berks / Wallingford 2248 stationery, one page, 7" x 5½", Berkshire, England, January 24, 1973. To Dear Mr. Radley regarding his request for a signed photo. Boldly signed. A printed bookmark, picturing Dame Agatha, is also included.; Booth Tarkington (1869-1946) American novelist and dramatist. Typed letter signed, on SEAWOOD / Kennebunkport, Maine stationary, one page, 7½" x 5½", Kennebunkport, Maine, July 20,1933. To Mr. Paris. Tarkington accepts an invitation to join an "Honorary Committee." Boldly signed. Estimated Value $300 - 400. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $263
Lot 702		[Authors] Group of Nine Authors: Jack London, Longfellow & Others. Katherine Lee Bates - Partly-printed document signed, being a Reading Room form for a book she wanted to read, 3½ x 8 in., no place, Sept. 8, no year; Henry Ward Beecher - Signature in pencil on a 2 1/4 x 3½ in card; J. Fenimore Cooper - Check signed and accomplished by Cooper, on the Otsego County Bank, July 6, 1842; Edna Ferber - Typed letter signed, 1 page, 7 x 4½ in., Fifty Central Park West (NY), Nov 16, 1926, giving permission to Mrs. Hillis to use a quotation, as long as she credits it to the character in Ferber's book who uttered it; Oliver Wendell Holmes - Signature, place and date (Boston March 31st 1865) a 1¾ x 3½ in. piece of paper laid to cardstock; Rudyard Kipling - Signature on 1¾ x 3¾ in. paper laid to cardstock; Jack London - Signature on 3 x 5 in. piece of paper, followed by "Suva, Fiji, June 5, 1908"; Henry W. Longfellow - Signature and year (1881), affixed to cardstock with a biographical surround; Noah Webster - 2¾ x 3¼ in. paper signed, "Noah Webster / New Haven March 18 / 1843 / Born in West Hartford / Oct. 16, 1758"; Nine items; overall fine. Estimated Value $600 - 800. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $660
Lot 703		[Dickens, Charles] Nicholas Nickleby. First edition of Nicholas Nickleby, London, Chapman and Hall, 1839. With Illustrations by Phiz. Bound in brown Moroccan leather with marbled boards; five raised bands on spine. Steel-engraved frontispiece portrait of Dickens, engraved by Finden after the painting by David Maclise. Slight wear to cover edges and light scattered foxing throughout. Estimated Value $600 - 800. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $400
Lot 704		Geisel, Theodor Seuss - Dr. Seuss (1904-91) Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American writer and cartoonist best known for his whimsical children's books, which he wrote and illustrated under his nom de plume, "Dr. Seuss." Book signed "Best Wishes…Dr. Seuss" with a whimsical paraph between the two lines and an original drawing of the Cat in the Hat, all in pencil on the inside cover, being the Grolier Book Club Edition, New York, Beginner Books/Random House, 1988. Octavo, 62 pp. Hardcover with a few specks; nice and clean internally, with no marks. Estimated Value $250 - 350. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $638
Lot 705		Gene Autry, Ed McMahon, James Stephens. James Stephens, "Julia Elizabeth", a comedy in one act. Crosby Gaige, 1929, New York. Number 644 of a special printing of 800 copies. Signed on a back end paper. Gene Autry with Mickey Herskowitz, Back In The Saddle Again, First Edition, Doubleday & Company, Inc., New York, 1978. With dust jacket. Signed and inscribed on the front fly leaf. Ed McMahon Here's Ed. The Autobiography of Ed McMahon, First Edition, G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1976. With dust jacket. Signed on the front fly leaf. Together with an unsigned copy of The Shirley Temple Story, Book Club Edition, G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York,1983. With dust jacket. Estimated Value $100 - 150. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $60
Lot 706		Heyward, DuBose (1885 - 1940) American author best known for his 1925 novel Porgy, which was adapted by his wife Dorothy into a 1927 play. The stage Porgy inspired Heyward to later collaborate with George Gershwin to produce an operatic version of the story, "Porgy and Bess" in 1935. Collection of three letters to personal friends Anne & Hervey: Autograph letter signed ("DuBose"), on Barbizon Plaza Hotel stationary, 2 pages, 8¼' x 5½", New York, no date ("Thursday"), reflecting on time spent with his friends: "…Great Gawd!I can't tell you how much good my day with you did me. I feel like a new man and the memory of the fine talks with you, and seeing the children will linger long." Autograph letter signed ("DuBose"), on "DuBose Heyward /24 South Battery / Charleston, SO. CA." stationery, 1 page, 10½" x 7¼", no place, no date ("Friday"). Coordinating plans with Hervey Heyward for a mutual family trip: "Hope this fits in well with your plans, as the three Heywards are starting to count the days and hours." Typed letter signed ("DuBose"), on "DuBose Heyward /Dawn Hill / Hendersonville, North Carolina" stationery, 1 page, 10½" x 7¼", July 21, 1929. To Anne with bad news he has received about his friends: " …yesterday I got a letter from John Farrar…he mentioned…that you were terribly worried about the baby, and that Harvey was in the hospital, and had been having a terribly bad time of it. All of this is most distressing, your little family is very close to the hearts of Dorothy and me…" (3 items). Estimated Value $500 - 600. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $525
Lot 707		Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth (1807-82) American poet, educator, and linguist. Autograph Poem Signed "Henry W. Longfellow" and dated, "October 28, 1858," 3½pp (2 pages front and back), 9x7". Very good; light toning and the ink is somewhat faded. All nine stanzas of the famous poem, "A Psalm of Life. What the Heart of the Young Man said to the Psalmist." In full: Tell me not in mournful numbers Life is but an empty dream; For the Soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem. Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul. Not enjoyment, and not sorrow Is our destined end or way, But to act, that each tomorrow Find us farther than today. Art is long, and Time is fleeting, And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still like muffled drums are beating Funeral marches to the grave. In the world's broad field of battle, In the bivouac of Life, Be not like dumb, driven cattle, Be a hero in the strife! Trust no Future howe'er pleasant, Let the dead Past bury its dead! Act - act in the living Present, Heart within and God o'erhead! Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And departing leave behind us Footprints on the sand of time; Footprints, that perhaps another, Sailing o'er life's solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother Seeing shall take heart again. Let us then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate, Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait. Estimated Value $4,000 - 6,000. View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 708		Mann, Thomas (1875-1955) German novelist and critic, one of the foremost figures in 20th century literature; he won the Nobel Prize in 1929. Mann emigrated to the United States in 1939, where he taught at Princeton University, then in 1942, he moved to Pacific Palisades (Los Angeles), California, where some of Europe's most celebrated artists and intellectuals passed the war years. Mann became an American citizen in 1944; he returned to Europe in 1952 but never lived in Germany again. Autograph manuscript signed, 2 separate pages, 10 x 8", no place, no date. Several tears to the two pages have been archivally repaired. Above his signature, Mann wrote: "('The Magic Mountain' / Chapter: Snow)". The quotation begins with: "I hereby declare that I have a prescriptive right to lie here and dream these dreams," and ends with "For the sake of goodness and love, man shall let death have no sovereignty over his thoughts. - And with this I awake." Mann created this manuscript from the chapter "Snow" from The Magic Mountain for the U.S. Treas. Dept. to aid the War Financing Campaign in World War II." Accompanied by a copy of The Magic Mountain. Estimated Value $1,000 - 1,500. Ex Mel Smith Collection. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $5,520
Lot 709		Mann, Thomas. Typed letter signed, 1 page, Pacific Palisades, California, Dec. 1, 1945. To American George Marek, thanking him for an early Christmas present, "…I once possessed this work by Berger, but lost it together with the greater part of my library….The publication of the London edition of 'The Tables of the Law' is planned for the near future; only the agreement of Mr. Robinson is still outstanding, who always remains silent as long as possible in such cases. What I want to tell you is that I have succeeded in having your translation used for the English edition, and not the one by Mrs. Lowe-Porter…." Estimated Value $500 - 750. The Arden Family Holdings of Beverly Hills. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $720
Lot 710		Mitchell, Margaret (1900-1949) American author who wrote Gone With the Wind for which she won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1937). Typed letter signed, one page, on personal stationery, 8 x 7¼ in., Atlanta, Jan. 4, 1936. To a Mr. Frazier, the same year Gone With the Wind was published, "Yes, send your copy on. I will be glad to autograph it. If I were you I would put it in a box or wrap it securely in cardboard, as it does not travel very well without a heavy wrapping…." Letter is affixed to cardstock from a previous framing, else fine. Estimated Value $600 - 800. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $969
Lot 711		Noêl Coward and Christopher Morley. Two nicely penned and signed letters. Sir Noêl Pierce Coward, flamboyant writer, actor, director, composer and singer known for such works as the brilliant Brief Encounter, Blithe Spirit and Private Lives. Autograph letter signed ("Noel"), 2 pages, on his personal letterhead, Jamaica, February 18, praising two books just published by a friend and mentioning that "The Queen Mother is coming to lunch next Wednesday. Are you impressed?….It was all a big secret, but as the whole place has been teeming with security police……." With a 2-page autograph note signed by Christopher Morley, highly regarded essayist and author know for his novel, "Kitty Foyle," for which Ginger Rogers won a Best Actress Oscar. Morley encourages a friend to write for the Saturday Review. Estimated Value $400 - 600. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $228
Lot 712		O'Neill, Eugene. Autograph letter signed ("Gene"), one page, 11 x 8½ ", Belgrade Lakes, Maine, n.d. (Sept. 1926). To his agent, Richard Madden, about royalties and production plans for his plays. In part: "Just a line to tell you to inform the Actors bunch that, as always with my cuts, I expect my full royalty of '[The Great God] Brown' to be restored from Sept. 1st on…Also warn them.they are way behind hand on royalties again which they faithfully promised not to be after our experience with them last winter. Will hold off the Guild until I get back to town….There's no hurry since they're frank about not wanting to do it this season. I'll also have a personal interview with Miller. Nathan has wanted to bring us together for some time…we can take the opportunity to talk 'Marco [Millions]' to him too. As this last is more or less confidential, keep it under your hat. Kenneth [Macgowan] wired me today that he had a cable from [Max] Reinhardt saying he was enthusiastic about 'Lazarus [Laughed]' asking us to postpone any decision of direction for it until his man Kammer gets here the last of month. Which listens good but may mean nothing. I can't wait much longer on their (Actors) raising money to do it, Reinhardt or no R., or I'll be dished out of any production the coming season. As I have pointed out to Kenneth, 'Lazarus L' isn't the type of thing anyone would buy for production after the 1st of Feb.--too expensive. I'm enclosing the contracts. All best! Gene." A couple of penciled notes on verso, else fine. Legendary stage director Max Reinhardt (1873-1943) managed the Deutsches Theater in Berlin at the time of this letter. O'Neill was right about "Lazarus Laughed" being too expensive to produce. No commercial producer was willing to risk it and the only production was a 28-day run at the California Community Playhouse in Pasadena in April 1928. In the summer of 1926, O'Neill and his second wife, Agnes Boulton, rented a cottage in Belgrade Lakes, Maine. During that summer, O'Neill renewed his acquaintance with Carlotta Monterey, who had starred in the 1922 production of "The Hairy Ape," and began a relationship with her; she would become his third wife. It was at Belgrade Lakes that O'Neill wrote "Strange Interlude." Estimated Value $900 - 1,200. Mel Smith Collection, ex Lion Heart Autographs, 1990. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $1,560
Lot 713		O'Neill, Eugene. Autograph letter signed ("Gene"), one page, 6½ x 10¼", Belgrade Lakes, Me., Sept. 16 (1926). To his agent, Richard Madden, about producing his plays in Germany: "Yes, send a script of 'Marco' to Fischer Verlag if you like. Also explain to them that for production purposes the next to the last scene may be omitted. Tell them I want very much to get their comment of its possibilities for Germany after they have read it. Also ask about 'Brown'. Be sure title on script is 'Marco M' & not Marco's Millions." Light toning, penciled initials at top, else fine. Estimated Value $700 - 900. Mel Smith Collection, ex Lion Heart Autographs, 1990. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $475
Lot 714		Smith, Samuel Francis (1808-1895) Baptist minister, journalist, and author. He is best known for having written the lyrics to "My Country, 'Tis of Thee", which he entitled "America." Autograph poem signed ("S.F. Smith"), being the first stanza, 1 page, 6" x 4", no place, March 13, 1893. Poem headed: "America." In full: "My country 'tis' of thee, / Sweet land of liberty,/ Of thee I sing; / Land where my fathers died, / Land of the pilgrims' pride / From every mountain side / Let freedom ring." After a visit to Germany in 1831, 23-year-old theological student Samuel Francis Smith, impressed that German children started their school day by singing a hymn, wrote a patriotic hymn using a simple German melody. Coincidentally, the melody was the same as that of the British national anthem, "God Save the King." Smith jotted down the complete hymn on a piece of scrap paper within half an hour, and the result, "America," was first sung at a children's celebration in Boston's Park Street Church on July 4, 1832. George Gershwin used Smith's phrase "Of Thee I Sing" as the title of his 1932 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. quoted the entire first stanza as he concluded his "I have a dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. Light age toning. Center fold. Fine. Estimated Value $900 - 1,200. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $750
Lot 715		Steinbeck, John. Autograph letter signed on a postcard, Los Gatos, Calif. (where Steinbeck wrote Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath), no date but postmarked Jan. 19, 1937. To Los Angeles Times literary critic Paul Jordan-Smith, his friend and strong supporter: "…I'm glad you like the new little book. It is pure experiment of course. I was trying to build a new form, a playable novel which would have the advantages of both, the ease of reading of the novel and the external compactness of the play. The description is stage set. The thing is timed and scened to play from the dialogue just as it stands. In fact, Theater Union in S.F. is going to play it soon. Then we'll see if the experiment is valid and if it is, I'll go on and develop it. St. Katy was written some time ago and has probably more rejection slips than any pig in the world. [Saint Katy the Pig, one of Steinbeck's favorite short stories, tells of a wicked pig who undergoes a religious conversion. Steinbeck's 'Pigasus' stamp bore his 'earthbound but aspiring' motto: 'To the stars on the wings of a pig.'] We never seem to get to Los Angeles. Haven't been there for several years. But if we do it will be fine to call on you. This is a sad day - dental day and I have drill cowardice to an overwhelming degree. Do come by when you can. The taxi driver in Los Gatos will lead you. You couldn't find it for yourself. Lewis Garnett looked for two days." The Theatre Union, a labor drama group in San Francisco, presented 16 performances of the play at the Green Street theater in North Beach in May 1937. On Nov. 23, 1937, Of Mice and Men, written by Steinbeck, produced by Sam Harris and directed by George Kaufman ran for 207 performances at the Music Box Theater in New York. It was chosen as Best Play of 1938 by the New York Drama Critics. The first of several film versions appeared in 1939. Carlisle Floyd's opera was produced in 1970. Estimated Value $4,500 - 5,500. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $4,750
Lot 716		Tolstoy, Leo (1828-1910) Russian writer, philosopher, and political thinker; his novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877) place him in the ranks of the world's great novelists. Postcard photo signed ("Leo Tolstoy 12 March 1901"), 5½ x 3½ in., no place. Tolstoy is pictured outdoors with his fellow Russian author Maxim Gorky (1868-1936). Tolstoy wears a long white beard and carries a cane. The postcard has serious condition problems, card loss at Tolstoy's right arm and a 1 in. wide old tape repair being the most egregious, but these do not affect Tolstoy's boldly penned name and date. Rare. Estimated Value $750 - 1,000. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $906
Lot 717		Water Margin Japanese Translation of the Great Chinese Classic Novel. Also known as Outlaws of the Marsh. Three volumes, published in 1917. The pale pint soft-cover volumes with floral design are housed in a pale green case, which is worn and sunned. The top half of each page has a black and white illustration; the lower half has the text of the novel in Japanese characters. Each volume has as its frontispiece a beautiful handcolored woodcut. The original story was written in the 14th century and was written in the Chinese vernacular. It tells the story of 108 outlaws of different classes who were reborn as heroes and who fight against corruption and injustice. It has been translated into many languages and is considered one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature. Estimated Value $250 - 350. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $300
Lot 718		Hughes, Howard (1905-1976) American business tycoon, investor, aviator, aerospace engineer, inventor, filmmaker, and philanthropist. Photo signed "Best wishes / Howard Hughes" in blue ink, 10 x 8 in., no place, no date. Picturing the Hughes H-4 Hercules, better known as the "Spruce Goose," on the water, as a Good Year blimp flies overhead. The original purpose of the Hercules flying boat was for use during World War II to transport troops and equipment across the Atlantic as an alternative to seagoing troop transport ships that were vulnerable to German U-boats. Funding was withdrawn, however, and Hughes did not manage to complete the aircraft until after the war ended. It was flown only once, for one mile, 70 feet above the water, with Hughes at the controls, on November 2, 1947. The Hercules is the largest flying boat ever built and has the largest wingspan of any aircraft in history. It was on display in Long Beach, California from 1980 to 1993, when it was moved to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon. Some waviness to photo, not affecting inscription or signature. Estimated Value $1,000 - 1,250. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $1,800
Lot 719		Wright, Wilbur (1867-1912) Aviation pioneer. With his brother Orville, he invented and built the first successful powered, piloted and controlled airplane which they flew on December 17, 1903 near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Wilbur died of typhoid fever in 1912, making his autograph much rarer than Orville's, who died in 1948. French weekly news magazine signed "Yours truly Wilbur Wright," no place, no date, being the August 21, 1908 issue of La Vie Illustrée. The cover features a photo of Wilbur Wright in flight at Le Mans, France, where he made his first flight in Europe on August 8, 1908. He had arrived in France in May but needed a couple of months to repair damage his plane had sustained in customs. Over the next year, he made more than 200 flights in Europe, where he dazzled crowds and was the recipient of numerous prizes and medals, including the Legion of Honor. Orville joined Wilbur in early 1909. The article, on page 334, incorrectly states that Orville was the brother making the demonstrations, but a small photo correctly identifies Wilbur. The article says that Wright flew with "an admirable lightness" and admits that the Wright brothers were the first to fly and that they flew better than anyone else, but gives the opinion that they are merely more skilled than the French flying men and may be eclipsed themselves one day. The Wrights went on to Italy, where Wilbur trained Italian military pilots, and the first motion picture footage taken from an airplane in flight was filmed there. Estimated Value $4,000 - 6,000. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $5,280