Goldberg Coins and Collectibles

Sale 92

Manuscript, Sports, Collectibles, Space and Philatelic Auction

Authors

Lot	Photo	Description	Realized
Lot 76		Cain, James M. Autograph letter signed ("James M. Cain"), 1 page, on personal letterhead, 11 x 8 3/8", Hyattsville, Md., December 22, 1965. To Mr. Bean regarding quotations from Cain's works. He mentions his only quotation in Mencken's book "A guitar has moonlight in it," from Serenade, and the most quoted line: "They threw me off the hay truck about noon," from The Postman Always Rings Twice, "as illustrating the feat, in a few words, of starting the action & giving a complete bio sketch of the leading character, all in one fell swoop…." Together with a typed letter signed ("James M. Cain"), 1 page, 9½ x 6", on letterhead of The Shoreham, Los Angeles, June 19,1946. To Ted Robinson of The Cleveland Plain Dealer, thanking him for a review and discussing how some of the New York critics have "torn into me" and have decided that he has been "eaten alive by the movies….If you were to choose a dozen picture producers out here at random…I think they would all tell you that my main defect, from their point of view, is that I will NOT concede a point here and there, and write books that they can make, without an endless headache over censorship…." Estimated Value $400 - 500 Ex William "Bill" Steiner Collection. View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 77		Cooper, James Fenimore and Carl Sandburg - Signatures of American Authors. James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851). A prolific and immensely popular American writer of the early 19th century. Check signed and endorsed ("J. Fenimore Cooper"), Cooperstown, NY, May 23, 1840. Drawn on Otsego County Bank for $501.66. An orange bank stamp touches the top of the letters J and F. Check is tacked to card stock and in very good condition. Carl Sandburg (1878-1967). Celebrated poet and author who won three Pulitzer Prizes. Card signed ("Carl Sandburg"), 2½ x 4½", n.p., n.d. Card is lightly tacked to a card stock display with a wonderful photo by Arnold Newman of the write with Marilyn Monroe taken nine months prior to her death for an overall size of 9 x 6". Monroe was fond of Sandburg's poetry and his biography of Abraham Lincoln. Signature in excellent condition. Estimated Value $300 - 400 View details and enlarged photo	Realized $180
Lot 78		Creative Greats. Large collection of some 120 items signed by celebrated writers, artists, and performers, including: American poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919), American lexicographer Joseph Emerson Worcester (1784-1865), French painter Tony Robert-Fleury (1837-1911), British Gothic Revival architect William Butterfield (1814-1900), and American actor Marshall Pinckney Wilder (1859-1915). Estimated Value $200 - 400 View details	Realized $300
Lot 79		Hammett, Dashiell (1894-1961) Author of hard-boiled detective fiction. Typed letter signed ("SDH"), 1 page, 10½ x 8", Aleutians, April 3, 1945. An affectionate letter to Prudence Whitfield, who was married to Hammett's friend and writing colleague, Raoul Whitfield. With pencil and pen marks in the margin. Hammett writes: "A small shower of four letters from you makes me feel very opulent today and also as if God does indeed reward those who live right." He remarks about his injured foot and his fear that he could have "a touch of rheumatism or arthritis or one of the other curses of age which I was hoping to avoid till I was, say, a hundred and four or five years old…. " He writes about the novel he's planning: "Since the novel--if I stay here and do it instead of flitting off elsewhere--will deal with a painter in Alaska I'm filling my spare time with whatever books on painters and painting I can scrape up, which are not as few as you'd think, probably because there are a great many hopeful artists in the army. Anyhow I'm having a good time … with [Robert] Henri's THE ART SPIRIT. He was a dialectical materialist at heart….I must find out if his book has ever been translated into Russian. They'd like it. Did I tell you our cartoonists are bring (sic) out a booklet of reprints from the paper worked up a little with wash?… I'm writing a foreword and will send the ensemble on as soon as it's printed and bound and shipped." Hammett served in the Motor Ambulance Corps during World War I until he contracted Spanish influenza. When World War II broke out, he enlisted in the Army, even though he was in his late 40s. He wound up on Adak, editing the camp newspaper, The Adakian. Not in Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett, ed. Layman. Estimated Value $1,000 - 1,500 Ex William "Bill" Steiner Collection. View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 80		Wells, H. G (1866-1946). Herbert George Wells was a prolific English writer of fiction, history, politics, rules of war, social commentary and textbooks. But he was known best, the world over, for his science-fiction novels including The Time Machine, First Men in the Moon, and The Island of Dr. Moreau, with The War of the Worlds earning him the moniker "The Father of Science Fiction." Autograph letter signed ("H.G. Wells"), on blind embossed personal note card(s) Spade House, Sandgate, September 15, 1906. A thank you letter to a Roland Bass regarding something referenced and the question of whether they had ever met previously. In excellent condition with separate insert affixed to first half of note and lightly tacked to card stock at top and bottom. Entire piece measures 10 x 4". Estimated Value $800 - 1,200 View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 81		Woollcott, Alexander (1887-1943). American critic and writer for The New Yorker; member of the Algonquin Round Table. Typed letter signed ("Alexander Woollcott"), 3 pages, 7¾ x 5¾", New York, September 26, 1932. Woollcott expresses his opinion regarding the frivilous nature of a lawsuit involving George S. Kaufman by poet Walter Lowenfels. Together with an autograph letter signed ("A. Woollcott"), on personal stationery, 1 page, 7¾ x 5¾", n.p., November 2, n.y. To Mr. Freisner, informing him that Woolcott "shall not be doing another series of broadcasts before next year." Estimated Value $200 - 300 Ex William "Bill" Steiner Collection. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $125
Lot 82		17 Signatures by Celebrated 20th Century Writers, A Most Unusual Collection. Tennesee Williams, Thornton Wilder, Edna Ferber, Zane Grey, Sinclair Lewis, P.S. Woodhouse, Carl Sandberg, Booth Tarkington, Somerset Maugham, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Upton Sinclair, Pearl S. Buck and more. All were sent original pencil sketch portraits by an aspiring artist, J. Raitt and asked to autograph and return them to him, and these 17 represent that unique effort. Apparently a labor of love spanning 30 years, given the dates. All the signatures are bold, many with inscriptions with most expressing appreciation for the artist's efforts which are quite nicely rendered. The portraits all measure 8 x 5" and are in fine condition, save for toning at their outermost corners where they were once tipped in an album. Estimated Value $600 - 800 View details and enlarged photo	Realized $1,250
Lot 83		Clemens, Samuel / Mark Twain (1835-1910). American author, lecturer and humorist who wrote under the name of Mark Twain. Autograph letter signed ("SL Clemens"), 7½ x 6", n.p., November 21, n.y. (ca. 1900s). To a W. A. Williams of Hartford, Connecticut. With the original address envelope. With his characteristic wit, Clemens declines an invitation of some sort by responding, "I might be tempted to break my vow for this once, possibly, but I am saved the strain by the circumstance that I shall not be in the city." Letter is presented on mat board, with a fantastic vintage re-strike photo of the celebrated author, all protected by acetate. In very fine condition. Estimated Value $1,500 - 2,000 View details and enlarged photo	Realized $1,020
Lot 84		Clemens, Samuel L (1835-1910). American author and humorist better known by his pen name, Mark Twain. Signed and inscribed photo ("Truly yours, Mark Twain"), black & white, 6 x 4", single-weight photo very nicely signed in blue-black fountain pen ink. Handsome photo of Twain in a rocking chair smoking a cigar in side profile. Minor evidence of handling and what appears to be very slight impressions by type when held to light, but still fine. A welcome addition to any collection. Estimated Value $2,000 - 3,000 View details and enlarged photo	Realized $1,800
Lot 85		Hemingway, Ernest (1899-1961). American novelist and short-story writer; winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature. Book signed, being a Possible First Edition of For Whom The Bell Tolls, with "A" on copyright page, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1940. Signed "Ernest Hemingway" on the first end page. 471 pp., hardcover, 8vo., cloth-backed boards -- beige cloth binding with black lettering on front cover and black on red lettering on spine. Very good copy with just some discoloration to the board edges and scuffing to the spine; pages are remarkably clean. Facsimile dust jacket. Widely regarded as one of Hemingway's best works, this epic novel was inspired by the writer's own experiences as a journalist during the Spanish Civil War. Estimated Value $2,000 - 2,500 View details and enlarged photo	Realized $3,120
Lot 86		Lee, Harper (1926-Febrary 19, 2016). American novelist who wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird. Book signed, being the Book Club Edition of To Kill a Mockingbird, J. B. Lippincott Company, New York, 1960. Signed "Harper Lee" on the half-title page. 255 pp., hardcover, 8vo., paper boards. Book is very good to fine. Dust jacket worn and chipped along the edges and folds -- in good condition. Portrait of Harper Lee on the back cover, photographed by Truman Capote (1924-1984), inscribed and signed by Truman Capote "For Roy / Truman Capote". Ostensibly fiction, Harper Lee's meditation on racial injustice and the loss of innocence in the Deep South during the Great Depression incorporated a number of biographical elements. Notably, the character Dill was based in part on her lifelong friend, Truman Capote. Estimated Value $800 - 1,200 View details and enlarged photo	Realized $2,438
Lot 87		O'Neill, Eugene (1888-1953). American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to include speeches in the American vernacular and involve characters on the fringes of society, individuals struggling to maintain their aspirations but who ultimately succumb to despair. Autograph quotation signed ("Eugene O'Neill"), 1 page, 2½ x 3½", n.p., n.d. Being an excerpt from O'Neill's 1922 Pulizer Prize winning drama, Anna Christie, the story of a former prostitute who reunites with her estranged father and finds love. Wishing to start anew, she trepidatiously resolves to reveal her dark past to both men. "'We're all poor nuts, and things happen, and we yust (sic) get mixed in wrong, that's all.' Anna (Act IV)". Estimated Value $500 - 800 View details and enlarged photo	Realized $425