Lot 4441
[Hampshire Bookshop Guest Book, 1921-42]. A guestbook from Marion Dodd's legendary Hampshire Bookshop in Northampton, Massachusetts. There are eight pages of entries, between 1921 and 1942, by guests such as Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Thorton Wilder, Christopher Morley, Dick Halliburton, Hugh Walpole, G.K. Chesterton, Rachel Field, Eleanor Roosevelt, and others. The worn leather cover is gold stamped, "Guest Book" and "Hampshire Bookshop." The bookstore was established by two Smith graduates, Marion Dodd and Mary Byers Smith, in 1916, a time when bookselling was a male profession. They were, nonetheless, very successful, and had a particular affinity for English writers such as Virginia Woolf and her Bloomsbury circle.
Gertrude Stein's entry reads: "January 11/35 at Smith. For Marion Dodd and a pleasant visit in a pleasant airy windowed place. Gertrude Stein." Alice B. Toklas writes just below Stein: "To Marion Dodd whose Hampshire Book Shop is now so much more than a name. Alice B. Toklas." On the facing page, Thornton Wilder wrote his name and the date, March 14, 1929, and Rachel Field signed her name and the date, October 24th, 1930, then drew a picture of her dog and added, "& Scottie." On another page, Dick Halliburton wrote: "Mes hommages to the Hampshire bookshop and the good girls in it! Dick Halliburton / April 28, 1927." G.K. Chesterton signed on the first page on January 18, 1921, and Eleanor Roosevelt was the next-to-last signer, on February 6, 1941.
Estimated Value $1,000 - 1,500.
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| Realized $2,185 |
