Thursday, July 31, 2014

Antiquarian Books News from Ibookcollector

Fine Literature: with Collections of James Joyce & Ray Bradbury

Each lot illustrated in the online version of the catalogue.
Bid directly from the site. Now available in the Bid Live Now section
Please visit our website to view over 500 lots of important literary first editions, author collections, manuscripts, signed and limited editions, and thought-provoking science fiction and fantasy. Included are collections of Truman Capote, Ian Fleming, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Jack London, Cormac McCarthy, James Whitcomb Riley, John Steinbeck, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and others. An important collection of Ray Bradbury headlines the Science Fiction and Fantasy section, with Edgar Rice Burroughs, E.E. "Doc" Smith and their cohorts.
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Bi-centenary of publication
18 July 2014 marked 200 years since the publication of A Voyage to Terra Australis, the classic account of the voyage of HMS Investigator written by Matthew Flinders.

To celebrate, Hordern House has published in full an important eyewitness account of the fate of the Flinders expedition originally written in 1806. As is discussed in the introduction and notes, this anonymously published Narrative was almost completely overlooked for more than two centuries, but is now proven to have been written by one of Flinders' officers, Surgeon's Mate Robert Purdie.

This discovery is particularly significant as the Narrative is the only major published account to be written by a veteran of the expedition besides Flinders' own Voyage.
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First Edition Superman for Sale
A pristine copy of Action Comics #1 will go on auction in August, eBay announced recently.  In 1938 the ‘Superman’ comic book could be purchased for ten cents. There are apparently about fifty copies of the comic book remaining and the copy for sale is considered to be in good condition.

An expert has said that the book looks and feels like it just came off the newsstand. The colours are seemingly “deep and rich and the quality of the white pages is amazing for a comic that is 76 years old."

A copy of the book that was not as well-preserved sold for $2.1 million in 2011. The book is currently owned by a collector who is putting it up for auction without a reserve price. He is expected to donate a portion of the proceeds to charity.
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Morgan Library & Museum

From now until 14 September 2014 the Morgan Library & Museum is exhibiting ‘Miracles in Miniature: The Art of the Master of Claude de France,’ which features works by the well-known manuscript illuminator. Known more simply as the Claude Master, he emerged as an independent artist in the French city of Tours around 1508 and apparently disappeared shortly after 1520. Though his actual name has been lost for centuries, his current identity – linked to the two prayer books he created for France’s Queen Claude (1499-1524) – was established in a 1975 monograph by the art historian Charles Sterling. Although his career was brief his legacy stands at the pinnacle of this exquisite art form.

In the exhibition, Queen Claude’s prayer book is opened to this centerpiece. Visitors can also study every luminous page of the volume in a series of 132 enlarged digital facsimiles viewable on a nearby screen. They are can also be viewed online at the Morgan website. 

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