The Double Helix. In Atlantic Monthly. Boston, January and February 1968

FIRST EDITION of The Double Helix, preceding the publication in book form in late February 1968. Signed by James Watson on the front cover of each issue.

$4,800

Original drawing of Walt Whitman. no date, no place, 19th century

This original pen and ink drawing of Walt Whitman is mounted at the front of an 1888 edition of Leaves of Grass. The likeness of a jaunty, casual, Whitman wearing his trademark slouch hat takes its cue from the famous 1855 Hollyer engraving, but here we see an older Whitman with a full beard.

$4,800

Portrait of Walt Whitman holding a butterfly. Philadelphia, [early 1880s?]

A beloved Whitman photograph, framed with a large, bold signature of the poet.

$4,500

Letter Signed to Gov. Levi P. Morton of New York. New York, March 12, 1895

In this letter on J. P. Morgan & Co. letterhead, Morgan writes to his friend financier Levi P. Morton, the governor of New York and one of Morgan’s principal banking rivals.

$4,500

FDR Funeral 1945. [Published in LIFE], taken in 1945, printed later

Signed and inscribed by the photographer: “FDR Funeral 1945, Edward Clark, Life.” Famed Life photographer Edward Clark took this celebrated picture in 1945 at the funeral of Franklin D. Roosevelt in Atlanta.

$4,200

Autograph manuscript signed, “Palestine: The Economic Aspect”. No place, 1946

In this long essay Harold Laski, one of the most influential public intellectuals of the 20th century, discusses the economic future of Palestine and the Jews immigrating there following World War II. Laski’s greatest influence came as a prolific author, professor at the London School of Economics, and leading advisor to the Labour Party. “Laski was a writer who exercised enormous influence in the turbulent environment of the early to mid-twentieth century. Though normally regarded as a political theorist, Laski frequently wrote on the problems of international politics” (Peter Lamb).

$3,800

John D. Rockefeller. Cleveland: Edmondson, 1911

Signed by John D. Rockefeller, the greatest titan of American business and industry. He sat for this portrait in 1911 when he seventy-two. George Mountain Edmondson was Cleveland’s leading portrait photographer of that time.

$3,500

Autograph letter signed to “My dear Friend.”. Danvers, March 28, 1882

Whittier poignantly writes, “Thy word of sympathy in view of the death of dear Longfellow was very welcome. It is a mighty loss to us all. It leaves me with a feeling of loneliness, as if I had outlived the world. …. All English-speaking people have a common interest in the great world-singer. I am very truly thy friend John G. Whittier.”

$3,200

Photograph signed. Photographer unidentified, c. 1870s

Sherman is most famous for the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, the first major federal action to curb the power of the great monopolies.

$2,800

Hugo Black and the Supreme Court: A Symposium. Edited by Stephen Parks Strickland. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, (c.1967)

FIRST EDITION. Presentation copy inscribed by Black:  “To our friend, Arthur Goldberg, on this his forty ninth birthday, with our warm and affectionate good wishes to him and to Dorothy, Hugo L. Black August 8, 1967” and further signed by his wife Elizabeth. Black, once a member of the KKK and later one of the greatest defenders of civil liberties, inscribes this volume to fellow Supreme Court Justice Goldberg. Black, Warren, Douglas, Brennan, and Goldberg were key members of the liberal wing of the court in the 1960s.

$2,500