The Lord of the Rings. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1954-1955

FIRST EDITIONS. This is a very attractive set of the celebrated Lord of the Rings trilogy. The size of the edition was small: The Fellowship of the Ring (3000 copies), The Two Towers (3250 copies), and The Return of the King (7000 copies).

$42,500

Ink and wash drawings of Jewish subjects and of musical instruments, Signed by Daguerre. “Dessiné le 12 Novembre 1822 LJM Daguerre.”, 1822

$40,000

“Democracy” Autograph Manuscript. No place, [c. 1867-70]

Walt Whitman on “the great height & beauty & practical fibre of American Democracy.” Whitman likely wrote this unpublished manuscript during the composition of his Democratic Vistas (1871).

$37,500

Armstrong and Aldrin raising the U.S. flag on the Moon’s surface. NASA, [1969]

Signed by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the first two men on the Moon. This image was taken by the Maurer Data Acquisition Camera (DAC, pronounced “dak”). The DAC made films through the Lunar Module Pilot’s window during the approach and landing of the LM and took stop motion photographs during the EVA at the rate of one frame per second.

$32,000

Photograph of Buzz Aldrin standing on the moon with the American flag and the lunar module, signed on the mount by all three crew members: Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins and additionally inscribed “For Peggy and Bill Burden with Best Wishes from Apollo Eleven.”. NASA, July 20, 1969

This classic space photograph is signed by the crew of Apollo 11, the first manned mission to the Moon: Neil Armstrong (commander), Buzz Aldrin (lunar module pilot), and Michael Collins (command module pilot) and further inscribed to William A. M. and Peggy Burden. This famous Armstrong photograph of Aldrin, standing on the moon’s surface with the United States flag, is NASA AS11-40-5875.

$30,000

Two autograph manuscripts: Autograph manuscript on the American individual beginning “Or are you one ambitious of great deeds” [and] Autograph manuscript poem fragment signed “Kentucky”. No place, c. 1862

This leaf contains two wonderful Whitman manuscripts. The first is an unpublished manuscript in which Whitman discusses two of the great themes of his writing: the work of strengthening, purifying, and completing oneself and the place of the individual in American democracy. The second, written on the verso of “Or are you ambitious” manuscript, is an unpublished working manuscript from Whitman’s Civil War poem “Kentucky.”

$28,000

Typed letter signed to Dr. Joseph F. Rorke.. Houston, NASA, 15 January 1970.

In this historic letter Armstrong details the history of the Apollo XI in-flight cancellation of the “First Man on the Moon” stamp and of the die famously carried to the moon by Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins

$27,000

An important manuscript collection including 16 long, closely written letters written from Alabama. Alabama, New Orleans, Paris, and elsewhere, mainly 1821-1823

This tremendous manuscript collection documents in great detail a pioneering French settler’s ambitious struggles to establish a home in the new state of Alabama in the early 1820s.

$25,000

Autograph Letter Signed to Lawson Tait. Down, 17 January [1877]

CHARLES DARWIN ON SEXUALITY AND THE TRANSMISSION OF HEREDITARY CHARACTERISTICS.

$22,500

Autograph Letter Signed to Abby Dwight Woodbridge.. Concord, 6 July 1841

In this tremendous letter on his philosophy of the individual and on writing poetry, Emerson describes for a prospective contributor the workings of his fabled literary magazine, The Dial.

$22,000