Harriet Beecher Stowe. Boston, 1853

This is a fine salt print portrait of Harriet Beecher Stowe by John A. Whipple, a leading early American portrait photographer.

$15,000

The Personal History of David Copperfield. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1850

First edition. From the library of novelist E. M. Forster.

$12,500

De Profundis. London: Methuen, (1905)

FIRST EDITION, one of 200 copies on handmade paper. A long letter written from prison to Lord Alfred Douglas, De Profundis (“from the depths”) is Wilde’s apologia Wilde entrusted the manuscript to his friend and literary executor Robert Ross, who retained and eventually published it instead of giving it to Douglas.

$8,700

Autograph manuscript signed “Walt Whitman on the Poets.”. No place, [1885]

In this fascinating manuscript Whitman provides a newspaper with an article defending himself against attacks that he did not respect the great American poets of the day.

$7,500

The Historie of Twelve Caesars … newly translated into English, by Philemon Holland. London: Matthew Lowne, 1606

First edition in English of Suetonius’ dramatic biographies of the first “Twelve Caesars,” translated by Philemon Holland. This entertaining work is a principal source for one of the most eventful and scandalous periods in ancient history. Suetonius is the first biographer in Latin whose works have come down to us.

$7,500

Bust portrait of Whitman wearing a hat. New York, 1878

Boldly signed and dated 1879 by Whitman. Whitman observed of this delightful portrait, “It is one of my good-humored pictures. … This is strong enough to be right and gentle enough to be right, too: I like to be both: I wouldn’t like people to say ‘he is a giant’ and then forget I know how to love.”

$7,200

An enormous run of Goodspeed’s rare book and manuscript catalogues. Vols. 1-360 and 391-575. Boston: Goodspeed's Book Shop, 1899-1973

Founded in 1898, Goodspeed’s published its first catalogue in 1899. For decades to come the firm would be a dominant force in American bookselling. These catalogues are a witness to that golden age.

$6,500

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

Democratic Vistas. Washington, D.C: [Printed for J. S. Redfield, New York], 1871

FIRST EDITION. One of about 500 copies.

$4,200

Hyperion: A Romance. New York: Samuel Colman, 1839

Hyperion is one of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s first published works. It was published in 1839, and is a prose romance that follows a young American named Paul Flemming as he travels through Germany. The journey of the character is partially inspired by the death of a friend, and the romance in the tale is based on Longfellow’s own failed marriage proposals to his beloved.

$3,500