June 2013 | Rebecca Rego Barry

Written and Bound by William Faulkner

N09066-247_web.jpg.thumb.385.385.pngIt may be that William Faulkner's Nobel Prize and related manuscript will realize a higher price tomorrow at Sotheby's, but it is this modest booklet that should perhaps share the spotlight. Vision in Spring is a unique typewritten book--written, bound, and signed by the revered American author. Discovered by one of his descendants last summer, it is the only known copy of this early book of poetry--previously known only in a photocopy that became the basis for a 1984 publication. Faulkner made this book in 1921 for the woman who would later become his wife, Estelle Oldham Franklin, and after his death, it remained with her until her death in 1972. It had been missing and presumed lost since then. An autograph manuscript comprising three poems in Faulkner's hand, a drawing, and two snapshots of him are also tucked in. The Sotheby's cataloguer calls this book "the most important discovery of Faulkner's work to surface in the past few decades." The estimate is $100,000-150,000.

Image via Sotheby's.