David Aronovitz’s Major Science Fiction & Fantasy Library to Auction

Highlights from the collection of rare book dealer, publisher, and collector David Aronovitz will go under the hammer at the Heritage Auctions May 13 An Important Science Fiction & Fantasy Collection sale.

Aronovitz, who has spent nearly five decades in the rare book world, building The Fine Books Company into a global operation since its founding in 1976, is a longtime member of both the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America and the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers. During this time he has assembled a collection of more than 10,000 items, including books, manuscripts, letters and periodicals.

The lots coming to auction reflect Aronovitz’s sustained focus on first editions of imaginative science fiction and fantasy literature.  
A standout is a group of all three dedication copies of Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) inscribed to Robert Cornog, Frederic Brown and Philip José Farmer.

Other highlights include:

• first editions and first impressions of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy and an inscribed presentation copy of The Hobbit
• a first edition, dedication copy of Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot (1950) inscribed to John W. Campbell Jr. on publication, with additional signature from dust jacket artist Edd Cartier
• Stephen King works including an inscribed first edition of Salem’s Lot in a rare first-issue dust jacket, and a unique pre-publication binding of The Stand, accompanied by a signed letter from Doubleday’s president
• a substantial archive of correspondence documenting the development and publication of Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

“David Aronovitz was uniquely positioned to acquire some of the most significant association copies of virtually all the major authors in the science fiction genre,” said Francis Wahlgren, International Director of Rare Books and Manuscripts. “This collection is not just broad, but has unprecedented depth. A majority have direct and personal ties to the authors, editors and creative networks that shaped modern science fiction and fantasy.”