Five Rare Books for Collectors: Valentine's Day
A pen and ink drawing, one of six from A Book of Old English Love Songs by George Wharton Edwards, New York: 1897. Signed by the artist lower right. The work was published in New Yor by Macmillan and contained an Introduction by Hamilton Wright Mabie with all illustrations by Edwards.
Illustration or chapter titles penciled in the margin (in the order of the book):
Lullaby of a Lover, Rosalynd's Madrigal, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, Ariel's Songs, To Althea from Prison.
Highlights from James Cummins bookseller's Valentine's Day catalogue include:
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brönte
Limited to 300 numbered and signed copies, ilustrated with 15 lithographs by 'Balthus' (Count Balthazar Klossowski de Rola) on Japanese paper printed in brown-toned black ink. Text set by Michael Bixler using Monotype Dante, printed on specially made off-white mould-made Arches paper with watermark. Original prospectus laid in. In 1933 the Count visited Emily's wild moors and made a series of drawings based on her novel. He agreed to The Limited Editions Club in 1994.
Typescript of 25 love poems written by John Steinbeck to his wife Gwendolyn Conger Steinbeck
25pp. on versos of 25 unruled sheets. From the Estate of Burgess Meredith. These are Gwyn's own transcriptions of the love poems written to her by Steinbeck, sent to their good friend Burgess Meredith. It is not clear whether the manuscripts have survived.
all about love: New Visions by bell hooks
First edition, New York, William Morrow, 2000. Inscribed to Emma Amos, the noted African-American fabric artist, printmaker and fellow feminist and her husband Bobby Levine.: "Emma and Bobby! eternal love-always, Bell Hooks."
May's Love by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Two leaves. Browning writes, sending a poem at that point unpublished: "Sir, You ask me for a short unpublished poem, and I send you a very short one – a song. I hope it may not be unsuitable to your purpose, while wishing it were worthier; and I have the honor to remain / Sir, Your obedient servant / Eliizabeth Barrett Browning / Casa Guidi, Florence / June 12". On the verso of one leaf the letter is translated into French, and is accompanied by another leaf with the poem May's Love, three quintains, published posthumously in Last Poems (1962).
