Maurice Sendak's copy, 1948 Henry James & Robert Louis Stevenson VG+

Description: Henry James and Robert Louis Stevenson: A Record of Friendship and CriticismBy Janet Adam Smith 1948 association copy (children's author/illustrator Maurice Sendak), first edition, Rupert Hart-Davis (London), 5 3/8 x 8 1/4 inches tall taupe buckram cloth hardcover in publisher's price-clipped dust jacket, gilt lettering to spine, illustrated with black-and-white artwork and facsimiles of the authors' handwritten correspondence, index, 284 pp. Very slight soiling and rubbing to covers. A couple of pencil bibliographic notations to the blank front and rear endpapers, possibly by former owner, author/illustrator Maurice Sendak (1928-2012). Otherwise, apart from very slight age toning, a very good copy - clean, bright and unmarked - in a slightly age-toned and edgeworn dust jacket which is nicely preserved and displayed in a clear archival Brodart sleeve. No Sendak bookplate, but an original, signed certificate of provenance is laid in from the auction house which establishes that the book was from the personal library of Sendak, and was sold on behalf of the famed Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia. Sendak was known to be an inveterate reader of nineteenth-century authors, including Henry James. His library included a large number of volumes by and about James, including this work. The long, warm friendship of Henry James (1843-1916) and Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) is one of the enduring mysteries of 19th-century English literature. As different as Inside and Outside, as contrary in personality and presence as W. H. Auden and T. S. Eliot, these two giants of the late Victorian novel seem to have turned to each other as mysteriously as the needle of the compass finds the pole. In this volume, editor Janet Adam Smith has assembled important works on the art of fiction by James and Stevenson, along with nine years' correspondence between the two friends, and two articles on Stevenson by James. Maurice Bernard Sendak (1928-2012) was an American author and illustrator of children's books. He became most widely known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, first published in 1963. His 2012 New York Times obituary called Sendak 'the most important children's book artist of the 20th century.' In 1968, Sendak lent the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the bulk of his work, including nearly 10,000 works of art, manuscripts, books and ephemera. Two years after his death, the Rosenbach filed an action in state probate court in Connecticut, contending that Sendak's estate had kept many rare books that the author/illustrator had pledged to the library in his will. But the judge awarded the bulk of the disputed book collection to the Sendak estate, not to the museum, and this was among the books sold at auction by The Rosenbach, with the proceeds likely going to Sendak's estate.

Price: 59.95 USD

Location: Sun City, California

End Time: 2024-09-06T08:28:18.000Z

Shipping Cost: 7.48 USD