FIrst Printed Book in English Sells at Auction

It's 540 years old and was sold for this much.

Rachmaninov Manuscript to Go to Auction

Symphony #2. Interested? Bring your checkbook.

Anyone Interested in a Baylonian Cuneiform Cylinder?

Get out your checkbook.

Rare Torah to Be Auctioned

A rare 15th century Torah volume, the first printed version to unite all five books of the Hebrew Bible, is coming to the auction block next month in Paris.

More, here.

When Faulkner Went to Hollywood

A cache of screenplays by novelist William Faulkner is being offered by Bonham's - Los Angeles.

From a piece in Booktryst...

In July of 1936 Faulkner, his wife Estelle, and daughter Jill traveled from Mississippi to California for another swipe at the lucrative work of screenwriting, this time for Twentieth Century-Fox Studios. He was assigned to adapt The Last Slaver, based on a novel set on board a slave ship in 1845. The film would be released in 1937 as Slave Ship, starring Warner Baxter, Wallace Beery and Mickey Rooney; Faulkner received story credit for the film.

Want to Buy Ernest Hemingway's Typewriter Today?

You're in luck.

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's High-Priced Superman Paraphernalia!

ABC News takes note of Superman memorabilia that are popular items ahead of the 'Man of Steel' premiere.

Superman Comic Fetches $175,000 at Auction

How Much Did a First Edition, First Issue of Thomas Paine's Common Sense Go For?

Several cents.

Gatsby First Edition Up for Auction

How Comic Books Will Help Save a Business Hurt by Hurricane Sandy

The owner of a ice cream shop is auctioning off his immense comic book collection to offset costs to repair his business.

From a piece on WNYC...

Wenzel faces $850,000 worth of repairs, most of which are needed to get his ice cream and treat shop, Salty’s in Lavallette, open for the summer. He didn’t have flood insurance and the storm punched holes in the walls and floor, as well as trapped water in the walls.

To help offset the cost Wenzel, who was named for a comic book character, decided to auction off his three-generation-old comic collection.

“There comes a time where you collected 'em for not only the enjoyment of having them and being able to read them and look at them, but also in case of times of distress like we've been placed in with Hurricane Sandy,” he said.

The Surf Riders of Hawaii

A rare surfing book about surfing in the early 1900s is expected to do well at auction.

From a story in the Denver Post...


The book is one of eight made by hand by A.R. Gurrey Jr. between 1911 and 1915. Gurrey is considered the father of surf photography. The book helped spread surfing's appeal from Hawaii to the mainland. 

It is composed of six leaves of heavy brown woven paper, with eight mounted gelatin-silver photographs of native Hawaiians surfing Waikiki. Among them is Duke Kahanamoku, the Olympic medalist swimmer who helped popularize the sport. 

There are three pages of text featuring eight black-and-white silver prints and the poem "Childe Harold" by Lord Byron.

550-Year-Old Jewish Holy Book Goes to Auction

It's the Mishneh Torah.

From a piece in the Independent...

And Mr Steinhardt, 72, said:  “We could not be happier that this rare and remarkable manuscript will be in the care of the Israel Museum and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in perpetuity.

"One of the world’s most significant Hebrew manuscripts, the Mishneh Torah will add important new dimensions to both collections - and its shared homes in New York and Jerusalem will ensure the broadest public engagement with the work. Judy and I are also delighted for our role within the group of donors who are making this key acquisition possible.”

The 385 other lots cover seven centuries of Jewish culture and come from around the world. Many items are estimated at less than $10,000.

It Will Be the Most Expensive Book Ever Sold

It's the Bay Psalm Book and it will be going to auction in November expected to get as much as $30 million.

From a piece on ABC News...

The Bay Psalm Book, which is the first book printed in what is now the United States, comes from the Old South Church in Boston, one of two copies of the book in its collection.

“One copy, the copy we are keeping, was bequeathed to us by our fifth minister, the Reverend Thomas Prince,” Nancy Taylor, Old South Church’s senior minister and CEO, told ABCNews.com.
Sotheby’s specialists used comparables to value the book.  “We have sold books as much as $11.5 million in the past, which are far less rare than this,” Redden said.  The last Bay Psalm Book was bought at a Sotheby’s auction in 1947 for $151,000 by Yale University.

Rare John Keats Portrait Goes to Auction

The portrait was taken from life.

From an article in the Guardian...

The miniature, which is ascribed by Bonhams to the "circle of [painter] Charles Hayter" is set to be auctioned by Bonhams next month, and is expected to raise between £10,000 and £15,000. Tonkin said it "has the power to move anyone who has ever admired Keats's work".

She dated the image to between 1810 and 1815, judging by the clothes – a black double-breasted coat and waistcoat, white frilled chemise, stock and tie – that Keats is wearing in the portrait. Keats would pass his exams to become a doctor in 1816; by 1819 he had published The Eve of St Agnes, with Ode to Psyche, Ode to a Nightingale and Ode on a Grecian Urn all written the same year. In 1821, aged just 25, he died in Rome, and was buried by Severn in the protestant cemetery in that city, his grave inscribed, "Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water".

Collection of 60,000+ Rare Comic Books Go Up for Auction

A secret collector in Vancouver is putting his giant stash up on the auction block.

From a  story in the Province...

The East Vancouver man putting the collection up for sale isn’t revealing his secret identity, but has told Able Auctions he was inspired by his older brother and began collecting when he was three years old, more than 40 years ago.

“The mystery consignor travelled across North America, visiting an estimated several hundred comic book conventions and attended many of Vancouver’s local comic book stores to fill his desire to find some of the world’s best comics,” reads a release from the auction house handling the sale.

The collection features some of the most iconic in superhero lore including Fantastic Four, Star Wars, X-Men, Captain America and many more.

A highlight of the auction is a professionally restored issue of The Incredible Hulk #1 from 1962, a personal favourite of the mysterious consignor. A near-mint copy of that comic has previously been valued at about $22,000.

Mark David Chapman Letters Go to Auction

John Lennon's killer wrote letters from prison to police officer detailing obsession with J.D. Saligner's The Catcher in the Rye.
From a piece in the Guardian...

The letters are typed and signed by Chapman. They were written over several months in 1983, after he had pleaded guilty and been sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

In the first letter, from 15 January 1983, Chapman says his reason for writing, besides wanting to be Spiro's friend, is to ask for help in locating his copy of The Catcher in The Rye, which he was reading at the time of his arrest.

"Have you read The Catcher in the Rye yet?" Chapman asks. "I would like you to read it and tell me what you think of it. As you remember, in the copy that was taken from me I had written 'This is my statement.'"

Spiro said he received the first letter at the Manhattan precinct where he worked and wrote Chapman back because he was hoping to get evidence on a possible hit list of other victims and people acting with Chapman.

Pieces of Kennedy's Camelot Up for Auction

Winston Churchill - Poet?

Indeed. His only known poem is about to go up at auction.

From a story in the Guardian...

Around 115 years after it was written, the only known poem written by an adult Churchill has been discovered by Roy Davids, a retired manuscript dealer from Great Haseley in Oxfordshire.

Our Modern Watchwords, which was apparently inspired by Tennyson and Kipling, will go on sale at Bonham's auction house in London in the spring. Written in 1899 or 1900, when Churchill was a cornet – equivalent to today's second lieutenant – in the 4th Hussars, the 10-verse poem is a tribute to the Empire.

The author peppers the poem with the names of remote outposts defending Britain's interests around the world – many of which he would have visited as a young officer and even fought at – including Weihaiwei in China, Karochaw in Japan and Sokoto, in north-west Nigeria.

The paean to Britain's might, however, does not scale the heights of the literary efforts that marked Churchill's later life – including his Nobel Prize-winning History of the English Speaking Peoples.

Last Copy of "Mein Kampf" Signed by Hitler

It's going to auction soon.

From a story in Hindustan Times...

The copy is believed to have been signed by the Nazi leader before he committed suicide in April 1945. He gave the book to an unidentified senior member of his staff in what is said to be a last defiant gesture in the hope his Nazi ideology would continue after his death, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

Experts say that his signature at the time was rushed and resembled little more than a squiggle, a reflection of his scrambled state of mind at the time.

The copy of Mein Kampf (My Struggle) was a limited print-run from 1939 to mark Hitler's 50th birthday. Underneath his autograph he wrote the date of March 5, 1945.