PROFESSOR FOCUSED ON CLASSICS OF MODERN LITERATURE
As a professor at the University of South Florida, Donald Kaufmann not only taught English, he collected some of its finest writers.
EVENT
BOOKS SIGNATURE® AUCTION 6174
Featuring the Donald Kaufmann Collection of Modern Literature and Books from the Library of Sylvester Stallone
March 8-9, 2017
Live: New York
Online: HA.com/6174
INQUIRIES
James Gannon
214.409.1609
JamesG@HA.com
Over 45 years, Kaufmann acquired books from the top booksellers of his day. “His goal was excellent copies of important titles in great dust jackets,” says James Gannon, Heritage Auction’s director of rare books. “Many of the books he acquired decades ago are especially difficult to locate on the market today.”
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Pieces from the Donald Kaufmann Collection of Modern Literature are being offered at Heritage’s Rare Books auction scheduled for March 8-9, 2017, in New York. “It’s an excellent assemblage of fresh-to-market American Literature,” Gannon says. “It’s a collection built by a lover of literature and himself an author of two landmark studies on Norman Mailer.”
Included are treasures such as a first edition of Gone with the Wind in a first-issue dust jacket; a superb copy of W.R. Burnett’s Little Caesar; the rare first printed book of Paul Bowles from 1933, Two Poems; and Ernest Hemingway’s Men Without Women in its original dust jacket.
“The collection also includes strong concentrations of excellent first editions by authors such as Tennessee Williams, Ellen Glasgow, William Burroughs, Anthony Burgess, Flannery O’Connor, Kurt Vonnegut and many others,” Gannon says. “For lovers of literature, this is an excellent opportunity to own wonderfully unique books with superb provenance.”
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Gone with the Wind
New York: Macmillan and Co., 1936
First edition, first printing in a first-issue dust jacket
Opening bid: $2,500
From the Donald Kaufmann Collection of Modern Literature
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Two Poems [“Watervariation” and “Message”]
New York City: The Modern Editions Press, [no date, 1933]
First edition of author’s first published book
Opening bid: $2,500
From the Donald Kaufmann Collection of Modern Literature
Stallone’s Library
COLLECTION INCLUDES WHITMAN, HAWTHORNE, DICKENS
After parting with some of his most iconic movie memorabilia, Sylvester Stallone is now sharing his book collection with fans.
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Included in the auction of books from Stallone’s library are a 1902 edition of The Complete Writings of Walt Whitman, one of only 300 sets produced; and Complete Writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne, the large paper edition limited to 500 numbered copies.
“In addition to acting, and his painting, Stallone has always been a writer,” says James Gannon, Heritage Auction’s director of rare books. “One of his earliest starring roles was in 1974’s The Lords of Flatbush, but he also wrote dialogue for the film. Of course, three years later, he was nominated for an Academy Award for his Rocky screenplay.”
More than 40 lots representing roughly 1,000 volumes from the Library of Sylvester Stallone are being offered in Heritage’s Rare Books auction scheduled for March 8-9, 2017, in New York.
“The collection includes attractive and desirable library sets by the greatest authors of the 18th and 19th centuries,” Gannon says. “Sir Walter Scott, Washington Irving, The Bronte Sisters, Jonathan Swift, Voltaire, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emile Zola, and Charles Dickens are all represented.”
In 2015, items including costumes, props and memorabilia from Stallone’s personal collection sold for more than $3 million at a Heritage auction.
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The Complete Writings of Walt Whitman
New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1902
Paumanock edition, one of 300 sets, this being out of series and labeled with a star; inlaid postcard inscribed by Whitman
Opening bid: $2,000
From the Library of Sylvester Stallone
