Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - November - 2023 Issue

Fine New Material from Type Punch Matrix

The latest from Type Punch Matrix.

The latest from Type Punch Matrix.

Type Punch Matrix has issued a new catalogue. There are some amazing things in here from a variety of subjects. History, literature, poetry, fiction, art, science, sports are among the topics with items of significance to be found. The only thing missing is a title for the catalogue, which Type Punch Matrix avoids. Years from now, this will create a real challenge for those who collect their catalogues, but they will make great reference tools for those up to the challenge. For now, if you would like a complete set of the Tarzan novels, the book that created those ubiquitous Venn Diagrams, a book with drawings of American Indians from 1580, or any number of other amazing or surprising finds, you can use this catalogue to add to your collection.

 

We begin with a previously unknown first printing of the most controversial speech Martin Luther King ever gave. Perhaps his earlier speeches were considered controversial in the South, but this one divided even his closest supporters. It was delivered in 1967, given before 3,000 attendees at the Riverside Church, exactly one year before he was assassinated. This stapled, duplicated printing has no title, but it later became known as Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence. It was an anti-war speech. It is likely that eventually the vast majority of people who supported King came to share his views about the Vietnam War, but at the time many either favored the war or did not want to see the civil rights movement divided by this issue. It also broke the relationship between King and President Lyndon Johnson, who had done so much to pass civil rights legislation, but also promoted that war. Among King's statements, was “We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem.” This first version differs somewhat from that which was published later. Item 3. Priced at $5,000.

 

This item seems disturbingly timely today. It is a reminder of the sorts of incomprehensible atrocities humans are capable of inflicting on others. It is a photo album compiled by an American soldier shortly after the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Markings on some of soldiers uniforms indicate that the photographer was a member of the 8th Armored Division and the photos were likely taken a few weeks after liberation as the people are gone and there has been some clean-up. The soldier has captioned the pictures. There are three of the entrance gate. One shows a gallows with the caption “six prisoners were hung at one time.” Another is captioned “SEWER used to dispose of dead bodies. This was used only when too many were dying, and they couldn't take care of them with the Furnaces.” He notes blood stains on the step of the “DEATH HOUSE.” Many other places were photographed and the final one shows the smiling face of a former inmate. Item 43. $6,000.

 

Sylvia Plath was a remarkable poet, though a very troubled person who took her own life at the age of 30. She suffered severe depression for much of her life. Item 1 is a neatly written manuscript of a poem she wrote in early 1945 at the age of 13. The title is The Snowflake Star. She had received an assignment to write a story or poem about a star. That she did, but it would not be published until the following year, in the The Phillipian, her junior high school literary magazine. That version has a different ending than this one, a happier ending. Type Punch Matrix notes that this poem features images that would fille her later works, snow, winter, stars and trees. It begins:

 

“On a dark and cloudy day

I wandered in the woods away

To Think my Thoughts alone.”

 

$45,000.

 

This next item seems far removed from poetry – boxing. Then again, the champion boxer was also a poet, though perhaps not quite as accomplished poetically as Plath. But, “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” has its poetic appeal. Item 4 is a souvenir program for Muhammad Ali's rematch against former champion Sonny Liston. Ali had pulled off a huge upset in the first fight that left some suspicious it was fixed, but the second fight was a total annihilation, Liston being knocked out in the first round. This program uses both his recently adopted name of Muhammad Ali along with his birth name, “Cassius Clay.” Five days before the fight, he hosted some former champions at his training camp, and along with Ali, these three champions have signed the program – Joe Louis, Jersey Joe Walcott, and Jim Braddock. $12,000.

 

If you are looking for a classic abecedary, or ABC book, here is one – The Cubies ABC, by Mary Mills Lyall, illustrated by Earl Harvey Lyall. The husband and wife team published this book in 1913. That was the year of the 1913 Armory Show, one of the most important modern art shows ever. It featured modern styles such as surrealism and cubism. It helped establish the careers of Picasso and Matisse. Some were enamored of the new art form with its cube shapes and different perspectives placed together. Others thought it was junk or children's drawings. The Lyalls were among the latter. The “cubies” are angular shaped beings who present the letters of the alphabet. The drawings and words drip with sarcasm. The Lyalls were obviously traditionalists who had no use for this nonsense. As they write for the letter “Q”:

 

Q’s for the Queerness we Stand-patters feel

When Progressive young Cubies start Art reformation.

They’re strong on Initiative, praise the Square Deal:

“Though the Cubic is best!” they aggressively squeal;

“Painting things as you see them is rank deformation!”

 

$9,500.

 

Type Punch Matrix may be reached at 301-589-0789 or info@typepunchmatrix.com. Their website is www.typepunchmatrix.com.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Forum AuctionsFine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper  17th July 2025 Forum AuctionsFine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper  17th July 2025
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
  • Sotheby’sGeek Week2-17 July | New York Sotheby’sGeek Week2-17 July | New York
    Sotheby’s
    Geek Week
    2-17 July | New York
    Sotheby’s
    Geek Week
    2-17 July | New York
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Buzz Aldrin's FLOWN Apollo 11 Crew-Signed NASA Manned Spacecraft Center Cover. $15,000 to $20,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Lunar Surface Flown Mission Emblem Presented to Tom Stafford by John Young. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Albert Einstein. Typed Letter Signed ("A. Einstein."), to Ann Morrisett, Affirming a Pacifist's Right to Self-Defense, March 21, 1952. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Geek Week
    2-17 July | New York
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Operating and Maintenance Manual for the BINAC Binary Automatic Computer Built for Northrop Aircraft Corporation. Philadelphia, 1949. $30,000 to $50,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Steve Jobs Apple Computer Business Card, c. 1977. $5,000 to $8,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Extensive Chronology of Spacecraft From Apollo to Skylab, Signed by a Member of Every Crewed Apollo Flight and the Commanders of Each Skylab Mission. $5,000 to $8,000.
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  • DOYLERare Books, Autographs & MapsJuly 23, 2025 DOYLERare Books, Autographs & MapsJuly 23, 2025
    DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800

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