Billy learned about more than marching in military school.
Item 115 is the privately issued first edition of Andre Gide's autobiographical Si le Grain ne Meurt. This private edition of his confessional memoir was published four years prior to the first public edition. It contains some controversial sections removed from the public edition, including his description of sexual encounters with boys in North Africa. Elysium notes that Gide struggled with the disparate forces of "a puritanical moralism, and the desire for unlimited sensual indulgence..." That's quite a contradiction. Gide was the first openly gay man to win the Nobel Prize for literature (1947). $30,000.
Item 68 is Billy: Idylles d'amour Grec en Angleterre. This is Jean d'Essac's 1938 autobiography of homosexual activities while he was a military cadet in England. Not surprisingly, this was not a bestseller at the time and is quite scarce today. $750.
Proving that many of today's problems are recycled issues, item 15 is Lettres Amoureuses d'un Frere a son eleve. This anonymous circa 1878 rare book is about the love of a priest for his 15-year-old alter boy. $675.
Item 66 is Nous Gens d'Espagne by Nancy Cunard. Cunard was the scion of the Cunard shipping family, growing up in societal wealth. She was anything but what her family might have wanted. A rebel with many causes, she took up an artistic life, including a lesbian affair and marriage to a black musician. This was all in the repressive world of the 1920s and 1930s. She later took up radical causes, including the unsuccessful Spanish Civil War. This 1949 collection of poetry pleads for the refugees and prisoners left from that lost cause. Cunard would eventually fall into madness, lose all of her wealth, and die on the streets of Paris. $250.
You may reach Elysium Books at 802-763-7147 or Elysium@sover.net. Their website is www.elysiumpress.com.
Forum Auctions The Library of John and Suzanne Bonhams 30th October 2025
Forum Auctions The Library of John and Suzanne Bonhams 30th October 2025
Forum, Oct. 30: Bligh (William). A Voyage to the South Sea, undertaken by command of His Majesty, for the purpose of Conveying the Bread-Fruit Tree to the West Indies ..., first edition, 1792. £3,000 to £4,000.
Forum, Oct. 30: Coryate (Thomas). Coryats Crudities: Hastily gobled up in five months travells, first edition, [William Stansby for the Author], 1611. £5,000 to £7,000.
Forum, Oct. 30: Krusenstern (Captain Adam Johnson von). Voyage Round the World ... by order of His Imperial Majesty Alexander the First, 2 vol. in 1, first edition in English, 1813. £5,000 to £7,000.
Forum, Oct. 30: Mayer (Attributed to Auguste Etienne Francois). Astrolable, the French ship under the command of Jules Dumont d'Urville (1790-1842), caught in pack ice in Antarctica, watercolour, [c. 1838]. £1,500 to £2,000.
Forum, Oct. 30: Oxley (John). Journals of Two Expeditions into the Interior of New South Wales, first edition, 1820. £5,000 to £7,000.
Forum Auctions The Library of John and Suzanne Bonhams 30th October 2025
Forum, Oct. 30: Richardson (John) & others. Fauna Boreali-Americana; or the Zoology of the Northern Parts of British America, 4 vol., first edition, 1829-37. £20,000 to £25,000.
Forum, Oct. 30: Shackleton (Ernest H.) The South Polar Times, 4 vol., vols 1 & 2 numbered 30 of 350 copies, vol. 3 no. 23 of 350 copies, vol. 4 no. 30 of 500 copies, 1907-2010. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, Oct. 30: Shipley (Lt. Conway). Sketches in the Pacific: The South Sea Islands, first edition, 1851. £12,000 to £18,000.
Forum, Oct. 30: Webb (Rev. Arthur J.) The History of Fiji,, first edition, 1885. £2,500 to £3,500.
Forum, Oct. 30: Weddell (James).- Open face chronometer pocket watch, owned by James Weddell, Grant, Fleet Street, 1811. £15,000 to £20,000.
Doyle, Nov. 5: The Director's copy of the first edition of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, inscribed by Beckett. $7,000 to $10,000.
Doyle, Nov. 5: Don McLean's personal test pressing of American Pie before mass production, gifted in 1971. $8,000 to $12,000.
Doyle, Nov. 5: The important and extensive archive of original fashion photographs of model Dorothy Rice, 1945-58. $20,000 to $30,000.
Doyle, Nov. 5: A Charles Adams theater advertisement. $8,000 to $12,000.
Doyle, Nov. 5: A Small Patinated Bronze Bust of Marlene Dietrich. $800 to $1,200.
Doyle, Nov. 5: Marlene Dietrich Studio Photograph. $100 to $200.
Doyle, Nov. 5: The very large and uncommon British Quad for Hitchcock's The Birds. $500 to $800.
Doyle, Nov. 5: An Original Crystal "Sputnik" from the 1966 Met Opera Chandelier. $3,000 to $5,000.
Doyle, Nov. 5: The rare poster from the first American performances of Endgame, 1958. $1,000 to $1,500.
Doyle, Nov. 5: The original Coconut Grove Playhouse poster for Waiting for Godot, possibly unique. $3,000 to $5,000.
Sotheby's Fine Books, Manuscripts & More Available for Immediate Purchase
Sotheby's Fine Books, Manuscripts & More Available for Immediate Purchase
Sotheby’s: William Shakespeare. The Temple Shakespeare. Housed in Custom Bookcase. $6,365.
Sotheby’s: Frederick Douglass. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 1845. $14,000.
Sotheby’s: Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol. London: William Heinemann, 1915. $2,900.
Sotheby’s: F. Scott Fitzgerald. First Edition Set, Including This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby, and others. Charles Scribner's Sons. 1920 – 1941. $24,180.
Sotheby’s: Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], John Tenniel. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland First Edition. Macmillan & Co., 1866. $15,000.
![Forum, Oct. 30: Coryate (Thomas). Coryats Crudities: Hastily gobled up in five months travells, first edition, [William Stansby for the Author], 1611. £5,000 to £7,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/28d53e3e-21f2-4aed-9422-e0fcd955bb3c.png "<b>Forum, Oct. 30:</b> Coryate (Thomas). <i>Coryats Crudities: Hastily gobled up in five months travells,</i> first edition, [William Stansby for the Author], 1611. £5,000 to £7,000.")
![Forum, Oct. 30: Mayer (Attributed to Auguste Etienne Francois). Astrolable, the French ship under the command of Jules Dumont d'Urville (1790-1842), caught in pack ice in Antarctica, watercolour, [c. 1838]. £1,500 to £2,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/12489d2d-552a-4bb8-8169-891afba37a9f.png "<b>Forum, Oct. 30:</b> Mayer (Attributed to Auguste Etienne Francois). Astrolable, the French ship under the command of Jules Dumont d'Urville (1790-1842), caught in pack ice in Antarctica, watercolour, [c. 1838]. £1,500 to £2,000.")
![Sotheby’s: Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], John Tenniel. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland First Edition. Macmillan & Co., 1866. $15,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/cc3f4f98-f195-4049-aca6-329c27fdd27c.png "<b>Sotheby’s:</b> Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], John Tenniel. <i>Alice's Adventures in Wonderland</i> First Edition. Macmillan & Co., 1866. $15,000.")