1450-1950
Paris: The Black Sun Press, 1929. First edition. [xii, 60] pp. Printed wrappers with fold-over flaps, with the possibly original glassine. Some browning to edges, mostly of the glassine only, slight chipping to the foot of the spine.
One of 150 copies privately printed for Brown at the Black Sun Press. Presentation copy, inscribed by Bob Brown to novelist and critic Ludwig Lewisohn, dated Paris Dec. 31, 1929. With the illustrated book-plate of Elizabeth Clark; inscribed by Clark on front free endpaper: “Elizabeth Clark Paris June 28, 1934 N.B.- I found this in the book stalls beside the Seine.”
Brown sent most of the copies to various publishers, friends, and influencers, sixty of whom are listed opposite the title-page for “free copies.” His push worked; the 1959 Jargon edition listed blurbs from Gertrude Stein, Marcel Duchamp, Carl Van Vechten, William Carlos Williams, Carl Sandburg, Walter Lowenfels, James Johnson Sweeney, Gelett Burgess, Stuart Davis, and Caresse Crosby, who noted, “We show your book to everyone who comes to the house and they always find some page that so especially delights them that soon we will have to chain it down like an ancient missal.” OCLC locates only a couple of dozen copies, far less than most Black Sun imprints in collections. Minkoff A-25.
[together with:] Autograph and Illustrated Letter Signed. N.V. Oranje Hotel, Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, November 18, 1929. One sheet, 11 x 8 ¾ in. One-page autograph and illustrated letter, on “N.V. Oranje Hotel” stationery, signed by Brown (“Me”) to “Bobrose & Mrs Brown Red.” With a full-page pen and ink drawing on verso. Item #2610
Price: $4,500.00