THE LIBRARY OF Louis J. Haber OF NEW YORK CITY A REMARKABLE COLLECTION MADE DURING THE PAST TWENTY-FIVE English Literature FROM THE AUTHORS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO THE PRESENt Day, THE FOURTH FOLIO SHAKESPEARE; MANY RARE FIRST EDITIONS OF AMERICAN AUTHORS, EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED MANUSCRIPTS OF JOHN KEATS, THACKERAY, STEVENSON, SWINBURNE, KIPLING, Conditions of Sale 1. All bids to be per Lot as numbered in the Catalogue. 2. The highest bidder to be the buyer; in all cases of disputed bids the lot shall be resold, but the Auctioneer will use his judgment as to the good faith of all claims and his decision shall be final. 3. Buyers to give their names and addresses and to make such cash payments on account as may be required, in default of which the lots purchased to be immediately resold. 4. Goods bought to be removed at the close of each sale. If not so removed they will be at the sole risk of the purchaser and this Company will not be responsible if such goods are lost, stolen, damaged or destroyed. 5. Terms Cash. If accounts are not paid at the conclusion of each Sale, or, in the case of absent buyers, when bills are rendered, this Company reserves the right to recatalogue the goods for immediate sale without notice to the defaulting buyer, and all costs of such resale will be charged to the defaulter. This condition is without prejudice to the rights of the Company to enforce the sale contract and collect the amount due without such resale at its own option. 6. All goods are sold as catalogued, and are assumed to be in good second-hand condition. If material defects are found, not mentioned in the catalogue, the lot may be returned. Notice of such defects must be given promptly and the goods returned within ten days from the date of the sale. No exceptions will be made to this rule. 7. Bids. We make no charge for executing orders for our customers. We use all bids competitively and buy at the lowest price permitted by other bids. A PRICED COPY OF THIS CATALOGUE MAY BE SECURED FOR $2.00. 9 Mar. 10 I E. W. INTRODUCTORY NOTE. THE books and letters described in the following pages were collected in the leisure hours of an active business life during the last twenty-five years. It is, however, the collection of a true bibliophile, and its dispersal will without doubt afford to other book lovers the same pleasure the present owner experienced in forming it. Mr. Haber's plan has been apparently to secure the works of the best or most representative authors of each period of English Literature, beginning with the 15th Century. Broadly speaking, English Literature began with Chaucer and Gower, and this collection is, therefore, naturally very strong in the books of the Elizabethan Period and the years just preceding. The years following, covering the interval before the 18th Century, are well represented, and there are also to be found many of the best editions of the later writers, from 1700 to the present time. ENGLISH LITERATURE OF THE JACOBEAN AND ELIZABETHAN PERIOD: Among those books here of which brief mention should be made, are the Chaucer folio, published about 1550; Gower's Confessio Amantis, 1532, printed by Berthelet, Henry VIII's printer; Heywood's Epigrams and Proverbs; Robert Greene's Never Too Late, 1607, a very rare book and valuable for its realistic pictures of low and fast life in London; George Chapman's Widdowe's Tears, 1612, James Russell Lowell's copy, and no doubt read by him in preparing his youthful essays on the Old English Dramatists; also the complete edition of Chapman's translation of Homer; the Fourth Folio Shakespeare, a fine and perfect copy; Abraham Cowley's Poetical Blossoms, 1633, the first copy offered for sale in more than fifteen years; the Beaumont and Fletcher and Davenant folios; Nicholas Breton's Dialogue of Pithe and Pleasure, 1603. But entitled to chief mention among the books of this period is the collection of the works of Edmund Spenser, doubtless the most extensive ever offered in one sale, including the first, second, third and fourth editions of the Faerie Queene, all in fine condition. The binding of the first edition is a choice example of the art of the elder Matthews. The collection includes also a fine copy of the rare Colin Clout, 1595, bound by Matthews, and Complaints, 1591. Of the works of the period following the Elizabethan we find George Herbert's Temple, 1633, the Brayton Ives copy; Herrick's Hesperides, 1648; Milton's Poems, 1645; the first edition of Paradise Lost, with the second title-page, 1667, and the Brayton Ives copy of Paradise Regained; first edi tions of Dryden, including the Medall, 1652, The Hind and the Panther, 1687; Richard Braithwaite's Arcadian Princess, 1635; first editions of Robert Baron; Thomas Killigrew's Comedies and Tragedies, 1664, with Faithorne's portrait, in superb condition; Butler's Hudibras, the first authorized edition of all three parts, and, lastly, a magnificent copy of Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, 1621. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH AUTHORS: These are represented by the Baskerville edition of Congreve; Dr. Johnson's Rasselas, 1759, The Idler, 1761; many first editions of Oliver Goldsmith, including a Large Paper uncut copy of Beau Nash; the first edition in English of Beckford's Vathek, 1786, and many others. Nor should we overlook at this point the finely extra-illustrated copy of Johnsoniana, containing about three hundred portraits, views and autograph letters, including letters of Johnson, Mrs. Thrale and contemporaries. NINETEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH AUTHORS: This is a particularly complete division. Lamb's John Woodvil, Essays of Elia and Adventures of Ulysses, are all in the original boards, besides a fine copy of Tales from Shakespeare and several others; Keats' Lamia, in original boards, first editions of Poems and Endymion, the latter finely bound by Matthews, and a 28-page letter of the poet to his brother George in America, containing a draft of "The Eve of St. Mark," and other poems; Landor's little known and rare first book of Poems, 1795, and Gebir, 1798, long believed to be his first work. Byron, De Quincey, Coleridge and the other later and contemporary writers are well represented. Among the Tennyson items is a copy of Poems, 1833, in original cloth, with an autograph letter relating to the book, signed in full "Alfred Tennyson," a signature of excessive rarity. AMERICAN FIRST AND RARE EDITIONS: The best and choicest will be found here: Bryant, Lowell, Emerson, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Whitman, Whittier, Poe, Irving, and Holmes, the "Ten Worthies," are all well represented. Among the Lowell items are the Class Poem, 1838, in original wrappers; A Year's Life, 1841, in original boards, with the paper label, Poems, 1844, in original boards, with paper label, and The Vision of Sir Launfal, 1848, in original dull brown boards, three items which collectors eagerly seek in such condition. There is a very fine copy of Longfellow's Outre Mer, accompanied by a four-page letter relating to it. Poe items include the first edition of Tales from the Grotesque and Arabesque, 1840. Irving is represented by the first edition of Knickerbocker's New York, 1809. The Whitman lots include almost a complete set of all issues of his works as well as four original manuscripts, one of them the Passage to India, a famous poem. The Whittier numbers, of which space forbids more than a cursory mention, comprise first editions of nearly all his works, in many instances accompanied by autograph letters. Special attention must be called to Mogg Megone in the original cloth, with Whittier's letter presenting it to Lucy Hooper; Moll Pitcher, with two autograph letters relating to it inserted, and The Narrative of James Williams accompanied by the original letter in which Whittier acknowledges its authorship. MANUSCRIPTS AND AUTOGRAPHS: The first in historical importance is the complete set of the autograph letters of the Presidents of the United States (Washington to Roosevelt), nearly all full quarto letters and some of surpassing interest. There is a letter of Mrs. Browning-then Miss Barrett-referring to the first American editions of her works, as well as the manuscript of her poem, "Only a Curl"; a letter of DeQuincey relating to the proof of his Confessions; a remarkable one of Emerson to Carlyle; the original manuscript of Cooper's Life of Richard Dale; Conan Doyle's best "Sherlock Holmes" Story, Sign of the Four; a manuscript poem by Joseph Rodman Drake, a specimen of greatest rarity; letters of Charles Lamb; the letter of Keats, already referred to; the manuscript of Holmes' Essay on the Stereoscope, which instrument he invented, as well as a remarkable letter commenting on |