Whitmore Rare Books recently issued their Catalogue 29. Whitmore features literary masterpieces in the best condition likely to be found considering their age. There are works of both fiction and nonfiction, human stories and scientific discoveries. Some books are fairly recent, others go back several centuries. They differ widely, but all are significant books in top condition. These are a few of them.
The cover of the August 6, 1945, issue of Time featured the following quote on its cover - “My God what have we done.” That quote comes from the following manuscript, written onboard the Enola Gay as it flew over Japan. The writer was co-pilot Capt. Robert A. Lewis. They had just dropped the first and next-to-last atomic bomb to be dropped on inhabited land. Specifically, it was the city of Hiroshima, population 380,000. As a result of evacuations, it had dropped to 255,000 at the moment the bomb was dropped. Forty-four seconds later, it exploded, and an estimated 70,000-90,000 people were gone almost instantly. Another 50,000 or more would die from injuries and radiation exposure in the days and years ahead. The world changed that day. If there was a positive, there have been no world wars since then despite enormous East-West tensions. The consequences of such a war are too terrible to contemplate. Lewis wrote about more than just what he saw, but his own feelings about it.
Prior to dropping the bomb, Lewis wrote, “...we are loaded, the bomb is now alive and it's a funny feeling knowing it's right in back of you. Knock on wood...well folks it's not long now.” Shortly after the bomb was dropped, he continued, “We then turned the ship so we could observe results and there in front of our eyes was without a doubt the greatest explosion man has ever witnessed. Perhaps a few days later, he wrote, “I am certain the entire crew felt this experience was more than anyone human had ever thought possible. It seems impossible to comprehend. Just how many did we kill? I honestly have the feeling of groping for words to explain this...My God what have we done. If I live a hundred years I'll never quite get these few minutes out of my mind.” He didn't live so long, dying in 1983 at the age of only 66, but he certainly never forgot those few moments. Item 1. Priced at $950,000.
Before Darwin there was Lyell. Lyell was a geologist, not a biologist, but his theory of the slow evolution of the earth's geological features made Darwin's theory of the slow evolution of life possible. Prior to Lyell, the predominant belief was God made the earth as it is in mere days, 5,000 years ago. That was not nearly enough time for the evolution of life as envisioned by Darwin. Lyell afforded Darwin the time needed for his theory to be possible. Lyell's book is Principles of Geology, three volumes published 1830-1833. Lyell explained that geological features developed through small changes covering eons of time. Darwin's theory proposed similar evolution for life. However, Darwin's theory was far more controversial as it conflicted with the religious beliefs of the origin of humans. It's one thing to question the origin of mountains, another to challenge the origins of ourselves. However, Lyell rejected the idea that geologic features required supernatural intervention, which is what Darwin did for life. Item 41. $12,500.
Here is a book that's as fascinating today as when it was published, almost two centuries ago (1841). It is a great study in human nature. The title is Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions. Humans are gullible. Put them in a crowd and you can get mass delusions. People also tend to believe what they want to believe, making them subject to get-rich-quick and other scams. Author Charles Mackay writes about events such as tulip mania. That's when the Dutch became obsessed with tulips, bidding up the price of bulbs for desired flowers to ridiculous heights. It started in 1636, and by 1637, the market collapsed. Those who bought at the height suffered serious losses. Today, it happens regularly in the stock market, but generally not on such a serious level. Mackay observed, “Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.” Item 44. $9,500.
This one is a bit of a head-scratcher until you realize the whole story. The book is The Love Letters of Mark Twain, and they were written by Samuel Clemens. That's not the oddity since Clemens and Twain were names of the same person. The letters can be personal, serious, or display Twain's classic sense of humor. It's dubious Twain would have wanted personal letters to his girlfriend, later wife, Livy, published, but he had no choice. His publisher, Harper & Brothers published them anyway. Since this was in 1949, and Twain died in 1910, he had no practical way to object. However, this leads to the confusion. Twain signed the book, all 155 copies published. If Twain came back from the dead, he probably wouldn't have let the book be published at all, so how did he sign them? Easy. He signed a bunch of pages for a different, planned book, but it was never published. Harper had 155 of these signed pages sitting around for 50 years when someone came up with this clever idea. Use them in a new book. It's a bit eerie, but it made it possible to create a signed edition 40 years after the author died. He has signed it both as Mark Twain and S.L. Clemens. Item 64. $9,500.
There probably isn't a more appropriate illustrator for the surreal world of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland than surrealist artist Salvador Dali. There was one problem with that. Author Lewis Carroll (pen name for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) died before Dali was born. Carroll went with John Tenniel and he did a great job, but a century after the original appeared, another edition of the story was published with Dali's illustrations. Item 13 is that edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with Dali's illustrations, published in 1969. Rather than the story, this issue consists of Dali's illustrated interpretation, illustrations in a clamshell case. It includes an additional suite of plates and is signed by the artist. Item 13. $35,000.
Whitmore Rare Books may be reached at 626-714-7720 or info@whitmorerarebooks.com. Their website is www.WhitmoreRareBooks.com.
