Fine Literature

Highlighted in Doyle’s upcoming Fine Literature auction is a first edition copy of Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. This copy remains in excellent condition and includes a printed copy of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s letter to Whitman. It also includes four promotional articles for the book, each written by Whitman himself. This is an early copy from the first print run for the English market. Also in the sale is a signed copy of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. Nabokov generally refused to sign copies of any edition but made this exception for Jason Epstein, the recipient of the book. Epstein published Nabokov’s Pnin at Doubleday and encouraged the publication of Lolita. Vera Nabokov said in a letter that the author had only autographed the book “for personal friends and the very few writers whose work he admires.”

Other items in the sale include a signed first edition copy of Now We Are Six by A. A. Milne, a signed copy of A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, a typed manuscript with extensive hand-corrections of The Miracle of Purun Bhagat by Rudyard Kipling, and more. View any of these lots and register to bid by visiting Doyle.