[Rarebooks] Robinson Jeffers, two scarce books

[Peter B. Howard]

ROAN STALLION  (one of 12)

1)      Jeffers (Robinson)         ROAN STALLION / TAMAR and Other 
Poems.  NY: Boni & Liveright, 1925. Original dark blue half-morocco, spine 
in six compartments: double rule / emblem / ROAN STALLION / emblem / 
JEFFERS / emblem / emblem /double rule / 1925.  Top edges gilt, fore & 
bottom edges uncut.  Original blue, white & gold marbled boards, corners 
rubbed; sewn head & base bands in blue & white thread.  The binding & 
prelims are seemingly unaffected, but the text block has an old and 
significant water stain. Bookplate of publisher Donald S. Friede 
(Covici-Friede) by Covarrubias.  "This Special Edition, Consisting of 
Twelve Copies, None of Which Are for sale, is Printed on Laid Paper and 
Signed by the Author for His Friends.  This Copy is No. [Seven]."  "Seven" 
in blue in, different pen & hand.  Signed "Robinson Jeffers".  First 
edition, limited issue, specially bound, signed.  $7500.00





THE CONDOR
(1940)

  Jeffers (Robinson)         THE CONDOR.  San Mateo: privately printed for 
Ted M. Lilienthal at the Quercus Press, September 12, 1940.  Folio, 4pp, 
sewn, a red condor on the cover above black type, nice copy.  First 
edition, a poem, 28 lines, celebrating this giant bird from the bird's 
point of view.  The poem appeared in The Youth's Companion, June 9, 1904, 
the first poem Jeffers ever sold, here reprinted separately "in an edition 
of twelve copies for Una and Robin and a few members of the inner 
circle."  Jeffers had already published in his school magazine The 
Aurora  four other pieces.

         At the time of the republication of Jeffers' poem in 1940 there 
were likely no more than 50 individuals of Gymnogyps californianus known, 
the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere, once inhabiting 
the whole of the western coast of the United States.  The condor population 
was in precipitous decline, down to 22 individuals in 1982.   By 1986 only 
21 individuals remained alive, all in captivity.  Indeed the entire present 
population can be traced genetically to only 14 individuals, none in the 
wild, stemming from a captive breeding program begun in the 1980s.  The 
several preservation projects at work in present time have led to the 
current population of 273 individuals or more, a chick observed in the wild 
in Northern California only last month, for the first time in over 100 years.

         "The Andean Condor (Vultur gryphus) inhabits the 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andes>Andes mountains. Condors are the 
national bird of <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolivia>Bolivia, 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombia>Colombia, 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile>Chile and 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peru>Peru and play important roles in the 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folklore>folklore and 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythology>mythology of 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_America>South America, similar to the 
role the <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_Eagle>Bald Eagle plays in 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_America>North America."
Among Jeffers' rarest titles, needless to say. Carter Burden's copy would 
now be at the Morgan Library. OCLC adds the SUNY-Buffalo, Occidental, UCSB, 
Brown, TX-Austin copies. We know of one in private hands and our 
own.  Alberts did not have CONDOR in his collection, apparently, an opinion 
based on research, not on the bibliography itself. That leaves five copies 
extant, elsewhere, to be traced.  $11,000.00


Peter B. Howard
Serendipity Books
1201 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94702
voice: (510) 841-7455
fax: (510) 841-1920
e-mail: pbhoward at serendipitybooks.com
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