[Rarebooks] two scarce books by John Robinson Jeffers

[Serendipity Books]

1)      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





2)      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




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Peter B. Howard
Serendipity Books
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