[Rarebooks] FS: 8 SIGNED Books, Photographs, and Letters by HELEN KELLER
Charles Agvent
chagvent at ptd.net
Fri Dec 2 09:55:20 EST 2011
1. KELLER, Helen. MIDSTREAM. MY LATER LIFE. Garden City: Doubleday
Doran, 1929. First Edition. SIGNED by the author in pencil, as
customary, on the front free endpaper with the sentiment "Sincere
Greetings." Keller has gone over the first "e" in her last name to
darken it. Very small bookplate on pastedown. Near Fine, lacking the
dustwrapper. (#009939) $600.00
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2. KELLER, Helen. SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH. . Wonderful 8" x 10" photograph of
Keller seated on a couch with her companion Polly Thomson, the two
facing slightly toward each other and clasping right hands, a dog at
their feet. With a fine INSCRIPTION at the bottom half of the photo:
"To: Dr. William C. Still/with memories of a fas-/cinating experience."
SIGNED by Keller in her typical pencil and by Thomson in ink and dated
by Keller "January 20th 1947." The experience Keller refers to is an
electroencephalographic study done of her by Dr. Still, the results of
which were published in the May 1947 issue of ARCHIVES OF NEUROLOGY AND
PSYCHIATRY. Included with the photograph of Keller is a copy of that
issue of the journal as well as an 8" x 10" photograph of the equipment
used in the procedure. Photographs signed by Keller are quite uncommon;
those with such a fine inscription as this are scarce. Keller almost
always wrote in pencil, and with photographs often the lead did not take
well to the image and all that remains is the impression from the pencil
in the photo with none of the lead from the pencil. In this case, while
the writing is not dark, it is legible. Small but very interesting
archive. About Fine. (#010610) $2,500.00
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3. KELLER, Helen. SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH. . Wonderful 8" x 10" photograph of
Helen Keller seated on a couch with an alert dog at her feet. With a
fine INSCRIPTION at the bottom of the photo: "To Mr. George D.
Norris/with appreciative greetings" SIGNED "Helen Keller" in her typical
pencil and dated "March 5th 1945." Fairly good contrast of Keller's
writing against the dark background of the photograph, not always the
case with Keller's writing as often the pencil either did not penetrate
the surface enough or faded over the course of the years. Here it is
dark and legible. From the Marshall B. Coyne collection. Touch of wear
to corners. Fine. (#012000) $2,000.00
See an image of this item here:
http://home.ptd.net/~chagvent/012000.jpg
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4. KELLER, Helen. TEACHER ANNE SULLIVAN MACY. A TRIBUTE BY THE
FOSTER-CHILD OF HER MIND. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1956.
First Edition. Illustrated with photographs. INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the
author, in pencil as always, on the front free endpaper: "To
'Bessie,'/with our love/Helen Keller." Also SIGNED in ink just below by
Polly Thomson, who had joined the Keller household in 1914 and who
replaced "Teacher," Anne Sullivan, at her death in 1936 as Keller's
companion, a position she held until her own death in 1960. After
Keller's death in 1968, her ashes were placed next to her beloved
companions, Anne Sullivan and Polly Thomson, in the St. Joseph's Chapel
of Washington Cathedral. This is the last of Keller's many books,
published when she was 76 and capping a truly extraordinary life. Bessie
is Elizabeth Keller Harrison, likely a relative of the author's, and she
has written a presentation to a friend above Keller's inscription and
dated it 1957 below. Books signed by both Keller and Thomson are quite
scarce, this tribute to "The Miracle Worker," especially so. Near Fine
in a lightly worn, Very Good dustwrapper. (#015425) $1,000.00
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5. KELLER, Helen. TYPED LETTER SIGNED (TLS) TO EDWIN GOULD. Forest
Hills, NY, 15 March 1929. One-page letter of @100 words to Edwin Gould
thanking him for the impetus he is giving to the cause of the American
Foundation for the Blind and asking him to read about "the sightless men
and women who long for usefulness, but do not know how, or in what
direction, to take their first steps." SIGNED by Keller in pencil, as
usual. Gould was the son of the notorious financier and railroad magnate
Jay Gould. Edwin was hired as a young man by his father after the
younger Gould made a profit of one million dollars speculating in stocks
within just six months. Though successful in his own right, he differed
from his more famous father in that he generously contributed to many
charities including his own Edwin Gould Foundation for Children. Creases
from folding otherwise Fine. (#009930) $450.00
See an image of this item here:
http://home.ptd.net/~chagvent/009930.jpg
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6. KELLER, Helen. TYPED LETTER SIGNED (TLS) TO EDWIN GOULD. Forest
Hills, NY, 23 Nov. 1929. One-page letter of @170 words to Edwin Gould
thanking him for the aid he is giving to the cause of the American
Foundation for the Blind. In writing on behalf of the blind children in
America, Keller lives again "the hopeless, groping, silent years before
I was taught" and concludes "with the earnest hope that you will
continue to be a ray of light in darkened little lives." SIGNED by
Keller in pencil, as usual. Gould was the son of the notorious financier
and railroad magnate Jay Gould. Edwin was hired as a young man by his
father after the younger Gould made a profit of one million dollars
speculating in stocks within just six months. Though successful in his
own right, he differed from his more famous father in that he generously
contributed to many charities including his own Edwin Gould Foundation
for Children. Creases from folding otherwise Fine. (#009931) $400.00
See an image of this item here:
http://home.ptd.net/~chagvent/009931.jpg
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7. [KELLER, Helen] (FROST, Robert; DARROW, Clarence; et. al.). DOUBLE
BLOSSOMS. HELEN KELLER ANTHOLOGY. New York: Lewis Copeland Company,
1931. Second Revised Edition. An anthology of tributes to Keller by
Robert Frost, Clarence Darrow, James Weldon Johnson, W. E. B. DuBois,
Witter Bynner, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Rabindranath Tagore, and
many others. SIGNED on the front endpaper in pencil, as always:
"Cordially/Helen Keller." Braille at the top of the front endpaper,
possibly a previous owner's name. Light edgewear. Very Good, lacking the
dustwrapper. (#015306) $500.00
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8. [KELLER, Helen] SULLIVAN, Anne. SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH of "The Miracle
Worker" . Unusual 10" x 8" photograph of Helen Keller's famous teacher,
subject of the play and movie THE MIRACLE WORKER, seated on a horse and
holding a dog in her arms. SIGNED by Sullivan in ink: "your friend/Annie
S Macy." At the age of 7, nearly blind from an illness two years before
and recently having suffered the loss of her mother, Sullivan was
abandoned by her father in an orphanage with no formal educational
facilities. Through her own will she managed to be placed in the Perkins
Institute for the Blind from which she graduated as class valedictorian
after regaining her eyesight from a series of operations. She began
teaching Helen Keller when the deaf and blind child was seven and, by
all accounts, quite undisciplined. Sullivan attended classes with Keller
and tutored her through the Perkins Institute, The Cambridge School for
Young Ladies, and Radcliffe College, all along achieving a measure of
success with her unusual student previously unheard of. After Keller's
formal education, Anne Sullivan continued to assist her by accompanying
Keller on her travels and on various lecture tours. Sullivan married a
young Harvard instructor, John Albert Macy, in 1905. The three lived
together until 1912 when the Macys separated. After Keller's death in
1968, her ashes were placed next to her beloved companions, Anne
Sullivan and Polly Thomson, in the St. Joseph's Chapel of Washington
Cathedral. Mild feathering to the "y" in "your" and some loss of ink in
"Macy." Slight fading but an interesting image in Near Fine condition.
This image was used in Keller's book about Sullivan--TEACHER ANNE
SULLIVAN MACY--with this caption by Keller: "Teacher in California,
1918. Neither the horse nor the dog belongs to her, but she loved
animals and could do almost anything with them." (#010611) $850.00
See an image of this item here:
http://home.ptd.net/~chagvent/010611.jpg
--
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