[Rarebooks] F/S A selection of autographed letters varied with a Princeton Connection
Garry R Austin
austbook at sover.net
Tue May 3 14:43:23 EDT 2016
We offer the following for your consideration. Prices are retail, but a
trade discount of 25% will be applied, and shipping is included in the
US. All of these have a Princeton University connection, they were
collected from the estate of a former administrator of the University
dating back to the tenure of Woodrow Wilson.
Austin's Antiquarian Books
PO Box 730
Wilmington Vt 05363
802 464-8438
mail at austinsbooks.com
(American Composer) Randall Thompson, Autographed Note Signed. Christmas
1962. On blue card stock measuring 4" x 6", to an unknown recipient,
"John". Seasonal good wishes and Thompson is enclosing pictures from a
trip they took together. Very Good. $75.00
Randall Thompson (1899-1984) was an American composer, particularly
noted for his choral works. He attended The Lawrenceville School, where
his father was an English teacher. He then attended Harvard University,
became assistant professor of music and choir director at Wellesley
College, and received a doctorate in music from the University of
Rochester's Eastman School of Music. He went on to teach at the Curtis
Institute of Music (serving as its Director 1941/1942), at the
University of Virginia, and at Harvard University. He is particularly
noted for his choral works. Thompson composed three symphonies and
numerous vocal works including Americana, The Testament of Freedom,
Frostiana, and The Peaceable Kingdom, inspired by Edward Hicks's
painting. His most popular and recognizable choral work is his anthem,
Alleluia, commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky for the opening of the
Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood. He also wrote the operas Solomon
and Balkis and The Nativity According to St. Luke.
(American Mathemetician) Luther Pfahler Eisenhart (1876-1965),
Autographed Letter Signed. May 17, 1921. On his personal stationery,
Nassau Hall, Princeton NJ, measuring 6" x 7", to his wife, "Dearest
Kate". With envelope; Personal matters. Signed "Luther". A tear affected
the signature but it has been repaired with document repair tape, else
very good. $45.00
Luther Pfahler Eisenhart (1876-1965) was an American mathematician, best
known today for his contributions to semi-Riemannian geometry.
Eisenhart was born in York, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Gettysburg
College in 1896. He earned his doctorate in 1900 at Johns Hopkins
University, where he was influenced (at long range) by the work of
Gaston Darboux and at shorter range by that of Thomas Craig. During the
next two decades, Eisenhart's research focused on moving frames after
the French school, but around 1921 took a different turn when he became
enamored of the mathematical challenges and entrancing beauty of a new
theory of gravitation, Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.
Eisenhart played a central role in American mathematics in the early
twentieth century. He served as chairman of the mathematics department
at Princeton University and later as Dean of the Graduate School there.
He is widely credited with guiding the development in America of the
mathematical background needed for the further development of general
relativity, through his influential textbooks and his personal
interaction with Albert Einstein, Oswald Veblen, and John von Neumann at
the nearby Institute for Advanced Study, as well as with gifted students
such as Abraham Haskel Taub.
In the early 40s he chaired the "Reference Committee", formed in June
1940 for editors of scientific journals to send the papers submitted to
them, in order to check that the papers did not contain results
(especially regarding nuclear physics) whose public knowledge could be
detrimental to the US war efforts.
(American Man of Letters) Van Wyck Brooks (1886-1963), Autographed
Letter Signed. January 22, 1938. From Westport Ct. on stationery
measuring 5" x 8", three pages to Mathematician Luther Eisenhart, Dean
of Princeton. Brooks is answering a letter regarding speaking at
Princeton. A very warm letter revealing his fears about these addresses.
He can not accept the invitation but is honored. A nice letter. Very
good. $65.00
Van Wyck Brooks (1886-1963) was an American literary critic, biographer,
and historian.
(American Man of Letters) Van Wyck Brooks (1886-1963), Autographed
Letter Signed. January 27, 1938. From Westport Ct. on stationery
measuring 5" x 8", three pages to Mathematician Luther Eisenhart, Dean
of Princeton. Brooks is answering a letter regarding a mutual friend who
may be a WWI veteran. A nice letter. Very good.
$65.00
Van Wyck Brooks (1886-1963) was an American literary critic, author, and
educator, known for his study of, and influence on, American culture. He
also wrote biography and history, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for
The Flowering of New England.
(Nobel Peace Prize Winner) Nicholas Murray Butler (1862-1947) Typed
Letter Signed. October 30, 1935 on Mark Twain Centennial stationery
measuring 8.5" x 11", one page to Mathematician Luther Eisenhart, Dean
of Princeton. This is an invitation to the Gala Twain Centennial Dinner.
Very good. $45.00
Nicholas Murray Butler (1862-1947) was an American philosopher,
diplomat, and educator. Butler was president of Columbia University,
president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and a
recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He became so well known and
respected that The New York Times printed his Christmas greeting to the
nation every year.
(Advertising Executive) Margaret E. Hockaday (1907-1992) Typed Letter
Signed. January 21, 1940 on Harper's Bazaar stationery measuring 8.5" x
11", one page to "Dear J'Anne". Questions regarding details for an
article on beauty & College Women. One can see the drive and detail in
this letter. Ms. Hockaday would become a force on Madison Avenue. Very
good. $65.00
Hockaday, Margaret (1907--1992) American advertiser who launched her own
firm. Born Margaret Elizabeth Hockaday on January 8, 1907, in Wichita,
Kansas; died in New York City on December 18, 1992, in her Greenwich
Village apartment; daughter of Bird Pixlee (Bohart) Hockaday (a
publisher's representative) and Isaac Newton Hockaday (ran a hardware
store and manufactured paint); attended Oak Park, Illinois, public
schools; graduated Vassar College, 1929; married Reinhardt Bischoff (a
German architect), in the late 1940s (divorced mid-1950s); married Louis
Bancel La Farge (an architect), in 1962; no children; aunt of artist
Susan Hockaday Jones.
She started career as a copywriter for Marshall Field department store
in Chicago; moved to New York and spent two years as fashion editor at
Vogue; moved to Harper's Bazaar (1936); worked briefly at J. Walter
Thompson; worked for Montgomery Ward (1941); taught social studies at
Columbia University's Lincoln School (1942--45); earned master's in
education (1947); returned to publishing; became fashion editor for
Curtis' Holiday travel magazine; opened advertising agency (1949);
retired (1970); moved to Nantucket; moved to Pennswood Village in
Newtown, Pennsylvania; returned to Manhattan (1989).
(Renowned Mathematician) Daniel Pedoe (1910-1998) Typed Letter Signed.
August 13, 1936 near Brighton (UK) on stationery measuring 8.5" x 11",
one page to Mrs. Luther Eisenhart, wife of the Dean of Princeton.
Personal matters. He regrets missing her in London. He is nearly done
with his Ph.D thesis, he has landed a job as a demonstator at
Southampton University. Very good. $65.00
Dan Pedoe (1910-1998) was an English-born mathematician and geometer
with a career spanning more than sixty years. In the course of his life
he wrote approximately fifty research and expository papers in geometry.
He is also the author of various core books on mathematics and geometry
some of which have remained in print for decades and been translated
into several languages. These books include the three-volume Methods of
Algebraic Geometry (which he wrote in collaboration with W. V. D.
Hodge), The Gentle Art of Mathematics, Circles: A Mathematical View,
Geometry and the Visual Arts and most recently Japanese Temple Geometry
Problems: San Gaku (with Hidetoshi Fukagawa).
(Theologian) John A. Mackay (1889-1983) Typed Letter Signed. December
19, 1951, Princeton NJ on personal stationery measuring 6.5" x 10", one
page to Mrs. Luther Eisenhart, wife of the late Dean of Princeton. He is
overwhelmed with gratitude regarding her proposed gift to the Seminary.
He will protect her anonimity. Very good. $35.00
John A. Mackay (1889-1983) was a Presbyterian theologian, missionary,
and educator. He was a strong advocate of the Ecumenical Movement and
World Christianity.
(Actor) Sir Arthur John Gielgud OM CH (1904-2000) Signed Photograph. 8"
x 10" black and white photograph of a young Gielgud as Hamlet. Signed
upper left "John Gielgud, Hamlet 1936". Very good.
$150.00
Sir Arthur John Gielgud OM CH (1904-2000) was an English actor and
theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph
Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trinity of actors who
dominated the British stage for much of the 20th century. A member of
the Terry family theatrical dynasty, he gained his first paid acting
work as a junior member of his cousin Phyllis Neilson-Terry's company in
1922. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art he worked in
repertory theatre and in the West End before establishing himself at the
Old Vic as an exponent of Shakespeare in 1929--31.
During the 1930s Gielgud was a stage star in the West End and on
Broadway, appearing in new works and classics. He began a parallel
career as a director, and set up his own company at the Queen's Theatre,
London. He was regarded by many as the finest Hamlet of his era, and was
also known for high comedy roles such as John Worthing in The Importance
of Being Earnest. In the 1950s Gielgud feared that his career was
threatened when he was convicted and fined for a homosexual offence, but
his colleagues and the public supported him loyally. When avant-garde
plays began to supersede traditional West End productions in the later
1950s he found no new suitable stage roles, and for several years he was
best known in the theatre for his one-man Shakespeare show, The Ages of
Man. From the late 1960s he found new plays that suited him, by authors
including Alan Bennett, David Storey and Harold Pinter.
Andrew F. West. Dean of Princeton University's Graduate School.
Autograph letter signed: "Andrew F. West", two pages, 5.25" x 6.75".
Princeton, New Jersey, March 19, 1925. On embossed letterhead of Wyman
House Graduate College Princeton New Jersey, and written to Mrs. Luther
Eisenhart, wife of Dean Eisenhart, the noted mathematician. He is
returning a baby carriage that Mrs, Eisenhart has loaned him for his
grandchildren. He apologizes for keeping it so long. $50.00
Andrew F. West (1853-1943) was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. He
graduated from Princeton University in 1874 and began teaching high
school Latin in Cincinnati, Ohio. A few years later, he was appointed as
the Giger Professor of Latin at Princeton University. In December 1900,
West was appointed as the first Dean of the Princeton University
Graduate School. A talented fundraiser, his work was instrumental in the
construction of Princeton's Graduate College which was dedicated on
October 22, 1913. After his retirement in 1928, a bronze statue of West
was erected in the main quad of the Graduate College. Normal mailing
folds. Lightly creased. Lightly toned. Slightly soiled. Otherwise, fine
condition.
Andrew F. West. Dean of Princeton University's Graduate School.
Autograph letter signed: "Andrew F. West", two pages, 5.25" x 6.5".
Princeton, New Jersey, July 20, 1936. On plain stationery and written to
Mrs. Luther Eisenhart, wife of Dean Eisenhart, the noted mathematician.
He is answering her letter sent from Oxford, reminiscing about his time
there and hoping she had a chance to get to Cambridge. "They are as has
been often said, the two eyes of England. Long may thy
flourish" Other small talk about the heat wave in Princeton.
$50.00
Andrew F. West (1853-1943) was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. He
graduated from Princeton University in 1874 and began teaching high
school Latin in Cincinnati, Ohio. A few years later, he was appointed as
the Giger Professor of Latin at Princeton University. In December 1900,
West was appointed as the first Dean of the Princeton University
Graduate School. A talented fundraiser, his work was instrumental in the
construction of Princeton's Graduate College which was dedicated on
October 22, 1913. After his retirement in 1928, a bronze statue of West
was erected in the main quad of the Graduate College. Normal mailing
folds. Lightly creased. Lightly toned. Slightly soiled. Otherwise, fine
condition.
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