1. [100 Years Buddenbrooks in America] Mann, Thomas.

Buddenbrooks. [First American Edition in stunning condition with an amazing, signed Letter by Thomas Mann, thanking an admirer for reflecting on reading his masterpiece “Buddenbrooks”. Signed on 21st of June 1940, on personalized stationery of Thomas Mann from Princeton, New Jersey, Mann wrote: “Thank you for writing to me and for telling me that you liked ‘Buddenbrooks’ when you read it recently at Colby College. It gave me pleasure, too, to know that you heard my daughter Erika lecture and had ‘thoroughly enjoyed’ yourself. With all good wishes, yours sincerely. Thomas Mann” ]. Translated from the German by H. T. Lowe-Porter [American Translator Mrs. Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter].

Two Volumes (complete set). New York, Knopf, 1924. Octavo. 389, 359 pages. Original Hardcover with the very rare, original dustjackets in breathtaking condition (now in protective collector’s Mylar). Unusually Fine condition with the meaningful letter by Nobel Laureate Thomas Mann.

2. Aiken, Henry David / [Hans Jonas] / Quine, W.V.O.

Typed letter, signed by German-born, American Jewish philosopher Hans Jonas, loosely inserted in Henry David Aiken’s pamphlet “God and Evil: A Study of Some Relations Between Faith and Morals”. The Essay by Aiken is inscribed and signed by Aiken in a sarcastic manner: “To God, from one of his congregation – Shem”. In the letter, Jonas reflects on two pages on an evening with Henry David Aiken and his then wife Lillian Woodworth. In his letter to Aiken, Hans Jonas reports back to Aiken after reading his essay [″God and Evil”] and calls it “a beautiful piece of work – in style and content worthy of your “master” who wrote on natural theology….”. Jonas goes on encouraging Aiken: “you are also dead wrong n not publishing a collection of your essays in ethical theory. If your pal Quine can do it “from a logical point of you [sic]”, so can you “from a moral point of view”. Jonas also mentions “that it is worth writing about the ancient problem opf a theodicy in a contemporary context”. [The Essay is n Offprint from Ethics, An International Journal of Social, Political and Legal Philosophy, Volume LXVIII, No. 2].

New York / Washington, DC, 1958. 16,8 x 24 cm. 21 pages (pages 77-97 of the Journal) plus two page-letter (on one leaf), signed by Hans Jonas Original Offprint / Original TLS (Typed letter signed). Very good+ condition. Stapled. Only minimal signs of staining. The letter also discusses a Reference for one “Ed Sayles” and Jonas suggest that Aiken writes “casual but fairly strong” to Howard R. Bartlett, professor of history and head of the Department of Humanities at MIT.

3. [Aiken, Henry David] Demos, Raphael.

Collection of Five (5) Manuscript Letters from Greek-American Philosopher, Raphael Demos to Philosopher Henry David Aiken. Besides very few personal matters (Aiken rented a Lice-infested house from Demos), the letters are lengthy and full of content regarding philosophical questions. Demos thanks Aiken for his “thoughtful comments about my article on ‘Society and the Individual’ and Demos reflects on Aiken: “Now as to your point that goodwill is addressed to me which is capable of joys and sorrows and not just an angel – I will distinguish between respect and goodwill. Angels, because rational, have intrinsic worth, and so claim respect certainly. Value and respectability don’t imply capacity for feeling. But goodwill does imply that the recipient is a striving, failing, succeeding, up-ended individual, who has sorrows & grip – not just an angelic being. While the Greek identify man with his rationality, it is noticeable that common sense proceeds otherwise; when the Radcliffe girls say their Professor is so human, they don’t mean he is intellectual, they mean the opposite – that he has non-rational impulses and feelings…..” / The collection of letters originates from the personal collection of Henry Aiken and also comes with a scathing letter from American Philosopher Arthur Edward Murphy in which Murphy writes to Aiken about Raphael Demos and does not hold back in his evaluation of Demos and his Philosophy: “I just saw your remarks re Demos in the Journal. Very well done ! I think Demos is not very bright, however, and it is perhaps better not to give him too much publicity. I don’t think he will convert any one except for those already suffering from dithers & blithers. And it is a waste to refute him. Intelligent people don’t have to be convinced. And bigots like R.D. can’t be convinced. Strictly speaking, before Demos creates an obligation in others… he ought to say in plain unemotional prose what he means by such concepts as ‘God’ & ‘evidence’. It is perfectly possible that if we knew how he uses these terms, we would agree that what he says is trivially true. This discussion is presumably in the domain of logic. But discussion on that domain when one of the parties refuses to make explicit the rules of his game can never terminate in illumination. Nevertheless, I think you handled him neatly & have done yourself no harm as general opinion is concerned. He is a perfect horrible example of retrogression. Ugh ! A perfectly low grade person morally & intellectually nonregarding as a seer & defender of orthodoxy…… Have you seen Lazerowitz’s [Morris Lazerowitz] paper in Mind on Universals. It is highly provocative. I would like to discuss it with you….”.

Westport Point (Massachusetts), c.1944 – 1967. Octavo. 13 pages of letters by Raphael Demos to Aiken / [Plus:] 1 page of a manuscript letter by Arthur Edward Murphy to Aiken about Demos. Very good condition with only minor signs of wear. Original Letters or anything published by Raphael Demos or Arthur Edward Murphy, are very rare !

4. [Aiken, Henry David] Sheffer, Henry M.

Manuscript Letter signed from eminent american logician, Henry M. Sheffer, to Philosopher Henry David Aiken, congratulating Aiken of being accepted to Harvard: “…..the Harvard Board of Overseers may not have O.K.‘d your appointment yet. However, I consider it final and official. Letme congratulate both you and Harvard on your joining the Emerson Hall First Floor Department. It will be a great pleasure to see you here again next Fall….”. Sheffer then continues ominously: “Then we can talk about a number of things one does not wish to put on paper”.

Cambridge (Emerson Hall), April 17th, 1946. Octavo. 1 pages. Softcover. Very good condition with only minor signs of wear. Original Letters or anything published by Sheffer, is exceedingly rare !

5. Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery / Lane, John Henry H.V.

19th century original british Passport for “Mr.John Henry H. V. Lane (British Subject) travelling on the continent”, signed in July of 1886 by later prime minister Archibald Philip, Earl of Roseberry, then Foreign Secretary under Gladstone during his brief third ministry.

London, Given at the Foreign Office, 1886. 27.7 cm x 38.2 cm. 1 sheet. Original Softcover. Excellent condition with only minor signs of external wear. Signed by Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery. Fantastic and important document of british foreign office history.

6. Beston, Henry B. / [Sims, Admiral William Sowden].

Full Speed Ahead. Tales from the Log of a Correspondent with Our Navy. [Inscribed Association copy from Henry B. Beston to Admiral William Sowden Sims – with original typescript in an envelope that is tipped into the pastedown / It is a typescript of a letter that was written during Beston’s time as editor at the magazine “The Living Age” (an offshoot of ‘Atlantic Monthly’) and stunningly also reflects on Beston’s classmate, Theodore Roosevelt, whom he obviously gave a copy of this book and according to Beston’s letter to Sims, Theodore Roosevelt and his children confirming that they enjoyed it. The letter reveals that Beston sends this book as a “thank you” to Admiral Sims for his time as war correspondent under Sims’ command during World War I. The typescript of the letter must be seen as an extension to Beston’s Preface in the book in which he writes: “And no acknowledgment, no matter how studied or courtly, its phrasing, can express what I owe to Admiral Sims for the friendliness of my reception, for his care that i be shown all the Navy’s activities, and for his constant and kindly effort to advance my work in every possible way”].

First Edition. New York, Doubleday, 1919. Octavo. XIII, 254 pages. Original Hardcover in protective Mylar. Very Scarce [OCLC locates only 1 copy]. Very good + condition with only minor signs of external wear. The definitive, signed and inscribed association copy by Henry B. Beston to Admiral William Sowden Sims and also with a letter typescript to Admiral William Sowden Sims. The inscription reads: “To Admiral Sims with every grateful good wish of the author – Henry Beston Sheahan – 1919”.

7. [Caribbean Content] – [Luke, Sir Harry / Lukach, Harry].

Manuscript letter, signed, from colonial administrator, Sir Ronald Herbert Garvey on stationery from Government House, Belize, during his Governorship of British Honduras (1949) to Sir Harry Luke regarding the necessary refurbishment of Government House in Belize: ’‘They are tying me down to a pathetic 750000 pounds when I need 10 million pounds’ – Good God ! Wake up England !!!’

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. Belize, 1949. Octavo. 1 Letter. From the private collection / library of colonial governor, diplomat and historian, Sir Harry Luke.

8. Clarke, Arthur C.

Imperial Earth. A novel. [Together with signed letter (and two more interesting letters in copy) by Arthur C. Clarke on his personal stationery. Clarke makes some handwritten remarks about the allegations against him and writes: ‘I hope to make more money from the S. Smear than from all my books when the lawyers have finished with them !).

London, Victor Gollancz, 1975. Octavo. 287 pages. Original Hardcover with illustrated, unclipped dustjacket in protective Mylar. Near Fine condition with only minor signs of external wear. Rare in this exceptional condition.

9. [Cobbett, Louis] [mentioned are: Behring, Emil von / Koch, Robert / Metchnikoff, Ilya (Élie) / Dönitz, Friedrich Karl Wilhelm / Ehrlich, Paul / Shield, Marmaduke and others]

Two Manuscript Books of Laboratory Notes by student of bacteriology and later publisher of “The Causes of Tuberculosis”, Louis Cobbett (1863 – 1947), dealing in these lab notes with the discovery of remedies for Tuberculosis and Diphtheria. Original, two-volume Manuscript-Compendium of research-notes regarding all the important discoveries in Bacteriology (Diphtheria and Tuberculosis) by contemporaries of Louis Cobbett during the years 1885 – 1908 (Behring, Koch, Metchnikoff etc.). The notes were started by Louis Cobbett in 1885, after graduating from Trinity College, Cambridge and while he was working towards his degree in 1899. The stunning documents are not only reading like a first-hand-journal of discoveries, citing and reflecting on all the important developments and medical advancements of the outgoing 19th and beginning 20th century, but these notes were written parallel to Robert Koch, Emil von Behring and others making their breakthrough discoveries for mankind’s desperately needed cures against Tuberculosis and Diphtheria. Cobbett reflects on the publications in the “Zeitschrift fuer Hygiene” and separately published books and articles. Louis Cobbett lists all the important and also the critical publications leading up to (for example) Koch’s discovery of Tuberculin (e.g.: Beck – “Ueber die diagnostische Bedeutung des Kochschen Tuberculins”), he mentions Emil von Behring, Paul Ehrlich’s “Ueber die Constitution des Diphteriegiftes”, he cites A.Jeffery Turner’s “Statistics on the Diphtheria mortality of the 3 principal Australian Colonies for the past 15 years” (published in 1899), he writes about Tuberculin production in fowl, he reflects on A.Calmette and G. Guerin, “supporting [Emil von] Behring in his contention that pulmonary tuberculosis is of intestinal origin”. Other mentions are “TB of human origin (from a cervical gland)”, he speculates on the publication by Fiebiger and Jensen regarding the transmission of tuberculosis from human to animal, he offers drawings of cultures with Rabbit emulsions, Bovine Characters, Avian cultural characters etc. A few lectures are referred to, including one by Sims Woodhead, a colleague of Louis Cobbett and no doubt attended by Cobbett himself; one newspaper report has been pasted in: ‘Important conference’ in Leeds, from Yorkshire Post 1899 / Louis Cobbett intensely elaborates on Kossel and his report on the english Tuberculosis – Commission in 1908 (H. Kossel – Die Tuberkulosefrage und die Arbeiten der englischen Tuberkulosekommission).

[Cambridge], c. 1885 – 1908. Octavo (17 cm x 21 cm). 90 blank leaves with manuscript entries in each volume, usually written on rectos only. Hardcover / Original half leather with dark blue cloth-covered boards bearing paper-labels to covers, detailing some of the sources cited within; marbled endpapers and edges. Very good condition with only minor signs of external wear.

10. Congo / Kongo – Leopold II of Belgium (1835-1909) – King of the Belgians and Owner / Absolute Ruler of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908.

Collection of four very important and meaningful manuscript letters by Leopold II to his administrator and Foreign Minister of the Congo – Free-State, Baron Adolphe de Cuvelier (1860-1931) with a total of 16 pages filled with Leopold’s instructions on pressing issues regarding a warning about an imminent visit by the Rector of the Mill-Hill Missionaries [probably Herbert Alfred Henry Vaughan (1832 – 1903)] and Leopold’s qualification of the visit of being detrimental to the Congo Free State (″ne travaillent pas pour l’État”). Leopold continues in another letter to talk about the hostile positions of english officials (consuls) and missionaries (″que les consuls anglais et les missionnaires anglais se conduisent bien mal envers l’État”). Interestingly, Leopold also touches on the nuisance of the german press criticizing Belgian Railway Lines and he is of the opinion that this is all happening in order to force the german parliament [″Reichstag”] to finance the building of the Tanganyika Railway [between Dar es Salaam and Kigoma]: (″cherche à effrayer l’opinion [en] Allemagne à propos de mes chemins de fer afin d’obtenir du Reichstag des fonds pour la ligne allemande vers le Tanganika”.

16 pages of MLS, Manuscript Letters (signed) on 10 leaves of Leopold’s official stationery “Château de Laeken” and “Palais de Bruxelles”. Laeken / Brussels, Château de Laeken [Palace of Laeken], 1901 – 1906. The leaves with different sizes (13,5 cm x 9 cm) and (18 cm x 11,5 cm). Excellent condition. Unsigned. Tremendously rare to find original letters by Leopold II on the open market in which the Colonial Free State and the protection against inquisitive visitors is discussed in such clear and instructive fashion. Leopold’s correspondence with Adolphe de Cuvelier shows how he is very much trying to still protect and influence the narrative of his Colonial Slavery Outpost even in the final years of his life.