A Rare Collection of 18th- and 19th-Century American Literature Could Fetch up to $5 Million at Auction
It’s a great time to be a lover (and collector) of important American literature.
Christie’s will auction off a stunning collection of rare printed books and manuscripts belonging to Bruce M. Lisman later this month. Valued between $3 million and $5 million, the trove comprises works by all the major American authors of the 18th and 19th centuries, including the largest, and most significant, selection of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s books and papers to ever go up for grabs.
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Lisman is a Vermont-based collector who used to be an executive on Wall Street, according to the Burlington Free Press. As a boy, he loved and was inspired by the works of many 19th-century American authors, including James Fenimore Cooper, Herman Melville, and, of course, Hawthorne. It wasn’t until the late 1980s, though, that he began collecting seriously, with his hobby soon turning into a full-on passion. Now in his 70s, he has decided to part with the treasured tomes and hopes that the sale will serve as a touchpoint for other collectors.
If you love Hawthorne as much as Lisman, it’s impossible not to find something to bid on. Lots include a letter to his publisher (which has a pre-sale estimate of $50,000 to $80,000), an autographed photo of the author ($7,000 to $10,000), and a first edition of his book, The House of Seven Gables ($1,000 to $2,000). The highlight of the whole auction, though, is Hawthorne’s very own hand-annotated printed page proofs of his most famous novel, The Scarlet Letter ($600,000 to $800,000).
If you’re the sort of reader who never warmed to Hawthorne or The Scarlet Letter after encountering both in high school, there are plenty of other noteworthy items. These include an inscribed set of Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque ($300,000), a signed first edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass ($200,000 to $300,000), and a true first edition of Herman Melville’s The Whale ($120,000 to $180,000).
“In terms of American literature, it’s the best collection I’ve seen in my career,” Christina Geiger, the head of Christie’s department of books and manuscripts, told the Burlington Free Press earlier this month.
Christie’s is splitting the sale of the Lisman collection into two segments. The first part, which includes all the lots mentioned above, will be a live auction held in New York on Thursday, June 15, and Friday, June 16. The second part, which includes works from writers such as Henry David Thoreau and Ann Eliza Bleecker, is an online-only auction that kicked off last weekend and will run until June 16.
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