Autographs: Davy Crockett, Greta Garbo, Annie Oakley & Herman Melville—Fall 2019

Fine Books & Manuscripts

At Auction October 10

Upcoming Highlights

Lot 14: Annie Oakley, photograph signed & inscribed on verso, 1901. $1,500 to $2,500.

A letter by John F. Kennedy, to NASA administrator James E. Webb, expressing approval of the Space Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh as he helped forward the space program in 1962, is available here. American icons include Davy Crockett, with an uncommon franking signature, and a signed and inscribed photograph of Annie Oakley. Leaders in business include Henry Ford with an uncommon photographic portrait signed, and a stock certificate for 500 shares of Standard Oil signed by its president, John D. Rockefeller. Performing artists are on offer with an extraordinary archive of over 65 letters from Greta Garbo, written between 1932 and 1973, as well as a 1961 typed letter signed by Marian Anderson.

The first works from Herman Melville’s personal library to come to auction in more than a decade include two volumes of Greek & Roman classics annotated by the author. The marginalia found within the volumes provides a more complete understanding of Melville and the poetic literature that became the focus of his later works.