Sotheby’s.

The Library of H. Bradley Martin, Part IV: Highly Important French Literature; Monaco, Oct 16 & 17, 1989.

Monaco, Sotheby’s, 1989. 21.3 cm x 27.7 cm. Unpaginated [approx 400 pages]. Original Hardcover. Very good+ condition with only minor signs of external wear. Minor foxing to outer cover (spine) and to front and rear endpapers. Minor discolouration to edges. Otherwise binding strong. Interior bright and clean. Contains Price-Result-List of this auction !

As a book collector, H. Bradley Martin (1906-1988) has been ranked with such giants as Robert Hoe and J. Pierpont Morgan. He spent a lifetime in pursuit of rare books and manuscripts, and the breadth of his interests and the depth of his knowledge enabled him to build a library that is recognized as one of the finest in the world.

Born in New York in 1906, Mr. Martin was the eldest of five sons of Bradley Martin and Helen Phipps and a grandson of Henry Phipps. After his graduation from St. George’s School in Newport, he entered Christ Church College at Oxford, where he spent five years between 1924 and 1929. By that time he was already a book collector. At eighteen, he had purchased his first rare book, a copy of Tom Sawyer, and during his years at Christ Church, he became a familiar figure to booksellers in Oxford and London.

The collection found its direction in 1929, when Mr. Martin began to read the works of W.H. Hudson. This author, as a novelist and a naturalist, drew him towards both literature and ornithology, ultimately the two major components of his library. Over the next sixty years, he formed a series of author collections- Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, and Thoreau, as well as Hudson- and acquired and extraordinary range of English, French, and American literature. His ornithological library is unmatched by its richness and depth. Not only did he succeed in assembling a virtually complete collection of the classic illustrated books from the sixteenth century onwards but, perhaps more remarkably, he obtained a vast number of scientific books and treatises that record the important developments and discoveries in the field to the present day.

By the mid-1930s, Mr. Martin was well established as a book collector and until his death in 1988 he received- and read- virtually every catalogue produced by booksellers and auction houses alike. Throughout the book world, he was known as a discerning and meticulous collector, one with specific, if broad, interests who was unwilling to compromise his standards. His quest took him to booksellers and auctions throughout this country and Europe, and Howard Swann of Wheldon & Wesley, Michael Papantino of Seven Gables, and David Kirschenbaum of Carnegie Bookshop were among his prinicipal advisors.

Above all, the Martin Library was a private collection, housed in his apartment in New York and at Rose Hill, his Georgian house in Virginia. Mr. Martin welcomed his colleagues there, but the world of exhibitions and bibliographic events had less appeal for him. Rather, he was a collector who lived among his books, reading them, collating them, and finding in them new challenges and discoveries. As David Kirschenbaum has said, “Bradley collected with sense, discrimination, and a deep love of the book.″

H.Bradley Martin was a great lover of all the literature of the Romantic period (Lamartine, Chenier, Chateaubriand), but he was also attracted by the revival of the novel at the hands of Balzac, Flaubert, Stendhal and Merimee. The poetry of the nineteenth century, that of Hugo, Baudelaire, Verlaine for example, naturally finds a place here. The collection moves into the twentieth century with Marcel Proust. A feature of the library is its collections of works by particular authors, such as Balzac, Sand and Hugo, which are among the most important ever made. For Balzac, the references to Pierre Duche or Gabalda are of lasting value. The two rare copies of Le Pere Goriot and La Peau de Chagrin derive from the library of Dr. Nacquart, Balzac’s personal physician, and the library also includes his earliest works, published under the pseudonyms of Saint-Aubin and Lord R’Hoone, as well as numerous forgeries and first editions, generally in original paper wrappers. (From introduction)

• Keywords: Book Collecting · Books on Books Rare · Catalogue · Catalogue No.10 – International Literature · Catalogue Ten – International Literature · Collection · Collectors and collecting · French Authors · French Literature · French Literature – Rare · Library Catalogue
• Language: English
• Inventory Number: 200405AB

EUR 275,--