Estimated Price:

£800 - £1,200

Realized Price:

£6,000 ($10,909)

What is this symbol? This symbol indicates that this auction hose has verified this price result.

A diverse collection of first edition novels (without dust jackets), short works and secondary material about an American author including a number of interesting association copies. The author was a great friend of Marutha Menuhin, Yehudi's mother, and a very close friend to all the Menuhin children. She wrote many letters to Marutha, all of which were burnt by Marutha in accordance with the author's will.

Obscure Destinies, first edition, Knopf, 1932; Lucy Gayheart, first edition, Knopf, 1935; Not Under Forty, ( UK) first edition, Cassell, 1936 (inserted review slip); Sapphira and the Slave Girl, first edition, Knopf, 1940 ownership signature of Menuhin; Atlantic Monthly, May 1931, includes "Poor Marty. A Poem", by Cather; The Golden Book Magazine, September 1931, includes "A Lost Lady" by Cather; The Golden Book Magazine, October 1933, includes "Alexander's Bridge" by Cather; April Twilights (1903), Edited with an introduction by Bernice Slote, University of Nebraska Press, 1968; another copy, 1990; A Lost Lady (Centenary Edition), Knopf, 1973; Willa Cather On Writing, first edition, Knopf 1949, inscribed to Menuhin by his mother; another copy, 1953; Willa Cather in Europe, Knopf 1956, inscribed to Menuhin by his mother; Uncle Valentin and Other Stories, University of Nebraska Press, 1974; The Kingdom of Art, University of Nebraska Press, 1966; Willa Cather: Collected Short Fiction 1892 -1912, University of Nebraska Press, 1972; The World and the Parish: Willa Cather's Articles and Reviews 1893 - 1902 (two volumes), University of Nebraska Press, 1970; The Art of Willa Cather, University of Nebraska Press, 1974; The Troll Garden and Selected Stories, Bantam 1990; Kathleen D. Byrne and Richard C. Snyder Chrysalis: Willa Cather in Pittsburgh 1896 - 1906, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, 1980, warmly inscribed to Menuhin by Byrne on the front endpaper and Jeanne A. Shaffer after her Preface; Marion Marsh Brown and Ruth Crone, Willa Cather: the Woman and her Works, Scribner's 1970, warm presentation inscription to Menuhin by both authors on title page, endpapers and preliminary/final leaves copiously annotated by Menuhin ; James Woodress, Willa Cather: her Life and Art, Pegasus 1970, rear endpaper contains note from Menuhin to his mother; Goethe, Faust, S. Fischer, Berlin, undated, incribed to Menuhin by Willa Cather.

A further selection of books personally inscribed to Menuhin including: Goethe. Ausgewählte Gedichte, upper board, front endpaper and title detatched, inscription on title: "And this, Yehudi, is a little book you can even carry in your pocket to read on railway trains. Willa Cather"; Heine, Heinrich. Gedichte, inscription on first blank: "For Yehudi Menuhin on his sixteenth birthday from Willa Cather"; Merimee, Prosper. Carmen, inscription (written twice!) on the first two blanks: "For Yehudi Menuhin, on his seventeenth birthday, from his devoted friend Willa Cather"; Jeans, Sir James. The Mysterious Universe, inscription on front endpaper, "For Yehudi on his Eighteenth Birthday, from Willa Cather"; Merimee, Prosper, Colomba, inscription on first blank: "For Yehudi Menuhin; one of the masterpieces of French literature - too often read, too little known. From Willa Cather. January 21^st 1934"; Franz Schubert's Letters,
inscription on front endpaper
"For Yehudi Menuhin on his twenty-first birthday - anniversary of a day that was to bring such noble pleasure to.....of us who are in bitter need of such release. Willa Cather. January 22^nd 1936" - inserted loosely to the last is a three page hand written letter on her headed note paper from Cather to Menuhin discussing the book she is sending, signed "Aunt Willa"; together with two copies of Willa Cather: A Pictorial Memoir and Sixty Photographs by Alfred A. Knopf. The latter bears the following inscription, "To Yehudi Menuhin a great artist and a fine gentleman from Willa Cather's long time friend and publisher Alfred A. Knopf. New York, April 1976"
Overall some dust jackets showing wear, front cover of "Atlantic Monthly" detached