Books

From the Bart Auerbach Collection. 15 pages, folio (13 x 8 inches), in ink on rectos only, heavy tan paper (slightly toned), tied at extreme upper left corner (first and least leaves loose); in a tan half-morocco slipcase (a bit scuffed). The manuscript in very good condition. From the Beerbohm collection of the actor and director Robert Montgomery. On the verso of the first leaf Beerbohm has made three pencil sketches of James Pethel which he has crossed out. (A drawing of Pethel from a Beerbohm sketch-book is reproduced in the New York Review of Books edition of 'Seven Men'.) The three sketches include one of Pethel with a cigar and one of him wearing a hat. He is described with both when he is introduced in the story and pictured in the NYRB illustration. "James Pethel" was written in 1912 and first published in the 'English Review' in December 1914. The 21-page manuscript of that was lot 327 in Sotheby's sale 'Catalogue of the Library and Literary Manuscripts of the Late Sir…

A collection of fictional biographical sketches by Max Beerbohm, blending humor with insight.