Rare books from Pen Ultimate Rare Books

Ayn Rand's first published work with her byline, "A. Rosenbaum". In this profusely illustrated 43 page booklet, "Hollywood: American City of Movies," published in Leningrad in 1926 sans Rand's permission or knowledge, 21 YO Ayn Rand conveys with characteristic lucidity and fire the glamour and glitter of Hollywood and its great stars. Rand never saw a copy; she learned of its publication in a letter from her family after she had arrived in the USA. Text is entirely in Russian. Light wear to wrapper extremities, a few faint creases, and two contemporary rubber-stamped (in Russian) to rear wrapper; discreet, archival tissue reinforcement around the staples on verso of spine-fold, and to one corner tip; clean throughout; Very Good+. There are only four known extant copies. Very Rare Ayn Rand! Book #N1244. $16,500. We carry the largest selection of rare, signed, and manuscript Ayn Rand on the planet!

UNMATCHED AYN RAND Collectible! A beautiful First Edition copy of Atlas Shrugged in a dazzling jacket with only minor chipping at edges. Accompanying the book is a Typed Letter Signed by Ayn Rand, (November 23, 1957, the month following publication) to theatrical producer Ralph Roseman, thanking him for his appreciative letter to her about Atlas and for liking it "for the right reasons." In the second paragraph, Rand explains that she enclosed a "circular about a course of lectures by Nathaniel Branden," which she is sending "to all those who have expressed themselves as friends of Atlas Shrugged." A jaw-dropping Ayn Rand acquisition! Book#P1440. $17,500. We carry THE largest selection of rare, signed and manuscript Ayn rand on the planet!

Typed Letter Signed, explaining Atlas Shrugged: "This is precisely the manner in which capitalism was defeated by altruism--as I have shown you in ATLAS SHRUGGED. Remember that the morality presented in ATLAS SHRUGGED is new, unprecedented and radically opposed to all the traditional versions of morality. You cannot expect it to be accepted by everyone at once." Typed Letter Signed by Ayn Rand, to a college student, pointing out how her novel, Atlas Shrugged, illustrates the impracticality and immorality of collectivism, explaining that modern philosophy is the cause of the broken spirit of students today, encouraging her to learn to defend the "right ideas" and persuade others in order to build an "intellectual Renaissance," and enclosing a brochure concerning the lectures of objectivist Nathaniel Branden [not present]. 2 pages, 4to, personal stationery, written on separate sheets; horizontal folds. With the original envelope. New York, 28 June 1960. Unparalled Ayn Rand, explaining some of the… Read More

SIGNED, magnificently Inscribed by Ayn Rand only months after publication: "To--One of the few readers I am proud to have--Ayn Rand--September 8, 1943."First Edition/First Issue in that highly prized First Issue dust jacket. Original red cloth, gilt title on cover, repaired and reinforced spine. Original first-issue dust jacket with 6" half-moon shaped chip to spine. Wear to edges of boards, damp staining to front cover and front endpaper. Exposure to moist conditions evident throughout. Housed in a custom clamshell box, red cloth, gilt title over morocco on spine. Signed by Rand on the front endpaper, NOT a "Tipped-in" or "Laid-in" signature. A unique Rand inscription, the likes of which we've never seen in 45 years of hunting her down at the best prices on the market: "One of the few readers I am proud to have--Ayn Rand." Accompanying the book is a very good copy of the rare pamphlet, "A Letter from Ayn Rand. Author of The Fountainhead," issued by Bobbs Merrill in response to the deluge of requests… Read More

SIGNED Ayn Rand on Vol 1, # 1, ectremely rare First EVER Printing of many original Rand articles, including some never reprinted anywhere else. 48 single issues of The Objectivist Newsletter, Rand's first monthly publication, 1962-65, and the most difficult Rand periodical to locate. Near Fine. One of the rarest Signed Rand items we've encountered in 45 years! Housed in two binders, including one original green sold by Nathaniel Branden Book Service in the early 1960's to house the newsletters. First (sometimes ONLY) appearance in print of "Choose Your Issues," (Vol 1, No 1, SIGNED), "Racism," "What Is Capitalism," Ayn Rand's book reviews, and many more original Rand material.Volume 1, No 1 is signed, inscribed, and dated by Rand. A number of articles originally appearing in this rare periodical were later anthologized in Rand's books: The Virtue of Selfishness and Capitalism: The unknown Ideal. This is NOT the bound volume; these are the ORIGINAL 48 ISSUES, most in near-fine condition! Extremely… Read More

Corrected in Ayn Rand's pen, Rand's ORIGINAL Typescript for her occasional column, "Brief Comments" in her magazine The Objectivist, Vol 7, No. 11, November, 1968, but published January, 1969. Handwritten and typed on verso of The Objectivist letterhead. On Christmas Eve, 1968, in the most highly watched television broadcast of its time, Apollo 8 crew members read from the Book of Genesis, King James Version, as they orbited the Moon. Ayn Rand's "brief comments" on Apollo 8 elucidates "mankind's tragedy: a demonstration of man's epistemological double standard in the fields of science and of the humanities." The typescript offers a rare glimpse into Ayn Rand's literary and philosophic mind at work, condensing, cutting, adding, recasting her own words to achieve painstaking precision. A copy of The Objectivist, where Rand's comments originally appeared, accompanies the Rand Typescript. Apart from Rand's "Brief Comments," never reprinted elsewhere, this issue contains the last part of Ayn Rand's… Read More

SIGNED by Walt Whitman in commemoration of his 70th birthday. Intended for Whitman's private distribution and Banned by American bookshops and libraries for its explicit sexual imagery. One of only 300 copies of Whitman's 70 birthday edition of Leaves of Grass, Whitman s literary masterpiece, "America's second Declaration of Independence" (PMM, 342). With six portraits of Whitman, including the famous original mounted frontispiece photograph with a butterfly resting on his finger. Whitman s explanatory note is printed on the title page: "Today, after finishing my 70th year, the fancy comes for celebrating it by a special complete, final utterance, in one handy volume of L. of G. with their Annex, and Backward Glance-and for stamping and sprinkling all with portraits and facial photos, such as they actually were, taken from life, different stages. Doubtless, anyhow, the volume is more a Person than a book. And for testimony to all (and good measure) I here with pen and ink append my name." Text and… Read More

SIGNED on a laid in paper bearing only Dickens' clear signature, First Edition of his immortal Oliver Twist, the first Victorian novel with a child protagonist. First published as a serial from 1837 to 1839 and released as a three-volume book on November 9, 1838 before the serialization ended. 3 vols. Volume one with the plate list inserted after title (not found in all copies); Bound in later 19th century 1/2 calf over marbled boards, with marbled page ends. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE in book form, meeting all points as per Eckel and Smith, including the later canceled "Fireside" plate in volume 3. Smith 1, 4; Eckel 59. Ownership inscription of Grace Pfeifer to front endpapers. In 2008, Christie's sold a signed first of Oliver Twist, inscribed directly to the book for $229,000. Book #Cv2105. $10,000. We specialize in Rare Ayn Rand, history, and science.

.SIGNED Presentation to the only inscriptee whom Rand herself collected and published an entire article about. "Capuletti has the passionate intensity of Spain, the elegance of France, and the joyous, benevolent freedom of America. The first impact of his work…is a sense of enormous clarity. It is as if the air were washed clean and things stood out self-assertively, demanding recognition, in an intensely heightened reality. His work is enormously, overwhelmingly joyous; its irrepressible self-assertiveness has a quality of childlike purity and innocence. The most revealing indication of a painter's sense of life is his way of painting human beings. Capuletti's nudes are so innocent a glorification of the body that they make sensuality spiritual. Such is his view of man" (The Objectivist, December, 1966). Ayn Rand inscribed to several famous people, but wrote an entire article about only 1: Jose Manuel Capuletti. First Edition, First Printing of Rand's Atlas Shrugged in blinding first issue dust… Read More

"I write a weekly column for the Los Angeles Sunday Times and I love being a girl-reporter." Autograph manuscript signed for Los Angeles Times. New York: June 26, 1962. Ten pages of white 8 12 x 10-inch paper, written on rectos only, showing Rand's word count; housed in a custom clamshell box. Accompanied by a typed version of the article Ten-page autograph manuscript signed, with additions and deletions in Rand's hand, of her weekly Sunday column, The Ayn Rand Column. This column, her fourth, "The New Enemies of The Untouchables," which appeared in the July 8, 1962 LA Times, extols the virtues of popular television crime shows while condemning F.C.C. censorship. In this ten-page, handwritten manuscript, Rand praises the contemporary television crime shows and Westerns and criticizes the "statists inside and outside" the Federal Communications Commission for its threats to "dictate the content of programs by bureaucratic edict, which means: by force." As well, here one can see in Rand's pen her… Read More

RAND, Ayn: Anthem SIGNED "Author's Binding" of Anthem, the most elusive Ayn Rand acquisition. ONE OF FEWER THAN 50 COPIES DESIGNED/SIGNED/GIFTED BY AYN RAND AND INTENDED ONLY FOR HER PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION. Following the success of her breakthrough novel The Fountainhead and Warner Bros purchase of its movie rights, Rand, now financially successful, ordered a custom red leather binding of Anthem she would sign and send to colleagues, friends, and associates. According to Rand's bibliographer, Vincent Perinn, the number of copies Rand ordered was "fewer than 50, most of which are inscribed for presentation." Rand had revised Anthem in 1946 for American publication, editing for style, rewording some passages, and cutting some excessive language. "No idea or incident was added or omitted; the theme, content and structure are untouched" (From Rand's Foreword). This bespoke copy of Anthem has the same pedigree as the First American Edition, Second Issue, which had a first printing run of 1500 paperwrap… Read More

HEMINGWAY, Ernest: AN EXTRAORDINARY SIGNED HEMINGWAY RARITY. One of only 10 copies intended solely for his own private distribution of A farewll to Arms. His first bestseller, this copy of Arms from the library of Owen Wister Jr., the father of Western fiction, author of the bestselling 1902 novel The Virginian. Hemingway held Wister in high regard, describing Wister s stories as a lesson to our generation in how to write, to his editor Maxwell Perkins. Arguably Hemingway s greatest work, A Farewell to Arms is the only Hemingway work issued in a signed limited edition. Five hundred copies were numbered and sold to the public. This is one of the ten unnumbered copies intended only for Papa s personal sharing. 8vo (222 x 146 mm). Full crushed blue morocco, covers twice ruled in gilt with gilt cornerpieces, upper cover reproducing the original design of the first trade edition dust jacket of this title by Cleon (1895-1979) in various color morocco onlays and gilt-work, flat spine lettered in white and… Read More

SIGNED by Thomas Jefferson. "Upon the whole, I consider the fisheries of the utmost importance to America, and her natural right thereto so clear and evident, that it does not admit of a debate, and to surrender them is a species of treason for which no punishment is too severe" (Thomas Paine, 1779). SIGNED by Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State, Philadelphia, 16 February 1792: "An Act concerning certain Fisheries of the United States, and for the Regulation and Government of the Fishermen employed therein." Three pages (383 x 242 mm) on a bifolium, the act approved 16 February 1792. Leaves separated at central fold, light browning at edges, some very faint marginal spotting, horizontal fold-creases reinforced and lightly discolored, with a couple short marginal separations. On February 3, 1792 the Committee of the Whole began consideration of the bill for encouragement of the cod fisheries. As passed by the Senate, the first section of the bill replaced the existing drawback (of the import duty on… Read More

"Mar-a-Lago -- there's no place like it." A Rare TLS With Bold Full Name Signature. SIGNED Typed Letter on "The Trump Organization" letterhead, New York, NY, dated "May 13, 2009," written to Mr. Jerry Camarillo Dunn Jr., a longtime writer for National Geographic who sent Trump a copy of his signed book "My Favorite Place on Earth." Signed as "Donald J. Trump" with his iconic signature. In fine condition, with expected folds from mailing. The TLS measures 8.5" x 10.75." Accompanied by the original mailing envelope. In full: "Dear Mr. Dunn, I have received the signed copy of your book, My Favorite Place on Earth. It looks like a fascinating read and I look forward to spending time reviewing it. I agree that readers will enjoy visiting Mar - a - Lago -- there's no place like it. Thank you for thinking of me. Wishing you continued and great success, Sincerely, Donald J. Trump." Mar-a-Lago, a resort and National Historic Landmark in Palm Beach, Florida, is the official residence of Donald J Trump, the 45th… Read More

F. Scott Fitzgerald Typed Letter Signed with handwritten addendum, December 26th, 1939, one year almost to the day before his death. F. Scott Fitzgerald, cash-strapped near the end of his life, pleads with his landlord "with somewhat bowed shoulders" for a reduction in rent, expressing hope that a Hollywood studio will employ him soon. "Things look a little brighter. My health is better and I really think I am going to work at the studios within a week. All this illness has, however, put me in debt and it may be some months before I am straightened out." In 1920, three days after publication, the entire first printing of F Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise, all 3000 copies, sold. Riding the crest of his brisk sales and enthusiastic reviews, Fitzgerald propelled himself further into the financial and cultural elite with The Beautiful and the Damned (1922), and achieved immortality with The Great Gatsby (1925). His private life with his wife Zelda captivated his engrossed readers as much as his… Read More