FROM ULYSSES TO HORIZON PRESS

Anderson, Margaret C. with Virgil Thomson [Association Letter - Horizon Press]

ARCHIVE: Three-Volume Autobiography — Complete, Horizon Press [Publisher's Copies] [With Signed Virgil Thomson Letter]

New York: Horizon Press, 1970.

THE PUBLISHER'S COPIES — WITH VIRGIL THOMSON'S CHELSEA HOTEL LETTER.
A complete three-volume set of Margaret Anderson's autobiographical trilogy from the estate of Horizon Press publisher Ben Raeburn, accompanied by an original 1983 typed letter signed by composer Virgil Thomson.

Thomson writes directly to Raeburn from the Chelsea Hotel to praise the Horizon Press editions. He explains that copies of Anderson's original editions had disappeared from his library, probably after being lent, and welcomes the Horizon volumes as “happy replacements and additions.” The letter provides a remarkable contemporary link between Anderson's modernist circle and Raeburn's later republication of her work.

Also retained with Raeburn's set are a four-page New York Times Book Review treatment of the trilogy and Margaret Anderson's 1973 New York Times obituary.

MATERIAL & BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION —
The complete trilogy comprises My Thirty Years' War, The Fiery Fountains, and The Strange Necessity. Three volumes, approximately 9.5 inches tall, bound in quarter cloth over yellow, red, and blue boards with gilt-lettered spines and housed in the original publisher's pictorial slipcase. Illustrated with historic photographs, including work by Berenice Abbott and Man Ray.

CONDITION —
+++ Books: Fine; exceptionally crisp, tight, and apparently unread. Dust jackets with uniform spine darkening, otherwise intact and protected in archival Mylar. Volume I has faint localized offsetting on pages 20–21 from the formerly laid-in newspaper obituary, now separately protected.
+++ Slipcase: Near Fine; solid and clean without splits, with minimal shelf wear and minor rubbing to the pictorial label.
+++ Letter: Fine; original mailing fold, without tears or significant age-toning, boldly signed by Virgil Thomson.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE — ANDERSON'S MODERNIST LEGACY.
As founder of The Little Review, Margaret Anderson provided a platform for Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, and James Joyce, famously serializing Ulysses and facing prosecution for obscenity. Her memoirs document the world surrounding the magazine, expatriate life in Paris, and her relationships with Jane Heap and Georgette Leblanc, making the trilogy an important primary source for modernist, feminist, and LGBTQ+ literary history.

DETAILED ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE, INCLUDING THE COMPLETE VIRGIL THOMSON LETTER AND TRANSCRIPTION, AVAILABLE VIA THIS PDF LINK [OR BY REQUEST].

SUBJECTS: 20th-Century American Literature, Modernism, Feminist History, Lesbian and LGBTQ+ Studies, Publishing History, Associated Correspondence.

KEYWORDS: Margaret Anderson, The Little Review, James Joyce, Ulysses, Ben Raeburn, Horizon Press, Virgil Thomson, Chelsea Hotel, Jane Heap, Georgette Leblanc, Berenice Abbott, Man Ray.

Item #22047

Price: $525.00