Lark Mason Associates/iGavel Auctions – Online Auction The Consummate New Yorker
May 30 – June 13, 2024 on iGavelAuctions.com

NEW YORK CITY — Lark Mason Associates announced that “The Consummate New Yorker: Books and Other Collections from Robert Gottlieb” will be opening for bidding on iGavelAuctions.com from May 30 to June 13.

Robert Gottlieb — renowned for his editorial stewardship at Simon & Schuster, Alfred A. Knopf and The New Yorker — shaped a bibliophile’s library of novels, nonfiction books and magazine articles by a Who’s Who of prominent writers from the mid- to late Twentieth Century. In his private life, Gottlieb was a collector in his own right, amassing a quirky assortment of Lucite handbags from the 1950s, American travel postcards, Art Deco and early Twentieth Century decorative arts, and his primary love, books.

The sale, with more than 130 lots, includes volumes penned by highly acclaimed Twentieth Century writers Joseph Heller, John le Carré, Robert Caro, Toni Morrison, Bill and Hillary Clinton, John Cheever, Doris Lessing, Bill Gates, Katharine Graham, Barbara Tuchman, Jessica Mitford and many others.

“Robert Gottlieb was one of New York’s most venerated and influential literary personalities in publishing,” said Lark Mason. “This auction offers bibliophiles and contemporary design enthusiasts an opportunity to acquire an important selection of first edition books and mid-Twentieth Century decorative objects.”

Among the books are three by Joseph Heller: a first edition, first printing, first issue dust jacket of Catch-22, bearing a personalized inscription (Simon & Schuster 1961) ($20/30,000); an inscribed Something Happened, (Alfred A. Knopf, 1974) ($2/3,000); and an advance reader’s copy of the uncorrected proof of Closing Time, with a letter from the author to Gottlieb ($2/3,000).

Jane Austen’s four-volume first edition set of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, (London: John Murray, 1818) ($4/6,000) and Bill Gates’ How to Avoid a Climate Disaster (Knopf, 2021), with a personalized note to Gottlieb from the author ($2/3,000) are also of interest.

Lucite handbags feature a Llewellyn Beehive box bag together with a Wilardy two-compartment box bag ($150/350) and two Wilardy bags, one lace-inset with flowers, the other black with rhinestones ($150/350).

Decorative arts highlights include a pair of Tiffany Studios four-light bronze and green favrile glass candelabra, circa 1915 ($3/5,000); and an Austrian silver coffee, tea and creamer set, Vienna, 1872-1922 ( $600/900).

For more information, www.igavelauctions.com.

Books and Other Collections from Robert Gottlieb, Publisher and Editor
First edition. First printing. First issue dust jacket Inscribed and dated by author on front end paper
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