Kerouac badly needed this book: Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered From Alcoholism. It is more commonly known as the “Big Book.” It was written by William Wilson (Bill W.) and Robert Holbrook Smith (Dr. Bob). This is a first edition (1939) in the rare dust jacket. Released in the decade after the end of Prohibition, when people were free to do what they had already been doing anyway, it has saved countless alcoholics who could find no other way to save themselves. This certainly is a most influential book. Item 1. $40,000.
Here is a letter from one of the most notable fantasy/science fiction writers of the 20th century written about another. C. S. Lewis wrote to a correspondent about young writer (22 years his junior) Ray Bradbury in 1951. He compares Bradbury to himself this way - “I take him and me to be at opposite poles; he is a humbled disciple of Corot and Debussy, I an even humbler disciple of Titian and Beethoven.” I must admit that I do not have sufficient knowledge of art and classical music to decipher precisely what that means. Item 46. $12,500.
Whitmore Rare Books may be reached at 626-297-7700 or info@whitmorerarebooks.com. Their website is www.WhitmoreRareBooks.com
