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Forever Books

Rare, important, and collectible works selected for their cultural significance and long-term value.

Sekkes Consultants specializes in discovering and offering exceptional books—works of literature, scholarship, and cultural history that reward both collectors and investors. Our mission is to make great works of intellectual and artistic significance available at attractive prices with strong potential for long-term appreciation.

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A Portrait and a Poem

Benét, Stephen Vincent

Privately Printed, Marcel Servant Printer, 1954

First edition, one of 50 copies, no. 22. Colophon states: "Fifty copies printed for private circulation". Tall octavo, publishers black half-morocco stamped in gold on spine, red paper-covered boards, illustrated, top edge gilt. Stephen Vincent Benet's tribute to his ancestor Brigadier-General Stephen Vincent Benet followed by the printing of a poem by S. V. Benet, written on the occasion of the presentation of a portrait of Brigadier-General Stephen Vincent Benet to the University of Georgia by Stephen Vincent Benet. Laurence Vincent Benet has contributed a three-page forward. Laurence V. Benet was S.V. Benet's uncle a Yale alumnus, Paris resident and the chief engineer for Hotchkiss and Cie, a French armament manufacturer in Paris. Hotchkiss and Cie produced the Hotchkiss and Cie machine gun, the primary weapon used by the French Army as well as other armies of the time. Miers & Armostrong wrote about probable relationship between Benet and Kahane since Kahane was a veteran of WWI. Both influential Americans living in Paris at the time. The book is inscribed by Laurence V. Benet to Daisy Keating. 6¼" - 9¼".

$1275.00

Sleeveless Errand

James, Norah C

Henry Babou and Jack Kahane, 1927

Preface by Edward Garnett. A letter from Kahane to his literary agent Eric S. Pinker, dated 29 March 1929,suggest April 1929 as the publication date. Originally to be published in London by the Scholartis Press on 21 Febuarty 1929. The publisher was prosecuted at Bow Street Police Court and the novel condemned before publication as obscene on 4 March 1929. Published inNew York, with some expurgations by William Morrow. This is the first edition published in Paris. Dust jacket with some stains to the back panel, foxing to the edges, endpapers, ffep. Price on spine 100 Fr. Net. The dustwrapper is the only difference between first and second-issue. The publisher overestimated demand for the book in 1929 and was left with piles of unsold copies. These were sold during the 1930s in the second-issue dustwrapper with the price on the spine changed to 50 Francs. First printing with the scarce dust wrapper. 6" - 8¾"

$1275.00

Franklin Pierce: Martyr for the Union

Wallner, Peter A.

Plaidswede Publishing Co., 2007

Biography of Franklin Pierce, New Hampshire native and 14th president of the United States. Second volume of Wallner's insightful two-volume biography of President Franklin Pierce. This volume covers Pierce in the White House and the controversial years after his presidency. Offers insights into the Kansas-Nebraska Act and "bleeding" Kansas, US attempts to acquire Cuba, relations with Great Britain, and the 1850s phenomena of filbusters and Know-Nothingism. In fine condition, first edition, inscribed by the author. 6½" - 9¼".

$1350.00

Bright Pink Youth

[pseud. KAHANE, Jack] BARR, Cecil

The Obelisk Press, 1934

First edition August 1934. 'Cecil Barr' was the sometime pseudonym of Jack Kahane, proprietor of the Obelisk Press, whose favorite watering hole in Paris was the bar of the Cecil Hotel. This tale recounts the marital, and extra marital, adventures of Tommy Trans-Wood and his ‘charming’ wife. This is a very good copy in wrappers illustrated by by G. Goursat. A little spotting on the wraps, but still a remarkably fresh, fine copy. The rear flap of the wrapper advertises the publisher's list including the upcoming *Tropic of Cancer*. A beautiful copy. 5½" - 7¼"

$1395.00

Communications Of The Association For Computing Machinery (ACM)

Weiss, Eric A. (editor)

The Association For Computer machinery (ACM), 1962

Complete run of the Communications of the ACM monthly journal during the year 1962. Articles include: Papers Presented at an Open Technical Meeting on Design. Implementation and Application of IR-Oriented Languages, October 20-21, 1961, Princeton; ALGOL Primer by H. R. Schwarz; Simulation and Analysis in Biochemical Systems: Analysis and Pattern Recognition; Automatic-Programming-Language Translation Through Syntactical Analysis by Robert S. Ledley, inventor of the full-body Computer Tomography (CT) scanner; Development of CODASYL; Why COBOL? byCOBOL developers were Joseph F. Cunningham; Retiring Computer Pioneer: Howard Aiken; Communication Between Indepenntly Translated Blocks by Peter Wegner (EDSAC Computer); Use of Multiprogramming in the Design of a Low Cost Digital Computer by Trevor Pearcey, who created CSIRAC; Evaluation of Polynomials by Computer by Donald Ervin Knuth, the father of the analysis of algorithms, 1974 recipient of the ACM Turing Award, informally considered the Nobel Prize of computer science. All journals bound in contemporary leather for Eric A. Weiss (volume with his name imprinted on front cover), contributor and editor of ACM . He started writing for Computing Reviews as soon as it was founded in 1960, and served as its editor-in-chief from 1968 to 1970. In 1971, Weiss became the first chairman of the ACM Publications Board, a role he held until 1973. In 1978, ACM celebrated Weiss by awarding him the ACM Distinguished Service Award "for a wide range of services to ACM and the computing community over a period of more than 20 years." In 1994, ACM included Weiss in the first group of ACM Fellows named, "for his contribution to ACM and to the computing community, particularly in the field of publications and publications policy." Light foxing to endpapers only. A computer science treasure with an important provenance. 9" - 11".

$1450.00

Hippokratous Aphorismoi = Aphorismi Hippocratis / hos edi accuravit, interpretationem novam adjecit, loca parallela plurima ex ipso Hippocrate collegit, et indicem locupletissimum subjunxit Lucas Verhoofd, Med. Doct.

Verhoofd, Lucas

Lugd[uni] Batav[orum], 1675

Hippocrates is considered the father of medicine, enemy of superstition, pioneer of rationality and fount of eternal wisdom. Statues and drawings show him with a furrowed brow, thinking hard about how to heal his patients. A long series of propositions concerning the symptoms and diagnosis of disease and the art of healing and medicine. The first aphorism, which serves as a kind of introduction to the book, runs as follows: "Life is short, Art long, Occasion sudden and dangerous, Experience deceitful, and Judgment difficult. Neither is it sufficient that the physician be ready to act what is necessary to be done by him, but the sick, and the attendants and all outward necessaries must be lightly prepared and fitted for the business." Vellum binding, 1940 signature in pencil on ffep. Dedicatio dated Ipsis Calend. Dec. M D C LXXV [1675]. Added engraved title page. Errata. Catalogus librorum last 3 pages: Catalogus librorum Officinae Danielis à Gaesbeeck. Preface in Latin, text in Greek and Latin on facing pages. [20], 279, [79] pages. 2" - 3¾".

$1455.00

Brassai

Bibliothéque Nationale, 1963

Hungarian–French photographer, Brassai (1899-1984). [Exhibition Catalog], Inscribed by Brassai.This Twenty-seven page volume includes the original cover photograph. Quarto, in orange paper wrapper with attached photograph of a black cat at night, inscribed on front endpaper "Pour Monsieur Farny en amical Souvenir de Brassai Paris le 10 Mai 1963," with original clamshell box. Provenance: Deaccessioned from the John Teti Rare Photography Book Collection, New Hampshire Institute of Art.

$1500.00

Jeff Koons

Warren, Lynne; Bonami, Frncesco

Museum of Contemporary Art & Yale University Press, 2008

Hardcover. 132 pages. A monograph published on the occasion of a major retrospective show that ran May 31 through September 21, 2008 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Features a foreword by Madelein Grynsztejn, an introduction an essay by Francesco Bonami and a the text of a conversation between Lynne Warren and Jeff Koons. Includes numerous color illustrations, biographical information, list of previous exhibitions, list of works in public collections, and a selected bibliography. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. Signed and nicely inscribed by Koons on the front free endpaper in the year of publication and with a drawing by him as well. An association copy, inscribed to Dona & Howard authors of “Contemporary Collecting with Donna & Howard Stone.” Donna and Howard Stone have collected works of art in all media for more than 30 years, building one of the most distinguished private collections of contemporary art in the country. Much of what they have acquired relates to advanced Minimal and Conceptual art of the 1960s and 1970s, and the various practices that these movements inspired in contemporary art. Donna and Howard Stone have been mainstay supporters of the MCA since the early 1990s and their donation of more than 90 works to the MCA stand as a testament to their generosity. 10" - 10".

$1685.00

Forever Books

Rare, important, and collectible works selected for their cultural significance and long-term value.

Featured Listings

A Portrait and a Poem

Sleeveless Errand

Franklin Pierce: Martyr for the Union

Bright Pink Youth

Communications Of The Association For Computing Machinery (ACM)

Hippokratous Aphorismoi = Aphorismi Hippocratis / hos edi accuravit, interpretationem novam adjecit, loca parallela plurima ex ipso Hippocrate collegit, et indicem locupletissimum subjunxit Lucas Verhoofd, Med. Doct.

Brassai

Jeff Koons

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