The World as I See It. New York: Philosophical Library, (c.1949)

Signed and dated 1950 by Albert Einstein on the front free endpaper.

$13,500

Le Deuxieme Sexe [The Second Sex]. Paris: Gallimard, 1949

FIRST EDITION. One of 2000 numbered copies (from an edition of 2,150).

$3,500

Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist. Evanston: Library of Living Philosophers, 1949

FIRST EDITION. One of 760 numbered copies signed and dated by Einstein.

$18,500

How to Form a Mark Twain Club. [Mayfield, California or Webster Groves, Missouri: Mark Twain Society], no year

First and only edition. This document provides guidance for forming local Mark Twain clubs from the Mark Twain Society, founded by Cyril Clemens in 1930.

Scarce: WorldCat locates only the copy at University of Virginia.

$200

Photo Album Operation Greenhouse. Hollywood, California: United States Air Force Lookout Mt. Laboratory, [1951]

This rare album documents Operation Greenhouse, the first series of tests in the nascent American thermonuclear weapons program. The four tests were performed in April and May 1951 at the Enewetak Atoll of the Marshall Islands. Following the Soviet Union’s successful test of an atomic bomb in August 1949, the United States made the controversial decision to proceed with the development of thermonuclear weapons. These fusion weapons (the “Super” or hydrogen bomb) would be orders of magnitude more destructive than the fission weapons used against Japan.

$17,500

A complete set of the 1955 Library of Congress Whitman Centennial Recordings. Library of Congress, 1955

This is a complete set of these recordings of talks by leading scholars at the Library of Congress during the 1955 Leaves of Grass centennial celebration.

$450

The Supreme Court. Washington, D.C.: Ed Clark, 1956

Completed in 1935, the magnificent neoclassical Supreme Court Building features the motto “Equal Justice Under the Law” on the west facade. This splendid, enormous color photograph was taken by famed LIFE magazine photographer Ed Clark: “Black Church Leaders pray on the Supreme Court steps for integration to succeed” (Herrera, Frank, Ed Clark: Decades).

$2,200

Interstellar and Interplanetary Communication by Optical Masers. Washington, February 27, 1961

PRE-PUBLICATION RARITY. “The classic paper published in Nature that started it all” (coseti.org), this is the founding work of optical SETI. This pre-publication form is dated more than a month before the article’s publication in Nature. For years SETI research focused on radio transmissions, but the development of powerful lasers has made Optical SETI (OSETI) a highly promising area of research. Townes’s prescient proposal is even the more remarkable given the very limited power of masers and lasers at the time this paper appeared.

$8,500

Capitalism and Freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962

FIRST EDITION. A defining work of free market capitalism and individual liberty, Capitalism and Freedom has played a profound role in shaping libertarian and conservative philosophy in America. In the book Friedman rejected Keynesian fiscal policy and big government in favor of laissez-faire economics.

$8,500

Carving a Statue. A play in two acts. London: Dr. Jan Van Loewen Ltd, printed by Franell Enterprises, [c. 1964]

This is a rare original script for Graham Greene’s play Carving a Statue which opened on September 17, 1964 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. The production, directed by Peter Wood and starring Ralph Richardson, closed after a month. Greene blamed Richardson’s “humourless” interpretation of the main character for the play’s failure.

$2,200