Date: Fri 27-Nov-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: JUDYC

Quick Words:

Alamo-Butterfield-manuscripts

Full Text:

The Alamo at Butterfield & Butterfield

(with 3 cuts)

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. -- Collectors and dealers bid against one another on

November 18 in a rare books and manuscripts auction simulcast between San

Francisco, Los Angeles and Elgin, Ill., by Butterfield & Butterfield, which

totaled more than $780,000, and the personal memorabilia and handwritten

manuscripts of Ayn Rand offered in a second session, consisting of 81 lots,

which brought $1,179,485, nearly 155 percent of the expectation.

A 700-page, handwritten manuscript of a Spanish soldier's recounting events at

the Alamo brought an over-estimate price of $387,500. The handwritten words of

Jose Enrique de la Pena, a Lt. Colonel in the Spanish army sold to a client

bidding by phone from New York. The successful bidder purchased the manuscript

on behalf of two native Texans, who intend to ensure that it remains in Texas.

Among other significant lots was a rare Jim Bowie letter which made $43,125.

Bowie was at the Alamo during the battle and the one page handwritten missive

is a power-of-attorney document signed by Bowie (est. $25/35,000).

A sum of $17,250 was paid for a document signed by William Barret Travis, the

Commander of the Alamo after Jim Bowie fell ill (est. $3/5,000); a Davy

Crockett document in which the former Congressman and naturalist endorses the

freeing of a slave sold for $14,950 (est. $15/20,000); a late 1840s collection

of lithographs entitled "Egypt and Nubia" reached $23,000 (est. $8/12,000); an

important letter of Albert Einstein in which he discusses "Unified Field

Theory" (est. $4/5,000) garnered $8,050; and a 1660 King James Bible, a

heavily illustrated copy, rang up $9,200 (est. $4/6,000).

The second session of the sale began at 2 pm. Rand's library of nearly 5,000

pages included personal letters, manuscripts and drafts of articles and

novels. The manuscripts comprised virtually all of Rand's literary output

between 1962 and 1974.

Twenty-nine original manuscript pages of the writer's magnum opus Atlas

Shrugged were expected to bring $50/75,000, but a bidding battle took the

price to $233,500.

A lot of her critiques of the motivations and actions of both those on the

political right and left, which appeared in The Objectivist Newsletter, The

Objectivist and The Ayn Rand Letter (est $400/600,000), brought $442,500.

A collection of the manuscripts for Rand's LA Times column brought $90,500

(est 50/75,000). Within the collection are original typed pages with Rand's

signature and many notations, edits and enhancements.

A lot perhaps of interest to opponents of anti-trust legislation is Rand's

61-page handwritten text for a speech at Boston's Ford Hall Forum in 1961 (est

$20/30,000). In the text Rand relates that America's most persecuted minority

is big business and that "...businessmen are the symbol of a free society,

businessmen are the symbol of America. If and when they perish, civilization

will perish." This lot sold for $48,875.

Additional manuscript material includes a 1962, 54-page draft of The Fascist

New Frontier, another speech delivered by Rand to Boston's Ford Hall Forum. It

sold for more than twice the estimate, fetching $57,500.

A 1991 Library of Congress/Book of the Month Club survey ranked Atlas Shrugged

as the second most influential book among respondents. The number one book in

the survey was the Bible.