E-List: The Hero is a Woman…

A list of 21 items in which a woman is crucially important as the hero of the story, the central subject, the creator, or some combination thereof.

For any additional photos and current availability, please follow the links for each of the items listed below, or click here. To order something or make an inquiry please email us, use the “Ask A Question” button at the bottom of the individual listings, or use our website contact form. Institutions will be invoiced according to their respective needs.

the subjects are women  

A Photographic Archive of Women with Musical Instruments

c1850-1930. Most are 19th century, all but a few are 1920 or earlier. 218 individual photos, plus one album of 90 photos and one single subject archive of 19 photos. 59 real photo post cards, 56 smaller format (under 5”x7”) silver prints and albumens that are not CDVs or proper cabinet cards, 17 large format albumen, platinum or silver prints (over 5”x7”), 39 cabinet cards, 23 CDVs, 6 stereoscopic, 15 tintypes (two 1/2 plate size, one 1/4 plate size and twelve 1/6 plate size), 1 ambrotype (1/6th plate), 2 daguerreotypes (one 1/6th plate and one ½ plate), and the photo album that contains 90 cyanotypes. The single subject archive is of Vaudeville actress and violinist Mabelle Adams, and there are a few photos of subjects without instruments that have been identified as singers, though these are specifically interesting images, singers are not a primary concentration of this archive. Many of the subjects have been identified, including those in the album, most are from North America, but there is a series of Geishas from Japan and others from North Africa and Western Europe. Photos measure between 1" x 1" up to 9 3/4" x 12 7/8". Note: more than 150 of the photos in this archive have not been photographed, please let us know if you would like to be sent an image of a specific photo. 

Musical instruments became common props in photography studios of the mid 19th century, and while many of these photos are subjects being handed an instrument they clearly did not play, most of the photos in this collection from after 1890 are of actual musicians holding their respective instruments. A multitude of different instruments are being held/played in this archive, including guitar, violin, piano, flutina, bagpipes, banjo, tambourine, ukulele, drums, trumpet, flute, accordion, harp, lute, viola, biwa, shamshir, koto, etc. and likely, one of the earliest known photographs of a woman playing a broom like a guitar.

A subject(s) has been identified in 30 photos (plus the album and Mabelle Adams group);
There is some more general identifiable information like an orchestra or band in 25 photos;
A photographer or studio is identified on 89 photos;
A location is identified or identifiable on 110 photos;

Some of the identified include multiple photos of the African American Fisk University Jubilee singers, the two women identified in the photo album were students attending the New England Conservancy of Music together, the. Mini archive of Mabelle Adams, a cabinet card of the McGibeny Family from 1877, three cabinet cards of members of the Shepard Family of Musicians from NY, a 1923 press photo and newspaper copy affixed to the reverse of murdered Vaudeville actress Marian MacLaren, the Berger family of bell ringers, a Salvation Army group composed entirely of women, a Parisian class of 23 students, the Jamaican Native Choir based in Liverpool UK, the Alpha Orchestra of Attleboro, MA with a contemporary newspaper clipping. READ MORE

$20,000

the hero is a woman

Barrett, Eaton

The Heroine; or Adventures of a Fair Romance Reader

London: 1813. First Edition. 3 vols. The subtitle was changed in the 2nd edition. Some off-setting to the blanks, else internally clean, a few small, faint spots to the back cover of vol. II (the only flaw) else fine and unworn, brighter than a Hollywood smile, and in a royal binding of 19th century green cloth, the spines elaborately gilt (ca. 1840), with the Royal Arms of Britain and Hanover (the King of England’s own) embossed on the covers. No half-titles in vols. II and III but with the vol. III ads. Unlike many pre-Victorian novels, this one is a laudable read, and somewhat scarce in any condition. With only a few copies listed on RBH at auction, none of which are in comparable condition. A spectacular state of preservation with impeccable provenance. Coll: xx, 224. [2], 239 [blank]. [2], 302 [2pp. ads]. Ref: Barron, Horror Lit. 1-5.

So not an obscure book. Note it’s reference as one of Barron’s 112 foundation books of all horror literature written from 1762 to 1824 (for his 1762 prototype see Leland in this catalog). The Heroine’s thrust is not quite comic and it’s not quite gothic, but rather the first pure and unabashed satire of horror literature with something of both, anticipating Austen’s Northanger Abbey (1818), yet drawing in other ways from Cervantes Don Quixote (1605) and Fielding’s Tom Jones (1749). The heroine, Cherry Wilkinson, rejects her rural life and adopts the identities of the fictional female characters she admires from reading Gothic novels (think of 20th century little girls who fantasized about being Wonder Woman). Barrett sets her in the kind of chaos usually found in newspaper articles that end with the words, “...and then he turned the gun on himself,” commencing a series of picaresque adventures, some of them previously unprecedented in literature. Cherry starts out optimistic (convinced that all will be well) and grows to have hope (certain that things make sense regardless of how they turn out), and she discovers that it’s hard to be a woman but even harder to become one. And if you think I just hype these books without cause, here’s some bubbling enthusiasm from a knowing and contemporary reviewer:

“I finished The Heroine last night and was very much amused by it...It diverted me exceedingly...I have torn through the third volume...I do not think it falls off. It is a delightful burlesque particularly on the Radcliffe style.” —Jane Austen.

$9,000

the writer was a woman

Beauvoir, Simone de

Le Combat; a Handwritten Manuscript

4pp on one bi-folded leaf and another single leaf. A draft of an unpublished short story from Beauvoir’s time in post secondary school at the Sorbonne, or in the time immediately following while she was working as a teacher. Very early manuscripts from significant writers are, generally, quite scarce. There are several Beauvoir manuscripts that have sold, but none earlier than this one. It is written on paper and ink identical to that of Départ (lot 85, Sothebys 21/05/2008). So we presume Le Combat is from the same years. From the collection of editor, writer and Beauvoir biographer Fernande Gontier.

The story takes place over a day, beginning: 
“André s’étire. Le soleil brûle en dépit de ce feuillage épais sous lequel il a installé son fauteuil de jardin. Son livre a glissé sur la pelouse verte. Le geste de le ramasser est inutile, ce n’est qu’un roman et dont les héros l’intéressent si peu !” [translated to: “André stretches. The sun burns in spite of the thick foliage under which he has set his garden chair. His book has slipped on the green grass. The gesture of picking it up is useless, it is only a novel with heroes that interest him so little!"].

and ending:
“Coucher de soleil – la tête au vent – frénésie de joie – songe qu’il souffrirait de les voir ainsi – elle a mal.” [translated to: “Sunset—head into the wind—frenzy of joy—thinking he would suffer to see them like this—she aches."].

$3,500

the writer was a woman, the hero is a women

Bland, Eleanor

The Complete Marti MacAlister Series

McClure: St. Martin's Press, 1992-2005. First Editions. Dead Time was the first novel in which the main protagonist is a Black woman police officer. Right away the reader is introduced to a hero that is—typical of detective fiction— strong and intelligent, but also actively engaged in her personal responsibilities and trauma, cognizant and empathetic toward the most vulnerable in society. The exposition and character development provides context as to why the lived experiences of an African American women can act as an emotional shield in a profession that might, otherwise, bring out the worst in someone. Bland's MacAlister series was at the forefront of promoting diversity and inclusion in crime fiction; a genre that not only boxed women characters into a traditional space, but, often, entirely excluded Black women.

1st edition of her first book (Dead Time), introducing streetwise detective Marti MacAlister. Fine in fine dustjacket. Signed and inscribed, “My favorite chapter 24- and Lupe Torres will return also–Padgett returns in fourth book in series. Eleanor Taylor Bland 1–13–94.” With an advanced proof of Dead Time and the other 13 novels in the series that have been published (the final novel "Suddenly a Stranger" (2007) appears not to have been printed): All are 1st editions, all are fine in fine dust jackets, all are signed or inscribed but one.

$700

the writer is a woman, the hero is a women

Blume, Judy

Iggie's House

Scarsdale, New York: Bradbury Press, 1970. First Edition. Near fine in a good jacket with rubbing and splits to extremities, 1" tear and creasing to back panel, minor spots of foxing to the spine. First printings are scarce in jacket. 

$750

the hero is a woman

Christel [Frank Radcliffe]

In a Moment of Passion

London: F.V. White & Co., 1886. First Edition. 3 vols. A novel of propinquity, suggesting that short memory is a poor substitute for clear conscience. Original cloth. Near fine, with only the lightest rubbing to the corners and spine ends, beautiful beyond good fortune and take a look at the numbers. A great rarity, not buyable elsewhere, in any condition, let alone like this. RBH records no set at auction, Wolff didn't have it, and there are only 5 institutional libraries with a copy (Cornell, British Library, Cambridge, Oxford and The National Library of Scotland).

$5,000

the subject is a woman, perhaps a hero

Dumas, Alexandre

The Queen’s Necklace; [Le Collier de La Reine]

London: Hodgson, 1855. First English edition, preceded by the Philadelphia and New York editions. Small unobtrusive bookplate to the front paste down, internally clean, original cloth, with a few marks and light rubbing, else near fine. Dumas' historical romance of the affair surrounding the necklace attributed to Marie Antoinette, much closer to the truth than is la Motte's (the primary conspirator). The events and scandal described were significant in forming the sentiment that resulted in the French Revolution.  

$1,250

the writer was a woman

Figes, Eva

Patriarchal Attitudes

London: Faber and Faber, 1970. First Edition. Fine in a very good dust jacket, with bumping and toning to the extremities and general soiling. One of the leading voices in Europe of modern feminist movement. A skilled prose writer, not matched by those published from the American feminist movement of the same era.

$75

the writer was a woman, the hero is a woman

Hamilton, Elizabeth

Memoirs of the Life of Agrippina

London: Printed by R. Cruttwell for G. and J. Robinson, 1804. First Edition. An astute novel set in Rome during the Ist century where the ruling axiom was to learn quickly and early that the most useful aspect of a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency. Original buff-white boards, uncut, neatly rebacked with matching paper in the same style as the original spines. There's a mend to the upper corner of vol. 1, light soiling to the boards, rubbing to the extremities titles, internally clean and beautiful with only a few spots of foxing throughout. And, though the half-titles are integral, they are not included in the pagination of the first 2 volumes. Not in Sadleir, Block or Wolff. Summers (p. 59) records only a later, 1811 edition in 2 volumes. An interesting transitional effort between biography and the emerging historical romance. Coll: Vol. I. pp. [i]+xxxviii+319+[i (blank)]. Vol. II, [i]+[vi]+340. Vol. III viii+352. Reference: CBEL, III, page 398.

$1,500

the writer was a woman, the subject is a woman

Harper, Ida Husted [Susan B. Anthony]

The LIfe and Works of Susan B. Anthony

Indianapolis: Bowen-Merrill, 1899. First Edition. 2 volumes in dark blue cloth; lettered and embossed in gilt (second volume dated 1898, but both were published in 1899). Very good with minor rubbing to the extremities and the gilt profile medallions, with a previous owners embossed stamp on the front free endpaper and a owners bookplate on the front pastedown. Illustrated with frontispiece portraits of Anthony, with numerous other illustrations and facsimile signatures throughout. Ida Harper was an important member of the suffragist movement in Indiana, and began a close working relationship with Anthony during the 1880s. They began working together, to compose this monumental and detailed work in 1897. DAB, Vol. viii, pp. 281-282.

$1,750

the hero is a woman

Higgins, Colin

Harold and Maude

London: Heinemann, 1971. First english edition of the book that was adapted into the 1972 film by Higgins. This copy has a lengthy inscription to Dinah Shore: " Dear Dinah, Thank you for your kind words about "Harold and Maude." Coming from you that was a real thrill. Here's the English edition of the novel I talked about—offered with my love and admirations." Very good with a stain to the lower right corner of the page block in a very good jacket with the same stain to the lower right, a couple splits and rubbing to the extremities.

$350

the writer was a woman

Keller, Helen

Out of the Dark; Essays, Letters and Addresses on Physical and Social Vision

Garden City: Doubleday, Page and Co., 1913. First Edition. Cloth with some rubbing to the extremities, else near fine in a very good dust jacket with chips and toning. Keller's 8th book and her first serious examination of socialism coinciding with her membership to the IWW. 

$1,400

the hero is a woman

Lewis, C.S.

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

London: Bles, 1950. The first Narnia book.  Near fine in near fine, 1st state dustjacket—fresh and clean—priced "8s.  6d." Original cloth, edges faded, spine faded shadowing the jacket design (an inherent and tolerable occurrence for aqua cloth—particularly so for this title), neat ownership signature to the front endpaper, else a fine, unworn copy in a dustjacket with 2 short tears and 2 tiny nicks but fresh and beautiful, exceptional condition for this jacket.

$30,000

the writer was a woman, the hero is a woman

Neely, Barbara

The Complete Blanche White Series

New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992-2000. First Edition. Hardcover. 4 vols. All fine in fine dustjackets, all signed, plus an advanced proof of the first novel, “Blanche on the Lam,” fine in the original printed wrappers. The first novel with a Black woman detective as the main protagonist. The novels are: Blanche on the Lam (1992), Blanche Among the Talented Tenth (1994), Blanche Cleans Up (1998) and Blanche Passes Go (2000). Blanche on the Lam precedes Eleanor Bland’s Dead Time by a few months, but Bland’s Marti MacAlister is a professional cop, while Neely’s Blanche White is an amateur. 

$500

the writer was a woman, the recipient was a woman

O’Keeffe, Georgia

An ALS to Amalia de Schulthess

Albuquerque, NM: 1955. February 25, 1955. 1 p. 4to. To Swiss artist and patron Amalia de Schulthess who O’Keeffe addressed as “Lady of the Rocks” in this letter. O’Keeffe thanks de Schulthess for a sculpture that was, at the time, sitting on a table with some other sculptures O’keeffe had previously acquired from North Africa. 

$2,000

the writer of the story was a woman, the hero is a woman

Pinter, Harold [from the Penelope Mortimer novel]

The Pumpkin Eater; the Release Script

London: Mai Harris, 1964. Unbound folio sheets mimeographed on rectos only and stapled along the top edge. Some wear and tear, mostly on the first and last leaf, 2 different types of staples used, else very good. Evidence of handwritten changes. Laid in is a small note indicating that this was purchased by Edwin V. Erbe from Serendipity Books for $75 in 1975. Pinter's first screenplay adaptation for a feature film based on the work of another author. He had previously adapted his own work, or prepared scripts for television. The 1964 film, directed by Jack Clayton, featured Anne Bancroft, Peter Finch, James Mason, Cedric Hardwicke, and Maggie Smith. Pinter won a BAFTA for this screenplay. It was later published in Pinter’s 5 Screenplays.  

$2,500

the hero is a woman

Shaw, George Bernard

Pygmalion; A Romance in Five Acts

New York: Everybody’s Magazine, 1914. 1st separate edition (unauthorized), and 1st separate issue, comprised of sheets from the periodical publication, specially bound up and distributed by Putnam. When advised by Shaw’s agent that they had acquired only the serial rights, distribution in this format was halted. Formal book publication in English finally happened in 1916. Near fine original violet cloth, dustjacket chipped and with a split to spine strengthened, else good. An early pencil note on the endpaper promulgates the lie that this is one of 50 copies given to Shaw by the publisher, but this is not a common book and it is scarce in the original jacket. Cloth slipcase and chemise.

$4,000

the hero is a woman

Shelley, Percy

Rosalind and Helen

London: Ollier, 1819. First Edition. Gilt and inlaid crushed green morocco, signed by Riviere & Son in gilt on the turn-in. Inlaid morocco doublures, green silk moire endpapers, original wrappers preserved and bound in. Slightest bit of rubbing at the extremities, clean and fresh internally, near fine.

Written after Shelley had left England for good and with a preface dated in Naples, December 20, 1818, Rosalind and Helen tells the story of two lovers (based on Percy and Mary Shelley) whose love is sacred and justified, though unconsecrated by marriage. One of the "Other Poems" included here is the well-known Ozymandias, a sonnet exploring the impermanence of grandeur (a piece apparently inspired by the British Museum's acquisition of a massive Egyptian statue of Ramesses II).

$25,000

the hero is a woman

Williams, Tennessee

Lord Byron's Love Letter Opera; In One Act; A Typescript

1954. Mimeographed sheets, printed both sides. 13pp. Sheets stapled at one corner. Fine. A couple minor corrections, possibly by Williams.

The typescript for the 1955 publication of the opera by G. Ricodi and Co., which coincided with its first performance at Tulane University in New Orleans on January 17, 1955. The original one-act play was written before 1946, but never performed as a play (only an opera) during Williams's lifetime. It was not published until it appeared in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other One-Act Plays in 1966. OCLC locates no copies of this typescript and it is not found in the Harry Ransom or Fred W. Todd collections.

$3,000

the writer was a woman

Woolf, Virginia

Kew Gardens

Richmond: The Hogarth Press, 1919. First Edition of Woolf’s 3rd publication (150 copies).  Original hand decorated wrappers, printed label, publishers cancel woodcut and imprint on last page, spine and corners rubbed, but a very good copy, superior condition for such a rare and fragile book.  A 2nd printing of 500 copies, that looks similar, was printed "for" but not "at" The Hogarth Press. A custom wood veneer solander box.

A post–impressionist tale of 4 groups of people on a summer day, who pass by a flower bed in the botanical gardens.  Though they are not alone they are lost in their own thoughts.  The themes are surprisingly numerous for such a short story, including, modernization, youth, isolation, memory and the past, society and class, awe and amazement, women and femininity, men and the natural world, and different versions of reality.  The flowers and a snail contribute their own part in the story, as does the garden, its colors, noises, heat and movements.

$50,000

the hero is a woman

Young, Chic

Blondie; 100 Selected Top–Laughs of America’s Best Loved Comic

Philadelphia: McKay, 1944. First Edition. Hardcover. 1st edition, the contents extracted from, and only preceded by, newspaper appearances in individual strips from 1938 to 1944.  Fine in a near fine dustjacket.

Blondie Bumstead, and her husband Dagwood, were created in 1930 and are alive at 92.  Their comic strip has appeared in 2,000 newspapers, in 47 countries, and in 35 languages, and it still appears daily.  They have starred in 28 films, 2 TV series, 2 TV specials, radio shows from 1939 to 1950, comic books since 1947, they’ve been merchandised hundreds of times, they got their own U. S. postage stamp in 1995, she’s had a dessert named after her (a Blondie is a Brownie made with vanilla instead of cocoa powder) and Blondie was the eponym of the Hall of Fame rock & roll band that was her namesake.   

Ah booksellers.  Pop culture matters.  It is real, and demand for it is real, because it is market driven.

$100

If you’ve made it this far and you missed our previous e-list, Illustrated, please follow this link to take a look, it’s a special one.