LONDON.- Christie’s announces First Editions, Second Thoughts: An Auction to Benefit English PEN, a landmark literary auction taking place online from 28 June - 12 July comprising First Edition books and works of art from contemporary artists and authors, each of which has been uniquely annotated, illustrated or added to by their creator.

First Editions, Second Thoughts (FEST) will raise much needed funds to support English PEN’s work to defend free expression and campaign for writers who are at risk. The sale comprises over 80 annotated First Edition books by internationally renowned writers, including work by Margaret Atwood, Hilary Mantel, Salman Rushdie, John le Carré, Sebastian Faulks, Ben Okri, Ian McEwan, Bernardine Evaristo, and Philippe Sands. Art works from highly esteemed artists Anish Kapoor, Tracey Emin, Antony Gormley, Ai Weiwei and Edmund de Waal are included in the auction.

Hilary Mantel’s heavily annotated first editions of ‘Bring Up the Bodies’ and ‘The Mirror and the Light’ from her acclaimed Wolf Hall trilogy are both offered in the auction. Since it was established in 1969, only four writers, J.M. Coetzee, Peter Carey, Margaret Atwood and Hilary Mantel, have won The Booker Prize twice. First editions annotated by these four authors are offered in the auction.

Each of the First Edition books is annotated by hand, a unique record of the author’s response to their own work. Hilary Mantel comments on the experience: ‘The process of publication (however welcome and necessary) is a process of estrangement. Annotation gives your book back to you, but presents it multiplied. It rescues you from finished product, returns you to process. It gives form to the sub-voce commentary that accompanies every session of work: 'I could…but I won’t…and yet I could try…’. A special kind of memory comes into play - how you were when such a phrase arrived, where you were: the way the light fell into the room. It’s a creative process as much as a re-creative one. Sentences struggle and twist again under your hand. Things you might have said, and the various ways you might have said them, swim back into your consciousness. You realise, if you didn’t know it already, that there’s another book behind the book, and behind that, a series of shadow volumes, stretching back to infancy, before you could write at all’.

English PEN, one of the world’s oldest human rights organisations, champions the freedom to write and the freedom to read around the world, and is the founding centre of PEN International, a worldwide writers’ association with 145 centres in more than 100 countries.

A selection of Auction Highlights include:

Monica Ali, Brick Lane. London: Doubleday, 2003. An extraordinary first edition, signed on the title page and extensively annotated by the author across 79 pages with over 1000 words of commentary. Monica Ali’s insightful commentary pays close attention to the text, often highlighting what pleases, shocks or surprises her in her language choices, and pointing to key moments in the narrative. (Estimate £1,500-2,000)

Margaret Atwood. The Handmaid's Tale. London: Jonathan Cape, 1986. First UK edition of Atwood's most celebrated work, extensively annotated by the author across 161 pages, with 1,137 words. (Estimate £4,000–6,000).

Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other. London: Hamish Hamilton, 2019. A delightfully personal personal first edition, signed and annotated by the author with insightful notes on her influences and an account of the career-changing success of this Booker Prize winning novel. The final annotation is a charming summary of the novel’s success: ‘This book has revolutionised my career!’. (Estimate £1,500-2,000).

John le Carré, (1931-2020). The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. London: Victor Gollancz, 1963. First edition, part-annotated with the author’s unfinished final reflections on his best-known work. The author passed away having annotated only the opening 45 pages of the book for the auction. (Estimate £8,000-12,000).




Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children. London: Jonathan Cape, 1981. ‘I had no idea that it would change my life’: first British edition, signed by the author and with a fine inscription relating to the novel’s enduring popularity and ‘the real prizes of Literature’. (Estimate £4,000-6,000).

Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. London: Jonathan Cape, 2003. First edition of a unique mystery novel, copiously annotated and illustrated by the author. The interventions in this copy are vivid, inventive, humorous, and generous in number and in spirit. Haddon’s notes, in ink or coloured pencils, wind around the margins like fireworks. (Estimate £2,000-3,000).

Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies. London: Fourth Estate, 2012. First edition of the Booker Prizewinning novel, signed and abundantly annotated by the author with 4753 words of commentary across 179 pages. Her notes are acutely personal, offering a striking sense of the author’s profound emotional attachment to the stories being told. (Estimate £4,000-6,000).

Edmund de Waal, Letters to Camondo. London: Chatto & Windus, 2021. Annotated first edition, with accompanying porcelain tile, of a sequence of imagined letters to art collector Count Moïse de Camondo. (Estimate £3,000-5,000)

Ian McEwan, Atonement. London: Jonathan Cape, 2001. An exceptional first edition of Atonement, annotated by the author with over 4000 words of commentary His notes frequently point to his sources – both in personal experiences and in more formal research – and to such literary influences as Henry Jamesand Virginia Woolf. (Estimate £4,000-6,000).

Max Porter, Grief is the Thing with Feathers. London: Faber & Faber, 2015. First edition, copiously annotated and illustrated by the author, his annotations appear on almost every page of the book and relate to the literary influences that shaped him (‘This page shows what I’m made of […] I’m made of what I’ve read’), his writing process (‘I always start writing by drawing’), his thoughts about criticism (‘Critics will wilfully misunderstand things’) and setbacks (‘Someone told me to “go away and write a proper book”). (Estimate £1,500-2,000).

Philippe Sands, President, English PEN, and professor of law at University College London, comments, ‘It is thrilling to embark on a First Editions, Second Thoughts auction with Christie’s. I am truly delighted to join such illustrious names with an annotated edition of East West Street, whose focus on international crimes assumes particular resonance in the face of the crime of aggression that is being perpetrated by Russia against Ukraine. Here, in the UK, and around the world, the rule of law is more important than ever, as intolerance, division, and threats to freedom of expression are on the rise. Today, the work of English PEN is more important and relevant than ever, and this wonderful auction will help in its vital work.’

Margaret Ford, Christie’s International Head of Books & Manuscripts comments, ‘Christie’s is delighted to support the important work of English PEN by presenting an extraordinary array of literary masterpieces at auction. These works, uniquely annotated by their authors for the auction, offer new insights into the work, life and career of some of the most important writers of our generation. As such, they are “copies of record” which will excite collectors, readers and literary enthusiasts around the globe.’

Daniel Gorman, Director, English PEN, comments, ‘It is an honour to partner with Christie’s for this auction to benefit English PEN, as we continue the increasingly urgent and vital work of campaigning for writers at risk, and for freedom of expression in the UK and across the world. We are hugely grateful to the contributors, some of the most well-known and well-loved authors and artists of our time, who have generously looked back and annotated some of their finest work.’

Mark Wiltshire, Specialist, Books and Manuscripts and Head of Sale comments, ‘It is a great privilege to handle the sale of these extraordinary books in support of English PEN. The authors’ annotations are personal, profound, insightful, and frequently surprising, adding a unique layer of intimacy to some of the most celebrated texts published in our lifetime. To read them is to feel incredibly close to the process of creation. I anticipate strong interest from collectors and institutions from around the world.’

Estimates range from £1,000 to £20,000 and bidding on most lots will start from £100.