NEW YORK, NY.- Bidders competed for scarce livres d’artiste and books illustrated by important artists, as well as sought-after examples of 19th and 20th century literature at Swann Galleries on May 12.

Christine von der Linn, Swann’s 19th & 20th Century Literature specialist said, “The success of this sale is reflected in the fact that illustrated books and 19th & 20th century literature were represented in the top three lots, showing a strong selection of material that continued with a run of rare literature and sci-fi classics.”

The auction’s top lot was the celebrated collaboration between Jasper Johns and Samuel Beckett, Foirades / Fizzles, which exemplifies the interplay of contemporary art and literature. The work contains 26 lift-ground aquatints and five etchings with mixed media, and is one of only 250 copies signed by Johns and Beckett, Paris and New York, 1976, realized $16,800.*

The top 19th-century literary work was Henry David Thoreau, The Writings…Manuscript Edition, 20-volume set in original bindings, signed by the publisher and with an original manuscript sheet by Thoreau, Boston, 1906, $9,000.

And leading the science fiction rarities was Carroll John Daly, The Snarl of the Beast, first edition, the only known copy in a true first-state dust jacket, New York, 1927, which brought $8,400, a record price for a copy with the dust jacket.

Other modern art highlights were Pablo Picasso and Pierre Reverdy, Le Chant des Morts, with 125 lithographs, signed by Picasso and Reverdy, one of only 20 hors commerce copies, Paris, 1946-48, $6,480; Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger, Du Cubisme, with 11 etchings and aquatints, Paris, 1947, $6,240; Hans Bellmer and Georges Bataille, Madame Edwarda, containing 12 signed engravings by Bellmer, Paris, 1965, $6,720; Salvador Dalí, Die Göttliche Komödie, with 100 color woodcut plates, Geneva, 1974, $6,960; and Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste, or Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy, with illustrations and color lithographs by Wayne Thiebaud, signed by Thiebaud, San Francisco, 1994, which brought a record $5,040.

Diverse highlights among the illustrated books included Maurice and Edward Detmold, Sixteen Illustrations of Subjects from Kipling’s Jungle Book, London, 1903, a record $5,040; two costume albums by George Barbier, the first, with Jean-Louis Vaudoyer, Album Dédié a Tamar Karsavina, 12 pochoir plates, Paris, 1913, $7,200, the other, Dix-Sept Dessins sur le Cantique des Cantiques, 17 designs including 13 full-page plates, Paris, 1914, $5,280; and Alexandre M. Raymond, L’Art Islamique En Orient, Part II, 52 plates, Prague, 1924, $4,800.

Desirable literary classics included a set of Emily Dickinson’s Poems, Poems Second Series, and Poems Third Series, first editions, Boston, 1890, 1891, 1896, $7,800; D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, first limited edition, signed by Lawrence, Florence, 1928, $6,960; Charles Dickens, The Nonesuch Dickens, limited edition with an original woodblock, Bloomsbury, 1937-38, $6,000; Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, first limited edition signed by Rawlings and illustrator N.C. Wyeth, New York, 1939, $4,560; and Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, inscribed and signed by Hemingway, London, 1956, $4,320.

*All prices include buyer’s premium.