Among the most delightful literary discoveries are those that reveal an author's playfulness—moments when serious writers lower their guard and indulge in private jokes. Orwell’s is precisely such a treasure: a book inscribed by George Orwell, signed not with his own name but as "Leo," the first clue and tongue-in-cheek reference to his now famous essay "Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool." The Inscription: a Weighty Joke for Those in the Know Orwell’s essay was almost impossible to

There are moments in the rare book trade when a single inscription can illuminate unexpected connections across literary history. Our recent acquisition—a book inscribed by Alice B. Toklas to Adelaide Atkinson—is precisely such a discovery, bridging the bohemian salons of modernist Paris with the tragic romance of Victorian literary scandal. The Shakespearen Inscription: A Deliberate Message What makes this inscription truly extraordinary is not merely that Alice B. Toklas de

At the outset the art of Henri Matisse was very conservative and it was natural that he should e participated in the very official Salon...

The Dada Movement developed between 1915 and 1922, between the dispersal of Cubism - from which it borrowed, and generalized for its own...