At Swann Auction Galleries’ (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) sale of May 15, the three books of 1951-53 that make up Isaac Asimov’s famous Foundation trilogy, in unrestored jackets and meeting all first issue points, sold at $7500 (£5555), and a signed 1950 first of his I, Robot reached $5000 (£3705).
A fine copy in unclipped jacket of the book on which the film Blade Runner is loosely based, Philip K Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? of 1968, sold at $5600 (£4150), but bid to $8000 (£5925) – more than doubling the previous best – was a copy of Dick’s The Man in the High Castle.
This was a signed, 1962 first printing of the author’s alternative history novel.
Bradbury burns bright
A 1953 copy of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 that made $6000 (£4445) was not a first or a record-breaker, but it was one of 50 copies specially bound for the author, as denoted by gilt lettering beneath the jacket on the red cloth binding.
Almost 30 years after the book was published, Bradbury signed and inscribed it for the collector: “One of 50 copies! For Stanley Simon, Good wishes…”.
