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Skyline Books
Forest Knolls, CA
An original untitled color drawing by Jack Kerouac. Kerouac used colored crayons for this depiction of Christ on the cross with the three wise men standing in the foreground as an angel descends from heaven. In the background a man hangs from a gallows while the sun shines over distant hills. Boldly signed “Kerouac” in the lower left. Jack made this drawing for his niece, Maria Teresa Surprenant. Kerouac’s visual works are mostly institutionalized and their appearance on the market is rare. $22,500.
Seidmann-Freud, Tom. Pseudonym of Martha Gertrud Freud. Bialik (Haim Nachman). Eser sihot liladim. [Little Tales]. Al pi Andersen, Grimm wa-aherim im sijuria me. [From Andersen, Grimm’s tales and others]. [Translation Haim N. Bialik]. Ophir. Berlin. 1922. Oblong 12mo, (24) pp. : cloth-backed orange paper boards, hand-colored label paste on. Extremely rare and handsome realization for children, partnership outcome of the book artist Tom-Martha Seidmann-Freud (1892-1930) and the most famous modern Hebrew poet, Haim N. Bialik (1873-1934). Born in Ukraine, he studied and taught in Odessa until 1921, carrying on an important literary career. Three publishing and editorial working years in Berlin preceded his settling in Tel Aviv in 1924. After the Russian Revolution, Berlin was the place of refuge for the Jewish and non-Jewish Russian intelligentsia. In Berlin the writer joined several publishing houses and Jankew Seidmann (Tom’s husband) to create Ophir which published a few rare children’s books, most of them by Tom Seidmann-Freud. Daughter of Marie and Moritz Freud, niece of Sigmund, born in Vienna, she was one of the most famous book artist of the 20’s in Germany. A first title in 1914, a second one when she was living in Munich from 1918 to 1920 before her marriage in Berlin with the man of letters Jankew Seidmann. Seven years of exceptional realizations ended up with the tragic death of the couple. Jankew, facing insurmountable financial difficulties and perharps facing the impossible life in Berlin put an end to his life on october 19, 1929, Martha followed him a few weeks later. Although she never illustrated specifically Hebrew subjects, most of her books have been destroyed during the nazi period.In 1922, transformed by her daughter Angela’s (Awiwa) birth, she drew this fascinating album: 10 plates and two vignettes, highly stylized with rare hand-colored watercolor shades. $6,000.