Patrick O'Brian (1914-2000) - photo 1
Patrick O'Brian (1914-2000) - photo 2
Patrick O'Brian (1914-2000) - photo 3
Patrick O'Brian (1914-2000) - photo 4
Patrick O'Brian (1914-2000) - photo 5
Patrick O'Brian (1914-2000) - photo 6

Patrick O'Brian (1914-2000)

Lot 236
09.12.2020 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 25 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 470097
Lot 236 | Patrick O'Brian (1914-2000)
Estimate value
£ 25 000 – 35 000
Patrick O'Brian (1914-2000)

A complete set of the Aubrey-Maturin novels. 1969-1999

O'BRIAN, Patrick (1914-2000). Master and Commander - Post Captain - H.M.S. Surprise - The Mauritius Command - Desolation Island - The Fortune of War - The Surgeon's Mate - The Ionian Mission - Treason's Harbour - The Far Side of the World - The Reverse of the Medal - The Letter of Marque - The Thirteen-Gun Salute - The Nutmeg of Consolation - Clarissa Oakes - The Wine-Dark Sea - The Commodore - The Yellow Admiral - The Hundred Days - Blue at the Mizzen. London: Collins, 1970-1999. [Sold with:] – Master and Commander. Philadelphia and New York: Lippincott, 1969.



The complete set of the Aubrey-Maturin novels assembled by the author's stepson, Nikolai Tolstoy, many with authorial presentation inscriptions, including inserted autograph manuscripts and letters. The set includes the first American edition of Master and Commander, which preceded publication of the British edition.



21 volumes, octavo (mostly 210 x 135mm). Half-titles, a few text-illustrations (some occasional faint spotting to a few leaves and textblock edges). Publisher's original cloth bindings (one or two very minor and insignificant spots to covers, otherwise mostly in fine condition); pictorial dustjackets (9 dustjackets price-clipped, the earlier volumes with some spots to jacket flaps and lightly rubbed at extremities, the later ones mostly in fine condition). Provenance: authorial presentation copies to: – his stepson Nikolai Tolstoy (often jointly with Georgina Tolstoy), with the exception of Master and Commander (inscribed to his wife, Mary O'Brian), and Post Captain, HMS Surprise, The Nutmeg of Consolation and Blue at the Mizzen (which are uninscribed); the volumes also with ownership inscriptions of Nikolai Tolstoy.



The set has been extra-illustrated by Tolstoy with manuscripts and letters including:



35 autograph drafts, compositional notes and memoranda by O'Brian, plus four fragments of early typescripts, comprising two drafts, 6 pages in total, for Master and Commander, one in Desolation Island, one leaf of calculations in The Fortunes of War, one in Treason's Harbour, one (a few phrases only) in The Far Side of the World, one in The Reverse of the Medal, two in The Letter of Marque, two in The Thirteen Gun Salute, one in Clarissa Oakes, three in The Commodore, six in The Yellow Admiral (plus two fragments of the typescript for the work, and an unrelated autograph note about gardening), six in The Hundred Days (plus two fragments of corrected typescript) and eight in Blue at the Mizzen;



11 autograph letters and notes signed by O'Brian to Nikolai Tolstoy, 1978-1997, including one of 10 July 1978, advising him how to behave with publishers, ‘remain rather distant. Otherwise they tend to become familiar and even overbearing … they are, after all, only greasy tradesman, often half knave, half fool’; another on 30 January 1982, on the life of a writer (‘ours is a lonely, dangerous trade'); and one typed letter signed to Mary O'Brian, n.d. [c.1970];



and additional material including two passport photographs of O'Brian (pasted to the title of Blue at the Mizzen), and letters to Patrick O'Brian by Mary Renault (a greetings card signed), his former editor Richard Ollard (5) and William Waldegrave.

Genre:Marine art
Place of origin:Northern Europe
Auction house category:Books
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
09.12.2020 – 09.12.2020
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
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