Between the bullfights, the impotent war hero, and the dismal damsel, Hemingway’s (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961)The Sun Also Rises is his most iconic work as well as his most highly regarded, serving as a staple on syllabi across High School and University English curriculum. The significance of this copy is less the content itself, but instead, its back story. Given to Sylvia Beach – publisher and owner of the iconic Parisian bookstore Shakespeare and Co.-- by Hemingway himself, Beach would go on to not only read the book but make small marks and notes throughout. Beach’s relationship with the literary is often discussed and known through the lens of her bookstore (some of which can be delved into via the Sylvia Beach Papers at Princeton), but here is an example of a more intimate engagement. Not only is this a record of reading, but the reading of a work by a personal friend.

The tale of an upper-class woman turned witch, Lolly Willows, or The Loving Huntsman was the inaugural pick for the Book-of-the-Month-Club program and is regarded as an early feminist classic because of its main character’s rejection of societal expectations. After she makes a pact with Satan, Lolly’s overly dependent nephew is plagued by misfortune, causing him to abandon his plans for pastoral bliss and return to London, leaving Lolly to her own devices and granting her the freedom from the obligation that she so intensely desires. Warner (6 December 1893 – 1 May 1978) herself was an out lesbian, living her life with partner and poet Valentine Ackland, both of whom were involved with the British communist party. Warner’s work saw new attention during the second-wave Feminist movement of the 1970s but has since faded into the background once again. The Princeton copy is signed “To Theo from Sylvia with Love, January 1926,” indicating that it may be given from the author to fellow author and friend T.F (Theo Francis) Powys.

American poet and dramatist Archibald MacLeish (May 7, 1892 – April 20, 1982) was a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, the 9th Librarian of Congress, and one of Ernest Hemingway’s longest-serving friends. Streets in the Moon is his eighth collection of poetry, best known for the two pieces “You, Andrew Marvell” and “Einstein.” This copy was printed as part of a small but special print run of sixty special editions printed by Riverside press in Cambridge on paper made by William Morris’s Kelmscott Press. Princeton also holds a copy that was presented to Adrienne Monnier and Sylvia Beach with an inscription by the author. MacLeish and his wife Ada were part of the troupe in and out of the Shakespeare and Co. bookstore, rubbing elbows with the Fitzgeralds and Dos Passos. MacLeish is often most remembered for his famous friends, but Streets in the Moon skillfully expresses the weight of struggle in a post-war world.

During the 1920s, Harlem was an enormously stimulating milieu for African American intellectuals, whose distinct cultural productions drew the attention of white spectators. Carl Van Vechten (June 17, 1880 – December 21, 1964), a white writer, befriended many of the central figures of the Harlem Renaissance, giving him privileged access. The provocative and incendiary title made reference to the segregated balcony seating of theatres. The title openly courted controversy even prior to its release, prompting calls for Van Vechten to change it, which he refused. Upon its publication, Nigger Heaven was instantly a best seller amongst white audiences eager to get a behind-the-curtain look at the famed Harlem experience. The black community, including some of its most celebrated authors and poets, was more split in their opinion, launching months-long protests. Those invested in the cause of racial uplift, including W.E.B. Dubois, were dismissive of the novel as “cheap melodrama” while younger writers, Claude McKay among them, seized on the novel’s incendiary impact and began releasing work that sought to distinguish itself from the thematic bounds previously laid out. Among the novel's defenders was Langston Hughes, who released a public statement in support of Van Vechten. Despite Hughes' appeal, the controversy did irreparable damage to Van Vechten’s reputation, who had been a recognized cultural conduit prior to the publication. Arguably, however, the novel’s release did more to garner national and international awareness of the Harlem Renaissance and helped encourage more experimental and controversial topics.

Princeton also holds a collection of Carl Van Vechten Photographs, 1923-1942 (Call Number C0877), available to view in the reading room. These photographs will be under copyright until 70 years after Vechten’s death (2034)

Published by one of the most important erotica publishers of the interwar period, Maurice Duflou, La Galante is a rare erotic text from the early 20th century. Translating to “The Galante Shepherdess, or, The Loves of a Gentle Girl who Portrait Panties and Nicely Handled the Sword” the book features six explicit illustrations, depicting acts between various combinations of genders. Only 150 copies of the text were printed in its time and even fewer of this original survive today. In the 1930s the book was reissued under the pseudonym Charles de Sertillages, however without the illustrations. Most collections hold the un-illustrated edition, making Princeton’s particularly rare.

Please note: this item includes images that are explicit (in that they contain nudity and graphic content).

Born in the Cherokee Nation, John M. Oskison (1874–1947) was Stanford University’s first known Native American graduate, completing his degree in 1898. After a short stint at Harvard for graduate school, Oskison became a prolific editor, journalist, and creative writer. Black Jack Davy is his second novel, a western set in “Indian Territory” and centering on white protagonist, Davy Dawes. Because his early books feature few explicitly Indigenous characters and little representation of traditional Indigenous culture, some scholars have argued that Oskison’s work falls into the trap of assimilationism. Others contend that this is instead a superficial reading of Oskinson that ignores the complexity of early 20th-century Indigenous (and particularly Cherokee) points of view.