The Arthur Ronnie Collection: Books & Autogaphs

Auction Details

Blacksparrow Auctions is pleased to present The Arthur Ronnie Collection: Books and Autographs, to be held on Sunday, February 10, 2013, at 11am PST. James Gray Gallery at Bergamot Station Art Center in Santa Monica, CA will host the live auction. Public preview is available from February 4 to 9, also at James Gray Gallery.

This is an unprecedented selection of over 200 lots assembled by an individual collector who personally interviewed many of the authors and obtained autographs for over 70 years throughout his career as a newspaper reporter and as a publicist in the entertainment field. The collection features presidents, explorers, aviation, and Hollywood entertainment. A few of the many highlights include:

• Under the North Pole: The Wilkins-Ellsworth Submarine Expedition, Lincoln Ellsworth’s copy
• 20 hrs. 40 min. Our Flight in the Friendship. The American Girl, First Across the Atlantic by Air, Tells Her Story, Amelia Earhart’s personal copy with piece of fabric from the Friendship
• The Fun of It: Random Records of My Own Flying and of Women in Aviation, Amelia Earhart’s copy with her bookplate and signature, as well as the signatures of other early aviatrixes
• The Spirit of St. Louis, Presentation Edition signed by Charles A. Lindbergh, T. Claude Ryan, Otto W. Timm, and Bud Gurney
• WE. The Famous Flier’s Own Story of his Life and his Transatlantic flight, together with his views on the future of Aviation, Signed Limited Edition, additionally signed by T. Claude Ryan, Otto W. Timm, and Bud Gurney
• Memoirs by Harry S. Truman, both volumes inscribed
• The White House Years: Waging Peace, 1956-1961, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Signed Limited Edition
• Listen! The Wind and North to the Orient, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, each book signed by Anne Morrow Lindbergh and Charles Lindbergh

Complementing the signed books is a group of signed color lithographs, including a who’s who of early and pioneer aviators such as Charles Taylor, Grover Loening, Douglas Campbell, William Bishop, Gianni Caproni, Richard E. Byrd, A.V. Roe, Ruth Law, Ernest Hall, Jacqueline Cochran, Charles Lindbergh, Katherine Stinson, Henri Farman, and many more.

The featured item of the sale is a 2-volume set of The Lafayette Flying Corps (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1920, First Edition). A presentation copy, signed and inscribed by James N. Hall and Charles Bernard Nordhoff to Dr. Edmund Gros, “For Doctor Gros, with warm regards, James N. Hall, Chas. Nordhoff, Tahiti, Oct. 14, 1927.” It is additionally signed by five surviving members of the Corps who signed on their respective biographical pages: Henry Batchelor (page 113), Edward Hinkle (page 267), Charles Kinsolving (page 301), William Wellman (movie director, page 483), and Herman Whitmore (page 487). Slipcase and dust jackets intact.

Dr. Gros was an American doctor in Paris who was instrumental in organizing the Lafayette Escadrille. Young men from neutral America during World War I were recruited to come to France and fly in the Escadrille in combat against the Germans. When America entered the war, the Lafayette Escadrille became the Lafayette Flying Corps. This is a cornerstone of any serious aviation collection. It is rare to find the books in such fine condition, and especially desirable with the signatures of Hall, Nordhoff, and Flying Corps members.

Interested bidders will be able to bid live in-person, by telephone, via absentee, and on the Internet as facilitated by iCollector. A print catalog will be available for purchase at blacksparrowauctions.com.
Items are as is. Please call us at (323) 250-3980 or email us at blacksparrow@haxbee.com for condition reports or any general inquiry.
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GREENLAW, Olga S. - The Lady and the Tigers151 - GREENLAW, Olga S. - The Lady and the Tigers
Blacksparrow Auctions
E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1943. First Edition. Octavo (8 ¼ X 5 1/8 in., 208 X 143 mm). 317 pages. Dark red cloth, spine and front board let...
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Start Price : 100.00 | Estimate : 100.00 - 200.00
 
 
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GRINNELL-MILNE, Captain Duncan - Wind in the Wires152 - GRINNELL-MILNE, Captain Duncan - Wind in the Wires
Blacksparrow Auctions
Foreword by George A. Vaughn, Jr., D.S.C., D.F.C. Edited by Stanley M. Ulanoff, Lt. Col., USAR. Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York...
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Start Price : 100.00 | Estimate : 100.00 - 200.00
 
 
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GROSSER, Morton - Gossamer Odyssey: The Triumph of Human-Powered Flight153 - GROSSER, Morton - Gossamer Odyssey: The Triumph of Human-Powered Flight
Blacksparrow Auctions
Houghton Mifflin Company Boston, 1981. First Edition, first printing. Octavo (9 ¼ X 6 ¼ in., 235 X 160 mm). 298 pages. Blue cloth, spine a...
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Start Price : 100.00 | Estimate : 100.00 - 200.00
 
 
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GURNEY, Gene - Five Down and Glory: A History of the American Air Ace signed154 - GURNEY, Gene - Five Down and Glory: A History of the American Air Ace signed
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Five Down and Glory: A History of the American Air Ace, signed by Chuck Yeager, “Pappy” Boyington, and Robert L. Scott. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New Yo
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Start Price : 150.00 | Estimate : 200.00 - 300.00
 
 
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HALL, Captain James Norman, Lieut. Charles Bernard Nordhoff - The Lafayette Flying Corps155 - HALL, Captain James Norman, Lieut. Charles Bernard Nordhoff - The Lafayette Flying Corps
Blacksparrow Auctions
HALL, Captain James Norman, Lieut. Charles Bernard Nordhoff. The Lafayette Flying Corps. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1920. Two v
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Start Price : 5,000.00 | Estimate : 8,000.00 - 10,000.00
 
 
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JABLONSKI, Edward - Warriors with Wings: The Story of the Lafayette Escadrille156 - JABLONSKI, Edward - Warriors with Wings: The Story of the Lafayette Escadrille
Blacksparrow Auctions
The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., (1966). First Edition. Illustrated with photographs. Octavo (9 ¼ X 6 ¼ in., 233 X 158 mm). 206 pages. Blu...
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Start Price : 100.00 | Estimate : 100.00 - 200.00
 
 
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JOHNSON, J. E. "Johnnie" - Full Circle: The Story of Air Fighting157 - JOHNSON, J. E. "Johnnie" - Full Circle: The Story of Air Fighting
Blacksparrow Auctions
Illustrated by David Shepherd. Chatto and Windus, London, 1964. First Edition. Octavo (8 ¾ X 5 ¾ in., 221 X 146 mm). 290 pages. Blue cloth...
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Estimate : 100.00 - 200.00
Sold to c*********9 for (100.00 + 18.00BP) = 118.00
 
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JOHNSON, J. E. - Wing Leader158 - JOHNSON, J. E. - Wing Leader
Blacksparrow Auctions
Ballantine Books, New York, (1957). First American Edition. Octavo (8 ¼ X 5 5/8 in., 208 X 142 mm). 292 pages. Red cloth, spine lettered in bla...
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Start Price : 100.00 | Estimate : 100.00 - 200.00
 
 
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KNIGHT, Clayton and Robert C. Durham - Hitch Your Wagon: The Story of Bernt Balchen159 - KNIGHT, Clayton and Robert C. Durham - Hitch Your Wagon: The Story of Bernt Balchen
Blacksparrow Auctions
Bell Publishing Company, Drexel Hill, PA, (1950). Second printing with corrections, April 1950. Octavo (8 5/8 X 5 7/8 in., 218 X 150 mm). 332 pages. V
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Start Price : 100.00 | Estimate : 100.00 - 200.00
 
 
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The Three Musketeers of the Air: Their Conquest of the Atlantic from East to West160 - The Three Musketeers of the Air: Their Conquest of the Atlantic from East to West
Blacksparrow Auctions
New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1928. Author’s Autograph Edition, Limited to 275 signed copies, of which this is Number 168. Signed by Captain Hermann
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Start Price : 250.00 | Estimate : 300.00 - 500.00
 
 
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