- 2 Frassetto Way - Lincoln Park, NJ 07035
The Peter Benchley Collection: Jaws, A Life of Writing, A Legacy of Ocean Conservation.
Lot 92A:
Description
A collection of seven books and pamphlets from the personal library of author Peter
Benchley, primarily comprising historical biographies and political non-fiction. The group
includes a three-volume selection of works by and about James Boswell and Samuel
Johnson: Boswell: The English Experiment 1785-1789 by Irma S. Lustig and Frederick A.
Pottle (McGraw-Hill, 1986); Samuel Johnson by W. Jackson Bate (Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, 1977); and Boswell’s London Journal 1762-1763 (McGraw-Hill, 1950). The
London Journal volume is bound in blue cloth with a "Vraye Foy" crest and features a
handwritten blue ink inscription on the half-title page reading: "For Daddy – For being 34 and
still upright – NAT November 13, 1950." Also included are David Halberstam’s The Best and
the Brightest (Random House, 1972), an Everyman’s Library edition of Boswell’s The Life of
Samuel Johnson, and Surviving Terrorism by Dr. Joseph MacInnis (1988), which includes a
back-cover blurb by Peter Benchley. The set is completed by a 1988 pamphlet titled Decline
of the Dictator: Paraguay at a Crossroads. Largest copy: 9 1/2" x 6 1/2" x 2"
From the personal collection of Peter Benchley (American, 1940–2006), acclaimed author of Jaws, accomplished diver, and prominent advocate for ocean and shark conservation.
Condition report:
The collection shows varying signs of age and use. The Everyman’s Library edition of The Life of Samuel Johnson has a heavily damaged dust jacket with significant tearing and paper loss along the edges and spine. Other hardcover volumes exhibit shelf wear, rubbing, and minor creasing to the dust jackets. The Paraguay pamphlet shows fading to the yellow covers. The London Journal volume exhibits light wear to the cloth binding at the head and foot of the spine.
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