ROBERT B. SILVERS, polymath and legendary editor, was not a book collector in the customary sense. He and Barbara Epstein were founding co-editors of The New York Review of Books in 1963 and its co-editors until Barbara’s death in 2006. His interest in books and authors is recorded in the essays he commissioned over a fifty-year period, in the range of his friendships, and in a lifelong commitment to human rights issues. Not a book collector, but his stature in the republic of letters meant that authors, and friends, sometimes inscribed their works to him. This selection of books from the library and office shelves of Robert B. Silvers documents associations from his early years in Paris (including his set of the early numbers of The Paris Review) through his long tenure at the editorial desk of the Review. His was the most ferocious intellect I ever encountered, a man who conversed with poets and nuclear arms negotiators, historians and legal specialists, littérateurs and neuroscientists. The Archives of The New York Review of Books, with the papers of Barbara Epstein and Robert Silvers, now at the New York Public library, tell the larger story of the authors Silvers collected. This list offers a glimpse of some of the books along the way. (HWW)
(Portrait of Robert B. Silvers by Dominique Nabokov)
Download PDF of Books from the Library of Robert B. Silvers
Price: $250
[Dreux: Imprimerie Poutret, 1990]. Claire Brétecher, Constantin Byzantios, Wia. One of two hundred copies on vélin chiffon de lana, no. XXXI. “son viel ami, Jean Daniel”. Inscribed to Robert Silvers on the title page: ‘et pour Bob Silvers “ce que l’age récolte de plus précieux ce sont les fruits qui..... Read More Item Details for Pour Jean Daniel Add to Wish List
Item #317784
Price: $100
New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1969. First English Edition. Signed by the author. Read More Item Details for The Voyage of the Ulua Add to Wish List
Item #317779
Price: $1,250
New York: Harmony Books, [1995]. First edition. Inscribed. Inscribed on the half title, “For Robert Silvers, with thanks for a long association, Steve / Stephen Jay Gould”. Read More Item Details for Dinosaur in a Haystack Add to Wish List
Item #317859
Price: $250
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970. First edition. First book from the author and essayist, Francine du Plessix Gray (1930-2019). Divine Disobedience won the National Catholic Book Award; her other works included the best selling Lovers and Tyrants (1976), biographies of Madame de Staël and the Marquis de Sade, and..... Read More Item Details for Divine Disobedience. Profiles in Catholic Radicalism Add to Wish List
Item #317790
![Item #317863 Trompe L’Oeil. [Author’s duplicated typescript] [with:] Trick of the Eye...](https://jamescumminsbookseller.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/317863.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1579856351)
Price: $65
[New York: Dutton, 1992]. Published as: Trick of the Eye. With an autograph card from the author: “Dear Bob, I long for your comments — catty or otherwise! Much love, Jane”. Read More Item Details for Trompe L’Oeil. [Author’s duplicated typescript] [with:] Trick of the Eye [Uncorrected proof] Add to Wish List
Item #317863
Price: $150
Paris: Editions Denoël, 1984. First edition. Inscribed to the editor of the New York Review of Books: ”Pour Robert Silver, en cordial hommage, J Houdebine”. Read More Item Details for Excès de langages Add to Wish List
Item #317787
Price: $2,000
Cairo: American University Press, [2004]. First edition in English. Signed by Naguib Mahfouz. Signed by the Nobel prize winning author (in Arabic) opposite the title page, with a note by the translator, “signed by Naguib Mahfouz, Maadi, Cairo, June 7, 2006” and inscribed on the title page, “to Bob Silvers..... Read More Item Details for The Dreams. Translated by Raymond Stock Add to Wish List
Item #318808
Price: $100
[Paris]: Gallimard, [1948]. Originally published in Switzerland in 1943 as La Lutte avec l’Ange, and intended as part of a longer work which was seized and destroyed by the Nazis. Read More Item Details for Les Noyers de l’Altenburg Add to Wish List
Item #317791
Price: $375
Monaco: Editions du Rocher, [1956]. First edition, one of 155 copies hors commerce. The landmark chronicle of the mescaline experiments of Henri Michaux. Read More Item Details for Misérable Miracle (La Mescaline) Add to Wish List
Item #317771
Price: $375
T. Nagar, Madras: Indian Thought Publications, 1995. Indian reprint edition (originally published in 1973). Inscribed on half title: "For Robert Silvers, with best wishes, RK Narayan, 30 Nov 1997, Madras" A nice inscription from R.K. Narayan (1906-2001), one of the towering figures of Indian literature and the subject of a...... Read More Item Details for My Days: Autobiography Add to Wish List
Item #317785
Price: $1,500
Berkeley: University of California Press, [1992]. Revised edition (originally published in 1970). Inscribed on the half title, “For Bob Silvers — with admiration and affection — and lots of good wishes — New Years Day 1993 Oliver” A superb association between physician and author Oliver Sacks (1933–2015) and his friend..... Read More Item Details for Migraine Add to Wish List
Item #317775
Price: $150
New York: Harper & Row, [1988]. First American edition. Inscribed by the author on the half title: “To Bob — And thanks for the utterly smooth stones. Anton Shammas NYC April 1988” Shammas, an Israeli Palestinian whose novel was published in Hebrew in 1986, wrote several essays for the New..... Read More Item Details for Arabesques. Translated from the Hebrew by Vivian Eden Add to Wish List
Item #317802
Price: $250
New York: Lyle Stuart, [1960]. First edition in English. The Translator’s Own Copy. Le Gangrène, an account of the torture by the French D.S.T. of seven Algerians resident in Paris, was published in France by Les Editions de Minuit on 16 June 1959, and confiscated by the French authorities four..... Read More Item Details for The Gangrene. Translated from the French by Add to Wish List
Item #317778
Price: $200
New York: Lyle Stuart, [1960]. First edition in English. Le Gangrène, an account of the torture by the French D.S.T. of seven Algerians resident in Paris, was published in France by Les Editions de Minuit on 16 June 1959, and confiscated by the French authorities four days later. Robert Silvers..... Read More Item Details for The Gangrene. Translated from the French by Add to Wish List
Item #318826