George Sand, Walt Whitman, and John Steinbeck Signed Manuscripts to Auction

Swann Galleries' November 6 Autographs auction features Florence Nightingale, Marie Curie, John Lennon, Thomas Jefferson, and Mark Twain, as well as manuscripts by John Steinbeck, Walt Whitman and George Sand.

Steinbeck's typescript of his Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights published posthumously in 1976 comprises late 1950s drafts of five chapters from his abandoned work interpreting the Arthurian legends (chapters 1 Merlin, 3 Wedding of King Arthur, 4 Death of Merlin, 5 Morgan Le Fay, and 7 Noble Tale of Sir Lancelot). There are numerous changes that were introduced in the published version, including the name 'Lancelot' written as 'Launcelot' throughout the typescript. Together there are more than 200 pages, most on onionskin paper. While the typescript is unsigned, the lot (estimate: $4,000 - $6,000) comes with two signed letters from the same period to his literary agent Elizabeth Otis discussing his research trips.

Also going under the hammer will be the signed manuscript draft of three comple poems from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, To the Garden the World, From Pent-Up Aching Rivers, A Woman Waits for Me, and the first seven lines of I Sing the Body Electric (estimate: $7,000 - $10,000).

Additionally, George Sand's signed manuscript draft c .1872 of her one-act comedy Francia: un bienfait n'est jamais perdu which was first published in Paris by Michel Lévy in 1872 (estimate: $10,000 - $15,000) will be on offer. It runs to 76 unnumbered pages and is signed at the end of the text.