Thomas Jefferson's Cicero and J. D. Salinger Letter Lead University Archives Auction

U.S. Presidents Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson feature in University Archives' June 4 Rare Autographs, Books & Space Memorabilia sale. 

Leading the auction is a six-volume set of Cicero’s Orations in the original Latin owned and signed by Thomas Jefferson. This copy of Ciceronis Orationes (Amsterdam: Ex Typographia P & I Blaeu, 1695-1699) was a key text for Jefferson who incorporated many of Cicero’s ideas into the Declaration of Independence. He also recommended it to people asking him for reading advice. It is accompanied by the auction catalog and bill from when it was last sold on February 27, 1829, for $25. It has an estimate of $150,000 - $200,000.

Also under the hammer is an autograph letter signed by J.D. Salinger addressed to his publishers Little, Brown, and Company, on May 27, 1961, a month before the publication of Franny and Zooey. Salinger argues that his two short stories should be published under two separate titles instead of the suggested combined title of Franny and Zooey. “I honestly don’t enjoy butting in,” he writes.

Other highlights include:

• an Abraham Lincoln autograph note addressed to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in 1863 with instructions relating to a battalion in an upcoming battle
• a color photo showing President Ronald Reagan delivering his 'Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall!' speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, West Germany on June 12, 1987, with Reagan’s signature and inscription and a certified fragment of Berlin Wall brick 
• five lots of Albert Einstein material including signed letters, and a signed booklet in Spanish reproducing one of Einstein’s articles published in an Argentinian periodical
• a Treasury Department circular discussing discussed methods to secure proper documentation on imports and exports dated September 23, 1790 signed by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton
• an extremely scarce complete first edition copy of the U.S. Census of 1800
• a group of 21 maps depicting the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, ca. 1944-1945, in advance of the Allies’ push in the Pacific, most of the material prepared by the 64th Engineer Topographic Battalion for artillery and aircraft use