Stephen Sondheim’s Thesauruses Sold for $50,000+
Four editions of Roget's International Thesaurus, printings 1946 - 1960
Doyle's auction of the Collection of Stephen Sondheim included a wide range of items from the composer and lyricist's Manhattan townhouse and country home in Roxbury, Connecticut, including various reference works.
A lot of four editions of Roget's International Thesaurus with printings of June 1946, 1953, and 1960 sold for $25,600 after a high estimate of $300. Sondheim's use of thesauruses in his writing is well known, particularly the 1946 edition of Roget's International Thesaurus which went under the hammer in the auction and was mentioned in a 2010 interview with Jeffery Brown of PBS.
A second lot of a group of 13 dictionaries, thesauruses and books on crossword puzzles also sold for $25,600 (high estimate: $600). This included:
- Burges Johnson's New Rhyming Dictionary and Poets' Handbook, 1957, in dust jacket
- Sue Young's The New Comprehensive Rhyming Dictionary, 1991, first edition, first printing, in jacket
- Roget's International Thesaurus, 1962
- Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable
- The American Thesaurus of Slang, 1942
- The New Comprehensive Rhyming Dictionary, 1991
- Chambers Anagrams, 1985
- J.I. Rodale's The Synonym Finder, 1978, with the booklabel of Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon
- Longman Anagram Dictionary, 1985, first edition, in jacket
- four other volumes on crossword puzzles
Sondheim is known among word puzzle enthusiasts for introducing Americans to British-style cryptic crosswords. His crossword puzzles for New York magazine in 1968 and 1969 were influential in popularizing the cryptic genre in the U.S.
Three manuscript musical quotations signed by Sondheim also went well above their estimates. A quotation from Into the Woods with the lyric "Careful the things you say, Children will listen..." sold for $25,600. Another with the lyric "Into the woods, it's time to go/I hate to leave, I have to, though...” realized $16,640. From Passion, a quotation with the lyric "Loving you is not a choice, it's who I am..." fetched $14,080.
A stack of Sondheim's personalized Crane’s stationery together with a signed spiral notebook sold for $15,360. Three boxes of Sondheim’s favored Blackwing pencils, circa 1940s-50s, went for $6,400.
