Auction house sells inscribed classic novels

Auction house sellsinscribed classic novels
NEW YORK -- More than 350 signed first-edition classic novels -- including one with an inscription from Ian Fleming to Sir Winston Churchill -- brought in nearly $7 million at Christie's auction house Friday.
Literary classics like L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was auctioned for $152,500, and a copy of James Joyce's "Ulysses," with a note to one of Joyce's publishers, sold for a record $460,500.
The auction exceeded its presale estimate of $4 million to $5 million.
A copy of Fleming's second James Bond novel, "Live and Let Die," sold for $71,700, against a pre-auction estimate of $60,000 to $80,000.
"To Sir Winston Churchill: From whom I stole some words," read an inscription scrawled by Fleming to the former British prime minister on the inner dust jacket of the 1954 edition.
Literary experts say the works are one of the most significant collections of signed books ever sold at auction.
"It's certainly the talk of the book world right now," said Ken Lopez, president of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, a New York-based trade organization.
The books are part of the personal collection of Roger Rechler, a Long Island real estate developer.
Judge denies requestto lock up videotapes
DENVER -- Four videotapes made by the Columbine High killers do not have to be locked in an evidence room and can be removed from the courthouse by attorneys working on a lawsuit related to the attack, despite fears of leaks, a judge ruled Friday.
The tapes are evidence in a lawsuit brought by a Columbine survivor against the pharmaceutical company that made an anti-depressant taken by one of the teenage gunmen.
The videotapes show Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold waving the weapons they used in the attack and donning the clothes they wore. The boys' parents had sought to keep the videotapes under lock and key during the trial, for fear they would be leaked to the media.
But U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer turned them down, saying: "In preparing a case for trial, you need to have the matters you will deal with to work on, and you need it in your office."
Other videos in which the killers said how they were going to carry out the attacks will remain locked up, along with writings by the killers.
Senegal holds funeralfor victims of accident
DAKAR, Senegal -- With Christian hymns and Muslim prayers, the more than 1,000 victims of Africa's deadliest ferry disaster were mourned in a seaside funeral Friday.
On a promontory overlooking fishing canoes bobbing in the Atlantic below, hundreds of people attended the televised ceremony for the victims of the MS Joola disaster.
"Everyone in Senegal is here or watching this on television," said Amadou Traore, 44, a businessman at the service in Dakar. "It's Christian and Muslim, it's national and it's personal."
The overloaded Senegalese ferry capsized Sept. 26 in Gambian waters, off West Africa. Just 64 of the more than 1,000 people on board survived.
Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade attended the service but made no public remarks.
Christian ministers and Muslim imams offered prayers for the victims. A lone soldier fired a cannon 12 times as a salute. The 90-minute ceremony ended as the sun set in a golden orange over the sea.
Dig unearths armor
JAMESTOWN, Va. -- Archaeologists found a large cache of early-17th-century armor deep in a well in historical Jamestown, a hint as to the military readiness of the New World's first permanent English settlement.
The pieces, found about 10 feet below the surface, include body armor and possibly breast plates, back plates and helmets.
"Most archaeologists will go their whole lives and not find a single piece of armor," archaeologist Eric Deetz said Thursday as each new piece emerged from the narrow, brick-lined shaft.
Led by Bill Kelso, researchers for the Jamestown Rediscovery excavation project recovered the first piece of armor from the well about two weeks ago, when they were only 3 feet below the surface.
The artifacts are believed to date no later than 1618, suggesting that the shaft could reach back to the colony's earliest and least understood era, beginning in 1607. Prior finds from that period have been mostly bits of clay and other nonmilitary items.
The archaeologists have also turned up remains from deer, pigs and cows -- clues to the settlers' diets. At least 2 feet of water-logged soil remain to be explored.
Associated Press