Lost Gilgamesh Manuscript Found

The new catalog from  Michael Sharpe Rare & Antiquarian Books just arrived. The company is run by four former Heritage Book Shop employees, Nat Des Marais, Michael Garabedian, J.P. Morgan, and Kimberly Cummings. De Marais and Garabedian are running the show, and Sharpe, a long-time Heritage customer, is supplying many of the initial books. The catalog is definitely in the Heritage model, mixing highspots in all fields. At the back of the list, a first edition of Richard Wright's novel Native Son is right next to a 1525 edition of a commentary on the Ten Commandments printed by Wynkyn de Worde, the second English-language printer. At the front, Helen Bannerman's The Story of Little Black Sambo rests alongside George Barrington's History of New South Wales.

Perhaps most interesting, though, is item 53, described as "[Gilgamesh] [Manuscript in cuneiform. Mesopotamia, c. 1400 b.c.]". What you have here is basically a 5 inch by 6 inch piece of the first novel (and an unpublished bit, at that). It's amazing that you can still buy great works of literature written down 3400 years ago. Price, $450,000.

[Update: Nat's name corrected]

Comments

[Seneca]

Hello, Michael Sharpe Rare and Antiquarian Books has their first catalog available to whomever would like a copy. Correction on spelling; the manager's name is Nat Des Marais not De Marais