The Collection

Spanning over 1,000 rare, unique, and first issues of books from the finest American authors of the 20th century and beyond, The Gianakos-Safos Collection is truly the finest collection of American literature ever assembled. In their quest to build a definitive inventory of works, the principals of The Collection have focused on acquiring first printing copies of winners of the Pulitzer Prize, the eminent literary awards in the United States. The Collection now contains at least one US first printing and first state copy of all 560 Pulitzer Prize-winning works across its six literary categories, including even seminal American masterpieces like To Kill a Mockingbird and Gone with the Wind. Moreover, many of these copies are one-of-a-kind pieces, as they carry author signatures and inscriptions, have a numbered designation as part of a limited run, or contain attending letters and other materials belonging to the authors themselves.

The Gianakos-Safos Collection does not merely encompass Pulitzer Prize winners, as it also contains the entire oeuvre, in first printing and first state, of six major American authors: Willa Cather, Edna Ferber, Ernest Poole, T.S. Stribling, Booth Tarkington, and Edith Wharton. All winners of the Harper Prize Novel Contest, a biennial award from 1922 to 1965, are here in their US first printings. Finally, The Collection branches to include all attending and related works to the Pulitzer Prize and Harper Prize winners, including sequels, books in a series, and so forth, all in first printing and first state.

As the works in this collection embrace the seminal American literature of the past century–and with the Pulitzer Prize itself to commemorate a centenary in just five years–such a complete collection, never before presented for public or private sale, is without precedent or parallel. No comparable collection has ever before been assembled, and considering the rarity and even uniqueness of some of the pieces therein, another collection on this level will likely never exist.

The Gianakos-Safos Collection contains:

–Every Pulitzer Prize-winning work across its six literary categories, all in first printing and first state

–Every related work to a Pulitzer Prize winner, including sequels, works in a series, and the like, all in first printing and first state

–The complete works, in first printing and first state, of six major American authors: Willa Cather, Edna Ferber, Ernest Poole, T.S. Stribling, Booth Tarkington, and Edith Wharton

–Every Harper Prize Novel Contest-winning work, all in first printing and first state

–Several unique advance, limited, and author inscribed copies of the above works, as well as attending letters and other materials belonging to the authors themselves