Done
Berkeley, CA, United States
Auction Details
Steinbeck, Ricketts & the Western Flyer
PBA Galleries
Ed Ricketts is known to most readers of modern literature in the mock-heroic, as the character ?Doc Ricketts? in John Steinbeck?s comic novel Cannery Row. Maybe mock-heroic carries a misleadingly negative connotation since Steinbeck was a close friend and collaborator, but Ed Ricketts was no medical doctor?even though he was often asked for medical advice by the bums, prostitutes, and other downwardly mobile residents of the Row. Neither was Ed a PhD, since like Steinbeck, he was a college drop-out. Despite the lack of official credentials, however, Ed built a formidable and lasting body of work including the 1939 classic of marine biology Between Pacific Tides (now in its 5th edition) and the genre-defying 1941 Sea of Cortez co-authored with John Steinbeck. After Ed?s tragic death in a 1948 train accident, it would take decades for his work to come out from Steinbeck?s shadow. In the early 1970?s, at Ricketts? colleague Joel Hedgpeth?s suggestion, Richard Astro would write John Steinbeck and Edward F. Ricketts: The Shaping of a Novelist, an important work of literary criticism which would lead to a rebirth of interest in Ricketts on his own merits. In 1978, Hedgpeth would publish Ricketts? papers in two paperback volumes titled The Outer Shores. In 1979, The Cannery Row foundation would erect a memorial bronze bust of Ricketts at the site of the accident. The turn of the 21st century would bring major advances. Eric Enno Tamm would publish a critical biography of Ricketts? last years while Katharine A. Rodger would publish Ricketts? essays and his letters, the latter with the apt title Renaissance Man of Cannery Row. Wave upon wave, the generations have discovered and re-discovering one of the 20th Century?s great citizen-scientists?all held together by the torsion of Ed Ricketts? personality and thought. The essays and letters in this auction are from the collection of Ed Ricketts Jr. and are accompanied by a significant collection of artifacts from the historic W
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![Ricketts' meticulous list of losses: Heading: (Pacific Biological Laboratories)Author: Ricketts, Edward F.Title: Contents of Pacific Biological Laboratories destroyed [by fire] Nov '36 Place Published: Monterey Publisher: Date](https://p1.liveauctioneers.com/642/361280/198014884_1_x.jpg?height=310&quality=70&version=1738369376)




![Peter Stackpole captures an exotic specimen: Heading: (Pacific Biological Laboratories)Author: Stackpole, PeterTitle: [Ed Ricketts holding jar of specimens at Pacific Biological Laboratories] Place Published: Publisher: Date Published: 1945;](https://p1.liveauctioneers.com/642/361280/198014889_1_x.jpg?height=310&quality=70&version=1738369376)
![Anna Ricketts' Memoirs from Ed. Jr.'s collection: Heading: Author: Ricketts, AnnaTitle: Recollections Place Published: Mill Valley, CA Publisher:Ed Ricketts Jr. Date Published: 1984 Description: [2], 57 leaves printed to rectos only. 28x21.7 cm](https://p1.liveauctioneers.com/642/361280/198014890_1_x.jpg?height=310&quality=70&version=1738369376)

![Portrait of Ed Ricketts by James Fitzgerald: Heading: (Ricketts, Edward F.)Author: James FitzgeraldTitle: [Portrait of Ed Ricketts] Place Published: Publisher: Date Published: No date Description: Etching. 17.3x12.6 cm (6¾x5"); sheet:](https://p1.liveauctioneers.com/642/361280/198014892_1_x.jpg?height=310&quality=70&version=1738369376)



