On Tuesday, Bonhams auction house was hoping bidders would take a page from Alexander Pope's book and pledge, like him, to "keep the pictures of Dryden, Milton, Shakespeare, etc., in my chamber, round about me, that the constant remembrance of 'em may keep me always humble." The London auction house was selling off manuscripts, letters, and other autograph papers by, and charming portraits of, great writers and poets who lived in a time before this latest governmental axe dealt its stinging blow to the artistically inclined.

From the collection of Roy Davids, a retired member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association and a former head of Sotheby's post-medieval manuscripts and book departments, the prime works that went under the hammer were clearly culled by a true bibliophile. And, of course, in gathering the portraits — which you can view with their selling prices in the slide show at left — Davids himself was heeding Pope's advice. For the man himself is a poet, having penned the volume "White Noise" in 2006 and "The Double-Ended Key" this year — no doubt while gazing into the painted and photographed eyes of his predecessors for inspiration.