Catalog 106, A
2. ANDERSON, Kent. Sympathy for the Devil. Garden City: Doubleday, 1987. The advance reading copy of the well-received first novel by the author of the highly acclaimed Night Dogs. A powerful and well-written novel about the Special Forces in Vietnam, with whom the author served, which confronts the violence of war head-on and explores an individual's capacity for tolerating, and committing, brutality that in any other context would be unthinkable and inhuman. One of the best novels of the war in its lucid portrayal of the devastating effects of the war on even such an elite group as this and thus a powerful antiwar statement without the usual postures and attitudes normally associated with an antiwar message. Shot from typescript, this advance reading copy reproduces numerous holograph corrections and includes several dramatic scenes that were deleted from the final published version. Fine in wrappers and signed by the author.
3. -. Same title, the first French edition. (n.p.): Gallimard (1993). With a preface for this edition by James Crumley that was later issued in the U.S. in pamphlet form, and in English, by Pride of Tacoma Press. Owner name; near fine in lightly rubbed black wrappers. Together with a typed postcard signed by Anderson (March, 1996) to the book's former owner, thanking her for a photo that he considered using for the jacket of Night Dogs and describing his lack of success in conforming to academia's expectations of its teachers. He adds, "I'm hoping to get Night Dogs polished enough to send out in April & see how much money I can get for it." A typed postscript has been added on a label across the top responding to the death of Gustav Hasford, author of The Short-Timers. The text is typed on an 8" x 5-3/8" publicity card for Sympathy for the Devil. Near fine.
4. -. Same title, the first Warner Books paperback (NY: Warner Books, 1989). Spine-creased; very good in wrappers and signed by the author.
5. ANDERSON, Kent. Night Dogs. (Tucson): Dennis McMillan, 1996. His long-awaited second novel. This book follows Hanson, the protagonist of Sympathy for the Devil, after his return from Vietnam to his job as a beat cop in Portland, Oregon -- a path the author himself also took. This novel became one of the year's most sought-after books: the small first printing (1900 copies) was quickly exhausted; the book was re-issued by Bantam in 1998. This is the limited edition, one of only 100 copies bound in quarter morocco and marbled paper boards and signed by Kent Anderson and James Crumley, who provides the introduction. Fine in a fine dust jacket and publisher's slipcase.
6. ANDERSON, Scott. Triage. (NY): Scribner (1998). Well-received novel of a war photographer in a Third World "brushfire" war in Kurdistan. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
7. ANGELL, Roger. A Day in the Life of Roger Angell. (n.p.): (Viking) (1970). The author's second book, a collection of essays from The New Yorker, and a somewhat scarce title in any format. Angell is an editor at The New Yorker, and is also considered one of the best writers ever on baseball -- his books The Summer Game and Five Seasons being universally viewed as classics. His baseball reporting for The New Yorker elevates the genre of sportswriting to the realm of true literature. Near fine in wrappers, with a small "45" on the front cover, presumably the copy number.
8. ANGELOU, Maya. Gather Together in My Name. NY: Random House (1974). The uncorrected proof copy of her third book, a continuation of her personal memoir, begun in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Trifle spine-sunned; fine in wrappers. Uncommon: proofs from the pre-1978 era are considerably scarcer than their post-1978 counterparts.
9. (Anthology). World's Great Tales of the Sea. Cleveland/NY: World Publishing (1944). Edited by William McFee and previously published work by Joseph Conrad, Herman Melville, Stephen Crane, Jack London, James Gould Cozzens, C.S. Forester, Edgar Allen Poe, Rudyard Kipling, H.M. Tomlinson, Wilkie Collins, Brendan Gill and others. Lightly bowed boards; else fine in a near fine dust jacket.
10. (Anthology). Olympia, Vols. 1-4. Paris: Olympia Press, 1961-1963. The first four issues (all published?) of a magazine issued erratically due to censorship difficulties. Featuring William Burroughs, J.P. Donleavy, Terry Southern, Henry Miller, Harriet Daimler, Lawrence Durrell, Brion Gysin, Julio Cortazar and Gregory Corso, among others. Maurice Girodias, publisher of Olympia Press, had issued a large number of avant garde books in Paris during the 1950s -- writers who could not published in the U.S. or Great Britain because of the conservative social climate there. Burroughs, Corso, Donleavy, Miller, along with Vladimir Nabokov and Samuel Beckett, were published by Olympia when their work could not be sold in the U.S. or England. Pressure from the British government forced the French government to crack down on Girodias and Olympia, eventually resulting in the firm's bankruptcy. Quartos, in wrappers; near fine, except for Vol. 3, which is chipped at the top of the spine, thus very good. The fourth volume of this magazine turns up from time to time; volumes 1-3 are quite scarce. For the four:
11. (Anthology). Crime on Her Mind: Fifteen Stories of Female Sleuths from the Victorian Era to the Forties. NY: Pantheon Books (1975). A collection of stories featuring female detectives, but written by both female and male authors, including William Irish (Cornell Woolrich). Edited and inscribed by Michele Slung. Includes a list of over 100 female detectives from the past 150 years. An interesting look at women in detective fiction prior to the dramatic upsurge in female detectives and female mystery novelists that has taken place in the past 15 years and is so pervasive at this point that it is easy to forget how recent a development this is. Fine in a near fine dust jacket scratched on the rear panel.
12. (Anthology). The Great American Writers' Cookbook. Oxford: Yoknapatawpha Press (1981). Edited by Dean Faulkner Wells and with an introduction by Craig Claiborne, food critic for The New York Times. A collection of recipes from 175 writers including Maya Angelou, Toni Cade Bambara, John Barth, Donald Barthelme, John Cheever, Harry Crews, Joan Didion, E. L. Doctorow, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Gardner, Allen Ginsberg, Winston Groom, Donald Hall, John Hawkes, Ernest Hemingway, James Jones, Ken Kesey, Norman Mailer, Peter Matthiessen, Thomas McGuane, John McPhee, Arthur Miller, Joyce Carol Oates, Walker Percy, Reynolds Price, Tom Robbins, Micahel Shaara, Wallace Stegner, John Steinbeck, William Styron, Hunter Thompson, Eudora Welty, Tom Wolfe, and many others. Several writers, including Joseph Heller and Charles Portis, contribute excuses. An interesting collection of recipes and also a useful reference, in that it contains facsimile signatures of each of the contributors. Fine in ringbound cardstock covers.
13. (Anthology). The Best American Short Stories 1984. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984. The uncorrected proof copy. Edited and with an introduction by John Updike. With stories by Andre Dubus, Paul Bowles, Madison Smartt Bell, Mavis Gallant, Susan Minot, Joyce Carol Oates, Cynthia Ozick, Lowry Pei, Jonathan Penner, Norman Rush and James Salter, among others. Very near fine in wrappers.
14. (Anthology). Paths of Resistance. The Art and Craft of the Political Novel. Boston: Houghton Mifflin (1989). The uncorrected proof copy of this collection of original essays by Robert Stone, Isabel Allende, Charles McCarry, Marge Piercy and Gore Vidal. Spine-faded; near fine in wrappers.
15. (Anthology). Prize Stories 1990. The O. Henry Awards. NY: Doubleday (1990). The uncorrected proof copy. The collection includes work by Peter Matthiessen -- one of his relatively rare short stories -- T.C. Boyle, Joyce Carol Oates, Julie Schumacher, Marilyn Sides, Alice Adams, James Blaylock and Joanne Greenburg, among others. Fine in wrappers.
16. (Anthology). Lamps on the Brow. (Aliso Viejo): James Cahill Publishing, 1998. A collection of science fiction and fantasy stories by David Brin (author of The Postman), Andre Norton, Gene Wolfe (author of the Book of the New Sun tetralogy), A.E. Van Vogt, Harry C. Stubbs, Laura Resnick, Mike Resnick, Josepha Sherman, Bruce Bethke and Gregory Benford. Introduction by Ben Bova. Of a total edition of 300 copies, this is one of 26 lettered copies signed by the contributors. Fine in a fine slipcase.
17. ANTRIM, Donald. Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World. (NY): Viking (1993). His first novel, which received considerable praise and helped get him selected as one of The New Yorker magazine's "20 best young American writers." Fine in a fine dust jacket.
18. ANTRIM, Donald. The Hundred Brothers. NY: Crown (1997). His second book, billed as the second installment of a trilogy that began with Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World. This is a review copy, consisting of the trade edition, signed by the author, in publisher's printed cardstock slipcase. The book is fine in a fine dust jacket, with promotional slip laid in. A New Yorker 20 author.
19. -. Same title. The advance reading copy (marked "Uncorrected Proof"). Trace wear near the spine crown, else fine in wrappers.
20. ATWOOD, Margaret. The Circle Game. (n.p.): House of Anansi (1967). The second edition, and so-called "first trade edition," of this early collection of poetry that was first published in 1966 and won the Governor General's Award. One of 100 numbered copies signed by the author. An early limited edition for her -- precedes her first novel by two years -- and a small limitation. Fine in slipcase, without jacket, as issued.