Catalog 120, C
41. CAPOTE, Truman. Local Color. NY: Random House (1950). Capote's uncommon third book, a collection of short sketches of various people and places, illustrated with photographs by nine photographers, including Cecil Beaton, Henri Cartier-Bresson and others. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with edge tears at the upper folds.
42. CAPOTE, Truman. The Grass Harp. (NY): Random House (1951). His fourth book, second novel. This is the first issue, in rough beige cloth. Strips of offsetting to endpages; else fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket with a small nick at the lower edge of the front panel and several small spots on the rear panel.
43. CAPOTE, Truman. Autograph Letter Signed. Dated May 4, 1966. A letter to novelist Don Carpenter, apparently in response to a note from Carpenter to Capote. In part: "I read your review in Ramparts. That's a passionate embrace compared with some of the blows I've rolled with over the years. As for your own reaction to criticism, you'll just have to learn to ignore it. Of course, with a first book that's very tough to do. But it's a good book, and it will find its own appreciative admirers..." Capote goes on to tell Carpenter that he's recommended him for a grant in creative writing from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. The context of the letter is that Carpenter, as a young writer associated with the political left and the counterculture poets of the 1960s San Francisco Bay Area, had written an unfavorable review of Capote's In Cold Blood for Ramparts magazine, a publication associated with both the New Left and the counterculture. A year or so later, when Carpenter's first novel, Hard Rain Falling (which took its title from the lyrics of a Bob Dylan song), came out and received some unfavorable reviews, Carpenter realized what it felt like to be on the receiving end of such comments. Apparently he wrote to Capote to apologize for his rough treatment of In Cold Blood a year earlier, and this was Capote's very gracious response. Folded for mailing, otherwise fine, with original mailing envelope addressed in Capote's hand.
44. CAPOTE, Truman. Autograph Postcard Signed. Dated May (?) 6, 1968. A postcard to novelist Don Carpenter, in which he thanks Carpenter for his letter and comments on Carpenter's recently published novel, Blade of Light: "I liked Blade of Light immensely and have long been meaning to write you about it -- but you don't know what a year of problems this has been! Was very pleased that Blade was so widely and well reviewed..." He exhorts Carpenter to let him know if he will be coming to New York at some point, and to keep in touch. Near fine.
45. CARCATERRA, Lorenzo. Sleepers. NY: Ballantine Books (1995). Well-received nonfiction thriller. Inscribed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
46. CARTER, Angela. Typescript. [August 1985]. Five pages, ribbon copy typescript with numerous holograph corrections and changes, using the subject of collectible antique dolls as the basis for an essay on the indoctrination of the female gender role. Carter was one of the most notable practitioners of magical realism in English, and her work helped create and define the genre of feminist science fiction and fantasy. The manuscript is together with an autograph note signed transmitting the article. Each of these is folded in half for mailing; else fine, with envelope. Also together with a typed note signed from July reconfirming that the article is underway; a typed letter signed from October agreeing to changes and sending a gift of a book of hers that had not been published in the U.S.; and an autograph postcard signed from April 1986 expressing pleasure at the published version. The postcard concludes, "Am doing my taxes -- / Love, A." The letters are folded, else fine; they and the postcard have mailing envelopes. Manuscript or autograph material by Carter, the author of The Magic Toyshop (John Llewellyn Rhys Prize), Several Perceptions (Somerset Maugham Prize), Nights at the Circus (James Tait Black Memorial Prize) and The Sadeian Woman, among others, is uncommon.
47. CARVER, Raymond. Carnations. A Play in One Act. (Vineburg, CA): Engdahl Typography (1993). Edited and with an Afterword by Carver's bibliographer, William Stull, and with an Introduction by Richard Cortez Day. Of a total edition of 200 copies, this is the deluxe edition, one of 26 lettered copies quarterbound in leather and black cloth, with marbled endpapers and gilt spine lettering. A beautiful edition of a previously unpublished Carver play. Carnations was originally written and performed in 1962, when the author was at Humboldt State University. Spine a bit sunned; else fine in black cloth slipcase.
48. CHILD, Lee. Echo Burning. NY: Putnam (2001). The first American edition of this Jack Reacher novel. Signed by the author. Cocked, with slight corner bumps; near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
49. CLARK, Walter Van Tilburg. Autograph Letter Signed. Dated April 10, 1965. A long letter by Clark to novelist Don Carpenter, a year or so before Carpenter's first novel was published. Clark, a Nevada writer and author of the Western classics The Ox-Bow Incident and Track of the Cat, among others, was one of the deans of Western literature through the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s. Carpenter apparently had written him to propose an anthology of a novel sort -- one that would link the tradition of the Wild West, and the free spirits who shaped it, with the contemporary West and the independent sorts who were populating the Bay Area, with whom Carpenter was closely involved. Clark's letter is an interesting mix of supportiveness and curmudgeonly dismissal of the "city beatnik[s]." On the one hand, he opens the letter by reminiscing about some time he and Carpenter had spent together in Nevada and says "your thesis for the anthology seems to me sound, a good thematic line (?) for selection. I'd protest only one thing..." and goes on to write at length about how the "take-it-as-it-comes attitude of the early westerners was a very different thing from the 'ain't-nothing-here-and-never-will-be' view of the contemp. city beatnik." He goes on to point out the frontiersmen's roots as cowboys -- people who often turned to being outlaws because they couldn't stand the fencing in of the land, and the urbanization that was beginning to take place -- an implied contrast, again, with the city beatnik. An interesting letter, that touches on themes of Western literature while pointing out the contrasting elements of what, from a contemporary vantage point, looks much more like the kind of unified tradition that Carpenter, in 1965, had been positing: the Beats are widely seen these days as true descendants of the (somewhat romanticized) Cowboy Wanderer tradition -- independent, anti-authoritarian and, as Clark points out regarding such characters as Jedediah Smith, Wild Bill Hickcock and Doc Holliday, "those early boys lived for the here-and-now & most of them did it with considerable zest, & their optimism came largely from a confidence that a lively here and now meant a long future, including the personal lucky break," -- an attitude that could as easily, in retrospect, describe Jack Kerouac's characters in On the Road or The Dharma Bums, many of whom were Carpenter's friends, associates and literary mentors. A few smudges; near fine. With the original mailing envelope.
50. CONKLE, E.P. 200 Were Chosen. NY: Samuel French, 1937. A play about Alaska colonists in 1935, which has been compared to Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, and which was chosen by Burns Mantle as one of the "ten best plays in America." Price sticker rear pastedown; else fine in a near fine, spine-tanned dust jacket. A beautiful copy of an uncommon book by the prolific playwright.
51. CONNELLY, Michael. The Black Ice. Boston: Little Brown (1993). The advance reading copy of the author's second novel in his well-received Hieronymous Bosch series. "As Is" stamped on lower page edges; scratch to front cover; near fine in wrappers.
52. CONNELLY, Michael. Blood Work. Boston: Little Brown (1997). The advance reading copy of this novel that introduced Terrell McCaleb, a retired FBI agent. Signed by the author. Fine in wrappers.
53. CONNELLY, Michael. A Darkness More than Night. Boston: Little Brown (2000). The advance reading copy of this novel that features Harry Bosch and Terry McCaleb, the protagonist of Blood Work. Near fine in wrappers.
54. -. Same title. New Orleans: B.E. Trice, 2000. A limited edition. One of 400 numbered copies signed by the author. Fine in a fine slipcase.
55. -. Same title, the deluxe issue. One of 100 numbered copies quarterbound in leather and signed by the author. Fine in a fine slipcase.
56. CREWS, Harry. The Gospel Singer. NY: Morrow, 1968. His uncommon first novel. Signed by the author in 1969 at Bread Loaf Writer's Conference. Fading to pastedowns, as usual; small label partially removed from front flyleaf; else fine in a fine dust jacket. The Gospel Singer had a first printing of only 4000 copies, the smallest printing of any of his trade editions.
57. CREWS, Harry. Naked in Garden Hills. NY: Morrow, 1969. The correct first edition of Crews' second book, with white endpapers; without the dots on the copyright page; and in the first issue dust jacket, which has reviews of The Gospel Singer on the rear panel. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with one internally-mended edge tear.
58. CREWS, Harry. This Thing Don't Lead to Heaven. NY: Morrow, 1970. His third book. A few spots to pages in the 120 range; thus near fine in a near fine dust jacket internally strengthened at the crown.
59. CREWS, Harry. Karate is a Thing of the Spirit. NY: Morrow, 1971. His fourth novel, which is generally considered one of his best books and like most of his books features an array of extreme, barely plausible characters who, on closer inspection, turn out to be an awful lot like most of us. Faint top edge foxing; else fine in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
60. CREWS, Harry. Car. NY: Morrow, 1972. His fifth book, a hilarious and grotesque novel about a man who sets out to eat a car, bumper to bumper. Faint top edge foxing, still fine in a fine dust jacket.
61. CREWS, Harry. The Gypsy's Curse. NY: Knopf, 1974. A novel about a deformed, deaf mute circus performer who specializes in feats of hand-balancing. A bizarre, moving and, as usual, lucidly written novel from a writer who redefined Southern grotesque. Fine in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
62. CREWS, Harry. A Feast of Snakes. NY: Atheneum, 1976. Crews switched publishers for this book, and it is less common than some of his other titles from the same period. Fine in a very near fine, price-clipped dust jacket with a bit of the orange from the endpages offset to the flaps.
63. CREWS, Harry. A Childhood: The Biography of a Place. NY: Harper & Row (1978). A highly praised memoir that has become something of a classic, and has since been issued in a number of different editions, rarely going out of print. For all that Crews is most noted, and most flamboyant, as a novelist, it is interesting and even a bit ironic that this nonfiction volume should be the book of his that has had the most "legs," as they say. Mild foredge foxing; else fine in a fine dust jacket.
64. CREWS, Harry. Florida Frenzy. Gainesville: University Presses of Florida (1982). A collection of essays and short fiction pieces, not issued in hardcover. Inscribed by the author. Mild fading to spine lettering; else fine in wrappers.
65. CREWS, Harry. All We Need of Hell. NY: Harper & Row (1987). Trace top edge foxing; else fine in a fine dust jacket.
66. CREWS, Harry. The Knockout Artist. NY: Harper & Row (1988). A novel about a boxer, which combines the toughness and sweetness, as well as the humor, that Crews is known for. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
67. CREWS, Harry. Body. NY: Poseidon (1990). Faint top edge foxing; fine in a fine dust jacket.
68. CROWLEY, John. Little, Big. London: Gollancz, 1982. The first British edition and also the first hardcover edition of his fourth book, winner of the World Fantasy Award and a landmark of contemporary fantasy. Ursula Le Guin commented that this book, all by itself, calls for a redefinition of the fantasy genre. Mixing magic, myth and fairy tale with a plausible contemporary story, Crowley goes a step beyond "magical realism" into a realm that could be characterized as the obverse: a realistic take on magic. Because there was a simultaneous softcover issue, the hardcover printing was small, reported at various times as 300, 600, or 900 copies. Trace foxing to top edge; still a fine copy in a very near fine, price-clipped dust jacket with a bit of creasing at mid spine. Signed by the author. Scarce.
69. CRUMLEY, James. The Wrong Case. NY: Random House (1975). His second and scarcest book and his first mystery, introducing Milo Milodragovitch, a down-at-the-heels alcoholic private investigator. Signed by the author and additionally inscribed in the month of publication: "For Steve [Krauzer]/, in hope of a good summer of whiskey,/ work, + cards./ Jim Crumley/ June 16th '76." A nice association copy: Krauzer is a Montana writer, and friend of Crumley's, who co-edited an issue of TriQuarterly magazine devoted to Western fiction and co-authored, with William Kittredge, a paperback series of Western novels. Spine-cocked, minor sunning to boards and cloth with one small stain; a very good copy in a good dust jacket with an edge tear at the crown and dampstaining around the lower front flap fold.
70. CRUMLEY, James. The Last Good Kiss. NY: Random House (1978). His third book, second mystery, written in hardboiled style but with a comic edge that predates such popular contemporary novelists as Carl Hiaasen. Signed by the author and additionally inscribed before publication: "For Steve [Krauzer]/ who's managed to survive/ (grandly) in Montana in spite/ of his academic background./ Best of everything./ Jim/ 9/16/78." Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Again, a nice association copy between two writers.
71. CRUMLEY, James. Dancing Bear. NY: Random House (1983). His third mystery, fourth book. Fine in a very near fine, mildly sunned dust jacket.
72. CRUMLEY, James. The Mexican Tree Duck. (NY): Mysterious (1993). A mystery featuring C.W. Sughrue, a sequel to The Last Good Kiss. Inscribed by the author to writer Steve Krauzer and his wife, "from the old Missoula." Fine in a fine dust jacket. A nice association.
73. CRUMLEY, James. Bordersnakes. (NY): Mysterious Press (1996). A novel featuring both his detective protagonists -- Milo Milodragovitch and C.W. Sughrue. Inscribed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
74. CRUMLEY, James. The Final Country. (NY): Mysterious Press (2001). A mystery featuring Milo Milodragovitch. Inscribed by the author: "Steve -/ a novel of the old days./ Thanks./ Jim Crumley." Very slight spine base bump; else fine in a fine dust jacket.