Catalog 123, O-R
347. OATES, Joyce Carol. Upon the Sweeping Flood. NY: Vanguard (1966). Her third book, a collection of stories. Fine in a near fine, rubbed dust jacket.
348. OATES, Joyce Carol. A Garden of Earthly Delights. NY: Vanguard (1967). Her fourth book, second novel. Owner name front flyleaf; else fine in a near fine, edgeworn dust jacket with a shallow chip at the spine base.
349. OATES, Joyce Carol. Expensive People. NY: Vanguard (1968). Her fifth book, a novel. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with slight wear at the spine extremities.
350. -. Another copy. Signed by the author. Fine in a near fine, mildly spine-faded dust jacket with light wear at the spine extremities.
351. OATES, Joyce Carol. Anonymous Sins and Other Poems. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press (1969). Her uncommon first book of poetry. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
352. OATES, Joyce Carol. Love and Its Derangements. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press (1970). Inscribed by the author. Slight bump to upper edge; else fine in a rubbed, near fine dust jacket. Widely considered to be her scarcest trade publication.
353. OATES, Joyce Carol. Marriages & Infidelities. London: Victor Gollancz, 1974. The uncommon first British edition of this massive short story collection (~500 pp.). Fine in a near fine dust jacket with slight corner bumping.
354. OATES, Joyce Carol. Childwold. NY: Vanguard (1976). Fine in a fine dust jacket. A lovely copy.
355. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. Fine in tall wrappers. A scarce and fragile issue.
356. OATES, Joyce Carol. Daisy. Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow, 1977. One of 170 numbered hardcover copies from a total edition of 230 copies signed by the author. Fine in acetate dustwrapper, with an extra publisher's spine label laid in.
357. OATES, Joyce Carol. Son of the Morning. NY: Vanguard (1978). One of 200 numbered copies of the first edition designated as a limited edition by way of a colophon tipped to the front flyleaf that is signed by the author. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket.
358. OATES, Joyce Carol. Queen of the Night. Northridge: Lord John, 1979. A single story, published as a limited edition. Of a total edition of 350 copies, this is one of 300 numbered copies signed by the author. Fine in acetate jacket.
359. OATES, Joyce Carol. Unholy Loves. NY: Vanguard (1979). One of 100 numbered copies of the first edition designated as a limited edition by way of a colophon tipped to the front flyleaf that is signed by the author. An uncommon issue of this otherwise fairly common novel. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
360. OATES, Joyce Carol. All the Good People I've Left Behind. Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow, 1979. One of 300 numbered copies signed by the author. Fine in acetate dustwrapper.
361. OATES, Joyce Carol. Cybele. Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow, 1979. One of 50 numbered deluxe copies signed by the author. Fine in a fine slipcase.
362. OATES, Joyce Carol. Angel of Light. NY: Dutton (1981). Fine in a fine dust jacket.
363. -. Another copy. One of 500 numbered copies of the first edition designated as a limited edition by way of a colophon tipped to the front flyleaf that is signed by the author. Very slight corner bumping; still fine in a near fine dust jacket with a crease on the rear panel.
364. OATES, Joyce Carol. Nightless Nights. Concord: William B. Ewert, 1981. Of a total edition of 126 copies, this is one of 100 numbered copies saddle-stitched in paper wrappers and signed by the author. Fine.
365. -. Same title. One of 26 lettered copies handbound in marbled paper over boards and signed by the author. Fine.
366. OATES, Joyce Carol. Luxury of Sin. Northridge: Lord John Press, 1984. Of a total edition of 151, this is one of 26 lettered copies signed by the author, the entire hardcover edition. Bound in quarter leather and marbled paper boards. Fine.
367. OATES, Joyce Carol. Mysteries of Winterthurn. Franklin Center: Franklin Library, 1984. The correct first edition, a limited edition, signed by the author. Leatherbound, all edges gilt, silk ribbon marker bound in. With an introduction by Oates for this edition. Fine.
368. OATES, Joyce Carol. Marya. A Life. Franklin Center: Franklin Library, 1986. A limited edition, signed by the author. Leatherbound, all edges gilt, silk ribbon marker bound in. With an introduction by Oates for this edition. Fine.
369. OATES, Joyce Carol. Typed Postcard Signed. November 4, 1986. Oates declines to write an introduction for a catalog of her books and suggests another writer. Typed on an Ontario Review Press postcard; fine. This card was then listed as the final item in the aforementioned catalog where it was offered free to the first buyer of another item who requested it. The catalog, of 169 Oates titles, a useful bibliographic reference, is also included. Fine in stapled wrappers.
370. OATES, Joyce Carol. You Must Remember This. Franklin Center: Franklin Library, 1987. A limited edition of this novel, with an introduction written by Oates for this edition. Signed by the author. Leatherbound, all edges gilt, and with a silk ribbon marker bound in. Fine.
371. OATES, Joyce Carol. The Assignation. NY: Ecco Press (1988). The uncorrected proof copy. Ink check marks on title page; minor creasing and sunning to front cover; near fine in wrappers.
372. OATES, Joyce Carol. The Rise of Life on Earth. (NY): New Directions (1991). A short novel. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
373. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy in the form of ringbound galley sheets printed on rectos only. Fine in tall cardstock covers. Uncommon.
374. OATES, Joyce Carol. Twelve Plays. (NY): Plume/Dutton (1991). The uncorrected proof copy of this book that was simultaneously issued by Plume (softcover) and Dutton (hardcover) -- both of the Penguin Group -- and here containing both title pages. Near fine in wrappers.
375. (OATES, Joyce Carol). Portrait of Three Women. (n.p.): University of Arizona (1979). A program for three plays adapted from three Oates stories: "Matter and Energy," "In the Region of Ice" and "In the Autumn of the Year." The program excerpts sentences from each story and several remarks from Oates' National Book Award acceptance speech. Fine.
376. O'BRIEN, Tim. The Nuclear Age. NY: Knopf, 1985. The uncorrected proof copy of his fourth novel, about a man compelled to dig a bomb shelter in his back yard to protect his family even if it means losing them in the process. Paperclip mark inside front cover; publicity material laid in that was previously stapled to front cover; near fine in wrappers.
377. O'BRIEN, Tim. The Things They Carried. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. The first trade edition of his fifth book, chosen by The New York Times Book Review as one of the dozen best books of the year, in all categories. By broad consensus one of the best works of fiction to come out of the Vietnam war, and a book that straddles, or blurs, several usually distinct categories: it resembles a novel -- with characters that recur throughout the individual episodes; a memoir (the main character is named "Tim O'Brien" and bears many similarities to the author); and a collection of short stories, related but essentially independent. Whatever its category, it is a candidate to be considered the Vietnam war's equivalent to The Red Badge of Courage -- a straightforward story told from the perspective of one participant in the fighting, which rings with an authenticity that is made all the more powerful by the book's appearing not to pretend to much beyond a simple recounting. The sequence of episodes, however, is couched in a series of reflections on storytelling, the nature of stories, and their relation to truth, which gives the book its own context: while O'Brien writes for a contemporary audience that shares his knowledge of Vietnam, he is also writing for the ages -- for all those who will have only the story to go by, not the experience. The collection won the Heartland Award from the Chicago Tribune and the title story won a National Magazine Award, among numerous other honors that have been heaped on this volume. Like Michael Herr's Dispatches, this is one title that seems to be included in virtually every survey course of the field of Vietnam War literature. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine, first issue dust jacket.
378. -. Another copy. Signed by the author. Fine in a spine-faded, second issue dust jacket.
379. OLSEN, Tillie. Tell Me a Riddle. (NY): Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence (1978). The limited edition of the reissue of her first book, published by Seymour Lawrence when he published her new book, Silences, a nonfiction account of her writing life -- and the "silences" she was forced into by the household obligations placed on women in this society above and beyond those faced by men, to the detriment of artistic expression. Olsen's early writing was rediscovered when Silences came out, and was esteemed as a kind of proto-feminist literature that had been relegated to obscurity by the passage of time. One of 100 copies signed by the author. Fine in a fine slipcase.
380. O'NEILL, Eugene. Strange Interlude. NY: Boni & Liveright (1928). The third of the Nobel Prize winner's four Pulitzer Prize-winning plays. Fine in a very good, price-clipped dust jacket with chips at the crown and the heel and a smaller chip (laid in) at mid spine.
381. O'NEILL, Eugene. The Iceman Cometh. NY: Random House (1946). Fine in a very good dust jacket with modest rubbing to the edges and folds, a short upper edge tear on the front panel and a larger tear to the lower rear flap fold.
382. ORWELL, George. Down and Out in Paris and London. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1933. The first American edition of Orwell's first book, an account of life among the poor in Paris and London, with whom he lived for a number of months, in order to experience their plight first-hand. As such, it set the stage for his further nonfiction, which was marked by clear writing, sympathy for the underdog, and a disdain for dogma and rhetorical excess -- the exact elements that informed his best fiction as well. Owner inscription on half-title; spine moderately tanned; very good, lacking the dust jacket.
383. ORWELL, George. Animal Farm. NY: Harcourt, Brace (1946). The first American edition of this allegorical tale of tyranny. Flaking to spine gilt; trace wear to cloth at crown; very near fine in a good, rubbed and price-clipped dust jacket with several small edge chips and two narrow open tears at mid-spine.
384. ORWELL, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. NY: Harcourt Brace (1949). The first American edition of his classic dystopia, a chilling extrapolation of the political tendencies in postwar Great Britain and one of the most influential works of the century -- whose very title became a synonym for an oppressive police state, and which introduced to the language and the political vernacular such words and concepts as "thought police," "newspeak," "doublethink," and "Big Brother." One of Pringle's hundred best science fiction novels, a Burgess 99 and Connolly 100 title, and also chosen as one of the novels of the century by the Modern Library, Radcliffe, Waterstones and the New York Public Library. Several penciled notes in text; slight wear at crown; near fine in a spine-faded red dust jacket chipped at the extremities and rubbed at the folds; about very good. One of the defining books of the modern era.
385. ORWELL, George. Homage to Catalonia. NY: Harcourt Brace (1952). The first American edition of Orwell's personal account of the Spanish Civil War, in which he was wounded. When the book was first published, in England in 1938, Orwell's careful account of the manner in which the Spanish Communists betrayed the Republic, with whom they were nominally allied, contradicted the leftist orthodoxy of the day and the book was largely ignored. When this edition was published (posthumously) in 1952, it included an introduction by Lionel Trilling that didn't appear in the original edition and put Orwell's sympathies, and his political transformation, in context. Rear board bumped at foredge; near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
386. PATON, Alan. Cry, the Beloved Country. NY: Scribner (1948). The first American edition of Paton's first novel, a modern classic of racial prejudice under South Africa's apartheid system -- a bellwether book for race relations in this country as well as a searing exposé of conditions in Paton's own country. Owner name and date on front flyleaf; sunning at spine crown; near fine in a very good, spine-faded and edgeworn dust jacket with shallow chipping at the spine extremities and several internally tape-repaired edge tears.
387. PERCY, Walker. Lost in the Cosmos. NY: FSG (1983). Subtitled "The Last Self-Help Book," this is a volume of sociological, semiological and philosophical musings and speculations. Signed by the author. Trace foxing to page edges; else fine in a near fine dust jacket.
388. (PERCY, Walker). CIUBA, Gary M. Walker Percy: Books of Revelations. Athens: University of Georgia Press (1991). A full-length critical study of Percy's six novels. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
389. PIERCY, Marge. Breaking Camp. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press (1968). Her first book, a collection of poems, this being the hardcover issue. Fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
390. PIERCY, Marge. Going Down Fast. NY: Trident (1969). Her first novel, third book, a story of political and social unrest in the late Sixties. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
391. PIERCY, Marge. Dance the Eagle to Sleep. Garden City: Doubleday, 1970. Bookplate front pastedown; else fine in a very good dust jacket with rubbing, an edge tear and a gutter tear to the rear panel and a nick at mid-spine.
392. PIERCY, Marge. Small Changes. Garden City: Doubleday, 1973. Her third novel and probably her most well-known book, which has been a standard text in women's studies courses since its publication. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with a glowing Thomas Pynchon blurb. A very nice copy of one of the notoriously cheaply-produced Doubleday books of the early 70s.
393. RECHY, John. City of Night. NY: Grove (1963). Rechy's first book, depicting the underside of several U.S. cities, in particular the gay subculture. As such, it has become something of a classic of gay literature. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with slight fading to the red stripes on the spine.
394. REED, Ishmael. Chattanooga. NY: Random House (1973). A collection of poetry by the author of Mumbo Jumbo and editor of Yardbird -- the second collection by this African American poet. This is the issue in wrappers, with erratum slip laid in. Inscribed by the author to another poet and novelist: "To ___/ a superb/ poet/ Ishmael/ profound affection." Near fine.
395. RICHTER, Conrad. The Sea of Grass. NY: Knopf, 1937. His second book, a Jeff Dykes High Spot of Western Fiction. Small tape shadows to endpages; stripes of foxing to sections of the text; about near fine in a spine-darkened dust jacket with chipped extremities and fragile folds.
396. ROBBINS, Tom. Still Life With Woodpecker. NY: Bantam (1980). The hardcover issue of his third novel (there was a simultaneous softcover). Contemporary reports indicated the first printing as 2500 copies, compared with 25,000 for the softcover. Although we are skeptical that the hardcover printing was that small, this title was one of the very first hardcovers published by Bantam, which had previously been a mass market paperback publisher, and a conservative first printing of a hardcover edition of a book aimed at the "youth market" would have been in order. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with trace rubbing at the edges. A nice copy.
397. ROETHKE, Theodore. Collected Poems. Garden City: Doubleday, 1966. A posthumously published edition of Roethke's complete poems, with the exception of a book of verse he did for children, and including a group of previously unpublished poems. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with mild staining predominantly visible on verso.
398. ROGERS, Pattiann. Legendary Performance. Memphis: Ion Books/Raccoon (1987). The third book by this award-winning poet, warmly inscribed by the author to another poet and his wife in 1988. Fine in wrappers and dust jacket. A very nice association copy.
399. ROGERS, Pattiann. Firekeeper. New and Selected Poems. (Minneapolis): Milkweed Editions (1994). Selections from her previously published volume and a large group of new poems. Only issued in wrappers. With blurbs by Barry Lopez, Terry Tempest Williams, Denise Levertov and others. Inscribed by the author to another poet and his wife: "For ___ & ___ -/ with much/ thanks for warm/ hospitality, good conversation,/ for your presence -/ Pattiann/ 9/5/94." Fine.