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All books are first printings of first editions or first American editions unless otherwise noted.

click for a larger image of item #35975, Turn About [NY], Saturday Evening Post, 1932. A previously unknown Faulkner "A" item -- an offprint of this story from the March 5, 1932 issue of the Saturday Evening Post. Apart from this offprint, the story was not published separately until 1939, by W. L. Massiah of Ottawa, Canada. Not in Petersen, where Peter Howard of Serendipity Books, in the 645-page catalog of the Petersen collection, proclaimed the 1939 Canadian publication, A.21.2, to be "by far the rarest of Faulkner's published books." Howard priced that copy at $17,500 in 1992. Nonetheless, OCLC now shows 6 copies of the Canadian edition published by Massiah, but no copies of this offprint. "Turn About" was first published in the Saturday Evening Post, then collected in O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1932 and then in the Faulkner collection Doctor Martino and Other Stories. The text of the story in the book publications differs slightly from the magazine version: in the second paragraph of the original magazine story, the main character is described as having "a little dull gold mustache," a part of his description that is dropped in the later book publications. The Massiah publication and this offprint both have the mustache phrase, tying them to the original Post publication. In addition, the text of the Post story is broken into sections, numbered with Roman numerals. The Massiah publication has the sections, separated by a filigree; the book publications forego the sections altogether. This offprint is the only version, other than the original magazine version, that separates the text with Roman numerals. Petersen and Howard speculated that the Massiah edition had been based on tearsheets of the magazine. It is more likely that the Massiah edition was based on this offprint -- a stapled offprint being more likely to survive the intervening seven years intact than loose tearsheets. There is at least one place where a comma has been added to the 1932 O. Henry text, which did not appear in the original magazine or this offprint, again helping to date the offprint to approximately the time of the original magazine, and not to a point after it had been edited for a book. At the last appearance of the Massiah edition at auction, in 2010, Christie's wrote about it: "EXCEEDINGLY SCARCE: no copies have appeared at auction in at least fifty years, according to American Book Prices Current. Petersen did not have it at the time of his first book (1975) -- he first recorded it in his On the Track of the Dixie Limited in 1979 and it is in the Serendipity catalogue of 1991. Not in the Brodsky, Massey, University of Mississippi or University of Texas collections. Petersen A21.2." We can only add that this is even more true of this offprint, which until now has apparently remained totally unknown, and has not been in any of the great Faulkner collections, including all of the ones mentioned by Christie's. 28 stapled pages; one page corner turned; a handful of mostly marginal pencil markings ("x's"); near fine in stapled wrappers. [#035975] $25,000
click for a larger image of item #33847, Early Photographs from the Collection of William S. Burroughs [ca 1950s]. An album containing early photographs by and of William S. Burroughs and other figures of the Beat generation, including photo collages and partial collages, with annotations by Burroughs; a photobooth portrait; a passport photo; a negative of an unpublished Brion Gysin photograph of Burroughs from 1959 (with contemporary archival print); and other images. 32 photographs in all, plus calling cards of Bruno Heinrich and Charles Henri Ford, and a copy of Driffs magazine -- "The Antiquarian and Second Hand Book Fortnightly" -- which includes Part 1 of Iain Sinclair's "Definitive Catalogue" of the Beats -- this part being devoted entirely to the works of William Burroughs, with this album as item number 80 in the catalogue.

The photographs are primarily from the early 1950s -- the ones annotated by Burroughs having dates from 1952 to 1954. Several photographs are taped together, forming early visual collages, while a number of the individual photos have sellotape along their edges, suggesting they were at one time part of a larger collage. The collages, or collage fragments, represent some of Burroughs' earliest attempts to use visual images in the way he was using words -- to transcend time and space, and link together various aspects of his life and world, in ways that correlate to a "mindscape" -- akin to the connections between the stories he wrote during that period that were collectively known as the Interzone, which was also an early title for Naked Lunch.

Brion Gysin, in his 1964 essay, 'Cut ups: A Project for Disastrous Success,' wrote that "Burroughs was more intent on Scotch-taping his photos together into one great continuum on the wall, where scenes faded and slipped into one another, than occupied with editing the monster manuscript" -- i.e., Naked Lunch, aka his Word Hoard. And Burroughs wrote in one of his Adding Machine essays: "I was back in my old garden room at the Villa Muniria [in Tangier], and it was here that I first started making photo-montages." This was March 1961.

The provenance of this group of materials is "the legendary Hardiment suitcase," belonging to poet Melville Hardiment, a friend of Burroughs during the years 1960-62, who is also known as the first person to have given Burroughs LSD, apparently without Burroughs' advance knowledge. Hardiment's wife at the time was Harriet Crowder, a photographer who is well-known for having taken the portrait of Burroughs on the LP "Call Me Burroughs." Hardiment bought a number of items from Burroughs in that time period and famously kept them in a suitcase. According to his second wife, Pat Hardiment, Melville would sell off the contents bit by bit, when he needed money. One group of materials ended up at the University of Kansas, and is known there as the Burroughs-Hardiment Collection: this group went from Hardiment to the bookseller Pat Zanelli, to bookseller Larry Wallrich, and then to the university.

A second group of photographs and collages went into the collection of photographer Richard Lorenz, and were exhibited in the 1996 show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art -- "Ports of Entry: William S. Burroughs and the Arts." By 1996, Burroughs' influence on the visual arts was sufficiently deep and widespread to justify a museum show of its own. The photos and collages in the Lorenz collection were of the same subjects, from the same time period, with the same annotations as the Kansas photos, and would appear to have also come from Hardiment's suitcase. Several of the Lorenz images remain taped together forming collages, or mini-collages; many others, though, now stand alone, although by the evidence they were once part of a larger construct.

This third group, offered here, went from Hardiment to Iain Sinclair, likely again via Pat Zanelli (Sinclair recalls buying the lot from a woman bookseller, and Zanelli is the most likely candidate). Like the photos in Kansas and those in the Lorenz collection, many of these have sellotape on the edges, and like the collages in the Lorenz collection, some are still taped together, forming collages themselves or representing collage fragments.

Tape shadows on the versos of some of the images both here and at the University of Kansas hint that Burroughs may have created the collages and then, when he began experimenting with the cut-up technique in writing, have cut-up the collages with the intent of applying this same technique to visual imagery. The Lorenz items were not presently available for examination of their versos, but some evidence supports this notion, such as that some of the images in the collages were partially torn away, and that there was evidence of the collages having been part of a larger grouping previously.

William S. Burroughs is known as a key figure of the literary avant garde of the 20th century, and the impact of his work on the visual arts -- both his own artwork and others' works derived from his literary writings -- was sufficient to justify a major museum show and catalog. These snapshots and snapshot collages represent some of his earliest efforts to explore the ideas he was working on in his writing using visual materials. Isaac Gewirtz, the curator of the Burroughs archive in the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library, wrote in his book on Burroughs, Beatific Soul, that the Interzone was an "imaginary city" which was "a combination of New York, Mexico City, and Tangier" in which Burroughs "construct[ed] hallucinatory, interconnected narratives for its numerous characters." These groups of photographs show Burroughs venturing even farther afield and including "Tetuan" [i.e., Tetouan], in Morocco; Huanuco, in Peru; and Paris, as part of his interzone, or mindscape. The Huanuco photographs and a Pucallpa, Peru calling card date from Burroughs' trip to South American to meet with Harvard ethno-botanist Richard Evans Schultes (aka "Dr. Schindler" in The Yage Letters) to try ayahuasca for the first time.

Early, seminal material from William S. Burroughs, an icon of the Beat Generation, whom Norman Mailer, in 1962, called "the only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius."

[#033847] $24,900
click for a larger image of item #34924, Light in August (NY), Smith & Haas, (1932). A Yoknapatawpha County novel that is considered his "most penetrating and dramatic analysis of contemporary Southern society." Fine in a fine dust jacket. A strikingly beautiful copy of one of the high spots of 20th century American literature: probably the brightest, freshest copy we've seen in 40+ years of selling modern first editions; the orange topstain is as bright as the orange of the fine dust jacket. Housed in a custom three-quarter leather clamshell case. [#034924] $15,000
click for a larger image of item #34923, Mosquitoes New York, Boni & Liveright, 1927. Faulkner's second novel, which had a first printing of 3047 copies. Bookplate gently tipped to the front pastedown. Slight push to the crown and trace wear to corners, but a very near fine copy with the orange stamping on the front cover and spine still bright and fresh, in a lightly rubbed, near fine example of the first issue "mosquitoes" dust jacket. A very attractive copy of a book seldom found in this condition. [#034923] $8,500
click for a larger image of item #24825, The Golden Triangle - The Gold Heart 1988. An original Burroughs painting, which became part of the Seven Deadly Sins exhibition at The Writer's Place, Kansas City, Missouri, in 1993. Acrylic and spray paint on poster board: a gold triangle and heart spray-painted against a background acrylic image of black, blue and gray. Signed by Burroughs. 20" x 32". Mounted and framed to 24" x 36". Fine. Burroughs, whose Naked Lunch, Soft Machine, and numerous other works helped define the Beat generation and redefine the psychedelic novel, also worked in the visual media from the early 1950s on, experimenting first with collages and later with what he called "nagual art" -- art infected by chance, which had the possibility of giving the viewer access to what Burroughs called a "port of entry," an access to a different universe or a different way of seeing our own. In writing, Burroughs adopted the "cut-up" technique, with Brion Gysin, to achieve similar ends: a final product that was, in part, a product of chance or, at the very least, forces beyond the artist's direct control and manipulation. [#024825] $7,500
click for a larger image of item #28091, Original Drawing for Tornado Alley 1988. An original drawing by Wilson for Burroughs' 1989 book Tornado Alley. This image was included in the exhibition "Ports of Entry: William Burroughs and the Arts" that was mounted by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1996, and it is reproduced on page 140 of the exhibition catalog. Interestingly, the illustration in the book does not show some of the work that Wilson did, as it was done using nonrepro blue pencil which does not show up when photographed: Wilson's edits didn't appear in Tornado Alley and they don't appear in Ports of Entry, but they are quite visible in the work itself. Wilson, one of the great artists of the underground comix of the 1960s and beyond, whom R. Crumb has said was a major influence on Crumb's own work, collaborated with Burroughs on a number of projects. This is not only a significant work of art, and a significant association with Burroughs, but it is also signed by Wilson, who has added, "To Nelson" next to his signature: Wilson gave this work to his friend Nelson Lyon, who loaned it to the exhibition and is listed in the book as one of the lenders to the exhibit. This is, in effect, a three-way association: Nelson Lyon was the co-producer of Burroughs' Dead City Radio, a 1990 album of Burroughs reading his work (including pieces from Tornado Alley) against a background of experimental music by various artists. 9-3/4" x 6-3/4". Matted and framed. Fine. A notable association copy, and an artifact of one of the great collaborations that Burroughs engaged in. [#028091] $7,500
London, A. Smith, 1929. With photographs by the author. Bound by Sangorski and Sutcliffe in full leather stamped in gilt and blind with raised bands and a front cover design incorporating the author's initials from a design on the title page. All edges gilt. The colophon states "Designed by W.B. Dalton and W.H. Amery with the assistance of the Artistic Typography Class of The Camberwell School of Arts & Crafts, London. Printed under the direction of H.G. Wicks by A. Smith & Co., 30 Sangley Road, London, S.E.6." One of 500 copies, although it appears that most were bound in quarter leather and only the first 30 (50?) were bound in full leather. Apparently each of the leatherbound copies had a different design, and some were bound by Sangorski and Sutcliffe and others by Douglas Cockerel. A trifle scratched on the rear cover, but still fine in a near fine slipcase. A very attractive copy. [#027368] $3,500
click for a larger image of item #33085, Junkie London, Bruce and Watson, (1973). First hardcover edition of this title, published in an edition of 1500 copies. Variant brown cloth -- M&M describes black cloth, and olive green cloth has also been noted. Inscribed by the author to Bob Jackson in 1984. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. An uncommon edition, especially signed (and signed authentically). [#033085] $3,000
click for a larger image of item #33095, Naked Lunch (NY), Grove Press, (1959)[1962]. The first American edition of this classic novel of the Beat generation, which was not published in the U.S. until three years after its Paris publication, and until a legal challenge to its banning was successful. Such authors as Norman Mailer testified as to the literary value and accomplishment of Burroughs' work. Basis for the 1991 David Cronenberg film featuring Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, Julian Sands, and Roy Scheider. Inscribed by the author in 1984 for Bob Jackson. Fine in a near fine dust jacket but for creasing and a couple small chips along the top edge. A very nice copy in the original, pre-zip code, dust jacket. The first printing of the U.S. edition was only 3500 copies -- smaller even than the original Olympia Press paperback in Paris, which had a 5000-copy first printing. [#033095] $2,500
click for a larger image of item #34922, Soldiers' Pay NY, Boni & Liveright, (1926). His second book, first novel. Modest wear to corners and spine gilt. A near fine copy, lacking the rare dust jacket. In custom gilt-stamped, full leather slipcase. [#034922] $2,500
click for a larger image of item #34948, The Sound and the Fury (n.p.), Twentieth Century Fox, 1957. The "Final Script" of the screenplay adaptation of Faulkner's novel. The movie starred Yul Brynner and Joanne Woodward. 150 pages. Wear to the yapped covers, and fragile along the spine. Stamped as copy "32." A very good copy, now protected by a custom clamshell case. [#034948] $2,500
click for a larger image of item #33147, Photographs ca. 1983-84. Six black and white photographs (not stated but) by Abe Frajndlich, of William Burroughs, or parts thereof: two photos of Burroughs seated inside at a desk; two photos of Burroughs outside in a trench coat and hat; one photo of Burroughs' coat, hat and cane on the floor next to a baseboard heater; one photo of Burroughs' hands as he signs a copy of The Place of Dead Roads. Each photo is 8-1/2" x 11"; faint staining to a few margins, else fine. Frajndlich is known for his portraits of photographers, and of others involved in the arts. [#033147] $2,000
click for a larger image of item #33109, The Soft Machine Paris, Olympia, (1961). The true first edition, published in Paris by Maurice Girodias' press five years before it came out in the U.S. This copy is inscribed by Burroughs: "For Bob Jackson/ all the best/ William Burroughs/ for Brion Gysin." Gysin designed the dust jacket. Modest foxing to pages edges and endpages; near fine in a near fine, mildly tanned dust jacket with rubbing to the folds. The first issue, with the 15 New Franc price on both the rear cover of the book and the front flap of the dust jacket. An influential book, part of the sequence that includes The Naked Lunch and The Ticket That Exploded. [#033109] $1,750
click for a larger image of item #33081, The Job London, Jonathan Cape, (1970). The uncorrected proof copy of the first British edition (following a French edition) of this interview with Burroughs by Daniel Odier. Inscribed by Burroughs to Richard Aaron. An excellent association copy: Aaron was the bookseller who helped negotiate the sale of Burroughs' archive to Roberto Altmann in Liechtenstein, and he was also involved in the sale that brought the archive back to the U.S., when Robert Jackson bought it from Altmann. Aaron also published Burroughs, under his Am Here Books imprint. Near fine in a near fine, proof dust jacket, which is crumpled at the crown from where it extends above the proof. Proof copies of this edition are scarce, let alone ones with a significant association. [#033081] $1,500
click for a larger image of item #33094, The Naked Lunch Paris, Olympia, (1965). Third printing of the original edition of his second book, one of the all-time great drug novels and a high spot of Beat and postwar American literature. Inscribed by the author to Bob Jackson in 1984. The price stamp on the rear cover has been partially removed. Rubbing to the spine and joints; near fine in wrappers without dust jacket, as issued (the second and third printings did not have the jacket). [#033094] $1,500
click for a larger image of item #34941, The Mansion NY, Random House, (1959). The limited edition of the third volume in his Snopes trilogy. Copy No. 91 of 500 copies signed by the author. This title was a National Book Award finalist in 1960. A fine copy in a near fine, original acetate dustwrapper with a few tiny chips and tears. A very nice copy. [#034941] $1,500
click for a larger image of item #33146, Photograph 1984. Photograph by Frajndlich of Burroughs in a three-piece suit sitting behind a table in a public space, smoking. Frajndlich is known for his portraits of photographers, and of others involved in the arts. Copyrighted, signed and dated by Frajndlich in ink at the right of the image in the margin, and titled, copyrighted, signed and dated in pencil by Frajndlich on the verso. Black and white. 11" x 14" Marginal crease to an upper corner, else fine. [#033146] $1,000
click for a larger image of item #914614, A Haunting (London), Bridgewater Press, (2000). Of a total edition of 138 copies, this is copy VII of 12 Roman-numeraled copies bound in quarter Library Calf, with a signed original drawing by Boyd, tipped in as frontispiece. Signed by the author. Fine. [#914614] $750
click for a larger image of item #34930, Mosquitoes [Moustiques] (Paris), Les Editions des Minuit, 1948. The first French edition of his second novel, first published in 1927. Of a total edition of 200 copies, this is Copy No. 27 of 50 copies printed "sur velin superieur." Pages uncut; a fine copy, in a near fine, French-folded glassine dustwrapper. An extremely small limitation for a Faulkner novel; the 1/50 issue is very scarce in the market. [#034930] $750
click for a larger image of item #33117, The Ticket That Exploded London, Calder and Boyars, (1968). The first British edition. Inscribed by the author to Richard Aaron, the bookseller and publisher, and a key figure in Burroughs' biography, especially with respect to the placement of Burroughs' papers. Fine in a fine dust jacket. [#033117] $650
[Sacramento], (CoTangent Press), [1993]. A limited edition of a story from Thirteen Stories and Thirteen Epitaphs, preceded, in 1990 by a CoTangent edition of one handwritten folio copy, and issued here with revisions. This is Copy No. 23 of 200 copies signed by Vollmann and by the designer, Ben Pax. Illustrated by Vollmann. Fine in sewn wrappers and dust jacket. [#912137] $650
On Sale: $455
click for a larger image of item #33100, Nova Express London, Jonathan Cape, (1966). The first British edition. Inscribed by the author, again for Richard Aaron. Slight softening to the spine ends; faint foxing to the edge of the text block; very near fine in a fine dust jacket. Uncommon signed, and a good association. [#033100] $500
click for a larger image of item #34928, Intruder in the Dust NY, Random House, (1948). A Haycraft-Queen cornerstone, and most likely the trigger for his winning the Nobel Prize the year after it was published. No top stain--a state not noted by Petersen. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket with a chip at the crown and light edge wear. [#034928] $500
click for a larger image of item #34942, The Mansion NY, Random House, (1959). The first trade edition of the final book in Faulkner's Snopes trilogy. A fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with light edge wear and fading to the spine lettering. A Burgess 99 title. [#034942] $500
click for a larger image of item #34929, Intruder in the Dust NY, Random House, (1948). By most accounts, this novel -- which deals with the legacy of black-white relations in the South -- was the book that cinched the Nobel Prize for him, which he won in 1949. Some fading to the top stain, else a fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with slight rubbing to the edges and folds. [#034929] $450
click for a larger image of item #34943, The Mansion [Le Domaine] [Paris], Gallimard, (1962). The first French edition, limited issue. Copy No. 49 of 66 numbered copies on pure fil. Sunning to wrappers; near fine. [#034943] $450
click for a larger image of item #34936, Intruder in the Dust [L'Intrus] [Paris], Gallimard, (1952). The first French edition. This is Copy No. 123 of 125 numbered copies on "velin pur fil" (there were also 6 hors commerce copies in this binding). Pages uncut. Slight tanning to the spine; near fine in wrappers and glassine dustwrapper. [#034936] $375
click for a larger image of item #34937, Intruder in the Dust [L'Intrus] [Paris], Gallimard, (1952). The first French edition. This is Copy No. 70 of 131 copies on "velin pur fil." Petersen A26.41. Spine tanned, with mild slant; very good in wrappers and glassine dustwrapper. [#034937] $350
click for a larger image of item #34931, Mosquitoes [Moustiques] (Paris), Les Editions des Minuit, 1948. The first French edition of his second novel, first published in 1927. Of a total edition of 200 copies, this is Copy No. 58 of 150 copies printed "sur alfa-mousse des paperteries." Pages uncut; dampstaining to the upper outer corner of rear pages. Near fine in a very good, French-folded glassine dustwrapper. [#034931] $300
NY, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, (1974). His only children's book. Fine in a fine dust jacket. [#912617] $275
On Sale: $179
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