Catalog 122, J-K
152. -. Same title, an advance state consisting of 8 1/2" x 11" typeset sheets, tapebound in cardstock covers. Covers a bit creased at corners; near fine. With publisher's letter laid in, dated 3/26/01, slightly over three months prior to publication, and thus presumably preceding the above, smaller-format proof.
153. IZZI, Eugene. The Take. NY: St. Martin's (1987). The author's first book, a hard-boiled crime novel that received excellent reviews and has glowing dust jacket blurbs by Robert Bloch, Charles Willeford and James Lee Burke. Izzi's reputation and following as a mystery author grew over the next several years and included three nominations for the Edgar Award. In December 1996, he was found hanging from a 14th floor window in Chicago, armed, wearing a bullet-proof vest, and very dead. Subsequent investigation concluded the death a suicide, although his own comments prior to his death suggested that he was being targeted, and speculation persists that he was murdered by the Mob, or by a militia group he had infiltrated in researching his next book, or... A grim and mysterious end to a significant writing career, and a tale worthy of one of his novels. This copy is signed by the author. Fine in a very good, spine-faded dust jacket worn at the spine extremities.
154. IZZI, Eugene. Bad Guys. NY: St. Martin's (1988). His second novel. Signed by the author. Fine in a near fine dust jacket.
155. IZZI, Eugene. Invasions. NY: Bantam (1990). Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
156. JACKSON, Shirley. Life Among the Savages. NY: FSG (1953). The first of the well-received collections of family stories written by the author of such dark tales as The Lottery and The Haunting of Hill House. A strip of offsetting to the front flyleaf; else fine in a very good dust jacket with a couple tiny corner chips and some staining to the rear panel.
157. JOHNSON, Charles. Middle Passage. NY: Atheneum, 1990. The uncommon first printing of this book that won the National Book Award. A novel of a slave ship by an African-American author, this book reportedly had a small first printing and was marketed more as a "young adult" book than an "adult trade" title. When it won the National Book Award, copies were nearly impossible to find, and it was reprinted a number of times in very short order. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket.
158. JONES, James. From Here to Eternity. NY: Scribner, 1951. His first book and one of the great novels of World War II, winner of the National Book Award and made into a film that won eight Academy Awards and was named one of the American Film Institute's top 100 Films of the Century. Tiny chip at crown and a little flaking to spine lettering; near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
159. JONES, James. The Thin Red Line. NY: Scribner (1962). His fourth book and third full-length novel which, like his first, is a combat novel of World War II. Made into a well-received film in 1998. A bit of handling apparent on black boards; still a fine copy in a near fine dust jacket rubbed on the spine.
160. JOYCE, James. Finnegans Wake. London: Faber & Faber (1939). Joyce's final novel, considered by many to be his best work, a culmination of the experimentation with language and structure that he had begun with Ulysses. Together, the two volumes decisively influenced all subsequent fiction, by their use of language, interior monologue, stream-of-consciousness and, most importantly, by their intent to broaden the subject of the novel to encompass the widest range of human activity and knowledge. Inscription on front pastedown under flap; pencilled marginal notes; offsetting to a couple pages from bookmarks; and modest foxing to endpages; still about near fine in a very good dust jacket with several small chips and tears and another note in pencil on the rear flap. A Burgess title, a Connolly title, a Radcliffe and a Modern Library book of the century.
161. JOYCE, James. Stephen Hero. London: Cape (1944). Posthumously published short novel, written when the author was in his early twenties, and being an early version of what became Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man. Fine in a near fine, mildly spine-tanned dust jacket. A thin wartime book, cheaply produced in an edition of 2000 copies, and very scarce in fine condition.
162. JOYCE, James. Letters of James Joyce. NY: Viking, 1957. The first American edition of the first publication of Joyce's letters. Fine in a fine dust jacket and remarkably scarce thus.
163. JOYCE, James. Giacomo Joyce. NY: Viking (1968). The first publication of this work by Joyce, taken from his notebooks and reproducing in fold-out sheets a number of the manuscript pages. Fine in slipcase.
164. -. Same title, the trade edition, which followed the limited edition. Foxing to top edge, else fine in a very good, spine-tanned jacket with multiple edge tears.
165. JOYCE, James. ELLMANN, Richard. James Joyce. NY: Oxford University Press, 1959. A hint of foxing to top edge and endpages; very near fine in a near fine dust jacket. An attractive volume of this massive biography, the first definitive account of Joyce's life. Illustrated with photographs.
166. KAZANTZAKIS, Nikos. Zorba the Greek. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1953. The first American edition of his most famous novel and the basis for the landmark movie. A scarce title: most copies of the American edition one sees are from the Book of the Month Club, and true firsts turn up so seldom that many people who wouldn't normally do so mistake the one for the other, simply because finding a true first for comparison is so difficult. Large gift inscription front flyleaf; near fine in a very good, price-clipped (dollar sign still visible) dust jacket with rubbing to the spine and front panel and several shallow edge chips, although the author's and publisher's names are affected.
167. KAZANTZAKIS, Nikos. The Greek Passion. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1954. His second book published in the U.S. Text block shaken, dent to upper rear board; very good in a very good, internally tape-mended dust jacket with a small chip (corresponding to dent) remaining.
168. KEROUAC, John. The Town and the City. NY: Harcourt Brace (1950). His first novel, published seven years before On the Road and the only book Kerouac published using his given name, John, rather than the more casual "Jack" under which his Beat novels were published. Kerouac later dismissed this novel as "dead": he came to consider the carefully crafted style to be artificial, and in opposition to the more free-flowing, jazz-inspired writing of On the Road and his later books. The Town and the City is a partly autobiographical novel and as such can be viewed in the context of Kerouac's later books, which together comprised the "Duluoz sequence" -- a series of semi-autobiographical narratives which he considered to be the literal truth of his life, altered into "fiction" by the demands of publishers. While The Town and the City is not as self-consciously experimental as On the Road, it shows Kerouac's literary antecedents -- it is reminiscent of Thomas Wolfe -- and gives a clear indication that he saw himself as a writer long before he became a cultural icon. Owner address stamp, tiny corner bump, fading to top stain; still near fine in a very good, lightly foxed, price-clipped dust jacket. An attractive copy, with much less rubbing and overall wear to the dust jacket than is generally encountered.
169. KEROUAC, Jack. On the Road. NY: Viking, 1957. His second novel, the quintessential "road novel" and the book that defined the Beat generation. All by itself, it ensures Kerouac's standing as an important American writer. Top stain faded; spine cocked; tape, glue and language residue on rear pastedown, where possibly a jacket protector and a circulation envelope were once affixed; bookplate front pastedown; a very good copy in a fair dust jacket, the rear flap of which is now tipped to the front flyleaf.
170. KEROUAC, Jack. Excerpts From Visions of Cody. (NY): (New Directions) (1959). A limited edition, one of 750 numbered copies signed by the author. A portion of Kerouac's work-in-progress, which was only published in its entirety after he died. Faint foxing to covers; else fine. The publisher's original acetate dust jacket (rubbed and slightly cloudy, with small chips at the extremities) is retained. A very attractive copy of a book that soils easily and has become increasingly scarce as the years go by -- and yet is probably still the most accessible, least expensive way to get a signed Jack Kerouac first edition. A nice copy of a book that tends to show up worn and soiled and without the original acetate.
171. KEROUAC, Jack. Desolation Angels. NY: Coward McCann (1965). A major novel, which is one of the scarcer books from the latter part of Kerouac's career. A volume in the "Duluoz Legend," Kerouac's fictionalized autobiographical sequence, this installment is set in the period 1956-57, just prior to the publication of On the Road. Introduction by Beat anthologist and critic Seymour Krim, who attempts to explain in a few short pages why Kerouac's writing is important -- what he brought to American literature that was decidedly original and why that matters. Fine in a near fine dust jacket, very slightly spine-faded (as usual). A very nice copy.
172. KEROUAC, Jack. Vanity of Duluoz. NY: Coward-McCann (1968). The concluding volume of the Duluoz sequence, the fictional recreation of the Kerouac family saga. Spine gilt somewhat faded, as is common with this book; very slight foredge foxing; thus near fine in a fine dust jacket. A very attractive, crisp copy of this title.
173. KESEY, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. NY: Viking (1962). Kesey's landmark first book, a pivotal novel of the literature of the Sixties, which helped to shape a generation's attitudes on issues of authority, power, madness and, finally, individuality. The early printings of the U.S. edition contain text that was later excised and changed after a lawsuit was brought against Kesey and his publisher by a woman who was a nurse at the institution which Kesey used as a model for the novel; she charged him with portraying a character that was based on her (and had the same first name) in a disparaging manner. The character was rewritten after the third hardcover printing, and later editions, including the mass market paperback and the "definitive" text in the Viking Critical Library Series, have an alternate character in her place. Fading to top stain and faint spotting to foredge and upper cloth; near fine in a very good, spine-faded dust jacket with wear to the spine extremities and a crease across the upper front panel. Still a nicer-than-usual copy of this title, with less fading and wear to the jacket than is commonly encountered.
174. -. Another copy. Inscribed by the author in 1986: "For ____/ Sell this book!/ Ken Kesey." Owner name on flyleaf, moderate cloth mottling; about near fine in a very good, edgeworn, later printing dust jacket with the almost inevitable fading contained to the spine panel. Laid in is an announcement of a 1986 Kesey reading and the corresponding used ticket stub. Kesey became aware of the collectibility of this title, as reflected by the inscription, and thus his exhortation to the recipient to cash in on his first edition (which he presumably did at some point thereafter). Signed copies of Cuckoo's Nest are increasingly elusive.
175. KESEY, Ken. Sometimes a Great Notion. NY: Viking (1964). His second and most ambitious novel, about a logging family in Oregon, and embodying the individualistic values that helped Kesey to become a counterculture leader and icon. This is the state with the Viking ship on the first half-title; a fine copy in a rubbed, near fine, first issue dust jacket with two edge tears. Overall a much better than usual copy of this book, whose black dust jacket shows wear readily.
176. KINGSTON, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior. NY: Knopf, 1976. Her first book, a highly praised coming-of-age memoir which was also a substantial commercial success, being reprinted a number of times very quickly and being selected by Book of the Month Club. Subtitled "Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts," it eloquently explored the cultural conflicts faced by Chinese-Americans, a subject that Amy Tan later developed in her bestselling novel, The Joy Luck Club. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
177. KOSINSKI, Jerzy. The Painted Bird. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965. The author's highly praised first novel, a powerful tale of a young Polish boy trapped during German occupation in World War II, and the brutalities that traumatize his childhood. This is the first issue, with an extraneous line at the top of page 270. Fine in a fine dust jacket with the barest hint of tanning to the spine. A beautiful copy, probably the nicest we have ever handled.