Catalog 133, K
155. (KAEL, Pauline). The Citizen Kane Book. Boston: Little Brown (1971). Contains one of Kael's most famous essays, "Raising Kane," first published in The New Yorker, and the longest piece of film criticism ever published in that magazine. Also includes the Citizen Kane shooting and continuity scripts, by Herman Mankiewicz and Orson Welles. Inscribed by Kael in November 1971, the month after publication. Quarto, heavily illustrated with photographs from the movie, which was selected as Number 1 of the American Film Institute's top 100 films of all time. Boards edges lightly sunned; near fine in a near fine dust jacket with trace edge wear, lamination peeling to the front flap fold and a crease on the front flap. Laid in is a thank you letter to Kael from Eugene Eisner, M.D., the apparent recipient of the book: the inscription from Kael ("I hope you'll have a good time with this") is unaddressed. An attractive copy of a film classic; very scarce inscribed.
156. (KAEL, Pauline). MARCUS, Alan. Genesis West, Vol. 3, Nos. 1 & 2. (Burlingame): (Chrysalis West), 1965. Contains "Miracles, a Cinematic Romance" by Marcus. Laid in is a typed letter signed by Marcus to Pauline Kael inviting her to Acapulco and soliciting literary favor, by asking her help in getting an excerpt from his work-in-progress published. Marcus' first novel was Straw to Make Brick and his second, Of Streets and Stars, was a Hollywood novel, as was the work excerpted here -- presumably why he was writing Kael and soliciting her help; they had a mutual friend in Ernest Callenbach (author of Ecotopia, among others). The letter is edge-sunned and edge-chipped and folded; very good. The magazine is the second issue, which tips in the final pages, completing Marcus' piece, which he has hand-corrected. Near fine.
157. (Kelmscott Press). MORRIS, William. The Water of the Wondrous Isles. [Hammersmith]: (Kelmscott Press) [1897]. A companion volume to Morris' The Well at the End of the World, which had been published by the Kelmscott Press the previous year. Morris died before this production could be finished, and this is one of 250 copies sold by the Trustees of the late author after his death. An elaborate, attractive production, as was usual for this press: bound in vellum with three silk ties, with decorative woodcut borders and initials designed by Morris. Spine a bit darkened and rubbed; still, near fine. A nice copy of an elegant volume, by one of the fathers of the Arts and Crafts movement, which influenced nearly every aspect of contemporary design in the late-19th, early 20th century.
158. (KENT, Rockwell). VAN WYCK, William. The Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer. NY: Covici-Friede, 1930. Two volumes of this translation by Van Wyck, with the original text and the modern translation printed side by side. With decorations by Kent and numerous full-page illustrations by him. Of a total edition of 999 copies, this is one of 924, signed by the artist. 10 1/2" x 15 1/2". Bookplates front pastedowns; spines slightly darkened, with some soiling in the gutters. Overall, near fine. One of the most spectacular volumes illustrated by Kent, whose style of illustration was particularly suitable to the extravagant characters described by Chaucer.
Unique Copy of Cuckoo's Nest
159. KESEY, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. NY: Viking (1962). [SOLD]
160. -. Same title. NY: Viking/(Compass) (1966). Third printing of the Compass hardcover edition. Remainder stars to pastedown and front flap; near fine in a near fine dust jacket with light edge wear. An uncommon edition in hardcover.
161. -. Same title. (NY): New American Library (n.d.). 28th printing of this edition. Ex-library copy; very good in pictorial boards. The NAL edition was primarily a mass market paperback edition; a few were bound in laminated boards for the library trade and this is one of those. Again, uncommon in hardcover.
162. -. Same title, a Swedish edition. (Stockholm): (Almqvist & Wiksell) (1973). Rubbing to spine folds; near fine in wrappers.
163. -. Same title, a Finnish edition. Porvoo: Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö (1975). With a critical and biographical introduction by Risto Lehmusoksa, the translator. Foxing to top edge; near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
164. -. Same title, a Finnish paperback reprint. Porvoo: Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö (1979). This edition has a photograph of Jack Nicholson, who played Randall Patrick McMurphy in the film adaptation, on the cover. Fine in wrappers.
165. -. Same title, the first Spanish edition. Barcelona: Libreria Editorial Argos (1975). Offsetting to pastedowns; near fine in a near fine dust jacket with fading to the red spine design.
166. -. Same title, a later Spanish edition. (Barcelona): Editorial Argos Vergara (1980). Folds rubbed, slight spotting; very good in wrappers.
167. -. Same title, a later Spanish edition, Volume 15 of a uniform edition of contemporary novels. (Barcelona): Salvat (1986). Very near fine in wrappers.
168. -. Same title, a Norwegian edition. (Oslo): Oversettelse av Olav Angell (1983). Fine in a near fine dust jacket.
169. -. Same title, a Czech edition. (Prague): Odeon (1979). A little edge-toning; near fine in a very good, rubbed dust jacket with light edge creasing.
170. -. Same title, mechanically reproduced typescript of the Dale Wasserman play based on the novel. (n.p.): (n.p.)(n.d.)[1970-71]. 114 pages, printed on rectos only; bradbound in embossed studio covers. Wasserman originally adapted Kesey's novel for the stage in 1963, shortly after the book came out. Kirk Douglas had bought the rights to the book, but couldn't convince Hollywood to make the film. Instead, he starred in the short-lived Broadway adaptation of it. Later, in 1970, Lee Sankowich directed the play at San Francisco's Little Fox Theater, and directed such actors as Danny DeVito, William Devane and Olympia Dukakis, in the San Francisco and later New York productions of it. The show went on to have a record-breaking five year run, the success of which led directly to the decision to produce a film version. Kirk Douglas had passed along the production rights to the film to his son Michael, who became producer of the Hollywood version -- although enough time had passed that Michael considered himself too old to play the lead, as he had originally intended, and got Jack Nicholson instead, in one of Nicholson's signature roles, for which he won an Academy Award. A near fine copy.
171. -. Same title, the Samuel French acting edition of Wasserman's play. NY: Samuel French (1974). Fine in stapled wrappers and signed by Kesey.
172. -. Same title, also an acting edition. (n.p.): (n.p.) (n.d.). An apparent piracy of the 1963 production of the Wasserman play, listing Kirk Douglas as McMurphy. Several notes reproduced in text; tapebound in stained cardstock covers; very good.
173. -. Same title, the screenplay by Lawrence Hauben. Berkeley: Fantasy Films, 1974. "Final Draft," dated March 18, 1974. Bradbound in printed cardstock covers. Lower covers and page edges stained; near fine. Hauben won an Academy Award, along with Bo Goldman, for this screenplay; this "final" draft evidently predates Goldman's association with the project.
174. -. Same title. Multiple photocopied drafts of the screenplay, as follows: 1. Howard B. Kreitsek screenplay (n.p.: n.p., n.d.), rejected. Bottom margin stained on cover and first several pages; name of "Merritt Blake" on cover; bradbound with rear pages separating; very good. 2. Uncredited screenplay, no title page. Several notes to text. Bradbound; last page deteriorating and salvaged, glued to clean sheet; very good. Possibly an early version as McMurphy's lines are written under "Mack"; a working copy, as a number of pages contain pencil, ink, and felt tip pen comments/instructions in the margins. 3. Thirty pages of another uncredited screenplay with list of characters and photocopied change of "Pilbow" to "Miller" in text. Again, a working copy, with a number of pencil/ink changes to the text. 4. Lawrence Hauben screenplay. Berkeley: Fantasy Films, 1974. "Second Draft," December 12, 1973, revised January 3, 1974. Bradbound; near fine. 5. Screenplay by Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman. "Final Draft." Revised July 26, 1974, and then Dec. 5, 1974 written in. More than 100 loose sheets, possibly incomplete. Numerous corrections reproduced and some original annotations and markings on this copy; near fine. A remarkable glimpse of the process of converting one of the landmark novels of the Sixties into one of the most acclaimed films of our time, the first movie since It Happened One Night, in 1934, to win all five of the major Oscars -- Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay, for the Hauben and Goldman screenplay. For all:
175. -. Same title, the combined continuity script. (n.p.): United Artists/Fantasy Films, 1975. Mimeographed legal-sized sheets, printed on rectos only. Claspbound at top with printed yellow paper cover. Edge wear to later pages; near fine.
176. -. Same title, publicity flyer. One sheet, 12" x 36", printed on both sides and tri-folded to make six 9" x 12" pages. Notes on and photos of cast and filmmakers. Edge-foxed; near fine.
177. KESEY, Ken. Sometimes a Great Notion. NY: Viking (1964). Uncorrected proof copy of 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. Two tall ringbound volumes, printed from galleys. This copy numbered "39" on the publisher's label on the first volume. After the critical and commercial success of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Kesey set out to write a novel that was more ambitious and more serious, in his view, than his first book had been. By 1964, he had finished Sometimes a Great Notion and had also embarked on the various experiments in consciousness changing via LSD and other drugs, both at his legendary home on Perry Lane, in Palo Alto, and later in La Honda, for which he later became a counterculture icon. He decided to take a cross-country bus trip with friends -- later known as the Merry Pranskters -- timed to arrive in New York for the 1964 World's Fair and the publication of his new book. The trip has gone down in countercultural history, and Kesey became the celebrity "father" of the counterculture. It would be nearly twenty years -- including drug busts, time in exile and time in jail -- before Kesey would publish another novel. By most critical accounts, Sometimes a Great Notion is a decidedly more literary novel than Cuckoo's Nest: Kesey at the time still saw himself as a young, up-and-coming writer with something to prove, especially to the Eastern literary establishment. By the time his next novel would come out, he would be hard-pressed to present himself to the world as a writer, rather than as a celebrity and icon: he was once asked what the highest price he had paid for being a writer was, and after a short pause he replied: "Celebrity." This copy is inscribed by the author on the inside cover of the first volume. The proof of Sometimes a Great Notion is decidedly scarce. We have only seen it a handful of times over the years, and have never seen another inscribed copy. Proofs from that era were not routinely done, and when they were the quantities were extremely small; the two-volume format of this one also would tend to mitigate against its survival. Fine in a custom clamshell box, with an extra spine label laid in.
178. -. Same title, a review copy of the first edition, with review slip laid in which corrects the issue point on the jacket: "Credit for jacket photograph should read Hank Kranzler." Viking ship on first half-title; a fine copy in a very good dust jacket with small chips at the edges and folds.
179. -. Another copy. This is also the state with the Viking ship on the first half-title, and in the first issue dust jacket; a near fine copy in a very good dust jacket with a rough label removal abrasion, including one small hole, at the base of the spine.
180. -. Same title, the first British edition. London: Methuen (1966). Tipped to the front flyleaf is a typed tribute to City Lights Book Store: "If the important revolutionary events could be charted across the past decade there would be a decided tributation indicating this little shop in North Beach a fountainhead." This sheet is signed by Kesey. The book is fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket with a lift to the lamination at the front gutter.
181. -. Same title, the first Finnish edition. (Porvoo): Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö (1978). Foxing to top edge; mottling to rear cloth; about near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
182. KESEY, Ken. Artwork. 1964. An ink rendering of edifice, stone, fence and flags, executed, according to an accompanying letter of provenance, after the author's "suffering through the activities of the prim and proper events" (at a talk he had been invited to give) and constructed around themes of confinement and despair. In the drawing, which includes approximately 100 words, Kesey poses the questions: "Is a walk possible, considering no doorway yet?" and "We can still (someone brags) cross the street when they won't even let us cross the street alone?" The most interesting multimedia work by Kesey we have seen, and an extremely early ephemeral piece, done at about the time of the publication of his second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion, and before he became a counterculture celebrity and leader of the Merry Pranksters and, as such, one of the iconic figures of the 1960s. 8" x 10-1/2". Unlined notebook paper; one horizontal fold; slight edge wear; near fine.
183. KESEY, Ken; BABBS, Ken and John. Unwritten History. (n.p.): (n.p.), 1979. Photocopied typescript of a dramatization based on the book of the same title written by Joaquin Miller, the Oregonian "poet of the Sierras," in 1872. Miller was a colorful character -- as a young boy he and a friend went off to the California Gold Rush, where he was severely wounded in a battle between settlers and Modoc Indians. His book, Unwritten History: My Life Among the Modocs, was published in England and was a great success in Europe, as a sympathetic portrayal of American Indians, at a time when there were few such books being written. He later became a well-known poet, and a six-volume collection of his poems was published in 1915, after his death. Approximately 50 loose sheets; owner name reproduced on cover; fine. Only a photocopy, but a little-known Kesey effort, in collaboration with his longtime friend, Ken Babbs, and pertaining to a significant figure in Oregonian literary history.
184. (KESEY, Ken). Northwest Review, Vol 1., No. 2. (Eugene): (University of Oregon) (1957). Includes "The first Sunday in September" by Kesey. Near fine in wrappers. An early appearance in print for Kesey, published the year after he graduated from the University of Oregon.
185. (KESEY, Ken). Genesis West, Vol. 3, Nos. 1 & 2. (Burlingame): (Chrysalis West), 1965. Contains "A Tape Stolen from Ken Kesey's Workhouse" and excerpts from a talk he gave to parents of students at a California high school. Also contains a reproduction of Neal Cassady's handwritten directions to Kesey's house. This is the first issue, without the final pages tipped in (not affecting Kesey piece). Near fine in wrappers. With a note laid in from the publisher announcing that the magazine was suspending publication after this issue.
186. (KESEY, Ken). WOLFE, Tom. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson (1969). The first British edition of Wolfe's landmark account of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters and their bus trip across the country. The epitome of the "New Journalism" that Wolfe helped to bring about in the Sixties, it was called at the time "the most penetrating piece of writing yet done on the ethos and dynamics of the hippie," and it remains a classic of the time. Marginal staining to a couple pages; near fine in a very good dust jacket with two triangular edge tears.
187. (KESEY, Ken). Spit in the Ocean #1. Pleasant Hill: Intrepid Trips (1974). The first issue of Kesey's homegrown magazine, edited by him and with contributions by Kesey himself, Ken Babbs, Wendell Berry, Paul Krassner and others, including Kesey's alter-ego "Grandma Whittier." This is the first printing, with no writing on the spine, which is considerably scarcer than the later printing(s). Inscribed by Ken Babbs. Mailing information, to Shelter Publications, on rear cover; Babb's inscription reads "Great Job on Shelter/ Ken Babbs." Shelter was an oversize guide to alternative housing. It was assembled by Lloyd Kahn, Jr., who had worked as an editor on The Whole Earth Catalog, and Shelter adopted the style and format of that publication, but focused exclusively on homes, housing, architectural resources, etc. As such, a nice association copy between significant counterculture figures.
188. (KESEY, Ken). Poster for The Further Inquiry. [NY]: Judith Lesley/Sinclair Management (n.d.). Publicity poster for a 1980s play version in New York City, as adapted by Richard Parks and John Higgins. The Further Inquiry, which later came out as a book and a multimedia event, uses a mock "trial" of Neal Cassady -- holy fool and avatar or con man extraordinaire? -- and, by extension, Kesey, the Merry Pranksters, and the 1960s counterculture in general, as a forum for exploring the values embodied in the counterculture. Grateful Dead music and footage from the Prankster movie provided the backdrop to the production. 8 1/2" x 11"; folded in thirds; tiny edge nick; tape remnants to verso; else fine. Uncommon Kesey ephemera.
189. (KESEY, Ken). Poster for Twister! [Boulder]: (n.p.) [1994]. Promotional poster for a multimedia play performed by Kesey and the Pranksters during the Naropa Institute's week-long tribute to Allen Ginsberg. Kesey departed early, reportedly upset with the critical reception the play had received: some at Naropa thought it sexist, racist and homophobic and Kesey was hurt by their reaction. The poster, approximately 10 1/4" x 15 1/4", is printed in white on black and is signed by Kesey "The Wiz" in silver and signed by Ken Babbs "Thorenstein" in gold. Minor rubbing and creasing; near fine.
190. (KESEY, Ken). Three Photographs. 1982. Three 5" x 7" photographs by Arthur Knight of Ken Kesey at Naropa Institute, in Boulder, Colorado, on the occasion of a Kerouac Conference there. One photograph is of Kesey in profile, smiling; a second shows him with Allen Ginsberg and Ken Babbs; the third shows Kesey with Paul Gleason and Mellon Tytell. All are annotated on the back by Arthur Knight, who took the photographs. Knight is a writer and publisher, most well-known for his Beat journal The Unspeakable Visions of the Individual. One photograph slightly curled at the edge; otherwise all are fine.
191. KEYNES, John Maynard. A Short View of Russia. London: Hogarth Press, 1925. A short essay by the economist in the wake of a trip to Soviet Russia, a few years after the Bolshevik revolution. Printed at Leonard and Virginia Woolf's press. Owner name and a few pencilled marginal marks in text; very good in edge-darkened wrappers chipping at the spine extremities.