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Catalog 143, C

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45. CALDWELL, Erskine. Some American People. NY: McBride (1935). A review copy of his first book of nonfiction, a commentary and survey of some areas of the U.S. particularly hard-hit by the Depression, and profiles and vignettes of a number of representative individuals. Inscribed by the author to Stuart Wright, the owner of Palaemon Press, a small press that specialized in publishing Southern authors. Owner signature to front pastedown; trace wear at spine; else fine in a very near fine, slightly dusty dust jacket with a tiny tear at the upper front spine fold; with publisher's review slip laid in, giving the publication date, October 21, 1935. A very nice copy of an important Caldwell book, and rare as a signed advance issue.

46. CALDWELL, Erskine. You Have Seen Their Faces. NY: Viking Press, 1937. Text by Caldwell; photographs by Margaret Bourke-White. This is the uncommon hardcover first edition; there was a softcover done by Modern Age books and a later hardcover edition done in 1940 by Duell, Sloane and Pearce. The 1937 Viking edition, however, is quite scarce, especially in any dust jacket. Quarto, with numerous full-page photographs by Bourke-White. Pencilled owner name; minor foxing to text; insect holes to hinges; dampstaining to rear joint and lower front corner. A good copy only, in a good, minorly chipped dust jacket with a washed-out spine.

47. CAPOTE, Truman. A Tree of Night and Other Stories. NY: Random House (1949). Capote's second book and first collection of stories. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket with a couple tiny corner chips. A nice copy.

48. CAPOTE, Truman. The Grass Harp. (NY): Random House (1951). His fourth book, second novel. This is the second issue, in fine-grained beige cloth. Page signatures darkening; slight spine lean; near fine in a very near fine, price-clipped dust jacket. A crisp, attractive copy.

49. CAPOTE, Truman. The Muses are Heard. NY: Random House (1956). This is the first volume of nonfiction by the author of the nonfiction classic In Cold Blood. An account of a trip Capote took to Russia with a U.S. theater troupe involved in a production of Porgy and Bess. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket.

50. CAPOTE, Truman. Breakfast at Tiffany's. NY: Random House (1958). Perhaps his most famous novel, due to the classic 1961 film, which won two Oscars and for which Audrey Hepburn was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Holly Golightly. Fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket with the spine turned from orange to gold and the title faded out, a common occurrence with this title..

51. CAPOTE, Truman. In Cold Blood. NY: Random House (1965). His most famous book, a bestseller that redefined the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction and helped define the New Journalism of the 1960s. The book is not especially scarce in the first printing -- it had caused a sensation when portions appeared in The New Yorker, and therefore it had a large first printing; however, because of its soft paper dust jacket, it is a book that shows wear readily. This copy is fine in a near fine dust jacket with an edge tear at the upper rear spine fold. A nicer-than-usual copy of one of the important books of its era.

52. CAPOTE, Truman. A Christmas Memory. NY: Random House [1966]. Gift inscription first blank; owner name inked out on pastedown; else fine in a fine slipcase.

53. CAPOTE, Truman. The Dogs Bark. NY: Random House (1973). A collection of nonfiction pieces, mostly shorter essays and profiles that had appeared in magazines, but also including Local Color and The Muses Are Heard in their entirety, each of which had been published as a separate book previously. Read; near fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket.

54. CAPOTE, Truman. Music for Chameleons. NY: Random House (1980). Nonfiction, short essays and journalistic pieces. Page edge foxing; near fine in a near fine dust jacket with a closed gutter tear on the front panel.

55. CAPOTE, Truman. One Christmas. NY: Random House (1983). A short story about a small boy's Christmas in New Orleans. This was the last short story Capote wrote; it was published in the December issue of the Ladies' Home Journal, and issued as a gift book as well. Capote died in August of the following year. This is the limited edition, one of 500 numbered copies signed by the author. Later the basis for a TV movie starring Katherine Hepburn and directed by Tony Bill. Fine in a fine slipcase.

56. CAPUTO, Philip. Equation for Evil. (NY): HarperCollins (1996). A novel by the author of A Rumor of War, about a hate crime in California and an exploration, as several of his novels have been, of the nature of evil. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.

57. CARRUTH, Hayden. The Crow and the Heart. NY: Macmillan, 1959. The first book, a collection of poems, by this writer who later became the Poet Laureate of the U.S. Modest insect damage near the spine; near fine in wrappers.

58. CARVER, Raymond. Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? NY: McGraw-Hill, 1976. Carver's first major collection of stories, which was a National Book Award finalist and established his reputation as a modern master of the form. Although he had published several poetry chapbooks and one small press edition of fiction prior to this book, this was his first mainstream publication. It garnered favorable reviews but little commercial success; the publisher, McGraw-Hill, was more accustomed at that time to publishing textbooks and other books for the education market than trade fiction of a literary nature. Carver's books did not begin to sell well until he moved to Knopf, the preeminent publisher of literary fiction in the U.S. at that time. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket. A very nice copy of an important collection.

59. CARVER, Raymond. A New Path to the Waterfall. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press (1989). A posthumously published collection of poems, many of them addressing his impending death quite straightforwardly, even bluntly, in his characteristic, plain-spoken manner. One of 200 numbered copies signed by Tess Gallagher, his longtime companion, who wrote the introduction. Bound in full blue cloth stamped in gold, in red cloth slipcase. Mild sunning to the spine cloth and slipcase; else fine.

60. (CARVER, Raymond). Address at the University of Hartford, in Commencement. (West Hartford): (U. of Hartford) (1988). Carver received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree at the University and gave a speech, which is transcribed in the program of the Commencement. Together with a photocopy of the original typescript of the speech, which differs in paragraphing from the published version, and in the deletion of one 17-word clause, which has been circled in ink on the photocopy -- thus providing an earlier view of the text of the speech. A rare ephemeral piece. The program is fine; the typescript is near fine.

61. CHEEVER, John. The Way Some People Live. NY: Random House (1943). His scarce first book, printed during wartime in an edition of only 2750 copies. A collection of stories, almost none of which were ever reprinted in Cheever's lifetime (or since); Cheever pointedly did not include them in his later collections, and his family blocked publication of a posthumous collection that would have included them. Sunning and minor foxing to spine and top edge of front panel. Near fine, lacking the dust jacket. A nearly-lost collection of short fiction by one of the masters of the short story.

62. COATES, Robert M. The Hour After Westerly. NY: Harcourt Brace (1957). Stories by the author of the surrealist classic The Eater of Darkness. Inscribed by the author: "To Harold & May/ and/ thanks for a very/ nice evening, too./ Best, Bob." The "Harold" is Harold Brodkey, author of First Love and Other Sorrows, among other books. Near fine in a very good dust jacket with several tape-mended edge tears. A good literary association.

63. COATES, Robert M. The View from Here. NY: Harcourt Brace (1960). A memoir, the author's second book of nonfiction, his first having been The Outlaw Years, a study of outlaws along the Natchez Trace in the 1880s. Coates spent time as an expatriate in Paris in the 1920s, where The Eater of Darkness was published, and then returned to the U.S. where he became the art critic for The New Yorker in 1938. Inscribed by the author: "To Harold and May -/ Not much of a view, but still - Best, Bob." Fine in two dust jackets, one of which is fine.

64. COATES, Robert M. Beyond the Alps. NY: William Sloane, 1961. An account of a summer the author spent in the Italian hill towns. Inscribed by the author to Harold and Natalie, with the exhortation "Let's get going!" under the title, on the half-title page. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with shallow chipping at the spine extremities.

65. COATES, Robert M. South of Rome. NY: Morrow, 1965. A follow-up to his earlier book about Italy; this one is subtitled "A Spring and Summer in Southern Italy and Sicily." Inscribed by the author twice, once unaddressed, once to Harold and Natalie. Both times, signed "Love -- Bob & Boo [Coates's wife, Astrid]." Fine in a very good dust jacket, rubbed at the edges and folds.

66. COELHO, Paulo. The Alchemist. (NY): HarperSanFrancisco (1993). The advance reading copy of the first American edition of this internationally bestselling fable by a popular Brazilian writer. Although the book has reportedly sold 30 million copies worldwide and the first American edition was announced as being 50,000 copies, firsts are quite hard to come by and advance copies are remarkably uncommon. Fine in illustrated self-wrappers, with the author's name misspelled "Coehlo" on the front cover.

67. (CONRAD, Joseph). JEAN-AUBRY, G., ed. Joseph Conrad. Life and Letters. London: Heinemann, 1927. A two-volume biography of Conrad, told largely through his letters, at least after his youth. A massive production, over 700 pages in all, produced soon after Conrad's death in August, 1924. Very good in very good dust jackets: owner stamp and page edge foxing to both volumes. Volume II has a 1" x 2" triangular chip at the upper outer corner and a tear at the lower front spine fold. An attractive set, and uncommon in jackets.

68. CONROY, Pat. The Great Santini. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976. The author's third book, first novel, which was made into a well-received movie. Inscribed by the author in 1988. Faint foredge foxing, else fine in a near fine dust jacket foxed on verso. First printings of Conroy's recent books have numbered in the hundreds of thousands of copies, but this had a considerably smaller print run.

69. CONROY, Pat. The Lords of Discipline. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980. His second novel. Inscribed by the author in 1988, "for the love of books." Although this had a fairly large first printing, Conroy's popularity is such that copies have become somewhat scarce in recent years. Like The Great Santini and later The Prince of Tides, this was made into a well-received film. Faint foxing to page edges and slight abrasion to upper boards; near fine in a near fine dust jacket with faint foxing.

70. CONROY, Pat. The Prince of Tides. [Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986]. Photocopied typescript, draft copy, reproducing holograph corrections and with additional variations from the published text. 1053 pages, mostly near fine, with a few pages showing more edge wear. Together with an advance reading copy, which is very good in wrappers, and the third printing of the trade edition, which is near fine in a near fine dust jacket; provided here free of charge for text comparison purposes. The Prince of Tides was Conroy's fifth book, third novel, and the basis for a hugely successful movie.

71. COOPER, James Fenimore. The Iroquois Edition of the Writings of James Fenimore Cooper. NY: Putnam/Knickerbocker Press (n.d.)[1895-1900]. Thirty-three volumes; one of 1000 numbered copies. James Fenimore Cooper was perhaps the most popular American author of the first half of the 19th century, and by the end of the century numerous editions of his collected works had been printed. The "Iroquois Edition" is considered to be the finest edition printed of Cooper, with fine leather bindings, elaborate gilt tooling, attractive engravings by a number of the best illustrators of the day, protective tissue guards and title pages printed in multiple colors and with photogravure vignettes. Even the indication of the limitation was elaborate: hand numbered on the colophon and additionally punched into the paper. Cooper's works have survived into the 20th and 21st century largely as a result of his "Leatherstocking Tales" -- including The Last of the Mohicans, The Deerslayer, and others -- which featured Natty Bumppo, the prototype of the natural man, and thus an icon in the American imagination. Two volumes have very shallow chips at the crown; one has slight rubbing to two of the raised bands. Mercedes of Castile has been rebound in a binding that approximates but does not entirely match the other volumes, and has repaired tears on the colophon and frontispiece, not affecting text or image. Overall an attractive, near fine set of works by an early American author whose writings helped define our national self-image.

72. CREELEY, Robert. Have a Heart. (Boise): Limberlost Press, 1990. A short collection of poems by this Black Mountain poet, published by a small Boise, Idaho fine press on the occasion of the poet's visit to Boise. One of 200 copies, of a total edition of 226. Fine in saddle-stitched wrappers.

73. CUMMINGS, E.E. Postcards. 1954. Three postcards: two typed postcards signed; one autograph postcard signed; all three written to Nancy Robinson in 1954. In May, Cummings encourages Robinson to seek out Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet. August's card is an enthusiastic one sentence of congratulations and well-wishing, written from Cummings' summer home in Silver Lake, New Hampshire. November's card questions the sentiment "know all rooms of the house" with "how may anybody 'know' even one room?" A glimpse at one side of an intriguing, ongoing, allusive literary conversation. The postcard is printed with Cummings' Greenwich Village address -- 4 Patchin Place, New York 11. The third card is a bit smudged; else all are fine but for standard postal markings. Autograph material by Cummings -- cards, letters, manuscripts -- seldom comes on the market. For the three:

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