Catalog 161, G-J
57. GIBBONS, Kaye. Ellen Foster. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books (1987). Her highly acclaimed first novel, which won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and was awarded a special citation by the Ernest Hemingway Foundation. It was also selected in London as one of the 20 best novels of the 20th century, and has become a classic coming-of-age novel and a part of the canon, frequently being combined on school reading lists with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Catcher in the Rye. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
58. GIBSON, Gregory. The Old Turk's Load. NY: Mysterious Press (2013). The first hardcover edition of this hard-boiled novel set in the 1960s. A Publishers Weekly blurb said it "recalls the late great Donald Westlake," and Michael Malone also cites Westlake and Elmore Leonard as comparables. Plenty of humor and hard-boiled action, but also one of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking fictional treatments of the 1960s. Apparently revised from the privately printed paperback original. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
59. GOODWIN, Doris Kearns. No Ordinary Time. NY: Simon & Schuster (1994). Her Pulitzer Prize winning history of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and the home front during World War II. Goodwin's theme is the transformation of the U.S. from an isolationist country divided along class lines and suffering through a decade-long Depression in 1940 to the most powerful nation in the world, economically and militarily, only five years later. The central element of this transformation, she argues, is the unifying leadership of FDR, and his willingness to broker compromises to secure political cooperation, along with Eleanor's agitation and efforts to consolidate and secure the gains of the New Deal that helped to bring the country more in accord with its stated ideals. Signed by the author, with the card laid in from the event at which the book was signed. Fine in a fine dust jacket. A beautiful copy of a Pulitzer Prize-winning history by the author of Team of Rivals, among others.
60. GREY, Zane. The Mysterious Rider. NY: Harper & Brothers (1921). An advance review copy of this Western novel, so stamped on the title page ("New Publication/ Advance Copy/ Not Yet Released"). Owner name front pastedown; short nick in cloth at spine crown; pages 284 and 285 overprinted; a very good copy without dust jacket (as issued?). It's not clear whether advance copies would have been issued with or without jackets.
61. GRISHAM, John. The Last Juror. (NY): Doubleday, 2004. The publisher's limited edition of this legal thriller by the bestselling author of The Firm, The Client, A Time to Kill and others. Grisham's huge commercial success -- several of his books have been million-copy sellers and have been the bases for extremely successful Hollywood films -- is a classic rags-to-riches story: he sold copies of his first novel, which was virtually self-published, out of the trunk of his car before being "discovered" by a mainstream publisher. One of the fruits of his success has been his funding of the literary journal The Oxford American. This is number 64 of 350 copies, signed by the author. Leatherbound, with slipcase. Fine. A very small limitation for a writer whose books typically have first printings in the six-figure range or more.
62. HAMSUN, Knut. Benoni. Oslo: Gyldendal, 1933. The deluxe large paper edition of this novel by the Nobel Prize-winning Norwegian author, originally published in 1908. Hamsun was one of the most influential writers of the first half of the 20th century; his admirers included, among others, the Nobel Prize winners Isaac Bashevis Singer, Thomas Mann and Ernest Hemingway, who said "Hamsun taught me to write." Even Charles Bukowski called him the greatest writer who ever lived. His legacy was tarnished by his sympathy for Hitler in his later years, and after the war he was tried for treason and committed to a hospital. Benoni was the basis for a Norwegian television series in the 1970s. This is one of 375 numbered copies. Bookplate on front pastedown of Norwegian politician Kristofer Lehmkuhl, who became a founder of the Norwegian School of Economics. Lehmkuhl's name on title page; spine-sunned; light tanning to spine with shallow shelf wear to extremities; a very near fine copy in wrappers.
63. HANSEN, Ron. Mariette in Ecstasy. (NY): HarperCollins (1991). The uncorrected proof copy. Inscribed by the author to the writer Nicholas Delbanco: "To Nick, with pleasure in your pleasure and hope in your hope. Ron Hansen/ Bread Loaf, 1991." A couple tiny indents near spine; near fine in wrappers. A nice literary association copy.
64. HARRIS, Robert. Fatherland. London: Hutchinson (1992). A post-World War II alternate history novel in which Germany won the Second World War. A surprise bestseller and critically acclaimed, this was the author's first work of fiction after a number of nonfiction books. Basis for an Emmy Award-winning HBO movie. This is the advance reading copy in pictorial wrappers, marked "an uncorrected proof from Hutchinson." A bit of rubbing to lower rear edge and dustiness to lower edge of text block; otherwise fine in wrappers and near fine dust jacket. With a faux 1964 newspaper "front page" laid in, postponing the publication of Fatherland from 1964 to 1992, due to the sensitive nature of the material.
65. HARRISON, Jim. Dalva. NY: Dutton (1988). A novel told from the point of view of a pioneer woman and by consensus one of Harrison's best books, which effectively put the lie to the stereotype of him as a writer of testosterone-laced macho male fantasies and firmly established him as a writer of enormous sensitivity and vision -- or, as one of the dust jacket blurbs from a British critic put it, "a writer with immortality in him." Inscribed by the author in the year of publication: "To Nick! [author Nicholas Delbanco] via Kimberly/ yrs/ Jim Harrison/ 4/88." Faint edge-sunning, else fine in a faintly edge-sunned dust jacket. A nice association copy.
66. HAWKES, John. The Blood Oranges. (NY): New Directions (1971). Inscribed by Hawkes to John Barth and his wife: "To Jack and Shelly for sensuality! Much love/ Jack/ Prov. June, 1971/ We'll sail to those Greek isles yet. Voila." Laid in is a small page of notes on the book in Barth's hand (about 70 words, with a dozen crossed out, on a 3" x 4" scrap of paper): "H's peasant nudes have a beginning and an end but no middle (213)," etc. When Hawkes passed away in 1998, Barth wrote his obituary for The New York Times, which included the following comments: "With the death at 72 of John Hawkes -- fiction writer, fiction mentor and fiction live reader extraordinaire -- we lost one of the brightest (and paradoxically darkest) lights of American letters through our century's second half, a navigation star for scores of apprentice writers however different their own literary course, and as spellbinding a public reader of his own work as I have ever heard." One instance of underlining by Barth, corresponding to one of his notes. Mild foxing to top edge of text block, else fine in a near fine dust jacket with the usual fading to the spine lettering, a touch of wear to the heel, and a corner crease to the front flap. A wonderful association copy, linking two of the premier American writers of the era. From the library of John Barth.
67. HAZZARD, Shirley. Transit of Venus. NY: Viking (1980). The uncorrected proof copy of this novel that won the National Book Critics Circle Award, 23 years before her next novel, The Great Fire, won the National Book Award, the Miles Franklin Award and the William Dean Howells Medal. Light overall dust soiling and one mark on front cover; near fine in wrappers.
68. HOBAN, Russell. Riddley Walker. London: Jonathan Cape (1980). The uncorrected proof copy of this science fiction novel by the author of Turtle Diary and the fantasy classic The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin Boaz. Chosen as one of David Pringle's 100 best science fiction novels. This was John Fowles' copy, with his blindstamp on the half title. Spine-faded; first 50 pages or so loose from cracked glue, from reading; very good in wrappers. Winner of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award and nominated for a Nebula Award. A notable copy of a major science fiction novel.
69. HOMES, A.M. Appendix A: San Francisco: Artspace Books (1996). A companion volume to her controversial novel The End of Alice, about a pedophile and murderer. Inscribed by the author, with drawing. Fine in pictorial boards, without dust jacket, as issued.
70. IRVING, John. A Prayer for Owen Meany. NY: Morrow, (1989). The trade publisher's limited edition of what may be his best-loved novel. A portion of this book was the basis for the 1998 film Simon Birch. Number 205 of 250 numbered copies signed by the author. Fine in acetate dust jacket and slipcase. There was also a Franklin Library edition, which preceded the publisher's editions and a signed limited edition produced by the Book of the Month Club, but this edition is by far the scarcest of them and generally viewed as the most desirable.
71. JACKSON, Jon A. The Diehard. NY: Random House (1977). His first book, introducing Detective Sergeant "Fang" Mulheisen in what was to become one of the most critically acclaimed detective series of recent years. Remainder mark to upper and lower edges of text block, one lower corner tapped; near fine in a near fine dust jacket with several small, closed edge tears.
72. JHABVALA, Ruth Prawer. The Nature of Passion. London: George Allen and Unwin (1956). The second novel by this author who won the Booker Prize twenty years later for Heat and Dust. She also became an accomplished screenwriter for Merchant-Ivory productions, winning two Oscars and being nominated for a third. This copy is inscribed by Jhabvala: "For Tarla and Homey - with all my love - Ruth. January '57." The name "JHABVALA" and a Geneva address written on the pastedown under the front flap. The recipients appear to have been relatives of her husband, living in Switzerland at the time. A nice family association copy of an early novel, well before the author's most significant critical and commercial successes. Spine slanted; near fine in a very good, edgeworn dust jacket.
73. JOHNSON, Charles. Half-Past Nation Time. (Westlake Village): (Aware Press)(1972). The scarce second book by the National Book Award-winning author of Middle Passage: like his first book, Black Humor, this is a collection of cartoons, these with a heavy emphasis on political satire focusing on black armed revolution and the selling out of so-called revolutionaries; police intimidation; black-white relations in a variety of contexts; and finally the need for a new sense of humor to make sense of, and to encourage, the changes in society away from its racist history. With a two-page introduction by Johnson, explicating the cartoons and their place in political and social dialogue. This copy is inscribed by the publisher Russell Trainer (also author of The Lolita Complex) to Milton Luros, defendant in the 1971 U.S. Supreme Court pornography case "United States v. Thirty-seven Photographs": "This is the first of the new Aware Press books to come off the presses. It is for Milton Luros, with respect and affection: a small token of our great appreciation for all of his contributions to the art of publishing. 2-15-72/ Russell Trainer." Trainer was himself an author of softcore pornography for the adult paperback market, and he also published similar materials with Aware Press, which explains his sympathy and affinity for Luros and his predicament. Aware Press seems to have published a handful of books in between 1970 and 1974 (including one by Dean Koontz) and then to have disappeared. One suspects they didn't sell very well and most seem to be quite scarce now, as this Johnson title is. OCLC locates only six copies, a remarkably small number for a book by a National Book Award-winning African-American author. This is the first copy we have seen. Mild rubbing to covers; a very near fine copy in wrappers.
74. JOHNSON, Denis. Tree of Smoke. NY: FSG (2007). His seventh work of fiction, an epic novel of the Vietnam war that won the National Book Award. One of its characters was the main character of Johnson's first novel, Angels, who died at the end of that book, which means Tree of Smoke serves as a prequel. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.