Catalog 163, G-I
69. GALCHEN, Rivka. Atmospheric Disturbances. NY: FSG (2008). Her first novel, one of the most highly praised of the year, with comparisons to Murakami and Borges, among others. Winner of the William J. Saroyan International Prize for Fiction. Signed by the author and dated 5//21/2014. With a flyer laid in for "In Conversation: Francine Prose & Rivka Galchen" at The Center for Fiction. Also included is a photograph of the two authors. Galchen was selected by The New Yorker as one of their "20 under 40" writers the 20 best writers of fiction under the age of 40 in 2010. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Signed copies of this book are scarce.
70. GENET, Jean. Journal du Voleur [The Thief's Journal]. (Paris): Gallimard (1949). Third edition of Genet's most famous book, a semi-autobiographical novel of his youth set in 1930s Europe. This copy is inscribed by Genet to Erik Locke, (roughly translated) as apologizing for not writing anything more than he says with his friendship. Spine-tanned, with a short tear at the lower front spine fold and a shallow crease to the front cover; the acidic paper of the text block is browning. Very good in wrappers, with the publisher's wraparound band laid in. There was a signed limited issue of this title, but inscribed copies are very uncommon: we can only find evidence of one inscribed copy ever appearing at auction.
71. GINSBERG, Allen. Kaddish and Other Poems. (San Francisco): City Lights (1961). A volume in City Lights' Pocket Poets series. This is the first issue, with seven lines on the rear cover, as specified in Bill Morgan's 1995 bibliography, which superseded the earlier Ginsberg and City Lights bibliographies (Dowden, 1971; Cook, 1992) that identified the issue with the 10-line rear cover as the earliest printing. Morgan clarified the sequence, assigned dates to the earliest printings and gave the size of the print runs, none of which either of the earlier bibliographies were able to do. Includes Ginsberg's classic poems on psychedelics "Laughing Gas," (dedicated to Gary Snyder), "Mescaline" and "Lysergic Acid." One of the key books of the Beat Generation writers, and linking the Beats to the counterculture writers of the 1960s. Cocked, with a small spot to the lower page edges; near fine in wrappers.
72. -. Another copy of the first issue. Inscribed by Ginsberg, with the added mixed messages of an "AH," a small skull in a star, with crossbones, and a flower. Faint tanning and slight spine creasing; near fine in wrappers.
73. (GRATEFUL DEAD). KRIPPNER, Stanley; HONORTON, Charles; and ULLMAN, Montague. An Experiment in Dream Telepathy with "The Grateful Dead." Brooklyn: Maimonides Medical Center, 1971. Two early reports on experiments in dream telepathy conducted in 1971 and "suggested by Jerry Garcia," in which randomly selected images were beamed to sleeping subjects miles away, from (in the first report) the audiences of six Grateful Dead concerts. Co-author Stanley Krippner has been, among other things, one of the leading researchers into dream telepathy and telepathy in general ("remote viewing"). He received the American Psychological Association [APA] Award for Distinguished Lifetime Contributions to Humanistic Psychology in 2013, one of many such awards he has earned over the years. He and Montague Ullman, along with Alan Vaughn, published Dream Telepathy: Experiments in Nocturnal ESP in 1973. A variant version of the first report here is transcribed on Krippner's website, where he writes "The results of this study were published in a medical journal in 1973." Both of these reports are dated 1971, the year the experiments were conducted; this appears to be the earliest formal presentation of information about this study, its circumstances, and its results. The first report is 18 pages, photocopy, with one staple, near fine; the second is 38 pages, photocopy, several small stains, one staple, very good.
74. GREENE, Graham. The Quiet American. London: Heinemann [1955]. Three issues of this classic of the Vietnam war: the first edition, the uncorrected proof copy, and a first Book Society issue signed by the author. One of the earliest novels to deal with the American presence in Vietnam and the theme, so often repeated later, of good intentions gone awry. Based on actual characters and events with an American protagonist modeled after Col. Edward Lansdale, the CIA operative who has been called "the attending physician at the birth of South Vietnam." Almost inadvertently, as a result of Greene's remarkable prescience in articulating the issues that came to haunt the American involvement in Southeast Asia, The Quiet American became one of Greene's most important books. The first edition is foxed; very good in a very good, foxed dust jacket. The uncorrected proof copy bears a copyright date of 1956, as the book was initially slated for publication on January 2, 1956, but was released in December 1955. The wrappers of the proof are recycled from the dust jacket stock of an English edition of an Erskine Caldwell title an indication of the lingering effects of World War II on the British economy. Casual inspection reveals small textual changes between the proof and the published version, in punctuation, capitalization, name spelling, and several word changes. Small label removal or paper repair at the upper corner of the first flyleaf, and small name (reviewer?) at the upper corner of the front cover. Foxed, thus a very good copy in wrappers. Also together with the first Heinemann/Book Society edition, and this copy is signed by Greene. Cocked; very good in a very good jacket. Signed copies of this title are quite scarce, and the proof is also exceedingly scarce: the last copy we had was more than 15 years ago, and we specialize in both Vietnam War literature and uncorrected proofs. For the three:
75. GUTHRIE, A.B., Jr. The Way West. NY: William Sloane (1949). The second volume in the author's series of novels about the opening up and settling of the American west, after his acclaimed The Big Sky. This book won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Signed by the author. Some foxing to boards and page edges and rubbing to the joints; a very good copy in a supplied dust jacket that is tape-strengthened on the verso and has an owner name and tape abrasions on the flaps, but presents outwardly as very good, without the spine fading typical of this title but with bits of color added to the extremities. Overall an attractive copy of an award-winning title.
76. HALEY, Alex. Roots. Garden City: Doubleday, 1976. Later printing of the bestselling autobiography and history of one black man's family roots, going all the way back to Africa, made into a powerful, critically-acclaimed television miniseries. Belatedly controversial, as several lawsuits were filed claiming that parts of the author's reconstructed family history were plagiarized from others' books, including at least one novel, but still one of the most succinct and cohesive looks at the African-American experience in popular literature. Winner of a special award from the Pulitzer Prize committee in 1977. This copy is inscribed by Haley in November, 1977: "For Leon and Julia Obermayer - warm wishes from Kunta Kinte's family!" Leon Obermayer had just recently Alex Haley's brother's (George Haley's) employer at the law firm of Obermayer, Rebmann, Maxwell & Hippel. A cheaply made Doubleday book, this copy is near fine in a near fine dust jacket with mild sunning and a short edge tear. An interesting copy: a family history with an indirect family association.
77. HAMADY, Walter. For the Hundredth Time: Gabberjabb Number 5. Minor Confluence: Perishable Press, 1981. Selected as one of AIGA's 50 Best Books of the Year. One of 200 copies printed, this copy is inscribed by Hamady on the back cover: "This is a special copy for our friend ___ ____ there in Salisbury/ the cigar box label was given to me a long time ago (along with some cigar molds) by Paul Blackburn. If you subtract 14,500 from copy number you will see this is copy number five. All best, Walter the Hamady 15 VIII 81." Laid in is an autograph note signed by Hamady from Labor Day of the same year; in part: "Your words do cheer me up in a world that seems so bossy & indifferent." Approximately 50 words, written on the back of a postcard, but mailed in an envelope (included). Both the book and the letter are fine. Hamady's Interminable Gabberjabb series, begun in 1973 and comprising eight books by its end in 2005, is considered to have "changed the face of contemporary book arts in the United States" (Univ. of Arizona Poetry Center). Number 5 is considered by some to be one of the finest in the series, in its playfulness and the variety of its collage elements, which contrast with and complement the very serious content pertaining to his relief at his wife's return from the hospital after successful surgery. The Gabberjabbs collectively challenge the "reader" to slow down, discard the usual assumptions and attitudes toward the printed work, and engage the material in a manner that is interactive and collaborative: one feels almost as though one is creating the book as one reads it a conceit carefully engendered by the author. Since the books were created from the leftover materials from Hamady's other projects, each copy tends to be unique in some fashion. Gabberjabbs were recognized quickly for their importance and the small print runs quickly disappeared. OCLC locates 57 copies of Number 5, an extraordinarily high number for a book with such a small limitation. Copies seldom turn up on the market, let alone copies that are annotated by the author, as this one is, with the additional inserted letter as well as the original 1981 invoice for the subscriber's purchase. A fine copy of a landmark artist's book, and a rarity in the market.
78. HAMADY, Walter. Neopostmodernism: Gabberjabb Number 6. (Mt. Horeb, WI): Perishable Press (1988). The sixth book in the Gabberjabb series, published seven years after the fifth. The limitation was reduced for this book from 200 to 125 copies. If anything, an even more eclectic and elaborate production than Number 5, and attempting to "read" the book sequentially involves carefully discovering how each page or gathering "works" and discovering the surprises the book has in store. This is copy number 41, dated November 14, 1988. Signed by Hamady, his assistant Kent Kasuboske, and the binder Marta Gomez. Additionally inscribed by Hamady to a "special friend" and signed with kisses and hugs ("XXOO"). Fine.
79. HASFORD, Gustav. The Phantom Blooper. NY: Bantam (1990). His second novel, a sequel to The Short-Timers, with several of the same characters, including the title character. Inscribed by Hasford to Kent Anderson: "For Kent Anderson (Page 6) a brother in darkness and in light - from Gus/ Gustav Hasford/ San Clemente/ Jan. 5, 1989." On page 6, an arrow by Hasford points to the paragraph in which "the Phantom Blooper has wasted Lieutenant Kent Anderson..." A surprisingly uncommon book for a sequel to what Newsweek had called "the best novel of the Vietnam war," but Hasford had by then fallen out with the people with whom he won an Academy Award for Full Metal Jacket, and he had served time in jail for his book thefts. He wrote, at one point, that this book was "born dead" because his editor had "gone insane" but it's easy to imagine that by this time Hasford was an erratic and unreliable character, from the publisher's point of view, and the publisher cut back on the book's print run to minimize its losses. It is especially scarce signed, and probably the only signed copies are, like this one, association copies. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
80. HEMINGWAY, Ernest. To Have and Have Not. NY: Scribner, 1937. A novel about a reluctant Caribbean gun runner, which brought the author criticism for its heavy-handed attempt to infuse the story with the fashionable left wing politics of the time. As his first novel since A Farewell to Arms, any book would have been found wanting; and even though we do not look to Hemingway's novels for piercing political analysis, the sympathies expressed in this book are exactly those that drove him to Spain during the Spanish Civil War in futile support of the Spanish Republic one of the defining events of Hemingway's life. Basis for the 1944 movie with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall and a screenplay by William Faulkner. Very near fine with just a few unobtrusive smudges to the boards and a faint shadow on the flyleaf; in a very near fine dust jacket with a touch of rubbing to the spine and spine folds.
81. HEMINGWAY, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. NY: Scribner, 1952. The last of Hemingway's books published in his lifetime, a novella that won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and earned him, two years later, the Nobel Prize for literature: while no single work earns a Nobel Prize, OMATS "redeemed" Hemingway sufficiently after the disastrous critical response to his previous novel, Across the River and Into the Trees, that he was able to again be considered for his overall body of work, which included his earlier classics like The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms. A short novel that has been characterized as a fable, it deals with a Cuban fisherman's struggles to land a giant marlin that he has hooked, and reflects Hemingway's concern for life as a struggle of man against nature, including his own nature. Pictorial bookplate front flyleaf; near fine in a very good, price-clipped dust jacket with light edge wear and rubbing to the spine folds.
82. HIMES, Chester. Collection. 1965-1999. A collection of books by the noted African-American expatriate writer. Himes left the U.S. for Paris, as did many of his black contemporaries, including Richard Wright and James Baldwin, to escape the pervasive racism of his home country. He met his second wife, Lesley, there and after a long courtship they married. As a mixed race couple they encountered prejudice and in 1969 they moved to Spain, where Chester died in 1984. This collection includes 27 books, 20 titles: four signed or inscribed by Himes and eleven signed or inscribed by his wife, Lesley, all of them to a close friend. As follows:
- Retour en Afrique [Back to Africa]. Paris: Plon (1965). A French paperback edition. Signed by the author. Age toning and mild foxing, a few small creases; very good in wrappers.
- Mamie Mason [Pinktoes]. Paris: Plon (1965). A French paperback edition. Signed by the author. Foxing to endpages; very good in wrappers.
- -. Same title, Pinktoes. (London): Allison & Busby (1989). The hardcover issue of the British edition. Age toning to pages; else fine in a near fine dust jacket.
- Il pleut des coups durs [If Trouble was Money]. (n.p.): Gallimard (1973). A French paperback reprint. Very good in wrappers.
- My Life of Absurdity. Garden City: Doubleday, 1976. The first edition of the second volume of his autobiography. Inscribed by the author: "For Dorothy/ with my best wishes/ Chester Himes." Foxed, thus a very good copy in a foxed and price-clipped dust jacket.
- Plan B. Paris: Lieu Common, 1983. A French paperback edition. Signed by the author in the year of publication. Near fine in wrappers.
- -. Same title. A French reprint issued after Himes' death in 1984. Inscribed by Lesley Himes in 1985. Foxing to endpages; very good in wrappers.
- -. Same title. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi (1993). First thus. Inscribed by Lesley Himes "to a very dear friend" in the year of publication, at Christmas. Fine in a near fine, spine-sunned dust jacket.
- -. Same title, the first paperback printing of the University Press of Mississippi edition, also 1993. Inscribed by Lesley Himes, "with love." The half-title with the inscription has been torn out and it now laid in. Very good in spine-faded wrappers.
- Hard-Boiled Dicks No. 8-9: Chester Himes. Paris, 1983. A special issue (in French) dedicated to Himes. Includes work by James Sallis. Inscribed by Lesley Himes, who has signed it "with love/ Chester & Lesley." Foxed; near fine in stapled wrappers.
- A Case of Rape. Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1984. First thus. Foxing to edges of text block; very good in good, edgeworn and spine-sunned dust jacket.
- If He Hollers, Let Him Go. London: Pluto (1986). First Pluto printing. Inscribed by Lesley Himes in the year of publication. Very good in wrappers.
- La troisieme generation [The Third Generation]. (n.p.): Gallimard (1986). First printing of this French reprint. Inscribed by Lesley Himes in the year of publication. Minor foxing; near fine in wrappers.
- Faut etre negre pour faire ca...[Something In a Colored Man]. (Paris): Lieu Common (1986). Foxed endpages; very good in wrappers.
- Corre, Hombre [Run Man Run]. (Barcelona): Plaze & Janes (1988). First printing of this Spanish edition. Inscribed by Lesley Himes. A foxed paperback; very good in a very good dust jacket.
- -. Same title. (London): Alison & Busby (1997). First printing of this English edition. Cocked; very good in wrappers.
- The Real Cool Killers, The Heat's On, Cotton Comes to Harlem, Blind Man with a Pistol, A Rage in Harlem. NY: Vintage Crime, 1988-1989. First printings of five of six volumes in the Vintage Books paperback reprint series (missing The Crazy Kill). Cotton Comes to Harlem has some edge creasing; otherwise the set is near fine in wrappers.
- The Quality of Hurt. NY: Paragon House (1990). First printing of this U.S. paperback edition of the first volume of Himes's autobiography. Spine sunned; very good in wrappers.
- The Collected Stories of Chester Himes. NY: Thunder's Mouth Press (1991). First American edition. Inscribed by Lesley Himes in 1992, "with much love." Near fine in a near fine, edge-sunned dust jacket.
- -. Same title, fourth printing, 2000. With a signed notation by Lesley Himes dated 2001: "I put this book of short stories together because they are a very important part of Chester's work and very different from all the other books. Enjoy!" Paperback. Gently read; very good in wrappers.
- Lonely Crusade. (Edinburgh): Payback Press (1997). First thus, with an introduction by Richard Wright. One page corner turned, about near fine in wrappers.
- Yesterday Will Make You Cry. NY: Norton (1998). Second printing of this edition of Himes' 1953 novel Cast the First Stone, here published in its original version, as Himes first intended. Inscribed by Lesley Himes, "with much love" in 1998. Near fine in a fine dust jacket.
- -. Same title, Por el pasado lloraras. (Barcelona): Muchnik (1999). First thus. Inscribed by Lesley Himes, "with best wishes/ Yesterday will make you cry." Fine in self-wrappers.
Together with a handful of newspaper clipping and photocopies of articles about Himes, his work, and his wife; some on "xerox" paper and much faded. Also included is a copy of a 2005 email to Lesley Himes regarding the theatrical production of La reine des pommes (A Rage in Harlem). Himes's books all addressed the racism that was endemic in the U.S. Several of them used the form of the detective story a series featuring Harlem detectives "Coffin" Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones that is highly regarded by aficionados of the mystery genre to explore social issues. Himes wrote an autobiography, My Life of Absurdity, and the crime novelist and mystery scholar and historian James Sallis wrote a biography of him in 2000. For all:
83. IRVING, John. The Fourth Hand. (n.p.): (n.p.), 2000. Early, tapebound typescript of this novel that was published in July, 2001. No publisher indicated, suggesting this was an early agent's copy, or some other kind of copy prepared prior to the publisher issuing any version of it. Double-spaced, double-sided, 507 pages. "Revised: December 11, 2000" printed on the front cover/title page. Textual differences between this and the published text, beginning with a different table of contents and including changes in the Acknowledgments section of the book. Recipient's name in marker in the upper right corner. Very near fine. We are aware of another state of this draft that was comb-bound, which was issued by Knopf/Canada.