Catalog 93, L
216. (Latin American Literature). BORGES, Jorge Luis with GUERRERO, Margarita. The Book of Imaginary Beings. London: Jonathan Cape (1970). The first British edition of this expanded edition of Borges' bestiary of mythological creatures, originally published as Manual de zoología fantástica. Fine in a near fine dust jacket.
217. (Latin American Literature). GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ, Gabriel. In Evil Hour. NY: Harper & Row (1979). A review copy of the first American edition of this short novella originally published in Spanish in the Sixties. Translated by Gregory Rabassa. Very near fine in like dust jacket.
218. (Latin American Literature). GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ, Gabriel. News of a Kidnapping. NY: Knopf, 1997. The uncorrected proof copy of this first American edition of the first full-length work of nonfiction by the Colombian Nobel Prize winner. One small corner crease; else fine in wrappers.
219. (Latin American Literature). VARGAS LLOSA, Mario. Making Waves. NY: FSG (1997). The uncorrected proof copy of the first American edition of the first collection of essays by this Peruvian writer who ran unsuccessfully for President a few years ago, against the current Peruvian President. Fine in wrappers.
220. LAWRENCE, T.E. The Odyssey of Homer. NY: Oxford U. Press, 1932. The first American edition, one of only 34 numbered copies (25 for sale), printed to secure American copyright, this being one of only eleven bound in crushed morocco. Lawrence's translation of The Odyssey was commissioned in 1928 and completed nearly five years later. It was his last major work and proved extremely successful, having been printed in a remarkable range of editions, from this beautiful copyright edition, based on the English edition published earlier the same year and designed by Bruce Rogers, to a paperback edition distributed free to American servicemen during the Second World War. Original rust-brown crushed morocco, spine gilt-lettered with five raised bands, publisher's original linen strengthening at inner hinges, top edge gilt. Bookplate front pastedown; light shelfwear at extremities; else fine, in custom clamshell box. A beautiful copy of one of the scarcest books in the Lawrence canon. O'Brien A148.
221. -. Same title, the first American trade edition. Previous owner gift inscription. Spine cloth mottled; paper clip rust marks on half-title; very good without dust jacket. O'Brien A149.
222. - . Same title, the second British edition (O'Brien A144), and the first British trade edition, after the limited edition of 530 copies in 1932 (London: Oxford 1935). Bookplate removal scar; spine and edge-darkened. A good copy, without dust jacket.
223. LAWRENCE, T.E. Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Garden City: Doubleday Doran, 1935. The first American edition of Lawrence's masterwork. A very good, spine-darkened copy, lacking dust jacket.
224. LAWRENCE, T.E. Crusader Castles. (London): Golden Cockerel Press, 1936. Two volumes. Volume 1: The Thesis; Volume II: The Letters. The thesis was written as part of Lawrence's work for an Oxford B.A. and was largely instrumental in winning him First Class Honours. It embodied the conclusions he had reached after visiting medieval castles in Britain, France and Syria. The original title was The Influence of the Crusades on European Military Architecture - to the End of the XIIth Century. Quarto, original half-niger morocco, top edge gilt, others uncut, by Sangorski and Sutcliffe. One of 1000 copies. O'Brien A188 and A189. No American trade edition of this title was done (although there was a limited issue for copyright purposes). Each volume is near fine.
225. LAWRENCE, T.E. The Letters of T.E. Lawrence. London: Jonathan Cape (1938). The personal copy of Michael S. Howard, Managing Director of Jonathan Cape, publisher of this volume; bound in half-pigskin with marbled endpapers and a glassine dust wrapper tipped with flaps similar to the endpapers. Top edge gilt. Laid in is a signed note by Howard's widow certifying that this was his copy and stating that it is "one of two, possibly three, bound in this way." The book is fine; the jacket is brittle and cracked. O'Brien A202.
226. LAWRENCE, T.E. T.E. Lawrence by His Friends. London: Jonathan Cape (1937). Recollections of Lawrence by his friends. Bookplate front pastedown; else fine without dust jacket.
227. LAWRENCE, T.E. Secret Despatches from Arabia. (London): Golden Cockerel (1939). One of 1000 copies of this attractive edition, bound in cloth and 1/4 black Niger morocco; top edge gilt. The most extensive of the Golden Cockerel volumes by Lawrence. The boards are somewhat browned with age and a bit splayed; the endpapers are slightly foxed. Lacking the original (plain) slipcase; still a very good copy of a handsomely produced volume. O'Brien A226.
228. LAWRENCE, T.E. Oriental Assembly. London: Williams & Norgate (1939). First edition of this posthumous volume, containing among other pieces the first general publication of the suppressed introductory chapter to Seven Pillars of Wisdom, as well as numerous photographs by Lawrence, previously unpublished. Foxing to foredge, still near fine in a crisp, fine dust jacket. An extraordinarily nice copy of this title, published just before the war began.
229. - . Same title, the first American edition (NY: Dutton, 1940). Near fine in a very good dust jacket with a number of small edge tears and chips.
230. LAWRENCE, T.E. The Mint. Garden City: Doubleday, 1955. One of 1000 numbered copies of the second American edition (the first was published in 1936, in a copyright edition of 50 copies). A fine copy, lacking the original slipcase.
231. (Lawrenciana/Arabia). BELL, Gertrude L. The Desert and the Sown. London: Heinemann, 1907. The first book on Arabia by this important traveler and writer. Bell was the first woman to get a first-class degree in modern history at Oxford, and her writings and social activism were instrumental in bringing about independence for the Arabs. Foxing to endpages and spine cloth; very good in a partial dust jacket, separated at the rear spine fold and missing about half of the spine panel. Still, the presence of any dust jacket at all on this 1907 book is extraordinary.
232. (Lawrenciana/Arabia). DOUGHTY, Charles M. Travels in Arabia Deserta. London: Lee Warner and Jonathan Cape, 1921. Second edition of this classic book on Arabia, brought back into print at the insistence of T. E. Lawrence, who agreed to do an introduction that would help to sell the edition. Two volumes, one of 500 copies. The paper used in printing this edition is extremely heavy and the cloth notoriously fragile. Fine copies are virtually unobtainable. These copies are worn at the extremities of the spines, and Volume I is split at both joints-a common state for this title. This copy bears the ownership signature of Lawrence biographer Jeremy Wilson, a nice association. Overall, a good set.
233. (Lawrenciana/Arabia). BELL, Gertrude. The Letters of Gertrude Bell. London: Ernest Benn, 1927. Two volumes. Moderate foxing to page edges, otherwise very good in good dust jackets worn at the spine extremities and chipped along the rear flap fold of Volume I. Still, a nice set, in fragile dust jackets which will not have survived in any quantity.
234. (Lawrenciana/Arabia). FULANAIN. Haji Rikkan Marsh Arab. London: Chatto & Windus (1927). A novelized account of the life of an Iraqi Arab, written at a time when knowledge of their life and culture was largely absent in the West. Illustrated with photographs. The book was undertaken at the suggestion of Gertrude Bell, who was to provide an introduction for it but died shortly before it was finished. Pages foxed; else very good in a dust jacket with two long edge tears. An uncommon title, especially in dust jacket.
235. LE CARRÉ, John. Call for the Dead. NY: Walker (1962). The first American edition of LeCarré's first book, which introduced George Smiley. This is the correct first American edition, with a white dust jacket printed in red, black and purple, not the ubiquitous later book club edition that is often mistaken for a first. Near fine in a dust jacket with shallow chipping at the base of the spine and a bit of edgewear. Still, an attractive copy of a book that has become increasingly scarce in recent years.
236. LE CARRÉ, John. A Murder of Quality. NY: Walker & Co. (1963). First American edition of LeCarré's second book, which featured George Smiley, "that bland and deadly espionage agent," who appeared in his first book. LeCarré's first three books were written while he himself was working for British intelligence and his writing brought a new level of realism to the contemporary spy novel, especially in contrast to the then very popular fictions of Ian Fleming's James Bond. Smiley, of course, later became the apotheosis of the spy in LeCarré's "Karla" sequence. A fine copy in a slightly spine-faded, near fine dust jacket. In our experience, this book is at least as scarce as his first book, if not scarcer. This is one of the nicer copies of it we have seen in recent years.
237. LEE, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia: Lippincott (1960). The author's first and only book, a huge bestseller which was reprinted dozens of times upon publication, won the Pulitzer Prize, was made into an Academy Award-winning movie and has sold literally millions of copies in the decades since, never going out of print. While hardcover copies abound, the first edition is not only very scarce, it is virtually impossible to find in the kind of collector's condition demanded these days of most modern first editions: copies seem to have been read and re-read, passed around and generally handled more than most modern firsts, and even copies in "very good" condition are exceedingly scarce, with the demand far outstripping the supply. This is a "good" copy: spine-cocked, with heavy glue and tape residue on the endpages, and a partial, thin black line on the outer board edges from a previous jacket protector; in a repaired dust jacket, which is present and whole but also rubbed and creased along edges and folds, and with color added to the edges and to the front cover at the location of a previous tape abrasion. An affordable copy of a modern classic, one of the best-loved American novels of all time.
238. -. Same title, the advance reading copy in printed wrappers. Spine creased; small surface and edge chips and soiling to white wrappers. About very good.
239. LE GUIN, Ursula. The Dispossessed. London: Gollancz, 1974. The first British edition of her award-winning masterpiece, "the most thoroughgoing utopian vision in modern SF" (Pringle). One of Pringle's hundred best science fiction novels, this book won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel, and was a runner-up for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. A serious novel of ideas, using science fiction to explore issues of moral and political significance, including a careful explication of modern trends in libertarian thought and anarchism. Fine in a near fine dust jacket rubbed at the crown.
240. LE GUIN, Ursula K. The Compass Rose. NY: Harper & Row (1982). A collection of short stories. Inscribed by the author. Fine in a near fine dust jacket.
241. LE GUIN, Ursula. The Eye of the Heron. NY: Harper & Row (1983). First separate publication of this short novel that was originally included in the collection Millenial Women in 1978. Inscribed by the author. Very near fine in like dust jacket with slight wear at the crown.
242. LEHANE, Dennis. Sacred. NY: Morrow (1997). The advance reading copy of the third book featuring detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, by the author of A Drink Before the War, which won a Shamus Award. This is a fine copy in wrappers.
243. -. Same title, the first trade edition. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
244. LENNON, John. Skywriting By Word of Mouth. NY: Harper & Row (1986). A posthumous collection of Lennon's writings from the Dakota days. Inscribed by Yoko Ono, who provides an afterword, in the month after publication. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
245. LESLEY, Craig. The Sky Fisherman. Boston/NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1995. Third novel by the author of Winterkill and River Song. A coming of age novel set in the Pacific Northwest with a young Indian as the protagonist. Dust jacket blurbs by Barry Lopez, Carolyn See, Ivan Doig, Robert Olen Butler and Terry Tempest Williams. One slight corner bump; else fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author in 1996.
246. LETHEM, Jonathan. The Wall of the Sky, The Wall of the Eye. NY: Harcourt Brace (1996). The uncorrected proof copy of the third book by the author of Gun, With Occasional Music, and his first collection of stories, two of which have not been published in any form previously. Fine in wrappers.
247. LONDON, Jack. Autographed Photo. (No date.) Approximately 4 1/4" x 6 1/4". Signed by the author in pencil on a dark background. Matted and framed to 7 3/8" x 10 1/8". Fine. An attractive portrait photo.
248. LONG, David. The Falling Boy. (NY): Scribner (1997). The advance reading copy of the first novel by this author whose first collection of stories, Blue Spruce, won the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Fine in wrappers.
249. LOPEZ, Barry Holstun. Desert Notes. Kansas City: Sheed Andrews McMeel (1976). The author's first book, a collection of "narrative contemplations" of the desert, told in a poetic, lucid prose, the clarity and simplicity of which is uncommonly suited to the subtleties of perception and expression it contains. A thin book, published by a small midwestern publisher more noted for its religious titles than its books for the general trade, this book has become quite scarce in recent years. This is a fine copy in a very near fine dust jacket with light wear at the crown. A nice copy of a difficult book.
250. LOWELL, Robert. Life Studies. London: Faber and Faber (1959). First British edition of this collection of poems, which won the National Book Award in 1960. Near fine in a very good, spine-tanned dust jacket with light wear at the crown.
251. LOWELL, Robert. For the Union Dead. London: Faber and Faber (1965). First British edition of this collection of poems, which was a National Book Award nominee in 1965. Fine in a spine-tanned, else fine dust jacket.
252. LOWELL, Robert. The March. (n.p.: n.p., n.d.). A broadside poem, dedicated to Dwight Macdonald. Approximately 9" x 18 1/2", this copy has been mounted to foam and is bubbling off a bit; there is also a stain, faint but large; overall only a good copy. Signed by Dwight Macdonald.
253. (LOWRY, Malcolm). SIMPSON, W.G. "Canada and Malcolm Lowry." (n.p.: n.p., n.d.). (1947-1957). Four pages (numbered 2-5), a partial typescript, of Simpson's article on Lowry, heavily edited and annotated by Malcolm Lowry. This section of the typescript runs about 1300 words, and Lowry's comments add up to just under 300 words. The comments Lowry has appended are remarkable in their candor. In one section, where Simpson discusses the success of Under the Volcano, Lowry added the following somewhat caustic, self-deprecating comment: "And re his success, you can say that the author considered it extremely bad for him, & wishes that he had been left in the darkness to flounder and fail..." Another section concerns the alcoholism in Lowry's family, and Lowry crossed out the entire paragraph, remarking "We will have to cut this; I'll replace it with something, however." Throughout, the view of the writer commenting on himself is stark and Lowry-esque: in a section that refers to him as having been a fisherman, Lowry pointed out that he is a "bloody liar" and that his "sole (sic) affinity with fish would seem to be that I have (a) a certain reputation for swimming like one, (b) drinking like one." A remarkable self-commentary by the author of one of the great novels of the century. The pages are folded once and edge-darkened; near fine.