Nature Writing, W-Z
451. -. Same title. The uncorrected proof copy. Small sticker shadow front cover; else fine in wrappers.
452. WATERS, Frank. The Colorado. NY: Rinehart & Co. (1946). A volume in the Rivers of America Series, a project begun as part of the WPA during the Depression, and continuing until after the Second World War. Waters was primarily known as a novelist whose work was set in the American Southwest. He is credited, along with Wallace Stegner and a small handful of others, with lifting the literature of the American West out of the realm of six-guns and adventure tales once and for all, and helping to create a regional literature as distinct and accomplished as that of the American South. Near fine in a very good dust jacket with light edgewear and a crease to the spine.
453. WATKINS, T.H. Stone Time. Santa Fe: Clear Light Publishers (1994). Black-and-white photographs of southern Utah, and meditations on the land. Introduction by Terry Tempest Williams. Large quarto; fine in a fine dust jacket.
454. WELCH, Lew. "Step out onto the Planet..." [San Francisco]: [Four Seasons], 1964. A broadside poem, 9 1/2" x 12 1/2", reproducing Welch's handwriting and design, limited to 300 copies sold on the occasion of a reading by Welch, Gary Snyder and Philip Whalen, longtime friends who first met when they all attended Reed College, a progressive school in Oregon, and who later became three of the most influential poets of the Beat generation. The sentiment of this poem -- a sense of the mystery and wonder of the earth, expressed in a few simple lines -- captures an essential element of the sensibility ignited by the Beats in our culture. Signed by Welch, who, although less well-known than his former classmates, was nonetheless one of the most important poets of the era. Matted; fine.
455. WHITE, E.B. Typed Note Signed. March 24, 1962. Three paragraphs, reminiscing about "joy in Maine waters" and apologizing for his belated correspondence: "One reason I am behind is that I am spending a few weeks in Florida and the birdlife here is both rich and distracting---gives a man no time for idle matters, such as earning a living." Typed on New Yorker stationery that has been trimmed down to 4 1/8" x 6 3/4" and bears several pieces of tape at the edges from where was affixed to something else. Near fine.
456. WILLIAMS, Terry Tempest and MAJOR, Ted. The Secret Language of Snow. (San Francisco): Sierra Club/Pantheon Books (1984). The uncorrected proof copy of Williams' first book, a natural history of snow that draws on poetry and tribal sources as well as scientific categories to expand one's sense of that which is innate in snow, and which it manifests. A very scarce book these days in any form, it is especially scarce as a proof. Fine in wrappers.
457. WILLIAMS, Terry Tempest. Pieces of White Shell. NY: Scribner (1984). Her first solo book, subtitled "A Journey to Navajoland," with illustrations by Navajo artist Clifford Brycelea. Winner of the 1984 Southwestern Book Award. Inscribed by the author in 1989: "For ____/ We are told a story/ and then we tell our/ own./ Bless you & these/ sacred lands." Three pages bear a small puncture wound, not affecting text; near fine in a very good dust jacket with two long, but closed edge tears. A very nice inscription in an uncommon book.
458. -. Another copy, unsigned. Fine in a very near fine, price-clipped dust jacket with sparse traces of rubbing to the unlaminated dust jacket. An attractive copy of a book that has become quite difficult to locate in recent years and which, because of the soft paper jacket, usually shows up quite worn.
459. WILLIAMS, Terry Tempest and TELFORD, John. Coyote's Canyon. Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith (1989). Text by Williams and photographs by Telford. Another book of photographs that looks as though the color must have been manipulated by filters or trickery, but in fact is the work of a careful observer of the natural light of the desert. Quarto; only issued in wrappers. Near fine; signed by Williams.
460. WILLIAMS, Terry Tempest. Refuge. NY: Pantheon (1991). A memoir, which juxtaposes growing up downwind of the Fifties atomic bomb tests -- and watching the women in her family die of cancer -- with an ecological crisis on the Great Salt Lake. Signed by the author in 1992. Bumped, nearly crunched, upper corners; very good in like dust jacket.
461. WILLIAMS, Terry Tempest. An Unspoken Hunger. NY: Pantheon (1994). A collection of essays on "the unharnessed mysteries and meanings of the natural world." Williams is both a highly respected literary author and an outspoken political and environmental activist, a rare combination even in this age when the overlap between ecology and social responsibility is becoming a mainstream concern rather than the province exclusively of fringe radicals. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
462. -. Same title. The uncorrected proof copy. Signed by the author. Very slightly dusty; fine in wrappers.
463. WILLIAMS, Terry Tempest and FRANK, Mary. Desert Quartet. An Erotic Landscape. (n.p.): Pantheon (1995). An advance excerpt of this title that features text by Williams and drawings and paintings by Frank, who also collaborated with Peter Matthiessen on Shadows of Africa. A cardstock fold-out with sections on Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Fine.
464. -. Same title, the trade edition. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by Williams.
465. (WILLIAMS, Terry Tempest). Ecology and Consciousness. Richmond: North Atlantic Books (1978). A second printing of a compilation of pieces on despair and hope in the twentieth century. Includes work by Gregory Bateson, Simon Ortiz, Diane di Prima, R. Buckminster Fuller, Thomas Merton, Charles Olson and many others. This copy bears the ownership signature of Terry Tempest Williams, with her marginal notes in an interview conducted (by someone else) with Gary Snyder. Williams has also noted beneath her signature, dated 1982, that the text was used in preparation for a workshop with Snyder. Her notes include such responses as "What is my tradition?" and "Why bioregionalism? Need?", questions that precede her first published book. Near fine in wrappers.
466. (WILLIAMS, Terry Tempest and Lyon, Thomas). Great and Peculiar Beauty. Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith (1998). Williams and Lyon edit this massive paean to Utah, spanning 150 years of writing by more than 125 writers, including Williams, Wallace Stegner, Edward Abbey, Stephen Trimble, Mark Strand, Bernard De Voto, May Swenson, Ron Carlson, Pam Houston, Everett Ruess, Gino Sky and many others. With a preface by Williams and Lyon, and signed by Williams. Fine in a fine dust jacket, with a tear on the front flap.
467. WILSON, Edward O. Consilience. NY: Knopf, 1998. The uncorrected proof copy of this book by the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning scientist who pioneered the notions of sociobiology and biodiversity and has been one of the most influential thinkers of modern times. This somewhat controversial book argues for the fundamental unity of all knowledge and the existence of a small number of natural laws that comprise the underlying principles in every area of learning. Front cover a bit wrinkled; near fine in wrappers.
468. WINN, Marie. Red-tails in Love. NY: Pantheon (1998). The uncorrected proof copy. Initially subtitled "Mysteries of Urban Wildlife," changed here in paste-over fashion to "The Secret Life of Central Park," the story chronicles the nesting of two red-tail hawks on a ledge across the street from Woody Allen's penthouse. With appendices including other bird and butterfly sightings. This copy belonged to Terry Tempest Williams and bears her 1997 ownership signature on the cover. Near fine in wrappers. Winn, not generally considered a "nature writer," is the author of two influential books on child-rearing and social responsibility.
469. ZWINGER, Ann. Beyond the Aspen Grove. NY: Random House (1970). The author's uncommon first book, reflecting her early and ongoing interest in ecology, before it was fashionable. She is currently one of the most highly regarded essayists writing on environmental issues and natural history. Her book Run, River, Run won the John Burroughs Medal; she was President of the Thoreau Society in 1982-83; and she has been a Director of the John Burroughs Association and the Orion Society, among others. Fine in a near fine jacket with a small chip at the upper front spine fold. Signed by the author.
470. -. Another copy. Also signed by the author. Waterspot to top stain; near fine in a very good, spine-faded and price-clipped dust jacket with minor edgewear.
471. ZWINGER, Ann. Wind in the Rock. NY: Harper & Row (1978). A book on the canyon country of the Southwest, illustrated with numerous delicate and detailed drawings by the author. One slight corner bump; else fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
472. ZWINGER, Ann and TEALE, Edwin Way. A Conscious Stillness. Two Naturalists on Thoreau's Rivers. NY: Harper & Row (1982). Two of the most respected writers on nature collaborate on a book about the rivers of Thoreau country. Teale is a naturalist who won the Pulitzer Prize for his book Wandering Through Winter. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
473. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. Spine-sunned; otherwise fine in wrappers.
474. ZWINGER, Ann Haymond. The Mysterious Lands. NY: Dutton (1989). A book on the four great deserts of the Southwest, illustrated with the author's drawings. Rear flyleaf excised; marker stripe to rear pastedown and top edge; possibly an ex-library copy, in a fine dust jacket.