Catalog 100, C-G
19. CARVER, Raymond. This Water. Concord: Ewert, 1985. In the 1980s, Carver and small press publisher William Ewert embarked on a series of limited editions, and this was the first book produced by the collaboration -- i.e., the first that was a collection of writings rather than a single poem. There were two issues of it -- 100 copies in wrappers and 36 copies in cloth and light blue boards. It included eight poems, none of which had appeared in book form before, and only two had been published anywhere. These are the advance galley proofs, on long sheets, approximately 7" x 24", with numerous corrections in Carver's hand, including adding the poems' titles, typesetting instructions (adding/closing spaces, etc.) and changes to the text, including both additions and deletions. Initialled by the author "O.K." on 11-19-84. In addition, a display proof of the title page design is laid in, together with an interesting letter from the publisher to the author touching on this and two other projects currently in-progress -- For Tess and My Crow. A unique look at a Carver work-in-progress.
20. CHATWIN, Bruce. The Songlines. London: Cape (1987). Uncorrected proof copy of Chatwin's fourth book, and by general consensus his best -- a "novel of ideas," as the publisher puts it, of Australian aborigines, and the questions about man that arise from the vast gulf that separates the culture of contemporary, Western civilized man from that of the wandering tribes of Australia, whose "dream tracks" or "songlines" delineate both a physical and a psychic geography. Mild rubbing to spine; else a very fine copy of a scarce proof, the most important book by one of the most highly regarded writers of his generation.
(CHEEVER, John). See item #147.
21. DORRIS, Michael. A Yellow Raft in Blue Water. NY: Henry Holt (1987). His highly praised first novel. Dorris was a professor at Dartmouth College and responsible for starting the Native American Studies Program there and was of Irish, French and Modoc Indian descent himself. He was married to writer Louise Erdrich, also part-Native American, and the two co-wrote several books; they claimed in interviews to have collaborated on all their books, including her bestselling and award-winning novels as well as this book, which was published to excellent reviews, and Dorris's book of nonfiction, The Broken Cord, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. This copy is twice inscribed to Kay Boyle, once "with deep respect and admiration and warm regards" in 1987, and again "in continuing friendship and appreciation" in 1989. Together with a holiday postcard signed "Louise and Michael" in the hand of Louise Erdrich (the dedicatee of this book). Together with one autograph note signed and one typed letter signed from Dorris. Also together with a typed note to Boyle from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters regarding her having brought the book to their attention. A very fine association: Boyle was long considered one of the most politically conscious and politically active of American writers, and her support of young ethnic writers who were, at least early in their careers, outside the mainstream of American writing is indicative of that.
22. DYLAN, Bob. Tarantula. NY: Macmillan (1966). The uncorrected proof of the suppressed first edition of the only book written by Bob Dylan, arguably the most important American singer/musician of the last 50 years. Dylan was within two weeks of finishing "a few changes" to the galleys when a motorcycle accident halted his work on the book. It remained unpublished for five years, during which time a mimeographed pirated edition was issued by Wimp Press, created from a copy of the proof that had been circulated. The original edition made it only to this galley stage before being pulled. According to the preface of the published book, there were "a few sets of galleys that had gone around to different people..." The accident that delayed this book also removed Dylan from the public eye for years and it was a different world -- having been through the polarizing effects of the Vietnam war and the political upheavals of the late Sixties and early Seventies -- when this book was finally formally published. Dylan had been eclipsed by his times, and while still a legendary figure his influence was not even a shadow of what it had been in 1966 and earlier, when he galvanized both the folk music scene and the young protest movement. Tall, ringbound wrappers. Corners creased, several plastic rings cracked; still about near fine. A rare state of the only book written by the legendary singer whose poetry and songs transformed both folk and rock music in the Sixties; we've only seen two other copies offered for sale over the years. Together with a copy of the trade edition (Macmillan, 1971), which adds an introduction explaining the history of the publication of the book. Fine in a near fine dust jacket.
23. ELIOT, T.S. Religious Drama: Mediaeval and Modern. NY: House of Books, 1954. A limited edition, published in the Crown Octavo series by Margie Cohn's House of Books. The text consists of an address Eliot gave in 1937, after he had written Murder in the Cathedral but before he had written any other plays. In a foreword to this edition, Eliot repudiates his 1937 comments on Henrik Ibsen, although not his other comments on drama. This is one of 300 copies signed by the author. Fine, without dust jacket. A very nice copy of a scarce book.
24. ELLISON, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Random House (1952). First edition of the author's first book, winner of the National Book Award and one of the most celebrated African-American novels of all time. In a poll conducted in 1965, 200 critics, authors and editors judged Invisible Man to be "the most distinguished single work" published in the previous 20 years. This is a very good copy in a dust jacket that is slightly rubbed and creased, with a small chip missing at the spine crown. Signed by the author on the front free endpaper.
(ELLISON, Ralph). See also item #147.
25. FALL, Bernard. Street Without Joy. Harrisburg: Stackpole (1961). The first edition of Fall's classic study of French policy and tactics in Southeast Asia, in the Indochina War of 1945-1954, and of the American penchant a decade later for following in the footsteps of the French, duplicating their erroneous assumptions and mistakes. Perhaps the single most insightful volume on the Indochina war(s). This very scarce edition was published by a press more noted for its sporting handbooks than for its general trade books and which often issued titles with first printings as small as 1000 copies. While the first edition of Street Without Joy is exceedingly scarce, it was revised and reprinted a number of times in the early and mid-Sixties as the American involvement in Vietnam grew. To read this book is to be struck by a slowly-building horror -- to realize that much of his description of the failure of various tactics and policies was written before the United States employed them, and could have been avoided. Very good in a very good, foxed and edgeworn dust jacket with a few small chips. Laid in is a copy of a publisher's wraparound band that once adorned this title. While it suggests that the book provides "the Inside Story on Communist Guerrilla Methods in South-east Asia," it neglects to mention that much of the book analyzes the Western response to Communist insurgency there -- in retrospect, a more important element of the text. One of the key titles on the Vietnam war. $450
26. -. Same title, first U.K. edition (London: Pall Mall, 1965), from sheets of the fourth U.S. edition, which was heavily revised and updated to include early U.S. actions in Vietnam. This copy is rebound in black quarter leather, with marbled endpapers, raised bands, gilt stamping and a red leather label, and is inscribed by the author to a U.S. Navy Captain in September, 1966. Inscriptions by Fall, who was killed while on patrol with U.S. Marines in Vietnam in February, 1967, are very scarce. Some spotting to lower page edges and modest wear overall. A very good copy of an extremely important book, and very scarce signed.
27. FAULKNER, William. A Green Bough. NY: Smith & Haas, 1933. Poetry by the author of such classics of 20th century American literature as The Sound and the Fury and the Snopes Trilogy, among others. With jacket engraving and title page illustration by Lynd Ward. Fine in a very good dust jacket with a few closed edge tears and two small chips near the spine crown. A nice copy of an attractive and fragile book, Faulkner's only collection of poetry to be published during his lifetime.
28. FOWLES, John. The Magus. London: Cape (1966). The uncorrected proof copy of the first British edition of Fowles's second novel, a near-fantasy set on a Greek island and involving a young expatriate Englishman who is drawn into the fantastic designs of a self-styled psychic. An ambitious novel that was made into a movie that gained a cult following in the Sixties. Signatures darkening in varying degrees, minor spine creasing; near fine in wrappers. Selected as a book of the century by the Modern Library and Waterstone's.
29. FOWLES, John. The French Lieutenant's Woman. London: Cape (1969). Uncorrected proof copy of the first edition of what many consider to be Fowles's best and most important book, a landmark novel that uses an unconventional love story to explore the decline of Victorian England and the advent of the modern age and modern notions of freedom and self. Spine-creased and cocked; outer edges sunned; the cheap proofing paper has acidified at different rates, causing browning to some of the signatures. A very good copy in wrappers, and one of the scarcest of Fowles's proofs. A Radcliffe and Waterstone's book of the century.
30. FRAZIER, Charles. Cold Mountain. NY: Atlantic Monthly Press (1997). Well-received Civil War novel that became a word-of-mouth bestseller and a publishing phenomenon, and then the winner of the National Book Award. It reached #1 on the bestseller lists of The New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times and Publishers Weekly -- a rare occurrence for a literary novel, let alone a first novel, in these days of mega-blockbusters with first printings sometimes numbering in seven figures. This title had a modest first printing of 25,000 copies but over a hundred subsequent printings brought the total number of copies in print to over 1.5 million, an exceptional number for a book by an unknown writer. Signed by the author in the month of publication. Fine in a fine dust jacket bearing the label with the praise of John Berendt. Reportedly, a movie version is in the works.
31. GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ, Gabriel. MANUSCRIPT of "Rosas Artificiales." Original manuscripts, two drafts, of a story by the Nobel Prize-winning author of One Hundred Years of Solitude, one of the most acclaimed books of the Latin American "boom" and the novel that brought the term "magical realism" into the vocabulary of contemporary American literature. Seven typewritten pages of an early draft, ribbon copy on legal size paper, and six typewritten pages, ribbon copy, on letter-size sheets. Substantive differences exist between the two versions, with different opening sentences and a name change for the major character. The different drafts give explicit access to the author's work as it developed and changed, and provide excellent material for a scholarly study and analysis of the author's writing. This García Márquez manuscript dates from the late Fifties, when he was still working as a newspaper reporter, and it was collected in the volume Los Funerales de la Mamá Grande, which was published in Mexico in 1962, long before the success of Cien Años de Soledad made its author a major figure in world literature. Pages browning with age, and with paper clip rust marks, but still very good. We are only aware of four García Márquez manuscripts ever coming on the market, only two of which were present in multiple drafts; this is one of the two. Since these manuscripts surfaced, through a close friend of the author's sister, García Márquez has reportedly put all his other manuscripts under lock and key. The sale of this manuscript, and the three others that came on the market, caused a minor scandal in the author's native Colombia, with its newsweekly, Semana (the Colombian equivalent of Time magazine) devoting a major story to the sale and a sidebar to the question of the collectibility of authors' manuscript archives in general. A unique literary artifact of one of the leading writers of the twentieth century.
32. GARDNER, John. The Miller's Mule. (n.p.): (self-published), 1965. Seven children's stories written and illustrated by Gardner, done in a homemade edition of approximately 30 copies as Christmas gifts in 1965, the year before his first novel, The Resurrection, was published. Exceptionally scarce; not listed in Howell. Reproduced from the author's typescript, with illustrations by the author. A decade later these stories were published, in significantly altered form, in Gardner's three children's books. The text block has separated from the handmade cardboard binding, and the spine crown is bumped, otherwise this is a near fine copy of perhaps the scarcest Gardner "A" item.
33. GINSBERG, Allen. Siesta in Xbalba and Return to the States. Icy Cape: Self-Published, 1956. The second book by the premier poet of the Beat generation, whose importance to American literature has been compared to that of Walt Whitman. Published two months after Ginsberg's first book, Howl for Carl Solomon, and several months prior to the publication of the City Lights edition of Howl and Other Poems, his first "regularly" published book. One of an estimated 52 copies: Ginsberg wrote in a letter to Jack Kerouac at the time of publication that 52 copies were done. Other than Howl for Carl Solomon, of which only 25 copies were printed, this is doubtless Ginsberg's scarcest publication, a single long poem whose genesis was in a trip to southern Mexico, the area inhabited by the ancient Maya and their present-day descendants, but not published until the author was in Alaska, "near Icy Cape... At the Sign of the Midnight Sun." Stapled wrappers, reproduced from typewritten copy. A few small stains to the covers; very good.
34. GOLDING, William. Lord of the Flies. London: Faber & Faber (1954). The uncorrected proof copy of the Nobel Prize-winning author's landmark first book, which has been made into two different movies and which exerted a powerful influence on a generation's ideas about the fundamental characteristics of human nature. Variations from the published version include the page numbering in the table of contents and the publisher's address. It was believed by Golding's editor, Charles Monteith, that the book had never been bound in proof form at all, as the title was rushed into production for entry into the Cheltenham First Novel Competition. One of only four copies known. Foxing to page edges; spine faded; a very good copy of a scarce and fragile state of this important first novel. In custom clamshell box. Modern Library, Radcliffe, and Waterstone's book of the century -- one of the surprisingly small number of titles to make all three of those lists.
(GOLDING, William). See also item #147.
35. (Grateful Dead). MOUSE, Stanley. Ice Cream Boy. (n.p.: n.p., n.d.)[1972]. Original sketch for the cover of the Grateful Dead's album "Europe '72," first titled "Overthere." 8 1/2" x 11". Shows an early version of "Ice Cream Boy" -- who became an iconic figure after the album came out -- and the original title, which is written above the figure as "OVERTHERE" (one word) and below him as "OverThere." In this pencil sketch, "Ice Cream Boy" has spiky hair, which was changed in the final version. An early and significant sketch of a key icon of one of the most enduring rock bands of the 1960s, by an artist who was at the forefront of the renaissance of graphic poster art that took place in San Francisco in the 1960s and early 1970s. In addition to numerous posters, Mouse also designed and drew the cover for Workingman's Dead, the first Grateful Dead album to achieve significant commercial success. Several light (coffee?) stains, one corner torn; very good. Signed by Mouse.
36. (GREENE, Graham). Speakers at the "Sunday Times" Book Exhibition. November, 1936. Program for a two-week long exhibition held in London in 1936, which featured a virtual "Hall-of-Fame" roster of literary speakers. Permanently mounted to 8" x 11" board. Signed by 14 participants, including Graham Greene, Aldous Huxley, Lord Dunsany, Stephen Spender and Arthur Rackham. Greene's portion was on the theme "The Novelist's Belief." A remarkable memento. Near fine.