Catalog 101, B
30. -. Another copy, this one with promotional material and photograph laid in. A clean copy, with the front cover detached but present. Very good. Scarce.
31. BAMBARA, Toni Cade. Deep Sightings and Rescue Missions. NY: Pantheon Books (1996). The uncorrected proof copy of a posthumously published collection of fiction, essays and conversations by this important African-American author. Edited and with a preface by Toni Morrison. Fine in wrappers.
32. BEALS, Carleton. Typescript of a "Provisional Draft of a New Chapter for the Sixth Printing of The Coming Struggle in Latin America." 44 pages. Consists of ribbon-copy sheets, carbons and holograph, heavily corrected throughout in Beals' hand. The Coming Struggle in Latin America was published in 1938 and this chapter was apparently prompted by the 1939 Lima Conference attended by 21 western republics. Beals, an important, respected, left-leaning journalist in the Twenties, Thirties and Forties, specialized in Latin America and is perhaps best remembered for tracking down and interviewing Nicaraguan rebel general Augusto Sandino while on assignment for The Nation. Top and bottom sheets slightly worn, otherwise fine. An interesting manuscript, with a remarkable number of changes in pencil, on every page.
33. BECKHAM, Barry. My Maine Mother. NY: Walker and Company (1969). The galley sheets of the first book by this African-American writer. Approximately 6 1/2" x 12"; ringbound at the top edge. Inscribed by the author in 1974. The book was later published with the title "My Main Mother." Covers edgetorn; near fine.
34. BELLOW, Saul. Dangling Man. NY: Vanguard (1944). The scarce first book by the Nobel Prize winner and three-time winner of the National Book Award for fiction--an unprecedented accomplishment in American letters. This is a wartime production printed on the cheap paper typical of the day and therefore seldom encountered in collectible condition. This copy has a previous owner label on the front pastedown and some waterstaining to the top edges of the boards; a very good copy in a good, spine-faded dust jacket with several small chips to the edges and the folds, most of which have been internally tape-mended.
35. (BELLOW, Saul). Conversations with Saul Bellow. Jackson: U. of Mississippi Press (1994). Interviews from 1953 to 1992, including a self-interview from 1975. A scarce book, one of approximately 500 hardcover copies; there was also a simultaneous issue in wrappers. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
36. BERRIAULT, Gina. Correspondence. (1981-1982). One autograph letter signed, two typed letters signed, and Berriault's photocopied "Statement of Plans." In April of 1981, Berriault thanks her correspondent, another writer, for having first suggested that she apply for the Guggenheim that she ultimately received: "After I finish my novel...then I will try again to form again some short stories. In the past, when I wrote stories, each one seemed to quicken an idea for another, and that potential always waiting in the wings quickened the life in me, too. It was a beautiful illusion, in a way, like believing you were to be young forever. And now if I can experience that again because of the honor, you are the one most deserving of my gratefulness for the transformation." In July of '81, she again writes the recipient, this time with praise for his latest book. In 1982, at the request of North Point Press, the recipient writes a promotional blurb for Berriault's The Infinite Passion of Expectation and Berriault responds with a handwritten letter, on notepaper, thanking him and inquiring whether she can use his name again to apply for a second Guggenheim Award and another year of "freedom." Included here are two retained copies of letters to Berriault during this period and the correspondent's second recommendation to the Guggenheim Award committee. Attached to that recommendation, and stamped "Please Destroy," is Berriault's "A Statement of Plans," detailing how she would use the additional fellowship year to begin another novel. A nice glimpse behind the scenes at the efforts of a critically acclaimed literary writer to find the funding to continue her work. Berriault's most recent collection of stories, Women in Their Beds, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction for 1996. Each of the letters is near fine or better.
37. BOWLES, Paul. A Little Stone. London: Lehmann (1950). His second book of fiction and first collection of stories--mostly about displaced Americans in third world countries, long before such a subject became fashionable--which has no comparable American edition: a similar but not identical collection was published later in the year in the U.S. as The Delicate Prey. Of 3500 copies printed, this is one in the presumed first issue binding, in light green cloth. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with light tanning and surface soiling. A nice copy of an early and scarce book by the author of The Sheltering Sky.
38. BOWLES, Paul. Let it Come Down. NY: Random House (1952). The first American edition of his second novel, again a tale of expatriate North Americans in North Africa. Near fine in a very good dust jacket with moderate edgewear and rubbing but without the spine-fading that is usually endemic to this title.
39. BOWLES, Paul. No Eye Looked Out From Any Crevice. San Francisco: Cadmus Editions (1997). Of a total edition of 133 copies, this is one of 100 numbered copies signed by Bowles. A prose poem originally written in 1928, when Bowles was 17 years old, and here published for the first time. Light crease on rear cover, else fine in sewn wrappers.
40. (BOWLES, Paul). SARTRE, Jean Paul. No Exit. NY: Samuel French, Inc. (1958). The first acting edition of Sartre's play, adapted from the French by Bowles, and one of the most elusive titles in the Bowles oeuvre. One of only 1005 copies printed, according to Bowles's bibliographer Jeffrey Miller, who lists the item as an "A" item. This is the correct first printing with the price ($1.00) on the front cover and a list of Samuel French musical productions on the rear cover. In over 20 years of being on the lookout for the first printing of this title, this is only the second copy we have seen. Mild spine sunning; very near fine in stapled wrappers, and signed by Bowles. Miller A9. Together with two later printings in which the cover price is absent and the advertisements vary. Each of these is near fine in stapled wrappers. For the three:
41. (BOWLES, Paul). MILLER, Jeffrey. Paul Bowles. A Descriptive Bibliography. Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow, 1986. An exhaustive bibliography of Bowles's writings, from 1926 (when Bowles was 15 years old, more than 20 years before his first novel, The Sheltering Sky) up to 1985. This is the limited edition, one of 200 numbered copies, signed by Bowles and Miller. Fine in acetate dust jacket.
42. BOYLE, T.C. Descent of Man. Boston: Little Brown (1979). The author's first book, a highly praised collection of stories. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket with slight rubbing to the corners and spine extremities.
43. -. Same title, the first British edition (London: Gollancz, 1980). Slight splaying to boards, small sticker abrasion to flyleaf; else fine in a very near fine dust jacket rubbed on the rear spine fold.
44. BOYLE, T. Coraghessan. Water Music. Boston: Little Brown (1981). Second book, first novel, by this inventive, highly praised writer, who later won the PEN Faulkner Award for World's End. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
45. BOYLE, T. Coraghessan. Budding Prospects. NY: Viking (1984). A review copy of this humorous novel of marijuana growing in the northern California wilds. For whatever reason, this is one of his least common titles. Fine in a fine dust jacket, with review slip and promotional sheet laid in.
46. BOYLE, T. Coraghessan. Greasy Lake. (NY): Viking (1985). His second collection of stories. Remainder stamping to bottom edge, small abrasion front flyleaf. Near fine in a fine dust jacket.
47. BOYLE, T. Coraghessan. The Road to Wellville. (NY): Viking (1993). An elaborate, satirical historical novel based on the life of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, a turn-of-the century health crusader and inventor of Kellogg's Corn Flakes (along with "peanut butter...[and] some seventy-five other gastrically correct foods"). Basis for the film. Signed by the author on the half title in the month of publication. Pencilled owner name front flyleaf; else fine in a fine dust jacket.
48. BOYLE, T. Coraghessan. Without a Hero. (NY): Viking (1994). A review copy of his fourth collection of short stories. Fine in a fine dust jacket, with review slip, bookmark, and promotional sheet laid in.
49. BOYLE, T. Coraghessan. The Tortilla Curtain. (n.p.): Viking (1995). The uncorrected proof copy of this novel. A photocopied letter to booksellers by Boyle is laid in, in which he calls this his "first non-comic novel," and which represents an otherwise unpublished piece of writing by Boyle about one of his own books. Fine in wrappers.
50. BOYLE, T.C. Riven Rock. (NY): Viking (1998). His latest novel. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
51. -. Another copy. Signed by the author. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket crimped at the lower edge.
52. BOYLE, T.C. Stories. (NY): Viking (1998). The stories from Boyle's first four collections and seven stories previously uncollected. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author.
53. BRADBURY, Ray. A Medicine for Melancholy. (n.p.: n.p., n.d.). A one-act play by Bradbury based on his novel. This is a mimeographed typescript in plain cardstock covers with title and author and no other affiliation indicated. An unusual and scarce item by an author who almost single-handedly brought the science fiction genre into the realm of respectable literature with a series of classics in the Fifties and early Sixties, one of which, Fahrenheit 451, is still being read in schools today as a literary commentary on the issue of government censorship and free thought. Edge-sunned; else fine.
54. BROOKS, Gwendolyn. Report from Part One. Detroit: Broadside Press (1972). Part autobiography, part critical study of her own work by this African-American author, Pulitzer Prize winner for Annie Allen, poet laureate of Illinois, among numerous other awards and honors throughout her career. Compiles previously published pieces, including three interviews. This is an advance state, consisting of padbound text, with cardboard as the rear cover and no front cover, presumably as issued. Signed by the author. Review slip laid in. Fragile; fine.
55. BROWN, Claude. Manchild in the Promised Land. NY: Macmillan (1965). The uncorrected proof copy of this landmark personal account, which helped a generation of readers define the civil rights struggle of the 1960s in human and personal terms, as opposed to abstractions. Foredge unevenly yellowed, one corner crease. Near fine in wrappers.
56. (BUKOWSKI, Charles). Wormwood Review #16. Storrs: Wormwood Review Press, 1964. Six poems by Bukowski. Small bump at heel of spine, otherwise a fine copy in stapled wrappers of this fragile mimeographed literary magazine. A very nice copy of this very early Bukowski publication.
57. BURKE, James Lee. Heaven's Prisoners. NY: Holt (1988). The second novel in the award-winning Dave Robicheaux mystery series, and the basis for the movie. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author.
58. BURKE, James Lee. Cimarron Rose. (New Orleans): (B.E. Trice) (1997). The limited edition of this novel, a departure from his Dave Robicheaux series, and winner of the 1998 Edgar Award for Best Mystery Novel of the year. Printed from the sheets of the trade edition. Of a total edition of 176 copies, this is one of 150 numbered copies signed by the author. Fine in a fine slipcase.
59. BURROUGHS, William S. and GYSIN, Brion. The Third Mind. NY: Viking (1978). A collaborative effort by these longtime associates and an important documentation of their technique of assembling collages of images, both visual and literary. Signed by Burroughs. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
60. BURROUGHS, William, SOUTHERN, Terry and STERN, Jacques. Junky. NY: L'Automatique, 1977. The unproduced screenplay based on Burroughs' first novel and on Stern's The Creation of Adam--the only attempt we're aware of to bring Burroughs' novel to the screen, and preceding the filming of Naked Lunch by 14 years. Bradbound in vinyl covers. Signed by Southern on the title page. Southern was responsible for a number of the most high-profile screenplays of the 1960s that had an underground, or countercultural, edge--including Dr. Strangelove, Easy Rider and Candy--and he would have been a natural selection to bring Burroughs' first great drug novel to the screen. Minor wear to covers; else fine. Extremely uncommon: we've never heard of another one offered.
61. (BURROUGHS, William). MAYNARD, Joe and MILES, Barry. William S. Burroughs. A Bibliography, 1953-73. Charlottesville: U. of Virginia (1978). An exhaustively researched, thorough bibliography covering the first twenty years of Burroughs' career. The total edition was 2000 copies, this being one of 50 with a colophon tipped in the rear, signed by William S. Burroughs. Near fine without dust jacket, as issued.
62. (BURROUGHS, William). CRONENBERG, David. The Naked Lunch. London: Recorded Picture Company, 1990. The first draft of Cronenberg's screenplay of Burroughs' novel. Cronenberg's adaptation of Burroughs' nearly-impossible-to-film novel earned substantial critical acclaim, if not huge commercial success (the subject matter alone guaranteed a somewhat limited audience). The production was done in Canada and was shrouded in secrecy, and copies of the screenplay, while highly sought after, were exceedingly difficult to obtain. This is the first one we have seen offered on the market; it came from the library of a California agent. Fine, in ringbound acetate covers.
63. BUSCH, Frederick. Domestic Particulars. [NY: New Directions, 1976]. The galley sheets of his fourth volume of fiction, only his second to be published in this country. Approximately 23" x 7", inscribed by the author on the back of the last page, and with jacket art tipped to the front. Near fine.
64. BUTLER, Robert Olen. Sun Dogs. NY: Horizon (1982). His second novel, a thriller set in the northern Alaskan wilderness that is both a highly readable page-turner and a powerful novel of ideas. Signed by the author. Butler won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his collection of stories, A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
65. BUTLER, Robert Olen. On Distant Ground. NY: Knopf, 1985. His fourth book, a moving novel of the Vietnam war that bears the characteristics of a Grail quest, and was one of our choices as among the ten best literary works on the Vietnam war. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author.
66. BUTLER, Robert Olen. Tabloid Dreams. NY: Henry Holt (1996). A collection of stories, by the award-winning author of A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain. This is Butler's second collection of stories; his earlier collection not only won the Pulitzer Prize but also won the Richard and Hilda Rosenthal Foundation Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author.
67. BUTLER, Robert Olen. The Deep Green Sea. NY: Henry Holt (1998). Signed by the author in February, 1998. The novel was published in January, 1998; the copyright page states both 1997 and 1998. Fine in a fine dust jacket.