Catalog 101, H-L
170. HALL, James Baker. Music for a Broken Piano. NY: Fiction Collective (1982). The second novel by this Kentucky writer, this being the issue in wrappers. Larry McMurtry blurb on rear cover. This copy is inscribed by the author to a well-known poet in 1983, "with deepest respect." A nice association copy. Fine.
171. HANLEY, James. A Man in the Customs House. (London): (n.p.) (n.d.). A filmscript, subtitled "An Experiment in Imagination," and taking as its subject Melville and Melville's writings. Inscribed by the author and with a couple of ink corrections to the text, presumably in the author's hand. Claspbound in cardstock covers. The front cover is waterstained and has bled through the window slightly, on to the title page. Very good.
172. HARDWICK, Elizabeth. Correspondence. July 28, 1981 and June 2, 1989. One typed letter signed, two sides, with original mailing envelope; and one typed note signed, also with envelope. The first is a warm letter to another writer, sympathizing on a negative review by a woman with "a very tiresome legislative turn of mind...She's not an important critic and not an interesting one either...It wouldn't have mattered had it not been in the Times Book Review...As a fellow writer the pain of the composition, the mysteriousness of the responses, whether favorable or otherwise, are well-known to me." Folded in thirds for mailing; else fine. Together with a short note to the same correspondent, thanking him for his letter and commenting briefly on his having taken one of her comments as alluding to Henry James: "I didn't have Henry James in mind about 'saturation' -- I mean I don't remember his thoughts on it but I'm always happy to catch that train, whether inadvertently or not." Folded; else fine. For both:
173. HARRISON, Jim. Legends of the Fall. (NY): Delacorte/Seymour Lawrence (1979). The one-volume trade edition of this collection of three novellas, one of three formats in which this book was issued. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
174. -. Same title. (NY): Delta (1994). A later printing of a later edition, issued after the release of the movie. This copy is inscribed by Harrison "to my fellow poet" to a fellow poet. Near fine in wrappers.
175. HARRISON, Jim. Dalva. NY: Dutton/Lawrence (1988). A novel told from the point of view of a pioneer woman. Signed by the author in the year of publication. Faint spot to foredge; else fine in a fine dust jacket with a slight crimp to the crown.
176. HARRISON, Jim. The Woman Lit By Fireflies. Boston: Houghton Mifflin/Seymour Lawrence, 1990. A collection of three novellas. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
177. HARRISON, Jim. Julip. Boston/NY: Houghton Mifflin/Seymour Lawrence, 1994. Again, a collection of three novellas. Signed by the author. Corner bumped; else fine in a fine dust jacket.
178. HAVIARAS, Stratis. The Heroic Age. NY: Simon & Schuster (1984). Second novel by the poet and author of When the Tree Sings, this novel again taking place in the author's native Greece, in the years immediately following the Second World War. Warmly inscribed by the author to a well-known poet in the year of publication. Fine in a near fine dust jacket.
179. HAWKES, John. Typed Note Signed. July 27, 1981. A short note on Brown University stationery declining to contribute to "The Novelist and Critic." In part: "The problem is that I stopped writing non-fiction years ago -- after my Flannery O'Connor-Nathanael West piece, I think -- and I can't go back to that kind of writing again. 5 1/2" x 8 1/2". Paper clip rust; folded in thirds for mailing; near fine. With envelope, which was ripped open at the end.
180. HAWKES, John. Typed Note Signed. August 24, 1981. A short note on Brown University stationery declining a request to participate in a [lecture/reading] series at the New School for Social Research. 5 1/2" x 8 1/2". Folded in thirds for mailing, one tiny edge nick; else fine.
181. HELLER, Joseph. Now and Then. From Coney Island to Here. NY: Knopf, 1998. The well-received recent memoir of the author of Catch-22, Something Happened, and others. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
182. HEMINGWAY, Ernest. Winner Take Nothing. NY: Scribner's, 1933. Hemingway's third collection of stories, published at the height of his acclaim, and including the first book appearance of the classic, "A Clean Well-Lighted Place." This copy has a couple of very faint tape shadows on the endpapers, presumably from an earlier dust jacket protector, but is otherwise a fine copy in a bright, crisp dust jacket with two short, closed edge tears, a couple of small, light surface scratches on the spine and the barest of edgewear (we can assume that jacket protector did its job). An exceedingly nice copy, with rich, unfaded top edge stain, and very scarce thus: the black dust jacket commonly shows much rubbing and fraying, whereas this copy is very close to fine. A beautiful copy.
183. (HEMINGWAY, Ernest). ARONOWITZ, Alfred and HAMILL, Peter. Ernest Hemingway. The Life and Death of a Man. NY: Lancer Books (1961). A paperback original, published within months of Hemingway's suicide, and the first book by Hamill, whose tough-guy reporting became a signature of the journalism of the 1960s (his later books were all published as "Pete" Hamill, as opposed to "Peter"). Acidic pages darkened with a few chips along the brittle edges. Covers clean. Overall, about near fine in wrappers. Inscribed by Hamill in 1975.
184. HERR, Michael. Dispatches. (London): Picador/Pan (1978). The first British edition. Only issued in softcover in the U.K. Inscribed by the author to his publisher in 1980, "with admiration and regards." Herr, reporting for Rolling Stone and Esquire from Vietnam, was one of the first of the young writers to bring the sensibilities of the 1960s and the conventions of the New Journalism to the "first rock-and-roll war," and it was a perfect match: nobody had told the tales Herr was finding in Vietnam and sending back in a riveting series of dispatches, legendary at the time. "Hell Sucks," "Illumination Rounds," "Khe Sanh," and his other pieces told the stories of the war in voices so authentic--the uncensored words of the participants themselves--that their impact was shattering. The official picture of an orderly progression to the war--Body Counts, Vietnamization, Winning Hearts and Minds--bore no relation to the sheer madness and absolute hell that Herr found when he barely scratched the surface and got a glimpse of how the war looked from a grunts'-eye view. His writings defined the "credibility gap" that made Vietnam so different from earlier wars. Dispatches has withstood the test of time perhaps better than any other single book of reporting on Vietnam, and its prose is as clear, and as shocking, today as it was nearly 30 years ago, when these pieces were first published in magazines. John Le Carré called it "the best book I have ever read on men and war in our time" and Robert Stone said "it may be the best personal journal about war, any war, that any writer has ever accomplished. The recent two-volume compilation of the reporting of the Vietnam War published by the Library of America reprinted the entire contents of Dispatches, while opting to reprint only excerpts from other books of war reporting. Pages browning as usual; spine lightly creased from reading; a very good copy. Blurbs by Stone, Le Carré, Hunter Thompson, Tom Wolfe, and others. Reprinted many times in England, the first printing is moderately difficult to locate, and signed copies are extremely scarce, let alone a good association such as this.
185. HEWAT, Alan V. Lady's Time. NY: Harper & Row (1985). The author's first novel, winner of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation award. Inscribed by the author to a well-known poet in the month after publication. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
186. HILLERMAN, Tony. The First Eagle. (NY): HarperCollins (1998). The advance reading copy of his most recent mystery novel, featuring Navajo detectives Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee; together with 8 1/2" x 11" typeset sheets that supersede the advance reading copy. A publisher's cover letter on the sheets explains that the advance reading copy does not include major editorial changes that have been made to the book. The advance reading copy is fine in wrappers; the sheets are velobound, and the binding is separating; else fine. For both advance states:
187. (HILLERMAN, Tony). BULOW, Ernie. Navajo Taboos. Gallup: Buffalo Medicine Books, 1991. A compilation of Navajo taboos, with Bulow's commentaries. Hillerman provides the introduction. Of a total edition of 1000 copies, this is one of fifty numbered copies, specially bound and signed by Ernie Bulow, Tony Hillerman and Ernest Franklin, the illustrator. Together with a signed original water color by Franklin. The watercolor is matted. The book is fine in a fine slipcase.
188. HUGHES, Langston. Fields of Wonder. NY: Knopf, 1947. A book of poems by the foremost African-American writer of the mid-century, one of the key figures in the Harlem Renaissance. A beautiful copy of this collection: fine in a fine dust jacket. Scarce thus.
189. IRVING, John. Setting Free the Bears. NY: Random House (1968). The first book by the author of The World According to Garp, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and others. Near fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
190. IRVING, John. A Prayer for Owen Meany. Franklin Center: Franklin Library, 1989. The true first edition of what may be Irving's best-loved book, which was the basis for the recent movie Simon Birch. Leatherbound, gilt stamped, with gilt page edges. With a special introduction for this edition which does not appear in the trade edition, and signed by the author. A fine copy.
191. IRVING, John. A Widow for One Year. (London): Bloomsbury (1998). The British trade edition of his latest novel, which was preceded by the British limited edition, but which preceded the U.S. edition. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author.
192. -. Another copy. Very slight smudge to top edge; else fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
193. -. Same title, the advance reading copy of the British edition. Spine slant; near fine in wrappers, with different background art from the finished book. This advance reading copy would presumably have preceded the publication of the above-mentioned limited edition.
194. JARRELL, Randall. Kipling, Auden & Co. NY: FSG (1980). Folded and gathered sheets of this posthumous collection of Jarrell's essays and reviews, spanning the years 1935-1964. Jarrell, a poet and also the author of one novel, was highly respected for his incisive criticism. Edge-sunned, a little spotting and creasing to the last page; near fine. A scarce advance issue of this collection.
195. JOHNSON, Guy. Standing at the Scratch Line. NY: Random House (1998). The advance reading copy of this first novel. The author is the son of poet Maya Angelou. Fine in wrappers.
196. JONES, LeRoi. The System of Dante's Hell. NY: Grove (1965). An autobiographical novel by the noted African-American poet/playwright, who later changed his name to Amiri Baraka. Jones was closely associated with the Beat movement, and has written insightfully on jazz; he was also one of the first, and most important, black authors to gain prominence in the 1960s in the wake of the civil rights movement, and became one of the principal exponents of a newly emerging Black consciousness and literary ethos. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
197. JONES, LeRoi. Tales. NY: Grove (1968). Short stories. With a novelist's ownership declaration on flyleaf; stain to lower pages and verso of dust jacket; very good in a very good dust jacket.
198. JONG, Erica. At the Edge of the Body. NY: HRW (1979). Photocopied sheets, from the uncorrected proof, of the fourth poetry collection by the author of Fear of Flying, one of the landmark books of the women's movement in the early 1970s. Inscribed by the author. Together with an autograph note signed transmitting the sheets and a proof of the dust jacket, also inscribed by Jong. All items fine; with hand-addressed mailing envelope.
199. KAPLAN, Johanna. Correspondence. (1980-1981). Three autograph letters signed (two on personal stationery; one written inside a card) to another writer, praising his recent story in The Atlantic and his current novel. Kaplan is especially taken with the Jewishness of the recipient's work: "I think it's very rare to find such a daring, honest, wonderful story that is a genuinely Jewish story in a national magazine. (First of all, I think very few stories of that description are being written)....you've captured an attitude, a spirit in this story that except for the very early immigrant writers (& some of them were primitive so not "art") that has been either unknown or buried in the mainstream of American Jewish fiction." All items fine. For the set:
200. KEARNEY, Lawrence. Kingdom Come. Middleton: Wesleyan University Press (1980). The author's first book, poetry in the Wesleyan series, this being the hardcover issue. Warmly inscribed by the author to his then-wife, the poet Ai (although the address used is "darling"). Fine in a very good dust jacket.
201. KILLENS, John O. Youngblood. NY: Dial, 1954. The first book by this important, award-winning African-American author from Georgia, who was chairman of the Harlem Writers Guild Workshop in the 1960s, among numerous other literary honors. The novel tells the story of a black family in Georgia in the late 1920s and early 1930s, a period of Jim Crow laws and rampant racism. Inscribed by the author in 1972. Publisher's stamp on title page; near fine in a very good dust jacket with several edge tears. An important debut.
202. KINNELL, Galway. The Shoes of Wandering. Mount Horeb: Perishable Press, 1971. One of 100 copies "or less," of this short chapbook collection of poetry, printed by one of the most notable fine presses of the last half-century "on shadwell paper made in the basement." Fine in saddle-stitched wrappers and dust jacket. Although the colophon does not call for it, this copy is signed by the author.
203. KINNELL, Galway. Selected Poems. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982. A collection of poems, which won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1983, a rare literary "double." This copy is inscribed by Kinnell in the month prior to publication to the poet Ai (Florence Anthony): "For Florence/ for our 16 [?] years/ of friendship/ Galway/ May 27, 1982." Fine in a very good dust jacket with modest rubbing and edgewear. An excellent association copy.
204. KINNELL, Galway. The Past. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985. A collection of poetry, his first after the award-winning Selected Poems. Inscribed by Kinnell to the poet Ai (Florence Anthony): "For Florence -/ who is more than the poet/ I saw in her at twenty/ - with love - / Galway/ 11/16/85." Corner bumped; near fine in a very good dust jacket. A nice association copy.
205. KINNELL, Galway. When One Has Lived A Long Time Alone. NY: Knopf, 1990. Poetry, this being the simultaneous issue in wrappers, inscribed by Kinnell to the poet Ai "with love" in 1992. Fine.
206. (KINNELL, Galway). BONNEFOY, Yves. On the Motion and Immobility of Douve. Athens: Ohio University Press (1968). Poetry translated by Kinnell. Inscribed by Kinnell to Ai (as Florence): "until we meet, at the/ beginning of the world." Two small ink stars on contents page; binding rubbed and marked but still about very good, lacking the dust jacket. An early Kinnell publication and, again, a good association copy.
207. KINSELLA, W.P. Dance Me Outside. (n.p.) (Canada): (Oberon) (1977). The author's first book, a collection of Indian stories, this being the scarce hardcover issue. Kinsella won a Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship Award for his novel Shoeless Joe, which was made into the award-winning film Field of Dreams. His other specialty, besides baseball fiction, is a sequence of stories set on a Canadian Indian reserve, with characters who reappear from volume to volume. Kinsella has used an actual locale and populated it with fictional characters to create as memorable a sequence of tales as Faulkner did with Yoknapatawpha County or Gabriel García Márquez with Macondo. Kinsella's first four books were issued simultaneously in softcover and hardcover, and the hardcovers of all of them are exceptionally scarce, said to have had printings that numbered in the hundreds. According to the author, who has kept close track of his bibliography, only 250 copies were issued of this title in hardcover, 50 of which went to Canadian libraries. Fine in a near fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
208. KINSELLA, W.P. Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa. (Canada): (Oberon Press) (1980). His third collection of stories, the title story of which was the seed for his prize-winning novel Shoeless Joe. This is the simultaneous issue in wrappers. Signed by the author. Near fine.
209. KINSELLA, W.P. Red Wolf, Red Wolf. Toronto: Collins (1987). A collection of stories, this being the true first (Canadian), which preceded its U.S. publication by several years. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
210. KINSELLA, W.P. The Miss Hobbema Pageant. Toronto: Harper & Collins (1989). A paperback original; a collection of Indian stories that is scarce in the first printing. A previous Indian collection by Kinsella, The Fencepost Chronicles, won the Leacock Award for humor. Signed by the author. Near fine.
211. KINSELLA, W. P. Two Spirits Soar. The Art of Allen Sapp. The Inspiration of Allan Gonor. (Toronto): Stoddart (1990). Oblong quarto, documenting the paintings of Sapp, a Cree artist, and his relationship with Gonor, who became his patron. Heavily illustrated in color and black-and-white. Text by Kinsella. Signed by Kinsella and Sapp. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. As far as we know, not published in the U.S., and thus one of Kinsella's scarcer publications.
212. KINSELLA, W.P. If Wishes Were Horses. (Toronto): HarperCollins (1996). A comic baseball novel, in the magical realist tradition of Shoeless Joe and featuring the main character of that book as one of the characters of this. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
213. KRAKAUER, Jon. Into Thin Air. (NY): Villard Books (1997). His third solely authored book, selected as one of The New York Times' eleven best books of the year. Krakauer was sent to Everest by Outside Magazine to report on the repercussions of the growing commercialization of the mountain and was party to the May 10, 1996 summit bid that cost nine climbers their lives. His account of the travails of that ascent was critically well-received and became a huge, somewhat unlikely bestseller. Fine in a fine dust jacket with minuscule shelfwear to the bottom edge.
214. KUMIN, Maxine. Correspondence. (1980, 1985). A typed postcard signed and an autograph postcard signed, written to another writer. The first comments on a story of his and reports that she had sent the proofs of her own story for a magazine he was editing. The second reports on her health problems and wishes her recipient well with a new book. Each is fine. For both:
215. LE CARRÉ, John. A Murder of Quality. London: Gollancz, 1962. LeCarré's extremely scarce second book, which featured George Smiley, "that bland and deadly espionage agent," who appeared in his first book and later became the protagonist of the "Karla Trilogy." It was not until LeCarré's third book, the bestselling and award-winning The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, that his novels became bestsellers, and the first two books are exceedingly difficult to find in the first editions--a situation exacerbated by their having been published in Gollancz's standard thin bindings and soft, perishable dust jackets. 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, which is considered the finest series of espionage novels ever written, and which helped elevate the entire genre of spy fiction to the realm of literature at the same time that the books established LeCarré himself as a genuine writer of serious intent, rather than an accomplished, but ultimately lightweight, writer of formula fiction. Slight bowing to boards; a near fine copy in a very good dust jacket with edge tears at several of the folds. Probably his scarcest and most difficult book, surpassing even Call for the Dead, his first novel, and this is the nicest copy we have seen offered in several years.
216. LE CARRÉ, John. Nervous Times. London: The Anglo-Israel Association, 1998. The text of an address given in November 1997 at the annual dinner of the Anglo-Israel Association, on the subject of the author's recurring fascination with Jews and Jewishness, which shows up repeatedly in his novels and has earned him a substantial amount of controversy and criticism over the years. One of 250 numbered copies, signed by the author. Quarterbound in leather, with marbled paper-covered boards, and a tipped-in photo of the author as frontispiece. Fine, without dust jacket, as issued.
217. LEVINE, David. The Arts of David Levine. NY: Knopf, 1978. A review copy of this collection of Levine's caricatures and paintings, many of them of prominent literary or political figures. Quarto; fine in a mildly edge-sunned, else fine dust jacket, with promotional sheet and several photographs of Levine's artwork laid in, to be used for promotional purposes. Inscribed by Levine.
218. LOPATE, Phillip. The Eyes Don't Always Want to Stay Open. (NY): Sun (1972). One of 500 copies in self-wrappers of the author's first book. Rear flap nearly detached; very good.
219. LORDE, Audre. Autograph Letter Signed. Undated, written to Diane DiPrima. Two sides of a page, all of it detailed instructions for the removal of an evil spirit associated with a stone: "...take it now carefully when the sun is high...to the nearest natural water...Someone must follow you behind, sprinkling clear water...wash the place where it rested and your doorstep with clear ammonia & water. Hereafter, at the head of your sleeping mat, & the childrens', keep a glass half full of water, preferably with 8 small bits of cocoa butter... If you call the stone to mind ever with uneasiness again, burn myrrh alone on your altar...." An interesting literary association and also an interesting glimpse of this African-American writer's worldview, and the particular mix of cultures it embodied. Folded in sixths; else fine.
220. LORDE, Audre. Autograph Postcard Signed. (Sept. 1977). A warm, personal note to poet Diane DiPrima: "Dear Precious Person - You would love the lake country in Minnesota - the North Woods. I thought of you a lot there and wondered if the place was printed on some story of yours. Or were you calling me?" Lorde, a prominent African-American, feminist, lesbian poet in the 1970s and 1980s, died at a young age of cancer, a struggle that she recounted in her final volumes of poetry. A nice association between two important poets. Fine.