Catalog 101, M
222. MAILER, Norman. The Time of Our Time. NY: Random House (1998). An omnibus collection, published on the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of The Naked and the Dead. With a foreword by Mailer. This is one of an unspecified number of copies issued as "A Signed First Edition" (so printed on the dustwrapper); published reports indicated that the entire edition, some 25,000 copies or more, were issued thus, but we have not been able to confirm that. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
223. (MAJOR, Clarence). For Malcolm X. Detroit: Broadside Press (1969). A review copy, but a later printing, of the hardcover edition of a collection of poems on the life and death of Malcolm X. Inscribed by Clarence Major. Contributors include Gwendolyn Brooks, LeRoi Jones, Ted Joans, Margaret Walker, Etheridge Knight, John Sinclair, Sonia Sanchez and many others. Fine in a short, near fine dust jacket.
224. (MAJOR, Clarence). In a Time of Revolution. NY: Random House (1969). A review copy of this collection of poetry, edited by Walter Lowenfels, with contributions heavily weighted toward Black writers and those associated with the 1960s counterculture. This copy is inscribed by Clarence Major, one of the contributors. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket.
225. (MAJOR, Clarence). Natural Process. NY: Hill & Wang (1970). An anthology of "New Black Poetry." This is the simultaneous issue in wrappers and is inscribed by Major (in pencil): "peace & struggle! always!" Contributors include Major, Sonia Sanchez, Sam Cornish, Audre Lorde, Nikki Giovanni, Al Young, and others. Covers rubbed; near fine.
226. (MAJOR, Clarence). Soulscript. Garden City: Doubleday/Zenith, 1970. A collection of Afro-American poetry edited by June Jordan. This is a review copy and is inscribed by Major in the month of publication. Other contributors include Julia Alvarez (while she was an undergraduate in college, and apparently her first publication outside of her school literary magazine), Gwendolyn Brooks, LeRoi Jones, Richard Wright, Audre Lorde, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, and many others. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
227. (MAJOR, Clarence). Black Out Loud. (NY): Macmillan (1970). Again, a poetry anthology, this one aimed at young readers and edited by Arnold Adoff, whose earlier collection, I Am the Darker Brother, was an A.L.A. Notable Book for Children. Collects Major, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, LeRoi Jones, Ted Joans, Sonia Sanchez, Gwendolyn Brooks, Margaret Walker, Don Lee, David Henderson, and many others. Inscribed by both Major and Giovanni. Fine in a rubbed, very good dust jacket.
228. (MAJOR, Clarence). Blackamerican Literature. Beverly Hills: Glencoe Press (1971). Textbook anthology collecting African-American writings from 1760 to the 1970's. Inscribed by Major, one of the contributors, in the year of publication. Contemporary contributors include Eldridge Cleaver, Nikki Giovanni, LeRoi Jones, Calvin Hernton, and Malcolm X. Near fine in wrappers.
229. MALAMUD, Bernard. The Natural. NY: Harcourt Brace (1952). The author's first book, one of the great baseball novels of all time and the basis for a well-received film. Owner name and date on flyleaf, number stamped on top edge, a few spots to the edges of the endpapers; a very good copy of the issue in gray boards, in a good dust jacket stained along both flap folds, torn along the middle of the rear spine fold, and with a couple of edge tears. A high spot of postwar American literature, and of baseball fiction. For all its various flaws, a quite presentable copy of an extremely scarce first book.
230. MARSHALL, Paule. Soul Clap Hands and Sing. NY: Atheneum, 1961. Second book by the author of Brown Girl, Brownstones. Four short novels. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. A very nice copy of this scarce book by an important African-American writer.
231. MATTHIESSEN, Peter. Partisans. NY: Viking, 1955. His second novel, set in Paris, where the author lived for a number of years and where he co-founded the Paris Review. A near fine copy in a very good dust jacket with shallow edge wear, some fading to the orange title block on the spine, and a small 9/29 written on the rear panel.
232. MATTHIESSEN, Peter. Lost Man's River. London: Harvill (1997). The first British edition of the second novel in the trilogy that began with Killing Mr. Watson, based on a series of events in Florida at the turn of the century and using the novel form to explore the settling and development of that frontier, with a focus on the cultural and ecological implications of that development. Fine in a dust jacket with one tiny edge tear; else fine. Signed by the author.
233. MAUGHAM, Somerset. The Razor's Edge. London: Heinemann (1941). Maugham's wartime classic, his last major novel, and one of the important coming-of-age novels of twentieth century English literature. Small, faint spots to foredge; very near fine in a near fine dust jacket with light chipping at the corners and a 2" edge tear at the lower rear spine fold. A fragile and scarce book printed under wartime conditions and seldom found in collectible condition.
234. MAXWELL, William. The Folded Leaf. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1945. The scarce third novel by an author who has been an editor at The New Yorker for 50 years and who was called by one prominent book trade publication "the greatest living American writer." Top edge dusty, else fine in a very good dust jacket with a couple of short edge tears and a few tiny, chewed holes in the rear flapfold. An uncommon book, the text and the dust jacket having both been printed to wartime standards on cheap paper.
235. McCARTHY, Cormac. The Gardener's Son. (Hopewell): Ecco Press (1996). An advance reading copy (marked "Uncorrected Proof") of the trade edition of this McCarthy screenplay. One of only 42 copies, making it one of the scarcest items in the McCarthy oeuvre. Fine in wrappers.
236. McCRACKEN, Elizabeth. The Giant's House. (NY): Dial (1996). The well-received second book, first novel, by this Granta 20 author. Nominated for the National Book Award. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by McCracken.
237. McEWAN, Ian. First Love, Last Rites. London: Cape (1975). The uncorrected proof copy of the first edition of the author's first book, a collection of stories. Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award. McEwan's most recent book, Amsterdam, won the 1998 Booker Prize. Slight creasing near the spine but still very near fine in wrappers. A very scarce proof.
238. McMURTRY, Larry. "Texas is rich in unredeemed dreams..." (n.p.): Encino Press (n.d.). A Texas Library Association broadside, printing an excerpt from McMurtry's In a Narrow Grave. In part: "Texas is rich in unredeemed dreams, and now that the dust of its herds is settling the writers will be out on their pencils, looking for them in the suburbs and along the mythical Pecos." 19" x 25". Printed in black and red on beige and illustrated with a black and white roundup photo. Rolled; else fine.
239. MERWIN, W.S. The Folding Cliffs. NY: Knopf, 1998. The uncorrected proof copy of his latest book, a narrative in the form of a single long poem. Nick to top edge of pages; still fine in wrappers.
240. MICHAELS, Leonard. Autograph Note Signed. Undated. 5 1/2" x 8 1/2". A short note to another writer, noting that he has received his book, is currently reading it, and has tried to find someone to review it and "will do whatever I can to make sure your work is noticed and appreciated." Folded in thirds for mailing; fine.
Henry to June
We are pleased to offer a selection of books and photographs inscribed by Henry Miller to his second wife, June Mansfield, also known as June Smith (among other adopted names: her given name was Judith Smerth). According to one of Miller's biographies, Henry "married at an early age and seemed destined for a life of drudgery working as a manager at Western Union. Then, at a Brooklyn dance hall, Miller met the flamboyant June Smith, whose mysterious, unsettling presence would become the wellspring of his creative work." Miller divorced his first wife, quit Western Union, and began--with June's constant prodding and goading--his life as a writer. Miller's penniless existence, combined with June's flamboyant lifestyle--she supported them by peddling his writings as her own, or by granting companionship, and presumably sexual favors, to a number of admirers--laid the groundwork for the fiction he would write: their tumultuous life together provided the basis for Miller's classic novels, Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, and June was also a key character in Miller's "Rosy Crucifixion" trilogy--Sexus, Nexus and Plexus. Miller and June lived together for 7 years, during which time he wrote his first books, and they traveled to Paris together, where they met with Anaïs Nin, who financed the publication of Tropic of Cancer. The relationship between Miller, Nin and June was recounted in Nin's memoir, Henry and June, later made into a movie.
Miller took the raw material of his life with June--with its constant sexual charge, its precarious (or worse) financial situation, and its bohemian tenor on the fringes of society, outside the margins of respectability but enriched with endless encounters with artists and other creative types--and made it into an art form that was immediately recognized by the literary avant garde as both groundbreaking and authentic, although his writings could not be legally published in his own country for nearly 30 years because they so shattered the norms of respectability that they were deemed obscene. June Mansfield, more than any single person other than Miller himself, was responsible for unleashing Henry Miller's creativity and the unique artistic vision that he brought to 20th century literature. Ultimately--after decades of scraping by as a struggling artist--Miller came to be viewed as one of the literary giants of the century, earning a place in the literary pantheon and being admired by the generation of writers who came of age in the Fifties and Sixties as the trailblazer for a new, frank view of sexuality, which redefined not only the possibilities of art but also the possibilities of human life. Miller became, much to his surprise, and his not altogether unqualified pleasure, a hero to both the Beat writers and the Sixties counterculture, and has had an enormous and ongoing influence on successive generations of aspiring poets and writers. Herewith, a group of items from Henry to June, tracking their relationship from its early years in the 1920s over four decades of Miller's writing career. It is noteworthy that despite their divorce in the 1930s, Henry and June maintained contact with each other, and a genuine bond of affection seems to have persisted throughout the vast changes that the years wrought.
241. MILLER, Henry. Maurizius Forever. Waco: Motive, 1946. The second edition, printed the same month as the Grabhorn Press limited edition, and in an edition equally small: both were issued with printings of 500 copies. Inscribed by Miller on the half-title page: "June -/ Here's one/ you may/ not know./ HM." New prices stamped on flap folds. The self-wrappers are split in two along the spine, thus only a good copy. Laid in is a typewritten paragraph that begins to mimic text from page 21 and cuts off when a sentence is inadvertently repeated (typist unknown). An association copy of the first order.
242. MILLER, Henry. The World of Sex. Paris: Olympia Press (n.p.)[1957]. The third edition, and the first Olympia Press edition. The first two editions (in several variants) were printed in the U.S. by Ben Abramson in a low profile venture that, according to bibliographers Shifreen & Jackson, was intended to fly below the legal radar of Miller's first wife, Beatrice, who was unflatteringly portrayed in the text. This copy bears the ownership signature of June Mansfield, whom Miller married after he divorced Beatrice. Text block detaching at the spine, a seemingly read copy; thus only very good, although otherwise bright.
243. MILLER, Henry. The Smile at the Foot of the Ladder. (NY): New Directions (1958). First thus, reprinting a work that originally appeared in 1948, and in a binding not described by Shifreen and Jackson--unprinted cream-colored paper boards. Inscribed by Miller to June in 1960. Spine and edge-sunned; near fine, without dust jacket. An anomalous edition--perhaps an author's copy?
244. MILLER, Henry. Autograph Note Signed. Undated. A 5" x 3" card: "June -/ Tell me what/ you have read/ and I'll know/ better what to/ send!"/ Henry." A short but nice sentiment, not only linking Miller with June, his muse, but also with the literary dimension of their lives together. Near fine.
245. (MILLER, Henry). BRINGER, Rudolphe. Trente ans D'Humour. Paris: France-Édition (1924). Inscribed by Miller to Emil Schnelluck, one of his oldest friends and one of only a handful who stayed close to Miller through the enormous changes in his life after he met June Mansfield and left his previous existence behind in almost every respect. Schnelluck had been to Europe long before Miller had, and he used to recount to Miller his memories of his visits there, which Miller eagerly soaked up. Now Miller, in Paris for the second time in October, 1930, relays this book to his friend, with a recommendation that it is "fairly easy to read and quite entertaining. Try it!" He also recounts seeing "a peach of a Huysmans yesterday on Blvd Raspail called 'Croquis de Paris.' So much to buy -- so much -- if one only had the dough!" A wonderful inscription to one of his best friends, focused on Paris and books, not to mention poverty--the important early themes of Miller's literary life. Wrappers are missing and the inscription is on the half-title which is the first page here. Page detached from the rest of the text; extremely brittle, acidifying pages. The condition is fair, and with a risk of deterioration: a volume that certainly merits deacidification. With Miller's underlinings and comments in the text. An excellent personal association.
246. (MILLER, Henry). DOSTOEVSKY, Fyodor. The Idiot. NY: Macmillan, 1927. A gift from Miller to June, at a time when the two were married and were at the height of their often tumultuous relationship. Inscribed by Miller to June in 1927: "June/ Your wit and/ wisdom inspire a/ Scotish [sic] mind;/ Your beauty/ has captured an/ Irish heart./ [wax seal]/ 10-18-27." (No signature.) With Miller's underlinings, marginal exclamations ("Note") and occasional enthusiastic comments in the text. Dostoevsky was Miller's favorite writer--the one he most aspired to emulate--from before he ever met June and throughout his life. In October, 1927, when this book was given, June had recently returned from Paris, where she had gone months earlier with her friend and lesbian lover, "Jean Kronski" (another name that June had invented). Jean, June and Henry had been living together in an uneasy menage a trois, until June and Jean unexpectedly left in April, 1927, causing Miller to go into a suicidal rage. She returned in July, alone, to support Miller in his writing and later with plans for the two of them to go to Europe together and try their fortunes there. They left the following July--a trip that marked a watershed in Miller's career, for Miller had completed his first novel, Moloch, during this time and although he failed to succeed in finding a publisher for it, one of June's lovers gave them the money to go to Paris as a reward for the completed novel (Moloch was later published posthumously). Cloth sunned and rubbed; a very good copy, lacking the dust jacket.
247. (MILLER, Henry). GIONO, Jean. Blue Boy. NY: Viking, 1946. The first American edition of this novel by Giono, a writer whom Miller had come to admire while in France and whom he had long worked to get published in the U.S. This copy is inscribed by Miller to June: "For June/ from/ Henry, Lepska & Val/ Xmas 1947." Lepska was Janina Martha Lepska Miller, Henry's third wife, and Val was their daughter Valentin, who was born in October of 1945 and was named after Lepska's father and Henry's grandfather, who shared the same first name. June and Henry had not been in touch for several years at this point, but she had recently contacted him and was destitute. He arranged for a friend to send her some money (he was still broke in the U.S., although his books had sold well in France and he had a substantial amount of money there but no way, under postwar regulations, to get it out of the country). His renewed contact with June, however, sparked his getting back to work on the Rosy Crucifixion, which he saw as his masterpiece-to-be, but which had been languishing recently. The part he was about to embark on--dealing with his time with June and Jean Kronski--was full of painful memories that Miller would have to relive in order to write it. The contact with June--with whom he then maintained contact thereafter--allowed him to revisit that time and those experiences, and to finally bring to fruition the long-contemplated work. The cloth is heavily and unevenly faded; corners bumped; a very good copy, lacking the dust jacket. An excellent association copy, representing numerous strands of Miller's life over the past two decades.
248. (MILLER, Henry). HESSE, Hermann. Siddhartha. (NY): (New Directions) (1951). An edition in the New Directions' New Classics series. Inscribed by Miller to June in 1956: "...to read in moments of despair." June was hospitalized in 1956 at Pilgrim State Hospital, where she received shock treatments for psychological disorders. Henry's gift reflects all too clearly his awareness of June's predicament and, one assumes, his belief (or hope) that literature could ease a troubled mind such as hers. Near fine in a good, edge-chipped Alvin Lustig dust jacket.
249. (MILLER, Henry). Photograph. 1957. A black & white photograph of a smiling, seated Miller. 3 3/4" x 4 7/8", mounted to a white mat, approximately 5 3/4" x 6 3/4". Inscribed by Miller to June just beneath the photo and dated 11/9/57. An attractive image, showing Miller relaxed and in good humor--a contrast with the turmoil that surrounded Henry's and June's relationship during their younger years, now 30 years distant at the time of this photograph. The mat is edge-sunned; else fine. A fine image and a superb association.
250. (MILLER, Henry). Art & Outrage. London: Putnam, 1959. Correspondence about Miller between Lawrence Durrell and Alfred Perlès, with interjections by Miller. This copy is inscribed by Miller to June in 1960. At this point in Miller's life, he was sending June copies of his new publications, and keeping in touch with her in that way. Miller met both Durrell and Perlès in Paris in the Thirties; June had actually introduced him to Perlès, whom she had met on an earlier trip to Paris and who, she said, had fallen madly in love with her (although he had gone off to North Africa with Jean Kronski). Fine in a dust jacket chipped at the spine crown, affecting the title; otherwise very good.
251. (MILLER, Henry). Henry Miller. (Hamburg): Rowohlt (1961). Text in German. Inscribed by Miller to June in the year of publication: "Dear June -/ We made it/ at last! (From/ 1924-1961)/ Now I can take/ a walk on the/ wild side!/ Henry." Miller's inscription would suggest that this was the first full-length biography of him, and it includes photographs of June as well as a photograph of one of the mezzotints (Circe, S&J A4) that Miller wrote in their early years together, but which June put her name on, in hopes of having greater success selling copies to her admirers than he had had selling earlier efforts under his own name. Front cover and first two pages (including the inscription page) are completely detached. A fair copy only, and although apparently a first edition, the bibliographer states that the spine is white, lettered in black. This copy, however, has a pink spine lettered in white.
252. (MILLER, Henry). BAXTER, Annette Kar. Henry Miller: Expatriate. (Pittsburgh): U. of Pittsburgh Press (1961). Inscribed by Baxter to June in the year of publication: "For June/ who deserves a book/ about her/ with gratitude and/ much affection." Laid in is an autograph letter signed by Baxter from the Christmas before the book went to press, thanking June for a gift, updating her on the progress of the book, and adding "Will let you know when we hear from him (Henry)." The letter is unevenly folded and edgeworn; the book is sunned and spine-creased; both items about near fine.
253. (MILLER, Henry). Henry Miller Exhibition. Tokyo: Art Life Association (1968). The catalog of Miller's second Japanese exhibition of his watercolors, which was arranged by his fifth wife, Hoki. The inside covers reproduce a letter and a statement by Miller; the rest of the text is in Japanese. Approximately 8 1/4" x 10", with a cover art by T. Yokoo, the most prominent Japanese pop artist of the era. Miller was a celebrity in Japan, and his marriage to Hoki made them the constant subject of gossip columns and enormous public attention. Near fine in stapled wrappers. Inscribed by Miller to June in 1968, on the rear cover.
254. (MILLER, Henry). GORDON, William A. Writer & Critic. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State U. Press (1968). A volume of correspondence between Miller and Gordon, triggered by Miller's having read in manuscript a volume of criticism by Gordon, and objecting to Gordon's interpretations of a number of elements of Miller's work. This copy is inscribed by Gordon to June: "Hope you enjoy this." Near fine in a worn dust jacket, about very good.
255. (MILLER, Henry). POWYS, John Cowper. Letters to Henry Miller. (London): Village Press (1975). Letters from Powys to Miller, who corresponded with each other through the 1950s. Powys had long been one of Miller's favorite writers, ever since he had first heard him at a reading in 1913. For a long time, Miller considered Powys more an idol than a peer, and even when he was asked by Grove Press to be a judge in the prestigious Prix Formentor, in the early 1960s, Miller only listed two "contemporary" writers he liked--Céline and Powys. Inscribed by Miller to June in the year of publication. Only issued in wrappers. Wrappers lightly rubbed at edges; near fine.
256. (MILLER, Henry). Photograph. Undated. A color photograph of Eve, Miller's fourth wife. Eve is creating an Oriental mudra with her hands, in front of a mosaic of the same design, which is surrounded by various symbols, some appearing to be Sanskrit. The photo, 4 1/4" x 4 3/4", is fine. Previously mounted into a photography studio folder behind a mat on which Eve's name is written (in Miller's hand?). These elements are present, but detached.
257. (MILLER, Henry). Photograph. Undated. Black and white photograph of an unidentified, bearded, elderly Oriental man, inscribed by Miller on the verso: "This is my/ unknown 'mentor'/ (from Pekin)/ Henry." Miller had been engaged by Oriental mysticism to various degrees throughout his life--from Hesse's Siddhartha to his readings in Zen Buddhism when he was married to Hoki. Even his fascination with L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics and Church of Scientology reflect Miller's preoccupation with the spiritual dimensions of life. And his writings, even when steeped in misery and bleakness, as Tropic of Cancer was, bring an exuberance and vitality to life that has much to do with Miller's longtime affinity for the common man, and the spiritual component of daily life--an attitude that dated back to his early contact with Emma Goldman, anarchism and the Wobblies, when he was a teenager. For Miller, the proletarian and the artist were linked in opposition to the pretensions of the bourgeoisie. And this idea found its apotheosis in the Oriental ideal of the spiritually liberated man, free from artificial constraints and free to experience life fully, without reservation. 4" x 5". Fine.
258. MOORE, Brian. The Feast of Lupercal. Boston: Little Brown (1957). The first American edition of his second novel to be published in hardcover, like his first set in the author's native Belfast, Ireland. Inscribed by the author. Near fine in a very good, slightly spine-faded dust jacket. A nice copy of a scarce book.
259. MOORE, Lorrie. Birds of America. (NY): (Knopf) (1998). Photocopied typescript of the stories in the latest collection of short fiction by the author of Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? and Self-Help, among others. One of these stories, "People Like These Are the Only People Here," was the O. Henry Award winner. This set of sheets was sent from a Random House representative to a bookseller in March of 1998 (six months prior to publication) to solicit advance comments. There are small textual differences between this version and the final, published version. The stories are individually page numbered rather than numbered as a collection. The photocopier misfired a few times, leaving blank strips on several pages and two pages combined onto one, making both illegible. Otherwise, the pages are fine, and the letter of transmittal is included.
260. -. Same title, the advance reading copy. Fine in wrappers, with a reply card for bookseller's comments bound in.
261. MORRIS, Mary. Wall to Wall. NY: Doubleday (1991). Her second travel book, documenting a rail trip through China, Russia and Eastern Europe, a journey that coincided with the nuclear accident at Chernobyl. Inscribed by the author in 1992. Near fine in a near fine, internally dampstained dust jacket.
262. MORRIS, Wright. Wright Morris Introducing Some Scenes and Characters from his New Novel, Love Among the Cannibals. NY: Harcourt Brace, 1957. A 45 rpm record issued as a promotional item for his then-forthcoming novel. Morris' novel, The Huge Season, was a National Book Award nominee in 1955. He won the award in 1957 for The Field of Vision and again in 1981 for Plains Song. This copy is signed by Morris. Fine in original plain brown sleeve. A very scarce item: we have never seen, or heard of, another copy.
263. MORRISON, Toni. Tar Baby. NY: Knopf, 1981. First trade edition of the fourth novel by the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Inscribed by the author "To ____ ____/ warm best wishes." Fine in a near fine dust jacket.
264. MOSLEY, Walter. Devil in a Blue Dress. NY: Norton (1990). The first book in the highly praised Easy Rawlins mystery series--one of the few detective series by an African-American writer and featuring an African-American detective. Nominated for an Edgar Award for Best First Mystery of the year and basis for the successful movie. Fine in a fine, first issue dust jacket ($18.95 price) and signed by the author.
265. MOSLEY, Walter. A Red Death. NY: Norton (1991). A review copy of the second of the author's acclaimed Easy Rawlins mysteries, this one set in Los Angeles in the early Fifties. Fine in a fine, first issue dust jacket (again, $18.95 price), and signed by the author.
266. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. Small initials front cover; else fine in wrappers.
267. MOSLEY, Walter. White Butterfly. NY: Norton (1992). A review copy of the third Easy Rawlins mystery, and the scarcest. Fine in a fine dust jacket and inscribed by the author.
268. MOSLEY, Walter. Black Betty. NY: Norton (1994). The fourth Easy Rawlins novel. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.