Catalog 103, N-O
Lolita, Inscribed by Nabokov with a Butterfly Drawing
296. NABOKOV, Vladimir. Lolita. Paris: Olympia Press (1955). The correct first edition of Nabokov's masterwork, published in Paris by the Olympia Press in an edition estimated at 5000 copies. This copy is inscribed by Nabokov to Robert Boyle in June, 1959. In the summer of 1959, Boyle spent two days with Vladimir and Véra Nabokov in Arizona, as Nabokov pursued the butterfly known as "Nabokov's wood nymph." Based on his time with Nabokov, Boyle wrote an article that was published in Sports Illustrated in September 1959. The Brian Boyd biography, Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years, says of Boyle's article: "By luring Boyle to Oak Creek Canyon, Lolita brings us Nabokov the lepidopterist in action -- a blend of sport and science, information and play -- and perhaps our finest moment-by-moment image of Nabokov the man." Boyle and Nabokov apparently hit it off well and enjoyed each other's company in the two days they were together, despite failing to encounter any of "Nabokov's wood nymphs." Nabokov playfully dictated some of Boyle's descriptions of himself for Boyle's article -- e.g., "And then I saw that strong man put his head on his forearms and sob like a woman," and later "His face was now a tear-stained mask." Clearly, Nabokov was disappointed in their failure to encounter the sought-after butterfly, but he nonetheless had fun with Boyle. In a letter to Boyle much later, Brian Boyd said "I don't think [Nabokov] ever enjoyed an interview or interviewer so much again." Nabokov's inscription, on the half title, reads: "To Bob Boyle/ from Vladimir Nabokov/ 2 June 1959/ Forest Houses/ Oak Creek Cn." With an additional drawing of a butterfly, mostly pink, with darker edges (apparently not the sought-after wood nymph). Two volumes in wrappers, this being the first issue. The inscription appears in the first volume, which is very near fine and seemingly unread, with trace edge rubbing. The second volume is also near fine. Both housed in a custom case, and a much-nicer-than-usual set, having been carefully preserved since 1959. Signed copies of Lolita are perhaps even more elusive than "Nabokov's wood nymph": Nabokov was notoriously reluctant to sign books in general and almost all the signed copies of his books that turn up are inscribed to close friends or family members. Boyle was able to get his copy of Lolita inscribed, but did not even dare to ask Nabokov to sign any of the other volumes he had brought with him to Arizona. One of the high spots of 20th century literature, and a true rarity as a signed first edition.
297. NABOKOV, Vladimir. Conclusive Evidence. NY: Harper & Brothers (1951). The first volume of memoirs by one of the most inventive, and admired, prose stylists of the 20th century. Later published in a revised form as Speak, Memory. Near fine in a mildly spine-sunned, very good dust jacket.
298. NABOKOV, Vladimir. Speak, Memory. NY: Everyman's Library (1999). The uncorrected proof copy of the reissue of his autobiography, first published as Conclusive Evidence in 1951, and then revised into Speak, Memory in 1966. This edition features "Chapter 16," a pseudo-review by Nabokov of Conclusive Evidence that did not appear in the earlier volumes. Fine in wrappers.
299. NAIPAUL, V.S. The Overcrowded Barracoon. (London): Deutsch (1972). Nonfiction, a collection of articles published just after Naipaul had won the Booker Prize for In a Free State. One of Naipaul's less common titles. Fine in a very good dust jacket.
300. NERUDA, Pablo. Tercera Residencia. Buenos Aires: Losada (1947). The correct first edition of this collection by the Chilean Nobel Prize winner, the third volume in his "Residence on Earth" sequence, begun in 1933 and considered one of his masterpieces. This volume includes some of the first of his most overtly, and passionately, political poems, written while he was in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, and as he saw the Spanish Republic fall to the Fascists under Franco. Neruda remained politically active and outspoken for the rest of his life, although, unlike many writers absorbed by politics, he did not let it dull his sensuality or lessen his passion for the romantic and the aesthetic. Erasures to title page; foxing to page edges and covers; still a tight, very good copy in wrappers.
301. NERUDA, Pablo. Nobel Lecture. (n.p.):(FSG)(1974). Printer's sample pages. Two sheets, folded in half, printing the text of pp. 2-3, 36-37, and one page of specs. Fine. Scarce publishing ephemera.
302. NERUDA, Pablo. Memoirs. (n.p.):(FSG)(1976). Printer's sample pages. One sheet, folded in half, printing the text of pp. 99-101 and adding one page of specs. Fine. Again, uncommon ephemera, seldom seen.
303. NICHOLS, John. A Ghost in the Music. NY: HRW (1979). A review copy of this novel by the author of The Milagro Beanfield War and The Sterile Cuckoo, among others. Signed by the author. Near fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
304. NORMAN, Gurney. Divine Right's Trip. NY: Dial, 1972. A countercultural "folktale" about a young man named Divine Right and his cross-country trip in a '63 VW bus named Urge. Serialized in The Last Whole Earth Catalogue. Inscribed by the author in 1975: "To ____ & ____,/ Remembering our good time/ together, January 27, 1975./ Your new friend/ (Johanna's old friend)/ Gurney Norman/ and, of course,/ Chloe." Norman, a Kentucky native and friend of Wendell Berry, was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, where he became friends with Ken Kesey, Ed McClanahan and others. McClanahan provides a dust jacket blurb. Kesey, Berry, McClanahan, Stewart Brand and several others receive acknowledgements. Fine in a very good dust jacket chipped at the lower edge of the front panel. An uncommon book signed.
305. OATES, Joyce Carol. The Wheel of Love and Other Stories. London: Gollancz, 1971. The first British edition of her third collection of stories. Inscribed by the author to another novelist, "with very best wishes," in London in 1971, and signed "Joyce." A nice literary association. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
306. OATES, Joyce Carol. The Girl. Cambridge: Pomegranate, 1974. Of a total edition of 300, this is one of 50 numbered copies handbound by Arno Werner and signed by Oates and by the illustrator, Karyl Klopp. With a 24-page blank signature bound in at the back to make the spine fit properly. A few of these deluxe copies were damaged after production and rebound in a heavier binding. This copy, bound in red leather and black cloth, is one of those. An extra, unsigned title page/colophon folio is laid in, which varies slightly from the finished colophon. A rare variant of an edition that was small to start with, and a very attractive production. Fine.
307. OATES, Joyce Carol. Funland. Concord: Ewert, 1983. Copy "A" of 40 deluxe copies bound in quarter cloth and paste paper over boards -- the only hardcover issue of this title, of a total edition of 150 copies. Signed by the author and the illustrator, Gillian Tyler. Fine without dust jacket, as issued.
308. OATES, Joyce Carol. Broke Heart Blues. (NY): Dutton (1999). The advance reading copy of this forthcoming novel by Oates, scheduled for publication in July, 1999. Fine in wrappers.
309. OATES, Joyce Carol. Where I've Been, and Where I'm Going. (NY): Plume (1999). The uncorrected proof copy of a collection of essays, reviews and prose, her first in a decade, to be issued as a paperback original in July, 1999. Fine in wrappers.
310. O'BRIEN, Tim. If I Die in a Combat Zone. (n.p.): Delacorte Press (1973). His first book, a highly praised memoir of the Vietnam war in which O'Brien uses some of the techniques of fiction to convey the experience with immediacy and power. Trace sunning to the board edges, as is usual with this title; a thin strip of glue residue on each pastedown from where a jacket protector was attached; else a very near fine copy in a pristine dust jacket. Signed by the author. A very nice copy of one of the scarcest first books of the past 30 years. Housed in a custom clamshell box.
311. O'BRIEN, Tim. Northern Lights. NY: Delacorte (1975). His second novel, a tale of two brothers in the wilderness of northern Minnesota, one of them a war veteran, the other a veteran of the protests against that war. A cheaply-made, "perfectbound" book, it is difficult to find in nice condition. This copy has some slight wear and sunning to the edges of the cloth, but is still a tight copy; near fine in a dust jacket with trace wear at the corners.
Dedication Copy
312. O'BRIEN, Tim. The Nuclear Age. NY: Knopf, 1985. His fourth novel, about a man compelled to dig a bomb shelter in his back yard to protect his family even if it means losing them in the process. This is one of the dedication copies, inscribed on the half-title: "To Mom and Dad,/ With Love,/ Tim." The book is dedicated: "For my mother and father,/ for Kathy and Greg,/ and for Ann." Tape shadows on boards from a previous jacket protector; near fine in a near fine, slightly spine-faded dust jacket. The only dedication copy of an O'Brien novel to come on the market, to the best of our knowledge.
313. O'BRIEN, Tim The Things They Carried. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. A collection of related stories that share a number of characters as well as the narrator -- a "Tim O'Brien" whose experience bears certain similarities to the author's own, as well as a number of differences. Selected as one of the 12 best books of the year, in all categories, by the editors of The New York Times Book Review, winner of the Heartland Award, and numerous other awards. The title chapter won a National Magazine Award for fiction. Not quite a novel in the usual sense but more tightly structured than the usual collection of stories, it is a meditation on war and death, and on the place that storytelling has in bringing these essentially unfathomable experiences within our grasp. Fine in a fine, first issue dust jacket, and signed by the author. By consensus one of the best, if not the best, work of fiction to come out of the Vietnam war -- a book that, like Michael Herr's Dispatches, has become a standard work on college campuses in any survey of the literature of the war.
314. O'CONNELL, Carol. Mallory's Oracle. London: Hutchinson (1994). The advance reading copy of the true first edition of the first book in the acclaimed Mallory series, published in the U.K. prior to its publication in the U.S. even though the author is American. One corner creased and the first few pages also show creases; near fine in wrappers. Uncommon.
315. O'CONNOR, Flannery. Publisher's ephemera. (n.p.)(FSG)(1968). Printer's specs for Mystery and Manners, printed on one long galley sheet; together with the dust jacket, folded flat. Also included are sample pages: five printed pages of text from "The King of the Birds" and three pages from Everything that Rises Must Converge. There is also an author photo and a New York Times review of The Violent Bear it Away. The review is acidifying; all the other elements are fine except for a margin stain on "The King of the Birds."
316. OFFUTT, Chris. Out of the Woods. (NY): Simon & Schuster (1999). The uncorrected proof copy of the most recent book by this Granta 20 author, a collection of stories. Fine in wrappers.
317. OLDS, Sharon. Correspondence. January-June, 1985. One autograph letter signed, two autograph notes signed, and one typed letter signed. Relating to a piece she wrote on John Kensett for Art & Antiques magazine. Olds proceeds from "Poetry East did an issue last April on 'Poetry & the Visual Arts' - I swore I'd never write prose again. But you tempt me!" to "I am humming along... I am going to have to cut it in half, I think." The final letter praises the editing of her "oversize piece -- sentences spliced together like the best tongue-and-groove floorboarding..." A nice glimpse of the writer-at-work. Pages folded for mailing; paper clip imprints; a few edge wrinkles; very near fine, with one envelope included.
318. OLSEN, Tillie. Yonnondio from the Thirties. (n.p.): Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence (1974). Her first novel, begun in 1934 -- a chapter of it was published in the Partisan Review that year -- and put aside for nearly 40 years while the author raised her four children and attended to the tasks of survival. Inscribed by the author to Seymour Lawrence, in part: "For Sam who first endeared himself/ to me as editor of/ ‘Wake' years before we met,/ and later as editor and cherisher/ of Katherine Anne Porter..." Fine in a very good dust jacket. Books inscribed by Olsen -- whose handwriting is so tiny as to be almost unreadable -- are quite uncommon, and good association copies are rare.
319. OLSON, Charles. The Maximus Poems. NY: Jargon/Corinth Books, 1960. The first trade edition of these poems, first published by Jonathan Williams in 1953 and 1956 in a pair of oversize limited editions. One of the most important achievements of American poetry in the postwar era, on a par with Pound's Cantos and Williams' Paterson. Olson was influential on an entire generation of poets by virtue of his presence at Black Mountain College in the Fifties, and The Maximus Poems are his major poetic work. Inscribed by the author in 1963 to another poet, "who has been my company." A bit of faint spotting to rear cover; near fine in wrappers. Books signed by Olson are extremely uncommon, and signed copies of The Maximus Poems, other than the original limited editions, are rare.
320. O'NAN, Stewart. A Prayer for the Dying. NY: Henry Holt (1999). The advance reading copy of the latest novel by this Granta 20 author, just published to great critical praise. Fine in wrappers.
321. ONDAATJE, Michael. Leonard Cohen. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart (1970). An early and uncommon "A" item by Ondaatje, being a short critical study of Canadian poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen, number 5 in the Canadian Writers series. Paperback original. Near fine in wrappers and signed by the author.
322. ONDAATJE, Michael. Coming through Slaughter. NY: Norton (1976). The first American edition of Ondaatje's first full-length prose work, a novel based on the life of a turn-of-the-century New Orleans jazz musician. Signed by the author. Fine in a dust jacket clipped at the lower corner of the front flap; else fine.
323. ONDAATJE, Michael. Tin Roof. (Lantzville, B.C.): Island Writing Series, 1982. Poetry, issued in an edition of 500 copies, 50 of which were clothbound and signed. This is a copy of the issue in stapled wrappers, unnumbered, but signed by the author. Very near fine. A very scarce Ondaatje "A" item, which seems to have received little distribution.
324. ONDAATJE, Michael. Running in the Family. (Toronto): McClelland & Stewart (1982). The correct first (Canadian) edition of this memoir. Signed by the author. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with one internally tape-repaired edge tear.
325. -. Same title, the paperback edition, issued in 1983. Signed by the author. Near fine in wrappers.
326. ONDAATJE, Michael. Secular Love. Toronto: Coach House Press (1984). The correct first edition of this collection of poems. Signed by the author. Near fine in wrappers.
327. ONDAATJE, Michael. In the Skin of a Lion. (Toronto): McClelland & Stewart (1987). The first edition of this highly praised novel. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
328. ONDAATJE, Michael. Handwriting. (Toronto): McClelland & Stewart (1998). A recent collection of poems. Fine in dust jacket, and signed by the author.
329. -. Same title. NY: Knopf, 1999. The uncorrected proof copy of the first American edition. Fine in wrappers.
330. (ONDAATJE, Michael.) "Running in the Family" in The Capilano Review, No. 16/17. British Columbia: Capilano College, 1979. One volume devoted to two writers: Ondaatje and Daphne Marlett. Prints several chapters of what would become, three years later, Ondaatje's memoir of the same title. There are textual differences between this and the published book. Spine-sunned; else fine in wrappers and signed by Ondaatje. The cover photograph of this journal is attributed to Ondaatje as well.
331. ORLEAN, Susan. The Orchid Thief. NY: Random House (1998). The advance reading copy of this recently published book of nonfiction, which was compared favorably to Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Fine in wrappers.
332. ORWELL, George. James Burnham and the Managerial Revolution. London: Socialist Book Centre, 1946. The first separate edition of this essay by Orwell. A scarce pamphlet printed on cheap, acidic postwar paper, this is a near fine copy, only slightly browned with age and with a couple of tiny edge chips to the brittle paper. A very nice copy of a scarce, fragile item.
333. ORWELL, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. London: Secker & Warburg (1949). The first edition of his classic dystopia, a chilling extrapolation of the political tendencies in postwar Great Britain and one of the most influential works of the century -- whose very title became a synonym for an oppressive police state, and which introduced to the language and the political vernacular such words and phrases as "thought police," "newspeak," "doublethink," and "Big Brother is watching you." One of Pringle's hundred best science fiction novels and also a Burgess 99 and Connolly 100 title, and also chosen as one of the novels of the century by the Modern Library, Radcliffe, Waterstones and the New York Public Library. A near fine copy in a very good, modestly edgeworn, green dust jacket with a very small spot on the white rear panel that bears signs of partial cover-up. Overall, an attractive copy of one of the defining books of the modern era.
334. -. Same title, the first American edition (NY: Harcourt Brace, 1949). Very slight foxing to page edges; else a fine copy in a very good, spine-tanned and price-clipped dust jacket with modest edgewear. Still, a nice copy of a book that, because of its soft paper dust jacket, generally shows wear readily.
335. OZICK, Cynthia. Typed Letters Signed. March 14 and June 4, 1991. The first letter recounts several "months of upheaval" following her husband's injury in an accident: "I have not been able to write a word since November 20th... and am fairly suffocated by unfulfilled commitments and the guilt pertaining thereto." The second, longer letter (computer printout) talks of Israel, where the recipient is headed and where her daughter already is. In part: "The phrase 'Arab-Israeli conflict' is a misnomer that's led to the world's current Big Lie. It's not a 'conflict' when one party is tirelessly aiming to destroy the other, and there can be no equation (the word 'conflict' certainly suggests an equation) between would-be destroyers and defenders..." Both letters are folded for mailing; else fine, with envelopes.