Catalog 104, A-B
2. ALGREN, Nelson. The Neon Wilderness. Garden City: Doubleday, 1947. The uncommon third book by the author of The Man With the Golden Arm and A Walk on the Wild Side, among others. A collection of short stories, most with the same urban settings of his more famous novels. Published in an edition of only 3000 copies. Light mottling and fading to cloth; very good in a very good, faded dust jacket with modest edgewear.
3. ALLISON, Dorothy. Bastard Out of Carolina. (NY): Dutton (1992). Her first book published by a major publisher and her first novel, in part an unflinching account of a daughter's relationship to her mother in the face of abuse by her stepfather. A finalist for the National Book Award, reprinted numerous times and scarce in the first printing. Signed by the author. Slight soiling to lower boards; near fine in a very near fine dust jacket with a slight crimp at the crown.
4. AMICHAI, Yehuda. The Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai. Berkeley: U. of California Press (1996). A collection of poetry by Israel's preeminent poet. First thus, a softcover edition published ten years after the hardcover issue, and including 40 poems written since the original hardcover publication. Translations by Chana Bloch and Stephen Mitchell. Signed by Amichai. Fine.
5. AMIS, Martin. Heavy Water and Other Stories. London: Cape (1998). A collection of short fiction from the last twenty years, including two previously unpublished pieces. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
6. (Anthology). Portfolio I. (Washington, DC/Paris): Black Sun Press, 1945. The first issue of this folio "magazine," assemblages of broadside pieces, both literary and visual, edited by Caresse Crosby. Includes work by Henry Miller, Kay Boyle, Gwendolyn Brooks, Alex Comfort, Romare Bearden, and Harry Crosby, among others. The broadsides are fine, and laid into string-tied, spiral bound boards. Additionally laid into a folding paper portfolio envelope; the condition of the envelope is spotted and fragile. An interesting undertaking, which continued into 1948 and produced six issues total.
7. (Anthology). Rediscoveries. NY: Crown (1971). Novelists discuss overlooked books by other authors. Essays by Walker Percy, Joyce Carol Oates, Evan Connell, Jr., Wallace Stegner, Irwin Shaw, Kay Boyle, Anaïs Nin, Robert Penn Warren, and others. All are either first appearances or first book appearances. Fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
8. (Anthology). Prize Stories 1986. Garden City: Doubleday & Co., 1986. The uncorrected proof copy of the year's O. Henry Award winners, with first prize awarded to Alice Walker. Other contributors include Bobbie Ann Mason, Alice Adams, Gordon Lish, Peter Cameron, Deborah Eisenberg, Stuart Dybek, Ward Just, and Joyce Carol Oates, who earns a "special award for continuing achievement." Near fine in wrappers.
9. (Anthology). Prize Stories 1987. Garden City: Doubleday & Co., 1987. The uncorrected proof copy of the year's O. Henry Awards, with first prize jointly awarded to Louise Erdrich and Joyce Johnson. Other contributors include Gina Berriault, Joyce Carol Oates, Mary Robison, Stuart Dybek, Grace Paley, Daniel Stern, Richard Bausch, Robert Boswell, Donald Barthelme, and Alice Adams, among others. Short tear at base of front spine fold; very good.
10. (Anthology). The Graywolf Annual Four: Short Stories by Men. Saint Paul: Graywolf Press (1988). A collection of mostly previously-published pieces, only issued in wrappers. Edited by Scott Walker and including appearances by Raymond Carver, Richard Ford, Tobias Wolff, Tim O'Brien, William Kittredge, David Long, Charles Baxter, Robert Olmstead, Stuart Dybek, Frederick Busch, Allan Cheuse, and others. Fine.
11. (Anthology). Prize Stories 1993. The O. Henry Awards. NY: Doubleday (1993). The uncorrected proof copy of the year's O. Henry Awards. The prize-winning story is the title story of Thom Jones's well-received first collection, The Pugilist at Rest. Other contributors include Charles Johnson, Joyce Carol Oates, Lorrie Moore, Alice Adams, Antonya Nelson, Stephen Dixon, Kate Wheeler, Jennifer Egan and others. Small spots to front cover; near fine in wrappers.
12. (Anthology). Lamps on the Brow. (Aliso Viejo): James Cahill Publishing, 1998. A collection of science fiction and fantasy stories by David Brin, Andre Norton, Gene Wolfe, A.E. Van Vogt, Harry C. Stubbs, Laura Resnick, Mike Resnick, Josepha Sherman, Bruce Bethke and Gregory Benford. Introduction by Ben Bova. One of 274 numbered copies, signed by the contributors. Fine in a fine slipcase.
13. (Anthology). The Faber Book of Writers on Writers. (London): Faber and Faber (1999). The uncorrected proof copy of a collection of writers quipping and sniping about other writers through the centuries. This century's contributors include Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, Paul Bowles, William Faulkner, John Fowles, Truman Capote, Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, Norman Mailer, Martin Amis and Paul Theroux, among many others. Fine in wrappers.
14. (Anthology). The Art of the Story. (n.p.): Viking (1999). The advance reading copy of this collection of 78 stories from around the world, a sequel to The Art of the Tale, which, like this collection, was edited by Daniel Halpern. Contributors, all born between 1938 and 1970, include Martin Amis, Margaret Atwood, Toni Cade Bambara, T.C. Boyle, Robert Olen Butler, Raymond Carver, Nathan Englander, Richard Ford, Kazuo Ishiguro, Lorrie Moore, Joyce Carol Oates, Salman Rushdie, Jeanette Winterson, and Tobias Wolff, among many others. Fine in wrappers.
15. (Anthology). The Best American Poetry 1999. (NY): Scribner (1999). The uncorrected proof copy of this collection edited by Robert Bly and including the work of John Balaban, Elizabeth Bishop, Lucille Clifton, Lydia Davis, Donald Hall, David Mamet, C.K. Williams and many others. Fine in wrappers.
16. AUDEN, W.H. The Dance of Death. (London): Faber & Faber (1933). His third regularly published book, done in an edition of only 1200 copies. Owner name and offsetting to endpapers; the extremities of the spine of the book are worn, with the paper chipping away over the boards. A good copy in a dust jacket chipped at and near both spine extremities and with one open tear at the upper front spine fold.
17. AUSTER, Paul. Facing the Music. (Barrytown): Station Hill (1980). A small, early collection of poetry (Drenttel A5). One of 1000 copies, 43 of which were numbered and signed. This copy is unnumbered but still signed by the author. Fine in stapled wrappers.
18. BAKER, Nicholson. VOX. NY: Random House (1992). The advance reading copy of his fourth book, an unlikely bestseller -- a literary novel that takes the form of a telephone conversation between two strangers, a man and a woman, about sex. Fine in wrappers and enclosed in publisher's plain brown paper wrapper.
19. BAMBARA, Toni Cade. These Bones are Not My Child. NY: Pantheon (1999). The uncorrected proof copy of the posthumously published novel by this important African-American writer. A promotional page laid in credits Toni Morrison with shepherding the manuscript toward publication and overseeing the book's editorial progress. The final page of the proof indicates there will be an Editor's Note in the published version, but it is not included here. The front cover and first few pages are very slightly bumped, still fine in wrappers.
20. BANKS, Russell. Searching for Survivors. NY: Fiction Collective, 1975. A review copy of the hardcover issue of his fourth book and first collection of stories. This was his first hardcover publication (his previous fiction had been issued only in paperback, and two volumes of poetry were issued as chapbooks), and the hardcover issue is quite scarce, let alone an advance issue such as this. Inscribed by the author. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with trace edgewear.
21. BANKS, Russell. The Book of Jamaica. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980. Signed by the author. Spotting to the bottom page edges; else fine in a near fine dust jacket with a little unprofessional color at the crown and corners.
22. BANKS, Russell. Continental Drift. NY: Harper & Row (1985). A highly praised novel that was something of a breakthrough book for him. Banks's next two novels, Affliction (1989) and The Sweet Hereafter (1991), were both movingly adapted into movies. Inscribed by the author in 1988. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
23. BANKS, Russell. Success Stories. NY: Harper & Row (1986). A collection of stories whose venues range from New England to Latin America to Southeast Asia. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
24. BANKS, Russell. Rule of the Bone. (n.p.): HarperCollins (1995). A novel about a young teenage drifter on the fringes of society. Inscribed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
25. BANKS, Russell. Cloudsplitter. (NY): HarperCollins (1998). A review copy of his well-received, massive novel of the life of abolitionist John Brown. Inscribed by the author in the month of publication. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
26. -. Another copy. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author.
27. BANKS, Russell. The Invisible Stranger. (NY): HarperCollins (1999). The uncorrected proof copy. Banks provides text for this just-published book of photographs by Arturo Patten of residents of Patten, Maine. Quarto; fine in wrappers.
28. BARNES, Julian. Talking it Over. NY: Knopf, 1991. The advance reading copy of the first American edition of this novel by the author of Flaubert's Parrot and England, England, among others. Signed by the author. Fine in wrappers and publisher's cardstock box.
29. BARNES, Julian. England, England. NY: Knopf, 1999. The uncorrected proof copy of the first American edition of this novel that was short-listed for the Booker Prize. Fine in wrappers with dust jacket art stapled inside the front cover and a photocopied interview laid in.
30. BARR, Nevada. Firestorm. NY: Putnam (1996). The fourth book in the author's acclaimed mystery series, featuring Park Ranger Anna Pigeon. Barr's books have been praised for the authenticity of both her portrayals of the work of a Ranger and her descriptions of the natural world that the ranger is charged with protecting. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
31. BARRE, Richard. The Innocents. NY: Walker (1995). The author's first book, winner of a Shamus Award. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket, with blurbs by Ross Thomas, James Crumley, Michael Connelly, and others.
32. BARRE, Richard. Bearing Secrets. NY: Walker (1996). His second Wil Hardesty mystery. Signed by the author. Bumped at the spine base; near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
33. BARTH, John. The End of the Road. Garden City: Doubleday, 1958. Barth's increasingly scarce second novel. Owner name front flyleaf and offsetting to endpages; light spotting to top edge and a tiny bit of wear to the cloth at the spine extremities; still about near fine in a near fine, slightly spine-tanned dust jacket with a sticker removal shadow on the front flap. A scarce book, which, because of its soft, unlaminated jacket is often found rubbed and frayed; this, in spite of its small flaws, is a very attractive copy.
34. BARTH, John. The Sot Weed Factor. Garden City: Doubleday, 1960. The uncorrected proof copy of Barth's massive third novel, in the form of bound galleys; approximately 300 pages, 6" x 12", printed on rectos only. The Sot-Weed Factor, a fanciful historical novel, secured Barth's reputation as one of the leading experimental writers of his generation, and helped set the standard for the post-modern fiction that dominated the 1960s. A bit of dampening to the last several pages, not affecting legibility; several edge tears to the wrappers; still near fine. An extremely rare proof; we have never seen another one, nor heard of one being offered for sale.
35. BAXTER, Charles. Chameleon. NY: Rivers Press, 1970. His first book, a collection of poetry only issued in wrappers, in an edition of 500 copies with illustrations by Mary Miner. Precedes his second book by four years, and his first book of fiction by well over a decade. Baxter has written a number of well-received novels and story collections in recent years, including A Relative Stranger, Through the Safety Net, and others. Near fine. An extremely elusive title.
36. BECKETT, Samuel. Murphy. NY: Grove Press (1957). The first American edition of his first novel, originally published in 1938, and published in the U.S. only after Beckett's remarkable plays of the 1950s -- in particular, Waiting for Godot and Endgame -- had established him as the leading playwright of the "Theater of the Absurd." This is the limited edition, one of 100 numbered copies signed by the author. Mild foxing to top edge; else fine in a near fine original acetate dust jacket chipped at the crown. An attractive copy of a scarce and important first novel, the first edition of which (in dust jacket) sells, these days, for sums well into five figures.
37. BELL, Madison Smartt. Ten Indians. NY: Pantheon (1996). A novel by this Granta 20 author, a gritty tale of contemporary urban life, akin to his earlier novel, Waiting for the End of the World. Inscribed by the author with a self-caricature. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
38. BELLOW, Saul. Him with His Foot in His Mouth. NY: Harper & Row (1984). A collection of short fiction by the 1976 Nobel Prize winner for Literature. Signed by the author. Near fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
39. (BELLOW, Saul). "Notes of a Dangling Man" in Partisan Review, Vol. X, No. 5. NY: Partisan Review, 1943. An excerpt from Bellow's then-forthcoming first novel, Dangling Man (published by Vanguard in 1944). Eighteen pages, with textual variations between this and the final published version beyond those necessary to excerpt it as a coherent story. A bit of darkening and creasing to the wrappers; short tears to the upper edge of the first two pages; very good.
40. BERGER, Thomas. Reinhart in Love. NY: Scribner, (1962). The second book by the author of Little Big Man. Inscribed by the author to the writer/illustrator Robert Andrew Parker in 1964: "To Bob Parker/ in memory of many/ afternoons gone up in/ smoke/ Thomas Berger." Parker's bookplate on front pastedown. White shelf paint along bottom edges of cloth and light foxing to endpapers and back panel of jacket. About very good in a similar dust jacket. A nice association copy; books inscribed by Berger are somewhat uncommon.
41. BERRY, Wendell. How Ptolemy Proudfoot Lost a Bet. NY: Dim Gray Bar Press, 1992. The first separate edition of this story, set in the fictional town of Port William, Kentucky, where many of Berry's stories are situated. One of 100 numbered copies signed by the author. Small quarto; fine without dust jacket, as issued.
42. BISHOP, Elizabeth. The Collected Prose. NY: FSG (1984). The uncorrected proof copy. Includes eight short stories and much nonfiction that was unpublished at the time of her death. Edited and introduced by Robert Giroux. Fine in wrappers.
43. -. Same title, the first British edition (London: Chatto & Windus/Hogarth, 1984). Fine in a fine dust jacket.
44. BISHOP, Elizabeth. Exchanging Hats. NY: FSG (1996). A book of Bishop's paintings, edited and introduced by William Benton, who was also instrumental in tracking the paintings down, many of which were in the possession of Bishop's friends. The work was first gathered for an exhibit in Key West in 1993. Her most well-known paintings adorn her dust jackets. Quarto; small remainder mark to top edge; else fine in a fine dust jacket.
45. BORGES, Jorge Luis. Selected Non-Fictions. (n.p.): Viking (1999). The advance reading copy of the last volume in the centenary edition of Borges' collected works in English, after Collected Fictions and Selected Poems. Fine in wrappers.
46. BOSWELL, Thomas. Why Time Begins on Opening Day. Garden City: Doubleday, 1984. The second book by the author of How Life Imitates the World Series, a longtime sports columnist for the Washington Post, whose baseball writings are universally considered among the best, and most transcendent, ever written by an American sportswriter. Paper clip marks on prelims; near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
47. BOWLES, Paul. Without Stopping. NY: Putnam (1972). The uncorrected proof copy of his autobiography. Signed by the author. Faint sunning; near fine in tall wrappers. Books signed by Bowles, other than the limited editions produced by Black Sparrow Press, are quite scarce because of the author's longtime residency in North Africa, and his relative inaccessibility there to American book buyers and collectors.
48. -. Same title, the first British edition (London: Peter Owen, 1972). The illustrations in this edition differ from those used in the American edition. 2000 copies printed. Miller A22b. Edge-sunning to boards; near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
49. BOWLES, Paul. The Delicate Prey and Other Stories. (NY): Ecco Press (1972). The hardcover issue of the reissue; first published in 1950. Surprisingly scarce: only 1000 copies were printed. This is a review copy, with a folded 8 1/2" x 14" announcement sheet laid in that is signed by Bowles. The sheet is creased from where it overlays the book; the book has some faint spots on the top edge; else fine in a near fine dust jacket.
50. BOWLES, Paul. Autograph Postcard Signed. January 22, 1989. Four sentences informing the recipient (in America) that he has her books and will send them when he has the time. Postal markings (from Tangier), one light corner crease visible only on picture side; else fine. A brief, but clear, indication of the difficulty in getting signed copies of Bowles's books.
51. BOWLES, Paul. Photographs. NY: Scalo (1994). Photographs by Bowles -- mostly taken in North Africa, over a period of four decades -- with an essay on his art by Simon Bischoff and the text of conversations between Bischoff and Bowles from 1989-1991. Fine in a near fine dust jacket.
52. (BOWLES, Paul). EBERHARDT, Isabelle. The Oblivion Seekers. London: Peter Owen (1988). The first British edition of Bowles's translations of writings of Eberhardt who, like him, spent many years living in Arab North Africa, and eventually became a serious student of Sufism, which was quite rare at the time among Westerners. With an introduction by Bowles. First published in 1975. Fine in wrappers.
53. BROWN, Larry. Dirty Work. Chapel Hill: Algonquin, 1989. His second book and first novel, powerful fiction about two Vietnam vets in the aftermath of the war. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
54. BURKE, James Lee. In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead. NY: Hyperion (1993). A mystery novel in the award-winning Dave Robicheaux series. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
55. BURKE, James Lee. Cadillac Jukebox. NY: Hyperion (1996). Another novel in his Robicheaux series. Signed by Burke in the month of publication. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
56. BURKE, James Lee. Heartwood. NY: Doubleday (1999). The advance reading copy of his second Texas novel, featuring Billy Bob Holland, the protagonist of the Edgar Award-winning Cimarron Rose. Fine in wrappers.
57. -. Same title, the limited edition (NY/New Orleans: Doubleday/B. E. Trice, 1999). One of 150 numbered copies signed by the author. Fine in slipcase.
58. -. Same title, one of 26 lettered copies signed by the author. Quarterbound in leather. Fine in slipcase.
59. (BURKE, James Lee). "The Convict" in The Kenyon Review, Vol. VII, No. 3. (Gambier): (Kenyon College), 1985. The first appearance of the title story of Burke's scarce 1985 collection published by Louisiana State Press. A couple instances of re-wording in the text between this and later published versions. Owner name front cover; covers a bit edgeworn; near fine in wrappers.
60. BUTLER, Robert Olen. Sun Dogs. NY: Horizon (1982). Second novel by the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain. This novel is 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. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with, as usual, a slight bit of rubbing.
61. BUTLER, Robert Olen. Countrymen of Bones. NY: Horizon (1983). His third novel, set in New Mexico during the development of the atomic bomb. Like the above, a fast-paced story and an intellectual adventure of high order. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
62. -. Another copy. Fine in a near fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
63. 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.
64. BUTLER, Robert Olen. Wabash. NY: Knopf, 1987. A review copy of his fifth novel, set in a midwestern steel mill town during the Depression. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
65. BUTLER, Robert Olen. They Whisper. NY: Henry Holt (1994). The first trade edition, which followed the limited edition by one day. Signed by the author and dated in 1997. Fine in a fine dust jacket.