Catalog 104, I-L
181. IRVING, John. Three By Irving. NY: Random House (1980). After the extraordinary critical and commercial success of The World According to Garp, Random House reissued Irving's first three novels, all of which were out-of-print at that time, in one volume. Contains Setting Free the Bears, The Water-Method Man and The 158-Pound Marriage. With an introduction by Terence Des Pres. Dusty top edge; else fine in a near fine dust jacket.
182. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. This proof copy lacks the introduction by Des Pres that is present in the final volume. Fine in wrappers.
183. IRVING, John. Trying to Save Piggy Sneed. NY: Arcade (1996). The first American edition of this collection of stories and other short pieces, expanded from the British edition, which was published in 1993. Signed by the author. Irving has been notably reluctant to sign books in recent years, as his literary and commercial success have helped create a perhaps unwanted degree of celebrity for a quite private individual. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
184. -. Another copy. Faint smudge to foredge; else fine in a fine dust jacket.
185. IRVING, John. A Prayer for Owen Meany. NY: Morrow (1989). The first trade edition of what may be Irving's best-loved book (a substantial claim for a book by the author of The World According to Garp); basis for the movie Simon Birch. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
186. -. Another copy. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
187. IRVING, John. A Widow for One Year. (Amsterdam): Anthos (1998). The first Dutch edition of his most recent novel, which it is said precedes all other trade editions, and is preceded only by a limited advance issue of the British edition. Apparently, like the main character in the novel -- an American novelist with an affinity for Amsterdam, who arranges to have the first edition of her new book published in the Netherlands prior to its issuance in her home country -- Irving requested this publication sequence. The reason for an advance English edition preceding the Dutch edition reportedly had to do with the fact that the Dutch books were printed in England, and the advance English copies were released while the printed books were en route to the Netherlands. A very scarce edition: it can be assumed that the publication of an English-language edition in a non-English speaking country with a population 1/20th that of the U.S. would be done in very small numbers. We've never seen another one offered for sale. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
188. ISHERWOOD, Christopher. Lions and Shadows. London: Hogarth Press, 1938. Autobiographical account of the author's early years in London. This is the first issue of the first edition, in blue cloth lettered in black. The total printing was 3580 copies. Very slight offsetting to front flyleaf; darkening to spine cloth; near fine, lacking the dust jacket.
189. ISHIGURO, Kazuo. The Unconsoled. London: Faber & Faber (1995). The first edition of this novel, short-listed for the Booker Prize. His earlier novels include The Remains of the Day (Booker Prize, 1989), An Artist of the Floating World (Whitbread Prize, 1986) and A Pale View of Hills (Winifred Holtby Prize, 1982). Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
190. JEN, Gish. Who's Irish. NY: Knopf, 1999. The uncorrected proof copy of her new book. Stories by the author of Typical American and Mona in the Promised Land. Fine in wrappers, with dust jacket art stapled inside the front cover.
191. JOHNSTON, Wayne. The Colony of Unrequited Dreams. NY: Doubleday (1999). The advance reading copy of the first American edition of this book that was a bestseller in Canada and garnered much pre-publication praise, and "buzz," in the U.S. Fine in wrappers.
192. JOYCE, James. Dubliners. NY: Huebsch, 1916. The first American edition of his first collection of stories, bound from the sheets of the British edition, which was published in 1914. The entire edition consisted of 1250 copies, of which 504 were bound for the U.S. edition, with a cancel title page. An extremely scarce book, published when Joyce was virtually unknown in this country and preceding the publication of Ulysses by six years. Owner name front flyleaf; modest foxing to page edges; and a bit of sunning to the spine cloth. Very near fine, lacking the dust jacket. A very attractive copy of one of the high spots of 20th century Irish, and world, literature.
193. JHABVALA, Ruth Prawer. Typed Note Signed. October, 1967. Written to her agent, and directing him to forward all future payment to her nephew's account. Signed three times as "Ruth," "Ruth Jhabvala" and "R. Prawer Jhabvala," either to cover all legal bases or to "initial" figures that appear to the left of her signatures. Also included is a typed note signed from Roger Angell, dated June 1967 and written on New Yorker stationery, forwarding payment to her agent. With three unendorsed checks from the agent to Jhabvala; a retained copy of the letter from the agent to the nephew forwarding the checks as instructed; and a letter from the nephew to the agent acknowledging receipt. There is accounting in the margins of both Jhabvala's and Angell's letters; the checks have the memo field torn off; the lot is about near fine. Together with a contract (unsigned) and three supporting letters (none from Jhabvala) from 1962, arranging for the reprinting of quotes from a 1957 New Yorker interview with Jhabvala in the book The Age of the Manager. Also together with Library of Congress Agreements, unsigned, from 1964, arranging for two of Jhabvala's works to be transcribed into Braille and tape-recorded; and also together with an undated, unsigned agreement from Harper's Bazaar to purchase "Light and Reason." Folded; else fine. For all:
194. JUNGER, Sebastian. The Perfect Storm. NY: Norton (1997). Nonfiction, an account of the loss of a fishing boat in a 1991 storm, and a surprise bestseller that went into many printings and earned its young author a remarkable degree of literary celebrity (not to mention, apparently, a great deal of money: reports had him living in a small, unfurnished apartment at the time of publication and becoming a millionaire, or thereabouts, shortly thereafter). One of the most talked-about, and probably read, books of the year. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
195. -. Same title, the advance reading copy. Casual examination revealed a couple of inconsequential textual variations. Fine in wrappers.
196. JUST, Ward. A Dangerous Friend. Boston/NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1999. The advance reading copy of his most recent novel, published to the kind of praise that other writers have been bestowing on him for years. Fine in wrappers with promotional material laid in.
197. KENNEDY, A.L. Everything You Need. London: Cape (1999). Highly praised second book by the author of Original Bliss. Fine in a fine dust jacket, with a Richard Ford blurb, among others.
198. KENNEDY, William. The Ink Truck. NY: Dial, 1969. The first book by the author of the acclaimed Albany series, which included the Pulitzer Prize-winning Ironweed. Trace foxing to top edge; else fine in a near fine dust jacket lightly rubbed on the front panel.
199. KEROUAC, John. The Town and the City. NY: Harcourt Brace (1950). His first novel, written in the style of Kerouac's idol, Thomas Wolfe. Kerouac later dismissed this novel as "dead" -- contrasting it with the stream-of-consciousness style that he adopted for his later novels -- but at least one critic called it "an excellent novel in the Wolfeian autobiographic style." In fact, Kerouac's correspondence shows him to have been preparing to write On the Road while this novel was still unpublished, and to have envisioned them as being of a piece, both arising from the fact that he self-consciously viewed himself as a writer. While not as deliberately experimental or jazz-inspired as his later books, especially On the Road, The Town and the City clearly shows Kerouac's literary antecedents, and his view of himself as a literary artist, long before he came to be a cultural icon -- a fact that is still not fully appreciated in the literary and scholarly community. This is an ex-library copy with small label removal abrasions on the rear free endpaper and "Discarded by USAF" stamps on front and rear endpages, but the condition is near fine with a bit of fraying to the cloth at the extreme lower board edges; in a very good, rubbed dust jacket with a thumbnail-size chip on the rear panel at the lower rear spine fold. In all, a presentable, modestly priced copy of Kerouac's scarce first book.
200. KEROUAC, Jack. The Dharma Bums. NY: Viking, 1958. The novel that introduced Beat poet Gary Snyder to the world as "Japhy Ryder;" its characters became counterculture heroes with their distinctly American blend of Zen and fun. A classic of Beat literature and by consensus Kerouac's best-loved book after On the Road. A very good copy in a rubbed, very good dust jacket with an edge tear at the spine base.
201. KEROUAC, Jack. Big Sur. NY: Farrar Straus Cudahy (1962). One of the many books in Kerouac's ongoing semi-autobiographical series, which he called "The Dulouz Legend." An author's note at the beginning of this volume explains that his intent was to populate his entire series of novels with the same characters, a plan that was vetoed by his early publishers. Kerouac writes: "In my old age I intend to collect all my work and re-insert my pantheon of uniform names, leave the long shelf full of books there, and die happy" -- a plan he never brought to fruition. Erasure on and foxing to front endpapers; else a near fine copy in a very good, lightly foxed and edgeworn dust jacket.
202. KEROUAC, Jack. Selected Letters 1957-1969. (n.p.): Viking (1999). The advance reading copy of the second substantial selection of Kerouac's letters to be published, forthcoming in November. Correspondents include Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Neal Cassady, William S. Burroughs, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and many others. Kerouac was a prolific letter writer, and many of his letters employ the same style of allusive, stream-of-consciousness writing that he used in his novels, as well as rich imagery and the occasional inserted poem or haiku. In other words, it is proper to view this collection as a much more creative endeavor than most volumes of selected letters. Edited by Ann Charters. Fine in wrappers.
203. KEROUAC, Jack. Atop an Underwood. (n.p.): Viking (1999). The advance reading copy. More than sixty unpublished works, many of them fiction, that Kerouac wrote between the ages of thirteen and twenty-one. Edited and with an introduction by Paul Marion. Fine in wrappers.
204. KIDDER, Tracy. Home Town. NY: Random House (1999). The latest critically acclaimed and bestselling book of nonfiction by the author of House and the Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning The Soul of a New Machine, among others. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author.
205. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. Dirt scuff to foredge; else fine in wrappers. This is the proof in plain printed wrappers, which is considerably scarcer than the advance reading copy in pictorial wrappers.
206. KINCAID, Jamaica. My Garden (Book). (n.p.): Farrar Straus Giroux (1999). An advance reading excerpt, published as a limited edition chapbook (limitation not stated), bound back-to-back with an Ian Frazier excerpt from On the Rez. Fine in stapled wrappers. Kincaid is the editor of the anthology My Favorite Plant, in addition to being a writer of fiction and memoir.
207. KING, Stephen. The Shining. Garden City: Doubleday (1977). King's third novel, memorably filmed by Stanley Kubrick. This title is the third-scarcest of King's novels, in terms of the size of the first printing, which was 25,000 copies. King's recent novels have had first printings numbering over a million copies. Added to the scarcity factor is that Doubleday was notorious in the 1970s for producing books cheaply, which showed wear easily, and were inherently less survivable than the typical trade hardcover of the period. This copy is inscribed by King in 1980. The flyleaf bears the recipient's ownership signature, and King's signature has a water droplet partly obscuring the "g." This copy is near fine with mildly worn spine cloth, in a good dust jacket internally tape-repaired along splitting folds and at the extremities; the lower extremity bears an inexplicable, albeit slight, touch-up of green. Despite the wear, an uncommon book to find inscribed by King in the days before he became a household name and arguably the most well-known living writer on the planet.
208. KING, Stephen. Hearts in Atlantis. (NY): Scribner (1999). The advance reading copy of his latest book of fiction, five interconnected narratives spanning the last four decades and affected in some way by the Sixties and the Vietnam War. Fine in wrappers.
209. KOSINSKI, Jerzy. Steps. NY: Random House (1968). Kosinski's second novel, and second book published under his own name. Winner of the National Book Award. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
210. KUMIN, Maxine. The Privilege. NY: Harper & Row (1965). Her third book, second collection of poetry, this being the issue in wrappers (there was a simultaneous hardcover). Inscribed by the author to another poet in 1967: "in recognition of our behavioral objectives." Spine-faded; very good.
211. KUMIN, Maxine. The Nightmare Factory. NY: Harper & Row (1970). Her third collection of poetry, fifth book. Again, this is the issue in wrappers, there having been a simultaneous hardcover. And, again, inscribed by the author to a fellow poet (and his wife). Slight edge-rubbing; near fine.
212. LAWRENCE, D.H. Pansies. London: Privately Printed (1929). First "definitive" edition of this collection of poems by the author of Women in Love and Lady Chatterly's Lover, among others, who was one of the most controversial literary figures of his time: Lawrence challenged the contemporary taboos for the description of romantic love and sexual activity, and as a result much of his most famous writing was banned and had to be printed privately. It was not until three decades after Lawrence's death, in fact, that Lady Chatterly's Lover could be published unexpurgated in England and America. Pansies was published the year after a volume of Lawrence's collected poems had been issued, and it was first published in England by Martin Secker in July, 1929, but Lawrence himself had to arrange to print this unexpurgated edition in August. This is one of 50 numbered copies bound in full leather (gray) and signed by the author, the smallest limitation of any of the various issues of this title. Foxing to endpages, as usual, else fine in glassine dust jacket and (moderately rubbed) slipcase. Roberts A47d.
213. LAWRENCE, D.H. The Story of Doctor Manente. Florence: Orioli (1929). A novella by an Italian Renaissance writer, Lasca, translated and introduced by Lawrence. Of a total edition of 1200 copies, this is one of 200 numbered copies signed by Lawrence. Bookplate front pastedown. The brittle tissue covering the boards is cracking but this is still a near fine copy of this attractive edition.
214. LE CARRÉ, John. The Secret Pilgrim. NY: Knopf, 1991. This is the first issue of the uncorrected proof, in tan wrappers, with an erroneous 1990 date on the front cover, a 1991 copyright date, and an announced first printing of 250,000 copies. The later proof, in blue wrappers, corrected the title page date, changed the copyright date backward to 1990, and upped the printing number to 350,000 copies. Fine in wrappers.
215. -. Same title, the first U.S. edition, which preceded the U.K. edition by three days (Jan. 14, 1991 vs. Jan. 17, 1991). Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author on a tipped-in leaf.
216. -. Same title, the U.K. edition (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1991). Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
217. LE CARRÉ, John. Our Game. NY: Knopf, 1995. The uncorrected proof copy. The first printing of the book is announced on the front cover as 350,000 copies; needless to say, the proof will have been considerably scarcer, probably by a factor of a thousand or so. Fine in wrappers.
218. LE CARRÉ, John. Single & Single. (London): Hodder & Stoughton (1999). The first state of the advance reading copy of his most recent novel, with 342 rather than 336 pages. One of approximately 150 copies, in an intended run of 1500. This copy is unnumbered. Fine in wrappers.
219. -. Same title, the British trade edition. Light corner bumping; else fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author. An attractive production, with cloth ribbon marker bound in.
220. -. Same title, the Franklin Library edition (Franklin Center: Franklin Library, 1999). Leatherbound, all edges gilt, with a silk ribbon marker bound in. With an introduction by Le Carré that does not appear in any other edition, and in which he compares this novel to his earlier book, A Perfect Spy. Signed by the author. Fine.
221. LEONARD, Elmore. Escape from Five Shadows. [Boston]: Houghton Mifflin, [1956]. The uncorrected proof copy of the third of his extremely scarce Westerns, which preceded his first mystery novel by over a decade and his first bestseller by over two decades. 7" x 11" ringbound galley sheets, printed on rectos only. The label affixed to the cardstock cover gives a publication date of 1955 (the book was actually published in 1956) and, in pencil "May 1." Also in pencil on the front cover label is written "The Westerners" -- an alternate title? An indication of the genre, for marketing purposes? The covers show some extremely slight creasing; but still a remarkably fine copy, with the covers crisp, the fragile plastic ring spine intact. An extremely scarce item: we have never seen another proof copy of any of Leonard's Westerns offered for sale. In a custom clamshell box.
222. LETHEM, Jonathan. Amnesia Moon. NY: Harcourt Brace (1995). His second book, after the highly praised Gun, with Occasional Music. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author.
223. LETHEM, Jonathan. Motherless Brooklyn. NY: Doubleday [1999]. The advance reading copy of his new novel, which, like his earlier books, crosses traditional lines of genre and, in this case, seems to have ratcheted up the critical estimation of the writer's work from "clever" to "wise." Fine in wrappers.
Hippie-Poet's Most Famous Book, Inscribed
224. LEVY, D.A. North American Book of the Dead. Cleveland: Free Lance Press, 1965. Probably the best-known book by the quintessential hippie-poet of the 1960s, a key figure in the Cleveland, Ohio, underground and a writer whose suicide at a young age ensured him a kind of literary immortality that probably would have surprised him. Published (as usual) by his own press and, as noted by his bibliographer, "a typically bad Free Lance production with horrendous errors throughout." This copy is warmly inscribed by the author in the year of publication to a fellow poet: "to will inman/ for being/ and for being/ a good friend/ + a perhaps a/ great human being/ d.a. levy/ 65." Folded once vertically, and edge-darkened; very good in stapled wrappers with an old ink price written on the front cover. A good association copy of an enormously scarce book by one of the pre-eminent American poets of the 1960s counterculture.
225. (LEVY, D.A.). "The River" in The Silver Cesspool, Vol 2. Cleveland: Renegade (1964). Small, underground Cleveland literary magazine, mimeographed on multi-colored paper and published by Levy's own press. Signed by Levy at his contribution and by several other poets. Near fine in wrappers.
226. LOVE, Deborah. Annaghkeen. NY: Random House (1970). A journal of a summer spent on Annaghkeen Island, in Ireland, with her husband, writer Peter Matthiessen. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. An attractive copy.
227. LURIE, Alison. Foreign Affairs. NY: Random House (1984). The uncorrected proof copy of her ninth book, a novel that was a surprise winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Near fine in wrappers. Uncommon.