Catalog 105, U-Z
504. UPDIKE, John. The Music School. NY: Knopf, 1966. The second issue of this collection of short fiction, with page 46 being a cancel. Near fine in a very good dust jacket with tiny corner chips and several closed tears.
505. UPDIKE, John. From the Journal of a Leper. Northridge: Lord John, 1978. An early Lord John limited edition. Of a total edition of 326, this is one of 300 numbered copies with a red cloth spine, signed by the author. Fine without dust wrapper, as issued.
506. UPDIKE, John. Three Illuminations in the Life of an American Author. NY: Targ Editions, 1979. One of 350 numbered copies, signed by the author. Fine in marbled boards, but lacking the plain paper dust wrapper.
507. UPDIKE, John. Problems and Other Stories. NY: Knopf, 1979. The uncorrected proof copy of this collection of stories. Reviewer's marginal notations on a number of pages and inside rear cover, and a small abrasion to the rear cover. Still about near fine in wrappers. Uncommon.
508. -. Same title. (Queensland): U. of Queensland Press/Andre Deutsch (1980). The first Australian edition, published a year after the American edition. Fine in a slightly spine-faded, near fine dust jacket. An uncommon edition.
509. UPDIKE, John. The Chaste Planet. Worcester: Metacom, 1980. Published as part of a series of chapbooks that included works by Ann Beattie, John McPhee and others, in addition to Updike. Of a total edition of 326 copies, this is one of 300 numbered copies signed by the author. Fine in saddle-stitched marbled self-wrappers.
510. UPDIKE, John. Getting Older. Helsinki: Eurographica (1986). One of 350 copies of this collection of three stories that originally appeared in magazines. Signed by the author. Fine in wrappers and dust jacket.
511. UPDIKE, John. Trust Me. NY: Knopf, 1987. The uncorrected proof copy of this collection of stories. Fine in wrappers.
512. -. Another copy. Publication information taped to front cover; jacket blurbs stapled inside front cover, and a note from the publisher laid in. Fine in wrappers.
513. -. Same title. The limited edition. One of 350 numbered copies signed by the author. Fine in acetate dust jacket (with a few wrinkles) in a fine slipcase.
514. UPDIKE, John. Love Factories. Helsinki: Eurographica (1993). A limited edition, one of 350 copies signed by the author. Three previously published stories, with a new five page foreword. Fine in wrappers and dust jacket.
515. UPDIKE, John. The Afterlife and Other Stories. NY: Knopf, 1994. The uncorrected proof copy. Fine in wrappers.
516. VIDAL, Gore. The City and the Pillar and Seven Early Stories. NY: Random House (1995). The uncorrected proof copy of this reissue of Vidal's early novel and seven early stories bearing on the theme of homosexuality. With a new introduction by the author. Fine in wrappers.
517. VIZENOR, Gerald. The Trickster of Liberty. Tribal Heirs to a Wild Baronage. Minnesota: U. of Minnesota Press (1988). A collection of stories on the Trickster theme as applied to contemporary life, this being the simultaneously issued softcover edition. Fine in wrappers.
518. VOLLMANN, William T. The Rainbow Stories. (London): Deutsch (1989). The correct first edition, preceding its U.S. issue. A massive book, a collection of stories, published in a small edition of only 1250 copies. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
519. VOLLMANN, William T. Butterfly Stories. (London): Deutsch (1993). Of a total edition of 126 copies, this is one of 100 numbered copies signed by the author. Quarterbound in cloth and marbled paper boards, top edge gilt. Fine in cloth slipcase. An attractive volume and a scarce edition.
520. VONNEGUT, Kurt, Jr. Welcome to the Monkey House. London: Jonathan Cape (1969). The uncorrected proof copy of the first British edition of these short stories, a collection reprising most of the stories in Canary in a Cat House plus fourteen others. Signed by the author in 1997 with a self-caricature. Wrappers creased; light foxing to foredge and rubbing to folds; very good in wrappers. Very scarce: Vonnegut proofs from the Sixties, before he was widely accepted as a "mainstream" writer, are uncommon.
521. VONNEGUT, Kurt. Bagombo Snuff Box. NY: Putnam (1999). The uncorrected proof copy of Vonnegut's uncollected short fiction from the early part of his career. Three stories have been revised from their original publication, and Vonnegut provides an introduction, which may turn out to be his last published piece of original writing, as he claims that Timequake was his final novel. Fine in wrappers.
522. WACHTEL, Chuck. Because We Are Here. (n.p.): Viking (1995). The advance reading copy of this highly praised collection of stories by the author of Joe the Engineer, winner of a PEN/Hemingway Citation. Fine in wrappers.
523. WALLACE, David Foster. The Girl With Curious Hair. NY: Norton (1989). The advance reading copy of the second book by the author of The Broom of the System and Infinite Jest, among others. This is a collection of stories. Spine- creased; else fine in wrappers.
524. WALTERS, Anna Lee. The Sun is Not Merciful. Ithaca: Firebrand (1985). A collection of short stories by a Pawnee/Otoe author, published by a feminist press. This is the issue in wrappers. Signed by the author in 1986. Fine.
525. WARREN, Robert Penn. How Texas Won Her Freedom. San Jacinto Monument: San Jacinto Museum of History, 1959. A small volume issued by the museum in an edition reported to be 512 copies. Inscribed by the book's designer, Gerry Doyle. Slight wear to cloth at spine extremities; fine without dust jacket, apparently as issued.
526. WELDON, Fay. Wicked Women. NY: Atlantic Monthly Press (1997). The advance reading copy of the first American edition of this collection of stories by the author of The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, among others. Fine in wrappers.
527. WELSH, Irvine. Past Tense. (South Queensferry): Clocktower Press (n.d.)[1992]. His first book, a pamphlet printed in an edition of 300 copies, comprising four stories from a novel-in-progress, which turned out to be Trainspotting. The film adaptation of Welsh's novel was one of the most highly praised movies of the year, winning numerous awards and earning an Oscar nomination for its screenplay. Fine in stapled wrappers.
528. WELTY, Eudora. The Bride of Innisfallen. NY: Harcourt Brace (1955). Very scarce first issue of this collection of stories, with a single copyright date. Owner bookplate front pastedown; edgewear to cloth. Very good in lightly edgeworn, modestly darkened dust jacket -- still very good.
529. WELTY, Eudora. The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty. NY: HBJ (1980). The limited edition issued by the trade publisher (there was also a Franklin Library edition which preceded). A landmark volume, the definitive collection of her short stories, and a nominee for the National Book Award. One of 500 numbered copies signed by the author. Clothbound; fine in a near fine, bumped slipcase.
530. WELTY, Eudora. Morgana. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi (1988). The trade edition of this first separate appearance of two stories from The Golden Apples. Quarto. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by Welty and the illustrator, Mildred Nungester Wolfe.
531. WHEELER, Kate. Not Where I Started From. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993. The advance reading copy of this excerpt from the author's first book, a collection of stories that had a first printing reported to be only 4000 copies. The advance copy was presumably issued in quantities numbering a hundred or so. Fine in wrappers. A Granta 20 author.
532. WHITE, E.B. The Second Tree from the Corner. London: Hamish Hamilton (1954). The first British edition of this collection of essays, stories and poems by one of the finest American essayists of the century, the author of such children's classics as Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little. A fine copy in a very good dust jacket with modest edgewear and minor dust soiling.
533. WHITE, Edmund. Skinned Alive. NY: Knopf, 1995. The first American edition of this collection of stories by the author of A Boy's Own Story, among others. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
534. WIDEMAN, John Edgar. The Stories of John Edgar Wideman. NY: Pantheon (1992). A collection of his previously published stories, as well as ten new stories. Inscribed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
535. WILSON, William S. Why I Don't Write Like Franz Kafka. NY: Ecco (1977). The author's first book, a collection of stories. Inscribed by the author in 1979. Fine in a near fine dust jacket.
536. -. Same title. The uncorrected proof copy. Inscribed by the author in 1979. Fine in wrappers.
537. WOLFE, Tom. Manuscript of "Good Buildings." [ca. 1984]. Two drafts, 9 pages and 25 pages. This piece first appeared in Esquire in June, 1985, as "Proper Places" and later much of the text was incorporated into Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities. The first draft is a ribbon copy typescript with extensive holograph revisions by the author in pencil and ink. Much of this material was edited out of the later draft. The second draft is also ribbon copy typescript, again with many holograph changes by the author. "Good Buildings" is a critique of New York in the mid-1980s, part of Wolfe's satirical savaging of the upper crusts of New York's elite society and its peculiar, passionate concerns. As a writer who has skewered the modern art world and the wealthy "radicals" of the late 1960's, Wolfe wields a much-feared pen, and The Bonfire of the Vanities was both eagerly and fearfully awaited as the publishing event of the year. Wolfe writes with scathing insight and fearsome accuracy and this manuscript is an excellent example of the writer sharpening his pen as he works. The sheets are fine.
538. WOLFF, Tobias. In the Garden of North American Martyrs. NY: Ecco (1981). The scarce first issue of the author's first collection of short fiction, with the dust jacket with a "$14.95" price. The price was lowered to $10.95 prior to publication and the jacket reprinted with the lower price. This is only the third copy we have seen with the early jacket: the first was a review copy and the second was apparently one of the author's copies. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. An exceedingly scarce variant of one of the most enduring first collections of stories in recent times.
539. -. Same title. The uncorrected proof copy of the book that immediately established Wolff as a master of the short story form. Fine in wrappers and exhibiting, on the summary page, the $14.95 price that was printed on the earliest dust jackets, although the book was never sold at that price. Scarce: we have not seen another copy offered since the book was first published.
540. WOLFF, Tobias. The Barracks Thief and Selected Stories. NY: Bantam (1986). First thus, collecting Wolff's PEN/Faulkner Award-winning novella plus stories from In the Garden of the North American Martyrs. Only issued in wrappers. Fine, and signed by the author.
541. WOLFF, Tobias. The Night in Question. NY: Knopf, 1996. The limited advance edition consisting of only the title story of this collection. One of 1500 copies signed by the author. Hardbound; fine without dust jacket, as issued, in publisher's wraparound sleeve.
542. YATES, Richard. Eleven Kinds of Loneliness. Boston: Little Brown (1962). His second book, generally considered his scarcest, a highly regarded collection of short stories. Signed by the author. Yates was a "writer's writer" and was a mentor to a number of young writers through the 1960s and 70s. Books signed by him are uncommon. Fine in a very good, spine-tanned jacket with minor edgewear.
543. YATES, Richard. Liars in Love. (NY): Delacorte/Lawrence (1981). The uncorrected proof copy of the author's second collection of stories. Fine in wrappers.
544. YEATS, W.B. Stories of Red Hanrahan and The Secret Rose. London: Macmillan, 1927. First thus. Owner gift inscription front flyleaf; near fine in a very good dust jacket with small chips at the corners and spine extremities. An attractive copy of this book illustrated and decorated by Norah McGuinness.
545. ZELAZNY, Roger. And the Darkness is Harsh. Rochester: Pretentious Press, 1994. Two stories and a poem taken from Zelazny's high school literary magazine. One of 85 copies signed by the author with his high school photo tipped in. Fine in stapled wrappers.