Catalog 105, A-B
36. ALEXIE, Sherman. First Indian On The Moon. NY: (Hanging Loose Press) (1993). A review copy of the fourth collection of stories, poems and prose poems. This is the hardcover issue, reportedly done in an edition of only 500 copies and out of print now since the year of publication. Fine without jacket, as issued. A scarce volume, especially in an advance issue.
37. ALEXIE, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven. NY: Atlantic Monthly Press (1993). The advance reading copy of his first collection of stories to be published by a major trade publisher; winner of a special citation for the PEN/Hemingway Award as well as the winner of the 1994 Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Writers' Award. Stories from this collection were the basis of the film Smoke Signals, which won an award at the Sundance Festival. Alexie was chosen as one of Granta magazine's 20 Best Young American Authors on the strength of this collection; he was also selected to The New Yorker 20. Tiny corner crease; else fine in wrappers.
38. ALGREN, Nelson. The Neon Wilderness. Garden City: Doubleday, 1947. The uncommon third book by the author of The Man With the Golden Arm, the first winner of the National Book Award, 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.
39. ALLEN, Woody. Side Effects. NY: Random House (1980). The third book by the noted filmmaker, a collection of short, comic stories. Fine in a near fine dust jacket.
40. ALLENDE, Isabel. The Stories of Eva Luna. NY: Atheneum, 1991. The first collection of stories by the Chilean author of The House of the Spirits, among others. Light staining to cloth and markings to rear board. Near fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author in 1993.
41. 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 A collection of short fiction from the last twenty years, including two previously unpublished pieces.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.
42. (ANDERSON, Kent). War Stories. Tri-Quarterly 45. Evanston: Northwestern, 1979. A collection of war stories, including an early appearance by Anderson ("Sympathy for the Devil"), as well as pieces by Larry Heinemann, W.D. Ehrhart, and others. This copy is signed by both Anderson and Heinemann at their contributions. Very near fine in wrappers.
43. (AUSTER, Paul). DAVIS, Lydia. The Thirteenth Woman and Other Stories. (NY): Living Hand (1976). Davis' first book, published as the fifth issue of the magazine that Auster founded and edited. Minor edge-sunning; price neatly hole-punched on the front flap over the original price. Near fine in self-wrappers. In our experience, the scarcest of the Living Hand publications.
44. 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. Banks is the author of the novels Affliction and The Sweet Hereafter, both of which were made into well-received movies. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with trace edgewear.
45. BANKS, Russell. Trailerpark. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981. The uncorrected proof copy of his sixth book of fiction, a collection of related stories set in a New Hampshire trailer park. A fine copy, laid into a near fine proof dust jacket. With publisher's promotional material laid in. Uncommon thus.
46. BANKS, Russell. Success Stories. NY: Harper & Row (1986). A relatively uncommon collection of stories, whose venues range from New England to Latin America to Southeast Asia. Signed by the author. Fine in a dust jacket mildly bumped at the base of the spine, else fine.
47. -. Another copy. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
48. BARNES, Julian. Cross Channel. London: Cape (1996). A collection of stories by the author of Flaubert's Parrot, among others. Tiny nick to foredge; still fine in a fine dust jacket. Signed by the author.
49. BARTHELME, Donald. Come Back, Dr. Caligari. Boston: Little Brown (1964). His first book, a collection of short, experimental fictions. Barthelme was an influential writer whose stories, novels and other prose pieces helped re-define and expand the possibilities of literary art in the Sixties, at a time when the novel was proclaimed "dead." His writings not only belied that assertion by invigorating postwar American letters, they exerted an enormous influence on a younger generation of writers who looked to him and his postmodern contemporaries for a way to re-invent literature and make fiction a relevant art form in an era characterized by instantaneous electronic information transfer, and the appearance of mass psychosis that it seemed to convey. Barthelme died several years ago, but his impact on American fiction lingers; at a certain crucial moment, he helped alter the trajectory of contemporary writing and in so doing opened up possibilities that had been hidden and inaccessible before. Very slight offsetting on the front flyleaf, but this is still a fine copy in a near fine dust jacket.
50. BARTHELME, Donald. Amateurs. NY: Farrar Straus Giroux (1976). A collection of stories, his ninth book. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
51. BASS, Rick. The Watch. NY: Norton (1989). His first book of fiction, a highly praised collection of short stories. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket with a couple of thin lamination lines on the rear panel.
52. -. Same title. The advance reading copy. One corner crease and an edge tear at the lower front spine fold; read; very good in wrappers.
53. BAUSCH, Richard. Rare & Endangered Species. Boston/NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1994. The advance reading copy of his third collection of short fiction -- a novella and short stories. Fine in wrappers.
54. BAUSCH, Richard. The Selected Stories of Richard Bausch. NY: Modern Library, 1996. Bound galleys of this Modern Library collection, in the form of 8 1/2" x 11" tapebound sheets. This format is generally indicative of there having been only a small number of copies, and in our experience Modern Library galleys are quite uncommon. Fine.
55. BAXTER, Charles. A Relative Stranger. NY: Norton (1990). His third collection of stories. Slight bump to spine crown and upper corners; near fine in a near fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
56. BEATTIE, Ann. Distortions. NY: Doubleday, 1976. Her first book of stories. With this book and her simultaneously issued first novel, Chilly Scenes of Winter, Beattie instantly gained recognition as a voice of her generation -- survivors of the social and political turmoil of the 1960s who, by the time they turned 30, in the Seventies, were weary and jaded. This copy is fine in a fine dust jacket. A very nice copy of a not-particularly-well-made book -- Doubleday in the mid-Seventies having earned a reputation for cutting corners wherever possible in manufacturing, and turning out books that were as flimsy as the notorious "book club editions," which were, not coincidentally, issued by book clubs that Doubleday itself owned.
57. -. Another copy. Fine in a very good dust jacket with rubbing to the corners and two small edge tears.
58. BEATTIE, Ann. Secrets and Surprises. NY: Random House (1978). Her third book, a collection of stories, inscribed by the author: "For ____ ____ --/ this book, written long ago, about things I vaguely/ remember. As I recall,/ it does have some good/ dog stories./ Best wishes,/ Ann Beattie." Below, she has added doggie stickers, one of which is saying, "What? Am I in an Ann Beattie story?" Cute, in a very near fine dust jacket. A remarkably personal inscription for Beattie, who has in general treated her literary celebrity more or less perfunctorily.
59. BEATTIE, Ann. Park City. NY: Knopf, 1998. The uncorrected proof copy of this collection of three dozen stories, spanning twenty-five years of writing. Eight of the stories are previously unpublished in book form. Fine in wrappers.
60. BECKETT, Samuel. Lessness. London: Calder & Boyars (1970). A short work of prose fiction, one of 100 numbered copies, quarterbound in calf and signed by the author. Translated by the author from the French, which was published the year before. This is the first English edition, distributed in advance of the trade issue. Spine very slightly darkened but still fine in cloth slipcase.
61. BELL, Christine. The Seven Year Atomic Make-Over Guide. NY: Norton (1996). The advance reading copy of this collection of stories by a southern writer. Fine in wrappers, with publisher's promotional sheet laid in.
62. BELL, Madison Smartt. Zero db and Other Stories. NY: Ticknor & Fields, 1987. The author's fourth book and first collection of stories. Fine in a fine dust jacket with light wear at the spine extremities. Signed by the author in 1995.
63. BENDER, Aimee. The Girl in the Flammable Skirt. NY: Doubleday (1998). The advance reading copy of this debut collection of stories. Fine in wrappers, with a short interview with the author laid in. Blurbs by Geoffrey Wolff and Jonathan Lethem.
64. BENEDICT, Pinckney. The Wrecking Yard. NY: Doubleday/Talese (1992). The second collection of stories by the author of Town Smokes, and his first hardcover publication. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
65. BERGER, John. Photocopies. NY: Pantheon (1996). The uncorrected proof copy of this collection of short stories by the author of Ways of Seeing and G., which won the 1972 Booker Prize. Fine in wrappers.
66. BERRIAULT, Gina. Women in Their Beds. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint (1996). A story collection by a writer who consistently receives the most lavish praise from critics and other writers but who has remained until fairly recently relatively unknown to a large segment of the reading public. This collection won the PEN/Faulkner Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction, and the Rea Award for the Short Story, catapulting the author to a degree of literary celebrity unprecedented in her 40-year writing career. Fine in a fine dust jacket and inscribed by the author in 1997.
67. BERRY, Wendell. Fidelity. NY: Pantheon, 1992. The uncorrected proof copy of this collection of five related stories, set in Berry's fictional town of Port William, Kentucky. Fine in wrappers.
68. BERRY, Wendell. A Consent. (Monterey): Larkspur Press, 1993. A single story. One of 1000 numbered copies, signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
69. BINGHAM, Robert. Pure Slaughter Value. NY: Doubleday (1997). The advance reading copy of this first collection of stories, two of which were published in The New Yorker. Fine in wrappers.
70. BISCHEL, Peter. And Really Frau Blum Would Very Much Like to Meet the Milkman. NY: Delacorte/Lawrence (1968). The first American edition of this collection of short pieces by a young Swiss author, his first book published here. Translated by British poet Michael Hamburger. Inscribed by the author to Seymour Lawrence, who published the book; an excellent association copy. Small tears to front endpages; near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
71. BLAISE, Clark. A North American Education. Garden City: Doubleday, 1973. The first book, a collection of short fiction, by an American writer who has lived in Canada for the past 30 years and is married to award-winning author Bharati Mukherjee. One light corner bump; else fine in a very good dust jacket. Inscribed by the author.
72. BOLL, Heinrich. The Mad Dog. NY: St. Martin's Press (1997). The advance reading copy of the first American edition of this collection of stories by the Nobel Prize winner, translated by Breon Mitchell. Fine in wrappers.
73. BORGES, Jorge Luis. Ficciones. NY: Grove (1962). Winner of the Prix Formentor, and Borges' first book published here, a collection of his short "fictions." By the time of his first book publication in English, Borges was already considered one of the great figures of 20th century world literature, both in Latin America and in Europe, where he had lived for two decades in the early part of the century. His translations of Faulkner, Kafka and Virginia Woolf had helped to bring those modernist writers to a Spanish-speaking audience, and the literary magazines he edited and contributed to published the most current and innovative writing from Europe and the U.S. as well as from his native Argentina. He has been called the most important writer never to have won the Nobel Prize, and his inventive, ironic and self-reflexive fictions influenced an entire generation of writers and helped lay the foundation for the "boom" in Latin American literature that occurred in the postwar period. At the time of the publication of this book, Borges was in his 60s and was nearly totally blind. This copy is signed by the author, with his characteristic, nearly illegible signature and mark. Spotting to top edge and lower front board; slight bump to base and one corner; still near fine in a near fine dust jacket rubbed at the folds and with light wear to the extremities. An attractive copy of Borges' most famous book, seldom found signed.
74. BOSWELL, Robert. Living to Be 100. NY: Knopf, 1994. Uncorrected proof copy of his second collection of stories, published to substantial critical acclaim. Fine in wrappers.
75. BOWEN, Elizabeth. The Demon Lover. London: Cape (1945). First edition of this collection of stories, for which there was no comparable U.S. edition. A fragile wartime book, printed on thin paper to wartime production standards. Previous owner inscription; mild fading to boards near spine; near fine, lacking the dust jacket. Uncommon.
76. BOWLES, Paul. A Little Stone. London: Lehmann (1950). His second book of fiction and first collection of stories -- mostly about displaced Americans in third world countries, long before such a subject became fashionable -- which has no comparable American edition: a similar but not identical collection was published later in the year in the U.S. as The Delicate Prey. Of 3500 copies printed, this is one in the presumed first issue binding, in light green cloth. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with light tanning and surface soiling. A nice copy of an early and scarce book by the author of The Sheltering Sky.
77. BOWLES, Paul. Midnight Mass. Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow, 1981. The hardcover trade issue of this collection of stories, one of 1000 according to the colophon, one of 750 according to the bibliographer. This copy has a black cloth backstrip rather than the usual purple. According to the bibliography, the binder ran out of purple cloth and bound about 30 copies with black. Fine in acetate dust jacket. Scarce variant.
78. (BOWLES, Paul). MRABET, Mohammed. The Boy Who Set the Fire. Los Angeles: Black Sparrow, 1974. Stories by Mrabet, taped and translated by Bowles. One of 250 numbered copies signed by Bowles and Mrabet. An early limited edition by Bowles; the entire hardcover edition consisted of 276 copies. Fine in acetate dust jacket, as issued. The scarcest of the Bowles/Mrabet collaborations.
79. BOYLE, T. Coraghessan. Greasy Lake. (NY): Viking (1985). His second collection of stories. Remainder stamping to bottom edge, small abrasion front flyleaf. Near fine in a fine dust jacket.
80. BRADBURY, Ray. The Illustrated Man. Garden City: Doubleday, 1951. One of the classics that established Bradbury as the preeminent literary science fiction writer of his generation. A collection of short stories, each related to a tattoo on the "illustrated man" of the title. One lower corner bumped; otherwise near fine in a very good dust jacket with several edge tears and some creasing. Still, a remarkably nice example of one of the cheaply made Doubleday genre books of the period, and an attractive copy of a science fiction classic.
81. BRAUTIGAN, Richard. Revenge of the Lawn. Stories 1962-1970. NY: Simon & Schuster (1971). A review copy of the simultaneous issue in wrappers of this collection of short pieces. Fine.
82. -. Another copy. Owner name; very good in wrappers.
83. BRAUTIGAN, Richard. The Tokyo-Montana Express. NY: Delacorte (1980). A collection of short prose pieces, depicting stops on a mythical train route from Montana to Tokyo, imbued with Brautigan's characteristic gentle whimsy and humor. Signed by the author. Near fine in a dust jacket with wear at the spine extremities; else near fine. Books signed by Brautigan, who committed suicide in 1984, are fairly uncommon.
84. BRODKEY, Harold. First Love and Other Sorrows. NY: Dial (1957). Brodkey's first book, a collection of stories that had the literary world virtually on tenterhooks for the next three decades, eagerly awaiting his first novel, which wasn't published until 1991. This copy has some offsetting to the front and rear endpapers; thus near fine in a near fine dust jacket with only very slight rubbing to the edges and folds. Inscribed by the author, with an added caricature.
85. -. Same title. London: Hamish Hamilton (1958). The first British edition. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Uncommon.
86. BROWN, Larry. Big Bad Love. Chapel Hill: Algonquin, 1991. Third book by the author of Facing the Music and Dirty Work. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
87. BROWN, Rosellen. Street Games. Garden City: Doubleday, 1974. The uncorrected proof copy of her first book of fiction, a collection of stories. Publisher's informational sheet present but detached from front cover, leaving glue residue there. Mild creasing to rear cover; still near fine in tall wrappers. Uncommon format.
88. BRUCHAC, Joseph. The Wind Eagle and Other Abenaki Stories. NY: Bowman Books, 1985. A collection of traditional Abenaki tales, retold by Bruchac, with illustrations by Mohawk artist, Kahionhes. Signed by Bruchac. Fine in wrappers.
89. BURKE, James Lee. The Convict and Other Stories. Boston: Little Brown (1990). Paperback reissue of this short story collection, originally published in 1985, prior to his success with the Dave Robicheaux series and reissued here after that series had become popular and had earned the author an Edgar Award. Remainder stripe top page edges; else fine in wrappers and inscribed by the author.
90. BURKE, James Lee. Texas City, 1947. Northridge: Lord John, 1992. Of a total edition of 301 copies, this is one of 275 numbered copies signed by the author. A short story that forms the basis for a novel-in-progress. Fine without dust jacket, as issued.
91. BURKE, James Lee. Winter Light. Huntington Beach: Cahill, 1992. First separate edition of this short story, which was also included in Prize Stories 1993: The O. Henry Awards. Of a total edition of 326 copies, this is one of 300 numbered copies signed by the author and illustrator. Fine.
92. (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.
93. BUSCH, Frederick. Breathing Trouble and Other Stories. (London): Calder & Boyars (1973). His second book which, like his first, I Wanted a Year Without Fall, was never published in this country. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
94. BUSCH, Frederick. Too Late American Boyhood Blues. Boston: Godine (1984). Another collection of stories. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author. Raymond Carver blurb.
95. BUTLER, Robert Olen. A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain. (London): Minerva (1993). The first British edition of his Pulitzer Prize-winning collection. Fine in wrappers and signed by the author; not issued in hardcover in the U.K. This title also won the Richard and Hilda Rosenthal Foundation Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award.
96. BUTLER, Robert Olen. Tabloid Dreams. NY: Henry Holt (1996). Butler's second collection of stories. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author.
97. BYATT, A.S. The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye. NY: Random House (1997). The uncorrected proof copy of the first American edition of this collection of five "fairy stories," two of which appeared in her Booker Prize-winning novel Possession. Fine in wrappers.