Catalog 106, U-Z
272. UPDIKE, John. The Poorhouse Fair. NY: Knopf, 1977. A review copy of the reissue of his first novel, for which Updike provides a fourteen page introduction. The Poorhouse Fair was originally published in 1959, a year before Updike's classic, Rabbit, Run. Updike has slightly re-edited the novel for this edition, according to his introduction. Fine in a fine dust jacket, with publisher's photocopy review slip laid in.
273. UPDIKE, John. Poem Begun on Thursday, October 14, 1993, at O'Hare Airport, Terminal 3, around Six O'Clock P.M. Louisville: Literary Renaissance/White Fields Press, 1994. Broadside, measuring approximately 15" x 32". Of a total edition of 126 copies, this is one of 100 numbered copies signed by the author. Near fine.
274. (UPDIKE, John). Five Boyhoods. Garden City: Doubleday, 1962. Five writers each write about coming of age in a decade of the first half of the twentieth century. Updike writes of the 1940s and the book includes a photograph of the author at the age of eight. Near fine in a very good dust jacket.
275. UPFIELD, Arthur. Venom House. Garden City: Doubleday & Co., 1962. A Doubleday Crime Club selection, featuring Detective Napoleon "Bony" Bonaparte. Upfield, an Australian novelist, wrote a series of books featuring Bonaparte, a half-white half-aborigine detective whose intimate knowledge of the land and his people helped in solving his cases in much the same way that Tony Hillerman's later Navajo detectives used their own special knowledge to gain insight into the crimes they attempt to solve. Some darkening to the cheap paper; otherwise a fine copy in a fine dust jacket. A very attractive copy of a not-particularly-well-constructed book.
276. VANDERHAEGHE, Guy. My Present Age. NY: Ticknor & Fields, 1985. A review copy of the first American edition of his second book, first novel. His first book, the short story collection Man Descending, won the Governor General's Award. Fine in a dust jacket with one short edge tear on the upper edge of the rear panel; with a promotional postcard and pamphlet laid in.
277. (Vietnam Literature). Le Bosquet des Oiseaux. Recits et Nouvelles du Sud Viet Nam. South Vietnam: Giai Phong, 1970. An anthology of French language pieces about South Vietnam, published by an underground revolutionary press at an unstated location in the country. Inscribed to Denise Levertov, one of the prominent American antiwar poets of the era, in French, in Hanoi, 1972. Cocked; otherwise near fine in a near fine but rubbed dust jacket.
278. (Vietnam Literature). L'Horloger de Dien Bien Phu. Hanoi: Editions en Langues Estrangeres, 1971. Revolutionary Vietnamese short fiction from 1945-1964, translated into French and issued by Hanoi's foreign languages publishing house. Minor wear; near fine in wrappers.
279. (Vietnam Literature). Anthologie de la Litterature Vietnamienne. Hanoi: Editions en Languages Estrangeres, 1972. A French language anthology of Vietnamese literature through the 17th century. Volume 1 of an ambitious attempt by the Hanoi government to reclaim the literature of Vietnam as a nationalist body of work despite Vietnam's having been colonized by foreigners for a large part of its history. As the preface explains, much of the early literature of the country was written in Chinese ideographs, and translation to modern Vietnamese, let alone French, presented a significant problem to the compilers. This copy is inscribed to poet Denise Levertov, "our sister," in Hanoi 1972. Levertov was one of the most vocal and visible American poets criticizing the American participation in the Vietnam war. In 1972 she traveled to Hanoi as part of a peace group, and she was treated as a celebrity and V.I.P. by her North Vietnamese hosts. Near fine in wrappers, in a very good dust jacket.
280. VOLLMANN, William T. The Convict Bird. San Francisco: CoTangent Press, 1987. The author's first book, and the first book of his CoTangent Press, which has since published a number of the most extraordinary creations produced in this country in recent years. Of a total edition of 100 copies, this is one of ten copies signed by the author and bound in a steel binding by Matthew Heckert, noted sculptor and partner in Survival Research Laboratories -- an avant garde San Francisco experimental art group, whose works combining machines, explosives, fire, animal parts and other organic materials have been widely praised and collected. CoTangent Press is known for its elaborate productions of Vollmann's works, in extremely small limitations, and this is the smallest stated limitation of any CoTangent Press title, in addition to being the author's first book and, in effect, a sculpture by a collected artist. The binding is studded black steel, reminiscent of an iron dungeon, with a "window" on the front cover that opens onto a steel engraving of a prisoner in profile; clasped with a heavy hinge and padlock. The book itself is a quarto, in cardstock wrappers with black spine, with a metal chain attached to a bookmark made of a lock of hair bought from a San Francisco prostitute. In all, a striking, even disturbing, production, and a rarity by a prolific young author whom some -- in particular, aficionados of the postmodern novel -- consider one of the most talented and important American writer working today. Fine.
281. (VONNEGUT, Kurt). Waterscapes, Landscapes. (East Hampton): (Glenn Horowitz) (1999). A limited edition, one of 100 unnumbered copies, showcasing the paintings of April Gornik and published to coincide with an exhibit of her work. Vonnegut provides the introduction. Clothbound; fine in a fine slipcase. An attractive production, with 12 color plates tipped in. Signed by the author and the artist.
282. -. Same title, the trade edition. Fine in stapled wrappers.
283. WEST, Paul. Robert Penn Warren. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press (1964). A critical overview by the noted novelist and essayist, part of the Minnesota Pamphlets on American Writers series. Stapled wrappers lightly worn at spine; else fine. An early publication by West, the author of Alley Jaggers and Words for a Deaf Daughter, among others.
284. WEST, Paul. Doubt and Dylan Thomas. St. John's, Newfoundland: Memorial University, 1970. A critical essay on Thomas, given as the 1970 Pratt Lecture at Memorial University. Fine in stapled wrappers. Uncommon.
285. WILDE, Oscar. A Woman of No Importance. London: John Lane/Bodley Head, 1894. The first edition of Wilde's play, limited to 500 copies and published a year before his masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest and also a year before the trial in which Wilde's homosexuality was revealed and he was sent to jail, effectively ending his writing career. He died in 1900. Publisher's bookplate front pastedown; hinges starting; fading to spine cloth. A good-to-very-good copy, without dust jacket (as issued?).
286. WILLIAMS, John A. Sissie. NY: Farrar Straus Cudahy (1963). The advance reading copy of the third book by this African-American author, one of the key writers of the renaissance in black literature that took place simultaneously with the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Spine a bit darkened, possibly from the binder's glue, and with a few creases; very good in printed white wrappers.
287. WILLIAMS, John A. The Junior Bachelor Society. Garden City: Doubleday, 1976. The uncorrected proof copy of this somewhat uncommon novel from the middle part of the author's career. Remnants of the publisher's label partially affixed to the front cover; else near fine in tall wrappers.
288. WILLIAMS, Tennessee. The Eccentricities of a Nightingale and Summer and Smoke. (NY): New Directions (1964). Two plays, the former in the title intended as a replacement for the latter, which was written earlier. Williams explains in a short preface that he preferred the later version, which had at that point never been produced, and he hoped that the publication of it would enable its production. Fading at the edges and spine; near fine in a very near fine, price-clipped dust jacket designed by Alvin Lustig.
289. WOLFE, Thomas. The Story of a Novel. NY: Scribner, 1936. A short, autobiographical book on writing, by the author of Look Homeward, Angel and Of Time and the River, among others. Very slight bowing to boards; still fine in a very good, spine- and edge-sunned dust jacket with a strip of rubbing across the top of the front panel.
290. WOLFE, Tom. From Bauhaus to Our House. NY: FSG (1981). The uncorrected proof copy of this critique of modern architecture, in the same vein as the author's assault on Modern Art in The Painted Word. Tiny horizontal crease to spine; else fine in wrappers.
291. WOLFE, Tom. The Bonfire of the Vanities. NY: FSG (1987). The uncorrected proof copy of his huge bestselling novel of New York, in which Wolfe tried to prove wrong his own dictum that fiction is dead because it can't live up to the weirdness of everyday life. Lower rear corner abraded, affecting the last several pages but no text; a near fine copy in wrappers of this bulky proof.
292. WOODRELL, Daniel. Under the Bright Lights. NY: Henry Holt (1986). His acclaimed first mystery, featuring Rene Shade in the town of Saint Bruno, Louisiana. Woodrell has been characterized as one of the new group of "literary" mystery writers, whose sense of place and the localities of culture and character inform the story as much as conventional elements of plot and action. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
293. WOODRELL, Daniel. Muscle for the Wing. NY: Holt (1988). A review copy of the author's third book, and second Saint Bruno mystery. Fine in a fine dust jacket with promotional sheet laid in.
294. WORDSWORTH, William. The Excursion. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1814. A long poem (400+ pages) intended to be the second of a three-part poem but, as it turned out, the only portion published in Wordsworth's lifetime. Together with his autobiographical poem, The Prelude, published after his death, it is widely thought of as the masterwork in the career of the poet who is called the father of the Romantic movement, and whose critical writings did much to define modern thought on the subject of the relationship of poetry, and by extension literature, to the rest of life. An enormously important and influential poem by a writer who helped shaped the sensibilities that still define our attitudes toward art and the artist. This is a large paper copy, with modest foxing and with previous owners' name, date and bookplate on the first blank. Recently rebacked in attractive three-quarter calf, preserving the original marbled paper boards and marbled endpapers. A high spot of 19th century literature.
295. YEATS, William Butler. The Trembling of the Veil. London: T. Werner Laurie, 1922. The limited edition of this volume of autobiography, published the year before Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. This is one of 1000 numbered copies signed by the author. Faint bookplate removal abrasion front pastedown and small bump to crown; near fine in a very good, sunned dust jacket with several small chips. An attractive copy of a handsome edition that was printed privately for subscribers.
296. YEATS, W.B. The Tower. NY: Macmillan, 1928. Generally considered one of the two books, along with The Winding Stair in 1928, that represent the peak of Yeats's achievement -- poems that embody the ideas and insight he had developed over the years about the tension between "heart" and "soul," the physical and the spiritual. Yeats's poetry has been among the most influential writing of the century, his lines having given rise to innumerable epigraphs and titles for others' works ("Horseman, Pass By" and "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" being just two of the many titles derived from his writings). By struggling with the juncture of the political and the personal, and the physical and the metaphysical, Yeats created a whole vocabulary for his own and later literary generations to use in addressing those questions. Bookplate removal abrasion front pastedown; thus a near fine copy, lacking the dust jacket. One of the great books by the most important Irish poet of the century, a Nobel Prize winner and one of the great figures of twentieth century literature.
297. YEATS, William Butler. The King of the Great Clock Tower. NY: Macmillan, 1935. A short play and several poems, with Yeats's commentaries on each. Fine in a near fine, spine-tanned dust jacket.
298. YEVTUSHENKO, Yevgeny. A Precocious Autobiography. NY: Dutton, 1963. A review copy of the first American edition of the Russian poet's autobiography, which includes his comments on such American writers as Salinger, Hemingway and Kerouac. Warmly inscribed by the author. Fine in a rubbed, very good price-clipped dust jacket, with review slip laid in.
299. YEVTUSHENKO, Yevgeny. The Bratsk Station and Other Poems. London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1967. The first British edition of this collection of poems, with a preface by the author and a foreword by poet Peter Levi. Again, warmly inscribed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
300. YEVTUSHENKO, Yevgeny. Stolen Apples. Garden City: Doubleday, 1971. A collection of Yevtushenko's poetry, translated by eight different authors including John Updike, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, James Dickey, Richard Wilbur and Stanley Kunitz. Inscribed by Yevtushenko. Dampstaining to the front board and a few spots to the foredge; still near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
E. E. Cummings Artwork
While he is well-known as one of America's best-loved and most experimental poets, it is not widely known the Cummings considered himself to have "twin obsessions" -- poetry and painting. Over the course of his life, he produced thousands of artworks, and wrote thousands of pages on art and art theory, which are preserved at the Houghton Library at Harvard University.
Cummings began his painting career as an abstract artist, influenced by cubism, Fauvism and the Vorticist schools. Later in his life, he moved increasingly toward more representational art, retaining however the extravagant use of color that the Fauvists had been famous for, and thus bridging a gap between abstract and representational painting by virtue of his willingness to experiment with, and bend, the normal constraints of his medium, just as he had with his poetry.
We are pleased to offer a selection of the artwork of E. E. Cummings, which varies widely in style and medium, but shares with his poetry the utterly honest striving to capture the nuances of the human heart.
301. "Back View From Patchin Place." Oil on canvasboard. 19-3/4" x 15-3/4". No date. A cityscape looking out the back of Cummings' apartment in Greenwich Village. Unframed.
302. "Mt. Chocorua Over Silver Lake." Oil on cardboard. 23" x 21". Dated October 4, 1925. A view of Mount Chocorua and Silver Lake, in New Hampshire, where Cummings had a summer home. Mount Chocorua was one of the most frequent subjects of his painting, and often the object of various experimental approaches he would take to capture the mountain in its various aspects throughout the year, at different times of day or under varying conditions of light. This is a fairly straightforward and realistic view, similar to one reproduced in the volume of Cummings' artwork that was published in the early 1930s, CIOPW.
303. "Woman Undressing." Ink on paper. 17" x 9". No date [ca. 1920s]. An ink caricature similar in style to his drawings for the Dial magazine, the leading modernist journal of the 1920s. Signed by Cummings. Framed.
304. "Reclining Nude." Oil on wood. 13" x 16-1/4". No date. A nude portrait of Cummings' wife, Marion Morehouse, a former model. Marion was a frequent subject of his paintings, both portraits and posed nudes.
305. "Christmas Tree." [Rear cover.] Oil on composition board. 32" x 25". Dated December 25, 1947. Inscribed by Cummings on the rear of the painting: "For Marion/ love!/ Xmas/ 1947." This image was later used as a Hallmark Christmas card. Corners abraded. Unframed.