Catalog 107, U-Z
358. UPDIKE, John. Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories. NY: Knopf, 1962. Updike's fifth book, and second collection of stories. Fine in a fine dust jacket, which is white and unlaminated, causing it to commonly show up frayed and spine-faded. By contrast, this is a beautiful, unfaded copy, and is exceedingly scarce thus.
359. UPDIKE, John. Telephone Poles and Other Poems. (London): Deutsch (1964). The first British edition of his second collection of poems. Offsetting to half title; else fine in a rubbed dust jacket, about near fine.
360. UPDIKE, John. Of the Farm. NY: Knopf, 1965. A short novel, set in southeastern Pennsylvania, where Updike grew up. Fine in a fine dust jacket with trace wear at the crown. A nearly perfect copy of this novel, which is increasingly difficult to find in such condition.
361. UPDIKE, John. Couples. (n.p.): (n.p.), 1968. A Taiwanese piracy of the first of his novels to be both a critical and a substantial commercial success. Cheaply made; near fine in a very good dust jacket with a couple edge tears.
362. UPDIKE, John. Rabbit Redux. Greenwich: Fawcett (1972). A review copy of the first paperback edition of the second book in his acclaimed Rabbit Angstrom sequence. Mild edge darkening to pages; else fine. Paperback review copies are quite uncommon.
363. UPDIKE, John. The Indian. Marvin: Blue Cloud Quarterly, (n.d.)[1971]. The first separate appearance of this piece, an offprint from The Music School of a story that first appeared in The New Yorker. Issued as Volume 17, Number 1 of The Blue Cloud Quarterly, with a new commentary by the author. Fine in wrappers.
364. UPDIKE, John. Query. (n.p.): Albondocani (1974). A card with a poem by Updike, used as a holiday greeting. One of 400 copies, of which this is one of 240 without the publisher's name printed on the page with the greeting. Fine in stapled wrappers, with mailing envelope.
365. -. Another copy, without the envelope. Fine.
366. UPDIKE, John. Marry Me. (London): Deutsch (1977). The first British edition of this collection of related stories. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
367. UPDIKE, John. The Coup. (London): Deutsch (1979). The first British edition of this novel about an African political coup, a sharp break from his usual focus on middle- and upper middle-class suburban Americans. Small sticker shadow front pastedown; fine in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
368. UPDIKE, John. Bech is Back. (London): Deutcsh (1982). The first British edition of the second of his humorous books featuring writer Henry Bech, Updike's alter-ego. Fine in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
369. UPDIKE, John. The Witches of Eastwick. Franklin Center: Franklin Library, 1984. The true first edition, a limited edition of Updike's suburban fantasy that was made into a humorous and successful movie with Jack Nicholson, Cher, and others. Chosen by British critic David Pringle as one of the hundred best fantasy novels of the postwar era. Signed by the author. Leatherbound, all edges gilt, with a silk ribbon marker bound in. With an introduction by Updike for this edition, which does not appear elsewhere. Fine.
370. -. Same title. The uncorrected proof copy of the trade edition. NY: Knopf, 1984. This is the first issue proof, which contains passages that were not in the later proof or in the published book. Fine, in red wrappers.
371. UPDIKE, John. A&P: Lust in the Aisles. (Minneapolis): Redpath Press (1986). The first separate appearance of this story from Pigeon Feathers, printed in an edition of 5000 copies. Fine in self-wrappers, with original mailing envelope.
372. UPDIKE, John. Roger's Version. Franklin Center: Franklin Library, 1986. A limited edition; leatherbound, all edges gilt, with a silk ribbon marker bound in. Signed by the author. With a special introduction by Updike for this edition in which he discusses the novel's original title (Majesty), research and academia, Hawthorne and heterosexuality. Fine.
373. UPDIKE, John. S. NY: Knopf, 1988. The uncorrected proof copy of this epistolary novel based on an ashram similar to that operated by the popular guru Rajneesh during the 70's and 80's. Corner crease; near fine in wrappers with promotional blurb stapled inside the front cover.
374. UPDIKE, John. In the Beauty of the Lilies. Franklin Center: Franklin Library, 1996. The true first edition. Leatherbound, page edges gilt, with a silk ribbon marker bound in. Fine, and signed by the author, with a special introduction by him for this edition. In all likelihood, printed in an edition of about 3000-3500 copies, i.e., a small fraction of the trade first printing, announced as 75,000 copies.
375. UPDIKE, John. Toward the End of Time. Franklin Center: Franklin Library, 1997. The limited edition of his most recent novel, published to quite mixed reviews: Margaret Atwood, in The New York Times Book Review, loved it; David Foster Wallace, a self-proclaimed Updike fan, wrote a scathing review of it in The New York Observer. Leatherbound, page edges gilt, with a silk ribbon marker bound in. Fine, and signed by the author, with a special introduction by him for this edition.
376. UPDIKE, John. More Matter. NY: Knopf, 1999. His 50th book, a collection of essays and criticism from the previous eight years, with a preface by the author. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
377. (UPDIKE, John). "An Encounter Left Out of Rabbit Redux" in Pieces 2. (Cleveland): (Bits Press), 1980. A collection of four short pieces, one by Updike, in this small journal published at Case Western Reserve University. Green paper stapled into gray covers; fine.
378. (UPDIKE, John). GREINER, Don. John Updike's Novels. Athens: Ohio University Press (1984). A critical history of John Updike's novels, a companion volume to the author's earlier book on Updike's poems, stories, prose and plays. A near fine copy of the issue in wrappers.
379. VAN DRUTEN, John. Bell, Book and Candle. NY: Random House (1951). A play by the author of I Remember Mama, among others. Small owner address label front flyleaf, boards a bit edge-darkened; near fine in a very good, heavily spine-darkened dust jacket.
380. VIDOR, King. A Tree is a Tree. NY: Harcourt, Brace (1953). The memoirs of this director of more than fifty films, among them Northwest Passage, Billy the Kid, An American Romance, La Bohéme, The Champ, Wedding Night, The Texas Rangers, The Citadel, Duel in the Sun and The Fountainhead. Inscribed by Vidor. The boards show wear at the corners; a near fine copy in a very good, rubbed dust jacket with several very small edge chips. With 16 pages of photographs.
381. (VONNEGUT, Kurt). DAVIS, Paul. Faces. (NY): (Friendly Press) (1985). A large quarto on the art of Paul Davis. Introduced and signed by Vonnegut. (Remainder?) dot to bottom page edges; else fine in a fine dust jacket.
382. (WARREN, Robert Penn). CLARK, Eleanor. Autograph Notes Signed. 1984-1985. Two notes: the first from December 1984 expressing apologies, "It's been a rotten time for us RPW not well in hospital recently much better now." The second note, January 1985, expresses puzzlement: "It sounds as if you had confused me some way with my husband. Anyhow it's all about his Audubon and White Heron for cover etc. all none of my business at all. . ." Each is folded in thirds for mailing; fine, with envelopes.
383. WATERS, Frank. Leon Gaspard. Flagstaff: Northland (1964). Attractive quarto volume on the life and career of this longtime Taos painter, with text by Waters and reproducing a number of Gaspard's paintings, both in black and white and in color. Inscribed by Waters. Fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket. A very nice copy.
384. WEBB, Charles. The Graduate. (NY): New American Library (1963). The author's first book, a novel that was made into one of the defining movies of the 1960s, which won an Oscar for director Mike Nichols and was Dustin Hoffman's first major film role. Slight splaying to boards and a small abrasion to the front flyleaf; else fine in a very good dust jacket with a bit of fading to the spine, rubbing to the front panel and a tiny chip at the crown. An uncommon book in the first edition, and very scarce in collectible condition.
385. WILDE, Oscar. The Ballad of Reading Gaol. London: Leonard Smithers, 1898. A poem about the hanging of a murderer while Wilde himself was imprisoned for his homosexuality and, in part, a complaint against prison conditions. This is the third edition, a limited edition of 99 copies signed by the author, of which this is copy #4. Owner name and offsetting to front flyleaf; some handling to boards; near fine, without dust jacket. Published a year after he was released from prison, this was one of the last works produced in Wilde's lifetime; he died in 1900.
386. WILDE, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Paris: Charles Carrington, 1905. The "sole authorised edition," published in Paris five years after Wilde died. First published in London in 1891. Owner name, heavy offsetting to endpages and two holes in the front flyleaf where it once adhered to the half title, wear to the spine extremities and rubbing to the joints; very good, lacking the dust jacket.
387. WILDER, Thornton. The Merchant of Yonkers. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1939. An early, uncommon play by the author of The Bridge of San Luis Rey and Our Town, both Pulitzer Prize winners, in fiction and drama, respectively. Wilder is one of the few authors to have won the Pulitzer in more than one field. Mildly foxed and sunned boards; near fine in a spine-darkened dust jacket with light edgewear.
388. WILLIAMS, Emlyn. The Corn is Green. NY: Random House (1941). A play about a woman who sets up a school in a Welsh mining town. The play, with Ethel Barrymore, and the movie, with Bette Davis, were both highly praised. Williams was primarily known as an actor, and his career in the movies spanned six decades, from the early 1930s to the mid-1980s. Pencil markings in text making this a working copy; near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
With Notable Early Ephemera
389. WILLIAMS, Tennessee. A Street Car Named Desire. (NY): New Directions (1947). The first edition of Williams' most famous play and first great success. Program page and program correction mounted to rear endpages, with handwritten note: "Walnut Street Theater - 18 November 1947." The correction changes the play from a two-act to a three-act play. The premiere at the Barrymore Theater in New York was on December 3, and the play was performed in three acts. Boards edge-sunned; else fine in a near fine edge- and spine-sunned dust jacket with a bit of wear at and near the crown. Jacket design by Alvin Lustig. A nice copy of a fragile book that is particularly prone to wear and fading, with an historically interesting ephemeral piece tipped in.
Inscribed by Williams to Jordan Massee and Paul Bigelow
390. (WILLIAMS, Tennessee). Women. NY: Samuel M. Koontz (1948). Eleven writers wrote 11 pieces to accompany works by 11 painters shown at a 1947 exhibition. Tennessee Williams contributes "An Appreciation" of Hans Hofmann. Among the other authors are Jean-Paul Sartre, William Carlos Williams, Weldon Kees, Harold Rosenberg, Clement Greenberg and Paul Goodman. Large folio, with 12 folio sheets loosely laid in and illustrated with photographs of the artwork pasted onto the sheets. The whole is laid into near fine, edge-sunned boards in a very good printed dust jacket with tape repairs to verso. Inscribed by Williams: "For Jordan and Paul/ with love at Xmas/ Tenn and Frank." A Christmas gift to Jordan Massee and Paul Bigelow from Williams and Frank Merlo, with whom Williams had just started living, in October 1948; Williams has signed both names. Jordan Massee was Carson McCullers' cousin, and Massee's father provided the model for the character of Big Daddy in Williams' play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Massee and Paul Bigelow had a stable, long-term relationship of the sort that eluded Williams through much of his life, although the fifteen years he spent with Merlo, until Merlo died in 1963, came closest to that, at least in longevity if not in stability. A wonderful association, and one of the very few times that Williams signed on behalf of Merlo. Laid in is a photograph of Williams and Merlo in Venice.
391. WINSLOW, Don. California Fire and Life. NY: Knopf, 1999. His latest novel, the second to break away from the Neil Carey series. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
392. WOLFE, Tom. Autograph Note Signed. October 28, 1984. Referring an editor to his agent, adding, "Frankly it isn't worth undertaking such an article for anything even resembling the usual magazine rates." Signed by the author. Uneven browning to the white paper; near fine. Wolfe's embossed letterhead reproduces his elaborate, calligraphic signature.
393. WOUK, Herman. The Caine Mutiny: A Tale of the Second World War. Garden City: Doubleday, 1951. Wouk's masterpiece of mutiny and cowardice aboard a U.S. Navy minesweeper in the Pacific theater of the Second World War. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1952 and basis for the compelling and memorable 1954 movie starring Humphrey Bogart, as well as a critically acclaimed remake in 1988 directed by Robert Altman. A fine copy in a very near fine dust jacket. One of the most difficult Pulitzer Prize novels to locate in fine condition.