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Catalog 108, C

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60. CALVINO, Italo. Why Read the Classics? NY: Pantheon Books (1999). The uncorrected proof copy of the first American edition of this posthumous collection of 36 essays on writers from the past 2000 years. Some of the more recent authors examined include Hemingway, Borges and Conrad. Fine in wrappers.

61. CANIN, Ethan. Emperor of the Air. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988. His highly acclaimed first book, a collection of stories and winner of a Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship. Canin is one of the handful of writers who were selected by both Granta magazine and The New Yorker as among the 20 best young American writers. Fine in a near fine, spine-faded dust jacket. Signed by the author.

62. CANIN, Ethan. Blue River. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991. His second book, first novel. Signed by the author in the year of publication. Fine in a fine dust jacket.

63. -. Same title, the advance reading copy. Signed by the author in the month of publication. Fine in wrappers.

64. -. Same title, the first British edition. (London): Picador/Pan Books (1992). Fine in a fine dust jacket.

65. CANIN, Ethan. The Palace Thief. NY: Random House (1994). His third book, a collection of novellas. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author in the month of publication.

66. -. Same title, advance reading copy. Signed by the author in the month of publication. Fine in wrappers.

67. CANIN, Ethan. For Kings and Planets. NY: Random House (1998). The uncorrected proof copy. Fine in plain printed wrappers, reproducing the Random House logo, and much scarcer than the advance reading copy in pictorial wrappers.

68. -. Same title, the advance reading copy. Fine in wrappers.

69. CARVER, Raymond. Those Days. Elmwood: Raven Editions, 1987. A collection of early pieces by Carver written prior to the publication of his first book, Near Klamath. William Stull turned these up in the course of bibliographic research, and he edited them and provided notes and an Afterword. Carver himself wrote an introduction. Perhaps the most attractive of the many limited editions that Carver did: it was designed and printed by Carol Blinn of Warwick Press, whose work is prized by collectors of contemporary fine printing; the marbled paper used in the binding was done by Faith Harrison, whose work is also highly admired in fine press circles; and the quarter-leather binding was done by Gray Parrot Letterpress. There were three issues, two of which were offered for sale: 100 numbered copies in wrappers, 26 lettered copies in marbled paper boards; 14 "presentation" copies, bound in quarter-leather and marbled paper boards were hors commerce. This is one of 14 presentation copies, signed by Carver. One of the scarcest items in the Carver oeuvre. Fine, with a prospectus for the edition laid in.

70. CASTANEDA, Carlos. The Teachings of Don Juan. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1968. The author's first book, originally presented as a scholarly work, later seen as a popular culture landmark, and still later debunked by a number of serious critics as fiction. The premise of the book, as described on the dust jacket copy -- "It has been assumed that the West has produced no way of spiritual knowledge comparable to the great system of the East. The present book is accordingly nothing less than a revelation..." -- gives a fair indication of its impact, regardless of whether it is fact or fiction: it popularized the idea that there were significant, coherent spiritual disciplines among Native American cultures, which has since been borne out by any number of more traditional anthropological investigations. In so doing, it played an important role in revising the popular Western view of Native American cultures and helped fuel the cultural renaissance that has taken place among Native Americans in the past three decades, a renaissance that has had a significant impact on mainstream Western culture. The Teachings of Don Juan is one of the most important books published in the U.S. in the 1960s, for its far-reaching impact on our view of the nature of spirituality and the metaphysical -- with implications on everything from politics to ecology. This is a fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with little of the rubbing common to this title. Later reprinted by Simon & Schuster in an edition that has the earmarks of a first printing but is actually a later edition. The first edition is extremely scarce, especially in collectible condition.

71. CHATWIN, Bruce. The Songlines. (London): London Limited Editions (1987). A limited edition, one of 150 numbered copies signed by the author, of Chatwin's fourth book, and by general consensus his best -- a "novel of ideas," as the publisher puts it, of Australian aborigines, and the questions about man that arise from the vast gulf that separates the culture of contemporary, Western civilized man from that of the wandering tribes of Australia, whose "dream tracks" or "songlines" delineate both a physical and a psychic geography. One tiny corner bump; still fine in a glassine dust jacket with a small tear at the crown. An extremely scarce edition, much more uncommon than the American signed Franklin Library edition, which had a print run numbering in the thousands.

72. COETZEE, J.M. Dusklands. Johannesburg: Ravan, 1974. First book by this noted South African writer, the only two-time winner of the Booker Prize. Two novellas, one of which, "The Vietnam Project," deals with a researcher investigating the effectiveness of U.S. propaganda and psychological warfare in Vietnam. This is the true first edition, preceding British publication by seven years, and American by eleven. Slight foxing to endpages and splaying to boards, as is common with this title, and a bit of paper adhered to a rear corner; near fine in a near fine dust jacket. A scarce book by an important writer.

73. COETZEE, J.M. Disgrace. (n.p.): Viking (2000). The advance reading copy of the first American edition of this South African author's second Booker Prize-winning novel. Coetzee also won the Booker Prize in 1982 for The Life and Times of Michael K. Fine in plain white printed wrappers, with publisher's promotional sheet laid in.

74. CONROY, Frank. Stop-Time. NY: Viking (1967). One of the classic memoirs of the Sixties, a highly-praised, literate coming-of-age account. Signed by the author. University stamp to top page edges (the university in question has denied any claim to the book); else fine in a near fine dust jacket with a couple of closed edge tears. A nice copy of a book that is most often found well-worn, and seldom found signed.

75. CONROY, Pat. The Prince of Tides. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986. His fifth book, third novel, and the basis for the hugely successful movie -- the fourth of his books to be made into a film. Inscribed by the author. Owner name front flyleaf; else fine in a near fine dust jacket with one internal tape repair.

76. CREWS, Harry. Jefferson Davis is Alive and Training in Atlanta. NY: Morrow, 1971. Galley sheets of Karate is a Thing of the Spirit, prior to its re-titling. Tall sheets, 7" x 12", printed on rectos only; stringbound in plain, unmarked cardboard covers, with publisher's label on front cover giving title, author, publication date (April, 1971) and price. A pencil note on the front cover indicates "Feb. list." Just about fine, and exceedingly scarce: we have never seen, nor heard of, another copy of this book with this title. The pencil annotation on the front cover gives an indication of how close to publication date it was when the title was changed, as does the fact that this title is typeset on both the half-title page and the title page. An interesting glimpse of a bit of literary history, and doubtless one of the rarest Crews items in existence.

77. CREWS, Harry. Car. (n.p.): Car Productions, 1972. Crews's screenplay, possibly his first, based on the novel of the same name. This is the revised first draft dated 5-30-72, the same year that the novel was published. 114 pages. Agent(?) rubber stamp on title page; fine in embossed, claspbound covers. As far as we know, unproduced. We have never seen another Crews screenplay offered for sale, or any screenplay based on one of his novels. Rare.

78. CRICHTON, Michael. Timeline. NY: Knopf, 1999. The uncorrected proof copy of the most recent novel by the author of Jurassic Park and Rising Sun, among others. Published in November, 1999, with a first printing announced as 1.5 million copies. While we don't know how many proofs were done, it was probably in the range of a couple of hundred -- making the proof copy nearly 10,000 times scarcer than the trade edition. Fine in wrappers, with the finished dust jacket wrapped around the proof.

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