Catalog 109, P
325. PEACOCK, Doug. Baja! Boston: Bullfinch (1991). Photographs by Terence Moore and text by Peacock, who was the inspiration for the character Hayduke in Edward Abbey's novels The Monkey Wrench Gang and Hayduke Lives. Introduction by Peter Matthiessen. Quarto; fine in a fine dust jacket.
326. PELECANOS, George P. A Firing Offense. NY: St. Martin's (1992). His first book, a mystery novel featuring Nick Stefanos. Signed by the author. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with two edge tears on the rear panel. One of the most sought after first mysteries of recent years and one of the most interesting new arrivals in the hard-boiled detective genre in recent years.
327. PELECANOS, George P. Shoedog. NY: St. Martin's (1994). His third novel, a departure from the Nick Stefanos series. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author.
328. -. Another copy. This one has a "withdrawn" stamp on the rear free endpaper, otherwise fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
329. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. Signed by the author. Fine in wrappers. Scarce, especially signed.
330. PELECANOS, George. Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go. NY: St. Martin's (1995). The fourth novel by this highly praised mystery writer, featuring Nick Stefanos, as did his first two books. The first printing was reported as 4000 copies. Signed by the author. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with two very small edge tears.
331. -. Another copy. Signed by the author and dated in the month of publication. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with very slight edge wear.
332. PELECANOS, George. Typed Note Signed. May 29, 1995. A dot-matrix note, agreeing to sign books, and relating to the recipient that he has "recently completed a manuscript for a novel set in the 1940's, about Greek immigrants and their sons in D.C. I myself am a Spartan on both sides..." The book he referred to is undoubtedly The Big Blowdown [see below]. Signed by the author. Folded for mailing; fine, with envelope.
333. PELECANOS, George. The Big Blowdown. NY: St. Martin's (1996). His fifth book, this one a departure from both the Nick Stefanos stories which comprised three of the first four novels and the contemporary milieu of all four books. This is set in Washington, D. C. in the early years after the Second World War. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
334. PELECANOS, George P. King Suckerman. Boston: Little, Brown (1997). His sixth book, set in Washington, D.C. in the mid-1970s, and involving characters who are related to those in The Big Blowdown and who cross paths with characters from his Nick Stefanos novels. Signed by the author. Fine in dust jacket.
335. PERELMAN, S.J. The Dream Department. NY: Random House (1943). Erasure abrasion front flyleaf; a bit of foxing at the joints; near fine in a very good, rubbed dust jacket with some fading to the yellow spine block and an internally tape-strengthened crown. A nice copy of a wartime book.
336. PERELMAN, S.J. Chicken Inspector No. 23. NY: Simon & Schuster (1966). A collection of short, humorous pieces, most of which first appeared in The New Yorker. Inscribed by the author in the year of publication, "with affection immeasurable." Fine in a fine dust jacket.
337. -. Same title, the first British edition. (London): Hodder & Stoughton (1967). Fine in a fine dust jacket.
338. PIRSIG, Robert M. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. NY: Morrow, 1974. Pirsig's first book, an acclaimed and bestselling inquiry into values and examination of Quality, and a title that is difficult to find in nice condition owing to its "perfectbound" construction. Fine in a fine dust jacket. A nice copy of one of the key books of the 1970s.
339. PLATH, Sylvia. "LUCAS, Victoria." The Bell Jar. London: Heinemann (1962). Her pseudonymously published first novel. Plath committed suicide barely a month after the publication of this novel in England and it was not published in the U.S. for nearly a decade. The Bell Jar is largely autobiographical: Plath published pseudonymously in hopes of avoiding the consequences of being recognized by her friends and neighbors, and their recognizing themselves in her book. The book's clearcut exposition of its heroine's pain and her attempted suicide was reinforced by its author's actual suicide, lending a mythic dimension to the book. This copy has an owner name on the flyleaf and pastedown and some modest foxing to the pages; near fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket with some foxing to the verso, rubbing to the spine extremities and one small but tape-mended edge tear. A nice copy of an important book, which is elusive in the first edition.
340. POWERS, Richard. The Gold Bug Variations. London: Scribner (1992). The first British edition of his third novel, a dazzling display of verbal pyrotechnics that earned him high praise, award recognition and comparisons with the best of the postmodern writers such as Pynchon. Winner of Time magazine's Book of the Year award and, like his first book, a nominee for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
341. PYNCHON, Thomas. V. Phil: Lippincott (1963). Pynchon's first book. Inscribed by the author to the father and step-mother of Richard Fariña, author of Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me: "For Richard + Lillian,/ with affection/ Thomas Pynchon." Pynchon and Fariña had both gone to Cornell, where both were writers and where Pynchon looked up to the older Fariña, who was already something of a celebrity on campus. After graduation, Fariña became well-known on the folk music circuit at the height of its influence; he married Joan Baez's sister, and Richard and Mimi Fariña released a pair of well-received folk albums, one of which alluded to Thomas Pynchon's V. Farina published his first novel, a seminal counterculture novel of a pot-smoking bohemian, in 1965, two years after Pynchon had achieved a degree of literary celebrity (as well as the William Faulkner Foundation prize) for V. Pynchon and Farina remained close through the years, even while Pynchon lived in Mexico after the publication of V, and Pynchon was one of the readers of Farina's novel in manuscript form, giving him criticism and counter-balancing the strait-laced tendencies of the mainstream publishing world. Between the literary celebrity accorded Pynchon as the preeminent postmodern American writer and Farina's status as a folk music icon, their friendship was one of the defining elements of the era. This copy, by virtue of the family connection linking these two friends, is one of the best association copies imaginable, short of Richard, Jr.'s own copy, the whereabouts of which are unknown, if it even exists. Pynchon is notoriously reclusive; the last known photograph of him was from his college years. Autographed copies of his books are extremely rare, and we have never seen a signed U.S. edition of V. before, let alone an association copy of this caliber. The book has the usual edge- and spine-sunning typical with the pale purple cloth; near fine in a mildly rubbed dust jacket with the gold faded on the spine and the price altered in ink on the front flap. Laid in is a sheet of personalized "Richard Farina" notepaper, edge-sunned to match the book, and helping to authenticate the provenance of it.
342. -. Another copy, unsigned. Very slight edge-sunning; small spot to top stain; very near fine in a near fine, spine-faded dust jacket with modest edge wear.
343. PYNCHON, Thomas. The Crying of Lot 49. Philadelphia: Lippincott (1966). Pynchon's second novel, winner of the Richard and Hilda Rosenthal Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and the most overtly political, and paranoid, of Pynchon's novels. Chosen by David Pringle as one of the hundred best novels of Modern Fantasy. Fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket with one previously tape-mended edge tear.
344. PYNCHON, Thomas. Gravity's Rainbow. NY: Viking (1973). Pynchon's magnum opus, winner of the National Book Award (which Pynchon declined) and the William Dean Howells Medal, for the best work of fiction to appear in the U.S. over a five year period -- the book that confirmed its reclusive author's stature as the preeminent American postmodern fiction writer. Pynchon reportedly declined the Pulitzer Prize for this title, as well -- the only time in the last 30+ years that there was no award given for fiction in a given year. An impressive book for the breadth of its references and allusions, it is widely considered the culminating novel of the American fiction of the 1960s, embracing the decade's experimentation with form and its breakthroughs in content. Light bowing to front board; else fine in a fine dust jacket with one small, closed edge tear at the lower front flap fold.
345. PYNCHON, Thomas. Vineland. London: Secker & Warburg (1990). The first British edition of his fourth novel. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
346. (PYNCHON, Thomas). LOTION. Nobody's Cool. NY/Richmond, Australia: spinART Records/Shock Records (1995). A CD, for which Pynchon provided liner notes. Included is a photocopy of a magazine article that explains Pynchon's appearance. Fine.