Catalog 109, D
95. DAVIS, Val. Track of the Scorpion. NY: St. Martin's (1996). The author's well-received first mystery. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
96. DELANY, Samuel. Starboard Wine. (n.p.): [Dragon Press] (n.d.). Galley sheets for this collection of essays on "the language of science fiction" by the award-winning science fiction author, who has also become one of the most literate and scholarly critics in the field. Two sets of galley sheets in varying stages of correction, replete with editorial markings and initialed by the author. 8 1/2" x 14". Near fine. Unique.
97. DELANY, Samuel R. The Motion of Light in Water. (n.p.): Ultramarine, 1988. The limited edition of Delany's Nebula Award-winning autobiography, subtitled "Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village, 1957-1965." Delany lived in New York's East Village during the 1960s and was closely associated with the counterculture during that time. Many of his novels from that period can be taken as social criticism and commentary of a decidedly utopian, and countercultural, bent; several of them explore the kinds of consciousness changes that are associated with psychedelic drugs, which were widely being used and experimented with at that time and place. An interesting memoir, which places its author in a specific cultural context that sheds light on much of his writing and on the directions he has taken in his career. Of a total edition of 50 copies, this is one of only 10 lettered copies in full leather. Signed by the author. Fine without dust jacket, as issued.
98. DELILLO, Don. Autograph Note Signed. (October, 1997). A brief note by the author of White Noise, Americana and Underworld, among others, agreeing to sign a book. Signed by the author. Folded for mailing; fine, with envelope.
99. DIDION, Joan. Slouching Towards Bethlehem. NY: FSG (1968). The second book by this author who has chronicled the postwar American dream with a biting accuracy and a dry but fierce humor that is unsurpassed in her generation. The title essay is an early report on the hippies of Haight-Ashbury that looked at the dark side of that particular take on the American dream. This copy bears a gift inscription from author Dan Wakefield, a longtime friend of Didion (she appears prominently in his memoir/social history, New York in the 50s). Marginal notes and underlinings in text; a bit of mustiness and dampstaining; very good in a very good dust jacket.
100. DOCTOROW, E.L. Typed Note Signed. November 5, 1996. A brief note agreeing to sign a book. Signed by the author. Folded for mailing; fine, with envelope.
101. DONLEAVY, J.P. The History of the Ginger Man. Boston/NY: Houghton Mifflin/Seymour Lawrence, 1994. The author's memoir of his writing of his classic, and the 25 year-long court case that resulted from its being published by maverick publisher Maurice Girodias in his Olympia Press series of near-pornography. The ironies of this suit and its outcome -- Donleavy ended up the owner of Olympia and all its copyrights -- are numerous: the book is Donleavy's most famous, and most likely to last; Girodias's series is remembered not for the pornography that so offended Donleavy, but rather for the otherwise-untouchable books of great literary merit which have since also become classics: Lolita, The Naked Lunch, Beckett's Molloy, Gregory Corso's American Express and Chester Himes's Pinktoes. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Books signed by Donleavy are relatively uncommon.
102. DOS PASSOS, John. State of the Nation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1944. Nonfiction, an account of the state of the nation as the author perceived it in a lengthy trip he took around the country, in an election year, during wartime. Pages moderately browned, as is common for a wartime book, otherwise this is a very near fine copy in a bright, near fine dust jacket with minor spine-fading. Inscribed by the author and with the recipient's ownership signature and date (1944) under the front flap. A nice copy of an uncommon book.
103. (DUBUS, Andre). Fielder's Choice. NY: HBJ (1979). The uncorrected proof copy of this anthology of baseball fiction, including Dubus' previously unpublished story "The Pitcher." Fine in tall wrappers.
104. DUBUS, Andre III. The Cage Keeper and Other Stories. NY: Dutton (1989). The uncorrected proof copy of his first book, a well-received collection of stories. His latest book, a novel, was a finalist for the National Book Award. A strip of bleeding from the cover at the lower edge of the half-title; otherwise fine in wrappers.
105. DUFRESNE, John. The Way that Water Enters Stone. NY: Norton (1991). The uncorrected proof copy of his highly praised first book, a collection of stories. Paper clip impression front cover and first few pages; else fine in wrappers. Laid in is a letter from the publisher soliciting the comments of a well-known writer.
106. DUNCAN, Robert. Heavenly City, Earthly City. (Berkeley): (Bern Porter), 1947. The first book by this poet whose work, along with that of his close friends Kenneth Rexroth, Jack Spicer and Robin Blaser, helped define the San Francisco renaissance in the 1950s. Duncan was also a close friend of Charles Olson and taught briefly at the experimental Black Mountain College in North Carolina. After Olson's death, Duncan became the principal exponent of poetry in an open form, first articulated in Olson's influential 1950 essay, "Projective Verse." His relationship with Olson, which had begun when he had started publishing poems in Origin in 1952, continued after his stint at Black Mountain when Olson came to San Francisco to give a series of lectures entitled "The Special View of History" -- an influence on Duncan's next, and by consensus his best, book, The Opening of the Field. Duncan himself was an important influence on the Beat poets who came to San Francisco in the 1950s, and his writings -- which continued traditions laid out by Emerson, Whitman, Coleridge and Wordsworth, not to mention Blake -- helped establish the line of succession in American literature that the Beats built upon. This is one of 250 copies printed. A bit of sunning to boards and offsetting to endpages but still a near fine copy of an important first book, lacking the dust jacket.
107. DUNCAN, Robert. Poems 1948-49. [Berkeley]: Berkeley Miscellany Editions [1949]. Duncan's second book. This is the first edition, first state, one of 100 copies printed with the unexpurgated lines on pp. 31 and 32, out of a total edition of 500 copies. Wrappers a bit sunned, with a small chip at the foredge of the rear cover; very good. "The Venice Poem" -- a long poem in this volume patterned after Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements and substituting the Berkeley of the late 1940s for Venice, with Duncan's fellow poets as characters in the poem -- was the first published work that suggested the scope of his powers as a writer. A nice copy of a scarce state of an important book.
108. DUNCAN, Robert. Medieval Scenes. San Francisco: Centaur Press (1950). A collection of related poems -- many of them touching on poetry itself and poets, as Duncan often did, and all of them written in a medieval context: Duncan has been quoted as saying that he and his circle of poet-friends "formed a table, a round table in our own minds." Attractively printed with a color block print on the title page by Kermit Sheets. One of 250 copies, signed by the author. Faint edge-sunning; else fine in saddle-stitched wrappers.
109. DUNCAN, Robert. Fragments of a Disordered Devotion. [San Francisco]: [Privately Published], 1952. His fourth book, privately printed and never offered for sale. One of 50 numbered copies with a crayoned cover by the author, saddle-stitched in french-folded wrappers. Signed by the author. Duncan reportedly made these volumes for friends and gave them away. This copy is from the library of a well-known film reviewer who was a classmate of Duncan's at the University of California in the late 1930s and a part of his circle of friends in San Francisco in the Forties and Fifties. An extremely scarce item from the early part of Duncan's career, when his stature as a major poet of his time had not yet been firmly established. Fine.
110. DUNCAN, Robert. Caesar's Gate. (Palma de Mallorca): Divers Press, 1955. His fifth book, published by Robert Creeley's Divers Press. Creeley was another poet associated with Black Mountain College and a good friend of Charles Olson, as well as having helped Cid Corman start Origin magazine, after Creeley's own efforts to start a literary magazine with Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams failed. One of 200 copies published, the entire edition. Although not called for, this copy is signed by Duncan and Jess Collins, the artist who provided the collages, and who was Duncan's longtime partner. Splitting to the front hinge; else near fine in wrappers. An uncommon book, and especially scarce signed.
111. DUNCAN, Robert. Faust Foutu. (Stinson Beach): (Enkidu Surrogate) (1960). The third edition of this play, printed in an edition of 750 copies. The first edition was privately printed; the second edition printed only Act I. Near fine in stapled wrappers. Laid in is a mimeographed program for the play, listing the cast, which included Duncan, Jack Spicer, Michael ("Mike") McClure, Jess Collins, Helen Adam and others; folded in fourths, else fine. A nice copy of this play, with scarce ephemera laid in.
112. (DUNCAN, Robert). Berkeley Miscellany, No. 1. (Berkeley): (n.p.) (1948). The first issue of this short-lived literary magazine (only two issues were published). Edited by Duncan and featuring work by him, Jack Spicer and Mary Fabilli. Edge-sunned; else fine in saddle-stitched wrappers.
113. (DUNCAN, Robert). Berkeley Miscellany, No. 2. (Berkeley): (n.p.) (1949). The second, and last, issue of the magazine, again edited by Duncan and featuring work by him, Jack Spicer, Mary Fabilli and Gerald Ackerman. With the faint ownership signature of Pauline Kael, a longtime friend of Duncan's, on the front cover; loose text block, very good in edge-sunned wrappers.
114. DUNNING, John. Publisher's Archive for Deadline. Huntington Beach: Cahill Publishing, 1995. The archive for the reissue of this novel, the first U.S. hardcover edition. (The book was originally published in paperback in 1981, and a Gollancz hardcover was done in England.) This issue was a limited edition of 200 numbered copies, with a new introduction by the author that discussed the genesis of the book and the history of its original publication. Included here are the typeset 8 1/2" x 11" sheets of Dunning's introduction (8 pp. of text plus the title and copyright pages); a shooting copy of the paperback; a black and white photo of Dunning for the back flap of the dust jacket; and a copy of The Torch Passes, second printing, signed by Dunning - a copy of which was included with each of the limiteds of Deadline. Also included is the original and controversial dust jacket art: an airbrush painting, 30" x 20", by Regan Mendenhall, in blood purples, reds, yellows and blacks, depicting the nude body of a young girl consumed in flame on the right (front) panel and an Amish twilight silhouette on the left (rear) panel. With the exception of the paperback, which was disassembled for shooting purposes, all elements are fine. A unique archive of a limited edition by the author of Booked to Die and The Bookman's Wake, among others.
115. DUNNING, John. Typed Note Signed. June 29, 1998. A polite note agreeing to sign a book and thanking his correspondent "for making an old writer's day." Signed by the author. Folded for mailing; fine, with envelope.
116. DUNNING, John. Autograph Note Signed. Undated [1998]. Written on the verso of an Old Algonquin Bookstore bookmark, explaining that as the recipient had not specified a signature or an inscription (in a book), "I will go with current wisdom and sign only." He then offers the bookmark as "personal regards, in gratitude." Signed by the author. Small scuff on verso, else fine.