Catalog 109, I-L
222. IRVING, John. My Movie Business. London: Bloomsbury (1999). The first British edition of his latest book, an account of his career involvement with the movies, from thirteen years of working on the screenplay for The Cider House Rules (for which he won an Oscar) to trying, unsuccessfully, to get Setting Free the Bears made into a film. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
223. JONES, Thom. Autograph Postcard Signed. (February, 1996). A brief note agreeing to sign a book. Fine, on a postcard picturing a giraffe.
224. KEROUAC, Jack. Desolation Angels. NY: Coward McCann (1965). A major novel, which is one of the scarcer books from the latter part of Kerouac's career. A volume in the "Duluoz Legend," Kerouac's fictionalized autobiographical sequence, this installment is set in the period 1956-57, just prior to the publication of On the Road. Introduction by beat anthologist and critic Seymour Krim, who attempts to explain in a few short pages why Kerouac's writing is important -- what he brought to American literature that was decidedly original and why that matters. Pencilled marginal notes and underlinings; very good in a good, spine-darkened and edgeworn dust jacket.
225. KEROUAC, Jack. Signed Greeting Card. Undated, c. 1966-1969. A "Thinking of You" card, illustrated with a kitten sitting on top of a pad of paper and below a quill pen; the front panel only, on which Kerouac has written "To Maria/ from Uncle Jack." The verso of the card is filled with a long note addressed to Gaby (presumably Kerouac's mother), who was living with Jack and Stella in Lowell in the late 1960's. A possible scenario has Kerouac recycling the front panel of a used card to give to Maria (a daughter of one of Stella's siblings?). A vertical octagonal shape; very near fine. Autograph material by Kerouac is quite scarce.
226. KESEY, Ken. Demon Box. (n.p.): Viking (1987). The uncorrected proof copy of this collection of short pieces, both fiction and nonfiction. "Press Copy" markings to cover and summary page; fine in wrappers.
227. (KESEY, Ken). LEVON, O.U. Caverns. (NY): Penguin (1990). The uncorrected proof copy of this collaborative novel written by Kesey and the students in his writing class at the University of Oregon. The "author's" name is an anagram of "U[niversity of] O[regon] Novel." Kesey wrote an introduction explaining the process of writing the novel and participated in the creation of the novel, as did his students. An iconoclastic project, not surprisingly. Stray pen mark front cover; else fine in wrappers.
228. KING, Laurie. Autograph Note Signed. March 21, 1996. A notecard conveying a requested photograph (not present) and stating that she is pleased to have a reader in the Air Force in the event she needs "inside information for some plot." Signed by the author. Fine, with envelope.
229. KINGSOLVER, Barbara. Form Letter Signed. (1995). A computer printout of a letter in which she agrees to, and gives mailing instructions for, signing one book and declines to sign many as "my writing-time and family-time are of most importance to me..." Signed by the author. Folded for mailing; fine, with envelope.
230. LE CARRÉ, John. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. (n.p.): (n.p.), 1964. A Taiwan piracy of Le Carré's third book, the definitive Cold War novel, which brought a new level of realism to the genre of spy fiction. Small format, photo-reproduced from the American edition. A cheaply made volume, printed on thin paper. Water stain to top edge and front flyleaf; very good in a very good dust jacket.
231. LE CARRÉ, John. A Small Town in Germany. [NY: Coward-McCann, 1968]. Taiwan piracy of the American edition. A near fine copy of a cheaply made book, in a near fine dust jacket.
232. LE CARRÉ, John. Typescript. Undated. c. 1968. Four pages of ribbon copy typescript with extensive holograph corrections. Reportedly early draft pages of A Small Town in Germany (takes place in Bonn), but it could also be from Naive and Sentimental Lover (shares a character name, "Hugo"). Folded in fourths; near fine. With a letter of provenance. We have seldom seen Le Carré manuscript material offered on the market and an early piece like this, with extensive corrections visible and earlier versions of the text (now excised) still present is quite rare.
233. LE CARRÉ, John. The Little Drummer Girl. (n.p.): (n.p.) (1982). Again, a Taiwan piracy. Cheaply made. Near fine in a very good, rubbed dust jacket.
234. (LEE, Harper). "Cracklin' Bread" in The Artists' and Writers' Cookbook. Sausalito: Contact Editions (1961). Introduced by Alice B. Toklas and including recipes by Lee, Isak Dinesen, Lillian Hellman, Upton Sinclair, William Styron, Evan S. Connell, Jr., Pearl Buck, Kay Boyle, James Michener, Anthony Powell, Louis Auchincloss, Malcolm Bradbury, John Knowles, Kenneth Patchen, Paul Bowles ("Majoun Keddane"), and many others. Gift inscription; spine tanned and spotted from cooking; else near fine, without dust jacket, apparently as issued, with a fair slipcase now in two neat interlocking parts. An uncommon Harper Lee appearance in print.
235. LENT, Jeffrey. In the Fall. NY: Atlantic Monthly Press (2000). The uncorrected proof copy of this just-published first book, which has received excellent reviews. Because of the Civil War setting, the novel has received inevitable comparisons to Cold Mountain, and the author's writing style has also been compared to that of Faulkner. This copy is signed by the author. Read, with resulting slanting and splaying; near fine in wrappers.
236. LETHEM, Jonathan. Gun, with Occasional Music. NY: Harcourt Brace (1994). The author's first book, a comic take-off on the hard-boiled mystery genre that became an underground classic. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket that is designed to appear worn. Lethem's latest book, Motherless Brooklyn, won last year's National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.
237. LOPEZ, Barry Holstun. Giving Birth to Thunder Sleeping with His Daughter. Kansas City: Sheed McMeel (1978). His second and scarcest book, a retelling of Native American tales of Coyote the Trickster, subtitled "Coyote Builds North America." Lopez revivifies the tales, restoring their humor and vitality, and thus their power to affect the contemporary reader, rather than recounting them in the dry manner of an anthropologist dissecting a "subject." Like Jamie D'Angulo's Indian Tales and Howard Norman's translations of Swampy Cree Indian tales, this book helped to forge a link between the oral narrative traditions of Native American tribes and the realm of written, and printed, literature -- a fusion that is ongoing and is producing some of the most subtle and energized writings of recent years. Tiny spot on foredge; otherwise a fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with several tiny edge nicks, the ones at the spine extremities being inexpertly touched up.
238. LOPEZ, Barry. Field Notes. NY: Knopf, 1994. The uncorrected proof copy. Fine in wrappers with publisher's promotional sheet stapled inside front cover.