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Catalog 110, U-Z

NOTE: This page is from our catalog archives. The listings are from an older catalog and are on our website for reference purposes only. If you see something you're interested in, please check our inventory via the search box at upper right or our search page.
364.UPDIKE, John. The Dance of the Solids. [NY]: (Scientific American) (1969). The first separate edition. One of 6200 copies printed as Christmas cards to be issued with W.H. Auden's A New Year Greeting (not present). Very faint abrasion to front cover; else fine in stapled wrappers. Lacking the cardboard sleeve that combined the two booklets, but in a custom clamshell box. While the print run of this small item was not particularly small, especially when compared with the many limited editions Updike has done, the nature of its distribution -- as a freebie to Scientific American subscribers -- suggests that most copies have been lost or discarded, and its rarity has been legendary for many years now. This is the first copy we've had, or seen, in at least a couple of years. Updike was not nearly as "collectible" in 1969 as he became in later years.

365.UPDIKE, John. Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories. NY: Fawcett (n.d.)(>1978). The 17th printing of the Fawcett paperback. Inscribed by the author to Annie Dillard: "For Annie Dillard/ with admiration/ from a precursor/ of sorts/ Merry Christmas!/ John Updike." With Dillard's ownership signature on a label affixed to the front cover, with the added message "please return!" Near fine. A great association between two Pulitzer Prize-winning writers, and one seldom sees good literary association copies of Updike's books.

366.UPDIKE, John. Museums and Women. NY: Vintage Books (1981). The first Vintage Books edition. Inscribed by the author to Annie Dillard: "For Annie Dillard -/ the last, or is it the/ first, of the great/ Emersonians - with/ great admiration/ John/ see p. 159 for a/ bit of Dillardesque/ mysticism." Page 159 begins the story "The Sea's Green Sameness." Several page corners turned (though none in that story); page edges darkening; spine creased from reading; near fine in wrappers.

367.UPDIKE, John. Rabbit at Rest. Franklin Center: Franklin Library, 1990. The limited edition, and true first edition, of the concluding volume in the Rabbit series. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Leatherbound, all edges gilt, with a silk ribbon marker bound in. With a special 4-page introduction by Updike for this edition, which does not appear elsewhere. Signed by the author. Fine.

368.UPDIKE, John. Brazil. Franklin Center: Franklin Library, 1994. The limited edition of this novel that is something of a departure for Updike, being far removed from the familiar suburban milieu of most of his fiction. Leatherbound, all edges gilt, with a silk ribbon marker bound in. With a special introduction by Updike for this edition. Signed by the author. Fine.

369.UPDIKE, John. Toward the End of Time. Franklin Center: Franklin Library, 1997. The limited edition, 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.

370.UPDIKE, John. Gertrude and Claudius. Franklin Center: Franklin Library, 2000. The limited edition of this novel, a venture into the realm of the historical novel, with Updike writing about the king and queen of Denmark in the years before the action of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Signed by the author. Leatherbound, all edges gilt, with a silk ribbon marker bound in and a special introduction by Updike for this edition. Fine.

371.VIDAL, Gore. The Season of Comfort. NY: Dutton, 1949. Third printing of Vidal's fourth book. Inscribed by the author. Owner name front flyleaf; cloth mottled; about very good, lacking the dust jacket.

372.VIDAL, Gore. Two Sisters. Boston: Little, Brown (1970). "A novel in the form of a memoir." Inscribed by the author. Bookplate removal abrasion to front flyleaf; otherwise a fine copy in a very good, price-clipped dust jacket with several corner tears, one externally tape-repaired.

373.VIDAL, Gore. Kalki. NY: Random House (1978). Trace edge-sunning to boards; else fine in a very good, edgeworn and price-clipped dust jacket.

374.VIDAL, Gore. Duluth. NY: Random House (1983). A comic novel by Vidal. Inscribed by the author. Light splaying to boards; near fine in dust jacket.

375.VONNEGUT, Kurt. Bluebeard. Franklin Center: Franklin Library, 1987. A limited edition of this novel, signed by the author and with a special introduction by him for this edition, in which he decries the broken bond between the artist and the universe that occurs when commerce intervenes. Leatherbound, all edges gilt, with a silk ribbon marker bound in. Fine.

376.WALCOTT, Derek. Midsummer. NY: Noonday Press/FSG (1993). Fourth printing of this collection of poems by the Nobel Prize winner. Inscribed by the author. Fine in wrappers.

377.WARNER, William W. Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay. (NY): Penguin Books (1987). First thus, a reprint edition with a new introduction by John Barth. This copy has the ownership signature of Annie Dillard, who won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction in 1975 for Pilgrim at Tinker Creek; this title won the same prize in 1977. In addition to her signature in the text, Dillard has turned down one page corner and affixed a name label to the spine. Page edges darkening slightly; else fine in wrappers.

378.WATTS, Alan W. The Way of Zen. (London): Thames and Hudson (1957). The first British edition of a standard text of the counterculture, which provided many with their first introduction to Oriental and mystical religions. Inscribed by the author in 1958. Owner bookplate front pastedown; near fine in a very good dust jacket with several unobtrusive vertical creases, mostly to the lamination.

379.WELCH, James. The Death of Jim Loney. NY: Harper & Row (1979). The second and perhaps scarcest novel by this award-winning Native American author. Signed by the author. Fine in a very near fine, price-clipped dust jacket with trace rubbing at the spine extremities.

380.WELCH, Lew. Wobbly Rock. (San Francisco): Auerhahn Press, 1960. One of 500 copies of the legendary Beat poet's first book. Trace spine-sunning and mild dustiness to rear cover; very near fine in stapled wrappers.

381.WELSH, Irvine. Marabou Stork Nightmares. London: Jonathan Cape (1995). The uncorrected proof copy in printed wrappers of the third book by the author of Trainspotting, this being Welsh's own copy with his holograph corrections to the text. Laid in is an autograph note signed to Robin [Robertson, the publisher]: "These are my proof corrections. (Hope yours are similar!)" Also laid in is an HM Customs slip explaining that the packet has been opened "as part of our selective checks for drugs or other prohibited goods which are sometimes concealed in letter mail." Slant from use; near fine in wrappers. A unique copy of this novel by one of the most acclaimed of the young British novelists.

382.WHITE, E.B. Quo Vadimus? or The Case for the Bicycle. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1939. A collection of short, humorous pieces, many of which first appeared in The New Yorker. A fine copy in a fair, edgeworn dust jacket, with a large chip on the rear panel and the front flap very nearly, though neatly, detached. Uncommon, especially in dust jacket.

383.WHITE, E.B. The Second Tree from the Corner. NY: Harper & Brothers (1954). A later printing of this collection of essays, stories and poems. Inscribed by the author to Bert Roueché "from a not very distant admirer," and signed "Andy." Laid in are two short typed letters signed from White to Roueché from 1961 and 1976. The first is a humorous thank you note that concerns itself with woodpeckers and orioles and "two elms [that] appear to be in better physical condition than either Katharine or me;" the second again expresses gratitude, apparently in response to comments Roueché made after White was involved in an interview, which White says he "found depleting because of the convergence of feature writers over the telephone, with their well-concealed tape machines." Each of the letters is folded for mailing; else fine, with envelope. Roueché was a long-time writer at The New Yorker, where White also spent many years. The book is faintly mottled and foxed; very good in a very good, spine-faded and edge-chipped dust jacket. An excellent literary association copy.

384.WHITE, Randy Wayne. The Man Who Invented Florida. NY: St. Martin's (1993). The third of his popular Florida mysteries featuring marine biologist, Doc Ford. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with some minor edge wear.

385.WHITE, Randy Wayne. The Mangrove Coast. NY: Putnam (1998). Another in his popular and critically well-received Doc Ford mystery series. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.

386.WHITE, Randy Wayne. The Thousand Islands. NY: Putnam (2000). The most recent Doc Ford novel. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.

387.WILLIAMS, Terry Tempest. An Unspoken Hunger. NY: Pantheon (1994). A collection of essays on "the unharnessed mysteries and meanings of the natural world." Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.

388.WODEHOUSE, P.G. Psmith Journalist. London: A. & C. Black, 1915. A comic novel by the creator of Jeeves and Bertie Wooster, as well as Psmith, and probably the most popular British comic novelist of all time. Inscribed by the author, "all the best from Plum" and also signed in full. "Plum" (also "Doctor Sir Plum") was one of Wodehouse's several nicknames, suggesting the recipient ("Don") was someone with whom he was familiar. This is the issue with "Black" imprinted on the spine. The full spine is smoke-darkened (though legible), as are the page edges and the edges of the rear cover; several spots to front cover; hinges cracked. A good copy only, lacking the dust jacket.

389.YARBROUGH, Steve. Family Men. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1990. His first book, a well-received collection of stories. Fine in jacket, with blurbs by James Lee Burke, Larry Brown, Lewis Nordan and others.

390.YATES, Richard. Eleven Kinds of Loneliness. Boston: Little, Brown (1962). A review copy of his second and scarcest book, a collection of stories. Name and address label of the reviewer on the front flyleaf, with several marginal marks in text; a near fine copy in a very good, spine-sunned dust jacket with modest edgewear.

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