Catalog 111, F-G
A Fine Run of Faulkner Limited Editions
124. FAULKNER, William. Idyll in the Desert. NY: Random House, 1931. The only publication of this story and Faulkner's first book for Random House. One of 400 numbered copies signed by the author. A fine copy in glassine dust jacket and custom folding chemise and quarter morocco slipcase. A very nice copy of an extremely fragile volume, much nicer than usually found.
125. FAULKNER, William. Miss Zilphia Gant. (Dallas): Book Club of Texas, 1932. No. 73 of 300 numbered copies. An early limited edition and one of his scarcest. Together with the prospectus for the edition, which prints "specimen page" 7 and is sunned and folded; near fine; an (unused) order form for the book, with envelope and reply envelope; and a reprint of a Dallas News story announcing the Book Club of Texas' plans to publish the edition, with a typed note from Henry Smith, whom the article names as "ambassador" in the club's attempts to secure the Faulkner story. The book is a fine copy in the original glassine dust jacket (darkened and with a few small chips). With the dust jacket present and the ephemeral pieces laid in, this is probably the finest copy of this title we have seen offered.
126. FAULKNER, William. A Green Bough. NY: Smith & Haas, 1933. The limited edition of Faulkner's last volume of poetry to be published during his lifetime. One of 360 numbered copies signed by the author. With cover labels and tipped in frontispiece by Lynd Ward. A fine copy, without dust jacket, as issued.
127. FAULKNER, William. Pylon. NY: Smith and Haas, 1935. The limited edition of this novel, one of 310 numbered copies signed by the author. Mild fading to the blue spine cloth; else fine in a fine slipcase. The fragile publisher's box is extremely prone to wear, and copies seldom turn up these days in the box at all, let alone in a fine box. Rare in this condition.
128. FAULKNER, William. The Unvanquished. NY: Random House (1938). The limited edition of this Civil War novel of the Sartoris family. One of 250 numbered copies signed by the author. A fine copy.
129. FAULKNER, William. The Hamlet. NY: Random House, 1940. The limited edition of the first book in the Snopes trilogy, which is considered one of Faulkner's great accomplishments. One of 250 numbered copies signed by the author, and one of the smallest limitations of any of Faulkner's signed editions: only Go Down, Moses (100 copies) had a smaller run, while a couple of other titles were issued with the same limitation. The later volumes of the Snopes Trilogy had much larger limitations (see below), but because of the size of the print run of The Hamlet, there can be no more than 250 sets of the trilogy that could be assembled in the signed limited issue. Hints of foxing to the endpages and spine; still a fine copy, with the top gilt still bright and the gilt stamping on the spine still clear and unworn. Lacking the (rare) original glassine dust jacket.
130. FAULKNER, William. Go Down, Moses and Other Stories. NY: Random House (1942). The limited edition, and the smallest limitation of any of Faulkner's signed limited editions by a considerable margin: one of only 100 numbered copies signed by the author. Faulkner intended this as a novel, or sequence of related stories, and later, trade editions removed the phrase "and other stories" from the title. A bit of foxing at the hinges; still fine. A "stopper" in most serious Faulkner collections and rare in any condition, let alone fine.
131. FAULKNER, William. The Town. NY: Random House (1957). The limited edition of the second book in Faulkner's Snopes Trilogy. One of 450 numbered copies signed by the author. Fine in the publisher's original acetate dust jacket. A beautiful copy, virtually pristine, with the red top edge stain still rich and unfaded. As nice a copy as one could hope for.
132. FAULKNER, William. The Mansion. NY: Random House, (1959). The limited edition of the third volume in the Snopes trilogy. One of 500 numbered copies signed by the author. This title was a National Book Award finalist in 1960. A fine copy in the publisher's original acetate dust jacket, which is torn at the spine base.
133. FAULKNER, William. The Reivers. London: Chatto & Windus, 1962. The first British edition of his second Pulitzer Prize winner and the last novel he wrote. Page edges foxed; near fine in a near fine, faintly sunned, price-clipped dust jacket.
134. (FAULKNER, William). FOOTE, Horton. "Tomorrow." (n.p.): Filmgroup [1972]. Poster for the film Tomorrow, based on Faulkner's short story, with a screenplay by Foote and starring Robert Duvall. 27" x 41". Folded in eighths with tiny holes at the intersections of the folds; else fine. Signed by Foote. Faulkner's story first appeared in the Saturday Evening Post on November 23, 1940 and was collected in Knight's Gambit in 1949. It was adapted for television in 1960 before being brought to the big screen by Foote and director Joseph Anthony in what many critics believe is the best screen adaptation ever of a Faulkner work as well as being one of Duvall's best performances.
135. (FERLINGHETTI, Lawrence). The Poets' Follies of 1955. San Francisco: Adrian Wilson Steam Press, 1955. A broadside announcement of a January 22 event at the Theatre Arts Colony featuring approximately a dozen authors and artists. Ferlinghetti, billed as "Mr. Lawrence Ferling," is slated to read poems and translations from the French. Ferlinghetti for a time dropped the Italianate portion of his surname, and was known as Larry Ferling. The Poets' Follies was a literary cabaret produced by Weldon Kees, which included poets, jazz musicians, artists, and printers in an intermingling of the arts that was typical of the San Francisco bohemian scene in the 1950s. Kees also became a filmmaker and together with Pauline Kael, later the film critic for The New Yorker, hosted a talk show on film on radio station KPFA, the first listener-supported radio station in the country, which was also an outgrowth of the San Francisco literary and arts scene, with one of the co-founders of the station being Kenneth Rexroth, the "grey eminence" of the San Francisco poetry scene. 6 1/2" x 20". Previously folded in fourths; else fine. A scarce, ephemeral piece from the moment when San Francisco was the literary and artistic hub of the emerging Beat and avant garde movements in the arts in the U.S.
136. FITZGERALD, Penelope. The Means of Escape. (London): Flamingo (2000). The uncorrected proof copy of the last book by the author of The Blue Flower, which won the National Book Critics' Circle Award for fiction, and Offshore, which won the Booker Prize. Her first and only collection of short stories. Fine in wrappers.
137. FLEMING, Ian. The Spy Who Loved Me. London: Jonathan Cape (1962). The uncorrected proof copy of the 10th James Bond novel. Spine cocked and sunned; additional cover creasing from having been read. A very good copy, and quite scarce in proof form.
138. FORD, Richard. Independence Day. [New Orleans]: (B.E. Trice)(1995). The limited edition of this sequel to The Sportswriter; winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Of a total edition of 176 copies, this is one of 26 lettered copies signed by the author, an issue that was oversubscribed upon publication. Quarterbound in leather. Fine in a fine slipcase.
139. FOWLES, John. The French Lieutenant's Woman. London: Cape (1969). The uncorrected proof copy of the first edition of what many consider to be Fowles's best and most important book, a landmark novel that uses an unconventional love story to explore the decline of Victorian England and the advent of the modern age and modern notions of freedom and self. Spine-creased and cocked; outer edges sunned; the cheap proofing paper has acidified at different rates, causing browning to some of the signatures. A very good copy in wrappers. Scarce.
140. FRASER, George MacDonald. Flashman and the Tiger. NY: Knopf, 2000. The uncorrected proof copy of the first American edition of the latest installment in the popular and critically well-received Flashman series of comic historical novels. Crease to mid-spine; near fine in wrappers.
141. FROST, Robert. A Boy's Will. NY: Henry Holt, 1915. The first American edition, later issue, of the first book by this four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, among his many other awards. Frost's poetry was rooted in the New England where his family had lived and where he spent most of his adult life and he drew on both the natural world and the farm life of New England for his images. Owner name front pastedown, spine gilt faded, with slight fraying of cloth at extremities; overall a very good copy, without dust jacket.
142. GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ, Gabriel. One Hundred Years of Solitude. NY: Harper & Row, 1970. The first American edition of his masterwork, one of the most important novels of the century, which introduced magical realism to a wide audience and helped bring the "boom" in Latin American literature to this country. At the end of the 1970s this book was voted by the editors of The New York Times Book Review to be not only the best book published in the last ten years but the one most likely to still be read and still be important one hundred years hence. García Márquez has been awarded the Nobel Prize, among countless other literary awards. Faint top edge foxing and vertical spine crease; near fine in a near fine, first issue dust jacket with three internally mended tears. In custom folding chemise and full morocco slipcase. A book that has become increasingly difficult to find with the correct first issue dust jacket (with an exclamation point at the end of the first paragraph of text on the front flap). For years, the priority of the two issues was unknown, and their relative scarcity a matter of some doubt but little import. Since the discovery of the galley proofs with the flap text included in proof form, the priority has been clearly established, and copies of the first issue have been snapped up in the market whenever they appear, leaving only second issue copies readily available.
143. -. Same title. The galley proofs of the American edition. 145 7 1/2" x 24" sheets, folded once. These are the corrected galleys, incorporating earlier copy-editing changes, and with pagination to page 422, corresponding to the published text. The outer sheet (a blank) is torn; otherwise the sheets are near fine. The dust jacket text is not included. An exceedingly rare state of this landmark novel. In custom folding chemise and full morocco slipcase.
144. GARDNER, John. Dragon, Dragon and Other Tales. (n.p.): (self-published) (n.d.) [c.1965]. The actual first edition of his first children's book, which was eventually brought out by Knopf in 1975. This version was "self-published" by Gardner -- he reportedly printed and bound it in an edition of approximately 15 copies, and it looks it: a crude, unpolished production consisting of stapled 8½" x 11" sheets, printed on rectos only, tape-bound into boards, illustrated by the author. The Knopf book, when it was published, was selected as the New York Times Outstanding Children's Book of the Year. A fragile production, the text block has separated from the boards, which bear some surface soiling; very good.
145. GARDNER, John. Jason & Medeia. NY: Knopf, 1973. An epic poem based on the Greek myths. In the acknowledgements, Gardner mentions William Gass having given him permission to "borrow and twist passages from his book Fiction and the Figures of Life." Gass and Gardner later had a highly public dispute on the issue of "moral fiction." Circular sticker front pastedown; near fine in a very near fine dust jacket.
146. GARDNER, John. Nickel Mountain. NY: Knopf, 1973. One of Gardner's best-loved novels, a National Book Award finalist in 1974. Faint cloth foxing; near fine in a near fine, spine-faded dust jacket. This is the issue with the dark title page (no priority established between the two variants).
147. GIFFORD, Barry. Wyoming. NY: Arcade Publishing (2000). The advance reading copy of this recently published short novel by the author of Wild at Heart, among many others. Fine in wrappers.
148. GILCHRIST, Ellen. The Cabal and Other Stories. Boston/NY: Little Brown (2000). The uncorrected proof copy of the latest collection from the National Book Award-winning author of Victory Over Japan. Fine in wrappers.
149. GILCHRIST, Ellen. Collected Stories. Boston/NY: Little Brown (2000). The uncorrected proof copy of a collection of stories selected by the author from her previous story collections. Fine in wrappers.
150. GORDON, Mary. Joan of Arc. (n.p.): Penguin/Lipper (2000). The uncorrected proof copy of a volume in the Penguin Lives biography series. Fine in wrappers.
151. -. Another copy. Several page corners inadvertently turned; else fine in wrappers, with a note from the series editor James Atlas laid in, requesting a review.
152. GRAY, Alasdair. 1982 Janine. London: Cape (1984). A "sado-masochistic fetishistic fantasy" with "every stylistic excess and moral defect...in the author's first books...to be found here in concentrated form." Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with several wrinkles to the lamination.
153. GREENE, Graham. A Burnt-Out Case. London: Heinemann (1961). The uncorrected proof copy of this novel. Fine in pale blue wrappers. A pristine copy, virtually untouched, with the publisher's promotional sheet announcing "Graham Greene Week" laid in.
154. GREENWOOD, T. Nearer than the Sky. NY: St. Martin's Press (2000). The uncorrected proof copy of the author's second novel. Her first, Breathing Water, won the 1999 Sherwood Anderson Award for Best First Novel. Fine.
155. GUTHRIE, Woody. Bound for Glory. NY: Dutton, 1943. The affecting memoir by the legendary folk singer -- his only book published in his lifetime. A frank and revealing book, illustrated with the author's own sketches. Guthrie penned such classics as "This Land is Your Land," "Pastures of Plenty" and "So Long, See You Tomorrow," among many others, laying the groundwork for folk music to be a powerful and effective vehicle for social protest and articulating the aspirations of the American underclass -- eventually leading to the protest songs of Bob Dylan, which catalyzed the social and political movements of the 1960s. The last page is chipped from opening, not affecting any text. Light foxing to endpages and foredge; boards faintly bowed and mottled, with a bit of the stamping faded from the front cover. A very good copy in a very good dust jacket with some chipping at the top edge.