Catalog 111, K-L
191. KENNEDY, William. The Ink Truck. NY: Dial, 1969. The uncorrected proof copy of the first book by the author of the acclaimed Albany series, which included the Pulitzer Prize-winning Ironweed. This copy belonged to Stanley Elkin, and has a letter of transmittal from Dial's editor-in-chief to Elkin laid in. Foredge bumped; spine creased, as much from glue as from reading; near fine in tall wrappers. A scarce and fragile proof: we have never seen another copy of it.
192. KEROUAC, Jack. Self-Portrait. [1956]. A self-portrait, sketched the year before his second novel, On the Road, was published and given to his girlfriend at the time, Helen Weaver. A head and shoulders portrait, in 3/4 profile, signed Jean-Louis Kérouac. Weaver, in a letter of provenance, states: "Jack drew this so-called self-portrait (it doesn't look much like him!) in 1956 when he was in Mexico. He gave it to me shortly after we met in November of that year." 6 1/2" x 8 3/8", sketched in pencil on the back of a Mexican theater advertisement and mounted on archival paper which bears remnants of mounting tape on verso. Two closed tears, one at about chest level and one in the hair; a bit of light creasing and edge wear. Matted and framed; very good. Unique; while Kerouac artwork appears on the market occasionally, we have never seen another attempt by him at a self-portrait. Excellent provenance, and an especially attractive piece in that Kerouac signed it on the front, something he did not often do.
193. KEROUAC, Jack. Typed Letter Signed. [December, 1956]. A full page love letter to Helen Weaver ("Sweetheart"), mailed on New Year's Eve. A passionate letter, written just before On the Road was published and while Kerouac still had the innocence and charm of a struggling writer, unencumbered by the celebrity that dogged him in later years. Much of the letter is personal, professing his love and desire to reunite with his girlfriend -- in writing that has the rhythm and lyricism of his novels, as well as the free flowing associations and lofty allusions: "I will lead schools, be exiled, scoffed at, I prophesy it, and I will lead schools.. But it's only the golden eternity. ... eternal peace... and we're just passing through..." A portion of the letter refers to the business of writing in which he is engaged: "I have another week here, of mad typing and working on FOUR different manuscripts, that'll make us rich... .. Then I take the West Coast champion train, if my agent comes through with the return fare, and be right back, to your door, on Tuesday the 8th... If I dont get drunk and flub up..." Signed, "Jean (qui t'aime XXXXX)." Previously folded in sixths for mailing and splitting at the corner folds; paper acidifying; else near fine. With typed mailing envelope, postmarked Orlando, Florida. A remarkable letter, with Kerouac's characteristic, and unmistakable, prose.
194. KEROUAC, Jack. "Bird-Dog and Butterflys." Undated [c. 1956-57]. A painting by Kerouac (oil and acrylic?) of a small dog surrounded by butterflies. 7 1/4" x 6". Titled by him and signed "Jean-Louis Kérouac." Former tack holes to corners of artwork; else fine, matted. A nice example of Kerouac's artwork, which had a boldly expressionistic flourish, often applied to a romantic or even sentimental subject matter. Again, like the self-portrait above, this painting is unusual in that it is signed by Kerouac on the front.
195. KEROUAC, Jack and JOHNSON, Joyce. Door Wide Open. (n.p.): Viking (2000). The advance reading copy of the letters between Kerouac and his girlfriend Joyce Glassman (now Joyce Johnson) in 1957 and 1958. Johnson wrote the 1983 memoir of her years with Kerouac, Minor Characters, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Fine in wrappers.
196. (KEROUAC, Jack). "Jack Kerouac - The Legacy." Larkspur: Jan Kerouac Benefit Fund [1996]. A poster designed and printed by noted San Francisco poster artist Alton Kelley, who designed many of the famous psychedelic posters of the 1960s in San Francisco. This poster promoted a benefit for Kerouac's daughter Jan, who in the later years of her life was both in ill health and contesting the disposition of her father's literary estate. Fundraisers were organized in San Francisco, which included appearances and performances by a number of people who had been closely connected to Kerouac and the poets and artists of the Beat generation. Of a total print run of 1135 copies, this is one of 135 numbered copies signed by Kelley and Jan Kerouac. Jan died of kidney disease in June, 1996, shortly after this benefit. 18" x 26". Fine.
197. -. Same title. One of 1000 copies, unsigned. Fine.
198. KESEY, Ken. Sometimes a Great Notion. NY: Viking (1964). Kesey's second and most ambitious novel, about a logging family in Oregon, and embodying the individualistic values that helped Kesey to become a counterculture leader and icon. This is the state with the Viking ship on the second half-title rather than the first, by far the scarcer of the two states, in our experience. A fine copy in a lightly rubbed and edge-chipped dust jacket, almost near fine. The jacket is the first issue, with the author photo credited to "Hank Krangler" and only two lines of biographical information about the author on the rear flap.
199. (KESEY, Ken). Still Kesey! NY: Viking, 1986. A promotional flyer for an evening with Kesey, containing three previously unpublished and still-uncollected Kesey poems. A single sheet, folded to make four pages. Fine.
200. KING, Thomas. Truth & Bright Water. NY: Atlantic Monthly Press (1999). The advance reading copy of the new novel by the author of Medicine River, among others. Fine in wrappers.
201. KINGSOLVER, Barbara. The Bean Trees. NY: Harper & Row (1988). The uncorrected proof copy of her first novel. Kingsolver has become a bestselling novelist on the strength of fiction that is firmly rooted in the land and cultures of the American Southwest. Some scuffing to rear cover and slight creasing on front; light stain to foredge of pages. Very good in wrappers. The first trade edition of this novel is quite scarce; the proof considerably more so. This copy is signed by the author.
202. KIPLING, Rudyard. The Seven Seas. NY: D. Appelton, 1897. Poetry by the Nobel Prize winning author of The Jungle Books and Kim, among others. Faint offsetting to endpages, bottom page edges foxed, a few page edges roughly opened, not affecting text; top edge gilt; a fine copy in a fair and fragile dust jacket chipped at the base of the spine and eaten along the rear spine flap fold nearly to the point of separation. The jacket, however, has done its job and protected the book admirably: the cloth is clean and fresh, the gilt design bright and unmarred. Scarce in any jacket; 1897 jackets are extremely uncommon.
203. KRAKAUER, Jon. Eiger Dreams. (NY): Lyons & Burford (1990). The first book by the author of Into Thin Air, a collection of climbing pieces previously published in magazines, plus one new piece. Shows both the writing and the climbing experience that earned Krakauer a place on the ill-fated 1996 Everest expedition about which he wrote his riveting and bestselling book. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. An elusive title in the first edition.
204. KUNITZ, Stanley. The Collected Poems. NY: Norton (2000). The advance reading copy of this collection of poems by the 95 year-old author who was recently named the Poet Laureate of the U.S. Fine in wrappers.
205. LANCHESTER, John. Mr Phillips. NY: Putnam (2000). The advance reading copy of the latest novel by the author of The Debt to Pleasure. Fine in wrappers.
206. LENT, Jeffrey. In the Fall. NY: Atlantic Monthly Press (2000). The uncorrected proof copy of this well-received first book, which was a Main Selection of the Book of the Month Club. Because of the Civil War setting, the novel received inevitable comparisons to Cold Mountain; the author's writing style was compared to that of Faulkner. Fine in wrappers, with promotional sheet laid in, with a Jim Harrison blurb.
207. LEWIS, Sinclair. Mantrap. NY: Harcourt Brace (1926). A scarce novel from the most productive period of Lewis's career, the 1920s, during which time he wrote such classics as Main Street, Babbitt, Elmer Gantry and Arrowsmith, for which he was awarded the 1926 Pulitzer Prize, which he declined. Lewis won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930, the first American to be awarded the prize. Bookplate front pastedown and contemporary date on flyleaf; blended, nearly invisible dampstaining to lower board edges; a near fine copy in a very good, very slightly spine-sunned dust jacket with several small edge tears and dampstaining visible on verso. A notoriously difficult book to find in dust jacket at all, let alone as attractive a jacket as this one.
208. LOPEZ, Barry Holstun. Desert Notes. Kansas City: Sheed Andrews McMeel (1976). His first book, a collection of "narrative contemplations" of the desert, told in a poetic, lucid prose, the clarity and simplicity of which is uncommonly suited to the subtleties of perception and expression it contains. A thin book, published by a small midwestern publisher more noted for its religious titles than its books for the general trade, this book has become quite scarce in recent years. Signed by the author. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with light wear at the crown and rubbing to the spine.
209. 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." Signed by the author. 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.
210. LOPEZ, Barry Holstun. River Notes. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel (1979). His fourth book, a companion volume to his first, Desert Notes, and to his later collection, Field Notes. A collection of short stories that have the feel of prose poems as well as reflective, personal essays. A difficult-to-classify book by a writer who has made a practice of writing hard-to-categorize volumes, the most consistent thread of them being an effort to recognize the sacred in the seemingly ordinary. Signed by the author. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with slight edge wear.
211. LOPEZ, Barry Holstun. Winter Count. NY: Scribner's (1981). A review copy of this collection of stories that take on the aspect of personal essays or philosophical reflection, tinged with a reverence for life that is as much the subject of the writing as any particular character or tale. Signed by the author. Staining to rear blanks, otherwise near fine in a near fine, slightly spine-faded jacket.
212. LOPEZ, Barry. Lessons from the Wolverine. Athens: U. of Georgia Press (1997). A short story, attractively illustrated by Tom Pohrt, who also illustrated Lopez's Crow and Weasel. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
213. LOPEZ, Barry. Light Action in the Caribbean. NY: Knopf, 2000. His latest book, just published, a collection of short stories. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
214. LOWRY, Malcolm. Under the Volcano. NY: Reynal & Hitchcock (1947). Lowry's classic, one of the great books of twentieth century literature. This tale of a British consul drinking himself to death in the shadow of Mexico's twin volcanoes, Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl -- legendary mountains which are themselves inextricably bound into Mexican history and myth -- is a fierce moral parable: the exotic, lawless and majestic land of Mexico finds a fatal correlate in the unexplored regions of a civilized man's heart. A few years after the book's publication, Lowry died in his sleep after drinking heavily. Under the Volcano was his last book published during his lifetime. Offsetting to the front endpages; a near fine copy in a very good dust jacket with a vertical crease to the spine and front panel, chipping to the crown, and some splitting to the folds.