Catalog 111, M
216. MAILER, Norman. The Deer Park. [London: Wingate, 1957]. Jacket art for the first British edition of Mailer's third book, originally published by Putnam in 1955. Artist's rendition of six different jacket designs: five on full sheets, approximately 6 1/2" x 8" and showing front panel and spine, the sixth painted smaller on a slightly larger sheet, with an additional, smaller rendering of one of the other designs. All items fine. Unique.
217. MALOUF, David. Dream Stuff. NY: Pantheon (2000). The uncorrected proof copy of the first American edition of this collection of stories by the award-winning Australian author. Fine in wrappers.
218. MARSHALL, Paule. The Fisher King. NY: Scribner (2000). The advance reading copy of the new novel by the author of Brown Girl, Brownstones and Soul Clap Hands and Sing, and one of the first African-American novelists to deal with questions of diversity and women's roles in African-American culture, thus opening the way for such later writers as Toni Morrison, Gloria Naylor and others. Fine in wrappers.
219. MASO, Carole. The Art Lover. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1990. Her second book, a novel transformed by the author's best friend dying from AIDS during the writing. Maso's genius seems to be in portraying not only the external forces that dissolve bonds between people but the internal forces, the acts of will and love and creativity, that can keep them together. North Point dissolved shortly after the book was published, which may explain the title's relative scarcity. Fine in a spine-faded dust jacket.
220. MATTHIESSEN, Peter. The Shorebirds of North America. NY: Viking (1967). Large folio edited by Gardner Stout and illustrated by Robert Verity Clem, with text by Matthiessen. A landmark volume, considered the standard book in the field. A fine copy in a very good dust jacket, chipped at mid-spine and partially, internally tape-repaired there.
221. MATTHIESSEN, Peter. Indian Country. NY: Viking (1984). A collection of essays on various issues related to American Indians, especially those issues having to do with the culture clash between corporations looking to exploit natural resources and tribes asserting their rights to control their land and its uses, while retaining a connection to the traditions by which they lived in harmony with their environment and held the land sacred. According to published reports at the time, it was during the course of researching this book that Matthiessen came upon the story that evolved into In The Spirit of Crazy Horse, which effectively sidelined this work for several years. While the scarcity of Crazy Horse has been well known for some time because of its effective suppression, it has recently become clear that this book is also quite scarce: it doubtless had a smaller first printing than did Crazy Horse, and copies have become hard to find in the past few years. Near fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
222. MATTHIESSEN, Peter. On the River Styx. London: Collins Harvill (1989). The first British edition of this collection of ten short stories, seven of which were collected in Midnight Turning Gray. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with a little rubbing at the spine base. Dust jacket blurbs by Don DeLillo, William Styron, Jim Harrison and Thomas McGuane, which do not appear on the American edition.
223. McCABE, Patrick. The Dead School. (NY): Dial Press (1995). The uncorrected proof copy of the first American edition of this novel by the Irish author of The Butcher Boy, among others. Fine in wrappers.
224. McCABE, Patrick. Mondo Desperado. (NY): HarperCollins (1999). The advance reading copy of the first American edition. McCabe has twice been short-listed for the Booker Prize. Fine in wrappers.
225. McCANN, Colum. Everything in this Country Must. NY: Henry Holt/Metropolitan Books (2000). The advance reading copy of the first American edition of this collection of two stories and a novella. Fine in wrappers.
226. McCARTHY, Cormac. The Orchard Keeper. NY: Random House (1965). A review copy of McCarthy's first book, which won a Faulkner Foundation Award for best first novel of the year. Although the book was successful enough to go into a second printing, fewer than 3000 copies were sold in total, and it was a quarter century before McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and brought him recognition beyond the small, passionate circle of devotees who had been reading him and collecting his books all along. This book is notorious for several flaws: the front flap tends to detach at the fold, from slightly excessive scoring in the bindery, and the white jacket is susceptible to yellowing and soiling. This is a fine copy in a very near fine dust jacket with one tiny edge tear at the lower front panel. Photograph of the author, but not a standard review slip, laid in.
227. -. Same title, the first British edition. (London): Deutsch (1966). Page edges foxed and some fading to the spine cloth. Still at least very good in a bright, price-clipped pictorial dust jacket, which has some slight rubbing at the spine extremities, tape shadows on the flaps, and a bit of strengthening on the verso.
228. McCARTHY, Cormac. Outer Dark. NY: Random House (1968). His scarce second novel, the total sales of which amounted to 2705 copies. A hint of sunning to the board edges; still fine in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket. A beautiful copy of a book that appears to be at least as scarce as his first and seldom turns up in fine condition, the soft paper jacket being especially prone to wear.
229. McCARTHY, Cormac. Child of God. NY: Random House (1973). His third book. Foxing to top edge; else fine in a near fine, mildly spine-faded dust jacket. Without the remainder marking so often found on copies of this title and not price-clipped, as is usually the case with this book.
230. McCARTHY, Cormac. Suttree. NY: Random House (1979). His fourth book, which many have considered his best, at least until the Border Trilogy (and some even still). A scarce book, which sold fewer than 3000 copies in the original edition. Slight concavity to spine; else fine in a fine dust jacket with the red outlining faded from the spine.
231. McCARTHY, Cormac. Blood Meridian. NY: Random House (1985). His fifth book, a powerful novel of the Old West, based on an actual series of events in 1849-1950 in Texas and Mexico, and rendered with an eye to bringing to life the surreal violence of the time and place. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
232. -. Same title. (London): Picador (1985). The first British edition. Fine in a fine dust jacket. A very attractive copy of a book that in our experience is both uncommon and particularly susceptible to wear, having been bound like a paperback (perfectbound) and printed on cheap, pulpy paper as well.
233. McCARTHY, Cormac. All the Pretty Horses. NY: Knopf, 1992. The advance reading copy of the first volume of the Border Trilogy, a landmark novel that won both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award and propelled its author to "instant" literary celebrity -- after nearly three decades of writing well-received literary novels in relative obscurity. This advance copy, issued in wrappers and publisher's folding box, was signed by the author and sent out in advance of publication to promote the book. Rumor has it that approximately 400 were to be done but the author quit after about 200, and declined to do any more. McCarthy has a reputation as, if not exactly a recluse, one who prizes his independence and privacy, and books signed by him are uncommon. Fine in the folding box.
234. -. Same title. (London): Picador/Pan (1993). The first British edition. Fine in a fine dust jacket. The print run of the U.K. first edition was 4000 copies, barely a quarter of the U.S. printing of 15,000 copies.
235. McCARTHY, Cormac. The Crossing. NY: Knopf, 1994. The sequel to his award-winning All the Pretty Horses, and the second novel in the "The Border Trilogy." One of 1000 copies of the trade edition signed by the author on a tipped-in leaf, although reportedly he failed to sign all 1000 of them, making this issue scarcer in actuality than the stated limitation. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
236. McCARTHY, Cormac. The Stonemason. (Hopewell): Ecco (1994). The trade edition of his first play, which had a first printing of 7500 copies (compared with 150,000 copies for The Crossing, which was issued at about the same time). Fine in a fine dust jacket.
237. McCARTHY, Cormac. Cities of the Plain. New Orleans: B.E. Trice (1998). The limited edition of the third book in the Border Trilogy. One of 300 numbered copies, quarterbound in leather and signed by the author. This is the smallest limitation of any of McCarthy's books (aside from the sold-out deluxe issue of this title). Fine in a fine slipcase.
238. McCOMBS, Davis. Ultima Thule. New Haven: Yale University Press (2000). A volume in the Yale Series of Younger Poets competition, as judged by W.S. Merwin, and with a foreword by him. This is a review copy of the issue in wrappers. Fine.
239. McCULLERS, Carson. Clock Without Hands. London: The Cresset Press, 1961. The uncorrected proof copy of the first British edition of a short novel that deals with the theme of racial tensions in the South. Her first major novel in 15 years, and the last published in her lifetime. McCullers achieved a rare degree of literary renown with her first novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, published in 1940 when she was just 23 years old. Two well-received novels followed over the next six years but depression and ill health led to a suicide attempt in 1948; she died at the age of 50 in 1967, having suffered severe illnesses for most of her adult life. Spine cocked, creased and darkened, with the title and author written in by hand; a bit of additional wear and sunning to covers, but still very good in wraps.
240. McGUANE, Thomas. Live Water. (Stone Harbor): Meadow Run Press (1996). Essays and tales of angling, by one of the most respected American novelists. This is the deluxe limited edition, one of only 67 numbered copies, signed by the author and the artist, John Swan. Quarterbound in blue leather and linen boards; fine in a fine clamshell box. An attractive, elegantly printed and bound volume.
241. McMURTRY, Larry. Leaving Cheyenne. NY: Harper & Row (1963). His second novel, one of the "50 best books on Texas," according to A.C. Greene. McMurtry's first two books are quite scarce and of the two this is likely the scarcer. Fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket: most copies of this book are price-clipped, as the price was changed prior to publication but after the dust jackets were already printed. The jacket spine is only very slightly faded and the flaps were once affixed to something, probably a jacket protector, and bear faint strips of abrasion on versos. Still, an attractive copy of this uncommon book.
242. McMURTRY, Larry. All My Friends Are Going to be Strangers. NY: Simon & Schuster (1972). A novel loosely based on McMurtry's time at Stanford and involving, among others, a group of characters that resembles Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters. Remainder stripe; slight sunning to edges of cloth; near fine in a near fine, slightly spine-faded dust jacket.
243. McMURTRY, Larry. Roads. NY: Simon & Schuster (2000). The uncorrected proof copy of this recent nonfiction book, documenting a cross-country trip McMurtry took, reminiscing and reflecting on various subjects, literary and cultural, personal and historical. Fine in wrappers.
244. McMURTRY, Larry. Boone's Lick. NY: Simon & Schuster (2000). The uncorrected proof copy of his new novel -- a Western in the tradition of his Pulitzer Prize-winning Lonesome Dove. McMurtry has set as one of his tasks the re-imagining of the opening of the American West, and a number of his books have been historical novels that attempt to bring an overly mythologized period of American history back into a perspective that is fresh and of human scale. Fine in wrappers.
245. McPHEE, John. The Pine Barrens. NY: FSG (1968). His fourth book, one of his scarcest, and a classic of this kind of reporting: McPhee covers history, natural history, and biography, and in so doing reveals in depth a previously all-but-hidden corner of the world, a wilderness in the heart of the eastern Boston-Richmond megalopolis that occupies one-quarter of the state of New Jersey and is as large as Grand Canyon National Park. Fine in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
246. -. Another copy. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket with slight edge wear, some creasing to the flaps, and a bit of the color of the cloth on the top edge of the rear panel.
247. McPHEE, John. Levels of the Game. NY: FSG (1969). An account of a landmark tennis match between Arthur Ashe, the first world-class African-American tennis player, and Clark Graebner, "a middle-class white conservative dentist's son from Cleveland." A detailed, point-by-point account of the match, and an exploration of their different tennis styles that sheds light on their different backgrounds and lives and, by extension, the larger cultural differences to be found within American society. Slight abrasion front flyleaf; still fine in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
248. McPHEE, John. Encounters with the Archdruid. NY: FSG (1971). Three essays in which McPhee orchestrates a dialogue/confrontation between "archdruid" David Brower -- a former head of the Sierra Club and founder of the more radical environmental group, Friends of the Earth -- and several advocates of development and the responsible exploitation of the earth's resources. An engaging look at a complex subject, rendered accessible through McPhee's luminous prose and his choice of articulate subjects. Brower died recently, and the obituaries hailed him as one of the most important, if not the most important figure in the environmental movement in America in the 20th century. McPhee lets Brower speak, and argue, here and creates one of the clearest portraits we have both of this key advocate for the environment and also of the issues that compelled him, and to which he devoted his life. Very faint dampstaining to the foredge, reflected in two short strips of dampstaining on the rear flap fold; otherwise this is a fine copy in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
249. McPHEE, John. Annals of the Former World. NY: FSG (1983). A two-volume limited edition, reprinting two of McPhee's books on geology, Basin and Range and In Suspect Terrain, in a uniform binding and pictorial slipcase, each volume signed by the author. One of 450 numbered copies, although it turns up less frequently than the limitation alone would seem to warrant. Fine in the publisher's slipcase. A later collection, which added three more of McPhee's works on geology but was published under this same title, won the Pulitzer Prize for 1998.
250. McPHEE, John. La Place de la Concorde Suisse. NY: FSG (1984). A review copy. What began as a piece on the ubiquitous Swiss Army knife became an extended essay on the Swiss Army itself. Top edge foxed; else fine in a fine dust jacket.
251. McPHERSON, James Alan. A Region Not Home. (NY): Simon & Schuster (1999). The uncorrected proof copy of this collection of autobiographical essays by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Elbow Room; his second book in the last three years, after a 20 year hiatus from publishing. Fine in wrappers.
252. MENDELSOHN, Jane. Innocence. NY: Riverhead Books, 2000. The advance reading copy of the second novel by the author of I Was Amelia Earhart; the film rights to this title were bought by Killer Films, who made Boys Don't Cry. Fine in wrappers, with publicity material laid in, including a sheet in which Mendelsohn talks about the creation of Innocence.
253. MILLER, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. NY: Viking, 1949. By consensus the most important play by one of the leading American playwrights of the postwar era. Winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. Signed by the author. Faintly edge-sunned cloth; else fine in a very near fine dust jacket with trace wear at the spine extremities. A very attractive copy of a modern classic.
254. MILLER, Henry. Tropic of Cancer. NY: Grove Press (1961). The first authorized American edition, preceded by the Medvsa piracy of 1940. Of a total first printing of 30,000 copies, this is one of 100 numbered copies for private distribution that were specially bound and signed by the author. This copy is from the library of June Mansfield, Miller's second wife and first muse. Slight rubbing to the corners and spine ends; else fine, without dust jacket, as issued.
255. MILLER, Henry. The Colossus of Maroussi. Norfolk: New Directions (1941)[1946]. The second American edition. An account of Miller's travels in Greece, heavily steeped in mystical philosophy, which caused the book to be turned down by numerous publishers before finally being accepted by William Roth of the Colt Press in San Francisco in 1941. This edition bears the 1941 date, but is believed to have been published in 1946. Faint corner bump; still fine in a near fine, internally tape-strengthened dust jacket.
256. MOODY, Rick. The Ice Storm. Boston: Little Brown (1994). His second book, made into a film by Ang Lee that won an award at Cannes, for best screenplay adaptation from a novel, and was the only American film to be honored at Cannes that year. Moody was selected by the New Yorker for its list of the "20 Best Young Writers" in America. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
257. MORRISON, Toni. Jazz. NY: Knopf, 1992. A review copy of the first trade edition of this novel by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Beloved, who has also won the Nobel Prize. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
258. MURAKAMI, Haruki. Norwegian Wood. NY: Vintage Books (2000). The uncorrected proof copy of the first American edition, published as a Vintage International paperback original. Fine in wrappers.
259. MURDOCH, Iris. Sartre. Cambridge: Bowes & Bowes (1953). Her first book, a critical essay published in the Studies in Modern European Literature and Thought series. Signed by the author. Owner name in pencil above Murdoch's signature, otherwise a fine copy in a near fine, lightly spine-tanned dust jacket with one edge tear at the front flap fold. Uncommon, especially signed.
260. MURDOCH, Iris. Under the Net. London: Chatto & Windus, 1954. Her first novel. Some trace edge foxing and a slight spine roll; very near fine in a very good, spine-faded dust jacket with a thumbnail-sized chip at the spine crown and a smaller chip at the heel. Still an attractive copy of an uncommon first novel.
261. MURDOCH, Iris. The Sandcastle. London: Chatto & Windus, 1957. Her third novel. Signed by the author. A couple small ink numbers hidden by the front flap, else fine in a near fine dust jacket with slight fraying at the spine extremities. A scarce book in the first edition in dust jacket, and more so signed.
262. MURDOCH, Iris. The Bell. London: Chatto & Windus, 1958. Her fourth novel and the first of her books to portray the complicated and sophisticated sexual relationships for which she has become well-known. Signed by the author. A faint strip of offsetting to the rear flyleaf; otherwise a fine copy in a near fine, lightly spine-tanned dust jacket with trace wear at the corners. With a review of the book from the Times Literary Supplement laid in. A nice copy.
263. MURDOCH, Iris. A Severed Head. London: Chatto & Windus, 1961. Signed by the author. Slight spine slant; else fine in a near fine dust jacket with very light rubbing at the corners and folds.
264. MURDOCH, Iris. An Unofficial Rose. London: Chatto & Windus, 1962. Signed by the author. A fine copy in a near fine, faintly spine-tanned dust jacket with a shallow surface scratch to the front panel. With a bookmark laid in announcing the title as a Book Society Choice. A very attractive copy.
265. MURDOCH, Iris. The Unicorn. London: Chatto & Windus, 1963. Signed by the author. Very slight offsetting to front flyleaf from the laying in of two news clippings about Murdoch; still a fine copy in a very near fine dust jacket with just a bit of dust-soiling to the white rear panel and one tiny, closed edge tear.
266. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. Dampstaining surrounding the spine, some light creasing; very good in wrappers.
267. MURDOCH, Iris. Something Special. NY: Norton (2000). The advance reading copy of this posthumously published story, an excerpt of which appeared in an anthology in the 1950s. With illustrations by Michael McCurdy. Fine in wrappers.