Catalog 111, N-R
269. NAIPAUL, V.S. A Bend in the River. (London): Andre Deutsch (1979). A novel of modern Africa that was something of a breakthrough book for Naipaul, at least in the U.S. A front-page review in The New York Times Book Review brought him long-overdue attention and commercial success in this country. Faint foxing to top edge; still fine in a fine price-clipped jacket with a slight crease to the spine crown. One of the Modern Library's books of the 20th century.
270. NICHOLS, John. The Magic Journey. NY: Holt Rinehart Winston (1978). The uncorrected proof copy of the second, and scarcest, book in Nichols' acclaimed New Mexico trilogy, which began with The Milagro Beanfield War and concluded with The Nirvana Blues. Modest diagonal creasing to front wrapper; literary agency stamp front and rear wrappers; near fine. A very scarce proof: we have only seen one other copy over the years.
271. NOON, Jeff. Needle in the Groove. (London): Anchor (1999). An unusual and experimental novel about rock and roll by the author of Vurt and Pollen, among others. Signed by the author. Fine in wrappers.
272. OATES, Joyce Carol. Blonde. (NY): Ecco Press (1999). The advance reading copy of this novel, a fictional biography of Marilyn Monroe and the first acquisition by Ecco in its incarnation as an imprint of HarperCollins. Nominated for the National Book Award. The first printing was 100,000 copies. Fine in wrappers.
273. O'BRIAN, Patrick. Men-of-War. London: Collins (1974). A nonfiction overview of life in the 18th century British navy, intended in part as a companion volume to his highly regarded Aubrey/Maturin series of historical novels. Small thin quarto, heavily illustrated. Owner signature; fine in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
274. O'BRIAN, Patrick. The Mauritius Command. London: Collins, 1977. The uncorrected proof copy of this early volume in the series of maritime novels featuring Captain Jack Aubrey. Routing initials on flyleaf; corner bump and spine slant; read; a near fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with wear at the spine crown.
275. O'BRIEN, Edna. James Joyce. (n.p.): Viking (1999). The uncorrected proof copy of this volume in the Penguin Lives Biography series. Fine in wrappers.
276. O'BRIEN, Tim. If I Die in a Combat Zone. (n.p.): Delacorte Press (1973). His first book, a highly praised memoir of the Vietnam war in which O'Brien uses some of the techniques of fiction to convey the experience with immediacy and power. Sunning to the board edges, as is usual with this title; else a fine copy in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket with one small edge tear, a tiny spot of dampening on the verso of the rear panel, and some creasing to the flap folds. In all, despite the tiny flaws, a beautiful copy of one of the scarcest first books of its era.
277. O'BRIEN, Tim. Northern Lights. London: Marion Boyars (1976). The first British edition of the author's second book and first novel, a tale of two brothers in the wilderness of northern Minnesota, one of them a war veteran, the other a veteran of the protests against that war. Of a total edition of 2000 copies, only 900 were bound up in hardcover, the rest being issued in softcover a year later. This copy is fine in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
278. O'BRIEN, Tim. Going After Cacciato. (NY): Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence (1978). His third book, a magical realist novel about a recruit who decides to walk away from the Vietnam war and go to Paris overland. Winner of the National Book Award and one of the literary classics of the war. A fine copy in a very near fine dust jacket with trace shelfwear.
279. O'BRIEN, Tim. A Reading By Tim O'Brien. (n.p.): Mount Holyoke College, 1993. A broadside announcement of an O'Brien reading on April 1, 1993. 13" x 23". Printed in off-white, red and blue, and matted in white to approximately 18" x 28". Signed by O'Brien and dated on the day of the reading. Fine.
280. OLIVER, Mary. The Leaf and the Cloud. (Cambridge): De Capo Press (2000). The uncorrected proof copy of this book-length poem by an author who has won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Quarto; fine in wrappers.
281. O'NAN, Stewart. The Circus Fire. NY: Doubleday (2000). The advance reading copy of O'Nan's examination of the great Hartford circus fire of 1944, the first book of nonfiction by the author of such highly praised novels as Snow Angels and The Names of the Dead. Fine in wrappers.
282. ONDAATJE, Michael. Anil's Ghost. NY: Knopf, 2000. Uncorrected proof copies of the first American edition. Two states: the first state is larger, approximately 6 1/4" x 9 1/4"; the second state is approximately 5 5/8" x 8 3/8" and, among other format changes, has the cover art bound in. For both:
283. ORWELL, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. London: Secker & Warburg, 1949. The uncorrected proof copy of his classic dystopia, a chilling extrapolation of the political tendencies in postwar Great Britain and one of the most influential works of the century -- a work whose very title became a synonym for an oppressive police state, and which introduced to the language and the political vernacular such words and phrases (and ideas) as "thought police," "newspeak," "doublethink," and "Big Brother." One of Pringle's hundred best science fiction novels, a Burgess 99 and Connolly 100 title, and also chosen as one of the novels of the century by the Modern Library, Radcliffe, Waterstones and the New York Public Library. Some pages unopened; less than a handful of pages have edge chips, not affecting any text; one page has a closed tear. The front cover is creased near the spine fold; the spine is creased from glue. A near fine copy in plain sea blue wrappers. A rare state of one of the defining books of the modern era; we have never seen a proof copy of the true first edition offered for sale before.
284. ORWELL, George. The Road to Wigan Pier. NY: Harcourt Brace (1958). The first American edition of this passionate book documenting unemployment and working class life in Depression England. Originally published in 1937 and issued by the Left Book Club. Fine in a near fine, lightly rubbed dust jacket with light wear at the spine extremities.
285. OUSPENSKY, P.D. The Symbolism of the Tarot. St. Petersburg, Russia: (n.p.), 1913. An essay on the Tarot by one of the most prominent metaphysical thinkers of the early part of the 20th century. Ouspensky wrote Tertium Organum: A Key to the Enigmas of the World in 1912, essentially a psychological handbook to higher consciousness. In 1915 he became a student of G.I. Gurdjieff, and he later moved to England and spent much of the rest of his life promoting and explicating Gurdjieff's ideas on spirituality, consciousness and evolution. This short volume attempts to integrate the Tarot in a mystical tradition that embraces alchemy, the Kabbalah, and other streams of metaphysical thought through the ages. Front cover detached and edge-soiled; rear cover absent and rear page (blank) chipping from stapled spine as well. Otherwise a very good copy of a scarce volume, published in Russia just prior to the outbreak of World War I and before the Bolshevik Revolution.
286. PHILLIPS, Jayne Anne. MotherKind. NY: Knopf, 2000. The uncorrected proof copy of her new novel. Fine in wrappers.
287. PLATH, Sylvia. The Colossus and Other Poems. London: Heinemann (1960). The first edition of the author's first book, preceding its U.S. publication. The only collection of poetry published in her lifetime -- by a writer who is nonetheless universally considered among the most influential poets of the postwar era. Only one other of her books was published before she committed suicide -- the autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, which was issued just weeks before she died. This is a fine copy in a white dust jacket with the usual tanning to the spine as well as general surface soiling, but very light edge wear; still about near fine.
288. PLATH, Sylvia. Pursuit. (Hampstead): Rainbow Press, 1973. A collection of poems, only one of which had been previously collected. Printed in an edition of 100 copies, designed and illustrated by Leonard Baskin, an old friend of Plath's from her days at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where Baskin lived. Laid in is an etching by the artist, one of 100 numbered copies signed by Baskin. Leatherbound; fine in slipcase. Easily the most attractive of the many limited editions of Plath's work that have been done since her death.
289. (Pocket Poets Series). BLY, Robert. The Teeth-Mother Naked at Last. (San Francisco): City Lights Books (1970). The first book edition of this powerful anti-war poem, which was widely distributed in a number of formats at the height of the protests against the Vietnam War. Owner name. Near fine in wrappers.
290. -. Another copy. Small abrasion to front cover; mild offsetting to rear cover. Near fine in wrappers.
291. (Pocket Poets Series). LAMANTIA, Philip. Selected Poems 1943-1966. (San Francisco): City Lights Books (1967). Very slightly spine-tanned but still fine in wrappers. A nice copy of this collection of poems by one of the key figures of the San Francisco poetry scene in its heyday.
292. (Pocket Poets Series). PARRA, Nicanor. Anti-Poems. San Francisco: City Lights Books (1960). A collection of poems by the award-winning Chilean poet, who has been mentioned as a possible Nobel Prize candidate many times over the last two decades. Spine folds rubbed; else fine in wrappers.
293. (Pocket Poets Series). PICASSO, Pablo. Hunk of Skin. (San Francisco): City Lights Books (1968). The first American edition of this volume of poetry by the noted artist, with a short introduction by Camilo José Cela, the Spanish Nobel Prize winner, and a note by translator Paul Blackburn in which he thanks Argentine novelist Julio Cortazar for his help with the translations. Fine in wrappers.
294. (Pocket Poets Series). ROTHENBERG, Jerome. New Young German Poets. San Francisco: City Lights Books (1959). Edited and translated by Rothenberg, his first book. Rothenberg went on to became a highly regarded poet in his own right and a champion of ethnopoetics, founding the influential journal Alcheringa. Owner name. Near fine in wrappers.
295. PRICE, Reynolds. Things Themselves. NY: Atheneum, 1972. A collection of essays and other short pieces. Fine in a near fine, surface-soiled dust jacket with one internally tape-mended edge tear.
296. PRICE, Reynolds. Feasting the Heart. NY: Scribner (2000). The advance reading copy of this collection of 52 pieces that first aired on National Public Radio's All Things Considered. Fine in wrappers.
297. PRITCHETT, V.S. The Living Novel. NY: Reynal & Hitchcock (1947). Pritchett's survey of English writers. Near fine in a very good, price-clipped dust jacket with light edge wear and a short slice to the spine.
298. PROSE, Francine. Blue Angel. (NY): HarperCollins (2000). The advance reading copy of her most recent novel, which has been nominated for the National Book Award. Near fine in wrappers.
299. PROULX, Annie. Heart Songs and Other Stories. NY: Scribner (1988). Her first work of fiction, a well-received collection of stories that are firmly rooted among the people and places of northern New England. Tiny spot to a top board edge; still fine in a near fine dust jacket with several edge tears and a few pen marks on the verso of the jacket, not visible on the outside.
300. PROULX, Annie. The Shipping News. NY: Scribner (1993). Uncorrected proof copy of her third work of fiction and second novel, which won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize -- a rare literary "double" that firmly established her as one of the preeminent writers in America today. This tale is set in a coastal town of Newfoundland and was highly praised for its sense of place as well as for its characterizations and story. Fine in wrappers.
301. RAPHAELSON, Samson. The Jazz Singer. NY: Brentano's (1925). The play that formed the basis for the 1927 movie with Al Jolson, and which was the first full-length feature film with sound. Signed by Raphaelson at Christmas in the year of publication. Faint foredge foxing; else fine in a near fine, spine-faded dust jacket with one chip at the lower rear flap fold.
302. ROTH, Philip. Zuckerman Bound. NY: FSG (1985). The uncorrected proof copy of the previously unpublished epilogue to the Zuckerman trilogy: The Ghost Writer, Zuckerman Unbound and The Anatomy Lesson. This is the only separate publication of the epilogue. Fine in wrappers.
303. ROTH, Philip. The Human Stain. Boston/NY: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. The advance reading copy of his most recent novel, published to enormous critical acclaim. One slight corner bump, else fine in wrappers.
304. RUSHDIE, Salman. Midnight's Children. NY: Knopf, 1981. The first American edition of the author's second book, winner of Britain's Booker Prize and the first book in his ambitious sequence of novels of the Muslim world, which culminated in The Satanic Verses and the death sentence that was imposed on him by Moslem fundamentalists. The American edition is the true first, preceding the British (they were both printed in this country). An important book that launched Rushdie's literary career as it represented a quantum leap from the subject matter and accomplishment of his first novel. This title was later named as the outstanding title among all the Booker Prize winners -- the so-called "Booker of Bookers," and Rushdie has since completed work on the screenplay. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with a bit of the usual spine fading and a tiny tear at the crown.
305. RUSHDIE, Salman. Shame. London: Jonathan Cape (1983). The second in his series of books dealing with Islam and the countries of the East, beginning with Midnight's Children and ending with The Satanic Verses. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Signed by the author. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket rubbed along the folds.
306. RUSHDIE, Salman. The Jaguar Smile. A Nicaraguan Journey. London: Picador/Pan (1987). His fourth book and first book of nonfiction, a politically charged account of a trip the author took to Nicaragua during the Sandinista years. Only issued in wrappers in the U.K., although the later U.S. edition was done in hardcover. Fine, and surprisingly scarce.
307. RUSHDIE, Salman. The Moor's Last Sigh. London: Cape (1995). A leatherbound limited edition of this novel that was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. One of 100 numbered copies bound in green full leather, all edges gilt, in a green cloth slipcase. Signed by the author. Fine in slipcase.