Catalog 112, T-Z
231. THOMAS, Dylan. Selected Writings of Dylan Thomas. (NY): New Directions (1946). A later printing. Inscribed by Thomas to the author David Markson: "from Dylan in the West End/ Tavern to Dave under the/ volcano./ 1952/ In London, 54 Delancey St, Camden/ Town, N.W.1./ In Wales, Boat House, Laugharne,/ Carmarthenshire, Wales." With Markson's ownership signature on the front pastedown and his initials on the bottom edge and a photograph of the two authors taped (tape failing) to the front pastedown. Markson wrote his master's thesis on Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano in the early Fifties and published Malcolm Lowry's Volcano: Myth, Symbol, Meaning, the first major critical study of Lowry's masterpiece, in 1978. Underlining (presumably Markson's) in text; tape shadows on rear pastedown; cloth faded at spine and worn a bit at the extremities. Near fine in a very good price-clipped jacket chipped along the top edge.
232. TILGHMAN, Christopher. In a Father's Place. NY: FSG (1990). Tilghman's first book, a well-received collection of stories. Signed by the author and additionally warmly inscribed to writer Andre Dubus, at great length in the month of publication, in part: "Your encouragement and generosity are behind every word." Dubus is acknowledged by Tilghman on the copyright page and he also provides a dust jacket blurb.
233. VONNEGUT, Kurt, Jr. Between Time and Timbuktu. NY: Delacorte/Lawrence (1972). A "space fantasy" for television, created by David O'Dell from works by Vonnegut, and then given to Vonnegut to "fart around with" (his words). Vonnegut does not count this as one of his own publications, but he did write a preface for the book. Inscribed by Vonnegut to his publisher, Seymour Lawrence. The relationship between Vonnegut and Lawrence began with Slaughterhouse Five, as Vonnegut writes in the text of that book: "And somewhere in there a nice man named Seymour Lawrence gave me a three-book contract, and I said, 'Okay, the first of the three will be my famous book about Dresden.'" This book is inscribed: "Sam If they/ will buy this/ they will buy/ anything, right?/ Cheers for Joel/ Schick [the book's designer] and/ creative publishing." Signed in full. Sunning to the cloth at the spine crown; else fine in a near fine dust jacket.
234. WAKEFIELD, Dan. Under the Apple Tree. (NY): Delacorte Press/Lawrence (1982). Inscribed by the author to Seymour Lawrence, the publisher: "To Sam Lawrence,/ with best wishes/ from the Apple-Pie/ American kid,/ Dan Wakefield." Wakefield is another author whom Lawrence took under his wing, publishing his first novel, Going All the Way, in 1969 and all his fiction since then. Going All the Way was a critical and commercial success and was later made into a well-received film. As he did with other writers, Lawrence kept in near-constant touch with Wakefield, sending him letters and postcards from all over the world, and always providing him with support and the explicit and implicit assurance of his unwavering faith in him as a writer. An excellent association copy. Very near fine in a near fine dust jacket creased on the front flap and mildly spine-faded.
235. WAKEFIELD, Dan. New York in the 50s. Boston/NY: Houghton Mifflin/Lawrence, 1992. The advance reading copy of this highly acclaimed memoir of the New York literary scene in the 1950s, which has been called an "American Bloomsbury." Inscribed by the author to his publisher, Seymour Lawrence, in part: "To Sam Lawrence,/ who had the idea/ for me to do this -- and/ backed it up!" Small chip and shallow slice to front cover; still about near fine in wrappers.
236. WALCOTT, Derek. The Fortunate Traveller. NY: FSG (1981). The first American edition of this collection of poems by the Nobel Prize-winning West Indian author. Inscribed by the author to Andre Dubus "with thanks" in April of 1983. Fine in a near fine dust jacket.
237. WALDMAN, Anne. Uh-Oh Plutonium! NY: Hyacinth Girls Music, 1982. A 45 rpm record featuring a bilingual rendition of a single poem by Waldman. (The B side is in French.) The text is printed on the sleeve, which is inscribed by Waldman to the poet Ai "with gratitude for her reading." Waldman, a Beat poet who directed the Poetry Project at St. Mark's in New York -- an important center for "underground" poetry in the 1960s -- co-founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa Institute with Allen Ginsberg and became the Director and head of the MFA writing program there.Fine in a near fine sleeve.
238. WALKER, Alice. The Color Purple. NY: HBJ (1982). A later printing of her Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning novel, a surprise bestseller that was made into a film by Steven Spielberg. Inscribed by the author to Ai, another African-American female poet. A nice association copy of Walker's breakthrough book, which established her as a major literary voice of our times and helped herald a renaissance of writing by African-American women. Remainder stripe; very near fine in a price-clipped dust jacket worn at the spine crown.
239. WAUGH, Evelyn. The Holy Places. London: Queen Anne Press, 1952. One of a total edition of 950 numbered copies. This copy has been inscribed by the author to Anne Ford, the publicity director of Little Brown who was Waugh's publisher in the U.S. Written in pencil on the front flyleaf is Ford's note to return the book to her, and her address in Boston. Laid in is a 3" x 4" black and white photograph of Waugh taken in his private residential garden, circa 1952. Very near fine in a darkened, very good jacket with several small chips and edge tears.
240. WELCH, James. The Death of Jim Loney. NY: Harper & Row (1979). The second and perhaps scarcest novel by this award-winning Native American author. This copy is touchingly inscribed by Welch to Raymond Carver in the month after publication. Welch is the author of Winter in the Blood, Killing Custer and the award-winning Fools Crow, among others. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with trace wear at the spine extremities.
241. WEST, Nathanael. A Cool Million. NY: Covici Friede (1934). The first edition, first issue, of the third book by the author of the classic Hollywood novel The Day of the Locust. This copy is inscribed by West to his friend and fellow novelist, Robert M. Coates, on the day before publication: "Dear Bob -/ I offer you a first-class,/ slow-trailing coon hound/ from Kentucky -- a/ real hound with a/ beautiful bell-like voice -- / and you don't even/ reply. You ingrate/ Nathanael West/ June 18, 1934/ How about coming/ down here for the bass/ fishing?" Coates was an American expatriate in Paris in the 1920s. His first novel, Eater of Darkness, is said to have been the first Dadaist novel written in English. He later joined the staff of The New Yorker magazine, for which he wrote art criticism, book reviews, Talk of the Town" pieces, and contributed numerous short stories. One of 3000 copies printed. Cloth foxed and spine tanned; very good in a very good dust jacket with repairs at the edges and fully along one seam. In a custom folding chemise and slipcase.
242. WESTMORELAND, General William C. A Soldier Reports. Garden City: Doubleday, 1976. A later printing of this memoir by the Army's field Commander in Vietnam, later Chief of Staff. Inscribed by the author to Paul Feffer in 1977. Feffer, later a media consultant, apparently worked in the government at the time of this book's publication. Top edge foxed; else fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket. With a note laid in from a publisher's representative.
243. WHITE, E.B. The Wild Flag. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1946. A series of essays on the need for a world government, written for the Notes and Comment section of The New Yorker over a period of several years. Inscribed by the author to his aunt: "For aunt Caroline/ with much love/ Andy." Cloth unevenly faded; about near fine in a very good, rubbed and spine-faded dust jacket with minor edge wear. Books signed by White are quite uncommon and most, like this one, are inscribed to close friends or relatives, using his college nickname.
244. WHITE, E.B. Letters of E.B. White. NY: Harper & Row (1976). The first and only collection of his letters, so far. Includes many letters to his wife, other family members, his editors and publishers (including one to Paul Brooks, who published The Wild Flag and also published Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, a book White said he awaited "with impatience and general gloom"). Other correspondents include Groucho Marx and John Updike, who had made White the dedicatee of his volume of poems Telephone Poles. Inscribed by White to his neighbor in 1977: "For my good neighbor/ Helen Waldron/ with love from/ Andy./" Also initialed by him ("EBW") and dated two months after publication. Offsetting to the pastedowns; bowing to the boards; very good in a very good dust jacket.
245. (WILLIAMS, Tennessee). Women. NY: Samuel M. Koontz (1948). Eleven writers wrote 11 pieces to accompany works by 11 painters shown at a 1947 exhibition. Tennessee Williams contributes "An Appreciation" of Hans Hofmann. Among the other authors are Jean-Paul Sartre, William Carlos Williams, Weldon Kees, Harold Rosenberg, Clement Greenberg and Paul Goodman. Large folio, with 12 folio sheets loosely laid in and illustrated with photographs of the artwork pasted onto the sheets. The whole is laid into near fine, edge-sunned boards in a very good printed dust jacket with tape repairs to verso. Inscribed by Williams to Jordan Massee: "For Jordan and Paul/ with love at Xmas/ Tenn and Frank." A Christmas gift to Jordan Massee and Paul Bigelow from Williams and Frank Merlo, with whom Williams had just started living, in October 1948; Williams has signed both names. Jordan Massee was Carson McCullers' cousin, and Massee's father provided the model for the character of Big Daddy in Williams' play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Massee and Paul Bigelow had a stable, long-term relationship of the sort that eluded Williams through much of his life, although the fifteen years he spent with Merlo, until Merlo died in 1963, came closest to that, at least in longevity if not in stability. A wonderful association, and one of the very few times that Williams signed on behalf of Merlo. Laid in is a photograph of Williams and Merlo in Venice.
246. WILSON, Edmund and MITCHELL, Joseph. Apologies to the Iroquois. NY: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy (1960). Wilson's indoctrination into the Indian land claim issues in upstate New York, much of which first appeared in The New Yorker. Printed together with Mitchell's "The Mohawks in High Steel." Inscribed by Wilson to noted critic and biographer Leon Edel in the year of publication: "To Leon & Roberta Edel/ This book on a subject of/ enormous interest which Henry/ James unaccountably neglected." An excellent literary association: Edel edited Wilson's notebooks and diaries after Wilson died, preparing a number of volumes for publication. Offsetting to the endpapers; otherwise a near fine copy, lacking the dust jacket.
247. WOLFF, Tobias. Back in the World. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985. A collection of short stories. Warmly inscribed by the author to Andre Dubus and his wife, in the year of publication. One story title, "The Missing Person," circled in the table of contents; a near fine copy in a very good, edgeworn dust jacket rubbed at the folds. An excellent association between two masters of short fiction. Wolff's novella, The Barracks Thief, won the PEN/Faulkner Award. His memoir, This Boy's Life, was made into a well-received movie.
248. WRIGHT, Charles. The Venice Notebook. (Boston): (Barn Dream Press) (1971). The third book by this poet who won the National Book Award in 1995. This copy is inscribed by the author to the poet Ai (Florence Anthony) in 1972: "For Flozzie/ desert Sappho." Minor surface abrasions, but chipped and nibbled at the spine extremities, thus about very good in wrappers.
249. WRIGHT, Charles. Hard Freight. Middletown: Wesleyan U. Press (1973). The issue in wrappers of this collection of poems, which was a National Book Award finalist in 1974. Inscribed by the author to Ai in 1975. Rubbed; near fine.