Catalog 115, O-R
181. O'BRIEN, Tim. Going After Cacciato. London: Jonathan Cape (1978). The first British edition of 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. Signed by the author. Page 171 a cancel; faint sticker shadow front pastedown, else fine in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket, with a new price sticker on the flap, as usual.
182. O'BRIEN, Tim. The Things They Carried. Franklin Center: Franklin Library, 1990. The limited edition and the correct first edition of his fifth book, chosen by The New York Times Book Review as one of the dozen best books of the year, in all categories. By broad consensus one of the best works of fiction to come out of the Vietnam war, and a book that straddles, or blurs, several usually distinct categories: it resembles a novel -- with characters that recur throughout the individual episodes; a memoir (the main character is named "Tim O'Brien" and bears many similarities to the author); and a collection of short stories, related but essentially independent. Whatever its category, it is a candidate to be considered the Vietnam war's equivalent to The Red Badge of Courage -- a straightforward story told from the perspective of one participant in the fighting, which rings with an authenticity that is made all the more powerful by the book's appearing not to pretend to much beyond a simple recounting. The sequence of episodes, however, is couched in a series of reflections on storytelling, the nature of stories and their relation to truth, which gives the book its own context: while O'Brien writes for a contemporary audience, which shares his knowledge of Vietnam, he is also writing for the ages -- for all those who will have only the story to go by, not the experience. The collection won the Heartland Award from the Chicago Tribune and the title story won a National Magazine Award, among numerous other honors that have been heaped on this volume. Like Michael Herr's Dispatches, this is one title that seems to be included in virtually every survey course of the field of Vietnam War literature. This edition has a special introduction written by the author which gives some insight into his vision of the line between fact and fiction, and it is signed by O'Brien. Leatherbound; all edges gilt; with a silk ribbon marker. Fine.
183. -. Same title, the trade edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine, first issue dust jacket.
184. O'CONNOR, Flannery. The Artificial Nigger and Other Stories. London: Neville Spearman, 1957. The first British edition of A Good Man is Hard to Find, O'Connor's second book and first collection of the short stories for which she is most well-known. This title was printed in an edition of 2000 copies, making it the scarcest of O'Connor's major works. With the ownership signature of Andrew Salkey, the noted Caribbean poet and social critic, on the front free endpaper. Fine in a very good, spine-faded dust jacket.
185. ORWELL, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. London: Secker & Warburg (1949). The first edition 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 -- 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 is watching you." One of Pringle's hundred best science fiction novels and also 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. Mild spine sunning; else fine in a rubbed, near fine green dust jacket with shallow chipping at the crown and tips. An attractive copy of one of the defining books of the modern era.
186. PELECANOS, George P. King Suckerman. Boston: Little, Brown (1997). His sixth book, set in Washington, D.C. in the mid-1970s, and involving characters who are related to those in The Big Blowdown and who cross paths with characters from his Nick Stefanos novels. Signed by the author. Pelecanos is one of the most highly regarded of the new generation of mystery writers, widely viewed as the one who has most successfully updated the noir genre to a contemporary milieu. Fine in dust jacket. Reportedly the basis for an upcoming film by Sean "Puffy" Combs.
187. PRITCHETT, V.S. It May Never Happen. London: Chatto & Windus, 1945. A small, fragile volume of stories, produced under wartime conditions. Inscribed by the author. Fine in a very good dust jacket with a bit of spine tanning and an edge tear at the upper front panel.
188. PROSE, Francine. Animal Magnetism. NY: Putnam (1978). A review copy of her fourth book. Fine in a near fine dust jacket, with review slip and promotional material laid in. Prose's most recent novel, Blue Angel, was a National Book Award finalist this year.
189. RICE, Anne. Servant of the Bones. NY: Knopf, 1996. The uncorrected proof copy. This is the presumed first issue proof, with the first page blank rather than printing the author photo and bio. Signed by the author. Fine in medium tan wrappers. The announced first printing of this title was one million copies.
190. -. Same title, the presumed second issue of the proof, with the author bio and in light ivory wrappers. Signed by the author. Fine in wrappers.
191. ROBINSON, Marilynne. Housekeeping. NY: FSG (1980). A review copy of her first book and only fiction to date. A subtle story of keeping what matters and escaping from the weight of the rest. Winner of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award and a Richard and Hilda Rosenthal Award. Also the basis for a well-received movie. Trace edge sunning; fine in a near fine dust jacket with one small, internally tape-mended edge tear.
192. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. A bit of tearing to covers on and near the spine; just about very good in wrappers. Scarce.
193. ROTH, Philip. American Pastoral. Franklin Center: Franklin Library, 1997. The limited edition of this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Roth's four books published in the 1990s collectively won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Pen/Faulkner Award, and the National Book Award, an unprecedented accomplishment in American letters. Signed by the author. With a special introduction by Roth for this edition. Leatherbound, all edges gilt, with a silk ribbon marker bound in. Fine.
194. ROY, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. NY: Random House (1997). The advance reading copy of the first American edition of the first novel by this young Indian author. Winner of the Booker Prize. Fine in wrappers and publisher's cardstock slipcase.
195. RUSHDIE, Salman. Grimus. London: Gollancz, 1975. A review copy of the first edition of the first novel by the author of Midnight's Children, The Satanic Verses, and The Ground Beneath Her Feet, among others. This is a fantasy that is by all accounts not in the same class as his later works but is quite scarce and, by virtue of his later career, an important first book. Fine in a fine dust jacket, with publisher's review slip laid in.
196. RUSHDIE, Salman. Shame. NY: Knopf, 1983. The uncorrected proof copy of the first American edition of 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. Fine in wrappers.