Catalog 116, Awards, N-O
289. NERUDA, Pablo. Aqui Estoy. Paris, 1938. A book of poems on the Spanish Civil War clandestinely published by friends of the author in an edition of approximately 300 copies (according to Becco) during the war. Uncut, unopened folio sheets in a mildly worn portfolio. Very scarce.
290. NERUDA, Pablo. Tercera Residencia. Buenos Aires: Losada (1947). The correct first edition of this collection by the Chilean Nobel Prize winner, the third volume in his "Residence on Earth" sequence, begun in 1933 and considered one of his masterpieces. This volume includes some of the first of his most overtly, and passionately, political poems, written while he was in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, and as he saw the Spanish Republic fall to the Fascists under Franco. Neruda remained politically active and outspoken for the rest of his life, although, unlike many writers absorbed by politics, he did not let it dull his sensuality or lessen his passion for the romantic and the aesthetic. Erasures to title page; foxing to page edges and covers; still a tight, very good copy in wrappers.
291. NERUDA, Pablo. La Barcarola. Buenos Aires: Losada (1967). A long poem by the Chilean Nobel Prize winner, printed on different-colored pages. Front hinge cracked and repaired, thus only good in self-wrappers.
292. NERUDA, Pablo. Nobel Lecture. (n.p.):(FSG)(1974). Printer's sample pages. Two sheets, folded in half, printing the text of pp. 2-3, 36-37, and one page of specs. Fine. Scarce publishing ephemera.
293. NEUGEBOREN, Jay. Corky's Brother. NY: FSG (1969). A review copy of his third book, a collection of stories and a novella, set in the ghettos of New York City. The title novella won the Transatlantic Review Novella Award and is the story of a baseball player that displays, as did Neugeboren's first book, the author's propensity for using sports as a metaphor for, and a window onto, the problems of the larger society. Inscribed by the author in 1976. Fine in dust jacket.
294. -. Same title. The uncorrected proof copy. Inscribed by the author in 1976. One corner crease, slight dust soiling; still near fine in tall, ringbound wrappers.
295. NIATUM, Duane. Songs for the Harvester of Dreams. Seattle: U. of Washington Press (1981). A collection of poetry that won the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation in 1982. Inscribed by the author. Fine copy in a very good dust jacket rubbed at the folds and with two short gutter tears. Together with a typed copy of the poem "To Love" first written in 1964 and revised in May of 1975. The page is inscribed by Niatum and dated 5/75. Folded in fourths; near fine.
296. -. Another copy, unsigned. Previous owner name on front free endpaper, otherwise fine in near fine dust jacket.
297. NORMAN, Howard. The Wishing Bone Cycle. NY: Stonehill Publishing (1976). Swampy Cree Indian narrative poems, translated by Norman, with a preface by poet and translator Jerome Rothenberg, founder of Alcheringa. Winner of the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the Academy of American Poets. This is the scarce hardcover issue; there was a simultaneous issue in wrappers. This is also Norman's first book from a regular trade publisher, rather than a small press; two of his later books of fiction were nominated for the National Book Award. Faint spot to top edge and faint sticker removal on front panel of jacket; else fine in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
298. 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. Inscribed by the author: "To ____ ____,/ A fellow 'member' of/ the Americal Club./ Peace,/ Tim O'Brien." Very faint spot to top edge; else fine in a very near fine dust jacket with a couple of tiny edge tears. A very nice copy of the book that secured O'Brien's reputation as the pre-eminent novelist of the American experience in Vietnam.
299. -. Same title. London: Jonathan Cape (1978). The first British edition. 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.
300. -. Same title. The uncorrected proof copy of the British edition. Spine-faded; several minor surface abrasions; very good in wrappers. Uncommon.
301. 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.
302. -. Same title, the trade edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine, first issue dust jacket.
303. -. Same title, an advance reading excerpt featuring a trial dust jacket design. Inscribed by the author. Fine in stapled wrappers.
304. OE, Kenzaburo. Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness. NY: Grove Press (1977)[1994]. A collection of four novellas by the Japanese Nobel Prize winner. Apparently a reissue, in 1994, using sheets of the first edition from 1977: the publication information indicates this is the first edition, first printing, 1977, but the softcover binding has a 1994 date as well as a sticker announcing Oe's winning the 1994 Nobel Prize. So, presumably, a second issue -- seventeen years after its original publication. A fine copy, signed by the author on the title page.
305. OE, Kenzaburo. Japan, the Ambiguous, and Myself. NY: Kodansha International, 1995. His Nobel Prize speech and other lectures. Signed by the author on the title page in both Japanese and English characters. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
306. OE, Kenzaburo. Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids. London/NY: Marion Boyars (1995). The first English language edition of his first novel, originally published in 1958, when the author was 23 years old. Signed by the author on the title page in both Japanese and English characters. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
307. OLSEN, Tillie. Tell Me a Riddle. London: Faber & Faber (1964). The first British edition of the author's first book, a highly praised collection of stories that later came to be one of the key works in the renaissance of women's writing that accompanied the feminist movement in the late 1960s and 1970s. Inscribed by the author to Seymour Lawrence under the front flap: "For the Lawrence of WAKE who still is / Tillie Olsen/ June 1965." Laid in is an autograph note signed: "This for you personally & your wife who looks/ like my Karla / I hope you can reissue these someday, with other/ pieces / And other books./ TLO/ A scrawled on picture where we met." Included is a 3 1/2-inch square black and white photo of Olsen at her desk ("scrawled on" only on verso). The note is on 4" x 6" paper; paperclip imprint, else fine. The book is near fine in a very good dust jacket with tiny chipping at the extremities. An important first book: Olsen has been widely seen as one of the most important American women writers of the postwar era, and her relatively small body of work has had a disproportionate influence both because of its quality and because of the political reality that there has been so little of it, largely due to the societal double standard imposed on women, who had been expected to subsume their careers, literary or otherwise, to the demands of raising a family, keeping house, etc. Olsen began writing in the 1930s but didn't publish a book for nearly thirty years because of the demands of economic survival. The title novella of this collection won the O. Henry Award for the best story published the year it came out and later became one of the most widely taught and anthologized stories of the modern canon. Olsen's hope declared in the above note was realized: Lawrence re-published this book in 1969; he also published her next books.
308. O'NAN, Stewart. Snow Angels. NY: Doubleday (1994). His second book, first novel. Winner of the 1993 Pirates Alley William Faulkner Prize for the Novel. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
309. ONDAATJE, Michael. The English Patient. (Toronto): McClelland & Stewart (1992). The first Canadian edition of his Booker Prize-winning novel, the basis for an award winning film. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
310. - Same title. NY: Knopf, 1992. The uncorrected proof copy of the first American edition. Fine in wrappers, with promotional sheets laid in.
311. O'NEILL, Eugene. Inscriptions: Eugene O'Neill to Carlotta Monterey O'Neill. New Haven: Privately Printed/(Yale University), 1960. One of 500 copies, a limited edition that reproduces in facsimile, and in print, the inscriptions from O'Neill to his wife that are in the O'Neill collection at Yale, and which were donated by Carlotta. Fine in glassine and slipcase. O'Neill was the recipient of the 1936 Nobel Prize for literature.