Catalog 116, Awards, I-L
207. JIN, Ha. Waiting. NY: Pantheon (1999). The advance reading copy of the author's second novel, after two award-winning collections of short stories and two volumes of poetry. Surprise winner of the National Book Award. Fine in wrappers, with publisher's promotional material laid in.
208. JOHNSON, Charles. Middle Passage. (London): Picador/Pan (1991). The uncorrected proof copy of the first British edition of his National Book Award-winning novel. Fine in wrappers.
209. JOHNSTON, George. My Brother Jack. London/Sydney: Collins, 1964. Miles Franklin Award winner and a modern classic of Australian literature. The first of a trilogy of autobiographical novels, of which the second also won the Miles Franklin Award, and the third was incomplete at the time of his death and published posthumously. Foxing to first few pages and page edges; otherwise near fine in a price-clipped dust jacket with tape shadows at the spine crown and lower rear flap fold. An attractive copy.
210. KAIKO, Takeshi. Into a Black Sun. Tokyo: Kodansha (1980). A novel by a Japanese reporter, about the Vietnam war in the years 1964 and '65. Kaiko covered the war during those years and was a "guest" of the Viet Cong for a time -- i.e., detained by them. The protagonist of this novel is also a Japanese journalist covering the war. This novel was first published in Japan in 1968, where it won the Mainichi Cultural Prize. Slight corner bump; else fine in a price-clipped dust jacket.
211. KANON, Joseph. Los Alamos. NY: Broadway Books (1997). His first novel, a thriller set during World War II in Los Alamos, New Mexico, the site of the program to develop the first atom bomb. Winner of an Edgar Award for best first novel. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
212. KENEALLY, Thomas. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith. (NY): Viking (1972). The first American edition of a novel based on a historical incident in Australia at the turn of the century involving an Aboriginal uprising against racist oppression. Winner of a Heinemann Award from the Royal Society of Literature in Great Britain. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
213. KENEALLY, Thomas. Schindler's Ark. London: Hodder & Stoughton (1982). The true first edition of the book that became Schindler's List when published in the U.S. and which was the basis for the Academy Award-winning Spielberg film. Winner of the Booker Prize, the most prestigious literary award in Great Britain. Keneally is Australian and his books are usually published there first; in this case, however, the U.K. edition precedes even the Australian edition. This title had more than a decade to disappear before the film came out and renewed interest in it. Although we don't have any figures for the print run of the first edition, it came at a point in Keneally's career when he would likely have been considered by his publisher a "mid-list" author -- one whose books would be well-received and reach a small, cultured audience, but had little commercial potential. Normally publishers cut back both the print runs and the advertising budgets for authors who seem to have proven to have limited commercial appeal, a self-reinforcing process that often ends up creating the situation that an author's scarcest books are those from the middle or latter part of his or her career. Very near fine in a near fine dust jacket with some scratches to the lamination.
214. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof of the British edition. Fine in wrappers.
215. KENNEDY, William. Ironweed. (NY): Viking (1983). The uncorrected proof copy of his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and the third book in his acclaimed "Albany sequence." Fine in wrappers.
216. KINSELLA, Thomas. Poems & Translations. NY: Atheneum, 1961. The first book to be published in the U.S. by this Irish poet. Winner of the Irish Arts Council's Triennial Book Award. Signed by the author. This is the issue in wrappers; there was also a simultaneous hardcover edition. Near fine.
217. KIPLING, Rudyard. The Five Nations. London: Methuen, 1903. First issue. Spine cloth faded, page edges foxed, front flyleaf torn, and a few pages crimped at top. A good, presentable copy, lacking the dust jacket. Kipling won the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature.
218. KOSINSKI, Jerzy. Steps. NY: Random House (1968). Kosinski's second novel, and second book published under his own name, after the highly acclaimed The Painted Bird. This title won the National Book Award. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket.
219. -. Another copy, presumably a review copy: "Courtesy of Antioch Review" stamped on front pastedown; else fine in a near fine dust jacket.
220. -. Another copy. Poets House Library bookplate; else fine in a near fine dust jacket.
221. -. Another copy. Owner name front flyleaf, else fine in a very good dust jacket with some abrasion and surface wear to the unlaminated jacket and very light chipping at the spine extremities.
222. KUNDERA, Milan. Life is Elsewhere. NY: Knopf, 1974. The first American edition of the second novel by the author of The Joke and The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Winner of the French Medicis Award as the best foreign novel published that year in France. Small label removal shadow front pastedown and a small bit of faint staining to the spine base; else fine in a very near fine dust jacket with slight wear at the crown.
223. -. Another copy. Near fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket with slight, blended dampstaining across the base of the spine.
224. LAGERKVIST, Pär. The Sibyl. NY: Random House (1958). The first American edition of this novel by the Swedish Nobel Prize winner, which is widely thought to contain some of his most beautiful writing, and which introduces the character Ahasuerus, a figure who appears in the rest of Lagerkvist's group of philosophical novels. Owner bookplate and ownership stamp front endpaper; otherwise fine in a spine-tanned dust jacket with wear at the crown; about near fine.
225. LAGERKVIST, Pär. Evening Land. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1975. An advance copy of this bilingual edition of poetry, co-translated by W.H. Auden and not published until after both Auden's and Lagerkvist's deaths. Ringbound galley sheets, reproducing numerous editorial markings in the Swedish text. The segment above the window in the front cardstock cover is absent; near fine. A poorly manufactured proof, which we suspect is an indication of its having been done in very small quantities.
226. LAHIRI, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies. Boston/NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1999. The uncorrected proof copy of her first book, a collection of stories published as a paperback original that went on to win the Pulitzer Prize, the PEN Hemingway Award, and the New Yorker Debut Award. The New Yorker also chose her as one of 20 young writers to watch for the 21st century. Fine in wrappers with publicity sheet and author photo laid in.
227. LAVIN, Mary. Tales from Bective Bridge. Boston: Little Brown (1942). The first American edition of her first book, issued in an edition of 999 copies and preceding the British edition, which was the winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Light bump to spine base and mild foxing to page edges; a very good copy in a good, spine-faded dust jacket with several spots on the front cover.
228. LEE, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia: Lippincott (1960). Her only book, a huge bestseller that was reprinted dozens of times upon publication, won the Pulitzer Prize, was selected for two different book clubs, and was made into an Academy Award-winning movie. It has sold several million copies in the decades since, never going out of print. While hardcover copies abound because of the numerous printings and book club editions, the first edition (which has been estimated at having been 5000 copies) is not only very scarce, it is virtually impossible to find in collectable condition due to a number of factors: a large percentage of copies of the first printing went to libraries; the dust jacket is unlaminated and printed in dark ink, which tends to rub and show the white paper through the ink; and, because it is one of the best-loved books in American literature, copies tend to have been read, handled, passed around, and re-read -- and show the wear and tear of such use. This copy has a gift inscription on the front flyleaf, a tiny faint spot on the top page edges, and a small bit of residue from a previous jacket protector on the lower boards and front flyleaf. The jacket has been restored: internally strengthened with the addition of appropriate colors at the edges and folds. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. One of the high spots of postwar American literature. With a custom clamshell box.
229. LEHANE, Dennis. Gone Baby Gone. NY: Morrow (1998). His fourth mystery featuring Boston detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro; winner of the Dilys Award. Lehane's book A Drink Before the War won the Shamus Award. Signed by the author. Bumped at the crown; else fine in a fine dust jacket.
230. LESLEY, Craig. Winterkill. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984. The uncorrected proof copy of his first book, a dual award winner from the Western Writers of America -- winning both the Spur Award for best novel and the Medicine Pipe Bearers Award for best first novel, a rare double. Fine in wrappers.
231. LEWIS, Sinclair. Our Mr. Wrenn. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1914. His first book under his own name, after the 1912 Hike and the Aeroplane by "Tom Graham." Lewis, the author of such classics as Babbitt, Main Street, Elmer Gantry and Arrowsmith, all published in the 1920s, won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1930, the first American writer to win that award. Modest overall handling; near fine, lacking the dust jacket.
232. LEWIS, Sinclair. It Can't Happen Here. Garden City: Doubleday Doran, 1935. A novel of fascism coming to America, written at a time when Europe was coming under the sway of various fascist dictators. Inscribed by the author: "To Roy Grimmer/ from his friend/ + sometime patient/ Sinclair Lewis." Light flaking to spine gilt; near fine in a very good dust jacket with light edge-chipping.
233. LITTLE, Loyd. Parthian Shot. NY: Viking (1975). A review copy of the author's first novel, winner of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award. Set in Vietnam in 1964 among a group of Green Beret advisors in a small Vietnamese hamlet. Fine in a fine dust jacket with one nick at the crown.
234. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. "Senior Center Library" stamps to all page edges; else fine in wrappers. The published price was changed from the price indicated on the proof. Not a proof we have seen often.
235. LOWELL, Robert. Life Studies. NY: Farrar, Straus, Cudahy (1959). Lowell's fourth book, a collection of poems and an autobiographical fragment; winner of the National Book Award. Fine in a price-clipped, black dust jacket with some rubbing; about near fine.
236. LURIE, Alison. Foreign Affairs. Franklin Center: Franklin Library, 1984. The correct first edition of her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Leatherbound, all edges gilt, with a silk ribbon marker bound in and an introduction by Lurie for this edition. Foredge bumped; else fine. Signed by the author.
237. -. Same title. NY: Random House (1984). The uncorrected proof copy of the trade edition. Near fine in wrappers. Uncommon.