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Catalog 117, A

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1. ABBEY, Edward. Desert Solitaire. New York: McGraw-Hill (1968). Abbey's first book of nonfiction, which has over the years attained the status of a classic of nature writing, comparable to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring or Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac. Subtitled "A Season in the Wilderness" but actually an account that spans several seasons, this book gives the first and clearest indication of Abbey's love for the natural beauty of the Southwest and his contempt for those who would, out of greed or simple ignorance, despoil it. Inscribed by the author in 1988. Fine in a fine dust jacket with the barest hint of rubbing to the corners. Laid in is an announcement of a reading which excerpts Desert Solitaire on the verso. A beautiful copy of what may be Abbey's most lasting contribution to the literature of place.

2. ABBEY, Edward. Black Sun. NY: Simon & Schuster (1971). His fourth novel, and the first to be published after his nonfiction classic Desert Solitaire. It has been said that this is Abbey's most personal book -- one that combines elements of his love of the outdoors and the natural world with a love story of human dimensions as well. Very slight board splaying, else fine in a near fine dust jacket with some creasing to the front flap.

3. ABBEY, Edward. The Monkey Wrench Gang. Philadelphia: Lippincott (1975). A review copy of his most famous novel, which helped popularize the radical environmental movement. A combination roman à clef and "how-to" manual for direct-action environmentalists, it summarizes Abbey's values -- his hatred of the developers/despoilers of the American Southwest, his sympathy for those who would thwart them in any way at any cost and, most important, his appreciation of the natural beauty of the desert -- from the subtleties of its ecosystems to the grandeur of its scale. Signed by the author. Small, light corner stain to three pages; else fine in a fine dust jacket with a photo of the author, but not a review slip, laid in. A very attractive copy of a book that shows wear easily and seldom turns up in this condition, let alone both signed and as an advance copy.

4. -. Same title. Salt Lake City: Dream Garden Press, 1985. The limited issue of the Tenth Anniversary Edition. One of 250 numbered copies signed by the author; laid in is a signed limited print by the illustrator, noted underground cartoonist R. Crumb: "You can't never go wrong cutting fence." Fine in a slipcase with a small edge bump.

5. ABISH, Walter. Alphabetical Africa. (NY): New Directions (1974). His first novel. Inscribed by the author in the year of publication. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Abish won the PEN Faulkner Award for How German Is It?

6. ABISH, Walter. Minds Meet. (New York): New Directions (1975). A review copy of his second book of fiction, his first major collection of stories. Inscribed by the author in the month of publication. Small binder's flaw page 7; else fine in a fine dust jacket, with review slip and promotional sheet laid in.

7. ACHEBE, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. London: Heinemann (1964). A later printing of the Nigerian author's first book, first published in 1958 and concerning the impact of the coming of the white man on village tribal life. Signed by the author in 1969. Bookplate of two poets front pastedown, one of them a former Poet Laureate of the U.S.; near fine in a near fine, spine-tanned dust jacket with a chip at the base. An attractive copy of a landmark first book, seldom found signed, and with a good association.

8. ALGREN, Nelson. The Devil's Stocking. NY: Arbor House (1983). The uncorrected proof copy of the last novel by the author of A Walk on the Wild Side and The Man With the Golden Arm. Posthumously published, with a foreword by Herbert Mitgang and a piece about Algren's last interview, written by the interviewer, W.J. Weatherby. Fine in wrappers.

9. ALLEN, Woody. Getting Even. NY: Random House (1971). His first collection, containing unpublished and published pieces, the latter primarily from The New Yorker. Signed by the author. Fine in a very near fine, price-clipped dust jacket with one short, closed edge tear at the upper front flap fold.

10. ALLEN, Woody. Side Effects. NY: Random House (1980). A collection of short, comic stories, most of which originally appeared in The New Yorker. Signed by the author. Fine in a price-clipped dust jacket, which has one short closed corner tear and which has been, unnecessarily, internally tape-strengthened at all corners; near fine.

11. AMADO, Jorge. The Two Deaths of Quincas Wateryell. NY: Knopf, 1965. The first American edition of this novella by the foremost Brazilian writer of the postwar era, author of Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, among others. A couple light pencilled notes in text; else fine in a very near fine dust jacket.

12. AMIS, Martin. The War Against Cliché. Essays and Reviews, 1971-2000. London: Jonathan Cape (2001). The uncorrected proof copy of this recently published collection. Fine in wrappers.

13. (Anthology). Poetry, Vol. 62, No. 2. (Chicago): Poetry, 1943. A Latin American issue, with work by Pablo Neruda, Gabriela Mistral, Manuel Bandeira and Gaston Figueira, among others. Very early appearances in print in English for these writers, two of whom -- Mistral and Neruda -- went on to become Nobel Prize winners. Modest sunning and handling; near fine in wrappers.

14. (Anthology). Short Stories of Latin America. NY: Las Americas Publishing Co. (1963). Stories by more than a dozen Latin American authors including Jorge Luis Borges, Ciro Alegría, Manuel Rojas, Alejo Carpentier, María Luisa Bombal, and others. Bookplate of two poets, Barbara Howes and William Jay Smith, detached from front pastedown. Howes later edited the important anthology of Latin American literature, Eye of the Heart. With Howes' pencilled markings to introduction and contributors' notes; near fine in a very good dust jacket.

15. (Anthology). An Anthology of Twentieth Century Brazilian Poetry. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press (1972). Edited and introduced by Elizabeth Bishop and Emanuel Brasil. This is the hardcover issue, which was published in an edition of 2000 copies. Trace foxing to top edge; else fine in a near fine, spine-faded dust jacket.

16. (Anthology). Tongues of Fallen Angels. (NY): New Directions (1974). Interviews by Selden Rodman with a dozen writers including Gabriel García Márquez, Allen Ginsberg, Derek Walcott, Ernest Hemingway, Jorge Luis Borges, Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz and Norman Mailer, among others. This is the hardcover issue; there was a simultaneous paperback. Fine in a near fine, spine-toned dust jacket.

17. (Anthology). Still Wild. NY: Simon & Schuster (2000). The uncorrected proof copy of a collection of short fiction of the American West from 1950-2000, edited and with an introduction by Larry McMurtry. With work by Richard Ford, Rick Bass, Raymond Carver, Leslie Marmon Silko, Wallace Stegner, Annie Proulx, Tom McGuane, Jack Kerouac, and others. Fine in wrappers.

18. (Anthology). Wonderful Town. NY: Random House (2000). A collection of New York stories from The New Yorker. Anthologized are J.D. Salinger, John Updike, Lorrie Moore, Woody Allen, Philip Roth, Donald Barthelme, Ann Beattie, John Cheever, Irwin Shaw, Jonathan Franzen, Vladimir Nabokov, Jamaica Kincaid, Saul Bellow, Jeffrey Eugenides, William Maxwell, E.B. White, Bernard Malamud, Susan Sontag, and others. Fine in a fine dust jacket.

19. (Anthology). Life Stories. NY: Random House (2000). A collection of profiles from The New Yorker. Includes writing by John McPhee, Truman Capote, Ian Frazier, Joseph Mitchell, Roger Angell, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Susan Orlean, and many others. Fine in a fine dust jacket.

20. (Anthology). The Best American Short Stories. Boston/NY: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. Edited and with an introduction by E.L. Doctorow. This is the hardcover issue of the annual collection, done in fairly small quantities as most copies are issued softbound. With work by Amy Bloom, Raymond Carver, Nathan Englander, Ha Jin, Jhumpa Lahiri, Walter Mosley, Annie Proulx and others. Fine in dust jacket.

21. (Anthology). The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction. (n.p.): Viking (2000). The advance reading copy of this massive (1086 pages) collection, edited and with an introduction by Colm Tóibín. Swift, Trollope, Joyce, Beckett, Murdoch, John Banville, Roddy Doyle, Colum McCann, Flann O'Brien, Edna O'Brien, Liam O'Flaherty, and many, many others. Faint dirt to foredge; else fine in wrappers.

22. (Anthology). The Vintage Book of African American Poetry. NY: Vintage Books (2000). The uncorrected proof copy of this historical survey, with work by Paul Laurence Dunbar, James Weldon Johnson, Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Gwendolyn Brooks, Derek Walcott, Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Lucille Clifton, Al Young, Rita Dove and many others. Small spots to foredge and rear cover; near fine in wrappers. This was issued as an original softcover by Vintage Books and proofs of such volumes tend to be even scarcer than proofs issued for hardcover publications.

23. (Anthology). Prize Stories 2001. The O. Henry Awards. NY: Anchor Books (2001). The uncorrected proof copy of this annual collection. Edited by Michael Chabon, Mary Gordon and Mona Simpson. Prizes to Mary Swan, Dan Chaon and Alice Munro, with other work by T.C. Boyle, Joyce Carol Oates, David Schickler, Elizabeth Graver, Louise Erdrich, George Saunders, Andrea Barrett, and others. Fine in wrappers.

24. (Anthology). Lost Classics. NY: Anchor Books (2001). The uncorrected proof copy. Nearly 75 authors write about overlooked or underappreciated books. Co-edited by Michael Ondaatje and including pieces by Ondaatje, John Irving, Margaret Atwood, Russell Banks, Pico Iyer, Jeffrey Eugenides, David Malouf, Anchee Min, Siri Hustvedt, Edmund White and many others. Fine in wrappers.

25. (Anthology). A Convergence of Birds. (NY): Distributed Art Publishers (2001). The uncorrected proof copy of a collection of original writings inspired by the work of Joseph Cornell. Barry Lopez, Rick Moody, Howard Norman, Diane Ackerman, Siri Hustvedt, Lydia Davis, Robert Coover, Bradford Morrow, Joyce Carol Oates, and others. Together with the advance reading copy, printing only the introduction by Jonathan Safran Foer and the piece by Barry Lopez. Both fine in wrappers.

26. (Anthology). Yeats is Dead! NY: Knopf, 2001. The uncorrected proof copy of the first American edition of this collaborative mystery by fifteen Irish writers including Roddy Doyle and Frank McCourt. Fine in wrappers.

27. ASHBERY, John and SCHUYLER, James. A Nest of Ninnies. NY: Dutton, 1969. Collaborative satiric novel by these two award-winning poets. This copy is inscribed by Ashbery and Schuyler. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket.

28. ASHBERY, John. Selected Poems. (n.p.): Viking (n.d.)[1985]. The uncorrected proof copy. Reportedly a suppressed issue, owing to excessive errors: most of the run was destroyed and no others were produced. Fine in wrappers.

29. ATKINSON, Kate. Emotionally Weird. London: Doubleday (2000). The uncorrected proof copy of the third novel by the author whose first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the Whitbread Award. Small edge tear upper rear panel; else fine in wrappers.

30. ATWOOD, Margaret. Advertising Poster for Epicoene. Undated, circa 1957-1961. 14" x 11" poster created by Atwood for a production by The Victoria College Dramatic Society of "Epicoene; or, The Silent Woman," by Ben Johnson. Atwood, who was also a member of the cast, did the artwork and the lettering, cut the stencils, and printed the poster in three colors on her own silkscreen set. Matted and framed to 22" x 19". Signed by Atwood on verso. A few light scratches and pinholes; else fine. An extremely early, scarce ephemeral piece, done while she was an undergraduate at Victoria College, sometime between 1957 and 1961. Atwood's first book was published in 1961 just after she graduated, when she was 22 years old, and thus this item precedes her first book.

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