Catalog 118, E-G
66. EARLEY, Tony. Jim the Boy. Boston: Little, Brown (2000). The second book, first novel, by this author selected as a member of both the Granta 20 and the New Yorker 20. Signed by the author. Production crease near the hinge of page 117; still fine in a fine dust jacket.
67. ERDRICH, Louise. Snares. Middlebury: Friends of the Library, 1987. A keepsake published in an edition of 350 copies after a reading by the author at a dinner for the Friends of the Library. Signed by Erdrich. A scarce item, published when she was still a relatively little-known literary author and had not yet had the string of bestsellers that turned her into a household name in contemporary American literature. Very few of these seem to have made it to the market. Fine in saddle-stitched wrappers.
68. ERDRICH, Louise. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse. (NY): HarperCollins (2001). Her most recent novel, published to substantial critical acclaim and a finalist for the National Book Award. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
69. FAULKNER, William. Go Down, Moses and Other Stories. NY: Random House (1942). First edition, first issue, in black cloth stamped in gold and red and with red top stain. Faulkner intended this as a novel, or sequence of related stories, and later editions removed the phrase "and other stories" from the title. One of the most important books in the Faulkner canon, which includes perhaps his most frequently anthologized story, "The Bear." Very faint offsetting to front flyleaf; fine in a very near fine dust jacket with trace rubbing at the spine crown and front spine fold. In a custom clamshell box. A beautiful copy of a key Faulkner title.
70. FISHER, M.F.K. How to Cook a Wolf. NY: Duell, Sloan and Pearce (1942). Her third book, a collection of literary essays on food and cooking, published while she was living in England under the hardships of severe wartime shortages of food and the "wolf" was at the door, as it were. Fisher's book included numerous recipes but, more importantly, drew in culinary history and generally broadened the context in which one viewed food and cooking -- a practice she continued with unmatched success for four decades afterward. Mild spine-darkening, slight top edge foxing; very good in a very good, supplied dust jacket with moderate rubbing and several small edge chips.
71. FORD, Richard. A Piece of My Heart. New York: Harper & Row (1976). The first book by the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Independence Day. Inscribed by Ford on the half-title page. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with a small closed tear at the crown.
72. -. Another copy. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with a corner crease to the front flap and a tiny nick to the lamination at the upper front spine fold. Signed by the author. Laid in is an autograph note signed by Ford from 1985, thanking the recipient for kindness and for a book. Fine.
73. FORD, Richard. The Ultimate Good Luck. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981. His second novel, a hard-boiled thriller involving American expatriates in Mexico. Fine in a fine dust jacket, without the production flaws that are common with this title and quite scarce thus.
74. FORD, Richard. The Sportswriter. NY: Vintage (1986). His third novel, a paperback original, and his breakthrough book. Publication as a paperback original in the Vintage Contemporaries series brought Ford a readership ten times as large as the book would have had in hardcover; and his obvious talent lent credibility to what was at that time a fledgling paperback series and an experiment, the results of which comprised a revolution in publishing -- the inauguration of the trade paperback format as the primary means for distributing literary fiction in this country. Ford's sequel to this novel, Independence Day, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Signed by the author. Slight splaying to covers and a small corner crease on the rear cover; very near fine in wrappers.
75. -. Same title, the first British, and first hardcover, edition. London: Collins Harvill, 1986. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Probably the scarcest of Ford's hardcover editions.
76. FORD, Richard. Independence Day. NY: Knopf, 1995. A sequel to Ford's third novel, The Sportswriter, and winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award, a rare literary double. Signed by the author. Fine in fine dust jacket.
77. FORD, Richard. Under the Radar. London: Harvill Press (2001). The first separate appearance of this story, which first appeared in The New Yorker and is here published as an advance reading excerpt from the collection A Multitude of Sins. No comparable U.S. issue. Fine in stapled wrappers.
78. (FORD, Richard). "A Girl's Feelings" in Edge. Christchurch, NZ: The Edge Press (1971). The first issue of this literary magazine, and Ford's second appearance in print. Very near fine in stapled wrappers. It's easy to imagine that this short-lived literary periodical, published in New Zealand, may be one of the most elusive of Ford's appearances.
79. -. Another copy. Prescient 1971 gift inscription (presumably from a contributor) inside front cover; near fine in stapled wrappers.
80. (FORD, Richard). "A Rummage Through the Coracles" in Hawaii Review, Vol. 2, No. 1. Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 1973. An early story by Ford, preceding his first novel by three years. Covers rubbed; about near fine in wrappers. Also includes poetry translations by Howard Norman.
81. FRANZEN, Jonathan. The Twenty-Seventh City. NY: FSG (1988). The advance reading copy of the ambitious first book by this Granta 20 and New Yorker 20 author. Corner crease to rear cover, otherwise near fine in wrappers.
82. FRANZEN, Jonathan. Strong Motion. NY: FSG (1992). The uncorrected proof copy of his second book. Corner creases to front cover; near fine in wrappers. Uncommon.
83. FRANZEN, Jonathan. The Corrections. NY: FSG (2001). The advance reading copy of his new book, which just won the National Book Award and created a literary tempest in a teapot when Franzen expressed reservations about his book being selected for Oprah Winfrey's book club. Fine in wrappers.
84. -. Same title. London: Fourth Estate (2002). A limited edition uncorrected proof of the British edition. One of 100 numbered copies. Fine in wrappers.
85. FRAZIER, Charles. Cold Mountain. NY: Atlantic Monthly (1997). A review copy of his first book, a Civil War novel and a publishing phenomenon: after a modest 25,000 copy first printing, the book went into dozens of additional printings, eventually selling more than a million copies in hardcover and winning the National Book Award -- a rare combination of literary and commercial success for any work of fiction, let alone a first novel. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket, with the John Berendt blurb attached on a label to the front panel (not exactly an issue point, as some copies had this affixed on publication day, while others didn't).
86. -. Another copy. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
87. FROST, Robert. From Snow to Snow. NY: Holt (1936). The second edition of this small book containing twelve poems chosen by Frost, his own selection of his most appropriate poem for each month of the year. Limited to 300 copies. Includes "The Road Not Taken" and "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening," among others. Signed by Frost in Albany in 1937. Owner signature and bookplate; spine- and edge-fading; near fine in a very good dust jacket with several small edge chips and some rubbing to the spine. An uncommon collection, especially in dust jacket and signed.
88. GAINES, Ernest J. Catherine Carmier. NY: Atheneum, 1964. The first book by the author of A Lesson Before Dying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction, and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, which was made into a highly praised television movie that won nine Emmy Awards and became, partly as a result of the film, an ongoing bestseller. This title, a love story about a young black man who falls in love with the daughter of a Creole sharecropper, was reportedly printed in an edition of only 1000 copies. Gaines was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University in 1958. Fine in a very good dust jacket with light wear to the corners and spine extremities.
89. GAINES, Ernest J. Bloodline. NY: Dial, 1968. The uncorrected proof copy of his uncommon third book, his first collection of stories. Gaines has been reported as saying that his short stories were the best writing he had done to that point, but the book was largely ignored by critics -- as story collections often are -- until the success of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Fine in tall, ringbound wrappers and signed by the author. A very scarce proof, especially signed.
90. GAINES, Ernest J. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. NY: Dial, 1971. The uncorrected proof copy of his fourth and perhaps best-known book, a fictional autobiography of a former slave that was made into a well-received movie. Warmly inscribed by the author in 1988. Foxing to spine; near fine in tall, padbound wrappers. A fairly scarce book in the first edition; the proof is quite uncommon due to its fragile format.
91. GAINES, Ernest J. In My Father's House. NY: Knopf, 1978. His fourth novel, which was selected by the American Library Association as one of the Fifty Notable Books published in 1978. Small owner gift inscription; else fine in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
92. GAINES, Ernest J. A Gathering of Old Men. NY: Knopf, 1983. A novel, told from the perspectives of fifteen different first-person narrators and made into a television movie in 1987. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
93. -. Same title. The uncorrected proof copy. Signed by the author. Faint tanning to spine; still fine in wrappers.
94. GAINES, Ernest J. A Lesson Before Dying. NY: Knopf, 1993. His sixth novel, and first in ten years. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction, this book was also instrumental in Gaines's being selected for a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant in 1994. In 1997, Oprah Winfrey made it a selection of her book club, and the book also received the Southern Writers' Conference Award, the Louisiana Library Award, the John Dos Passos Award, the Langston Hughes Award, and the Amistad Award. Signed by the author. Remainder stripe top edge of pages, otherwise fine in a fine dust jacket.
95. -. Same title. The advance reading copy. Signed by the author. Fine in wrappers, in near fine publisher's slipcase.
96. -. Same title, uncorrected proof copy. Signed by the author. Fine in wrappers.
97. (GAINES, Ernest J.). GAUDET, Marcia and WOOTON, Carl. Porch Talk with Ernest Gaines. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press (1990). The first book-length work on Gaines to be published, consisting largely of interviews with him conducted in 1986 and 1987. Signed by Gaines. Fine in fine dust jacket.
98. GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ, Gabriel. Cien Años de Soledad. (Barcelona): Editorial Sudamericana, 1969. The first Spanish edition of the author's masterwork, published by the Barcelona branch of Editorial Sudamericana, the Argentine publisher that issued the true first edition, in Argentina, in 1967. One of the most important novels of the century, which introduced "magical realism" to a wide audience and helped bring the "boom" in Latin American literature to this country when it was published in the U.S. in 1970. At the end of the 1970s this book was voted by the editors of The New York Times Book Review to be not only the best book published in the last ten years but the one most likely to still be read and to still be important one hundred years hence. García Márquez has since been awarded the Nobel Prize, among countless other literary awards. Covers creased, with some edge-darkening from handling; very good in wrappers.
99. GARDNER, John. On Moral Fiction. NY: Basic Books (1978). Arguably Gardner's most important book, a controversial polemic that took the unpopular position that artists bear a moral responsibility that they ignore at the risk of rendering their work irrelevant. The controversy around this essay beset Gardner beyond all expectations, and he was painted by some as a fascist and throwback to a time when Art only served the prevailing moral order. The author's untimely death in a motorcycle accident in 1982 short-circuited the debate, which has been picked up since by others who have, like Gardner, argued for meaning and relevance in art, not just expression. Fine in a near fine dust jacket.
100. GARLAND, Alex. The Beach. (London): Viking (1996). The true first edition of the author's first book, basis for the film with Leonardo DiCaprio. A fine copy in self-wrappers (not issued in hardcover) and signed by the author.
101. -. Same title, the first American, and first hardcover, edition. NY: Riverhead Books, 1997. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
102. GARLAND, Alex. The Tesseract. (London): Viking (1998). The hardcover issue of the author's second book, which was issued simultaneously in paperback, with the hardcover reportedly having a first printing of only 1000 copies. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
103. -. Same title, a review copy of the first American edition. NY: Riverhead Books, 1999. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket with publisher's promotional material laid in.
104. -. Same title, the advance reading copy of the first American edition. Trace edge rubbing, still fine in wrappers.
105. GINSBERG, Allen. Reflections at Lake Louise. [Vancouver: Colophon Books, 1981]. An archive of an unpublished chapbook of Ginsberg's poetry, which was abandoned by the designer and printer, Jim Rimmer, after Ginsberg reportedly and repeatedly complained about the supposed use of "wrong fonts." Included are: the ribbon copy typescript of "Homage Vajracharya," the title of which has been changed in Ginsberg's hand to "Vajracharya Lectures;" the typescript of the dedication page ("These Breaths Dedicated to Anne Waldman"), typed on the back of Naropa Institute stationery; a holograph draft of a statement sketching out whom the proceeds of the chapbook will go to (Naropa Institute and Dharmadhatu); holograph place holding page indicating "Table of Contents;" holograph "Contents" page listing "Meditation & Poetics," "Meditation at Lake Louise," "Homage Vajracharya" and "Why I Meditate;" the typescript of the Acknowledgements, listing where the writings previously appeared; the typescript of the title page, on the verso of Naropa Institute stationery and bearing pencilled instructions for centering and italicizing; a photocopy of a second title page (chipped); the typescript (one page photocopy with holograph corrections and one page ribbon-copy) of "Meditation and Poetics;" the photocopied typescript of "Verses Written for Student Anti Draft Registration Rally 1980," with holograph note initialed by Ginsberg instructing that "all verses which are too long for the page should be carried with as many words as fit to even right hand margin before laying over indented;" the photocopied typescript of "Meditations at Lake Louise," with holograph corrections and two holograph notes on the setting of the lines; the photocopied typescript of "Why I Meditate," with holograph corrections; one page of doodles with apparent self-caricature; a dummy copy of the chapbook in gray self-wrappers, with ISBN number, printing (in F.W. Goudy's Italian Old Style font) seven of the once-fourteen stanza poem here called "Reflections at Lake Louise;" a sample of the green paper that was to be used in the final chapbook; (uncorrected) galley sheets printing a 13 stanza version of "Meditations at Lake Louise" (twice), "Meditation and Poetics" (twice), and "Homage Vajracharya" and "Why I Meditate," in a typeface that is not F.W. Goudy's Italian Old Style. Written across the top are the words: "The ill-fated galleys of Ginsberg's book," with an added expletive directed at Ginsberg. Together with a full page letter of provenance from Jim Rimmer detailing the misadventure. A remarkable glimpse at an aborted small press project by the most prominent American poet of the Beat generation. Several of the items are folded; all are near fine or better and housed in a custom clamshell box.
106. GUTHRIE, A.B., Jr. Fair Land, Fair Land. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982. The uncorrected proof copy of the sixth novel in his series about the settling of the West, which began with the classic The Big Sky and included the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Way West. Vertical cover crease; near fine in wrappers.