Catalog 122, O-R
254. O'BRIEN, Tim. Northern Lights. NY: Delacorte (1975). His second novel, a tale of two brothers in the wilderness of northern Minnesota, one of them a Vietnam war veteran, the other a veteran of the protests against that war. A cheaply-made, "perfectbound" book, it is difficult to find in nice condition. This copy has some sunning to the board edges; near fine in a fine dust jacket with one tiny edge tear at the upper front edge.
255. 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 and one of the literary classics of the war. Fine in a very close to fine dust jacket with none of the spine-fading that commonly afflicts this title.
256. -. Same title, the first British edition. London: Jonathan Cape (1978). Page 171 a cancel; fine in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket, with a new price sticker on the flap, as usual.
257. O'BRIEN, Tim. The Things They Carried. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. The first trade 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. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
258. -. Same title, an advance reading excerpt featuring a trial dust jacket design. Fine in stapled wrappers.
259. O'BRIEN, Tim. Friends and Enemies. Arizona: Synaethesia Press, 2001. Two stories from O'Brien's award-winning collection The Things They Carried, bound back-to-back and printed by Jim Camp in an edition of 125 copies, of which this is one of 99 numbered copies in saddle-stitched wrappers. Illustrated by noted artist Fritz Scholder and signed by the author and the artist. Fine.
260. -. Same title, the lettered issue. One of 26 clothbound copies in an engraved and welded metal slipcase. Black cloth with paper labels; rice paper endpapers, with the text printed on a brighter and heavier stock than the wrappered issue. Signed by O'Brien and Scholder. One of the most unusual and inventive small press/fine press efforts we have seen. A remarkable production. Heavy. Fine.
261. O'NEILL, Eugene. Strange Interlude. NY: Boni & Liveright (1928). The third of the Nobel Prize winner's four Pulitzer Prize-winning plays. Fine in a fine dust jacket with just a hint of darkening to the spine. A beautiful copy, and seldom found in this condition.
262. O'NEILL, Eugene. The Iceman Cometh. NY: Random House (1946). Fine in a very good, spine-tanned dust jacket with a couple tiny nicks to the front panel and a small abrasion to the rear panel.
263. OZICK, Cynthia. Trust. (NY): New American Library (1966). A review copy of her first book, one of a handful of literary first novels published by NAL during the mid-60s, including John Gardner's The Resurrection and William Gass's Omensetter's Luck. Near fine in a good, spine-darkened dust jacket with a large chip on the rear panel inexpertly repaired with rice paper (not affecting any text). A scarce and important first book; advance copies are rare.
264. PELECANOS, George P. The Sweet Forever. Boston: Little Brown (1998). The first trade edition of this novel, set in Washington, D.C. as his earlier books were, and involving some of the same characters. Signed by the author on a tipped-in leaf. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with a short cut at the spine base and bearing the publisher's "autographed copy" label.
265. -. Another copy. This one additionally signed and dated by the author on the title page. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
266. PERCY, Walker. The Moviegoer. NY: Knopf, 1961. His first book, winner of the National Book Award and a novel that helped establish Percy as both an important Southern writer and as a chronicler of the spiritual malaise of modern America. The Linda Hobson bibliography gives the first printing as 1500 copies although we have been told that it was more. This copy is fine in a very near fine dust jacket with just a couple tiny nicks to the top edge. A very nice copy of this book which, because of its dark, unlaminated dust jacket, often turns up showing much more wear and tear. Signed by the author. A scarce and important first book, and especially rare these days signed.
267. PERCY, Walker. The Thanatos Syndrome. Franklin Center: Franklin Library, 1987. The limited first edition of Percy's last novel, with a special introduction by Percy for this edition. Signed by the author. Leatherbound; all edges gilt; with a silk ribbon marker bound in. Fine.
268. -. Same title, the trade edition. NY: FSG (1987). Faint foredge foxing and a bit of dampstaining to the lower edge of the cloth; near fine in a fine dust jacket.
269. -. Same title, the limited edition issued by the trade publisher. One of 250 numbered copies signed by the author. Fine in a fine slipcase.
270. PIRSIG, Robert M. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. NY: Morrow, 1974. The uncorrected proof copy of Pirsig's first book, an acclaimed and bestselling inquiry into values and examination of Quality. Pirsig's book was published to little fanfare but became a word-of-mouth bestseller and ultimately sold millions of copies in paperback. One of the key books in articulating the aspirations of the generation that had just made the 1960s the most turbulent decade in American history since at least the 1930s and probably since the Civil War. This is the second issue proof, in tan wrappers with typeset page numbers; there was a first issue proof in red wrappers and reproducing holograph page numbers. A near fine copy, with publicity letter laid in.
271. PUZO, Mario. The Godfather Papers and Other Confessions. NY: Putnam (1972). Small owner name in pencil on flyleaf; else fine in a good, rubbed dust jacket, stained at the crown and with several small chips at the spine extremities and front flap fold.
272. PYNCHON, Thomas. The Crying of Lot 49. Philadelphia: Lippincott (1966). Pynchon's second novel, winner of the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and the most overtly political, and paranoid, of Pynchon's novels. Chosen by David Pringle as one of the hundred best novels of Modern Fantasy. Owner name; else fine in a near fine, mildly rubbed dust jacket with a tiny tear at the spine crown.
273. RAWLINGS, Marjorie Kinnan. The Yearling. NY: Scribner, 1938. Her third novel, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and a modern classic. Owner name on flyleaf; mild darkening to the joints; a very near fine copy in a very good dust jacket with minor, internally tape-mended edge tears, but with the title faintly "blocked" in pencil on the front and rear panels. Still, an attractive copy.
274. RÉAGE, Pauline. Story of O. NY: Grove (1965). The first American edition of this erotic classic, originally published a decade earlier in France and the cause of much speculation regarding the author's identity. Small owner name on the title page, otherwise fine in a very near fine white dust jacket, with only a couple of tiny spots on the flap fold keeping it from being perfect.
275. RHYS, Jean. The Left Bank and Other Stories. NY/London: Harper & Brothers (n.d.). The first American edition of the author's scarce first book. Preface by Ford Maddox Ford. Edge-darkening to the endpages; else fine in a fair, spine-tanned dust jacket with several small stains, chipped at the crown, and missing a two inch section from the base of the spine. Still a presentable copy and extremely scarce in any dust jacket at all.
276. RHYS, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. NY: Norton (1966)[1967]. A review copy of the first American edition. Rhys published her novel Wide Sargasso Sea in 1966 after nearly three decades of living in obscurity following the early successes of her writing career in the late 1920s and 30s. A reinvention of the life of Mr. Rochester's first wife, the "madwoman in the attic" in Jane Eyre, Sargasso Sea has come to be considered a modern feminist classic. Winner of the W.H. Smith Award and included on several of the lists of top books of the last century. Copyright page gives the date as 1966; review slip states 1967. Fine in a very near fine, corner-clipped (not price-clipped) dust jacket with trace rubbing at the crown. An important book, scarce in jacket, and rare as a prepublication copy.
277. RHYS, Jean. Good Morning, Midnight. NY: Harper & Row (n.d.)[1970]. The first American edition of this novel that was originally published in England in 1939 and published in the U.S. after Rhys was "re-discovered" with the publication of Wide Sargasso Sea. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket.
278. RHYS, Jean. My Day. (NY): Frank Hallman, 1975. A small volume, 24 pages. One of 750 hardcover copies, the total edition. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
279. RHYS, Jean. Sleep It Off Lady. NY: Harper & Row (1976). The first American edition of this collection of stories that begins and ends in Dominica, covers the entire span of Rhys's life, and was her last book published in her lifetime. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
280. RHYS, Jean. The Collected Stories. NY: Norton (n.d.). The uncorrected proof copy. Covers spotted and soiled; very good in wrappers.
281. RHYS, Jean. Smile Please. An Unfinished Autobiography. (London): Deutsch (1979). Fine in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
282. ROBBINS, Tom. Another Roadside Attraction. Garden City: Doubleday, 1971. His first novel, one of a handful of contemporary novels that became bestsellers slowly, by word of mouth, primarily on college campuses, long after the paperback editions came out. Never out of print in paperback, but never reprinted in hardcover in this country. This is a fine copy in a fine dust jacket with just trace rubbing at the extremities. Probably the nicest copy we've ever seen.
283. ROBBINS, Tom. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976. The uncorrected proof copy of his second novel, which caused Robbins' cult following to mushroom. This copy has the holograph annotation "Kitkitdizze" on the flyleaf, which was the name of Gary Snyder's home in Northern California, in a calligraphic print that appears to be Snyder's handwriting. Title written on spine; near fine in wrappers.
284. (ROTH, Philip). Reading Philip Roth. NY: St. Martin's (1988). One interview with Roth and twelve essays by others written especially for this edition, which was edited by Asher Z. Milbauer and Donald G. Watson. Contributors include Clive Sinclair, Aharon Appelfeld and Milan Kundera (whose essay was rewritten for this edition). Boards sunned; edges rubbed; near fine, without dust jacket, possibly as issued: it appears to have been designed as a textbook for university classes.