Catalog 123, C
33. CALDWELL, Erskine. Say, Is This the U.S.A. NY: Duell, Sloan and Pearce (1941). Text by Caldwell and photographs by his second wife, Margaret Bourke-White. Large quarto; edge-sunned with tape shadows to front pastedown; near fine in a very good, spine-faded and edgeworn dust jacket with several internal tape repairs. Their third collaboration.
34. CALDWELL, Erskine. Georgia Boy. NY: Duell, Sloan and Pearce (1943). A novel by the author of Tobacco Road. Inscribed by the author to publisher and bibliographer Stuart Wright: "To Stuart/ Erskine Caldwell." Erasure front flyleaf; else fine in a near fine, spine-faded dust jacket. A crisp, attractive copy.
35. CALDWELL, Erskine. A House in the Uplands. NY: Duell, Sloan and Pearce (1946). One page signature darkening; else fine in a very good, price-clipped dust jacket with a couple internally tape-mended edge tears and a small abrasion on the front panel.
36. CALDWELL, Erskine. Place Called Estherville. NY: Duell, Sloan and Pearce (1949). A novel of the South, and of the racial tensions that defined it. Inscribed by the author: "Stuart Wright/ By/ Erskine Caldwell." Near fine in a very good, spine-sunned dust jacket with a small chip at the crown and a new price stamped on the front flap.
37. CALDWELL, Erskine. Episode in Palmetto. NY: Duell, Sloan and Pearce (1950). Inscribed by the author to himself: "This copy of/ [Episode in Palmetto]/ is/ 'Inscribed/ to me/' by the/ inscriber." Unsigned, but in Caldwell's hand. A bit of handling to boards; near fine in a near fine dust jacket with trace wear to spine extremities and offset sunning to verso. An unusual inscription, to say the least: one suspects Caldwell was having fun with the recipient who must have asked for the book to be "inscribed to me." An attractive copy.
38. CALDWELL, Erskine. The Courting of Susie Brown. NY/Boston: Duell, Sloan and Pearce/ Little Brown (1952). Faint foxing to top edge and a bit of dampstaining to lower rear edge; very near fine in a near fine, lightly edgeworn dust jacket.
39. -. Same title, the first British edition. London: Falcon Press (1952). Fine in a fine dust jacket with a tiny nick at the upper rear spine fold.
40. CALDWELL, Erskine. Gulf Coast Stories. Boston: Little Brown (1956). A collection of short stories. Inscribed by the author: "Stuart/ [arrow]/ Erskine." Nick at crown; else fine in a near fine, spine-sunned and internally foxed dust jacket.
41. CALDWELL, Erskine. Around About America. NY: Farrar, Straus (1964). Essays from a 25,000 mile trip around America by car, train, bus and plane. Inscribed by the author: "To/ Stuart/ and/ Wright/ Erskine Caldwell." Additionally inscribed by the illustrator, Caldwell's fourth wife: "and me too!/ Virginia Caldwell." Fine in a near fine dust jacket.
42. CALDWELL, Erskine. Afternoons in Mid-America. NY: Dodd, Mead (1976). A sequel, of sorts, to the travel book Around About America, done twelve years earlier. This title, like the earlier one, is illustrated with the author's wife's sketches. Inscribed by the author: "To Stuart Wright/ From/ Erskine Caldwell." Additionally inscribed by the illustrator, "and Virginia Caldwell." Fine in a fine dust jacket.
43. CALDWELL, Erskine. With All My Might. (Atlanta): Peachtree (1987). The limited edition of this volume of autobiography, which was published the year the author died. At the time of his death, Caldwell was the only remaining writer of the generation that included Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, Dos Passos and Thomas Wolfe, and with over 80 million books sold he was by far the bestselling author of that generation. One of 250 numbered copies signed by the author. Leatherbound; page edges gilt. Fine.
44. CALVINO, Italo. The Castle of Crossed Destinies. NY: HBJ (1977). An unusual book by the Italian postmodernist, a series of fantasies based on the Tarot and illustrated with a number of color reproductions of a 15th century Tarot deck, and line drawings of an 18th century deck. Small sticker shadow front pastedown; still fine in a very near fine dust jacket with a couple nicks to the top edge.
45. CALVINO, Italo. Six Memos for the Next Millennium. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988. The uncorrected proof copy of this collection of lectures Calvino was to deliver at Harvard in 1985-86. He died just before leaving for the U.S. The sixth "memo" or lecture had been worked out, reportedly, but not written, so only five are included in this posthumous collection. Fine in wrappers. Proof copies from university presses tend to be done in smaller quantities than those done by mainstream commercial publishers.
46. CAMUS, Albert. The Outsider. London: Hamish Hamilton (1946). The first English translation of the Nobel Prize winner's first novel, which was later published in the U.S. as The Stranger. Introduction by Cyril Connolly, who chose this book as one of his 100 key books of the Modern Movement. A contemporary classic, which helped define the literature of alienation and the absurd in the postwar world. Two owner names on front flyleaf, one in pencil, one in ink; a bit of edge-sunning to cloth; small binding flaw rear pastedown; near fine in a very good, spine-tanned dust jacket chipped at the crown (taking out the "S" of Camus) and corners, and with three small, pale green droplets on the rear panel.
47. CAMUS, Albert. The Fall. NY: Knopf, 1957. The first American edition, translated by Justin O'Brien. Slight foxing to endpages and extreme lower page edges; else fine in a very good, foxed and spine-faded dust jacket.
48. CAMUS, Albert. Exile and the Kingdom. NY: Knopf, 1958. The first American edition of this collection of stories, published the year after Camus won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Translated by Justin O'Brien. Owner name front pastedown; else fine in a near fine, spine-sunned dust jacket with light surface soiling to the rear panel.
49. CAMUS, Albert. Resistance, Rebellion, and Death. NY: Knopf, 1961. The first American edition of this posthumously published collection of essays, translated by Justin O'Brien. Inscribed by the translator (or his wife): "pour Jacqueline et Edouard/ avec les meilleurs voeux/ pour 1961 de/ Isabel et Justin O'Brien." Trace edge sunning to boards; still fine in a very good dust jacket with strips of rubbing on the spine and front panel, a chipped tear at the lower rear spine fold, and light wear to the extremities. Laid in is a photocopy of an essay by Camus entitled "Create Dangerously," with a gift inscription to the recipient of the book as well.
50. CARSON, Rachel. Under the Sea-Wind. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1941. Her uncommon first book, published ten years before her second and twenty years before Silent Spring. This copy is inscribed by the author: "Dear Elsie Ström -/ If you are going to collect/ Carson you'd better begin at the beginning, and this is it./ Gratefully/ Rachel Carson/ April 14, 1951." A nice inscription and an interesting indication that someone was collecting Carson first editions as early as 1951, the year her second book was published. Foxing to pastedowns and mild sunning to spine cloth; near fine in a very good, internally foxed dust jacket with shallow wormholes at edges. Scarce signed.
51. CARSON, Rachel. The Sea Around Us. NY: Oxford University Press, 1951. Her second book, winner of the National Book Award and the John Burroughs Medal and the book that would have served as more than adequate legacy had she not surpassed herself by writing Silent Spring. Inscribed by the author: "To Else Ström,/ for all the nice things/ that have happened since/ she first read the tale of/ a very ancient fish!/ Rachel L. Carson." Offsetting front endpapers; near fine in a very good dust jacket with slight chipping at the upper edge and a light degree of spine fading.
52. CASSADY, Neal. The First Third. (San Francisco): City Lights (1971). "A partial autobiography & other writings" -- the posthumous first book by the legendary friend and sidekick of Jack Kerouac, model for "Dean Moriarty" of On the Road and the driver of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters' famous bus, Furthur. Cassady and Kerouac corresponded throughout the late Forties and Fifties, and Cassady's letters were said to have inspired the free-flowing style that Kerouac adopted for On the Road and his later novels. None of Cassady's own writings, however, were published in his lifetime. Only issued in softcover. Light rubbing; else fine in wrappers.
53. (CASSADY, Neal). Spit in the Ocean 6. Pleasant Hill: SITO, 1981. The sixth issue of Ken Kesey's erratically published psychedelic/literary magazine, this being "The Cassady Issue." Edited by Ken Babbs, and with input from William Burroughs, Ken Kesey, Larry McMurtry, Jerry Garcia, John Clellon Holmes and many others. Also including previously unpublished manuscript material of Cassady's. Near fine in wrappers.
54. CASTANEDA, Carlos. The Second Ring of Power. NY: Simon & Schuster (1977). The fifth volume in Castaneda's ongoing series about the Yaqui Indian sorcerer Don Juan, this volume focusing on Don Juan's apprentice, Doña Soledad. Bestselling books in the 1970s and 80s, they have since been the subject of controversy over the question of their truthfulness and authenticity -- i.e., whether they are fact or fiction. Regardless of the answer to that, they were extremely popular and highly influential. Fine in a fine, albeit short, dust jacket with pencil note on the verso of the rear flap pertaining to the book's original retail purchase in 1977.
55. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. A couple tiny spots to front cover and abrasions to rear; paperclip marks to several pages; still very near fine in tall, padbound wrappers. A scarce and fragile state of the book.
56. CASTANEDA, Carlos. The Eagle's Gift. NY: Simon & Schuster (1981). Fine in a fine dust jacket.
57. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. Fine in wrappers.
58. CÉLINE, Louis-Ferdinand. Voyage au Bout de la Nuit. Paris: Denoël et Steele, 1932. The first edition of Céline's first novel, Journey to the End of Night, which was loosely autobiographical and followed a young veteran of World War I in his travels and life after the war -- a period marked by his time as a doctor caring for the sick and injured and at the same time as one who, like his entire generation, was deeply affected by the senseless carnage of the war and became disdainful thereafter of human folly, greed, and vanity. One of the most influential modernist novels of the period, both for the darkness of its vision and the emphasis on a literary style that self-consciously strove to revitalize a literary tradition that the author felt was overly stiff and formal. A controversial novel -- Céline has been widely characterized as racist and anti-Semitic both for his writings and as a result of his actions in World War II -- it nonetheless remains one of the powerful portraits of postwar despair and cynicism. "Céline" was the pen name of Louis-Ferdinand Destouches and his first novel won praise from both Leon Trotsky, an exiled Communist leader, and the right-wing extremist Léon Daudet. It won the Renaudot Prize and has been in print constantly since its original publication. A little over a year ago, the manuscript for this novel sold at auction for $1.5 million, making it one of only a tiny handful of manuscripts that have ever brought a million dollars, among them On the Road, Kafka's The Trial and Joyce's Ulysses. This copy is inscribed by the author and signed "Destouches." Originally issued in wrappers; here bound in full black morocco in art deco style, with two light blue-green onlays depicting a shaft of light emanating from a solid matte silver circle, shining through abstract blind tooling that wraps around both covers. Original front wrapper bound in and spine bound in at rear, and housed in a custom clamshell box. An extraordinary and attractive binding, and an extremely uncommon book to find signed or inscribed. Fine.
59. CHATWIN, Bruce. On the Black Hill. NY: Viking (1983). The first American edition of his third book and first novel. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
60. CHEEVER, John. Some People, Places & Things That Will Not Appear in My Next Novel. NY: Harper & Brothers (1961). A story collection and one of his scarcer titles. Trace rubbing to board edges; else fine in a near fine, lightly rubbed dust jacket with two small edge tears at the spine base.
61. CHEEVER, John. Expelled. (Los Angeles): Sylvester & Orphanos (1988). The first separate appearance of the first story of Cheever's to be accepted for publication, by The New Republic in 1930. Malcolm Cowley, the editor who accepted the story, provides an introduction; John Updike provides an afterword. A miniature book designed by Warren Chappell; approximately 3" x 2 1/4". One of 185 copies signed by Cheever, Cowley, Chappell and Updike, whose afterword runs ten (miniature) pages. Fine in slipcase.
62. CLAREMON, Neil. East by Southwest. NY: Simon & Schuster (1970). The simultaneous issue in wrappers. Inscribed by the author to another poet and novelist. 1 1/2" triangular corner chip to lower rear cover; else near fine. Laid in is a typed letter signed telling of a trip to Round Rock (photo enclosed) in the company of Simon Ortiz and also of a new book Claremon is working on. Also laid in is a photocopy of the "final draft" of his poem "At Canyon de Chelly." The letter and poem are folded; near fine.
63. CLARKE, Arthur C. 2010: Odyssey Two. NY: Ballantine (1982). Two issues of the uncorrected proof copy of the sequel to the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey. The first issue, bound in pale blue wrappers and marked "Unedited Manuscript," is shot from typescript and bears textual differences from the later issue, which is also bound in pale blue wrappers but is marked "Uncorrected Proof" and is typeset. These comprise the first and third issues of this proof, with there having been an intermediate issue in yellow wrappers. The first issue is fine in wrappers; the third issue is near fine.
64. COETZEE, J.M. Life & Times of Michael K. London: Secker & Warburg (1983). The first of Coetzee's two Booker Prize-winning novels. Fine in fine dust jacket.
65. CORTÁZAR, Julio. The Winners. NY: Pantheon (1965). The first American edition of the first book to be published in English by the Argentine author of Hopscotch and End of the Game, one of the key figures in Latin American literature in the postwar years. Several droplets to top stain; else fine in a near fine dust jacket with several tiny edge nicks.
66. CORTÁZAR, Julio. Hopscotch. NY: Pantheon (1966). The first American edition of the book widely considered Cortázar's masterpiece, an experimental novel that is designed to be read either straight through or following the author's suggested jumps at the end of each chapter, yielding two entirely different experiences of the novel. Top stain faded, and two small spots of fading on the spine; still very near fine in a near fine dust jacket with tape shadows on the rear flap and internal tape-strengthening of the spine base.
67. -. Same title, first U.K. edition. London: Collins Harvill (1967). Fine in jacket.
68. CREELEY, Robert. Pieces. Los Angeles: Black Sparrow, 1968. One of 150 numbered hardcover copies signed by the author and by the artist, Bobbie Creeley, aka Bobbie Louise Hawkins, Robert Creeley's second wife. An early Black Sparrow limited edition. Fine in acetate dust jacket, as issued.
69. CREELEY, Robert. Later. (NY): New Directions (1979). Inscribed by the author to another poet and his wife in 1986. Fine in wrappers.
70. CROWLEY, John. Aegypt. NY: Bantam (1987). The uncorrected proof copy of his fifth novel, the first book in an ambitious tetralogy that to date also includes Love and Sleep and Daemonomania. Crowley calls upon the historical figures of John Dee and Giordano Bruno, Renaissance alchemists, among others, to make the case that there is more than one history of the world. Finalist for the World Fantasy Award and selected as one of David Pringle's 100 best fantasy novels of all time. According to the author, there were textual differences between this proof and the final published book. Signed by the author. Near fine in wrappers.
71. CROWLEY, John. Novelty. NY: Doubleday (1989). A collection of short fiction, including the novella "Great Work of Time," which won a World Fantasy Award. This is the uncommon hardcover issue; there was also a much more widely distributed simultaneous softcover. Signed by the author. Boards bowed; near fine in a near fine dust jacket with corner creasing on the rear panel.
72. CROWLEY, John. Antiquities. Seattle: Incunabula, 1993. The trade edition of this collection of stories, one of only 1000 copies, this copy signed by the author. Fine in a near fine, spine-faded dust jacket with a small nick on the front panel.
73. CROWLEY, John. Little, Big. Norwalk: Easton Press (1997). A limited edition of his fourth book, first published as a Bantam paperback in 1981. Winner of the World Fantasy Award and a landmark of contemporary fantasy. Ursula Le Guin commented that this book, all by itself, calls for a redefinition of the fantasy genre. Mixing magic, myth and fairy tale with a plausible contemporary story, Crowley goes a step beyond "magical realism" into a realm that could be characterized as the obverse: a realistic take on magic. Leatherbound, all edges gilt, with a silk ribbon marker bound in. This was published in the Easton Press's "Masterpieces of Modern Fantasy" series and although not called for, this copy is signed by the author. Fine.
74. CROWLEY, John. Daemonomania. Norwalk: Easton Press (2000). The limited edition of the third book in the tetralogy that began with Aegypt. One of 1000 numbered copies signed by the author. Leatherbound, all edges gilt, with a silk ribbon marker bound in, and with a certificate of authenticity from the publisher laid in, which is also signed by the author. Fine.
75. CROWLEY, John. An Earthly Mother Sits and Sings. Minneapolis: DreamHaven Press, 2000. A single story, illustrated by Charles Vess. Signed by Crowley. Fine in stapled wrappers. An uncommon Crowley "A" item.
76. CRUMLEY, James. The Last Good Kiss. NY: Random House (1978). His third book, second mystery, written in hardboiled style but with a comic edge that predates such popular contemporary novelists as Carl Hiaasen. Signed by the author. No remainder mark; tiny bump at lower board edge; else fine in a fine dust jacket.
77. CUMMINGS, E.E. 73 Poems. NY: Harcourt Brace & World (1962). Fine in a near fine dust jacket with a small tear at the lower rear flap fold, an ink price on the front flap, and a bit of dustiness to the front panel.
78. CUMMINGS, E.E. Complete Poems, 1904-1962. NY: Liveright (1991). A revised and expanded edition of his collected poems, which includes 36 poems that had never before been published in an American edition and 164 poems that were unpublished at the time of his death. The poems have been revised based on the author's manuscripts, correcting typesetters' errors in their original publications. Fine in a fine dust jacket.