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Catalog 128, C

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52. CALVINO, Italo. Italian Fables. NY: Orion Press (1959). The first American edition of this collection of fables and fairy tales by one of the most important Italian writers of the 20th century. An early book by Calvino. Quarto, illustrated by Michael Train. Fine in a very good, rubbed dust jacket with several edge tears.

53. CALVINO, Italo. The Watcher and Other Stories. NY: HBJ (1971). A collection of stories written over the previous 20 years and here first published in English. Fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket.

54. CALVINO, Italo. Six Memos for the Next Millennium. Cambridge: Harvard University Press (1988). The text of Calvino's Charles Eliot Norton Lectures, to have been delivered at Harvard in 1985-1986, published posthumously. Calvino died before he could deliver the lectures, and thus only five of the six were complete and included here. Fine in a fine dust jacket.

55. CALVINO, Italo. Under the Jaguar Sun. London: Jonathan Cape (1992). A posthumously published collection of stories -- three stories from a sequence of five, one for each of the senses, that he had planned. Fine in a fine dust jacket.

56. CALVINO, Italo. The Road to San Giovanni. NY: Pantheon (1993). The first American edition of this collection of reminiscences. Fine in a fine dust jacket.

57. CANIN, Ethan. Emperor of the Air. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988. His highly acclaimed first book, a collection of stories that won a Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship. Canin is one of the handful of writers who were selected by both Granta magazine and The New Yorker as among the 20 best young American writers. Inscribed by the author in the year of publication. Fine in a fine dust jacket with a tiny nick at the upper rear panel but none of the fading to the spine that is so common with this title.

58. CANIN, Ethan. For Kings and Planets. NY: Random House (1998). His fourth book, a novel. Inscribed by the author: "For ___ ___/ Happy Birthday, from a fan -/ Warmly-/ Ethan." Fine in a fine dust jacket.

59. CANIN, Ethan. Carry Me Across the Water. NY: Random House (2001). A novel. Warmly inscribed by the author in the year of publication, "With admiration and affection - I hope you like it -." Fine in a fine dust jacket.

60. CARSON, Rachel. "How About Citizenship for the Starlings?" in Nature Magazine, Vol. 32, No. 6. (Washington, D.C.): (American Nature Association), 1939. A 3-page article in which Carson argues that starlings, introduced to the U.S. nearly 50 years prior, are more than earning their keep. An early publication by Carson, preceding her first book, Under the Sea Wind, by two years. Mildly age-toned; light corner creasing; near fine in stapled wrappers. A nice copy of a scarce and fragile item.

61. CARTER, Angela. Saints and Strangers. (NY): Viking (1986). The first American edition of this collection of eight short stories by an influential author who was variously characterized as magical realist, post-modern and/or feminist, not to mention one of the great fantasy writers of the twentieth century: three of her books made David Pringle's list of the 100 best fantasy novels. Inscribed by the author in the year of publication. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Books signed by Carter, who died at the age of 51, are relatively uncommon.

62. CARVER, Raymond. Those Days. Elmwood: Raven Editions, 1987. A collection of early pieces by Carver written prior to the publication of his first book, Near Klamath. William Stull turned these up in the course of bibliographic research, and he edited them and provided notes and an Afterword. Carver himself wrote an introduction. Perhaps the most attractive of the many limited editions of Carver's: designed and printed by Carol Blinn of Warwick Press, with marbled paper by Faith Harrison. There were three issues, two of which were offered for sale: 100 numbered copies in wrappers, 26 lettered copies in marbled paper boards; 14 "presentation" copies, bound in quarter-leather and marbled paper boards were hors commerce. This is one of 26 lettered copies signed by Carver. Fine, with the publisher's business card and prospectus laid in.

63. CHANDLER, Raymond. The Big Sleep. NY: Knopf, 1939. Chandler's first novel, which introduced Private Eye Philip Marlowe and in so doing set the mystery genre on the path to literary respectability. Chandler was credited with using the mystery genre to illuminate both character and place: Marlowe is a twentieth century model for the archetype of The Hero, and Chandler's view of the seamy underside of Los Angeles laid the groundwork for the genre to explore place and culture in the way that literary novels had been doing since the advent of modernism. The 1946 movie version, which starred Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall and had a screenplay by William Faulkner, is considered a classic of noir. Light shelf wear to boards and slight spine lean; a near fine copy in a very good dust jacket with rubbing and small tears to the folds and corners. Internally tape mended, but unrestored. A high spot of 20th century American literature.

64. CHAPPELL, Fred. The Gaudy Place. NY: HBJ (1973). The fifth book, fourth novel, by this Southern writer who was named the Poet Laureate of North Carolina in 1997. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.

65. CHEEVER, John. The Way Some People Live. NY: Random House (1943). His scarce first book, printed during wartime in an edition of only 2750 copies. A collection of stories, almost none of which were ever reprinted in Cheever's lifetime (or since); Cheever pointedly did not include them in his later collections, and his family blocked publication of a posthumous collection that would have included them. A very near fine copy, lacking the scarce dust jacket.

66. CHEEVER, John. The Enormous Radio and Other Stories. NY: Funk & Wagnalls, 1953. Cheever's second book, a collection of his stories from The New Yorker, published a decade after his first book. Funk and Wagnalls, the publisher of this collection, was primarily a publisher of reference books -- dictionaries, in particular -- and not literature, and this book probably did not receive the kind of distribution that his later books, published by more literary houses, did. Signed by the author. Bookplate on front flyleaf under signature; fading and fraying to spine ends; near fine in a very good dust jacket with shallow chipping and some rubbing and fading to the front spine fold. A very uncommon book signed.

67. CHEEVER, John. The Housebreaker of Shady Hill. NY: Harper (1958). His fourth book, and third collection of stories. Inscribed by the author: "To ___ with love/ from John and Mary." Slight edge-sunning and one lower corner bumped; very near fine in a very good, lightly spine sunned and edgeworn dust jacket with a bit of dampstaining visible on verso.

68. CHEEVER, John. Bullet Park. NY: Knopf, 1969. His eighth book, and third novel. Signed by the author. Foxing to top edge and endpages; near fine in a near fine dust jacket creased at the flaps.

69. CHEEVER, John. Falconer. NY: Knopf, 1977. His tenth book, but only his fourth novel. Signed by the author. Falconer was highly acclaimed as "a great American novel" when first published, and was reprinted many times shortly after publication. Small paperclip mark under front flap; still fine in a near fine dust jacket.

70. CONROY, Frank. "He began sleeping in the guest room..." Berkeley: Black Oak Books, 1993. A broadside excerpt from Body & Soul, printed on the occasion of a reading by the author. 6 1/2" x 11 1/2". Fine.

71. COZZENS, James Gould. Castaway. NY: Random House, 1934. An early short novel by this Pulitzer Prize-winning author, "a macabre tale of the isolation of modern man." Very faint cloth mottling on the rear cover and a few shadows to the top edge of the flyleaf. Small bookseller's label on rear pastedown. Very near fine in a very near fine dust jacket; an exceptionally nice, crisp copy of this title.

72. CRACE, Jim. Free Sampler. (n.p.): Viking (1994). Excerpts from Crace's first four novels, published just prior to the fourth, Signals of Distress. With a 3-page introduction by Crace in which he responds to Michael Ondaatje, among others, having questioned his Englishness. Crace, the author of The Gift of Stones, Continent, and others, has won the Guardian Prize, the David Higham Prize and the Whitbread First Novel Prize. Fine in stapled wrappers. Uncommon.

73. CREELEY, Robert. Echoes. (NY): New Directions (1994). Poems by one of the important writers from Black Mountain College, and a close friend of Charles Olson. Inscribed by the author in the year of publication. Fine in a fine dust jacket.

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