skip to main content

Catalog 129, A

NOTE: This page is from our catalog archives. The listings are from an older catalog and are on our website for reference purposes only. If you see something you're interested in, please check our inventory via the search box at upper right or our search page.
1. ABBEY, Edward. Good News. NY: Dutton (1980). The uncorrected proof copy of this novel, a post-apocalyptic vision of the West, by the author of the eco-classics Desert Solitaire and The Monkey Wrench Gang, among others. Inscribed by the author in November, 1988. Near fine in wrappers. An uncommon proof, rare signed.

2. ABBEY, Edward. Hayduke Lives! Boston: Little Brown (1989/1990). The uncorrected proof copy of the posthumously published sequel to the author's masterwork, The Monkey Wrench Gang. The dedication page of the novel, which Abbey wrote when he knew he had only a short time left to live, is a lengthy retrospective and touching farewell to many of his friends and colleagues. One set of staple holes to the front cover otherwise a fine copy in wrappers.

3. ABE, Kobo. The Box Man. NY: Knopf, 1974. The uncorrected proof copy of this novel by the Japanese author of Woman in the Dunes, among others. Near fine in tall wrappers. Uncommon.

4. ACKROYD, Peter. English Music. NY: Knopf, 1992. The advance reading copy of the first American edition of this novel by the award-winning author of Chatterton, Hawksmoor, and others. Signed by the author. Fine in wrappers and lightly rubbed publisher's cardstock slipcase.

5. (AGEE, James). Remembering James Agee. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press (1974). The uncorrected proof copy, in the form of ringbound galley sheets, printed on rectos only. Edited and introduced by novelist David Madden; laid in is a copyedited photocopied typescript of Madden's introduction, as well as three 8" x 9-1/2" photos of Agee. Agee was the author of the classic Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, and was also the preeminent film critic of the day in the 1950s. Contributors to this anthology include Robert Fitzgerald, Walker Evans (who collaborated on Let Us Now Praise Famous Men), film director John Huston, Dwight Macdonald, and others. The typescript is edge-sunned; all other elements fine.

6. ALLENDE, Isabel. Of Love and Shadows. NY: Knopf, 1987. The second novel by the expatriate Chilean author of The House of the Spirits. The uncorrected proof copy. Signed by the author. Mildly bumped; near fine in wrappers.

7. ALLENDE, Isabel. The Infinite Plan. (NY): HarperCollins (1993). The advance reading copy of the first American edition of this novel, which is her first to be set in the U.S., although it was published in Spanish, in Spain, first. Signed by the author. Fine in wrappers.

8. ALLENDE, Isabel. Paula. (NY): HarperCollins (1995). The uncorrected proof copy of the first American edition of her first work of nonfiction, a memoir recounted in the context of her daughter's grave illness and untimely death. Signed by the author. Spine and edge-sunning; near fine in wrappers. An uncommon proof.

9. ALLENDE, Isabel. Daughter of Fortune. (NY): HarperCollins (1999). The advance reading copy of this historical novel set partly in the author's native Chile and partly in California during the 1849 Gold Rush. Signed by the author. Fine in wrappers.

10. ALLISON, Dorothy. Two or Three Things I Know For Sure. (NY): Dutton (1995). The uncorrected proof copy. A narrative work that is based on a performance piece that Allison wrote and performed after the success of Bastard Out of Carolina. Together with the photocopied typescript, reproducing numerous changes and corrections, presumably authorial, including the excision of several long paragraphs, still visible. Edge tears to the cover sheet; otherwise both items are fine.

11. ALVAREZ, A. Hers. NY: Random House, 1975. The uncorrected proof copy of the American edition of this novel by the poet and critic most well-known for his study of suicide by authors, The Savage God, which focused on Sylvia Plath and was a seminal, and controversial, work about her and her relationship with her husband, the poet Ted Hughes. Fine in wrappers and inscribed by the author nearly two months prior to publication. Laid into this copy is a photocopy of the galley proof of a poem by Alvarez, also inscribed by the author. Edges of the folded sheet tattered where they protrude from the book; very good.

12. ALVAREZ, Julia. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. Chapel Hill: Algonquin, 1991. The advance reading copy of her first work of fiction, a collection of interrelated stories. Winner of the PEN Oakland Award and a New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the year. Fine in wrappers.

13. AMIS, Martin. London Fields. London: Cape (1989). The advance reading copy of his seventh novel, a fantasy of the near future and part of a loose trilogy of London during the Thatcher years and after. Fine in wrappers.

14. AMIS, Martin. The Information. [NY]: Harmony (1995). The advance reading copy of the first American edition of this novel, which was published to substantial critical acclaim after a controversy had erupted regarding the size of the advance Amis had requested, and obtained. The naked avarice (according to Amis's critics) of the author's request upset the genteel world of British publishing and caused some to conclude that Amis had, after all, become too Americanized for his own good; in a postscript to the affair, it is widely speculated that the omission of this title from the shortlist for the Booker Prize was due to resentment in the British literary establishment toward Amis for his unseemly behavior: the book had been considered a heavy favorite to win the Prize and instead was not even nominated. Signed by the author. Fine in wrappers.

15. -. Same title. Advance sheets of the first American edition, consisting of a bound photocopied typescript, reproducing typed and holograph corrections. Signed by the author. Literary agency stamp on front cover; several pages devoted to the marketing plan, including two pages describing the limited edition, here slated to be 250 numbered copies although it was released in a numbered edition of 100 and a lettered edition of 26. 8 1/2" x 11"; tapebound; fine.

16. ANDERSON, Kent. Sympathy for the Devil. Garden City: Doubleday, 1987. The advance reading copy of the well-received first novel by the author of the highly acclaimed Night Dogs. A powerful novel about the Special Forces in Vietnam, with whom the author served, which confronts the violence of the war head-on and explores an individual's capacity for tolerating and committing brutality that in any other context would be unthinkable and inhuman. One of the best novels of the war in its lucid portrayal of the devastating effects of the war on even so elite a group as this and, as such, a powerful antiwar statement without the usual postures and attitudes that are normally associated with an antiwar message. Signed by the author. Shot from typescript, reproducing numerous holograph corrections and including several dramatic scenes that were deleted from the final published version. Fine in wrappers.

17. ANGELL, Roger. A Day in the Life of Roger Angell. (n.p.): (Viking) (1970). The uncorrected proof copy of the author's second book, a collection of essays from The New Yorker, and a somewhat scarce title in any format. Angell is an editor at The New Yorker, and is also considered one of the best writers ever on baseball -- his books The Summer Game and Five Seasons being universally viewed as classics. His baseball reporting for The New Yorker elevates the genre of sportswriting to the realm of true literature, in many critics' and readers' opinions. Near fine in wrappers, with a small "45" on the front cover, presumably the copy number.

18. (Anthology). The New Fiction. Urbana: University of Illinois Press (1974). The uncorrected proof copy of this collection of interviews with a number of the most influential writers of a generation: Kurt Vonnegut, Donald Barthelme, John Barth, Joyce Carol Oates, William Gass, John Gardner, Jerzy Kosinski, Susan Sontag, Tom Wolfe, John Hawkes, Ronald Sukenik and Ishmael Reed. Near fine in wrappers. The front cover gives the publication date as January, 1975. An important volume -- the first appearance in book form of these comments on writing by some of the most highly respected authors of the 1960s and beyond -- and quite scarce, especially in proof form.

19. (Anthology). Giant Talk. NY: Random House (1975). The uncorrected proof copy of this anthology of Third World writings, co-edited and inscribed by Quincy Troupe. Among the hundreds of contributors are Derek Walcott, Toni Cade Bambara, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Pablo Neruda, Wole Soyinka, Alice Walker, Ralph Ellison, Chinua Achebe, Amiri Baraka, Lucille Clifton, Ernest Gaines, Jose Donoso, Carlos Fuentes, James Welch, Ray A. Youngbear, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nikki Giovanni and Toni Morrison. An important anthology, the publication of which helped to enable the current movement toward multicultural studies. Tall wrappers, with a few creases; near fine.

20. (Anthology). Seasons of the Hunter. NY: Knopf, 1985. The uncorrected proof. Previously unpublished work by Richard Ford, E. Annie Proulx (three years prior to her first published book of fiction), Thomas McGuane, Geoffrey Norman, Robert Elman, and others. Edited by Elman and David Seybold. An important collection, in that the editors solicited work especially for this volume, rather than drawing on previously published material. Ford and Proulx have both won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction since this book was published. Near fine in wraps with sample drawings stapled inside the front cover.

21. (Anthology). The New Gothic. NY: Random House (1991). The uncorrected proof copy of this collection of Gothic fiction by such writers as Martin Amis, Paul West, Jeanette Winterson, Kathy Acker, John Edgar Wideman, William T. Vollmann, Joyce Carol Oates, among others. Signed by editors and contributors Bradford Morrow and Patrick McGrath and Scott Bradfield. Fine in wrappers.

22. (Anthology). Northern Lights. NY: Vintage (1994). The uncorrected proof copy. A selection of writings from Northern Lights Magazine, with many of these pieces appearing here in book form for the first time. With an introduction by Louise Erdrich. This copy is signed by contributors Gretel Ehrlich, Terry Tempest Williams, William Kittredge and John Daniel. With additional contributions by Marilynne Robinson, Edward Abbey, Jim Harrison, Simon Ortiz, Linda Hogan, David Quammen, Doug Peacock, Richard Nelson and many others. Fine in wrappers.

23. (Anthology). Talking Up a Storm. Voices of the New West. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press (1994). The advance reading copy of this collection of fifteen interviews conducted by Gregory Morris, a volume that attempts to lay out the parameters for the writing of the "new west," as defined by the political, social and environmental concerns of the generation of writers who grew up since the basic outlines of Western American literature were laid out by such writers as Wallace Stegner, A.B. Guthrie, and Larry McMurtry. Signed by interviewees William Kittredge, Gretel Ehrlich, Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, and John Keeble. Other writers interviewed include Richard Ford, James Crumley, Ivan Doig, Ron Hansen, David Long, Thomas McGuane and Amy Tan. Fine in wrappers.

24. 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.

25. AUEL, Jean M. The Clan of the Cave Bear. NY: Crown (1980). The advance reading copy of the first volume in the author's bestselling "Earth's Children" series. Although the movie that was made from this book bombed, the book itself along with the other volumes in the series was widely praised for the thoroughness of its historical research. Fine in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket. Small corner bump and wrinkle to rear panel; near fine in wrappers.

<< Back to Catalog Index