Catalog 132, A-B
2. ALGREN, Nelson. The Man with the Golden Arm. Garden City: Doubleday, 1949. Algren's best-known work, a tale of a recovering drug addict and the drug culture that was the first winner of the National Book Award and was later made into an acclaimed film, which earned three Academy Award nominations, including one for Frank Sinatra for Best Actor, in a performance some think was his finest ever. Fine in a rubbed, near fine dust jacket.
3. ANDERSON, Laurie. United States. NY: Harper & Row (1984). The hardcover issue of the companion book to her 1982 eight hour epic performance piece United States I-IV. This copy is signed by Anderson, with an additional bi-colored lightning-through-fingerprint graphic beneath the signature. Oblong quarto; text block sagging slightly; near fine in a near fine dust jacket with a bit of edge wear. Together with a copy of the album cover (no record album) from Big Science [Warner Bros., 1982], which featured work from United States, inscribed by Anderson. Fine, framed to 12 1/2" x 12 1/2". In 2000, Anderson toured with her performance of Songs and Stories from Moby Dick; in the past year she has served as the first artist-in-residence at NASA. Books signed by Anderson, perhaps the preeminent American avant garde performance artist, are very uncommon. For both:
4. (Anthology). Best of the South. Chapel Hill: Algonquin, 1996. Anne Tyler selects and introduces this volume of the best short stories from the first ten years of New Stories from the South. Signed by the editor Shannon Ravenel and by contributors Mary Hood, Bob Shacochis, Marly Swick, Madison Smartt Bell, Frank Manley, Lewis Nordan, Richard Bausch, Reginald McKnight, Nanci Kincaid, Mark Richard, Lee Smith, Patricia Lear, Padgett Powell, Tony Earley, Edward P. Jones, Barry Hannah, Melanie Summer and James Lee Burke. One of a very small number of copies signed by this group of authors at a celebration for the anthology. Fine in wrappers (not issued in hardcover).
5. ATWOOD, Margaret. The Trumpets of Summer. (Toronto): (Berandol Music) (1964). An early, ephemeral piece by Atwood -- a libretto for a choral suite for mixed chorus, four soloists, male speaker, and six instruments; commissioned by the CBC for the Shakespeare Quatercentenary. First performed in Montreal on November 29, 1964. Music by John Beckwith; although only the text is printed here. It is unlikely that many of these would have been created, let alone have survived all this time. A scarce item, preceding her first novel by five years. Fine in stapled wrappers.
6. BARNES, Julian. England, England. London: Jonathan Cape (1998). The first edition of a novel that was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Signed by the author on September 3, 1998 on the Isle of Wight. One lower corner bumped; else fine in a fine, first issue dust jacket.
7. BARRETT, Andrea. Ship Fever and Other Stories. NY: Norton (1996). A collection of stories that was a surprise winner of the National Book Award. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
8. BARTH, John. Chimera. NY: Random House (1972). A review copy of his National Book Award winning novel, a series of three interconnected stories that are ultimately about storytelling itself. Trace page edge foxing; else fine in a very near fine dust jacket with some creasing on the rear flap.
9. BATES, Katharine Lee. Browning Studies. (Boston): (Press of S.G. Robinson), 1896. A short compilation of references to works by and about Robert Browning and class notes for a literature course. Bates, a poet and literature professor at Wellesley College for 40 years, is most famous for having written "America the Beautiful," which was first published the year before this volume. Inscribed by the author and dated in the year of publication. Near fine in stapled wrappers.
10. BELLOW, Saul. The Adventures of Augie March. NY: Viking, 1953. A review copy of the Nobel Prize winner's third novel, and the first of his three National Book Award winners -- an unprecedented accomplishment in American literature. This is the first issue. Light bump to upper spine; else fine in a near fine dust jacket with slight rubbing to the spine extremities and a short edge tear at the front flap fold. A very nice copy of one of the high spots of postwar American fiction. With publisher's review slip laid in. Scarce in such condition, especially as a prepublication copy.
11. BELLOW, Saul. Herzog. NY: Viking (1964). His second National Book Award winner. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with only mild tanning to the spine lettering and two minuscule nicks to the crown. An exceptionally crisp, attractive copy of a book that is seldom found in this condition.
12. BELLOW, Saul. Mr. Sammler's Planet. NY: Viking (1970). The third of Bellow's novels to win the National Book Award. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with slight wear at the crown.
13. (BELLOW, Saul). The MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour. NY: WNET/Thirteen, 1987. The transcript of the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour for June 22, 1987, which includes "Bellow's Gift," a six page interview about the human suffering that is peculiar to the Western World and Bellow's then recently-released novel, More Die of Heartbreak. Thirty pages overall; fine in stapled wrappers. Uncommon.
14. BLATTY, William Peter. The Exorcist. (Burbank): (Warner Brothers), 1974. Blatty's screenplay, from his novel, for the film widely considered one of the top horror films of all time, coming in after only Psycho and Jaws on the American Film Institute's list of the Top 100 Thrillers in 100 Years. The Exorcist was nominated for ten Academy Awards in 1974 and won two, including an Oscar for this screenplay. Labeled "Final. April 24, 1972," but with blue-paged changes with dates ranging from 6/22/72 to 12/1/72. Bound in printed covers; the script is near fine, the covers worn but still very good.
15. BORGES, Jorge Luis. Labyrinths. (NY): New Directions (1962). The second of his books to be published in English, a selection of his short stories and essays from several earlier volumes that had only been published in Spanish. Together with Ficciones, this book established Borges as one of the leading lights of contemporary literature for an English-speaking audience, and both books were consistently in print throughout the Sixties and Seventies, becoming staples on college campuses, both in the curriculum and outside of it. Trace sunning to crown cloth; else fine in a near fine dust jacket with very light rubbing to the front panel and folds and shallow chipping at the spine ends and rear fold.
16. BORGES, Jorge Luis. Dreamtigers. Austin: University of Texas (1964). The first American edition of this collection of short fictions, prose poems and poetry. Woodcuts by Antonio Frasconi. Fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket with light spine tanning. An early title in this country by Borges, the translation of his work, El Hacedor, originally published in Buenos Aires in 1960.
17. BORGES, Jorge Luis and BIOY-CASARES, Adolfo. Extraordinary Tales. NY: Herder & Herder, 1971. A collection of short fantastic tales written by Borges and his longtime friend and collaborator, Bioy-Casares. Borges and Bioy-Casares began collaborating in 1942 under the pseudonym "H. Bustos Domecq" and then as "B. Suárez Lynch," later continuing as overt collaborators under their own names. This volume was first published in Spanish in 1967. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with trace rubbing.
18. BORGES, Jorge Luis. An Introduction to American Literature. (Lexington): University Press of Kentucky (1971). A brief, scholarly introduction to American literature, originally published in Spanish in 1967. One of the most concise and erudite introductions to the field by any writer: Borges was thoroughly familiar with the subject and sufficiently fluent in English to have translated Faulkner and Virginia Woolf, among others. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with light spine sunning and trace rubbing to corners.
19. BORGES, Jorge Luis. An Introduction to English Literature. (Lexington): University Press of Kentucky (1974). A succinct introduction to English literature: Borges, in addition to being a writer, was an accomplished scholar of world literature, and his introductory volumes are informative and concise overviews. Mild top edge foxing; else fine in a near fine, mildly spine-darkened dust jacket.
Inscribed to his Biographer
20. BOWLES, Paul. A Little Stone. London: Lehmann (1950). His second book of fiction and first collection of stories, the form which many consider to be his greatest strength. This title has no comparable American edition: a similar but not identical collection was published later in the year in the U.S. as The Delicate Prey. Of 3500 copies printed, this is one in the presumed first issue binding, in light green cloth. The print run was smaller than that of The Sheltering Sky and is the second smallest print run for any volume of Bowles's fiction. Inscribed by Bowles to Virginia [Spencer Carr], his biographer in Tangier in 1992. A nice association: Carr's book, Paul Bowles: A Life, is slated for publication by Simon & Schuster in November, 2004. She is the author of the award-winning biography of Carson McCullers, The Lonely Hunter. Jane and Paul Bowles moved into McCullers' apartment in Brooklyn Heights in 1940 just after she moved out; Carr is currently working on a biography of Tennessee Williams, with whom Bowles collaborated numerous times, writing the scores for Williams' plays. Spine slant; faint foredge foxing and offsetting to endpages; near fine in a very good dust jacket with a small chip to the front panel and two closed tears at mid-spine.
21. BOWLES, Paul. Next to Nothing. Kathmandu: Starstreams, 1976. One of 500 numbered copies of this fragile production on homemade Nepalese paper, with tipped-in photographic frontispiece. The Starstreams poetry series was started by Ira Cohen, longtime friend of William Burroughs, among others. This copy is signed by Bowles and additionally inscribed by him to Virginia Spencer Carr in 1994. Fine.
22. BOWLES, Paul. Midnight Mass. Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow, 1981. The limited edition of this collection of stories. One of 350 numbered copies signed by the author. Fine in the original acetate dustwrapper, which is near fine. John Martin of Black Sparrow Press began publishing Bowles in the 1960s, eventually reissuing a number of his early titles as well as publishing original new material such as this volume.
23. BOWLES, Paul. Tanger: Vues Choisies. (Paris): Éric Koehler/Sand (1991). A book of photographs of Tangier, where Bowles lived for over 50 years. Text by Bowles; photographs by Jellel Gasteli. Bilingual, with French translations by Claude-Nathalie Thomas. Inscribed by Bowles to his biographer, and also inscribed by the translator. Quarto; fine in wrappers. No comparable U.S. edition of this title exists.
24. BOWLES, Paul. Morocco. (NY): Henry N. Abrams (1993). Six previously published essays by Bowles and a new introduction accompany photographs by Barry Brukof. Inscribed by Bowles to Virginia Spencer Carr. Quarto; fine in a fine dust jacket. An attractive volume, and a nice association copy.
25. BOWLES, Paul. Too Far From Home. (London): Peter Owen (1994). Advance prepublication copy in the form of folded and gathered sheets. A novella by Bowles that was issued as a limited edition by Peter Owen, his U.K. publisher. Inscribed by Bowles to his biographer. Tiny spot to top edge; else fine in wraparound band with title, publisher and name (of reviewer?). Uncommon format: there were probably only a small handful of copies prepared in this manner.
26. BOWLES, Paul. The Time of Friendship. Zurich: Memory/Cage, 1995. The first separate edition of one of Bowles's most famous stories, this being one of 1500 copies, with a preface by Bowles for this edition and photographs by Vittorio Santoro. Inscribed by Bowles "with much love" to his biographer. Quarto; trace corner rubbing; still fine without dust jacket, as issued. Uncommon.
27. BOWLES, Paul. Sonata for Oboe and Clarinet. Cologne: UBM Records (1996). Sheet music for a 1931 Bowles composition. Bowles began writing poetry in the late 1920s and then, discouraged by Gertrude Stein, gave up writing for the better part of two decades, concentrating on musical composition. Inscribed by Bowles to his biographer, "music for Virginia/ with love from Paul/ Tangier -22/xii/1998." Fine in stapled wrappers. Uncommon, especially signed.
28. (BOWLES, Paul). Paul Bowles at 80. Newark: University of Delaware (1990). Exhibition catalog. Inscribed by Bowles to Mary Robbins, "my hostess," in 1994. Robbins is a friend and neighbor of Bowles's biographer Virginia Spencer Carr; Robbins accompanied Carr on several trips to Tangier and housed Bowles when he traveled to the U.S. for surgery in 1994. Oblong quarto; fine in stapled wrappers. Also laid in are retained copies of two 1990 letters from Carr to Bowles.
29. (BOWLES, Paul). Music. (NY): Eos Music (1995). A collection of pieces that evaluate and attempt to evoke the musical world of Paul Bowles. Includes two pieces by Bowles himself. Issued in conjunction with The Music of Paul Bowles Festival at Lincoln Center in New York. Inscribed by the author to his biographer, Virginia [Spencer Carr], "with love." Pencil annotations to text in Carr's hand; else fine, without dust jacket, as issued. A nice association, and an uncommon book, especially signed.
30. BOYLE, T.C. The Fog Man. (NY): (Penguin) (1994). Promotional pamphlet printing this one story from Boyle's collection Without A Hero. Signed by the author. Fine in stapled wrappers. A scarce, ephemeral piece, and uncommon signed.
31. BRAINE, John. Room at the Top. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1957. The highly acclaimed first novel by this writer who was one of the "Angry Young Men" in Britain in the 1950s. This was made into a well-received movie in 1959, which was nominated for six Academy Awards in 1960 and won two, including one for best screenplay based on material from another medium. A bit of foxing to the top edge; else fine in a very good dust jacket with mild sunning, spotting and edge wear, including a closed tear at the upper front spine fold. With the publisher's wraparound band. A nice copy of an important first novel, and scarce with the band.
32. BRAUTIGAN, Richard. The Galilee Hitch-Hiker. (San Francisco): (White Rabbit Press) (1958). His extremely scarce second book, published in an edition of 200 copies the same year as his nearly-impossible-to-find first book, The Return of the Rivers, and a decade before he achieved fame and celebrity as an icon of the youth counterculture of the 1960s. Fine in saddle-stitched parchment wrappers with a cover illustration by Kenn Davis. A very nice copy of this small, fragile volume.
33. BRAUTIGAN, Richard. September California. [San Francisco]: [San Francisco Arts Festival Commission] [1964]. An attractive broadside illustrated by Richard Correll. Limited to 300 copies signed by Brautigan and Correll. According to Lepper, "most" copies were signed. This was issued as part of a portfolio of broadsides by various poets but here is offered separately. A fine copy of a scarce, early Brautigan item, and his first to be issued as a signed limited edition. A bit of fairly imperceptible creasing; otherwise fine.
34. (Broadsides). Sixteen Broadsides. St. Paul: Bookslinger, 1980. Broadside suite compiled from the Walker Art Center Reading Series 1979-1980. Of a total edition of 151 sets, this is one of 125 numbered sets of 16 broadsides, each signed by its respective author. Authors include William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Donald Barthelme, Grace Paley, Tillie Olsen, Philip Whalen, Meridel LeSueur, Thomas Sanchez, Jerome Rothenberg, and others. Broadsides measure 9 7/8" x 12 3/4". Spotting to the broadside of Jane McCauley; the others are fine and all are laid into the publisher's near fine cardstock chemise. Uncommon: the publisher sold the broadsides individually as well as in sets, thus further restricting the complete sets available to a number below the stated limitation.
35. BRODKEY, Harold. First Love and Other Sorrows. NY: Dial (1957). Brodkey's first book, a collection of stories that had the literary world virtually on tenterhooks for the next three decades, eagerly awaiting his first novel, which wasn't published until 1991. Inscribed by the author "with great affection" in 1991. Faint offsetting to front flyleaf; else fine in a near fine dust jacket with light edge wear and a bit of rubbing to the folds but none of the spine-fading common to this title. An uncommon book signed, and a very nice copy.
36. BUKOWSKI, Charles and CRUMB, R. The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship. Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Graphic Arts, 1997. Selections from Bukowski's final journals, published posthumously in an elaborate limited edition. An attractive collaboration between Bukowski the consummate street poet and Crumb the comic artist par excellence, each of whom helped redefine and legitimize his field of endeavor -- a perfect matching of verbal and visual artist. Of a total edition of 187 copies, this is one of 175 numbered copies with five full-color serigraphs by Crumb, each signed by the artist. There are additional black & white illustrations by Crumb as well. Approximately 11 1/4" x 14 1/2". Fine in cloth slipcase, as issued. With publisher's prospectus laid in.
37. BURKE, James Lee. Lay Down My Sword and Shield. NY: Crowell (1971). The third of Burke's early novels, the last before a hiatus from publishing that lasted over a decade. Burke has since become a bestselling author by virtue of his award-winning Dave Robicheaux mystery series. This book seems to be the scarcest of his three early novels, surpassed in scarcity only by the hardcover issue of his story collection The Convict, which is probably explained by the fact that it was issued by a publisher not well known for publishing fiction: of the mainstream trade publishers that issued Burke's first three novels, Crowell was both the smallest and the least inclined to publish fiction. This is the issue in beige cloth, with the title stamped in pink. There is also, to the best of our memory, an issue in beige cloth stamped in copper and an issue in mustard cloth stamped in pink. Signed by the author. Fine in a near fine, slightly spine-faded dust jacket that is folded off-center. An attractive copy of one of Burke's most elusive books.
38. BURROUGHS, William S. "LEE, William." Junkie. Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict. NY: Ace (1953). Burroughs' pseudonymous first book, a paperback original bound back-to-back with Maurice Helbrant's Narcotic Agent. Signed by the author. Burroughs' first book was a straightforward narrative of his experiences with drugs -- personal and at times harrowing. The publisher chose to release it couched in an anti-drug context, as a first person example of the horrors of drug use, and bound with a narcotic agent's memoir. Still, Burroughs himself was "unredeemed," as the subtitle of the book indicates, and continued using drugs throughout his life. His experimentation with drugs, with such friends as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, helped lay the groundwork for the counterculture of the 1960s. Small ink date (2/6) inside front cover; spine and cover creasing; very good in wrappers.
39. BURROUGHS, William S. The Naked Lunch. Paris: Olympia (1959). The first issue of the first edition of his second book, a high spot of Beat and postwar American literature and one of the three key volumes of the Beat movement, along with Kerouac's On the Road and Ginsberg's Howl. Published only in paperback in Paris by Maurice Girodias' important small press, in an edition of 5000 copies, three years before it could be published in the U.S., Naked Lunch was controversial for its explicit sexual content but, more importantly in the long run, it was an experiment in writing and perception, with shifting authorial voices and nonrealistic transpositions in time and place and perspective. At around the time of its publication, Burroughs began experimenting, with Brion Gysin, with applying the "cut up technique" to writing in a way that parallelled its longstanding use in the visual arts, and thus linked the Beat movement and the postwar American avant garde directly to the European avant garde movements of the earlier part of the century, in particular the surrealists and the Dadaists. Their first cut-up novel, Minutes to Go, was published the year after Naked Lunch. This copy is signed by the author. Slight bump to spine base, and text block beginning to separate there slightly as the glue dries; still a very near fine copy in a very near fine dust jacket with trace sunning and wear at the edges. In custom folding chemise and slipcase. A nice copy of an important novel.
40. -. Same title. NY: Grove Press (1959)[c. 1962]. The first American edition and first hardcover edition, not published in this country until three years after its original publication in Paris, and then only after a number of high-profile literary figures argued its case as a novel of great literary merit and import. It was published by the maverick publisher Barney Rosset, of Grove Press, in a tiny edition of 3500 copies -- a smaller number than was done of the very scarce French paperback edition in 1959. Small owner label has fallen off front pastedown, leaving residue there; fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket with a couple closed edge tears. Laid in is a 1968 typed note on American Journal of Pornography stationery transmitting the book and a 1964 London Telegraph review (the year Naked Lunch was published in the U.K.). A nice copy of a landmark novel, with interesting ephemeral pieces laid in.