Catalog 132, J-L
130. JOHNSON, Charles. Middle Passage. NY: Atheneum, 1990. The uncommon first printing of this novel of a slave ship by an African-American author, reportedly issued with a small first printing and marketed more as a "young adult" book than an "adult trade" title. When it won the National Book Award, copies were nearly impossible to find, and it was reprinted a number of times in very short order. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket.
131. JONES, James. From Here to Eternity. NY: Scribner, 1951. His first book, one of the great novels of World War II and the basis for a film that won eight Academy Awards and was named one of the American Film Institute's top 100 Films of the Century. Winner of the National Book Award. Fine in a fine dust jacket but for the orange-to-yellow fading to the title on the spine. A nearly perfect copy, and very scarce thus.
132. KAEL, Pauline. Going Steady. Boston: Little Brown (1970). The third collection of film reviews by the longtime film critic for The New Yorker. Kael invigorated film criticism unlike any previous reviewer, skewering pretension at the same time that she recognized, acknowledged, and even praised the value of entertainment and even popular culture. Known for her self-conscious effrontery, she both delighted and infuriated -- sometimes simultaneously -- filmgoers, readers, and most especially other critics. Her reviews were "superbly opinionated," often acerbic, and characterized by a pull-no-punches vernacular writing style. Signed by the author and dated May, 1970. Near fine in a very good, dusty, spine-tanned dust jacket with a few small chips and tears. Books signed by Kael are quite uncommon.
133. KAEL, Pauline. Reeling. Boston: Little Brown (1976). Another collection of her film reviews. Warmly inscribed by the author: "For John Alfred Avant/ Al - much/ love,/ Pauline/ 23 March 76." The recipient was a close friend of Kael's, and after he died of AIDS his longtime partner wrote the following: "Al read these books over and over, assiduously, w/booze or coffee alongside; his memory was so good he could be very helpful to PK and they talked often on the 'phone; he also wrote about movies and cable TV and books. . . He was Fiction Librarian at BPL. She was also very good about calling him whilst he sustained AIDS 1990-93. He called her 'La Divina' (after Callas, I suppose, whom he also loved)." Text block shaken; a bit of dampstaining to upper boards and some wear to lower boards; a very good copy, lacking the dust jacket.
134. KAEL, Pauline. 5001 Nights at the Movies. NY: HRW (1982). Collects several thousand of Kael's short movie reviews, written for The New Yorker and published in the "Goings on About Town" section of the magazine. These are generally capsule summaries of longer reviews by Kael that had appeared in the Cinema section of the magazine; an excellent introduction to her style of writing and the largest single volume collection of her reviews to that date, however abbreviated. Inscribed by the author. A bulky book, with the text block slightly shaken; fading to board edges; small crack to upper board edge; a very good copy in a near fine dust jacket with a bit of wear at the heel and a creased rear flap.
135. KAEL, Pauline. Taking It All In. NY: HRW (1984). Second printing of the hardcover issue. Inscribed by the author to John Alfred Avant, "with love." Dampstaining to lower board edges and several page margins; very good in a very good, price-clipped dust jacket, also with a dampstained lower edge.
136. KAEL, Pauline. Movie Love. (NY): Dutton (1991). Her New Yorker reviews from 1988-1991. Inscribed by the author: "For John Alfred Avant and/ David Young Allen, there -- I've been/ formal./ With love,/ Pauline." Avant and Allen were partners, and longtime friends of Kael. Dampstained cloth, foredge and lower edge; a very good copy in a near fine dust jacket with dampstaining on verso.
137. KAEL, Pauline. For Keeps. (NY): Dutton (1994). Third printing of this massive compendium of thirty years of movie reviews, running to over 1200 pages. Unlike 5001 Nights at the Movies, this volume collects full-length reviews spanning Kael's entire career at The New Yorker. Inscribed by the author to her longtime friend, David Allen: "Dave dear, There won't be surprises for you here, but you may want to have it anyway. Love, Pauline." Includes a four-page introduction by the author that sheds light on her reviews and reviewing style: she wanted to "avoid saphead objectivity" and she "razzed the East Coast critics and their cultural domination of the country. (We in the West received the movies encumbered with stern punditry.)" Her humor and irreverence are in ample evidence, and this short piece comprises one of the better autobiographical statements of Kael's to have appeared in print. Faint dampstain at heel; near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
138. (KAEL, Pauline). The Citizen Kane Book. Boston: Little Brown (1971). Contains one of Kael's most famous essays, "Raising Kane," first published in The New Yorker, and the longest piece of film criticism ever published in that magazine. Also includes the Citizen Kane shooting and continuity scripts, by Herman Mankiewicz and Orson Welles. Inscribed by the author in 1973. Quarto, heavily illustrated with photographs from the movie, which was selected as Number 1 of the American Film Institute's top 100 films of all time. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Scarce in fine condition and extremely so signed.
139. KAFKA, Franz. The Great Wall of China. London: Martin Secker, 1933. The first English language edition of this posthumously published work of previously unpublished pieces. Mild sunning to the spine; otherwise a fine copy in like dust jacket which has been professionally repaired along the front spine fold.
140. (KAZANTZAKIS, Nikos). STEIN, Joseph. Zorba. (NY): Random House (1969). A review copy of the first edition of the play version of Kazantzakis' novel, which was runner-up for the Tony Award in the year it was first produced. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket, with publisher's review slip laid in.
From the Offices of Ken Lopez Bookseller
141. (KEITH, Holly). "White Rabbit" in Going Alone: Women's Adventures in the Wild. (Emeryville): Seal Press (2004). An anthology documenting women's solo adventures. Signed by the author, who has also partially restored the intended biographical information. A paperback original; fine in wrappers.
142. KINGSTON, Maxine Hong. Tripmaster Monkey. His Fake Book. NY: Knopf, 1989. The uncorrected proof copy of the fourth book and first novel by the author of The Woman Warrior. This was John Updike's copy, with a letter laid in from the Vice President and Senior Editor of Knopf to Mr. Updike, soliciting his comments. Fine in wrappers.
143. KINNELL, Galway. Black Light. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966. A review copy of the only novel by the National Book Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet. Fine in a dust jacket with trace sunning. Review slip laid in.
144. KINSELLA, W.P. Shoeless Joe. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982. His highly praised, much-loved first novel, winner of a Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship Award and basis for the award-winning movie Field of Dreams. A North American magical realist baseball novel, with reclusive novelist J.D. Salinger as a character. Tiny spot on foredge; trace foxing to top edge and spine cloth; near fine in a very near fine dust jacket.
145. (KITTREDGE, William and KRAUZER, Steven.) "ROUNTREE, Owen." Cord. NY: Ballantine Books (1982-1986). Nine volumes in this series of pseudonymous Westerns, issued as paperback originals. The series, co-written by Kittredge, one of the preeminent contemporary western writers of both fiction and nonfiction, and novelist Steven Krauzer, focuses on an outlaw named Cord and his female partner, Chi, in the latter years of the 19th century. Included are: Cord, The Nevada War, The Black Hills Duel, Gunman Winter, Hunt the Man Down, King of Colorado, Gunsmoke River, Paradise Valley, and Brimstone Basin. Each volume is signed by both Kittredge and Krauzer. Cord, The Black Hills Duel and Gunsmoke River are each slightly spine-faded; otherwise the set is fine. Complete sets in fine condition are difficult to assemble these days, especially signed.
146. KOSINSKI, Jerzy. Steps. NY: Random House (1968). Kosinski's second novel, and second book published under his own name, after the highly acclaimed The Painted Bird. Winner of the National Book Award. Fine in a fine dust jacket. A very nice copy, with none of the sunning to the spine that is typical of this title.
147. KUNDERA, Milan. Laughable Loves. NY: Knopf, 1974. The first American edition, with an introduction by Philip Roth. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
148. LE CARRÉ, John. The Looking-Glass War. London: Heinemann (1965). His fourth book, published a year after his success with The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, which redefined the spy genre. This grim novel, though not as successful, began the series in which Le Carré pushed authenticity to new levels in espionage fiction, and at the same time elevated the literary level of the genre. Signed by the author. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with the rear flap clipped and color added to the front flap fold. The jacket shows only the slightest of fading on the spine, which is very unusual for this title.
149. LEM, Stanislaw. Solaris. NY: Walker and Co. (1970). The first American edition of Lem's classic novel, which has been filmed twice, once in 1972 by the Russian experimental filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky and again in 2002 by Steven Soderbergh. Lem, a Pole and the most famous science fiction writer of his time in the Communist world, writes in the tradition of Eastern European philosophical fantasy, and during the Soviet era science fiction was one of the few genres in which political and philosophical ideas could be explored freely, with minimal risk of being examined for political orthodoxy. Couched within the basically straightforward story of humans' encounter with the life of an alien planet is an exploration of the nature of reality itself and the limitations of scientific inquiry, which has been compared to Kafka and includes allusions to André Breton and the Surrealists. Nonetheless, Solaris is considered Lem's most straightforward and accessible novel. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with a touch of rubbing at the crown and some fading to the lower orange of the spine.
150. LE MAY, Alan. The Searchers. NY: Harper (1954). The western classic, the basis for, initially, the John Ford film starring John Wayne and Natalie Wood, one of the defining films of the genre and one of the American Film Institute's top 100 Films of the Century. This is a later printing of the hardcover issue, used as an advance copy of the Popular Library paperback edition, as stated on a label tipped to the front flyleaf. Signed by the author. Name stamp lower page edges; offsetting to endpages; near fine in a very good, foxed and spine-faded dust jacket with several small chips and edge tears.
151. (LEONARD, Elmore). Hombre. (n.p.): Twentieth Century-Fox, 1967. Press kit for the film version of Leonard's novel, which starred Paul Newman and was the first major commercial success to be derived from a Leonard novel. The movie was directed by Martin Ritt, who had also directed Hud, the film adaptation of Larry McMurtry's first novel, Horseman, Pass By. Including one-sheet, 14" x 22", creased at top, near fine; lobby card, 14" x 11", fine; 12-page pressbook, with one excision from the "scene mats" page, thus very good in illustrated cardstock covers; an additional, abridged pressbook, also with excisions; an 8" x 10" color glossy of Newman, signed by Newman, fine; and a 10" x 8" black-and-white glossy of Leonard, signed by the author, also fine. For all:
152. LEVY, D.A. North American Book of the Dead. Cleveland: Free Lance Press, 1965. Probably the best-known book by the quintessential hippie-poet of the 1960s, a key figure in the Cleveland, Ohio underground and a writer whose suicide at a young age ensured him a kind of literary immortality that probably would have surprised him. Published (as usual) by his own press and, as noted by his bibliographer, "a typically bad Free Lance production with horrendous errors throughout." This copy is warmly inscribed by the author in the year of publication to a fellow poet: "to will inman/ for being/ and for being/ a good friend/ + a perhaps a/ great human being/ d.a. levy/ 65." Folded once vertically, and edge-darkened; very good in stapled wrappers with an old ink price written on the front cover. An excellent association copy of an enormously scarce book by one of the pre-eminent American poets of the 1960s counterculture.
153. LEWIS, Sinclair. The Job. NY: Harper & Brothers (1917). The first issue of his third book under his own name and his first attempt, he later said, to write a serious novel. During the 1920s, Lewis wrote a series of masterpieces, including Babbitt, Main Street, Elmer Gantry and Arrowsmith. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1926, which he declined, and in 1930 he became the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Job was controversial in its time for its realistic depiction of a woman in the workplace and laid the groundwork for Lewis' great novels of social realism in the 1920s. Offsetting to endpages from dust jacket flaps; near fine in a good dust jacket, spine-sunned and modestly damp-stained with several very small chips and one larger chip affecting the spine title, with some attempts at internal tape-mending. An extremely scarce book in any dust jacket, and an important title in the Lewis canon.
154. LEWIS, Wyndham. Apes of God. London: Arthur Press, 1930. A massive satirical novel in which Lewis skewers the British liberal literary culture of the 1920s, in particular the Bloomsbury group. This is one of 750 numbered copies, done for subscribers, and signed by the author. Endpages and page edges foxed, a stray pen mark to lower edges and a bit of soiling to the page edges at the lower corners from the bulk of the book; still a near fine copy in a good dust jacket with multiple internal tape repairs and strengthenings and heavily rubbed folds. Ezra Pound called this novel the most important book of the 20th century, ahead of even Ulysses.
155. LOPEZ, Barry. Pulling Wire. (Minnesota): Red Dragonfly Press, 2003. A fine press edition printing one story by the author of Arctic Dreams, among others. Letterpress printed on handmade Japanese paper, with a title page woodcut by Gary Young. Of a total edition of 276 copies, this is one of 240 copies in wrappers. Fine.
156. -. Same title, the deluxe issue, printed on Barcham Green handmade paper and bound in cloth and boards. One of 36 numbered copies signed by the author. Fine without dust jacket, as issued.
157. LOWELL, Robert. Land of Unlikeness. (Cummington): Cummington Press, 1944. The author's first book, published in a limited edition by Harry Duncan at the Cummington Press, one of the preeminent American fine presses of the 20th century. Introduction by Allen Tate. Lowell's first full-length collection was published three years later. He went on to win the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize, among many other awards. This is one of 224 copies of a total edition of 250. This copy is inscribed by the author to Anne Sweeney, the daughter of James Johnson Sweeney, longtime curator of the Museum of Modern Art, among his many other accomplishments. Spine and cover edges a little faded, tips of boards worn, some internal foxing, up to the title page. Overall about very good, lacking the plain tissue dust jacket. A nice association copy of an important and uncommon first book.
158. LOWELL, Robert. Selected Poems. NY: FSG (1976). A collection spanning Lowell's entire career to that date. Signed by the author on the front free endpaper. Front panel of dust jacket pasted to cover, and front flap copy pasted to front pastedown. With the homemade bookplate of another poet on the free endpaper. Withal, a very good copy, and uncommon signed.