Catalog 133, B-C
24. (BACON, Francis). BOOTH, William Stone. Some Acrostic Signatures of Francis Bacon. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1909. Subtitled "Together with Some Others All of Which Are Now for the First Time Deciphered and Published." A large study of the acrostic ciphers and signatures reportedly used by Bacon, embedded in a wide variety of texts, including the plays of Shakespeare and, as such, a key work in the Baconian theory of the authorship of Shakespeare's plays. Gift inscription to flyleaf; offsetting and foxing to endpages; near fine in a good, sunned dust jacket chipped at the edges and the folds. Scarce in jacket.
25. BALDWIN, James. Nobody Knows My Name. NY: Dial Press, 1961. Baldwin's fourth book and second volume of nonfiction, subtitled "More Notes of a Native Son" -- referring to his earlier Notes of a Native Son. Fading to top edge of boards; near fine in a very good dust jacket with several small chips to the top edge.
26. BECKETT, Samuel. Malone Dies. NY: Grove Press (1966). The Evergreen paperback original, published simultaneously with a small hardcover edition of 500 copies. Small cup ring front cover; spine-tanned; near fine.
27. BECKETT, Samuel. Film. NY: Grove Press (1969). A review copy of the Evergreen paperback original that includes the complete scenario of Beckett's only film, Film. Fine in wrappers.
28. BERRIAULT, Gina. Women in Their Beds. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint (1996). A story collection that won the PEN/Faulkner Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction, and the Rea Award for the Short Story. Inscribed by Berriault to novelist Robert Stone, "gratefully." A nice association between two award-winning writers. Slight bump to upper board edge; else fine in a very near fine, mildly spine-sunned dust jacket.
29. BLACKBURN, Paul. The Dissolving Fabric. (Palma de Mallorca): Divers Press, 1955. The poet's first book, published by Robert Creeley's important small press. Softcover; offsetting to endpapers; near fine in a good, sunned and brittle dustwrapper chipped much of the length of the thin spine, as is common with this title. Cover art by Black Mountain artist Dan Rice. With a forged signature and inscription of Blackburn's inked through on the title page.
30. BOWLES, Paul. Collected Stories 1939-1976. Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow, 1979. The limited edition of this collection, with an introduction and appreciation by Gore Vidal, who writes "[Bowles's] stories are among the best ever written by an American." One of 300 numbered copies signed by the author. Fine in the publisher's original unprinted acetate dust jacket.
31. (BOWLES, Paul). Chap Book, Vol. II, No. 4. [Syracuse]: (Syracuse University) (1931). Despite the copyright date, the "May, 1930" issue. Includes "Blue Vowels," three pages of poetry criticism by Bowles, who serves as guest author. Not listed in Miller. Also includes "The Cry of the Huckleberry Pudding" by Stephen Crane. Bowles is listed in the contributors notes as a student at the University of Virginia. A very early piece by Bowles (his first book, Two Poems, was published in 1933, and The Sheltering Sky, his first novel, was not published until 1947), and a scarce piece not seen, or known of, by his bibliographer. Thin drip to front cover; faint creasing; near fine in stapled wrappers.
32. (BOWLES, Paul). No Exit. NY: Caedmon Records (1968). A double LP recording of Bowles' adaptation of Sartre's play, as performed by Donald Pleasance, Anna Massey and Glenda Jackson. Bowles adapted Sartre's play from the original French in 1957 (the adaptation was first published in 1958). A performance of it was recorded in 1957. This recording, from a 1966 performance directed by Pulitzer Prize-winner Howard Sackler, was issued in 1968. Boxed set, including a twelve-page informational booklet, with photographs of the performance and essays by William Barrett and John Simon. Fine in a near fine box. Miller G14b. Uncommon.
33. BRENNAN, Maeve. In and Out of Never-Never Land. NY: Scribner (1969). Her first collection of short stories, all of which originally appeared in The New Yorker. Brennan wrote for The New Yorker for a number of years, including penning a number of the anonymous "Talk of the Town" pieces for that magazine. She published three books between 1969 and 1974; later she suffered a nervous breakdown and spent the last decade of her life in a number of mental hospitals. After her death, several posthumously published volumes earned her a degree of fame and critical acclaim that had largely eluded her during her lifetime. Foxing to page edges; near fine in a very good, spine-faded dust jacket with light edge wear.
34. BYATT, A.S. The Biographer's Tale. NY: Knopf, 2001. The first American edition. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket. With a typed sheet laid in directed to the sales reps: "A little treat to share with your accounts...compliments of A.S. Byatt and the Knopf gang."
35. CAIN, James M. Serenade. NY: Knopf, 1937. The second novel by the author of The Postman Always Rings Twice. Cain was the son of an opera singer, and Serenade concerns an American opera singer who loses his voice, goes to Mexico for a number of years, and returns illegally with a Mexican prostitute. A movie version was done in 1956, with opera star Mario Lanza and Joan Fontaine. Owner name and a couple notes; foredge foxing; spine slant; very good in a very good, spine-tanned dust jacket with minor edge wear. This is the variant green and purple jacket.
36. CALDWELL, Erskine. You Have Seen Their Faces. NY: Viking Press, 1937. Text by Caldwell; photographs by Margaret Bourke-White. This is the uncommon hardcover first edition; there was a softcover done by Modern Age books and a later hardcover edition done in 1940 by Duell, Sloane and Pearce. The 1937 Viking edition, however, is quite scarce, especially in any dust jacket. Quarto, with numerous full-page photographs by Bourke-White. Pencilled owner name; minor foxing to text; insect holes to hinges; dampstaining to rear joint and lower front corner. A good copy only, in a good, minorly chipped dust jacket with a washed-out spine.
37. CARSON, Rachel. Food from Home Waters: Fishes of the Middle West. (Washington, D.C.): U.S. Department of the Interior (1943). A 44-page booklet by Carson, the second of her four Conservation Bulletins. Dampstaining to the inner upper corner of covers and outer pages; small ink mark front cover; very good in stapled wrappers.
38. CARVER, Raymond. Cathedral. NY: Knopf, 1983. His third collection of stories to be published by a major trade publisher, and a major literary event that confirmed Carver's preeminent place among American short story writers of the day, and signaled a full-fledged resuscitation of the short story in American literature. Board edges sunned; near fine in a very near fine dust jacket with a small crimp at the crown.
39. CHEKHOV, Anton. The Wife and Other Stories. NY: Macmillan, 1918. The first American edition of this collection of stories by the acknowledged master of the modern short story -- the writer to whom all others are compared and against whom they are measured. Translated by Constance Garnett. Gift inscription; minor foxing; very good, lacking the dust jacket.
40. COETZEE, J.M. Elizabeth Costello. (NY): Viking (2003). The first American edition of this novel by the recent Nobel Prize winner for literature. Coetzee was also the first two-time winner of the Booker Prize, England's most prestigious literary award. Signed by the author in the month of publication. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
41. COLLINS, Billy. Sailing Alone Around the Room. NY: Random House (2001). A collection of poems by the U.S. Poet Laureate, 20 of which had never been collected in book form previously. Signed by the author on page 91: "Billy Collins/ 6 Feb 2002/ Whiter Shade of Pale." Fine in a fine dust jacket.
42. CONNOLLY, Cyril. The Evening Colonnade. NY: HBJ (1975). The first American edition of this collection of literary essays by the founder of Horizon, and the author of The Modern Movement, which identified the 100 most important books defining modernism in literature. Fading to board edges; small sticker shadow to front endpapers; near fine in a very good dust jacket with a few scratches and creases to the lamination.
43. CONRAD, Joseph. Laughing Anne & One Day More. London: John Castle, 1924. The first combined edition of these two plays by Conrad, introduced by John Galsworthy and published just after Conrad died. Owner stamp front flyleaf; offsetting to endpages; general foxing; some wear to lower board edges; overall about a very good copy in a very good, spine-tanned dust jacket with chipping at the crown and corners.
44. (CONRAD, Joseph). CONRAD, Jessie. Joseph Conrad As I Knew Him. Garden City: Doubleday Page, 1926. A short biography of Conrad by his wife, written shortly after he died. Owner stamp on flyleaf and pencilled underlinings in text; minor wear front board; foredge foxed; very good in a very good, spine-sunned dust jacket (author name faded out) with minor edge wear.
45. (CONRAD, Joseph). JEAN-AUBRY, G., ed. Life and Letters. London: Heinemann, 1927. A two-volume biography of Conrad, told largely through his letters, at least after his youth. Owner stamp and page edge foxing to both volumes. Very good in very good dust jackets: Vol. II has a 1" x 2" triangular chip at the upper outer corner and a tear at the lower front spine fold. An attractive set, and uncommon in jackets.
46. COOPER, James Fenimore. The Iroquois Edition of the Writings of James Fenimore Cooper. NY: Putnam/Knickerbocker Press (n.d.)[1895-1900]. Thirty-three volumes; one of 1000 numbered copies. James Fenimore Cooper was perhaps the most popular American author of the first half of the 19th century, and by the end of the century numerous editions of his collected works had been printed. The "Iroquois Edition" is considered to be the finest edition printed of Cooper, with fine leather bindings, elaborate gilt tooling, attractive engravings by a number of the best illustrators of the day, protective tissue guards and title pages printed in multiple colors and with photogravure vignettes. Even the indication of the limitation was elaborate: hand numbered on the colophon and additionally punched into the paper. Cooper's works have survived into the 20th and 21st century largely as a result of his "Leatherstocking Tales" -- including The Last of the Mohicans, The Deerslayer, and others -- which featured Natty Bumppo, the prototype of the natural man, and thus an icon in the American imagination. Two volumes have very shallow chips at the crown; one has slight rubbing to two of the raised bands. Mercedes of Castile has been rebound in a binding that approximates but does not entirely match the other volumes, and has repaired tears on the colophon and frontispiece, not affecting text or image. Overall an attractive, near fine set of works by an early American author whose writings helped define our national self-image.
47. CORTÁZAR, Julio. Bestiario. Buenos Aires: Sudamericana (1951). The first work of fiction, a collection of stories, by this Argentine author whose work was associated with the fantastic, and thus has been compared to Jorge Luis Borges and the surrealists, while helping lay the groundwork for the "magical realism" of Gabriel García Márquez, and other writers of the "boom" era in Latin American literature. Cortázar also, unlike Borges, became politically active, and he left Argentina in 1951, the year this book was published, and moved to Paris out of opposition to the regime of Argentine dictator Juan Perón. He stayed in Paris the rest of his life. Owner name on flyleaf; small notes on title page; offsetting to first page; spine-creased; small blended stain front cover; very good in self-wrappers. A nice copy of an early book by one of the major voices in Latin American literature of the 20th century -- one of the handful who helped elevate the field to the stature of world literature.
48. CREELEY, Robert. The Kind of Act of. (Palma de Mallorca): Divers Press, 1953. The poet's second book, published by his own press in an edition estimated to be about 250 copies. Forged signature of Robert Creeley inked through. Softcover; offsetting to endpapers; near fine in a very good, sunned and brittle dustwrapper tearing at the thin spine. An attractive copy of an uncommon book.
49. CREELEY, Robert. The Whip. (Palma de Mallorca): Migrant Books, 1957. An early book by Creeley, printed at his Divers Press. One of 500 copies in wrappers, of a total edition of 600. Forged signature of Robert Creeley inked through; else near fine in wrappers.
50. CREELEY, Robert. The Charm: Early and Uncollected Poems. [Mt. Horeb]: Perishable Press, 1967. An attractive limited edition of Creeley's poems, printed at Walter Hamady's Perishable Press, one of the most renowned fine presses in America. According to the colophon, one of 250 numbered copies signed by the author, although the bibliography indicates that only about 235 copies were made. Pages uncut; fine without dust jacket, as issued.
51. CREELEY, Robert. Away. Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1976. One of 200 numbered hardcover copies signed by the author. This copy was first signed in pencil by Creeley and then oversigned in pen. Fine without dust jacket, as issued. With the ownership signature of author Howard Norman.
52. (Crime). The Hundred Best Crime Stories. (London): Sunday Times (1959). An approximately chronological listing, with descriptions, of the hundred best crime stories across four categories: "The Begetters;" "The Age of the Great Detective;" "Novels of Action" (American and English); and "The Modern Crime Novel." Age-toning; near fine in stapled wrappers. A valuable reference for anyone interested in the history of the field.
53. CUMMINGS, E.E. Postcards. 1954. Three postcards: two typed postcards signed; one autograph postcard signed; all three written to Nancy Robinson in 1954. In May, Cummings encourages Robinson to seek out Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet. August's card is an enthusiastic one sentence of congratulations and well-wishing, written from Cummings' summer home in Silver Lake, New Hampshire. November's card questions the sentiment "know all rooms of the house" with "how may anybody 'know' even one room?" The postcard is printed with Cummings' Greenwich Village address -- 4 Patchin Place, New York 11. The third card is a bit smudged; else all are fine but for standard postal markings. For the three: