Catalog 135, A
2. ABBEY, Edward. Abbey's Road. NY: Dutton (1979). A collection of short nonfiction pieces, which was published simultaneously in hardcover and softcover. This is the issue in wrappers and is inscribed by Abbey to the author Edward Hoagland: "For Ted Hoagland/ from his friend and fan/ Ed Abbey/ Arizona '79." A blurb by Hoagland appears on the rear cover. Faint spine crease and foredge foxing; very near fine. A nice association: Hoagland is a well-known essayist and novelist, several of whose books have pertained to the American West. He and Abbey developed a long distance friendship starting in 1970 and continuing until Abbey's death; Hoagland wrote the obituary of Abbey for The New York Times Book Review.
3. ALBEE, Edward. Three Plays. NY: Coward-McCann (1960). The first hardcover publication by the three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, among others. Includes "The Zoo Story," "The Death of Bessie Smith" and "The Sandbox," with an introduction by the author. Trace rubbing to spine ends; still fine in a fine, first issue dust jacket with the $2.75 price. Scarce in the first issue jacket: the publisher raised the price to $3.50 and price-clipped all the unsold copies, adding the new price at the bottom of the front flap.
4. ALBEE, Edward. The American Dream. NY: Coward-McCann (1961). Another early play, his second regularly published book. This is the hardcover issue; there was a simultaneous issue in wrappers. Offsetting to endpages; else fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
5. ALBEE, Edward. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? NY: Atheneum, 1962. His first three-act play, and a landmark of the drama of the Sixties, which blended a devastating realism with the theater of the absurd, resulting in a scathing satirical portrait of middle class hypocrisy and pretensions. Winner of the NY Drama Critics Circle Award and the Tony Award for best play of the year, and the basis for a powerful film with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Inscribed by the author. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with trace wear at the spine extremities. A very nice copy of one of the high spots of the literature of the 1960s.
6. -. Same title, a later edition, probably a book club edition, incorporating photos from the stage play, which starred Uta Hagen, Arthur Hill, George Grizzard and Melinda Dillon. Fine in a very good dust jacket with a chip at the upper rear spine fold and a corner clip to the lower front flap.
7. ALBEE, Edward. The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. Boston/NY: Houghton Mifflin/Atheneum, 1963. Albee's adaptation of Carson McCullers' novella. Fine in a near fine, mildly rubbed dust jacket with some fading to the spine lettering.
8. ALBEE, Edward. Tiny Alice. NY: Atheneum, 1965. A controversial play when it opened in New York in 1964, the published version has a short note by Albee introducing the play, declining to explain it as critics and viewers had hoped, and noting that several deletions made in the final act for the Broadway production had here been restored for the published version. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with light edge wear.
9. ALBEE, Edward. A Delicate Balance. NY: Atheneum, 1966. The first of Albee's three Pulitzer Prize-winning plays (a number surpassed only by Eugene O'Neill). Signed by the author on a label mounted to the front flyleaf. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket.
10. ALBEE, Edward. Everything in the Garden. NY: Atheneum, 1968. Albee's adaptation of Giles Cooper's play. Signed by the author on a label mounted to the front flyleaf. Fine in a fine dust jacket with small corner creases on the rear flap.
11. ALBEE, Edward. Box and Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung. NY: Atheneum, 1969. Two short interrelated plays. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with a slight bump at the crown and even slighter spine fading. One of Albee's scarcer titles.
12. ALBEE, Edward. All Over. NY: Atheneum, 1971. Again, one of his scarcer plays, and one that at the time was called his "most important play yet" by Clive Barnes of The New York Times. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with one short edge tear and a corner crease to the front flap.
13. ALBEE, Edward. Counting the Ways and Listening. NY: Atheneum, 1977. Two plays. Owner blindstamp front flyleaf; else fine in a very near fine dust jacket with creasing on the front flap.
14. ALBEE, Edward. The Lady from Dubuque. NY: Atheneum, 1980. Owner blindstamp front flyleaf; else fine in a near fine, spine-faded dust jacket.
15. ALBEE, Edward. The Wounding: An Essay on Education. Charleston: Mountain State Press (1981). A special edition of a commencement speech given by Albee. One of 250 numbered copies, signed by the author. Fine in wrappers.
16. ALBEE, Edward. Three Tall Women. NY: Dutton (1995). His third Pulitzer Prize winner. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
17. ALTA. No Visible Means of Support. (San Lorenzo): (Shameless Hussy Press) (1971). Poetry, the second book published by the Shameless Hussy Press, which was the first feminist/women-owned press in the U.S. Alta (Gerrey) was the founder of the press, and published several of her own collections of poems. Later she published Ntozake Shange's ground-breaking play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf." Inscribed by the author to poet Gwendolyn Brooks, the first African American woman poet to win the Pulitzer Prize and herself an advocate for small presses and poetry by women, especially women of color. A nice association copy. Paperclip marks in a few margins; else fine in stapled wrappers.
18. AMBLER, Eric. Autograph Letter Signed. June 6, 1988. One page, written to author Anthony Weller, acceding to a visit in London and explaining his reasons for leaving Switzerland. Weller met with Ambler and later wrote an extended interview/profile of him in the early 1990s. In the letter, Ambler also comments on Ian Fleming and his house, responding to an article Weller had written on James Bond's Jamaica. Signed in full. Folded in thirds for mailing; fine, with envelope. Autograph material by Ambler, who in the 1930s did for the spy novel what Raymond Chandler did for the hard-boiled mystery novel, is uncommon.
19. ANDERSON, Kent. Sympathy for the Devil. Garden City: Doubleday, 1987. 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. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
20. -. Another copy. Signed by the author on the title page, with an additional paragraph by the author on the front flyleaf, commenting on reviews of the book and on the war itself. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Laid in is a photocopy of Anderson's citation for the bronze star, signed by Anderson, with additional lines in holograph relating the citation to pages 240-247 of the text. A unique copy of an important Vietnam war novel.
21. ANDERSON, Kent. Night Dogs. (Tucson): Dennis McMillan, 1996. The long-awaited second novel by the author of Sympathy for the Devil. This book follows his character, Hanson, the protagonist of the first book, after his return from Vietnam to his job as a beat cop in Portland, Oregon -- a path the author himself also took. This, the true first edition, was issued in a small first printing (1900 copies) and became one of the year's most sought-after books. This is one of a very small number of copies signed by the author as well as three others: James Crumley, who wrote the introduction; Michael Kellner, who designed the dust jacket; and Dennis McMillan, the publisher. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
22. (Anthology). Umbra Anthology 1967-1968. (NY): (Umbra) (1967). An anthology that grew out of the Umbra Workshop, a black artists' collective founded in New York in 1962 that was a predecessor to the Black Arts literary movement. Edited by David Henderson and including work by Langston Hughes, Alice Walker (preceding her first book), Sun Ra, Allen Ginsberg, Leroi Jones and many others. Moderate edge staining and corner creasing, with the first four leaves corner-clipped; very good in stapled wrappers.
23. (Anthology). Images. Can We Poet for You!! (n.p.): Utica College of Syracuse University, 1976. A collection of poetry and writing by the Black and Latin Writers Workshop. The collection was dedicated to Gwendolyn Brooks and is inscribed to her by the Chairman, Jerome Small, and signed or inscribed by eight contributors. Surface soiled, with one edge tear; about near fine in stapled wrappers.
24. -. Another copy. Laid in is an autograph letter signed by Jerome Small to Brooks asking if she received the copy of Images he sent and inviting her to campus. An address at the college written in top corner (in Brooks's hand?). The collection has one page detached and laid in; the covers are surface soiled; very good in stapled wrappers.
25. ASTLEY, Thea. Girl with a Monkey. Sydney: Angus and Robertson (1958). The first novel by this Australian writer who is a four-time winner of the Miles Franklin Award, Australia's highest literary honor. Owner name and bookstore stamp front flyleaf; near fine in a very near fine dust jacket with small crimp to crown. A nice copy of an important first book
26. ATTAWAY, William. Blood on the Forge. Garden City: Doubleday, Doran, 1941. The second and last novel by this African American writer who worked on the Federal Writers' Project and was friends with Richard Wright, whom he met while working on the project. Light spine lean and edge sunning; near fine in a very good dust jacket with a long closed tear and two small corner chips.