Catalog 135, T-Z
305. THOMPSON, Hunter S. and STEADMAN, Ralph. Fire in the Nuts. Woody Creek/Loose Valley/Blue Grass/High Desert: Gonzo International/Steam Press/Petro III Graphics/Sylph Publications (2004). A limited edition of an early, previously unpublished story by Thompson, with 13 illustrations by Steadman. Of a total edition of 176 copies, this is one of 150 numbered copies signed in full by Thompson and Steadman. Quarterbound in black Asahi cloth with illustrated panels and leather spine label stamped in gold. Fine.
306. TOLKIEN, J.R.R. The History of Middle Earth, Volumes 1-12, and The Silmarillion. London: Allen & Unwin/Unwin Hyman/Harper Collins, 1977, 1983-1996. A complete set of the first editions of these poems, tales and songs that underlay Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit. Tolkien began writing these tales while in college, 40 years before LOTR was published. Tolkien was a student of philology, the study of historical linguistics and the rules by which languages evolve, and in these stories he invented archaic languages and the stories told in those languages, and then tracked the evolution of both the stories and the language until they became the legends and mythology that informed Middle Earth. This attention to the actual process of the historical evolution of languages, and the way that the tales' history is embodied in linguistic evolution itself, is part of what gives the Trilogy its powerful sense of reality and immediacy: the characters are embedded in a historical context that is most often implicit, not explicit, just as our own historical context is. But long before the Lord of the Rings was on Tolkien's horizon, he wrote these tales with an eye toward the way myth and legend live and change over time; the stories are compelling in and of themselves, beyond the degree to which they inform his unquestioned masterpiece. They are also the reason that his masterpiece has withstood the test of time so far, and will likely continue to do so: the stories take place on a canvas whose scale is the broad sweep of human and linguistic history, and they are not bound to a particular time and place. In particular, these stories, most of them written between 1913 and the early 1940s, give the lie to the simplistic notion that Tolkien's trilogy is a mere analogue for the conflicts involved in World War II. If anything, it was the First World War -- with its senseless, mechanized destruction on a heretofore unimaginable scale -- that influenced Tolkien in his view that battle between the forces of good and evil was not a struggle of ideologies so much as one between a world view in harmony with nature and one that focused on unchecked industrial development. Volume 5 has a small nick at the upper rear spine fold; otherwise a fine set in fine, unclipped dust jackets. The Silmarillion and Volumes 1, 2 and 4 have no printed prices, as issued; Volume 4 has an A&U price sticker. Volumes 10 and 11 have printed prices on the flaps (in contrast to the unprinted export edition dust jackets, which, by the usual standards of the publication process, probably preceded those with printed prices). Published over the course of more than a dozen years, complete sets are very difficult to assemble as all of the volumes had small first printings, and some were positively tiny -- 1500 copies or so. The ultimate history of the worlds that underlay The Lord of the Rings.
307. TRUDEAU, Garry. Doonesbury. (n.p.): Universal Press Syndicate, 1994. Storyboard for a Doonesbury Sunday comic strip, on the subject of the volatility of adolescent mood swings. Inscribed by Trudeau to a noted author and dated 9/8/94. Nine panels, in color; measuring approximately 13 1/2" x 11", matted and framed to 18 3/4" x 15". Fine. "Doonesbury" is the most acclaimed comic strip of the last 30 years; Trudeau was the first comic strip artist to win a Pulitzer Prize. Strips like this, signed by the author, are very scarce.
308. UPDIKE, John. Villages. NY: Knopf, 2004. The uncorrected proof copy of his most recent novel, his 21st. Fine in wrappers.
309. (UDPIKE, John). An Exhibition. (Houston): University of Houston, 1985. The catalog of an exhibition at the M.D. Anderson Library, compiled by Pat Bozeman and introduced by David Farmer, Head of Special Collections. Issued on the occasion of Updike's first visit to Houston, as part of the University of Houston's Writers in Society Series. One of 1500 copies printed. Fine in stapled wrappers.
310. (UPDIKE, John). Conversations with John Updike. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi (1994). The uncommon hardcover issue of this collection of interviews edited by James Plath. Signed by Updike in the year of publication. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
311. VELIKOVSKY, Immanuel. Correspondence. 1951, 1952, 1970. One typed letter signed, one autograph letter signed, and one autograph postcard signed by the controversial author of Worlds in Collision, Earth in Upheaval, and others. Velikovsky's books suggested that Earth's history was defined more by sudden catastrophes than by slow evolution. They became quite popular during the 1960s, when conventional wisdom of all sorts was being called into question. Each letter is written to a Mr. Tereshchenko: the first refutes two notions in a book by "Beaumont;" the second letter assures the recipient that the second volume of Ages [in Chaos] will be published and is being held up by Velikovsky himself; the third voices intent to send along a 1946 publication and explains that Ages in Chaos grew to a tetralogy. "Beaumont" is William Comyns Beaumont, a British author whom some claimed had advanced the notions put forward by Velikovsky a generation earlier. The first letter is secured across the midpoint fold with tape; very good. The second letter is on airmail paper; folded and opened as designed; else fine. The postcard is fine. Correspondence, or any autograph material, by Velikovsky is quite scarce, especially with significant content. For the three:
312. VONNEGUT, Kurt. Timequake. NY: Putnam (1997). A special edition for friends of the author and publisher, of what was once rumored to be Vonnegut's final novel. Signed by the author. Clothbound, fine in a glassine dust jacket nicked on the spine. An attractive copy of a little-known volume by Vonnegut, the author of such classics as Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat's Cradle, among others.
313. VONNEGUT, Kurt. Missing in Action. (Lexington): (Joe Petro III) (2004). A limited edition printing, for the first time, a May 29, 1945 letter home written by PFC Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. concerning the events of the death-defying months since he was taken prisoner of war on December 19, 1944. Vonnegut's heart-rending -- and wry -- recounting of that experience lays the foundation for his classic novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, and helps explain the origins of that book. Of a total edition of 126 copies, this is Copy #1 of 100 numbered copies. Signed by the author. Includes a bound-in silkscreen of the Vonnegut character Kilgore Trout, also signed by Vonnegut. Designed and published by Joe Petro III; silkscreened at Petro III Graphics in Lexington, KY; text hand set in Joseph Blumenthal's Emerson type and printed by Larkspur Press in Moneterey, KY, on a hand-fed C&P press on Rising Stonehenge paper; half-bound by Walt Bartholomew of Sylph Productions, Tucson AZ, in brown Nigerian goatskin and marbled paper with full Record Basalt cloth slipcase; spine gilding by Richard S. Lamb, New Lamb Bindery, Bennington, VT; marbled paper handmade by Iris Nevins, Johnsonburg, NJ; frontispiece photograph courtesy of Edie Vonnegut and the Vonnegut Archive, Barnstable, MA. A heroic production all around. Fine.
314. -. Same title. Copy A of 26 lettered copies. Signed by the author with a self-caricature. In addition to the bound-in silkscreen of Kilgore Trout signed by Vonnegut, the lettered edition also includes a laid-in silkscreen "Goodbye Blue Monday," signed. Fine.
315. WALKER, Margaret. Prophets for a New Day. Detroit: Broadside Press (1970). Inscribed to Gwendolyn [Brooks], "from Dudley [Randall]," the publisher of the Broadside Press, a small press devoted to publishing African-American and other minority authors, and which published this volume. Fine in stapled wrappers. Slight rubbing; else fine in wrappers.
316. WALKER, Margaret. October Journey. Detroit: Broadside Press (1973). Poetry by the noted African-American author. Fine in stapled wrappers. From the library of Gwendolyn Brooks.
317. WELTY, Eudora. Women!! Make Turban in Own Home! (n.p.): Palaemon Press (1979). A short piece issued as a limited edition, and describing Welty's foray into the creation of a tangible object and her deft retreat into creating words about the object instead. Of a total edition of 235 copies, this is one of 200 numbered copies signed by the author. Small smudge to front board; still fine, without dust jacket, as issued.
318. WELTY, Eudora. One Writer's Beginnings. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984. Her memoir, and the first book by Harvard University Press to make it to the bestseller list. Signed by the author. Front board splayed and chip to contents page; near fine in a near fine, spine-faded dust jacket. Illustrated with photographs.
319. WHALEN, Philip. Goddess. [San Francisco]: [Auerhahn Press], 1964. The publisher's archive for this broadside poem, which was printed in an edition of 125 copies "for Don Carpenter by the Auerhahn Press." Includes: a holograph copy of the poem, handprinted and signed by Whalen for Don Carpenter and dated November 23, 1964; two proof sheets of the broadside, one with colophon and one without, with hand-penciled notes including instructions for 100 to be printed with the initial letter in print and 25 without it (these were author's copies and the initial letters were hand-drawn on these copies); four copies of the printed broadside without colophon and with varying hand-lettered initial letters, some in red, some in black, with different type styles; the original bill to Don Carpenter from Dan Haselwood; five copies of the finished broadside with the colophon and the printed initial letter; and a second printing of the collection Every Day (San Francisco: Coyote, 1965) in which the poem later appeared. Light edge wear to printer's mock-up; otherwise all items fine. A unique archive of this small broadside production by an important author and a notable press.
320. -. Same title. The broadside poem: one of 125 copies. 8 1/2" x 12", fine.
321. WILDER, Thornton. The Long Christmas Dinner. New Haven/NY: Yale University Press/Coward-McCann, 1931. A collection of one act plays by the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Bridge of San Luis Rey. One of 525 copies signed by the author. A fine copy, in tattered original glassine dustwrapper, in a near fine slipcase.
322. WOOLF, Virginia. Flush. A Biography. London: Hogarth Press, 1933. The first edition, noted as the "Large Paper Edition" on the dust jacket. A biography of Virginia Woolf's dog, with drawings by Vanessa Bell. Some sunning and minor foxing to boards; near fine in a very good, spine-tanned dust jacket with a few edge tears.
323. WOOLF, Virginia. The Years. London: Hogarth Press, 1937. Although Woolf is most well-known for her use of stream-of-consciousness technique, The Years is a more traditional and more accessible novel, and her longest book. Darkening to boards; minor bump to base; near fine in a very good, foxed and spine-tanned Vanessa Bell dust jacket.
324. WOOLF, Virginia. Three Guineas. London: Hogarth Press, 1938. Woolf's considered responses to being asked for a guinea from three separate sources: a society for the preservation of peace; a women's college; and a society for obtaining employment for women. This is the first issue, in lemon yellow cloth boards. Boards mottled and endpapers foxed; near fine in a very good, foxed and spine-tanned dust jacket with one edge tear.
325. WOOLF, Virginia. The Death of the Moth and Other Essays. NY: Harcourt Brace (1942). The first American edition of this posthumous collection. Near fine in a very good, spine and edge-sunned dust jacket.