Catalog 136, M-O
144. MALAMUD, Bernard. The Natural. NY: Harcourt Brace, (1952). His first book, one of the great baseball novels of all time and the basis, decades later, for a well-received movie. This is the issue in red boards. No priority has been established but copies in both the red and the blue boards appear to be considerably scarcer than copies in gray boards, although not necessarily earlier. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket with just a hint of foxing to one corner of the rear panel.
145. McCARTHY, Cormac. The Stonemason. (Hopewell): Ecco (1994). The trade edition of his first play, which had a first printing of 7500 copies (compared with 150,000 copies for The Crossing, which was issued at about the same time). This copy is signed by the author. There was a signed edition of this title, issued with a limitation of 350 copies, but those were signed on a tipped-in leaf. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
146. McCARTHY, Cormac. The Crossing. NY: Knopf, 1994. The sequel to All the Pretty Horses, and the second novel in The Border Trilogy. Signed by the author. Although McCarthy signed a number of special copies that were distributed by the publisher and never formally offered for sale, signed copies of regular trade editions of the books in the Border Trilogy are scarce. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
147. McCARTHY, Cormac. Cities of the Plain. NY: Knopf, 1998. The third volume in The Border Trilogy. Signed by the author. There was a signed limited edition of this title, but those copies were signed on a tipped-in leaf. Again, signed trade editions are extremely uncommon. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
148. McGARRITY, Michael. Tularosa. NY: Norton (1996). His first book, a mystery novel set in New Mexico and introducing Kevin Kerney. Nominated for an Anthony Award for Best First Novel. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
149. McGARRITY, Michael. Mexican Hat. NY: Norton (1997). His second Kevin Kerney novel. Signed by the author. Slight crimp to crown; else fine in a fine dust jacket.
150. McMURTRY, Larry. Horseman, Pass By. NY: Harper (1961). McMurtry's first book, one of A.C. Greene's "50 best books on Texas," basis for the movie Hud, and winner of the Jesse H. Jones Award from the Texas Institute of Letters for the best novel of the year. Horseman, Pass By, which takes its title from the closing lines of William Butler Yeats's poem "Under Ben Bulben" (as did Mary McCarthy's first novel, Cast a Cold Eye), was a breakthrough in Texas literature and in regional literature in general: by telling a raw, unadulterated story entirely fitting to its contemporary West Texas setting, McMurtry not only brought the regional novel out of its quaint gentility but gave it a universality it could not have had otherwise; it has been called a West Texas Catcher in the Rye, with the caveat that the lives of Texans in general were a little more crude than those of the Easterners in Salinger's novel. Faint foxing to foredge and endpages; still a very near fine copy in a very near fine, lightly rubbed, price-clipped dust jacket.
151. McMURTRY, Larry. The Last Picture Show. NY: Dial, 1966. A review copy of his third novel, which fully realized the promise shown by his first two and firmly established his literary reputation. Basis for the Academy Award-winning movie, which launched the careers of several Hollywood notables. Fine in a fine dust jacket, with publisher's review slip and promotional letter laid in. A beautiful copy of a book that generally shows wear readily.
152. McMURTRY, Larry. In a Narrow Grave. Austin: Encino Press, 1968. McMurtry's first book of nonfiction, a collection of essays on Texas. Done by a small press in Austin, the first printing was so rife with typographical errors that it was destroyed; reportedly only 15 copies survived. This is one of those copies, with "skycrapers" for "skyscrapers" on page 105. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Easily the scarcest book in the McMurtry canon -- at least that we know of -- and this is a beautiful copy of it.
153. McMURTRY, Larry. Moving On. NY: Simon & Schuster (1970). His fourth novel. Inscribed by the author in his early, legible hand. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with slight fading to the red spine lettering. A very nice copy of this massive book.
154. McMURTRY, Larry. It's Always We Rambled. An Essay on Rodeo. NY: Frank Hallman, 1974. A limited edition of this essay, one of 300 numbered copies, signed by the author. This copy is additionally inscribed by McMurtry to a noted Texas bookman: "For Lee Milazzo/ This is an unfortunate mistake of mine. I suspect the limitation is erroneous./ Larry McMurtry." McMurtry doesn't indicate in which direction the limitation statement errs, and this is the first we have heard of it. Fine without dust jacket, as issued.
155. McMURTRY, Larry. Terms of Endearment. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1975. The basis for the film that won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture; Best Director and Screenplay (both James L. Brooks); Actress and Supporting Actor (Shirley Maclaine and Jack Nicholson). Inscribed by the author, again to Texas bookman Lee Milazzo: "For Lee -- / My own favorite -- / Larry." Pages browned with age, although much less than is usual for this title; a few pages have a tiny nick at the top edge; still fine in a fine dust jacket.
156. McMURTRY, Larry. Somebody's Darling. NY: Simon & Schuster (1978). A Hollywood novel by an author who knows whereof he writes: numerous McMurtry books have been filmed, and he has written many screenplays, both produced and unproduced. Inscribed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
157. McMURTRY, Larry. Cadillac Jack. NY: Simon & Schuster (1982). A novel about an antique dealer, reportedly based on a legendary book scout. Inscribed by the author. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with a small lamination scratch to the front panel.
158. McMURTRY, Larry. Desert Rose. NY: Simon & Schuster (1983). Inscribed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket, with a blurb by Hunter Thompson.
159. McMURTRY, Larry. Lonesome Dove. NY: Simon & Schuster (1985). His "breakthrough" book -- an unusual term to apply to a novelist who had had the kind of critical and commercial success that McMurtry had had by this time (his books had won a number of awards and four of his novels had been made into films), but the success of this book, which was a huge bestseller and the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, elevated McMurtry to a new level. Basis for the acclaimed and award-winning television miniseries. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket with a tiny bit of wrinkling at the edges, still fine.
160. McMURTRY, Larry. Film Flam. NY: Simon & Schuster (1987). Essays on Hollywood by the noted novelist/screenwriter, adapted in part from his columns in American Film magazine. Inscribed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
161. McMURTRY, Larry. Texasville. NY: Simon & Schuster (1987). The sequel to his novel The Last Picture Show, returning to the same locale some twenty years later. Inscribed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
162. McMURTRY, Larry. Anything for Billy. NY: Simon & Schuster (1988). A novel, and a volume in McMurtry's ongoing effort to re-mythologize the American West by turning some of the more popular and misleading myths on their heads, and replacing them with versions which lend themselves to a greater understanding and insight than the simplistic cowboys-and-Indians tales fed to earlier generations. This volume focuses on the legend of Billy the Kid. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
163. McMURTRY, Larry. Some Can Whistle. NY: Simon & Schuster (1989). A novel that reprises Danny Deck, the hero of McMurtry's novel All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers, written some twenty years earlier. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
164. MICHENER, James. Recessional. Franklin Center: Franklin Library, 1994. The true first edition of this novel, a limited edition with a special introduction by the author. By 1994, Michener had enjoyed commercial success with his novels beyond any author's wildest dreams; when Recessional was published, he pledged $5,000,000 apiece to two art museums -- one in his native hometown of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, and one in Texas, where some of his manuscripts are stored and where he endowed a chair in literature at the University of Texas. Signed by the author. Leatherbound, page edges gilt, with a silk ribbon marker bound in. Fine.
165. MITCHELL, Margaret. Gone with the Wind. NY: Macmillan, 1936. Her first and only book, a tale of the decline of the Old South during the Civil War, as mirrored by the fortunes of Scarlett O'Hara. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, a runaway bestseller, and the basis for one of the most successful films ever made. This is the first issue, published in May, 1936. One of the great success stories of twentieth century American writing: after a modest first printing of 10,000 copies, it was chosen as a Main Selection by the Book of the Month Club, which printed 50,000 copies, and it stayed on the bestseller lists for almost two years. Shortly after publication, David O. Selznick bought the film rights for $50,000 -- which was the highest price ever paid for a novel to that date -- and went on to make what many have called the greatest Hollywood film of all time, winner of the 1939 Academy Award for Best Picture (and seven other Oscars) and number 4 on the American Film Institute's list of Films of the Century. When Gone With the Wind showed on television for the first time, in 1976, it was the highest rated television program of all time. The book has sold more than 20,000,000 copies since it was first published. This copy has an owner name in pencil with a 1936 date. Foxing to foredge; spotting to boards and rubbing to spine; a very good copy, lacking the dust jacket.
166. MORRIS, Edita. Charade. NY: Viking, 1948. Second printing. Inscribed by the author in 1954: "To ____ and ____, in memory of our delightful stay on their charming beach/ Edita Morris." Spine slant; slight mottling; near fine in a very good, spine-faded dust jacket abraded on the rear panel and with a closed tear at the upper rear spine fold.
167. MORRISON, Toni. The Bluest Eye. NY: HRW (1970). The scarce first book by this Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. A coming-of-age story about a year in the life of a young black girl who endures a series of hardships and degradations and finally becomes so fixated on the blue eyes of a friend's doll that she goes insane. With this novel, Morrison began the exploration of race in American culture and society, and especially within the black community, that has become the dominant theme of her writing. It was not until her third novel, Song of Solomon, was published, however, that Morrison received widespread national attention. Since then, her books have been bestsellers upon publication, and Beloved, her fifth book, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1988, and she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. This is a very near fine copy with a hint of fading to the spine cloth, in a very near fine dust jacket with just a shade of edge-tanning.
168. MORRISON, Toni. Sula. NY: Knopf, 1974. Her scarce second novel, which uses the theme of the friendship between two black women to explore issues of race, conformity and expectations within the black community, and within the larger white society. Morrison's books address the question of the alienation of the black community, especially poor blacks, from a society that idealizes the white middle class. However, she also raises the question of alienation from the black "mainstream" as well, by the refusal to accept and internalize the ambivalence of the white society toward blacks. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
169. MORRISON, Toni. Song of Solomon. NY: Knopf, 1977. Her third book and the first to go into multiple printings immediately after publication. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and chosen at the time of publication as a Main Selection of the Book of the Month Club, which probably gained the book exposure to more than 100,000 readers who would not have otherwise encountered it. Fine in a near fine, mildly spine-faded dust jacket.
170. MORRISON, Toni. Tar Baby. NY: Knopf, 1981. The first trade edition of her fourth novel. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with a slight bump to one corner and a bit of shelf wear to the heel.
171. MORRISON, Toni. Beloved. NY: Knopf, 1987. Her fifth novel, which won the Pulitzer Prize and was the basis for the award-winning 1998 film by Jonathan Demme. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
172. MORRISON, Toni. Jazz. NY: Knopf, 1992. The first trade edition of this novel, which immediately preceded her being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
173. MORRISON, Toni. Paradise. NY: Knopf, 1998. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
174. MOSLEY, Walter. White Butterfly. NY: Norton (1992). A review copy of the third Easy Rawlins mystery and, by most accounts, the scarcest in the series. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
175. MURROW, Edward R. This is London. NY: Simon & Schuster (1941). CBS News war correspondent Murrow's account of the Second World War in England, prior to the U.S. involvement in the conflict. A companion volume to William Shirer's Berlin Diary; fascinating in its own right, and also as a book that informs the various contemporary period mysteries set in World War II-era Europe (Alan Furst, Robert Wilson, and others). Pencil owner name and date (1941); sunning to board edges; one page corner turned; minor foxing to page edges and endpages; cocked; a very good copy in a very good, partially faded, dust jacket with mild edge wear.
176. NAIPAUL, Shiva. A Hot Country. London: Hamish Hamilton (1983). A novel by the brother of the more well-known V.S. Naipaul. Published in the U.S. the following year as Love and Death in a Hot Country. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
177. OZICK, Cynthia. Trust. (London): MacGibbon & Kee (1966). The first British edition of her first book, which the author has said is still her favorite of her books. Small bookstore label front pastedown; boards a bit splayed; near fine in a near fine rubbed and price-clipped dust jacket, unnecessarily backed with white paper.
178. OZICK, Cynthia. The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories. NY: Knopf, 1971. Her second book, first collection of stories. Inscribed by the author. Near fine in a very good, price-clipped dust jacket with a crease, a sticker shadow and a long closed tear on the rear panel.
179. OZICK, Cynthia. Bloodshed and Three Novellas. NY: Knopf, 1976. Her third book, and the one that established her as a major writer. Inscribed by the author. Foxing to top edge; else fine in a fine dust jacket.