Catalog 137, O-R
First Book, Signed
188. O'BRIEN, Tim. If I Die in a Combat Zone. (n.p.): Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence (1973). A review copy of his first book, a highly praised memoir of the Vietnam war in which O'Brien uses some of the techniques of fiction to convey the experience of Vietnam from the grunt's perspective with immediacy and power. Signed by the author. Laid in is a typed note signed by the publisher, Seymour Lawrence, submitting the book for review by The New Republic. Edge-sunning to boards, as is common with this title; else fine in a very near fine dust jacket with some very slight creasing.
189. ONDAATJE, Michael. The English Patient. (London): Bloomsbury (1992). The British, and true first, edition of his Booker Prize-winning novel, basis for the Academy Award-winning film. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
190. ORLEAN, Susan. Homewrecker. NY: Random House (2004). The uncorrected proof copy of this collection of travel writings eventually re-titled My Kind of Place. Orlean is the acclaimed author of The Orchid Thief and The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup, a collection of essays that, like John McPhee's, illuminate interesting and little-known aspects of the world. This volume, similarly, focuses on the author's travels to odd, interesting, or out-of-the-way places. Fine in wrappers, with new title label affixed to front cover but retaining the original title on the spine, prelims and title page.
191. ORWELL, George. Homage to Catalonia. NY: Harcourt Brace (1952). The first American edition of Orwell's personal account of the Spanish Civil War, in which he was wounded. When the book was first published, in England in 1938, Orwell's careful account of the manner in which the Spanish Communists betrayed the Republic, with whom they were nominally allied, contradicted the leftist orthodoxy of the day and the book was largely ignored. When this edition was published (posthumously) in 1952, it included an introduction by Lionel Trilling that didn't appear in the original edition and put Orwell's sympathies, and his political transformation, in context. Slight abrasion to an upper corner, else fine in a near fine dust jacket with a short red gutter stain. Uncommonly nice.
192. OZICK, Cynthia. Writing on Philip Roth. June 16, 1972, 2 A.M.; June 19, 1972; and October 5, 1972. Three letters from Ozick to an editor at Holt Rinehart Winston and each concerning the publication of Roth's book The Breast. In the earliest letter: "Hooray for Philip Roth, Unexpected Feminist! And (consider Claire's visits) Gay Liberator for Lesbians! -- I nearly fell out of bed (I was reading in bed; no book ever demanded more to be read in bed)...One knows when one is reading something that will enter the culture." She writes again two days later in a continued fit of enthusiasm: "...the book ought to be kept out of the hands of every writer in America...with that sort of brain around, why bother? I predict that after its publication there will be a great desert of non-novel writing...everyone will dry up, there will be mass suicides..." The third letter appears to have been written following a publication party, "The Greatest Party of All Time (Including Eternity)," afterwhich "Paradise will be all anti-climax." She apologizes for not eating the meal and passes along Roth's comment that "they coulda put the price of your meal into an ad." The blurb eventually used for publicity was an amalgam of sentences from these letters. The letters are folded in sixths for mailing; else fine. Together with the publisher's file copy of blurbs from Ozick and nine other writers including Anthony Burgess, Brian Moore, Edward Hoagland, Reynolds Price and Geoffrey Wolff, among others. And also together with a letter on The Breast from Saul Maloff; one photocopied letter on The Great American Novel from Walter Blair; and two letters (one official and one unofficial) on The Great American Novel from Bob Crichton. An interesting insight into the commentaries of several important writers on another writer, most especially Ozick's commentary, as a Jewish-American writer, on Roth -- celebrated for his judaism but at times lambasted by feminists for the sexual content of his writing. For all:
193. PALAHNIUK, Chuck. Fight Club. NY: Norton (1996). The author's highly praised first book, made into a well-received movie, both of which have become cult classics. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
194. PERCY, Walker. The Moviegoer. NY: Knopf, 1961. His first book, winner of the National Book Award and a novel that helped establish Percy as both an important Southern writer and as a chronicler of the spiritual malaise of modern America. The Linda Hobson bibliography gives the first printing as 1500 copies, although we have been told that it was more, perhaps as many as 3000; in either case, by today's standards -- or even by the standards of the time -- the first printing was tiny. This is a fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with a creased edge tear on the upper rear panel and a nick at the lower edge of the front panel. A very attractive copy of an important and scarce first book.
195. PHILLIPS, Jayne Anne. Black Tickets. (NY): Delacorte Press/S. Lawrence (1979). The uncorrected proof copy of her well-received first collection of stories. This copy belonged to author John Gardner and has a typed note signed by Seymour Lawrence, the publisher, to Gardner, laid in. Near fine in wrappers.
Scarce First Book
196. PLIMPTON, George Ames. Letters in Training. (n.p.): Privately Printed, 1946. Plimpton's first book, published privately by his family and consisting of letters Plimpton wrote home from June 1945 - October 1946, spanning basic training to deployment in Italy. An unknown, but small, number of copies were printed, to be given as Christmas gifts to relatives and friends. Plimpton was reportedly not happy with the publication. George Plimpton helped found The Paris Review in the early 1950s and became one of the most admired and respected men of letters in America. His participatory journalism -- Out of My League and Paper Lion, among others -- helped usher in the era of the New Journalism, and The Paris Review's support of young and relatively unknown writers, including Jack Kerouac and Philip Roth, made him beloved in the community of writers. This copy is signed by the author and exceedingly scarce thus: copies of Letters in Training seldom turn up, and Plimpton was generally not particularly inclined to sign them when they did. Near fine in spine-sunned red cloth, without dust jacket, as issued.
197. POWERS, Richard. Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance. NY: Morrow (1985). One of the most highly praised first novels of recent years -- a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and winner of the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters for a book of "considerable literary achievement." Dust and a small ding to top edge; else fine in a near fine dust jacket with trace wear at the spine extremities.
198. PROULX, E. Annie. The Shipping News. NY: Scribner (1993). Her second novel and third work of fiction, which won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize -- a rare literary double. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
199. PULLMAN, Philip. The Amber Spyglass. NY: Knopf (2000). An advance reading excerpt from Book III of "His Dark Materials" trilogy, running approximately 30 pages. "His Dark Materials" is one of the most highly praised fantasy sequences of recent years. Fine in stapled wrappers.
200. REED, Lou. The Raven. NY: Grove (2003). The advance reading copy of this collection of lyrics and text based on Edgar Allen Poe, by the legendary rock singer, founder of the Velvet Underground and one of the most influential rock musicians of his generation. Photographs by Julian Schnabel. Fine in wrappers.
201. (REED, Lou). SEWALL-RUSKIN, Yvonne. High on Rebellion. NY: Thunder's Mouth Press (1998). The advance reading copy of this portrait of Max's Kansas City, compiled by Max Ruskin's wife. Reed provides the introduction. Covers splayed from reading; a very good copy in wrappers.
202. ROBBINS, Tom. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. (Kamioka): (English Agency) (n.d.). Galleys for the Japanese edition of Cowgirls. Photocopied, copyedited sheets, reproducing numerous copy editor's markings; 14 1/4" x 10 1/4", printed on rectos only, and stapled together in chapter groupings; by all appearances, a working copy of some sort. Some curling to the corners; else fine. Laid in are two color photocopies of a publicity handout for the 1993 film made from the novel, with titles and credits in English and all other text in Japanese. Scarce; perhaps unique.
203. ROBBINS, Tom. Poster for Still Life With Woodpecker. (n.p.): Bantam (n.d.)[1980]. Promotional poster for Robbins' third novel, "a sort of a love story that takes place inside a pack of Camel cigarettes." 18 1/2" x 28 1/2", reproducing the cover art and including a small portrait of Robbins. Rolled, with adhesive and tack holes to the corners from previous display; else fine. Scarce, ephemeral piece.
204. ROBBINS, Tom. Ein Platz für Hot Dogs. (Hamburg): Rowohlt (1987). Galley sheets for the German edition of Another Roadside Attraction (A Place for Hot Dogs). Inscribed by Robbins, in German. 11 3/4" x 8 1/4" photocopied sheets, reproducing numerous copy editor's markings and printed on rectos only. Fine. Together with the first German edition, a paperback original, which has slight rubbing and is near fine in wrappers. Uncommon, possibly unique: publisher's seldom keep this "dead matter" after a book is finished, and even the authors usually don't get the dead matter from their foreign publications.
205. ROBBINS, Tom. Salomes Siebter Schleier. (Hamburg): Rowohlt (1992). Galley sheets for the German edition of Skinny Legs and All (Salome's Seventh Veil). 11 3/4" x 8 1/4" laser-printed sheets, with a number of holograph copy editor's markings, printed on rectos only. Slight stains to front page; else fine. Together with the German hardcover edition, which is fine in a fine dust jacket. Probably unique.
206. ROBINSON, Marilynne. Gilead. NY: FSG (2004). The advance reading copy of her fourth book, but only her second work of fiction, after the 1980 novel Housekeeping, which won the Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award and a Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award and was the basis for a well-received movie. Gilead was named one of the top five novels of the year by the New York Times and was just awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Fine in wrappers.
207. ROSS, Lillian. Reporting Back. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint (2002). The uncorrected proof copy of this collection of pieces by the longtime New Yorker writer. Fine in wrappers.
208. ROTH, Philip. The Great American Novel. NY: HRW (1973). The uncorrected proof copy of what is probably Roth's most ambitious comic novel to that point in his career. Roth elevated the comic novel to a new level, and in doing so won every major literary prize given out in this country, some of them more than once. The barest hint of spine fading; still fine in wrappers.
209. ROTH, Philip. Novotny's Pain. Los Angeles: Sylvester & Orphanos, 1980. An attractively bound limited edition, one of 300 numbered copies signed by the author. Clothbound; fine. In a custom cloth slipcase.
210. RUSHDIE, Salman. The Moor's Last Sigh. London: Cape (1995). A leatherbound limited edition of this novel that won the Whitbread Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. One of 100 numbered copies bound in green full leather, all edges gilt, in a green cloth slipcase. Signed by the author. Fine in slipcase.
211. RUSHDIE, Salman. The Ground Beneath Her Feet. London: Jonathan Cape (1999). The limited edition of this acclaimed novel by the author of Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses, among others. One of 150 copies (limitation unspecified) signed by the author. Leatherbound; fine in slipcase. Winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize.
212. RUSSO, Richard. Empire Falls. NY: Knopf, 2001. His fifth book, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the basis for a recent star-studded television miniseries. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.