Catalog 139, H-N
81. HOFFMAN, Alice and MARTIN, Wolfe. Moondog. NY: Scholastic Press (2004). A children's book by novelist Hoffman and her son, with illustrations by Yumi Heo. Signed by Hoffman and Martin. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
82. IRVING, John. The 158-Pound Marriage. NY: Random House (1974). The uncorrected proof copy of the author's third book. Inscribed by the author to John Hawkes and his wife: "For Jack &/ Sophie - with/ my affection and/ admiration -/ John Irving." With Irving's name and mailing address printed in his hand beneath his signature. An excellent literary association: Irving used a quote from Hawkes's novel The Blood Oranges as one of the epigraphs of the book. Books signed by Irving are uncommon, and association copies of his books are rare. This proof is itself rare, dating from an era in which proofs were not routinely kept or filtered into the rare book trade, and the combination of the proof's rarity (we've only had it once before) and the rarity of Irving association copies marks this as an exceptional Irving item. Cocked and spine-faded; very good in wrappers.
83. IRVING, John. The World According to Garp. NY: Dutton (1978). His fourth novel and breakthrough book, which went into numerous printings, became a multi-million copy bestseller and a National Book Award winner in its paperback release. Signed by the author. A touch of sunning to cloth edge; else fine in a very near fine dust jacket with a hint of fading to the spine lettering. A very attractive copy of Irving's most famous book, seldom found in fine condition and signed.
84. -. Another copy. Spine lean; bowing to boards; a very good copy in a price-clipped dust jacket with minor edge wear.
85. -. Same title, the first British edition. London: Gollancz, 1978. Inscribed by the author. Very slight spine lean; near fine in a very near fine dust jacket. Uncommon signed.
86. IRVING, John. The Hotel New Hampshire. NY: Dutton (1981). His fifth book. Inscribed by the author to the screenwriter who adapted The World According to Garp: "For Steve -/ with my/ appreciation/ for the/ world/ according to/ Tesich -/ John Irving." Steve Tesich, who wrote the 1979 Academy Award-winning screenplay for the film "Breaking Away," also wrote the 1982 screenplay for Irving's The World According to Garp. A unique association copy. Fine in a dust jacket with a hint of sunning at the upper edge of the rear panel, but still fine.
87. IRVING, John. A Prayer for Owen Meany. NY: Morrow (1989). The first trade edition of what may be Irving's best-loved book (a substantial claim for a book by the author of The World According to Garp), and the novel from which the movie Simon Birch was adapted. Signed by the author with a partial first line from the book: "I'm a Christian because of Owen Meany." Irving once wrote: "I may one day write a better first sentence to a novel than that of A Prayer for Owen Meany, but I doubt it." Fine in a fine dust jacket.
88. KAEL, Pauline. I Lost It at the Movies. London: Jonathan Cape (1966). The uncorrected proof copy of the first British edition of her first book. Kael revolutionized film criticism with her opinionated, colloquial reviews; her wit; her enjoyment of popular culture; and her impatience with pretentiousness. A generation of admirers and imitators has never quite succeeded in matching the engaging informality and authority of Kael's reviewing voice. A bit of white out inside front cover and pencilled name on flyleaf; light foxing; near fine in a very good, proof dust jacket with tape-mended chips at the spine ends. An uncommon book, and an even more uncommon proof.
89. KAEL, Pauline. State of the Art. NY: Dutton (1985). Reviews from Kael's New Yorker column from the mid-1980s: Flashdance, Desperately Seeking Susan, Footloose, Stop Making Sense, The Big Chill, etc. Signed by the author. Slight crown bump; else fine in a fine dust jacket.
90. KAEL, Pauline. Kael on Demme. Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 1988. A selection of Kael's reviews of movies directed by Demme, reprinted from The New Yorker, and published to accompany the retrospective "Jonathan Demme: An American Director" at the Walker Art Center. Price sticker rear cover; else fine in stapled oblong wrappers. Uncommon.
91. -. Another copy. Stain to front cover; near fine in stapled oblong wrappers.
92. KELLER, Helen. The Story of My Life. NY: Doubleday, Page, 1903. Her most famous book, an autobiography and inspirational story of her overcoming the handicap of her blindness. Keller altered the perception of the disabled forever, and her story showed that those with even severe disabilities are not only fully human, with all that that entails, but able to live rich and productive lives. Signed by the author and dated May 14th, 1903. Front hinge starting; cloth rubbed at edges and folds; a very good copy, lacking the dust jacket. A somewhat uncommon book in the first edition these days, and exceedingly scarce signed, and especially signed in the year of publication.
93. KEROUAC, John. The Town and the City. NY: Harcourt Brace (1950). His first novel, published seven years before On the Road and the only book Kerouac published using his given name, John, rather than the more casual "Jack" under which his Beat novels were published. Kerouac later dismissed this novel as "dead": he came to consider the carefully crafted style to be artificial, and in opposition to the more free-flowing, jazz-inspired writing of On the Road and his later books. The Town and the City is a partly autobiographical novel and as such can be viewed in the context of Kerouac's later books, which together comprised the "Duluoz sequence" -- a series of semi-autobiographical narratives which he considered to be the literal truth of his life, altered into "fiction" by the demands of publishers. While The Town and the City is not as self-consciously experimental as On the Road, it shows Kerouac's literary antecedents -- it is reminiscent of Thomas Wolfe -- and gives a clear indication that he saw himself as a writer long before he became a cultural icon. Owner address stamp, tiny corner bump, fading to top stain; still near fine in a very good, lightly foxed, price-clipped dust jacket. An attractive copy, with much less rubbing and overall wear to the dust jacket than is generally encountered.
94. KING, Stephen. Carrie. Garden City: Doubleday, 1974. His first novel, the beginning of a career that reinvigorated the horror genre, led the author to become the best-selling American author of all time, and resulted in gaining him a degree of celebrity and name-recognition usually reserved for film stars and athletes. Also the basis for one of the defining movies of the '70s. Signed by the author. Mild splaying to boards; else fine in a near fine dust jacket with slight creasing to the top edge. An attractive copy of an important first book, and very scarce signed.
95. KING, Stephen. Salem's Lot. Garden City: Doubleday, 1975. King's second novel. Signed by the author. Owner name and information on front pastedown and a touch of rubbing to the cloth corners; near fine in a near fine, corner-clipped second issue dust jacket (with the printed price $7.95 and the reference to "Father Cody" in the flap text) and a creased tear at the lower edge.
96. KING, Stephen. The "Dark Tower," Complete Set. (West Kingston)/Hampton Falls: Donald M. Grant [1982-2004]. The deluxe editions of all seven volumes of King's "Dark Tower" epic, published over a span of 22 years with limitations ranging from 500 copies for the first volume, The Gunslinger, to 1500 copies for The Dark Tower. As such, there can be no more than 500 complete sets in total, an extremely small number for a writer as popular and widely collected as King is. This set is uniformly numbered #237, and each volume is signed by King and the respective illustrator of each volume. The titles include: The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three, The Waste Lands, Wizard and Glass (two-volume set), Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah and The Dark Tower (two-volume set). Each title is fine in a fine dust jacket and slipcase. For the set:
97. KINSELLA, W.P. Born Indian. (Canada): (Oberon) (1981). The hardcover issue of his fourth book, a collection of humorous and touching Indian stories set on the Hobbema Reserve and featuring his recurring characters, Frank Fencepost and Silas Ermineskin, among others. Inscribed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket. A flawless copy of one of the two scarcest books by the author of Shoeless Joe.
98. LAWRENCE, D.H. Amores: Poems. London: Duckworth [1916]. A collection of poems published in an edition of only 900 copies. This is the first issue, with the ads in the rear. Inscribed by the author in the year of publication to the poet Dollie Radford: "To Dollie Radford/ from D.H. Lawrence/ with love/ at the beloved Zennor/ 1st August 1916." Lawrence and Radford had an extensive correspondence during the years 1915-1917 (she died in 1920), much of which time Lawrence lived at Zennor, the cottage in St. Ives, Cornwall, that he and Frieda rented. Offsetting to endpages, mild rubbing to boards; a near fine copy in a crisp, attractive, near fine dust jacket with two edge tears internally tape-mended and the "five" abraded from the price in shillings on both the spine and the front cover. Extremely rare in dust jacket and in this condition, let alone signed and as a significant association copy: an exceptional copy. In custom folding chemise and slipcase.
99. (LAWRENCE, D.H.). The Story of Doctor Manente. Florence: Orioli (1929). A novella by an Italian Renaissance writer, Lasca, translated and introduced by Lawrence. The colophon states the limitation as 1200 copies but Lawrence reportedly had 2400 copies printed because of "over-optimism," according to Roberts. This copy is out-of-series, i.e. unnumbered, but is inscribed on the front free endpaper by Lawrence to Lady Ottoline Morrell: "Ottoline from D.H.L." Ottoline Morrell was a patroness of the arts and a longtime friend of Lawrence -- he had dedicated his 1916 poetry collection, Amores, to her -- and she served as the model for Hermione in Women in Love [1920], which caused a falling-out between her and Lawrence. They resumed contact in 1928, when Lawrence heard of her illness and wrote to her in an attempt to "start afresh," as he put it. Paper vellum boards bowed and dampstained; small edge tear to front flyleaf; a good copy in a very good, spine-tanned, printed brittle dust jacket with a tiny tear at mid-spine. In custom clamshell case. Not an uncommon book, but an important association copy.
100. (LEE, Harper). GILLASPY, Mary. To Kill A Mockingbird. Reproducible Activity Book. (Logan): (Perfection Form) (1990). A volume in the Portals to Literature series. A workbook on teaching Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, chapter by chapter. 160 pages; a platform for a thorough examination of characters, structure, style, and themes. Internally unused; wear at the corners; very good in wrappers.
101. (LEE, Harper). GILCHRIST, Ellen. To Kill a Mockingbird. A New Introduction. (n.p.): [BOMC] (1990). Introduction by Gilchrist, in the form of an 8-page stapled pamphlet, published to accompany a Book Club facsimile edition of To Kill a Mockingbird. Pamphlet only; near fine.
102. LONDON, Jack. Autographed Photograph. A black & white image of a young Jack London, printed onto cardstock with a decorative border and London's name printed beneath the image. Approximately 6" x 8 1/2", mounted and framed to 11 1/2" x 14". Signed by London in the bottom margin with the inscription "Yours for the Revolution, Jack London," the customary phrase he used for closing his letters. Additionally, dated "Jun. 16, 1912." A nice image of the author, especially with such a characteristic sentiment. Wood frame a trifle chipped; image fine.
103. LOPEZ, Barry Holstun. Of Wolves and Men. NY: Scribner (1978). Second printing of his award-winning third book, winner of the John Burroughs Medal as the best work of natural history published that year, and a nominee for the National Book Award. Gift inscription front flyleaf and owner stamp on front pastedown; near fine in a near fine, sunned and price-clipped dust jacket. Together with a typed letter signed by Lopez written on June 22, 1979, in which he cordially responds to four detailed questions posed by the book's owner, adding "When someone reads as closely as you have, expressing delight in a book as a whole but gently pointing to possible errors I feel the relationship between writer and reader is in proper balance. I am grateful for the exchange." Folded in thirds for mailing; the recipient's "acknowledged" note added; else fine. Also laid in is the recipient's draft of his questions for Lopez.
104. LOPEZ, Barry. The Mappist. San Francisco: Pacific Editions, 2005. Limited edition artist's book of Lopez's short story "The Mappist," printed in an edition of only 48 copies. Design and images by Charles Hobson, one of the premier book artists at work today. Text printed by Les Ferriss. Concertina binding using original USGS maps, bound in board covers wrapped with a map of Bogotá from 1911. In slipcase by John DeMerritt. A stunning blend of book arts and literary content. Signed by the author and artist. Fine. List price:
105. MAILER, Norman. The Naked and the Dead. NY: Rinehart (1948). His first book, one of the great novels of World War II, and one of the top hundred classics of the last century. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket: a beautiful, crisp copy, with just one tiny corner given to the ubiquitous rubbing to the bottom edge of the boards and only slight rubbing to the front spine fold and slight tanning to spine lettering -- one of the nicest copies we've ever seen of this book that is notoriously prone to wear. A beautiful copy. $3000
106. -. Another copy. Inscribed by the author in 2005 with the first sentence from the book: "Nobody could sleep." Top edge foxed; boards a bit mottled; still near fine in a very good dust jacket a bit rubbed on the folds and sunned on the rear panel.
107. MAMET, David. The Chinaman. Woodstock: Overlook Press (1999). Poetry by the playwright and filmmaker. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
108. MATHESON, Richard. Bid Time Return. NY: Viking (1975). An uncommon time-travel novel, which had developed a cult following even before it was made into the movie Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeve. Matheson's reputation and career date back to his first books, Born of Man and Woman and I Am Legend, in the 1950s, and he was also one of the most important script writers for the groundbreaking television series "The Twilight Zone." Ray Bradbury has called Matheson "one of the most important writers of the 20th century" and Stephen King cited him as "the author who most influenced me as a writer." This was one of the first attempts to market his fiction to a mainstream readership. Signed by the author. Fine in a slightly spine-faded, near fine dust jacket and, because of the perfect-bound construction of the book, scarce in fine condition, let alone signed.
109. MATTHIESSEN, Peter. The Shorebirds of North America. NY: Viking (1967). The extremely scarce signed limited edition of this title: one of 350 numbered copies signed by Matthiessen, editor Gardner Stout, painter Robert Clem and Ralph Palmer, who provided species accounts. Bound in full leather. Some spotting to and near the spine; near fine in slipcase. Announcement of corresponding gallery opening laid in. A landmark volume; the definitive work on the subject, and one of Matthiessen's few signed limited editions. A very nice copy of this attractive and fragile book.
110. MATTHIESSEN, Peter. Far Tortuga. NY: Random House (1975). An unusual novel that is, in part, an elegy to the turtle fishermen of the Grand Cayman islands, written in their dialect. Matthiessen at one time ran a fishing boat off the coast of Long Island, and his affinity for the sea shows through repeatedly in his books -- in this book, Raditzer, the books on shore birds, and later, Men's Lives. Signed by the author. Spine slant; shallow stain to board edges; near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
111. MATTHIESSEN, Peter. Men's Lives. The Surfmen and Baymen of the South Fork. (n.p.): (Rock Foundation) (1986). A two-volume deluxe edition of Matthiessen's tribute to the fishermen of eastern Long Island and a way of life that, in the late stages of the 20th century, appeared to be irretrievably dying away. Matthiessen has spent much of his life on eastern Long Island, and once ran a charter fishing boat off the island, in addition to having worked for three years with commercial fishermen, so this sympathetic portrait is written from the perspective of one who has shared the life described. One of 500 numbered copies (although in all likelihood far fewer than 500 copies of this were ever produced). One volume, the text, is signed by Matthiessen. In addition to the second volume, of photographs, there is also an original print of one of the photographs from the book laid into a folding chemise and signed by the photographer. Never formally offered for sale, copies of this edition were given out to attendees of a $500-a-plate benefit dinner for the historical society attempting to preserve the record and legacy of the fishermen's lives. Both volumes and the print are fine; the whole is enclosed in a near fine, mildly sunned and dusty clamshell case. A similar edition, unsigned and without the signed print, was issued in a slipcase, and probably comprised most of the overrun of this edition -- i.e., a later issue, which was offered for sale via the University of Washington Press. One of the scarcest items in the Matthiessen canon.
112. McCARTHY, Cormac. The Orchard Keeper. NY: Random House (1965). McCarthy's first book, which won a Faulkner Foundation Award for best first novel of the year. Although the book was successful enough to go into a second printing, fewer than 3000 copies were sold in total, and it was a quarter century before McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses won the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award and brought him recognition beyond the small, passionate circle of devotees who had been aware of him all along. This book is notorious for several flaws: the front flap tends to detach at the fold from excessive scoring in the bindery, and the white jacket is susceptible to yellowing and soiling. This is a very near fine copy (slight splaying to boards) in a near fine dust jacket with several small edge tears and the white edge strips that suggest a previous dust jacket protector. An attractive copy of an uncommon and important first book.
113. McCarthy, Cormac. No Country for Old Men. New Orleans: B. E. Trice, 2005. The limited edition of the latest novel by McCarthy, his first since completing "The Border Trilogy." A novel of drugs and violence set in the contemporary Southwest, it reads like a combination of Blood Meridian -- McCarthy's classic novel of the brutality of the Old West -- and the work of Chuck Bowden -- the investigative reporter who has focused on the drug cartels of the borderlands between Mexico and the U.S. and chronicled the hideous, almost unimaginable violence of the drug culture there. This is one of 325 numbered copies bound in quarter leather and marbled paper boards, signed by the author and housed in a cloth slipcase with a facsimile of the author's signature in gilt. McCarthy is quite a private person, seldom signs books, and limited editions are the only signed copies available for prices under four figures. An attractive production. It is worth noting that the Trice edition is a completely separate edition from the Knopf trade edition, printed on different paper, with title page and other prelims different as well; most of Trice's earlier limited editions were made up of the publisher's sheets with a tipped-in colophon and title page. There was also a deluxe edition of 75 copies in full leather, which we are told is entirely sold out. Multiple copies available, still shrinkwrapped, and at the list price.
114. McPHEE, John. A Sense of Where You Are. NY: FSG (1965). The first book by this Pulitzer Prize-winning author, a profile of former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley done at the time when Bradley was a Princeton basketball player and Rhodes scholar. A portion of this book first appeared as a "Profile" in The New Yorker, where McPhee's prose in the 1960s and 1970s helped elevate nonfiction writing to the realm of literary art. Inscribed by the author: "For ___ ___/ my first book,/ nearly 40 years later/ with all best/ John McPhee." Signature of Bill Bradley laid in. Fine in a very good, spine-faded and price-clipped dust jacket with a short tear and scrape on the front panel.
115. McPHEE, John. The John McPhee Reader. NY: FSG (1976). Collects sections from McPhee's first dozen books, along with an introduction by William Howarth and a checklist of McPhee's writings, which includes a number of unattributed "Talk of the Town" pieces from The New Yorker. Faint offsetting to endpages from flaps; still fine in a fine dust jacket. A surprisingly uncommon McPhee title, especially in fine condition, and an important title for McPhee collectors in the bibliographic information that it contains.
116. (McPHEE, John). GIBBONS, Euell. Stalking the Wild Asparagus. Putney: Alan C. Hood (1987). The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of Gibbons' first book, a classic on the use of wild food. Printed here with a remembrance by McPhee, who once took a week-long canoe trip with Gibbons, surviving only on foraged food. Not an uncommon title, but elusive in the first printing. Fine in wrappers.
117. MILLER, Henry. What Are You Going To Do About Alf? (Paris): (Lecram Servant) [1935]. Small, fragile, early volume by Miller, practically a miniature book, approximately 3 3/4" x 5". Self-published with money he earned from Tropic of Cancer. Shifreen & Jackson A10a. "By Henry Miller" has been penned on the first blank, according to the bibliographers by the author himself. Shifreen & Jackson's comment on the first and second editions: "Miller's name is signed in The First Edition but printed in [the] Second." There is no printed author name in this volume. Slight surface soiling; very near fine in stapled wrappers. Because of its size and fragility, one of the scarcest Miller "A" items.
118. (MOODY, Rick). "Wilkie Ridgeway Fahnstock, the Boxed Set" in 5x5 Singles Club, Primal Primer 1. Allston: Primal Publishing (1997). A 4" x 5 1/4" booklet collecting four writers: Moody, Eileen Myles, Michael McInnis and Laurie Weeks, and one photographer, Suara Welitoff. Moody's contribution was later collected in Demonology. An uncommon item by a group of interesting artists. Wrappers creased; near fine.
119. (MORRISON, Toni). BAMBARA, Toni Cade. Deep Sightings and Rescue Missions. NY: Pantheon (1996). A posthumously published collection of fiction, essays and conversations by and with this African-American writer, edited and with a preface by Morrison. This copy is signed by Morrison at the conclusion of her preface. With the (ownership?) signature of African-American poet Sonia Sanchez on the half-title. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
120. MOSLEY, Walter. Alien Script. (n.p.): (Self-Published) 1998. A 114-page holiday greeting card by Mosley, consisting of a one-page introduction to a thick, perfectbound quarto coloring book in the form of 100-plus pages of "alien script" resembling doodles on dotted lines -- many of them could be alien body parts and corpses -- with a boxed "WM" on every page. Small ink "E" on intro page (an indication of limitation?); near fine in orange wrappers. Probably the weirdest holiday greeting card we've ever seen, or heard of. Mosley is the author of a number of highly praised mystery novels as well as other literary fiction.
121. MUNRO, Alice. Dance of the Happy Shades. (Toronto): Ryerson (1968). First edition of the author's first book, a collection of stories that won the Governor General's Award, Canada's highest literary honor and an award Munro has won three times. Signed by the author. Slight foredge bump and top edge foxing; near fine in a near fine first issue dust jacket (without the Governor General's Award seal) with light wear to the edges and spine folds. Newspaper clippings pertaining to Munro's receiving the award laid in.
122. MUNRO, Alice. Runaway. NY: Knopf, 2004. The advance reading copy of the first American edition of this collection of stories. Front cover splayed; near fine in wrappers. Oddly uncommon, particularly since Munro has in recent years begun to receive the kind of recognition and acclaim in this country that she has enjoyed in Canada for decades.
123. NABOKOV, Vladimir. Laughter in the Dark. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill (1938). His first book published in the U.S., and the first edition of his own English-language version of this novel, which was published as Camera Obscura in England two years earlier in a translation by Winifred Roy. This is the first issue, in green cloth. Small owner name in pencil on front flyleaf; a very near fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with a few blended spots to the spine and light wear to the crown. One of the nicest copies we've seen of this title.
124. NABOKOV, Vladimir. The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. Norfolk: New Directions (1941). The first issue of this novel, bound in woven red burlap cloth. Fifteen hundred copies were printed; Juliar estimates the first issue to be 749 copies. Aside from some light offsetting to the endpages, a fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with minor restoration. Scarce in any jacket.