Catalog 140, O-S
154. O'BRIEN, Tim. Northern Lights. NY: Delacorte (1975). His second novel, a tale of two brothers in northern Minnesota, one of them a Vietnam veteran, the other a veteran of the protests against that war. Inscribed by O'Brien to another writer "with respect and affection." A cheaply-made, "perfectbound" book, it is difficult to find in nice condition. This copy has some sunning to the board edges and a slight spine slant; very near fine in a fine dust jacket.
155. O'BRIEN, Tim. Speaking of Courage. Santa Barbara: Neville, 1980. His first limited edition, a chapter that was excised from Going After Cacciato and later appeared, in altered form, in The Things They Carried. Of a total edition of 326 copies, this is a presentation copy, so printed on the colophon, and is inscribed by O'Brien. Fine, without dust jacket, as issued.
156. O'BRIEN, Tim. The Nuclear Age. Portland: Press-22 (1981). A limited edition of an excerpt from O'Brien's work-in-progress at the time, later published with the same title. Of a total edition of 151 copies, this is one of 26 lettered copies signed by the author, the entire hardcover edition. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
157. O'BRIEN, Tim. Friends and Enemies. Arizona: Synaesthesia Press, 2001. Two stories from O'Brien's collection The Things They Carried, bound back-to-back and printed by Jim Camp in an edition of 125 copies, of which this is one of 26 clothbound copies housed in an engraved and welded metal slipcase. Black cloth with paper labels; rice paper endpapers, with the text printed on a brighter and heavier stock than the wrappered issue. Signed by O'Brien and artist Fritz Scholder, who provided the illustrations for each story. A remarkable production. Fine.
158. O'HARA, John. Pipe Night. NY: Duell, Sloan and Pearce (1945). An uncommon book by the author of Butterfield 8 and Appointment in Samarra, among others. Inscribed by the author to WEAF radio personality Mary Margaret McBride in the year of publication: "To Mary Margaret/ and how are your/ taste-buds?/ Sincerely/ John O'Hara/ WEAF/ 20 March 1945." Books inscribed by O'Hara are uncommon, although later in his career he did a number of signed limited editions. A fragile book, cheaply produced under wartime conditions, this is a very attractive copy. Some spotting to rear board and fading to spine cloth; near fine in a very good dust jacket with a couple small edge tears that are internally tape mended.
159. OLSEN, Tillie. Tell Me a Riddle. London: Faber & Faber (1964). The first British edition of her first book, one of the key works in the renaissance of women's writing that accompanied the feminist movement in the late 1960s. Inscribed by the author to Seymour Lawrence under the front flap: "For the Lawrence of WAKE who still is / Tillie Olsen/ June 1965." Laid in is an autograph note signed: "This for you personally & your wife who looks/ like my Karla / I hope you can reissue these someday, with other/ pieces / And other books./ TLO/ A scrawled on picture where we met." Included is a 3 1/2-inch square black and white photo of Olsen at her desk ("scrawled on" on verso). Olsen's hope was realized: Lawrence re-published this book in 1969; he also published her next books. The note is on 4" x 6" paper; paperclip imprint, else fine. The book is near fine in a very good dust jacket with tiny chipping at the extremities.
160. OLSON, Charles. The Maximus Poems 11-22. Stuttgart: Jonathan Williams, 1956. The Patrons Edition of the second volume of one of the most important achievements of American poetry in the postwar era. Published as Jargon 9; folio volume in wrappers (there was no hardcover issue of the first edition; the first hardcover appeared, in a reduced format, in 1960). One of only 25 copies. Signed by Olson. Light corner bumps; small chip to heel; very near fine.
161. PERCY, Walker. Bourbon. Winston-Salem: Palaemon Press (1979). The first separate edition of a work that first appeared in Esquire in 1975. Limited to 230 copies signed by the author, of which this is one of 30 presentation copies hors commerce and is additionally inscribed by Percy. Fine in saddle-stitched self-wrappers.
162. PHILLIPS, Jayne Anne. Sweethearts. Carrboro: Truck Press, 1976. Her first book, a collection of poems. This is one of 400 copies in wrappers, of a total edition of 410. Inscribed by Phillips to another writer in 1978. Faint general age-toning; very near fine.
163. PHILLIPS, Jayne Anne. Fast Lanes. (NY): Vehicle (1984). A small press volume, the first book appearance of this story. Issued in an edition of 2026, this is one of 26 lettered copies, signed by the author and the illustrator, Yvonne Jacquette. Additionally, this copy is inscribed by Phillips to Seymour Lawrence: "For Uncle Sam --/ my companion/ in the fast lane --/ love,/ the speedy witch/ Jan. 24, '85." This story was later reprinted as the title story of a collection of Phillips' fiction published by Seymour Lawrence at Dutton. Fine in a near fine slipcase.
164. PLIMPTON, George Ames. Letters in Training. (n.p.): Privately Printed, 1946. Plimpton's first book, consisting of letters he wrote home from June 1945 - October 1946, spanning basic training to deployment in Italy. Privately published by Plimpton's family in an unknown, but small, number of copies to be given as Christmas gifts to relatives and friends. 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. This copy is signed by the author and is exceedingly scarce thus: copies of Letters in Training seldom turn up, and Plimpton, who was reportedly not happy with the publication, was generally not inclined to sign them when they did. Near fine in spine-sunned red cloth, without dust jacket, as issued.
165. PROULX, E. Annie. Heart Songs and Other Stories. NY: Scribner (1988). Her first book of fiction, after a number of nonfiction books, mostly of the "how-to" variety. Signed by the author. Fine in a near fine, mildly spine-faded dust jacket with a gutter tear on the front panel.
166. PROULX, E. Annie. Postcards. NY: Scribner's (1992). Her second book of fiction and first novel. Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award. Signed by the author. Tiny erasure to half-title; still fine in a fine dust jacket with a slight crimp at the crown.
167. (RACKHAM, Arthur). PHILLPOTTS, Eden. A Dish of Apples. London/NY: Hodder & Stoughton (1921). Poetry by Phillpotts, illustrated by Rackham with numerous black & white illustrations and three tipped-in color illustrations. One of 500 numbered copies signed by the author and the illustrator. Near fine.
168. RANKIN, Ian. Wolfman. London: Century (1992). The very scarce third novel in the author's acclaimed Inspector Rebus series. This book was issued simultaneously in softcover and hardcover, this being the hardcover issue -- presumably done in smaller numbers than the softcover, although few of either issue have survived to reappear on the market. Several years later, when the Rebus novels became a huge critical and commercial success, this was reissued as Tooth and Nail. Signed by the author: "SLAINTE - Ian Rankin," beneath which Rankin has added a "knots and crosses" (tic tac toe) design; Knots and Crosses was the title of the first Rebus novel, and has become something of a trademark for Rankin. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
169. RHYS, Jean. Voyage in the Dark. London: Constable (1934). The fourth book by this writer of Caribbean ancestry. After an early and productive writing career, during which she received much critical praise, Rhys went for nearly three decades without publishing a new work until Wide Sargasso Sea in 1966. At that time, her frank sensuality was embraced by the women's movement and her earlier works were rediscovered. Inscribed by the author: "To Peggy with love from/ Jean/ Oct. 23rd: 1934." Boards bowed and spine cocked, with fading to the extremities; very good in a very good, price-clipped dust jacket chipped at the extremities and with a few other closed tears.
170. (RIEFENSTAHL, Leni). INFIELD, Glenn B. The Fallen Film Goddess. NY: Thomas Y. Crowell (1976). A biography of the controversial German filmmaker, whose films of the 1935 Nazi Party rally at Nuremburg -- Triumph of the Will -- and the 1936 Berlin Olympiad have linked her forever to Adolph Hitler and the Nazis, despite her successful defense of her work as artistic, not political, in postwar hearings. Infield was a B-17 pilot in World War II and his investigations into Riefenstahl's connections to the Third Reich led to this biography, the first to definitively link her to the Nazis, despite her protestations. This copy is signed by Riefenstahl in 1997, and is probably the only copy of this book she ever signed: an enterprising collector, upon meeting her at a gathering, managed to slip this in with other books she was signing, and Riefenstahl apparently put pen to paper before realizing what it was she was signing. A historic book, and probably unique thus. Fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
171. ROBBINS, Tom. Guy Anderson. (Seattle): (Gear Works) (1965). Robbins applies his very visual writing style and highly developed sense of joy to an evaluation of the work of Seattle painter Guy Anderson. Precedes his first novel by six years. Signed by Robbins. Quarto; very near fine in stapled wrappers. Reproduces a number of Anderson's works, including a color print tipped inside the rear cover.
172. ROHMER, Sax. White Velvet. Garden City: Doubleday Doran, 1936. A novel by the author of the classic Fu Manchu series of fantasy novels. Inscribed by the author and signed with his trademark "$ax." Bookplate front pastedown; spine-sunned; handling to boards; very good in a very good, modestly edgeworn dust jacket with a dusty rear panel.
173. ROTH, Philip. The Breast. NY: HRW (1972). A short, comic fantasy -- "the story of a man who turned into a female breast." Inscribed by the author in 1989. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with a small edge tear on the rear panel and a book store stamp on the front flap.
174. ROTH, Philip. My Life as a Man. NY: HRW (1974). Inscribed by the author in 1989. Faint vertical crease to spine; else fine in a fine dust jacket.
175. ROTH, Philip. Reading Myself and Others. NY: FSG (1975). His first book of nonfiction, a collection of essays published over the previous fifteen years. Inscribed by the author in 1989. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with a touch of fading to the spine lettering and a clean tear at the lower rear spine fold.
176. ROTH, Philip. Zuckerman Unbound. NY: FSG (1981). The first trade edition of this novel featuring Nathan Zuckerman, one of Roth's fictional alter egos. Inscribed by the author in 1989. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
177. RUSHDIE, Salman. Midnight's Children. London: Jonathan Cape (1981). The first British edition of Rushdie's second book, winner of the Booker Prize and the first book in his ambitious sequence of novels of the Muslim world, which culminated in The Satanic Verses and the death sentence that was imposed on him by Muslim fundamentalists. The American edition is the true first; the British edition is the more desirable edition for "following the flag," and it is also considerably scarcer than the U.S. edition, with 2500 copies printed. This title was later named the outstanding title among all the Booker Prize winners -- the so-called "Booker of Bookers." Signed by the author. A hint of foxing to the bottom page edges; still fine in a fine, unfaded dust jacket.
178. RUSHDIE, Salman. The Moor's Last Sigh. London: Jonathan 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.
179. RUSHDIE, Salman. The Ground Beneath Her Feet. London: Jonathan Cape (1999). The limited edition. One of 150 copies (limitation unspecified) signed by the author. Leatherbound; fine in slipcase. Winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize.
180. SALINGER, J.D. Catcher in the Rye. [Boston: Little Brown, 1951]. The Book of the Month club edition of his classic first book. Signed by the author. Salinger's reclusiveness is legendary, and any signed copy of Catcher in the Rye is one of the most elusive of all 20th century books. Some handling apparent on black boards; near fine in a near fine dust jacket with two short edge tears and a small nick to the spine. The jacket has Salinger's photo on the rear panel; it was removed from later jackets at the author's request.
181. SARAMAGO, José. All the Names. NY: Harcourt (2000). The first American edition of this novel by the Portuguese Nobel prize-winning author. Inscribed by Saramago. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
182. SARTON, May. Encounter in April with Correspondence. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1937. Her first book, a well-received collection of poems. Warmly inscribed by the author: "For Beulah B. Brown/ with warm remembrance of those[?] days/ in her house!/ April 14, 1941/ May Sarton." Laid in are two typed letters signed to Mrs. Brown (one undated; another, with envelope, from May 1946); one autograph note signed with envelope; a holograph poem (unsigned) written on an index card; and a full page of holograph notes (unsigned) written on the verso of hotel stationery. The letters are primarily concerned with arrangements for speaking engagements; the notes also seem to concern the underlying impetus for a college tour. The book is a bit edge-sunned, thus near fine in a very good dust jacket with sunning and wear to the upper edge; the writings are fine, with the exception of the hotel stationery which is chipped across the top edge, not affecting text. For all:
183. SCHULBERG, Budd. What Makes Sammy Run? NY: Random House (1941). Inscribed by the author to Garson Kanin in the year of publication. Laid in is a typed note signed from Schulberg to a third party, in 1982, offering to purchase the book so that he can send it back to Kanin "with a funny note." Schulberg won an Academy Award for his screenplay for On the Waterfront, and he wrote the novel on which the Humphrey Bogart film The Harder They Fall was based. Kanin's screenplays were nominated for Oscars three times -- for Adam's Rib, A Double Life and Pat and Mike. Shelfworn, heavily spine-faded and slightly cocked; a very good copy in a very good dust jacket with small chips to the edges and folds.
184. SHIELDS, Carol. The Stone Diaries. Toronto: Random House (1993). Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Orange Prize, and Canada's Governor General's Award. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Laid in is a square of paper on which Shields has written her name and address.
185. SNYDER, Gary. Riprap. (Ashland): Origin Press, 1959. His first book, a collection of poems printed in Japan and published in an edition of 500 copies. Signed by the author. A very near fine copy, in paste papers, sewn Japanese style.
186. STEADMAN, Ralph. America. (San Francisco): Straight Arrow Books (1974). Portraits of America by Steadman, with an introduction by Hunter S. Thompson. Widely considered Steadman's masterpiece; Thompson's introduction is, in fact, an interview with Thompson about Steadman. Signed by Steadman with a drawing. Near fine in a near fine, rubbed dust jacket with wear at the corners and an edge tear at the upper rear spine fold.
187. STEADMAN, Ralph. Sigmund Freud. NY: Paddington Press (1979). A speculative biography of Freud by Steadman, replete with illustrations. Signed by Steadman with a drawing of Freud smoking a cigar. Quarto; upper corners slightly tapped; else fine in a near fine dust jacket with chipping at the crown.
188. STEIN, Gertrude. Geography and Plays. Boston: Four Seas (1922). An early volume of Stein's experimental prose, intended to capture the techniques of abstraction and cubism that were then current in painting. Inscribed by the author. A fine copy in the second issue binding, without the lettering on the front cover, in a very good, spine-darkened dust jacket, with modest chipping, mostly at the crown.
189. STONE, Robert. A Hall of Mirrors. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1967. His first book, a novel of drifters in New Orleans in the early Sixties caught up in the web of a quasi-religious political machine. Winner of the William Faulkner Award for best first novel of the year as well as a Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship Award. Signed by the author. Owner name and date on front endpaper. Very good in a very good dust jacket.
190. STONE, Robert. Dog Soldiers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin (1974). His second novel, winner of the National Book Award and one of the best novels to link the impact of the Vietnam war on American society in the Sixties to the dark side of that era -- the official corruption and the underside of the drug experiences of a generation. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket with offsetting to the flaps.
191. STRAND, Mark. The Continuous Life. Iowa City: Windhover Press, 1990. Eighteen poems by Strand with two woodcuts by Neil Welliver. Printed in an edition of 275 numbered unsigned copies and 26 lettered and signed copies. This copy is out-of-series, neither numbered nor lettered but signed by Strand. 10 1/4" x 14" attractively printed on Umbria. Fine in stitched wrappers and clamshell box.