Catalog 142, M
135. MACLEAN, Norman. A River Runs Through It. Chicago: U. of Chicago (1976). His first book, a collection of related angling stories. Maclean was a professor at the University of Chicago for many years, and had told versions of these stories, over the years, to a number of people who encouraged him, finally, to write them down. He was nearing eighty when he did, and the University of Chicago Press agreed to publish the collection -- the first book of "fiction" ever published by the press. A glowing review in an angling journal and the subsequent word-of-mouth led to an increasing demand for the book and the rest, as they say, is history: it was reprinted numerous times, in various formats -- an illustrated "gift edition," a trade paperback and a fine press signed limited edition -- before being transformed into an award-winning film. The first printing, however, was only 1577 copies. Very small spots to top edge of cloth, else fine in a near fine, mildly spine-faded dust jacket with slight wear at the extremities.
136. MACLEISH, Archibald. New and Collected Poems, 1917-1976. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976. The limited edition of this definitive collection of MacLeish's poetry. One of 500 copies signed by the author. MacLeish was one of the most important American men of letters in the 20th century, winning the Pulitzer Prize three times and serving as Librarian of Congress under FDR. Fine in slipcase.
137. MANSFIELD, Katherine. Dramatic Sketches. (Palmerston North, New Zealand): (Nagare Press) (1988). The first collection of her dramatic works, celebrating the centenary of her birth. Apparently there was no comparable U.S. edition or British edition. An uncommon volume, particularly in the first printing; there was a second printing done the following year. A bit of paint to front cover; near fine in wrappers.
138. McCARTHY, Cormac. Blood Meridian. NY: Random House (1985). The uncorrected proof copy of his fifth book, a novel of the Old West, based on an actual series of events in 1849-1850 in Texas and Mexico, and rendered with an eye to bringing to life the surreal violence of the time and place. Recently voted one of the five best works of American fiction of the last quarter century in a survey conducted by The New York Times Book Review. McCarthy's first five books sold fewer than 15,000 copies total -- this title selling only 1883 copies before it was remaindered. Since the success of All the Pretty Horses in 1992, his novels have had first printings in excess of 100,000 copies. Fine in wrappers, with publisher's promotional material laid in. A scarce proof, in our experience.
139. -. Same title. The uncorrected proof copy of the first British edition. (London): Picador (1989). Fine in wrappers.
140. McCARTHY, Cormac. All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain. NY: Knopf, 1992, 1994, 1998. The uncorrected proof copies of the three volumes in McCarthy's "Border Trilogy." All three proofs are fine in wrappers; the Pretty Horses is the final state proof with "A Border Trilogy" reset as "The Border Trilogy." Rumor has it that, at the author's request, fewer than 100 copies of the proof for Cities of the Plain were produced. For the set:
141. McCARTHY, Cormac. No Country for Old Men. NY: Knopf, 2005. The trade publisher's signed limited edition: one of an unspecified number of copies signed by the author on a tipped-in leaf. 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 almost unimaginable violence of the drug culture there. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
142. McEWAN, Ian. The Short Stories. London: Jonathan Cape (1995). Collects in one volume First Love, Last Rites and In Between the Sheets. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket. An uncommon collection, especially signed.
143. McINERNEY, Jay. Story of My Life. NY: Atlantic Monthly Press (1988). The third novel by the author of Bright Lights, Big City. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
144. McMURTRY, Larry. The Colonel and Little Missie. NY: Simon & Schuster (2005). The uncorrected proof copy of McMurtry's biography of Buffalo Bill Cody and Annie Oakley, subtitled "The Beginnings of Superstardom in America." Fine in wrappers.
145. McMURTRY, Larry. Telegraph Days. NY: Simon & Schuster (2006). The uncorrected proof copy of this novel, a Western, and another of the many books that McMurtry has written in an ongoing attempt to re-envision the history of the American West, and remove some of the romantic images and stereotypes. This book focuses on gunfighters, and includes Buffalo Bill Cody as a character. Fine in wrappers.
146. (McMURTRY, Larry). Booked Up, Catalog 1. Washington, D.C., 1971. The first book catalog issued by McMurtry's rare book store. An offering of first editions, from James Agee to Arnold Zweig, along with a handful of collections, including an extraordinary Stone & Kimball collection. McMurtry, in addition to being a novelist, essayist and screenwriter, has been a bookseller since the late 1950s, and his Washington, D.C., store has been a landmark in the rare book community. He has since embarked on turning his boyhood home of Archer City, Texas, into a book town, with hundreds of thousands of used and rare books for sale throughout the small town. An interesting look at one of his early professional efforts as a rare book dealer. Quarto. Fine in stapled wrappers.
147. McPHEE, Laura and BEAHAN, Virginia. No Ordinary Land. Encounters in a Changing Environment. (NY): Aperture (1998). A book of photographs taken collaboratively by Laura McPhee (daughter of John McPhee) and Virginia Beahan, using a fifty-pound, 40 year-old, Deardorff camera. McPhee's and Beahan's photographs concentrate on the ways in which people interact with the landscapes around them, and the images are striking, often startling, in their content, while the camera used gives them a degree of vividness and detail that seems almost preternatural. Signed by Laura McPhee and Virginia Beahan. Six-page afterword by John McPhee. Oblong quarto; fine in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
148. (McPHEE, Laura). Abstractions and Realities. 7 New Jersey Photographers. Trenton: New Jersey State Museum, 1985. Catalog of an exhibition, an early one for McPhee, while she was still an MFA candidate at Rhode Island School of Design. Near fine in stapled wrappers. Uncommon.
149. (McPHEE, Martha and Jenny). POPE JOHN PAUL II. Crossing the Threshold of Hope. NY: Knopf, 1995. Two more McPhee sisters, both writers, translated the Pope's book from the Italian. Martha McPhee's novel Gorgeous Lies was a finalist for the National Book Award. This is the deluxe edition, leatherbound, fine, in slipcase. Although not called for, this copy has been signed by the translators, Martha and Jenny McPhee. Fine.
150. McPHERSON, James Alan. Elbow Room. Boston: Little Brown (1977). The uncorrected proof copy of the author's second book, a collection of stories that won the Pulitzer Prize. Publisher's rubber stamp on front cover, otherwise fine in wrappers. Again, a very scarce proof: books of short stories have generally been considered less saleable by publishers than novels are, with a much lower "upside," and consequently proofs of these volumes have usually not received the kind of distribution that other fiction might get. We have seen copies of this proof only very, very occasionally.
151. -. Another copy. Publication date written on front cover; label removal mark at bottom edges. Still fine.
152. (McPHERSON, James Alan and WILLIAMS, Miller, eds.). Railroad. NY: Random House (1976). The uncorrected proof copy of this compendium of pieces on railroads, a number of them written by McPherson, who had originally contracted to write a whole book on the subject, a project which evolved into this one, not altogether to the author's liking, according to his later comments. A small quarto, heavily illustrated, somewhat uncommon now even in the trade edition and scarce in proof form. Fine in wrappers. Published the year before Elbow Room.
153. (Merry Pranksters). SAWYER, Paul. For My Birthday. Collected Poems 1960-1965. (n.p.): (Self-Published) (1965). Poetry by this friend of Kesey's, a Unitarian Minister who provided his church as the stage for the first Los Angeles Acid Test, on January 29, 1966, with the condition that no LSD be served, as members of Sawyer's congregation were likely to attend. Sawyer met Kesey in 1965 at a talk Kesey was giving at San Francisco State University about Sometimes a Great Notion, and later visited him in La Honda; the two spoke together later that year at a new age center in Monterey. Bi-colored pages; some even darkening to pages; near fine in stapled wrappers. Kesey gets a mention in Sawyer's poetry: "I'm reading Kesey's epic..." (most likely Sometimes a Great Notion). A very scarce counterculture item; Sawyer was on the fringe of the Merry Pranksters, although never part of the inner circle. OCLC lists no copies in institutions.
154. (MILLER, Henry). BRINGER, Rudolphe. Trente ans D'Humour. Paris: France-Edition (1924). Inscribed by Miller to Emil Schnelluck, one of his oldest friends and one of only a handful who stayed close to Miller through the enormous changes in his life after he met June Mansfield and left his previous existence behind in almost every respect. Schnelluck had been to Europe long before Miller had, and he used to recount to Miller his memories of his visits there, which Miller eagerly soaked up. Now Miller, in Paris for the second time in October, 1930, relays this book to his friend, with a recommendation that it is "fairly easy to read and quite entertaining. Try it!" He also recounts seeing "a peach of a Huysmans yesterday on Blvd Raspail called 'Croquis de Paris.' So much to buy -- so much -- if one only had the dough!" A wonderful inscription to one of his best friends, focused on Paris and books, not to mention poverty -- the important early themes of Miller's literary life. Wrappers are missing and the inscription is on the half-title which is the first page here. Page detached from the rest of the text; extremely brittle, acidifying pages. The condition is fair, and with a risk of deterioration. Miller's underlinings and comments in the text. An excellent personal association.
155. (MILLER, Henry). GIONO, Jean. Blue Boy. NY: Viking, 1946. The first American edition of this novel by Giono, a writer whom Miller had come to admire while in France and whom he had long worked to get published in the U.S. This copy is inscribed by Miller to his muse and former wife, June: "For June/ from/ Henry, Lepska & Val/ Xmas 1947." Lepska was Janina Martha Lepska Miller, Henry's third wife, and Val was their daughter Valentin, who was born in October of 1945 and was named after Lepska's father and Henry's grandfather, who shared the same first name. June and Henry had not been in touch for several years at this point, but she had recently contacted him and was destitute. He arranged for a friend to send her some money (he was still broke in the U.S.; his books had sold well in France and he had a substantial amount of money there but no way, under postwar regulations, to get it out of the country). His renewed contact with June, however, sparked his getting back to work on the Rosy Crucifixion, which he saw as his masterpiece-to-be, but which had been languishing. The part he was about to embark on -- dealing with his time with June and Jean Kronski -- was full of painful memories that Miller would have to relive in order to write it. The contact with June -- with whom he maintained contact thereafter -- allowed him to revisit that time and those experiences, and to finally bring to fruition the long-contemplated work. The cloth is heavily and unevenly faded; corners bumped; a very good copy, lacking the dust jacket. An excellent association copy, representing numerous strands of Miller's life over the prior two decades.
156. MITCHELL, David. Black Swan Green. (London): Sceptre (2006). The first British edition of the author's highly praised fourth book, a semi-autobiographical novel of a year in the life of a 13 year-old boy. Mitchell has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize twice, and his prior books had been praised for the complex structures and elaborate style. This book, a more straightforward narrative, was a notable departure for such a highly praised author, and earned excellent critical reviews and something of a cult following. A signed limited edition was later produced by Waterstone's, but this is the true first. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Together with the 2006 Black Swan Green promotional diary. Ringbound; fine. Very uncommon.
157. -. Same title. Again, the first British edition, signed by the author, with the promotional diary. Also together with a proof dust jacket, which omits a photo credit and mention of one of the author's two children. All elements fine.
158. -. Same title. Promotional diary only. Fine.
159. (MITCHELL, Margaret). A Tribute to Margaret Mitchell. (Atlanta): (Trust Company of Georgia) (n.d.). Announcement presenting the case for adding an oil portrait of Mitchell to the collection of illustrious Georgians gracing the main banking room of the Trust Company of Georgia. Reproduction of the painting tipped in. A scarce, ephemeral piece. Folio, folded to make four pages; faint creasing; near fine.
160. (MOODY, Rick). "Destroy All Monsters" in Writers at the Movies. (NY): Perennial (2000). The uncorrected proof copy of this collection of essays by 26 writers on 26 movies. Moody's piece previously appeared in a 2000 issue of Tin House: although not credited, it began (in much shorter form) as the introduction to the Ken Lopez Bookseller 1999 Summer Movie Catalog. Fine in wrappers, and signed by Moody and also Philip Lopate. Other contributors include J.M. Coetzee, Robert Stone, Lorrie Moore, Salman Rushdie, Susan Sontag, Francine Prose, and others. Fine in wrappers.
161. MOORE, Lorrie. Like Life. NY: Knopf, 1990. Her third book, second collection of stories. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
162. MORRIS, Willie. My Two Oxfords. Council Bluffs: Yellow Barn Press (1992). One of 210 numbered copies signed by the author and by John De Pol, who provides the wood engravings. Slight spine-fade; else fine without dust jacket, as issued.
163. MORRIS, Willie. New York Days. Boston: Little Brown (1993). A memoir of the author's time in New York City, where he became the youngest ever editor-in-chief of Harper's magazine. This is a sequel to his first book, North Toward Home. Signed by the author. Near fine, with sunning to the board edges and spine, in a near fine, similarly sunned dust jacket.
164. MORRIS, Willie. A Prayer for the Opening of Little League Season. San Diego/NY: Harcourt Brace (1995). Small quarto, extolling the divine in amateur baseball. This copy is signed by Morris and by Barry Moser, who provides the illustrations. Laid in is a disclaimer about the lack of participation in this book by Little League Baseball, Inc. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
165. MORRISON, Toni. Beloved. NY: Knopf, 1987. Her fifth novel, which won the Pulitzer Prize, was the basis for the award-winning 1998 film by Jonathan Demme, and was recently voted the Best Work of American Fiction of the past quarter century in a survey by The New York Times Book Review. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
166. -. Same title. London: Chatto & Windus (1987). The advance reading copy (marked "uncorrected proof") of the first British edition. Fine in wrappers. Scarce.
167. MORRISON, Toni. "At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough." (n.p.): University of Central Florida, 1990. Broadside excerpt from Tar Baby, printed in an edition of only 50 copies to honor Morrison's selection as the university's Distinguished Author of 1990. 11" x 14 3/4". Signed by Morrison. One very slight corner bump; else fine. Very uncommon.
168. (MOSER, Barry). STEVENSON, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press (1990). First thus, with a preface by Joyce Carol Oates and an afterword and illustrations by Barry Moser. Signed by Moser. Fine in a near fine, spine-faded dust jacket with one tiny edge tear.