Catalog 143, A
1. ABBEY, Edward. The Fool's Progress. NY: Holt (1988). The last novel to be published in his lifetime by the author of the classics Desert Solitaire and The Monkey Wrench Gang; Abbey was quite ill at the time this was published, and he died within six months of its publication. Fine in a fine first issue dust jacket ("mist" for "myth" on front flap).
2. (Advertising/Sixties). 22nd Portfolio of Advertising and Editorial Art in the West. Los Angeles: Art Directors Club of Los Angeles, 1967. A compendium of the year's best ads, as judged by the admakers themselves. A glimpse of an interesting moment in popular culture, with evidence of the influence of such popular artists as Andy Warhol and Peter Max apparent and, in retrospect, a clear view of the incorporation of themes and imagery from the counterculture into the mainstream vernacular of commerce. Oblong quarto; fine without dust jacket, as issued.
3. (ALBEE, Edward). Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf or Edward Albee? (n.p.): (n.p.)(n.d). Broadside. One of 100 numbered copies, this copy signed by Albee in 1980. Based on an original drawing by E.E. Cummings. 11" x 14". A couple faint spots, else fine. Framed.
4. ALGREN, Nelson. A Walk on the Wild Side. NY: Farrar Straus Cudahy (1956). The fourth novel by Algren, whose novel The Man with the Golden Arm won the first National Book Award ever given out. Inscribed by Algren to noted Faulkner collector Carl Petersen on publication day, May 21, 1956. A good early inscription and a nice association. Mild offsetting to half title and slight sunning to upper edges of boards; else fine in a fine dust jacket.
5. ALVAREZ, A. Hers. NY: Random House, 1975. The uncorrected proof copy of the American edition of this novel by the poet and critic most well-known for his study of suicide by authors, The Savage God, which focused on Sylvia Plath and was a seminal, and controversial, work about her and her relationship with her husband, the poet Ted Hughes. Fine in wrappers and inscribed by the author nearly two months prior to publication. Laid into this copy is a photocopy of the galley proof of a poem by Alvarez, also inscribed by the author. Edges of the folded sheet tattered where they protrude from the book; very good.
6. (Anthology). Transition Stories. NY: Walter V. McKee, 1929. Twenty-three stories from the influential Transition, the first selection from the magazine published in book form. Includes work by Franz Kafka, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, Kay Boyle, Robert M. Coates, and others. This is the large paper issue, one of 100 numbered copies. Mild sunning to spine cloth; near fine without dust jacket. A very nice copy of an uncommon and fragile edition.
7. (Anthology). Writers at Work. The Paris Review Interviews. (n.p.): Viking (1984). The uncorrected proof copy of the sixth book in this series. Interviews with Kurt Vonnegut, Gabriel García Márquez, John Gardner, Nadine Gordimer, Elizabeth Bishop, Tennessee Williams, Bernard Malamud, and several others. Fine in wrappers.
8. (Anthology). Seymour Lawrence. (n.p.): Seymour Lawrence (1990). A collection of tributes to Lawrence in honor of his 25 years with his own publishing imprint. At the time, he was publishing with Houghton Mifflin, which sponsored this celebration. With words from Rick Bass, Thomas Berger, Frank Conroy, J.P. Donleavy, Barry Hannah, Jim Harrison, Mark Helprin, Thomas McGuane, Susan Minot, Tim O'Brien, Tillie Olsen, Jayne Anne Phillips, Kurt Vonnegut, Richard Yates, and many others. One water spot to top edge; not affecting text block; else fine without dust jacket, as issued.
9. ARNOW, Harriette. The Dollmaker. London: Heinemann (1955). The first British edition of her best-known novel, which deals with a family uprooted from their native region and relocated to the urban confusion of Detroit during the Second World War. This book was a bestseller upon publication in the U.S. and later became a contemporary classic of feminist literature and a standard on college campuses because of the strength of its central, female character. Warmly inscribed by the author "for Virginia Patterson/ who in no small measure was responsible for the success of the American edition, not this poor substitute/ Harriette Simpson Arnow/ Thanks for the pen" [her pen ran out of ink during the inscription]. Laid into the book are two autograph Christmas cards signed by Arnow (1968 and 1972) with lengthy notes, particularly in the earlier one, which has some derogatory comments about Macmillan (her American publisher), some encouraging comments for Patterson, and a couple of observations about her husband and her age. Signed copies of this book, and autograph material by Arnow, are quite uncommon. The book has a tear at the upper edge of the front endpaper, otherwise very good in an edgeworn pictorial dust jacket, which differs markedly from that of the U.S. edition; the cards are fine, without envelopes.
10. (Art). Art as a Muscular Principle. (South Hadley): Mount Holyoke College, 1975. Catalog that accompanied an exhibition of ten San Francisco artists from the period of the "San Francisco renaissance," 1950-1965: Wallace Berman, Joan Brown, Bruce Conner, Jay De Feo, George Herms, Jess, Robert Lavigne, Fred Martin, Arthur Monroe and Keith Sanzenbach. Near fine in wrappers. An important exhibition of a group of artists who were closely association with the literary renaissance that took place in the Bay Area at the same time, the most visible aspect of which came to be known as the Beat generation.
11. ASIMOV, Isaac. Three by Asimov. NY: Targ Editions, 1981. Three short stories by the prolific science fiction writer, author of such classics as I, Robot and the Foundation trilogy. One of 250 copies signed by the author. Thin quarto; a fine copy, bound in Belgian linen, in a near fine dust wrapper of handmade paper that has some end-splitting along the spine fold. One of the more elaborate and attractive of the editions that noted bibliophile William Targ produced.