Catalog 146, C-F
50. CARSON, Rachel. Rivers of Death. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962. An offprint from Silent Spring, printing Chapter 9 (pp. 129-152, plus footnotes), and distributed as a public service by the National Wildlife Federation. Owner stamp to front cover; mild foxing; near fine in stapled wrappers. A scarce, ephemeral publication.
51. CARVER, Raymond. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. NY: Knopf, 1981. Carver's second major story collection, and his first significant commercial success: the first of his books to be published by a mainstream literary publishing house, Knopf, and the first to go into multiple printings immediately after publication. It is also the central volume in the ongoing controversy about the extent to which editor Gordon Lish was responsible for the writing style that earned Carver the label "minimalist" -- a designation he stridently rejected throughout his career. Lish was Carver's editor at Knopf when this volume was published and there is evidence that he rewrote much of Carver's work -- in one case removing almost 70% of what Carver wrote -- in this collection. Two of the stories had been published earlier in the collection Furious Seasons but here are shorter and more spare (one of them also having been re-titled). Carver began to break with Lish after this volume was published, and asked that if he were to edit his next collection (Cathedral) he work "as a good editor... not as my ghost." A near fine copy in dust jacket.
52. CARVER, Raymond. Cathedral. NY: Knopf, 1983. His third collection of stories to be published by a major trade publisher, and a major literary event that confirmed Carver's preeminent place among American short story writers of the day, and signaled a full-fledged resuscitation of the short story in American literature. Mottling to spine cloth; near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
53. CARVER, Raymond. At Night the Salmon Move. (Santa Barbara): (Capra Press), 1983. The first separate edition of this poem. A small postcard issued as a New Year's greeting by Capra Press in anticipation of their publishing the collection Fires. The card prints the title poem from Carver's earlier Capra poetry collection, although the poem has been revised for this publication. The publisher reported 300 copies done; this is one of 25 numbered copies signed by Carver. Fine, and scarce.
54. CARVER, Raymond. Music. (Concord): (Ewert) (1985). A single poem on a single sheet, folded twice and sewn into wrappers. Of a total edition of 136, this is one of 26 lettered copies signed by the author. Fine.
55. CARVER, Raymond. The Stories of Raymond Carver. (London): Picador/Pan (1985). The first publication in Great Britain of Carver's collected fiction, this being a volume with no U.S. equivalent, and including all three of his major collections: Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?; What We Talk About When We Talk About Love; and Cathedral. Only issued in wrappers. This copy is inscribed by Carver to British author Angela Carter in the year of publication "with my good wishes always." A wonderful literary association copy. Copies of this title are seldom found signed, and significant literary association copies of any of Carver's books are extremely scarce. Mild spine creasing; else fine.
56. (CARVER, Raymond). "The Brass Ring" in Targets 11. (Sandia Park): (Coronado Press), 1962. Carver's first poem in print, in a small New Mexico literary magazine. There are also three poems by Charles Bukowski, an early publication for him as well. Small label removal abrasion, rear corner crease and heavier front corner crease. Very good in wrappers. Scarce. We've seen only two other copies in the last decade.
57. CHEEVER, John. The Way Some People Live. NY: Random House (1943). His scarce first book, printed during wartime in an edition of only 2750 copies. A collection of stories, almost none of which were ever reprinted in Cheever's lifetime (or since); Cheever pointedly did not include them in his later collections, and his family blocked publication of a posthumous collection that would have included them. This copy is signed by the author. A little spotting to cloth, with light wear at the crown; a near fine copy, lacking the dust jacket.
58. CHEEVER, John. The Enormous Radio and Other Stories. NY: Funk & Wagnalls, 1953. Cheever's second book, a collection of his stories from The New Yorker, published a decade after his first book. Funk and Wagnalls, the publisher of this collection, was primarily a publisher of reference books -- dictionaries, in particular -- and not literature, and this book probably did not receive the kind of distribution that his later books, published by more literary houses, did. Inscribed by the author in 1979. Faint evidence of bookplate removal from front pastedown; a bit of dampstaining to upper edge; a very good copy in a very good dust jacket with a strip of sunning to the top edge and rubbing to the spine ends.
59. CHEEVER, John. The Wapshot Chronicle. NY: Harper & Brothers (1957). His third book and first novel, winner of the National Book Award. Inscribed by the author in 1979. Near fine in a very good dust jacket with minor spotting and rubbing and a small hole to the lower spine.
60. CHEEVER, John. The Housebreaker of Shady Hill. NY: Harper (1958). A review copy of his fourth book, third collection of stories. Signed by the author with "cordial regards." Faint evidence of bookplate removal front pastedown; slight mottling to spine cloth; a very good copy in a very good dust jacket with a bit of color added to the rubbing at the spine ends and folds.
61. CHEEVER, John. The Brigadier and the Golf Widow. NY: Harper & Row (1964). A collection of stories. Inscribed by the author in 1979. The year after publishing this collection, Cheever received the William Dean Howells Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for the most distinguished fiction to appear in a five-year period -- during which he published this book as well as The Wapshot Scandal and one other collection of stories. Bookplate removal front pastedown and erasures to front flyleaf; near fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket with light rubbing and wear to the spine extremities.
62. CHEEVER, John. The Stories of John Cheever. NY: Knopf, 1978. A massive volume, which includes all the stories from five of his six previous collections (The Way Some People Live -- his first book, which he declined to reprint during his lifetime -- being the exception) as well as four stories that had never previously appeared in book form. Its publication was the literary event of the season, and the collection won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Inscribed by Cheever to John Gardner in the month of publication: "To John Gardner with my regards/ John Cheever/ October 10/ 1978." Gardner's book, On Moral Fiction, had been published in March of that year: it took the controversial and unpopular position that artists bear a moral responsibility that they ignore at the risk of rendering their work irrelevant, but Cheever was one of the few authors that emerged relatively unscathed. Gardner stated, in part, "...Cheever's writing has importance: since he cares about his characters and cares about the reader, his affirmations are sufficiently hard won to stand up. He qualifies his optimistic Christian vision with the necessary measure of irony...and though he asserts, like any good Christian, that miracles occur, he does not ask us or his characters to count on them." Laid into the book are a review of this title and a review of Susan Cheever's Home Before Dark. There is also a Knopf calling card with several names written on it in an unknown hand. Hint of a spine bump at the base; else fine in a fine dust jacket.
63. -. Another copy. Inscribed by the author, also in the month of publication, to a longtime Random House/Knopf sales rep: "To R. Sidney Albert/ with my sincere best wishes/ John Cheever/ October 15 1978." Fine in a fine dust jacket.
64. COELHO, Paulo. The Alchemist. (NY): HarperSanFrancisco (1993). The first American edition of this internationally bestselling fable by a popular Brazilian writer. Although the book has reportedly sold 30 million copies worldwide and the first American edition was announced as being 50,000 copies, firsts are hard to come by. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
65. -. Same title. The advance reading copy. Fine in illustrated self-wrappers, with the author's name misspelled "Coehlo" on the front cover.
66. CONNELLY, Michael. Sampler. (NY): St. Martin's (1996). Promotional item issued prior to the publication of the St. Martin's paperback edition of The Last Coyote and printing an excerpt of The Last Coyote along with excerpts of three previous books: The Black Echo, The Black Ice and The Concrete Blond. Distributed for free and including a $1 mail-in rebate coupon for The Last Coyote. This copy is signed by Connelly. Fine in wrappers.
67. CORSO, Gregory. American Express. Paris: The Olympia Press (1961). A humorous autobiographical novel by the Beat poet published in the Traveller's Companion series, which also published William Burroughs, J.P. Donleavy, Terry Southern and others. With illustrations throughout by the author. Fine in wrappers, in a fine dust jacket, and very uncommon thus.
68. CORSO, Gregory. The Geometric Poem. Milan: East 128 (1966). A limited edition reproducing Corso's holograph manuscript and his illustrations. With a gatefold frontispiece photograph of the author. This is number 13 of 291 numbered copies; there were also 18 signed copies in the edition. Although not called for, this copy is inscribed by the author to the artist Raphael Soyer in 1967 -- "For Raphael, the angel painter" -- and signed by Corso. An uncommon edition, and a nice association copy of it.
69. CRUMLEY, James. Whores. (Missoula): (Dennis McMillan), 1988. A collection of short pieces, including an excerpt from a novel-in-progress (The Mexican Tree Duck), as well as short stories, an interview, etc. Of a total edition of 501 copies, this is one of 475 numbered copies signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Dust jacket illustration and endpapers by Joe Servello.
70. CUMMINGS, E.E. "Laundress at Pornic." Undated. Watercolor. 12 3/4" x 9 3/4". Signed by Cummings at the lower left with "Pornic" written in his hand on the lower right. Cummings visited Pornic, a seaside village on the French Atlantic coast, and painted a number of outdoor scenes while he was there, frequently of French peasants at their work. This painting was part of an exhibit at the Gotham Book Mart some time in the late '60's or '70s and bears their notation "GBM #412" on verso. Although a prolific painter, Cummings seldom signed his work. Fine.
71. CUMMINGS, E.E. "Landscape with Windmill." Undated. Watercolor. 13 1/2" x 11". Also signed by Cummings with "Pornic" written on the lower right in Cummings' hand. Bears the Gotham Book Mart number #414 on verso. Matted; fine.
72. CUMMINGS, E.E. Semi-reclining Nude. Undated. Crayon on paper. 10 1/2" x 16 1/4". Framed to 16 1/2" x 24 1/4". Signed by Cummings. Paper edge-sunned; else fine. Cummings has colored the body in red, blue and yellow, turning the pose into an almost abstract design.
73. -. Same title. Pencil sketch for above portrait. Signed by Cummings. 7" x 10". Matted and framed to 17 1/4" x 21 1/4". Fine. A few pencil strokes is all it took to suggest the seated, reclining nude figure. Cummings often sketched while attending a performance or watching a show, and was adept at creating an image "on the fly," this being a good example. Again, few of his sketches were signed.
74. CUSSLER, Clive. Raise the Titanic! NY: Viking (1976). The advance reading copy of his third book and second to be published in hardcover; it was his first bestseller and the book that established the Dirk Pitt series as one of the most popular and successful in contemporary fiction. Pitt is a marine engineer and as such Cussler, who is himself an underwater explorer, is able to bring an extraordinary amount of information and realism to the series. Inscribed by the author in 1994, with a drawing and the added exhortation "Get it up!" -- a somewhat standard inscription he has used on this title over the years. Signed copies of this title are somewhat uncommon, and copies of the advance reading copy are very scarce and virtually unknown signed. A bit of discoloration on the spine from the glue, and one corner crease to the front wrapper; else near fine in plain printed wrappers, with publisher's promotional letter laid in.
75. (Dance). GOTTFRIED, Martin. All His Jazz. The Life and Death of Bob Fosse. NY: Da Capo Press (1998). First thus: originally published in 1990 and republished here with one minor textual emendation. Inscribed by Gottlieb to a well-known film director. Covers splayed; near fine in wrappers.
76. (Dance). JONES, Bill T. Last Night on Earth. NY: Pantheon (1995). A book that is "part memoir, part meditation, and part performance" by the noted dancer and choreographer. Signed by Jones. Small quarto. This is the hardcover edition, fine in a near fine dust jacket with corner tears to the rear flap fold.
77. DAUGHTRY, Philip. Celtic Blood. Selected Poems, 1968-1994. (Cullowhee): New Native Press, 1995. A collection of poems by this writer who is associated with the "Baby Beat generation" of poets of the second San Francisco renaissance of the 1970s, and who is reportedly descended on his father's side from the legendary outlaws Frank and Jesse James. According to the publisher, there were only 25 hardcover copies of this collection of poems, several of which relate to the author's Welsh ancestry and are written in dialect. Signed by the author on an extra leaf tipped in at the rear. Fine, without dust jacket, as issued.
78. DELANY, Samuel R. The Motion of Light in Water. (n.p.): Ultramarine, 1988. One of only 10 lettered copies, in full leather, of the limited edition of Delany's Nebula Award-winning autobiography, subtitled "Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village, 1957-1965." There were also 40 numbered copies in half leather. Delany lived in New York's East Village during the 1960s and was immersed in the counterculture during that time. Many of his novels from that period reflect a social criticism and commentary of a decidedly utopian, and countercultural, bent; several of them explore the kinds of consciousness changes that are associated with psychedelic drugs. An interesting memoir, placing its author in a specific cultural context that sheds light on much of his writing. Also, the scarcest issue of any book by this important, award-winning author. Signed by the author. Fine.
79. DIDION, Joan. The Year of Magical Thinking. NY: Knopf, 2005. The advance reading copy of her National Book Award-winning memoir about the sudden death of her husband of 40 years, author John Gregory Dunne. Signed by the author. In 2007, the play version opened on Broadway: it was updated to include the subsequent death of her daughter. Fine in wrappers. Uncommon as an advance issue, and especially so signed.
80. DONLEAVY, J.P. The Ginger Man. Paris: Olympia (1955). The author's first book, issued as No. 7 in the Traveller's Companion series, a publishing choice by maverick publisher Maurice Girodias (who published Lolita and Naked Lunch, among others) which later cost him his entire company, when Donleavy finally won a 25-year long suit resulting from Girodias marketing his novel as part of a pornography series. The book was banned in Ireland and the U.S. when it was first published, and the U.S. edition -- when it was issued three years later -- was highly expurgated. Trace foredge foxing; still fine in wrappers. An important and uncommon book these days.
81. DRURY, Tom. The End of Vandalism. Boston/NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1994. Two states of the advance reading copy of Drury's first book, which won him recognition as one of Granta's top 20 young American novelists. The first state is in white glossy wrappers printed in red; the second state adds a pictorial cover, a printed letter to booksellers from Seymour Lawrence in the prelims, and more details to both the copyright page and the map of the County of Grouse in the prelims. The earlier state has a corner crease to the rear cover; otherwise each is fine in wrappers.
82. FAULKNER, William. Collected Stories of William Faulkner and "Faith or Fear," a Commencement Address. NY: Random House (1950). Later printing of Collected Stories, which includes stories from Faulkner's early collections, which at the time had been long unavailable, and also seventeen previously uncollected stories. Winner of the National Book Award, and published the year after Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for Literature. This copy is inscribed by Faulkner: "For Pine Manor Junior College Commencement, 1953/ William Faulkner." Faulkner's daughter Jill attended the Wellesley, Massachusetts college, and he gave the address at her commencement ceremony on June 8, 1953. Included here are several photostats of Faulkner's speech, as one copy was requested by and given to a teacher (Ms. Williams) following commencement. The speech, edited, was published in Atlantic Monthly in August (where it was given the title "Faith and Fear"), and these copies have been marked to show the differences in the speech as delivered and the speech as published, including text left out of the published version. There is also an unedited copy (Mrs. Henkel's copy) included, as well as tear sheets of the Atlantic Monthly article. Also included is a commencement program, as well as a Life Magazine article on Faulkner that features a picture from the ceremony. In the program, Jill Faulkner is listed as one of the 57 graduates, and she is also listed as the President of the student government. There is also a 1964 issue of Time Magazine with a cover story on Faulkner. The folders and articles are in an envelope from the public relations firm of Carl Byoir & Associates and are all near fine or better. The signed copy of Collected Stories is a former Pine Manor Junior College library copy, with bookplate front pastedown, "withdrawn" stamp lower page edges, and the remaining top strip of a circulation envelope on the rear free endpaper. Spine sunned and text block shaken; a good copy, in a good, spine-sunned and spotted dust jacket with chipping at the flap folds. Faulkner seldom inscribed books, although he did inscribe a French edition of The Sound and the Fury to Jill's French teacher on this occasion, in addition to the book he donated to the college. In all, a remarkable collection of materials from a significant day in Faulkner's life, and that of his daughter Jill, which provides information otherwise undocumented in their lives. For all:
83. FAULKNER, William. The Town. NY: Random House (1957). The second book in Faulkner's Snopes Trilogy, this being the first issue, in red cloth with threaded gray endpapers and the misprint on page 327, in a first issue dust jacket with "5/57" on the front flap. Top stain faded, else fine in a near fine dust jacket with slight toning to the spine and trace wear to the crown. A nice copy
84. (Film). (LUMET, Sidney). MGM Library of Filmscripts. NY: Viking (1972). Four titles in this series: North by Northwest, Ninotchka, A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races. All four volumes warmly inscribed by Sidney Lumet to another Hollywood film director. North by Northwest and Ninotchka are the hardcover issues: near fine in near fine dust jackets. A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races are the softcover issues and are near fine in wrappers. These latter two are signed by Lumet on behalf of himself and his wife Piedy [Mary Gimbel Lumet]. A notable Hollywood association: Lumet is the acclaimed director of more than 40 movies, many of them classics and three of them selected on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 best films of all time: Serpico, The Verdict and 12 Angry Men. He also directed Dog Day Afternoon and Network, among many others. The recipient was also an award-winning filmmaker. A nice set of association copies.
85. FORD, Richard. The Ultimate Good Luck. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981. A review copy of his second novel, a hard-boiled thriller involving American expatriates in Mexico. Signed by the author. Partly because of the weak construction at the rear hinge, which tends to crack, this title has become harder to locate, particularly in fine condition, than his first book. This copy has just a hint of the start of a crack at the lower rear joint and is otherwise fine in a very near fine dust jacket with one tiny, closed edge tear at the heel. With publisher's review slip laid in.
86. FURST, Alan. Blood of Victory. NY: Random House (2002). Another of the author's critically acclaimed, atmospheric novels of Europe on the eve of, or in the early years of, World War Two. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.