Catalog 148, V-Z
211. (Vietnam War). HERR, Michael. Dispatches. NY: Knopf, 1977. The uncorrected proof copy. Herr, reporting for Rolling Stone and Esquire from Vietnam, was -- along with such now-legendary figures as Tim Page, Sean Flynn and Dana Stone -- among the first of the young writers to bring the sensibilities of the 1960s and the conventions of the New Journalism to the "first rock-and-roll war." Herr sent back a riveting series of dispatches, legendary at the time and now viewed as classics of war reporting. His pieces, written largely in the words of the grunts (GIs) he visited, shattered the official picture of an orderly progression to the war and helped define the "credibility gap" that made Vietnam war reporting so different from that of earlier conflicts. This book was reprinted in its entirety in the Library of America volume on Vietnam war reporting. Near fine in tall wrappers, with slight spine lean and notes in two hands written on the front cover and a staple there, also an "H" written on the bottom page edges.
212. (Vietnam War). WAKEFIELD, Dan. Supernation at Peace and War. Boston: Little Brown (1968). An extended essay on the cultural and political polarization of the country taking place at that time, centered around the different postures toward the war. An expanded version of an essay that first appeared in the Atlantic Monthly. Inscribed by the author. Near fine in a very good dust jacket.
213. (Vietnam War). CASSIDY, John. A Station in the Delta. NY: Scribner's (n.d.)[1979]. The uncorrected proof copy of his first book, a novel of the CIA in Vietnam. Cassidy served in Vietnam as an Operations Officer in the Clandestine Service for the CIA. This is a padbound proof, mildly sunned, with page signatures browning at varying rates; near fine in wrappers, in a near fine proof dust jacket creased on the front flap. The proof jacket is of a significantly different design than the one that was later used on the published book. Laid in is a letter from Charles Scribner III to Gloria Jones, expressing excitement about the novel and requesting her comments. An uncommon early variant of an important Vietnam novel.
214. VOLLMANN, William T. The Ice-Shirt. (NY): Viking (1990). A review copy of the first American edition of the first book in his still-in-progress Seven Dreams series. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket, with review slip and publisher's information laid in.
215. VONNEGUT, Kurt. Player Piano. (London): Science Fiction Book Club (1954). First thus, the Science Fiction Book Club edition of his first book, a satire on automation and the Electronics age that was first published in the U.S. in 1952 and in the U.K. in 1953. This copy is signed by Vonnegut with a self-caricature. Mild acidification to page edges, else a fine copy in a near fine, spine-sunned dust jacket. In a custom clamshell case.
216. VONNEGUT, Kurt. Cat's Cradle. NY: HRW (1963). The book that belatedly earned Vonnegut his Master's Degree in Anthropology from the University of Chicago, after his original theses ideas, one a comparative study of the Cubist Painters in Paris and Plains Indians of the Ghost Dance Movement and the other, "Fluctuations Between Good and Evil in Simple Tales," were rejected. Signed by the author with a self-caricature, with cigarette. One of Pringle's 100 best science fiction novels, nominated for the Hugo Award, and chosen by the Modern Library as one of the best 100 novels of the 20th century. Mild sunning to cloth; else a fine copy in a very near fine dust jacket with a bit of edge creasing. In custom clamshell case.
217. VONNEGUT, Kurt. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. NY: HRW (1965). Vonnegut's sixth book, one of the novels that began earning him a small but passionate following in the mid-1960s, before his breakthrough to the status of "major author," which came when Slaughterhouse-Five was published. Signed by the author with a self-caricature. He has fewer lines around his eye in this drawing than is usual: he almost looks happy. A fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with short edge tears to the spine folds. In custom clamshell case.
218. -. Same title, the first British edition. London: Jonathan Cape (1965). Signed by the author. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with mild rubbing to the rear panel and very slight edge wear. In custom clamshell case.
219. -. Same title. The uncorrected proof copy. This is the earliest state of the proof: tall sheets ringbound in blue wrappers, printed on rectos only. Cardstock covers abraded and spotted; very good, in a custom quarter leather clamshell box. The later issue proof, also ringbound, was in beige wrappers. This copy is signed by the author in 1996, with a self-caricature. One of the earliest Vonnegut proofs we have seen.
220. VONNEGUT, Kurt, Jr. Welcome to the Monkey House. London: Jonathan Cape (1969). The uncorrected proof copy of the first British edition of these short stories, a collection reprising most of the stories in Canary in a Cat House plus fourteen others. Signed by the author in 1997 with a self-caricature. Wrappers creased; light foxing to foredge and rubbing to folds; very good in wrappers. Scarce: Vonnegut proofs from the Sixties, before he was widely accepted as a mainstream writer, are uncommon.
221. VONNEGUT, Kurt. Slaughterhouse-Five. (NY): Delacorte (1969). The second printing (April rather than March) of his masterwork, a powerful fictional memoir of his experiences during the Allied fire-bombing of Dresden, Germany. Vonnegut's philosophical reflections on the tragic absurdity of humankind are embedded in an impressionistic, pessimistic yet comic science fiction tale that is a high spot of the literature of the 1960s and since. The first printing was 10,000 copies and the book eventually sold more than 60,000 copies in hardcover and innumerable in paperback, becoming a classic of its era and a standard on college campuses -- at first by word-of-mouth and later as part of the canon. On all three major lists of the top books of the 20th century. Signed by the author with a self-caricature (smoking) and dated on his 79th birthday. Fine in a near fine, mildly sunned, price-clipped dust jacket. In custom slipcase.
222. -. Same title, third printing (May). Signed by the author, "Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.," an early signature. Mottling to rear cloth; else a near fine copy in a near fine, spine and edge sunned dust jacket. In custom slipcase.
223. -. Same title, the first British edition. London: Jonathan Cape (1970). Signed by the author with a self-caricature. Fine in a very good, lightly spine-faded dust jacket but with one internally tape-mended edge tear and a bit of black color added to the edges. In custom clamshell case.
224. VONNEGUT, Kurt. Pressbook for Slaughterhouse-Five. (n.p.): Universal Pictures (n.d.).[1972]. Pressbook for the 1972 film based on his 1969 novel, a powerful fictional memoir of his experiences during the Allied fire-bombing of Dresden, Germany. Includes a 10 page synopsis of the film; 12 pages of production notes; 3 pages of cast and credits; four black and white 8" x 9 1/2" stills from the movie; a 2 page biography of director George Roy Hill; and a very entertaining 6 page biography of Vonnegut. Housed in a pictorial folder that is signed, "Kurt Vonnegut, Jr." The Vonnegut bio and the folder have some strips of sunning; in all, near fine.
225. VONNEGUT, Kurt. Histoire du Soldat, with Signed Introduction. (n.p.): Gonfalon Press, 1997. A limited edition of Vonnegut's libretto for Igor Stravinsky's 1918 composition. Vonnegut replaced the original text with a story based on the service and execution of Private Eddie Slovik, the only American soldier to be executed for desertion in World War II. A heart- and head-felt anti-war comment by an author whose masterwork, Slaughterhouse-Five, stands as one of the century's greatest statements on the absurdity and tragedy of the human insistence on self-destruction. This edition was created and illustrated by Michael Fallon. One of 110 numbered copies signed by Fallon, this copy is signed by Vonnegut on his 75th birthday. A fine copy, in cloth and paper covered boards, without dust jacket, as issued. Together with a photocopy of a typescript of Vonnegut's introduction, reproducing the author's holograph corrections and signed by Vonnegut with an added caricature. Also together with a 1993 handout for a performance of the work at Lincoln Center, signed by Vonnegut, and the program for the St. Louis premiere in 1997, also signed by the author. An unusual Vonnegut item and, with the extra manuscript copy and ephemera, unique. For all:
226. VONNEGUT, Kurt. Missing in Action. (Lexington): (Joe Petro III) (2004). A limited edition printing, for the first time, a May 29, 1945 letter home written by PFC Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. concerning the events of the death-defying months since he was taken prisoner of war on December 19, 1944. Vonnegut's heart-rending -- and wry -- recounting of that experience lays the foundation for his classic novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, and helps explain the origins of that book. Of a total edition of 126 copies, this is one of 26 lettered copies signed by the author. Includes a bound-in silkscreen of Vonnegut's character Kilgore Trout, also signed by Vonnegut. This lettered edition also includes a laid-in silkscreen "Goodbye Blue Monday," signed. Designed and published by Joe Petro III; silkscreened at Petro III Graphics in Lexington, KY; text hand set in Joseph Blumenthal's Emerson type and printed by Larkspur Press in Monterey, KY, on a hand-fed C&P press on Rising Stonehenge paper; half-bound by Walt Bartholomew of Sylph Productions, Tucson AZ, in brown Nigerian goatskin and marbled paper with full Record Basalt cloth slipcase; spine gilding by Richard S. Lamb, New Lamb Bindery, Bennington, VT; marbled paper handmade by Iris Nevins, Johnsonburg, NJ; frontispiece photograph courtesy of Edie Vonnegut and the Vonnegut Archive, Barnstable, MA. A heroic production. Fine. This letter was recently re-printed in Vonnegut's posthumous collection Armageddon in Retrospect.
227. (VONNEGUT, Kurt). FARMER, Philip José as "TROUT, Kilgore." Venus on the Half Shell. NY: Dell, 1975. The uncorrected proof copy of this novel purportedly written by Vonnegut's greatest recurring character, Kilgore Trout, an underappreciated science fiction writer (as Farmer himself was at the time) and "the only character [Vonnegut] ever created who had enough imagination to suspect that he might be the creation of another human being." This title was first mentioned in Vonnegut's novel God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater as one of Trout's books. Spine-sunned; near fine in tall wrappers. 6 1/2" x 12 1/4". Venus on the Half Shell was issued as a paperback original; we have never seen a proof of it offered for sale before.
228. (VONNEGUT, Kurt). STRINGER, Caverly. Grand Central Winter. NY: Seven Stories Press (1998). The advance reading copy of this memoir of life on the street, for which Vonnegut provides a foreword. Fine in wrappers. Uncommon.
229. WALKER, Alice. Good Night Willie Lee, I'll See You in the Morning. (London): Women's Press (1987). The first British edition of this collection of poems originally published in the U.S. in 1979. No hardcover issue was done in the U.K. Fine in wrappers, and signed by the author.
230. WATKINS, Paul. Stand Before Your God. NY: Random House (1993). The advance reading copy of this memoir of Watkins' experience in boarding school. Uncommon for such relatively recent vintage. Fine in wrappers.
231. WELSH, Irvine. Trainspotting. London: Secker & Warburg (1993). The uncorrected proof copy of his first novel, highly acclaimed upon publication and later the basis for the phenomenally successful movie that became a cultural milestone of the 1990s. The first edition of this book is scarce -- preceding the movie and its associated cultural uproar by a couple of years, it was issued in a hardcover edition reported at only 600 copies; the proof, needless to say, is many times scarcer; we have seen it only a handful of times. Fine in wrappers, in a near fine dust jacket. This is the first time we have seen the proof in a jacket.
232. WILBUR, Richard. Seven Poems. Omaha: Abattoir Editions, 1981. A limited edition, one of 200 copies. This copy is inscribed by Wilbur to B.C. Bloomfield, bibliographer of both Philip Larkin and W.H. Auden, and also inscribed in 1981 "from Jack" [Hagstrom], bibliographer of Thomas Gunn and James Merrill. Barely perceptible edge-sunning; still fine in wrappers. Uncommon; scarce signed; and a notable association copy.
233. WILBUR, Richard. On My Own Work. Isle of Skye: Aquila (1983). A mimeographed production issued as Aquila Essays Number 20. This copy is inscribed by Wilbur to B.C. Bloomfield. A gift card from Jack Hagstrom is laid in. Extremely tiny spine base bump; still fine in stapled wrappers. Uncommon; scarce signed. A good association copy.
234. WILSON, S. Clay. Three Original Artworks for a William Burroughs Book. Three original pen-and-ink illustrations for the German edition of Burroughs' novel Cities of the Red Night. Two of the images are 5 1/4" x 9", the third is 5 1/4" x 10"; all three are matted and framed to approximately 16" x 19". Wilson and Burroughs collaborated on three books -- this one, a German edition of The Wild Boys, and Tornado Alley. Wilson was one of the group of artists who gained exposure in the underground comix of the 1960s counterculture. After R. Crumb, he is probably the best known of that group, and his images are almost certainly the most extreme: all of the underground comic artists sought to break barriers and defy convention, and Wilson's images are densely packed and full of overt sex and violence to a nearly unthinkable degree. In this he was very much like Burroughs, whose verbal imagery sought to shatter all barriers, preconceptions and hypocrisies; the collaboration between the two of them seems in retrospect to have been inevitable. These drawings were displayed at the Los Angeles County Art Museum in the show "Ports of Entry: William Burroughs and the Arts," which sought to convey the influence Burroughs has had on visual arts. Extraordinary images, the result of an equally extraordinary collaboration; these are probably among the best artwork Wilson has done, and probably the best illustrations ever of Burroughs' writings. Burroughs himself appears as a character in one of the images. Together with the original layout and lettering for the title page of the book, Die Städte der Roten Nacht: three hand-lettered sheets and one printed sheet. All items are fine.
235. WOLFF, Tobias. The Night in Question. NY: Knopf, 1996. The limited advance edition consisting of the title story of this collection. One of 1500 copies signed by the author. Hardcover; fine, in publisher's sealed wraparound sleeve.
236. (YEATS, W.B.). Selections from the Writings of Lord Dunsany. Churchtown: Cuala Press, 1912. Introduction by Yeats to this small volume, printed by the press that was founded by Yeats's sisters. One of 250 copies printed. Heavy offsetting to free endpages, spine slightly darkened; a near fine copy, pages uncut. Housed in custom chemise and quarter leather slipcase. Uncommon.