Catalog 149, S-T
240. SAINT EXUPERY, Antoine de. Flight to Arras. NY: Reynal & Hitchcock (1942). The limited edition of this memoir of the author's time as a reconnaissance pilot during the Battle of France in 1940. One of 500 copies signed by the author and by the illustrator, Bernard Lamotte. Saint Exupery is perhaps the most famous author-aviator ever. His best known book, The Little Prince, was published in 1942. He disappeared on a reconnaissance mission in 1944, and was not seen again. Quarterbound in leather which is heavily rubbed; a very good copy.
241. (SALINGER, J.D.). "The Hang of It" in The Kit Book for Soldiers, Sailors and Marines. Chicago: Consolidated Book Publishers (1942). Salinger's first book appearance, this being the first issue (1942), the state without the head and toe bands. Rubbing to the front cover and abrasions to the spine; a very good copy in a very near fine mailing box, which has been addressed and stamped, although the 3-cent stamp has not been canceled. Also on the box (which is printed in red, black and orange rather than the later red, white and blue), the original page count has the revised page count stamped over it.
242. (San Francisco Earthquake). WHITWELL, Gertrude H. "The California Earthquake of 1906." c. 1907. Journal of a Massachusetts elementary school class (likely Miss Winsor's School in Boston), to which twenty or so ten year-old girls contributed handwritten essays. Miss Whitwell's 5-page contribution is a first person account of the 1906 earthquake, beginning in her bed in San Mateo and taking the reader through the events of the following day: serving breakfast to neighbors, witnessing the refugees on foot and in carriages, relating tales of their narrow escapes, and reporting on the sky aflame 20 miles away. The other essays are for the most part New England pastorals, testimonies to favorite places or things (plus three attempts at Greek mythology, two paeans to Abe Lincoln, and a 1918 farewell poem to Miss Flint from Class II). Leatherbound, all edges gilt; spine-faded and corners rubbed, about near fine. Very scarce near-contemporary first person account of the earthquake through the eyes of a young girl.
243. SANDY, Stephen. Roofs. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972. His second book, the clothbound issue. Inscribed by the author to another poet: "For ___/ with love/ thanks/ Stephen/ Bennington/(In a Blizzard)." Slight splaying to boards; else fine in a near fine dust jacket with one corner tear and rubbing to the front flap fold.
244. SARTON, May. The Single Hound. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1938. Her first novel. Owner name and date (July 12, 1938); mild foxing to page edges, endpages and boards; about near fine in a very good dust jacket with modest edge wear and some spotting to the spine.
245. SASSOON, Siegfried. The Heart's Journey. NY/London: Crosby Gaige/Heinemann, 1927. One of 590 copies on rag paper, of 599 total. This copy is signed by Sassoon, whose name appears nowhere else in or on the book. Owner name on verso of front flyleaf; else fine in a near fine, though dusty, plain tan dustwrapper. An attractive production, with typography by Bruce Rogers and printed by William Edwin Rudge.
246. SCHELL, Jonathan. The Fate of the Earth. NY: Knopf, 1982. The uncorrected proof copy of this important essay that generated an enormous amount of coverage and some controversy when first published in The New Yorker. It is an extended reflection on, and study of, the fate of the earth in the wake of a nuclear war; its publication was the first time since John Hersey's famous account of the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing in 1946 that The New Yorker devoted an entire issue to a single essay. Spine-sunned; near fine.
247. SCHULZ, Charles M. The First Peanuts Comic Strip, Signed. 1950. Peanuts debuted in seven newspapers on October 2, 1950. This first strip, now mounted on acid-free backing, has been signed by Charles M. Schulz. Mild yellowing; else fine. A secretarial letter from One Snoopy Place, dated 1998, serves as provenance for the signature. Together with the final, farewell comic strip, February 13, 2000, in the Los Angeles Times in which Schulz, in the persona of Snoopy sitting at his typewriter, announces the ending of the strip and thanks his readers, editors and fans; a February 15 article and a February 20 memorial write-up, each also in the L.A. Times; and the February 28 People commemorative issue. Schulz died on February 12, the night before his farewell Peanuts strip appeared. A touching collection of landmark materials from one of the best-loved comic strips of all time. Peanuts introduced a host of memorable characters, who have become icons of popular culture: the very first strip introduces "Good ol' Charlie Brown" along with the ever-present note of failure he carried throughout the life of the strip, with one of the other characters noting, after he has passed, "How I Hate Him!"
248. SEBOLD, Alice. The Lovely Bones. Boston: Little Brown (2002). The advance reading copy of her acclaimed second book, first novel, a story told from the point of view of a murdered girl and the surprise bestseller of the publishing season. After a modest first printing of 35,000 copies, rave reviews and word of mouth caused the book to go into numerous printings, with the result that the book sold more than 2 million copies in hardcover and stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for over a year. The advance reading copy was distributed more widely than is usually the case for a first novel, and the responses it got caused the sales to go from 50,000 to over 500,000 copies in a couple of weeks. A film version directed by Peter Jackson, who filmed The Lord of the Rings, is due in 2009. This copy is signed by the author. Fine in wrappers. Scarce in the advance issue, especially signed.
249. SHAW, Bernard. The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism. NY: Brentano's, 1928. The first American edition. Near fine in a very good dust jacket with a couple closed edge tears, one gutter nick, and shallow wear to the edges overall.
250. SHELLEY, Mary Wollenscraft and Percy B. History of a Six Weeks' Tour Through a Part of France, Switzerland, Germany and Holland with Letters Descriptive of A Sail Round the Lake of Geneva, and of the Glaciers of Chamouni. London: T. Hookham, 1817. The first book by Mary Shelley, a collaboration with Percy Bysshe Shelley after the two eloped, when she was just 17 and he was already married. Based on her journals of their travels in 1814 and a trip to Lake Geneva they took in 1816 to visit Lord Byron, where Mary Shelley began to write the novel for which she gained literary immortality, Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus. This book was published anonymously in November, 1817, and Frankenstein was published anonymously in January, 1818. This volume also includes the first publication of Percy's poem "Mont Blanc." Mary's father, William Godwin, refused to have anything to do with the couple after they eloped, and this book was published partly in hopes of raising money to live on; but even after leaking the identities of the authors, it sold so poorly that by 1820 it had still not recovered its printing costs. An important and scarce book by two of the key writers in English of the 19th century. Bound in full dark blue leather stamped in gilt by the Praxis Bindery. Top edge gilt; fine.
251. SILVERSTEIN, Shel. The Missing Piece Meets the Big O. (NY): Harper & Row (1981). A sequel to his children's classic, The Missing Piece. Signed by the author. The multi-talented Silverstein wrote popular country music and rock and roll, co-wrote a screenplay with David Mamet, and wrote a number of plays, in addition to his children's books, for which he was probably most well-known. Cloth mottled and covers splayed; very good in a somewhat yellowed, near fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
252. (SINGER, Isaac Bashevis). The National Jewish Monthly. (NY): (B'Nai B'rith), February 1974. An interview with Singer and also an essay about him: "A Visitor to Our Century and to These Shores." Signed by Singer, "with friendship." Pages cleanly separated from the stapled spine, thus only fair.
253. SMITH, Martin Cruz. Havana Bay. NY: Random House (1999). The uncorrected proof copy of this sequel to Gorky Park, which follows his Russian detective Arkady Renko to Havana well after the fall of Communism in his home country. Tiny nick to spine base; fine in wrappers.
254. STEADMAN, Ralph. The King. [Lexington]: [Petro III Graphics] [2000]. Steadman, most famous for illustrating Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, takes on Elvis -- with an image of the King's head chomping on a guitar. One of only 43 copies. Signed by Steadman. 22" x 30". An image that borrows from Roy Lichtenstein's pop art comic book style, in part. Rolled, else fine.
255. STEINBECK, John. A Russian Journal. NY: Viking, 1948. An account of a trip to Russia after the end of World War II and before the beginning of the Cold War, illustrated with photographs by Robert Capa. Steinbeck was the most prominent American novelist of the time -- Hemingway's and Faulkner's reputations were on the mend but not yet restored to the earlier glory of their Lost Generation years, and Fitzgerald was by then a distant memory. Steinbeck, however, was at the peak of his success and acclaim: The Grapes of Wrath had been a bestseller, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and an award-winning movie less than a decade earlier, and his second great masterpiece, East of Eden, had yet to be written. Capa was, similarly, the most acclaimed documentary photographer of his time, having covered the Spanish Civil War and World War II, notably the D-Day landings at Omaha Beach. An important collaboration between two prominent artists. Cocked, with offsetting to the endpapers; a near fine copy in a very good dust jacket chipped at the edges and folds. This is the binding with grayish-green cloth and yellow spine.
256. ST. JOHN, Primus. Love is Not a Consolation: It is a Light. Pittsburgh: Carnegie-Mellon University Press (1982). The author's second collection, with blurbs by Sandra McPherson, William Stafford and Michael S. Harper. Inscribed by the author to another poet: "To ___/ Good visit & enjoyed your superb poems/ Primus." This is the simultaneous issue in wrappers; near fine.
257. 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. Made into the well-received movie, Who'll Stop the Rain? Faint spotting to cloth; else fine in a fine dust jacket.
258. -. Same title. The uncorrected proof copy. This is the second issue proof, in gold-brown wrappers with a publisher's letter to booksellers reproduced on the front cover. Fine.
259. -. Same title, the first British edition. London: Secker & Warburg (1975). An unaccountably scarce edition. Reportedly 2500 copies were printed but it turns up very seldom, far less often than A Hall of Mirrors, which is reported to have had a first printing of only 1000 copies. Printed in the U.S. and with a similar binding to the U.S. edition, but with a completely different dust jacket design. This copy has a very faint (bookstore?) stamp on the front flyleaf, a slight spine lean, and a touch of fading to the edges; still near fine in a near fine dust jacket with the usual fading to the spine lettering. We've carried this edition only a handful of times over the years. Without question, the scarcest of Stone's trade editions.
260. ST. VINCENT MILLAY, Edna. Conversation at Midnight. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1937. One of 615 numbered copies signed by the author. Spine cloth slightly tanned and with a small chip at the base; a near fine copy in a defeated slipcase (split at three joints and formerly tape-repaired at two).
261. STYRON, William. This Quiet Dust and Other Writings. London: Jonathan Cape (1983). The first British edition of this volume of collected nonfiction -- essays, reviews and reminiscences. Includes Styron's essays on Peter Matthiessen and Robert Penn Warren and a eulogy for William Faulkner, among other pieces. Inscribed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
262. (Theater). (ADAMS, Maude). SHAKESPEARE, William. Maude Adams Acting Edition of Romeo and Juliet. NY: R.H. Russell, 1899. A volume of Shakespeare issued as an "acting edition" under the name of the most famous actress of her time, Maude Adams. Custom three quarter leather binding stamped in gilt, and inscribed by Maude Adams to Mabel Nelson, another prominent actress at the turn of the century: "For Mabel Nelson - Sincerely hers with all good wishes - Maude Adams" followed by a pair of dates: "May 6, 1900 - Dec. 13, 1901." We have not determined what the dates refer to; one thinks automatically of a performance run. A notable association by the first superstar actress in American theater, who at the peak of her fame was earning over a million dollars a year for her performances. Crack to the leather at the lower joint; dampstaining and tide mark to lower pages. A good copy.
263. (Theater). HAYES, Helen. Typed Letters Signed. July 7, 1989 and September 16, 1989. Two letters from Hayes to the editor of Art & Antiques magazine, each expressing interest in being a contributor and offering her telephone number by way of contact. In the first letter, Hayes tells the editor how much she enjoyed the magazine: "I was particularly interested in Vinny Price's piece." (Price and Hayes had appeared together on television in "The Snoop Sisters.") An August letter to the same editor from a third party queries, "Have you touched base with Helen Hayes? She wrote to me that she was exhausted, so she was going off to Ireland..." In September, Hayes writes again: "I think, after the middle of October, I have freedom ahead...I'd like very much to be in your magazine. I think it is beautiful." Hayes, known as the First Lady of American Theater, was one of the most honored actresses of her time, with awards including a Tony, an Oscar, an Emmy and a Grammy. Both of her letters folded in half for mailing; else fine. Mailing envelopes included.
264. (Theater). TYNAN, Kenneth. He That Plays the King. London: Longmans, Green (1950). "A View of the Theatre" by Tynan, with an introduction by Orson Welles. Inscribed by Tynan to the actress Leora Dana in 1952: "For Leora 1952 and also for Leora 1962 and Leora 1972 when someone will have to write her biography. May it be [signed] Ken." Also with an autograph note signed by Tynan, thanking Dana for her "giant liquid gift" and inviting her to come 'round and help drink it. The notecard is fine. The book has some offsetting to the flyleaf that bears the inscription, owing to the laying in of Tynan's 1980 obituary. Offsetting also to the rear endpages; else a fine copy in a very good dust jacket with small chips and closed tears to the spine extremities. A noteworthy association copy: Tynan was an important British writer and critic; in the 1960s one writer said that "at times he probably had more influence than anyone else in world theater." He later produced Oh! Calcutta!, a controversial and successful play with scenes written by Samuel Beckett and John Lennon, among others. Leora Dana was an accomplished actress on stage, in early television, and to a lesser extent in the movies. She won a Tony Award in 1973 and had been nominated for another in 1960. The Internet Movie Database recounts that she was called "the poor man's Helen Hayes," although it does not attribute the comment.
265. THOMPSON, Hunter. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. NY: Random House (1971). An advance review copy of Thompson's second book, epitomizing the "Gonzo journalism" that the author invented and which, by a surprisingly universal consensus, he elevated to the status of art. A classic of the freewheeling, drug-ingesting Sixties era, illustrated with hilarious and scary pen-and-ink drawings by Ralph Steadman. Boards lightly edge-sunned, as usual; else fine in a near fine dust jacket, slightly faded on the spine. With publisher's review slip laid in, and a card laid in signed by Ralph Steadman. In a custom cloth slipcase. One of the key books of its era and the basis for an award-winning Terry Gilliam film, starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro. Very scarce in any sort of advance copy.
266. THOMPSON, Hunter. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72. (San Francisco): Straight Arrow (1973). Thompson's third book and the second of his "Fear & Loathing" accounts. In this book, Thompson covers the Nixon/McGovern race for the Presidency, bringing to the campaign a sense of humor and horror that is simultaneously both off-the-wall and entirely appropriate to its subject. Minor mottling to boards; foxing to top edge; a very good copy in a very good, first issue dust jacket with the $6.95 price and the white box around the photograph on the rear panel, with moderate edge wear and fading to the red on the spine.
267. THOMPSON, Hunter. He Was a Crook. Louisville: White Fields Press (1995). Large broadside, 17" x 35", of a long obituary of Richard Nixon by Thompson. This is one of the unsigned copies: there were 45 signed copies and, we understand, 200 unsigned ones. Rolled, else fine. Thompson at his most scathing.
268. THOMPSON, Hunter. Kicking Nixon While He Was Up. Louisville: White Fields Press (1995). Broadside. 11" x 22". Rolled, else fine. One of 150 unsigned copies. A scarce, ephemeral Thompson item.
269. THURBER, James. Thurber Country. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1953. Owner name front flyleaf with a 1953 date; otherwise a fine copy in a very good dust jacket with a couple chips to the rear panel, one of them measuring about 1" x 1".