Catalog 153, N-R
195. NAIPAUL, V.S. A Flag on the Island. (London): Andre Deutsch (1967). A collection of eleven stories set in England, India and the West Indies by the Nobel Prize winner. This is a copy of the true first (British) trade edition, used as a review copy of the American edition in lieu of an American proof: a slip from the American publisher (Macmillan) identifying this volume as "Uncorrected proofs" is taped to the front flyleaf, with the request that reviews not be released before the American publication date of March 11, 1968. Trace top edge foxing, else fine in a very near fine dust jacket with two closed edge tears. An unusually nice copy of the first edition, doing double duty as an American review copy.
196. (Native American). Art and Indian Individualists. Flagstaff: Northland Press (1975). "The Art of Seventeen Contemporary Southwestern Artists and Craftsmen." Edited by Guy and Doris Monthan. Profiles a number of Southwestern Indian artists, with portraits of them and a statement by each about their work. Illustrated with numerous examples of their artwork, both in color and in black and white. This is the limited edition: one of 150 numbered copies specially bound and signed by the editors and 15 of the artists, including R.C. Gorman, Fritz Scholder and Allan Houser. Also signed by Lloyd Kava New, who provides a foreword. Additionally, this copy includes several items by the artists that were given to the former owner. As such, this copy is additionally inscribed by Douglas Hyde; includes both a signed invitation and a signed greeting card from Jerry Ingram; an additional inscription by Charles Loloma, with photographs of him with friends and also of his work; a clipping of Lloyd Kava New's obituary; a promotional card signed by Preston Mononge; an inscription by Tony Da's mother, Anita (Tony Da was ill during the signing); and an autographed note signed by Earl Biss (who is not included in this volume). A beautiful production, and an important book: this was the first major book to recognize the individualist trend in Indian art, a field of collecting that has grown enormously over the last 35 years. Large quarto bound in quarter leather, heavily illustrated. Fine in a fine slipcase. A unique copy of an attractive and seminal book.
197. (Native American). ARNETT, Carroll. Then. New Rochelle: Elizabeth Press (1965). Poetry by a writer of Cherokee-French descent, also known as Gogisgi. This is his first book. Inscribed by the author: "For ___, who pours good bourbon -- Best wishes, Carroll." Mild edge sunning; near fine in stapled wrappers. Uncommon, especially signed.
198. (Native American). ERDRICH, Louise. The Range Eternal. NY: Hyperion (2002). Her third book for children, a story based on her own family history. This is a fine copy in a fine dust jacket with just a thin line of rubbing at the spine crown.
199. (Native American). LOUIS, Adrian C. Skull Dance. (Jamaica): Bull Thistle, 1998. An attractive fine press limited edition of his poems, his first such volume. One of 276 copies. Fine in tall string-tied wrappers, laid into a find dust jacket.
200. (Native American). PLYMELL, Charles. Apocalypse Rose. San Francisco: Dave Haselwood, 1966. The first book by this poet of partial Cherokee descent. Plymell was a close friend of Allen Ginsberg and lived with him and Neal Cassady in San Francisco. Ginsberg provides an introduction to this volume, which is dated October 28, 1966; his stridently antiwar poem, Wichita Vortex Sutra had been published two months earlier, in August, 1966. Plymell helped Ginsberg on some of the poems that appeared in Planet News, and Ginsberg, in his introduction to this volume, credits Plymell and his friends with "inventing the Wichita Vortex" in "a tradition stretching back...to Poe and earlier American vibration artists." This copy is signed by Plymell, by Ginsberg and by the publisher, Dave Haselwood. In addition, Plymell has added a half-dozen annotations to this volume with references to where things took place or who inspired a passage in a poem. A bit of sunning and soiling to covers; very good in stapled wrappers.
201. (Native American). PLYMELL, Charles. Was Poe Afraid? (Arlington): Bogg Publications, 1989. Poetry by this poet/collagist who was associated with the San Francisco Beat poetry scene and the hippie counterculture that emerged from it in the 1960s. Slightest upper corner tap; still fine in stapled wrappers. Scarce.
202. (Native American). RIGGS, Lynn. Big Lake. NY: Samuel French, 1927. The first book by this playwright of part-Cherokee descent who was born in the Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. Riggs is probably most famous for having written Green Grow the Lilacs, which was adapted into the musical Oklahoma! This play is also set in the Indian Territory, in 1906. Inscribed by the author: "For Mary, a young play - for a young girl - Lynn/ Santa Fe/ Feb. 20, 1936. Rough opening apparent at the hinge on page 6; boards lightly stained (or singed?); a solid, very good copy in a good dust jacket with several small edge chips and one small spine chip, a few small stains, and darkening (possibly from smoke) to front panel.
203. (Native American). TRUDELL, John. Living in Reality. Songs Called Poems. (Minneapolis): (Society of the People Struggling to be Free)(1982). The first edition (so stated on the copyright page, and printed by Haymarket Press) of the scarce first book by this Sioux poet/activist, who was a founder and National Chairman of the radical American Indian Movement during the 1970s -- a turbulent time of Native American political activism. Trudell became the spokesman for the Indians of All Tribes who occupied Alcatraz Island, which led to the founding of AIM. He was the Chair of AIM during the Wounded Knee siege and the Pine Ridge battle that left two FBI agents and one Indian youth dead and resulted in Leonard Peltier's conviction and incarceration for murder. Trudell's own family, his wife and three children, were killed in a fire set by an arsonist, which Trudell has long considered to have been an attempt to strike back at him for his radical activism and militancy, including his advocacy of the use of violence in pursuing claims of Native rights. He appeared in the documentary film about Peltier, Incident at Oglala, and was later cast as a charismatic Indian leader in the fictionalized film version of that story, Thunderheart. He is a musician as well as a poet and is also known as an eloquent speaker, both as a political leader and, more recently, as a guest lecturer. "Sample/Please Do Not Remove/New York Book Fair" stamped on front cover; else fine in wrappers.
204. -. Same title. (n.p.): (Society of the People Struggling to be Free)(1982). Apparently a later edition, printed by Common Wealth Printing. Fine in wrappers.
205. O'HANLON, Redmond. Autograph Letter Signed. March 13, 2000. One letter, written on the backs of two postcards, giving the recipient the name of a contact in Kushing, describing how one of his own projects was derailed by an urgent family matter, and mentioning a six-month stint on trawlers in the North Atlantic, "far more difficult than one big epic journey." He adds that he's working at the Times Literary Supplement, one day a month, "to preserve my fading sanity and because it's such fun." Signed, Redmond. Fine.
206. PIRSIG, Robert M. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. NY: Morrow, 1974. Pirsig's first book, an acclaimed and bestselling inquiry into values and examination of Quality, and a title that is difficult to find in nice condition owing to its "perfectbound" construction, small first printing (its bestsellerdom took both author and publisher completely by surprise) and the fact that most copies that turn up are well-read. A bit of sunning to the boards; very near fine in a very near fine dust jacket with a nick at the front flap fold. A nice copy of one of the key books of the 1970s.
207. PROULX, Annie. The Shipping News. London: Fourth Estate (1994). The first British edition. Signed by the author and dated November 1, 1993 (before publication). Fine in a fine dust jacket, with a wraparound band announcing the winning of the Irish Times International Fiction Prize for 1993. Scarce in the hardcover issue at all, especially signed with an early date, and also with the ephemeral wraparound band. Virtually the best possible copy, short of an association copy or the dedication copy.
208. PROULX, Annie. Brokeback Mountain. NY: Scribner (2005). The first separate American edition, and first separate hardcover edition, of this story, which was first published in the New Yorker in 1997, then as a separate softcover in England in 1998, then collected in Close Range in 1999, before being made into an Oscar-winning film in 2005 and released in this hardcover edition by Scribner the same year. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
209. PYNCHON, Thomas. The Crying of Lot 49. London: Cape (1967). The first British edition of his second novel, winner of the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and the most overtly political, and paranoid, of Pynchon's novels. Chosen by David Pringle as one of the hundred best novels of Modern Fantasy. For some reason, this seems to be the scarcest of the British editions of Pynchon's books. Foxing to page edges and a couple tiny spots to spine cloth; near fine in a fine dust jacket with trace foxing on verso.
210. PYNCHON, Thomas. Gravity's Rainbow. NY: Viking (1973). Pynchon's landmark third novel, winner of the National Book Award as well as the William Dean Howells Medal for the best work of fiction by an American over a five-year span. Gravity's Rainbow became the benchmark for postmodern American fiction upon publication and secured its mysterious and reclusive author's place in the postwar American literary pantheon. A bit of shelf dust on the lower outer corner of the text block; still fine in a fine dust jacket. Small hardcover first printing of 4000 copies; the balance of the first edition, 16,000 copies, was issued in softcover. A bit of shelf dust on the lower page edges from the weight of the text block; still fine in a fine dust jacket.
211. (PYNCHON, Thomas). "Entropy" in The Kenyon Review, Vol. 22, No. 2. (Gambier): (Kenyon College), 1960. The first appearance of this story that was collected in The Best American Short Stories 1961, in Nelson Algren's Own Book of Lonesome Monsters in 1962, in Gallery of Modern Fiction in 1966, and several more times before being published separately in a pirated edition in 1983 (although the piracy is dated 1957); it was then collected in Pynchon's Slow Learner in 1984. Creasing to the spine from the binder's glue, and a faint strip of sunning to rear cover; near fine in wrappers. Precedes Pynchon's first book by three years.
212. (ROBBINS, Tom). SIEGEL, Mark. Tom Robbins. Western Writers Series, No. 42. Boise: Boise State University (1980). A biography of and critical commentary on Robbins, up through Still Life with Woodpecker. 52 pages; stapled wrappers. Ordering information inked out on rear cover; else fine.
213. ROBERTS, Gregory David. Shantaram. Melbourne: Scribe (2003). The true first edition of this massive novel, which was loosely based on the author's life story, including his escape from an Australian prison and living on the run for a number of years. He wrote the novel while in prison, after being recaptured, and it became a bestseller. He is now working on a sequel to it. Signed by the author in December 2003 with the added sentiment, "May all your dreams live in your eyes." Fine in a fine dust jacket. Together with an 8 1/2" x 11" promotional flyer. Fine.
214. -. Same title, the advance reading copy of the British edition. (London): Little Brown (2004). Labeled "uncorrected bound proof." Fine in wrappers. Uncommon in an advance issue.
215. ROBINSON, Marilynne. The Death of Adam. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. The uncorrected proof copy of her third book, a collection of "essays on modern thought." This copy was sent out to a poet and reviewer with a note from an editor laid in: "I had a good time at Lincoln Center, thanks to your buoyant irony. Here are Marilynne's essays. You might start with 'Puritans and Prigs.'" Trace joint rubbing and a couple small, faint marks to covers; very near fine in wrappers. Eighteen years after Housekeeping, and six years before her Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead. A very scarce proof.
216. ROBINSON, Marilynne. Absence of Mind. New Haven: Yale University Press (2010). The advance reading copy of the third book of nonfiction, essays on science and religion, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist. Fine in wrappers.
217. (ROBINSON, Marilynne). The Future Dictionary of America. (n.p.): McSweeney's (2004). A re-definition of terms, by over 200 American writers, artists and musicians, and edited by Dave Eggers, Jonathan Safran Foer, Nicole Kraus and Eli Horowitz. This copy is signed by Robinson at her contribution, "Adulteration," which reads, in part, "...a movement in 21st-century America devoted to the discovery of the inner adult. A corrective to the wildly successful movement to discover the inner child, the movement was inspired by the realization that said child was a peevish, self-indulgent brat, hostile to the constraints of civilization and bored to the point of rage by meaning and complexity. These traits became manifest as the inner child assumed control of politics and the media..." Etc. Fine in a fine dust jacket, with CD tipped to the rear pastedown.
218. ROTH, Philip. Everyman. Boston/NY: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. The advance reading copy. Surprisingly uncommon for a recent ARC; one suspects that with the degree of critical and commercial success that Roth has enjoyed in the past two decades -- winning virtually every major literary award given out in this country and enjoying strong sales -- the publisher may have decided that spending money on prepublication promotional copies was redundant: the book was going to get significant attention even without a strong promotional push by the publisher. Laid into this copy is an additional promotional page, printed on cover stock, one side only, with the publication date, a plot summary, and the source of the book's title. The advance reading copy is fine; the promotional item is creased at the corners where it extends beyond the book.
219. ROTH, Philip. The Humbling. (NY): (Houghton Mifflin)(2009). The advance reading copy of Roth's 30th book, a novella. Trace corner wear; very near fine in wrappers. Again, a scarce advance copy.
220. RUSHDIE, Salman. Grimus. London: Gollancz, 1975. The first novel by the author of Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses, a fantasy that is by all accounts not in the same class as his later works but is uncommon and, by virtue of his later career, an important first book. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
221. RUSHDIE, Salman. Midnight's Children. London: Jonathan Cape (1981). The first British edition of the author's second book, winner of the Booker Prize and the first book in his ambitious sequence of novels of the Muslim world, which culminated in The Satanic Verses and the death sentence that was imposed on him by Islamic fundamentalists. The American edition is the true first, preceding the British (they were both printed in the U.S.), but the British edition is the more desirable edition for "following the flag," and it is also considerably scarcer than the U.S. edition, with only 2500 copies printed. Voted in 2008 as the Best of the Bookers, and the most outstanding novel published in the past 40 years. One upper corner tapped, else fine in a near fine, spine-sunned and price-clipped dust jacket.