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Catalog 155, L

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96. LARSSON, Stieg. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. London: Maclehouse/Quercus (2008). The advance reading copy of the first British edition, and first English language edition, of the first book in Larsson's posthumously-published bestselling Millennium Trilogy. The Swedish film of the book has received high praise, as have the two succeeding films in the trilogy; the Hollywood version is due out later this year. Fine in wrappers. The U.K. edition preceded the U.S. edition and had a much smaller printing, as is usual. The advance reading copy was presumably issued in numbers that comprise a small fraction of the U.K. printing and is undoubtedly the scarcest and earliest English-language issue of this astonishingly well-received novel.

97. LE CARRE, John. The Naive and Sentimental Lover. London: Hodder & Stoughton (1971). The uncorrected proof copy of his first novel to depart from the espionage genre, a book that he later said was his own personal favorite of his books, but which enjoyed considerably less popular success than his spy stories. Small ink name and date on front cover; minor sunning and creasing to spine; near fine in wrappers. Scarce in collectable condition.

98. L'ENGLE, Madeline. The Other Side of the Sun. NY: FSG (1971). The uncorrected proof copy of this stand-alone novel by the author of the award-winning A Wrinkle in Time, among many other works. Near fine in tall, comb bound wrappers. Page 186 has one holograph correction: three lines are crossed out in what may be black crayon, and an ink arrow connects the text before and after. An uncommon proof.

99. LEONARD, Elmore. Escape from Five Shadows. [Boston]: Houghton Mifflin, [1956]. The uncorrected proof copy of the third of his extremely scarce Westerns, which preceded his first mystery novel by over a decade and his first bestseller by over two decades. 7" x 11" ringbound galley sheets, printed on rectos only. The label affixed to the cardstock cover gives a publication date of 1955 (the book was actually published in 1956) and, in pencil "May 1." Also in pencil on the front cover label is written "The Westerners" -- an alternate title? An indication of the genre, for marketing purposes? The covers show some extremely slight creasing; still a remarkably fine copy, with the covers crisp, the fragile plastic ring spine intact. An extremely scarce item: we have never seen another proof copy of any of Leonard's Westerns offered for sale, and Houghton Mifflin was not even doing bound proofs for all its titles routinely at that time. There were probably only a couple of dozen of these produced and, given the format and fragility of this item, it's unlikely that many others have survived, if any. In a custom quarter leather clamshell case. Probably the rarest Elmore Leonard item we have handled, or seen.

100. LORCA, Federico Garcia. Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter. London: Heinemann (1952). The uncorrected proof copy of this collection of poems in translation by the great Spanish poet who was killed in the Spanish Civil War. Most of the poems are from an early book, published in 1928, and the last poem is the last major poem he wrote, in 1935. Near fine in wrappers. Uncommon.

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