Catalog 158, C-D
33. (CARSON, Rachel). HARRISON, Ruth. Animal Machines. (London): Vincent Stuart, 1964. Harrison's seminal work, which exposed factory farming in the U.K. the way Carson's Silent Spring exposed pesticide use in the U.S. With a two-page foreword by Carson that begins: "The modern world worships the gods of speed and quantity, and of the quick and easy profit, and out of this idolatry mysterious evils have arisen. Yet the evils go long unrecognised...until some public-spirited person, with patient scholarship and steadfast courage, presents facts that can no longer be ignored." An uncommon book in the first edition, especially in collectable condition, with most hardcover copies having gone to libraries. Owner name and address front pastedown; else a fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with several tiny edge nicks and minor rubbing to the rear panel. Published the year of Carson's death from cancer, and predating by nearly half a century the similar alarms sounded by such books as Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma; a prescient critique of industrial agriculture, a relatively new phenomenon at the time but a near-universal reality in modern agribusiness today, at least in Western and/or developed countries.
34. CARVER, Raymond. Winter Insomnia. (Santa Cruz): (Kayak)(1970). Carver's first regularly published book, a collection of poems, issued in an attractive edition of 1000 copies designed and printed by George Hitchcock and illustrated with prints by Robert McChesney. Bound in yellow wrappers printed in green. (A few copies were bound in white wrappers printed in green.) Signed by the author. Fine.
35. CARVER, Raymond. Put Yourself in My Shoes. Santa Barbara: Capra Press, 1974. Carver's first book of fiction, a single short story published in the Capra Chapbooks series in an edition of only 500 copies, according to William Stull's checklist. "Put Yourself in My Shoes" was later included in Carver's first story collection, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? This is a fine copy of the issue in wrappers. Signed by Carver. Wood block illustrations by Marcia/maris.
36. CARVER, Raymond. At Night the Salmon Move. Santa Barbara: Capra Press, 1976. The hardcover issue of Carver's third collection of poems, and his second book to be issued by Capra. Of a total edition of 1100 copies, this is one of 100 numbered hardcover copies signed by Carver. Fine. Illustrated with drawings by Marcia/maris.
37. CARVER, Raymond. Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? NY: McGraw-Hill (1978). First McGraw-Hill paperback edition of his 1976 breakthrough book of short stories, which was a National Book Award nominee. Inscribed by Carver to another writer, "with affection and warm regards" in Iowa City in 1978. A poorly constructed book, the spine glue had caused several pages to stick together at the hinge and others to fall out: the problem has been professionally remedied. Very good in wrappers with just a bit of bleed-through of that binder's glue at the heel. A good literary association copy.
38. CARVER, Raymond. The Painter and the Fish. Concord: Ewert, 1988 [1989]. Carver's last limited edition, printed in 1988 (when he signed the colophon sheets) but not issued until the following year, after his death. Of a total edition of 115 copies, this is one of 15 numbered hardcover copies reserved for use by the publisher, so identified in type on the colophon. Signed by the author and by the artist, Mary Azarian. Quarterbound in blue leather. Pages uncut; fine, without dust jacket, as issued.
39. CONROY, Pat and JOHNSTON, Becky. The Prince of Tides. Los Angeles: Triad Artists, 1988. Conroy's screenplay adaptation of his fifth book, third novel, co-written with Becky Johnston. Signed by Conroy. Barbara Streisand directed the movie and starred in it alongside Nick Nolte. It received seven Academy Award nominations, including one for Conroy and Johnston's screenplay. The script is dated January 26, 1988, almost four full years before the movie was released on Christmas day, 1991. Casual inspection of the script shows this version to have significant differences from the finished version. Text fine; covers creased and rubbed; claspbound in Triad wrappers; very good. A nice glimpse of a major film as a work-in-progress, and a little-known version of what may be Conroy's most beloved novel.
40. COOVER, Robert. Typescript of "In Bed One Night." Undated. Photocopied typescript of what became the title story of Coover's 1983 collection. Four pages, with Coover's address, c/o his agent, at the top of the first page. 8 1/4" x 11 3/4", folded in fourths. Staple in upper left corner, trace edge-sunning; near fine. Presumably a copy submitted for publication in a magazine or journal. In keeping with the author's proclivity to experiment with his fiction, this story is one single long sentence.
41. CRACE, Jim and CROWLEY, John. The Pesthouse. NY: Talese/Doubleday (2007). The advance reading copy of Crace's novel; this copy was used by John Crowley for review purposes and bears his markings in the text and three pages of his notes in the prelims. Crowley's review appeared in the Washington Post. There is also a blurb by Crowley (about Crace's Being Dead) printed on the rear cover of this advance reading copy. Near fine in wrappers.
42. CROWE, Cameron. Fast Times at Ridgemont High. NY: Simon and Schuster (1981). The uncorrected proof copy of Crowe's first book, a thinly disguised nonfiction account of his undercover return to high school at the age of 22. Signed by the author. Basis for the film, for which Crowe wrote the screenplay. The movie was an unheralded production that helped launch the movie careers of a plethora of Hollywood A-list actors, including Sean Penn, Forest Whitaker, Nicholas Cage, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Eric Stolz and others. Minor sunning and even surface soiling to covers; near fine in wrappers. An uncommon first book, and extremely scarce as a proof, especially signed.
43. DEANE, Seamus. While Jewels Rot. Belfast: Festival Publications (n.d.). His scarce first book, a poetry collection published at Queen's University of Belfast, in Ireland, which the author attended and where he befriended fellow poet, and later Nobel Prize winner, Seamus Heaney. Heaney's first book, Eleven Poems, was published in the same series of chapbooks as this title. Deane's first novel, Reading in the Dark, not published until 1996, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Irish Times International Fiction Prize and the Irish Literature Prize in 1997. Fine in stapled wrappers.
44. DELILLO, Don. Americana. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971. His first book. Fine in a fine dust jacket with barely perceptible shelf wear to the spine extremities. A beautiful copy of an important debut.
45. DE SADE, D.A.F. The 120 Days of Sodom. Paris: Olympia Press (1954). The first edition in English, this being the issue in two volumes, printed on wove paper. There was a one volume edition also, printed on thin India paper, presumably for ease of smuggling from Paris to England and the U.S., where the book was not permitted to be published. The two-volume edition, Kearny 1.9.2, is considered the domestic issue and is considerably scarcer than the one-volume edition. Spines a bit slanted and sunned, and shallowly creased; still near fine in self-wrappers. A very nice set of this early Olympia Press title, which helped lay the groundwork for the overturning of longstanding censorship laws in Europe and the U.S. in the 1950s and '60s.
46. DIDION, Joan. Slouching Towards Bethlehem. (London): Deutsch (1969). The first British edition of the second book by this author who has chronicled the postwar American dream with a biting accuracy and fierce humor unsurpassed in her generation, this being a collection of essays, and perhaps her most famous book. The title piece is a long essay on hippies and the Summer of Love in San Francisco which takes its title and its theme from Yeats's apocalyptic poem, "The Second Coming." Fine in a fine dust jacket. An uncommon edition of a landmark volume that set the tone for much of her later writing.
47. DOIG, Ivan. Winter Brothers. NY: HBJ (1980). His second book, a history and memoir of "a season at the edge of America," in the Pacific Northwest. Warmly inscribed by Doig to a National Book Award-winning author: "To ___ ___ -- strongest journeyer among us all who seek a Crystal Mountain. Ivan Doig/ Seattle/ 6 Nov. '80." With a small typed note signed laid in telling the recipient that this is "a small thanks for vouching to the Guggenheimers for me." Faint foxing to top edge of text block, else fine in a fine dust jacket. A nice association copy: Doig's first book, This House of Sky, was a National Book Award finalist in 1979, and the recipient won a National Book Award that year.
48. DRURY, Allen. Advise and Consent. Garden City: Doubleday, 1959. The first novel by this author who had been a political reporter -- a novel of Washington politics that won the Pulitzer Prize. Owner name front flyleaf; else fine in a near fine dust jacket with a tiny hole to the rear spine fold. A very nice copy of a bulky and not-very-well-made book, which shows wear readily.
49. DUBUS, Andre. The Lieutenant. NY: Dial, 1967. His first book, and his only novel -- a military tale not unlike William Styron's book The Long March -- a story of the peacetime military and the challenges to manhood and honor that its rigid code of morals creates. Dubus was once quoted as saying that after he wrote this novel someone introduced him to Chekhov's short stories, and he threw away the manuscript of what was to be his next novel and began writing short fiction -- of which he became one of our most acclaimed and accomplished practitioners. Dampstaining to lower boards; a very good copy in a very good dust jacket with a small droplet on spine, light corner chipping, and one internally mended edge tear.
50. DUBUS, Andre. Separate Flights. Boston: Godine (1975)[1976/1977]. His second book, and the first collection of the short fiction for which he won a considerable reputation. Inscribed by Dubus: "For Carol/ old friend from so far back - oh Lord so far - with gratitude and love/ Andre/ 16 October 1977." Dubus and the recipient had been close friends at the Iowa Writers Workshop in the early 1960s where both studied with Richard Yates, and the two had stayed in touch sporadically over the years. This is the first softcover edition, apparently produced from first edition sheets, and issued in wrappers in late 1976 or early 1977, after the book had won an award from the Boston Globe as the outstanding book of New England origin in 1975. Spine lean; spotting to mostly the rear cover. Near fine, with publisher's reader response card laid in. It is not an overstatement to say that the two books primarily responsible for the resurgence of the short story in American literature in the 1970s were Raymond Carver's Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? and Dubus's Separate Flights.
51. DUBUS, Andre. Adultery and Other Choices. Boston: Godine (1977). The third book and second collection of short fiction by this writer who was considered a master of the form, and a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" in the 1980s. Fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket with slight rubbing and edge wear and a faint stray pen mark at the front spine fold.
52. -. Another copy. Signed by Dubus on the title page and additionally inscribed by him on the half title, in 1985: "For Carol/ with wishes for blessings, luck, and other mysteries - Love/ Andre." The author and the recipient had been friends at the Iowa Writers Workshop in the early Sixties, and both had studied with Richard Yates there. Foxing to top edge of text block; minor splaying to boards; near fine in a very near fine dust jacket with trace edge wear.
53. DUBUS, Andre. The Times Are Never So Bad. Boston: Godine (1983). Second printing of this novella and eight short stories. Signed by Dubus on the title page and additionally inscribed by him on the half title, in 1985: "For Carol/ and truly the times are not so bad for you have endured/ Love/ Andre." Foxing to edges of text block; near fine in a near fine dust jacket with one short edge tear, light rubbing to folds, and foxing to verso.