Catalog 159, C
31. CALDWELL, Erskine. The Sacrilege of Alan Kent. Portland: Falmouth Book House, 1936. Copy No. 23 of 300 numbered copies signed by Caldwell. This attractive limited edition is the first separate edition of this prose-poem, which appeared, in slightly different form, as the final piece in the collection American Earth, although it was dropped from the reprint editions of that collection. Red boards and vellum spine; wood engravings by Russell Frizzell. Fine in a near fine slipcase. Scarce.
32. CARSON, Rachel; MATTHIESSEN, Peter; SHACKLETON, Lord. Silent Spring. London: Folio Society, 2000. Peter Matthiessen provides a 13-page introduction to Carson's classic 1962 work, which single-handedly brought about the banning of the pesticide DDT, saving songbirds and giving wing to the environmental movement. Illustrations by Jonathan Hitchens. Fine in pictorial boards and slipcase. A little-known and uncommon edition of this classic work. Being a British production, it includes the introduction that was in the first British edition, by Lord Shackleton (Ernest Shackleton's son).
33. (CARSON, Rachel). Conversations. (n.p.): Rand-McNally (1967). Interviews by Roy Newquist with writers Rachel Carson, Gwendolyn Brooks, Christopher Isherwood, James Leo Herlihy, Evan Hunter, Madeleine L'Engle, James Michener, S.J. Perelman, P.L. Travers, P.G. Wodehouse, Robert Penn Warren and others. The powerful two-page vignette featuring Carson is here posthumously published and adapted from its appearance in Chicago's American. Near fine in a mildly rubbed, near fine dust jacket.
34. CARTER, Angela. The Bloody Chamber and Other Adult Tales. NY: Harper & Row (1979). The first American edition of this collection of stories by the feminist fantasy author. Inscribed by Carter to the promoter of a Toronto Literary Festival, and dated 1984 at the Harbourfront festival. Fine in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket. Books signed by Carter are relatively uncommon, this title in particular, and this is a nice literary association as well.
35. CARVER, Raymond. Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? NY: McGraw-Hill, 1976. Carver's breakthrough book of short stories, his first book published by a major publisher and one of the most influential books in the renaissance of the short story form in America in the 1970s and beyond. Signed by the author. Trifling spotting to top stain; still fine in a fine dust jacket. A beautiful copy of an important book, probably the nicest copy we have ever seen. Provenance: the Bruce Kahn collection.
36. CARVER, Raymond. Correspondence. 1982-1986. Four autograph letters signed and two autograph postcards signed, all written to Virginia Dunwell, who had taken a 5-day fiction seminar with Carver in Port Townsend in 1982. Dunwell began the correspondence several months after the seminar, with a long letter and story (not present), and the hope that Carver would write her a recommendation for her return to college. In Carver's first letter, he agrees to write her a recommendation when the time comes, mentions several schools she might consider, including the University of Montana where Barry Hannah is teaching, and apologizes for the hasty response: "If I waited until things slowed down, by that time I may have misplaced the story or else be dead. You know what I'm saying." The next letters from Dunwell first give specifics on where she would like recommendations sent and then update Carver on where she landed, with words of gratitude. In his second letter, Carver offers his congratulations: "It isn't easy to change one's life. I ought to know." After Dunwell's next friendly update, Carver sends a sweet and polite response that adds, "We are just back from Brazil and Argentina. A trip for the State Dept. So good to be back. I don't like being a foreigner!" His next letter is a quick, congratulatory and, again, very polite, response to having received a manuscript from Dunwell, which he is writing, he states, just prior to his departure for England. Months later, Carver returns to Dunwell a self-addressed postcard she had sent him, with blocks for him to check off, apparently responding to whether he will write to Iowa on her behalf. Carver not only checks off that he will, but provides a brief critique of a story that she had included with the card, advising Dunwell that her story "is O.K. A lot of telling, though, where maybe there should be more dramatizing." The final postcard informs Dunwell he has sent a letter to Iowa, and thanks her for her kind words on the New Yorker story: "And they've just bought another, I'm happy to say." In all, six signed autograph letters or postcards from Carver. All fine but for mailing folds. Together with retained copies of most of Dunwell's correspondence, as well as the brochure from the Port Townsend seminar where the two met, and a color snapshot of Carver, presumably at the seminar. A nice archive, revealing Carver's caring for one of his students and following up his dialogue with her over a number of years, and showing the impact his teaching, and further communication, had on one student's life and work. For all:
37. CARVER, Raymond. Autograph Letters Signed. 1983, 1986. Three autograph letters signed from Carver to the editor of Clockwatch Review, a journal of the arts that was founded in 1983 and enjoyed a lauded 16-year run. Carver's 1983 letter first apologizes for having been away before launching into a sincere accounting of why he will not be contributing to Clockwatch: "I wish I had something to send along for your magazine. But I don't. My cupboard is empty. I've been working on a screenplay for months and it's taken up, gobbled up, all of my time and energy. I haven't written any fiction for a while, but I need to. And your letter was a good reminder. I'm sorry I don't have something to send you, but, God's truth, I don't...." Carver's response to the next solicitation, in 1986, is more downbeat, but no less sincere: "We've gone through a bad patch out here - Tess had to have some pretty serious surgery a while back, and we worried through that, and before, and after..." Six months later, Carver sends a letter with thanks for having received a copy of the recent issue, giving specifics of what he liked about it (the interview with Patrick Hemingway, the Schultz poems, "and other things too, of course"), adding an encouraging, "Good. Good for you. It was kind of you to remember to send me the issue, and I appreciate it." Three letters, each fine, but for some offsetting (from another letter?) on the first one; each with envelopes, two of which are hand-addressed. An exchange that did not culminate in publication, but one that shows Carver as being generous and engaged, even while declining to contribute. For all:
38. COELHO, Paulo. The Alchemist. (NY): HarperSanFrancisco (1993). The advance reading copy of the first American edition of this internationally bestselling fable by a popular Brazilian writer. Although the book has reportedly sold 65 million copies worldwide and the first American edition was announced as being 50,000 copies, firsts are quite hard to come by and advance copies are remarkably uncommon. The copyright page states "This is a preprint edition, not for sale. The hardcover edition will be published in May, 1993." Presumably thus one of the earliest copies of this title to appear in English. The author's name is misspelled "Coehlo" on the front cover. Fine in illustrated self-wrappers. To date, the book has spent more than 200 weeks on the New York Times paperback bestseller list; a film has been reported, off and on, as in development.
39. COETZEE, J.M. Waiting for the Barbarians. (NY): Penguin (1982). A review copy of the first American edition of this novel by the South African Nobel Prize-winning author. Only published as a paperback in this country, but nonetheless selected as one of the best books of the year by the New York Times Book Review in 1982. Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. A novel of an incipient race war in an unnamed African nation, patterned after the author's native South Africa -- an insightful and chilling book, a bit reminiscent of Kafka. This copy is inscribed by Coetzee in 1994. Recipient's signature on author's biography page; several small cover creases; near fine in wrappers, with publicity letter from Penguin Books Canada laid in. An uncommon advance copy of the first U.S. edition of his breakthrough book, scarce signed, and this copy with a nice literary association -- inscribed to the promoter of a major Canadian literary festival in which Coetzee took part.
40. COETZEE, J.M. Life & Times of Michael K. NY: Viking (1984). A review copy of the first American edition of his first Booker Prize-winning novel. Signed by Coetzee on the front flyleaf beneath the owner signature there; three small dots to foredge of one page; else a fine copy in a fine dust jacket, with review slip and author photo laid in. Uncommon advance copy of an award-winning book and, as above, a good literary association: the owner was promoter of a Toronto literary festival in which Coetzee participated.
41. COETZEE, J.M. Foe. (Toronto): Stoddard (1986). A review copy of the first Canadian edition. Signed by the author on the front flyleaf. Owner signature on flyleaf as well, along with the stamp, "Review Copy - Not for Resale." Fine in a near fine dust jacket with lamination peeling at the top edge of the front panel. Review slip laid in. This book was criticized by some at publication for not being as overtly political and engaged as his two previous books, which had been focused on the politics of racial discrimination in an unnamed African country very clearly based on South Africa.
42. COETZEE, J.M. White Writing. On the Culture of Letters in South Africa. New Haven: Yale University Press (1988). The first book-length work of criticism by the Nobel Prize winner. Inscribed by the author on the title page "with all good wishes." Recipient's dated signature on front flyleaf; fine in a very near fine dust jacket with a bit of spine fading. Uncommon book, especially signed.
43. COETZEE, J.M. Age of Iron. NY: Random House (1990). The uncorrected proof copy of the first U.S. edition of this novel of apartheid in South Africa, which was the Sunday Express Book of the Year. Inscribed by the author. Recipient's signature and date on first blank; hint of a bump at the spine base; very near fine in wrappers.
44. COETZEE, J.M. Doubling the Point. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992. The simultaneous softcover issue of this collection of essays and interviews on a variety of subjects, mostly literary. Coetzee talks about Beckett at length, and discusses the manuscript revisions of Beckett's novel Watt. Other subjects include Kafka, obscenity and censorship, D.H. Lawrence, South African writers, and more. Inscribed by the author on the title page. Recipient's name and date on half title; front cover lightly splayed; near fine in wrappers. A nice association: the recipient was the organizer of a literary festival that Coetzee took part in.
45. COETZEE, J.M. Boyhood. (NY): Viking (1997). The first American edition of this fictionalized autobiography of Coetzee's childhood growing up in South Africa; the first volume of a trilogy, which later included Youth and Summertime. Inscribed by the author. Recipient's signature on half title; fine in a fine dust jacket.
46. COETZEE, J.M. The Lives of Animals. Princeton: Princeton University Press (1999). Coetzee's Tanner Lecture, for which he told a fictional story about an animal rights activist giving a lecture. This work became the first piece of fiction published by the press. With an introduction by Amy Gutmann and commentaries by Marjorie Garber, Peter Singer, Wendy Doniger and Barbara Smuts. Inscribed by Coetzee. Recipient's dated signature on endpaper; fine in a fine dust jacket. Uncommon signed.
47. COETZEE, J.M. Stranger Shores. Essays 1986-1999. London: Secker & Warburg (2001). Essays, mostly on literary subjects, including Robinson Crusoe, which formed the basis for Coetzee's novel, Foe, as well as Kafka, Musil, Borges, Rushdie, Harry Mulisch's The Discovery of Heaven, South African writers including Doris Lessing, Nadine Gordimer, Alan Paton and others, and other topics. Inscribed by the author. Recipient's signature on half title; fine in a fine dust jacket.
48. (COETZEE, J.M. and BRINK, Andre). A Land Apart. A South African Reader. (London): Faber and Faber (1986). The uncorrected proof copy of this anthology edited and signed by both Coetzee and Brink. Owner signature; near fine in wrappers. An uncommon proof, and a rare combination of signatures of two of the most prominent and esteemed South African writers of the 20th century.
49. CUMMINGS, E.E. EIMI. NY: Covici Friede, 1933. The first edition of this lengthy experimental prose account of Cummings' trip to Soviet Russia. Issued as a limited edition, this is one of 1381 numbered copies signed by the author -- the number of the limitation apparently being determined by the prepublication orders the publisher had received. One extremely slight lower corner tap, else fine in a fine dust jacket. A very attractive copy of one of Cummings' most important prose works, seldom found with the dust jacket at all, let alone in near-perfect condition. As nice a copy as we've ever seen of this title.
50. CUMMINGS, E.E. Marion Morehouse. Undated. A portrait by Cummings of Morehouse, renowned New York model and Cummings' third wife, executed predominantly in grays and whites, accented with red. Cummings, one of the most inventive and beloved modern American poets, was also a painter and artist for most of his life. In the 1920s he was the art director for The Dial, the premier outlet for Modernist writing, and he did many of the caricatures and sketches that illustrated its pages. Earlier, he had exhibited at international art shows as an abstract painter; from the 1930s on he tended toward representational images, albeit with a range of inventive palettes, as this painting has. Oil on canvasboard. 12" x 16". Fine.
51. CUMMINGS, E.E. Grappling Figures. Undated. An indeterminate number of nudes of indeterminate gender (and size) engaged in an indeterminate struggle in an indeterminate landscape. Metaphorically rich, and a theme that recurs repeatedly in Cummings' artwork; the figures are representational but bordering on the mythical and thus the abstract. "Grappling lovers," as the theme might be termed, was one of a number of motifs that Cummings explored again and again, and one of the handful of subjects that links his later representational work to his early abstract painting. Oil on canvasboard. 12" x 16". Fine.