Catalog 162, H-J
54. -. Same title. The five promotional postcards only. [London, David Fickling, 2003]. Fine.
55. HARRIS, Mark. Bang the Drum Slowly. NY: Knopf, 1956. His classic novel, which some consider the best baseball novel ever. Signed by the author. Part of a tetralogy, written over a quarter century, beginning in 1954 with The Southpaw and ending in 1979 with It Looked Like Forever. This book was made into a TV movie in 1956 with a young Paul Newman starring as Henry Wiggen, a baseball pitcher and the protagonist of the novels. In 1973, the book was made into a Hollywood movie, with a script by Harris and with Michael Moriarty starring as Wiggen and Robert de Niro as his doomed friend, Bruce Pearson, in one of his first major roles, which earned him the New York Film Critics' Award for Best Supporting Actor. A fine copy in a very near fine dust jacket with just a couple tiny nicks to the spine and corners and a small bookseller stamp on the lower rear flap. A very nice copy of a classic book, seldom found in this condition and especially uncommon signed.
56. HARRISON, Jim. Letters to Yesenin. Fremont: Sumac (1973). An early collection of poetry by the author of Legends of the Fall, among many others. Of a total edition of 1126, this is one of 1000 copies in wrappers. Inscribed by Harrison to another well-known writer, "for those totemic vultures," and signed "Jim." A nice literary association copy. Near fine.
57. (HELLMAN, Lillian). MAUROIS, Simone André. Miss Howard and the Emperor. London: Collins, 1957. The first American edition. Inscribed by Maurois to Lillian Hellman in 1958: "This book (a friendly gift of Arthur Cowan) is also the homage of my deep and sincere admiration for the great lady playwright." The story of Napoleon and his mistress, given to Hellman from the author, as a gift of the man who would help Hellman gain control of Dashiell Hammett's literary properties after Hammett's death. Boards a bit splayed and cloth splitting at joints; moderate foxing to text block; a good copy in a very good dust jacket with a couple edge tears and a tiny chip at the spine.
58. HOAGLAND, Edward. The Peacock's Tail. NY: McGraw-Hill (1965). An early book, the third novel, by this writer whose first novel was a Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship Award winner and whose most recent novel, published in early 2013, received generally glowing reviews. Hoagland, who is 80 years old, has published three books in the pasts three years, one of which, Sex and the River Styx, won the John Burroughs Medal in 2012. Signed by the author. A bit of foxing to the lower edge; very near fine in a similar dust jacket. From the author's library. Letter of provenance available.
59. HOAGLAND, Edward. Notes from the Century Before. NY: Random House (1969). His first book of nonfiction, subtitled "A Journal from British Columbia." A personal recollection of the author's travels, which also touches on the history, both natural and cultural, of the region. Signed by the author. Hoagland, whose fiction and non-fiction have both won literary awards, is especially highly acclaimed as an essayist, and his first book of nonfiction is thus a landmark in his writing career. Light corner bumps; else fine in a near fine dust jacket. A very nice copy, from the author's own library.
60. HOAGLAND, Edward. The Moose on the Wall. London: Barrie & Jenkins (1974). The first edition of this collection of "field notes from the Vermont wilderness," published in England and for which there is no comparable U.S. edition. Signed by the author. Pages browning as usual, as the text is printed on acidic paper. Otherwise fine in a fine dust jacket, and uncommon thus. From the author's own library.
61. HOAGLAND, Edward. Red Wolves and Black Bears. NY: Random House (1976). His third collection of essays, which illustrates why John Updike called him "the best essayist of my generation." Signed by the author. Slight corner taps; very near fine in a similar dust jacket. Again, from the author's library.
62. HOAGLAND, Edward. City Tales. (Santa Barbara): Capra Press, 1986. A collection of stories published in the Capra Back-to-Back series with Wyoming Stories by Gretel Ehrlich, and with a new introduction by each author. Signed by Hoagland. Although books in this series sometimes had small hardcover signed limited editions, there was no hardcover or signed edition of this title. Fine in self-wrappers.
63. HOAGLAND, Edward. Seven Rivers West. NY: Summit (1986). A novel of the American West in the 1880s, on which the author reportedly worked for 20 years and which combined his passion for, and knowledge of, the natural world with a careful attention to historical detail and a rich literary imagination. Hoagland's most recent novel prior to this had been The Peacock's Tail in 1965. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket. From the author's library.
64. HOAGLAND, Edward. The Final Fate of the Alligators. Santa Barbara: Capra Press (1992). The first book publication of these pieces -- stories and an essay -- which Hoagland wrote in the 1960s, before his first books of nonfiction were published. With an introduction by Hoagland that puts the pieces in context and reflects on writing and writers. Signed by the author. Fine in wrappers; there was no hardcover edition. Uncommon signed. From the author's library.
65. HOMES, A.M. Typed Letter Signed and The End of Alice. February 28, 1996. A typed letter signed: in small part about the book tour for her controversial third novel The End of Alice [NY: Scribner (1996)], which was written from the point of view of a pedophile serving his twenty-third year in jail for the brutal murder of a young girl, and in large part about the current status of her relationship with her girlfriend, to the point where she describes herself as "babbling." The included book has foxing to the foredge, else fine in a fine dust jacket. The letter runs onto a second page with a P.S. (asking if she sounds "like a nut ball") and is adhered (printout style) as one long page. Folded in fourths; else fine.
66. (HORNBY, Nick). Signed Handbill for Fever Pitch. (n.p.): G&J Productions, 1995. A handbill for the U.K. tour of the play version of Hornby's well-received first book, a collection of short autobiographical pieces published in 1992 and recounting, and reflecting on, the author's life as a fan of the Arsenal football (soccer) team. Later the basis for a U.K. film in 1997 in which Colin Firth played a character based on the author and a 2005 U.S. film in which the location was moved from London to Boston and the sport shifted from football to baseball. The play version was adapted and directed by Paul Hodson and was performed, as a one-man show, by his brother, Robin Hodson. The handbill is 5 3/4" x 8 1/4" and is signed by Hornby. Tour dates on verso. Fine. Scarce ephemera, and especially uncommon signed.
67. HOUSEHOLD, Geoffrey. A Rough Shoot. Boston: Atlantic/Little Brown, 1951. The first American edition of this short suspense novel by the author of classic thriller Rogue Male. Signed by the author. Discoloration from binder's glue at the hinges; sunning to board edges; about near fine in a near fine, edge-rubbed dust jacket.
68. IRVING, John. A Prayer for Owen Meany. Franklin Center: Franklin Library, 1989. The Franklin Library edition and the true first edition of what may be Irving's best-loved book -- a substantial claim for a book by the author of the also much-loved The World According to Garp. A portion of this book was the basis for the film Simon Birch. Leatherbound, gilt stamped, with gilt page edges and silk ribbon marker. With a special introduction for this edition that does not appear in the trade edition. Signed by the author. Fine.
69. IRVING, John. In One Person. NY: Simon & Schuster (2012). The advance reading copy. Signed by the author on the title page. Scarce signed even in the trade edition: Irving did not do any signings on the author tour he did promoting the novel, explaining that he was no longer willing to sign books at readings per his doctor's warnings, as it would hinder his ability to write his manuscripts by hand, as he prefers to do. He did sign a handful of copies of the trade edition at his local bookstore; we have seen no other signed copies of this title than those, and no other signed advance copies. Short, horizontal crease to mid-spine; else fine in self-wrappers.
70. JACKSON, Shirley. Hangsaman. NY: Farrar Straus Young (1951). Her third book, second novel, and her first book to be published after the acclaim, and controversy, surrounding "The Lottery" -- both the story itself and the collection it gave its name to. Inscribed in the year of publication to William Jay Smith and Barbara Howes: "For Barbara and Bill. Affectionately, Shirley." With the Howes/Smith bookplate now laid in. Smith is a onetime Poet Laureate of the U.S. and both he and Howes, his wife, were National Book Award finalists for their poetry. Howes also edited an avant garde literary magazine, Chimera, in the 1940s, and she produced anthologies of Caribbean literature and Latin American literature that helped bring major authors from those regions to the attention of North American readers and critics. Jackson was living in Vermont at the time of this book's publication, where her husband, writer and literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman, was a professor at Bennington, which was also Howes' alma mater. The fictional college in Hangsaman is based on Bennington, and the plot is in part based on the true-life disappearance of a Bennington student in 1946. Smith-Howes and Hyman-Jackson were at the time two of the preeminent literary couples in America, making this an excellent literary association copy. Glue residue on the front pastedown where the bookplate had resided; minor foxing to boards, else a near fine copy in a very good, supplied dust jacket with rubbing to the folds and several tiny chips and closed edge tears. Also corner clipped on the upper front flap, with the price ($3.00) stamped in the lower corner.
71. JONES, Edward P. The Known World. (NY): Amistad (2003). The advance reading copy of the author's second book, first novel, about a mixed-race plantation owner and slaveholder in antebellum Virginia. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Inscribed by the author. Fine in self-wrappers.
72. JOYCE, James. Verbannte [Exiles]. Zurich: Rascher & Cie., 1919. The first German edition of Joyce's play Exiles and the first of his works to be published in translation in any language. One of 600 copies printed, Slocum & Cahoon D44. Joyce was living in Zurich at the time and he paid for the publication of this book out of his own pocket. This copy is inscribed by the author: "To J.R. [sic] Watson, Jun / with grateful regards / James Joyce / 8. ix. 1919." J.S. Watson, Jr. was at the time the co-owner of the modernist literary journal The Dial, which he bought from Martyn Johnson with his friend and fellow Harvard graduate, Scofield Thayer. Watson became president of the magazine and Thayer became its editor. The "grateful regards" refers to a gift of $300 that Watson had sent Joyce earlier in the year at the urging of Thayer, who had himself sent Joyce $700. These sums bailed Joyce out of dire financial straits, allowed him to settle a court case against him, and helped him support the theater group that he had associated with in Zurich, the English Players. In 1920 The Dial published a piece by Joyce, and in 1921 Thayer was one of his most ardent and influential supporters in the censorship case in New York against Ulysses and its publication in the Little Review. A notable association copy of Joyce's first translation. Pages browned and acidified, and covers strengthened at all the edges and spine with tape, with a hole cut in the spine for the title to show through. The first blank, on which the inscription appears, is also strengthened at the edges with tape. Fragile, and a candidate for de-acidification, but a significant association copy from a critical point in Joyce's life and career.
73. JULY, Miranda. No One Belongs Here More Than You. NY: Scribner (2007). The uncorrected proof copy of this collection of stories by the filmmaker, actress, and performance artist. Three volumes, including between them all the stories of the published volume, and in three different colors (yellow, magenta, orange). Each proof cover has a laudatory blurb by a different writer: George Saunders, Amy Hempel, and Dave Eggers. Each is fine in wrappers, with "Excerpt 1 of 3," "...2 of 3," or "...3 of 3" printed on it. Together with one "No One Belongs Here More Than You" rubber band for the set. The first printing was issued with either a yellow or magenta dust jacket. An unusual format for a prepublication proof, and scarce: this is the only set we've seen or heard of.