Catalog 162, K
75. (KAEL, Pauline). BLOUNT, Roy, Jr. Crackers. NY: Knopf, 1980. The second book by this humorist and long-time friend of Kael's: although each was closely associated with a magazine published in New York, the two lived near each other in western Massachusetts. Inscribed by Blount "To Pauline [Kael],/ Who came up with/ the title, but I wrote/ the rest of it./ Thanks, Roy Blount Jr." In a 1994 review of Kael's For Keeps in the Atlantic Monthly, Blount wrote that Kael once said to him "We've never let each other down." Very slight foxing to top edge; near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
76. (KAEL, Pauline). KIZER, Carolyn. Mermaids in the Basement. Port Townsend: Copper Canyon Press, 1984. A collection of "Poems for Woman." Inscribed by Kizer to Pauline Kael in January, 1986: "For Pauline, a thin response to her fine fat new book! Love, Carolyn." Kael's Taking It All In had been published in 1984. This is the simultaneous issue in wrappers of Kizer's book; fine.
77. KARLIN, Wayne. The Extras. NY: Henry Holt (1989). Karlin's third novel, set in Israel and about the love between a young Israeli man and Palestinian woman. Inscribed by the author to Robert Stone, whose novel Damascus Gate is perhaps the best, most grueling exploration of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in contemporary fiction. Fine in a near fine dust jacket.
78. KEROUAC, Jack. Doctor Sax. Faust Part Three. NY: Grove/(Evergreen) (1959). First edition, wrappered issue, of this novel that is part of his Duluoz saga, a multi-volume, semi-autobiographical account of the author's life and times. Most of Kerouac's friends, family and acquaintances appear in these novels, thinly disguised: he had intended to write the sequence as a self-invented genre that stuck strictly to the "truth," albeit with the free-flowing rhythm and style of his inventive, spontaneous prose -- but was persuaded early on that the legal and logistical difficulties of such an approach were insurmountable. As such he followed through on the plan, simply changing the names of the various characters he chronicled. This copy bears a full page inscription by the author on the first blank: "Barbara,/ I love you/ as much as you/ love me but/ remember, I'm/ Grandfather Jack/ 98 years old/ to you: - autograph :-/ Jack Kerouac/ Autographs/ are cheap/ XXX." The recipient was reportedly Barbara Forst, an Abstract Expressionist painter married to Miles Forst, another painter; the Forsts lived in Greenwich Village and their apartment was the scene of frequent parties, which were known for, among other things, their access to marijuana. A nice inscription by Kerouac, gently mocking the celebrity worship implied by autograph seeking. In the end, though, one must conclude that he turned out to be wrong: autographs aren't cheap, at least not his, not anymore. A near fine copy with some slight wear at the edges, in a custom quarter morocco clamshell box, and a nice relic of the Greenwich Village Beat scene of the late 1950s.
79. KESEY, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. (n.p.: n.p., n.d.). An acting edition, and an apparent piracy of the 1963 production of the Dale Wasserman play, listing Kirk Douglas as Randle McMurphy. Wasserman originally adapted Kesey's novel for the stage in 1963, shortly after the book came out. Kirk Douglas had bought the rights to the book, but couldn't convince Hollywood to make the film. Instead, he starred in the short-lived Broadway adaptation of it. Later, in 1970, Lee Sankowich directed the play at San Francisco's Little Fox Theater, and directed such actors as Danny DeVito, William Devane and Olympia Dukakis, in the San Francisco and later New York productions of it. The show went on to have a record-breaking five year run, the success of which led to the decision to produce a film version. Kirk Douglas had passed along the production rights to the film to his son Michael, who became producer of the Hollywood version -- although enough time had passed that Michael considered himself too old to play the lead, as he had originally intended, and he got Jack Nicholson instead; it became one of Nicholson's signature roles, for which he won an Academy Award. Several notes reproduced in text; tapebound in stained cardstock covers; very good. An unusual, apparently handmade, edition.
80. -. Same title. Multiple photocopied drafts of the screenplay, as follows:
1. Howard B. Kreitsek screenplay (n.p.: n.p., n.d.), rejected. Bottom margin stained on cover and first several pages; name of "Merritt Blake" on cover; bradbound with rear pages separating; very good.
2. Uncredited screenplay, no title page. Several notes to text. Bradbound; last page deteriorating and salvaged, glued to clean sheet; very good. Possibly an early version as McMurphy's lines are written under "Mack"; a working copy, as a number of pages contain pencil, ink, and felt tip pen comments/instructions in the margins.
3. Thirty pages of another uncredited screenplay with list of characters and photocopied change of "Pilbow" to "Miller" in text. Again, a working copy, with a number of pencil/ink changes to the text.
4. Lawrence Hauben screenplay. Berkeley: Fantasy Films, 1974. "Second Draft," December 12, 1973, revised January 3, 1974. Bradbound; near fine.
5. Screenplay by Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman. "Final Draft." Revised July 26, 1974, and then Dec. 5, 1974 written in. More than 100 loose sheets, possibly incomplete. Numerous corrections reproduced and some original annotations and markings on this copy; near fine.
A remarkable glimpse of the process of converting one of the landmark novels of the Sixties into one of the most acclaimed films of our time, the first movie since It Happened One Night, in 1934, to win all five of the major Oscars -- Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay, for the Hauben and Goldman screenplay. For all:
81. -. Same title, the combined continuity script. (n.p.): United Artists/Fantasy Films, 1975. Mimeographed legal-sized sheets, printed on rectos only. The continuity, while identical in its text and descriptions to the finished film, is nonetheless the earliest "published" edition of the final version of the work, as well as being an artifact of the production itself. Claspbound at top with printed yellow paper cover. Edge wear to later pages; near fine.
82. -. Same title, publicity flyer. One sheet, 12" x 36", printed on both sides and tri-folded to make six 9" x 12" pages. Notes about and photos of cast and filmmakers. Edge-foxed; near fine.
83. KESEY, Ken. Manuscript/Typescript of "Running into the Great Wall." 1981. Kesey's manuscript for an article for Running magazine [Jan/Feb 1982], which sent him to cover the 1981 Beijing Marathon. Running, a magazine based in Eugene, Oregon, near to Kesey's home in Pleasant Hill, had sent Kesey to cover the 1980 U.S. Olympic Trials a year earlier. Kesey had been unable to write straight journalism and wrote a piece narrated by a fictional character, creating a hybrid of fiction and journalism.
A year later, after Kesey had spent time reading the nonfiction of Ernest Hemingway and Norman Mailer, Running took a chance again and sent him to cover the first Beijing Marathon, a landmark event signaling China's emergence into the world community after decades of isolation under Mao Tse Tung following the Cultural Revolution. Kesey was determined to learn to write straightforward reporting, and to assist him on the project Running hired Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Brian Lanker to accompany him. After a month in China, Kesey came to the editor of Running to admit that "I ain't a journalist now and I guess I never will be. I'm writing a piece of fiction."
So, as he had done for the Olympic trials, Kesey created a fictional story as a vehicle for carrying the news he wanted to report about the Marathon, and placed the whole in a framework of excerpts from the Tao Te Ching, one of the classic texts of ancient chinese philosophy and mysticism. The result was a novella-length piece that ran in a single issue of Running. This is the original manuscript for that piece. Approximately 73 pages [23 pp. photocopy, reproducing Kesey's holograph corrections and with editor's original notations; 30 pp. of pink typescript, with Kesey's holograph corrections and changes as well as editorial notations; 20 pp. of holograph manuscript, with Kesey's corrections in red ink]. Clipped together in four sections: the photocopied section; the two pink typescript sections (the second with the editor's note at top to start this section as page 73); and the fourth, manuscript section on notebook paper. According to the editor, the photocopy of the first section became the working manuscript after Kesey's typescript was sucked out of his Cadillac convertible on the ride between Pleasant Hill and Eugene, and ended up scattered over the highway and countryside. Knowing that Kesey could be careless about such things, the editor had made a photocopy before Kesey left the office.
Extensive re-writing is in evidence throughout the manuscript, with approximately 16 pages of the finished article (as measured in online printout pages) not present in this draft, and about 11 pages of this draft, including most of the holograph material, not appearing in the published version. Kesey manuscript material seldom appears on the market: his papers are at the University of Oregon, and individual pieces are seldom offered for sale. We only found one Kesey manuscript appearing at auction in the past 35 years, although it appeared, and sold, on two different occasions. A glimpse of the novelist as storyteller, attempting but failing to write journalism and as a result stretching his story on the broad scaffolding of Oriental philosophy and giving it timeless resonance. Also a view of the work in progress: a lengthy, almost book-length piece with much re-writing and a substantial amount of unpublished writing by Kesey that is unavailable elsewhere. The largest trove of Kesey manuscript material that we have seen offered for sale. Except for some slight corner ruffling, the manuscript is fine.
84. KESEY, Ken. The Further Inquiry. (NY): Viking (1990). The uncorrected proof copy of Kesey's account of his famous bus trip with the Merry Pranksters in 1964, written in the form of an imaginary "trial" of the spirit of Neal Cassady -- holy fool and avatar or con man extraordinaire? Cassady was the driver of the bus, and a charismatic figure who inspired and sometimes intimidated the mostly younger people who surrounded him. The proof lacks the photographs that are in the published volume, but this volume includes a publicity photo of Kesey in front of the bus (with a skeleton in the driver's seat) signed by Kesey in 1991, and a two-sided press release, also signed by Kesey in '91. Legal-sized paper, folded in thirds, fine. The photo is black and white, 5" x 7", fine. The proof has a hint of spine sunning, else fine. Scarce and ephemeral prepublication material, seldom found signed.
85. (KESEY, Ken). Poster for The Further Inquiry. [NY]: Judith Lesley/Sinclair Management (n.d.). Publicity poster for a 1980s play version in New York City, as adapted by Richard Parks and John Higgins, and preceding the 1990 book. Grateful Dead music and footage from the Prankster movie provided the backdrop to the production. 8 1/2" x 11"; folded in thirds; tiny edge nick; tape remnants to verso; else fine. Uncommon Kesey ephemera.
86. KING, Stephen. Correspondence. 1980-1990. Five items from King over a decade (roughly from Firestarter to Dark Tower III), showing a marked decline in availability and energy for events ancillary to his own writing. All letters are to fellow horror writer and chronicler of horror writers Stanley Wiater. The first is a typed letter unsigned congratulating Wiater on the success of one of his stories in a contest that King had judged and agreeing to read a novel manuscript of Wiater's, delineating what he had liked in the outline, while withholding an agent recommendation until after the reading. (King explains in a postscript that he is leaving town before the letter is to be secretarially typed, thus the lack of signature.) The second typed letter signed later that year (1980) lists the reasons he has yet to read the manuscript of Nightouch (author tour, moving to Bangor, his own writing, other authors' manuscripts). He writes "... I want to add that yours is first in line. I remember what it's like to go to the mailbox hoping to hear something - anything - from anybody!" The third typed letter signed (1984) agrees to read a second manuscript, while simultaneously declaring "I'm buried deeper and deeper in mail. I'm thinking of moving somewhere where the mail don't go!" Signed "Steve." The fourth typed note signed thanks Wiater for a postcard he sent King picturing King's new house in earlier years ("Tabby [Tabitha King, his wife] was quite delighted with it, attached as she is to the house") and declines an interview Wiater requested, adding that he's saying "no" more than "yes" these days, as he is tired of talking about himself. The fifth note is from King's secretary, declining, on King's behalf, his inclusion in Wiater's book on horror filmmakers. All letters are folded for mailing, else fine, with envelopes included; the last four are on King's stationery. Also included is a ticket and program to a 1985 appearance by King at the University of Massachusetts. The decade from 1980 to 1990 saw King grow from being a popular but little-known writer of genre fiction to being perhaps the bestselling novelist in the world. His last book of the 1970s had had, for him, a large first printing of 50,000 copies. His first book of the 1980s, Firestarter, had his first six-figure first printing -- 100,000 copies. By the end of the decade, The Dark Half (1989) and Four Past Midnight (1990) had first printings of 1.5 million copies each. The increased demands that success and celebrity placed on King can be seen in his increasingly short responses to Wiater's letters over the course of the decade, as well as his increasing inability to make time for the kinds of requests that earlier he had been able and willing to take on. For the four King letters with envelopes, a secretarial letter with envelope, and ephemeral material from the UMass appearance:
87. KING, Stephen. The New Lieutenant's Rap. (n.p.): Philtrum Press, 1999. A limited edition created by King for a party to mark the 25th anniversary of his career as a published novelist and freelance writer, and given out to the attendees of the party. One of "no more than 500" numbered copies signed by the author, and probably a lot scarcer than that: there were reportedly 100 couples at the party who received copies of the book, and it turns up so infrequently on the secondary market that we can only conclude that, first, the attendees have generally held onto (or possibly lost) their copies and, second, that other copies of it have not been distributed (if, indeed, they have even been created). A "stopper" for many King collections. The story later appeared in altered form in Hearts from Atlantis. Here the pages reproduce King's handwriting and are bound in saddle-stitched wrappers with a peace sign on the cover. With the stamp of horror writer Stanley Wiater inside the front cover and on the last blank. Fine in original envelope. Together with a peace sign on chain, given out as a party favor. Fine in gift box with bow laid in. Also together with an invitation to the party; two place cards from the event; and two completed and marked copies of the official authorized Stephen King trivia quiz, as written by Wiater for the event. Four pages, 25 questions (these two copies receiving scores of 23 and 24 correct). For the group:
88. KING, Stephen. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. (NY): Scribner (1999). A novel in which a lost girl channels the strengths (at the time) of Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Tom Gordon for comfort. Signed by King. With the bookplate of horror writer Stanley Wiater on the front pastedown; fine in a fine dust jacket. One of King's scarcest trade editions to find signed, presumably because of the difficult logistics of handling a Stephen King book signing in recent years, due to his extreme popularity. This copy was a gift to attendees at the dinner celebrating King's 25th anniversary as a published writer, which Wiater attended with his wife. A limited edition of this title was published several years later, and a pop-up edition of it was done as well. Signed copies of the trade first edition are exceedingly scarce.
89. (KING, Stephen). Prop from Maximum Overdrive. 1986. Maximum Overdrive was a film written and directed by King (based on his short story "Trucks") and in which King appeared in the opening scene as the "asshole" at the bank machine. Offered here is a fake $100 bill torn by King and the bank receipt for a cash withdrawal "From the Account of Asshole." King has reportedly called this film the worst adaptation of his work: it won him a Raspberry nomination for worst director (he lost to Prince for Cherry Moon). Fine. Unique.
90. (KING, Stephen). KETCHUM, Jack. The Girl Next Door. Woodstock: Overlook Connection Press (1996). The limited edition of this horror novel by the award-winning author, loosely based on events in a notorious murder case in 1965 and made into a film in 2007. This edition has an 11-page introduction by Stephen King that did not appear in the trade edition, several Afterwords, and an interview with Ketchum by Stanley Wiater about the writing of this book. This was a contributor's copy, and is signed by Ketchum, King, Wiater, Christopher Golden, Lucy Taylor, Edward Lee, Philip Nutman and Neal McPheeters. There were 500 numbered copies and 52 lettered copies, but this copy is marked P/C and is housed in a wooden box with a hinged door complete with door handle, with leather title and author and publisher labels. From the library of one of the contributors, Stanley Wiater, according to whom the publisher made these boxes only for the contributors' copies. Thus, although the colophon doesn't specify it as such, this would apparently be one of 8 copies only, signed by King, Ketchum et al. An extremely small limitation for a collectible book by any author, but especially for a book with a Stephen King contribution. The book is fine without dust jacket, as issued; the wooden box has a few surface scratches and is very nearly fine. An unusual publishing production and a horror rarity.
91. KINNELL, Galway. Three Poems. NY: Phoenix Book Shop, 1976. Of a total edition of 119 copies, this is one of 26 lettered copies, letter "P," signed by the author. Fine in oblong, saddle-stitched self-wrappers.
92. (KINNELL, Galway). The Poems of François Villon. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1977. Translated by Kinnell and with an introduction and notes by him. Signed by Kinnell in full on the front flyleaf and additionally inscribed by him (with a quote in French) on the title page. Laid in is a thank you note written by Kinnell's wife Bobbie, signed by both Bobbie and Galway. The card is fine; the book is fine in a very near fine dust jacket.
93. KINSELLA, W.P. Scars. (Canada): (Oberon)(1978). The hardcover issue of the second book by the award-winning author of Shoeless Joe, this being a collection of Indian stories set on the Hobbema Reserve in western Canada. The print run for the hardcover issue of this title is unknown, but Oberon books from the same era have been known to have had printings of only a few hundred copies, most of which would have gone to libraries. Faint offsetting to pastedowns and trace foxing to the top edge of the text block; very near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
94. KINSELLA, W.P. Born Indian. (Canada): (Oberon) (1981). The hardcover issue of his fourth book, a collection of humorous and touching Indian stories featuring his recurring characters, Frank Fencepost and Silas Ermineskin, among others. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with just a touch of tanning to the white lettering.
95. KINSELLA, W.P. Chapter One of a Work in Progress. (Vancouver): William Hoffer (1988). The lettered limited edition of the first chapter of a baseball novel, in progress at the time. Of a total edition of 326 copies this is Copy W of 26 lettered copies signed by the author, the entire hardcover edition. Fine, without dust jacket, as issued.
96. (KINSELLA, W.P.). Final Judgement Construction Company Annual Report & Literary Journal. (n.p.): Well-Defended Press, 1990. A spoof on corporate reports, with contributions by a number of Canadian writers including Kinsella, Ann Knight, Spider Robinson (an award-winning science fiction writer) and others. Kinsella contributes "An excerpt from my essay, Treacherous Snivelling and Other Dangerous Trends in Contemporary U.S. Poetry." Also includes a poem (in Latin, no less) by "Silas Ermineskin," one of the central characters in a number of Kinsella's highly praised Indian stories -- a Kinsella alter-ego. Ermineskin's contribution is signed by "Ermineskin," somewhat illegibly. Also signed by Kinsella, Knight, Robinson and five others, presumably all the contributors, although the use of pseudonyms on the contributions makes it impossible to determine, from internal evidence alone, if this is the case. Folded sheets, with plain card-stock covers: apparently a home-made production of someone with a copier and a laser printer, and the friendship of a number of Canadian literary figures. Although the limitation is not stated, and the production methods did not preclude creation of more copies, we are told that there were only 30 copies of this done. 24 pages, folded sheets in cardstock covers. OCLC locates only one copy, in the Canadian national archives. Fine.