Catalog 162, P-R
154. PELECANOS, George. A Firing Offense. NY: St. Martin's (1992). His first book, a mystery novel featuring Nick Stefanos. Esquire magazine called Pelecanos "the poet laureate of the D.C. crime world," and he has won the International Crime Novel of the Year Award three times. He has also written for the HBO television series The Wire. Although his recent novels have been bestsellers upon publication, his early books were printed in relatively small numbers. This copy is inscribed by the author: "To Debbie & Eric - I'm happy that you enjoyed this one; Best to both of you/ George Pelecanos/ 1/28/93." Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with slight wear to the corners.
155. PELECANOS, George P. Soul Circus. (London): Orion Books (2003). The advance reading copy of the British edition of the third of his Derek Strange and Terry Quinn books. Inscribed by Pelecanos three months prior to publication: "To ___, from one Greek-American to another, with respect." Fine in wrappers.
156. PHILLIPS, Jayne Anne. Sweethearts. Carrboro: Truck Press, 1976. Her first book, a collection of poems. Inscribed by Phillips to the writer Hilma Wolitzer in 1978: "For Hilma, how the heart begins at the end - Jayne Anne." Phillips is a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop, and Wolitzer was a teacher at Iowa, although we don't know if this is the connection. One of 400 copies in wrappers, of a total edition of 410. Faint general age-toning; very near fine.
157. POLLAN, Michael. The Idea of a Garden. [Second Nature]. (NY): Atlantic Monthly Press (1991). The uncorrected proof copy of the first book by the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food, The Botany of Desire, and Cooked. Here titled The Idea of a Garden; published as Second Nature: A Gardener's Education. Selected by the American Horticultural Society as one of its 75 Great American Garden Books. This proof is shot from typescript and reproduces holograph page numbers. A couple pages wrinkled, apparently in production. Fading to spine; near fine in wrappers. The earliest appearance in print of any book-length work by this author whose writings have become instant bestsellers and touchstones for our times. Scarce.
158. PURDY, James. Color of Darkness. (New York): New Directions (1957). The author's first regularly published book, after two collections that were privately printed. Collects the stories of 63: Dream Palace and Don't Call Me By My Right Name, plus two previously unpublished stories. One of the dedicatees of this book is Dame Edith Sitwell, an early admirer and supporter of Purdy who helped arrange for the publication of 63: Dream Palace. Signed by the author. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket with light edge wear.
159. PURDY, James. Malcolm. NY: Farrar Straus Cudahy (1959). His first novel, which was nominated for the National Book Award. Edward Albee later adapted it as a play. Signed by the author. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
160. PURDY, James. The Nephew. NY: Farrar Straus Cudahy (1960). A novel of small-town midwest America in the 1950s, reminiscent of Purdy's Ohio hometown, which he left for Chicago at the height of the jazz era and the "New Negro Renaissance." Signed by the author. Very near fine in a very near fine dust jacket.
161. PURDY, James. Cabot Wright Begins. NY: FSG (1964). A comic novel that rails against hypocrisy, social taboos, false values and American culture in general. Signed by the author in Brooklyn, with an added self-caricature. Near fine in a near fine, spine-sunned dust jacket.
162. PURDY, James. Eustace Chisholm and the Works. NY: FSG (1967). Review copy. Signed by the author. Slight edge sunning; near fine in a fine dust jacket, with review slip affixed to the flyleaf with a single piece of tape.
163. PURDY, James. Jeremy's Version. Garden City: Doubleday, 1970. The first novel in his "Sleepers in Moon-Crowned Valleys" sequence. Signed by the author. Remainder speckling to bottom edge of text block; near fine in a very good, dusty dust jacket with minor edge wear.
164. PURDY, James. The House of the Solitary Maggot. Garden City: Doubleday, 1978. His second novel in the sequence "Sleepers in Moon-Crowned Valleys," a powerful novel that was largely ignored when first published but has come to be seen as one of his major works. Signed by Purdy with the added annotation: "This book was refused review by the Pravda of N.Y. York [sic] The New York Times Book Review (and its ass editor John Leonard)." Gore Vidal famously called Purdy "an authentic American genius" and Jonathan Franzen called him "one of the most undervalued and underread writers in America." Fine in a near fine dust jacket with slight edge wear and a bit of fading to the spine. A nice copy, with a revealing inscription.
165. PURDY, James. Narrow Rooms. (London): Black Sheep/Ram (1980). The first British edition of this controversial novel about sadomasochistic sex and violent death among a group of young men living in the country in West Virginia. Signed by the author, with the added notation to "See correction on page 92." On page 92, Purdy has crossed out the name "Brian" at the end of a letter that the plot dictates be unsigned. Upper corners lightly tapped; very near fine in a fine dust jacket.
166. PURDY, James. Mourners Below. NY: Viking Press (1981). The uncorrected proof copy. Signed by the author. Spine and edge sunned, with a corner crease to the rear cover; near fine in wrappers.
167. PURDY, James. The Brooklyn Branding Parlors. NY: Contact II Publications, 1986. A poetry chapbook, published in an edition of 1000 copies. This copy is signed by Purdy. Illustrations by Vassilis Voglis. Near fine in stapled wrappers. Uncommon title, especially signed.
168. PURDY, James. In the Hollow of His Hand. NY: Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1986). The uncorrected proof copy. A novel set in the 1920s in which a veteran of World War I -- an Ojibwa Indian -- returns to his Midwestern town and claims parentage of a white couple's son. Signed by the author. Mild spine sunning; else fine in wrappers.
169. PURDY, James. Garments the Living Wear. London: Peter Owen (1989). The British, and true first, edition. A novel of New York in the 1980s, touching on the AIDS epidemic, the super-rich, conspiracy theories, and as always, the quest for love and compassion. Signed by the author. Offsetting of author name onto front cloth; else fine in a very near fine dust jacket with just a nick to the spine.
170. PURDY, James. Out with the Stars. San Francisco: City Lights Books (1993). The uncommon hardcover issue of this novel. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
171. PURDY, James. Gertrude of Stony Island Avenue. London: Peter Owen (1997). The first British edition, which is the true first edition of this novel. The dust jacket and endpapers are illustrated with Purdy's characteristic line drawings. Signed by the author. Slight push to upper corners; else fine in a fine dust jacket.
172. PYNCHON, Thomas. Bleeding Edge. London: Jonathan Cape (2013). The first British edition of Pynchon's most recent novel, set in New York City between the end of the dot-com boom and the terrorist attack of 9/11. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
173. (REAGAN, Ronald). Report of the President's Special Review Board. (Washington, D.C.): (President's Special Review Board)(1987). Known as "the Tower report," this was the most significant report of the Reagan presidency, summarizing the events that came to be known as the "Iran-Contra Affair" and that led to the resignation of Reagan's White House Chief of Staff, Donald Regan, and the convictions, later overturned, of Oliver North and Admiral William C. Poindexter. A source for conspiracy theorists ever since, the report characterized a White House out of control, with a detached and disinterested President and a staff that neglected to keep him in the loop on several of the largest and most critical foreign policy issues of the time, not to mention the U.S. responses to them. Notwithstanding the outpouring of affection for Reagan manifested after his death, the image that the Tower report painted of him tended to stick over the years, and colored his legacy. The extra-legal maneuverings of the White House staff, including Vice President George H.W. Bush and various members of the National Security Council, helped reestablish the idea, left over from Watergate and the early 70s, that government was unreliable and untrustworthy -- itself a legacy that underlies, and informs, political debate in this country to this day. This copy of the report is signed by John Tower, Edmund Muskie and Brent Scowcroft, who prepared it. Light rubbing; near fine in wrappers.
174. ROBBINS, Tom. Typescript of Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas. 1991. Photocopied typescript of Robbins' 1994 novel, written in the second person, with the "you" being a stockbroker on a weekend after a market crash. Incomplete at 268 pages, representing just over half of the published text, but bearing both photocopied holograph corrections and several holograph corrections in Robbins' hand, most of which made it into the finished book. Across the top of each page, where Robbins usually puts the title, this copy has the author name, the page number, and "fool." A bit of edge creasing to some of the pages; on the whole very near fine. Provenance: a Robbins collector who was also Robbins' jeweler. An interesting look at the work-in-progress.
175. (ROBBINS, Tom). "Shedding Light on Light Shows" in Seattle Magazine, June 1967. (Seattle): Seattle Magazine, 1967. "We stared at each other in mutual horror, the Seattle City Council and I...." A three-page article by Robbins (with photograph) about testifying in favor of light shows ("a skirmish in a war that has been raging for centuries -- a war between men of creative vision and men of worldly power"). From the time of Robbins' career as an art critic, and preceding his first novel. Also includes an article about Seattle's hippie population, something of an anthropological introduction to them. Fine.
176. (ROBBINS, Tom). "Atlantis is Rising" in Helix, October 31, 1968. Seattle: Helix, [1968]. Underground newspaper of the Seattle counterculture. Robbins contributes a brief article on the expected (according to psychic Edgar Cayce) rising of Atlantis in 1968, arguing that "The modern world's first truly free super-electronic leaderless fearless egoless pigless continent is pecking its bright beak through the eggshell of self-defeated America." Newsprint; folio; near fine. Also includes an essay on Buddhism and the Coming Revolution by Gary Snyder, Berkeley activism, the Living Theater, conference on GIs and the Vietnam war, etc.
177. (ROBBINS, Tom). Six Magazine Articles. (various places): (various publishers)(1977-2000). Six magazines with pieces by and about Robbins. Two articles and four interviews, as follows: an interview in Rolling Stone, November 1977; a brief essay on living in La Conner, WA in Pacific Northwest, April 1986; an interview in Interview, November 1993; an interview in Seattle Weekly, April, 1994; a cover article on living in the Northwest in Seattle Times, August, 1994, (plus a newspaper ad for the same) and, lastly, an interview in High Times, June 2000. All issues are near fine or better, and span his career from the year after Even Cowgirls Get the Blues to Fierce Invalids from Hot Climates. For the lot:
178. ROBINSON, Marilynne. Gilead. NY: FSG (2004). The advance reading copy of her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, published nearly a quarter century after her first novel, Housekeeping, won the Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award and a Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award (and was a finalist for the Pulitzer). Gilead also won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Inscribed by the author. Fine in wrappers.
179. -. Same title, the advance reading copy of the British edition. (London): Virago (2005). Signed by the author. The release of Gilead in the U.K. was accompanied by an author tour. Robinson lived in London for a time, and her time there resulted in her second book (and first book of nonfiction), Mother Country, about the British nuclear industry. In a 2008 interview with the Paris Review, Robinson claimed "If I could only have written one book, that would have been the book." Fine in wrappers.
180. ROLLING STONES. Signed Photograph. c. 1964-1965. An early photograph, of the earliest lineup of the group to record an album, signed by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, and Charlie Watts and inscribed ("To Douggie") by Brian Jones. Called by many "the greatest rock and roll band in the world," the Rolling Stones are the only high profile band from the 1960s that is still playing, recording, and touring. This photograph dates from approximately the time of their eponymous first LP, which was issued in 1964. Black and white. 13 3/4" x 11". Creases and edge tears; foxing on verso; very good.
181. ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. (London): Bloomsbury (2000). The fourth of the seven Potter books, this copy signed by Rowling on the dedication page, as is her usual practice, with a ticket to the July 19 book signing laid in. Fine in a fine dust jacket. As nice a copy as one could hope for of the only book in the series to win a Hugo Award. The Harry Potter phenomenon was one of the most remarkable in publishing in the past century, and many pundits have declared that it postponed the death of the book, and reading in general, by a generation.
182. RUSH, Norman. Mating. [NY]: Knopf, 1991. An in-house advance copy of his National Book Award winning novel, consisting of the first 98 pages of Rush's typescript, photocopied and tapebound together with a long note to the sales reps which serves as the cover, and the publisher's fact sheet with selling points ("brilliantly funny" has been softened to "witty"). The typescript reproduces a number of holograph changes, making this an early version of the text. An unusual, early view of a National Book Award winner; also voted one of the best works of American fiction in a 25-year period in a New York Times Book Review survey. 8-1/2" x 11". Fine.