skip to main content

Catalog 163, V-Y

NOTE: This page is from our catalog archives. The listings are from an older catalog and are on our website for reference purposes only. If you see something you're interested in, please check our inventory via the search box at upper right or our search page.

239. (Vietnam War). War Book. (Fairfax): (Red Hill Press)[c. 1970]. Vietnam War-era antiwar chapbook, with text excerpted from various sources some historical accounts, a field report, a small arms training manual, a Wilfred Owen poem, one contemporary poem and illustrations, mostly by Cynthia Steinberg, mostly depicting the costs of war. Vietnam is nowhere mentioned, although one of the text excerpts is "from a presidential remark about Moratorium Day: Under no circumstances will I be affected by what you do or say." Moratorium Day was in October, 1969, followed by a march on Washington, D.C., in November, where Nixon made the quoted remark. Modest foxing to covers and staples rusted; near fine in stapled wrappers. Uncommon.

240. (Vietnam War). Born on the Fourth of July Promotional Booklet/Poster. (n.p.): MCA Universal (1990). 22" x 34" poster advertising the release of the videocassette of the 1989 movie based on the 1975 book by Ron Kovic. Folds in eighths to a promotional booklet entitled "He Was Strong/ He Was Proud." Slight wrinkle; near fine.

241. (Vietnam War). GOTERA, Vince. Radical Visions. Poetry by Vietnam Veterans. Athens: University of Georgia Press (1993). Bound galleys of this critical study of poetry by Vietnam veterans, in which Gotera analyzes poems from a number of the important anthologies of Vietnam war poetry, as well as several individual author's collections. Long, oblong sheets, printed on rectos only. Comb-bound. Near fine in plain cardstock covers. Unusual format, suggesting few were done.

242. (Vietnam War). HAYTON-KEEVA, Sally, ed. Valiant Women in War and Exile. San Francisco: City Lights (1987). Velo-bound page proofs of these stories by women from all over the world about their experiences with war, some in Vietnam, others reaching back prior to World War I or forward to Central America in the 1980s. A powerful collection, published by City Lights and reprinted in 2003 by a university press. Plain cardstock covers. Plastic binding separating at ends. Near fine. Presumably only a very small number would have been printed in this format.

243. (Vietnam War). LOPEZ, Ken. Vietnam War Literature. (Hadley): Ken Lopez Bookseller [c. 1988]. Catalog of a Vietnam War Literature collection offered for sale en bloc in the late 1980s. 734 items, divided into three sections works of imagination, personal accounts, and general nonfiction. Fine in wrappers.

244. (VONNEGUT, Kurt). COOPERMAN, David. Miss Temptation. Woodstock: Dramatic Publishing (1993). A play based on a Vonnegut story that first appeared in Saturday Evening Post and later in Welcome to the Monkey House. Fine in stapled wrappers. We haven't found that this play has ever been produced.

245. -. Another copy. Near fine in stapled wrappers.

246. WALLACE, David Foster. Broadside. (n.p.): Little Brown, 1996. A two-sided broadside issued by Little Brown as an "Author Showcase," apparently to coincide with the publication of Infinite Jest. 8 1/2" x 14". One side is an excerpt from Infinite Jest, with two small grammatical changes from the published version. The second side has reviews of Infinite Jest, a brief author bio, and the first printed appearance of an essay that appeared on the publisher's website, was later published in Fiction Writer in 1998, and collected in book form as part of the essay "The Nature of the Fun," in Both Flesh and Not in 2012. Eight words from this broadside were dropped in the published version. Folded in fourths, by design, such that only the side with the Jest excerpt flows from top to bottom when opened. One corner crease (which becomes a marginal crease when opened); near fine. Uncommon ephemeral promotional item, and bibliographically significant in a way that most such items usually are not.

247. (WALLACE, David Foster). Reading from A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again. (n.p.): Little Brown, 1998. Advance issue, audio excerpt. Features Wallace, Jen Banbury and David Bowman reading from their forthcoming works. Cassette tape, low tech production, no graphics just copyright information and "Coming this winter from Little Brown." Apparently fine. Rare.

248. WATTS, Alan. Correspondence. 1954-1957. All items addressed to his friend Margaret Lial. The first typed letter signed is dated June 7, 1954, and it finds Watts preparing to visit Lial in Big Sur. Among other things he inquires as to whether she has a tent but lists items he will be bringing, down to the "liberal supply of charcoal." He thanks her for being willing to harbor "a bunch of gypsies" and says "I have had too much work to do and am good and ready to loaf." Approximately 250 words, with envelope. The second typed letter signed, post-visit, is dated July 23, 1954 and begins: "Coming back to work from Big Sur was like walking into a herd of elephants doing the rumba." He informs Lial of his next venture in her direction, for a lecture-series on the subject "The Psychology of Awakening," and he inquires whether this would also be a good time for a "select" session on the subject of the Tantra. Watts further inquires about a piece of land he had found "delectable" and invites Lial ("and Janet") up to see "marvelous Kathakali dancers." Again, approximately 250 words, with envelope. On July 28, Watts sends Lial an autograph note signed acknowledging that he will be expecting her and Janet for the Hindu dancers and will give her details. Also included here is a hand-drawn map to an address on "Birch" in this lot, but it is unknown if it corresponds to this occasion. In February 1957, Watts sends Lial a typed letter signed wondering about the possibility of another lecture in Carmel, having just returned from talking in LA and San Diego and expecting to do the same in New York when his new book [The Way of Zen] comes out. Approximately 100 words, with envelope. Together with (in addition to the above-mentioned map) a printed invitation to a New Year's Day housewarming party (no year given); a printed bookmark-sized greeting of indeterminate nature ("From Alan Dorothy Joan Ann Tia & Mark Watts / At midnight the sun brightly shines"); and, lastly, a printed card announcing Watts's 1974 memorial service and interment of ashes, signed by John Watts; with envelope addressed to Lial. All items are near fine or better. Watts was for three decades the foremost exponent of Zen Buddhism and other eastern religions to Western audiences, including the readers of his books and, apparently, the attendees of his many talks and lectures. His letters are written on the letterhead of The American Academy of Asian Studies in San Francisco, where he taught for six years in the 1950s, sometimes as much as fourteen hours a day. Watts called the Academy "one of the principal roots of what later came to be known, in the early sixties, as the San Francisco Renaissance." For the lot:

249. WATTS, Alan. Typed Letters Signed. 1967. Two typed letters signed from Watts to his agent, Henry Volkening. Watts discusses instructions for handling an article, an introduction he has prepared for a book on the counterculture, and plans for reprinting Watts's own title The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are. The first letter is on the stationery of the Gopher Campus Motor Lodge in Minneapolis and concerns the sale of the introduction for Book of the Love Generation and promotion for The Book itself: "I look forward with pleasant horror to seeing the kind of promotion he [Eugene Schwartz] will concoct. The RH [Random House] people think he is quite insane to take on a book of this kind." The second letter is written from the UK and concerns the dispositions of the people handling Watts's book. "Schwarz [sic] is going to promote under the headline `THIS BOOK WILL ABOLISH YOUR FEAR OF DEATH!' The things I have to live up to!" This letter bears the underlinings of the recipient and is folded for mailing. The first letter bears a few numbers in pencil; otherwise each letter is fine. Watts's title The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are was a synthesis of his writings up to that point, incorporating much eastern philosophy and much in the way of analysis and metaphor derived both from everyday experience, the psychedelic experience, and the new experimental therapies that were sweeping the West Coast at the time. Watts, whose early experiments with psychedelics were chronicled in his 1962 book The Joyous Cosmology: Adventures in the Chemistry of Consciousness, was a counterculture "superstar" by 1967, and these letters give an indication of how much he was in demand at the time.

250. WILDER, Thornton. The Eighth Day. NY: Harper (1967). The three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning (Our Town, The Skin of Our Teeth, The Bridge of San Luis Rey) author's National Book Award winning novel. Inscribed by the author: "For JEAN and WALTER with deep regard and affection ever/ Thornton/ March 21, 1967." The names are printed large, with "Jean" in a different pen, whilst the rest of the inscription is in small cursive. We are unaware of the point of this. We do know, from another inscription, that Wilder was in New York on this date, and that he had reason to behold the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Walter Kerr and his wife, the writer Jean Kerr (of Please Don't Eat the Daisies fame) with deep regard and affection: Walter Kerr lauded Wilder's work repeatedly in the 1960s, from his off-Broadway work ("the very special voice of Thornton Wilder...the homely, jaunty, gently poetic sound of it..."), to the cultural phenomenon that was Hello, Dolly!, which was based on Wilder's The Matchmaker. This is conjecture on our part, but suffice it to say we could not come up with another New York Jean and Walter that would fit the bill here. Regardless, an undeniably gorgeous, inscribed copy of a National Book Award winner: fine in a fine dust jacket so much so that we first wondered if this copy was a facsimile (it's not).

251. WILLIAMS, Terry Tempest. The Open Space of Democracy. (n.p.): University of Utah, 2003. The first edition of Williams' commencement address at the University of Utah on May 2, 2003. Williams was awarded an honorary doctorate that day and her speech was controversial (by red-leaning Utah standards). Also issued two months later as a limited edition by the University; then later collected in paperback with two other essays and published with the same title by the Orion Society: this pamphlet was given out at the commencement. Williams' signature appears in facsimile at the end of the text. Seven pages; fine in stapled wrappers.

252. (WILLIAMS, Terry Tempest). In Black and White, Literary Magazine of Highland High School. Salt Lake City: Highland High School, 1973. Vol. XV, No. XV, covering the 1972-1973 school year at Highland High, when Terry Tempest (later Williams) would have been 17 years old. Includes two pieces by Tempest: "Brand X," a 150-word commentary on the packaging of political candidates, and "Creative Writing," a short paragraph explaining her craft, in which she takes "craft" literally by comparing writing to sailing. Tempest is also listed in the front under "Honors" as having "Publication in National Poetry Anthology," "Publication in National Essay Anthology," and "Utah Poetry Society - second place." An early appearance in print by an influential writer-environmentalist-activist: Williams has received a Lannan Literary Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Wallace Stegner Award, the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Western Literature Association, and many other awards, including those that recognize her social and environmental activism as well as those honoring her writing. Tall stapled wrappers, with a corner crease to the rear cover; near fine.

253. (WYETH, Andrew). The Helga Files. 1985-1987. The publisher's files (Art & Antiques magazine) for the breaking story of "The Helga Pictures," Wyeth's previously secret cache of 245 paintings and drawings, many nude, of his neighbor in Chadds Ford, PA. Included are:

  • the transcript of the 1985 interview with Wyeth by editor Jeffrey Schaire in which Wyeth first divulged the existence of the unknown work. 24 pages. This interview was for a story on Wyeth that Arts & Antiques ran the year before the Helga story graced their cover.
  • a second copy of the 1985 transcript, marked and annotated in preparation for extracting the story from the conversation.
  • a partial handwritten transcription of the 1985 interview, with notes on images to be used, 7 pages.
  • a photocopy of the press release for the 1985 article, with edits shown.
  • a printout of the typescript of that first article, "The Unknown Andrew Wyeth."
  • a printout of the typescript of the 1986 Helga article, entitled "Andrew Wyeth's Secret Paintings."
  • storyboard-type layout of the text and images to be used in the 1986 article.
  • two mockups for the layout of the 1986 article, the first draft using the title of the 1985 article and unrelated text, but with the Helga pictures; the second adding the actual title and text.
  • 11 proof prints and 3 photo positives of Helga images, most stamped as property of Time magazine; with a black and white proof of their cover story, which reported (as did Newsweek) on the revelation of the Helga picture a week after Arts & Antiques broke the story.
  • the typesetting of what seems to be the publisher's (Wick Allison's) introduction to the Helga piece in the 1986 issue, lightly copyedited.
  • five pieces of correspondence, 1985-1988, from the photographer on the story, Peter Ralston, to the author, Jeff Schaire.
  • two snapshots of Andrew Wyeth with Jeffrey Schaire, taken by Susan Gray at the 1987 showing of "The Helga Pictures" at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., along with Schaire's invitation to the preview.
  • three letters from Mary Adam Landa, curator of the Wyeth Collection in Chadds Ford.
  • the radio transcript of Helen Hayes's piece on Wyeth (for her syndicated program "The Best Years") from 1985, in which she reported on the first Arts & Antiques article, without mentioning the foreshadowed cache of secret paintings.
  • two file folders full of the fall-out from the Helga story: fan mail and kudos (and some snarky commentary) from other publications, galleries and individuals; press clippings; arrangements for publicity appearances and a proposal for a video; numerous clippings of cartoons and parodies. But for some isolated dampstaining, the archive is near fine or better.
Wyeth had always been controversial: dismissed by critics and beloved by the public. The Helga story revealed the depth of this chasm, as the 1985 report of an unknown body of work by a major American painter was shrugged off by the art establishment, only to sweep the headlines of popular culture a year later, as Helga became ensconced in the public imagination. Later, the art historian John Wilmerding wrote, "Such close attention by a painter to one model over so long a period of time is a remarkable, if not singular, circumstance in the history of American art." The story of the Helga pictures was one of the most compelling and widely reported tales of an American artist since Jackson Pollock made headlines in the 1940s and '50s. This is the unique, original file that broke the story that eventually made the covers of Time and Newsweek magazines.

254. YATES, Richard. Eleven Kinds of Loneliness. Boston: Little, Brown (1962). His second book, a highly regarded collection of short stories. Inscribed by the author: "For Wendy - who happens to be the one truly outstanding girl of our generation. Love, Dick. 12/20/63." The recipient, Wendy Sears, was a girlfriend when Yates was living in Washington, D.C. and working as a speechwriter for Bobby Kennedy. Foxing to endpages and page edges; very good in a good, rubbed dust jacket with holes along the folds, a chip at the crown and another threatening at the upper rear panel. One of Yates's scarcest books to find signed, this is a great contemporary inscription and an excellent personal association copy.

255. YATES, Richard. List of Ten Books. c. 1963. In Yates's hand, a list of ten books, numbered 1 through 10, on the verso of a 1963 letter from the President of Little, Brown to a Miss Claire Gardner of Washington, DC, saying that Little, Brown did not have a role in choosing titles for the White House Libraries Project but that Yates's Revolutionary Road would have been "an excellent choice." The White House Libraries Project put together 100 books to be given to 100 heads of state "to help tell the story of the American way of life to the people of one hundred nations in all parts of the world." It is unknown to us how or why Yates came to list ten titles on the verso of this letter, but his criteria apparently differed from that of the White House, as the list includes Flaubert's Madame Bovary (at number 2), Moore's The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (number 3), Joyce's Dubliners (number 5), Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms (number 6), Mailer's The Naked and the Dead (number 8), Conrad's Lord Jim (number 9), and Ford's The Good Soldier (number 10). In fact the only books on Yates's list that are set on American soil are Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (number 7), Styron's Lie Down in Darkness (number 4), and, at number 1, Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. As a Top 10 list, it gives an interesting view of Yates's take on literary immortality, at least at that moment in time. Styron's presence on the list ahead of Joyce and Hemingway is something of a surprise, but an indication of the esteem in which he was held in those years by other writers; Yates himself came to occupy a similar position eventually, having taught and mentored a number of later-to-be-prominent writers while he was on the faculty of the Iowa Writers Workshop. Folded in thirds, two faint coffee stains; near fine. Provenance: Wendy Sears.

256. YATES, Richard. The Easter Parade. (NY): Delacorte (1976). One of Yates's most acclaimed novels. This copy is inscribed by the author: "For Wendy, Who is suited in every way to be one of the best mothers in the world, in the hope that her baby is a girl who'll turn out to be exactly like her. With love always, Dick. 9/15/76." The recipient, Wendy Sears, had been Yates's girlfriend in the early 1960s. He obviously still held her in high regard. Cocked, with some of the page signatures darkening; very good in a very good, spine-faded dust jacket with modest edge wear and one tear at the upper rear panel.

257. YATES, Richard. A Good School. (NY): Delacorte (1978). A coming-of-age novel set at a New England private school similar to the one that Yates attended as a boy. Inscribed by the author: "For Wendy and _____ - with love always, Dick. 2/3/80." Spine slant, mild foxing, mostly to top edge; near fine in a near fine, lightly spine faded dust jacket. "Wendy" is Wendy Sears, an old girlfriend; an excellent personal association copy.

258. YATES, Richard. Liars in Love. (NY): Delacorte (1981). A collection of stories, only the author's second his first since Eleven Kinds of Loneliness. Inscribed by the author: "For Wendy, Who could never, by any stretch of the imagination, be a liar in love. With fond regards always, Dick/ Nov. 20, 1981." Spine slant, mild foxing; near fine, in a poor dust jacket by virtue of the author photo having been excised from the rear panel (presumably by Wendy), and the remaining top edge taped to the jacket spine. With a supplied, very good dust jacket provided in addition.

259. YATES, Richard. Young Hearts Crying. NY: Delacorte (1984). His next-to-last novel. Inscribed by the author: "For Wendy, A glorious girl who hasn't changed at all in twenty-one years, except that her ankles are a little thinner. With love always, Dick/ Oct. 14, 1984." Spine slant, foxing to edges of text block; near fine in a good dust jacket with several coffee stains, light edge wear, and a short snagged tear mid spine. Wendy Sears, the recipient, apparently read the books Yates sent to her.

260. YATES, Richard. Signed Love Poem. Undated. Three stanzas, fifteen lines, beginning, "The mere presence of sweet Wendy Sears/ For the first time in (Wow!) fifteen years/ Is enough, for a start,/ To break a man's heart/ And thus make him burst into tears." Signed, "With love always, Dick." Previously folded in fourths; minor foxing; near fine. Manuscript material by Yates is exceedingly uncommon, and we have never seen a poem of his before. Almost certainly unpublished, and probably unique.

<< Back to Catalog Index