Catalog 164, N-O
150. NAIPAUL, V.S. The Middle Passage. (London): Deutsch (1962). The first book of nonfiction by the Nobel Prize-winning author, which began a long string of successful and influential writings in social history, particularly with respect to the Caribbean and India, the native lands of the author and his forebears. This book is both a travelogue and an extended essay on the legacy of slavery and the slave trade: "the middle passage" was the name given to the route the slave ships took between Africa and the Caribbean. Inscribed by Naipaul to his publisher, Andre Deutsch: "For Andre/ V.S. Naipaul/ London March 15 1963." This was Naipaul's fifth book overall, and Deutsch had been his publisher for each of them, beginning with The Mystic Masseur, in 1957. Minor bowing to boards; a near fine copy in a good dust jacket, with wear to the edges and folds and with foxing and heavy tape-strengthening on the verso. Someone has written the number "2" at the top of the spine. Now protected in a custom clamshell case. An association copy of the highest order.
151. (Native American). AKWEKS, Aren. Migration of the Iroquois. (Hogansburg): Akwesasne Mohawk Counselor Organization (n.d)[1947]. The first edition of this account in words and pictures of the migration of the Iroquois from the Great Plains to the Eastern woodlands and the formation of the Five Nations confederacy. Aren Akweks was the pen name of Ray Fadden, aka Tehanetorens, a white man of Scottish descent who married an Iroquois woman and was adopted into the Wolf Clan. He founded the Akwesasne Mohawk Counselor Organization as a way to teach young Iroquois children about their culture and their past, and later he was co-founder of the Six Nations Indian Museum. His son, John Fadden, aka Kahiones or, in this book, Ka-Hon-Wes, illustrated the book and later became a much published and much admired illustrator, primarily of books by or about Native Americans. Edge-sunned, otherwise near fine in stapled wrappers. This first edition is uncommon; a second edition was done in 1972, in the early stage of the "Native American renaissance," and it has been reprinted since then.
152. (Native American). (ALEXIE, Sherman). Black Bear Review, Issue 9. Croyden: Black Bear Publications, 1989. Alexie's first accepted poem, "Architecture," in this small literary magazine that had a nominal circulation of 500. Alexie has since become one of the most well-known, highly regarded, and commercially successful Native American writers. He won a National Book Award in 2007 for his novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. Very faintly sunned; very near fine in wrappers.
153. (Native American). BRIGHAM, Besmilr. The Camel's Hump, No. 5. (Reno): (Morris)(1967). A poetry newsletter, devoted to individual poets. This issue has five poems by Brigham. Bess Miller Moore was from Mississippi, of Choctaw descent. She married Roy Brigham and took "besmilr brigham" as her nom de plume. She was recognized as an important woman poet in the 1960s and early 1970s, appearing in numerous anthologies and publishing a couple of collections, and then she retreated from the public eye although she continued to write. Brigham died in 2000; in 2012 a literary award was established in her name to commemorate Besmilr Brigham as "a thoroughly independent and distinct American voice" and to champion the work of other women writers, especially those not living on the coasts of the U.S. -- Brigham lived in New Mexico and Arkansas most of her life. Four stapled pages, including the cover. Printed on rectos only. Folded in half and labeled for mailing (to Theodore Enslin). Edge-tanned, with one corner hole in the last leaf, not affecting any text; very good. Very uncommon.
154. (Native American). BRIGHAM, Besmilr. Spring. [Toronto]: [Coach House Press], c. 1968. A poetry broadside. 4" x 8". Poem printed silver on black, with author, title, and "IS. four/ designed and printed by victor coleman" on white verso. Edge-tanning to white verso; near fine.
155. (Native American). EASTMAN, Charles A. Red Hunters and the Animal People. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1905. A later printing of this 1904 collection of stories that relate to animals. His second book, after his 1902 memoir, Indian Boyhood, and an early book in a long, and prolific, career. Signed by the author. Eastman (Ohiyesa), was one of the first Indians to receive a white man's education, attending, first, mission schools near the Santee reservation and, later, Beloit College in Wisconsin, Knox College in Illinois, Dartmouth College, where he took premed courses, and Boston University, where he received an M.D. degree. He went back to the reservation to practice as a physician and later wrote extensively, traveled giving lectures, and became a prominent public figure, holding national posts in the YMCA and Boy Scouts, and serving as Indian Inspector for the Coolidge Administration. His books are landmarks in the history of American Indian literature, as they were literate, early efforts at making Native American culture and tribal life accessible to a (largely white) reading audience. Most of his titles, like this one, went into additional printings soon after their original publication. Owner name in pencil on flyleaf along with Eastman's signature. Cocked; a very good copy, lacking the dust jacket.
156. (Native American). ERDRICH, Louise. The Range Eternal. NY: Hyperion (2002). Her third book for children, a story based on her own family history. This is a fine copy in a fine dust jacket with just a thin line of rubbing at the spine crown.
157. (Native American). MARACLE, Lee. Bobbie Lee. Indian Rebel. (Toronto): Women's Press (1990). First thus, with a new preface by the author. Signed by Maracle. The autobiography of a Canadian Native woman, recounting personal history and political radicalization. First published in 1975 by the Liberation Support Movement Press. This edition has a foreword by Jeannette Armstrong, Canadian Native writer and activist, and the grand-niece of Mourning Dove (aka Christine Quiinstasket), author of Co-Ge-We-A, The Half-Blood, and one of the earliest Native American women writers to be published. Scarce signed, in any edition. Near fine in wrappers.
158. (Native American). WATERS, Frank. Oo-oonah Art. (Taos): (Taos Pueblo Governor's Office)(1970). Art by seventh and eighth grade Indian children from the Taos Pueblo Indian School's class of 1967-68. Inscribed by Frank Waters, who provides an introduction. The colophon states that this is a Special Collector's Edition, but this copy, like most that turn up, is unnumbered and without the trappings of the deluxe edition -- the tipped in signed artwork, or the signatures on the limitation page. The first printing was 1200 copies and is scarce in either the signed or unsigned issue. Waters, the author of The Man Who Killed the Deer and The Woman at Otowi Crossing, among others, often wrote on Native American themes and was of partial Cheyenne descent himself, a fact he seldom made known. Oblong hardcover; the tops of two pages have been unevenly opened, else fine without dust jacket, as issued.
159. (New Yorker). WHITE, E.B. The Essays of E.B. White. NY: Harper & Row (1977). White's essays, inscribed by Helen Thurber, wife of James Thurber, to Mary [Mian] and her husband Aristide for Christmas, 1976, "with love." Mary Mian was a friend of the Thurbers from their days in Greenwich Village, and she became a New Yorker writer, mentored by James Thurber. Thurber provided the introduction to her 1946 book My Country in Law, about her time in France with her French husband, the sculptor Aristide Mian. Thurber himself had become a New Yorker cartoonist when White submitted doodles by Thurber he had found in the trash. A near fine copy in a very good, moderately edgeworn dust jacket with one small tape repair. A common book, but a copy with extraordinary provenance and interesting links between the author, presenter and recipients of the book.
160. OFFILL, Jenny. Dept. of Speculation. NY: Knopf, 2014. The advance reading copy of Offill's second novel, a "sparse," "experimental" portrait of a marriage that made the New York Times' list of top ten books of 2014. Fine in wrappers. Uncommon in the advance issue.
161. OUELLETTE, Jean-Paul. Cyber Space Screenplay, with Typed Letter Signed. Los Angeles: Yankee Classic Pictures, 1993. Ouellette's screenplay for a draft of Cyber Space (which he later referred to as Cyber Run), which is here billed as being "from his novel." Inscribed by the author. Bradbound in plain blue covers; near fine. With a typed letter signed conveying the screenplay to a friend and fellow writer. The letter is creased along one edge; near fine. Ouellette is a writer, director, and producer perhaps best known for his adaptation to screen of H.P. Lovecraft's The Unnamable (and The Unnamable II). As best as we can tell, this screenplay is unproduced, and the novel is unpublished, at least under the names Cyber Space or Cyber Run.
162. OUELLETTE, Jean-Paul. Typed Letter Signed and "The Fourth Witch." 1993. A typed letter signed by Ouellette to a friend and fellow writer, mentioning another screenplay he is working on based on an H.P. Lovecraft story -- which apparently never went into production -- and appending a printout of his four-page short story "The Fourth Witch," which appears to remain unpublished. Edge-creased, folded in thirds for mailing; near fine, with envelope included.
163. OZICK, Cynthia. Trust. (NY): New American Library (1966). The uncorrected proof copy of her first book, one of a handful of literary first novels published by NAL during the mid-60s, including John Gardner's The Resurrection and William Gass's Omensetter's Luck. Tall, comb-bound galley sheets. Laid in is a letter sent by editor David Segal to author John Barth, sending him "yet another first novel" and requesting "the pleasure of reading your opinion," as it appears Barth had made it clear that he would not be offering "a quotable quote." A noteworthy letter: Segal took over the newly founded hardcover publishing branch of New American Library, which previously had specialized in paperback publishing only -- notably the Signet and Mentor imprints, which reprinted classics and bestsellers. Segal immediately began publishing literary fiction by young, unknown writers, and in the course of a couple of years introduced William Gass, John Gardner, Michael Shaara, Alice Adams and Cynthia Ozick to the world, all of whom went on to become major American authors. It's a bit surprising that Barth would have been averse to providing a "quotable quote" for the likes of these, but apparently that was the case. This copy is signed by Barth on the first page and with his address stamp on the front cover. Ozick's name was left off the cover and has been added in ink. Mild sunning and curling to the covers; small tear at upper spine; about near fine. A very scarce proof of an important first book, and a copy with exceptionally interesting provenance.