Catalog 175

(n.p.), (New Directions), (1962). One of 8000 copies in wrappers of Merton's meditation on the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Inscribed by Merton: "For Doris/ from Tom." Doris Dana and Merton met in 1966, having been introduced by Dana's godfather, Jacques Maritain. Dana visited Merton at the Gethsemani monastery twice in 1967, and the two maintained a correspondence until Merton died in December, 1968. Foxing to covers, and a creased bump to the spine crown; very good in wrappers. Mailing label from the Abbey of Gethsemani, made out to Dana in Merton's hand is included. There was a signed limited edition of this title done -- 500 copies -- which is uncommon now; signed copies of the trade edition are considerably scarcer, especially with a good association as this one has. [#035855] $1,500

(Castle Rock), Bella Luna, (1992). An apparently never-produced limited edition of Offutt's first book, which was a collection of stories published in 1992 as a paperback original in the Vintage Contemporaries series. Offered here are copyedited, typeset sheets: one full set (140 pages) and five partial sets (approximately 270 pages). 8-1/2" x 11" sheets, printed on rectos only, with copyeditor's marks throughout. Offutt's book received high praise from critics; on the strength of it and his 1993 memoir, The Same River Twice, he was named one of the "20 best young American writers" by Granta magazine in 1996. A few marks where rubber bands once lay; near fine, in manuscript box. Presumably unique. [#915763] SOLD

NY, Harris & Givens, (1942). The painted issue of his fourth book: Copy No. 14 of 75 numbered copies, each featuring an original cover painted by Patchen. This copy features the character Mega. Signed by the author. Offsetting to the half-title page from previous label; toning to covers; near fine in wrappers, in the publisher's near fine slipcase. A very early painted edition. [#034848] $2,500
On Sale: $1,875

London, Faber and Faber, (1979). Signed by Priest, and with an autograph letter signed by Priest to John Fowles laid in, saying Faber was intending to send him a copy but Priest feared it would be misconstrued as a review solicitation, given the strong review Fowles had given a previous book [A Dream of Wessex], so Priest was sending a copy along himself so that it be received only as "inadequate appreciation for a lot of kind encouragement. You do not even have to read it! (However, if you have the time to glance through "The Negation" you might discover a fingerprint I put in for you....)" One may infer Priest means a metaphorical fingerprint, as no actual fingerprint is in evidence. An Infinite Summer is a collection of stories, including the first of his stories to feature the Dream Archipelago, which appears in a number of his works. Priest won the James Tait Black Memorial Award, the World Fantasy Award, and the British Science Fiction Association's award for Best Novel four times. The book is fine in a fine dust jacket, with Fowles' blindstamp on the front flyleaf; the letter is folded to fit in the book, else fine. Fowles, in his A Dream of Wessex review, had called Priest "one of our most gifted young writers of science fiction...I think not only H.G. Wells but Thomas Hardy himself would have enjoyed and approved of it." A nice literary association copy. [#029605] $450

(n.p.), (n.p.), 1961/1962. Mimeographed typescripts of two one-act plays, which were collected in his 1962 volume entitled Children is All. Inscribed by Purdy on the title page of Cracks to the poet Quentin Stevenson "with the sincere admiration of James" and additionally signed, James Purdy. Purdy was a controversial author whose works explored gay themes at a time when this was taboo; his popularity and critical reception suffered as a result, but many of his more celebrated contemporaries considered him a genius and a great writer, among them being Tennessee Williams (who wrote a blurb for the book publication of Children is All); Edward Albee (who produced Purdy's play Malcolm); and Gore Vidal, who called him "an authentic American genius" and wrote in the New York Times article entitled "James Purdy: The Novelist as Outlaw" that "Some writers do not gain wide acceptance because their work is genuinely disturbing. Purdy is one of them." As best we can determine, OCLC lists only two copies of the former typescript and one of the latter in institutional collections. Another collection lists "photocopies" of these two plays, but these productions predate plain paper photocopying. Children is All (1961) runs 41 pages; Cracks (1962) runs 16 pages. Each is near fine; stapled in the upper left corner. Scarce works by a writer Jonathan Franzen called "one of the most undervalued and underread writers in America." [#031486] $1,500

Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1976. Inscribed by Robbins: "To Paul, with 'eternal' gratitude for introducing me to the Clock People. Your friend, Tom Robbins." Paul Dorpat, who is the first person acknowledged in Robbins' Author's Note for the book, was a co-founder with Robbins and others of Seattle's first underground newspaper, Helix; and an issue of the paper featured a story about The Great Clock and the legend of the Eternity of Joy, the text of which parallels Chapter 59 of Cowgirls (in addition to "the clockworks" playing a larger role in the novel as a whole). A dozen or so ink and pencil notes in the text, presumably by Dorpat. Apart from the annotations and a bit of spotting to the boards, this is a near fine copy in a very good dust jacket with a chip at the upper rear spine fold. One of the best possible association copies of this beloved, irrepressible novel. [#034749] $1,500

NY, Farrar Straus Giroux, (2012). Two advance states of this collection of essays by the Pulitzer Prize winning novelist. The first item is an advance reading copy, signed by the author, with an announcement for a 2014 reading by Robinson laid in, which is presumably where the signature was obtained. The second item is also an advance copy, with the U.S. publishing information, but it is tapebound with an acetate cover and carries the cover image of the U.K. edition published by Virago, also in 2012. Other differences: the U.S. edition states "Dedication TK [to come]"; the "U.K." edition has the dedication. The U.S. edition has an Introduction; the U.K. edition has a Preface. The latter edition also bears several instances of typeset copyeditor notations in the margins, all preceded by "AU," meaning author. At least one of the changes ("for" replacing "of") was made in the published version. Both copies are fine. Uncommon advance issues -- works-in-progress -- for one of the most acclaimed U.S. authors of recent decades, whom President Barack Obama interviewed shortly after his election, reversing the usual relationship between writer and politician by doing so. [#036240] $400

NY/(Chicago), Feature/ICI, (1988). An early issue of this small periodical of gay fiction, printing Sedaris' story "My Manuscript," which was collected in his first book, Barrel Fever in 1994. There are enough textual differences between this version and the collected version to consider this text an earlier draft. An uncommon early appearance by Sedaris. Also includes a story by Dennis Cooper and art by Richard Prince. One copy in OCLC. Near fine in stapled wrappers. [#030137] $750

Marlboro, Griffin Press, (1966)[1968]. A limited edition printing one section of Mountains & Rivers Without End. One of 200 copies, published in May, 1968. Entry A19 in Katherine McNeil's Snyder bibliography, which states that the 1966 copyright date refers to the poem's first publication in Poetry), and that the item's colophon erroneously describes the poem as six, rather than one, section of Mountains & Rivers Without End. Contents: Things to do around Seattle; Things to do around Portland; Things to do around a lookout; Things to do around San Francisco; Things to do around a ship at sea; Things to do around Kyoto. Nicely illustrated by Ken McCullough. Faint sunning to rear panel; very near fine in wrappers. Scarce. [#035895] $375

NY, Various, (1958-1967). The first four books by Southern -- creator of Dr. Strangelove and the screenwriter of Easy Rider -- each inscribed by him to his friend, the bandleader, composer, and musician Artie Shaw. Flash and Filigree (NY: Coward McCann, 1958; the scarce first issue) is inscribed "To Artie and Casey with love and all best wishes/ Terry S." Laid in is an autograph note signed to Artie from Southern. The Magic Christian (NY: Random House, 1960) is inscribed "To Artie and Casey with love and best wishes for much happiness. Terry." Candy (NY: Putnam, 1964 -- first thus, and first hardcover edition) is inscribed "To Artie and Case [sic], with love and kisses (your so-called 'soul' or 'french' kiss, natch!) / Terry." Red Dirt Marijuana (NY: New American Library, 1967) is inscribed: "To Art/ with all best, Terry." The books are near fine or better in near fine or better dust jackets; each housed in a custom clamshell case. [#033653] $12,500

(n.p), (n.p.), [ca. 1983]. In 1983, Robert Stone, National Book Award-winning novelist, was commissioned to write a piece on George Orwell and his dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, as that calendar year approached. In the piece, Stone made an effort to reclaim Orwell from the conservative right wing, which had taken his most famous, anti-totalitarian novels -- Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm -- to be explicit condemnations of the Soviet Union and Communism, and by implication all leftist thought itself. Instead, Stone argues that Orwell's writing in Homage to Catalonia -- not to mention his fighting on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War -- identifies Orwell as someone with both a socialist sympathy and "a certain affinity with what I believe is best about the United States," a kind of Puritanism that is characterized by "rectitude...conscience and common sense." He goes on to point out that Orwell "was the sort of radical who makes enemies on both sides of epic struggles," owing to his "originality and intelligence, [and] above all his thoroughgoing honesty, [which] always got him in trouble. A writer and man more predictable and dull, less infernally scrupulous would have had a better time of it." Stone adds that Orwell was idealistic but non-ideological -- as Stone was himself -- and deeply committed to the kind of "pragmatism that has characterized American moral thinkers from Jefferson to James to Neibuhr." He concludes that "We may never produce a greater political novel than Nineteen Eighty-Four" and that "it has done its work for us" in shaping our fears and cautions sufficiently for us to have avoided the totalitarian dystopia that was latent in the post-War years of the Cold War. The confluence of writer and subject here was, in many ways, a near-perfect one but the piece seems never to have been published; we can find no record of it; a cover letter from Stone's wife, Janice, indicates this was done for Thames Television, but whether it was produced or used remains unknown to us. One of Stone's novels includes an allusion to a critical moment in Nineteen Eighty-Four: Stone's character explains that one has "to look the gray rat in the eye" -- an allusion to the torture by rats that Winston Smith, in Nineteen Eighty-Four, is faced with, which causes him to "break" and betray himself and his loved ones. 18 pages, ribbon copy typescript, with Janice Stone's cover letter, laid into an agent's folder. Fine. An unknown Robert Stone piece, on a subject that touches close to many of the central and pervasive themes of his own writings. Unique. [#032829] $8,500

Amherst, Shanachie Press, 1980. A limited edition of a poem by Tate which first appeared in The New American Poetry Review. Of a total intended edition of 135 copies, this is Copy "F" of ten lettered copies reserved for Tate and for the artist, Stephen Riley, and signed by both of them. With etchings and engravings by Riley, each of these lettered and signed by the artist. Riley was a promising artist in the 1970s known for his fantasy illustrations, here accompanying Tate's surrealist poetry. Reportedly, most of the intended edition was never printed, and it's possible that only the 10 author's and artist's copies and 25 Roman-numeraled copies were actually produced. Loose sheets, 11-1/4" x 15", fine, laid into a near fine slipcase. An attractive fine press production, and one of the rarest pieces by the Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning poet. [#033654] $2,500

Washington, DC, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1978. Roughly 800 words by Updike. In part: "I love my Government not least for the extent to which it leaves me alone. My personal ambition has been simply to live by the work of my pen. This is not a very fastidious ambition. If I were aware of large amounts of Federal money available to purveyors of the written words I would attempt to gain access to it and hope to please the administrators of this fund as I hope to please magazine editors and bookbuyers. But I would rather have as my patron a host of anonymous citizens digging into their own pockets for the price of a book..." Modest cover creasing; small joint tear; date stamped to cover. Near fine in wrappers. An interesting and uncommon Updike piece, not available elsewhere. [#034751] $500

1986. A remembrance by Updike of his friend Lovell Thompson, read at Thompson's memorial service. Two photocopies, each four pages, folded in thirds, stapled, and stamped with Updike's address. Reproduces a couple of holograph corrections and one note of transmittal. One of the copies is signed by Updike. Near fine, and together with a copy of Bookbuilder, January/February 1987, the newsletter of the Bookbuilders of Boston, where the tribute was printed. [#031526] $550

Kentfield, Upstairs Press, 1977. A limited edition and the first separate appearance of this piece, which appeared 60 years prior in The Times Literary Supplement, and was published here to honor the 160th anniversary of Thoreau's birth. Says Woolf, "Few people, it is safe to say, take such an interest in themselves as Thoreau took in himself..." yet she also observes that "...the independent man who professed to care so little for his fellows was possessed with an intense desire to communicate with them..." An interesting 15 pages by a writer who herself was no stranger to the allure of solitude. This is Copy No. 89 of 100 copies printed. 23 copies appear in OCLC. A facsimile of this edition was created by Favil Press in 2001, and the essay has been reprinted as an introduction to other works -- notably Walden -- multiple times. Modest creasing to the yapped edges; near fine in wrappers. [#036207] SOLD