Catalog 94, A
2. ABBEY, Edward and HYDE, Philip. Slickrock. San Francisco/NY: Sierra Club (1971). Large quarto: a book of photographs of Utah's "slickrock" canyon country by Philip Hyde, with text by Abbey. This is a fine copy in a very near fine dust jacket with some minor dust soiling to the rear white panel. A very nice copy of this oversize book which, because of its size, is exceptionally prone to wear.
3. ABBEY, Edward. The Brave Cowboy. Salt Lake City/Santa Barbara: Dream Graden/Santa Teresa, 1993. Reissue of Abbey's scarce second book, one of the great novels of the contemporary West, and long out of print in hardcover. This edition has an introduction by Kirk Douglas, who starred in the film version, Lonely Are the Brave--Douglas's favorite of the over eighty films he has done in his career. Illustrated with stills from the movie and with a frontispiece illustration of Douglas. Of a total edition of 526 copies, this is one of 26 lettered copies signed by Kirk Douglas, with an original photograph tipped in. In the course of making a film from the novel, Abbey and Douglas corresponded, and they later met as friends: Douglas said the book "latched onto my soul" when he first read it; and Abbey, in a preface to the 1971 edition, thanked "the little band of loyal fans, including the actor Kirk Douglas, who have somehow kept [the book] alive through all these years..." Fine in a fine dust jacket and slipcase.
4. (ABBEY, Edward). PORTER, Eliot. Appalachian Wilderness. (NY): Arrowood (1988). The third edition of this large quarto, first published by Dutton in 1970. Photographs of the Great Smoky Mountains by Eliot Porter, with text by Abbey. Extremely slight corner bump; fine in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
5. ALBEE, Edward. The Wounding: An Essay on Education. Charleston: Mountain State Press (1981). A special edition of a commencement speech given by Albee, author of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Limited to 250 copies, of which this is one of 200 copies in wrappers, numbered and signed by the author. Fine.
6. ALEXIE, Sherman. I Would Steal Horses. Niagra Falls: Slipstream, 1992. Slipstream's Fifth Annual Chapbook Contest Winner, and Alexie's second book, published in March of the same year that The Business of Fancydancing was issued. A collection of poetry, only issued in stapled wrappers, and an extremely scarce, early book by this Granta 20 author. Inscribed by the author in 1997. Fine.
7. ALEXIE, Sherman. Indian Killer. NY: Atlantic Monthly Press (1996). The advance reading copy of the second novel by the author of The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and Reservation Blues. Trace bump to foredge; still fine in wrappers.
8. AMIS, Martin. Night Train. NY: Harmony Books (1997). The advance reading copy (marked "Uncorrected Proof") of the first American edition. Signed by the author. Two small ink spots on the rear cover; else fine in wrappers.
9. (Anthology). The Scene Before You. NY: Rinehart (1955). A collection of essays representing "A New Approach to American Culture," edited by Chandler Brossard, author of Who Walk in Darkness and The Bold Saboteurs, among others. Contributions by Elizabeth Hardwick, Marshall McLuhan, Anatole Broyard, Harvey Swados, Lionel Trilling, and others. Very near fine in a very good jacket.
10. (Anthology). Giant Talk. NY: Random House (1975). The uncorrected proof copy of this anthology of Third World writings, co-edited and inscribed by Quincy Troupe. Among the hundreds of contributors are Derek Walcott, Toni Cade Bambara, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Pablo Neruda, Wole Soyinka, Alice Walker, Ralph Ellison, Chinua Achebe, Amiri Baraka, Lucille Clifton, Ernest Gaines, JosÉ Donoso, Carlos Fuentes, James Welch, Ray A. Youngbear, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nikki Giovanni and Toni Morrison. An important anthology, the publication of which helped to enable the current movement toward multicultural studies. Tall wrappers, with a few creases; near fine.
11. (Anthology). They Shoot Writers, Don't They? London: Faber & Faber (1984). A collection of essays from Index on Censorship. Featuring, among others, Kurt Vonnegut, Nadine Gordimer, Milan Kundera, Mario Vargas Llosa, Stephen Spender, Tom Stoppard, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and, chillingly, Salman Rushdie, writing years before the imposition of the Iranian death edict issued in response to The Satanic Verses. Rushdie writes about censorship in Pakistan: the "most insidious effect of censorship is that, in the end, it can deaden the imagination of the people...It becomes easy to think that what has been suppressed was valueless anyway, or so dangerous that it needed to be suppressed...For the moment, however, one can hope." Fine in wrappers.
12. (Anthology). Sudden Fiction. Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith (1986). Landmark anthology of short-short stories by writers such as Updike, Cheever, Paley, Carver, Peter Taylor, Russell Banks, Joyce Carol Oates, Tobias Wolff, T.C. Boyle, Jayne Anne Phillips, Barthelme, Tallent, Dybek and many others. The standard introduction to the form, and a staple on college reading lists for the last several years. Corners bumped; otherwise fine in a very near fine dust jacket. An important collection.
13. (Anthology). A Circle of Nations. Voices and Visions of American Indians. (Hillsboro): Beyond Words (1993). An anthology of North American Native writers and photographers. Edited by John Gattuso; introduced by Michael Dorris; and with a foreword by Leslie Marmon Silko. Contributors include Joy Harjo, Linda Hogan, Paula Gunn Allen and Simon Ortiz, among others. This copy has a small inscription on the front free endpaper (previous owner's gift inscription, it appears) and is signed by Michael Dorris, Joy Harjo and Elizabeth Woody at their contributions. Fine in a fine dust jacket with trace wear at the corners.
14. (Anthology). Walking the Twilight. Women Writers of the Southwest. (Flagstaff): Northland (1994). An anthology of stories by more than thirty writers. Edited and signed by Kathryn Wilder. Also signed by Barbara Kingsolver, Linda Hogan, Terry Tempest Williams, Teresa Jordan and Ariana-Sophia M. Kartsonis at their respective contributions. Among the other contributors are Pam Houston and Sandra Cisneros. Only issued in wrappers. Fine.
15. AUSTER, Paul. Wall Writing. (Berkeley): The Figures (1976). Auster's second book, a collection of poetry published in an edition of 500 copies, 26 of which were lettered and signed by the author. This is one of the 26 copies. One tiny edge nick; a very narrow and slight strip of sunning near the foredge; very near fine in wrappers, and signed. A very scarce issue of this early title.