Catalog 97, N-R
193. O'BRIEN, Tim. Northern Lights. London: Marion Boyars (1976). The first British edition of his second novel, a tale of two brothers in the wilderness of northern Minnesota, one of them a war veteran, the other a veteran of the protests against that war. Of a total edition of 2000 copies, only 900 were bound up in hardcover, the rest being issued in softcover a year later. Fine in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket, and signed by the author.
194. O'BRIEN, Tim. Going After Cacciato. (NY): Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence (1978). His third book, a magical realist novel about a recruit who decides to simply walk away from the Vietnam war and go to Paris, overland. Dreamlike and surreal passages alternate with vivid straightforward action. The New York Times said that "to call Going After Cacciato a book about war is like calling Moby Dick a book about whales." Winner of the National Book Award. Inscribed by the author: "To ____ ____,/ A fellow "member" of/ the Americal Club./ Peace,/ Tim O'Brien." Faint spot to top edge; else fine in a very near fine dust jacket with a couple tiny tears at the crown.
Proof Copy of a Limited Edition
195. O'BRIEN, Tim. The Nuclear Age. Portland: Press-22 (1981). Proof copy of this limited edition comprising an excerpt from O'Brien's work-in-progress at the time, later published with the same title. Issued in an edition of 151 copies: 26 lettered, hardbound copies and 125 numbered copies in wrappers. This proof resembles the wrappered issue, but is unnumbered and stamped "Proof Set/ May 5 1981" on the front flyleaf and the colophon. Signed by the author. Fine.
196. O'BRIEN, Tim. The Things They Carried. Boston: Houghton Mifflin/Seymour Lawrence, 1990. The first trade edition of his fifth book, chosen by The New York Times Book Review as one of the dozen best books of the year, in all categories. By broad consensus one of the best works of fiction to come out of the Vietnam war, and a book that straddles, or blurs, several usually distinct categories: it resembles a novel -- with characters that recur throughout the individual episodes; a memoir (the main character is named "Tim O'Brien" and bears many similarities to the author); and a collection of short stories, related but essentially independent. Whatever its category, it is likely to be considered the Vietnam war's equivalent to The Red Badge of Courage -- a tale told from the perspective of one foot soldier which rings with authenticity and universality made all the more powerful by appearing not to pretend to much beyond a simple recounting. The whole sequence of episodes is couched in a series of reflections on storytelling, the nature of stories and their relation to truth, which gives the book its own context: O'Brien is writing for a contemporary audience -- one that shares his knowledge of Vietnam -- but he is also writing for the ages -- for all those who will have only the story to go by, not the experience. Fine in a fine, first issue dust jacket, which has the jacket folded off-center. Inscribed by the author: "To ____ ____,/ I hope this book/ touches your heart./ Peace,/ Tim O'Brien."
197. -. Another copy. Signed by the author in 1996. Fine in a fine, price-clipped, second state dust jacket.
198. O'BRIEN, Tim. In the Lake of the Woods. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994. The author's most recent novel, involving a Vietnam vet who rises to a position of public prominence but carries a secret that threatens to undo his accomplishment. Published to universal critical acclaim; named best novel of the year by Time magazine; made into a movie for television. Inscribed by the author to "a fellow veteran of Vietnam." Faint blue spot to upper page edges; else fine in a fine dust jacket. The book (without jacket) measures 1" wide across foredge.
199. -. Another copy. Signed by the author in 1996. Near fine in a fine dust jacket. Apparently a different paper stock from the above; the book measures 1 1/16" across the foredge. No priority determined.
O'BRIEN, Tim. See Broadsides, at end of Catalog.
200. (O'CONNOR, Flannery). Recent Southern Fiction: A Panel Discussion. Macon: Wesleyan College, 1961. The text of an October 28, 1960 panel discussion among Flannery O'Connor, Katherine Anne Porter, Caroline Gordon and Madison Jones. Moderated by Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Light surface soiling and wear to covers; still near fine in stapled wrappers. A scarce, ephemeral item by several of the most important voices in Southern literature.
Inscribed by Frank O'Hara
201. O'HARA, Frank. Lunch Poems. (San Francisco): City Lights Books (1964). A collection of poems by this writer whose Selected Poems won the National Book Award. O'Hara was one of the key figures in the literary and artistic renaissance that took place in New York City in the postwar years, both as a poet and a critic, and was a defining member of the "New York School" of poetry, along with John Ashbery, James Schuyler, Kenneth Koch, et al. These poets were closely linked to the artists in New York at that time, notably Larry Rivers, Fairfield Porter, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline and Jackson Pollock. O'Hara was a regular contributor to Art News as a critic, and his monograph on the artist Pollock helped establish critical recognition for the artist. His poetry first gained public attention in the important anthology, The New American Poetry, in 1960. This small volume, which was Number Nineteen in the City Lights Pocket Poet series, was the book by which O'Hara gained his reputation, and his sudden death at age 40, in 1966, cemented that reputation as one of the most important, and popular, poets of his generation. This copy is inscribed by the author: "for ____/ with love/ Frank." Modest general wear and a few small spots on the rear cover; very good in wrappers. Books signed by O'Hara are exceedingly scarce.
202. O'NAN, Stewart. The Names of the Dead. NY: Doubleday (1996). His third book, second novel, a Vietnam and post-Vietnam story that was published to excellent reviews. O'Nan's first book won the Drue Heinz Literature Prize for Short Fiction and his first novel won the 1993 Pirates Alley William Faulkner Prize for the Novel, and O'Nan is a Granta 20 author. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and inscribed by the author in the month of publication: "For ____ ____,/ Thanks for your support./ I hope this one brings back good things too."
203. ONDAATJE, Michael. Claude Glass. (Toronto): Coach House Press, 1979. The first draft (June, 1979) of this poem by Ondaatje, published as a Coach House Press MS. Edition, a computer line-printer copy of a work in progress printed and bound as orders are received and updated as the author revises. "Claude Glass" is a five page poem bound in stapled wrappers. Fine. Uncommon.
204. ONDAATJE, Michael. Running in the Family. (Toronto): McClelland & Stewart (1982). The correct first edition of this memoir of the author's youth in Sri Lanka and his family's history there. Fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket, and signed by the author.
205. ONDAATJE, Michael. In the Skin of a Lion. NY: Knopf, 1987. The first American edition of this highly praised novel. Signed by the author. Remainder stripe bottom page edges; else fine in a fine dust jacket.
206. ONDAATJE, Michael. The English Patient. NY: Knopf, 1992. The first American edition of this novel which was a co-winner of Britain's Booker Prize before capturing the Academy Awards. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
ONDAATJE, Michael. See Broadsides, at end of Catalog.
207. ORWELL, George. James Burnham and the Managerial Revolution. London: Socialist Book Centre, 1946. First separate edition of this essay by Orwell. A scarce pamphlet on cheap, acidic postwar paper, this copy is near fine, only slightly browned with age; there is a short tear to the bottom edge of the first page and a small marginal tear to the last sheet with a tiny corner chip there. Still a very nice copy of an extremely scarce, fragile item by the author of the classics, Animal Farm and 1984.
208. PALEY, Grace. Just As I Thought. NY: FSG (1998). Her latest book, a collection of articles, reports, talks and essays written over a thirty year period and touching on family and literary activities as well as the author's well-known social activism. Her first book of nonfiction. Paley's recent volume of Collected Stories was a nominee for the National Book Award. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author. $45
209. -. Another copy. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket bumped at the crown. Signed by the author.
PALEY, Grace. See Broadsides, at end of Catalog.
210. PATTERSON, Richard North. No Safe Place. NY: Knopf, 1998. The uncorrected proof copy of this forthcoming thriller by the bestselling and award-winning author of The Lasko Tangent and Degree of Guilt, among others. Fine in wrappers.
211. PECK, Robert Newton. A Part of the Sky. NY: Knopf, 1994. The uncorrected proof copy of the sequel to A Day No Pigs Would Die, which has come to be recognized as a classic of "young adult" literature. Fine in wrappers.
212. PLATH, Sylvia. Ariel. London: Faber & Faber (1965). The first edition of what is widely considered her greatest poetic achievement, a series of poems written during the months leading up to her suicide. Plath's Collected Poems won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize, nearly two decades after her death. Her frank, confessional poetry helped give voice to a later generation of women writers, and she became an artistic icon for the fledgling women's movement a decade after her death. Light foxing to endpapers; very near fine in a very near fine dust jacket. A beautiful copy.
213. PROULX, E. Annie. The Shipping News. NY: Scribner (1993). Her third book, second novel, a dark horse candidate and surprise winner of the National Book Award which then doubly surprised the literary world by also winning the Pulitzer Prize. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
PROULX, E. Annie. See Broadsides, at end of Catalog.
214. PYNCHON, Thomas. V. Phil: Lippincott (1963). The advance reading copy of his first book, winner of the Faulkner Foundation Award for best first novel of the year. With elaborate inventiveness, labyrinthine plots and a sometimes paranoid comic sense, Pynchon became the "postmodern" standard against whom all writers since have been measured. Each of his first three novels won one or more of the major literary awards given out in this country. This copy is sunned and spine-creased, with some shelf-soiling to the bottom page edges; a very good copy in wrappers.
215. PYNCHON, Thomas. Gravity's Rainbow. NY: Viking (1973). Pynchon's magnum opus, winner of the National Book Award and the William Dean Howells Medal, for the best work of fiction to appear in the U.S. over a five year period -- the book that confirmed its reclusive author's stature as the preeminent American postmodern fiction writer. An impressive book for the breadth of its references and allusions, it is widely considered the culminating novel of the American fiction of the 1960s, embracing the decade's experimentation with form and its breakthroughs in content. Front hinge a bit weak; otherwise fine in a slightly spine-faded, near fine dust jacket.
216. QUINDLEN, Anna. Black and Blue. NY: Random House (1998). The advance reading copy of the well-received recent novel by this Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist. Fine in wrappers.
217. RICE, Anne. Pandora. (New Orleans): (B.E. Trice) (1998). The limited edition of the latest book by the author of Interview with the Vampire, a collection of vampire tales. Of a total edition of 326 copies, this is one of 50 deluxe copies, signed by the author. A very small limitation for an Anne Rice title. Fine in a fine slipcase, at the published price. $250
218. -. Same title. One of 250 numbered copies signed by the author. Fine in a fine slipcase. Again, a small limitation for a Rice title: some of her signed editions have had limitations in excess of 1000 copies.
219. ROBINSON, Marilynne. Housekeeping. NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux (1980). Her first book and only novel. A subtle story of keeping what matters and escaping from the weight of the rest. Winner of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award and a Richard and Hilda Rosenthal Award. Made into a moving film with Christine Lahti. Sunning to the board edges and soiling to the page margins; about near fine in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
220. ROBISON, Mary. Days. NY: Knopf, 1979. Her first book, a collection of stories. Warmly inscribed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket, with publisher's promotional card laid in.
221. ROTH, Philip. Goodbye, Columbus. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1959. The author's first book, a collection of short fiction including the title novella -- which was the basis for a well-received movie in the Sixties -- and five short stories. Winner of the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship Award, an award also bestowed on first or early books by such writers as Robert Penn Warren, Robert Stone, Elizabeth Bishop, Edward Hoagland, Ann Petry and, more recently, Ethan Canin and David Payne. A very near fine copy in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket with mild edge-and spine-sunning. A very attractive copy of a book that is quite scarce these days, and practically unobtainable in fine condition.
222. ROTH, Philip. American Pastoral. Boston/NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1997. The uncorrected proof copy of his most recent novel, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Roth's four books published in the 1990s have collectively won the Pulitzer, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Pen/Faulkner Award, and the National Book Award, an unprecedented accomplishment in American letters. Fine in wrappers.
223. ROY, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. NY: Random House (1997). The advance reading copy of the first American edition of the first novel by this young Indian author, which won the Booker Prize. Interestingly, after being informed of her winning the Booker, the author stated publicly that she did not see herself as a writer, that writing this novel was about her past and was now behind her, and that she had no particular intention of writing another. Fine in wrappers and publisher's cardstock slipcase.
The "Booker of Bookers," Signed
224. RUSHDIE, Salman. Midnight's Children. NY: Knopf, 1981. The author's second book, winner of the Booker Prize, Britain's most prestigious literary prize. The first book in Rushdie's ambitious sequence of novels of the Muslim world, which culminated in The Satanic Verses and the death sentence imposed on him by Moslem fundamentalists. The American edition is the true first, preceding the British (they were both printed in this country). An important book that launched Rushdie's literary career as it represented a quantum leap from the subject matter and accomplishment of his first novel. This title was later named as the outstanding title among all the Booker Prize winners -- the so-called "Booker of Bookers." A major novel that has become quite uncommon in recent years. Boldly signed by Rushdie across the front flyleaf. Foxing to page edges; near fine in a near fine, mildly edge-foxed (mostly on verso) dust jacket with a small nick on the front panel. A very nice copy, and quite uncommon signed.