Catalog 98, L-O
250. LE CARRÉ, John. The Night Manager. NY: Knopf, 1993. The first American edition of his first post-Cold War novel, for which the American edition reportedly precedes the UK edition. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author on a tipped-in leaf.
251. LEHANE, Dennis. Darkness, Take My Hand. NY: Morrow (1996). The author's second novel, a sequel to the Shamus Award-winning A Drink Before the War. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
252. LEHANE, Dennis. Sacred. NY: Morrow (1997). His third book, again featuring detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro. Fine in a fine dust jacket and inscribed by the author in the year of publication.
253. LEITHAUSER, Brad. The Odd Last Thing She Did. NY: Knopf, 1998. The uncorrected proof copy of his latest book, a collection of poetry. Fine in wrappers.
254. LEONARD, Elmore. Bandits. NY: Arbor House (1987). Fine in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket and signed by the author.
255. LETHEM, Jonathan. Gun, with Occasional Music. NY: Harcourt Brace (1994). The author's first book, a comic take-off on the hard-boiled mystery genre that became an underground classic. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket that is designed to appear worn.
256. LETHEM, Jonathan. Amnesia Moon. NY: Harcourt Brace (1995). His second book. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author.
257. MALOUF, David. Remembering Babylon. NY: Pantheon (1993). Advance reading copy of a major novel by this Australian author about the conflicting myths that underlie Australian history--the Western and Aboriginal views of the land. Signed by the author. Fine in wrappers and publisher's cardstock slipcase. Short-listed for the Booker Prize; winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award.
258. MANLEY, Frank. The Cockfighter. Minneapolis: Coffee House Press (1998). Well-received first novel, issued in a small printing by a small press. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author.
259. MARON, Margaret. Up Jumps the Devil. (NY): Mysterious Press (1996). A Deborah Knott mystery novel, which won the Agatha Award for best novel of the year. The first book in the series, Bootlegger's Daughter, won the 1993 Edgar, Agatha, Anthony and Macavity Awards, an unprecedented sweep. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author.
260. MATTHIESSEN, Peter. Lost Man's River. NY: Random House (1997). The uncorrected proof copy of the second novel in the trilogy that began with Killing Mr. Watson, based on a series of events in Florida at the turn of the century and using the novel form to explore the settling and development of that frontier, with an awareness of the ecological implications of that development. This proof contains textual differences from the published version. The rear cover has a long, nearly imperceptible vertical crease; else fine in wrappers and signed by the author on the front cover.
261. MAXWELL, William. The Anxious Man. NY: PAX, 1957. A fragile broadside, measuring approximately 12" x 18", printing a short story by Maxwell on one side of the sheet, with an illustration by Don Bolognese. Folded twice, into fourths. Cheap acidic newsprint is browned and brittle along the folds, as might be expected. Near fine, threatened by its own fragility. Doubtless few copies will have survived all these years; a scarce Maxwell "A" item.
262. MAYOR, Archer. Scent of Evil. NY: Mysterious Press (1992). The third book in his acclaimed mystery series, featuring Lt. Joe Gunther of the Brattleboro, Vermont, police. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author.
263. MAYOR, Archer. The Dark Root. (NY): Mysterious Press (1995). The advance reading copy of the sixth book in the series. Fine in wrappers, and signed by the author.
264. McCARTHY, Cormac. The Crossing. NY: Knopf, 1994. The uncorrected proof copy of his seventh novel, the sequel to his award-winning All the Pretty Horses, and the second novel in the "The Border Trilogy," which was just completed with the publication of Cities of the Plain. Fine in wrappers.
265. -. Same title. One of an unspecified number of copies of the trade edition signed by the author on a tipped-in leaf. Fine in a fine dust jacket. McCarthy's signature is uncommon.
266. McCARTHY, Cormac. Cities of the Plain. New Orleans: B.E. Trice (1998). The limited edition of the third book in the Border Trilogy. One of 300 numbered copies, quarterbound in leather and signed by the author--the smallest limitation of any of McCarthy's books (aside from the sold-out deluxe issue of this title). Fine in fine slipcase.
267. McCARTHY, Mary. Hanoi. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson (1968). The first British edition, and the first hardcover edition, of the second of her "pamphlets" about--and against--the war, this one includes an account of her trip to Hanoi as well as an exchange of letters between the author and Diana Trilling about the implications of abandoning the war effort in Vietnam. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
268. (McCLANAHAN, Ed). "Alive!" in The Art of the Sideshow. Lexington: U. of Kentucky, 1997. McClanahan provides the introduction for this catalog of an art exhibition. One of 300 numbered copies signed by McClanahan. Stapled wrappers; fine.
269. McCOURT, Frank. Angela's Ashes. (NY): Scribner (1996). The Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir. Remainder stripe top page edges (the book was apparently remaindered in Canada), with a bit of the stripe ending on the front flap; else fine in a fine dust jacket. A huge bestseller, which has gone into dozens of printings, with hundreds of thousands of copies in print; the first printing is now quite uncommon.
270. McFALL, Lynne. Dancer with Bruised Knees. San Francisco: Chronicle Books (1994). Her second novel. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket, with blurbs by Robert Boswell and Diane Johnson.
271. McGAUGHEY, Neil. Otherwise Known as Murder. NY: Scribner (1994). The author's first book, a well-received bibliomystery. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author.
272. McMURTRY, Larry. Buffalo Girls. NY: Simon & Schuster (1990). Another of his novels that re-envision the Old West, and re-instill life into some of its mythologized characters: "Calamity Jane" is the heroine of this novel, and Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill Cody are among the supporting cast. Inscribed by the author. Very slight corner bumping; else fine in a fine dust jacket.
273. McPHEE, John. The Headmaster. NY: FSG (1966). McPhee's second book, a portrait of Frank L. Boyden, the longtime Headmaster of Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. McPhee's first book was a literary profile of basketball player and Rhodes Scholar (and later U.S. Senator) Bill Bradley. Both were originally published in The New Yorker, where McPhee's prose in the 1960s and 1970s helped elevate nonfiction writing to the realm of literary art. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with just a hint of edge-sunning and an off-center fold. Inscribed by the author. Books signed by McPhee are relatively uncommon.
274. McPHEE, John. Giving Good Weight. NY: FSG (1979). A collection of essays and articles from The New Yorker, one of which--a profile of an anonymous, but purportedly excellent, restaurateur--created controversy when the subject of the article speculated that a prominent New York restaurant used frozen fish for one of its plates. Heated denials and threats of libel suits followed, and McPhee issued a retraction in a later issue--the first time such a thing had happened in the New Yorker's history. In the book, the offending passage is footnoted, along with disclaimer. Fine in a near fine dust jacket scratched on the rear panel.
275. MENDELSOHN, Jane. I Was Amelia Earhart. NY: Knopf, 1996. Advance reading copy of her acclaimed first book, which imagines Amelia Earhart's life after her crash and disappearance, and which became one of the most talked-about novels of the past publishing season and a surprise bestseller. Fine in plain blue wrappers. There was an uncorrected proof issued in beige wrappers. With publisher's reply card laid in.
276. -. Another copy. Mild indentations to front cover; near fine.
277. MILLER, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. NY: Viking Press (1981). A limited illustrated edition, one of 500 numbered copies, issued more than three decades after the first edition. By consensus the most important play by one of the leading American playwrights of the postwar era. Clothbound; top edge gilt; fine in a fine slipcase. Although not called for, this copy is signed by the author. A modern classic and winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award.
278. MILLER, Henry. Insomnia or the Devil at Large. Albuquerque: Loujon Press, 1970. One of the extravagant editions produced by Lou and Jon Webb, collectively the Loujon Press. Of seven deluxe editions, this is edition G, to have been done in a limitation of 385 copies signed by the author and dated May 1st, 1970, five months before publication. According to the bibliographer, approximately 200 of them were issued in a wooden box (left over from unsold copies of the six scarcer editions) and the remainder were issued without the box. This copy does not have the wooden box. Spiralbound; fine.
279. MINOT, Susan. Lust. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989. The highly praised second book, a collection of stories, by the author of the award-winning novel Monkeys. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
280. MOONEY, Ted. Traffic and Laughter. NY: Knopf, 1990. The second book by the author whose first, Easy Travel to Distant Planets, was nominated for the National Book Award and won the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with a small gutter nick on the rear panel.
281. MOORE, Christopher. Island of the Sequined Love Nun. NY: Avon Books (1997). Comic fourth novel by the author of Coyote Blue and Bloodsucking Friends, among others. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author.
282. MORRISON, Toni. Sula. NY: Knopf, 1974. The scarce second novel by this Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Remainder mark lower page edges; else fine in a very good, price-clipped dust jacket with a few edge tears and creases and a small chip at the upper outer corner of the rear panel. A presentable copy of a book that has become quite scarce in recent years, rivaling the elusive The Bluest Eye.
283. MORRISON, Toni. Song of Solomon. NY: Knopf, 1977. Her third book, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with one tiny edge tear and mild spine-sunning.
284. MORRISON, Toni. Tar Baby. NY: Knopf, 1981. The first trade edition of her fourth novel, which was a selection of the Book of the Month Club and was reprinted numerous times. Since her third novel, Song of Solomon, Morrison's books have not only received great critical praise but have sold very well, too--a rarity for literary authors. Fine in a near fine, spine-faded dust jacket.
285. MORRISON, Toni. Beloved. NY: Knopf, 1987. Her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Book review laid in, causing slight offsetting to the flyleaf; else fine in a fine dust jacket.
286. MORRISON, Toni. Playing in the Dark. Cambridge: Harvard U. Press, 1992. A book of literary criticism on the subject of race, subtitled "Whiteness and the Literary Imagination." Fine in a fine dust jacket. This book had a considerably smaller first printing than her recent novels have.
287. MORRISON, Toni. Jazz. Franklin Center: Franklin Library, 1992. The true first edition of this novel, preceding its trade publication. Leatherbound, all edges gilt, with a silk ribbon marker bound in. Signed by the author. With an introduction by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., which does not appear in the trade edition. Fine.
288. -. Same title, the trade edition (NY: Knopf, 1992). Fine in dust jacket.
289. MORRISON, Toni. Paradise. NY: Knopf, 1998. The uncorrected proof copy of the latest novel by the Nobel Prize-winning author, published to near-universal praise, with a first printing announced as 400,000 copies. Fine in wrappers.
290. MOSLEY, Walter. Devil in a Blue Dress. NY: Norton (1990). The first book in the highly praised Easy Rawlins mystery series--one of the few detective series by an African-American writer and featuring an African-American detective. Nominated for an Edgar Award for Best First Mystery of the year and basis for the successful movie. Fine in a fine, first issue dust jacket ($18.95 price) and signed by the author.
291. MOSLEY, Walter. A Red Death. NY: Norton (1991). The second of the author's acclaimed Easy Rawlins mysteries, this one set in Los Angeles in the early Fifties. Fine in a fine, first issue dust jacket (again, $18.95 price), and signed by the author.
292. MOSLEY, Walter. White Butterfly. NY: Norton (1992). The third Easy Rawlins mystery, and the scarcest. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
293. MOSLEY, Walter. Black Betty. NY: Norton (1994). The fourth Easy Rawlins novel. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author in the month of publication. Laid in is a "Walter Mosley/Black Betty" bookmark, presumably printed by a bookstore on the occasion of the signing.
294. MOSLEY, Walter. The Walter Mosley Omnibus. (London): Picador (1995). First thus, collecting the first three Easy Rawlins mysteries--Devil in a Blue Dress, A Red Death, and White Butterfly--in one volume. No comparable U.S. edition. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
295. MOSLEY, Walter. RL's Dream. NY: Norton (1995). A departure from his Easy Rawlins mysteries, this being a novel about a blues musician. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
296. MUKHERJEE, Bharati. The Holder of the World. NY: Knopf, 1993. Advance reading copy of this novel by the author of the award-winning collection, The Middleman and Other Stories. Fine in wrappers, in publisher's pictorial slipcase, and signed by the author.
297. MUNRO, Alice. Selected Stories. NY: Knopf, 1996. A hardcover advance edition of this collection of stories, spanning a quarter century. Limitation not stated. Fine in slipcase and signed by the author. These copies were prepared by her U.S. publisher as promotional giveaways and were not offered for sale.
298. NORRIS, Kathleen. The Cloister Walk. NY: Riverhead Books, 1996. Well-received personal essay/spiritual memoir, about the author's residency at a Benedictine monastery. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author.
299. OATES, Joyce Carol. The Time Traveler. NY: Dutton (1989). The hardcover issue of this collection of poetry, which was also issued simultaneously in wrappers. Signed by the author. Light corner bump; else fine in a near fine dust jacket.
300. O'BRIEN, Edna. Arabian Days. London: Quartet Books (1977). Text by O'Brien; photographs by Gerard Klijn. Inscribed by the author, who writes "this is to say I prefer New York and love you." Large quarto; fine in a fine dust jacket.
301. O'BRIEN, Tim. If I Die in a Combat Zone. London: Calder & Boyars (1973). The first British edition of the author's first book, a highly praised memoir of the war in which O'Brien uses some of the techniques of fiction to convey the experience with immediacy and power; one edition of this title was even marketed by its publisher as fiction, although all others have been presented as nonfiction. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author. Unlike most copies of this edition that turn up, the dust jacket on this copy has not been price-clipped.
302. O'BRIEN, Tim. Northern Lights. NY: Delacorte (1975). 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. A cheaply-made, "perfectbound" book, it is difficult to find in nice condition, rivaling his first book, If I Die in a Combat Zone, for scarcity. This copy has some minor wear to the edges of the cloth; near fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author. An attractive copy of an uncommon book.
303. 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. 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 and widely considered one of the literary classics of the Vietnam war. Very slight sunning to the cloth edges; else fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author.
304. O'BRIEN, Tim. The Nuclear Age. NY: Knopf, 1985. His fourth novel, about safety and sanity and a man compelled to dig a bomb shelter in his back yard to save his family even if it means losing them in the process. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Signed by the author.
305. -. Another copy. Fine in a near fine, spine-faded dust jacket, and signed by the author.
306. O'BRIEN, Tim The Things They Carried. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. His fifth book, a collection of related stories which share a number of characters as well as the narrator--a "Tim O'Brien" whose experience bears certain similarities to the author's own, as well as a number of differences. Selected as one of the 12 best books of the year, in all categories, by the editors of The New York Times Book Review. Not quite a novel in the standard sense but more tightly structured than the usual collection of stories, it is a meditation on war and death, and on the place that storytelling has in bringing these essentially unfathomable experiences within our grasp. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket, and signed by the author. A book that may turn out to be the Red Badge of Courage of the Vietnam war--ringing with truth long after its author and its original audience are gone.
307. 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. This is the wide issue, 1 1/16" thick; there was a thinner issue, but no priority has been established. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author.
308. O'BRIEN, Tim. Tomcat in Love. NY: Broadway Books (1998). The advance reading copy of his most recent novel. Front cover splayed; else fine in wrappers.
309. -. Same title. (n.p.):(n.p.) (1995). The photocopy of an early draft of the first chapter, which was submitted to The New Yorker as an untitled story. With a photocopied cover letter projecting the themes and questions of the full novel. The distribution list on the cover sheet suggests that six copies only were made of this manuscript submission and this copy includes an original "post-it" note, passing this copy to its recipient. Fine. As might be expected, the text of this chapter was revised between this draft and the final publication of the book.
310. (O'BRIEN, Tim). "Quantum Jumps" in Granta 16. (Cambridge): (Granta) (1985). The last chapter of his then-forthcoming novel, The Nuclear Age, with textual differences from the final published version. Also included in this "Science" issue are Oliver Sacks, David Mamet, John Berger, Darryl Pinckney, Italo Calvino and others. Spine base bump; else fine in wrappers.
311. (O'BRIEN, Tim). "Speaking of Courage" in Granta 29. (NY): (Granta) (1989). A chapter that was excised from Going After Cacciato and later appeared, in altered form, in The Things They Carried. With an Author's Note explaining the story's conception. This story was also issued as a limited edition in 1980, with the same title, but with textual differences. And Granta issued an offprint of this identical piece. Fine in wrappers.
312. O'CONNELL, Carol. Killing Critics. London: Hutchinson (1996). A Mallory novel, the third in the highly praised series. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author.
313. O'CONNELL, Jack. Box Nine. NY: Mysterious Press (1992). The author's first novel, a noir mystery that won an in-house award for best first novel. James Ellroy blurb. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
314. OLDS, Sharon. The Dead and the Living. NY: Knopf, 1984. Winner of the Lamont Poetry Award for 1983. Signed and additionally inscribed by the author to another poet. Fine in a dust jacket with several short but jagged edge tears or claw marks; otherwise near fine. A nice association copy of an important work.
315. O'NEILL, Eugene. Inscriptions: Eugene O'Neill to Carlotta Monterey O'Neill. New Haven: Privately Printed/(Yale University), 1960. One of 500 copies, a limited edition that reproduces in facsimile, and in print, the inscriptions from O'Neill to his wife that are in the O'Neill collection at Yale, and which were donated by Carlotta. Fine in glassine and slipcase.
316. OPPENHEIMER, Joel. New Spaces. Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow, 1985. The simultaneous issue in wrappers of this collection of poems. Inscribed by the author to another poet in the year of publication. A little dusty; else fine. A nice association copy.
317. OWENS, Iris. "DAIMLER, Harriet." A Collection. Seven items, five titles; each book signed or inscribed by the author. Owens used "Daimler" to publish erotic fiction and her own name for more mainstream material. Included here under the Daimler name are: The Woman Thing (North Hollywood: Brandon House, 1967); Innocence (Covina: Collectors Publications, 1967); The Organization (NY: Traveller's Companion/Olympia Press, 1968); Darling (North Hollywood: Brandon House, 1967). Each of these is a first edition or first American edition, only issued in wrappers, is near fine or better, and is signed or inscribed by the author as "Harriet Daimler." Together with: Liefste (Geneva: Orpheus/Olympia, 1967), the first Swiss edition of Darling. Fine in a very good dust jacket and inscribed by the author as Iris Owens in 1977. Also together with: the uncorrected proof copy of After Claude (NY: FSG, 1973), which is not erotica and which was published under Owens' own name and inscribed as such. Fine in wrappers. Lastly together with the first Warner paperback edition of After Claude (1975); fine in wrappers and signed by Owens. For all:
318. OWENS, Iris. An Archive. c. 1985-1986. Multiple typescript and holograph drafts of three articles for the magazine Art & Antiques. Fourteen pages of text on the subject of combs, with a vast number of holograph corrections; approximately 68 pages on the subject of rocking chairs, again with vast reworkings and countless false starts; and 23 pages on the painter Francois Boucher, again including several heavily corrected drafts. Together with two checks endorsed by Owens, from the editor at Art & Antiques. Also together with a typed letter signed by Owens to the editor, pleading her case against any published repudiation of points in her article on Boucher by a Boucher authority. The letter is folded in thirds and has holes in several of the "o's" from the impact of the typewriter key, and is otherwise fine. The drafts are very near fine or better: several pages are written on legal size paper and have been folded over to fit into a letter-sized folder. For all: