Catalog 99, A
2. AMIS, Martin. Heavy Water and Other Stories. (NY): (Harmony Books) (1999). The advance reading copy of the first American edition, scheduled for publication in February, 1999. Fiction pieces from the last twenty years, including two previously unpublished pieces and the title story, previously unpublished in the U.S. Fine in wrappers.
3. (Anthology). Modern Irish Writing. Dublin: Irish Humanities Center, 1978. The hardcover edition of this anthology of poetry and prose, edited by Grattan Freyer. With work by Seamus Heaney, Flann O'Brien, Edna O'Brien, Benedict Kiely, John McGahern, Frank O'Connor, Thomas Kinsella, and many others. Fine in a rubbed, else near fine dust jacket and inscribed by the editor in 1982.
4. (Anthology). The Best American Essays 1986. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1986. The uncorrected proof copy. Edited by Elizabeth Hardwick. With work by Julian Barnes, Donald Barthelme, William Gass, Cynthia Ozick, Joyce Carol Oates, Joseph Brodsky, and Gore Vidal on Italo Calvino. Fine in wrappers.
5. -. Another copy. Near fine.
6. (Anthology). Lord John 10. Northridge: Lord John Press, 1988. An impressive anthology celebrating ten years of the Press's existence, collecting pieces by twenty-six contributors written expressly for this volume. Including, and signed by, John Updike, Raymond Carver, James Crumley, Ray Bradbury, William Everson, Jim Harrison, Tess Gallagher, Joyce Carol Oates, James Purdy, Derek Walcott, former President Gerald Ford, and many others. This is the deluxe edition, one of 75 copies quarterbound in leather. A tiny bit of shelfwear to the corners of the spine, otherwise fine, without dust jacket, as issued.
7. (Anthology). The Best American Short Stories 1990. The uncorrected proof copy. Selected and with an introduction by Richard Ford. Authors include Denis Johnson, Pamela Houston, Richard Bausch, Madison Smartt Bell, Steven Millhauser, Lorrie Moore, Alice Munro, Christopher Tilghman, Joy Williams, Elizabeth Tallent, Dennis McFarland, etc. Near fine in wrappers.
8. (Anthology). Mirrorwork. NY: Henry Holt (1997). The suppressed first issue of the American edition of this compilation of 50 years of Indian writing, edited by Salman Rushdie and Elizabeth West, and with an introduction by Rushdie. Other writers include Arundhati Roy, Anita Desai, Rohinton Mistry, Vikram Seth and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, among many others. Together with the advance reading copy of the same issue. An interesting and extremely scarce item. Reportedly no more than two or three copies of the book are extant, the rest having been destroyed. The advance reading copy contains a number of small points of interest: V.S. Naipaul's name is crossed out from the list of contributors; the spelling of one author's name is corrected by hand, but the correction didn't make it to the printed book; Vikram Seth's piece is changed from "An Unsuitable Boy" to "A Suitable Boy," a correction that did make it to the book. Other small changes indicated in the advance reading copy made it into the book, including changes to Rushdie's introduction. A number of young Indian writers have gained great critical praise in the past few years and this collection was intended to showcase them, as well as their forebears. The publishers decided, however, on seeing the final book that it was unacceptable, in terms of design and production, and scrapped the edition, later redoing it entirely differently. These two volumes are among the only survivors of the aborted first American edition of this collection. The advance reading copy is fine in wrappers; the book is spine-creased, near fine in wrappers. For both:
9. (Anthology). Writing New York. (NY): Library of America (1998). Unbound signatures (F&G's) of this 1000+ page compilation of writings on New York, a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the union of the City's five boroughs, and a volume in the ongoing Library of America series. Includes previously published work by Elizabeth Bishop, William Burroughs, John Cheever, Louis Auchincloss, Allen Ginsberg, Bernard Malamud, E.L. Doctorow, and many, many others. Edited by Philip Lopate. Fine.
10. (Anthology). The Norton Book of American Autobiography. NY: Norton (1998). The uncorrected proof copy of this collection of autobiographical excerpts. Edited and introduced by Jay Parini, with a preface by Gore Vidal. Ranging back to the seventeenth century and forward to the works of Tobias Wolff, Joyce Carol Oates, Annie Dillard, Terry Tempest Williams, Harry Crews, Maxine Hong Kingston, and many others. Near fine in wrappers.
11. (Anthology). Southern Selves. NY: Vintage (1998). The uncorrected proof copy of a collection of autobiographical pieces by Southern writers, including Dorothy Allison, Maya Angelou, Larry Brown, Harry Crews, Reynolds Price, Robert Penn Warren and Eudora Welty, among many others. Fine in wrappers.
12. (Anthology). Prize Stories 1998. NY: Anchor Books (1998). The advance reading copy of this paperback original collecting the O. Henry Award winners. The top prizes went to Lorrie Moore, Steven Millhauser and Alice Munro, and their pieces are introduced, respectively, by the three judges: Rick Moody, Mary Gaitskill and Andrea Barrett. Also included are Rick Bass, Annie Proulx, Louise Erdrich, Thom Jones, George Saunders and others. With a list of 50 Honorable Mention stories, with synopses. Large corner crease rear cover; near fine in wrappers.
13. (Anthology). The Best American Poetry 1998. (NY): Scribner (1998). The uncorrected proof copy. Poets anthologized include Robert Pinsky, Reynolds Price, James Tate, Derek Walcott, Donald Hall, Robert Bly, John Ashbery, and many others. Fine in wrappers.
14. (Anthology). Las Christmas. NY: Knopf, 1998. The uncorrected proof copy of a collection of holiday memories by Latino authors, including Julia Alvarez Francisco Goldman, Sandra Cisneros, Junot Diaz, Jaime Manrique, Piri Thomas, Gary Soto, Michael Nava and many others. Also includes numerous recipes for holiday treats, provided by the contributors. Quarto; fine in wrappers.
15. AUSTER, Paul. Lulu on the Bridge. NY: Henry Holt (1998). The uncorrected proof copy of the script of Auster's most recent film, which starred Harvey Keitel, Willem Dafoe, Vanessa Redgrave and Mira Sorvino. Also includes an interview with Auster. Fine in wrappers.
16. BAKER, Nicholson. U and I. NY: Random House (1991). His third book, nonfiction, a personal essay and analysis of the effect that the writings of John Updike have had on the author. A unique portrait in ideas more than a criticism of Updike, nonetheless a serious meditation on Updike's work and a self-examination of the author's own thoughts on writing. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author on a bookplate mounted to the flyleaf.
17. BAKER, Nicholson. The Everlasting Story of Nory. NY: Random House (1998). The advance reading copy of his most recent book, which explores the inner life of a nine year-old girl with the kind of attention to detail and to life's strangeness that has been so highly praised in his earlier novels. Fine in wrappers.
18. BAKIS, Kirsten. Lives of the Monster Dogs. NY: FSG (1997). Advance reading copy of her well-received first novel, a magical realist story about a group of civilized dogs who arrive in New York City in the year 2008. Winner of the 1997 Bram Stoker Award for best first novel. Fine in wrappers, with cover art not used on the final book.
19. (Ballantine Hardcover). New Poems by American Poets #2. NY: Ballantine, 1957. The second anthology in this series, which was published simultaneously in hardcover and paperback. This is the uncommon hardcover edition. Includes the first book publication of work by such well-established poets as W. H. Auden, Elizabeth Bishop, May Sarton, Marianne Moore, William Carlos Williams, Langston Hughes, E. E. Cummings, Theodore Roethke and others; and early work by such young poets as Carolyn Kizer and Galway Kinnell, years before their first books; the first published writing by Charles Webb, later author of the Graduate; two poems by Janet Burroway, who was still a Barnard College undergraduate at the time and later was a Pulitzer Prize nominee for fiction; and many others. Fine in a very good dust jacket.
20. BALLARD, J.G. The Unlimited Dream Company. NY: HRW (1979). The uncorrected proof copy of the first American edition of this apocalyptic novel by the author of Crash. A Burgess 99 title, runner-up for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, and one of Pringle's Hundred Best Fantasy Novels. A fine copy in printed wrappers. Uncommon.
Inscribed by Djuna Barnes
21. BARNES, Djuna. The Selected Works of Djuna Barnes. NY: Farrar Straus Cudahy (1962). A volume collecting Spillway, a collection of stories; The Antiphon, a play; and Nightwood, a novel, and considered by many her most important work. The author revised The Antiphon for this edition; Nightwood includes the introductions written by T.S. Eliot for the first and second editions. This copy is inscribed by the author in the year of publication. Barnes was one of the important expatriate writers of the Twenties and Thirties, whose experimental fiction and poetry helped redefine the literature of the modern era. She was rediscovered by the women's movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, with all her books coming back into print at that point. Fine in an about very good dust jacket with mild spot rubbing and light soiling to white rear panel and an unobtrusive tear to the upper edge of the front panel.
22. BARNES, Julian. Talking it Over. NY: Knopf, 1991. The advance reading copy of the first American edition of this novel by the author of Flaubert's Parrot and Staring at the Sun, among others. Signed by the author. Fine in wrappers and publisher's cardstock box.
23. BARNES, Julian. Cross Channel. London: Cape (1996). A collection of stories. Tiny nick to foredge; still fine in a fine dust jacket. Signed by the author.
24. BATCHELOR, John Calvin. The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica. NY: Dial (1983). The uncorrected proof copy of his second book, a fantastic, post-holocaust novel that involves, in part, a war in the Falkland Islands but was written several years before an actual war there brought those remote islands into the consciousness of most Westerners. Pringle, who selected this as one of his hundred best science fiction novels, calls this "a post-modern epic which at times recalls some of the masterpieces of the 19th-century American novel." There was an advance reading copy in pictorial wrappers; the proof, however, is quite scarce. Fine in wrappers.
25. BAUSCH, Richard. In the Night Season. (NY): HarperFlamingo (1998). The uncorrected proof copy of the author's eighth novel. Rear cover trimmed slightly unevenly at the bottom, otherwise fine in wrappers.
26. BAXTER, Glen. The Works. (Warwick): (Wyrd Press) (1977). A collection of pieces by the artist/humorist. Reprints Fruits of the World in Danger and The Handy Guide to Amazing People, along with The Khaki, Some Drawings and The Agnes Bolt Bedside Companion. Inscribed by the author in the year of publication. Fine in wrappers.
27. (BECKETT, Samuel). No Author Better Served. Cambridge/London: Harvard U. Press, 1998. The advance reading copy. Thirty years of correspondence between Beckett and Alan Schneider, Beckett's principal producer in the U.S. and the director of the first American production of Waiting for Godot, among others. Fine in wrappers.
28. BENDER, Aimee. The Girl in the Flammable Skirt. NY: Doubleday (1998). The advance reading copy of this debut collection of stories. Fine in wrappers, with a short interview with the author laid in. Blurbs by Geoffrey Wolff and Jonathan Lethem.
29. BERENDT, John. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. NY: Random House (1994). The uncorrected proof copy of this highly praised literary nonfiction portrait of Savannah, Georgia, a surprise bestseller that went through over a hundred printings, staying on the bestseller lists for several years, and later became the basis for a movie. The first edition is quite scarce; the proof is exceedingly so. Fine in wrappers.
30. BLOOM, Amy. Love Invents Us. NY: Random House (1997). The advance reading copy of the second book, first novel, by the author of Come to Me, a National Book award nominee. Fine in wrappers, with a tiny nick in the middle of the rear cover.
31. BOWLES, Paul. Up Above the World. NY: Simon & Schuster (1966). His first novel since The Spider's House in 1955, and the only one of his novels to be set in Central America, as opposed to North Africa. Bowles is increasingly recognized as one of the most important members of the Beat generation and the postwar era in general and this is the last of his four novels. Remainder mark front pastedown; else fine in a near fine dust jacket with light wear at the spine crown.
32. BOWLES, Paul. In Touch. NY: FSG (1994). The limited edition of this collection of Bowles's letters, edited by Jeffrey Miller, his bibliographer. Of a total edition of 276 copies, this is an unnumbered copy, presumably a printer's overrun copy, signed by the author. Clothbound; fine in a fine slipcase.
33. BOWLES, Paul. Photographs. NY: Scalo (1994). Photographs by Bowles, with an essay on his art by Simon Bischoff and the text of conversations between Bischoff and Bowles from 1989-1991. Fine in a dust jacket with one open edge tear at the lower front panel and some wrinkling on the rear panel; about near fine. A little-known recent Bowles item.
34. BOWLES, Paul. The Time of Friendship. Zurich: Memory/Cage, 1995. The first separate edition of one of Bowles's most famous stories, this being one of 1500 copies, with a preface by Bowles for this edition and photographs by Vittorio Santoro. Quarto; light corner bumping; near fine without dust jacket, as issued. Uncommon.
35. (BOWLES, Paul). MRABET, Mohammed. Love with a Few Hairs. NY: Braziller (1968). First American edition of the first of the numerous volumes produced by this collaboration Mrabet dictating a story which Bowles translated from the Moghrebi and on which he presumably imposed at least some of the tale's organization and stylistic flourishes. A very fine copy in a fine dust jacket and quite uncommon thus.
36. (BOWLES, Paul). EBERHARDT, Isabelle. The Oblivion Seekers. San Francisco: City Lights (1975). Bowles's translations of writings of Eberhardt who, like him, spent many years living in Arab North Africa, and eventually became a serious student of Sufism, which was quite rare at the time among Westerners. Rubbed; near fine in wrappers.
37. BRAUTIGAN, Richard. The Octopus Frontier. San Francisco: Carp Press, 1960. Brautigan's uncommon fourth book, and his third collection of poems. Although there is no indication of the size of the edition either in the book itself, in Lepper, or in the bibliography published in 1990, all of Brautigan's books that precede Confederate General From Big Sur are exceptionally scarce and seem to have either been done in very small quantities or to have disappeared over the years as such slight, fragile volumes are wont to do. This copy has some slight rubbing and the hint of a fold on the rear cover; near fine in stapled wrappers.
38. BRAUTIGAN, Richard. A Confederate General from Big Sur. NY: Grove (1964). His first novel. Brautigan's writings influenced an entire generation and, although he fell out of literary favor for a time culminating in his suicide in 1984 there has been a resurgence of interest in his writings as he has come to be seen as an American original whose sense of humor and whimsy epitomized the innocence and aspirations of his time. Fine in a very near fine, mildly spine-tanned dust jacket with a small ink price on the front flap. A very attractive copy of a book that seldom shows up in fine condition.
39. BRAUTIGAN, Richard. Trout Fishing in America/The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster/In Watermelon Sugar. NY: Delacorte Press (1969). A review copy of the first combined edition and, other than the scarce signed limited editions of the latter two titles, the first hardcover appearances of all three. Fine in a very near fine, mildly tanned dust jacket.
40. BRAUTIGAN, Richard. Rommel Drives on Deep Into Egypt. NY: Delacorte (1970). The hardcover issue of this collection of poetry. Ink smudge to top corner of foredge; near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
41. BRAUTIGAN, Richard. The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966. NY: Simon & Schuster (1971). The uncommon hardcover edition of this novel. Fine in a near fine, spine-faded dust jacket, with a reader response card laid in.
42. BRAUTIGAN, Richard. Revenge of the Lawn. Stories 1962-1970. NY: Simon & Schuster (1971). A story collection. This is the hardcover issue. Fine in a fine dust jacket. A very nice copy.
43. BRAUTIGAN, Richard. The Hawkline Monster. NY: Simon & Schuster (1974). The first of Brautigan's several "genre" novels inventive takes on established conventions in fiction, this one being, as he called it, "A Gothic Western." Fine in a mildly edge-sunned, else fine dust jacket. While not an uncommon title, it is somewhat uncommon in fine condition, and this is an especially tight, crisp copy.
44. BRAUTIGAN, Richard. Dreaming of Babylon. (NY): Delacorte/Lawrence (1977). Another of his genre novels, this being subtitled "A Private Eye Novel, 1942." Fine in a very near fine dust jacket.
45. BROWN, Frederic. Space on My Hands. Chicago: Shasta (1951). A humorous science fiction novel by the author of Night of the Jabberwock, The Screaming Mimi and The Fabulous Clipjoint, among others. Some offsetting to spine cloth but still near fine in a near fine, mildly spine-darkened jacket. A very nice copy. Signed by the author. Books signed by Brown are uncommon.
46. BRUNNER, John. Stand on Zanzibar. Garden City: Doubleday, 1968. First edition of this massive, award-winning science fiction novel, which envisioned a future dominated by large corporations and the mass media, as humanity approached the 21st century. One of Pringle's 100 best science fiction novels and a nominee for the 1968 Nebula Award, as well as winner of the 1969 Hugo. This is a near fine copy in a very good dust jacket, which is rubbed at the edges. One of the key science fiction novels of the 1960s which was an especially vital period for the genre this is an important book which, because of its unlaminated dust jacket, seldom turns up in fine shape. A reasonably attractive copy.
47. BURKE, James Lee. Two for Texas. (Huntington): (Cahill) (1992). The publisher's archive for this reissue, which was the first hardcover edition of this historical novel, published as a paperback original a decade earlier, well before the author's critical and commercial success with his Dave Robicheaux mystery novels. This edition had a new introduction by Burke on the writing of historical novels such as this one. The archive includes the printer's blue proofs signed by Burke; nine original Joe Servello woodcuts plus mock-ups of both the title page and the tailpiece; two author "check copies" of the volume consisting of folded & gathered sheets laid into the boards, each signed by Burke and illustrator Joe Servello on the colophon, and one signed by Burke on the title page; and one autograph note signed by Burke, which spans three post-it notes. All elements fine. Unique.
48. BURKE, James Lee. Dixie City Jam. NY: Hyperion (1994). The limited edition of this title, the seventh in his award-winning Dave Robicheaux series. One of 1,525 numbered copies signed by the author. These copies were given away as promotional items at a booksellers' convention, much the way glossy softcover advance reading copies often are. Clothbound, fine in a (slightly dusty) cloth slipcase.
49. BURKE, James Lee. Sunset Limited. NY: Doubleday (1998). The advance reading copy of his most recent novel, a return to the Dave Robicheaux series, after his first departure from that series in over a decade, Cimarron Rose, which won him his second Edgar Award. Near fine in wrappers, with nine pages of publicity material laid in.
50. BURROUGHS, William. White Subway. London: Aloes (n.d.)[1973]. One of 1000 copies. Only issued in wrappers. Signed by Burroughs in 1997. Previously published Burroughs pieces. Also includes "Burroughs in Tangier" by Paul Bowles. Trace foredge foxing; else fine. Protected in a glassine wrapper that has preserved this copy in exceptional condition, which is unusual for this title.