Author's First Books, E-G
123. EDGERTON, Clyde. Raney. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 1985. The author's elusive first book, one of the early literary debuts from this influential Southern press. Inscribed by the author in the year of publication on the front flyleaf. Small patch of white-out on the flyleaf, else fine in a fine dust jacket.
124. EGAN, Jennifer. Emerald City. (London): Picador (1993). The true first edition of her highly praised first book, a collection of stories, which was published in England prior to its release in the U.S. despite the fact that the author is American and lives in the U.S. Fine in fine dust jacket.
125. EHRLICH, Gretel. The Solace of Open Spaces. (NY): Viking (1985). Her first book of prose, a collection of related essays on the contemporary West and the natural world, in particular the author's adopted home state of Wyoming. Blurbs by Edward Abbey, Ivan Doig, Annie Dillard, Edward Hoagland and Tracy Kidder. Faint stain to lower board, hence near fine in a fine dust jacket. A nice copy of a highly praised book that has become somewhat scarce recently.
126. ELKIN, Stanley. Boswell. NY: Random House (1964). The debut of one of the few writers who was admired by, and influenced, writers of both the "postmodern" and "realistic" schools of American fiction. Attractive bookplate on front pastedown, mostly under jacket flap. Fine in a near fine jacket slightly crimped at the crown and with two pending edge tears at the lower back panel.
127. ELLIS, Bret Easton. Less Than Zero. NY: Simon & Schuster (1985). Uncorrected proof copy of this first book which, together with Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City, helped define the literary "Brat Pack" of the 1980s-- considered the representative voices of a new generation. Later made into a movie. Fine in wrappers, with publisher's letter laid in.
128. -. Same title, a review copy of the trade edition. Fine in a fine dust jacket, with two pages of densely written reviewer's notes laid in.
129. ELLISON, Ralph. Invisible Man. NY: Random House (1952). His landmark first novel, which won the National Book Award and is widely considered one of the most important African-American novels ever. In a poll conducted in 1965, 200 critics, authors and editors judged Invisible Man to be "the most distinguished single work" published in the previous 20 years. Near fine in a very good dust jacket with shallow chipping (up to about 1/4") at the spine extremities.
130. ERDRICH, Louise. Jacklight. NY: Holt Rinehart Winston (1984). An advance review copy of the author's first regularly published book, which was only issued in wrappers. According to a letter she wrote shortly after publication, the book was declined by 19 publishers before Holt Rinehart Winston decided to give it a chance, along with her first novel, Love Medicine, which was published later that year. But even Holt apparently wanted to keep costs as low as possible when publishing a first collection of poetry by a largely unknown writer, and didn't issue a clothbound edition. This is a fine copy with a review slip on which the price has been changed from $7.95 to $6.95.
131. ERDRICH, Louise. Love Medicine. NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston (1984). Her first novel, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the L.A. Times Award for Best Novel of the Year. Critical acclaim for this novel was instantaneous and unanimous, and it was reprinted several times quickly. Love Medicine was the first in a sequence of novels that is ongoing and has, to date, included four books. All have been well-received, and each has had a larger first printing than the last: Erdrich has come to be one of the most commercially successful literary authors writing in America today. She has collaborated, explicitly, with her husband Michael Dorris on two books, and has said in interviews that they work closely together on all their writing. Erdrich's commercial success has helped pave the way for the publication of other Native American woman writers, such as Linda Hogan and Susan Power. Like other Native American writing, Erdrich's writing is infused with a sense of myth derived from American Indian traditions even as it uses the Western forms of poetry and the novel to contain and shape the images. Near fine in price-clipped dust jacket.
132. ERICKSON, Steve. Days Between Stations. NY: Poseidon (1985). The author's inventive first book, a novel that was widely compared to Thomas Pynchon's writing. Fine in a near fine dust jacket and signed by the author. No remainder stamp.
133. EXLEY, Frederick. A Fan's Notes. NY: Harper & Row (1968). The author's first book, a fictional memoir and one of the defining books of the Sixties, which helped blur the line between fiction and nonfiction much the way the New Journalism of that era did. This is a very near fine copy in similar dust jacket.
134. FARIÑA, Richard. An Archive of Correspondence Relating to his First Story Accepted for Publication. A file consisting of one long typed letter signed by Fariña, two short autograph letters signed, the typed contract signed by Fariña giving permission to publish "With a Copy of Dylan Under My Arm" in New Campus Writing III, along with retained carbons of associated correspondence. Dated December 8, 1958 to December 12, 1959.
Fariña's first and only novel--Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me, published in 1966--featured an irreverent, pot-smoking anti-establishment protagonist, Gnossos Pappadopolos, who bridged the gap between the beatniks of the Fifties and the hippies of the late Sixties. In 1958, Fariña was a student at Cornell, working on the literary magazine, studying with James McConkey, and writing. One of his stories, originally printed in The Cornell Writer, is here provisionally accepted for publication (space permitting), and Fariña's permission is sought, as well as biographical information. He responds with a letter sketching his life history, including having written a novel that "is at present suffering a third revision." While he seems very pleased to be selected for publication in a literary collection (he downplays a later acceptance of one of his stories by Ladies Home Journal as being commercial and nonliterary), a year later, after the book has been published and he still has not received a check for his work, his tone is rather peeved.
Fariña was one of the pivotal literary figures of the Sixties--the embodiment of hip, and always at the center of the action. Thomas Pynchon attended Cornell at the same time as Fariña and was a friend and admirer of Fariña who, as a folk singer with his wife Mimi (Joan Baez's sister), was at the center of the protest movement that later evolved into the Sixties counterculture. It is said that Bob Dylan's song, "Positively 4th Street" ("...you've got a lot of nerve, to say you are my friend...") was aimed at Fariña. In part because of his early death--in a motorcycle accident on the way to the publication party for his novel--he has retained a mystique as an archetypal romantic figure of the era, and thus as a writer whose influence and importance are much greater than the volume of his literary output would suggest. Manuscript or autograph material of Fariña's is practically unheard of. This archive is a unique glimpse at the pivotal moment of first publication for one of the most important writers of a generation.
135. FITZGERALD, F. Scott. This Side of Paradise. NY: Scribner, 1920. First edition of Fitzgerald's first book, an autobiographical novel of youthful ideals and disillusion that helped define the jazz age and perfectly captured the tenor of postwar America, becoming both a critical success and a huge bestseller, going through fourteen printings in the first two years. Virtually overnight, Fitzgerald became both a celebrity and extremely wealthy--a success which he never duplicated with another of his books, and which he never quite lived up to thereafter, or recovered from. The first printing was 3000 copies and is very scarce. This is a near fine copy, with the spine gilt still quite bright, inscribed by Fitzgerald in the year of publication. One of the most auspicious debuts in 20th century American literature, and very uncommon signed or inscribed.
136. FORD, Richard. A Piece of My Heart. New York: Harper & Row (1976). The first book by the author of the recent Pulitzer Prize winner Independence Day. Corners mildly bumped and a slight crease to flyleaf; else fine in a very near fine dust jacket with light wear at spine base. Inscribed by the author. An attractive copy of a now-scarce first book.
137. -. Same title, the advance reading copy. Slight spotting to page edges and top edge of front cover, but still a crisp, fine copy in illustrated wrappers. A very nice copy of an important debut.
138. -. Same title, the first British edition (London: Collins Harvill, 1987), published more than a decade later, after the success of his novel The Sportswriter, which was the precursor to Independence Day. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
139. FOWLES, John. The Collector. Boston: Little Brown (1963). First American edition of his second novel. Fine in near fine, price-clipped dust jacket, with a bit of rubbing at the top of front spinefolds. A very nice copy of this first book--which remains one of the small handful of successful fictional treatments of the passion for collecting taken to an extreme, and which was also made into a memorable movie.
140. FRANZEN, Jonathan. The Twenty-Seventh City. NY: FSG (1988). Advance review copy of the ambitious first book by this Granta-20 author. Fine in fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
141. GADDIS, William. The Recognitions. NY: Harcourt Brace (1955). The advance reading copy of his first novel, which received wildly mixed reviews upon publication and proceeded to sink into obscurity until the early Sixties, when a small literary journal in Greenwich Village single-handedly resurrected the novel, declaring it an under-appreciated masterpiece. The book was reissued at that time, with a number of revisions by the author, and the critical consensus is now that the book is indeed one of the great American novels of the postwar era. Two of Gaddis's other three books have won the National Book Award. Mildly spine-sunned but otherwise fine in wrappers. An exceptionally nice copy of this massive and fragile volume, of which reportedly only 220 copies were printed.
142. -. Same title, the second edition (NY: World/Meridian, 1962), reissued at the time that Jack Green's newsletter was rekindling interest in this book, and incorporating hundreds of corrections that the author made to the text for this edition. Near fine in wrappers. It was not until two years later, in 1964, that a hardcover edition comprising this text was published in the U.S.
143. -. Same title, the first British edition (London: MacGibbon & Kee, n.d.[1962]) and the first hardcover edition incorporating the changes Gaddis made for the World Publishing Co. edition of 1962. One of an edition of only 1500 copies. Fine in near fine dust jacket with light wear to spine extremities. This copy does not have the inked out copyright information that frequently appears on copies of the U.K. edition that show up in the U.S.
144. GAITSKILL, Mary. Bad Behavior. NY: Poseidon (1988). Her first book, a highly praised collection of stories. Upper corners bumped; near fine in fine dust jacket and signed by the author. Blurbs by Madison Smartt Bell, Alice Munro, Alice Adams, and others.
145. GALLANT, Mavis. Green Water, Green Sky. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1959. First American edition of this Canadian author's first novel, second book. Stamp of the Thomas Merton Center in Canada on front flyleaf; else fine in a very good, price-clipped dust jacket. Uncommon.
146. -. Same title, the first British edition (London: Deutsch, 1960). Previous owner gift inscription front flyleaf; else near fine in very good, internally tape-repaired dust jacket with mild discoloration on rear panel.
147. GARCIA, Cristina. Dreaming in Cuban. NY: Knopf, 1992. Uncorrected proof copy of the well-received first novel by this Cuban writer. Fine in wrappers.
148. GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ, Gabriel. La Hojarasca. BogotÁ: Ediciones S.L.B., 1955. First edition of the Nobel Prize winner's first book, a short novel published in the U.S. as "Leaf Storm" in the collection Leaf Storm and Other Stories. Set in the fictional town of Macondo, where much of his later fiction also takes place, the book covers three boom-and-bust decades in the town's history. The "leaf storm" of the title refers to the human "trash" which is blown into town in prosperity and out at decline. An extremely scarce and important title in the modern history of Latin American literature. Although the colophon indicates 4000 copies were printed, they were retrieved from the printer only as they were paid for, and as the publisher was experiencing financial difficulties, this was irregularly at best over the course of several years. It is assumed that eventually unpaid-for copies were either pulped or otherwise lost. The manifest rarities of the book and García's own statements--he has been quoted as saying that prior to the success of One Hundred Years of Solitude none of his books had sold more than 700 copies--support such a scenario. The endpapers and page edges have some light foxing, the covers have some minor rubbing and creasing; very good in self-wraps.
149. GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ, Gabriel. No One Writes to the Colonel. NY: Harper & Row (1968). His first book published in this country, a collection of stories that combines the contents of his second and fourth books. Bump at spine; else fine in a first issue, price-clipped dust jacket with a tiny bit of wear at two corners. Aa particularly nice copy of this title.
150. GARDNER, John and DUNLAP, Lennis. The Forms of Fiction. NY: Random House (1962). Gardner's first book, published as a textbook for college English courses. Owner name lower front flyleaf and wear to the edges and the base of the spine; an about very good copy without dust jacket, as issued. (A small number, slated for distribution to the general book trade, had plain unprinted dust jackets added to them, although we have been unable to determine conclusively if any of the copies so earmarked were from the first printing).
151. GARDNER, John. The Resurrection. NY: New American Library (1966). Gardner's first work of fiction, one of the handful of significant literary first novels that were published by NAL under the editorship of David Segal. NAL was primarily a paperback publisher, with an emphasis on mass market paperbacks and a strong commercial focus. Publishing such writers as Gardner, William Gass, Cynthia Ozick and Michael Shaara was a fairly daring step; given the scarcity of all of those first novels, it would seem that such publishing daring was at least in part counterbalanced with caution in the form of short print runs: this novel, for example, had a 2500 copy first printing. Signed by the author on the dedication page. Slight rubbing to the spine extremities, else fine in a dust jacket with a small inconspicuous stain near the crown, localized fading on the spine, and foxing on verso and at the corners of the flap folds; still about near fine. A very scarce novel, especially so signed.
152. GARDNER, Leonard. Fat City. NY: FSG (1969). Uncorrected proof copy of the author's first book, which is considered one of the great boxing novels ever written and was the basis for a well-received movie. Label removed from lower edges; near fine in tall, ringbound wrappers--a fragile format and one generally indicative of few copies having been done.
153. GASS, William H. Omensetter's Luck. (NY): New American Library (1966). First edition of his first book, another of the extraordinary literary debuts published in the mid-1960s by NAL--normally a mass-market paperback house--under the editorial direction of David Segal. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with moderate edgewear to corners and spine extremities. Laid in is an autograph letter signed, with hand-addressed envelope, to writer Jonathan Carroll (in 1973, several years before Carroll's first published novel) agreeing to visit his class. The letter is on 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" Washington University stationery, folded in thirds for mailing. Fine. A very nice copy and an excellent literary association.
154. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. Very near fine in tall, ringbound wrappers. Rare: the only copy we have ever encountered.
155. GILCHRIST, Ellen. In the Land of Dreamy Dreams. Fayetteville: U. of Arkansas Press, 1981. The simultaneous softcover issue of her uncommon first book, a collection of stories. Signed by the author. Fine in wrappers.
156. GILCHRIST, Ellen. The Annunciation. Boston: Little Brown (1983). Uncorrected proof copy of her highly praised first novel, with substantial differences between this version of the text and the final published version--including two unpublished chapters. Fine in wrappers.
157. GOLDING, William. Lord of the Flies. NY: Coward-McCann, 1955. First American edition of the Nobel Prize-winning author's landmark first book, which has been made into two different movies and which exerted a powerful influence on a generation's ideas about the fundamental characteristics of human nature. Near fine in a very good dust jacket with light rubbing at spine folds and modest wear at spine extremities. An attractive copy of this scarce and important first novel.
158. GOLDMAN, William. The Temple of Gold. NY: Knopf, 1957. The first book by the author of The Princess Bride, Marathon Man, and many others, as well as many screenplays (All the President's Men, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and others). Top edge stain faded, otherwise fine in a bright, crisp, near fine, price-clipped dust jacket. A very nice copy. Inscribed by the author. For all that Goldman is an extremely popular author and screenwriter, signed copies of his books seldom show up on the market.
159. -. Another copy, unsigned. Top stain faded; bookplate of another writer on the front flyleaf. Near fine in a near fine, spine-tanned dust jacket.
160. GOODMAN, Mitchell. The End of It. NY: Horizon Press (1961). The author's first book, an unjustly neglected novel of World War II that was later reissued in a series of undiscovered modern classics. Norman Mailer and William Carlos Williams blurbs, among others. The author was married to poet Denise Levertov. Fine in a fine dust jacket. A nice copy of a scarce book.
161. GORDIMER, Nadine. The Soft Voice of the Serpent. NY: Simon & Schuster (1952). First American edition of the South African Nobel Prize winner's first book to be published outside of her native country, a collection of stories. Near fine in a near fine, edge- and spine-tanned dust jacket with light edgewear.
162. -. Another copy. Owner name and date (1952) on front flyleaf, otherwise near fine in a dust jacket with light stains at the spine extremities and several internal tape repairs.
163. GORDON, Mary. Final Payments. NY: Random House (1978). Advance reading copy of the author's first book, a well-received novel. Fine in wrappers and inscribed by the author.
164. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. Fine in wrappers. Because of the wide distribution of the advance reading copy, this proof is relatively scarce.
165. -. Same title, an advance review copy of the trade edition. Fine in fine dust jacket and inscribed by the author.
166. GOYEN, William. The House of Breath. NY: Random House (1950). Advance review copy of his first novel, one of A.C. Greene's "Fifty Best Books on Texas" and a book which was called in France "the best thing that America has sent us this century" and in Germany was compared to the work of Flaubert, Proust and Joyce. Warmly inscribed by the author. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with some rubbing to edges and folds; review slip laid in. A very nice copy of this important first book.
167. GRAFTON, Sue. Keziah Dane. NY: Macmillan, 1967. Her first novel, preceding the acclaimed Kinsey Millhone alphabet series by well over a decade. Very near fine in dust jacket.
168. GROOM, Winston. Better Times than These. NY: Summit (1978). The author's first book, one of the self-consciously "big" novels of the Vietnam War--in the style of such World War II novels as The Naked and The Dead and From Here to Eternity. Inscribed by the author in the year of publication. Fine in a dust jacket with one edge tear. A nice copy of a book that, because of its unlaminated dust jackey most often shows up looking shabby and well-worn. The author has since become well-known for the movie adaptation of his novel, Forrest Gump.
169. GRUMBACH, Doris. The Spoil of the Flowers. Garden City: Doubleday, 1962. Her first book, a very scarce title by a writer who has gone on to become one of the most respected authors of her generation. Grumbach has said that her first two books only sold a few hundred copies each, with the remainder of the editions having been destroyed. Near fine in a very good dust jacket rubbed along the folds, and at the spine crown. Inscribed by the author in the year of publication. An uncommon and important first book.
170. GUTERSON, David. The Country Ahead of Us, the Country Behind. NY: Harper & Row (1989). The author's first book of fiction, a collection of stories. Tiny ink spot top edge of front board; still very near fine in a fine dust jacket with two small crimps at the upper edge of the front panel. Signed by Guterson. Reportedly, nearly half the edition was destroyed in a warehouse accident. Guterson recently won the PEN Faulkner Award for his first novel and was selected as one of Granta's 20 best young American authors.
171. GYSIN, Brion. To Master, A Long Goodnight. NY: Creative Age Press (1946). The first book, a historical narrative of the life of the slave who was the basis for "Uncle Tom" in Harriet Beecher Stowe's classic novel and, by extension, a comment on that novel and its historical significance. Gysin is more well-known for his Beat writings and artwork, and as the longtime companion of and collaborator with William Burroughs. Near fine in a very good, spine-tanned dust jacket with a few small chips along the upper edge.