Author's First Books, M
258. MACLEAN, Norman. A River Runs Through It. Chicago: U. of Chicago (1976). Review copy of Maclean's first book, a collection of related angling stories that became an award-winning film. Maclean was a professor at the University of Chicago for many years, and had told versions of these stories, over the years, to a number of people who encouraged him, finally, to write them down. He was nearing eighty when he did, and the University of Chicago Press agreed to publish the collection--the first book of "fiction" ever published by the press. A glowing review in an angling journal and the subsequent word-of-mouth led to an increasing demand for the book and the rest, as they say, is history: it was reprinted numerous times, in various formats--with an illustrated "gift edition" done soon after, a trade paperback and even, eventually, a fine press signed limited edition. The first printing was only 1577 copies and has been scarce and highly sought after for years. Review copies, as might be expected, are genuinely rare. Fine in a near fine dust jacket, internally tape-strengthened at spine crown and with slight fading to the spine. With author photo laid in.
259. MAJOR, Clarence. All-Night Visitors. NY: Olympia Press (1969). Advance review copy of the author's scarce first book, a cross between erotica and the experimental fiction for which he would gain a considerable reputation several years later as one of the mainstays of the Fiction Collective. Near fine in slightly rubbed, price-clipped dust jacket.
260. MALOUF, David. Bicycle and Other Poems. (Queensland): University of Queensland Press (1970). The first book by this Australian writer, who began writing as a poet but has since become better known as a novelist. Number 1 in the Paperback Poets series. Slight foxing to page edges, otherwise fine in wrappers and inscribed by the author in 1976. An uncommon first book.
261. MALOUF, David. Johnno. (Queensland): U. of Queensland Press (1975). The correct first edition of his first novel. Owner name on verso of half title; near fine in near fine, spine-faded dust jacket. Scarce.
262. MANDEL, George. Flee the Angry Strangers. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill (1952). Subtitled "A Novel of Drug Addicts and Their World," this book is considered by some to be the first true Beat novel--a tale of a young girl who runs away to Greenwich Village, where she eventually becomes addicted to heroin. Minor foxing to page edges; near fine in a dust jacket with wear at the extremities, still about near fine.
263. MARKUS, Julia. La Mora. Washington, D.C.: Decatur House Press (1976). Her first book, published in an edition of 1000 copies in wrappers. Markus later won a Houghton Mifflin Fellowship for her novella Uncle. Light rubbing to glossy silver wrappers; else fine. Signed by the author.
264. MARQUAND, J.P. The Unspeakable Gentleman. NY: Scribner, 1922. First book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Late George Apley as well as the Mr. Moto novels. Foxing and offsetting to endpapers; else very good in a dust jacket with light chipping to the extremities and a couple of small holes to the front flap fold.
265. MARSHALL, Paule. Brown Girl, Brownstones. NY: Random House (1959). Review copy of the first book by this African-American author, predating her critical and commercial "breakthrough novel" by two decades. Marshall was one of the very few black women writers able to get published during the Fiftites, Sixties and early Seventies. Fine in fine dust jacket, with review slip laid in. A beautiful copy of an important first book; very scarce.
266. MARTIN, Valerie. Love. Amherst: Lynx House Press, 1977. The first book, a collection of stories, by the author of Mary Reilly and The Great Divorce, among others. Light rubbing along the front spine fold; else fine in wrappers. No indication of there having been a hardcover edition.
267. MARTIN, Valerie. Set in Motion. NY: FSG (1978). Her second book, first novel. Anne Tyler and Walker Percy blurbs. Short split at upper front corner; near fine in a dust jacket that has some slight overall soiling and a bit of wear to the spine extremities.
268. MASO, Carole. Ghost Dance. San Francisco: North Point, 1986. The first book by this author whose genius seems to be in portraying not only the external forces that dissolve bonds between people but the internal forces, the acts of will and love and creativity, that can hold them together. Fine in fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
269. MASON, Bobbie Ann. Shiloh and Other Stories. NY: Harper & Row (1982). Her first book of fiction, a collection of stories that was commonly characterized as "K-Mart fiction"--stories about ordinary, working class Americans, the kind of people you'd run into in a K-Mart department store. A highly praised debut. Very near fine in like dust jacket.
270. -. Same title, the first British edition (London: Chatto & Windus, 1983). Fine in fine dust jacket and inscribed by the author.
271. MATTHIESSEN, Peter. Race Rock. London: Secer & Warburg, 1954. The First British edition of the author's first novel, published just after he returned from Paris, where he helped found the Paris Review. Fine in very near fine, price-clipped dust jacket with just the slightest spine darkening and traces of wear at the extremities. In our experience, this is a very uncommon edition, considerably scarcer than the U.S. edition. A very nice copy.
272. (MAXWELL, William). "The Sleeping Beauty" in Illini Poetry, 1924-1929. Champaign: U. of Illinois Supply Store, 1929. Maxwell's first book appearance, printing a 14-page poem, which was the Prize Poem for 1929. Maxwell has been called "the greatest living American writer" by one book trade publication, and has been a fiction edition at The New Yorker for many years. Foxing to page edges but otherwise very near fine, lacking the dust jacket (if there was one). A nice copy of a scarce item.
273. McCARTHY, Cormac. The Orchard Keeper. NY: Random House (1965). McCarthy's first book, which won a Faulkner Foundation Award for best first novel of the year. Although the book was successful enough to go into a second printing, fewer than 3000 copies were sold in total, and it was a quarter century before McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and brought him recognition beyond the small, passionate circle of devotees who had been reading him and collecting his books all along. This book is notorious for several flaws: the front flap tends to detach at the fold, from slightly excessive scoring in the bindery, and the white jacket is susceptible to yellowing and soiling. This is a fine copy in a near fine dust jacket, very slightly tanned on the spine.
274. McCOY, Horace. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? NY: Simon & Schuster, 1935. First edition of his first book, which was made into a memorable movie more than three decades later. Like Chandler and Hammett, McCoy had written for the hard-boiled pulp magazine Black Mask, and his writing effectively conveys the dark side of contemporary society--the desperation and latent violence. This is a near fine copy in a very good dust jacket with some small interior tape repairs. Becuase of its construction, a very difficult title to find in jacket at all. In addition, this copy is inscribed by the author to a Hollywood columnist "whose kindness to an unknown' is a Hollywood tradition -- with gratitude and admiration" and dated in August of the year of publication. An exceptional copy.
275. McCRACKEN, Elizabeth. The Giant's House. (NY): Dial Press (1996). The first novel by this author whose first book Here's Your Hat, What's Your Hurry won her a place on the Granta list of the top 20 young American authors. This book was nominated for the National Book Award. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
276. McDONALD, Gregory. Running Scared. NY: Obolensky (1964). First edition of the first book by the author of the popular "Fletch" detective series. A thriller. Very good in a very good, rubbed dust jacket.
277. McELROY, Joseph. A Smuggler's Bible. NY: Harcourt Brace World (1966). His uncommon first book. Corner creasing and paperclip imprint to first few pages and minor wear to cloth at spine extremities; a very good copy in an unfaded, very good dust jacket with a few short edge tears.
278. -. Same title, the advance reading copy in yellow printed wrappers. Title on spine in magic marker; very good.
279. -. Same title, an Avon paperback reprint (NY: Bard, 1977). Warmly inscribed by the author: "Dear ____,/ We have smuggled in/ two new letters. Can/ you find them?/ love,/ Joe." Two slight corrections to the text in McElroy's hand. Very near fine in wrappers.
280. McEWAN, Ian. First Love, Last Rites. NY: Random House (1975). First American edition of the author's first book, a collection of stories. A bit of spotting to the top edges of the pages, otherwise fine in a fine dust jacket.
281. McFARLAND, Dennis. The Music Room. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. The author's highly praised first book. Fine in fine dust jacket and signed by the author. Eudora Welty, Frank Conroy blurbs, among others.
282. -. Same title, the advance reading copy. Fine in wrappers.
283. McGUANE, Thomas. The Sporting Club. NY: Simon & Schuster (1969). Uncorrected proof copy of the author's first book. Tall, pad-bound wrappers, with glue strip spine. A very fragile format and the earliest state of his first book to have surfaced. McGuane was the first of the contemporary writers who have turned the state of Montana into a latter-day American Bloomsbury, with perhaps the highest per capita concentration of writers anywhere in the country. This is a fine copy, in a custom clamshell box.
284. -. Same title, the trade edition. Remainder stripe bottom edge of pages and a couple of small ink numbers upper corner of the front free endpaper; overall near fine in dust jacket and signed by the author.
285. McINERNEY, Jay. Bright Lights, Big City. NY: Vintage Contemporaries (1984). His first book, published as a paperback original in the then-new Vintage Contemporaries series. The success of this title--both the critical reception it got and the sales engendered as a result of its good reviews--helped to make the new publishing venture a success, and it was soon emulated by "quality" paperback lines from virtually all the other major publishers. Read; about near fine in wrappers.
286. McMURTRY, Larry. Horseman, Pass By. NY: Harper (1961). McMurtry's first book, one of A.C. Greene's "50 best books on Texas," and basis for the movie Hud, one of the defining films of the Sixties. Inscribed by the author. Mild abrasion to front flyleaf and offsetting to half title; near fine in near fine dust jacket with minor rubbing to spine and mild wear at extremities.
287. McNICKLE, D'Arcy. The Surrounded. NY: Dodd, Mead (1936). McNickle's first book, and a landmark American Indian novel, one of the early books to address questions of assimilation and alienation from both the white way of life and traditional tribal culture. By consensus the most important novel by an American Indian prior to the literary renaissance that began in 1968 with N. Scott Momaday's Pulitzer Prize-winning House Made of Dawn. This is a fine copy, lacking the rare dust jacket.
288. McPHERSON, James Alan. Hue and Cry. Boston: Atlantic-Little Brown (1969). First edition of this African-American author's first book, a collection of stories that defied the mold of late 1960s' black writing by refusing to yield to the easy temptation to substitute political diatribe for literary accomplishment and postured anger for real, human feelings. A lengthy blurb on the dust jacket from Ralph Ellison--author of Invisible Man, perhaps the most acclaimed African-American novel of the 20th century--lionizes McPherson for precisely his literary accomplishment, on its own terms, unaided by the winds of political correctness. McPherson's second collection, Elbow Room, won the Pulitzer Prize and together these two volumes stand as one of the high spots of African-American writing of the postwar era. After two collections of stories, McPherson has written very little, and published no fiction of which we are aware. This copy is fine in a near fine dust jacket and signed by the author. A very scarce signature.
289. -. Another copy, unsigned. Fine in a near fine dust jacket.
290. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. Label residue to lower wrappers; else a fine copy. An extremely scarce proof: the only copy we've ever seen.
291. -. Same title, the first British edition (London: Macmillan, 1969). Fine in a lightly soiled near fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
292. 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 a surprise bestseller. Fine in plain blue wrappers. Signed by the author.
293. MEWSHAW, Michael. Man in Motion. NY: Random House (1970). The author's first novel, inscribed by him in the month after publication to another writer and his wife "with warmest regards -- and acute envy for their current year in southern France." Near fine in near fine dust jacket.
294. MICHAELS, Leonard. Going Places. NY: FSG (1969). His first book, a collection of stories, which was nominated for the National Book Award. William Styron and John Hawkes blurbs, among others. Top edges of cloth and jacket sunned; else fine, and inscribed by the author.
295. MILLER, Arthur. Situation Normal... NY: Reynal & Hitchcock (1944). First book by the acclaimed playwright, author of The Crucible and Death of a Salesman, among others. Published during wartime and exhibiting the usual characteristics of such books, which were printed on thin, cheap paper, this is a near fine copy in a mildly spine-faded dust jacket.
296. MILLHAUSER, Stephen. Edwin Mullhouse: The Life and Death of an American Writer 1943-1954. NY: Knopf, 1972. Acclaimed first book by this author whose most recent was a National Book Award nominee. This is a fine copy in a dust jacket that is lightly dust soiled and has a faint sticker removal shadow on the front panel but is still near fine. A nice copy of a book that, because of its soft paper jacket, usually shows up frayed and rubbed.
297. MINOT, Susan. Monkeys. NY: Dutton (1986). Her first book, a well-received novel that was quickly reprinted. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
298. -. Another copy. Slight abrasion to front endpaper; else fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
299. MITCHELL, Margaret. Gone with the Wind. NY: Macmillan (1936). Advance copy of her first and only book, a runaway bestseller, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and basis for one of the most successful films of all time. This copy consists of unbound signatures of the book sent out for review to a St. Louis reviewer. The top sheet is torn and has been professionally repaired. The title page has a tear and evidence of a tape repair there. Otherwise a very good set, and a true rarity. Only a handful of these have ever shown up on the market. In an attractive custom clamshell box.
300. MO, Timothy. The Monkey King. (London): Deutsch (1978). The author's highly praised first novel, winner of the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket. Very scarce.
301. MOJTABAI, A.G. Mundome. NY: Simon & Schuster (1974). Her first book, a novel. Fine in fine dust jacket and warmly inscribed by the author in 1976: For ____/ a dream in which one/ knows one is dreaming but/ still can't wake up -/ You've been here too?/ Grace/ (A. G. Mojtabai)."
302. MOMADAY, N. Scott. House Made of Dawn. NY: Harper & Row (1968). His second book, first novel. One of the most acclaimed American Indian novels ever and the first to attempt to fuse a fully conscious political awareness with an appreciation of the "order and beauty," as Momaday writes, of Native American culture and worldview. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. This copy is inscribed by the author in the year of publication, to a colleague at UC Santa Barbara, Momaday's first academic employer. The recipient was then instrumental in Momaday's moving to UC Berkeley, where he spent many years before returning to his alma mater, Stanford. Very uncommon with a contemporary presentation and this is a significant association. Near fine in dust jacket.
303. -. Another copy, unsigned. Near fine in dust jacket.
304. -. Same title, the first British edition (London: Gollancz, 1969). Near fine in dust jacket. An attractive design, quite different from the American edition, and a very scarce edition of this title.
305. (MOMADAY, N. Scott). The Complete Poems of Frederick Goddard Tuckerman. NY: Oxford University Press, 1965. Edited, and with an introduction by Momaday, and preceding his first book by two years. With a critical foreword by Yvor Winters. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with one tiny edge chip.
306. MOODY, Rick. Garden State. Wainscott: Pushcart (1993). The author's first book, a novel which won the 1991 Pushcart Press Editors' award. This is the scarce hardcover edition. Small spot on foredge, otherwise fine in jacket.
307. -. Same title, the issue in wrappers. Fine.
308. MOORE, Brian. The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne. Bos: LB (1955). First American edition of his first book to be published in hardcover (he had several pseudonymous paperback originals earlier). Very good in a dust jacket that is spine-darkened and with modest edgewear, and inscribed by the author.
309. MOORE, Lorrie. Self-Help. NY: Knopf, 1985. First book, a collection of stories, by this Granta 20 author. Fine in fine dust jacket. A highly praised and now somewhat scarce debut.
310. MORGAN, Berry. Pursuit. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966. Her first book, winner of a Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship Award. Warmly inscribed by the author to "one of the few great men of medicine of the Twentieth Century..." Slight foxing to cloth; near fine in a heavily foxed, very good jacket with a couple of closed edge tears. A Southern novel, compared by the publisher to Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood and Carson McCullers's The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Long Walker Percy blurb on rear dust jacket flap. An uncommon book signed or inscribed.
311. MORGAN, Seth. Dead Man Walkin'. NY: Random House (1990). Uncorrected proof copy of his award-winning first novel. The original title, Dead Man Walkin', is inked out on the front cover (but not on the rear or the title page), with the later published title, Homeboy, written in. A well-received novel which had already earned something of a cult following when its author was killed in a violent incident characteristic of the seedy street culture he chronicled in his novel. A few light spots to rear wrapper, else fine.
312. MORRELL, David. First Blood. NY: M. Evans (1972). The author's first book, a well-written adventure novel of a Vietnam vet, which introduced the "Rambo" character into American culture long before the movie of that name. Fine in near fine jacket with light edgewear.
313. MORRIS, Mary. Vanishing Animals & Other Stories. Boston: Godine (1979). Her first book, a collection of stories that won an award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Inscribed by the author in the year of publication on the half-title, and additionally signed by her in 1991 on the title page. Fine in near fine dust jacket bumped at spine crown. Tim O'Brien and Joyce Carol Oates blurbs, among others.
314. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. Spine and lower rear panel abraded from label removal; still about near fine in wrappers. Signed by the author.
315. 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 recent successful movie. Fine in fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
316. MUNRO, Alice. Dance of the Happy Shades. (Toronto): Ryerson (1968). First edition of the author's first book, a collection of stories which won the Governor General's Award, Canada's highest literary honor. This is a fine copy in a very slightly spine-sunned but still fine, first state dust jacket, without the award seal. A beautiful copy of an uncommon first book, by a writer who has only recently begun to receive public recognition on a par with the critical esteem in which her work has been held for many years.