Author's First Books, N-R
318. NELSON, Kent. The Straight Man. (Berkeley): Creative Arts Book Co. (1978). Little-known first book, a hardboiled mystery issued only in paperback. This is a very close to fine copy in wrappers.
319. NORMAN, Howard. The Northern Lights. NY: Summit (1987). His first novel and his first National Book Award nominee. Remainder stripe; else fine in a near fine dust jacket with two faint spots of dampstaining on the rear panel. Jacket blurbs by Peter Matthiessen, Barry Lopez, Ursula LeGuin, Louise Erdrich, David Mamet, others. Signed by the author.
320. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. Fine in blue printed wrappers.
321. NOVA, Craig. Turkey Hash. NY: Harper & Row (1972). His first book, a novel. Fine in fine dust jacket, and inscribed by the author.
322. NUNN, Kem. Tapping the Source. NY: Delacorte (1984). Advance review copy of Nunn's first novel, set in the surfing subculture of Southern California. A nominee for the American Book Award. Fine in fine dust jacket, with publisher's photo and promotional sheet laid in. A beautiful copy of a book that is seldom found in such condition.
323. -. Another copy, not a review copy. Fine in a dust jacket with trace wear to the spine extremities; else fine. Signed by the author in 1988.
324. O'BRIEN, Flann. At Swim-Two-Birds. (NY): Pantheon (1939). First American edition, actually published in 1951. Small corner chip page 11; else fine in a slightly dusty, near fine dust jacket.
325. O'BRIEN, John. Leaving Las Vegas. (Wichita): Watermark Press (1990). The author's first and only book, an autobiographical novel that was the basis for the acclaimed movie. Fine in dust jacket and signed by the author. O'Brien died shortly after completing this book, and signed copies are quite uncommon.
326. O'BRIEN, Tim. If I Die in a Combat Zone. (n.p.): Delacorte Press (1973). 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. A little sunning to the board edges, but a fine copy in a fine dust jacket with a slight hint of crimping to the spine. An extraordinary copy of one of the scarcest first books of the past 30 years.
327. -. Same title, the first British edition (London: Calder & Boyars, 1973). A little edge sunning to boards; otherwise fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
328. -. Another copy of the British edition. Fine in a near fine, price-clipped jacket, with one spot to the front upper edge that is mostly noticeable on the verso.
329. O'CONNOR, Robert. Buffalo Soldiers. NY: Knopf, 1993. Uncorrected proof copy of his highly praised first book, which was compared to Catch-22 and which also won him a place on the Granta 20 list. Fine in wrappers.
330. O'HANLON, Redmond. Joseph Conrad and Charles Darwin. Atlantic Highlands: Humanities (1984). First American edition of his first book, a work of criticism that focuses on "the influence of scientific thought on Conrad's fiction," and is an outgrowth of his thesis "Changing Scientific Concepts of Nature in the English Novel, 1850-1920." O'Hanlon has gone on to become one of the acclaimed travel writers and essayists of our time. Near fine in very good, lightly frayed dust jacket. An uncommon first book.
331. OLSEN, Tillie. Tell Me a Riddle. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1961. The author's first book, a highly praised collection of stories. This is the scarce hardcover issue, reportedly done in an edition of about 300 copies. Warmly inscribed by the author in the year of publication, under the front flap: "For _____ -/ His book by right of his nurturing care and concern -/ In unforgetting indebtedness of love -." Near fine in a spine-sunned, near fine jacket, worn at the base of the spine. A very scarce book, and exceptionally so inscribed.
332. OLSON, Charles. Call Me Ishmael. NY: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1947. Olson's first trade publication, a long essay on the meaning of Melville's Moby Dick, warmly inscribed by the author. Olson was one of the leading figures in the literary avant garde that arose out of Black Mountain College--one of the most influential cultural centers of postwar America--where he was an instructor and rector from 1951 until 1956, when it closed. Mild foxing to foredge; near fine in a very good dust jacket with a few chips and short tears. An important first book, by an author whose poetry and essays--in particular, his innovative criticism--have had a pervasive influence on contemporary American literature and thought.
333. O'NAN, Stewart. Snow Angels. NY: Doubleday (1994). Review copy of his second book, first novel. Winner of the 1993 Pirates Alley William Faulkner Prize for the Novel; it also resulted in his being selected one of Granta's top 20 young American authors. Fine in fine dust jacket.
334. -. Same title, the advance reading copy. Fine in wrappers.
335. ONDAATJE, Michael. The Dainty Monsters. (Toronto): (Coach House) (1967). First book, a volume of poetry, by the author of The English Patient, winner of the 1992 Booker Prize. This is 1/500 numbered copies and bears the ownership signature of poet Dennis Lee, who was an editor at House of Anansi, which published Ondaatje's The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, winner of the Canada's Governor General's Award--its most prestigious literary prize. Lee also wrote a book of criticism on Ondaatje's fiction. An important association copy of a scarce first book, by an author who, after nearly 30 years of publishing, is now achieving wide public recognition, partly because of the movie based on his prize-winning novel. Fine in near fine dust jacket. A very nice copy.
336. O'NEILL, Eugene. Thirst. Boston: The Gorham Press, 1914. First edition of his first book, a collection of one-act plays. As is common with copies of this book--and with other dust jacketed books of the era--the price has been excised from the center of the spine panel of the jacket, causing offsetting to the spine of the book itself. Otherwise, the book is very near fine in a somewhat rubbed, near fine dust jacket.
337. ORTIZ, Simon J. Going For the Rain. NY: Harper & Row (1976). First book by this Acoma Indian writer, a collection of poems. This is the seventh title in Harper & Row's Native American Publishing Program, and one of the scarcest. Light stain at spine crown but still near fine in near fine dust jacket.
338. OTTO, Whitney. How to Make an American Quilt. NY: Villard, 1991. The author's first novel, which was recently made into a successful movie. Fine in fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
339. PALEY, Grace. The Little Disturbances of Man. Garden City: Doubleday, 1959. A review copy of the first book, a collection of stories, by a writer who has helped define the role of women and politics in contemporary literature: engaged without being didactic, Paley focuses on both the ordinariness and the wonder of everyday life. This copy is from the library of poet Louis Untermeyer, who has provided a blurb on the rear dust jacket panel. "Compliments" slip clipped to the front flyleaf, with paper clip marks on the half title and front jacket flap. Offsetting to endpapers and one corner bump; still a near fine copy in a very good, spine-tanned dust jacket with very mild foxing to the rear panel.
340. -. Same title, a paperback reissue (NY: Meridian, 1960). Near fine in wrappers and signed by the author.
341. PANCAKE, BREECE D'J. The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake. Boston: Little Brown (1983). Pulitzer Prize winner James Alan McPherson provides the foreword to this collection of short stories by a promising young writer who was, at one time, McPherson's student and who committed suicide before this book was published. Afterword by National Book Award-winning author John Casey, who was also the author's teacher at one time. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
342. -. Another copy. Small mark bottom edge of pages; near fine in near fine, spine-faded dust jacket.
343. PATCHEN, Kenneth. Before the Brave. NY: Random House (1936). First edition of his first book, a collection of poems published in an edition of 2000 copies. Near fine in a very good dust jacket with some minor chipping and spine-darkening.
344. PERCY, Walker. The Moviegoer. NY: Knopf, 1961. The author's first book, winner of the National Book Award and a novel that helped establish Percy as both an important Southern writer and as a chronicler of the spiritual malaise of modern America. This copy is inscribed by the author in the month of publication to the sister of the photographer who took the jacket's author photo. Additionally, this copy is signed by Percy on the title page. Mild offsetting on the front endpapers, light bump to crown; still a near fine copy in a very good dust jacket with a small chip at the upper front panel. An elusive and important first book--the Linda Hobson bibliography gives the first printing as 1500 copies although we have been told that it was more. The jacket is especially prone to wear and collectible copies of the first edition are difficult to find; signed copies much more so. Copies with contemporary inscriptions are rare.
345. -. Another copy, also inscribed by the author in 1961, on the front flyleaf. Additionally signed by Percy on the title page. The recipient has written his own name on the front flyleaf and on the rear pastedown under the flap. On the front pastedown under the flap appears the name "Gustave Flaubert." Overall, this is a very good copy in a very good dust jacket with wear at the spine extremities.
346. -. Same title, the first British edition (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1963). Spine-cocked, tape marks to endpapers; very good in very good, edge-darkened jacket that differs in design from that of the American edition.
347. -. Same title, the ninth printing of a later American edition (NY: Noonday Press, 1973). Some staining to rear panel; very good in wrappers. Signed by the author.
348. PETRY, Ann. The Street. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1946. First novel by this African-American writer. Winner of a Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship Award. Near fine in attractive, pictorial, near fine dust jacket. Inscribed by the author. A nice copy of an important book, seldom found signed.
349. PHILLIPS, Jayne Anne. Sweethearts. Carrboro: Truck Press, 1976. Her first book, a collection of poems. This is one of 400 copies in wrappers, of a total edition of 410. Mild edge and spine-darkening, otherwise a fine copy of a book that is an unusual size and usually turns up well-worn as a result.
350. PHILLIPS, Jayne Anne. Black Tickets. (NY): Delacorte (1979). Her well-received first collection of stories, and her first book to be published by a major New York publishing house. This was issued simultaneously in hardcover by Delacorte and as a paperback by Dell/Delta. The hardcover used the same sheets as the paperback, an acidic paper that tends to brown with age. These pages are slightly browned, otherwise fine in fine dust jacket. Inscribed by the author in the month after publication. A very nice copy of an uncommon book; most of the first printing was issued paperbound, and the hardcover comprised a relatively small portion of the print run.
351. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. Fine in wrappers.
352. PHILLIPS, Jayne Anne. Machine Dreams. NY: Dutton (1984). Her first novel, about a family and the effect of the Vietnam war on them. Fine in fine dust jacket and inscribed by the author to another well-known writer. An excellent association copy.
353. PIERCY, Marge. Breaking Camp. Middletown: Wesleyan U. Press (1968). Her first book, a collection of poems. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with one small chip at the lower edge of the rear panel.
354. PLATH, Sylvia. The Colossus and Other Poems. London: Heinemann (1960). First edition of the author's first book, preceding its U.S. publication. The only collection of poetry published in her lifetime--by a writer who is nonetheless universally considered among the most influential poets of the postwar era. Only one other of her books was published before she committed suicide--the autobiographical novel The Bell Jar. This is a fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with mild dust soiling and an internally tape-strengthened crown. A nice example of a scarce and important first book, by a young writer whose poetry and prose have been an inspiration for a later generation of writers even as her life, and early suicide, have provided a cautionary note as well.
355. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. This was a working proof copy, which formerly belonged to the production manager at Heinemann, with his name on the front cover and a number of annotations and figures in his hand throughout. The leaf comprising pages 29 & 30 is missing and is here supplied in facsimile. Covers moderately worn; very good, in a custom chemise and slipcase. An extremely scarce item: we have only seen one other copy.
356. PORTER, Katherine Anne. Flowering Judas. NY: Harcourt Brace (1935). The first trade edition of the author's first (acknowledged) book, a collection of stories. This is a review copy, stamped as such on the front flyleaf. Near fine in very good dust jacket with moderate edgewear.
357. PORTIS, Charles. Norwood. NY: Simon & Schuster (1966). The first book, a novel, by the author of True Grit and The Dog of the South, among others. Bookplate of an author on front flyleaf, else fine in a dust jacket with a light orange tint to the rear panel; near fine. Uncommon.
358. POWER, Susan. The Grass Dancer. (London): Picador (1994). The first British edition of the well-received first book by this Native American author, a novel which weaves the lives and memories of a group of characters over a span of 120 years to reveal interconnected threads of their relationships and thus shows the underpinnings of their contemporary situations. Blurbs by Amy Tan and Louise Erdrich. Fine in fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
359. -. Same title, advance reading copy of the U.K. edition. Fine.
360. POWERS, Richard. Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance. NY: Morrow (1985). One of the most highly praised first novels of recent years--a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and winner of the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters for a book of "considerable literary achievement." Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with a tiny spot of rubbing on the front panel.
361. PRICE, Reynolds. A Long and Happy Life. NY: Atheneum, 1962. First edition of his first book. Library bookplate indicating this book was donated to a prep school library by Alfred Knopf, Jr., who was the founder of the Atheneum publishing company. This is a fine copy in a very good, spine-tanned, first issue dust jacket.
362. PRICE, Richard. The Wanderers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974. The author's first book, a novel of teenage gangs in the early 1960s and basis for the well-received Walter Hill movie. Blurbs by John Fowles and William S. Burroughs, among others. Fine in fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
363. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. Creases to rear panel, abrasion to front panel; about very good.
364. PRITCHETT, V.S. Marching Spain. London: Ernest Benn (1928). The author's first book, a travel account of a 300-mile journey by foot that the author took through the back country of Extremadura in Spain. Owner name front pastedown, offsetting to endpages, foxing to cloth. Very good in very good dust jacket with minor foxing and several short edge tears. Illustrated with photographs. An attractive copy of a uncommon book.
365. PURDY, James. Don't Call Me By My Right Name. NY: William-Frederick, 1956. His first book, a collection of stories; a near fine copy in wrappers. Laid in are three brief letters from Purdy to sociologist David Riesman. When Purdy's first book was published, he sent copies to a number of prominent writers. Riesman's groundbreaking sociological study The Lonely Crowd had made him something of a celebrity and Purdy sent a copy to him. Riesman apparently commently favorably, and one of Purdy's letters notes "You were one of the first to write me with real appreciation of the stories in [this book]." A nice glimpse of a young, unknown writer attempting to ensure that his book has at least a chance of getting noticed.
366. PYM, Barbara. Less than Angels. NY: Vanguard (n.d.) (c. 1957). Her fourth book, but the first to be published in the U.S. Light wear to bottom edges of boards but still a near fine copy in very good, mildly spine-faded dust jacket with some scratches on the front panel and a chip at the lower edge. A nice copy of an elusive title.
367. 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. Near fine in printed gray wrappers with a short edge tear to the front panel--a much-nicer-than-usual copy of the advance state of this landmark first novel. In a custom clamshell box.
368. -. Same title, the first British edition (London: Cape, 1963). Mild, even fading to top edge stain; very near fine in like, price-clipped dust jacket with faint traces of a pen mark on front panel. A very attractive, nearly pristine copy, despite the small defects mentioned.
369. RASCOE, Judith. Yours, and Mine. Boston: LB (1973). The author's first book, a collection of stories and a novella. Inscribed by the author in the month prior to publication. Rascoe collaborated on the film adaptations of two of Robert Stone's novels, A Hall of Mirrors (filmed as WUSA) and Dog Soldiers (filmed as Who'll Stop the Rain?). Fine in near fine dust jacket.
370. RICE, Anne. Interview with the Vampire. NY: Knopf, 1976. Her first book, the first in the phenomenally successful Vampire Lestat series, and basis for the recent movie. Rice's vampire novels have been both critically acclaimed and have achieved a degree of popularity that would have been hard to predict--the passionate following that they have earned has resulted in the author's occasional book signing tours taking on the character of a performance piece, with huge crowds decked out in costumes reminiscent of the books' historical milieu. The first book is by far the scarcest of all of them; not only have the later books had much larger first printings, as might be expected, but the particular nature of the gold foil dust jacket used on Interview with the Vampire is such that even with the slightest handling it shows wear and creases. This is a fine copy in a fine dust jacket, and exceedingly scarce thus.
371. ROBBINS, Tom. Another Roadside Attraction. Garden City: Doubleday, 1971. The author's first novel, one of a handful of contemporary novels--among them Gabriel García MÁrquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude--that became bestsellers slowly, by word of mouth, primarily on college campuses, long after the paperback editions came out. Never reprinted in hardcover, but never out of print in paperback. Robbins gained a cult following that mushroomed when his second book, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, was published, and he is now one of the most popular novelists of his generation. This is a near fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with light rubbing at the extremities of the spine.
372. -. Another copy, very good in very good dust jacket and signed by the author.
373. ROBINSON, Marilynne. Housekeeping. NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux (1980). Uncorrected proof copy of her first and, to date, only novel. A subtle story of keeping what matters and escaping from the weight of the rest, made into a moving film with Christine Lahti. Fine in wrappers, with a John Hawkes blurb laid in: "I think that there are few first novels published since mid-century to compare with Housekeeping for sheer perfection of language and for conveying what it means to be human. It is a work of pure grace."
374. ROBISON, Mary. Days. NY: Knopf, 1979. The author's first book, a collection of stories that established her as one of the foremost writers of the "minimalist" school of realistic fiction at the moment that Raymond Carver's stories were beginning to have a wide impact. Faint dampstain to lower rear board and jacket; near fine.
375. RUBIN, Jerry. Do It! NY: Simon & Schuster (1970). The softcover issue of the Yippies' manifesto and the probable precursor to the sneaker company slogan. Near fine in wrappers and inscribed by the author: "Yippie!"
376. RUSH, Norman. Whites. NY: Knopf, 1986. His first book, a collection of stories which are, like his novel, set in southern Africa. Fine in dust jacket.
377. RUSH, Norman. Mating. NY: Knopf, 1991. His first novel. Winner of the National Book Award. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
378. RUSHDIE, Salman. Grimus. London: Gollancz, 1975. First edition of the first novel by the author of Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses, a fantasy that is by all accounts not in the same class as his later works but is quite scarce and, by virtue of his later career, an important first book. Fine in dust jacket.
379. RUSSO, Richard. Mohawk. NY: Vintage (1986). His first book, a novel published as a paperback original in the Vintage Contemporaries series. Signed by the author in 1993. Center crease to front cover, light wear; near fine.