Nature Writing, B
78. BASS, Rick. The Deer Pasture. College Station: Texas A&M (1985). His first book, a collection of essays on hunting and the Texas Hill Country, where he was born and grew up. In recent years, Bass has lived in Montana, and his books on the remote valleys of northwestern Montana have been highly acclaimed and have established him as one of the leading voices of the younger generation of nature writers, whose engagement with the land is marked by a full consciousness of the political questions that surround it, as well as a deep respect for the moral and spiritual questions that are so easily overlooked in political, and even environmental, discussions. Signed by both the author and the illustrator, Elizabeth Hughes. Fine in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
79. -. Another copy. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
80. BASS, Rick. Wild to the Heart. (Harrisburg): Stackpole (1987). His second book, a collection of essays on the natural world, by the pre-Yaak Bass. Signed by both the author and the illustrator, Elizabeth Hughes. Bass has been both a petroleum geologist and an environmental activist, and he embodies that combination of science and poetry that Edward Abbey was referring to in his Canyonlands essay -- a combination of scientific rigor and poetic wonder. Fine in a fine dust jacket with a very slight degree of spine-fading.
81. -. Another copy. Fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by Bass.
82. -. Another copy. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
83. BASS, Rick. Oil Notes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin/Seymour Lawrence, 1989. A book about oil exploration that is reminiscent of both John McPhee -- with his ability to render accessible an arcane field of endeavor -- and Barry Lopez -- with a view of the quest for oil as a metaphor for other kinds of quests and other explorations of a more intangible nature. Small ding to the foredge of the rear board; else fine in like dust jacket. Signed by Bass and by Elizabeth Hughes, who is the illustrator, the dedicatee, and Bass's wife.
84. BASS, Rick. Winter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin/Seymour Lawrence, 1991. A journal account of his and Elizabeth Hughes's first year in Yaak, a valley with a population of about thirty, and the last corner of Montana without electricity. The entries run from September to March and at the outset reflect the newcomer's fear of winter and his doubts about his ability to lay in enough wood. The couple survives, rather joyfully, and Bass's recent writings have focused on insuring the survival of Yaak. Signed by the author. Small bumps to corner and lower board edge; near fine in a fine dust jacket.
85. BASS, Rick. The Ninemile Wolves. (Livingston): (Clark City Press) (1992). The uncorrected proof copy of this extended essay on the reintroduction of wild wolves to the American West, focusing on one pack in northwestern Montana. The printed publication date has been whited out on the rear cover and "June 15" written over it in ink. Fine in wrappers. An uncommon proof: small publishers like Clark City Press seldom issue proof copies in numbers comparable to those of the New York publishing houses, and few show up on the market.
86. -. Same title, the trade edition. Signed by the author. Fine in fine dust jacket.
87. BASS, Rick. In the Loyal Mountains. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995. A collection of stories. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author. Like many of the best "nature writers" working today, Bass hasn't limited himself to essays and nonfiction, but has used fiction as a vehicle for exploring some of the more intangible aspects of the issues that concern him.
88. -. Same title. The advance reading copy of this collection of stories. Fine in wrappers.
89. BASS, Rick. The Lost Grizzlies. Boston/NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1995. Advance reading copy of this book of nonfiction, an exploration of the question of whether any grizzlies have survived in Colorado's wilderness. Bass explored the back country with Doug Peacock -- author of the classic, Grizzly Years -- and biologist Dennis Sizemore. Fine in wrappers.
90. BASS, Rick. The Book of Yaak. Boston/NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1996. Advance reading copy of this nonfiction portrait of the Yaak Valley of northwestern Montana, which was the setting of Bass's earlier book, Winter. Near fine in wrappers.
91. BASS, Rick. The Sky, the Stars, the Wilderness. Boston/NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1997. A collection of three novellas, each of which incorporates elements of place and the natural world into fiction that explores not only the human heart but the relation of that heart to the larger world that surrounds and supports it. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author.
92. -. Same title. The advance reading copy (designated by the publisher "uncorrected proof"). A collection of three novellas. Fine in wrappers.
93. -. Another copy. Publication date written at the top of the spine; fine in wrappers.
94. BASS, Rick. Where the Sea Used to Be. Boston/NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. His first full-length novel. This is a limited edition, one of 100 numbered copies signed by the author on a tipped-in colophon. One light corner bump; else fine in a fine dust jacket.
95. -. Same title, the trade edition. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author.
96. -. Another copy. This copy has a small nick to the top edge of the front free endpaper and a tiny piece missing from the top edge of the half-title, otherwise fine in a fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
97. BERGER, Bruce. The Telling Distance. Conversations with the American Desert. (Portland): Breitenbush Books (1990). The uncorrected proof copy of this collection of essays that won the 1990 Western States Book Award for Creative Nonfiction, selected by William Kittredge, N. Scott Momaday, Elizabeth Hardwick and Jorie Graham. Spine-sunned; else fine in wrappers. Barry Lopez, Peter Matthiessen blurbs.
98. BERRY, Wendell. Nathan Coulter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1960. The first book, a novel, by this poet, novelist, essayist and activist, who has become one of the defining voices of our era as a critic of the excesses of our technology-infused lifestyle and the most well-known and outspoken contemporary advocate of agrarian values. Signed by the author. Erasures to front flyleaf; else fine in a very good, spine-tanned dust jacket with long, internally tape-repaired tears along two folds.
99. BERRY, Wendell. The Long-Legged House. NY: Harcourt, Brace, World (1969). A collection of essays, his first book of nonfiction. Freedman A14b; 2890 copies sold. A fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with one edge tear and a slight loss of crispness to the edges. An important book and a milestone in an influential career that combines literature with a serious and principled social criticism.
100. BERRY, Wendell. The Unforeseen Wilderness. Lexington: U. Press of Kentucky, 1971. An extended essay on Red River Gorge in the author's native Kentucky, heavily illustrated with photographs by Gene Meatyard, whose work is represented in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution, among others. Signed by the author. Quarto; mild splaying to boards; near fine in dust jacket.
101. -. Another copy. Previous owner name on verso of half-title, otherwise near fine in a near fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
102. BERRY, Wendell. A Continuous Harmony. NY: HBJ (1972). A collection of essays, "cultural and agricultural," that examine the ways in which man does, or doesn't, live in a "continuous harmony" with the natural world, using that concept as a springboard to examine subjects that range from poetry and poets to strip mining. Tiny spots to top and lower page edges; else fine in a fine dust jacket. A very nice copy of a small and not particularly common book.
103. BERRY, Wendell. The Memory of Old Jack. NY: HBJ (1974). A novel, Berry's third, each of which is set in the small Kentucky River town of Port William, based on his hometown of Port Royal, Kentucky. Inscribed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
104. BERRY, Wendell. Sayings and Doings. (Lexington): Gnomon (1975). A collection of three groups of related poems. Inscribed by the author in January, 1976 to poet David Ignatow "with much affection and many thanks," and signed "Wendell." An attractively printed chapbook; fine without dust jacket, as issued. An excellent association copy.
105. BERRY, Wendell. The Kentucky River: Two Poems. Monterey: Larkspur, 1976. One of 1000 copies; this copy signed by the author in 1991. Fine in stapled wrappers.
106. BERRY, Wendell. The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture. San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1977. A landmark collection of related essays on agriculture and agricultural policies, and the impact of those policies on the quality of human life as well as the quality of humans' relationships to the world that sustains us. This is probably the most explicit of Berry's books elaborating the reasons for, and sources of, the agrarian values that he has extolled so passionately throughout his writings. Edward Abbey and Gary Snyder blurbs. Very near fine in like, price-clipped dust jacket, and signed by the author. A unique and important book.
107. BERRY, Wendell. "What can turn us from this deserted future..." (n.p.): Okeanos Press, 1983. Broadside prose excerpt on love and the motivations that come from it. Produced to honor the legacy of North Point Press, 1980-1991, which published a number of Berry's books over the course of its relatively short life. Measuring approximately 7 1/2" x 13"; matted and framed to 9 3/4" x 16 1/2". Fine.
108. BERRY, Wendell. The Wild Birds. San Francisco: North Point, 1986. A story collection set, like his other fiction, in the town of Port William, Kentucky. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and signed by the author.
109. BERRY, Wendell. What Are People For? Berkeley: North Point, 1990. The uncorrected proof copy of this collection of essays, in part on the connection between nature and nature writing: "My subject is my place in my world, and I live in my world... If I have damaged my subject, then I have damaged my art." Signed by the author. Fine.
110. BERRY, Wendell. Fidelity. NY/San Francisco: Pantheon Books (1992). The uncorrected proof copy of this collection of five Port William stories. Fine in wrappers.
111. BERRY, Wendell. Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front. Louisville: White Fields Press, 1994. Broadside, a poetic exaltation of the agrarian values Berry so eloquently endorses -- and a ruthless critique of the lazy materialism that characterizes our social norms, in his view. Approximately 15" x 35", illustrated with a photograph. Of a total edition of 126, this is one of 26 lettered copies signed by the author. Rolled; 1" tear to right edge; near fine.
112. BERRY, Wendell. Another Turn of the Crank. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint (1995). A collection of essays on sustainability and stewardship of the land. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
113. BERRY, Wendell. A World Lost. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint (1996). Berry's fifth novel, again a Port William story. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
114. (BERRY, Wendell). "The White and Waking of the House" in New World Writing 21. Philadelphia/NY: Lippincott (1962). An early poem by Berry, apparently his first to appear in book form, or at least between hard covers. This is the hardcover issue of one of the most important literary magazines of the 1950s and 1960s. Fine in a very good dust jacket. Scarce in the hardcover issue.
115. (BERRY, Wendell). Wendell Berry. Lewiston: Confluence Press (1991). The uncorrected proof copy of this biography and bibliography of Berry, with contributions by Wallace Stegner, Terry Tempest Williams, Donald Hall, Gary Snyder, and many others. Includes the first publication of the Berry story "Are You All Right?" Fine in wrappers.
116. BOWDEN, Charles. Killing the Hidden Waters. Austin: U. of Texas Press (1977). The elusive first book, nonfiction, by this heir apparent to Edward Abbey in his role as vociferous critic of the exploitation and despoliation of the natural resources of the desert Southwest. This volume addresses the issues surrounding the scarce water resources of the region, viewed through a historical perspective that highlights the early Native American tribes' ability to manage the resources in a sustainable manner. A fine copy in a very good, well-rubbed dust jacket with one small chip on the front panel. Quite scarce.
117. BOWDEN, Charles. Frog Mountain Blues. Tucson: U. of Arizona Press (1987). His third book, about the Santa Catalina mountains just north of Tucson, Arizona; in part an elegy, in part a warning against despoliation. Illustrated with photographs by Jack Dykinga, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer. Signed by both Bowden and Dykinga. Blurbs by Gary Snyder and David Rains Wallace, among others. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
118. -. Another copy. Inscribed by Bowden: "For ____,/ Please don't ask for/ the money back." Also signed by Dykinga. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
119. (BOWDEN, Charles). LESCH, William. Expansions. (Tokyo): Trevill (1992). Lesch's photographs of a neon desert, with Bowden's expressionist essay, a fitting match to the expressionistic color montages that comprise Lesch's photographs. Oblong quarto, in a printed acetate sleeve. Fine without dust jacket, as issued, and signed by Bowden. An uncommon book, in an unusual format.
120. (BOWDEN, Charles). "Peace without Honor" in Seasons of the Coyote. (NY): HarperCollins West (1994). Essays on the coyote by Bowden and eight others, in an attractive picture book that was only issued in self-wrappers. Quarto; fine.
121. BOWLES, Paul. Yallah. NY: McDowell, Obolensky (1957). His first book of nonfiction, a book of photographs of the people and land of North Africa, where Bowles spent much of his life. Photographs by Peter Haeberlin, with text by Bowles. Bowles was most well-known as a writer of fiction; his first novel, The Sheltering Sky, was a tale of young expatriate Americans confronting the alien landscapes and cultures of North Africa, and exploring the dislocation inherent in such a conflict of cultures and world views. Lower corners bumped, otherwise this is a fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with light wear at the corners and spine crown, and with the lamination peeling on the front flap. A much nicer copy than usual of this large but not particularly well-made book, which often shows considerable peeling to the jacket lamination.
122. BROMFIELD, Louis. Malabar Farm. NY: Harper & Brothers (1948). Nonfiction by this Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, about a year in the life of his cooperative farming experiment in Ohio. The first book Bromfield wrote about Malabar Farm was Pleasant Valley. He followed this one with Out of the Earth, creating a trilogy of literary, agricultural nonfiction that is unequalled in American literature. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. A very attractive copy.
123. BROMFIELD, Louis. Out of the Earth. NY: Harper & Brothers (1950). A treatise on the importance of healthy soil, including much practical information derived from ten years of experimentation at Malabar Farm. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with several short edge tears. Still, an attractive copy.
124. BURROUGHS, John. Wake-Robin. Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1871. The second book by the most prominent American literary naturalist of the 19th century, for whom the John Burroughs Medal -- the highest award given in this country for writing in the field of natural history -- is named. This is a collection of essays on birds and was Burroughs' first book of writings in the realm of nature and natural history; his previous book was a self-published study of the poet Walt Whitman, a longtime friend. This copy is inscribed by the author in 1899: "One must have the bird in his heart before he can find it in the bush." Tipped-in (in one case formerly tipped-in) are two autograph letters signed by Burroughs to the recipient. The first transmits a photo and includes money for a subscription to the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club. The second agrees to inscribe a book and mentions seeing the recipient's sister. Both letters are splitting along the folds. There is evidence of a photograph having been tipped into the book, before the title page, where an obituary of Burroughs' wife is now tipped in facing. List of Burroughs titles tipped to the rear pastedown; recipient's bookplate on the front pastedown. The front flyleaf, which bears the inscription and the owner's signature, is starting at the top edge; the cloth is very slightly rubbed at the corner and the folds; near fine, without dust jacket, presumably as issued. An attractive copy of this seminal and influential work. Blanck's binding B (no priority).
125. BURROUGHS, John. The Summit of the Years. Boston/NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1913. A collection of essays on nature by this prolific and influential writer. Foxing to front endpages; near fine, without dust jacket (as issued?). Together with a typed letter signed, folded in sixths and tipped to the front pastedown. The letter is dated May 24, 1913 and concerns the arrangements for a visit with friends in Toronto.
126. BURROUGHS, John. Accepting the Universe. Boston/NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1920. A volume of essays that present Burroughs' beliefs explicitly, defining his basic attitudes toward nature, science and technology, and metaphysics. This was the last book published in Burroughs' lifetime: he died less than six months after its publication. This copy is signed by the author on the title page. Small piece of tape front pastedown; minor wear to board edges; a near fine copy in a fair, much-chipped dust jacket threatening to split along the front flap fold. An uncommon book signed, and scarce in any dust jacket at all.