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Native American Literature, D-F

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182. DE ANGULO, Jaime. The Jaime De Angulo Library, Vols. 1-7. San Francisco: Turtle Island Foundation, 1973-1976. Seven uniform volumes of De Angulo's work, edited and signed by Bob Callahan. A collection of Indian folklore, with the stories retold by De Angulo in such a way as to preserve or restore the humor, rhythms and sense of the originals, rather than rendered as dry, anthropological "artifacts." De Angulo's stories were originally collected from the Pit River Indians in California, as part of his work as an ethnologist and linguist. Later, after he had left academia, he revisited these tales and rewrote them, bringing to the process his sensibility as a poet and novelist. His only collection to be published during his lifetime, Indian Tales, had an influence on the Beat movement -- and through them eventually on mainstream American literature -- as a result of poet Gary Snyder's affinity for these stories. When Snyder started a publishing company in the 1970s -- which he named "Turtle Island Press," after the Native American name for Earth. Among the first books issued by the press were these reprints of De Angulo's long out-of-print works, most of which had only been published in journals. De Angulo's influence and approach to Native tales can be seen in later compilations by such writers as Howard Norman, who collected Cree tales, and Barry Lopez, who compiled a book of Trickster stories -- both of whom took pains to get the affect of the stories right, in addition to the literal content. The second volume is mildly sunned and has a tiny spot on the top edge; otherwise the set is fine, without dust jackets, as issued. For all:

183. DELORIA, Jr., Vine. Custer Died for Your Sins. An Indian Manifesto. London/(Toronto)/(NY): Collier Macmillan (1969). The author's first book, an important polemic that redefined the terms of the discussion of Indian rights, heritage, history and ethnicity in the politically charged climate of the late 1960s. Near fine in a near fine, spine-faded dust jacket with one edge tear.

184. -. Another copy. Near fine in a very good, price-clipped dust jacket with a `couple of edge tears, one externally tape-repaired. A landmark volume, and considerably more uncommon in the first printing than his later books.

185. (DELORIA, Jr., Vine). Of Utmost Good Faith. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books (1971). A documentary history of the dealings between the U.S. Government and Indian tribes, spanning the years 1830-1970, edited and with commentary by Deloria. Comprising excerpts from treaties, bills, speeches, judicial rulings and the like, representing both a polemic and a useful primary source reference. Fine in a very good dust jacket with a corner chip.

186. (DELORIA, Vine). Stories of Survival. Conversations with Native North Americans. NY: Friendship Press, 1985. A collection of short autobiographical essays by various Native Americans, including Vine Deloria. Quarto. Covers faded; very good in wrappers.

187. DORRIS, Michael. The Broken Cord. NY: Harper & Row, 1989. Dorris' award-winning account of adopting and raising an Indian boy whom he later discovered suffered from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, a debilitating illness about which virtually nothing was known at the time of the adoption. Thus the book is both a personal memoir and a small but important piece of social history, tracking the medical profession's developing knowledge of this disease over the years. This book later became the basis for a television miniseries, dramatizing the story. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. Light corner bumping; else fine in a near fine dust jacket.

188. DORRIS, Michael and ERDRICH, Louise. The Crown of Columbus. (NY): HarperCollins (1991). The advance reading copy of this collaborative novel written for the quincentenary of Columbus' expedition to America. Taking two bestselling and award-winning authors and having them jointly write a book made this one of the most highly promoted publishing events of the season, with an announced first printing of 150,000 copies and a huge marketing campaign. Fine in wrappers and signed by Erdrich and Dorris.

189. -. Same title, the limited edition. One of 400 numbered copies, specially bound and slipcased, and signed by both authors. Fine in a fine slipcase.

190. DORRIS, Michael. Morning Girl. (NY): Hyperion (1992). A children's book, his first, set on a Bahamian island in 1492. Winner of numerous awards, including the Scott O'Dell Award. This is the advance reading copy. Fine in wrappers and signed by the author.

191. DORRIS, Michael. Working Men. NY: Henry Holt (1993). A collection of stories. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket.

192. DORRIS, Michael. Cloud Chamber. (NY): Scribner (1997). The advance reading copy of his final novel. Hauntingly blurbed by the publisher with a quote from one of Dorris' characters: "The dead are never really quite gone from our family. The influence of their deeds and personalities is always pushing us and nudging us one way or the other." Fine in wrappers.

193. DOWNING, Todd. The Cat Screams. Garden City: Crime Club, 1934. The second book by the author of Murder on Tour, a writer of Choctaw descent. Downing did not write about Native American themes per se, but most of his books have a Mexican setting or a Mexican connection, and the author explained his fascination for Mexico by saying that "it is the only place where the Indian element has not only held its own with the white man, but has succeeded in breeding out the white blood in exact reverse of the situation here [in the U.S.]." Very good, lacking the dust jacket.

194. DOWNING, Todd. The Mexican Earth. NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1940. Nonfiction, a book about Mexico by a writer of Choctaw descent who is most noted for his mystery novels set in Mexico. Gift inscription; near fine, lacking the dust jacket.

195. EAGLE, Dallas Chief. Winter Count. (Colorado Springs): (Dentan Berkeland) (1967). A novel by a Sioux writer, spanning the years of the Plains Indian wars leading up to the massacre at Wounded Knee, and thus constituting a portrait of that period -- accurate in historical details -- from the perspective of the Indians. This is the correct first printing, printed by Dentan-Berkeland, but in a variant red, rather than maroon, binding. In the first issue dust jacket with the printer's name on the spine. This copy is inscribed by the author: "Neta Kola/ (your friend)/ D. Chief Eagle" and presented to Ursula Monroe in the fall of 1967. Monroe was translating the book into German, and a note to that effect is written beneath the inscription. Additionally, a photo of Chief Eagle and Monroe (and the book) is laid in. Fine in a rubbed, near fine dust jacket.

196. EASTMAN, Charles A. and Elaine G. Wigwam Evenings. Boston: Little, Brown (1909). Later printing of this book written by Eastman (Ohiyesa; one of the first educated Sioux to become a prolific writer and lecturer) and his wife. Owner name; general overall handling and use; about very good in pictorial boards, without dust jacket.

197. EASTMAN, Charles A. The Soul of the Indian. Boston/NY: Houghton Mifflin (1911). Later printing. An important volume: the first of his books aimed exclusively at an adult, intellectual audience and one of the first published attempts by a Native American author to express the idea that traditional Native American moral codes actually embodied the principles found in Christian teachings, and that, in effect, Native Americans in traditional society were living out those principles and not simply paying them lip service. Eastman formulated a kind of generic Native American cosmology, incorporating elements common to many tribes, and compared it favorably to Christianity -- a theme that has been woven through many writings since then, and has been further developed by widely different exponents, from political activist and author Vine Deloria to the many "New Age" proponents of Native American values and spirituality. Gift inscription, both on the flyleaf and the dedication page; possible ex-library copy; very good, without dust jacket.

198. EATON, Rachel Caroline. John Ross and the Cherokee Indians. Menasha: George Banta, 1914. An early and sympathetic account of John Ross and the removal of the Cherokee tribe, which uses letters from the Ross family and stories told to the author by a Cherokee woman as source material. Owner name and address front pastedown; small chip to the faded spine cloth; a very good copy, lacking the dust jacket. Scarce.

199. ECKSTROM, Fannie Hardy. Old John Neptune and Other Maine Indian Shamans. Portland: Southworth-Anthoensen, 1945. An account of John Neptune, a Penobscot Indian shaman, and an overview through his story and his family's of the place of shamanism in tribal affairs and politics. The author's father was a close friend of a number of Penobscots, and the story told here was related to the author by his father and various members of the tribe. It includes tribal history as background, and discussion of the magical powers of the shaman, the place in society he held, and the conflicts both with white culture and with tribal factions who would attempt to harness the shaman's special powers for personal and private advantage. Gift inscription front flyleaf; fine, without dust jacket. A scarce volume and a rare look at shamanism in an Eastern tribe, with much original source material.

200. (Education). Seeds of Change. Boulder: Boulder Public Library, 1993. A course curriculum issued in conjunction with the Smithsonian's traveling exhibit of the same name, which focused on the encounter between Europe and the Americas as a result of Columbus' voyages 500 years ago. Includes materials for educators and the "comic" book SuperColon, Admiral of the Ocean. Fine.

201. ERDRICH, Louise. Jacklight. NY: Holt Rinehart Winston (1984). The uncorrected proof copy of her first book, a collection of poetry that 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, together with her first novel, Love Medicine. This is a near fine copy with one corner crease and a tanned spine on which the author and title are handwritten. Publicity sheet laid in. An extremely scarce proof: we have not seen a copy offered for sale since the book was new.

202. ERDRICH, Louise. Love Medicine. NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston (1984). A later printing of 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 collaborated, explicitly, with her late husband Michael Dorris on two books, and has said in interviews that they worked closely together on all their writing. Erdrich's commercial success helped pave the way for the publication of other Native American woman writers, such as Linda Hogan and Susan Power. Like the best Native American writing, Erdrich's writing is infused with a rich 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. Her writing is at once profound and accessible, and it epitomizes the cross-fertilization of cultures that the best Native American writing accomplishes. Inscribed by the author. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with the National Book Critics Circle Award sticker on the front panel.

203. ERDRICH, Louise. The Beet Queen. NY: Henry Holt (1986). The advance reading copy in printed wrappers. The success of the author's first novel, Love Medicine, prompted her publisher to have a larger first printing for this title -- reported to be 35,000 copies -- and to promote the book aggressively. Consequently, an advance reading copy in wrappers was rushed to press as a promotional giveaway for the American Booksellers Association's annual convention. The author was still in the process of making the last revisions to the novel, and so the text of this advance copy varies from that of the final published book. Near fine in wrappers. This copy is inscribed by the author and also signed by Michael Dorris, her late husband, who reportedly collaborated on the novel with her.

204. ERDRICH, Louise. The Antelope Wife. (NY): HarperFlamingo (1998). The uncorrected proof copy of this novel, which expands the cast of characters from her earlier Native American sequence, beginning with Love Medicine. Fine in wrappers.

205. -. Same title, an excerpt published in The Flamingo Reader, along with other selections from the Winter 1998 HarperFlamingo list. Fine in wrappers.

206. (ERDRICH, Louise). A Reader's Guide to the Fiction of Louise Erdrich. (n.p.): HarperPerennial (1994). Synopses of and topics for discussion for four of Erdrich's novels: Love Medicine, The Beet Queen, Tracks and The Bingo Palace. Fine in stapled wrappers.

207. (Eskimo). FIELD, Edward. Eskimo Songs and Stories. (n.p.): Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence (1973). Eskimo tales collected in the 1920s by the Danish explorer Knut Rasmussen, who was partly of Eskimo descent and who lived for a time with the Netsilik Eskimos above the Arctic Circle. Translated by Field, a poet, and illustrated by Kiakshuk and Pudlo, two Eskimo artists. Inscribed by Field. Oblong quarto. Splaying to boards; near fine in a very good, edge-sunned dust jacket worn at the spine crown.

208. FISHER, Thomas Michael. Poem from a Young Indian/Non Indian. Laurinburg: All This & Less, 1974. Poetry by Fisher created in a summer course in American Indian literature; illustrations by Bill Burruss III. A home-made production, mimeographed on multi-colored, thick card stock sheets. One of 70 numbered copies signed by the author and the artist. Fine in stapled wrappers, laid into a near fine dust cover.

209. FLAHERTY, Doug. The Tomb of Skulls. (Burdick): (Road Runner Press) (1970). Poetry by this white writer who has adopted Native American traditions to such an extent that he eventually taught a course in Native American literature to 150 Indian students. Near fine in sunned wrappers.

210. FLAHERTY, Doug. Man Inside the Bear Skin. Marvin: Blue Cloud Quarterly Press, 1982. Issued as Blue Cloud Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 3. Poems derived from specific American Indian songs and legends, with an index identifying the sources and a three page introduction by the author explaining his use of Native American themes and tales. Labeled for mailing; fine in stapled wrappers.

211. FOREMAN, Grant. The Five Civilized Tribes. Muskogee: Carolyn Thomas Foreman/Press of Hoffman Printing, 1966. Reissue of this short history of the Five Civilized Tribes -- the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, Creeks and Seminoles. Includes a Cherokee syllabary. First published in 1948. Owner name stamped inside the front cover and beneath the frontispiece; else fine in stapled wrappers.

212. FRANCISCO, Nia. Blue Horses for Navajo Women. Greenfield Center: Greenfield Review Press (1988). Poems by a Navajo woman, with illustrations by Navajo artist Wallace Begay. Fine in wrappers.

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