Vietnam and The Sixties, Vietnam 3
86. DENTON, Jeremiah A., Jr. When Hell Was in Session. Clover: Commissions Press (1976). Privately-published POW narrative which later became a classic, and something of a bestseller, after it was made into a television movie. This is the relatively uncommon first edition, in a larger format than the later reprints. With facsimile signature on the half-title. Fine in wrappers.
Vietnam Serviceman's Diary from 1963 and 1968
87. (Diary). "DAILY JOURNAL, DET- A-6. A Co. 5th S.F.G." Two-volume holograph journal of a three-tour veteran, with dates running from January 16, 1963 to January 11, 1969 (interrupted). The diaries describe two of his tours, with the first being dated 1/16/63 through 6/17/63; the second spans the period 6/3/68 to 1/11/69. The first volume, nearly 100 handwritten pages, describes in great detail the day-to-day life of an American advisor setting up a rural base camp for a Vietnamese Army unit and his own team of American advisors. The second describes his third tour in Vietnam, much of it in Saigon, during the crucial period in the U.S. at the end of the Johnson Administration and the beginning of the tenure of Richard Nixon. Numerous pages have been excised from this volume, for reasons unknown: there are approximately 50 holograph pages with substantial sections missing throughout. Still, an amazingly detailed, and informative ground-level view of the war era on a day-to-day basis, and spanning the years from the earliest U.S. involvement as advisors through the Nixon election and the beginning of Vietnamization and the slow, painful withdrawal of U.S. commitment. First-rate primary source material on the American experience of the war effortfrom a low-intensity conflict in 1963 characterized by daily sniper fire and occasional skirmishes, to a full-fledged overt war in 1968 in the months after the Tet Offensive. With various additional ephemeral military papers and other sheets laid in. A remarkable glimpse of the war.
88. DOANE, Michael. The Surprise of Burning. NY: Knopf, 1988. His second novel, part of which takes place in Vietnam. Publicity material laid in. Fine in fine dust jacket.
89. DODGE, Ed. Dau. NY: Macmillan (1984). A novel of the war and its aftereffects by a veteran of Vietnam. Fine in dust jacket.
90. DOWNS, Frederick. The Killing Zone. My Life in the Vietnam War. NY: Norton (1978). A first-person account of a young infantry lieutenant who won several medals in Vietnam and was severely injured, losing a limb. One of the first wave of personal accounts to come out after the war's outcome was clear, this is a very good book which was reprinted a number of times. Fine in near fine, price-clipped dust jacket with one small chip at the upper front flap fold.
91. DUBUS, Andre. Original Manuscript of "Dressed Like Summer Leaves." 41 pages of holograph manuscript in a notebook that also contains an 18 page essay. The story, an eerie, chilling, and finally touching story about the dislocation many Vietnam vets felt on returning home, was first published in The Sewanee Review and was later collected in The Last Worthless Evening. One of the finest Vietnam vet stories ever in its precise and sensitive depiction of the peculiar combination of rage, alienation and vulnerability that characterized many vets' experiences and have come to be seen as symptoms of a post-traumatic stress disorder that many veterans share to some degree. In this story about the meeting between a young boy and a recently returned vet, Dubus manages to convey the different worlds the two characters inhabit, even as they share the time and place of the plot action. The potential for danger looms and, finally, so does the potential for redemption. Dubus, a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant," is generally considered the contemporary master of the novella in American literature, and has been widely compared to Chekhov. Unique. Near fine.
92. DUNCAN, David Douglas. I Protest! (NY): Signet/NAL (1968). Powerful photo-essay of U.S. Marines under siege at Khe Sanh in the weeks following the Tet Offensive. A strong statement in protest of U.S. policy in Vietnam, particularly at Khe Sanh but elsewhere too, by a veteran combat photographer and former Marine. Interestingly, Duncan scoffs at the notionnow widely acceptedthat the Tet Offensive was a major military setback for the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese, albeit a major propaganda victory. Only issued in wrappers. Slight rubbing to front cover; still fine in wrappers.
93. DUNCAN, David Douglas. War Without Heroes. NY: Harper & Row (1970). Probably the most famous volume of photographs of the war; many of these shots appeared in Life magazine, and helped shape the nation's image of Vietnam. The author, himself a former Marine, documented three different combat operations with the Marines in Vietnamat Cua Viet, Con Thien and Khe Sanh. Large quarto. Fine in fine dust jacket.
94. DUNCAN, Donald. The New Legions. NY: Random House (1967). A personal account by a former Green Beret, and a scathing criticism of the U.S. policy in Vietnam. Fine in fine dust jacket.
95. DURDEN, Charles. No Bugles, No Drums. NY: Viking (1976). One of the unsung novels of the war, a black comedy which is as hilarious as it is black, which is saying a lot: it seethes with the kind of rage and cynical humor that, it is easy to forget, was the lingua franca of the later years of the war. A moving book which does its share to keep one from forgetting the intensity of that era. Some fading to spine cloth; else fine in fine dust jacket.
96. EDGAR, Ken. As If. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall (1973). A novel of a scientist doing top-secret military work, who is sent to Vietnam when a bomb he designed fails to work as intended. In the course of the main character's odyssey, the divisive effects of the war and the protests against it are examined through his experiences and those of his family members and the people he meets in Vietnam. A somewhat uncommon novel, issued by a publisher more well-known for its textbooks than fiction. Fine in fine dust jacket.
97. EHRHART, W.D. Passing Time. Amherst: U. of Massachusetts Press (1995). Reissue of his book Marking Time, originally issued in 1986, one of a trilogy of well-received memoirs. Fine in wrappers. At the publisher's list price:
98. EHRHART, W.D. Vietnam-Perkasie. Amherst: U. of Massachusetts Press (1995). Another reissue of one of the three volumes of the author's memoirs. A powerful book. Fine in wrappers. List price:
99. EHRHART, W.D. Busted. A Vietnam Veteran in Nixon's America. Amherst: U. of Massachusetts Press (1995). The third volume in the author's memoirs, here published for the first time. Fine in fine dust jacket. Again, at the publisher's list price:
100. (EHRHART, W.D., ed.). Unaccustomed Mercy. Soldier-Poets of the Vietnam War. (Lubbock): Texas Tech, 1989. Anthology collecting previously published poems by a number of highly regarded poets of the war. Fine in fine dust jacket.
101. EMERSON, Gloria. Winners and Losers. Battles, Retreats, Gains, Losses, and Ruins From a Long War. NY: Random House (1976). National Book Award- winning account by a correspondent for The New York Times, who won the George Polk Award for excellence in foreign reporting for her coverage of Vietnam in 1971. With a reporter's eye and ear for detail, Emerson found the voices that told what the war was really like, at ground level, where people felt it; she recorded them honestly and painstakingly. One of the earliest, and still one of the few, books to give significant voice to the perceptions of Vietnamese participants and victims of the war. Fine in fine dust jacket.
102. (Ephemera). Contribution to Christmas Gifts for Our Fighting Men in Viet Nam. 6 1/2" x 5 1/2". Printed with the same message on each side, one side in blue, one side in red and blue. Two slight folds in the paper, but not creased. Near fine.
103. EVERETT, Percival. Walk Me to the Distance. NY: Ticknor & Fields (1985). A novel by an African-American writer about a vet who returns to the U.S. and drifts to a small Montana town. Few novels pertaining to the war have been written by black vets. Fine in fine dust jacket.
104. FAINLIGHT, Ruth. Daylife and Nightlife. (London): Deutsch (1971). A collection of short fiction by this American writer living in England. Not published in the U.S. Contains the novella "Dying for Vietnam." Minor staining to cloth; still near fine in near fine dust jacket.
105. FALABELLA, J.R. Vietnam Memoirs. A Passage to Sorrow. NY: Pageant Press (1971). Vanity press publication of the memoirs of a chaplain in Vietnam. Fine in very good dust jacket with some rubbing, one small chip and several short edge tears. Uncommon.
106. -. Another copy. Fine in good, price-clipped dust jacket.
107. FALL, Bernard. Le Viet Minh 1945-1960. Paris: Armand Colin, 1960. The definitive history of the Vietnamese Communists prior to U.S. involvement. Never published in this country in a trade edition, this is nonetheless the first landmark study of the Vietnamese insurgent movement. This copy is fine in wrappers in a near fine dust jacket and is warmly inscribed by the author in French to his "friend and guide," and dated 1960. An extremely scarce and an extremely important book: Fall was the most knowledgeable Western reporter/ historian covering Southeast Asia in the Fifties and Sixties and his books have become classics for their insight and their trenchant critiques of policy, strategy and tactics on all sides of the wars in Vietnam and Laos. He was killed while on patrol with U.S. Marines in 1967. A presentation copy of this important and scarce title constitutes a true rarity.
108. FALL, Bernard. Street Without Joy. Harrisburg: Stackpole (1961). Fall's classic study of French policy and tactics in Southeast Asia and the American penchant for following the footsteps of the French, duplicating their erroneous assumptions and mistakes. Perhaps the single most insightful volume on the Indochina war(s). This is the very scarce first edition, published by a press more noted for its sporting handbooks than for its general trade books and which often issued titles with first printings as small as 1000 copies. The first edition of this title is exceedingly scarce, although it was reprinted a number of times in the early and mid-Sixties as the American involvement in Vietnam grew. To read this book is to be struck by a slowly-building horrorto realize that much of his description of the failure of various tactics and policies was written before the United States employed them, and could have been avoided. Near fine in very good dust jacket, with "Contemporary Affairs Society" sticker on the front panel. A very nice copy of an important book.
109. -. Another copy. Ownership stamps of Edwin D. Sorensen. About near fine in an about very good dust jacket.
110. -. Another copy. Very good in good dust jacket.
111. -. Same title, the second printing (Sept., 1961). Owner gift inscription on half-title, and handwritten notation as to Fall's death (while on patrol in the "street without joy") on the title page; else fine, lacking the dust jacket.
112. -. Same title, the third, revised edition (January, 1963). Near fine in about near fine dust jacket, which differs in color and text from the original.
113. -. Same title, fourth printing of the fourth edition (May, 1967), which was rewritten to include the Americans in Vietnamand constitutes a very early commentary thus. Very good in spine-faded dust jacket.
114. FALL, Bernard. Hell in a Very Small Place. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1967. Fall's account of the siege of Dien Bien Phu, written a dozen years after the fact, is the definitive account of the battle, and benefits from the hindsight afforded by time so that his perspective also sheds light on the later American strategy and tactics in Vietnam. A combination of compelling individuals' accounts and superb military history and analysis. One of the classics of the war. This copy is inscribed by the author at Christmas, 1966, just two months before his death. Top stain faded; else fine in a very good, spine-faded dust jacket. Uncommon in the first edition; rare inscribed.
115. -. Another copy, this being the book club edition. Fine in near fine, price-clipped dust jacket with a few spots of rubbing, particularly along the spine folds. A nice copy of an important book, which is somewhat scarce in any hardcover edition.
116. FALL, Bernard. Last Reflections on a War. Garden City: Doubleday, 1967. Posthumously published collection of articles, notes and transcripts, with an introduction by Fall's wife. Fine in a very good dust jacket.
117. FALL, Bernard. Anatomy of a Crisis. Garden City: Doubleday, 1969. Posthumously published analysis of the events leading up to the Laotian crisis of 1960-61. Fine in very good, rubbed and spine-faded dust jacket. One of his less common titles.
118. FARISH, Terry. Flower Shadows. NY: Morrow (1992). First novel, about a group of young women serving in Vietnam and coming of age there. A notable addition to the small shelf of volumes pertaining to women's experiences in Vietnam. Fine in fine dust jacket.
119. FILI, William J. Of Lice and Men. Philadelphia: Dorrance (1973). Vanity press personal account of a P.O.W.in this case in Romania in World War IIwhich has been inscribed by the author to Lt. Cmdr. Richard A. Stratton, perhaps the most famous American P.O.W. during the Vietnam war. It was Stratton whose robotic monotone and exaggerated bow in a press conference called by his North Vietnamese captors first alerted the world to the treatment being received by American prisoners of war in Vietnam.
North Vietnamese Propaganda Films circa 1971-2
120. (Film). U.S. War Techniques and Genocide in Vietnam. (n.p.): (Vietnam People's Army Film Studio) (1971). 34 minutes. Two reels of 16mm propaganda film prepared in North Vietnam and given to members of a U.S. peace contingent visiting Hanoi in 1972, in hopes that it would be publicized in the U.S. upon their return. Film is in fine condition in modestly worn metal film canister. Rare, if not unique.
121. (Film). The Culprit is Nixon. 1972. 27 minutes. A single reel of 16mm film, prepared in North Vietnam as propaganda and given to members of a U.S. peace contingent in Hanoi in 1972. Fine in metal canister.
122. FITZGERALD, Frances. Fire in the Lake. The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam. Boston: Little Brown (1972). Her massive and controversial book, the first book from a general trade publisher to give voice to the Vietnamese sides of the story of the war. A bestseller, a Book-of-the-Month club selection, winner of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Inscribed by the author. Near fine in spine-faded and price-clipped dust jacket. Uncommon now in the first edition and very uncommon signed.
123. -. Another copy. Fine in about near fine jacket.
124. -. Another copy. Spot to top page edges; otherwise fine in a good only dust jacket, spine-faded and with moderate edgewear.
125. FLEMING, Jim. Vietnam. A Personal Impression. Toronto: CHFI, 1968. Personal account of a young Canadian newscaster in Vietnam. Very near fine in wrappers. No indication of there having been a hardcover edition of this title. The first copy we have seen.
126. FLEMING, Stephen. The Exile of Sergeant Nen. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books (1986). A novel of a Vietnamese soldier who first fought for the French then the South Vietnamese, and later ends up a waiter in Washington D.C. Fine in fine dust jacket.
127. FLOWERS, A.R. De Mojo Blues. NY: Dutton (1985). The author's first novel, about a black Vietnam vet. One of the small number of novels about the war written by black writers. Fine in fine dust jacket.
128. FLOYD, Bryan Alec. The Long War Dead. Sag Harbor: Permanent Press (n.d.). Reissue of this collection of poems, originally published in 1976 as a paperback original by Avon/Bard, and published here as a trade paperback. Simple, straightforward poems with substantial impact, each written as if they were epitaphs, one for each dead soldier in the platoon. One of the more powerful collections of poems we've encountered. Several of these were included in the anthology Unaccustomed Mercy, but otherwise a difficult title to find, in any edition. Near fine.