Women Writers, C-D
55. -. Another copy. Fine in a very good dust jacket with creasing on front cover and minor edgewear.
56. CALISHER, Hortense. False Entry. Boston: Little Brown (1961). Her second book, first novel, published a decade after her first collection. Fine in fine dust jacket and inscribed by the author "with pleasure" in 1973. A very nice copy of an important writer's first novel.
57. -. Another copy, this being a review copy. Foxing to page edges; otherwise near fine in a very good dust jacket with a closed gouge at mid-spine. With a proof of the author's foreword laid in, along with review slip.
58. CALISHER, Hortense. Textures of Life. Boston: Little Brown (1963). Her second novel, fourth book. Again, inscribed by the author in 1973, with the annotation "This is a village one," referring to the story's Greenwich Village setting. Fine in fine dust jacket with mild spine-tanning.
59. CALISHER, Hortense. Extreme Magic. Boston: Little Brown (1964). Advance review copy of her fifth book, a collection of eight short stories and a novella. Inscribed by the author in 1973. Fine in fine dust jacket, with review slip glued to front flyleaf.
60. CALISHER, Hortense. Journal from Ellipsia. Boston: Little Brown (1965). Her sixth book, a novel. Inscribed by the author in 1973. A virtually pristine copy, fine in fine dust jacket.
61. CALISHER, Hortense. Herself. NY: Arbor House (1972). An autobiographical work. Review copy with slip, erratum sheet, and author photo laid in. Signed by the author in 1973. Fine in dust jacket.
62. CALISHER, Hortense. The Collected Stories of Hortense Calisher. NY: (Arbor House) (1975). A massive volume published in celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of her first story. Includes the entire contents of three of her collections, all of her "Hester" stories, and one previously uncollected story. This is an advance review copy, with review slip, promotional information, and author photo laid in. Inscribed by the author. Fine in dust jacket.
63. CATHER, Willa. The Song of the Lark. London: Cassell (1938). Second English edition, with text modified from the first edition. Offsetting to endpages; owner name front flyleaf; a good copy in a spine-darkened jacket lightly chipped at the crown.
64. (CATHER, Willa). MILMINE, Georgine. The Life of Mary Baker G Eddy and the History of Christian Science. NY: Doubleday Page (1909). An early work by Cather, which she edited and largely rewrote when she had just started work at McClure's magazine and this biography was submitted for serial publication. Although there is scholarly dispute about the exact extent of Cather's efforts on this work, and she herself preferred to minimize her involvement with it in later years, the consensus is that she is largely responsible for the writing that appeared in the serial, and that the journalistic style of it was her own. Reportedly, the copyright to this title was later purchased by a friend of Christian Science and the plates from which the book was printed were destroyed making this volume, according to a Mary Baker Eddy bibliography, "exceedingly rare." Some instances of pencil underlining in text. Owner signature and blindstamp front flyleaf, bookplate front pastedown. Endpages starting at hinges. Edgewear to cloth, particularly at the spine extremities. Still a solid, better than good copy of an exceedingly uncommon book.
65. -. Same title, the very scarce first British edition (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1909), which was listed as "not seen" in the Crane bibliography. Crane reports that this book was "suppressed in England by the Christian Scientists." Multiple spots of wear to cloth, particularly along the spine folds; still very good, lacking the jacket. An extremely scarce, virtually unknown, Willa Cather item.
66. CHANT, Joy. The Grey Mane of Morning. London: Allen & Unwin (1977). Fantasy novel by the highly regarded author of Red Moon and Black Mountain. Small spot to foredge; else fine in fine dust jacket.
67. CHUTE, Carolyn. The Beans of Egypt, Maine. NY: Ticknor & Fields, 1985. Her first book, a novel of a backwoods Maine family which was both critically acclaimed and a surprise bestseller. This title was issued simultaneously in hardcover and trade paperback-a somewhat experimental marketing approach geared toward limiting the publisher's investment and their risk on such an uncertain proposition as a literary first novel. Consequently, the hardcover was issued in even smaller quantities than would have been the case otherwise, and most bookstores received only paperbacks to sell. Small spot on foredge, otherwise fine in a fine dust jacket and warmly inscribed by the author in 1988.
68. CHUTE, Carolyn. Letourneau's Used Auto Parts. NY: T&F, 1988. Second novel by the author of The Beans of Egypt, Maine. Fine in fine dust jacket and signed by the author. After the rather astonishing success of her first book, this novel was issued in substantially larger numbers than The Beans had been.
69. CLAMPITT, Amy. The Kingfisher. NY: Knopf, 1983. Uncorrected proof copy of her highly praised first major collection of poems. The trade edition received universally glowing reviews and was reprinted many times, and established her as a major poetic voice. Near fine in wrappers.
70. CLARK, Eleanor. Rome and a Villa. Garden City: Doubleday (1952). The author's second book, nonfiction-part travelogue, part history, part personal essay. Fine in near fine dust jacket with mild wear at spine crown, including one tiny chip.
71. CLARK, Mary Higgins. Aspire to the Heavens. A Portrait of George Washington. NY: Meredith Press (1968). The first book by this author who has since gone on to become a bestselling thriller writer, whose books sell in the hundreds of thousands-even millions, with paperbacks included-of copies. Near fine in a very good, price-clipped dust jacket with a tear at the upper front spine fold and on the front flapfold. A very scarce book.
72. CLIFTON, Lucille. Quilting. Poems 1987-1990. Brockport: BOA, 1991. Uncorrected proof copy of this African-American author's collection, consisting of bound photocopied galley sheets. Fine. Scarce.
73. COLEGATE, Isabel. The Shooting Party. NY: Viking (1981). First American edition of this novel that was made into a well-received movie. Fine in fine dust jacket.
74. COLWIN, Laurie. Passion and Affect. NY: Viking (1974). Her first book, a collection of stories. Near fine in a very good dust jacket with one externally tape-repaired open edge tear on the front panel.
75. COLWIN, Laurie. Dangerous French Mistress & Other Stories. London: Chatto & Windus (1975). First English edition of her first book, re-titled from the American. Fine in fine dust jacket.
76. COOPER, J. California. Family. NY: Doubleday (1991). Uncorrected proof copy of this novel, the author's first, after three collections of stories. Near fine in wrappers and inscribed by the author.
77. COOPER, Susan. Behind the Golden Curtain. (London): Hodder & Stoughton (1965). Early book by the author of the landmark fantasy sequence, The Dark is Rising. This is a nonfiction volume, an analysis of the U.S. as seen by a Briton with a cosmopolitan view. Sticker partially abraded from front flyleaf; near fine in a very good dust jacket. Uncommon.
78. DANIELL, Rosemary. Fort Bragg & Other Points South. NY: Henry Holt (1988). Poetry by this Southern writer, who has made a point of attacking the sexual mores of genteel Southern society. Only issued in wrappers. Inscribed by the author to another writer. Addresses and phone numbers inside rear cover, apparently in the author's hand. Fine in wrappers.
79. DANIELL, Rosemary. The Hurricane Season. NY: Morrow (1992). Her first novel after two volumes of poetry and two nonfiction prose works. Inscribed by the author to another writer. Fine in fine dust jacket. Pat Conroy and Rita Mae Brown blurbs, among others.
80. DANTICAT, Edwidge. Krik? Krak! (NY): Soho (1995). Second book by this Haitian author; nominated for the National Book Award. Fine in dust jacket.
81. DAVIS, Kathryn. Labrador. Lon: Bodley Head (1989). First British edition of the author's highly praised first novel, favorably compared by reviewers to such accomplished first novels as Joan Chase's During the Reign of the Queen of Persia and Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping. Winner of the Kafka prize, as the best work of fiction published that year by an American woman writer. Fine in fine dust jacket.
82. DAVIS, Kathryn. The Girl Who Trod On a Loaf. NY: Knopf, 1993. The author's highly praised second novel. Fine in fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
83. DEW, Robb Forman. Dale Loves Sophie to Death. NY: FSG (1981). Review copy. First book. Fine in fine dust jacket.
84. -. Another copy. Inscribed by the author to the book's designer, Jeffrey Schaire, "with thanks for making a lovely object of my book." Top edges of boards sunned; else fine in near fine dust jacket.
85. DIDION, Joan. Run River. NY: Obolensky (1963). First book, a novel, by this writer whose astringent fiction and essays comprise one of the defining voices of our time. Fine in very lightly rubbed, near fine dust jacket, and very scarce thus. With a two-page TLS to a close friend laid in dated May 12, 1963. A closely typed letter which comments on the early reviews of her novels in terms that remain relevant to both her critical reception today and also her acknowledged place in contemporary American letters: in part, her comments read "The general tenor of the reviews I've seen so far of my book seems to indicate that I am a very good writer with a very bad problem, which is that I ought to be (A) in psychoanalysis (B) in love (C) out finding God... I mean maybe I've never been little-Mary-Sunshine, but I'm not so hopeless as the Herald Tribune and several other people seem to think..." The New York Herald Tribune had written that Didion wrote "as if exhausted beyond the point of possible joy," a comment about which she writes: "I was so unnerved by this that I went to church for the first time in some time, and took communion for the first time since I was confirmed in 1946." A remarkable letter and a very nice copy of the first book of one of the most important women writers of the postwar era.
86. DIDION, Joan. A Book of Common Prayer. NY: Simon & Schuster (1977). Third novel, fourth book, by the author of Slouching Toward Bethlehem and Play It As It Lays. A novel of the intrigue at the heart of a fictional Central American country, in some ways presaging her later essay, Salvador, one of the most devastating portraits of the collapse of moral order in the Americas. Fine in fine dust jacket.
87. -. Another copy, this being an advance review copy. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with an edge tear at the lower front spine fold.
88. -. Another copy. Fine in fine dust jacket and inscribed by the author in the year of publication.
89. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. Near fine in very tall, fragile, padbound wrappers.
90. -. Same title, the first British edition (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1977). Fine in fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
91. -. Same title, the signed limited edition (Franklin Center: Franklin Library, 1981). One of an unspecified number of copies bound in full leather stamped in gilt, with gilt page edges, silk endpapers and silk ribbon marker. With an introduction by Didion written for this edition. Signed by the author. Fine.
92. DIDION, Joan. Telling Stories. (Berkeley): Friends of the Bancroft Library, 1978. A small volume in wrappers, issued as number 26 in the series of keepsakes produced by the Friends of the Library. This constitutes the first book appearance of three early stories by Didion, as well as the first appearance anywhere of an essay by her recounting their history, and explaining why she never wrote any more stories. Fine in wrappers.
93. DIDION, Joan. The White Album. NY: Simon & Schuster (1979). Her second collection of essays. Fine in fine dust jacket.
94. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. Near fine in wrappers.
95. -. Same title, the first British edition (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1979). Fine in fine dust jacket.
96. DIDION, Joan. Salvador. NY: Simon & Schuster (1983). An extended essay on the civil war in El Salvador, the brutality of which was perfectly captured by Didion's writing, which is imbued with a pervasive sense of dread. The publisher calls El Salvador "a time and place so terrifying that only Joan Didion could capture it," giving voice implicitly to the place that she has occupied in contemporary American literature as a writer singularly privy to the fears and dark horrors on the other side of the looking glass that is modern society. Fine in fine dust jacket.
97. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. Fine in wrappers.
98. -. Same title, the first English edition (London: Chatto & Windus/Hogarth, 1983). This is the scarce hardcover issue (there was a simultaneous paperback that was more widely distributed). Pages very slightly browning with age, otherwise fine in fine dust jacket.
99. DIDION, Joan. Democracy. NY: Simon & Schuster (1984). Fine in spine-faded, else fine pink dust jacket.
100. -. Same title, the first Canadian edition (Toronto: Lester & Orpen Dennys). Fine in near fine, gold dust jacket.
101. -. Same title, the first English edition (London: Chatto & Windus/Hogarth, 1984). Fine in fine dust jacket with slight bump at spine base.
102. DIDION, Joan. Miami. NY: Simon & Schuster (1987). Bound photocopy of the typescript. An early state of the text, with changes in the text between this state and the later proof visible from the first page onward. A distribution list on the front cover lists 10 people who were to receive this text. Fine, and scarce.
103. DIDION, Joan. After Henry. NY: Simon & Schuster (1992). A collection of essays. Fine in fine dust jacket and inscribed by the author: "For __________/ with regards from/ the ever incorrect/ Joan Didion/ 14 July 92." In our experience, this qualifies as a rather verbose inscription for Didion.
104. -. Another copy. Fine in fine dust jacket.
105. DINESEN, Isak. Last Tales. NY: Random House (1957). A beautiful copy of this collection of stories by the author of Out of Africa and Seven Gothic Tales. Fine in fine dust jacket.
106. DI PRIMA, Diane. Revolutionary Letters. (London): (Long Hair Books) (1969). Prints letters 1-34. This is an edition not recorded by Lepper in his checklist. With slight textual differences from the later City Lights edition. Signed by the author. Fine in stapled wrappers.
107. -. Same title. (San Francisco: City Lights, 1971). Review copy, with card so stamped laid in. This is the first printing, with letters 1-43 plus additional poems. Fine in wrappers and signed by the author.
108. -. Same title, second edition, enlarged (October, 1971). The letters go to #49, plus additional poems. Fine in wrappers and signed by the author.
109. DI PRIMA, Diane. Memoirs of a Beatnik. (NY): Olympia Press/Traveller's Companion (1969). Rubbing to edges and folds; near fine in wrappers.
110. DI PRIMA, Diane. Kerhonkson Journal 1966. Berkeley: Oyez, 1971. Attractively printed collection of poems, one of 1000 copies. Signed by the author on the frontispiece photograph of her as a young girl. Fine in wrappers with errata sheet laid in.
111. DI PRIMA, Diane. Dinners and Nightmares. NY: Corinth, 1974. The expanded edition of her first collection of stories, originally published in 1961. Inscribed by the author. Fine in wrappers.
112. (DI PRIMA, Diane). Various Fables from Various Places. NY: Putnam, 1960. Issued in wrappers as a Putnam Capricorn original the same year as the hardcover. Acidic paper edge-darkened; still near fine. Signed by Di Prima.
113. (DI PRIMA, Diane). Seven Love Poems From the Middle Latin. NY: Poets Press, 1965. Translations by Di Prima. Fine in stapled wrappers. Signed by Di Prima.
114. (DOOLITTLE, Hilda). "H.D." Palimpsest. (Boston): (Houghton Mifflin) (1926). First American edition, one of 700 copies. An experimental novel by this Imagist poet, peer of Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams and Marianne Moore. Light shelfwear to bottom edges of covers; near fine in very good dust jacket. An attractive copy of a scarce and fragile book.
115. DOUGLAS, Ellen. A Family's Affairs. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962. First novel by this Mississippi writer, winner of a Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship Award. Near fine in a jacket that is spine-faded and has several very small edge tears but is otherwise also near fine.
116. DOVE, Rita. The Darker Face of the Earth. (Brownsville): Story Line Press (1994). A limited edition of this verse play by the Pulitzer Prize winner and U.S. Poet Laureate. Of a total edition of 250 hardbound copies, this is one of 224 numbered copies signed by the author. Attractively bound in two-tone cloth, fine without dust jacket, as issued.
117. DRABBLE, Margaret. The Millstone. NY: Morrow (1966). A review copy of the first American edition of her uncommon third book. Very good in very good dust jacket, with publisher's review slip laid in.
118. DUNN, Katherine. Attic. NY: Harper & Row (1970). First book by the author of the much-acclaimed Geek Love. Neon owner sticker front pastedown and very slight bump to spine base; else fine in a fine dust jacket.
119. DUNN, Katherine. Truck. NY: Harper & Row (1971). Her second book. Very near fine in like jacket. A very nice copy.
120. DUNN, Katherine. Three Day Fox: A Tattoo. (n.p.): (Arboreal Abomination #1)(1979). A prose poem with an illustration by Alaina Lara. Fine in stapled wrappers and signed by the author.
121. DURBAN, Pam. All Set About with Fever Trees. Boston: Godine (1985). The author's first book, a collection of short stories, mostly set in the South. Warmly inscribed by the author to another writer, in 1986 and also signed on the title page. One title circled in ink on the contents page; very near fine in like dust jacket.