Women Writers, S
478. SARTON, May. Joanna and Ulysses. NY: Norton (c. 1963). String-bound galleys, in vinyl covers. An unusual format, suggesting that few copies would have been so prepared. Near fine, and rare.
479. SARTON, May. Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing. NY: Norton (1965). Tall, wide spiralbound galley sheets of her most famous book. Printed on rectos only. Oversize covers a bit faded, and torn at foredge; overall very good. Scarce state of an important book and a keynote novel in lesbian literature.
480. SCHAEFFER, Susan Fromberg. Falling. NY: Macmillan (1973). Uncorrected proof copy of the author's well-received first book, which was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 10 best novels of the year. Inscribed by the author. Covers dust-soiled; else fine in wrappers.
481. -. Same title, advance review copy of the trade edition. Fine in fine dust jacket and inscribed by the author in 1975.
482. SCHAEFFER, Susan Fromberg. Anya. NY: Macmillan (1974). Uncorrected proof of her second novel, winner of the Edward Lewis Wallant Award and the Friends of Literature Award. Inscribed by the author. Fine in wrappers.
483. -. Same title, advance review copy of the trade edition. Fine in fine dust jacket and inscribed by the author.
484. SCHAEFFER, Susan Fromberg. Alphabet for the Lost Years. San Francisco: Gallimaufry, 1976. Her fourth collection of poetry, one of 1000 copies. Fine in wrappers and inscribed by the author.
485. SCHAEFFER, Susan Fromberg. The Queen of Egypt. NY: Dutton (1980). A collection of short fiction. Near fine in near fine dust jacket.
486. SCHWARTZ, Lynne Sharon. Balancing Acts. NY: Harper & Row (1981). Review copy of her second book. Small chip crossing lower edge of first few pages; near fine in fine dust jacket.
487. -. Same title, the first British edition (London: Gollancz, 1982). Fine in fine dust jacket.
488. SCOTT, Evelyn. The Wave. NY: Cape & Smith (1929). A Civil War novel which Joseph Wood Krutch called the best treatment of the subject to date. Mild foxing to foredge; otherwise fine in a fine, mildly spine-darkened dust jacket. A very nice copy.
489. SEGAL, Lore. Other People's Houses. NY: Harcourt Brace World (1964). Her uncommon first book, a memoir. Very good in very good, price-clipped dust jacket with light chipping to crown.
490. -. Same title, the first British edition (London: Gollancz, 1965). Spine-cocked; thus only very good in a jacket that is internally and externally tape-repaired along the upper edge of the front panel. A notable book, scarce in any edition.
491. SETTLE, Mary Lee. O Beulah Land. NY: Viking, 1956. Advance "preview" copy of her third novel, and the first book in her acclaimed series of historical novels, the Beulah sequence, which has been highly praised for its authenticity and historical accuracy and is considered one of the masterful accomplishments in American historical fiction. Fine in near fine dust jacket.
492. SETTLE, Mary Lee. Know Nothing. NY: Viking, 1960. The second volume in the Beulah sequence. This is the scarcest title in the five-volume series, which was written over a span of more than two decades. Near fine in near fine jacket with very slight spine-fading and wear at base of spine. Inscribed by the author on the half-title page.
493. -. Same title, the first British edition (London: Heinemann, 1961). Boards mildly bowed; else fine in fine dust jacket. Scarce.
494. SETTLE, Mary Lee. Fight Night on a Sweet Saturday. NY: Viking (1964). Advance review copy of her fifth novel, the third in the Beulah quintet. Fine in a near fine, slightly spine-darkened dust jacket, with a couple of small spots.
495. -. Another copy, not a review copy. Near fine in a very good dust jacket with a sticker abrasion on the upper spine.
496. SETTLE, Mary Lee. All the Brave Promises. NY: Delacorte (1966). Nonfiction; an account of the author's time serving with the women's auxilary of the Royal Air Force in Britain during World War II. Near fine in very good, price-clipped dust jacket.
497. SETTLE, Mary Lee. The Story of Flight. NY: Random House (1967). Scarce illustrated children's book outlining the history of aviation. Pictorial boards abraded at edges and extremities of spine; overall very good. In our experience, this is her least common title.
498. SETTLE, Mary Lee. Celebration. Franklin Center: Franklin Library, 1986. The limited edition, and the true first. Leatherbound, all edges gilt, with a silk ribbon marker bound in and an introduction by Settle especially for this edition. Fine. Signed by the author.
499. SETTLE, Mary Lee. Choices. NY: Doubleday/Talese (1995). Her most recent novel. Fine in fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
500. SEXTON, Anne. Live or Die. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1960. The Pulitzer Prize-winning third collection of poems by a woman whose intimate, autobiographical writing opened up new possibilities of self-examination and self-expression for a generation of women-both writers and readers-coming of age in the Sixties. Her suicide in 1974 came to be viewed in retrospect, like Sylvia Plath's, as both a political act and a reflection of the urgency and authenticity of her artistic impulse. This copy is inscribed by the author to Nolan Miller, editor of The Antioch Review, which published some of her earliest poems: "For Nolan/ again with grateful thanks/ Anne." Fine in fine dust jacket with minor sun-darkening. A nice association. Inscriptions by Sexton are uncommon.
501. SHANGE, Ntozake. Sassafrass. (Berkeley): (Shameless Hussy Press) (1977). Small volume of fiction and poetry published by a feminist press. Original wrappers, slightly soiled, very good.
502. SHANGE, Ntozake. Three Pieces. NY: St. Martin's (1981). Advance review copy of this collection of short pieces for the theater. Illustrated with photographs. Fine in dust jacket.
503. SHANGE, Ntozake. Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo. (Lon): Methuen (1983). First English edition of her first novel, expanding on the characters introduced in her short prose poem, Sassafrass. Fine in fine dust jacket.
504. SHIELDS, Carol. The Box Garden. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson (1977). Correct first edition (i.e., Canadian) of the second novel by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Stone Diaries. Fine in near fine dust jacket with minor rubbing along the front spinefold and at the top of the spine.
505. SHIELDS, Carol. Swann. (Toronto): Stoddart (1987). The correct first edition of this novel. Fine in fine dust jacket.
506. SHIELDS, Carol. The Republic of Love. Toronto: Random House (1992). First edition. Fine in fine dust jacket and inscribed by the author on a publisher's label tipped to the half-title.
507. SHREVE, Susan Richards. A Fortunate Madness. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974. Her first novel. Fine in a very good, price-clipped dust jacket.
508. SHREVE, Susan Richards. Children of Power. NY: Macmillan (1979). Review copy of her third novel for adults. Fine in near fine dust jacket. Blurbs by John Irving, Tim O'Brien, John Gardner, Johns Casey, Gail Godwin, a.o.
509. -. Another copy, not a review copy. Fine in near fine dust jacket.
510. SHREVE, Susan Richards. Miracle Play. NY: Morrow, 1981. Review copy. Fine in fine dust jacket.
511. SIMPSON, Mona. The Lost Father. NY: Knopf, 1992. Second novel by this author who was recently selected as one of Granta magazine's 20 best Young American Authors. Fine in fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
512. SMILEY, Jane. At Paradise Gate. NY: Simon & Schuster (1981). Uncorrected proof copy of her second novel. Near fine in tall wrappers. Very scarce.
513. SMILEY, Jane. Catskill Crafts. NY: Crown (1988). First book of nonfiction by this Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist. Profiles of a number of craftspeople, heavily illustrated with examples of their work. Fine in fine dust jacket.
514. SMILEY, Jane. Ordinary Love & Good Will. NY: Knopf, 1989. Two novellas by the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Thousand Acres. Fine in fine dust jacket.
515. SMITH, Lee. Black Mountain Breakdown. NY: Putnam's (1980). Beakthrough book for this North Carolina author. Light smudging to page edges; else fine in near fine dust jacket with a couple very short, closed edge tears.
516. SMITH, Lee. The Devil's Dream. NY: Putnam (1992). A novel of country music, with a glowing blurb from Pat Conroy. Fine in fine dust jacket.
517. SONTAG, Susan. The Benefactor. NY: Farrar Straus (1963). First novel. Several small pencilled marginal notations; very near fine in like, price-clipped dust jacket.
518. SONTAG, Susan. Death Kit. NY: FSG (1967). Uncorrected proof copy of Sontag's second novel. Copiously, and quite critically, annotated by novelist Frederick Tuten, who reviewed the book. An interesting glimpse of one writer's take on another's work. Spiralbound; very good in wrappers.
519. -. Same title, the trade edition. Very good in a very good dust jacket.
520. SONTAG, Susan. Illness as Metaphor. NY: FSG (1978). An important essay by one of the leading American intellectuals of our time. Near fine in near fine, price-clipped jacket with one edge tear. Signed by the author.
521. SONTAG, Susan. I, Etcetera. NY: FSG (1978). Review copy. Fine in fine dust jacket.
522. SONTAG, Susan. Under the Sign of Saturn. NY: FSG (1980). Her third collection of essays. Fine in dust jacket and signed by the author.
523. SONTAG, Susan. AIDS and Its Metaphors. NY: FSG (1989). An extended essay on the disease, updating her earlier volume Illness as Metaphor. Fine in fine dust jacket and signed by the author.
524. SONTAG, Susan. The Way We Live Now. London: Cape (1991). A short story by Sontag, illustrated with fold-out color reproductions of paintings by the artist Howard Hodgkin. Fine in self-wraps.
525. SONTAG, Susan. The Volcano Lover. NY: FSG, 1992. Advance reading copy of her first novel in many years and a significant departure for her, in that it is a novel of ideas couched in the form of a historical romance. Reportedly, the prepublication copies of this book contain significant differences from the final published text. Fine in wrappers and signed by the author, who has written: "there were many, many changes made on these proofs."
526. SPENCER, Elizabeth. The Voice at the Back Door. NY: McGraw-Hill (1956). The third book by this Mississippi novelist, with dust jacket blurbs by Robert Penn Warren and Eudora Welty. Fine in near fine dust jacket.
527. SPENCER, Elizabeth. The Light in the Piazza. NY: McGraw-Hill (1960). Mild foxing to page edges; else fine in fine dust jacket.
528. ST. AUBIN DE TERAN, Lisa. Keepers of the House. London: Cape (1982). The author's highly praised first novel, winner of the Somerset Maugham Award. Fine in fine dust jacket.
529. STARK, Sharon Sheehe. The Dealers' Yard and Other Stories. NY: Morrow (1985). First book. Inscribed by the author to another writer, whose blurb appears on the dust jacket. Near fine in a very good dust jacket with a creased tear at the lower front panel. Jacket blurbs by Tim O'Brien, John Updike, Andre Dubus, Anne Tyler, and others.
530. STARK, Sharon Sheehe. A Wrestling Season. NY: Morrow (1987). Signed and additionally inscribed by the author to another writer in November of 1986-i.e., prior to the year of copyright and thus presumably prior to publication. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with wear at the spine base.
531. STEAD, Christina. Letty Fox: Her Luck. NY: Harcourt Brace (1946). A novel by the author of The Man Who Loved Children and The Salzburg Tales. A very good copy in a good dust jacket with a long edge tear at the spine base.
532. STEAD, Christina. The People With the Dogs. Boston: Little Brown, 1952. Owner name front flyleaf and tape shadows to both pastedowns; else near fine in near fine dust jacket with mild spine-darkening.
533. STEIN, Gertrude. Geography and Plays. Boston: Four Seas (1922). Introduction by Sherwood Anderson. This is a very good copy in the first binding, with lettering on the front cover, in a dust jacket that is slightly spine-darkened and lightly chipped at extremities of the spine. Still, a very good copy of a scarce book.
534. -. Same title, the first edition, third binding. The first printing was 2500 copies in 1922, which were bound up over the course of 18 years in four different bindings. Fine in a heavily trimmed, very good dust jacket.
535. STEIN, Gertrude. Four Saints in Three Acts. NY: Random House (1934). A libretto for an opera scored by Virgil Thompson. Published in an edition of 4000 copies. Fine in a trimmed, internally tape-strenghtened dust jacket.
536. STEIN, Gertrude. Brewsie and Willie. NY: Random House (1946). Flyleaf corner clipped; else fine in a slightly trimmed dust jacket with trace rubbing at the crown and upper front flap fold.
537. STEIN, Gertrude. Selected Writings of Gertrude Stein. NY: Random House (1946). Fine in dust jacket. Edited and introduced by Carl Van Vechten. A beautiful copy of a landmark volume, published just after Stein died.
538. STEIN, Gertrude. Four in America. New Haven: Yale U. Press, 1947. Introduction by Thornton Wilder. A series of speculations on four prominent Americans which was completed before she died but only published posthumously. Fine in slightly trimmed, else fine dust jacket.
539. STEIN, Gertrude. The Gertrude Stein First Reader and Three Plays. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1948. The first American edition, one of 2000 copies. Fine in fine dust jacket with one short edge tear on the rear panel.
540. STEIN, Gertrude. Blood on the Dining Room Floor. (n.p.): Banyan Press (1948). Limited edition: of a total edition of 626 copies, this is one of 600 numbered copies. Fine in glassine dustwrapper, which has several tiny chips, in fine slipcase. A very nice copy of this attractive, fragile volume.
541. STEIN, Gertrude. Last Operas and Plays. NY: Rinehart (1949). Edited and with an introduction by Carl Van Vechten. Very mildly bumped at spine base; else fine in fine dust jacket. A lovely copy, virtually as new.
542. STEIN, Gertrude. Mrs. Reynolds. New Haven: Yale U. Press, 1952. Posthumously published collection, including the title novel and five short "novelettes." Published in an edition of 2500 copies. Fine in trimmed, near fine dust jacket.
543. (STEIN, Gertrude.) MILLER, Rosalind. Gertrude Stein: Form and Intelligibility. NY: Exposition Press (1949). A critical study and interpretation intended to serve as an introduction to Stein's work. Reprints early work by her from the Radcliffe manuscripts. Fine in trimmed, else fine dust jacket.
544. SWENSON, May. A Cage of Spines. NY: Rinehart (1958). Poetry. Second book. Near fine in very good, price-clipped dust jacket.
545. SWENSON, May. Iconographs. (NY): (Scribner) (1970). Her sixth book, experimental poetry. Quarto; illustrated boards without dust jacket, apparently as issued. An unusual format to go with unusual content. Near fine.