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E-list # 154

New Arrivals

1.
(Poetry)
click for a larger image of item #33322, Poetry in Public Places NY, Poetry in Public Places, ca. 1979. Six poetry broadsides from the series "Poetry in Public Places," made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts. Subway-sized, 28" x 11"; i.e., designed to be placed in the advertising space on New York subways, above the windows. Each designed by Sherwin Harris. The six included here are: "The Morning Glory" by Raymond Roseliep; "Heavy Acquisition" by Edward Dorn; "Astronomical Lesson for Acme, Wyoming" by Charles Levendosky; "Herds" by Robert Hedin; "The Rent in the Screen" by Howard Nemerov; and an untitled poem by Jason Hwang. Dampstaining to the lower left corner of each, mostly affecting just the margins; a very good or better lot. An ephemeral effort to bring poetry into people's daily lives and at the same time an opportunity for poets, including a number of young ones, to get their work in front of a much larger audience than they might have otherwise. [#033322] SOLD
2.
click for a larger image of item #33323, Sex and Rage NY, Knopf, 1979. The uncorrected proof copy of the third book by this writer and iconic figure of the Los Angeles arts culture of the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Babitz was famous for her art, her frank sexuality in both her life and her writings, and for her relationships with some of the preeminent male artists of the era. She had affairs with Jim Morrison, Ed Ruscha, and a host of other famous men, and her place in the L.A. culture has been compared to that of Edie Sedgewick of Andy Warhol's Factory, in terms of her wide-ranging impact on her cultural milieu. Her first book, Eve's Hollywood, published in 1974, was a collection of essays and vignettes on the L.A. culture of the 60s, and 70s, and among its dedicatees were Warhol, Morrison, Stephen Stills and David Geffen. This book is subtitled "Advice for Young Ladies Eager for a Good Time," an ironic take on the etiquette books of a previous era, and an indication of the author's place as a proto-feminist and a model for a new, outspoken female sensibility. Near fine in tall wrappers. [#033323] SOLD
3.
click for a larger image of item #33324, The Drowned World London, Gollancz, 1962. The uncorrected proof copy of Ballard's second book, which he later called his "first novel" after disavowing The Wind From Nowhere as "a piece of hackwork." Signed on the title page by Ballard. In this novel, global warming has rendered most of Earth uninhabitable, making The Drowned World not only one of the great works of dystopian fiction, but one of the earliest works of climate fiction. Tapebound, in unprinted wrappers; spine slant to text block; near fine in a near fine, mildly spine- and edge-tanned proof dust jacket with a "0/0" price on the front flap. Scarce: we have never seen another proof copy of this, nor any earlier Ballard proof (i.e., of The Wind From Nowhere), and can find no indication of institutional holdings in OCLC, nor any auction records for a proof copy. A rare, perhaps at this point, unique, state of a seminal novel in a genre that is only now melding into the field of mainstream literature, outside of the genre of speculative science fiction. [#033324] SOLD
4.
click for a larger image of item #33325, The Beginning of Wisdom NY, Henry Holt, 1921. The first novel by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of John Brown's Body and The Devil and Daniel Webster, among others. Benet was one of the most highly regarded men of letters in America during his short life -- he died at age 44. He edited the prestigious Yale Series of Younger Poets, where he published such writers as James Agee, Muriel Rukeyser, and Margaret Walker. He was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for his unfinished epic poem, "Western Star," about the settling of the United States. A fine copy, lacking the dust jacket. [#033325] SOLD
5.
click for a larger image of item #33326, "Portrait of John Burroughs" Chicago, Grace Gassette, ca.1915. An invitation to an exhibition of paintings by Grace Gassette, which includes only one tipped-in color plate, that being Gassette's "Portrait of John Burroughs." The portrait is 4-1/2" x 4-7/8" and is tipped into a card that is 5-3/4" x 7-3/8" when closed. "Painted at Roxbury, N.Y." (likely Burroughs' summer residence, Woodchuck Lodge); the show was held at Gassette's studio in Chicago's Fine Arts Building. In addition to being an artist, Gassette was renowned for her work with wounded soldiers in France during WWI. Fine, with fine, unused, mailing envelope. [#033326] SOLD
6.
click for a larger image of item #33327, On the Instincts and Habits of the Solitary Wasps Madison, State of Wisconsin, 1898. Inscribed to "Mr John Burroughs/Compliments of the authors" on the front pastedown, and with John Burroughs' Riverby bookplate on the front flyleaf. Burroughs has marked more than 20 pages of the text, including correcting plate numbers, adding one annotation (p. 130) and a subtitle ("a world of liliputs [?]"), and writing a 180 word essay on the rear two blanks using solitary wasps as a metaphor for Man: "The solitary wasps are evidently more individual than the social wasps. Is their solitary habits the cause? Evidently it is. They are always alone. They have no one to imitate/ they are uninfluenced by their fellows/ the innate tendency to variation has full play. How fickle they are, how many times they change their minds. The community interests override or check individual whims or peculiarities. The social bees must be all alike in dispositions and habits. Whole swarms vary, some being crosser than others, but probably the individual bees vary not at all. But apparently no two solitary bees are alike. Mr & Mrs P. saw one Ammophila use a pebble as a tool, & only one. So it is with man: solitude makes them peculiar. The more a man lives alone, the more he becomes unlike other men - hence the original racy flavor of woodsmen, pioneers, craftsmen [?], etc. Isolated communities develop characteristics of their own. Constant intracommunication/ the friction of travel, of books, of newspapers, make men alike, all are pebbles upon the same beach, washed by the same waves." These paragraphs serve as an early draft for a portion of Burroughs' essay "Nature's Way," first published in Harper's Magazine in 1904, in which he gives full credit to "George W. Peckham and his wife" for his education on the matter; later published in Burroughs' Ways of Nature in 1905. Offsetting from the wasp plates; moderate dirt to boards; about a very good copy, lacking the dust jacket. A good association copy, and an extraordinary piece of original writing by one of the preeminent American naturalists, whose name is attached to an annual award for a distinguished work of nature writing. [#033327] SOLD
7.
click for a larger image of item #33328, Dry Dreams (n.p.), (n,p.), [1982]. Proof sheets for the lyrics for the album Dry Dreams, released by the Jim Carroll Band on Atco Records in 1982. Three legal-sized pages, with the printed lyrics to the ten songs, and holograph emendations, in pencil, to the song "Barricade." Signed by Carroll with a copyright symbol on the verso of the final page. Dry Dreams was the Jim Carroll Band's third album. Carroll had been a published poet since the 1960s and his most famous book, the memoir The Basketball Diaries, was published in 1978. He did not record an album until 1980, after Patti Smith encouraged him to try his hand at music. Stapled in upper corner; previously folded in fourths with some lettering lost at the creases; else, near fine. Scarce; possibly unique. [#033328] SOLD
8.
click for a larger image of item #33329, "My Favorite Recreation" in St. Nicholas (NY), (Century Co.), (1922). Rachel Carson's first published piece of nature writing, about going "birds'-nesting"; published when she was just 15 years old. Carson had already had four pieces published in St. Nicholas (three about WWI and one about Admiral Dewey and the Spanish-American War), beginning in 1918. She had received her first payment for a fifth piece, which the magazine used for publicity. This piece, about venturing into the hills of Pennsylvania with her dog "for a day of our favorite sport with a lunch-box, a canteen, a note-book, and a camera," marks the start of the career of arguably the most influential nature writer of the 20th century. More than 300 words about a day spent in the presence of the Maryland yellow-throat, the bob-white, the oriole, the cuckoo, the hummingbird, the oven-bird, the wood-thrush, and the vesper sparrow. In the 1940s and 1950s, Carson would win acclaim for her writings about the eastern seashore, but it was the final work of her life, Silent Spring, warning about the dangers of pesticides on the natural world, and published 40 years after she first wrote of the joys of birdsong, that precipitated the modern environmental movement. Some chipping to covers and spine; shallow insect damage to top edge; a good copy in wrappers. [#033329] SOLD
9.
click for a larger image of item #33330, Animal Machines (London), Vincent Stuart, 1964. Harrison's seminal work, which exposed factory farming in the U.K. the way Rachel Carson's Silent Spring exposed pesticide use in the U.S. With a two-page foreword by Carson that begins: "The modern world worships the gods of speed and quantity, and of the quick and easy profit, and out of this idolatry mysterious evils have arisen. Yet the evils go long unrecognised...until some public-spirited person, with patient scholarship and steadfast courage, presents facts that can no longer be ignored." Published the year of Carson's death from cancer, and predating by nearly half a century the similar alarms sounded by such books as Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. An uncommon book in the first edition, especially in collectable condition, with most hardcover copies having gone to libraries. Minor foxing to the edges and endpapers; erratum slip tipped to the verso of the half title; near fine in a very good dust jacket with some dustiness and sunning to the rear white panel and a few small, closed edge tears. A prescient critique of industrial agriculture, a relatively new phenomenon at the time but a near-universal reality in modern agribusiness today, at least in Western and/or developed countries. [#033330] SOLD
10.
click for a larger image of item #33331, Where I Was From NY, Knopf, 2003. Essays, history and memoir: a collection by the author of the classics Slouching Toward Bethlehem and The White Album, as well as the acclaimed novels Play It As It Lays and Democracy, among many others. Inscribed by the author. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with a small crease near the crown. Uncommon signed. [#033331] SOLD
11.
click for a larger image of item #33256, Original Manuscript of "Dressed Like Summer Leaves" and "The Judge and Other Snakes" (n.p.), (n.p.), (1985). A 41-page holograph manuscript draft, in a hardbound lined notebook, of Dubus' story "Dressed Like Summer Leaves." This eerie, chilling, and finally touching story about the dislocation many Vietnam vets felt on returning home was published in The Sewanee Review in 1986 and later collected in The Last Worthless Evening, and it stands as one of the finest depictions of the combination of rage, alienation and vulnerability that came to be seen as symptoms of PTSD. In this story, about the meeting between a young boy and a recently returned vet, Dubus conveys the different worlds the two characters inhabit, even as they share the time and place of the plot action. The potential for danger looms as does, finally, the potential for redemption. Dubus was generally considered one of the contemporary masters of the novella and short story in American literature and was widely compared to Chekhov. This record book also contains his 18 page essay on bullying, "The Judge and Other Snakes," which was collected in Broken Vessels. Near fine. Dubus manuscript material has almost all been collected in institutions and seldom appears on the market. Unique. [#033256] SOLD
12.
click for a larger image of item #33258, Selected Stories Boston, Godine, (1988). An uncorrected proof copy of this collection of stories by the late master of the form. Featuring "ten tales for reviewers" out of the 23 stories that appeared in the published book. Signed by Dubus. Foxing to the front edges; near fine in cream wrappers, with blurbs by reviewers, including John Updike, on the rear cover. This is likely the second issue proof, as there was another issue that erroneously featured the 13 stories omitted from this version. [#033258] SOLD
13.
click for a larger image of item #33259, Selected Stories Boston, Godine, (1988). An uncorrected proof copy of this collection of stories by the late master of the form. This is presumably the first issue proof, in yellow wrappers, without reviewer blurbs, and erroneously featuring the 13 stories not indicated as being part of the "ten tales for reviewers" that are promised on the front cover and asterisked in the Table of Contents. Signed by Dubus. Fine in wrappers. [#033259] SOLD
14.
click for a larger image of item #33260, Selected Stories London, Godine, (1990). The uncorrected proof copy of the first British edition, and the first proof to contain the full complement of all 23 stories: the U.S. proof was intended to be issued with only ten of the stories; was mistakenly issued with the "left out" 13; and then re-issued with the intended 10. Signed by Dubus. Foxing near the spine; near fine in wrappers. [#033260] $250
15.
click for a larger image of item #33255, Rock Springs NY, Atlantic Monthly, (1987). The first collection of stories by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Independence Day. Inscribed by Ford to Andre Dubus, himself a master of the short story form: "with long-overdue admission of my admiration for your wonderful work. I hope some day we meet. I hope your work flourishes, as it has." Trace foxing and bumping; near fine in a very near fine dust jacket with a bit of fading to the spine lettering. A nice association copy between two of the preeminent fiction writers of their era. [#033255] SOLD
16.
click for a larger image of item #33257, The Things They Carried Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1990. A collection of related stories that share a number of characters as well as the narrator -- a "Tim O'Brien" whose experience bears certain similarities to the author's own. Inscribed by O'Brien to fellow writer Andre Dubus: "to Andre, Best, Tim. Call me!". The Things They Carried is a meditation on war and death, and on the place that storytelling has in bringing these ultimately unfathomable experiences within our grasp. Nearly three decades after its first publication, this is by consensus one of the best, if not the best, work of fiction to come out of the Vietnam war. Dubus has marked several passages in the text, mostly to do with bravery and regret, and he has written two names and some numbers on the rear flyleaf. An outstanding association copy, being inscribed to a writer whose time in the military, and the sense of honor and sacrifice that came with that, influenced his own writings throughout his life. Trace edge foxing, thus near fine in a fine dust jacket (second issue, with the spine lettering properly aligned). [#033257] SOLD
17.
click for a larger image of item #33332, Secrets (NY), Viking, (2002). A memoir of Ellsberg's watershed release of the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times during the Vietnam War, an act of civil disobedience for which he was charged with numerous felonies under the Espionage Act of 1917. (He was later acquitted due to government malfeasance in the case.) Inscribed by Ellsberg in the month prior to publication to Julia Butterfly Hill, best known for spending more than two years living in a 1000 year-old redwood tree in California to prevent it (and eventually all trees within a 200-foot radius) from being felled by the Pacific Lumber Company. Inscribed: "Sept 28, 2002/ To Julia Butterfly Hill/ With my deepest respect and thanks for giving your all to save all life on this blue planet -- for 'casting your whole vote...your whole influence' (see p. 263)./ Dan Ellsberg." Page 263 is where Ellsberg quotes Thoreau's "Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence," citing its effect on him after the 1968 election that brought Nixon to power. In the months just prior to this inscription, Hill had been jailed in Ecuador for protesting an Occidental Petroleum pipeline that was destroying a virgin Andean cloud forest. A great association copy, linking two devout believers in, and practitioners of, civil disobedience. Fine in a fine dust jacket. [#033332] SOLD
18.
(Film)
click for a larger image of item #33333, 2nd Experimental Film Showing Gorham/Portland, [University of Southern Maine], 1971. Poster advertising two dates for a showing of a film "featuring a history of experimental cartoon work and animation" by Charley Murphy and Stan Vanderbeek, and "a new film by Kenneth Anger," plus a "surprise film." 14-1/2" x 16". Black on gold; near fine. [#033333] $100
19.
(Film)
click for a larger image of item #33334, Three Hours of Experimental Films on Alchemy Astrology, Magic Gorham/Portland, [University of Southern Maine], 1971. Poster advertising two showings of films by Kenneth Anger, Harry Smith, Stan Brakhage, Ed Emshwiller, and "one unannounced film on an American Mythical Event," to be held on two campuses of the University of Southern Maine. Anger's films were his landmark Scorpio Rising and his 1969 Invocation of My Demon Brother, which had a soundtrack by Mick Jagger and won a Film Culture award in 1970 for best experimental film. Brakhage's films included the Dog Star Man sequence and two others from the early 1960s, one of which includes a typo in its title ("Theigh" instead of "Thigh"). 19" x 24". An attractive and compelling design, four color on green background; near fine. [#033334] $150
20.
(Film)
click for a larger image of item #33335, Three Hours of Experimental Films on Alchemy Astrology, Magic Gorham/Portland, [University of Southern Maine], 1971. Poster advertising two showings of films by Kenneth Anger, Harry Smith, Stan Brakhage, Ed Emshwiller, and "one unannounced film on an American Mythical Event," to be held on two campuses of the University of Southern Maine. Anger's films were his landmark Scorpio Rising and his 1969 Invocation of My Demon Brother, which had a soundtrack by Mick Jagger and won a Film Culture award in 1970 for best experimental film. Brakhage's films included the Dog Star Man sequence and two others from the early 1960s, one of which includes a typo in its title ("Theigh" instead of "Thigh"). 19" x 24". An attractive and compelling design, four color on blue background; near fine. [#033335] $150
21.
(Film)
click for a larger image of item #33336, Three Hours of Experimental Films on Alchemy Astrology, Magic Gorham/Portland, [University of Southern Maine], 1971. Poster advertising two showings of films by Kenneth Anger, Harry Smith, Stan Brakhage, Ed Emshwiller, and "one unannounced film on an American Mythical Event," to be held on two campuses of the University of Southern Maine. Anger's films were his landmark Scorpio Rising and his 1969 Invocation of My Demon Brother, which had a soundtrack by Mick Jagger and won a Film Culture award in 1970 for best experimental film. Brakhage's films included the Dog Star Man sequence and two others from the early 1960s, one of which includes a typo in its title ("Theigh" instead of "Thigh"). 19" x 24". An attractive and compelling design, four color on what we believe to be the more common white background; near fine. [#033336] $125
22.
(First Edition Library)
click for a larger image of item #33337, First Edition Library - 56 titles (Shelton), (First Edition Library), (various). In the 1980s and 1990s, the First Edition Library published more than 100 extraordinarily accurate (typos included) fascimiles of some of the great books of the 19th and 20th centuries. Offered here (listed alphabetically by title) are 56 of these, each, unless otherwise noted, fine in a fine dust jacket (if issued with a jacket), and with the FEL's added slipcase. In addition, FEL provided a card with each, which typically included the information about the original publication date; size of the first printing, when known; background of the book; issue points of the first edition; and a mini-essay on the book and its audience; so that the books are not only facsimiles but also reference works: all but five of those cards are present. Titles included: Absalom, Abaslom by William Faulkner; Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton; All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (shrinkwrapped); Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara; As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner; The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow; The Awakening by Kate Chopin (no jacket, as the original, shrinkwrapped); Babbit by Sinclair Lewis; The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald; Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote; The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk; Cannery Row by John Steinbeck; Catch-22 by Joseph Heller; Deliverance by James Dickey; East of Eden by John Steinbeck; Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis; Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton; Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler; For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway; The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand; From Here to Eternity by James Jones (shrinkwrapped); God's Little Acre by Erskine Caldwell; Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell; Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth; The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (upper corner bumped); Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison; The Jungle by Sinclair Lewis; Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe; Mosquitoes by William Faulkner; My Antonia by Willa Cather (spine-sunned jacket); The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer; Native Son by Richard Wright; Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck; The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway; On the Road by Jack Kerouac (note: used in a photo shoot for a book about the Beats and the jacket has been artificially aged to resemble a gracefully aged first edition); One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey; The Pearl by John Steinbeck; Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut; Rabbit, Run by John Updike; The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (no jacket, as the original); The Red Pony by John Steinbeck; The Reivers by William Faulkner; A Separate Peace by John Knowles; The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner; The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway; Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald; Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener; This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald; To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee; Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell; Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck; A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith; The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever; Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson; and The Yearling by Marjorie Rawlings. 40 authors; 56 titles, nearly all in fine condition. Extra shipping may apply. [#033337] SOLD
23.
click for a larger image of item #33338, Gorillas in the Mist Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1983. The uncorrected proof copy of Fossey's account of her thirteen years spent in the company of endangered mountain gorillas in Africa. At the time of publication, only 242 mountain gorillas survived on Earth; Fossey herself was murdered in Rwanda two years after the book's publication, presumably by poachers. The film version of Gorillas in the Mist was released in 1988. This proof reproduces holograph corrections on several dozen pages, and it differs from the published text both at these marked places and others. Mild cover spotting and spine fading; near fine in wrappers. An uncommon proof of a wildlife classic. [#033338] SOLD
24.
click for a larger image of item #33339, In the Land of Dreamy Dreams Fayetteville, University of Arkansas Press, 1981. A review copy of her second book and first book of fiction, a collection of stories. This is the hardcover issue: 1000 copies were issued in wrappers; the hardcover is scarcer than that. Mild foredge foxing, else fine in a fine dust jacket with review slip (folded, small tear at fold) laid in. [#033339] SOLD
25.
click for a larger image of item #33340, Victory Over Japan Boston, Little Brown, (1984). Her National Book Award-winning collection of stories. Signed by the author. Fine in a fine dust jacket. [#033340] SOLD
26.
click for a larger image of item #33341, Dick Gregory's Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat: Cookin' with Mother Nature NY, Harper & Row, (1973).. Part biography, part manifesto, part how-to book by the comedian and civil rights activist. Signed by the author, with his typical "To: you from Dick Gregory." Gregory says that his inspiration for abandoning his omnivorous life came from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s preachings of nonviolence, which Gregory extended to animals, first becoming a vegetarian and then a fruitarian (after which, at 97 pounds, down from 297 pounds, "nonviolence is no longer a tactic, it's a necessity!"). A book that grew out of the civil rights era to become an early entry in the "real food" movement and the movement toward the ethical treatment of animals. Previous owner name in pencil on the half title and a dozen pages marked in pen in the text; slant to spine; very good in a very good, moderately edgeworn dust jacket. Scarce in the first printing (the number line appears in the rear of the book during these years at Harper & Row), and rare signed. [#033341] SOLD
27.
click for a larger image of item #33342, Elisee and Elie Recluse, In Memoriam Berkeley Heights, Oriole Press, 1927. Compiled, edited, and printed by Ishill, and also inscribed by Ishill, in 1929, to Stephanus Fabijanovic, a German anarchist writer who moved to Los Angeles. The recipient has also inscribed the book, notating its receipt. Ishill emigrated from Romania to the U.S. in 1909 and joined the Ferrer Colony, an anarchist intentional community established in 1915, which lasted for nearly 40 years. Having apprenticed to a printer before coming to the U.S., he established his own press, the Oriole Press, in New Jersey to publish anarchist and other related writings. The editions were typically very small, and he gave the works away to those who were interested or would preserve them for the future. Spine label absent, loss to cloth at corner, a bit of play to binding; at best, a very good copy. A good association between two notable anarchist immigrants of the early 20th century. [#033342] SOLD
28.
click for a larger image of item #33343, Free Vistas, Vol II Berkeley Heights, Oriole Press, 1937. Subtitled "A Libertarian Outlook on Life and Letters," this is a compendium of writings assembled and published by Ishill, an anarchist, at the press he founded in New Jersey. Ishill emigrated from Romania to the U.S. in 1909 and joined the Ferrer Colony, an anarchist intentional community established in 1915, which lasted for nearly 40 years. Having apprenticed to a printer before coming to the U.S., he established his own press, the Oriole Press, in New Jersey to publish anarchist and other related writings. The editions were typically very small, and he gave the works away to those who were interested or would preserve them for the future. This copy is from the collection of Walter Goldwater, a well-known radical bookseller and longtime proprietor of the University Place Book Center. One of 205 copies printed. Offsetting to endpapers, splaying to boards; a very good copy. [#033343] SOLD
29.
click for a larger image of item #33344, A Different Drummer NY, Anchor/Doubleday, 1990. The uncorrected proof copy of the reissue of his highly praised first book. Publication date written on front cover; fine in wrappers. The published book had a foreword by David Bradley, the African American author of South Street and The Chaneysville Incident, which is announced here but not yet included. This book, and its author, were the subjects of a recent article in The New Yorker, touting the novel as an undiscovered classic and the author as a unique voice in African American writing. [#033344] SOLD
30.
click for a larger image of item #33345, The Free You, Vol. 4, No. 2 Menlo Park, Midpeninsula Free University, 1970. The Free You was the magazine of the Midpeninsula Free University, on the San Francisco peninsula, one of the 1960s' early experiments in alternative education, and an outgrowth of the countercultural movement that started at Kesey's Perry Lane home, on the border between Stanford and Menlo Park. This issue contains "Exercises in Creation" by Kesey, "pirated from Ken Kesey's Mexico Journals," which were written while he was a fugitive from a drug bust; the pieces were later published in Kesey's Garage Sale. This issue includes a "Special Supplement: History of Midpeninsula Land Use," an early model for grassroots activism in the San Francisco Bay Area that helped preserve a substantial amount of coastal lands in northern California from the rampant development that was underway at the time. Edited by Fred Nelson and Ed McClanahan, who was a classmate of Kesey's at Stanford, in Wallace Stegner's Writing Workshop. Slight edge wear and minor staining to foredge; near fine in stapled wrappers. [#033345] SOLD
31.
click for a larger image of item #33346, The Last Supplement to the Whole Earth Catalog (Menlo Park), (Whole Earth Catalog), (1971). Kesey co-edited this supplement and contributed "The Bible," "The I Ching," and "Tools from my Chest," some of the tools being Dope, Lord Buckley, Ashley Automatics, Larry McMurtry, Wendell Berry, Ginseng, William Faulkner, Woody Guthrie, The Grateful Dead and more. The cover bears R. Crumb's interpretation of "The Last Supper." Inscribed by Kesey on the front cover. One of the culminating volumes of the 1960s counterculture. Scarce signed. Pages browned; near fine in stapled wrappers. [#033346] SOLD
32.
click for a larger image of item #33347, Wood Duck Archive 1977, 1984-1985. Frederic Leopold, brother of famed conservationist Aldo Leopold, was interviewed in 1984 by George Stanley, for a 1985 article in Ducks Unlimited, ostensibly about Frederic Leopold's passion for the preservation of wood duck populations. Included here are copies of correspondence (4 pieces) between Leopold and Stanley; copies of three letters to Leopold from H. Albert Hochbaum (an artist and naturalist who did his graduate work at the University of Wisconsin under the supervision of Aldo Leopold); a copy of the typescript of Stanley's article prior to publication; tear sheets of the published article; a copy of Leopold's 44-page "Wood Duck Nesting Study, 1943-1977"; a note from Leopold conveying all of the above to his daughter Edith, and a note from Edith Leopold forwarding the lot to "Sam." Several of the above bear Frederic Leopold's handwritten notes or comments. A fascinating archive that tells perhaps three different stories: first, there is Leopold's detailed study of the wood duck, via his 44-page synopsis of his 35-year study (claspbound in a blue cardstock binder with typed label on the front cover), complete with a fold-out copy of his handwritten observations in a dozen categories over those years. Second, there is the Duck's Unlimited article, which at multiple turns tries to be about Aldo Leopold, even beginning with the words, "His brother..,." and talking quite a bit about the brothers' upbringing as hunters and outdoorsmen and extolling the ethic of the latter, and the former by association. Third, there is the back story told in correspondence, as Frederic Leopold, with insightful support from Hochbaum, tries to persuade Stanley to accurately reflect in the article his belief in the necessity of "a reduction in our annual kill by hunters," in the face of Stanley's stated need to be "diplomatic" about such views within the publication. There are differences between the advanced typescript provided and the published text, but not those wished for by Leopold. All items near fine. A revealing archive of, in the words of Ducks Unlimited, "the elder statesman of conservation's leading family." [#033347] SOLD
33.
(Native American)
click for a larger image of item #33348, Survival This Way Tucson, Sun Tracks/U of Arizona Press, (1987). A review copy of the hardcover issue of this collection of interviews by Joseph Bruchac with 21 Native American poets, including Louise Erdrich, N. Scott Momaday, Gerald Vizenor, James Welch, Simon Ortiz, Linda Hogan, Joy Harjo, Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, Duane Niatum, Wendy Rose, Maurice Kenny, Paula Gunn Allen, Lance Henson, Peter Blue Cloud, Carter Revard, Roberta Hill Whiteman, Ray Young Bear and others. A key volume, collecting many of the foremost Native American poets and their thoughts and comments on writing that have not appeared elsewhere in print. Light creasing to a couple pages at the foredge, else fine, without dust jacket, possibly as issued. There is a two page press release laid in, which indicates publication details were still in flux, and the announced publication of the simultaneous softcover is added by hand. [#033348] SOLD
34.
(Native American)
click for a larger image of item #33349, Talking Leaves (NY), Laurel, (1991). Joseph Bruchac's copy of the uncorrected proof of this anthology of contemporary Native American short stories, which was only published in softcover. Edited by Craig Lesley. Bruchac's contribution is the story "Going Home." Laid in is a letter to Bruchac from an editor at Bantam Doubleday Dell, transmitting the proof to him and talking of the book's promotion to the trade. Other contributors include Louise Erdrich, Michael Dorris, Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, Diane Glancy, Joy Harjo, Linda Hogan, Gerald Vizenor, N. Scott Momaday, Mary TallMountain, James Welch, and many others. The letter is folded in half and then edge-creased from overhanging the proof; the proof has a hint of spine-fading and is otherwise fine in wrappers. [#033349] SOLD
35.
click for a larger image of item #33350, Hope Diamond Refuses NY, Knopf, 1984. Her second novel under her own name, following the underground classic After Claude and a career writing pornography for Maurice Girodias' Olympia Press under the pen-name Harriet Daimler. Inscribed by the author in the year of publication: "June 26th 1984/ Roger - Affectionately, Iris Owens." Very good in a near fine dust jacket, with blurbs by Terry Southern, Doris Lessing, Frank Conroy, and others. Owens' signature is uncommon. Together with an uncorrected proof copy; near fine in wrappers. [#033350] SOLD
36.
click for a larger image of item #33351, The Outsider 4 & 5 (Tucson), (Loujon Press), (1969). Extravagantly produced double issue of this avant garde underground literary magazine, which published many of the Beat and counterculture writers in the 1960s when they were still far outside the mainstream. Contains a nearly fifty-page "Homage to Kenneth Patchen" by writers such as Allen Ginsberg, Henry Miller, Brother Antoninus, Kenneth Rexroth and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, among others, and includes an interview with Patchen. Also includes writings by Bukowski, Charles Plymell, William Wantling, Diane di Prima, Denise Levertov, and others. Tape shadows on pastedowns from the original tape that held the fragile rice paper dust jacket in place (tape still present); pages 61-76 are of a different paper than the rest of the text block (a typical feature of Loujon Press books) and the pages facing them, 60 and 77, are substantially darkened from offsetting; otherwise near fine in a very good dust jacket chipped at the corners and the spine ends, including the bottom 2" of the spine. Laid in is the prospectus, and a copy of a newspaper article describing the press having been flooded when 25 of the 160 pages of this issue had been printed (the issue as published has closer to 200 pages). The last issue of the journal, one of 500 copies in hardcover, and quite uncommon with the fragile jacket present. [#033351] SOLD
37.
(Physical Education/Fitness)
click for a larger image of item #33352, The Physical Education of Girls Dorchester, Dorset County Chronicle Office, 1866. A 20-page treatise on the importance of physical exertion at a par with and in support of mental exertion, and in the service of health, morality, and future generations. The author, "S.," relies heavily on a paper written by the Scottish gymnast Archibald MacLaren, who had opened a gymnasium in Oxford that included women and children and who, more than 100 years before Title IX, wrote: "Let the same provisions be made for girls' as for boys' schools -- a provision for every kind of play time and leisure, for all seasons and states of weather..." The author addresses associated costs, the need for ventilation, the limitations of wardrobe, the importance of food, and all manner of sample games and appropriate activities (skipping, rowing, botanical rambles...). A small book, with a recent cloth binding, and a former library book, but one from the Dorset County Library, i.e. in the same county as publication, which likely explains its survival, as we've located no other copies. Dorset Library labels; modest foxing to text; near fine. An early and prescient look at issues of gender equity that are still vexing to many societies, including our own. [#033352] SOLD
38.
click for a larger image of item #33353, To Be of Use [Berkeley], Maidu Press, [c. 1973]. "A Maidu Free Poem" broadside of the title poem of Piercy's 1973 collection. This version has one small change from the book version published in 1973 (there were several more changes in later versions). The edition of this broadside is unstated, but the broadside is marked as "1/ ." The only other Maidu Free Poems we are aware of are a 1971 Gary Snyder broadside, "Swimming Naked in the Yuba River," and "I Saw the Green Yuba Flow" by Franco Beltrametti. The Snyder was done in an edition of 200 copies; OCLC records two copies of the Beltrametti. The Maidu Press was the creation of two of Snyder's neighbors and friends, Steve Sanfield and Dale Pendell, both of them poets living on the San Juan Ridge, as Snyder was. This broadside reproduces calligraphy by Snyder, according to the Snyder bibliography. The presence of a blacked out mistake in the last line of the first stanza and the backward limitation (the copy number specified but not the number of copies, rather than vice versa) combine to suggest this is a trial copy or an unused or proof copy. We have no evidence that the edition was ever done: the Piercy bibliography lists no Maidu Press publication and OCLC shows no copies held in institutional libraries. A scarce, virtually unknown collaboration between Piercy and Snyder, both of them major American poets of the postwar era, and both associated with the counterculture of the 1960s and beyond. 8-1/2" x 11", on heavy orange paper. Shrinkwrapped with a board backing. Fine. [#033353] SOLD
39.
click for a larger image of item #911113, Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance NY, Beech Tree Books, (1985). The uncorrected proof copy of one of the most highly praised first novels of its time -- a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and winner of the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters for a book of "considerable literary achievement." Publication date written on front cover; near fine in wrappers. An uncommon proof, and an important debut. [#911113] SOLD
40.
click for a larger image of item #911885, The Gold Bug Variations NY, Morrow, (1991). The uncorrected proof copy of his third novel, a dazzling display of verbal pyrotechnics which once again earned him high praise, award recognition, and comparisons with the best of the postmodern writers such as Pynchon. Like his first book, a nominee for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Winner of Time magazine's Book of the Year award. Publication date written across front cover; fine in wrappers. Laid in is an announcement of a printing error that resulted in strings of letters and numbers appearing at the bottom of more than 100 pages. [#911885] SOLD
41.
click for a larger image of item #33354, The Overstory NY, Norton, (2018). The advance reading copy of his latest novel, in which a group of related human stories are cast in a context defined by trees, which have a longer timeline for their lives, and a different scale of concerns. Powers takes a number of characters, some based on recognizable individuals -- one is derived in part from Julia Butterfly Hill, the tree-sitting eco-activist, another from a quadriplegic PLATO programmer who designed that early computer network's most popular interactive multi-user game -- and records their stories in the context of the trees they encounter and are involved with. The trees, on their part, have characteristics taken from the latest scientific understanding of trees and forests, much of which can be found in Peter Wollheben's The Hidden Life of Trees. The sections of the book are named after the parts of trees -- Roots, Trunk, Crown, and Seeds -- and, taking his cue from the understory of forests, where much of what happens is at a human scale, Powers coins a word for his title to describe the place where what happens is on an entirely different scale from that of humans. Bill McKibben, the environmental activist, wrote: "Richard Powers manages to turn trees into vivid and engaging characters, something that indigenous people have done for eons but that modern literature has rarely if ever even attempted." Very near fine in wrappers. Uncommon in the advance issue. [#033354] SOLD
42.
click for a larger image of item #33355, Cadillac Desert: the American West and Its Disappearing Water NY, Viking, (1986). Inscribed by Reisner to Ivan Doig, "with appreciation, from a fan," in the year of publication. An environmental classic, listed on Modern Library's top 100 nonfiction books of the 20th century and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. A revised edition was issued in 1993; a documentary film was made in 1997. Reisner died of cancer in 2000. Doig, author of nonfiction and of novels predominately set in the landscapes of Montana, provided a powerful blurb on the rear cover. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with a bit of wear to the crown. A wonderful association, although at the time of this inscription Doig's western books were only the novel English Creek and his memoir, This House of Sky. [#033355] SOLD
43.
click for a larger image of item #33356, A Dangerous Place: California's Unsettling Fate NY, Pantheon, (2003). The uncorrected proof copy of Reisner's posthumously published examination of California's geologically volatile past and his vision of its future. Reisner's classic, Cadillac Desert, chronicled the mismanagement of the water supply in the West, including in California, with dire consequences for habitability if trends he described continued. This volume, which was finished before his death but not published until three years later, addresses the fact that California's two largest cities, Los Angeles and San Francisco, both sit on earthquake faults, and the book concludes with a theoretical but realistic depiction of what a major earthquake would look like -- thus the title and subtitle of the book. Mild creasing and slight edge wear; near fine in wrappers. An uncommon proof. [#033356] SOLD
44.
click for a larger image of item #33230, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (n.p.), (n.p.), 2006. An "artist's proof" for a limited edition print of the iconic artwork used on the dust jacket of Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Inscribed by Steadman in 2006. Note that Steadman drew this scene with the driver on the British side: Random House had to reverse the art for publication. Approximately 28" x 20". A handful of Steadman-esque stains, thus near fine; attractively matted and framed. We believe the edition was intended to be 100, although it appears to be more scarce than that figure would suggest. [#033230] SOLD
45.
click for a larger image of item #33357, Dog Soldiers Typescript [Boston], [Houghton Mifflin], [1974]. The photocopied typescript of Stone's second novel, winner of the National Book Award and one of the best novels to link the impact of the Vietnam war on American society in the Sixties to the dark side of that era -- the official corruption and the underside of the drug experiences of a generation. Bearing the [now crossed out] working title: Skydiver Devoured By Starving Birds. The title appears in a scene in the novel; it also appears in Stone's memoir, in an account of his time working for a tabloid newspaper where the writers were given headlines made up by other writers and had to create stories around them. The one time it appeared in print was in the excerpt from Dog Soldiers that appeared in the newsprint literary magazine, Fiction, in 1973. Stone's piece was called "Starving Birds" and at the end was identified as being from "Skydiver Devoured by Starving Birds." According to a 1987 letter of provenance, this copy of the typescript was generated by the publisher and sent to the Book of the Month Club for early consideration for possible book club adoption. The pages bear, at the bottom, a torn Book of the Month Club filing sticker. 318 pages, plus cover sheet. The cover sheet and the letter of provenance are each signed by Robert Stone. The quality of the paper varies: several sheets have the blue tone of a mimeo. Near fine or better, in the bottom half of a manuscript box and the folding cardstock case of the Book of the Month Club, at this point more artifactual than protective. As far as we can tell, a unique copy of this award-winning novel, the basis for the highly regarded film Who'll Stop the Rain? [#033357] $1,500
46.
click for a larger image of item #33313, Typescript of Speech on Charles Wright ca. 1991. The two-page typescript of a speech by Tate introducing Charles Wright at an undetermined event, dated in ink, "June 3, 1991," and commenting on Wright's life, his writing, and the 26-year friendship between the two poets. Like Tate, Wright won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for poetry. Together with a review copy of Wright's book The World of the Ten Thousand Things [NY: FSG, 1990], with the publisher's promotional sheet laid in. With Tate's ownership signature and his pencil markings and one note in the text. Also together with two pages of Tate's holograph notes on the book, along with two typed pages of excerpts of Wright's poetry, presumably prepared by Tate, as one section is used by Tate in his speech. The typescript and the pages with Tate's work are folded in half to fit the book; the book is near fine in a near fine dust jacket. [#033313] SOLD
47.
click for a larger image of item #33358, Hey Rube NY, Simon & Schuster, (2004). The uncorrected proof copy of this collection of Thompson's ESPN website columns, including some previously unpublished ones, making this proof their first appearance in print. Dating from a point in time when publishers were migrating their advance and promotional materials into digital formats, this proof appears scarcer than the proofs of Thompson's earlier books over the last couple of decades. A couple of faint, stray marks to the upper front cover; very near fine in wrappers. [#033358] SOLD
48.
click for a larger image of item #33359, The Hidden Life of Trees Vancouver/Berkeley, Greystone Books, (2015). The first English language edition, translated from the German. Written by a German forester, who recounts his own experiences caretaking a woodland and synopsizes current scientific studies of trees from other botanists, biologists and foresters. Many of the insights and understandings recounted in this book have recently received popular expression in the latest book by Richard Powers, The Overstory, a well-received novel in which the perspective of trees is used to inform and contextualize the human stories within the book. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Uncommon in the first printing: the book went into at least 10 printings within the first two years of publication. [#033359] SOLD
49.
click for a larger image of item #33360, What I'm Going To Do, I Think NY, Farrar Straus Giroux, (1969). The advance reading copy of his highly praised first novel, which went into numerous printings immediately after publication and which won the William Faulkner Foundation Award. This copy is inscribed (by the publisher?), "For John & Joan [Didion] Dunne." Woiwode and Didion were judges together for the 1972 National Book Awards. Spine creasing and a heavy front cover crease; minor foxing to the edges of the text block; good in wrappers. [#033360] SOLD
50.
click for a larger image of item #33361, The Waves London, Hogarth Press, 1931. Uneven fading to violet cloth; corners bumped; small Lilly Library discard label rear pastedown. A very good copy in the Vanessa Bell-designed dust jacket, which is chipped at the corners and extremities, including the bottom inch of the spine losing the publisher's name, and extremely fragile at the folds: good only. Still, an affordable first edition in dust jacket of her most experimental book. [#033361] SOLD
51.
click for a larger image of item #33362, The Years London, Hogarth Press, 1937. Dampstaining to cloth and the outer upper corner of the text block; foxing to endpages; a good copy in a good, spine-stained and darkened Vanessa Bell dust jacket that is edge-chipped and fragile at the folds. [#033362] SOLD
52.
click for a larger image of item #33363, Three Guineas London, Hogarth Press, 1938. Woolf's considered responses to being asked for a guinea from three separate sources: a society for the preservation of peace; a women's college; and a society for obtaining employment for women. This is the first issue, in lemon yellow cloth boards. Tiny bookseller and library discard labels to front and rear endpages, respectively; foxing to endpages and spine-darkened cloth; a very good copy in a good, heavily spine-sunned Vanessa Bell dust jacket with internal tape strengthening at the edges, yet still beginning to split at the folds. [#033363] SOLD
53.
click for a larger image of item #33364, A Haunted House and Other Stories London, Hogarth Press, 1943. A posthumously published collection of short stories, six of which are published here for the first time. A small wartime volume, printed on cheap paper and in a thin binding. Acidification to pages; a very good copy in a fair Vanessa Bell dust jacket, now in two parts and with only half the spine present. Name and address written in pencil on rear panel. [#033364] SOLD
54.
click for a larger image of item #33365, The Moment and Other Essays London, Hogarth Press, 1947. A posthumous collection of essays. Marginal pencil marks to a few pages of text; near fine in a very good, spine-darkened Vanessa Bell-designed dust jacket with a couple small stains and edge chips. A respectable copy of a fragile book, manufactured during the early postwar years, that readily shows damage or wear. [#033365] SOLD
55.
click for a larger image of item #33366, A Writer's Diary London, Hogarth Press, 1953. Excerpts from Woolf's diaries of 1918-1941, pertaining to her writing life. Foxing to endpages, wear to the cloth at the spine extremities; a very good copy in a good, spine-tanned, Vanessa Bell dust jacket with small chips along the edges and splitting to the folds. [#033366] SOLD
56.
click for a larger image of item #33367, Granite & Rainbow London, Hogarth Press, 1958. Woolf's essays on the art of fiction and biography. Pages acidifying, small corner bump; dampstaining to rear board; a good copy in a good, spine-tanned Vanessa Bell-designed dust jacket exhibiting some of the same dampstaining on the rear panel. [#033367] SOLD
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Catalog 174 Spring List