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NY, Farrar Straus, (1986). The third of McPhee's geology books, later incorporated into the Pulitzer Prize-winning compendium of his geological writings, Annals of the Former World. This copy is inscribed by McPhee to Joe McCrindle, founder of the Transatlantic Review, who published McPhee's "The Fair of San Gennaro" in 1961, four years before his first book publication, which may explain the geological inscription: "For Joe McCrindle/ a friend since the middle Miocene/ best always/ John McPhee." Slight foxing to the top edge, else fine in a fine dust jacket with just a hint of spine fading. A nice association. [#036492] $450

NY, Farrar Straus Giroux, (1970). McPhee's seventh book, in which he returns to the land of the Scottish clan from which he is descended. Gift inscription on the verso of the half title; else fine in a near fine, mildly spine-faded, price-clipped dust jacket. [#028114] $20

NY, Ballantine, (1975). The first Ballantine paperback edition. A lengthy profile of Theodore Taylor, a nuclear physicist who spent years working on an eventually-aborted project to develop a spaceship powered by exploding atomic bombs. In later years he became an expert in preventing the "diversion" of nuclear materials to help limit nuclear proliferation. McPhee's explication of the concepts of nuclear physics necessary to tell this story is remarkable. Tiny bump at mid spine; still fine. [#020850] $20

NY, Ballantine, (1976). The first Ballantine paperback edition. A nonfiction account of a serious, but flawed, attempt to create a new kind of aircraft -- a combination airplane and lighter-than-air airship. An intriguing subject elucidated by McPhee's crystal-clear prose. Fine. [#020848] $20