NY, Random House, 1967. The hardcover issue of this early Warhol production. Present: the castle, the accordion (silent), the geodesic dome on a string, the Lou Reed flexi-disk, the folding nose, the Hunt's Tomato Paste can, the Warhol blotter, the Chelsea Girls spring disk (laid in, minus spring), the balloon (fused to pages), the pop-up plane (on pages tipped in). Lacking only the postcard and sponge. Minor discoloration to several pages surrounding the two pages fused by the balloon, and mild rubbing to the rear cover. Apart from the missing pieces, near fine. Roth 101.
[#027455]$1,500
(Jamaica), (Jamaica High School), (1927). From 1926-1928, Bowles had 43 contributions in 14 issues of his high school magazine, The Oracle, corresponding to items C1-C43 in Jeffrey Miller's Paul Bowles: A Descriptive Bibliography. This issue, the Christmas issue, is from Bowles' senior year and predates his first book, Two Poems, published in 1933, by six years. Bowles' contributions (Miller C36-C40) include three poems ("Night Song at Papua," "Scene," and "Pursuit"; a translation of a Devigny extract from the French; and serving at editor of the Poet's Corner. Owner name in pencil on the front cover; edge-darkening to covers; still near fine in stapled wrappers, with the middle sheet loose from the staples. Very uncommon early works by Bowles, more than 20 years prior to his first novel, The Sheltering Sky.
[#036212]$1,250
Santa Rosa, Black Sparrow, 2001. Two comb-bound advance copies: one shot from typescript and printed on rectos only, 298 pp.; the second copy is typeset and printed on both sides of the page, 355 pp. Laid into the first copy is an earlier version of one included poem: "oh to be young in 1942!," here titled just "oh, to be young!" The poem is two pages, the first being ribbon copy. Photocopied emendations to the table of contents in the first copy, removing the titles of poems not included; penciled notes to the table of contents in the second copy. The first one has the date "2/3" and the publisher's initials, "JM," on the cover; the second one is also initialed and is dated "4/11." Each is fine with an acetate cover. From the collection of John Martin, publisher of Black Sparrow Press, which printed most of Bukowski's work for the last nearly 30 years of his life, and which was in turn supported by the success Bukowski had with his poetry and his fiction, which rewrote the boundaries of what was acceptable as art.
[#033372]$1,250
Elmwood, Raven Editions, 1988. A limited edition of this essay, a shorter version of which had appeared in Harper's. Issued in a total edition of 140 copies, of which only 40 were hardbound and, of those 40, only 26 were offered for sale. This is copy 'G' of 26 lettered copies signed by the author, with a frontispiece by noted artist Russell Chatham, hand-shaded and signed by Chatham as well. Designed and printed letterpress by Carol Blinn at Warwick Press. A fine copy of a beautiful production, with publisher's prospectus laid in.
[#914652]$1,250
NY, Ronald Press, (1957). A review copy of Leary's first regularly published book, written while he was Director of Psychology Research at the Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Oakland, California. The book was voted the best book on psychotherapy in 1957 by the American Psychological Association. Among other things, Leary's book argued that "individual character functions as an inextricable part of a larger social network," an insight that was later crucial in his experiments with the use of psychedelic drugs in psychological treatment, and also with his non-academic experiments with such drugs. The accolades Leary received after publication led directly to his being offered a teaching position at Harvard, where he taught from 1959-1963, before leaving to pursue an iconoclastic path as an avatar of the counterculture in the 1960s, and as a prominent advocate of the use of psychedelic drugs for insight. This copy belonged to psychologist Will Schutz and bears his owner name, as well as several dozen marginal comments in the text, presumably also by Schutz. Bears two stamps and the spine label of the Esalen Institute, where Schutz practiced from 1967-1973. Review slip and stamp front pastedown. Front hinge cracking; cloth, foredge, and top edge stained. A good copy only, but an excellent association and provenance.
[#034640]$1,250
NY, Macmillan, 1943. The first American edition of the first book in Lewis' classic Space Trilogy, written, according to legend, as the result of a deal with J.R.R. Tolkien in which the authors agreed that Lewis would write a space travel story, while Tolkien would write a time travel story. (Tolkien did not.) Like Lewis' Narnia books, this science fiction journey also expounds a Christian worldview, exploring the nature of God, sin, and redemption. This is a very near fine copy, with just a touch of shelf wear, in a very good dust jacket with shallow edge wear, mostly confined to the corners. A wartime book, and seldom found in this condition.
[#036502]$1,250
Prairie City, Decker Press, (1948). An unrecorded variant of this uncommon title. Gray cloth with the same design as that of the apparently first issue yellow cloth, in a blue dust jacket with gold and black lettering, a price of $1 and the words "THE ARCHIVE of Duke University" in place of "Louis Untermeyer" on the dust jacket copy. According to Morgan, Decker printed about 200 copies of this title, about 20 of which were the first issue, although Morgan doesn't account for all known variants. Fine in a mildly sunned, else fine dust jacket.
[#001805]$1,250
NY, Grove Press, (1955). Poetry, issued in a lettered edition of 26 copies and a numbered edition of 250 copies: this is a presentation copy (designated as "s.c. 3 for Nancy"), signed by the author and, as with the lettered issue, with an original drawing by Irene Rice Pereira, the author's wife, signed by the artist as frontispiece. It can be assumed that the presentation copies ("s.c" -- "special copy"?) were even more limited than the lettered copies, as is almost always the case in the issuance of limited editions such as this. A fine copy in a professionally restored dust jacket. Laid in is an autograph holiday card addressed to Nancy and her partner and signed by Reavey for himself and Irene, with an image by Pereira from the collection of the Whitney Museum. A significant volume, with an original work of art by a distinguished American abstract artist: Pereira's work is in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Art, the National Museum of American Art, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, among many others.
[#014615]$1,250
Garden City, Doubleday Doran, 1936. A novel by the prolific British author of the classic Fu Manchu series of fantasy novels, which were immortalized in a series of films, first in the 1930s and then again in the 1960s. Inscribed by Rohmer, "with love," and signed with his trademark "$ax." Bookplate front pastedown; spine-sunned; handling to boards; very good in a very good, modestly edgeworn dust jacket with a dusty rear panel. Books signed by Rohmer are uncommon these days, especially in collectible condition and in dust jacket.
[#021689]$1,250
(Boston), G.K. Hall and Marquis Who's Who, Inc., (1978). A poem by Updike, published as a holiday greeting card. Signed by the author. Fine, with original (unused) mailing envelope. Together with a presumed proof copy, with the copyright notice handwritten (in an unknown hand) rather than printed on the rear cover. Also fine. Both housed together in a G.K. Hall envelope. An ephemeral piece, uncommon signed, and rare in the variant with the handwritten copyright notice.
[#031524]$1,250
1986-1987. A collection of letters from Waters, mostly to his literary agent, Joan Daves, as well as related ancillary materials showing Waters at work in the after-market for his writing, with opportunities for later editions and film versions. Waters wrote primarily about the American Southwest, in particular the Native American experience. His father was part Cheyenne. The first typed letter signed is from Waters to his agent, Joan Daves, dated August 24, 1986 and concerns Lesley Ann Warren's interest in optioning the film rights to The Woman at Otowi Crossing and the contract for publication of a hardcover, illustrated edition of The Man Who Killed the Deer. It is stapled to a copy of the contract, with numerous marginal corrections and a retained copy of Daves' reply, agreeing with Waters that the intended publisher (Gibbs Smith) had overreached in the contract. An included exchange between Daves and Gibbs Smith posits a simpler agreement, while a retained carbon shows Daves reaching out to Ohio University Press to confirm they had no claim to hardcover rights. The second typed letter signed is from Waters to Keith Sabin, in Daves' absence, and is dated September 29, 1986 and describes the purchasing history of Flight from Fiesta and the current unwelcome "blitz" he, Waters, is undergoing from Ritz Productions regarding theatrical rights. Waters encloses an initialed copy of the letter he wrote to Ritz Productions redirecting their overtures to Daves upon her return from Europe. Both of these letters are stapled together with retained copies of both Sabin's and Daves' replies, as well as a retained copy of an earlier letter from Sabin to Waters saying they had been approached by Ritz and the initial contact letter from Ritz with an unsigned agreement for Right of First Refusal. Also included is a letter from Fiesta publisher Clark Kimball to Daves recommending the production company. The fourth typed letter signed, from Waters to Daves, dated April 29, 1987, again describes the publishing history of Flight from Fiesta and informs Daves that the publisher, Clark Kimball, has been approached by CBS-Columbia regarding film rights, and he includes Kimball's letter. Attached are the retained copies of letters from Daves to both Waters and Kimball, admonishing all that Kimball has no role in film rights for the title, and a later letter from Kimball acquiesces. The fifth typed letter signed, from Waters to Daves (August 3, 1987), delineates an additional inquiry regarding a film option for Flight from Fiesta and several leads on optioning The Woman at Otowi Crossing should Lesley Ann Warren's option expire. Waters takes Daves to task for not responding to offers already presented, for not keeping him informed, and for being about to depart for Europe leaving him without representation: "I don't like to end our agent-client relationship after so many years, but if the overload of work at this crucial time is too much for you, I don't see any alternative." A copy of a letter to Waters at about this point from Alton Walpole shows one of the interested parties facing obstacles bringing Otowi Crossing to the screen. Also, a letter to Daves from The University of Nevada thanks Daves for sending financials on Ohio University Press's Frank Waters: A Retrospective Anthology (included), but bemoans how infrequent the agent's communiques have become. However, the Daves-Waters agent-client relationship was ongoing in October: in the sixth typed letter signed in this archive, Waters informs Daves of yet another inquiry for Flight from Fiesta and asks her advice about payment on an opportunity he has to write the text for a book of photographs to be published by Arizona Highways (likely Eternal Desert, published in 1990). As mentioned, many of the letters are stapled; most are folded for mailing; in some instances they bear the agency's routing marks or highlighting. The lot as a whole is near fine.
[#031770]$1,250
NY, Harper & Brothers, (1942). A collection of White's short, inimitable essays -- most from his column in Harper's and a few from The New Yorker. White provides a new foreword, which puts his short and thoughtful essays into the context of the then-ongoing Second World War. This is one of an unspecified number of copies signed by the author on a tipped-in leaf. Offsetting pp. 12-13 from a prior bookmark; rubbing to edges, with the front hinge starting. An uncommon issue of a classic book of essays by White, perhaps the most highly regarded American essayist and the writer whose voice was the most critical in defining the urbane humanism that characterized The New Yorker, setting the tone for the best of American literature in the 20th century. A very good copy, lacking the dust jacket.
[#035626]$1,250
[NJ/NY], [Prentice Hall/Henry Holt], [1973-1989]. Four books by Key, beginning with his revelatory volume Subliminal Seduction [Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1973], which managed to convince a wide swath of 1970s America that it was being manipulated by sexual words and imagery deviously distributed, including within the images of ice cubes in magazine liquor advertisements, among many other places. From there, Key published Media Sexploitation [Prentice-Hall, 1976]; The Clam-Plate Orgy [Prentice-Hall, 1980]; and The Age of Manipulation [NY: Henry Holt, 1989], all variations on the theme of how the media consciously manipulate consumers' subconscious thoughts and behaviors. The first volume has an introduction by Marshall McLuhan, a colleague and friend of Key. Key's thesis was proposed as a corrective to the primary emphasis placed on Marketing by 20th century business culture -- that is, on the need to persuade consumers to select a given product out of an array of options. If the details he cited as examples were not always correct, there was no question that the use of marketing techniques had often crossed ethical lines and been exploitative, as it often continues to be. The first two titles are price-clipped; Media Sexploitation is very good in a very good dust jacket; the three other titles are near fine in near fine dust jackets.
[#035010]$1,200
1996. A promotional poster for the annual Toronto literary festival, which each year since 1980 has brought together some of the best writers of contemporary world literature. This poster is one of only a handful of copies signed by all or most of the year's participants, approximately 70 signatures. Signed by: Nicholas Shakespeare, William Gibson, William Kotzwinkle, Kathy Acker, Sherman Alexie, W.P. Kinsella, Lynne Reid Banks, Louis Begley, Marie-Claire Blais, Isabel Colegate, William Gass, Matt Cohen, Maeve Binchy, Hershel Parker, Mavis Gallant, Janette Turner Hospital, Susan Sontag, Tobias Wolff, D.M. Thomas, Kazuo Ishiguro, Timothy Findley, Lawrence Block, Al Purdy, Paul Quarrington, Ruth Rendell, Joan Mellon, Nicholas Jose, Oksana Zabuzhko, Lorna Crozier, and many others. From the collection of the promoter of the festival, Greg Gatenby. Designed by Arnaldo Pomodoro. 17" x 24". Fine.
[#029752]$1,000
1989. A promotional poster for the annual Toronto literary festival, which each year since 1980 has brought together some of the best writers of contemporary world literature. This is one of only a handful of copies signed by all or most of the year's participants, approximately 48 signatures. Signed by: Bharati Mukherjee, Nobuo Kojima, Jamaica Kincaid, Julian Barnes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Susan Fromberg Schaffer, William Jay Smith, Mordecai Richler, Joan Chase, Murray Bail, Deirdre Bair, Alice Wexler, Thomas McGuane, Desmond Hogan, Martin Amis, Hella Haasse, Alice Adams, Norman Sherry, Gabriele Eckart, Hans Joachim Schadlich, Friedrich Christian Delius, Caryl Churchill, W.P. Kinsella, Roy Heath, Nissam Ezekiel, Ruth Rendell, Kjartan Flogstad, Michael Coren, Pia Tafdrup, Louise DeSalvo, Hugo Loetscher, and many others. From the collection of the promoter of the festival, Greg Gatenby. Designed by Annalisa Di Felice and Anita Kunz. 18-1/2" x 25-1/2". Fine.
[#029748]$1,000
1993. A promotional poster for the annual Toronto literary festival, which each year since 1980 has brought together many of the best writers of contemporary world literature. One of only a handful of copies signed by all or most of the year's participants, approximately 61 signatures. Signed by: Paulo Coelho, William Vollmann, Jane Urquhart, Bobbie Ann Mason, Bharati Mukherjee, Aidan Mathews, Peter Levi, Marilyn Davis, Carol Shields, Ruth Rendell, Mavis Gallant, Barry Callaghan, Rose Tremain, Peter Mayle, Walter Abish, Robert Stone, Priscilla Juvelis, Paul Auster, Barry Unsworth, Rosa Lixsom, Vikram Seth, Austin Clarke, Bapsi Sidhwa, Joan Riley, Yves Beauchemin, James Mackey, Daniel Mark Epstein, and many others. From the collection of the promoter of the festival, Greg Gatenby. Designed by General Idea, a collective of three Canadian artists, two of whom died of AIDS in 1994. 17" x 22". Fine.
[#029749]$1,000
NY, [The Democratic Party], 1888. The Democratic Party Platform, as adopted in St. Louis on June 7, 1888. Grover Cleveland was running for re-election, against the Republican Benjamin Harrison: Cleveland won the popular vote, but lost in the Electoral College. (Cleveland would win a rematch, in 1892.) This pamphlet puts forth the ideals of the Democratic Party at the time, including: childhood education; the rights of organized labor; the separation of church and state; the equality of all citizens without regard to race or color; the reform of unjust tax laws that unduly enrich the few; the end of the sale of public lands to benefit corporations rather than settlers; the reigning in of tariffs; the admission of Washington, Montana, Dakota and New Mexico into the Union; and supporting the blessings of self-government and civil and religious liberty for all nations. The platform reaffirms the rights of native and naturalized citizens, but takes a hard line against the importation of "unfit" foreign labor. One sheet, folded to create a 12 page pamphlet, 3 3/8" x 5 3/4". Foxed, and fragile; about very good. Only two copies located in OCLC, at NYPL and Pittsburgh State University.
[#034697]$1,000
(n.p.), McSweeney's, (2000). A drawing by Eggers of a broken bird-like creature, executed on the previously blank dust jacket of Timothy McSweeney's Issue No. 5. Signed (initialed) by Eggers. Additionally initialed by Eggers in 2001 and signed by Lydia Davis, Susan Minot, Ben Greenman, Lawrence Weschler, Paul LaFarge, Ann Cummins, and Sarah Vowell. Issue No. 5 was the first hardcover issue of Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, and it was issued in three variant bindings and four variant dust jackets. This is the Ted Koppel binding with the previously blank white front. Eggers, known for his memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, his novels and nonfiction works with themes of social justice, his founding of the McSweeney's empire, and his nonprofit work with childhood education, has at various junctures also been a painter, a cartoonist, or an illustrator. He often pairs animals with simple, or Biblical, text: in 2010 he published a collection of these entitled It is Right to Draw Their Fur. One tiny corner tap, else fine in a very near fine dust jacket.
[#032950]$1,000
Hopewell, Pied Oxen Printers, 2006. A long poem by Eshleman in memory of his longtime friend, the artist Bill Paden, who died in 2004. Of a total edition of 50 copies, this is one of 15 numbered copies reserved for the poet and for the printer, David Sellers. Signed by Eshleman and Sellers. With a Hanga woodcut frontispiece signed by Bill Paden and numbered as one of 100 copies but, according to the colophon, no more than 30 were completed before Paden's death. A fine copy, from the library of author Clayton Eshleman. Letter of provenance available.
[#027889]$1,000
NY, Macmillan, 1929. The Newbery Award winning story of the first hundred years in the life of a wooden doll. Signed by the author. From the library of Doris Dana, with her ownership signature on the front pastedown. Dana was the translator, and partner, of Chilean Nobel Prize winner Gabriela Mistral, as well as being friends with such figures as Thomas Merton, dramatist Cheryl Crawford, Thomas Mann, and others. Uneven sunning to covers; author's name circled in pencil there; bit of dampstaining to lower edges; a very good copy, lacking the dust jacket. Illustrations by Dorothy P. Lathrop.
[#035571]$1,000
London, Faber and Faber, (1970). Figes's first book of nonfiction, a feminist classic published the same year as Greer's The Female Eunuch and Millet's Sexual Politics. Inscribed by Figes to her parents: "To Mummy & Daddy with love/ Eva/ 23rd May 1970." An excellent association copy, especially for an author who writes "...a woman is taught to desire not what her mother desired for herself, but what her father and all men find desirable in a woman." Spine- and edge-sunned; a near fine copy, in a supplied, near fine dust jacket.
[#034714]$1,000
(n.p.), (n.p.), 1988. A 120-page screenplay by Ford for a 1991 film adaptation he did from stories in his collection Rock Springs. The film was directed by Michael Fields and starred Dermot Mulroney, Lili Taylor, Sam Shepard and Valerie Perrine. Apparently a later generation photocopy, as the text is less sharp; also the rectos of the pages tend to stick to the versos of the pages preceding. This copy is signed by the author. Near fine, in maroon binder.
[#911203]$1,000
(n.p.), (n.p.), 1988. A 120-page screenplay by Ford for a 1991 film adaptation that he did from stories in his collection Rock Springs. Signed by Ford. An unknown number of copies were produced, but Ford signed seven of them at a reading in 1990. Photo-reproduced sheets on 3-hole paper. In this copy, page 120 was typed on a different typewriter than the first 119 pages. Bound in a flexible blue binder; fine. The film was directed by Michael Fields and starred Dermot Mulroney, Lili Taylor, Sam Shepard and Valerie Perrine.
[#911202]$1,000
(London), Bloomsbury, (1996). The uncorrected proof copy of the first British edition of this title, which was incorporated into the U.S. edition of Trying to Save Piggy Sneed and had no separate U.S. printing. Inscribed by Irving. An uncommon proof (the British trade edition would have had a proportionally smaller printing than a U.S. one would have had, and the proof equally so), especially with the proof jacket, and even more so signed by Irving. Fine in a near fine, proof dust jacket, worn where it overlays the proof, with the price of £13.99 (later lowered to £9.99).
[#029482]$1,000
NY, Dutton, (1978). The second issue of the uncorrected proof copy, in tall green wrappers. Erasures and label removal shadow on the front cover; small label affixed to spine; near fine. Not as scarce as the mustard-colored proof, but many times scarcer than the white advance reading copy.
[#032782]$1,000
Tuscaloosa, University of Alabama, 1947-1948. Two volumes of the yearbook of the University of Alabama, where Harper Lee studied law between 1945 and 1949. The 1947 Corolla shows Lee as editor of the humor magazine Rammer Jammer; sitting on the Board of Publications; voted one of the "campus personalities"; pictured as a student of law; and as a member of Chi Omega and of Triangle, an honor society of seniors who guide freshmen. In all, at least a half dozen pictures of Lee. Wear to the edges, rubbing to the joints; near fine. The 1948 Corolla pictures Lee only as a campus personality: before completing her degree requirements, Lee left law school for New York City, where she worked as an airline reservations clerk (and wrote To Kill A Mockingbird). From Lee's campus newspaper, as quoted in the book Harper Lee by Kerry Madden: "[Lee] is a traditional and impressive figure as she strides down the corridor of New Hall at all hours attired in men's green striped pajamas. Quite frequently she passes out candy to unsuspecting freshman; when she emerges from their rooms they have subscribed to the Rammer Jammer." Check marks in text; board edges worn; very good.
[#023675]$1,000
1998. A promotional poster for the annual Toronto literary festival, which each year since 1980 has brought together some of the best writers of contemporary world literature. This is one of only a handful of copies signed by all or most of the year's participants, approximately 51 signatures. Signed by: Rose Tremain, Tim O'Brien, Ho Anh Thai, Jay McInerney, Mary Gaitskill, Alice Munro, Edwidge Danticat, Joyce Carol Oates, Richard Holmes, Robert Coover, Geoff Nicholson, Leon Rooke, Timothy Findley, Farley Mowat, Susan Minot, Colin Wilson, Herta Muller, Jack Hodgsins, Greg Hollinghead, Yves Beauchemin, Howard Norman, Patricia Melo, and many others. From the collection of the promoter of the festival, Greg Gatenby. Designed by Sandro Chia. 17" x 23". Fine.
[#029754]$1,000
NY, Duell, Sloan and Pearce, (1945). An uncommon book by the author of Butterfield 8 and Appointment in Samarra, among others. Inscribed by the author to WEAF radio personality Mary Margaret McBride in the year of publication: "To Mary Margaret/ and how are your/ taste-buds?/ Sincerely/ John O'Hara/ WEAF/ 20 March 1945." Books inscribed by O'Hara are uncommon, although later in his career he did a number of signed limited editions. A fragile book, cheaply produced under wartime conditions, this is a very attractive copy. Some spotting to rear board and fading to spine cloth; near fine in a very good dust jacket with a couple of small, internally tape-mended edge tears.
[#016359]$1,000
1997. A promotional poster for the annual Toronto literary festival, which each year since 1980 has brought together some of the best writers of contemporary world literature. This is one of only a handful of copies signed by all or most of the year's participants, approximately 54 signatures. Signed by: Robert Stone, Barry Lopez, Richard Ford, Michael Ondaatje, Anne Michaels, Colm Toibin, Bharati Mukherjee, Jamaica Kincaid, Guy Vanderhaeghe, Michael Turner, Jane Urquhart, Mavis Gallant, Ann Beattie, Nino Ricci, James Reaney, and many others. From the collection of the promoter of the festival, Greg Gatenby. Designed by Richard Artschwager. 17" x 23". Rolled, else fine.
[#029753]$1,000