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The Naked and the Dead
First edition
Rinehart and Company, Inc, 1948. 721 pages. The author's debut novel, which shot to the top of the New York Times Best Seller list and stayed there for eleven weeks. Mailer would go on to win two Pulitzer Prizes. Based in part on the author's experiences in World War II.
First edition (first printing) with the Rinehart logo on copyright page. Light edge wear else a fine copy in a dust jacket with a light hint of toning and wear to the spine head. An exceptional copy as noted by the exuberant inscription by the author to Donald Kaufmann: "Don, this may be the finest copy extant of the Naked and the Dead. Cheers, yes. Norman Mailer." Kaufmann published one of the first critical studies of Mailer, Norman Mailer: The Countdown (The First Twenty Years).
Book ID: 267456More details Price: $7,000.00 -
Why Are We in Vietnam: A Novel
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1967. 208 pages. A novel about a hunting trip to Alaska.
First edition (first printing); without the dedication page. A fine copy in a somewhat scuffed dust jacket with light chipping to the spine head. With a warm inscription by the author on the front free endpaper: "To Don Kaufmann / with recollection of the fine and hungover morning we left Anchorage with [future Poet Laureate of Florida] Ed Skellings and flew over (or under) Mt. McKinley on our way to Fairbanks. Next night a debate with Ralph Ellison at the University of Alaska and sensations of magnetic north being near indeed. Norman Mailer / Sept. '75, Maine." Forty-two years later, upon Mailer's death, Kaufmann wrote about this 1965 plane ride during what would be Mailer's first and only trip to Alaska in a memoriam titled "Norman Mailer in 'God’s Attic,'" which described Mailer's request to the pilot to buzz the top of McKinley, which he did, repeatedly. Kaufmann wrote, "During that twenty-minute hello to Denali, I could not foresee Mailer’s next novel, Why Are We in Vietnam? (1967), oddly entitled because the word “Vietnam” appears but once—in the book’s final phrase, “Vietnam, hot dam.” Most of the novel’s “hot dams” took place in Alaska and mostly in remote, stark wilderness—the Brooks Range." Kaufmann published his critical study of Mailer, Norman Mailer: The Countdown (The First Twenty Years) in 1969.
Book ID: 267549More details Price: $500.00 -
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
First Edition
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1968. 416 pages. Wolfe's profile of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. ISBN: B01N3UMBZM.
First edition (first printing). White cloth with multi-color lettering on the spine; cloth somewhat grubby and spotting to top of page block. A very good copy in an unclipped dust jacket with original $5.95 price; with wear to the edges and a superficial tear to the verso.
Book ID: 246961More details Price: $250.00 -
The Silver Eagle
First Edition
New York: Lincoln Mac Veagh / The Dial Press, 1931. 310 pages. An early novel by the novelist and screenwriter; the adaptation of his earlier novel Little Caesar helped launch the gangster film genre. ISBN: B00367UPCM.
First edition (first printing). Black cloth stamped with publisher's device on the cover and silver lettering on the spine. A nice, square copy with a bit of edge wear; small sticker scar on front pastedown from a removed bookplate, and a former owner's small stamp on the front free endpaper, which shows a light imprint and small tear from a now removed paperclip. A near fine hardcover; lacking the scarce dust jacket.
Book ID: 246625More details Price: $200.00 -
Memories of a Catholic Girlhood
First Edition
New york: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1957. 245 pages. Autobiographical essays about McCarthy's life after her parents died during the Inflluenza outbreak in 1918. One of McCarthy's enduring books. ISBN: B002RAXF9E.
Signed by the author below her name on the title page. First edition (first printing). Slightly musty but otherwise near fine copy in a dust jacket with minor edgewear.
Book ID: 85953More details Price: $200.00 -
The Wapshot Chronicle
First Edition
Boston: Harper & Brothers, 1957. 307 pages. The author's first novel and winner of the 1958 National Book Award for fiction. ISBN: B006K5L2IS.
First edition (first printing). A bit of edge wear, else a near fine copy. Dust jacket is worn at the corners with a couple closed tears and is creased down the spine, else near fine. [JSP02]
Book ID: 148359More details Price: $200.00 -
In the Heart of the Heart of the Country and Other Stories
First Edition
New York: Harper & Row, 1968. 206 pages. Five stories. The author's second book. ISBN: 9780060114688.
First edition (first printing). Near fine in a dust jacket with light fading and toning to the spine. Minor edge wear and a small, faint stain on the fore-edge. Inscribed on the half-title page by the author to Donald Kaufmann, a book collector and professor in the English department at the University of South Florida: "In Sarasota, on June 16, 1977 from the heart of the country to the tail of the country, a work whose heart needs now a doctor -- but best wishes, Bill Gass."
Book ID: 234251More details Price: $125.00 -
The Little Disturbances of Man
First Edition
Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc, 1959. 189 pages. The author's first book. "Stories of women and men at love" -- from the jacket cover. ISBN: B00275P2LS.
First edition (first printing). Gray cloth with orange Cupid illustration on the cover. Light bumps to bottom corners and spine head else a fine copy in a price-clipped dust jacket with a shade of toning to the spine and a very short tear to one corner.
Book ID: 246464More details Price: $100.00 -
Castaway
First Edition
New York: Random House, 1934. 181 pages. 5 by 7-1/2 inches. A novel of "spectral terror" (jacket flap) about a man roaming alone in a huge department store, questioning if he is the last living human on Earth. ISBN: 281AIB1046285.
First edition (first printing). Black cloth with silver lettering on cover and spine; top edge stained dark green. Top corners lightly bumped, small scuff to the spine foot and adjacent bottom edge, and a small little stain on the bottom edge of the page block thus a near fine copy; in a dust jacket with mild toning to the spine and a faint tidemark on the spine foot.
Book ID: 246461More details Price: $100.00 -
The Gawain-Poet: Notes on Pearl and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, with Brief Commentary on Purity and Patience (Cliff's Notes)
First Edition
Lincoln, NE: Cliff's Notes, 1967. 78 pages. Study notes the medieval Arthurian legends. An uncommon John Gardner book. ISBN: B0006E39XK.
First edition (first printing per Lepper's Seventy-Five Modern American Authors, with a $1.00 price and publisher's ZIP code 68505). A near fine copy in wrappers (paperback). Signed by the author on the title page and quite scarce thus.
Book ID: 229805More details Price: $95.00 -
The Right to an Answer
First Edition
London: Heinemann, 1960. 255 pages. A comic novel of British society. ISBN: B0000CKLJ8.
First edition (first printing). Near fine in a dust jacket with light fading to the spine and a few stains to the rear panel. Pencil notes on the rear endpapers. With the publisher's review slip laid in.
Book ID: 266956More details Price: $85.00 -
Annette
First Edition
New York: New American Library, 1973. 170 pages. A novel by the author of God's Little Acre and Tobacco Road. ISBN: B0006C9TH2.
First edition (first printing). A fine copy in a price-clipped dust jacket. Signed by the author on the half-title.
Book ID: 266041More details Price: $80.00 -
Why Are We in Vietnam: A Novel
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1967. 208 pages. A novel about a hunting trip to Alaska.
First edition (first printing). Light fading to cloth edges else a fine copy in somewhat wavy dust jacket with light fading to author's name in red on spine. Dedication page tipped in.
Book ID: 267548More details Price: $75.00 -
The Secret Journey
First Edition
London: Chatto & Windus, 1936. 569 pages. The second of five novels in the Furys Chronicles. ISBN: B003469XGO.
First edition (first printing). Cloth a bit toned and faded at the spine and edges, and a tide mark to the rear panel thus a very good copy in a dust jacket with a creased tear to the rear panel repaired with clear (but aged) tape on the verso. News clipping with the book review from the 1936 New York Herald laid in.
Book ID: 265489More details Price: $75.00 -
The Strange Case of Miss Annie Spragg
First Edition
New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1928. 314 pages. An early novel by the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. ISBN: 281AIB1045327.
First edition (first printing). A near fine copy in printed orange dust jacket with color-faded spine and a few small chips and tears to the edges. Inscribed by the author on a bookplate on the front free endpaper: "all the best of everything from Louis Bromfield" dated 1928.
Book ID: 236034More details Price: $65.00 -
Stoker Bush
First Edition
London: Chatto & Windus, 1935. 308 pages followed by [4] pages of publisher ads. A novel. Printed in an edition of 2500 copies. ISBN: B0006DAVLO.
First edition (first printing). Bound in dark green and black mottled cloth. A near fine copy in a dust jacket with long tear to the rear flap fold repaired on the verso with paper tape; minor loss to spine head not affecting text. Gibbs, James Hanley: A Bibliography A15a.
Book ID: 265514More details Price: $65.00 -
The Riddle of the Fly & Other Stories
First Edition
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1959. 184 pages. A collecton of short stories for adults by the Newbery Award-winning children's author. ISBN: B0006AW4D0.
First edition (first printing). Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Previous owner's name on front paste down.
Book ID: 265240More details Price: $60.00 -
The Last Voyage
First Edition
London: Joiner & Steele, Ltd. for William Jackson Ltd, 1931. 73 pages. One of 550 copies signed by the author, of which 500 were for sale. Frontispiece by Alan Odle; foreword by Richard Aldington. "Being No. 5 of the Furnival Books.". ISBN: B00085D6TY.
First edition (first printing). Bound in green buckram with gold lettering. Light, uneven fading thus a near fine hardcover copy; no dust jacket. Publisher's errata slip bound in at title page. Signed by the author on the limitation page. Copy number 33. Gibbs A4a.
Book ID: 265254More details Price: $50.00 -
Elder Conklin
First Edition
New York: Macmillan and Co, 1894. 277 pages. The author's first book. ISBN: 281AIB1045609.
First edition (first printing). Olive cloth with bright gilt spine and cover. A near fine hardcover copy; no dust jacket. Light wear to the edges with minor offsetting to rear endpapers. A nice, square copy.
Book ID: 238304More details Price: $50.00 -
The Secret Journey
First Edition
London: Chatto & Windus, 1936. 569 pages. The second of five novels in the Furys Chronicles. ISBN: B003469XGO.
First edition (first printing). Gray cloth a bit faded at the edges and spine; foxing to endpapers and first and last few pages. A very good copy in a dust jacket toned at the spine with chips to the end slightly affecting text. Gibbs A16a.
Book ID: 265488More details Price: $50.00