1st editions of the classics of fiction

Catalog 34

5 Centuries of Winsome 1st Editions

and a Few That Aren't

1550-1995

all of them books of areté in spectacular condition

disruptively described with a presumption of familiarity

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Nota Bene: Catalog 34 has some pictures but you’re going to have to read to access it, so if your lips are moving, stop right now, because you are not likely to buy our books anyway. As I am the creator of a new realm of cataloging I therefore invent the standards and rules therein, and you as my reader are obliged to adjust and conform to my style. You will find some entries very short and some that are very long, some touch many points of view, some only one, for which I do not consider myself accountable. I do however, regard your ease and entertainment as well as the advantage you may derive if you will indulge the shifting aspects of each description, but any pattern you imagine will prove illusory. That which you may deem most important in the characterizing of any book will sometimes be found at the beginning of an entry, sometimes at the end, other times buried in the middle and occasionally lacking altogether, without any discernible regularity. Attributed quotations are in quotation marks but disparate pithy aphorisms, coy similes and terse metaphors are stolen, kidnapped, plagiarized, embezzled and pillaged from everywhere and everyone, then corrupted, inverted, combined, debauched and misemployed, all for your joy of reading. Text is written with the abandon of a pig in mud, but that’s the only way the inadequate cataloger knows how to be brave. I assume you are already acquainted with the rare book market, nonetheless bookspeak is kept to a minimum. Linkage is repeatedly achieved by ironic adages and wry proverbs, admittedly with irritating frequency and sometimes to the point of distraction, but descriptions are composed to entertain sophisticated readers, so if you’re not easily bored, indulge my freewill in appreciation of those that are. I distinguish between the concrete and abstract but often present them in the same sentence. I reject formality, rules about commas and I don’t write for Nickelodeon. That means descriptions may contain sex or violence but in the spirit of moderation they contain no violent sex or sexy violence. Foreign readers may find it annoying that I don't apologize for American fiction but your humble cataloger never gets to go anywhere. Literature is listed by author, associated items are listed by subject. I expect you can tell us what you want so all items in this catalog are unnumbered. Books are shipped by next day Fed-Ex, at our expense, but we may take a week to wrap them (the sucky side of the octopus). All items are unconditionally guaranteed to be thrilling and may be promptly returned for insufficient thrill, however, flippant reversals may cause severe tire damage. Everything is guaranteed to be way cool, regardless of vintage, but autograph material created by the living has specific disclaimers of warranty. Condition is not described by Pinocchio so anything characterized as "fine" is just that with no nonsense. Catalog 34 was carefully assembled with a critical eye for rarity, quality, significance and beauty, the essential quartet for any antique, and this in a sloppy world that has airbrushed away any expectation of excellence. Restoration and repair is aesthetic, skillfully accomplished and clearly noted without the use of evasive terminology. I never spin "fine" into a term for a book with faults by using mesmerizing enhancements like, fine plus, fine indeed, very fine, unusually fine, extremely fine, exceptionally fine, exceedingly fine, unbelievably fine or unimaginably fine. "Contemporary" does not mean contemporary with today but rather, with the time of publication. Items attributed as "ex-somebody" were once owned by that person. For goodwill Biblioctopus crawls towards our aim of full disclosure, the kind of goodwill preferred by big kids in a world where 8 booksellers have 10 opinions. Payment is preferred in United States dollars, conversion is chilling. Sympathetic terms are available to established accounts, ask about Biblioctobuck$. California residents please add 8 1/4% sales tax, but we always give homeboys a discount to even things out. Catalog 34 is filled with ingredients known to cause option paralysis so feel free to telephone for assistance, but I am happy with my long distance carrier, don't want to shift credit card balances, won’t have our web site redesigned, and am not interested in the Sunday paper. Having trouble picking the right book? Trust yourself with the Biblioctopus Instinct Patch (a safe med but side effects include mediocrity smirk), or trust us to pick your books for you with Biblioctopus Omikase, $5,000 and up, also with side effects including the happiness factor, so you may derive increased pleasure from music, sex and chocolate. No lab animals were mutilated during research for this catalog, no books were purchased using gill nets, no authors were stalked for their autographs, no human tissue was used for restoration experiments, no books were shelved in rooms with their temperatures altered in any way so all are karma clean from any participation in global warming, no drug money was laundered to pacify rich customers, no book beetles were released on the premises of our colleagues, no exhibits were held on sacred burial grounds, no children were enslaved at low wages to remain competitive, no Redwoods were felled to produce this paper, no mailboxes were ripped off the homes of catalog recipients who never buy a book, no prospective interns were interviewed in the nude, no third world nations were exploited to maximize profits and we’ve only stepped on the downtrodden when a change of direction wasn’t practical. Copyright © MMVII by Biblioctopus Nation but contrary to established custom we will subsidize the reproduction and distribution of Catalog 34 anywhere in the world, so long as that reprinting is absolutely accurate. Biblioctopus is the official octopus of the the Knights Templar, the Nobel Prize Committee, the original Library of Alexandria, the Roswell Crash Site, the California Foxy Boxing Association, the NASA Mission to Put a Man on the Sun, the Bermuda Triangle, Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Citizens for the Equitable Distribution of Magic Powers, the Druids of Stonehenge, the NFL Los Angeles Franchise, the Oracle of Delphi, and the 11 moons of Neptune.

catalog 34 is conceitedly dedicated

to the memory of the great John F. Fleming

cold-hearted as a meter maid driven by ticket quota

Acker, Kathy

I Dreamt I Became a Nymphomaniac

(San Francisco, 1974).

6 vols. 1st edition in original 6 parts. The reigning post-punk classic. Self wrappers. Fine. Her third book and second novel, hand made, self published in a tiny edition and mailed to subscribers only. The first part was sent free. By part two she was asking for contributions as she had "run out of money and people to borrow from." A pioneering, willful, spiky cuff, spiritual vertigo, filled with more bleeps than R2D2 on crack.

500

Still unappreciated for the ground she broke (not that the world's ready anyway), but 20 years from now Kathy Acker Day will be celebrated across America as mothers on the ragged edge come together for lightning raids on gynecologists' offices, to tear down pictures of happy babies and replace them with photos of sullen teenagers moping at the dinner table.

Acker remains outside the cyclone of hyper-modern 1st edition collecting. Her originality, influence, courage and style, as well as the tiny editions of her early self-published novels in parts, all mark her as an author who's collectability will be a force some day. But her writing is still just way too edgy. The post punk writers who ride her wake seem to be doing fine but few collectors are yet ready for any part of Acker, seemingly fearful of being identified with her. So here she stands, dead 5 years and still too scary to collect. She would have loved it

Beowulf

[Anonymous] translated by N. F. S. Grundtvig

Bjowulfs Drape

(Copenhagen, 1820).

1st edition of the complete Anglo-Saxon epic in any modern language (Danish). Contemporary (original?) full calf, label, a little rubbed else fine, exceptional condition, never rebacked.

6,000

The monumental pagan heroic tale, long preserved in oral tradition, then carried to England by Danish invaders where it was overlaid with a veneer of Christian theology and put down by an unknown poet in a manuscript first transcribed in Old English about the year 1000. It's set in 6th century Denmark and fuses Norse legends and Danish historical events in 3,182 lines of alliterative verse. Here is Beowulf, the superhuman warrior, Hygelac, Beowulf's lord, and ruler of the Geats, Hygd his young queen who offers Beowulf the throne of her son after Hygelac's death, Hrothgar, King of the Danes who adopts Beowulf as his son, Wealtheow, his Queen who gives her own sons over to Beowulf's care, Wiglaf, the last of Beowulf's kin and his heir, Sigemund and Fitela, the legendary Volsungs, and finally Grendel, the paradigm monster of monsters, who regularly visits Hrothgar's hall to carry off and devour his warriors.

Beowulf is the earliest extant epic in any modern European language (that means not Homer's Iliad and Odyssey or Vergil's Aeneid). It comes to us in a single 10th century manuscript (Cotton Vitellius A.xv.), almost destroyed in a 1731 fire at the Cotton library. It took so long for an edition to reach print because for decades after its discovery the manuscript was incoherently mistranslated and no one quite understood what it was. But this is (at last) the real 1st edition of a magnificently written masterpiece, of surprising literary merit, by any standard a notably important book and apparently, an uncommon one.

[Anonymous]

The Tale of Beowulf

Kelmscott Press (Hammersmith, 1895).

1st edition designed and printed by William Morris, from a translation by A. J. Wyatt. A fine copy. One of 300 (actually 308) in original vellum with 6 silk ties (1 detached but present). Complete with the original "Note To The Reader" slip laid in.

4,000

her first book

Austen, Jane

Sense and Sensibility

(London, 1811).

3 vols. 1st edition. Fine in nearly contemporary full calf, complete with all 3 genuine half titles (essential with this book). Her first novel, a balancing of love against property, and beneath the plotline, suggesting that even if women understood men they wouldn’t believe it. But Austen not only grasped men, women and their relationships better than her peers, she also understood it all more keenly than the most insightful women authors who followed (say, the Brontes or George Eliot) even though they had the perspective of having read Austen’s novels and the advantage of being able to stand on her shoulders.

80,000

In the 19th century an intuitively romantic Jane Austen said, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." By the 20th century a brazenly cynical Chris Rock, seeing no real difference between dumb guys who show it off and smart guys who hide it well, said wryly, "A man is only as faithful as his options." Now it's the 21st century, the age of the first person singular, where men talk to women so they can sleep with them, and women sleep with men so they can talk to them.

Austen, Jane

Mansfield Park

(London, 1816).

3 vols. 1st edition. Contemporary 1/2 calf not rebacked, smoother than a record company executive. A fine, tall set, with all half-titles, blanks and ads, and if you'd buy this book without the half-titles to save a few thousand dollars, let me staple a tracking device to your ear so I can hunt you down the next time one of my customers remembers that whenever they unload a bad book an angel gets its wings, and then try to dump a box of their mistakes on my doorstep for me to sell for them.

35,000

the real Peter Pan

Barrie, J. M.

Peter and Wendy (London, 1911).

1st edition. Fine in gorgeous unrestored dustjacket, all you could ever hope for in a 1911 jacket, but just for due diligence we'll tell you the spine's faded a shade and there's 1 small tear near the fold but copies in jacket are scarcer than clocks in casinos.

10,000

Let's look both ways before crossing and take a tenuous walk across the rarity thing for a few comparisons. The golden age of classic, English language genre novels (1885-1919), began with King Solomon's Mines and no copy is known to me in jacket. The same is true for Jekyll & Hyde (1886), She (1887), Sign of Four (1890) as well as Well's big four of Time Machine (1895), Dr. Moreau (1896), Invisible Man (1897) and War of the Worlds (1898). Having dispatched the unknowns, 1 copy of Dracula in jacket (1897) survives, now residing forevermore in the Rosenbach library, just where you might expect it to be. The next level (say, 20 copies or less known in jacket) includes Dorian Gray (1891), Wizard of Oz (1900), First Men in the Moon (1901), Kim (1901), Peter Rabbit (1902), The Virginian (1902), Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), Secret Agent (1907), Wind in the Willows (1908), Secret Garden (1911), Lost World (1912), Fu Manchu (1913), Valley of Fear (1914), Tarzan of the Apes (1914), Princess of Mars (1917) and perhaps half a dozen other similar titles that reign at or near the pinnacle. And by the way, they've all got legs, so get any of them in jacket that you can, if you can, because you won't get many.

real Beatles manuscript

[The Beatles]

Lovely Rita, Meter Maid

by Paul McCartney

(1967).

McCartney’s handwritten, working, manuscript (as Beatle) for Lovely Rita from the album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The first draft, 10 lines in blue and black ink, all on a single side of an irregular scrap of lined paper (7 1/2" X 5"), torn from a spiral notebook. 7 lines are in black ink and these have the appearance of being Paul’s first concept. 3 lines of changes have been added later in blue ink, such as, "...writing all the numbers in her little black book..." changed to "...filling in a ticket with her little blue pen..." and still later recorded as "...filling in a ticket in her little white book...". Sumptuously matted, glazed with UV, and framed (gilt) with a color proof photograph of the album cover, nearly identical, to the published album except there are 2 extra faces in the crowd (airbrushed out for the final cover), the band instruments have been passed around, and Paul is down on one knee. And for those of you who are into the visual thing, this item is seriously gorgeous. Icon Time.

255,000

"Lovely Rita, Meter Maid, nothing can come between us,

When it gets dark, I’ll tow your heart away..."

Only 1 other draft of Lovely Rita manuscript is recorded, a later version mostly in the hand of Mal Evans (assistant to The Beatles), however, this is McCartney's original draft for this renowned song, and it’s from Sgt. Pepper, the most famous album and most identifiable commercial product in the history of rock & roll.

Rare. The current world record for a rock & roll manuscript at auction is $1,150,000 for a later draft of All You Need is Love, followed by $455,000 for a clean draft of Nowhere Man and $249,200 for a late draft of Getting Better (Sotheby's, Sept. 14, 1995), the days of yore, during the last wave of occasional availability and before the current generation of new wave millionaires started thinking how cool (and prescient) it would be to own an authentic Beatles manuscript.

Bellow, Saul

The Dangling Man

(NY, 1944).

1st edition, his first book. Near fine in near fine jacket (1 tiny tear). Bellow won a Nobel Prize, a Pulitzer and 3 National Book Awards (the record). Ex-James Dickey, a bearable association.

3,750

The original Bellow anti-hero, tormented by the existential dilemma of trying to define himself with dignity despite life's constant impediments. Now it's the 21st century and Bellow's principal is a senior citizen, tormented daily and clinging to life solely for the prospect of collecting all 50 U.S. state quarters.

Bellow, Saul

The Adventures of Augie March

(NY, 1953).

1st edition, 1st issue. The Nobel laureate's great work, winner of the 1953 National Book Award. Fine in fine 1st state dustjacket. 20 times rarer than an imperfect copy for 4 times the price, and the $500 cheapie will only be perfect if you have a table with one leg an inch and a half too short.

2,000

Augie wants no defining life role so is swept along by circumstances, refusing any opportunity for a settled existence. He laughs at himself as he tells his story, making Augie a memorable hero who suffers some hard knocks, but as he says, there's an animal in me, "the laughing creature forever rising up." With Bellow's Nobel Prize (1976), the Academy cited his, "...human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture," surely with this book in mind.

ex-Arthur A. Houghton Jr.

Boccaccio, Giovanni

The Decameron, Containing An Hundred Pleasant Novels (London, 1620, 1620).

2 vols. 1st edition in English of the first work of modern fiction (not the 1625 reprint with vol. I titled “The Modell”). A wonderful copy, complete with the errata leaf. Late 19th century full red morocco, gilt. 2 trifling natural paper flaws and a single small tear repaired, some red underlining removed (invisibly and without a trace) from a few pages, else fine condition throughout, with every letter of text absolutely genuine.

32,500

Bowles, Paul

The Sheltering Sky

(London, 1949).

1st edition, his first book, hotter than a core melt-down. Fine in a near fine, fresh dustjacket.

7,500

Before Kerouac could drive, Ginsberg could howl and Burroughs could write about his junk, Bowles uncovered Beat Literature with this phenomenal first novel in which a man and his peripherally reluctant wife flee from the West to Morocco, rattling their chains to prove that they are free. Despite the prominence of this pair, the primary character is the interminably vast desert and the isolation it provides. Bowles prose is consistently even in tone and after a while resembles the desert itself. The title is a hoax as the sky provides only minimal shelter and the plotline suggests that rather then dragging your culture halfway across the world, just grab a stool for amateur night at the blow-fish bar. Back on the streets, the robust branch of the beats evolved into the rebellious youth of the 1950s, launched by Brando in The Wild One, where when asked what he was rebelling against, he answered, "Whatta ya got?"

the greatest set of Tarzan 1st editions ever assembled

Burroughs, Edgar Rice

Complete collection of the Tarzan books, all are 1st editions, all are in dustjacket, all are signed and inscribed (Chicago, NY and Tarzana, 1914-1947).

An unbroken, 22 volume run of the Tarzan 1st editions in dustjacket. Each is a signed, presentation copy of estimable association, including copies inscribed to his publishers, his wife, and more than half to his son, the person of whom he most often thought while writing these books. Herein Burroughs invents the first super-hero, an archetypal creation of nobility, strength and self-reliance. And lying underneath it all, there’s a reminder, that it’s going to be fun to see how long the meek can keep the Earth after they inherit it.

The individual inscriptions prove how heavy this is. Tarzan of the Apes is inscribed to his first publisher, Return of Tarzan is inscribed to his wife, Beasts of Tarzan is to his third publisher, Son of Tarzan is to his son, Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar is to his wife, Jungle Tales of Tarzan, Tarzan the Untamed and Tarzan the Terrible are all to his son, Tarzan and the Golden Lion is his own copy with his bookplate, his ownership signature and a note, "Do Not Remove From Study," Tarzan and the Antmen is to his son, Tarzan Lord of the Jungle is to his wife, Tarzan and the Lost Empire is to A. G. Criswell Smith Jr. a young fan, Tarzan at the Earth's Core, Tarzan the Invincible, Tarzan Triumphant, Tarzan and the City of Gold and Tarzan and the Lion Man are all to his son, Tarzan and the Leopard Men is to Carole Lombard (with Clark Gable's bookplate) and finally, Tarzan's Quest, Tarzan and the Forbidden City, Tarzan the Magnificent and Tarzan and the Foreign Legion, are all to his son. Only Son of Tarzan is a 2nd issue, varying from the 1st issue solely by the addition of a printed dedication to his son (left out by the publisher and hastily corrected), and this is the dedication copy, inscribed to his son.

Rarity flows deep and condition is satisfying throughout, including 22 striking dustjackets, all of them the earliest state, excepting only Return. Some inner paper hinges invisibly strengthened and a few dustjackets with small tears or chips skillfully restored. Still, it is neither jackets nor completeness but rather meaningful inscriptions and the closest of associations that set these books apart. Never fully embraced by the academics, Burroughs created an immortal figure who’s held world wide popularity for 5 generations, as well as a conglomerate to license his perpetuation. No other collection of this stature has ever been amassed and such a collection is never to be seen again, but 21st century reincarnations for the cinema will be plentiful, just like those in the 20th century, as new filmmakers revisit Burroughs' creation of the most famous fictional character in the entire panorama of American literature.

Together: 22 vols. 250,000

the best copy in the world

Burroughs, Edgar Rice

The Outlaw of Torn

(Chicago, 1927).

1st edition, revealing that mortal danger is an effective antidote for fixed ideas. Fine in a flash of a jacket (light edgewear restored). Signed presentation (half a page) "To my dear wife..." dated March 4, 1927, 2 weeks after publication, but he always gave her the first copy he received, remembering that men know the game, but women keep the score.

5,500

Historical adventure set in 13th century Britain, the days of low technology before the invention of electricity, when real men shaved with a rusty arrowhead and real women filled their vibrators with angry bees.

a flawless copy

Burroughs, Edgar Rice

The Monster Men

(Chicago, 1929).

1st edition. Fine in fine dustjacket (looks new). Presentation copy, inscribed to his wife, "To Emma with love from The Monster Man, Tarzana March 24, 1929," 9 days after publication (the earliest inscribed copy of the few known). A slickly plotted science fiction thriller, that revisits the Frankenstein/Doctor Moreau theme, but a new incarnation of it that's scarier than the beer line at a Raiders game, though it’s not as scary as Winona Ryder checking out your collection armed with a shopping bag.

9,000

Burroughs, William S

Junkie

(London, 1973).

1st hardbound edition of his first book, preceded by the more common (and overpriced) Ace paperback. Inscribed to bookseller Albert Newgarden with a cipher below Burroughs' signature and date. Fine in fine black jacket, prone to wear and rubbing.

2,000

The prototype modern narcotics story but the authors who followed Burroughs (they who got high sniffing drywall), were not as artistic and seldom as riveting. In a transition that's way too easy, Utah Park Rangers report they have cut down a 65 foot Oak tree that died last winter, harvesting the largest collection of dead leaves since the last drug novel. And if there's any upside to drugs it's that they've taught 2 generations of American kids the metric system.

Carter, Angela

Nights at the Circus

(NY, 1984).

1st American edition. Review copy (printed slip and hype). Fine in fine jacket. Signed presentation copy to Doris Grumbach, "For Doris with love from Angela." Carter has additionally signed in full on the title page and Grumbach has signed the endpaper. Doris Grumbach was a novelist, professor, essayist, bookseller, editor and reviewer (NY Times Book Review, Mademoiselle, New Republic, Saturday Review, NPR).

350

A tribute to young woman as goddess, but this lively book is no little girl in her mother's pearls. Carter combines realism and surrealism in a twist of the historical novel wherein magic mocks 19th century events. Fevvers, a baby, is found in a basket of egg shells and straw on Ma Nelson's doorstep. She is raised as the common daughter of 6 mothers until, at age 14, the constant itching in her shoulders heralds the breaking out of her wings (Carter's symbol of female liberty and volition). She matures, working herself through a series of persecuted employments where she is exploited as a freak and develops some of the qualities of a confidence woman, finally landing at the Cirque d'Hiver as "the aerialiste." Here she becomes the new living myth, applauded around the world by the rich and powerful. She takes up (but doesn't consummate with) Walser, a journalist who joins the cirque as a clown to be near her. A train wreck, between Russian engagements, separates them in Siberia. He is saved by Olga, an escapee from a grotesque women's prison (a subplot with another completely original Carter feminist take). Fevvers, hampered by a broken wing, is herself saved by a wandering male radical whose political group is in league with Olga's feminist society. In the end, Fevvers and Walser are reunited.

Cervantes, Miguel de

Don Quixote

(London, 1755).

2 vols. 1st edition of Tobias Smollett's translation. [iv], xxviii, 403 [404]; viii, 466 [467 Errata, 468]. Contemporary full calf, deftly rebacked with original spines laid down. 28 engraved plates. Near fine, a beauty, but a common book. Ex-Admiral Duff.

3,000

remarkably saturated and pointed TLs

Chandler, Raymond

Typed letter, signed

(La Jolla, Nov. 1, 1951).

2 pages, rectos only, 85 single spaced lines on his personal stationary, 8 1/2" X 11", to Mr. L Inglis (Aberdeen, Scotland), signed at the end, in ink, "Raymond Chandler." Accompanied by the original envelope (stamp removed, flap detached) postmarked La Jolla, Nov. 5th and Aberdeen, Nov. 8th. The letter fine, the envelope somewhat worn and stained.

5,000

On the first page he writes revealingly about Philip Marlowe and touches on the detective's psychology.

"I don't think ... Philip Marlowe, is very much concerned about whether or no he has a mature mind ... If being in revolt against a corrupt society constitutes being immature then Philip Marlowe is extremely immature. If seeing dirt where there is dirt constitutes an inadequate social adjustment, then Philip Marlowe has an inadequate social adjustment. Of course Marlowe is a failure and he knows it. He is a failure because he hasn't any money ... But you must remember that Marlowe is not a real person. He is a creature of fantasy. He is in a false position because I have put him there. In real life a man of his type would no more be a private detective than he would be a university don. Your private detective in real life is usually either an ex-policeman with a lot of hard, practical experience and the brains of a turtle, or else a shabby little hack who runs around trying to find out where people have moved to ... the more highly organized police work becomes, the leaner are the pickings left for the private operator."

Chandler then answers some of Inglis' questions.

"You are not annoying me or I would not be writing to you."

"... I wanted to be a barrister but I didn't have enough money."

"So far as I know the cops read my stories and don't resent them in the least ... I have never been in police business properly speaking, although at one time I worked ... on an embezzlement case."

In turning to Hollywood he calls the film productions of his books,

"... as good as could be expected. My stories are about a man, and no one can satisfactorily recreate another man's character. I worked on THE LADY IN THE LAKE myself, although I refused screen credit because I didn't like the final script ... I was almost entirely indifferent to the story ... and ... the producer ... kept telling me, and not me him, 'Look, stick to the book a little more.' Practically all the screen work I've done has been for other films ... but you don't always get your name on the picture and you don't always want your name on the picture."

Near the end he mentions Dashiell Hammett.

"... Dashiell Hammett was once a Pinkerton agent, and I certainly owe a great deal to him, which I have admitted very publicly. ... I can't say that I'm a friend of his. I only met him once. He had at that time a shocking capacity for liquor, which I am frank to say I envied as I was never much of a drinker myself."

So here in one fantastic letter are reflections about the psychological makeup of, musings on, and defense of Marlowe, his account of his time in Hollywood, thoughts about the police, as well as alternate careers for both him and Marlowe and a mention of Dashiell Hammett, on whose shoulders he admittedly stood.

Chandler, Raymond

The Lady in the Lake

(NY, 1943).

1st edition, proving that some women lick before they bite. Fine in fine dustjacket marred only by a single 3/8” scratch on the spine (no nicks, no chips, no tears and no repair).

9,500

Clancy, Tom

Hunt For Red October

(Annapolis, 1984).

1st edition of his first novel. Fine in fine jacket. A book with quite a little history in the world of hyper-modern 1st editions, being the first of the era, to spike on publication in a manner that's now an everyday dose of vertigo. Of more lasting significance, Red October is rare in at least one way, being that the film was actually better than the book. This summer Clancy will be honored for his contributions to literature. That leaves him just 5 months to make a contribution to literature.

850

among the very rarest classics

of children's literature

Collodi, Carlo

Le Avventure di Pinocchio

(Florence, 1883).

1st edition. The most worldly famous fictional work in Italian literature (with apologies to Dante and Boccaccio). 1/4 French calf, marbled boards, bound without the last page of ads, intermittent foxing or stains, 2 marginal tears, former owner’s stamp a few times. Frontispiece and 61 other illustrations by Mazzanti. Rare, OCLC and RLIN locate just 7 copies in institutions, no copy has sold at auction in the last 10 years, few remain in private hands and copies are seldom in the trade.

75,000

Psychoanalytical comparisons of Pinocchio’s wooden nose (that grows when he lies) to male erections were unintentional by the author, are passé when posed by academics, and juvenile when imagined by readers, as Pinocchio is as wholesome as a bowl of cornflakes and somewhat less sexy.

historic run of 1st editions

(Comics)

Classics Illustrated [Classic Comics]

(NY, 1941- 1969).

171 vols. total. 1st edition, 1st issue of each title. A complete run (numbers 1-169), plus both states of Woman in White and folio galley proofs for Arabian Nights. Numbers 1-34 are titled "Classic Comics," as originally published before the name was changed to "Classics Illustrated." Minor corner wear or specks of rubbing but fine condition no repair. Complete, unrepaired sets of 1st printings in this state of preservation, have always been rare, and unbuyable at any price in recent years. In their time, kids read these to dust, used them for book reports, then replaced them with a reprint ordered from the publisher, because this was the only series of golden age comics that were continuously reprinted, and long available by mail. Many titles had 10 or more editions, and were sold in reprint for 25 years, and each later printing is bibliographically distinguishable, creating over 1,000 variations of covers, ads, price and text, but this set is the first state of each title, and perfect on every single point. Meticulously assembled with care, and an eye to pride of ownership, by your Octopus, one title at a time over 6 years in the 1980s when such an effort was still possible. The literary establishment hated these from day one (chickens always dismiss chicken soup), but don’t be distracted. It’s better for your collection to deserve honor and not have it, than to have honor and not deserve it, and these were a well conceived trick that actually worked, and a street wise segment of (at least) 2 generations, were legitimately turned-on to those classics of fiction. Don Quixote, Jane Eyre, Treasure Island, Crime and Punishment, Tom Sawyer, Three Musketeers, Christmas Carol, Moby-Dick, Jekyll and Hyde, Sea Wolf, King Solomon’s Mines, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Wuthering Heights, Twenty Thousand Leagues, Count of Monte-Cristo, Call of the Wild, War of the Worlds, Last of the Mohicans, Poe’s Tales, Scarlet Letter, Robin Hood, Red Badge, Frankenstein, Ivanhoe, Copperfield, Crusoe, Alice, Gulliver, Hunchback, Huck, Hamlet, Holmes and 137 others.

35,000

Mohican in publisher's boards,

uncut and complete with all blanks

Cooper, James F

The Last of the Mohicans

(Philadelphia, 1826).

2 vols. 1st edition, earliest state with none of the dropped folios in vol. I mentioned by BAL. Original boards, uncut, rebacked with matching paper spines, a near fine, intact set, a little foxing but unusually clean, a copy that'll make you happier than a monkey watching the banana channel.

50,000

Cooper wrote the first novel in this Leatherstocking series (The Pioneers) in 1823, but Mohican is the best of the five, a fundamental classic with a preponderant claim as the earliest American novel still widely read for recreation. It's set in 1757, during the French and Indian War, and the historical battles and fictional pursuits that drive the heroic plotline are enhanced with Native American lore and earnest descriptions of our now lost wilderness. And there's call for praise on at least one other level here, as Cooper’s noble savages, with their deductive analysis of clues during tracking, set a primitive but essential foundation for Poe's invention of the detective story 15 years later, and Doyle's creation of Sherlock Holmes in 1887. That said, the literary history of this novel is a trail littered with sour grapes, even the most respected detractors withering in their own hostility, ever envious that Mohican is unmatched in the new world for the length of its enduring popularity (the objective test of a novel's greatness) among readers willing to suspend their disbelief and modify their critical objections for a time machine ticket to the northeastern wild of pre-revolutionary America and 571 pages of rapid action, transcending the cynics, skeptics, analysts, academics and even other authors who nit pick the first American thrill ride instead of just giving themselves over to it.

in jacket

Crane, Stephen

The Red Badge of Courage

(NY, 1895).

1st edition. Fine in near fine (unrepaired) dustjacket. Crane assaults the notion that murder is a crime unless it’s done on a massive scale accompanied by the charge of trumpets. He merges realism, naturalism, symbolism and impressionism for a psychological portrayal of fear, tosses out a character that represents all untried men, writes the first modern war novel, and instigates a pervasive projection into a generation of novelists that were just being born in 1895

30,000

Crichton, Michael

Jurassic Park

(NY, 1990).