Literature / American Literature

New York: W W Norton & Co Inc, 2000. First Softcover Edition. Soft Cover. New/No Jacket. Photographs. Library Journal said of this book "Virtually a new Spoon River Anthology, told by the villagers themselves with earthy rural humor." In the early 1970s, a quiet, two-hundred-year-old Ohio village called New Burlington was forcibly abandoned to allow the construction of a dam. John Baskin moved into an abandoned farmhouse and lived in New Burlington for its final year, commemorating and recording its residents' funny and heartbreaking stories. The result is one of the most unique and beautiful histories ever written about rural America. 260 pages, many family photographs included as well as professional photography. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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New York: Grosset & Dunlap. Hard Bound, Cloth, Pictorial. Good/No Jacket. No date, no edition. The story of the book is true, and chief of the failures in the making of the book is this: That it is not all the truth. The light is not bright enough, the shadow is not black enough to give a true picture of that bit of Wetern life to which the writer was some small part. Because a man's life is all he has, and because the only hope of the brave young West lies in it's men, this story is told. It may be that the tragic pity of a broken life may move some to pray, and that the divine power there is in a single brave heart to summon forth hope and courage may move some to fight. If so, the tale is not told in vain. /C. W. G. The corners are worn through, and there is some wear on the top and bottom edges. Both ends of the spine have some wear. The green binding has a picture of a distant place. The binding is tight but inside the front and back covers the binding is somewhat loose. 270 pages, approximately half a dozen pages have varying marks on them. None to disturb the text. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. more information

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Winchester, MA: Faber & Faber, 1992. Unknown. Hard Cover. New/New. Novelist Joe Coomer was living in a small converted garage with his wife Heather when he undertook to build their first real home - a magnificent Queen Anne Victorian. As Joe built, so he wrote. Dream House follows the day-to-month construction of their home, from foundation to fretwork, through the long Texas days of shovel to earth, hammer to nail, dream to actuality. Spirited, meticulous, honest, this is a wonderfully readable book that conveys all the frustrations and triumphs of doing-it-yourself - and a strong sense of what makes a home home. 195 pages. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2002. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Do you remember the urban legends that you heard as a teenager, and later on? I remember one about the couple on a date, when they get a flat tire on a dark and lonely road, and the young man gets out to change it; he doesn't come back for the longest time, and when she gets out to investigate, he's been murdered (guess they shouldn't have been there!). Finally, a great collection of urban legends are gathered into one book. Despite their outrageousness, or maybe because of it, urban legends get told and retold countless times. Friends pass them on, thus a story becomes a legend. And even if it doesn't sound entirely plausible, a legend always satisfies some basic human emotion - fear, embarrassment, hope, or revenge, to name but a few. And whether you believe them or not, you'll find yourself compulsively reading every one of these urban legends just to see what could possibly happen next! These stories do leave an impression, and you may find yourself telling them over and over again. 687 pages including an index. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. more information

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New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers. No Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/No Jacket. Unknown. This is a work of startling sadness and a story of family loss, tragedy and the sheer meanness of fate. The story is of Maggie Tulliver, daughter of a miller in the English midlands. Like many 19th century literary girls, her intelligence and emotional capacity outflank those of her family and cause problems. She is devoted to her brother Tom but he is very limited in his understanding. Maggie turns to Philip Wakem, son of a local lawyer and sadly deformed. Disaster strikes as Mr. Tulliver and Wakem find themselves enemies over a legal dispute that leaves the former bankrupt. After the death of Mr Tulliver, Maggie leaves the mill for St Ogg's where her cousin Lucy lives. Lucy's betrothed Stephen falls for Maggie and causes her downfall while boating on the river. Maggie refuses to marry him and her life is as good as ruined. Only a few, including Philip, still show sympathy for her and only a dreadful flood in which Maggie tries to save Tom can lead the well-meaning but doomed girl to any kind of redemption. 464 pages, illustrated. The binding is lightly worn at the corners, with moderate wear at the spine ends. The binding is becoming a bit loose. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. more information

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New York, NY, U.S.A.: Random House Adult Trade Publishing Group, 1989. 2nd Printing. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Fine. From burning beds to drivers ed., from a disastrous wedding to the joy of tree climbing, from the rewards of grandparenthood to simple but surprising wisdom from the head of a Zen Buddhist monastery, Fulghum's gift for finding the meaning in life rather than the meaning of life permeates every page of this humorous and compassionate book. The binding front has a two tiny spots on it. 218 pages, no marks or tears. Prior owner's sig. inside front board. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Lebanon, Indiana, U.S.A.: Harry N Abrams Inc, 2003. First Edition. Hard Cover. As New/As New. New Yorker Cartoons. Who doesn't love reading the cartoons in the New Yorker magazine? Even if you've never seen them, they're a delight and the captions are very clever. Goldilocks in a police line-up? Humpty Dumpty with an H.M.O.? The nursery isn't just for children anymore! This collection of more than eighty witty cartoons takes a hilarious second (and third) look at our most beloved childhood stories and rhymes. It includes: Hey Diddle Diddle, Little Bo-Peep, Little Jack Horner, Old Mother Hubbard and Her Dog, Three Blind Mice, The Crooked Man, Little Red Riding Hood and many others. Twenty-five stories and rhymes in all are illustrated and captioned. 106 pages, including an Afterword and index of illustrators. The binding has the same illustrations as the cover. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. more information

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New York: Oxford Univ Press, 2002. First Edition. Hard Cover. New/New. The history of law can be viewed as a tale of human choices about the preservation of life, protection of property, exercise of individual liberty, fashioning of creative knowledge, and other basic social concepts. This book gives readers a comprehensive, authoritative, and accesible guide to this ongoing saga, in the form of 468 alphabetically arranged entries written by hundreds of respected scholars about a wide variety of pertinent subjects. 912 pages with a case index and general index. One page came torn, and has been properly repaired. This is a superb, concise source for lawyers, students, scholars, and lay people. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. more information

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New York: Oxford Univ Press, 2003. First Edition. Soft Cover. New/No Jacket. What is the relationship between modernity and modernism? Between high modernism and what used to be called minority literature? For decades it has been a given that American modernism was the purview of a narrow group of white Euro-Americans. Writers on the margin - African Americans, Jews, and Latinos, for instance - have long been considered too political or too parochial to have a place in the modernist canon. The essays in this collection, written in tribute to the late African American historian Nathan Huggins by his colleagues and students, take as their premise that high modernism, as traditionally understood, was not the only significant reaction by American artists to the revolutionary changes that defined the modern era. The essays here examine the disputed relationships between modernity, modernism, and American cultural diversity. This volume insists on many modernisms and, in doing so, adds an important new dimension to our understanding of 20th century literature. 266 pages including an index. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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New York, New York, U.S.A.: Picador USA, 2006. First Trade Paper Edition. Soft Cover. New/No Jacket. This lady pulls no punches. An entertaining look at an activist who insists on living life her way, disability or no; strongly recommended." - Library Journal. Harriet McBryde Johnson's witty and highly unconventional memoir opens with a lyrical meditation on death and ends with a bold and unsentimental sermon on pleasure. Born with a neuromuscular disease, Johnson has never been able to walk, dress, or bathe without assistance. With assistance, she passionately celebrates her life's richness and pleasures and pursues a formidable career as an attorney and activist. Whether rolling on the streets of Havana, on the floor of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, or in an auditorium at Princeton challenging philosopher Peter Singer, Johnson defies every preconception about people with disabilities, and shows how a life, be it long or short, is a treasure of infinite value. 261 pages. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Viking Press, 1985. Book Club (BCE/BOMC). Hard Bound. Fine/Fine. 337 pages, no marks or tears. Garrison Keillor's popular radio show, Lake Wobegon, is finally in print with lots of fun and clever anecdotes. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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New York: The Modern Library, 1926. Hard Cover. Fair/No Jacket. This definitive edition is the final form of Upstream with corrections to correspond with the original text published in 1922. Boards are very good, green with gold lettering. The spine is very discolored from the sun. 299 pages, front and back cover splitting away on the inside. A red star is stamped on the last page. 16mo - over 5¾" - 6¾" tall. more information

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New York: Oxford Univ Press, 2003. First Edition. Hard Cover. New/New. Photographs. The way to understanding any epoch is by reclaiming its peculiur texture. The Modern that we saw at the time was misleading; it was a world dancing with new X-rays, radium, and radio waves - Art Deco and Bauhaus, skyscrapers and Burma-Shave signs. Yet there has to be more than that! Science was surely a red thread running through Modern. As relativity theory and quantum mechanics departed from everything we had believed to constitute reality, it was clear that nothing would remain the same - that we faced change of a magnitude hitherto unimaginable. But the immensity of the transformation that occurred just after 1900 is actually cloaked by the accomplishments it brought about. It reveals itself only after we open ourselves to the kitsch and commonplace material world where we struggled to express the mystery of transmutation. And so this biography of Modern is more zoetropic than analytical. 292 pages including notes, and index, and drawings and photos scattered throughout. They are great! 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Time Life Books, 1980. Soft Cover. Fine/No Jacket. Binding is fine, as new; 437 pages fine, no tears or marks. Book is about the Brill family in the '30's. Two sisters, labeled dullards and their brother, the inventor (who spends hours working out new ways to twiddle his thumbs) live off the reputation of an ancestor. 5" x 7.75" high. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. more information

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White River Jct, Vermont, U.S.A.: Chelsea Green Pub Co, 2000. First Edition. Hard Cover. New/New. Our narrator, Tim Matson, assaulted by middle-aged existential doubt and morbid preoccupation, sets out to confront the demons of death and the denizens of the funeral trade. His oddysey begins when he stares down a photograph of Ginseng Willard, a flinty old Vermonter who built his own coffin from a piano case, then used it as a bed for the rest of his natural days. Matson ups the ante by deciding to build a coffin. He heads out on the road to learn how to go about it. Along the way he meets an unforgettable cabal of characters who populate the funeral underground - among them the Undertaker and the Crusader, the Anatomist and the Astrologer, the Organist and the Gravedigger. Sometimes you'll feel like Buster Keaton has slipped through the back door into a funeral parlor in backcountry Vermont. Other times you'll be at the wheel, with Hitchcock and Sartre riding shotgun. This book offers thrills, chills, and laughter, but also a face-to-face encounter with some of life's Big Questions. 147 pages. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.: Harry N Abrams Inc, 2003. First Edition. Hard Cover. As New/Near Fine. In 1987, art dealer Richard Polsky set aside $100,000 to purchase a painting by famed Pop artist Andy Warhol for his private collection - a purchase that ultimately took him twelve years. His journey, spanning the years from the wild speculation of the 1980s to the recession of the 1990s, is recounted here in this funny, fast-paced, intensely readable expose of the inner workings of the art world.This entertaining tale illuminates not only Warhol the artist and his place in art history, but also the machinations and marketing that fueled his celebrity. It is both his admiration of Warhol as an artist and the thrill of vicarious fame that drove the author in his quest to have a Warhol of his own. The binding is silver with faint white lettering. The jacket has a bit of scuffing near the spine, front and back. 256 pages including an appendix of comparative values of Warhol's paintings and an index. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Henry Z. Walck, Inc., 1957. Hard Cover. Good/No Jacket. Spanfeller, James J.. Binding is discolored at edges and top of spine is worn away in one spot. 125 pages are fine, no tears or marks noted. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Lanham, Maryland, U.S.A.: Cooper Square Pub, 1999. First Cooper Square Edition. Soft Cover. New/No Jacket. It is good finally to have roughly a quarter of Stevenson's essays available in one volume. . . . Their value lies in their vivacity and style; they exhibit a descriptive immediacy and a strong sense of character." - Library Journal. Stevenson's essays comprise an oft-overlooked trove of gems, intriguing in their content and generous in their scope. This collection of nearly three dozen of his best essays - the only anthology of its kind - spans his brief life and includes many of his most celebrated pieces and some others previously unpublished. Essays include the tender "Falling in Love"; the hilariously perceptive "The Character of Dogs"; his musings on human nature and its frailty in "An Apology for Idlers" and "Crabbed Age and Youth"; as well as his idiosyncratic views on dreams, umbrellas, political activism, and the art and craft of writing.This is a surprising collection of Stevenson's prose, evident wit, and enduring humanity. 290 pages including an index. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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United Kingdom: Sutton Pub Ltd, 2000. First Edition. Hard Cover. New/New. Photographs and Drawings. The Inca civilization of Peru was one of the greatest of the ancient civilizations of the Americas. Famous for their massive temples and fortresses built from huge blocks of stone and decorated with sheets of pure gold, the Incas also developed a system of government, capable of holding a vast area of territory together, and an extensive system of roads, connecting administrative centers, which acted as a means of colonization. In the 1530s the Spanish, led by the conquistador Pizarro, arrived in Peru. In their search for gold, they devastated the Inca culture, destroying its treasures, killings its leaders and bringing to an end the infrastructure of its empire. By the 1570s native American control in Peru had been completely lost and the civilization was no more. With Pizarro came one Mansio Serra de Leguizamon, who became the last of the Spanish conquistadors to die. This book tells his amazing story. He died at the age of 78, leaving a unique and famous apology for the conquest in his will. This book takes that remarkable document as its starting point, weaving a fascinating, sometimes disturbing tale of the vicious subjugation of the Inca civilization. 206 pages, including the will, his testimonial of past service addressed to King Phillip II, Inca testimonies, glossary and place names, notes, and an index. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. more information

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New York, New York, U.S.A.: Da Capo Pr, 2005. First Edition. Hard Cover. New/New. Perhaps no trial changed the course of history so much as one that took place in London in 1772; the case of James Somerset, a black man rescued from a ship bound for the West Indies slave markets. At this landmark trial, two encompassing worldviews clashed in an event of passionate drama and far-reaching significance. Now noted legal historian Steven M. Wise recreates each exciting moment of the case that slave owners contended would do nothing less than bring the economy of the British Empire to a crashing halt. As the case finally drew to a close and defenders of slavery pleaded with Lord Mansfield to maintain the system, the judge spoke the words that continue to resound more than two centuries later: "Let Justice be done, though the Heavens may fall." 282 pages with notes, bibliography and index. Includes photos of relevant paintings. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1966. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Angel in the Forest is excellent history, and at the same time it is a tale of such mysterious force, with such a rush of riches coming at us all the time, that we must wonder why so few other historians make the utmost of their subjects as she does of her." So Van Doren writes in his Introduction to this extraordinary book, which is a chronicle of two Utopian experiments carried on in Indiana early in the 19th century. One was by Father George Rapp, a German mystic, who founded the first community in 1814; this was supposed to be the New Jerusalem. Giving it up in 1825, the land was sold to Robert Owen, father of British socialism. Owen created New Harmony, which sought to show the way toward a rational order, a New Moral World. 331 pages, price clipped. Jacket is in a protective cover. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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