Search Results: Humor from H.W. Gumaer, Bookseller

New York: Wings Books, 1994. First Edition, Second Printing. . Hardcover. Fine/Near Fine. An omnibus containing all the stories and drawings from three previous collections of this legendary "The New Yorker" writer and illustrator's work. The good-humored wit and wisdom Thurber brought to both his writing and drawing are still fresh more than 40 years after his death and waiting to be enjoyed by a new generation. Boards and text are clean and unmarked, tight and square; the white dustjacket shows only some very minor soiling and surface wear, no tears or chipping, no creasing.

New York: Warner Books, 1994. First Edition Thus. . Hardcover. Fine/Near Fine. Victor Juhasz. It's 10:30 on Christmas Eve at the 87th Precinct where Detective Steve Carella is typing a report when fellow detective, Cotton Hawes arrives with two men and a shopping bag full of pot, derisively described by one of the two as "frankincense" and by the other as "myrrh." Shortly thereafter Detective Meyer Meyer herds in a teenaged boy and a sheep, the boy claiming he isn't a shepherd but the sheep is a gift for his sister. And the reader is off on a rollicking tale with at least a few parallels to the original Christmas, including a young Puerto Rican and his even younger, pregnant wife, who gives birth just after midnight. Published originally as a short story in "Playboy" magazine in 1984 before Warner Books dressed it up in 1994 in a slipcase instead of a dustjacket, the slipcase having a diecut window displaying the Christmas tree on the book's front cover.… Read More

New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1988. First Edition. . Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. A comic novel featuring one of Donleavy's recurring characters, showbiz impressario and libertine extraordinaire, Franz Sigmund "Isadorable" Schultz; First Printing of the First American Edition.

New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. First Edition, First Printing. . Hardcover. Near Fine/Fine. The seventh novel in the hip, witty, cosmically cryptic writer's mystery series featuring private detective Kinky Friedman sees the detective Friedman take a break from Big Apple crime to return to Texas looking for his roots only to be asked to take on a Texas-sized crime case that has little old ladies in the vicinity dropping dead at an alarming rate. A remainder mark on the bottom edge of the text, o/w text and boards are clean, tight, and square; the dustjacket shows only very minimal surface and edgewear. Collectable.

New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994. First Edition, First Printing. . Good Plus/Very Good. Friedman's seventh novel in his highly-praised humorous mystery series featuring New York City supersleuth Kinky Friedman returning to his Texas hill country roots to learn who is killing all the little old ladies; slight spine lean, one lower corner lightly bumped o/w boards and text are clean, tight; back flap of dustjacket creased, o/w very minimal surface and edgewear.

Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2007. First Edition, Second Printing. . Hardcover. Fine/Near Fine. Clarke's fourth book is a humorous bibliomystery featuring Sam Pulsifer, an accidental teenaged arsonist who spent ten years in prison for burning down poet Emily Dickinson's house and unknowingly killing two people. Sam did his time and moved on, becoming a college graduate, husband and father and now watches helplessly as someone else is torching the houses of other famous New England authors. A bibliomystery that is also a seriously sad, funny, absurd and incredibly moving novel. Boards and text are clean and unmarked, tight and square; the dustjacket shows only a small crease in the upper corner of the front flap, else Fine.

Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2007. First Edition, First Printing. . Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. Clarke's second novel is in a league with such classics as "Catch 22," "A Confederacy of Dunces," and "Little Big Man." A novel disguised as a memoir and a bibliomystery cloaked in humor, this book is about truth and honesty and the damage they can do. It features Sam Pulsifer, who, as a teenager, accidentally burned down poet Emily Dickinson's house, unknowingly killing two people in the fire. Sam spent ten years in prison, then started over -- he went to college, got married, fathered two children, made a brand new life. And then his past caught up with as he watched as one after another, the homes of other famous New England writers go up in flames. Sam must turn detective and find the guilty party to prove his own innocence. What he discovers and how he deals with what he finds, is both hilariously funny and heartbreakingly sad. It is… Read More

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988. First Printing, First U.S. Edition. . Hardcover. Fine/Fine. A master of the satirical mystery, Barnard presents the story of Benedict Cotterel, one of the world's great novelists, now on his deathbed, where, to the consternation and anger of his assorted relatives, he keeps changing his will.

New York: Frank R. Brady, 1970. Large Softcover. Very Good. Avant-Garde," published by Ralph Ginzburg for about three years from 1968 to 1971, featured art and erotic literature and photography as did his earlier magazine, "Eros," for which Ginzburg went to prison on obscenity charges. Articles in the January, 1970, issue include: "The Dr. Who Called the A.M.A, the "American Murder Assn;" "The Virgin Forest," a photo essay featuring trees and nudes; "The Handwriting on the Wall," an article on separation of church and state; "Israel Captured," a selection of photos from an exhibition then at the Jewish Museum in New York showing everyday life in Israel; a collection of paintings by the Austrian artist, Friedrich Hundertwasser, titled, "Postcards From Pandemonium;" and "The Bigger They Are The Harder They Fall: The Memoirs of a Fat Girls' Casanova." First Edition. About 10 3/4 x 11 1/4 inches, 64 pages, bound in light… Read More

New York: Little Brown & Co., 2012. Hardcover. Very Good/Near Fine. The last of Wolfe's four novels ("Bonfire of the Vanities," "A Man in Full," "I Am Charlotte Simmons") features among others, a newly promoted Miami marine police officer, a Cuban mayor, a pair of Wasp Yale-graduate newspaper types, and a sex-addiction, sexually-addicted psychiatrist, all operating in a Miami viewed by many as the American city of the future. First edition, first printing (as stated, with complete numberline). About 6 x 9 1/2 inches, 703 pages in red-brown paper-covered boards with Wolfe's name stamped on front cover, and title and author in gold lettering on spine. The dustjacket's front panel shows title and author in white lettering against a abstract pictorial design showing a city scape sandwiched between a brown and gold sky and two-shades-of-blue ocean. Back panel contains full-color, full-panel photo of Wolfe. There is a single, tiny, light brown stain (probably… Read More

New York: William Morrow & Co., 1989. First Edition, First Printing. . Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver collaborated with mystery writer Resnicow on this humorous baseball mystery featuring the Brooklyn Bandits and the Jersey Boomers. Front endpaper, half title and title page have a single light crease o/w text is clean, tight, square in dustjacket showing only minor surface and edgewear.

Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1971. First Edition, First Printing. . Hardcover. Near Fine/About Very Good. Nash's humorous poetry and light verse was a staple of "The New Yorker" through the middle decades of the 20th century and some two dozen of the poems in this collection first appeared in that magazine. A small sample titled, "The Pizza:" "Look at itsy-bitsy Mitzi!/See her figure slim and ritzy!/She eatsa pizza!/Greedy Mitzi!/She no longer itsy-bitsy!" The line drawing illustrations by Milton Glaser are a bonus; bottom end of spine lightly bumped, top edge of text lightly foxed, o/w boards and text are clean, tight, square; white dustjacket missing small chip at top of spine, with some soiling and staining on both panels, o/w minimal surface and edgewear. Scarce. Collectable.

New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992. First Edition, First Printing. . Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. The author of "Kramer vs. Kramer" presents a comic novel of the marketing of a writer who's just completed his first book; boards and text clean, tight, with a slight spine lean; dustjacket shows only minimal surface and edgewear.

Orlando: Harcout, Inc., 2008. First Printing, First U.S. Edition. . Hardcover. Fine/Fine. The second of five crime-thrillers by this fast-rising Irish novelist, whose work has been praised as "fast, furious and funny," and "The Big O," as one of "the sharpest, wittiest and most unusual Irish crime novels in years." Signed and Inscribed by Burke on the half-title page. Boards and text are clean and unmarked, tight and square, not remaindered. The dustjacket is in equally fine condition, no tears, no chipping or creasing, not price-clipped. A very collectable copy.

New York: Delacorte Press, 1987. First Edition, First Printing. . Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. Satirist Vonnegut's novel about the American abstract expressionisn movement of the 1940s and '50s features painter Rabo Karabekian, a minor character in Vonnegut's "Breakfast Of Champions," whose pictures all fell apart due to poor choices in materials. Text is clean, tight, square; dustjacket shows small dime-sized stain at bottom end of spine and corner of front panel, o/w minimal surface and edgewear. Collectable.

New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. First Edition. . Hardcover. Very Good/Good Plus. Beck is well-known for her humorous, light-hearted mysteries. This one is set in a supermarket and features overworked and underpaid assistant manager Ted Constantino; First Printing of the First Edition; boards and text are clean, tight; dustjacket shows considerable wear along edges and on corners.

New York: Washington Square Press, 1996. First Printing, First Edition Thus. . Trade Paperback. Very Good to Near Fine. Master storyteller Dawson allows Victoria Grace Ransom, her reclusive, 600-pound narrator, and last of the Ransoms, to relate the sometimes humorous, always passionate history of a Texas dynasty, a history of lust, revenge, scandal, sin, obsession and betrayal. Text is clean, tight, square; pictorial wrappers show light reading creases on spine, very minor surface and edgewear.

New York: Pantheon Books, 2008. First Edition. . Hardcover. Very Good/Issued Without Jacket. Originally published in a different form in1977 by Belier Press, this collection of comics by Spiegelman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author/artist of "Maus," presents the seminal works that changed how comics are made and appreciated today. Revised and re-issued in 2008, with an introduction that's almost as long as the book it introduces, and certainly autobiographically intimate and daring. (Note: This is NSW, adults-only material.) . First Printing, First Edition Thus. 10 x 14 inches in pictorially illustrated boards, filled with both black & white and full-color graphics. Upper corner of both covers bumped, o/w only very minor surface and edge wear. Text is clean and unmarked, tight and square. A collectable copy.

New York: Bantam Books, 1973. First Edition Thus. . Mass Market Paperback. Very Good/Very Good. Vintage Paperback: Bantam Q7700. Today, Roth is arguably America's greatest living novelist with a string of bestselling, award-winning books to his credit. In 1972 when the novella, "The Breast," was issued, he was just one of several "promising" authors, a National Book Award winner for "Goodbye, Columbus," with "Portnoy's Complaint," a break-through best seller. "The Breast," in which 38-year-old David Kepesh is metamorphosed into a female mammary gland, drew comparisons with stories by Kafka and Gogol, cemented Roth's reputation for satire and comedy, and pushed him way up the "Top Ten Authors" list. First Mass Market Paperback Edition, First Edition Thus, First Printing. About 4 1/4 x 7 inches, 117 pages including a brief biographical note and ads for two other Roth books. Light card wrappers are white with black, red and gold… Read More

New York: William Morrow & Co., 2004. First Edition, First Printing. . Hardcover. Good/Fine. The tenth novel in Mystery Grand Master Block's humorous mystery-crime caper series featuring New York burglar and bookseller Bernie Rhodenbarr. This time Bernie, about to commit a crime for a friend and a profit, is feeling restless and prowls around the city looking for -- well, not for the four murders and the burglary of his own home. Or a mystery that quickly turns deadly. Front cover shows a manufacturing defect, a raised bubbled area about an inch in diameter where air was apparently trapped when the paper covering was glued to the board. O/w, boards and text are clean and unmarked, tight and square, not remaindered. The dustjacket is next to perfect, no tears, no creasing or chipping, not price-clipped. While the defect noted above is the only issue with this book and is completely concealed by the dustjacket, it makes this book a reading copy rather than a collectable.