Search Results: Titles starting with M from ReadInk

Solana Beach CA: Santa Monica Press. Near Fine in Near Fine dj. (c.2011). First Edition. Hardcover. 1595800557 . [nice copy, only blemish to book is a faint stain on the bottom edge of the text block (the sort of thing you'd never have noticed if I hadn't pointed it out); the jacket shows just a touch of handling wear]. (B&W photographs, facsimiles) A different sort of movie-studio history, focusing not on the corporate history or even the films as such, but specifically "an illustrated history of the soundstages and outdoor sets where Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced many of the world's most famous films." A delight to browse through, the book makes the point vividly that the old Hollywood studios -- and M-G-M was the grandest of them all -- were virtually self-contained cities. It contains hundreds of photos of the major (and minor) buildings on the lot, shots of the standing sets (both in use and, occasionally, in forlorn and even derelict condition), interiors… Read More

New York/London: Harper & Brothers. Very Good+ in Good dj. 1932. First Edition. Hardcover. [light shelfwear, a little dust-soiling to top of text block; jacket has various small tears and shallow edge-chips, spine faded and worn (small hole at front hinge), miscellaneous minor creasing]. SIGNED by the author on the front endpaper. A very forward-looking (not to say prescient) "analysis of the role of machinery in the modern world," by this Vienna-born architect, who later took up painting and design (particularly of furniture) and became a pioneer of modernist design. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1914, settling in New York, and (per Wikipedia) "in the years between the two world wars he, more than any other designer, helped shape the distinctive look of American modernism." He relocated to Los Angeles in 1934, opening a celebrity-attractive gallery on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, and also teaching at the University of Southern California and the Chouinard Art… Read More

New York/London: D. Appleton and Company. Very Good+ in Good dj. 1925. 4th printing. Hardcover. [nice clean book, light shelfwear, spine moderately turned, vintage price label from San Francisco department store The White House on rear pastedown; the jacket is heavily edgeworn but still colorful and attractive, with a dime-sized chip at the base of the spine Novel about a young artist (a landscape painter) navigating the "quicksands of 'Bohemianism'" while also contending with the conflict between his "loyalty to the selfish, unworthy girl to whom he finds himself tied, and [his] love for the other who is willing to devote her life to him." As "a painter of repute" himself, so goes the jacket blurb, the author was "well acquainted with modern artistic life -- both pseudo and real." Gibbs was quite the prolific author, cranking out about a book a year between 1901 and his death in 1942; even before that, he had already established himself… Read More

New York: Random House. Near Fine in Near Fine dj. (c.1994). First Edition. Hardcover. [the faintest bit of foxing to the edges of the text block, no other wear to book; the jacket is a bit scuffed on the rear panel]. (B&W photographs) Biography of "the greatest writer ever to emerge from television's fabled 'Golden Age'" -- but, per the author, much more than that: a creative artists whose "work for television, theatre, and film firmly places him alongside his most heralded contemporaries -- Arthur Miller, William Inge, and Tennessee Williams." ****NOTE that additional postage charges will be assessed for international shipping of this moderately heavy book; if this concerns you, please contact us for a shipping quote before placing your order.**** .

New York: Liveright, Inc.. Near Fine in Very Good dj. (c.1932). First Edition. Hardcover. [a tight clean book, minor wear to cloth at spine ends, vintage price sticker (from The White House, San Francisco deparment store) on rear pastedown; jacket moderately edgeworn, a couple of tiny chips at bottom of front panel, light soiling to rear panel]. "Madam is Daisy Park-Newbold Wendell, a woman who is one-third grande dame, one-third eccentric and one-third child. Heiress to millions, twice unhappily married, this woman of tremendous energy spends most of her time playing the invalid. Either at her mother's Long Island place or in a huge suite of hotel rooms, Madam spends her days in bed, over-eating, over-drinking, taking lovers here and there, scattering money to the winds. Madam is portrayed through a host of charming and disreputable people -- her mother, her husbands, her lovers, her children, and those admirable servants, Jobes and Martha." .

Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company. Very Good. 1926. First Edition. Hardcover. (no dust jacket) [moderate external wear, a little soiling to paper label on front cover, spine turned, a couple of ink spots on spine, slight fading to spine cloth, paper spine label cracked/faded; small, attractive vintage bookplate on front pastedown ("Ex Libris / 'Sledmere,' Dorset, Vermont")] Mystery novel, by a former motion picture scenarist, that introduced the character of Juliet Jackson, a newpaper reporter-cum-detective (known as "the Female Ferret"). Born in Glasgow, Scotland, she came to America with her family at the age of two and eventually settled in New Hope (Bucks County). From 1905 to 1915 she wrote mostly plays and novels, but once she entered the movie business she gave it her all, and between 1915 and 1924 amassed an impressive roster of film writing credits (working both in America and England), before quitting the biz and returning exclusively to fiction… Read More

Ostfildern, Germany: Cantz. Near Fine. (c.1995). First Edition. Hardcover. 3893226397 . (no dust jacket) [light shelfwear only, slight bumping/minor wear at top of spine, very slight bump to top front corner]. (B&W photographs) A nice sampling of the early "photojournalistic" work of American photographer Stock (1928-2010), divided into these categories: Refugees; Jazz Street; James Dean; Hollywood; Festivals; On the Road; Hippies; California. Prefaced by "Dennis Stock on Dennis Stock," a brief essay on his life and work, and "The Photojournalist: The Black and White Years," by Richard Whelan. Text and photo captions are all in both German and English. ***Additional shipping charges for this heavy book will apply for non-U.S. customers; please inquire before placing your order.*** .

New York: Grosset & Dunlap. Very Good in Good dj. (c.1941). Reprint. Hardcover. [book moderately shelfworn, bumped at top of spine, small bookseller's rubber stamp (Bertrand Smith "Acres of Books") on ffep; jacket heavily edgeworn, missing about half an inch at top of spine, old yellowing tape repair across top section of rear panel, miscellaneous small nicks and tears]. "A Hank Hyer mystery," the penultimate book in this highly-regarded series of nine novels featuring Hyer, a cynical (and high-priced) New York private investigator. The author (whose real name was Rudolph Hornaday Kagey) was an NYU philosophy professor who wrote hard-boiled mysteries on the side and was a professed admirer of Dashiell Hammett. James R. McCahery, in his entry on Steel/Kagey in "Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers," states that "it is difficult to account for the neglect suffered by writer Kurt Steel," going to praise the Hyer mysteries as an… Read More

New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. Very Good in Very Good dj. (c.1967). First Edition. Hardcover. (price-clipped) [solid copy, light shelfwear, some very slight fading to black cloth, faint remnants of erased pencil notes at various places in the text; the jacket is nice-looking, with just light wear to the extremities and a bit of soiling and scuffing to the rear panel (NOTE that this jacket was transferred from another copy of the book)]. SIGNED and DATED (Mar. 8, 1968) by the author on the ffep. "Now a noted psychiatrist has written a brilliantly perceptive study of the factors underlying this potent force in our national life. Dr. Beisser's new book encompasses the entire scope of the sports world, [examining] not only the athlete but the audience as well. A large portion of this book consists of case studies. All but one of these deal with professional or highly skilled amateur athletes whose problems are closely related to an excessive dependence on sports. In… Read More

(n.p.): Empire Publishing. Fine in Fine dj. (c.1993). 1st (limited) edition. Hardcover. [very light shelfwear to book; jacket is flawless]. (B&W and color photographs) An elaborately-produced compendium of photographs of the great Hollywood sex goddess of the 1930s ("and for quite a few decades after that," she probably would have said), coupled with "stories and quotes that span her entire life," gathered by author Malachosky in his capacity as Miss West's "private secretary, confidant and friend" during the last ten years of her life. While its generally anecdotal nature doesn't quite add up to its self-proclamation as "the definitive book on Mae West," it's nonetheless invaluable for the richness and authenticity of its account of her personality, by a man who unquestionably knew her well and was instrumental in collecting and preserving a great deal of her personal memorabilia after her death. (Many of the items from Mr.… Read More

New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Very Good+ in Very Good dj. (c.1951). First Edition. Hardcover. [good sound copy, minor wear to spine extremities, light dust-soiling to top edge, one-time owner's signature in pencil on ffep; jacket lightly soiled, a few tiny tears here and there, a bit faded at spine, faint dampstain near top of front panel]. The vessel referred to in the book's title "was the fantastic craft in which John Ryan and his friend Ed Braddock sailed from Puget Sound up to the fishing waters of Alaska. After hearing tall tales and get-rich-quick stories, they made up their minds that they were going to spend at least one season as big-time fishermen. They combed the beaches and tide flats near Tacoma for a suitable derelict. They found one. And for well over a year they worked day and night on the weather-worn hulk, patching, repairing, replacing, shoring, fabricating and creating a sea-going boat. [But] their make-shift masterpiece had one failing. It… Read More

Garden City NY: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc.. Very Good in Very Good dj. 1930. First Edition. Hardcover. [moderately shelfworn book, light bumping to bottom corners, spine slightly turned; jacket edgeworn, a little browned at spine, worn at spine ends, one tiny chip at bottom of front panel, small tears with very minor paper loss at front corners]. (line drawings) The true story, more or less, of the U.S.S. Margaret, the most notorious ("the worst," in the author's words) of the many private vessels that were pressed into service for submarine patrol by the U.S. Navy during World War I. A former pleasure yacht, the Maggie "was an old, old lady, never built to go out of sight of land, even in her youth, and when she got to sea her troubles began. Her recruits were all farmers and when her wheel came off in the steersman's hand he hardly had sense enough to be astonished. Maggie was equipped with depth bombs, but she could never use them; she was so slow… Read More

London: Macmillan London Limited. Near Fine in Near Fine dj. 1976. 1st U.K. edition. Hardcover. [sharp-looking copy, the rear hinge very slightly weakened but no other significant wear; the jacket has a few tiny unobtrusive indentation marks on the rear panel, otherwise unblemished]. Nice copy of the first British edition of Goldman's novel about a psychologically disturbed magician/ventriloquist, with a much better/creepiert dust jacket design than the American edition. Basis for the 1978 film of the same name, screenplayed by the author himself and starring Anthony Hopkins and Ann-Margret. .

New York: Reynal & Hitchcock. Good. (c.1940). First Edition. Hardcover. NOISBN . (no dust jacket) [light bumping and slight fraying at several corners, minor soiling to edges of text block, light spotting to spine cloth, one light spot on front cover, remnants of removed labels on both front and rear endpapers (suggesting that this may have once been a rental-library book, although not marked as such in any overt way)]. Novel set in the 17th century, about a female preacher who is sent as a missionary to the Barbados, and finds herself in a spiritual struggle between her devotion to God and her attraction to a brazen young exiled Royalist; the plot thickens further when their ship takes on a cargo of slaves, and is subsequently beached in Honduras (after a mutiny), whereupon the freed slaves "look to her as a goddess and a guide." This was the final book by this Australian author and sometime-politician, who died the same year it was published; she is probably best… Read More

New York: William Morrow & Co.. Near Fine in Near Fine dj. 1972. First Edition. Hardcover. 044035174X . [nice tight clean copy, mild shelfwear; jacket slightly dog-eared at top of spine, otherwise clean with faint surface wear, short diagonal crease at bottom of front flap]. The author's first (and possibly only) novel, "the story of an innocent, a monstrous romantic, an anachronism of a heroine up against the metaphor of Southern California. Fortune Dundy is a free spirit among fools. What happens to her in this book is relentless, urgent, and above all, funny -- but behind the comedy lurks the absurdity of life." (Well, doesn't it always?) The book was well-reviewed upon its initial publication (the movie rights were reportedly sold to Columbia Pictures, and it was optioned at one point by Lily Tomlin, although no movie ever resulted); reprinted in 1999, it was called "a penetrating and original commentary on the deadly life of the American dream." .

Santa Monica CA: Graphics Press. Very Good+. (c.1980). First Edition. Softcover. 0937536008 . [moderate handling wear, tiny bit of scarring to upper corner of front cover, vertical crease near left edge of front cover]. Trade PB (B&W photographs) "All-new photo treasury of celebrated scenes and memorabilia, Yesterday & Today," per the cover legend. Small-format paperback featuring approximately 100 photos taken in and around Santa Monica (most of them "historical" but a number also showing then-contemporary sites and scenes), and up the coast as far as Malibu. Nearly forty years on, even the "contemporary" photos will evoke nostalgia in some readers. .

New York: Berkley Publishing Corp. (Berkley Medallion). Near Fine. 1976. First Edition. Softcover. [nice tight clean copy, minor edgewear to covers, soft diagonal crease near top of rear cover]. Mass Market PB (B&W photographs) The story of the conception and creation of RICH MAN, POOR MAN, a 12-episode miniseries (only the second time this programming format had been employed on American TV), based on the Irwin Shaw novel of the same name. The stars of the program were Peter Strauss, Nick Nolte (his breakthrough role) and Susan Blakely, all of whom were interviewed for this book. .

Jefferson NC/London: McFarland & Company. Near Fine. (c.2004). First Edition. Hardcover. (laminated pictorial boards; no dust jacket, as issued) [nice clean copy, virtually as-new with just a trace of handling wear]. (B&W photographs) An exhaustive, exhausting, and excruciatingly detailed history of the making of this cult-movie classic. "From the backgrounds of the many players to the pre-production, production, and post-production of the film, this complete history recounts every aspect of Rebel Without a Cause from its rudiments to the 1955 Oscars: the selection of cast and crew, legal fights, changing screenwriters and the many variations of the story, location scouting, auditions, script readings, difficulties with the censors, romances and fights, the editing, text screenings, and, of course, its star's death. An epilogue discusses the possible sequels, rights conflicts, documentaries, musicals, and spin-off attempts, and offers concluding words on the cast and… Read More

New York: Ray Long & Richard R. Smith, Inc.. Very Good+ in Very Good dj. First Edition. Hardcover. [light shelfwear, some irregular age-toning to fore-edge of text block, a little discoloration in gutters; the jacket is edgeworn with various small tears and nicks, some minor dampstaining at the top edge of the front panel, slight darkening at the spine, some modest chipping at the top of the spine]. (B&W photographs) "Methods of Successful Men Which You Can Apply to Yourself" is the tagline on this book by a psychologist and an advertising man, who "know personally many of the big men of the country, have studied extensively the secrets of their success, and have assembled this wealth of experience in a book more fascinating to read than most novels." This knowledge, distilled from the lives of the Successful White Men of the day (Schwab, Carnegie, Rockefeller, Sloan, Field, Field, Westinghouse, Walgreen, and other such names), is intended to help the reader… Read More

Lanham MD/London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.. Fine in Near Fine dj. [1997] (c.1996). First Edition. Hardcover. 0810827093 . [lovely, as-new copy, only blemish being a tiny wrinkle in the jacket at the top left-hand corner of the front panel; a review copy, with the publisher's information sheet laid in]. (Filmmakers, no. 38) Series (B&W photographs) Biography and critical study of this "master director of sophisticated silent comedy," tracing his career from his early days with Mack Sennett through his work with Buster Keaton and at Paramount in 1920s, and his successful transition to sound. .