Search Results: Titles starting with P from The Second Shelf

When you close your eyes and imagine Paris at the 20th turn-of-the-century, La Belle Époque, you wouldn't be wrong to conjure a picture of Natalie Clifford Barney. The American expatriate poet and playwright nicknamed 'The Amazon' was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1876. She and her family had a brief life-altering encounter in a New York City hotel with Oscar Wilde, moved to Washington DC and soon after left for a boarding school in France with her sister.
She came out as a lesbian at the age of 12 to her family, declaring that she was sent by Sappho and never looked back. She began writing explicitly about lesbianism in 1900 at the age of 24.
Pensées d'une amazone explores sexual adversity, war, and feminism and boldly includes chapters on incest, sadism, and coupling (Barney was an advocate for polyamory). Upon receiving his dedicated copy of this book, Proust wrote to Barney that it was "ravishing and profound".
In addition to her writing, Barney was known for her often love affairs, with such notable… Read More

Elmsford NY: For the Author, 1980. A beautifully executed collection of poems and photographs about and for African American children.
First edition. Self published in a small run. Octavo sized pamphlet. 20pp. Publisher's brown card wraps with an illustration by Marian Howard, a fine copy. Internally clean and bright, inscribed by the author to the title page: "For Elaine, Please enjoy and be inspired! Sincerely Jeanette 4/2/82"

A rare copy of the screenplay for Play It As It Lays, Didion's adaptation of her 1970 novel of the same name. The relatively well-received film, starring Tuesday Weld (turning in a Golden Globe nominated performance) and Anthony Perkins, is an observation of Hollywood from the perspective of an actress in a state of crisis after a series of professional and personal setbacks. A close and careful study of alienation, efforts to hide the effects of alienation, and how hard it can be to recover from existential crises. The movie has fallen into a bit of obscurity, and it is not currently available on any streaming service, except for a middling quality YouTube upload, and the screenplay itself was never published, leading fans of Didion clamoring for insight into her writing process, from novel, to film adaptation, without access to either. In a 2015 article for The Los Angeles Times, writer David Ulin wrote about as short sample of the screenplay he'd come across in a book called "Works in Progress" and… Read More

Five stories set in the back woods and bayous of Louisiana, including the title tale, an emotional awakening story of a young woman of no pretensions or wealth saving a traveller from a rising river. Unique setting and mix of the everyday, comic and sentimental. Printed by The Truth Book and Job Office of Baton Rouge, whose other publications of 1895 are the local Police Code and agricultural report. Scarce in the UK.
Baton Rouge: The Truth Book and Job Office, 1895. 132 pages. 21 x 14 x 1cm. First edition. Paperback. Tears and markings to pictorial paper cover, loss to spine cover. Condition is good, with complete text box with thread binding as shown, spotting on title page, toning to pages.

Playland is an example of the many screenplays written by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne that were never produced. In the wake of several cancelled contracts, they wrote this script about the gangster Bugsy Siegel for Lorimar Productions, Inc. Warner Bros. subsequently acquired Lorimar and axed most of the ongoing projects. Some of the material was incorporated into Dunne's 1994 novel of the same title. This rare copy of an unproduced screenplay is a wonderful example of Didion's style and thematic interests, as well as her creative relationship and artistic collaboration with her husband.
Unpublished, 1988. 144 pages. 29.5 x 22 x 2. Light blue card covers, bound with two brass metal brads as standard professional screenplay binding, title written on spine in black marker. Photocopied. Interior pages are clean, overall in very good condition. Unproduced screenplay, extremely scarce, no copies seen in WorldCat.

Cleveland: Ghost Press, 1967. First edition. Limited to 125 copies. Publisher's paper wraps with an uncredited illustration by T.L. Kryss. Minor edgewear, slight creasing here and there but otherwise a very good copy. Presented in a 'zine format, and printed on several mismatched pieces of paper, varying in size and colour. Internally clean. An ephemeral and fragile little poetry collection. The third in the Persecuted Poets series. Solo works by women poets produced with mimeo in the 1960s are scarce, despite the decade being known as a "Mimeo Revolution" for poetry. This is one of the few known. [Birmingham]

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1930. Collection by Lowell, the Pulitzer Prize winning lesbian poet, published for the first time after her death. A collection of poetry and essays on other poets, including Emily Dickinson, and Walt Whitman. With a laid in postcard from The R L James Book Company of Providence to a customer regarding the book, postmarked 6 Oct 1931.
Hardcover. 232 pages. 18 x 12 cm. Printed by the Riverside Press Cambridge. First edition. Pale green paper boards with white label to the front panel. Black cloth spine with white label. In the scarce complete dust jacket with some age toning to spine. Book and patterned dust jacket in very good condition.

London: Hutchinson, 1949. Poison for Teacher is journalist and radio personality Nancy Spain's best-known mystery novel, featuring an amateur detective ballerina, and a girls' school called "Radcliff Hall." Spain gives more than a nod to the writer Radclyffe Hall, author of the milestone lesbian novel, The Well of Lonlieness. Inscribed by author "Dear Tanya I cannot believe that you will like (or have time to read) this very silly book from your new pen friend Nancy Spain November 1949".287 pages. First Edition. Hardcover. Repairs to jacket. Slightly foxed.

Italy: La Grande Illusion, 2015. Everybody says that I need a new pair of shoes, but the choice is not easy." A small artist's book with a re-use message, written, illustrated, and designed by Sdralevich as the first of the Fashion Victim series. Sdralevich is a Belgian book illustrator, graphic designer of political posters and author, born in Italy. Softcover. Binding of Woodstock Malva paperboard with Nettuno Rossa fuoco paper wrapper with cut out shoe detail. 16.5 x 12cm. Printed April 15, 2015 in a limited edition of 600 copies. Near fine.

Illustration on a sketchbook sheet in pencil and watercolour, signed Violet Vanbrugh, with the pencil notation "PCM H.G." Violet Vanbrugh [1867-1942] was a British stage actress who worked for over 50 years from a beginning in burlesque through to working with Ellen Terry and circle and headlining with the Royal Shakespeare Company. The historical dress with ruff and flounces and the dramatic pose were likely replicated from a memorable moment onstage, and the illustration was likely made of her by a fan, which she generously signed. 22 x 18 cm. In very good condition.

A wonderful combination of the classic Austen novel and Vera Willoughby's illustrations with their Art Deco and uniquely stylised elements. Her drawings, paintings and posters are held by the V&A, the British Museum and the London Transport Museum. In 1929 Willoughby was painting posters for London Underground, notably Spring and General Joy. Willoughby, a graduate of the Slade School of Art, also designed for the ballet with Cyril Beaumont under the pseudonym Vera Petrovna. Willoughby had an earlier romantic relationship with publishing house founder Peter Davies. As he was 27 years her junior this upset some of his friends, including J M Barrie. Althea Willoughby, Vera's daughter with her husband Louis, followed in her mother's footsteps and became an artist, book illustrator and poster designer for London Transport. Hardcover. 351 pages. Modern red morocco binding with gilt decoration to covers, 5 raised bands and title to spine. Minor spotting. First thus with 12 grey tone illustrations.

London: MacMillan, 1961. First edition. Hardcover, 170 pp. Green cloth binding shows some shelf wear and slight fading. Slight lean, but in very good condition. Dust jacket has small 3 mm losses on top and bottom of spine, as well as some marginal scuffing, but is bright. Overall in good condition. A gently loved copy of Spark's best known novel, the critically acclaimed story of an energetic and provocative teacher and her students and her introduction of fascist ideas in pre-War Edinburgh. Simply brilliant.

London: Macmillan, 1968. Proof copy. Paperback, 192 pp. Pink wraps are significantly toned. Light lean to binding, but otherwise tight. Slight foxing on bookedge and in margins. Overall in very good condition. The story of an untalented actress and her struggle to build a positive public image to keep her career on an upward trajectory. Lots of manipulation! Finalist for the Man Booker Prize.