Search Results: Biography - autobiography - memoirs from Bookfever.com, IOBA

New York:: Da Capo Press/ Perseus, , 2014.. First edition -. Very good in illustrated wrappers (crease to lower corner of front cover). Advance Reading Copy (trade paperback format. ) A "meticulously researched biography, drawing on much unpublished material, of a woman who was a century ahead of her time. As the "daughter of Salmon P. Chase, Lincoln's treasury secretary, Kate Chase enjoyed unprecedented political power for a woman. As her widowed father's hostess, she set up a 'rival court' against Mary Lincoln in hopes of making her father president and herself his First Lady. To facilitate that goal, she married one of the richest men in the country, the handsome governor of Rhode Island, in the social event of the Civil War. . . But when William Sprague turned out to be less of a prince as a husband, Kate found comfort in the arms of a powerful married senator. The ensuing sex scandal ended her virtual royalty; after the marriage crumbled and the money disappeared,… Read More

Pasadena, California: : Clara Vista Press,, (1951). Hardcover first edition -. Very good in red cloth with gilt lettering (some dulling to the lettering on the spine). Tipped inside the front cover is a printed letter by the President of Alpha Phi, noting that this book was being given to the attendees of the 1958 convention). Quite scarce now in the original edition. . First printing. Autobiography of a woman defined as "a clubwoman and a philanthropist," born in New York, but who moved to California in the 1880s and made it her home for the rest of her life. While women's clubs are no longer as important in American life as they were during the Progressive Era, her contributions were wide-ranging and significant and far more extensive than this brief list: she was the first president of the California Federation of Women's Clubs, active in politics, a founder of the Los Angeles chapter of Ebell Club (originally called the International Academy for the Advancement of Women)… Read More

San Francisco:: Straight Arrow Books,, (1973). Hardcover first edition -. Near fine in black cloth in a good only dust jacket with a large chip to the lower corner f the front cover.. First printing. An indictment of our prison system - McCune, a "low IQ" man, was convicted of rape and sentenced to death although his sentence was eventually commuted (but not until after he mutilated himself), and even after the commutation he spent months in isolationm but despite this he continued to write his story. Illustrated with photographs by Lyon, who also wrote the introduction. Many of McCune's drawings were included in Lyon's 1971 book 'Conversations with the Dead." 154 pp.

Sonoma, CA:: Vine Book Press,, (1983). Hardcover first edition -. Fine in fine dust jacket.. First printing. Bartholomew grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, and his careeer in journalism included covering the 1925 earthquake in Santa Barbara, but was most significant as a World War II correspondent in the Pacific. New Guinea, and Okinawa. Includes an account of the Battle of Okinawa, as well as personal reminiscences of his meetings with Winston S. Churchill and accounts of the 'fail safe' patrols of the post War era. Bartholomew was also the founder of the Buena Vista Vinyards winery. Illustrated with photographs. 231 pp.

New York:: Harper & Row, , (1981). Hardcover first edition -. Very good in very good dust jacket (price-clipped) . First printing. A "major biography of a fascinating, complex, and enormously influential family [which]covers an entire era of American history - the nineteenth century. Almost every member of the Beecher family, from the patriarch, Lyman (1772-1863), through his eleven surviving sons and daughters, became intimately involved in most of the major issues of their day: the liberalizing of early Puritanism, antislavery ferment, the Civil War, and Women's Rights." Among the notable members were Henry Ward Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Isabella Beecher Hooker. Illustrated with photographs. Notes and sources, selected bibliography, index. xvii, 653 pp.

San Francisco:: By the author,, (1936). Hardcover first edition -. Good condition overall - spine slant and some sunning to the covers - but a tight and sturdy copy. No dust jacket.. First printing. Autobiography, written and published when the author was a city councilman and police commissioner in Salinas, CA. Born in the Ozarks of Missouri, he led an adventurous life including time on the Mexican border, working in the California oil fields at McKittreck, and a short but successful period as a heavyweight boxer, while he was still working as an insurance salesman. At one point, he wound up on a Georgia chain gang for riding on a freight train - later he was the chief of police (and the only police officer) in McKittreck. INSCRIBED on the half title page and dated in 1937. 303 pp.

New York:: W W Norton & Co / Center for Documentary Studies,, (1998). Hardcover first edition -. Fine in fine dust jacket.. First printing. Letters between these two Mississippi writers, friends since their teenage years, which began in the late 1940s and continued until Percy's death in 1990. "Jay Tolson has selected, edited, and annotated the letters of these two remarkable writers to shed light on their relationship and their literary careers." Illustrated with photographs, index. 310 pp.

New York:: St Martin's,, (1995). Hardcover first edition -. Very near fine in a like dustjacket.. First US printing. A collection of reminsences of mid-20th century Ireland, one which "takes her readers along the byways of Ireland and into the heart of the country. In stories by turn comic and poignant, she explores the character of family and friends, testing the bonds of concern and kindness which hold people together." 156 pp.

New York:: Three Rooms Press,, (2019). SIGNED first edition -. Fine in illustrated wrappers.. First printing, a trade paperback original. A memoir and a social history in which Orloff attempts to answer the question "what was it like when everyone started dying?" He describes the "delirious adventures of his youthfrom San Francisco to Los Angeles to New York where insane nights, deep friendships with the creatives of the underground, and thrilling bi-coastal living led to a free-spirited life of art, manic performance, high camp antics, and exotic sexual encounters, until AIDS threatened to destroy everything he lived for. . [He] looks past the politics of AIDS to the people on the ground, friends of his who did not survive AIDS wrath the boys in black leather jackets and cackling queens in tacky frocks remembering them not as victims, but as people who loved life, loved fun, and who were a part of the insane jigsaw of his friends." Introduction by Alexander Chee. SIGNED on… Read More

London:: Bloomsbury,, (1988). Hardcover first edition -. Fine in a fine dust jacket (as new.). First thus. An illustrated edition - in both full color and black and white - of Strachey's most famous and influential book, originally published in 1918, and one which revolutionized the writing of biography. His barbed prose removed these revered Victorians from their pedastals as he wrote about them with scepticism rather than reverence, selecting figures from Church, Medicine, Public School, and Empire, - that is, Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Dr. Arnold of Rugby, and General Gordon of Khartoum. Foreword by Frances Partridge. Large format. 192 pp.

New York:: Alfred A. Knopf,, 1984.. Hardcover first edition -. Fine in fine dust jacket.. First US printing. An affectionate and entertaining account of this British novelist, poet and critic, a staunch anti-fascist, a Communist in the 1930s, who turned to religion at the end of his life, the son of the noted historian Arnold Toynbee - and a man whose life was a "web of contradictions." Based on both Mitford's own memories, and on his diary. Index. xiii, 175 pp.

New York:: Harper Collins,, (1995). Very near fine (remainder line). 1st trade paperback printing. Using letters and other family documents, as well as interviews with living family members, Frazier reconstructs the history of his family during the 200 years they lived in America - including their role in the Civil War, the town in Ohio founded by an ancestor and more. Photographs, notes, 386 pages.

Boston:: Little Brown,, 1935.. Hardcover first edition -. Very good in blue cloth with silver lettering on the spine and a small violin on the front cover (edgewear, corners very slightly bumped), no dust jacket.. First edition. An account by this National Book Award-winning biographer of growing up in a family of amateur musicians. She herself was an active amateur chamber music player throughout her life and this book captures the joys and comedy of making music for the fun of it. Small format. 261 pp.

Englewood Cliffs, NJ:: Prentice-Hall,, (1961). SIGNED hardcover -. Near fine (over-opened before half title page) in a very good dust jacket with some small chips to ends of dj spine.. Hardcover. Autobiography of a woman who became one of the most successful restaurateurs of her time in the New York City and Ft Lauderdale areas - Born in Newfoundland, she left in 1928 to study music in New York City, but after the crash of 1929, she gambled on taking over a restaurant which was closing in Brooklyn - naming it the Candlelight since her improvised and modest decor included candles on the tables. Also included in this book is are sections of menus and recipes, and on gardens and flowers. SIGNED on the half title page with the words "with personal regards" and dated in Fort Lauderdale, Florida 1966. Illustrated with color photographs. Index. Possible first edition with no additional printings shown, original price of 3.95 on dust jacket flap. 260 pp.

Toronto:: Park Row Books,, (2019). SIGNED first edition -. Fine in illustrated wrappers.. Advance Reading Copy (trade paperback format. ) A book which is part memoir, part beekeeping odyssey, the story of "a girl, her grandfather and one of natures most mysterious and beguiling creatures: the honeybee. Meredith May recalls the first time a honeybee crawled on her arm. She was five years old, her parents had recently split and suddenly she found herself in the care of her grandfather, an eccentric beekeeper who made honey in a rusty old military bus in the yard. . . The bees became a guiding force in May's life, teaching her about family and community, loyalty and survival and the unequivocal relationship between a mother and her child." SIGNED on the title page. 321 pp plus author's note.

Chapel Hill, NC:: Algonquin Books,, (2015). First edition -. Fine in illustrated wrappers.. Advance Reading Copy (trade paperback format. ) A moving memoir by this acclaimed novelist - "Grimsley was eleven years old in 1966 when federally mandated integration of schools went into effect in the state and the school in his small eastern North Carolina town was first integrated. Until then, blacks and whites didnt sit next to one another in a public space or eat in the same restaurants, and they certainly didnt go to school together.. . What he did not realize until he began to meet these new students was just how deeply ingrained his own prejudices were and how those prejudices had developed in him despite the fact that prior to starting sixth grade, he had actually never known any black people. Now, more than forty years later, he looks back at that school and those times - remembering his own first real encounters with black children and their culture." Booklist called this "a… Read More

New York:: Henry Holt,, (1940). SIGNED hardcover -. Very good in rust-colored cloth with gilt lettering on spine (some fraying to cloth at top of spine, dulling of lettering), no dj.. 3rd printing (same year as the first) Autobiography of this German-American Socialist editor, author, and labor organizer from the late 1890s until his death in 1943. He was a self-taught musician, portrait painter, writer, and political organizer, known for his wit as a speaker and writer. Foreword by Carl Sandburg. Illustrated with a frontispiece portrait and photographs. SIGNED by Ameringer on a blank preliminary page. Index. xxvii, 476 pp.

New York:: Thomas Nelson & Sons,, (1961). SIGNED photograph, hardcover first edition -. Near fine in blue cloth in a good only dust jacket with some overall edgewear.. First printing. A biography by a family friend of Maud Ballington Booth (1865-1948), a pioneering social worker and reformer, co-founder with her husband General Ballington Booth of the Volunteers of America. As the title indicates, this focuses on Booth's work for prison reform and to help former prisoners adjust to the world outside. Frontispiece portrait. Laid in is a small snapshot of a pile of these books, with a friendly typed note on the verso, and SIGNED by the author, Susan Welty. Sources, index. 284 pp.

New York:: Harper & Row,, (1977). Hardcover first edition -. Fine in burgundy cloth with gilt lettering on spine in a near fine dust jacket (price-clipped).. First US printing. The second autobiography by this English art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. who is best known for the landmark television program "Civilizatipm." - "beginning with the hazardous evacuation of the National Gallery pictures to the safety of a slate quarry in Wales at the beginning of World War II and ending with a calm look at a lifetime of accomplishment". Illustrated with photographs. Index. 259 pp.

Chapel Hill, NC:: Algonquin Books in association with Taylor Publishing Co., Dallas,, 1988.. Hardcover first edition -. Fine in fine dust jacket.. First printing. The story of an immigrant Jewish family's life in America's heartland. "With his wife and small daughter, Max Weisberg left Russia in 1904, went first to Cincinnati and eventually to a 60-acre farm in southern Ohio. The rural community, previously unfamiliar with European Jewish immigrants, accepted the family without prejudice. Weisberg's daughter 'Goldie' recalls her bucolic childhood with affection: the one-room schoolhouse, chores, adapting to local customs. . . an appealing piece of rural Americana. (Publishers Weekly) Illustrated with drawings by Marcia Erickson. 318 pp.