Search Results: Authors starting with M from ReadInk

New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company. Very Good in Good+ dj. 1937. First Edition. Hardcover. [spine a bit turned, moderate discoloration to cloth along front joint, one-time owner's signature on ffep, vintage bookseller's label (The Personal Book Shop, Boston) on ffep; jacket shows wear at all corners, tiny chip at top edge of front panel, short closed tear and associated creasing at bottom front hinge, a few small edge-tears]. "They" might never get tired, but I wonder if the same can be said of a reader who slogs his or her way through this purportedly comic novel about "the haphazard and somehow enticing life of the Rivett family who think they're artists and count their art an excuse for anything -- brittle, exciting people who exaggerate ordinary experiences until every meeting becomes an adventure and every flirtation a love affair. Here is a home where routine and convention are strangers, where only the unexpected happens, and pandemonium rules the… Read More

New York: St. Martin's Press. Near Fine in Very Good+ dj. 1981. First American Edition. Hardcover. [minimal shelfwear, former owner's signature on ffep; jacket color-faded at spine (black lettering still strong and fully readable), no other significant wear]. (Language, Discourse, Society) Series "This book, which grew out of a series of seminars at King's College, Cambridge, addresses itself to the problem of understanding the relations between psychoanalysis and language, not only in terms of contemporary linguistic and philosophical conceptions of language, but also in relation to the wider field of the human sciences." (Well, as the saying goes, it's a dirty job, but -- .) .

Dublin: Sealy, Bryers and Walker. Very Good-. [1906]. First Edition. Hardcover. (no dust jacket) [quite a decent copy, with modest wear to edges and extremities, a couple of small dents in bottom edge of front cover, foxing/soiling to top edge of text block, small bits of scarring/tape remnants on both front and rear pastedowns, gilt spine lettering still bright and easily readable]. The second of just two books by this Irish doctor, who lived and practiced for most of his life in the Poyntzpass district of Northern Ireland. In addition to his medical practice he was a frequent contributor to the "All Ireland Review," from which the present work (according to a prefatory note) was reprinted. This episodic novel seems to revolve around a woman named Jinnyann, and is partially narrated by her; in the early chapters, she relates her encounters with a "sperrit," but it's not clear to me how much of the rest of the book deals with supernatural matters. The Foreword… Read More

New York/London: Harper & Brothers. Near Fine in Good+ dj. 1928. 1st American Edition (C-C). Hardcover. [minimal shelfwear, faint soiling to edges of text block, vintage bookseller's label (Newbegins, San Francisco) on rear pastedown; jacket has a rather nasty ragged diagonal tear across the top of the front panel, with a small bit of associated paper loss, a few tiny tears and a bit of wrinkling along bottom edge]. World War I novel, derived from the author's own experiences (as were most British war novels of the 1920s and 1930s), telling of "the grisly adventures of an English patrol fighting Arabs in Mesopotamia . . . a small party of cavalrymen who, by mischance, are left alone to face ordeal." Filmed twice: in England in 1929 (a late silent) as LOST PATROL, and, more memorably, by John Ford at RKO in 1934, as THE LOST PATROL, with Victor McLaglen, Boris Karloff, Wallace Ford and Reginald Denny heading the cast. .

London/Boston: Faber and Faber. Near Fine in Near Fine dj. 1994. First Edition. Hardcover. (price-clipped) [no significant wear to book, just the usual age-toning to edges of text block (typical of Faber & Faber books in this period); the jacket is very nice, unblemished except for the price-clipping]. (B&W photographs) "Few major figures in cinema history have remained as personally and professionally enigmatic as Emeric Pressburger. A Hungarian Jew who lived and worked in half a dozen European countries before arriving in Britain in 1935, Pressburger's reputation rests on the series of strikingly original films he made in collaboration with Michael Powell under the banner of The Archers," among them THE RED SHOES, BLACK NARCISSUS and THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP. "Written by his grandson, and containing extracts from private diaries and correspondence, this biography defends the notion of film as a collaborative art and illuminates the adventurous… Read More

New York/London: D. Appleton and Company. Good+. 1931. First Edition. Hardcover. NOISBN . (no dust jacket) [a solid copy, light wear at extremities, a bit of spotting/soiling to edges of text block, spine cloth quite faded, small red inked "X" at top corner of half-title page]. (endpaper maps, B&W line drawings) Juvenile adventure/mystery novel by this Nova Scotia-born writer (1885-1979) who had a professional career in New York, where she worked for the George H. Doran Company, taught at Columbia University, and was involved with the Morningside Players. The author of some twenty books and about eight plays, she returned to Nova Scotia after her retirement and continued to turn out historical adventures and mysteries for children and career romances for adolescent girls. .

New York: A.L. Burt Company. Very Good+ in Very Good dj. (c.1930). Reprint. Hardcover. [slight bump to top rear corner, scrunching to bottom corners of last ten pages or so, light age-toning to page edges; jacket moderately worn, with small tears and occasional slight paper loss at several corners]. Reprint edition of this early MacDonald title, featuring Anthony Gethryn, "a detective of the nonchalant, super-dangerous sort who gives the reader a thrill with every drawl." Vintage printings of this book in any kind of jacket are scarce; the design here replicates that of the first American edition, albeit with a slightly different color scheme. .

New York: Macfadden Publications, Inc.. Very Good in Fair dj. 1928 (c.1918). Reprint. Hardcover. [moderately shelfworn, bumping to bottom corners, rubbing to gilt lettering on front cover; jacket a bit tattered, with a number of small chips and other bits of paper loss at edges and corners]. (B&W photographs) A manual covering literally every aspect of marriage, from an author often cited as a forerunner of the mid-20th century exercise gurus Charles Atlas and Jack LaLanne. If ever there was a self-made man, it was Bernarr Macfadden, an avid proponent of good health through exercise and diet (specifically vegetarianism), and above all avoidance of the medical establishment. His magazine "Physical Culture," founded in 1899, provided the seed for what grew into a publishing empire that ultimately included dozens of magazines (including such popular titles as "True Story," "Liberty" and "True Detective," as well as the pioneering photo-illustrated… Read More

New York: George H. Doran Company. Very Good. (c.1917). Unstated ed.. Hardcover. (no dust jacket) [moderately worn copy, dust-soiling to top of text block, slight bumping to lower corners, small white stain near bottom of front cover, some foxing/discoloration to endpapers, small vintage bookseller's label (Chas. E. Lauriat Co., Boston) at lower corner of ffep]. A World War I novel, following the "London Irish Regiment" through months of trench warfare in France, including its participation in the Battle of the Somme. The author (1889-1963), who had served in France himself in 1915 before being wounded and invalidated out of active service, was an Irish-born "minor war poet" who over the course of several years published a number of books (this was actually the fourth) that, in the words of one scholar, "constantly returned to and reinterpreted his wartime experiences." One contemporary critic cited MacGill's works for their "vividness [and]… Read More

Boston/New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. Near Fine in Very Good dj. (c.1930). First American Edition. Hardcover. [a nice bright copy with just a touch of shelfwear, vintage price sticker (from San Francisco department store The White House) on rear pastedown; jacket a bit edgeworn and lightly soiled, tiny rectangular chip at bottom right corner of front panel]. The trials and travails of a young married couple, who "pull each other out of scrapes, fight one another's battles, and enjoy each other's society to the utmost. . . . They are always in dire financial straits, and their ingenious methods of extricating themselves would do credit to a mathematical wizard." A prolific and successful writer between the World Wars, Mackail's notoriety was eventually eclipsed by that of his older sister, the novelist Angela Thirkell -- although he's gotten some posthumous respect (and to judge from the blogosphere, a bit of a new fan base) thanks to the rediscovery and… Read More

London/New York/Toronto: Longmans, Green and Co.. Very Good in Very Good dj. 1929. First Edition. Hardcover. [front hinge cracked but holding, bottom corners lightly bumped and slightly split, otherwise only minimally shelfworn; jacket edgeworn, faded at spine, small tears at several corners, a little paper loss at top of spine and along rear hinge and rear foldover]. (silhouette drawings) Anecdotal folk tales of Eastern Kentucky. "Out of the mysterious 'creek world' of the Appalachians where Americans who speak an English as old as Shakespeare's live a life as vital as Broadway's yet strange as a mediaeval ballad, [the author] has poured the magic of a new literary creation. By the eldritch thrill of story, the infectious humor of character and situation, and the haunting language and significance of the book, the reader will be swept into this strangely entralling and lyric world." .

London: Faber and Faber. Near Fine in Near Fine dj. 2004. First Edition. Hardcover. [nice clean copy with minor handling/reading wear; the jacket is very slightly wrinkled at the spine ends and at the top of the rear panel]. (B&W photographs, pen and ink sketches) After a long and successful career as a director (whose films included THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT and SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS), Alexander Mackendrick retired from filmmaking in 1969, and for the next twenty-five years served as an instructor at the California Institute of the Arts. This book is a compilation of the "hundreds of pages of masterly handouts and sketches" he produced for use in his classes, "designed to guide his students to a finer understanding of how to write a story, and then use those devices peculiar to cinema in order to tell that story as effectively as possible." The result "is an invaluable analysis of the director's art and craft, from one of the most revered of all film… Read More

Garden City NY: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc.. Near Fine in Very Good+ dj. 1928. Later Printing. Hardcover. [nice tight clean book with only minimal shelfwear, remnants of old price sticker at upper corner of rear pastedown; the jacket shows a bit of wear at the base of the spine, and along the top edge of the rear panel, with a tiny closed tear at the top of the front panel]. A diplomatic spy-thriller involving the British Secret Service, "a story that combines the terrors of secret danger with the ludicrousness of puny failure -- a story of raw drama and wild humor among hypercivilized men and women." Further from the jacket blurb: "In the deserted Casino on the shores of the blue Mediterranean, lurked the elements that would determine the fate of nations... While Waterlow, head of the British intelligence in that remote place, plotted to bring in another country on the side of the Allies, spies and diplomats worked as cross-purposes.... Ambassadors' wives,… Read More

New York/London: Harper & Brothers. Very Good. [1920] (c.1918). Later Printing (I-U). Hardcover. NOISBN . (no dust jacket) [moderate wear and light soiling to edge of covers, slight darkening to spine cloth, tiny light stain at top of front cover, one-time owner's ink signature on ffep]. Novel about the picaresque adventures of a young girl who, following the death of her vagabond father, goes through various travails (and a bad marriage) before rising to fame as a music-hall performer. Basis for the 1935 George Cukor film, which first teamed Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant; a flop in its day, the film has nonetheless achieved a kind of minor-classic status, as much for its titillating subtext (Kate spends most of the film disguised as a boy) as for its genuine (albeit limited) charms. [The I-U code dates this printing from September 1920.] .

New York: Random House. Very Good+ in Very Good+ dj. (c.1952). First Edition. Hardcover. NOISBN . [mild shelfwear, spine slightly turned, light spotting on fore-edge; jacket shows a bit of wear at edges/corners, spine lightly sunned, minor dog-earing at top of spine]. Adventure novel about the cross-country flight of a powerful young millionaire's private plane, and the various dramas enacted by the characters on board -- the ex-test-pilot pilot, the society woman, the lecherous gambling movie star, the nuclear physicist, etc. .

New York: Grosset & Dunlap. Near Fine in Very Good dj. (c.1927). First Edition. Hardcover. [a tight clean copy, minor wear to base of spine, light dust-darkening to top of text block; the jacket is quite nice-looking, with only minor wear to the edges and extremities, but unfortunately with a small pinky-sized piece torn out of the bottom edge of the rear panel and some associated creasing/tearing at that place, plus a short closed tear and associated crease at the top of the front panel, and a couple of small internal tape repairs]. (12 B&W film stills) Photoplay Edition issued in conjunction with the release of Cecil B. DeMille's Biblical epic -- and because it was a DeMille production, of course they wouldn't be satisifed with the typical four stills from the movie to illustrate the text, nor even with the eight stills that were sometimes deployed if the movie was "important" enough. OH no, this volume had to boast TWELVE stills. The publisher's brief… Read More

New York: Plume / Penguin Books USA. Very Good+. 1980. First Edition. Softcover. [minor bumping at bottom edge of front cover, short vertical crease near bottom of rear cover, light soiling to bottom edge of text block, previous owner's name plus date & place of purchase written at top of title page]. Trade PB (B&W and color facsimiles) "Dick Tracy, his adventures, his enemies, his allies, and of course his long-suffering sweetheart and eventual mate, Tess Trueheart, live again in the one book that traces his entire crime-fighting career. [It is] enriched by a wealth of original classic strips in black-and-white, with 24 pages of glorious color." .

Jefferson NC/London: McFarland & Company, Inc.. Near Fine. (c.1999). First Edition. Hardcover. (laminated pictorial boards; no dust jacket, as issued) [nice clean as-new copy, slightly bumped at lower corners] (B&W photographs, facsimiles) SIGNED by lead author Magers on the title page (no inscription). Interview-based career profiles of: Jane Adams; Julie Adams; Merry Anders; Vivian Austin; Joan Barclay; Patricia Blair; Pamela Blake; Adrian Booth; Genée Boutell; Lois Collier; Mara Corday; Gail David; Myrna Dell; Faith Domergue; Ann Doran; Dale Evans; Beatrice Gray; Coleen Gray; Anne Gwynne; Lois Hall; Kay Hughes; Marsha Hunt; Eilene Janssen; Anna Lee; Joan Leslie; Nan Leslie; Kay Linaker; Teala Loring; Lucille Lund; Beth Marion; Donna Martell; Kristine Miller; Peggy Moran; Maureen O'Hara; Debra Paget; Jean Porter; Paula Raymond; Jan Shepard; Marion Shilling; Roberta Shore; Eleanor Stewart; Peggy Stewart; Linda Stirling; Gale Storm; Helen Talbot; Audrey Totter;… Read More

New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce. Fair in Very Good dj. (c.1943). First Edition. Hardcover. NOISBN . [ex-rental library book with considerable wear (especially to bottom edge), related stamping on ffep, rear hinge cracked, remnants of dust jacket flaps still affixed to both pastedowns, tape marks, etc.; jacket itself is bright and clean (must have been a second or spare copy), slightly faded at spine, otherwise blemished only by two pieces of old tape on each flap and by having trimmed by about 3/16" along the bottom edge (so that it's that much shorter than the book)]. Story about "the coming of age of a modern Cape Cod girl who had a will of her own .... an active girl who loves her native Cape Cod with true feeling." "Active," in this instance, appears to be a euphemism for huntin' and fishin' and (especially) shootin': the heroine's coming-of-age has something to do with killing a whole lotta birds. Something for the Sarah Palin crowd. .

New York: Simon and Schuster. Near Fine in Near Fine dj. (c.1980). First Edition. Hardcover. 067124020X . [slight wear to bottom front corner of book, small black mark on bottom edge of text block that could be a remainder mark (but I don't think it is); jacket lightly surface-worn, faint crease in top left area of front panel]. (B&W and color photographs) INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the photographer on the second front endpape (on the white area of a full-page photograph): "To Burt [Lancaster] - Wishing you / the best - Enjoy Love and / Happiness. Milton." One might have thought that Mailer was done having his literary way with Marilyn Monroe after his factoid-infused 1973 book "Marilyn" -- but no. Here, behind the veil of a somewhat misleading title, he has channeled Marilyn to produce "a fictional autobiography" -- in the author's own description, "an imaginary memoir, an as-told-to book, a set of interviews that never took place between… Read More