Search Results: Authors starting with O from Ed Smith Books

Garden City: Dolphin/Doubleday, 1987. First trade edition. Hardcover. A fine copy in a near fine, clean, dust jacket. John Ranard. Illustrated with photographs by John Ranard. This is as fine a book as ever has been written on the subject. This book follows in the tradition of boxing-loving writers like Hemingway and Mailer. In a slim volume expanded from a New York Times Magazine article, Oates candidly assays "The Sweet Science" for its spectacle, aesthetic elements, and its history from ancient Greece and Rome to today's ring dominated by callous promoters, casinos, and TV. She concedes boxing's brutality and often seamy side but finds positive merits as tragic theater.

New York: Norton, 1998. First American Edition, 1st Printing. Hardcover. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. The Hundred Days is the nineteenth historical novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series first published in 1998. The story is set during the Napoleonic Wars, specifically in their last portion in 1815, the Hundred Days. 281pp.

New York: Norton, 1999. First American editions (except for #1, which is a 2nd printing). Hardcover. All books are nearly as new, unread and fine in fine dust jackets. Volumes 1-17 have the same style dust jacket and front flap price of 22.50,and are first American editions (except #1, Master and Commander which is a 2nd printing). Some ephemera is laid into nearly all of the 17 titles, bookmarks, post cards for the Newsletters, magazine articles, etc. #18, The Yellow Admiral, is a sequel to the Commodore, it is a first edition published in 1996 by Norton, #19, The Hundred Days is a first American edition published in 1998, and #20, Blue at the Mizzen is a first American edition published in 1999 by Norton. Included with this set are two items; Critical Essays and a Bibliography edited by A.E. Cunningham, a first American edition, in the first issue binding with dust jacket, a fine copy; MEN OF WAR Life in Nelson's Navy by Patrick O'Brian, a first American edition published by Norton in 1995. Fine… Read More

Seattle: R&R Press, 2002. First edition. Hardcover. A fine copy in dust jacket. Illustrated from photographs. 368pp. At radio station KJR-am in Seattle, Pat O'Day was the leading disc jockey in the Northwest in the 60s and 70s, and his station was one of the greatest in Top 40 radio history. There he influenced the musical tastes of an entire generation of teenagers (and their parents), on the air with his wit, off the air with his ground breaking work in the fields of concerts and dances. A company he founded, Concerts West, developed into the largest concert promotion firm in the world. They introduced a series of dramatic innovations that helped revolutionize the concert industry.

Bellevue: o-kaisha Publishing, 2021. First edition. Hardcover. A near fine copy in a nearly fine dust jacket in a near fine publisher's slipcase. Oblong small folio. This copy is inscribed on the title page, "Shawn & Scott / You Guys are the best / family always comes first / friends are forever / Warmly / Scott." Successful businessman Scott Oki found that his daily practice of composing haiku provided a sustaining and relaxing form of meditation. As his volume of work grew, Scott looked for ways to not only share his art, but to help others. In this large volume are 225 Haiku poems that are not only entertaining and enlightening, but has revealed that Oki has a unique talent of packaging big and small issues into a mere 17 syllables.

New York: Random House, 1994. First edition. Hardcover. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. Roz Chast. 4to. Signed by both authors and the illustrator opposite the title page. What does a baby shrew like to eat? Answer: a couple of crunchy crickets, a group of juicy grasshoppers, one fresh frog, a pair of slippery salamanders, several tasty moths, a pack of peppery millipedes, a squishy centipede, a number of succulent beetles, a few chewy worms, and other assorted creepies, crawlies, and winglies of various flavors. And that's just for breakfast! Illustrated boards with dust jacket.

New York: Knopf, 2007. First United States edition. Hardcover. A fine copy in dust jacket. Signed by Ondaatje on the title page. From the celebrated author of The English Patient and Anil's Ghost comes a remarkable, intimate novel of intersecting lives that ranges across continents and time. In the 1970s in Northern California a father and his teenage daughters, Anna and Claire, work their farm with the help of Coop, an enigmatic young man who makes his home with them. Theirs is a makeshift family, until it is shattered by an incident of violence that sets fire to the rest of their lives. Divisadero takes us from San Francisco to the raucous backrooms of Nevada's casinos and eventually to the landscape of southern France. As the narrative moves back and forth through time and place, we find each of the characters trying to find some foothold in a present shadowed by the past. 273 pages.

New York: Knopf, 1999. First edition. Paperback. A near fine copy. Proof of the first American edition. Signed by the author on the title page. The author's first new book of poetry since The Cinnamon Peeler. The exquisite poems collected here draw on history, mythology, landscape, and personal memories to weave a rich tapestry of images that reveal the longing for--and expose the anguish over--lost loves, homes, and language, as the poet contemplates scents and gestures and evokes a time when "handwriting occurred on waves, / on leaves, the scripts of smoke" and remembers a woman's "laughter with its / intake of breath. Uhh huh." Crafted with lyrical delicacy and seductive power, Handwriting reminds us of Michael Ondaatje's stature as one of the finest poets writing today. Bound in light blue printed wrappers with some light page creases (production flaw most likely). Shows the American edition publication date as March 8, 1999.

First Edition. Photograph. Fine. An original black and white photograph, signed by Bristol on the mat "Horace Bristol '4" Image measures 7 x 8.75 inches, overall approx 17.25 x 21.25 inches matted and framed under glass, wood frame painted black (with a few rubs and nicks). A stunning image, close-up head shot, of a serious O'Neill (1888-1953), who was an Irish American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature, and one of the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg. His best known plays include: Anna Christie (Pulitzer Prize 1922), Desire Under the Elms (1924), Strange Interlude (Pulitzer Prize 1928), Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), and his only well-known comedy Ah Wilderness. In 1936 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Horace Bristol, 1909-1997, was a giant of photo-journalism, a man whose images of Depression-era despair in the… Read More

New York: Howard Greenberg Gallery, 2005. First edition thus. Paperback. A nearly fine copy. Ruth Orkin. Small 4to. In 1951, Life magazine sent Ruth Orkin on assignment to Israel. "From there she went to Italy, and it was in Florence that she met Jinx Allen (now known as Ninalee Craig), a painter and fellow American. The two were talking about their shared experiences traveling alone as young, single women when my mother had an idea (this recollection by Mary Engel, the daughter of Ruth Orkin). "Come on," she said,"let's go out and shoot pictures of what it's really like." In the morning while the Italian women were inside preparing lunch, Jinx gawked at statues, asked Military officials for directions, fumbled with lire and flirted in cafes while my mother photographed her. They had a lot of fun, as this photograph, "Staring at the Statue", demonstrates. My mother's best known image, "American Girl in Italy" was also created as part of the series. 32 unumbered pages, perfect bound in the original… Read More

New York: Simon and Schuster, 2018. First Edition. Hardcover. A fine copy in red cloth with gilt lettering, issued without dust jacket. On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had been cleared out of the building realized this was not the usual fire alarm. As one fireman recounted, "Once that first stack got going, it was ‘Goodbye, Charlie.'" The fire was disastrous: it reached 2000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library—and if so, who? Weaving her lifelong love of books and reading into an investigation of the fire, award-winning New Yorker reporter and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean delivers a mesmerizing and… Read More

New York: Scribner, 2015. First edition. Hardcover. A fine copy in dust jacket. Signed by the author on the title page. Between 1995 and 1999, Oswalt lived with an unshakable addiction. It wasn't drugs alcohol, or sex. It was film. After moving to Los Angeles, Oswalt became a huge film buff, absorbing classics and new releases at least three nights a week at the New Beverly Cinema. Silver screen celluloid became Oswalt's life schoolbook, informing his notions of acting, writing, comedy, and relationships. Set in the nascent days of the alternative comedy scene, Oswalt's memoir chronicles his journey from fledgling stand-up comedian to self-assured sitcom actor, with the coloful New Beverly collective supporting him all along the way. 222pp.

Maitland: Mill City Press, 2017. First edition. Hardcover. A nearly new copy in a fine jacket. Signed by the author on the front blank. Mary Louise Ott's wedding was everything she'd always dreamt it would be, except for a few details. As she prepared to marry her true love, she wasn't hearing wedding bells; instead, family members sang their version of the song "Take Me Out To The Ballgame": "And it's one, two, three strikes you're out, in the oold marriage game." You see, this was Ott's third time to the altar; it was also the third for her husband, Gary Howarth. The musical talent was their three kids -- a daughter, 7, and son, 14, from her side; and a son, 12, from his. It was 1996 in Northeast Portland, one month after the couple's previous divorces were finalized. Ott and Howarth would immediately deal with hostile ex-spouses; in addition, both parents had to learn how to relate to their stepchildren, a rough prospect at times. Ott learned to pick her battles. "If it really mattered to me, I… Read More

Bologna: Damiani, 2007. First edition. Hardcover. Very good to near fine, with a few bumps to corners, issued without dust jacket. 4ro. Inscribed by Bill Owens and dated 2014. A catalog raisonne bound in pictorial cloth. 223 pages. In 9 sections, spanning 40 years. Includes: RIOTS, San Francisco University (1967-68), Altamont (1968), Shots From the Taxi Cab (1967-68), Suburbia (1970-1972), Our Kind of People (1969-1975), Working (1975-77), Leisure (1973-1980), 115 Days: A Photographer Journey Across America (2003), New Suburbia (Hayward, 2006-2007), and text by Bill Owens; The Altamont Story. A piece by the editor Claudia Zanfi titled, 'Bill Owens: A Life in Suburbia. Also includes exhibitions and publications, with index.

Hayward: Bill Owens, 2022. First edition. Softcover. A fine copy in the original perfect bound photo illustrated wrappers. Francesca Cosanti. This copy is signed by Bill Owens on the half-title page. Designed by Kate Jordahl. A semi-autobiography/memoir written by the photographer (Suburbia) and craft beer pioneer (and master brewer) Bill Owens, the same who snapped those telling photographs at the Rolling Stones concert at Altamont Speedway outside Livermore, California on December 6, 1969. Owen's explains his graphic novel; "The Delco Years was written in 1999 and put away for 21 years. Then in the fall of 2020, for some uknown reason (COVID-19), I started rewriting and added illustrations." Up front Owens apologizes to any and all he has libeled in this novel (graphic). "I'm ADD-HD and pay AT&T an extra ten dollars a month for the "HD." Any connection to people living or dead is probably intended, but most likely purely by happenstance. This story is true except for the parts I made up." But… Read More

San Francisco & New York: Straight Arrow & Simon Schuster, 1977. paperback. Suburbia is a very good plus copy with the photographer's gold sticker affixed with his phone number. Our Kind of People is a very good plus copy with same gold sticker, and Working is a very good plus copy sans gold sticker. The black slipcase is very good plus to near fine. 3 volumes, all in wrappers, each volume signed by Bill Owens and dated 1978. All housed in a black cloth slipcase. Each volume measures 10 x 10 inches. Bill Owens is an American photographer, photojournalist, brewer and editor living in Hayward, California. The recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship in 1976 and two NEA Grants, he is best known for his photographs of suburban domestic scenes taken in the East Bay and published in his book Suburbia in 1973. The first in a series of books Owens published dedicated to the American dream. Our Kind of People (1975) followed as an examination of political, religious, scholastic, and sports groups, while Working:… Read More

New York: Fotofolio, 1999. First edition thus. Hardcover. A fine copy in a fine slipcase. 4to. A Revised edition of the 70's classic Suburbia signed by Bill Owens on the title page. Limited to 150 numbered signed copies with a signed 7 x 5 inch print in a special holder to rear pastedown, this being copy #38. Edited by Robert Harshorn Shimshak. Unpaginated bound in slick photo illustrated boards and housed in a yellow cloth slipcase, as issued. These prints are timeless, and reveal what was yesterday remains today and tomorrow.

New York: Knopf, 1981. First edition. Paperback. A fine copy. Proof. First issue. Narrow 4to. Signed by Ozick on the title page. Date written on front cover in an unknown hand, "Jan 81 / 9.95." Textually significant because the final story in this proof ("The Laugher of Akiva") was dropped and another story ("Puttermesser and Xanthippe") was substituted in the published book.