Search Results: Titles starting with P from ReadInk

New York: Crown Publishers. Very Good+ in Very Good dj. (c.1953). First Edition. Hardcover. [minor wear to extremities, very slight fraying to cloth at top of spine; the jacket is moderately edgeworn, with some very slight paper loss at the spine ends, light soiling and a few small edge-tears to the rear panel]. Novel about a Mexican family that settles in New York's Spanish Harlem. "It was a close-knit family, devoted and loving. With high hopes they all set out to make a new home for themselves. But the city was crowded and cruel. New York seemed to have saved all its heartaches, disappointments and disillusionments for the gentle Mexicans, who were overwhelmed by its hardness, violence and vice." The first (and apparently only) novel by this author, who was then a story editor for Columbia Pictures in New York. .

New York: E.P. Dutton & Company. Very Good. (c.1927). First Edition. Hardcover. (no dust jacket) [solid clean copy, light bumping at several corners, very slight fraying to cloth at lower extremities, small bookseller's rubber stamp (Bertrand Smith, Long Beach, California) on front pastedown]. First novel by an author who had an intermittent output over the course of the quarter-century or so. (I find four novels for her in OCLC, the last in 1952; she also seems to have been involved in social work in some fashion, and her name appears on several additional books in that field; she also contributed several magazine pieces on the topic of immigration to Harper's Magazine in the early 1920s.) This one's a romantic-triangle potboiler, about a girl who has to go to work (as a "pacer" in a pickle factory) at age 16 after her aunt the dressmaker becomes ill and can no longer work; she ends up in an unhappy marriage to the pickle factory owner, then subsequently falls… Read More

New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc.. Near Fine in Very Good+ dj. 1932. 3rd printing. Hardcover. NOISBN . [minor wear to spine ends, otherwise a tight clean book, apparently unread, vintage price sticker (from The White House, San Francisco) on rear pastedown; jacket shows a little wear along bottom edge and at top corners]. "The story of a man who was a pack mule for women," whatever the hell that means. Oh, I see: the protagonist's "idealistic sense of duty towards women swept him inexorably from one woman to another -- the prey of every woman who entered his life. Escaped from the tyranny of his mother, prohibited from marrying the girl he loved, he married Belle, an actress, whose talents declined as her vices increased." All of this builds to John's (of course his name is John) "final revolt," in which he "kicks over the traces" (like a mule, get it?). .

New York: Newspaper Guild of New York. Very Good. 1953. "20th Anniversary". Hardcover. (pictorial paper label on front cover; no dust jacket, as issued) [shelfwear and bumping to bottom edges, some fraying to cloth at top of spine, a few tiny stains adjacent to spine (on both front and rear covers)] (B&W photographs, cartoons, ads, etc.) Commemorative yearbook, issued to coincide with the "Page One Ball," an annual shindig at which the Big Apple's newspapermen (and probably a few women) gathered to make merry, give themselves awards, and generally congratulate one another for being, well, New York newspapermen, at a time when NYC boasted no fewer than seven daily papers. Numerous reporters and columnists contributed short pieces, many of a humorous nature, and quite a few having to do with the vicissitudes of the journalistic racket and/or aspects of New York life. The cover illustration is by Fred L. Packer, and among the cartoonists whose work appears in the… Read More

Hilo HI: (published by the author). Near Fine. (c.2002). First Edition. Softcover. [very light external wear, soft horizontal creasing along bottom edge of rear cover]. Trade PB (B&W photographs) A history of Pahoa, a small but historically significant community near the easternmost end of Hawaii's Big Island, written by a lifelong resident who explains the book's genesis in an admirably straightforward cover note: "One hundred years have passed since the early immigrants settled in Pahoa in the latter decades of the nineteenth century. Unfortunately there are hardly any recorded historical accounts of Paho's early years. Upon serious thought and consideration I was convinced that if Paho's history was not recorded now by the remaining Niseis, everything that happened in the early years would be forgotten and lost forever. With this conviction and as a tribute to the early immigrants who developed Pahoa, I took on the challenge of writing the history of… Read More

New York: The Macaulay Company. Very Good in Good+ dj. (c.1933). First Edition. Hardcover. [ex-rental library book but marked as such only by label on front pastedown, moderate shelfwear, bottom corners bumped, spine slightly turned, a bit of soiling to top page edges; jacket shows wear along top edge, chipping/rubbing/soiling to spine, small hole in spine, still colorful and attractive]. After returning from a convent(!) and hearing her mother's heartbreaking story about having been kidnapped by a "Russian underworld King, in her youth; forced to a degraded cabaret life; [and] shunned by a shocked husband on her eventual return," Shirley Dail vows revenge. To that end, she "follows the torturous trail of her mother's abductor," which (as you'd expect) takes her into the depths of the Russian underworld herself, where she must match "her wit and beauty against the wit and depravity of gangdom's most vicious characters." You go, girl! .

New York: The Macmillan Company. Very Good in Good+ dj. 1949. First Edition. Hardcover. [light shelfwear to edges and extremities, a bit of foxing on endpapers; jacket has a shallow chip at top left corner of front panel, also a little paper loss at top right corner, a couple of little nicks at top edge of rear panel, minor edgewear elsewhere, light soiling to rear panel]. (B&W/color photographs, line drawings) An indispensible guide to lighting for photography, by one of Hollywood's master cinematographers. The emphasis is on motion picture lighting, of course, but most of the techniques can be applied as well to still photography. Per the author's introduction, the book includes "295 photographs and line cuts illustrating every application and technique mentioned in the text matter of this book; every tool, gadget, and trick of the Hollywood lighting experts mentioned in this book is illustrated and discussed in detail." A number of the illustrations are stills… Read More

Shanghai: Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House. Near Fine in Near Fine dj. 1999. Presumed 1st. Hardcover. 7532221385 . [a bit of wear to bottom edges of book's covers; jacket very slightly wrinkled along top edge, tiny tear at top front hinge]. (100 color plates) One hundred examples, reproduced in color, of the art of Shanghai-born painter Cheng Shenghu. (All text is in Chinese, except: the title and publisher information (taken from the front cover and front jacket panel), a brief blurb on the front jacket flap, the list of editorial board members, the introduction by Huang Chunyao, and the titles (captions) of the individual paintings.) From the jacket flap: "Mr. Cheng Shenghu was born in May 1960 in Shanghai. His taste for painting from his childhood brought him to the best masters. He has already spent 20 years of studies to improve his own style. He has organized six personal exhibitions and a dozen of his works won awards and many went in private and… Read More

New York: Random House. Very Good+ in Very Good dj. (c.1954). Fireside BCE. Hardcover. [slight bump to upper rear corner, minor dust-soiling to top of text block, one-time owner's name and address (screenwriter Mel Shavelson) neatly printed on front pastedown; jacket typically browned at spine, short tear at lower front foldover with short diagonal crease at lower right corner of front panel]. (two B&W photographs) Based on Bissell's novel "7-1/2 Cents," about a labor dispute in a New England factory; basis for the 1957 film of the same name (co-directed by Abbott and Stanley Donen). [This edition lacks a printing statement, but seems to be one of the earliest Fireside Theatre Book Club printings, quite possibly the first thus of this title, as the rear jacket panel contains testimonials from Gertrude Lawrence, Katharine Cornell, Noel Coward, and others, lauding the "proposed plan" for the Fireside Theatre as "an excellent idea."] .

New York: E. P. Dutton. Very Good+ in Very Good+ dj. 1989. First Edition. Hardcover. [light shelfwear, one bent page corner; jacket a little rubbed but no tears or chips]. A love story set against the backdrop of labor unrest and the early days of the motion picture industry in Los Angeles. [Although this goes unmentioned in the jacket copy, the author did her college dissertation on the history of Hollywood labor unions, and is also the daughter of screenwriter Leopold Atlas, whose notable credits included THE STORY OF G.I. JOE (for which he received an Oscar nomination), and who was blacklisted for his political affiliations until he bowed to pressure from HUAC and became a "friendly witness" not long before his death in 1954. In other words, the vivid background of her novel is based on both in-depth research and personal knowledge.] .

London: Macdonald. Near Fine in Very Good dj. 1957. First British Edition. Hardcover. NOISBN . [light shelfwear to bottom edge, faint soiling to top of text block; jacket shows a little wear along top and bottom edges, tiny tears and miniscule paper loss at several corners, small internal tape repair at top of spine]. "A novel of the South-west," a sequel to Burnett's 1953 novel "Adobe Walls," set in the same town, "San Miguel." This story tells about "a new element from the East [which] is beginning to challenge the conservatism of the 'old-timers,'" and about a murder that "touches off a bitter election feud that threatens to wreck the whole community." .

Fort Lee NJ: Barricade Books. Near Fine in Near Fine dj. (c.2004). First Edition. Hardcover. [nice clean copy with minimal wear, very slight bumping to a couple of corners; jacket shows just a touch of surface wear, faint horizontal crease near top of front panel]. (B&W photographs, maps) Not so much a history of Palm Springs as a book-length collection of anecdotal material about the many, many, many movie stars and other celebrities who have lived and/or played there -- including, in most cases, the specific address(es) where they resided. It is, thank goodness, fully name-indexed. **** NOTE that additional shipping charges will be assessed for international shipping of this moderately heavy book, or for Priority Mail service to U.S. addresses. If this concerns you, please contact us for a shipping quote before placing your order. **** .

London: Macdonald. Very Good+ in Very Good+ dj. 1963 (c.1962). 1st UK edition. Hardcover. [slight bumping to several corners, minor dust-soiling to top of text block; jacket shows a bit of wear at extremities]. An early novel by Ellin, about "a young American, intelligent but uncertain of his basic ambitions who is given the job of negotiating a contract for a product his company badly needs and on which they would make a handsome profit." Problem is that to close the deal he has to travel to an "island republic off the South American coast" and navigate its "characteristically feudal society -- a few families who control the politics and wealth of the country, and an illiterate peasantry." .

New York: Simon and Schuster. Good. (c.1971). 1st U.S. printing. Softcover. [edgewear to covers, some weakness at front hinge, rubbing/scuffing to covers, some creasing in rear cover]. (Classic Film Scripts) Series Trade PB (B&W photographs) Translation of the director's original shooting script for the film which secured a measure of immortality for the luminous Louise Brooks -- even though, unbeknownst to her (or anyone else), her film career would come to a grinding halt only a few years later. The film was controversial (and much-censored) upon its original release, and so this script is probably the closest approximation of Pabst's full, unexpurgated version. Includes Brooks's own typically candid reminiscence of the film's production, "Pabst and Lulu." .

New York: Robert M. McBride & Company. Good. 1932. First American Edition. Hardcover. (vellum-covered boards with yapped edges; no dust jacket) [spine and covers age-toned, some damage to both ends of spine (worse at base) and to upper right corner of front cover where yapped edge over-extends the underlying board; vintage bookseller's label (Wakefield Bookshop, 509 Madison Ave., New York City) on rear pastedown]. (pen and ink decorations) Naughty stuff, early 1930s-style. "There have been printed seven hundred and eighty copies of Paneros of which seven hundred and fifty are for sale. This is number 185 [the numeral written in by hand]." Helpfully indexed, in case you want to quickly check whether, say, hormin is an aphrodisiac. (You'll need a different book to tell what hormin IS, however.) .

New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Very Good. 1935. First Edition. Hardcover. (no dust jacket) [moderate shelfwear and light soiling to bottom edges, a bit of smudging to cloth covers, spine cloth slightly darkened]. Novel about a charming half-French, half-English roue, described as a "boudoir slipper" (meaning one who slips in and out of boudoirs), who seduces his way all around Paris and the Riviera. The New York Times reviewer thought it "the kind of book to read in a deck chair and to cast over the left shoulder when finished." .

Belen NM: Dennis McMillan Publications. Near Fine in Near Fine dj. 1985. First Edition. Hardcover. [nice copy, tight and unworn, just a trace of dust-smudging on top edge; jacket shows extremely light surface handling wear]. Limited/numbered edition of 350 copies, this being no. 83, and SIGNED on the limitation page by both the author and his son (the jacket artist); this copy additionally SIGNED by the publisher, Dennis McMillan, on the copyright page. The author, in his foreword, explains that "The Paper Gun" is "a story complete in itself," but more in the nature of "a completely detailed synopsis on paper" than a fully-realized novel; he attributes this to the fact that, after having written four novels featuring detective Paul Pine, he simply "lost interest in the private-eye genre." Also included here is a novelette, "So Dark for April," which was written for "Manhunt" magazine in the mid-50's, and was the only short… Read More

London: Cadds Printing Limited. Near Fine. 1997. First Edition. Softcover. [very slight handling wear, previous owner's initials plus date & place of purchase written in ink along fore-edge of inside rear cover]. Trade PB (B&W halftones) "Five new Sherlock Holmes stories -- the secrets of the battered despatch baox revealed." The five stories, ranging in length from 8 pages to 22 pages, are: "Houdini Holmes"; "The Missing Mandarin"; "The Deadicated Dentist"; "The Cotswold Conspiracy"; and "Omen Nemo." .

New York/London: G. P. Putnam's Sons/The Knickerbocker Press. Very Good+. 1930. First Edition. Hardcover. (no dust jacket) [good solid clean copy, light wear to extremities; gilt lettering strong on front cover, a little rubbed but still easily readable on spine; one-time owner's name at top of rear pastedown]. (B&W photographs) General history of parachuting, primarily focusing on developments during World War I and during the 1920s. .

New York: Random House. Good. 1936. First Edition. Hardcover. (no dust jacket) [moderately shelfworn book, slight fraying to cloth at top of spine, bottom corners lightly bumped, gilt spine lettering dulled but still readable]. (B&W photo frontispiece) Odets's play about "the decay of the middle class" (per Harold Clurman, in his introduction). First presented by the Group Theatre in December 1935; the original cast included Morris Carnovsky, Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner, Luther Adler, Elia Kazan, and Vincent Sherman. Odets came to Hollywood in early 1936, hoping to make some easy movie money to help finance this production; he may not have gotten on the train quickly enough, though, as the play closed in February 1936. .