Search Results: Titles starting with S from Captain Ahab's Rare Books

London: Longmans, Green, and Co, 1931. First U.K. Edition. An early novel by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guard of Honor. The story was loosely based on the sinking of the S.S. Vestris in 1928, which helped shape changes to laws governing safety at sea. Bruccoli notes substantial textual variations between the US and UK editions. Bruccoli A7.2.a. First Impression, one of 2,000 copies. Octavo (20.25cm); dark grayish-green cloth, with titles stamped in gilt on spine; dark green topstain; dustjacket and publisher's original wraparound advertising band; [8],9-118,[2]pp. Subtle offsetting from jacket flaps onto endpapers, else a fresh, Fine copy. Dustjacket is unclipped (priced 6/- net), gently spine-sunned and lightly dusty, with a few tiny nicks and tears; Very Good+. Band is a little sunned, slightly dusty, but whole and intact.

New York: Penzler Books, 1985. First Edition. Handsome edition of the Edgar Award-winning author's fourth standalone novel. Limited Issue, one of 250 numbered copies signed by the author, this being copy no.249. Octavo (23.75cm); full red cloth, with titles stamped in gilt on spine; publisher's matching cloth slipcase; [viii],202pp. Fine in a Fine slipcase.

Garden City, New York: The Sundial Press, 1942. Very Good+. Near Fine in a Very Good dustjacket. Some offset to the pastedowns and endpapers, else a sharp copy, clean throughout, with a bright red topstain. Jacket is Very Good, moderately rubbed, with some shallow chipping at the spine ends and corner tips. Several edgetears present, and evidence of some minor touch-up to some of the rubbed spots. The volume reprints two Saint novels, 'The Ace of Knaves' and 'The Happy Highwayman' in a single volume.

New York: Random House, 1969. First Edition. First Printing, first state, without the legal disclaimer which was added later. Near Fine in an unclipped, Very Good+ jacket. Two tiny tears at the crown of the spine, along with a long diagonal crease to each jacket flap, else a sharp, attractive example that is absent any hint of sunning at the spine panel. Matthiessen's superb account of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers struggle.

Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1914. First Edition. First Printing of Johnson's influential novel - the first book to feature a flapper as a protagonist, and the inspiration for Zelda Fitzgerald's glamorous and destructive life. Johnson described a few breed of women, the "salamanders," who rejected domesticity for the intoxication of city life, where they patronized speakeasies and had affairs in a fashion completely unthinkable only a generation before. Within just a few years, these women would become known as the "flappers" of the Jazz Age. The novel was a success upon publication, reaching an estimated ten million readers, and the stage and film adaptations, both wildly successful, featured Ruth Findlay in the lead role of Doré Baxter. Rare in dustjacket. Smith J-117. First Printing. Octavo; vertical-ribbed dark green cloth, with titling, rule, and decorations stamped in gilt and in blind on spine and front cover; dustjacket; 529pp; frontiespiece and 15 illustrated plates in black… Read More

N.p.: Fridolf Johnson, 1948. A unique manuscript of Mary Lamb's romantic poem "Salome," composed around 1808-09, and first published in her husband Charles Lamb's Works [1818]; while the poem was originally published in her husband's works, and while his name is credited on the title page of this volume, the poem, according to scholar Adriana Craciun, "is indisputably hers" ("The Subject of Violence: Mary Lamb, Femme Fatale." Romanticism and Women Poets: Opening the Doors of Reception, p.65). Fridolf Johnson (1905-1988) was an American author, calligrapher, and illustrator, whose early work as a designer led him increasingly toward an interest in printing and typography. He eventually established the Mermaid Press, and became and active member of the Zamorano Club, Typophiles, and New York Chappel of Private Presses. His archive is held at the University of Delaware. (cf.Biographical Note. Fridolf Johnson Papers, 1950-1985). Quarto (26.25cm); original calligraphic manuscript (rectos), composed in… Read More

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926. First Trade Edition. Attractive copy of the Lebanese-American author's fifth English language book, an illustrated volume of aphorisms, poems, and parables published three years after The Prophet. Uncommon in dustjacket. First Printing. Octavo (21cm); black cloth, with titling and decorative elements stamped in gilt on spine and front cover; dark gray topstain; dustjacket; [viii],85,[3]pp; with frontispiece and six illustrations reproduced from original drawings by the author. Contemporary signature and date (Margaret H. Croft, 1927) written in ink on front endpaper; vintage Los Angeles booksellers ticket at upper rear pastedown; spine ends gently nudged, spine gilt a bit oxidized, else Near Fine. Dustjacket is edgeworn, gently spine-sunned, with green spine lettering almost entirely faded; losses to spine ends and corner tips, with several short tears, and a few vertical splits at mid-spine neatly and archivally mended on verso; just Very Good, but still a… Read More

New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990. First Edition. First Printing. Very Good+ in like dustjacket. Some minor shuffling to the boards, with a faint, shallow tidemark and minor waviness to the lower edge of the textblock. Jacket is unclipped, with some minor rubbing at the extremities and a 1.5 inch tear with associated creasing at the upper edge of the rear panel. The first of White's Doc Ford mysteries, signed by the author at the top of the title page.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. First Edition. New. First Printing. A Fine copy in a Near Fine, unclipped dustjacket that's a triffle rubbed at the crown of the spine. This is a Review Copy, with the publishers letter laid in. Polito has written nothing short of the authoritative biography of crime writer Jim Thompson, which won both a National Book Critics Circle Award and an Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical Work.

Shingletown, CA: Mark V. Ziesing, 1990. First Edition. Sharp copy of the first installment in Lansdale's East Texas series featuring Hap Collins (Liberal White bad-ass) and Leonard Pine (a Black, gay, Republican Vietnam vet). Basis for Sundance TV's popular mini-series Hap and Leonard. First Printing. Octavo (24.25cm); red cloth, with titles stamped in silver on spine; dustjacket; [viii],178,[6]pp. Signed by the author on the half-title page. Fine in a Fine, unclipped dustjacket.

Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 2005. First Edition. Handsome edition of the author's fifth novel. Limited Issue, one of 1,450 numbered copies signed by the author, this being copy no.1,168. Octavo (23.5cm); full dark teal leather, with titling and decorations stamped in gilt on spine and covers; silk endpapers; all edges gilt; xviii,474,[4]pp. A Fine, unread copy, with the publisher's card and signed COA laid in.

Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, 1989. First Edition Thus. Attractive copy of the PEN Award-winning author's fourth book. Deluxe Issue, one of 26 lettered copies specially bound and signed by the author, each with an original full-page drawing (this is copy 'P'). Octavo (23.5cm); illustrated paper-covered boards and patterned cloth backstrip, with title label applied to spine; publisher's original acetate dustjacket; 179,[5]pp. Faint sprinkle of foxing to upper edge of textblock, else Fine in a Fine dustjacket.

Paris: The Obelisk Press, 1937. First Edition. This scenario is directly inspired by a phantasy called "The House of Incest," written by Anais Nin" (from dedication page). The frontispiece, featuring a bizarre etching by Rattner, is often found lacking. Shifreen & Jackson A13; Pearson A-48. One of 200 numbered copies signed by the author, this being copy no.194. Octavo (26cm); publisher's unbound signatures laid into semi-soft gray wrappers, with titles stamped in red on front cover (price of 40 Frs. on front flap); folding frontispiece by Abraham Rattner, [8],9-[40],[4]pp. Contents are fresh and Fine; dustjacket shows a shallow triangular loss at lower left corner of front panel, with a 3.5" split at upper spine; Very Good+. Lacking the clear wax paper jacket noted in Shifreen & Jackson.

Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, 1997. First Trade Edition. First Printing, cloth issue, one of 200 copies. Octavo (23.5cm); decorative paper-covered boards and burgundy cloth backstrip, with title label mounted to spine; publisher's original acetate dustjacket; 193,[7]pp. Some faint, scattered foxing to upper board edges and upper edge of textblock, else Near Fine in a lightly rubbed, Near Fine dustjacket. Substantial collection of verse by the New York School poet, many of which first appeared in the pages of American Poetry Review, Chelsea, Gas, Long Shot, Revolutionary Grrrl, and Torque, et al.

New York: Ace Books, Inc, 1959. First Edition. First Printing, a paperback original. Octavo (16.25); illustrated wrappers; yellow edge-staining; 125; 131pp. Pinpoint wear to extremities, faint vertical crease to left edge of Stranglehold, with a faint rubber-stamp to upper edge of textblock; Very Good+. Hubin, p.48.

New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1954. Mid-1950's edition of the sixth Nancy Drew mystery. Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson (1905-2002) wrote the earliest Nancy Drew and Dana Girls mysteries under the penname Carolyn Keene for the Stratemeyer Syndicate between 1929-1947. The year before her death, she was given a Special Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America for her contributions to the Nancy Drew series. Uncommon signed, particularly in an early hand. Farah 1954A-51. Reprint. Octavo (19.25cm); denim blue paper-covered boards, with titling and decorations stamped in navy blue on spine and front cover; blue-gray topstain; "Digger" endpapers; iv,208,[8]pp. Inscribed by the author in an early hand on the title page: "Mildred Wirt Benson / aka Carolyn Keene / author of Nancy Drew Mystery Series." Gentle sunning to spine, light wear to spine ends and board edges, with a faint stain to upper margin of two pages; Very Good+, lacking the dustjacket.

New York: The Viking Press, 1956. First Edition. The Nobel Prize-winning author's fourth book, containing the title novella, three short stories, and a one-act play. "The title piece, a truncated novelette which is heavily introspective, concerns a New York Jew who has failed miserably in marriage, as he longs for love and respect from his proud physician father, and earns a livelihood as a salesman and investor. During the moment of recognition he realizes that his life, dependent as it is on the past, is a futile anachronism" (Kirkus Review, Nov.1, 1956). Basis for Fielder Cook's 1986 film adaptation, starring Robin Williams and Jerry Stiller. A superior copy of an exceedingly difficult title, prone to heavy wear, with the spine almost always faded. Frist Printing. Octavo (21cm); black paper and yellow cloth-covered boards, with titles stamped in black on spine and in blind on front cover; yellow topstain; dustjacket; [viii],211,[5]pp. Tiny ownership label of Black Sparrow Press publisher John K.… Read More

New York: Delacorte Press / Seymour Lawrence, 1982. First Edition. Substantial collection of verse written over the course of two decades, including selections from Plain Song, Locations, Outlyer, Letters to Yesenin, Returning to Earth, as well as a selection of new poetry. Provenance: While not marked in any way, this copy is from the collection of Montana author and screenwriter William "Gatz" Hjortsberg (1941-2017). Orr & Torrey A16.b. First Printing, cloth issue, one of 2,500 copies. Octavo (23.25cm); beige cloth and grey paper-covered boards, with titles and author's facsimile signature stamped in silver on spine and front cover; dustjacket; [x],212,[2]pp; illustrated by Russell Chatham. Trivial wear to spine ends, gentle sunning to upper board edges, else Near Fine. Dustjacket is unclipped (priced $14.95), with gentle sunning to spine, and some trivial wear to extremities; Near Fine.

Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Publications, Inc. / Gold Medal Books, 1958. First Edition. First Printing, a paperback original novel. Octavo (18cm); pictorial card wrappers; yellow edge-staining; [4],5-190,[2]pp ads. Hint of a forward lean, some pinpoint wear to extremities, else Near Fine. First of three crime novels written by Race, a story of double-crossing wives and life insurance fraud. Hubin, p.327.

Los Angeles: Sylvester & Orphanos, 1978. First Edition. Deluxe Issue, marked "Binder's Copy" on the colophon and signed by the author. Octavo (24.5cm); beige and cream machine-embroidered cloth, with gilt-stamped leather title label mounted to spine; publisher's original acetate dustjacket and matching cloth slipcase; [6],7-115,[1]pp. Fine in a lightly rubbed, Near Fine dustjacket; slipcase shows light wear along upper and lower edge, and some minor toning and hand-soil to cloth; Near Fine. The smallest limitation for this title, a collection of six short stories, set between the urban and suburban mid-west and east coast. Provenance: From the collection of Earle and Larry Gray, proprietors of the Earle Gray Bookbinding Company.