Rare books from Gregor Rare Books

New York:: Viking Press,, 1938.. First Printing of the First US Edition. A Near Fine copy with the usual age darkening to the cloth binding in a Very Good plus unclipped dust jacket with gentle wear to the extremities, a tiny chip missing near the head of the spine and a glue bleed through running along the fold of the rear panel. Otherwise a respectable copy of this collection of classic Steinbeck short stories that includes The Chrysanthemums, The White Quail, Flight, The Snake, Breakfast, The Raid, The Harness, The Vigilante, Johnny Bear, The Murder, St. Katy The Virgin, the Complete Red Pony, The Leader of the People. There were only 8000 copies of this title published in the First Edition.

New York:: Random House,, 1967.. First Printing of the First US Edition. This is a Fine, crisp unread copy in a Near Fine, bright dust jacket with a tiny closed edge tear to the bottom of the front panel and a touch of wear to the head of the spine. Otherwise a brilliant copy of Thompson's first book. The boards are perfectly square, the stamping on the spine spectacular and the black top stain is perfect.

Boston:: Houghton Mifflin,, 1949.. First Printing of the First US Edition. A Fine tight copy in a Very Good plus price-clipped dust jacket with shallow chipping to the head & heel of the spine. This is Chandler's fifth novel, first published in an edition of 12,500 copies. In The Little Sister, a movie starlet with a gangster boyfriend and a pair of siblings with a shared secret lure private eye Philip Marlowe into the less than glamorous and more than a little dangerous world of Hollywood fame. Chandler's first foray into the industry that dominates the company town that is Los Angeles.

McMurtry, Larry. Leaving Cheyenne. New York: Harper & Row, 1963. First Printing of the First Edition. McMurtry's second novel filmed as "Lovin' Molly." A Fine copy in a Fine, bright, unclipped dj. This copy is inscribed to Mel Edlestein, librarian of the Getty Museum, and signed "Larry". A superb copy. This is McMurtry's second novel about love and loss on the great plains of Texas. From 1920's ranching to range cowboys and WWII grief, McMurtry is the undisputed father of the Western literary epic. Leaving Cheyenne traces the loves of three West Texas characters as they follow that sundown trail: Gideon Fry, the serious rancher; Johnny McCloud, the free-spirited cowhand; and Molly Taylor, the sensitive woman they both love and who bears them each a son. Told in alternating perspectives over sixty years, Leaving Cheyenne follows their dreams, secrets, and grief against a changing American landscape.

New York:: Delacorte Press,, 1978.. First Printing of the First Edition. A Fine tight copy in a Fine bright dust jacket. This is Brautigan's last published collection of poems. Signed by Brautigan.

New York:: Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith,, 1931.. First Printing of the First US Edition. A Very Good Plus copy in blue cloth binding that shows offsetting of the jacket design to the boards in a Very Good plus, unclipped dustjacket with some darkening and shallow edge wear to the spine along with two closed edge tears on the front panel. "These 13" was published during Faulkner's most productive and important period (1928-32), for his short story career. The stories in These 13 are arranged to present the shared themes and clarified problems, which lead Faulkner in the direction of his next novel Light in August. Of the thirteen stories in this collection, "Victory," "Ad Astra," "All the Dead Pilots," "Crevasse," "A Justice," "Mistral," "Divorce in Naples," and "Carcassonne" are published here for the first time.

New York:: Covici, Friede,, 1935.. 4th Issue of the First Edition. A Very Good plus copy with some light foxing to the boards in Very Good unclipped dust jacket with chipping to the head & foot of the spine, a small damp spot near bottom of spine and a closed tear. Previous owner name on front jacket flap. A very uncommon copy of Steinbeck's uncommon second book in a very collectible state. "The Pastures of Heaven" is a short story cycle consisting of twelve interconnected stories about a valley, the Corral de Tierra, in Monterey, California, which was discovered by a Spanish corporal while chasing runaway Indian slaves. Enchanted by the valley's natural beauty, the corporal names it Las Pasturas del Cielo or "The Pastures of Heaven." The stories are written in classic Steinbeck style; the lives of the families that relocate to the valley are portrayed with a mixture of humor and poignancy. A recurring theme in the book is the pain caused when people try ineptly to help or to please others.The text… Read More

New York:: Scribner's,, 1937.. First Printing of the First US Edition. A Fine tight copy in a Near Fine unclipped dust jacket with just a hint of wear to the head of the spine. To Have and Have Not was Hemingway's second novel set in the United States, after The Torrents of Spring. Written sporadically between 1935 and 1937, and revised as he traveled back and forth from Spain during the Spanish Civil War, To Have and Have Not portrays Key West and Cuba in the 1930s, and provides a social commentary on that time and place. Hemingway biographer Jeffrey Meyers describes the novel as heavily influenced by the Marxist ideology Hemingway was exposed to by his support of the Republican faction in the Spanish Civil War while he was writing it. The novel had its origins in two short stories published earlier in periodicals by Hemingway ("One Trip Across" and "The Tradesman's Return") which make up the opening chapters, and a novella, written later, which makes up about two-thirds of the book. The narrative is… Read More

New York:: Charles L. Webster & Company,, 1885.. First Printing of the First US Edition. This is a Near Fine tight set with light wear to the extremities in the publisher's deluxe brown morocco leather over brown cloth boards with gilt circular emblems on the front and rear covers. This set is complete with the facsimile letter of Grant's original terms for Lee's surrender that is often missing. Mark Twain was the publisher of this monumental memoir as well as its editor and proof reader. Twain was extremely fond of and a close friend of Grant and encouraged the President and war hero to write his memoirs. Grant was dying of throat cancer but completed his two volume opus, dictating the second volume to a secretary. Twain noted in a letter to his daughter that the manuscript was not even set yet and 20,000 sets had been ordered from only two states. "Wait till you hear from the other 37." Grant finished his memoirs on July 18, 1885 and died five days later on July 23rd. Following his death,… Read More

London:: J. Wallis and C. Stonehouse,, 1776.. First Printing of the First UK Edition. Both volumes are Near Fine bound in three-quarter leather and marble bindings. "The most material circumstances of naval history from the Norman invasion to the conclusion of the last war". John Campbell's name is absent from the title page (added in later editions) though Kent acknowledges him in the foreword. Campbell was a career author, and a friend of Samuel Johnson�s. This is probably his most popular work, going through several editions since its initial appearance in 1742-4. It covers the period from the Norman invasion to 1779, and in one of the sources of the tradition of British naval hagiography. Frontis engravings and illustrations present.

Paris:: Berquet et Petion,, 1842.. First French Edition. Both volumes about Very Good in marbled leather binding with light foxing thorughout with a newer leather back strip with Arago's name mistakenly stamped on the spine. The last page of Volume 1 has been taped. Two volumes, octavo, with 30 lithograph plates. This is the uncommon narrative of Dumont d'Urville's second expedition, by the chief surgeon aboard the Z�l�e. This first edition of Le Guillou's book appeared in two forms, the other version with its title-page worded,differently beginning with the words "Compliment aux Souvenirs d'un Aveugle." The two main visits to Australia are both described at length,- to Torres Strait and Port Essington, and later Tasmania - and each has a separate lithograph illustration..

New York:: Viking,, 1941.. First Printing of the First Edition. A Near Fine copy in a Very Good plus price-clipped dust jacket with light wear to the folds and extremities and shallow chipping to the head of the spine. Steinbeck's signed note laid in. In 1940, John Steinbeck and his friend Ed Ricketts sailed out of Monterey Bay to the Sea of Cortez. Shifting his focus from fiction to science, Steinbeck wrote that his new work "must jump to include other species beside the human. This is why my interest in biology and ecology have become so sharpened." The account that Steinbeck wrote about the expedition includes Ricketts's catalogue of marine invertebrates found in Baja.

New York:: Viking Press,, 1938.. First Printing of the First US Edition. A Near Fine copy with the usual age darkening to the cloth binding in a Very Good plus unclipped dust jacket with gentle wear to the extremities, a tiny chip missing near the head of the spine and a glue bleed through running along the fold of the rear panel. Otherwise a respectable copy of this collection of classic Steinbeck short stories. Steinbeck signature laid in. The stories include The Chrysanthemums, The White Quail, Flight, The Snake, Breakfast, The Raid, The Harness, The Vigilante, Johnny Bear, The Murder, St. Katy The Virgin, the Complete Red Pony, The Leader of the People. There were only 8000 copies of this title published in the First Edition.

A Fine copy in a Near Fine, bright, unclipped second issue dust jacket (with period) that has a touch of wear to the head of the spine. The story follows 100 years in the life of Macondo, a village founded by José Arcadio Buendía and occupied by descendants all sporting variations on their progenitor's name: his sons, José Arcadio and Aureliano, and grandsons, Aureliano José, Aureliano Segundo, and José Arcadio Segundo. Then there are the women--the two Úrsulas, a handful of Remedios, Fernanda, and Pilar--who struggle to remain grounded even as their menfolk build castles in the air. If it is possible for a novel to be highly comic and deeply tragic at the same time, then One Hundred Years of Solitude does the trick. Civil war rages throughout, hearts break, dreams shatter, and lives are lost, yet the effect is literary pentimento, with sorrow's outlines bleeding through the vibrant colors of García Márquez's magical realism.

Philadelphia:: Lippincott,, 1963.. First Printing of the First US Edition. A Near Fine copy in a Near Fine unclipped dust jacket with the slightest ear to the head of jacket spine. Enclosed in a blue cloth slipcase. Pynchon's debut novel follows discharged Navy sailor Benny Profane as he reconnects with an eclectic collection of artists in New York known as the "Whole Sick Crew" along with his sidekick Pig Bodine, and the plot of Herbert Stencil, looking to find the woman he knows only as she is described in his father's diary: "V." Brimming with madcap characters, the novel meanders from New York to Alexandria, Cairo, Paris, Florence, and Africa, and traverses generations.