Rare books from Ed Smith Books

Santa Barbara: Neville, 1991. First edition. Hardcover. A near fine copy with minor stains to front cover (DNA?). Marked "Presentation Copy" on the colophon page and signed in full by Hunter S Thompson. A small book, 38pp, containing three pieces by the Doctor of Gonzo: Mescalito, Death of a Poet, and Screwjack. Bright red cloth with gilt decoration (HST's monster), issued without dust jacket.

Santa Barbara: Neville, 1991. One of 26 lettered copies. Hardcover. A fine copy. Copy "0", of 26 numbered copies signed by the author, the deluxe issue. Bound in full brown leather. Contains three pieces by the Dr. of Gonzo. Thompson's first limited edition. Contents include an Introduction by HST in the form of a letter to Maurice Neville, followed by the three pieces: Mescalito, Death of a Poet, and Screwjack. 38pp plus the colophon page. Hunter dedicates this book "To Mona / for making this outburst possible"

New York: Creative Age Press, 1946. First edition. hardcover. A very good plus clean copy bound in black cloth with bold silver stamping to the spine, red topstain, in a very good plus very bright dust jacket with a faint closed tear to the front panel and tiny nicks to the extremities.. Nineteen (19) mystery/crime stories collected from pulps, including one by Ray Bradbury, "The Watchers" first published in Weird Tales (May 1945). Here, in this copy, Bradbury addresses the legend about how he met his wife, Marguerite McClure, in April of 1946. He describes the meeting in his first inscription on the front endpaper, as follows: "This book brought / me & Maggie / McClure together / in April 1946 / & I married / her a year and a / half later! (signed) Ray Bradbury / 6/2/92". The basic story (depending on who tells it): Bradbury, wearing a trench coat, walked into Fowler's Bookstore in Los Angeles. McClure, thinking Bradbury looked suspicious, approached him. He claimed to be a writer, and to prove it,… Read More

New York: Norton, 1988. First edition. A fine copy in red cloth in a near fine matching slipcase. 4to. Limited to 150 numbered copies with the famous print by Elliott Erwitt of the cast of the film directed by John Huston, THE MISFITS. Erwitt, a French born, American photographer and filmmaker, is known for his uncanny ability to capture, on film, the humor and irony, of everyday life. Erwitt was hired through Magnum to document film production on films such as ‘On the Waterfront'(1955) and ‘The Seven Year Itch'(1954). He was one of many Magnum photographers on the set of the film ‘THE MISFITS' (1960), and it was he who captured the magic of the cast in one shot from his Leica. This is the print that accompanies this signed limited book. Both the print and the book are signed by Erwitt. The print is framed, the image measures 7 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches, overall measures 15 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches.

New York: Random House, 1985. First edition. Hardcover. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. A fine, unread copy in a fine dust jacket. One of only 1883 copies sold before the book was remainered. Absolutely uncommon in this condition. In 1981 McCarthy (1933-2023) was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship worth $236,000. This windfall enabled him to travel the American Southwest researching his next book. This one. Packed with violence, truth, and screams from critics on both ends of the scale. When this book is read the massive force bearing down upon you is Cormac McCarthy, armed with the first onslaught of sustained virtuoso prose in the novel, a single all but breathless sentence running a page and a half long that opens with "A legion of horribles, hundreds in number, half naked or clad in costumes attic or biblical or wardrobed out of a fevered dream with the skins of animals and silk finery and pieces of uniform still tracked with the blood of previous owners" and closes with "all the horsemen's faces… Read More