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Macdonald, Ross. (Pseudonym of Kenneth Millar). ALS TO MARSHALL McLUHAN. November 23, 1962. "I enjoyed your Gutenberg Galaxy, which is so good that it changes experience and the look of objects." Macdonald then reports viewing the Huntington Library's copy of the Gutenberg Bible, and segues into the progress he has made on his book on Coleridge. After discussing mutual friends and the current doings of his family, Macdonald comments at length on the function of his perennial fictional detective: "Archer is less a protagonist, I think, than a narrator deliberately interposed like Conrad's (or Chandler's) Marlowe between the writer and the personal material which is enacted by the other characters. You'd be surprised how personal, but that of course is the point." Some 400 provocative works. Macdonald and McLuhan, both Canadian raised, were good friends as well as intellectual soulmates. With the original handwritten envelope present. Fine.
$2,000.00
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Macdonald, Ross. (Pseudonym of Kenneth Millar). THE BLUE HAMMER, being the author's manuscript and typescript archive for his last Lew Archer novel. Published by: Alfred Knopf in, 1976. The archive consists of:__ 1) Two spiralbound planning notebooks and loose sheets, comprising some 300 pages, in which Macdonald informally discusses possible plot ideas with himself and outlines at length his reasons for doing so: "1950-1978. Case spans Archer's whole career -- this is what he'd been looking for all his life -- his daughter." "Author's note: Murder is not the only crime committed in this novel. Its title, which refers to the human pulse, was stolen from a poem by Henri Coulette."__ 2) A 356-page final typescript, corrected by Macdonald in blue ink and in red ink by his wife, mystery novelist Margaret Millar.__ 3) An additional 57-page typescript corrected by both and identified in Macdonald's hand as: "discarded opening and discarded ending." Macdonald has crossed out the book's original title: "The Tarantula Hawk" and written in: "The Blue Hammer."_ 4) A mock-up of the preliminary pages for the book with Macdonald's intermittent corrections._ 5) The original contract for the book, dated September 26, 1975, signed by author and publisher. The contract spells out the monetary terms, including the publisher's advance ($30,000).__ All in all, an unusually instructive look into the evolution of a book from beginning to end. Housed in a custom-made quarter-leather clamshell box.
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Macdonald, Ross. (Pseudonym of Kenneth Millar). MEET ME AT THE MORGUE by John Ross Macdonald (variant pseudonym). New York: Knopf, 1953. First edition. 8vo. The dedication copy, inscribed to his in-laws, Clarence and Dorothy Schlagel, by the author: "Affectionately, Ken (John Ross Mac Skullbones)." "Skullbones" refers to a frontal ex-ray of Macdonald's skull, sent by him to the publisher in lieu of an authorial photograph (see "Ross Macdonald: A Biography" by Tom Nolan, page 1420). The photograph was taken by Dorothy Schlagel, who was a nurse, and her photo credit appears on the rear inside panel of the dust jacket. A unique and obviously desirable copy. Hardcover. Fine in a fine dust jacket that evinces the minutest of wear.
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Macdonald, Ross. (Pseudonym of Kenneth Millar). THE GALTON CASE. New York: Knopf, 1959. First edition. 8vo. This copy is inscribed by Macdonald in the month of publication to Marshall McLuhan: "With memories of a summer I wish we could repeat. Affectionately Ken." McLuhan was a visiting professor in 1958 and Macdonald gave him a typescript of "The Galton Case" to read. McLuhan subsequently wrote to Macdonald: "Hey, Ken Millar, you've done a doughty deed and no botch in this Galton case ... can't ever remember this Oedipal reversal in a detective ever." An outstanding association copy linking two Canadian intellectual innovators. Hardcover. Fine in a fine, unfaded dust jacket that shows ever-so-light use.
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Macdonald, Ross. Two Expansive 1953 TLS to painter and dust jacket illustrator Don Freeman. The letters, sent from Santa Barbara where Freeman and his family formerly resided are newsy and affectionate, reflecting the mood of one now separated from a close friend. Macdonald reports the progress of his current writing as well as that of his wife, the mystery novelist Margaret Millar. He also writes at length about his teenage daughter, reports on what he is currently reading, touches on his reaction to national politics during the Eisenhower era, and tells of a lecture on the detective novel that he delivered at his alma mater, the University of Michigan. "I took the mystery book back to Poe and tried to explain its purpose, and why it's become a dominant modern form. Nobody heckled, anyway." Some 1500 words in all that indelibly form a vivid picture of the forty-year-old novelist, thinker, and friend. Fine.
$3,500.00
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Macdonald, Ross. (Pseudonym of Kenneth Millar). A 2500 WORD ALS, dated February 25, 1945. Written by him in his capacity as a U.S. Naval officer while on active duty in the Pacific Theater to his wife. Macdonald carefully describes his daily life aboard ship, notes in novelistic detail the characteristics of the American and British sailors with whom he is serving, elaborates on the excellent food, drink, and quarters available to officers like himself, comments on what he is reading, and expresses sorrow at being separated from his wife and young daughter. To select direct quotations from this long communication seems daunting. Perhaps the finest Ross Macdonald letter we have seen. Fine.
$5,000.00
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Macdonald, Ross. (Pseudonym of Kenneth Millar). THE ZEBRA-STRIPED HEARSE. New York: Knopf, 1962. First edition. 8vo. This copy is inscribed by Macdonald, two months prior to the novel's publicaton, to Marshall McLuhan and his wife: "Santa Barbara Sept. 29, 1962. For Marshall and Corinne with love (and admiration for Gutenberg Galaxy!) Ken." Later, Macdonald wrote to his friend and fellow intellectual: "Gutenberg Galaxy is so good that it changes experience and the look of objects, e.g. the Gutenberg Bible which I recently looked at at the Huntington, but also current objects." A delectable association copy. Hardcover. Fine in a just-about-fine dust jacket.
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Mahon, Derek. TWELVE POEMS. Belfast: Festival Publications, [1965]. First edition of the poet's first book. 8vo. This copy is inscribed by Mahon to book collector Alan Clodd, whose Enitharmon Press was for years on the cutting edge of Avant Garde literature. Decorated wrappers. Fine and rare.
$2,250.00
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Mailer, Norman. GARGOYLE, GUIGNOL, FALSE CLOSET. Dublin: Dolmen, 1964. First edition. . 8vo. Published in an edition of 100 copies which were privately distributed. No copies were for sale. Among the scarcest of Mailer "A" items, a devastating attack on modern architecture that has never been reprinted. No copies were available online at this writing. "No, I think Le Corbusier and Wright and all the particular giants of the Bauhaus are the true villains; the Mafia architects are their proper sons." This rare pamphlet is the revised rebuttal portion of a debate with a Yale professor of art history published in "Architectural Forum" just prior to this first appearance in book form. Single sheet folded to make four pages. Fine.
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Mailer, Norman. THE NAKED AND THE DEAD. New York: Rinehart, [1948]. First edition of the author's first book. 8vo. This copy is inscribed by Mailer on the title page. Hardcover. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
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Malamud, Bernard. THE NATURAL. New York: Harcourt, Brace, [1952]. First edition of the author's first book. 8vo. With publisher's complimentary slip laid in giving the date of publication as August 21. Ths copy is in the gray binding (one of three with no priority having been established but the presence of the slip suggests that this is indeed the primary binding). More significantly, this copy is inscribed: "For Neal Naumburg-with good wishes. Bernard Malaud" Hardcover. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
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McAlmon, Robert. THE PORTRAIT OF A GENERATION. Paris: Contact Editions, [1926]. First edition. 8vo. One of 10 press-numbered, hardbound copies. The rest of the edition consisted of 190 softbound copies. Printed at the Three Mountains Press by Maurice Darantiere. The volume consists of McAlmon's collected poems. Hardcover. Fine without dust jacket as issued.
$7,500.00
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McLuhan, Herbert M[arshall]. FOOTPRINTS IN THE SANDS OF CRIME. Sewanee: Sewanee Review, 1946. First edition of the author's first book. 8vo. An offprint from the magazine that precedes McLuhan's first published book, "The Mechanical Bride" by five years. A magisterial essay that traces the line of descent of the detective in literature from Machiavelli and Christopher Marlowe to Sherlock Holmes and Hammett's Sam Spade. McLuhan's controversial social theories of the Machine Age's pernicious effects on modern man are here teasingly foreshadowed. Since scholarly offprints are usually produced for the author's use in small quantities, this pamphlet may truly be described as rare. We have never encountered another. Printed wrappers. Fine.
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McMurtry, Larry. IN A NARROW GRAVE. Austin: Encino Press, 1968. First trade edition. 8vo. This copy bears the author's contemporary signature. McMurtry's first non-fiction book and a tough act to follow. Hardcover. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
$2,000.00
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McPhee, John. A SENSE OF WHERE YOU ARE: A Profile of Bill Bradley At Princeton. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, [1965]. First edition of the author's first book. 8vo. Illustrated with photographs. This copy is inscribed by McPhee to movie director Tony Bill: "My first book -- now, almost 35 years later. With all best, John McPhee. 6/99." Fine in a fine, unfaded dust jacket.
$3,500.00
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Merrill, James. JIM'S BOOK: A Collection Of Poems And Stories. New York: Privately Printed, 1942. First edition of the author's first book. 8vo. Published by Merrill's father in an edition of about 200 copies when his son was but sixteen years old. This copy is inscribed by Merrill in the form of a quatrain: "Dear Ted, Beware! Don't turn the page / or dream of reading at your age / these jottings by a rose-lipt lad / who once drove men of forty mad -- Jimmy. 19.ix.91." Laid into the book is an autograph postcard from Merrill: "Dear Ted -- I can't resist (and how you could I can't imagine) adding the last line to your clever little verse: "They had to ask for pearls! Ah well. Boys will be girls. Back from Missouri exhausted. But see you soon. Love, Jimmy." Also laid in are an early draft of a Merrill poem, "Pearl," on thermal fax paper that differs substantially from the published version and a copy of a written statement from Merrill's mother in which she lays out the history of "Jim's Book." Hardcover. Fine in the original unprinted glassine dust jacket as issued.
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Merrill, James. THE BLACK SWAN And Other Poems. Athens: Icaros, 1946. First edition of the poet's second and scarcest book. 8vo. One of 100 numbered copies (the entire edition). This copy bears Merrill's contemporary presentation: "For Quentin Keynes on the hottest day in July. James Merrill (30th, '47)." Keynes, who was the nephew of economist John Maynard Keynes and the grandson of Charles Darwin, was a world-class book collector and Merrill's friend for five decades. Pictorial wrappers. Fine in the original tissue wrappers and housed in a custom-made clamshell box.
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Miller, Henry. NIGHTS OF LOVE AND LAUGHTER. New York: New American Library / Signet, [1955]. First edition. 16mo. With a rococo introduction by Kenneth Rexroth that charts Miller's place in world literature with the precision of a global positioning system. A paperback original. Pictorial wrappers. Fine
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Mitchell, Joseph. OLD MR. FLOOD. New York: Duell, Sloan, & Pearce, [1948]. First edition. 8vo. This copy is inscribed by the author: "For William Shawn with many thanks. Joseph Mitchell. September 24, 1948." Shawn was the legendary editor of The New Yorker during Mitchell's association with the magazine. After having seen five collections of his writings published, Mitchell suffered a terminal case of writer's block and never completed another article for the magazine. Despite his years-long unproductivity, Shawn continued to provide Mitchell with an office and salary. A noble association copy. Hardcover. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
$4,000.00
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Mitchell, Joseph. THE BOTTOM OF THE HARBOR. Boston: Little, Brown, [1959]. First edition. 8vo. This copy is inscribed by the author: "For William Shawn with many thanks and with admiration and affection. Joe Mitchell. March 18, 1960." The tender inscription reflects the author's gratitude to his longtime editor at The New Yorker. After Mitchell published "Joe Gould's Secret" in 1964, he fell prey to a severe case of writer's block and never completed another essay for the magazine. Shawn, however, continued to keep Mitchell on the payroll for many years until his death. Hardcover. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
$3,500.00
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Morris, Wright. MY UNCLE DUDLEY. New York: Harcourt, Brace, [1942]. First edition of the author's first book. 8vo. Laid in is a brief TLS on his letterhead from the author, agreeing to sign a collector's books. Hardcover. Fine in a much superior example of the dust jacket, showing little of the use generally encountered.
$1,850.00
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Morrison, Toni. THE BLUEST EYE. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, [1970]. First edition of the author's first book. 8vo. Morrison, born Chloe Anthony Wofford, has long been a literary all-star, the recipient of numerous awards including the Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes, a widely respected master of language, and a best-selling author. Hardcover. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
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![[Movies]. Chase, Borden. (Pseudonym of Frank Fowler). BLAZING GUNS ON THE CHISHOLM TRAIL](books/moviesblazingguns.png)
[Movies]. Chase, Borden. (Pseudonym of Frank Fowler). BLAZING GUNS ON THE CHISHOLM TRAIL. New York: Random House, [1948]. First edition. 8vo. The source for the 1948 Western classic, Red River, which was directed by Howard Hawks and starred John Wayne and Montgomery Clift. Chase, a cowboy by way of Brooklyn, went to California to write screenplays (he co-wrote Red River) including "The Fighting Seabees," which also starred John Wayne and, later on, two critically acclaimed Anthony Mann Westerns, "Bend of the River" and "Winchester '73," both of which starred James Stewart. Only the third jacketed copy we have been able to corral in all our years on the book drive. Also included is a copy of the first paperback edition of the above book, retitled "Red River" (Bantam Books, 1948). Hardcover. A fine copy of this poorly produced title in a fine, bright dust jacket that shows a bit of wear, chiefly at the crown of the spine.
$5,000.00
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![[Movies]. Forester, C[ecil] S[cott]. THE AFRICAN QUEEN](books/moviesforesterafricanqueen.png)
[Movies]. Forester, C[ecil] S[cott]. THE AFRICAN QUEEN. Boston: Little, Brown, 1935. First American edition. 8vo. The American edition has a different ending than the English, which was published in the same year, with Charlie Allnut, who was memorably portrayed by Humphrey Bogart in his Oscar-winning performance, drowning after failing to sink the German ship. Hardcover. Fine in a fine dust jacket (price-clipped).
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[Movies]. Frankliln, Joe and Laurie Palmer. THE MARILYN MONROE STORY. New York: Rudolph Field, [1953]. First edition. 8vo. The first published book on Monroe with 39 sparkling photographs of the young Marilyn in the early stages of her career. Pictorial wrappers. An absolutely beautiful copy of this cheaply-produced paperback original (there was a simultaneously-published hardbound edition).
$1,500.00
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[Movies]. McMurtry, Larry and Peter Bogdanovich. THE STREETS OF LAREDO. Burbank: Warner Bros., 1972. Original screenplay. 4to. This copy is signed by Bogdanovich. Bound in gilt-stamped brown cloth and identified as the first draft on the title page. This is one of two copies so bound for Bogdanovich by the studio and signed by him. The screenplay was originally conceived as a Western film to star John Wayne and James Stewart and is the basis for the Lonesome Dove saga. After Wayne and Stewart turned down their roles, the production fell through. McMurtry subsequently reacquired the rights and turned the story into the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1985 novel of the same name. Four years later William Wittliff adapted the novel for the celebrated television mini-series. Hardcover. A fine copy of this Western film highspot.
$7,500.00
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[Movies]. O'Neill, Eugene. THE LONG VOYAGE HOME: Adapted For The Screen by Dudley Nichols. Los Angeles: Argosy Corporation, [circa 1940]. Screenplay. This copy is labelled "First Draft Continuity." Two revised pages (on different-colored paper) are included. Nichols brilliantly adapted Eugene O'Neill's The Long Voyage Home, updating the 1919 one-act play to World War II times. O'Neill and John Ford, who directed the classic film, are on record with praise for Nichols' transformative talents as a screenwriter. His other credits include "The Informer," "Stagecoach," "For Whom The Bell Tolls," and O'Neill's "Mourning Becomes Electra." 174 mimeographed quarto pages, punchbound in printed wrappers.
$3000.00
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![[Movies]. Welles, Orson. INSCRIBED PHOTOGRAPH](books/movieswelles.png)
[Movies]. Welles, Orson. INSCRIBED PHOTOGRAPH, 9" x 12 ". Circa 1951. A dramatic black and white image of Welles, theatrically posed in front of a movie set for his 1952 movie classic, "Othello," scowling in character as the tragic Moor. The inscription, penned in white ink against the dark background reads: "Dearest Dadda and Hazel: God willing this is the last Christmas in a long time -- we'll spend apart -- all my love always Orson." Maurice "Dadda" Bernstein was among the most important people in the life of Orson Welles, perhaps THE most important. He was the family's physician as well as a friend of the young Orson's parents, Richard and Beatrice. Berstein carried on a long-term sexual affair with Beatrice and after her death remained on friendly terms with her husband until Richard died. At that time Bernstein became Orson's legal guardian and controlled the boy's inherited fortune. More importantly, he was quick to recognize the potential genius of his ward. It was Dadda who presented the boy with formative gifts that were to prove crucial to his career: a miniature theater and a magic set. Though their relationship was at time checkered (Welles would come to question Dadda's not-so-occasional appropriation of the funds he inherited upon attaining legal age) it is obvious that the two loved each other deeply -- as this photograph so graphically indicates. Matted and framed under museum glass. As fine an Orson Welles artifact as one may hope to find.
$8,500.00
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[Music]. Gershwin, George. BANK CHECK in the amount of $100 made out to George Gershwin by music publisher Harms, Inc. March 7, 1924. Boldly endorsed by the composer on the blank side. Fine.
$1,250.00
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[Music - Jazz]. Ellington, Duke. A Vintage Postcard-Sized PHOTOGRAPH of a youthful Ellington who poses with raised baton in anticipation of leading his orchestra. The postcard is date-marked October 26, 1931, and is inscribed by the Duke to Bill Kelly and signed D.E. A fine likeness of Ellington, who was then at his peak as a composer and jazz musician. Fine.
$650.00
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