The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger - 1951

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.

London : Frederick Etchells & Hugh Macdonald, 1928 Limited edition, 1 of 55 signed and numbered copies, this being number 11; rebound in custom quarter leather marbled boards, ribbed spine and gilt-lettered, xxvi, 84pp. printed on Millbourn, hand-made paper, no dust wrapper issued for this signed edition [Gallup B7a]. Signed by T. S. Eliot. Small stain to front endpaper and light rubbing to corners of boards and spine ends, else book in fine condition.

London: Cassell & Company, 1935. First Edition. First edition of Lawrence Durrell's first novel. Highly autobiographical in character, an apprentice effort, Durrell's novel sank largely without trace. And as with so many unsold titles, the majority of copies were destroyed during the Blitz. Blue boards with the barest hint of rubbing to edges; no dustjacket, spine incorrectly lettered Pied Pipers of Lovers, bookseller's price on front free endpaper, slight spotting to fore and top-edges, otherwise a clean, solid, well-preserved copy of Lawrence's exceedingly scarce first novel.

Boston: Little, Brown and Company / Atlantic Month Press /Atlantic-Little, Brown Books, 1983 First printing of the first edition, in original dust jacket. Faint rubbing to bottom edge of boards, else book in fine condition; with light wear to spine ends / corners and light rubbing to back fold, else fine.

Oliver was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for American Primitive.

CELINE, Louis-Ferdinand (1894-1961)
Autograph letter signed "LFCéline" to his friends Descaves
Copenhagen, 7th July [1947], (c/o Mikkelsen), 2 pages in-folio
"France does not deserve its writers"
Moving letter from Céline looking back with despair on his eighteen months in prison


"Chers amis, Voici bien longtemps que nous sommes demeurés sans nouvelles. De notre côté une légère amélioration au point de vue légal grâce à la visite que Mikkelsen a faite à Paris à Naud et à d'autres amis. La Butte a donné à fond ! s'est donné à fond en ma faveur. L'impression a été admirable ! Je ne suis plus le damné total, la pourriture absolue. On commence à se rendre compte que l'on m'a bien martyrisé injustement alors que tant d'autres… s'en tirent glorieusement et fructueusement. Lucette heureusement a repris forme et santé. Je ne suis pas brillant. Je traîne. J'ai refait de la pellagre et une crise de rhumatisme abominable en dépit de la chaleur. La cellule, les hivers en cellule… Read More

Three pages, 1949. A sprawling, witty and provocative letter written by Pound early on during his extended stay at St. Elizabeth's hospital (12 years, from 1948-1859) to Helen Rossetti Angeli, the daughter of famed Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood co-founder William Michael Rossetti. Written in pencil on the full opened face, with two notes perhaps by HAR, and then on both flaps on the verso, with two wrap-around portions also possibly by HA Rossetti. A lengthy and fascinating letter. "Dear Mrs. Angeli, Thanks v. much for yo/ volume. but must protest no jacket yr/sister Olivia being certainly more alive than anyone in Italy definite purf, not jacket vs not all brit/publrs/ are of the line of Barabbas & born to be damned- perhaps the very printing machinery in England [side flap] Yeats' definition of yr island 'The only country where a man will lie WITHOUT being paid for it' endemic [side flap] lie DOWN not being able to bear the Truth. cordially Ezra Pound." Pound has also placed in the body of the letter,… 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

Hardcover. Original blue cloth, faded and worn; enclosed in blue cloth box. New Directions (New York, James Laughlin 1949). New (Offset) Edition. Gallup A27B. Presentation copy inscribed from Pound to a literary critic. "Mr. . . . Aug. 56 Ezra Pound." With the recipient's notes in the text. A nice copy.

New York: William Morrow and Company, 1968. First Edition. Near Fine/Near Fine. First edition, first printing. Signed by author as Richard Hooker on the title page with quote marks around his name; Richard Hooker is the pseudonym of Dr. Hiester Richard Hornberger Jr. Near Fine, with light edge wear, toning to spine ends, small evidence of tape removal to recto of half-title page, hinge at title page over-opened. In a Near Fine unclipped dust jacket, with light shelf wear and toning. A laid-in note in a former owner's hand reads, "Dr. Hornberger autographed this book as "Richard Hooker" while still employed as a doctor at Thayer Hospital in Waterville, Maine." Signed copies are scarce.

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1947. First Edition. Very Good/Very Good. First edition, first printing stated. Signed by James Michener, and inscribed to a former owner in the year of publication, reading "21 February 1947 / Dear Gates / Would that this had been pulled from the production line of the 30th printing. Live the poems of [?], these stories are sent to a friend -- and a fine one, too. [signed] Jim Michener." Bound in publisher's beige-orange colored cloth with spine stamped in blue. Very Good, with pages toned and cloth rubbed at the extremities. In a supplied later state dust jacket with price printed horizontally; lightly edgeworn and lightly edge-stained, and a bit rippled. Michener's first book, a Pulitzer Prize winning collection of short stories about the Pacific Campaign in World War II.