Search Results: Literary History from Le Bookiniste, ABAA-ILAB-IOBA

Urbana, Chicago, London: University of Illinois Press, 1973. Second Printing. Small Quarto (9 1/4 x 6 1/8 inches; 235 x 155 mm), [8], 200 pages in orange cloth, titles to spine, in an illustrated, unclipped dust jacket (hard cover).
A look at Richard Wright's life and literary career up to the publication of Native Son in 1940 and his eventual disenchantment with communism.
CONDITION: Very Good with some underlining on a number of pages and some foxing and slight soiling along the top and fore edges. The dust jacket panels are rubbed with some foxing and small chips on the rear panel and foxing on the flaps.
$20.00

Small Quarto (9 1/2 x 6 1/4 inches; 240 x 160 mm), 304 pages, in half cloth over boards, titles in gilt to spine, in an unclipped dust jacket (hard cover).
Life among the intellectuals of Paris and New York by the playwright, theatre critic and translator, Lionel Abel (1910-2001). He was close to the Surrealists and translated the works of a number of French writers.
CONDITION: Rubbing to extremities, light soiling to fore and bottom edges. Near Fine in a Near Fine dust jacket with a few tiny nicks and some rubbing.

London: The Fortune Press, [n.d.]. Later printing. Important anthology of prose, poems, and criticism by a group of young British writers who called themselves "Poets of the Apocalypse." This was the first collection of the group and featured writing by Dylan Thomas, Dorian Cooke, J.F. Hendry, Norman McCaig, Robert Melville, Nicholas Moore, Philip O'Connor, and Henry Treece. The frontispiece shows a drawing by Picasso. "The New Apocalypse" was first published in either 1939 or 1940 by The Fortune Press (accounts vary as to publication date). Our copy doesn't contain a date but is likely to be a later printing, probably from 1945-46. The rear cover of the dust jacket contains a list of works published by Fortune Press, many from the early 1940s. In any case, early copies of this important anthology are scarce to the market. "In the poetry of the Apocalypse, one discovers a mood of personal resignation to the brutality of modern life, combined with skepticism regarding any confident prophets of world… Read More

New York: David Lewis, Inc., 1970. First Edition Thus. Small Quarto (9 1/2 x 6 1/4 inches; 250 x 157 mm), 196 pages, in publisher's brown cloth, titles in gilt to spine, in an illustrated, unclipped dust jacket.SIGNED by Edward Dahlberg on the half title, a Festschrift celebrating the life of the prolific essayist and novelist, who lived from 1900 to 1977. With a staggering number of contributors, such as Anthony Burgess, Josephine Herbst, Allen Tate, August Derleth, Thomas Merton, Muriel Rukeyser, Jack Kerouac, and many others. The book first appeared as TriQuarterly 20 in Fall 1970. SCARCE SIGNED. CONDITION: Slight fading to spine but internally clean, bright, and unmarked. The unclipped dust jacket shows fading to the extremities and spine, a couple of nicks to the jacket flaps, and soiling to the lower panel. Near Fine in a Very Good or better dust jacket.

SIGNED on the title page by the editor, John Updike, as well as all the other contributors: Louis Auchincloss, Jack Beeson, Hortense Calisher, Ada Louise Huxtable, Wolf Kahn, R.W.B. Lewis, Richard Lippold, Norman Mailer, Cynthia Ozick, and Arthur Schlesinger Jr. Copies signed by all 11 contributors are scarce to the market.
This volume is a history of the National Institute of Arts & Letters and the American Academy of Arts & Letters. Heavily illustrated with black-and-white photos. Issued without a dust jacket.
PHYSICAL DETAILS: Small Quarto 10 1/4 x7 1/8 inches; 260 x 180 mm), xii, [4] 346 pages, in red cloth, gilt titles to upper board and spine. No dust jacket was issued.
CONDITION: Front hinge a bit loose but holding. Some minor rubbing to the boards, small stain to upper board's right edge, small scrape to the lower board's list of contributors, not affecting any text. Internally clean and unmarked. Very Good or better.