Search Results: Authors starting with P from Biblioctopus

Paris, 1869. Very good. 11 November. 4pp in one bi-folded leaf. The top edge chipped with some losses to words, strengthened with archival tissue tape, else very good. A wonderful and long scientific letter written at a time when Pasteur was making many of his most important discoveries relating to bacteria, pasteurization and the fermentation process of wine. The letter (in French), reads, in part: : "[...] The claims of these gentlemen are based only on errors and I think I have demonstrated it very well this year as in 1866[...] You asked me for an opinion on two points, the action of oxygen and the temperature of the must. As for oxygen, note, as is exhibited in my studies on wine [Paris, Imprimerie impériale, 1866] that it is necessary to distinguish carefully between a brush oxidation and a very slow oxidation, the difference is enormous between these two modes of action: the first is almost always harmful[...] As for the heating of very sweet wines, here is the complete theory that you must… Read More

New York: St. Martin's Press, 2011. First Edition. Hardcover. fine/fine. 1st edition. Fine in Fine jacket, signed by Perrotta on the title page. HBO purchased the rights in 2011. The hugely successful and critically acclaimed series ran from 2014-2017.

London: Methuen & Co, 1965. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/near fine. 1st edition. Near fine in a very good dustjacket (just rubbing to its edges). Contemporary signed, presentation copy, inscribed in ink using his stage name, David Baron, to Vivien Merchant, his wife, the lead actress and the only woman in the play (she is seen on the jacket in a scene from the play). Half morocco case. Ex-Edwin Erbe, publicity director at New Directions. In 1965 The Homecoming premiered at London's Aldwych Theatre. In 1967 it went to Broadway where it won the Tony Award for Best Play and became a driving force behind Pinter's 2005 Nobel Prize. It was a sizeable rotation in drama, accentuating the spoken word as weapon and the unspoken word as eloquence, and it was a potent child of the 1960s, though plays are one of the less differentiated (less recognized) of the arts invigorated by the cultural revolution. This was the play that established Pinter, and we apologize for the redundancy, but again, this is the… Read More

London: Encore, 1959. First Edition. wrappers. Near fine. 1st edition, preceding all others. The dedication copy of his second play and first book. Original pictorial wrappers, nearly fine. Signed presentation copy to his wife, dated Dec. 1959, and although the dedication wasn't confirmed in type until the American edition published in 1961, this is it, as tectonic a copy as this book can be.

1975. First Edition. Wrappers. Very good. Playscript. 56; 53 photo-mechanically duplicated leaves printed rectos only (each act paginated separately). Brad-bound into unprinted blue card covers. Signed, presentation copy, inscribed by Pinter to fellow playwright, poet, and 1960s English gadabout Heathcote Williams: "To Heathcote from Harold." The presentation continues to a laid in ALs from Pinter on his 7 Hanover Terrace stationary: "Oct 7. / Dear Heathcote / How are you? / I'm very sorry I've / never written to / you about your / last piece. I found / it difficult to / write & still do. // However, I send / you this. / How are you? / Love / Harold [.]" Also laid in is a photocopy of a "letter to the editor" by D.A. Cairns (apparently sent along by Pinter to Williams), claiming that all the character names in the play are based on famous English cricketers. Small tear on front wrap and first leaf, some smudging and stains on wrappers and last few leaves, else very good.

London: Methuen & Co, 1960. First Edition. wrappers. Very good. 1st trade edition (a Samuel French acting edition precedes). The Nobel laureate's own copy (Pinter's salient beloved) of his first major success with his extensive, handwritten corrections, deletions, additions, and notations on 52 of the 77 pages. 22 of the additions on 17 of the pages are dialog, from a word to a line, and 18 pages indicate the book was also used by him as a prompt copy. Research rich with unique changes and thoughtful adjustments here, that his own corrected copy never appeared in any subsequent edition, and it is a careful editing, in different color inks and pencil, certainly done in many steps, by revisiting it regularly over a long time. Original wrappers (Methuen also issued it hardbound simultaneously), one small corner crease and some edge rubs else very good, game used but never abused. The Caretaker was Pinter's first appreciable commercial success, a theatrical dynamo, that is, to postmodern plays, what… Read More

Philadelphia: William E. Burton, 1839. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. A annual volume (12 months, starting in July 1839 and ending June 1840). Contemporary 3/4 calf and marbled boards, binding worn, sporadic foxing throughout, but, otherwise, clean internally. Seven stories and poems by Poe, first appeared in these issues of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine and 2 more are reprinted for the first time. They are: "The Conversation of Eiros and Chairman" "The Fall of the House of Usher" (September 1839) "The Journal of Julius Rodman" (one chapter per issue; January-June 1840) "The Man That Was Used Up" (August 1839) "Peter Pendulum" aka "The Business Man" (February 1840) "The Philosophy of Furniture" (May 1840) "To——" (a variation of "Lines Written in an Album", 1835) (August 1839) "To Ianthe in Heaven" (July 1839) "William Wilson" (1st appeared in "The Gift [...] for 1840, September 1839 reprinted here October 1839) The Fall of the House of Usher has all the essential features of the… Read More