Search Results: Authors starting with Y from ReadInk

[Pasadena CA]: The Ward Ritchie Press. Very Good+. (c.1973). Unstated edition. Softcover. [light edgewear to covers, several crease lines in rear cover]. Trade PB (pen and ink drawings, maps) Vintage guidebooks have a charm all their own, both as windows into what their subject area was like "back when" and as challenges to modern-day tourists or explorers to seek out whatever traces might remain today. And when a book like this one -- which was conceived largely as a nostalgic exercise to begin with -- has aged yet another 45 years, the nostalgia factor sort of doubles down on itself, and the natural impulse (mine, anyway) is to wonder how many of these small-town landmarks, already considered throwbacks in 1973, might still survive even today? For instance, is it possible one could find even a trace of Ma Dixon's Restaurant, a soul-food oasis in Val Verde, California -- itself a remnant of a time when the town was known as "the black Palm Springs" -- which… Read More

Gentilly (France): La Délirante. Near Fine. (c.2009). First Edition. Softcover. [very slight bend to bottom right corner, no other discernible wear]. (color reproductions) French translation of Yeats's essay on Blake's illustrations for Dante's "The Divine Comedy," originally published in 1897. A rough partial translation of the publication statement reads: "This essay by WB Yeats, translated by Martine de Rougemont and illustrated with twelve original watercolors by William Blake, was printed on May 12, 2009, on the presses of the Imprimerie Grenier in Gentilly, limited to 2,000 paperback copies. The first 75 copies have been numbered and signed by Martine de Rougemont." (This is NOT one of the numbered/signed copies.) .

New York: Dial Press. Very Good+ in Very Good+ dj. 1952. First Edition. Hardcover. [good sound copy, very slight bumping to lower corners, light spotting to top edge of text block, one-time owner's name written at top of front pastedown and her address label at top of rear pastedown (in both instances mostly concealed by the jacket flaps); the jacket shows a bit of wear at edges and corners, very minor chipping at top of spine]. (endpaper maps) "In a strange way, they were twins -- though one of them was a commoner, and the other an Emperor, though they shared not one drop of related blood. Pietro di Donati, son of a blacksmith, and Frederick the Second of Hohenstaufen, Holy Roman Emperor, were born on the same day, at the same hour, in the same Sicilian town. Thereafter, linked by their stars, they became brothers, bound by a bond of the spirit, of temperament, of their curious, alert intellects, in a way that transcended the usual kinship of the flesh." Source for the… Read More

New York: The Dial Press. Very Good+ in Very Good+ dj. 1948. First Edition. Hardcover. [top front corner slightly bumped, one-time owner's name and date written at top of front endpaper; jacket shows just a bit of wear at extremities, tiny surface scrape at both ends of spine, itsy-bitsy paper loss at top rear hinge]. (endpaper maps) This "pulsating novel of adventure, revenge and exotic love in the West Indies of the seventeenth century, when the might of imperial Spain was making its last great stand to retain its conquests in the New World" tells the story of Kit Gerado's "lifelong search for the revenge on Don Luis del Toro, the Spanish grandee who had killed his mother and touched his life with unspeakable horror. It was a search that was to take Kit from the Old World to the New, from the buccaneer harbors of Sainte Domingue, Porto Bello and Cul-de-Sac to the gray, grim-walled city of Cartagena in Spanish South America." (I wonder if, when he finally… Read More

New York: Persea Books. Near Fine in Near Fine dj. (c.1991). First Edition. Hardcover. [minimal shelfwear, tiny hole in top edge of rear cover; jacket very slightly rubbed]. (B&W photo frontispiece) A nearly-complete collection (27 stories) of the author's short fiction, ranging from the 1920s to the 1960s, which evokes "the joy and pain of the Jewish immigrant experience." Includes the entirety of two story collections published during her lifetime, "Hungry Hearts' and "Children of Loneliness." The introduction by Vivian Gornick places the stories in their literary and historical context. .

New York: E.P. Dutton & Company. Very Good+ in Very Good dj. 1926. 4th printing. Hardcover. [nice copy, very slight wear to extremities, a bit of dust-soiling to top edge; jacket has very slight paper loss at a few corners, one short closed tear and associated crease at bottom of front panel, minor scuffing]. Triangular romance story, set amidst London society, the three points of the triangle being: Lavinia, a wealthy, virginal Irish-Austrian orphaned princess; Peter, a well-bred, well-dressed young English chap; and the mysterious Princess Debelowsky (aka The Devil), a cosmopolitan, vaguely Russian woman who possesses "a poisonous fascination for men." A contemporary review suggests that the author drew some kind of inspiration from Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," but the particulars seem to get lost in a sea of provocative chit-chat. .

New York: Simon & Schuster. Fine in Fine dj. (c.1991). First Edition. Hardcover. [a beautiful, as-new copy, with no discernible wear to either book or jacket]. (B&W photographs) INSCRIBED "For ____ / with thanks for the / great photographs + / my best wishes" and SIGNED by the author on the title page. Memoir by the star of CABARET, THE THREE MUSKETEERS, ACCIDENT, and many other films. Signed by Author .

San Francisco: Pomegranate. Near Fine. (c.2000). First Edition. Softcover. [minor edgewear to covers only; all postcards are present]. Trade PB (B&W photographs) Small book of 30 postcards (all are present). "From the old Polo Grounds and Ebbetts [sic] Field ballparks to the once-ubiquitous Woolworth's lunch counters and Automats, [this book] elicits a familiar fondness for things past. Drawn mostly from the Museum of the City of New York's rich photographic archive, this collection includes work by renowned photographers Berenice Abbott, Jacob Riis, and Andreas Feininger, along with the strong imagery of prolific commercial firms -- including the Byron Company and the Wurts Brothers -- whose collections at the museum form an unparalleled documentary resource." Surprisingly uncommon. .

Chicago: Johnson Publishing Company. Very Good+. 1963. 2nd printing. Softcover. [moderate external wear, a little fading along top edge of rear cover; binding still completely intact]. Trade PB (B&W photographs) An "unauthorized" yet sympathetic biography, by a prominent African-American sportswriter, of the heavyweight boxing champion who took the title away from then-champ Floyd Patterson with a stunning first-round knockout on September 25, 1962. Liston's long ascent to the pinnacle of boxing was fought both inside and outside of the ring, as he had to overcome a hardscrabble childhood which led him into extensive criminal activity (he served a two-year prison sentence for armed robbery in the early 1950s), and his boxing career was clouded by persistent links to organized crime and a general perception that he was an unsavory character. He held the heavyweight title for exactly 17 months, during which his single fight was a rematch with Patterson in which he again… Read More

New York: St. Martin's Press. Fine. (c.1994). First Edition. Softcover. [very nice copy, essentially as-new with no discernible wear]. Trade PB (B&W photographs) INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author on the half-title page, just above a photo of Mister Ed: "To _____ - Thank / you for the all the pictures / and the kelp! / Alan Young." "Mister Ed's best friend, Willlburrr, takes America on a ride through his years of horsing around on one of TV's best-loved shows." Signed by Author .

Secacus NJ: The Citadel Press. Near Fine in Very Good+ dj. (c.1978). First Edition. Hardcover. [very nice copy, a touch of soiling to bottom edges of covers, bookseller's rubber-stamp on front endpaper; the jacket is lightly surface-worn, with a few tiny tears and minor dog-earing at top of spine, and is just a bit shorter than the book itself]. (B&W photographs) The usual "films of" formula: a brief biographical essay (accompanied by dozens of photos), followed by a film-by-film rundown of the actress's career, with credits, cast, synopsis, review excerpts and historical notes for each film; also covers her appearances in short films and on television. The acknowledgements include "special thanks to Miss Hedy Lamarr, a very lovely and gracious lady," so it would appear that the book at least had her blessing, if not necessarily her active participation. ****NOTE that additional postage charges will be assessed for international shipping of this heavy… Read More

New York/London: Harper & Brothers. Very Good+ in Good dj. 1929. 1st Edition (H-D). Hardcover. [solid, clean copy, light shelfwear, modest bumping to lower corners; jacket is edgeworn, especially along spine, with small tears and minor paper loss at several corners, and a somewhat ragged tear along the left edge of the front panel]. Hard to top this jacket blurb: "The hot blood of a Neapolitan peasant coursed in his veins, and from his father, eccentric expatriate Englishman, he inherited the cold idealism that tempered his artistic nature. He was a curious paradox, this man -- brought up on English classics and French pornography, and thrashed with a dried cow's tail when he tried to paint. But when his dreams of being an artist still persisted he went to Naples, lived in a scabrous palace and earned a precarious livelihood by faking Florentine parchment covered boxes. In that same palace Paul discovered the exalted singing love that was to be the romance of his life, a… Read More

Toronto/New York/London: Longmans, Green and Company. Near Fine in Very Good dj. 1959. 1st Edition (stated). Hardcover. [minor wear to extremities, spine slightly turned; jacket a little edgeworn, tiny paper loss at a couple of corners, one-inch closed tear at top of front panel, small tear and associated creasing at top rear flap-fold]. First novel by this Canadian author, a psychological suspense novel (sort of) that's kicked off by the kidnapping of a two-year-old girl, who is almost immediately abandoned by her kidnapper following a car accident, and eventually deposited on the doorstep of the shack of a miner and his wife. The book isn't any kind of police-procedural or traditional hunt-for-the-missing-girl novel, though -- rather, it's a portrait of the girl herself (Psyche is her name, although it's unclear if that was her actual given name) and "her search for herself through the vicissitudes -- fascinating, moving, often hair-raising, and sometimes… Read More

London: Secker & Warburg. Near Fine in Near Fine dj. 1957. 1st U.K. edition. Hardcover. [a couple of tiny spots on top edge of text block, no other significant wear; jacket just lightly rubbed]. Novel about a young man in the Baltics who is caught up in the passions and events of the Russian Civil War between the White Russians and the Bolsheviks that broke out following the October Revolution of 1918. Originally published in French in 1939, it was filmed by German director Volker Schlöndorff in 1976 (the film's title was "Der Fangschuß"). .