Search Results: Titles starting with C from Downtown Brown Books, ABAA

London: Jonathan Cape, 2010. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. The author's fourth book. First edition (first printing, with a numberline ending in 1). A fine copy in a fine printed acetate dust jacket. Signed by the author on the title page.

Columbia, TN: James Mahon, 1880. Viola E. Myers (6 June 1854 to 24 April 1931) was born in Wilcox, Pennsylvania and in the 1870s and 1880s was the best-known bearded woman in the US. In 1883, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch declared Madame Meyers (as she was also known) "the best bearded woman in the business" (February 15). She was married to a sideshow ticket taker, Amos Myers. Myers appears to have worked the sideshow circuit off and on for many years, often doing astrology readings (her profession on US census reports and her death certificate is given as "planet reader"). An extended profile of Myers accompanied by a portrait can be found in the April 1877 issue of the Archives of Dermatology. She was also mentioned in Geoge Henry Fox's The Use of Electricity in the Removal of Superfluous Hair (1886). A pamphlet about her appeared in 1878 with the title: Madame Viola, the Bearded Lady. 2-7/16 by 4-1/8 inches. Original photograph on medium-thickness mount. With spots of handcoloring. Upper corners… Read More

1880. Near fine. In 1883, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch declared Madame Meyers (sic) "the best bearded woman in the business" (see February 15 issue). Viola E. Myers (6 June 1854 to 24 April 1931) was born in Wilcox, Pennsylvania and in the 1870s and 1880s was the most prominent bearded woman in the US. She was married to a sideshow ticket taker, Amos Myers. She appears to have worked the sideshow circuit off and on for many years, often doing astrology readings (her profession on US census reports and her death certificate is given as "planet reader"). An extended profile of Myers accompanied by a portrait can be found in the April 1877 issue of the Archives of Dermatology. She was also mentioned in George Henry Fox's The Use of Electricity in the Removal of Superfluous Hair (1886). A pamphlet about her appeared in 1878 with the title: Madame Viola, the Bearded Lady. 2-3/16 by 3-1/2 inches albumen silver print on a CDV mount. An original photograph on a medium-thickness mount. The photographer is… Read More

Leslie, Fife: W. T. Turner, 1870. Ephemera. Near fine. A portrait of two unidentified women holding strands of yarn. They are wearing distinctive uniforms of thick gathered skirt over a second, stiff, horizontally pleated skirt; a tunic over a blouse, and a flat cloth head covering that seems to tie in a large bow around their necks. On the back (verso) of the mount someone has written in pencil, "Wool Bleachers in Scotland." Based on the location of the photographer and other photographs of 19th century bleachworks, it seems more likely that these women worked in a linen factory. A scarce image of women workers in the third quarter of the 19th century. Occupational carte de visite photograph; image, 2-3/8 by 3-9/16 inches. Thin card mount, 2-1/2 by 4 inches, with photographer's printed mark on the back. Near fine. Medium contrast image.

Wooster and Ashland, Ohio: Teeple, 1880. Ephemera. Near fine. A carte de visite image of a man and a woman, possibly Egyptian, possibly a pregnant woman and her husband. The woman wears a long white veil that extends almost to the ground. Her hands are crossed over her stomach. The man, wearing a fez, stands next to her, holding a document in his left hand. Most likely, this is a copy print as there is a narrow dark band along the bottom of the image, which is typical of imperfectly produced copy photographs. Albumen silver print, 2-1/4 by 3-7/8 inches, on a stiff card mount with a decorative Teeple Photography design on the verso (back). An attractive photograph, with good tones, perhaps a touch over exposed as some detail is lost in the white areas.

London: Longmans, Green & Co, 1926. First British edition. Hardcover. Near fine/Near fine. Wilder's first book, which the London Observer described as, "the best-written thing of its kind for many years (Nov. 28, 1926). The Brooklyn Eagle, on the other hand, wrote, "The Cabala is luxurious in its unimportance, its indifference, and its astonishing charm." First UK edition (1926 date on title page and no notice of later printings inside). A near fine copy in a price-clipped else near fine, second issue dust jacket. There is some discoloration to the endpapers, but pretty typical of British books. This second issue jacket was redesigned to match the jacket of The Bridge of San Luis Rey, which is promoted on the front flap of this copy.

Detroit: Randall, Photographer, 1881. Ephemera. Very good. A full-length cabinet card portrait of Sojourner Truth with the caption, "I sell the shadow to support the substance." This is one of Truth's last portraits, taken when she was in her eighties and purchased in bulk to sell at events, hence the caption. During the Civil War, Truth took the unusual step of acquiring the copyright to her portrait, giving her control over both the distribution of her image and the money it generated. The verso (back) of the mount of this photograph includes Truth's copyright statement. Truth (1797-1883), born Isabella Baumfree, was one of the best-known abolitionists and women's rights advocates of the 19th century. She traveled the country for decades giving talks and attending conferences, selling her photographs-her "shadow"-as a primary means of support. The art professor Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby has published an extensive study of Truth's photographs (Enduring Truths, 2015). Based on Grigsby's research into… Read More

México [Mexico City]: Tip. de la Viuda é Hijos de Murguia, 1878. First Edition. Pamphlet. A fortune-telling system "fixed to the meridian of Mexico" [Arreglado al meridiano de México]. Ca. 71 pages. 5-1/4 by 3-5/16 inches. Corner missing from front cover, not affecting any text, but generally very good.

Tokyo: Rokko Shuppanbu, 1943. First Edition. Trade paperback. Very good. A very scarce wartime history of the Japanese in California that argues that the internment of Japanese and Japanese Americans was a symptom of the same pervasive anti-Japanese attitudes among Americans that had contributed to the Second World War. The author, according to Yuji Ichioka writing in Before Internment (p. 263), was an "Issei who had lived in California for many years, working as a newspaperman for Japanese immigrant newspapers... The outbreak of the Pacific War found Ebina in Tokyo because he had returned to Japan in November 1941. At the beginning he was employed part-time by NHK Radio to write anti-American radio scripts and served as a commentator on the arrest and detention of Issei leaders and the eventual mass internment of the entire West Coast Japanese California." Ebina's December 1943 book, "Kariforunia to Nihonjin...rehashed the history of anti-Japanese racism in California and attributed the internment… Read More

[Aromas, CA]: Cayucos Books, 1971. Second Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Near fine. A reissue of Jeffers' second collection, with a long introduction by William Everson (who also wrote as Brother Antoninus). This is one of 50 copies signed by Everson out of an edition of 500 printed by Graham Mackintosh. . xxvi, 163 pages. Second edition. A fine copy in a clear acetate wrapper with a couple of cracks. This is copy 30, signed by Everson on the colophon.

San Francisco: Camels Coming, 1972. Pamphlet. Near fine. Prints two letters from Bukowski to the editor; the bulk of the issue is devoted to a review essay by Charles Potts. 8-1/2 by 11 inches. 5 pages. Old folds, for mailing, else near fine.

Tokyo: Chuokoron-shinsha, 2020. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. In addition to being a prolific novelist, Murakami has done extensive translation work, including bringing many American writers like Raymond Carver, Raymond Chandler, Ursula LeGuin, Truman Capote, J. D. Salinger, and Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby) into Japanese. Translation, with running, is one of his main avocations, something he does for fun. This is a translation of John Grisham's Camino Island, a book about Fitzgerald manuscripts stolen from the Princeton Library. A small number of copies signed by Murakami were offered to bookstores in Japan and this is one of those, signed in Japanese above a rubber stamp of Murakami's name in English. 413, [3] pages. 5-1/2 by 7-3/4 inches. First edition (first printing, with the publication date and "初版" on the second line of the colophon). A fine hardcover copy in a fine dust jacket and obi (wrap-around band). Signed by Murakami on the front free endpaper.

Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1943. Ephemera. Very good. One of the classic food-related posters of the Second World War, encouraging home canning to preserve food for the winter. 16 by 22-1/2 inches. OWI Poster No. 77; O-533993. Old folds, as issued; beginning to split along one fold. This is an original World War Two poster, not a reproduction. Ships flat.

Burton, MI: Edgeworks Abbey and Subterranean Press, 2015. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. Ten previously uncollected short stories. This limited edition also has more than one hundred pages of facsimile typescripts of Ellison's original drafts. One of 324 numbered copies signed by Ellison. 7-1/4 by 10-1/4 inches. First edition. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket and a near fine slipcase (minor scuffing). This is copy 8 of 324 signed on the limitation page.

Matanzas, Cuba: Ediciones Vigía, 2015. A single stiff sheet covered in textured paper and folded three times. 5 by 9-1/2 inches when closed. An edition of 200 numbered copies. Colección Andante series. The text is Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" in English and Spanish translation. The construction, designed by Marialva Ríos, is made of paper, cloth, string mesh, and thread, with handcoloring. When folded, the cover presents Marley's face in front of a stiff cloth star that extends beyond the edges and is festooned with thread in the colors of the Ethiopian flag (red, green, and yellow). This folds down to reveal another star, the limitation number, and the title in English. This panel opens to the text as well as a paper cut-out in the shape of a marijuana leaf. The colophon is on the verso. The imagery in this book may not be especially original, but the folding structure is one of the more complicated in the oeuvre of Ediciones Vigía. OCLC: CRU DEIAI FQG FXG IND IQU LAF LRU NDD NOC NYP STF… Read More

Mexico, DF: Editorial Latitudes, 1978. First Edition. Trade Paperback. Fine. 31 pages. Poems, with a long introduction by the author. Coleccio el pozo y el pendulo, no. V. The series was edited by the Mexican American poet Ernesto Trejo. Published in an edition of 1000 copies. First edition (first printing). A fine copy in wrappers (paperback).

1980. An original black-and-white gelatin silver print photograph of Audre Lorde speaking, pictured in three-quarters profile. Lorde (1934-1992) is an influential and popular writer, a self-described, "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet." The image is inscribed on the back (verso) and signed "Audrey Lorde." Printed on 8 by 10 inch Kodak paper, with the image slightly smaller. The photographer is not identified. The photograph is fine; the signature is a bit faint and hard to read. It says "For ___-and his ___ Audrey Lorde.

[Washington, DC?]: [U.S. Government Printing Office?], 1942. Ephemera. Fine. A poster announcing the beginning of rationing during the Second World War, accompanied by a notice that consumers will need to report how much canned and bottled goods they have in their pantries. The poster concludes with the admonition, "Do not buy more than you need." (The short-term shortages at the beginning of the Covid shutdown in 2020 suggest the potential for economic disruption during the war). Rationing and consumer price controls were key homefront efforts to manage the US economy. 14 by 20 inches. A fine example; never folded. Ships flat. This is an original World War II poster, not a reproduction.

Matanzas, Cuba: Centro de Promoción Literaria José Jacinto Milanés and Ediciones Vigía, 2013. A single sheet, 3-1/2 by 15 inches, folded and inserted into a paper container decorated with a collage with a house design and a twine loop for hanging. 5 by 10 inches. Edition size not noted, but probably 200 copies. A poem dedicated to Matanzas by a Cuban writer, issued to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his death. Designed by Adrián Milián. OCLC: BLSTP CRU FQG FXG HLS IQU IYU NOC NUI NYP PAU TJC UCW. Near fine.

Austin: Alturas Press, 2011. First Edition. Pamphlet. Fine. [8] pages. 4-1/4 by 5-1/2 inches. One of 100 copies. Poetry. Ratliff was born in McAllen, Texas, one of ten children in a migrant family. She was raised in California and returned to Texas as an adult, where she founded the Austin Hispanic Writers group. Not recorded on OCLC. First edition (first printing). Fine in stapled wrappers (pamphlet). Signed by the author.