Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1975. First Edition. Bukowski's second novel, following his alter-ego Henry Chinaski through post-WW2 America as he blows through a series of dead-end jobs. Basis for Bent Hammer's 2005 film adaptation, starring Lili Taylor, Marisa Tomei, and an appropriately sleazy Matt Dillon. Krumhansl 51d. Deluxe Issue..... More
Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1974. First Edition. An early collection, gathering work from It Catches My Heart In Its Hands, Crucifix in a Deathhand, and At Terror Street and Agony Way, along with new poems written during the early 1970's. Krumhansl 46d. Deluxe Issue, one of five specially designated..... More
![Item #5961 AMERICA: A HISTORY IN VERSE - VOLUME I, 1900-1939 [WITH] AMERICA: A HISTORY IN VERSE -...](/pictures/thumb/5961.jpg?v=1667089034)
Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, 2000. First Edition. Long narrative poem by the former Fugs co-founder, Peace Eye Bookstore proprietor, and activist, chronicling the history of 20th century America. First Printings, cloth issue, one of 300 copies. Two octavo volumes (23.5cm); photo-illustrated paper-covered boards and blue (Vol. I) and orange..... More
![Item #5960 AMERICA: A HISTORY IN VERSE - VOLUME I, 1900-1939 [WITH] AMERICA: A HISTORY IN VERSE -...](/pictures/thumb/5960.jpg?v=1667089034)
Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, 2000. First Edition. Long narrative poem by the former Fugs co-founder, Peace Eye Bookstore proprietor, and activist, chronicling the history of 20th century America. Limited Issue, one of 125 numbered copies specially bound and signed by the author, these both being copy no.23. Two octavo..... More
Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1975. First Edition. Deluxe issue of Ashbery's 1975 experimental book-length poem, often overlooked in favor of his critically-acclaimed Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror published the same year. "In fact, The Vermont Notebook has often been elided entirely from the Ashbery canon: excluded from Ashbery's bibliography..... More
New York: Robert M. McBride and Company, 1938. First Edition. Well-preserved copy of this dark, tautly-written piece of California fiction by Du Soe (1920-1964), in which a murderous hitch-hiker and two young women catch a ride with an unsuspecting lingerie salesman on the way from San Diego to Los Angeles..... More
New York: Grove Press, Inc., [1962]. First American Edition. A superior copy of this Beat Generation cornerstone, a series of interconnected vignettes centered around full-time drug addict William Lee and his travels from the United States, to Mexico, to Tangier and the dreamlike Interzone. Basis for David Cronenberg's bizarre 1991..... More
New York: Random House, 1967. First Edition. Roth's third book, and his only novel with a female protagonist – "a Midwestern girl who believes herself to be the moral superior of her family and friends, and how she and those around her are destroyed when she sets out to prove..... More
New York: Ace Books, Inc., 1953. First Edition. Burroughs's first book, a semi-autobiographical field report from the seedy underbelly of post-war America, chronicling his experiences using and selling drugs and vacillating between addiction and recovery. While undated, this copy was inscribed in 1964, the year Burroughs made contact with Ted..... More
New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1986. First Trade Edition. Ginsberg first met Denise Levertov in November of 1956. The first copies of Howl and Other Poems had just arrived at City Lights bookstore, and shortly after, Ginsberg and Gregory Corso hitchhiked down to Mexicali to meet up with Peter..... More
Barnstable, MA: Crane Duplicating Service, Inc. for Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1968. First Edition. Wolfe's third and most enduring book, a major work of the New Journalism and one of the defining books of the 1960's, in which he recounts his experiences traveling with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters..... More
San Francisco: The Arion Press, 2014. Limited Edition. An exquisitely produced edition of Leaves of Grass, issued as the one hundredth publication of The Arion Press. Letterpress printed in Goudy Californian on Langley paper from the Barcham Green Mill in England, with watermarks of the mill and of Arion Press..... More
San Francisco: The Arion Press, 2013. Limited Edition. Handsome fine press production of the libretto for Heyward's 1935 opera, written with Ira and George Gershwin. This edition contains a new introduction by Andrew Hoyem, and is masterfully illustrated by African-American painter Kara Walker in her signature silhouette style. "I think..... More
New York: The Limited Editions Club, 1982. Limited Edition. Bradbury's best-known work, based on his 1951 short story "The Fireman." "Totalitarian state outlaws virtually all books, especially the classics; an underground form of people who memorize great books to preserve them for posterity. The plot revolves around a "fireman's" conversion..... More
New York: Margaret Anderson, 1918. First Edition. Well-preserved issue of Margaret Anderson's groundbreaking little magazine. The bulk of the issue is comprised of Ezra Pound's "A Study of Modern French Poets" (Laforgue, Corbiere, Rimbaud, de Gourmont, Verhaeren, Tailhade, Jammes, Romains, et al.), including Anderson's "The Chicago Grand Opera Invades New..... More
New York: The Viking Press, 1962. First Edition. Kesey's first published novel, one of the defining works of the 1960's, set in an Oregon psychiatric ward. Basis for Miloš Forman's Oscar-winning 1975 film, starring Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher. First Printing, with the textual errors on pages 9 and 85-86..... More
New Orleans: Harrison Smith and Robert Haas, Inc., 1935. First Edition. Faulkner's eighth novel, set in a fictionalized New Orleans during the Great Depression, and centered around the unconventional lives of a group of barnstorming pilots. Basis for Douglas Sirk's 1938 film Tarnished Angels, starring Rock Hudson, Robert Stack, and..... More
New York: Random House, 1936. First Edition. Faulkner's ninth novel, an epic tale centered around the life of Thomas Sutpen, born and raised poor in backwoods Appalachia, and his quest to become, at any cost, a man of wealth and power. It remains one of Faulkner's most challenging works, and..... More
Cleveland: 7 Flowers Press, 1966. Second, Revised Edition. Expanded edition of levy's major work, following the 1965 first published by the Free Lance Press (which contained only Parts 1 & 2). "The most famous work of this time, "The North American Book of the Dead" (1966), is the "Howl" of..... More
New York: The Mysterious Press, 1990. First Edition. Ellroy's ninth book and the third volume in his L.A. Quartet, centered around a group of LAPD officers in the early 1950's, and touching on the corruption and scandal that often goes hand-in-hand in Hollywood. Basis for Curtis Hanson's 1997 neo-noir, starring..... More
Cagnes-sur-Mer: Roving Eye Press, 1931. First Edition. Self-published volume of experimental writing by Brown (b. Robert Carlton Brown II), an American expatriate author and publisher involved in the inter-war avant-garde scene in France. A groundbreaking publication, conceived by Brown after publishing an essay titled "The Readies" in Transition in 1930..... More
New York: Corinth Books, 1961. First Edition. Fourth book by the Brooklyn-born Italian-American Beat poet and publisher, a collection of early short stories and 14 poems. Not an uncommon book, but an early and uncommonly good inscription to a fellow poet, signed at Les Deux Mégots, a short-lived but significant..... More
Kensington, CA: L Publications, 1975. First Edition. An early, important work by Grenier, published by Curtis Faville's L Publications in a small edition (under 100) and preceding his landmark project Sentences by three years. Each card prints a poem; the order in which they appear is aleatory – the cards..... More
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1935. Traven's second book translated into English, and the first appearance of Traven's own translation, which ran nearly 80 pages longer than the UK edition by Chatto & Windus. Set it Mexico, it is a story of gold, greed, and the best and worst in..... More
London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1979. First Omnibus Edition. Sharp copy of this omnibus volume collecting the first three novels in Herbert's critically acclaimed Dune series, charting the saga of Paul Atreides and his family. One of the most sought-after highspots in 20th century science fiction, winner of both the Hugo..... More