Biography

Hardcover. NY, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 578 pages, in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Of all the biographies of Henry James, Sr., the father of William, James, Jr. and Alice, this is the first one that attempts to capture the bewildering complexities of the James father's public and private history -- his early engagement with a radically deviant Calvinism, his stunning embrace of both authoritarian and democratic systems of ruling, his rich humanity and comic gifts, and his dealing with the most interesting people of his time.

Hardcover. Howell Press, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 176 pages, b&w illustrations. Between 1917 and 1955, E.L. "Slonnie" Sloniger was a WWI fighter pilot, a barnstormer, a test pilot, a racer, an acrobatic pilot, and a commercial pilot. Here, "Fate is the Hunter's" Old Number One tells the story in his own words, as recorded by his son.

Softcover. Maryland, Scraecrow Press, rep, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 209 pages. Softcover with light wear to wrappers. Clean, tight copy. Some black and white photos in center.

Hardcover. New York, Horizon Press, 1st, 1964, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Non-paginated. Hardcover with dust jacket. Moderate wear to dust jacket with fraying, chipping on corners. Small chunck missing on rear dust jacket. Clean, tight copy. Black and white photos throughout.

Hardcover. NY, The America Press, 1st, 1932, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 180 pages, blue cloth with gilt lettering. Scores of glossy B&W photographs from the air and ground. Maps of Alaska on both sets of end papers with airplane and dog team routes. First edition of this Jesuit priest's 1600 mile expedition memoir about mushing down the Yukon River, visiting Jesuit Missions, and into the erupting Aniackchak Crater. Accounts first published in The Saturday Evening Post. This is an ex-library copy with stamping and residue to endpapers, but clean and tight inside.

Hardcover. NY, Crown Publishers, 1st US, 1972, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, red covers with gilt on spin, front cover, 232 pages. Salvatore Ferragamo traces his life's adventures from his origins as a village shoemaker to founding what would become a major global fashion brand. B&w photos. Clean copy, no dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY, Lyle Stuart, 1st, 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket, 190 pages, b&w illustrations. The story of the rise and near-collapse of the Playboy Empire, told by the manager of Playboy's London casinos. Clean copy.

Softcover. Jackson Hole WY, self-published, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 341 pages, b&w illustrations. The autobiography of a successful woman rancher in Wyoming. INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR on the front fly leaf. Bright, clean copy.

Hardcover. Baltimore MD, Johns Hopkins University Press , 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 219 pages, endpapers map. Describes Jefferson's European journeys during his time as minister to the court of Louis XVI between 1784 and 1789, and explores the significance of his travels to American culture. Illustrated with some 60 b&w images from the period, and drawing on Jefferson's account books and correspondence, shows how his experiences shaped his intellectual and aesthetic development. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Ecco, 1st, 2022, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 454 pages, b&w, color illustrations. Los Angeles in the 1960s: riots in Watts and on the Sunset Strip, wild weekends in Malibu, late nights at The Daisy discotheque, openings at the Ferus Gallery, and the convergence of pop art, rock and roll, and the New Hollywood. At the center of it all, one inspired, improbable, and highly combustible couple--Dennis Hopper and Brooke Hayward--lived out the emblematic love story of '60s L.A. The home these two glamorous young actors created for themselves and their family at 1712 North Crescent Heights Boulevard in the Hollywood Hills became the era's unofficial living room, a kaleidoscopic realm--"furnished like an amusement park," Andy Warhol said--that made an impact on anyone who ever stepped into it. Hopper and Hayward, vanguard collectors of contemporary art, packed the place with pop masterpieces by the likes of Roy Lichtenstein, Ed Ruscha, and Warhol, and welcomed a who's who of visitors, from Jane Fonda to Jasper Johns, Joan Didion to Tina Turner, Hells Angels to Black Panthers. In this house, everything that defined the 1960s went down: the fun, the decadence, the radical politics, and, ultimately, the danger and instability that Hopper explored in the project that made his career, became the cinematic symbol of the period, and blew their union apart--Easy Rider.

Hardcover. NY, Random House , 3rd pr., 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 230 pages. This autobiography covers the first eleven years in the life of the distinguished Nigerian dramatist and poet who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover on a lightly worn dust jacket, 641 pages, b&w illustrations. This is the first full-length biography of the man historian Michael Beschloss calls the keystone figure in the history of American intelligence. Allen Dulles (1893-1969) served in the Office of Strategic Services in Europe during WWII and was named director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1953, serving under Eisenhower and Kennedy. In an overlong, sometimes tedious narrative, Grose (Israel in the Mind of America) describes how Dulles oversaw the firm establishment of the CIA in the Washington power structure during the Eisenhower years (his older brother, John Foster Dulles, was then the Secretary of State), only to be forced out after the CIA's failure in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. Later appointed to the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy, Dulles became its most diligent member, according to Grose, and a supporter of the view that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Other controversial issues explored include Dulles's exploitation of ex-Nazi Reinhard Gehler's spy network in the early years of the Cold War, and whether JFK authorized, or even knew about, CIA attempts to liquidate Castro. Grose delves unenlighteningly into Dulles's shortcomings as husband and father; he kept a mistress or two and spent little time at home.

NY, Random House, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. An advisor to presidents, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and tireless champion of progressive government, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., was also an inveterate letter writer. Indeed, the term "man of letters" could easily have been coined for Schlesinger, a faithful and prolific correspondent whose wide range of associates included powerful public officials, notable literary figures, prominent journalists, Hollywood celebrities, and distinguished fellow scholars. The Letters of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. reveals the late historian's unvarnished views on the great issues and personalities of his time, from the dawn of the Cold War to the aftermath of September 11. Here is Schlesinger's correspondence with such icons of American statecraft as Harry Truman, Adlai Stevenson, Hubert Humphrey, Henry Kissinger, Bill Clinton, and, of course, John and Robert Kennedy (including a detailed critique of JFK's manuscript for Profiles in Courage). There are letters to friends and confidants such as Eleanor Roosevelt, John Kenneth Galbraith, Gore Vidal, William Styron, and Jacqueline Kennedy (to whom Schlesinger sends his handwritten condolences in the hours after her husband's assassination), and exchanges with such unlikely pen pals as Groucho Marx, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Bianca Jagger. Finally, there are Schlesinger's many thoughtful replies to the inquiries of ordinary citizens, in which he offers his observations on influences, issues of the day, and the craft of writing history.

Softcover. NY, Carroll & Graf, Softcover, 500 pages. A twentieth-century photographer, artist, writer and designer for more than fifty years, Cecil Beaton was at the center of the worlds of fashion, society, theater and film. This book brings together for the first time the never-before-published diaries from 1970 to 1980 and, unlike the six slim volumes of diaries published during his lifetime, these have been left uniquely unedited. Hugo Vickers, the executor of Beaton's estate and the author of his acclaimed biography, has added extensive notes that are as lively as the diary entries themselves. Here is the photographer for British and American Vogue, designer of the sets and costumes for the play and film My Fair Lady and the film Gigi, with a cast of characters from many worlds, at shooting parties in the English countryside, on yachts, at garden parties at Buckingham Palace, at costume balls in Venice, Paris or London. Clean copy.

Secaucus NJ, Lyle Stuart , 1st, 1980, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 301 pages. Will was Gene Fowler's son. Gene Fowler went from journalist in Denver to an in-demand scriptwriter in Hollywood, where he married. His "rat-pack" friends included John Barrymore and W. C. Fields. Here are his son's memoirs of life among such as Ring Lardner, W.C. Fields, William Faulkner, Damon Runyon, Jack Dempsey and others.

Hardcover. Narberth PA, Livingston Publishing, 1st, 1952, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 118 pages. INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR on the front flyleaf. Salmon cloth covers with black cloth inlay & gilt titles, black printed titles to spine. Frontis photograph Woodrow Wilson. Clean copy.

Softcover. Burlington IA, Craftsman Press , 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, pictorial wraps, 190 pages, b&w illustrations. An infantryman's memoir of World War II in Europe's waning months. INSCRIBED BY BIED on half-title page. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Harcourt Brace , 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Illustrated with 16 pages of black and white photographs, 338 pages. With wry humor and sharp observation, playwright Pifer elegantly mixes memory and research to reconstruct the world of his South African boyhood from 1933 to 1945. Pifer's father, an idealistic mining engineer in search of challenge and stability during the Depression, found it in Africa, but his earnest American egalitarianism soon put him in conflict with Afrikaner mine overseers, and his career under magnate Sir Ernest Oppenheimer stalled. The author deftly evokes his family--"my mother had the freedom of a disobedient daughter"--and the isolation of the desert town of Oranjemund. The book is even more resonant in its snapshots of mid-century Southern Africa: the still-simmering enmity between Afrikaners and the English; the ripples from Hitler's war in what prior to WW I had been the German territory of South West Africa (currently Namibia). Pifer's knowing account of the travails of servants--"the chasm that exists between white mistress and African maid"--still rings true today. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Kent UK, Winterdown Books, 1st , 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 107 pages. Limited to 375 copies. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 2nd pr., 1969, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a worn, chipped dust jacket, 505 pages with b&w illustrations. Amazing detail, yet easily flowing narrative of the governor who preceded FDR, who--with Frances Perkins assistance as Industrial Commissioner--shaped a state's humane response to sweatshops, immigration. His 1928 presidential campaign faced burning Klu Klux Klan crosses and harrassment when he ventured outside the Northeast. After losing to Herbert Hoover he left his successor to Governor of New York, Franklin D. Roosevelt, a working government and blueprint for social reform that Roosevelt would later put to use as President. Name on half title page, otherwise clean internally.

Hardcover. Rutland VT, Tuttle Publishing Co,, 1st, 1937, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, terra-cotta cloth, 87 pages, limited to 500 copies. SIGNED BY NAY on the half-title page. "This is the real authentic story of an old Vermont country doctor written not as fiction but as the life of one of Vermont's oldest physicians....that beloved figure, the old-fashioned country doctor..." Name on front fly leaf otherwise clean.

Softcover. Norman OK, University of Oklahoma Press, reprint, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 351 pages. George Wilkins Kendall, who founded the New Orleans Picayune in 1837, was a restless, impatient, and colorful character in an exciting era. For thirty years he guided the Picayune and built it into a powerful force in behalf of America's westward expansion. Kendall's vigorous editorials championed the cause of the infant Republic of Texas. When the Texan Santa Fe Expedition was organized in 1841, for the purpose of occupying New Mexico (then still under Mexican rule), Kendall left his editorial chair to participate--and was marched off to Mexico as a captive for seven months when the expedition was overwhelmed at Santa Fe. A few years later, when Kendall accompanied American forces invading Mexico during the Mexican War, he became America's first war correspondent--reporting directly from the battlefront. His effective "courier expresses" brought the first news of each battle to an eager nation, including President Polk, who often read news of the war in Kendall's Picayune before hearing it from his field commanders. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1st, 1961, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket with some light tape repairs. 312 pages, INSCRIBED BY FLANDERS on the front fly leaf. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Viking, 1st, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 430 pages. In this book, backed by a wealth of new research, the author tells for the first time the story of the career of Eugenio Pacelli, the man who as Pius XII was Pope during the Second World War and arguably the most powerful churchman in modern history. Adding to the continuing debate about collective guilt and the Holocaust this is an extraordinary and explosive history. In the first decade of the century, as a brilliant young lawyer, Pacelli helped shape an ideology of unprecedented papal power; during the 1920s he employed cunning and moral blackmail to impose that power in Germany. In 1933 Hitler became his perfect negotiating partner and a concordat was established that granted religious and educational advantages to the Catholic Church in exchange for Catholic withdrawal from social and political action. This 'voluntary' abdication of political Catholicism imposed from Rome facilitated the rise of Nazism. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, St. Martin's Press, 1st US, 1972, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, tan cloth covers with gilt lettering on spine, 203 pages, b&w illustrations. Memoir by sister of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Previous owner's stamp otherwise clean, Lacks dust jacket.

Hardcover. Northampton MA, Kraushar Press, 1st, 1943, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, orange cloth covers with black lettering, 163 pages, b&w photos. Inspired by a visit to Stoney Reservation in Alberta, Canada, the author spent 15 years visiting & living among 47 tribes, and developed a touring show of pictures, songs, dances, stories & sign language. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, John Day, 1st, 1949, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a bright, edgeworn and chipped dust jacket. Explores the life and teachings of the ancient Chinese philosopher, Confucius. The book delves into Confucius' background, upbringing, and the cultural and political context in which he lived. It also examines the various interpretations of Confucianism throughout history and how his teachings have influenced Chinese society and beyond. The author offers a critical analysis of Confucius' philosophy and challenges some of the popular myths and misconceptions that have surrounded him. Mild musty smell, clean copy.

Hardcover. John L Caulon, 1st, 1880, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 87 pages, brown cloth covers with gilt lettering on front. Previous owner's signature on front fly leaf otherwise clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. Westport, CT, Greenwood Press, 1st, May 30, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 271 pages, several b&w photographs and illustrations. Small stain on bottom edge. Else a very clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. London, Routledge, 1st, 1980, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 212 pages, b&w illustrations. SIGNED and INSCRIBED by the author with a note by the author laid-in. Light edgewear to dust jacket, faint foxing to top edge. Clean, tight copy. This book discusses the home life of Queen Victoria in the context of her marriage to Prince Albert and her relationships with her children. Whittle describes the purchase, remodeling and rebuilding of Osborne House and Balmoral Castle, a subject often given little attention in other books on the couple's life together.

Hardcover. Mexico, Fundacion Olga y Rufino Tamayo, Reprint, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 150 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Book text in Spanish. Former price tag residue on back of dust jacket. Color illustrations throughout.

Hardcover. Boston, New England Publishing Company, 1st, 1879, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, green cloth, 373 pages. Illustrated with 2 black & white plates. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1st, 1970, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: Fair, 272 pages. Hardcover. Red cloth cover with gilt titles. Black & white illustrations. Dust jacket with tears, creasing along edges. Clean, unmarked pages.

Hardcover. London, Henry Colburn, 1st, 1848, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Two volumes. 1/2 leather bindings with gold marbled covers and end papers. Gilt top edges. Volume 1 - 476 pages plus 16 pages of ads. Raised bands on spine. Rubbing to edges. Clean, unmarked text. Volume 2 - 510 pages. Raised bands on spine. Rubbing to edges. Clean, unmarked text.

Hardcover. Boston, The Fort Gill Press, 1st, 1909, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 313 pages. B&w frontispiece with tissue guard and b&w illustrations throughout. Ex-lib copy with library plate on front endpaper, number front flyleaf, and stamp on title page. on Light edgewear, rubbing to cover edges. Light fraying to top of spine. Else a clean copy.

Hardcover. London, Folio Society, 1st thus, 1978, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 362 pages, with illustrations throughout, edited and introduced by Christopher Hibbert. Gilt decorations and title on orange cloth boards with slipcase, spotless and bright copy.

Hardcover. New York, Dutton Books, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 304 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. A very clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket edges. A tight copy.

Hardcover. New York, HarperCollins Publishers, 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 242 pages. Hardcover. INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. Gilt title on spine. Color illustrations throughout. From the front flap: "In Red, Sammy tells the outrageous story of his tear through rock 'n' roll, detailing the backstage antics and nonstop touring hat have made his voice instantly recognizable. Beginning with his musical coming-of-age in blue-collar towns of California, Sammy traces his rough and determined rise to fame, working harder than anyone else out there and writing songs about the things he loved--fast cars, loud parties, and lots of good times."

Hardcover. Caldwell, Idaho, Caxton Printers, 1st, 1940, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Fair, INSCRIBED BY THE SUBJECT OF THE BOOK, DR. J.N. ROMIG on the half-title page. Black & white photo plates, 299 pages. Dust jacket badly chipped, light water stain to top edge. Previous owner's book plate opposite half title page.

Hardcover. Leiden, The Netherlands, Brill, 1st edition, 2012, Book: Near Fine, Dust Jacket: None, 352 pages. Hardcover. Decorated cover boards, excellent. Very clean pages, edges. Biding tight. Spine straight. Like new. most remembered for his biblical criticism, Vossius played a central role in the early modern European world of learning.

Hardcover. New York , G.P.Putnam's Sons, 1st, 1929, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, 356 pages, Hardcover with dust jacket. 46 B&W photos and a map. Dust jacket edgeworn, chipped, soiled. Light flecking to cloth blue color. Tight copy. Greenland expedition in the Effie M. Morrissey, commanded by Capt. Bob Bartlett. Streeter's account featuring the Montana Cowboy, Carl Dunrud, who came aboard the arctic exploration vessel, Morrissey, specifically for the purpose of roping and bringing back live polar bears and other Arctic animals. Numerous black and white photographs showing various scenes of Greenland and native Inuit costumes and habits.

Hardcover. London, Phaidon Press, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 190 pages. Hardcover. Extensive b&w photography throughout. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket.

Hardcover. US, VH1 Press, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 160 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to boards.

Hardcover. New York, Beaufort Books, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 375 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Black and white pictures throughout.

Hardcover. New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 56 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Color and Black and white pictures throughout. Shocking pink--hot pink, as it is called today--was the signature color of Elsa Schiaparelli (1890-1973) and perhaps her greatest contribution to the fashion world. Schiaparelli was one of the most innovative designers in the early 20th century. Many design elements that are taken for granted today she created and brought to the forefront of fashion. She is credited with many firsts: trompe l'oeil sweaters with collars and bows knitted in; wedge heels; shoulder bags; and even the concept of a runway show for presenting collections. Hot Pink explores Schiaparelli's childhood in Rome, her introduction to high fashion in Paris, and her swift rise to success collaborating with surrealist and cubist artists like Salvador Dali and Jean Cocteau. The book includes an author's note, a list of museums and websites where you can find Schiaparelli's fashions, endnotes, a bibliography, and an index.

Hardcover. New York, Spiegel & Grau, 1st, 2017, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 720 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. A very clean, unmarked copy with only minor dust jacket wear. Black and white images throughout. A tight copy.

Hardcover. New York, Robert M. McBride and CO, 1st, 1935, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 266 pages. Hardcover with no dust Jacket. Moderate rubbing and fraying along edges of cover boards. Sticker residue on rear end paper.

Hardcover. NY, Doubleday, 2nd pr., 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 321 pages, b&w photos. In a bright, unclipped dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY, Hawthorn Books, 2nd pr., 1973, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 243 pages, in a bright , price-clipped dust jacket. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 736 pages. A rich and revelatory biography of one of the crucial cultural figures of the twentieth century. Lincoln Kirstein's contributions to the nation's life, as both an intellectual force and advocate of the arts, were unparalleled. While still an undergraduate, he started the innovative literary journal Hound and Horn, as well as the modernist Harvard Society for Contemporary Art--forerunner of the Museum of Modern Art. He brought George Balanchine to the United States, and in service to the great choreographer's talent, persisted, against heavy odds, in creating both the New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet. Among much else, Kirstein helped create Lincoln Center in New York, and the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut; established the pathbreaking Dance Index and the country's first dance archives; and in some fifteen books proved himself a brilliant critic of art, photography, film, and dance. This stunning biography, filled with fascinating perceptions and incidents, is a major act of historical reclamation. Utilizing an enormous amount of previously unavailable primary sources, including Kirstein's untapped diaries, Martin Duberman has rendered accessible for the first time a towering figure of immense complexity and achievement.