Used & Rare Biography Books

Hardcover. Wisconsin, Stanton & Lee Publishers, Inc., 1st, 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 240 pages. SIGNED BY OWEN GROMME. Color and b/w illustrations throughout. "SIGNED" sticker on front cover. Dust cover shows wear: some chipping on spine and edges, small tears along edges, light fading. Boards in great shape, only very light fading along bottom edges. From the dust jacket front flap: "...presents the life and art of a man who through eight decades of accomplishment as a naturalist and artist has provided us with a link between the 19th and 21st centuries."

Hardcover. Wilmington, DE, Scholarly Resources Inc., 1st, 1984, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 298 pages. Hardcover. Dust jacket unclipped. Cover boards bound in blue, gilt title on spine and front cover. Dust jacket has a touch of agewear, A little foxing on top edge. Clean inside, binding tight, in great shape.

Hardcover. North Carolina, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1st, 1987, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 289 pages. Hardcover. B/w illustrations throughout. Black cover boards, gilt title on spine. Dust jacket unclipped, very good.

Hardcover. London, England, Hammond, Hammond & Co. Ltd., 1st Edition, 1953, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 2 Volume Set, DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY. 1560 total pages. Hardcovers. Black cover boards, gilt title on spine. Light tanning from age to pages. Bindings good. Spines straight. A record of one of America's most distinguished diplomatic careers.

Hardcover. Milwaukee, WI, Applause, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 192 pages. Color/BW photographs and illustrations. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. William Travilla is one of the best costume designers of all time and Marilyn Monroe his most famous client. Dressing Marilyn: How a Hollywood Icon Was Styled by William Travilla focuses on the striking dresses that Travilla designed for Marilyn, from his early work on the thriller Don't Bother to Knock and the gorgeous pink dress in which Marilyn sang "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" to the legendary white dress from The Seven Year Itch , which arguably contributed to the collapse of Marilyn's marriage to Joe DiMaggio. Featuring Travilla's original sketches, rare costume test shots, dress patterns, photographs of Marilyn wearing the dresses, plus exclusive and never-before-seen extracts from interviews with Travilla, this book offers a fresh insight into the golden age of Hollywood.

Softcover. London, National Portrait Gallery, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 160 pages. Softcover. Color and B/W photographs throughout. Clean, unmarked copy in excellent condition.

Hardcover. US, Atlas & Co, 6th, 2008, 240 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Black and white pictures throughout.

Softcover. New York, Billboard Books, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 656 pages. Softcover with no dust jacket. Remainder mark on top edge, otherwise, clean, unmarked copy. Light edgewear to wrappers. Black and white pictures throughout. Mann, a novelist and author of books on film history, presents this biography of director John Schlesinger (1926-2003), based on interviews with the director and his family following his stroke in 2001, in addition to other primary source documents, articles, and reviews. He describes Schlesinger's childhood; his early days as a documentary director at the BBC; his films during the era of New Hollywood; and Midnight Cowboy, which won an Academy Award. His other films, such as Billy Liar, Darling, Cold Comfort Farm, and The Day of the Locust, are discussed, as well as his accurate depictions of homosexuality, and his personal and professional relationships.

Softcover. NY, ILR Press, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 170 pages. Softcover with light edgewear to wrappers. Color pictures throughout. "Career waitresses do more than just serve food. They are part psychiatrist, part grandmother, part friend, and they serve every walk of American life: from the retired and the widowed, to the wounded and the lonely, and from the working class to the wealthy. The classic diner waitress is an icon of American culture.... This book takes a moment to honor and recognize waitresses' contribution to our communities. Doing this project has helped me to redefine my perspective on life, work, and happiness. It has made me reevaluate the myth of the American dream that says you need to have an 'important' job to be happy."

Hardcover. Seattle, WA, Fantagraphics Books, 1st, 2017, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 182 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Very clean, unmarked copy with only minor edgewear. A tight copy. Filled with reproduced artwork from the comic books Little Lulu, and his creations Melvin Monster and Thirteen (Going on Eighteen); rare drawings and cartoons; and never-before-seen photographs. Bill Schelly tells Stanley's life story through interviews with his family, friends, and colleagues.

Hardcover. Emmaus PA, Rodale, 2nd pr., 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 322 pages, hardcover with dust jacket. SIGNED BY ROSE on half title page. Minor rubbing and edgewear to dust jacket. Bright and clean; a tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Random House, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 510 pages, b&w photos. SIGNED BY CLARKE and dated on the front fly leaf. Bright, unclipped dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY, Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 384 pages, b&w illustrations. In 1830 a Yamana Indian boy, Orundellico, was bought from his uncle in Tierra del Fuego for the price of a mother-of-pearl button. Renamed Jemmy Button, he was removed from his primitive nomadic existence, where life revolved around the hunt for food and the need for shelter, and taken halfway round the world to England, then at the height of the Industrial Revolution. Clean, in a bright dust jacket.

Softcover. Destiny Books, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 218 pages. The author wrote both the Superman and Batman comics as well as many other comic-book titles during the 1940s and 1950s. He is the author of two philosophical novels, No Such Mirrors and The Blowtop, which was described by the New York Times as the first conscious existentialist novel in America.

Hardcover. Philadelphia, His Children, 1st, 1853, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 645 pages. Hardcover in calf. Red title label on spine with gilt lettering. Heavy foxing to pages, abrasions to leather. Tight copy. Moderate soil.

Hardcover. London, Sampson Low Son & Co, 1st, 1860, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 492 pages. Hardcover with 3/4 leather spine and marbled surfaces on all sides. First English edition published same year as first American edition. A clean, tight copy. moderate chipping to cover edges. and some rips to dry leather. Gilt title paste-down gone from spine.

Hardcover. New York, Hudson Hills Press, 1st, 1980, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, 187 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. green star sticker on front cover, otherwise clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. Austin TX, University of Texas Press, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. INSCRIBED AND SIGNED BY MEDINA on title page. A happy, middle-class childhood lived in the shadows of sweeping social change and oncoming revolution -- such was the experience of novelist Pablo Medina. In this memoir, Medina revisits his curious double world, recalling the pre-revolutionary Cuba of his first twelve years, 1948-1960. His recollections move easily from his childhood adventures to warm remembrances of family and friends to his growing awareness of the social conflicts that would ultimately send his family into exile in the United States. Medina also draws on the memories of his elders to extend his memoir back to the Cuban War of Independence and forward through the twentieth century to the fall of the Batista regime, the victory of the Revolution in 1959, and the family's growing disillusionment with the Castro regime. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Fort Lee NJ, Barricade Books, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. INSCRIBED BY ALLEN on the title page. An autobiography covering Allen's fifty years in radio and T.V. Allen was the creator and first host of the Tonight Show. B&w illust., 308 pages. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Grove Press, 1st, 2021, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 364 pages. Last Chance Texaco is the first ever no-holds-barred account of the life of one of rock's hardest working women in her own words. With candor and lyricism Rickie Lee Jones takes us on the journey of her exceptional life: from her nomadic childhood as the granddaughter of vaudevillian performers, to her father's abandonment of the family and her years as a teenage runaway, her beginnings at LA's Troubadour club, to her tumultuous relationship with Tom Waits, her battle with drugs, and longevity as a woman in rock and roll.These are never-before-told stories of the girl in "the raspberry beret," a songwriter who inspired American culture for decades.

Hardcover. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1st, 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in an dust jacket with mild fading to spine. A valuable record of the first Presidency of the TV age. Hagerty was President Eisenhower's only press secretary. Clean copy.

Softcover. Huron OH, Bottom Dog Press, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 130 pages. INSCRIBED BY JACOBSON on the title page. The author tells her story of growing up Jewish in Evanston, Illinois.

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Since 1945 there have been more than one hundred biographies of Hitler, and countless other books on him and the Third Reich. What happens when so many people reinterpret the life of a single individual? Dangerously, the cumulative portrait that begins to emerge can suggest the face of a mythic antihero whose crimes and errors blur behind an aura of power and conquest. By reversing the process, by making Hitler's biographers--rather than Hitler himself--the subject of inquiry, Lukacs reveals the contradictions that take us back to the true Hitler of history. Like an attorney, Lukacs puts the biographies on trial. He gives a masterly account of all the major works and of the personalities, methods, and careers of the biographers (one cannot separate the historian from his history, particularly in this arena); he looks at what is still not known (and probably never will be) about Hitler; he considers various crucial aspects of the real Hitler; and he shows how different biographers have either advanced our understanding or gone off track. By singling out those who have been involved in, or co-opted into, an implicit "rehabilitation of Hitler," Lukacs draws powerful conclusions about Hitler's essential differences from other monsters of history, such as Napoleon, Mussolini, and Stalin, and--equally important--about Hitler's place in the history of this century and of the world.

Hardcover. NY, Penguin Press, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 304 pages, b&w illustrations. Acclaimed journalist Robert Timberg's extraordinary, long-awaited memoir of his struggle to reclaim his life and find his calling after being severely burned as a young Marine lieutenant in Vietnam In January 1967, Robert Timberg was a short-timer, counting down the days until his combat tour ended. He had thirteen days to go before he got to go back home to his wife in Southern California. That homecoming would eventually happen, but not in thirteen days, and not as the person he once was. The moment his vehicle struck a Vietcong land mine divided his life into before and after.

Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 1960, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in an unclipped dust jacket with spine faded. The author's first book. The book describes the experiences that "Gael Greene, girl reporter," encountered in writing her features for the New York Post. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Dutton, 1st, 2023, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. The mysterious true story of Connie Converse--a mid-century New York City songwriter, singer, and composer whose haunting music never found broad recognition--and one writer's quest to understand her life This is the mesmerizing story of an enigmatic life. When musician and New Yorker contributor Howard Fishman first heard Connie Converse's voice on a recording, he was convinced she could not be real. Her recordings were too good not to know, and too out of place for the 1950s to make sense--a singer who seemed to bridge the gap between traditional Americana (country, blues, folk, jazz, and gospel), the Great American Songbook, and the singer-songwriter movement that exploded a decade later with Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. And then there was the bizarre legend about Connie Converse that had become the prevailing narrative of her life: that in 1974, at the age of fifty, she simply drove off one day and was never heard from again. Could this have been true? Who was Connie Converse, really?

Hardcover. NY, Bobbs-Merrill , 1st, 1954, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in an unclipped dust jacket with faging to spine. Illustrations and jacket art by Al Hirschfeld. One woman's humorous take on life in New York City in the early 1950s. The author was married to NYT drama critic, Brooks Atkinson, but she could write too. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Dey Street Books, 1st, 2022, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 655 pages, b&w illustrations. During his lifetime, Buckminster Fuller was hailed as one of the greatest geniuses of the twentieth century. As the architectural designer and futurist best known for the geodesic dome, he enthralled a vast popular audience, inspired devotion from both the counterculture and the establishment, and was praised as a modern Leonardo da Vinci. To his admirers, he exemplified what one man could accomplish by approaching urgent design problems using a radically unconventional set of strategies, which he based on a mystical conception of the universe's geometry. His views on sustainability, as embodied in the image of Spaceship Earth, convinced him that it was possible to provide for all humanity through the efficient use of planetary resources. From Epcot Center to the molecule named in his honor as the buckyball, Fuller's legacy endures to this day, and his belief in the transformative potential of technology profoundly influenced the founders of Silicon Valley. Inventor of the Future is the first authoritative biography to cover all aspects of Fuller's career. Drawing on meticulous research, dozens of interviews, and thousands of unpublished documents, Nevala-Lee has produced a riveting portrait that transcends the myth of Fuller as an otherworldly generalist. It reconstructs the true origins of his most famous inventions, including the Dymaxion Car, the Wichita House, and the dome itself; his fraught relationships with his students and collaborators; his interactions with Frank Lloyd Wright, Isamu Noguchi, Clare Boothe Luce, John Cage, Steve Jobs, and many others; and his tumultuous private life, in which his determination to succeed on his own terms came at an immense personal cost. In an era of accelerating change, Fuller's example remains enormously relevant, and his lessons for designers, activists, and innovators are as powerful and essential as ever. Remainder mark to top edge, otherwise clean.

Softcover. Createspace Independent Publishing, 1st, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Sodtcover, 254 pages. Actor, director, writer Evans connect his dots and long dashes through a life both creative and chaotic. Family, career, and cancer bump heads in a runaway boxcar full of colorful entanglements with the famous and the foolish. Tracing his family history through the years from the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression to the tragedy of the Hindenburg, and his early childhood in Japan before WW2, Evans cleverly sets the stage for what follows. His career as an actor ultimately clashed with an early marriage and fatherhood, providing many temptations that carried Evans to Mexico, Arizona, Ohio, Delaware, Kauai, Hawaii, and points beyond. Working in films with stars Jack Nicholson, George C. Scott, David Hemmings, and Michael J. Pollard were high points in his 50-year career that led to a love affair with France and La Nouvelle Vague and the writing, production and direction of his own films and plays. After a season as series regular Paul Hanley opposite Mia Farrow in tv's Peyton Place, Evans moved from early shows like Mr. Novak, Gunsmoke, and Bonanza to an episode of Star Trek with Shatner and Nimoy. Countless other roles sent him on his way to features including major roles in Islands in the Stream, The Nickel Ride, Dirty Little Billy and Synanon, productions that brought him together with many of Hollywood's top directors including Richard Rush, Robert Mulligan, Stan Dragoti and Richard Quine. As his wife, Jo, frequently reminds us, "Dick has made many things, but never without the help of others." Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Freundlich Books, reprint, 1986, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 795 pages, b&w photographs. Light edge wear to dust jacket. Foxing to top edge. Else a clean, tight copy. 'A work of immense historical proportions - a biography of America's first and possibly greatest broadcast journalist.' Notes on primary manuscript sources, index, bibliography. The definitive biography of broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow based on in-depth interviews and ten years of archival research, including declassified goverment documents and private files.

Hardcover. London, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 2nd imp., 1964, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 635 pages. Contains black and white illustrated plates, and a pull out family tree. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, Macmillan, reprint, 1930, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, dark blue cloth with gilt lettering on spine, 373 pages. Black and white frontispiece, 15 black and white photos and illustrations. Reminiscences of the writer's relationship with Theodore Roosevelt with a focus on their early years, family, and acquaintances. Inscription on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Thomas Crowell, 1st, 1926, Book: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket, 95 pages. B&w photo illustrations. A short biography of the book publisher. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Arbor House, 1st, 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 352 pages with photographs. Biography co-written by the author's brother. The definitive biography of one of America's most celebrated playwrights. Drawing on previously unseen diaries, letters, and interviews, the authors explore the life and work of Williams, from his early years in Mississippi to his landmark plays of the 1950s and 1960s. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Doubleday and Company, reprint, 1964, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, price-clipped dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY, Hawthorn Books, 1st, 1973, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a worn, lightly soiled dust jacket, 243 pages. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Bobbs-Merrill, reprint, 1966, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 450 pages, b&w illustrations. Biography of William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, who served twice as Prime Minister of England during the reign of Queen Victoria. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Vancouver, Raincoast Books, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 307 pages. b&w illustrations. In the mid-1800s, George Back went on three Arctic expeditions with Sir John Franklin across the barren lands of the Canadian north. But unlike Franklin, Back lived to tell his tales in journals, drawings, watercolors, and maps. Noted writer Peter Steele drew on these sources, along with contemporary accounts, to craft this gripping tale of resilience in the face of incredible odds. The book thrillingly recounts the near-impossible circumstances of these expeditions -- the fights with the Hudson Bay Company, rations that failed to get through, even cannibalism. Back survived these horrors to lead an exploration of the Great Fish River, now named Back River in his honor. His return upstream, hauling his handmade boat up 83 sets of rapids, is one of the greatest-ever feats of heroism and endurance. Clean copy.

Softcover. Wesleyan University Press, reprint, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 166 pages. This book, first published in Italy in 1988 as Autoritratto di gruppo, documents the intricate web of individual and communal experiences in the political movements of the '60s. Luisa Passerini, internationally known for her work in memory, oral history, and their intersections with social movements, sets out to rescue the "forgotten memory" of her generation and to give it literary status. The year 1968 is symbolic in Italy of a whole decade of struggles by students, women, workers, intellectuals, and technicians. Framed and illuminated by sessions of psychoanalysis, this absorbing narrative weaves episodes of Passerini's autobiography - including her involvement in the 1968 uprisings - oral histories of other participants, and Passerini's sociological observations. It raises critical questions about how we reconstruct the past and vividly illustrates the forces that shaped a generation. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Peder Press, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. The biography of an immigrant girl from Fubine, a small village in Northern Italy, who makes a life for herself in the Bronx. A rambling account but very interesting with many b&w personal photos. Privately printed. Much on NY city life in the 20s and 30s in the Italian immigrant community. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Quadrangle/ NY Times, 1st, 1974, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 206 pages. Purple top-stain. An interesting account of what it's like to work erecting multi-story high rise buildings in a city like New York. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Boston, A.J. Wright, 1st, 1848, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 300 pages, illustrated with 6 b&w engravings from sketches done by the author. Interesting sailing, whaling adventures by a 14-year veteran seaman. Embossed brown cloth with gilt design on cover, gilt lettering and design on spine. Spine cloth chipped, worn at top and bottom. Previous owner's signature in pencil on front fly leaf. Corners show wear, internally very good with only minor foxing.

Hardcover. New York, NYU Press, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 387 pages. Minor wear to dust jacket. Else very good.

Softcover. Crossroad Pub Co, reprint, January 1992, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 720 pages. Light wear, creasing, rubbing to wrappers, faint soil to edges, small dent to spine. Previous owner's notation in ink on contents-page.

Hardcover. New York, Blue Rider Press, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 336 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Black and white illustrations and pictures throughout.

Softcover. Berkeley CA, University of California Press, 1st pbk., 1969, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 463 pages. This classic biography has established itself as the standard account of Saint Augustine's life and teaching. The remarkable discovery recently of a considerable number of letters and sermons by Augustine has thrown fresh light on the first and last decades of his experience as a bishop. These circumstantial texts have led Peter Brown to reconsider some of his judgments on Augustine, both as the author of the Confessions and as the elderly bishop preaching and writing in the last years of Roman rule in North Africa. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Stringer & Townsend, 1st, 1851, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, red cloth with gilt lettering, 226 pages. Previous owners bookplate on inside front cover. Some pages show minor foxing. Light rubbing to corners and at top and base of spine. Clean, unmarked text.

Hardcover. New York, Scribner, 1st, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 287 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Black and white pictures in center. Clean, tight copy with light edgewear to cover boards.

Hardcover. Albany, CA, Rowena Godding Ruggles, 2nd, 1972, Hardcover. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on second front end-paper. 96 pages of text. Includes 213 plates of b&w illustrations of Kewpies. Biography of Rose O'Neill and her work, including the development of the Kewpie dolls. In very good condition. The pages are clean and book neatly and tightly cloth-bound in red covers. dust jacket clean, with minor edge-wear.

Hardcover. Cambridge, Mass., Charlotte C. Coates, 1st, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 250 pages. Ex-library stamp on title page. Ex-library residue and envelope on back endpaper. Otherwise, a very clean and tight copy.