Hardcover. NY, Abrams, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 128 pages. Francoise Mouly takes us behind the scenes at the New Yorker and reveals how the magazine creates its signature covers commenting on the most urgent political and cultural events of the day. She shows the shocking and hilarious sketches that didn't make the cut and explains how these are essential stages in the evolution of a cover that stands the test of time but retains its edge. Her book captures contemporary history--from the farce of Monica Lewinsky to the adventures of Michelle and Barack to nuclear meltdown in Japan--in images that are as acute as they are outrageous. More than that, it shows how the magazine that exemplifies journalistic excellence in America also dares to cultivate a sense of humor when grappling with complex moral and political issues.
Hardcover. San Francisco, Chronicle Books, 1st, 2003, Hardcover in pictorial boards, color illustrations throughout. From the creators of Emily the Strange and Oopsy Daisy comes Bon Bon, the half-Japanese and half-French girl who possesses a sophisticated and mysterious imagination. From Vespas to Verner Panton, Pucci to Pop Art, space age lounge to 1960s sound, Bon Bon is always looking for the next intoxicating adventures. Leaf through the psychedelic and highly designed Bon Bon on the Go-Go to watch her transform the mod, mod, mod world she lives in. Clean copy.
Hardcover. Philadelphia, Griffith and Rowland Press, 1st, 1908, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, light blue cloth covers stamped in white and dark blue. Story of survival based on a wreck in the China Sea of the Ketrel, a full-rigged ship bound from Liverpool to Yokohama, Japan. 360 pages, illustrated in b&w, one plate not present (the map on pg. 135). Bookplate on inside front cover, otherwise clean.
Softcover. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 315 pages, b&w illustrations. In this engaging tale, Honda Katsuichi reconstructs the life of an Ainu woman living on the northern island of Japan over five hundred years ago. Harukor's story, created from surviving oral accounts of Ainu life and culture as well as extensive scholarly research, is set in the centuries before the mainland Japanese nearly destroyed the way of life depicted here. In the first person, the fictional Harukor tells us of her childhood, her adolescence, and her motherhood, drawing on tales and songs performed by her grandmother and other bards. She describes festivals, weddings, childbirth and midwifery, traditional healing methods, battles, and funerals in detail. Her story is followed by the adventures of her oldest son, Pasekur, which end by foreshadowing an early Ainu rebellion against Japanese encroachment.
Hardcover. Philadelphia, Edward Stern, 1st, 1910, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover with no dust jacket. Illustrated cover boards. Author wrote "The Roosevelt Bears", 7 color plates by C. Twelvetrees. An adventure told in verse about a little boy, Prince Domino. He and his siamese cat, who is very smart indeed, travel to far-off lands where they are helped by a little black and a little Japanese boy (the depictions of whom are slightly stereotypical). Moderate wear to front and rear cover. Loose binding. Light soil. Rear hinge torn half way up from bottom.
Hardcover. New York, George Braziller, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, Unpaginated. Color and black & white photography. British artist Long ( Walking in Circles ) takes nature treks--in England's Lake District, the Sahara, Japan, Nepal--and creates site-specific works along the way. He fashions a mud circle in the river Avon, traces a line of snow near a temple in Kyoto and erects a circle of stones on a Swiss mountainside. The spare, deeply meditative photographs that he took en route sometimes call to mind prehistoric British megalithic monuments or Native American earthworks, as if he wants to tune in on planetary patterns of energy. At other times Long simply records what he sees, providing dramatic vistas of Iceland's vast rolling hills, Bolivia's high plateau, Washington's forests and Mount Everest's calm majesty. His images, poetic captions and unobstrusive siteworks reflect an artist who is at once traveler, nature-lover and adventurer.
Hardcover. NY, Dodd Mead, reprint, 1957, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 275 pages. Black & white illustrations by Kurt Wiese. Slight chipping to top and bottom spine, front corners. Price clipped.
Hardcover. London, John Murray, 2nd Ed., 1889, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue cloth stamped in gilt, a little rubbed and bumped at edges. 456 pages with color frontispiece map, 139 illustrations of which 27 are full-page and 14 maps of which some are folding. School ex-library copy with spine label, minimal stamping to front endpapers and title page. Previous owner's inscription on half-title page. Interior clean with no marking, all fold-out maps in great condition. NOTE: The Marchesa a schooner yacht sailed from England in 1881 to the seas of China and Japan the East Indies and New Guinea before returning to England in 1884. First published in 1886 as a two volume set.