Hardcover. Pittsburgh PA, GoodKnight Books, 1st, 2017, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. The Art of Selling Movies presents the first-ever look at 60 years of newspaper advertising for motion pictures great and small. These ads created by Hollywood and adapted by local and regional exhibitors motivated patrons to leave their homes, part with precious income, and spend time in the dark. Because of the high stakes involved, theater operators used wildly creative means to make that happen. They made movie advertising equal parts art and psychology, appealing to every human instinct (especially sex) in an effort to push product and keep their theatres in business. From the pen-and-ink masterpieces of the 1920s and 30s to location-specific folk art to ad space jam-packed with enticements for every member of the family, The Art of Selling Movies dissects the psyche of the American movie-going public ... and the advertisers seeking to push just the right buttons.
Hardcover. NY, Henry Holt, 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, In ancient China a jealous artist plots to eliminate the favorite architect of the emperor. Once again Demi captivatingly presents a Chinese folktale with just enough text to tell the story and keep the interest of her young readers. Rendered in vibrant reds and pale blues and yellows, her illustrations feature finely detailed buildings and costumes, all the while retaining a fresh, clean look.Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Calla/Dover, reprint, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, red cloth with gilt decoration, 352 pages. A magnificent treasury of popular folklore, this rare, hardcover compilation offers a bounty of delightful illustrations by Charles Robinson -- there are black-and-white illustrations on every page as well as 16 plates of full- and two-color images. Decorative initials and borders, hand lettering, silhouettes, and other ornaments embellish renderings of 300 traditional verses, from "Little Tom Tucker" and "Baa, Baa Black Sheep" to "Good King Arthur" and "Shave a Pig." A facsimile reproduction of the 1903 edition.
NY, Walker Childrens, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. INSCRIBED BY KIMBLE opposite the title page. Warren Kimble, America's foremost contemporary folk artist, lets his favorite cats out of the bag in his first picture book for the very young. From fat cats to clean cats to curious cats, these clever word pairs capture familiar feline behavior and attitudes in all their quirky glory. Clean, bright copy.
Hardcover. NY, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Award-winning artist Jerry Pinkney's wordless adaptation of one of Aesop's most beloved fables, an unlikely pair learn that no act of kindness is ever wasted. WINNER OF THE 2010 CALDECOTT MEDAL SIGNED BY PINKNEY.
Hardcover. NY, Harry N. Abrams, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. A collection of fairy folklore and folk tales, bibliography, glossary. Color illustrations by Arthur Rackham, Richard Doyle, Edmund Dulac, William Blake, and George Cruikshank. Glossy illustrated boards. Clean copy.
Hardcover. Middletown CT, Wesleyan University Press, 1st, 1976, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 180 pages illustrated in b&w, some color. The life & work of a 19th century American folk artist Brings together for the first time all of Stock's extant papers-his will, one lengthy letter to his brother, various newspaper notices concerning him, and his remarkable journal written sometime after 1846. In addition, it includes reproductions of all known surviving Stock paintings. Clean copy.
Softcover. NY, DC Comics, 1st thus, 2022, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, One of the most popular and critically acclaimed graphic novels of all time and illustrated by an exemplary selection of the medium's most gifted artists, Sandman weaves a spellbinding tapestry that fuses modern myth with the timeless narratives of history and folklore. Here, in the domain of the Endless, epic stories unfold stories that transcend the boundaries of life and death. With stunning visuals crafted by a handpicked cadre of the industry's most talented artists, including Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, Malcolm Jones III, and Kelley Jones, with spectacular guest art by Chris Bachalo, Colleen Doran, Charles Vess, and Michael Zulli. Volume 1 spans 'The Sandman' issues #1-20 and collects the pivotal story arcs 'Preludes and Nocturnes,' 'The Doll's House,' and 'Dream Country.' It also includes the historic 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' the first comic book ever to receive the prestigious World Fantasy Award. Clean, bright copy.
Softcover. NY, Oxford University Press, repriny, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 290 pages. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s original, groundbreaking study explores the relationship between the African and African-American vernacular traditions and black literature, elaborating a new critical approach located within this tradition that allows the black voice to speak for itself.Examining the ancient poetry and myths found in African, Latin American, and Caribbean culture, and particularly the Yoruba trickster figure of Esu-Elegbara and the Signifying Monkey whose myths help articulate the black tradition's theory of its literature, Gates uncovers a unique system forinterpretation and a powerful vernacular tradition that black slaves brought with them to the New World. His critical approach relies heavily on the Signifying Monkey--perhaps the most popular figure in African-American folklore--and signification and Signifyin(g). Exploring signification in black American life and literature by analyzing the transmission and revision of various signifying figures, Gates provides an extended analysis of what he calls the "Talking Book," a central trope in early slave narratives that virtually defines the tradition of black American letters. Gates uses this critical framework to examine several major works of African-American literature--including Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, and Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo--revealing how these works signify on the black tradition and on each other. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Hyperion Books, Book Cub Ed., 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. Showing compassion for one's neighbor brings bountiful reward in this original tale based on Guatemalan folklore. Gently imparts a timeless message.--Publishers Weekly. Illustrated in bright, crisp colors of Hispanic folk art by Czernecki.
Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Benton (1889-1975) is a painter shrouded in paradox and misapprehension. Though pigeonholed as a regionalist chronicler of the Midwest, many of his finest on-site pictures are of Southern blacks and poor whites. Remembered best are his folksy rural scenes and aggressively three-dimensional murals, but the public tends to forget that he ran through the gamut of modernist styles (he was Jackson Pollock's teacher) and that his brilliant abstract color experiments ally him with the modernist movement. Some of Benton's crowded murals of the 1930s reflect his leftist sympathies, yet critics reviled him as politically conservative. These contradictions are illuminated in this catalogue of a touring exhibition curated by Adams. The text stands on its own as a wholly engaging biography, offering an unbuttoned look at a pugnacious, often reckless, artist who valiantly sought to preserve a rural America that was vanishing before his eyes. Clean copy.
Hardcover. Scarsdale NY, Bradbury Press, 1st, 1974, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, beige cloth stamped in black. Folklore about a Japanese farmer who digs up a huge imo (yam). Ed Young style pencil drawings by Japanese artist Mitsu Yashima. No dust jacket. Clean copy.
Hardcover. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1st, 1929, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 634 pages. Hardcover. Illustrated with a few black & white photographs. Bookplate on inside front cover. Features music and lyrics. 1 Fold-out map of Virginia. Clean, tight copy.
Hardcover. NY, Dey Street Books/Morrow, 1st, 2024, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 437 pages. Celebrated NPR music critic Ann Powers explores the life and career of Joni Mitchell in a lyrical style as fascinating and ethereal as the songs of the artist herself. In Traveling, Powers seeks to understand Mitchell through her myriad journeys. Through extensive interviews with Mitchell's peers and deep archival research, she takes readers to rural Canada, mapping the singer's childhood battle with polio. She charts the course of Mitchell's musical evolution, ranging from early folk to jazz fusion to experimentation with pop synthetics. She follows the winding road of Mitchell's collaborations with other greats, and the loves that emerged along the way, all the way through to the remarkable return of Mitchell to music-making after the 2015 aneurysm that nearly took her life. Clean copy.
Hardcover. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1st thus, 2022, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 92 pages illustrated in color and b&w by the author. In this book, first published as Troldskab in 1892, Kittelsen spins tales of wonder around creatures rumored to haunt the fields, forests, and waterfalls of Norway. Striding, gamboling, and slithering across these pages are witches and gnomes and sea monsters, fiery dragons waking from their stiff-winged slumber, mermaids rising from the deep, and the sly, shape-shifting nokk. But first and foremost are the trolls, hapless, horrible, or just plain silly, working their spells and making their mischief to the terror and delight of the presumably human reader.Tailoring his whimsical artistic style to each tale, Kittelsen's stories, in Tiina Nunnally's nimble translation, reveal a Nordic world of wonder, myth, and magic as real as the imagination allows. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Dial Books, reprint, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, lightly worn dust jacket, 686 pages. The Uncle Remus tales, originally written down by Joel Chandler Harris, were first published over a hundred years ago, and serve as the largest collection of African-American folklore. In this four-book series, Julius Lester masterfully retains the flavor of the tales, while dropping the heavy dialect of the Harris originals and adding contemporary language and references-- ensuring that the stories will be understood and enjoyed by new generations of readers. The stories are beautifully illuminated by the slyly humorous full-color and black-and-white art of Jerry Pinkney.
Softcover. Vancouver, Marion Scott Gallery, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 172 pages, illustrated throughout in color and b&w. Light shelf-wear to wrappers, else a clean, tight copy.
Hardcover. NY, E. Weyhe, 1st US, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, large folio, ( over 12" - 15" tall ), red cloth stamped in gilt. 56 pages of German text, comprising introduction and detailed catalogue of plates, the origins of objects (textiles, ceramics and wood) which demonstrate the origins and continued use of traditional design in the folk arts of Europe. Followed by 132 color plates of the objects mostly from Eastern Europe, most pasted in. First published in Germany in 1926, this appears to be the first US edition produced the same year. Architect Albert Kahn's copy with his ownership signature in pencil and date of 1926 on the front fly leaf. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.
Softcover. Montgomery, Ala., Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, 1st, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 69 pages, color and b&w illustrations. Light edge wear to wrappers. Small mark on rear cover, else a very clean, tight copy.
Hardcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 179 pages. Whatever Gets You through the Night is an irreverent and deeply funny retelling of the Arabian Nights and a wildly inspired exploration of the timeless art of storytelling. Award-winning writer Andrei Codrescu re-imagines how Sheherezade saved Baghdad's virgins and her own life through a heroic feat of storytelling-one that kept the Persian king Sharyar hanging in agonizing narrative and erotic suspense for 1001 nights. For Sheherezade, the end of either suspense or curiosity means death, but Codrescu keeps both alive in this entertaining tale of how she learned to hold a king in thrall, setting with her endless invention an unsurpassable example for all storytellers across the ages. Liberated and mischievous, Codrescu's Sheherezade is as charming as she is shrewd-and so is the story Codrescu tells.
Hardcover. NY, Dodd Mead, reprint, 1896, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 285 pages, illustrated with many b&w line engravings by various artists. Light tan cloth covers with bright gilt and dark brown design. Copyright page states 1888, so assumed a reprint. Clean, bright copy.