biography

Hardcover. New York, Abrams ComicArts, 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 176 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. A very clean, unmarked copy. Krazy Kat & the Art of George Herriman is a tribute to one of the most influential and innovative comic strips and creators of all time. This unique collection of rare art, essays, memorabilia, and biography highlights the career of the first genius of comics, George Herriman, and his iconic creations, Krazy Kat and Ignatz Mouse.

Hardcover. New York, Harper, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 560 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Color pictures in center. Black and white pictures throughout. Remainder dot on bottom edge.

Mystic CT, Mystic Seaport Museum, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 449 pages, many b&w illustrations. L. Francis Herreshoff (1890-1972) was the most remarkable yacht designer of his time. Beginning his career in the shadow of his famous father, Nathanael G. Herreshoff, he emerged to become a designer who approached the perfection of form in yacht design. His unconventional designs, and his innovative engineering of hull and rig, made him a peer among his more prolific contemporaries. Taylor's book is well researched and documented and brings out many relatively unknown aspects of LFH's life and designs through 1930, the phase in which he was primarily a racing yacht designer. Clean, bright copy.

Softcover. Paris, Jose Corti, 1st, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 215 pages, b&w illustrations. INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR on half title page. French text. Wraparound red band with light wrinkle, wear. Otherwise very good.

Hardcover. San Francisco, H.H Bancroft, 1st, 1870, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 658 pages. Hardcover. Beveled green covers with gilt decoration of White House. 15 steep engravings (with library stamped on rear) of portraits of Presidential wives. Ex-library with stamping on pages, paper pocket residue on rear end paper, previous owner's signature on both end papers. Corners bumped, cloth fraying. Spine cracked in a few pages.

Hardcover. London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1st, 1903, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover. Original publisher's red/brown cloth; front cover decoratively stamped and lettered in gilt; spine lettered in gilt; rear cover decoratively stamped in gilt; top edge gilt, other edges deckled. With the 10 tissue-guarded plates as called for, of which 8 are in color; and numerous other illustrations in the text. 316 pages. Beauclerk illustrated a number of literary productions, including Horace Walpole's tragedy The Mysterious Mother, the English translation of Gottfried August Burger's Leonora (1796) and The Fables of John Dryden (1797). After 1785 she was one of a circle of women, along with Emma Crewe and Elizabeth Templetown (1746/7-1823), whose designs for Josiah Wedgwood were made into bas-reliefs on jasper ornaments. Hinges cracked, spine cloth chipped at front top, mild foxing throughout. Otherwise clean. PLEASE NOTE: DUE TO SIZE AND WEIGHT, DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. London, Chapman & Hall, 1st, 1912, Book: Fair, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 312 pages. 16 B&W illustrations. Brown cover with gilt title to spine. Sun-fading and spotting. Unfinished front edge. Heavy foxing to all edges. Ex-Lib sticker on front end page. Tissue-protected frontispiece. Soiling to end pages. Overall, a clean, tight copy. A biography of Agnes Sorel, known by the sobriquet Dame de beaute, was a favorite and chief mistress of King Charles VII of France, by whom she bore four daughters. She is considered the first officially recognized royal mistress of a French king.

Softcover. NY, John Wiley & Sons, 1st pbk, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover,452 pages, b&w illustrations. Harlow Unger's Lafayette is a remarkable and dramatic account of a life as fully lived as it is possible to imagine, that of Gilbert de Motier, marquis de Lafayette. To American readers Unger's biography will provide a stark reminder of just how near run a thing was our War of Independence and the degree to which our forefathers' victory hinged on the help of our French allies, marshaled for George Washington by his 'adopted' son, Lafayette. But even more absorbing and much less well known to the general reader will be Unger's account of Lafayette's idealistic but naive efforts to plant the fruits of the American democracy he so admired in the unreceptive soil of his homeland. Short inscription to half-title page, otherwise a clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. New York, Dodd, Mead and Company, 1st, 1924, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 372 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. SIGNED AND NUMBERED #90/150 opposite title page. Moderate wear to page edges,. gutter cracked on page 161.

Hardcover. Athens GA, University of Georgia Press, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 254 pages, b&w illustrations. George Alexander Grant is an unknown elder in the field of American landscape photography. Just as they did the work of his contemporaries Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Eliot Porter, and others, millions of people viewed Grant's photographs; unlike those contemporaries, few even knew Grant's name. Landscapes for the People shares his story through his remarkable images and a compelling biography profiling patience, perseverance, dedication, and an unsurpassed love of the natural and historic places that Americans chose to preserve. A Pennsylvania native, Grant was introduced to the parks during the summer of 1922 and resolved to make parks work and photography his life. Seven years later, he received his dream job and spent the next quarter century visiting the four corners of the country to produce images in more than one hundred national parks, monuments, historic sites, battlefields, and other locations. He was there to visually document the dramatic expansion of the National Park Service during the New Deal, including the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Grant's images are the work of a master craftsman. His practiced eye for composition and exposure and his patience to capture subjects in their finest light are comparable to those of his more widely known contemporaries. Nearly fifty years after his death, and in concert with the 2016 centennial of the National Park Service, it is fitting that George Grant's photography be introduced to a new generation of Americans.

Hardcover. Chicago, Masters Press, 3rd pr., 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 328 pages, b&w photos. Even without his masterful debut as coach of the 1997-1998 Indiana Pacers, Larry Bird's brilliant, gutsy career with the Boston Celtics--three NBA championship rings and a trio of Most Valuable Player trophies--cries out for celebration and reassessment. He was a dominant player, a thinking player who controlled the game as much with his leadership as his keen passing, tough "D," and the soft touch of his jumper. In Larry Legend, Shaw interweaves chapters of Bird's biography with chapters chronicling his Coach of the Year season to create a hybrid volume; rather than do both well, he does both adequately. Everything is here--Bird's French Lick, Indiana, childhood; why he left Bobby Knight and the Indiana University pressure cooker for lower profile Indiana State; the glory years with the Celtics; the rivalry with Magic Johnson; the back problems; and the ways he re-created the Pacers in his own court-burned image. 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. Columbia, Missouri, Univ of Missouri Pr, 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 270 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket.

Hardcover. Columbia, MI, University of Missouri Press, 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 270 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. A very clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket edges. Black and white illustrations throughout. A tight copy.

Softcover. NY, Overlook Books, 1st, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 281 pages. Slight wear to wraps, otherwise, clean and tight copy.

Hardcover. Boston, David R Godine, 1st US, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 389 pages. Clean, unmarked copy in excellent condition.

Hardcover. Boston, Godine, 1st, 1982, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 210 pages. Hilary Masters' memoir Last Stands exhibits uniqueness in writing with a universal appeal. Whether it be upper class zeal, lower class pride, war stories, grandparents, grandchildren, health, humor, abuse, neglect, tolerance, strength, or even food, there is something in it for everyone. Overall, Last Stands is a patchwork piece--a memoir and indirect autobiography glittered with several familial biographies. Masters constantly switches scenes and elements of focus, but he overlaps his storyline, keeping the reader grounded, despite a sequence of simultaneous events. Thus, history is tied together in a busy but logical manner. Although Masters reveals disturbing events, he adds tidbits of humor to lighten the mood. In addition, he compares and contrasts fictitious characters, such as Odysseus, to events in his own life--a technique that grants him boundless points-of-view. Furthermore, his ingenuity unfolds with his use of secondary sources: letters, poems, epitaphs, and invitations. Finally, his use of dialogue carries the story where it might otherwise seem bland.

Hardcover. NY, Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, 1st, 1929, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, purple cloth, gilt lettering on spine, 288 pages with index, b&w illustrations. Previous owner's inscription on front fly leaf. Light fading to spine. Otherwise clean.

Softcover. Fort Worth TX, Amon Carter Museum, 1st, 1986, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover in sun faded wraps, 339 pages. Laura Gilpin (1891-1979) was a photographer of the American Southwest for over sixty years. She was intrigued by the Navajo Indians but also made excursions to other parts of the United States and to Yucatan as well as documenting life during the Great Depression. The book accompanied a retrospective exhibition and includes a chronological bibliography of her other exhibitions and published work. 167 superb full-page reproductions in tritone, color and duotone. Paper cover with wear, inside bright and clean. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

London, Thames & Hudson, 1st, 1976, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR on the front fly leaf. 126 pages: 98 black and white illustrations and maps. Synopsis: A richly illustrated account of the historical background to, and life of T. E .Lawrence. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 406 pages, Hardcover with dust jacket. B&w illustrations. Clean, tight copy. How Le Corbusier's first trip to the United States shaped his critique of the country and affected both his work and the diffusion of his ideas. Le Corbusier's first trip to the United States in 1935 is generally considered a failure because it produced no commissions. The experience nevertheless had a profound effect on him, both personally and professionally. Sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Le Corbusier promoted his ideas through a lecture tour, exhibition, and press conferences, as well as in meetings with industrialists, housing reformers, New Deal technocrats, and editors. His lectures were watershed events that advanced the cause of European modernism. Yet he returned to France empty-handed and published a bittersweet account, Quand les Cathedrales etaient blanches: Voyage au Pays des Timid Personnes (When the Cathedrals Were White: Journey to the Country of Timid People), which faulted America for lacking the courage to adopt his ideas.

Hardcover. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1st, 1987, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 200 pages. The City of Refuge complex--commissioned by the Salvation Army as part of its program to transform social outcasts into spiritually renewed workers--represents a significant confluence of design principles, technological experiments, and attitudes on reform. It also provides rare insights into the work of one of the twentieth century's greatest architects, Le Corbusier. Brian Brace Taylor draws on extensive archival research to reconstruct each step of the architect's attraction to the commission, his design process and technological innovations, the social and philosophical compatibility of the Salvation Army with Le Corbusier's own ideas for urban planning, and finally, the many modifications required, first to eliminate defects and later to accommodate changes in the services the building provided. Throughout, Taylor focuses on Le Corbusier's environmental, technological, and social intentions as opposed to his strictly formal intentions. He shows that the City of Refuge became primarily a laboratory for the architect's own research and not simply a conventional solution to residents' requirements or the Salvation Army's program.

Hardcover. Gottingen GR, Steidl, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover. Like new in publisher's shrink-wrap. Biography mostly comprised of color and B&W photos of the famed blues musician, and ephemera related to him. Introduction by Tom Waits, foreword by Glenn O'Brien, and poems by Tyehimba Gess. 256 pages.

Hardcover. NY, Harper & Brothers, 1st, 1868, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 287 pages plus publisher's ads. ...to Which are Prefixed and Added Extracts From the Same Journal Giving an Account of Earlier Visits to Scotland, and Tours in England and Ireland, and Yachting Excursions. B/w illustrations throughout, including two facing frontispieces with tissue guard. Binding still quite good. Tanning and foxing throughout with other agewear appropriate for a book this old. Previous owner's bookplate on front endpapers and ID stamp on preliminary page. Dark red cloth cover boards, gilt title on spine and design on front cover, agewear (see image). From Editor's Preface: "During one of the Editor's official visits to Balmoral, her Majesty very kindly allowed him to see several extracts from her journal relating to excursions to the Highlands of Scotland...It...occurred to her Majesty that these extracts, referring as they did, to some of the happiest hours of her life, might be made into a book,..."