biography

Hardcover. New York, Bloomsbury USA, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 136 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to boards. Comics throughout. A never-before-compiled collection from the most influential underground artist of our time. Odds & Ends is a unique book of Robert Crumb's previously unpublished, autobiographical, favorite, and most successful strips. It also contains photographs, portraits, and text by the man himself.

Hardcover. Focal Point, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 224 pages. Spanning almost a century of global upheaval and riveting human drama, this magnificent book follows the careers of Maynard Owen Williams, Volkmar Wentzel, Luis Marden, and Tom Abercrombie--a stellar quartet of National Geographic photographers who used their cameras to record a truly remarkable era. While the lensmen were all supported and nurtured both technically and creatively by the Geographic, each had his own interests and his own distinctive style--and each made his own unique contribution to world culture, science, and history. Following a thoughtful introduction that sets the scene, the book is divided into four parts, each devoted to one man's life and work. Chapters open with an essay and then display up to 50 pages of breathtaking historic images, many of which lay hidden in National Geographic archives for decades. Close associates and loved ones authored each photographer's intimate story, calling on journals, anecdotes, and behind-the-scenes correspondence to portray the real person behind the lens. Our four subjects, taken together, represent the entire and quite glamorous progression of National Geographic photography--a chronicle that will be eagerly embraced by all who love world history, biography, and great pictures.

Softcover. NY, Picador, reprint, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 318 pages. Calvin Tomkins first discovered the work of Robert Rauschenberg in the late 1950s, when he began to look seriously at contemporary art. While gazing at Rauschenberg's painting Double Feature, Tomkins felt compelled to make some kind of literal connection to the work, and it is in that sprit that "for the last forty years it's been [his] ambition to write about contemporary art not as a critic or a judge, but as a participant." Tomkins has spent many of those years writing about Robert Rauschenberg, whom he rapidly came to see as "one of the most inventive and influential artists of his generation." So it seemed natural to make Rauschenberg the focus of Off the Wall, which deals with the radical changes that have made advanced visual art such a powerful force in the world.Off the Wall chronicles the astonishingly creative period of the 1950s and 1960s, a high point in American art. In his in his collaborations with Merce Cunningham and John Cage, and as a pivotal figure linking abstract expressionism and pop art, Rauschenberg was part of a revolution during which artists moved art off the walls of museums and galleries and into the center of the social scene. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, Doubleday, 1st, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 480 pages, b&w illustrations. The story of oil wildcatter Frank Phillips and the legendary empire he created reveals his beginnings as a barbershop owner and how he became a financier, one of the richest bankers in Oklahoma, and the founder of Phillips Petroleum in 1905.

Hardcover. Norman, OK, University of Oklahoma Press, new, 1962, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 234 pages, b&w illustrations. Light green top edge. Edge wear, light rubbing to dust jacket, spine faded. Else a clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. Seattle WA, Fantagraphics, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, b&w illustrations. Light shelf-wear to boards, else a clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. Seattle WA, Fantagraphics, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, b&w illustrations. Light shelf-wear to boards, else a clean, tight copy.

Softcover. Washington DC, Smithsonian Institution, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 64 pages, color illustrations. a noted commercial photogrpher shows how he approaches and executes a given job. 30 color plates with commentary. Also a lengthy interview with Maisel by editor Susan Weiley.

Hardcover. Boston, D. Lothrop and Co., 1st, 1879, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, terra cotta cloth stamped in gilt and black, b&w plates, 335 pages plus publisher's ads in rear. Light shelf wear otherwise clean, very good. A shiphand's account of life in the early merchant marine.

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. NY, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. A 5-year-old Tomie worries over the health of his baby sister, learns to read in one weekend (with a pilfered schoolbook), and helps his father pave the new driveway (to a too-fine polish!). In the spirit of his earlier memoirs, the Newbery Honor-winning 26 Fairmount Avenue and Here We All Are, author Tomie dePaola recounts the (mostly) serene days between the end of kindergarten and the beginning of first grade. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, St. Martin's Press, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 278 pages, b&w illustrations. From the early days in Brooklyn to the champion Los Angeles Dodgers teams of the Sixties, Hall-of-Fame pitcher Don Drysdale's memoir recalls the great moments and players of Dodgers history. Verdi, Chicago Tribune columnist, has given Drysdale his own voice in this nostalgic look at Drysdale's career with the Dodgers organization, and the nature of the changes in the game. Drysdale's colorful anecdotes and opinions make for an informative, enjoyable book, as he describes his teammates (e.g., Gil Hodges, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snyder), his bosses (Buzzie Bavasi, Walter Alston, Walter O'Malley), his style (including his "mean" nature in protecting the plate and his use of the spitball), and his broadcasting career. Clean copy.

Softcover. Lafayette, LA, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 224 pages, color illustrations. Over its three decades, this festival, since 1977 the music component of Lafayettes Festivals Acadiens, has been a proving ground for an evolution. Older masters, such as Dennis McGee, Nathan Abshire, Clifton Chenier, Bois-Sec Ardoin, Canray Fontenot, and Dewey Balfa himself, have passed on, but not without handing off the baton to younger musicians, from Michael Doucet and Zachary Richard to Wayne Toups and Steve Riley to Chris Stafford and Wilson Savoy. These subsequent generations continue to revitalize old songs and create new ones within the traditional context. This book tells the inside story of this experiment in cultural self-preservation, taking the reader onstage, backstage, and into the crowd with schedules, commentary, and photographs from each year, exposing the cultural mission of festival organizers. Mild shelf wear. SIGNED BY ALL FOUR AUTHORS AND INSCRIBED BY TWO on the front fly leaf.

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.

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. Berkeley CA, University of California Press, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 361 pages. During the Cold War years of the 1950s, William F. Knowland was one of the most important figures in American politics. As the Republican leader of the U.S. Senate, the wealthy California newspaper heir was recognized and respected by millions. His influence with President Eisenhower led to Earl Warren's appointment as chief justice, and Knowland set in motion a U.S.-China policy that remains part of our international direction today. Yet he committed suicide in 1974, following a personal decline that included political humiliation, a ruined marriage, and the loss of his family fortune. This is the first full-scale biography of Bill Knowland, written by two journalists who came to know him after he left Washington in 1958. Gayle B. Montgomery was a political editor at the Oakland Tribune, the newspaper owned by Knowland's father, the power-wielding Joseph R. Knowland. James W. Johnson was a Tribune editorial writer. Both men worked with Knowland when he returned to the newspaper after giving up his Senate seat in a failed bid to become governor of California. Knowland lost the governorship race to Edmund G. (Pat) Brown; had he won, many observers felt Knowland would have had a clear shot at the White House. This is a book not only about Mr. Republican, but also one that illuminates the strengths and deficiencies of Republican party politics during the years when the party was at its zenith. In portraying the life of Bill Knowland, the authors cast a glaring light both on the machinations of political power and on the Republican establishment's aspirations in the Warren-Eisenhower era. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Doubleday, 1st, 1960, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 288 pages, b&w photo illustrations, black cloth covers, gilt on spine faded. INSCRIBED BY SHAWN and dated Nov. 5 1960 on front fly leaf. No dust jacket. Ted Shawn was an American dancer and choreographer. Considered a pioneer of American modern dance, he created the Denishawn School together with his wife Ruth St. Denis. After their separation he created the all-male company Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers. Covers Shawn's travels and tours: with the army, in the Orient; and his creation of the Denishawn Dancers with the male athletes at Springfield College. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Regan Books, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 259 pages, b&w photos. There were few figures among America's media-saturated landscape that loomed larger than the National Basketball Association's undeniable superstar Allen Iverson. He was the first overall pick of the 1996 NBA draft, and the spotlight never left him since. Defiantly tattooed, with his hair in cornrows, the six-foot Philadelphia 76ers point guard was been vilified by a sports press still fawning over Michael Jordan's non-threatening, clean-cut visage. From Iverson's rap sheet to his rap album, from his on-court feats to his off-court antics, breathless fans and journalists alike seem determined to track his every move. Part sports star, part antihero, part hip-hop icon, Iverson managed to cross over into the mainstream of American culture -- without compromise. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Harry N. Abrams, 1st, 2020, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Charles M. Schulz believed that the key to cartooning was to take out the extraneous details and leave in only what's necessary. For 50 years, he wrote and illustrated Peanuts, the single most popular and influential comic strip in the world. Renowned designer Chip Kidd was granted unprecedented access to the extraordinary archives of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa, California. Only What's Necessary reproduces the best of the Peanuts newspaper strip, all shot from the original art by award-winning photographer Geoff Spear, and features exclusive, rare, and unpublished original art and developmental work--much of which has never been seen before.

Hardcover. Boston, David R. Godine, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 391 pages. INSCRIBED BY PAYNE on the half-title page and also SIGNED on the title page. In Orion on the Dunes, the first biography of Beston, scholar Daniel Payne-granted unrestricted access to the writer's archives and drawing on interviews with friends and family-has crafted a scrupulously researched narrative; one presenting a masterful portrait that traces the intellectual growth and tumultuous life of a vital American writer whose work and thought have exerted a tremendous pull on poets, naturalists, and novelists alike. This is the story of a life, at once hidden and transparent, that is here finally revealed. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Boston, David R. Godine, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 391 pages, b&w illustrations. INSCRIBED BY PAYNE on half title page and SIGNED again on title page. The first biography of the writer/naturalist, and one of the leading founders of the modern environmental movement, Henry Beston. Scholar Daniel Payne-granted unrestricted access to the writer's archives and drawing on interviews with friends and family-has crafted a scrupulously researched narrative; one presenting a masterful portrait that traces the intellectual growth and tumultuous life of a vital American writer whose work and thought have exerted a tremendous pull on poets, naturalists, and novelists alike. This is the story of a life, at once hidden and transparent, that is here finally revealed. Clean copy.

Hardcover. London, Reaktion Books, 1st, 2020, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, b&w photos. Ornette Coleman's career encompassed the glory years of jazz and the American avant-garde. Born in segregated Fort Worth, Texas, during the Great Depression, the African-American composer and musician was zeitgeist incarnate. Steeped in the Texas blues tradition, he and jazz grew up together, as the brassy blare of big band swing gave way to bebop--a faster music for a faster, postwar world. At the luminous dawn of the Space Age and New York's 1960s counterculture, Coleman gave voice to the moment. Lauded by some, maligned by many, he forged a breakaway art sometimes called "the new thing" or "free jazz." Featuring previously unpublished photographs of Coleman and his contemporaries, this book tells the compelling story of one of America's most adventurous musicians and the sound of a changing world. Clean copy.

London, Faber & Faber, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 384 pages. Orson Welles was a metamorphic man, a magical shape-changer who made up myths about himself and permitted others to add to their store. On different occasions, he likened himself to Christ--mankind's redeemer--and to Lucifer--the rebel angel who brought about the fall. His persona compounded the roles he played--kings, despots, generals, captains of industry, autocratic film directors--and the more or less fictitious exploits with which he regaled other people or which they attributed to him. Hailed in childhood as a genius, he remained mystified by his own promise, unable to understand or control an intellect that he came to think of as a curse; and he ended his days shilling wine and performing magic tricks on talk shows. At times, he saw the collapse of his early ambitions as a tragedy; in other moods, he viewed his life as a humbling comedy, and settled down--like another favorite character, Shakespeare's Falstaff --to eat, drink and be irresponsibly merry. Rather than producing another conventional biography of Welles, Peter Conrad has set out to investigate the stories Welles told about his life--the myths and secret histories hidden in films both made and unmade, in the books Welles wrote and those he read. The result takes us deep into Welles' imagination, showing how he created, then ultimately destroyed himself. Clean copy.

Hardcover. London, Collins, 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Illustrated with numerous photographs and reproductions of Lancaster's cartoons. Remarkable biography of the multi-talented, multi-careered man, who was political diplomat, a satirical cartoonist, an author, an artist, an illustrator, a poet, a stage designer, and more. Lancaster's most famous cartoon characters are Mrs. Rajagojollibarmi, and Maudie Littlehampton.