hardcover. NY, Knopf , 1st, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 448 pages. Black & white photos and illustrations. Like new. Purely out of artistic ambition, Armenian-American abstract painter Gorky (1895-1948; born in Turkey as Vostanig Adoian) fabricated a new identity, complete with an Ivy League education and personal histories with master artists, on arriving in the United States. Spender (Within Tuscany), who is married to Gorky's oldst daughter, unhesitatingly exposes the painter's many "tall tales." He also assesses Gorky's difficulty in arriving at his own aesthetic until late in life in terms of both the artist's ties to the artistic patriarchs of the previous generation, the Surrealists (including Breton, Duchamp and Brancusi) and his complex status as a forerunner who eventually became alienated from the New York Abstract Expressionists (particularly de Kooning and Rothko). Spender derives much information from anecdotal sources, including an interview with de Kooning, and assumes a chatty tone in dealing with other artists. But he becomes increasingly less sympathetic to Gorky, whose last years are presented from the perspectives of Spender's wife and her mother. Nonetheless, painting constantly despite failing health, family problems and critical indifference, Gorky's frustrations are heartbreaking. Equally compelling is the window opened on New York's art scene when it was still a small clique. Gorky was so in love with the "artist" archetype that he not only lied about himself but also plagiarized anecdotes, artistic statements, love letters and possibly even his own suicide note. Spender preserves the personal dimensions of his subject while demonstrating that the painter should have adopted a youthful declaration. "I shall be a great artist or if not a great crook"as his motto. 90 b&w illustrations.
Hardcover. New York, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1st, 1987, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 436 pages. Hardcover. Dust jacket unclipped, excellent, covered in protective clear, plastic brodart. Black cover boards and quarter cloth, gilt title on spine, all very good. Pages clean and unmarked. Binding tight, spine straight. In beautiful condition. A celebration of one of America's greatest poets and a wonderful and necessary addition to all poetry lovers' libraries.
Hardcover. Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University , 1st, 1979, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 173 pages. This work is a brief look at worldwide slave revolts in the 17th through 19th centuries, emphasizing their interrelations with European power struggles, which gave rebels hope of finding weak spots in the defenses of the slave powers. The French Revolution also had an influence on slave revolts, but the canny European powers used indigenous peoples to suppress slave revolts (e.g., native Americans) and took advantage of African ethnic divisions as well. American slaves stood little chance of revolt and were under constant surveillance from Southerners, who coward in fear after the successful rebellions in the Caribbean, particularly in Hispaniola, and after Nat Turner and John Brown's efforts. Genovese also brings up religion's double-edged sword: one side used to pacify slaves and the other side to inspire them to break their chains. In short, this scholarly treatise is thought-provoking as well as informative and ends with an inspirational quote from one of Frederick Douglass's lectures. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise a clean copy.
Hardcover. Boston, American Unitarian Association, 1st, 1905, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, black cloth with white lettering, 232 pages. Collection of six essays, including "Atlanta University" by Professor W. E. Burghardt Du Bois in which the author discusses the significance of Atlanta University. Other institutions and authors include: Howard University by Prof. Kelly Miller; Berea College, by President William G. Frost; Tuskegee Institute by Prof. Roscoe Conkling Bruce; Hampton Institute by Principal H. B. Frissell; and Fisk University by President James G. Merrill. From a church library with label on spine, bookplate and stamp on front endpapers. Otherwise a sharp copy with no other markings or residue. Scarce in original edition.
Hardcover. London, Hutchinson & Co, 1st, 1951, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 128 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Brick cloth covered boards with gilt titles to spine. Light foxing to endpapers. Frontis illustration, Eden Phillpotts, in black & white. Toning throughout, tight binding with clean pages throughout.
Hardcover. NY, William Morrow, 1st, 1982, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 324 pages. This provocative study touches all the bases, probing the important cases of U.S. involvement in Africa (the Congo, Angola, South Africa), laying out U.S. interests in Africa's minerals and strategic outposts, and depicting the concern of American blacks with Africa since the nineteenth century. Riding his theses rather hard, Jackson argues strongly against an ineluctable U.S. tendency to react in cold-war terms to African crises. Name on front fly lesf, otherwise clean.
Hardcover. New York, Bulfinch Press , 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 108 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Tight copy. Illustrations/comics throughout in black and white by Charles Barsotti. Remainder mark on top page block.
Hardcover. New York, Bulfinch, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 112 pages. 100 black and white illustrations. Faint yellowing to dust jacket top edge. Otherwise a very clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. People on every step of the corporate ladder will identify with the 100 hilarious business cartoons from New Yorker cartoonist Barsotti. / Charles Barsotti, formerly the cartoon editor of the The Saturday Evening Post, has been a staff cartoonist at the New Yorker since 1970. His work has also appeared in Playboy and Fast Company, among other publications.
Hardcover. Boston, Little Brown & Co., 1st, 1974, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 132 pages. Black & white illustrations by Byron Goto. Dust jacket with light soil, edgewear.
Softcover. London, George Allen & Unwin, 2nd, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover. Color, black & white lithographs by Feodor Rojankovsky. #4 of Pere Castor's Wild Animal Books. Transl. by Rose Fyleman. Cardboard covers with dust jacket. Dust jacket with closed tear to rear panel.
Softcover. Albuquerque NM, University of New Mexico, 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 58 pages, black and white photographs throughout. Foreword by Cornell Capa. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Doubleday Crime Club , 1st, 1933, Hardcover, black cloth stamped in red. 319 pages. Red dyed top edge. Light toning throughout, previous owner's signature front fly leaf. Otherwise clean. A strange epidemic is sweeping the Riviera. In desperation the French authorities call upon Dr Petrie to find an answer. During this crisis, a mysterious siren on the beach captivates Alan Sterling. She tells him her name only ? Fleurette ? and flees. When Petrie's lab cultures show up sleeping sickness and plague, they call in Sir Denis Nayland Smith. It is not long before their investigations lead them to Fleurette ? and to Dr Fu Manchu.
Hardcover. Nashville TN, Vanderbilt University Press, 1st, 1959, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, light gray cloth with black and gilt title block on spine. 224 pages, Introduction by Louis D. Rubin Jr. B&w frontis portrait of participants: Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren,Merrill Moore, and others. The Fugitive was a poetry magazine published in the 1920s and this is a record of their gathering some 30 years later with their commentaries. Small name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.
Hardcover. New York, Century Co., 1915, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 254 pages. Hardcover. Previous owners stamp on inside front cover, signature and pasted in baking tips. Handwritten recipes on rear endpages, some brief notes at points in margins. Black & white illustrations by Sarah K. Smith. White cover with pale blue title and illustration, spine faded entirely to white.
Hardcover. NY, Frederick A. Stokes, 2nd pr., 1941, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue cloth stamped in black, 161 pages, many b&w drawings. This Book Gives More Than 150 Delightful And Practical Uses Carefully Selected From Magicians' And Seaman's Manuals, Craft Books, Accounts Of Native Games, And Other Widely Scattered Sources. Ranging From Tricks And Games To Serious Knotwork And Netting, They Will Keep You Entertained While Opening Up A Host Of New Crafts And Recreational Areas. Shelf worn copy, clean internally.
Chicago, Childrens Press, 1st, 1952, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover. Color, black & white pictures by Caroline Storck. Gutter at front endpapers split. Dust jacket with light wear to bottom edge, spine top and bottom.
Hardcover. Springfield Mass , McLoughlin Brothers , reprint, 1936, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 24 pages. Hardcover. 12 full page color illustrations and smaller black & white illustrations throughout. Illustrated chapter headings. Center double page illustration with old clear tape over binding staples. Edge wear to top and sides. Some pages with short closed tears. Otherwise clean, tight copy.
Hardcover. New York, Worthington Co., unk., unk., Book: Fair, Dust Jacket: None, 334 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Green cover boards with black stamped decoration. Letting stated Franklin Edition, Illustrated. Cover boards show moderate wear and rubbing and small dent to rear cover fore edge. Internally fair. Pages are darkened with a few front pages having light soiling. Heavy gutter crack in front, title page detached and laid in.
Hardcover. Berlin, Brinkmann & Bose, 1st, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, original publisher's tan cloth, over blue papered boards. Copiously illustrated in black and white throughout. German language edition but with notes in English by Fagiolo at rear. Ink inscription on half-title page. Light wear to dust jacket.
Hardcover. New York , Charles Scribner's Sons, 1st, 1946, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, light gray cloth stamped in black. 144 pages, b&w drawings by Paul Brown. Clean, tight copy. No dust jacket.
Softcover. NY, Kelly O'Quinn, 1st, 1979, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover magazine, 68 pages. Very light wear. A periodical devoted to scientific speculation about the future. This issue contains: Kitt Peak- Guided Tour of Tuscan's Observatory, New Improved Human Genetic Engineers tackle the secrets of DNA, Interview John Varley, The Black Hole, unidentified Flying Oddball, Star Empires, The Whole World in Your Hands- Tomorrow's Computers Go into the Closet, Video Image- Preview of TV's Martian Chronicles, Brain Aldiss, and much more.
Hardcover. Thames & Hudson, 1st, 2020, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial cloth. Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel is an icon of fashion, and can lay claim to having invented the look of the 20th century. At the height of the Belle Epoque, she stripped women of their corsets and feathers, bobbed their hair, put them in bathing suits and sent them out to get tanned in the sun. She introduced the little black dress; trousers for women; costume jewelry; the exquisitely comfortable suit that became her trademark. Early in the Roaring Twenties, Chanel made the first ever couture perfume - No. 5 - presenting it in the famous little square-cut flagon that, inspired by Picasso and Cubism, became the arch symbol of the Art Deco style. No. 5 remains the most popular scent ever created. This volume, published to accompany a landmark exhibition in Paris, traces the birth and evolution of Chanel's timeless style. Specially commissioned photographs by Julien T. Hamon showcase the clothing, while essays by fashion historians illuminate a period, an event or a theme. Rare archival documents, including portraits of Gabrielle Chanel herself, round out the book. Remainder line on bottom edge otherwise clean copy. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.
Hardcover. Seattle, Fantagraphics, 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Three hardcover volumes in a pictorial slipcase, 1056 pages. Few cartoonists ever had as lavish a tribute as a three-volume-slipcased collection, but few are as deserving as Wilson. Collecting 50 years worth of his monthly single page gag cartoons from Playboy, it's a definitive overview of a remarkable talent and viewpoint. Considering the timeframe, Wilson's fabled black humor and art style remain remarkably consistent--as time passes, the drawing renders into slightly blobbier shapes that retain all of their wit just the same--but the source and degree of the humor is a constant. Although best known for his slightly lugubrious subjects--monsters, witches, corpses, vampires and skeletons are frequent visitors to these pages--Wilson also targets consumerism, materialism, and other basic human foibles. As publisher Gary Groth writes in a biography in the third volume, He has constructed a world that is eerily family, unsettlingly recognizable and lethally consistent. Beautifully designed and printed, the books contain cut-out pages, and the slipcase itself becomes a window for a trapped photo of Wilson. Text extras include Wilson's prose short stories and an appreciation by Neil Gaiman.