fiction

Hardcover. NY, E.P. Dutton/Seymour Lawrence, 1st, 1986, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. A large and awkward New England family salvages life the best it can in the aftermath of the sudden death of the mother, Rosie Vincent. The author's first novel. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Tucson AZ, Dennis McMillan, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Firmly rooted in the hard-boiled tradition, these 13 stories from Phillips showcase the cool exuberance of black Los Angeles PI Ivan Monk, whose family connections tend to prod him into taking cases no one in his right mind would investigate. Nostalgia is a recurrent theme, as in "Through the Fog Softly," which introduces Monk's father, Josiah Monk, as a soldier in Korea, and in Monk's love of 1950s and '60s cars. Some tales verge on fantasy, such as "The King Alfred Plan," which imagines a scheme to round up blacks into concentration camps. A pseudo-screenplay, "Bring Me the Head of Osama Bin-Laden," is the weakest effort in an otherwise strong collection. At his best, Monk displays something of the cockiness of Robert Parker's Spenser and the racial awareness of Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins. Monk has a toughness all his own, however, and a noir sensibility shines brightly in stories like "Lowball" and "The Raiders." Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Limited Editions Club, 1st thus, 1961, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 121 pages, SIGNED BY ILLUSTRATOR, T. M. Cleland, in rear, number 794 of a limited 1500 copies. Embroidered cloth cover with gilt title on brown leather, 3/4 slipcase, illustrations and decorations throughout, overall, bright and tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Charles Scribner's Sons, reprint, 1906, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, red cloth covers, gilt title on spine. 366 pages, 4 b&w plates by Bayard Jones. A novel by the nineteenth-century French detective fiction writer Emile Gaboriau, whom Andre Gide referred to as "the father of all current detective fiction". The story depicts the first case of Monsieur Lecoq, an energetic young policeman and an officer nicknamed Father Absinthe, as they seek out the facts behind the case against the Widow Chupin. Why is she accused of helping another commit a murder? And why another man known only as May in custody? What is the connection? Emile Gaboriau (1833-1873) is an important figure in the history of detective fiction. A French journalist and novelist, he created the "roman policier" with a series of books involving private detective Monsieur Lecoq, who works logically. Lecoq was based on a real-life thief turned policeman named Francois Vidocq (1775-1857), whose memoirs mixed fiction and fact. Gaboriau's huge following was eclipsed by Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Doubleday, Page & Co., 1st, 1903, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 246 pages, b&w plates by Karl Anderson. Rough-cut pages. Light edge wear to covers, small stain on rear. Front hinge starting to crack. Else a very clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. Indianapolis, Bobbs Merrill , 1st, 1929, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover with no dust jacket. Spine lettering faded. Light soil. tight copy.

Hardcover. Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill, 1st, 1963, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a worn, lightly soiled dust jacket. INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR on the front fly leaf. B&w illustrations by Toni Patten. A young reader's novel set in Jamaica.

Hardcover. NY, Delacorte, 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Thirteen year old Rocky has her life changed by the remarkable artist who comes to a small Kansas town to design a war memorial.

Hardcover. New York, Frederick A. Stokes, 1st, 1938, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardbound, 103 pages. Illustrated by Kurt Wiese. Turquoise cloth cover with black lettering. Faded and worn spine. Edgewear. Corners bumped. Spotting back cover. No dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY, St. Martins, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover. Very good in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Some very minor wear to dust jacket, otherwise like new.

Hardcover. Seattle, Off By One, 1st, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. SIGNED BY OLIVER.

Hardcover. NY, Lothrop, Lee and Shepard, 1st US, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 134 pages. When his cousin Katy is kidnapped at night by a Grabbly, Rupert enlists the aid of flying pirates and a kindly badger to rescue her from the Wizard of Castle Dread. Clean copy.

Hardcover. PA, Franklin Mystery, reprint, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Gilt decorated leather covers with color illustration paste-down.

Hardcover. NY, Harper and Brothers, reprint, 1836, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue textured cloth with decorative gilt title on spine. Vol. 2 ONLY of a ten volume set. This book combines the 3rd and 4th volumes in the original 18 volume set. 213 + 238 pages. Frontis. engraving and illustrated title page reprinted from the 1832 edition. This collection of moral tales written by Maria Edgeworth explores themes of education, family relationships, and social issues in 19th century Ireland. The stories are entertaining and engaging while also providing valuable lessons about life and morality. Edgeworth was a significant figure in the development of the novel as a literary form and her work is still widely read and admired today. Solid binding, mild foxing. Previous owner's name on title page.

Hardcover. NY, Greenwillow, 1st, 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Nice, clean, almost new-looking condition. Color illustrations by Donald Carrick. Hardbound, dust jacket.

Softcover. New York, Dell Publishing, 1st, 1952, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 223 pages. Paperback. Dell Book #427. Minor wear to paper wrappers. Creasing to covers and spine. Cover art by Rudoloh Belarski. Pencil numbers on front fly leaf.

Hardcover. London, Constable, 1st UK, 1937, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, orange cloth covers with blue titles to spine and drawing on front. 312 pages, 10 b&w plates by Nicolas Bentley. A marvelous collection by one of America's most colorful and gifted writers. Contents: Breach of promise -- Romance in the roaring forties -- Dream street rose -- The old doll's house -- Blood pressure -- The bloodhounds of Broadway -- Tobias the terrible -- The snatching of bookie bob -- The lily of st. pierre -- Hold 'em yale! -- Earthquake -- "Gentlemen, the king!" -- A nice price -- Broadway financier -- The brain goes home. Previous owner's bookplate inside front cover. Otherwise clean. Mild shelfwear.

Hardcover. NY, Alfred A. Knopf, 1st, 1930, Book: Fair, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, yellow cloth covers with title and drawing of rooster on front cover in brown. Black and white drawings by Kurt Wiese. Endpapers design with montage of farm animals. A fair copy only with worn and soiled covers. Title page states 1930, no other printings on copyright page. The second book in the Freddy series, in which the animals form a company, Barnyard Tours. Led by clever Freddy, they endure a dangerous voyage to the North Pole to meet Santa Claus.

Hardcover. NY, Harper & Brothers, 1st, 1940, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, B&W illustrations by James Daugherty. 252 pages. Illustrated light gray cloth covers. Clean, bright copy. No dust jacket.

Hardcover. New York, Pantheon, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 368 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR ON TITLE PAGE. Upper right corner of page 325 wrinkled - approx. 3". Clean, tight copy. In this rich, compulsively readable saga about the brave early years of television, "morning" means several things. It is the name of the first-ever morning show, pioneered by a visionary who believed television could reflect the lives of ordinary Americans; it refers to the 1950s, a time of innovation and energy in the vibrant New York City where much of the novel takes place; and finally, it suggests the dawning of a new relationship between a long-estranged father and son who must meet the new century with their fates intertwined.

Hardcover. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1st, 1960, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 64 pages. Hardcover. "An I Can Read Book". Color illustrations by Bernard Wiseman. Lists 17 titles on back cover - starting with "Little Bear" and ends with "David and the Giant". Some minor foxing to preliminary pages. No dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY, Crown, 1st US, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright unclipped dust jacket.

Hardcover. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1st, 1972, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 190 pages, traces of ex-library: glue residue to rear endpaper, tape marks on cloth covers, dust jacket with light edgewear. Small remainder dot on bottom edge. Despite the flaws, an attractive copy of this scarce title. First in the cult trilogy featuring the urbane cad Charlie Mortdecai and his trusty thug, Jock.

Softcover. NY, Archipelago Books, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover in a pictorial wrapper, 71 pages. A small masterpiece, Pea's lyrical autobiographical novel paints a fiery and intimate portrait of an old man through the bold brushstrokes of his grandson. The passions and tensions between the old eccentric and his brothers play themselves out in mythical sketches before a vivid backdrop of the hills of Lunigiana. Moscardino, the first novella of his tetralogy, Il romanzo di Moscardino, is anarchic and haunting. Pound conducts Pea's vernacular song, allowing images to flow from the land, the flesh, and beyond. Clean, bright copy.