literature

Hardcover. NY, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1st US, 1985, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 206 pages, with b&w illustrations. Very clean and tight copy. Remainder line bottom edge, otherwise unmarked.

Hardcover. Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 343 pages. This is an anthropological study of boyhood in a group of related Igbo villages called Afikpo, in souteastern Nigeria. About half of the book is taken up with the description and analysis of adolescent initiation rites, providing a close and detailed view of rituals that for the most part have only been touched upon in literature. The work makes use of psychoanalytic theory, with a logic that is grounded in data, blended with traditional cultural anthropological analysis. Ottenberg's understanding of the dynamics of the symbols and their unstated meanings contributes to the study of ritual process in any society. The data on ritual initiation alo0ne make this a major contribution to African ethnography, and Ottenberg's descriptive material on male secrecy and related gender distinctions provides a background fora more general understanding of West African secret societies.

Hardcover. McFarland and Co., 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 331 pages. Hardcover. Brick cloth covered boards with gilt titles to cover & spine. Profusely illustrated in black & white. Features facsimile copies of notes made by the author held at the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia. The Notes are kept in a specially made box with manuscripts by Stoker's fellow Dubliners Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Lewis Carroll among other writers. Tight binding, sharp corners, clean & unmarked pages.

Hardcover. Dallas TX, Spence Publishing Company, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a dust jacket with light fading to spine, 224 pages. One of the twentieth century's most widely read writers and its most influential Christian apologist, C.S. Lewis has nevertheless eluded the understanding of the numerous scholars who have approached him only as a religious thinker and man of letters. A new book by a leading Lewis authority explores the full range of his manifold genius and finds for the first time the surprising secret of Lewis's enduring literary and spiritual achievement. It will astonish Lewis's admirers and critics alike to learn that he was far from the settled convert he appeared to be. Yet this very unsettledness, which Lewis himself found alarming, was the source of the appealing tension in his work and of his unrelenting commitment to his apologetic vocation. It was in the service of this vocation that he exercised his overarching rhetorical genius-a dazzling adroitness at suiting word, voice, and argument to a particular purpose-always militant, compelling, and persuasive. As Professor Como explores Lewis's hitherto uncharted inner landscape-the core of both his spiritual insight and his intellectual greatness-there emerges a more complex and integrated figure than we have known before. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Austin TX, University of Texas Press, 1st, 1979, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 201 pages. A fascinating look at the theories behind fairy tales and fantasy. The works of J.R.R.Tolkien and his essay 'On Fairy Stories' is a major focus of the book as are German fairy tales or Marchen and Marx and Fairy tales. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Limited Editons Club, 1st Thus, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 73 pages. Limited Editions Club. SIGNED ON LAST PAGE BY PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD MEAD ATWATER BENSON. HAND NUMBERED #794 OF 2000. Bound in silvery gray cloth, with title stamped in dark blue on spine. Slipcase features a blue wave motif on paper, with cloth at top and bottom of case. 2 minor spots of rubbing at left top edge of paper on slipcase. A bright, clean copy.

Hardcover. London, Metheun, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 192 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Illustrated in color and b&w. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Viking Press., 1st, 1982, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. The classic, unforgettable memoir of a young girl's coming of age, Bronx Primitive recalls the vitality of an immigrant neighborhood through the unsentimental eyes of a child. With an unerring eye for detail and an iridescent, clear-eyed prose, Kate Simon captures the particular world of her childhood as well as the universal uncertainties and triumphs of a young girl on the threshold of womanhood.

Hardcover. NY, Columbia University Press, 1st, 1966, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn, chipped dust jacket, 181 pages. The tales contained in this collection were first told in the dark decade of Burmese history (1876-85) during the coming event of the British conquest. The stories combine exotic background with strong details that offer the Western reader both a picture of Burma in the nineteenth century and an understanding of the basic good sense, gaiety, and gentleness of the Burmese people and the Buddhist clergy. The characters that appear in the book illustrate timeless truths about human nature, which today's reader can apply to existing people and situations. For the first time since the eleventh century the future of Burmese Buddhism became uncertain, and there was widespread fear, both in Upper Burma still under a Burmese king and in Lower Burma already under British rule, that the final fall of the Burmese kingdom would result in the total extinction of both the national religion and the Burmese way of life. Told with the purpose of allaying this anxiety and fear, these tales give a full and faithful resume and appraisal of the position of Burmese Buddhism on the eve of the British conquest of 1886. Name on front fly leaf which has mild edgewear. Clean, tight copy.

Softcover. Wien, mumok/ICA/Dancing Foxes Press, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 60 pages. Softcover. Previous owners name and date on title page. Illustrated with full color photography. Light wear. Clean, unmarked text. In the oeuvre of New York artist Moyra Davey (born 1958), literature and writing are as significant as photography, film and video. In her latest text, Burn the Diaries, Davey considers the work of French playwright and political activist Jean Genet, while examining fugitive moments from her own life. An essay by her childhood friend and reading companion Alison Strayer, written in response, reflects on Davey's themes. The publication is part of a group of new works--also including photographs, a film and an installation of her signature mailers, which Davey sends to family, friends and acquaintances--that illuminate the relationship between image and language. This volume can be read both as an artist's book and a catalogue to accompany the exhibition at Mumok, Vienna, and the ICA, Philadelphia, in 2014.

Hardcover. Saint Paul, Minn., Graywolf Press, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 245 pages, SIGNED BY AUTHOR on title page. Spotless and tight copy.

Hardcover. New York, Farrar Straus Giroux, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 196 pages.One night out of the blue, Ratchet Clark's ill-natured mother tells her that Ratchet will be leaving their Pensacola apartment momentarily to take the train up north. There she will spend the summer with her aged relatives Penpen and Tilly, inseparable twins who couldn't look more different from each other. Staying at their secluded house, Ratchet is treated to a passel of strange family history and local lore, along with heaps of generosity and care that she has never experienced before. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Birmingham AL, Legal Classics Library, reprint, 1982, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, full blue leather. all edges gilt, ribbon marker, marbled endpapers, raised bands. Notes from the Editors is included. Former owner's name plate is pasted in the front inside cover. One of the most important legal books of the 20th century, specially prepared from films of original at Columbia University Law Library. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. Albuquerque NM, University of New Mexico Press, 1st, 1955, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Poor, Hardcover, 150 pages, b&w photo illustrations. Dust jacket present but badly worn, chipped. Book condition is very good. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on title page. Also INSCRIBED BY VAN VECHTEN on front fly leaf: "For Dannie with fond affection from Carlo/April 6 1955/New York". Laid-in: an original b&w photo/postcard embossed "Photograph by Carl Van Vechten", dark exposure with 3 unidentified individuals. With verso handwritten note signed Carlo with a mailing date of 12/30/1958. Also: 4-page mimeographed memorial (speech) by George S. Schuyler dated December 23 1964 and a similar one (5-page) by Lincoln Kirstein. Several clippings. obituaries on his passing at age 84.

Hardcover. London, Methuen, 1st UK, 1961, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket with light edgewear, 152 pages. Carl Zuckmayer's famous tale about love, guilt, entanglement, and man's search for mercy is one of the better-known examples of German literature regarding Mainz carnival. The novel was published first in English language, translated by John Geoffrey Gryles Mander and Necke Mander in 1961. Name and small notation on front fly leaf, foxing on edges and endpapers.

Hardcover. Richmond VA, Dietz Press, 1st, 1938, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 87 pages. Frontispiece of author, foreword by Davd Jackson.

Hardcover. NY, Oxford University Press, 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 260 pages. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY, Harper & Row, reprint, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 119 pages. A book on linguistics by Noam Chomsky, written with the purpose of deepening 'our understanding of the nature of language and the mental processes and structures that underlie its use and acquisition'. Chomsky wished to shed light on these underlying structures of the human language, and subsequently whether one can infer the nature of an organism from its language. Cartesian linguistics refers to a form of linguistics developed during the time of RenE Descartes, a prominent 17th century philosopher whose ideas continue to influence modern philosophy. In Cartesian Linguistics, Chomsky traces the development of linguistic theory from Descartes to Wilhelm von Humboldt, that is, from the period of the Enlightenment directly up to Romanticism. The central doctrine of Cartesian linguistics maintains that the general features of grammatical structure are common to all languages and reflect certain fundamental properties of the mind. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York , Charles Scribner's Sons, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 160 pages, illustrated throughout with b&w photographs by Bob Adelman. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket.

Softcover. NY, Clayton Eshleman, 1st, 1969, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover in yellow wrappers, 160 pages. Edited and published by Clayton Eshleman. B/w illustrations. Bibliographical references. Includes advertising matter. Stiff yellow wrappers, printed black. Contains contributions by Robert Duncan, Larry Eigner, Jack Hirschman, Michael McClure, Charles Olson, Adrienne Rich, Diane Wakoski, et al.; plus book reviews, etc. Light soil to wrappers, no markings.

Softcover. London, Faber & Faber, reprint, 1986, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 276 pages. This work is a sequel to the author's wartime diaries - "Ancestral voices" and "Prophesying peace", and takes the story on into 1946-47 around England on behalf of the National Trust. James Lees-Milne is known as much for his work shaping the National Trust's collection of significant English country houses as for his diaries detailing upper and upper-middle class life in the mid-twentieth century. For a pupil who showed little promise he defied scholarly estimation to publish some 34 books. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard , 1st, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 244 pages. Notable collection of writings about children's books by such contributors as Susan Cooper, Lloyd Alexander, Paula Fox, Arnold Lobel, etc. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Hatje Cantz, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 176 pages. In the 1980s, London-based Welsh artist Cerith Wyn Evans, born in 1958, worked as an assistant to filmmaker Derek Jarman, soon gaining a reputation for his own experimental shorts and his collaborations with the dancer Michael Clark. Since the 1990s, Wyn Evans has also been creating installations, often inspired by cinema history or literature, that incorporate elements like philosophical texts, mirrors, neon lights, fireworks, plants and Morse code to form a constellation of meanings that unravel into myriad poetic associations. Evans' desire to animate knowledge and reconceive the materials of the past make him analogous to Marcel Broodthaers, his erstwhile mentor Derek Jarman or even William Blake. This publication includes essays that delve into the artist's use of language and his experiments with time and perception. On the subject of Evans' purposeful inscrutability, critic Jens Asthoff has written, "Evans wants to go beyond that which we describe as understanding, to reach the untranslatable elements hidden in all experience. 'I hate the idea of being accessible,' he says." This volume includes nearly 200 images of the artist's installations, films, wall texts and sound works.

Softcover. San Jose CA, Permanent Press, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, glossy green paper wrappers, 272 pages plus ads in rear. Wilson and Michael Shea published a quarterly journal in the late eighties called TRAJECTORIES. It was a "newsletter of mind-blowing iconoclasm." This is a collection of the best articles from the first few issues. Contributors include Arlen Wilson, Scott Apel, Timothy Leary, Linus Pauling, George Carlin and Ed McMahon. Clean, bright copy.