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Bones: A Nameless Detective Mystery
New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985. 5 3/4 x 8 1/4". 196 pp. Illustrated dust jacket with some creasing and wear at the edges, in very good + condition; Black cloth over boards with silver lettering on spine, in near fine condition.
Bill Pronzini, winner of the Best Novel of 1981, awarded by the Private Eye Writers of America for his novel "Hoodwink", Pronzini lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, as does his nameless detective. Bones is a mystery about a dead man's reasons for suicide and end up involving a figid wife, a ruthless lawyer, a bitter ex-wife, and a beligerant taxidermist turned landlord (according to the dust jacket flap). Full of deceit, intrigue and murder, it's an exciting mystery.
Burchardus de Bellevaux: Apologia de Barbis
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1935. Dust jacket in very good condition with price of 17s 6d net intact, some discoloration, especially to the spine, some loss near top of spine and minor edge wear. Green cloth over boards with crisp gilt lettering on cover and spine, limited to 350 copies, bookseller label (B.H. Blackwell Ltd., Oxford) on front paste-down endpaper, browning to endpapers, text in Latin, some tanning to page edges due to rough cut, in very good plus condition.
Sub title: A Twelfth Century Treatise on Beards and their Moral and Mystical Significance. Edited by Goldschmidt from the only known Manuscripts at the British Museum, this book also covers the medieval manners and customs of the time.
Burning Bright
New York: The Viking Press, 1950. 159 pp. Approximately 5 x 7 1/2". First edition, first printing. Dust jacket is very good with minor chips and wear and does have the $2.50 price on flap, small closed tear on front top edge of cover. Original tan cloth over boards, red lettering on cover and spine, orange dye on top edges, bookseller's ticket on rear paste-down endpaper, very minor foxing to edges, otherwise in near fine condition. (Goldstone & Payne, A29a)
The form of this book is a "play-novelette", which is a play that is easy to read or a short novel that can be played. Steinbeck used this method experimentally in "Of Mice and Men" and "The Moon is Down" but this book is a more complete attempt at this form. While this book was not critically acclaimed, Steinbeck, as always, is a very vivid writer and bring his four characters to life in this play concerned with the timeless themes of love, jealousy, friendship, and the desire to have a child.
Cape Cod Yesterdays
Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1935. 48 pp. Approximately 6 3/4 x 9 3/4"; LIMITED EDITION of 1075, this being #471 as indicated on the colophon, although the slipcase indicates copy #826, signed by both author and illustrator. Slipcase slightly corner bumped but in near-fine condition with spine label showing title and limitation in excellent shape. Calico cloth covered boards with quarter-bound linen backing, beautiful pictorial endpapers, top edge of all-rag paper is trimmed but other edges are untrimmed, both b/w and full color illustrations by Harold Brett, extra label at rear of book, otherwise in fine condition.
Told from the point of view of remembrances of the departing way of life in Cape Cod. Informal diaglogue brings back the time of general stores, ships that sailed without gasoline engines, travelling by horseback instead of car, fishing, all told with the Cape Cod landscape as a beautiful and scenic background.
Children of the Dark
New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1956. 270 pp. 5 1/2 x 8"; First Edition. Original dust jacket with some creases and small repaired tears, slight waterstain on rear cover, otherwise in very good condition; Black cloth over boards with crisp gilt lettering to cover and spine, crisp and bright, in near fine condition.
Irving Shulman (1913 - 1995) was an American author and screenwriter. Many of his books were adapted into movies. This book was developed after the film "Rebel Without a Cause" came out, however; and, it was based on the story ideas that Shulman had and fleshed out with the screenplay writer, Stewart Stern, and director, Nicholas Ray. The movie was best known for its great performances by James Dean, Natalie Wood, and Sal Mineo.
Children of the night
New York: G.P. Punam's Sons, 1992. 382 pp. 6 1/4 x 9 1/4". First Edition, first printing. Illustrated dust jacket in near-fine condition; black cloth over boards, crisp gilt lettering on spine, map endpapers, faint spotting on top page edges, inscribed on the title page to Diane Peterson, a well-known ABAA dealer, "To Diane Peterson -- /Greetings from Transylvania/Dan Simmons, accompanied by a unique vampire drawing by the author, in fine condition. (Clute & Nicholls, p 1111.)
Simmons' tenth novel, this is an epic horror novel about an American hematologist who adopts a Romanian boy with a mysterious illness that may hold the key to a cure of cancer and AIDS, who unfortunately has a hidden tie to the vampire family of Vlad Dracula. Scariness and horror ensues. This novel was a Locus Award Winner in 1993. Dan Simmons (1948 - ) was the winner of the 1986 World Fantasy Award for his novel Song of Kali.
Come Into My Parlour
London: Hutchinson & Co., [1946]. 384 pp. 5 1/4 x 7 1/2"; First edition presumed; Inscribed by the author on title page, Illustrated dust jacket has some rubbing and creases and a few tears, chipping and missing portion on back cover, price of 12s 6d net intact, in good condition; Black cloth over boards with crisp gilt lettering on spine, slight spine tilt, slight outer page edge foxing, otherwise in near fine condition.
Dennis Yates Wheatley (1897 - 1977) was an English writer who wrote 65 novels from the 1930's through the 1960's, mostly thrillers, science fiction, and occult novels. It is said that one of his main characters, Gregory Sallust, was one of the inspiration's for the James Bond character by Ian Fleming. This fictionalized World War II saga featuring the character of Gregory Sallust continues, following the conclusion of V for Vengeance. Set mostly in Russia, it's another Dennis Wheatley thriller.
Cowpokes
New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1999. Unpaginated. Approximately 10 x 10". First Limited Edition of 26 lettered copies, this being "P". SIGNED by both author and illustrator. Pictorial boards with full color illustrations throughout. Extra illustration for limited edition only, not in trade copies. Fine in fine dust jacket.
From the front flap, "They don their boots & hats & chaps, down their flapjacks, then it's up into the saddle & off they go." Beautifully done book that will charm both children and adults alike.
Cup of Gold
New York: Covici Friede, (1936). 269 pp. Approximately 5 1/4 x 7 3/4". Second Edition. Decorative dust jacket in very good condition with author of "Of Mice and Men" on cover, some darkening to spine, minor edge wear and small enclosed tear on bottom of front cover, price clipped, repair tape on the inside. Blue cloth over boards, top stain blue, blind stamping of ship and scroll on front cover, gilt-stamped spine slightly faded, near-fine condition. (Goldstone & Payne, A1c)
John Steinbeck (1902 - 1968) was an American author who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962. This is John Steinbeck's first novel and is an historical fiction loosely based on the life and adventures of privateer Henry Morgan. The "Cup of Gold" refers to Panama City, where a lot of the action takes place.
Dogear Wryde Postcards: Alms for Oblivion
n.p.: n.p., 1978. Sixteen postcards in near fine condition, enclosed in a white envelope with black pictorial stamping, creased with slight tears, in very good condition. (Toledano A68).
The recto of the postcards is a black and white Gorey illustration. The verso of each postcard has the title of the series and the description of each illustration. "Dogear Wryde" is an anagram for Edward Gorey.