Search Results: Literary Biography from Main Street Fine Books & Manuscripts, ABAA

New York: William Morrow and Company, 1993. Hardcover. Afterword by Richard Bach. Small 4to. Yellow cloth spine and blue paper over boards, pictorial dust jacket. 287pp. Fine/fine. A superb first edition of this memoir by the son of Richard Bach of "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" fame -- and signed by Jonathan Bach in black fineline on the half-title page.

New York: Delacorte Press, 1984. Paperback. 8vo. Stiff yellow printed wrappers. (20pp), 457pp, (9pp blank). Very good. Faint edgewear to outer wrappers (only), else tight and internally fine. Handsome uncorrected proof copy of this (to cite press release) "unprecedented combination reference book/biography." Laid in loose are a 7" X 5" glossy photograph of Sanders, Lovallo and Christie and a folded 8½" X 14" press release. Most unusual.

London: Chatto & Windus, 1966. Hardcover. Edited by Julian Huxley. 8vo. Blue cloth with gilt spine lettering, dust jacket. 175pp. Frontispiece, 3 illustrations. Fine/near fine. Faint age toning to spine of otherwise-superb jacket. Aldous' famed brother Julian edited this tight, attractive reprint edition of this 1965 gathering of essays by notables that include T.S. Eliot, Anita Loos, Leonard Woolf, Yehudi Menuhin, Andre Maurois, Christopher Isherwood, Isaiah Berlin, Naomi Mitchison and others -- and closes with Aldous' last essay, "Shakespeare and Religion.

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1953. Hardcover. 8vo. Green cloth with silver lettering, pictorial dust jacket. 445pp. Pictorial endpapers. Very good/very good. Mild jacket edgewear, with tiny chips at head of spine, which is faintly sunned. A tight, handsome later printing of this evocative memoir of the Illinois poet and Lincoln biographer's early years in and around small town Galesburg, Illinois. On the half-title page, he boldly inscribes and signs: "Henry Slade / 1953 / Carl Sandburg" in his usual thick black ink. Laid into this copy are three choice promotional items: 1) "A Sampler from the Forthcoming Book Always the Young Strangers," a pristine copy of this 29-page 8vo pamphlet with glossy pictorial outer wrappers; 2) a small 4to pictorial trifold leaflet for the Book-of-the-Month Club printing, very good; 3) an 8½" X 6" mimeographed "For Immediate Release" statement dated 30 December 1952 on Harcourt, Brace News red letterhead announcing the January 6 publication of this book,… Read More

New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956. Hardcover. Illustrations by Marc Simont. 8vo. Ivory cloth spine with brown lettering and blue paper over boards, pictorial dust jacket. 212pp. Line drawings. Near fine/very good. Faint jacket edgewear only. Bright and tight first edition of this informal memoir of the Jeeves creator's "love affair with the United States of America, starting when we were both fifty years younger....

Garden City, NY: The Basin Publishing Co, 1989. Hardcover. Small 4to. Blue cloth with gilt spine lettering. viii, 312pp. Fine. First edition, limited to 500 copies. Collection of the former WPA writer's Long Island commentary. Though not so noted, this copy came from the library of Basin Publishing's founder, noted Lincoln/Civil War scholar Arnold F. Gates (1914-93).

New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1975. Hardcover. Small 4to. Brown cloth, dust jacket. xii, 372pp. Illustrations. Very good/very good. Front flyleaf corner clipped at top. Tight, attractive first edition.

Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1968. Hardcover. Preface by Harry T. Moore. 8vo. Red cloth with gilt spine lettering, dust jacket. xvii, 221pp. Near fine/very good. Faint jacket edgewear. Tight, attractive first edition of this volume in general editor Harry T. Moore's "Crosscurrents/Modern Critiques" series" -- from the library of academic and literary critic Joseph Waldmeir (1923-2013), with a couple margin squiggles pencilled by him and a 4" X 6" card of his pencilled notes laid in.

New York: D. Appleton and Company, n.y.. Paperback. 16mo. Beige pictorial wrappers. 27pp. Illustrations. Near fine. Handsome sepia-tone booklet, printed entirely in browns, as a promotional piece issued by the American publisher of the popular French author (1885-1967). Tipped inside the front wrapper is a fine autograph addition: A Typed Note Signed from Bakeless, 1p, 7" X 10", New York, NY, 4 January 1939. Addressed to noted Lincoln/Civil War scholar Arnold F. Gates (1914-93). Near fine. Two original folds. On his imprinted letterhead, Bakeless thanks the budding scholar who admired his "Daniel Boone: Master of the Wilderness" (1939) "for your kind letter about the Boone. It's always heartening to receive encouraging comment from one's readers. After all, one does one's work for them." Boldly signed. Gates signs the first text page of the Maurois essay, dating it 8 July 1940. Bakeless (1894-1978) was a versatile author, historian and journalist whose many… Read More

Moline, IL: Moline Dispatch Publishing Company, 2007. Hardcover. Illustrations by Bill Hannan. 4to. Glossy pictorial paper over boards. 143pp. Line drawings. Fine. Pristine first edition of these lighthearted essays by the popular Rock Island broadcaster, newspaper columnist and state senator -- and this copy hailing from the collection of another senator: Author boldly inscribes and signs the title page to "Adlai & Nancy -- / If you have insomnia / this will help. / Thanks for being friends, / Don Wooten." Adlai E. Stevenson III (1930-2021) served as U.S. Senator from Illinois (1969-81).

New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1973. Hardcover. 8vo. Black cloth with gilt spine lettering, dust jacket. xi, 332pp. Fine/fine. Handsome and pristine first edition of this essay collection, subtitled on jacket front as "Reflections & notes on the art of writing from a career of half a century." This lovely copy bears an extra-illustration in the form a Typed Note Signed from Horgan facing the title page, 1p, 8" X 11", Middletown, CT, 14 June 1967. Addressed to Arnold F. Gates (1914-93, noted Lincoln/Civil War scholar). Near fine. Two original horizontal folds. On "Wesleyan University Center for Advanced Studies" letterhead, Horgan declines to attend a New York Civil War Round Table meeting, as "your invitation reached me while I was away on a long trip. But I hope you had an interesting meeting...." Boldly signed in full in black ink.

New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1945. Hardcover. 8vo. Grey cloth, price-clipped dust jacket. xii, 167pp. Near fine/good. Couple of large edge chips (old tape "repairs" on verso) to otherwise-attractive jacket. Tight, nice first edition.

New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1924. Hardcover. Translation by Ella d'Arcy. 8vo. Green cloth. vi, 336pp. Very good. Second printing, tight and attractive.

London: Spring Books, n.y.. Hardcover. 8vo. Tan cloth with gilt spine lettering, pictorial dust jacket. xx, 258pp. Frontispiece. Very good/very good. Jacket a bit edgeworn. Not the 1952 245-page first edition and not the 1965 second printing, but clearly another printing, undated, issued shortly after Hemingway's July 1961 suicide, with a preface added addressing it.

New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1919. Hardcover. 8vo. Brown library buckram. 338pp. Illustrations. Very good. Tight, nice first edition -- discreet ex-library, with very few markings.

New York: Picador, 1998. Hardcover. Small 4to. Black and grey paper over boards, pictorial dust jacket. xiv, 347pp. Pictorial endpapers. Fine/near fine. A tight and handsome first edition of this literary memoir about this writer's affair at age 18 with the 53-year-old J.D. Salinger. On the half-title page, Maynard pens "for Joyce" at the top in blue fineline, then draws a cartoonish smiling figure skater with arms aloft holding a flower; she does not sign, strangely, though her first name is incorporated into the inscription!

Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1971. Hardcover. Small 4to. Red cloth with gilt lettering and decoration, dust jacket. xxii, 900pp. Near fine/very good. Mild jacket edgewear. A tight, attractive second printing of this still-useful reference -- heavy on writers, but also including thumbnail biographies of poets, playwrights, composers, painters and architects.

New York: Oxford University Press, 1939. Hardcover. 8vo. Blue cloth, pictorial dust jacket. xxiii, 982pp. Frontispiece, illustrations. Near fine/good plus. Later printing, later printing. Fascinating memoir by this former Yale professor/literary critic including anecdotes of friends and associates such as Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad, G.K. Chesterton, etc.

New York: Everest House, 1979. Hardcover. 8vo. Blue and yellow paper over boards, pictorial dust jacket. 158pp. Illustrations. Fine/very good. First U.S. edition.

Norfolk, CT: New Directions, 1958. Hardcover. 8vo. Black cloth with silver spine lettering, pictorial dust jacket. 622pp. Frontispiece, illustrations. Very good/very good. Mild spotting to page edges; ownership signature on front pastedown; faint jacket edgewear and bit of rubbing. A tight, attractive first edition of this highly-regarded biography of the 19th century French poet, critic and essayist.