Search Results: Authors starting with D from The Second Shelf

Radical children's publishing! Come in is a sophisticated look at family life, showing distrust of the ordered life of suburbia. Dehn used her own married name Markham for the family she describes. This is an atypical and slightly surreal work from children's author, poet and political activist Olive Dehn. llustrator Kathleen Gell went on to illustrate many books including Enid Blyton titles.
Oxford: Shakespeare Head Press, 1946. Unpaginated. 25 x 19 x 1.5 cm. First edition. Hardback. Illustrated with lithographic designs and pictoral cover. Book printed in two colours. Six copies found in WorldCat, only 1 in the US (Bryn Mawr). Minor tears to jacket, book and dust jacket in very good condition.

Works in Progress Number 7 includes the only published excerpt from Didion and Dunne's screenplay of Play It As It Lays.
New York: Doubleday, 1972. Signed bookplate laid in. Paperback. 18 x 10.5cm. 438 pages. Small creases to spine, in very good condition.

Joan Didion's first novel and first book publication, written at the beginning of her journalistic career while rapidly working her way up the masthead at Vogue. In Run River, she explores her native California with a nostalgia and poignancy that is less characteristic of her later work.
Ivan Obolensky, 1963. First edition. Hardcover, 264 pp. 21.5 x 14.5 cm. Blue cloth binding with white lettering to spine. Bright dust jacket is price clipped, small tape reinforcement on verso. Book near fine in very good dust jacket.

Playland is an example of the many screenplays written by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne that were never produced. In the wake of several cancelled contracts, they wrote this script about the gangster Bugsy Siegel for Lorimar Productions, Inc. Warner Bros. subsequently acquired Lorimar and axed most of the ongoing projects. Some of the material was incorporated into Dunne's 1994 novel of the same title. This rare copy of an unproduced screenplay is a wonderful example of Didion's style and thematic interests, as well as her creative relationship and artistic collaboration with her husband.
Unpublished, 1988. 144 pages. 29.5 x 22 x 2. Light blue card covers, bound with two brass metal brads as standard professional screenplay binding, title written on spine in black marker. Photocopied. Interior pages are clean, overall in very good condition. Unproduced screenplay, extremely scarce, no copies seen in WorldCat.

New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1969. Didion's earth-shattering essay collection, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, was an immediate success on its publication. It showcases Didion's lifelong obsessions, from essays on the culture of her native state of California, to reflections on writing and her personal values in 'On Keeping a Notebook' and "On Self-Respect". A quintessential book and cornerstone of American essay writing, a transcendent reading experience for its many devotees.First edition, first printing. Quarter orange cloth and cream boards. Slightly bumped on corners, and marginal mild soiling. Bright and graphic dust jacket has very little edgewear and some soiling. Overall a very good copy.

Didion's third novel, A Book of Common Prayer is the story of two American women in Boca Grande and Central America, respectively, focused on the themes of absolute power, violence rooted in poverty, and the dichotomy between purity and corruption. It is a stunning novel that deserves more readers, and a favourite of ours at The Second Shelf.First edition. Hardback, 269 pp. 22 x 14.5 cm. Black quarter cloth with black boards, with red decoration and gilt lettering to spine, slight fading on bottom edge front cover. Very good book in very good dust jacket. Advance copy publisher's slip laid in with typed title.

A rare copy of the screenplay for Play It As It Lays, Didion's adaptation of her 1970 novel of the same name. The relatively well-received film, starring Tuesday Weld (turning in a Golden Globe nominated performance) and Anthony Perkins, is an observation of Hollywood from the perspective of an actress in a state of crisis after a series of professional and personal setbacks. A close and careful study of alienation, efforts to hide the effects of alienation, and how hard it can be to recover from existential crises. The movie has fallen into a bit of obscurity, and it is not currently available on any streaming service, except for a middling quality YouTube upload, and the screenplay itself was never published, leading fans of Didion clamoring for insight into her writing process, from novel, to film adaptation, without access to either. In a 2015 article for The Los Angeles Times, writer David Ulin wrote about as short sample of the screenplay he'd come across in a book called "Works in Progress" and… Read More

Limited signed and numbered edition, 94 of 250, revised edition. Marlene Dietrich's alphabet of all her favourite things. This book is a window to the interior life of the German-American Hollywood star, from her political preoccupations, to her views on marriage. From an entry on Goethe: "My idol. [...] He sanctioned love without condition, without pride", to a definition of love: "Love for the joy of loving, and not for the offerings of someone else's heart", this book shows the depths and range of an important figure of the twentieth century, celebrated not only for her artistry and glamour, but also for her humanitarian efforts, which won her Medal Freedom for her stance against Nazism and her support of Allied Troops. A special revised copy. Includes photographs of Dietrich throughout her life.
Hardcover, 183 pp. White cloth binding in pristine condition. Original dust jacket, very slightly worn on edges. Toning on the spine. Overall in very good condition.

Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons, 1937. Essentially an essay on the literary sources of Wuthering Heights, as well as a reflection on the Brontës's writing and its relationship with the landscape they grew up in. A special and scarce book of literary criticism and an affectionate reading of Emily Brontë's masterpiece. A near fine copy of an exceptionally appealing little book.
First edition. Hardback, 48 pp. Green cloth binding in near fine condition, apart from almost imperceptible bumping on corners. Pictorial dust jacket shows very light wear on the edges, as well as 2 mm chips on the bottom of the spine, but overall in very good condition.

Victor Gollancz, 1964. First thus, publisher's file copy, novels previously published 1951, 1954.This edition includes the psychological thriller set in Cornwall, My Cousin Rachel, and Mary Ann, a novel based on the life of du Maurier's great grandmother Mary Ann Clarke, mistress of Frederick Augustus, Duke of York.
Hardcover 352 pp. Red cloth, slight separation of the binding at the top and staining at bottom edge, but otherwise near fine condition. Original jacket, light wear on top and bottom edges. File copy stamp on front flap and back cover. Very bright and in near fine condition.

London: Victor Gollancz, 1964. Fourth impression.
Hardcover, 208 pp. Red cloth binding, bump on the bottom of spine, some toning on the top edges, near fine. Original jacket, some age related darkening and slight wear on the edges, as well as two small closed tears on the bottom edge, but bright and very good condition.