Search Results: Titles starting with N from Downtown Brown Books, ABAA

New York: Penguin Press, 2012. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. A novel first published in the UK (August 27) and then in the US (September 4). Smith was born in London to a Jamaican mother and a British father. She now lives in New York. First US edition (first printing with a numberline ending in 1). A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. Signed by Smith on the title page.

New York: Thames and Hudson, 1999. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. 16 color and 105 duotone photographs. 144 pages. 9-1/2 by 12 inches. First edition (first printing). A fine copy in a fine dust jacket.

New York and Tokyo: Weatherhill and Heibonsha, 1972. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/Near fine. Volume 19 in the Heibonsha Survey of Japanese Art. 156 pages. Illustrated with 141 black-and-white illustrations. Translated from the Japanese. First US edition (stated). Near fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket.

New York: Atheneum, 1963. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. 178 pages. Short stories; the author's second book. One of 6,000 copies, according to the Ahearn Author Price Guide. First edition (first printing). Fine in a fine jacket, without the tanning normally seen.

Tuscon: Dennis McMillan, 2004. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. The tenth Harry Bosch book, a novel that connects Bosch to Connelly's "Poet" series. This is one of 350 signed, numbered copies. First edition (first printing). A fine copy in a fine dust jacket and slipcase. This is copy no. 30. The book is still sealed in the original publisher's shrinkwrap.

Stanford: C. P. Times Press, 1984. First Edition. Pamphlet. Very good. A two-poem chapbook by one of the founders of the Black Panthers. Both poems are critical of the Soviet Union. [7] pages. 4-1/2 by 6 inches. First edition (first printing). A very good copy in wrappers (pamphlet). Staples beginning to rust. A bit of wear to the corners.

San Diego: Toltecas en Aztlán, 1972. First edition. Trade paperback. Very good. An important early work by this pioneering Chicano poet who was one of the first to explore the Mayan and Aztec roots of Chicano culture. Fifteen years ago, I offered the opinion that of the early Chicano Movement poetry collections, this was the easiest to find; but no longer. This is the first one I've had in years. The book is illustrated with interesting line drawings by Victor Orozco Ochoa, Esteban Villa, and Armando Núñez. Unpaginated but 196 pages (actually, the book is paginated using Mayan glyphs. I had to count the pages since my Mayan is a bit rusty). Small format, 4 by 6-1/2 inches. First edition (first printing, a paperback original). A very good to near fine copy, which once belonged to the author Floyd Salas (Tattoo the Wicked Cross), with his ownership signature and "U.C. Irvine Oct. 1973" on the first page.

Angourie, NSW, Australia: Nymboida Press, 1998. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/Very good. The memoirs of an Australian surfing legend. 459 pages; extensively illustrated with halftone photographs. First edition (states "First published in 1998..." on the last text page). Near fine (small gift inscription on the title page) in a dust jacket with wear at the front covers; generally very good. Inscribed by Young, "Kelly, do it, if you get you high!! Nat Young, Nov 98." Uncommon signed.

Austin: Texas Monthly Press, 1988. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. A collection of essays. 185 pages. First edition (first printing with a line of letters beginning with A). Fine in a fine dust jacket. Inscribed by the author, "For Lynn and Gene, it was a pleasure meeting you at Plum Creek, Steve Harrigan. Nov. 10, '94.

Austin: Texas Monthly Press, 1988. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. 185 pages. A collection of essays. First edition (first printing). Fine in a fine dust jacket. Inscribed by the author, "For Tom & Meredith, best wishes from your pal, Steve Harrigan. July 25, '89.

London: MacMillan and Co, 1923. First Edition. Hardcover. Good. A significant work in the history of psychology. Spearman was an important early 20th century statistician who used testing to develop measures and theories of intelligence. This is a survey of the field after he and others had spent a couple of decades investigating Spearman's early findings. viii, 358, [2] pages. First edition (first printing, with a 1923 date on the title page and no indication of later printings). This is an ex-library copy, with remnants of a pocket on the rear pastedown; a hint of spine label residue on the spine, a seminary ink-stamp on the front pastedown, and a five-digit ID number on the copyright page. With a later owner's bookplate and the posthumous bookplate of Stephen Jay Gould, from whose office library this copy came. Gould wrote about Spearman extensively in his book The Mismeasure of Man.

New York: Henry Spear, 1849. First Edition. Hardcover. Good. Two textbooks on sailing by American midshipmen, printed and bound together, as issued. The topics covered by Murphy are spars and rigging, nautical manoeuvers (called "evolutions"), and stowage. Jeffers' work on navigation is separately paginated with a title page that reads in full: Navigation: A Concise Practical Treatise on Navigation: Containing Short and Improved Methods for the Determination of Latitude and Longitude, the Reduction in the Elements in the Nautical Almanac, the Treatment and Rating of Chronometers, etc. The book offers a wealth of information on mid-19th century ships, but very few illustrations. xvi, 92, [2], 46, [2],54, x, 62, 90, [6 blank] pages. First edition (first printing). A good copy, with old dampstains throughout. Illustrated title reattached with binder's tape. Corners worn, else very good in the publisher's original cloth binding decorated in gilt.

London: Macmillan in Association with Goldsboro Books, 2019. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. One of 150 signed copies of this Swedish thriller, translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles. First edition in English (with a numberline ending in 1). A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. Copy no. 113 of 150 signed by Edvardsson on a tipped in page. "Signed copy" sticker on front of the jacket, probably as issued).

London: Tor, 2010. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. A science fiction novel set in space. First edition (first printing, with a numberline ending in 1). A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. Signed by the author on the title page.

New York: Avon Books, 1997. First US edition. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. A man's journey through an alternate London underground searching for a way back to the "real world". 337 pages. First American edition (first printing with a numberline ending in 1). A very good copy in a very good dust jacket. Spine ends bumped.

Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1943. Ephemera. Very good. A homefront poster for the East Coast of the United States during the Second World War. The poster explains three types of air raid warnings, plus the all-clear signal. The system alerts residents if enemy bombers are approaching, if bombing is immenent, and when enemy planes have left (but might return). The poster was produced by the OCD (Office of Civilian Defense), the Eastern Defense Command, and the First Army. 28 by 20 inches. Folded, as issued; generally very good. This is an original World War II poster, not a reproduction.

Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1992. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine. 185 pages. Poetry and prose anthology with contributions from Luis Omar Salinas, Francisco X. Alarcon, Gary Soto, Sandra Cisneros, Juan Felipe Herrera, and others. The scarce hardcover issue; also issued in wrappers (paperback). First edition (first printing). A fine hardcover copy; no dust jacket, as issued.

New York: Doubleday / Double D Western, 1989. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. 180 pages. An anthology of short stories, with contributions from Lewis Shiner, Loren D. Estleman, Neal Barrett Jr., and a previously unpublished Max Brand story. First edition (first printing). Fine in a fine dust jacket. This copy is inscribed by the editor, "Good stories by good writers, from a so-so editor. Joe R. Lansdale." Neal Barrett Jr. also signed, on the title page, "Tommy! This is a good one too! Neal Barrett, Jr." The inscription recipients (Tim and Tom) are not the same person. Barrett's inscription may refer to his story in the previous volume of Western stories edited by Landsale, "Sallie C", which was included in a volume of that year's best science fiction.

London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1911. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. A controversial novel at the time, about the affair of an author-politician who recants socialism and has an affair with a graduate student. The book was obviously based on Wells and his affair with the women's rights activist Amber Reeves. The novel also pokes fun at Beatrice and Sidney Webb, two prominent socialists, whose characters are thinly disguised and everyone in intellectual Britain knew who he meant. The novel was serialized in the literary magazine, The English Review, but initially no British publisher would touch it. As a result, the first edition is the American version, which came out in 1910. According to Wells' biographer Michael Sherborne, the sales of this book doubled that of any previous Wells novel. Wells told a friend around this time, "My personal unpopularity is immense but amusing & people listen with blanched faces to the tale of my vices & go & buy my books." (Quoted in H. G. Wells: Another… Read More

Tokyo: Hakubunkan, 1912. Later printing. Trade paperback. Very good. One of several guides for emigrants to America written by Shimanuki, the founder of Nihon Rikkokai-the Japan Self-Help Society-a Christian group that helped poor Japanese from rural areas to study and work abroad. This is the first guide Shimanuki wrote after the Gentlemen's Agreement went into effect, significantly restricting immigration. At this stage, the Nihon Rikkokai encouraged potential American immigrants to study, learn a trade, and develop connections that would allow them to obtain a legal passport for travel to the US. Shimanuki does, however, devote a chapter to entering the US illegally, either without papers or using someone else's passport, but he didn't recommend it (in 1924, the Rikkokai set up a stowaway school in Japan to teach men looking to go to the US how to swim ashore and evade police-see Tsurutani Hisashi's America-Bound, p. 75-78). Chapters discuss opportunities for students, professionals, farmers,… Read More