Search Results: Titles starting with O from ReadInk

Portland ME: Falmouth Book House. Near Fine in Very Good+ dj. 1938. First Edition. Hardcover. [the tiniest bit of dust-soiling to top edge, no other discernible wear; jacket has a couple of tiny closed tears at bottom of front panel, light wear to spine ends, a little bit of red staining (ink? paint? blood?) at top edge of rear panel]. (pen and ink drawings) "A sparkling, farcical satire on dictators and modern culture, [this book] is a story that for once allows mankind to look at itself with a smirk instead of shame. . . . Skillfully the author has created a puppet world, in counterpart of the earth, on an imaginary atomic planet. Events paralleling those of the earth are reduced to comic proportions, and a fast-moving story, involving action and romance, unfolded around the dictator, his cohorts and a girl named Neela." .

Niwot CO: University Press of Colorado. Fine in Near Fine dj. 1995. First Edition. Hardcover. [very nice copy, no discernible wear to book at all; the jacket has just a touch of wrinkling along the top edge of the rear panel]. (B&W photographs) INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author on the half-title page: "Dear Abby / I hope you enjoy / this book -- / Ralph Looney." (Additionally, the author has underlined his name on the rear jacket flap, and added his address in purple ink.) This memoir of Georgia O'Keeffe, per the jacket text, "may provide the most close-up view of the famed artist yet available"; her friendship with Looney dated to 1962. "Most of the photographs of the artist at home have never been published before. O'Keeffe loathed smiling photographs and disliked being revealed in that way. In truth, she had a keen sense of humor and a marvelous laugh. What distinguishes Looney's portrait of O'Keeffe is its simplicity, its eloquence,… Read More

Los Angeles: Bombshelter Press. Very Good+. (c.1994). Softcover. [reading crease in spine, minor edge and corner wear, a little soiling on bottom edge]. Contains interviews with James Dickey and Tom Wolfe; journals and poems by Charles Bukowski; poetry by Donald Hall, Kate Braverman and many others; fiction, book reviews, etc. .

New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, Inc.. Very Good+ in Very Good dj. 1949. First Edition. Hardcover. [light shelfwear to bottom edge, slight bumping to top rear corner; jacket sunned at spine, light edgewear and scuffing]. "This book, by a former New York city magistrate, is in part the inspiring story of his own life; in part a vivid record of the city he has loved; in part an account of the Fusion Administration, embodying perhaps the most revealing portrait of Fiorello H. LaGuardia ever written. It tells of a career unusual for its variety and constant interest, unique for its inception and meaning. For Judge Isaacs, on graduating from the College of the City of New York, had taken the Ephebic Oath, pledging himself to good citizenship and service -- and meaning what he swore." (Sounds like today's politicians could use a good swift dose of that.) .

Carbondale/Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press. Near Fine. (c.1996). 1st Edition (softcover issue). Softcover. 0809319993 . [slight bumping to corners of rear cover, otherwise nice and clean, virtually as-new]. Trade PB (B&W photographs) "In this personal and perceptive book, [the author] vividly chronicles the history of a particularly turbulent era in American political life while examining his own life before and after the events universally called the witch hunts. He details his brief membership in the Communist Party of America, explaining his initial commitment to what he perceived as communist ideals of civil liberties, economic justice, and antifascism, followed by his eventual disillusionment with the party as it betrayed those ideals. He goes on to provide a fair assessment of what then happened to him and the effect it had on the rest of his life. Dmytryk describes the activities, prejudices, and personal behaviors of all the parties enmeshed in the… Read More

London: Hutchinson International Authors Limited. Very Good+ in Good+ dj. 1949. First Edition. Hardcover. [corners very slightly bumped/softened, light foxing to top of text block; jacket has some paper loss surrounding the top of the spine, a couple of small tears and associated creasing at top edge of the rear panel, tiny chip at bottom front hinge, 1.5" diagonal tear and associated crease at upper left front panel, miscellaneous bits of edgewear here and there]. An exceedingly uncommon collection of short fiction by the German-Jewish novelist and playwright (1884-1958), who spent most of his later years as a resident of Pacific Palisades, California (after having been granted political asylum in the U.S. in 1941, following a harrowing escape from wartime Europe). Per a prefatory note: "Most of these stories have appeared in British and American magazines, and some of them [eight, to be exact] in 'Little Tales' (Hutchinson, 1935)." Contents: "The House in… Read More

New York: Exposition Press. Very Good- in Fair dj. (c.1951). First Edition. Hardcover. [book just moderately worn, small tear in cloth at top of spine; jacket somewhat tattered, separated at front hinge (held together by Brodart cover), large piece missing at lower left of front panel]. INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author on the ffep. Novel about an idealistic young American physician who goes to Israel to participate in "the birth pangs of a new nation." Since the author himself was a young American physician, who like his protagonist studied at the University of Pittsburgh, one might speculate that this book was at least semi-autobiographical (which of course is not untypical of vanity-press fiction). Signed by Author .

New York: The Dial Press, Inc.. Near Fine in Good dj. 1967. First Edition. Hardcover. [slight wear to cloth at spine ends, tiny light stain on bottom of text block; jacket is worn with various small edge-tears, considerable damage to the lower spine (2-inch ragged split at front hinge, some paper loss and dog-earing), light abrasions and some minor spotting on spine]. The author's second novel, about a young black man who's sent to work on a Louisiana plantation after he's bonded out of jail while awaiting trial for murder. .

New York: Simon and Schuster. Near Fine in Near Fine dj. (c.1980). First Edition. Hardcover. 067124020X . [slight wear to bottom front corner of book, small black mark on bottom edge of text block that could be a remainder mark (but I don't think it is); jacket lightly surface-worn, faint crease in top left area of front panel]. (B&W and color photographs) INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the photographer on the second front endpape (on the white area of a full-page photograph): "To Burt [Lancaster] - Wishing you / the best - Enjoy Love and / Happiness. Milton." One might have thought that Mailer was done having his literary way with Marilyn Monroe after his factoid-infused 1973 book "Marilyn" -- but no. Here, behind the veil of a somewhat misleading title, he has channeled Marilyn to produce "a fictional autobiography" -- in the author's own description, "an imaginary memoir, an as-told-to book, a set of interviews that never took place between… Read More

New York: The Macmillan Company. Fine in Near Fine dj. (c.1972). First Edition. Hardcover. [a lovely copy, the book tight and clean with no discernible wear; the jacket (which does not often wear well on this book) is exceptionally nice, the only blemishes being some very minor edgewear and a soft diagonal crease in the rear panel]. (B&W photographs) Immensely entertaining memoir by the legendary screenwriter, whose work has received renewed attention in recent years thanks to a superb 1997 biography by Cari Beauchamp. Foreword by Gloria Swanson. Cited in "100 Books on Hollywood & the Movies," which has helped to make it a "must have" for serious collectors in this genre, as well as contributing to its ever-increasing scarcity. (I'm a little surprised that no one has ever reprinted it, honestly.) .

New York: Lee Furman, Inc.. Very Good+ in Very Good+ dj. (c.1937). First Edition. Hardcover. [good solid clean copy, light shelfwear, tiny tear in binding at top of spine; jacket a bit scuffed, with moderate soiling and light edgewear, vertical crease down middle of spine]. This is "the story of one woman's adventures on the other side of the track." A woman of "wealth and social position," Mrs. Colgate decided to devote her efforts to "befriending some who scoffed at friendship -- wayward men, delinquent children, prisoners, and inmates of various institutions." Her field work, which took her to "juvenile courts, houses of correction, reformatories, state and county prisons, prison farms, and boys' clubs," was mostly done between 1912 and 1923, but she continued to be active in reform efforts until her death in 1940. And lest you think that this is just the sort of woman the term "do-gooder" was invented to describe, however,… Read More

Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. Fine in Near Fine dj. (c.1959). First Edition. Hardcover. [nice-looking book, tight and clean with no discernible wear; jacket shows very light edgewear, minor scuffing to spine]. (B&W photographs) "The story of the American tall building, its development, its history, its mission -- a big story underlying the advance of business and industry and the growth of cities." (++) .

New York: Simon and Schuster. Very Good+ in Very Good dj. (c.1971). 2nd printing. Hardcover. [light shelfwear, a couple of tiny stains on front pastedown and endpaper, small date rubber-stamped at upper corner of front pastedown; the jacket shows a bit of surface wear, slight edgewear and minor wrinkling along top and bottom edges, and has a shallow dampstain at the bottom of the rear panel (very slightly visible on the book as well)]. Comic novel about a young writer who "one day discovers in his mail, typed on plain white paper, an appointment to meet God." He keeps the appointment, scores an exclusive interview with God, "who has decided to reappear on earth to squelch rumors that He Is Dead," and accompanies Him around town on a series of wacky escapades. The author's first novel, adapted into a very funny film that injected enough juice into the career of the then-81-year-old George Burns to keep him going for almost twenty more years. .

London: Methuen & Co. Ltd.. Near Fine in Fair dj. (c.1965). Later Printing. Hardcover. (price-clipped) [solid copy, light shelfwear, top corner very lightly bumped, stamp of The Woodstock Playhouse, Woodstock, N.Y. on front endpaper; jacket heavily worn along edges, surface shows quite a bit of rubbing/scuffing]. (B&W photographs) The acclaimed British stage presentation, "a chronicle of the First World War, told through the songs and documents of the period," as "presented by a company of pierrots, whose songs, costumes and routines reflect the sequence of events and moods in England and Europe from the pre-war days of ragtime and the 'balance of power' to the early months of recruiting and optimistic war songs and on to the long years of stoical trench humour and 'Keep the Home Fires Burning.'" Filmed by Richard Attenborough (his directing debut) in 1969. ("First published in 1965; paperback Edition 1967" stated on the copyright… Read More

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company. Very Good+ in Good dj. (c.1931). First Edition. Hardcover. [modest shelfwear to bottom edge, light dust-soiling to top of text block, gift inscription (non-authorial) on front endpaper; the jacket is a bit rough, with a few small chips along the top edge, about 1/2" of paper loss to the top of the spine, small tears at several corners, and a number of internal tape-repairs]. Short (occasionally short-short) stories from the early Depression era, rendered in a kind of hard-boiled Ring Lardneresque manner. All are set in the same small Oklahoma town, and although each story stands on its own there are enough inter-connections that reading the book is something like living in the town for awhile, and getting acquainted (maybe more than you'd like) with its citizens and their sometimes dark and violent passions and prejudices. Milburn (1906-1966) set much of his fiction (including three later novels) in his native eastern Oklahoma, writing… Read More

Honolulu: Historic Buildings Task Force. Very Good. 1969. First Edition. Softcover. [scuffing and rubbing to covers, spine a bit faded]. Trade PB (B&W photographs, map) A survey of then-surviving landmark buildings in and around Honolulu, issued at a time when the importance of preserving historic architecture was only beginning to gain a toehold in the wider public consciousness. (The National Trust for Historic Preservation -- whose "first principle" is quoted in the book's introduction -- was established in 1949, but didn't officially acquire its first property until 1957, and wasn't really kicked into high gear until the passage by Congress of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966.) Like many such putatively "outdated" guidebooks, the fascination and value in this one lies in the question it inevitably raises: how many of the buildings featured herein still survive, more than half a century later? If you live in Honolulu, that question… Read More

London: The Saturn Press. Very Good+ in Very Good+ dj. 1947. First Edition. Hardcover. [light shelfwear, upper corners bumped, no other significant wear; jacket a little edgeworn, small tears at spine ends but only minimal paper loss]. (color plates, B&W photographs) "This splendid collection of photographs covers two years' work of the Old Vic Theatre Company and includes 'King Lear,' 'Cyrano de Bergerac,' 'An Inspector Calls,' 'Uncle Vanya,' 'The Alchemist,' 'Henry IV, Pts. I and II,' 'Oedipus Rex,' 'Richard III,' 'The Critic' [and] 'Peer Gynt.' The colour plates show Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir Ralph Richardson, and Alec Guinness in their leading roles, and their are eighty other illustrations. The directors of the Old Vic Theatre Company have supervised the production of this book, and John Burrell, himself a director, has written an introduction describing the work of this theatre group during… Read More

Los Angeles: UCLA University Research Library. Fine. 1970. First Edition. Stapled wraps. NOISBN . [beautiful, flawless copy; appears brand-new]. (B&W plates) 20-page booklet (including covers), containing an essay by Richard A. Vogler and a number of reproductions of vintage illustrations. Issued in conjunction with the UCLA library exhibition which ran from May 7 to June 15, 1970. .

[New York]: (no publisher indicated). Near Fine. [1940]. Ephemera. [a couple of tiny nicks along top edge, some very minor diagonal creasing at a couple of corners]. Original handbill (approx. 6"x9", not folded) advertising two concurrently running New York hits: "Hellzapoppin," the ultra-wacky Olsen & Johson-headlined revue that ran for over three years (1938-1941); and (on the verso) "The Streets of Paris." This is from the show's second holiday season at its primary venue, the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway at 50th Street; it had opened at the 46th Street Theatre on September 22, 1938, but its great popularity occasioned its move to the 200-seats-larger Winter Garden just a couple of months later (forcing Cole Porter's "You Never Know" out), where it then played there for the vast majority of its run before moving to the Majestic on November 25, 1941; it closed just a couple of weeks after that, in the wake of Pearl Harbor and the… Read More

Lanham MD/London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.. Fine in Near Fine dj. 1998. First Edition. Hardcover. [book is clean and as-new with no discernible wear; jacket is unblemished apart from a soft diagonal crease at the top corner of the front flap]. (Filmmakers, No. 63) Series (B&W photographs) "A collection of Knox's writings, both published and unpublished, on various performers he worked with or knew well, and on the art and craft of acting. Knox writes about Laurence Olivier, a close personal friend and co-actor in the memorable 1940 production of 'Romeo and Juliet.' He discusses his title performance as [Woodrow] Wilson in the famous 1944 screen production. Other actors and actresses about whom Knox has much original to say include Sara Allgood, Dana Andrews, George Arliss, Walter Huston, and Orson Welles." .