Rare books from Johnnycake Books ABAA, ILAB

The Viking Press, 1973. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. A set of three editions - unrevised proof, hardcover first edition and softcover first edition - plus two items comtemporary to book publication from Viking publicity executive. 1) A two-page statement of provenance that recounts discussions at Viking about how to market and price Pynchon's 760-page book and publicize it as "no one at that time had ever published a major literary talent in hard/soft cover at the same time". 2) Cassette, running time approx 12 minutes of Prof Irwin Corey's acceptance speech for Pynchon at the National Book Award for the reclusive Pynchon who refused to acknowledge or accept the award. The hardbound copy is fine with just a trace of toning along the edges of teh white dw flaps. The softcover copy has a slightly faded spine. The unrevised proof is in blue wrappers, marked "Office Copy" in blue ink on front cover, has a paper clip still in place top edge (with attendant trace of rust to ffe), and has slight sun… Read More

Los Angeles, 1975. Screenplay, Second Draft. Hardcover. Very Good. Screenplay, second draft dated August 1, 1975, based on the novel of the same title by Patricia Nell Warren published by William Morrow in 1974. Written by Larner, winner of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Candidate and commissioned by actor Paul Newman, who was the first of many over the last 40 years who owned the screen rights. A controversial novel in its days - the story is of an All-American coach who falls in love with a young track star in his training - it was the first gay-themed novel to make The New York Times' bestseller list, and since then has become emblematic of the romantic headiness of the 70s gay liberation that gave way to the crushing realities of the AIDS epidemic a decade later. After Newman's option expired, the novel rights changed hands multiple times (they have now reverted to author Warren after a legal dispute was recently settled out of court), and at some point a film version was… Read More

Berlin: Im Verlah Ullstein, 1937. Hardcover. Very Good/VG+. Udet, Ernst (1896-1941). (Garnett, Tay). Mein Fliegerleben (My Life as a Pilot). Berlin: Im Verlag Ullstein, 1937. Inscribed copy to American film director (and fellow pilot) Tay Garnett (1894 - 1977). Spanning nearly 60 years, Garnett's scriptwriting and directing career moved from the silents to the heyday of the Hollywood motion picture studio to television; of the hundreds of projects he either wrote or directed, he is best known for directing the American noir classic The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946). As a young man he served as Naval Air pilot in WWI and worked as a cartoonist before finding work as a title writer for Mack Sennett Studios. By the time sound came along, he was directing feature theatricals. Garnett and Udet met while Garnett was directing SOS Iceberg (1933). The two had much in common: both were accomplished cartoonists but most importantly both served, albeit in enemy forces, as air pilots in WWI, Udet being a… Read More

various: various 0. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. Tay Garnett (1894-1977) was one of the great American film directors of Hollywood's Golden Age. His six-decade career spanned silents for Mack Sennett, Hal Roach and Pathé, to major studio blockbusters like China Seas (1935), Mrs. Parkington (1944), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949), and the MGM film noir masterpiece, The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946). At the end of his career, he set out compiling views on directing from the greatest in the American film industry and international cinema. This collection of correspondence and books was assembled by him in the course of research. His book, "Directing: Learn from the Masters" (Scarecrow Press, 1996), published posthumously, ultimately presented the views of 43 of the world's greatest directors. In the mid 1970s, Garnett sent a questionnaire of 21 key questions about the specifics of film directing and their careers to directors around the world. The correspondence,… Read More

Hamburg: Auf Begehren hoher Personen auffs neue, 1702. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. Folio, 367, double-columned text, amply illustrated with decorated capitals and devices throughout, and 7 full page engraving copper plates plates (at 112, 118, 168, 192, 230, 244, and 276. There is also a loose plate, uniform in engraved format, at page 227. This rare edition reprints anti-Quaker treatises, emanating largely from Lutheran Christian theologians, that appeared in 1660 and assembled here for the first time. WorldCat lists 7 versions of this edition, 3 specifically as printed here. Most of the copper plates depict the activities of early Quaker preacher and missionary James Naylor ("mistakenly" identified as Jacob). Most notable is the one of him entering Bristol, England on donkey as the Savior Christ. The anti-Quakers exploited the outrage that ensued to label beliefs "blasphemous" and all of Quakerism "false doctrine" "cunningly endeavored" and "revolting, hideous and damnable teaching"… Read More

No Binding. Fine. Three scratchboards, two 12'x 15", the other 16" x 12", depicting critical scenes from Jean Genet's classic Querelle. Two are uniform in size and are matted and framed in the style of the oblong one, which wads originally matted and framed by the artist. The life of Sam Steward (1909 - 1983), the subject of Justin Spring's biography "Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professsor; Tattoo Artist and Sexual Renegade "(Farrar Strauss Giroux, 2010), took Steward from a small town Ohio upbringing to personal friendships with Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, associations with George Platt Lynes, Glenway Wescott and other literati, and a close relationship with sex researcher Alfred Kinsey. Steward's life may well be most provocatively known for his explicit diaries, journals, photography and art that both recorded his sexual life in detail (and which he shared with Kinsey). Starting out as an English professor at DePaul University with literary aspirations and… Read More

New Haven: Ives-Sillman, 1967. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Pete Mondrian (1872 - 1944) LIMITED EDITION, this number 1 of 150 copies, with an introduction and an essay by Henry Holtzman (1912-1987). 10 color silkscreens. 432mm square. Original paper folders housed in beige linen portfolio; original black slipcase. Prints fine, cloth near fine, slipcase shows modest wear at open corners, partially split along one edge. Provenance: Heirs to attorney who represented Ives and Sillman. This copy has remained in that family's possession since it was printed. Ives-Sillman, Inc. was one of few publishers to produce silkscreen prints and photographs in monographic portfolios. Over two decades, 1958 until Ives's death in 1978, Norman Ives and Sewell Sillman were collaborators with some of the most important artists of their time. In the late 1950s, Norman Ives and Sewell Sillman established a partnership, Ives-Sillman, Inc. In 1962 Ives-Sillman published a portfolio of ten Josef Albers's silkscreen… Read More

London: Printed for Richard Baldwin, 1694. Second English-lanquage Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Printed for Richard Baldwin, 1694., London.12mo, half leather, gte, 8.25 x 14.5cm.(vi), clvi, (i, with errata), (xxiv), 230; viii, 9 - 208. Engraved frontispiece portrait of Rabelais with quote from Theodorus Beza dated 1552. First edition in English. Owbership name of Joseph Oliver, New Orleans, February 6, 1865 front fly. late 19thc binding, leather spine darkened.

NY: William Morrow, 1948. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good +/Very Good. First edition, blue covers, titles stamped in red, with Dubious Bridegroom last title on Perry Mason titles listed in rear. Inscribed on the ffe by Gardner to the legendary Marlene Dietrich with his tribute to her volunteer efforts in WWII: "To Marlene Dietrich who has given so generously of her talent to help keep us a great nation. Yours Erle Stanley Gardner March 1949". Indeed, the German-born Dietrich ( 1901-1992), after becoming an international sensation with The Blue Angel and then emigrating to Hollywood where she made hugely successful films in the 1930s, dedicated notable efforts to humanitarian causes during World War II: entertaining on tour Allied troops, housing German and French exiles, providing financial support and advocating for American citizenship for those fleeing Europe. For boosting morale on the front lines during the war, she received honors from the United States, France, Belgium and Israel, and… Read More

NY: Playbill, 1981. Soft cover. Very Good. Playbill for the original 1981 Broadway production of Merrily We Roll Along, that was distinguished when it was first produced as one of Sondheim's least successful musicals, opening on November 16,1981 and closing after just 16 performances and 44 previews. It was also the last musical that Sondheim and producer/ director Hal Prince worked on together after collaborating on a phenomenal string of critically acclaimed musicals in the 1960s and 1970s (Company, A Little Night Music, Follies). SIGNED BY SONDHEIM on the front cover. A production, directed by Maria Friedman, that began at the Menier Chocolate Factory in 2013, which is on Broadway through 2024 has changed critical reaction, bringing Merrily more stature in the Sondheim canon than before. Sondheim's signatures without inscriptions are uncommon. Given the short run of the original production, one of the more collectible Playbills, and uncommon signed by the master. Stapled spine, 130 pages, gently… Read More

NY: V.G. Audubon, 1849. First Edition Thus. Hardcover. Very Good. First octavo edition. 155 plates by W. E. Hitchcock and R. Trembly after J.J. and J. W. Audubon. Some spotting here and there, and in Volumes 2 the outer edge/ bottom corner of the leaves running through page 110 are lightly stained affecting neither text nor images. Original, green, full leather binding, gilt-ruled, with the original owner name "Chas. Theo Russell" pressed in gilt to front covers all three volumes. Hinges have been recently reinforced and leather reconditioned. PROVENANCE: Heirs to Charles Theodore Russell (1815 - 1896), Massachusetts politician who served in both the Massachusetts House and Senate and as Mayor of Cambridge. He graduated from Harvard College in 1837, the same class as Henry David Thoreau and Richard Henry Dana.

various, 1776. 1st Edition. Hardcover. VG+. A COLLECTION OF FIVE THOMAS PAINE PAMPHLETS ALONG WITH OTHER PAMPHLETS MOST PRINTED IN PHILADELPHIA. This collection was found in a perished 19thC leather binding; it has been newly rebound in late-18thC American style, full-leather. The text block has been restitched, with all components in the order as it was found, with endsheets retained. Leaves are moderately foxed throughout. COMMON SENSE Philadelphia: Printed. And Sold by W. and T. Bradford. (1776). (6) - 50. Gimbel CS-11. ESTC W32287. Evans 14959 Third edition of Paine's anti-monarchical pamphlet, printed the month after the first London edition of January 1776 by Robert Bell, and the first edition of the expanded text (and) RIGHTS OF MAN. Philadelphia: Re-Printed by Samuel Harrison Smith,1791.105 [1] ESTC W36410. Evans 23664. First American edition, wrappers missing, with both issue points present: stating "Second Edition" on the title page and containing the "Jefferson extract" (and) RIGHTS OF… Read More

London: Chatto & Windus, 1899. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. Author's Edition De Luxe, with distinctive ALS by Twain and manuscript pages in different volumes unique to this set - 25 volumes, Volumes I - IV are dated 1899; Volumes V - XXIII 1900; and, Volumes XXIV and XXV dated 1907. (Although all leather spine bindings are dated 19000 at the foot.) Limitation states 620 copies, with 600 for sale in Great Britain but actually 250 printed in the United States with statement of The Hartford Press on the verso of title page, this set #121, signed by Twain as both Twain and Clemens on the limitation page of Volume I. Bound-in at limitation page of Volume I is a one-page ALS (not recorded by McBride) from Twain to American Publishing Company publisher Elisha Bliss ("Friend Bliss") dated Feb 15 (18)75 (from the secretarial notation on the verso) in which Twain discusses copyright for Lotos Leaves in Gill's name, with reference to what Elderkin might do. ("Lotos Leaves" was an anthology of essays,… Read More

London: Printed for J. Johnson, C. Dilly, and T. Cadell, 1791. 4th Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Two volumes, large 4to, uniformly printed and bound. Volume 1 (stated fourth edition, dated 1792): The State of the Prisons in England and Wales, with Preliminary Observations , and an Account of Some Foreign Prisons and Hospitals. 540pp with 492 (text), 23 (index), (directions to binder), 28 (Historical remarks and anecdotes on the castle of the Bastille translated from the French and published in 1774). Volume 2 (stated second edition, dated 1791): An Account of the Principal Lazarettos in Europe; with various papers relating to the Plague; together with Further Observations on some Foreign Prisons and Hospitals; and additional remarks on the present state of those in Great Britain and Ireland. 22 plates total. 259pp ( plates in text #1,2,9,12, 14,15,16,17, 18, 19,20, 21),3 (index), 32 (appendix), rear plates 3,4,5,6,7,8,10,11,13,22, tables originally published 1772, republished 1784. Directions to… Read More

NY: Harcourt Brace, 1950. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/Very Good. First American edition, with rare first issue point of uncancelled page 35-36. Advance copy with advance copy label from publisher with the release date of March 10 1950 and $3.00 price affixed to ffe. Black cloth, spine titles stamped in gold. Gallup A55b: "The publishers state that 'about ten copies' (at most)'" escaped cancellation at pages 35-36; this copy is one of those, and scarce thus. Some offsetting to front and rear endpapers with outline of dustjacket flaps, which are lightly discolored. Faint discoloration to head of spine dustjacket with some shallow wear. Cloth over boards and internal leaves quite nice. $6,000.