Featured Books

A selection from our inventory –

  • MOTOR CITY BLUE. by Estleman, Loren D.
    Estleman, Loren D.
    MOTOR CITY BLUE.

    Edition: First printing.

    Boston: Houghton Mifflin, (1980) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - Mystery introducing Detroit private investigator, Amos Walker. SIGNED on the title page. 219 pp. ISBN: 0-395294479.

    Condition: Fine in a very near fine dust jacket.

    Book ID: 65789
    View cart More details Price: $100.00
  • DANGER ON PEAKS: Poems. by Snyder, Gary.
    Snyder, Gary.
    DANGER ON PEAKS: Poems.

    Edition: First thus - the deluxe audio edition.

    Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, (2014) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - A beautiful new edition of these very personal poems, issued 10 years after the original publication. SIGNED by Snyder on the title page. Includes two CDs of Snyder reading the poems. Slightly oversized format. List of the audio CD tracks, 119 pp. Dust jacket illustration of Mt St Helens by Tom Killion. ISBN: 978-1619024519.

    Condition: Fine in fine dust jacket (a new copy.)

    Book ID: 66445
    View cart More details Price: $85.00
  • BLACK RIOT IN LOS ANGELES: The Story of the Watts Tragedy. by Crump, Spencer.
    Crump, Spencer.
    BLACK RIOT IN LOS ANGELES: The Story of the Watts Tragedy.

    Edition: First edition.

    Los Angeles: Trans-Anglo Books, (1966) dj. Hardcover first edition - An attempt to present a balanced look at the Watts Riot, illustrated throughout with black and white photographs, that tell the story far more graphically than words can. Includes an Appendix: The text of the McCone Commission report. Maps, bibliography, index. Large format. 160 pp. Map endpapers.

    Condition: Good only in a good dust jacket (tear to side of spine, dj has remnants of a spine label, some short closed tears)

    Book ID: 66724
    View cart More details Price: $150.00
  • ISARA: A Voyage Around "Essay." by Soyinka, Wole.
    Soyinka, Wole.
    ISARA: A Voyage Around "Essay."

    Edition: First US printing.

    New York: Random House, (1989) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - Second memoir by this Nobel laureate - an affectionate evocation of his father, Essay, who died while Soyinka was in political exile. Isara was the native village of his father and friends. SIGNED on the title page. 262 pp. ISBN: 0-394540778.

    Condition: Fine in fine dust jacket.

    Book ID: 66274
    View cart More details Price: $100.00
  • THE CHINABERRY TREE. by Fauset, Jessie [Redmon].
    Fauset, Jessie [Redmon].
    THE CHINABERRY TREE.

    Edition: 7th printing.

    New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1939. dj. Hardcover - The third novel by this important Harlem Renaissance writer, originally published in 1931. Introduction by Zona Gale and foreword by Jessie Fauset.

    Condition: Near fine in a very good dust jacket. The orange cloth covers are very bright, with just a little shelfwear on the lower edges. Minor foxing to the margins of a few pages. The scarce dustjacket is price-clipped with light edgewear and some chipping at the folds, but is overall quite attractive. Contemporary reviews of 'Plum Bun' on the back cover - including comments from Countee Cullen and W.E.B. DuBois. All of Fauset's novels are hard to find in any early hardcover edition, and copies in dustjacket are even more elusive.

    Book ID: 21941
    View cart More details Price: $950.00
  • THE BAD BEGINNING and THE REPTILE ROOM plus 'Magnets for Misfortune.' by Lemony Snicket [pseudonym of David Handler.]
    Lemony Snicket [pseudonym of David Handler.]
    THE BAD BEGINNING and THE REPTILE ROOM plus 'Magnets for Misfortune.'

    Edition: Advance Reading Copy (trade paperback format. )

    New York: HarperCollins, (1999.). SIGNED first edition - An extremely uncommon ARC of the first two titles in the "Series of Unfortunate Events" by Lemony Snicket - THE BAD BEGINNING and THE REPTILE ROOM, bound dos-a-dos, (back to back) in glossy illustrated wrappers. SIGNED (sort of) by the author, with an embossed seal and the trademark handwritten comment 'with all due respect' surrounding the seal, and the date '3.X.2004. written inside the seal. First issue, with the misspelling of 'unfortuante' on the covers. Now that this was the basis of a movie starring Jim Carey, Meryl Streep and Jude Law, even those of you who don't have children in your lives are probably familiar with these books, but for…

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    New York: HarperCollins, (1999.). SIGNED first edition - An extremely uncommon ARC of the first two titles in the "Series of Unfortunate Events" by Lemony Snicket - THE BAD BEGINNING and THE REPTILE ROOM, bound dos-a-dos, (back to back) in glossy illustrated wrappers. SIGNED (sort of) by the author, with an embossed seal and the trademark handwritten comment 'with all due respect' surrounding the seal, and the date '3.X.2004. written inside the seal. First issue, with the misspelling of 'unfortuante' on the covers. Now that this was the basis of a movie starring Jim Carey, Meryl Streep and Jude Law, even those of you who don't have children in your lives are probably familiar with these books, but for those who might still be languishing uninformed, here is a bit of information: The Lemony Snicket books are possibly even more popular than the Potter books - and for good reason! The resemblance to Edward Gorey's works is not accidental - How could anyone not love a book which contains this 'letter to the reader' at the beginning: 'I am sorry to say that the book which you are holding in your hands is extremely unpleasant. It tells the unhappy tale of three very unlucky children. Even though they are charming and clever, the Baudelaire siblings lead lives filled with misery and woe. From the very first page of this book, when the children are at the beach and receive terrible news, continuing on through the entire story, disaster lurks at their heels. One might say they are magnets for misfortune./ In this short book alone, the three youngsters encounter a greedy and repulsive villain, itchy clothing, a disastrous fire, a plot to steal their fortune and cold porridge for breakfast. / It is my sad duty to write down these unpleasant tales, but there is nothing stopping you from putting this book down at once and reading something happy, if you prefer that sort of thing.' What adult would not enjoy the in-jokes of names like Sunny and Klaus (as in von Bulow) - or the fact that these books actually encourage children to learn from reading, as in this excerpt: 'But although Klaus had read books on outer-space exploration, ice-skating tricks, and good marriage methods, and not yet found much use for this information, he had learned a great deal of information that was about to become very useful indeed.' Or a beginning paragraph that includes a word like 'rife'? The vocabulary is wonderful in these books. As a well-publicized debut, this advance reading copy was presumably printed in relatively generous numbers - but very few are currently being offered for sale! Either all the booksellers who got copies of this are hoarding this treasure themselves or, horrors, actually GAVE them to children! However, not only are we willing to sell this ARC, we will even include the much more elusive ' Magnets for Misfortune' which was produced as part of this original publicity campaign (I have never seen any of these offered for sale). This is the first of the promotional magnet sets done by the publisher: it consists of a small sheet of words (5 3/4 by 4 inches, designed to be cut apart and use to create 'refrigerator poetry'' Still in the original sealed plastic bag with a slip announcing a poetry contest for children.

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    Condition: Very near fine - a new and unread book, tight binding, no creases, but a little nick at the top of the spine and another at the upper corner (probably done in the publishing process, since these tiny nicks seem to be endemic to most otherwise fine copies).

    Book ID: 29668
    View cart More details Price: $650.00
  • HYBRIDS OF PLANTS AND GHOSTS. by Graham, Jorie.
    Graham, Jorie.
    HYBRIDS OF PLANTS AND GHOSTS.

    Edition: First printing.

    Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, (1980.) dj. Hardcover first edition - The very scarce hardcover first edition of this poet's first book. Winner of virtually every American prize and honors offered for poetry, including the MacArthur 'genius' award and the Pulitzer prize, Graham is one of the most important poets writing today - her poetry is praised for its crystalline clarity and for its complexity of vision, for its craftsmanship and its lyrical beauty. A title in the Princeton series of Contemporary Poets. 67 pp plus 1 p of notes on the poems. ISBN: 0-691-064210.

    Condition: Very near fine in a like dust jacket. A lovely copy of an uncommon work.

    Book ID: 32832
    View cart More details Price: $650.00