New York: St Martin's Minotaur, (1999) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - Mystery featuring chef and sometimes sleuth Heaven Lee, set in Kansas City, and complete with recipes. "When a big jazz festival rolls into Kansas City, big names and even bigger egos follow. Soul singer divas and renowned jazzmen take over the usually sleepy city, and Heaven Lee has to cook for them all. While Heaven is up to her elbows in hoppin' john and sweet potato pecan pie getting ready for the festivities, the events much despised organizer is murdered." INSCRIBED on the title page and dated in 2001. 242 pp plus recipe index. ISBN: 0-312206054.

Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Library. (1987). First edition - Introduction by Kimberly Chambers, afterword by Joan C. St. Crane, curator of American Literature Collection at UVA Library. Includes selections ranging from Frederick Douglass to Charles H. Rowell, including Houston Baker, Jay Wright, Albert Murray, Zora Hurston, Robert Stepto, Toi Derricote, Rita Dove, Gerald Barrax and more. Illustrated throughout with photographs. One of 2500 copies. Unpaginated (48 pp) A slim volume.

New York: Da Capo Press, (1980.). Illustrated with photographs. Discography. 235 pp. 1988. ISBN: 0-306-800438.

New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, (2003.). SIGNED first edition - A massive sprawling novel - described on the cover as a 'symphonic novel' - covering 150 years of family history, by this Puerto Rican born, Brooklyn author. Vidamia Farrell, half Puerto Rican, half Irish, sets out in search of the father she never knew - once a gifted jazz pianist, he lost 2 fingers in Vietnam, and shut himself off from music, and is now living in Manhattan's East Village with his second family. A story about learning about yourself and about the complexities of roots - described as 'masterfully crafted and complex' by Ntozake Shange, and 'big, brave, boisterous and brawling' by Colum McCann, this is a great read. 640 pp.

New York & London: Severn House, (2005) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - Mystery set in San Francisco and featuring private investigator Ronnie Ventana. INSCRIBED on the title page. 220 pp. ISBN: 978-0727861986.

New York: Norton, (1997.) dj. Hardcover first edition - Amazing first novel by this jazz musician and journalist - the hero is "an alto saxophone virtuoso trying to evolve a personal style out of Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and Ornette Coleman. He also happens to be a walking, talking, Shakespeare- and Blake-quoting bear whose keen sense of irony protects him from the double loneliness of the artist and animal in an underappreciative metropolis." Surprise winner of the 1998 PEN/Faulkner Prize for fiction. A lyrical, funny, and also realistic portrait of a jazz musician. Small first printing (reportedly of only 5000 copies.) 480 pp. ISBN: 0-393040372.

New York: Harper & Row, 1984. dj. Hardcover first edition - In writing this biography of two jazz musicians, William Ruff and Dwike Mitchell, who have performed as a jazz duo since 1955, with Ruff on the double bass and French horn and Mitchell on the piano, Zinsser, who had studied jazz piano with Mitchell, followed them on their tour to Shanghai in 1981 (where they introduced jazz to China) and ending with a trip to Venice in 1983. A warm personal account of the shaping of two musicians. ISBN: 0-06-0152753.

New York: Harper & Row, 1984. dj. Hardcover first edition - In writing this biography of two jazz musicians, William Ruff and Dwike Mitchell, who have performed as a jazz duo since 1955, with Ruff on the double bass and French horn and Mitchell on the piano, Zinsser, who had studied jazz piano with Mitchell, followed them on their tour to Shanghai in 1981 (where they introduced jazz to China) and ending with a trip to Venice in 1983. A warm personal account of the shaping of two musicians. ISBN: 0-06-0152753.