Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1977. dj. Hardcover first edition - A memoir focusing on the first twenty-two years of her life, as the privileged daughter of the famous actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and granddaughter of George du Maurier, the author and artist, and ending as she is falling in love with both Cornwall - the site of her most well-known novel,'Rebecca' - and with her future husband. Illustrated with photographs. Author's note, index. ix, 204 pp. ISBN: 0-385130163.

New York: Virago / Pantheon, (1987) dj. Hardcover first edition - A feminist biography of this 19th century author who wrote under the name of George Eliot. A.S. Byatt called this "Generous, exacting and illuminating." Illustrated with photographs. Chronology, notes, bibliography, index. A title in the Virago Pantheon Pioneers series. xv, 276 pp. ISBN: 0-394537041.

New York: International Publishers, (1969) dj. Hardcover first edition - The author, a children's librarian who worked from 6 years in Soviet Union, served as Dreiser's personal secretary during his 77 day visit to the Soviet Union in 1927-28. The first part of this book is based on the daily diary she maintained during that trip. The second part - which she kept confidential until more than 20 years after his death - is based on her later correspondence with Dreiser, which show his turn to social causes and changes in his thinking. Illustrated, appendix, index. 320 pp.

Auckland, Sydney, London: Collins, (1981) dj. Hardcover first edition - From the dustjacket: Her "detective novels made her name known throughout the world. [and now] her autobiography reveals the influences and environment that have shaped her personality. Widely acclaimed when first published in 1965, Black Beech and Honeydew is a sensitive account of Ngaio Marsh's childhood and adolescence in Christchurch and the establishment of her theatre and writing careers both there and in the UK." This new edition was fully revised and updated in 1981, with updated information on her career both in the theater and as a novelist. Illustrated with photographs, including an 8 pages for this edition. 310 pp. ISBN: 0-002163675.

Bloomington: Indiana University Press, (1988). SIGNED first edition - A book which offers a fresh and thoughtful perspective on the lives of these two prominent lesbian writers living as expatriates in Paris from the early 1900s and discusses their major works. Although Barney was born in Ohio in 1876, and Vivien in England in 1877, both women chose to live in the relative freedom Paris offered and wrote extensively in French. SIGNED on the title page. Notes, bibliography, index. xv, 152 pp. ISBN: 0-253204763.

New York: North Point Press / Farrar, Straus & Giroux, (2000) dj. Hardcover first edition - The first comprehensive biography of John Fante, one of the greatest outsider figures of 20th Century literature. Herein, the author untangles the enigma of this truly American original. Fante was the author of such classics as Ask the Dust, The Brotherhood of the Grape and Dago Red, but after working in Hollywood, including with Orson Welles and Darryl F. Zanuck, he considered himself a Tinseltown sell-out. Illustrated with photographs. Notes, bibliography, index. 406 pp. ISBN: 0-865475547.

Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, (1973) dj. Hardcover first edition - A book which attempts to answer the question "who was Colette" by a writer who was herself an acquaintance of Colette, and based on many interviews with those who knew her. Illustrated with photographs. Introduction by Janet Flanner. Chronology, bibliography. xxx, 284 pp plus 5 pp index. ISBN: 0-672517604.

New York: Delta, (1990). The "first objective, full-length biography of this major American writer". Illustrated with photographs. Botes on sources, index, 416 pp. ISBN: 0-39454921x.

New York: Franklin Watts, (1984) dj. Hardcover first edition - "The first serious full-scale biography to be written in English" of this French novelist, whose life was as extraordinary as her books. Based not only her published work, but also unpublished correspondence and previously unrecorded recollections of Colette by authors like Rosamond Lehmann and Somerset Maughan, and most significantly Colette's two Jouvenel stepsons. Illustrated with photographs. Notes, selected bibliography, index. xi, 276 pp. ISBN: 0-531098249.

New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1951. dj. Hardcover - Autobiography of the poet - with vivid portraits of many of the writers he knew, including Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden - as well as a discussion of the appeal of leftist politics, his travels and more. Index. 312 pp.

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994. dj. Hardcover first edition - "In 1862 Lucie Duff Gordon reluctantly said farewell to her husband and children and sailed to Egypt." Gordon - author of "Letters From Egypt," a unique testimony to the country which became her spiritual home - spent seven years there, until her death from tuberculosis. This recounts her dramatic transition as she immersed herself in the Egyptian way of life, shrugging off Victorian era restrictions and avoiding the English community there, Family tree, map, photographs, notes, bibliography, index. xi, 399 pp. ISBN: 0-395-546885.

New York: Henry Holt, (1998.) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - The first full-length biography of this mid-century American author (Hemingway called her his favorite living author) whose work was almost unknown until a fairly spectacular revival in the 1990's. Gore Vidal called this biography 'not only a distinguished work in itself but [it] illuminates one of our most brilliant - certainly most witty - novelists, whose literary reputation continues to grow long after her death; we are catching up to her.' Frontispiece and glossy photographic inserts. Notes, bibliography, index. INSCRIBED by Page on the title page and dated March 2002 in Charlottesville. 362 pp. ISBN: 0-8050-5068x.

New York: Random House, (1988) dj. Hardcover first edition - The "first objective, full-length biography of this major American writer". Illustrated with photographs. Botes on sources, index, 416 pp. ISBN: 0-39454921x.

New York: Viking, (1996) dj. Hardcover first edition - The first full-scale biography of this important America writer, one which explores both his life and his literary legacy. Drawing on nearly ten years of research, hundreds of hours of interviews, and unlimited access to his papers, this authorized biography traces the trajectory of Stegner's life from his prairie childhood in Saskatchewan to his teenage years in Salt Lake City, to his career as an award-winning writer, historian and environmentalist, who among things founded Stanford University's Creative Writing Program. Photographs, Notes and documentation, Index. xx, 472 pp. ISBN: 0-670862223.

New York: Dodd, Mead, (1977) dj. Hardcover - Posthumous publication of a book which Christie began writing in around 1950, when she was 60 years old. Illustrated with photographs. xii, 519 p. ISBN: 0-396075169.

New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, (1997) dj. Hardcover first edition - A book based on access to Chandler's papers and previously unrecorded accounts by those who knew Chandler,one which "assesses the impact an English public school education had on this most American of writers, the man who turned hard-boiled detective stories into literature with novels like 'The Big Sleep'. The author is equally acute in discussing Chandler's years as an oil executive in Los Angeles, his marriage to a woman 18 years his senior, his alcoholism, and the Philip Marlowe mysteries that made him rich and famous in middle age. A sympathetic, unflinching look at a gifted artist and very unhappy man." Photographs. Notes, index. x, 310 pp. ISBN: 0-871136902.

London: Methuen, (1965) dj. Hardcover first edition - A book which places Gissing within the context of the ideas of the Victorian era, as well as discussing his often unhappy life. His early novels portray slum-life in late 19th century London. Notes, selected bibliography, index. 311 pp, Illustrated endpapers.

New York: Picador, (1998.) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - An account of the Maynard family, but especially the story of her relationship with J. D. Salinger and its influence on her writing and on the rest of her life. Frontispiece, photographic endpapers. SIGNED on the title page with a caricature drawing of herself. 347 pp. ISBN: 0-312-195567.

Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, (1998.) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - An unconventional biography of the expat writer Paul Bowles, based on many interviews Dillon (the biographer of Bowles' wife, Jane) had with him in Tangiers. SIGNED on the title page. Photographs. Works cited. xix, 340 pp. ISBN: 0-520-211049.

Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978. dj. Hardcover first edition - :"An Intimate Biography Of The First Lady Of Crime" based on accounts by people who knew her. Illustrated with black and white photographs.Appendix, index. xiii, 247 pp. Jacket by Fred Marcellino. ISBN: 0-385126239.

New York: Random House, 1993. dj. Hardcover first edition - Part biography, part memoir, part critical study, part exploration of sexual politics in our time, this is the story of the friendship between a young writer and her mentor. In 1974, while 'Fear of Flying' was still a relatively obscure first novel, Erica Jong received an enthusiastic fan letter from Henry Miller, then an old man of eighty-three. This began a friendship that would last until Miller's death in 1980. Includes letters between Miller and Jong and an annotated bibliography of his works. 337 pp. ISBN: 0-394584988.

New York: Random House, (1966) dj. Hardcover - An account primarily of the fourteen years before Hemingway's death by a close friend and sympathetic observer. Photographs. 304 pp.