New York: Ticknor & Fields, (1991). Hardcover first edition - The author's second book, a memoir which is also a journey through family history, feminist insight, and southern mythology. Shirley Jean Abbott grew up in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in the 1940s and 50s, the beloved daughter of Alfred Bemont Abbott, affectionately known as "Hat whose business was taking bets on horse racing. But he also loved to read, and he passed that love on to his daughter. xxi, 290 pp. ISBN: 0-899195180.

New York: Macmillan. 1903. Hardcover first edition -

New York: Macmillan. 1912. Hardcover first edition -

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1981. dj. Hardcover first edition - Tennessee-born author's second novel, the story of 5 children - 4 white, and 1 black - growing up in a small town in the South of the fifties, sixties and seventies, a time of tumultous change. ISBN: 0-394-516850.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1981. dj. Hardcover first edition - Tennessee-born author's second novel, the story of 5 children - 4 white, and 1 black - growing up in a small town in the South of the fifties, sixties and seventies, a time of tumultous change. ISBN: 0-394-516850.

New York Macmillan, (c.1941.) dj. Hardcover - Set in the deep South, story of an artist and of a lost age of glamour, as seen through the eyes of an 11 year old girl.

New York: Arbor House, (1971) dj. Hardcover first edition - A novel which reveals the life of a Louisiana town, one near the Arkansas and Mississippi border - a town where people live in fine houses and in shacks, where some belong to the country club and others drink at Snake's Bar. - and also the story of a remarkable Jewish family who lived in that town. 346 pp.

New York: Arbor House, (1971) dj. Hardcover first edition - The author's third novel - "concerning a man of God (a devout, middle-aged rabbi, married and respectable) and his worldly obsession (a teen-aged girl named Jelly who knows what she wants)" Set in Dallas and New Orleans. 221 pp.

Austin, TX: Eakin Press, (2003.). SIGNED first edition - Although described as 'a novel' the author admits that these interconnected stories of a boyhood in Waco and Austin, Texas in the 1950's are partly true. Foreword by Liz Carpenter. Sticker on front cover noting it was the winner of the 2003 Independent BookPublishers Award. SIGNED on the half title page by the author.

Austin, TX: Eakin Press, (2003.). SIGNED first edition - Although described as 'a novel' the author admits that these interconnected stories of a boyhood in Waco and Austin, Texas in the 1950's are partly true. Foreword by Liz Carpenter. Sticker on front cover noting it was the winner of the 2003 Independent BookPublishers Award.

Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin, 1991. dj. Hardcover - The author's first book, the story of two sisters in a small town in Texas caught up in a bitter family rivalry, as they try to come to terms with their different memories of their childhood. ISBN: 0-945575-688.

Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin, 1994. dj. Hardcover first edition - Second novel by this Texas born author, the story of an unlikely but strong friendship between two women, a friendship starting as freshmen roommates in college. 351 pp. ISBN: 1565120574.

Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin, 1991. First edition - The author's first book, the story of two sisters in a small town in Texas caught up in a bitter family rivalry, as they try to come to terms with their different memories of their childhood. Photograph of the author laid in.

Dallas, TX: Story Book Press, (1948.) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - A slim collection of poety, many telling stories of Texas and the South, others inspired by Austin's wide-ranging travels. The front cover of the dust jacket has a photograph of Austin and her daughter, with a St Bernard dog between them, in Switzerland in 1934, with a reference to one of the poems in this book ("Old Moritz.") Warmly INSCRIBED by the author on the front endpaper and dated in 1947.

New York: The Viking Press, 1946 (1947) dj. Hardcover - A very early printing of this delightful story of a little wooden doll, winner of the Newbery Award in 1947. "When Great-granny Brown packed up and moved to the Women's City Club in Boston, Miss Hickory was faced with the problem of spending a severe New Hampshire winter alone. This might not have been so bad if Miss Hickory had not been a country woman whose body was an apple-wood twig and whose head was a hickory nut. This is the story of how she suvived those months, in the company of neighbors like Crow, Bull Frog, Ground Hog, and a host of others." Illustrated throughout with charming lithographs by Ruth Gannett. 123 pp.

Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, 1996. dj. Hardcover first edition - Award winning author's second novel set in South Caroline, "a wickedly funny academic satire, grafted onto a manic plot featuring murder, madness, incest, a ghost and spirit possession. Ambitious, reclusive history professor Paul Danvers, desperate to achieve tenure, starts an affair with his student, Ginny Fennel, in order to gain access to the private papers of her notorious family, lighthouse keepers since the American Revolution, whose ancestors include slave dealers, black marketers and adventurers." A book which takes "publish or perish" literally. 284 pp. ISBN: 1-565120698.

New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1989. dj. Hardcover first edition - His 6th book, set in his native Tennessee in the early 1970's. 465 pp. ISBN: 0-89919-8368.

New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1987. dj. Hardcover first edition - Bell's fourth book and first collection of short stories, some set in New York City, others in the South and Montana. 179 pp. ISBN: 0-89919-4893.

Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, (2009.). SIGNED first edition - The 24th volume in this series, featuring the best short stories published during the year either by Southern writers or about the US South. Introduction by Madison Smartt Bell. SIGNED by Tayari Jones at her story "Something Blue." Also includes stories by Wendell Berry, Kelly Cherry, Jill McCorkle, Pinckney Benedict and more. Each story is followed by brief biographical notes on the author and a comment by the author about the genesis of the story. Appendices including lists of magazines consulted and a complete list of the stories in previous volumes. 357 pp.

Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, (2009.). SIGNED first edition - The 24th volume in this series, featuring the best short stories published during the year either by Southern writers or about the US South. Introduction by Madison Smartt Bell. SIGNED by Tayari Jones at her story "Something Blue." Also includes stories by Wendell Berry, Kelly Cherry, Jill McCorkle, Pinckney Benedict and more. Each story is followed by brief biographical notes on the author and a comment by the author about the genesis of the story. Appendices including lists of magazines consulted and a complete list of the stories in previous volumes. 357 pp.

New York: Harper & Row, 1964. dj. Hardcover first edition - Second novel (third book) by this Southern writer. Set in the Carolina piedmont in 1897, the year plans are launched to bring a cotton mill to backwater Greenway.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994 dj. Hardcover first edition - The story of "the slow death of a beloved child" in a Southern family. 339 pp. ISBN: 0-679-426213.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994 dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - The story of "the slow death of a beloved child" in a Southern family. SIGNED on the title page and dated in the year of publication. 339 pp. ISBN: 0-679-426213.

New York: Harper & Row, 1965. dj. Hardcover first edition - A wonderful collection of seven short stories and a novella, set in North Carolina where Betts grew up. A rather difficult to find title by this author.

Cambridge, MA: Zoland, 1992. First edition - Set in the 1950's this is the story of two sisters who live together in a small Southern town. ISBN: 0-944072-25-9.

Cambridge, MA: Zoland, 1992. dj. Hardcover first edition - Set in the 1950's this is the story of two sisters who live together in a small Southern town. ISBN: 0-944072-20-8.

Cambridge, MA: Zoland, 1992. dj. Hardcover first edition - Set in the 1950's this is the story of two sisters who live together in a small Southern town. ISBN: 0-944072-20-8.

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1967. dj. Hardcover first edition -