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CUBA HOTEL DIRECTORY, 1938. [cover title]
Havana, Cuba: Cuban Tourist Commission, 1937. Blue & white stapled paperwraps. Narrow 8vo. 22 cm. 36pp. A detailed guide to the hotels of Cuba. Stamp of a Florida travel agent on rear wrap. Very good.
Offered by Bartlebys Books.
Of Mice and Men
Steinbeck, John
New York: Covici-Friede, 1937. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. INSCRIBED by Steinbeck on the free endpaper. The previous owner, an English teacher at a junior college in Hollister in the 1940's, signed her own name in the upper corner above the inscription, and later amended it in pencil with her married name.
A book club edition, with faint wear to the beige cloth covers, darkening to the spine, bumping and slight fraying to the extremities. Supplied jacket, now in mylar, with wear to corners, slight fading to spine, and loss to back panel (see photos). Slight toning with age throughout. 186pp. 7.5 x 5
Offered by B Street Books, ABAA
Brighton Rock
Greene, Graham
New York: Viking Press, 1938. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/near fine. 1st edition (published in June), preceding the London edition (published in July). Fine in a dustjacket with just small nicks and tears at the edges, else near fine, and with the rare wraparound band, also near fine, and the band is of critical importance because it was only issued with the few earliest copies, and says so right on it, and therefore it is the only identifier of the 1st issue and copies without the band can be dismissed like junk mail. The London edition, in this condition, is 10 times our price even though it is later, and our NY edition in jacket, when it has the band, is rarer than the London edition in jacket, but that is another fact that is not widely known. Fine full morocco case. As a young man, Greene worked as a journalist in Brighton, covering stories of local crime and gang activity. He was particularly fascinated by the culture of violence and corruption that existed in Brighton during the 1930s, and this provided the inspiration for his novel.
Brighton Rock's plotline is heavy beyond sorrow, taking the reader on a journey into psyche of a morally ambiguous protagonist while more broadly examining the darker aspects of human nature. And if you like the novel and want the best copy of it for quality, significance, priority, rarity, and beauty, here it is.
Offered by Biblioctopus.
The First 40 Scratch-Off Tickets
[California Lottery]
California: California State Lottery Commission, 1990. Fine. A complete and continuous, unbroken run from the first 5 years of the California lottery, a total of 40 tickets, games 1 to 40 (#26 is a proof). Each ticket is unscratched. Fine condition (as new), alluringly printed in glowing colors, the silver coatings are unblemished. Rare. Though individual, used (scratched) tickets are sometimes available, we ran advertisements widely ("WE WILL BUY"), and we got lots of responses, but we were never offered a single unused ticket from this vintage, at any price, let alone a complete set. Would be impressive framed. The lottery is adventure and romance finally reduced to their level of minimum effort and repute.
Offered by Biblioctopus.
The Strange Women (Lesbian Literature)
Gardner, Mirian (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
New York: Monarch, 1962. 1st Edition. Soft Cover. Near Fine/Fine. Vintage Paperback PBO Monarch # MB249. Beautiful First Printing of this Paperback Original written by Science Fiction author Marion Zimmer Bradley using a pseudonym. April, 1962. $.35 cover price. Square, tight, and clean throughout with little or no toning and just a touch of edge-wear. Fresh and bright with no creases, chipping, or tears. A gorgeous collectable copy of a quite uncommon book in any condition and at a great price.
Offered by Brenner's Collectable Books
The Night of the Hunter
Davis Alexander Grubb (1919-1980) signed with signed cards Robert Mitchum , Shelly Winters and Lillian Gish
273 pages. Octavo (8 1/4" x 5 3/4") bound in original publisher's quarter black cloth with white lettering to spine over blue boards in original jacket. Signed with a reduced reproduction of the movie poster and Signature cards of three of the movie actors: Robert Mitchum, Shelly Winters and Lillian Gish. First edition.
One of 1000 copies only specially autographed by the author for presentation to friends of the author and publisher. Issued without a dust jacket this one has the addition of a special dust jacket with advance reviews from booksellers and publisher on the back of the jacket.
The Night of the Hunter is a 1953 thriller novel by American author Davis Grubb. The book was a national bestseller and was voted a finalist for the 1955 National Book Award. Murderous ex-convict Harry Powell misrepresents himself as a prison chaplain upon his release from prison. Acting on a story told to him by his now-dead cellmate, "Reverend" Powell cons the cellmate's widow into marrying him in hopes that her children will tell him where their father hid the money from his last robbery. After killing their mother, Willa Harper, he embarks on a hunt for the children, who have sensed his evil and are running from him. Grubb explores the presentation of the American South during the Great Depression. He uses tropes of the Southern Gothic genre to explore issues such as social corruption and instability. In 1955, the book was adapted by Charles Laughton and James Agee as the film The Night of the Hunter. The film version has earned ranks in numerous movie lists and was added to the National Film Registry in 1992. Despite its critical success, it remains the only film ever directed by Laughton. The stars of the movie were Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters and Lillian Gish.
Condition: Previous owner's small book plate on front head gutter of pastedown. Jacket with a small closed tear at back head edge and rubbing to spine head else a near fine copy in like jacket.
Offered by The Book Collector.
Logroño: Arnão Guillen de Brocar, 1517. Folio (36 x 24.5 cm.), contemporary blind-tooled calf, boards nicely refurbished (but with some recent damage to corners and rubbing to spine); very skillfully rebacked, and with new clasps. Large woodcut on title-page, 2 full-page woodcuts, printer's device below colophon. Gothic letter (Norton types 8:117G, 10:99G, 18:68G), printed in red and black throughout. Minor soiling and stains (including some marginal dampstaining on first few leaves), 4 tiny wormholes touching a few letters per page through quire q. Crisp. In very good to fine condition. Early manuscript record of sale at foot of title, in ink. (2 blank), (26), 254 [i.e., 255], (2 blank) leaves, signed ✠10, A-B8, a9, b-z8, aa-hh8, ii6.
FIRST EDITION. This magnificent classic was produced, according to the colophon, at the command of Charles V by his printer Arnão Guillen de Brocar; this is the first intimation we have that Brocar had been appointed royal printer. Later editions appeared in Seville, 1542 (colophon: 1543); Pamplona, 1591; Valencia, 1779; and finally in 1877. (See Simón Díaz.)
The large woodcuts, initials and printer's device are striking examples of the art of contemporary Spanish book illustration. The title-page woodcut shows the king enthroned, with two figures kneeling before him; one, presumably the author, is reading from a book. Lyell notes that the borders are especially fine (Early Book Illustration in Spain, p. 286, with illustration of title-page as fig. 224). The full-page woodcut of the Crucifixion on the verso of ✠10 is signed by "I.D.", whom Lyell calls "one of the master Spanish woodcutters, and one of the few whose work can be identified" (p. 286 and fig. 225). Facing the first page of text (f. B8v) is a full equestrian portrait of D. Juan II, surrounded by smaller woodcut portraits of the other dramatis personae (five women, three men). The printer's device that appears at the end of the Crónica is the first appearance of what Norton calls Brocar's "E" device. In the upper compartment is a portrait of the printer kneeling before the emblems of the Passion, and in the lower are 2 archangels supporting a coat of arms with the monogram "AG" and the figure of a boar.
Offered by Richard C. Ramer Old & Rare Books.