Rare books from Idler Fine Books

London: Faber and Faber, 1965 First printing of the first British/hardcover edition, original blue cloth boards with gilt-lettered spine, 239pp; previously published in 1964, American paperback edition, as THE WHOLE MAN. A touch of rubbing to board edge, else book in fine condition; dust jacket with light crimping to spine ends and faint shelf wear, else fine.

Brooklandville: Borderlands Press, 1995 Limited Edition, number 91 of 350 signed copies. Signed by all 15 contributors. Presented by The Horror Writers Association. Black cloth boards with gilt lettered cover and spine, in pictorial dust jacket and black slipcase. Book and dust jacket in fine, as new condition, and in a fine slipcase, with a couple of light bumps.

Athens, GA: Hills Street Press, 1999 First printing of the first edition, limited to 200 hand-numbered copies signed by the contributors, this being #175. Green silk cloth boards, lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers, in publisher's cloth slipcase, no dust jacket, as issued. Published on the occasion of Welty's 90th birthday. Signed by the editor and each of the 22 contributors on 6 specially inserted leaves in the back (before the colophon): Richard Bausch, Doris Betts, Fred Chappell, Ellen Douglas, Tony Early, Clyde Edgerton, George Garrett, Ellen Gilchrist, Anthony Grooms, Barry Hannah, Mary Hood, Greg Johnson, William Maxwell, Willie Morris, Alice Munro, Daniele Pitavy-Souques, Reynolds Price, Louis D. Rubin, Jr., Lee Smith, William Jay Smith, Elizabeth Spencer, and Richard Wilbur. Faint tanning to spine, else fine in fine slipcase.

New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1968 First printing of the stated first edition. Author's first book. Bookplate of "The Ed Sullivans" to front fly leaf and mild shelf wear to boards, else book in fine condition; dust jacket with chips, tears and creasing, rubbing along folds, light tanning/offsetting to front cover.

Sauk City: Arkham House, 1964 First printing of the first edition. Author's first book. A collection of ten short stories. Signed and inscribed by Ramsey Campbell directly on the title page: "For Bruce-- / Some youthful indiscretions! / all the best-- / Ramsey Campbell." A tiny crimp/bump to upper back corner, else book and dust jacket in fine condition.

New York: Harper Collins, 2004 First printing of the stated first edition. Signed by Phil Simms directly on the title-page. Book and dust jacket in fine, as new condition.

New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1927 First printing of the stated first edition, with "H-B" listed on the copyright page. Signed by Zane Grey in his signature purple ink directly on the front-free endpaper. Filmed twice by Paramount Pictures, originally in 1926 as a silent film, directed by John Waters, with Jack Holt; and in 1937, directed by Charles Barton, with Buster Crabbe and June Martel. Book with faint rubbing to extremities and light age-toning to endpapers, else in fine condition; dust jacket with a few closed tears with associated creases, moderate paper loss, primarily to corners and spine ends, and some soiling to rear panel, else fine.

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1935 First printing of the first edition, first state with pages 349-352 uncancelled and the text unrevised on pages 350 and 351.

One of only 5,100 copies printed.

Original dark bluish green cloth linen-grain cloth with blind single-rule border on front cover and with spine ruled and lettered in gilt. Pages 350.5-7 reads: 'he need not base himself on the adding machine-calculating machine-probability machine-St. Francis of Assis machine any longer.' And at 351.29-30 the text reads: '"Oh, catch it-oh, catch it and take it-oh, catch it," she sighed.'

In the original dust jacket by Doris Spiegel, with drawings of figures from the stories against an orange background on the front panel, $2.50 price on the front and rear flap. Light bump to bottom, back spine, light tanning to end papers, else book in fine condition; dust jacket with some age-toning and offsetting to spine and back cover, with professional conservation, primarily to edges… Read More

New York : Henry Holt and Company, 1945 First edition, stated first printing. Signed and inscribed by Robert Frost to Jerome Cantor, on the front free endpaper, with a program for the Bread Loaf Little Theatre production for "An Evening of Robert Frost," including a performance of "The Hill Wife" and "A Masque of Reason," with Jerome Cantor as Satan. Faint moister marks to front panel, light age-toning to endpapers and page margins, and a short closed tear to back end-paper, else book in fine condition; dust jacket with mild chipping to spine ends, faint age-toning to back cover margins, and light shelf wear, else fine.

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1951 First printing of the first edition, with Scribner's 'A' on the copyright page, in first issue dust jacket with the 2.50 price on front flap, 222pp. Offsetting to endpapers, faint toning to spine and endpapers, a few pages faintly creased, and a few small stains to interior, else book in fine condition; dust jacket with toning to spine, folds, and inside flaps, light rubbing to folds, and moderate edge wear to spine ends and corners, else fine.

Boston: Little, Brown and Company / Atlantic Month Press /Atlantic-Little, Brown Books, 1983 First printing of the first edition, in original dust jacket. Faint rubbing to bottom edge of boards, else book in fine condition; with light wear to spine ends / corners and light rubbing to back fold, else fine.

Oliver was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for American Primitive.

Chicago: The David Company, 1991 First edition, publisher’s original stiff wrappers, a black and white mottled design of a composition notebook with poems written in first-person voice of twenty imagined young characters. Presentation copy signed and inscribed "For Kenan Heise. / Sincerely / Gwendolyn Brooks / July 21, 1996."
A few faint creases to front cover, else book in fine condition, issued without a dust jacket.

Kenan Heise’s links to Chicago history are strong, nurturing relationships with Chicago luminaries such as Gwendolyn Brooks and Studs Terkel. Kenan Heise is a member of the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame, a prolific author and historian, a poet and a playwright, and a prodigious book collector and broker (Proprietor of Chicago Historical Bookworks). He worked for the Chicago Tribune newspapers for 36 years, including Chicago's American, Chicago Today and the Tribune. He is a Michigan native, and has written or collaborated on more than 25 books and memoirs… Read More

New York: Random House, 1972 First printing of the stated first edition. A trace of rubbing to corner tips of jacket, else book and dust jacket in fine condition. An exemplary copy.

New York / London: Grossman Publishers / Cape Goliard, 1968 First printing of the stated first American [bilingual] edition with Spanish/English text. Light uneven toning to endpapers and a neat name to front-free endpage, else book in fine condition; dust jacket with a short closed tear to upper back spine fold, light paper loss to corners and spine ends, moderate uneven toning to spine, and light uneven toning to covers, else fine. Scarce hard cover with only 500 copies printed.

New York: Scribner Poetry / Simon & Schuster, 2012 First printing of the state first Scribner edition. Signed by Mark Doty directly on the title page; additionally signed the following contributors at their page of contribution: Sherman Alexie, Billy Collins, Kay Ryan, Tracy K. Smith, Mark Strand, and Kevin Young. Book and dust jacket in fine, as new condition.