Rare books from Le Bookiniste, ABAA-ILAB-IOBA

Mamet, David. The Chinaman: Poems. Woodstock and New York: The Overlook Press, 1999. First Edition, First Printing.Octavo (8 1/4 x5 1/2 inches; 210 x 140 mm), 72 pages, in brown quarter cloth over black boards, titles to spine, in a printed, unclipped dust jacket (hard cover).
SIGNED by David Mamet on the title page. A slim volume of poetry by David Mamet, who is more often known as a playwright.
CONDITION: Fine in a Fine dust jacket.

Octavo (8 1/8 x 5 1/2 inches; 218 x 140 mm), 318 pages, in red boards, gilt titles to spine, in an illustrated, unclipped dust jacket.
INSCRIBED by Joseph North, the editor, on the front end paper to artist Raphael Soyer and his wife Rebecca: "You were inspirers of this book. With love, Joe North." Inscribed and dated in the year of publication. A nice association: Soyer was a socialist realist artist who taught at the John Reed Club, the New School for Social Research, and the Art Students' League.
The book consists of fiction, reportage, and essays from the pages of New Masses, a left-wing literary magazine that was published from 1926-1948. With work by Ernest Hemingway, Muriel Rukeyser, Theodore Dreiser, James Agee, Kenneth Patchen, John Dos Passos, Dorothy Parker, Richard Wright, Nelson Algren, Federico Garcia Lorca (translated by Langston Hughes), Mike Gold, and Henri Barbuse, among many others. Numerous drawings and cartoons by Bill Gropper, John Groth, Gardner Rea, Mischa Richter, and others.… Read More

Mamet, David. Wilson: A Consideration of the Sources. Woodstock and New York, NY: The Overlook Press, 2001.
First American Edition, 1st Printing.
Octavo (8 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches; 210 x 140 mm), xv, [1], 336 pages, in fabulous illustrated boards and dust jacket by Mick Brownfield (hard cover).
SIGNED by David Mamet on the title page. Mamet's wild and crazy novel with an even wilder premise: The Internet crashes and scholars reassemble the past from the unreliable memories of Ginger, wife of ex-President Wilson.
This is the first American edition, which followed a paperback original issued by Faber & Faber in 2000.
CONDITION: Fine in a Fine, unclipped dust jacket. A beautiful copy.

Philadelphia: Macrae-Smith-Company, 1938. First Edition. Octavo (8 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches; 210 x 145 mm), 268 pages, in yellow cloth with a pictorial dust jacket. An unusual book aimed at guys who want to go from copy boy to ace reporter. Unusual in the sense that it combines both fiction and nonfiction. We follow Jerry, a likable copy boy on a New Jersey daily who puts up with coarse (and frankly awful) editors and pressmen but then gets his big chance to be a reporter. Journalists will enjoy the depiction of Matt Hale, the city editor, who communicates primarily through growling, screaming and banging his fist on his desk. Very entertaining; most journalists have known editors like Matt Hale. Illustrated with real newsroom and technical photographs of the day. SCARCE, especially in dust jacket. CONDITION: Light toning to page edges, heavier toning to paste downs, but clean and unmarked. The pictorial dust jacket has several shallow chips and tears, including a 1 1/2" tear with creasing to top edge of… Read More

New York: Albondocani Press, 1984. First Edition. A previously unpublished one-act play that takes place in London. This is #128 of 150 numbered copies. Hand-sewn red marbled paper wrappers with white label on front printed in black. Publisher's one-page prospectus laid in. Fine. SCARCE. A gorgeous production featuring Swedish marble wrappers by William Ferguson and Nancy King of Worcester, Massachusetts.

Octavo (8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches; 215 x 140 mm), 19, [3] pages, in string-bound yellow wrappers over stiff white card binding.
The first appearance of these poems, dating from 1949-51. Harold Pinter notes in his short introduction that he rediscovered the poems "by chance. They represent my earliest work." One of 450 unsigned copies (an additional 50 were signed and numbered).
CONDITION: Fine.

Chicago: Grace Lutheran Church, 1971. First Edition, First Printing. Single-leaf handbill and two-leaf stapled article, both 8 1/2 x 11 inches (215 x 278 mm) and both folded in half for mailing. Handbill announcement for a meeting at Grace Lutheran Church in Chicago on conscientious objection and alternatives to the draft. There's also a reprint of the Joan Baez article on pacifism, "What Would You Do If?" from her book Daybreak. The Baez reprint comprises a dialogue between a pacifist and an interviewer who creates hypothetical scenarios to challenge the pacifist's moral stance. Scarce antiwar ephemera. CONDITION: Handbill has edge sunning as well as some tears along left edge. Article has a couple of small stains and edge wear. Both are Very Good copies.

Octavo (8 3/8 x 6 1/8 inches; 212 x 157 mm), [2], 33, [1] pages in green stapled wrappers printed in black (soft cover).
Ezra Pound's companion, Olga Rudge, published this slim volume containing a selection of Pound's radio broadcasts from World War II. Pound strongly supported Mussolini and the Fascists in his broadcasts on Radio Rome, but he also dealt with literary matters as well. At the time of publication, Pound was under indictment in the U.S. for treason and was being held at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington. He was to remain there until his release in 1958.
The talks include a memorial to James Joyce, one on e.e. cummings's book about the Soviet Union, one on Céline, and one on Wyndham Lewis's Vorticist magazine, Blast. Rudge also included Canto 45. She says on the copyright page, "These 'talks' are printed from the original rough drafts. No cuts, corrections or changes have been made." Indeed, the scripts are full of misspellings, word abbreviations, praise of Fascism, and occasional… Read More

New York: Ecco, 2007. First Edition, First Printing. Small Quarto (9 1/4 x 6 3/8 inches; 235 x 160 mm), 76 pages, in burgundy cloth, gilt titles to spine, in an illustrated, unclipped dust jacket (hard cover).
A collection of poems from one of the greatest American poets of the 20th century. A gorgeous copy with the dust jacket depicting a detail from Jane Freilicher's painting, "Afternoon in the City." Ashbery and Freilicher were longtime friends.
CONDITION: Fine in a Fine dust jacket.

Montréal: Les Éditions de l'Arbre, 1945. First Edition, First Printing. Small Quarto (9 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches; 240 x 190 mm), 96,[4] pages plus 38 black-and-white plates, in pictorial wrappers.INSCRIBED by Fernand Léger on the half title: "Alex Z Wiener / Très Amicalement / F Léger." A catalogue featuring some of Léger's works from 1938 to 1944. With an essay by Léger himself as well as laudatory articles by M.-A. Couturier, Maurice Gagnon, S. Giedion, S.M. Kootz, and J.J. Sweeney. Poem by François Hertel. Text entirely in French. SCARCE SIGNED. CONDITION: Moderate soil and dampstaining to upper wrapper, smudges to verso of upper wrapper and to front end paper. Some edge wear and creasing. Still, about Very Good.

London: John Richardson, 1810. First Edition. Octavo (8 5/8 x 5 3/8 inches; 220 x 135 mm), xli, [3], 621, [1 errata], [2 adverts], in contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt with red morocco label. An important early work on life insurance, annuities, and endowments by London stockbroker Francis Baily (1774-1844). He gives practical advice on how to value an insurance policy or annuity, answers numerous hypothetical questions, and provides 59 tables on mortality, the value of policies, etc. What's especially interesting in this book is his discussion of assurance companies (see pages 479-520) in which he seems to imply that some of them were engaged in fraudulent practices.This book became a standard reference for the insurance industry, along with his earlier book, "The Doctrine of Interest and Annuities." (1808). But he was interested in more than finance: He was a co-founder of what became the Royal Astronomical Society and took part in scientific experiments. Baily was also an adventurer; in… Read More

New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1995. First Edition, First Printing. Small Quarto (9 1/4 x 6 1/4 inches; 235 x 158 mm), 358 pages, in quarter cloth and cream-colored boards, titles to spine, in a printed dust jacket (hard cover).SIGNED by Amy Tan on the title page. A novel of two sisters, one of whom speaks to ghosts. CONDITION: Near Fine (one page corner creased) in a Fine, unclipped dust jacket. A beautiful copy.

Moscow: A.A. Gorozhankin and K.A. Fisher, 1911-12. Twenty-six postcards, each 5 1/2 x 3 3/8 inches (138 x 84 mm), featuring black-and-white photos of scenes from Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and text descriptions in Russian. The Cherry Orchard opened at the Moscow Art Theatre on January 17, 1904, in a production directed by Konstantin Stanislavsky just six months before the death of Chekhov. In the play, a family is forced to sell their estate at auction to pay their debts. The buyer, Lopakhin, plans to cut down the family's beloved cherry orchard so he can build cottages on the estate. These postcards feature cast members from early productions: Olga Knipper as Madame Ranevskaya (the estate owner), Maria Lilina as Anya (her daughter), Margarita Savitskaya as Varya (foster daughter), Stanislavsky himself as Gaev (Ranevskaya's brother), Leonid Leonidov as Lopakhin, Vladimir Gribunin as Simeonov-Pishchik (a landowner), Elena Muratova as Charoltta Ivanovna (a governess), Alexander Artyom as Firs… Read More

New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1966. Small Quarto (9 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches; 240 x 210 mm), 116 pages, in illustrated wrappers (soft cover). Catalogue for a U.S. traveling exhibition of 46 Japanese artists. Short bios of each artist, along with black-and-white illustrations of their works. The catalogue also features 13 color illustrations at the beginning of the book. Introduction by the curator, William S. Lieberman. CONDITION: Light edge wear and soiling to wrappers, toning to page edges. Very Good.

[Bonn?]: Federal Ministry for All-German Affairs, 1953.Oblong small quarto (9 1/2 x 6 3/8 inches; 240 x 160 mm), 64 pages, in illustrated wrappers (soft cover). West German government booklet documenting the June 1953 uprising in East Germany. In English, profusely illustrated.
CONDITION: Lower right corner of front cover clipped, small stain to front cover, closed tear to rear cover, light toning to page extremities. About Very Good.