Rare books from Antic Hay Books

The Rowfant Club, 1943. STEINBECK, John. HOW EDITH MCGILLCUDDY MET R.L.S. Cleveland, Ohio: The Rowfant Club, 1943. Quarto (about 11.5 by 8.5 inches), black & patterned cloth with leather title labels on front cover & spine, in original turquoise-colored dust jacket; housed in a specially-made slipcase. Limited Edition of 152 numbered copies, of which this #142. [Goldstone & Payne A20a]. Privately printed for members of The Rowfant Club. A very nice copy! Near fine condition (very minor edgewear; contents clean and tight); some fading edges (spine more heavily faded; few short tears & a few very tiny chips) d/j. "142" in crayon on the front cover of the d/j- issued thus. Copies of this title are around but copies in nice, original dust jackets are not. I believe I purchased this copy for a customer of mine from the famous Bradford Morrow John Steinbeck collection offered for sale in 1980.

THe Fountain Press, 1929. MILNE, A.A. THE SECRET AND OTHER STORIES. NY: THe Fountain Press, 1929. Hardcover, rust-colored buckram cloth with the original paper title label on the spine; 70 pages. Signed, Limited Edition 400 numbered copies. Another 300 signed copies were issued for distribution in England. This copy is marked "Out of Series" on the limitation page- which is to be expected for this remarkable copy. Not only signed by Milne- as issued- but also with a signed presentation to his father, John Vine Milne, on the front endpaper: "Father, with love from Alan. May '29." A.A. Milne stands for Alan Alexander Milne. Probably one of the best association Milne copies in the marketplace!! Very Good (very minor wear, two small brown spots on the Introduction page).

1958. O'HARA, John. FROM THE TERRACE. NY: Random House, [1958]. 8vo., blue cloth in dust jacket. First Edition. Signed by John O'Hara on the title page. [Bruccoli A16.1.a]. Basis for the 1960 movie of the same name, starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward & Myrna Loy. A very good copy; some edgewear & number of small creases (short tears but no chips) d/j. $1,000.00.

1961. LAXNESS, Halldor. THE ATOM STATION. Translated by Magnus Magnusson. London: Methuen & Co., [1961]. Small 8vo., cloth in dust jacket. First Edition. Signed presentation by Laxness on title page: "Judge Julius Isaacs with greetings from your Iceland friend, Halldor Laxness." Near fine; some edgewear (short tears with some soil & bit of browning) d/j. $1500.00.

Alfred A. Knopf, 1939. CHANDLER, Raymond. THE BIG SLEEP. NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1939. Small 8vo., brown cloth in dust jacket. First Edition. Basis for the 1946 movie, starring Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe. The movie script, based on one of Chandler's premier mystery novels, was co-authored by William Faulkner. Bogart married Bacall in 1945 (his fourth wife). Very Good; some professional archival repairs (replacing small chips or closing tears) d/j. Enclosed in a custom-designed, leather and cloth clam-shell box, with the spine stamped in gilt and silver and the front cover bearing a color reproduction of the dust jacket with the title in raised leather lettering. An attractive copy!

1957. LEE, C.Y. THE FLOWER DRUM SONG. A Novel Of San Francisco's Grant Avenue. NY: Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, [1957]. 8vo., cloth & boards in dust jacket. First Edition. Author's first novel. Signed by Lee, both in English and Chinese, on the half-title page. Basis for the highly successful Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical and for the 1961 movie, starring Nancy Kwan. The movie received Academy Award nominations for musical direction and photography. Oriental namestamp [Lee's?] on front endpaper. Very Good; little edgewear d/j. Enclosed in a custom-designed, leather and cloth clam-shell box, depicting pink pagodas- all in leather onlays- against a blue background. A nice presentation! $1,000.00.

1933. CALDWELL, Erskine. GOD'S LITTLE ACRE. NY: Viking, 1933. Small 8vo., cloth in dust jacket. First Edition. Signed presentation from Caldwell on half-title page: "To Stuart Wright [two illegible words] Erskine Caldwell, July, 1982." Near fine (bright, little wear & discoloration front pastedown; contents clean & tight); tiny tear top of front cover (small chip top of rear panel with interior tape mends that makes it hard to see; small rectangular piece clipped from lower corner of the front flap) d/j. Enclosed in a custom-made slipcase. $5,000.00.

1920. BOK, Edward. THE AMERICANIZATION OF EDWARD BOK. NY: Charles Scribner's, 1920. Small quarto, green cloth with paper title label. Limited Edition of 50 numbered copies for presentation by the author, of which this is copy number 36. Signed presentation from Bok on the front endpaper: "My dear `Judge,' As an old friend, thought you might like a copy of this personal edition. Read it for what it is: the simple record of a struggle in which a boy played a poor hand as well as he could. Yours sincerely, Edward W. Bok. For William J. Conlen, September 20, 1920." "The Americanization of Edward Bok" won the Pulitzer Prize for best autobiography and the Gold Medal of the Academy of Political and Social Sciences. Bok was born in the Netherlands but came to the United States when he was six years old. He worked for both the Henry Holt and Charles Scriber's publishing houses and was editor of the "Brooklyn Magazine." In 1886 he founded the Book Syndicate Press and… Read More

1963. SARANTITES, A.D. THE UNIVERSAL UNIFIED FIELD LAW AND THE LAW OF UNIVERSAL CREATION OF MASS-ENERGY. Phoenix, Arizona: Universal Science Foundation, [1963]. Small 4to., blue cloth stamped in gilt. First Edition. Signed presentation from Sarantites on the front endpaper: "To Don Klein with appreciation, A.D. Sarantites. 11/6/63." Scarce, especially signed. Near fine. $1,500.00.

1990. O'BRIEN, John. LEAVING LAS VEGAS. Wichita: Kansas: Watermark Press, [1990]. 8vo., printed orange wraps. Advanced Reading Copy. Signed by John O'Brien on the title page and dated by him "June 15, 1991." Very few copies of the advance reading copy appear in the market and signed copies are scarce since O'Brien committed suicide shortly before production began on the 1995 film, starring Nicolas Caige and Elisabeth Shue. Caige won an Academy Award for his performance and Shue was nominated for Best Actress. Fine condition. Enclosed in a custom-designed, leather and cloth clam-shell box, with a gilt-worked spine and a depiction- all in cloth & leather- of a man drinking with a woman's legs stretched out across his lap. Bookplate inside front cover of box. Quite an unusual presentation of a scarce item. $2750.00.

1939. ANDERSON, Maxwell. KEY LARGO. Washington, D.C.: Anderson House, 1939. 8vo., cloth in dust jacket. First Edition. Basis for the 1948 Academy Award winning movie of the same name, starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore, Edward G. Robinson and Claire Tevor. Trevor won the Academy Award. This first edition copy is signed on the Prologue page by the entire 24-member cast of the first performance on any stage, in the English Theatre, Indianapolis, Ind., on Monday, October 30, 1939. Those signing include Jose Ferrer, Carl Malden, Charles Ellis, Paul Muni, and others. A unique, and probably one-of-a-kind, copy of a scarce book. Very Good in a lovely dust jacket. Enclosed in a custom-designed, leather and cloth clam-shell box, with a gilt-worked spine and the image on the dust jacket- with leather onlays- on the front cover. An incredible copy! $4500.00.

Dodd, 1900. KEMBLE, E.W.. DUNBAR, Paul Laurence. THE STRENGTH OF GIDEON AND OTHER STORIES. Illustrations by E.W. Kemble. NY: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1900. 12mo., brown cloth stamped in gilt, white & black; 362 pages. First Edition. [BAL 4930]. Signed inscription by Dunbar on the front endpaper: "Sincerely yours, Paul Laurence Dunbar. August 3rd, 1902." Very Good (little edgewear spine ends else covers bright & with only minor rubbing; contents clean & tight). An uncommon book and very difficult to locate an autographed copy!

NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1930. In Collaboration with Clarence A. Bush. Illustrated. Small 8vo., blue cloth, stamped in yellow, in dust jacket. First Edition. Signed presentation from Weissmuller on the title page: For Vern your [sic] a great guy, Johnny Weissmuller." Uncommon to find signed first editions or any in the original dust jacket. Weissmuller was an Austro-Hungarian-born American competition swimmer and actor, best known for playing Tarzan in films of the 1930s and 1940s and for having one of the best competitive swimming records of the 20th century. After retiring from competitions, he became the sixth actor to portray Edgar Rice Burroughs's ape man, Tarzan- a role he played in 12 motion pictures. Dozens of other actors have also played Tarzan, but Weissmuller is by far the best known. His character's distinctive Tarzan yell is still often used in films. Very Good (bit of rubbing & edgewear; contents clean & tight; small spot of sticker residue to front pastedown & very tiny red dot on the… Read More

NY: Irving Publishing Company, 1888. First Edition. Signed presentation from Clews on a front blank page: "Adolph J.G. Franck Esq., With the compliments of Henry Clews. Aug. 3, 1897." Perhaps the 19th century's best book on Wall Street, it is a fascinating examination of the financial markets during a period of rapid economic expansion. Clews was a titan in finance and this firsthand account reveals shocking stories of political and economic manipulation and how he helped bring down the mighty Boss Tweed. He writes about the madness of the markets and how the era's greatest speculators amassed their fortunes- in an era of little regulation. Clews was born in England in 1836 and emigrated to the United States in 1850. In 1859, he cofounded Livermore, Clews, and Company- what became the second largest marketer of federal bonds during the Civil War. In 1877, he split away and started Henry Clews & Company, a member of the New York Stock Exchange, which made him enormously wealthy. I do not have much… Read More

Boston: Wellspring Press, 1974. First Edition. Signed presentation from the author on the front endpaper: "Best regards to the Peets. Ronald H. Marcks ("Jens O. Parsson")" Marcks' Dying of Money, written under the pen name Jens O. Parsson, is perhaps the best explanation ever written on the process by which inflation works through markets and the economy. He wrote "Dying of Money" in 1974, at the height of the double-digit inflation then raging, analyzing its causes and accurately predicting its future. His analysis of the financing gap in Social Security was published in the Wall Street Journal in the 1980's. Economic history of inflation written in terms clear for the layperson, but also with the technical validity enough for the seasoned economist. Marcks self-published this book using the pen name Jens O. Parsson and used Wellspring Press as the name of the publisher. The name was consistent with the name of a Massachusetts corporation - Wellspring, Inc. - he organized in 1970. Reportedly, he… Read More