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.

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.

New York: Random House, [1973]. First Edition, First Printing. Octavo (8 1/2 x 6 inches; 210 x 150 mm), xix, 419 pages, in red cloth, titles to spine, light blue top stain. With a dust jacket (hard cover).SIGNED by Truman Capote on the front end paper. A collection of Capote's essays, travel réportage, as well as short sketches of such notables as Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, Mae West, Ezra Pound, Louis Armstrong, Jean Cocteau, and others. A terrific collection by a master stylist. SCARCE SIGNED. CONDITION: Near Fine in a Very Good or better dust jacket. A bit of edge wear and some offsetting to the bottom edge from the dark blue end papers. The price-clipped dust jacket has some soiling, especially to the rear panel as well as a crease in the rear flap.

Pelc, Ant., Lev Haas, and Holobrádek. RP karikatury. Prague: Redakce Rudého práva, 1947. First Edition, First Printing. Oblong Octavo (8 1/8 x 5 3/4 inches; 208 x 145 mm), 75, [5] pages, in wrappers (soft cover).A rare book of cartoons published by the Czech Communist Party newspaper, Rudé právo. Antonin Pelc and Lev Haas drew the cartoons, which are pro-Communist, anti-Nazi, anti-American, and anti-Western alliance. Holobrádek (a pseudonym) supplied short verses to accompany each cartoon. The book appeared in 1947, a year before the Communist seizure of power in Czechoslovakia. Oddly, the cover features a cartoon by Pelc that misspells the name of Klement Gottwald, the Communist leader (it shows only one "t" in Gottwald). A sign displayed in the cartoon reads (translating from the Czech): "The construction of a two-year plan is carried out by Gotwald and others." That's a fair representation of the sometimes heavy-handed propaganda in the book, which depicts American businessmen as fat… 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.

Brighton, England / Seattle: Unicorn Bookshop, 1972. First Edition. Octavo (8 1/8 x 5 7/8 inches; 207 x149 mm), 26 pages, in photo-illustrated wrappers (soft cover). An often critical view of Allen Ginsberg's poems by Eric Mottram (1924-1995), who was a British poet and professor at King's College London. CONDITION: Some soiling and fading to wrappers and light edge wear but internally clean and unmarked. A Very Good copy.