[Rarebooks] FS: Reductions on Mahfouz, Perse, Irving, London, & Simon

[Allington Books]

Greetings to All.

We have reduced the prices on our site for the following items in the
respective amounts noted below.  (You can find the link to our site in the
signature block at the end of this message.)  Payment is due with order,
and any book is returnable as long as notice of the intended return is
received by us within 3 days of delivery to the Buyer and the book is
returned to, and received by, us in the same condition as received by Buyer
within 15 days of delivery to Buyer.  All items are subject to prior sale
and to being put on hold for a potential buyer's consideration.

Thank you for considering these books and

Best Wishes for a Happy New Year.

Stephen
Allington Antiquarian Books, LLC

*Was $2,450.  Now $995:*

*Mahfouz, Naguib*. *Midaq Alley* [*Signed*]. Beirut: Khayats, 1966. First
edition. Very Good or better copy (modest wear, mildly askew, lacking the
scarce dust jacket), SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY NAGUIB MAHFOUZ, winner of the
1988 Nobel Prize in Literature, on the title page. The inscription is in
Arabic. Originally published in Arabic (1947, Egypt), and one of the first
of the author's works to be translated into English, the novel features
Midaq Alley, a Cairo back street which serves as a microcosm of Arabic
culture at the dawn of the modern era, with each of the novel's characters
strongly exhibiting, and thus representing, a characteristic or trait that
Mahfouz identified as being a part of that culture.  The book itself is
rather scarce, and signed copies are quite difficult to find. A Very Good
or better copy, SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY NAGUIB MAHFOUZ. QUITE SCARCE. Very
Good +. Hardcover. (#00002832)        $995.00

*Was $2,450.  Now $980:*

*Perse, Saint-John* [Saint-Léger, Alexis; Perse St.-John]; Devlin, Denis:
Translator. *Exile* [Signe, Signee / *Signed*]. New York: Pantheon Books,
Inc. [The Bollinger Series XV], 1949. First edition. A Very Good copy of
the first edition, first printing (light edge wear, spine ends a touch
pushed, corners moderately bumped, bump to leading edge or each board), in
a Very Good copy of the notoriously delicate dust jacket (general edge wear
and some tears, chipping at spine ends and to upper edge of each panel
adjacent to the spine head, modest chip to each leading corner) --
altogether a better copy than often is seen; a bilingual edition containing
four long poems ("Exile," "Rains," "Snows", and "Poem to a Foreign Lady")
gathered here together for the first time. The four Poems are presented
first in French and then in excellent English translations by the great
Irish Poet Denis Devlin. The book has been SIGNED and INSCRIBED on the
second front free endpaper as follows: "A Walter et Bernice / Gilkynson, /
Tres sympathiquement / St. J. Perse" and also bears a neat and brief
presentation inscription to the upper left corner of the front pastedown to
the same recipients signed "Katherine" and dated 1949.) [The book further
contains some Introductory Notes, contributions by Archibald MacLeish on
"The personality of St.-John Perse", by Roger Caillois on "The Art of
St.-John Perse", and by Alain Bosquet on "The Works of St.-John Perse", as
well as a Bibliography.] Born Alexis Leger in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe
(1887), Saint-John Perse (his adopted the pen name) returned to France with
his family who fled the anti-colonist campaign then begun by the then
newly-elected native President. He eventually joined France's diplomatic
service, becoming General Secretary of the French Foreign Office, and
refused to publish his writings while holding office, viewing it as
improper for a Diplomat to do so. A strong anti-Nazi and viewed by the
Vichy regime as a dangerous adversary, Perse was dismissed from his post
and had his French Citizenship revoked upon the Vichy regime's ascension to
power. Thereafter moving to Washington, D. C., Saint-John Perse suffered
from great financial difficulties until Archibald MacLeish, then Director
of the Library of Congress, raised private donations sufficient to permit
Perse's employment by the Library. Perse resumed his literary work while
exiled in Washington D.C. and won the 1960 Nobel Prize in Literature for
"the soaring flight and the evocative imagery of his poetry which in a
visionary fashion reflects the conditions of our time".  Usually found
worn, and with the dust jacket very worn, the copy offered here is in a
better condition than usually seen, perhaps in Very Good + condition when
compared to other copies. Signed copies of Perse's works, especially those
in English translation, are scarce, and signed copies of "Exile", itself
not a terribly common book, are quite scarce indeed. A Very Good copy,
SIGNED BY ST.-JOHN PERSE. QUITE SCARCE. Very Good in very good dust-jacket.
Wrappers. (#00003145)        $980.00


*Was $3,250.  Now $850:*

*Irving, Washington*. *The Voyages and Discoveries of The Companions of
Columbus* [*SIGNED* BY WASHINGTON IRVING]. Philadelphia: Carey and Lea,
1831. First edition. The First American edition (preceded only by the
English edition), bound in the Publisher's original first issue brown
boards, respined with the original very lightly chipped spine label laid
down. SIGNED BY WASHINGTON IRVING. An about very good copy of this
companion piece to Irving's earlier work on Columbus, without the
advertisements at the front (no priority). "Friends Social Library No. 3"
is written on the front pastedown and the boards have some wear, with the
corners rounded and rubbed through. The book carries the bookplate of
Augustus Wynne Cook to one free endpaper and is SIGNED BY IRVING to the
other. A good, solid copy (with foxing, especially near the front and rear)
with supple pages, and in the Publisher's original boards
(respined-original label laid down). This copy is from the collection of
Gustavus Wynne Cook. Cook was a wealthy Philadelphia industrialist, who
constructed a famed private observatory on his property with what was then
the world's largest "star camera", and who had a keen interest in the
literary world as well. An quite uncommon book to find SIGNED BY WASHINGTON
IRVING. (Only 3,000 copies of the First Edition were printed.) Signed
Irving works are scarce and signed copies of this work are quite so. Very
Good. Hardcover. (#0000278)        $850.00


*Was $1,950.  Now $780:*

*London, Jack*. *Eight Great Factors of Literary Success*. First edition. A
Very Good or better copy (minor age toning, three horizontal fold
lines-from having been folded twice, minor edge wear, just a bit of foxing)
of the first printing (8 7/16" x 6") of this Jack London Broadside wherein
Jack London sets forth the great factors of his literary success. A
facsimile signature of London is printed at the bottom. A nice copy of an
extremely scarce Jack London item, and, to the best of our knowledge, Jack
London's only Broadside. SCARCE. Very Good +. Broadside. (#0000888)
$780.00

*Was $1,650.  Now $660:*

*Simon, Claude*. *The Flanders Road* [*Signed*]; La Route de Flandres
[Signe / Signee]. New York: George Braziller, 1961. First edition. A Fine
copy of the first edition, first printing, in a Near Fine dust jacket
(light wear at spine ends, modest stain to verso that does not show on the
exterior), SIGNED BY CLAUDE SIMON on the title page. A
semi-autobiographical novel and his breakthrough work, "The Flanders Road"
reflects established Simon's international reputation and he ultimately won
the 1985 Nobel Prize in Literature. As noted in the Press Release
announcing the Prize: "The novel takes the shape of a penetrating
description of the French collapse in 1940, when Simon himself took part as
a cavalryman - ending up in due course as a prisoner-of-war. Simon's
experiences during this war, like during the Spanish Civil War in which he
took part in 1936, have been of immense importance to him, constantly
recurring in his writings. Cruelty and absurdity are the dominating things
- unforeseeable. What is apparently well-planned ends in confusion and
dissolution, in which each one lives through his hardships and has to save
himself as best he can." Copies of this work in the first French edition
are relatively uncommon to the market, as are copies of the first edition
in English translation. Signed copies of Simon's first editions are
uncommon in any language, and signed copies in English translation are
hen's teeth. An excellent copy, SIGNED BY CLAUDE SIMON. RARE. Fine in near
fine dust-jacket. Hardcover. (#00002924)        $660.00



-- 
Stephen Johnson
Allington Antiquarian Books, LLC
Rare and Collectible Books, both Antiquarian and Modern
www.allingtonbooks.com
336-414-0435