[Rarebooks] FS: Saturday Night Specials

[Allington Books]

We offer tonight and tomorrow the books listed below at special, reduced,
prices.

All books are subject to prior sale and to being put on hold for a
customer's consideration.

Payment is due at the time of purchase.

If you desire to purchase any of the following, please send us an email and
we will adjust the price on our site for your purchase.

Best Wishes,

Stephen
Allington Antiquarian Books, LLC

*Tagore, Rabindranath*. *Fruit-Gathering* [*Signed, Jack Palance's copy*].
London: Macmillan & Co., Limited, 1916. First edition. A Very Near Fine
copy of the first UK edition, first printing (gentle pushing and light
rubbing at spine ends, light bumps and minor rubbing to board corners), in
a Very Good + example of the rarely seen dust jacket (spine darkened and
with a touch of chipping at each end, small chip to the top of the front
panel near the flap fold, some light toning and minor pushing), SIGNED BY
RABINDRANATH TAGORE on the title page with decorative accents drawn by him
both beside and beneath his signature. [This is the true first edition of
these poems printed together in book form, not to be confused with the
later issue of the work coupled with Tagore's "Gitanjali" in "Gitanjali and
Fruit-Gathering" (1918). The book does not correspond to any particular
volume of Tagore's Poetry as published in the original Bengali.] This is
presumably an unread copy with portions of the gatherings uncut at the top.
Rabindranath Tagore won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature "because of his
profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate
skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words,
a part of the literature of the West". (Tagore was fluent both in Bengali
and in English. A close friend of Gandhi's -- each man admired the other
greatly -- he also was knighted by the British in 1915, and, though he
resisted the use of titles and distinguishing classifications, he is named
as "Sir" Rabindranath Tagore on this book's dust jacket and title page, a
designation presumably used by the Publisher to increase sales in
class-conscious Britain. (Tagore later resigned his knighthood in protest
of British policies in India.) Though he supported Indian independence, he
urged the Indian people not to view themselves as victims of the British,
seeing instead British rule as a "political symptom of our social disease",
urging not outright revolution but rather advising the people to engage in
self-help and education that would ultimately produce a capable and
independent nation. Interestingly, it was Tagore who popularized "Mahatma"
(or "Great Soul") as a description of Gandhi.) Significantly, Tagore was
the first non-European to win the Prize. A polymath, he wrote novels,
essays, short stories, travelogues, and dramas, as well as over two
thousand songs for which he wrote both the lyric and the music. The first
edition of Fruit-Gathering, offered here, is rather uncommon and copies in
the dust jacket are like hen's teeth. Signed copies of Tagore's works in
English translation also are quite uncommon. Thus, copies of the first
edition of Fruit-Gathering in the dust jacket and signed by Rabindranath
Tagore, as is offered here, are RARE. [Having an excellent Provenance, this
copy belonged to the actor Jack Palance and carries the bookplate from the
2006 sale of his personal property on the rear pastedown.] A Near Fine copy
of a quite scarce book, SIGNED BY RABINDRANATH TAGORE. RARE. Near Fine in
very good + dust-jacket. Hardcover. (#00003467)        $7,500.00  *Available
for $3,750*

*Lewis, Sinclai*r; Lewis, Lloyd.* Jayhawker A Play in Three Acts* [*Signed
by Sinclair Lewis*]. Garden City: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1935.
First edition. A Very Good + copy of the first edition, first printing
(spine ends pushed with some tiny fraying, slight amount of fading to the
board edges and spine head as is usual for this title), in a Very Good dust
jacket (chip to the spine head with an associated tear, small chips to the
spine tail and ends of the flap folds, age toning to the edges of the flaps
and rear panel, corner-clipped by the Publisher but not price-clipped and
showing the price at $2.00 -- all unsurprising for this jacket which often
is found worn), SIGNED BY SINCLAIR LEWIS on the title page; Sinclair Lewis'
debut (and only) published Play, a joint effort by Sinclair Lewis and by
Lloyd Lewis, the then drama critic for the Chicago Daily News and a Civil
War history specialist. Sinclair Lewis won the 1930 Nobel Prize in
Literature for "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his
ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters", making
him the first author from the United States to win the Prize. Declared by
Sinclair Lewis Bibliographer Stephen Pastore to be "...perhaps the scarcest
title in the post-1930 Lewis lexicon", the first edition of Jayhawker
consisted of a mere 1,076 copies. The Play is set during the Kansas
Missouri border wars which took place off and on from about 1855 to 1864.
During this period, militant bands of nominal free-staters who opposed
Slavery but who were willing to pillage, rob, and kill for other reasons as
well, adopted the term to describe themselves. With relatively few copies
of the first edition having been produced and with many of them no doubt
having been claimed by time, first edition copies are rather scarce to the
market.  Although signed copies of Sinclair Lewis works generally are not
terribly scarce, signed copies of "Jayhawker" are rare. In addition to
having been signed, this copy bears a notable Provenance, having come from
the Estate of decorated Naval Officer and Actor Douglas Fairbanks whose
bookplate resides on the book's front pastedown. A Very Good+ copy of what
itself is a rather uncommon book, and one hardly ever found signed, SIGNED
BY SINCLAIR LEWIS. RARE. Very Good + in very good dust-jacket. Hardcover.
(#00003514)        $3,250.00  *Available for $1,350*


*Berrigan, Ted*. *Carrying A Torch* (Clown War 22) [*Signed*]. New York:
Clown War, 1980. First edition. A Fine copy in the Publisher's original
stapled wrappers (slight color variation to the rear wrap, expected toning
to pages), SIGNED AND LETTERED BY TED BERRIGAN on the Limitation Page. One
of Ted Berrigan's last publications, only 500 copies were printed, and a
mere 26 copies were lettered and signed by the famed Beat Poet. This is
copy "I" (i.e., the ninth copy so lettered and signed). Signed and lettered
copies were scarce from the moment of publication and now seem scarcer
still. A Fine copy, SIGNED AND LETTERED BY TED BERRIGAN. RARE.     Fine.
Wrappers. (#00002245)        $1,150.00   *Available for $325*

*Howells, William Dean*. *Between the Dark and the Daylight*. New York:
Harper & Brothers, 1907. First edition. A Fine copy of the first edition,
first printing, in the Publisher's original green cloth, decorated in gilt
and in blind, and lettered in gilt, top edge gilt (a touch of pushing at
the spine ends and minor wear at the corners, scattered marginal foxing),
in a Very Good + example of the rare dust jacket (expected handling soil,
some wrinkling and minor tears at the edges, small chips at the spine
tail); a collection of short stories set at the borderland of the unknown
illustrated with a frontispiece and five plates. A remarkable copy of a
rather uncommon book by this popular author, literary critic, and editor of
the Atlantic Monthly, known in his day as "The Dean of American Letters",
complete in the rare dust jacket. RARE. Fine in very good + dust-jacket.
Hardcover. (#00003303)        $950.00
*Available for $275*

*Oe, Kenzaburo*. *The Silent Cry* [*Signed 2x*] [Ma'en Gannen no
Futtoboru]. Tokyo: Kodansha International Ltd. [Printed in Japan;
Distributed in the US by Harper & Row], 1974. First edition. ISBN:
0-87011-232-5. A Fine, Superior, copy of the first edition, first printing,
in a Fine dust jacket (priced at $10.00; with a tiny linear indentation to
the upper and lower left extremities of the front panel near the spine,
modest pushing to the rear flaps upper edge, and the barest touch of age
toning to the white rear panel and flap edges), SIGNED TWICE BY KENZABURO
OE on the title page, once in Japanese characters, and once in English
characters (and with a small Japanese character below Oe's signature); text
in English. First published in Japan and there titled "Ma'en Gannen no
Futtoboru" (1967), the novel centers on a man, Mitsu, whose younger
brother's return from America saves the protagonist from drowning in the
flood of disasters which have beset him. Mitsu's best friend has just
committed suicide, and his wife has given birth to a deformed baby -- which
tragic event sends her on the path to alcoholism. At the younger brother's
instigation, the family then leaves the city to start a new life, returning
to its ancestral village and to its ancestral past whereupon past and
present interweave in their lives.  Kenzaburo Oe won the 1994 Nobel Prize
in Literature as an author "who with poetic force creates an imagined
world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the
human predicament today". In his speech presenting the Prize to Oe,
Professor Kjell Espmark, Member of the Swedish Academy, used "The Silent
Cry" as the primary exemplar of Oe's work and as a springboard to discuss
Oe's other books. Signed copies of this important work are quite scarce and
are remarkably so when in a condition as nice as is this copy. A Fine,
Superior, copy of a work which significantly contributed to Oe's winning
the Prize, SIGNED TWICE BY KENZABURO OE. QUITE SCARCE INDEED. Fine in fine
dust-jacket. Hardcover. (#00003561)        $850.00   *Available for $325*

*Harte, Bret* [Hart, Francis Brett]. *The Lost Galleon*. San Francisco:
Towne & Bacon, 1867. First edition. A Very Good copy (some wear to spine
head, light rubbing to edges, small label remnants to corner of rear
pastedown) in the Publisher's original terra-cotta cloth with a gilt
stamped mast and sail decoration on front cover. The spine is unfaded, the
endpapers are solid, and the boards are clean. Bret Harte's debut
collection of poetry. A nicer than usual copy. Very Good. Hardcover.
(#00001218)        $675.00
*Available for $225*
-- 
Stephen Johnson
Allington Antiquarian Books, LLC
Rare and Collectible Books, both Antiquarian and Modern
336-414-0435