Fiction

Fiction

Atwood, Margaret, The Handmaid’s Tale (Houghton Mifflin, 1st ed, 1st printing, 1986). Famed tale of the United States’ evolution into a monotheocracy whose people made the Puritans seem like an average night at Studio 54. A dystopian favorite! Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $79.95.

Auel, Jean, The Shelters of Stone (Crown, 1st ed., 1st printing, 2002). ISBN 0-609-61059-7. Fifth in Auel’s bestselling Earth’s Children series. Hardcover,unclipped dust jacket in mylar; as new condition.  HBB price: $49.95.

Baldacci, David, The Winner (Warner Books, 1st ed., 1st printing, December 1997). ISBN 0-446-52259-7. A woman on her way to a John Grisham novel gets hijacked by this tale of a rigged $100m lottery prize. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, autographed on title page. Border’s “autographed by author” sticker on the front end pages. Very good condition: $35.

Baldwin, James, Just Above My Head (Dial Press, 1st printing, 1979). Paperback advance reading copy of Baldwin’s novel about two Harlem brothers- one a gay gospel singer- and the woman they both love. Baldwin won a six-figure paperback deal, a Literary Guild advance selection, a $50,000 promotional campaign, and pieces on “Today” and “20/20.” Includes publisher’s letter to booksellers. Good condition. HBB price: $25.

Bellow, Saul, More Die of Heartbreak (William Morrow, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1987). ISBN 0-688-06935-5. “I am a phoenix,” one character says, “who runs after arsonists.” A sex farce about two midwestern academics by the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winner (1915-2005). Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $120.

Blake, Sarah, The Postmistress (Berkley, 1st trade paperback ed., 1st printing, February 2011). ISBN 978-0-425-23869-1. Novel telling the interwoven tales of a small-town, Massachusetts coastal postmistress and a woman broadcasting war news from London in 1940. Very good condition; autographed on the title page. HBB price: $$19.95.

Brown, Dan, The Da Vinci Code (Doubleday, 1st ed., 1st printing, typo at p. 243 corrected, 2003). ISBN 0-385-50420-9. The first of symbologist Robert Langdon’s sprints through history and scenic locales. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, fine condition. HBB price; 150.

Brown, Dan, The Da Vinci Code: Special Illustrated Edition (Doubleday: 1st ed., 1st printing, 2004). ISBN 0-385-51375-5. With all the copies Da Vinci sold in 2003, the publishers figured there must be some milk left in the cow and brought out this lavishly-illustrated version of Robert Langdon’s  first adventure in Action Symbology. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, fine condition. HBB price: $100.

Brown, Dan, The Lost Symbol (Doubleday, 1st ed., 1st printing, 2009). ISBN 978-0-385-50422-5. Robert Langdon’s sequel to The Da Vinci Code. This time he tackles Freemasonry, the Founders, and more tunnels. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, fine condition. HBB price: $125.

Brown, Dan, Inferno (Doubleday, 1st ed. 1st printing, 2013). ISBN 978-0-385-53785-8. The third of Brown’s Robert Langdon thrillers, this time set in Florence, the story driven by references to Dante’s Inferno. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, fine condition. HBB price: $100.

Capote, Truman, The Collected Stories of Truman Capote (Random House, 1st ed., 1st printing, 2004). ISBN 0-679-64310-9. It’s easy to remember Capote (1924-1984), if at all, as the outrageous, dissipated, social and media star he was in the 1960s and ‘70s. His short stories remind readers what a remarkable, even prodigious talent he was in his youth. This collection has a thoughtful introduction by Reynolds Price. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket with 1.5” tear at bottom right corner of front dust jacket. Very good condition. 297 pp. HBB price: $30.

Chiaverini, Jennifer, Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker (Dutton, stated 1st ed., 1st printing, January 2013). ISBN 978-0-525-95361-6.  Chiaverini, author of the famed Elm Creek Quilt Series, makes her historical fiction debut with this tale of the slave turned “modiste”, Elizabeth Keckley,who became Mary Todd Lincoln’s White House confidante. An interesting counterpart to Keckley’s memoir, listed here under African-American works. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, fine condition. HBB price: $14.99

Conroy, Pat, The Prince of Tides (Houghton Mifflin, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1986). ISBN 0-395-35300-9. Searing tale of a South Carolina Low Country family worthy of a Eugene O’Neill play. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, mylar cover, fine condition. inscribed to Charlotte NC arts maven Gladys Lavitan.  HBB price: $350.

Conroy, Pat, The Prince of Tides (Houghton Mifflin, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1986). ISBN 0-395-35300-9. Searing tale of a South Carolina Low Country family worthy of a Eugene O’Neill play. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, fine condition.  HBB price: $100.

Conroy, Pat, Beach Music (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1995). ISBN 0-385-41304-1. Conroy’s Holocaust-meets-Low-Country-angst novel. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, fine condition. HBB price: $50.

Cozzens, James Gould, The Just and the Unjust (Harcourt, Brace & Co, stated 1st ed., 1942). Compelling tale of a murder trial in a small county seat. Some chips and nicks to the dust jacket edges; otherwise, very good condition. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, 434 pp. HBB price: $49.95.

Crews, Harry, Scar Lover (Poseidon Press/Simon & Schuster, 1st ed, 1st printing, 1992). ISBN 0-671-74489-5. A man in Jacksonville, avoiding his past, his family gone, is slowly drawn back into life by a good woman. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. Rare copy of a critically-acclaimed writer’s work. HBB price: $45.

Crichton, Michael, Disclosure (Alfred A. Knopf, 1st ed. 1994), ISBN 0-679-41945-4. Fatal Attraction meets the dot.com boom. Made into a Michael Douglas movie. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $45.

Deighton, Len, Spy Sinker (Cornelia and Michael Bessie/HarperCollins, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1990). Another in the series describing the complicated life of Fiona, double agent in the last days of the Cold War. Very good condition. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket. HBB $35.

DeMille, Nelson, Night Fall (Time Warner, stated 1st ed., 1st printing, November, 2004). Five years after its explosion and crash off Long Island, TWA Flight 800 haunts FBI agent Kate Mayfield. She convinces her husband, an anti-terror expert, the case is worth another look, and this ripped-from-the-headlines novel is off and running. Hardcover unclipped dust jacket fine condition. HBB price: $25

Dinesen, Isak, Winter’s Tales (Random House, “Wartime Book”, 1942). Hardcover, no dust jacket. Collection of stories by the author of Out of Africa. Very good condition. HBB price: $35.

Drakulic, Slavenka, S. (Viking, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1999). 0-670-89097-9. Searing novel of the atrocities of the Balkan war, as experienced by one woman. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $35.

Du Maurier, George, Trilby (London: Osgood & McIlvaine & Co., 1st. ed., 1895). Said to be the inspiration for The Phantom of the Opera, this novel inspired the Trilby hat (worn by a character in the stage play), introduced the phrase “in the altogether” and inspired the notoriously litigious artist Whistler to threaten suit over a character (Du Maurier apologized and rewrote the offending sections). Du Maurier also introduced the character Svengali, whose name became a synonym for  a man holding utter sway over a submissive woman. Hardcover, blue boards with gilt titling on cover and spine. 447 pp, octavo, with six pages of publisher’s ads. Slight separation of spine at back endpapers; small tear across bottom of spine. Bookseller label of Gilbert & Field, 67 Moorgate Street, London, E.C., which operated from the mid-1870s to circa World War I.

Edgerton, Clyde, Where Trouble Sleeps, (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1997, 1st ed. 1st printing). ISBN 1-56512-06102. The saga of Listre, NC continues as a stoplight gets installed and outsiders start showing up. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition, autographed. HBB price: $25.

Edgerton, Clyde, The Floatplane Notebooks (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1st ed., 1988). ISBN 0-945575-00-9. Another in the series of tales set in Listre, North Carolina, this novel chronicles the Copeland family as they gather, through the generations, each May to clean up the family graveyard.Anyone who’s ever been to such an event will know how true this story rings. Excellent, as-new copy; hardcover with unclipped dust jacket. Signed by the author on the half-title page. Christmas, 1988 inscription on the front paper. HBB price: $100.

Eumenides, Jeffrey, The Virgin Suicides (Farrar Straus Giroux, 1st ed. 1993). ISBN 0-374-28438-5. The novel that caused a sensation. Hardcover unclipped dustjacket, as new. HBB price: $125.

Flynn, Vince, Transfer of Power (Pocket Books, 1st ed, 3rd printing, 1999). ISBN 0-671-02315-9. Killing machine Mitch Rapp tears up the rule book yet again, and tunnels come in handy. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, fine condition, autographed bookplate on half title page as “Vincent J. Flynn.” Transfer of Power is the first of Flynn’s novels featuring secret agent Rapp. Flynn died in 2013, three months after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. HBB price: $300.

Follett, Ken, Code to Zero (Dutton, 1st ed., 1st printing, 2000). ISBN 0-525-94563-6. Page turner about a rocket scientist in 1958, stricken by amnesia as America’s space program reaches a crisis. Hardcover, unclipped dustjacket, as new, 356 pp. HBB price: $35.

Graves, Robert, The Antigua Stamp (Seizin Press/Random House, 1st U.S. edition, 1937). Two children: the boy grows up to be a novelist; the girl, an actor-manager of a theater company. They both feud over the Antigua stamp, a rare object in their collection. A sardonic romp by the author of I, Claudius. Octavo, 325 pp. Hardcover, good condition; wear to the dust jacket, some taped but happily, not yellowed. The U.S. 1st is more scarce than the U.K. 1st. HBB price: $150.

Grisham, John, The Client (Doubleday, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1993). ISBN 0-385-42471-X. CHild sees murder, hires an unlikely lawyer.Menace ensues. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $100.

Grisham, John, The Chamber (Doubleday, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1994). ISBN 0-385-42472-8. A Mississipp1 Klan’s member’s long-delayed retrial for a racially-motivated murder. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket. Very good condition. HBB price: $125.

Grisham, John, The Runaway Jury Doubleday, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1996). ISBN 0-385-47294-3.The jury in a ruinously costly tobacco liability trial starts acting oddly in its deliberations. Are they being controlled? Or going rogue? Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $65.

Grisham, John, The Partner (Doubleday, 1st ed. 1st printing, 1997). ISBN 0-385-47295-1. A missing person becomes unmissing. Hardcover, unclipped dustjacket, as new. HBB price: $100.

Grisham, John, A Painted House (Doubleday, 1st ed. 1st printing, 2001). Six weeks in the life of a young boy on a sharecropping Arkansas farm. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $50.

Grisham, John, The King of Torts (Doubleday, 1st ed., 1st printing, 2003). ISBN 0-385-50804-2. Public defender meets loser client meets Big Pharma. Piles of cash are contended over. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $75.

Gurganus, Allan, Oldest Confederate Widow Tells All (Alfred A. Knopf, 1st ed. 1989). CHild bride of an ancient Civil War soldier, Lucy Marsden is now herself 99, and seized of the notion to tell her life’s story. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $79.95.

Harris, Joanne, Chocolat (Viking, 1st American ed., 1st printing, 1999). ISBN 0-670-88179-1. A mysterious woman moves into a French town along with a strong north wind. She is a single mom, refuses to attend church, and opens a chocolate shop. A hit movie. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $150.

Harris, Thomas, The Silence of the Lambs, (St. Martin’s Press, 1st. ed, 1st printing, 1988). ISBN 0-312-02282-4. Exceptional copy of the novel that made Anthony Hopkins an international household world as psycho killer Hannibal Lecter. Hardcover, unclipped dustjacket, as new. Rare. HBB price: $300.

Heller, Joseph, Catch-22 (Random House/Modern Library, ML 375, 1961). The brilliant war satire in a very good copy: hardcover, unclipped dustjacket with slight water stains on back and chipping at head of spine. First-rate, given how rarely ML editions survive with their paper covers. HBB price: $40.

Hemingway, Ernest, The Old Man and the Sea (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1952, 1st. ed, 1st printing). Ex-library copy. Hardcover, octavo, 140 pp. Some foxing on the end papers; library stamps on front end papers. With unclipped dust jacket in mylar covering. No library tags on the spine. Blue-tinted author photo on back cover. Overall, very good condition. HBB price: $275.

Hemingway, Ernest, For Whom the Bell Tolls (Scribners, 1st ed, early, unstated printing, 1940). Regarded by many as Hemingway’s masterwork, this love story set in the Spanish Civil War was published in October 1940 in a first printing of 75,000 copies. It was an immediate success and sold more than half a million copies in its first year. An endpaper note indicates this copy was purchased new in 1941. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket (some small tears and fraying at the edges, some browning on the end papers. Overall, good condition. 8.5” x 6”, 471 pp. HBB price: $100.

Hersey, John,The Call (Knopf, stated 1st ed., 1985). ISBN 0-394-54331-9. A sweeping novel of an American missionary’s life in China in the first half of the 20th century, by the author of Hiroshima. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket showing some slight wear at the edges; overall, very good condition. HBB price: $50.

House, Silas, Clay’s Quilt (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1st ed., 1st printing, 2001). ISBN 1-56512-307-7. Fine tale of an orphaned Kentucky coal miner’s efforts to find a life and a family of his own. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition, autographed. HBB price: $45.

Irving, John, A Prayer for Owen Meany (William Morrow, 1st trade ed., 1st printing, 1989). ISBN 0-688-07708-0. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, fine condition. 543 pp. HBB price: $75.

James, P.D., The Children of Men (Alfred A. Knopf, 1st American edition, 1993). ISBN 0-679-41873-3. Best known for her Adam Dalgliesh detective novels, James surprised and delighted readers when, at 73, she produced a dystopian sci fi novel in which all the men of England became infertile in 1995. in 2021 things were rapidly unraveling socially, and Oxford don Theodore Faron found himself drawn into the thick of the coming fray. Made into a 2006 film with Clive Owen. Hardcover, unclipped dustjacket, as new. 241 pp. HBB price: $100.

Jong, Erica, Any Woman’s Blues (Harper & Row, stated 1st ed., 1st printing, 1990). ISBN 0-06-016272-4. A festival of emotional codependency and addictive behavior as only the author of Fear of Flying can tell it. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket showing a bit of wear at the edges, very good condition. HBB price: $16.95.

Kantor, MacKinlay, Andersonville (World, 1st ed. 1955). LOC 55-8257. Kantor’s best-selling novel of the notorious Civil War prison camp where 50,000 Union prisoners died in fourteen months. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket in mylar, very good condition. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Rare in this condition.  HBB price: $175.

Stephen King and f-stop Fitzgerald, Nightmares in the Sky: Gargoyles and Grotesques (Viking Studio Books, 1988; hardcover, 128 pp, ISBN 0-670-82307-4; 1st ed., hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, 10" x 11.25", very good condition). Your price: US $75. Horror and suspense writer Stephen King found his first face-to-grimace encounter with a gargoyle, the grotesque waterspouts that have carried water away from the sides of stone buildings since ancient times. Seeing one up close, King writes, is like "having a nightmare awake."

The avant-gardishly named avant-garde photographer, f-stop Fitzgerald, shares King's fascination, and the two collaborated on what became a 1988 best-seller, Nightmares in the Sky: Gargoyles and Grotesques. 100 duotones and 24 full-color images menace and confront the reader in a fascinating, up-close-and-personal encounter with an art form we rarely notice at ground level.

King, Stephen, Cujo (Viking, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1981). ISBN 0-670-45193-2. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition; two nicks to back dust jacket. Owner’s name and “1981” inscribed on front endpaper. HBB price: $99.

King, Stephen, Skeleton Crew (G.P. Putnam’s, 1st ed. 1st printing, 1985). ISBN 0-399-13039-X. Twenty-two terrifying tales. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $49.

King, Stephen, The Tommyknockers (G.P. Putnam’s, 1st ed. 1st printing, “Permissions to Come” notation, 1987). ISBN 0-399-13341-3. Be careful what you pull out of the ground: it could be the exposed bit of a buried space vehicle with plans for humanity. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $99.

King, Stephen, The Dark Half (Viking, 1st ed. 1st printing, 1987). 0-670-82982-X. An author’s pseudonym, resentful of being retired, gets even. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $99.

King, Stephen, Four Past Midnight (Viking, 1st ed. 1st printing, 1990). ISBN 0-399-13341-3. Four novellas: “The Langoliers,” “Secret Window,” “The Library Policeman” and “The Sun Dog.” Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition; a slight stain on the fore-edge. HBB price: $99.

King, Stephen, Dolores Claiborne (Viking, 1st ed. 1st printing, 1993). ISBN 0-67084452-7. Accused of murdering an elderly woman for whom she cared, and suspected of offing her husband, Dolores tells all- and then some. What did she do? Was she right to do it? 9.5” x 6”. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, fine condition. HBB price: $99.

King, Stephen, Nightmares & Dreamscapes (Viking, 1st ed., first printing, 1993). ISBN 0-670-85108-6. Masterful collection of short stories. Hardcover, unclipped dusty jacket. Very good condition. 2 copies; one with longhand gift inscription, and dog-ear crease on half-title page; small crease on top front dust jacket flap in the other. HBB price: $125 each.

King, Stephen, Rose Madder (Viking, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1995) ISBN 0-670-85869-2. Gripping tale of a woman pursued by a phcho husband. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: 49.00

King, Stephen, Desperation (Viking, 1st ed. 1st printing, 1996). ISBN 0-670-86386-1. A chance gathering of passers-through run up against the batshit-crazy cop of Desperation, Nevada. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, fine condition. HBB price: 3 copies; $119 each.

King, Stephen, Hearts in Atlantis (Scribner, 1st ed. 1st printing, 1999). ISBN 0-684-85351-5. Five interconnected narratives, the ghosts of Vietnam lurking in them all. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, fine condition. HBB price: $75.

King, Stephen, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (Scribner, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1999). ISBN 0-684-86762-1. A hiking trip on the Appalachian Trail goes rather seriously wrong. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $99.

King, Stephen, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (Scribner, 1st ed., 1st printing, 2000). ISBN 0-684-85352-3. Highly-praised account of King’s evolution as an author. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $59.

King, Stephen, Everything’s Eventual: 14 Dark Tales (Scribner, 1st ed., 1st printing, 2002). ISBN 0-7432-3515-0. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $99.

King, Stephen, The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah (Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc., 1st trade ed. 1st printing, 2004). ISBN 1-880148-59-2. The penultimate volume in King’s Dark Tower series. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $99.

King, Stephen, Duma Key (Scribner, 1st ed., 1st printing, 2008). ISBN 1-4165-5251-0. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $89.

Lamb, Wally, I Know This Much Is True (Regan Books/HarperCollins, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1998). ISBN 0-06-039162-6. The 900 pp. saga of twins born at the turn of 1949-50, one schizophrenic. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $95.

Lawrence, D. H., Lady Chatterly’s Lover (Grove Press, 1st U.S. ed., “Original Unexpurgated Version”, 1959). “This edition is the third manuscript version, first published by Giuseppe Orioli, Florence, 1928.” With an introduction by Mark Schorer and a preface by Archibald MacLeish. This novel about a woman with the temerity to find a life without sex- her husband was disabled in The Great War caused decades of fuss and scandal in most of the English-speaking world. In an early instance of of congressional Republican literary criticism, Utah Senator Reed Smoot (later to play a memorable role in the film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”) declared in 1930, "I've not taken ten minutes on Lady Chatterley's Lover, outside of looking at its opening pages. It is most damnable! It is written by a man with a diseased mind and a soul so black that he would obscure even the darkness of hell!" (The American poet Ogden Nash wrote, in response,

Senator Smoot (Republican, Ut.)

Is planning a ban on smut.

Oh rooti-ti-toot for Smoot of Ut.

And his reverend occiput.

Smite, Smoot, smite for Ut.,

Grit your molars and do your dut.,

Gird up your l__ns,

Smite h_p and th_gh,

We'll all be Kansas

By and by....

Nash, Ogden (January 11, 1930), "Invocation", The New Yorker: 30.

At its 1960 obscenity publication trial in the United Kingdom, the prosecutor summed up with the question that would, doubtless, have echoed through the drawing rooms of Downton Abbey: “Is this the sort of book you would wish your wife or servants to read?” Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket. Blue cloth spine over cream-colored paper boards; gilt lettering. Dust jacket very good with light wear along the edging. 8.5” x. 5.25”, 368 pp. HBB price: $175.

Le Carre, John, Call For The Dead (Walker & Co, stated 1st US ed., 1962). LOC 62-18735. Le Carre’s introduction of George Smiley, his most famous spy. Hardcover unclipped dust jacket with water ring circle on front cover and tear on back at bottom of spine. HBB price: $20.

Le Carre, John, A Most Wanted Man (Scribner, 1st ed, 1st printing, 2008). ISBN 978-1-4165-9488-8. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB $35.

Lee, Harper, To Kill A Mockingbird (HarperCollins, 35th Anniversary Edition, 1995). ISBN 0-06-017322-X.  Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $35.

One of the last books published in his lifetime (1876-1916), Jack London's The Little Lady of the Big House was a shocker, says Wikipedia:

"London said of this novel: 'It is all sex from start to finish — in which no sexual adventure is actually achieved or comes within a million miles of being achieved, and in which, nevertheless, is all the guts of sex, coupled with strength.' One reviewer disparaged the novel's 'erotomania.'

"Clarice Stasz comments:

"Little Lady upset readers in London's day for its gushing sexual imagery... [and] its close portrayal of the tempting pull of adultery. Modern critics, on the other hand, deride its Victorian coyness and sentimentality, its unrealistic characters. Both were correct—it was too sexy for readers in 1915, when it appeared, and not sexy enough for readers beyond the sexually free twenties."

Published by Macmillan in 1916, this tale of a love triangle on a California ranch is claimed, by some London scholars, to be semi-autobiographical. Jack London, The Little Lady of the Big House (Macmillan, 1916), hardcover, no dustjacket 392 pp, with four pages of ads for other London works after the conclusion. Very good condition. Your price: US $40.

Maguire, Gregory, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (Regan Books/HarperCollins, 1st ed, 1st printing, 1999). ISBN 0-06-039282-7. The author of Wicked tells the Cinderella story. Hardcover, dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $60.

Marquez, Gabriel Garcia, Of Love And Other Demons (Knopf, 1st American ed., 1995). ISBN 0-679-43853-X. A “bookish priest” is sent to conduct the exorcism of an “unruly copperhaired girl.” Romance ensues. Marquez (1927-2014) remains one of the giants of Latin American fiction. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, fine condition. HBB price: $50.

McCorkle, Jill, Tending to Virginia (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1st ed., 1987). ISBN 0-912697-65-2. Lumberton NC native McCorkle made an explosive debut, publishing two novels on the same day at age 25. Here she offers a familiar plot- women of the three generations of a family sort things out pending the arrival of the fourth- but told in her own, remarkable way. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. Inscribed on the title by the author, in Lumberton, New Year’s Day 1988. HBB price: $24.99.

McCullough, Colleen, Caesar’s Women (William Morrow, 1st ed. 1st printing, 1996). ISBN 0-688-09731-X.  Absorbing tale of the ten years of Julius Caesar’s rise to power in Republican Rome. One of a series of novels by the author of The Thorn Birds on the first emperor’s life and times. Extravagantly autographed on the title page. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition.  696 pp. HBB price: $50.

McEwan, Ian, Saturday (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 1st ed., 1st printing, 2005). ISBN 0-385-51180-9. A day in the life of Dr. Henry Perowne, a contented man in the early days of the post 9/11 world, whose day begins with a vague sense of foreboding and goes downhill. By the author of Atonement. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $35.

McMurtry, Larry, Horseman, Pass By (Texas A&M Press, 1st ed., 1985). ISBN 0-89096-241-3. First in the Press’s Southwest Landmarks series. 5.75” x 6.5”. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition, 179 pp. When it was published in 1961, this novel marked a sharp new direction in Western fiction, and was made into the equally memorable Paul Newman film, Hud (1963). HBB price: $35.

McMurtry, Larry, Texasville (Simon & Schuster, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1987). ISBN 0-671-62533-0. The sequel to The Last Picture Show, Texasville returns to Thalia, Texas in the oil boom of the 1980s. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $50.

McMurtry, Larry, Buffalo Girls (Simon & Schuster, 1st ed. 1st printing, 1990). ISBN 0-671-68518-X. McMurtry’s fictional take on the life of Calamity Jane. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $40.

McMurtry, Larry, The Evening Star (Simon & Schuster, 1st ed. 1st printing, 1992). ISBN 0-671-68519-8. Aurora Greenway, copes with a new passel of family troubles in the sequel to Terms of Endearment. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $50.

McMurtry, Larry, Comanche Moon (Simon & Schuster, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1997). ISBN 0-684-80754-8. The final volume in the Lonesome Dove series. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket with small tear at top of front cover. Very good condition, HBB price: $25.

Medlicott, Joan, The Ladies of Covington Street Send Their Love (Thomas Dunne Books/ St. Martin’s Press, 1st ed., 1st printing, 2000). ISBN 0-312-25329-X. Three ladies of a certain age kick off the traces and move to make a new home for themselves in the small town of Covington, North Carolina. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, fine condition. HBB price: $35.

Michener, James A., The Bridges at Toko-Ri (Random House, 1st ed., 1952,  21st printing, 1953). LOC 52-7129. Michener’s classic war novel, in which a team of carrier-based jet bomber pilots must try to take out a key bridge in the Korean War. Hardcover, not price clipped, rubber stamped name/address of previous owner on front and back papers. Very good condition. HBB price: $25.

Michener, James A., Sayonara (Random House, 1st ed., 1954). LOC 54-5953. Tale of an American air force officer about to take a plus posting and marry the perfect girl. Of course, he falls for a Japanese dancer. A 1950s Madama Butterfly, made into a Marlon Brando film in 1957. Hardcover, not price clipped, mylar cover. Very good condition. HBB price: $75.

Michener, James A., Texas (Random House, stated 1st ed., 1985). ISBN 0-394-54154-5. The Lone Star State gets the Michener historical saga treatment. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $25.

Michener, James A., Caribbean (Random House, 1st ed., 1989).ISBN 0-394-56561-4. One of the master’s sweeping historical novels. Hardcover, not price clipped, 672 pp. Very good condition. HBB price: $25.

Murakami, Haruki, 1Q84 (Vintage International, 1st ed., 1st printing, May 2012). ISBN 978-0-345-80293-4. This deluxe three-volume paperback boxed set--gorgeously designed editions in a see-through case, with a removeable sticker on the shrink wrap packaging--is a collector's item in the making. It beautifully showcases Haruki Murakami's most ambitious novel yet, "1Q84"--a love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a dystopia to rival George Orwell's. The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo. A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver's enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84--"Q is for 'question mark.' A world that bears a question." Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled. As Aomame's and Tengo's narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector. An instant bestseller around the world, "1Q84" is a tremendous feat of imagination from one of the world’s most celebrated contemporary writers. Fine condition, HBB price: $40.

Morgan, Max, Pilot’s Journal (Chronicle Books, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1997). ISBN 0-8118-1755-5. The 1946-49 flight journal of Max Morgan, former Royal Canadian Air Force flyer and owner of the legendary Paris jazz club, Aerobleu. Long thought lost; rediscovered in 1997, some four decades after Morgan disappeared during the chaos of the Cuban Revolution. Hardcover, 5.75” x 11” in the original, stainless steel slipcase. For more about Morgan and the Aerobleu era, see Stuart Ellliott, “The Media Business: Advertising,” The New York Times, October 15, 1997. Exceedingly rare;  highly collectible. HBB price: $395.

Nabokov, Vladimir, Glory (McGraw Hill, 1st ed., 1971). ISBN 07-045733-6. First published in Russian in 1932, Nabokov and his son, Dmitri, translated it into English for this edition. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price $50.

Nabokov, Vladimir, Quartet (Phaedra Publications, 1st ed., August 15, 1966).  LOC 66-28101. In a long, January 1966 review in The New Republic, John Appel, Jr. noted, Now in his sixty-seventh year, Vladimir Nabokov is suddenly upon us. Of course, he was here all along, but his oeuvre was like an iceberg, the massive body of his Russian novels, stories, plays, and poems remaining untranslated and out of sight, lurking beneath the visible peaks of Lolita (1955), Pnin (1957), and Pale Fire (1962). In the last eight years, however, six of his books in Russian have been translated and three out of print novels reissued. Nabokov's own translation of Lolita into Russian and a collation of stories known as Nabokov's Quartet appeared quietly this autumn…” These four stories, two published in the U.S. for the first time, show the master in top form. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, white end papers, boards covered in a rough printed cloth pattern with the author’s signature printed on the lower right front cover. 8.75” x 5.5”, 104 pp. Very good condition. HBB price: $100.

Picoult, Jodi, Nineteen Minutes (Atria Books, 1st ed., 1st printing, 2007). ISBN 13: 978-0-7434-96728. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $75.

Proulx, Annie, That Old Ace In The Hole (Scribner, 1st ed. 1st printing, 2002). ISBN 0-684-81307-6. Bob Dollar, a bit at loose ends, takes a job as a land scout for Global Pork Rind. His mission: the scour the empty bits of the Southwest, looking for old people with now-worthless spreads in areas where the kids have left and the towns have dried up and blown away. Buy ‘em out and turn the land into hog farms is the goal. Basing himself in a cabin in Woolybucket, Texas, he slowly works his way into the community, he- and his mission- take some remarkable and unexpected turns. A sort of panhandle version of the classic film Local Hero. Hardcover, unclipped dustjacket, as new. HBB price: $30.

Proust, Marcel, Remembrance of Things Past (Random House, 2 vols, 1932, 1934). Introduction by Joseph Wood Krutch. Vol. 1 (1141 pp., Swann’s Way, Within A Budding Grove, The Guermantes Way) trans. by C.K. Scott Moncrieff); Vol 2 (1124 pp, Cities of the Plain, The Captive, The Sweet Cheat Gone, The Past Recaptured) trans. by Frederick A. Blossom). Hardcover, octavo, no dust jackets, very good condition; slight sunning and shelfwear. HBB price: $75.

Puzo, Mario, The Godfather (London: Heinemann, 1st ed, 3rd printing, 1969). ISBN 434-60491-7. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket. Slight wear around dust jacket edges, otherwise in very good condition. Octavo, 446 pp. HBB price: $95.

Pynchon, Thomas, Vineland (Little, Brown, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1990). That special brand of fiction known as Pynchonesque, this time set in a northern California town in an alternative version of 1984. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, near-fine condition. Rare. HBB price: $250.

Pynchon, Thomas, Against the Day (The Penguin Press, 1st ed., 1st printing, 2006). ISBN 1-59420-120-X. Sprawling historical fantasy set in the United States between the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 and the end of World War I. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. A real doorstop of a novel: 1084 pp. HBB price: $65.

Rash, Ron, One Foot In Eden (Novello, stated 1st ed., 2002). ISBN 0-9708972-5-1. The first novel by Rash,who has gone from critical strength to strength in the decade since. A mysterious death, long unsolved, in an Appalachian town uprooted by a coming dam project. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket; front endpaper inscription clipped out at top right corner. Autographed and inscribed on the title page. Very good condition. HBB price: $35.

Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan, Cross Creek (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1942). Hardcover, unclipped but worn dust jacket. Some yellowing to the edges of the text block. Copyright page bears the Scribner “A”.  Original purchaser’s bookplate on the endpaper; her name is written on the half title with the date, April, 1942. Good condition overall. HBB price: $35.

Reilly, Matthew J., Ice Station (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press, 1st U.S. ed., 1st printing, 1999). ISBN 0-312-20551-1. International thriller involving a large metal object discovered way under the Antarctic ice. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $95.

Rice, Anne, The Tale of the Body Thief, (Alfred A. Knopf, 1st ed. 1992). ISBN 0-679-40528-3. Fourth of her Lestat the Vampire series. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket. Small ink stains, one at the bottom of the cover, a couple on the dust jacket spine. Otherwise in very good condition. HBB price: $60.

Sams, Ferrol, Epiphany: Stories (Longstreet Press, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1994). ISBN 1-56352-164-4. Three classic tales by the doctor-writer of Fayetteville, Georgia, author of Run With the Horsemen, who died in 2013. A great read. Hardcover, unclipped transparent dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $35.

Sheldon, Sidney (William Morrow, 1st ed. 1st printing, 1990). ISBN 0-688-08488-5. Another page turner by the Hollywood novelist/television producer, set in the brilliant sunset of the Age of the Greek Tycoon. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket. Very good condition. HBB price: $95.

Shute, Nevil, The Breaking Wave (William Morrow, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1955). LOC 55-6369. A ripping yarn, as they used to say, from the author of On The Beach. This time, An Australian called Alan returns home after five years to find a family retainer, Jessie, has been found dead. Before her dead, she destroyed all her papers, so all she is in repose is a name. Alan sets out to rediscover her life, and, in the process, finds his own. A solid, well-told tale. Octavo, dustjacket a bit chipped about the edges, slight forward lean. Good condition. 282 pp. HBB price: $15.

Shute, Nevil, Ordeal (William Morrow, 1st. ed., 1st printing, 1939). An astonishingly prescient tale of life in Southampton, England, as war breaks out and night-after-night air raids begin. His home destroyed, Peter Corbett and his family hang on as best they can until cholera breaks out; fleeing into the countryside, they face new challenges trying to maintain their life together as the world seems to fall apart around them. Few have imagined the home consequences of war as well as Shute, whose sad, noble portrayal of people facing a certain end in On The Beach remains a classic. Octavo, dustjacket a bit chipped about the edges. Good condition. 280 pp. HBB price: $15.

Sienkiewicz, Henry, Fire in the Steppe (modern translation by W.S. Kuniczak, Copernicus Society of America, stated 1st ed., 1992). ISBN 0-7818-0025-0. Third of three free-standing novels by the Polish writer (1846-1916) describing the panoramic sweep of 17th century Poland’s quest for independence. Inscribed from one friend to another in Warsaw in 2001. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, fine condition. HBB price: $95.

Skloot, Floyd, The Open Door, (Story Line Press, 1st, ed. 1st printing, softcover, 1997). ISBN 1-885266-48-0. Henry’s book guy, Lin, writes, “When I was a college senior reviewing poetry submissions to the college magazine 38 years ago, I was amazed by the work of a man called Floyd Skloot. He was working for state government in Minnesota, and sent us a packet of poetry about bureaucracy! Since then, he’s fought back from chronic fatigue syndrome and produced more remarkable work. The Open Door is his third novel and shows us how two boys, growing up in a Jewish enclave in Brooklyn io the 1950s, grow up and deal with the unplanned inheritance of their parents’ physical and emotional abuse. Octavo, 199 pp. Very good condition. Inscribed by the author on the half title page, signed on the title page. HBB price: $25.

Smith, Lee, Guests on Earth (A Shannon Ravenel Book/Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1st ed., 1st printing, 2013). ISBN 978-1-616230-253-8. North Carolina novelist Smith recreates life in an Asheville women’s asylum, among whose patients is Zelda, wife of novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald. Autographed on the title page. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, fine condition. HBB price: $50.

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr, One Day In The LIfe of Ivan Denisovich (Frederick A. Praeger, 1st American ed, 1st printing, softcover, 1963). LOC 63-12729. Solzhenitsyn’s first novel bears this chilling bio: “...a forty-four-year-old physicist and mathematician, served in the army until February, 1945, when he was arrested and condemned to eight years in prison. He was subsequently, sent to a concentration camp, from which he was released in 1956. Rehabilitated in 1957, he now teaches mathematics and physics in a secondary school in Ryazan.” Fifty years on, this classic has new resonance in the Age of Putin. Very good condition. HBB price: $40.

Steinbeck, John, Sweet Thursday (Viking Press, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1954). LOC 54-7983. Steinbeck’s sequel to Cannery Row (1945), Sweet Thursday finds Doc returning to the Row after World War II and trying to restore his neglected biological supply lab and Hazel coping with a vision that he is to become President of the United States, among other neighbors’ issues. A number of plot lines from Sweet Thursday were incorporated into the 1982 film, Cannery Row. A delightfully funny novel filled with vivid characters. Hardcover, price clipped dust jacket. Octavo, beige-green cloth; very good condition; dust jacket near fine, very clean and bright. Back dust jacket photo by Philippe Halsman. 273 pp. HBB price: $850.

Stone, Irving, The Agony and the Ecstasy (Doubleday, 1961; Illustrated Edition, 1st ed., 1963). Stone’s string of biographies of artists and intellectuals extended back to 1934 when The Agony and the Ecstasy came out, but this time he hit Michelangelo’s life story out of the ballpark. By 1965 the book had been produced as a lavish Hollywood film with Charlton Heston and Rex Harrison. To extend the sales of the book, Doubleday put out this slipcased deluxe illustrated edition. Our copy is in very good condition; the slipcase shows dirt and wear and the clear plastic dust jacket has a small tear at the upper right corner of the cover. A book worth having. HBB price: $35.

Stone, Irving, The Origin: A Biographic Novel of Charles Darwin (Doubleday, 1st ed., 1980). ISBN 0-385-12064-8). The famed biographical novelist (Michelangelo, Van Gogh, Schliemann), takes on the father of evolution. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, sunning on the spine, very good condition. Octavo, 743 pp. Autographed on the half-title. HBB price $65.

Styron, William, Sophie’s Choice (Random House, 1st ed., 1979). ISBN 0-394-46109-6. The remarkable, bestselling tale of a Southern boy and a Polish death camp survivor who meet in post-war New York. Hardcover, price clipped dust jacket in mylar cover. Signed on the front endpapers by the owner, Charlotte NC arts maven Gladys Lavitan, inscribed to her by Styron on the half-title.  HBB price: $125.

Talese, Gay, Unto the Sons (Knopf, 1992, 1st ed.). ISBN 0-679-4130401. Sweeping saga of the Italian-American experience in the 20th century. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition, autographed. HBB price: $75.

Tallant, Robert, Mrs. Candy Strikes It Rich (Doubleday & Co., 1954, 1st ed.). LOC 54-7663. Comic Mardi Gras romp featuring the social-climbing, nouveau-riche Mrs. Eustacia Candy Petit of Cairo Street, N’awlins. Third of a series of Mrs. Candy comedies. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, good condition, inscribed to Charlotte NC arts maven Gladys Lavitan. HBB price: $50.

Travers, Robert, Anatomy of a Murder (St. Martin’s Press, 1958). Book-of-the-Month-Club edition. This account of a small town lawyer facing the younger lawyer, who ousted him from the D.A.’s office, in a murder trial. The novel was made into a film starring James Stewart and George C. Scott. This book is in very good condition, with a slight forward tilt to the spine. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket. HBB price: $19.95.

Teacher, Lawrence, ed., The Unabridged Mark Twain (Running Press, 1976, 1997). ISBN 0-7624-0180-X; 0-7624-0181-8. Leather bound with gilt titling and fore edges; missing the dust jackets. Introduction by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Assemblage of the collected works, drawn from first published editions, each entry with a brief introduction and publication history. Vol. 1, 1289 pp. Vol. 2, 1118 pp. HBB price: $149.95.

Vidal, Gore, Burr (Random House, 1st ed. 1973). Recreation of the life of the vice president and adventurer who got the better end of the duel with Alexander Hamilton. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, fine condition. HBB price: $100.

Wolfe, Tom, I Am Charlotte Simmons (Farrar Straus Giroux, 1st ed. 1st printing, 2004). ISBN 0-374-28158-0. Wolfe’s novel of turn-of-the-century American college life managed to come out just around the Duke University lacrosse scandal. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $69.95.

Wouk, Herman, Marjorie Morningstar (Doubleday, 1st ed. 1955). LOC 55-6485. Well-regarded story of a Jewish girl who takes on Broadway, and the bad choices that follow. Made into a hit movie. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket. good condition. HBB price: $35.

Wouk, Herman, The Caine Mutiny (Doubleday, 1st ed., 2nd printing, 1951). The first printing was of 22,500 copies, but, as First Edition Points notes, “It is unclear how many came with first issue dust jackets.” The jacket was changed to correct the misnaming of Wouk’s 1948 novel, City Boy, as The City Boy. We assume this copy is a second printing. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, and in very good condition. HBB price: $150.

Wouk, Herman, Marjorie Morningstar (Doubleday, 1st ed. 1955). LOC 55-6485. Well-regarded story of a Jewish girl who takes on Broadway, and the bad choices that follow. Made into a hit movie. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket. good condition. HBB price: $35.

Wouk, Herman, The Hope (Little Brown, stated 1st ed., 1st printing, 1993). ISBN 0-316-95519-1. Now in his centenary and still writing (his last novel- The Lawgiver- was published in 2012- Wouk is one of America’s masters of sweeping historical fiction. The Hope tackles the first twenty years of the State of Israel through the lives of four couples living through those turbulent times. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket. One small scratch on the back of the dust jacket removes this from a “fine” classification. HBB price: $49.

Yoshimoto, Banana, Kitchen (Grove Press, 1st English language ed., 1st printing, 1993). ISBN 0-8021-1516-0. Two novellas by a Japanese publishing phenom. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, fine condition. HBB price: $25.