Dahl, Roald; Blake, Quentin
THE WITCHES
Jonathan Cape, London: 1983
- $250
First edition of Dahl's now-classic story of a young boy and his grandmother's dealings with a gathering of fearsome witches. Twice adapted into film, Dahl's titular antagonists have become fixtures in the canon of children's story villains. Distinct in their ability to pass as ordinary women, but bald, toeless, and clawed underneath their impeccable disguises, the Witches appear here in their first and arguably most memorable visual iteration: Blake's iconic illustrations. One of the BBC's "100 most influential novels." 9.25'' x 6.25''. Original teal paper boards, gilt-lettered spine. In original unclipped (£6.50) color pictorial jacket. Illustrated throughout in black and white. 208 pages. Jacket with light of wear to top edge, touch of rubbing to folds. Book with faint toning to leaves. Sharp.
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TARZAN AND THE GOLDEN LION
Inscribed early printing of the first photoplay edition, with the jacket design featuring a scene from the film starring Jim Pierce - who later became Burroughs's son-in-law. First published serially in ARGOSY in 1922 then in book form by McClurg in 1923, this edition was issued to coincide with the feature-length film. This copy is an early reprint of the photoplay edition, as the rear ads match Zeuschner's identification of the 1930 printing. In addition to the jacket, this version includes four full-page black-and-white plates of stills from the movie. 7.5'' x 5''. Original orange cloth stamped in black to spine and front board. In original color pictorial dust jacket with G&D printed catalogue on verso. Illustrated with four black-and-white plates. Publisher's ads at rear. [6], 333, [13] pages. Inscribed by Burroughs to front fly leaf: "." Jacket with rubbing to center spine and front fold, light edgewear with a couple short closed tears. Book rubbed along edges, some staining to rear panel. 1978 BASEBALL ABSTRACT
James, Bill Rare first edition of the book that changed baseball - Bill James's second BASEBALL ANNUAL, one of just 250 copies. In 1977 when James published the first installment in his long-running series of Abstracts, he would have seemed an unlikely candidate to change the very game he was writing about. A worker at a pork and beans factory, James photo-copied a small edition of (the cover proclaimed) "STATISTICAL INFORMATION THAT YOU JUST CAN'T FIND ANYWHERE ELSE." He offered them for sale via the classified ads of THE SPORTING NEWS, and sold only about 75 copies. Of this seemingly inauspicious beginning, Michael Lewis would later write: "[H]ad he left off writing in 1977, James would have been dismissed as just another crank [.] It didn't occur to him to be disappointed by the sale of seventy-five copies; he was encouraged [.] In 1978, James came out with a second book [.] Word had spread this time: 250 people bought a copy [.] James's pen was now an unstoppable force." And though it took more than a decade, the force of James's writing and his sheer statistical might slowly gathered a group of adherents both inside and out of professional baseball. Outside pro ball, James's approach helped launch the fantasy sports era with the popularity of Rotisserie Baseball, a game almost impossible to imagine without James. More importantly, within baseball a small number of coaches, scouts, managers, and executives began experimenting with James's almost pure reliance on statistics (and not baseball's more traditionally semi-superstitious ways). This embrace of his strategy culminated most famously in the Oakland A's GM Billy Beane's remarkable run utilizing James "sabermetric" methods - leading the team to the postseason for four consecutive years (2000 through 2003) on one of baseball's lowest total salaries - a story made famous by Michael Lewis's bestselling book MONEYBALL (and its subsequent film adaptation starring Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, and Philip Seymour Hoffman). James's approach would go on to have a huge impact even beyond the world of sports, with "moneyball" eventually entering the broader lexicon for any deeply statistical and evidenced-based approach that also runs counter to prevailing wisdom. As the new century progressed, a wide range of fields and figures - from those betting against the housing market (topic of another Michael Lewis book), to the political polling of figures like Nate Silver, and the GTO strategies of professional poker, as well as a seemingly infinite number of Silicon Valley startups looking to "moneyball [fill in the blank]" - would evidence James's telltale fingerprints. He and BASEBALL ABSTRACT have gone on to influence economists, physicists, mathematicians, and other bestselling books like FREAKONOMICS, which appeared just two years after MONEYBALL. As the ABSTRACT became more popular in subsequent years, James did reprints of this and the 1977 edition (both with the word "REPRINT" prominently displayed on the covers). However, original printings of the first two installments remain truly rare. Indeed, the rarity of these early abstracts can be measured by the fact that not only does OCLC not show any holdings for either the 1977 or 1978 editions (including the reprints), but none for the 1979 or 1980 editions as well. It is not until the 1981 installment (the last James published himself before its acquisition by Ballantine), that we find a record in OCLC - a single copy at The Strong National Museum of Play. Just about the earliest attainable installment of the book that not only changed baseball, but sports as a whole, as well as finance, statistics, politics, and a host of other fields. 11'' x 8.5''. Original stab-stapled printed green wrappers. Xerographically reproduced throughout. 115 pages on as many leaves printed recto only, plus covers. Toning to edges. Some light soil, edgewear. Overall, clean and sound.- $7,000
- $7,000
SHOW (January 1964; Volume IV, Number 1)
Baldwin, James; Steinem, Gloria Includes Baldwin's "A Prayer and Sermon," excerpted from Act II of BLUES FOR MISTER CHARLIE and presented as this issue's editorial in light of the recent Kennedy assassination. This issue also includes Gloria Steinem's "MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC," a review of New York's first Annual Avant Garde Festival profiling organizer Charlotte Moorman and composers John Cage, Morton Feldman, Max Neuhaus, and Earle Brown. 13'' x 10''. Original wrappers. 110 pages. Light edgewear and rubbing.- $25
- $25
THE TWITS
Dahl, Roald; Blake, Quentin First edition, review copy (with publisher's slip) of Dahl's novella about a married couple that's nasty inside and out - said to have been inspired by Dahl's dislike of beards. 9'' x 5.75''. Original red paper boards in original unclipped (£3.50) color pictorial jacket. Illustrated throughout in black and white. 80 pages. Publisher's printed review slip, with price ("£3.50") and publication date ("9 October 1980") laid in. Jacket with trace edgewear, bump to top of spine, and faint staining to flaps. Book with touch of bumping to spine edges, foxing to top edge of text block, faint water stains to top edge of endpapers. Otherwise, bright and tight. Very good in very good plus jacket.- $300
- $300
The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter” in THE STRAND MAGAZINE (Vol. 28, No. 164; August 1904)
Doyle, Arthur Conan The first appearance in print of this Sherlock Holmes story, later collected in THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1905) - this copy once from the Boots circulating library, with its printed label including membership dues tipped onto the front wrapper. 9.75'' x 6.75''. Original blue pictorial wrappers. Holmes story illustrated in black and white by Sidney Paget. 124-240 pages (as issued) + ads. Though no provenance markings, from the library of noted actor and Sherlockian Curtis Armstrong. Front wrapper with "Boots Book-lovers Library" label and additional printed return instructions label; further Boots library ephemera tipped onto final leaf. Notable wear and soil, with some rubbing effacing the wrapper design; chipping and some medium closed tears to spine. Nevertheless intact, with interior largely clean.- $400
- $400
ESQUIRE (July, 1968; Volume LXX, Number 1)
Baldwin, James; Leary, Timothy; Ginsberg, Allen; Updike, John; Barth, John Includes an interview with Baldwin, titled "How Can We Get the Black People to Cool It?" Also in this issue: "Petition," by John Barth; "The Slump," by John Updike; and "The Genesis of the Alchemicals," Timothy Leary's account of feeding drugs to Allen Ginsberg, with a selection of Ginsberg's letters to Leary. 13'' x 10''. Original wrappers. 136 pages. Some edgewear, toning.- $100
- $100
A WINTER SHIP
Plath, Sylvia First issue of Plath's rare first separate publication, a poem that would appear again later that same year in THE COLOSSUS. One of approximately 60 copies, this important debut - a poetic portrait of the Boston waterfront - was published by Alan Anderson's Tragara Press. It exists in two issues: a later one in marbled wrappers (most of which were retained by the Plath family and are now somewhat more common), and this earlier one originally printed as a Christmas greeting for Plath to send to friends and family. 8.5'' x 5''. Original letterpress self-wrappers. Single leaf of deckle-edged paper folded once to make [4] pages including cover. Trace toning, very faint shallow crease. Else clean and sharp overall.- $5,000
- $5,000
METAMORPHOSIS OF 741
Merrill, James Limited first edition of this dialogue channeling the spirits of W.H. Auden and Maria Mitsotaki, a "section from a still untitled longer poem" - THE CHANGING LIGHT AT SANDOVER, published in full in 1982. 10'' x 8.5'' in 12'' x 9'' envelope. Original hand-sewn cream wrappers. In original printed publisher's envelope. Set and printed by Claude Fredericks & David Beeken at The Banyan Press. Edition of 440 copies on Arches paper, this copy number 179. Minor edgewear to envelope.- $40
- $40
HELMUT NEWTON SPECIAL COLLECTION: 24 Photo Lithos
Newton, Helmut; Gysin, Brion Uncommon collection of Newton's iconic fashion photography from the 1970s. A totalizing vision of fetishistic glamour, represented here by a selection of images chosen by Newton himself. "Women of the 1970s are Helmut Newton women caught in the often precarious positions of thoroughly modern life," writes Brion Gyson on the jacket flaps, claiming for the photographer a social influence well beyond the domain of high fashion: "[Y]our wife may be imitating art." Younger admirers of Newton's work may be surprised to find that the average Woman of the 1970s so frequently found herself administering arty corporal punishment to other Modern Women in Helmut Newton's Paris apartment; but it was, as they say, a different time. 16'' x 11''. Original white wrappers. In original black and white printed dust jacket. A Xavier Moreau book, designed by Bea Feitler. Black and white plates. Mild rubbing and shelfwear to jacket, with small tear to top edge and a faint crease to rear panel. Else clean and sound. Near fine in a very good plus jacket.- $750
- $750
![The Croxley Master" [Pt. 1] in THE STRAND MAGAZINE (Vol. 18](https://rarebookinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/31853456855-600x800.jpg)
The Croxley Master” [Pt. 1] in THE STRAND MAGAZINE (Vol. 18, No. 106; Nov 1899)
Doyle, Arthur Conan The first appearance in print of the first part (of three) of Doyle's boxing story, released during his (retrospective) hiatus from writing Sherlock Holmes stories. 9.75'' x 6.75''. Original blue pictorial wrappers. Doyle story illustrated in black and white by Sidney Paget. 363-480 pages (as issued) + ads. Though no provenance markings, from the library of noted actor and Sherlockian Curtis Armstrong. Wrappers with moderate edgewear, toning. Chipping to spine ends with long closed tear to rear joint.- $100
- $100
