Search Results: Books from Ed Smith Books

New York: Norton, 2019. First edition. hardcover. A very good plus book in a very good jacket with a few folds to the front panel. On her 120-acre homestead high in the Colorado Rockies, this beloved writer learns what it means to care for a piece of land and the creatures on it. In linked essays as lucid and invigorating as mountain air Houston delivers her most profound meditations yet on how to live simultaneously inside the wonder and the grief to love the damaged world and do what she can to help it thrive. 303 pages.

Boston: Godine, 2005. First edition. Hardcover. A fine copy in a near fine dust jacket. Nancy Lawton. This remarkable Western tale evokes the majesty and mystery of landscape in the heartland of the American Desert. At the same time, it captures all the suspense and adventure of climbing, rafting, and venturing in that incomparable wilderness. A classic story of a man and his dog, who together must brave the high waters that these canyonlands forever enfold. 109 pages.

London: Trigram Press, 1969. First edition. Hardcover. A near fine copy in a near fine jacket. Paul Vaughan. 4to. Bound in white cloth with dust jacket (a deluxe edition of 100 copies was bound in buckrum number and signed by the poet). These ten poems are published here for the first time. Those familiar with Nathaniel Tarn's three previous volumes will recognise a departure in style and language from the complex preoccupation with mythic and anthropological sources which distinguished his earlier work. These moving and passionate poems are a sustained personal statement of crisis, breakdown and renewal.

New York: Europa Editions, 2015. First edition thus. Paperback. A fine copy in the original perfect bound decorated wrappers. First published in 1977, this is the third novel in the series praised as "one of the finest things in modern fiction". The Laidlaw books are superlative crime fiction and are among the founding novels of what has since become known as the school of Tartan Noir, which includes authors such as Val McDermid, Denise Mina, and Iain Rankin. McIlvanney has won the Whitbread Award for Fiction. The other two books in the series, Laidlaw, and The Papers of Tony Veitcch both gained Silver Daggers from the Crime Writers' Association. Book three, this title, won the Glasgow Herald's People's Prize. Press release laid in.

Atlanta: Longstreet Press, 1995. First edition. Hardcover. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. A lifetime friend of Southern novelist Eugenia Price, Mary Bray Wheeler offers a unique guidebook to the historical places and people that give Price's novels their special Southern flavor. Travelers, sightseers, and history buffs--whether in cars or their reading chairs--will discover anew Price's treasured coastal Southeast. Maps and photographs. Foreword by Eugena Price. With afterword, appendix, select bibliography, and index.

Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Press, 1988. First edition thus. Hardcover. A near fine copy in a near fine dust jacket. The Zuni folksinger Painted Turtle first made her appearance in Clarence Major's award-winning and critically acclaimed novel, My Amputations (1986). In this simply told new work, Painted Turtle is at the center of a lyrical tale narrated by Baldy, a Navajo guitar player. She tells of her struggles, from her childhood experiences living on the Zuni reservation to the time of her performances on the grimy cantina circuit throughout the American Southwest. Baldy's story is a quiet love story, a tale of wonderment. But it is also a tale of a quest for self-realization, the quest of an unwed mother of twin boys who finds herself an outsider and the cause of conflict among her family, her clan, her tribe. Against all odds, Painted Turtle struggles desperately to keep her integrity while remaining in touch with the deep rhythms of her heritage. And through her music seeks a cure for the… Read More

New York: Grove, 2021. First edition, Uncorrected Proof. Paperback. A fine copy in the original perfect bound wrappers with photo illustration. Decades after the rise of rock music in the 1950s, the rock concert retains its allure and its power as a unifying experience - and as an influential multi-billion-dollar industry. In Rock Concert, acclaimed interviewer Marc Myers sets out to uncover the history of this compelling phenomenon, weaving together ground-breaking accounts from the people who were there. Myers combines the tales of icons like Joan Baez, Ian Anderson, Alice Cooper, Steve Miller, Roger Waters and Angus Young with figures such as the disc jockeys who first began playing rock on the radio; the audio engineers that developed new technologies to accommodate ever-growing rock audiences; music journalists, like Rolling Stone's Cameron Crowe; and the promoters who organized it all, like Michael Lang, co-founder of Woodstock, to create a rounded and vivid account of live rock's… Read More

New York: Viking Press, 1973. First edition. Hardcover. A very good copy in a very good dust jacket. Explores historical origins of masks, from Cleopatra to the Apollo astronauts. This book is making faces at you. Though you may not be dressed for Halloween, attendant at a ceremony of the Ku Klux Klan, or busy invoking the blessings of your favorite primitive god, it is fairly safe to say that you and everyone around you has often displayed upon his visage some kind of decorative, protective, or professional mask. 163 pages. Illustrated.

Minneapolis: Dillion Press, 1985. Third printing. Hardcover. A very good plus copy with minor wear to the book and jacket. A biography of Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman Supreme Court justice, which includes her childhood, her early legal career, and her life since her appointment. 127 pages with two appendices, a bibliography and index. Illustrated from photographs.

Livingston: Clark City Press, 1992. Advance Uncorrected Proof. Paperback. A fine copy in perfect bound cream colored wrappers with titles in green and black. In a novel spanning the years 1978-1991, Finney ( Winterchill ) considers the thorny question of what role the past should play in the present. The book's 14 chapters, which read like a series of third-person short stories, probe the distinct points of view of three protagonists: placid, boring Billy; his bitter and curt sister, Ann; and their efficient, patronizing cousin, Kay. All three are somewhat lost, grappling as they pass through their 30s with memories incarnated in the fragment of a childhood jump-rope rhyme that gives the book its title. Twice-divorced Billy still optimistically searches for love, widowed Ann struggles with two teenage daughters, and Kay builds a successful business and solves everyone else's problems but lacks a fulfilling life of her own. They have troubled relationships with their aging, far-from-perfect parents,… Read More

Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1993. First edition. Paperback. A near fine clean copy. This copy, in the original tall perfect bound wrappers, is signed by Chris Anderson. A selection of the American Land & Life Series. Buying his dream house several years ago on the forest's edge near Corvallis, Oregon, essayist Chris Anderson hoped to find the joys of rural living. Despite interminable Mr. Blandings experiences, he lived embowered by 12,000 acres of seemingly endless fir trees. But not for long. The McDonald-Dunn Forest was about to become the site of a disturbing research project. Little did Anderson know when he bought his house that, in addition to studying the ecological effects of clear-cutting, the researchers wanted to see how urban fringe dwellers might be affected too. The shock of that harvest compelled the essays in this vibrant, graceful record of the relationship between the forest and Anderson's life on its boundary. 185 pages.

New York: New Directions Paperback, 1936. Reprint Published Feb 1, 2022. Paperback. A fine copy in perfect bound decorated printed wrappers. When Smith first tried to get her poems published in 1935, she was told by a publisher to "go away and write a novel." Novel on Yellow Paper the happy result of this advice, made its author an instant celebrity and was acclaimed as "a curious, amusing, provocative and very serious piece of work." Stevie Smith (1902-1971) was born in Hull, England, but when she was three she moved with her parents and sister to Avondale Road in Palmers Green. Here she stayed for over sixty years, after her parents death living with her beloved "Lion Aunt." She was the author of three novels and a dozen collections of poetry. Although baptized Florence Margaret Smith, she was nicknamed Stevie after Steve Donoghue the jockey. 252 pages.

New York: Henry Holt, 1993. First edition thus. Hardcover. A near fine copy issued without dust jacket. Originally published in 1990 by Mother Jones, but included in the Collection Working Men published in 1993. Bound in cloth over boards titled in blue and gilt, 20 pages.

New York: Simon and Schuster, 2016. First edition. Hardcover. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. Nora Ephron (1941-2012) was a phenomenal personality, journalist, essayist, novelist, playwright, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, and movie director (Sleepless in Seattle; You've Got Mail; When Harry Met Sally; Heartburn; Julie & Julia). She wrote a slew of bestsellers (I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman; I Remember Nothing: And Other Reflections; Scribble, Scribble: Notes on the Media; Crazy Salad: Some Things About Women). She was celebrated by Hollywood, embraced by literary New York, and adored by legions of fans throughout the world. Award-winning journalist Richard Cohen, wrote this about She Made Me Laugh: "I call this book a third-person memoir. It is about my closest friend, Nora Ephron, and the lives we lived together and how her life got to be bigger until, finally, she wrote her last work, the play, Lucky Guy, about a newspaper columnist dying of cancer while she… Read More

New York: Pantheon, 2010. First American edition. Hardcover. A very good plus copy in a very good plus dust jacket. For more than thirty years, Jonathan Raban has written with infectious fascination about people and places in transition or on the margins, about journeys undertaken and destinations never quite reached, and, as an expat, about what it means to feel rooted in America. Spanning two decades, Driving Home charts a course through the Pacific Northwest, American history, and current events as witnessed by "a super-sensitive, all-seeing eye. Proving that an outsider is the keenest observer of the scene that natives take for granted, this collection of Jonathan Raban's essays affirms his place as the most literate, perceptive, and humorous commentator on the places, characters, and obsessions that constitute the American scene. Raban spots things we might otherwise miss; he calls up the apt metaphors that transform things into phenomena.

N.P.: Altus Press, 2017. First edition. Paperback. A very good plus copy in the original photo illustrated perfect bound wrappers, as issued. Pulp magazines written initially for boys in the first half of the Twentieth Century dominated the industry with stories about cowboys and Indians, science fiction, and adventure. They were written by such illustrious authors as Louis L'Amour, Ray Bradbury, L. Ron Hubbard, and Isaac Asimov, with a readership of tens of millions, for 10 cents a copy. The best-known editor of this era was Leo Margulies, editor-in-chief of Standard Magazines - The Thrilling Group. During one period, he bought two million words a month. He edited more than 70 magazines and was, for a time, the highest-paid pulp magazine editor in the country. Leo Margulies: Giant of the Pulps-His Thrilling, Exciting, and Popular Journey, by his nephew, Philip Sherman, includes stories by members of his family, friends, and writers, about his generosity and encouragement to so many. Dr. Sherman's… Read More

New York: Little, Brown & Co, 2016. First edition. Hardcover. A near fine copy in a fine dust jacket ("Autographed" sticker to front of dust jacket panel). Signed by the author on the title page . An electric novel for our times. Taking us from Seattle to New Orleans and back again, it's a wildly funny and unflinching exploration of motherhood, middle age, faith, and the risks of facing up to our former selves so we can truly begin living. Complete with "The Flood Girls" insert (in color).

Hayward: Bill Owens, 2022. First edition. Softcover. A fine copy in the original perfect bound photo illustrated wrappers. Francesca Cosanti. This copy is signed by Bill Owens on the half-title page. Designed by Kate Jordahl. A semi-autobiography/memoir written by the photographer (Suburbia) and craft beer pioneer (and master brewer) Bill Owens, the same who snapped those telling photographs at the Rolling Stones concert at Altamont Speedway outside Livermore, California on December 6, 1969. Owen's explains his graphic novel; "The Delco Years was written in 1999 and put away for 21 years. Then in the fall of 2020, for some uknown reason (COVID-19), I started rewriting and added illustrations." Up front Owens apologizes to any and all he has libeled in this novel (graphic). "I'm ADD-HD and pay AT&T an extra ten dollars a month for the "HD." Any connection to people living or dead is probably intended, but most likely purely by happenstance. This story is true except for the parts I made up." But… Read More

New York: Doubleday, 2007. First edition. Hardcover. This copy is signed by the author on the title page. A haunting, tender story that weaves a tragic secret, a mysterious meeting with the Devil, and a family of charming circus freaks recounting the extraordinary adventures of their friend Henry Walker, the Negro Magician. In the middle of a dusty Southern town, in the middle of the twentieth century, magician Henry Walker entertains crowds at Jeremiah Musgrove's Chinese Circus. Though not the world-famous illusionist he once was, Henry, with his dark skin and green eyes, is still something of a novelty to the patrons who pay a dime to see his show. Most of the patrons, anyway. As the novel begins, one May night in 1954, Henry is confronted by three menacing white teens, and soon thereafter disappears. With his fate uncertain, his friends from the circus—Jenny the Ossified Girl, Rudy the Strong Man, and JJ the Barker—piece together what they know of Henry's mysterious and extraordinary… Read More

Novato: Presidio Press, 1985. First edition. Hardcover. A very good copy in a near fine clean dust jacket. A veteran with 39 months of combat experience in Vietnam describes the war, the people, the land, and how the soldiers changed as the war progressed. 290 pages illustrated from photographs and a few maps.