Women Authors Signed First Edition Catalogue This catalog represents a small portion of a large collection of novels, short stories, and poetry by women authors that we will be working through over the next six months. Most are signed first edition copies, hence the title of the catalog. A number of titles, though, are either not signed or not first editions, but are included due to their relation to the collection as a whole, or to underscore differences between first editions and subsequent versions (e.g., Silko’s Laguna Woman). Many authors included here are represented in much greater depth in the rest of the collection (e.g., Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Walker). In the interest of presenting a list of a manageable size, which still constitutes a representative cross-section of the collection, we selected roughly five dozen items that we consider particularly significant, scarce, or compelling. There are still over 900 other volumes to sort through, but we do have a complete list of what the collection includes, so we encourage you to contact us to inquire about similar material. Terms of Sale All items subject to prior sale. Orders can be placed by phone or e-mail, or directly through our website. Payment is expected at the time of your order and may be made by check, credit card, or PayPal direct transfer. Institutions, fellow booksellers, and repeat customers may request to pay on invoice, with payment due upon receipt unless other arrangements have been made prior to purchase. All items are guaranteed to be as described with respect to edition, condition, and authenticity. Returns will be accepted for any reason, though we ask that you provide notice within a reasonable timeframe. Our usual trade courtesies extended (please inquire). Shipping All prices include free shipment with tracking by USPS Media Mail. Upgrades to USPS Priority Mail, FedEx Ground, etc., as well as international shipping, are available, and will be charged at cost (please inquire for quote). All orders are carefully wrapped and packaged in sturdy shipping boxes. Catalogs To receive future catalogs by e-mail, please contact us to be added to our mailing list, or join directly on our website. Printed versions of all our catalogs are also available upon request. Previous catalogs are archived on our website. Yesterday's Muse Bookstore 32 W Main Street Webster NY, 14580 US 585-265-9295 [email protected] http://www.yesterdaysmuse.com/ Women Authors Signed First Editions Catalog 1. Allende, Isabel; Bogin, Magda The House of the Spirits. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1985. First Edition. 368 pp. 8vo. First book by the author of Daughter of Fortune and Portrait in Sepia. Inspiration for the 1993 film starring Jeremy Irons, Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Winona Ryder, Antonio Banderas, and Vanessa Redgrave. "A best seller and critical success all over the world, The House of the Spirits is the magnificent epic of the Trueba family -- their loves, their ambitions, their spiritual quests, their relations with one another, and their participation in the history of their times, a history that becomes destiny and overtakes them all. We begin -- at the turn of the century, in an unnamed South American country -- in the childhood home of the woman who will be the mother and grandmother of the clan, Clara del Valle. A warm-hearted, hypersensitive girl, Clara has distinguished herself from an early age with her telepathic abilities -- she can read fortunes, make objects move as if they had lives of their own, and predict the future. Following the mysterious death of her sister, the fabled Rosa the Beautiful, Clara has been mute for nine years, resisting all attempts to make her speak. When she breaks her silence, it is to announce that she will be married soon. Her husband-to-be is Esteban Trueba, a stern, willful man, given to fits of rage and haunted by a profound loneliness. At the age of thirty-five, he has returned to the capital from his country estate to visit his dying mother and to find a wife. (He was Rosa's fiance, and her death has marked him as deeply as it has Clara.) This is the man Clara has foreseen -- has summoned -- to be her husband; Esteban, in turn, will conceive a passion for Clara that will last the rest of his long and rancorous life. We go with this couple as they move into the extravagant house he builds for her, a structure that everyone calls 'the big house on the corner,' which is soon populated with Clara's spiritualist friends, the artists she sponsors, the charity cases she takes an interest in, with Esteban's political cronies, and, above all, with the Trueba children... their daughter, Blanca, a practical, self-effacing girl who will, to the fury of her father, form a lifelong liaison with the son of his foreman... the twins, Jaime and Nicolas, the former a solitary, taciturn boy who becomes a doctor to the poor and unfortunate; the latter a playboy, a dabbler in Eastern religions and mystical disciplines... and, in the third generation, the child Alba, Blanca's daughter (the family does not recognize the real father for years, so great is Esteban's anger), a child who is fondled and indulged and instructed by them all. For all their good fortune, their natural (and supernatural) talents, and their powerful attachments to one another, the inhabitants of 'the big house on the corner' are not immune to the larger forces of the world. And, as the twentieth century beats on... as Esteban becomes more strident in his opposition to Communism... as Jaime becomes the friend and confidant of the Socialist leader known as the Candidate... as Alba falls in love with a student radical...the Truebas become actors -- and victims -- in a tragic series of events that gives The House of the Spirits a deeper resonance and meaning. It is the supreme achievement of this splendid novel that we feel ourselves members of this large, passionate (and sometimes exasperating) family, that we become attached to them as if they were our own. That this is the author's first novel makes it all the more extraordinary. The House of the Spirits marks the appearance of a major, international writer." Condition Notes: First American edition. Signed by author without inscription, but with a sketch of a flower beneath the signature, on front endpaper. Publisher's postcard laid in. (2196056) $150.00 1 2. Alvarez, Julia Seven Trees: Limited Fine Press Edition. North Andover: Kat Ran Press. 1998. First Edition. Unpaginated. Folio in publisher's clamshell case with prospecuts. One of 65 copies, only 50 of which were available for sale. "Julia Alvarez and Sara Eichner have worked separately to create the combined suite of poems and prints, Seven Trees. This second offering from the Kat Ran Press is the first printing of Ms Alvarez's most recent series of autobiographical poems. Each poem, like a growth ring on a tree, represents a different stage of maturation and development in the poet's life... Sara Eichner celebrates the intimate structures of trees from a more immediate standpoint. Ms Eichner's lithographs, meticulously drawn with tusche washes, capture the inner forms of trees... ... composed in the English Monotype cutting of Eric Gill's Perpetua at the Press and Letterfoundry of Michael and Winifred Bixler, in Skaneateles, New York. From these types, Michael and Katherine Russem have carried out the printing on papers handmade at the Velke Losiny mill in the Czech Republic. Ms Eichner's seven lithographs have been printed on handmade Japanese papers by Herb Fox at his shop in Merrimac, Massachusetts, and carefully adhered to the text sheets. Sixty-five books, consisting of 30, 11 1/4 x 16 inch leaves, have been bound by David Bourbeau in the studio style of his Thistle Bindery. A decorative homage to both the poems and lithographs, each volume has been covered in a handmade sheet of flax paper, laboriously dyed and re-dyed in a rich brown stain made from crushed walnut hulls. The finished book is placed in a folding cloth presentation case by Barbara B. Blumenthal working in collaboration with the Bindery. All colors, materials, and details have been carefully selected for their harmonious relations to the themes and sentiments established by the poet and artist..." Kat Ran Press began publishing and designing books in 1994, and is still in business today, despite the death of Katherine Russem in 2009. Condition Notes: Limited edition, hand numbered #35 on limitation page, and signed by Julia Alvarez and Sara Eichner. Faint stain on rear panel of clamshell case. Original mailing envelope from Kat Ran Press containing a duplicate prospectus laid in. (2195946) $2,250.00 3. Atwood, Margaret The Handmaid's Tale. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. 1985. First Edition. 324 pp. 8vo. The classic dystopian novel by the Canadian author. Handmaid's Tale won the Booker Prize, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Nebula Award, and the Prometheus Award. Atwood has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times. Condition Notes: First edition. Signed by author without inscription on title page. Minor scuff to top board edge. (2196055) $250.00 2 4. Chevalier, Tracy Girl with a Pearl Earring. London: Harper Collins. 1999. First Edition. 248 pp. Inspiration for the motion picture starring Scarlet Johansson, Colin Firth, Tom Wilkinson, and Cillian Murphy. "History and fiction merge seamlessly in this luminous novel about artistic vision and sensual awakening. Girl with a Pearl Earring tells the story of sixteen-year-old Griet, whose life is transformed by her brief encounter with genius ..