Literary Women Catalogue 321 WILLIAM REESE COMPANY 409 TEMPLE STREET NEW HAVEN, CT. 06511 USA 203.789.8081 FAX: 203.865.7653 [email protected] www.reeseco.com TERMS Material herein is offered subject to prior sale. All items are as described, but are consid- ered to be sent subject to approval unless otherwise noted. Notice of return must be given within ten days unless specific arrangements are made prior to shipment. All returns must be made conscientiously and expediently. Connecticut residents must be billed state sales tax. Postage and insurance are billed to all non-prepaid domestic orders. Orders shipped outside of the United States are sent by air or courier, unless otherwise requested, with full charges billed at our discretion. The usual courtesy discount is extended only to recognized booksellers who offer reciprocal opportunities from their catalogues or stock. We have 24 hour telephone answering and a Fax machine for receipt of orders or messages. Catalogue orders should be e-mailed to: [email protected] We do not maintain an open bookshop, and a considerable portion of our literature inven- tory is situated in our adjunct office and warehouse in Hamden, CT. Hence, a minimum of 24 hours notice is necessary prior to some items in this catalogue being made available for shipping or inspection (by appointment) in our main offices on Temple Street. We accept payment via Mastercard or Visa, and require the account number, expiration date, CVC code, full billing name, address and telephone number in order to process payment. Institutional billing requirements may, as always, be accommodated upon request. ________________________________________________________________ We invite you to visit our web site www.reeseco.com where over thirty-five thousand items from our inventory are searchable and may be ordered directly via a secure server. Images associated with many items from this catalogue are also posted on our web site, and significant new acquisitions are posted there long before they appear on any of the collective databases. Those wishing to receive e-mail notification of the posting of new catalogues and lists to our website may request same by forwarding expressions of interest to [email protected] ___________________________________________________________________ William Reese Company 409 Temple Street New Haven, CT. 06511 USA Phone: 203.789.8081 Fax: 203.865.7653 e-mail: [email protected] Members ABAA and ILAB Cover Item Number 425 1. Abbott, Shirley: WOMENFOLKS GROWING UP DOWN SOUTH. New Haven: Ticknor & Fields, 1983. Cloth and boards. First edition. Inscribed by the author to the principal of the publishing house, “who rescued this book, and me....” Fine in dust jacket. $50. 2. Acker, Kathy: EMPIRE OF THE SENSELESS. New York: Grove Press, [1988]. Printed wrap- pers. Uncorrected page proofs of the first edition. Publisher’s flyer laid in. Publication date in ink on upper wrapper, paperclip mark to front top edge and first two leaves, else very good or better. $45. 3. Adams, Mary M.: THE CHOIR VISIBLE. Chicago: Way & Williams, 1897. Pictorial cloth, deco- rated in gilt, t.e.g., others untrimmed. Decorative title in red and black. Spine tips a bit rubbed, a few streaks of offsetting along fore-edge of upper cover, slight damp mark around toe of spine, faint tide mark at toes of endsheet gutters, otherwise very good and bright. First edition. Inscribed presentation copy from “the author,” dated 1898. A handsomely produced volume, printed on fine laid paper from W. King Alton Mill, with a title and binding design by Frank Hazenplug. KRAUS 53. $125. 4. Agee, Jonis: HOUSES. [Carrboro]: Truck Press, 1976. Printed wrappers. Photographs. First edition of the poet/novelist’s first book. One of ca. five hundred copies. Fine. $25. 5. Agee, Jonis: MERCURY A SHORT STORY. West Branch: Toothpaste Press, 1981. Oblong octavo. Printed wrappers. Illustrated by Robert Ferguson. First edition, trade issue. One of 850 copies (of 900). Fine. $35. 6. Aiken, Joan: A HARP OF FISHBONES AND OTHER STORIES. London: Cape, [1972]. Gilt cloth boards. Paperclip rust mark on pastedown, otherwise a very good copy in dust jacket. First edition. Louis Untermeyer’s copy, with a t.pc.s. (“Joan A.”) from Aiken to him laid in, responding to his praise for the books and expressing hopes for a visit either in the UK or the US. Untermeyer has checked off, in ink, several of the stories in the table of contents. $85. 7. Aiken, Joan: THE SKIN SPINNERS POEMS. New York: Viking, [1976]. Small quarto. Cloth and boards. Illustrations by Ken Rinciari.A very good copy in somewhat faded dust jacket with short, internally mended tear. First (US) edition. With the author’s signed inscription to Louis Untermeyer (followed by a street address in the recipient’s hand). $75. 8. Akers Allen, Elizabeth: [Autograph Quotation, Signed, With Autograph Letter]. Portland, ME. 27 November 1880. Two pages, on two octavo leaves. Formerly mounted, with small loss at two tips of one leaf, otherwise very good. An attractive autograph transcription by Akers of the first stanza (8 lines) from her best-known poem, “Rock Me To Sleep,” beginning “Backward, turn backward oh time in your flight ...,” signed in full at the conclusion “Elizabeth Akers Allen.” Accompanied by a one page a.l.s., Daily Advertiser Office, Portland, ME, 27 November 1880, to a Mrs. James Elder, apologizing for the year that has passed since she had written asking for a sample of her manuscript: “I was in England at the time whence I have just returned ... This, I hope, is sufficient apology for my apparent heedlessness of your request ... my handwriting is so far from pretty that I think you will be satisfied with the accompanying stanza ...” Again, signed in full. Akers (1832 – 1911) published her first collection of verse in 1855, under the pseudonym “Florence Percy.” Her career as a popular poet ran parallel with her accomplishments as a journalist and editor. She served a two year appointment in the War Department and included among her circle of acquaintances prominent feminists such as Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis. Shortly after this poem was first published under her pseudonym in 1860, her claim to authorship was challenged by a New Jersey poetaster and leather dealer, Alexander Ball, and although her claim was vindicated, the controversy was the subject of much public interest. Sold 9. Akins, Zoë [sourcework & screenwriter]: WOMEN LOVE ONCE ... SCREEN PLAY BY.... [Los An- geles: Paramount], 30 March 1931. [90] leaves, paginated by reel. Small folio. Extracted from some form of early binding, with loss at blank gutter of first three leaves, otherwise very good and clean. Denoted a “First White Script,” but in fact a continuity script, of Akins’s own adaptation to the screen of her play, Daddy’s Gone a Hunting, directed by Edward Goodman. The play had been the source for an earlier film version, in 1925, but that adaptation was by another party. $125. 10. Alcott, Louisa M.: LITTLE MEN: LIFE AT PLUMFIELD WITH JO’S BOYS. Boston: Roberts Bros., 1871. [8],376pp. Small octavo. Forest green cloth, lettered in gilt. Frontis and 3 plates. Two corner creases to free endsheets, spine extremities and fore-tips a bit frayed, one signature start- ing very slightly; a few stray marks to cloth, but a good copy. First US edition, preceded by the London edition published a few weeks earlier. This copy has signature mark 1 (no priority), and four pages of preliminary adverts, with Pink and White Tyranny noted as ‘nearly ready.’ PW reported the first US edition consisted of 10,000 copies. BAL 167. $350. 11. Alcott, Louisa M.: AUNT JO’S SCRAP-BAG. MY BOYS, ETC. Boston: Roberts Bros., 1872. [8],215pp. Bright blue cloth, spine decorated in gilt. Inserted double-spread frontis. Light rubbing at extremities, bit of white smudging in lower fore-quadrant of upper cover, otherwise a very good, bright copy. First US edition, just possibly preceded by the London edition. The first installment in the series that would eventually extend to six volumes. BAL 168. $350. 12. [Alcott, Louisa M.]: Stern, Madeline B.: LOUISA MAY ALCOTT. Norman: University of Okla- homa Press, 1950. xiii,[3],424pp. Cloth. Black & white photographs and illustrations. First edition of this important study by the bookseller. Bibliography. Notes. Index. Light foxing and age-toning to endpapers and fore-edge, otherwise a tight, very good copy in a moderately sunned pictorial dust jacket with fraying to spine ends and minor edge wear. $50. 13. Alcott, Louisa M.: THE SELECTED LETTERS ... WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MADELEINE B. STERN. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, [1987]. Large octavo. Boards. Plates. First edition. Edited by Joel Myerson, Daniel Shealy and Madeleine B. Stern. Review slip laid in (and offset on pastedown). The cheap publisher’s binding creaks a bit when opened, else about fine in lightly creased and sunned dust jacket. $20. 14. [Alcott, Louisa M. (sourcework)]: [Original Studio Lobby Title Card for:] LITTLE MEN. [New York]: RKO Radio Pictures, [1940]. Vintage 11 x 14” studio lobby title card. Margins smudged, two closed tears at extreme edges repaired on blank verso, vestiges of cellotape on left and right margins from previous mounting and a circular mark and pinhole in lower left margin, also appar- ently from mounting, ink scribble in corner of verso, else good. Produced by The Play’s the Thing Productions, distributed by RKO Radio Pictures, this black and white film adaptation of the novel by Louisa May Alcott was based on a screenplay by Mark Kelly and Arthur Caesar, and was directed by Norman Z. McLeod. It was the second adaptation, and featured performers include Kay Francis, Jack Oakie, George Bancroft, and “Elsie” (the cow), among others.