Pacaritambo

DAMON RUNYON: A Life
by Jimmy Breslin. Condition: UNREAD 1991 Ticknor & Fields hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), first printing. Problem: appears it was going to be shelved in a library (remnants of glue marks loose end page and cover flaps, but was never shelved. NO library markings. Content: Immortalizes Damon Runyon (Guys & Dolls) in a biography of the Roaring Twenties journalist who covered the Mexican Revolution, World War I, the Lindbergh kidnapping, sports and theater. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 3.49 + $ 3.39 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

ENCORE PROVENCE: New Adventures in the South of France
by Peter Mayle. Condition: NEW 1999 Knopf Borzoi hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), third printing. Content: "Provence, again?" one may think, seeing Peter Mayle's latest effort. "Has the man nothing better to do than promote a region that's already overhyped and overpriced? Can't he turn his eye to a place that needs a touristic boost, like Bulgaria?" Mayle discloses a world missed by tourists, be it the questions dry cleaners ask about wine stains or the mysterious murder of a small-town butcher given to making housewives happy with more than his displayed meat. He also incorporates guide-like tips -- listing markets, cheese makers, and the essential how-tos of perfume sniffing and olive-oil tasting. What's more, this book gives a peek into the life of a bestselling writer. The role is not always an enviable one. [1 copy available]
$ 4.49 + $ 3.19 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

FATS WALLER
by Maurice Waller and Anthony Calabrese. B&W era photos illustrate. Condition: NEW 1977 Schirmer Books Trade Paperback, second printing. B&W photos illustrate. Content: A son's tribute to his legendary dad. This unequaled biography by jazz giant Fats Waller's son Maurice remains the definitive account of the famous stride pianist well-known for his humorous performance style and for composing such jazz classics as "Ain't Misbehavin'". Anyone who loves jazz should read this book! [1 copy available]
$ 9.25 + $ 2.89 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD: A LIFE IN LETTERS
edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli. Condition: NEW 1995 Touchstone Trade Paperback, second printing. Tiny edgewear. Remainder. Content: Organized chronologically, this correspondence -- edited by eminent Fitzgerald scholar Bruccoli -- offers an accessible self-portrait of the writer (1896-1940). Early letters to his editor, Maxwell Perkins, and friends, Edmund Wilson and Ernest Hemingway, document Fitzgerald's devotion to craft, exemplified by The Great Gatsby (1925), as well as the novelist's ever-present financial problems, which kept him churning out short stories for the magazine market. Letters to his wife, Zelda -- when she was hospitalized for mental illness -- detail the destruction of their marriage. Fitzgerald felt it was caused by Zelda's problems, while she blamed Fitzgerald's alcoholism (a letter giving her version is included). A bitter letter Fitzgerald wrote to their daughter, Scottie, accuses Zelda of wrecking his health and talent. Despite his lack of perspective and his difficult life, Fitzgerald comes across, unsurprisingly, as warm, witty and effervescent. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 4.89 + $ 3.29 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

GEORGE ELIOT
by Jenifer Uglow. Amy Burch cover art. Condition: NEW 1987 Virago Trade Paperback, no printing given. Tiny shelfwear. Content: Life of the brilliant author George Eliot who proved that a litle girl named Mary Ann Evans could grow up to be an important English writer - if she wrote under a man's name. [1 copy available]
$ 4.49 + $ 3.19 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

HERMANN HESSE
by G. W. Field. Condition: Very good c. 1978 Hippocrene Trade Paperback, reprint. Thin binder's glue string down spine with minor edgeweaer, interior has 2 pages with notes otherwise clean & tight. Light tanning to page edges. Content: Biography of the literary great. [1 copy available]
$ 7.25 + $ 3.09 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

HOLLYWOOD BABYLON
by Kenneth Anger. Tons of B&W photos illustrate. Condition: Very good 1984 Dell paperback edition, 4th printing. Pale hinge crease with tiny edgewear. Interior clean & tight. Content: Hollywood gossip glut. Reviewer: "The key scandals of the 1920's through 1950's are played out. The Fatty Arbuckle scandal of 1921, involving his alleged part in the death of starlet Virginia Rappe, was the O.J. Simpson of the 1920's is given a separate chapter. It took three trials to acquit him, but his career was finished. As Anger snidily writes, "The Prince of Whales had been harpooned." The others include Errol Flynn being accused of having sex with two underage girls, Mary Astor's diary, and the stabbing death of Lana Turner's lover John Stompanato by Cheryl Crane. Frances Farmer's nervous breakdown and collapse has some of snidiness in there, although he makes it clear that he does sympathize with her plight years before Nirvana did a song on her on their In Utero album. Two mysterious and to this day still unsolved are probed, that of Thelma Todd, the Ice Cream Blonde, who may have been murdered by the mob instead of committing suicide, and the murder of director William Desmond Taylor, and those aren't as treated sensationally as other material. Suicides are written with some embellishment in this book, i.e. Paul Bern, Jean Harlow's second husband, Marie Prevost, whose starving dog ate parts of her body, Lupe Velez, a.k.a. the Mexican Spitfire, and Carole Landis. Separate sections are written for Velez and Landis. However, not all events and people get Angers' chops and slices. The Red Scare that ruined the lives of actors such as Gale Sondergaard and John Garfield, and the Hollywood Ten is presented as the travesty it was: "What it did do was ruin many lives and careers and tarnish the glamor of Tinsel Town." And the blackmailing practices of the snoopy, Confidential magazine, forcing performers to cough up to prevent them from revealing sordid things about performers. Thankfully, this terror was stopped when the founder of the magazine committed suicide after being named as a communist by Joe McCarthy. He's also contemptuous of the two gossip columnist Gorgons, Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons. Towards the end, the decline of Hollywood in the 1960's is portrayed as one sordid death after another, ranging from La Monroe, Judy Garland, Ramon Novarro, and George Sanders. Not a scholarly history of Hollywood's seamy side by any means. Rather, Kenneth Anger drags out Hollywood's dirty laundry and lays it out in a shamelessly sensationalistic and exploitational format, with catty sentences to boot, even including a few nude photos of starlets.." [1 copy available]
$ 8.50 + $ 2.94 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

I AM NOT SPOCK
by Leonard Nimoy. B&W photo section. Condition: UNREAD, but not perfect, 1975 Celestial Arts Trade Paperback, first printing. I bought this new & never read it but over the years the book has "collected" edgewear and a pale hinge crease. Interior clean & tight. Content: This book should be read in tandem with his 1990 book I Am Spock. This book gives insight into the real man behind the iconic Spock character. I think the most interesting parts of the book are the memos to Roddenberry discussing adding dimension and dialoge for his character and how he and the writers finally were able to bring a full personality to Mr. Spock. Questions welcome. [1 copy available.]
$ 8.89 + $ 3.09 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

THE ILLUSTRATED GEORGE HARRISON
by Geoffrey Giuliano. Color and B&W photos illustrate. Condition: Gently pre-read 1993 Chartwell large haradcover (pictorial boards) & DJ (in mylar jacket), assumed first printing. Content: Reviewer: "I thought this colorful well designed book was great! There are lots of rare pictures of George, and even more rare stories. I recommened the book to anyone who loves George Harrison of the Beatles. Besides being a great writer, Giuliano clearly loves the subject." Actually, other readers hated this book. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 7.89 + $ 3.39 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

I'M WITH THE BAND: Confessions of a Groupie
by Pamela Des Barres. Two B&W photo sections. Condition: Good+, 1988 Jove paperback, 8th printing. Two spine creases with light edgewear with rubbings along hinges. Interior clean & tight with light tanning to page edges. Content: "Irresistible sexual memoirs of Rock's Golden Age." - Rolling Stone. Fortunately, Des Barres injects humor into these accounts of degradation, which exemplify the subculture of rock music. As a California teenager during the wild 1960s, she attached herself to members of various rock bands and other celebrities. More bragging than confessional, the story explicitly details this particular groupie's sexual exploits with Mick Jagger, the late Brandon de Wilde, Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page (he liked using whips and handcuffs to enhance sex, we're told here), future Miami Vice star Don Johnson and many others. Now in her 30s, Des Barres has recovered from longtime drug abuse as has her husband, Michael, a musician. Though still "making the scene," they have s ettled down somewhat, as parents of a son. There are profoundly sad, shocking revelations here, and the reader understands why John Lennon glanced at the groupie and her adolescent female gang in 1964, "his face full of contempt and sorrow." and "Pamela Des Barres was the "Sweetheart of Rock," the reigning queen of L.A.'s wild music scene. A hopeful romantic and the ultimate star-chaser, she lived life in the fast lane. She is one of the warmest, wittiest women ever to kiss and tell--and now she tells everything! Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 7.89 + $ 3.09 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

JAGGER (Mick Jagger)
by Carey Schofield. B&W photo section. Condition: NEW 1985 Beaufort Books Trade Paperback, first American edition. Content: While this bio is a bit dated, it is the early life & photos (Mick on the basketball team, etc.) that make this book worth reading. It portrays Jagger not only as a rock star, but as the student at the London School of Economics, a father, and a man of wealth and taste. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 6.49 + $ 3.19 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

JANIS JOPLIN: BURIED ALIVE
by Myra Friedman. B&W photo section. Condition: Good+ - very good 1983 Bantam MMPB 9th printing. The interior is perfect but for some tanning to the page edges, but the front cover has edgewear and creases at the corners. Spine crease. Content: Intense biography of one of the legendary "J's" of the 60s. Electrifying, highly acclaimed, and intensely personal, this new and updated version of Myra Friedman's classic biography of Janis Joplin teems with dramatic insights into Joplin's genius and into the chaotic times that catapulted her to fame as the legendary queen of rock. It is a stunning panorama of the turbulent decade when Joplin's was the rallying voice of a generation that lost itself in her music and found itself in her words. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 7.50 + $ 2.89 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

JOHN LENNON: In His Own Words
by Ken Lawrence. Condition: NEW 2005 Andrews McMeel small hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), first edition, first printing. Remainder. Content: Master quote-gatherer Lawrence has put together a collection of bon mots, rounding up a lifetime of Lennon's thoughts on music, fame, love and life. Lennon's wit and trademark sarcasm are well represented, as is his more thoughtful and self-deprecating side, all fired by the controversial Beatle's mistrust of the status quo, his lifelong quest to shake things up and his fervent belief in peace in our lifetime. Questions welcome. [1 copy availaable]
$ 4.49 + $ 3.09 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

JON BON JOVI
by Laura Jackson. Color photo section. Condition: NEW 2004 Citadel Press hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), first thus, first printing. Content: Jackson's look at "multi-platinum American supergroup Bon Jovi" focuses on "the linchpin and relentless driving force of this phenomenally popular rock outfit," Jon Bon Jovi. Not only endowed with "flawless features," JBJ also enjoys "magnetic stage presence and star quality . . . matched by boundless energy and fierce commitment." Whew! And he's an occasional TV star (on Allie McBeal and other series), too. This volume will do no one, especially Bon Jovi, any harm, and it just may reveal all one needs to know about the man and the band. Questions welcome. [1 copy availaable]
$ 12.49 + $ 3.19 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS: The Life of Tennessee Williams
by Donald Spoto. B&W photo section. Condition: Gently pre-read 1985 Little Brown hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), first printing. DJ shows edgewear & shelf wear. Content: Reviewer: "The last words of the book, "at last there was stillness," exemplify Spoto's ability to capture the chaos of this genius's life. Although the book is somewhat fast paced and races over portions of Williamss life, it is meticulously researched and digs up every facet of Tennessee Williams. Spoto reveals the glory days of the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and the nightmare of his last two decades in which he watched success wane as fastidious critics, ignorantly demanding that Williams continue to deliver plays in the vein of Glass Menagerie and Streetcar Named desire, beat him literally to death. One must have emotions of steel to get through the book's later chapters, in which Williams suffers a miserable descent into drug addiction and madness. Despite Williams's wealth and fame, the man lived a terribly difficult life. From his chaotic childhood to his drugged, alcoholic and lonely end, Williams's life was perhaps his greatest drama, as Spoto reveals. Questions welcome. [1 copy availaable]
$ 4.09 + $ 3.29 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

THE LEGACY OF BUCK & DOTTIE RAMBO: The Inspiring Story of the Family That Changed the Direction of Gospel Music
by Buck Rambo as told to Bob Terrell. B&W photo section. Condition: Good+ -pre-read Star Song Publishing Trade Paperback, first printing. Gently pre-read, but someone's kid was turned loose on the book with a ballpoint - no text has been affected and there are only a few pages with marks. Content: "Buck and Dottie's testimony is a glorious tribute to God's sustaining grace and overcoming power in the midst of life's most difficult problems." - Paul and Jan Crouch. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 1.50 + $ 3.09 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

LIGHT MY FIRE: My Life With The Doors
by Ray Manzarek. Two B&W photos sections. Condition: NEW 1999 G. P. Putnam's haradcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), first edition, first printing. Content: I love this book! Legendary Doors keyboardist Manzarek cannot seem to figure out whether his close friend and bandmate Jim Morrison's wild antics were the result of a poetic desire to push the envelope as far as the singer could, or if the famous 1960s rebel (who died in Paris at the age of 27) was just a gifted drunk. This ambivalence gives rise to an interesting, open-minded chronicle of one man's (Morrison's) alcoholism and its impact on his loved ones. Manzarek surely loved Morrison - they were friends and collaborators before either man had met the other two musicians who would complete the Doors's lineup, drummer John Densmore (whom Manzarek claimed Morrison never liked) and guitarist Robby Krieger, who penned "Light My Fire," "Touch Me" and "Love Me Two Times" with little or no help from famed lyricist Morrison. Manzarek takes every opportunity to philosophize about the ills of capitalist America, and he incessantly, passionately alludes to Greek mythology, Hinduism and Christianity when relating tales of his rock band's rise and fall. It's all love, peace, happiness and Morrison, except for the caustic passages regarding Oliver Stone and his big-budget biopic, The Doors, which Manzarek despises. "Grow up and see it like it really is, you fascist," the keyboardist writes at one point, which makes one wonder why Manzarek, an award-winning filmmaker and graduate of the UCLA film school, didn't make the movie himself. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 14.29 + $ 3.19 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

LUST FOR LIFE
by Irving Stone. Condition: UNREAD 1977 Pocket Books edition, 25th printing (c. 1985). Pale tanning to white cover edges & interior pages edges. Tiny edgewear. Interior clean & tight. Content: This is a biographical novel of the Dutch painter, Vincent Van Gogh and is based primarily on Van Gogh's three volumes of letters to his brother, Theo. Van Gogh was a violent, clumsy and passionate man who was driven to the extremity of exhaustion by his fervor to get life -- the essence of it -- into paint. Irving Stone treats the artist with great compassion and gives us a portrait that is sympathetic but fair. The 1956 movie was directed by the great Vincente Minnelli (yup, Liza's dad) and starred Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, James Donald, Pamela Brown, Everett Sloane, and Marion Ross (in a small role). Rent or buy, but don't miss this movie! [1 copy available]
$ 9.50 + $ 2.94 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

L. FRANK BAUM, Creator of Oz: A Biography
by Katharine M. Rogers. B&W reproductions of early graphics from his books. Condition: NEW 2002 St. Martin's Press hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), first edition, first printing. Content: Frank Baum is recognized chiefly as the author whose characters inspired the hit movie, The Wizard of Oz, but as Rogers aptly shows in this insightful biography/analysis, Baum (the L stood for Lyman) was far more than a one-hit wonder. Industrious, determined and prolific, he turned out more than 70 books, an especially impressive achievement given the relative brevity of his career: he was 41 when his first book, Mother Goose in Prose, was published, and he died at 63 in 1919. Rogers provides a condensed but comprehensive explanation for his slow start: energetic and entrepreneurial, Baum spent the first two-thirds of his life trying to find the right outlet for his talents. He threw himself into a variety of seemingly unconnected pursuits, from theater, which remained a lifelong love, to breeding fancy poultry (he helped found the Empire State Poultry Association in 1878); he was a shopkeeper and then newspaper editor in South Dakota, where he moved his young family from 1888 to 1891. Rogers, who has edited anthologies of 18th- and 19th-century literature, devotes more than a third of her book to summarizing Baum's stories, critiquing his shortcomings as an author and praising his many successes, particularly his commitment to creating strong, independent female characters. Her analyses are enlightening and engaging-she quite possibly could spark renewed interest in his work. [1 copy available]
$ 7.50 + $ 3.29 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

THE MAKING OF MARK TWAIN: A Biography
by John Lauber. B&W photo section. Condition: UNREAD 1988 Noonday Press Trade Paperback, first printing. Content: This fond but clear-eyed life of Samuel Langhorne Clemens will charm as well as inform scholars and general readers. Lauber describes the childhood of "Little Sam," obstreperous in spite of his frailty, and the upward-striving years that created Mark Twain, world-famous satirist and classic author. Born in 1835 in a Missouri town, one of many places where his dreamy father failed to support his family, Twain went out into the world early, looking for work. His roistering days are vividly evoked, covering the years as he progressed from a journeyman printer, a river-boat pilot, a miner, reporter in the West, etc. The account ends with Twain's marriage in 1870 to Olivia Langdon (his beloved "Livy"), at home in Hartford where "the apprenticeships had ended; the time of accomplishment was at hand." There he set to work on Tom Sawyer, Old Times on the Mississippi, and Huckleberry Finn, his enduring legacy. [1 copy available]
$ 7.89 + $ 3.19 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

MARGARET MITCHELL OF ATLANTA
by Finis Farr. B&W photo section. Condition: Good+, 1974 Avon paperback, first printing. Hinge crease with binder's glue strings down wpine, tiny edgewear. Interior is clean with moderate tanning to page edges. Content: The incredible story of a remarkable woman who, for her own amusement, wrote what became a best-selling novel - and one of the greatest motion pictures of all time. The movie, of course, was the great Gone With the Wind which starred Vivian Leigh, Clark Gable, and Leslie Howard. [1 copy available]
$ 3.49 + $ 2.94 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

MARK AND LIVY: The Love Story of Mark Twain and the Woman Who (Almost) Tamed Him
by Resa Willis. B&W photo section. Condition: NEW 2000 TV Books Trade Paperback, no printing given. Content: Olivia Langston (1845-1904) married Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) in 1870 and remained his wife for 34 years. In line with the conventions of the times, she saw herself as a wife, mother and "tamer" of iconoclastic Twain. However as Willis, literature professor at Drury College in Missouri, points out in this carefully researched, readable biography, Langston was also his valued critic and editor. In humorous anecdotes Twain portrayed "Livy" as a shrew--but the relationship between the mild-mannered, self-effacing woman and the cantankerous literary genius was apparently one of deep commitment and love. Their affection for one another, claims Willis, saw them through the rise and fall of their financial fortunes, the death of their daughter and Livy's many illnesses. The author's access to letters and journals gives insight into both husband and wife, as well as providing a portrait of American domestic life in the late 1800s. This book was the basis for the Masterpiece Theatre program. [1 copy available]
$ 7.49 + $ 3.19 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT: A Revolutionary Life
by Janet Todd. B&W photo section. Condition: NEW 2000 Columbia University Press large hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), assumed first printing. Content: Mary Wollstonecraft may be called "the mother of feminism," but motherhood in all its various aspects represented little but trouble to her. All her life, according to Todd, she resented her own mother because she had breast-fed only her brother, leaving Mary to the wet nurse, and because she detested the model of long-suffering patience in the face of paternal tyranny that was her mother's accommodation to marriage. Later, Mary would intervene energetically following the birth of her sister's child, encouraging Eliza to run away from husband and baby to pursue an independent female existence, although Eliza proved to be woefully inadequate at it. Mary's own first-born was the result of a passionate and illicit affair with an American, Gilbert Imlay, who dumped her when the baby was less than a year old. Finally, and tragically, Mary herself died at 38, after giving birth to a second daughter, another Mary, who would grow up to write that classic of grotesque creation, Frankenstein. Despite, or perhaps because of, the burden of her gender, and despite her poverty, frequent depressions and occasional suicidal moments, Wollstonecraft's achievement was astounding: several novels; many essays, reviews and books of advice; and, notably, The Vindication of the Rights of Women, a fundamental feminist document. By Todd's account, Wollstonecraft could be prickly, sometimes needy, often arrogant and wrong-headed. Todd brings her back to life in all her splendid contradictions, without condescension, idealization or, happily, without recourse to intrusive psychologizing. [1 copy available]
$ 10.49 + $ 3.49 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

NO ONE HERE GETS OUT ALIVE
by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman. B&W photos illustrate. Condition: Very good 1981 Warner Books paperback edition, 19th printing. Pale spine crease with tiny edgewear. Interior clean & tight with light tanning to page edges. Content: Still the standarad for Jim Morrison and The Doors biography. Covers Morrison's childhood, his early days in LA, the founding of the doors, all the controversy, his relationship with Pam, and finally his death. [1 copy available]
$ 3.50 + $ 2.94 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

NOWHERE MAN: The Final Days of John Lennon
by Robert Rosen. John Lennon photo cover. Condition: NEW 2000 Soft Skull Press hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), first edition, no printing given. DJ has tiny edgewear top edge with a small "impression dot" front cover at spine. Content: Reviewer: "Even a dedicated Lennonphile who find new material in this well-written and poignantly sad examination of John's last year. The closer Rosen edges towards the assassination, the sadder and more wistful the reader feels. It's puzzling and amazing that an icon like Lennon was not very happy towards the end of his too-short life. The book brings out the numerous infidelities that marred the Lennon-Ono partnership, supposedly one of the greatest love stories of the era. Yoko comes off fairly well here, which is surprising considering the usually brutal treatment she receives at the hands of biographers. Ultimately this is an interesting and well-written book with few errors of fact and some new information (rare for any Beatles-related book)." [2 copies available]
$ 21.50 + $ 3.09 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

THE OAK RIDGE BOYS: Our Story
by The Oak Ridge Boys with Ellis Widner and Walter Carter. Two B&W photo sections. Condition: Gently pre-read 1987 Contemporary Books (Chicago) hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), no edition given, but assume it's a first. Problem: the DJ has serious edgewear bottom edge and is price-clipped. Content: The Oak Ridge Boys are one of the most successful groups in country music today. Their roots are in gospel music, however, and the authors interviewed most of the singers who have performed with the group since its inception in the mid-1940s to compile this history. Indeed, there were 35 other Oak Ridge quartet members prior to the famous foursome who have made up the group since 1973. Duane Allen, William Lee Golden, Richard Sterban, and Joe Bonsall are the ones who took the group to its greatest fame in gospel music and then made the controversial transition to country and popular music with such hits as "Y'all Come Back Saloon" and "Elvira." Separate chapters profiling these four stars will appeal to the ORB's many fans. [1 copy available]
$ 9.50 + $ 3.29 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

OUR FAMOUS GUEST: Mark Twain in Vienna
by Carl Dolmetsch. B&W photos illustrate. Condition: UNREAD 1992 hardcover & DJ (mylar jacket). B&W illustrations. Content: In 1897 Mark Twain began a 20 month visit to the city of Vienna while his daughter studied music there. This book records his activities there as well as his encounters with some of the famous citizens of Vienna at the time: Freud, Mahler, Schnitzler, Herzl, Klimt, and Wittgenstein to name a few. Although Twain often dismissed this trip and unremarkable, Dolmetsch shows that it was a bit more than that. [1 copy available]
$ 14.50 + $ 3.29 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

THE SAGEBRUSH BOHEMIAN: Mark Twin in California (Samuel Clemens's Turbulent Years on the Barbary Coast)
by Nigey Lennon. B&W era photos illustrate. Condition: UNREAD 1993 Paragon House Trade Paperback, first PB edition, first printing. Problem: slight "lift" to both front & back cover fore edges. Why? probably flimsy cover material. Interior perfect. Content: This biography chronicles a period of Train's life - his years in the Western territories (1861 - 1869) - that previous biographiers have virtually ignored, yet which proved to be not only a time of hilarioiuis, errant misadventure but also the most formative and influential years in his life as a writer. [1 copy available]
$ 7.25 + 3.19 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

THE SEARCH FOR A SOUL: Taylor Caldwell's Psychic Lives
by Jess Stern. Condition: Gently pre-read 1973 Doubleday Book Club Edition, hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket). Taning to DJ white cover edges and spine and interior page edges. Content: From the DJ: One of Jess Stearn's most dramatic and provocative explorations of the hidden dimensions of man's mind, this book delves into the psychic lives of best-selling novelist Taylor Caldwell. A skeptic about reincarnation, Miss Caldwell agreed to undergo hypnosis "in the interests of setting the theory of reincarnation to rest." Yet once in a trance, she lapsed into memories of other lives and other places - lives which make fascinating narratives in their own right, places that provide the background for many of her novels, memories that suggest a wealth of experience of which she has no conscious memory or knowledge. Interesting reading! Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 9.29 + $ 3.19 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

SCREENING HISTORY
by Gore Vidal. B&W era & movie stills photos illustrate. Condition: NEW 1992 Harvard Univ. Press Trade Paperback, first printing. Content: This contains author Vidal's reminiscences of his childhood and early manhood. Interestingly, Vidal uses the movies of his youth as the key to an examination of his past. Young Gore's first confrontation with the reality of death occurred in his viewing of a poignant scene from The Prince and the Pauper (1937). He is aware that films and other images from the media can be used to manipulate or define an event for its audience, and he realizes that the image often becomes the reality of that event. Vidal has a facile turn of phrase and a markedly pessimistic view of the fuure of American democracy. There is more philosophical rumination here than straight biography, but this reviewer was intrigued by the character of his grandfather, a blind senator from Oklahoma. This book is literate, thoughtful, wry, slightly cynical, and very highly recommended. [1 copy available]
$ 5.29 + $ 2.89 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

SWEET LIFE: Adventures on the Way to Paradise
by Barry Manilow. Two B&W photo sections. Condition: Gently pre-read 1987 McGraw-Hill hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), Book Club Edition. DJ shows light shelf wear. Interior clean & tight. Content: One of the world's most popular musical performers tells the story of his career. Barry Alan Pincus, his father an Irish-American truck driver, his mother the daughter of Russian-Jewish immigrants, grew up poor in Brooklyn. Not a good academic student, he learned to play the piano, aspired to marry young, have children and become an executive at CBS. But soon he got part-time jobs as an accompanist and arrangermost notably for Bette Midler at the Continental Baths and later at Carnegie Halland was induced to sing some of his own songs on a recording. Success and fame came quickly. Even now he wonders at his sudden rise. This warmhearted memoir reveals a friendly, appealing man who maintains relationships with old friends and former sweethearts and believes in "people, loving, and music." The biggest lesson he's learned "is to follow your heart. If you do, you can't go wrong." Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 22.29 + $ 3.19 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

TRUE: The Autobiography of Martin Kemp
by Martin Kemp. Color photo sections. Condition: Very good 2000 Orion (London) hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket) - appears to be a first printing. Problem: bookstore browsing has caused some wear at the photo sections - I guess people just wanted a really good look - but the rest of the book is tight. This is the best description I can give you. Content: Writing his own story Martin Kemp talks frankly about his upbringing in working-class Islington, stardom and success with Spandau Ballet and the break up of the band. He writes openly about his film career, the huge success of The Krays, his tremendous fight against brain cancer and on to today with fame again in EastEnders. This is a stunningly written account of a fascinating life written with candour and wit. [1 copy available]
$ 21.59 + $ 3.29 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

TWILIGHT OF THE WAGNERS: The Unveiling of a Family's Legacy
by Gottfried Wagner. B&W photo section. Condition: NEW 2000 Picador Books Trade Paperback, first printing. Tiny edgewear at top cover corners. Content: Wagner chronicles his family's itinerary with National Socialism, from his great-grandfather's anti-Semitic pamphlets to his father's, uncle's and grandparents' close relationship with Adolf Hitler. The discovery of his family's past led him on a crusade to examine the hatred and racism he knew growing up in Bayreuth. Some reviewers have complained that this is a self-serving family biography, but why not? This is a man who is despised simply because of his name and his family's association with Hiltler. He wants us to know he is not following in the footsteps of his ancestors - and this is a good thing. [1 copy available]
$ 7.59 + $ 3.19 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

VIRGINIA WOOLF: A BIOGRAPHY
by Quentin Bell. B&W photo section. Condition: UNREAD 1992 Quality Paperback Trade Paperback, no printing given. Interior perfect. Pale shelf wear diagonal crease bottom front cover corner. Content: The first full-scale biography of the eminent British writer, written by her nephew, who includes the good and the family's "dirty linen." [2 copies available]
$ 6.59 + $ 3.39 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

WHEN HELL FREEZES OVER SHOULD I BRING MY SKATES?
by Toller Cranston. With Martha Lowder Kimball. B&W photos illustrate. Condition: NEW 2001 M&S Trade Paperback, first printing. Content: Another great autobio from Canada's international skating icon and world-class lovable grump. This is the book that covers his turbulent relationship with the late, great Christopher Bowman. Cranston also gave us the first true skating spectacular for television, "Strawberry Ice," - if you haven't seen it, well, you should - if you can find a copy. Cranston is an artist and has illustrated and written at least 2 children's books. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 12.29 + $ 3.19 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

X-RAY: THE UNAUTHORIZED AUTOBIOGRAPHY (The Kinks)
by Ray Davies. Condition: UNREAD 1996 Overlook Press large Trade Paperback, first printing. Tiny shelf wear. Content: Known for the satire and social commentary in their songs, 1960s British rockers the Kinks remain favorites of fans of literate pop. Their lead songwriter-singer Ray Davies' idiosyncratic autobiography reflects the band's caustic style. He adopts the persona of an employee of some authoritarian institution, as if he were a faceless chronicler assigned to report on one Raymond Douglas Davies; he refers to himself as Raymond Douglas or R. D. throughout and seemingly unearths the history of R.D.'s band. Veteran Kinks fans will take to this mannerism readily, while the less familiar may find it pretentious. But Davies' detailed illumination of underreported facets of pop-music history more than makes up for the occasional stylistic heavy sledding. The book's version of the much-reported rivalry between R. D. and younger brother Dave, the Kinks' lead guitarist, sheds light on a legendary rock feud, and its reminiscences of the Kinks' rowdy early days and their battle with relentlessly commercial Pye Records add significantly to previous reports. A major addition to pop-culture literature. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 9.49 + $ 3.39 media shipping. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]