Nelson Algren was the first recipient of the National Book Award for fiction in 1950. He will be best remembered for his portrayal of societies discards, the addicts, the hookers, the poor hustling the poor, the washed up & down for the count. His novels capture the mood of the city’s underside, uplifted only by his characters’ pride, humor, and unquenchable yearnings. Among his popular successes were The Man with the Golden Arm and  A Walk on the Wild Side, both of which went on to be adapted into successful films. Algren was known to have had a 17 year long love affair with Simone de Beauvoir, he died May 9, 1981 in Sag Harbor, where is now buried.

“Never play cards with a man called Doc…
Never eat at a place called Mom’s….
Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own”
– Nelson Algren  A Walk on the Wild Side (1956)

Description: INSCRIBED BY NELSON ALGREN WITH AN ORIGINAL DRAWING OF A CAT. Algren’s third book, a collection of 24 short stories that established Algren in the pantheon of American writers. I nscribed to the famous New York bibliophile Burt Britton “with best wishes to Burt Britton from Nelson Algren N.Y.C. Oct 11 1975“.  In the 1970s, while working at the Strand bookstore in NYC Burt Britton assembled more than 500 self-portraits for a now well know book Self-Portrait: Book People Picture Themselves. His collection of original drawings & signatures was sold through Bloomsbury auction house in 2009. He was also instrumental in the the creation of the landmark New York book shop Books & Co. This copy shows some minor wear to Second state jacket with reviews on rear panel. Edge wear to boards. Some age toning, otherwise very good. A scarce New York association copy!

Bookseller Inventory# 26992

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The Neon Wilderness
Algren, Nelson

Publisher: Doubleday
Publication Date: 1948
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
Signed: Inscribed by Author(s)
Edition: 1st Edition

· Category: Sold ·

Description: Hard bound with dust jacket. Third revised edition (This volume combines two previous issues of El Croquis, #53 & #79) Profusely illustrated throughout with color plates, drawings, renderings, plans, sketches, and models. A very nice overview of the work of the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and his Office for Metropolitan Architecture. Text in Spanish and English. Minor wear to dust jacket, otherwise fine.

Bookseller Inventory # 23906

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OMA / Rem Koolhaas 1987-1998
Cecilia, Fernando Marquez

Publisher: El Croquis, Spain
Publication Date: 1994
Binding: Hard Bound
Book Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

· Category: Sold ·

Dorothea Tanning was the last important living surrealist painter of her generation. She died on Tuesday at her home in Manhattan, at the age of 101. Tanning moved to New York in the early 1930s where she discovered Dada and Surrealism. By the early 1940s Tanning was working on her own surreal paintings while supporting herself as a commercial artist. In 1942 she met Max Ernst, they played chess, fell in love, and were later married in a double wedding along with Man Ray and Juliet Browner. She has developed her own individual style over the course of a career that spaned seven decades.

Description: Paperback published on the occasion of the May 9, 1992 exhibition held by the New York Public Library. 108 pages. Some wear to wrappers, otherwise very good. A complete Catalogue Raisonne of the Artist’s Illustrated Books and Prints to 1991. Rare!

Bookseller Inventory# 16299

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Dorothea Tanning: Hail, Delirium!
a Catalogue Raisonne of the Artist’s Illustrated Books and Prints, 1942-1991
Waddell, Roberta

Title: Dorothea Tanning: Hail, Delirium!
Publisher: New York Public Library, New York
Publication Date: 1992
Binding: Paperback
Book Condition: Good

· Category: Sold ·

Don Quixote is often cited as the best literary work ever written! The History Of The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote Of La Mancha is a novel written by Miguel de Cervantes, published in two volumes a decade apart, in 1605 and again in 1615. Don Quixote is considered the most influential work of literature from the Spanish Golden Age and the entire Spanish literary canon. As a founding work of modern Western literature, and one of the earliest canonical novels, it regularly appears high on lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published.  At it’s core, it’s the tale of the adventures of the self-created knight-errant Don Quixote of La Mancha, along with his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, as they travel through sixteenth-century Spain.

Description: Library edition in complete in 4 volumes, in publishers matching box. Hard bound with original brown cloth with paper labels printed in red and black on the spines. No dust jackets, as issued. Un-trimmed page edges and gilt top stain. Richly illustrated throughout with 37 engravings designed and etched by Ad. Lalauze. A scarce edition edited by J.G. Lockhart who also wrote the included essay on the Life of Cervantes. Motteux, the translator, possesses a native humor which no other translator has yet approached. His translation is one of the most famous of the period. Wear to boards and spine labels. Interiors & engravings clean. Publishers box shows damage with cracks wear and several tears, still overall a good set of working copies with beautiful etchings.

Bookseller Inventory# 28859

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The History Of The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote Of La Mancha
Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de

Publisher: John Grant, Edinburgh
Publication Date: 1908
Binding: Hard Cover
Illustrator: Lalauze
Book Condition:  Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Dust Jacket, as issued

· Category: Sold ·