Arts
"Ms. Washburn is a writer of questing imagination and convention-bending technique." --Ben Brantley, New York Times
In Anne Washburn's captivating new drama, a group of old friends--who, now in middle age, have mostly lost touch over the years--reunite at a remote Texas estate for the funeral of one of their own. As the former friends confront the memories of their shared past, the walls quickly dissolve (literally and figuratively) into a realm bordering on supernatural. A haunting tale of loss and friendship, Washburn seamlessly blurs the lines between the real and surreal, inviting us into a world of humor, imagination and mystery.
The devastation of war is tearing the Bharata family apart. The new king must unravel a mystery: how can he live with himself in the face of the devastation and massacres that he has caused?
An immense canvas in miniature, this central section of the ancient text is timeless and contemporary, asking how we can find inner peace in a world riven with conflict.
A beautifully illustrated visual and cultural history of the color blue throughout the ages
Blue has had a long and topsy-turvy history in the Western world. The ancient Greeks scorned it as ugly and barbaric, but most Americans and Europeans now cite it as their favorite color. In this fascinating history, the renowned medievalist Michel Pastoureau traces the changing meanings of blue from its rare appearance in prehistoric art to its international ubiquity today.
Any history of color is, above all, a social history. Pastoureau investigates how the ever-changing role of blue in society has been reflected in manuscripts, stained glass, heraldry, clothing, paintings, and popular culture. Beginning with the almost total absence of blue from ancient Western art and language, the story moves to medieval Europe. As people began to associate blue with the Virgin Mary, the color became a powerful element in church decoration and symbolism. Blue gained new favor as a royal color in the twelfth century and became a formidable political and military force during the French Revolution. As blue triumphed in the modern era, new shades were created and blue became the color of romance and the blues. Finally, Pastoureau follows blue into contemporary times, when military clothing gave way to the everyday uniform of blue jeans and blue became the universal and unifying color of the Earth as seen from space.
Beautifully illustrated, Blue tells the intriguing story of our favorite color and the cultures that have hated it, loved it, and made it essential to some of our greatest works of art.
-- "Choice"
The only official companion book to the Tony Award winner for Best Musical from the creators of South Park and the co-creator of Avenue Q. Features the complete script and song lyrics, with 4-color spot illustrations throughout, an original introduction by the creators, and a foreword by Mark Harris.
The Book of Mormon, which follows a pair of mismatched Mormon boys sent on a mission to a place that's about as far from Salt Lake City as you can get, features book, music, and lyrics by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone.
Parker and Stone are the four-time Emmy Award-winning creators of Comedy Central's landmark animated series South Park. Tony Award-winner Lopez is co-creator of the long-running hit musical comedy Avenue Q. The Book of Mormon is choreographed by three-time Tony Award-nominee Casey Nicholaw (Monty Python's Spamalot, The Drowsy Chaperone) and is directed by Nicholaw and Parker.
The book includes - an original foreword by journalist Mark Harris (author of Pictures at a Revolution) - an original introduction by the authors on the genesis of the show - a production history - the complete book and lyrics, with four-color spot illustrations throughout.
In this brilliant book of recollection, one of America's finest writers re-creates people, places, and events spanning some fifty years, bringing to life an entire era through one man's sensibility. Scenes of love and desire, friendship, ambition, life in foreign cities and New York, are unforgettably rendered here in the unique style for which James Salter is widely admired.
Burning the Days captures a singular life, beginning with a Manhattan boyhood and then, satisfying his father's wishes, graduation from West Point, followed by service in the Air Force as a pilot. In some of the most evocative pages ever written about flying, Salter describes the exhilaration and terror of combat as a fighter pilot in the Korean War, scenes that are balanced by haunting pages of love and a young man's passion for women.
After resigning from the Air Force, Salter begins a second life, becoming a writer in the New York of the 1960s. Soon films beckon. There are vivid portraits of actors, directors, and producers—Polanski, Robert Redford, and others. Here also, more important, are writers who were influential, some by their character, like Irwin Shaw, others because of their taste and knowledge.
Ultimately Burning the Days is an illumination of what it is to be a man, and what it means to become a writer.
Signed first edition in near fine condition.
Carleton Watkins (1829–1916) is widely considered the greatest American photographer of the nineteenth century and arguably the most influential artist of his era. He is best known for his pictures of Yosemite Valley and the nearby Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias. Watkins made his first trip to Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove in 1861 just as the Civil War was beginning. His photographs of Yosemite were exhibited in New York for the first time in 1862, as news of the Union’s disastrous defeat at Fredericksburg was landing in newspapers and while the Matthew Brady Studio’s horrific photographs of Antietam were on view. Watkins’s work tied the West to Northern cultural traditions and played a key role in pledging the once-wavering West to Union.
Motivated by Watkins’s pictures, Congress would pass legislation, later signed by Abraham Lincoln, that preserved Yosemite as the prototypical “national park,” the first such act of landscape preservation in the world. Watkins’s photographs helped shape America’s idea of the West, and helped make the West a full participant in the nation. His pictures of California, Oregon, and Nevada, as well as modern-day Washington, Utah, and Arizona, not only introduced entire landscapes to America but were important to the development of American business, finance, agriculture, government policy, and science.
1st edition; published by Fraenkel Gallery, in association with Bedford Arts, Publishers, San Francisco. Essay by Peter E. Palmquist; dust jacket has very light scuffing; tan buckram with brown lettering on cover and spine; former owner's signature in ink on ffep; binding tight; text clean and bright. VG/VG
Max Weber was a German sociologist, philosopher, and political economist whose ideas influenced social theory, social research, and the entire discipline of sociology.
New York: William Edwin Rudge, 1916. Very scarce signed first edition, inscribed by the author to Rabbi Samuel M. Segal in 1958. 4to paper covered booklet with illustration on cover and decorative initial letters on each chapter. VG
Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne, a new play by Jack Thorne, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage. The play will receive its world premiere in London's West End on July 30, 2016.
It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn't much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.
While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.
This Special Rehearsal Edition will be available to purchase until early 2017, after which a Definitive Edition of the script will go on sale.
Traditional Japanese packaging is an art form that applies sophisticated design and natural aesthetics to simple objects. In this elegant presentation of the baskets, boxes, wrappers, and containers that were used in ordinary, day-to-day life, we are offered a stunning example of a time before mass production. Largely constructed of bamboo, rice straw, hemp twine, paper, and leaves, all of the objects shown here are made from natural materials. Through 221 black-and-white photographs of authentic examples of traditional Japanese packaging—with commentary on the origins, materials, and use of each piece—the items here offer a look into a lost art, while also reminding us of the connection to nature and the human imprint of handwork that was once so alive and vibrant in our everyday lives.
First Edition for the United States published by Harper and Row in 1967, after the original Japanese edition of 1965. Written by Hide Yuki Oka, foreword by George Nelson, photography by Michikazu Sakai. Traditional elegant designs for packaging ordinary objects in Japan reflect their time and culture. 4to, 203 pages, full page illustrations in exquisite black and white, dust jacket with protective cover, glossy white with blind embossing on front hardcover, bump to right lower edge, interior fine. VG/VG.
"This is a comedy set in a cemetery, a ribald satire on prejudice. In it Johnny Speight lampoons the dubious logic and unlovely self-interest that lie behind a whole spectrum of British social, religious and political attitudes, ranging from liberal to reactionary. It is both a funny and an uncomfortably accurate play from the author of the television series, Till Death Us Do Part."
Softcover; creased, soiled, spine worn; water damage to bottom inside corner of covers and text; ink and highlighting throughout text; ink notes on inside rear cover; former owner's name in ink on first page. Scarce. G-
Not only was Frank O'Hara (1926-1966) one of the most important American poets of his generation, he was also intimately involved with the art world of the 1950s and 1960s, a time when New York had become the cultural capital of the world. As an associate curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O'Hara organized a series of important exhibitions, notably of the work of Franz Kline and of Robert Motherwell. In Memory of My Feelings explores this key period in modern art by presenting artists who were associated with O'Hara and whose seminal works are reflected in his poetry.
Limited edition, number 981/2500; published by Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1967; 30 poems illustrated by 30 artists, on gathered sheets in portfolio and slipcase as issued; top of slipcase soiled; front and top of slipcase lightly foxed; light foxing on cloth edge of front cover; inside is clean and bright. G+/G
The first book-length biography of James Dean to appear after his death, written by a friend (and former UCLA classmate). Issued simultaneously in both paperback and hardcover. This is the Ballantine Books vintage paperback, 1956, in good condition.
The first book-length biography of Dean to appear after his death, written by a friend (and former UCLA classmate). Issued simultaneously in paperback, this is the much scarcer hardcover printing. Many years later, Bast published another book, "Surviving James Dean," that touched on certain aspects of the actor's life that were a little too sensitive to be aired in the 1950s. The striking jacket photo of Dean (by Roy Schatt) is also reproduced inside the book. VG/VG
James Branch Cabell (1879-1958) was an American author of fantasy fiction and belles-lettres. Cabell was well-regarded by his contemporaries, including H. L. Mencken, Edmund Wilson, and Sinclair Lewis. His works were considered escapist and fit well in the culture of the 1920s, when they were most popular.
His 1921 play, The Jewel Merchants is set in early sixteenth-century Tuscany and explores the moral lassitude and selective ethics of a coterie of businessmen. It's a thoroughly entertaining look at a past culture that is sure to tickle readers' funny bones.
New York; Robert M. McBride & Company, 1921. Limited edition, no. 589 of 1,040. Brown cloth with gilt decoration on cover; spine lettering faded; endpapers tanned; deckled edges; binding tight; text clean. G+
The third volume of the Chagall Lithographs Catalog Raissone.
1st U.S. edition; published by Boston Book and Art Shop, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts. Printed in France. Translated from the French by George Lawrence. Notes and Catalogue Fernand Mourlot and Charles Sorlier. Original Lithograph frontis. Dust jacket in protective cover; small tear at front bottom right corner; binding tight; text clean and bright. VG/VG
Clean and tight within. The Associated Publishers, Washington, DC, 1938, nod. VG
Published by Contemporary Play Publications; Volume II, no. 4, October 1938. Contents: Plays: "The Jar," Luigi Pirandello; "Don't You Want To Be Free," Langston Hughes; Television Script: "It's Really Quite Simple," Harold L. Anderson; Film Sequence: "Blockade," John Howard Lawson; Departments: Music in the Theatre - One Act Opera, Paul Rosenfield; The Theatre, John W. Gassner. Wraps, stapled; covers have water stains, remnants of tape; corners creased; spine missing 1" from bottom; tear at top of spine/front cover; pages slightly tanned. G-
Art by Gloria Vanderbilt illuminates stories by Richard Burgin. We have two copies available of this limited edition book, signed by both the author and artist. One copy is number 150/500 and one copy is number 171/500. Both are in very good condition with dust jackets showing minimal wear.
Paul Claudel (1868-1955) was the author of numerous plays and several volumes of poetry.
Yale University Press, 1919. 1st edition. Translated from the French by John Strong Newberry. No dust jacket; dark gray cloth over gray boards; title and author on paper label on spine; front cover has one stained area; endpapers foxed; binding tight; some pages uncut; deckled edges; text clean. G
Paul Claudel (1868-1955) was the author of numerous plays and several volumes of poetry.
Yale University Press, 1920. 1st edition. Translated from the French by John Strong Newberry. Inscribed by translator. No dust jacket. Dark gray cloth over light gray boards; title and author on paper label on spine; covers lightly soiled; corners bumped; endpapers foxed; deckled edges. G-
A modern verse play about the search for meaning, in which a psychiatrist is the catalyst for the action. “An authentic modern masterpiece” (New York Post). “Eliot really does portray real-seeming characters. He cuts down his poetic effects to the minimum, and then finally rewards us with most beautiful poetry” (Stephen Spender).
1st American edition; dust jacket in protective cover; spine faded; covers lightly foxed; black cloth; endpapers tanned and lightly foxed; binding good; text clean. G/G
From director and cofounder of the Royal Shakespeare Company Peter Brook, The Empty Space is a timeless analysis of theatre from the most influential stage director of the twentieth century. Peter Brook draws on a life in love with the stage to explore the issues facing a theatrical performance—of any scale. He describes important developments in theatre from the last century, as well as smaller scale events, from productions by Stanislavsky to the rise of Method Acting, from Brecht’s revolutionary alienation technique to the free form happenings of the 1960s, and from the different styles of such great Shakespearean actors as John Gielgud and Paul Scofield to a joyous impromptu performance in the burnt-out shell of the Hamburg Opera just after the war. Passionate, unconventional, and fascinating, this book shows how theatre defies rules, builds and shatters illusions, and creates lasting memories for its audiences.
New York: Atheneum, 1968. 1st American edition. Dust jacket price clipped; top edges tanned; white embossed cloth with red lettering on spine; binding tight; text clean and bright. VG/G+
Two-page introduction followed by 12 full page woodcuts. Mardersteig's commentary is printed on each facing page. One leaf of contents. One of 300 copies printed at the Officina Bodoni. Masereel's woodcuts (which first appeared in the 1929 "Operation of a Hand Press") are printed from the original woodblocks.
Verona: Officina Bodoni, 1973.Scarce and near fine.
A 16pp catalog issued by The Associated Publishers, Inc, likely in the early 1950s. The cover states the aim of the publisher "The Plan: The publications of the Associated Publishers are planned to cover in the form of textbooks and popular treatises every phase of Negro life and history. The aim here is to make possible the publication and circulation of valuable books on the Negro not acceptable to most publishers."
We Bombed in New Haven is a 1967 play by Joseph Heller. An anti-war comedy, it is thematically linked in part to Heller's famous novel Catch-22.
1st printing; dust jacket in protective cover; maroon cloth with silver and pink lettering; top edge red; very light foxing on fore-edge; binding tight; text clean. G+/VG
Age 5-7
