Books and Art

Other Voices, Other Rooms. Truman Capote. New York: Random House, 1948. Capote’s first novel. First edition. Original dust jacket. 

The story focuses on the lonely and slightly effeminate 13-year-old boy Joel Harrison Knox following the death of his mother. Joel is sent to live with his father who abandoned him at the time of his birth. Joel meets his sullen stepmother Amy, debauched transvestite Randolph, and the defiant tomboy Idabel, a girl who becomes his friend. He also sees a spectral “queer lady” with “fat dribbling curls” watching him from a top window.

A Trip to Fairy Land. Written by Mr. Conkey’s 10-year old daughter (as per Publishers’ Weekly, September 23, 1905). Illustration by Will Carquelle. W. B. Conkey Company, Chicago, 1905. First edition.

Walter B. Conkey founded his company in 1877. It was a bindery and printer until it began to publish books on its own imprint in the late 1890’s. It mainly published reprints of fiction and classics in its numerous publisher’s series. 

The City and the Stars. Arthur C. Clarke. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Co., 1956. First edition. Original dust jacket. 

Clarke has “a vision of a future as good as our past that captures the aspirations of religion and lends justification to science, but most of all, it gives its readers a vision of our race made worthwhile and a fairy tale we can help to come true.” (Eric S. Rabkin, Arthur C. Clarke).

The Razor’s Edge. W. Somerset Maugham. Doubleday, 1944. First edition. Original dust jacket. “The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to Salvation is hard.”

Tells the story of Larry Darrell, an American pilot traumatized by his experiences in WW I, who sets off in search of some transcendent meaning in his life. His rejection of conventional life and search for meaningful experience allows him to thrive while the more materialistic characters suffer reversals of fortune.

Miss Petticoats. Dwight Tilton. Illustrations by Charles H. Stephens. Boston, Mass: C.M. Clark Publishing Co., 1902. First edition.

Miss Petticoats is the daughter, Agatha, of a French nobleman and an American woman. Since the death of her mother, she has been living with her grandfather, Captain Joel Stewart. Knowing nothing of her royal heritage, Agatha takes a job as secretary to the wealthy Sarah Copeland, whose nephew, Guy Hamilton, immediately begins pursuing the new employee.

An American Tragedy. Theodore Dreiser. Boni & Liveright, 1925. First edition, published in two volumes. Original dust jackets.

Based on an incident in 1906, when a factory worker named Chester Gillette murdered a young woman in the Adirondacks. The woman, Grace Brown, had been pregnant with Gillette’s child. In a well-publicized trial, Gillette was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

Go Ahead Secret Seven, Book 5 in series. Enid Blyton. Brockhampton Press, 1953. First edition.

Opens with a bang when Susie cheekily bumps into Peter and almost knocks him over. Once again she has found their password out and wants to join their society. She asks “Why don’t you let me belong?” And the answer is that they don’t want her! They have to limit themselves to seven members of course anyway.

Pepper and Salt or Seasoning for Young Folk. Written and illustrated by Howard Pyle. Harper and Brothers. NY. 1913. First edition. Original dust jacket.

These stories are told by a jolly old Jester who lays aside his cap and bells and settles down to entertain the children. Stories contain moral and situational dilemmas out of which each story’s protagonist must find their way.

To the Lighthouse. Virginia Woolf. Cover artist Vanessa Bell. Hogarth Press, 1927. First edition. Original dust jacket.

The novel includes little dialogue and almost no action; most of it is written as thoughts and observations. The novel recalls childhood emotions and highlights adult relationships. Among the book’s many tropes and themes are those of loss, subjectivity, and the problem of perception.

The Haunted Bridge (Nancy Drew #15). Carolyn Keene. Grosset & Dunlap, 1937. First edition. Original dust jacket.

Carson Drew is on the trail of an international ring of jewel thieves. Nancy, Bess, and George, who are staying at Deer Mountain Hotel to relax and play golf, become involved in Carson’s case and also tie in the mystery behind a ghost haunting the grounds of the hotel.

Down River. John Hart. Thomas Dunne, 2007. First edition. Original dust jacket. 

Hart returns with Adam Chase, who returns home to North Carolina after a five year absence to once again fight the scorn and abandonment of his family and to defend himself and solve multiple murders. Family lies and deception spur the narrative along.

The Second Man. Edward Grierson. Knopf, New York, 1956. First American edition. Original dust jacket by Paul Rand.

A quietly expert account of a criminal case and its prosecution through the British courts, is closely followed by Michael Irvine, a lawyer, who tells the story and who assists Marion Morrison who has, as her first big case, the defense of John Maudsley accused of the murder of his aunt.

The Whispering Statue (Nancy Drew #14). Carolyn Keene. Grosset & Dunlap, 1937. First edition. Original dust jacket.

Nancy and her chums go to Sea Cliff to view a statue made of marble. Nancy has been told it resembles her. Nancy becomes embroiled in a mystery involving the whispering statue and is aided by pesky terrier dog, Togo.

The Angel of Darkness. Caleb Carr. Random House, 1997. First edition. Original dust jacket.

A follow-up novel to The Alienist — told by a former street urchin whose rough life has given him wisdom beyond his years. Set in 1897, New York City. The theme is both historically accurate and contemporary, concerning as it does the social pressure on women to be mothers and what happens to their psyches when they lack the instinct to nurture.

Raising Demons. Shirley Jackson. New York : Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1957. Book cover design by Maxwell Mays depicting of one of Jackson’s homes in North Bennington, Vermont. First edition. Original dust jacket. Crossett Library, Bennington College.

Affectionate, hilarious, sophisticated autobiographical tale of dubious parental equilibrium in the face of four children, assorted dogs and cats, and the uncounted heaps of small intrusive possessions which pile up in corners everywhere.