jpatterson, Author at The Vintage Contemporaries Bibliography

Joy Williams – Breaking and Entering (1988)

Bibliographical Description

88.06.W051: Williams – Breaking and Entering

144 leaves, pp. [6] 1–2 3-127 128–130 131-279 [3]

A Vintage Contemporaries Original, June 1988, First Edition

Contents: π1a author photo with blurbs, π1b ‘A_{LSO BY} | J_OY W_ILLIAMS’, π2a half-title, π2b blank, π3a title, π3b imprint, 1-279 Breaking and Entering: 1-127 ‘[triple wave motif 14 x 43 mm] I | Then the strangest questions | are asked, which no human | being could answer: Why there | is only one such animal; why | I rather than anybody else | should own it, whether there | was ever an animal like it | before and what would happen | if it died, whether it feels | lonely, why it has no children, | what it is called, etc. | — Franz Kafka, “Cross Breeze”’, 128 blank, 129-278 ‘[triple wave motif 14 x 43 mm] II | It is living and ceasing to live | that are imaginary solutions. | Existence is elsewhere. | — André Breton’, 279 about the author, χ1b blank, χ2a Vintage Contemporaries order form, χ2b Vintage Contemporaries list.

Cover design by Lorraine Louie; cover illustration by Rick Lovell; interior author photo by Thomas Victor.

Copies: JDP 1.1 (two copies)

Blurbs

(front cover) Breaking & Entering is in the company of Céline, Flannery O’Connor and Margaret Atwood….Joy Williams demolishes other writers. – James Salter
Willie and Liberty are drifters. They break into Florida vacation homes while the owners are away, stay a while, and then move on. They have been lovers since they were teenagers, yet Liberty now senses that Willie is drifting away from her—that their search, so relentless and mysterious, is becoming increasingly dangerous. An exhilarating cast of characters reflects this search, which is not just for home, but for self.
This compassionate and original book is about love and loneliness and courage in the new wilderness of our atomized society. It is also funny, awful and gruesomely Floridian without sacrificing its seriousness. Joy Williams is as fine a writer as you heard she was. – Thomas McGuane
An ominous and enthralling novel…truly significant fiction, of which there is not very much around. Breaking and Entering reminds me again that life is short; it is also very wide. – Jim Harrison
To put it simply, Joy Williams is the most gifted writer of her generation. For her, the human personality is of most interest and most truth when it is under the most extreme pressure….This notion of truth emerges in Joy Williams’s work in a complete Americanness of setting, language, and psychology that I find to be of great beauty and meaning. – Harold Brodkey

Jill Eisenstadt – From Rockaway (1988)

Bibliographical Description

88.06.W050: Eisenstadt – From Rockaway

112 leaves, pp. [6] 1–3 4-18 19 20-31 32 33-53 54 55-63 64 65-69 70 71-77 78 79-98 99 100-120 121 122-134 135 136-149 150 151-167 168 169-174 175 176-179 180 181-198 199 200-210 211 212-214 [4]

First Vintage Books Edition, June 1988

Contents: π1a author photo with blurbs, π1b blank, π2a title, π2b imprint, π3a dedication, π3b blank, 1 fly-title, 2 blank, 3-214 From Rockaway: 3-18 ‘Prom Night’, 19-31 ‘THE BLOOD [vertical rule extending two lines 29 mm] | [on gutter side of rule on second line] PART | [on fore-edge side of rule on first line] 1’, 32-53 ‘2 [vertical rule 15 mm] AUTHORITY’, 54-63 ‘3 [vertical rule 15 mm] BEING “IT”, 64-69 ‘4 | [vertical rule 15 mm] | LETTERS’, 70-77 ‘5 [vertical rule extending two lines 29 mm] THREE’S | [on gutter side of rule] A CROWD’, 78-98 ‘6 [vertical rule 15 mm] TILT-A-WHIRL’, 99-120 ‘VACATION [vertical rule 15 mm] 7’, 121-134 ‘AT THE MOVIES [vertical rule 15 mm] 8’, 135-149 ‘HAT WALK [vertical rule 15 mm] 9’, 150-167 ’10 [vertical rule extending two lines 29 mm] MOVING | [on gutter side of rule] MATTERS’, 168-174 ‘11 [vertical rule extending two lines 29 mm] CRUISE | [on gutter side of rule] TO NOWHERE ‘, 175-179 ‘LIMBO [vertical rule 15 mm] 12’, 180- ’13 [vertical rule extending two lines 29 mm] THE MURDERERS’ | [on gutter side of rule] CLUB’, 199-210 ‘THE BRASS BALLS [vertical rule extending three lines 44 mm] 14 | [on gutter side of rule] BRIDGE JUMPERS | [on gutter side of rule] ASSOCIATION’, 211-214 ‘July 6, 1987’; χ1a about the author, χ1b blank, χ2a Vintage Contemporaries order form, χ2b Vintage Contemporaries list.

Cover design by Lorraine Louie; cover illustration by Rick Lovell; interior author photo by Jerry Bauer.

Copies: JDP 1.2

Blurbs

(front cover) From Rockaway has wit and intelligence, and its theme is an important one…the burnout of a generation. Eisenstadt’s material is compelling and dramatic. – Brent Spencer, San Francisco Chronicle
In Jill Eisenstadt’s savvy, heartfelt novel we enter the world of working-class kids in Rockaway, New York, a beach community where beer cans and cigarette butts stud the sand instead of seashells. Peg, Alex, Chowderhead, and Timmy play, drink, and dream together. Their circle breaks apart when Alex gets a scholarship to a “rich kids’ school” in New England. Soon the rituals described in her anthropology text seem less bizarre than the games in the dorms around her. It is back in Rockaway, reunited with the old gang for the summer, that the explosive depth of feeling in kids with no options beyond the local deli and the lifeguard stands shows Alex what it means to face adulthood.
Eisenstadt is fabulous at working the wavy borders between friendship and love, childhood and adolescence, loyalty and peer pressure…a novel with jukebox charisma. – Glamour
Like ‘Saturday Night Fever’ it pushes the energy of desire against the low ceiling of possibility. – Sven Birkerts, Chicago Tribune
An affecting exploration of class and ambition, family ties, friendship and the way people grow into and out of different feelings about love…magical. – Alida Becker, Newsday

Robert Olmstead – Soft Water (1988)

Bibliographical Description

[within a compartment 178 x 107 mm, overlaid toward fore-edge with a water motif]

120 leaves, pp. [10] 1–3 4-9 10 11-20 21 22-35 36 37-45 46 47-59 60 61-68 69 70-75 76–79 80-85 86 87-96 97 98-102 103 104-111 112 113-124 125 126-138 139–141 142-149 150 151-160 161 162-168 169 170-176 177 178-183 184 185-190 191 192-199 200 201-206 207 208-219 220 221-223 224 225-226 [4]

A Vintage Contemporaries Original, First Edition, May 1988

Contents: π1a author photo with excerpt, π1b ‘Also by Robert Olmstead’, π2a half-title, π2b blank, π3a title, π3b imprint, π4a dedication, π4b blank, π5a epigraph, π5b blank, 1-226 Soft Water: 1-75 ‘[within a compartment 178 x 107 mm] PART ONE | [rule 83 mm] | STREAMS | [rule 82 mm] | A²n Indian Method in Winter—of killing wild game, | wolves, bears, etc. . . . take a piece of flexible steel or | whalebone and bend it into a small circle, securing it with | sinew, this they insert in a ball of meat, flesh, fat and | blood and allow to freeze . . . these they throw out on the | snow or ice about the haunts of animals; coming along | they find them and being hungry, ravenously devour | them. The heat of the stomach soon melts the frozen | parts, the spring coil straightens out piercing the stomach, | causing agony and death which in due time ensues. . . . I | have often assisted in the preparation of these killing balls, | and witnessed their fearful results. | — Buzzacott’, 76 blank, 77-138 ‘[within a compartment 178 x 107 mm] PART TWO | [rule 64 mm] | RIVERS | [rule 69 mm] | A²t such times they remain quiet seemingly lifeless and | because they exert so little energy they require but | little and it is during activity only that they consume | quantities of food. | It is the inclination to go into deeper and consequently warmer water in the fall , that has doubtless been the fac- | tor in developing that migrating instinct in the species that | run “down stream in fall” and “up stream in spring.” | — Buzzacott’, 139-226 ‘[within a compartment 178 x 107 mm] PART THREE | [rule 55 mm] | MISTS | [rule 56 mm] | A²nother method of hunting Deer is by what is termed | “jacking.” . . . I have often hunted thus, years ago, | when game was more plentiful, and must admit there is a | fascination about “jacking” or fire-hunting that is intensely | interesting, and the strange weird sight of the glaring eyes | with the unusual incident of the surroundings, and quiet | amply repays for the watch and wait. Good marksmanship | here is of course essential. . . . | — Buzzacott’, χ1a about the author, χ1b blank, χ2a Vintage Contemporaries order form, χ2b Vintage Contemporaries list.

Cover design by Lorraine Louie; cover illustration by Rick Lovell; interior author photo by David Tobin.

Copies: JDP 1.1

Blurbs

(front cover) Robert Olmstead’s prose is Hemingway-lucid, the details vivid….He can tell a harrowing tale. – Village Voice
Sparkling, tense, and gripping, Soft Water is an exceptional novel of murder, romance, and deceit in rural New England. The tale begins deep in the Maine woods, where Asel, orphaned and alone since childhood, lives as a guide and trapper, oblivious to the outside world. His isolation ends in violence when he kills two mysterious hunters who have cruelly shot his only friend. Fleeing to civilization, Asel falls in love with an enigmatic woman with magically long, flowing hair. Asel guards her night and day, anxiously awaiting the moment when his victims’ heirs seek their inevitable revenge.
I admire Robert Olmstead’s work for its quiet, unexpected humor, its ingenious voice and natural eye, and for the ways in which characters always triumph over heartlessness. Soft Water is a fine and richly detailed book. – Lorrie Moore
Olmstead’s New England is far from the quaint white churches of the Updike set….There’s no mistaking the poetry or freshness. – New York
Compelling power…Olmstead is a very good storyteller. – Philadelphia Inquirer
Olmstead is anything but conventional….His originality springs from a voice that vividly and unforgettably conjures this foreign landscape. – Chicago Tribune

Kaye Gibbons – Ellen Foster (1988)

Bibliographical Description

88.05.W048: Gibbons – Ellen Foster

[underlined] ELLEN FOSTER | Kaye Gibbons | Vintage Contemporaries | VINTAGE BOOKS A DIVISION OF RANDOM HOUSE | NEW YORK

72 leaves, pp. [12] 1-126 [6]

First Vintage Contemporaries Edition, May 1988

Contents: π1a author photo with blurbs, π1b blurbs, π2a half-title, π2b blank, π3a title, π3b imprint, π4a dedication, π4b blank, π5a epigraph, π5b blank, π6a fly-title, π6b blank, 1-126 Ellen Foster, χ1a about the author, χ1b blank, χ2a Vintage Contemporaries list, χ2b Vintage Contemporaries list continued with order form, χ3a blank, χ3b blank.

Cover design by Lorraine Louie; cover illustration by Chris Moore; interior author photo by Jerry Bauer.

Copies: JDP 1.2

Blurbs

(front cover) Ellen Foster is a southern Holden Caulfield, tougher perhaps, as funny….A breathtaking first novel. – Walker Percy
“When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy.” From the opening line of Kaye Gibbons’ startling, open-hearted novel, the little girl who calls herself Ellen Foster commands our respect, attention, and affection. Cast adrift after the deaths of her drunken father and sadly misused mother, Ellen moves from one woebegone situation to another until she finds a real home and a measure of wisdom through the graces of her “colored” friend, Starletta.
A stunning new writer…The life in this novel, the honesty of thought and eye and feeling and word! – Eudora Welty
Gibbons’ debut novel has a funny, quick release and an enveloping spell. A triumph of Southern voice…It has the integrity of an achieved vision. – James Wolcott, Vanity Fair
The story of a redoubtable girl who overcomes adversity with humor, spunk, and determination, Kaye Gibbons’ first novel is a work of considerable subtlety and intellectual sophistication. A terrific book. – Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World

Raymond Kennedy – Lulu, Incognito (1988)

Bibliographical Description

88.03.W047: Kennedy – Lulu, Incognito

159 leaves, pp. [6] 1–3 4-15 16 17-26 27 28-52 53 54-64 65 66-75 76 77-100 101 102-114 115 116-135 136 137-156 157 158-167 168 169-180 181 182-202 203 204-215 216 217-232 233 234-244 245 246-268 269 270-280 281 282-295 296 297-301 302 303-305 [7]

A Vintage Contemporaries Original, March 1988, First Edition

Contents: π1a author photo with excerpt, π1b first page of title-page spread, π2a second page of title-page spread, π2b imprint, π3a dedication, π3b blank, 1 fly-title, 2 blank, 3-305 Lulu Incognito, χ1b blank, χ2a about the author, χ2b blank, χ3a Vintage Contemporaries order form, χ3b Vintage Contemporaries list, χ4a blank, χ4b blank.

Cover design by Lorraine Louie; cover illustration by Chris Moore; interior author photo uncredited.

Copies: JDP 1.1

Blurbs

(front cover) Kennedy is a master storyteller…The author’s vision has to do with a real wisdom of the heart. – Raymond Carver
And yet the girl named Lulu Peloquin, who works behind a candy counter at F. W. Woolworth. stands out in her very desire to avoid the attention of others. First she is noticed by Agnes Rohan, the druggist’s daughter, who motives are not pure. Then it is the dashing man-about-town Mr. Rafferty, who sees Lulu as a fairy-tale damsel in distress and sweeps her off to the home of the town’s wealthiest woman, the regal Mrs. Gansevoort. So begins Lulu’s adventures in self-transformation, as she is drawn further and further into a demimonde where she finds herself a pawn in the games of people who will never really care to know her.
“There was, after all, the mystery of Lulu. It was not a question of what she had done, or even what happened to her, but of who she was. She was so little known.” [Excerpt]
Raymond Kennedy’s writing has the touch of magic! – The New Yorker
If it is a sentence Raymond Kennedy wrote, then it is a sentence an artist made. – Gordon Lish Raymond Kennedy’s chronicle of the destruction of a sensitive girl at the hands of a vengeful society queen and her slave-gigolo highlights this talented novelist’s flair for atmosphere and his revelation of the murky recesses of the human psyche. – James Purdy