Tag: Rick Lovell

Robert Olmstead – Soft Water (1988)

Bibliographical Description

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

ROBERT | OLMSTEAD | [rule 60 mm] | SOFT WATER | [rule 75 mm] | VINTAGE | CONTEMPORARIES | VINTAGE BOOKS | A DIVISION OF RANDOM HOUSE | NEW YORK

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.

Copyright: © 1988. ISBN: 0-394-75752-1. Price: $6.95. Soft Water was first published by Vintage Contemporaries 1988.

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

Lowry Pei – Family Resemblances (1988)

Bibliographical Description

88.02.W046: Pei – Family Resemblances

[within compartment of triple rules 155 x 87 mm] Family | Resemblances | [rule 12 mm] | Lowry Pei | [rule 12 mm] | Vintage Contemporaries | Vintage Books | A Division of Random House | New York

136 leaves, pp. [4] 1–3 4-14 15 16-21 22 23-30 31 32-41 42 43-49 50 51-62 63 64-74 75 76-87 88 89-101 102 103-120 121 122-133 134 135-151 152 153-169 170 171-186 187 188-204 205 206-222 223 224-238 239 240-252 253 254-264 [4]

First Vintage Contemporaries Edition, February 1988

Contents: π1a author photo with blurbs, π1b blank, π2a title, π2b imprint, 1 fly-title, 2 blank, 3-264 Family Resemblances, 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 John McClure.

Copyright: © 1986. ISBN: 0-394-75528-6. Price: $6.95. Family Resemblances was first published by Random House 1986.

Copies: JDP 1.1

Blurbs

  • (front cover) A remarkable first novel. – The New York Times Book Review
  • Karen Moss—fifteen and a half, recovering from her first real crush on a boy—is sent to spend the summer with her Aunt Augusta, a beautiful, thirty-five-year-old insomniac who keeps the windows of her old Buick closed so that people will think it’s air-conditioned. During the summer Karen leanrs many things—how to drive a car, how to drink wine, the appeal of baseball and, not least, the many forms that love can take and the demands it makes.
  • Mr. Pei’s clean, limpid, almost translucent prose renders the perfect plot of Family Resemblances all but invisible as small events build to genuine suspense….The complicated losses and gains…make for good fiction and plenty of ambiguity. Or, as Augusta told Karen at the beginning of the summer, ‘Things are not anywhere near as black and white as you think, you’ll find that out someday if you have the nerve to pay attention.’ – The New York Times Book Review
  • Engages the reader, even brings tears. – Chicago Tribune
  • Captures the glory and anguish of adolescence. – Harvard Magazine

Mona Simpson – Anywhere But Here (1988)

Bibliographical Description

88.01.W045: Simpson – Anywhere But Here

ANYWHERE | BUT HERE | by | MONA SIMPSON | [patterned rule 17.5 mm] | VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES | VINTAGE BOOKS Ÿ A DIVISION OF RANDOM HOUSE Ÿ NEW YORK | [patterned rule 91 mm]

272 leaves, pp. [6] 1–3 4-24 25 26-36 37 38-130 131–133 134-169 170–173 174-202 203 204-233 234 235-255 256 257-279 280–283 284-311 312–315 316-357 358 359-385 386 387-412 413 414-449 450–453 454-471 472–475 476-503 504–507 508-525 526–529 530-535 [3]

Edition statement: First Vintage Contemporaries Edition, January 1988

Contents: π1a author photo with blurbs, π1b blurbs, π2a title, π2b imprint, π3a table of contents, π3b epigraph, 1-535 Anywhere But Here: 1-130 ‘ANN | [patterned rule 17.5 mm] | [patterned rule 91 mm]’: 2 blank, 3-24 ‘1 | ANYWHERE | [patterned rule 17.5 mm]’, 25-36 ‘2 | BEL AIR HOTEL | [patterned rule 17.5 mm]’, 37-130 ‘3 | THE HOUSE ON CARRIAGE | COURT | [patterned rule 17.5 mm]’; 131-169 ‘LILLIAN | [patterned rule 17.5 mm] | [patterned rule 91 mm]’: 132 blank, 133-169 ‘4 | THE AGE OF THE YEAR | [patterned rule 17.5 mm]’; 170 blank, 171-279 ‘ANN| [patterned rule 17.5 mm] | [patterned rule 91 mm]’: 173-202 ‘5 | SOUTH OF WILSHIRE | [patterned rule 17.5 mm]’, 203-233 ‘6 | LAS VEGAS, DISNEYLAND, EGYPT | [patterned rule 17.5 mm]’, 234-255 ‘7 | A SHOPPING CENTER | SOMEWHERE IN THE VALLEY | [patterned rule 17.5 mm]’, 256-279 ‘8 | A DOCTOR’S APARTMENT | | [patterned rule 17.5 mm]’; 280 blank, 281-311 ‘CAROL | [patterned rule 17.5 mm] | [patterned rule 91 mm]’: 282 blank, 283-311 ‘9 | HAPPINESS AND ACCIDENTS | | [patterned rule 17.5 mm]’; 312 blank, 313-449 ‘ANN | [patterned rule 17.5 mm] | [patterned rule 91 mm]’: 314 blank, 315-357 ‘10 | HOME | [patterned rule 17.5 mm]’, 358-385 ‘11 | LIME KILN ROAD | [patterned rule 17.5 mm]’, 386-412 ‘12 | A BACKHOUSE ON NORTH PALM | DRIVE | [patterned rule 17.5 mm]’, 413-449 ’13 | A DOCTOR’S OFFICE | [patterned rule 17.5 mm]’; 450 blank, 451- ‘CAROL | [patterned rule 17.5 mm] | [patterned rule 91 mm]’: 452 blank, 453-471 ‘14 | THE STONE AND THE HEART | [patterned rule 17.5 mm]’; 472 blank, 473-503 ‘ANN | [patterned rule 17.5 mm] | [patterned rule 91 mm]’: 475-503 ‘15 | A NEW CAR | [patterned rule 17.5 mm]’; 504 blank, 505-527 ‘CAROL | [patterned rule 17.5 mm] | [patterned rule 91 mm]’: 506 blank, 507-525 ‘16 | A LOT OF PEOPLE’S SECRET | [patterned rule 17.5 mm]’; 526 blank, 527-535 ‘ADELE | [patterned rule 17.5 mm] | [patterned rule 91 mm]’: 528 blank, 529-535 ’17 | THE COURSE OF MIRACLES | [patterned rule 17.5 mm]’; χ1b about the author, χ2a Vintage Contemporaries order form, χ2b Vintage Contemporaries order form.

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

Copyright: © 1986. ISBN: 0-394-75559-6. Price: $6.95. Anywhere But Here was first published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1986.

Copies: JDP 1.6, with other images consulted online

Blurbs

  • (front cover) Mona Simpson takes on—and reinvents—many of America’s essential myths….A stunning first novel. – Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
  • Mona Simpson’s deeply moving and often comic novel is at once a portrait of Ann August, wise child, and her mother, Adele, a larger than life American Dreamer, and a brilliant exploration of the perennial urge to keep moving, even at the risk of profound disorientation. Generous is scope and characterization, rich in imagery and poetic language, Anywhere But Here is a truly remarkable achievement.
  • One of the most highly praised literary debuts in years, “crafted with the assurance and virtuosity of a seasoned storyteller.” – Wall Street Journal
  • A real big, burgeoning talent. The two women in this book are American originals. Ann is a new Huck Finn, a tough, funny, resourceful love of a girl. Adele is like no one I’ve encountered, at once deplorable and admirable—and altogether believable. – Walker Percy
  • An amazing novel. Mona Simpson joins those female literary stars—Colette, Willa Cather—whose voices are uniquely recognizable, always their own. – Gail Lumet Buckley, Vogue
  • Brilliant, funny, at times astonishing…To judge from Anywhere But Here, Ms. Simpson is both a novelist and a poet, and her talents are prodigious. – Le Anne Schreiber, The New York Times Book Review

Denis Johnson – The Stars at Noon (1988)

Bibliographical Description

88.01.W043: Johnson – The Stars at Noon

DENIS JOHNSON | [rule 97.5 mm] | THE [symbol] | STARS | [symbol] AT [symbol] | NOON | [rule 97.5 mm] | VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES | Vintage Books A Division of Random House New York

96 leaves, pp. [8] 1–4 5-19 20–22 23-61 62–64 65-77 78–80 81-97 98–102 103-181 [3] [only odd-numbered pages numbered from 5-19, 23-61, 65-77, 81-97, 103-181]

First Vintage Contemporaries Edition, January 1988

Contents: π1a author photo with blurbs, π1b ‘ALSO BY DENIS JOHNSON’, π2a half-title, π2b blank, π3a title, π3b imprint, π4a epigraph, π4b blank, 1-181 The Stars At Noon: 1-98 ‘ONE’, 99-181 ‘TWO’; χ1b about the author, 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.

Copyright: © 1986. ISBN: 0-394-75427-1. Price: $5.95. The Stars at Noon was first published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1986.

Copies: JDP 1.1

Blurbs

  • (front cover) A daring novel…Denis Johnson is one of our most inventive, unpredictable novelists. – The New York Times Book Review
  • Set in Nicaragua in 1984, The Stars at Noon is a story of passion, fear, and betrayal told in the voice of an American woman whose mission in Central America is as shadowy as her surroundings. Is she a reporter for an American magazine, as she sometimes claims, or a contact person for Eyes for Peace? And who is the rough English businessman with whom she becomes involved? As the two foreigners become entangled in increasingly sinister plots, Denis Johnson masterfully dramatizes a powerful vision of spiritual bereavement and corruption.
  • Ambitious and haunting…It is as if one is reading a Graham Greene novel through a surreal haze….Johnson’s prose conjures up a world that is as tangible as it is magical. He is an utterly brilliant and original talent—a novelist who reminds us just how wonderful fiction can be when a writer with enormous gifts and intelligence takes large risks. – Philadelphia Inquirer
  • Denis Johnson is uncommonly adept at capturing the anguished futility of people to escape from their own worst enemy—themselves….His prose can only serve to bolster his reputation as a first-rate stylist. – Baltimore Sun
  • A powerful tale…Johnson reminds us that political ideals have little to do with the shifting alliances and rhetoric by which we define our allies and enemies. – San Francisco Chronicle

Thomas McGuane – To Skin a Cat (1987)

Bibliographical Description

87.11.W042: McGuane – To Skin a Cat: Stories

[in three dimensional lettering] TO SKIN | A CAT | THOMAS | McGUANE | [in two dimensional lettering] STORIES | VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES | VINTAGE BOOKS | A DIVISION OF RANDOM HOUSE | NEW YORK

112 leaves, pp. [8] 1–2 3-21 22–24 25-36 37–38 39-55 56–58 59-64 65–66 67-76 77–78 79-84 85–86 87-94 95–96 97-103 104–106 107-117 118–120 121-135 136–138 139-151 152–154 155-160 161–162 163-212 [4]

First Vintage Contemporaries Edition, November 1987

Contents: π1a author photo with blurbs, π1b blank, π2a half-title, π2b ‘BOOKS BY THOMAS MCGUANE’, π3a title, π3b imprint, π4a table of contents, π4b blank, 1-21 ‘[in three dimensional letters] THE | [rule 112 mm] | MILLIONAIRE’, 22 blank, 23-36 ‘[in three dimensional letters] A MAN | [rule 96 mm] IN | [rule 96 mm] | LOUISIANA’, 37-55 ‘[in three dimensional letters] LIKE | [rule 53 mm] | A | [rule 53 mm] | LEAF’, 56 blank, 57-64 ‘[in three dimensional letters] DOGS | [rule 58 mm]’, 65-76 ‘[in three dimensional letters] A | [rule 83 mm] SKIRMISH’, 77-84 ‘[in three dimensional letters] TWO | [rule 70 mm] | HOURS | [rule 70 mm] TO KILL’, 85-94 ‘[in three dimensional letters] THE | [rule 65 mm] | RESCUE’, 95-103 ‘[in three dimensional letters] SPORTSMEN | [rule 99 mm]’, 104 blank, 105-117 ‘[in three dimensional letters] LITTLE | [rule 73.5 mm] | EXTRAS’, 118 blank, 119-135 ‘[in three dimensional letters] PARTNERS | [rule 82 mm]’, 136 blank, 137-151 ‘[in three dimensional letters] THE | [rule 58 mm] | ROAD | [rule 58 mm] ATLAS’, 152 blank, 153-160 ‘[in three dimensional letters] FLIGHT | [rule 66 mm]’, 161-212 ‘[in three dimensional letters] TO SKIN | [rule 72 mm] | A CAT’; 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 Tom Corcoran.

Copyright: © 1986. ISBN: 0-394-75521-9. Price: $5.95. To Skin a Cat was first published by Seymour Lawrence, Inc. / E.P. Dutton, a Division of NAL Penguin Inc. 1986.

Copies: JDP 1.1

Blurbs

  • (front cover) A cornucopia of McGuane’s grace, humor, gusto and smarts. – Philadelphia Inquirer
  • In his first short story collection Thomas McGuane displays the same electric language and generous vision that distinguish his six widely acclaimed novels. Thirteen stories of great range, humor, and verve show that his large talent is equally suited to the tersest of prose forms.
  • The finest stories in this volume…have the sad-funny, sad-surreal texture of daily life; and their depth of emotion not only attests to the happy continuation of developments glimpsed in Mr. McGuane’s last two novels, but also hints at even better things to come. – Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
  • It’s time we recognized Thomas McGuane as a national resource. To Skin a Cat is a generous first story collection from one of our sharpest, funniest and most wide-ranging talents. – Boston Herald
  • Thomas McGuane has produced some of America’s most precise, vivid and amusing prose…[he] can set a scene with astonishing ironic clarity, and he juxtaposes the romance and the reality of our times with incomparable wit. – San Francisco Sunday Examiner-Chronicle