Rick Lovell Archives - Page 7 of 7 - The Vintage Contemporaries Bibliography

Jay McInerney – Ransom (Hardcover, 1985)

Bibliographical Description

85.09.W015(HC): McInerney – Ransom

RANSOM | A NOVEL BY | Jay McInerney | Vintage Contemporaries | VINTAGE BOOKS • A DIVISION OF RANDOM HOUSE • NEW YORK

A Vintage Original, September 1985, First Edition

146 leaves, pp. [10] 1-2 3-279 [3]

Contents: π1a blank, π1b blank, π2a blurbs, π2b blurbs, π3a half-title, π3b “ALSO AVAILABLE IN VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES”, π4a title, π4b imprint, π5a dedication, π5b blank, 1 fly-title, 2 blank, 3-279 Ransom, χ1b about the author, χ2a blank, χ2b blank.

Cover design by Lorraine Louie; cover illustration by Rick Lovell; interior author photo by Marion Ettlinger.

Binding: Blue cloth with green-gold gilt text on spine with dust-jacket.

Copies: JDP 1.1 (presumed)

Note: The 1985 Ransom hardcover is the only hardcover title ever printed in the Vintage Contemporaries imprint.

Blurbs

(front cover) The brilliant new novel by the author of “Bright Lights, Big City”
(inside front cover) Ransom, Jay McInerney’s second novel, belongs in the distinguished tradition of novels about exile. Living in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan, Christopher Ransom seeks a purity and simplicity he could not find at home, and tries to exorcise the terror he encountered earlier in his travels—a blur of violence and death at the Khyber Pass, on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. / Ransom has managed to regain control, chiefly through the rigors of karate—a discipline in which his profound disillusionment can, he hopes, be subsumed. Supporting himself by teaching English to eager Japanese businessmen, he finds company with impresario Miles Ryder and fellow expatriates whose headquarters is Buffalo Rome, a blues-bar that satisfies the hearty local appetite for Americana and accommodates the drifters pouring through Asia in the years immediately after the fall of Vietnam. / Increasingly, Ransom and his circle are threatened, by everything they thought they had left behind, in a sequence of events whose consequences Ransom can forestall but cannot escape. / Jay McInerney details the pattern of hopefulness and weakness, adventure and bitter failure, that leads Christopher Ransom toward an inevitable reckoning with his fate—in a novel of grand scale and serious implications. Ransom.
(inside rear cover) Jay McInerney is the author of two novels, Bright Lights, Big City and Ransom. His work has appeared in such publications as Esquire, The New York Times, The Paris Review, Granta, Vanity Fair, Playboy, Vogue, and The New Republic. He lives in upstate New York with his wife, Merry.
(rear cover) Jay McInerney is an extremely gifted young writer, and it is a pleasure to see the beginning of a career like his. One waits with anticipation for whatever comes next – The Washington Post
(rear cover) The author is one of those rare writers who catches the moods, nuances and manners of a sub-culture with humor, finesse, skill and accuracy. A born stylist and a remarkable discovery! – George Plimpton

Jay McInerney – Ransom (Paperback, 1985)

Bibliographic Description

85.09.W015: McInerney – Ransom

RANSOM | A NOVEL BY | Jay McInerney | Vintage Contemporaries | VINTAGE BOOKS • A DIVISION OF RANDOM HOUSE • NEW YORK

A Vintage Original, September 1985, First Edition

144 leaves, pp. [8] 1-2 3-279 [1]

Contents: π1a blurbs, π1b blurbs, π2a half-title and author photo, π2b “ALSO AVAILABLE IN VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES”, π3a title, π3b imprint, π4a dedication, π4b blank, 1 fly-title, 2 blank, 3-279 Ransom, χ1b about the author.

Cover design by Lorraine Louie; cover illustration by Rick Lovell; interior author photo by Marion Ettlinger.

Copies: JDP 1.? (later printing)

Note: Vintage Contemporaries also published Ransom in hardcover; see VCW85.09.W015(HC).

Blurbs

“Jay McInerney is an extremely gifted young writer, and it is a pleasure to see the beginning of a career like his. One waits with anticipation for whatever comes next,” wrote The Washington Post in its review of Bright Lights, Big City. “The author,” according to George Plimpton, “is one of those rare writers who catches the moods, nuances and manners of a sub-culture with humor, finesse, skill and accuracy. A born stylist and a remarkable discovery!”
Ransom, Jay McInerney’s second novel, belongs in the distinguished tradition of novels about exile. Living in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan, Christopher Ransom seeks a purity and simplicity he could not find at home, and tries to exorcise the terror he encountered earlier in his travels—a blur of violence and death at the Khyber Pass. Ransom has managed to regain control, chiefly through the rigors of karate. Supporting himself by teaching English to eager Japanese businessmen, he finds company with impresario Miles Ryder and fellow expatriates whose headquarters is Buffalo Rome, a blues-bar that satisfies the hearty local appetite for Americana and accommodates the drifters pouring through Asia in the years immediately after the fall of Vietnam. Increasingly, Ransom and his circle are threatened, by everything they thought they had left behind, in a sequence of events whose consequences Ransom can forestall but cannot change. Jay McInerney details the pattern of adventure and disillusionment that leads Christopher Ransom toward an inevitable reckoning with his fate—in a novel of grand scale and serious implications.

Joy Williams – Taking Care (1985)

Bibliographic Description

85.08.W014: Williams – Taking Care

First Vintage Books Edition, August 1985

128 leaves, pp. [10] 1-3 4-11 12-15 16-27 28-31 32-36 37-39 40-48 49-51 52-65 66-69 70-76 77-79 80-94 95-97 98-109 110-113 114-123 124-27 128-142 143-145 146-152 153-155 156-171 172-175 176-191 192-195 196-209 210-213 214-230 231-233 234-244 [2]

Contents: π1a blurbs and author photo, π1b “ALSO AVAILABLE IN VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES”, π2a half-title, π2b blank, π3a title, π3b imprint, π4a dedication, π4b blank, π5a contents, π5b blank, 1-244 Taking Care: 1-11 “The Lover”, 12 blank, 13-27 “Summer”, 28 blank, 29-36 “Preparation | for a Collie”, 37-48 “The Wedding”, 49-65 “Woods”, 66 blank, 67-76 “Shepherd”, 77-94 “Train”, 95-109 “The Excursion”, 110 blank, 111-123 “The Yard Boy”, 124 blank, 125-142 “Winter Chemistry”, 143-152 “Shorelines”, 153-171 “Building”, 172 blank, 173-191 “Traveling to | Pridesup”, 192 blank, 193-209 “The Farm”, 210 blank, 211-230 “Breakfast”, 231-244 “Taking Care”; χ1a blank, χ1b about the author.

Cover design by Lorraine Louie; cover illustration by Rick Lovell; interior author photo by J.B. McCourtney.

Copies: JDP 1.1 (presumed)

Blurbs

(front cover) Hypnotic…one of our most remarkable storytellers. – Ann Beattie
Prose of indiscriminate radiance….These stories seem closest in spirit to Flannery O’Connor and Joyce Carol Oates. Like fine music, they circumvent the intellect…we gaze directly into the soul of her characters. – The Washington Post Book World
Beneath the beautiful surface of Joy Williams’ work, there is a half-spoken undercurrent. She catches, better than anyone writing today, the ominous vision at the corner of the eye, and makes it inevitable. – Mary Lee Settle
Wonderful, crisp writing, consistently percipient and witty….The final two stories, one a delicate treasure, the other overflowing with mad comic energy, are alone worth the price of the book. – The New York Times Book Review
Uncommonly good stories: sharp-edged, smart about life, and mitred into this excellent collection with great care. – The Chicago Tribuine
These stories are so chillingly astute about the question of love that one wonders if one has ever really thought about love before, much less been in love before. – Jim Harrison

Charles Portis – Norwood (1985)

Bibliographic Description

85.08.W013: Portis – Norwood

First Vintage Books Edition, August 1985

96 leaves, pp. 1-6 7-190 [2]

Contents: 1 blurbs and author photo, 2 “ALSO AVAILABLE IN VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES”, 3 title, 4 imprint, 5 dedication, 6 blank, 7-190 Norwood, χ1a blank, χ1b about the author.

Cover design by Lorraine Louie; cover illustration by Rick Lovell; interior author photo by Jonathan Portis.

Copies: JDP 1.1 (presumed)

Blurbs

(front cover) Delightfully original…Norwood travels the same territory as Humber Humbert: the neon desert invested with totems of mid-century America. – The New York Times Book Review
Norwood is a road-novel belonging to Norwood Pratt, an amiable young ex-Marine who works at a filling station in Ralph, Texas, and dreams about fame and fortune in what he calls hillbilly music. But when he decides to collect a $70 debt from an old Marine buddy, now in New York, his real adventures begin. Norwood finds a wife on the bus and encounters, among others, the second shortest midget in show business and Grady Fring the Kredit King, not to mention a certain Joann The Wonder Hen, The College Educated Chicken.
Exaggerated naturalism in the tradition of Huckleberry Finn. – The Boston Globe
A comedy of perception, brilliantly concise….Portis depicts the subculture of American life as well as any writer since Ring Lardner. – The New York Herald Tribune
Portis is the heir apparent to the tradition of Mark Twain. – Texas Monthly
Portis populates his exotic landscape with odd but clearly homespun American types, and in his dialogue he has caught to perfection the special intonations of American vocal chords, the motley concerns—ranging from eternal salvation to a quick buck—that occupy the American soul….If it weren’t so darned funny, it would be a tragedy. – The Washington Post