Thomas McGuane Archives - The Vintage Contemporaries Bibliography

Thomas McGuane – To Skin a Cat (1987)

Bibliographical Description

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

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.

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

Thomas McGuane – Nobody’s Angel (1986)

Bibliographical Description

86.11.W029: McGuane – Nobody’s Angel

120 leaves, pp. [8] 1–3 4-78 79 80-86 87 88-118 119 120-142 143 144-149 150 151-153 154 155-171 172 173-227 [5]

First Vintage Books Edition, November 1986

Contents: π1a author photo with blurbs, π1b “BOOKS BY THOMAS MCGUANE”, π2a title, π2b imprint, π3a dedication, π3b blank, π4a epigraph, π4b blank, 1 fly-title, 2 blank, 3-227 Nobody’s Angel, χ1b blank, χ2a about the author, χ2b blank, χ3a Vintage Contemporaries order form, χ3b Vintage Contemporaries List.

Cover design by Lorraine Louie; cover illustration by Marc Tauss; interior author photo by Paul Dix.

Copies: JDP 1.1

Blurbs

(front cover) McGuane’s best book so far. – The New York Times Book Review
Skewed comic vision, rakish wit, recklessly zany invention…a writer of great extravagance whose elegance of style is laced with sarcasm, wisecracks, and wry irony….McGuane can also write with grace and with a poignance commingled with gallows humor….a novel of considerable compassion, strength and resonance, from an author who’s among the most arresting and fascinating of his generation. – San Francisco Chronicle
Nobody’s Angel is a masterpiece, not only McGuane’s best, but arguably one of the best serious novels of recent time….a mastery of style and invention, delighting the reader with his pure command of the language. – Indianapolis News
The thinking man’s Western….McGuane is meticulous with his metaphors, as precise and witty as a Renaissance poet. – Los Angeles Times
McGuane’s prose is witty and evocative….Montana, where he lives most of the time, it to McGuane what Yoknapatawpha County was to Faulkner, a mythic place [of discovery]. This is a rewarding book full of small truths. – People

Thomas McGuane – Something to Be Desired (1985)

Bibliographic Description

85.04.W011: McGuane – Something to Be Desired

First Vintage Books Edition, April 1985

96 leaves, pp. [12] 1–2 3-173 [7] [only odd-numbered pages numbered from 3-173]

Contents: π1a blank, π1b blank, π2a blurbs and author photo, π2b “ALSO AVAILABLE IN VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES”, π3a half-title, π3b blank, π4a title, π4b imprint, π5a dedication, π5b blank, π6a epigraph, π6b blank, 1 fly-title, 2 blank, 3-173 Something to Be Desired, 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 David Monteil; interior author photo by Paul Dix.

Copies: JDP 1.4

Blurbs

(front cover) McGuane at his passionate and knowledgeable best. – The Chicago Tribune Book World
Gutsy, visionary, harshly beautiful. – Newsday
This is Thomas McGuane’s seventh book and also, I think, his best, a remarkable work of honest colors and fresh phrasings that deliver strong, earned emotional effects. In the world of this novel, which is a physical world brought into high, astonishing relief in almost every sentence, Lucien Taylor, a native son of Montana, embarks on a half-witted, half-unwilling voyage of self-discovery. – Robert Roper, The New York Times Book Review
Probably the season’s best literary offering….McGuane writes as if he invented the medium…tackling life, death, and whatever comes in between….Full of vintage McGuane wit, it is also McGuane’s tightest and most impeccably crafted novel yet. – The Denver Post
This beautiful balance between the comic and the bleak makes Something to Be Desired the newest testimony to McGuane’s huge and humane talents. – The Baltimore Sun
A constant pleasure. – People Magazine

Thomas McGuane – The Bushwhacked Piano (1984)

Bibliographic Description

84.09.W006: McGuane – The Bushwhacked Piano

First Vintage Books Edition, September 1984

112 leaves, pp. 1-10 11-220 [4]

Contents: 1 blurbs and author photo, 2 “ALSO AVAILABLE IN VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES”, 3 half-title, 4 blank, 5 title-page, 6 imprint, 7 dedication “This book is for my mother and father.”, 8 blank, 9 epigraph, 10 blank, 11-220 The Bushwhacked Piano, χ1a blank, χ1b blank, χ2a about the author, χ2b blank.

Cover design by Lorraine Louie; cover illustration by Marc Tauss; interior author photo by Paul Dix.

Copies: JDP 1.1 (presumed)

Blurbs

(front cover) A sumptuous feast of language and wit, The Bushwhacked Piano makes literacy a joy rather than an obligation. – Thomas Berger
Nicholas Payne is a young man who has gotten completely out of hand. His choice of women and associates merely throws fat on the fire of his gruesome conduct. Note how little it avails him to have his heart in the right place. See Nick fail to cope with a fabulous assortment of American archetypes precisely and hilariously delineated, a brilliant gloss on our society itself. American Dubious, at its most heightened.
Gorgeously written, sad and terribly funny. – Partisan Review
The work of a writer of the first magnitude. His sheer writing skill is nothing short of amazing. The preternatural force, grace and self-control of his prose recall Faulkner….McGuane is a virtuoso. – Jonathan Yardley, The New York Times Book Review
McGuane shares with Céline a genius for seeing the profuse, disparate materials of everyday life as a highly organized nightmare. – The New Yorker
A novel of wisecracks and puns and ordinary objects invested with legendary potency. – Geoffrey Wolff, Newsweek
McGuane is a monstrous talent. – National Review (1982)