Search Results: Titles starting with A from Rural Hours

Dutton Adult, 1979. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Near Fine. Third printing (number line ending in 3), inscribed on the first blank: "To Kip, All the best! Edward Abbey, October 1992." His name is in blue pen, but the rest is in black, suggesting this book was signed at an earlier date and the rest of the inscription was filled in at another run-in with Abbey. Near fine, with a clean white wraps with just a hint of toning to edges and a bit of lift to lower right corner of the front cover (not a curl, per se). The tiniest of nicks to upper spine. Nice copy of an ivory book that's hard to find without soiling.

National Poetry Foundation, 2007. 1st Edition. Hardcover. As New/As New. Signed simply by Kyger on the title page. Uncommon thus. New and unread book with one small dust spot to edge of the lower (bottom) text block face. // Wood (+) River (=) Books specializes in place-based and environmental literature, with a special passion for association copies and notable inscriptions.

W. W. Norton & Company, 2010. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/Fine. Inscribed on the half-title page: "For Richard, with deep admiration and bottomless affection. -- John D., Iowa City, April 2010." A great inscription. D'Agata is the flag-bearer for contemporary experimental essay. This is a fantastic and cutting edge book, a long lyric essay entwining Las Vegas, suicide trends, and the proposal for the nearby Yucca Mountain nuclear repository. A modern environmental classic, in the opinion of this establishment, and controversial, too--or thought provoking--for a little tinkering with small facts, which seems a kind of intentionally embedded nuclear/literary decay. A must read. Near fine with the lightest touch of foxing/discoloration to outer face of the text block, hardly noticeable, and a smidge of wear to a few corners. In a fine dust jacket. // Wood (+) River (=) Books specializes in ecology, natural history, nature writing, the environment, and environmental literature, with a special… Read More

NY: McGraw Hill, 1976. First edition. Hardcover. Fine/Near fine. Inscribed on the red front free endpaper: "For Richard--'Sweet and lo -- wind of the western sea' --p. 122, love -- Helga Sandburg and Barney Crile, 15, Jan 78." The inscription is in Sandburg's hand but the signature of her co-author and husband George (Barney) Crile, Jr., is in his hand. Laid in is a gift card to the inscribee, Richard, dated much later in 2002, and mainly thanking him for sending tea: "Ah -- sun on the garden and a crisp morning -- and my first cup of Richard's gift of 'Harrod's Darjeeling No. 25' tea ...." Helga Sandburg Crile is the author of seventeen books and the daughter of famous poet Carl Sandburg. She traveled and collaborated extensively with her third husband, George Crile, Jr. (who was already accomplished as an author and as the Chief of Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic), making films and this book, an early look at ocean protection via their visits to the Everglades, Dry Tortugas, the Virgin… Read More

London: Canongate, 2017. First edition. Hardcover. Fine. An uncommon uncorrected proof of the British edition of The Abundance, in essence a volume of selected essays from Dillard including classics like "Total Eclipse" and "Living Like Weasels," and much more. Likely Dillard's last book. With a substantial foreword by Geoff Dyer. A fine paperback with blurbs on its wrappers from Oliving Laing, Robert Macfarlane, John Lister-Kaye, and Richard Holloway. Curiously there's no title on the front wrap--only on the back.

Random House, 1976. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. Inscribed on the FFEP: "To John Titsworth, Thanks for the clippings of the poets' meeting and for your good wishes. Sincerely, Karl Shapiro, Davis California, 9/12/78." Accompanying the book is a typed poem, "Love for a Hand" (1952), on a letter-sized sheet, signed and inscribed: "For John Titsworth, Karl Shapiro, Davis, California, January 14, 1976." These items signed two years apart to the same collector. The book is fine in a fine jacket with a yellow "sale price"sticker on top right corner of its front jacket panel. The typed poem is near fine on account of some slim sunning/fading to upper edge; it has two horizontal folds, as if for mailing, and the watermark of an eagle emblem. The poems begins, "Two hands lie still, the hairy and the white / And soon down ladder of reflected light / The sleepers climb in silence ." Unique item, nice pairing. Shapiro won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1945.

NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1980. First edition. Hardcover. Near fine/Near fine. An association copy, inscribed on the first blank: "For Joe Meeker, with best wishes, Victor B. Scheffer." Uncommon signed.  Scheffer was a marine biologist who worked for thirty years for government agencies, including the National Park Service, Forest Service, and Fish and Wildlife Service, before he moved to academia at the University of Washington in 1969 and devoted himself to popular writing. He won the John Burroughs Medal for natural history writing in 1970 for The Year of the Whale. This book is his memoir looking back on fifty years of wildlife research and across the wildlands he roamed, largely coastal. A late chapter reflects on his writing.   Joseph Meeker was a biologist who then turned to literary criticism, earning a PhD in English Literature, and he is credited with originating the idea of ecocriticism, which he first called literary ecology in his influential book *The Comedy of Survival:… Read More

Harper, 2006. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. Fine first edition in a fine jacket with an intimate inscription: For Thomas A friend of this book from before it was born Jane Hirshfield. The recipient is unknown, but nonetheless lovely and stirring.

NY: FSG, 1966. First edition. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Signed by Sontag on the the half-title page and dated "Feb 6, 1966, Hartford." Uncommon signed. Her classic collection of essays,  a finalist for the National Book Award. A review in The New York Times upon the book's release called it "a ponderable, vivacious, beautifully living and quite astonishingly American book," and Sontag remains one of our most revered contemporary essayists.  White cloth, black endpapers. A very good copy with light browning to board edges and toning to pages, as well as the unobtrusive remains of a former bookplate on the half-title page; in a very good or better jacket with light rubbing and a few short tears to the upper edge of the rear panel.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1966. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/Near Fine. First printing, a notable association copy, inscribed in blue pen on the half-title page to novelist Hortense Calisher prior to publication: "For Hortense-- Regards-- Susan 12/23/65." Calisher (b. 1911) wrote 23 collections and novels, and was three times a finalist for the National Book Award. She also served as president for both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and PEN America (in fact, Sontag directly followed Calisher as president of PEN America in 1989). Sontag (b. 1933) and Against Interpretation need little introduction; simply put, she is considered among the most prominent public intellectuals of her generation, and this was her breakout and perhaps most famous book, her first essay collection. She went on to win the National Book Award for the novel In America. This association copy unites two important Jewish writers, one generation apart, both born, raised, living, and writing in New York City; and any… Read More

NY: W.W. Norton, 1988. First edition. Hardcover. Near fine/Near fine. A book that updates Lovelock's (and Lynn Margulis's) Gaia theory--that the earth is a self-regulating, organismal "living whole"--ten years after it was first presented. As the jacket describes, "In less than ten years, amid great controversy, the Gaia theory has moved from the margins of scientific research to become the subject of international conferences ... [this book] gives us the hard-won results of these years, and fills out the sketch of Gaia into a full picture of its history and current health." A near fine book with fading to board edges in a near fine price-clipped, very 80s-hip jacket with fading to spine and some light scratches to rear.

Random House, 2013. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. Third printing, signed on a "Desert Literary Society" bookplate on the half-title page. Fine book in fine jacket.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984. First edition. Hardcover. Near fine/Very good. Inscribed by the biographer on the title page: "For Todd Frazier, Barbara Sicherman." Uncommon signed. "An integrated work of biography and letters," the book consists of Sicherman's contextualizing discussions with Hamilton's letters interspersed. Alice Hamilton was a founding industrial toxicologist and is considered one of these most important figures in American environmental history. She was the first woman on the faculty at Harvard and her work led the establishment of the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, better known as OSHA. She was also a mentor to Harriett Hardy who followed in her footsteps in industrial toxicology or workplace heath.  Gray cloth boards with a lavender cloth spine. With the recipient Frazier's clear address label on the pastedown. Very near fine with only a faint speckle of foxing to upper text block face. In a very good jacket with wear and small nicks… Read More

South End Press, 1999. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Near Fine. Inscribe on the half-title page: "For Dave, [illegible] for your good work, Winona LaDuke, 2000." Near fine with hint of soiling to outer textblock face and slightly lift to front wrap. // Wood (+) River (=) Books specializes in ecology, natural history, nature writing, the environment, and environmental literature, with a special passion for association copies and notable inscriptions.

Harper & Row, New York, 1970. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. Signed on the title page in black ink. Very good book with light wear/rubbing to spine and corners, otherwise wrappers and pages are clean and bright. // Wood (+) River (=) Books specializes in nature writing and environmental literature, with a special passion for association copies and notable inscriptions.

Small Pr Distribution, 1985. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. Inscribed to poet Jim LeCuyer: "To Jim--from Frances, with love, 10/28/91." Light staining/foxing to inside of wraps. Some wear and fading to spine. Else near fine.

Small Pr Distribution, 1985. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. Inscribed to Bay Area poet Jim LeCuyer: "To Jim--'Yes, and if grasses seem green'--love--Frances Jan. 27, '91." Light foxing to inner wraps. One stain to outer text block edge. Faded spine. Very good overall.

Lyons Press, 1996. First edition. Hardcover. Near fine/Near fine. Signed on the half-title page. Near fine with one bump to lower front corner; in a near fine jacket with light rubbing..

Island Press, 1996. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Near Fine. Inscribed on the title page: "To Matthew, with thanks for all the great work you're doing, Tim Palmer." Blurbs by Thomas McGuane, Yvon Chouinard, and Luna Leopold. Fine book except for a hint of wear to bottom of spine; still fine. In near fine jacket with a small green price sticker with a sharpie mark that run off a little on upper right of front panel and streak of rubbing where the board turns from cloth to paper underneath. // Wood (+) River (=) Books specializes in ecology, natural history, nature writing, the environment, and environmental literature, with a special passion for association copies and notable inscriptions.

Dutton, 1981. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Very Good. Association copy, signed by Wallace Stegner on the half-title page. Laid in is a postcard from Stegner to the book's former owner, William S. Geller, a friend who lived nearby in Redwood City. Geller and his wife, Virginia, were prominent librarians, serving as the head librarians for Los Angeles and Sam Mateo counties respectively, and both served as president of the California Librarians Association. The four-sentence postcard commiserates over bad backs, recalls traveling to Japan together, and is signed, "All best, Wally Stegner." At least one letter from Geller is included among Stegner's papers, and his ownership signature is on the upper corner of the book's front free endpaper. A fine book, folio, in a very good price-clipped dust jacket with the sunning/greening to spine that's typical for this title, but otherwise fine. // Wood (+) River (=) Books specializes in ecology, natural history, nature writing, the environment, and… Read More