Search Results: Authors starting with W from Raptis Rare Books

New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998. First edition of this work by the Nobel Prize-winning author. Octavo, original boards. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the title page, "To Rebecca best Derek Walcott 2004." Fine in a fine dust jacket. Jacket art by Derek Walcott. Jacket design by Cynthia Krupat. What the Twilight Says collects Derek Walcott's essays from over twenty years. It includes Walcott's moving and insightful examinations of the paradoxes of Caribbean culture (including his noted Nobel Lecture), and his reckonings of the work and significance of such poets as Robert Lowell, Joseph Brodsky.

New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1990. Omeros is an epic poem based on Homer and Odysseus. The title, which is Homer's name in Greek, nods to the wandering and exile of the great poet himself, who learned and suffered while traveling. "No poet rivals Mr. Walcott in humor, emotional depth, lavish inventiveness in language, or the ability to express the thoughts of his characters and compel the reader to follow the swift mutations of ideas and images in their minds. This wonderful story moves in a spiral, replicating human thought, and in the end, surprisingly, it makes us realize that history, all of it, belongs to us" (Mary Lefkowitz, The New York Times Book Review).

New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1990. Omeros is an epic poem based on Homer and Odysseus. The title, which is Homer's name in Greek, nods to the wandering and exile of the great poet himself, who learned and suffered while traveling. "No poet rivals Mr. Walcott in humor, emotional depth, lavish inventiveness in language, or the ability to express the thoughts of his characters and compel the reader to follow the swift mutations of ideas and images in their minds. This wonderful story moves in a spiral, replicating human thought, and in the end, surprisingly, it makes us realize that history, all of it, belongs to us" (Mary Lefkowitz, The New York Times Book Review).

Hartford: Published by Silas Andrus, 1823. First edition of Putnam's work dedicated to American naval heroes of the Revolutionary War including James Monroe, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. Octavo, bound in three quarters morocco over marbled boards with gilt titles to the spine. In near fine condition. Armorial bookplate to the pastedown. Rare. Inspired by a recently published letter from John Adams to the Editor of the Baltimore Magazine encouraging "young gentlemen of letters in all the states... [to] undertake the laborious, but certainly interesting and amusing task, of searching and collecting all the records, pamphlets, newspapers, and even hand-bills, which in any way contributed to change the temper and views of the people and compose them into an independent nation", Putnam's Biographical Sketches of Distinguished American Naval Heroes and the War of the Revolution contains his biographies of James Monroe, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Nicholas Biddle, John Paul Jones, Edward Preble,… Read More

New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982. First edition, early printing of Walker's third novel, in which she became the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize. Octavo, original half cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title page, "To Lois, in peace and joy! Alice Walker June 2006." Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Judith Kazdym Leeds. Her third novel, The Color Purple won Alice Walker the 1983 Pulitzer Prize, making her the first African-American woman to win one. "While Walker's first two novels end in the promise of good, The Color Purple ends in happiness, reunion and celebration. Walker has said that she took her great-grandmother's life, which included rape and childbearing at age 11, and gave it a happy ending. Once again she had begun with one of her ancestors' stories, completing and transmuting it through her art" (African American Writers, 351). "Critics have both praised and attacked Walker's use… Read More

1845. Rare printing of the 1845 annual report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office of the United States of America. Octavo, disbound. Contains numerous folding maps and public surveys of Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, South Tennessee, Southeastern Louisiana, Alabama (showing Chickasaw, Cherokee, and Creek Cessions), and the State of Florida. In near fine condition. Rare.

Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1996. Uncorrected proof of the first edition of the author's magnum opus. Thick octavo, original wrappers. Boldly signed by David Foster Wallace. In near fine condition. In 2004, Chad Harbach declared that, in retrospect, Infinite Jest "now looks like the central American novel of the past thirty years, a dense star for lesser work to orbit." In a 2008 retrospective by The New York Times, Infinite Jest was described as "a masterpiece that’s also a monster — nearly 1,100 pages of mind-blowing inventiveness and disarming sweetness. Its size and complexity make it forbidding and esoteric." Time Magazine included the novel in its list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923.

New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1989. First edition of the author's second book and first collection of short stories. Octavo, original half cloth. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Debra Morton Hoyt. "With this collection of stories, David Foster Wallace, the author of the novel The Broom of the System, proves himself a dynamic writer of extraordinary talent, one unafraid to tackle subjects large and small. Wallace is nothing if not audacious. Real-life heroes, villains, historical figures, sports legends, television personalities—even dinosaurs—appear in these stories alongside his fictitious characters, who themselves run the gamut from banal to psychotic When Wallace is at his best he is undoubtedly among the very best" (New York Times).

London: Macmillan and Co, 1878. First edition of English naturalist and explorer Alfred Russel Wallace's collected essays on tropical ecology. Octavo, original cloth, gilt titles and tooling to the spine. In good condition. From Guille-Alles Library, Guernsey with the original library labels to the spine and front panel, folding lending card affixed to the front pastedown, library stamps. Undoubtedly one of the greatest natural historians and explorers of the 20th century, English naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace was a prolific writer and made contributions not only to the field of natural selection, but to biogeography, ecology, and astrobiology. Initially published in botanical and zoological journals, the contents of the present volume include essays on Animal Life in the Tropical Forests, The Variation of Humming-Birds, The Colours of Animals and Sexual Selection, and Attractive Colours of Flowers.

New York: Ecco Press, 1990. First appearance of Foster Wallace's first book. Octavo, original wrappers as issued. Signed by David Foster Wallace. In fine condition. The first article is a 20 page essay from David Foster Wallace and Mark Costello on Rap music, entitled Signifying Rappers. Living together in Cambridge in 1989, David Foster Wallace and longtime friend Mark Costello discovered that they shared "an uncomfortable, somewhat furtive, and distinctively white enthusiasm for a certain music called rap/hip-hop." The book they wrote together, set against the legendary Boston music scene, mapped the bipolarities of rap and pop, rebellion and acceptance, glitz and gangsterdom.

Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1998. In this anthology, 26 writers illuminate the motivations at the heart of their creative lives in original essays that are as surprising and varied as their fiction. The contributors include David Foster Wallace, Pat Conroy, Norman Mailer, Rick Moody, William Vollmann, James Salter, Jim Harrison, Richard Ford and Robert Stone.

Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1899. First edition of Union General Lew Wallace's first novel. Octavo, two volumes, original publisher's embossed morocco with gilt titles to the spine and front panel, rebacked, top edge gilt, patterned endpapers, elaborately illustrated with both in-text and full page engravings within gilt frames and with lettered tissue-guards by Eric Pape, decorated initials. One of 250 numbered copies inscribed and dated by the author on the limitation page, "Very respectfully Lew Wallace, Nov. 7, 1898" and signed by the illustrator beneath the frontispiece of volume I. This is number 11. In very good condition. Wallace began writing The Fair God in 1843, but it was not published until 1873.The popular historical novel, with Cortez's conquest of Mexico as its central theme, was based on William H. Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mexico and sold several thousand copies in its first year. Its sales continued to rise after Wallace's reputation as an author… Read More

New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2014. Deluxe signed limited edition of this compilation of Foster Wallace's work. Octavo, original boards. Signed by artist Karen Green, the widow of Foster Wallace. The limited edition contains one piece of the original painting, "signed on verso with the artist's fingerprint." Fine in a fine slipcase. The David Foster Wallace Reader is a compilation from one of the most original writers of our age, featuring selections of his brilliant fiction and nonfiction. For new readers, this is an accessible introduction to the pleasures of reading Wallace; for fans, a must-have best-of; and for teachers, an invaluable tool. Astounding chapters from the novels The Broom of the System, Infinite Jest, and The Pale King are here, along with legendary stories including "The Depressed Person," "Good Old Neon," and his previously uncollected first story. This collection also features Wallace's essays delving into luxury ("A Supposedly Fun Thing… Read More

New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003. First edition of this work which examines the history of infinity, focusing primarily on the work of Georg Cantor, the 19th-century German mathematician who created set theory. Octavo, original half cloth. Boldly signed by David Foster Wallace on the title page. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Base Art Co./Terry Rohrbach. "Wallace + infinity: wonderful pairing! This is most exquisitely (and hilariously) original science writing. Wallace embraces the incompatibility of mathematics and prose and makes art from it. And it's a great story too" (James Gleick).

New York: Ecco Press, 1990. First edition of the first book to seriously consider rap and its position as a vital force in American culture. Octavo, original illustrated wrappers as issued. Boldly signed by David Foster Wallace on the title page. In fine condition. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box made by the Harcourt Bindery. Rare, especially signed by Foster Wallace. Living together in Cambridge in 1989, David Foster Wallace and longtime friend Mark Costello discovered that they shared "an uncomfortable, somewhat furtive, and distinctively white enthusiasm for a certain music called rap/hip-hop." The book they wrote together, set against the legendary Boston music scene, mapped the bipolarities of rap and pop, rebellion and acceptance, glitz and gangsterdom. "Brilliantly written . . . (with) great wit, insight, and in-your-face energy" (Review of Contemporary Fiction).

Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1996. First edition of the author's magnum opus. Thick octavo, original half cloth. Boldly signed and dated in the year of publication on the title page, "Hello! David Foster Wallace 2/96." Fine in a fine first state dust jacket with Vollmann misspelled on the back panel. Jacket design by Steve Snider. In 2004, Chad Harbach declared that, in retrospect, Infinite Jest "now looks like the central American novel of the past thirty years, a dense star for lesser work to orbit." In a 2008 retrospective by The New York Times, Infinite Jest was described as "a masterpiece that’s also a monster — nearly 1,100 pages of mind-blowing inventiveness and disarming sweetness. Its size and complexity make it forbidding and esoteric." Time Magazine included the novel in its list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923.

London: HarperCollins Children's Books, 2016. Walliams' 'The Worst Children' series represents a significant contribution to contemporary children's literature, offering a nuanced exploration of misbehavior and its consequences within a comedic framework. "Dahl finally has a worthy successor" (Telegraph).

London: HarperCollins Children's Books, 2008. First edition of the award-winning sketch actor's first children's book. Octavo, original pictorial boards, illustrations by Quentin Blake. Fine in a fine dust jacket. A wonderful book about family and self-expression, 'The Boy in the Dress' follows twelve-year-old Dennis as he makes a new friend and copes with his mother's abandonment. The book has spawned both a television film and musical of the same name. "Everyone is on the side of freedom and tolerance by the end, for which the book must be applauded" (TIMES).

London: W. M. Thompson, 1869. First edition of Walton's finely illustrated work on the flowers of the Alps. Octavo, original publisher's deluxe cloth decorated in gilt, illustrated with 12 chromolithographs after Walton's drawings in color. In very good condition. Most thorough and conscientious in the study both of form and color, British landscape painter Elijah Walton delighted in mountain scenery and its atmospheric effects. His illustrated works include Clouds and their Combinations (1869), Flowers From the Upper Alps (1869), and Peaks in Pen and Pencil (1872)

London: Elliot Stock, 1877. Finely bound facsimile reprint of the first edition of this classic of English literature. Octavo, bound in full mottled calf with gilt titles and ruling to the spine, elaborate gilt ruling to the panels, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. With a fore-edge painting of Walton and an angling scene. In near fine condition. A unique example. The Complete Angler, first published in 1653, has become a classic of English literature. Where other angling books are of limited appeal to those who do not fish, The Complete Angler inspires readers from all walks of life to go in search of the timeless English countryside that Walton evokes with such love.